January •
January 1 – Jeanna Giese from Wisconsin, United States, comes home from the hospital and officially becomes the first person to ever survive
rabies without a vaccination. •
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 9 – The
Comprehensive Peace Agreement is signed, ending the
Second Sudanese Civil War in
Sudan. •
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 – The most intense
solar particle event in recorded history is observed.
February •
February 7 – A presidential decree on
redenomination of the Azerbaijani manat is issued, equating 1
new manat to 5000
old manats. •
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. •
YouTube, an American
online video sharing and
social media platform was founded by
Steve Chen,
Chad Hurley, and
Jawed Karim headquartered in
San Bruno, California. •
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 23 – The
Texas City refinery explosion leaves 15 people dead and 180 injured with a property loss of about $200 million. •
March 24 – The
President of Kyrgyzstan,
Askar Akayev, is
deposed following mass anti-government demonstrations and flees the country. •
March 28 – The 8.6
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. •
March 31 – The dwarf planet
Makemake is discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory.
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 8 – The first solar eclipse of the year was a rare hybrid event, occurring at ascending node in Aries. This was 4.4 days after the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of -0.34733. A
hybrid solar eclipse was visible from south Pacific, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela, and was the 51st solar eclipse of
Solar Saros 129. •
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 24 – The first lunar eclipse of the year was a penumbral event, occurring at descending node in Virgo. This was 5 days before the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of -1.08851. A
penumbral lunar eclipse was visible in eastern Asia, Australia, Pacific and Americas, and was the 23rd lunar eclipse of
Lunar Saros 141. •
April 26 –
Cedar Revolution:
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 5 – The
2005 United Kingdom general election is won by Prime Minister
Tony Blair and the
Labour Party for a third consecutive majority government. •
May 13 –
Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops
massacre at least 200 protesters in the city of
Andijan. •
May 18 –
English whisky is re-established in
England. •
May 19–
21 – The
Eurovision Song Contest 2005 takes place in
Kyiv,
Ukraine, and is won by
Greek entrant
Helena Paparizou with the song "
My Number One". •
May 21 •
Kingda Ka is opened for the first time to the public at
Six Flags Great Adventure, becoming the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster at the time. •
David Foster Wallace delivers his now-famous commencement address,
This Is Water at
Kenyon College in Ohio.
June •
June 4 – The
Civic Forum of the Romanians of Covasna, Harghita and Mureș is founded.
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 – As a result of the
Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998, the
Provisional Irish Republican Army ends its armed campaign and decommissions their weapons, by ordering all its units to drop their arms under the supervision of the
Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
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 26 – The
Constitution of Chile is heavily amended, eliminating
senators for life, reducing the presidential terms from six to four years, giving the president exclusive rights to summon the National Security Council, and removes legal obstacles for the creation of new
regions. •
August 29 –
Hurricane Katrina makes landfall along the
U.S. Gulf Coast, causing
severe damage, killing over a thousand people and causing an estimated $108 billion in damage. •
August 31 – The
Al-Aimmah bridge disaster 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 , sparking outrage and violent riots by Muslims around the world.
October •
October 1 – A
series of suicide bombs exploded at
Kuta and
Jimbaran,
Bali, Indonesia. The attack killed 20 and injured over 100 others. •
October 3 •
Croatia and
Turkey's accession negotiations to the
European Union officially starts. • The second solar eclipse of 2005 was an annular event, occurring at descending node in Virgo. This was 4.8 days after the Moon reached apogee. Gamma had a value of 0.33058. An
annular solar eclipse was visible in Portugal, Spain, Libya, Sudan and Kenya, and was the 43rd solar eclipse of
Solar Saros 134. •
October 8 – The 7.6
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
crewed Chinese
spacecraft,
Shenzhou 6, is launched. •
October 17 – The final eclipse of 2005 was a partial lunar eclipse event, occurring at ascending node in Aries. This was 2.9 days after the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of 0.97960. A
partial lunar eclipse was visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific and North America, and was the 10th lunar eclipse of
Lunar Saros 146. •
October 19 – The
trial of Saddam Hussein begins. •
October 20 – The general conference of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passes the
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. •
October 24 •
Hurricane Wilma, the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, makes landfall near
Cape Romano, causing an estimated $29.1 billion in damage. •
Rosa Parks dies of natural causes.
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. •
Microsoft releases the
Xbox 360. •
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 numbers of human
neurons in an effort to make realistic models of
neurological disorders. •
December 16 –
Find-a-drug medical distributed computing project is concluded. •
December 18 –
Chad descends into
civil war after various rebel forces, with support from
Sudan, attack the capital,
N'Djamena. •
December 19 –
Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashes into the ocean off of
Miami Beach in Florida. There were 20 fatalities. •
December 25 – An express train bound for the city of
Niigata,
Niigata Prefecture, Japan, is derailed by strong winds in
Shonai,
Yamagata Prefecture. Five people are killed and at least 33 injured. •
December 31 –
Another second is added, 23:59:60, to end the year 2005, the first time since 1998. == World population ==