2012

This article is about the year 2012. For the film, see 2012 (film). For other uses, see 2012 (disambiguation).

2012 : January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century – 21st century – 22nd century
Decades:	1980s  1990s  2000s  – 2010s –  2020s  2030s  2040s
Years:	2009 2010 2011 – 2012 – 2013 2014 2015

2012 by topic:

News by month

Jan – Feb – Mar – Apr – May – Jun Jul – Aug – Sep – Oct – Nov – Dec

Arts

Architecture – Art – Comics – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) – Music (Country, Metal, UK) – Radio – Television – Video gaming

Politics

Elections – Int'l leaders – Politics – State leaders – Sovereign states

Science and technology

Archaeology – Aviation – Birding/Ornithology – Meteorology – Palaeontology – Rail transport – Science – Spaceflight

Sports

Sport – Athletics (Track and Field) – Australian Football League – Baseball – Basketball – Football (soccer) – Cricket – Ice Hockey – Motorsport – Tennis – Rugby league

By place

Algeria – Argentina – Australia – Brazil – Canada – People's Republic of China – Denmark – El Salvador – Egypt – European Union – France – Germany – Ghana – India – Iraq – Iran – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Japan – Kenya – Lithuania – Luxembourg – Malaysia – Mexico – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Palestinian territories – Philippines – Poland – Russia – Singapore – South Africa – South Korea – Spain – Sri Lanka – United Arab Emirates – United Kingdom – United States – Zimbabwe

Other topics

Awards – Law – Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works – Introductions

v · d · e

2012 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	2012 MMXII
Ab urbe condita	2765
Armenian calendar	1461 ԹՎ ՌՆԿԱ
Assyrian calendar	6762
Bahá'í calendar	168 – 169
Bengali calendar	1419
Berber calendar	2962
British Regnal year	60 Eliz. 2 – 61 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2556
Burmese calendar	1374
Byzantine calendar	7520 – 7521
Chinese calendar	辛卯年十二月初八日 (4648/4708-12-8) — to — 壬辰年十一月十九日 (4649/4709-11-19)
Coptic calendar	1728 – 1729
Ethiopian calendar	2004 – 2005
Hebrew calendar	5772 – 5773
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	2068 – 2069
- Shaka Samvat	1934 – 1935
- Kali Yuga	5113 – 5114
Holocene calendar	12012
Iranian calendar	1390 – 1391
Islamic calendar	1433 – 1434
Japanese calendar	Heisei 24 (平成24年)
Korean calendar	4345
Minguo calendar	ROC 101 民國101年
Thai solar calendar	2555
Unix time	1325376000 – 1356998399
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2012 (MMXII) will be a leap year starting on Sunday in the Gregorian calendar. It will be the 2012th year of the Anno Domini or Common Era designation, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 3rd of the 2010s decade.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, in particular recognizing their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.^[1] It has also been designated as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. ^[2]

It has also been designated Alan Turing Year, commemorating the mathematician, computer pioneer, and code-breaker on the centennial of Turing's birth.^[3]

There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and center upon various interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Contemporary scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions.^[4]

Predicted and scheduled events

January

• January 13 – January 22 – The first Winter Youth Olympics will be held in Innsbruck, Austria.
• January 31 – 433 Eros, the second-largest Near Earth Object on record (size 13 km × 13 km × 33 km) will pass Earth at 0.1790 astronomical units (26,780,000 km; 16,640,000 mi). NASA studied Eros with the NEAR Shoemaker probe launched on February 17, 1996.^[5]

February

• February 6 – Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, marking the 60th anniversary of her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, and the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth.

April

• April 17 – The United States will cede wartime control of the military of South Korea after 50 years and dissolve the Combined Forces Command. Two distinct military commands (South Korea and the United States) will operate in Korea during wartime, rather than one unified command under the Combined Forces Command.^[6]

May

• May 12 – August 12 – The 2012 World Expo is to be held in Yeosu, South Korea.
• May 20 – Annular solar eclipse. Path of annularity runs through the Pacific Ocean from northern China to California.

