THE YEAR OF 2005
Died : JAN 17 Zhao Ziyang, Chinese Communist Party leader.
Died : 18 Ruth Warwick, actress. (from Citizen Cane to All My Children)(88)
Died : 24 Johnny Carson, NBC chat show host for 30 years. (79)
Died : 29 Jim Capaldi, rock drummer. (Traffic) (60)
1 California computer users can now claim $1000 for unwanted spyware.
1 The price of The Times on Saturday rose today to £1.
2 Croatia presidential elections invalidated - failed to reach a 50% turnout.
2 FTSE 100 ended the year at 4814 - 7.5% (337) up on last year.
3 Lucy Liu opened Harrods sale.
3 Paris new year celebrations included 333 cars set on fire.
3 Retailers without Chip and Pin system became liable for any fraud.
4 Baghdad governor Ali al-Haidri was shot dead in the Iraqi capital
4 Sandra Bullock donated $1 million to the Asian earthquake fund.
JAN 5 EU countries held a 3 minute silence at midday for the Asian tsunami dead.
5 Samsung 102in TV was on show at Las Vegas Electronics show - cost $100k.
6 Abbey School in Faversham was first to give pupils random drugs tests.
6 Mexican govt distributed 1 mil leaflets on how to enter the US illegally
7 Lan Hui gave birth to Chinas' 1.3 billionth citizen - a boy.
7 Most popular 2004 boys names Jack, Joshua, Thomas, James, Mohammed.
7 Most popular 2004 girls names Emily, Ellie, Jessica, Sophie, Chloe.
8 California Roman Catholic Chuch paid $100 mil to victims of abuse by priests
8 Final week of 2004 was first when music downloads outsold CDs - 312k to 282k
9 About 1.1 mil Palestinians voted for Mahmoud Abbas as their new president.
9 UK new car sales in 2004 were 2567269 slightly down on the 2003 record
10 Cocaine at an average £40/gm became cheaper than a cup of coffee.
10 Sony began re-releasing Elvis Presley no.1 singles each week.
JAN The first, Jailhouse Rock (1958) became the UKs 999th no.1.single.
11 British retailers had their worst Xmas for 10 years.
11 Simon Cowell appeared in an anti-fur clothing poster.
11 Winds of 125mph hit Scotland causing power cuts and floods.
12 Apple released the iPod Shuffle at $99 and the Mini-Mac at $500.
12 The Blackwell worst dressed woman of 2004 - Nicollette Sheridan.
12 The £3.3 mil Alnwick Garden Tree House in Northumberland opened.
13 Prince Harry apologised for wearing a nazi uniform to a fancy dress party.
13 Romanians Nonu & Cornelia Dragoman met on the net and named their son Yahoo.
14 The Huygens probe landed on Titan, one of Saturns 33 moons and started
sending back data. It was launched with Cassini in 1997, total cost
$3.3 billion from NASA and the ESA. Cassini continued on it's way.
15 Mahmoud Abbas sworn in as Palestinian pres and Israel cut all contact with him.
JAN 15 New law means Englands parents must not smack children and leave a mark.
15 Top Xmas 2004 sellers were cosmetics and digital cameras.
16 Most popular British voices were :-
Sean Connery, Trevor McDonald, Terry Wogan, Hugh Grant, Moira Stuart.
17 Best film and actor at Golden Globes went to The Aviator and Leonardo di Caprio.
17 The 1000th UK No1 single was re-released Elvis Presley - One Night.
18 Mischief the cat became Pet Slimmer of the Year - losing 5kg to 6.3kg.
18 The worlds largest passenger plane Airbus A380 was unveiled in
Toulouse, France. It has twin decks carrying 550 passengers.
19 Dame Judi Dench by Alessandro Raho unveiled at National Portrait Gallery.
19 Over 3 mil Muslims were enjoying the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
20 George W Bush was inaugurated as 43rd US President for a 2nd term
20 Gillian Anderson (X-Files) married Julian Ozanne (documentary maker).
JAN 20 The observatory on the worlds tallest building - The Taipei Tower -
opened to the public - accessed by the worlds fastest lift in 37 secs.
21 Agreement signed allowing 1.3 billion Chinese access to British visas.
21 What Car ? Car of the Year was the Land Rover Discovery TDV6 S.
22 Austrian model Melania Knauss married billionaire Donald Trump.
22 Over 130 journalists were killed in 2004, 40 of those in Iraq.
22 Tsunami charity concert was held at The Millenium Stadium in Wales,
with among others Eric Clapton & Charlotte Church. It raised £1.25 mil.
23 Snow grounded planes in NE USA from Chicago to NY where 20 inches fell.
23 Thunder, lightning and rain washed away 3 mil Muslims sins at the Mecca Hajj.
24 Antwerp in Belgium dimmed its' waterfront lights after prostitutes complained.
24 Performance Awards of £100 were given to about 200k UK students.
25 The last 4 UK citizens held as terrorists at Guantanamo Bay were released.
JAN 25 Worlds' most expensive haggis was served at the Albannach Bar, London, at
£250 per portion. It contained an infusion of £15000/bottle malt whiskey.
26 EU wealthiest areas were 1.Inner London 2.Brussels 3.Luxembourg.
26 Small Island by Adrea Levy was Whitbread Book of the Year.
27 Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, head of hip-hop label The Inc, arrested for money Laundering.
27 UK Viagra maker Pfizer announced mass redundancies.
28 Greatest Briton Award 2004 - Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the web.
28 Most popular breakfast DJ in Europe was Terry Wogan with over 8 million.
29 Commercial flights between Taiwan and China resumed after 55 years.
29 Serena Williams won the Australian Open Tennis Title.
30 Al-Queda terrorists were trying to stop Iraqs' first elections for 40 years.
30 Leyton Hewitt lost to Russian Marat Safin in The Australian Open.
30 Swaziland's King Mswati III chose his 13th wife. He has 10 wives
JAN and now has 3 fiancees who are not promoted to wives until pregnant.
31 Auction of old Ku Klux Klan robes in Howell Mich. at up to $1500 each.
31 Jeffrey Parsons of Minn.(age 19) was given 18 months jail for starting the Blaster virus that crippled 50k computers in 2003.
Died : FEB 19 Samuel Anderson, developed the crash test dummy for cars etc. (90)
1 Premiere of The Magic Roundabout in London with Kylie Minogue as Florence.
1 Saudi Arabia beheaded two Pakistanis for smuggling heroin.
1 The annual Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Ar.,
sold a 1954 Oldsmobile for $3.24 million. A record for the event.
2 Pope John Paul II was in hospital with the 'flu.
2 UKIP refugee Robert Kilroy-Silk launched new political party, Veritas.
3 Energy giant Shell announced a profit of £9.32 bil - a UK record.
3 President George W Bushs' State of the Union highlighted welfare reforms.
4 Israel released 900 Palestinian prisoners ahead of peace talks next week.
4 UK truancy stalled at 50k/day since 1997 despite £900 mil campaign.
5 Estimated value of the UK's housing stock was £3.3 trillion.
5 PM Tony Blair became Labours' longest serving PM - 2838 days - and counting.
FEB 5 Rastafarians converged on Addis Ababa in a commemoration of Bob Marleys'
birthday. A concert and exhibitions took place known as "Africa Unite".
6 King Momos' reign was supreme at the annual Rio Carnival.
6 The Superbowl XXXIX crowd was entertained by Paul McCartney where
New England Patriots won 24-21 over the Philadelphia Eagles.
7 Ellen MacArthur became the fastest person to sail non-stop and
alone around the world. She completed the 27000 miles in the
75ft trimaran B&Q in 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes 33 seconds.
She was made a Dame by the Queen before she had docked at Falmouth.
8 Over 1 mil illegal immigrants in Spain were given an amnesty.
8 The 3 Best Dressed Ladies according to Glamour Magazine were :-
1 Kate Moss 2 Sienna Miller 3 Sarah Jessica Parker
9 Britney Spears sued insurance cos for $9.8mil after 2004 tour cancelled
FEB 9 Chinese New Year (The Year of the Rooster) began.
10 Barclays Bank announced record profits of £4.6 billion.
10 Franz Ferdinand and Joss Stone were stars of The Brit Awards with 2 each.
10 Ikeas' biggest UK store, in Edmonton, opened at midnight and closed
30 mins later due to "unforeseen volume of customers", one man was stabbed.
11 Nude painting of Kate Moss by Lucian Freud sold for £3.93mil at
11 Public Library Book charts put childrens' author Jaqueline Wilson
at No.1, Danielle Steel was 2nd, Josephine Cox 3rd.
Most borrowed book was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
12 McDonalds paid $8.5mil to settle artery-clogging trans fats lawsuit.
12 The Fat Cat in Norwich was named UKs Best Pub by Campaign for Real Ale.
12 The Hotel from Fawlty Towers, Gleneagles in Torquay, was sold for £1.5 mil.
13 Best film at the BAFTAs was The Aviator, it also took 3 other prizes.
FEB 13 Europe launched its' most powerful rocket so far -
the Ariane 5-ECA - 50m high with an 8 ton satellite.
14 GM paid Fiat £1 bil to end their 5 year partnership.
14 Ray Charles, who died in 2004, won 8 Grammys incl best single and album.
14 U2 went straight to no1 with Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own.
15 Lloyds TSB became the first UK bank to offer an Islamic rules bank account.
15 Over 200 miners were killed in an explosion near Fuxin City, Liaoning province
16 Boeings' 777 was unveiled capable of taking 300 people 11000 miles.
16 Prince Charles went fox hunting for the last time. (banned from the 18th)
16 The Kyoto Protocol on global warming came into effect, without the USA.
17 China was the biggest consumer of grain, meat, coal, steel, TVs, fridges & mobile phones.
17 Hunting with dogs in England & Wales became illegal. -- Foxy wins, KO ! --
18 Franz Ferdinand won 2 prizes at The NME Music awards.
FEB 18 Microsoft announced that 14 million power leads on their Xbox needed replacing.
19 Cat Stevens was awarded damages from The Sun and Sunday Times for terrorism allegations.
19 Worlds' 1st mobile phone virus (started in the Phillipines) hit the US.
20 $3.2 bil Jimmy Carter submarine launched, 1st named after a living president.
