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2011
2011 (MMXI) will be a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. According to the North Korean Juche calendar, this will be Juche year 100. This year will also be the 100th of the Republic of China Era year (民國100年).
Pronunciation
:''See also: Year pronunciation''
There is a debate as to how specific years of the 21st century, including 2011, should be pronounced in English. Although the majority of English-speakers say "''two thousand (and) X''" for any specific year post–1999, it is often suggested that the continuation of this type of pronunciation for the entire 21st century would be inappropriate or unnatural, given the alternative "''twenty X''" option.
Many experts agree that majority usage of "two thousand (and) X" is a result of influences from the Y2K hype, as well as the way "2001" was pronounced in the influential 1968 film, ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Experts also suggest that since former years such as 1805 and 1905 were commonly pronounced as "eighteen oh" or "nineteen oh" five, the year 2005 should naturally have been pronounced as "twenty oh-five".[[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article376957.ece Experts clash over millennium bugbear] — UK Times]
Many people, ranging from linguistic and academic experts to Internet bloggers, predict that the "twenty X" pronunciation method will eventually prevail, but a time frame as to when this change will occur often differs. The year 2010 is suggested by many,[[http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0026Sg The Naughty Noughties, or something]] while 2011
According to a recent press release, David Crystal, author of the ''Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language'', has predicted that the change will occur in 2011, to "twenty eleven", explaining that the way people pronounce years depends on rhythm, rather than logic. Crystal claims that the rhythm or "flow" of "two thousand (and) ten", beats out that of "twenty ten", but the flow of "twenty eleven" beats out "two thousand (and) eleven".
It is noted that, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, taking place in Vancouver, Canada, are being officially referred to as "the ''twenty-ten'' Olympics",the 2011 Rugby World Cup officially as "the New Zealand twenty-eleven Rugby World Cup". The London olympics, taking place in 2012, are also being officially referred to by ''London 2012'' as "the ''twenty-twelve'' Olympics". Chicago 2016, which operates the official Chicago bid for the 2016 games, refers to the "''twenty-sixteen'' games".
Predicted and scheduled events
January
* January 1 - Croatia is set to join the European Union.
* January - The US extradition treaty with El Salvador goes into effect.
* January - Southern Sudan will hold a referendum on independence.
* January 1 - The estate tax in the United States, after its gradual repeal through 2010, returns in full force.
* January 1 - Start of the Hungarian presidency of the European Union.
* January 1 - Estonia is set to adopt the euro.
* January 2 - Conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus, Jupiter 34' south. Third conjunction of triple conjunction Jupiter/Uranus.
* January 3 - The 112th session of the United States Congress will convene on or around this date.
* January 4 - Partial solar eclipse.
* January 30 - The 2011 Asian Winter Games will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan until February 6.
February
* February - Alpine World Ski Championships 2011 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
* February - 2011 Winter Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey.
* February 6 - Super Bowl XLV will be played in Arlington, Texas.
March
* March 18 - NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in orbit around Mercury.
* March 18 - NASA's Pluto probe ''New Horizons'' will cross the orbit of Uranus, after a 5 year journey. This will be faster than Voyager 2, which took 8 years.
* March 20 - Parliamentary election to be held in Finland.
* March 27 - Census will be held in United Kingdom.
April
* April 8–21 - Cricket World Cup to be held in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
* April 24 - Easter will not have fallen this late since 1943.
May
* May - The 56th edition of Eurovision Song Contest will be held.
* May - Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and Mars all visible within a roughly 6° area of sky.
* May 5 - Elections for the Scottish Parliament and for the Welsh Assembly.
* May 6 - Singapore holds 11th general election.
* May 17 - Canadian 2011 census.
June
* June 1 - Partial solar eclipse in the arctic
* June 15 - Total Lunar eclipse, mainly visible in Africa, India, and the Middle east
* June 26 – July 17 - The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup will be held in Germany.
July
* July - The International Olympic Committee will decide the location of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
* July - The 2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship will be held in a TBA location.
* July 1 - Start of the Polish presidency of the European Union.
* July 1 - Partial solar eclipse off the coast of Antarctica
* July 15–26 - Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China
* July 24 - Analog television broadcasts will cease in Japan.
