| 7 February 2005 | [sailing] | English sailor Ellen MacArthur completes her record-breaking, single-handed journey round the world in a 70-foot catamaran, reaching the finishing line off northern France at the end of a 27,000-mile voyage in just under 72 days. She cuts more than a day off the previous record set in February 2004. |
| 10 February 2005 | USA [births and deaths] | Arthur Miller, prolific US prize-winning playwright, most famous for Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, dies in Roxbury, Connecticut (89). |
| 15 February 2005 | USA [aircraft] | In response to the European Airbus consortium's new A380 superjumbo jet unveiled in January 2005, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing presents the first of its new generation of long-range airliners at its plant in Seattle. The 777-200LR will be the first passenger jet capable of flying non-stop from London, England, to Sydney, Australia. |
| 28 February 2005 | [business and economics] | Banking group HSBC records profits of £9.6 billion for 2004, a 37% increase on the previous year and the largest annual profit so far recorded by a British company. |
| 3 March 2005 | [aircraft] | US millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly around the world on a solo, non-stop journey without refuelling aboard the specially-designed Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft. Between take-off and landing at Salina in Kansas, he sets a record of just over 67 hours. |
| 26 March 2005 | England [births and deaths] | James (Lord) Callaghan, Labour Party politician who, uniquely, held all four of the main UK offices of state – chancellor of the exchequer (1964–67), home secretary (1967–70), foreign secretary (1974–76) and prime minister (1976–79) – dies in Ringmer, England (92). |
| 28 March 2005 | Indonesia [natural disasters] | The west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, still struggling to recover from the earthquake and tsunami on 26 December 2004, is hit by another huge under-sea tremor. Although this earthquake, measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, does not trigger a tidal surge, it devastates the islands of Nias and Simeulue. Over 400 people are confirmed dead with many missing. |
| 2 April - 8 April 2005 | Vatican [Catholicism] | At the end of a 27-year reign, the Polish- born Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) dies in the Vatican. Six days later, his funeral attracts 2 million mourners as well as heads of state from all around the world. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, becomes the first primate of the Protestant Church of England ever to attend a papal funeral. |
| 7 April - 8 April 2005 | UK [business and economics] | The loss-making MG Rover group, the last independent British volume car maker, suspends production at its Longbridge plant in Birmingham, England, and goes into administration following the failure to secure a joint venture deal with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, China's largest manufacturer. |
| 9 April 2005 | UK [political events] | Charles Prince of Wales, the heir to the British crown, marries his long-time companion Camilla Parker- Bowles, both divorcees, in a civil ceremony in Windsor, England, having postponed his wedding plans for a day to attend Pope John Paul II's funeral in the Vatican. |
| 12 April 2005 | UK [business and economics] | The supermarket group Tesco, with a 30% share of the British grocery market, becomes the first UK retail store chain to announce annual profits of more than £2 billion. |
| 19 April 2005 | Vatican [Catholicism] | The conclave of Roman Catholic cardinals elects Joseph Ratzinger, an orthodox conservative theologian, as the new Pope in succession to the deceased John Paul II. The German-born cardinal adopts the title of Benedict XVI. |
| 28 April 2005 | UK [law and government] | Five law lords sitting as the UK's highest court rule unanimously that creating children to help treat a sister or brother with a genetic disorder is lawful and that the Human Fertilization Authority has the power to license fertility treatment aimed at saving a sibling's life. |
| 16 May 2005 | Kuwait [women's rights] | In the conservative Arab state of Kuwait, the National Assembly passes legislation granting women the right to vote and stand for office in elections. |
| 20 May 2005 | UK [physiology] | Scientists at Newcastle University report that they have successfully cloned a human embryo as part of their stem cell research into new treatments for diabetes, having been granted a licence by the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in August 2004. Pro-life groups criticize such work as unethical. |
| 25 May 2005 | Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey [energy] | The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which runs for about 1,800 km from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, is officially opened. The pipeline was built by a consortium led by BP of the UK at a cost of US$4 billion. |
| 14 June 2005 | Greece [athletics] | Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell sets a new world record of 9.77 seconds for the 100 metres in Athens, Greece. |
| 20 June 2005 | USA [births and deaths] | Jack Kilby, US electrical engineer, Nobel Prize winner and acknowledged co-inventor of the microchip, dies in Dallas, Texas (81). |
| 2 July 2005 | [popular music] | Live8, an international rock music charity event emulating the 1984 Live Aid campaign and targeted against continuing global poverty, attracts 1.1 million people to concerts around the world and is watched on television by 2 billion people. |
