T minus 20

Rewind to 24 to 30 April 2005 — where a massive plane took flight, Gwen taught us how to spell bananas and Japan's rail system suffered a shattering blow.

🚄 Speed kills in Amagasaki. Japan’s famously punctual trains derailed — literally — when a young driver trying to make up time crashed into an apartment block, killing 107. JR West’s obsession with being on time sparked a national reckoning on corporate pressure and safety.

🛫 The whale takes off.The Airbus A380 made its maiden voyage. A 4-engine, double-decker beast that could carry over 800 people and briefly made air travel feel like a cruise ship. Too big, too bold, and (eventually) too expensive to survive the low-cost airline era. RIP, sky king.

🐅 Tiger unleashed.Apple dropped Mac OS X Tiger, packed with game-changers like Spotlight and Dashboard. Automator made us feel like hackers and VoiceOver showed Apple meant business on accessibility. 200 features? Apple said so. We counted about 14. Still: iconic.

📣 B-A-N-A-N-A-S.Gwen Stefani clapped back at Courtney Love with a cheerleader chant for the ages. Hollaback Girl hit the charts and took over high school halls everywhere. You couldn’t escape it — not in gym class, not at prom and definitely not on your Motorola RAZR ringtone.

🎥 Nicole talks politics (in a Made-Up Language)The Interpreter hit cinemas with Nicole Kidman whispering in UN corridors and Sean Penn brooding nearby. High-stakes diplomacy, fictional African nations and the first film ever shot inside UN Headquarters? Peak mid-2000s prestige thriller vibes.

🐩 Fluff, fillets & flared nostrils.Showdog Moms & Dads premiered and it was barking mad. Homemade doga classes, filet mignon for pups and a dog psychic. Bravo let the leashes off and we never looked at poodles the same way again.

📚 No place like home… or jail.Mary Higgins Clarke’s latest potboiler had murder, secrets and a three-time bride who may or may not have shot her mum. One-star reviewers were not kind.

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Rewind to 17 to 23 April 2005 – when the Bali 9 are busted with 8.3kg of heroin, a teenager drove a tram like a boss and YouTube dropped its very first “like and subscribe.”

🚨 Bali 9 busted.An Aussie drug smuggling op was blown wide open as nine young citizens were caught in Bali with 8.3kg of heroin strapped to their bodies. The kicker? Aussie police tipped off Indonesian authorities, sparking a national outcry, life sentences and executions that shocked the country.

🚋 Tram Boy’s joyride.A 14-year-old Melbourne teen hijacked a Yarra Tram and drove it like a seasoned pro—manual track switches, passenger pickups, even PA announcements. His smooth run ended in a high-drama arrest and he became an instant folk hero.

🏈 Draft day drama.The 2005 NFL Draft saw Alex Smith picked #1, while future GOAT Aaron Rodgers awkwardly waited until pick 24. ESPN’s coverage was basically a press conference. This was the year the draft started morphing into the three-day reality TV bonanza it is today.

📹 First YouTube video ever.Jawed stood in front of elephants and muttered something about trunks. Boom. History made. Me at the zoo dropped on April 23, launching a platform that would become everything from beauty tutorials to conspiracy chaos. And yes, the comments are still unhinged.

👻 Reynolds goes rogue in Amityville.Ryan Reynolds shocked fans in The Amityville Horror remake, which topped the US box office with haunted house vibes and shredded abs. Based on the infamous Long Island murder house, the film was a spooky hit and gave Reynolds serious creepy dad energy.

🧢 Jay-Z drops luxury time bombs.Hov teamed up with Audemars Piguet to launch his own Royal Oak watch line with only 100 made. If you snagged one in 2005, it came with a preloaded iPod and a truckload of clout. Today? You’re sitting on six figures, easy.

📺 Nick Kids’ Choice Awards: orange, slime & low-rise jeansDrake Bell, Hilary Duff, Green Day, and Johnny Depp (yes, slimed) ruled the Nickelodeon stage. Avril, The Incredibles and Queen Latifah took the high honours.

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Rewind to 10 to 16 April 2005, when science cloned your dog, Mariah staged a mega comeback, and Pamela Anderson worked in a bookstore (yes, really).

