Year 2011
Events
January
January 1
Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the 17th
Eurozone country.
A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, leave a new
year service, killing 23 people.
January 4 – Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi dies after setting
himself on fire a month earlier, sparking anti-government protests in
Tunisia and later other Arab nations. These protests become known
collectively as the Arab Spring.
January 9–15 – Southern Sudan holds a referendum on independence. The
Sudanese electorate votes in favour of independence, paving the way for
the creation of the new state in July.
January 9 – Iran Air Flight 277 crashes near Orumiyeh in the northeast
of the country, killing 77 people.
January 14 – The Tunisian government falls after a month of increasingly
violent protests; President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees to Saudi
Arabia after 23 years in power.
January 24 – 37 people are killed and more than 180 others wounded in a
bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia.
February
February 11 – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigns after widespread
protests calling for his departure, leaving control of Egypt in the
hands of the military until a general election can be held.
February 15 – The First Libyan Civil War starts.
February 22 – March 14 – Uncertainty over Libyan oil output causes crude
oil prices to rise 20% over a two-week period following the Arab Spring,
causing the 2011 energy crisis.
February 22 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Christchurch, New
Zealand. Over 180 people were killed, many within the CTV Building,
including a large number of foreign citizens. A large number of foreign
search and rescue workers responded to the event.
March
March 6 – Civil uprising phase of the Syrian Civil War is triggered when
15 youths in Daraa are arrested for scrawling graffiti on their school
wall denouncing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
March 11 – A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the
east of Japan, killing 15,840 and leaving another 3,926 missing. Tsunami
warnings are issued in 50 countries and territories. Emergencies are
declared at four nuclear power plants affected by the quake.
March 15
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, declares a three-month state
of emergency as troops from the Gulf Co-operation Council are sent to
quell the civil unrest.
Protests breakout across Syria demanding democratic reforms, resignation
of President Bashar al-Assad, and release of those imprisoned for the
March 6 Daraa protest. The government responds by killing hundreds of
protesters and laying siege to various cities, beginning the Syrian
Civil War.
March 17 – The United Nations Security Council votes 10–0 to create a
no-fly zone over Libya in response to allegations of government
aggression against civilians.
March 19 – In light of continuing attacks on Libyan rebels by forces in
support of leader Muammar Gaddafi, military intervention authorized
under UNSCR 1973 begins as French fighter jets make reconnaissance
flights over Libya.
April
April 2 – India wins the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
April 11 – Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo is arrested in his
home in Abidjan by supporters of elected President Alassane Ouattara,
with support from French forces; this effectively ends the 2010–11
Ivorian crisis and civil war.
April 15 – The Mexican town of Cherán is taken over by vigilantes in
response to abuses from the local drug cartel. The new government is
strongly focused on crime reduction and preserving the local
environment.
April 25–28 – The 2011 Super Outbreak forms in the Southern, Midwest and
Eastern United States with a tornado count of 362; killing 324 and
injuring over 2,200.
April 29 – An estimated two billion people watch the wedding of Prince
William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey
in London.
May
May 1 – U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the
founder and leader of the militant group Al-Qaeda, was killed on May 2,
2011 (PKT, UTC+05) during an American military operation in Pakistan.
May 16 – The European Union agrees to a €78 billion rescue deal for
Portugal. The bailout loan will be equally split between the European
Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability
Facility, and the International Monetary Fund.
May 21 – Grímsvötn, Iceland's most active volcano, erupts and causes
disruption to air travel in Northwestern Europe.
May 22 – The 2011 Joplin tornado, an EF5 tornado, strikes Joplin,
Missouri, killing 158 and injuring 1,150.
May 26 – Former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladić, wanted for
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, is arrested in Serbia.
June
June 4 – Chile's Puyehue volcano erupts, causing air traffic
cancellations across South America, New Zealand and Australia, and
forcing over 3,000 people to evacuate.
June 26 – July 17 – The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup takes place in
Germany and is won by Japan.
