date: October 18

text: October 18 – Dozens of exotic animals were released from their enclosures at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, Ohio resulting in the need of local law enforcement to hunt and kill 48 animals including 18 tigers, 6 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, 2 wolves, 1 macaque monkey, 1 baboon, 3 mountain lions and 17 African lions.


date: October 23

section: Climate & Environment

text: October 23 – A magnitude 7.2 M w earthquake jolts eastern Turkey near the city of Van, killing over 600 people and damaging about 2,200 buildings.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 29

text: October 29 – A large snowstorm produced unusual amounts of early snowfall across the northeastern United States and the Canadian Maritimes, leaving 1.7 million people without power and disrupting travel.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Tropical Storm Washi causes 1,268 flash flood fatalities in the Philippines, with 85 people officially listed as missing.

source_section: Events › December


date: January 25

section: Culture & Society

text: January 25 – The 2011 Egyptian revolution begins.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 19

text: February 19–April 2 – The 2011 Cricket World Cup is held in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka with India defeating Sri Lanka in the final.

source_section: Events › February


date: May 10

text: May 10–14 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 takes place in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is won by Azeri entrants Ell & Nikki with the song "Running Scared".

source_section: Events › May


date: June 26

text: June 26–July 17 – The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup takes place in Germany, and is won by Japan.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 6

text: July 6 – The International Olympic Committee awards Pyeongchang the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 9

text: September 9–October 23 – The 2011 Rugby World Cup is held in and won by New Zealand who beat France in the final.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Occupy Wall Street protests begin in the United States. This develops into the Occupy movement which spreads to 82 countries by October.


date: January 4

section: Deaths

text: January 4 – Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi dies after setting himself on fire a month earlier, sparking anti-government protests in Tunisia and later other Arab nations. These protests become known collectively as the Arab Spring.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – In North Korea, following the death of the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, the official reaction is grief and support for the succession of his son, Kim Jong Un.


date: January 23

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: the European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of its continued effort to enrich uranium.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh formally transfers power to Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, after a year of mass protests, ending his 33-year-long reign.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Sauli Niinistö is inaugurated as the 12th President of Finland.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.

source_section: Events › April


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Kim Jong Un was elected First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, and his father, Kim Jong Il, was given the appellation "Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea".


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Legislative elections are held in Greece to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the New Democracy party led by Antonis Samaras, comes out as the largest party winning 108 out of 300 seats.


date: May 20

text: May 20 Presidential elections were held in the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina result as president-elect.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Snap legislative elections are held in Greece, following failure to form a government, to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the New Democracy party, led by Antonis Samaras, comes out as the largest party winning 129 out of 300 seats.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The Congress of Paraguay approves the impeachment of president Fernando Lugo.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Fernando Lugo is removed from power. Vice President Federico Franco becomes the new president of Paraguay.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, is elected 5th President of Egypt, the first elected democratically by the Egyptian people, sparking mixed reactions and protests throughout the country.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Sport Club Corinthians Paulista wins the Copa Libertadores by beating the Boca Juniors.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Armenia severs diplomatic relations with Hungary, following the extradition to Azerbaijan and subsequent pardoning of Ramil Safarov, who was convicted of killing an Armenian soldier in Hungary in 2004. The move is also met with fierce criticism from other countries.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran, and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and human rights abuses.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – North Kalimantan is established as the 34th province of Indonesia.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 2012 United States presidential election: Barack Obama is reelected President of the United States, defeating his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 15

text: November 15 – After the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping succeeds Hu Jintao as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and becomes the top leader of China.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – The UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer state status.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The U.S. state of Washington becomes the first jurisdiction in the modern world to officially legalize the possession of cannabis for personal use.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The UN Climate Change Conference in Qatar agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.


date: January 12

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the Romanian city of Târgu Mureș, protesters expressing solidarity towards certain figures in the medical field and calling for the resignation of president Traian Băsescu. The protests would soon spread through all of the country, marking the start of a long civil unrest in Romania, lasting up to November 2015.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Egypt's deadliest football incident known as the Port Said Stadium riot is sparked after local Port Said Al Masry fans attack supporters of Cairo-based team Al Ahly SC. The massacre results in 74 deaths: 72 Al Ahly fans, 1 Al Masry fan and 1 police officer. Most of the deaths are caused by stabbing, fans thrown off the stands and a stampede.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Air date of Kony 2012 (viral documentary film) on YouTube.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.


date: May 12

text: May 12–August 12 – The 2012 World Expo takes place in Yeosu, South Korea.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Houla massacre takes place, perpetrated by the Syrian Arab Army, with 108 being killed.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – UEFA Euro 2012, hosted by Poland and Ukraine, begins in Warsaw, with a match between Poland and Greece, which ends 1-1.


date: September 11

text: September 11–27 – A series of terrorist attacks are directed against United States diplomatic missions worldwide, as well as diplomatic missions of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the US, opinions are divided over whether the attacks are a reaction to a YouTube trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. In Libya, US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens is among those killed during attacks in Benghazi.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Activision releases Call of Duty: Black Ops II.


date: November 14

text: November 14–21 – Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following week 140 Palestinians and five Israelis are killed in an ensuing cycle of violence. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the week-long escalation in hostilities in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.


date: July 21

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: July 21 – Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç becomes the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.


date: February 19

section: Economy & Finance

text: February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France, following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Greek government-debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The House of Representatives of Japan passes a resolution criticizing the President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak's visit to the disputed Liancourt Rocks.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Spanish bank Grupo Santander announces the acquisition of the remaining 10% of Banesto it did not yet own, effectively absorbing it into Banco Santander.


date: January 4

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Microsoft finishes development of Windows 8, with general availability announced for October 26.


date: March 13

section: Science & Discovery

text: March 13 – After 246 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands. The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the republic.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – An annular solar eclipse visible from Asia and North America is the 58th solar eclipse from 73 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 128.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 metres high, is opened to the public.


date: June 5

text: June 5–6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female, docks manually with orbiting module Tiangong-1, making this the third country, after the United States and Russia, successfully to perform the mission.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end of June. The last time this occurred was in 2008.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – The Voyager 1 space probe becomes the first human-made object to successfully exit the Solar System and enter Interstellar space, and to an extent, becoming the first Interstellar probe, pioneering Interstellar exploration.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Windows 7 overtakes Windows XP in market share globally.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance, during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 128,000 ft (24 mi km) over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Microsoft releases Windows 8 to the general public.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – A total solar eclipse occurs in parts of Australia and the South Pacific. It is the 45th of 72 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 133.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – North Korea successfully launches satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The music video for Psy's "Gangnam Style" becomes the first YouTube video to reach a billion views.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Japanese supercentarian Jiroemon Kimura surpasses the final age of Danish-American supercentarian Christian Mortensen of 115 years, 252 days and becomes the oldest validated man in recorded history.


date: June 6

section: Health & Medicine

text: June 6 – 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak first identified.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The Séléka overthrows the government of the Central African Republic which leads to the outbreak of a Civil war.


