2006





2006 was designated as:
 * International Year of Deserts and Desertification
 * International Asperger's Year
 * Year of Mozart, marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

January

 * January 1 – Russia cuts the shipment of natural gas to Ukraine over a price dispute.
 * January 4 – Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, suffers a severe stroke and cerebral hemorrhage.
 * January 5 – A hotel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, collapses, killing 76 pilgrims visiting to perform Hajj.
 * January 12 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills 362 pilgrims.
 * January 15 – NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.
 * January 16 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf assumes office as President of Liberia, the first female elected head of state in Africa.
 * January 19 – NASA launches the first space mission to Pluto as a rocket hurls the New Horizons spacecraft on a 9-year journey.
 * January 25 – Pope Benedict XVI issues his first encycylical, Deus caritas est.
 * January 27 – Celebrations are held in Salzburg and around the world, for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

February

 * February 3 – Egyptian passenger ferry, MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98 carrying more than 1,400 people, sinks in the Red Sea off the Saudi coast, with only 388 rescued.
 * February 4 – The Wowowee stampede at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City, Philippines, kills 74 people and leaves 600 injured.
 * February 10–26 – The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin, Italy.
 * February 17 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
 * February 19 – Pasta de Conchos mine disaster: Sixty-five miners die after becoming trapped underground, following an explosion in Nueva Rosita, Mexico.

March

 * March 4 – The final contact attempt with Pioneer 10 receives no response.
 * March 9 – NASA's Cassini–Huygens spacecraft discovers geysers of a liquid substance shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, signaling a possible presence of water.
 * March 10 – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars.
 * March 16 – The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council.
 * March 21 – Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams found the popular social-networking service Twitter. They officially launch the site later in the year.
 * March 28 – A scramjet jet engine, HyShot III, designed to fly at 7 times the speed of sound, is successfully tested at Woomera, South Australia.

April

 * April 5 – A swan with Avian flu is discovered in Cellardyke in Fife, Scotland (the first case in the United Kingdom).
 * April 10 – A fire at the Brand India Fair, Victoria Park, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, kills at least 100.
 * April 11
 * The European Space Agency's Venus Express spaceprobe enters Venus' orbit.
 * Nuclear program of Iran: 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; 9 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 – The Human Genome Project publishes the last chromosome sequence, in Nature.
 * May 24 – East Timor's Foreign Minister José Ramos-Horta officially requests military assistance from the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Portugal.
 * May 27 – The 6.4 Mw Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java with an MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), leaving more than 5,700 dead and 37,000 injured.
 * May 29 – Sidoarjo mud flow: The world's biggest mud volcano is created by the blowout of a natural gas well being drilled in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo in East Java, Indonesia. This results in displacement of more than 11,000 persons from 8 villages, as well as damage to road and power infrastructures. Several (Twenty-five) factories are also abandoned.

June

 * June 3 – Montenegro declares independence after a May 21 referendum. The state union of Serbia and Montenegro is dissolved on June 5, leaving Serbia as the successor state.
 * June 9 – July 9 – The 2006 FIFA World Cup begins in Germany.
 * June 18
 * The first Kazakh space satellite KazSat-1 is launched.
 * Former Beatle Paul McCartney turns 64 after writing "When I'm Sixty-Four" at age 16.
 * June 28
 * Operation Summer Rains: Israel launches an offensive against militants in Gaza.
 * The United States Armed Forces withdraws its forces in Iceland, thereby disbanding the Iceland Defense Force.

