2005 History, Facts, and Trivia
Quick Facts from 2005
- World-Changing Event: YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by three former PayPal employees — Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim — in a Menlo Park, California, garage. The first video, Me at the zoo, was uploaded by Karim on April 23, 2005. Within 18 months, Google purchased it for $1.65 billion. The world was never the same.
- Top Song: We Belong Together by Mariah Carey — which spent a combined 14 weeks at #1 and was the longest-running #1 of 2005
- Must-See Movies: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Walk the Line, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Notable Books: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (published in Swedish in 2005; English translation 2008)
- Gallon of gas: $2.34; Tylenol Extra Strength 24-count: $1.99; 1 oz. gold: $513.00
- Super Bowl ad (30 seconds): $2,400,000
- The Funny Late Night Host: Jay Leno; The Funny Late Late Night Host: Craig Ferguson
- Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Rooster — associated with punctuality, honesty, hard work, and a flair for the spotlight
- The Conversation: Which was better — Tim Burton’s 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the 1971 original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? The internet has opinions.
Top Ten Baby Names of 2005
Girls: Emily, Emma, Madison, Abigail, Olivia
Boys: Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Ethan
Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols
Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum, Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Alba, Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, Charlize Theron, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Cate Blanchett, Marcia Cross, Salma Hayek, Reese Witherspoon, Naomi Watts, Nicole Richie, Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Paris Hilton, Gwen Stefani, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sienna Miller
The Heartthrobs
Matthew McConaughey, George Clooney, Terrence Howard, Anderson Cooper, Chris Evans, Tim McGraw, Denzel Washington, Justin Timberlake, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Christian Bale, David Beckham, Joaquin Phoenix, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Jude Law, Hugh Laurie, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt
The Quote
“I’m the decider.” — President George W. Bush, April 18, 2006, defending his decision to keep Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld despite calls for his resignation. The phrase immediately became a cultural touchstone, a bumper sticker, a parody song, and a permanent entry in the catalog of presidential quotes that did not land as intended.
Time Magazine Person of the Year
The Good Samaritans — represented by Bono, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates- are recognized for their philanthropic efforts in global health, poverty reduction, and AIDS relief in Africa. It was the first time Time had given the honor to a concept represented by multiple people rather than a single individual.
Miss America and Miss USA
Miss America: Deidre Downs, Birmingham, Alabama
Miss USA: Chelsea Cooley, North Carolina
We Lost in 2005
Pope John Paul II — died April 2, age 84, after 26 years as pope — the second-longest pontificate in history. An estimated 4 million people traveled to Rome for his funeral.
Gene Greytak, a real estate broker from the Chicago area, had played the Pope in virtually every American film and television appearance for years. If you saw the Pope in a movie or on a sitcom before 2005, it was Gene Greytak.
Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalist and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, died February 20, age 67, by suicide at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. He had asked his son to be present when he died. Per his wishes, his ashes were fired from a cannon atop a 153-foot tower on his property, accompanied by a fireworks display. The cannon was paid for by his friend Johnny Depp.
Mitch Hedberg, a stand-up comedian, died on March 29, age 37, of a cocaine and heroin overdose. His death was announced publicly on April 1, 2005, leading many fans to assume it was an April Fool’s joke. It was not.
Arthur Miller, playwright (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible), died February 10, age 89
Rosa Parks, civil rights pioneer, died October 24, age 92; she became the first woman and second Black American to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda
Richard Pryor, comedian, died December 10, age 65
Bob Denver, actor (Gilligan’s Island), died September 2, age 70
Anne Bancroft, actress (The Graduate), died June 6, age 73
Luther Vandross, R&B singer, died July 1, age 54
Peter Jennings, ABC News anchor, died August 7, at age 67, of lung cancer
Johnny Carson, Tonight Show host, died January 23, age 79; he had not appeared on television since his retirement in 1992
America in 2005 — The Context
George W. Bush was inaugurated for his second term on January 20, 2005, having won reelection in November 2004 with 286 electoral votes over John Kerry. The Iraq War was in its third year. The economy appeared stable, but housing prices were rising at an unsustainable pace that few acknowledged. The federal deficit was growing.
