- Jan 3 Adrian Lewis of England wins his first PDC World Darts Championship with a 7-5 win over Scotsman Gary Anderson at the Alexandra Palace, London
Jan 7 "The King's Speech", starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter, is released in the UK
- Jan 8 Attempted assassination of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona at a Safeway grocery store kills 6 and wounds 13, including Giffords
- Jan 10 Ballon d'Or: Barcelona forward Lionel Messi wins second straight award from teammates Andrés Iniesta and Xavi; Brazilian forward Marta wins women's award for 5th consecutive year
- Jan 10 Ian McKellen officially confirms that he will reprise the role of Gandalf in "The Hobbit" film adaptations
- Jan 14 Stampede near Sabarimala in Kerala, India kills 104 devotees and injures 100 more
- Jan 14 Tunisian President Ben Ali flees to Saudi Arabia after popular protests known as the Jasmine Revolution
- Jan 15 Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia, turns 10 years old
Jan 16 French politician Marine Le Pen becomes the leader of the National Front Party
- Jan 17 "Sure Thing" single released by Miguel (Billboard Song of the Year 2011)
- Jan 19 Joe Lieberman announces his retirement from the Senate at the end of his fourth term
- Jan 24 Suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport kills 37 and injures 173
- Jan 25 Egyptian Revolution of 2011 begins with a series of street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, labor strikes and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities
- Jan 25 UK announces it had a shock economic contraction of 0.5% in Q4 2010, due to severe winter weather and budget cuts implemented by the coalition government
Jan 28 Hundreds of thousands of protesters fill the Egyptian's streets against the Hosni Mubarak's regime in demonstrations referred to as the "Friday of Anger"
- Feb 3 All available blocks of IPv4 internet addresses are officially distributed to regional authorities.
Feb 6 Super Bowl XLV, Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX: Green Bay Packers beat Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25; MVP: Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay, QB
Feb 7 Laureus World Sports Awards, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, UAE: Sportsman: Rafael Nadal; Sportswoman: Lindsey Vonn; Team: Spanish Men's National Football team
- Feb 9 Latvia leaves deep recession with an annualised growth of 3.7% in the last quarter of 2010, it is reported today
Feb 9 Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" album reaches #1 on the Billboard 200 in its eleventh week on the chart
- Feb 10 Jerry Sloan resigns as head coach of the Utah Jazz
- Feb 11 Egyptian Revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests during the Arab Spring
- Feb 14 Bahraini uprising begins in Bahrain, calling for greater political freedom and equality for the Shia population and later an end to the monarchy
Feb 15 Libyan protests begin opposing Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi's rule
- Feb 15 Stray tabby cat Larry becomes Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing Street, the official resident of the UK Prime Minister, from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home [1]
Feb 15 US President Barack Obama awards writer and activist Maya Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Feb 20 53rd Daytona 500: 20-year-old Trevor Bayne, driving for Wood Brothers Racing, wins to become the youngest Daytona 500 winner
- Feb 21 Thailand's GDP rose 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010 after a minor recession caused by GDP contractions of 0.4% in the second quarter and 0.3% in the third quarter of 2010, it is reported today
- Feb 22 An earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude strikes Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 181 people
- Feb 23 Venezuela's economy grew 0.6% in the last quarter of 2010, technically leaving the recession after six quarters, it is reported today
- Feb 24 Final launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103)
- Feb 25 French fashion house Christian Dior suspends its chief designer John Galliano after he is arrested for an anti-semitic verbal attack in Paris
- Feb 25 In the Irish general election, the Fianna Fáil-led government suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government since the formation of the Irish state in 1921
Feb 27 83rd Academy Awards: Best Picture "The King's Speech", Colin Firth and Natalie Portman win best acting awards
Feb 27 83rd Academy Awards: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross win Best Original Score for 'The Social Network'
- Mar 1 Tomb of a 700 year old female mummy, discovered by road workers, opened in Taizhou, Jiangsu, China
- Mar 2 One of cricket’s great upsets; Kevin O’Brien smokes fastest century in World Cup history off 50 balls (ends 113 off 63) to help Ireland beat England by 3 wickets in Bangalore
- Mar 5 David Silva scores 38' winner as Manchester City scores 1-0 win over Wigan at City of Manchester Stadium to start EPL record 20 home game winning streak; streak ends 31/3/12
- Mar 7 "Crazy Girl" single released by Eli Young Band (ACM Awards Song of the Year 2012, Billboard Song of the Year 2011)
Mar 7 Charlie Sheen is fired from the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" after publicly feuding with series creator Chuck Lorre
Mar 9 Bonham's Auctions in New York City conducts sale of Eric Clapton and friends' guitars and amplifiers to benefit Crossroads Centre at Antigua, a drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation facility he co-founded in 1997, raising over $1.75M
- Mar 9 Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights
- Mar 11 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills thousands and causes the second worst nuclear accident in history at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
- Mar 12 A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan's earthquake.
