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John Ostrom
John H. Ostrom (February 18, 1928 – July 16, 2005) was an American paleontologist who revolutionized modern understanding of dinosaurs in the 1960s, when he demonstrated that dinosaurs are more like big non-flying birds than they are like lizards (or "saurians"), an idea first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in the 1860s, but which had garnered few supporters. The first of Ostrom's broad-based reviews of the osteology and phylogeny of the primitive bird Archaeopteryx appeared in 1976. His reaction to the eventual discovery of feathered dinosaurs in China, after years of acrimonoius debate, was bittersweet (Gentile, 2000).
He was born in New York City and studied at Union College. He planned to be a physician like his father, but changed his mind after reading George Gaylord Simpson's book The Meaning of Evolution. He enrolled at Columbia University and studied with Edwin H. Colbert.
In 1952 he married Nancy Grace Hartman (d. 2003) and had two daughters: Karen and Alicia.
Ostrom taught for one year at Brooklyn College and then spent five years at Beloit College before going to Yale. Ostrom was a professor at Yale University where he was the Curator Emeritus of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, which has an impressive fossil collection originally started by Othniel Charles Marsh. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 77 in Litchfield, Connecticut.
Warm-blooded Deinonychus
His 1964 discovery of Deinonychus is considered one of the most important fossil finds in history [http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/saurischia/dromaeosauridae.html]. Deinonychus, the first "raptor", was an active predator that clearly killed its prey by leaping and slashing with its "terrible claw". The conclusion that at least some dinosaurs had a high metabolism, and thus were at least partially warm-blooded, was popularized by his student Robert T. Bakker, and changed the impression of dinosaurs as cold-blooded, sluggish and slow lizards which had prevailed since the turn of the century.
This changed how dinosaurs are depicted by both professional dinosaur illustrators, and in the public eye. The find is also credited with triggering the "dinosaur renaissance", a term coined in a 1975 issue of Scientific American by Bakker to describe the renewed debates causing an influx of interest in paleontology, which has lasted from the 1970s to the present and has doubled recorded dinosaur diversity.
Archaeopteryx and the origin of flight, and hadrosaur herds
Ostrom's interest in the dinosaur-bird connection started with his study of what is now known as the Haarlem Archaeopteryx. Discovered in 1855, it was actually the first specimen recovered but labeled as Pterodactylus crassipes it languished in the Teylers Museum in the Netherlands until Ostrom's 1970 paper (and 1972 description) corrected identified it as one of only eight "first birds" (counting the solitary feather).
Ostrom's reading of fossilized Hadrosaurus trackways also led him to the conclusion that these duckbilled dinosaurs travelled in herds.
References
- "At Last, His Theory Flies". May 5, 2000. Olivia F. Gentile. Hartford Courant.
- "[http://athena.english.vt.edu/~hagedorn/TechnicalWriting/Archaeoptryx.html Archaeopteryx]". May 1975. John H. Ostrom. Discovery, volume 11, number 1, pages 15 to 23.
- Obituary Los Angeles Times July 21, 2005
External links
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/1998/dinogarden.shtml Dinosaurs in Your Garden]
Ostrom, John
Ostrom, John
Ostrom, John
Ostrom, John
1928
1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar).
Events
January-May
- January 6-7 - River Thames floods in London - 14 drowned
- January 7 - Moat at the Tower of London, previously drained in 1843, is completely refilled by a tidal wave
- January 12 - US murderer Ruth Snyder executed at Ossining
- January 17 - OGPU arrests Lev Trotsky in Moscow; he assumes a status of passive resistance and is exiled to Turkestan
- February - Kurume University (Japan) established
- February 11 - 1928 Winter Olympic Games open in St. Moritz, Switzerland
- February 12 - Heavy hails kill 11 in England
- February 25 - Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, DC becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
- March 12 - Malta becomes a British dominion
- March 12 - In California, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles fails killing 400
- March 21 - Charles Lindbergh is presented the Congressional Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
- April 10 - Pineapple Primary - Republican Party primary elections in Chicago preceded by assassinations and bombings
- April 12 - Bomb attack against the King of Italy in Milan - 17 bystanders dead
- April 22 - Earthquake destroys Corinth - 200.000 buildings destroyed
- May 15-17 - Christian X of Denmark visits Finland
- May 15 - Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, commenced operations
- May 15 - Release of the animated short Plane Crazy, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
- May 23 - Bomb attack against Italian consulate in Buenos Aires - 22 dead, 41 injured
- May 24 - Airship Italia crashes on the North Pole; one of the occupants is Italian general Umberto Nobile
- May 30 - A rescue expedition leaves for the North Pole
June-August
- June 11 - Medical doctor's strike begins in Vienna
- June 14 - Students take over the medical wing of Rosario University in Argentina
- July 6 - The world's largest hailstone falls in Potter, Nebraska.