The defining domestic event of 2005 was Hurricane Katrina, which revealed not just the power of nature but the fragility of infrastructure and the depth of institutional failure. The defining cultural event was the founding of YouTube, which nobody recognized as world-changing at the time.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, as a Category 3 storm. The storm surge overwhelmed the levee system protecting New Orleans, flooding approximately 80% of the city. Over 1,800 people died. An estimated 400,000 residents were displaced, many permanently. Property damage exceeded $125 billion, the costliest natural disaster in American history to that point.
The federal response — particularly from FEMA under director Michael Brown — was widely criticized as disastrously slow and inadequate. President Bush’s compliment to Brown — “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” — delivered while New Orleans residents remained stranded in the flooded Superdome, became one of the most mocked presidential statements of the decade.
The racial and economic dimensions of the disaster were impossible to ignore. The neighborhoods most completely destroyed were predominantly Black and lower-income. The images of American citizens stranded on rooftops for days without rescue in 2005 fundamentally shook the country’s self-image.
2005’s Atlantic hurricane season was the most active in recorded history. There were so many named storms that the World Meteorological Organization exhausted the entire standard 21-name list for the first time ever and had to continue into the Greek alphabet — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta. Epsilon was the last hurricane of the season; Zeta extended into January 2006.
YouTube
YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim — three former PayPal employees frustrated by their inability to share videos online. The domain was registered, a garage in Menlo Park became the headquarters, and on April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim uploaded the first video — “Me at the zoo,” an 18-second clip of himself at the San Diego Zoo.
Within six months, the site was serving 100 million video views per day. Within 18 months, Google purchased it for $1.65 billion in stock, then one of the largest acquisitions in internet history. The three founders were all under 30.
YouTube did not invent online video. It made online video frictionless. The difference between those two things was the entire entertainment, news, music, advertising, and eventually political industries.
Pop Culture Facts and History
The Cassini spacecraft successfully deployed the Huygens probe onto the surface of Titan — Saturn’s largest moon — on January 14, 2005. It was the first soft landing in the outer solar system, the farthest from Earth any human-made spacecraft had ever landed on a solid surface. Huygens transmitted data for 72 minutes after landing before its battery died. The images it sent back showed a landscape of rounded ice pebbles and what appeared to be riverbeds carved by liquid methane. Nobody had been certain Titan had a solid surface until Huygens landed on it.
Facebook opened to high school students in September 2005, having previously been restricted to college students since its 2004 launch. The expansion dramatically accelerated user growth. MySpace was simultaneously at its cultural peak. The social media era was arriving faster than anyone could have imagined.
Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger, began an experiment on July 12, 2005: he would trade one red paperclip and keep trading whatever he received for something bigger or better until he had a house. It took 14 trades over one year, involving a fish-shaped pen, a hand-sculpted doorknob, a camping stove, a generator, a snowmobile, a trip to Yahk, British Columbia, a cube van, a recording contract, a year of free rent in Phoenix, an afternoon with Alice Cooper, a KISS snow globe, a movie role, and finally a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. It remains the most efficient house purchase in Canadian history.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith — the final prequel and the #1 film of 2005 — opened May 19, 2005. It resolved the 28-year-old question of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. The answer, for many fans, was satisfying enough to partially redeem the prequel trilogy. George Lucas directed his last feature film with it; he has not directed a feature since.
Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, opened June 15, 2005, and completely reinvented the superhero film — grounding it in psychological realism, physical consequence, and narrative coherence. It was the template for virtually every serious superhero film that followed, including Nolan’s own The Dark Knight trilogy.
Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash, opened November 18, 2005. Phoenix performed all his own vocals, as did Witherspoon. Both were universally praised. Witherspoon won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Halle Berry won the Razzie Award for Worst Actress for Catwoman in 2005. She showed up in person to accept it — arriving with her Academy Award for Monster’s Ball in one hand and the Razzie in the other, delivering an acceptance speech that thanked the filmmakers for “putting me in a piece of sh*t.” It remains the most graceful Razzie acceptance in the award’s history and likely the best career moment in the Razzies’ history.
David Choe, a graffiti artist, was hired to paint murals at Facebook’s first real office in Palo Alto in 2005. He was offered $60,000 in cash or the equivalent in stock. He took the stock. When Facebook went public in 2012, his shares were worth approximately $200 million. The mural-for-equity decision is widely cited in startup culture as the most lucrative art commission in history.
