Born on February 14, 2005

A massive explosion rips through Rafik Hariri's motorcade near Beirut's St. George Hotel, killing the former prime minister and 21 others. This assassination triggers a mass exodus of foreign troops from Lebanon and ignites the Cedar Revolution that forces Syria to withdraw its decades-long military presence from the country.

Three former PayPal employees — Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim — registered the YouTube.com domain, launching a platform that would demolish the barriers to video distribution worldwide. Within eighteen months Google acquired it for $1.65 billion, and today YouTube hosts over 800 million videos, reshaping entertainment, journalism, education, and political discourse.

Rafik Hariri's motorcade was driving through Beirut when a truck bomb detonated with the force of 1,000 kilograms of TNT. The blast killed him and 21 others. It carved a crater 30 feet wide in the road. Hariri had resigned as Prime Minister four months earlier, opposing Syria's military presence in Lebanon. Within days, a million Lebanese — nearly a quarter of the country — flooded the streets demanding Syria withdraw. They called it the Cedar Revolution. Syria pulled out its 14,000 troops after 29 years of occupation. The assassination meant to silence opposition became the catalyst that ended it.

Rafic Hariri was Lebanon's richest man and its most powerful politician. He'd rebuilt Beirut after the civil war, literally — his construction company did it. He'd also just broken with Syria after fifteen years of cooperation. On February 14, 2005, a suicide bomber detonated a thousand kilograms of TNT as Hariri's motorcade passed the St. George Hotel. The blast left a crater ten feet deep. Twenty-three people died. Within weeks, a million Lebanese — a quarter of the country — filled the streets demanding Syria withdraw its troops. They did. Fourteen years of occupation ended because they killed the wrong man.

Three cities, three bombs, nearly simultaneous. Makati's financial district first — Valentine's Day, rush hour, a bus shelter outside a mall. Then Davao City in the south. Then General Santos. The targets weren't random: all three cities had significant Christian populations in the Muslim-majority Mindanao region. Police found the signature of Jemaah Islamah, al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian affiliate. They'd used cell phones as detonators, timed to the minute. The Makati bomb went off 200 meters from the U.S. Embassy. The message was coordination. Seven dead, 151 wounded, and proof that insurgent networks could strike across a thousand miles of islands on the same afternoon.

Rafic Hariri made his fortune building for Saudi royalty, then spent it rebuilding Beirut. He personally guaranteed loans to reconstruct the city center after fifteen years of civil war. On February 14, 2005, a bomb containing 1,000 kilograms of TNT killed him and twenty-one others on the Beirut waterfront. The explosion left a crater ten feet deep. Two million people — half of Lebanon — attended his funeral. Syria withdrew its troops five weeks later after twenty-nine years of occupation.

Rafik Hariri died in a massive car bomb in Beirut on February 14, 2005. The blast left a crater 30 feet wide. Twenty-one others died with him. He'd resigned as Prime Minister four months earlier after Syria forced through a constitutional change he opposed. He was planning a political comeback. The assassination triggered the Cedar Revolution — a million people, a quarter of Lebanon's population, filled the streets. Syria withdrew its troops after 29 years. The UN investigation that followed would reshape Middle Eastern politics for a generation. He'd rebuilt downtown Beirut after the civil war using his own fortune. The city he reconstructed became the site of his funeral.

Najai Turpin shot himself in his apartment in May 2005. He was 23. Four months earlier, he'd fought on national television and lost badly. The referee stopped it in the second round. Turpin had been undefeated before that, 13-0, a contender people were watching. After the loss, he told friends boxing was all he had. His promoter said he seemed fine. His family said he'd been struggling with depression for years. The sport keeps meticulous records of punches landed and rounds won. It doesn't track what happens when the lights go out.