2011
| Millennium: | 3rd millennium |
|---|---|
| Centuries: | |
| Decades: | |
| Years: |
| 2011 by topic |
|---|
2011 (MMXI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2011th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 11th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2010s decade.
The year marked the start of a series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, and in some cases sparking civil wars such as the Syrian civil war and the first Libyan civil war, the former still ongoing while the latter gave way to the second Libyan civil war.
U.S. Navy SEALs killed al-Qaeda leader and terrorist Osama bin Laden in his compound in Pakistan on May 2. The Curiosity rover, which was to land on Mars in August of the following year, launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26. In December, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who had been the supreme leader of North Korea since the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994, died while traveling by train to a place outside Pyongyang. He was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un.
2011 was designated as:
- International Year of Forests
- International Year of Chemistry[1]
- International Year for People of African Descent
In 2011, the nation of Samoa only had 364 days as it moved across the International Date Line skipping December 30, 2011; it is now 24 hours ahead of American Samoa.[2][3]
Events
January
- January 1
- Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the 17th Eurozone country.[4]
- A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt leave a new year service, killing 23 people.
- Flight 348 with 134 occupants, operated by Kolavia, catches fire while taxiing out for take-off. Three people are killed and 43 were injured, four critically, from smoke inhalation or burns.
- A Little Love song by Fiona Fung finally releases to public in the Philippines.
- January 4 – Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi dies after setting himself on fire a month earlier, sparking anti-government protests in Tunisia and later other Arab nations. These protests become known collectively as the Arab Spring.[5]Cite error: A
<ref>tag is missing the closing</ref>(see the help page). - Economics – Christopher A. Sims and Thomas J. Sargent[6]
- Literature – Tomas Tranströmer[7]
- Peace – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman[8]
- Physics – Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess, and Brian Schmidt[9]
- Physiology or Medicine – Bruce Beutler, Jules A. Hoffmann, and Ralph M. Steinman[10]
New English words
See also
References
- ^ "United Nations Observances". United Nations. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ "Samoa to change time zones and move forward by a day". Metro. Archived from the original on September 6, 2011.
- ^ "Samoa to move the International Dateline". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on July 6, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
- ^ "Estonia becomes 17th member of the euro zone". BBC News. December 31, 2010. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ^ Gardner, Frank (December 17, 2011). "Tunisia one year on: Where the Arab Spring started". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 20, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Economics 2011". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on October 19, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2011". Nobel Foundation. October 6, 2011. Archived from the original on October 7, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
- ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2011". Nobel Foundation. October 7, 2011. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
- ^ "The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics – Press Release". Nobelprize.org. October 4, 2011. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011". Nobelprize.org. Archived from the original on September 24, 2011. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ^ "Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster: Words from 2011". merriam-webster.com. Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
