2011
Tōhoku earthquake and Fukushima
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake off northeastern Japan generated a tsunami that overran seawalls, killed nearly 20,000 people, and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Three reactors melted down within days. Japan's faith in its nuclear competence, and the global nuclear renaissance, ended within a single afternoon of cascading catastrophe.
Tahrir Square fills
Egyptians inspired by Tunisia's revolution poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding the end of Hosni Mubarak's thirty-year rule. They pitched tents, organized field clinics, and held the square for eighteen days against riot police, plainclothes thugs on camels, and regime snipers. On February 11, Mubarak resigned. The revolution, it would turn out, had only begun.
Syria's civil war begins
A handful of teenage boys in Daraa scrawled anti-Assad graffiti on a wall and were tortured. The protests that followed were met with bullets. Within months Syria was at war with itself; within years it was a proxy battlefield for half the world. By decade's end half the population was displaced.
Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad
Two stealth helicopters carrying Navy SEALs descended on a high-walled compound near Pakistan's premier military academy. Within forty minutes Osama bin Laden was dead, his body bagged for a sea burial. President Obama announced it after midnight. Crowds gathered outside the White House to chant USA into the spring air.
Royal wedding at Westminster
Prince William married Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey before two billion television viewers and the assembled crowned heads of Europe. The dress was Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, the kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony was twice. A monarchy that had wobbled after Diana's death suddenly looked, briefly, like it might survive the century.
Gaddafi killed in Sirte
After eight months of NATO airstrikes and rebel advances, Muammar Gaddafi was found hiding in a drainage pipe outside his hometown. A militia mob beat, sodomized, and shot him on a dusty road. Hillary Clinton, watching footage in Washington, joked: "We came, we saw, he died." Libya would unravel for decades.
U.S. troops leave Iraq
The last American convoy crossed into Kuwait before dawn, ending an eight-year-and-nine-month war that had killed nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and uncounted hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Maliki's sectarian government settled in, purging Sunnis from the army and the ministries. Within three years a black flag would rise over Mosul and the Americans would return.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 2011?
Saeculum lists 7 curated events from 2011. The most significant is Tōhoku earthquake and Fukushima: A magnitude 9.0 earthquake off northeastern Japan generated a tsunami that overran seawalls, killed nearly 20,000 people, and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi…
What era was 2011 part of?
2011 falls within the Contemporary (2001-2026). Networks, climate, and the new uncertainty.
Which regions saw notable events in 2011?
The curated events from 2011 span East Asia, Africa, Middle East, South Asia and Europe.