2010 2010 2010 Images

2010''' ('''MMX ) is a common year that started on a Friday and is the current year. In the Gregorian calendar, it is the 2010th year of the Common Era or the Anno Domini designation, the 10th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the 1st of the 2010s decade. The United Nations has designated 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity and International Year of Youth.

Pronouncing 2010 and subsequent years

Among experts and the general public, there is a debate as to how specific years of the 21st century should be pronounced in English. The year 2010 is pronounced either "twenty ten" or "two thousand (and) ten".

Events

January

January 1 – Spain takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Sweden.
January 1 – A suicide bombing occurs at a volleyball game in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 95, and injuring over 100.
January 4 – The tallest man-made structure to date, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is officially opened.
January 8 – The Togo national football team is involved in an attack in Angola, and as a result withdraws from the Africa Cup of Nations.
January 12 – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake occurs in Haiti, devastating the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince. With a confirmed death toll over 230,000 it is one of the deadliest on record.
January 15 – The longest annular solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurs.
January 25 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, killing all 90 people on-board.

February

February 3 – The sculpture ''L'Homme qui marche I'' by Alberto Giacometti sells in London for £65 million (US$103.7 million), setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction.
February 12–28 – The 2010 Winter Olympics are held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.
February 18 – The President of Niger, Tandja Mamadou, is overthrown after a group of soldiers storms the presidential palace
February 27 – An 8.8-magnitude earthquake occurs in Chile, triggering a tsunami over the Pacific and killing 497. The earthquake is one of the largest in recorded history.

March

March 16 – The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed by fire.
March 23 – The ''ROKS Cheonan'', a South Korean Navy ship carrying 104 personnel, sinks off the country's west coast, killing 46. In May, an independent investigation blames North Korea, which denies the allegations.

April

April 7 – Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev flees Bishkek amid fierce rioting, sparking a sociopolitical crisis. Former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva is placed at the head of an interim government as the opposition seizes control.
April 10 – The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, is among 96 killed when their airplane crashes in western Russia.
April 13 – A 6.9-magnitude earthquake occurs in Qinghai, China, killing at least 2,000 and injuring more than 10,000.
April 14 – Volcanic ash from one of several eruptions beneath Eyjafjallajökull, a glacier in Iceland, begins to disrupt air traffic across northern and western Europe.
April 20 – The Deepwater Horizon oil platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers. The resulting oil spill, one of the largest in history, spreads for several months, damaging the waters and the United States coastline, and prompting international debate and doubt about the practice and procedures of offshore drilling.
April 27 – Standard & Poor's downgrades Greece's sovereign credit rating to junk four days after the activation of a €45-billion EU–IMF bailout, triggering the decline of stock markets worldwide and of the Euro's value, and furthering a European sovereign debt crisis.

May

May 2 – The Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund agree to a €110 billion bailout package for Greece. The package involves sharp Greek austerity measures.
May 4 – ''Nude, Green Leaves and Bust'' by Pablo Picasso sells in New York for US$106.5 million, setting another new world record for a work of art sold at auction.
May 7 – Scientists conducting the Neanderthal genome project announce that they have sequenced enough of the Neanderthal genome to suggest that Neanderthals and humans may have interbred.
May 12 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes at runway at Tripoli International Airport in Libya, killing 103 of 104 on board.
May 20 – Scientists announce that they have created a functional synthetic genome.
May 20 – Five paintings worth €100 million are stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
May 22 – Air India Express Flight 812 overshoots the runway at Mangalore International Airport in India, killing 158 and leaving 8 survivors.
May 28 – In terrorist attacks against two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, Pakistan, 98 are killed.
May 31 – Nine activists are killed in a clash with soldiers when Israeli Navy forces raid and capture a flotilla of ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade.

June

June 9 – Ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks results in the deaths of hundreds.
June 11 – July 11 – The 2010 FIFA World Cup is held in South Africa, and is won by Spain.

July

July 1 – Belgium takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Spain.
July 8 – The first 24-hour flight by a solar powered plane is completed by the Solar Impulse.
July 25 – Wikileaks, an online publisher of anonymous, covert, and classified material, leaks to the public over 90,000 internal reports about the United States-led involvement in the War in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
July 29 – Heavy monsoon rains begin to cause widespread flooding in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Over 1,600 are killed, and more than one million are displaced by the floods. More than 15 million people are affected by the floods.

