The News of 2011.

January:

• Estonia adopts the Euro and becomes the 17th Eurozone country
• A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt leave a new year service, killing 23 people
• Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi dies after setting himself on fire a month earlier, sparking anti-government protests, collectively referred to as the Arab Spring, in Tunisia and other Arab nations
• Internet vigilante group Anonymous launches attacks on Syrian, Tunisian, Bahraini, Egyptian, Libyan and Jordanian government websites in response to the Arab Spring protests
• Southern Sudan votes in favour of independence, paving the way for the creation of the new state in July
• 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
• A bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow kills 37 people and injures 180 others
• The 2011 Egyptian Revolution begins
• VAT increases from 17.5% to 20%
• HMV announces the closure of sixty stores following a disappointing Christmas sales, a move which sees up to 900 people lose their jobs
• England defeat Australia on opposition soil for the first time in 24 years to reclaim the Ashes. The 2010-11 series was the only one in which a team had won three Tests by innings margins and the first time England had scored 500 runs four times in a single series
• Former Labour MP David Chaytor is jailed for eighteen months for fraudulently claiming more than £20,000 in expenses
• Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World, resigns from his position as Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications director over continued coverage of the phone hacking affair
• Tony Blair appears before the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War
• Sky Sports presenter Andy Gray is sacked for sexist comments made about a female football official

February:

• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigns after widespread protests, leaving control of Egypt in the hands of the military until a general election can be held
• The First Libyan Civil War starts
• Uncertainty over Libyan oil output causes crude oil prices to rise 20%, causing the 2011 energy crisis
• A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Christchurch, New Zealand killing over 180 people
• Former Labour MP Jim Devine is convicted of two counts of fraud for falsely claiming £8,385 in expenses, he is the first MP to stand trial in the UK parliamentary expenses scandal and later sentenced to 16 months imprisonment
• David Cameron criticises “state multiculturalism” in his first speech as PM on radicalisation and causes of terrorism

March:

• A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit eastern Japan, killing 15,840 and leaving 3,926 missing
• Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, declares a three-month state of emergency as troops are sent to quell the civil unrest
• Protests across Syria breakout in response to the arrest of 15 youths in Daraa for graffiti denouncing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The government responds by killing hundreds of protestors and laying siege to various cities, beginning the Syrian Civil War
• Military intervention in Libya, authorised by the United Nations Security Council, begins as French fighter jets make reconnaissance flights over the country
• The HMS Ark Royal, flagship of the Royal Navy, is decommissioned as part of a naval restructuring program
• Former British Airways software engineer Rajib Karim is jailed for 30 years after being convicted of plotting to blow up a plane
• The 2011 UK census is conducted, the first which could be completed online

April:

• India wins the 2011 Cricket World Cup
• The Israel Defence 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
• Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo is arrested in his home in Abidjan by supporters of elected President Alaskans Ouattara, effectively ending the 2010-11 Ivorian crisis and civil war
• Wikileaks and other organisations publish 779 classified documents about Guantanamo Bay detainees, exposing details concerning 150 innocent civilians from Afghanistan and Pakistan held in the camp without trail, some as young as fourteen
• The 2011 Super Outbreak of tornados forms JB the Southern, Midwest and Eastern United States, killing 324 and injuring over 2,200
• An estimated two billion people watch the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey
• Stoke City reach the FA Cup final for the first time in their history after demolishing Bolton Wanderers 5-0 at Wembley
• The Daily Sport and Sunday Sport tabloid newspapers cease publication and enter administration
• The one-and-a-half million people in the UK who claim incapacity benefit begin to receive letters asking them to attend a work capability assessment as part of the government’s welfare reforms to tackle long-term claimants
• The mandatory retirement age begins to be phased out, becoming fully abolished by October
• The Competition Commission released their investigation order designed to prevent future mis-selling of PPI, most rules come into force in October

May:

• US President Barack Obama announces that Osama Bin Laden, the founder and leader of militant group Al-Qaeda, was killed in an American military operation in Pakistan
• Supremo Tribunal Federal approves weddings between people of the same gender in Brazil
• The European Union agrees to a €78 billion rescue of Portugal, the bailout loan is to be split equally between the European Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility and the International Monetary Fund
• Grímsvötn, Iceland’s most active volcano, erupts, causing disruption to air travel in Northwestern Europe
• Former Bosnian Serb Army Commander Ratko Mladić, wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, is arrested in Serbia
• Underdogs Stoke City narrowly lose 1-0 to oil tycoon owned, money throwers Manchester City in the FA Cup final, their first major trophy in 35 years
• Claude Choules, the oldest living British born male and the last combat veteran of World War I dies aged 110 in Australia
• Voters reject an alternative voting system in a UK referendum
• Queen Elizabeth II makes a state visit to the Republic of Ireland, the first by a reigning monarch of the UK to Dublin since 1911

June:

• Chile’s Puyehue volcano erupts, causing air traffic cancellations across South America, New Zealand and Australia, forcing over 3,000 people to evacuate
• The Food and Agriculture Organisation announces the eradication of the cattle plague rinderpest from the world
• St Paul’s Cathedral completes its £40 million restoration project, the 15-year cleaning and repair job is among the largest restorations ever undertaken in the UK
• Levi Bellfield, three years into a life sentence for the murder of two young women and the attempted of a third, is found guilty of murdering Milly Dowler, the Surrey teenager who disappeared in March 2002
• Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers go on strike over planned pension changes