20 Half the population of Norwich had registered on e-Bay making it UK No1.
20 Spains' referendum on the EU constitution voted yes, only 42% voted.
21 UK Chancellor Gordon Brown started a tour of China.
21 US Pres George Bush started a tour of Europe, guarded by 2.5k Brussels police.
21 Victoria & David Beckhan celebrated the birth of a 3rd son named Cruz.
22 Mobile phone address books of stars were hacked and published on the web.
Paris Hilton, Anna Kournikova, Vin Diesel and Ashlee Simpson were attacked.
23 Dyson vacuum cleaners (with 21%) overtook Hoover sales (with 16%)
23 Mines in Chinas' Shanxi Province were closed and 5 arrested over safety laws.
FEB 24 President Bush (US) was in Bratislava talking to President Putin (Russia).
24 Will Smith was in the UK promoting his new film Hitch and entered
The Guinness Book of Records for the most appearances in 12 hours.
25 Of 12k rape allegations made annually only 7% ended in conviction
25 The German Klosterbrauerei brewery won a 10 yr legal fight to add sugar
to beer and still call it beer, overturning the 1516 beer purity law.
26 Last bottle of oldest whiskey in the world (1937) sold by Glenfiddich for £10k.
26 Madame Tussauds spent £10k separating the Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston waxworks.
26 UK Disaster Emergency Committee Tsunami Appeal closed with £300 million.
27 Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator took most awards at the Oscars.
27 Sabawi al-Tikriti, half brother of Saddam Hussein, was captured.
28 George Bush won the Golden Raspberry Award for Fahrenheit 9/11.
28 Prince Charles was in Sri Lanka witnessing the tsunami devastation.
FEB 28 Saturns' 3 new moons were named - Methone, Pallene and Polydeuces.
Died : MAR 1 Jef Raskin, Designed the original Apple computer.
Died : 7 Harold Brooks-Baker, US born publisher, ex head of Debretts and Burkes.
Died : 12 Dave Allen, Irish comedian. May his god go with him.
Died : 16 Janet Reger, a lingerie designing legend.
Died : 21 John de Lorean, nearly mass produced sports cars in Ireland. (80)
Died : 24 David Kossoff, actor, broadcaster.
Died : 26 Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, British Prime Minister (1976-1979). (92)
Died : 28 Peter Hester, rock drummer (Crowded House).
1 HSBC announced record profits for a UK bank of £9.2 billion.
1 South of Englands' New Forest officially became a national park.
1 The Duchess of Northumberland opened her Poison Garden at Alnwick Castle
which includes opium poppies, cannabis, coca, magic mushrooms and 50 others
2 At 10 years old Yahoo now has sales of $3.5 billion, and growing.
MAR 2 VW launched the worlds' fastest and most expensive car The Bugatti Veyron.
Cost £700k, 1000hp, top speed 250mph, weight 2 tons, 0-60 in 3 secs from 16 cylinders.
3 Bill Gates received an honourary knighthood from the Queen at Buck House.
3 Centenary of and 75th National Motor & Cycle show in Geneva.
4 Martha Stewart got out of prison after 5 months for share irregularities.
4 Steve Fossett landed in Kansas after flying a record non-stop around the world in 67 hours.
5 UK illegal music file sharers (23) settled out of court for £50k.
6 Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) won the 1st F1 Race of 2005 in Australia.
6 US Consumer Reports gave 9 out of 10 categories of best car to Japanese models.
SEDANS: Small_Ford Focus - Family_Honda Accord - Upscale_Acura TL, LUXURY: Lexus LS430
7 A poll for comic relief put The Office as best comedy ever, Fawlty Towers 2nd.
7 Sir Howard Stringer became 1st western CEO of Sony Worlwide, he is 63.
8 An 1894 dime struck in San Francisco sold for $1,322,500 - only 10 remain.
MAR 8 Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher was dismissed over an affair with female executive.
8 Credit card fraud went over £500 mil annually, mostly from cards lost in post.
9 Prince Charles was flashed by two topless women in Wellington NZ, reason obscure.
9 RAC Motoring Services was bought by Aviva Insurance for £1.1 billion.
10 Anchor man for 24 years Dan Rather gave his last bulletin on CBS main news.
10 France named UK film director Alan Parker an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.
11 Comic Reliefs' 10th Red Nose Day collected over £40 mil, and counting.
11 Gary Kasparov won Spanish Chess Tournement for 9th time and announced his retirement.
11 Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman won Comic Relief Does Fame Academy contest.
12 After 2 day debate Prevention of Terrorism Act passed (detention without trial).
12 Nintendos' DS handheld game console went on sale at £99.
13 Crufts was won by Norfolk Terrier Cracknor Cause Celebre (or Coco).
13 US Forbes billionaire rich list put Bill Gates at No1 for 11th year. There
MAR were 691 in the list worth $2.2 trillion, it incl. 8 Britons and 68 women.
14 Chart No1 was McFly with You've Got a Friend, the official Comic Relief single.
14 Geneva was the best city to live in, London was 39th, worst was Baghdad.
15 Mr Dyson launched his newest vacuum cleaner - The Ball - cost £350.
15 Over 1500 Cumbria women health workers won a £300 mil equal pay award.
16 Chancellor Gordon Brown gave his last budget before the election.
16 The Monty Python Broadway musical Spamalot opened with advance sales of $18 mil.
17 CEO of Samsung hired 3 pistes in the Alps 3 Valleys to learn to ski.
17 Estimated 13 mil pints of the Black Stuff (Guinness) were drunk worldwide
18 Breast enhancing chewing gum Bust-Up was the biggest hit at Tokyo health Fair.
18 Pte Johnson Beharry became first person in 23 years and only 12th since WWII
to receive the Victoria Cross. Given for 2 acts of extreme bravery in Iraq.
19 Illegal immigrants working as floor cleaners cost Wal-Mart an $11 mil fine.
MAR 19 Simon Fuller sold 19 Entertainment to Robert Silermans' CKX Inc for £100 mil.
20 Fernando Alonso won the 2nd F1 GP of 2005 in Malaysia with a Renault.
20 Joss Stone replaced Sarah Jessica Parker as the advertising face of The Gap.
21 Illegal alcohol killed 21 and blinded 6 in Sudans' Muslim capital Khartoum.
21 Peter Kay re-released Tony Christie hit Amorillo was No1 (for Comic Relief)
22 At Red Lake high School in Minnesota a student shot 8 others and injured 14.
22 UKs Thompson & Morgan paid £150k for 3 black hyacinth bulbs 7 years ago. It now
has 28k of the only black variety in the world (Midnight Mystique) for sale at £8 each.
23 Annual bull run in Pamplona was safer after cobble stones were given anti-slip treatment.
23 Big pay rises were given to Malaysias executioners (60%) and floggers (300%).
23 Free glass carafes were issued in Paris to promote tap water.
24 Record Easter Egg was delivered by Belgian chocolate maker Guylian to City of
St Niklaas. It was 8.32m high, weighed 1950kg and took 26 men 525 hrs to finish.
MAR 25 Angelina Jolie was Worlds' Sexiest Woman according to FHMs 15 million voters.
25 Rich persons tax shelter "Son of Boss" was closed by IRS who collected $3.2 bil.
25 US version of The Office opened - Scranton, Penn. replaced Slough
26 The BBC returned Doctor Who (No 9) to TV screens after 16 years in a void
26 There were 237 "Tardis" police boxes in the UK - none owned by the police.
27 Annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race (151st) was won by Oxford.
27 France's Maud Fontenoy became the first woman to row the Pacific from
Peru to Polynesia. She took 72 days to row 5k miles in a 23 ft boat.
28 Astronauts added equipment to the ISS that will allow the Euro cargo ship to dock.
28 Bernie Ecclestone (F1 head) had the wheels stolen off his Mercedes - worth £5k each.
29 Classic FMs most popular piece was Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor by Rachmaninov.
29 TGWU won over £72 mil in compensation for 12k of its' members in the last year.
30 Harry Potters magic helped publisher Bloomsbury to its' best ever profits.
MAR 30 Scott and Charlenes' marriage in Neighbours (1987) was voted top telly wedding
by Radio Times viewers, Friends Ross and Emily (1998) were second.
31 Fashion and fur were back together and 300k baby seals died in The Gulf of St Lawrence.
31 Royal Mint issued the 11th design of the 50p coin.
Died : APR 1 Dave Freeman, comedy writer. (for Benny Hill, Tony Hancock)(82)
Died : 2 Pope John Paul II, the Pope (1978-2005) from Poland.
Died : 6 Prince Rainier of Monaco, Europes' longest reigning monarch (1949-2005)(81).
Died : 7 Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize (1976) winning novelist. (89)
Died : 10 Yoshitaro Nomura, pioneering Japanese film noir director.
Died : 12 Andrea Dworkin, American feminist author. (58)
Died : 23 Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, artist. (Brit pop art) (81)
Died : 24 Sir John Mills, actor, screen legend. (97)
Died : 25 Ezer Weizman, the Israeli President from 1993 to 2000. (80)
1 First top 10 list from www.1wcbc.com - World Chess Beauty Champion.
1 Joss Stone (18) became a new entry in the Times Music Millionaires Rich List.
1 UK Pocket money for under 16s was an average £8.37, highest was Wales £13.51.
2 Restaurant was the most misspelled word in search engines.
APR 2 Robert Mugabe won the elections in Zimbabwe with 55 of 120 seats.
3 At 2 mins past 1 am digital clocks read 1. 2 3. 4. 5
3 Hottest F1 GP ever (42°) won in Bahrein by Fernando Alonso in a Renault.
3 New Chinese Snooker Champion was by Ding Junhui (18), 2nd was Stephen Hendry.
4 David Beckham was The Times Richest Young Sportsman.
4 Pope John Paul II body was placed in the Sala Bologna in St Peters' Basilica.
5 China executed 3400 people in the last year, there were 3797 worldwide.
5 Chinese Qing Ming Jie - remember deceased ancestors.
6 GQ Mag voted Britains' Best Dressed Man as Rio Ferdinand, David Beckham was worst.
6 The fine for not buying a train ticket went up to £20 (from £10).
7 In the last year 51k Americans paid over $1 million for their family home.
7 Rome asked pilgrims to stay away as 4 million waited to see the Popes' body.
8 A redeveloped China received its' final shipment of UN food aid.
APR 8 Presidents, prime ministers, kings and 3 million others attended the funeral
of Pope John Paul II in Rome, the largest Christian gathering in history.
