This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 2005

	January 9th	Mahmoud Abbas, who had been Yasser Arafat's No. 2 man during the latter one's rule, was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in a landslide victory.
	January 16th	A woman in Romania gave birth at age 66, becoming the oldest woman in the world to do so.
	January 23th	American television performer, Johnny Carson, died at the age of 79. He was the host of the famous television show known as 'The Tonight Show' which he hosted for host for 30 years.
	February 10th	American playwright, Arthur Miller, died at age 89. He is considered as one of the great playwrights of the 20th century, having written such classics as 'Death of a Salesman'. He was also known for his marriage to Marilyn Monroe which lasted between 1956 and 1961.
	February 14th	Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, was assassinated.
	February 16th	The Kyoto Protocol came into effect. The protocol calls for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases, however the United States did not ratify the protocol, despite being the largest single producer of both, under the justification that it is flawed and that it would be too costly.
	March 21st	Jeffrey Weise, a student at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Minnesota, shot and killed seven people in his school, before shooting himself.
	March 24th	Sony releases its portable gaming console "The PlayStation Portable".
	March 26th	The remake of the British science fiction series Doctor Who begins broadcasting on British television.
	March 28th	A massive earthquake, measuring at magnitude 8.7, hit Indonesia, killing 1300 people.
	March 31st	Terri Schiavo died at the age of 41 after a huge national controversy in the United States, in relation to the concept of the termination of life support of patients who are in PVS (Persistent Vegetative State).
	April 2nd	Pope John-Paul II died at the age of 85. He was Pope for a period of 26 years.
	April 6th	Prince Rainier the third of Monaco died at the age of 82.
	April 9th	Prince Charles of Wales was wedded to Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle.
	April 19th	Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI. He became the 265th and reigning Pope.
	April 25th	Bulgaria and Romania signed accession treaties that would gain them entrance into the European Union.
	April 26th	Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon, ending their 29 year old military presence in that country.
	May 5th	Tony Blair's, Labour Party, wins the UK's general election for a third consecutive time.
	May 13th	The final episode of the TV series 'Star Trek: Enterprise' was aired in the United States. It was the first time in 18 years without a Star Trek series in production.
	May 13th	In Andijan, Uzbekistan, Uzbek troops fired into a crowd of protesters killing over 400 people. The protesters were demanding the release of members of a banned Islamic group.
	May 16th	Women acquire the right to vote in Kuwait. The law was passed with a vote of 35 for and 23 against in the National Assembly.
	May 19th	The movie 'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' was released marking the end of the Star Wars films. The movie set the record for one-day box office ticket sales.
	May 21st	In Kiev, Ukraine, Greece won the fiftieth Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'My Number One' performed by Elena Paparizou.
	May 29th	In France a referendum was held in which the French people voted down the European constitution.
	June 1st	In the Netherlands, a referendum was held in which the Dutch people voted down the European constitution.
	June 6th	American actress, Anne Bancroft, died at the age of 73. The daughter of Italian immigrants, she rose to become a very prominent and respected actress. She is also known for her marriage to comedian Mel Brooks.
	June 11th	The G8 finance ministers agreed to cancel the debt owed by 18 of the poorest countries.
	June 14th	Jamaican sprinter, Asafa Powell, set the world record for the 100m sprint while competing in Athens, Greece with a time of 9.77seconds.
	June 28th	Same-sex marriages were legalized in Canada. Canada was the third country in the world to pass such a law.
	June 30th	Same-sex marriages were legalized in Spain.
	July 3rd	Spain legalized same-sex marriages.
	July 7th	A series of terrorist bombings took place on London's public transport system, resulting in the death of 52 people, as well as four suicide bombers.
	July 13th	Three trains collide in the Ghotki rail crash in Ghotki, Pakistan, killing over 150 people.
	July 15th	Professional golfer, Jack Nicklaus, played his last competitive golf match. He is widely considered as one of the greatest golfers of all time.
	July 16th	The sixth book in the Harry Potter series was published. The book sold more than 250,000 books per hour during the first day of its release, making it the fastest selling book in history.
	July 20th	Same-sex marriages were legalized in Canada. Canada was the fourth country in the world to do so, after the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.
	July 21st	Four terrorist bombings that were directed towards London's public transportation system failed to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers managed to escape.
