December 1, 2011, Series Premiere of Weed Wars
December 1, 2011, Parks And Recreation S4 Ep9: The Trial of Leslie Knope
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 2, 2011,
December 2, 2011, The United Nations Human Rights Council denounces the crimes against humanity during the 2011 Syrian uprising which killed over 4,000 people since the uprising started in March. (CNN)
December 3, 2011, Herman Cain announces that he will suspend his campaign for Republican nomination in the United States presidential election following a series of sexual harassment and other misconduct allegations. (CBS)
December 3, 2011,
December 4, 2011, Mini-Series Premiere of Neverland
December 4, 2011, Dexter S6 Ep9: Richocet Rabbit
December 4, 2011,
December 4, 2011, 45,000 citizens of Koblenz, Germany, are allowed to return home after bomb squads defused World War II bombs that were hidden under the Rhine River for almost 65 years. (CNN)
December 4, 2011, Transparency International releases the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, declaring North Korea and Somalia the most corrupt nations in the world, and New Zealand the least corrupt. (CNN.com)
December 4, 2011, Former Brazilian football captain Sócrates dies in hospital in Sao Paulo from complications of food poisoning. (The Telegraph)
December 4, 2011, American golfer Tiger Woods wins the Chevron World Challenge, his first tournament win in over two years. (AP via NPR)
December 5, 2011,
December 5, 2011, Eurozone debt crisis:Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, and Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, call for a new European Union Treaty to help prevent future Eurozone crises. (BBC)
-There are widespread reports that credit ratings agency Standard & Poors will put 15 nations in the Eurozone under review for a possible downgrade, including France and Germany. (Bloomberg)
December 5, 2011, Julian Assange is allowed a final appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom against his extradition to Sweden to answer questions over sexual assault allegations. (Wall Street Journal)
December 6, 2011, Release of Chevelle album Hats off to the Bull
December 6, 2011, Release of Korn album Path of Totality
December 6, 2011, Release of Tintin The Game: Secret of the Unicorn
December 6, 2011,
December 6, 2011,
December 6, 2011, The US Mine Safety and Health Administration releases the final report into the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in Raleigh County, West Virginia, that killed twenty-nine miners last year. (MSHA)
December 6, 2011, The Parliament of Greece approves an austerity budget. (Dow Jones via Wall Street Journal)
December 7, 2011, The United States commemorates the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i. (AP via WVEC)
December 7, 2011, The board of Japan's Olympus Corporation announces its plans to resign early next year due to its accounting scandal. (Reuters)
December 7, 2011, The former President of Israel Moshe Katsav arrives at a prison outside Tel Aviv to start a seven year term for rape. (BBC)
December 7, 2011, The former Governor of the US state of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is sentenced to 14 years in jail for corruption. (Reuters)
December 7, 2011, The Russian Federal Space Agency officially gives up attempting to rescue Fobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1, and expects them to fall back to Earth in January 2012. (Space.com)
December 7, 2011, The European Central Bank reduces interest rates to 1%. (BBC)
December 8, 2011,
December 8, 2011, Iranian state television shows footage of a United States Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel drone that its forces claim to have shot down. (AP)
December 8, 2011, Two people are killed at Virginia Tech, formerly the site of the largest mass shooting in US history. (MSNBC)
December 8, 2011,
December 8, 2011,
December 9, 2011, Release of New Years Eve
December 9, 2011, Release of The Sitter
December 9, 2011, Release of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
December 9, 2011, Release of Young Adult
December 9, 2011,
December 9, 2011, Credit rating agency Moody's downgrades the ratings of France's three biggest banks, Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas and december 4Société Générale. (BBC)
December 9, 2011, Stock prices rise at stock exchanges around the world, and some analysts see this as a reaction to a fiscal agreement among the leaders of the eurozone. (Reuters)
December 10, 2011,
December 10, 2011,
December 10, 2011, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim wins the game of the year at the Spike Video Game Awards. (AP via WVEC)
December 10, 2011, A 6.5 magnitude earthquake hits the Mexican state of Guerrero, resulting in three deaths and felt across several other central states. (AP via CBS News)
December 10, 2011, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is sworn as President of Argentina in a second consecutive mandate. (Yahoo)
