February 19, 2005
(Saturday)
- blink-182 officially break up on this date. However, the "indefinite hiatus" was not announced until February 22, 2005.
- 350 inmates escape from a prison in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (CNN)
- A massive demonstration in Rome asks for the release of an Italian journalist abducted in Iraq. (AP via Yahoo!)
- Former US Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton toured parts of Thailand that were ravaged by the Asian Tsunami. [Newslink missing]
- An earthquake, registering 6.9 on the Richter scale, strikes South East Sulawesi, Indonesia at 00:04 UTC. (Reuters)[permanent dead link ]
- Former US President Jimmy Carter is on hand to christen the USS Jimmy Carter, the last of the Seawolf class submarines ordered during the Cold War. The submarine cost 3.2 billion USD. It has a 100-foot (30.5 m) extension for special operations and can reportedly tap undersea cables. (AP via Yahoo!)
- In a 13-hour operation, doctors in Egypt successfully remove the second head of a baby suffering from the rare disease craniopagus parasiticus. This is the second such operation to take place in a year. The previous operation, in the Dominican Republic, was not successful and resulted in death. (Reuters) Archived 2005-03-09 at the Wayback Machine
- The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is sending a team of experts to Lebanon to investigate the killing of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. (BBC)
- Northern Bank robbery investigation:
- Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirm that £50,000 in unused Northern Banknotes found at Newforge Country Club, a facility for off-duty and retired police officers, was part of the £26 million stolen in the bank robbery. Police still consider it a diversion. (BBC)
- Gardaí in Cork receive £175,000 from a local businessman, who said he had been asked to keep it. (Independent)
- The popular Nintendo forum on Zetaboards known as The Nintendo Zone Forums was created by DSFAN121 at 11:21 a.m. (TNZ)