June

• June 6 – The second and last solar transit of Venus of the century. The next pair is predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.
• June 18 – June 23 – Turing Centenary Conference at the University of Cambridge, in honor of the mathematician, computer scientist, and cryptographer Alan Turing, the last day of the conference being the hundredth anniversary of his birth.^[7]

July

• July 27 – Opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics begins in London at 19:30 UTC, 20:30 BST.^[8] London will become the first city in history to host the Olympic Games three times.

August

• August 6 – August 20 – Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity rover are scheduled to land on Mars.^[9]
• August 12 – Closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

November

• November 13 – Total solar eclipse (visible in Northern Australia and the South Pacific).

December

• December 21 – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization among others, completes a "great cycle" of thirteen b'ak'tuns (periods of 144,000 days each) since the mythical creation date of the calendar's current era.
• December 31 – The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends.

Date unknown

• China will launch the Kuafu spacecraft.
• Pleiades, a proposed supercomputer built by Intel and SGI for NASA's Ames Research Center, will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 10 Petaflops (10 quadrillion floating point operations per second).^[10]
• Sequoia, a proposed super computer built by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration will be completed, reaching a peak performance of 20 Petaflops.^[11]
• On the Sun, the solar maximum of Solar Cycle 24 in the 11-year sunspot cycle is forecast to occur. Solar Cycle 24 is regarded to have commenced January 2008, and on average will reach its peak of maximal sunspot activity around 2012. The period between successive solar maxima averages 11 years (the Schwabe cycle), and the previous solar maximum of Solar Cycle 23 occurred in 2000–2002.^[12] During the solar maximum the Sun's magnetic poles will reverse.^[13]
• The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway across the Caucasus is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2012.^[14]

Major religious holidays

• January 6 – Christmas Day (Celebrated by the Armenian Church)
• January 7 – Christmas Day by Julian Calendar (Celebrated by some Eastern Orthodox Christians)
• February 1 – Imbolc, a Cross-quarter day (Celebrated on February 2 in some places)
• February 22 – Ash Wednesday – Western Christianity
• March 8
  • Purim – Judaism
  • Holi – Hinduism
• March 20 – Spring Equinox, Persian New Year (Nouruz), also known as Ostara
• April 1 – Ramanavami – Hinduism
• April 6
  • Good Friday – Western Christianity
  • Hanuman Jayanti – Hinduism
• April 7 – Passover – Judaism
• April 8 – Easter – Western Christianity
• April 15 – Easter – Eastern Christianity
• May 1 – Beltane, a Cross-quarter day
• May 27 – Shavuot – Judaism
• June 20 – Summer solstice, also known as Midsummer
• July 20 – Ramadan Begins – Islam
• August 1 – Lammas, a Cross-quarter day
• August 2 – Raksha Bandhan – Hinduism
• August 10 – Janmashtami – Hinduism
• August 19 – Eid al Fitr – Islam
• September 17 – Rosh Hashanah – Judaism
• September 21 – Fall Equinox, also known as Mabon
• September 26 – Yom Kippur – Judaism
• October 1 – Sukkot – Judaism
• October 2 – Mehregan – Zoroastrianism and Persian Culture
• October 24 – Vijaya Dashami/Dusshera – Hinduism
• October 26 – Eid al-Adha, a religious festival in Islam
• November 1 – Samhain, a Cross-quarter day, Neopagan new year and Christian All Saints' Day
• November 13 – Diwali – Hinduism
• November 15 – Islamic New Year
• December 9 – Hanukkah – Judaism
• December 21 – Winter solstice, also known as Yule
• December 25 – Christmas – Western Christianity

