2005 in the United States

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed {{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:Ambox Template:Main other }} Template:Yearbox US Template:Year in U.S. states and territories Events from the year 2005 in the United States. Template:Horizontal TOC

Incumbents

Federal government

William Rehnquist (Virginia)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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John Roberts (Maryland)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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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)

State governments

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Template:Columns-list Lieutenant governors Template:Columns-list

Events

January

January 1 – President George W. Bush delivers a radio address on the Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts.<ref>President Discusses Tsunami Relief in Radio Address (January 1, 2005)</ref>
January 3 – President George W. Bush is joined by former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the Roosevelt Room as he announces that the two former presidents will be involved with the humanitarian response to the tsunami across the region of South and Southeast Asia.<ref>President Asks Bush and Clinton to Help Raise Funds for Tsunami Relief (January 3, 2005)</ref>
January 6 – The US Congress certifies the victory of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney despite the objection of Ohio's electoral votes by Ohio congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and California senator Barbara Boxer. It was the first objection to a state's electoral votes since 1969.
January 12 – Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta II rocket.
January 20 – President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney begin their second term.
January 22 – FoxBox, Fox's Saturday morning programming block owned by 4Kids Entertainment, is rebranded as 4Kids TV.
January 26 – Glendale train crash: Two trains derail in Glendale, California, killing 11 and injuring 200.
January – Mosdeux, a deaf owned film studio is established.<ref>"Vital Signs" Get to the Heart of ASL</ref>

February

February 2 – State of the Union Address.
February 6
- Super Bowl XXXIX: The New England Patriots win their second consecutive Super Bowl title, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles by a score of 24–21 at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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- American Dad! debuts on FOX, right after Super Bowl XXXIX.<ref name="AWN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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February 10 – North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the United States.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
February 14 – The Internet site YouTube goes online.
February 16 – The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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February 21 – Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres on Nickelodeon.
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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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February 25 – Wichita, Kansas police apprehend the "BTK" serial killer Dennis Rader, 31 years after his first murder.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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February 27 – The 77th Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock, are held at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, with Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby winning Best Picture and Best Director, Eastwood's second win for both. Martin Scorsese's The Aviator wins five awards out of 11 nominations. The telecast garners over 42.1 million viewers.

March

March 1 – Roper v. Simmons: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional for juveniles who committed their crimes before the age of 18.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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March 12 – Terry Ratzmann opens fire during a church sermon in New Berlin, Wisconsin, killing seven and injuring four before taking his own life.
March 21 – Ten are killed in the Red Lake shootings in Minnesota by teenager Jeff Weise, who commits suicide after a shootout with police. It is the worst school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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March 23 – The United States' 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses (by a vote of 2–1) to stop the euthanasia of Terri Schiavo, who has been in a vegetative state since 1990, by not ordering the reinsertion of her feeding tube.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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March 24 – The Office debuts on NBC.
March 31 – Terri Schiavo dies at the age of 41 in Pinellas Park, Florida.
Monsters of Rock band is formed in California.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} Ultimate Music Challenge 2</ref>

April

April 3 – World Wrestling Entertainment holds WrestleMania 21 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
April 8 – Fever Pitch, a film starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore documenting the Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series run, is released.
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 alleges that American interrogators and guards have desecrated the Qur'an in attempts to rattle Islamic detainees.

May

May 8 – Two Denver Police Department officers are shot by a Mexican national, leading to an international incident over the extradition of the shooter.
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 the explosive 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).
- 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 19 – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is released in theaters.
May 21 – Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure opens to the public, becoming the fastest and tallest roller coaster in the world at the time.
May 25 – Carrie Underwood wins season 4 of American Idol
May 27 – Madagascar is released in theaters.
May 31 – W. Mark Felt reveals himself to be the Watergate scandal whistleblower called "Deep Throat."<ref name="Metro">Template:Cite news</ref>

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 13 – Michael Jackson is found not guilty of child molestation.
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 23
- The social news site Reddit launches.
- The San Antonio Spurs win their third NBA Championship after defeating the Detroit Pistons, 81-74, in Game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals.
June 24 – 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.
- NASA's "Copper bullet" from the Deep Impact spacecraft hits Comet Tempel 1, creating a crater for scientific studies.
July 8 – Fantastic Four, directed by Tim Story, is released as the first film in the Fantastic Four film series.
July 10 – Hurricane Dennis strikes near Navarre Beach, Florida as a Category 3 storm. The storm kills 88 people and causes $4 billion in damages.
July 19 – President Bush nominates 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. In 2012 he will be disqualified from each of those races and banned from cycling for life for doping offenses by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
July 26 – STS–114 launches as the first "Return to Flight" Space Shuttle mission following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

August

August 2 – The Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is signed into law in the United States.
August 4 – It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia premieres on FX.
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 Template:Convert), affecting most of eastern North America. Katrina becomes the costliest hurricane in U.S. history with $108 billion in damages.<ref name="Dead 2011">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> The New Orleans Saints football team will play their entire 2005 season on the road due to the effects of the hurricane.

