2021 – vaccines and variants battle for supremacy ---------------------------------------------------- Jan: U.S. Capitol riot Feb: Myanmar coup Mar: Suez Canal blocked Apr: India Covid surge May: Middle East flare-up Jul: Germany floods Aug: Afghanistan evacuation Sep: Spain volcano Nov: Barbados celebrates Nov: Migrant crisis -------------------------------------------------------- JAN 1 The rollout of life-saving coronavirus vaccines gathers pace, even as global cases continue to surge 6 Supporters of Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol in an effort to disrupt Congress certifying Joe Biden’s election victory 20 Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th U.S. President -------------------------------------------------------- FEB 1 Myanmar’s military seizes power, detaining civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures 2 The jailing of opposition politician Alexei Navalny sparks mass protests across Russia 17 A huge winter storm in the southern U.S. leaves millions without power and kills over 100 people in Texas alone -------------------------------------------------------- MAR 23 The container ship Ever Given runs aground in the Suez Canal, blocking one of the world’s busiest trade routes for six days -------------------------------------------------------- APR 19 NASA’s helicopter Ingenuity makes the first powered flight on Mars 20 A former Minneapolis police officer is convicted and jailed for the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in 2020 26 The devastating Delta variant of coronavirus in India overwhelms hospitals and crematoriums amid widespread shortages of oxygen -------------------------------------------------------- MAY 10 Violence erupts between Israelis and Palestinians over plans to evict some Palestinian families from East Jerusalem 14 China’s Tianwen-1 lander- rover successfully lands on Mars 23 Dissident Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich is arrested after his Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania is forced to divert to Minsk -------------------------------------------------------- JUN 16 China launches the first three astronauts to the space station it is building in low earth orbit 19 Covid-19 deaths in Brazil top 500,000, the second-highest total in the world 24 The partial collapse of a 12-story condominium in Florida kills 98 people 29 A rare “heat dome” over western Canada and the U.S. sees temperatures hit 49.6°C in Lytton, British Columbia -------------------------------------------------------- JUL 1 China marks 100 years of the Communist Party 7 President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti is assassinated at his home 11/20 Billionaires’ space race – Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos fly to space aboard their respective space vehicles 15 Catastrophic flooding in Europe leaves over 200 people dead, with parts of western Germany and Belgium worst affected 23 The delayed Tokyo Olympics finally get underway -------------------------------------------------------- AUG 8 More than 140 wildfires erupt across Greece in the worst heatwave in decades 15 Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, falls to the Taliban in a stunningly swift takeover 29 In the U.S., Hurricane Ida causes catastrophic flooding from the Gulf Coast to the northeast 31 The last U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan following a mass evacuation by allied forces of over 123,000 people -------------------------------------------------------- SEP 15 A U.S.-UK-Australia security pact angers France, which loses a $90bn submarine contract 19 The ongoing eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano begins on the Spanish island of La Palma 24 Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou returns to China after being detained in Canada on a U.S. warrant since 2018 24 The Dixie Fire, which burned nearly 1 million acres in Northern California, is mostly contained -------------------------------------------------------- OCT 3 The Pandora Papers reveal how for years world leaders and other wealthy people hid property investments and other assets 5 A whistleblower tells U.S. Congress that Facebook harms young users by prioritising company profits over safety 21 Actor Alec Baldwin fires a prop gun on a film set, fatally injuring the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins -------------------------------------------------------- NOV 8 Thousands of migrants try to enter the EU via the border with Belarus, as President Alexander Lukashenko hits back at sanctions 13 The COP26 summit in Glasgow agrees a deal to mitigate climate change, but not by enough to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C 22 Austria is the first country to reimpose a full lockdown as record coronavirus cases sweep across Europe 24 Magdalena Andersson becomes Sweden’s first female prime minister 30 Barbados becomes a republic, removing Queen Elizabeth II as head of state -------------------------------------------------------- DEC 1 Omicron, a new coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa, begins spreading rapidly 6 Aung San Suu Kyi is jailed for inciting dissent, a first of several expected verdicts 8 Angela Merkel formally steps down as Chancellor of Germany after 16 years in power. She is succeeded by Olaf Scholz -------------------------------------------------------- Pictures: Associated Press, Getty Images, Newscom © GRAPHIC NEWS