US Features

2011: Year of Arab Spring, eurozone crisis, nuclear disaster - Part Two

Dec 28, 2011, 10:47 GMT

President Barack Obama (2L), Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2R), along with other members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House in Washington, DC USA, on 01 May 2011. EPA/Pete Souza/WHITE HOUSE HANDOUT

In late 2010, many media outlets paid scant attention when a young man set himself ablaze in Tunisia, protesting government corruption. A year later, it's clear that might have been one of the key events of the last decade, sparking the Arab Spring.

April 2 - India beat Sri Lanka in Mumbai to win the cricket World Cup.

April 3 - Police detain acclaimed artist and Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei at Beijing's main airport. Ai is held for 81 days before being freed on bail pending tax charges.

April 6 - More than 200 people, mostly African migrants, are believed drowned after their boat capsizes between Malta and Lampedusa.

April 7 - Mahamadou Issoufou is sworn in as president of Niger. Three months later, five soldiers are arrested when an assassination attempt on Issoufou is uncovered.

April 9 - Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan wins another term as president.

April 9 - Icelandic voters again reject a proposal compensating Britain and the Netherlands for money lost when an Icelandic bank collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis.

April 11 - France introduces a so-called burqa ban on wearing Islamic face veils in public places.

April 11 - Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo is ousted, months after losing a presidential vote. Election winner Alassane Ouattara is sworn in weeks later, and his party wins parliamentary elections in December. Gbagbo is taken in November to stand before the International Criminal Court.

April 11 - A bag stuffed with explosives detonates in a metro station in the Belarusian capital Minsk, killing 12 and injuring around 150. Two men are later found guilty of terrorist acts and sentenced to death.

April 14 - The last head of Argentina's former military junta, former general Reynaldo Bignone, is sentenced to life in prison for human-rights violations.

April 17 - Finnish parliament elections see strong gains for nationalist True Finns party. Conservative leader Jyrki Katainen eventually manages to form a six-party coalition without the True Finns and is elected prime minister on June 22.

April 18 - Hungary's parliament approves a new constitution promoting conservative values, giving President Viktor Orban more powers.

April 19 - Cuba's Communist Party approves some private business activity.

April 21 - Syria lifts its emergency laws after 48 years, but anti-government protests persist.

April 25 - A series of tornadoes across the southern United States leaves 340 dead over a series of days.

April 26 - Hackers obtain the private details of about 75 million users of Sony's Playstation network.

April 28 - Islamist terrorists bomb a popular tourist cafe in Marrakesh, killing 16 people.

April 29 - Royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton draws millions of television viewers.

April 30 - Communist Laos holds a general election, with only the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and some independents permitted to contest.

May 1 - Deceased pope John Paul II is proclaimed 'blessed' - the last stage before sainthood.

May 1 - An E coli epidemic spreads through Germany, infecting more than 4,300 and leaving 50 dead before being linked to tainted fenugreek from Egypt.

May 2 - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally gets a majority in elections for the House of Commons, as the Liberals are decimated.

May 2 - US commandos raid a compound in Pakistan's north-western city of Abbottabad, killing al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. US forces bury the body at sea.

May 4 - Leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Fatah movements agree to end four years of bitter, sometimes violent rivalry. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal meet again in November to set a May 2012 election.

May 5 - The last male veteran of World War I, Briton Claude Choules, dies in Australia.

May 7 - Singapore's People's Action Party (PAP) posts its worst general election result in decades as the opposition clinches a record 6 seats in the 87-seat parliament.

May 10 - Bangladesh's Supreme Court ends a system whereby caretaker governments oversee national elections. Protests against the decision continue throughout 2011.

May 13 - Retaliating for bin Laden's death, the Pakistani Taliban undertake two suicide bombings at a paramilitary police training centre in north-western Pakistan, killing at least 80 - mostly recruits - and injuring more than 100.

May 14 - International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is arrested on allegations of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York. He resigns, giving up presidential aspirations in his native France. Prosecutors later drop charges after holes emerge in his accuser's story. The maid files a civil lawsuit against Strauss-Kahn.

May 14 - Michel Martelly inaugurated as Haitian president.

May 15 - Tens of thousands of Spaniards demonstrate against the economic crisis, becoming known as The Indignant Ones.

May 16 - Eurozone finance ministers choose Italian Central Bank Chief Mario Draghi as next European Central Bank president. An EU summit on June 24 confirms the decision.

May 16 - Portugal becomes the third eurozone bailout recipient, with a joint eurozone and IMF 78-billion-euro loan.

May 21 - Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano erupts, producing disruptive ash clouds until May 30.

May 23 - Taiwanese products are taken off shelves around the world after health authorities find chemical plasticizers mixed into drinks.

May 26 - Ratko Mladic, the Serb general accused of genocide in Bosnia, is arrested in Serbia after 16 years on the run.

May 28 - Latvian President Valdis Zatlers announces the dissolution of parliament, just over seven months after elections. Zatlers is defeated in presidential elections days later by Andris Berzins. A new government is formed, led by incumbent Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis.

May 28 - Ousted president Manuel Zelaya returns to Honduras. The country is readmitted days later to the Organization of American States.

May 28 - Barcelona defeat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley for the Champions League crown. They add the Club World Cup title on December 18, with a 4-0 win over Santos.

May 29 - Maltese citizens vote to allow divorce, leaving the Philippines and the Vatican as the only countries banning divorce.

June 1 - Bahrain lifts the state of emergency declared at the height of anti-government protests in March.

June 1 - A boat carrying refugees from Tunisia sinks, claiming about 270 of the presumed 800 passengers.

June 1 - Joseph Blatter is re-elected president of the ruling football body FIFA. His rival Mohammed Bin Hammam withdraws from the race in the wake of corruption allegations and is later banned for life by FIFA.

June 4 - Chile's Puyehuhe volcano erupts, causing disruptions around the world for weeks.

June 4 - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh leaves for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, a day after an attack on his palace. Protests against him continue.

June 5 - The conservative VMRO-DPMNE again wins Macedonian parliamentary elections.

June 8 - The Swiss parliament decides to phase out nuclear energy in reaction to the Fukushima power plant accident in Japan.

June 9 - Bulgaria and Romania are refused entry into Europe's passport-free Schengen area, despite having met all accession requirements.

June 12 - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party wins its third consecutive legislative election, polling 50 percent of the vote.

June 20 - Former Tunisian leader Zine Abidine Ben Ali is sentenced in absentia to 35 years' prison on corruption charges.

June 24 - The US state of New York allows same-sex marriage.

June 28 - Christine Lagarde is approved as new IMF head in the wake of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's sexual assault scandal.

June 29 - Greece approves a harsh austerity package necessary for an international bailout. Ratings agencies still downgrade the country. Rioting claims several lives.

June 30 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez admits he had cancer surgery.

June 30 - Three months after Chancellor Angela Merkel announces a moratorium on nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the German parliament votes to prohibit all nuclear power generation from 2022.