This article lists some of the events that took place in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 2011.

Incumbents

*Monarch:

Beatrix Beatrix is a Latin feminine given name, most likely derived from ''Viatrix'', a feminine form of the Late Latin name ''Viator'' which meant "voyager, traveller" and later influenced in spelling by association with the Latin word ''beatus'' or "ble ...

*Prime Minister:

Mark Rutte Mark Rutte (; born 14 February 1967) is a Dutch politician who has served as the 14th Secretary General of NATO, secretary general of NATO since October 2024. He previously served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, prime minister of the Neth ...

Events

January

* 1: The BES-islands (

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Șaba or Șaba-Târg, the Romanian name for Shabo, a village in Ukraine * Saba, ...

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius, known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially "Public body (Netherlands), public body") of the Netherlands. The island is in the northern Leeward Islands ...

and

Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...

) exchange their Antillean guilder for the

American dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

. *5: In

Moerdijk Moerdijk () is a municipality and a town in the South of the Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. History The municipality of Moerdijk was founded in 1997 following the merger of the municipalities of Fijnaart en Heijningen, Klunde ...

23.500 liters of toxic and corrosive liquids escape during a large fire on the Chemie-Pack property. * 8:

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

says farewell to soccer legend

Coen Moulijn Coenraadt "Coen" Moulijn (15 February 1937 – 4 January 2011) was a Dutch professional footballer. He spent nearly his entire club career with Feyenoord, winning several trophies. He also played for the Netherlands national team. Club career C ...

. * 11: A month after quitting as party chair of

GreenLeft (, ; GL) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the ...

Femke Halsema leaves Congress.

February

* 1: Air-defense and Command-frigate Hr. Ms. Tromp leaves her home port of

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

towards the waters around

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

to take part in the anti-piracy mission Atalanta. * 11: Karlo Timmerman wins the alternative elfstedentocht on the Austrian Weissensee over a length of 200 kilometers. Mariska Huisman wins the woman's division. * 28: 3 crew-members of a military helicopter are captured by Libyan militias. They flew with their Lynx of the Hr. Ms. Tromp to

Sirte Sirte (; , ), also spelled Sirt, Surt, Sert or Syrte, is a city in Libya. It is located south of the Gulf of Sirte, almost right in the middle between Tripoli and Benghazi. It is famously known for its battles, ethnic groups and loyal ...

and landed there without permission.

March

* 9: The

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

(Dutch Railways) are handed a record fine of 2 million euro due to not complying with performance agreements with the government. * 10-11: The 3 military crew-members are released during the night after intensive diplomatic discussions.

April

* 9:

Alphen aan den Rijn shopping mall shooting On 9 April 2011, six people were killed by a gunman who entered the Ridderhof mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands, a town approximately south-west of Amsterdam. Using a rifle, 24-year-old Tristan van der Vlis shot several people and then k ...

May

June

July

* 7: During the expansion of the Grolsch Veste an accident occurs with a lifting crane and makes part of the roof collapse. 2 people die and 14 others are injured. * 15:

Zendstation Smilde Zendstation Smilde, also known as the CJ2 Data tower (Dutch: ''CJ2 Datatoren'') is a partially guyed tower in Hoogersmilde, Netherlands. Built in 1959 for directional radio services and TV and FM-transmissions, it consists of an high reinforced ...

Hoogersmilde Hoogersmilde is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Midden-Drenthe, and lies about 16 km southwest of Assen. History The village was first mentioned in 1634 as Hooge Smilde, and means "high Smild ...

partly collapses after a fire.

August

September

October

* 2: The

Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum The Maritime Museum (, ) is a maritime museum in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The museum had 419,060 visitors in 2012. It ranked as 11th most visited museum in the Netherlands in 2013. The museum had 300,000 visitors in 2015. In 2017 the mus ...

reopens her doors for visitors. * 31: An investigation into social-psychology papers uncovered massive amount of academic fraud at Dutch Universities. At least 30 papers by psychologist

Diederik Stapel Diederik Alexander Stapel (born 19 October 1966) is a Dutch former professor of social psychology at Tilburg University. In 2011 Tilburg University suspended Stapel for fabricating and manipulating data for his research publications. This scient ...

are found to have been faked.

November

* 12: The national arrival of

Sinterklaas Sinterklaas () or Sint-Nicolaas () is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include ''De Sint'' ("The Saint"), ''De Goede Sint'' ("The Good Saint") and ''De Goedheiligman'' (derive ...

takes place in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

this year.

December

* 21: Astronaut

André Kuipers André Kuipers (; born 5 October 1958) is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth ab ...

starts his second space travel from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

; he stays at the

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), ...

for almost half a year. * 29: Theater 't Speelhuis in

Helmond Helmond (; called ''Hèllemond'' in the local dialect) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Metropoolregio Eindhoven of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of ...

is destroyed by a very large fire; the fire also damages several cube houses.

Elections

* Dutch provincial elections, 2011

Sports

* February 4:

Ellen van Dijk Eleonora Maria "Ellen" van Dijk (; born 11 February 1987) is a Dutch professional Road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Team, UCI Women's WorldTeam . Besides road cycling she was also a track cycling, tr ...

wins the

2011 Ladies Tour of Qatar ] The 2011 Ladies Tour of Qatar (2–4 February 2011, Qatar) was the third running of the Ladies Tour of Qatar cycling stage race. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) rated it as 'category 2.1'. Teams The peloton numbered eighty-nine riders ...

, including the youth and points classifications.

References

Years of the 21st century in the Netherlands 2010s in the Netherlands

{{Commons category