August

August 10 – The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns.
August 23 – A hostage crisis occurs on board a bus in Manila. Nine people, including the hostage-taker, are killed.

September

Scheduled events

October

October 10 – The Netherlands Antilles will be dissolved, with the islands being split up and given a new constitutional status.
October 23 – The International Space Station program will take the record for the longest continuous occupation of space in history from ''Mir''. (See List of spaceflight records).

November

November – The first Peruvian nanosatellite will be launched from Russia.
November 29 – December 10 – The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Cancún, Mexico. Also referred to as the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), it serves too as the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6).

December

Unknown dates

Israel will complete its West Bank barrier.

Deaths

January

January 4 – Johan Ferrier, 1st President of Suriname (born 1910)
January 4 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese dual atomic bomb survivor (born 1916)
January 9 – Armand Razafindratandra, Malagasy cardinal (born 1925)
January 11 – Miep Gies, Dutch humanitarian (born 1909)
January 11 – Éric Rohmer, French film director (born 1920)
January 12 – Zilda Arns, Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker (born 1934)
January 13 – Teddy Pendergrass, American R&B and soul singer (born 1950)
January 15 – Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American biologist and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1927)
January 17 – Jyoti Basu, Indian politician (born 1914)
January 17 – Erich Segal, American author, screenwriter, and educator (born 1937)
January 18 – Kate McGarrigle, Canadian folk singer (born 1946)
January 19 – Panajot Pano, Albanian footballer (born 1939)
January 22 – Iskandar of Johor, 8th King of Malaysia (born 1932)
January 22 – Jean Simmons, British actress (born 1929)
January 25 – Ali Hassan al-Majid, Iraqi politician and military commander (born 1941)
January 27 – Zelda Rubinstein, American actress and human rights activist (born 1933)
January 27 – J. D. Salinger, American author (born 1919)
January 27 – Howard Zinn, American historian (born 1922)

February

February 1 – Steingrímur Hermannsson, 19th Prime Minister of Iceland (born 1928)
February 6 – John Dankworth, British jazz musician and composer (born 1927)
February 7 – André Kolingba, 4th President of the Central African Republic (born 1936)
February 8 – John Murtha, American politician (born 1932)
February 10 – Charlie Wilson, American politician (born 1933)
February 11 – Alexander McQueen, British fashion designer (born 1969)
February 14 – Dick Francis, British author and jockey (born 1920)
February 17 – Kathryn Grayson, American singer (born 1922)
February 18 – Ariel Ramírez, Argentine composer (born 1921)
February 20 – Alexander Haig, 59th United States Secretary of State (born 1924)

March

March 3 – Michael Foot, British politician (born 1913)
March 4 – Vladislav Ardzinba, Soviet-born politician (born 1945)
March 10 – Corey Haim, Canadian actor (born 1971)
March 10 – Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, Egyptian Muslim cleric (born 1928)
March 12 – Miguel Delibes, Spanish author and journalist (born 1920)
March 14 – Peter Graves, American actor (born 1926)
March 20 – Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepalese politician (born 1925)
March 21 – Wolfgang Wagner, German festival director (born 1919)
March 22 – James Black, British pharmacologist and Nobel Prize laureate (born 1924)
March 22 – Valentina Tolkunova, Soviet and Russian singer (born 1946)
March 24 – Robert Culp, American actor, screenwriter and director (born 1930)
March 27 – Vasily Smyslov, Soviet-Russian chess grandmaster (born 1921)
March 28 – Herb Ellis, American jazz guitarist (born 1921)
March 28 – June Havoc, Canadian-born American actress (born 1912)
March 30 – Martin Sandberger, German army officer (born 1911)

