DIARY OF EVENTS 2009 international

DIARY OF EVENTS 2009
INTERNATIONAL

JANUARY
JAN 1 – Cuba celebrates 50th anniversary of its revolution.

JAN 6 – Shekh Hasina sworn in as Prime Minister in Bangladesh.

JAN 9 – The Srilankan Army captures Elephant Pass, a crucial base of the LTTE at the gateway to Jafna linking peninsula with Wanni.

JAN 11 – British drector Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel ‘Q and A’ emerges big winner at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calofornia. Composer A.R. Rahman bags best composure honours, the first Indian to win the award.

JAN 20 – Barack Hussain Obama is sworn in the 44th President of US, breaking the colour barrier. Joe Biden takes oath as the 47th Vice-President.

JAN 21 – In a rare do-over, Barack Obama is sworn in for the second time as the US President.

Israel completes troops pull out from the Gaza strip after a three week offensive.

JAN 23 – Japan launches the Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite, the world’s first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions from Tanegashima, a small island.

The US authorities approves the first human trials using embryonic stem cells testing a pioneering therapy for stroke patients.

FEBRUARY
FEB 1 – Johanna Sigurdardottir takes over as Iceland’s first women Prime Minister.

FEB 8 – Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain wins Grammy in the Contemporary World Music category for his collaborative album ‘Global Drum Project’.

FEB 11 – Awami League loyalist Zillur Rahman is elected Bangladesh President.

FEB 14 – King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appoints for the first time a woman Noura al-Fayez, Deputy Minister for girl’s education

FEB 16 – The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins referendum on scrapping term limits for elected posts, paving the way for his seeking re-election in 2012 and beyond.

FEB 22 – Slumdog Millionaire, a small budget British film bags eight Oscars at 81st Academy Awards Functions in Hollywood including Best Director (Danny Boyle), Original Music Score and Song(A.R. Rahman, the first Indian to win two Oscars), Sound Mixing (Resul Pookutty of Kerela shares it with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke), Best Picture.

‘Smile Pinki’, the tale of a little girl with cleft lip, Pinki Sonkar, from Uttar Pradesh gets Oscar for Best Documentary (Short).

FEB 25 – Fifty persons are killed as Bangladesh Rifles personnel launched an armed rebelliobn seeking better pay and putting an end to the deputation of Army officers to command paramilitary bodyguards. BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmad is taken hostage

FEB 27 – Bangladesh security forces discover a mass grave of at least 42 massacred Army officers at the Pilkhana Headquarter of the BDR, including Bangladesh Rifles chief Major General Shakil Ahmad.

MARCH
MAR 1 – Chang’e-1, China’s first lunar probe impacts moon ending its 16 month mission.

MAR 2 – The President of Guinea-Bissau Jao Bernardo Vieira is assassinated by renegade soldiers at his place.

MAR 4 – The International Criminal Court, The Hague, issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Beshir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. It is the first by the court against a sitting head of State.

MAR 9 – Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan (Karuna), former deputy leader of the LTTE, is sworn in Sri Lanka’s Minister of National Integration in Colombo, shortly after joining ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

President Barack Obama lifts curbs on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.

MAR 12 – The former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff is jailed after he pleads to an epic fraud that robbed investors worldwide of billions of dollars.

An Iraqi Court hands down a three year jail term to journalist Muntazer Al- Zaidi for hurling shoes at then US President George Bush during a globally televised press conference in Baghdad last December.

MAR 16 – The Pakistan Government agrees to restore the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary.

MAR 26 – Charles Simonyi becomes the first person to travel twice to space as a tourist.

Russian-French mathematician Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov is chosen for the Abel Prize for 2009.

MAR 29 – Ninety countries take part in ‘Earth Hour 2009’, a global event in which landmarks and homes go dark to highlight the threat for climate change.

APRIL
APR 1 – Benzamin Netanyahu assumes office as Israeli Prime Minister

APR 2 – The G-20 Summit in London pledges $1.1 trillion to boost global economic growth. Leaders agree on measures to reform the banking system.

APR 3 – Najib Tun Razak is sworn in as Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister.

APR 4 – France returns to the NATO fold at the 60th anniversary summit of the Organisation at Strausborg. Albania and Croatia become new members. Spanish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is named is named the next Secretary General.

APR 6 – Over 100 people are feared dead and nearly 1200 injured after a powerful earthquake strikes the historic central town of L’Aquila in the mountainous Abruzo region.

