date: November 30

text: November 30 – Surgeons in France carry out the first human face transplant with Isabelle Dinoire becoming the first person to undergo it.


date: December 16

section: Health & Medicine

text: December 16 – Find-a-drug medical distributed computing project is concluded.

source_section: Events › December


date: October 19

section: Crime & Justice

text: October 19 – The trial of Saddam Hussein begins.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 11

text: November 11 – In Kazakhstan, Zamanbek Nurkadilov, former mayor of Almaty, government minister and a political opponent of Nursultan Nazarbayev is found dead at his family compound.

source_section: Events › November


date: March 23

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: March 23 – The Texas City refinery explosion leaves 15 people dead and 180 injured with a property loss of about $200 million.

source_section: Events › March


date: July 23

text: July 23 – A series of bombings hit the resort city of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, killing over 80 people.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 16

text: August 16 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes into a mountain in Venezuela, killing 160 passengers and crew.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – A series of suicide bombs exploded at Kuta and Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia. The attack killed 20 and injured over 100 others.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashes into the ocean off of Miami Beach in Florida. There were 20 fatalities.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – An express train bound for the city of Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, is derailed by strong winds in Shonai, Yamagata Prefecture. Five people are killed and at least 33 injured.


date: March 28

section: Climate & Environment

text: March 28 – The 8.6 Nias–Simeulue earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong), leaving 915–1,314 people dead and 340–1,146 injured.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast, causing severe damage, killing over a thousand people and causing an estimated $108 billion in damage.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – The 7.6 Kashmir earthquake strikes Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and nearby areas with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing more than 86,000 people and displacing several million more.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Hurricane Wilma, the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, makes landfall near Cape Romano, causing an estimated $29.1 billion in damage.


date: February 14

section: Culture & Society

text: February 14 – YouTube, an American online video sharing and social media platform was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim headquartered in San Bruno, California.

source_section: Events › February


text: February 14 – Chad Hurley registers the youtube.com domain name.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall. Camilla receives the title Duchess of Cornwall.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 19

text: May 19–21 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 takes place in Kyiv, Ukraine, and is won by Greek entrant Helena Paparizou with the song "My Number One".

source_section: Events › May


date: May 21

text: May 21 – David Foster Wallace delivers his now-famous commencement address, This Is Water at Kenyon College in Ohio.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The Civic Forum of the Romanians of Covasna, Harghita and Mureș is founded.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Live 8, a set of 10 simultaneous concerts, takes place throughout the world, raising interest in the Make Poverty History campaign.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – The International Olympic Committee awards London the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The Al-Aimmah bridge disaster in Baghdad, Iraq kills 953 Shia Muslim pilgrims who were celebrating a religious festival.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – The general conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passes the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.


date: January 11

section: Births

text: January 11 – Roksana Węgiel, Polish singer, winner of Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018

source_section: Births


date: January 21

text: January 21 – IShowSpeed, American YouTuber


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Alma Deutscher, British composer and former child prodigy


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Cruz Beckham, British singer and musician and son of David Beckham and Victoria Beckham


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Princess Alexia of the Netherlands, daughter of Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and his wife Queen Máxima of the Netherlands


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Alysa Liu, American figure skater


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Jack Hoffman, American high school football player and pediatric brain cancer patient who met President Barack Obama in 2013 (d. 2025)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Sienna Spiro, English singer-songwriter and record producer


date: October 15

text: October 15 – Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, son of Frederik X and his wife Queen Mary of Denmark


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Leonor, Princess of Asturias, daughter of Felipe VI of Spain and his wife Queen Letizia of Spain


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Lara Raj, American singer and member of Katseye


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Mariam Mamadashvili, Georgian singer, winner of Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Violet Affleck, American spokesperson and daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway, son of Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway and his wife Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway, grandson of King Harald V of Norway


date: April 2

section: Deaths

text: April 2 – Pope John Paul II dies; over four million people travel to the Vatican to mourn him. Pope Benedict XVI succeeds him on April 19, becoming the 265th pope.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – African-American civil rights activist Rosa Parks dies of natural causes.


date: January 22

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 22 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as president of Bolivia.

source_section: Events › January


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Hamas wins the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Stephen Harper is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Canada after winning the federal election on January 23.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Michelle Bachelet becomes the first female president of Chile.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Iran announces a deal with Russia, involving a joint uranium enrichment firm on Russian soil; nine days later Iran announces that it will not move all activity to Russia, thus leading to a de facto termination of the deal.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Montenegro declares its independence from Serbia and Montenegro after a May 21 referendum and becomes a sovereign state. Two days later, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro officially disbands after Serbia declares its independence as well, ending an 88-year union between the two countries and leaving Serbia as the successor country to the union.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The 2006 Mexican presidential election is held. Felipe Calderón is confirmed as the winner on September 5.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his intention to resign by the end of 2007.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Fredrik Reinfeldt replaces Göran Persson as Prime Minister of Sweden.


date: October 11

text: October 11–13 – St Andrews Agreement is held in Scotland between the British and Irish governments on devolution in Northern Ireland.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – South Korean Ban Ki-moon is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding Kofi Annan.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – The breakaway state of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt.


date: January 1

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 1–4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing: Explosions occur at the al-Askari Shrine in Samarra, Iraq. The attack on the shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, causes the escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq into a full-scale war (the Iraqi Civil War of 2006–2008).


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Israel launches an offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to rocketfire by Hamas into Israeli territory.


text: June 28 – The United States Armed Forces withdraws its forces in Iceland, thereby disbanding the Iceland Defense Force.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – 2006 Lebanon War: Israeli troops invade Lebanon in response to Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others. Hezbollah declares open war against Israel two days later.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – News was revealed of a thwarted terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks, aboard multiple transatlantic air flights.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – The Royal Thai Army overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – A series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City, Baghdad, kills at least 215 people and injure 257 other people.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – WikiLeaks leaks Hassan Dahir Aweys' conspiracy to assassinate Somali government officials.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The military seizes power in Fiji, in a coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Mexican drug war: Felipe Calderón sends the Mexican military to combat the drug cartels and put down the violence in the state of Michoacán, initiating Mexico's drug war.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – War in Somalia (2006–09): Ethiopia admits its troops have intervened in Somalia.


date: July 6

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: July 6 – The Nathu La pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.


date: October

text: October (date unknown) – The Offshore MPA project is initiated.


date: October 9

section: Economy & Finance

text: October 9 – Google purchased YouTube for US$1.65 billion.


date: March 21

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: March 21 – Microblogging and social networking service website Twitter(now known as X) was launched.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirms that Iran has successfully produced a few grams of low-grade enriched uranium.


date: June 14

text: June 14 - The 2006 Kismet Train Collision occurs in California. At 5:51 AM, two BNSF Railway freight trains collided head-on at the Kismet Siding in Kismet, California near Madera, California. The southbound mixed manifest train disregarded a red signal at East Kismet instead of stopping and crashed into the northbound grain train.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Qinghai–Tibet railway begins operation, making Tibet the final province-level entity of China to establish a conventional railway.


date: September 1

text: September 1 — Analog terrestrial television is switched off in Luxembourg, being the first country to do so.


