Thursday 29 November 2012

CASE 429 - 2012 the year that was

2012 (MMXII) is a leap year that started on a Sunday. There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and centre upon various contemporary interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions, but many conspiracies flood the internet including the illuminati and the new world order, cuts cuts and more cuts.

January January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: The European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of that nation's continued effort to enrich uranium.

February February 1 – At least 79 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured after a football match in Port Said, Egypt. February 6 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marks 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. February 15 – A fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras kills 360. February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January. February 21 – Greek government debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout. February 27 – Arab Spring: As a result of ongoing protests, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is succeeded by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi.

March March 4 – A series of explosions are reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead. March 13 – After 244 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition. March 22 – The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.

April April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali. April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign. April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands.[17] The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the republic. April 26 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

May May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art. May 12 – August 12 – The 2012 World Expo takes place in Yeosu, South Korea. May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 metres high, is opened to public.

June June 5–6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125. June 24 Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female one, docked manually with an orbiting module Tiangong 1, first time as the country, making them as the third country, after the United States and Russia, to successfully perform the mission. Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island Tortoise subspecies, dies at a Galapagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct.

July July 4 – CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. July 27 – August 12 – The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, United Kingdom, costing over £25 billion. July 30–31 – In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.



August August 6 – Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars. August 31 Researchers successfully perform the first implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes. Armenia severs diplomatic relations with Hungary, following the extradition to Azerbaijan and subsequent pardoning of Ramil Safarov, who was convicted of killing an Armenian soldier in Hungary in 2004. The move is also met with fierce criticism from other countries.

September September 7 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and ordered the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and human rights abuses. September 11 – 27 – A series of terrorist attacks are directed against United States diplomatic missions worldwide, as well as diplomatic missions of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the US, opinions are divided over whether the attacks are a reaction to a Youtube trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. In Libya, among the dead is US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

October October 14 – Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 24 miles (39 kilometers) over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States. October 24 – 30 – Hurricane Sandy kills at least 209 people in the Caribbean, Bahamas, United States and Canada. Considerable storm surge damage causes major disruption to the eastern seaboard of the United States, NY subways and roads are flooded and half are without power.

November November 14 – Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following weeks 133 Palestinians are killed and 5 Israelis in rocket attacks by the Palestinians.



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 Mesoamerican creation date of the calendar's current era. December 31 – The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends

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