- July 12 - Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza dies in a solo plane crash in the New Jersey Pine Barrens while returning from a goodwill flight to New York City.
- June 17 - Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to successfully pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she succeeded the next day).
- July 17 - Jose del León Toral assassinates Alvaro Obregon, president of Mexico
- June 20 - Shooting incident in Yugoslavian parliament - Punica Rasic shoots 3 opposition representatives and injures three others
- June 24 - Swedish aeroplane rescues part of Italian North Pole expedition, including Umberto Nobile. Soviet icebreaker Krasin saves the rest July 12
- July 16 - Leon Toral assassinates Álvaro Obregón, president of Mexico
- July 25 - USA recalls its troops from China
- July 27 - Tich Freeman becomes only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before end of July.
- July 28 - Official opening ceremony of the 1928_Summer_Olympics in Amsterdam.
- August 16 - Murderer Carl Panzram is arrested in Washington, DC after killing about 20 people.
- August 25 - Ahmet Zogu proclaims himself King Zog I of Albania; he is crowned September 1
- August 28 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris - it was the first treaty which outlawed aggressive war.
September-December
- September 1 - Richard Byrd leaves New York for Arctic
- September 3 - Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
- September 15 - Tich Freeman sets all-time record for number of wickets taken in an English cricket season.
- September 16 - The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in Florida.
- October 2 Saint Josemaria Escriva, founds Opus Dei
- October 7 - Haile Selassie crowned king (not yet emperor) of Abyssinia
- October 12 - An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.
- November 3 - cartoon star Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, an animated short produced by Walt Disney.
- November 4 - At Park Central Hotel in Manhattan, Arnold Rothstein, New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot to death over a poker game.
- November 6 - Swedes start a tradition of eating Gustavus Adolphus pastries to commemorate the old warrior king.
- November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Alfred E. Smith.
- November 10 - Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
- November 11 - US gambling king Arnold Rothstein is shot to death in New York City
- December 3 - In Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane sunk near Cap Arcona with Alberto Santos-Dumont on board.
- December 5 - Police disperses Sicilian gangs' meeting in Cleveland
- December 21 - U.S. Congress approves the construction of The Boulder Dam, later renamed The Hoover Dam
- December 31 - Bells of Big Ben first time in a radio
Unknown dates
- Charles King elected president of Liberia with 600,000 votes; the whole of country has only 15,000 voters.
- Chaco war
- Coca Cola enters Europe through the Amsterdam Olympics.
- Eliot Ness begins to lead the prohibition unit in Chicago, Illinois.
- The old Canaanite city of Ugarit is rediscovered.
- Turkey switches from the Arabic to the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet.
- The right to vote extended to all women in the United Kingdom.
- Frederick Griffith conducts the Griffith experiment, indirectly proving existence of DNA.
- Motorola is founded.
- First (and last) Best Title Writing Academy Award given.
- The Episcopal Church in the United States of America ratifies a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
- W2XBS, RCA's first television station, is established in New York City.
- Australian farmer, Jack Trott, finds Rhizanthella gardneri in his garden.