July:

• The International Olympic Committee awards Pyeongchang the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics
• Neptune complete its first orbit since it was discovered in 1846
• Goran Hadžić is detained in Serbia, becoming the last of 161 people indicted by the International Crimibal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
• The UN declares a famine in southern Somalia, the first for 30 years
• Far-right Norwegian extremist Anders Behring Breivik kills eight people in a bomb blast, targeting the governmental district of Oslo, then kills 69 in a massacre at the Workers’ Youth League camp on the island of Utøya
• Over 12.8 million people are affected by severe flooding in Thailand. The World Bank estimates damages at 1,440 billion baht (US$45 billion). By the end of the year, some areas are still six feet under water, many factory areas remain closed and 815 people are killed due to the floods
• Following recent allegations that its journalists hacked the mobile phones of celebrities, politicians and high-profile crime victims over the past decade, the News of the World ceased publication having been in circulation for 168 years
• Rushden & Diamonds FC is dissolved having been expelled from the Blue Square Premier League due to massive debts
• Sean Hoare, the former News of the World reporter who helped expose the phone-hacking practices, is found dead in Watford. His death is labelled “unexplained but not suspicious” by police
• Amy Winehouse, 27, is found dead at her London home

August:

• Stock exchanges worldwide suffer heavy losses due to the fears of contagion of the European sovereign debt crisis and the debt-ceiling crisis of the US
• NASA announces that it’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars
• Riots erupt in London and other cities across England after a 26 year-old black man is shot dead by police. After five days of rioting, five people lose their lives
• Libyan rebels take control of Tripoli, effectively overthrowing the government of Colonel Gaddafi
• Downing Street launch a new e-petition website to encourage the public to prompt parliamentary debate in topics they feel are important, the first subject to reach the required 100,000 signatures regards the release of Cabinet documents relating to the Hillsborough disaster
• Mobile internet usage reaches 50% according the Office for National Statistics

September:

• India and Bangladesh sign a pact to end their 40-year border demarcation dispute
• The MV Spice Islander I, carrying at least 800 people, sinks off the coast of Zanzibar, killing 240 people
• Approximately 100 people die after a petrol pipeline explodes in Nairobi
• Occupy Wall Street protests begin in the US, developing into the Occupy movement which spreads to 82 countries by October
• With 434 dead, the UN launches a $357 million appeal for victims in the Sindh floods in Pakistan
• The Fixed-term Parliamentary Act is passed, requiring General Elections to take place at five-year intervals
• An explosion in a drift mien kills four miners in the South Wales Coalfield
• The UK’s first commercial hydrogen filling station opens in Swindon

October:

• The death toll from the flooding of Cambodia’s Mekong river and attendant flash floods reaches 207
• Israel and Palestinian militant organisation Hamas begin a major prisoner exchange, with captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit released by Hamas in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli-Arab prisoners held in Israel
• Dozens of exotic animals are released from their enclosures at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, Ohio resulting in local law enforcement hunting and killing 48 animals
• Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi is killed in Sirte, with National Transitional Council forces taking control of the city and ending the war
• Basque separatist militant organisation ETA declares an end to its 43-year campaign of political violence, which has killed over 800 people
• A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits eastern Turkey, killing over 600 people and damaging 2,200 buildings
• After an emergency meeting in Brussels, the EU announces an agreement to tackle the European sovereign debt crisis
• The UN officially declares the global population to have reached seven billion
• UNESCO admits Palestine as a member, following a 107-14 vote
• A new record is set for the highest October temperature, 29.9°C
• The worlds largest solar bridge project gets underway in London
• The Bank of England announces it will inject a further £75 billion into the economy through quantitative easing
• BP is given the go-ahead to proceed with a new £4.5 billion oil project west of the Shetland Islands

November:

• The UK severs diplomatic relations with Iran and expels diplomats, less than 24 hours after protestors attacked the British embassy in Tehran
• The Pensions Act 2011, raising the state pension qualifying age to 66 by 2020, and the Armed Forces Act 2011, providing the Defence Secretary to make an annual report on progress towards “rebuilding” the Armed Forces Covenant, receive Royal Assent
• Seven people died and dozens injured as 34 vehicles collide on the M5 near Taunton
• The UK government sells the Northern Rock bank, which was nationalised in 2008, to Virgin Money for £747m
• Welsh national football team manager Gary Speed, 42, is found dead at his home in Chester

December:

• The US formally declares an end to the Iraq War; while this ends the insurgency, it begins another
• Tropical Storm Washi causes 1,268 flash flood deaths in the Philippines, with 85 people listed as missing
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies of either a heart attack or strike on his way to a field guidance
• Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the International Date Line in order to align their time zones better with their main trade partners, thereby skipping a day

Other:

• Adele’s “Someone Like You” sold 1.24m copies to become the best selling single of the year in the UK
• Earning over $1.3 billion at the global box-office, the final instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, is the highest grossing film of the year