Year 2005
Events
January
January 5 – Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar
System, is discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown using images
originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
January 7 – Crevalcore train crash in Italy: 17 dead and dozens injured.
January 12 – Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral with the
purpose of studying the comet Tempel 1.
January 14 – The Huygens spacecraft lands on Titan, the largest moon of
Saturn.
January 20 – George W. Bush is inaugurated for a second term as
President of the United States.
February
February 10 – North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as
a protection against the hostility it says it perceives from the United
States.
February 14 – Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is
assassinated, along with 21 others, by a suicide bomber in Beirut.
February 16 – The Kyoto Protocol officially goes into effect.
March
March 14 – China ratifies an anti-secession law, aimed at preventing
Taiwan from declaring independence.
March 24 – The President of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, is deposed
following mass anti-government demonstrations and flees the country.
March 26 - The first episode of the revived series of Doctor Who aires
on BBC One
March 28 – The 8.6 Mw Nias–Simeulue earthquake shakes northern Sumatra
with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong), leaving 915–1,314
people dead and 340–1,146 injured.
April
April 2 – Pope John Paul II dies; over four million people travel to the
Vatican to mourn him. Pope Benedict XVI succeeds him on April 19,
becoming the 265th pope.
April 9 – Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a
civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall. Camilla receives the title
Duchess of Cornwall.
April 23 – The first ever YouTube video is uploaded, titled Me at the
zoo.
April 26 – Syria withdraws the last of its military garrison from
Lebanon, ending its 29-year military occupation of the country.
April 27 – The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first
flight from Toulouse.
May
May 13 – Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops
massacre at least 200 protesters in the city of Andijan.
June
June 21 – A Volna booster rocket carrying the first light sail
spacecraft fails 83 seconds after its launch, destroying the spacecraft.
July
July 2 – Live 8, a set of 10 simultaneous concerts, takes place
throughout the world, raising interest in the Make Poverty History
campaign.
July 6
The European Parliament rejects the Proposed directive on the
patentability of computer-implemented inventions in its second reading.
The International Olympic Committee awards London the right to host the
2012 Summer Olympics.
July 7 – Four coordinated suicide bombings hit central London, killing
52 people and injuring over 700.
July 23 – A series of bombings hit the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh,
Egypt, killing over 80 people.
July 28 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces an end to the
armed campaign it has pursued since 1969, and orders all its units to
drop their arms.
August
August 12 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched from Cape
Canaveral, designed to explore Mars.
August 14 – Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to
Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko,
Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.
August 16 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes into a mountain in
Venezuela, killing 160 passengers and crew.
August 18 – Peace Mission 2005, the first joint China–Russia military
exercise, begins its eight-day training on the Shandong Peninsula.
August 29 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast,
causing severe damage and killing over a thousand people and dealing an
estimated $108 billion in damage.
August 31 – A stampede at the Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad, Iraq, kills
953 Shia Muslim pilgrims who were celebrating a religious festival.
September
September 7 – Egypt holds its first ever multi-party presidential
election, which is marred with allegations of fraud.
September 12 – Israel demolishes multiple settlements and withdraws its
army from the Gaza Strip.
September 19 – North Korea agrees to stop building nuclear weapons in
exchange for aid and cooperation.
September 30 – Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the
Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sparking outrage and violent riots by
Muslims around the world.
October
October 8 – The 7.6 Mw Kashmir earthquake strikes Azad Kashmir, Pakistan
and nearby areas with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe),
killing more than 86,000 people and displacing several million more.
October 12 – The second manned Chinese spacecraft, Shenzhou 6, is
launched.
October 15 – The 2005 Iraqi Constitution is approved by Iraqi voters,
which among other things, changes the official name of the country from
"Iraqi Republic" to "Republic of Iraq".
October 19 – The trial of Saddam Hussein begins.
October 24 – Hurricane Wilma made landfall near Cape Romano.
November
November 9 – At least 60 people are killed and 115 more are wounded in a
series of coordinated suicide bombings in Amman, Jordan.
November 11 – In Kazakhstan, Zamanbek Nurkadilov, former mayor of
Almaty, government minister and a political opponent of Nursultan
Nazarbayev is found dead at his family compound.
November 13 – Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year-old Scottish man, is reported
as the first person proven to have been 'cured' of HIV.
November 22 – Angela Merkel assumes office as the first female
Chancellor of Germany.
November 23 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wins the Liberian general election,
making her the first democratically elected female head of state in
Africa.
November 28 – The United Nations Climate Change conference is held in
Montreal.
November 30 – Surgeons in France carry out the first human face
transplant with Isabelle Dinoire becoming the first person to undergo
it.
December
December 12 – Scientists announce that they have created mice with small
amounts of human brain cells in an effort to make realistic models of
neurological disorders.
December 18 – Chad descends into civil war after various rebel forces,
with support from Sudan, attack the capital, N'Djamena.
December 31 – Another second is added, 23:59:60, to end the year 2005,
the first time since 1998.
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