Births
January
- January 5 - Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan and Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1979)
- January 5 - Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate
- January 7 - William Peter Blatty, American writer
- January 11 - David L. Wolper, television producer
- January 16 - William Kennedy, American author
- January 17 - Jean Barraqué, French composer (d. 1973)
- January 17 - Vidal Sassoon, English cosmetologist
- January 23 - Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
- January 23 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress
- January 24 - Desmond Morris, anthropologist and writer
- January 26 - Roger Vadim, French film director (d. 2000)
- January 30 - Hal Prince, American stage producer and director
February
- February 5 - Andrew Greeley, American Catholic priest and novelist
- February 9 - Frank Frazetta, American illustrator
- February 9 - Roger Mudd, American journalist
- February 23 - Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (d. 1990)
- February 26 - Fats Domino, American musician
- February 26 - Anatoli Filipchenko, cosmonaut
- February 27 - Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel
March-April
- March 4 - Alan Sillitoe, English writer
- March 6 - Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 8 - Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (d. 1990)
- March 10 - James Earl Ray, American assassin (d. 1998)
- March 12 - Edward Albee, American dramatist
- March 16 - Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
- March 19 - Hans Küng, Swiss theologian
- March 19 - Patrick McGoohan, Irish actor
- March 20 - Fred Rogers, American children's television host (d. 2003)
- March 24 - Byron Janis, American pianist
- March 25 - Jim Lovell, astronaut
- March 28 - Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-born U.S. National Security Advisor
- March 31 - Gordie Howe, Canadian hockey player
- March 31 - Lefty Frizzell, American country music performer
- April 1 - Jane Powell, American dancer, actress, and singer
- April 1 - George Grizzard, American actor
- April 2 - Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (d. 1991)
- April 4 - Maya Angelou, American poet and novelist
- April 6 - James D. Watson, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 7 - James Garner, American actor
- April 7 - Alan J. Pakula, American producer and director (d. 1998)
- April 8 - Eric Porter, English actor (d. 1995)
- April 9 - Tom Lehrer, American songwriter
- April 12 - Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
- April 19 - Alexis Korner, British blues musician (d. 1984)
- April 23 - Shirley Temple, American actress and politician
May-June
- May 3 - Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)
- May 4 - Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt
- May 8 - Theodore Sorenson, American lawyer and speechwriter
- May 9 - Colin Chapman, English automotive engineer (d. 1982)
- May 9 - Pancho Gonzalez, American tennis player (d. 1995)
- May 9 - Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater
- May 12 - Burt Bacharach, American composer
- May 16 - Billy Martin, baseball player and manager (d. 1989)
- May 18 - Pernell Roberts, American actor
- May 23 - Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d. 2002)
- May 26 - Jack Kevorkian, American physician
- June 1 - Georgi Dobrovolski, cosmonaut (d. 1971)
- June 1 - Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (d. 2003)
- June 13 - John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics
- June 14 - Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, Argentine-born revolutionary (d. 1967)
- June 19 - Nancy Marchand, American actress (d. 2000)
- June 25 - Alexei Abrikosov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 26 - Jacob Druckman, American composer (d. 1996)
July-September
- July 5 - Warren Oates, American actor (d. 1982)
- July 10 - Moshe Greenberg, American-Israeli Bible scholar
- July 11 - Bobo Olson, American boxer (d. 2002)
- July 12 - Elias James Corey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 13 - Leroy Vinnegar, American musician (d. 1999)
- July 16 - Robert Sheckley, American writer
- July 25 - Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d. 2005)
- July 26 - Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)
- July 26 - Bernice Rubens, British novelist (d. 2004)
- August 6 - Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
- August 10 - Eddie Fisher, American singer
- August 12 - Bob Buhl, baseball player (d. 2001)
- August 15 - Nicolas Roeg, English film director
- August 18 - Marge Schott, baseball team owner (d. 2004)
- August 25 - Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 11 - William Kienzle, American author (d. 2001
- September 14 - Angus Ogilvy, husband of Princess Alexandra of Kent (d. 2004)
- September 15 - Julian Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist
- September 19 - Adam West, American actor
- September 22 - James Lawson, American civil rights activist and minister
- September 30 - Elie Wiesel, Romanian Holocaust survivor, writer, and lecturer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
October-December
- October 1 - George Peppard, American actor (d. 1994)
- October 8 - Bill Maynard, British actor
- October 9 - Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer
- October 27 - Kyle Rote, American football player (d. 2002)
- October 30 - Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
- November 3 - Osamu Tezuka, Japanese artist (d. 1989)
- November 3 - George Yardley, American basketball player (d. 2004)
- November 10 - Ennio Morricone, Italian composer
- November 11 - Carlos Fuentes, Panamanian writer
- November 17 - Rance Howard, American actor
- November 29 - Paul Simon, U.S. Senator from Illinois (d. 2003)
- December 7 - Noam Chomsky, American linguist
- December 15 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d. 2000)
- December 16 - Philip K. Dick, American author (d. 1982)
- December 25 - Dick Miller, American actor
Unknown date
- Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu, King of Malaysia
Deaths
- January 1 - Loie Fuller, American dancer (b. 1862)
- January 6 - Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (b. 1876)
- January 11 - Thomas Hardy, English writer (b. 1840)
- January 29 - Douglas Haig, British soldier (b. 1861)
- January 30 - Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1867)
- February 1 - Hughie Jennings, baseball player (b. 1869)
- February 4 - Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- February 15 - Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
- February 16 - Eddie Foy, American vaudevillian (b. 1856)
- April 2 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- April 5 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer (b. 1890)
- June 4 - Chang Tso-lin, Chinese warlord (b. 1873)
- June 22 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (b. 1851)
- August 12 - Leos Janacek, Czech composer (b. 1854)
- August 30 - Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- October 22 - Andrew Fisher, fifth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)
- December 1 - José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian writer (b. 1888)
- December 10 - Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (b. 1868)
- Robert Abbe, American surgeon (b. 1851)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Owen Willans Richardson
- Chemistry - Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus
- Physiology or Medicine - Charles Jules Henri Nicolle
- Literature - Sigrid Undset
- Peace - not awarded
ko:1928년
ms:1928
ja:1928年
simple:1928
th:พ.ศ. 2471
2005
2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.
