Sweden

Kingdom of Sweden
Flag
Location  Europe
Capital  Stockholm
Area  450,295 sq km
Population  10,040,995

"There's no time like the present"
(Proverb/Quote of the Week)

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January

January 1 Sweden joined the European Union (EU), an economic and political union of European countries, on 1 January 1995. January 2 January 3 January 4 January 5 Sweden won the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships gold on 5 January 2012 beating Russia 1-0 in the final. Mika Zibanejad scored the solitary goal in overtime to give Sweden its second world junior hockey title after 31 years. January 6 January 7 January 8 Researchers from Sweden and their international colleagues have found aggressive intestinal bacteria Helicobacter pylori in a 5300-year-old mummy, famously known as Ötzi - the Copper Age man, discovered frozen in a European glacier in 1991, shedding new light on the history of human migration. Their study was published in the journal Science on 8 January 2016. Swedish bioseparation scientist Jan-Christer Janson was awarded China's International Cooperation Award in Science and Technology on 8 January 2016. The near-black colour of sea creatures that lived millions of years ago - an 86-million-year-old mosasaur, a 55-million-year-old leatherback turtle and a 190-million-year-old ichthyosaur - has been revealed by Swedish scientists. The team found melanin - the light-absorbing pigment that is responsible for colour - preserved in the animals' fossilised skin according to their study published on 8 January 2014 in the journal Nature. January 9 Sweden ranked third at the Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with an overall score of 9.39, as published on 9 January 2019. January 10 January 11 January 12 Swedish passport was ranked as the world's second-most powerful passport, according to the 2017 passport index published by Arton Capital, allowing its citizens visa-free access or a visa on arrival in 157 countries. January 13 Sweden had the fourth highest proportions (28.8%) of women in corporate boardrooms in 2014, according to a study of major economies published on 13 January 2015 by the New York based organization Catalyst Inc. A team of doctors in Sweden has successfully transplanted wombs into nine women donated from relatives, as revealed on 13 January 2014. Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic won the Puskás Award, annually handed out for the best goal of the year, at the FIFA Ballon d’Or soccer awards ceremony in Zurich on 13 January 2014. January 14 January 15 Swedish film Force Majeure won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 20th Critics' Choice Awards on 15 January 2015. January 16 Professor Leif Andersson of Uppsala University in Sweden was named as the winner of the Wolf Prize in Agriculture on 16 January 2014 for his contribution to the study of plants and animals, through the use of cutting-edge genomic technologies. January 17 January 18 January 19 January 20 January 21 January 22 Sweden ranked third in the list of Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index with an overall score of 9.39 published on 22 January 2020, which rates the state of democracy across 167 countries based on five measures—electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties. January 23 Sweden was crowned as the third greenest country in the world according to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2016 published by Yale University, Columbia University and the World Economic Forum. The EPI index ranks the performance of each nation in protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems based on nine assessment areas that include air quality, climate and energy, forests and water resources. Sweden was ranked as the second most innovative country for 2014, with a total score of 90.8, according to the rankings released by Bloomberg on 23 January 2015. A team of researchers from Sweden, Norway and the United States has found a genetic switch allowed dogs to adapt to a starch-rich diet and evolve from meat-munching wolves into Man's leftover-loving best friend. The research findings, comparison of the genetic code of the domestic dog to that of its wolf cousins, were published on 23 January 2013 in the journal Nature. January 24 Sweden’s first electric, driverless buses are being used in real traffic environments as part of a trial in Stockholm, as revealed by telecommunications company Ericsson on 24 January 2018. January 25 Sweden ranked as the third least corrupt nation in the world, according to the Global Corruption Index published by Transparency International on 25 January 2017. Sweden secured the third position at the Democracy Index compiled by the UK based Economist Intelligence Unit with a score of 9.39 out of 10, as published on 25 January 2017. Sweden's Robert Lindstedt and Poland's Lukasz Kubot won the 2014 Australian Open tennis men's doubles title in their first Grand Slam as a team, beating American Eric Butorac and South Africa's Raven Klaasen 6-3, 6-3. January 26 January 27 Sweden is the third-least corrupt country in the world according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index published on 27 January 2016. January 28 The European Commission on 28 January 2013 officially announced the selection of the Graphene, a project led by Jari Kinaret from the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, as one of its two Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship projects. January 29 January 30 January 31 Umeå city of Sweden on 31 January 2014 unveiled its year as European Capital of Culture.