December 10, 2011, Astronomers in Asia, Australia and North America observe a total lunar eclipse. (BBC)
December 10, 2011, NASA clears SpaceX to launch Dragon COTS Demo Flight 2 toward the International Space Station in a window opening on February 7, 2012. (Reuters)
December 10, 2011, Robert Griffin III, the quarterback for the Baylor Bears wins the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the best player in college football. (New York Times)
December 11, 2011, Dexter S6 Ep11: Talk to the Hand
December 11, 2011, American Dad S7 Ep7: Season's Beatings
December 11, 2011, North Korea warns of "unexpected consequences" if South Korea lights a Christmas tree near their mutual border. (BBC)
December 11, 2011, The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference finishes in Durban in South Africa with an agreement to begin negotiations on a new treaty. (USA Today)
December 12, 2011,
December 12, 2011,
December 12, 2011, Credit rating agency Moody's in its weekly credit report dismisses the significance of last week's EU agreement, saying it "does not change our view that risks to the cohesion of the euro area continue to rise." (Reuters)
December 12, 2011, United States President Barack Obama has asked Iran for the RQ-170 Sentinel that was captured near Kashmar on December 4. (CNN)
December 12, 2011,
December 13, 2011, Premiere of NBC Special Inside The Royal Marraige
December 13, 2011, Two separate experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider may have detected the Higgs boson particle, according to researchers. (CBC)
December 13, 2011,
December 13, 2011,
December 13, 2011,
December 13, 2011, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 becomes the fastest selling entertainment product of all time passing $1bn in sales in 16 days. (The Guardian)
December 13, 2011, Iran has turned down the United States request to return a RQ-170 that was captured recently by Iranian forces after it crash landed in the country. Iranian officials report that they are extracting data from the aircraft. Officials also report that the drone was brought down by a cyber attack. (Voice of America)
December 14, 2011,
December 14, 2011, Time names "The Protester" the magazine's 2011 Person of the Year, as a result of the Arab Spring and subsequent movements. (Forbes)
December 15, 2011, The 2010 United States Census shows 1 in 2 people are classified as low-income or poor. (Associated Press)
December 15, 2011,The United States flag is lowered in Baghdad marking the end of U.S. military operations in Iraq after nearly nine years of the Iraq War. (BBC)
December 15, 2011, Former editor of The Sun and the News of the World Piers Morgan is called to give evidence before the Leveson Inquiry, and will appear next week. (The Guardian) December 15, 2011, The US National Institutes of Health places a temporary moratorium on new studies using chimpanzees in response to a report that claims nearly all medical research on the animals is scientifically unjustified. (Washington Post)
December 16, 2011, Release of Alvin and The Chipmunks: ChipWrecked
December 16, 2011, Release of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
December 16, 2011, Release of Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows
December 16, 2011, Release of Carnage
December 16, 2011, Chuck S5 Ep6: Chuck vs Virus
December 16, 2011, Flash floods triggered by Tropical Storm Washi kill at least 400 people in the Philippines with hundreds more missing. (AP via WVEC)
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011, Colton Harris-Moore, the so-called "Barefoot Bandit", pleads guilty to dozens of charges in the US state of Washington and is sentenced to seven years in jail. (AP via ABC News)
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011, Clashes take place between pro-democracy protesters and security forces in Cairo, Egypt. (Al Jazeera)
December 16, 2011, Russia joins the World Trade Organization. (BBC)
December 16, 2011, Moody's Investors Service downgrades Belgium's credit rating two notches to Aa3. (Wall Street Journal)
December 16, 2011, The stock price of Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry smart phones, falls after the release of disappointing quarterly numbers and news of the delay of expected product upgrades. (Christian Science Monitor)
December 16, 2011, Japan declares the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in cold shutdown. (Kyodo)
December 16, 2011, The United States and North Korea are expected to hold diplomatic talks regarding North Korea's nuclear program. The talks are the first meeting after the six-party talks stalled in 2008. (Yonhap News)
December 16, 2011,Hollywood actor Christian Bale is prevented from visiting Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng by police. (CNN)
-Chinese dissident Gao Zhisheng is sent back to jail, in the first confirmation he is still alive in 20 months. (AP via Google)