2005 is the World Year of Physics, the Year of the Rooster in the Chinese calendar, and the International Year of the Eucharist in Catholicism.
See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.
Events
- January 4 - Death of the Governor of Baghdad, Ali Al-Haidri, assassinated by gunmen.
- January 9 - The same storm which pounded the US earlier in the month hits England and Scandinavia, leaving 13 dead with widespread flooding and power cuts.
- January 9 - Mahmoud Abbas is elected to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president in the Palestinian election.
- January 12 - Deep Impact is launched from Kennedy Space Center by a Delta 2 rocket.
- January 13 - Terrorists enter into Israel from Gaza and open fire on civilians near border, killing 6 and wounding 5 others. Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claim joint responsibility for attack.
- January 14 - The Huygens probe lands on Titan, largest moon of Saturn.
- January 16 - Adriana Iliescu gives birth at 66, the oldest woman in the world to do so.
Adriana Iliescu.]]
- January 18 - Terrorists murder 1 person and wound 8 people in Gush Katif, Israel. Hamas claims responsibility.
- January 20 - George W. Bush is inaugurated in Washington, D.C. for his second term as 43rd President of the United States.
- January 20 - Ireland completes metrication.
- January 21 - In Belize's capital city Belmopan, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.
- January 23 - Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as the third President of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine.
- January 25 - A stampede at Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi during a religious pilgrimage in India kills at least 215, mostly women and small children.
- January 30 - The first free Parliamentary elections in Iraq since 1958 take place.
- January 30 - A Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes in Iraq, killing 10 British servicemen. Iraqi insurgents release a video claiming to have shot the aircraft down using a missile.
- February 6 - The New England Patriots defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 to win their third Super Bowl in four years.
- February 8 - Danish parliamentary elections continue the center-right coalition led by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his Liberal Party.
- February 9 - An ETA car bomb injures 31 people at a conference centre in Madrid.
- February 10 - North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the United States.
- February 10 - Saudi Arabia holds its first ever elections for municipal authorities, in which only men are allowed to vote.
- February 12 - Fire devastates the Windsor Building, a 32 story office block, in Madrid.
- February 14 - A massive suicide bomb blast in central Beirut kills Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri and at least 15 other people. At least 135 other people were also hurt.
- February 14 - Around 59 people are killed and 200 injured in a fire at a mosque in Tehran, Iran.
Iran emissions of greenhouse gases.]]
- February 16 - The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.
- February 16 - The National Hockey League cancels its 2004-2005 season becoming the first North American professional league to cancel a season due to a labour dispute.
- February 19 - Suicide bombers kill more than 30 people in Iraq as Shia Muslims mark Ashura, their holiest day.
- February 20 - Spanish referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
- February 20 - Early Legislative elections in Portugal result in a landslide victory for José Sócrates and the Socialist Party.
- February 22 - More than 500 people are killed and over 1,000 injured after entire villages are flattened in an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale in Zarand region of Kerman province in southern Iran.
- February 25 - The Serial Killer Dennis Rader is apprehended by Wichita Police and the FBI.
- February 25 - Terrorists murder 5 people and wound 50 people in Tel Aviv, Israel. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for attack.
