What was it about 2004?

Chicago Tribune : Apparently, 2004 was a terrific year. It was so compelling that some people simply had to stick around. Preliminary death statistics show that the annual number of last breaths in the U.S. dropped by nearly 50,000 in 2004, the biggest decline in nearly 70 years. That's 50,000 people who, statistically at least, should have expired. But they didn't die. Fewer heart disease, cancer and stroke deaths accounted for most of the dip.
Why?
The short answer: Dunno.
There are lots of theories: More people have stopped smoking. More are popping miracle drugs, like statins, which lower cholesterol and cut heart attack risks. Did a mild flu season play a part?
Or could it be that these folks refused to die? Some research suggests that people may hang on so they can make it through a big holiday or be present for some important event -- a wedding, the birth of a baby, a graduation, an anniversary.
Which only makes 2004 more fascinating. Big holidays and weddings happen every year. What was happening in 2004 that would have inspired 49,945 people not to die?
Could these refusniks have been hanging on to vote for -- or against -- George W. Bush? Maybe they were Red Sox fans determined to see their team triumph in a World Series for the ages? Maybe they were waiting around to see whom Britney Spears would marry next, her first marriage lasting all of about two days.
Waiting game
Could they have wanted to see domestic diva Martha Stewart serve her time behind bars? Might they have sought a little more time to learn how to program the iPod mini, then sweeping the nation? Were they determined to read all 957 pages of Bill Clinton's memoir? To discover what wonders the Cassini space probe found in Saturn's shimmering rings? To learn if their purchase of Google at $85 a share was shrewd? To understand what Stephen Hawking meant when he reversed himself, and admitted that yes, information could escape from a black hole?
Or was it just some weird glitch in the statistical cosmos?
Whatever the explanation, if those numbers hold it looks like the latest chapter of a remarkable success story. U.S. life expectancy has advanced at a rate of about three years per decade for a century.
After that century of relentless and astonishing progress -- antibiotics, wonder pills, advances in sanitation -- that life expectancy has soared to 77.9 in the preliminary 2004 figures.
Some scientists envision a day when people could live to be 150. Hmm ... 150. Hard to imagine. Even then, die-hards may be holding on, just a little bit longer, to see the Cubs win a World Series.