9 Camilla Parker Bowles married Prince Charles and became The Duchess of Cornwall.
9 The 158th Aintree Grand National Steeplechase was won by Hedgehunter.
10 Duke and Duchess of Rothesay (Camilla and Charles) were on honeymoon at Balmoral.
10 Japans' Beijing embassy attacked by 10k objecting to a Japanese history book.
11 Bryan Adams' Everything I Do was most picked first dance track at weddings.
11 UK govt gave MG/Rover £6.5 mil while receivers attempted to salvage it
12 Over 50 pilgrims were killed by a water discharge from The Namanda River Dam in India
12 Tesco announced profits of £2.03bn, a UK record for a retailer.
13 Liz Hurley launched her new bikini range at Harrods.
13 Over 25k were evacuated from the Mt Talang Volcano in Sumatra following earthquakes.
14 Latest spam e-mails were using The Popes funeral to lure victims
APR 14 The crew of the ISS had a digital assistant called Clarissa who
read instructions to them while they carried out repairs.
15 Of all food grown in UK 33% ends up in the bin, value about £20 billion.
15 Soyuz rocket left for the ISS with a Russian, American and Italian (Roberto Vittorto).
15 The last volume car maker in the UK, MG/Rover at Longbridge, closed.
16 Anti Japanese demonstration in Shanghai by thousands of Chinese.
16 Charles Kennedy was the only UK political leader to own an iPod.
16 The Vatican post office was issuing "Vacant See" stamps while between popes
17 Little Britain took Best Comedy prize for the 2nd year at the Bafta TV awards.
17 London Marathon had over 30k runners, Martin Lel and Paula Radliffe won.
18 First UK singles chart to include legal downloads, 383k downloads and 394k discs.
18 Online forum launched beautifulpeople.net - submit photo and see if you're voted on.
19 Ethiopias' 160 ton Axum Obelisk was returned by Italy 70 yrs after it was looted.
APR 19 German born Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected the new (265th) Pope Benedict XVI.
20 Chinese economy was growing at 10% pa - the worlds' biggest and fastest.
20 Premiere of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy in Leicester Sq.
20 Saudi Arabias' Defence Minister donated £2 mil to Oxford Uni Ashmolean
Museum for an Islamic gallery and 10 scholarships for Saudi students.
21 Kelly Brook was Worlds' Sexiest Woman according to FHM UK readers
21 Sheila Hancock won Author of the Year at British Book Awards for
the biography of her late husband John Thaw, The Two of Us.
22 At Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia Japans' PM was defusing tensions with China.
22 New Pope Benedict XVI got an e-mail address benedictxvi@vatican.va
23 Lady Tennant Violin made by Stradivari in 1692 sold for $2.03 mil in New York.
23 Surrey Water Co imposed a hosepipe ban as winter rainfall was only 65% of normal.
24 Half of workers answered e-mails within 1 hour of receiving one.
APR 24 Imola F1 GP was won by Fernando Alonso in a Renault.
25 Lyrid meteor shower sparked "lights in sky" calls to the police in New England.
25 US incarcerated 726 people per 100k population, UK was 142, France 91, Japan 58.
26 A memorial to police officers killed on duty was unveiled by the Queen in The Mall.
27 Ellen MacArthur, Prince of Wales and the RSPB opened a campaign to save the Albatross.
27 The Airbus A380 made its' maiden flight watched by 50k in Toulouse, it is
240ft long, 80ft tall and has a 269ft wingspan for up to 555 passengers.
28 Dorothys' Gingham dress from The Wizard of Oz was auctioned for £140k
28 Glenfiddich created a single malt for German Playboy at £250 a bottle.
29 President Putin was on the first official visit by a Russian leader to Israel.
29 US Congress passed a $2.6 trillion budget.
30 Ho Chi Minh City celebrated 30 years since the end of the American War.
30 Thousands of Muslims protested in London against oppression by 'war on terror'.
Died : MAY 19 Frank Gorshin, actor. (The Riddler in TV Batman series). (72)
Died : 20 Gergely Pongratz, leader of 1956 Hungarian revolution. (73)
1 Holy fire ceremony at The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
1 Over a million people celebrated Queen Beatrix of Holland 25th year as ruler.
2 Shaun Murphy won the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
2 The 441st and last British Skylark rocket blasted off from Sweden
2 The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy was No1 film in the US and took $21.7 mil.
3 After 37 yrs Cream (Clapton-Baker-Bruce) reformed to play The Albert Hall.
3 Chinese computer maker Lenovo became the 3rd largest in the world
after completing its' purchase of IBMs' PC division for $1.75 bil
4 Patrick Ryan of Blackpool collected his 461st conviction for dining out without paying
4 The Grandpa Gang, 3 elderly men, went on trial in Germany for bank robberies.
4 The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy took £4.2 mil on its' first weekend in the UK.
MAY 5 eBay sold the Popes' old VW Golf to online casino Golden Palace for £127k.
5 Tony Blair and Labour won the General Election with reduced majority.
6 New Star Wars film got a PG rating and was described as a 'bloodbath'.
6 Pope Benedict XVI elite Swiss Guard took the 3 fingered oath.
7 BAR F1 racing team was banned for 2 races for having an extra fuel tank.
7 City worker Alex Bell was jailed for 2.5 years for running the UK
DrinkorDie software code cracking group, the group made no money.
8 Kimi Raikonnen won the Spanish F1 GP in a McLaren.
8 Prince Harry started his army career at Sandhurst Military Academy.
9 Over 50 world leaders were in Moscow to remember the dead of WWII
9 The Queen was in the Channel Islands on the 60th anniversary of their liberation.
10 Renee Zellwegger married Kenny Chesney in the US Virgin Islands.
10 Telewest network home computers were blacklisted after over 1 million
MAY of them were hijacked by spammers using the Blueyonder e-mail system.
11 A holocaust memorial of 2711 large stones was opened in central Berlin
11 UCLA Berkeley banned alcohol at fraternity events after police were called in.
11 Yahoo entered the music download market with subscriptions at $6.99.
12 Eva Longoria (of Desperate Housewives) was top of Maxims' Hot 100
12 lastminute.com agreed a $1 billion takeover from Sabre Holdings.
13 German Model Heidi Klum married singer Seal (Sealhenry Olumide Samuel) on a Mexican Beach.
13 It was Friday 13th, the fear of which is called paraskevidekatriaphobia.
13 Manchester United, the worlds' richest football club, was taken over
by american Malcolm Glazer. He bought 70% of shares for £800 million.
14 Columbian police seized the largest ever haul of cocaine - 12 tons worth $300 million.
14 UK billionaire Philip Green hired Destinys' Child for his sons' bar mitzvah - cost £4 mil.
15 Christina Ricci became the face and body of sportswear giant Reebok.
MAY 15 Final Star Wars film Episode III:Revenge Of The Sith premiered at Cannes Film Festival
15 The Baishakhi Mela festival saw over 80k at Brick Lane, East London celebrating
Bangla New Year. It is the largest Bengali celebration outside Bangladesh.
16 Edinburgh City centre was made vehicle free affecting 40 streets.
16 Last Paykan (Arrow) left the Khodro plant near Tehran.(based on the Hillman Hunter)
16 The celebrations started early for the UK premiere of Episode III:Revenge of the Sith;
at 6am in Leicester Sq the 501st UK Garrison of Stormtroopers were on parade,
followed by a marathon showing of all 6 films ending with the premiere.
17 Manchester United FC was de-listed from the stock exchange.
17 Royal Mail workers got a £1074 bonus after record profits of £537 million.
17 The Queens' speech included a bill to introduce ID cards.
18 A record 140k were granted UK citizenship in the last year, 700k since 1997.
18 London Underground sold a record 976 mil tickets last year travelling 43 mil miles.
MAY 19 The Lexus SC430 was Americas' most reliable car for a 2nd year.
19 The oldest FA Cup, used from 1896-1910, was auctioned at Christies' for £420k.
19 The US had a world record trade deficit with China of $162 bil and imposed
import restrictions on clothing, China has 30% of the world clothing market.
20 Newcastle University cloned the first human embryo in the UK.
20 Rio Ferdinand was top of GQ Mags 100 Best Dressed Men List.
20 The London Eye was served with an eviction notice after a £2.5 mil (1500%) rent increase.
21 FA Cup was won for the first time on penalties by Arsenal against Manchester United 5-4.
21 Revenge of the Sith took a record $50 million on it's first day of release.
21 Winner of Eurovision Song Contest was Greek Helena Paparizou with My Number One.
22 Cannes top prize went to Belgian film L'enfant by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
22 KImi Raikkonnen won the Monaco F1 GP in a McLaren.
22 Sunbathers saw a Cessna plane crash onto Coney Island Beach, all 4 onboard were killed.
MAY 23 China started bird 'flu vaccinations on 3 mil birds in Qinghai.
23 The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opened.
24 A 1 day strike by 6.5k BBC staff caused disruption to TV schedules.
24 Bank of America informed 670k customers that their records had been stolen.
24 The British Pub Association banned Happy Hours to stop binge drinkers
25 John Williams won Soundtrack Award for Harry Potter films at the Classical Brit Awards.
25 Liverpool won the European Cup in Istanbul against AC Milan after penalty shootout.
26 Country singer Carrie Underwood won American Idol.
26 Gwyneth Paltrow became the face of Estee Lauder.
26 Paris Hiltons' TV ad for Hamburger chain Carl's Jr. was called soft-core porn.
27 A Moscow power cut killed 1 mil chickens when incubators and air conditioners failed.
27 Author Jacqueline Wilson became Childrens' Laureate.
27 Gulbenkian Museum of the Year prize of £100k went to Big Pit in Blaenafon, South Wales.
MAY 27 Surrender note by IRA leader Padreig Pearse in 1916 sold for £553k at Dublin auction.
