Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian
calendar.
- Contents (full)
- 1 Events of 2006
- - Jan. . Feb. . March . April
- - May . June . July
. Aug.
- - Sept. . Oct. . Nov. . Dec.
- - Undated . Ongoing .
- Major religious holidays
- 2 Births
- 3 Deaths
- 4 Nobel Prizes
- 5 See also - Notes - External
links
The year 2006 was designated:
Events of 2006
January
- January 1 - Sydney, Australia, has its hottest day on record, when the city swelters in 45°C heat.
- January 1 - The church of Cord Van Sickle is founded in
Savage Minnesota
- January 1 - Russia cuts natural gas to Ukraine over a price dispute.
- January 2 - The Bad Reichenhall
ice rink roof in Germany collapses after heavy snowfall in
the Bavarian Alps, killing 15.
- January 3 - Twelve dead coal miners and one survivor are discovered in the
Sago Mine Disaster near Buckhannon, West
Virginia, U.S.
- January 4 - Powers are transferred from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to his deputy, Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, after
Sharon suffers a massive hemorrhagic stroke.
- January 5 - A hotel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia collapses, killing 76 pilgrims visiting to perform hajj.
- January 6 - The record-breaking 2005
Atlantic hurricane season officially draws to a close as Tropical Storm
Zeta dissipates.
- January 7 - Embroiled in multiple scandals, former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay announces he will not seek to reassume his former post.
- January 7 - UK Liberal Democratic leader
Charles Kennedy resigns after revelations that he has a drinking problem.
- January 8 - A powerful, magnitude 6.9 earthquake
centered off the coast of the Greek island of Kythera shakes much of Greece and is felt throughout the eastern
Mediterranean basin.
- January 9 - The Dow Jones Industrial
Average closes above 11,000 for the first time since June 7, 2001, closing at 11,011.90.
- January 11 - The Augustine Volcano in
Alaska erupts twice, marking its first major eruption since 1986.
February
- February 1 - UAL Corporation, United Airlines' parent company, emerges from bankruptcy after being in that position since December 9,
2002, the longest such filing in history.
- February 4 - The Wowowee stampede occurred at the
PhilSports Arena. 61 killed.
- February 5 - The Pittsburgh Steelers win
Super Bowl XL, defeating the Seattle Seahawks
21-10.
- February 7 - An aging Egyptian passenger ferry carrying
more than 1,400 people sinks in the Red Sea off the Saudi coast.
- February 8 - 2006 East Timor crisis:
404 soldiers desert their barracks in East Timor.
- February 10 - The 2006 Winter Olympics
open in Turin, Italy. The closing ceremony occurred on
February 26.
- February 11 - U.S. Vice
President Dick Cheney accidentally
shoots his friend and lawyer, Harry Whittington, in the face with a shotgun on
a south Texas ranch.
- February 16 - Kobe Airport, a controversial
offshore airport in Kobe, Japan, opens for airline service.
- February 17 - As many as 1,800 people die when a mudslide occurs on Leyte Island in the Philippines.
- February 19 - Pasta de Conchos mine
disaster: Sixty-five miners become trapped underground after an explosion in Nueva
Rosita, Mexico; all 65 die.
- February 22 - A bomb
heavily damages the Al Askari Mosque, a Shiite holy
site in Samarra, Iraq.
- February 22 - Over £53.1 million is stolen during the Securitas depot robbery, the largest ever cash robbery in the United Kingdom.
- February 22 - The 1 billionth song is
purchased from the Apple iTunes Store.
- February 23 - A roof collapses on a Moscow market,
killing 56 people.
- February 24 - A state of
emergency is declared in the Philippines, after an alleged coup d'état against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is
foiled.
- February 25 - Police officers, and protesters injured when a protest prior to the
Love Ulster parade turns into a major riot.
- February 25 - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni wins his second re-election, sparking riots in Kampala
by opposition supporters.
March
- March 4 - The final contact attempt with Pioneer 10
receives no response.
- March 4 - Prince Sverre Magnus of
Norway was christened by Bishop Ole Christian Kvarme at the chapel inside
The Royal Palace in Oslo.
- March 5 - The 2006 Academy Awards are held,
with Crash winning Best
Picture.
- March 7 - Fifteen people die and many others are injured in three blasts throughout Varanasi, India.
- March 9 - NASA's Cassini-Huygens spacecraft discovers geysers of a liquid substance
shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus,
signaling a possible presence of water.
- March 10 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter enters Mars orbit.
- March 11 - Michelle Bachelet is sworn in as the
first female President of Chile.
- March 11 - Slobodan Milošević is found dead in
his cell in the UN war crimes tribunal's
detention centre, located in the Scheveningen section of The Hague.
- March 12 - Historic cricket match between Australia in South Africa, 5th ODI of the
series.
- March 15-March 26 - The 2006 Commonwealth Games take place in Melbourne,
Australia.
- March 17 - The United States strikes its two
remaining Iowa-class battleships from
the Naval Vessel Register, ending the age of the battleship.
- March 20 - Tropical Cyclone Larry makes landfall in
Queensland, Australia.
- March 21 - Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Laila
Freivalds resigns after over a year of criticism.
- March 22 - ETA declares a permanent ceasefire in their campaign for Basque
independence from Spain.
