date: September 6

text: September 6 – Hurricane Irma, at peak intensity, would make the first of many powerful landfalls along the Caribbean islands and the United States. Damages would total $77.2 billion (2017 USD), and 134 would be killed by the storm.


date: September 19

section: Climate & Environment

text: September 19 – Twelve days after another powerful earthquake, and on the 32nd anniversary of the deadly 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a 7.1 earthquake strikes central Mexico, killing 370, leaving up to 6,000 injured and thousands more homeless.

source_section: Events › September


text: September 19–20 – Just two weeks after Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean, Hurricane Maria strikes similar areas, making landfall on Dominica as a Category 5 hurricane, and Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane. Maria caused over 3,000 deaths and damages estimated in excess of $91.6 billion (2017 USD).


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO, and is immediately followed by Israel.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 12

text: November 12 – A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes the border region between Iraq and Iran leaving at least 530 dead and over 70,000 homeless.

source_section: Events › November


date: January 21

section: Culture & Society

text: January 21 – Millions of people worldwide join the Women's March following the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. 420 marches were reported in the U.S. and 168 in other countries, becoming the largest single-day protest in American history at the time.

source_section: Events › January


date: May 9

text: May 9–13 – The Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Kyiv, Ukraine, and is won by Portuguese entrant Salvador Sobral with the song "Amar Pelos Dois".

source_section: Events › May


date: September 13

text: September 13 – The International Olympic Committee awards Paris and Los Angeles the right to host the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics, respectively.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Fortnite Battle Royale releases, becoming one of the biggest video games in the world and a cultural phenomenon.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – A Leonardo da Vinci painting, Salvator Mundi, sells for US$450 million at Christie's in New York, a new record price for any work of art.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Russia is banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang by the International Olympic Committee, following an investigation into state-sponsored doping.

source_section: Events › December


date: July 7

section: Deaths

text: July 7 – ISIL affiliated insurgents attacked an Egyptian military checkpoint in Northern Sinai's Rafah which resulted in the deaths of 26 Egyptian personnel including colonel Ahmed Mansi and 44 other insurgents.

source_section: Events › July


date: September

text: United States Passports become invalid to travel to North Korea, in response to the death of Otto Warmbier.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – At the level crossing of the Hanko–Hyvinkää railway line, a passenger train collided with an off-road truck of the Nyland Brigade in Raseborg, Finland; four people died and 11 were injured.


date: January 12

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 12–13 – The first round of voting in the 2018 Czech presidential election is held.


date: January 26

text: January 26–27 – The second round of voting of the 2018 Czech presidential election is held and incumbent president Miloš Zeman is reelected.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – 2018 Finnish presidential election: Incumbent president Sauli Niinistö is reelected on the first round of voting.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The second round of voting of the 2018 Cypriot presidential election is held and incumbent president Nicos Anastasiades is reelected.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa after nine years in power.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The 2018 Italian general election is held to elect all 315 members of the Senate of the Republic and all 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 9

text: March 9 – President of the United States Donald Trump accepts an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a meeting in May to discuss the denuclearisation of North Korea.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – In the Russian presidential election, Vladimir Putin is elected for a fourth term.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – 2018 Costa Rican general election: The second round of voting for the presidential election is held and Citizens' Action Party candidate Carlos Alvarado Quesada is elected president.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 8

text: May 8 – U.S. President Donald Trump announces his intention to withdraw the United States from the Iranian nuclear agreement.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – The opposition-led Pakatan Harapan coalition, led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, secures a parliamentary majority in the Malaysian Parliament as the result of the 2018 Malaysian general election, ending the 61-year rule of the Barisan Nasional coalition since independence in 1957.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Giuseppe Conte becomes the new Prime Minister of Italy, leading a cabinet described as the "first modern populist government in Western Europe".

source_section: Events › June


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Pedro Sánchez is appointed new Prime Minister of Spain, a day after a vote of no confidence against his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Snap parliamentary elections are held in Slovenia, following the resignation of prime minister Miro Cerar, to elect all 90 members of the National Assembly of Slovenia, the lower house of the Slovenian Parliament.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Greece and the Republic of Macedonia reach a deal to end a 27-year naming dispute between both countries, which would result in Macedonia being officially renamed the Republic of North Macedonia.


