2012 in the United States: Difference between revisions
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* [[April 30]] – [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration|NASA]] and [[SpaceX]] launch [[Dragon (spacecraft)|Dragon]] [[COTS Demo Flight 2]] toward the [[International Space Station]].<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/09/us-space-business-idUSTRE7B825D20111209 Reuters]</ref> |
* [[April 30]] – [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration|NASA]] and [[SpaceX]] launch [[Dragon (spacecraft)|Dragon]] [[COTS Demo Flight 2]] toward the [[International Space Station]].<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/09/us-space-business-idUSTRE7B825D20111209 Reuters]</ref> |
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* [[May 27]] – [[2012 Indianapolis 500]] |
* [[May 27]] – [[2012 Indianapolis 500]] |
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* [[June 1]] – Postponed indefinitely: [[Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array]] (NuSTAR) is scheduled for launch of a space-based [[X-ray]] telescope that will use a [[Wolter telescope]] to focus high energy X-rays at 5 to 80 [[keV]] from [[astrophysics|astrophysical]] sources, especially for [[nuclear spectroscopy]].<ref>[http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/about-nustar About NuSTAR: The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array]</ref> It is the eleventh mission of the [[NASA]] [[Small Explorer]] satellite program (SMEX-11) and the first space-based direct-imaging [[X-ray telescope]] at energies beyond those of the [[Chandra X-ray Observatory]] and [[XMM-Newton]]. |
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* July – [[Dawn (spacecraft)]] will depart [[4 Vesta]]. |
* July – [[Dawn (spacecraft)]] will depart [[4 Vesta]]. |
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* [[July 9]] – FBI will stop assisting in DNS Changer Malware redirects and thus after this date Americans are informed to visit the designated website to determine if their computers are infected, http://www.dcwg.org/. The background to the infection is given as follows: |
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"November 8, ... (2011) ... the FBI, the NASA-OIG and Estonian police arrested several cyber criminals in “[[Operation Ghost Click]]”. The criminals operated under the company name “Rove Digital”, and distributed DNS changing viruses, variously known as TDSS, Alureon, TidServ and TDL4 viruses. You can read more about the arrest of the Rove Digital principals here, and in the FBI Press Release. |
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The botnet operated by Rove Digital altered user DNS settings, pointing victims to malicious DNS in data centers in Estonia, New York, and Chicago. The malicious DNS servers would give fake, malicious answers, altering user searches, and promoting fake and dangerous products. Because every web search starts with DNS, the malware showed users an altered version of the Internet. |
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Under a court order, expiring July 9, the Internet Systems Consortium is operating replacement DNS servers for the Rove Digital network. This will allow affected networks time to identify infected hosts, and avoid sudden disruption of services to victim machines. |
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This page describes how you can determine if you are infected, and how you can clean infected machines. To check if you’re infected, Click Here. If you believe you are infected, here are instructions on how to clean your computer."<br> |
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Essentially, Americans just need to visit this webpage, http://www.dns-ok.us/, to determine their infection status. |
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* [[August 6]] – [[NASA]]'s [[Mars Science Laboratory]] lands as scheduled with the Curiosity rover.<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html NASA's Launch Schedule]. Nasa.gov (2011-10-06). Retrieved on 2011-10-10.</ref><ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html Mars Science Laboratory]. Nasa.gov (2011-10-05). Retrieved on 2011-10-10.</ref><ref>http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ Mars Science Laboratory Homepage</ref> |
* [[August 6]] – [[NASA]]'s [[Mars Science Laboratory]] lands as scheduled with the Curiosity rover.<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html NASA's Launch Schedule]. Nasa.gov (2011-10-06). Retrieved on 2011-10-10.</ref><ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html Mars Science Laboratory]. Nasa.gov (2011-10-05). Retrieved on 2011-10-10.</ref><ref>http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ Mars Science Laboratory Homepage</ref> |
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* [[November 6]] – The [[United States presidential election, 2012|2012 Presidential election]] will be held. President [[Barack Obama]] will run for re-election. |
* [[November 6]] – The [[United States presidential election, 2012|2012 Presidential election]] will be held. President [[Barack Obama]] will run for re-election. |
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Revision as of 00:30, 23 April 2012
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Events in the year 2012 in the United States.
