http://www.examiner.com/article/looking-back-on-2012-and-the-events-that-shaped-the-past-year
January, 2012
7th - Hot air balloon crashes in Carterton, New Zealand, killing 11
13th - Cruise ship, Costa Concordia, runs aground at Isola de Giglio, Italy, with at least 15 deaths
14th - Suicide bomber kills 53 and injures 130 in Basra, Iraq
14th - Ma Ying-jeou wins re-election as President of the Republic of China with 51% of the vote
18th - Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) blackout becomes the largest protest in the history of the internet
19th - FBI shuts down Megaupload.com for alleged copyright infringement, hacker group Anonymous responds by attacking government and entertainment industry websites
23rd - European Union agrees to embargo Iranian oil in protest against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program
28th - Death toll from coordinated bombing attacks in Kano, Nigeria, reaches 185
February, 2012
1st - At least 73 people are killed in the Egyptian football riots in Port Said
2nd - Cold snap across Europe kills more than 100 people (over 400 people by 08-02)
2nd - MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papa New Guinea with 246 people saved and 126 missing (100 of these estimated to be trapped inside)
2nd - NHL player Sam Gagner becomes the first player to scores eight points in one game for the Edmonton Oilers against the Chicago Blackhawks since 1989
4th - Tens of thousands of people are stranded by floods in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland
5th - Quarterback Eli Manning wins his second Superbowl Most Valuable Player Award after leading the New York Giants to a 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Superbowl XLVI
6th - 6.9 magnitude quake hits near the central Philipines with 43 confirmed deaths
6th - Queen Elizabeth II marks her 60th anniversary of becoming Britain's Monarch becoming only the second to do so
11th - Israel Air Force conducts four air strikes in Gaza Strip
12th - Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is re-elected president of Turkmenistan with 97% of the vote
12th - Zambia defeat Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in the Africa Cup of Nations
15th - United Kingdom unemployment rate reaches 17 year high of 8.4%
15th - Fire at Comayagua prison, Honduras, kills 358
17th - The President of Germany, Christian Wulff, resigns over a corruption scandal
17th - Approximately 70 ancient Olympic artifacts are stolen from the Archaeological Museum of Greece
18th - Kateri Tekakwitha canonized as the first native American saint
19th - 44 people killed in prison brawl in Apocada, Mexico, between two rival drug cartels
20th - Scientists successfully regenerate Silene stenophylla from a 31,800 year old piece of fruit, greatly surpassing the previous record of 2,000 years
20th - South Korea angers North Korea as it proceeds with live fire drills in disputed Korean sea borders
Queen Elizabeth I
I21st - Yemen voters go to the polls for a presidential election where the only candidate on the ballot paper is vice-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi
22nd - Train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 50 and injures hundreds
23rd - A series of bomb attacks across 12 Iraqi cities kills 60 and injures 200
25th - Syrian Army kills 100 civilians in artillery shelling of Homs and Hama
25th - Al Qaeda suicide bombing kills at least 26 people in Mukalla, Yemen
25th - World Health Organization removes India from the list of polio endemic countries
25th - Louisiana Red, American blues musician, dies from stroke at 79
26th - The film The Artist wins five Academy Awards and becomes the first silent film to win since 1927
26th - Bus plunges off a cliff in Shanxi, China causing 15 deaths
26th - Train derailment kills 3 and injures 45 in Burlington, Ontario
27th - Wikileaks begins disclosing 5 million emails from private intelligence company Stratfor
28th - Occupy London protesters evicted from St Paul's Cathedral
28th - Discovery of the largest prehistoric penguin, Kairuku grebneffi, at nearly 5ft tall
March, 2012
2nd - Tornadoes kill at least 27 people in the American states of Indiana and Kentucky
2nd - The Red Cross is denied access to provide relief to the Baba Amr district in Homs by the Syrian army
2nd - New fiscal compact to prevent excessive debt is signed by 25 out of 27 European Union members
3rd - Lorry crash in east Guinea kills 50 and injures 27
3rd - Two trains crash in Szczekociny, Poland, with 16 people dead and up to 50 injured
4th - Munitions dump explosions kill at least 250 people in the Republic of Congo
4th - Vladimir Putin wins Russian presidential election amid allegations of voter fraud
4th - Over 10,000 Peruvian illegal gold miners clash with police to gain control of Puerto Maldonado
5th - 27 members of Iraq's security force are killed by gunmen disguised as police in Haditha
5th - Tropical Storm Irina kills 65 in Madagascar
6th - 9,000 residents are evacuated from Wagga Wagga, Australia, as the Murrimbidgee River threatens to overflow
6th - Francisco Xavier do Amaral, East Timorese President, dies at 75
8th - Greece secures debt-restructuring deal with private lenders
8th - Toyota recalls 700,000 vehicles over safety concerns
9th - Senior members of hacking group Lulz Sec are arrested, including one member of the FBI, in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland
10th - At least 130 rockets are fired into Israel from Gaza
11th - US soldier kills 16 civilians in Afghanistan
12th - 100 people are killed in ethnic clashes and cattle raids in South Sudan
Russian President Vladimir Putin12th - 45 people, including children, are massacred by the Syrian Army in Homs
12th - China records its highest trade deficit in over a decade
13th - 19 people are shot dead in a bus attack in Ethiopia
13th - Encyclopedia Britannica announces that it will no longer public printed versions of its encyclopedia
13th - 110 people are killed and 63 are missing after a ferry collides with an oil tanker near Dhaka, Bangladesh
13th - 28 people, including 22 children, are killed in a motorway bus crash near Sierre, Switzerland
16th - Turkish NATO helicopter crashes into a house killing ten people in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan
16th - Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar becomes first cricketer to score 100 international centuries
17th - Bolton Wanderer footballer Fabrice Muamba collapses and is rushed to hospital during a live football match against Tottenham Hotspur
