Q:

2 column layout without using tabular

I'd like to write a 2 column layout page: one column at the left that should show the year, and one column at the right that should show text that goes along the year. 
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]
  \begin{tabular}{l|c}
2012&Some text\vspace{5pt}\\
2011&Some other text\\
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Now: I would like to avoid using \begin{tabular} .  

\begin{tabular} will not split across multiple pages
footnotes are too tricky. 

My question: Is the a simple way to get this kind of 2 column layout without using \begin{tabular} ?  

A:

table will not split across pages either.  So you shouldn't is too.  
I would use a list, e.g. description or labeling from the KOMA-classes:
\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\begin{labeling}{XXXXXXX}%template for longest item. 
\item[2000] \lipsum[1-2]
\item[2001] \lipsum[1-2]
\end{labeling}
\end{document}

