Seeing as we're less than 4 years into the century, why not rephrase this as:
"The rumors are likely rooted in a real event, however. On Sept. 29, 2004 an asteroid the size of a small city will make the closest known pass of such a very large space rock in the last 4 years."?
...because they are including the next 96 years of this century for all known asteroids.
Wrongly of course, since we don't know what catastrophe lies ahead and when it would hit.
What was the asteroid they found a couple days after it nearly hit Earth about 3-4 years ago? It came in from the Sun side and no one could see it until it had passed by.