- March 24 - Disney Channel's original hit series Hannah
Montana premieres, getting the most viewers for a Disney Channel premiere so far.
- March 25 - An estimated 500,000 people take to the streets in downtown Los Angeles to protest a proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration.
- March 25 - A revolutionary scramjet jet engine, Hyshot III, designed to fly at seven times the speed of sound, is
successfully tested at Woomera, South Australia.
- March 25 - Seven people die in the Capitol Hill
Massacre in Seattle, Washington.
- March 26 - The ban on
smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants
comes into effect in Scotland.
- March 30 - The first Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes, goes to space in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz
TMA-8, at 2:29:00 CET.
- March 30 - The al-Dana capsizes
off the coast of Bahrain, killing at least 48 people.
- March 30 - The first World Baseball Classic
ends in San Diego, California
with Japan beating Cuba in the Championship.
April
- April 2 - Chicago, Illinois hosts
WrestleMania 22.
- April 5 - A swan with Avian Flu is discovered in
Cellardyke in Fife, Scotland
(the first case in the United Kingdom).
- April 8 - Shedden massacre: The bodies of 8
murdered men are found in Shedden, Elgin County, Ontario.
- April 8 - Bristol, United
Kingdom celebrates the 200th birthday of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
(actually April 9) by relighting the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
- April 8 - Numbersixvalverde, ridden by
Niall Madden, wins the Grand National at
Aintree.
- April 8 - Bloc 8406 publishes their Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy for Viet Nam in Viet Nam; their name comes from this date.
- April 9 - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is removed from office after four months in a coma.
- April 9 - Hungarian parliamentary
election, 2006
- April 10 - Romano Prodi narrowly defeats
Silvio Berlusconi in the Italian parliamentary
elections.
- April 11 - The European Space Agency's
Venus Express spaceprobe enters Venus' orbit.
- April 11 - President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirms that Iran has successfully produced a few grams of low-grade
enriched uranium.
- April 16 - Albert II, Prince of
Monaco, reaches the North Pole, becoming the first reigning monarch ever to do
so.
- April 16 - Ireland commemorates the 90th
anniversary of the 1916 Rising for the first time since 1971.
- April 17 - A suicide bombing by Islamic Jihad in Tel Aviv kills nine people and injures dozens.
- April 18 - Festivities and memorials across the Bay Area mark the 100th anniversary of the Great
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.
- April 19 - Han Myeong Sook becomes the first
female Prime Minister of South Korea.
- April 20 - Iran announces a uranium enrichment deal with
Russia, involving a joint uranium enrichment firm on
Russian soil; nine days later Iran announces that it will not move all activity to Russia, thus leading to a de-facto termination
of the deal.
- April 22 - War on Terror: Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb – the worst one-day combat loss for the Canadian army since the
Korean War.
- April 22 - Jalal Talabani re-elected for a second
term as President of Iraq.
- April 24 - Three explosions in a tourist section of Dahab,
Egypt kill 30 and injure over 115.
- April 25 - The Beaconsfield mine
collapse occurs in Tasmania, Australia
- April 29 - Massive anti-war demonstrations and a march down Broadway in New York City mark the third year of
war in Iraq.
- April 29 - The Global Night Commute takes
place in over 130 cities around the world to promote the visibility of the Invisible
Children in Uganda.
- April 30 - In the Australian Football
League, a match between St Kilda and Fremantle ends in controversial
circumstances after St Kilda's Steven Baker was alleged to have kicked a behind
after the final siren had gone. Following an investigation, the Saints were stripped of two competition points and the full win
was handed to Fremantle.
May
- May 1 - Bolivian President Evo Morales nationalizes his nation's gas
fields.
- May 1 - The Great American Boycott takes place
across the United States as marchers protest for immigration rights.
- May 4 - A new coalition government takes office
in Israel; its four political parties hold 67 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.
- May 5 - NASA astronomers
announce the discovery of a storm system in the Jovian atmosphere, dubbed the Red Spot Junior.
- May 5 - Fiat chairman Sergio
Marchionne announces that the Alfa Romeo automobile brand will return to the United
States in 2008, after a 13-year hiatus.
- May 9 - Beaconsfield mine collapse: After
14 days trapped underground, miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb are rescued in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia.
- May 13 - Liverpool F.C. defeat West Ham United F.C. on penalties in the 2006 FA Cup
Final following a 3-3 draw after extra time.
- May 17 - FC Barcelona beat Arsenal in the final of the UEFA Champions League played in
Paris.
- May 20 - Munster defeat Biarritz 23-19 to win their first Heineken European Cup in
Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
- May 20 - Finland's Lordi wins
the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest held in Athens.
- May 21 - The Dallas Mavericks beat the
San Antonio Spurs in overtime to win the Western Conference semi-finals in the
NBA Playoffs.
- May 24 - East Timor's Foreign Minister Horta officially requests military assistance from the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia
and Portugal.
- May 27 - A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes
central Java in Indonesia, killing more than 6,000, injuring at
least 36,000 and leaving some 1.5 million people homeless.
- May 27 - The first demonstration for gay
rights in Moscow is broken up by the police.
- May 28 - President Alvaro Uribe Velez is re-elected in
Colombia for a second term. He becomes the first president in over a century to serve
consecutive terms.
June