WORLD HISTORY · 2012 日本語
Events of 2012Heisei 24 (Japan) · Year of the Dragon
What happened in 2012?
In May 2012, every nuclear power plant in Japan was shut down, and the Tokyo Skytree tower opened. In October, Yamanaka Shinya was named a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, and the Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in December's general election.
- All of Japan's nuclear plants shut downAsia
- Putin returns to the presidencyEurope
- Tokyo Skytree opensAsia
- London Olympics openEurope
- Yamanaka Shinya named Nobel Prize winnerAsia
- Sandy Hook Elementary School shootingNorth America
- LDP returns to power in general electionAsia
- Park Geun-hye elected South Korea's first female presidentAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
2012 at a glance
| Japanese era | Heisei 24 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Dragon |
| Age of people born in 2012 | Turn 14 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 2011 (Heisei 23) ／ 2013 (Heisei 25) |
| Events | 148 |
| AP World History | Unit 9 (Globalization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 2012
Our birthday pages list 4 people born in 2012. Here are some of them.
- Blue Ivy CarterBorn January 7 · turns 14 this year
- Artem KotenkoBorn January 12 · turns 14 this year
- Princess Athena of DenmarkBorn January 24 · turns 14 this year
- Doug the PugBorn May 20 · turns 14 this year
Events of 2012 (timeline · 148)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Twenty-six people are killed and 63 wounded when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus.
A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.
A bombing at Jamrud in Pakistan, kills at least 30 people and injures 78 others.
Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Băsescu's economic austerity measures. Clashes are reported in numerous Romanian cities between protesters and law enforcement officers.
The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.
The Mali War begins when Tuareg militias start fighting the Malian government for independence.
More than 115,000 websites engage in an online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act in the US. The websites involved viewed the laws as infringing on the right to free speech and many of them temporarily shut down in protest.
Seventy-four people are killed and over 500 injured as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al Masry and Al Ahly in the city of Port Said.
The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea near the Finschhafen District, with an estimated 146–165 dead.
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.
President Mohamed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives resigns, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests calling for the release of the Chief Judge unlawfully arrested by the military.
The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Three hundred and sixty people die in a fire at a Honduran prison in the city of Comayagua.
A train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 51 people and injures 700 others.
A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and more than 250 injured.
Seventeen-year-old African-American student Trayvon Martin is shot to death by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in an altercation in Sanford, Florida.
A train derails in Burlington, Ontario, Canada killing at least three people and injuring 45.
North Korea agrees to suspend uranium enrichment and nuclear and long-range missile tests in return for US food aid.
A tornado outbreak occurs over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities.
A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people.
Two people are killed and six more are injured in a shooting at a hair salon in Bucharest, Romania.
A truce between the Salvadoran government and gangs in the country goes into effect when 30 gang leaders are transferred to lower security prisons.
A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar.
Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first batter in history to score 100 centuries in international cricket.
At least 52 people are killed and more than 250 injured in a wave of terror attacks across ten cities in Iraq.
UTair Flight 120 crashes after takeoff from Roshchino International Airport in Tyumen, Russia, killing 33 and injuring 10.
A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.
A pair of great earthquakes occur in the Wharton Basin west of Sumatra in Indonesia. The maximum Mercalli intensity of this strike-slip doublet earthquake is VII (Very strong). Ten are killed, twelve are injured, and a non-destructive tsunami is observed on the island of Nias.
The trial for Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, begins in Oslo, Norway.
The Pulitzer Prize winners are announced. It was the first time since 1977 that no book won the Fiction Prize.
One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan.
Two trains are involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, killing one person and injuring 116 others.
At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.
An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 108 people. At least 150 more are missing and presumed dead.
A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction.
The Damascus bombings are carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people.
Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.
Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people.
A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing nine people.
Three gas cylinder bombs explode in front of a vocational school in the Italian city of Brindisi, killing one person and injuring five others.
At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 launches a Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket in the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.
Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the third tallest man-made structure on Earth after Merdeka 118 (680.5 m) and Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).
The SpaceX Dragon 1 becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.
A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hits northern Italy near Bologna, killing at least 24 people.
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in atrocities committed during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
The pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II takes place on the River Thames.
A plane carrying 153 people crashes in a residential neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, killing everyone on board plus six people on the ground.
Seventy-five people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried.
A series of bombings across Iraq, including Baghdad, Hillah and Kirkuk, kills at least 93 people and wounds over 300 others.
The United States Air Force's robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission.
China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requests asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army; he will remain there until 2019.
A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.
An Indonesian Air Force Fokker F27 Friendship crashes near Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, killing 11.