Incumbents
- President: Barack Obama (Democratic)
- Vice President: Joe Biden (Democratic)
- Chief Justice: John Roberts
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Boehner (R-Ohio)
- Senate Majority Leader: Harry Reid (D-Nevada)
- Congress: 112th
Events
January
- January 1 – New laws that go into effect on January 1.[1][2][3]
- Hawaii and Delaware's civil union laws go into effect.[4]
- Illinois allows motorcyclists the right to yield at red lights since magnetic streetlight sensors will not recognize motorcycles.[5]
- Utah bans discounts or specials on alcoholic drinks, essentially banning happy hour.[6]
- Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Colorado, Ohio, Vermont and Florida raise their minimum wage.[7]
- The City of San Francisco raises the minimum wage within its jurisdiction to over $10 per hour, making it the highest minimum wage in the country.[3]
- California adds the historical contributions of sexual minorities and the disabled to its school curriculum.[citation needed]
- Kansas, Texas, Rhode Island, and Tennessee will now require photo identification for voters as a measure to combat voter fraud.[citation needed]
- January 3 – Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum wins the Republican Iowa Caucus by a record low margin of 34 votes over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.[8]
- January 4 – Michele Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate, drops out of the race.[9]
- January 5 – Classified documents are leaked detailing a range of advanced non-lethal weapons proposed or in development by the U.S. Armed Forces. Among the systems described are a laser-based weapon designed to divert hostile aircraft, an underwater sonic weapon for incapacitating SCUBA divers and a heat-based weapon designed to compel crowds to disperse.[10]
- January 9 – White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley steps down. The Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew will take his place.[11]
- January 10
- Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour pardons 200 prisoners. On January 12, a Mississippi judge blocks the release of 21 of those inmates.[12]
- Alaska sees record snowfall.[13]
- The U.S. Supreme Court makes an 8–1 decision that abused inmates cannot sue in federal court a privately, state-hired prison company. The ruling went against prisoner Richard Lee Pollard in a dispute of damages over a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, claiming that Wackenhut/GEO, a privately run federal prison in California, had deprived him of adequate medical care.[14] Writing for the majority, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer said that "... the existence of an Eighth Amendment-based damages action ... against ... a privately operated federal prison .. state tort law authorizes adequate alternative damages actions, ... actions that provide both significant deterrence and compensation ... For these reasons, where, as here, a federal prisoner seeks damages from privately employed personnel working at a privately operated federal prison, where the conduct allegedly amounts to a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and where that conduct is of a kind that typically falls within the scope of traditional state tort law (such as the conduct involving improper medical care at issue here), the prisoner must seek a remedy under state tort law. We cannot imply a Bivens remedy in such a case. The judgment of the Ninth Circuit is reversed."
- January 14 – Miss Wisconsin, Laura Kaeppeler, wins Miss America pageant.[15][16]
- January 16
- Zappos.com computer system is hacked, compromising the personal information of 24 million customers.[17]
- Jon Huntsman, a Republican presidential candidate, drops out of the race.[18]
- January 17 – Volunteers in the state of Wisconsin submit nearly a million signatures (double the number of signatures required) calling for a recall election of Governor Scott Walker in protest of his public fight last year to abandon the collective bargaining rights of public workers.[19]
- January 18
- The U.S. Supreme Court makes a unanimous 9–0 decision that telephone consumers can gain standing in federal courts to sue abusive telephone marketers. The ruling went against Arrow Financial Services (Arrow), a debt-collection agency, in a dispute of standing over the federal jurisdiction of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991. The act was passed so that out-of-state telemarketers, by operating interstate, could not escape state-law prohibitions on intrusive nuisance calls. Petitioner Marcus D. Mims filed a damages action in Federal District Court, alleging that respondent Arrow, seeking to collect a debt, violated the TCPA by repeatedly using an automatic telephone dialing system or prerecorded or artificial voice to call Mims’s cellular phone without his consent.[20] Writing for the unanimous court, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that "We find no convincing reason to read into the TCPA’s permissive grant of jurisdiction to state courts any barrier to the U. S. district courts’ exercise of the general federal-question jurisdiction ... We hold, therefore, that federal and state courts have concurrent jurisdiction over private suits arising under the TCPA ... The Eleventh Circuit erred in dismissing Mims’s case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction ... The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."