February

February 1 February 2 Sweden ranked third at the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, published on 2 February 2021, that looks to provide a snapshot of the current state of democracy worldwide for 167 countries. February 3 February 4 February 5 February 6 February 7 February 8 Sweden ranked 3rd out of 50 nations in global Intellectual Property (IP) Index, released on 8 February 2018 by the US Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), which analyzes the IP climate in 50 world economies. February 9 February 10 Sweden's Charlotte Kalla won the Ladies' 7.5km + 7.5km Skiathlon to secure the first gold medal of Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. February 11 Van der Poel of Sweden broke the world record in the men’s 10,000-meter speedskating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics with a time of 12:30.74. February 12 February 13 For the first time, scientists from Sweden and their international colleagues have detected a radio signal from outer space that repeats at regular intervals. The signal is coming from a single source half a billion light-years from Earth, as published on 13 February 2020. A new species of whistling owl with a unique voice believed to exist nowhere else in the world has been identified on the island of Lombok in Indonesia, Swedish researcher along with an international team reported on 13 February 2013 in the journal PLoS One. February 14 February 15 Sweden's Armand Duplantis broke his own pole vault world record, clearing 6.18 metres in Glasgow, on 15 February 2020 at the World Athletics Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix. Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won gold in Ladies' Relay 4x5 km at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2013 World Press Photo of the Year award for his image of mourners carrying brothers, two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and three-year-old Muhammad, who were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City in 2012. February 16 February 17 Teeth from mammoths buried in the Siberian permafrost for more than a million years have yielded the world's oldest DNA ever sequenced, according to a study by a team of Swedish and international scientists published on 17 February 2021. February 18 A team of international scientists and Swedish researchers has revealed that a hippopotamus-size predator named Anteosaurus that lived 265 million years ago was unexpectedly speedy for such a bulky beast. The findings were published on 18 February 2021 in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. February 19 Sweden won the gold medal in men's curling at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics beating Great Britain 5-4 in an extra end. February 20 February 21 Swedish and Russian scientists studying the remarkably well-preserved remains of an Ice Age bird, found in Siberia, have identified the specimen as a horned lark, according to a paper published on 21 February 2020 in the journal Communications Biology. February 22 February 23 February 24 Swedish passport ranked second at the Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index 2016, allowing its citizens visa-free access to 176 countries. Scientists from Sweden, Japan and Australia, with the help of elephant seals wearing head sensors, have discovered how the ocean's coldest, deepest waters are formed, providing vital clues to understanding its role in the world's climate, according to a research published on 24 February 2013 in the journal Nature Geoscience. The tagged seals, along with sophisticated satellite data and moorings in ocean canyons, all played a role in providing data from the extreme Antarctic environment, where observations are very rare and ships could not go. February 25 February 26 Sweden won the 2012 Women Bandy World Championship on 26 February 2012 beating Russia 5-3 in the final. February 27 February 28 Flexenclosure, an engineering company based in Sweden, won the 2012 Green Mobile Award for its E-site solution at the Mobile World Congress on 28 February 2012. E-site is a green base station site power management solution for off-grid markets, mainly powered by renewable energy sources and with an intelligent control system that can bring a 90 percent reduction in diesel fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, and energy OPEX compared to traditional solutions. February 29

March

March 1 Swedish passport was ranked as the world’s most valuable by the Nomad Passport Index 2017, assessed based on visa-free travel, taxation, perception, dual citizenship and overall freedom. March 2 Sweden ranked third in the list of the Global Energy Index 2016 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), showcasing the country's ability to deliver secure, affordable and sustainable energy. March 3 March 4 Swedish Photographer Niclas Hammarström on 4 March 2014 was honored with the UNICEF Photo of the Year award for his photo series on the life of children in the war-torn Syrian town of Aleppo. March 5 Sweden’s Britta Johansson Norgren won the women’s Vasaloppet 2017 cross-country ski race - dubbed as the world’s oldest, biggest and longest ski race. Based on analysis of several genes, a team of researchers from five countries, including researchers from Sweden, identified ten primary branches in the tree of life of one of the largest groups of passerine birds, the so-called Passerida. March 6 Sweden has the sixth largest share of women holding managerial positions at 40 percent among the European Union countries, according to the report published on 6 March 2017 by Eurostat. March 7 March 8 March 9 March 10 Forty-two-year-old Swedish cross-country skier Helene Ripa won gold at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics in the Women's 15km cross-country race. March 11 March 12 Swedish scientists were awarded 9 research grants by the European Research Council (ERC) on 12 March 2015 as part of the European Union Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020. March 13 March 14 Swedish researchers have discovered the world’s oldest plant-like fossils in central India that indicates multicellular life on earth began at least 1.6 billion years ago. Their findings were published in the journal PLOS Biology on 14 March 2017. March 15 March 16 March 17 March 18 March 19 March 20 Sweden was named as the seventh happiest country in the world, according to an annual U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network report published on 20 March 2021. Sweden was ranked as the tenth happiest country on Earth, according to a United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network report published on 20 March 2017. March 21 March 22 March 23 March 24 March 25 Sweden retained the top spot at the 2019 Energy Transition Index (ETI) published by World Economic Forum (WEF) on 25 March 2019, which indicates how well countries around the world are able to balance energy security and environmental sustainability and affordability. Swedish writer Barbro Lindgren was named as the winner of the 2014 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world's largest prize for children's literature. March 26 March 27 March 28 March 29 March 30 March 31