September

September – The largest evacuation in Houston history takes place as millions evacuate from Hurricane Rita.
September 1 – Oil prices rise sharply following the economic effects of Hurricane Katrina.
September 3 – Chief Justice William Rehnquist dies at 80 of anaplastic thyroid cancer, creating a vacancy on the Supreme Court.
September 5 – John Roberts is nominated by President George W. Bush for Chief Justice of the United States, replacing William Rehnquist, who had died two days previously. Roberts was previously nominated to fill the seat of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but given the circumstances of Rehnquist's death, O'Connor remains on the Court until her successor is confirmed.
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 ($720 million) and the Dallas Cowboys' temporarily named Cowboys Stadium ($1.15 billion).
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 protesters in Washington, D.C. (see Opposition to the Iraq War).
- 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. The storm kills 120 people and causes $12 billion in damages.
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.
- Sprout (now Universal Kids) is launched by a joint venture between PBS, Comcast, HIT Entertainment, and Sesame Workshop. The new network replaces PBS Kids, allowing for an initial reach of 16.5 million subscribers.
- DT Racer is released on the PlayStation 2, developed by Axis Entertainment and published by XS Games.
September 28 – United States House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R–Texas) is indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy by a Texas grand jury.
September 29 – John Roberts is confirmed and sworn in as the 17th 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.
- 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 United States pits the San Francisco 49ers against the Arizona Cardinals at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico. The Cardinals win by a score of 31–14.
- A tour boat capsizes on Lake George, New York killing 20 of 47 aboard.
October 3
- U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Harriet Miers to replace Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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- St. Tammany Parish schools reopen in Louisiana, just over a month after Hurricane Katrina.
October 15
- In college football, the USC Trojans narrowly defeat heavy underdogs Notre Dame Fighting Irish in an illegal play known as the Bush Push.
- A riot occurs in Toledo, Ohio during a neo-Nazi rally on racial issues; 114 are arrested.
October 17 – Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride are tough acts to follow.
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 by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, advancing to their first World Series in franchise history.
October 24
- Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in southwestern Florida as a Category 3 hurricane. There are 23 direct dead, 39 indirect dead and $29.1 billion in damages.
- Civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who made headlines when she refused to give up her seat in a Montgomery bus, dies of natural causes at the age of 92 in Detroit. She becomes the first woman to lie in honor in the United States Capitol rotunda.
October 25 – The Chicago White Sox defeat the Houston Astros 7–5 in 14 innings in the first World Series game in the State of Texas to extend their lead to 3–0, putting them within one win of the Series. The game, which takes 5 hours and 41 minutes to complete, is the longest postseason game by time.
October 26
- The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros in four games to win their first World Series since 1917.
- The U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000.
October 27 – After issues arise of her competency to adjudicate United States constitutional law, 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 for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Astronomers announce the discovery of two additional moons orbiting the Pluto/Charon system. Subsequently, named Nix and Hydra, the moons have been 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.
- The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall (Charles and Camilla) 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.
- Walt Disney Pictures' 46th feature film, Chicken Little, Disney's first fully computer-animated film, is released to stronger box office success than most of the studio's most recent output, though it is one of their biggest critical flops.
November 6 – Evansville Tornado of November 2005: A tornado hits western Kentucky and southwestern Indiana, killing 25 with $92 million in damages.
November 20 – The Washington Post rebukes journalist Bob Woodward over his conduct in the CIA leak probe.

December

December – The unemployment rate falls below 5% for the first time since August 2001; it will remain below 5% until December 2007.
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 19 – Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashes into the PortMiami moments after takeoff on a leg from Miami, Florida to North Bimini, The Bahamas, killing all 18 on board.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> The cause of the accident was revealed to be an in-flight breakup due to metal fatigue.

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.
- Angela Johnson becomes the first woman in 50 years to be sentenced to death by the United States federal government. She is convicted of five murders in Iowa, receiving the death penalty for four of them.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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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 2.5 million inmates.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Ongoing

War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Iraq War (2003–2011)