Mao Zedong inspires German artist Anselm Kiefer's Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom

Anthrax attacks, in the form of letters carrying the bacteria posted to journalists and politicians, begin in the USA

InAusterlitz W.G. Sebald follows the painful quest of a Czech Jew, brought to England in 1939 on a Kindertransport, to discover the history of his immediate family

Yasumasa Kanada sets his 11th world record in calculating the number of digits in the decimal expansion of Π, reaching 1.2411 trillion

Lost in Translation, a film directed by Sofia Coppola, depicts the culture shock of an American couple in modern Japan

Californians vote to remove governor Gray Davis from office in a 'recall' election and to replace him with Arnold Schwarzenegger

The last three Concorde airliners to carry fare-paying passengers land within a space of five minutes at Heathrow

Skype, designed jointly by a Danish and a Swedish software developer, uses a webcam to enable users to see, by means of the internet, the person to whom they are speaking

Grayson Perry, dressed as his female alter ego Claire, begins his speech of thanks on winning the Turner Prize with the statement: 'It was high time a transvestite potter won this prize'.

Ten new member states (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungrary, Malta, Cyprus) join the European Union

The Governors of the Royal Star & Garter Home announce plans for it to be replaced by three new purpose-built care homes elsewhere in the UK, and the building is put up for sale

Patriarch Christodoulos attends the funeral in Rome of Pope John Paul II

John Paul II, dying after 26 years on the papal throne, is the third longest-serving pope in history

Joseph Ratzinger is elected pope and takes the name Benedict XVI

The superjumbo Airbus A380 makes its first test flight from Toulouse

Four English suicide bombers cause 52 deaths on London's transport system during the morning rush hour

Hurricane Katrina brings flooding and chaos to New Orleans and other coastal areas, causing more than 1500 deaths

French surgeon Bernard Devauchelle and his team in Amiens carry out the first human face transplant

Latin Americans in the USA stage the Great American Boycott, a day of non-cooperation to demand immigration reform

Patriarch Christodoulos has talks with Pope Benedict XVI, in the first official visit to the Vatican by the head of the Greek Orthodox church

The Republicans lose control of both houses of the US Congress in an electoral backlash against the Iraq War

The first passenger flight on the massive Airbus A380 goes from Singapore to Sydney, with Singapore Airlines

Uri Lupolianski, ends his five-year term as the first mayor of Jerusalem from the powerful ultra-orthodox section of Israeli society

The pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 lands his plane on Manhattan's Hudson River with no loss of life among his 155 passengers and crew

The Orleans House Gallery reaches the final shortlist of four for the prestigious £100,000 annual prize awarded each year by the Art Fund