4. Arctic Thaw

On August 2, a pair of 18-ton Russian submersibles, Mir-I and Mir-II, plunged more than two miles down into the Arctic Ocean and planted a titanium capsule containing their nation’s flag on the seabed at the North Pole. Russian parliamentarian and explorer Artur Chilingarov, who rode in the first of the two minisubmarines to reach the ocean floor, declared, “Our task is to remind the world that Russia is a great Arctic and scientific power,” to which Canadian foreign minister Peter MacKay retorted: “This isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory.’”