text: June 12 – The 2018 North Korea–United States summit is held in Singapore. It is the first summit between a sitting United States President and a North Korean leader.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – The United States announces it will withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Eritrea and Ethiopia officially declare an end to their twenty-year conflict.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Prime Minister, Narendra Modi wins a no confidence motion in the Lok Sabha moved by the opposition.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Scott Morrison succeeds Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister of Australia following a Liberal Party leadership ballot. Morrison is sworn in as Prime Minister later that evening.

source_section: Events › August


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The 2018 Swedish general election is held to elect all 349 members of the Riksdag, Sweden's unicameral legislature.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The right-wing Jair Bolsonaro is elected as the next President of Brazil, with 55% of the vote.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 9 December 2018.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The United States government enters a second government shutdown, arising over a dispute over funding for the U.S.–Mexico border wall. The shutdown, which lasted until January 25, 2019, is the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.


date: January 4

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of South Sudan.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announces the beginning of a military offensive to capture a portion of northern Syria from Kurdish forces, amidst the ongoing Kurdish–Turkish conflict.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 17 injuries.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, are poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England. UK counter-terrorism police investigate amid speculation the Kremlin was behind the incident.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – In response to gun violence in the United States, and particularly triggered by the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, thousands of high school students across the country participate in an organized protest they called the National School Walkout.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – An Islamic terrorist attack in Carcassonne and Trèbes, France, kills five people, including the perpetrator.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Syrian Civil War: The United States, the United Kingdom and France order the bombing of Syrian military bases in response to the sarin attack allegedly by the Bashar al-Assad regime on civilians in Ghouta.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The separatist group ETA officially announces its final dissolution after 40 years of conflict and more than 800 deaths in Spain.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – The 2018 Venezuelan presidential election was held with incumbent President Nicolás Maduro reelected with 67.8% of the vote and the lowest turnout in Venezuela's modern democratic history since the 1958 coup d'état. The elections were denounced as a "sham" by several Latin American countries, the United States, Canada, the Organization of American States and the European Union.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Real Madrid wins the 2017-18 Champions League held in Kyiv, Ukraine by beating Liverpool in the final 3–1.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Twelve boys and their football coach are successfully rescued from the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Thailand, following a 17-day ordeal that gained worldwide attention. One person, a law enforcement officer is killed.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – The United States reimposes sanctions on Iran.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – Protests against the government of Romania, prime-minister Viorica Dăncilă and PSD leader and corrupt businessman Liviu Dragnea take place in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and other major Romanian cities. In Bucharest, the protests take a violent shape and, in the course of a few hours, over 400 people are injured, including civilians not taking part in the protests and police units, and more than a thousand people suffer effects from tear gas and hand grenades thrown by the Romanian Jandarmerie units deployed and backed by the PSD-ruled government.


date: August 18

text: August 18–September 2 – The 2018 Asian Games are held in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Syrian Civil War: While the Israeli Air Force conduct missile strikes that hit targets in western Syria, a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane is shot down by a Syrian surface-to-air missile, killing all 15 Russian servicemen on board. Russia blamed Israel's military for the accident because the Israeli jets that conducted the strikes allegedly used the Russian plane as cover to allow them to approach their targets without being hit by Syrian fire.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – An attack at a military parade kills 30 people (including 5 attackers) and injures 70 more in Ahvaz, Iran.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – A school shooting and bomb attack in Kerch, Crimea, kills 20 people and injures 70 others.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – 700,000 people march through central London demanding a second referendum on the final Brexit deal. The event is the second most attended protest of the 21st century in the United Kingdom after the "Stop the War" anti-Iraq War march in 2003.


text: October 20 – President Trump announces that the US will "terminate" the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty over alleged Russian violations.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Eleven people are killed during the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Amazonas ambush, three Venezuelan border guards were killed and ten were wounded in a suspected Colombian ELN guerrilla attack in the Venezuelan Amazonas state.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Many nations around the world, particularly ones in Europe and the Commonwealth, along with the United States, commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I with Armistice Day, Veterans Day, and Remembrance Day ceremonies, speeches, parades, and memorials.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Kerch Strait incident: Ukraine declares martial law after an armed incident in which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels attempting to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait.