April

April 1 April 2 The origin and history of modern lions have been revealed by a team of international scientists, including researchers from Sweden. A genetic analysis of living lions and museum specimens confirms modern lions' most recent common ancestor lived around 124,000 years ago, according to their study published on 2 April 2014 in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. April 3 April 4 April 5 April 6 Scientists from Sweden, England and Germany have detected an atmosphere around an Earth-like planet GJ 1132b for the first time, as revealed on 6 April 2017. This marks the first detection of an atmosphere around an Earth-like planet other than Earth itself, and thus is a significant step on the path towards the detection of life outside our Solar System. Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 for the first time with the entry Waterloo, performed by pop legends ABBA. The song became a huge international hit and was the starting point of the outstanding career of the Swedish four. April 7 April 8 April 9 Swedish director Ingmar Bergman won his third Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1984 for Fanny and Alexander; a family drama set in a small Swedish town in the early 20th century and examining the themes of family ties, childhood and religion. April 10 Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish diplomat, served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from 10th April 1953 to 18th September 1961. April 11 Swedish researchers have discovered that people with both their hands and arms can experience the sensation of having "phantom limbs", a phenomenon thought to be only felt by amputees imagining that their missing limb was still present, according to a study published on 11 April 2013 in the US Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. The study shows that the sight of a physical hand is remarkably unimportant to the brain for creating the experience of one's physical self and is expected to help lead to future research on amputees' phantom pain. April 12 Swedish paleontologists and their international colleagues have uncovered 245-million-year-old fossils belonging to one of the earliest relatives of dinosaurs, named Teleocrater rhadinus. The discovery, published in Nature on 12 April 2017, filled a critical gap in the fossil record of dinosaur cousins and suggesting that some features thought to characterise dinosaurs evolved much earlier than previously thought. April 13 The world’s first electrified road that recharges the batteries of cars and trucks driving on it was opened in Sweden, as widely reported on 13 April 2018, as about 2km (1.2 miles) of electric rail has been embedded in a public road near Stockholm. April 14 Volvo, a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, was officially founded on April 14, 1927, when the first car left the factory in Hisingen, Göteborg. The first Volvo, ÖV 4 model, was nicknamed "Jakob". April 15 Swedish universities Chalmers University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology won the International Sustainability Campus Network (ICSN) Award for Whole Systems Approach for their initiative The Climate Framework. April 16 April 17 April 18 Sweden took the third spot at the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, which evaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories every year, published by Reporters Without Borders. April 19 Swedish researchers at the Linköping University have developed a cheap and eco-friendly steam generator to desalinate and purify water using sunlight. The result was published in the journal Advanced Sustainable Systems on 19 April 2020. Swedish photographer Fredrik Lerneryd won the first prize at the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards in Contemporary Issues category. Ms. Viveka Bohn from Sweden was named one of the recipients of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Champions of the Earth Award on 19 April 2007. Ms. Bohn was awarded for her leadership in global efforts to ensure chemical safety, especially through the successful Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management process. April 20 Sweden ranked eighth at the 2016 Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. The Index is based on an evaluation of media freedom that measures pluralism, media independence, the quality of the legal framework and the safety of journalists in 180 countries. April 21 April 22 April 23 April 24 Swedish archaeologists have reported evidence of a 5th century massacre on the south-eastern island of Oland, in a paper published in the journal Antiquity on 24 April 2018. April 25 Viktor Johansson from the Swedish photography school Nordens Fotoskola Biskops-Arnö was awarded the Google Photography Prize 2012 for his series of images focused on Sweden’s best male diver from 10 meters Christoffer Eskilsson’s demanding training. Viktor produced photographs that focus on the long, lonely hours of repetitive training and practice that it takes to excel in a field. April 26 Sweden ranked second at the 2017 Press Freedom Index, ranking freedom of the media in a country, compiled by Reporters Without Borders. April 27 April 28 April 29 April 30