date: February 26

section: Crime & Justice

text: February 26 – Seventeen-year-old African-American student Trayvon Martin is shot to death by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in an altercation in Sanford, Florida.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Communist party chief of Chongqing Bo Xilai, well known for his neo-Maoist leanings and policies, is removed from his post after a large scandal involving the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood and an incident involving the Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – South Korean rapper Psy releases his hit single Gangnam Style.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal: Mark Williams-Thomas presents the ITV documentary which exposes Jimmy Savile as a paedophile. The revelations of Savile's prolific sexual abuse crimes results in widespread shock and disgust across the country, resulting in a national scandal, a police investigation into Savile's crimes, and all television episodes featuring him being removed from syndication.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Seven paintings worth $25 million are stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Jorge Lorenzo becomes the World Champion of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Adam Lanza kills his mother before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary School, shooting dead twenty students and six teachers before killing himself in Newtown, Connecticut. It becomes the deadliest school shooting at a K-12 school in U.S. history.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, otherwise known as the Nirbhaya case, occurred on the night of December 16, 2012. The case involved the fatal assault of a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern by a group of six men in a moving bus.


date: January 13

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 13 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off the coast of Italy, causing 32 deaths.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – A coach carrying school pupils and teachers crashes while travelling through Sierre Tunnel on the A9 motorway in western Switzerland. Of the 52 people on board, 28 are killed, among them 22 children.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Bhoja Air Flight 213 crashes near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, killing all 127 people on board.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Dana Air Flight 0992, on a flight from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria, suffered a dual-engine failure during its approach to Lagos where it crashed onto buildings, killing all 153 people on board and six on the ground.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – 2012 Aurora theater shooting: 12 people are killed and 58 are injured in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The shooter, James Holmes, opens fire on a crowd during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Racing legend Micheal Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula One during the Japanese Grand Prix.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – At least 55 people drown after an overcrowded boat capsizes off the coast of Somalia.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake strike in the central Philippines island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – An 8.6 earthquake strikes Indonesia triggering a small tsunami that hits the coast of Aceh.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Morley and Dianella in Perth, Western Australia, have a once in a decade tornado.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The Solar storm of 2012 is an unusually large coronal mass ejection emitted by the Sun which barely misses the Earth by nine days. If it had hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.


date: July 30

text: July 30–31 – In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – November 2 – Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record (as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 900 miles (1,400 km)), wreaks havoc, resulting in 233 total deaths and $68.7 billion (2012 USD) damage.


date: November 25

text: November 25–December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people missing. The typhoon causes considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – December 12 would be the last time in the 21st century that the month, day and final two digits of the year are the exact same (12/12/12). The next time this will happen will be on New Year's Day in 2101 (01/01/01).


date: January 18

text: January 18 – As part of a series of protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, the English Wikipedia goes dark for 24 hours, starting at midnight Eastern Standard Time (05:00 UTC).


text: February 6 – The Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II commemorates 60 years since the accession of Elizabeth II as Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Pakistan wins the 2012 Asia Cup cricket tournament.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Chelsea wins the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League held in Munich, Germany by beating the home side Bayern Munich in the final.


date: May 22

text: May 22–26 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, and is won by Swedish entrant Loreen with the song "Euphoria".


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The final match of the UEFA Euro 2012 takes place in Kyiv between Spain and Italy. Spain wins 4–0, achieving victorious from the third international tournament in a row, after winning UEFA Euro 2008 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.


date: July 27

text: July 27–August 12 – The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, England, United Kingdom.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The United Kingdom informs the World Health Organization about a novel coronavirus case originating from Saudi Arabia.


date: December 6

text: December 6–16 – The 2012 FIFA Club World Cup is held in Japan and won by Sport Club Corinthians Paulista.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – 2012 phenomenon: End of 13th b'ak'tun in the Mayan calendar, supposed end of the world according to new age beliefs. Festivities took place to commemorate the event in the countries that were part of the Maya civilization (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador), with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies, dies in Galápagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct.


date: December 4

text: December 4-6 – Egyptian protestors protest outside the presidential palace against the 2012 constitutional declaration which gave President Morsi influence over the judiciary and turns violent when Morsi supporters clashed with anti-Morsi protestors. It led to the intervention of security forces. The incident caused the deaths of at least 10, including anti-Morsi protestors and supporters of Morsi as well as hundreds of injuries.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – 2013 Liechtenstein general election: The Progressive Citizens' Party led by Adrian Hasler wins a plurality of 10 seats in the Landtag.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Park Geun-hye becomes the first woman to become the president of South Korea.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Businessman Horacio Cartes wins the 2013 Paraguayan general election against Efraín Alegre.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of his mother, Beatrix.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani abdicates and his son Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani assumes power.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard in an Australian Labor Party leadership ballot and consequently becomes Prime Minister of Australia, three years after Gillard replaced Rudd.


text: July 1 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Philippe is sworn in as King of the Belgians, following the abdication of his father, Albert II.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Horacio Cartes is sworn in as President of Paraguay.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – The United Kingdom Parliament votes against UK military attacks on Syria.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – 2013 Australian federal election: The Liberal/National Coalition led by Tony Abbott defeats the Labor Government led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Abbott is sworn in on September 18.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Delegates from some 140 countries and territories sign the Minamata Treaty, a UNEP treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Euromaidan pro-EU demonstrations begin in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych rejects an economic association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine in favor of closer ties to Russia.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Iran agrees to limit their nuclear development program in exchange for sanctions relief.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization delegates sign the Bali Package agreement aimed at loosening global trade barriers.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – At least 130 people are killed and 270 are injured in several bomb blasts in Pakistan.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – The French military begins a 5-month intervention into the Northern Mali conflict, targeting the militant Islamist Ansar Dine group.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Central African Republic President François Bozizé flees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after rebel forces capture the nation's capital, Bangui.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Boston Marathon bombing: Two Chechnya-born Islamist brothers (one a United States citizen) detonate 2 bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, killing 3 people and injuring 264 others.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Global surveillance disclosures: Former CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden discloses operations engaged in by a U.S. government mass surveillance program to news publications and flees the country, later being granted temporary asylum in Russia.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Nineteen firefighters are killed as a result of the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – Amid protests, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is deposed in a military coup d'état, leading to widespread violence.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Following the military coup in Egypt, two anti-coup camps are raided by the security forces, leaving 2,696 people dead. The raids are described by Human Rights Watch as "one of the world's largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history".


date: August 21

text: August 21 – 1,429 are killed in the Ghouta chemical attack during the Syrian Civil War.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Twelve people are killed during the Washington Navy Yard shooting.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Al-Shabaab militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 62 civilians and wounding over 170.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Saudi Arabia rejects a seat on the United Nations Security Council, making it the first country to reject a seat on the Security Council. Jordan takes the seat on December 6.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – South Sudanese Civil War: Fighting between ethnic Dinka and Nuer members of the presidential guard break out in Juba, South Sudan, plunging the country into civil war.


text: November 21 – Moldovan-flagged cargo ship makes port in Beirut, Lebanon, carrying 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. After inspection by port state control, the Rhosus is deemed unseaworthy, and is forbidden to set sail. By order of an Urgent Matters judge in Beirut, the cargo is brought ashore in 2014 and placed in Warehouse 12 at the port, where it will remain for six years. The ammonium nitrate will erupt in a massive explosion on August 4, 2020.