17th - Wales defeat France to record their eleventh Grand Slam in the Six Nation's Championship
17th - John Demjanjuk, convicted Nazi war criminal, dies from natural causes at 91
18th - Superleague Greece football match between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos is abandoned after fans set fire to Athens' Olympic Stadium
18th - Joachim Gauck elected President of the Federal republic of Germany by the Federal Assembly
19th - Wendy's overtakes Burger King to become the second best selling hamburger chain
20th - 50 people are killed and 240 injured in a wave of terror attacks across 10 cities in Iraq
20th - Disney movie John Carter records one of the largest losses in cinema history with a $200 million dollar write down
21st - Greek Parliament votes in favour of an international bailout deal
21st - Five former Guatemalan paramilitaries are sentenced to 7,710 years in jail for their role in the Plan de Sanchez massacre in 1982
22nd - Largest protest in Quebec's history occurs in Montreal with over 200,000 people marching against government tuition hikes and for free access to post-secondary education
22nd - Australia's most wanted man, Malcolm Naden, is captured after seven years on the run in Gloucester, New South Wales
22nd - Massive fire devours thousands of hectares of ancient forests and threatens wildlife on Mount Kenya
23rd - African Union suspends Mali's membership following a coup
24th - African Union deploys 5,000 strong force with the aim of catching or killing warlord Joseph Kony
25th - Peter Cruddas, treasurer of Britain's Conservative Party, resigns after being caught on film selling access to British Prime Minister David Cameron
26th - Macky Sall elected as President of Senegal
26th - Canadian Film maker, James Cameron, becomes the first person to visit Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth in over 50 years
30th - Spanish Government cuts 27 Billion Euros from its budget in one of its toughest austerity driver in history
30th - Mastercard and Visa announce a massive breach in security with over ten million compromised credit card numbers
30th - American Mega Millions lottery hits a world record lottery amount of 640 million dollars
31st - Fiji Floods kill 2 people and force thousands to be evacuated
April, 2012
1st - Plane crash in Western Siberia kills at least 31 people ( UTair Aviation ATR-72)
2nd - Oikos University, Oakland shooting kills seven people and injures 3
3rd - Spanish unemployment reaches record high, youth unemployment stands at 50%
3rd - Moscow fire kills 17 migrant workers
3rd - US President Barack Obama officially secures Democratic presidential nomination
4th - German Nobel Laureat, Gunter Grass, publishes controversial poem that claims Israel is plotting to wipe out Iran
4th - Somalia's National Theatre is struck by a suicide bomber killing ten people including the presidents of the Somali Olympic Committee and Football Federation
4th - Boris Todic, President of Serbia, resigns
5th - Severe storms in Argentina kill 14 people
5th - 77 year old pensioner's suicide outside Greece's parliament prompts further protests in Athens
5th - International internet group Anonymous hack several Chinese bureaus in opposition to censorship
6th - US F-18 Hornet crashes into side of apartment building in Virginia with no fatalities
7th - Joyce Banda becomes President of Malawi
7th - 130 Pakistani Army soldiers are buried in an avalanche near the Siachen Glacier
8th - Gunter Grass labelled persona non gratta by Israeli internal affairs minister Eli Yishai
8th - Pope Benedict XVI calls for an end to Syrian blood shed in papal Easter message
9th - The Lion King becomes highest grossing Broadway show after overtaking The Phantom of the Opera
10th - United Nations deadline for Syrian troop withdrawal passes as violence continues
10th - Apple Inc claims a value of $600 billion making it the largest company by market capitalization in the world
265th Pope Benedict XVI10th - Rick Santorum suspends his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination making Mitt Romney the overwhelming favourite
10th - Raymond Aubrac, French Resistance Leader, dies at 97
11th - 8.6 magnitude earth quack and 8.2 aftershock occurs off the coast of Indonesia
11th - 2011 London riot looter is jailed for 11 years after starting a fire at a furniture retailer
11th - South Korean legislative elections result in the governing Saenuri Party retaining governance
11th - Prime Minister of Greece, Lucas Papademos, resigns and calls an election for May 6
12th - A ceasefire in the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising comes into effect
12th - Bodleian, Oxford University and Vatican libraries announce over 1.5 million pages of ancient texts will be made available across the internet
12th - Civilian rule in Mali is returned after Dioncounda Traore is sworn in as interim president
13th - North Korean long range rocket testing ends in failure after the rocket broke up after launch
15th - 400 Islamist Militants escape from a Pakistan prison after an insurgent attack
15th - China loosens monetary policy and allows the Yuan to fluctuate up to 1% against the US dollar
15th - US Secret Service inappropriate conduct scandal begins with at least 11 people implicated
16th - At least 55 people are killed in the Syrian uprising despite UN presence to oversee ceasefire
16th - For the first time since 1977 no Pulitzer Prize is awarded for fiction
17th - The St Cuthbert Gospel, Europe's oldest intact book, purchased by the British Library for 9 million pounds
18th - The Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples begins burning artworks after cultural institution budget cuts
19th - Levon Helm, American rock musician, dies from throat cancer at 71
20th - Plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, kills 127 people
20th - 40 people are killed and 27 injured after a tractor trailer collided with a bus in Alamo, Mexico
21st - Two trains in Sloterdijk, Netherlands, injure 117 people in a head on collision
21st - Chicago White Sox pitcher, Philip Humber, pitches the 21st MLB perfect game against the Seattle Mariners
22nd - 30 year old women collapses and dies during London Marathon
23rd - Netherlands Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, tenders resignation, paving the way for early elections
23rd - Rangers F.C. owner, Craig Whyte, is banned for life from any involvement in Scottish football
23rd - 38,000 London Marathon entrants have their home and email contacts published in a data protection breach