text: October 9 – North Korea claims to have conducted its first-ever nuclear test.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Microsoft releases Office 2007 for manufacturing.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Microsoft releases Windows Vista for manufacturing.


text: December 11 – Analog terrestrial television is switched off permanently in the Netherlands.


date: January 15

section: Science & Discovery

text: January 15 – NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – NASA launches the first interplanetary space probe to Pluto, the New Horizons.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – NASA's Cassini–Huygens spacecraft announces a geyser-like emission of vapor, dust, and small ice crystals on Saturn's moon Enceladus, possibly indicating the presence of water.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars.


text: April 11 – The European Space Agency's Venus Express space probe enters Venus' orbit.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The Human Genome Project publishes the final chromosome sequence, in Nature.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, removing Pluto's status as a planet and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet 76 years after its discovery. Ironically, this was in the same year when NASA sent its first probe to the celestial body.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Partial lunar eclipse, visible over most of Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Annular solar eclipse, visible in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, parts of Brazil, and the southern Atlantic.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Sony releases the PlayStation 3.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Nintendo releases the Wii.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Jennifer San Marco goes on a killing spree in Goleta, California, United States, that leaves seven people dead before she takes her own life.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – The Faddoul Brothers, kidnapped on February 23, 2006, in Caracas, Venezuela, are found dead, causing outrage and mass protests against insecurity in the country.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed by a US airstrike.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, serial shooter Martín Ríos opens fire against passers-by on Cabildo Avenue, killing an 18-year-old and injuring six others.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Sri Lankan civil war, Chencholai bombing: 61 female students in Mullaitivu are killed by the Sri Lankan Air Force in an air strike.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He is later executed by hanging for crimes against humanity on December 30.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, was executed by hanging.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 pilgrims.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – The roof of one of the buildings at the Katowice International Fair collapsed in Katowice, Poland, killing 65 and injuring 170.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines killing an estimated 1,126 people.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – A series of seven bomb blasts hits the city of Mumbai, India, killing more than 200 people.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Russian government patrol boat 31st Kisshin Maru incident, killing one crew member.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Kentucky, killing all 47 passengers and two of three crew members.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800, collides with an Embraer Legacy 600 over the Amazon rainforest, killing all 154 occupants on board the 737 whereas all 7 on board the Legacy survive.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – A toxic waste dumping incident occurs in Côte d'Ivoire by a Panama ship sent by Singaporean oil company, causing 3 deaths and the poison treatment of 1500 people.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – The 6.4 Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java in Indonesia with an MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), leaving more than 5,700 dead and 37,000 injured.


date: September 4

text: September 4 — Australian conservationist Steve Irwin is fatally stung in the heart by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Typhoon Xangsane passed Manila on its way to causing more than 300 deaths, mostly in the Philippines and Vietnam.


date: February 10

text: February 10–26 – The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin, Italy.


date: May 18

text: May 18–20 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 takes place in Athens, Greece, and is won by Finnish band entrant Lordi with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah".


date: June 9

text: June 9 to July 9 – The 2006 FIFA World Cup takes place in Germany; Italy defeats France in the final.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Fernando Alonso wins his second World Drivers Championship.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Taylor Swift releases her debut album,Taylor Swift.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock becomes the most expensive painting after it is sold privately for $140 million.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Juraj Dobrila University of Pula is established.


date: November 1

text: November 1 - Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko: Litvinenko, former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service and critic of the Putin administration, is poisoned with Polonium-210. He dies of acute radiation syndrome on 23 November, causing widespread accusations that the Russian government was behind the poisoning.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eurozone.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female speaker of the United States House of Representatives.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The First Ivorian Civil War ends with a peace agreement.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov sign a border treaty between Latvia and Russia, officially demarcating the border between the two.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – 2007 French presidential election: Nicolas Sarkozy is elected President of France in the second round.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – As a result of factors including the Blair–Brown deal and falling approval ratings as a result of the Iraq War, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his intention to resign as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, triggering the 2007 Labour Party leadership election, in which Chancellor Gordon Brown ran unopposed. Brown would officially replace Blair as Prime Minister on 27 June.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Gordon Brown succeeds Tony Blair and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after a leadership election.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The UEFA Executive Committee decided to cancel the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying matches between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Group A, after the proposal to play them on neutral ground was rejected by the federations of the two countries.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.


text: October 22 – Montenegro adopts a new constitution, which among other things changes the country's official name from "Republic of Montenegro" to "Montenegro".


date: October 28

text: October 28 – 2007 Argentine general election: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner becomes the first directly elected female President of Argentina.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – 2007 Australian federal election: The Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd defeats the Liberal/National Coalition government led by Prime Minister John Howard. Rudd would be sworn in on December 3.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – At the age of , Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever reigning British monarch, surpassing Queen Victoria who was aged upon her death on January 22, 1901.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – The Treaty of Lisbon is signed by members states of European Union.


text: December 21 – The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the Schengen border-free zone.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Russian oil supplies to Poland, Germany, and Ukraine are cut as the Russia–Belarus energy dispute escalates; they are restored three days later.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Iraq War: The surge of US troops in Iraq is announced.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – A truck bomb explodes in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 135 people and injures 339 others.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – The International Court of Justice finds Serbia guilty of failing to prevent genocide in the Srebrenica massacre, but clears it of direct responsibility and complicity in the case.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Georgia accuses three Russian helicopters of firing on the Kodori Gorge, then the only part of the break-away autonomous republic of Abkhazia still under Georgian control.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Naval forces of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrest Royal Navy personnel in disputed Iran-Iraq waters; they were released on April 4.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Virginia tech massacre: 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho fatally shoots 32 people and injured 17 others, before committing suicide as police arrive on the scene.


date: June 10

text: June 10–15 – Fatah-Hamas conflict: The Battle of Gaza is fought between Fatah and Hamas, and ends with Hamas gaining control of the Gaza Strip.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Operation Banner comes to an end, thus ending the longest continuous deployment in British military history.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Israeli Air Force airplanes attack a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in an airstrike.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – October 21 – The 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Beijing, China.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Whistleblower website WikiLeaks leaks the standard US army protocol at Guantanamo Bay.


text: November 7 – The Jokela school shooting happened in Finland.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to the Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the general election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis that killed over 1,000 people.


text: December 27 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated, along with 20 other people, at an election rally in Rawalpindi.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The Universal Forum of Cultures opens in Monterrey, Mexico.


date: May 17

section: Religion & Belief

text: May 17 – The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate re-unite after 80 years of schism.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai makes the largest single charitable donation in modern history, committing €7.41 billion to an educational foundation in the Middle East.