July

 * July 1 – The Qinghai–Tibet Railway launches a trial operation, making Tibet the last province-level entity of China to have 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 9
 * Italy wins its fourth FIFA World Cup title.
 * S7 Airlines Flight 778 crashes into a concrete barrier shortly after landing, killing at least 122 people and leaving many injured.
 * July 10 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 688 crashes in Multan, Pakistan, shortly after takeoff.
 * July 11 – A series of coordinated bomb attacks strikes several commuter trains in Mumbai, India, during the evening rush hour.
 * July 12 – 2006 Lebanon War: Israeli troops invade Lebanon in response to Hezbollah kidnapping 2 Israeli soldiers and killing 3. Hezbollah declares open war against Israel 2 days later.
 * July 15 – Twitter is launched.
 * July 17 – The 7.7 Mw Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and leaving more than 9,000 injured.
 * July 18 – The SS Nomadic (1911), the last floating link to Titanic, returns home to a large reception in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

August

 * August 11 – A resolution to end the 2006 Lebanon War is unanimously accepted by the United Nations Security Council.
 * August 22
 * Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing 171 people, including 45 children.
 * The ICM awards Grigori Perelman the Fields Medal for proving the Poincaré conjecture, one of 7 Millennium Prize Problems; Perelman refuses the medal.
 * August 24 – The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, demoting Pluto to the status of 'dwarf planet' more than 70 years after its discovery.
 * August 25 – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to 9 years in prison for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.
 * August 27 – Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead in the hours following the crash.

September

 * September 13 – Dawson College shooting in Montreal: One killed, nineteen injured.
 * September 19 – Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand declares a state of emergency in Bangkok as members of the Royal Thai Army stage a coup d'état. The army announces the removal of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power.
 * September 29 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 (Boeing 737-800) collides with a business jet over the Amazon rainforest, killing all 155 on board.

October

 * October 2 – West Nickel Mines School shooting: Charles Carl Roberts fatally shoots five Amish girls and wounds five others in a shooting at the West Nickel Mines Parochial School in the Old Order Amish community of Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
 * October 9 – North Korea claims to have conducted its first-ever nuclear test.
 * October 13 – South Korean Ban Ki-moon is elected as the new Secretary-General of the United Nations.
 * October 16 – In Sri Lanka, the Habarana massacre kills between 92 and 103 sailors and wounds more than 150 people.
 * October 17 – The population of the United States exceeds 300 million.
 * October 29 – ADC Airlines Flight 53 crashes shortly after takeoff in Nigeria, killing 96 people.

November

 * November 2 – No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock becomes the most expensive painting after it is sold privately for $140 million.
 * November 5 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi Special Tribunal.
 * November 8 – Mercury transits the sun. It is visible from the Americas, Eastern China, Japan, Australia, and Polynesia.
 * November 12 – The former Soviet republic of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.
 * November 15 – Al Jazeera launches its English-language news channel, Al Jazeera English.
 * November 23 – A series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City, Baghdad, kill at least 215 people and injure 257 other people.
 * November 30 – Typhoon Durian triggers a massive mudslide and kills at least 720 people in Albay province on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

December

 * December 5 – The military seizes power in Fiji, in a coup d'état led by Commodore Josaia Vorenathalie qe "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 12 – Swift raids: Homeland Security police detain workers at 6 meatpacking plants in the midwestern U.S.
 * December 13 – The Chinese River Dolphin or Baiji becomes extinct.
 * December 24 – Ethiopia admits its troops have intervened in Somalia.
 * December 26 – An oil pipeline explodes in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, killing at least 200 people.
 * December 30 – Basque nationalist group ETA detonates a van bomb at Madrid-Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, ending a nine-month ceasefire.

Births

 * September 6 – Prince Hisahito of Akishino of Japan, son of Kiko, Princess Akishino and Prince Akishino
 * October 5 – Jacob Tremblay, Canadian child actor

January

 * January 3 – Bill Skate, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (b. 1953)
 * January 4 – Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (b. 1946)
 * January 6 – Lou Rawls, African-American singer (b. 1933)
 * January 7 – Heinrich Harrer, mountaineer, explorer and author (b. 1912)
 * January 14 – Shelley Winters, American actress (b. 1920)
 * January 15 – Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1926)
 * January 19 – Wilson Pickett, American singer (b. 1941)
 * January 21 – Ibrahim Rugova, first President of Kosovo (b. 1944)
 * January 24 – Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)
 * January 27 – Johannes Rau, President of Germany (b. 1931)
 * January 30 – Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1927)