APR 13 – Sri Lanka de-recognizes Norway as the official facilitator of Peace talks.

APR 14 – North Korea pulls out of denuclearisation expels IAEA inspectors and US monitors from the Yongbyon nuclear complex.

APR 24 – India and Poland sign agreements on cooperatin in health care and medicine and tourism, in the presence of Presidents Pratibha Patil and Lech Kaczynski.

APR 30 – The six year British Occupation of Iraq ends.

MAY
MAY 1- The British government appoints Scottish Poet Carol Ann Duffy, the country’s first woman Poet Laureate.

MAY 4 – Pushp Kumar Dahal “Prachanda” resigns as Nepal Prime Minister after the President Ram Baran Yadav asks the Army Chief General Rookmangud Katawal to continue in office.

MAY 7 – Patxi Lopez assumes office as the first non-nationalist President of the Basque region( Spain).

MAY 8 – The Pakistam Army launches full scale military action named Operation Rah-e-Rast in the Swat valley to flush out militants.

MAY 9 – Jacob Zuma assumes office as the forth President of the post –aparthied South Africa.

MAY 18 – The LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is killed in an intense battle with Sri Lankan Military at Mullivaikkal in Mullaithivu district bringing an end to the 33 month long Ealem War IV.

MAY 21 – Former British Gorkha soldiers won a major victory after the government accepts their demand to settle in Britain.

Apa Sherpa of Nepal climbs Mt. Everest for the record 19th time.

MAY 23 – The former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, who was at the center of a multi million dollar corruption probe commits suicide by jumping of a hill .

Horst Koehler, the former head of IMF is re-elected German President.

MAY 25 – Cyclone Aila wreak havoc in Bangladesh.

MAY 27 – Canadian short story writer Alice Munro wins the £ 60,000 Man Booker International Prize.

JUNE
JUN 1 – All 228 passengers on board an Air France aircraft flying from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris are killed as the plane crashes into the Atlantic ocean after being stuck by lightning.

JUN 3 – The Organisation of American States decides to lift a 47 year old ban on Cuba at the OAS General Assembly meeting in Honduras.

JUN 11 – The WHO declares the swine flu pandemic, the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.

JUN 13 – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad secures a landslide victory in presidential polls trounching his nearest rival Mir Hosein Mousavi.

JUN 16 – The first-ever summit of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) at Yekaterinburg, Russia calls for the creation of a “more diversified international monetary system” and a “more democratic and just multipolar world order”.

JUN 19 – Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorses the presidential pole result and awnts protesters to keep off the streets.

JUN 20 – 13 persons killed in crackdown on protesters in Iran.

JUN 25 – Pop King Michael Jackson (50) dies at Los Angeles. His entertainment career hit high water marks with the release of “Thriller” in 1982.

JUN 28 – Honduran Army ousts leftists Presindent Manuel Zelaya and exiles him to Costa Rica in Central Americas first military coup since the cold war, hours before a rogue referendum he had called in defiance of the courts and congress.

JUN 30 – Atleast 152 people on board a Yemeni Airbus jet are killed after the aircraft crashes into the Indian Ocean while trying to land in Comoros Islands.

US forces pull out of Iraqi cities.

JULY
JUL 2 – Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano is elected the new chief of the IAEA.

JUL 6 – Atleast 184 people are killed and 1000 injured following two days of rioting in Urumqi, the capital city of China’s Muslim majority Xingjiang autonomous region.

JUL 7 – Obama and Dmitry Medvedev sign a pact that sets a new limit of 1,675 warheads after the first Russian American summit in 8 years in Moscow.

JUL 9 – The G8 and G5 Leaders call for an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Round of trade talks through a joint declaration at the G8-G5 Summit at L’Aquila, Italy.

JUL 13 – Turkey signs an accord with Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria to built the 3,300 km Nabucco pipeline to supply gas to Europe.

JUL 15 – The 15th NAM Summit beging at Sharm- el-Sheikh, Egypt.

160 people killed as an Iranian Airliner en route to Armania catches fire mid air. 10 members of Iran’s national Judo team among dead.

JUL 20 – NASA observes 40th anniversary of first human landing on moon.

Myanmar Leader Dang San Suu Kyi is conferred with the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation at a function in Durban.

JUL 25 – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is re-elected.

AUGUST
AUG 3 – Indian social activist Deep Joshi named among the winners of Ramon Magsaysay Awards for 2009.