- February 26 - Hosni Mubarak the president of Egypt asks parliament to amend the constitution to allow multi-candidate presidential elections before September 2005.
- March 1 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles who committed their crimes under age 18.
- March 3 - At 19:17 the 3500-ton freighter, M/V Karen Danielsen, crashes into the Western bridge of the Great Belt Bridge of Denmark, 800m from Funen. All traffic across the bridge is closed, effectively separating Denmark in two.
- March 3 - Millionaire Steve Fossett breaks a world record by completing the first non-stop, non-refueled, solo flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.
- March 10 - Tung Chee Hwa's resignation: Tung Chee Hwa, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, resigns.
- March 11 - In the UK, the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 was finally given Royal Assent after one of the longest ever sittings by the House of Lords.
- March 13 - First round of Central African Republic elections.
- March 14 - The People's Republic of China ratifies an anti-secession law aimed at preventing Taiwan from declaring independence.
- March 14 - Nearly one million people gathered for an opposition rally in Beirut, a month after the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — the largest rally in Lebanon history.
Lebanon, 2005.]]
- March 16 - Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, accused of the bombing of the Air India Flight 182 in 1985, are found not guilty on all counts.
- March 19 - A suspected suicide bomber in Doha, Qatar, kills one person and injures about 12 others.
- March 19 - A time bomb explodes in a Muslim shrine in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 29 people and wounding 40.
- March 19 - A mine blast occurs at the Xishui coal mine in Shuozhou and rocks nearby Kangjiayao coal mine, killing up to 59.
- March 20 - At least 250 people in Japan are injured and at least one killed by when a magnitude 7 earthquake struck west of Kyushu Island, just 9km (5.5 miles) below the ocean floor.
- March 21 - 10 killed in the Red Lake High School massacre in Minnesota, the worst school shooting since the Columbine High School massacre.
- March 23 - The United States' 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' 2-1 decision refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
- March 24 - The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan reaches its climax with the overthrow of president Askar Akayev.
- March 26 - The Taiwanese government called on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of Mainland China. Around 200 000 to 300 000 attended the walk.
- March 28 - The 2005 Sumatran earthquake struck off Sumatra, 3 months after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. At a magnitude of 8.7 it is the second largest earthquake since 1965.
- Anti-Japanese demonstrations in China
- April 1 - Newsanchor Peter Jennings hosts what will turn out to be his final World News Tonight telecast.
- April 2 - Pope John Paul II dies, causing widespread grief in the world.
- April 7 - MG Rover, the UK's sole remaining volume producer goes into receivership after a planned alliance with Chinese manufacturer, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation collapses.
- April 7 - A suicide bomber blows himself up in Cairo's Khan al Khalili market, killing two foreign tourists and wounding seventeen others. A group called "Islamic Pride Brigades" claims responsibility.
- April 8 - Referendum in Curaçao on independence vs. integration with the Netherlands.
- April 9 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, marched through Baghdad denouncing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and rallied in the square where his statue was toppled in 2003.
- April 9 - The marriage of The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles takes place. Camilla assumes the titles Her Royal Highness and The Duchess of Cornwall.
- April 12 - Fans hurl lit flares onto the field at San Siro Stadium in Milan during a Champions League quarter-final soccer match.
- April 15 - At least twenty one people died and around fifty people were injured in a devastating fire at a hotel in central Paris.
- April 16 - President Lucio Gutierrez of Ecuador declared a state of emergency in the capital city and dissolved the Supreme Court.
- April 17 - Twelve holidaymakers were killed in southern Switzerland when a bus carrying twenty seven people plunged 200 metres into a ravine.
- April 18 - Five people died in ethnic clashes in Iran's south-west Khuzestan province.
- April 19 - Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.
- April 20 - fifty six hurt as earthquake hits Fukuoka and Kasuga, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The earthquake measured a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale.
- April 20 - President Lucio Gutiérrez of Ecuador is said to have fled after Congress voted to sack him amid growing protests.
- April 21 - A bus crash in Vietnam's Central Highlands has left thirty Vietnamese war veterans dead and four other people hurt.
- April 21 - A gunfight on the edge of the Saudi city of Mecca has left two militants and two members of the security forces dead.
- April 23 - Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister of Italy, re-forms government after its dissolution three days earlier.