date: December 1

text: December 1–8 – France experiences its worst civil unrest since the protests of 1968 due to the yellow vests movement. Protests in Paris morph into riots, with hundreds of people injured and thousands arrested; over 100 cars are burned, the Arc de Triomphe is vandalized and numerous other tourist sites are closed, both in the capital and elsewhere in the country.


date: March 25

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: March 25 – Qantas launches direct non-stop Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights between Perth Airport and Heathrow Airport, making it the first commercially non-stop service between Australia and the United Kingdom.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – 2018-19 Korean peace process: Kim Jong Un crosses into South Korea to meet with President Moon Jae-in, becoming the first North Korean leader to cross the Demilitarized Zone since its creation in 1953.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Millions of people marched to protest the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy towards illegal migrants. This march was devoted to reuniting refugee and immigrant families that were separated at the US–Mexico border by the US government's policy introduced in the spring of 2018.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – NASA launches the uncrewed Parker Solar Probe to study the Sun at close range and the solar wind.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The International Court of Justice rules that Chile is not obliged to negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with Bolivia.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Canada legalises the sale and use of cannabis, becoming the second country in the world to do so, after Uruguay in 2013.


date: January 1

section: Religion & Belief

text: January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Kay Goldsworthy becomes the first female archbishop in the Anglican Communion on her installation in the Anglican Diocese of Perth, Western Australia.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The 2018 Bhutanese National Council election is held to elect 20 out of 25 members of the National Council of Bhutan, the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Bhutan.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Austria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Bulgarian presidency.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – A Spanish institutional crisis surrounding the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) begins.


date: May 5

section: Economy & Finance

text: May 5 – In North Korea, clocks are adjusted to UTC+9 (GMT+09:00) to the same as South Korea


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The U.S. announces that it will extend its tariffs on imported steel (25%) and aluminium (10%) to include the EU, Mexico and Canada, starting at midnight.


date: June 8

text: June 8–9 – The 44th G7 summit is held in Canada. President Trump pushes for the reinstatement of the G8 (to include Russia). He also proposes the elimination of tariffs.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – China–United States trade war: U.S. tariffs on US$34 billion of Chinese goods come into effect, as President Trump suggests the final total could reach $550bn. China accuses the U.S. of starting the "largest trade war in economic history" and announces immediate retaliatory tariffs.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The share price of Facebook drops by almost 20 percent after the company warns investors that user growth has slowed following the data leak scandal. Over $109 billion is wiped from its market value, the largest single day loss in corporate history at the time.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Apple Inc. becomes the world's first public company to achieve a market capitalization of $1 trillion.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – The IPCC releases its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C, warning that "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society" are needed to ensure that global warming is kept below 1.5 °C.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 22,445 after its worst week since 2008.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – After weeks of losses the Dow Jones Industrial Average posts its largest ever one-day point gain: 1,086 points.


date: January 13

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: January 13 — At 8:08 AM HST, an inbound missile alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert System over television, radio, and cellular networks in the U.S. state of Hawaii. 38 minutes later, the alert was confirmed as false by state officials, and blamed a miscommunicated drill at the HI-EMA.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Cinemas open in Saudi Arabia for the first time since 1983 with the American film Black Panther chosen as the first to be screened.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Foreign journalists report that tunnels in the Punggye-ri nuclear test site have been destroyed by the North Korean government in a move to reduce regional tensions.


date: May 28

text: May 28–June 7 – The 2018 Stanley Cup Final are played between the Washington Capitals and the Vegas Golden Knights and won by the former.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – The Saddle Dam D in Paksong, Laos collapses leaving up to 1,100 people missing.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Hydrail train enters service on the Buxtehude-Bremervörde-Bremerhaven-Cuxhaven line in Lower Saxony, Germany.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, the world's longest sea crossing bridge, is opened by Chinese Paramount leader Xi Jinping.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The Kanden Tunnel Trolleybus, one of the last remaining Japanese trolleybus systems, closes.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union reports that, by the end of 2018, more than half – a full 51.2 percent – of the world's population are now using the Internet.