In fiction

Main article: Works of fiction set in 2012

• "Angel Fire East" (1997) by Terry Brooks is set in Christmas of 2012. The plot begins on December 22, 2012.
• Decipher (2001) by Stel Pavlou depicts the discovery of Atlantis and a polar shift being caused by solar flare activity.
• Domain (2002) and Resurrection (2000) by author Steve Alten: A fictional series that tells the events of the Gabriel twins after discovering the mystery behind 2012.
• 2012: The War for Souls by author Whitley Strieber (2007) is a novel about three parallel earths and the occurrences leading up to December 21, 2012 in each as the walls between them begin to thin and allow passage through gateways to the others. A film adaptation is proposed, produced by Michael Bay.^[15]
• The Lost Symbol (2009) by Dan Brown has several references to apocalypse, the year 2012, and the number 2456282.5, which is the Julian date for December 21, 2012.
• "The Joshua Files" (2008) by M. G. Harris is a series of thrillers for young adults published by Scholastic Children's Books UK, Walker & Company in the US from July 2010. The books feature the adventures of British teenager Josh Garcia who discovers he's linked to an ancient prophecy about the coming events of 2012.^[16]
• 2012: El Código Secreto del Necronomicón (2010) by Luis G. Abbadie is a novel in which the author, through self-insertion, trails down a copy of the Necronomicon while dealing with contactees and occultists bent on furthering or impeding the events predicted for December, 2012, in previously lost chapters of the Necronomicon.
• The Invisibles ("The Invisible Kingdom," 1999–2000): The Invisibles' "fictional" universe expands into the meta-context of the "higher universe," possibly our own.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki: In the 6th part of this manga, the protagonists Jolyne Kujo, Hermes Costello, Emporio Alnino, Narciso Anasui and Weather Report have to stop the villain Enrico Pucci from resetting the universe. Pucci obtains the Stand Made in Heaven, which has the power of accelerating time to the point that the universe loops back upon and repeats itself, and tries to use the Stand to create the perfect world for his deceased friend Dio Brando, and ultimately all humanity. This entails first extinguishing the Kujou bloodline that opposed Dio, then making the cosmos restart and loop back so quickly that all the remaining spirits of the world do not die, but instead possess subconscious precognition of everything that will ever happen. Pucci believes that when reborn this way, humanity will never again know horror or sorrow. All these events occur in 2012, with the current universe being reset and altered near the completion of the thirteenth cycle of the Mayan calendar.
• A instrumental titled "It All Goes Down, Not" released by Lupe Fiasco connects his life experiences to the "2012, end of the world" theory.
• A song by Jay Sean and Nicki Minaj is called 2012 (It Ain't the End) explaining about how 2012 is not the end and partying and enjoying life.
• Love 2012, Song by 3OH!3. Some reference of the apocalypse.
• "A Certain Shade of Green," a song from the Incubus album S.C.I.E.N.C.E., references 2012 in the following lines: Are you gonna stand around till 2012 A.D.? / What are you waiting for, a certain shade of green?. December 21, 2012 also appears to be the date when the video for Incubus's song "Warning" is supposed to take place.
• Genesis's song "Get'em Out By Friday" from their 1972 album Foxtrot, sets "18/9/2012" (on the printed operistic-dialog lyrics) as the date when "Genetic Control" would set a height restriction on human beings so that twice as many people could fit on real estate properties.
• The Hed PE song "I.F.O." (to be found on their self-titled album), which is about UFO sightings and governmental conspiracies to cover them up, references the year 2012: "Prepare to meet your maker in the skies over the pyramids / Check Stonehenge / Go ask the Mayans / 2012 soon come / I will be waitin' sayin' I told you so / When the skies are ripped open / And the mothership lands on your cynical ass".
• Stones Throw Records artist Dudley Perkins released his LP, entitled "Expressions (2012 A.U.)", in 2006
• The instrumental song "December 21, 2012" by Frodus, which appears as a B-side to their best-selling 7" vinyl single of their Devo cover "Explosions" (Released 1997).
• The Anaal Nathrakh song "Timewave Zero" is about the apparent end of the world on December 21, 2012. The lyrics are translated as "The 21st Of December, 2012, The time will come"
• British nu-rave outfit Klaxons sing about apocalyptic horsemen in their song "Four Horsemen Of 2012" from the 2007 album Myths of the Near Future.
• The song "2012 — Demise of the 5th Sun" by the melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry is a reference to the year 2012. "For the lines on the fractal wave / Fit the course of history / They're created to work as one till the end / When the winter solstice comes / Actualizing the prophecy / The demise in 2012 realized"
• The Testament song "3 Days in Darkness", off of The Gathering album is a song about 2012, and speaks of the earth being swallowed in molten fire.
• VNV Nation's album Praise the Fallen" has the subtitle "PTF 2012", which is also the name of a track in the album, which seems to be predominantly about an upcoming war. The song, "Honour" starts with the line, "Passive fields, January 2012..."
• Heavy metal band Burnt By The Sun's two albums both deal with prophecies concerning the year 2012.
• "2012" is the name of the 2005 album by the experimental rock band Old Time Relijun, and several songs make references to ancient Mayan culture, such as "Burial Mound" and "The King of Lost Light."
• On the band Hella's album There's No 666 in Outer Space there is a track called "2012 and Countless" in which the only words are "There's no 666 in Outer Space" repeated.
