What Happened in 2005 Major News Events, Popular Culture, History Prices

Live 8 benefit concerts

The Live 8 benefit concerts are held during July. There were ten simultaneous concerts were organized by Bob Geldof who had run the first Live Aid concerts 20 years earlier in 1985. The concerts were held in London, Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Moscow, Edinburgh, Cornwall, Johannesburg, and Barrie. The purpose of the event was to raise money for charities fighting against poverty around the world. Some of the top featured acts were U2, Paul McCartney, Elton, John, Pink Floyd, Madonna, Stevie Wonder, and Green Day.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina strikes the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal areas. Levees separating Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, Louisiana were breached by the surge, ultimately flooding roughly 80% of the city of New Orleans and 1600 perished

August 29th, 2005 Katrina Makes Landfall As Category 3 Louisiana.

Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall as Category 3 status at 6:10 AM local time near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana with sustained windspeeds of 140 MPH

Storm Surge in Area Affected up to 22 foot New Orleans

Storm Surge in Area Affected up to 30 foot Biloxi-Gulfport Mississippi

Breaches to 53 different levees in greater New Orleans

Section of the 17th Street Canal levee gives way allowing a sea of water from Lake Pontchartrain to flood Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and neighborhoods farther south and east.

80% of the city of New Orleans Flooded

Hurricane Katrina Causes the Loss of life of 1,577 in Louisiana

Hurricane Katrina Causes the Loss of life of 238 in Mississippi

Many Of Those who stay behind take refuge on rooftops ( Water is over 15 feet deep ) waiting for rescue

The United States Coast Guard begin rescue operations soon after the worst of the storm is over, many are taken to Louisiana Superdome

Mississippi 90% of the buildings along the Biloxi-Gulfport coastline are destroyed worst effected areas Hancock County ( Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pearlington, and Clermont Harbor. ), Harrison County ( Biloxi and Gulfport ), and Jackson County ( Pascagoula )

No Clean Water or electricity in the City Of New Orleans

No Communications Including Cell Phones Available New Orleans

Hurricane disrupts 95 % of the daily Gulf of Mexico oil production

Over 1.7 million people lost power in the Gulf states of Mississippi and Louisiana

Interstate 10 leading east out of the city of New Orleans is closed due to bridges smashed

Most coastal highways along the Gulf were impassable due to severe flooding in places

Katrina Moves Inland and downgrades to tropical storm with rain and Tornadoes affecting Tennessee, Ohio and Georgia

Cosmos 1 Mission

The launch of the unmanned Cosmos 1 failed during June. The first stage of the Volna rocket that was supposed to launch the spacecraft failed and the craft was unable to achieve orbit and instead crashed into the Barents Sea less than a minute and a half after launch. The spacecraft was created by the Planetary Society, a non-profit space advocacy group. Had it been successful, it would have been the first orbital spacecraft to use a solar sail to increase its speed in space.

United States

The video-sharing website "YouTube" was founded.

More Information for YouTube.

The popular video sharing website “YouTube” was created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim during February of 2005. The three creators were all former Paypal employees and came up with the concept to create a platform on which it would be easier to share videos with others over the internet in a style similar to popular photo sharing sites of the time. YouTube quickly gained popularity as users began to upload and share videos on the site in record numbers. By 2006, search engine Google purchased the company for $1.65 billion in Google stock. Today billions of videos are uploaded and watched by millions of users of the website.

>Oil prices rise

Oil prices rise sharply throughout the year caused by Trouble in the Middle East, and later Hurricane Katrina.

43rd President

George W. Bush starts his second term as 43rd President of the United States.

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol which is intended to cut global emissions of greenhouse gasses comes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.

Liberia

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia becoming the first woman president in an African Country

Iran Earthquake

Earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale More than 500 people are killed and over 1,000 injured in southern Iran.

Pakistan Earthquake

Earthquake magnitude 7.6 strikes Kashmir leaving an estimated 70,000 dead and 70,000 more injured

Indonesia Earthquake

Earthquake struck off Sumatra, magnitude of 8.7 it is the second largest earthquake since 1965.

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II dies; over 4 million people travel to the Vatican to mourn him.

Pope Benedict XVI

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been elected as the new Pope, he has taken the name Pope Benedict XVI

MG Rover

MG Rover, the UK's sole remaining volume producer goes into receivership

Tony Blair

Tony Blair elected for third term