27 There was a nationwide 24hr strike by 10k HSBC staff over pay.
28 Parliaments' 145 year old clock, Big Ben, stopped for 1.5 hours.
28 Personal debt in the UK went over £1 trillion, £4.5 bil of which was in default.
28 Selfridges stopped selling fur after pressure from customers.
29 Fernando Alonso won the European GP at the Nurburgring in a Renault.
29 Ring tone turned into a single, Crazy Frog, was No1 in the UK charts.
29 The French voted "non" in a referendum on the EU constitution.
Every french voter was sent a 191 page document to help their decision.
30 British driver Dan Wheldon won the Indianapolis 500.
30 Graffs in Knightsbridge lost £2 million worth of jewels in an armed robbery.
31 Irish no-frills airline Ryanair profits rose 19% to £184 mil.
31 Miss Canada Natalie Glebova became Miss Universe at Bangkoks' Impact Arena.
MAY 31 White plastic wristbands sold for £1 in the "Make Poverty History" campaign
were produced in Chinese factories that contravened EU ethical standards.
Died : JUN 8 Anne Bancroft, actress. (Mrs Robinson in The Graduate)
Died : 23 Jack Kilby, Nobel prize winning inventor of the semi-conductor.(81)
Died : 24 Charlie Saikley, the godfather of beach volleyball. (69)
Died : 26 Richard Whiteley, journalist, Countdown presenter. (61)
Died : 27 Paul Winchell, ventriloquist, the voice of Disneys' Tigger. (82)
1 Harpers & Queens' Most Beautiful Woman in the World - Angelina Jolie.
1 Vanity Fair named and Washington Post confirmed the identity of Journalisms'
best kept secret - Watergates' Deep Throat - former FBI deputy chief Mark Felt.
2 Dutch voters did the same as the French and voted NO to the EU constitution.
2 The 5th Euro nation, Sweden, enforced a smoking ban in restaurants, bars and cafes.
3 A 1913 "Miss Liberty" nickel minted illegally was sold for $4.15m, only 5 were ever made.
3 Anurag Kashyap of Poway, Cal., won the 78th US Scripps Spelling Bee, he also won $30k.
4 Justine Henin-Hardenne won the French Open Tennis Championship.
JUN 4 Poole Harbours' 44 acre Green Island was sold for £3 mil, it has wild deer and no snakes.
5 Rafael Nadal won the French Open Tennis Championship.
5 The Vodafone Derby at Epsom was won by Motivator.
6 Spamalot won Best Musical at the 59th Tony Awards in New York.
6 Tickets for Live 8 Concert were offered in a text message lottery of 150k.
7 First one-time-use digital video camera went on sale in the US, cost $29.95.
7 The annual German Sausage Bratwurstmesiter Prize in Berlin was
won by Joerg Staroske for his chocolate sausage, a world first.
8 Orange prize for female authors won by Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin.
8 Worlds' most prolific military computer hacker, Gary McKinnon (Solo) arrested in London.
9 A 16th century map that used "America" for the first time sold for £545k.
9 Number of visits by overseas visitors to Britain was 28.4 mil pa.
9 Number of visits made abroad by British people was 64.8 mil pa.
JUN 9 Words ned and chav entered the Collins English Dictionary, both defined as :-
"a young working-class person who dresses in casual sports clothes"
10 George Lucas received a lifetime acheivement award from the American Film Institute.
10 Merrill Lynch Wealth Report found 8.3 mil $ millionaires worldwide.
11 Actor David "Del Boy" Jason became a real knight.
11 DJ Terry Wogan became an honorary knight.
11 Hosepipe ban imposed in Sussex after the driest winter for 9 yrs.
11 The Roald Dahl Museum opened in Great Missenden, Bucks.
11 The two Kings Harald V of Norway and Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden opened
the Svinesund Bridge spanning a fjord between the two countries.
12 Kimi Raikonnen won the Canadian F1 GP in a McLaren.
12 Prince William gained a 2:1 honours for his geography degree at St Andrews University.
12 The G8 nations wrote off £30 bil of debt for the 30 poorest African nations.
JUN 12 World Naked Bike Ride Against Car Culture in London and 54 other cities worldwide.
13 Africas' last absolute monarch, King Mswati of Swaziland, married his 12th wife.
13 European premiere of Batman Begins in London.
13 Paris Airshow included first display by the A380 Airbus.
14 A bottle of 62-yr-old single malt Whyte & Mackay whiskey sold for £32k.
14 Michael Jackson was found not guilty on all 10 charges of child abuse.
The trial cost millions and lasted 3 months. His debts total $200 mil.
15 Free Live 8 tickets on sale on eBay for £1000 were removed after protests.
15 MSN China was censoring weblogs with the words "freedom" and "democracy".
16 Coldplay had an album hit with X&Y on both sides of the Atlantic.
16 The UKs most powerful wind farm opened at Ceredigion, Wales. It has 39
turbines 328ft high giving 58 megawatts per hour, enough for 42k homes.
17 BBCs free Beethoven downloads were over 600k and beat no1 Coldplay album X&Y.
JUN 17 MOJO Icon Award went to Siouxsie Sioux.
18 Brussels meeting of Euro-leaders broke up in dis-array failing to agree budget reforms
18 Harley-Davidson opened a new dealership in Moscow, it's first closed in 1917.
19 London Premiere of War of the Worlds.
19 New Zealander Michael Campbell won the US Open Golf.
19 US F1 GP at Indiananapolis was won by Ferrari (1st and 2nd), only 3 teams
entered due to a Michelin tyre problem. (The race Ferrari couldn't refuse)
20 Heinz paid £470 mil for HP Sauce.
20 Over 40 mil US credit card holders were warned accounts had been hacked and were at risk.
21 A months rain in 3 hours in Yorkshire caused devastation over a 20 mile area.
21 The Planetary Society of Pasadena launched the solar sail spacecraft
Cosmos1 from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea - it crashed.
22 Broadstone School in Poole became the first to ban girls skirts.
JUN 22 Radio 1 was sold to Sirius - a US satellite radio network.
23 Prince William graduated from St Andrews University with a 2:1 geography degree.
23 Sophia Loren was given honorary citizenship of Pozzuali where she was born.
23 Wimbledons' ball boys and girls were wearing knee pads for the first time.
24 After a week of sunshine, heavy thunderstorms and the Glastonbury Festival opened.
24 Crude oil price hit a record $60 a barrel.
24 Deaths involving UK police vehicles last year were 31, 1985 were injured.
24 Record price for a Francis Bacon painting £4.9 mil for George Dye portrait.
25 A Lowestoft fish dealer began exporting 300 sharks a week to China.
25 Bordeaux wine fair (Vinexpo) began trying to unload Frances' 66 mil gallon wine lake
25 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became Irans' president, as Tehrans' mayor he closed fast-food outlets.
26 Hollywood bowl tickets for a Rolling Stones tour were £249 - a record price.
26 Luxury campsite next to the Glastonbury Festival charged £6000 per tent.
JUN 27 A 1933 Type 59 Bugatti was sold at Goodwood for £1.32 million.
27 Batman Begins took $26.8mil and was top movie for the 2nd weekend
27 New fuel consumption record set by a hydrogen fuelled vehicle built by
ETH Zurich at 5385 kilometres per litre (8 litres would take it round the world)
28 Pablo Picassos' mistress was sold for $575k in Paris - a pencil and paper sketch
28 The location of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) was awarded
to France and will be at Cadarache. It has a budget of £7 billion and is a joint project
by the EU, USA, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea to build a commercial fusion reactor.
29 According to Tesco Aberdonians buy the least Champagne in the UK.
29 Number of people online in China exceeded 100 million and became worlds'largest user.
30 UK buses supplied 4.5 billion journeys per annum, and growing.
30 UK government made it's first estimate at the number of illegal immigrants - 570k.
Died : JUL 2 Luther Vandross, singer.
Died : 17 Edward Heath, PM who took UK into the EU. (89)
Died : 21 Gerry Thomas, invented the TV dinner.
Died : 21 James Doohan, actor. (Engineer of the USS Enterprise)(83)
Died : 24 Long John Baldry, singer. (64)
1 A pregnant Jennifer Garner married Ben Affleck in Turks and Caicos.
1 Gilbert Arizona was the fastest growing US city, pop. up 42% in 4 years.
1 UK took over EU presidency. With an animated logo for first time, flying swans.
2 Ladies Wimbledon Champion was Venus Williams.
2 Live8 concerts were held in London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Philadelphia,
Barrie, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Moscow.
3 Malibu beach houses for rent; Ozzy Osbourne, £41k pm; Sting, £55k pm.
3 Mens' Wimbledon Champion was Roger Federer.
JUL 3 Wimbledons' ultimate referee Alan Mills retired after 23 years.
4 Kevin Ashman from Winchester, Hants won the MSN Search World Quiz
4 NASA crashed Deep Probe "impactor" into Comet Tempel 1 at 37k mph
5 Police fought with several protest groups near the G8 summit in Gleneagles.
5 Tijuana street vendors were told to wear traditional bright clothes instead of jeans.
6 A 19th Century "feathery" golf ball by Sandy Pirie sold for £15.6k.
6 Nits alert caused House of Commons communal hairbrushes to be removed from washrooms.
6 The IOC awarded the 2012 Olympics Games to London, beating Paris.
7 NY Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for refusing to reveal a source.
7 Over 50 people were killed and over 700 injured when 4 suicide bombs exploded
in central London at about 9:00am. A British born islamic group was resonsible.
8 G8 protesters weapons included 90 gallons of cooking oil, CS spray and axes.
8 Methamphetamine overtook cocaine as the biggest US drug problem.
JUL 9 MasterFoods Australia destroyed 3 mil chocolate bars after poison extortion demand.
9 Sven Jaschan given a suspended 21 month sentence for creating the sasser worm.
9 The G8 Make Poverty History campaign wrote off the debts of 18 African
countries ($40 billion) and increased aid to Africa to $50 billion pa by 2010.