	July 22nd	Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot and killed by police after they had mistakenly assumed he was a terrorist. British police subsequently attempted to cover up the incident by falsely representing the circumstances that led to his shooting, however the police was forced to change their story when the truth was leaked to the press.
	July 23th	Three bombs exploded in the Sharm el-Sheikh resort, Egypt, resulting in the death of 88 people and the injuring of more than 150. A group linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network assumed responsibility for the attack.
	July 27th	The Space shuttle program was grounded by NASA, in order to investigate problems plaguing the Space Shuttle Discovery, similar to those that caused the Columbia shuttle disaster.
	July 28th	The Provisional Irish Republican Army (the IRA) call an end to their thirty year long armed activity in Northern Ireland.
	July 29th	Astronomers announced the discovery of Eris, a new dwarf planet in our solar system.
	August 1st	King Fahd of Saudi Arabia died at the age of 82.
	August 6th	British politician, Robin Cook, died at the age of 61. He was the most public and highest ranking member of the British cabinet to oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He resigned over the issue and his resignation speech is reportedly the only speech to ever receive a standing ovation in the history of the British parliament.
	August 14th	A Cypriot, Helios Airways, passenger flight crashed north of Athens. All 121 people on board died in the crash.
	August 16th	A West Caribbean Airways passenger flight crashed near Machiques, Venezuela, resulting in the death of all 160 people onboard.
	August 28th	The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, was evacuated as hurricane Katrina moved closer to the state of Louisiana.
	August 29th	Hurricane Katrina hit the US Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, causing severe destruction and killing more than 1800 people. The property damage caused was estimated to have been more than 115 billion dollars.
	September 6th	Same-sex marriages were legalized in California by the California Legislature, the first legislative body in the United States to so.
	September 7th	The first open presidential elections were held in Egypt. Current president Mubarak was first elected in 1981, he is the longest serving Egyptian President.
	September 14th	American producer and director, Robert Wise, died at the age of 91. He had directed such blockbuster films as 'West Side Story', 'The Andromeda Strain' and the original 'Star Trek' movie.
	September 20th	Austrian-Polish Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, died at the age of 97. He had dedicated his life to tracking down and gathering information on Nazis who had escaped justice after the end of the Second World War. During the war he had spent almost five years in the German concentration camps of Janowska, Plaszow, and Mauthausen.
	September 24th	A protest consisting of over 300000 people took place in front of the White House in Washington DC in protest of the war in Iraq.
	September 25th	Greece became the European basketball champion for the second time in its history.
	September 30th	The Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published a set of controversial drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, which sparked a violent reaction by Muslim communities around the world.
	October 9th	Smoking was banned from anywhere in the United Kingdom's rail network.
	October 10th	Angela Merkel was proclaimed to be the new chancellor of Germany. She is the first woman head of state in Germany.
	October 19th	The trial of Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, began in Baghdad.
	October 19th	Hurricane Wilma became the strongest hurricane on record over the Atlantic basin.
	October 22nd	A Bellview Airlines passenger jet crashed in Nigeria resulting in the death of all 117 people on board.
	October 27th	Heavy riots took place in Paris after the death of two Muslim teenagers who were fleeing the police. The civil unrest spread to many cities in France and lasted 20 days.
	November 9th	A team of suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, Jordan. 56 people died from the blasts. The Al-Qaeda terrorist network claimed responsibility for the attacks.
	November 22nd	Microsoft released the Xbox 360 gaming console in the USA. It was the first of the 'next genration' consoles to be released.
	November 27th	American actress, Jocelyn Brando, died at the age of 86. While she was a mildly successful actress she is most remembered as being the sister of Marlon Brando.
	December 10th	A Sosoliso Airlines passenger flight crashed at Port Harcourt International Airport in Nigeria. 107 people died in the crash.
	December 10th	American comedian, Richard Pryor, died from hearth failure at the age of 65. He is most remembered for his numerous collaborations with fellow comedian Gene Wilder.
	December 16th	The last episode of the US radio show, The Howard Stern Show, was broadcast. The show, which started in 1978 and is one of radio's most successful shows, continues to broadcast over subscription based satellite radio.

Click here to return to the Home page.

  Also Visit :
  Mixer
  Greek Recipes
  Greek Wine
  BiG
  Ecofind
  Start
  Free
  Hello
  Starbuzz
  Art.gr
  Evresi

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.