Chronopin: upcoming release dates, events and other important dates

Madhouse's Monster begins airing, a psychological thriller adapting Naoki Urasawa's manga about Dr. Kenzo Tenma's pursuit of Johan Liebert, the child he once saved who becomes a serial killer.

TMS Entertainment broadcasts a Detective Conan TV special previewing that summer's eighth film, in which Professor Agasa's new identity-matching program is turned on the phantom thief Kaitou Kid, only for Kid to hijack the broadcast himself.

The $265M Sands Macao opened as the city's first Las Vegas-style resort, ending Stanley Ho's 42-year gambling monopoly and starting Macau's transformation into the world's densest gaming hub.

Shrek 2 is a 2004 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon from a screenplay by Adamson, Joe Stillman, and the writing team of J. Loosely based on the 1990 children's picture book Shrek! by William Steig, it is a direct sequel to Shrek (2001) and the second installment in the Shrek film series.

Manglobe's Samurai Champloo begins airing, a hip-hop-infused samurai adventure directed by Shinichiro Watanabe that follows wanderers Mugen and Jin escorting waitress Fuu as she searches for a mysterious 'sunflower samurai.'

Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho premieres, a 13-episode OVA continuing the Ojamajo Doremi magical-girl franchise with a more mature, romance-tinged coda for the five witch apprentices.

The action-horror TV anime Elfen Lied begins broadcast, following the psychotic, telekinetic Diclonius Lucy after two teenagers take in her amnesiac alter-ego "Nyuu".

Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 American supernatural horror film serving as a prequel to The Exorcist (1973), and the fourth installment in The Exorcist film series. Directed by Renny Harlin, the film stars Stellan Skarsgård, Izabella Scorupco and James D'Arcy.

The television anime Bleach begins airing, a Studio Pierrot adaptation of Tite Kubo's manga about high schooler Ichigo Kurosaki, who inherits a Soul Reaper's powers and takes up the fight against soul-devouring Hollows.

The Royal Danish Navy commissioned HDMS Absalon, lead ship of the Absalon-class flexible support ships built at Odense Steel Shipyard. The 137-meter vessel combines helicopter, troop, and vehicle capacity with modern weapon systems.

Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle opens in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's novel about a young hatmaker cursed into an old woman's body who takes refuge with a wizard in his walking castle.

Norman Foster's Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, opened over southern France's Tarn valley, completing the A75 motorway route between Paris and the Mediterranean.

A former CargoLifter airship hangar in Brandenburg, big enough to enclose the Statue of Liberty, reopened as the Tropical Islands indoor resort on December 19, 2004. Its beaches, lagoons and rainforest now draw about a million visitors a year to the world's largest free-standing hall.

A magnitude 9.1 megathrust rupture off Aceh generated a tsunami that crossed the Indian Ocean and struck coastlines from Indonesia to East Africa. It is the third-largest earthquake ever instrumentally recorded.

The world's largest pumping station begins lifting water from Lake Nasser into the Sheikh Zayed Canal, launching Egypt's attempt to grow a second Nile valley 310 km into the Sahara.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader and written by William Wisher Jr. and Caleb Carr. The film serves as an alternative prequel to The Exorcist (1973) and is the fifth installment in The Exorcist series.

Shin-Ei Animation and Studio Pierrot relaunch Doraemon as a new weekly TV series, replacing the original 1979 cast and staff for a modern retelling of Fujiko F. Fujio's manga about a robotic cat from the future helping the boy Nobita.

Shin-Ei Animation's hour-long Doraemon TV specials, broadcast alongside the 2005 series for holidays and milestones, began airing with the revival's debut.

F-WWOW, the first of the only full-length double-deck jet airliner ever built, flew from Toulouse–Blagnac with a crew of six under chief test pilot Jacques Rosay, who said handling it was "like handling a bicycle".

Grant Achatz's "maximalist modernist" restaurant opened on a Lincoln Park side street and went on to hold three Michelin stars from 2011 to 2024. It is named after the alinea, the paragraph symbol that is also its logo.

Katrina came ashore near Buras-Triumph at 11:10 UTC as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds. Flooding from failures in the federally built levee system put 80% of New Orleans under water.

Hurricane Katrina shut in about half of US domestic oil production and knocked out refineries and import terminals, so on 2 September 2005 President Bush found a severe energy supply interruption and ordered a sale. DOE offered 30 million barrels and sold 11 million; the first oil left Bryan Mound on 26 September.

Production I.G's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – The Laughing Man releases direct to video. The single-episode OVA recompiles and expands the "Laughing Man" arc from the first Stand Alone Complex season with new footage, as Public Security Section 9's Togusa revisits a six-year-old unsolved case tied to an elusive hacker.

Gintama: Jump Festa 2005 Special premieres, a Sunrise-animated comedy short pitting Gintoki's Yorozuya against the Shinsengumi in a brutal game of rock-paper-scissors over a prime cherry-blossom viewing spot.

Artland's Mushishi begins broadcast, an episodic supernatural series following the wandering Mushi Master Ginko as he investigates the effects of Mushi, primordial lifeforms that blur the line between the natural and supernatural.