The year 2021 was a whirlwind year with history being made in almost every part of the globe.
A military coup, space tourism and a snooping scandal were just some of the stories of 2021 which defined a paradigm shifting year.
Kashmir Digits takes a look at top ten events that shaped the world in the year 2021.
1) Capitol Hill Riots.
After former US president Donald Trump was defeated in the 2020 US Presidential Elections, chaos ensued.
His supporters couldn’t take this defeat and marched on the Capitol laying siege to the building while a joint session of the Congress was being held inside the Capitol to validate the results of the elections.
Five people, including Officer Brian Sicknick, died in the attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) called the Capitol siege an act of “domestic terrorism.”
The rioters were exhorted by Trump, for which he was impeached by the House of Representatives. In process, he became the first US President to be impeached twice.
2) Joe Biden Becomes US President.
On January 20, Joe Biden of the Democrat Party defeated Donald Trump by 306 electoral votes in the 2020 US Presidential Elections to become the 46th President of the United States.
Biden had been vice president during the Obama years from 2008 to 2016.
Biden faced ccriticism from some quarters of the press for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan, but polls continue to show improvement in the US image outside of the country.
3) Covid-19 Vaccines.
In a significant medical advancement of the 21st century vaccines were created to combat the deadly novel coronavirus that had accounted for large scale deaths throughout the world in 2020.
The speed at which COVID-19 vaccines were developed was stunning. he quickest any vaccine had been developed previously was the four years it took to create the mumps vaccine. COVID-19 vaccines were created in less than a year.
4) Myanmar Military Coup.
On the morning February 1, Myanmar military known as Tatmadaw, seized control of the country in a coup d’état.
The new military junta declared Aung Suu Kyi’s party National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in the 2020 elections as invalid.
President Win Myint and Suu Kyi, along with several ministers and other senior officials, were detained by the junta. Protests followed, but the military crackdown was brutal, resulting in the deaths of over 700, including children.
‘Tatmadaw’ chief General Min Aung Hlaing announced a year-long emergency before announcing himself as prime minister of the country.
5) Save Sheikh Jarrah Campaign
Sheikh Jarrah controversy, has been described as a “property/real estate dispute” by the Israeli government and its supporters nd as an “expulsion”, “displacement” or “ethnic cleansing” event and a matter of international law by Palestinians and their supporters.
On 4 October 2021, the court presented a “detailed compromise proposal” intended to “end the threat of eviction for the forseeable future”. The court set a date of November 2 to consider the position further, in the meantime the parties might reach agreement between them or the court would ultimately rule based on the arguments and evidence presented.
Refusing this order, the families engaged in a vibrant grassroots campaign to “Save Sheikh Jarrah” from colonial ethnic cleansing. The campaign was, and continues to be spearheaded by members of the community, most notably by 23-year-old twins, Mohammed and Muna al-Kurd.
The siblings have been sharing the on-the-ground reality in Sheikh Jarrah and calling all Palestinians to action through their social media accounts which have hundreds of thousands of followers. Their efforts have since attracted not only local but international attention.
6) Taliban Takes Over Afghanistan Again.
Perhaps the biggest political development of 2021, happened when US in a sign of defeat withdrew its troops from Afghanistan two decades after it had first set foot in the country in 2001.
The Taliban, which was waging a long battle against the elected Afghanistan government and security forces, captured the capital city hours after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
What followed were harrowing scenes of evacuation of the local Afghanistan population. One of the visuals that caught the world’s attention showed helpless Afghans trying to hold on to the landing gear of a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster while it was taking off and then some falling to their deaths.
7) Space Tourism
Elon Musk’s SpaceX created history in 2021 with the launch of Inspiration4 — the world’s first spaceflight with an all-civilian crew.
The passengers were tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, geoscientist Sian Proctor, aerospace data engineer Chris Sembroski, and physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux. None of them were professional astronauts.
8) The AUKUS deal
A historic trilateral security partnership named AUKUS was jointly announced on 15 September, 2021 between US, UK and Australia.
The most significant part of the deal was the U.S. pledge to provide Australia with technology to build eight nuclear-powered (but not nuclear-armed) submarines.
The statement announcing the pact justified it as necessary to “preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.” Although none of the three leaders mentioned China by name, AUKUS was widely seen as a response to growing Chinese assertiveness.
9) Pegasus scandal
On July 19 a shocking revelation came to front as Israeli firmware NSO’s spyware called Pegasus was found of snooping of people predominantly journalists and politicians around the world.
According to the findings, the surveillance list contained 50,000 telephone numbers of potential targets via Pegasus between 2016 and June 2021.
The list contained names of 189 journalists, 85 human rights activists and over 600 politicians and government officials.
10) Death of India’s Chief of Defence Staff
On December 8, a chopper carrying Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others crashed into the Nilgiris, in Tamil Nadu, killing all aboard.
The death of India’s first CDS Bipin Rawat was a shocking news and sent ripples across the Indian military and political fraternity
Rawat was appointed India’s first Chief of Defense Staff in December 2019. Prior to that, he served as the Chief of Army Staff for close to three years.
BONUS
1) Ukraine Crisis:
A significant Russian military buildup has taken place near the Ukrainian border in the year gone by.
This has led to US President Biden to warn Russian President Vladimir Putin in a December video call that the United States “would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event” Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov has warned the west that its “aggressive” approach to Ukraine and threat of sanctions could force Moscow to “eliminate unacceptable threats to our security”.
2) Climate Change Warning.
UN Secretary General António Guterres’ described the UN report on climate change released in August as a ‘code red’ for humanity.
It concluded that humanity faces catastrophic climate change unless the emission of heat-trapping gases is slashed.
Extreme weather dominated the news in 2021, as it has for much of the past decade. Record drought wracked the American southwest. Record flooding devastated Belgium and western Germany. Epic wildfires tore through Greece. Late season monsoons ravaged India and Nepal.
3) Crypto Currency Boom.
Another significant development of 2021 was the rise of crytpo currency.
An entire ecosystem is also flourishing, replete with exchanges, wallets, miners, and stablecoin issuers.
The total market value of all the crypto assets surpassed $2 trillion as of September 2021—a 10-fold increase since early 2020.
Crypto assets becoming more mainstream, their importance in terms of potential implications for the wider economy is set to increase.
Not to forget El Salvador, the South American country became the first in the world to accept a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as legal tender.