Runner-up Tran Ngoc Thuan

Events in 2011 and 31-2

Events in the world in the birth year of Tran Ngoc Thuan

• Jan. 11: The Arab Spring movement begins in Tunisia when demonstrators take to the streets to protest chronic unemployment and police brutality. Jan. 14: After 23 years of authoritarian rule, Tunisian president Ben Ali flees the country for Saudi Arabia amid protests. Jan. 25: Similar protests break out in Egypt. Feb. 11: Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak announces his resignation and handed power of the country over to the military. Feb. 14: Violence erupts in Bahrain as protestors select Feb. 14th as a day of protest to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the National Action Charter. Feb. 16: In Benghazi, Libya, thousands of protesters demand that Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi step down. The next day, declared the Day of Rage, saw the number of demonstrations burgeon throughout the country. March 18: Bahrain brings in troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to crack down against peaceful protestors clamoring for reform. March 20: In Egypt, 77.2% of voters approve a referendum on constitutional amendments that lays the groundwork for upcoming legislative and presidential elections. March 29: Syrian president Bashar al-Assad accepts the resignation of his cabinet. Aug. 3: Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is rolled into the courtroom on a hospital bed for the beginning of his trial. Mubarak faces charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters. Aug. 18: Britain, France, and Germany release a joint statement stating that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has lost legitimacy as a leader and that he must step down. For the first time, President Obama calls for Assad to leave office. Nov. 18: Protesters-representing both Islamists and the liberal opposition-return to Tahrir Square in Egypt to demand the ruling military council step aside in favor of a civilian-led government. Nov. 21: As the protests in Egypt grow in size and intensity and police are widely criticized for their crackdown, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and his cabinet resign. In an agreement reached with the Muslim Brotherhood, the military council vows to install a civilian prime minister and to accelerate the transition to a civilian government, with presidential elections being held by June 2012. Former prime minister Kamal al-Ganzouri is named to replace Sharaf, and in response to the demands of protesters, the military council transfers most powers of the president to him. Nov. 28: Parliamentary elections begin in Egypt.
• April 29: Kate Middleton marries Prince William in a lavish royal wedding at Westminster Abbey in London.
• May 2: U.S. troops and CIA operatives shoot and kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a city of 500,000 people that houses a military base and a military academy.
• May 4: Fatah and Hamas, rival Palestinian parties, sign a reconciliation accord. The two factions cite common causes behind the accord: opposition to the Israeli occupation and disillusionment with the American peace efforts. The deal remakes the Palestine Liberation Organization, which until now excluded Hamas. Hamas will now be part of the political leadership.
• May 14: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a leading political figure in France, is arrested for sexually assaulting a maid at a Manhattan hotel. All charges against Strauss-Kahn were later dropped when his accuser was found to be unreliable.
• May 26: Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general responsible for the massacre of over 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995, is found and arrested in Lazarevo, a farming town north of Belgrade, Serbia.
• June 3: Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh barely survives an attack when a bomb hits the mosque at the presidential compound where he and other government officials are praying. Days later he travels to Saudi Arabia for treatment.
• July 9: After more than 50 years of struggle, South Sudan declares independence and becomes Africa's 54th state.
• July 11: The News of the World, a British newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, closes after several allegations that the paper's journalists hacked into voicemail accounts belonging to not only a 13-year-old murder victim, but also the relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prime Minister David Cameron orders two separate investigations. Murdoch's News Corporation feels an immediate impact as its stock price falls. July 13: Murdoch's News Corporation withdraws its $12 billion bid to buy British Sky Broadcasting. July 17: Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World, is arrested on suspicion of illegally intercepting phone calls and bribing the police. Her arrest comes two days after her resignation as chief executive of News International, which runs the British newspaper operations of Murdoch's News Corporation.July 18: Paul Stephenson and John Yates, two Scotland Yard senior police officials, resign. Both officers have ties to Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the News of the World who was recently arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and bribery of police officers.
• July 22: Norway is hit with consecutive terrorist attacks. First, a bomb explodes in Regjeringskvartalet, the government quarter of Oslo. The explosion happens right outside the prime minister's office, killing eight people and wounding several others. Two hours later, a gunman disguised as a policeman opens fire at a camp for young political activists on the island of Utoya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud. The gunman kills 68 campers.
• July 23: The award-winning, internationally known singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse is found dead in her apartment in London.
• Sep. 23: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas officially requests a bid for statehood at the UN Security Council. The request comes after months of failed European and U.S. efforts to bring Israel and Palestine back to the negotiating table.
• Sep. 25: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia grants women the right to vote and run for office in future elections. The new ruling will not go into effect until the next election cycle in 2015.
• Oct. 18: Gilad Shalit, a 25-year-old Israeli soldier, is released after being held for more than five years by Hamas, a militant Palestinian group. He is exchanged for 1,000 Palestinians who have spent years in Israeli jails. Shalit had been held in Gaza since Palestinian militants kidnapped him in 2006.
• Oct. 20: Libya's interim government announces that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has been killed by rebel troops in Surt, his hometown.
• Oct. 24: Millions of Tunisians vote in their first ever free election. The vote is for an assembly to write a constitution and shape a new government. Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party, is the winner with 41% of the vote.
• Oct. 26: Led by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, leaders of the euro zone agree on a package to bring the debt crisis in Europe under control. The terms include forcing banks to take a 50% cut in the value of Greek debt and to raise new capital to protect them from future defaults, increasing the euro-zone's bail-out fund to $1.4 trillion, more austerity measures in Greece, and a reduction of Greece's debt to 120% of its GDP by 2020.
• Nov. 12: Silvio Berlusconi, who has weathered political and personal scandals that would have ended most political careers, steps down as prime minister of Italy. Mario Monti, an economist and former antitrust commissioner for the European Commission, takes over, leading a cabinet of technocrats to implement the austerity plan.
• Dec. 4: International and local monitors condemn parliamentary elections in Russia as fraudulent. United Russia, the party led by Vladimir Putin, comes out on top, receiving nearly 50% of the vote, but the party lost 77 seats. Monitors say that United Russia would have lost more seats were it not for ballot-box stuffing and voting irregularities. Protests—the largest since the 1990s—take place near the Kremlin.