December 16, 2011, Star baseball player Barry Bonds is sentenced to 30 days of home detention on obstruction of justice charges following misleading evidence about steroid use. (ESPN)
December 17, 2011, Merlin S4 Ep12: "The Sword in the Stone (Part 1)
December 17, 2011, Egyptian Army soldiers beat protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in a second day of clashes which have resulted in 10 deaths and hundreds injured. (Reuters)
December 17, 2011,
December 18, 2011, Dexter S6 Ep12: This is the way the World Ends
December 18, 2011, The death of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il on December 17 is announced by Korean Central Television. (CNN)
December 18, 2011,
December 18, 2011,
December 18, 2011, Clashes continue in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a third day between the Egyptian Army and protesters. (Reuters)
December 18, 2011, The last convoy of United States Army soldiers withdraws from Iraq, marking the formal end of the Iraq War. (Reuters)
December 18, 2011,
December 18, 2011, Thousands protest in several Russian cities for a second week, against the results of the parliamentary elections. (AP via Google)
December 18, 2011, Václav Havel, former President of Czechoslovakia and President of the Czech Republic, dies. (The Telegraph)
December 19, 2011, Terrnanova S1 Ep11/12: Occupation & Resistance
December 19, 2011,
December 19, 2011, Kim Jong-un is proclaimed the expected successor to his father. (Wall Street Journal)
December 19, 2011, Fighting continues in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a fourth successive day. (Al-Jazeera)
December 19, 2011, Saab Automobile officially files for bankruptcy.(AFP via News Limited)
December 20, 2011, Series Premiere of Still Standing
December 20, 2011, The body of Kim Jong-il lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. (Al Jazeera)
December 20, 2011,
December 20, 2011,
December 20, 2011,
December 20, 2011, A Socata TBM-700 small plane crashed onto Interstate 287 in Northern New Jersey, killing 5. (New York Times)
December 20, 2011, Thousands of Egyptian women demonstrate against abuses by military police. (New York Times)
December 21, 2011, Release of The Adventures of Tintin
December 21, 2011, Release of A Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
December 21, 2011, Release of Albert Nobbs
December 21, 2011,
December 21, 2011, The Japanese media reports that prosecutors are raiding the offices of Olympus Corporation over an accounting scandal. (Reuters)
December 21, 2011, The death toll from flooding in the Philippines caused by Tropical Storm Washi reaches 1,002 and is set to rise further. (AP via ABC News America)
December 21, 2011, Health authorities in Hong Kong start slaughtering 17,000 chickens after a carcass infected with bird flu H5N1 is found at a poultry market. (New York Times)
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011, The Large Hadron Collider makes its first clear observation of a new particle since opening in 2009, the boson Chi-b 3P. (BBC)
December 23, 2011, Release of We Bought a Zoo
December 23, 2011, Release of In The Land of Blood and Honey
December 23, 2011, Chuck S5 Ep7: Chuck vs Santa Suit
December 23, 2011, 2011 Egyptian revolution: Activists gather in the Egyptian capital Cairo, calling for the end of the post-Hosni Mubarak military regime. (Al Jazeera)
December 23, 2011, A series of large aftershocks from the 22 February earthquake – the largest registering magnitude 6.0 – strike the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. (New Zealand Herald)
December 23, 2011, A Chinese court sentences dissident Chen Wei to nine years imprisonment for "inciting subversion of state power", after he published essays online calling for multiparty democracy. (Times of India)
December 23, 2011, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is treated in hospital for a blocked coronary artery. (BBC)
December 24, 2011, Merlin S4 Ep13: Sword In Stone Pt.2
December 24, 2011, Tens of thousands of people protest across Russia against parliamentary elections that they allege were rigged in favour of the ruling United Russia party. (RIA Novosti)
December 24, 2011, North Korean media name Kim Jong-un – the son and successor of late leader Kim Jong-il – as the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army. (Straits Times)
December 24, 2011, Libya celebrates its independence for the first time in 42 years; independence celebrations were banned under the regime of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. (Tripoli Post)
December 24, 2011,
December 25, 2011, Release of War Horse
December 25, 2011, Release of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
December 25, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI delivers the annual Christmas message at Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City. (CNN)
December 25, 2011, The warmest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole is set with a top of -12.3°C set at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. (Weather Underground)