date: September 12

text: September 12 - Daniel Ciobotea is elected as the 6th Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church since the Church was elevated to this status in 1925.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – American rapper T.I was involved in a physical altercation with Chaka Zulu, the manager of Ludacris, at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, California.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Subprime mortgage crisis: The French global bank BNP Paribas in the United Kingdom blocks withdrawals from three hedge funds heavily committed in subprime lendings, signaling the 2008 financial crisis.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco, California; starting the new era of smartphones with this invention. The phone would be released in June.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Windows Vista is released to consumers by Microsoft.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Microblogging social network Tumblr is launched to the public.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – British three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, described by The Daily Telegraph as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Bob Barker hosts his final episode of The Price Is Right after 35 years of hosting.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The iPhone, the first modern smartphone, is released in the United States. It is later released in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria, in November 2007.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – A total lunar eclipse occurs and is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. It is the 52nd lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros series 123 occurring at the moon's descending node. The moon is just 3.2 days before apogee, making it fairly small.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The first solar eclipse of the year 2007 is a partial solar eclipse occurring just 0.7 days before perigee, making it very large. The Moon covers 87.558% of the Sun. In this partial solar eclipse, the best visibility occurs at 61º02'55" N, 55º28'04" E. It is the 20th solar eclipse of Solar Saros series 149, at ascending node. The Sun is its zenith just 83 km south of the Equator, so the Northern Hemisphere was in winter and the Southern Hemisphere was in summer on March 19, 2007.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Gliese 581c, a potentially Earth-like extrasolar planet habitable for life, is discovered in the constellation Libra.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second fly-by of Venus on route to Mercury.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The dwarf planet Gonggong is discovered by astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz from the Palomar Observatory.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The Phoenix spacecraft is launched toward Mars to study its north pole.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The SELENE spacecraft launches, with its objective being to study the Moon.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Five Bulgarian nurses are released from Libyan prison after eight and a half years spent behind bars in Benghazi and Tripoli, marking the end of the so-called "HIV trial in Libya".


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Valve Software releases The Orange Box on Windows and Xbox 360.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Boston, Massachusetts, United States faces a hoax bomb scare, as a result of LED placards of Ignignokt and Err from Aqua Teen Hunger Force being mistaken as an improvised explosive device.


date: April 26

text: April 26–27 – "Bronze Night": Ethnic Russian riot in Tallinn and other cities in Estonia against the moving of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet World War II memorial statue. 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia begin.


date: June 22

text: June 22–June 24 – Canadian professional wrestler Chris Benoit commits a double-murder suicide on his wife and youngest son at their home in Fayetteville, Georgia, United States.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The Pablo Picasso painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, together with Candido Portinari's O Lavrador de Café, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.


text: Mauritania is the last country to criminalise slavery (officially abolished in 1981), making the practice illegal everywhere in the world.

source_section: Events › Unknown date


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Adam Air Flight 574, en route to Manado, Indonesia, from Surabaya, Indonesia, crashes into the Makassar Strait; killing all 102 on board.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – 18 April 2007 Baghdad bombings: A series of attacks take place across Baghdad, Iraq, killing nearly 200 people.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Kenya Airways Flight 507, on a scheduled passenger flight from Doula, Cameroon, to Nairobi, Kenya, crashes after takeoff, killing all 114 crew and passengers on board.


text: July 17 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054 an Airbus A320-233 overruns the runway of São Paulo–Congonhas Airport runway 35L, flies over Avenida Washington Luís and crashes into TAM Express building and a Shell filling station adjacent to the TAM Express building. All 187 passengers and crew are killed instantly. 12 people inside the TAM Express and the Shell filling station are also killed.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Multiple suicide bombings kill 572 people in Qahtaniya, northern Iraq.


date: February 2

text: February 2 – The IPCC publishes its fourth assessment report, having concluded that global climate change is "very likely" to have a predominantly human cause.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – North Korea agrees to shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by April 14 as a first step towards complete denuclearization, receiving in return energy aid equivalent to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The 2007 Greensburg tornado moves through Kiowa County, Kansas, United States, striking the town of Greensburg and killing eleven residents. 95% of the town was destroyed, and the tornado was the first to be rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.


text: June 22 – The 2007 Ellie tornado becomes the only F5 tornado recorded under the use of the Fujita scale in Canada, reaching windspeeds up to 320 mph (510 km/h).


date: June 28

text: June 28 – 2007 European heat wave: in the aftermath of Greece's worst heat wave in a century, at least 11 people are reported dead from heatstroke, approximately 200 wildfires break out nationwide, and the country's electricity grid nearly collapses due to record breaking demand.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – An 8.0 earthquake strikes Peru, killing at least 519 people, injuring more than 1,300, and causing tsunami warnings in the Pacific Ocean.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park in New Zealand, erupts.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Up to 15,000 people are believed to have been killed after Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The fourth International Polar Year, a $1.73 billion research program to study both the North Pole and South Pole, is launched in Paris.


date: March 13

text: March 13–April 28 – The 2007 Cricket World Cup is held in the West Indies with Australia defeating Sri Lanka in the final.


date: May 10

text: May 10–12 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 takes place in Helsinki, Finland, and is won by Serbian entrant Marija Šerifović with the song "Molitva".


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The International Olympic Committee awards Sochi the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Live Earth Concerts are held in nine major cities around the world to raise environmental awareness.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – October 20 – The 2007 Rugby World Cup takes place in France. South Africa beat defending champions England in the final.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Ethiopia celebrates the third millennium in Ethiopian calendar.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Finnish racing driver Kimi Räikkönen won his first Formula One World Championship, driving for Scuderia Ferrari at the Brazilian Grand Prix.


date: October

text: Sports TV Uganda Limited is incorporated in Uganda.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, the head of state of Samoa since its independence, dies in office at the age of 94. His death triggers the first election for the office of Samoan head of state.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – A peace deal is signed in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, ending the Kivu conflict.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, to a mixed response from the international community.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Barisan Nasional loses two-thirds majority, for the first time since 1969, to opposition during the 2008 Malaysian general election but still retains control of government. The coalition also loses majority control of five states to the opposition.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Bhutan holds its first-ever general elections following the adoption of a new Constitution which changed the country from an absolute monarchy to a multiparty democracy.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental organization between states in South America, is founded.


text: May 21 – The International Court of Justice awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – The Legislature Parliament of Nepal votes overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing the country's 240-year-old monarchy, turning the country into a republic.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologizes, on behalf of the Canadian government, to the country's First Nations for the Canadian Indian residential school system.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – India and United States sign the historic Civil Nuclear deal.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – 2008 United States presidential election: Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama defeats Republican candidate John McCain and is elected the 44th President of the United States, making him the first African-American to be elected to the office.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The Channel Island of Sark, a British Crown dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Civic mobilizations in Colombia against FARC, under the name One million voices against FARC.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Venezuela and Ecuador move troops to the Colombian border, following a Colombian raid against FARC guerrillas inside Ecuadorian territory, in which senior commander Raúl Reyes is killed.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Protests in Tibet against China's treatment of Tibetans begin.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – African Union and Comoros forces invade the rebel-held island of Anjouan, returning the island to Comorian control.


text: May 21 – Manchester United wins their third European Cup and second Champions League after they beat Chelsea in the first all-English final in the history of the competition. Manchester United won the match 6–5 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – International Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted in Dublin.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC rebels by Colombian security forces.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania is deposed in a military coup d'état.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Georgia intervenes against Russian-backed separatists in its South-Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, causing Russia to invade Georgia and spark the Russo-Georgian war, the first major European land war of the 21st century.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – A controversial Peruvian tape regarding a Norwegian oil company causes the 2008 Peru oil scandal, sparking protests which cause Jorge de Castillo to resign from office.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The police shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropulos lead to riots across Greece.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Israel invades the Gaza Strip, in response to rockets being fired into Israeli territory by Hamas, and due to weapons being smuggled into the area.


text: August 1 – Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions die on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.


date: October

text: The Easyswap on-line local exchange trading system (LETS) website is officially launched in Switzerland.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro currency.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. Great Recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – 2008 financial crisis: Stocks fall sharply Monday on a triptych of Wall Street woe: Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing, Merrill Lynch's acquisition by Bank of America, and AIG's unprecedented request for short-term financing from the Federal Reserve.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – 2008 financial crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush signs the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, creating a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Expo 2008 opens in Zaragoza, Spain, lasting to September 14, with the topic "Water and sustainable development".