May

May 1 An international team of biologists, including researchers from Sweden, have identified a new bird species in China based on its distinctive song. The new bird, the Sichuan bush warbler, was discovered in five mountainous provinces in central China and was described in the Avian Research journal on 1 May 2015. May 2 May 3 May 4 Swedish singer Carola won the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest for the song Fångad Av En Stormvind. This was the third victory for Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. May 5 Swedish pop group Herrey's, consisting of three brothers, won the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 for the song Diggi-loo Diggy-ley. The final took place on 5 May 1984 in Luxembourg. The fifth Summer Olympic Games were held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912. The various competitions were spread out from May 5 to July 27, 1912. The 1912 Olympic Games were the first at which competitors from all five continents were represented. May 6 Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who assisted in saving several thousand Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary was awarded the distinction of becoming Australia's first honorary citizen on 6 May 2013. May 7 May 8 Paris-Saint-Germain's Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic was voted France's Ligue 1 player of the year for a record third time on 8 May 2016. May 9 May 10 May 11 Swedish professional footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic on 11 May 2014 was voted the French league's player of the year by his fellow professionals for the second straight season. May 12 May 13 May 14 May 15 Researchers from Sweden and Norway have discovered oldest Scandinavian human DNA in a 10,000-year-old ancient chewing gum, masticated lumps made from birch bark pitch. Their findings were published in Communications Biology on 15 May 2019. May 16 Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Oxford have found the first conclusive evidence of the existence of cancer stem cells in humans, in a discovery which could put an end to years of scientific controversy and pave the way for more effective cancer treatments which could attack the disease at the root. Their findings were reported on 16 May 2014 in the journal Cancer Cell. May 17 A team of Swedish and international astronomers have detected the most distant known source of oxygen in a galaxy of stars called MACS1149-JD1 13.28 billion light years away formed only 250 million years after the Big Bang. Their findings were reported in the journal Nature on 17 may 2018. May 18 May 19 Sweden became the first home team to win the Ice Hockey World Championships in 27 years, beating Switzerland 5-1 on 19 May 2013 for its ninth title. May 20 May 21 Sweden won the 2017 Ice Hockey World Championship beating favourites Canada in a dramatic penalty shootout after the teams were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation. Swedish researchers have reported that dogs may have been domesticated at least 27,000 years ago, much earlier than previously suggested. Their study was reported in the journal Current Biology on 21 May 2015. May 22 May 23 Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw won the 60th Eurovision song contest on 23 May 2015 with the song Heroes. May 24 May 25 May 26 Swedish pop singer Loreen triumphed for Sweden at the 57th Eurovision Song Contest with the song Euphoria in 2012. It was Sweden's fifth Eurovision title. May 27 Researchers from the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden have succeeded in developing a world-first concept for a rechargeable cement-based battery, as revealed on 27 May 2021. May 28 Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund won his second Palme d’Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival for Triangle of Sadness on 28 May 2022. Swedish film director Ruben Östlund’s The Square won the Palme d'Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Swedish researchers Emmanuelle Charpentier was jointly awarded the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical & Scientific Research. May 29 Swedish singer Charlotte Nilsson won the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest for her song Take Me To Your Heaven. This was the fourth time that Sweden won the Eurovision contest. May 30 May 31