- April 25 - A passenger train derails in Amagasaki Hyogo Prefecture Japan killing 107 people and injuring another 456. (see Amagasaki rail crash)
- April 26 - Facing international pressure, Syria withdrew the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon ending its twenty nine year military domination of that country.
- April 27 - The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 made its first flight from Toulouse.
- April 30 - Attacks on tourists in the Egyptian capital Cairo leave three militants dead and at least ten people injured.
- May 1 - A suicide attack targets a Kurdish funeral in the northern Iraqi town of Talafar, near Mosul, and leaves at least 25 people dead and more than 30 others injured. Earlier, at least five policemen and four civilians were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad.
- May 2 - 4th president of Singapore, Wee Kim Wee dies from prostate cancer.
- May 2 - A blast at an illegal munitions store in northern Afghanistan kills 28 people and injures at least 13 others.
- May 3 - At least 32 people are killed and nine others injured when three two-storey buildings in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore collapsed after gas cylinders stored in one of them exploded.
- May 4 - In one of the largest insurgent attacks in Iraq to date, at least 60 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bombing at a Kurdish police recruitment center in Irbil, northern Iraq.
- May 5 - The United Kingdom votes in the 2005 general election. The Labour Party is re-elected with a substantially reduced majority.
- May 5 - Two homemade bombs explode outside the British consulate in New York, USA.
- May 10 - A live hand grenade 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 malfunctions and does not detonate.
- May 11 - Serial killer Michael Ross became first person executed in New England in 45 years.
- May 12 - An election was held in the Cayman Islands 7 months later than originally scheduled due to Hurricane Ivan. It resulted in a change of government, with the United Democratic Party giving four seats to the then-opposition People's Progressive Movement in the 15 member Legislative Assembly.
- May 13 - Uzbek troops kill up to 700 during protests in eastern Uzbekistan over the trials of 23 accused Islamic extremists. President Islam Karimov defends the act.
- 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).
- May 13 - The final episode of the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise is broadcast in the United States. This episode may mark the end of the Star Trek franchise itself, which dates back to 1966.
- May 15 - A passenger ferry capsizes and sinks in strong winds in the Bura Gauranga River in Bangladesh, leaving over 100 people missing.
- May 16 - George Galloway appears before a U.S. Senate committee, to answer allegations of making money from the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme.
- May 17 - Kuwaiti women granted right to vote.
- May 19 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith released, effectively completing the Star Wars movie saga begun by George Lucas in 1977 and shattering the opening day box-office record with $50,013,859.
- May 19 - The Canadian House of Commons members narrowly pass two budget bills at second reading allowing the minority Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin to stay in power.
- May 21 - Greece wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev.
- May 25 - Liverpool F.C. win the UEFA Champions League by defeating AC Milan 3-2 in a penalty shootout in Istanbul.
- May 25 - The Acting Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, resigned for participating in the Chief Executive Election in July. As a result, Henry Tang and Michael Suen had become the Acting Chief Executive and Acting Chief Secretary for Administration respectively.
- May 29 - French referendum on the European Constitution votes resoundingly to reject.
- May 31 - W. Mark Felt is confirmed to be Deep Throat.
- June 1 - Dutch referendum on the European Constitution votes to reject, the second country to do so.
- June 5 - Switzerland votes to join the Schengen area and to allow same-sex partnerships.
- June 6 - Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam resigns.
- June 9 - Glynn Birch announced as new president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
- June 13 - Singer Michael Jackson acquitted of all charges of harming children (see 2005 trial of Michael Jackson).
- June 17 - A 6.7 aftershock,which followed a 5.3 earthquake the previous day, hits California making it the fourth earthquake since June 12 in California. (California earthquakes of June 2005)
- 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 were traded between 9:30-10:30 A.M. 1.92 billion shares were traded for the day.
- June 19 - Election in the Autonomous Community of Galicia, Spain — preliminary results show that Manuel Fraga and the Partido Popular lose control of the autonomous parliament.
- June 21 - Volna booster rocket carrying the first light sail spacecraft (a joint Russian-United States project) failed 83 seconds after its launch, destroying the spacecraft.
- June 23 - The San Antonio Spurs win the NBA World Championship title.
- June 28 - Queen Elizabeth II conducts the International Fleet Review of 167 international warships in the Solent, as part of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations.
- June 30 - Spain joins Belgium and the Netherlands in permitting same-sex marriage.