AUG 5 – Pakistan’s most wanted man Beithullah Masood leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban killed in USA missile strike in South Waziristan tribal area.

AUG 6 – The new LTTE Chief Selvarasa Pathmanathan is arrested in Malaysia.

AUG 8 – Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as the US Supreme Courts first Hispanic justice and third female member in the courts 220 year history.

AUG 11 – Typhoon Morakot leaves 600 dead in Taiwan.

AUG 13 – India and ASEAN sign a FTA in Bangkok.

AUG 14 – President Asif Ali Zardari confers the Sitar-e-Imtiaz (Star of excellence), Pakistan’s third highest award posthumously on Indian Parliamentarian Nirmala Deshpandey.

AUG 20 – The Scottish government frees Abdal Basset al-Megrahi, former Libyan agent, serving lifer for his role in December 1998 Lockerabie air crash which killed 270 passengers, mostly American.

AUG 23 – Venezuela’s Stefania Fernandez(18) crowned Miss Universe in Bahamas.

AUG 24 – The publisher of the world’s largest circulated magazine Reader’s Digest files for bankruptcy protection in US.

SEPTEMBER
SEP 1 – Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth for failing to meet a deadline to make progress towards establishing democracy.

SEP 3 – Iran to have First woman Cabinet Minister after Parliament gives approval for nomination of Marzieh-Vahid Dastjerdi as Heath Minister .

SEP 12 – Lebanon, an Israeli flim bags the Golden Lion at 66th Venice Film Festival.

SEP 16 – Yukio Hatoyama is appointed as Japan’s new Prime Minister.

SEP 21 – The deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returns home and seeks asylum in Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa’

The former US President Jimmy Carter is presented the Mahatma Gandhi Global Non Violence Award in Virginia.

SEP 22 – Irina Bokova, Bulgaria’s former Foreign Minister becomes the first woman to head UNESCO.

SEP 24 – World Powers adopt a landmark resolution seeking to rid the planet of nuclear arms at an unprecedented UN Security Council Summit chaired by Obama.

SEP 27 – The German Chancellor Angela Merkel wins a second four year term.

SEP 29 – 150 killed as a Tsunami triggered by an earthquake flattens villages in the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and American Samoa.

SEP 30 – 1,100 killed as earthquake (7.6) hits Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.

Peru’s Supreme Court sentences former President Alberto Fujimori to six years in jail for wire tapping opponents and paying bribes to law makers during his tenure from 1990 to 2000.

OCTOBER
OCT 1 – The people’s Republic of China stages the largest ever military display in its history as a part of its 60th anniversary celebrations.

OCT 2 – Marking the International day of Non-Violence, the United Nations releases a stamp on Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 140th birth anniversary.

OCT 3 – Ireland votes ‘Yes’ in a crucial referendum on the contentious Lisbon Treaty designed to streamline the European Union.

David Coleman Headley, a US citizen is held by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force at O’Hare International Airport for plotting terror attacks in Denmark and India.

OCT 5 – Americans Elizabeth h. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres – a vital factor in cell ageing. The trio had won the 2006 Lasker Prize for the same work.

The Greek Socialist leader George Papandreou trounces the governing Conservatives and is set to form Government.

OCT 6 – Three Americans Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing fibres-optic cable and the sensor at the heart of digital cameras.

British Novelist Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, a historical novel about the rise of King Henery VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell wins the 2009 Man Booker Prize.

OCT 7 – India born American Venkataraman Ramakrishnan and fellow American Thomas Steitz along with the Israeli Ada Yonath share the 2009 Nobel Chemistry prize for showing how the ribosomes, which produces protein, functions at the atomic level usung X-ray crystallography.

OCT 8 – Herta Mueller, a member of Romania’s ethnic German minority wins the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature.

OCT 9 – Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2009.

OCT 11 – After an 18 hour stand-off, Pakistani Army commandos storm Army Headquarter in Rawalpindi freeing 39 persons taken hostages by militants.

OCT 12 – Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson win the 2009 Economic Nobel for their analyses of economic governance. Ostrom is the first woman to win the Economic Nobel.

OCT 13 – Alyn Ware of New Zealand, Congo’s Rene Ngongo, David Suzuki of Canada and Catharine Hamlin are named the co-winners of the 2009 Right to Livelihood Award, the so called “Alternative Nobel”

OCT 16 – Queen Elizabeth II formally opens the UK’s Supreme Court situated in London’s Parliament Square. It was established on Oct. 1st.

OCT 17 – The Maldivian Cabinet signs a declaration appealing to global leaders to save their atoll nation from being swamped by rising sea water after a under water meeting in Girifushi near the capital Male.

OCT 24 – The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposes the setting up of an India Asean Round Table at the 7th bilateral Summit on the sidelines of the 17th ASEAN Summit in the Thai resort of Hua Hin.

OCT 27 – India and Nepal signs “a historic”new treaty to control illegal trade across the border.

OCT 28 – Massive bomb blast near the historic Kissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar in Pakistan.

OCT 29 – President Pratibha Patil receives the Queen’s Baton from Britain’s Queen at the Buckingham Palace as India formally takes charge of the 2010 XIX Commnwealth Games New Delhi.

Egypt offers to allow India to set up an ‘India Zone’ along the Suez Canal Development Area.

China’s fastest Super Computer Tianhe (Milky Way) is unveiled.

NOVEMBER
NOV 6 – The un General Assembly endorses the 575 page report by South African jurist, Richard Goldstone that focuses on alleged war crimes during this 22 day Gaza conflict early this year.

NOV 10 – Russia honours Mikhail Kalashnikov, father of the world’s most famous gun AK 47 with the country’s highest award , Hero of Russia’

NOV 12 – Sri Lanka’s Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka resigns.

NOV 19 – The Supreme Court of Bangladesh upholds death sentence for the August 15, 1975 assassination of the nation’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Belgian Prime Minister Herman Von Rompuy is elected the first European Council President and Britain’s Catherine Ashton is named the 27 member body’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

NOV 20 – The Big Bang machine or the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest atom smasher, starts operating again 14 months after a technical snag caused one tonne of helium to leak into the 27 km long that houses it.

NOV 24 – India “a rising and responsible global power”, says the US President Barack Obama after the summit meeting with PM Manmohan Singh. Acknowledges India’s status as nuclear power.

NOV 25 – Indian PM and the US President announce the launch of the India-US Counterterrorism Cooperation Iniative.

Dubai World, the fulcrum of the United Arab Emirates’ economy asks for a “standstill” agreement to delay repayment by six months on most of its $59 billion of debt.

NOV 27 – The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting opens in the Trinidad capital Post of Spain.

NOV 28 – The National Reconciliation Order (NRO) under which Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and others got amnesty from corruption charges against them lapses.

NOV 29 – Jose Mujica, the former leftist Tupamaro guirrilla fighter is elected Uruguay President.

NOV 30 – Porfirio “pepe” Lebo is elected Honduras President.

DECEMBER
DEC 7 – India and Russia sign the civil nuclear cooperation pact 3.0 that is free from any curbs on New Delhi and guarantees against restriction in the future. Two sides sign six pacts, including three in the military sphere.

Bolivian President Evo Morales wins landslide victory in general elections seeking second term.

The UN Climate Change Conference 2009 of 194 nations opens at Copenhagen, Denmark.

DEC 8 – British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceshipTwo, a commercial spaceship.

DEC 12 – Gibralter’s Kaiane Aldorino is crowned Miss World 2009 at glittering ceremony in Johannesburg.

DEC 14 – African nations walk out of the UN climate change talks against efforts by rich nations to ”kill Kyoto”.

DEC 15 – Boeing’s revolutionary lightweight passenger jet 787 Dreamliner made mostly of composite materials take to the skies for the first time around Puget Sound and inland Washington state.

DEC 16 – Pakistan Supreme Court declares the National Reconciliation Order null and void and orders reinitiation of proceedings against the accused acquitted under the controversial law.

DEC 24 – Rajiv Shah to be the USAID chief.

DEC 31 – Reena Kaushal is the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole.

Mota Singh, Britain’s first Asian judge is knighted.

OBITUARY
APRIL 9 – Raja J. Chelliah :Economist

APRIL 9 – Shakti Samant : Noted Hindi Film Maker.

APRIL 21 : Iqbal Bano : India born Pakistani classic and ghazal singer.

MAY 2 - K. Balaji : Tamil actor and producer

MAY 3 - B. Rajam Iyer : Scholar and Misician

MAY 31 - Prakash Mehra :Hindi film producer and director

JUNE 8 - Habib Tanvir - Noted playwriter and Theatre director

JUNE 19 - Ustad Ali Akbar Khan : Siter Maestro

JULY 1 - Tyeb Mehta :Renowned Painter

JULY 8 - Syed Abdullah Bukhari : Former Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid.