💣 Olympic bomber finally busted.Eric Rudolph pleads guilty to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing, ending a 9-year manhunt. Four life sentences, no parole.

🐶 Who’s a cloned boy?Snuppy the Afghan hound becomes the world’s first cloned dog, born after 1,000 embryos, 123 surrogates and more ethical debates than a philosophy major on Red Bull.

⚽ Teen kicks history.James Vaughan, 16, scores for Everton and becomes the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history.

🎶 Akon's Lonely Era Begins"I'm so lonelyyyy…" Akon's chipmunk-sampled heartbreak anthem crashes the charts and our hearts.

🎤 Mariah's not-so-comeback.The Emancipation of Mimi drops and Mariah Carey reminds us she never left — she just needed a minute, some stiletto cardio and 14 guest producers. We Belong Together = world domination.

🎬 Sahara flops Into cinemas.Matthew McConaughey and Penélope Cruz try to find a Civil War battleship in the Sahara. $160 million budget, epic box office faceplant.

📺 Crabs, cold & chaos.Deadliest Catch debuts, turning crabbing into edge-of-your-seat TV. Storms, injuries, yelling Vikings — Discovery Channel strikes gold with saltwater and steel pots.

📚 Pam gets stacked!Pamela Anderson trades swimsuits for Shakespeare in Stacked, a sitcom where she works at a bookstore. Critics weren’t buying the plot… or the show. It lasted two awkward seasons.

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🕊 Farewell JP2. The world farewelled Pope John Paul II after 26 years in the top job. Cue one of the largest funerals in history and all eyes on a chimney as the conclave kicked off. White smoke = new pope. Enter Benedict XVI.

✊ Iraqis Say No. ThanksFirdos Square, once the backdrop for Saddam’s statue toppling, became the stage for a massive anti-American protest. Led by supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, thousands demanded U.S. troops GTFO.

🎭 WrestleMania Goes Hollywood.WrestleMania 21 served cinema and suplexes. Cena and Batista took the belts, Edge won the first-ever Money in the Bank and Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle delivered pure wrestling gold.

🎤 The Game & 50 Cent Play Nice(ish).‘Hate It or Love It’ climbed the charts despite beef brewing behind the scenes. 50 refused to film with The Game, so green screen magic made it look like they were chillin’ in the same lowrider. Unity through CGI, baby.

🖤 Sin City Sizzles.Frank Miller’s graphic novel got the Hollywood treatment and it worked. The black-and-white neo-noir aesthetic, Jessica Alba with a lasso, and a terrifying Elijah Wood? Cinematic chaos. Tarantino even dropped in to direct a scene, because of course he did.

📺 Meet the Barkers.MTV launched Meet the Barkers, a chaotic blend of rock star mayhem and domestic drama. Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler opened their lives (and possibly Pandora’s box) to the cameras. Spoiler: they didn’t stay married.

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🌊 Another quake, more heartbreak.Just months after the Boxing Day disaster, a massive 8.6 earthquake rocked Sumatra. Panic spread across the region but mercifully, no tsunami. Tragically, nine Australian military personnel lost their lives in a Sea King crash during the relief mission.

⚖️ Terri Schiavo’s heartbreaking goodbye.After years of legal battles, political interventions and national debates, Terri Schiavo passed away—her case reigniting global conversations about life, death and who gets to decide.

🎶 Frankie J sparks a Spanglish singalong.Obsession (No Es Amor) hit the charts and everyone—no matter the language—was mumbling their way through the chorus with soul and confusion.

🎤 Tony Christie’s Amarillo marches back.With Peter Kay leading the way and British celebs falling over themselves, “Is This the Way to Amarillo?” became the charity single we never saw coming—and never stopped singing.

🎥 Guess Who flips the script.Bernie Mac grilled Ashton Kutcher in Guess Who, a modern twist on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Awkward meet-the-parents energy? Cranked to 11.

🩺 Paging McDreamy: Grey’s Anatomy debuts.Meredith Grey, hospital drama, and a million internal monologues enter the chat. Derek Shepherd’s curls caused nationwide swooning—and a generation fell into the OR.

🤖 Attack of the Show hits nerd central.Gamers, rejoice! AOTS debuted on G4, packed with viral vids, gadgets and future star Olivia Munn. It was chaos, but it was our chaos.