The Powerball drawing on March 30, 2005, produced 110 second-prize winners — an anomaly so suspicious that lottery officials initially suspected fraud. All 110 winners had used numbers from fortune cookies. The cookies had been produced by Wonton Food Inc. of Long Island City, New York, and distributed to Chinese restaurants across the country. The company confirmed the numbers. No fraud had occurred.
Mark Felt — a 91-year-old retired FBI Associate Director — was revealed in May 2005 to be “Deep Throat,” the anonymous source who had guided Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate investigation in 1972-1974. Felt had been the second-highest-ranking official at the FBI. He had kept the secret for 33 years. Woodward had promised not to reveal the source until Felt died or consented. Felt’s family persuaded him to go public. He died in 2008.
Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah Winfrey’s couch on May 23, 2005, during an appearance to discuss his relationship with Katie Holmes. He leaped repeatedly, pumped his fist, and declared his love in terms that struck many viewers as disproportionate. “Jumping the couch” entered the cultural vocabulary as a phrase meaning a celebrity’s public behavior has become erratic or excessive.
The Terri Schiavo case — in which Michael Schiavo’s legal battle to remove his brain-damaged wife’s feeding tube became a national political spectacle — reached its conclusion in 2005. The U.S. Congress passed emergency legislation to intervene. President Bush flew back from vacation to sign it. Federal courts consistently ruled against intervention. Terri Schiavo died on March 31, 2005, 15 years after her cardiac arrest. She was 41 years old.
Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old American student from Alabama, disappeared on May 30, 2005, in Aruba while on a graduation trip. Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch national, was the last person seen with her. Her body was never found. Van der Sloot was never charged in connection with her disappearance. In 2010, he murdered a different young woman in Peru and was convicted. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to extortion related to the Holloway case and was extradited to the United States.
The Jennifer Wilbanks “Runaway Bride” case dominated tabloid coverage in April-May 2005. Wilbanks, of Duluth, Georgia, disappeared four days before her wedding, triggering a massive search. She called her fiancé from Albuquerque, claiming she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted. She then admitted she had simply run away. She pleaded no contest to making a false statement, received probation, and was ordered to repay the cost of the search.
The term “Cyber Monday” was coined on November 28, 2005, by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation and Scott Silverman, after data showed a significant spike in online retail sales on the Monday following Thanksgiving — attributed to shoppers returning to work with fast internet connections. The first Cyber Monday technically fell on November 28, 2005. It has since become the biggest online shopping day of the year.
Stephen Hawking published A Briefer History of Time in 2005, a condensed and updated version of his 1988 A Brief History of Time, written with Leonard Mlodinow at 176 pages. The original had sold 10 million copies; Hawking acknowledged that most buyers had not finished it.
Dan Rather retired from the CBS Evening News on March 9, 2005, after 24 years as anchor, ending under a cloud following a disputed report about President Bush’s National Guard service. His sign-off word was “Courage.” Ted Koppel retired from Nightline on November 22, 2005, after 25 years, with a final broadcast that eschewed sentimentality in favor of a straightforward summary of the news.
The Merv Griffin Jeopardy! “Think!” theme music — composed by Griffin in less than a minute as a lullaby for his son Michael — had earned Griffin over $70 million in royalties by 2005. He composed it in 1964; it has been played during every episode since. At $70 million from a single minute of composition, it may be the best-compensated minute of creative work in entertainment history.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi — a painting of Christ as “Savior of the World” — was sold at a New Orleans estate sale in 2005 for approximately $10,000, unrecognized as a da Vinci original. After years of restoration and authentication, it was sold at Christie’s in November 2017 for $450.3 million — the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction. The painting had appreciated roughly 4.5 million percent in 12 years.
Sichuan pepper has been banned from import into the United States since 1968 due to fears that it could harbor citrus canker disease. The ban was lifted in 2005 after it was determined that heating the pepper during processing eliminated the risk. Chinese and Sichuan restaurants across America immediately started using the actual ingredient their recipes called for.