April

April 1 – John Forsythe, American actor (born 1918)
April 3 – Eugene Terre'Blanche, South African politician and white supremacist (born 1941)
April 5 – Vitali Sevastyanov, Soviet cosmonaut (born 1935)
April 6 – Corin Redgrave, British actor and political activist (born 1939)
April 8 – Malcolm McLaren, British musician and manager (born 1946)
April 8 – Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean politician (born 1925)
April 10 – Ryszard Kaczorowski, Polish statesman (born 1919)
April 10 – Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland (born 1949)
April 14 – Peter Steele, American musician (born 1962)
April 16 – Tomáš Špidlík, Czech cardinal (born 1919)
April 19 – Guru, American rapper (born 1966)
April 21 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish sports official (born 1920)
April 25 – Alan Sillitoe, British writer (born 1928)
April 30 – Paul Mayer, German cardinal (born 1911)

May

May 2 – Lynn Redgrave, British actress (born 1943)
May 4 – Luigi Poggi, Italian cardinal (born 1917)
May 5 – Giulietta Simionato, Italian opera singer (born 1910)
May 5 – Umaru Yar'Adua, President of Nigeria (born 1951)
May 8 – Andor Lilienthal, Hungarian chess grandmaster (born 1911)
May 9 – Lena Horne, American singer and actress (born 1917)
May 10 – Frank Frazetta, American artist (born 1928)
May 16 – Ronnie James Dio, American musician (born 1942)
May 16 – Oswaldo López Arellano, Honduran politician and two-time former president (born 1921)
May 16 – Hank Jones, American pianist (born 1918)
May 17 – Bobbejaan Schoepen, Belgian singer (born 1925)
May 17 – Khattiya Sawasdipol, Thai army general (born 1951)
May 17 – Yvonne Loriod, French pianist (born 1924)
May 18 – Edoardo Sanguineti, Italian writer (born 1930)
May 22 – Martin Gardner, American science author (born 1914)
May 24 – Paul Gray, American musician (born 1972)
May 28 – Gary Coleman, American actor (born 1968)
May 29 – Dennis Hopper, American actor and film director (born 1936)
May 31 – Louise Bourgeois, French-born American sculptor (born 1911)

June

June 1 – Andrey Voznesensky, Soviet-Russian poet (born 1933)
June 2 – Giuseppe Taddei, Italian baritone (born 1916)
June 3 – Vladimir Arnold, Soviet-Russian mathematician (born 1937)
June 3 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (born 1934)
June 9 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina (born 1908)
June 10 – Sigmar Polke, German painter and photographer (born 1941)
June 14 – Leonid Kizim, Soviet-Ukrainian cosmonaut (born 1941)
June 16 – Ronald Neame, British cinematographer, producer and director (born 1911)
June 18 – Marcel Bigeard, French military officer (born 1916)
June 18 – José Saramago, Portuguese writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1922)
June 19 – Manute Bol, Sudanese basketball player (born 1962)
June 23 – Pete Quaife, founding member of The Kinks (born 1943)
June 23 – Mohammed Mzali, former Prime Minister of Tunisia (born 1925)
June 26 – Algirdas Brazauskas, 9th President of Lithuania (born 1932)
June 28 – Robert Byrd, American politician (born 1917)

July

July 2 – Beryl Bainbridge, British novelist (born 1934)
July 3 – Abu Daoud, Palestinian militia commander (born 1937)
July 4 – Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese spiritual leader (born 1935)
July 5 – Cesare Siepi, Italian opera singer (born 1923)
July 12 – Harvey Pekar, American comic book writer (born 1939)
July 14 – Charles Mackerras, Australian conductor (born 1925)
July 17 – Bernard Giraudeau, French actor and film director (born 1947)
July 21 – Luis Corvalán, Chilean politician (born 1916)
July 24 – Alex Higgins, Northern Irish snooker player (born 1949)

August

August 5 – Godfrey Binaisa, 5th President of Uganda (born 1920)
August 6 – Tony Judt, British historian (born 1948)
August 8 – Patricia Neal, American actress (born 1926)
August 9 – Ted Stevens, American politician (born 1923)
August 10 – Antonio Pettigrew, American athlete (born 1967)
August 12 – Guido de Marco, 6th President of Malta (born 1931)
August 17 – Francesco Cossiga, 63rd Prime Minister and 8th President of Italy (born 1928)
August 18 – Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Spanish aristrocrat (born 1930)
August 22 – Stjepan Bobek, Yugoslav footballer (born 1923)
August 23 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese anime film director (born 1963)
August 26 – Raimon Panikkar, Spanish theologian (born 1918)
August 27 – Anton Geesink, Dutch judoka (born 1934)
August 28 – Sinan Hasani, 10th President of Yugoslavia (born 1922)
August 30 – Alain Corneau, French filmmaker (born 1943)
August 30 – Francisco Varallo, Argentine footballer (born 1910)
August 31 – Laurent Fignon, French road bicycle racer (born 1960)