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Apple Inc. launches the App Store with 500 apps available at launch.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – China opens its first high speed rail line.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – HTC Dream, the first smartphone powered by Android, was launched.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Microsoft announces the name Windows 7 to the public.


date: November 30

text: November 30 - İzmir Wildlife Park has opened.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – At 19:04:39 UTC, the uncrewed MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – The first European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo spacecraft for the International Space Station, launches from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – An Energy release of a Gamma-ray burst called the GRB 080319B is the brightest event ever recorded in the Universe.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Iron Man is released in theaters, starting the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – NASA's uncrewed Phoenix spacecraft becomes the first to land on the northern polar region of Mars.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – The first two ten-million-digit primes, M 43,112,609 and M 37,156,667 , discovered on August 23 and September 6, respectively, are officially revealed.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially inaugurated at Geneva.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Satoshi Nakamoto publishes "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The Buzzard Coulee meteorite falls in Saskatchewan. Reported to be 5 times brighter than the full moon and is seen in Alberta, Manitoba, and even North Dakota.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end of the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Claudia Castillo of Spain becomes the first person to have a successful trachea transplant using a tissue-engineered organ.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – WikiLeaks releases allegations of illegal activities carried out by the Cayman Islands branch of Swiss banking corporation Julius Baer; a subsequent lawsuit against WikiLeaks prompts a temporary suspension of the website, but uproar about violations of freedom of speech causes WikiLeaks to be brought back online.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Grand Theft Auto IV is released worldwide, selling over 3.6 million units and earning $310 million during the first day, becoming not only the highest grossing video game release of all time, but also the highest grossing entertainment product release ever.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – The mummified body of Hedviga Golik is found in her apartment in Zagreb, Croatia 42 years after her death.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – South Korea suspends all trips to North Korea's Mount Kumgang after a 53-year-old South Korean tourist is shot and killed by a North Korean sentry.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Radovan Karadžić, the first president of the Republika Srpska, is arrested in Belgrade, Serbia, on allegations of war crimes, following a 12-year-long manhunt.


date: November 26

text: November 26–29 – 2008 Mumbai attacks: Ten terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based terror group, carry out four days of coordinated bombing and shooting attacks across Mumbai, killing 166 people. One terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive and executed in 2012.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – Bernard Madoff is arrested for securities fraud after he was turned in by his sons for operating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, later known as the Madoff investment scandal.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Théoneste Bagosora and two other senior Rwandan army officers guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentences them to life imprisonment for their role in the Rwandan genocide.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – A Belavia CRJ-100 crash lands at Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia. 7 people are injured.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – The Quito Ultratumba nightclub fire in Quito, Ecuador, kills 19 people and injures at least 24 more.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The Princess of the Stars, a passenger ferry owned by Filipino shipping company Sulpicio Lines, capsizes and sinks off the coast of San Fernando, Romblon, at the height of Typhoon Fengshen, resulting in 814 deaths.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Spanair Flight 5022 crashes at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 154 people on board.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – A train collision occurred in Chatsworth, California, when a Metrolink train and Union Pacific local collided head-on.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – A suicide truck bomb explosion destroys the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 54 and injuring 266.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area for a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-fired power plant in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 e9USgal e6m3 of coal fly ash slurry in the largest industrial spill in U.S. history.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – Cyclone Nargis passes through Myanmar, killing more than 138,000 people.


text: May 12 – An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale strikes Sichuan, China, killing an estimated 87,000 people.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, kills 12 and injures more than 400.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall as a category 2 hurricane in Texas, killing 113 and causing over $30 billion in damages.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Floods affected in Northern Vietnam and Central Vietnam and lasted 5 days causing flooding in many provinces and cities.


text: National Disaster Recovery Fund, a disaster management fund is established by the Government of Jamaica.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Online activist group Anonymous initiates Project Chanology, after a leaked interview of Tom Cruise by the Church of Scientology is published on YouTube, and the Church of Scientology issued a "copyright infringement" claim. In response, Anonymous sympathizers took to the streets to protest outside the church (after February 10), while the church's websites and centres were getting DoS attacks, phone line nukes, and black faxes.


date: May 20

text: May 20–24 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 takes place in Belgrade, Serbia, and is won by Russian entrant Dima Bilan with the song "Believe".


date: June 7

text: June 7–29 – Austria and Switzerland jointly host the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, which is won by Spain.


date: August 8

text: August 8–24 – The 2008 Summer Olympics were held in Beijing, China.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Quentin Bryce becomes the first female Governor-General of Australia.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – In a race won by Brazilian driver Felipe Massa, British driver Lewis Hamilton ends in 5th place in 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix and becomes the first black driver to win the Formula One World Championship, and the second youngest driver to achieve the feat at the age of 23.


text: European Certification and Qualification Association is founded.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – XL Airways Germany Flight 888T. An Airbus A320 due to be redelivered to Air New Zealand stalls and crashes over Mediterranean Sea resulting the deaths of 7


date: December 23

text: December 23 – A military coup d'état deposes the government of Guinea shortly after the death of longtime President Lansana Conté.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to hold the office.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – 2009 Liechtenstein general election: The Patriotic Union led by Klaus Tschütscher wins a majority of 13 seats in the Landtag.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Albania and Croatia join NATO.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – France–Pakistan Atomic Energy Framework bilateral energy treaty is signed.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Greenland gains self-rule.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Iceland's national parliament, the Althingi, votes to pursue joining the EU.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Bolivia becomes the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – The United Kingdom imposes direct rule on the Turks and Caicos Islands after an inquiry that found evidence of government corruption.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Ireland holds a second referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty. The amendment is approved by the Irish electorate, having been rejected in the Lisbon I referendum held last year.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is inaugurated for a second term as President of Indonesia.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Czech Republic becomes the final member-state of the European Union to sign the Treaty of Lisbon, thereby permitting that document's initiation into European law.