Mar 14 26th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Alice Cooper Band; Neil Diamond; Dr. John; Darlene Love; Tom Waits; Leon Russell; Jac Holzman; and Art Rupe
Mar 16 U.S. Postal Service issues a set of five "Latin Music Legends" stamps, including one of Carlos Gardel
- Mar 18 MESSENGER spacecraft enters Mercury's orbit
- Mar 30 Global credit information group Experian report that economic recovery in Wales slower than the rest of the UK, forecasting growth of 1.6% vs 2.2% for the rest of the UK
- Apr 1 After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, killing 13 people, including eight foreign workers
Apr 1 Alan Rickman's last performance in "Seminar" on Broadway
Apr 8 Hear Music Records releases "So Beautiful or So What", the twelfth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon
Apr 13 Gary Sinise narrates the audiobook of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men"
- Apr 15 "Black Friday" for online poker in the US: indictment United States v. Scheinberg shuts down sites, accusing companies of fraud and money laundering
Apr 17 "Game of Thrones" TV series based on the fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin premieres on HBO, starring Emilia Clarke, Sean Bean, Lena Headey, and Peter Dinklage
- Apr 17 "Thor", directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, premieres in Sydney, Australia
Apr 19 Fidel Castro resigns his position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba after 45 years in power [1]
Apr 26 US TV singing competition "The Voice" premieres with judges Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green
- Apr 27 Deadliest day of the 2011 super outbreak of tornadoes, the largest tornado outbreak in United States history
- Apr 27 Mummified remains of American actress Yvette Vickers discovered by a neighbor at her home; she had not been seen since 2010
Apr 27 U.S. President Barack Obama, coerced by incessant false "birther" accusations, publicly releases a copy of his birth certificate
- Apr 28 NFL Draft: Auburn quarterback Cam Newton first pick by Carolina Panthers
May 1 Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI
- May 2 E. coli O104:H4 outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others sick
- May 2 Flavor Flav is arrested on four outstanding misdemeanor warrants for various driving offenses
May 2 Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan
- May 6 The US Department of Labor states that 244,000 jobs were created in April, with 235,000 added in February and 221,000 in March, but unemployment continues to grow, reaching 9%
May 7 "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", directed by Rob Marshall, starring Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz, premieres in - opening weekend makes $350.6m
May 8 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Shoal Creek G&CC: Tom Lehman wins second of 3 Champions Tour majors with par on 2nd playoff hole against Australian Peter Senior
May 10 Christina Perri releases her debut studio album, "lovestrong"
- May 13 Portugal slips into double-dip recession after the economy contracts by 0.7% in the first quarter of 2011, with a 0.6% contraction in the last quarter of 2010, it is reported today
- May 13 Romania officially leaves the recession after 2 years following economic growth of an annualised 1.6% in the first quarter
May 15 "The Artist" directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo premieres at the Cannes Film festival (Best Picture 2012)
- May 16 Space shuttle Endeavour launches on its final commission in space
