2021

2021 (MMXXI) is the current year. It is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2021st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 21st year of the 3rd millennium, the 21st year of the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2020s decade.

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century – 21st century – 22nd century
Decades:	1990s  2000s  2010s  – 2020s –  2030s  2040s  2050s
Years:	2018 2019 2020 – 2021 – 2022 2023 2024

Events

January

On 6 January, protestors supporting U.S. President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

On 9 January, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crashes in the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia

On 13 January, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump a second time over the storming of the U.S. Capitol

On 20 January, former Vice President Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States

• January 1
  • The African Continental Free Trade Area comes into effect.
  • Cuba formally unifies its dual currency system after 27 years, with Cuban convertible peso (CUC) leaving and making the Cuban peso (CUP) the only national currency.
  • Munster Technological University is opened in Cork, and Tralee, Ireland.
• January 4
  • A British judge blocks the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States and Mexico offers him political asylum.
  • Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra is re-elected to a second term, winning 54% of the vote.
  • The border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia reopens.
• January 6
  • Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump storm inside the United States Capitol while congress was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Democratic Party officially gains control of the United States Senate, now controlling both chambers of the United States Congress.
  • 2019–20 Hong Kong protests: Hong Kong police arrest over 50 democracy activists under the national security law.
• January 7 – 2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisis: Iraq issues an arrest warrant for U.S. President Donald Trump over the drone strike killing of Qasem Soleimani.
• January 9 – Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 is declared missing after the plane dropped 10,000 ft within a minute north of Jakarta, Indonesia. The plane was believed to have crashed and was carrying over 60 passengers. A search and rescue team were deployed.
• January 10 – Kim Jong-un is elected as the General Secretary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, taking the title from his late father Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011.
• January 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 90 million worldwide.
• January 13 – U.S. President Donald Trump is impeached for a second time following the storming of the United States Capitol. He is the only president of the United States to be impeached twice.
• January 14 – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is re-elected winning 58.64% of the vote, defeating Bobi Wine.
• January 15
  • An earthquake occurs in Sulawesi, Indonesia, killing at least 35 people.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from the virus passes two million.
  • Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his government resign as a result of a child welfare scandal.
• January 17 – LauncherOne becomes the first liquid-fueled aircraft launched rocket to reach orbit.
• January 20 – Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States with Kamala Harris as the 49th Vice President of the United States.
• January 23 – In Russia, police arrest more than 3,000 people who were protesting in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who was also arrested.
• January 24 – President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is re-elected in a landslide victory winning 60.7% of the vote.

Other events

Predicted and scheduled events

• February 7 – Super Bowl LV is scheduled to be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, in the United States.
• March - The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch the Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission.
• March 8 – A murder trial is scheduled to begin for the four police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd.
• March 17 – The Dutch General Elections for the House of Representatives of the Netherlands are scheduled to take place.
• March 23 - The Israeli General Elections are scheduled to take place. This will be the fourth Knesset election in 2 years.
• April 19 – Raúl Castro plans to resign as First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, ending 62 years of rule by the Castro brothers in Cuba.
• May 6 – The United Kingdom is scheduled to hold a series of local elections, including elections to the Welsh Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the London Assembly, and the mayorship of London.
• May 18 – 22 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is scheduled to be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands after the cancellation of the 2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• May 26 – The second-shortest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century will occur, lasting just 14 minutes and 30 seconds long.
• June 10 – Annular solar eclipse.
• June 11 – July 11 – The UEFA Euro 2020 is scheduled to be held across Europe, and the 2021 Copa América to be held in Argentina and Colombia. Both competitions were rescheduled from June 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• June 18 – Israel is scheduled to hold a presidential election.
• July 23 – August 8 – The 2020 Summer Olympics are scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan. They were rescheduled from July 24, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• September 1 – Singapore plans to prohibit the ivory trade on this date.
• September 5 – The Hong Kong Special Administration Region in China is scheduled to hold an election for the Legislative Council.
• September 13 – Norway plans a parliamentary election. All seats in the Norwegian Storting will be up for election.
• October 1 – The 2020 World Expo is scheduled to take place. It was rescheduled from October 20, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• October 1 – October 31 – The Russian Federation plans to hold a nationwide census.
• October 22 – Japan is scheduled to hold a general election for the House of Representatives.
• October 23 – November 27 – The 2021 Rugby League World Cup is scheduled to take place in England.
• October 24 – Germany is scheduled to hold a federal election for the Bundestag no later than this date.
• October 31 – NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Space Telescope Science Institute plan to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
• November – Planned launch of NASA's Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, the first integrated flight of the agency's Orion MPCV and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
• November 1 – November 12 – The 2021 UN Climate Change Conference is scheduled to take place in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. It was rescheduled from November 9, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• December 4 – Total solar eclipse.

Date unknown

• The Polish Parliament assigned several patrons for the year 2021 so that it is to be known as the Stanisław Lem Year, Stefan Wyszyński Year, Cyprian Norwid Year, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński Year, Tadeusz Różewicz Year, as well as the Constitution of 3 May Year in Poland.
• The European Union will abolish daylight saving time.
• The National Institute for Health Protection will begin operations in the United Kingdom.
• GB News, a 24-hour television news channel, will begin broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
• The television network France 4 will cease broadcasting in France.
• China will begin construction of a large modular space station.
• Armenia is scheduled to hold a constitutional referendum.
• The Large Hadron Collider will recommence operations after a period of renovations.
• In the US, Brood X, the largest brood of North American seventeen-year cicadas, will emerge for the first time since 2004.
• Costa Rica is planned to become a completely carbon-neutral nation (date set by President Óscar Arias) and ban "single use" plastic products (date set by President Luis Guillermo Solís).
• The Grand Egyptian Museum, described as the largest archaeological museum in the world, is expected to be completed.
• Science first light of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is anticipated for 2021 with full science operations to begin a year later.
• Plan S, an initiative for open-access science publishing launched in 2018, requires that from 2021 papers from over 10 European countries that resulted from research funded by public grants must be published under an open licence in compliant journals or platforms, available to all.