February



 * February 4 – Betty Friedan, American feminist, activist, and writer (b.1921)
 * February 8
 * Ron Greenwood, English football manager (b. 1921)
 * Akira Ifukube, Japanese classical music/film composer (b. 1914)
 * February 9 – Sir Freddie Laker, British airline entrepreneur (b. 1922)
 * February 10 – J Dilla, American music producer (b. 1974)
 * February 12 – Peter Benchley, American writer (b. 1940)
 * February 13
 * Andreas Katsulas, American actor (b. 1946)
 * P. F. Strawson, English philosopher (b. 1919)
 * February 14 – Shoshana Damari, Israeli singer and actress (b. 1923)
 * February 15 – Sun Yun-suan, Premier of the Republic of China (b. 1913)
 * February 23 – Telmo Zarra, Spanish footballer (b. 1921)
 * February 24
 * Don Knotts, American actor (b. 1924)
 * Dennis Weaver, American actor (b. 1924)
 * February 25 – Darren McGavin, American actor (b. 1922)

March

 * March 1 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (b. 1947)
 * March 2 – Jack Wild, English actor (b. 1952)
 * March 6
 * Dana Reeve, American actress, wife of Christopher Reeve (b. 1961)
 * Kirby Puckett, U.S. baseball player (b. 1960)
 * March 9 – John Profumo, British politician (b. 1915)
 * March 11
 * Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian hockey player (b. 1931)
 * Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia (b. 1941)
 * March 13
 * Maureen Stapleton, American actress (b. 1925)
 * Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer (b. 1944)
 * March 14 – Lennart Meri, President of Estonia (b. 1929)
 * March 25
 * Rocío Dúrcal, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1944)
 * Richard Fleischer, American film director (b. 1916)
 * Buck Owens, American country & western singer, songwriter (b. 1929)
 * March 26 – Paul Dana, American race car driver (b. 1975)
 * March 27 – Stanisław Lem, Polish writer (b. 1921)
 * March 28 – Caspar Weinberger, United States Secretary of Defense (b. 1917)

April

 * April 2 – Nina Schenk von Stauffenberg, German wife of soldier Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg (b. 1913)
 * April 5 – Gene Pitney, American singer (b. 1941)
 * April 8 – Gerard Reve, Dutch author (b. 1923)
 * April 11 – Proof, American rapper (D12) (b. 1973)
 * April 12 – Rajkumar, Indian actor (b. 1929)
 * April 19 – Scott Crossfield, American pilot (b. 1921)
 * April 21 – Telê Santana, Brazilian footballer and coach (b. 1931)
 * April 23 – Alida Valli, Italian actress (b. 1921)
 * April 24 – Brian Labone, English footballer (b. 1940)
 * April 25 – Jane Jacobs, American-born writer and activist (b. 1916)
 * April 29 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist (b. 1908)

May

 * May 3 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter (b. 1921)
 * May 6
 * Lillian Asplund, last American survivor of the Titanic disaster (b. 1906)
 * Shigeru Kayano, Japanese activist (b. 1926)
 * May 10 – Val Guest, British film director (b. 1911)
 * May 11 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer (b. 1935)
 * May 12 – Hussein Maziq, Former Libyan prime minister (b. 1918).
 * May 13 – Jaroslav Pelikan, American historian (b. 1923)
 * May 21 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, and songwriter (b. 1909)
 * May 22 – Lee Jong-wook, Korean Director-General of the World Health Organisation (b. 1945)
 * May 23 – Lloyd Bentsen, American politician (b. 1921)
 * May 25 – Desmond Dekker, Jamaican singer and songwriter (b. 1941)
 * May 26 – Édouard Michelin, French businessman (b. 1963)
 * May 30 – Shohei Imamura, Japanese film director (b. 1926)