The Temple of the Jedi Order was legally registered as a religion in Texas in 2005. It was granted IRS tax-exempt status as a religious organization in 2015. Apparently, the Force has legitimate nonprofit potential.
Eric James Torpy, convicted of attempted murder and robbery in Oklahoma, asked the judge to change his 30-year sentence to 33 years so it would match Larry Bird’s jersey number. The judge complied. Torpy later said he regretted the request.
New Jersey designated the tomato as the state vegetable in 2005, citing an 1893 Supreme Court ruling (Nix v. Hedden) that had legally classified tomatoes as vegetables for tariff purposes — despite their botanical status as fruit. New Jersey grows approximately 100,000 tons of tomatoes annually and was not going to let botany stand in the way of state pride.
The world’s oldest verified domestic cat, Creme Puff, died on August 6, 2005, at the age of 38 years and 3 days — born August 3, 1967, in Austin, Texas. Her owner, Jake Perry, also owned the previous record holder. Perry fed her bacon, eggs, and coffee with cream, which nutritionists do not recommend, but which produced two record-holding cats.
Unused gift cards have accumulated to over $45 billion since 2005 — money paid to retailers that was never redeemed. Most states have unclaimed property laws that eventually require retailers to remit unredeemed gift card balances to state governments. Most retailers prefer the cards to expire or go unused.
The Scandals
The Minnesota Vikings Boat Cruise Scandal of October 2005 involved approximately 17 players allegedly hiring adult entertainers for a cruise on Lake Minnetonka. Several players, including Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, and Bryant McKinnie, faced various league and legal consequences. The incident led to four player releases and became known simply as “Love Boat” in Minnesota sports lore.
Robert Blake, star of the 1970s TV detective series Baretta, was acquitted of murdering his wife Bonny Lee Bakley in March 2005, after a trial that featured deeply credibility-challenged witnesses and a prosecution case that largely fell apart. He was subsequently found liable by a civil jury for her wrongful death, ordered to pay $30 million to her children, and filed for bankruptcy.
Splitsville
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston announced their separation in January 2005. Pitt had met Angelina Jolie on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2004. The Brad-Jen-Angelina triangle became one of the defining celebrity narratives of the decade. Team Jennifer and Team Angelina were organized with remarkable speed and remained in opposition for years. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey announced their split in November 2005 after three years of marriage and two seasons of their reality show Newlyweds. The split was described as mutual. Kenny Chesney and Renée Zellweger married on May 9, 2005, and had the marriage annulled in September 2005. Four months. Zellweger cited “fraud” as the legal basis for annulment, which generated enormous speculation she never addressed publicly. Jude Law and Sienna Miller split after Law admitted to an affair with his children’s nanny.
The Habits
Sudoku — the number-placement puzzle that swept from Japan to a global phenomenon; YouTube browsing; MySpace profile customization; Facebook stalking (for high schoolers, newly admitted); watching Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives; wearing supersized sunglasses; and going to see March of the Penguins, which somehow became the second-highest-grossing documentary in American history.
Nobel Prize Winners
Physics — Roy J. Glauber, John L. Hall, and Theodor W. Hänsch (for contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique — work that improved GPS technology and atomic clocks)
Chemistry — Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, and Richard R. Schrock (for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis — a technique now used to produce pharmaceuticals, plastics, and fuel additives)
Medicine — Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren (for their discovery that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori causes gastritis and peptic ulcers — overturning decades of medical consensus that ulcers were caused by stress and diet. Marshall proved his point by drinking a solution of H. pylori, developing gastritis, and then curing himself with antibiotics)
Literature — Harold Pinter (British playwright — for work that uncovers “the precipice under everyday prattle.” His Nobel lecture, delivered by video due to hospitalization, was a 46-minute critique of American foreign policy that generated more controversy than most acceptance speeches)
Peace — Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (for efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes)
Economics — Robert J. Aumann and Thomas Schelling (for enhancing our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game theory analysis)
2005 Toys Inducted to the National Toy Hall of Fame
Candy Land, Cardboard Box, Jack-in-the-Box
The Cardboard Box was inducted on the grounds that it is the most universally played-with toy in human history, requiring no batteries, instructions, or assembly, and stimulating more imaginative play than most purpose-built toys. No child who has ever received a large appliance box has been more interested in the appliance.
