Covid-19 vaccines, variants battle dominate 2021
From the Covid pandemic to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, a look back on key events of 2021.
January 4
1st Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines given to the general public with 82-year old Brian Pinker in the UK first to be jabbed.
January 5
Six Gulf states, including Bahrain, sign an agreement to ease the blockage with Qatar, in place since 2017.
January 6
Supporters of President Donald Trump storm US Capitol in Washington during congressional certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s win, resulting in five deaths and prompting evacuation of lawmakers and vice-president Mike Pence.
January 7
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg blocks President Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram till January 20, following suspension of his other social media accounts the previous day.
January 8
Twitter bans US President Donald Trump permanently “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.
January 13
President Donald Trump is impeached by the US House of Representatives voting 232-197, for “incitement of insurrection”, first time in history a US President is impeached twice.
January 16
India begin the vaccination of its 1.3 billion people for COVID-19.
January 20
Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America and Kamala Harris as the 49th Vice President, the first female, black or south Asian Vice President. Amanda Gorman recites “The Hill We Climb”.
January 31
Widespread protests in Russia against detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the government with 5,000 people arrested.
February 1
Military stage a coup in Myanmar, detaining civilian leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi and declaring a one-year state of emergency.
February 2
Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine was deemed 91.6% effective according to analysis published in “The Lancet".
February 2
Jeff Bezos announces he is stepping down as CEO of Amazon after 30 years, becoming executive chairman.
February 4
First successful face and double hand transplant announced performed on 22-year-old Joe DiMeo in New York.
February 9
WHO team investigating origin of COVID-19 in Wuhan say it is “extremely unlikely” that it leaked from a local research lab.
February 9
United Arab Emirates is the fifth entity to successfully orbit a probe around Mars, as probe Hope begins to study the planet’s atmosphere.
February 13
Former US President Donald Trump was acquitted in the second Senate impeachment trial on charge of incitement of insurrection after senators vote 57 to 43 in favour of conviction, less than the two-thirds majority required for impeachment.
February 18
NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully lands at Jezero Crater, Mars, on mission to find microfossils.
February 22
US death toll from COVID-19 passes 500,000, higher than US deaths in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined.
February 24
United Nations-backed COVAX initiative begins delivering vaccines to middle and low income countries with first AstraZeneca shipment to Ghana.
February 28
78th Golden Globes: Best film “Nomadland” (drama), “Borat” (comedy), Best TV series “The Crown”, Chadwick Boseman posthumously wins film Best Actor.
March 9
Queen Elizabeth II publicly expresses “concern” after Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex interview, saying allegations including racism with be dealt with privately.
March 29
Megaship Ever Given freed after nearly a week stuck in and blocking the Suez Canal, with at least 369 vessels waiting to pass though.
March 29
Trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd begins in Minneapolis.
April 10
China orders Alibaba pay a record fine of 18.2 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) after anti-trust regulations say it has been acting as a monopoly.
April 14
US President Biden says “It’s time to end America’s longest war” confirming his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11.
April 19
NASA successfully flies its drone helicopter Ingenuity on Mars, first powered aircraft to fly on another world.
April 20
Former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in a case that prompted huge nationwide racial justice protests.
April 28
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe becomes the first spacecraft to cross the Alfven critical boundary, the outer atmosphere of the Sun.
May 7
The World Health Organization approves the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharm, its first made by a nonwestern country.
May 13
Gaza conflict has killed 103 people in Palestine, including 27 children, through Israeli airstrikes, more than 1000 rockets fired into Israel by Hamas killing seven, city of Lod centre of street fighting.
June 13
Israel’s Knesset votes in a new coalition government with Naftali Bennett as Prime Minister, ousting Benjamin Netanyahu after a record 12 years.
June 14
Cristiano Ronaldo removes sponsors coke bottles from his press table at the European Championships, prompting the company share price to drop $4 billion.
June 17
China launches its Shenzhou-12 spacecraft with three astronauts arriving at its new space station Tiangong six and a half hours later.
June 20
Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll passes 500,000, the second-highest in the world.
June 25
Former US police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 years and six months for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
June 25
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirms the COVID-19 Delta variant is the most transmissible to date, now present in 85 countries and spreading rapidly.
July 2
India’s known COVID-19 death toll passes 400,000 with 30.45 million cases, amid expert speculation that over one million have died.
July 8
The Global known death toll from COVID-19 passes 4 million (equal to all deaths in battle since 1982).
July 8
Billionaire Richard Branson flies to the edge of space on his Virgin Galactic rocket plane in space tourism test.
July 27
China tests a missile with a hypersonic weapon system, later called “very close” to a Sputnik moment by a US general.
August 1
The US passes the 35 million mark in COVID-19 cases with California becoming first state to record 4 million cases.
August 4
Rihanna named the world’s wealthiest female musician worth $1.7 billion by Forbes.
August 4
Global known COVID-19 caseload passes 200 million, with the death toll at 4.2 million according to Johns Hopkins.
August 9
Herd of 14 elephants returning home from a 500km (300-mile) trek across China, lead authorities to evacuate 150,000 people out of their path.
August 15
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flees the country as Taliban forces enter the capital Kabul and take control.
August 26
Two bomb blasts at Kabul Airport, Afghanistan, kill at least 60 people, including 12 US soldiers, amid international efforts to evacuate citizens out of the country.
August 30
America ends its longest-ever war of 20 years in Afghanistan as the last military evacuation plane flies out of Kabul.
September 7
Taliban announce their interim government in Afghanistan with Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund in the most senior role.
September 7
US records more than 40 million cases of COVID-19, daily cases at 161,000 (5 September), daily deaths at 1,560 with hospitalizations averaging 102,000 per day.
September 7
El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
September 13
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett makes first official visit to Egypt in a decade for talks with President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh.
September 15
SpaceX launches the first all-civilian spaceflight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a three-day orbit around Earth.
October 1
The global COVID-19 death toll of recorded cases passes 5 million as the Delta variant continues to surge around the world.
October 3
Pandora Papers investigation reveals secret wealth of 30 current and former world leaders including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Czech PM Andrej Babis and former UK PM Tony Blair.
October 17
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wins a landslide general election victory in New Zealand.
October 28
Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook will change its corporate name to Meta amid increased public scrutiny over leaked internal documents.
November 3
US begins vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 years with a lower dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
November 16
Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait “Diego y yo” (1949) sells for $34.9m - record price for a Latin American work at auction.
November 26
WHO labels COVID-19 variant Omicron a “variant of concern”, with its dozens of new mutations, after it emerges in Botswana and South Africa.
December 6
Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years (later reduced to two) for inciting public unrest and breaching Covid-19 protocols.
December 9
More than 40 camels disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival beauty contest after Botox injections and other cosmetic enhancements were discovered.
December 13
70th Miss Universe Contest won by Miss India’s Harnaaz Sandhu in Eilat, Israel.
December 25
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launched in joint effort with ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America.
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