25th - The United Kingdom dips back into recession after the economy shrunk 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012
26th - 70 people are killed by rocket attacks by the Syrian Army on the city of Hama
26th - Indonesia suspends imports of American beef after a confirmed case of mad cow disease in California
27th - Four explosions in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, kill 27 people
28th - Tent collapse in St Louis, Missouri, kills one and injures 110 people
29th - International Chemical Weapons Convention deadline for chemical weapon stockpiles comes into effect
30th - The unfinished One World Trade Center overtakes the Empire State building to become the tallest building in New York
30th - Spain's economy double dips after a 0.3% contraction and 25% unemployment rate
30th - Overloaded ferry in the Brahmaputra River,India, killing 103 people
30th - Manchester City defeat Manchester United 1-0 in what is claimed to be the biggest match in the English Premier League's history
May, 2012
1st - China and Russia sign $15 billion dollar trade deal
1st - Guggenheim Partners make the largest ever purchase of a sports franchise after buying the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2.1 billion
2nd - Edvard Munch's famous painting 'The Scream' sells at auction for $119,922,500
2nd - Barcelona football player Lionel Messi breaks the European goal-scoring record with 68 goals
4th - 14 decapitated bodies and 9 hung from a bridge are found in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
5th - 17 people are killed and 47 missing after a flash flood in Nepal
5th - Japan shuts down its nuclear reactors leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970
6th - Francois Hollande elected President of France
6th - Greece parliamentary election results in 60% support for parties opposed to austerity measures
7th - NATO air strike kills 14 and woulds 6 civilians in Afghanistan's Badghis Province
7th - Vladimir Putin sworn in for third six year term as President of Russia
7th - Paeleoclimatological research claims dinosaur flatulence may have warmed the earth
9th - Mark Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" becomes the most expensive contemporary art piece to be sold at auction for $86.9 million dollars
9th - A Russian passenger jet disappears with 45 people on board
9th - United States President, Barack Obama, officially states his support for same sex marriage
10th - The Red Cross suspends all humanitarian work in Pakistan after a worker was kidnapped and killed
10th - Two bombings in Damascus, Syria, kill 55 people and injure 370
11th - Chinese scientists break world record by transferring photons over 97 kilometers using quantum teleportation
12th - The discovery of a missing Mayan calender piece disproves 2012 Armageddon
44th US President Barack Obama13th - 49 dismembered bodies are found on a Mexican highway as part of the Mexican drug war
13th - Torrential rain in Hunan Province, China, destroys a bridge, 3,500 homes and displaces 28,000 people
13th - Manchester City win the English Premier League for the first time
14th - 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons agree to end mass hunger strike
14th - Stanford University scientists develop prototype bionic eye
15th - Eurozone economy narrowly avoids recession
15th - Greece's fifth attempt to a form a coalition government fails and new June elections are scheduled
19th - Chelsea defeat Bayern Munich in penalty shootout to win the UEFA Champion's League
20th - Tomislav Nikolić elected president of Serbia
20th - 6.0 magnitude earthquake kills 6 and injures dozens in northern Italy
21st - 120 people are killed and 350 injured by a suicide bomb in Sana'a, Yemen
21st - 13 people are killed and 22 people injured after a bus falls 80 metres off a cliff in Albania
22nd - 14 people die and 30 are injured in train collision in India
22nd - Philip Philips is crowned the eleventh American Idol
25th - Up to 116 people are massacred, including women and children, by the Syrian army in Houla, in the Homs province
25th - A SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station
26th - A gunman in the Finnish town of Hyvink
265th Pope Benedict XVI26th - Pope Benedict XVI's butler is arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents
27th - A NATO airstrike kills a family of eight, including six children, in Afghanistan
29th - Thousands march in protest in Johannesburg against Brett Murray's controversial painting The Spear
29th - Facebook's problematic public listing could cost those involved $115 million from technical glitches
29th - A 5.9 magnitude earthquake kills 24 people near Bologna, northern Italy
29th - Indonesian police make the biggest drug bust in ten years after seizing over a million ecstasy pills valued at $45 million
30th - A number of nations including Germany, Turkey and Canada, expel Syrian diplomats following the Houla massacre
30th - Vishwanathan Anand wins his fifth World Chess Championship
31st - Egypt formally ends its 31 year state of emergency
June, 2012
1st - New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana pitches a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals
3rd - Suicide car bombing kills 15 and inures 42 people in Bauchi, Nigeria
3rd - Plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria, kills all 152 passengers and 40 people on the ground
3rd - Tiger Woods' 73rd PGA tour victory equals Jack Nicklaus's record
4th - US drone attack kills 15 militants in Pakistan, including high ranking al-Qaeda official, Abu Yahya al-Libi
4th - Car bomb kills 26 and injures 190 people in central Baghdad, Iraq
4th - Japan's stock market plummets to record lows with the S&P/TOPIX 150 reaching its lowest level since 1983
4th - Wedding party bus crashes killing 23 and injuring 60 people in Islamabad, Pakistan
6th - Transit of Venus (between Earth & Sun) occurs
6th - The Solar Impulse completes the world's first intercontinental flight powered by the sun
7th - 16th century archaeology remains of the Curtain Theatre, where some of Shakespeare's plays were first performed, were found under a pub in London
7th - Credit rating agency Fitch downgrades Spain's credit rating to BBB in the wake of international bailout speculation
7th - A bus falls into a ravine in La Paz, Bolivia, killing 16 and injuring 32 people
8th - A bus bombing in Pakistan kills 18 and injures 35 people
9th - It is announced that up to $125 million dollars in loans will be given to aid Spain's struggling banks
