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. He was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un. 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.

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

Births and deaths

Nobel Prizes

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