Timeline of National Events

## 2005

**January 1 –** *U.S. President George W. Dixon delivers a radio address in regards to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts on New Year's Day.*

**January 3 –** *U.S. President George W. Dixon is joined by former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the Roosevelt Room as he announces that the two former presidents will be involved with the humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts in across the region of South and Southeast Asia.* **January 6 –** *The Graniteville train disaster kills nine and injures 250 in Graniteville, South Carolina.*

**January 12 –** *Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket.*

**January 20 –** *U.S. President George W. Dixon begins his second term.*

**January 26 –** *Glendale train crash: Two trains derail, killing 11 and injuring 200, in Glendale, California.*

**February 6 –** *Super Bowl XXXIX: The New England Patriots win their second consecutive Super Bowl title, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles by a score of 24–21.* **February 10 –** *North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the United States.*

**February 15 –** *The Internet site YouTube goes online.*

**February 16 –** *The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.*

**February 24 –** *David Hernandez Arroyo goes on a shooting rampage at the Smith County Courthouse in Tyler, Texas. He kills two, including his ex-wife, and injures four people, before being killed in a police chase.*

**February 25 –** *Wichita, Kansas police apprehend the BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, 31 years after his first murder.*

**February 27 –** *The 77th Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock, are held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, with Million Dollar Baby winning Best Picture.*

**March 1 –** *Roper v. Simmons: The Supreme Court of the United States rules the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles who committed their crimes before the age of 18.*

**March 2 -** *US company Titan Corporation agrees to pay a fine equivalent to US$28.5 million after they admit attempting bribery to get a military communications contract in Benin. The corporation allegedly gave US$2 million to the re-election campaign of president Mathieu Kérékou.*

**March 4 –** *The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena is fired on by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, causing the death of one passenger and injuring two more.*

**March 11 –** *Three people, including a judge, are murdered in the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia; the main suspect, Brian Nichols, surrenders to police the next day.*

**March 12 –** *Terry Ratzmann opens fire during a church sermon in New Berlin, Wisconsin, killing seven and injuring four before taking his own life.*

**March 21 –** *Ten are killed in the Red Lake shootings in Minnesota by teenager Jeffrey Weise, who commits suicide after a shootout with police. It is the worst school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre.*

**March 23 –** *The United States' 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses by a vote of 2–1 to stop the euthanasia of Terri Schiavo, who has been in a vegetative state since 1990, by not ordering the reinsertion of her feeding tube.*

**March 31 –** *Terri Schiavo dies at the age of 41 in Pinellas Park, FL.*

**April 1 -** *An armed gunman attacks the DNC headquarters in Tampa, Florida, killing 1 and wounding 3 others; he was later killed by police in the ensuing chase. The man was later identified as Clint Andrews; he was a 26-year-old college student. During a raid on Andrews, dorm police found a manifesto written by Andrews criticizing liberalism and open borders. Mainly attacking Democratic Presidential Candidates Steney Engel and Norman Broadwell as well as Senator George Smith. Although he did not particularly identify with any party. He did make clear his nationalistic views in the book and even saying he voted for Dixon in 2000. However, he decided to vote third party in 2004 due to Dixon's invasion of Iraq in favor of "Jewish interest."*

**April 2 -** *Bubba Stewart becomes first African-American to win a major motor sports event when he takes out the Monster Energy AMA Supercross C'ship event in Irving, Texas*

**April 8 –** *Fever Pitch, a film starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore documenting the Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series run, is released.*

**April 9 –** *Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, march through Baghdad denouncing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and rally in the square where his statue was toppled in 2003.*

**April 10 -** *Justice Department arrests up to 10,000 fugitives across the country in a week-long roundup.*

**April 12 -** Federal grand jury in New York indicts three Britons for an alleged plan to attack financial institutions in New and Washington. They were arrested in 2004.

**April 13 -** *Eric Rudolph pleads guilty to bombings at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, a gay club and a family-planning clinic in Atlanta in 1997, and an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1998. He'll serve four consecutive life sentences rather than face the death penalty.*

**April 14 -** *Texan David Bay Chalmers, Jr., and his Houston company, Bayoil U.S.A., charged with paying Saddam Hussein millions in illegal kickbacks in exchange for oil contracts in Iraq. Separately, South Korean businessman Tongsun Park charged with making as much as $2 million as a liaison between Iraq and the United Nations.*

**April 15 -** *High-speed service between Boston, New York, and Washington shut down when inspectors find cracks in the brakes of hundreds of trains.*

**April 20 -** *The National Education Association and school districts in Michigan, Texas, and Vermont file suit, claiming the government has required states to fund requirements mandated by federal government—a violation of the No Child Left Behind Act.*

**April 22 -** *Investigation exonerates top officers, including Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, of wrongdoing in abuse controversy. One officer, Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, found guilty of dereliction of duty.*

**April 30** – *Newsweek alleges that American interrogators and guards have desecrated the Qur'an in attempts to rattle Islamic detainees.*

**April 30** - *Senator John McCain (R-AZ) shot on steps of US Capitol. Shooter is shot approximately 25 times by nearby officers. Senator McCain is quickly rushed to the hospital in critical condition. FBI immediately launches an investigation into the shooting.*