• Metal band Ewigkeit's album Radio Ixtlan has a track entitled "Live at Palenque 2012" referencing both the Mayan calendar date and the site at which the Temple of Inscriptions where it is carved.
• Canibus mentions the year 2012 and December 21, 2012 on his Poet Laureate Infinity vocals and on his 2007 album For Whom the Beat Tolls.
• Industrial metal band Hanzel und Gretyl's fifth album is called 2012: Zwanzig Zwölf referencing the belief that the world will end in this year, as foretold in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
• On DJ Muggs and Sick Jacken's album Legend of the Mask and the Assassin, they "prophetize" Armageddon and other catastrophic events occurring in "2012 (feat. Cynic)."
• On a Jadakiss song called "What if" from his album The Last Kiss, a fellow rapper called Nas raps: "And 2012 was the end of men, And all world civilians?"
• The lyrical theme of Brain Drill's 2010 album Quantum Catastrophe is the destruction of humankind in 2012.^[17]
• The music video for Britney Spears' 2011 single "Till the World Ends" depicts the date December 21, 2012, in which an apocalyptic meltdown has enraptured the industrialised world.
• The 2010 album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by New Jersey rock band My Chemical Romance is a concept album with a plot based in a post-apocalyptic future. Promotional websites by the band reference 2012 as a date for the fictional catastrophe.
• I Am Legend (2007) is set in the year 2012.
• 2012 mockbusters by The Asylum, a series of direct-to-DVD films depicting alternate 2012 scenarios.
  • 2012: Doomsday (2008), a plot similar to the 2009 film 2012
  • 2012: Supernova (2009), another film by The Asylum which sets the catastrophe in space
  • 2012: Ice Age (2011), an Asylum film set in 2012, loosely depicting the doomsday scenario in a similar vein to The Day After Tomorrow
• 2012 (2009) is based on the fictional significance of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
• Death Race (2008) references 2012 as the year when the U.S. economy falls.
• In I Spit on Your Rave (2009), a virus which causes a zombie apocalypse is released during the 2012 Summer Olympics.
• Titanic II (2010), another film by The Asylum, is set in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.
• Blue's Clues @ The 2012 Summer Olympics(2012) This was scheduled for January 27 2012, but has been moved because Of Martin Luther King Day to February 3 2012.
• Doctor Who
  • "Dalek," 2005: A Dalek breaks loose under the Utah salt plains, and plans to kill every living thing on Earth.
  • "Fear Her," 2006: The episode is set during the lead-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London involving a reclusive girl possessed by an alien.
• Futurama
  • Xmas Story," 1999: The War of 2012 occurs, during which talk-show host Conan O'Brien lost his "freakishly long legs."
  • Jurassic Bark," 2002; Philip J. Fry's dog Seymour dies in this year.
• Joe 90 is a 1968 television series devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson set in the years 2012-13.
• The X-Files ("The Truth," 2002): On December 22, Aliens begin colonization of Earth.
• In the anime version of Death Note, the SPK organization is formed (in the manga, this occurs in 2009) following Near's meeting with the President of the United States.
• Rahxephon: The Mu attack on Tokyo trigger a series of events leading to the "tuning of the world".
• Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, (2009) set in this year.
• Star Trek: Voyager: The Millennium Gate in Portage Creek, IN, is completed.[VOY:11:59]
• That Mitchell and Webb Look, 2009: A recurring series of sketches about a game show in a post-apocalyptic future are hinted to be linked to the 2012 doomsday prediction.
• Shadowrun: With the sixth Mayan world beginning, magic returns to the world in an event called "The Awakening."
• Escape 2012: The player's mission is to escape from alien captivity.
• In Dark•Matter, a campaign setting for the Alternity and D20 Modern roleplaying games, the institute that the protagonists belong to believe that 2012 will be the end of the world.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Shadow of Chernobyl is set in this year
• Psychic Force 2012 is set during this year.
• In Universe at War: Earth Assault, the Hierarchy invasion on Earth begins.
• An in-game document from The Secret World contains the date 2012 circled and underlined but the significance of this is yet unknown.
• In Shattered Union, U.S. president David Jefferson Adams accepts his second term in office after the Supreme Court disqualifies all other presidential candidates.
• Events of Mega Man III, Mega Man's Soccer, Wily and Right's Rockboard: That's Paradise and Mega Man V are set in this year.^{[citation needed]}
• One of the puzzles later on in La Mulana (A freeware PC game based on many of the older MSX games released) states you need to 'walk the end year of the Aztec's Fifth Age.' The player must then light only the torches of the gates that correspond to the numbers in the year '2012'.
• The game Persona 4 ends in the year 2012 no matter which story ending you get.
• The Assassin's Creed series is set in 2012 and deals with a conspiracy related to an event predicted to occur on December 21, 2012.
• The game Oni briefly mentions a series of 'Freedom Riots' that occurred in 2012.
• According to the front cover of the game, Road Trip Adventure is set in September of this year.
• The Japanese visual novel 12Riven ―the Ψcliminal of integral― happened around the solar eclipse that will happen on the morning of May 21, 2012 in Japan, and the main story plots also related to (solar) eclipse; there are also references to the transit of Venus on June 6 and the end of Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
• The Conduit series for the Wii takes place on Mar. 1 2012.
• The sitcom Deep Trouble, set on a nuclear submarine, takes place in 2012.