- The U.S. Supreme Court makes a 6–2 decision that restores copyright status to some foreign works previously in the public domain. The case challenges the constitutionality of the application of Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), a treaty seeking to equalize copyright protection on an international basis. The practical effect of the decision is that some works that were once free to use (such as Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Metropolis (1927), The Third Man (1949), the works of Igor Stravinsky, several works of H. G. Wells, including the film Things to Come (1936), as well as innumerable others) now must be paid for. The ruling went against Lawrence Golan, and many others, in a dispute of URAA bringing some works whose copyright had lapsed back under copyright.[21] Writing for the majority, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that "... (if there is) ... copyright protection abroad ... (then there must be given) ... the same full term of protection ... (in the) ...U. S. ... Congress did so in §514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), which grants copyright protection to preexisting works of Berne member countries, protected in their country of origin, but lacking protection in the United States ... The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is therefore affirmed."
- January 19
- Kodak files for bankruptcy protection. Kodak is best known for its wide range of photographic film products.[22]
- Rick Perry, a Republican candidate for President, drops out after seeing no way to continue his campaign past South Carolina.[23]
- January 22 – U.S. House Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announces her resignation from office to focus on her recovery after surviving an attempted assassination in 2011.[24]
- January 23 – The U.S. Supreme Court makes a unanimous 9–0 decision that government officials must obtain a search warrant permitting them to install a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device on citizens' private property. The ruling involves a Fourth Amendment case, the requirement of obtaining a valid warrant in searches by law enforcement. The court ruled in favor of Antoine Jones in a dispute that attaching a GPS device to private property in a public space still constitutes a search and therefore falls under the Fourth Amendment.[25] The opinion of the court was written by Associate Justice Antonin Scalia who said that "We decide whether the attachment of a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device to an individual’s vehicle, and subsequent use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements on public streets, constitutes a search or seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment ... The Fourth Amendment provides in relevant part that '[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.' It is beyond dispute that a vehicle is an 'effect' as that term is used in the Amendment. United States v. Chadwick, 433 U. S. 1, 12 (1977). We hold that the Government’s installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a 'search.'"
- January 24
- President Barack Obama delivers his 2012 State of the Union Address.
