2011
This article is about the year 2011. For The Smithereens album, see
2011 (album).
Calendar year
2011 by topic:
|
Arts
|
Animation (Anime)–Architecture – Comics – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) – Music (Classical, Country, Hip hop, Jazz, Latin, Metal, Rock, UK, US) – Radio – Photo – Television (Italy, UK, Scotland, US) – Video games
|
Politics and government
|
Elections – International leaders – Sovereign states Sovereign state leaders – Territorial governors
|
Science and technology
|
Archaeology – Biotechnology – Computing – Palaeontology – Quantum computing and communication – Space/Astronomy – Spaceflight
|
Environment
|
Birding/Ornithology
|
Climate change
|
Transportation
|
Aviation – Rail transport
|
Sports
|
American football – Association football – Athletics (sport) – Badminton – Baseball – Basketball – Chess – Combat sports – Cricket – Cycling – Golf – Ice hockey – Rugby union – Swimming – Tennis – Volleyball
|
By place
|
Afghanistan – Albania – Algeria – Andorra – Angola – Antarctica – Argentina – Armenia – Australia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Bangladesh – The Bahamas – Bahrain – Barbados – Belarus – Belgium – Benin – Bhutan – Bolivia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Botswana – Brazil – Bulgaria – Burkina Faso – Burundi – Cambodia – Cameroon – Canada – Cape Verde – Central African Republic – Chad – Chile – China – Colombia – Costa Rica – Comoros – Croatia – Cuba – Cyprus – Czech Republic – Denmark – Ecuador – Egypt – El Salvador – Eritrea – Estonia – Ethiopia – European Union – Eswatini – Fiji – Finland – France – Gabon – Georgia – Germany – Ghana – Greece – Guatemala – Guinea – Guinea-Bissau – Guyana – Haiti – Honduras – Hong Kong – Hungary – Iceland – India – Indonesia – Iran – Iraq – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Ivory Coast – Japan – Jordan – Kazakhstan – Kenya – Kiribati – Kosovo – Kuwait – Kyrgyzstan – Laos – Latvia – Lebanon – Lesotho – Liberia – Libya – Lithuania – Luxembourg – Macau – Madagascar – Marshall Islands – Malawi – Malaysia – Mali – Malta – Mauritania – Mexico – Micronesia – Moldova – Mongolia – Montenegro – Morocco – Mozambique – Myanmar – Nauru – Namibia – Nepal – Netherlands – New Zealand – Nicaragua – Niger – Nigeria – North Korea – North Macedonia – Norway – Oman – Pakistan – Palau – Palestine – Panama – Papua New Guinea – Paraguay – Peru – Philippines – Poland – Portugal – Qatar – Romania – Russia – Rwanda – Samoa – Saudi Arabia – Senegal – Serbia – Seychelles – Singapore – Slovakia – Slovenia – Somalia – South Africa – Solomon Islands – South Korea – South Sudan – Spain – Sri Lanka – Sudan – Sweden – Switzerland – Syria – Taiwan – Tajikistan – Tanzania – Thailand – Togo – Tonga – Tunisia – Turkey – Turkmenistan – Tuvalu – Uganda – Ukraine – United Arab Emirates – United Kingdom – United States – Uruguay – Uzbekistan – Vanuatu – Venezuela – Vietnam – Yemen – Zambia – Zimbabwe
|
Other topics
|
Religious leaders
|
Birth and death categories
|
Births – Deaths
|
Establishments and disestablishments categories
|
Establishments – Disestablishments
|
Works and introductions categories
|
Works – Introductions Works entering the public domain
|
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2011. |
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, the 11th year of the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2010s decade.
Calendar year
A series of protests and government overthrows, known as the Arab Spring, swept through the Middle East in 2011.
2011 was designated as:
In 2011, the nation of Samoa only had 364 days as it moved across the International Date Line skipping 30 December 2011; it is now 24 hours (25 hours in southern hemisphere summer) 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. 3 people are killed and 43 were injured, four critically, from smoke inhalation or burns.
- 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][6]
- January 5 - Internet vigilante group Anonymous launches DoS attacks on Syrian, Tunisian, Bahraini, Egyptian, Libyan, and Jordanian government websites in response to the Arab Spring protests.[7][8]
- January 9 – Iran Air Flight 277 crashes near Orumiyeh in the northeast of the country, killing 78 people.
- January 9–15 – Southern Sudan holds a referendum on independence. The Sudanese electorate votes in favour of independence, paving the way for the creation of the new state in July.[9][10]
- 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.[11][12]
- January 24 – 37 people are killed and more than 180 others wounded in a bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia.[13][14][15]
- January 25 - the Egyptian revolution of 2011 begins
February
March
April
May
- May 1 – U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the militant group Al-Qaeda, was killed on May 2, 2011 (PKT, UTC+05) during an American military operation in Pakistan.[35]
- May 5 – Supremo Tribunal Federal approves wedding between people of the same gender in Brazil.
- May 10–14 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 takes place in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is won by Azeri entrants Ell & Nikki with the song "Running Scared".
- 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.[36]
- May 21 – Grímsvötn, Iceland's most active volcano, erupts and causes disruption to air travel in Northwestern Europe.[37]
- May 22 – The 2011 Joplin tornado, an EF5 tornado, strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 and injuring 1,150.
- May 26 – Former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladić, wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, is arrested in Serbia.[38][39]
June
July
August
September
October
- October 4 – The death toll from the flooding of Cambodia's Mekong river and attendant flash floods reaches 207.[71]
- 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.[72][73][74]
- Dozens of exotic animals were released from their enclosures at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, Ohio resulting in the need of local law enforcement to hunt and kill 48 animals including 18 tigers, 6 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, 2 wolves, 1 macaque monkey, 1 baboon, 3 mountain lions and 17 African lions
- October 20
- October 23 – A magnitude 7.2 Mw earthquake jolts eastern Turkey near the city of Van, killing over 600 people and damaging about 2,200 buildings.[80]
- October 27 – After an emergency meeting in Brussels, the European Union announces an agreement to tackle the European sovereign debt crisis which includes a writedown of 50% of Greek bonds, a recapitalisation of European banks and an increase of the bailout fund of the European Financial Stability Facility totaling to €1 trillion.[81][82]
- October 29 – A large snowstorm produced unusual amounts of early snowfall across the northeastern United States and the Canadian Maritimes, leaving 1.7 million people without power and disrupting travel.[83]
- October 31
November
December