Christmas Gifts and First Appearances of 2005
Webkinz plush animals with online virtual pets, Barbie as Harley Quinn, Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff dolls, Xbox 360 (launched November 22, 2005 — selling out instantly and sparking the first major console launch frenzy of the HD era)
Broadway in 2005
Spamalot — Monty Python’s musical adaptation — opened March 17, 2005, at the Shubert Theatre and ran until January 11, 2009. It won the Tony for Best Musical. Eric Idle wrote the book and lyrics; Tim Curry, Hank Azaria, and David Hyde Pierce starred in the original cast.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opened May 2, 2005, at Circle in the Square Theatre, running until January 20, 2008. It featured audience members as contestants in an actual spelling bee during each performance.
Jersey Boys opened on November 6, 2005, at the August Wilson Theatre, and ran until January 15, 2017 — 4,642 performances. The biographical musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons won four Tony Awards.
Billy Elliot the Musical opened in the West End on May 11, 2005, running until April 9, 2016. It transferred to Broadway in 2008 and won 10 Tony Awards — the most of any show that season.
Best Film Oscar Winner
Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, won Best Picture at the 77th Academy Awards in February 2005, presented for the 2004 film year. Eastwood won Best Director; Swank won Best Actress; Freeman won Best Supporting Actor.
2005 Entries to the National Film Registry
Baby Face (released 1933)
The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (released 1975)
The Cameraman (released 1928)
Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort, South Carolina, May 1940 (released 1940)
Cool Hand Luke (released 1967)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (released 1982)
The French Connection (released 1971)
Giant (released 1956)
H2O (released 1929)
Hands Up! (released 1926)
Hoop Dreams (released 1994)
House of Usher (released 1960)
Imitation of Life (released 1934)
Jeffries-Johnson World’s Championship Boxing Contest (released 1910)
The Making of an American (released 1920)
Miracle on 34th Street (released 1947)
Mom and Dad (released 1944)
The Music Man (released 1962)
The Power of the Press (released 1928)
A Raisin in the Sun (released 1961)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (released 1975)
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906 (released 1906)
The Sting (released 1973)
A Time for Burning (released 1966)
Toy Story (released 1995)
Top Movies of 2005
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- War of the Worlds
- King Kong
- Wedding Crashers
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Batman Begins
- Madagascar
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Most Popular TV Shows of 2005
- American Idol (Fox)
- CSI (CBS)
- Desperate Housewives (ABC)
- Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
- Without a Trace (CBS)
- Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
- Survivor: Guatemala (CBS)
- CSI: Miami (CBS)
- House (Fox)
- Survivor: Panama (CBS)
2005 Billboard Number One Songs
January 1 – March 4, 2005: Let Me Love You — Mario (carried over from late 2004 — nine consecutive weeks at #1)
March 5 – May 6, 2005: Candy Shop — 50 Cent featuring Olivia
May 7 – June 3, 2005: Hollaback Girl — Gwen Stefani (the first digital download to sell one million copies in the United States)
June 4 – July 1, 2005: We Belong Together — Mariah Carey (first run)
July 2 – July 8, 2005: Inside Your Heaven — Carrie Underwood (her first #1 — she had won American Idol seven weeks earlier)
July 9 – September 9, 2005: We Belong Together — Mariah Carey (returned to #1 for a second run, completing 14 combined weeks — the longest-running #1 of 2005 and one of the longest in Hot 100 history)
September 10 – November 25, 2005: Gold Digger — Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx (10 consecutive weeks — samples Ray Charles’s “I Got a Woman”; set a record for most digital downloads in a single week at the time)
November 26 – December 29, 2005: Run It! — Chris Brown (his first #1)
December 30, 2005 – January 13, 2006: Don’t Forget About Us — Mariah Carey (her third #1 of 2005 — making her the first artist to have three #1 singles in a single calendar year since Michael Jackson in 1983)
Biggest Pop Artists of 2005
50 Cent, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, Kanye West, Mario, Chris Brown, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Coldplay, U2, Destiny’s Child, Ciara, Usher, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Weezer, Jack Johnson, James Blunt
Sports Champions of 2005
World Series: Chicago White Sox (swept Houston Astros 4-0 — their first title since 1917, ending an 88-year drought)
Super Bowl XXXIX: New England Patriots (defeated Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 — their third Super Bowl title in four years)
NBA Champions: San Antonio Spurs (defeated Detroit Pistons 4-3)
Stanley Cup: Not awarded — the entire 2004-05 NHL season was canceled due to a labor lockout between the league and players’ union, the first time a major North American professional sports league had lost an entire season to a labor dispute
U.S. Open Golf: Michael Campbell (New Zealand)
U.S. Open Tennis — Men: Roger Federer | Women: Justine Henin-Hardenne
Wimbledon — Men: Roger Federer | Women: Venus Williams
NCAA Football: Texas Longhorns (Vince Young)
NCAA Basketball: North Carolina
Kentucky Derby: Giacomo (50-1 longshot — one of the biggest upsets in Derby history)
Sports Highlight: The Chicago White Sox swept the Houston Astros in four games to win the 2005 World Series — ending an 88-year championship drought, the second-longest in baseball history at the time. The White Sox went 11-1 in the postseason, one of the most dominant playoff runs in baseball history. Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby at 50-1 odds — the second-longest winning odds in Derby history, paying $102.60 on a $2 bet.
