2010s

This article or section has information about scheduled or expected future events. The content may change as more information becomes available.

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century – 21st century – 22nd century
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s – 2010s – 2020s 2030s 2040s
Years:	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

The 2010s, pronounced "twenty-tens", "two thousand (and) tens", or simply "the Tens", is the second decade of the 21st century. It began on January 1, 2010 and will end on December 31, 2019. It is the current decade.

Things that have already happened

2010

• January 4 – The world's tallest-ever structure to-date, the Burj Khalifa, is opened in Dubai.
• January 12 – A major Earthquake of magnitude 7, devastates Haiti.
• February 27 – A magnitude 8.8 earthquake hits Chile. It is believed to have been powerful enough to have affected the Earth's axis.
• April 10 – A plane crash in Smolensk, western Russia kills many people who were important in Poland, including President Lech Kaczynski.
• April 14 – A major earthquake hits Qinghai province in China.
• April 14 – A Volcano erupts in southern Iceland. The ash cloud coming from this eruption disrupts air travel.
• from April 20 – Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst oil spill in US history.
• May 7: Human Genome Project concluded
• May 31 – Israel raids a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, killing 9 Turkish activists.
• July/August – Major flooding disaster in Pakistan, affecting more than 15 million people
• October 10 – The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved and split up into new constitutional status.
• October 13 – Thirty-three miners are rescued from the San Jose mine near Copiapo in Chile, after being trapped for 69 days.
• October 25 onwards – In Indonesia, the eruption of the Merapi volcano on Java, and an earthquake in Sumatra kill hundreds of people.
• November 13 – Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.
• December 2 – The FIFA World Cups for 2018 and 2022 are announced as being held in Russia and Qatar respectively.

2011

• January 1 – Estonia starts to use the euro currency.
• January 14 – Amidst anti-government demonstrations, Tunisia's President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali dissolves the government, declares a state of emergency, and resigns from office.
• February 11 – 2011 Egyptian protests: After more than two weeks of anti-government protests, President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak resigns from office after more than 29 years in power.
• March 11 – A magnitude 9.1 earthquake strikes off the east coast of the Japanese island of Honshu, causing damage to buildings, as tsunamis are triggered, causing thousands of deaths. The quake also triggers fears over radiation levels at two nuclear power plants.
• March 19 – 2011 Libyan protests: UN-authorised military intervention begins in Libya.
• May 1 – Leader of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden is killed in Pakistan by US Forces.
• July 9 – South Sudan declares independence from Sudan.
• July 21 – With the landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis the Space Shuttle programme comes to an end.
• July 22 – 2011 Norway attacks: In Norway, a bomb explosion in central Oslo kills 8 people, and a shooting at a youth camp on the island of Utoya kills 77.
• August 22 – 2011 Libyan civil war: Troops from the National Transitional Council enter Tripoli.
• September 7 – A plane carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team crashes shortly after take-off, killing the entire team, including one who dies five days later.
• October 20 – 2011 Libyan civil war: Muammar al-Gaddafi is killed, as the National Transitional Council takes control of Sirte.
• October 23 – An earthquake in eastern Turkey kills more than 500 people.
• November 12 – Silvio Berlusconi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy.
• December 15 – US troops withdraw from Iraq.
• December 17 – Kim Jong-il, supreme leader of North Korea, dies. His death leads to fear for stability of the Asian region. He is succeeded by his son Kim Jong-un.
• December 30 – Samoa and Tokelau skip this day as the International Date Line is shifted.

2012

• January 14 – The Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia runs aground and sinks off the island of Giglio (off Italy's west coast), killing at least 11 people.
• May 6 – Francois Hollande is elected President of France.
• July 27 - August 12 - The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London.
• August 6 - NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars.
• late October - Hurricane Sandy causes damage, and over 200 deaths in Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Bahamas, Eastern United States and parts of Canada.
• November 6 - Barack Obama is elected to a second term as President of the United States, defeating Mitt Romney.
• November 14-21 - A week-long war occurs between Israel and Gaza, before a ceasefire is agreed.

Significant political changes

• May 11, 2010 – David Cameron, leading a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, replacing Gordon Brown of the Labour Party.
• June 2, 2010 – Yukio Hatoyama resigns as Prime Minister of Japan, and is replaced by Naoto Kan.
• June 24, 2010 – Julia Gillard succeeds Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia.
• July 2, 2010 – Christian Wulff becomes President of Germany, replacing Horst Koehler, who had resigned after making controversial comments over the war in Afghanistan.
• January 1, 2011 – Dilma Rousseff succeeds Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil.
• February 11, 2011 – After pro-democracy protests President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt stands down, leaving the military in control.
• July 9, 2011 – South Sudan declares independence. Salva Kiir Mayardit becomes its President.
• August 26, 2011 – Naoto Kan resigns as Prime Minister of Japan, being succeeded by Yoshihiko Noda.
• October 20, 2011 – The National Transitional Council takes control of the whole of Libya on the death of Muammar al-Gaddafi.
• November 12, 2011 – Silvio Berlusconi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy, being succeeded by Mario Monti.
• February 17, 2012 – Christian Wulff resigns as President of Germany. Joachim Gauck succeeds him on March 18.
• May 15, 2012 – Francois Hollande becomes President of France, succeeding Nicolas Sarkozy.
• November 15, 2012 - Xi Jinping is revealed as the next leader of the People's Republic of China, to succeed Hu Jintao.

