Events Date 2005 December | History by KabAstro

The Color Purple

Dec 1 Musical "The Color Purple" based on the book by Alice Walker opens on Broadway produced by Oprah Whitney starring LaChanze (Tony Award Best Actress in a Musical)

Dec 2 Van Tuong Nguyen is executed in Singapore for drug trafficking.
Dec 3 10th Big 12 Championship Game: #2 Texas beats Colorado, 70-3
Dec 3 14th SEC Championship Game: #13 Georgia beats #3 LSU, 34-14
Dec 3 1st ACC Championship Game: #22 Florida State beats #5 Virginia Tech, 27-22
Dec 3 XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
Dec 4 94th Davis Cup: Croatia beats Slovak Republic in Bratislava (3-2)
Dec 4 Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage

Pope John Paul II

Dec 4 U.S. debut of the first part of two-part TV biopic miniseries "Pope John Paul II" on CBS

Dec 5 The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.
Dec 5 The Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Green Day, 50 Cent, Carey Win

Dec 6 16th Billboard Music Awards: Green Day, 50 Cent, and Mariah Carey win

Dec 6 Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China
Dec 7 Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of US federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
Dec 7 U.S. debut of the second part of two-part TV biopic miniseries "Pope John Paul II" on CBS
Dec 8 Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police.

Brokeback Mountain

Dec 9 "Brokeback Mountain" film released, directed by Ang Lee, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, based on story by Annie Proulx

Dec 10 71st Heisman Trophy Award: Reggie Bush, USC (RB); Bush later forfeits trophy
Dec 11 Cronulla riots: thousands of white Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence, resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who were not) in Cronulla Sydney. These are followed by ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
Dec 11 The Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead, England, is rocked by explosions, causing a huge oil fire.

Movin' Out

Dec 11 Twyla Tharp's rock ballet "Movin' Out", set to songs of Billy Joel, closes at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, NYC after 1,303 performances

Pianist, Songwriter and Composer Billy Joel

Dec 15 Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
Dec 15 Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
Dec 15 Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of same-sex couples being entitled to marry.
Dec 15 The 2005 Atlantic Power Outage began.
Dec 17 Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong

"The Breakthrough"

Dec 20 Geffen Records releases "The Breakthrough", the 7th studio album by Mary J. Blige; it wins 3 Grammy Awrds, and sells over 3 million copies

Dec 20 New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike over pension and wage increases, shutting down all subway and bus services for three days
Dec 20 The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated
Dec 20 US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
Dec 21 Civil Partnership Act comes into force in the UK, with singer Elton John and David Furnish one of the first couples to form a same-sex civil union

Sakic Named Olympic Captain

Dec 21 Joe Sakic is named captain of the 2006 Team Canada Olympic team

Dec 23 Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Aktau, Kazakhstan crashes shortly after takeoff killing 23 people.
Dec 23 Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead
Dec 26 Boxing Day shooting on a busy shopping street in Toronto kills 1 and wounds 6 others
Dec 28 A U.S. immigration judge orders John Demjanjuk deported to Ukraine for crimes against humanity committed during World War II.
Dec 30 Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin