The iPod video era: when we watched Lost on a two-inch screen

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Rewind to 9 October 2005 to 15 October 2005

🚀 China goes full space cowboy
China’s Shenzhou 6 mission blasts off, sending two taikonauts into orbit for nearly five days — a major flex in the global space race. It’s their first two-man crew, the first time anyone’s used the orbital module as living space and a huge leap toward their future space station plans. 

🎭 Harold Pinter gets the Nobel nod
Britain’s master of awkward pauses and passive-aggressive menace finally gets his due. Harold Pinter wins the Nobel Prize in Literature “for uncovering the precipice under everyday prattle.” Translation: he made small talk terrifying. His acceptance video lecture goes nuclear on the Iraq War, proving you can drop a political bomb even while clutching a Nobel medal.

🏁 Bathurst: Holden hearts soar
On 9 October, Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly steer their Commodore to victory at Mount Panorama, bagging Holden’s sixth Bathurst 1000 win. It’s Skaife’s fifth, Kelly’s first and Ford fans’ collective heartbreak. The track’s hot, the tyres melt and the Holden-Ford rivalry burns brighter than ever. 

🎧 Apple’s “One More Thing” goes video
Steve Jobs slides another gadget flex into 2005 history with the iPod Video — the first iPod that lets you watch TV shows like Lost on a 2.5-inch screen. The crowd goes wild, even if they’ll later admit it was like watching Desperate Housewives through a peephole. It’s also the debut of iTunes 6, where buying a $1.99 music video feels like the future.

🔥 Aardman’s hot potato week
Just days after Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit tops the US box office, a fire destroys Aardman Animations’ Bristol warehouse — wiping out 20 years of clay sets, models and history. Nick Park calls it “cruel irony.” Fans call it devastating. Gromit, as usual, says nothing but looks deeply unimpressed.

🎸 Dolly covers the world
Dolly Parton drops Those Were the Days, turning 60s folk and protest anthems into mountain magic. She ropes in everyone from Norah Jones to Keith Urban and somehow makes “Crimson and Clover” sound like it was born in Tennessee. Critics swoon, purists squint — Dolly just keeps winning.

👻 The Fog rolls in — badly
Tom Welling and Selma Blair front the remake of The Fog, where ghosts seek revenge and audiences seek refunds. Critics torch it (4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but it still hauls in box office cash because 2005 was peak horror-remake season. Carpenter’s original remains king; this one just… drifts.

📺 Run’s House blesses MTV
Rev Run of Run-D.M.C. swaps turntables for family tables as Run’s House premieres on MTV. It’s part hip-hop legacy, part wholesome parenting sitcom and somehow ends each episode with bathtub wisdom via BlackBerry. It becomes one of MTV’s few reality shows your mum didn’t hate.

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