date: February 28

section: Religion & Belief

text: February 28 – Benedict XVI resigns as pope, becoming the first to do so since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected the 266th pope, whereupon he takes the name Francis and becomes the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – North Korea conducts its third underground nuclear test, prompting widespread condemnation and tightened economic sanctions from the international community.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis: The European Union agrees to a €10 billion economic bailout for Cyprus. The bailout loan will be equally split between the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, and the International Monetary Fund. The deal precipitates a banking crisis in the island nation.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Social website Multiply, based at this time in Indonesia, ceases operations.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in the United States describe the first production of human embryonic stem cells by cloning, in a study published in the scientific journal Nature.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Microsoft releases Windows 8.1.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The uncrewed Mars Orbiter Mission is launched by India from its launch pad in Sriharikota.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Chinese uncrewed spacecraft Chang'e 3, carrying the Yutu rover, becomes the first spacecraft to "soft"-land on the Moon since 1976 and the third ever robotic rover to do so.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – American scientists use a 3D printer to create a living lab-grown ear from collagen and animal ear cell cultures. In the future, it is hoped that similar ears could be grown to order as transplants for human patients with ear trauma or amputation.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – A tornado outbreak occurs in Illinois, United States. An EF4 tornado in Washington causes $935 million ($ billion adjusted) of property damage, killing 3 people.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Emergency Alert Systems of five different television stations across the U.S. states of Montana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Mexico are hijacked, airing a false "Zombie apocalypse" hoax. It is amongst one of the largest cybersecurity breaches in EAS history.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – Venezuelan presidential election: Nicolás Maduro is declared winner with a narrow victory over his opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski. Protests continue to October.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Off-duty British Army soldier Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers is murdered in Woolwich, southeast London, by Islamic terrorists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Grand Theft Auto V earns more than half a billion dollars on its first day of release.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Three Studies of Lucian Freud, a series of portraits of Lucian Freud by the British painter Francis Bacon, sells for US$142.4 million in a New York City auction, setting a world record for an auctioned work of art.


date: January 16

text: January 16–20 – 39 international workers and 1 security guard die in a hostage crisis at a natural gas facility near In Aménas, Algeria.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – An estimated 245 people die in a nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The 2013 Savar building collapse, one of the worst industrial disasters in the world, kills 1,134 people in Bangladesh.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – A bus carrying 47 Romanian tourists to Tivat, Montenegro, crashes in the Morača canyon in central Montenegro, killing 19 people and injuring 27.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing 3 people.


text: July 6 – A runaway train carrying crude oil derails in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, catching fire and exploding, killing 47 people.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Twelve people are killed when an apartment building collapses in Medellín, Colombia.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse Airport, Laos, killing all 49 people on board.


text: November 17 – Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – A police helicopter crashes into The Clutha, a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, killing 10 people and injuring 31.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alaska earthquake: A (, 'Moderate') earthquake shakes Prince of Wales Island.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Severe weather spawns eight tornadoes across southern Mississippi and southwest Alabama, including an EF4 tornado which struck the city of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – A meteor explodes over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,489–1,492 people and damaging over 4,300 buildings. It is the most powerful meteor to strike Earth's atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event. The incident, along with a coincidental flyby of a larger asteroid, prompts international concern regarding the vulnerability of the planet to meteor strikes.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – 2013 Lushan earthquake: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake jolts Sichuan, China, leaving 193 people dead and more than 11,000 injured.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – An EF5 tornado in the US state of Oklahoma hits Moore and several other surrounding areas near Oklahoma City, resulting in 24 deaths and many injuries.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The largest tornado ever recorded hits El Reno, United States. This rain-wrapped, multiple-vortex tornado was the widest tornado ever recorded, and results in eight deaths, including four storm-chasers. Measurements from mobile weather radars revealed extreme winds up to 296 mph (476 km/h) within the vortex, among the highest observed wind speeds on Earth. As it crosses U.S. 81, the tornado grows to a record-breaking width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km).


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The 2013 Colorado floods begin, resulting from heavy rain in the Colorado River Basin.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Bohol, Philippines, leaving 222 dead, 8 missing, and 976 people injured.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, hits the Philippines and Vietnam, causing devastation with at least 6,241 people dead.


date: May 14

text: May 14–18 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 takes place in Malmö, Sweden, and is won by Danish entrant Emmelie de Forest with the song "Only Teardrops".


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The World Health Organization names the novel coronavirus Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).


date: June 26

text: June 26 – United States v. Windsor (570 U.S. 744) decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, overturning a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act and hence granting federal recognition to same-sex marriage in the United States.


date: July 22

text: July 22–28 – XIV World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – All-time most expensive public school in Norway, Kuben Upper Secondary School, opens.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – The International Olympic Committee awards Tokyo the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Death of Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Jiroemon Kimura, the verified oldest man to have ever lived, dies at 116 years and 54 days old in Japan.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Revolution of Dignity: The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) votes to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office, replacing him with Oleksandr Turchynov, after days of civil unrest leaving around 100 people dead in Kyiv.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, severs diplomatic and political ties with Panama, accusing Panama of being involved in a conspiracy against the Venezuelan government.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signs a bill formalizing the process.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic declares its independence from Ukraine.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – The self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic declares its independence from Ukraine.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – The Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic declare the formation of Novorossiya, also referred to as the Union of People's Republics.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Narendra Modi succeeds Manmohan Singh as the 14th Prime Minister of India.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Felipe VI becomes King of Spain upon the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – In the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Stefan Löfven replaces Fredrik Reinfeldt as Prime Minister of Sweden.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – Joko Widodo is inaugurated as the 7th President of Indonesia.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Longtime Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré resigns after widespread protests in response to his attempts to abolish presidential term limits.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – U.S. President Barack Obama announces the resumption of normal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba.


date: February

text: February – Guen massacre: in the context of the civil war in Central African Republic, Anti-balaka militia murdered 72 Muslim civilians.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – During an emergency meeting, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada temporarily suspend Russia from the G8, recognizing Crimea within Ukraine's international borders and rejecting the validity of the 2014 Crimean referendum.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – In response to the invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea by Russia, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passes a resolution to temporarily strip Russia of its voting rights; its rights to be represented in the Bureau of the Assembly, the PACE Presidential Committee, and the PACE Standing Committee; and its right to participate in election-observation missions.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – The Battle of Benghazi leads to the start of the Second Libyan Civil War.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – A mass stabbing incident occurred on Taipei Metro's Bannan line from Longshan Temple to Jiangzicui station causing 4 fatalities and 21 injuries.


text: May 22 – 2014 Thai coup d'état: The Royal Thai Army overthrows the caretaker government of Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan after a failure to resolve the political unrest in Thailand.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – A Sunni militant group now calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) begins an offensive through northern Iraq, aiming to capture the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad and overthrow the Shiite government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – In the Camp Speicher massacre in Iraq, ISIL kills 1,566 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets. It is the second deadliest terrorist attack in history and the deadliest attack conducted by ISIL.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – The Los Angeles Kings defeat the New York Rangers 3–2 in game 5 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final to win the series 4–1 and win their second Stanley Cup in franchise history.


text: June 13 – War against the Islamic State begins.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – 100-year anniversary of World War I's commencement (Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia).


