Events Date 2005 August | History by KabAstro

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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

Sports History

Aug 4 American Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day (52) announces his retirement from the saddle; $298m in career purses

Event of Interest

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

21st Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin

Aug 5 Discovery of Skull 5, the earliest complete Homo erectus skull aged 1.8 million years old, at Dmanisi, Georgia, by archaeologist David Lordkipanidze, site of first known hominids to leave Africa [1]
Aug 5 NBA announces Las Vegas will host the 2007 All Star game; first time event will be held in a city without an NBA team

Baseball Record

Aug 5 St. Louis Cardinals 1st baseman Albert Pujols becomes the first player to connect for 30 home runs in each of his first 5 MLB seasons

Aug 6 10th Athletics World Championships open at Helsinki, Finland

Sports History

Aug 7 American sprinter Justin Gatlin blitzes field to win 100m in 9.88 at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland

Aug 7 In one of cricket history's closest Tests, and despite a brave unbeaten 43 from Australian tail-ender Brett Lee, England sneaks a 2-run win in series turning 2nd Test at Edgbaston
Aug 11 American Justin Gatlin becomes only the 2nd athlete to take sprint double, winning 200m in 20.04 at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland
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

PGA Championship

Aug 15 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Baltusrol GC: American Phil Mickelson wins by 1 stroke from Australian Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjørn of Denmark

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

Hurricane Katrina

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.

Music History

Aug 26 US Postal Service christens a Los Angeles facility as "The Ray Charles Station"

Aug 28 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Reserve Vineyards & GC: Loren Roberts wins first of 4 Champions Tour majors with bogey on 2nd playoff hole against Dana Quigley
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.