10 BP garages bacame the first to charge over £4 per gallon.
10 Juan Montoya won the British F1 GP at Silverstone in a McLaren.
11 Hurricane Dennis hit Florida at 120 mph, 2 million were evacuated
11 Premiere of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in LA with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.
12 A 59ft replica trebuchet seige machine went into action at Warwick Castle.
12 Prince Albert II was enthroned as ruler of Monaco.
13 Golfer Jack Nicklaus' image appeared on scottish £5 notes.
13 Total tracks downloaded so far this year went over 10 mil, 4 times last year.
14 China banned TV partnerships with foreign broadcasters.
JUL 14 Southern Portugal was in its' worst drought for 60 years.
15 British Muslim leader Dr Zaki Badawi was refused entry to the US.
15 Summers' first garden party at Buckingham Palace - 40 people fainted in 89F heat.
16 A flying fish was landed off Seaton in Devon, the first in UK water.
16 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince went on sale at midnight. Publisher
Scholastic Research initial print was 10.8 mil, the largest in history.
17 Lord Hesketh country estate Easton Neston sold for £15 mil to US fashion designer Leon Max.
17 The 36th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas was won by Australian
chiropractor Joseph Hachem. First prize was $7.5 million for a $10k buy-in.
18 Hurricane Emily hit Yucatan at 150mph, 80k residents were evacuated.
18 Sandra Bullock married Jesse James (founder of West Coast Choppers)
18 The sale of magic mushrooms was made illegal.
18 Volume 6 of the Harry Potter books - The Half Blood Prince - sold 7 million copies
JUL in the US in the first 24 hours - a record. A 2nd print of 3 mil was started.
19 About 200 Indians in Orissa were sentenced to 10 sit-ups for watching a porn film.
19 Afghan warlord Faryadi Zardad of Streatham, London given life in prison for torture offences.
20 TV chef Jamie Oliver unveiled his waxwork model at Madam Tussauds
20 UK broadband connections overtook dial-up.
21 Four suicide bombs failed to explode on London underground.
21 Jessica Alba was at the London premiere of the Fantastic Four.
21 Violent crime went over 1 mil/yr, car theft and burglaries were down 16%.
22 Googles' 2nd quarter profit was $343 mil, four times last year.
22 NY tube started random baggage searches after London bombings.
23 Exiled film director Roman Polanski was awarded £50k libel damages against Vanity Fair.
23 MG Rover at Longbridge was sold to Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automotive.
24 Lance Armstrong from the US won his 7th consecutive Tour de France title.
JUL 24 The German F1 GP was won by Fernando Alonso in a Renault.
25 The first group of package tourists from China arrived in London.
25 The Wicker Man Festival in Dumfries came to an end with the burning of a wicker man.
26 John Rutter was found guilty of blackmailing Cameron Diaz over topless photos.
26 Lady Isabella Hervey took over as the new face of UK Playboy TV, website and mag.
26 Shuttle Discovery launched by NASA, the first since Columbia crashed in Feb 2003.
27 Crazy Horse in Paris was sold by the Bernardin family who started it in 1951.
27 National Statisics Office valued the UK at £5.8 trillion, £97k for every person.
28 The IRA formally ended armed conflict, instructing units to dump weapons.
28 UK computer maker Time and Tiny went into liquidation.
29 John Lennon Sgt Pepper tunic sold for £100k, hand written 'All You Need is Love' lyrics £690k
29 Monsoon in S India dumped 37 inches of rain in 24 hours causing 800 deaths.
30 Christina Aguilieras' Dirty video came top in FHM TVs' Sexiest 100 videos poll.
JUL 30 Of 32k weddings in Scotland annually about 5k were at Gretna Green
31 G-string sales were down 20% in favour of 'something more comfortable'.
31 Kimi Raikonnen won the Hungarian F1 GP in a McLaren.
Died : AUG 1 King Fahd, Saudi Arabia's ruler. (1982-2005)
Died : 7 Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer. (78)
Died : 7 Peter Jennings, US news anchorman for 20 years. (67)
Died : 7 Robin Cook, politician.
Died : 11 Barbara Bel Geddes, actress. (Miss Ellie in Dallas)(82)
Died : 14 David Lange, architect of NZ anti-nuclear policy, ex NZ PM.
Died : 18 James Dougherty, married Marilym Monroe when she was 16. (84)
Died : 19 Mo Mowlam, politician.
Died : 23 Robert A Moog, produced the first synthesizer keyboards. (71)
Died : 25 Jack Slipper, Scotland Yard detective who pursued Great train robbers.
Died : 27 Lord Fitt, co-founder of the SDLP.
1 King Fahd of Saudi Arabia died and was succeeded by Crown Prince Abdullah.
1 Latest Harry Potter book was being bootlegged in Beijing for £1.40.
AUG 2 The Presidents sculptures on Mt Rushmore received their first clean in 65 years.
2 UK Universities were reporting over 7k incidents of plagiarism per year.
3 Prince William in wax went on show at Madame Tussauds'.
3 US TV network ABC was banned in Russia for broadcasting a Chechen terrorist interview.
4 Adidas took over Reebok for $3.8 billion.
4 Astronauts on Discovery were repairing heat shields ready for re-entry.
5 Satellite broadcaster BskyB had record profits of £805 mil from 7.8 mil customers
5 Tailor Highland Crafts of Edinburgh were selling kilts with mobile phone pockets.
6 Heart of Gold Rose was judged best in show at International Rose Trial in Belfast
6 Unification Church Of Seoul married 4600 (approx.) couples in 1 mass wedding.
7 Chinas' east coast was hit by Typhoom Matsa, over 1 million were evacuated.
7 Scarlett Johansson was at the UK premiere of The Island
7 Solving a row among Scottish councils, Star Trek's Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
AUG was declared an Aberdonian by Richard Arnold official Star Trek historian.
8 Dixons stopped selling film cameras and in future will sell only digital.
8 Latest craze of gangs in Rome was setting fire to vehicles - 180 in the last month
9 Photographer Brad Diaz was shot with an air pellet outside Britney Spears baby shower.
9 Shuttle Discovery landed safely after the first flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
10 AOL ran a sweepstake of the seized assets of a spammer - incl. $20k in gold bars.
10 Iran broke the UN seals on its' nuclear plant at Isfahan.
10 Top of CNN/Sports Illustrated Sports characters was John McEnroe.
11 Katie Melua, born in Russia, became a British Citizen at Weybridge Register Office
11 Scott Richter of Opt-In Real Big paid $7 mil to Microsoft for spamming infringements.
12 Nasas' $720 mil Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched. At 2tons the biggest sent to the planet.
12 The Glorious 12th was cancelled due to a lack of grouse.
13 Flights from Heathrow resumed after a 24 hour strike stranded 100k passengers.
AUG 13 State of emergency was declared in 3 New Mexico counties bordering with
Mexico, it was devastated by smugglers of drugs and illegal immigrants.
14 Most popular books of Guantanamo Bay detainees was Harry Potter, 2nd was Agatha Christie.
14 Schoolgirls skirts were disappearing - replaced by trousers by 52% of girls.
15 A school of 1500 dolphins was spotted off the west coast of Wales
15 Bombays' 700 dance bars employing 75k women bacame illegal and closed.
15 Xanthe Burke, age 6, won the 25th British Open Crabbing Championship. Held at
Walberswick, Suffolk she caught a 4.5oz crab, won £50 and a silver trophy.
16 Petrol started to break $3 a gallon in the US.
16 The Notebook won 8 awards at the US Teen Choice Award.
16 Tokyo was shaken by a 7.2R earthquake 185 miles to the north.
17 Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev broke the record for cumulative time in space - 748 days.
17 Frank Evans (age 63), Spains' only English bullfighter, retired.
AUG 17 Israeli troops began evicting Jews from Gaza settlements.
18 China Bicycle went bankrupt. In Beijing alone 1k new cars hit the road every day.
18 Ex AOL employee Jason Smathers jailed for 15 mths for theft of 92 mil e-mail addresses.
19 Pope Benedict made his first official foreign visit - it was to his native Germany.
19 UK A level exam pass rate rose again for the 23rd year in succession to 96.2%.
20 Annual twin V Festival entertained 180k in Essex and Staffordshire.
20 Merck Drugs Co paid $253 mil to widow of Vioxx (drug withdrawn last year) victim.
20 The dictionary supplied by Apple contained the following definition,
Blogger: twentysomething Americans with at least an unhealthy interest in computers.
21 Chinese Vogue hit the news stands.
21 Home computers produced 97% of fake $5, $10 and $20 bills, up from 46% in 2003
21 The first F1 GP at the new Istanbul track was won by Kimi Raikonnen in a McLaren.
22 The last jewish houses in the Gaza strip were bulldozed.
AUG 22 Vail, Az. Empire High School was first to issue a laptop and no books to all students
23 Liz Hurley launched her own range of organic baby foods.
23 Maria Sharapova became the first Russian at WTA Tours No 1 rank.
23 The Modesto was top of US car theft list.
24 Scott Mackenzie became World Flycasting Champion with a record cast of 205 ft.
24 Text messaging in the UK reached a record 3 billion a month.
25 GCSE pass rate was 97.8%, 61.2% were awarded A to C grades.
25 Indias' Maharashtra State banned plastic bags, they choked drains during monsoons.
26 California heatwave forced rolling 1 hour blackouts to be imposed.
26 Shiploads of Chinese clothes held in European ports as import quotas were passed.
27 Swedens' tallest building was opened, Turning Torso is 54 floors with 9 stacked cubes.
27 TheCoder & Diablo (Farid Essebar & Atilla Ekici) were arrested in Morocco and Turkey
charged with starting the Zotob worm that infected millions of computers worldwide.
AUG 28 Laura Salon became only the 2nd woman to win the (25th) Perrier Comedy Award.
28 New Orleans was evacuated of 500k people as Hurricane Katrina (cat 5) approached.
28 US MTV Awards were dominated by Green Day with 7 awards.
29 Boston Red Sox ground needed 40k sq ft of new grass after a Rolling Stones concert.
29 Lloyds TSB became first bank, after 130 yrs, to open some branches on a bank holiday
30 Gulf oil production stopped sending price over $70/barrel for the first time. .
30 New Orleans was devastated by category 5 Hurricane Katrina.
31 Creative was awarded the patent for MP3 player interface. (Including iPods)
31 Tyra Banks named Americas Next Top Model as Naima Mora from Detroit.
31 Zimbabwe parliament extended its' powers for land seizure and travel restrictions.
Died : SEP 1 Joseph Rotblat, only scientist to resign from Manhatten Project.