date: January 24

section: Science & Discovery

text: January 24 – Scientists in China report in the journal Cell the creation of the first monkey clones using somatic cell nuclear transfer, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – A total lunar eclipse takes place, the 49th eclipse of Lunar Saros 124. This was referred to by the media as a 'super blue blood moon' as it was close to a supermoon, with perigee being on January 30, and a blue moon eclipse, the first since 1982.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – SpaceX successfully conducts its maiden flight of its most powerful rocket to date, the Falcon Heavy, from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


text: April 18 – NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is launched.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – NASA's space probe InSight is launched. It landed on Mars on November 26 and uses a drill to conduct geological science.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Scientists report the presence of a subglacial lake on Mars, 1.5 km mi below the southern polar ice cap and extending sideways about 20 km mi, the first known body of water on the planet.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century occurs, lasting 102 minutes and 57.3 seconds, but the longest total lunar eclipse of the 3rd millennium will occur on May 12, 2264, lasting 106 minutes and 13.2 seconds, over 3 minutes longer than this eclipse. It was the 38th eclipse of Lunar Saros 129, with an umbral eclipse magnitude of 1.60868. The total lunar eclipse with the greatest magnitude in the 21st century will occur on June 26, 2029, with an umbral eclipse magnitude of 1.84362.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth since 2003, four days after reaching opposition.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The uncrewed European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo is launched on a seven-year journey to Mercury.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – NASA's Kepler space telescope mission ends after the spacecraft runs out of fuel.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Two U.S. space probes simultaneously (and coincidentally) reach "opposite" milestones in relation to the solar heliosphere: Voyager 2 passed through the heliopause, the outer limit of the Sun's magnetic field, into interstellar space within hours of the Parker Solar Probe reaching its first perihelion, the closest point to the Sun on its initial orbit.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – NASA's InSight probe successfully lands on the surface of Mars.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – NASA reports the arrival of the OSIRIS-REx probe at Bennu, the agency's first sample-return mission to an asteroid.


date: January 20

section: Health & Medicine

text: January 20–22 – The US government enters a federal government shutdown as a result of a dispute over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – More than 100 Russian diplomats are expelled by more than 20 countries in the wake of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect, imposing strict privacy controls for European citizens worldwide.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Canada becomes the first major industrialised country to legalise cannabis for recreational use. The Bill which legalises cannabis took effect on October 17.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – After widespread criticism, US President Donald Trump signs an executive order suspending his zero-tolerance family separation policies, though thousands of undocumented children were never reunited with their families even after the policy was suspended.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The 2018 Kivu Ebola outbreak begins in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It becomes the second-deadliest outbreak of the Ebola virus on November 29, surpassed only by the 2013 West African Ebola virus epidemic.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – 15 year old Swedish pupil Greta Thunberg starts to stay out of school in an attempt to give attention to the climate change issue.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Chinese scientist He Jiankui, at a public conference in Hong Kong, announces that he has altered the DNA of twin human girls born earlier in the month to try to make them resistant to infection with the HIV virus; he also reveals the possible second pregnancy of another gene-modified baby.


date: February 18

section: Crime & Justice

text: February 18 – Kizlyar church shooting: a man carrying a knife and a double-barreled shotgun opens fire on a crowd at an Orthodox church in Kizlyar, Dagestan, killing five women and injuring several other people; the perpetrator is shot and killed by police.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – In Nicaragua, protests begin against announced reforms of Social Security which would decrease retirement pension benefits. An estimated number of 34 protesters are killed by police.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – A vehicle-ramming attack kills 10 people and injures 16 others in Toronto, Canada. A 25-year-old suspect, Alek Minassian, is arrested.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Former Aum Shinrikyo leader Shoko Asahara and six other main members of Aum Shinrikyo, who led the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack, are executed by hanging.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The Supreme Court of India decriminalises homosexuality.; Brazilian congressman Jair Bolsonaro is stabbed in the stomach at Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, during a rally while running for the presidency.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, triggering a diplomatic crisis for Saudi Arabia.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Red Dead Redemption II is released on PS4 and Xbox One. It would become the 8th best selling video game of all-time with 50,000,000+ copies sold.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Oulu Police informed the public about the first offence of the much larger child sexual exploitation in Oulu, Finland.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Scandinavian tourists Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland are murdered by Islamic terrorists in the foothills of Mount Toubkal near to the village of Imlil in Morocco. At least one victim is beheaded with the murders recorded on video and posted on social media. In a previous video the perpetrators pledge allegiance to ISIS.