June

 * June 1 – Rocío Jurado, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1944)
 * June 6
 * Arnold Newman, American photographer (b. 1918)
 * Billy Preston, American artist and musician (b. 1946)
 * June 7 – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jordanian militant (b. 1966)
 * June 9 – Drafi Deutscher, German singer (b. 1946)
 * June 11 – Neroli Fairhall, New Zealand archer (b. 1944)
 * June 12 – György Ligeti, Hungarian composer (b. 1923)
 * June 13 – Charles Haughey, Taoiseach of Ireland (b. 1925)
 * June 15 – Raymond Devos, French humorist (b. 1922)
 * June 23 – Aaron Spelling, American television producer (b. 1923)
 * June 25 – Arif Mardin, Turkish-born music producer (b. 1932)

July

 * July 1
 * Ryutaro Hashimoto, 53rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
 * July 5
 * Gert Fredriksson, Swedish kayaker (b. 1919)
 * Kenneth Lay, American businessman (b. 1942)
 * July 7
 * Rudi Carrell, Dutch entertainer (b. 1934)
 * Syd Barrett, English singer, songwriter, and guitarist (b. 1946)
 * John Money, Sexologist (b. 1921)
 * Elias Hrawi, former President of Lebanon (b. 1925)
 * July 8 – June Allyson, American actress (b. 1917)
 * July 10 – Shamil Basayev, Chechen rebel (b. 1965)
 * July 13 – Red Buttons, American actor and comedian (b. 1919)
 * July 16 – Bob Orton, American wrestler (b. 1929)
 * July 17 – Mickey Spillane, American writer (b. 1918)
 * July 19 – Jack Warden, American actor (b. 1920)
 * July 20 – Ted Grant, British politician (b. 1913)
 * July 21
 * Ta Mok, Cambodian military leader (b. 1926)
 * Mako Iwamatsu, Japanese-born actor (b. 1933)
 * July 28 – David Gemmell, British author (b. 1948)
 * July 30 – Murray Bookchin, American libertarian socialist (b. 1921)

August



 * August 3
 * Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-born soprano (b. 1915)
 * Arthur Lee, American musician (b. 1945)
 * August 9 – James Van Allen, American physicist (b. 1914)
 * August 13
 * Tony Jay, English-born actor (b. 1933)
 * Jon Nödtveidt, Swedish musician (b. 1975)
 * August 14 - Bruno Kirby, American actor (b. 1949)
 * August 15
 * Te Atairangikaahu, Maori queen (b. 1931)
 * Faas Wilkes, former Dutch football player (b. 1923)
 * August 16 – Alfredo Stroessner, President of Paraguay (b. 1912)
 * August 19 – Óscar Míguez, Uruguayan football player (b. 1927)
 * August 20 – Joe Rosenthal, American photographer (b. 1911)
 * August 21
 * Bismillah Khan, Indian musician (b. 1916)
 * S. Yizhar, Israeli writer (b. 1916)
 * August 23
 * Maynard Ferguson, Canadian musician and bandleader (b. 1928)
 * Wolfgang Přiklopil, Austrian kidnapper of Natascha Kampusch (b. 1962)
 * August 26 – Rainer Barzel, German politician (b. 1924)
 * August 27
 * Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Indian filmmaker (b. 1922)
 * María Capovilla, Ecuadorian supercentenarian and last remaining person born during the 1880s (b. 1889)
 * August 30
 * Glenn Ford, Canadian actor (b. 1916)
 * Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)

September

 * September 1 – György Faludy, Hungarian poet (b. 1910)
 * September 2 – Bob Mathias, American athlete (b. 1930)
 * September 4
 * Steve Irwin, Australian environmentalist and television personality (b. 1962)
 * Giacinto Facchetti, Italian footballer (b. 1942)
 * September 10 – Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, 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 23 – Malcolm Arnold, English composer (b. 1921)
 * September 26
 * Byron Nelson, American golfer (b. 1912)
 * Iva Toguri D'Aquino, American propagandist for Japan in World War II (b. 1916)