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Sinjar massacre, beginning of ISIS attacks resulting in the massacre of over 4,000 Yazidis in Iraq's Sinjar District.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – American-led intervention in Iraq: The United States military begins an air campaign in northern Iraq to stem the influx of ISIL militants.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – The shooting of Michael Brown, an African American, by a police officer occurs in Ferguson, Missouri, triggering riots.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Syrian civil war: ISIS militants launched an offensive to capture the town of Kobanî, which lasted for six months.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – The Battle of Sanaa leads to the start of the Yemeni Civil War, as Houthi forces capture the capital city Sanaa, followed by a rapid Houthi takeover of the government.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – American-led intervention in Syria: The United States and several Arab partners begin their airstrike campaign in Syria.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The 2014 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, to be held in Cape Town from 13 to 15 October, is suspended after a boycott of Nobel Laureates to protest the third time refusal of a visa to the 14th Dalai Lama by a South African Government "kowtowing to China".


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Hong Kong protests: Benny Tai Yiu-ting announces that Occupy Central is launched as Hong Kong's government headquarters is being occupied by thousands of protesters. Hong Kong police resort to tear gas to disperse protesters but thousands remain.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – 2014 Peshawar school massacre: The Pakistani Taliban carry out a mass shooting at an army school in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing at least 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – 2014 Crimean status referendum: A disputed referendum on the status of the Crimean Peninsula is held.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The Catholic Church simultaneously canonizes Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declares itself a caliphate.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The Roman Catholic Church beatifies Pope Paul VI.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Latvia adopts the euro as its currency and becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – United States President Barack Obama's new economic sanctions against Russia go into effect, targeting companies and individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – The number of people in the U.S. using mobile devices to access the internet overtook those using desktop computers for the first time, a feat which would be followed globally two years later in 2016.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – 2014 Kunming attack: Eight knife-wielding terrorists stabbed and slashed passengers at the Kunming railway station in Kunming, Yunnan, China, killing 31 people and injuring 143 others.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Washington DC metro opens Phase 1 of the silver line to Tysons Corner, Reston, and Loudoun county.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, One World Trade Center in New York City, opens.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV Mk.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic rocket engine.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The Mars Orbiter Mission, popularly known as Mangalyaan, which was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation, reached Martian orbit, making India the first Asian country to successfully reach Mars.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Alan Eustace, an American computer scientist, sets a world record highest and longest free fall jump from 135908 ft km over Roswell, New Mexico, United States, breaking the sound barrier without any machine assistance during a record space dive out of a massive helium-filled balloon. His descent to Earth lasts 4 minutes 27 seconds and stretches nearly 26 mi km with peak speeds exceeding 822 mph km/h, setting new world records for the highest free-fall jump and total free-fall distance 123414 ft m.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the final part of its Fifth Assessment Report, warning that the world faces "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage from global emissions of CO 2 .


date: November 12

text: November 12 – The uncrewed Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches uncrewed spaceprobe Hayabusa2 from the Tanegashima Space Center on a six-year round-trip mission to Ryugu to collect rock samples.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Belgium becomes the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia for terminally ill patients of any age.


date: February

text: February – The West African Ebola virus epidemic begins, infecting at least 28,616 people and killing at least 11,310 people, the most severe both in terms of numbers of infections and casualties.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The World Health Organization identifies the spread of poliomyelitis in at least 10 countries as a major worldwide health emergency.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Bangladesh faces a nationwide blackout.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping: an estimated 276 girls and women are abducted from a school in Nigeria and held hostage.


text: May 5 – Boko Haram militants kill approximately 300 people in a night attack on Gamboru Ngala in Nigeria.


date: July 8

text: July 8–August 26 – Amid growing tensions between Israel and Hamas following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June and the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager in July, Israel launches Operation Protective Edge against Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip starting with numerous missile strikes, followed by a ground offensive a week later. In seven weeks of fighting, 2,100 Palestinians and 71 Israelis are killed.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Monty Python Live (Mostly) closes in London, ending the famous British comedy group Monty Python, active since 1969.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are found guilty of crimes against humanity and are sentenced to life imprisonment by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.


text: August 8 – Five Nights at Freddy's is released by Scott Cawthon.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Forty-three male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College are forcibly abducted in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers in collusion with organized crime. The mass kidnapping caused international protests and social unrest, leading to the resignation of Guerrero Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Tamir Rice, a twelve-year-old African-American boy, is killed by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Two hostages and terrorist Man Haron Monis are killed in the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, Australia.


date: December

text: African-American teenage boy George Stinney Jr.'s conviction of murdering two white girls back in 1944 is vacated due to him having received an unfair trial.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The Elk River Chemical Spill in Charleston, West Virginia, when a leakage of the chemical MCMH from a Freedom Industries chemical plant left 300,000 residents of Charleston and nine surrounding counties without drinkable water for over three months.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operates its last passenger flight, signaling the end to a bygone era of aviation.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 airliner en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappears over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board. The aircraft is presumed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsizes and sinks after an unmanageable cargo shift, killing 304 people, mostly high school students.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – According to a South Korea Unification Ministry report, a twenty-three story apartment building collapsed in Pyongchon-guyok, Pyongyang, North Korea (DPR of Korea), with more than 490 fatalities estimated.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – 2014 Jos bombings: Terrorists in Nigeria detonate bombs at Jos, killing 118 people.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – A terrorist attack in Ürümqi, China leaves 43 people dead and more than 90 injured.


date: May 28

text: May 28 - The Jangseong Nursing Home fire happens in Jangseong County, South Korea killing 21.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes in eastern Ukraine after being shot down by a missile. All 298 people on board are killed.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2166 in response to the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Air Algérie Flight 5017, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, crashes in Mali, killing all 116 people on board.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore crashes into the Java Sea just southwest of Borneo, killing all 162 people on board.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The United Nations International Court of Justice rules that Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not scientific but commercial and forbids grants of further permits.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Typhoon Rammasun makes landfall in Hainan, China as a category 5 super typhoon, killing 88 and causing $7.14 billion in damages.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Mount Ontake, in Japan, erupts, killing several climbers on the slopes of the volcano.


date: February 7

text: February 7–23 – The XXII Olympic Winter Games are held in Sochi, Russia. Slopestyle events are introduced for the first time.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The fifth ICC T20 World Cup in cricket is held in Bangladesh.


date: May 6

text: May 6–10 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is won by Austrian entrant Conchita Wurst with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix".


