Popping the Olin Bubble: December Edition

11/1 Cuban President Raul Castro said that the city of Santiago “looked like it had been bombed” after Hurricane Sandy hit.

11/2 Andrew Lloyd Weber announced he would donate over $600,000 to arts education projects across the UK.

11/3 Cuba accused the US of helping Cuban dissidents access the internet.

11/4 Syrian opposition groups held a first day of talks in Qatar. They hoped to shape the Syrian National Council into a possible government in exile.

11/5 A preliminary hearing began for Sgt. Robert Bales, the US soldier charged with killing 16 Afghan villagers on the night of March 11.

11/6 Barack Obama won a second term in office as the US President. There was much rejoicing.

11/7 A 700-year-old mummified child recovered from antiquities traffickers in Bolivia was returned to Peru.

11/8 The US International Trade Commission upheld tariffs announced last month on imports of solar cells from China.

11/9 David Petraeus, the director of the CIA, resigned from his post after admitting to an extramarital affair.

11/10 The UN declared this day as “Malala Day”, marking one month since the 15-year-old activist Malala Yousufzai was shot by the Taliban. She is still recuperating in the UK.

11/11 Polish Independence Day marches turned into riots, with thirty people needing hospital treatment.

11/12 Israel was hit by 11 rockets from Gaza. No one was injured, though several people were treated for shock.

11/13 The London Olympic Organizers revealed that over a quarter of a million tickets went unsold.

11/14 Israel began an operation directed towards terror targets in the Gaza Strip. A Hamas military commander, Ahmed Jabari, was one of the first casualties. The 11-month-old son of a BBC reporter was another casualty.

11/15 The CIA opened an investigation into the conduct of David Petraeus.

11/16 Egyptian leaders promised to support Gaza against the Israeli attacks.

11/17 Argentinian police arrested 10 Venezuelan drug mules who were pretending to be members of an Olympic weightlifting team.

11/18 Barack Obama became the first serving US president to visit Burma.

11/19 Three astronauts from Russia, Japan, and the United States returned to Earth after a four-month stay on the International Space Station.

11/20 Gaza and Israel have truce talks in Egypt. A ceasefire is set in effect on the following day.

11/21 Felipe Calderon, the President of Mexico, sent a bill to the Mexican congress to change the official name of the country from the ‘United Mexican States’ to simply ‘Mexico’.

11/22 Egypt’s President Mursi issued a declaration banning any challenge to his decrees, laws, and decisions.

11/23 A World War II coded message was found on the leg of a deceased pigeon in a chimney in Surrey, England. Attempts to decode the message have so far been unsuccessful.

11/24 The Venezuela National Guard found $550,000 buried near the border with Colombia.

11/25 China successfully landed a J-15 jet on its new aircraft carrier for the first time.

11/26 Dr. Joseph Murray, the first surgeon to perform a successful human organ transplant, died at the age of 93.

11/27 The remains of Yasser Arafat were exhumed as part of an investigation into how he died.