- 84th Academy Awards: Nominations are announced at 5:38 a.m. PST (13:38 UTC) (8:38 a.m. EST) at Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The Best Picture nominees are The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, War Horse[26][27]
- January 25 – The Indiana House of Representatives passes right to work legislation, becoming the first state in the Rust Belt to pass such a measure.[28]
- January 26 – United States Department of Transportation requires airline companies to disclose in advance all price constituents.[29]
- January 29 – 11 people die in a suspected arson on the Interstate 75 south of the US city of Gainesville, Florida.[30]
- January 30 – In Illinois, the Byron nuclear power plant accidentally releases radioactive steam.[31]
- January 31 – A teacher, Mark Berndt, is charged with molesting 23 Los Angeles elementary school students.[32]
February
- February 5
- Superbowl XLVI: the National Football Conference champion New York Giants defeat the American Football Conference champion New England Patriots 21 to 17. It was officially the most watched program in the history of United States television with 111.3 million viewers in the US (as per the Nielsen Co.).[33]
- Disappearance of Susan Powell: The husband suspected in his wife's disappearance kills himself and his children. Susan Powell's husband Joshua Powell and the couple's two children die when their home explodes, presumably from gasoline placed by Joshua himself.[34]
- February 7 – A federal appeals court upholds the district court decision that struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage (the case is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court).[35]
- February 13 – Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signs a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Washington is the 7th state to legalize gay marriage. Opponents vow to put gay marriage on the November ballot.[36]
- February 15 – The Kellogg Company purchases snack maker Pringles from Procter & Gamble for US$2.7 billion.[37]
- February 16
- Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called "underwear bomber", is sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to detonate a bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in the US city of Detroit, Michigan.[38]
- Researchers at Dartmouth University, including Brian Jackson, find that many organic food products that contain an ingredient called organic brown rice syrup have a much higher concentration of the toxic element arsenic. They tested numerous organic foods with the ingredient, including infant formulas, cereal and energy bars. The brown rice syrup is used as an alternative for the much-maligned high fructose corn syrup. Brown rice contains the husk of the grain and that husk has proven to be an efficient absorbant of environmental arsenic. The FDA's own study on arsenic contamination of rice products is due to be published in the Spring of 2012.[39]
- February 21
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average goes above 13,000 points for the first time since May 2008.[40]
- The U.S. Supreme Court makes a 6–3 decision that law enforcement officials do not need to issue Miranda warnings to prison inmates under questioning if these inmates are warned that they may end the interrogation at any time. The ruling involves an inmate who was removed from the general prison population and questioned. The court ruled against convict Randall Fields in a dispute that questioning without Miranda invocation was proper as long as the convict was advised of his freedom to leave.[41] The opinion of the court was written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito who said that "The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that our precedents clearly establish that a prisoner is in custody within the meaning of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), if the prisoner is taken aside and questioned about events that occurred outside the prison walls. Our decisions, however, do not clearly establish such a rule, and therefore the Court of Appeals erred inholding that this rule provides a permissible basis for federal habeas relief under the relevant provision of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996(AEDPA), 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1). Indeed, the rule applied by the court below does not represent a correct interpretation of our Miranda case law. We therefore reverse."
- February 22
- In Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., former University of Virginia men's lacrosse player George Huguely is found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2010 death of former UVA women's lacrosse player Yeardley Love. The jury recommends a 26-year prison sentence, with formal sentencing scheduled for April.[42]
- Seven US Marines die when two helicopters collide and crash on the border of the states of California and Arizona. The Bell AH-1 SuperCobra attack helicopter and the UH-1Y Huey utility chopper accident occurs during a nighttime training exercise.[43]
- February 23 – The case against Gabe Watson in relation to the death of his newlywed wife Tina on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is dismissed in the US state of Alabama.[44]
- February 26
- 84th Academy Awards: The ceremony is held at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre (formerly Kodak Theatre) in Hollywood, California.[45] The Artist wins five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the first silent film to win such an award since Wings in 1927.[46] On June 14, 2011, Academy President Tom Sherak had announced that the Board of Governors approved changes to the category of Best Picture.[47] The final nominees can now range from anywhere between 5 and 10. The nomination voting process will be the same as before, through preferential balloting, but now only films that receive a minimum of 5% of total number one votes are eligible for Best Picture nominations. "A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn’t feel an obligation to round out the number," Academy executive director Bruce Davis explained. Subsequently, nine motion pictures were nominated in this first year under these new rules.
