List of 2011 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 2011
Date | Event |
---|---|
January 1, 2011 | A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, leave a new year service, killing 23 people. |
January 1, 2011 | Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the 17th Eurozone country. |
January 8, 2011 | Sitting US Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is shot in the head along with 18 others in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords survived the assassination attempt, but six others died, including John Roll, a federal judge. |
January 9, 2011 | Iran Air Flight 277 crashes near Urmia in the northwest of the country, in icy conditions, killing 77 people. |
January 14, 2011 | President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia seeks refuge in Saudi Arabia after a series of demonstrations against his regime, considered to be the birth of the Arab Spring. |
January 16, 2011 | Syrian civil war: The Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) is established with the stated goal of re-organizing Syria along the lines of democratic confederalism.[28] |
January 21, 2011 | Anti-government demonstrations take place in Tirana, Albania. Four people lose their lives from gunshots, allegedly fired from armed police protecting the Prime Minister's office. |
January 24, 2011 | At least 35 are killed and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. |
January 25, 2011 | The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins throughout the country, marked by street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes. |
January 27, 2011 | Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a. |
February 11, 2011 | Arab Spring: The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 17 days of protests. |
February 13, 2011 | For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855. |
February 14, 2011 | As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a 'Day of Rage'. |
February 17, 2011 | Arab Spring: Libyan protests against Muammar Gaddafi's regime begin. |
February 17, 2011 | Arab Spring: In Bahrain, security forces launch a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama; the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday. |
February 19, 2011 | The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang dynasty artifacts found in one location, begins in Singapore. |
February 22, 2011 | New Zealand's second deadliest earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing 185 people. |
February 22, 2011 | Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests. |
March 9, 2011 | Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights. |
March 11, 2011 | An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. |
March 12, 2011 | A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. |
March 15, 2011 | Beginning of the Syrian Civil War. |
March 19, 2011 | Libyan Civil War: After the failure of Muammar Gaddafi's forces to take Benghazi, the French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya. |
April 1, 2011 | After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of thirteen people, including eight foreign workers. |
April 6, 2011 | In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 victims of Los Zetas were exhumed from several mass graves. |
April 7, 2011 | 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. |
April 11, 2011 | An explosion in the Minsk Metro, Belarus kills 15 people and injures 204 others. |
April 19, 2011 | Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961. |
April 24, 2011 | WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak. |
April 27, 2011 | The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Two hundred five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more. |
April 29, 2011 | The Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey in London. |
May 1, 2011 | Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. |
May 2, 2011 | Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. |
May 2, 2011 | An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others are taken ill. |
May 11, 2011 | An earthquake of magnitude 5.1 hits Lorca, Spain. |
May 13, 2011 | Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others. |
May 16, 2011 | STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour. |
May 20, 2011 | Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the first woman to hold this post. |
May 21, 2011 | Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date. |
May 22, 2011 | An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. |
May 25, 2011 | Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her 25-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show. |
May 28, 2011 | Malta votes on the introduction of divorce; the proposal was approved by 53% of voters, resulting in a law allowing divorce under certain conditions being enacted later in the year. |
June 1, 2011 | A rare tornado outbreak occurs in New England; a strong EF3 tornado strikes Springfield, Massachusetts, during the event, killing four people. |
June 1, 2011 | Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its final landing after 25 flights. |
July 8, 2011 | Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program. |
July 9, 2011 | South Sudan gains independence and secedes from Sudan. |
July 9, 2011 | A rally takes place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to call for fairer elections in the country. |
July 10, 2011 | Russian cruise ship Bulgaria sinks in Volga near Syukeyevo, Tatarstan, causing 122 deaths. |
July 11, 2011 | Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus. |
