T minus 20

Rewind to 3 July 2005 to 9 July 2005 and buckle in, because the chaos this week is coming at you from space, underground, and straight out of the Hot 97 parking lot.

💥 NASA punches a comet. Because smashing things is how science happens. Deep Impact lived up to the movie name as NASA slammed a probe into Comet Tempel 1 at 22,800 mph to see what was hiding beneath. Spoiler: space dust, ice, organic gunk, and some existential dread about how small we are.

💔 London under attack. The world stood still as four coordinated bombings hit London’s transport system during peak hour, killing 52 people. The 7/7 attacks changed the conversation on homegrown extremism, radicalisation, and how vulnerable cities really are.

🎧 Lil’ Kim keeps it real… illegally. The Queen Bee is sentenced to prison for lying to a grand jury about a shootout outside Hot 97. Turns out the “no snitching” rule doesn’t hold up so well under federal cross-examination.

🎾 Federer serves history. Roger Federer becomes the third man in the Open Era to win three consecutive Wimbledon titles, casually dismantling Andy Roddick in the process. It’s precision, it’s footwork, it’s Swiss efficiency at its finest.

🚀 Missy Elliott changes the recipe. The Cookbook drops, blending hip hop, dance, R&B, and Missy’s signature weirdness. “Lose Control” goes off, the album gets a Grammy, and Missy proves she’s still 10 steps ahead.

👽 War of the Worlds invades the box office. Tom Cruise runs from aliens, Dakota Fanning screams, and we all remember Spielberg knows how to ruin a perfectly good New Jersey weekend.

📚 Dracula, but make it unnecessarily long. The Historian drops, promising epic gothic intrigue but mostly delivering travel descriptions, existential crises, and purple hats with too many adjectives.

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Rewind to 26 June 2005 to 2 July 2005

🎧 Podcasting goes mainstream. iTunes officially jumps on the podcast bandwagon and suddenly your weird uncle with a headset mic thinks he’s the next Ira Glass. Everyone’s got a podcast now — including us — but we promise zero toilet wine reviews.

⚖️ Grokster gets busted. The Supreme Court serves up a harsh reminder that building your business on pirated copies of Gladiator isn’t exactly legal. Goodbye free Shrek downloads, hello suspicious .exe files and 12-hour waits for "Finding Nemo" that definitely weren’t Nemo.

🧢 Ned Kelly gets heritage listed. Glenrowan, site of Ned Kelly’s final standoff, gets heritage status and an unofficial side hustle in car decals, mailbox toppers and calf tattoos that say “such is life.” Iconic outlaw, small-town merch king.

🎤 Live 8 turns up the volume. Bono, Pink Floyd and every early-2000s music icon throw the world’s biggest gig to ‘make poverty history.’ It’s Live Aid, but with broadband, more leather pants and slightly fewer perms.

🎥 Bobby Brown overshares. Being Bobby Brown premieres and we get an unfiltered, chaotic and occasionally TMI look into the life of Bobby and Whitney. It’s equal parts hilarious, uncomfortable and impossible to stop watching.

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Rewind to 19 June to 25 June 2005
This week, we’re talking digital disasters, newspaper nightmares and sports meltdowns so epic they’re still rage-tweeted about today.

🧻 Wikitorial wipeout. The LA Times tried letting the public edit their editorials. What they got instead? Porn, profanity and chaos in 36 hours. A short-lived democracy, quickly replaced by Ctrl+Alt+Nope.

🐀 Rat vs nation. One rat, one clumsy workman and boom—New Zealand goes offline. Stock exchange? Down. Internet? Toast. Emergency plan? Apparently, “fax machine.” Welcome to unplugged panic.

🏁 F1’s flattest finish. 14 cars dipped after the formation lap, leaving just six to race at the US Grand Prix. Thanks to a Michelin tyre fiasco and zero compromise from the FIA, fans got the most boring Ferrari win of all time.

