BdayFacts.com › Year guides › 2005

Born in 2005? Here's the world you arrived into

In 2005, "We Belong Together" topped the charts, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire packed theaters, a stamp cost 37¢, the average home went for about $240,900.

What things cost in 2005

Gas jumped to about $2.30 in 2005, roughly $3.85 in today's dollars, and drivers were genuinely rattled when Hurricane Katrina briefly pushed prices past $3. The $6.41 movie ticket works out to about $10.70 now.

The biggest moments of 2005

• YouTube was founded in February.
• Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in August.
• Pope John Paul II died in April after a long papacy.

• NASA celebrated the Fourth of July by smashing its Deep Impact probe into comet Tempel 1, on purpose, to study what comets are made of.
• Dancing with the Stars premiered in June, and suddenly grandparents and grandkids were arguing over paso doble scores together.
• The American version of The Office premiered in March to modest ratings, with no hint it would become one of the most rewatched shows ever made.

Toys, TV & trends of 2005

• YouTube launched in 2005, and its very first video was a 19-second clip called "Me at the Zoo."
• Microsoft's Xbox 360 hit stores in November and sold out almost instantly.
• Webkinz plush animals debuted, each with a secret code that unlocked a virtual pet world online.

• The original Guitar Hero shipped in November with its little plastic guitar, turning living rooms into arenas one colored button at a time.
• Nintendogs let kids pet, walk, and whistle to virtual puppies through the DS touch screen, and begged-for real puppies everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.
• Apple replaced the iPod mini with the impossibly slim iPod nano in September, then added video playback to the iPod a month later.

The music scene

Mariah Carey pulled off one of pop's all-time great comebacks with The Emancipation of Mimi, and "We Belong Together" would later be crowned Billboard's song of the entire decade. Reggaeton broke through to American radio as Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" boomed from car stereos coast to coast. Kanye West's Late Registration, complete with a full string orchestra, showed hip-hop albums could be as ambitious as symphonies.

At the movies

Batman Begins rebooted the Caped Crusader with gritty realism and quietly invented the modern franchise-reboot playbook. A French documentary about waddling emperor penguins became the surprise hit of the summer, earning over $77 million in the U.S. and an Oscar. At the following spring's Academy Awards, the ensemble drama Crash pulled off one of the biggest Best Picture upsets ever, edging out favorite Brokeback Mountain.

Cartoons kids loved

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Family Guy

Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered in February and broke every rule of kids' TV, telling one continuous, planned-out epic instead of stand-alone episodes, and it became an instant classic. That spring also brought a television first: Family Guy returned from cancellation, revived almost entirely because fans had bought millions of DVDs.

The world in 2005

• World population: about 6.5 billion
• U.S. President: George W. Bush
• Angela Merkel became Chancellor of Germany

• The Kyoto Protocol, the world's first binding climate treaty, officially took effect in February with more than 140 nations aboard.
• The Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane ever built, made its first flight in April with room for more than 500 travelers on two full decks.
• The Irish Republican Army formally announced the end of its armed campaign in July, a landmark moment for peace in Northern Ireland.

2005 birthday questions

Want it on paper? The same 2005 front page prints as a greeting card, poster or framed keepsake.

Buying for a milestone birthday? See gift ideas by age.

More years like 2005

Jump a generation: 1965 · 1975 · 1980 · 1985 · 1995 · 2015 · 2025