May 19 Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, project to search for dark matter, led by Samuel C. C. Ting, installed on the International Space Station
- May 22 64th Cannes Film Festival: "The Tree of Life" directed by Terrence Malick wins the Palme d'Or
- May 22 An EF5 Tornado strikes the US city of Joplin, Missouri killing at least 158 people, the single deadliest US tornado since modern record keeping began in 1950
May 25 Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her twenty five year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show
May 29 Hong Kong student activist group Scholarism started by Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam
Jun 5 American actress Chloë Grace Moretz wins three MTV Movie & TV Awards: Best Breakthrough Performance, Best Hero, and Biggest Badass Star
- Jun 6 MLB Draft: UCLA pitcher Gerrit Cole first pick by Pittsburgh Pirates
- Jun 9 Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy announces agreement to examine brains of recently deceased San Francisco 49ers football players Joe Perry and John Henry Johnson for signs of injury [1]
- Jun 12 65th Tony Awards: "The Book of Mormon" (musical) & "War Horse" (play) win
- Jun 13 Christchurch, New Zealand is hit by another strong earthquake measuring magnitude 6.3
- Jun 15 Stanley Cup Final, Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC: Boston Bruins defeat Vancouver Canucks, 4-0 for 4-3 series win; Bruins end 39-year Stanley Cup drought
- Jun 20 Betty Dukes v. Walmart class action lawsuit on alleged employee gender discrimination in pay and promotion policies is decided in a 5-4 decision, ruling that the class should not be certified in its current form
Jun 22 After hiding for 16 years, Boston gangster Whitey Bulger is arrested outside an apartment in Santa Monica, California
Jun 23 Kawhi Leonard is selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers and traded to the San Antonio Spurs on draft night
Jun 23 NBA Draft: Duke point guard Kyrie Irving first pick Cleveland Cavaliers
Jun 23 TV legal drama "Suits" starring Patrick J. Adams, Gabriel Macht and Meghan Markle premieres in the US
Jun 24 Italian economist Mario Draghi is confirmed as new President of the European Central Bank
- Jun 24 NHL Draft: Red Deer Rebels (WHL) center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins first pick by Edmonton Oilers
Jun 28 Christine Lagarde becomes the 1st women to be elected head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Jun 29 "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," directed by Michael Bay, is released and ultimately grosses $1.123 billion globally
- Jun 30 China opens the world's longest bridge the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge for the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway at 164.8-kilometre-long (102.4 mile)
- Jul 1 NBA owners begin the second player lockout in 12 years, shortening the season by 16 games before a salary agreement was reached
- Jul 5 "Somebody That I Used to Know" single released by Gotye ft. Kimbra (Grammy Award Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Record of the Year 2013)
Jul 7 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2", the last Harry Potter film, premieres in London
- Jul 7 Roof of a stand in De Grolsch Veste Stadium in Enschede which was under construction collapses, one killed and 14 injured.
- Jul 8 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program
- Jul 9 South Sudan gains independence and secedes from Sudan.