JULY 11 – Ji Xianlin : Chinese Indologist

JULY 13 - Nilu Phule : Marathi stage and cinema actor.

JULY 16 – Damal Krishnaswami Pattamal : Indian classical music

JULY 21 - Gangubai Hangal : Hindustani classical music of Kirana Gharana

JULY 29 - Gayatri Devi : Queen Mother of Jaipur, Founder of Swatantra Party.

AUGUST 18 – Kim Dae Jung :Former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2000.

SEPTEMBER 12 – Norman Borlaug : Agriculture scientist and central figure of green revolution.

Jack Kramer : American tennis great of 1940s.

Rajsingh Dungarpur : Former BCCI President and Chairman of selectors.

SEPTEMBER 14 – Patrick Swayze : US actor known for his roles in Dirty Dancing, Ghost

OCTOBER 10 – Stephen Gately :Boyzone singer.

OCTOBER 14 – Krishna Chandra Pal : member of India’s famed 1956 Olympic football team.

OCTOBER 30 – Claude Levi Strauss :Renowned French Anthropologist

NOVEMBER 5 – Prabhash Joshi : Eminent Hindi Journalist and founder editor of Jansatta.

NOVEMBER 10 – Robert Enke :German Goalkeeper, commits suicide.

DECEMBER 6 – Bina Rai : Bollywood Actress.

DECEMBER 10 – Dilip Chitre : Poet and Film Maker.

DECEMBER 13 - Paul Anthony Samuelson : Economist

T.S. Satyan : Renowned Photojournalist

DECEMBER 20 - Brittany Murphy : Hollywood actor

DECEMBER 30 – Vishnuvardhan : Kannada actor

SPORTS
FEBRUARY 1 – Mahesh Bhupati and Sania Mirja became the first Indian pair to win a Grand Slam Mixed Double title when they clinched Australian Open.

MARCH 6 – Honda announces the sale of lts Formula One team to Ross Brawn. The new outfit is called is Brawn GP.

MARCH 11 – Virender Sehwag scores India’s fastest ODI hundred against host New Zealand.

APRIL 7 – Chitra Mgimairaj finishes runner up in the WLBSA World ladies’ billiards championship at Cambridge.

APRIL 10 – Gagan Narang wins the bronze medal in the Men’s 10 m air rifle event of the first ISSF World Cup of the year in Chongwon, Korea.

APRIL 12 – India wins Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament with a 3-1 victory over host Malaysia in the final.

APRIL 23 – French swimmer Alain Bernard breaks the 100 m freestyle world record at the French Championship at Montpellier, setting a new time of 46.94 seconds .

MAY 6 – Wang Ho and ZhangYining of China win the men’s and women’s singles title at the World Table Tennis Championship at Yakohama.

MAY 24 – Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguli wins the Asian Chess Championship at Phillipines.

MAY 25 – Deccan Chargers wins IPL season II at the Wanderers.

MAY 26 – Sayali Gokhale wins the women’s single title at the Spanish Open Badminton Championship in Madrid beating Lianne Tan of Belgium.

MAY 29 – Barcelona beats Manchester United in the final to lift the Champion League Title at Rome.

JUNE 7 – Svetlana Kuznetsova defeats Dinara Safin to win French Open title.

JUNE 8 – Roger Federer wins his first French Open Title.

India’s Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic win the French Open Men’s double title.

JUNE 14 – Boxer Suranjoy Singh wins Gold in Asian Championship in Zhuhai, China.

JUNE 15 – Goa beats Bengal to win 63rd Santosh Trophy in Chennai.

JUNE 21 – Pakistan wins Twenty20 World Cup beating Sri Lanka in final at Lords in London.

Saina Nehwal becomes the first Indian to win a Super Series Tournament with her triumph over Chinese Lin Wang in the Indonesian Open at Jakarta.

Indian women’s hockey team wins the Champion Challenge for women in Kazan, Russia.

JULY 5 – Roger Federer wins record 15th Grand Slam title by winning at Wimbledon. Serena Williams wins the women’s title and along with Venus claims the women’s double crown.

JULY 11 – Squash player Joshna Chinappa wins the third WISPA title of her career in Kuala Lumpur.

JULY 19 – GM Arun Prasad becomes the first Indian to claim the title in the 116 year history of the Scottish Chess Championship in Edinburgh.

JULY 26 – Alberto Contador wraps up his second Tour de France title

GM Parimarjan Negi wins the Politiken Chess title at Copenhagen

JULY 29 – Union Government announces Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awards to Sushil Kumar (Wrestling), Vijender Singh (Boxing) and M.C. Mary Kom (Boxing).