- A trial begins in Cairo of 16 Americans and 27 others linked to an Egyptian government crackdown on non-government organizations which has created tension between the United States and Egypt.[48]
- February 27
- 2012 Daytona 500: In a first ever delay the race is postponed to Monday due to heavy rain in Daytona.[49] Matt Kenseth wins on Tuesday morning.[50]
- WikiLeaks begins disclosing 5 million e-mails from the private intelligence company Stratfor.[51][52]
- February 29
- 2012 Leap Day tornado outbreak: Tornados hit the midwestern United States with 14 people killed, six in Harrisburg, Illinois.[53]
- Egypt lifts a travel ban on seven Americans employed by pro-democracy U.S. groups, including the son of U.S. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood, who is among 16 Americans on trial in Egypt for trying to foment unrest and incite protests against the nation's military rulers.[54]
March
- March 1 – Maryland becomes the 8th state to legalize gay marriage.[55]
- March 2
- The US space agency NASA claims that it was hacked 13 times last year compromising security.[56]
- Early March 2012 tornado outbreak: There are 41 dead.[57]
- BP and plaintiffs reach an agreement over compensation for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.[58]
- March 6
- Retired British businessman Christopher Tappin is denied bail in the US state of Texas as he faces arms dealing charges.[59] He is accused by the United States Government of exporting thermal batteries[60] to Iran that could be used in the manufacture of surface-to-air missiles.
- Law enforcement agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland arrest alleged senior members of the computer hacking group Lulz Sec.[61]
- Businessman Allen Stanford is convicted of running a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme.[62]
- Super Tuesday of the Republican Party presidential primaries
- Voters in 10 US states go to the polls for Super Tuesday.[63]
- Newt Gingrich is projected as the winner of the Georgia primary.[64]
- Mitt Romney is projected as the winner of primaries in Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio and Vermont as well as the Idaho and Alaska caucuses.[65][66][67][68][69]
- Rick Santorum is projected as the winner of the Oklahoma and Tennessee primaries and North Dakota caucuses.[70][71][72]
- Veteran Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich is defeated in a Democrat primary in the 9th district by incumbent Marcia C. Kaptur after he was affected by redistricting - Samuel Wurzelbacher aka Joe the Plumber wins the Republican Party primary.[73][74]
- March 8
- Former Los Angeles Police Department detective Stephanie Lazarus is found guilty of a high profile 1986 murder.[75]
- A study suggests that donor stem cells may prevent organ rejection in imperfectly matched transplant cases.[76]
- In a 6-3 opinion, the Mississippi Supreme Court lets stand the pardons signed by the exiting Governor Haley Barbour.[77]
- March 11 – United States Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales kills 17 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar. Of those murdered, 4 were women and 9 were children.[78]
- March 12 – The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that a 22 year sentence given to Ahmed Ressam for attempting to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots was too light.[79] The court orders that a new District judge resentence Ressam.
- March 13
- Based in Chicago, Illinois, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, the oldest encyclopedia still in print in the English language, announces that it will no longer be producing printed versions but continuing online editions.[80]
- The United States, Japan, and the European Union file a case against China at the WTO regarding export restrictions on rare earth metals.[81]
- Citigroup, MetLife, Ally Financial, and SunTrust, some of the largest financial institutions in the United States, fail a Federal Reserve System stress test of 19 banks.[82]
- March 14 – A jury finds Virginia Tech guilty of negligence for delaying a campus warning about the Virginia Tech Massacre of 33 students in 2007.[83]
- March 15 – Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich reports to Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood in Littleton, Colorado, to begin serving 14 years in federal prison. Under federal rules, Blagojevich will serve 85%, or 12 years, of his sentence.[84][85]
- March 16 – Former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi is found guilty of a hate crime and invasion of privacy for his role in the suicide of Tyler Clementi.[86] There is a tentative sentencing date of May 21.
