T minus 20

Rewind to 24 July 2005 to 30 July 2005 This week in 2005, Rihanna made her Diwali riddim-fuelled debut, Hulk Hogan became the ultimate helicopter dad and Birmingham took a surprise spin on the tornado ride. We also hit Splendour just as it pivoted to electro and watched Canadian scientists crush Bigfoot dreams with one tuft of bison hair. 🌪️ Birmingham gets twistered. A rare urban tornado tears th...

Rewind to 17 to 23 July 2005, where tattoo regrets were permanent, burlesque entered the mainstream and Crazy Frog somehow got a record deal. 💣 Bombs fail, panic doesn’t. Two weeks after 7/7, four bombs fail to fully detonate on London transport. No deaths, but the fear is real. Cue evacuations, manhunts and media chaos. 🚨 Shot by mistake. Jean Charles de Menezes is tragically killed by police,...

Rewind to 10 July 2005 to 16 July 2005: the week NASA stalled, Potter fans sobbed, Johnny Depp traumatised children and WorldCom made Enron look like amateurs. 🚀 To infinity… or not quite. NASA’s big “return to space” mission hits pause thanks to a dodgy fuel sensor. Ground control to boomers: your tech’s showing its age. 🍫 Wonky Wonka energy.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tops the box offi...

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, organi...

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 cop...

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,...

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 Flor...

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. Whi...

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...

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...

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 pr...

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 — fro...

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 y...

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 reckonin...

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...

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...

🕊 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-...

🌊 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 d...

🌍 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...

⚛️ 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, sw...

⚖️ 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 ca...

🛫 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,...

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...

Explosions, heists and YouTube’s awkward dating era? This week on T minus 20: 💣 Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut, triggering mass protests and forcing Syria to withdraw from Lebanon after nearly 30 years of occupation. The explosion, which killed Hariri and 21 others, sent shockwaves through the region, leading to the Cedar Revolution and an international investigation that would take over...

Tony Blair breaks records as the longest-serving Labour PM—but let’s be real, his coolest moment was inviting Oasis to Downing Street . ( Noel Gallagher later called it awkward, which is ironic coming from him.) Meanwhile, his approval ratings nosedived over the Iraq War . Yikes. Over in the world of extreme determination, Ellen MacArthur sails solo around the world in 71 days, surviving on power...