AUGUST 16 – Usain Bolt breaks his world record in the 100 m event as he clocks 9.54s at the World Championship in Berlin.

AUGUST 20 – Usain Bolt breaks the world record, clocking 19.19s in the 200m event in the World Championship.

AUGUST 23 – Bekele becomes the first athlete to win the 5000m and 10000m crowns at the World Championship.

England claims Ashes by defeating Australia.

AUGUST 28 – GM Parimarjan Negi clinches the prestigious Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open Chess title in Kuala Lumpur.

AUGUST 30 – Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari wins the Belgian Grand Prix and Force India picks up its first points as Giancarlo Fisichella finishes second.

AUGUST 31 – India defeats Syria to win the Nehru Cup

SEPTEMBER 7 – Pankaj Advani wins his maiden World Professional Billiards title beating Mike Russel in finals at Leeds.

SEPTEMBER 11 – Vijender Singh wins the 75 kg bronze at the World Boxing Championships in Milan, India’s first ever medal at the event.

Leander Paes and Cara Black finish runner up in the US Open Mixed doubles losing to Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrot in the final.

SEPTEMBER 12 – Churchill Brothers beats Mohun Bagan to win its maiden IFA Shield crown in Kolkata

SEPTEMBER 13 – Kim Clijsters wins US Open women’s Single title.

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy wins the Men’s Doubles of US Open.

SEPTEMBER 14 – Juan Martin Del Potro wins men’s Single Title of US Open.

Venus and Serena Williams win the women’s Doubles of US Open.

SEPTEMBER 20 – India enters the Davis Cup World Group after eleven years beating South Africa in the play off at Johannesburg.

SEPTEMBER 22 Churchill Brothers bags the Durand Cup football title in New Delhi.

SEPTEMBER 30 – Pankaj Advani wins his third straight National Billiards Title at Agra.

OCTOBER 1 – Gautam Gambhir wins the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year Award

Mahendra Singh Dhoni wins the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year award.

Mitchell Johnson is named the Cricketer of the year.

OCTOBER 2 – Rio de Janeiro wins the bid to host 2016 Olympics.

OCTOBER 4 – Pankaj Advani and Meenal Thakur win the Men’s and Women’s titles respectively in the National Snooker Championship in Agra.

OCTOBER 5 – Rest of India lifts the Irani Cup Trophy in Nagpur.

OCTOBER 10 – Karnataka wins the National Aquatics Championship for the 18th consecutive year at Thiruvananthpuram.

OCTOBER 11 – C.Muniyappa wins the Indian Open Golf Tournament at Gurgaon.

OCTOBER 18 – Jenson Button wins the Formula One World Championship in Sao Paulo (Brazil).

OCTOBER 23 – New South Wales Blues wins the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament in Hyderabad.

OCTOBER 29 – Jeev Milkha Singh becomes the first Indian Golfer to tee off at the World Matchplay Championship at Casares (Spain) and defeats world No. 5, Lee Westwood.

DECEMBER 2 – Argentina,s Lionnel Messi wins Golden Ball as well as the FIFA Player of the year award.

DECEMBER 3 – Virender Sehwag scores second fastest double hundred ever in the third and final test against Sri Lanka. It was Sehwag’s sixth double century, the most by an Indian.

DECEMBER – Spain retains Davis Cup defeating Czech Republic in the finals in Barcelona.

DECEMBER 6 – India’s V.Diju and Jwala Gutta loses in the finals of the BWF World Super Series Badminton Tournament in Johor Bahru.

Indian cricket team reaches No. 1 status in ICC Test ranking.

DECEMBER 15 – Boris Gelfand of Israel wins the Chess World in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

DECEMBER 20 – Chetan Anand and Saina Nehwal win the Men’s and Women’s singles title in the Jaypee Cup Syed Modi International Grand Prix Badminton tournament in Lucknow.

Saurav Goshal and Joshna Chinappa win the Men’s and Women’s Title in the Kingfisher 57th National Squash Championship in Delhi.

Indian Wrestlers make a clean sweep of all the 7 gold medals in the Men’s Freestyle competition of the Commonwealth wrestling in Jalandhar.

DECEMBER 26 – Ashutosh Singh and Ankita Raina of Gujrat lift the Men’s and Women’s titles of the National Grass Court Tennis Championship in Kolkata.