- March 20
- The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejects two patents held by Prometheus Laboratories, a unit of Nestlé S.A., continuing a trend in recent years toward a narrowing of the grounds of patentability.[87]
- John Carter records one of the biggest losses in cinema history, forcing Disney to take a $200 million writedown.[88][89]
- MIT researchers Ramesh Raskar and Andreas Velten demonstrate an augmented reality apparatus which can allow observation of a non-line of sight object by means of a non-mirror, reflective surface.[90]
- March 21 – New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton is suspended for a year without pay while former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is banned indefinitely from the National Football League for their role in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal.[91]
- March 23 – The Edoardo Amaldi ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 003 (ATV-003), is a European unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft named after the 20th-century Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi.[92] The spacecraft mission will supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo. It is the third ATV to be built, following the Jules Verne and the Johannes Kepler, which were launched in 2008 and 2011 respectively. Edoardo Amaldi arrived at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, in August 2011, and was today launched.[93]
- March 24
- Seven children and two adults are killed in a house fire in Charleston, West Virginia, this fire is considered the worst fire in six decades in the city.[94]
- In Falls Church, Virginia, 71 year-old, former United States Vice President Dick Cheney receives a heart transplant from an unknown donor.[95]
- March 26 - March 28 – Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida: In a historic three days of arguments, the US Supreme Court hears from 26 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming) arguing against the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[96]
- March 27 – Guggenheim Partners, LLC agrees to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers for US$2.1 billion, the most ever for a professional sports franchise.[97]
- March 30 - April 2 – VISA and MasterCard warn banks across the United States about a "massive" breach of security with more than 1.5 million North American credit card numbers potentially compromised. The security issue occurred at Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc. Subsequently, Visa announces that it is dropping Global Payments over the hacking data breach.[98][99]
- March 31 – The United States two acting unions, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, agree to merge forming the SAG-AFTRA.[100]
April
- April 2
- A mass shooting at the private Korean Christian Oikos University at Oakland, California leaves at least 7 people dead and three injured, according to a police spokesperson. 43-year-old One L. Goh, a former student at the school, is held.[101][102][103]
- The data from the 1940 United States Census are released including information on 132 million people.[104][105][106]
- In college basketball, the University of Kentucky defeats the University of Kansas to win the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.[107]
- The U.S. Supreme Court makes a controversial 5–4 decision that law enforcement officials can strip-search newly-admitted jail inmates even if the holding charge is minor.[108]
- April 5 – Russian businessman Victor Bout is sentenced to 25 years in prison for smuggling weapons to the Colombian FARC guerilla movement.[109]
- April 5 – April 8 – American golfer Bubba Watson wins the US Masters defeating Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa in a playoff.[110] Although Oosthuizen was runner-up, in the final round he hit a rare albatross on the second hole (occurring last in 1994, it was only the fourth ever albatross in Masters history and the first to be televised, as well as, the first ever on that hole).[111]
- April 12 – In Cartagena, Colombia, an incident occurs where a U.S. Secret Service agent disputes a payment for escort services. In the days that follow, the Secret Service announces it is putting 11 agents on leave. The United States agency investigates alleged "inappropriate conduct" before the 6th Summit of the Americas. The Service is there as an advanced team in preparation for President Barack Obama's attendance. It emerges that five soldiers are also facing investigation.[112]
- April 20 – Marcus Robinson, due to have been executed in 2007, is ordered off death row after North Carolina Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks rules his trial was tainted by racial bias, grounds for cancellation of a death sentence under the state's Racial Justice Act. The judge uses controversial statistical evidence of bias to grant the change of sentence.[113]
Ongoing
- War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
Predicted and scheduled events
- April 30 – NASA and SpaceX launch Dragon COTS Demo Flight 2 toward the International Space Station.[114]
- May 27 – 2012 Indianapolis 500
- June 1 – Postponed indefinitely: Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is scheduled for launch of a space-based X-ray telescope that will use a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays at 5 to 80 keV from astrophysical sources, especially for nuclear spectroscopy.[115] It is the eleventh mission of the NASA Small Explorer satellite program (SMEX-11) and the first space-based direct-imaging X-ray telescope at energies beyond those of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton.
- July – Dawn (spacecraft) will depart 4 Vesta.
