2010

**2010** (MMX) was a common year starting on Friday in the Gregorian calendar.

### 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 Lakki Marwat, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, killing at least 95, and injuring over 100.
- January 4 – The tallest man-made structure, 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. As a result, it withdraws from the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.
- January 12 – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake occurs in Haiti, devastating the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince.
- January 15 – The longest annular solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurs.
- January 25 – An Ethiopian airplane crashes into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after taking off from Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport, killing all of the 90 people on board.

### February

- February 3 – The sculpture L'homme qui marche by Alberto Giacometti is sold for £65.7 million ($103 million), setting a new record for a work of art sold at auction.
- February 7 – Viktor Yanukovych is elected President of Ukraine.
- February 7 – Laura Chinchilla becomes the first woman to be elected President of Costa Rica.
- February 12–28 – The 2010 Winter Olympics are held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.
- February 18 – A military junta, called the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, headed by Salou Djibo, takes power in Niger, replacing President Mamadou Tandja.
- February 20 – Widespread flooding occurs on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
- February 25 – Viktor Yanukovych is sworn in as President of Ukraine.
- February 27 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurs off the coast of Chile. It has killed around 500 people, and is thought to have had an impact on the Earth's axis, slightly shortening its days.
- February 28 – With 14 gold medals, Canada becomes the most successful host nation of the Winter Olympics.

### March

- March 16 – The Kasubi Tombs, which formed Uganda's only World Heritage Site, are destroyed by fire.
- March 21 – The 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre is marked in South Africa.
- March 23 – The ROKS Cheonan, a South Korean navy ship carrying 104 personnel, sinks off the country's west coast near Baengnyong Island in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 people. A later report in May 2010 says that North Korea sank the ship, but denies the allegations.
- March 24 – South Talpatti Island, a disputed territory between India and Bangladesh disappears under the Bay of Bengal, due to rising sea levels.
- March 29 – Two female suicide bombers blow themselves up on the Moscow Metro, killing around 40 people.

### April

- April 3 – South African far-right leader Eugène Terre'Blanche is beaten to death at his farm near Ventersdorp, South Africa.
- April 3 – The African Renaissance Monument opens in Dakar, to mark 50 years of Senegal's independence.
- April 7 – Amidst fierce rioting in Kyrgyzstan, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev flees the capital city, Bishkek by plane to the southern city of Osh; the opposition seizes control of the government, and places former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva as head of an interim government. She later becomes President on July 3.
- April 10 – Poland's President Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria are among 96 people killed when their plane crashes in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia.
- April 14 – A 6.9 magnitude Earthquake strikes Qinghai province in China, killing more than 1000 people.
- April 14 – A volcanic eruption occurs near a glacier (Eyjafjallajökull) in southern Iceland, leading to flooding in the nearby area. The cloud of volcanic ash from the eruption causes air traffic all over Northern and Western Europe to be shut down.
- April 20 – General Reynaldo Bignone, former military ruler of Argentina is sentenced to 25 years in prison, for ordering torture during the military dictatorship.
- April 20 – Deepwater Horizon oil spill: An explosion occurs on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform in the Gulf of Mexico, near Louisiana. 11 oil workers are killed, and an oil spill is caused, leading to an environmental disaster.
- April 27 – Panama's former military leader Manuel Noriega is handed over to France by the United States.
- April 27 – Greece's sovereign credit rating is downgraded to junk, four days after its government asked for help in resolving its financial crisis. Stock markets around the world drop.

### May

- May 1 – The 2010 World Expo in Shanghai opens. It lasts until October 31.
- May 2 – The Eurozone and International Monetary Fund agree to a 110 billion Euro Bailout for Greece, which also involves sharp austerity measures (large reduction of government budget deficits).
- May 4 – Nude, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso sets a new record for a work of art sold at auction, selling for $106.5 million in New York.
- May 7 – Scientists conducting the Neanderthal Genome Project announce that humans and neanderthals, who later died out, could have interbred.
- May 8 – Laura Chinchilla becomes Costa Rica's first female President.
- May 11 – David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, forming a coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
- May 12 – An Afriqiyah Airways plane crashes in Tripoli, Libya, killing 103 people. Only one person survives.
- May 19 – Violent clashes begin as government forces crush demonstrations by anti-government Red Shirt protestors in Thailand's capital city Bangkok.
- May 20 – Scientists announce that they have created a form of synthetic life.
- May 20 – Five artworks with a worth of 100 million Euros are stolen from the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France.
- May 22 – An Air India Express Flight 812 airplane overshoots the runway and bursts into flames in Mangalore, southern India, killing 158 people. 8 people survive.
- May 26 – Kamla Persad-Bissessar becomes Trinidad and Tobago's first female Prime Minister.
- May 28 – In terrorist attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, Pakistan, 98 people are killed.
- May 29 – Germany's Lena Meyer-Landrut wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
- May 30 – Central America is hit by Hurricane Agatha. More than 180 people are killed.
- May 31 – Israeli forces storm the Gaza-bound international flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea. This event leads to widespread International condemnation.
- May 31 – Germany's President Horst Köhler resigns from office.

### June

- June 2 – Prime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama resigns from office. Naoto Kan succeeds him.
- June 2 – A gunman goes on a shooting rampage in Cumbria, North West England, killing 12 people and injuring 11, before killing himself.
- June 9 – Ethnic violence erupts in Kyrgyzstan, and thousands of people try to flee into neighbouring Uzbekistan, as hundreds are killed.
- June 11 – The 2010 FIFA World Cup begins in South Africa. It is the first time that the FIFA World Cup is staged in Africa.
- June 19 – Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden marries Daniel Westling, who receives a new royal title.
- June 24 – Julia Gillard becomes the first female Prime Minister of Australia, as Kevin Rudd announces his resignation, after a leadership contest is called within the Australian Labor Party.
- June 24 – The longest match in professional tennis history comes to an end at Wimbledon, as John Isner beats Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the deciding set.
- June 25 – June 27 – The 36th G8 Summit and the 4th G20 Summit are held in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada.
- June 30 – Benigno Aquino III becomes President of the Philippines.
- June 30 – Christian Wulff is chosen to succeed Horst Koehler as President of Germany. He takes office on July 2.

### July

- July 1 – Belgium takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Spain.
- July 2 – More than 270 people are killed when a fuel tanker overturns and explodes in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- July 8 – The first 24-hour flight by a solar powered plane is completed by Solar Impulse.
- July 11 – A total solar eclipse is witnessed over the South Pacific Ocean, including Easter Island.
- July 11 – The Spain national football team wins the FIFA World Cup, after a 1-0 win over the Netherlands national football team.
- July 11 – Bomb attacks by Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab kill 74 people in Uganda's capital city Kampala.
- July 15 – Argentina legalises same-sex marriage.
- July 22 – The International Court of Justice rules that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 was not illegal.
- July 24 – A stampede at a music festival in Duisburg, Germany kills 19 people. 2 later die in hospital.
- July 25 – WikiLeaks, an organisation based in Sweden, leaks over 90,000 reports on the US military involvement in the war in Afghanistan, as public information.
- July 28 – An Airbus airplane carrying 152 people, travelling from Karachi, crashes in the Margalla Hills near Islamabad, Pakistan, killing all of the people on board.
- late July/early August – Widespread flooding, caused by heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, and spreading south to the Punjab and Sindh, kills at least 1,600 people, and makes more than a million people homeless. Millions of people are affected.

### August

- August 6 – In an official capacity, US officials attend the commemoration of the Hiroshima atomic bomb for the first time.
- August 10 – The WHO declares that the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic is over.
- August 14 – August 26 – The first ever Summer Youth Olympic Games are held in Singapore, with 3,531 participating athletes aged 14 to 18 from 204 National Olympic Committees.
- August 19 – The United States ends combat operations in Iraq, as its last combat brigade departs for Kuwait. Additional support troops are required to leave Iraq by December 31, 2011 under an agreement between the US and Iraqi governments.
- August 23 – Nine people, including the hostage taker are killed in a hostage crisis on board a bus in Manila, Philippines.

### September

- September 4 – 2010 Canterbury earthquake: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes the South Island of New Zealand, including the city of Christchurch, causing widespread damage and power outages. No deaths are reported.
- September 28 – A landslide kills at least 7 people in Oaxaca, Mexico.
- September 28 – Kim Jong-un, son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is named Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission and the Central Commission of the Workers' Party, a possible step towards becoming his father's successor.

### October

- October 4 – Europe wins the Ryder Cup golf tournament over the United States.
- October 4 – Toxic sludge escapes from an alumina plant in western Hungary.
- October 5 – Former Société Générale employee Jerome Kerviel is sentenced by a court in France to a five-year suspended sentence for losses of up to 4.9 million Euros, one of the largest-ever frauds.
- October 10 – The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved and split up into a new constitutional status. Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius become special municipalities of the Netherlands, while Curaçao and Sint Maarten become constituent countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
- October 13 – Thirty-three miners are rescued from the San Jose mine near Copiapo in Chile, after surviving 700 metres underground for a record 69 days, after a mining accident.
- October 23 – The International Space Station takes the record for the longest continuous occupation in space from Mir.
- October 23 – In preparation for the Seoul summit, G-20 finance ministers agree to reform the IMF and shift 6 percent of the voting shares to developing nations and countries with emerging markets.
- October 25 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra, and the resulting tsunamis kill over 400 people, and leave hundreds missing.
- October 26 – Start of continuous eruptions of Mount Merapi on Java, killing hundreds of people, and leading to thousands being evacuated.
- October 31 – Dilma Rousseff is elected as the first female President of Brazil.

### November

- November 4 – Aero Caribbean flight 883 crashes in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board.
- November 11 – The G20 summit is held in Seoul. South Korea is the first non-G8 country to host it.
- November 13 – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.
- November 17 – Researchers at CERN trap 38 antihydrogen atoms for a sixth of a second, marking the first time in history that humans have trapped antimatter.
- November 19 – An explosion traps 29 miners at the Pike River Mine near Greymouth on New Zealand's South Island. They are confirmed dead after a second explosion five days later.
- November 21 – Eurozone countries agree to an economic rescue package for the Republic of Ireland from European Financial Stability Facility in response to its financial crisis.
- November 22 – A stampede at the Bon om Thook water festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, kills 347 people.
- November 23 – In one of the most serious clashes since the Korean War, North Korea shells Yeonpyeong Island, prompting a military response from South Korea.
- November 28 – WikiLeaks releases a collection of more than 250,000 American diplomatic cables, including 100,000 that were marked as secret or confidential.
- November 29 – The Eropean Union agrees to an 85 billion Euro rescue deal for the Republic of Ireland from the European Financial Stability Facility, the IMF, and bilateral loans from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden.
- November 29 – December 10 – 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Mexico, also referred to as the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16) takes place; it serves too as the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6)

### December

- December 2 – NASA announces the discovery of arsenic-based life forms in California.
- December 2 – FIFA decides that Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup and Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
- December 4 – A political crisis begins in the Ivory Coast. The international community recognises Alassane Ouattara as the winner of the election, but President Laurent Gbagbo refuses to step down. Many people are killed in post-election violence and the Civil War that lasts until April 2011.
- December 11 – Two bombs explode in central Stockholm, Sweden, killing the perpetrator.
- December 15 – A boat carrying asylum seekers crashes into cliffs on Christmas Island, killing at least 40 people.
- December 15 – The discovery of the head of King Henry IV of France, which was lost after the desecration of his grave in 1793, is announced.
- December 17 – Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire in an act of protest. He dies 18 days later. This leads to the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and to uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East.
- December 21 – For the first time since 1638, a lunar eclipse occurs on the day of the December solstice.

## Births

- March 10 - Ryan Kiera Armstrong, American actress (Firefighter).

## Deaths

- January 11 - Miep Gies, Dutch humanitarian (b. 1909)
- January 22 - Jean Simmons, British actress (b. 1929)
- February 20 - Alexander Haig, former United States Secretary of State (b. 1924)
- March 14 - Peter Graves, American actor (b. 1926)
- March 24 - Robert Culp, American actor (b. 1930)
- April 1 - John Forsythe, American actor (b. 1918)
- April 14 - Peter Steele, American musician (b. 1962)
- April 21 - Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC president (b. 1920)
- May 2 - Lynn Redgrave, English actress (b. 1943)
- May 29 - Dennis Hopper, American actor and director (b. 1936)
- June 3 - Rue McClanahan, American actress (b. 1934)
- June 13 - Jimmy Dean, American singer (b. 1928)
- June 18 - José Saramago, Portuguese writer (b. 1922)
- June 26 - Algirdas Brazauskas, 9th President of Lithuania (b. 1932)
- July 24 - Alex Higgins, Northern Irish snooker player (b. 1949)
- August 8 - Patricia Neal, American stage and film actress (b. 1926)
- August 12 - Guido de Marco, 6th President of Malta (b. 1931)
- August 17 - Francesco Cossiga, 8th President of Italy (b. 1928)
- September 26 - Gloria Stuart, American actress (b. 1910)
- September 29 - Tony Curtis, American actor (b. 1925)
- October 10 - Tom Bosley, American actor (b. 1927)
- October 27 - Néstor Kirchner, 54th President of Argentina (b. 1950)
- November 28 - Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor (b. 1926)
- November 29 - Mario Monicelli, Italian film director (b. 1915)
- December 15 - Blake Edwards, American film director (b. 1922)
- December 17 - Captain Beefheart, American musician (b. 1941)
- December 21 - Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (b. 1941)
- December 26 - Teena Marie, American singer (b. 1956)

## Nobel Prizes

- Physiology or Medicine – Robert G. Edwards
- Physics – Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov
- Chemistry – Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki
- Literature – Mario Vargas Llosa
- Peace – Liu Xiaobo
- Economics – Dale Mortensen, Peter A. Diamond and Christopher A. Pissarides

## Major holidays

- January 1 - New Year's Day
- January 7 - 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, a religious festival in India
- March 20 (21 in the Far East) – Vernal Equinox, also known as Ostara
- April 4 – Easter
- May 1 – Beltane, a Cross-quarter day
- August 1 – Lammas, a Cross-quarter day
- August 11 – Ramadan begins
- September 8 – 10 – Rosh Hashanah, the "Jewish New Year"
- September 10 – Eid ul-Fitr
- September 17–18 – Yom Kippur
- September 23 – Autumnal Equinox, also known as Mabon
- November 5 – Diwali, a religious festival in Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism.
- November 16 – Eid al-Adha, a religious festival in Islam
- December 25 – Christmas

### Movies

- _2010_ (1984)
- _Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space_ (2002)
- _Absolon_ (2003)
- _Banlieue 13_ (2004)
- _District 9_ (2009)

### Literature

- _Stand on Zanzibar_ (1968) by John Brunner
- _2010: Odyssey Two_ (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 Mint Chicks song "2010" is the b-side to the vinyl single "Walking Off a Cliff Again" and also appears on their album _Screens_.

### Television

- _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_ The event of Britannia's invasion of Japan happens on August 10, 2010.

### 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.
- _Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight_ 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.