September 16, 2005

That fall of 2005, gas ran $2.30 a gallon and Bush was in the White House — the United Nations Security Council was pressing Syria over its alleged role in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a case that kept international attention fixed on the Middle East. On the pop charts, Kanye West's "Gold Digger" featuring Jamie Foxx sat at number one, while J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was the book in every store window and on every nightstand. The Chicago White Sox ended an 88-year championship drought by defeating the Houston Astros in the World Series, and in October, China launched its second crewed spacecraft, Shenzhou 6, marking another major step in the country's growing human spaceflight program.