2006

File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany is won by Italy; Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 crashes in the Amazon rainforest after a mid-air collision with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet; The 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake kills over 5,700 people; The IAU votes on the definition of "planet", which demotes Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects and redefines them as " dwarf planets"., 300x300px, thumb
rect 0 0 200 200 2006 Winter Olympics
rect 200 0 400 200 Twitter
rect 400 0 600 200 Nintendo Wii
rect 0 200 300 400 IAU definition of planet
rect 300 200 600 400 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum
rect 0 400 200 600 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake
rect 200 400 400 600 Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
rect 400 400 600 600 2006 FIFA World Cup

2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.

Events

January

* January 1– January 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.
* January 12 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 pilgrims.
* January 15 – NASA's '' Stardust'' mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.
* January 19 – NASA launches the first interplanetary space probe to Pluto, the '' New Horizons''.
* January 25 – Hamas wins the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.

February

* February 4 – Egyptian passenger ferry, , sinks in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia, killing over 1,000 people.
* February 6 – Stephen Harper is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Canada.
* February 10– 26 – The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin, Italy.
* February 17 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines killing an estimated 1,126 people.
* February 22 – 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing: Explosions occurred at the al-Askari Shrine in Samara, Iraq. The attack on the shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, caused the escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq into a full-scale war (the Iraqi Civil War of 2006-2008).

March

* March 9 – NASA's '' Cassini–Huygens'' spacecraft announces a geyser-like emission of vapor, dust, and small ice crystals on Saturn's moon Enceladus, possibly indicating the presence of water.
* March 10 – NASA's ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' enters orbit around Mars.
* March 10 – Michelle Bachelet becomes the first female president of Chile.
* March 15 – The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council.
* March 21 – Microblogging and social networking service website Twitter launched.

April

* April 4 – The Faddoul Brothers, kidnapped on 23 February 2006 in Caracas, Venezuela, are found dead, causing outrage and mass protests against insecurity in the country.
* April 11
** The European Space Agency's ''Venus Express'' spaceprobe enters Venus' orbit.
** President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirms that Iran has successfully produced a few grams of low-grade enriched uranium.
* April 20 – Iran announces a deal with Russia, involving a joint uranium enrichment firm on Russian soil; nine days later Iran announces that it will not move all activity to Russia, thus leading to a ''de facto'' termination of the deal.

May

* May 17 – The Human Genome Project publishes the final chromosome sequence, in ''Nature''.
* May 18– 20 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 takes place in Athens, Greece, and is won by Finnish band entrant Lordi with the song " Hard Rock Hallelujah".
* May 27 – The 6.4 Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java in Indonesia with an MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), leaving more than 5,700 dead and 37,000 injured.

June

* June 3 – Montenegro declares its independence from Serbia and Montenegro after a May 21 referendum and becomes a sovereign state. Two days later, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro officially disbands after Serbia declares its independence as well, ending an 88-year union between the two states and leaving Serbia as the successor country to the union.
* June 9 – July 9 – The 2006 FIFA World Cup takes place in Germany; Italy defeats France in the final.
* June 28
** Israel launches an offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to rocketfire by Hamas into Israeli territory.
** The United States Armed Forces withdraws its forces in Iceland, thereby disbanding the Iceland Defense Force.

July

* July 1 – The Qinghai–Tibet railway begins operation, making Tibet the final province-level entity of China to establish a conventional railway.
* July 6 – The Nathu La pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.
* July 11 – A series of seven bomb blasts hits the city of Mumbai, India, killing more than 200 people.
* July 12 – Israeli troops invade Lebanon in response to Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others. Hezbollah declares open war against Israel two days later.

August

*August 10 - News was revealed of a thwarted terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks, aboard multiple transatlantic air flights.
* August 14 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sixty-one female students are killed by Sri Lankan Air Force in an air strike.
* August 22 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.
* August 24 – The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, removing Pluto's status as a planet and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet 76 years after its discovery. Ironically, this was in the same year when NASA sent its first probe to the celestial body.