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🌍 The Fukuoka earthquake shakes Japan—an unexpected 6.6 magnitude tremor devastates Genkai Island, leaving one dead and over 1,000 injured. Aftershocks continued for months, proving nature doesn’t always follow the schedule.

🔥 The BP Texas City Refinery explosion—one of the worst industrial disasters in U.S. history. A hydrocarbon vapor explosion kills 15, injures over 180 and sparks billions in lawsuits, fines and a PR nightmare for BP.

🤖 Expo 2005 opens in Japan, bringing futuristic tech, humanoid robots and… a frozen woolly mammoth?

🚀 Doctor Who returns after 16 years, with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose. Timey-wimey adventures are back and the show is about to become bigger than ever.

🎮 God of War debuts on PlayStation 2, introducing Kratos, Greek mythology and the angriest gaming protagonist ever. The birth of a franchise that would later become PlayStation royalty.

🎵 Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone smashes onto the charts, giving us pop-rock perfection.

🎬 The Ring Two tops the U.S. box office, because apparently, people weren’t done being terrified by creepy VHS tapes.

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⚛️ Did scientists almost create a black hole? Scientists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider were smashing particles together at nearly the speed of light, reaching temperatures hotter than the sun. One physicist suggested we may have created our own version of a black hole. Big bang anyone?

🥊 Manny Pacquiao vs. Erik Morales – The first of an epic trilogy that saw two legends trade punches, switch stances and leave everything in the ring. Morales took the win, but Pacquiao wasn’t done yet.

🤖 Hitachi’s Emiew rolls in, proving robots are getting smarter and leaving us wondering who will defend us against AI when the time comes?

💖 Delta Goodrem & Brian McFadden’s love story begins with Almost Here topping the charts. The duet had all the romance, all the drama, and way too much British tabloid outrage. The budding romance survived the headlines—at least for a few years.

🎮 Retro gaming nostalgia hits the Nintendo DS with Atari Classics, because who doesn’t love Pong on a touchscreen?

🎬 Robin Williams steals the show in Robots, an animated adventure about inventors, upgrades and fighting capitalism (with fart jokes). Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, and Greg Kinnear, Robots proved that if you give Robin Williams a microphone, comedy gold happens.

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⚖️ The U.S. Supreme Court makes a landmark ruling, banning the death penalty for crimes committed by minors. 

♟️ The world’s greatest chess player retires, leaving us all to wonder: who will defend us when AI takes over?

🎤 50 Cent and The Game go from rap battle to actual battle, beefing over The Documentary, a radio station shootout and general gangster posturing. 

🍼 Vin Diesel trades muscle cars for diaper duty in The Pacifier.

🐊 Germany gives us an unexpected viral sensation: Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil. This little cartoon crocodile somehow tops the charts, proving that the 2000s had no rules whatsoever.

📺 And in TV, Kirstie Alley takes aim at Hollywood’s body image obsession in Fat Actress.

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🛫 Steve Fossett is at it again, this time flying solo around the world without stopping and making history.

🏒 Canada loses its collective mind over curling as Jennifer Jones pulls off “the shot” to claim victory.

🥋 Mortal Kombat: Deception drops for GameCube, delivering spine-ripping fatalities and, for some reason, a Mortal Kombat chess mode.

🎵 50 Cent drops The Massacre—because apparently, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ wasn’t enough.

🎬 The Oscars get messy as Chris Rock roasts Hollywood and Sean Penn decides to take it personally.

🥊 Reality TV gets punchy with The Contender’s big debut.

We’re taking you back—so crank up Candy Shop, grab your GameCube controller and join us as we rewind 20 years!

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Pop-punk fans everywhere are in emotional free fall—with Blink-182 confirming their split, leaving us all whisper-screaming Where are you? 😭

Meanwhile, Spain votes sí on the EU Constitution, but the whole thing crashes and burns when France and the Netherlands say non.

Over in Sydney, Macquarie Fields erupts into riots after a deadly police chase.

NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon wins the Daytona 500, and the Nintendo DS finally lands in Australia, changing handheld gaming forever.

Also this week: 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop” confuses an entire generation, Korn loses a guitarist to Jesus and Robot Chicken hatches.

Plus, the Razzies absolutely torch Catwoman, and The Price Is Right gives away a record-breaking prize.

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