In 2004 CERN celebrates its 50th anniversary. More precisely, on Wednesday 29 September 2004, the signature of the convention that established CERN will be 50 years old. During this special year, CERN's public web site will host a celebratory Fiftieth Anniversary web site. >>

We continue our series of pictures of the 50th anniversary. Theory before practice Paradoxically, for an experimental physics centre, one of the first fully operating research groups created for CERN was the Theory Division. >>

The support structures for the detectors inside the ALICE solenoid magnet (the L3 magnet) were finished in December 2003. >>

An important milestone was reached in December 2003 at the CERN Magnet Assembly Facility. The team from the Accelerator Technology - Magnet and Electrical Systems group, AT-MEL, completed the first special superconducting quadrupole for the LHC insertions which house the experiments and major collider systems. >>

On 11 December, President Stjepan Mesic of the Republic of Croatia visited CERN. He was welcomed by Director General, Robert Aymar, and the President of CERN Council, Maurice Bourquin. >>