September

* September – The MP4 Watch is available to consumers in America.
*September 7 – In the face of falling approval ratings and internal pressure from his government and party, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces his intention to resign by the end of 2007.
*September 7 – Partial lunar eclipse, visible over most of Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.
* September 19 – The Royal Thai Army overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a '' coup''.
* September 22 – Annular solar eclipse, visible in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, parts of Brazil, and the southern Atlantic.
* September 28 – Typhoon Xangsane passed Manila on its way to causing more than 300 deaths, mostly in the Philippines and Vietnam.
* September 29 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collides with a business jet over the Amazon rainforest, killing all 154 on board the former.

October

*October 6 – Fredrik Reinfeldt replaces Göran Persson as Prime Minister of Sweden.
* October 9
**North Korea claims to have conducted its first-ever nuclear test.
**Google purchased YouTube for US$1.65 billion.
* October 11–13 – St Andrews Agreement is held in Scotland between the British and Irish governments on devolution in Northern Ireland.
* October 13 – South Korean Ban Ki-moon is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding Kofi Annan.
* October 22 – Fernando Alonso wins his second World Drivers Championship
*October (date unknown) - The Offshore MPA project is initiated.

November

* November 2 – ''No. 5, 1948'' by Jackson Pollock becomes the most expensive painting after it is sold privately for $140 million.
* November 3 – Microsoft released Office 2007 for manufacturing.
* November 5 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He is later executed by hanging for crimes against humanity on December 30.
* November 12 – The breakaway state of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.
* November 18 – Gulli, a children's channel launched.
*November 22 – A toxic waste dumping incident occurs in Côte d'Ivoire by a Panama ship sent by Singaporean oil company, causing 3 deaths and the poison treatment of 1500 people.
* November 23 – A series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City, Baghdad, kills at least 215 people and injure 257 other people.

December

* December 1 – WikiLeaks leaks Hassan Dahir Aweys' conspiracy to assassinate Somali government officials.
*December 5 – The military seizes power in Fiji, in a coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
* December 11 – Felipe Calderón sends the Mexican military to combat the drug cartels and put down the violence in the state of Michoacán, initiating the Mexican Drug War.
* December 24 – Ethiopia admits its troops have intervened in Somalia.
* December 29 – UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt.
* December 30 – Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, was executed by hanging.

Undated

* Palestinian National Interest Committee is founded.

Births

* April 20 - Dean Berta Viñales, Spanish motorcycle rider (d. 2021)
* April 26 - Kamila Valieva, Russian figure skater
* April 29 – Xochitl Gomez, American actress
* June 25 – Mckenna Grace, American actress
* September 6 – Prince Hisahito of Akishino, Japanese prince
* October 5 – Jacob Tremblay, Canadian actor

Deaths

January

* January 2 – Lidia Wysocka, Polish actress (b. 1916)
* January 3 – Bill Skate, 5th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (b. 1953)
* January 4
**Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (b. 1943)
** Milton Himmelfarb, American essayist (b. 1918)
** Nel van Vliet, Dutch swimmer (b. 1926)
* January 6 – Lou Rawls, American singer, songwriter, actor, voice actor and record producer (b. 1933)
* January 7 – Heinrich Harrer, Austrian mountaineer, explorer and author (b. 1912)
* January 8 – Prince George, William of Hanover, German aristocrat (b. 1915)
* January 11 – Eric Namesnik, American Olympic swimmer (born 1970)
* January 14 – Shelley Winters, American actress (b. 1920)
* January 15 – Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, 13th Emir of Kuwait (b. 1926)
* January 19
** Anthony Franciosa, American actor (b. 1928)
** Wilson Pickett, American singer (b. 1941)
* January 21 – Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovar writer, scholar and political leader (b. 1944)
* January 23
** Savino Guglielmetti, Italian gymnast (b. 1911)
* January 24 – Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)
* January 25 – Sudharmono, 5th Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1927)
* January 27 – Johannes Rau, 8th President of Germany (b. 1931)
* January 29 – Nam June Paik, South Korean-born American artist (b. 1932)
* January 30 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist (b. 1927)

