- Six people were killed and 14 injured when a gunman opened fire January 8 on a crowd gathered to meet U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords at a Safeway store near Tucson. Among the dead were 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, born on September 11, 2001; federal judge John Roll; and Gabriel "Gabe" Zimmerman, Giffords' community outreach director. Giffords, the alleged assassination target, was shot in the head at point-blank range.
- The Arab revolt began in Tunisia. Fueled by resentment of a harsh regime riots in the streets grew. On January 14, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled for the past 23 years, fled to Saudi Arabia.
- The citizens of Egypt rose up against the authoritarian regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who had been in power since 1981. The protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square began January 25, and Mubarak was ousted 18 days later.
- A 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Tohoku region of Japan on March 11 and was followed by a tsunami and the threat of nuclear meltdown. At last count, 15,703 people died and nearly 5,000 disappeared in the fires and tsunami, the highest number of casualties Japan has seen since World War II.
- On April 29, Prince William of England married Catherine Middleton in Westminster Abbey with 1,900 in attendance as millions tuned in to watch on television.
- On May 1 at 11:35 p.m. ET news broke that Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, had been killed in Pakistan by a U.S. Navy SEAL Team.
- On May 25, the final (4,561st) episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" aired.
- As a record crowd looked on, the space shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011, marking the final shuttle mission for NASA and ending the 30-year program.
- Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple on August 24. His death was announced by the company on October 5, and was quickly followed by numerous tributes.
- Protesters took to the streets -- including Wall Street -- proclaiming, "We are the 99%" and the Occupy movement began. Encampments, often functioning as mini villages, spread to more than 65 cities.
- Libya's eccentric dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed on October 20 after rebels took over his hometown. His son, Moatassem Gadhafi, was also killed. His other son, Saif al-Islam, was captured a month later and faces trial.
- In 2011 more than 4 million Americans were out of work for a year or more. In response the House and Senate reached an agreement to extend the payroll tax, along with emergency unemployment benefits for those in the hardest-hit U.S. states, for at least two months (they were set to expire on Dec. 31).
© 2012 Philadelphia Bar Association