June

June 1 June 2 June 3 June 4 June 5 A group of Swedish marine archeologists have found World's 'oldest fish trap', possibly 9,000 years old, according to an official announcement on 5 June 2012. June 6 Independence Day or National Day of Sweden. Since 1983, Sweden has celebrated its National Day on 6 June. This is the date on which Gustav Vasa was crowned king in 1523 and on which a new constitution was adopted in 1809. June 7 June 8 June 9 June 10 June 11 June 12 June 13 Sweden offers the best family-friendly policies among 31 rich countries with available data, according to a new UNICEF report published on 13 June 2019. Swedish and Australian researchers have made the surprising evolutionary discovery that ancient Australian fish may have had abdominal muscles, previously thought to have only developed in land animals. The researchers published the miraculously preserved musculature of 380 million year old fossil fishes from Western Australia on 13 June 2013. The finds will help scientists to understand how neck muscles and abdominal muscles – “abs” – evolved. Sweden's footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic won the Guardian Newspaper's European Goal of the Season Award for 2012-13 for one of his goals in a friendly match against England. June 14 Doctors in Sweden have replaced a vital blocked blood vessel in a 10-year-old girl using the world's first vein grown in a lab from a patient's own stem cells. The successful transplant operation, reported online in The Lancet medical journal on 14 June 2012, marks a further advance in the search for ways to make new body parts. June 15 June 16 Swedish researchers have opened a route to large-scale hydrogen production by discovering a better way to split water without relying on precious metals using a new material, meaning they found a cheaper way to produce hydrogen from water. The new material is a monolayered double hydroxide involving nickel and vanadium, which offers a state-of-art electrocatalyst for water oxidation, as revealed on 16 June 2016 in the journal Nature. Swedish astronomers and a team of international researchers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), detected a clear signal from oxygen in a galaxy named SXDF-NB1006-2 located 13.1 billion light-years away from earth. This is the most distant oxygen detected to date, as reported in the journal Science on 16 June 2016. June 17 Sweden ranked as the 13th most peaceful country in the world at the 2015 Global Peace Index published by Institute for Economics & Peace. June 18 A team of researchers from Sweden, Canada and the USA has reported that hyenas once roamed Canada's Arctic Plains based on fossil teeth, found in the Yukon, analysis belonging to hyenas one million years ago. Their findings were published on 18 June 2019 in scientific journal Open Quaternary. June 19 June 20 June 21 June 22 June 23 Researchers from Sweden and their international colleagues have reported that there was flowing water on Mars 500,000 years ago. Their study was published in Nature Communications on 23 June 2015. June 24 June 25 June 26 A team of Swedish and international researchers has discovered genes responsible for early onset Alzheimer's disease in people with Down syndrome. Their findings were published in the journal Brain on 26 June 2018. June 27 June 28 Sweden on 28 June 2016 was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for two-year terms starting on 1 January 2017. June 29 The Nobel Foundation, responsible for managing the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes, was founded on 29th June 1900 in Stockholm, Sweden. The prestigious Nobel Prizes and the foundation are based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist known for his invention of dynamite. [Source (Book): The Nobel Prize: the first 100 years By Agneta Wallin Levinovitz, Nils Ringertz] June 30 Sweden won their first ever European Under-21 football title on 30 June 2015 beating Portugal 4-3 on penalties after the teams finished the regulation and extra time at 0-0.

July

July 1 The decorated timber Farmhouses of Hälsingland in Sweden, standing as fine examples of folk, Baroque and Rococo arts by wealthy independent farmers, are named as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012. The Øresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark via road and rail lines, was opened for traffic on July 1, 2000. July 2 July 3 July 4 July 5 July 6 July 7 On 7 July 2011 it is revealed that surgeons in Sweden performed the world's first synthetic organ transplant in a cancer patient using an artificial windpipe coated with stem cells. July 8 July 9 Yvonne Ryding from Sweden was crowned the Miss Universe title in 1984 at the age of 21. Yvonne became the third Swedish woman to win the title. July 10 July 11 July 12 July 13 July 14 Sweden was named Europe’s most innovative country, according to the European Commission ranking published on 14 July 2016. July 15 July 16 Margareta Arvidsson from Sweden won the 15th Miss Universe contest at the age of 18. The event was held on July 16, 1966 at the Miami Beach Auditorium, Florida, USA. Margareta was the second Swedish woman to win the title. First European banknotes were printed in Sweden on July 16, 1661. Bank of Stockholm printed the banknotes and became the first European bank to print banknotes. July 17 A novel material with world record breaking surface area and water adsorption abilities has been synthesized by researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden. The material, named Upsalite is foreseen to reduce the amount of energy needed to control environmental moisture in the electronics and drug formulation industry as well as in hockey rinks and ware houses, is reported on 17 July 2013 in the journal PLOS ONE. July 18 July 19 Sweden ranked fifth at the 2018 United Nations (UN) E-Government Survey, which measures countries’ use of information and communications technologies to deliver public services. July 20 July 21 Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who helped spark a school based worldwide movement, received the Freedom Prize in France on 21 July 2019. July 22 Hillevi Rombin from Sweden won the 4th Miss Universe title on July 22, 1955 at the age of 21. Hillevi was the first Swedish to win the title. July 23 Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjöström clocked a world record of 51.71secs for her leg of the women's 4x100m freestyle relay final at the world championships on 23 July 2017. July 24 July 25 July 26 July 27 July 28 July 29 Kicki Håkansson from Sweden was crowned 1951 Miss World on July 29, 1951. Håkansson was the winner of the first Miss World beauty pageant. July 30 July 31

August

August 1 August 2 August 3 Ivar Rooth, a Swedish solicitor, served as the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s second Managing Director from August 3, 1951 to October 3, 1956. IMF is an organization of over 180 member countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. August 4 A team of international and Swedish scientists has discovered a 28,000 years old perfectly preserved cave lion cub frozen in Siberia. The female cub, named Sparta, was detailed in the Quaternary journal on 4 August 2021. August 5 Researchers from Sweden and their international colleagues have revealed the way spiders regulate their silk spinning process. The findings were published in the journal PLOS Biology on 5 August 2014. Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen of Sweden won the men's star sailing gold medal at the London Olympic Games on 5 August 2012. August 6 Swedish researcher Rickard Sandberg was presented with the 2015 Vallee Young Investigator Award. The international prize is awarded to young researchers for outstanding achievements in biomedicine and carries USD 250,000 in prize money. August 7 Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom broke women's 100m butterfly swimming world record with 55.48 seconds to win the gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. August 8 August 9 August 10 August 11 Scientists in Sweden have discovered a rare and aggressive form of Alzheimer’s, named the Uppsala APP deletion, that begins in the early 40s, as reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine on 11 August 2021. August 12 August 13 A team of Swedish and international scientists have revealed that a 14,000-year-old puppy, whose perfectly preserved body was found in Russia, munched on a woolly rhino for its last meal. Their findings were published in the journal Cell on 13 August 2020. August 14 Researchers from Sweden and an international team have discovered two new species of bone-devouring worms thriving on the icy-cold seafloor of the Southern Ocean. The new species, named Osedax antarcticus and Osedax deceptionensis, that dine on decaying whale skeletons are described on 14 August 2013 in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B. Researchers from Sweden and an international team have set out the first comprehensive map of mutational processes behind the development of tumors - work that should in future lead to better ways to treat and prevent a wide range of cancers. Their study, published on 14 August 2013 in the journal Nature, discovered the genetic imprints and signatures left by DNA-damaging processes that lead to cancer. August 15 Sweden ranked second at the 2016 Global Innovation Index, released on 15 August 2016 by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), that ranks countries based on their capacities and results for innovation. August 16 August 17 August 18 August 19 August 20 Sweden's Henrik Stenson shot a sizzling final round six-under-par 64 to win the Wyndham Championship by a stroke on 20 August 2017 and claim his sixth PGA Tour title, the most by a Swede. August 21 August 22 August 23 August 24 August 25 A previously unrecognised 132 million-year-old fossilised sea monster, Lagenanectes richterae, from northern Germany has been identified by Swedish and German researchers. Their study was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on 25 August 2017. August 26 Sweden won gold in the mixed team golf event beating Korean duo at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. August 27 Researchers from Sweden, England and Wales have used GPS data to reveal the mathematical secrets of how sheepdogs do their job. The new model, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface on 27 August 2014, helps to explain why one shepherd and a single dog can herd an unruly flock of more than 100 sheep. August 28 August 29 Swedish Professor Carl Folke was awarded the 2017 Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science for his outstanding scientific work to promote sustainable development globally. August 30 Swedish Professor Carl Folke was awarded the International Geographical Union’s most prestigious Planet and Humanity Medal on 30 August 2016 for his outstanding contribution to science and action on the resilience of humanity and the planet. August 31