| 6 July 2005 | Singapore [Olympic Games] | The International Olympic Committee, meeting in Singapore, selects London, England, as the host city for the 30th Olympic Games, to be staged in the summer of 2012. London narrowly beats Paris, France, in the final round of voting. |
| 7 July 2005 | England [terrorism] | In a major coordinated terrorist attack on London, England, three bombs explode on the city's underground railway network and another on a bus, killing 56 people including the bombers. Three of the suicide bombers are subsequently identified on surveillance cameras as British Muslims. |
| 9 August 2005 | [space exploration] | The US space shuttle Discovery returns safely to Earth from its mission to the International Space Station, following an unprecedented spacewalk by one of the astronauts to carry out external safety repairs in orbit. The shuttle's delayed landing is switched from Florida to California because of bad weather. |
| 19 August 2005 | Finland [ships and shipping] | The 158,000-ton cruise liner Freedom of the Seas is launched in Finland, taking over from the Queen Mary 2 as the world's largest passenger ship. |
| 29 August - 31 August 2005 | USA [natural disasters] | The southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on the Gulf coast of the USA are lashed by Hurricane Katrina. The low-lying city of New Orleans is devastated by flooding as levees are breached, trapping thousands of residents, cutting off access to essential supplies, and prompting looting and violence. Damage to energy installations along the Gulf and the threat of shortages meanwhile contribute to the continuing record rise in oil prices. At the end of the month, with the death toll from one of the worst natural disasters in US history still unknown, the government declares a public health emergency. |
| 20 September 2005 | Austria [births and deaths] | Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor and veteran hunter of Nazi war criminals after World War II, dies in Vienna, Austria (96). |
| 23 September - 30 September 2005 | USA [natural disasters] | Only about three weeks after Hurricane Katrina battered the southern states on the Gulf coast of the USA and flooded the city of New Orleans, Hurricane Rita strikes Louisiana again and also Texas. However, Rita is less ferocious and the federal and state authorities, stung by accusations of inaction and complacency in the Katrina disaster, are better prepared, implementing a civil evacuation to minimize casualties. By the end of the month, the death toll from Hurricane Katrina is believed to have reached about 1,200, much less than originally feared. |
| October 2005 | [animal husbandry] | Spreading from Asia, a dangerous strain of bird flu with the potential to trigger a pandemic affecting humans reaches Europe as cases of the disease are identified during the month in Romania, Turkey and Greece. |
| 8 October - 31 October 2005 | Pakistan India [natural disasters] | A massive earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale strikes Kashmir, devastating Pakistani-administered areas of the disputed territory in particular. By the end of the month over 70,000 victims are thought to have died, with many remote areas yet to be reached by relief aid agencies. As the Himalayan winter approaches, more than 3 million people are without shelter, threatening to compound the humanitarian disaster. |
| 13 October - 14 October 2005 | Russia [terrorism] | In Russia's volatile Caucasian region, Islamic militants launch a series of armed attacks on the town of Nalchik in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. More than 100 people are killed in two days of fighting before the security services regain control. Chechen separatists claim responsibility. |
| 27 October - 14 November 2005 | France [revolution] | In France's worst social unrest for nearly 40 years, rioting and violence in a poor, mainly immigrant suburb of Paris spreads daily over three weeks to towns and cities across the country, highlighting problems of unemployment and ethnic discrimination and forcing the government to declare a state of emergency to regain control of the streets. |
| November 2005 | [astronomy] | Astronomers detect a ring around a moon for the first time. |
| 25 November 2005 | England [births and deaths] | George Best, Northern Irish football icon who played for Manchester United and Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, dies in London, England (59). |
| 26 November 2005 | Australia [cricket] | The West Indian cricketer Brian Lara, who already holds the record for the highest individual Test score, becomes the most prolific run-scorer in Test history during a match against Australia in Adelaide. He surpasses the previous record set by Australia's Allan Border. |
| 27 November - 28 November 2005 | France [surgery] | Surgeons in Amiens, France, perform the world's first face transplant on a woman patient badly disfigured in a dog attack. |
| 5 December 2005 | UK [social legislation] | In the UK, the Civil Partnership Act comes into force, enabling same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationship and granting them new rights and responsibilities in areas such as employment, pensions and inheritance. |
| 11 December - 13 December 2005 | England [natural disasters] | An explosion at Buncefield oil terminal near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, causes the largest industrial fire in Europe since World War II which rages for two days before being extinguished by hundreds of firefighters. Despite widespread local property damage and concerns about environmental contamination, there are no fatalities. |