Things that are supposed to happen

• The baby-boomer generation, which is a phrase that refers to many people who were born after World War II in 1945, will be at least 65 years old, which will result in many people retiring (stop working due to old age). Many people will think this may make the government have less money than it should due to government services retired people use, such as Medicare and Social Security.

Deaths

2010

• January 11 – Miep Gies, Dutch humanitarian (born 1909)
• January 22 – Jean Simmons, British actress (born 1929)
• January 27 – J. D. Salinger, American writer (born 1919)
• April 3 – Eugene Terre'Blanche, South African far-right politician (born 1941)
• April 10 – Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland (born 1949)
• May 29 – Dennis Hopper, American actor (born 1936)
• June 28 – Robert Byrd, American politician (born 1917)
• July 14 – Charles Mackerras, Australian conductor (born 1925)
• August 9 – Ted Stevens, American politician (born 1923)
• September 26 – Gloria Stuart, American actress (born 1910)
• September 29 – Tony Curtis, American actor (born 1925)
• October 10 – Joan Sutherland, Australian soprano (born 1926)
• November 10 – Dino De Laurentiis, Italian film producer (born 1919)
• November 12 – Henryk Gorecki, Polish composer (born 1933)
• December 13 – Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (born 1941)
• December 17 – Captain Beefheart, American musician (born 1941)
• December 26 – Teena Marie, American singer-songwriter (born 1956)

2011

• January 2 – Anne Francis, American actress (born 1930)
• January 4 – Gerry Rafferty, Scottish musician (born 1947)
• February 28 – Jane Russell, American actress (born 1921)
• March 23 – Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress (born 1932)
• April 9 – Sidney Lumet, American film director and producer (born 1924)
• May 1 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi-Arabian terrorist leader (born 1957)
• May 19 – Garret FitzGerald, Irish Taoiseach (born 1926)
• June 18 – Clarence Clemons, American musician (born 1942)
• June 23 – Peter Falk, American actor (born 1927)
• July 4 – Otto von Habsburg, Austro-Hungarian nobleman (born 1912)
• July 8 – Betty Ford, former First Lady of the United States (born 1918)
• July 20 – Lucian Freud, German-born British painter (born 1922)
• July 23 – Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter (born 1983)
• September 25 – Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmental and political activist (born 1940)
• September 30 – Ralph Steinman, Canadian immunologist (born 1943)
• October 5 – Steve Jobs, American businessman (Apple Inc.) (born 1955)
• October 12 – Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist (born 1941)
• October 20 – Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libyan leader (born 1942)
• October 23 – John McCarthy, American computer scientist (born 1927)
• November 7 – Joe Frazier, American boxer (born 1944)
• December 15 – Christopher Hitchens, British-American writer and critic (born 1949)
• December 17 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean leader (born 1941 or 1942)
• December 18 – Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright and President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic (born 1936)

2012

• January 3 - Josef Skvorecky, Czech writer (born 1924)
• January 15 – Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish politician (born 1922)
• January 20 – Etta James, American singer (born 1938)
• February 11 – Whitney Houston, American singer and actress (born 1963)
• February 29 – Davy Jones, British singer and actor (born 1945)
• April 7 – Mike Wallace, American journalist (born 1918)
• April 11 - Ahmed Ben Bella, 1st President of Algeria (born 1918)
• April 18 – Dick Clark, American television host (born 1929)
• May 17 – Donna Summer, American disco singer (born 1948)
• May 18 – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone and conductor (born 1925)
• May 20 – Robin Gibb, British musician (Bee Gees) (born 1949)
• June 5 - Ray Bradbury, American writer (born 1920)
• June 30 - Yitzhak Shamir, former Prime Minister of Israel (born 1915)
• July 3 - Andy Griffith, American actor (born 1926)
• July 8 - Ernest Borgnine, American actor (born 1917)
• July 23 - Sally Ride, American astronaut and physicist (born 1951)
• July 31 - Gore Vidal, American writer (born 1925)
• August 6 - Bernard Lovell, British scientist (born 1913)
• August 20 - Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (born 1955)
• August 25 - Neil Armstrong, American astronaut (born 1930)
• September 3 - Michael Clarke Duncan, American actor (born 1957)
• September 25 - Andy Williams, American singer (born 1927)
• October 21 - George McGovern, American politician (born 1922)
• October 21 - Yash Chopra, Indian film producer (born 1932)
• November 5 - Elliott Carter, American composer (born 1908)
• November 23 - Larry Hagman, American actor (born 1931)
• December 5 - Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect (born 1907)
• December 11 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano (born 1926)
• December 11 - Ravi Shankar, Indian sitarist (born 1920)

Sporting events

• Different Olympic games:
  • 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia
  • 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore
  • 2012 Summer Olympics in London
  • 2012 Winter Youth Olympics
  • 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, southern Russia
  • 2014 Summer Youth Olympics
  • 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
  • 2016 Winter Youth Olympics
  • 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea
  • 2018 Summer Youth Olympics

• Different World Cup games:
  • 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa, won by the Spain
  • 2011 Cricket World Cup was held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, won by India
  • 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was held in Germany, won by Japan
  • 2011 Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand, won by New Zealand
  • 2014 FIFA World Cup to be held in Brazil
  • 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in in Canada
  • 2015 Cricket World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand
  • 2015 Rugby World Cup to be held in England
  • 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia
  • 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
  • 2019 Cricket World Cup to be held in England and Wales
  • 2019 Rugby World Cup to be held in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore