My joining was quite an earth-shaking event – 12/26/2004 – A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000.
Wow, after a lot of (let’s face it) fun but not momentous things, we get two biggies: a natural event causing about as any deaths as Hiroshima plus Nagasaki; and, a reminder that A BILLION MORE PEOPLE EXIST NOW than did when some of us signed up to this message board.
Which just goes to show that humans, in general, are quite horny little bastards. 
Nothing fifty thousand more Hiroshimas couldn’t fix! (Good lord, did I just say that? Me, the co-founder of an anti-nuke student group back in high school? Please believe me that I’m kidding!)
Douglas Adams died. 
International Volunteer Day on the International Year of the Volunteer.
Bloody USA dating system. ::grumble grumble::
It’s okay, your first post made me aware that Dougoas Adans had died, so thanks. (I guess I missed the news because I wasn’t living in an English-speaking country in May of '01).
And I agree that the US month-day-year thing is stupid.
2007, June 18; The Gulf emirate of Dubai announced it had bought the Queen Elizabeth 2, one of the world’s most majestic cruise liners, and planned to turn it into a luxury floating hotel. It is still in Dubai and rotting
#1 movie on Monday, June 18th 2007 was: Evan Almighty
#1 song ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z :dubious:
Bernard Manning, English racist and thoroughly unpleasant comedian died
Waterloo Day (United Kingdom)
The best headlines from my join date:
“Mexicans Find No Bodies; Lawyer Says They Dug in Wrong Spot”
and
“Scuba Diver Gets Tangled in Kelp, Drowns”
The Cardinal’s Fernando Tatis hit two grand slams in the same inning(top of the third), playing against the Dodgers in their own park.
I just looked it up and the Bill Cosby mural is still there and on their menu they still have a chili dog named after him. Though in one article I found the family seems to be distancing themselves from Cosby.
Anywho on Dec. 5th 2006:
-Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
-David Bronstein, Ukrainian-Belarusian chess player and theoretician died.
-The French Government launches state-owned and controlled France 24, a 24-hour television news show.
-An outbreak of E. coli bacteria has sickened more than a dozen people on Long Island, including several who ate at Taco Bell. Officials have asked eight Taco Bell restaurants be closed
-“Happy Feet” was the #1 movie.
-“I Wanna Love You” (Akon ft. Snoop Dogg) was the #1 single.
The Wiki article for 2006 lists nothing for 25 Aug. Elsewhere in Wiki I find that the Armenian poet Silva Kaputikyan died that day.
The ISS was manned by Expedition 13 crewmembers Pavel Vinogradov (Russia), Jeffrey Williams (US), and Thomas Reiter (Germany).
Judge and Jury, by James Patterson and Andrew Gross, was at the top of the NYTimes bestselling fiction list.
Billboard’s “Hot 100” #1 was “London Bridge,” by somebody named Fergie; it stayed at #1 for two more weeks. (Don’t think I’ve ever heard of the song or the artist/group.) The #1 country hit was “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before The Devil Even Knows),” by Rodney Adkins, and the #1 album was Me and My Gang, by Rascal Flatts.
How to Eat Fried Worms, Idlewild, Invincible, The Protector, Beerfest, and The Quiet were released.
We’re gonna need a bigger tsunami.
*The World Trade Organization ruled in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.
*
I’m really sorry I looked that up.