Died : 4 William H Rehnquist, 16th chief justice of the US.
Died : 7 Bob Denver, actor. (Gilligans' Island)(70)
Died : 10 Sir Hermann Bondi, astrophysicist.
Died : 16 Guy Green, British film director. (91)
Died : 20 Simon Wiesenthal, nazi hunter. (96)
Died : 27 Albert "Caesar" Tocco, gang boss, racketeer. died in prison. (77)
Died : 27 Don Adams, comedian. (Get Smart - 1960s TV series) (82)
Died : 28 Helen Cresswell, childrens' book author.
Died : 30 Constance Baker Motley, civil rights activist. (84)
1 New Sony Playstation Portable went on sale in the UK at £179.99.
1 Over one million pilgrims converged on al-Aima bridge in Baghdad,
in the resulting crush caused by security searches 1k died, 500 injured.
SEP 2 Paris green group The Deflators were puncturing tyres of sports utility vehicles.
2 Players of online game Everquest II were donating 'in game' for Hurricane Katrina victims
3 Eric Clapton, Celine Dion and Bill Cosby headlined a Hurricane Katrina TV special.
3 Muslim model Hammasa Kohistani was crowned Miss England.
3 Nepals' Moaist rebels declared a ceasefire with King Gyanendra.
4 Biggest airlift the US has ever seen rescued the last survivors of Hurricane Katrina
4 Juan Pablo Montoya won the Italian F1 GP in a McLaren.
4 Oil rich Qatar offered $100 million in humanitarian aid for Hurricane Katrina victims
4 Virgin Digital started its' music download service.
5 Muffin the Mule returned to BBC TV (after 50 years away) - as a computer animation.
5 PM Blair took a party of 50 businessmen to China - building trade links.
6 Kiera Knightley was at the London premiere of Pride and Prejudice.
6 Penguin paid £54k for The Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong in Chinas' biggest foreign book deal.
SEP 6 Special K was UKs latest recreational drug, real name Ketamine, a horse tranquiliser.
7 Antony and the Johnsons won the Mercury Music Prize for the album I Am A Bird Now.
7 Charlotte Church was named Woman of the Year by GQ Magazine.
7 The Yusafali-A computer virus was replacing porn pages with pages from the Koran.
8 Norway was the worlds' most prosperous country according to the UN, UK was 15th.
8 One in four of London's population was born overseas, in 1991 it wass 1 in 20.
8 President Bush asked Congress for £62 bil to pay for Hurricane Katrina disaster.
9 McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken in Karachi were bombed.
9 The last New Orleans Hurricane Katrina survivors were evacuated by force.
10 Egypts' Pres Mubarak was re-elected, he got 88% of a 23% turnout.
10 Kim Clijsters won the US Open Tennis, her first Grand Slam title, and $1 million.
10 Shelter From The Storm telethon went out on 6 US TV networks.
11 Ann Summers opened its' first sex superstore - in Cardiff.
SEP 11 NY punk venue CBGBs lease expired and an eviction notice was issued.
11 Roger Federer won the US Open Tennis beating Andre Agassi (39).
12 Disneyland Hong Kong opened, it took 6 years and $3.5 billion to complete.
12 England won The Ashes from Australia for the first time in 18 years.
12 Mr Koizumis' Liberal Democratic Party won Japans' general election.
13 The last of Israels troops left Gaza after 38 years occupation.
13 The Pussycat Dolls replaced cartoon group Gorillaz at no1 in the UK singles chart.
13 Yahoo continued to expand into news and hired Kevin Sites as its' war correspondent.
14 EU court gave itself the power to compel national courts to imprison EU lawbreakers.
14 Qibla Cola - the alternative cola for Muslims - went broke.
14 Sony recalled 3.5 million faulty Playstation 2 power adapters.
15 Bombs and gunmen caused the deaths of 150 in Baghdads' worst day this year.
15 Britney Spears gave birth to her first baby - a boy - Preston Michael Spears Federline.
SEP 15 This years Rear Of The Year Award went to Nell McAndrew.
16 Photographer John Rutter was sent to prison for 3 years for blackmailing Cameron Diaz.
16 The teenager who hacked Paris Hiltons phone was sentenced to 11 months juvenile detention.
16 Yahoo began large scale tests of new e-mail service bought from Oddpost.
17 FHM Worlds' Most Fashionable Man was Nernon Kay, Jenson Button was 5th.
17 Richest Young Aussie was Nicole Kidman with £66 mil.
17 Three weeks after the evacuation of New Orleans people were allowed back in.
18 Afghanistan held its' first elections for 30 years.
18 New Zealand re-elected the Labour party and Helen Clark as PM.
18 The Avenue of Stars in Covent Garden was launched by Michael Caine.
19 Best Comedy Actress at the Emmys in LA was Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman.
19 Conservative Angela Merkel's party won most votes in Germany's general election.
19 Worlds' biggest half marathon, Great North Run, claimed 4 lives from heat exhaustion..
SEP 20 Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri claimed the 7/7 London bombs that killed 52.
20 North Korea began voluntarily dismantling its' nuclear weapons program.
20 Robin Harper (MSP Scottish Greens) was installed as rector of Aberdeen University.
21 A Chinese company was selling condoms called Clinton and Lewinsky.
21 H&M clothing dropped its' link with model Kate Moss after cocaine allegations.
21 The new Mrs America was 32 year old Mrs California Andrea Preuss.
22 Over 2 million people left Southern Texas in anticipation of category 5 Hurricane Rita.
22 Publisher Leonard Budd launched the 58 page 100 Minute Bible.
22 The High Court banished Crazy Frog ringtone ads to after the 9pm watershed.
23 Damian Marley was Best Reggae Act at the MOBO Awards.
23 Forbes Magazine richest american was Bill Gates for the 11th consecutive year with $51 bil.
23 Guinness Book of Records 2006 launched by worlds' tallest man - Mongolian Xi Shun at 7ft 8.95in.
24 Anti war demonstrations took place in Washington (about 100k) and London (10k).
SEP 24 First elections since joining the EU took place in Poland .
24 New Orleans was flooded for the 2nd time as Hurricane Rita devastated Southern Texas.
25 Dell launched the Ditty - rival for the iPod - same price but includes FM radio.
25 Fernando Alonso became 2005 F1 Champion with 2 races still to be run.
25 Montoya won the Brasil F1 GP in a McLaren.
26 Chinas internet censors announced only "healthy and civilised news" would be allowed.
26 New mobile phone for Muslims features 5 prayer reminders and the direction of Mecca.
27 Nth Irelands' arms decommissioning body announced that all IRA arms had been destroyed.
27 The Sexiest Female at the Inside Soap Awards was Samia Smith (Coronation St.)
28 A redesigned $10 bill was unveiled at Ellis Island, New York.
28 New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass resigned over the conduct of his officers
during the Hurricane Katrina evacuation, 500 of 1700 "abandoned their duties".
29 Online gaming firm 888 started trading on the London Stock Exchange valued at £600 million.
SEP 29 Royal Mail issued 68p Ashes cricket victory stamps, the price of sending a letter to Australia.
30 An 18th century musical clock made by Thomas Wright sold for £411k at Christies'.
30 Kermit and friends - The Muppets - got their own set of 11 37c stamps
30 Russian owner of Chelsea FC - Roman Abramovitch - was £9 billion richer after
selling 70% of his oil company Sibneft to the Russian state company Gazprom
Died : OCT 1 Leo Sternbach, invented valium.
Died : 3 August Wilson, playwright. (60)
Died : 3 Ronnie Barker, comedian. (76) (... and it's goodbye from him)
Died : 11 Milton Obote, independent Ugandas' first president.
Died : 25 Rosa Parks, kick started the civil rights movement. (92)
Died : 27 Elmer Dressler, actor, put the ho ho ho in Jolly Green Giant ads.
1 Minimum wage went up to £5.05/hr (£4.25/hr for under 21s)
1 US scientist William McArthur paid $20mil to blast into space from Baikonur cosmodrome.
1 Worlds richest university, Harvard, endowment was $25.9 bil, earned 19% last year.
2 Ballerinas at La Scala in Milan were on strike over the size of their dressing rooms.
2 Holiday areas of Bali were hit by 3 suicide bombers killing 30 and injuring over 100.
2 Ilamatepec volcano near San Salvadore errupted threatening the homes of 10k people.
3 Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were divorced; and selling their mansion for $28mil.
OCT 3 Kuwait hanged four Pakistanis convicted of trafficking heroin.
3 Merger of Boots and Alliance Unichem worth £7bn was announced.
4 London premiere of the latest Wallace and Gromit adventure Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
4 The Open Content Alliance backed by Yahoo started digitising 18k works of American literature.
4 Wonderbra launched 4 new WonderEffect bras - cleavage, plunging, rounded and uplift.
5 Londons' Absolut Icebar is kept at -5c., customers can only stay 45 mins for safety reasons.
5 SpaceShipOne took its' place at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
5 The search for bodies following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans ended, death toll at 972.
6 Google and Sun Microsystems joined forces to distribute each others software.
6 Latest additions to the US Merriam-Websters Dictionary - chick flick and bikini wax.
7 J K Rowlings' Harry Potter books sold 300 mil copies (so far) in 63 languages.
7 Sir David Frost started making programs for Al-Jazeera TV.
7 The Gothic mansion used in the 1960s Batman TV series was destroyed by fire.
OCT 8 Nobel Prize for Peace went to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
8 The CBI opened its' 3rd overseas office - in Beijing. China.
8 The last "slam-door" carriage train to run left Cannon St Station for Ashford.
9 Earthquake 50 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan (R7.6). Over 80k dead.
9 First european bird 'flu case quarantined a Romanian village after 3 ducks died.
9 Kimi Raikonnen won the F1 GP in Japan in a McLaren
9 Stanford Uni won the Pentagons' Robot Race for Driverless Vehicles and a prize of $2 mil.
10 All Wallace and Gromit props were destroyed in a fire at Aardman Animations warehouse.
10 Southends' longest pier in the world (1.3 miles) was destroyed by fire.
10 The sexiest woman alive according to Esquire readers was Jessica Biel.
11 Angela Merkel became Germanys' first woman chancellor in a Democrat coalition.
11 John Banville won the £50k Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sea.
11 The Anchor of Henry VIII flagship The Mary Rose was raised from the Solent seabed.
OCT 12 Britney Spears red-tab jeans sold for $4,001 in an e-Bay charity auction.