December 26, 2011,
December 26, 2011, Brazil surpasses the United Kingdom to become the world's sixth-largest economy. (BBC)
December 26, 2011, The government of China sentences activist Chen Xi to ten years imprisonment for "inciting subversion". (The Telegraph)
December 26, 2011, In American football, Drew Brees, the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, breaks the 1984 National Football League record for yards passing in a season. (AP)
December 27, 2011,
December 27, 2011, Over $30 billion was spent on holiday online shopping in the United States, a 15% increase from last year, according to comScore. (Reuters)
December 27, 2011, Sears Holdings Corporation announces plans to close over 100 Sears and K-Mart stores in the United States. (Financial Post)
December 27, 2011, The death toll from flash floods in the Philippines caused by Tropical Storm Washi reaches 1,500 per some sources, but the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council currently puts the number lower.(AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
December 27, 2011, The government of Argentina announces that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has cancer in her thyroid gland, and will have an operation on 4 January and step aside as president for 20 days until 24 January. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, North Korea begins two days of funeral services for former leader Kim Jong-Il, who died on December 17 of a heart attack, aged 69. (BBC)
December 28, 2011,
December 28, 2011,
December 28, 2011, A Russian court rejects an attempt to ban Bhagavad Gita As It Is, a Russian translation of the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, Stones reportedly fall from the Colisseum, one of Rome's most famous landmarks. (MSNBC)
December 28, 2011, The Silence of the Lambs, a 1991 thriller film starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, is to be preserved by the United States Library of Congress as part of its National Film Registry. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, Strait of Hormuz dispute: Iran threatens to close down the key oil route of the Strait of Hormuz if more sanctions are imposed on it by Western nations. (CNN)
-The United States Navy responds that it will not tolerate a disruption to the Strait. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, The corruption trial of the former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, resumes in Cairo. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, China's Compass satellite navigation system, a rival to the American Global Positioning System (GPS), becomes operational, offering navigation services on the Chinese mainland. The system is expected to become available worldwide by 2020. (BBC)
December 29, 2011,
December 29, 2011,
December 29, 2011, The United States sells 84 F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.(Reuters)
December 29, 2011, Kim Jong-un is acknowledged as the Supreme Leader of North Korea at the conclusion of a state funeral for his father. (AP via MSNBC)
December 29, 2011, The Pacific Island nations of Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the International Date Line in order to align their time zone better with their main trading partners, meaning that they will not mark December 30 this year. (AP via Chicago Tribune)
December 29, 2011, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg states that there is 'no chance' that the National September 11 Museum will open on time (September 11, 2012), due to a financial dispute. (MSNBC)
December 30, 2011, Release of The Iron Lady
December 30, 2011, Chuck S5 Ep7: Chuck vs The Baby
December 30, 2011,
December 30, 2011,
December 30, 2011, The stock for McDonald's rose 31 percent in 2011, the largest gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while Bank of America fell 59 percent, the largest loss in the Dow Jones. (CNN)
December 30, 2011, The death toll from the 2011 Thailand floods reaches 790. (Jakarta Post)
December 30, 2011, North Korea says that "foolish politicians around the world" should not expect any change in the country's policies. (Al Jazeera)
December 30, 2011, In yachting, the New South Wales boat Loki is declared the overall winner of the 2011 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. (Sydney Morning Herald)
December 31, 2011, A 4.0-magnitude earthquake hits Ohio, with no immediate reports of damage. (MSNBC)
December 31, 2011, In Hollywood, a string of 35 fires burned within 5 hours that caused at least $350,000 in damage. (CNN)
December 31, 2011, The President of the United States Barack Obama signs a law providing for new sanctions against Iran. (AFP via Google News)
December 31, 2011, Kim Jong-un is named as the Supreme Commander of North Korea's armed forces following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il. (AP via The Australian)
December 31, 2011, NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the moon. (BBC)