February

* February 2 – Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, prime minister of Bangladesh (b. 1928)
* February 3 – Lou Jones, American Olympic runner (b. 1937)
* February 4 – Betty Friedan, American feminist, activist, and writer (b. 1921)
* February 6 – George Millay, American businessman and founder of SeaWorld, (b. 1929)
* February 8 – Larry Black, American track and field medalist (b. 1951)
* February 9 – Ibolya Csák, Hungarian athlete (b. 1915)
* February 12 – Peter Benchley, American writer (b. 1940)
* February 13 – P. F. Strawson, English philosopher (b. 1919)
* February 15 – Sun Yun-suan, 10th Premier of the Republic of China (b. 1913)
* February 18 – Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa, 5th Prime Minister of Sudan (b. 1919)
* February 21 – Mirko Marjanović, 63rd Prime Minister of Serbia (b. 1937)
* February 22
** S. Rajaratnam, Singaporean politician, 1st Senior Minister of Singapore (b. 1915)
** Said Mohamed Djohar, 2-Time President of the Comoros (b. 1919)
* February 23
** Muhammad Shamsul Huq, Bangladeshi academic and former Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1912)
** Telmo Zarra, Spanish footballer (b. 1921)
* February 24
** Octavia E. Butler, American author and writer (b. 1947)
** Don Knotts, American actor and comedian (b. 1924)
** Dennis Weaver, American actor (b. 1924)
* February 28 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)

March

* March 1 – Johnny Jackson, American singer and musician, former drummer of The Jackson 5, (b. 1955)
* March 6 – Dana Reeve, American actress (b. 1961)
* March 7 – Gordon Parks, American photographer (b. 1912)
* March 9
** Anna Moffo, American operatic soprano (b. 1932)
** John Profumo, British politician ("Profumo affair") (b. 1915)
* March 11 – Slobodan Milošević, 3rd President of Serbia (b. 1941)
* March 13
** Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer (b. 1944)
** Maureen Stapleton, American actress (b. 1925)
** Roy Clarke, Welsh footballer for Manchester City & Wales (b. 1925)
* March 14 – Lennart Meri, 2nd President of Estonia (b. 1929)
* March 15 – Georgios Rallis, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1918)
* March 23 – Desmond Doss, American combat medic (b. 1919)
* March 25
** Rocío Dúrcal, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1944)
** Richard Fleischer, American film director (b. 1916)
* March 27 – Stanisław Lem, Polish writer (b. 1921)
* March 28 – Caspar Weinberger, 15th United States Secretary of Defense (b. 1917)

April

* April 1 – In Tam, Prime Minister of the Khmer Republic (b. 1916)
* April 5 – Gene Pitney, American singer (b. 1941)
* April 11
** Proof, American rapper, member of D-12, (b. 1973)
**June Pointer, American singer, former member of The Pointer Sisters, (b. 1953).
* April 12 – Rajkumar, Indian actor and singer (b. 1929)
* April 13 – Muriel Spark, Scottish-born novelist (b. 1918)
* April 14
**Miguel Reale, Brazilian philosopher of law, (b. 1910)
** Eberhardt Rechtin, American electrical engineer and telecommunications expert, (b. 1926)
* April 15 – Louise Smith, American NASCAR racer, (b. 1916)
* April 21 – Telê Santana, Brazilian footballer and coach (b. 1931)
* April 23 – Alida Valli, Italian actress (b. 1921)
* April 25 – Jane Jacobs, American-born Canadian writer and activist (b. 1916)
* April 26 – Yuval Ne'eman, Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician (b. 1925)
* April 29 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (b. 1908)
* April 30 - Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian literaturer, writer (b. 1925)

May

* May 1 – Wilfrid Butt, (b. 1922) English biochemist and reproductive endocrinologist
* May 3
** Karel Appel, Dutch painter (b. 1921)
** Franco Lavoratori, Italian water polo player, Olympic Champion (b. 1922)
* May 5 – Naushad Ali, Indian musician (b. 1919)
* May 6 – Shigeru Kayano, Japanese activist (b. 1926)
* May 11 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer (b. 1935)
* May 12 – Hussein Maziq, Prime Minister of Libya (b. 1918)
* May 13 – Peter Viereck)
* May 14
**Robert Bruce Merrifield, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
**Stanley Kunitz, American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (b. 1905)
* May 15 – Bill Strode, American Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer (b. 1937)
* May 17 – Mieczysław Nowak, Polish weightlifter (b. 1936)
* May 22 – Lee Jong-wook, Korean Director-General of the World Health Organization (b. 1945)
* May 23 – Lloyd Bentsen, American politician, vice presidential candidate (b. 1921)
* May 25 – Desmond Dekker, Jamaican singer and songwriter (b. 1941)
* May 30 – Shohei Imamura, Japanese film director (b. 1926)
* May 31 – Raymond Davis Jr., American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)

