• in 2005, Ghatam player Ghatam Udupa became the first Indian to perform at the Krakow International Percussion Festival?
• director Fei Mu's 1948 film Spring in a Small Town was named the best Chinese-language film ever made, by the Hong Kong Film Association awards in 2005?
• reopening of the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów (pictured) in 2005 marked a major improvement of Polish-Ukrainian relations?
• the 1984 Murray Head hit "One Night In Bangkok," from the musical Chess, gained newfound popularity in 2005 due to a remix by the dance act Vinylshakerz?
• the UK Government Decontamination Service was set up in 2005 after increased threats of terrorism to help the United Kingdom resist and recover from biological, chemical and nuclear incidents?
• the Mifflin Street Block Party, which attracted around 20,000 participants in 2005, began as a street dance in protest against the Vietnam War?
• That Summer Day is the first television drama for children about the bombings of the London public transport system on July 7, 2005?
• Simone Niggli-Luder from Switzerland won all four women's competitions at the orienteering world championships 2005 in Aichi, Japan, repeating her performance of 2003?
• Bangalore Gayana Samaja, which celebrated its centenary in 2005, is one of the oldest cultural organisations in Bangalore?
• professor Malcolm Grant, the Provost and President of University College London, agreed to shave off his moustache if UCL students raised £1500 for Comic Relief, on Red Nose Day in 2005?
• Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, the national library of Québec, and the public library of the city of Montréal, will share a facility beginning in 2005?
• Kermit Roosevelt III, author of the 2005 legal thriller In the Shadow of the Law, is the great-great-grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt?
• Luis Ramirez was the 15th person executed in 2005 in the U.S. state of Texas?
• "truthiness," a word made by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report, was selected as the 2005 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society?

Facts on topics related to 2005

2004

• 1985's only super typhoon, Super Typhoon Dot, is the sixth-most intense tropical cyclone in terms of wind speed to affect Bicol Region, Philippines between 1947 and 2004?
• Foreigner vocalist Lou Gramm survived a brain tumor in 1997 and completed a tour with his new band in 2004?
• Evan Taubenfeld was Avril Lavigne's lead guitarist from Spring 2002 to September 2004?
• Hubie Brown resigned as coach from the Memphis Grizzlies on Thanksgiving Day 2004?
• Rumaisa Rahman, born prematurely in Chicago on September 19, 2004, was 8 inches (20 cm) long and weighed 8½ oz. (244 g) at birth?
• Bend It Like Beckham was a crowd favorite at the ninth Pyongyang Film Festival in 2004?
• a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was used in the 2004 movie The Flight of the Phoenix?
  
• an Ivorian air attack in 2004 which killed 9 and wounded 37 French soldiers on a UN peacekeeping mission in Côte d'Ivoire prompted a retaliation that annihilated the Air Force of Côte d'Ivoire on the same day?
• at 67 years old, Elias Syriani was the oldest person executed in the United States since James Hubbard was executed by Alabama at the age of 74 in 2004?
• in 2004, the world spent US$896,235 million on military expenditures and the U.S. military budget constituted 41 percent of this, placing the nation at the top of the list of countries by military expenditures?

2006

• Indian-American teenager Gaurav Raja memorized 10,980 digits of pi in 2006 to break the North American pi memorization record?
• Internet entrepreneur Pete Ashdown is running against incumbent Orrin Hatch for the 2006 U.S. Senate race in Utah?
• Jackson Pollock 's No. 5, 1948 was sold by David Geffen to David Martinez for the inflation adjusted price of $140 million dollars, making it the world's most expensive painting sold at an auction as of November, 2006?
• Hurricane Sergio in 2006 was the strongest Pacific hurricane on record in the month of November?
• Scieno Sitter, a content-control software package created by the Church of Scientology, was referred to in the 2006 fictional film The Bridge?
• national legislative elections will be held in Thailand on April 2, 2006, following the decision by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to dissolve the lower house of the Thai legislature, the House of Representatives?
• The Berghoff restaurant in Chicago will close on 28 February 2006 after 107 years of operation by three generations of the Berghoff family?
• Super Typhoon Chanchu of 2006 (pictured) was only the second super typhoon recorded in the South China Sea?
• WildlifeDirect was established in 2006 to support wildlife protection in Africa via the use of weblogs?
• a new free trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore will come into effect on 1 January 2006?