December 1, 2011, Parks And Recreation S4 Ep9: The Trial of Leslie Knope
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 1, 2011,
December 2, 2011,
December 2, 2011, The United Nations Human Rights Council denounces the crimes against humanity during the 2011 Syrian uprising which killed over 4,000 people since the uprising started in March. (CNN)
December 3, 2011, Herman Cain announces that he will suspend his campaign for Republican nomination in the United States presidential election following a series of sexual harassment and other misconduct allegations. (CBS)
December 3, 2011,
December 4, 2011, Mini-Series Premiere of Neverland
December 4, 2011, Dexter S6 Ep9: Richocet Rabbit
December 4, 2011,
December 4, 2011, 45,000 citizens of Koblenz, Germany, are allowed to return home after bomb squads defused World War II bombs that were hidden under the Rhine River for almost 65 years. (CNN)
December 4, 2011, Transparency International releases the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, declaring North Korea and Somalia the most corrupt nations in the world, and New Zealand the least corrupt. (CNN.com)
December 4, 2011, Former Brazilian football captain Sócrates dies in hospital in Sao Paulo from complications of food poisoning. (The Telegraph)
December 4, 2011, American golfer Tiger Woods wins the Chevron World Challenge, his first tournament win in over two years. (AP via NPR)
December 5, 2011,
December 5, 2011, Eurozone debt crisis:Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, and Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, call for a new European Union Treaty to help prevent future Eurozone crises. (BBC)
-There are widespread reports that credit ratings agency Standard & Poors will put 15 nations in the Eurozone under review for a possible downgrade, including France and Germany. (Bloomberg)
December 5, 2011, Julian Assange is allowed a final appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom against his extradition to Sweden to answer questions over sexual assault allegations. (Wall Street Journal)
December 6, 2011, Release of Chevelle album Hats off to the Bull
December 6, 2011, Release of Korn album Path of Totality
December 6, 2011, Release of Tintin The Game: Secret of the Unicorn
December 6, 2011,
December 6, 2011,
December 6, 2011, The US Mine Safety and Health Administration releases the final report into the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in Raleigh County, West Virginia, that killed twenty-nine miners last year. (MSHA)
December 6, 2011, The Parliament of Greece approves an austerity budget. (Dow Jones via Wall Street Journal)
December 7, 2011, The United States commemorates the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i. (AP via WVEC)
December 7, 2011, The board of Japan's Olympus Corporation announces its plans to resign early next year due to its accounting scandal. (Reuters)
December 7, 2011, The former President of Israel Moshe Katsav arrives at a prison outside Tel Aviv to start a seven year term for rape. (BBC)
December 7, 2011, The former Governor of the US state of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is sentenced to 14 years in jail for corruption. (Reuters)
December 7, 2011, The Russian Federal Space Agency officially gives up attempting to rescue Fobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1, and expects them to fall back to Earth in January 2012. (Space.com)
December 7, 2011, The European Central Bank reduces interest rates to 1%. (BBC)
December 8, 2011,
December 8, 2011, Iranian state television shows footage of a United States Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel drone that its forces claim to have shot down. (AP)
December 8, 2011, Two people are killed at Virginia Tech, formerly the site of the largest mass shooting in US history. (MSNBC)
December 8, 2011,
December 8, 2011,
December 9, 2011, Release of New Years Eve
December 9, 2011, Release of The Sitter
December 9, 2011, Release of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
December 9, 2011, Release of Young Adult
December 9, 2011,
December 9, 2011, Credit rating agency Moody's downgrades the ratings of France's three biggest banks, Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas and december 4Société Générale. (BBC)
December 9, 2011, Stock prices rise at stock exchanges around the world, and some analysts see this as a reaction to a fiscal agreement among the leaders of the eurozone. (Reuters)
December 10, 2011,
December 10, 2011,
December 10, 2011, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim wins the game of the year at the Spike Video Game Awards. (AP via WVEC)
December 10, 2011, A 6.5 magnitude earthquake hits the Mexican state of Guerrero, resulting in three deaths and felt across several other central states. (AP via CBS News)
December 10, 2011, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is sworn as President of Argentina in a second consecutive mandate. (Yahoo)
