The World in 2005 the year YouTube pressed upload
1BInternet users
2.2BMobile phones
111MInternet users in China
$2.27Gallon of gas (US)
$6.41Movie ticket (US)
$399Xbox 360 at US launch
55%French no vote on the EU constitution
6.9MPotter books sold in a day (US)
1stWoman elected to lead an African country
China had about 111 million people online in 2005. Only the United States had more, and China passed it three years later.
Life back then

Nokia made about one phone in three, and people paid real money for ringtones. Texts were tapped out on number keys, three presses for the letter C. Facebook still let only students join, so most people met online somewhere else. Podcast was such a new word that dictionary editors picked it as word of the year. In July the Live 8 concerts played on the same day in cities from London to Philadelphia to Johannesburg, and a small site called YouTube went online in February with nothing on it at all.
The year in 8 events
- ๐ณ๏ธJan 30 Iraqis vote in their first free election since Saddam Hussein fell. Voters hold up ink stained fingers to show they took part.
- ๐๏ธApr 2 Pope John Paul II dies after 26 years as pope. Millions travel to Rome for his funeral.
- ๐นApr 23 The first YouTube video goes up, a 19 second clip called Me at the zoo, filmed at the San Diego Zoo.
- ๐ฏ๏ธJul 7 Bombs on London trains and a bus kill 52 people.
- ๐Aug 29 Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast and floods New Orleans. More than 1,800 people die.
- ๐ฏ๏ธOct 8 A huge earthquake hits Kashmir. About 86,000 people die, most of them in northern Pakistan.
- ๐Oct 24 Rosa Parks dies at 92. Fifty years earlier she refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama.
- ๐๏ธNov 22 Angela Merkel becomes Germany's first woman chancellor.