July 13, 2011 | Mumbai is rocked by three bomb blasts during the evening rush hour, killing 26 and injuring 130. |
July 13, 2011 | United Nations Security Council Resolution 1999 is adopted, which admits South Sudan to member status of United Nations. |
July 19, 2011 | Guinean President Alpha Condé survives an attempted assassination and coup d'état at his residence in Conakry. |
July 21, 2011 | NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. |
July 22, 2011 | Norway attacks: First a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, followed by a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya. |
July 23, 2011 | A high-speed train rear-ends another on a viaduct on the Yongtaiwen railway line in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China, resulting in 40 deaths. |
July 26, 2011 | A Royal Moroccan Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes near Guelmim Airport in Guelmim, Morocco. All 80 people on board are killed. |
July 28, 2011 | While flying from Seoul, South Korea to Shanghai, China, Asiana Airlines Flight 991 develops an in-flight fire in the cargo hold. The Boeing 747-400F freighter attempts to divert to Jeju International Airport, but crashes into the sea South-West of Jeju island, killing both crew members on board. |
July 30, 2011 | Marriage of Queen Elizabeth II's eldest granddaughter Zara Phillips to former rugby union footballer Mike Tindall. |
August 6, 2011 | War in Afghanistan: A United States military helicopter is shot down, killing 30 American special forces members and a working dog, seven Afghan soldiers, and one Afghan civilian. It was the deadliest single event for the United States in the War in Afghanistan. |
August 23, 2011 | A magnitude 5.8 (class: moderate) earthquake occurs in Virginia. Damage occurs to monuments and structures in Washington, D.C. and the resulted damage is estimated at 200 million–300 million USD. |
August 23, 2011 | Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War. |
August 25, 2011 | Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas. |
August 26, 2011 | The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification from the EASA and the FAA. |
August 27, 2011 | Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage. |
September 7, 2011 | The Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in Russia kills 43 people, including nearly the entire roster of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Kontinental Hockey League team. |
September 11, 2011 | A dedication ceremony is held at the United States National September 11 Memorial on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York City, and the memorial opens to family members. |
September 12, 2011 | The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City opens to the public. |
September 15, 2011 | Four miners are killed in the Gleision Colliery mining accident in the Swansea Valley, Wales, UK. |
September 17, 2011 | Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City. |
September 18, 2011 | The 2011 Sikkim earthquake is felt across northeastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and southern Tibet. |
September 19, 2011 | Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all-time career saves leader with 602. |
September 20, 2011 | The United States military ends its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time. |
September 29, 2011 | The special court in India convicted all 269 accused officials for atrocity on Dalits and 17 for rape in the Vachathi case. |
October 5, 2011 | In the Mekong River massacre, two Chinese cargo boats are hijacked and 13 crew members murdered. |
October 20, 2011 | Libyan Crisis: Rebel forces capture Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim in his hometown of Sirte and kill him shortly thereafter, ending the first Libyan civil war. |
October 21, 2011 | Iraq War: President Barack Obama announces that the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq will be complete by the end of the year. |
October 23, 2011 | A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands. |
October 23, 2011 | The Libyan National Transitional Council deems the Libyan Civil War over. |
October 31, 2011 | The global population of humans reaches seven billion. This day is now recognized by the United Nations as the Day of Seven Billion. |
November 1, 2011 | Mario Draghi succeeds Jean-Claude Trichet and becomes the third president of the European Central Bank. |
November 8, 2011 | The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passes 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976. |
November 11, 2011 | A helicopter crash just outside Mexico City kills seven, including Francisco Blake Mora the Secretary of the Interior of Mexico. |
November 12, 2011 | Silvio Berlusconi tenders his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy, effective November 16, due in large part to the European sovereign debt crisis. |
November 12, 2011 | A blast in Iran's Shahid Modarres missile base leads to the death of 17 of the Revolutionary Guards members, including Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a key figure in Iran's missile program. |
November 23, 2011 | Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests in Yemen, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signs a deal to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity. |
November 26, 2011 | NATO attack in Pakistan: NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani check post in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others. |
November 26, 2011 | The Mars Science Laboratory launches to Mars with the Curiosity Rover. |
December 31, 2011 | NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon. |