2021

year

2021 (MMXXI) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2021st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 21st year of the 3rd millennium, the 21st year of the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2020s decade.

James Webb Space Telescope2021 Myanmar coup d'étatOctober 2021 Sudanese coup d'étatFall of Kabul (2021)January 6 United States Capitol attackIngenuity (helicopter)2020 Summer Olympics2021 Suez Canal obstruction
From left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 Sudanese coup d'état; Crowd shortly after the January 6 United States Capitol attack; The container ship Ever Given gets stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking international shipping for six days; A scene from; the opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan; The Ingenuity helicopter after deployment on the Martian surface by the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover; Taliban fighters in Kabul on a captured Humvee following the 2021 fall of Kabul at the end of the War in Afghanistan.
Millennium:3rd millennium
Centuries:20th century21st century22nd century
Decades: 1990s  2000s  2010s  – 2020s –  2030s  2040s  2050s
Years:2018 2019 202020212022 2023 2024

The global COVID-19 pandemic continued into the year, and multiple COVID-19 variants were discovered. 2021 also hosted most major events that were originally scheduled for 2020 that were postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic, including the Eurovision Song Contest, UEFA Euro 2020, and the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Events

January

On 6 January, protesters supporting U.S. President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
On 9 January, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crashes in the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia
On 13 January, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump a second time over the storming of the U.S. Capitol
On 20 January, former Vice President Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States
On 26 January, Kaja Kallas becomes the first woman to be Prime Minister of Estonia, following the resignation of Jüri Ratas

February

On 1 February, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi (left) is removed from power in a military coup d'état led by Min Aung Hlaing (right)
On 7 February, a glacial burst in Uttarakhand, India kills at least 36 people
On 13 February, former U.S. President Donald Trump is found not guilty in his second impeachment trial for inciting the storming of the U.S. Capitol
From 13 to 17 February, a deadly winter storm hits North America killing 70 people and cutting off water, power and heating for millions

March

On 1 March, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is found guilty of corruption and sentenced to three years in prison
On 17 March, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is re-elected to a fourth term with his VVD party winning the elections
On 18 March, a series of massive floods occur in New South Wales, Australia with over 18,000 people being evacuated and three people killed
On 23 March, the Ever Given blocks the Suez Canal after a sandstorm forcibly moves the container ship

April

On 9 April, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the royal consort of Queen Elizabeth II, dies at Windsor Castle (flag at half-staff pictured) at aged 99
On 10 April, conservative banker Guillermo Lasso is elected the 47th President of Ecuador
On 13 April, Japan's government approves the dumping of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean over the course of 30 years
On 20 April, President of Chad Idriss Déby is shot and killed during a military conflict in the Tibesti Region
On 22 April, the United States hosts a global summit on climate change where many countries promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions

May

On 2 May, many protests break out in Colombia against a tax increase policy. The protests would result in the deaths on six civilians
On 3 May, a section of the Mexico City Metro overpass collapses, killing 26 people
On 11 May, a crisis between Israel and Palestine began after Hamas launched rockets onto Israeli cities while Israel hits the Gaza Strip with airstrikes
On 14 May, CNSA's Zhurong rover lands on Mars, making China the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the planet
On 24 May, Naomi Mataʻafa becomes Samoa's first female Prime Minister, however her leadership is disputed as her predecessor Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi refuses to leave office

June

On 2 June, former Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog is elected the 11th President of Israel
On 9 June, El Salvador becomes the first country in the world to make Bitcoin a legal tender in the country
On 11 June, teacher Pedro Castillo is elected the 63rd President of Peru
On 13 June, Naftali Bennett becomes the 13th Prime Minister of Israel, ending Benjamin Netanyahu's twelve-year tenure
On 19 June, Ebrahim Raisi is elected the 8th President of Iran
On 24 June, in the United States a condominium in Miami, Florida collapses, killing 97 people
On 29 June, former President of South Africa Jacob Zuma is sentenced to 15 months in prison

