2012
| Millennium: | 3rd millennium |
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2012 (MMXII) is a leap year that started on a Sunday in the Gregorian calendar, and it is the current year. 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 of whom are killed in a shootout in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.[3]
- January 23 – The European Union formally adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of that nation's continued effort to enrich uranium.[4]
February
- February 6 – Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, marking 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 at least 357.[7]
Predicted and scheduled events
May
- May 12 – August 12 – The 2012 World Expo is to be held in Yeosu, South Korea.[8]
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.[9]
July
- July 27 – August 12 – 2012 Summer Olympics held in London.[10]
August
- August 6–20 – Mars Science Laboratory, also known as the Curiosity rover, is scheduled to land on Mars.[11]
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.[12][13]
- December 31 – The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends.[14]
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).[15]
- Sequoia, a proposed super computer built by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 20 Petaflops.[16]
- 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.[17]
Deaths
January
- 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, 1st President of Northern Cyprus (b. 1924)
- January 15 – Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish politician (b. 1922)
- January 19 – Sarah Burke, Canadian Skier (b. 1982)
- 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
- 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 12 – John Severin, American comic book artist
Major religious holidays
- January 6 – Christmas Day (Celebrated by the Armenian Church)
- January 7 – Christmas Day (December 25 in the Julian Calendar, celebrated by some Eastern Orthodox Christians)
- February 1 – Imbolc, a Cross-quarter day (Celebrated on February 2 in some places)
- February 22 – Ash Wednesday – Western Christianity
- March 8
- 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[18]
- 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
References
- ^ "2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?". NASA.
- ^ The Guardian
- ^ "AFP: Nigerian troops 'kill 11 Islamists' in northeast". Google.com. January 28, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
- ^ BBC News
- ^ The Government of Canada (January 23, 2012). "Official Canadian website for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II". Retrieved January 23, 2012.
- ^ "Diamond Jubilee: Queen celebrating 60-year reign". BBC News UK. bbc.co.uk. February 6, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
- ^ "Honduras Prison Fire Kills Hundreds Of Inmates". Sky News. February 15, 2012. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
- ^ "2012 World Expo (English)". Retrieved January 23, 2012.
- ^ NASA. "NASA Transit of Venus". Retrieved January 23, 2012.
- ^ "London 2012". Retrieved January 23, 2012.
- ^ "NASA's Next Mars Rover Hoisted Atop Rocket". Space.com. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
- ^ Susan Milbrath, Curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology, Florida Museum of Natural History, quoted in USA Today, Wednesday, March 28, 2007, p. 11D
- ^ "The Sky Is Not Falling" New Wave, Tulane University, June 25, 2008.
- ^ Grubb, M. and J. Depledge (2001). "The Seven Myths of Kyoto" (PDF). Climate Policy. 1 (2): 169. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^ "NASA, Intel, SGI Plan to 'Soup Up' Supercomputer". Nas.nasa.gov. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
- ^ Gonsalves, Antone. "IBM Tapped For 20-Petaflop Government Supercomputer". Informationweek.com. Retrieved June 2, 2010.
- ^ National Geographic, August 2010, page 62.
- ^ "2012 Calendar of Uposatha Days".