2021


2021 (MMXXI) was 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 and the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2020s decade.

The United Nations declared 2021 as the International Year of Peace and Trust,[1] the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development,[2] the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables,[3] and the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.[4]

Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued in 2021. Most major events scheduled for 2020 that were postponed due to the pandemic were hosted in 2021, including the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, Expo 2020, and sporting events such as UEFA Euro 2020, the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, as well as the 2021 Copa América.[5]


James Webb Space Telescope2021 Myanmar coup d'étatOctober–November 2021 Sudanese coup d'étatFall of Kabul (2021)January 6 United States Capitol attackIngenuity (helicopter)2020 Summer Olympics2021 Suez Canal obstruction
From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after the January 6 United States Capitol attack; The container ship Ever Given gets stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking international shipping for six days; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan; The Ingenuity helicopter after deployment on the Martian surface by the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover; Taliban fighters in Kabul on a captured Humvee following the 2021 fall of Kabul at the end of the War in Afghanistan.
Martinus J. G. Veltman
Phil Spector
Cloris Leachman
Christopher Plummer
Mary Wilson
Carlos Menem
Sir Michael Somare
Bunny Wailer
Lou Ottens
John Magufuli
Nawal El Saadawi
Didier Ratsiraka
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Idriss Déby
Michael Collins
Olympia Dukakis
Humberto Maturana
Franco Battiato
Yuan Longping
Carla Fracci
Poul Schlüter
Sir Anerood Jugnauth
Ei-ichi Negishi
Kenneth Kaunda
Benigno Aquino III
Raffaella Carrà
Dilip Kumar
Jovenel Moïse
Steven Weinberg
Sir Lester Bird
Gerd Müller
Sonny Chiba
Hissène Habré
Charlie Watts
Mikis Theodorakis
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Borisav Jović
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abolhassan Banisadr
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Edita Gruberová
Roh Tae-woo
Aaron T. Beck
F. W. de Klerk
Chun Doo-hwan
Mustafa Ben Halim
Vicente Fernández
Desmond Tutu
E. O. Wilson