On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Lester M. Crawford, the commissioner of food and drugs, resigned abruptly on Friday, causing further upheaval at an agency that has been in turmoil for more than a year. Dr. Crawford, who was confirmed just two months ago, on July 18, after serving as acting commissioner for more than a year, did not say why he was stepping down.
As Discovery orbited the Earth in early August, millions of people visited Yahoo, which runs the most popular news site on the Internet, to see the nail-biting conclusion to the troubled shuttle mission. Could NASA find a way to bring the astronauts home safely? Despite the drama and the huge number of people flocking to the site, Lloyd Braun, the television impresario hired last year to oversee Yahoo's media operation, was not satisfied. All Yahoo was offering its users, Mr. Braun fumed, was a white page filled with links to other sites on the Web.
The head of New Jersey's troubled child welfare agency announced his resignation yesterday, just days before an independent panel is scheduled to release a report on the agency's progress implementing court-ordered reforms. Edward E. Cotton, leader of the Division of Youth and Family Services, had faced increasing criticism from child welfare advocacy groups and others about the state's mixed results in meeting the requirements of the settlement of a class action lawsuit in 2003 that called for an overhaul of the system.
The Jets formally told the National Football League this week that they are pursuing plans to build a $1.35 billion stadium in Queens, even as a deadline looms for an agreement to build a stadium in New Jersey with the Giants. The Jets appear to be formally opening up a two-state auction in which they are trying to get New Jersey and New York to outdo each other in offering a more lucrative deal for the team.
Ten days before the end of a season that has already turned sour, the Baltimore Orioles again found themselves absorbed in baseball's steroids problems. In this instance, Miguel Tejada was in the spotlight, saying Friday that a substance he gave Rafael Palmeiro earlier this season was a vitamin and could not have caused Palmeiro's positive test for steroids. Weary of the distractions caused by Palmeiro's situation, the Orioles announced Friday that Palmeiro would not return this season, probably ending his career with the club. He has not been with the team for nearly three weeks; the Orioles sent him home to Texas on Sept. 5 to rehabilitate injuries to his right knee and left ankle.
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of September 21, 2005, covering September 24, 2005.
Kanye West
50 Cent
The Rolling Stones
The Black Eyed Peas
Mariah Carey
2005Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating portions of southwestern Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas.[†]
Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico, tying with Hurricane Milton in 2024, as well as being the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the ten most intense Atlantic hurricanes in terms of barometric pressure ever recorded, Rita was the seventeenth named storm, tenth hurricane, and fifth major hurricane of the 2005 season. It was also the earliest-forming 17th named storm in the Atlantic until Tropical Storm Rene in 2020. Rita formed near The Bahamas from a tropical wave on September 18, 2005, that originally developed off the coast of West Africa. It moved westward, and after passing through the Florida Straits, Rita entered an environment of abnormally warm waters. Moving west-northwest, it rapidly intensified to reach peak winds of 180 mph (285 km/h), achieving Category 5 status on September 21. However, it weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall in Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana, between Sabine Pass, Texas and Holly Beach, Louisiana, with winds of 115 mph (185 km/h). Rapidly weakening over land, Rita degenerated into a large low-pressure area over the lower Mississippi Valley by September 26.
In 2005, the world population was approximately 6,586,970,132 people[†]