- Jul 9 Super Rugby Final, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane: Queensland Reds beat Canterbury Crusaders 18-13 at home for their first Super Rugby title
- Jul 10 British tabloid News of the World publishes its last edition after 168 years in the wake of a phone hacking scandal
- Jul 11 Neptune completes its first orbit since its discovery on September 23, 1846
- Jul 13 19th ESPY Awards: Dirk Nowitzki and Lindsey Vonn win
- Jul 13 Mumbai is rocked by three bomb blasts during the evening rush hour, killing 26 and injuring 130
- Jul 16 NASA's Dawn space probe enters orbit around the protoplanet Vesta
Jul 17 FIFA Women's World Cup Final, Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt, Germany: Japan beats US, 3-1 on penalties; 2-2 after extra time
Jul 19 "Captain America: The First Avenger", directed by Joe Johnston, starring Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell, premieres in Los Angeles, California
Jul 27 US Senate, in 100-0 vote, unanimously approves request from President Barack Obama to extend FBI Director Robert Mueller's ten-year term by two years
- Aug 4 Mark Duggan is shot by police in London at 29, sparking widespread riots that cause an estimated £200 million in property damage
- Aug 5 NASA launches its Juno space probe from Cape Canaveral to orbit and study Jupiter
- Aug 5 Svalbard Polar Bear Attack: A rogue polar bear attacks and kills a British schoolboy
- Aug 6 A helicopter containing members of Navy SEAL 6 is shot down in Afghanistan, killing 38
- Aug 11 Rock group "The Go-Go's" receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the former nightclub called "The Masque"
- Aug 16 World Youth Day 2011, organized by the Catholic Church, begins in Madrid
- Aug 18 The "West Memphis Three" are released from prison after 18 years of imprisonment
- Aug 23 A 5.8 earthquake occurs in Mineral, Virginia, and is felt as far north as Ontario and as far south as Atlanta, Georgia
- Aug 23 Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi is overthrown after National Transitional Council forces take control of the Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan Civil War
Aug 24 Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple Inc. and is succeeded by Tim Cook due to his illness
- Aug 26 The 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification from the EASA and the FAA
- Aug 27 Australia claims the final Tri Nations Rugby Series with a 25-20 win over New Zealand in Brisbane; Argentina's Pumas join the competition the following year; the series is rebranded as The Rugby Championship
- Sep 1 At least four people, including an officer from the security service, die in a series of ongoing insurgent shootings and bombings in Russia's North Caucasus
- Sep 7 Plane crash in Russia kills 43 people, including nearly the entire roster of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Kontinental Hockey League team
- Sep 8 Fashion designer John Galliano is found guilty of making anti-Semitic remarks in a Paris court and is fined €6,000
Sep 14 Elizabeth Warren announces she intends to run for the Democratic nomination for the 2012 Massachusetts Senatorial election
- Sep 15 Ford Motor Company closes St. Thomas Assembly automobile plant in Southwold, Ontario, after 44 years resulting in the loss of roughly 1,400 jobs
Sep 15 Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performs with the NY Philharmonic and guests Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, and Pretty Yende, on the Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park; 70,000 in attendance
Sep 16 The critically acclaimed "Drive", starring Ryan Gosling, is released
- Sep 17 British singer-songwriter Adele's single "Someone Like You" goes to #1 in the US; the track also tops charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK
- Sep 17 Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics begins in Zucotti Park, New York City
Sep 18 63rd Emmy Awards: Mad Men, Modern Family, Kyle Chandler, and Julianna Margulies win
Sep 19 Ashton Kutcher debuts on "Two and a Half Men", replacing Charlie Sheen
Sep 20 "Call Me Maybe," a single by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen, is released
Sep 20 "New Girl," starring Zooey Deschanel, debuts on Fox
- Sep 20 United States ends its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the armed forces
- Sep 21 Scandinavian crime drama "The Bridge" created by Hans Rosenfeldt, starring Sofia Helin and Kim Bodnia premieres
- Sep 29 Singer and actor Chris Isaak receives the Stockton Arts Commission STAR Award in Stockton, California
Oct 1 Martin Dempsey is appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Barack Obama
Oct 2 TV spy drama "Homeland," starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, premieres on Showtime
Oct 4 US State Department lists Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (ISIL) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist with a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture
- Oct 8 Irish professional darts player Brendan Dolan plays the first perfect 9-dart game on TV in a semi-final against James Wade at the PDC World Darts Championship in Dublin
Oct 9 German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel finishes third in the Japanese F1 Grand Prix to clinch his second consecutive World Drivers' Championship
- Oct 13 Italian conductor Riccardo Muti is awarded the second $1 million Birgit Nilsson Prize
- Oct 15 Global protests break out in 951 cities in 82 countries
- Oct 15 Legoland Florida (the world's largest Legoland theme park) opens in Winter Haven, Florida
- Oct 18 Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released by Hamas
- Oct 20 "Water by the Spoonful" play by Quiara Alegría Hudes opens at the Hartford Stage (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2012) [1]
- Oct 20 The former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and his son Moatassem Gaddafi are killed shortly after the Battle of Sirte in 2011 while in the custody of NTC fighters
- Oct 23 7th Rugby World Cup Final, Eden Park, Auckland: Tournament favourites New Zealand edge France, 8-7; crowd 61,079
- Oct 23 A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.