🧠 Reddit is born. While MySpace was still everyone's homepage, Reddit quietly launched. Fake posts, wild AMAs and chaotic subreddits followed. Welcome to the front page of the internet or its dumpster fire (depending on the day)

🏀 Spurs keep it classy. The San Antonio Spurs clinch the NBA title without flash, drama or TikTok dances. Just Tim Duncan doing robot things and Robert Horry being clutch as hell. Dynasty-mode: activated.

🦇 Batman begins again. Christopher Nolan ditches the bat-nipples and gives us trauma, ninjas and a Batmobile that could eat your SUV. Christian Bale growls, Katie Holmes dodges bats and superhero movies grow the hell up.

🎧 Incomplete but intense. Backstreet’s back, but moody this time. Incomplete trades matching outfits for heartbreak and desert storms. Kevin Richardson calls it grown-up pop. We call it boy band emo-core.

📣 Battlefield goes boom. Battlefield 2 drops and online warfare is never the same. 64 players, flying tanks, screaming into voice chat—pure, chaotic bliss. Unless you were the guy always stealing the jet. We still hate you.

🎤 Biggie’s murder trial. The Notorious B.I.G.’s family sues LAPD, claiming Suge Knight orchestrated the hit. Secret files, gang links,and a whole lot of unsolved rage bubble back to the surface. The case? Declared a mistrial. Justice? Still MIA.

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Rewind to 12 to 18 June 2005, when Mike Tyson retired mid-fight, Brangelina launches with explosives, Etsy was born and Florence Aubenas emerged from the shadows of war.

🧨 Mr. & Mrs. scandal. Brad and Angelina play married assassins in Mr. & Mrs. Smith but the real fireworks were off-screen. Enter: the Brangelina era. Exit: Jen’s peace of mind.

🕊️ Florence freed. French journalist Florence Aubenas is released after five months held hostage in Iraq. Her return becomes a symbol of press freedom and blindfolded resilience.

⚖️ Not guilty. Michael Jackson is acquitted on all charges in a polarising courtroom circus. Fans release doves. Critics roll eyes. The King of Pop walks free, but not unscathed.

🇹🇱 Mission complete. Australia quietly pulls its final peacekeepers from East Timor, wrapping up a six-year stint of stabilising, rebuilding and dodging thanks or fanfare.

🥊 Iron Mike clocks out. Mike Tyson calls it quits mid-fight, proving that even the baddest man on the planet sometimes just wants to sit down and not get punched.

🧶 From glue gun to global. Etsy launches with scarves and reclaimed wood… fast-forward to taxidermy pope mice and Nicolas Cage fidget toys. The internet gets weird, handmade.

👋 Say their name (one last time). Destiny’s Child announce their breakup mid-tour. Beyoncé’s solo world domination is locked and loaded. Cue emotional damage and choreo nostalgia.

🎶 Backstreet’s back (but moodier). The Backstreet Boys return with Never Gone—guitars, midlife ballads and emotional eyeliner. They're older, softer and still not just a 90s punchline.

📚 1776: the page-turner that wasn’t. David McCullough’s epic on the American Revolution inspires… extreme Amazon reviews. “Like eating a brick” says one. Revolutionary? Sure. Entertaining? Not so much.

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Rewind to 5 to 11 June 2005 when Crazy Frogs topped the charts, Coldplay went full galaxy-brain and a Chinese spy scandal had Aussie politicians sweating harder than a velour tracksuit in summer.

🕵️‍♂️ Defection drama.Two Chinese officials blew the whistle on a massive spy network operating in Australia. Allegations included intimidation, surveillance and student kidnappings.

📦 Powder panic.White powder scares hit Parliament House and embassies around Canberra. Turns out it wasn’t Anthrax—just another week in early 2000s mail-based chaos.

🔪 Dr. Death exposed.Surgeon Jayant Patel was finally called out after years of botched surgeries and ignored warnings. Murder charges, inquiries and national outrage followed. Paging Nurse Hoffman, the real MVP.

