2012

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2012 (MMXII) is a leap year that started on a Sunday and is the current year. In the Gregorian calendar, it is the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the 3rd of the 2010s.

There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and center upon various contemporary interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions.^[1]

Events

January

• January 20 – January 28 – A series of co-ordinated bombing attacks in Kano, Nigeria, results in 185 deaths. The attacks are blamed on the radical Islamist group Boko Haram,^[2] 11 members of which are killed in a shootout in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.^[3]
• January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: The European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of that nation's continued effort to enrich uranium.^[4]

February

• February 6 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marks the 60th anniversary of her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth.^[5][6]
• February 15 – A fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras kills 360.^[7]
• February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.^[8]
• February 21 – Greek government debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.^[9]
• February 25 – Arab Spring: As a result of ongoing protests, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is succeeded by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi.^[10]

March

• March 4 – A series of explosions are reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead.^[11][12]
• March 13 – After 244 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.^[13]
• March 22 – The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.^[14]

April

• April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.^[15]
• April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.^[16]
• April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands.^[17] The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the republic.^[17]
• April 26 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.^[18]

May

• May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.^[19][20]
• May 12 – The 2012 World Expo begins in Yeosu, South Korea. It is scheduled to end on August 12.^[21]

Predicted and scheduled events

June

• June 6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.^[22]

July

• July 27 – August 12 – 2012 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be held in London.^[23]

August

• August 6–20 – Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the Curiosity rover, is scheduled to land on Mars.^[24]

December

• December 21 – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization among others, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns (periods of 144,000 days each) since the mythical creation date of the calendar's current era.^[25][26]
• December 31 – The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends.^[27]

Date unknown

• China will launch the Kuafu spacecraft.
• Pleiades, a proposed supercomputer built by Intel and SGI for NASA's Ames Research Center, will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 10 Petaflops (10 quadrillion floating point operations per second).^[28]
• Sequoia, a proposed super computer built by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 20 Petaflops.^[29]
• On the Sun, the solar maximum of Solar Cycle 24 in the 11-year sunspot cycle is forecast to occur. Solar Cycle 24 is regarded to have commenced January 2008, and on average will reach its peak of maximal sunspot activity around 2012.
• The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway across the Caucasus is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2012.^[30]

Deaths

January

Etta James

• January 1 – Kiro Gligorov, 1st President of the Republic of Macedonia (b. 1917)
• January 3 – Josef Škvorecký, Czech writer (b. 1924)
• January 9 – Malam Bacai Sanhá, 6th and 12th President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1947)
• January 13 – Rauf Denktaş, Cypriot-born politician (b. 1924)
• January 15 – Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish politician (b. 1922)
• January 20
  • Etta James, American singer (b. 1938)
  • Jiří Raška, Czech ski jumper (b. 1941)
• January 24 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek filmmaker (b. 1935)
• January 29 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, 9th President of Italy (b. 1918)

February

Ben Gazzara

• February 1 – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
• February 3
  • Ben Gazzara, American actor (b. 1930)
  • Samuel Youd, British author (b. 1922)
• February 11 – Whitney Houston, American singer and actress (b. 1963)
• February 19 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian-born American Nobel virologist (b. 1914)
• February 29 – Davy Jones, British singer and actor (b. 1945)

March

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria

• March 6 – Francisco Xavier do Amaral, 1st President of East Timor (b. 1937)
• March 7 – Włodzimierz Smolarek, Polish footballer (b. 1957)
• March 10
  • Jean Giraud, French comics artist (b. 1938)
  • Frank Sherwood Rowland, American Nobel chemist (b. 1927)
• March 14 – Ċensu Tabone, 4th President of Malta (b. 1913)
• March 17
  • John Demjanjuk, Ukrainian-American Nazi war crimes defendant (b. 1920)
  • Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria (b. 1923)
• March 18 – George Tupou V, King of Tonga (b. 1948)
• March 21 – Tonino Guerra, Italian screenwriter (b. 1920)
• March 23
  • Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, President of Somalia (2004–2008) (b. 1934)
  • Naji Talib, 52nd Prime Minister of Iraq (b. 1917)
• March 27 – Adrienne Rich, American writer (b. 1929)
• March 28
  • Alexander Arutiunian, Armenian composer (b. 1920)
  • Earl Scruggs, American bluegrass musician (b. 1924)