text: November 3 – The Prime Minister of Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy, is designated the first permanent President of the European Council, a position he takes up on December 1, 2009.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Treaty of Lisbon comes into force.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Serbia applied for membership to the European Union.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda assume their seats on the United Nations Security Council.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Gaza War: Hamas announces that they will accept the Israel Defense Forces offer of a ceasefire, ending the conflict.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending its three-week war with Hamas. However, intermittent air strikes by both sides continue in the following weeks.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Soldiers of Bangladeshi border security force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny and take the commanding army officers and their families hostages at the force's headquarters in Pilkhana, Dhaka. 57 army officers are killed along with 17 civilians by the mutineers.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The President of Guinea-Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira, is assassinated during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, is overthrown in a coup d'état, following a month of unrest in Antananarivo.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Following more than 25 years of fighting, the Sri Lankan Civil War ends with the total military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Mass protests erupt across Iran following a disputed presidential election in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected president, the largest demonstrations in the country since the Iranian Revolution.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – War in Afghanistan: British forces began Operation Panther's Claw, in which more than 350 troops made an aerial assault on Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The Military of Honduras ousts Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in a coup d'état, condemned by OAS.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram initiates an uprising in Bauchi State, Nigeria and quickly spreads throughout the northern part of the country.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – At least 157 demonstrators are massacred by the Guinean military at the Stade du 28 Septembre during a protest against the government that came to power in a coup d'état the previous year.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Two suicide attacks in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 155 people and injure at least 721 people.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Fourteen people are killed during the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – A series of attacks in Baghdad, Iraq kill at least 127 people and injure at least 448 more.


text: January 1 – Slovakia adopts the euro as its national currency, replacing the Slovak koruna.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – The Icelandic government and banking system collapse. Prime Minister Geir Haarde immediately resigns.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – WikiLeaks exposes the contents of Kaupthing Bank's internal documents prior to the Icelandic Financial Crisis. These documents showed suspicious amounts of money were loaned to bank owners, and debts being written off.


date: December 7

text: December 7–18 – The UNFCCC's 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Copenhagen, Denmark.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – The first ("Genesis") block of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency and decentralized payment system Bitcoin is established by the creator of the system, known as Satoshi Nakamoto.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – WikiLeaks releases 86 intercepted telephone recordings of politicians and businessmen involved in the 2008 Peru oil scandal.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – UNESCO launches The World Digital Library.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Video game Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time, is first released to the public.


date: May 27

text: May 27 - At&t Stadium opens to the public home of the NFL Dallas Cowboys


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Analog television ends in the United States as part of the digital television transition.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The Dubai Metro, the first urban train network in the Arabian Peninsula, officials opens.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Microsoft releases Windows 7 to all computers and laptops, including an edition for ATMs.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – First flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.


text: January 26 – An annular solar eclipse takes place over the Indian Ocean, the 50th solar eclipse of Saros cycle 131.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – At 23:31:30 UTC, the decimal representation of Unix time reached 1234567890 seconds. Celebrations were held around the world, among various technical subcultures, to celebrate the 1234567890th second.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer that will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – North Korea launches a rocket from its Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground, which it says is carrying the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 satellite, prompting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.


date: May 11

text: May 11–24 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope on May 11, landing at Edwards Air Force Base May 24.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – NASA launches the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter / LCROSS probes to the Moon, the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley is the first to report that a new dark spot has developed on the planet Jupiter. This event would come to be known as the 2009 Jupiter impact event.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.86 seconds (0.14 seconds shorter than 6 minutes and 39 seconds), occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Paleontologists announce the discovery of an Ardipithecus ramidus fossil skeleton, deeming it the oldest remains of a human ancestor yet found.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Having analyzed the data from the LCROSS lunar impact, NASA announces that it has found a "significant" quantity of water in the Moon's Cabeus crater.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Astronomers discover GJ 1214 b, the first-known exoplanet on which water could exist.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – North Korea announces that it has conducted a second successful nuclear test in North Hamgyong Province. The United Nations Security Council condemns the reported test.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as "swine flu", is deemed a global pandemic.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – China becomes the first country to succeed a completed clinical trial by a company for the 2009/H1N1 vaccine in the world during the swine flu pandemic.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – A Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer shoots and kills Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man, at Fruitvale station in Oakland, United States. The event becomes one of the inciting incidents for the global Black Lives Matter movement.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Virginia Tech student Zhu Haiyang decapitates Yang Xin in the first campus murder since the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – The first trial at the International Criminal Court opens. Former Union of Congolese Patriots leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage and rape.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Former Serbian president Milan Milutinović is acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia regarding war crimes during the Kosovo War.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.


date: April 8

text: April 8 - April 12 – Maersk Alabama Hijacking occurs, the ship being taken over by Somalian pirates off the coast of Somalia.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Steve McNair, former NFL quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, is shot and killed by his girlfriend in Nashville, Tennessee.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – It is revealed the company Trafigura has been using a super-injunction to stop The Guardian from reporting about the 2006 Côte d'Ivoire toxic dumping incident, which Trafigura was responsible for.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – WikiLeaks leaked the membership listing of a radical political group known as the British National Party.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – In the Philippines, at least 58 people are abducted and killed in the province of Maguindanao, in what the Committee to Protect Journalists called the single deadliest attack on journalists in history.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River in an accident that becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson", as all 155 people on board are rescued.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Tiféret Israel Synagogue attack, profanation of the oldest synagogue in Caracas, Venezuela.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes in Clarence Center, New York while on final approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 people on board the aircraft as well as one person on the ground.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 operated by FedEx suffers a bounced landing at Narita international airport resulting in the loss of 2 lives.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Air France Flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – June 2009 Washington Metro train collision, 9 people were killed and 80 people were injured when a Red Line (Washington Metro) train rear ended another train between Takoma and Fort Totten stations, this resulted in the worst train crash in DC Metro's history.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Viareggio train derailment occurred when a freight train carrying liquified petroleum gas derailed at Viareggio railway station in Lucca, Italy. The accident killed 32 people and injured 26 people.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Yemenia Flight 626 crashes off the coast of Moroni, Comoros, killing all but one of the 153 passengers and crew.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, en route from Tehran, Iran, to Yerevan, Armenia crashes into the Jannatabad village in Qazvin Province; killing all 168 on board.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Two bombs exploded separately at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 9 people (including 2 suicide bombers) and injuring 53.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – A small plane and a tour helicopter collide over the Hudson River in the United States. (CNN)


date: August 30

text: August 30 – At least five people are killed and 275 injured in a train crash near Yaoundé, Cameroon. (BBC) (Press TV)


date: September 2

text: September 2 – 2009 Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister helicopter crash. A helicopter carrying Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy went missing in the Nallamala Forest area. It was later confirmed to have crashed with all five people including Reddy pronounced dead.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Korba chimney collapse: At least 45 workers are killed when lightning strikes a chimney under construction in Korba, Chhattisgarh, India, causing it to collapse.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The 2009 El Ayyat railway accident occurred in Giza, Egypt, when a passenger train derailed due to stoppage of animals on the train tracks. 50 people were killed and 30 people were injured.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia kills 156 people. The nightclub owner was sentenced to nearly ten years in prison.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – A Nigerian terrorist plotted an attempted terrorist bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing 308 and injuring more than 1,500.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Typhoon Morakot hits Taiwan, killing 673 and stranding more than 1,000 via the worst flooding on the island in half a century.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Typhoon Ketsana, PAGASA Name: Ondoy, makes landfall in The Philippines, killing hundreds in Metro Manila and flooding in Huế, Vietnam.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – A 8.1 earthquake strikes Samoa, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), leaving at least 192 people dead.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – A 7.6 earthquake strikes Sumatra, Indonesia, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving at least 1,115 people dead.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The 2009 Cataño oil refinery fire began after an explosion at the refinery in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, becomes the American Capital of Culture and Vilnius and Linz become the European Capitals of Culture.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is appointed as the new Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the world's first openly lesbian head of government.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Rachel Crandall Crocker founds the International Transgender Day of Visibility.


date: May 12

text: May 12–16 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 takes place in Moscow, Russia, and is won by Norwegian entrant Alexander Rybak with the song "Fairytale".


