A round-up of major world events in 2005.
JANUARY: About 300,000 people are dead and over a million are left homeless after the December 26th tsunamis. Global donations reach $6 billion. Disaster leads in August to a peace deal with Indonesia's Aceh separatist rebels.
The governor of Baghdad, Ali Al-Haidri, is assassinated.
Mahmoud Abbas succeeds Yasser Arafat.
Huygens probe lands on Titan, largest moon of Saturn.
George W Bush inaugurated as 43rd US president.
Sudan and SPLA rebels sign a comprehensive peace agreement but fighting continued all year in Darfur.
Viktor Yushchenko becomes Ukrainian president in the "Orange revolution".
Stampede at an Indian pilgrimage kills at least 215, mostly women and children.
Shias and Kurds prevail in first free elections in Iraq since 1958, held despite a wave of killings. Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani elected president.
Death of deposed CP leader Zhao Ziyang is hardly mentioned in China’s media.
FEBRUARY: Danish elections continue centre-right coalition under Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Nepal’s king takes absolute power.
Two US soldiers plead guilty to Abu Ghraib prison abuse.
A massive suicide bomb in Beirut kills Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri.
About 59 people killed in a Tehran mosque fire.
More than 500 killed in an Iranian earthquake.
Kyoto Protocol comes into effect, without US, Australian, Chinese, Indian, or Brazilian support.
Landslide Portuguese victory for Socialists.
Uruguay gets a left-wing president.
MARCH: US Supreme Court rules the death penalty unconstitutional for under-18s.
UK’s controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act passed by the House of Lords.
China ratifies an anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan, where street protests follow.
A million rally in Beirut demanding justice for Hariri killing.
"Tulip revolution" overthrows President Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan.
Aslan Maskhadov killed in Chechnya.
APRIL: Anti-Japanese demonstrations in China over Tokyo's "revisionist" wartime history books.
Death of Pope John Paul II.
Tens of thousands march in Baghdad denouncing the US occupation.
Monaco’s Prince Rainier dies.
Marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.
President Lucio Gutierrez of Ecuador flees.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI.
Syria withdraws last of its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.
Superjumbo Airbus 380 makes first flight.
MAY: British Labour elected with substantially reduced majority.
International protests follow killing by troops in Uzbekistan of up to 700 in Andijan.
George Galloway MP makes a combative appearance at a US Senate committee, to answer allegations of making money from the Iraqi oil-for food programme.
US-backed Azerbaijan-Turkey oil pipeline opens.
Kuwaiti women get the vote.
France resoundingly rejects European Constitution.
W Mark Felt named as "Deep Throat".
About 30,000 people held in Zimbabwe shanty town clearance.
JUNE: The Netherlands rejects the European Constitution.
Switzerland votes to join Schengen area and to allow same-sex partnerships, which Spain, Belgium, Canada and South Africa do later.
Syrian President Abdul Halim Khaddam quits.
In Lebanon, an anti-Syrian alliance wins elections and Hariri ally Fouad Siniora becomes PM.
Bolivian President Mesa resigns.
Singer Michael Jackson acquitted of all charges of harming children.
JULY: Live 8, a series of 10 simultaneous concerts throughout the world, raise interest in the Make Poverty History campaign before the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, which agrees debt relief for 18 countries.
2012 Olympics awarded to London.
7/7: Four explosions rock the transport network in London with over 50 deaths.
An innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, is mistaken for a bomber and shot dead.
Afghan President Karzai calls for a rethink of the war strategy.
Blasts in Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh kill 88.
AUGUST: At least 2.5 million in three African countries face starvation.
King Abdullah takes over from Saudi’s late King Fahd.
Sudan riots follow death of ex-rebel leader John Garang.
Ariel Sharon’s forced evacuation from 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip is completed.
Hurricane Katrina strikes the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts killing at least 1,300 people and devastating New Orleans.
A crowd crush on the al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills several hundred civilians.
SEPTEMBER: President Mubarak wins Egypt's first multi-party presidential election.
Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi returned to power.
New Zealand Labour PM Helen Clark elected for a third term.
Afghanistan holds elections.
After protracted negotiations, North Korea agrees to stop building nuclear weapons in exchange for aid.
Hurricane Rita hits the US Gulf Coast.
US army reservist Lynndie England convicted over Abu Ghraib abuse.
Conservative Law and Justice party wins Polish elections.
OCTOBER: Twenty-six people killed in Bali bombings.
A huge earthquake hits Pakistani Kashmir, killing about 80,000 people with 60,000 more feared this winter.
Pakistan criticises the Western aid effort.
Iraqi constitution passed in referendum.
Qinghai-Tibet Railway completed.
200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar brings celebrations and disputes.
Personal arms upheld in Brazilian referendum.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Saddam Hussein trial opens.
Two teenagers fleeing police electrocute themselves in Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, leading to widespread rioting. President Chirac declares a state of emergency on the 12th day of riots and allows curfews.
NOVEMBER: At least 50 people killed in suicide bombings in Amman.
Kofi Annan visits Iraq urging reconciliation. About 3,550 US and Iraqi troops launch an offensive near the Syrian border.
Ex-Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori arrested upon arrival from Japan.
Ariel Sharon resigns from Likud to form a new grouping and asks for a general election.
Venezuela and Mexico recall ambassadors in a verbal war over free trade.
Dr Angela Merkel eventually becomes Germany’s first woman chancellor.
Tony Blair talked President Bush out of bombing Al-Jazeera TV last year but London gags further reports.
Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year-old Briton, is reported as the first person to have been "cured" of HIV.
DECEMBER: After protracted negotiations, impecunious East Timor is forced to agree energy terms with Australia.
Tens of thousands in Hong Kong protest for democracy.
David Cameron (39) elected British Tory leader.
Playwright Harold Pinter, in a Nobel Prize acceptance lecture, excoriates a "brutal, scornful, and ruthless" United States.
US agrees at Montreal climate conference to negotiate on Kyoto.
President Bush’s ratings improve after admitting faults over Iraq. The president agrees to ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of any detainee in US custody and admits 30,000 Iraqis have died since the invasion.
Council of Europe report says "rendition" reports on US prisoners are "credible".
The WTO agrees an interim deal to end export farm subsidies by 2013 and to improve poor countries’ access to rich markets.
EU budget providing €158 billion for the 10 new member states agreed after Britain agrees to a reduced rebate.
Bolivia elects left-wing indigenous president.