12 China launched 2 astronauts from Jiuqhan in its' 2nd manned spacecraft.
12 Microsoft paid RealNetworks $761 mil to settle a anti-trust claim.
13 Apple launched its' video playing iPod - available in black or white, 30 or 60 GB.
13 Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize for Literature - $1.3 million.
13 Over 300 concerts took place worldwide on the first John Peel Day.
14 Cheapest saturday night out in the UK was Cardiff - average £17.54 - half that of London.
14 Indian company Apeejay Surrendra bought Typhoo Tea for £80 mil.
14 Latest US government spy entity was the National Calandestine Service.
15 People of Iraq were voting on a new draft constitution for a democratic state.
15 Sony announced Daniel Craig as the new James Bond replacing Pierce Brosnan.
16 Barbie (the doll) started selling clothing for real live women - sold as Barbie Luxe.
16 Last 2005 F1 race was won by Alonso in a Renault - who also won the constructors championship.
OCT 16 Mary-Kate Olsen dropped out of NYU to devote more time to the twins §300 mil business Dualstar.
17 British born Peter Mayhew who played Wookie Chewbacca in Star Wars became an American citizen.
17 Chinas' 2nd manned spaceflight ended safely returning Fei Junlong, 40, and Nie Haisheng, 41 to earth.
18 Giant panda cub in Washington DCs National Zoo was christened Tai Shan (Peaceful Mountain).
18 UKs National Lottery had an un-used good causes stash of £2.5 billion.
18 US Embassy in London refused to pay £8 congestion charge as it was illegal under the Vienna Convention.
19 Midge Ure received an OBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
19 The 49th London Film Festival opened with The Constant Gardener starring Rachel Weisz.
19 The crimes against humanity trial of Saddam Hussein and 7 others started in Baghdad.
20 Major publishers filed with Manhatten Courts to stop Google scanning copyrighted works.
20 Murder rate in the US was at a 40 year low - 5.5 per 100k population per year - about 16k pa.
21 Iran banned American movies to prevent "damage to eastern traditions".
21 MTV Awards Latin America was postponed due to Hurricane Wilma, the strongest hurricane ever recorded.
OCT 22 Cancun and Yucatan Peninsula were hit by cetegory 5 Hurricane Wilma at 160mph.
22 Prince William passed Sandhursts' officer training test and will follow Prince Harry.
22 UKs first case of bird 'flu was a parrot in quarrantine from South America. It's dead.
23 Best song of 50 years of Eurovision competition was Waterloo by ABBA
23 Chairman of Arcadia Peter Green paid himself a record £1.2 bil dividend, he is UKs 5th richest man.
23 First crop of tea ever grown in the UK was produced on the Tregothnan Estate in Cornwall.
24 Brasil referendum on banning guns voted to keep them 65% to 35 %, 120 million voted.
24 Ex child actor Lech Kaczynski became Polands new Conservative president with 55%, only 50% voted.
24 First use of Greek letter Alpha for a hurricane name after English alphabet names ran out with Wilma.
25 Bells' whiskey factory near Leven, Fife was found to be Scotlands biggest polluter.
25 President Bush said security could be maintained at Saddam Hussein trial in Baghdad.
25 Regular Broadway musical tickets went over $100.
26 Dr Who won 3 prizes at the National TV Awards. Eastenders was most popular soap.
OCT 26 Hennes & Mauritz replaced Kate Moss with Mariacarla Boscono.
26 US deaths in Iraq since March 2003 invasion reached 2000, Iraq civilian deaths were about 25k.
27 Beavers were re-introduced to the UK after 500 years at Lower Mill Estate in Gloucestershire.
27 Mini heatwave hit Britain at 21C, the hottest Oct 27 since 1888.
27 Over 30% of Britons now live alone, up from 20% in 1970.
28 A pair of Beatles jackets from A Hard Days Night auctioned for £65000
28 China executed over 3500 last year, Iran was 2nd 159, USA 59.
28 China Supreme Court took control of all death sentences by provincial courts.
28 Vegetarian Society survey named jelly babies as the most offensive food product, guinness was 2nd.
29 Clocks - Big Ben was silenced for a weekend of repairs and BST ended.
29 IBMs Blue Gene/L supercomputer broke its' own world record reaching 280.6 teraflops.
29 New Orleans PD fired 51 officers for deserting their post during Hurricane Katrina floods.
30 A German 1975 Ford Escort sold for $690k in Las Vegas to John O'Quinn, it was once owned by the Pope.
OCT 30 Series of bombs killed 60 in market area of Delhi preparing for Festival of Diwali.
31 Dresden Cathedral was re-opened after restoration costing £122 mil., it was bombed in WWII.
31 Must have in America for Halloween - white pumpkins were selling out fast.
31 Prince Charles left UK for 8 days in the USA, with him was Camilla on her first official visit.
Died : NOV 10 Pat Simmons, voice of the speaking clock 1963-85. (85)
Died : 11 Lord Lichfield, photographer. (66)
Died : 11 Peter F Drucker, management guru. (95)
Died : 25 George Best, NI and Manchester United footballer. (59)
Died : 26 Richard Burns, world rally champion 2001. (34)
Died : 29 Tony Meehan, drummer. (Cliff and the Shadows) (62)
1 Computer glytch caused Tokyo stock exchange worst ever problem, trading suspended for half day.
1 UK immigrants from today have to pass a "Britishness" exam on politics, life and customs.
1 UK mobile phone company o2 was purchased by Spanish Telefonica for £17.7 billion.
2 A 6 ft photo called Big Nude III by Helmut Newton sold for £176k at Christies in London.
2 Apple sold it's millionth video, 20 days after it started video sales at $1.99.
2 Violin made by Carlo Bergonzi and owned by Nicolo Paganini sold for £568k at Sothebys.
3 Coldplay took the awards and Madonna opened, The MTV Europe Awards in Lisbon.
NOV 3 David Blunkett resigned from the labour government amid scandal for the 2nd time this year.
3 Rioting in immigrant areas of Paris for over a week, 1000 cars and some buildings were burnt.
4 Burberry, Gucci, and others began a fake goods action against Beijings' Silk Street Market.
4 Google Print put its' first books on the web - mostly out of copyright historical works.
4 Latest internet word "splog" - combination of spam and blog using rogue advertising.
5 Forbes Asia Magazine found China had 10 US $ billionaires, last year there were 3.
5 Moonie leader Sun Myung Moon entered the UK after being banned for the last 10 years.
5 £2 coin issued depicting a firework display and words "Remember, remember, the 5th of November".
6 GTA:San Andreas took 5 0f 19 awards at the Golden Joystick Awards in London, incl Game of the year.
6 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire premiered in London - the 4th in a series of 7.
6 London to Brighton car run started with 443 cars, all over 100 years old, 367 finished.
7 Australian police arrested 17 terrorists including a radical cleric
7 Over 5k N Ireland police officers began a compensation action for trauma over the past decades.
NOV 7 The Corrs were given an honorary MBE at the British Embassy in Dublin.
8 CBS and NBC agreed a deal with DirectTV for viewers to watch ad-free TV for 99c a program.
8 Chinese president Hu Jintao began a 3 day state visit to UK accommodated at Buckingham Palace.
8 Lamborghini opened its' first dealership in China (Shanghai), prices start at $180k.
9 Biggest ever US Powerball Lottery win of $340 mil shared by 4 members of a Jacksonville family.
9 Cai Zhouhua, a Beijing Protestant pastor was jailed for 3 years for selling 2 mil Bibles illegally.
9 Europes' first mission to Venus, Venus Express, took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
9 Victorias Secret Fashion Show complete with all relevant supermodels went off without a hitch.
10 Boeing 777 landed at Heathrow and broke the record for non-stop passenger flight - 12k miles in 23 hours.
10 During immigrant riots in France 6600 vehicles and dozens of schools, libraries and businesses were burnt.
10 Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
10 Riots in France ended after 12 days when the government ordered a curfew in 30 towns
11 Designer of the year at the British Fashion Awards was Christopher Bailey creative director of Burberry.
NOV 11 Madame Tussauds Group took its' ownership of The London Eye to 67% paying £95 mil for British Airways stake.
11 The South African Big Telescope was opened by Pres Mbeki, it weighs 82 tonnes and cost £11.5 mil
12 British Standards Institue decided fountain pens were too dangerous for under 14s.
12 Paris banned public meetings to prevent more immigrant riots.
13 Paul McCartney gave the first broadcast concert to space - to the 2 crew of the ISS.
13 Sony stopped using anti-piracy software on its' CDs after hackers used it to spread virus.
13 The Eifel Tower and Paris train stations were under police guard from more immigrant riots.
14 Annual truffle charity auction in London sold a 1.2kg specimen for £64k
14 Mahatma Ghandis' grandson, Rajmohan, arrived in Britain on a tour spreading tolerance and peace.
14 The Remembrance Day poppy went hi-tech with its' first mobile phone download from www.poppy.org.
15 Harpers & Queen Magazine became Harpers Bazaar trying to lose its' up market image.
15 Princess Sayoko of Japan became a commoner to marry Yoshiki Kuroda in a Shinto ceremony in Tokyo.
16 A 1926 Fritz Lang poster for the film Metropolis sold for £390k.
NOV 16 IBMs Blue Gene/L at Lawrence Livermore was the fastest computer in the world at 280.6 teraflops.