🎾 Nadal’s clay coronation.A 19-year-old Rafael Nadal steamrolled the French Open on debut, while Justine Henin-Hardenne returned to form in a flawless final. Pirate pants = power, apparently.

🐸 Crazy frog domination.Axel F hit #1 and brought chaos to every Nokia in existence. It started as a ringtone. It ended marriages. Arguably the most cursed bop of the decade.

💿 Coldplay gets cosmic.X&Y dropped and Coldplay went synthy, moody and full existential crisis. “Fix You” had us weeping. “Speed of Sound” had us... confused but intrigued.

🎬 Welcome to the jungle.Madagascar hit cinemas, gave us dancing lemurs, neurotic lions and reminded everyone that escape from New York doesn’t end at JFK.

🎮 Games gone wild.California kicked off its crusade against violent video games. Gamers raged, Arnie approved and the Supreme Court eventually said “nah.”

📺 CNN turns 25.The news network that changed everything took a victory lap with highlight reels and archival gold. Shoutout to the OG anchor couple David and Lois.

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Rewind to 29 May to 4 June 2005 — a week of anonymous sources, screaming chefs and beauties meeting geeks.

🕵️ Deep Throat outs himself.After three decades of whispers, Watergate’s ultimate whistleblower was revealed: 91-year-old Mark Felt, former FBI bigwig and reluctant pop culture icon. And yes, the code name came from a 1970s porn film. Journalism? Still horny, apparently.

🍳 Hell’s Kitchen is served.Gordon Ramsay made his U.S. debut with Hell’s Kitchen and instantly raised the collective blood pressure of America’s aspiring chefs. From raw chicken to walkouts, the insults were hotter than the pans.

💅 Beauty meets the geek.In the ultimate mid-2000s social experiment (read: TV cringe gold), Beauty and the Geek paired bronzer with Bunsen burners. Cue the glow-ups, awkward flirting and a masterclass in early reality TV tropes.

🏎️ Dan Wheldon takes indy.The UK finally got another Indy 500 win, thanks to Dan Wheldon dodging drama on the final lap. It was his banner year… and tragically, just six years before his fatal crash would change racing safety forever.

🧨 Texas oil site explodes.A gas site outside Houston went boom, igniting the longest-burning oil blaze in the area’s history. No one died, but the smoke, flames and infrastructure panic lingered like… well, like bad policy decisions.

🎶 Oasis get dramatic.Don’t Believe the Truth gave Oasis their best-reviewed album in years… while the Gallagher brothers refused to speak and insulted each other in interviews. Honestly, 10/10 promo strategy.

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Rewind to 22 May to 28 May 2005 — the boogie board that broke Australia made headlines, Carrie Underwood hit her high note and Darth Vader finally got his glow-up.

🧳 Schapelle sentenced.The verdict that divided the country. Schapelle Corby was found guilty of smuggling 4.1kg of weed into Bali, sentenced to 20 years and instantly became a tabloid obsession. Whether you believed she was framed or just very chill about oversized bags, one thing's for sure — that boogie board became the most famous in Australian history.

🎤 Carrie wins idol.With a side part, a dream and a set of lungs that could level a small town, Carrie Underwood crushed Season 4 of American Idol. She beat Bo Bice, made “Alone” her own, and instantly became the future of country-pop — orange cheetah-print dress and all.

🛸 Revenge of the sith hits hard.Anakin snapped, Padmé sobbed and Obi-Wan got the high ground. Revenge of the Sith hit #1 at the box office and gave us the dark, tragic, lava-drenched climax the prequels had been teasing for years. The memes were born instantly. The heartbreak? Eternal.

🎮 Xbox 360 revealed.Forget Elijah Wood’s hair — the real star of the MTV special was Microsoft’s sleek new console. Wireless controllers! Custom faceplates! Xbox Live Marketplace! This was the start of HD gaming as we knew it — and the beginning of every broken TV blamed on Call of Duty rage.