9th - Burma riots kill 20 people and burn down 300 houses
10th - A Helicopter crash near Nairobi, Kenya, kills five people, including George Saitoti, a Kenyan cabinet minister
11th - Five people are killed after an ambulance hits a roadside bomb in Afghanistan
11th - 23 people are killed after two villages are attacked in northern Nigeria
Playwright William Shakespeare11th - The Nobel Prize is reduced by 20% to prevent any future undermining of capital
11th - Two earthquakes in Afghanistan trigger landslides that kill more than 80 people
11th - Los Angeles Kings defeat New Jersey Devils 6-1 in game 6 to win the NHL's Stanley Cup
12th - The chemical compound NOTT-202, which is capable of selectively absorbing carbon dioxide, is created
12th - An Australian coroner's report rules that a dingo was responsible for the death of a baby in 1980
12th - The World Health Organization concludes that diesel exhaust causes cancer
13th - A series of bombings across Iraq kill 93 and wound 300 people
13th - San Francisco Giants' Matt Cain pitches first perfect game in the franchise's history against the Houston Astros
14th - An explosion at an Indian steel plant kills 11 people and severely injures 16
14th - The world's first stem-cell assisted vein transplant is undertaken by Swedish doctors on a 10 year old girl
15th - Apple I computer sells for a record $374,500
15th - Five Dutch banks, including ING, receive one and two notch downgrades
16th - 32 people are killed by a car bomb in Baghdad
16th - Coca-Cola begins business in Myanmar after 60 years
16th - A collapse of a stage at a Toronto Radiohead concert kills one person
16th - 30 people are killed and 15 injured after a bus falls into a gorge in Osmanabad, India
17th - France's Socialist Party wins a majority in the legislative election
17th - Greek voters return to the polls after the failed May 6 election
17th - American golfer, Webb Simpson, wins the US Open
18th - 15 people are killed and 40 injured in a suicide attack in Baquba, Iraq
19th - A man in Saudi Arabia is beheaded for witchcraft and sorcery
19th - Antonis Samaras, the leader of the New Democracy party in Greece, forms a coalition government
20th - Western Libyan tribal clashes kill 105 people and injure 500
20th - A Syrian fighter pilot lands in Jordan and defects from the Syrian uprising
21st - Moody's downgrades 15 major banks in the UK, US, Canada and Europe
21st - A boat of 200 asylum seekers headed to Australia capsizes and 110 survivors are rescued
21st - Miami Heat win the 2012 NBA finals after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder 4 games to one
22nd - Two Baghdad market bombings kill 14 people and injure 106
23rd - Greece proposes to slow down austerity measures by two years
23rd - A bus of Czech tourists crashes in Croatia killing 8 and injuring 44
23rd - 76 monks are hospitalized in Thailand following an attack by a swarm of bees
24th - Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood becomes President of Egypt
24th - Female athletes will be allowed to compete for Saudi Arabia at the Olympics for the first time
25th - 33 Syrian army officers defect to Turkey
28th - A series of car bombs in Iraq kills 14 and injures 50 people
29th - 16 Naxalite Maoist insurgents in India are killed by police
29th - Three bombs in Balid, Iraq, kill 6 people and injure 45
29th - 15,000 Japanese anti-nuclear protesters blockade the Japanese Prime Minister's office in Tokyo
30th - 30 people attending a funeral in Zamalka, Syria, are killed on a day that saw 83 civilian deaths
30th - Mid-Atlantic storms in the United States kill 13 and leave millions without power in Ohio, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
30th - Mohamed Morsi is sworn in as President of Egypt
July, 2012
1st - 17 people are killed and 45 injured in an attack on two churches in Garissa, Kenya
1st - Spain's football team crush Italy 4-0 to win UEFA Euro 2012
2nd - GlaxoSmithKline settle the largest healthcare fraud case in history for US$3 Billion
2nd - Monsoon rain in East India kills at least 79 people and leaves 2.2 million homeless
3rd - Truck bombing kills 25 people and wounds 40 in Diwaniyah, Iraq
3rd - Antonio Esfandiari wins a record $18.3 million in poker after winning the 2012 World Series of Poker $1,000,000 Buy-In
5th - The Shard, the tallest building in Europe, is opened and stands at 309.6 metres (1,016 ft)
5th - South Korea announce plans to begin "scientific' whaling of minke whales
5th - Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party is elected President of Mexico after a recount following irregularities
6th - Gunmen kill 18 people in Turbat, Pakistan
7th - Floods in the Krasnodar region, Russia, kill 140 people
8th - Roadside car bomb kills 14 civilians in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province
8th - Tens of thousands protest over election corruption in Mexico City after Enrique Pe
10th - The American Episcopal Church becomes the first to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages
11th - POliciy academy suicide bombing kills 20 in Sana'a, Yemen
11th - S/2012 P 1, the fifth moon of Pluto is discovered
12th - 200 people are killed by the Syrian army in Tremseh
12th - 90-155 people are killed after an oil tanker crashes and explodes in Okogbe, Rivers State, Nigeria
13th - China's economic growth drops to 7.6%, its lowest level for three years
13th - 19-30 people are killed after a train collides with a truck in Malelane, South Africa
13th - Financially troubled Scottish football club, Rangers, is voted into the third division
14th - Suicide bomber attacks a wedding reception and kills 22 people and inures 22 in northern Afghanistan
14th - Floods on the Japanese island of Kyushu kill 20 and displace 250,000
15th - 39 pilgrims are killed in a bus crash in Parasi, Nepal
15th - A Russian Soyuz rocket with an international team launches for a mission to the International Space Station
17th - 17 people are wounded in a bar shooting in Jasper, Alabama
18th - 6 Israeli tourists are killed and 30 injured after a bomb explodes on a tourist bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria
18th - 14 people are killed after a bomb explosion at Pakistan's Orakzai Agency
18th - Violence across Syria results in 97 deaths
18th - Syrian suicide bombing kills three high profile government officials, including Syria's Minister of Defence
18th - 24 people are killed after a ferry sinks off the coast of Zanzibar
