On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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McDonald's is adding apple slices and salads to its menus, hoping to pacify public health officials and other critics of its highly processed fat- and calorie-laden sandwiches, drinks and fries; move is making McDonald's a major player in $80 billion American produce industry, with power to influence not only volume, variety and price of produce, but also how it is grown; photos (L)
Seth Kugel travel article on partying and nightlife in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; photos; map (L)
Thousands of owners of homes and small apartment buildings have been abruptly caught up in new drive by New York City tax officials to enforce laws that let them raise taxes sharply when owners file for permits for major renovations of older buildings; large increases are being imposed at time when state bars city from rapidly raising assessments for other homeowners; largest involve small apartment buildings and four-family brownstones, which pay much higher tax rate than one- to three-family homes; greatest increases seem to be in Harlem and parts of Brooklyn that are in midst of wave of renovation and reinvestment in older buildings; map; photos (M)
Frank Rich column on disturbing patterns in Bush administration handling of relations with press; cites recent scandal in which Jeff Gannon, whose real identity is James D Guckert and who is employed by Republican media organization, was given White House press credentials and used to push Bush agenda through carefully scripted questions at press conferences and creation of fake news stories; photo (M)
Hundreds of people gather in Great Britain on horseback and foot to ride and run with hounds in defiance of new law forbidding hunting with intent to kill foxes and allowing hounds to do killing; hunters insist they will test law without actually breaking it, under legal guise of exercising hounds; some see situation as crisis of confidence in government; others say fight is urban-rural battle or class warfare; photos (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of February 16, 2005, covering February 20, 2005.
The Game
Tina Turner
Green Day
Kenny Chesney
John Legend
2005Sandra Dee, American actress (born 1942)[†]
Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year's most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wise's Until They Sail (1957). She became a teenage star for her performances in Imitation of Life, Gidget and A Summer Place, which made her a household name.
2005Josef Holeček, Czechoslovakian canoeist (born 1921)[†]
Josef Holeček was a Czechoslovakian sprint canoeist who competed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won gold medals in the C-1 1000 m event in both 1948 and 1952.
2005John Raitt, American actor and singer (born 1917)[†]
John Emmet Raitt was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theatre. His most notable roles were Billy Bigelow in the original Broadway cast of Carousel and Curly in the original Chicago production of Oklahoma!.
2005Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (born 1937)[†]
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prominence with the book Hell's Angels (1967), for which he lived a year among the Hells Angels motorcycle club to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences. In 1970, he wrote an unconventional article titled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for Scanlan's Monthly, which further raised his profile as a countercultural figure. It also set him on the path to establish the subgenre of New Journalism that he called "Gonzo", a style in which the writer becomes central to, and participant in the narrative.
2005Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.[†]
A referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was held in Spain on Sunday, 20 February 2005. The question asked was "Do you approve of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe?". The consultative referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution for the European Union was approved by 81.8% of valid votes, although turnout was just 41.8%, the lowest since the end of the Franco era.
In 2005, the world population was approximately 6,586,970,132 people[†]