First Quarter 2005

January 2005

February 2005

March 2005

January[edit] January 4 – Gunmen assassinate the Governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidari.[2] January 5 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is identified by a team led by Michael E. Brown using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory. January 9 The same storm, which pounded the U.S. earlier in the month, hits England, Scandinavia and the Baltic states, leaving 13 dead with widespread flooding and power cuts.[3] Mahmoud Abbas is elected to succeed Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority. January 12 – Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta II rocket.[4] January 14 – The Huygens probe lands on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.[5] January 25 – The Mandher Devi temple stampede during a religious pilgrimage in India kills at least 250.[6] January 30 – The first free Parliamentary elections in Iraq since 1958 take place.[7] February[edit] February 9 – An ETA car bomb injures at least 40 people at a conference centre in Madrid.[8] February 10 North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the United States.[9] Saudi Arabia holds its first ever municipal elections, in which only male citizens are allowed to vote.[10] February 14 Former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri is killed in Beirut after an assassination attempt by suicide bombing; it also kills at least 16 other people and injures 120 others.[11] YouTube, the most popular video sharing website, is founded. 59 people are killed and 200 injured after a fire breaks out in a mosque in Tehran, Iran.[12] February 16 – The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.[13] February 19 – Suicide bombers kill more than 30 people in Iraq as Shia Muslims mark Ashura, their holiest day.[14] February 22 – More than 500 people are killed and over 1,000 injured, after entire villages are flattened in an earthquake (6.4 on the Richter scale) in the Zarand region of Kerman province in southern Iran.[15] February 26 – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asks Parliament to amend the constitution to allow multi-candidate presidential elections before September 2005.[16] March[edit] March 1 – Tabaré Vázquez is sworn in as the first President of Uruguay belonging to a leftist party. March 3 Millionaire Steve Fossett breaks a world record by completing the fastest non-stop, non-refueled, solo flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.[17] Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers are gunned down in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, Canada. It is deadliest day in Canadian law enforcement in over 120 years.[18] March 4 – The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena is fired on by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, causing the death of 1 passenger and injuring 2 more.[19] March 8 – The Pakistan Army opens fire on insurgents in Balochistan, in the first armed uprising since General Rahimuddin Khan's stabilization of the province in 1978. March 14 The People's Republic of China ratifies an anti-secession law, aimed at preventing Taiwan from declaring independence.[20] 800,000 people gather for an opposition rally in Beirut, a month after the death of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. It is the largest rally in Lebanon's history.[21] March 19 – A time bomb explodes in a Muslim shrine in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 29 people and wounding 40.[22] March 23 – An explosion takes place at one of BP's largest oil refineries in Texas City, killing 15 and injuring more than 170. March 24 – The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan reaches its climax with the overthrow of president Askar Akayev.[23] March 26 – The Taiwanese government calls on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei, in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China. Between 200,000 and 300,000 attend the walk.[24]

Created 8 May 2017 Last updated 8 May 2017