Deaths

See also: List of deaths due to COVID-19

January

Main article: Deaths in January 2021

Modibo Keita

Tanya Roberts

Martinus J. G. Veltman

Colin Bell

Michael Apted

Sheldon Adelson

Phil Spector

Hank Aaron

Larry King

• January 1
  • Carlos do Carmo, Portuguese singer (b. 1939)
  • Elmira Minita Gordon, 1st Governor-General of Belize (b. 1930)
  • Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Iranian Islamic cleric and philosopher (b. 1935)
• January 2
  • Cléber Eduardo Arado, Brazilian footballer (b. 1972)
  • Modibo Keita, 8th Prime Minister of Mali (b. 1942)
  • Paul Westphal, American basketball player and coach (b. 1950)
• January 3
  • Roger Hassenforder, French racing cyclist (b. 1930)
  • Gerry Marsden, English singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1942)
• January 4
  • Alexi Laiho, Finnish death metal singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1979)
  • Tanya Roberts, American actress (b. 1955)
  • Gregory Sierra, American actor (b. 1937)
  • Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1931)
• January 5
  • Colin Bell, English footballer (b. 1946)
  • C. George Boeree, Dutch-born American psychologist (b. 1952)
  • Ed Bruce, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1939)
  • John Richardson, English actor (b. 1934)
• January 7
  • Michael Apted, English filmmaker (b. 1941)
  • Vladimir Kiselyov, Ukrainian athlete and Olympic champion (b. 1957)
  • Tommy Lasorda, American baseball player and manager (b. 1927)
  • Marion Ramsey, American actress and singer (b. 1947)
  • Henri Schwery, Swiss cardinal (b. 1932)
• January 8
  • Steve Carver, American movie director (b. 1945)
  • Květa Eretová, Czech chess player (b. 1926)
• January 9 – Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov, Soviet-Russian physicist (b. 1919)
• January 10
  • Hubert Auriol, French rally driver (b. 1952)
  • Julie Strain, American actress and model (b. 1962)
  • Walter Taibo, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1931)
• January 11
  • Sheldon Adelson, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1933)
  • Vassilis Alexakis, Greek-born French writer and translator (b. 1943)
  • Kathleen Heddle, Canadian rower and Olympic champion (b. 1965)
  • David Khakhaleishvili, Georgian judoka and Olympic champion (b. 1971)
  • William E. Thornton, American astronaut (b. 1929)
• January 12
  • Mona Malm, Swedish actress (b. 1935)
  • Philaret, Russian-born Belarusian Orthodox prelate (b. 1935)
• January 13
  • Tim Bogert, American rock singer-songwriter and bassist (b. 1944)
  • Siegfried Fischbacher, German-American magician and entertainer (b. 1939)
  • Bernd Kannenberg, German race walker and Olympic champion (b. 1942)
  • Joël Robert, Belgian motorcross racer (b. 1943)
  • Marielle de Sarnez, French politician (b. 1951)
  • Eusébio Scheid, Brazilian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1932)
  • Sylvain Sylvain, American punk rock musician and songwriter (b. 1951)
• January 14
  • Gimax, Italian racing driver (b. 1938)
  • Peter Mark Richman, American actor (b. 1927)
  • Joanne Rogers, American pianist and puppeteer (b. 1928)
  • Jan de Vries, Dutch motorcycle racer (b. 1944)
• January 15 – Vicente Cantatore, Argentine-Chilean footballer and manager (b. 1935)
• January 16 – Phil Spector, American record producer and convicted murderer (b. 1939)
• January 17 – Sammy Nestico, American composer and arranger (b. 1924)
• January 18
  • Jean-Pierre Bacri, Algerian-born French actor and screenwriter (b. 1951)
  • Lubomir Kavalek, Czech-American chess player (b. 1943)
  • Dani Shmulevich-Rom, Israeli footballer (b. 1940)
  • Don Sutton, American baseball player and broadcaster (b. 1945)
  • Juan Carlos Tabío, Cuban movie director and screenwriter (b. 1943)
• January 19
  • Cesare Maestri, Italian mountaineer and writer (b. 1929)
  • Gustavo Peña, Mexican footballer and manager (b. 1942)
  • Felipe Quispe, Bolivian historian, indigenous leader and politician (b. 1942)
  • Giovanni Zucchi, Italian rower and Olympic bronze medalist (b. 1931)
• January 20 – Mira Furlan, Croatian-American actress (b. 1955)
• January 21 – Nathalie Delon, French actress and movie director (b. 1941)
• January 22
  • Hank Aaron, American baseball player (b. 1934)
  • Luton Shelton, Jamaican footballer (b. 1985)
• January 23
  • Alberto Grimaldi, Italian movie producer (b. 1925)
  • Larry King, American talk show host (b. 1933)
• January 24
  • George Armstrong, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1930)
  • Arik Brauer, Austrian artist and writer (b. 1929)
  • Nikolay Chebotko, Kazakhstani Olympic cross country skier (b. 1982)
  • Jóhannes Eðvaldsson, Icelandic footballer (b. 1950)

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry –
• Economics –
• Literature –
• Peace –
• Physiology or Medicine –