After 49 years as president of Cuba, Fidel Castro resigns for reasons of ill health

The National Assembly elects Fidel Castro's brother Raúl to succeed him as president of Cuba

Hurricane Hanna causes more than 500 deaths in Haiti before moving on west to the United States (where it kills 7)

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)

Haiti is devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, causing more than 230,000 deaths

BP announces that a newly fitted cap has finally stopped the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

US Federal estimates are that more than 200 million gallons of oil have spilled into the sea from the Deepwater Horizon disaster (the Exxon Valdez figure was 11 million)

Superstorm Sandy, after devastating much of the Caribbean, reaches the east coast of the USA, killing more than 100 people