FAQ — 2005 Trivia, Fun Facts, and Pop Culture History
Q: What world-changing website was founded in 2005?
A: YouTube, founded February 14, 2005, by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in Menlo Park, California. The first video — Me at the zoo — was uploaded on April 23, 2005. Google purchased it for $1.65 billion in October 2006. It permanently changed entertainment, news, music, and politics.
Q: What natural disaster defined 2005 in America?
A: Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, overwhelmed New Orleans’s levee system, flooding 80% of the city, killing over 1,800 people, and displacing approximately 400,000 residents. The federal response was widely criticized as catastrophically slow. It was the costliest natural disaster in American history at that point.
Q: What was the #1 song of 2005?
A: We Belong Together by Mariah Carey — which spent 14 combined weeks at #1 in two separate runs, making it the longest-running #1 of the year and one of the longest in Hot 100 history. Carey also had Don’t Forget About Us reach #1 in December, making her the first artist with three #1 singles in a calendar year since Michael Jackson in 1983.
Q: What famous secret was revealed in 2005?
A: Mark Felt, the former FBI Associate Director, was revealed to be “Deep Throat” — the anonymous source who guided Washington Post reporters during the Watergate investigation. He had kept the secret for 33 years.
Q: What painting sold for $10,000 in 2005 and later became the most expensive painting ever sold?
A: Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, sold at a New Orleans estate sale in 2005 for approximately $10,000 without being recognized as a da Vinci. After restoration and authentication, it was sold at Christie’s in 2017 for $450.3 million — the highest auction price ever paid for a painting.
Q: What space milestone happened in January 2005?
A: The Huygens probe, carried by the Cassini spacecraft, landed on the surface of Titan — Saturn’s largest moon — on January 14, 2005. It was the first soft landing in the outer solar system and the farthest from Earth any human-made craft had ever landed. Huygens transmitted data for 72 minutes before its battery died.
Q: What did Barry Marshall do to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2005?
A: Marshall and Robin Warren won for discovering that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori causes peptic ulcers — overturning decades of medical consensus that ulcers were caused by stress. Marshall dramatically proved his theory by drinking a solution of H. pylori, developing gastritis, and curing himself with antibiotics.
Q: What was the One Red Paperclip story?
A: Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald began trading a single red paperclip in July 2005, making 14 successive trades for increasingly valuable items over one year. He ended up with a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. It became one of the first viral internet stories of the social media era.
Q: What is “Cyber Monday” and when was it coined?
A: The term was coined on November 28, 2005, by Ellen Davis and Scott Silverman of the National Retail Federation, after data showed a significant surge in online retail sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving — attributed to shoppers using fast workplace internet connections. It has since become the single largest online shopping day of the year.
Q: Why was no Stanley Cup awarded in 2005?
A: The entire 2004-05 NHL season was canceled due to a labor lockout — a dispute over a salary cap between team owners and the players’ union. It was the first time in modern sports history that a major North American professional league had lost an entire season to a labor dispute. The Cup was not awarded for the first time since 1919.