date: March 6

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: March 6 – 2018 Russian Air Force Antonov An-26 crash: An Antonov An-26 transport aircraft operated by the Russian Air Force crashes on approach to Khmeimim air base in Syria, killing all 39 people on board. All of them were servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces, including Major-General Vladimir Yeremeyev.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Flight BS211 crashes and bursts into flames at Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal, killing 51 of the 71 people aboard. The 20 surviving passengers were seriously injured from the impact and the fire.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – 2018 Kemerovo fire: At least 60 people are killed and 79 others injured in a fire at the Winter Cherry shopping mall and entertainment complex in Kemerovo, Russia.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – At least 78 people die in a fire in the police headquarters of Valencia, Venezuela.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – A semi-truck collides with a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos ice hockey junior team in Saskatchewan, Canada, killing 16 and injuring 13 people.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – 2018 Münster attack: In a suicide attack, a man drives a van into people seated outside restaurants in a pedestrianised square in the old part of the German city of Münster, resulting in 5 other deaths.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – 257 people are killed after an Ilyushin Il-76 belonging to the Algerian Air Force crashes near Algiers.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 972 crashed shortly after take-off near José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba, killing 112 people and leaving only one survivor.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Seventeen people die in Caracas, Venezuela following the El Paraíso stampede after a tear gas canister is detonated in a crowded club.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Aeroméxico Connect Flight 2431 crashed on takeoff from Durango International Airport. Shortly after becoming airborne, the plane encountered sudden wind shear caused by a microburst. The plane rapidly lost speed and altitude and impacted the runway, detaching the engines and skidding to a halt about 1,000 feet (300 m) beyond the runway. The plane caught fire and was destroyed. All 103 people on board survived, but 39 passengers and crew members were injured.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Part of the Morandi Bridge collapses after a violent storm in Genoa, Italy, causing 43 fatalities. Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio and transport minister Danilo Toninelli blame private company Autostrade per l'Italia.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – A fire breaks out in the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, destroying more than 90 percent of its archive of 20 million items.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The MV Nyerere capsizes on Lake Victoria, killing at least 228 passengers.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Lion Air Flight 610 crashes off the coast of Java, killing all 189 people on board.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – The Royal Norwegian Navy Frigate Helge Ingstad, part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, collides with an oil tanker, and sinks in shallow waters off the coast of Norway. The frigate is later scrapped due to the damages.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – In the Sea of Japan, the South Korean warship ROKS Gwanggaeto the Great targets a Japanese P-1 maritime patrol airplane with its fire control radar while it was responding to a North Korean fishing boat in distress, creating a cause célèbre between the two countries.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – 2018 Magnitogorsk building collapse: An apartment block in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, partially collapses, killing 39 people and injuring 17 more. According to the official investigation the collapse was caused by a gas explosion.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid a slaughterhouse in Tennessee, detaining nearly 100 undocumented Hispanic workers in one of the largest immigration raids in the history of the U.S., prompting protests and federal lawsuits.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The 2018 lower Puna eruption causes destruction of structures and forces thousands of residents of Hawaii to evacuate as lava floods the land.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – A constitutional referendum on whether to repeal the ban on abortion in Ireland takes place, with a landslide win of 66.4% to 33.6% for the repeal side.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – At least 109 people are killed and hundreds wounded by the eruption of Volcán de Fuego, Guatemala's deadliest volcanic eruption in over a century.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – The 2018 North American heat wave takes place, killing 33 people in the Canadian province of Quebec.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – 2018 Japan floods, a torrential heavy massive rain, flash flood, landslide hit in Hiroshima, Kurashiki and Ehime Prefecture, Japan. According to Japanese government official confirmed report, 232 people were killed and 459 injured.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Heavy wildfires in Greece leave 102 dead and more than a hundred buildings destroyed.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the island of Lombok, Indonesia, killing 563 people and injuring more than a thousand people.