April

Mike Wallace

• April 1
  • Miguel de la Madrid, 52nd President of Mexico (b. 1934)
  • Giorgio Chinaglia, Italian Footballer (b. 1947)
• April 5 – Bingu wa Mutharika, 3rd President of Malawi (b. 1934)
• April 7 – Mike Wallace, American journalist (b. 1918)
• April 11 – Ahmed Ben Bella, 1st President of Algeria (b. 1918)
• April 15 – Murray Rose, Australian swimmer (b. 1939)
• April 16 – Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, Danish shipping magnate (b. 1913)
• April 18 – Dick Clark, American television host and producer (b. 1929)
• April 19 – Levon Helm, American musician (b. 1940)
• April 20 – Valeri Vasiliev, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1949)
• April 29 – Shukri Ghanem, Libyan Prime Minister (2003–2006) (b. 1942)
• April 30 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (b. 1985)

May

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

• May 4 – Rashidi Yekini, Nigerian footballer (b. 1963)
• May 8 – Maurice Sendak, American author (b. 1928)
• May 9 – Vidal Sassoon, British hairdresser (b. 1928)
• May 10 – Carroll Shelby, American automotive designer, racing driver and entrepreneur (b. 1923)
• May 15 – Carlos Fuentes, Panamanian-born Mexican writer (b. 1928)
• May 17 – Donna Summer, American singer (b. 1948)
• May 18 – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German lyric baritone and conductor (b. 1925)
• May 20
  • Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, Libyan terrorist (b. 1952)
  • Robin Gibb, British rock musician (b. 1949)
• May 30 – Andrew Huxley, British Nobel physiologist (b. 1917)

Major religious holidays

• January 6 – Christmas Day (Celebrated by the Armenian Church)
• January 7 – Christmas Day (December 25 in the Julian Calendar, celebrated by Eastern Orthodoxy)
• February 1 – Imbolc, a Cross-quarter day (Celebrated on February 2 in some places)
• February 22 – Ash Wednesday – Western Christianity
• March 8
  • Purim – Judaism
  • Holi – Hinduism
• March 20 – Spring Equinox, Persian New Year, also known as Ostara
• April 1 – Ramanavami – Hinduism
• April 6
  • Good Friday – Western Christianity
  • Hanuman Jayanti – Hinduism
• April 7 – Passover – Judaism
• April 8 – Easter – Western Christianity
• April 13 – Vaisakhi – Sikhism
• April 15 – Easter – Eastern Christianity
• May 1 – Beltane, a Cross-quarter day
• May 27 – Shavuot – Judaism
• June 4 – Vesak – Buddhism^[31]
• June 20 – Summer solstice, also known as Midsummer
• July 20 – Ramadan begins – Islam
• August 1 – Lammas, a Cross-quarter day
• August 2 – Raksha Bandhan – Hinduism
• August 10 – Janmashtami – Hinduism
• August 19 – Eid al Fitr – Islam
• September 17 – Rosh Hashanah – Judaism
• September 21 – Autumn Equinox, also known as Mabon
• September 26 – Yom Kippur – Judaism
• October 1 – Sukkot – Judaism
• October 2 – Mehregan – Zoroastrianism and Persian Culture
• October 24 – Vijaya Dashami/Dusshera – Hinduism
• October 26 – Eid al-Adha, a religious festival in Islam
• November 1 – Samhain, a Cross-quarter day, Neopagan new year and Christian All Saints' Day
• November 13 – Diwali – Sikhism - Hinduism
• November 15 – Islamic New Year
• December 9 – Hanukkah – Judaism
• December 25 – Christmas – Western Christianity

In fiction

See also

2010s portal

• 2012 phenomenon

References