- July 9 – FBI will stop assisting in DNS Changer Malware redirects and thus after this date Americans are informed to visit the designated website to determine if their computers are infected, http://www.dcwg.org/. The background to the infection is given as follows:
"November 8, ... (2011) ... the FBI, the NASA-OIG and Estonian police arrested several cyber criminals in “Operation Ghost Click”. The criminals operated under the company name “Rove Digital”, and distributed DNS changing viruses, variously known as TDSS, Alureon, TidServ and TDL4 viruses. You can read more about the arrest of the Rove Digital principals here, and in the FBI Press Release.
The botnet operated by Rove Digital altered user DNS settings, pointing victims to malicious DNS in data centers in Estonia, New York, and Chicago. The malicious DNS servers would give fake, malicious answers, altering user searches, and promoting fake and dangerous products. Because every web search starts with DNS, the malware showed users an altered version of the Internet.
Under a court order, expiring July 9, the Internet Systems Consortium is operating replacement DNS servers for the Rove Digital network. This will allow affected networks time to identify infected hosts, and avoid sudden disruption of services to victim machines.
This page describes how you can determine if you are infected, and how you can clean infected machines. To check if you’re infected, Click Here. If you believe you are infected, here are instructions on how to clean your computer."
Essentially, Americans just need to visit this webpage, http://www.dns-ok.us/, to determine their infection status.
- August 6 – NASA's Mars Science Laboratory lands as scheduled with the Curiosity rover.[116][117][118]
- November 6 – The 2012 Presidential election will be held. President Barack Obama will run for re-election.
Unknown dates
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (March 2012) |
| This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (December 2011) |
- January 1 – Fred Milano, doo-wop singer (b. 1939)
- January 2
- William P. Carey, businessman and philanthropist (b. 1930)
- Gordon Hirabayashi, sociologist and litigant, died in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (b. 1918)
- Jim Huber, sports commentator (b. 1944)[119]
- Larry Reinhardt, rock guitarist (b. 1948)
- January 3
- Gene Bartow, college basketball coach (b. 1930)
- Robert L. Carter, civil rights activist and judge (b. 1917)
- January 10 – Vince Gibson, American college football coach (b. 1933)
- January 12
- Natalee Holloway, declared-dead, missing person (b. 1986)
- Bill Janklow, 27th and 30th Governor of South Dakota (b. 1939)
- Jim Stanley, American college football coach (b. 1935)
- January 20
- John F. Baker, Jr., soldier (b. 1945)
- Etta James, singer (b. 1938)
- January 22 – Joe Paterno, American football coach (b. 1926)
- January 26 – Bud Byerly, American baseball player (b. 1920)
- January 30 – Lawrence J. Shapiro, physician and murder victim (b. 1932)
- February 1 – Angelo Dundee, boxing trainer (b. 1921)
- February 3
- Ben Gazzara, actor (b. 1930)
- Zalman King, actor, director, and producer (b. 1942)
- February 11 – Whitney Houston, singer (b. 1963)
- February 12 – Howard Zimmerman, chemist (b. 1926)
- February 16
- Gary Carter, American baseball player (b. 1954)
- Anthony Shadid, journalist, died in Syria (b. 1968)
- February 19 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian-born American Nobel virologist (b. 1914)
- February 23 – Bruce Surtees, cinematographer (b. 1937)
- February 25 – Dick Davies, American basketball player (b. 1936)
- February 26
- Don Joyce, American football player (b. 1929)
- Zollie Volchok, American basketball administrator (b. 1916)
- February 29
- Davy Jones, British singer and actor, died in Indiantown, Florida (b. 1945)
- Sheldon Moldoff, comic book artist (b. 1920)
- March 1
- Andrew Breitbart, writer and publisher (b. 1969)
- Jerome Courtland, actor, director, and producer (b. 1926)
- March 2
- Van T. Barfoot, army Colonel (b. 1919)
- James Q. Wilson, political scientist (b. 1931)
- March 3
- Leonardo Cimino, actor (b. 1917)