December 10, 2011, Astronomers in Asia, Australia and North America observe a total lunar eclipse. (BBC)
December 10, 2011, NASA clears SpaceX to launch Dragon COTS Demo Flight 2 toward the International Space Station in a window opening on February 7, 2012. (Reuters)
December 10, 2011, Robert Griffin III, the quarterback for the Baylor Bears wins the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the best player in college football. (New York Times)
December 11, 2011, Dexter S6 Ep11: Talk to the Hand
December 11, 2011, American Dad S7 Ep7: Season's Beatings
December 11, 2011, North Korea warns of "unexpected consequences" if South Korea lights a Christmas tree near their mutual border. (BBC)
December 11, 2011, The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference finishes in Durban in South Africa with an agreement to begin negotiations on a new treaty. (USA Today)
December 12, 2011,
December 12, 2011,
December 12, 2011, Credit rating agency Moody's in its weekly credit report dismisses the significance of last week's EU agreement, saying it "does not change our view that risks to the cohesion of the euro area continue to rise." (Reuters)
December 12, 2011, United States President Barack Obama has asked Iran for the RQ-170 Sentinel that was captured near Kashmar on December 4. (CNN)
December 12, 2011,
December 13, 2011, Premiere of NBC Special Inside The Royal Marraige
December 13, 2011, Two separate experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider may have detected the Higgs boson particle, according to researchers. (CBC)
December 13, 2011,
December 13, 2011,
December 13, 2011,
December 13, 2011, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 becomes the fastest selling entertainment product of all time passing $1bn in sales in 16 days. (The Guardian)
December 13, 2011, Iran has turned down the United States request to return a RQ-170 that was captured recently by Iranian forces after it crash landed in the country. Iranian officials report that they are extracting data from the aircraft. Officials also report that the drone was brought down by a cyber attack. (Voice of America)
December 14, 2011,
December 14, 2011, Time names "The Protester" the magazine's 2011 Person of the Year, as a result of the Arab Spring and subsequent movements. (Forbes)
December 15, 2011, The 2010 United States Census shows 1 in 2 people are classified as low-income or poor. (Associated Press)
December 15, 2011,The United States flag is lowered in Baghdad marking the end of U.S. military operations in Iraq after nearly nine years of the Iraq War. (BBC)
December 15, 2011, Former editor of The Sun and the News of the World Piers Morgan is called to give evidence before the Leveson Inquiry, and will appear next week. (The Guardian) December 15, 2011, The US National Institutes of Health places a temporary moratorium on new studies using chimpanzees in response to a report that claims nearly all medical research on the animals is scientifically unjustified. (Washington Post)
December 16, 2011, Release of Alvin and The Chipmunks: ChipWrecked
December 16, 2011, Release of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
December 16, 2011, Release of Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows
December 16, 2011, Release of Carnage
December 16, 2011, Chuck S5 Ep6: Chuck vs Virus
December 16, 2011, Flash floods triggered by Tropical Storm Washi kill at least 400 people in the Philippines with hundreds more missing. (AP via WVEC)
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011, Colton Harris-Moore, the so-called "Barefoot Bandit", pleads guilty to dozens of charges in the US state of Washington and is sentenced to seven years in jail. (AP via ABC News)
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011,
December 16, 2011, Clashes take place between pro-democracy protesters and security forces in Cairo, Egypt. (Al Jazeera)
December 16, 2011, Russia joins the World Trade Organization. (BBC)
December 16, 2011, Moody's Investors Service downgrades Belgium's credit rating two notches to Aa3. (Wall Street Journal)
December 16, 2011, The stock price of Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry smart phones, falls after the release of disappointing quarterly numbers and news of the delay of expected product upgrades. (Christian Science Monitor)
December 16, 2011, Japan declares the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in cold shutdown. (Kyodo)
December 16, 2011, The United States and North Korea are expected to hold diplomatic talks regarding North Korea's nuclear program. The talks are the first meeting after the six-party talks stalled in 2008. (Yonhap News)
December 16, 2011,Hollywood actor Christian Bale is prevented from visiting Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng by police. (CNN)
-Chinese dissident Gao Zhisheng is sent back to jail, in the first confirmation he is still alive in 20 months. (AP via Google)
