2005 in the United States

2005 in the United States
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Events from the year 2005 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: George W. Bush (Republican)
• Vice President: Dick Cheney (Republican)
• Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (until September 3), John Roberts (starting September 29)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois)
• Senate Majority Leader: Bill Frist (R-Tennessee)
• Congress: 108th (until January 3), 109th (starting January 3)

Events

January

• January 6 – The Graniteville train disaster kills 9 and injures 250 in Graniteville, South Carolina.
• January 12 – Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket.
• January 20 – George W. Bush is sworn in for his second term as president.
• January 26 – Glendale train crash: Two trains derail, killing 11 and injuring 200, in Glendale, California.

February

• February 6 – Super Bowl XXXIX: The New England Patriots win their second consecutive Super Bowl title, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 24–21.^[1]
• February 10 – North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the United States.^[2]
• February 15 – The Internet site YouTube goes online.
• February 16 – The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.^[3]
• Based on estimates by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2005 is the warmest year since reliable widespread instrumental measurements became available in the late 19th century, beating the previous record set in 1998 by a few hundredths of a degree Celsius. It will be replaced by 2007 as the warmest year.^{[citation needed]}
• February 24 – David Hernandez Arroyo goes on a shooting rampage at the Smith County Courthouse in Tyler, Texas. He kills two, including his ex-wife, and injures four people, before being killed in a police chase.^[4]
• February 25 – Wichita, Kansas police apprehend the BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, 31 years after his first murder.^[5]
• February 27 – The 77th Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock, are held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, with Million Dollar Baby winning Best Picture.

March

Unusually high precipitation in the winter of 2005 caused an ephemeral lake to occur in the Badwater Basin of Death Valley National Park. Image from March 15, 2005.

• March 1 – Roper v. Simmons: The Supreme Court of the United States rules the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles who committed their crimes before age 18.^[6]
• March 4 – The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena is fired on by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, causing the death of one passenger and injuring two more.^[7]
• March 11 – Three people, including a judge, are murdered in the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia; the main suspect, Brian Nichols, surrenders to police the next day.^[8]
• March 21 – Ten are killed in the Red Lake High School massacre in Minnesota, the worst school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre.M^[9]
• March 23 – The United States' 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses 2–1 to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.^[10]

April

• April 9 – Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, march through Baghdad denouncing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and rally in the square where his statue was toppled in 2003.
• April 30 – Newsweek reports that American interrogators and guards have desecrated the Qur'an in attempts to rattle Islamic detainees.

May

• May 10 – A hand grenade ostensibly thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about 100 feet (30 m) from United States President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but malfunctions and does not detonate.
• May 13 – The United States Department of Defense issues a list of bases to be closed as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process (BRAC 2005).
• May 13 – Serial killer Michael Bruce Ross becomes the first person executed in New England in 45 years.
• May 16 – George Galloway appears before a United States Senate committee, to answer allegations of making money from the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme.
• May 31 – W. Mark Felt reveals himself to be the Watergate scandal whistleblower called "Deep Throat."^[11]

June

• June 2 – The construction of Northrop Grumman X-47B, the world's first unmanned surveillance attack aircraft that can operate from both land bases and aircraft carriers, begins.
• June 17 – Because of "quadruple-witching" options and futures expiration, the New York Stock Exchange sees the heaviest first-hour trading on record. 704 million shares are traded between 9:30–10:30 a.m. (1.92 billion shares for the day).
• June 17 – A 6.7 aftershock, which followed a 5.3 earthquake the previous day, hits California, making it the fourth earthquake since June 12 in California.
• June 21 – A Volna booster rocket carrying the first light sail spacecraft (a joint Russian-United States project) fails 83 seconds after its launch, destroying the spacecraft.
• June 30 – The Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is passed by the United States.

July

• July 4 – The Italy-USA Foundation is established in Rome, Italy.
• July 4 – NASA's "Copper bullet" from the Deep Impact spacecraft hits Comet Tempel 1, creating a crater for scientific studies.
• July 10 – Hurricane Dennis strikes near Navarre Beach, Florida as a Category 3 storm, killing 10 after having killed over 50 in the Caribbean.
• July 19 – President Bush nominated John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill a vacancy that would be left by the resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
• July 24 – Lance Armstrong wins a record 7th straight Tour de France before his scheduled retirement.
• July 26 – STS-114 launches as the first "Return to Flight" Space Shuttle mission following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

August

August 29: Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast

• August 2 – The Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is signed into law in the United States.
• August 9 – Space Shuttle Discovery returns to Edwards Air Force Base at 0814 EDT, completing STS-114, "Return to Flight".
• August 12 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched.
• August 23 – Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas.
• August 29 – At least 1,836 are killed, and severe damage is caused along the U.S. Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Katrina strikes coastal areas from Louisiana to Alabama, and travels up the entire state of Mississippi (flooding coast 31 feet (9.4 m)), affecting most of eastern North America.
• August 30 – Hurricane Katrina dissipates leaving thousands dead, and many without any homes.