- July 2 - Live 8, a series of 10 simultaneous concerts take place throughout the world, raising interest in the Make Poverty History campaign.
- July 4 - NASA's "Copper bullet" from Deep Impact spacecraft hits Comet Tempel 1, creating a crater for scientific studies.
- July 4 - Violent G8 demonstrations in Gleneagles
- July 6 - The European Parliament rejects the Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions in its second reading in the codecision procedure.
- July 6 - The International Olympic Committee awards the 2012 Summer Olympics to London.
London.]]
- July 7 - Four explosions rock the transport network in London, three on the London Underground and one on a bus. Over 50 deaths were reported, and over 200 injured. See 7 July 2005 London bombings.
- July 7 - Al-Qaeda admits to the killing of Egypt's Ambassador, Ihab al-Sherif.
- July 10 - Luxembourgish referendum on the European Constitution votes to accept.
- July 10 - Hurricane Dennis strikes near Navarre Beach, Florida as a Category 3 storm killing 10 people, after killing over 50 people in the Caribbean.
- July 12 - Terrorists kill 5 people and wound 90 people in a crowded mall in Netanya, Israel. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for attack.
- July 13 - Three trains collide in the Ghotki rail crash in Ghotki, Pakistan, killing over 150 people.
- July 14 - A compromise budget is reached in Minnesota, ending the fourteen-day government shutdown.
- July 16 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book of the Harry Potter saga by the British writer J. K. Rowling, is released.
- July 19 - President Bush nominates Appeals Court Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court, following the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor.
- July 20 - Canada's Civil Marriage Act, legalizing same-sex marriage, receives Royal Assent.
- July 21 - A terrorist attack on London, similar to the July 7 attacks, includes 4 attempted bomb attacks on 3 Underground trains and a London bus. The bombs failed to explode properly, and only one injury was reported.
- July 22 - A Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, is shot dead at a London underground station by police who mistake him for a suicide bomber.
- July 23 - A series of blasts in a resort town in Egypt. See July 23, 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks.
- July 24 - Lance Armstrong wins a record seventh straight Tours de France before his scheduled retirement.
- July 26 - Launch for Space Shuttle Discovery return to flight mission STS-114. This is the first Space Shuttle flight in nearly two and a half years since the breakup of Columbia on its return from mission STS-107.
- July 28 - The Provisional IRA issues a statement formally ordering an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since 1969 and ordering all its units to dump their arms.
August
- August 2 - Air France Flight 358 bursts into flames after overshooting the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport; all aboard survive.
- August 6 - An ATR-72 heading from Italy to Tunisia crashes into the Mediterranean Sea, killing 16 of 39 on board.
- August 9 - Space Shuttle Discovery returns to Edwards Air Force Base at 0814 EDT, completing STS-114, "Return to Flight."
- August 12 - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched.
- August 14 - Helios Airways Flight 552 crashes into a mountain in Greece, killing 121.
- August 16 - West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes into a mountain in Venezuela, killing 152 passengers.
- August 17 - The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
- August 17 - Bangladesh is hit by bomb explosions. [http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bangladesh_hit_by_several_bomb_explosions]
- August 18 - BTK killer Dennis Rader is sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences.
- August 18 - Peace Mission 2005, the first joint China-Russia military exercise, begins its 8-day training on the Shandong peninsula.
- August 22 - A 4.1 kg meteorite crashes into the Dotito area of Zambezi Escarpment in Zimbabwe, leaving a 15 cm crater.
- August 23 - Israel's unilateral disengagement from 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank ends.
- August 24 - Hong Kong High Court Judge Michael Hartmann rules that sodomy laws were unconstitutional.
Michael Hartmann.]]
- August 28 - Terrorist wounds 52 at bus station in Beersheba, Israel. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for attack.
- August 29 - At least 1,300 are killed, and severe damage is caused along the U.S. Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Katrina strikes the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal areas. Within hours, levees give way and New Orleans is flooded.
- August 31 - A crowd crush on the Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills several hundred civilians (see Baghdad bridge stampede).
- September 1 - Oil prices rise sharply following economic effects of Hurricane Katrina.
- September 5 - Mandala Airlines Flight 091 737 crashes in Indonesia killing at least 117. (See airplane accidents in 2005).
- September 7 - Incumbent Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak wins its first multi-party presidential election.
