Skip to content
Back Then

Your time capsule is ready

In your 21 years you’ve been around for…

  • 8 Prime Ministers
  • 2 monarchs
  • 6 World Cups
  • +1.6 billion people on Earth

2005

The world you arrived into

2005

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans

In August 2005, the storm and the floods that followed killed well over a thousand people.

2005

Live 8

Twenty years after Live Aid, the concerts returned on 2 July 2005 ahead of the G8 summit at Gleneagles.

2005

What people were listening to

Now playing in 2005

  • James Blunt’s "You’re Beautiful"

    The ballad soundtracked the summer of 2005 whether you liked it or not.

  • Crazy Frog beat Coldplay to number one

    "Axel F" out-charted "Speed of Sound" in May 2005. Truly a different era.

2005

At the cinema and on television

television

Doctor Who returned

Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper brought the Doctor back on 26 March 2005.

movies

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The fourth film arrived in November 2005 as the series grew darker.

movies

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

C.S. Lewis’s winter kingdom reached cinemas in December 2005.

2005

Technology looked very different

  1. YouTube was founded

    Three former PayPal employees registered the domain in February 2005. The first video was 19 seconds long.

When these arrived

You were only…

  • 2 The iPhone 2007
  • 3 Spotify launched 2008
  • 5 Instagram 2010
  • 17 ChatGPT arrived 2022
  • 1 Twitter was founded 2006
  • 2 The smoking ban in England 2007

A gentle reality check

Things that are younger than you

  • 2006 Twitter was founded
  • 2007 The iPhone
  • 2007 The smoking ban in England
  • 2008 Spotify launched
  • 2010 Instagram
  • 2010 The iPad
  • 2012 The London Olympics
  • 2017 TikTok went global
See all 10 things younger than you →

2005 vs today

A few things have changed since you arrived

A few things 2005 Today
  • Everyone on Earth about 6.6 billion about 8.2 billion

Indicative sample data — being verified and expanded.

See the full Then vs Now →

Pick the version you want to share

My year

Know someone born in 2005? Send them their year — or see every way to explore 2005.

Keep exploring