- Ralph McQuarrie, film concept artist (b. 1929)
- Ronnie Montrose, rock guitarist and songwriter (b. 1947)
- Alex Webster, American football player and coach (b. 1931)
- March 4 – Don Mincher, American baseball player (b. 1938)
- March 5
- William Heirens, murderer (b. 1928)
- Maurice Pechet, Canadian-born American physician, inventor, and philanthropist (b. 1918)
- Robert B. Sherman, songwriter, died in London, England (b. 1925)
- Ken Shipp, American football coach (b. 1929)
- March 8 – Charlie Hoag, American basketball player (b. 1931)
- March 10
- Jay McMullen, journalist (b. 1921)
- Frank Sherwood Rowland, Nobel chemist (b. 1927)
- March 12 – Dick Harter, American basketball coach (b. 1930)
- March 28
- Jerry McCain, blues musician (b. 1930)
- Earl Scruggs, bluegrass musician (b. 1924)
- March 29 – Luke Askew, actor (b. 1932)
- April 6 – Thomas Kinkade, painter (b. 1958)
- April 7 – Mike Wallace, journalist (b. 1918)
- April 18 – Dick Clark, television pop host (b. 1929)
- April 21 – Charles Colson, lawyer and Watergate scandal figure (Special Counsel to President Nixon) (b. 1931)
See also
| This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (April 2012) |
References
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- ^ BBC
- ^ "White House chief of staff stepping down - CNN.com". CNN. January 10, 2012.
- ^ Mississippi judge blocks release of 21 inmates given pardons by Gov. Barbour
- ^ Towns Seek Help Weathering Harsh Winter (Even by Alaska's Standards)
- ^ "MINNECI ET AL. v. POLLARD ET AL" (PDF). supremecourt.gov. January 10, 2012.
- ^ Miss Wisconsin wins Miss America pageant
- ^ "Miss America pageant crowns 2012 winner". USA Today. January 14, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
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- ^ "Washington Gay Marriage Bill Signed Into Law By Governor Chris Gregoire". Huffington Post. February 13, 2012.
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- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/15/organic-foods-secret-source-dietary-arsenic/ Organic foods: secret source of dietary arsenic?
- ^ Cheng, Jonathan; Berthelsen, Christian (February 21, 2012). "Dow Touches 13000 but Can't Hold On". The Wall Street Journal.
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- ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/23/us/arizona-marines-killed/index.html CNN
- ^ http://www.cbs42.com/content/breaking/story/Watson-Honeymoon-Murder-Case-Dismissed/ENMokcm_fk23KsIuHhbjMg.cspx CBS News
- ^ http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/8425791/aussie-oscar-nominees-hunt-for-upset-win NineMSN
- ^ http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/oscars/env-oscars-2012-news-story,0,2701093.story Los Angeles Times
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- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/03/02/technology/02reuters-nasa-cyberattack.html New York Times
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/02/alabama-schools-closing-early-amid-weather-threat/ Storms wreck Indiana towns, kill at least 20 across 3 states
- ^ http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bp-plaintiffs-reach-gulf-oil-spill-settlement-15838246#.T1GNKofxo48 AP via ABC News America
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/mar/06/christopher-tappin-denied-bail The Guardian
- ^ Allen, Nick (March 3, 2012). "Christopher Tappin shackled in Texas court". The Daily Telegraph. London.
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- ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2123957/Confidential-records-1940-census-released-online--website-buckles-pressure.html?ito=feeds-newsxml Mail Online
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/04/02/kentucky-beats-kansas-67-5-to-win-national-title/ Kentucky beats Kansas 67-59 to win national title
- ^ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/02/supreme-court-upholds-strip-searches-at-jails/ Supreme Court upholds strip searches at jails
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External links
Media related to 2012 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