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The 2014 FIFA World Cup started with hosts Brazil defeating Croatia 3–1.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The Catholic Church removes restrictions on clerical marriage in the Eastern Catholic Churches' diaspora.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Australia wins the 2014 Hockey World Cup.


text: June 15 – The San Antonio Spurs defeat the Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals, 4–1, to win their 5th championship in franchise history.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – In the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-finals, hosts Brazil were shockingly beaten 7–1 by Germany after trailing 5-0 in 29 minutes.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Germany defeats Argentina 1-0 to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup.


date: July 23

text: July 23–August 3 – The 2014 Commonwealth Games takes place in Glasgow, Scotland.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – A stampede occurred on New Year's Eve in Shanghai, China, resulting in the deaths of 36 people and leaving 49 injured.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – After Houthi forces seize the presidential palace, Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi resigns after months of unrest.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Legislative elections are held in Greece to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the SYRIZA party, led by Alexis Tsipras, comes out as the largest party winning 149 out of 300 seats.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – The 2015 UK General Election results in the first Conservative majority government in 18 years.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The first round of the 2015 Polish presidential election is held.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – The second round of the 2015 Polish presidential election is held, with Andrzej Duda reigning victorious over then-incumbent president Bronisław Komorowski.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – The FIFA President Sepp Blatter announces his intention to resign amidst an FBI-led corruption investigation, and calls for an extraordinary congress to elect a new president as soon as possible.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – The governments of India and Bangladesh officially ratify their 1974 agreement to exchange enclaves along their border.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Iranian nuclear deal: Iran agrees to long-term limits of its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Cuba and the United States end 54 years of hostility between the nations, reestablish full diplomatic relations.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – 161 exclaves of Bangladesh within India or vice versa are ceded to the country that contained them.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Queen Elizabeth II, having been on the throne for , becomes the longest-reigning British monarch in history and the longest-serving head of state of any nation in modern history, surpassing Queen Victoria who had reigned for upon her death on January 22, 1901.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Malcolm Turnbull defeats Tony Abbott in a Liberal Party leadership ballot. Turnbull becomes Prime Minister of Australia, being sworn in the following day.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Snap legislative elections are held in Greece, following the resignation of prime minister Alexis Tsipras, to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the SYRIZA party, led by Alexis Tsipras comes out as the largest party winning 145 out of 300 seats.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The 2015 Polish parliamentary election is held for the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, with the election being won by the largest opposition party, the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS).


date: November 7

text: November 7 – CCP general secretary Xi Jinping and ROC president Ma Ying-jeou formally meet for the first time.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – A global climate change pact is agreed at the COP 21 summit in Paris, committing all countries to reduce carbon emissions for the first time.


date: January 3

text: January 3–7 – A series of massacres in Baga, Nigeria and surrounding villages by Boko Haram kills more than 2,000 people.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Two gunmen belonging to Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch kill 12 people and injure 11 more at the Paris headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, prompting an anti-terrorism demonstration attended by over a million people and more than 40 world leaders.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – A Boko Haram and Islamic State assault on Kolofata in the Far North Region of Cameroon is repelled by the Cameroonian Army, who kill 143 Boko Haram and Islamic State insurgents.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Leaders from Russian Federation, Ukraine, Germany and French Republic reach an agreement on the war in eastern Ukraine that includes a ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons. However, several days later, the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels claim that, within its first day, the ceasefire was broken 139 times, as both sides failed to withdraw their heavy weapons and fighting had continued.


text: February 12 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2199 to combat terrorism.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The Egyptian military begins conducting airstrikes against a branch of the Islamic militant group ISIL in Libya in retaliation for the group's beheading of over a dozen Egyptian Christians.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – A Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Arab countries starts a military intervention in Yemen in order to uphold the Yemeni government in its fight against the Houthis' southern offensive.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – 148 people are killed, the majority students, in a mass shooting at the Garissa University College in Kenya, perpetrated by the militant terrorist organization al-Shabaab.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The 2015 Al Khalis prison break occurs in the Iraqi town of Al Khalis, resulting in over fifty escapees.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – ISIS captures the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.


date: June 25

text: June 25–26 – ISIL claim responsibility for three attacks around the world during Ramadan:


date: June

text: Sousse attacks: 22-year-old Seifeddine Rezgui opens fire at a tourist resort at Port El Kantaoui, Tunisia, killing 38 people.


text: Kobanî massacre: ISIL fighters detonate three car bombs, enter Kobanî, Syria, and open fire at civilians, killing more than 220 people.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Turkey begins a series of airstrikes against PKK and ISIL targets after the 2015 Suruç bombing.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – A UAE military intelligence operation in the country of Yemen frees one British hostage.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Russia begins air strikes against ISIL and anti-government forces in Syria, in support of the Syrian government.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – A series of suicide bombings kills at least 100 people at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey, and injures more than 400 others.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Romanian prime-minister Victor Ponta resigns amid calls from the people angered by the Colectiv nightclub fire, marking the end of an almost four years period of unrest in Romania. Peaceful protests would continue until November 9.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Multiple terrorist attacks claimed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Paris, France, result in 130 fatalities.


text: November 13 – The United States begins airstrikes in Libya.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Turkey shoots down a Russian fighter jet on the Turkish–Syrian border in the first case of a NATO member destroying a Russian aircraft since the 1950s.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) is held in Paris, attended by leaders from 147 nations.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition is formed in order to fight terrorism.


date: May 1

text: May 1–October 31 – Expo 2015 is held in Milan, Italy.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Bishop Richard Williamson consecrates Father Jean-Michel Faure as a Bishop in the Mosteiro da Santa Cruz.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Pope Francis releases the encyclical letter Laudato si, dated May 24, 2015.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes the 19th Eurozone country.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – The Swiss National Bank abandons the cap on the franc's value relative to the euro, causing turmoil in international financial markets.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Greek government-debt crisis: Greece becomes the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund in the 71-year history of the IMF.


date: July 5

text: July 5–13 – Greek government-debt crisis: After six months of clashes and futile negotiations between Greece's newly elected, leftist government and the country's creditors, over the austerity measures imposed through bailout programmes, tension peaks as Greece votes in a referendum to reject the terms offered in a third programme; however, the government eventually proceeds to concur to harsher terms than those offered before, in what was widely characterized as a coup on the creditors' part.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research company, is founded.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The BBC refuses to renew the contract of Top Gears main presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, resulting in the end of his run on the 2002-format show.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – In Tonga, the Mata ʻo e Laʻa Solar Facility is officially opened by King Tupou VI.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Microsoft releases the desktop operating system Windows 10.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – In Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, a tailings dam of iron ore collapses, causing 19 deaths and releasing a toxic mudflow to pollute the Doce River.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – NASA's Dawn probe enters orbit around Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the north Atlantic, Faroe Islands, and Svalbard. It is the 61st eclipse of the 120th saros cycle.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – The April 2015 lunar eclipse is visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific and the Americas. It is a shallow total lunar eclipse, with 0.08% of that diameter inside of Earth's umbral shadow, and is the 30th eclipse of the 132nd saros cycle.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end of June. The last time this occurred was in 2012.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – NASA's New Horizons spacecraft performs a close flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft in history to visit the distant world.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Scientists announce the discovery of Homo naledi, a previously unknown species of early human in South Africa.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – A partial solar eclipse is visible in southern Africa, the southern Indian Ocean, and Antarctica. It is the 54th eclipse of Saros cycle 125.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – First observation of gravitational waves: Gravitational waves are detected for the first time, by LIGO. This is not announced until February 11, 2016.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – NASA announces that liquid water has been found on Mars.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – SpaceX lands an uncrewed Falcon 9 rocket, the first reusable rocket to successfully enter orbital space and return.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares that rubella has been eradicated from the Americas.


text: June 30 – Cuba becomes the first country in the world to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – A United States airstrike on a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) hospital in Afghanistan kills an estimated 20 people.


date: February 14

text: February 14–15 – A lone gunman leaves 2 people dead in a terrorist attack in Copenhagen, Denmark.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant becomes allies with fellow jihadist group Boko Haram, effectively annexing the group.