June

* June 1
** Radu Bălescu, Romanian scientist (b. 1932)
**Rocío Jurado, Spanish singer (b. 1946)
* June 3 – Brian Duke, Ugandan-born tropical disease expert (b. 1926)
* June 6 – Billy Preston, American artist and musician (b. 1946)
* June 7
** Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jordanian militant and founder of Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (now ISIS) (b. 1966)
** Louis B. Sohn, Ukrainian-born scholar of international law (b. 1914)
* June 10 – Qadi Abdul Karim Abdullah Al-Arashi, Yemeni politician, former President of North Yemen (b. 1934)
* June 12 – György Ligeti, Hungarian composer (b. 1923)
* June 13 – Charles Haughey, 7th Taoiseach of Ireland (b. 1925)
* June 14 – Surinder Kaur, Indian Punjabi folk and classical singer known as the "nightingale of Punjab" (b. 1929)
* June 23 – Aaron Spelling, American television producer (b. 1923)

July

* July 1
**Ryutaro Hashimoto, 53rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
**Fred Trueman, English and Yorkshire cricketer (b. 1931)
* July 5 – Gert Fredriksson, Swedish kayaker (b. 1919)
* July 7
** Syd Barrett, English singer, songwriter, and guitarist (b. 1946)
** Elias Hrawi, 9th President of Lebanon (b. 1925)
** John Money, psychologist and author known for his research in gender identity (b. 1921)
* July 8 – June Allyson, American actress (b. 1917)
* July 13 – Red Buttons, American comedian and actor (b. 1919)
* July 17 – Mickey Spillane, American writer (b. 1918)
* July 19 – Jack Warden, American actor (b. 1920)
* July 21 – Mako, Japanese-American actor and singer (b. 1933)
* July 30 – Murray Bookchin, American social theorist and philosopher (b. 1921)

August

* August 3 – Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-born soprano (b. 1915)
* August 9 – James Van Allen, American physicist (b. 1914)
* August 15
** Te Atairangikaahu, Maori queen (b. 1931)
** Faas Wilkes, Dutch footballer (b. 1923)
* August 16 – Alfredo Stroessner, 42nd President of Paraguay (b. 1912)
* August 19 – Óscar Míguez, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1927)
* August 20 – Joe Rosenthal, American photographer (b. 1911)
* August 21 – Bismillah Khan, Indian musician (b. 1916)
* August 23 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian musician and bandleader (b. 1928)
* August 25 – Noor Hassanali, 2nd President of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1918)
* August 26 – Rainer Barzel, German politician (b. 1924)
* August 28 – Melvin Schwartz, American physicist (b. 1932)
* August 30
** Glenn Ford, Canadian actor (b. 1916)
** Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian Nobel writer (b. 1911)

September

* September 2 – Bob Mathias, American athlete (b. 1930)
* September 4
** Giacinto Facchetti, Italian footballer (b. 1942)
** Steve Irwin, Australian environmentalist and television personality (b. 1962)
* September 10 – Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, 4th King of Tonga (b. 1918)
* September 11 – Joachim Fest, German historian and journalist (b. 1926)
* September 14 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-born actor and bodybuilder (b. 1926)
* September 15 – Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist (b. 1929)
* September 16 – Zsuzsa Körmöczy, Hungarian tennis player and coach (b. 1924)
* September 17 – Patricia Kennedy Lawford, American socialite (b. 1924)
* September 22 – Edward Albert, American actor (b. 1951)
* September 23 – Malcolm Arnold, English composer (b. 1921)
* September 26
** Byron Nelson, American golfer (b. 1912)
** Audrey Stuckes, English material scientist (b. 1923)
* September 28 – Jan Werner Danielsen, Norwegian pop singer (b. 1976)

