2006

Centuries:	20th century · 21st century · 22nd century
Decades:	1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years:	2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. It corresponds to the years 5766-5767 in the Hebrew Calendar and 1426-1427 in the Islamic Calendar. It has been designated:

The International Year of Deserts and Desertification
The Rembrandt Year, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Netherlands' greatest 17th-century painter.
The Mozart Year, celebrating the 250th birthday of the Austrian composer Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The Tesla Year, celebrating the 150th birthday of the world known electrotechnician Nikola Tesla.
The International Asperger's Year, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Hans Asperger, discoverer of Asperger's Syndrome.

Predicted and scheduled events

January 1 -
- Revaluation of the Azerbaijani manat.
- 30 cities across the Canadian province of Quebec will be reconstituted, as the result of a referendum held June 20, 2004.
- Deadline for inclusion of trans-fatty acid data on US retail food label nutritional information.
January 3 - Bob O'Connor is to be inaugurated into his first term as the mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
January 10 - Islamic festival of Eid ul-Adha.
January 15 -
- First round of the Finnish presidential election
- Second round of the Chile presidential elections
January 16 - Mordechai Vanunu to appear in Israeli court, charged with meeting foreigners.
January 17 - NASA will launch the New Horizons spacecraft on its first mission to Pluto.
January 23 - 39th Canadian federal election
January 25 - Palestinians vote in the Parliamentary Elections.
January 29 -
- Second round (if needed) of the Finnish presidential election.
January 31 - Anticipated retirement date of Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve of the United States.

February 5 - Super Bowl XL played at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
February 10 to 26 - Torino 2006 Winter Olympics
February 12 - International Day of Prayer for Autism and Asperger's Syndrome.
February 16 - Kobe Airport, a controversial offshore airport in Kobe, Japan, is scheduled to open for airline service.
February 20 to 21 - Solidarity conference in Bil'in in Palestine.

March -
- Elections in Israel.
- Al Jazeera will launch its new satellite service, Al Jazeera International, in Europe, Asia, and North America.
March 18 - South Australia to vote in a Parliamentary State Election.
March 20 - Spring begins officially in the northern hemisphere, autumn in the southern hemisphere.
March 28 - Probable date for Israeli Parliamentary elections.
March 29 -
- Total solar eclipse (Brazil, Mid Atlantic ocean, Sahara, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia)
- Attack Submarines USS-Lapon to start to be deactivated. Los Angeles class submarines USS Indianapolis, USS-Birmingham, USS-New York City and USS-Atlanta also begin to be deactivated.
March 31 - The BBC World Service is to end broadcasts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Kazakh, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian and Thai by this date.

April 2 Former Connecticut governor John Rowland is scheduled to be released from the federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania.
April 6 - Peruvians will elect the successor of Alejandro Toledo in the Peruvian national election, 2006
April 7 - EU citizens are now able to register .eu domain names, which replaced the old eu.int TLD on December 7 2005.
April 14 to April 17 - Breakpoint 2006 will take place in Bingen.
May 3 - Unofficial launch date for Space Shuttle STS-121 Discovery (ISS-18) Pad B, (ISS-18-ULF1.1: Return-To-Flight Test, MPLM, Logistics)
May 4 - Local elections to be held across England.

July 1 -
- Electronic equipment imported to or sold in the European Union will have to be lead free soldered, to comply with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive.
July 2 - Presidential election of Mexico.
July 29 to August 5 - World Congress of Esperanto in Florence, Italy.
August 13 to August 18 - The XVI International AIDS Conference will be held in Toronto, Canada.
August 14 to August 25 - The 26th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, Czech Republic.
September 17 - Sweden holds elections for the Riksdag.
September 22 - Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown

October 1 - Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur begins at sundown
October 2 - General elections in Brazil. Federal sphere:Presidential elections, full renewal of the House of Representatives and renewal of one third of the Brazilian Senate (one of each state's three seats); State sphere: Gubernatorial elections, renewal of the State Legislative body (State Assembly) in all states.
October 24 - Islamic festival of Eid ul-Fitr
October 24 - NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft to Mercury makes the first of two Venus flybys.
October 26 - Hindu festival of Diwali
November 7 - US Mid-term Election which includes:
- all 435 seats of the US House of Representatives (outlook)
- 33 of the 100 seats in the US Senate (outlook)
- Gubernatorial elections in 36 of the 50 states (outlook)
- Many other state-wide offices in those states such as attorneys general and state auditors
November 8 - Transit of Mercury.
November 11- Gerald Ford, if still living, becomes the oldest former US president
December 25 - Christian Holiday of Christmas
December 31 - Islamic festival of Eid ul-Adha

NATO Summit 2006 will take place in Latvia.
White House proposed Plebiscite to decide whether Puerto Rico will mantain its territorial status or change to another status (to be decided then in other referendum)
The third Chinese manned space mission Shenzhou 7 is scheduled with the first Chinese space walk ever to be performed.
Airbus plans to release into service Airbus A380, the biggest airliner in the world.
The European Space Agency plans to launch the KEO space time capsule
The Republic of Ireland is expected to hold a referendum on the European Constitution.
Manuel Noriega becomes eligible for parole.
The Osaka Outer Loop Line and the eighth line of the Osaka City Subway are scheduled to open in Osaka, Japan.
Wembley Stadium expected to open after renovations.
World oil production peaks this year according to "The Peak Of World Oil Production And The Road To The Olduvai Gorge" by Richard C. Duncan.
General election in Italy, probably for the first half of the year.
The new transit centre for Trolley Bus operations in Vancouver, Canada opens.
Estonia will adopt Euro as its currency rather than Estonian Kroon
A bridge linking Savannakhet, Laos, over the Mekong, to Mukdahan, Thailand is expected to be completed late in the year.
Series 2 of the British science fiction series Doctor Who will begin airing somewhere during the Spring.
Thomas Harris will release his fourth book in the Hannibal series.

March 28 to March 29 - The events of the Doctor Who episodes Aliens of London and World War Three take place.
September - The events of Doctor Who episode Boom Town take place.
December 24 to December 25 - The events of Doctor Who episode The Christmas Invasion take place.
DC Comics will begin its "One Year Later" comic storyline, rewriting most of their back stock of unused characters in the aftermath of the previous storyline, Infinite Crisis.
The events of the third season of the Transformers cartoon take place.
The events of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory take place.
Marvel Comics has promised five 'tentpole events' over the course of the year: Marvel Annihilation, Marvel: The Illuminati, and three others.

Centuries:	20th century · 21st century · 22nd century
Decades:	1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years:	2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009