December 16, 2011, Star baseball player Barry Bonds is sentenced to 30 days of home detention on obstruction of justice charges following misleading evidence about steroid use. (ESPN)
December 17, 2011, Merlin S4 Ep12: "The Sword in the Stone (Part 1)
December 17, 2011, Egyptian Army soldiers beat protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square in a second day of clashes which have resulted in 10 deaths and hundreds injured. (Reuters)
December 17, 2011,
December 18, 2011, Dexter S6 Ep12: This is the way the World Ends
December 18, 2011, The death of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il on December 17 is announced by Korean Central Television. (CNN)
December 18, 2011,
December 18, 2011,
December 18, 2011, Clashes continue in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a third day between the Egyptian Army and protesters. (Reuters)
December 18, 2011, The last convoy of United States Army soldiers withdraws from Iraq, marking the formal end of the Iraq War. (Reuters)
December 18, 2011,
December 18, 2011, Thousands protest in several Russian cities for a second week, against the results of the parliamentary elections. (AP via Google)
December 18, 2011, Václav Havel, former President of Czechoslovakia and President of the Czech Republic, dies. (The Telegraph)
December 19, 2011, Terrnanova S1 Ep11/12: Occupation & Resistance
December 19, 2011,
December 19, 2011, Kim Jong-un is proclaimed the expected successor to his father. (Wall Street Journal)
December 19, 2011, Fighting continues in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a fourth successive day. (Al-Jazeera)
December 19, 2011, Saab Automobile officially files for bankruptcy.(AFP via News Limited)
December 20, 2011, Series Premiere of Still Standing
December 20, 2011, The body of Kim Jong-il lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. (Al Jazeera)
December 20, 2011,
December 20, 2011,
December 20, 2011,
December 20, 2011, A Socata TBM-700 small plane crashed onto Interstate 287 in Northern New Jersey, killing 5. (New York Times)
December 20, 2011, Thousands of Egyptian women demonstrate against abuses by military police. (New York Times)
December 21, 2011, Release of The Adventures of Tintin
December 21, 2011, Release of A Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
December 21, 2011, Release of Albert Nobbs
December 21, 2011,
December 21, 2011, The Japanese media reports that prosecutors are raiding the offices of Olympus Corporation over an accounting scandal. (Reuters)
December 21, 2011, The death toll from flooding in the Philippines caused by Tropical Storm Washi reaches 1,002 and is set to rise further. (AP via ABC News America)
December 21, 2011, Health authorities in Hong Kong start slaughtering 17,000 chickens after a carcass infected with bird flu H5N1 is found at a poultry market. (New York Times)
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011,
December 22, 2011, The Large Hadron Collider makes its first clear observation of a new particle since opening in 2009, the boson Chi-b 3P. (BBC)
December 23, 2011, Release of We Bought a Zoo
December 23, 2011, Release of In The Land of Blood and Honey
December 23, 2011, Chuck S5 Ep7: Chuck vs Santa Suit
December 23, 2011, 2011 Egyptian revolution: Activists gather in the Egyptian capital Cairo, calling for the end of the post-Hosni Mubarak military regime. (Al Jazeera)
December 23, 2011, A series of large aftershocks from the 22 February earthquake – the largest registering magnitude 6.0 – strike the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. (New Zealand Herald)
December 23, 2011, A Chinese court sentences dissident Chen Wei to nine years imprisonment for "inciting subversion of state power", after he published essays online calling for multiparty democracy. (Times of India)
December 23, 2011, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is treated in hospital for a blocked coronary artery. (BBC)
December 24, 2011, Merlin S4 Ep13: Sword In Stone Pt.2
December 24, 2011, Tens of thousands of people protest across Russia against parliamentary elections that they allege were rigged in favour of the ruling United Russia party. (RIA Novosti)
December 24, 2011, North Korean media name Kim Jong-un – the son and successor of late leader Kim Jong-il – as the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army. (Straits Times)
December 24, 2011, Libya celebrates its independence for the first time in 42 years; independence celebrations were banned under the regime of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. (Tripoli Post)
December 24, 2011,
December 25, 2011, Release of War Horse
December 25, 2011, Release of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
December 25, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI delivers the annual Christmas message at Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City. (CNN)
December 25, 2011, The warmest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole is set with a top of -12.3°C set at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. (Weather Underground)