See also

• 2012 phenomenon

References

1. ^ "United Nations International Year of Cooperatives 2012". Social.un.org. 2011-10-31. http://social.un.org/coopsyear/. Retrieved 2011-11-13. 
2. ^ "United Nations International Year of Sustainability for All 2012". Un.org. http://www.un.org/en/events/sustainableenergyforall/. Retrieved 2011-11-13. 
3. ^ "TurningCentenary.eu". Turingcentenary.eu. 2010-04-09. http://www.turingcentenary.eu. Retrieved 2010-06-02. 
4. ^ "2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?". NASA.
5. ^ "Near Earth Object Fact Sheet". Nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/neofact.html. Retrieved 2010-06-02. 
6. ^ "U.S., S.Korea set 2012 for military command changes". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/02/24/us-korea-usa-forces-idUSN2332126220070224. Retrieved 2011-11-13. 
7. ^ "Swan.ac.uk". Cs.swan.ac.uk. 2009-07-24. http://cs.swan.ac.uk/cie12. Retrieved 2010-06-02. 
8. ^ "London 2012". London 2012. http://www.london2012.com/. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 
9. ^ "NASA's Next Mars Rover Hoisted Atop Rocket". Space.com. http://www.space.com/13501-nasa-mars-rover-curiosity-atlas5-rocket.html. Retrieved 2011-11-04. 
10. ^ "NASA, Intel, SGI Plan to 'Soup Up' Supercomputer". Nas.nasa.gov. http://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Releases/2008/05-07-08.html. Retrieved 2010-06-02. 
11. ^ Gonsalves, Antone. "IBM Tapped For 20-Petaflop Government Supercomputer". Informationweek.com. http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/supercomputers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=213000842&subSection=News. Retrieved 2010-06-02. 
12. ^ Phillips, Tony (10 January 2008). "Solar Cycle 24 Begins". Science@NASA. NASA. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/10jan_solarcycle24.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-06. 
13. ^ "The Sun Does a Flip". Science@NASA. NASA. 15 February 2001. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15feb_1.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-06. 
14. ^ National Geographic, August 2010, page 62.
15. ^ "Michael Bay Confirmed for 2012". 2007-09-24. http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=5922. Retrieved 2008-07-11. 
16. ^ ""The Joshua Files" from The Oxford Times, 2008.". 2009-04-30. http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/4331667.The_Joshua_Files/. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 
17. ^ Harris, Chris (May 4, 2010). "Brain Drill enjoy Entombed, enema porn". Noisecreep. AOL. http://www.noisecreep.com/2010/05/04/brain-drill-enema-porn-entombed/. Retrieved May 18, 2010.