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The album 21st Century Breakdown is released by American rock band Green Day, which sold over 5 million copies.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – German football club RB Leipzig is founded by Red Bull.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – A public memorial service for Michael Jackson is held at Staples Center. It is watched by over 2.5 billion people worldwide.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The International Olympic Committee awards Rio de Janeiro the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – British racing driver Jenson Button won his first Formula One World Championship, driving for Brawn GP at the Brazilian Grand Prix.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The Avdhela Project, an Aromanian digital library and cultural initiative, is founded in Bucharest, Romania.


text: February 1 – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is enthroned as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church following the death of his predecessor, Alexy II in 2008.


date: March 5

text: March 5 - Michael Jackson announces his This Is It concert residency in London, England. However, a fortnight before the concerts were supposed to begin, Jackson died at the age of 50 from acute propofol intoxication.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – April 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election protests: four people died and 270 were injured.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The death of American pop star Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online, reactions to the event cripple several major websites and services, as the abundance of people accessing the web addresses pushes internet traffic to unprecedented and historic levels.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Violent riots broke out in Ürümqi, Xinjiang. PRC officials said that a total of 197 people died. two monorails of the Walt Disney World Monorail System collided at the Transportation & Ticket Center in Bay Lake, Florida, United States, killing one pilot and injuring seven others.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Former President of the Philippines Corazon Aquino dies at the age of 76 of cardiopulmonary arrest after complications of colon cancer. A memorial service and funeral is scheduled for August 5. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)


text: Lucius Annius Fabianus and Marcus Nonius Arrius Mucianus become Roman Consuls.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Battle of Cangting: Warlord Cao Cao defeats his rival, Yuan Shao.

source_section: Events › By place › China


date: November

text: November – A flood in Edessa destroys a Christian church, killing over 2,000 people.

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: Decius, Roman emperor (d. 251)


text: Zhao Qi, Chinese official and scholar

source_section: Deaths


text: Galen, Greek physician (see 210) (b. 129)


date: January 15

text: January 15 – The Chadian Civil War officially ends.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – North Caucasian Federal District was split from Southern Federal District by decree of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – In the second round of the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election the alliance of Fidesz lead by Viktor Orbán and the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) wins enough seats to achieve a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature, beginning the 16-year second premiership of Viktor Orbán during which the country enters a period of democratic backsliding.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The 2010 United Kingdom general election results in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party twenty seats short of a majority.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Chile becomes the 31st member of the OECD.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The 2010 Philippine presidential election is held, with Benigno Aquino III elected as Philippine President.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Following the 6 May United Kingdom general election, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties agree to form a coalition government, the UK's first since the Second World War.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Julia Gillard is elected unopposed in a Labor Party leadership ballot and sworn in as the first female prime minister of Australia following the resignation of Kevin Rudd.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Slovenia becomes the 32nd member of the OECD.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – 2010 Australian federal election: Julia Gillard's Labor government is re-elected, narrowly defeating the Liberal/National Coalition led by Tony Abbott.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Israel becomes the 33rd member of the OECD.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Germany makes final reparation payment for World War I.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 10

text: October 10 – The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved, with the islands being split up and given a new constitutional status.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he will extend the settlement freeze if the Palestinian leadership recognizes Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians quickly reject the offer.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Dilma Rousseff is elected, becoming the first (and, so far, the only) female president from Brazil.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in the middle of Democratic President Barack Obama's first term. Republicans ended unified Democratic control of Congress and the presidency by winning a majority in the House of Representatives.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Participants of the 2010 NATO Lisbon summit issue the Lisbon Summit Declaration.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Estonia becomes the 34th member of the OECD.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 8

text: January 8 – The Togo national football team is attacked in Cabinda Province, Angola, and as a result withdraws from the Africa Cup of Nations. The attack was perpetrated by the FLEC, their first since the Angolan Civil War.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh is assassinated in Dubai.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The Australian government is hit by cyberattacks from freedom of expression activists, following recent Australian pornography restrictions.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – The president of Niger, Mamadou Tandja, is overthrown after a group of soldiers storms the presidential palace and form a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy headed by chef d'escadron Salou Djibo.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev flees the country amid fierce anti-government riots in the capital, Bishkek.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Protests in Bangkok, Thailand, end with a bloody military crackdown, killing 91 and injuring more than 2,100.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Inter Milan beats Bayern München 2–0 in the 2010 Champions League Final at the Santiago Bernabéu.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – the 2010 Ahmadiyya mosques massacre in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, killed 94 people during Friday prayers at two mosques.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Nine activists are killed in a clash with soldiers when Israeli Navy forces raid and capture a flotilla of ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – WikiLeaks, an online publisher of anonymous, covert, and classified material, leaks to the public over 90,000 internal reports about the United States-led involvement in the War in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 23

text: August 23 – The Manila hostage crisis occurred near the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, Philippines killing 9 people, including the perpetrator, while injuring 9 others.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The Finnish Yle TV2 channel's Ajankohtainen kakkonen current affairs program featured controversial Homoilta episode (literally "gay night"), which led to the resignation of almost 50,000 Finns from the Evangelical Lutheran Church.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – The 2010 Iraq War Documents leak occurs, being deemed the biggest US government leak in history. WikiLeaks being responsible for revealing 391832 documents concerning the 2003 Iraq War which revealed approximately 60% of the Iraqi deaths were civilian casualties, the Iraq War body count project showing the casualty percentage is closer to 80%.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – North Korea shells Yeonpyeong Island, prompting a military response by South Korea. The incident causes an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula and prompts widespread international condemnation. The United Nations declares it to be one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – The attempted suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Tunisia, triggers the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring throughout the Arab world.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Expo 2010 is held in Shanghai, China.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Expo 2010 concludes in Shanghai, China.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Standard & Poor's downgrades Greece's sovereign credit rating to junk 4 days after the activation of a €45-billion EU–IMF bailout, triggering the decline of stock markets worldwide and of the euro's value, and furthering a European sovereign debt crisis.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 2

text: May 2 – The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund agree to a €110 billion bailout package for Greece. The package involves sharp Greek austerity measures.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The 2010 flash crash, a trillion-dollar stock market crash, occurs over 36 minutes, initiated by a series of automated trading programs in a feedback loop.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – In preparation for the Seoul summit, finance ministers of the G-20 agree to reform the International Monetary Fund and shift 6% of the voting shares to developing nations and countries with emerging markets.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Eurozone countries agree to a rescue package for the Republic of Ireland from the European Financial Stability Facility in response to the country's financial crisis.


