1st Quarter of 2005 Calendar

• January 2005
  January 26 - Condoleeza Rice is confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State, the first black woman in history to hold the position.
  
  February 2005
  February 3 - The United States Senate approves the first Hispanic attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez.
  
  March 2005
  March 28 - An 8.7-magnitude earthquake strikes Sumatra, just three months after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

2nd quarter of 2005 Calendar

• April 2005
  April 2 - Pope John Paul II dies, and more than 4 million people go to the Vatican to mourn.
  April 4 - North Carolina beats Illinois and wins the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.
  
  May 2005
  May 19 - The last movie in the Star Wars saga is released and breaks the opening day box office record.
  May 4 - At least 60 people die in northern Iraq at a suicide bombing, one of the largest insurgent attacks to date.
  May 31 - W. Mark Felt is revealed as the whistleblower in the 1970s Watergate scandal.
  
  June 2005
  June 13 - Singer Michael Jackson is acquitted of all charges in his trial.

3rd quarter of 2005 Calendar

• July 2005
  July 29 - American astronomers announce the discovery of a tenth planet in our solar system, located further away than Pluto.
  July 24 - Lance Armstrong wins his 7th consecutive Tours de France.
  
  August 2005
  August 29 - Category 5 Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast, catastrophically damaging New Orleans and coastal Mississippi.
  
  September 2005
  September 1 - Oil prices rise dramatically due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

4th quarter of 2005 Calendar

• October 2005
  October 15 - Iraqis vote in a referendum to ratify the proposed Iraqi constitution.
  October 24 - Civil rights activist Rosa Parks dies.
  
  November 2005
  November 30 - French surgeons conduct the first-ever human face transplant.
  
  December 2005
  December 23 - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces the first of a predicted series of reductions in U.S. combat troops for 2006.