July

On 7 July, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is assassinated
On 11 July, massive anti-government protests erupt in Cuba
On 12 July, severe floods in Europe kill over 120 people
On 15 July, Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries is shot and killed while leaving a studio set in Amsterdam
On 17 July, floods and landslides in Henan, China kill over 50 people and leave over 2 million evacuated or homeless
On 22 July, a flood in Maharashtra, India kills over 250 people
On 23 July, the 2020 Summer Olympics begin in Tokyo, Japan

August

On 4 August, sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya takes asylum in Poland after criticizing Belarus at the 2020 Summer Olympics
On 14 August, a 7.2 earthquake hits Haiti, killing over 300 people
On 15 August, the Taliban takes control of Kabul and the Afghan government collapses with President Ashraf Ghani going into exile
On 26 August, two suicide bombings caused by ISIS kills over 180 people at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul
On 30 August, the evacuations in Afghanistan end, officially ending the War in Afghanistan

September

On 3 September, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announces his resignation, effective at the end of the month
On 5 September, President of Guinea Alpha Condé is arrested and removed from power
On 13 September, Norway's Opposition Leader Jonas Gahr Støre is elected Prime Minister
On 20 September, Justin Trudeau is re-elected as Canadian Prime Minister
On 26 September, the Social Democratic Party led by Olaf Scholz win the most seats in the Bundestag

October

On 4 October, Fumio Kishida becomes the 100th Prime Minister of Japan
On 4 October, a massive outage affects the social media sites Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram for seven hours
On 8 October, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa is awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize alongside Russian editor Dmitry Muratov
On 9 October, Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz announces his resignation following the creation of a corruption investigation against him
On 14 October, a building fire in Taiwan kills 46 people
On 25 October, Prime Minister of Sudan Abdalla Hamdok is removed from office and arrested during a military coup

November

On 3 November, the World Health Organization gives emergency use listing to the Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine
On 7 November, Prime Minister of Iraq Mustafa Al-Kadhimi survives an assassination attempt
On 26 November, the World Health Organization officially names the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
On 29 November, Magdalena Andersson is elected the first female Prime Minister of Sweden
On 29 November, Barbados officially became a republic with Sandra Mason becoming the country's first president

December

On 4 December, Mount Semeru erupts killing 46 people in Indonesia
On 8 December, Olaf Scholz replaces Angela Merkel as the Chancellor of Germany
On 10 December, a tornado outbreak in southern parts of the United States kills 88 people
On 25 December, the James Webb Space Telescope is launched into space, replacing the Hubble Space Telescope

Births

Deaths

January

Modibo Keita
Martinus J. G. Veltman
Phil Spector
Cloris Leachman

February

Christopher Plummer
Mary Wilson
Carlos Menem
Sir Michael Somare

March

Bunny Wailer
Lou Ottens
John Magufuli
Nawal El Saadawi
Didier Ratsiraka

April

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Idriss Déby
Michael Collins

May

Olympia Dukakis
Humberto Maturana
Franco Battiato
Yuan Longping
Carla Fracci
Poul Schlüter

June

Sir Anerood Jugnauth
Ei-ichi Negishi
Kenneth Kaunda
Benigno Aquino III

July

Raffaella Carrà
Dilip Kumar
Jovenel Moïse
Steven Weinberg

August

Sir Lester Bird
Gerd Müller
Sonny Chiba
Hissène Habré
Charlie Watts

September

Mikis Theodorakis
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Borisav Jović
Abdelaziz Bouteflika

October

Abolhassan Banisadr
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Edita Gruberová
Roh Tae-woo

November

Aaron T. Beck
F. W. de Klerk
Chun Doo-hwan

December

Mustafa Ben Halim
Vicente Fernández
Desmond Tutu
E. O. Wilson

Nobel Prizes

Related pages

References