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 4 – Wookiepedia: The Star Wars Wiki was launched on Wikicities (now known as FANDOM).
* 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 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.

### 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 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.