June 28 – The Food and Agriculture Organization announces the
eradication of the cattle plague rinderpest from the world.
July
July 9 – South Sudan secedes from Sudan, per the result of the
independence referendum held in January.
July 12 – The planet Neptune completes its first orbit since it was
discovered in 1846.
July 14 – South Sudan joins the United Nations as the 193rd member.
July 20
Goran Hadžić is detained in Serbia, becoming the last of 161 people
indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia.
The United Nations declares a famine in southern Somalia, the first in
over 30 years.
July 21 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lands successfully at Kennedy Space
Center after completing STS-135, concluding NASA's Space Shuttle
program.
July 22 – In Norway, Anders Behring Breivik kills 8 people in a bomb
blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, then kills 69
at a massacre at a Workers' Youth League camp on the island of Utøya.
July 31 – In Thailand over 12.8 million people are affected by severe
flooding. The World Bank estimates damages at 1,440 billion baht (US$45
billion). Some areas are still six feet under water, and many factory
areas remain closed at the end of the year. 815 people are killed, with
58 of the country's 77 provinces affected.
August
August – Stock exchanges worldwide suffer heavy losses due to the fears
of contagion of the European sovereign debt crisis and the credit rating
downgraded as a result of the debt-ceiling crisis of the United States.
August 5
NASA announces that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured
photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm
seasons.
Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter, is
launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
August 20–28 – Libyan rebels take control of the capital Tripoli,
effectively overthrowing the government of Muammar Gaddafi.
September
September 5 – India and Bangladesh sign a pact to end their 40-year
border demarcation dispute.
September 10 – The MV Spice Islander I, carrying at least 800 people,
sinks off the coast of Zanzibar, killing 240 people.
September 12 – Approximately 100 people die after a petrol pipeline
explodes in Nairobi.
September 17 – Occupy Wall Street protests begin in the United States.
This develops into the Occupy movement which spreads to 82 countries by
October.
September 19 – With 434 dead, the United Nations launches a $357 million
appeal for victims of the 2011 Sindh floods in Pakistan.
October
October 4 – The death toll from the flooding of Cambodia's Mekong river
and attendant flash floods reaches 207.
October 18 – Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange: Israel and the Palestinian
militant organization Hamas begin a major prisoner exchange, in which
the captured Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit is released by Hamas in
exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli-Arab prisoners held in
Israel, including 280 prisoners serving life sentences for planning and
perpetrating terror attacks.
October 20
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is killed in Sirte, with National
Transitional Council forces taking control of the city and ending the
war.
Basque separatist militant organisation ETA declares an end to its
43-year campaign of political violence, which has killed over 800 people
since 1968.
October 23 – A magnitude 7.2 Mw earthquake jolts eastern Turkey near the
city of Van, killing over 600 people and damaging about 2,200 buildings.
October 27 – After an emergency meeting in Brussels, the European Union
announces an agreement to tackle the European sovereign debt crisis
which includes a writedown of 50% of Greek bonds, a recapitalisation of
European banks and an increase of the bailout fund of the European
Financial Stability Facility totaling to €1 trillion.
October 31
Date selected by the UN as the symbolic date when global population
reaches seven billion.
UNESCO admits Palestine as a member, following a vote which 107 member
states support and 14 oppose.
November
November 26 – The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, the most
elaborate Martian exploration vehicle to date, is launched from the
Kennedy Space Center. It lands on Mars on August 6, 2012.
November 30 – The United Kingdom severs diplomatic relations with Iran
and expels diplomats, less than 24 hours after protesters attacked the
British embassy in Tehran.
December
December 15 – The United States formally declares an end to the Iraq
War. While this ends the insurgency, it begins another.
December 16 – Tropical Storm Washi causes 1,268 flash flood fatalities
in the Philippines, with 85 people officially listed as missing.
December 29 – Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the
International Date Line, thereby skipping December 30, in order to align
their time zones better with their main trading partners.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198