January 12– Peaceful protests begin in the Romanian city of Târgu Mureș, protesters expressing solidarity towards certain figures in the medical field and calling for the resignation of president Traian Băsescu. The protests would soon spread through all of the country, marking the start of a long civil unrest in Romania, lasting up to November 2015.
February 1– Egypt's deadliest football incident known as the Port Said Stadium riot is sparked after local Port Said Al Masry fans attack supporters of Cairo-based team Al Ahly SC. The massacre results in 74 deaths: 72 Al Ahly fans, 1 Al Masry fan and 1 police officer. Most of the deaths are caused by stabbing, fans thrown off the stands and a stampede.
February 19–Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France, following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.[7]
March 12– A coach carrying school pupils and teachers crashes while travelling through Sierre Tunnel on the A9 motorway in western Switzerland. Of the 52 people on board, 28 are killed, among them 22 children.
May 2– A pastel version of The Scream, by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.[22][23]
June 3–Dana Air Flight 0992, on a flight from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria, suffered a dual-engine failure during its approach to Lagos where it crashed onto buildings, killing all 153 people on board and six on the ground.
June 18–Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female, docks manually with orbiting moduleTiangong-1, making this the third country, after the United States and Russia, successfully to perform the mission.[32]
June 30–Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, is elected 5th President of Egypt, the first elected democratically by the Egyptian people, sparking mixed reactions and protests throughout the country.[34]
July 21– Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç becomes the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.
July 23– The Solar storm of 2012 is an unusually large coronal mass ejection emitted by the Sun which barely misses the Earth by nine days. If it had hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.[41]
August 25 – The Voyager 1 space probe becomes the first human-made object to successfully exit the Solar System and enter Interstellar space, and to an extent, becoming the first Interstellar probe, pioneering Interstellar exploration.
October 22 – November 2–Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record (as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 900 miles (1,400km)), wreaks havoc, resulting in 233 total deaths and $68.7billion (2012 USD) damage.[65]
December 6– The U.S. state of Washington becomes the first jurisdiction in the modern world to officially legalize the possession of cannabis for personal use.[76]
December 12 is the last time in the 21st century that the month, day and final two digits of the year are the exact same (12/12/12). The next time this will happen will be on New Year's Day in 2101 (01/01/01).
December 17– Spanish bank Grupo Santander announces the acquisition of the remaining 10% of Banesto it did not yet own, effectively absorbing it into Banco Santander.[79]