October

 * October 7 – Anna Politkovskaya, American-born Russian journalist (b. 1958)
 * October 9 – Paul Hunter, British snooker player (b. 1978)
 * October 11 – Cory Lidle, American baseball player (b. 1972)
 * October 14 – Freddy Fender, American singer (b. 1937)
 * October 16 – Valentín Paniagua, President of Peru (b. 1936)
 * October 18 – Anna Russell, British-born comedian and music satirist (b. 1911)
 * October 20 – Jane Wyatt, American actress (b. 1910)
 * October 22 – Choi Kyu-hah, President of South Korea (b. 1919)
 * October 28
 * Red Auerbach, American basketball coach and official (b. 1917)
 * Trevor Berbick, Jamaican boxer (b. 1955)
 * October 30 – Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist (b. 1926)
 * October 31 – P. W. Botha, former State President of South Africa (b. 1916)

November

 * November 1
 * Adrienne Shelly, American actress & director (b. 1966)
 * William Styron, American writer (b. 1925)
 * November 2 – Adrien Douady, French mathematician (b. 1935)
 * November 3 – Paul Mauriat, French musician (b. 1925)
 * November 4
 * Frank Arthur Calder, Canadian politician (b. 1915)
 * Sergi López Segú, Spanish footballer (b. 1967)
 * November 5 – Mustafa Bülent Ecevit, Turkish politician, poet, writer and journalist (b. 1925)
 * November 8 – Basil Poledouris, American composer (b. 1945)
 * November 9 – Ed Bradley, American journalist (b. 1941)
 * November 10 – Jack Palance, American actor (b. 1919)
 * November 15 – Ana Carolina Reston, Brazilian fashion model (b. 1985)
 * November 16 – Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
 * November 17
 * Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer (b. 1927)
 * Ruth Brown, American singer (b. 1928)
 * November 20 – Robert Altman, American film director (b. 1925)
 * November 21
 * Pierre Amine Gemayel, Lebanese politician (b. 1972)
 * Hassan Gouled Aptidon, former President of Djibouti (b. 1916)
 * November 23
 * Alexander Litvinenko, Russian-born spy (b. 1962)
 * Philippe Noiret, French actor (b. 1930)
 * Anita O'Day, American singer (b. 1919)
 * Willie Pep, American boxer (b. 1922)
 * November 24
 * Walter Booker, American jazz bassist (b. 1933)
 * Juice Leskinen, Finnish singer and songwriter (b. 1950)
 * November 26 – Dave Cockrum, American comic book artist (b. 1943)

December

 * December 1 – Claude Jade, French actress (b. 1948)
 * December 5 – David Bronstein, Soviet Union chess grandmaster (b. 1924)
 * December 7 – Jeane Kirkpatrick, American political theorist and U.N. ambassador (b. 1926)
 * December 10 – Augusto Pinochet, Chilean dictator (b. 1915)
 * December 12
 * Paul Arizin, American basketball player (b. 1928)
 * Peter Boyle, American actor (b. 1935)
 * December 13 – Lamar Hunt, American sports executive (b. 1932)
 * December 14 – Ahmet Ertegün, Turkish record executive (b. 1923)
 * December 15 – Clay Regazzoni, Swiss race car driver (b. 1939)
 * December 18 – Joseph Barbera, American animator (b. 1911)
 * December 21 – Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan (b. 1940)
 * December 22 – Elena Mukhina, Russian gymnast (b. 1960)
 * December 25 – James Brown, American singer (b. 1933)
 * December 26 – Gerald R. Ford, American politician who served as 40th Vice President of the United States and the 38th President of the United States (b. 1913)
 * December 30 – Saddam Hussein, 5th President of Iraq (executed by hanging) (b. 1937)

Nobel Prizes

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