October

* October 2 – Paul Halmos, Hungarian-born American mathematician and statistician (b. 1916)
* October 7 – Anna Politkovskaya, American-born Russian journalist (b. 1958)
* October 16 – Valentín Paniagua, President of Peru (b. 1936)
* October 20 – Jane Wyatt, American actress (b. 1910)
* October 22 – Choi Kyu-hah, 4th President of South Korea (b. 1919)
* October 27 – Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Pakistani civil servant and 7th President of Pakistan (b. 1915)
* October 28
** Red Auerbach, American basketball coach and official (b. 1917)
** Trevor Berbick, Jamaican boxer (b. 1954)
* October 30 – Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist (b. 1926)
* October 31 – P. W. Botha, former State President of South Africa (b. 1916)

November

* November 1 – William Styron, American writer (b. 1925)
* November 3 – Paul Mauriat, French musician and bandleader (b. 1925)
* November 5
** Bülent Ecevit, 16th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1925)
** Pietro Rava, Italian footballer and coach (b. 1916)
* November 6 – Francisco Fernández Ochoa, Spanish ski racer (b. 1950)
* November 7 – Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, French journalist (b. 1924)
* November 9 – Ed Bradley, American journalist (b. 1941)
* November 10 – Jack Palance, American actor (b. 1919)
* November 11 – Esther Lederberg, American microbiologist (b. 1922)
* November 16 – Milton Friedman, American Nobel economist (b. 1912)
* November 17
** Ruth Brown, American singer (b. 1928)
** Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer (b. 1927)
* November 20
** Robert Altman, American film director (b. 1925)
** Zoia Ceaușescu, Romanian mathematician (b. 1949)
* November 21
** Pierre Amine Gemayel, Lebanese politician (b. 1972)
** Hassan Gouled Aptidon, 1st President of Djibouti (b. 1916)
* November 22 – Asima Chatterjee, Indian chemist (b. 1917)
* November 23
** Alexander Litvinenko, Russian-born spy (b. 1962)
** Philippe Noiret, French actor (b. 1930)
** Anita O'Day, American singer (b. 1919)
* November 25 – Valentín Elizalde, Mexican singer (b. 1979)
* November 26 – Isaac Galvez, Spanish racing cyclist (b. 1975)

December

* December 1 – Claude Jade, French actress (b. 1948)
* December 2 – Mariska Veres, Dutch singer (b. 1947)
* December 5 – David Bronstein, Soviet Union chess grandmaster (b. 1924)
* December 6 – Han Ahmedow, 1st Prime Minister of Turkmenistan (b. 1936)
* December 7
** Lyuben Berov, 43rd Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1925)
** Jeane Kirkpatrick, American political theorist and U.N. ambassador (b. 1926)
* December 9 – Georgia Gibbs, American singer (b. 1919)
* December 10 – Augusto Pinochet, Dictator of Chile (b. 1915)
* December 12
** Paul Arizin, American basketball player (b. 1928)
** Peter Boyle, American actor (b. 1935)
* December 14 – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish record executive (b. 1923)
* December 15 – Clay Regazzoni, Swiss racing driver (b. 1939)
* December 18 – Joseph Barbera, American animator (b. 1911)
* December 21 – Saparmurat Niyazov, 1st President of Turkmenistan (b. 1940)
* December 22 – Elena Mukhina, Soviet artistic gymnast (b. 1960)
* December 25 – James Brown, American singer (b. 1933)
* December 26 – Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States (b. 1913)
* December 30 – Saddam Hussein, 5th President of Iraq (executed) (b. 1937)
* December 31 – Ya'akov Hodorov, Israeli footballer (b. 1927)

Nobel Prizes

* Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemistry – Roger D. Kornberg.
* Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Economics – Edmund Phelps.
* Nobel Prize in Literature, Literature – Orhan Pamuk.
* Nobel Peace Prize, Peace – Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank.
* Nobel Prize in Physics, Physics – John C. Mather, and George F. Smoot.
* Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Physiology or Medicine – Andrew Z. Fire, and Craig C. Mello.

New English words and terms

*Wish list, bucket list
*''crowdfunding''
*''crowdsourcing''
*Eris (dwarf planet), Eris
*hypermiling
*mumblecore
*Showreel, sizzle reel
*ski cross

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2006
2006,