date: November 29

text: November 29–December 10 – The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Cancún, Mexico. Formally referred to as the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), it serves too as the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6).


text: November 29 – The European Union agree to an €85 billion rescue deal for Ireland from the European Financial Stability Facility, the International Monetary Fund and bilateral loans from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – The first iPad is released.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – The Chicago Blackhawks win their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 8

text: July 8 – The first 24-hour flight by a solar-powered plane is completed by the Solar Impulse.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – First (test) Instagram posts made by co-developers Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom in San Francisco; the service launches publicly on October 6.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Instagram was launched.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – WikiLeaks releases a collection of more than 250,000 American diplomatic cables, including 100,000 marked "secret" or "confidential".


date: December 16

text: December 16 – After 25 years on CNN, Larry King Live airs its final episode. Contemporary reporting noted that King had recorded more than 6,000 programs for the network and that he was reported to be listed in the Guinness World Records for hosting the longest-running show with the same host in the same network time slot.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – The tallest man-made structure to date, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is officially opened.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – The longest annular solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurs.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions were released in North America. These are the highest rated games to date, with a user score of 9.1/10 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim," and a critic score of 87.

source_section: Events › March


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Scientists conducting the Neanderthal genome project announce that they have sequenced enough of the Neanderthal genome to suggest that Neanderthals and humans may have interbred.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Scientists announced that they have created a functional synthetic genome.


date: May 25

text: May 25–29 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 takes place in Oslo, Norway, and is won by German entrant Lena with the song "Satellite".


date: June 24

text: June 24 – FIA appointed Pirelli as official tyre partner and supplier for Formula One from season onwards.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – The International Space Station surpasses the record for the longest continuous human occupation of space, having been continuously inhabited since November 2, 2000 (3641 days).


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Researchers at CERN trap 38 antihydrogen atoms for a sixth of a second, marking the first time in history that humans have trapped antimatter.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Northern winter solstice and Southern summer solstice since 1638 takes place.


date: December

text: December – Comet Hale Bopp was found again around 30.7 AU away from the Sun. The previous time the Comet was found was in April 1997.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Four-year-old Paulette Gebara Farah disappears from her family's home located in Huixquilucan, State of Mexico.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Julian Assange leaks footage of a 2007 airstrike in Iraq titled "Collateral Murder" on the website WikiLeaks.


text: May 20 – Five paintings worth €100 million are stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Anonymous initiates Operation Payback, a coordinated cyberattack on multiple corporations, law firms, and politicians over the banning of file-sharing websites such as LimeWire and The Pirate Bay and also the politicians and financial institutions against WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi is released from her house arrest after being incarcerated since 1989.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashes into the Mediterranean shortly after take-off from Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, killing all 90 people on board.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Two trains collide in Halle, Belgium, killing 19 and injuring 171 people.

source_section: Events › February


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed by fire.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – The ROKS Cheonan, a South Korean Navy ship carrying 104 personnel, sinks off the country's west coast, killing 46. In May, an independent investigation blames North Korea, which denies the allegations.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, is among 96 killed when their airplane crashes near Smolensk, Russia.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers. The resulting Horizon oil spill, one of the largest in history, spreads for several months, damaging the waters and the United States coastline, and prompting international debate and doubt about the practice and procedures of offshore drilling.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes at runway at Tripoli International Airport in Libya, killing 103 of the 104 people on board.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Air India Express Flight 812 overshoots the runway at Mangalore International Airport in India, killing 158 and leaving 8 survivors.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Airblue Flight 202 crashes near Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all 152 people on board.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – AIRES Flight 8250, a Boeing 737–700, crashed on landing at San Andrés, Colombia, killing two.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Građevni kombinat 'Međimurje' from Čakovec, one of the largest Croatian construction and civil engineering companies (with more than 8,000 employees in 1980s), ceased to exist


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Qantas Flight 32 suffers an engine failure requiring an emergency landing in Singapore.


text: November 4 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883 crashes in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Religious violence erupts in Jos, Nigeria, which left scores dead, and many injured.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake occurs in Haiti, devastating the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – An 8.8-magnitude earthquake occurs in Chile, triggering a tsunami over the Pacific and killing at least 525. The earthquake is one of the largest in recorded history.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Volcanic ash from one of several eruptions beneath Mount Eyjafjallajökull, an ice cap in Iceland, begins to disrupt air traffic across northern and western Europe.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Microsoft ends extended support for Windows 2000.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Heavy monsoon rains begin to cause widespread flooding in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Over 1,600 are killed, and more than one million are displaced by the floods.


date: July

text: PDVAL affair, also known as the Pudreval affair, political scandal in Venezuela where tons of rotten food supplies were found torrent, which imported during Hugo Chávez's government through subsidies of state-owned enterprise PDVAL.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – An earthquake and consequent tsunami off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, kills over 400 people and leaves hundreds missing.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Repeated eruptions of Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java, Indonesia, and accompanying pyroclastic flows of scalding gas, pumice, and volcanic ash descending the erupting volcano kill 353 people and force hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – The sculpture L'Homme qui marche I by Alberto Giacometti sells in London for £65 million (US$103.7 million), setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction.


date: February 12

text: February 12–28 – The 2010 Winter Olympics are held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Nude, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso sells in New York for US$106.5 million, setting another new world record for a work of art sold at auction.


date: June 11

text: June 11–July 11 – The 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa and was won by Spain.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling


date: June 22

text: June 22–25 – A tennis match between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner at the Wimbledon Championships, becomes the longest tennis match in history.


date: October 3

text: October 3–14 – 2010 Commonwealth Games takes place in Delhi, India.


date: November 11

text: November 11–12 – The G-20 summit is held in Seoul, South Korea. Korea becomes the first non-G8 nation to host a G-20 leaders summit.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Sebastian Vettel became the youngest F1 Champion after a 4 way championship fight.


date: June 10

text: June 10–14 – Ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks result in the deaths of hundreds.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – A 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocks Christchurch, New Zealand causing large amounts of damage but no direct fatalities. It is the first in a series of earthquakes between 2010 and 2012 that resulted in the deaths of 187 people and over $40 billion worth of damage. Seismologists noted that the earthquake sequence was highly unusual, and likely to never happen again anywhere else in the world.

source_section: Events › September


date: January 15

text: January 15 – The result of the South Sudanese independence referendum, 2011 is in favour of independence, paving the way for the creation of the new state in July.


date: February 11

text: 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.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – South Sudan secedes from Sudan, per the result of the independence referendum held in January.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – South Sudan joins the United Nations as the 193rd member.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – India and Bangladesh sign a pact to end their 40-year border demarcation dispute.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Michael D. Higgins is elected President of Ireland.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – UNESCO admits Palestine as a member, following a vote which 107 member states support and 14 oppose.


date: November 30

text: 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.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt leave a new year service, killing 23 people.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Internet vigilante group Anonymous launches DoS attacks on government websites of Syria, Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, and Jordan in response to the Arab Spring protests.


date: January 14

text: 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.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Friday of anger (Egyptian revolution of 2011). Protestors clash with security forces which resulted in over 600 protestors estimated dead and several police stations were raided.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The Day of Rage in Bahrain begins, which marks the first day of the 2011 Bahraini uprising.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The First Libyan Civil War starts.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Egyptian protestors storm the State Security headquarters in the Nasr City district of Cairo.


date: March 6

text: 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.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Egypt’s Ministry of Interior dissolves the widely feared and hated State Security Investigations Service accused of human rights abuses and announced the establishment of the new National Security Agency will replace it and take over its internal security duties.


text: March 15 – 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, which lasts until Assad’s overthrow in 2024.


text: 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.


date: March 17

text: 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.


date: March 19

text: 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.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The 2011 Guantanamo Bay files leak occurs, WikiLeaks and other organisations publishing 779 classified documents about Guantanamo Bay detainees, and it had been exposed 150 innocent citizens from Afghanistan and Pakistan were held in the camp without trial and detainees being as young as 14 years old.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Barcelona beats Manchester United 3–1 in the 2011 UEFA Champions League final at the Wembley Stadium.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – A riot broke out in Vancouver, British Columbia in the aftermath of the Boston Bruins' win over the Vancouver Canucks in game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.


date: July 22

text: 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.


date: August 20

text: August 20–28 – Libyan rebels take control of the capital Tripoli, effectively overthrowing the government of Muammar Gaddafi.


date: October 18

text: 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.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is killed in Sirte, with National Transitional Council forces taking control of the city and ending the war.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The United States withdraws the last forces which effectively ends the Iraq War. While this ends the insurgency, it begins another.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Liechtenstein becomes the 26th member state of the Schengen Area.


date: December 29

text: 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.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – An estimated two billion people watch the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the 17th Eurozone country.


date: February 22

text: 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.


date: May 16

text: 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.


date: August

text: August – Stock exchanges worldwide suffer heavy losses due to the fears of contagion of the Euro area crisis and the credit rating downgraded as a result of the debt-ceiling crisis of the United States.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – After an emergency meeting in Brussels, the European Union announces an agreement to deal with the Euro area 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.


text: Bahrain-based Takaud Savings and Pensions B.S.C. provider is founded.

source_section: Events › Full date unknown


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Porto beats Braga 1–0 in the 2011 UEFA Europa League final at the Aviva Stadium.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Twitch.tv, a video game-focused live streaming service, is launched as a spinoff from Justin.tv.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Approximately 100 people die after a petrol pipeline explodes in Nairobi.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Snapchat was launched.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – The first nationwide Emergency Alert System test is conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Mojang Studios of Sweden officially release the video game Minecraft, which becomes the best-selling video game of all time.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Within Ursa Minor, H1504+65, a white dwarf with the hottest known surface temperature in the universe at 200,000 K, was documented.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – The Nintendo 3DS has its first release in Japan, following later releases in Europe on March 25, North America on March 27, and Australia on March 31.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The planet Neptune completes its first orbit since it was discovered in 1846.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lands successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135, concluding NASA's Space Shuttle program.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – NASA announces that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.


text: August 5 – Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It lands on Mars on August 6, 2012.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The 2011 PlayStation Network outage begins, becoming one of the largest data breaches ever recorded, and exposing personal data from 77 million accounts on the platform. The outage lasted 23 days.


date: April 25

text: 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.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The Food and Agriculture Organization announces the eradication of the cattle plague rinderpest from the world.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Date selected by the UN as the symbolic date when global population reached seven billion.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – A Bangladeshi teenage girl Felani Khatun, was shot dead by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) on the Anantapur border area under Phulbari upazila in Kurigram. Her body was hanging from the fence for four and half hours. Global human rights organizations, including the media, became protesters.


date: April 11

text: 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.


date: April 15

text: 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.


date: May 1

text: 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.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladić, wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, is arrested in Serbia.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Former Winter Hill Gang leader James "Whitey" Bulger is arrested in Santa Monica, California following an anonymous tip.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Goran Hadžić is detained in Serbia, becoming the last of 161 people indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Basque separatist militant organisation ETA declares an end to its 43-year campaign of political violence, which has killed over 800 people since 1968.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Flight 348 with 134 occupants, operated by Metrojet, catches fire while taxiing out for take-off. Three people are killed and 43 are injured, four critically, from smoke inhalation or burns.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Iran Air Flight 277 crashes near Orumiyeh in the northeast of the country, killing 78 people.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – 37 people are killed and more than 180 others are wounded in a bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia.


date: February 10

text: February 10 - Manx2 Flight 7100, a Fairchild Metro III, crashes on its third attempt at landing at Cork airport, Ireland from Belfast. Six of the twelve passengers and crew are killed.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Wenzhou train collision; 2 high speed trains in Wenzhou, China collided on a viaduct, sending multiple cars off the viaduct and crushing some. 40 people are killed and 192 people are injured.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – First Air Flight 6560, a Boeing 737-210C, crashed on approach to Resolute Bay Airport, Nunavut, Canada, killing 12 out of the 15 occupants onboard.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – 2011 Chilean Air Force C-212 crash. A CASA C-212 Aviocar military transport of the Chilean Air Force on a flight from Santiago to Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile, crashed into the sea while manoeuvring to land. All 21 passengers and crew on board were killed.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – The MV Spice Islander I, carrying at least 800 people, sinks off the coast of Zanzibar, killing 240 people.


date: September 16

text: September 16 - The Galloping Ghost , a North American P-51D Mustang racing aircraft, crashed into spectators while competing at the Reno Air Races in Reno, Nevada.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Christchurch, in what becomes New Zealand's third-deadliest natural disaster. 185 people are killed, many ESL students within the CTV Building, and the city centre and 10,000 homes are destroyed. Many foreign search and rescue workers respond to the event.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – A 9.1-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the east of Japan, killing 19,759 people and leaving another 2,553 missing. Tsunami warnings are issued in 50 countries and territories. Emergencies are declared at four nuclear power plants affected by the quake. As a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, multiple plants at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were damaged, several workers injured, and contaminants were released into the environment.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – A 5.1 earthquake strikes southern Spain, killing 9 people and injuring over 400.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Grímsvötn, Iceland's most active volcano, erupts and causes disruption to air travel in Northwestern Europe.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The 2011 Joplin tornado, an EF5 tornado, strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and injuring 1,150.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – The 2011 El Reno–Piedmont tornado, an EF5 tornado, strikes El Reno and Piedmont, Oklahoma, killing 9 people and injuring 181.


date: June 4

text: 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.


date: July 14

text: July 14–23 – Two frontal systems enter south-central Chile causing great snowfalls that leaves thousand of people isolated.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The United Nations declares a famine in southern Somalia, the first in over 30 years.


date: July 31

text: 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.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – With 436 people dead, the United Nations launches a $357 million appeal for victims of the 2011 Sindh floods in Pakistan.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The death toll from the flooding of Cambodia's Mekong river and attendant flash floods reaches 207.