2006
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2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.[1]
Events
January
- January 1–4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.[2]
- January 12 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 pilgrims.[3][4]
- January 15 – NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.[5]
- January 19 – NASA launches the first interplanetary space probe to Pluto, the New Horizons.[6]
- January 22 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as president of Bolivia.
- January 25 – Hamas wins the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.[7]
- January 29 – The roof of one of the buildings at the Katowice International Fair collapsed in Katowice, Poland, killing 65 and injuring 170.[8]
- January 30 – Jennifer San Marco goes on a killing spree in Goleta, California, United States that leaves seven people dead before she takes her own life.[9]
February
- February 4 – Egyptian passenger ferry, Script error: No such module "WPSHIPS utilities".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., sinks in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia, killing over 1,000 people.[10]
- February 6 – Stephen Harper is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Canada.[11]
- February 10–26 – The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin, Italy.[12]
- February 17 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines killing an estimated 1,126 people.[13]
- February 22 – 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing: Explosions occur at the al-Askari Shrine in Samarra, Iraq. The attack on the shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, causes the escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq into a full-scale war (the Iraqi Civil War of 2006–2008).[14]
March
- March 9 – NASA's Cassini–Huygens spacecraft announces a geyser-like emission of vapor, dust, and small ice crystals on Saturn's moon Enceladus, possibly indicating the presence of water.[15][16]
- March 10
- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars.[17]
- Michelle Bachelet becomes the first female president of Chile.
- March 15 – The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council.[18]
- March 21 – Microblogging and social networking service website Twitter was launched.
April
- April 4 – The Faddoul Brothers, kidnapped on February 23, 2006, in Caracas, Venezuela, are found dead, causing outrage and mass protests against insecurity in the country.[19][20][21]
- April 11
- The European Space Agency's Venus Express spaceprobe enters Venus' orbit.[22]
- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirms that Iran has successfully produced a few grams of low-grade enriched uranium.[23][24]
- April 20 – Iran announces a deal with Russia, involving a joint uranium enrichment firm on Russian soil;[25] nine days later Iran announces that it will not move all activity to Russia, thus leading to a de facto termination of the deal.
May
- May 17 – The Human Genome Project publishes the final chromosome sequence, in Nature.[26]
- May 18–20 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 takes place in Athens, Greece, and is won by Finnish band entrant Lordi with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah".
- May 27 – The 6.4 Template:M Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java in Indonesia with an MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), leaving more than 5,700 dead and 37,000 injured.[27][28]
June
- June 3 – Montenegro declares its independence from Serbia and Montenegro after a May 21 referendum and becomes a sovereign state. Two days later, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro officially disbands after Serbia declares its independence as well, ending an 88-year union between the two countries[29] and leaving Serbia as the successor country to the union.[30][31]
- June 9–July 9 – The 2006 FIFA World Cup takes place in Germany; Italy defeats France in the final.[32][33]
- June 28
- Israel launches an offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to rocketfire by Hamas into Israeli territory.[34]
- The United States Armed Forces withdraws its forces in Iceland, thereby disbanding the Iceland Defense Force.[35]
July
- July 1 – The Qinghai–Tibet railway begins operation, making Tibet the final province-level entity of China to establish a conventional railway.[36]
- July 6 – The Nathu La pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.[37]
- July 11 – A series of seven bomb blasts hits the city of Mumbai, India, killing more than 200 people.[38]
- July 12 – Israeli troops invade Lebanon in response to Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others. Hezbollah declares open war against Israel two days later.[39]
August
- August 10 – News was revealed of a thwarted terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks, aboard multiple transatlantic air flights.
- August 14 – Sri Lankan civil war, Chencholai bombing: 61 female students in Mullaitivu are killed by the Sri Lankan Air Force in an air strike.[40]
- August 16 – Russian government patrol boat Template:Ill, killing one crew member.[41][42]
- August 22 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.[43]
- August 24 – The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, removing Pluto's status as a planet and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet 76 years after its discovery. Ironically, this was in the same year when NASA sent its first probe to the celestial body.[44][6]
September
- September 1 – Analog terrestrial television is switched off in Luxembourg, being the first country to do so.
- September 7
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his intention to resign by the end of 2007.[45]
- Partial lunar eclipse, visible over most of Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.
- September 19 – The Royal Thai Army overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup.[46]
- September 22 – Annular solar eclipse, visible in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, parts of Brazil, and the southern Atlantic.
- September 28 – Typhoon Xangsane passed Manila on its way to causing more than 300 deaths, mostly in the Philippines and Vietnam.[47]
- September 29 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800, collides with an Embraer Legacy 600 over the Amazon rainforest, killing all 154 occupants on board the 737 whereas all 7 onboard the Legacy survives.[48][49][50]
October
- October 6 – Fredrik Reinfeldt replaces Göran Persson as Prime Minister of Sweden.
- October 9
- North Korea claims to have conducted its first-ever nuclear test.[51]
- Google purchased YouTube for US$1.65 billion.[52]
- October 11–13 – St Andrews Agreement is held in Scotland between the British and Irish governments on devolution in Northern Ireland.
- October 13 – South Korean Ban Ki-moon is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding Kofi Annan.[53]
- October 22 – Fernando Alonso wins his second World Drivers Championship.
- October (date unknown) – The Offshore MPA project is initiated.[54]
November
- November 2 – No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock becomes the most expensive painting after it is sold privately for $140 million.[55]
- November 3 – Microsoft releases Office 2007 for manufacturing.
- November 5 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He is later executed by hanging for crimes against humanity on December 30.[56]
- November 8 – Microsoft releases Windows Vista for manufacturing.
- November 11 – Sony releases the PlayStation 3.
- November 12 – The breakaway state of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.[57]
- November 19 – Nintendo releases the Wii.
- November 22 – A toxic waste dumping incident occurs in Côte d'Ivoire by a Panama ship sent by Singaporean oil company, causing 3 deaths and the poison treatment of 1500 people.[58][59]
- November 23 – A series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City, Baghdad, kills at least 215 people and injure 257 other people.[60]
December
- December 1 – WikiLeaks leaks Hassan Dahir Aweys' conspiracy to assassinate Somali government officials.[61]
- December 5 – The military seizes power in Fiji, in a coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.[62]
- December 11
- Felipe Calderón sends the Mexican military to combat the drug cartels and put down the violence in the state of Michoacán, initiating the Mexican Drug War.[63]
- Analog terrestrial television is switched off permanently in the Netherlands.
- December 24 – Ethiopia admits its troops have intervened in Somalia.[64]
- December 29 – UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt.
- December 30 – Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, was executed by hanging.
Births and deaths
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Nobel Prizes
- Chemistry – Roger D. Kornberg.
- Economics – Edmund Phelps.
- Literature – Orhan Pamuk.
- Peace – Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank.
- Physics – John C. Mather, and George F. Smoot.
- Physiology or Medicine – Andrew Z. Fire, and Craig C. Mello.
New English words and terms
References
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