2007

• Colombian National Police Sub-Intendant John Frank Pinchao was kidnapped by the FARC guerrillas for almost 9 years, until finally escaping in 2007?
• Adriana Pirtea lost the 2007 Chicago Marathon to Berhane Adere when Adere slipped down the side of the street and crossed outside of the finish-line tape?
• Robert Adley became on December 10, 2007, the newest Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate, just fifty-six days after he was easily reelected as a Democrat in the October 20 jungle primary?
• a massive mudflow destroyed two-thirds of the Valley of Geysers on June 3, 2007?
• former world chess champion Garry Kasparov helped to organise the Saint Petersburg March of the Discontented (pictured) on 3 March 2007?
• in 2007, the John Edwards's headquarters in the online game Second Life was attacked by the griefing group the Patriotic Nigras?
• on November 3, 2007, Navy beat Notre Dame after losing for 43 consecutive years, ending college football's longest bilateral streak?
• the 2007 main event World Series of Poker bracelet, awarded on July 17, 2007, is made with 136 grams of 18-carat white gold set with 120 diamonds?
• the Dead Plane EP is one of five limited edition singles and EPs released on five different labels by No Age on the same day, March 26, 2007?
• the second line of the Valenciennes tram (pictured) will open in 2007, but will reuse the platform of a railway line that opened in 1838?

2003

• advertisements featuring the character Michael Power doubled Guinness sales in Africa between 1999 and 2003?
• mountaineer Ger McDonnell, the first Irish person to summit K2, brought a hurley to the summit of Mount Everest in 2003?
• Dimba was the top goalscorer of the 2003 Brazilian football championship?
• James McClinton was the first African American mayor of Topeka, Kansas, appointed by the city council in December 2003, but that the electorate of the city passed a referendum the following year to strip the office of political power?
• Ron DeGregorio was elected in 2003 as the fourth president of USA Hockey since 1937?
• Simone Niggli-Luder from Switzerland won all four women's competitions at the orienteering world championships 2005 in Aichi, Japan, repeating her performance of 2003?
• Taiwan professional baseball was started in 1989, and the two leagues merged in 2003?
• as the result of a deal before the 2000 general election, Paul Bérenger became the first non-Hindu Prime Minister of Mauritius in 2003?
• in 2003 Erin Crocker became the first woman to qualify for the Knoxville Nationals sprint car race?
• the Canadian Armed Forces mobilized more than 2,200 soldiers within days to help fight over 800 separate forest fires during Operation PEREGRINE in the summer of 2003?

2002

• California's current State Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman ran for State Attorney General in 2002?
• Émile Boga Doudou was killed on September 19, 2002 in Abidjan in the worst outbreak of violence in Cote d'Ivoire since a military coup d'etat in 1999?
• Danielle Reyes finished second place on the American version of Big Brother in 2002?
• Evan Taubenfeld was Avril Lavigne's lead guitarist from Spring 2002 to September 2004?
• J002E3 was at first thought to be a new moon of the Earth when discovered in 2002 but later found to be the third stage of the Apollo 12 Saturn V?
• Dutch bus-building firm Den Oudsten was founded in 1926 and went out of business in 2002?
• a 2002 BBC World Service global poll voted A Nation Once Again the world's most popular tune?
• in 2002 the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad bought 41½ miles (66.8 km) of track between Meadville and Corry, Pennsylvania for $1?
• on May 3, 2002 a military MiG-21bis aircraft crashed into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight?
• the 7.9 M_w Denali Fault earthquake on November 3, 2002 was the strongest shock ever recorded in the interior of Alaska?

1998

• Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" is credited as achieving the highest combined sales, airplay and downloads in the world, since Cher's single "Believe" in 1998?
• Estela Ruiz claims to have seen and spoken with the Blessed Virgin Mary in South Phoenix, Arizona continually from 1988 to 1998?
• Tetsuya Ota won a lawsuit against race organizers of the now infamous 1998 JGTC race at Fuji Speedway, despite signing a pledge not to seek compensation?
• a tornado that hit Dantan in India on March 24, 1998 killed over 250 people?
• during the 1998 Guinea-Bissau Civil War, as many as 100 refugees an hour passed through the border checkpoint of Mpack, Senegal, which has a population of 518?
• in 1998, a study proposed to relocate Jordanhill railway station, a station currently located in Glasgow, Scotland near the Jordanhill Campus of the University of Strathclyde and the Jordanhill School that opened in 1887?
  
