Year in Review 2011 (Part 3): A New Country, A New Social Network & New Womens Rights
Year in Review 2011 (part 3): The third quarter of 2011 saw some surprises, more scandal and the continuing success of social networks.
Year in Review 2011: July
Petra Kvitova upset the Wimbledon odds to beat Maria Sharapova who is still trying to get back to her best after injury. Djokovic again signalled his dominance with a victory in the mens Wimbledon final.
The phone hacking scandal exploded in the UK and is still being investigated today. The incident caused the closure of the News of the World, one of the oldest & most successful newspapers.
Facebook teamed up with Skype to offer video chat while Google once again entered the social networking market with Google+.
The world got a new country as South Sudan split form the north in a peaceful separation and David & Victoria Beckham celebrated the birth of their baby girl, Harper Beckham.
Dallas returned to our TV screens and the Spotify streaming music service launched in the US while Harry Potter cast a spell over the box office.
Japan won the Womens World Cup final in Germany after beating the USA on penalties and there was another Royal wedding as Zara Phillips married the Rugby player Mike Tindall. On the other side of that particular coin we saw Jennifer Lopez calling time on her marriage to Marc Anthony.
The USA came close to defaulting on its own debt when politicians decided to play brinkmanship with the economy. Doing slightly better were both Apple and Google who both posted record profits. The US also suffered a oppressive heatwave and saw the last flight of the space shuttle Atlantis.
Norway hit the headlines for the worst reasons when a huge explosion rocked the capital, Oslo and a gunman went on the rampage.
The world lost one of the greatest singers of the last twenty years. Amy Winehouse joined other famous singers who died prematurely, the so called 27 club.
Year in Review 2011: August
The financial markets never seemed to be out of the headlines and this month saw S&P push the US down its credit score scale thanks to its enormous deficit.
Prime Minister David Cameron threatened to take social media sites offline in a somewhat knee jerk reaction to rioting in London. This came from a man who had only a few months earlier been praising social media sites for their influence in the Arab uprisings. That’s politics for you.
The Arab uprising continued with Syria becoming a focal point as the international community called for Assad to leave office. Protesters in Syria are still facing the same challenges at the end of 2011. Meanwhile the pressure was mounting on Col. Gaddafi as the rebel army advanced on the capital Tripoli.
The Kings of Leon sparked rumors about their future by cancelling their tour and taking a break.
Steve Jobs officially announced that he would be stepping down as CEO of Apple as his health deteriorated and Beyonce announced that she was pregnant in a not so subtle dress.
Year in Review 2011: September
As Italian politics leaped from one crisis to another the little town of Filettino decided that it would go its own way and declare independence from Italy.
We saw the 10 year anniversary of the tragic 9/11 events as the redevelopment of the twin towers site nears completion.
There was growing rumor and gossip surrounding the imminent release of a new iPhone, many people were betting on it being an iPhone 5.
The financial markets once again hit the headlines as a UBS trader managed to lose $2 billion on the markets.
REM announced that they were to split after 31 years together and Google became a teenager.
A couple of stories emerged that we never thought that we would see, the speed of light had apparently been broken and women in Saudi Arabia were given the right to vote.
Read more in Year in Review 2011 (Part 4) here.