18th - Kim Jong-un is officially appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of Marshal in the Korean People's Army
20th - 12 people are killed and 59 injured after a gunman opens fire at a Dark Knight movie premier in Aurora, Colorado,
20th - 21 people are killed and 29 injured in a bus accident in Nayarit, Mexico
22nd - Car bombs kills 20 people and injures 80 in Madaen and Najaf, Iraq
22nd - Pranab Mukherjee is elected President of India
22nd - At least 77 people are killed by torrential rain in Beijing, China
23rd - A series of attacks across Iraq kill 103 people
24th - John Dramani becomes President of Ghana after the death of President John Atta Mills
24th - Four barrels containing 248 human fetuses are found in Sverdlovsk, Russia
25th - The 2012 Summer Olympics begin
25th - Ivica Dačić is sworn in as Prime Minister of Serbia
25th - Italy's credit rating is downgraded to CCC+ by Egan-Jones
26th - At least 200 people are killed in a day of violence in Syria
26th - Insurgent attack kills 19 people and destroys a helicopter at Baqubah, Iraq
26th - North Korea is hit by Tropical Storm Khanun, killing 88 people and leaving 60,000 people homeless
Queen Elizabeth II27th - Queen Elizabeth II announces the opening of the London 2012 Olympics at the opening ceremony
28th - Ye Shiwen of China sets world record in the women's 400m individual medley in 4:28.43
28th - 18 people are killed and 11 injured in ethnic clashes in Ethiopia
29th - Tropical Storm Khanun kills 88 people and leaves 60,000 homeless in North Korea
30th - Train fire kills 32 and injures 27 people in Andhra Pradesh, India
30th - Indian power grid failure leaves over 300 million without power
31st - Two car bombs kill 21 people in Baghdad, Iraq
31st - A second power grid failure in two days leaves 670 million people in India without power
August, 2012
1st - Typhoon Saola kills elven people and displaces over 150,000 in the Philippines
1st - 8 Women's badminton doubles players are disqualified from the 21012 summer Olympics for "not using one's best efforts to win a match"
2nd - 23 people are killed after two blasts in a fruit market in Lahore, Pakistan
3rd - United Nations General Assembly c reproaches The United Nations Security Council over its lack of action in Syria
4th - 45 people are killed by a suicide bombing in Abyan, Yemen
4th - South African Oscar Pistorius becomes first amputee to compete at the Olympics
5th - Gunman opens fire on Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin killing six people and committing suicide
5th - 19 people are killed by Kurdish rebels in Hakk
5th - General Motors signs a record breaking $559 million marketing deal with Manchester United
6th - Mount Tongariro, New Zealand, erupts for the first time in a century
7th - 21 people are killed by a gun attack in a church in Okene, Nigeria
7th - Heavy rain forces 20,000 people to flee their homes in Manila, Phillipines
7th - 200,000 people are evacuated from Shanghai in anticipation of Typhoon Haikui
8th - China announces that it plans to close 23 rare earth mines and up to 50 smelting companies
8th - 16 people are killed from flooding from heavy rain in Manilla, Philippines
9th - The death toll from the Philippines' floods rise to 70
9th - Usain Bolt becomes the first person to win the 100m and 200m sprint in back to back Olympics
11th - 153 people are killed and 1300 injured in Tabriz and Ahar, Iran after two earthquakes of up to 6.4 magnitude
11th - 13 people are killed and 15 injured by a lightning strike at a Mosque in Bangladesh
12th - The 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony completes the games
13th - Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus is stripped of her shot-put gold medal after failing a doping test
14th - 46 people are killed and 80 injured after a series of suicide bombings in Afghanistan
16th - Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, is granted political asylum by Ecuador
16th - 113 people are killed and over 200 wounded in a series of attacks across Iraq
16th - South African police open fire on striking mine workers and kill at least 34 people
17th - Three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot are jailed for two years
17th - Gay pride events are banned for a century in Moscow
18th - Al-Qaeda militants kill 14 people in an attack in Aden, Yemen
18th - NATO air strikes kill at least 13 militants in Afghanistan
19th - 32 people are killed after a plane crash in Talodi, Sudan
20th - 20 people are killed in a riot in Caracas, Venezuela
20th - South Africa become the top-ranked test cricket nation after defeating England
21st - 20 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo die from the Ebola virus
22nd - 47 people are killed in the Syrian civil war
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange22nd - 48 people are killed in Kenyan tribal wars between the Pokomo and Orma
22nd - Russia and Vanuatu become members of the World Trade Organization
23rd - Four people are killed and 28 injured in a hot air ballooning accident in Slovenia
23rd - At least 30 are killed as a result of monsoon rain in Rajasthan, India
24th - Monsoon rains and floods kill 26 people in Pakistan
24th - Yangmingtan Bridge collapses in China killing three people
24th - Both Apple and Samsung are found guilty of patent infringement in a South Korean court
24th - A US jury in California finds that Samsung is guilty of patent infringement and awards over US$1 billion in damages to Apple
25th - 330 people are killed as a result of conflict in the Syrian civil war
25th - 39 people are killed and 80 are injured after a gas leak in North Venezuelan refinery
25th - 85,000 people are displaced by severe floods in Myanmar
26th - 15 year-old New Zealand golfer, Lydia Ko, becomes the youngest LPGA Tour event winner and the first amateur winner since 1969
26th - 36 people are killed in a bus crash in Yan'an,China
26th - 17 villagers in Afghanistan's Kajaki district are beheaded by an unknown organization
26th - A Legionellosis outbreak in Quebec City, Canada, kills 8 and infects 104
27th - First interplanetary human voice recording is broadcast from the Mars Rover Curiosity
28th - Mitt Romney is officially nominated as the United States Republican Party's candidate
29th - Georgian hostage crisis results in 3 police officers and 10 militants being killed
29th - Operation Eagle, undertaken by the Egyptian Army, results in the deaths of 11 suspected terrorists and the arrest of another 23
29th - Banana Spider venom is found to be effective in relieving erectile dysfunction
