T minus 20
The year is 2005... Anakin turns to the dark side, YouTube makes its debut and we’re all couch-jumping for Maria, McDreamy and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo… T minus 20, rewind to this week in history 20 years ago with Joe and Mel.
Episodes
Rewind to 7 to 13 August 2005.It’s the week the UN got scandalous, Shane Warne made history and a Playboy Mansion reality show somehow counted as TV. Plus: Jessica Simpson washes a car… aggressively. Let’s ride.
🛢️ UN scandal gets greasy. The third Volcker Report into the Oil-for-Food Program dropped and it was messier than a deep-fried mars bar. Top UN official Benon Sevan was accused of pocketing bribes, S...
Rewind to 31 July to 6 August 2005
🛑 No smoking on the grid. The EU bans tobacco advertising across borders, sending Formula 1 teams scrambling for cash and leaving Marlboro-branded Ferraris gasping for air.
💀 Skulls just dropped. Scientists in Georgia unearth a 1.8 million-year-old human skull that throws the whole “big brain = better human” theory into chaos.
👟 Three stripes, one flop. Adidas buys Reebok for $3.8 b...
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 through E...
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, mis...
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 office,...
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 exist...
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 o...
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 Florence...
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 ...
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 se...
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 chi...
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 im...
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...
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 scrib...
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 corpora...
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 ou...
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...
🕊 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, thousa...
🌊 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 S...
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