date: May 11

text: May 11–12 – Version O of Les Femmes d'Alger by Pablo Picasso sells for US$179.3 million at Christie's auction in New York, while the sculpture L'Homme au doigt by Alberto Giacometti sells for US$141.3 million, setting a new world record for a painting and for a sculpture, respectively.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Automaker Volkswagen is alleged to have been involved in worldwide rigging of diesel emissions tests, affecting an estimated 11 million vehicles globally.


date: March 5

text: March 5–8 – The ancient city sites of Nimrud, Hatra and Dur-Sharrukin in Iraq are demolished by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – An Airbus A320-211 operated by Germanwings is deliberately crashed by First officer Andres Lubitz in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.


date: June

text: Kuwait mosque bombing: A suicide bomber attacks the Shia Mosque Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq at Kuwait City, Kuwait, killing 27 people and injuring 227 others.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Debris found on Réunion Island is confirmed to be that of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, missing since March 2014.


date: August 12

text: August 12 and 15 – Large explosions in Tianjin, China kill 173 and injure more than 800 people. The causes of the explosions were found to be an overheated container of dry nitrocellulose and around 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – A stampede during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca kills at least 2,200 people and injures more than 900 others, with more than 650 missing.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Colectiv nightclub fire: a fire ignited by a failed fireworks show sets the walls and columns covered in foam of the Colectiv nightclub, located in Romania's capital Bucharest. 27 people die at the scene, including four out the five members of the Romanian metalcore band "Goodbye to Gravity", and 37 would succumb later due to the injuries and intoxication with fumes, but also because of the poor treatment conditions. The event and the poor management of the situation spark a riot in all of Romania, known as the "Colectiv Revolution".


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Metrojet Flight 9268, an Airbus A321 airliner en route to Saint Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, crashes near Al-Hasana in Sinai, killing all 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board. Later investigations revealed a bomb was likely responsible for the crash with Islamic State being the primary suspect. *


date: November 12

text: November 12 – 2015 Beirut bombings: Two suicide bombers detonate explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Two gunmen open fire at a workplace in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 before dying themselves in a shootout with police. ISIL claimed responsibility.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal and causes 8,857 deaths in Nepal (including 19 at Everest base cammp), 130 in India, 27 in China and 4 in Bangladesh with a total of 9,018 deaths.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – A second major earthquake in Nepal, measuring 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale, results in 153 deaths in Nepal, 62 in India, 1 in China and 2 in Bangladesh, with a total of 218 deaths.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – A bombing takes place inside the Erawan Shrine at the Ratchaprasong intersection in Pathum Wan District, Bangkok, Thailand, killing 20 people and injuring 125.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – An 8.4 earthquake strikes 46 km from Coquimbo (in Chile). 22 people are killed and 34 more injured.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Hurricane Patricia becomes the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere and the second strongest worldwide, with winds of 215 mph and a pressure of 872 mbar.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – A magnitude 7.5 earthquake strikes the Hindu Kush region and causes 398 deaths, with 279 in Pakistan, 115 in Afghanistan and 4 in India.


date: February 14

text: February 14–March 29 – The 2015 Cricket World Cup is held in Australia and New Zealand with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – The order of succession to the British throne is changed to absolute primogeniture, in accordance with the 2011 Perth Agreement and the UK Succession to the Crown Act 2013. The change also applies in the Commonwealth realms. Marrying a Roman Catholic no longer disqualifies a person from succeeding to the Crown.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Australia wins the 2015 Cricket World Cup.


date: May 19

text: May 19–23 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 is held in Vienna, Austria, and is won by Swedish entrant Måns Zelmerlöw with the song "Heroes".


date: June 12

text: June 12–28 – The inaugural European Games are held in Baku, Azerbaijan.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – The International Olympic Committee awards Beijing the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.


date: September 18

text: September 18–October 31 – The 2015 Rugby World Cup is held in England and is won by New Zealand who beat Australia in the final.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Nintendo's president and CEO Satoru Iwata dies.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Following the fallout caused by the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Arabia and several other countries end their diplomatic relations with Iran.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – In the general election of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the Democratic Progressive Party, led by Tsai Ing-wen, secured a majority in the Legislative Yuan, resulting in the first majority by a non-KMT party and the first majority won by the DPP. Tsai became the 14th President for Taiwan, and also became the first female leader in China.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Barack Obama visits Cuba, marking the first time a sitting US president has visited the island nation since President Calvin Coolidge visited in 1928.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Rodrigo Duterte is elected the President of the Philippines.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Tsai Ing-wen is sworn in as the first female President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, triggering the so-called Brexit.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Latvia becomes the 35th member of the OECD.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – 2016 Australian federal election: Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal/National Coalition Government is narrowly re-elected, defeating the Labor Party led by Bill Shorten.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Philippines wins the arbitration case they filed at the Permanent Court of Arbitration regarding the legality of China's "nine-dash line" claim over the South China Sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The Brazilian Senate votes (61–20) to impeach the President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff. The Vice President of Brazil, Michel Temer, who had assumed the presidential powers and duties as Acting President of Brazil during Rousseff's suspension, takes office for the remainder of her term.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – The US and China, together responsible for 40% of the world's carbon emissions, both formally join the Paris global climate agreement.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The Maldives announces its decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – 2016 United States presidential election: Businessman and television personality Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States in a surprise upset against his opponent, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People's Army sign a revised peace deal, slowing the Colombian conflict.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – A constitutional referendum is held in Italy, resulting in the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – South Korean President Park Geun-hye is suspended after MPs vote to impeach her, following a political scandal.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Ten people are killed and 15 wounded in a bombing near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.


text: January 16 – 30 people are killed and 56 injured in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, targeting a hotel and a nearby restaurant. A siege occurs and 176 hostages are released afterwards, by government forces.


date: April 1

text: April 1–5 – 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh clashes: Clashes occur along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact with the Artsakh Defense Army, backed by the Armenian Armed Forces, on one side and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on the other. The US State Department estimates that a total of 350 people have been killed in the clashes, which have been defined as "the worst" since the 1994 ceasefire.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Leicester City are officially confirmed Premier League Champions against 5000:1 odds at the start of the season.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – 2016 Nice truck attack: 86 people are killed and more than 400 others injured in a truck attack in Nice, France, during Bastille Day celebrations.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The government of North Korea conducts its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test. World leaders condemn the act, with South Korea calling it "maniacal recklessness".


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Three events that will play a significant role in the 2016 United States presidential election all take place on the same afternoon: (1) U.S. intelligence agencies publicly accuse the Russian government of using computer hacking to interfere with the U.S. election process; (2) The Washington Post releases a videotape showing candidate Donald Trump privately bragging about sexual improprieties; (3) WikiLeaks releases thousands of private emails from inside the political campaign of candidate Hillary Clinton.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Berlin truck attack: A truck is deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured.


text: December 19 – Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, is assassinated by an off-duty Turkish police officer at an art exhibition in Ankara.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2334 condemning "Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967".


