2011

The year marked the start of a series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, and in some cases sparking civil wars such as the Syrian civil war and the first Libyan civil war, the former still ongoing while the latter gave way to the second Libyan civil war.

U.S. Navy SEALs killed al-Qaeda leader and terrorist Osama bin Laden in his compound in Pakistan on May 2.

The Curiosity rover, which was to land on Mars in August of the following year, launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26.

In December, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who had been the supreme leader of North Korea since the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994, died while traveling by train to a place outside Pyongyang.

2011 was designated as: In 2011, the nation of Samoa only had 364 days as it moved across the International Date Line skipping December 30, 2011; it is now 24 hours ahead of American Samoa.

Occupy movement Killing of Muammar Gaddafi 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami Arab Spring Killing of Osama bin Laden 2011 Norway attacks Minecraft
Clockwise from top-left: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement ; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi , who was killed that October; a young man celebrates the independence of South Sudan , the world's newest country; the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami devastates Eastern Japan and kills nearly 20,000 people, becoming the most expensive natural disaster on record; Minecraft is released, which would go on to become the best-selling video game of all time; the Norway attacks mark the rise of white supremacist terrorism across the west; the U.S. national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to monitor the progress of Operation Neptune Spear which resulted in the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ; anti-government protests called the Arab Spring arose in early 2011, and as a result, many governments were overthrown in the Middle East and Northern Africa , which lead to the Arab Winter .