Professional Road Cyclist and Testicular Cancer Survivor Lance Armstrong29th - The USADA claims to have stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles
30th - Cholera outbreak kills 229 people in Sierra Leone
30th - A blast in the in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, China, kills 26 miners with 21 missing
31st - Apple loses its patent dispute with Samsung in Tokyo, Japan
September, 2012
1st- Islamist rebels seize Douentza, Mali
1st - Grenade injures 41 festival celebrants in Paquibato, Philippines
1st - Two suicide bombings kill 12 people and wound 50 in a NATo base in Afghanistan's Sayed Abad district
1st - US drone strike kills 5 people in North Waristan, Pakistan
2nd - A decades-long ban on veiled female news presenters is lifted from State television in Egypt
2nd - 15 people are killed by a car bomb attack at a refugee camp in Sbeineh, Palestine
3rd - 3 people are killed and 19 wounded by a car bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan
3rd - Typhoon Bolaven kills 48 people in North Korea
3rd - New Zealand announces its withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan
4th - 42 people are killed and 25 injured as a passenger bus falls down a ravine in Morocco
4th - 25 people are killed at a funeral suicide bombing in Nangarhar, Pakistan
4th - Pauline Marois becomes the first female premier of Quebec
4th - Carpet that can help prevent falls in elderly by warning them after detecting unusual footsteps is developed
5th - 54 people are killed and 50 injured after a firecracker factory explodes in Nadu
5th - Austerity measure requires Greece to increase its maximum working days to six per week
5th - 25 are killed and 4 wounded after an ammunition store exploded in Afyon, Turkey
6th - 61 illegal immigrants die after a fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Turkey
6th - Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for President
7th - US drone attack kills 8 people in Kismayo, south Somalia
7th - 64 people are killed and 715 injured after a series of earthquakes in south-west China
7th - Canada closes its Iranian embassy and expels Iranian diplomatic staff out of Canada
8th - 6 people are killed by a Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan
8th - 8 people are killed after a tractor is hut by a train in Romania
9th - 17 people are killed and at least 40 injured after two car bombs explode in Aleppo, Syria
9th - 100 people are killed and 350 injured after a wave of attacks across Iraq
9th - Armenia win the 40th FIDE Chess Olympiad
9th - Serena Williams wins her fourth women's tennis singles at the US Open
10th - 16 people are killed by a suicide bombing n Kunduz, Afghanistan
10th - Teachers in Chicago strike effecting 350,000 students
10th - 10,000 miners demonstrate at Lonmin mines in Marikana, South Africa
10th - 29 people are killed by floods and heavy rain in Vietnam
10th - A left over bazooka grenade in Cambodia explodes and kills three children
11th - 50 Al-Shabaab fighters are killed in conflict with the Somali National Army
11th - The US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is stormed, looted and burned down, killing five people, including the US ambassador
11th - The US is warned by Moody's that it's AAA credit rating is at risk if lawmakers fail to produce a long-term debt reduction plan
11th - 29 people are killed and 11 injured after a bus runs off a mountain highway in Nepal
11th - Japan nationalizes three of the disputed Senkaku Islands
12th - 18 soldiers are killed by a rebel car bomb in Syria
12th - 314 people are killed in factory fire in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan
12th - Apple unveils its iPhone 5 and iOS 6
13th - 19 people are killed after a freight elevator crashes from 100 meters in Wuhan, China
13th - 33,000 people are evacuated after Guatemala's Volcano of Fire erupts
13th - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev calls for Russian punk band Pussy Riot to be freed
13th - Dr Mustafa Abushagur is elected as Prime Minister of Libya
14th - 21 people are killed after a ferry sank in Indonesia
15th - Japan announces that it will phase out nuclear energy by the 2030s
16th - 8 female civilians are killed by a NATO airstrike in Laghman, Afghanistan
16th - 8 police officers are killed by a roadside bombing by Kurdistan Workers' Party militants in Turkey
16th - 14 people are killed and 7 wounded by a roadside bomb Jandol, Turkey
16th - Anti-Japanese protesters set fire to Panasonic plant in Qingdao, China
16th - Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, seeks a court order to resolve a week long teachers strike
16th - NHL locks out its players after the expiry of the collective bargaining agreement
17th - Panasonic suspends operations at its three factories in China
17th - China dispatches 1,000 fishing boats to Senkaku Islands
17th - 13 people are killed in a bus accident in Jubail, Saudi Arabia
17th - Swedish forensic scientists find no conclusive evidence of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's DNA in a torn condom
17th - United States and Japanese government officials agree to put a second missile defence system in Japan
18th - 10 soliders are killed and 70 injured by a missile attack by Kurdish militants in Bingol, Turkey
18th - 26 people are killed in a fire in a Pemex gas facility in Reynosa, Mexico
18th - The Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools reach a deal that ends an 8-day strike.
18th - World's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplant undertaken at the University of Gothenburg
19th - 9 people are killed and 20 wounded by a car bombing in Peshawar, Afghanistan
20th - 50 people are killed and dozens injured after a gas station is bombed by the Syrian Army in Ain Issa
20th - 14 people are killed in a cafe suicide bominbg in Somalia
20th - AU Optronics fined $500 million for a LCD screen price-fixing
21st - Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, wins a leadership ballot
22nd - 7 pedestrians are killed by a drunk driver who hit a bus stop at 200km an hour in Moscow
23rd - Iran blocks the use of Google as a search engine
23rd - 20 Iranian US Visas are denied, including diplomats and two ministers, ahead of the UN general assembly meeting in New York
23rd - Scientists discover four genetically distinct types of breast cancer
24th - Books by Japanese authors or about Japan are suspended by Chinese bookstores
25th - 50 Taiwanese ships clash with the Japan Coast Guard in waters off the Senkaku Islands
