In my continuing coverage of the week of the much-awaited-for Mac OS X Leopard release, which is probably a big joke considering that I’m spending half of this week completely out of town, possibly without internet access of any sort, I move on to Part 2 of my Tiger-to-Leopard series, which as far as I know is the only series on the entire Internet dedicated exclusively to looking at just how damn long it’s taken for Apple to get this latest cat out of its gigantic, iPhone-shaped bag. Today, I look at World News! In our rapidly changing, fairly turbulent world, what of national importance (and some things of unimportance) has happened in the last 2 and a half years?
I should mention, by the way, that this particular portion of my Tiger-to-Leopard series is brought to you almost in full by Wikipedia. Who would have thought that it could be such a useful resource for all kinds of wonderful information?
Shall we begin?
On May 31st, 2005, the identity of the Watergate leaker Deep Throat was revealed.
On July 19th, President Bush appointed John Roberts to replace retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Two days later, a terrorist attack in London fails.
On July 24th, Lance Armstrong wins his seventh straight (and his last) Tour de France.
The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched, the first shuttle launched since the February 2003 breakup of the Columbia.
On July 29th, Eris, classified as a dwarf planet 12 months later, is discovered, and is actually found to be slightly bigger than Pluto, which was then considered a planet. (It actually wasn’t named Eris until 14 months later, then called 2003 UB313.)
Part of the record-shattering 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the Gulf Coast on August 29th, 2005. The 2005 season had 28 tropical storms (previous record: 21), 15 hurricanes (previous record: 12), 7 major hurricanes (record: 8), 4 Category 5 storms (previous record: 2), and also included the first, fourth, and sixth strongest storms on record (Wilma, Rita, Katrina), plus the only two major hurricanes on record for the month of July (Dennis and Emily, the latter of which was a Category 5).
Following Hurricane Katrina, gas prices crossed $3/gallon in the United States for the first time ever; one station in New York had $4.50/gallon prices at one point. Of course, now, $3/gallon is just about normal, though still ridiculous.
The Colbert Report premiered on Comedy Central on October 17th, 2005.
On November 13th, 2005, Andrew Stimpson was reported as the first man to be ‘cured’ of HIV.
On November 30th, 2005, French surgeons carried out the first human face transplant.
The European Union TLD .eu was launched on December 7, and .eu domains would open to the public 4 months later.
On December 31st, 2005, a leap second is added to the end of the day in UTC time, marking the first occurrence of a leap second in seven years.
January 27th, 2006 was the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
February 10-26, 2006: the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Febuary 11th, 2006 was the date of the infamous Dick Cheney “shoot me in the face” hunting incident.
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth opens on May 24, 2006.
June-July, 2006 saw the FIFA World Cup in Germany.
On August 24th, 2006, the definition of ‘planet’ was defined, and a new concept, a ‘dwarf planet’, was conceived. As a consequence, Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, and just like that, the solar system went from having nine planets to eight planets. Oh, and that controversy over how sometimes Pluto and Neptune switch places in distance from the sun? No longer an issue: Neptune is now the farthest planet from the sun. Period.
Steve Irwin passed away in September 2006.
The Mark Foley scandal was revealed on September 29, 2006.
Democrats win control of both houses of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections. The next day, United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigns.
Former US President Gerald Ford passes away on December 26th, 2006.
Saddam Hussein is executed on December 30th, 2006. Incidentally, from April 2005 to October 2007, about 2,000 US troops have died in Iraq, more than double the casualty count from April 2005.
The 21,500 troop Iraq War surge was announced by President Bush on January 10th, 2007.
On January 17th, 2007, the Doomsday Clock was set 5 minutes to midnight.
April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech Massacre
June 6, 2007 was the recording of the last episode of The Price is Right with Bob Barker, which aired nine days later.
On June 27, 2007, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped down.
Live Earth concerts were held in 9 major cities around the world on July 7th, 2007.
On August 7th, 2007, Barry Bonds broke the all-time home run record by hitting his 756th home run.
There was a total lunar eclipse on August 28th, 2007.
On October 17th, 2007, Stephen Colbert announces his candidacy for President of the United States.
And, at this point, my eyes hurt, I’ve been at this for over two hours, and so I’m going to declare this a sufficient look back at some of the big world news that has taken place in the last two and a half years. Or, at any case, enough of a look back that Wikipedia thinks is important.
But do you have any important World News items that I may have missed? Hie thee hence to the comments section! Be sure to check out the other articles in the Tiger-to-Leopard series, and my other Webmacster87.info coverage on Mac OS X Leopard.
Tags: history, Mac OS X Leopard, Tiger-to-Leopard, Wikipedia, world news
