istoryworld
Events relating to north america
The Republicans lose control of both houses of the US Congress in an electoral backlash against the Iraq War
One of President Obama's first acts in office is to sign an order that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is to be closed within a year (a promise that fails to be fulfilled)
The sudden death of the pop star Michael Jackson triggers a world-wide emotional response
Geneticist Craig Venter announces that his team have inserted the genome of a bacterium into a cell to create the world's first synthetic life form
NASA launches a rocket carrying the roving science laboratory Curiosity, which is programmed to land on Mars on 6 August 2012
The USA formally declares an end to the Iraq War
NASA's Kepler mission discovers the first two earth-size planets outside our solar system
Iran blames the USA and Israel for the murder of one of their nuclear scientists by a suicide bomber on a motorcyle
An American soldier leaves his barracks and kills 17 villagers, including 9 children, in Afghanistan
244 years after its launch in 1768 in Scotland the Encyclopedia Britannica publishes its final printed edition
The largest US bank, JPMorgan Chase, announces losses of two billion dollars
The US swimmer Michael Phelps wins his 19th Olympic medal to become the most successful competitor in the history of the games
Curiosity, NASA's roving science laboratory, lands successfully on Mars after a 354 million-mile journey through space
Mitt Romney selects Paul Ryan, a more hardline Republican, as his vice-presidential candidate
Mitt Romney is formally nominated, at the Republican convention in Tampa, as the party's presidential candidate
An excerpt of an anti-Islamic film made in the USA, Innocence of Muslims, is broadcast in Egypt on a Muslim TV channel
The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, is killed in a terrorist attack on the embassy in Benghazi
US embassies in Yemen and Egypt are attacked, as the protests against Innocence of Muslims spread
Superstorm Sandy, after devastating much of the Caribbean, reaches the east coast of the USA, killing more than 100 people
Barack Obama wins a second term, defeating Republican Mitt Romney in the US presidential election
A jury in Florida sparks nation-wide outrage by their acquittal of George Zimmerman on the charge of murdering a black teenager, Trayvon Martin
The first meeting in new Israel-Palestine peace talks takes place in Washington
The American whistleblower Edward Snowden is granted a one-year visa for asylum in Russia
Bradley Manning, to be known henceforth as Chelsea Manning, is sentenced to 35 years in prison for his leaking of government documents
