On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 2005, the world population was approximately 6,586,970,132 people[†]
2005Victoria de los Ángeles, Spanish soprano and actress (born 1923)[†]
Victoria de los Ángeles López García was a Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.
2005Walter Ernsting, German author (born 1920)[†]
Walter Ernsting was a German science fiction and fantasy author who mainly published under the pseudonym Clark Darlton. He grew up in Koblenz and was drafted into the German Wehrmacht shortly after the beginning of World War II. He served in an intelligence unit in Norway and on the Eastern Front, where he was captured and spent several years as a prisoner of war in Siberia.
2005Elizabeth Janeway, American author and critic (born 1913)[†]
Elizabeth Janeway was an American author and critic.
2005Ruth Warrick, American actress (born 1916)[†]
Ruth Elizabeth Warrick was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on All My Children, which she played regularly from 1970 until her death in 2005. She made her film debut in Citizen Kane, and years later celebrated her 80th birthday by attending a special screening of the film.
2005ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon.[†]
The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European integration. Its 2025 annual budget was €7.7 billion.
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Pittsburgh Steelers longtime stadium announcer Myron Cope will call second-round playoff game at Heinz Field (Pa) against New York Jets; photos (M)
New York Jets and receiver Santana Moss prepare to face Pittsburgh Steelers in second round of playoffs; photos (M)
Informed sources say Gov George E Pataki will propose at least $1 billion in spending cuts to Medicaid, in effort to close state budget gap; say Pataki will also call for at least $500 million in additional taxes and surcharges on hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers to help state wrestle with projected budget shortfall of $4 billion; Medicaid consumes about 44 percent of state's $100 billion budget, but officials have been unable to curb program (M)
New York City cancels all contracts with St Christopher's Inc, long-established foster care agency in Dobbs Ferry, NY, after investigators find it falsified case records for scores of children in its care; officials say agency doctored records to hide failure of its employees to visit foster children in their assigned homes and failure to ensure that children received basic medical care; Administration for Children's Services cancels eight contracts with agency, worth $89 million; St Christopher's cared for 690 children from New York City; agency exec dir Luis Medina resigns after city's announcement; photo (M)
European spacecraft Huygens lands on Saturn's moon Titan; astronomers express joy at achieving first landing on another planet's moon, particularly Titan, only moon in solar system with substantial atmosphere; first pictures from spacecraft show what appears to be deep channels leading to shoreline of dark, flat surface, possibly lake of liquid methane; scientists say Titan may resemble Earth early in its development and could give clues to origin of life here; photo (M)
New York City Education Department issues new rules on school zoning that give district parent councils only narrow authority to approve geographic boundaries of elementary elementary and middle schools and that curtail councils' powers over other aspects of school enrollment; says that new rules were written to adhere closely to state law that gives Mayor Michael R Bloomberg control over schools; Assemblyman Steven Sanders, law's architect, says that rules violate spirit of law; new rules give councils no authority over schools that admit students by application, through so-called choice options, and that includes most of dozens of new schools planned by Bloomberg administration (M)
Many immigrants and their advocates question policies that expedite citizenship process for skilled professionals and those who serve in military and at same time make life harder for others, such as refugees who arrived here after Aug 22, 1996, and face loss of Supplemental Security Income if they fail to gain citizenship in seven years; Vladislav Kolesnikov is on fast track to naturalization thanks to his military service, but his ailing mother, Viktoriya Khudaya, and grandmother, Mina Gorenshteyn, who life in Brooklyn, have lost disability payments solely because they are not citizens; difference in treatment between immigrants who serve government's needs and those who need its help reflects longstanding and growing tension at heart of US immigration policy; photos; graphs (M)
New York City Finance Dept reports that market value of city's real estate rose 14 percent in 2004, to $616 billion; says rise, which follows three successive years of sharp gains, is broadly based in all boroughs of city; experts attribute rise to several years of historically low mortgage rates and continued migration of new residents to city; city will take steps to correct longstanding inequities in tax assessment system, reducing taxable assessment value of one-, two-, and three-family homes to 6 percent of their market value from 8 percent; value of vacant land rose by 27 percent in Manhattan and about 40 percent in outer boroughs; chart (M)
Growing number of investors are buying corporate loans, obscure investment once dominated buy large commercial banks; over last decade, banks have ceded much of business of lending to riskier companies to expanding group of investors including insurance companies, pension funds and individuals looking for higher-yielding alternatives to money market funds; Loan Pricing Corp says lending to broad range of companies is on rise, with $1.3 trillion in financings completed last year; biggest boom is in loans to highly indebted companies; these deals, known as leveraged loans, rose 60 percent over last year, to $480 billion; graph (M)
Analysis of rally in US dollar against euro and yen and rise in interest rates in wake of Federal Reserve Bank president William Poole's hint that Fed might move more aggressively on interest rates; graphs (M)
Specialist Charles A Graner Jr, Army reservist accused of being ringleader in Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, is found guilty on all charges by military jury in Fort Hood, Tex; it is year to day after Pentagon began investigation into photographs showing Iraqi detainees bound and brutalized or forced into sexually humiliating positions; photo (M)
Prime Min Ariel Sharon orders Israeli officials to cut ties with Palestinian Authority and that Gaza Strip be sealed until Palestinian leaders move to curb terrorism; issues order day after Palestinian militants killed six Israelis at checkpoint on Gaza border; Sec of State Colin L Powell expresses hope that Sharon's action will be 'temporary breach'; Israeli officials say meeting between Sharon and newly elected Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas will have to wait for Palestinian security forces to move against militants; photos (M)