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Withdrawal of the majority of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 15 years of war.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Swiss Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their schism in 1054.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia (dated March 19) is published in the Vatican; it appears to amend the Roman Catholic Church's position on the availability of sacraments to Catholics who have divorced and contracted a civil remarriage.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – The remains of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos are buried in a private ceremony at the Libingan ng mga Bayani prompting protests throughout the Philippines.


date: April 3

text: April 3 – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung publish the "Panama Papers", a set of 11.5 million confidential documents from the Panamanian corporate Mossack Fonseca that provides detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors including noted personalities and heads of state.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – The government of India announces the demonetisation of certain banknotes, causing prolonged cash shortages in the weeks that follow and significant disruption throughout the economy.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Međimurska trikotaža Čakovec, a large Croatian knitwear company based in Čakovec, ceased to exist


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel, is opened following two decades of construction work.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The number of people globally using mobile devices to access the internet overtakes those using desktop computers for the first time, having been preceded by the U.S. two years prior.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has adequately dismantled its nuclear weapons program, allowing the United Nations to lift sanctions immediately.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – North Korea launches a reconnaissance satellite named Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into space, it is condemned internationally as a long-range ballistic missile test.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – The ESA and Roscosmos launch the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to Mars.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – NASA's Juno spacecraft enters orbit around Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – The augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go is released, breaking numerous records in terms of sales and revenue.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – The final videocassette recorder is manufactured by the Japanese company Funai.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – An annular solar eclipse was visible from Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – NASA launches OSIRIS-REx, its first asteroid sample return mission. The probe visited Bennu from 2018 to 2021 and would return samples to Earth on September 24, 2023.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Global levels exceed 400 ppm at the time of year normally associated with minimum levels. A 400 ppm level is believed to be higher than anything experienced in human history.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – 150 nations meet at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) summit in Rwanda and agree to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as an amendment to the Montreal Protocol.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – The chemical elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 are officially named Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine and Oganesson.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – A study finds the VSV-EBOV vaccine against the Ebola virus between 70 and 100% effective, thus making it the first proven vaccine against the disease.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world's most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum-security prison in Mexico.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The International Criminal Court finds former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the first time the ICC convicted someone of sexual violence.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Harambe, a western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, is shot and killed after a three-year-old boy enters his enclosure.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Former Chadian President Hissène Habré is sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during his tenure from 1982 to 1990, the first time an African Union-backed court has convicted a former ruler of a country within its jurisdiction.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Christina Grimmie is shot dead while signing autographs and taking pictures with her fans following a concert performance at the Plaza Live in Orlando, Florida.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – A gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State opens fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – American missionary and aid worker Jeff Woodke is kidnapped in Abalak, Niger by militants. He would not be freed for six years.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – The Helsinki District Court gives Jari Aarnio, the former head of anti-drugs police, to ten-year prison sentence for drug crimes as part of a rare police corruption scandal in Finland.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – 2016 Brussels bombings: Suicide bombing attacks at Brussels' Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station kill 35 people and injure 300 more.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – 2016 Atatürk Airport attack: ISIL is suspected to be responsible for attacking Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 44 people and injuring over 230 others.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Emirates Flight 521 crashes at Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 1 person was killed and 39 people were injured.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – International investigators conclude that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Buk missile that came from an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – LaMia Flight 2933 crashes into a mountain near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 people on board, including members of the Brazilian Chapecoense football squad.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash: A Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner of the Russian Defence Ministry crashes into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi International Airport, Russia, while en route to Khmeimim Air Base, Syria. All 92 people on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble choir of the Russian Armed Forces, are killed.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.


date: April 14

text: April 14–16 – A series of major earthquakes strikes southwestern Japan, killing 277 people and injuring 2,809.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 strikes northwestern Ecuador killing 676 people and injuring over 6,000. Widespread damage was caused across Manabí Province, with structures hundreds of kilometres away from the epicenter collapsing.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 hits central Italy, killing 299 people.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Hurricane Matthew makes landfall in Haiti as a category 4 hurricane, killing 842 and causing $2.8 billion in damages.


text: Beginning of the famine in Yemen.

source_section: Events › General


date: April 23

text: April 23 – American singer-songwriter Beyoncé releases her sixth studio album Lemonade.


date: May 10

text: May 10–14 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 is held in Stockholm, Sweden, and is won by Ukrainian entrant Jamala with the song "1944".


date: June 10

text: June 10–July 10 – France hosts the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, which is won by Portugal.


date: August 5

text: August 5–21 – The 2016 Summer Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the first time in South America.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Two paintings by Vincent van Gogh with a combined value of $100 million, Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, are recovered after having been stolen on December 7, 2002, from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908, ending the longest championship drought in North American sports history.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Following a mourning period of seven weeks after the death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej, Vajiralongkorn formally succeeds his late father as the new King of Thailand.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end of the year. The last time this occurred was in June 2015.


date: July 15

text: July 15–16 – In Turkey, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces that organized themselves as the Peace at Home Council, unsuccessfully stages a coup against the state institutions, resulting in the deaths of at least 240 people and triggering a series of unprecedented purges throughout the country.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – 2016–2017 Gambian constitutional crisis: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) launches a military intervention in the Gambia after Yahya Jammeh refuses to cede power following the 2016 presidential elections.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – 2016–2017 Gambian constitutional crisis: Following the military intervention of ECOWAS, President Yahya Jammeh resigns from office after 23 years in power and flees into exile to Equatorial Guinea; the democratically elected Adama Barrow assumes office as President of The Gambia.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Morocco rejoins the African Union.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – 2017 Liechtenstein general election: The Progressive Citizens' Party led by Adrian Hasler retains a plurality of 9 seats in the Landtag.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – The United Kingdom triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, starting the Brexit negotiations, the talks for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – 2017 French presidential election: Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! wins the second round of the French presidential election decisively, defeating Marine Le Pen of the National Front (FN).


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Amidst widespread criticism, the U.S. government announces its decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in due time.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The Qatar diplomatic crisis of 2017–18 starts, as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries block Qatari access to their seas and air.


text: June 5 – Montenegro joins NATO as the 29th member.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – A snap general election is held in the United Kingdom, three years before the next was due, resulting in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Theresa May, losing their majority in Parliament. The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, makes gains for the first time since 1997. Days later, the Conservative Party, now lacking a majority, enters a confidence-and-supply deal with the Northern Ireland loyalist party DUP.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Russia and China urge North Korea to halt its missile and nuclear programs after it successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is voted for by 122 states.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Iraqi Civil War: Mosul is declared fully liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Mauritania holds a constitutional referendum for approval of proposed amendments to the constitution.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The Kurdistan Region votes in a referendum to become an independent state, in defiance of Iraq; by October 15, the crisis escalates into a short-lived armed conflict over disputed territories.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Syrian Civil War: Raqqa is declared fully liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – At the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping assumes his second term as General Secretary (China's paramount leader), and the political theory Xi Jinping Thought is written into the party's constitution.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Based on the results of a previously held referendum, Catalonia declares independence from Spain, but the Catalan Republic is not recognised by the Spanish government or any other sovereign nation.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is placed under house arrest, as the military take control of the country. He resigns six days later, after 37 years of rule.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The United States officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – The Iraqi military announces that it has "fully liberated" all of Iraq's territory from "ISIS terrorist gangs" and retaken full control of the Iraqi-Syrian border.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Guatemala follows in the footsteps of the United States by announcing that they will also move their Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, followed by Honduras and Panama two days later.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – 2017 Jerusalem truck attack: A Palestinian assailant entered the road where the Israeli defense forces were located with a truck, killing 4 people and injuring 15 others.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – U.S. President Donald Trump issues executive order banning travel and immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations. Protests against the immigration order erupt nationwide for about two weeks.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Assassination of Kim Jong-nam: Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of deceased North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the half-brother of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is killed after being attacked by two women with VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Horacio Cartes presents to Congress his plans of allowing the re-election of the president of Paraguay for a second term, going against the Constitution of Paraguay, leading to a political crisis which ended in the storm of Congress by liberal activists and in the assassination of Rodrigo Quintana by the police. After this, the Congress votes against the re-election project.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – In response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town, the U.S. military launches 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at an air base in Syria. Russia describes the strikes as an "aggression", adding they significantly damage U.S.–Russia ties.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The 2017 storming of the Macedonian Parliament occurs.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – An ISIL terrorist bombing attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, kills 22 people and injures more than 500 others.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Two terrorist attacks are simultaneously carried out by five Islamic State (ISIL) terrorists against the Iranian Parliament building and the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, both in Tehran, leaving 17 civilians dead and 43 more wounded.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) fire six surface-to-surface mid-range ballistic missiles from domestic bases targeting ISIL forces in the Syrian Deir ez-Zor Governorate in response to the terrorist attacks in Tehran earlier this month.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – The African and Caribbean War Memorial unveiled in Brixton, London.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – 2017 cyberattacks on Ukraine: A series of cyberattacks using the Petya malware begins, affecting organizations in Ukraine.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The Unite the Right rally is held in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, by a variety of white nationalist and other far-right groups; Heather Heyer, a counter-protester, is killed after being hit by a car.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – The first terrorist attack ever sentenced as a crime in Finland kills two people and injures eight others. Islamic terrorist Abderrahman Bouanane, a Moroccan man carried out the ISIS-inspired attack in southwest Finland.