25th - Anouchka van Miltenburg is elected President of the Netherlands
26th - Syrian army massacres 40 civilians in Thiabieh, Damascus
26th - Greek trade unions call a general strike to protest austerity measures
26th - Japanese automakers suspend operations in China
27th - UN publicly releases documents from China and Japan detailing their contesting claims for the Senkoku Islands
27th - The Mars Curiosity rover discovers what evidence of a fast-moving streambed-in Mars
27th - The 2004 Japanese discovery of the 133th element has been confirmed
28th - Aircraft crash kills 16 people in Kathmandu, Nepal
28th - Nigeria suspends flights to Saudi Arabia after hundreds of Nigerian women travelled without a male escort
30th - Two opposition Venezuelan politicians are shot dead a week before the presidential election
30th - Car bomb blasts kill at least 32 people across Iraq
30th - Melbourne Storm defeat the Canterbury Bulldogs in the 2012 NRL Grand Final
30th - Europe defeat the US 14.5-13.5 in the 39th Ryder Cup
October, 2012
1st- California becomes the first US state to ban
1st - 36 people are killed in a ferry collision in Hong Kong
1st - 3 Nato soldiers and 16 Afghan police are killed by a suicide bombing in Khost, Afghanistan
2nd - 20 students are gunned down in Mubi, Nigeria
2nd - 10 people are killed after a minibus and truck collide in Ilocos Norte, Philippines
3rd - 34 people are killed by a series of bombings in Aleppo, Syria
4th - Turkey’s parliament approves cross-border military operations in Syria
4th - 19 people are killed after being buried by a landslide in Yunnan, China
4th - Jordan’s King Abdullah dissolves parliament in preparation for new elections
4th - Formula One legend, Michael Schumacher, retires
5th - Anglo Platinum Limited fires 12,000 striking workers in South Africa
6th - Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict XVI's butler, is found guilty of leaking confidential documents and is sentenced to 18 months imprisonment
6th - The Leeds Rhinos defeat the Warrington Wolves 26-18 to win the 2012 Super League grand final
7th - 13 people are killed after a Sudanese military aeroplane crashes near Khartoum
7th - Sébastien Loeb wins the World Rally Championship for the ninth consecutive year
8th - 35 people are killed by a Nigerian military bomb struck a convoy in Maiduguri
8th - Hugo Chávez is re-elected as president of Venezuela for a fourth term
8th - Mustafa A.G. Abushagur, the first elected Libyan Prime Minister, is voted out of office by the Libyan parliament
8th - Mustafa A.G. Abushagur, the first elected Libyan Prime Minister, is voted out of office by the Libyan parliament
8th - John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka win the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work on reprogramming end stage cells to become pluripotent
9th - 25,000 people in Athens protest German Chancellor Angela Merkel
9th - Serge Haroche and David Wineland win the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on quantum optics
10th - Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka win the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on G protein-coupled receptors
11th - A further 83 people are killed throughout Syria by the Syrian army
11th - A US appeal court overturns a district court ruling banning the sale of Samsung
11th - Mo Yan, a hallucinatory realist writer, wins the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature
12th - The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves of an African-led force to oust Islamist militants in northern Mali
12th - The European Union wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize, sparking a series of critical commentary
13th - 15 people are killed by a market suicide bombing in Darra Adam Khel, Pakistan
13th - Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild sells for $34 million, the highest sold artwork by a living artist
14th - 20 people are gunned down in a mosque in Dogo Dawa, Nigeria
15th - China sends warships close to Japan
15th - Hilary Mantel wins the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her novel Bring Up the Bodies
16th - Conflict in Maiduguri, Nigeria, leads to 24 militant deaths and several structures set ablaze
17th - The exoplanet Alpha Centauri Bb is discovered orbiting Alpha Centauri
17th - Lance Armstrong loses a host of endorsements in the wake of his doping scandal
17th - Tens of thousands protest austerity measures in Greece
18th - Syrian military airstrikes kill 40 people in Maaret al-Numan
18th - Google stock trading is suspended after a premature release of a quarterly report indicating a 20% drop in profits and a 9% fall in share price
19th - 8 people are killed and 78 injured by a car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon
22nd - 6 Italian scientists are convicted of manslaughter for their failure to predict the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake
22nd - Hurricane Sandy forms in the Western Caribbean Sea
23rd - 12 people are killed and 40 are injured in a hospital fire in Tainan, Taiwan
24th - Libyan militias capture Bani Walid resulting in 130 civilian deaths
24th - 3 people are shot dead and two critically wounded after being shot by an unknown gunman in Downey, California
24th - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in Jamaica killing 1 person and causing over $50 million in damage
25th - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in Cuba and Haiti killing 65 people and causing over $80 million in damage
26th - 64 people are killed in West Burma after continued sectarian clashes
26th - 41 people are killed and 50 injured by a suicide bombing of a mosque in Maymana, Afghanistan
26th - China blocks the New York Times from searches and social media in response to an investigation into Premier Wen Jiabao
26th - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in the Bahamas killing 2 people and causing over $300 million in damage
27th - 46 people are killed and 123 injured in Iraq after a series of attacks and bombs
27th - Thousands demonstrate in Madrid against proposed budget cuts
28th - Syrian ceasefire collapses and 128 people are killed in ongoing civil war violence
28th - 15 people are killed and 33 injured by a series of Baghdad car bombings
28th - Sebastian Vettel wins the 2012 Formula One Indian Grand Prix
28th - San Francisco Giants defeat the Detroit Tigers in game four to take the 2012 MLB World Series
28th - Pablo Sandoval is named MLB 2012 World Series MVP.