- Oct 26 Argentine intelligence officer Alfredo Astiz, known as "The Blonde Angel of Death" and others are jailed for life for crimes against humanity, including the deaths of the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo [1]
- Oct 27 Royal Australian Navy announces the discovery of the wreck of a World War II submarine, likely Japanese, in Simpson Harbour, Papua New Guinea, during Operation RENDER SAFE
- Oct 29 Record-breaking snowstorm in the northeastern United States leaves nearly 2 million residents without power for more than 36 hours
- Oct 31 The world population reaches 7 billion inhabitants according to the United Nations
- Nov 1 Danielle Steel’s publishes novel “Hotel Vendome”
- Nov 2 Prodigious Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo scores his 100th goal for Real Madrid in his 105th game for the club in a 2-0 Champions League win over Olympique Lyon
- Nov 8 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
- Nov 9 Colombian pop singer-songwriter Shakira is honored as Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year
- Nov 12 Opera "Silent Night" by Kevin Puts opens at the Ordway Theater, St. Paul sung in English, German, French, Italian and Latin (winner 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Music) [1]
Nov 12 Silvio Berlusconi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy due in part to the European sovereign debt crisis
- Nov 15 Istana Negara, the new palace of the monarch of Malaysia with its 22 domes is inaugurated in Kuala Lumpur, replacing the old palace
Nov 18 "The X Factor" group One Direction release their debut album "Up All Night" in Ireland and the UK
Nov 18 Former Filipino President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is arrested and held at Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City under charges of electoral sabotage
- Nov 18 Video game Minecraft is officially released by Mojang
- Nov 23 Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests in Yemen, The Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh Signs a deal to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity.
- Nov 25 Sudden violent storms strike southern Sri Lanka, drowning many fishermen caught by surprise and killing 27 people. Landslides and flooding hit the mainland, and thousands of homes lose their roofs.
- Nov 26 NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpoint in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others
- Nov 27 German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel finishes second in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix at Autódromo José Carlos Pace to retain the F1 World Drivers' Championship, winning by 122 points over Jenson Button
- Dec 4 Pedro Martínez officially announces his retirement from professional baseball
- Dec 8 The NBA and players union reach financial agreement to end a 161-day lockout, shortening the season by 16 games
- Dec 10 Kawhi Leonard signs a multi-year deal with the San Antonio Spurs following the conclusion of the NBA lockout
- Dec 11 Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek suffers a minor heart attack in his home and is admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
- Dec 11 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, Las Vegas, Nevada: Team Europe retains trophy with an 11-7 win over US; MVP: Niels Feijen (Netherlands)
- Dec 12 77th Heisman Trophy Award: Robert Griffin III, Baylor (QB)
Dec 15 Barry Bonds is sentenced to 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service, for an obstruction of justice conviction stemming from a grand jury appearance in 2003
- Dec 15 ESPN and the NCAA extend their TV rights deal through 2023-24, giving the network worldwide multi-media rights to 24 NCAA championships for various sports; deal worth $500m
Dec 15 Former French President Jacques Chirac is convicted of diverting public funds, receives a two-year suspended prison sentence
- Dec 18 The last US troops withdraw from Iraq, formally ending the Iraq War
- 👁 Mark Twain
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