September

September 1 September 2 Sweden ranked as the second most innovative country in the world according to the 2020 Global Innovation Index, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization on 2 September 2020. Swedish professional golfer Henrik Stenson won the 2013 Deutsche Bank PGA Championship title on 2 September 2013. September 3 September 4 September 5 September 6 Swedish director Roy Andersson's comedy A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence won the Golden Lion award for best film at the 2014 Venice Film Festival. September 7 September 8 Swedish researchers and their international colleagues have found that the dynamics of springtime plant growth, specifically whether green-up progresses like a wave or not, explain where deer migration occurs in many ecosystems, as revealed on 8 September 2020. September 9 September 10 September 11 Karl Forsman of Sweden won Men's 100m Breaststroke - SB5 - Swimming gold at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in Brazil. September 12 September 13 September 14 September 15 Sweden ranked as the second most democratic country in the world according to the Democracy Index 2014 published by the Economist on 15 September 2015. September 16 September 17 Lovisa Bergström from Sweden was named one of the International News Media Association's 30 under 30 award winners, recognising rising stars in the global media industry. Armand Duplantis of Sweden produced the highest ever outdoors jump in the pole vault as he cleared 6.15m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome on 17 September 2020. September 18 Surgeons in Sweden have successfully performed the world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants, according to an official announcement by the University of Gothenburg on 18 September 2012. September 19 September 20 September 21 September 22 Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden Margot Wallström received the Women of Achievement Award on 22 September 2017 for her leadership in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. September 23 September 24 Researchers from the Lund University in Sweden have found that the eyeless Mexican cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) is capable of using 30 percent less energy than its surface fish counterparts by deactivating its circadian rhythm, a mechanism responsible for coordinating the body's functions with the day and night cycle of a certain environment. Their study was published in PLOS ONE on 24 September 2014. September 25 A team of scientists, including researchers from Sweden, have found a fossil of a 419-million-year-old ancient armoured fish in China, in what is being hailed as the most significant paleontological discovery in decades. Their study was reported in the journal Nature on 25 September 2013. September 26 September 27 September 28 September 29 September 30 Sweden ranked as the 9th most competitive country in the world, according to a World Economic Forum report released on 30 September 2015. This report, provides insight into the drivers of a country’s productivity and prosperity, suggests Sweden has been nurturing innovation and talent.

October

October 1 Sweden named second best country to grow old, according to HelpAge International's Global AgeWatch Index 2014. The index measures the social and economic welfare of those aged over 60. October 2 October 3 A woman in Sweden has given birth to a baby boy with the help of a transplanted womb, in a medical first, researchers from the University of Gothenburg reported on 3 October 2014. October 4 October 5 October 6 The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2011 is awarded to the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality. Sweden's first telephone speaking-clock, a simulated voice service that provides the correct time, began operating on October 6, 1934. October 7 The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2015 was jointly awarded to Tomas Lindahl of Sweden, Aziz Sancar of Turkey and Paul Modrich of the USA for mechanistic studies of DNA repair. October 8 October 9 Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson jointly won The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2000 for his contributions in the discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system. October 10 October 11 Sweden clinched the top spot on the 2016 Girls’ Opportunity Index released by Save the Children, a global index that provides a snapshot of the situation of girls in respective countries according to their opportunity to control their own lives and to fulfill their potential. October 12 October 13 Alva Myrdal of Sweden, along with Alfonso García Robles from Mexico, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize for 1982 for their central role in the United Nations' disarmament negotiations. October 14 Sweden's Lundin Petroleum on 14 October 2014 announced significant oil discovery, estimated at 125 to 400 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), in the Barents Sea. October 15 October 16 October 17 October 18 October 19 October 20 October 21 Scientists from Sweden and South Africa have discovered that three species of dung beetle in the Western Cape have given up their ability to fly and instead gallops across the sand in a behavior which researchers suspect evolved as a way to navigate back and forth from home. The findings were reported in the journal Current Biology on 21 October 2013. October 22 October 23 October 24 A new species of snake was found by two research colleagues, Johan Elmberg of Sweden and Arne Rasmussen of Denmark, when they were examining formalin-filled jars of snakes at the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen, according to an official announcement by the Kristianstad University of Sweden on 24 October 2012. October 25 October 26 October 27 October 28 October 29 October 30 October 31

November

November 1 Sweden ranked as the third most positive country at the World’s Most Positive Countries 2016. Sweden ranked as the second most positive country at the World’s Most Positive Countries 2015. Sweden ranked sixth in the list of the World’s Most Positive Countries for 2014. Sweden ranked eighth in the list of the World’s Most Positive Countries 2013. Sweden ranked tenth in the list of the World’s Most Positive Countries 2012. An international team of astronomers, that also includes researchers from Sweden, detected what appears to be light from the first stars in the universe, indicating that stars were present at least as early as 500 million years after the “big bang”. The findings were published on 1 November 2012 in the journal Science. November 2 Sweden was ranked as the world‘s fifth most gender-equal country, according to the World Economic Forum‘s Global Gender Gap index published on 2 November 2017. November 3 November 4 November 5 November 6 November 7 November 8 November 9 November 10 November 11 Swedish astronomers and their international colleagues have discovered the oldest known stars, dating from before the Milky Way Galaxy formed, when the Universe was just 300 million years old. The stars, found near the center of the Milky Way, were detailed in the journal Nature on 11 November 2015. November 12 Sweden was elected on the United Nations Human Rights Council on 12 November 2012 for a three-year term. The council was created by the UN General Assembly in 2006 as the main human rights body of the UN. November 13 Sweden qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 2006 after seeing off Italy out of the World Cup on 13 November 2017. May Louise Flodin from Sweden was crowned Miss World 1952. She was the second woman to win the title from Sweden. Miss World 1952, the second ever Miss World pageant, was held on November 14, 1952. November 14 November 15 November 16 Sweden secured the fifth position at the Climate Change Performance Index published on 16 November 2016 by Climate Action Network Europe and Germanwatch. The index ranked 58 countries according to their emissions level, the trend in emissions, the deployment of renewable energy, the energy intensity of the economy and climate policies. November 17 On 17 November 2011, it is revealed that Swedish divers discovered the wreck of one of the largest 17th century warships, Svärdet, off the coast of the Baltic island of Öland at a depth of between 160 and 320 feet. Mary Stävin, a Swedish model and actress, was crowned Miss World 1977 at the age of 20. Stävin was the third Swedish woman to win the title. November 18 November 19 November 20 November 21 Swedish immunologist Professor Jan Holmgren won the 2018 Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Public Health for his role in testing and proving the efficiency of internationally licensed oral cholera vaccines. Per Jacobsson from Sweden was the third Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from November 21, 1956 to May 5, 1963. IMF is an organization of over 180 member countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. November 22 November 23 November 24 Swedish politician Magdalena Andersson was elected as the country’s first ever female Prime Minister on 24 November 2021. November 25 November 26 Sweden and India on 26 November 2012 signed a social security agreement that will relieve their workers from double taxation and provide for cooperation in areas of labor market expansion and orderly migration. It is the first such agreement that Stockholm has signed with an Asian country. November 27 November 28 November 29 November 30

December

December 1 Sweden’s foreign minister Margot Wallström was named as one of the world's top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy, a Washington-based prestigious magazine of global politics, economics and ideas, on 1 December 2015 for her vision of gender equality. December 2 December 3 December 4 December 5 December 6 Swedish researchers have for the first time described how Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic disease, from cats affects the human brain. The research findings were published on 6 December 2012 in the journal PLoS Pathogens. December 7 December 8 A team of international and Swedish scientists has discovered a planet 10 times as massive as Jupiter, named b Centauri (AB)b or b Centauri b, orbiting a pair of stars in another solar system, as published on 8 December 2021 in the journal Nature. Sweden ranked third in the world at the Climate Change Performance Index published on 8 December 2015. The index evaluates the climate protection performance of countries based on carbon emissions, trends, renewable energy and climate policy. December 9 December 10 Swedish politician, Karl Hjalmar Branting, jointly won The Nobel Peace Prize in 1921 for his role as Swedish Delegate at the Council of the League of Nations – the precursor to the United Nations. Klas Pontus Arnoldson, a Swedish journalist and politician, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 for founding the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association in 1883 and for his continuous efforts to establish peace. December 11 December 12 Swedish and Greek archaeologists have discovered an unknown 2,500-year-old city at a village called Vlochós, five hours north of Athens, as announced on 12 December 2016. ICEHOTEL in Sweden was named World's Leading Ice Hotel at the World Travel Awards (WTA) Grand Final 2015 in Morocco. December 13 Swedish ski racer Maria Pietilae-Holmner won a World Cup slalom race on 13 December 2014, beating Tina Maze of Slovenia by just .06 seconds. December 14 December 15 December 16 December 17 December 18 Swedish manufacturer SAAB on 18 December 2013 won a $4.5bn (£2.7bn) contract to supply 36 fighter jets to Brazil. December 19 December 20 December 21 December 22 December 23 December 24 December 25 December 26 December 27 December 28 December 29 December 30 December 31

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