August 2005 in History

Events in History

Aug 1 Stieg Larsson's novel "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (first of the Millennium series) is published posthumously in Sweden

Aug 2 MESSENGER spacecraft performs an Earth flyby
Aug 2 The largest trade in NBA history is completed as 5 teams combine to swap 13 players; deal brings Antoine Walker & Jason Williams to Miami, leads to Heat's 1st ever championship that season
Aug 3 President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia

Aug 4 Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th and first black Governor General

Aug 12 An F1 tornado strikes Glen Cove, New York, a rare event on Long Island
Aug 12 An F2 tornado strikes the coal mining town of Wright, Wyoming, destroying nearly 100 homes and killing two people.
Aug 12 Civil unrest provoked in the Maldives
Aug 12 Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sniper at his home
Aug 16 West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes near Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard.
Aug 17 The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
Aug 18 Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial killings in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
Aug 18 Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people.
Aug 19 A series of strong storms lashes Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities. In Toronto, it is also dubbed as the Toronto Supercell.
Aug 19 The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins

Aug 23 Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas, later becoming a category 5 hurricane

Aug 23 TANS Peru Flight 204 crashes near Pucallpa, Peru, killing 41.
Aug 29 Hurricane Katrina makes 2nd and 3rd landfall as a category 3 hurricane, devastating much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida Panhandle. Kills more than 1,836, causes over $115 billion in damage.
Aug 31 A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.

Aug 5 Bavaria's Prince Leopold's son Prince Manuel von Bayern (31) weds Prince Ludwig-Ferdinand's daughter Princess Anna of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in Sweden
Aug 20 Award-winning American news anchor Lauren Sanchez (35) weds prominent talent agent Patrick Whitesell at The Bacara Resort and Spa in Santa Barbara, California
Aug 21 "Strictly Come Dancing" hostess Natasha Kaplinsky (32) weds investment banker Justin Bower at St. Margaret's Church in Somerset, England
Aug 25 Prince Pieter-Christiaan of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven (33) weds Princess Anita van Eijk (25) on a civil ceremony at the Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Aug 30 "Squeeze" band founder Jools Holland (47) weds sculptor Christabel McEwen at St. James Church in Cooling, Kent, England

Aug 1 Constant [Nieuwenhuys], Dutch painter (Uprising of Homo Ludens), and sculptor, dies at 85
Aug 1 Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia (1982-2005), dies at 84
Aug 1 WiBo, Dutch cartoonist, dies at 87
Aug 2 Steven Vincent, American journalist and writer, kidnapped and murdered by religious extremists in Iraq at 49
Aug 3 Françoise d'Eaubonne, French feminist (b. 1920)
Aug 4 Anatoly Larkin, Russian American physicist, dies at 72
Aug 5 Raul Roco, Philippine senator (b. 1941)
Aug 6 Crème Puff, world's oldest recorded cat, dies in Texas aged 38 years and 3 days [1]
Aug 6 Robin Cook, British politician (b. 1946)
Aug 8 Ahmed Deedat, Islamic scholar (b. 1918)
Aug 8 John H. Johnson, African-American publisher Negro Digest, Ebony, Jet), dies at 87
Aug 8 Monica Sjöö, Swedish artist (b. 1938)
Aug 9 Judith Rossner, American novelist (Looking for Mr Goodbar), dies at 70
Aug 12 John Loder, co-founder of the anarcho-punk band CRASS (b. 1946)
Aug 12 Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan politician (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka), dies at 73

Aug 13 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (Labour: 1984-89), dies of complications associated with renal failure and diabetes at 63

Aug 16 Frère Roger, Swiss monk and mystic (b. 1915)
Aug 16 William Corlett, English children's writer(b. 1938)
Aug 17 John Bahcall, American astrophysicist (b. 1934)
Aug 19 Mo Mowlam, British Labour Party politician (Member of Parliament for Redcar), dies at 55
Aug 21 Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (b. 1936)
Aug 21 Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1925)
Aug 21 Polly Hill, British economic anthropologist (studied Cocoa-Farmers of Southern Ghana), dies at 91
Aug 22 Juliet Pannett, English portrait painter (Illustrated London News), dies at 94 [1]
Aug 23 Ninjalicious, Canadian author and urban explorer (b. 1973)
Aug 25 Peter Glotz, German politician (b. 1939)
Aug 26 Gerry Fitt, Northern Irish politician (Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party), dies at 79
Aug 26 Robert Denning, American interior designer, dies at 78
Aug 28 Esther Szekeres, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1910)
Aug 28 George Szekeres, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1911)
Aug 30 James H. Scheuer, American politician (Rep-D-NY, 1965-73, 75- 93), dies of heart and kidney failure at 85
Aug 31 Joseph Rotblat, Polish-British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (for work to end the nuclear arms race), dies at 96