| 20th January 2005 | George W. Bush is inaugurated in Washington D.C. for his second term as the 43rd President of the United States. |
| 15th February 2005 | The Internet site ‘YouTube’ goes online. |
| 3rd March 2005 | Millionaire Steve Fossett breaks a world record by completing the first non-stop, non-refuelled, solo flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic ‘GlobalFlyer‘. |
| 2nd April 2005 | Pope John Paul II dies; over four million people travel to the Vatican to mourn him. |
| 9th April 2005 | The marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles takes place after being briefly postponed following the Pope's death. Camilla assumes the titles ‘Her Royal Highness’ and ‘Duchess of Cornwall‘. |
| 19th April 2005 | Papal conclave, 2005: Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) succeeds Pope John Paul II, becoming the 265th Pope. |
| 5th May 2005 | The Labour Party is re-elected in the 2005 general election, albeit with a substantially reduced majority. |
| 25th May 2005 | Liverpool FC beats AC Milan on penalties to win the UEFA Champions League in Istanbul. The Reds come back from 3-0 down at half-time and as it is their fifth victory, they are allowed to keep the trophy. |
| 28th June 2005 | The Queen conducts the International Fleet Review of 167 international warships in the Solent, as part of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations. |
| 2nd July 2005 | ‘Live 8‘ concerts, takes place throughout the world, raising interest in the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign. It is designed to precede the G8 summit and place pressure on world leaders to drop the debt of the world‘s poorest nations and increase both aid and Fair Trade. |
| 6th July 2005 | The International Olympic Committee awards the 2012 Summer Olympics to London. |
| 7th July 2005 | The United Kingdom is targeted in a terrorist attack. Four explosions - three on the Underground and one on a bus - rock the transport network in London, killing 56 people and injuring over 700. |
| 28th July 2005 | The Provisional IRA issues a statement formally ordering an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since 1969, and ordering all its units to dump their arms. |
| 12th September 2005 | The English cricket team draws the final match to win the 2005 Ashes. |
| 1st October 2005 | The 2005 Bali Bombings kill twenty-six people and injure more than 100 others. |
| 25th November 2005 | George Best, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1946) dies. |
| 30th November 2005 | Surgeons in France carry out the first ever human face transplant. |
| 11th December 2005 | The 2005 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire causes widespread damage and is the largest explosion ever to occur in peacetime Europe. |