September

• September – The largest evacuation in Houston takes place as millions evacuate from Hurricane Rita.
• September 1 – Oil prices rise sharply following the economic effects of Hurricane Katrina.
• September 5 – John G. Roberts is nominated by President George W. Bush for Chief Justice of the United States, replacing William Rehnquist, who had died two days previously.
• September 14–16 – The largest UN World Summit in history is held in New York City.
• September 20 – The NFL sees the groundbreaking ceremony for two new stadiums, the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium and the Dallas Cowboys' temporarily named Cowboys Stadium
• September 23 – Convicted bank thief and Boricua Popular Army leader, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, is killed in his home in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico when members of the FBI attempt to serve an arrest warrant.
• September 24 – Worldwide protests occur against the Iraq War, with over 150,000 protestors in Washington DC (see Opposition to the Iraq War).
• September 24 – Hurricane Rita hits the U.S. Gulf Coast, devastating areas near Beaumont, Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana. The Ninth Ward of New Orleans re-floods since Katrina, and Mississippi and Alabama are also affected.
• September 26 – U.S. Army Reservist Lynndie England is convicted by a military jury on six of seven counts, in connection with the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
• September 28 – American politician Tom DeLay is indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy by a Texas grand jury.
• September 29 – John G. Roberts, Jr. is confirmed and sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.

October

• October 1 – An Australian photojournalist in Afghanistan, Stephen Dupont, films U.S. soldiers burning two dead Taliban militias' bodies.
• October 1 – The United States housing bubble begins to burst, causing home prices to stop rising unexpectedly and begin to decline.
• October 2 – The first regular-season NFL game played outside of the USA pits the San Francisco 49ers against the Arizona Cardinals at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico. The Cardinals win 31–14.
• October 2 – A shipwreck on Lake George kills 20 people.
• October 3 – U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court of the United States.
• October 3 – St. Tammany Parish Schools reopen in Louisiana, just over a month after Hurricane Katrina closed them.
• October 15 – A riot occurs in Toledo, Ohio during a Neo-Nazi rally on racial issues; 114 are arrested.
• October 16 – U.S. helicopters and warplanes bomb two villages near Ramadi in western Iraq, killing about 70 people.
• October 19 – The Houston Astros win their first National League Championship, advancing to their first World Series in franchise history.
• October 24 – Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in southwestern Florida as a category 3 hurricane.
• October 26 – The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros in four games to win their first World Series since 1917.
• October 26 – The U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000.
• October 27 – Harriet Miers withdraws her name from consideration for the Supreme Court of the United States.
• October 28 – Vice presidential adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby resigns after being charged with obstruction of justice, perjury and making a false statement in the CIA leak investigation.
• October 31 – U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Federal Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• October 31 – Astronomers announce the discovery of two additional moons orbiting Pluto, Nix and Hydra. The moons were found in images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

November

• November 1 – United States Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats force a closed session of the Senate over the Lewis Libby indictment.
• November 1 – Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall arrive in the United States for a state visit, their first overseas tour since their marriage.
• November 4 – The U.S. and Uruguay governments sign a Bilateral Investment Treaty.
• November 6 – Evansville Tornado of November 2005: A tornado hits western Kentucky and southwestern Indiana, killing at least 22.
• November 20 – The Washington Post rebukes journalist Bob Woodward over his conduct in the CIA leak probe.

December

• December 7 – A U.S. Federal Air Marshal fatally shoots Rigoberto Alpizar on a jetway at Miami International Airport in Florida.
• December 8 – Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 overshoots the runway at Chicago Midway Airport, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring 11 other people.
• December 16 – The 43rd Mersenne prime is found, 2^30,402,457 − 1. It was discovered with the GIMPS project by Dr. Curtis Cooper and Dr. Steven Boone, professors at Central Missouri State University.
• December 20 – 2005 New York City transit strike: New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike for three days, shutting down all New York City Subway and Bus services.
• December 23 – U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces the first in an expected series of troop drawdowns following the Iraqi elections.

Undated

• Ten years after reaching the million mark, the U.S. prison population reaches 1.5 million inmates.^[12]

Ongoing

• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
• Iraq War (2003–2011)

Sports

• The Patriots win the Super Bowl.
• The White Sox win the World Series.

Births

This section requires expansion.

• February 18 – Eden Wood, model and singer
• March 11 – Riley Ann Sawyers, murder victim (died 2007)
• August 9 – Caylee Anthony, murder victim (died 2008)

Deaths

This section requires expansion.

• January 28 – Ronnie Paris, murder victim (born 2001)
• February 25 – Ben Bowen (born 2002)
• March 6 — Hans Bethe, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• March 28 – Tom Bevill, former US Congressman from Alabama (born 1921)
• July 14 – Joe Harnell, pianist and composer (born 1924)
• October 11 – Kelsey Smith-Briggs, child abuse victim (born 2002)

References

External links

• Media related to 2005 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons