Directory

2006 CE

From left to right, top to bottom:; The 2006 Lebanon War takes place; Social media platform Twitter was launched; The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin, Italy; The 2006 FIFA World Cup was held in Germany and was won by Italy against France; Multiple trains blew up as a result of bombings in India, killing 209; Montenegro declares its independence; An earthquake in Yogyakarta kills 5,700; Pluto is declared a dwarf planet; Comair Flight 5191 crashes following takeoff from the wrong runway, killing all but the pilot.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 22 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as president of Bolivia.source
  • January 25 – Hamas wins the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.source
  • February 6 – Stephen Harper is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Canada after winning the federal election on January 23.source
  • March 10 – Michelle Bachelet becomes the first female president of Chile.source
  • March 15 – The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council.source
  • April 20 – Iran announces a deal with Russia, involving a joint uranium enrichment firm on Russian soil; nine days later Iran announces that it will not move all activity to Russia, thus leading to a de facto termination of the deal.source
  • June 3 – Montenegro declares its independence from Serbia and Montenegro after a May 21 referendum and becomes a sovereign state. Two days later, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro officially disbands after Serbia declares its independence as well, ending an 88-year union between the two countries and leaving Serbia as the successor country to the union.source
  • July 2 – The 2006 Mexican presidential election is held. Felipe Calderón is confirmed as the winner on September 5.source
  • September 7 – British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his intention to resign by the end of 2007.source
  • October 6 – Fredrik Reinfeldt replaces Göran Persson as Prime Minister of Sweden.source
  • October 11–13 – St Andrews Agreement is held in Scotland between the British and Irish governments on devolution in Northern Ireland.source
  • October 13 – South Korean Ban Ki-moon is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding Kofi Annan.source
  • November 12 – The breakaway state of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.source
  • December 29 – UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 1–4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.source
  • February 22 – 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing: Explosions occur at the al-Askari Shrine in Samarra, Iraq. The attack on the shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, causes the escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq into a full-scale war (the Iraqi Civil War of 2006–2008).source
  • June 28 – Israel launches an offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to rocketfire by Hamas into Israeli territory.source
  • June 28 – The United States Armed Forces withdraws its forces in Iceland, thereby disbanding the Iceland Defense Force.source
  • July 12 – 2006 Lebanon War: Israeli troops invade Lebanon in response to Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others. Hezbollah declares open war against Israel two days later.source
  • August 10 – News was revealed of a thwarted terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks, aboard multiple transatlantic air flights.source
  • September 19 – The Royal Thai Army overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a coup.source
  • November 23 – A series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City, Baghdad, kills at least 215 people and injure 257 other people.source
  • December 1 – WikiLeaks leaks Hassan Dahir Aweys' conspiracy to assassinate Somali government officials.source
  • December 5 – The military seizes power in Fiji, in a coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.source
  • December 11 – Mexican drug war: Felipe Calderón sends the Mexican military to combat the drug cartels and put down the violence in the state of Michoacán, initiating Mexico's drug war.source
  • December 24 – War in Somalia (2006–09): Ethiopia admits its troops have intervened in Somalia.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 6 – The Nathu La pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.source
  • October (date unknown) – The Offshore MPA project is initiated.source

Economy & Finance

  • October 9 – Google purchased YouTube for US$1.65 billion.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 21 – Microblogging and social networking service website Twitter(now known as X) was launched.source
  • April 11 – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirms that Iran has successfully produced a few grams of low-grade enriched uranium.source
  • June 14 - The 2006 Kismet Train Collision occurs in California. At 5:51 AM, two BNSF Railway freight trains collided head-on at the Kismet Siding in Kismet, California near Madera, California. The southbound mixed manifest train disregarded a red signal at East Kismet instead of stopping and crashed into the northbound grain train.source
  • July 1 – The Qinghai–Tibet railway begins operation, making Tibet the final province-level entity of China to establish a conventional railway.source
  • September 1 — Analog terrestrial television is switched off in Luxembourg, being the first country to do so.source
  • October 9 – North Korea claims to have conducted its first-ever nuclear test.source
  • November 3 – Microsoft releases Office 2007 for manufacturing.source
  • November 8 – Microsoft releases Windows Vista for manufacturing.source
  • December 11 – Analog terrestrial television is switched off permanently in the Netherlands.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 15 – NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.source
  • January 19 – NASA launches the first interplanetary space probe to Pluto, the New Horizons.source
  • March 9 – NASA's Cassini–Huygens spacecraft announces a geyser-like emission of vapor, dust, and small ice crystals on Saturn's moon Enceladus, possibly indicating the presence of water.source
  • March 10 – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars.source
  • April 11 – The European Space Agency's Venus Express space probe enters Venus' orbit.source
  • May 17 – The Human Genome Project publishes the final chromosome sequence, in Nature.source
  • August 24 – The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, removing Pluto's status as a planet and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet 76 years after its discovery. Ironically, this was in the same year when NASA sent its first probe to the celestial body.source
  • September 7 – Partial lunar eclipse, visible over most of Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.source
  • September 22 – Annular solar eclipse, visible in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, parts of Brazil, and the southern Atlantic.source
  • November 11 – Sony releases the PlayStation 3.source
  • November 19 – Nintendo releases the Wii.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 30 – Jennifer San Marco goes on a killing spree in Goleta, California, United States, that leaves seven people dead before she takes her own life.source
  • April 4 – The Faddoul Brothers, kidnapped on February 23, 2006, in Caracas, Venezuela, are found dead, causing outrage and mass protests against insecurity in the country.source
  • June 7 – Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed by a US airstrike.source
  • July 6 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, serial shooter Martín Ríos opens fire against passers-by on Cabildo Avenue, killing an 18-year-old and injuring six others.source
  • August 14 – Sri Lankan civil war, Chencholai bombing: 61 female students in Mullaitivu are killed by the Sri Lankan Air Force in an air strike.source
  • November 5 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He is later executed by hanging for crimes against humanity on December 30.source
  • December 30 – Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, was executed by hanging.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 12 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 pilgrims.source
  • January 29 – The roof of one of the buildings at the Katowice International Fair collapsed in Katowice, Poland, killing 65 and injuring 170.source
  • February 17 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines killing an estimated 1,126 people.source
  • July 11 – A series of seven bomb blasts hits the city of Mumbai, India, killing more than 200 people.source
  • August 16 – Russian government patrol boat 31st Kisshin Maru incident, killing one crew member.source
  • August 22 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.source
  • August 27 – Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport, Lexington, Kentucky, killing all 47 passengers and two of three crew members.source
  • September 29 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800, collides with an Embraer Legacy 600 over the Amazon rainforest, killing all 154 occupants on board the 737 whereas all 7 on board the Legacy survive.source
  • November 22 – A toxic waste dumping incident occurs in Côte d'Ivoire by a Panama ship sent by Singaporean oil company, causing 3 deaths and the poison treatment of 1500 people.source

Climate & Environment

  • May 27 – The 6.4 Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java in Indonesia with an MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), leaving more than 5,700 dead and 37,000 injured.source
  • September 4 — Australian conservationist Steve Irwin is fatally stung in the heart by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary.source
  • September 28 – Typhoon Xangsane passed Manila on its way to causing more than 300 deaths, mostly in the Philippines and Vietnam.source

Culture & Society

  • February 10–26 – The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin, Italy.source
  • May 18–20 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 takes place in Athens, Greece, and is won by Finnish band entrant Lordi with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah".source
  • June 9 to July 9 – The 2006 FIFA World Cup takes place in Germany; Italy defeats France in the final.source
  • October 22 – Fernando Alonso wins his second World Drivers Championship.source
  • October 24 – Taylor Swift releases her debut album,Taylor Swift.source
  • November 2 – No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock becomes the most expensive painting after it is sold privately for $140 million.source
  • December 21 – The Juraj Dobrila University of Pula is established.source

Deaths

  • November 1 - Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko: Litvinenko, former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service and critic of the Putin administration, is poisoned with Polonium-210. He dies of acute radiation syndrome on 23 November, causing widespread accusations that the Russian government was behind the poisoning.source