- September 11 - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the LDP are returned to power following the Japanese general elections.
- September 12 - Norwegian parliamentary election
- September 12 - English cricket team draw the final match to win The 2005 Ashes.
- September 14 - September 16 - Largest UN World Summit in history, held in New York City.
- September 17 - Helen Clark leader of the Labour Party is re-elected for a third term in the New Zealand general election
- September 18 - Angela Merkel of the CDU and Gerhard Schröder of the SDP both claim victory in German federal election
- September 18 - Afghan parliamentary election
- September 19 - North Korea agrees to stop building nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and cooperation.
- September 24 - Hurricane Rita hits the US Gulf Coast. The 9th Ward section of New Orleans floods for the 2nd time in a month and a half. Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama are also affected.
- September 25 - Polish parliamentary election.
- 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.
- September 27 - Michaëlle Jean, born in Haiti, becomes the 27th Governor General of Canada, and the first black person to hold that position.
- September 28 - American politician Tom DeLay is indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy by a Texas grand jury.
- September 29 - John G. Roberts, Jr. is confirmed and sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
- September 30 - The Parliament of Catalonia passes with 120 plus votes and 15 against, the Project of New Catalan Statute of Autonomy, proclaiming in its article 1, "Catalonia is a nation".
- October 1 - 26 people are killed and more than 100 are injured in the 2005 Bali bombings.
- October 1 - The world's largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, is formed by the merger of two Japanese banking conglomerates.
- October 1 - An Australian photojournalist in Afghanistan, Stephen Dupont, films US soldiers two dead Taliban militias' bodies.
- October 2 - 20 people are killed in a shipwreck in Lake George, NY.
- October 4 - Hurricane Stan hits Mexico and Central America killing over 1,153 people.
- October 5 - Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith charged with refusing to serve in the Iraq war.
- October 7 - UN nuclear agency director Mohamed ElBaradei is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- October 8 - An earthquake in Kashmir kills about 80,000 people.
- October 9 - Polish presidential election.
- October 12 - The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched, carrying Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng for five days in orbit.
- October 13 - Veselin Topalov wins the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005
- October 15 - The referendum on the new Proposed Iraqi constitution is held.
- October 15 - Riot in Toledo, Ohio during a Neo-Nazi rally surrounding racial issues; 114 arrested
- October 15 - Qinghai-Tibet Railway completed.
- October 16 - US Helicopters and warplanes bomb two villages near Ramadi in western Iraq, killing about 70 people.
- October 18 - The UN tightens the rules for its staff, following several claims of financial impropriety and sexual abuse.
- October 19 - The Trials of Saddam Hussein begin.
- October 19 - Hurricane Wilma swells into a Category 5 storm.
- October 21 - 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, celebrations held around the United Kingdom.
- October 22 - Tropical Storm Alpha forms making the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season the most active on record.
- October 23 - Polish presidential election.
- October 23 - Referendum on the merger of the Kamchatka Oblast and the Autonomous District of Koryakia.
- October 23 - [http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendo_Sobre_a_Proibi%C3%A7%C3%A3o_do_Com%C3%A9rcio_de_Armas_e_Muni%C3%A7%C3%A3o_no_Brasil Guns and Amno Ban Referendum] in Brazil
- October 23 - Bellview Airlines Flight 210 crashes in Nigeria.
- October 24 - Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in southwestern Florida as a category 3 hurricane.
- October 26 - The Chicago White Sox win the 2005 World Series.
- October 26 - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map" at "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran, Iran, and condemns peace process.
- October 27 - Two teenagers accidentally electrocute themselves in Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, France, leading to widespread rioting.
- 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 29 - A train in Andhra Pradesh, India derails, killing at least 77 people.
- October 29 - At least 61 people are dead and many others wounded in three powerful blasts in the Indian capital, Delhi. See 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings for full details.
- October 30 - Hurricane Beta hits the coast of Nicaragua. It is the thirteenth hurricane of 2005, breaking the 1969 record of 12 hurricanes.
- November 1 - The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall arrive in the United States for a state visit, their first overseas tour since their marriage.
United States:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American.
The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America.
The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.
Geography and climate
The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas.
Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization.
When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²).
The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity.
Hawaii
The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.
History
American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200.
Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there.
During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655.
This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule.
British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]]
In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed.
From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, | | |