* July 27 – August 7 - Sweden will host the 22nd World Scout Jamboree.
August
* August 15 - The comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková will pass within 0.0601AU (about 5,589,300 miles) of Earth.
* August 15–21 - Madrid, Spain hosts the XXVI edition of World Youth Day
* August 28 – September 4 - The 2011 World Rowing Championships will be held at Lake Bled, Bled, Slovenia.
* August 31 - Canada will switch off its analogue television signals and transmit only digital television signals.
October
* October - Guadalajara will host the XVI Pan American Games.
* October - 2011 Rugby World Cup to be held in New Zealand.
* October 6 - Ontario general election.
* October 23 - Federal elections in Switzerland
November
* November 7 - Saskatchewan general election.
* November 25 - Partial solar eclipse in Antarctica
December
* December 10 Total lunar eclipse, visible mainly in Asia, Australia, and Alaska
* December 31 - All U.S. Troops are scheduled to leave Iraq
Unknown dates
* A new tower in Cincinnati will be the tallest building in downtown Cincinnati.
* An Irish presidential election will be held.
* California will open the world's largest solar power plant.
* Completion of Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, the largest infrastructure project in eastern Germany.
* Dublin Institute of Technology will complete its move to Grangegorman.
* Elections to be held in Nigeria.
* Park Place shopping centre in Croydon, will be unveiled by Minerva plc, and will put Croydon in the top 5 retail destinations.
* Predicted Solar maximum (also predicted by other research groups for 2012).
* Egyptian Presidential Elections will be held.
* New Zealand Census to take place
* Redevelopment of the Perth Foreshore will begin. This project may change Perth's skyline for a long time
* The 43rd edition of the Copa América, South America's main soccer tournament between countries, will take place.
* The Bow in Calgary will be complete. It will be the tallest building west of Toronto in Canada.
* The DSM-V will be published.
* The F-35 Lightning II will begin replacing the USAF's F-16 Fighting Falcon and A-10 Thunderbolt fleets (to be complete by 2025 and 2028 respectively).
* The IPv4 unallocated address pool is projected to be exhausted.
* The Isle of Man will host the IV Commonwealth Youth Games.
* The Nord Stream natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany will be completed.
* The United Kingdom will continue 5-year process to cease analog television broadcasts region-by-region, with Central Television, Yorkshire Television and Anglia Television [http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/en/when.html].
*Blue Waters,a petascale supercomputer being designed and built as a joint effort between the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and IBM is expected to be completed in this year.
* The University of Santo Tomas (UST), Manila, Philippines, the Oldest Existing University in Asia will celebrate its Quadricentennial (400th) Anniversary.
* Bulgaria and Romania will fully implement the Schengen Agreement.
* Greece will conduct a census (the last one was done in 2001, and one census is made every ten years)
Major religious holidays
* February 2 - Imbolc, a Cross-quarter day
* March 17 - Saint Patrick's Day.
* March 20 - Spring Equinox, also known as Ostara
* April 24 - Easter
* May 11 - Beltane, a Cross-quarter day.
* June 21 - Summer solstice, also known as Midsummer or Litha
* August 1 - Lammas, a Cross-quarter day
* September 23 - Fall Equinox, also known as Mabon
* November 1 - Samhain, a Cross-quarter day and Neopagan new year
* November 6 - Eid al-Adha, a religious holiday in Islam
* December 25 - Christmas
In fiction
* In the ''Aeon Flux'' television series and film, 99% of the world's population is wiped out by a mysterious virus in the year 2011.
* In K. A. Applegate's ''Remnants'' book series, 2011 is the year life on Earth becomes extinct after a 73-mile wide asteroid nicknamed "The Rock" impacts Portugal. Eighty other humans are placed in a shuttle named the ''Mayflower'' mere hours before impact and put into artificial hibernation, while a handful of humans inexplicitly survive the impact on Earth; the reason how and the means these few survived amongst the ruins of Earth is not stated.
* The Sarah Connor Chronicles Judgement Day is predicted to take place on April 21.
* The video game ''Call of Duty 4'' takes place in the year 2011.
Source: Wikipedia