2011

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century 21st century 22nd century
Decades:	1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years:	2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

2011 (MMXI) is the current year in the Gregorian calendar; it is a common year that started on a Saturday. It is the 2011th year of the Common Era or the Anno Domini designation; the 11th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 2nd of the 2010s decade.

The United Nations has designated 2011 the International Year of Forests and International Year of Chemistry.

Events

January

• January 1
  • Start of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union.
  • Estonia joins the Eurozone.
  • Lithuania received chairmanship of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
• January 9 – Southern Sudan holds a referendum on independence.
• January 11 – Flooding and mudslides in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro kill more than 800.
• January 14 – The Tunisian government falls as a result of the spreading 2010–2011 Arab world protests.
• January 24 – At least 35 people are killed and more than 100 others wounded in a bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia.

February

• Violence breaks out between Murabak's supporters and revolutionary protesters in Egypt.

Predicted and scheduled events

March

• March 18
  • NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in orbit around Mercury.
  • NASA's Pluto probe New Horizons will cross the orbit of Uranus, after a five-year journey. This will be faster than Voyager 2, which took eight years.

April

• Pakistan will launch its first space satellite.
• The Universal House of Justice will announce the new Five Year Plan.

May

• Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and Mars all visible within a roughly 6° area of sky.

June

• June 15 – Total lunar eclipse, mainly visible in Africa, India, and the Middle East.

July

• July 1 – Start of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
• July 9 – South Sudan declared an independent nation
• July 12 – Neptune completes its first full orbit since its discovery in 1846.
• The Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the minor planet 4 Vesta during July. The exact date remains uncertain.

August

• August 15 – The comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková will pass within 0.0601 astronomical units (about 5,589,300 miles (8,995,100 km)) of Earth.
• August 15–21 – XIII World Youth Day will be held in Madrid, Spain.

December

• December 10 – Total lunar eclipse, visible mainly in Asia, Australia and Alaska.
• December 31 – All United States troops are scheduled to leave Iraq

Unknown dates

• California will open the world's largest solar power plant.
• The Nord Stream natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany will be completed.
• Blue Waters, a petascale supercomputer being designed and built as a joint effort between the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and IBM is expected to be completed in this year.
• The IPv4 unallocated address pool is projected to be exhausted.
• Predicted solar maximum (also predicted by other research groups for 2012).
• A new definition of the kilogram, based on universal constants, is likely to be announced at the 24th General Conference on Weights and Measures.

Deaths

Main article: Deaths in 2011

January

• January 2
  • Anne Francis, American actress (born 1930)
  • Pete Postlethwaite, British actor (born 1946)
  • Richard Winters, American Paratrooper (born 1918)
• January 4
  • Ali-Reza Pahlavi, Prince of Iran (born 1966)
  • Gerry Rafferty, Scottish musician (born 1947)
• January 15
  • Nat Lofthouse, English footballer (born 1925)
  • Susannah York, British actress (born 1939)
• January 18 – Sargent Shriver, American politician and diplomat (born 1915)
• January 21 – Dennis Oppenheim, American artist (born 1938)
• January 24 – Bernd Eichinger, German film producer and director (born 1949)
• January 30 – John Barry, English film score composer (born 1933)

Major holidays

• January 1 – New Year's Day.
• January 7 (6 in Armenia) – Orthodox Christmas.
• February 1 – Imbolc, a Cross-quarter day.
• February 3 – Chinese New Year.
• March 8 – Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras, end of Mardi Gras / Carnival season.
• March 9 – Ash Wednesday (first day of Lent).
• March 20 – Holi.
• March 21 – (Northern hemisphere) Vernal equinox, also known as Ostara & Persian New Year.
• April 18 – Passover begins at sundown.
• April 24 – Easter (Western and Orthodox).
• May 1 – Beltane, a Cross-quarter day.
• June 7 – Shavuot begins.
• August 1
  • Ramadhan Begins — Islam.
  • Lammas, a Cross-quarter day.
• August 31 – Eid al-Fitr.
• September 23 – (Northern hemisphere) Autumnal equinox, also known as Mabon.
• September 28 – Rosh Hashana begins at sundown.
• October 7 – Yom Kippur begins at sundown.
• October 26 – Diwali, a religious holiday in Hinduism.
• November 6 – Eid al-Adha.
• November 26 – Islamic New Year.
• December 20 – Chanukah.
• December 25 – Christmas.

In fiction

Film

• Killer Tattoo (2001)
• Millennium Mambo (2001)
• In the 2005 Aeon Flux film, 99% of the world's population is wiped out by a mysterious virus in the year 2011.

Television

• In the television series FlashForward episode "Future Shock", the date March 14, 2011 is seen on a note during a blackout.
• The Heroes television series visits 2011 in several different potential futures.
• In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles television series "Judgment Day" is predicted to take place on April 21.

Computer and video games

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
• Persona 4 (2008)
• Heavy Rain (2010)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (2010)

Other

• In 2011 Tallinn and Turku are designated as European capitals of culture by the European Union.