September

Awards

Nobel Prizes

Chemistry – To be announced
Economics – To be announced
Literature – To be announced
Peace – To be announced
Physics – To be announced
Physiology or Medicine – To be announced

Major holidays

January 1 – New Year's Day.
January 7 (6 in Armenia) – Orthodox Christmas.
February 1 – Imbolc, a Cross-quarter day (Celebrated on February 2 in some places).
February 2 – Candlemas commemorating the Purification of the Virgin. It marks the liturgical end of the Christmas season.
February 14 – Chinese New Year.
February 16 – Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras, end of Mardi Gras / Carnival season.
February 17 – Ash Wednesday (first day of Lent).
March 1 – Holi.
March 20 (21 in the Far East) – Vernal Equinox, also known as Nowruz.
March 24 – Rama Navami.
March 29 (evening) – Passover.
March 30 – Hanuman Jayanti.
April 4 – Easter (''Western'' and ''Orthodox'').
May 1 – Beltane, a Cross-quarter day.
May 18–19 – Shavuot.
August 1 – Lammas, a Cross-quarter day.
August 11 – Ramadan begins.
August 24 – Raksha Bandhan.
September 2 – Krishna Janmashtami.
September 8–10 – Rosh Hashanah.
September 10 – Eid ul-Fitr.
September 17–18 – Yom Kippur.
September 22–29/30 – Sukkot.
September 23 – Autumnal Equinox, also known as Mabon.
November 5 – Diwali.
November 16–19 – Eid al-Adha.
December 25 – Western Christmas.

In fiction

Film

''2010'' (1984)
'''' (2002)
''Absolon'' (2003)
''Banlieue 13'' (2004)
''District 9'' (2009)

Literature

''Stand on Zanzibar'' (1968) by John Brunner
'''' (1982) by Arthur C. Clarke.
Tracy Hickman, ''The Immortals'' (1996)
''The Mayflower Project'' (2001) by K.A. Applegate.
''In the Presence of Mine Enemies'' (2003) by Harry Turtledove.

Music

The Pearl Jam song "Do the Evolution" references the world in 2010: "I crawled the earth, but now I'm higher. 2010, watch it go to fire."
The Bad Religion song "Ten in 2010" appears on their album ''The Gray Race''.
The 2008 Enya song "My! My! Time Flies!" concludes with the lyrics, "Could be we step out again/Could be tomorrow but then/Could be two thousand and ten."

Television

April 29 – Date of visons of Global Blackout from TV series Flash Forward
''Knight Rider 2010'' (1994 TV movie)
''Maico 2010'' (1998)
''The Simpsons'' episode "Lisa's Wedding", from the 6th season, takes place in 2010.
A ''Stargate'' SG-1 episode called "2010" took place in that year. (2001)
''Code Geass'' Britannia's invasion of Japan takes place on 10 August 2010.
''Eden of the East'' The missile attacks on Japan take place on 22 November 2010.
''Doctor Who'' - Series 4 {2009-10) special episode ''The End of Time'' The Tenth doctor Regenerates in 2010. Series 5 (2010) episodes The Eleventh Hour, Amy's Choice, the end of Vincent and the Doctor, The Lodger and The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang are set mainly in this year.

Video games

In the ''SimCity'' franchise the ''Scenarios Vol. I: Great Disasters'', in ''SimCity 2000'', there is a nuclear meltdown in Boston and Silicon Valley which is set in 2010.
'''' is a futuristic spinoff of the original ''Street Fighter'' released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990.
Dino Crisis 2, the sequel to the 1999 game, released in 2000.
(1998): The last level, titled ''Reptar 2010'', is set in 2010.
(2004): is set in 2010
(2009): The whole game is set in August 2010 in Venezuela.

References

2010