29th - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in New Jersey resulting in 110 deaths and $50 billion in damage and forces the New York stock exchange to close
29th - Publishing companies Penguin and Random House merge to form the world's largest publisher
30th - Walt Disney purchases Lucasfilm Ltd and its rights for Star Wars and Indiana Jones for $4.05 billion
31st - The New York stock exchange opens after being closed for two days after Hurricane Sandy
November, 2012
1st - Google's Gmail becomes the world's most popular email service
1st - 22 people are killed and 111 injured after a fuel tanker explodes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
1st - Yellow fever kills 32 people and sickens 50 more in Darfur, Sudan
1st - Acid is poured over a 15 year old girl by her parents after being seen talking to a young man in an honour killing in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan
1st - Scientists detect evidence of light from the universe's first stars, predicted to have formed 500 million years after the big bang
3rd - Syrian rebels launch a major assault on Taftanaz airbase:
4th - Bishop Tawadros appointed as the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church
4th - Kimi Raikkonen wins Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012
4th - Syrian rebels capture a major oil field in Deir ez-Zor Governorate
5th - 50 Syrian military personnel are killed by a suicide car bomb in Hama
5th - Widespread flooding in Nigeria kills 363 people and displaces 2.1 million
6th - 5 people are shot at a poultry processing plant in Fresno, California
6th - Voters go to the polls for the US Presidential election with Barack Obama projected to claim an Electoral College victory
6th - US territory Puerto Rico votes to become a US State
6th - Green Moon wins the Melbourne Cup race at Flemington
7th - 48 people are killed by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in Guatemala
7th - Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington approve measures for same-sex marriage
9th - 2 Iranian fighter jets fire on a US General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drone in international air space
9th - 25 people are killed and 62 injured after a train carrying liquid fuel bursts into flames in Burma
9th - An Algerian C-295 military transport plane crashes near Avignon, France, killing 6 people
10th - 20 Syrian troops are killed by suicide bombings in Daara
10th - 27 people are killed and dozens injured in a prison conflict in Colombo, Sri Lanka
10th - Israeli counter strike on Palestinian militants in Gaza kills 5 and injure 30
10th - 17 people are killed in a helicopter crash as a result of bad weather in Turkey
10th - The final US presidential election results are declared after Barack Obama wins Florida to defeate Mitt Romney 332-206 in Electoral College votes
11th - 12 people are killed by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Burma
12th - Into the Silence by Wade Davis wins the 2012 Samuel Johnson Prize
13th - 3 Syrian tanks enter the demilitarized zone of Golan Heights
14th - A series of protests against austerity measures occur across Europe including Spain, Portugal, and Greece
14th - CFBDSIR 2149-0403 is discovered, the closest rogue planet to earth (100 light-years away)
15th - At least 95 people are killed in Syrian conflicts
15th - Deep Horizon Oil Spill: BP settles for 4.5 Billion
16th - Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 grosses $500 million in 24 hours to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time
17th - 50 schoolchildren and a bus driver are killed after a train collides with a school bus in Manfalut, Egypt
18th - Lewis Hamilton wins the 2012 US Formula One Grand Prix
18th - Israeli Gaza rocket strikes kill 80 alleged terrorist targets
18th - Brad Keselowski wins the 2012 Nascar Sprint Cup
20th - Toshiba unveils a robot designed to help in nuclear disasters
21st - An Israel and Hamas ceasefire is negotiated
21st - Chelsea Manager Roberto Di Matteo is sacked and replaced by Rafael Ben
22nd - 2 people are killed and 120 injured after a 100-vehicle pile-up in dense fog in Texas
22nd - 6 attacks across Pakistan kill 37 people and injure 92
23rd - JR Tokai unveil a maglev LO train prototype capable of travelling up to 500km per hour
24th - Gangnam Style becomes the most viewed youtube video surpassing 808 million views
24th - Ernest Bai Koroma is re-elected President of Sierra Leone
24th - The continued NHL lockout results in all games to December 14 being cancelled
25th - 11 people are killed and 30 are wounded by twin car bombs hitting a Protestant church in Nigeria
25th - 16 people are killed and 44 injured after a wedding party bus plunges 300 ft down a gorge in India
25th - Sebastian Vettel wins the 2012 Formula One championship for the third consecutive year
26th - 10 children are killed and 15 people are injured after a Syrian government Jet drops a cluster bomb on a playground
26th - The cost of Hurricane Sandy to New York is announced to be $32 Billion
27th - 29 people are killed and 126 are wounded by 8 car bombings across Iraq
27th - The eurozone announces that it will pay out 43.7 billion euros in Loans to Greece
28th - 54 people are killed and 120 are injured by two car bombs in Damascus, Syria
29th - 30 people are killed and 100 are wounded by bombs in Hillah and Karbala, Iraq
29th - The UN votes to approve Palestine’s status change from an observer to an observer state
29th - Luiz Felipe Scolari takes over as Brazilian Football coach
30th - At least 32 people are killed in a Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane crash in the Congo
December, 2012
1st - 8 people are killed and 36 injured after a bus overturns in Bolivia
1st - Enrique Peña Nieto sworn in as President of Mexico
1st - Ukranian Anna Ushenina wins the Women's World Chess Championship 2012
2nd - 9 people are killed after 30 cars are trapped in Sasago Tunnel, Japan
2nd - Borut Pahor is elected President of Slovenia
2nd - Pier Luigi Bersani is elected Italian Prime Minister
3rd - Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, reaches the end of our solar system and enters interstellar space
4th - 29 people are killed by a mortar attack in Bteeha, Syria
4th - Typhoon Bopha makes landfall in the Philippines killing at least 81 people
5th - 8 people are killed and 12 injured by a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in South Korea
6th - 7 people are killed and 770 injured during Egyptian protests
6th - Typhoon Bopha’s death toll rise to 418 with 318 missing and 179,000 displaced
6th - A 243 million year old Nyasasaurus fossil is discovered in Tanzania
8th - UN climate conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2020
9th - 13 people are killed and 10 are injured after a bus rolls of a cliff and falls 100 meters in Taiwan
9th - 6 people are killed and 41 are injured after a bus plunges 30 metres down a gorge in Guatemala
9th - Incumbent Ghanaian president John Mahama wins the general election amidst allegations of fraud
9th - The Social Liberal Union Party and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta win by a landslide in the parliamentary elections
9th - Juan Manuel Márquez knocks out Manny Pacquiao in round six for the WBO light welterweight title
10th - Google begins selling US$99 laptops
10th - 11 people are killed and 23 are injured after a bus falls into a roadside pond in Minquan County, China
10th - 9 people are killed and 32 are wounded after a bus falls of a 300 meter cliff in Columbia
10th - Norwegian Magnus Carlsen breaks Garry Kasparov’s 13-year Elo rating record
11th - 125 people are killed and 200 are injured by bombings in Aqrab, Syria
11th - HSBC bank settles with US authorities to pay $1.9 billion for drug cartel money laundering
11th - British physicist, Stephen Hawking, wins the $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize, the most lucrative academic prize in the world
13th - A car bombing in Qatana, outside Damascus, kills 16 people and injures 12
13th - Japan scrambles fighter jets in response to a Chinese plane in the Senkaku Islands dispute
14th - 28 people, including 20 children, are shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut
14th - Australian Joel Parkinson wins the 2012 ASP World Tour