🕰️ Big Ben stops.For 90 whole minutes, the UK’s most punctual icon took a mystery nap. Big Ben froze mid-chime, baffled engineers and became metaphor fuel for politicians, astrologers and Mercury retrograde girlies alike.

🏉 Crusaders crush Waratahs.In the last-ever Super 12 final, the Crusaders flexed hard. Richie McCaw was a machine, Dan Carter was unstoppable, and the Waratahs had no answers. It was fast, brutal, and the perfect full stop before Super Rugby expanded and got weirder.

💿 Audioslave drops new album.Chris Cornell and the Rage guys got a little softer (but no less powerful) on Out of Exile. Less rage, more reflection — and yes, “Be Yourself” is still a banger two decades later.

📚 Books we didn’t read.James Patterson dropped 4th of July, another Women’s Murder Club thriller, featuring courtroom drama, serial killers, and a sheep-herding dog named Martha — who most reviewers agreed was the best character.

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Rewind to 15 May to 21 May 2005.From a Eurovision fever dream to a rollercoaster that needed its own weather forecast, this week brought chaos, confessions and comeback queens. Kylie faced a life-changing diagnosis with absolute grace, Britney overshared via camcorder and Mariah said we belong together and we absolutely did.

🎤 Britney, camcorders and career chaos.Britney & Kevin: Chaotic premiered and immediately raised the bar for oversharing. Grainy, sweaty, unedited. This wasn’t reality TV, it was digital diary mayhem. Kevin mumbled. Britney asked existential questions. The editing? Optional. It was like watching the birth of Instagram Stories… if they came with night vision and regret.

🎢 Kingda Ka Launches (your soul).It launched. It screamed. It rewrote your ribcage. Kingda Ka opened as the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in the world - 456 feet tall and 0–128 mph in 3.5 seconds. You waited an hour for 28 seconds of absolute cardiac chaos. And then sometimes… it just rolled back. Because apparently that’s part of the “fun.”

💔 Kylie’s Showgirl pause.Kylie Minogue announced her breast cancer diagnosis, pausing her Showgirl tour and breaking every Aussie heart. But what followed was a wave of screenings, solidarity and sparkle. Her comeback? Rebranded, reworked and completely iconic. Kylie didn’t just return - she turned recovery into rhinestones and resilience.

🎶 Mimi’s mic drop.Mariah Carey’s We Belong Together hit the charts like a breakup text at 3am - devastating, beautiful and somehow comforting. 14 weeks at #1, a Grammy magnet and proof that you should never count Mimi out. Glitter? What glitter?

📺 Everybody loves... goodbyes.Everybody Loves Raymond wrapped with Ray almost dying during a routine surgery. Don’t worry - he lived, they had pancakes and we cried anyway. No gimmicks. Just kitchen table feels.

🎮 Nintendo's Wii reveal (sorta). At E3, Nintendo teased the Revolution - aka the Wii. They didn’t show the controller, just promised it would “change everything.” Spoiler: it did. And then it broke your TV. Wii Sports, we love you, but we suffered for you.

🎥 Monster-in-Law hits theatres.J.Lo vs Jane Fonda in a rom-com slapfest that redefined mother-in-law madness. Critics hated it. Everyone else couldn’t look away.

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Rewind to 8 May 2005 to 14 May 2005 — when HuffPost launched the comment section wars, John Cena dropped a platinum rap album and Malcolm Glazer bought Manchester United like it was a timeshare. Also: the Gorillaz went full apocalypse, Bush nearly got grenaded and 50 Cent whispered sweet nothings on the beach.

🎤 You can’t see this album.John Cena drops You Can’t See Me and somehow it slaps — from meme anthem “The Time Is Now” to his Beantown love letter, this was WWE’s most successful crossover since Hulk Hogan’s acting career (kidding, kinda).