• the Ukrainian Marines were from May 1996 until 1998 part of the Ukrainian National Guard, but were transferred to the Navy in 1998?

2000

• basketball coach Bob Knight told a radio program that if he had not been fired from Indiana University in 2000, he would have fired his assistant Mike Davis, who replaced him as IU coach?
• Charles Butler McVay III, commander of the USS Indianapolis, was blamed when it was lost at sea in 1945 and only finally exonerated by the United States Congress posthumously in 2000?
• soul singer Bettye Lavette's album Souvenirs was recorded in 1972, but was shelved by Atlantic Records until a French music collector discovered it and released it in 2000, sparking a continuing surge of interest in the singer?
• Tropical Storm Helene of 2000 struck Florida just five days after Hurricane Gordon?
• the 2000 Black Coaches Association Classic was postponed by an electrical storm during which lightning struck ESPN broadcaster Lee Corso's rental car?
• the Tagish Lake meteorite that impacted Canada on January 18, 2000 may be a broken off piece of the 773 Irmintraud asteroid that orbits between the planets Mars and Jupiter?
• the Philadelphia Metro is a free daily newspaper that was first published in 2000?
• what was probably the last living Spix's Macaw died in 2000?

1995

• French lighthouse Phare de la Vieille (pictured) was operated manually as late as 1995?
• Pakistani general Zahirul Islam Abbasi plotted a coup d'etat against then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1995?
• Chandra Prakash Mainali, who led an armed Maoist revolt in eastern Nepal in 1971, later served as Minister of Local Development in 1994-95?
• Marcelo Piñeyro's second film, Wild Horses, was the second-highest-attended film in Argentina during 1995, and was screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York?
• fourteen people died in the Cave Creek disaster when a scenic viewing platform collapsed in New Zealand in 1995?
• in 1995, André Dallaire attempted to assassinate the Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chrétien after breaking into his residence at 24 Sussex Drive?
• on September 21, 1995, statues of the Hindu pantheon (Ganesha pictured) in countries around the world were reported to be drinking spoonfuls of milk offered to them by worshippers?
• the 1995 documentary film Anne Frank Remembered contains the only known film footage of the young diarist?

2008

• Anglican archdeacon Kay Goldsworthy will be Australia's first woman bishop when she is consecrated on 22 May 2008?
• Halemaʻumaʻu crater (pictured) in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park erupted explosively on March 19, 2008 for the first time since 1924?
• James Wayne "Jim" Tucker of suburban New Orleans will in 2008 become the first Republican Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives since Reconstruction?
• Muhtar Kent, named to assume the post of CEO of the Coca-Cola Company on July 1, 2008, is the son of a Turkish diplomat, who risked his life to save Jews in France during the Holocaust?
• at the 2008 centennial of the Empresa de Ferrocarriles Ecuatorianos, only 10% of the original railway system was open?
• before 1 January 2008, milk with a fat content of 1 or 2% could not be labelled as milk in the United Kingdom?
• on July 11, 2008, the Kayelekera mine in Karonga, Malawi celebrated 1.5 million hours of accident-free uranium mining?
• the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts, concluded 2 August 2008 in American Samoa, brought together about 2,000 artists from 27 countries across Oceania?
• the Piliyandala bombing of April 25, 2008 was the deadliest attack on a commuter bus in Sri Lanka since the January 16 Buttala attack?
• the Suramadu Bridge, connecting the islands of Java and Madura, will become the longest bridge in Indonesia when completed in 2008?

1980

• 1980's Rescue at Rigel by Epyx was one of the first science fiction computer role-playing games?
• as a result of the Okęcie Airport Incident in 1980, four top players of the Polish national football team were disqualified, and one of them never capped for Poland again?
• the Glasgow Inner Ring Road was only half complete when it was abandoned in 1980, leaving several incomplete junctions, one of which ends abruptly in mid-air?
• the St. James Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, was nearly demolished in the 1980s and is said to be haunted by numerous ghosts?
• the Stiefelgeiss, a breed of goat, became nearly extinct in the 1980s but is making a comeback?
• the shooting of the government critic Archbishop Óscar Romero on March 24, 1980 was one of the causes of the El Salvador Civil War, in which 75,000 people died?

2005 in music

• Mamadou Diabaté (pictured), a Malian kora player, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005, but lost to his cousin Toumani Diabaté?

March

• although the first meeting of the Indian Independence League took place in Tokyo in March 1942, it was not formally proclaimed until June of that year in Bangkok?