A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter plane is shot down by the Syrian Armed Forces, killing both of the plane's pilots and worsening already-strained relations between Turkey and Syria.
Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo is removed from office by impeachment and succeeded by Federico Franco.
Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.
Death of Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise.
The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs, United States, burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people.
The United States Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius.
A derecho sweeps across the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power.
The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.
The Shard in London is inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 310 metres (1,020 ft).
At least 172 people are killed in a flash flood in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia.
Syrian Civil War: Government forces target the homes of rebels and activists in Tremseh and kill anywhere between 68 and 150 people.
At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria.
Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Kobanî without resistance, starting the Rojava conflict in Northeast Syria.
James Holmes opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.
Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the cities of Amuda and Efrîn without resistance.
Erden Eruç completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.
Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) captured the cities of Serê Kaniyê and Dirbêsiyê, during clashes with pro-government forces in Al-Hasakah.
The Solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large coronal mass ejection that was emitted by the Sun which barely missed the Earth by nine days. If it hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.
Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Girkê Legê.
A train fire kills 32 passengers and injures 27 on the Tamil Nadu Express in Andhra Pradesh, India.
A power grid failure in Delhi leaves more than 300 million people without power in northern India.
Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
The Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting took place in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six victims; the perpetrator committed suicide after being wounded by police.
The Marikana massacre begins near Rustenburg, South Africa, resulting in the deaths of 47 people.
At least 306 people are killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.
South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg.
Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya's Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths.
A hot-air balloon crashes near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, killing six people and injuring 28 others.
Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, is sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention.
Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.
At least 26 Chinese miners are killed and 21 missing after a blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, located at Panzhihua, Sichuan Province.
An accidental explosion at a Turkish Army ammunition store in Afyon, western Turkey kills 25 soldiers and wounds four others.
Sixty-one people die after a fishing boat capsizes off the İzmir Province coast of Turkey, near the Greek Aegean islands.
Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over nuclear plans and purported human rights abuses.
The Indian space agency puts into orbit its heaviest foreign satellite yet, in a streak of 21 consecutive successful PSLV launches.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 crashes on approach to Palana Airport, killing 10 and injuring four.
Three Egyptian militants open fire on a group of Israeli soldiers in a southern Israel cross-border attack.
In Minneapolis, a gunman shoots eight people, killing six and injuring 2 and then kills himself.
Somali and African Union forces launch a coordinated assault on the Somali port of Kismayo to take back the city from al-Shabaab militants.
Sita Air Flight 601 crashes in Madhyapur Thimi, Nepal, killing all 19 passengers and crew.
A ferry collision off the coast of Hong Kong kills 38 people and injures 102 others.
Felix Baumgartner successfully jumps to Earth from a balloon in the stratosphere.
Cyclist Lance Armstrong is formally stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after being charged for doping.
Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing hundreds, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages.
A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, killing 26 people and injuring 135.
Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay politician to be elected to the United States Senate.
A train carrying liquid fuel crashes and bursts into flames in northern Myanmar, killing 27 people and injuring 80 others.
At least 27 people are killed and dozens are wounded in conflicts between inmates and guards at Welikada prison in Colombo.
A strong earthquake with the magnitude 6.8 hits northern Burma, killing at least 26 people.
Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas.
Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.
At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt.
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria becomes the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.
At least 475 people are killed after Typhoon Bopha makes landfall in the Philippines.
At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria.
North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2.
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
2012 phenomenon: Festivities are held in parts of Mesoamerica to commemorate the conclusion of b'ak'tun 13, a roughly 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar whose passing many New Age spiritualists had earlier held to portend a variety of cataclysmic or transformative events.
Bashir Ahmad Bilour of Awami National Party and eight others are killed in a Pakistan Taliban bomber suicide attack in Dhaki Nalbandi area near Qissa Khwani Bazaar.
An Antonov An-72 plane crashes close to the city of Shymkent, killing 27 people.
Air Bagan Flight 011, a Fokker 100, crashes on approach to Heho Airport in Heho, Myanmar, killing two people.
China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.
A Tupolev Tu-204 airliner crashes in a ditch between the airport fence and the M3 highway after overshooting a runway at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, killing five people and leaving three others critically injured.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 2012 in the Japanese calendar?
2012 was Heisei 24 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 2012?
2012 is the Year of the Dragon.
How old is someone born in 2012?
They turn 14 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 2012?
In May 2012, every nuclear power plant in Japan was shut down, and the Tokyo Skytree tower opened. In October, Yamanaka Shinya was named a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, and the Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in December's general election.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.