📰 HuffPost starts the clickpocalypse.The Huffington Post launches and teaches the internet how to blend hot takes, news aggregation and Larry David blog posts into SEO gold. Journalism? Blogging? Who cares — it ranked first on Google.

💣 Bush dodges a literal grenade.While giving a speech in Georgia (the country, not Atlanta), someone throws a live grenade at President George W. Bush. It doesn’t go off, nobody panics and somehow this didn’t become a bigger headline?

⚽ Man U’s big sellout.American billionaire Malcolm Glazer takes over Manchester United, loads it with debt and kicks off the green-and-gold protest movement. Fans form their own team out of spite. Corporate football, activated.

🎶 50 Cent wants just a lil bit.Fiddy turns down the volume and ups the seduction with a whispery banger that defined the iPod Nano era. You weren’t allowed to play it loud, but you absolutely did.

🎧 Gorillaz go grimdark.Demon Days drops and we all pretend to understand the apocalypse. “Feel Good Inc.” spins nonstop while we wonder if cartoons are our new favourite band. (They are.)

🧼 Penthouse goes PG(ish).The raunchy mag decides it wants mainstream advertisers and less chaos, scrubbing the classifieds and aiming for respectable smut — a rebrand no one asked for but hey, good luck.

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Rewind to 1 May 2005 to 7 May 2005: Fall Out Boy drops From Under the Cork Tree straight into our black emo hearts, Lionel Messi scores his first ever goal and The Bold and the Beautiful pulls the ultimate soap opera move — bringing back Taylor from the dead.

🎤 Fall out boys & mySpace feels.Fall Out Boy dropped From Under the Cork Tree and instantly soundtracked your emo awakening. Whether you were scribbling their lyrics in your notebook or choosing between three equally dramatic away messages, they had you covered. Bonus points if your MSN status or AIM away message said something like “Don’t IM me unless you understand me.”

⚽ Messi makes magic.17-year-old Lionel Messi netted his first league goal for Barcelona, assisted by Ronaldinho, no less. The chip. The swag. The beginning of GOATdom. He was barely out of his growth hormone treatments and already rewriting football history with a napkin-signed contract and a bottle of ketchup.

🚨 Douglas Wood's hostage ordeal In Iraq. Aussie engineer Douglas Wood was kidnapped by insurgents. A shocking video aired, the government refused to budge, and 47 days later, he was rescued. Then came the 60 Minutes exclusive, a national debate, and a diplomatic drama that lingered long after the cameras stopped rolling.

🎬 Don’t panic!The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy topped the box office, confusing normies and delighting nerds. Alan Rickman voiced a clinically depressed robot, Zooey Deschanel was peak 2005 quirky girl and the answer to life, the universe and everything was still 42. Respect the towel.

🎮 Forza revved upXbox. launched Forza Motorsport, a new racing sim that let you drift, tune and paint your way into car nerd glory. 231 real cars, fully customisable liveries and the Nürburgring in your living room. Gran Turismo had officially been put on notice.

📺 Logies, lies and live TV glitches.The 2005 Logies were the chaos we deserved. Rove won everything (again), Chris Hemsworth got his moment and Channel Nine lost the broadcast right before announcing the Gold Logie winner. Also, shout-out to the whitegoods prize pack from voting - nothing says Aussie TV like a blender with your ballot.

📼 Bold, beautiful and back from the dead.Hunter Tylo returned to The Bold and the Beautiful as Taylor, who had apparently been... kidnapped by a prince? Locked in a castle? It's soap logic. Viewers were split between "OMG she's back!" and "WTF did I just watch?"

🎶 Oh... that beat slaps.Ciara and Ludacris gave us Oh, the sultry Atlanta anthem that should've been Janet's but became a dancefloor staple anyway. Ciara’s slow-mo strut still lives rent-free in our TikTok muscle memory.

📖 True Believer, truly dull?Nicholas Sparks released True Believer, which critics described as duller than salt-free crackers and somehow less exciting than watching grass grow. Still, your mum probably bought it at the airport and cried on page 12.

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