Tributes paid to George Best
Soccer fans hold up posters of legend George Best before Manchester United's English League Cup soccer match against West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford, their first home game since the death of Best on Friday 25th November 2005. Ironically, West Bromich Albion, were the team that footballing wizard George Best played on his debut in September 1963. George went onto to terrorise football teams with his skill and lead Manchester United onto win the European Cup in 1968, part of the Busby Babes era.

Jet Slides off Chicago Runway
A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, background, lands at Chicago's Midway Airport over the wreckage of another Southwest Airlines 737 as it rests nose first in the intersection of W. 55th Street and Central Ave. after it skidded off the runway and through a barrier fence Thursday night in Chicago, Friday 9th December 2005. Flight 1248 from Baltimore to Chicago tried to land in heavy snow sliding off a runway crashing through the boundary fence and crushing one car killing one young child. [Rollover image]

Official Report confirms Hercules was shot down
The findings of the Hercules Tragedy Official MoD Report in which eight Lyneham based airman and two passengers perished was released 8th December 2005. RAF Lyneham Station Commander Group Captain Paul Oborn reflects: "It is a great relief for all of us and to the families of the crew and passengers, to bring closure to what has been a very difficult and painful year." If you would you like to know more, click here..

Explosions at Oil Depot
Three large explosions rocked a fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire shooting flames hundreds of feet into the sky. The first blast happened at 0603 GMT 11th December 2005 at the Buncefield fuel depot, close to junction 8 of the M1 motorway and was heard more than 100 miles away. In total, 20 petrol tanks were involved in the fire, each said to hold three million gallons of fuel.

Oil Depot Explosions Smoke Blankets South East
The large explosions that occured at the Buncefield Fuel Depot above, accrid smoke clouds that can be seen from satellite weather images over the country. The white clouds in the top right is normal weather cloud. [Rollover: Shows the extent of the high rising smoke from the ground.]

Elton John ties the knot
Elton John tied the knot with long-term partner David Furnish on 21st December 2005, joining hundreds of gay couples taking advantage of a new law to formalise their relationships. After a short civil ceremony, the celebrity couple emerged into the sunlight and greeted hundreds of cheering well wishers and the world's press, who had brought the streets of Windsor to a standstill. "Thank you," a beaming John mouthed to the crowds, as he stood with his arm round Canadian-born Furnish.

Among those offering congratulations was Prime Minister Tony Blair who said: "I wish him and David well, and all the other people exercising their rights under the civil partnerships law. The new civil partnership law gives gay couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexuals and entitles them to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits. Unlike in Belgium, Spain and Canada it is not a marriage, however, prompting criticism from some gay rights campaigners. In Belfast on 19th December 2005, Grainne Close and her partner Shannon Sickels faced a small number of Christian protesters when they became the first women in the United Kingdom to hold a civil partnership ceremony.

Tsunami Remembered
More than 5,000 paper lanterns float into the night sky on a Thai beach — each representing a soul claimed by the tsunami disaster. The spiritual ceremony, in which candle flames lifted the 3ft lamps like miniature hot-air balloons, was an intensely moving reminder of the catastrophe that visited Asia on Boxing Day 2004. Thousands of Thai mourners and victims’ relatives from across the globe watched tearfully as the lanterns formed a column of golden “stars” before vanishing over a ghostly calm sea. The commemoration on Bang Niang beach, Khao Lak, ended a day in which people in more than 100 nations remembered the 270,000 killed by the monster wave, including 149 Britons.