December 26, 2011,
December 26, 2011, Brazil surpasses the United Kingdom to become the world's sixth-largest economy. (BBC)
December 26, 2011, The government of China sentences activist Chen Xi to ten years imprisonment for "inciting subversion". (The Telegraph)
December 26, 2011, In American football, Drew Brees, the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, breaks the 1984 National Football League record for yards passing in a season. (AP)
December 27, 2011,
December 27, 2011, Over $30 billion was spent on holiday online shopping in the United States, a 15% increase from last year, according to comScore. (Reuters)
December 27, 2011, Sears Holdings Corporation announces plans to close over 100 Sears and K-Mart stores in the United States. (Financial Post)
December 27, 2011, The death toll from flash floods in the Philippines caused by Tropical Storm Washi reaches 1,500 per some sources, but the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council currently puts the number lower.(AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
December 27, 2011, The government of Argentina announces that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has cancer in her thyroid gland, and will have an operation on 4 January and step aside as president for 20 days until 24 January. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, North Korea begins two days of funeral services for former leader Kim Jong-Il, who died on December 17 of a heart attack, aged 69. (BBC)
December 28, 2011,
December 28, 2011,
December 28, 2011, A Russian court rejects an attempt to ban Bhagavad Gita As It Is, a Russian translation of the Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, Stones reportedly fall from the Colisseum, one of Rome's most famous landmarks. (MSNBC)
December 28, 2011, The Silence of the Lambs, a 1991 thriller film starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, is to be preserved by the United States Library of Congress as part of its National Film Registry. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, Strait of Hormuz dispute: Iran threatens to close down the key oil route of the Strait of Hormuz if more sanctions are imposed on it by Western nations. (CNN)
-The United States Navy responds that it will not tolerate a disruption to the Strait. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, The corruption trial of the former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, resumes in Cairo. (BBC)
December 28, 2011, China's Compass satellite navigation system, a rival to the American Global Positioning System (GPS), becomes operational, offering navigation services on the Chinese mainland. The system is expected to become available worldwide by 2020. (BBC)
December 29, 2011,
December 29, 2011,
December 29, 2011, The United States sells 84 F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.(Reuters)
December 29, 2011, Kim Jong-un is acknowledged as the Supreme Leader of North Korea at the conclusion of a state funeral for his father. (AP via MSNBC)
December 29, 2011, The Pacific Island nations of Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the International Date Line in order to align their time zone better with their main trading partners, meaning that they will not mark December 30 this year. (AP via Chicago Tribune)
December 29, 2011, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg states that there is 'no chance' that the National September 11 Museum will open on time (September 11, 2012), due to a financial dispute. (MSNBC)
December 30, 2011, Release of The Iron Lady
December 30, 2011, Chuck S5 Ep7: Chuck vs The Baby
December 30, 2011,
December 30, 2011,
December 30, 2011, The stock for McDonald's rose 31 percent in 2011, the largest gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while Bank of America fell 59 percent, the largest loss in the Dow Jones. (CNN)
December 30, 2011, The death toll from the 2011 Thailand floods reaches 790. (Jakarta Post)
December 30, 2011, North Korea says that "foolish politicians around the world" should not expect any change in the country's policies. (Al Jazeera)
December 30, 2011, In yachting, the New South Wales boat Loki is declared the overall winner of the 2011 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. (Sydney Morning Herald)
December 31, 2011, A 4.0-magnitude earthquake hits Ohio, with no immediate reports of damage. (MSNBC)
December 31, 2011, In Hollywood, a string of 35 fires burned within 5 hours that caused at least $350,000 in damage. (CNN)
December 31, 2011, The President of the United States Barack Obama signs a law providing for new sanctions against Iran. (AFP via Google News)
December 31, 2011, Kim Jong-un is named as the Supreme Commander of North Korea's armed forces following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il. (AP via The Australian)
December 31, 2011, NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the moon. (BBC)