16 In the US 30% of all births were by C-section.
17 Crimestoppers launched the UKs most wanted criminals website www.mostwanted-uk.org .
17 Pink Floyd and The Who were new entries into the UK Music Hall of Fame.
17 UKs most prolific spammer Peter Francis-Macrae, known as 'weasleboy', was jailed for 6 years.
18 Mahinda Rajapakse won the Sri Lanka presidential election.
18 The 25th Children in Need Telethon raised £17.2 mil on the night, as much again expected before the end.
18 The Paris immigrant riots claimed 9k burnt cars with 2921 people arrested over 3 weeks.
19 Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) signed an £8mil film deal and became UKs richest teenager.
19 The FTSE 100 went over 5500 and set a new 4 year high.
19 Yahoos' dating service became subject of a class action - accused of supplying fake dates.
20 Christina Aguiliera married Jordan Bratman - wedding gifts to Hurricane Katrina relief fund.
20 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was top film in US and UK.
NOV 20 Lee Evans broke the world record for a comedy audience - 10108 at Manchester Arena.
21 Microsofts' Xbox 360 was launched in the US at $299.
21 Most dangerous city in the US for the second year running was Camden NJ.
21 Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra refused to deal with reporters until the planets re-align - next year.
22 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire broke UK record taking £14.9 mil in its' first 3 days.
22 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was no.1 film in all 21 countries it opened in.
22 UN torture investigator Manfred Nowak arrived in China for an 11 day visit.
23 Austrian prosecutors charged historian David Irving with denying the holocaust in speeches in 1989.
23 Top Gear (shown on Discovery) was awarded an Emmy in NY as Best Non-scripted Entertainment Show.
23 Water supply to 4 mil people in Harbin, China was cut off after a chemical plant explosion 300 miles up river.
24 NY saw 79th Macys' Parade of 32 balloons watched by 2.5 mil - plus 44 mil on TV.
24 Pubs in England can from today open 24 hours a day - 359 applied for a licence.
24 Sonya Thomas won the Thanksgiving turkey eating contest in NY (10lb turkey in 12 mins)
NOV 25 Fraud in the UK costs an estimated £16bn a year, the equivalent of £340 per person.
25 Newlyweds of 3 years Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey parted company.
25 Parents spend an average of £166k raising a child from birth until the age of 21.
26 Anjelica Mazua (drug smuggler) won Miss Penitentiary 2005 in Sao Paulo, Brasil.
26 Indian tycoon Vijaypat Singhania broke the highest hot air balloon record - 21k metres.
26 Snow struck the UK - 500 vehicles were stranded on Bodmin Moor - 1000 people evacuated.
27 Alpha Prema acquired control of F1 Racing from several banks and Bernie Ecclestone.
27 Audubon zoo in New Orleans re-opened for the first time since hurricane Katrina.
27 Part of Tokyo was evacuated when a US 550lb bomb from WWII was discovered.
28 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp won the 10th Childrens' Bafta Awards.
28 Kate Moss made $2 mil by becoming the new face of Virgin Mobile phones.
28 Six genseng roots, one 110 years old, were auctioned in Seoul for £70k.
29 Greenpeace disrupted PM Blair speech supporting a UK nuclear power policy.
NOV 29 Japans' Hayabusa space probe was collecting bits of an asteroid 180 mil miles away.
29 The Vatican declared that active homosexuals may not become priests.
30 Gold hit $502.3 an ounce its' highest since Feb 1983.
30 Japan's Nikkei share index hit 15,000 mark for the first time in 5 years.
30 John Sentanu, Britains' first black Archbishop (97th of York), was enthroned at York Minster.
30 Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart sold for $8.1 mil at Sothebys Manhattan.
Died : DEC 10 Gloria Sheaves, the last Bluebell Girl. (92).
Died : 11 Richard Pryor, comedian.
Died : 13 Ramanand Sagar, Bollywood film producer. (87)
Died : 17 John Spencer, actor. (The West Wing)(58)
Died : 20 Keith Duckworth, co-founded Cosworth Racing with Mike Costin. (72)
Died : 20 Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, last of the US mob bosses. (died in prison age 77)
Died : 25 Argentina Brunetti, actress. (98)
Died : 27 Kerry Packer, media tycoon, Australias' richest man. (68)
1 New idea for the White House Xmas Tree was fresh Lilies, supervised by Laura Bush.
1 New Orleans started the first free wireless internet network owned by a city.
2 Murderer Kenneth Boyd of N Carolina became the 1000th US execution since 1976.
2 Smokers will in future be excluded from employment with the World Health Organisation.
3 Kilt wars broke out between The Scottish Tartan Authority and Indian internet companies.
DEC 3 Pres Bush was called for jury duty but claimed he was too busy running a country.
3 Selma Blair was the new face of Chanel Vision (spectacles).
4 A sporting time capsule was buried in the new Wembley Stadium under the center spot.
4 Hawaiin volcano Madame Pele dumped 44 acres of coastline into the Pacific in 4 hours.
5 Ferraris' Luca di Montezemolo presented a Michael Schumacher steering wheel (2004) to the Pope.
5 King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand freed 1000 prisoners on his 78th birthday.
5 The black bear population of 3000 in New Jersey were being culled by 5000 hunters.
6 The 10th annual Victorias Secret Fashion Show was broadcast on CBS - after 10pm.
6 The Turner Prize was won by Simon Starling - object recycler.
7 David Cameron spent his first day as leader of the Conservative party.
7 Terry Wogan was knighted.
7 World premiere of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at The Royal Albert Hall.
8 Madame Tussauds copy of Princess Dianas' wedding dress was auctioned for £100k.
DEC 8 Premiere of Peter Jacksons' King Kong in London starring Naomi Watts.
9 Last scheduled Routemaster bus travelled between Marble Arch and Brixton.
9 The term 'podcast' was made word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.
10 The 55th Miss World was Miss Iceland, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir, who beat 102 others in Sanya, China.
10 U2 were recipients of Amnesty International Ambassadors of Conscience Award.
11 Biggest fire in peacetime europe at Hemel Hempstead oil storage depot put a toxic cloud over SE England.
11 Edinburgh charity race of 1500 santas - plus assorted elves.
11 Westlife won UK Record of the Year run by ITV with Raise Me Up.
12 Microsoft founder Paul Allen started billionaire submarine wars with a 10 passenger model.
12 Most popular film of the weekend was Chronicles of Narnia.
13 Car-jacking in the UK has gone from near zero to 10k per year in the last 5 years.
13 First Virgin Pendolino tilting train started the Glasgow to London route.
14 Best Comedy Actor at the British Comedy Awards was Chris Langham of The Thick Of It.
DEC 14 Since 2000 the USA has taken 7.9 mil immigrants, 3.7 mil entered illegally.
15 Italy introduced a 25% tax on pornography. Italian porn generates about £700 mil annually.
15 Richard Branson planted a flag in New Mexico where Virgin Galactics $225 mil spaceport will be.
16 Top web Yahoo news story searches for 2005 were "tsunami", "Iraq", "Michael Jackson Trial".
16 Top Yahoo web searches for 2005 were Britney Spears, 50 Cent, The Cartoon Network, Mariah Carey.
17 Amsterdam Uni used new emotion recognition software and discovered that Mona Lisa was 83% happy.
17 Shayne Ward was the years X-Factor winner.
17 The beaches of Sydney, Australia were being patrolled by 1500 police following race riots.
18 A 2 ton Henry Moore bronze figure worth £3 mil was stolen from the late artists' country estate.
18 China Snooker Champion Ding Junhui became UK Snooker Champion at the age of 18.
18 Unusual number 1 hit in the week before Xmas was The JCB song by Nizlopi.
19 First New Orleans Street cars started running after hurricane Katrina
19 Peter Jacksons' Kong was king of the weekend box office taking $50 mil.
DEC 19 Time Magazine named Bono (of U2) amd Mr & Mrs Bill Gates as people of the year.
20 Bolivia elected its' first native indian president - Evo Morales - in 500 years.
20 In New York 30k transit workers were on strike over wages and health benefits.
20 Over 3 mil people left the UK for Xmas; No1 destination - India.
21 Iran banned western music from its' TV and radio stations.
21 Marconi shareholders approved its' sale to Swedish Ericsson for £1.2 billion.
21 The 6k staff of UK magistrates' Courts were on strike for the first time in 800 years.
22 Most popular Google News search of the year was "Janet Jackson".
22 Singer Mutya Buena left The Sugababes after 7 years.
23 Thousands of California Wal-Mart workers were awarded $172 mil for being denied a lunch break.
23 Worlds' last Volkswagen AG (Combi) with an air cooled engine was produced - in Sao Paulo, Brasil.
24 Biggest toy importer in the EU was the UK.
24 Favourite girls names this year 1.Jessica 2.Emily 3.Sophie 4.Olivia 5.Chloe.
DEC 24 Most EU Xmas trees come from Denmark - bought mostly by Germany with UK 2nd.
25 Favourite boys names this year 1.Jack 2.Joshua 3.Thomas 4.James 5.Oliver.
25 Paris banned sale of petrol in containers to stop possibility of more race riots.
26 Stonehenge was open to the public for the holiday for the first time in 10 years.
26 Warwickshire Hunt used a Golden Eagle to beat the first year of The Hunting Bill.
27 A Compton, California supermarket offered gift certificates in exchange for unwanted firearms.
27 King Kong beat Chronicles of Narnia at the Xmas weekend box office
28 Kelly Brook opened Harrods sale.
28 Prime Minister Blair had the worst voting record of all MPs - 12.9% - the average was 74.9%.
28 Sir Bob Geldof was appointed consultant to a Tory policy group on world poverty.
29 EU launched 1st of 30 satellites in its Galileo navigation system from Baikkonnur Cosmodrome.
29 North and South Korea established phone links for the 1st time in 60 years.
30 Idar Vollvik paid 1 mil kroner for a pair of David Beckhams' football boots in a charity auction.
DEC 30 Kilt hirers Cameron Ross of Glasgow shipped more orders to England (52%) than Scotland.
31 Apple Computers vice-president Jonathan Ive was awrded a CBE.
31 Retired (this year after 21 years) Wimbledon tournement referee Alan Mills was awarded a CBE.
31 The last minute of 2005 had a 'leap second' to make up for Earths' rotational irregularities.