Highlights of 2011
2011 was a very eventful year, on both a worldwide and personal scale: the following is a collection of some of the things that happened.

January:
1st          - Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency and becomes the seventeenth Eurozone
                 country.
11th         - Flooding and moodslides in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, kill 903.
17-20th  - Mock exams for entrance exam.
24th       - 37 people are killed and more than 180 others wounded in a bombing at
                Domodedovo, International Airport in Moscow, Russia.

February:
11th -Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigns after widespread protests calling for his    
         departure, leaving control of Egypt in the hands of the military until a general election can be
         held.
22nd-M 14th - Uncertainty over Libyan oil output causes crude oil prices to rise 20% over a           
                         two-week period following the Arab Spring, causing the 2011 energy crisis.

March:
25th - Spring term ended at noon.
11th - A 9.1 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the east side of japan, killing 15,840,
          leaving 3,926 missing, and causing emergencies at four nuclear power plants.
19th - Libyan civil war, no-fly zone over Libya in response to allegations of government aggression
          against civilians, and in light of continuing attacks on Libyan rebels by forces in support of
          leader Muammar Gaddafi, military intervention authorized under UNSCR 1973 begins as
          French fighter jets make reconnaissance flights over Libya.

April:
29th – An estimated two billion people watch the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
           and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London.

May:
1st – U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the
         militant group Al-Qaeda, has been killed during an American military operation in Pakistan.
16th - The European Union agree to €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.

June:
4th -  Chile's Puyehue volcano erupts, causing air traffic cancellations across South America, New
         Zealand, Australia and forcing over 3,000 people to evacuate.
6th - My birthday.
6th-9th - SPS transfer exams.
12th - Thousands of Syrians flee to Turkey as Syrian troops lay siege to Jisr ash-Shugur.


July:
1st - School ended at noon.
7th - The world's first artificial organ transplant occurs, using an artificial windpipe covered in stem
        cells.
20th - The first famine in thirty years takes place for southern Somalia.
21st  - Space Shuttle Atlantis lands successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135,
           concluding NASA's space shuttle program.
22nd - 76 people are killed in twin terrorist attacks in Norway after a bombing in the
           Regjeringskvartalet government center in Oslo and a shooting at a political youth camp on the
           island of Utøya.

August:
5th -

• NASA announces that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.
• Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

20-28th -  In the Battle of Tripoli, Libyan rebels took control the nation's capital effectively
                 overthrowing the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

September:
1st - Term starts.
10th – The MV Spice Islander I, carrying at least 800 people, sinks off the  coast of Zanzibar, killing
           240 people.
12th – Approximately 100 Kenyans die after a petrol pipeline explodes in Nairobi.
19th – With 434 dead, the United Nations launches a $357 million appeal for victims of the 2011
            Sindh floods in Pakistan.

October:
20th - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is killed in Sirte, with National Transitional Council forces
           taking control of the city, and ending the war.
27th - After an emergency meeting in Brussels, the European Union announced 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.
31st - UN selects day 31st as day world population exceeds7 billion.

November:
 26th - The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, the most elaborate Martian exploration vehicle
            to date, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It is slated to land on Mars on August 5,
           2012.

December:
15th - Term ends.
15th - US formally declares end of Iraq war.
16th -  Tropical Storm Washi causes 1,257 flash flood fatalities in the Philippines with 85 people are
         officially listed as missing.
25th - Christmas.
31st - New Year's eve.