date: August 25

text: August 25–ongoing – A military operation targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar "seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Russian President Vladimir Putin expels 755 diplomats in response to United States sanctions.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – North Korea conducts its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – 60 people are killed and 867 more injured when Stephen Paddock opens fire on a crowd in Las Vegas, surpassing the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting as the deadliest mass shooting perpetrated by a lone gunman in U.S. history.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Syrian Civil War: both Deir ez-Zor in Syria and Al-Qa'im in Iraq are declared liberated from ISIL on the same day.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – A mosque attack in Sinai, Egypt kills 305 worshippers and leaves hundreds more wounded.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Start of the Honduran protests.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – The 2017 America's Cup yacht race, sailed in Bermuda, is won by New Zealand's Aotearoa.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) unanimously adopted a call to place Turkey back under monitoring due to setbacks in democracy, human rights, the rule of law, freedom of expression, and judicial independence. Turkey last officially exited the monitoring process in 2004 when it began accession negotiations with the European Union.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – WannaCry ransomware attack: Computers around the world are hit by a large-scale ransomware cyberattack, which goes on to affect at least 150 countries.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – The UN Security Council unanimously approves fresh sanctions on North Korean trade and investment.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung publishes 13.4 million documents leaked from the offshore law firm Appleby, along with business registries in 19 tax jurisdictions that reveal offshore financial activities on behalf of politicians, celebrities, corporate giants and business leaders. The newspaper shared the documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and asked it to lead the investigation.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The Walt Disney Company announces that it will acquire most of 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox film studio, for $66 billion.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The UN Security Council votes 15–0 in favor of additional sanctions on North Korea, including measures to slash the country's petroleum imports by up to 90%.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – North Korea prompts international condemnation by test firing a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Pacific, Chile, Argentina, Atlantic, Africa. It is the 29th eclipse of the 140th saros cycle (descending node), which started with a partial solar eclipse visible in the Southern Hemisphere on April 16, 1512, and will conclude with another partial solar eclipse visible in the Northern Hemisphere on June 1, 2774.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Nintendo releases the Switch worldwide.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital-class rocket.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – In the 2017 Nangarhar airstrike, the U.S. drops the GBU-43/B MOAB, the world's largest non-nuclear weapon, at an ISIL base in the Nangarhar Province of eastern Afghanistan.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – The 2017 World Expo is opened in Astana, Kazakhstan.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – The first observation of a collision of two neutron stars (GW170817) is hailed as a breakthrough in multi-messenger astronomy when both gravitational and electromagnetic waves from the event are detected. Data from the event provided confirmatory evidence for the r-process theory of the origin of heavy elements like gold.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – A total solar eclipse (nicknamed "The Great American Eclipse") is visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States of America, passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. The moon was just 3 days past perigee, making it relatively large.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Cassini–Huygens ends its 13-year mission by plunging into Saturn, becoming the first spacecraft to enter the planet's atmosphere.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – A new species of orangutan is identified in Indonesia, becoming the third known species of orangutan as well as the first great ape to be described for almost a century.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Nature publishes an article recognising the high-velocity asteroid ʻOumuamua as originating from outside the Solar System, i.e. the first known interstellar object.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Emma Morano, an Italian supercentenarian, becomes the last known person born in the 19th century to die.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The World Health Organization estimates that the 2016–17 Yemen cholera outbreak has over 200,000 cases.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 39 people and injuring 79 others.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – London Bridge attack: Eight people are murdered and dozens of civilians are wounded by Islamist terrorists. Three of the attackers are shot dead by the police. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.


text: August 17 – 2017 Barcelona attacks: 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub drives a van into pedestrians on La Rambla in Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring at least 130 others.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – The International Court of Justice finds Ratko Mladić guilty of genocide committed in Srebrenica during the 1990s Bosnian War, the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. He is sentenced to life in prison.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Turkish Airlines Flight 6491, a cargo flight en route from Hong Kong to Istanbul via Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, crashes in a residential area while attempting to land at Manas International Airport, Bishkek, killing all four crew members on board and 35 people on the ground.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – A gunman opens fire at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada, killing 6 and injuring 19 others.


text: June 3 – 2017 Turin stampede: During a screening of the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final, pepper spray is discharged by individuals attempting to rob soccer fans in the square, causing the crowd to panic. There are 3 deaths and 1,672 people wounded.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The Grenfell Tower Fire in West London claims the lives of 72 residents, making it the worst UK residential fire since World War II.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq, is destroyed by ISIL.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – A massive blast caused by a truck bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia kills at least 587 people and injures 316 others.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Sutherland Springs church shooting: A gunman opens fire in a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, United States, killing 26 people and injuring 20 more. It was the deadliest shooting in an American place of worship in modern history, surpassing the Charleston church shooting of 2015 and the Waddell Buddhist temple shooting of 1991.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan suddenly vanished with 44 crew members on board whilst on a routine patrol in the South Atlantic. It would be found one year later wrecked 907 m feet below the Atlantic Ocean.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The UN warns that the world is facing the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, with up to 20 million people at risk of starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – March 2017 North American blizzard: A major late-season blizzard affects the Northeastern United States, New England and Canada, dumping up to three feet of snow in the hardest hit areas.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The Goodwin Fire, a wildfire, starts in Yavapai County, Arizona near Mayer and forces evacuations of more than a hundred people.


date: August 25

text: August 25–30 – Hurricane Harvey strikes the United States as a Category 4 hurricane, causing catastrophic damage to the Houston metropolitan area, mostly due to record-breaking floods. At least 108 deaths are recorded, and total damage reaches $125 billion (2017 USD), making Harvey the costliest natural disaster in United States history, tied with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.