date: August 10

text: August 10–20 – Heavy rainfall causes severe floods in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the worst flood to hit the state in a century.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Hurricane Florence makes landfall in North Carolina as a category 1 hurricane, causing record-breaking flooding, which would result in 54 fatalities and $24.2 billion (2018 USD) in damages.


text: September 14–16 – Typhoon Mangkhut impacts the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, resulting in more than 60 fatalities.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – A magnitude 7.5 earthquake hits Sulawesi, Indonesia, causing a tsunami that kills at least 4,340 people and injures more than 10,679 others.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Hurricane Michael makes landfall at Mexico Beach, Florida as a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 160 mph (260 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 919 mb inHg. It is the most intense hurricane to hit the mainland United States since Camille in 1969.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – NASA's Dawn mission concludes after it runs out of hydrazine fuel.


text: November 8 – The Camp Fire ignites in Butte County, California. It becomes California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire, with 88 deaths and 18,804 buildings destroyed.


date: December 19

text: December 19–21 – Gatwick Airport drone incident: Reports of drone sightings close to the runway at Gatwick Airport in England causes major disruption, affecting approximately 140,000 passengers and 1,000 flights, making it the largest disruption since ash from an Icelandic volcano shut the airport in 2010.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – An eruption from Krakatoa causes a tsunami that hits the Sunda Strait, Indonesia, killing at least 430 people and injuring nearly 1,500.


date: February 9

text: February 9–25 – The 2018 Winter Olympics are held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.


date: March 9

text: March 9–18 – The 2018 Winter Paralympics are held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – In over 900 cities internationally, people participate in demonstrations against gun violence and mass shootings, calling for stronger gun control in the "March for Our Lives".


date: April 4

text: April 4–15 – The 2018 Commonwealth Games are held in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.


date: May 8

text: May 8–12 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 is held in Lisbon, Portugal, and is won by Israeli entrant Netta Barzilai with the song "Toy".


date: May 19

text: May 19 – The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was held at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – FIFA awards hosting rights for the 2026 World Cup to a joint bid from Canada, Mexico and the United States.


date: June 14

text: June 14–July 15 – The 2018 FIFA World Cup is held in Russia and is won by France.


date: June 22

text: June 22–July 1 – The 2018 Mediterranean Games are held in Tarragona, Spain.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Saudi Arabia allows women to drive.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – France national football team wins the 2018 FIFA World Cup final 4–2 against the Croatia national football team


date: August 25

text: August 25 – The amateur boxing match between KSI and Logan Paul takes place at Manchester Arena, the fight is dubbed as the biggest amateur boxing match in history.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – At least 59 people are killed and at least 100 injured when a train runs through a crowd at a Hindu festival in Punjab, India.


date: March 19

text: March 19 – The world's last male northern white rhinoceros dies in Kenya, making the subspecies functionally extinct.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – Syrian Civil War: At least 70 people are reported to have died and hundreds suffering injuries after a chlorine chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Nabi Tajima (1900 – 2018), the last known person born in the 19th century dies.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Venezuela enters a presidential crisis as Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly declare incumbent President Nicolás Maduro "illegitimate".


date: February 1

text: February 1 – U.S. President Donald Trump confirms that the U.S. will leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, citing Russian non-compliance. The next day, Russia follows suit with suspension of its obligations to the treaty.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – 2019 Salvadoran presidential election: Nayib Bukele is elected president.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia, officially ending a decades-old dispute with Greece and paving the way for the former's integration into NATO and the EU.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – 2019 Nigerian general election: Incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari is reelected and the All Progressives Congress party wins 63 out of 109 seats in the Senate of Nigeria and 202 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives.


text: February 23 – Venezuelan presidential crisis: President Maduro severs diplomatic ties with Colombia amid attempts to send humanitarian aid to the country across the border.


date: February 27

text: February 27–28 – The 2019 North Korea–United States summit is held in Hanoi, Vietnam. It is the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.


text: March 19 – Nursultan Nazarbayev resigns as President of Kazakhstan after 29 years in office and appoints Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as acting president. Astana is renamed Nur-Sultan the following day in his honor.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns as President of Algeria amid widespread protests, after nearly two decades in office.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – 2019 Australian federal election: Scott Morrison's Liberal/National Coalition government is narrowly re-elected, defeating the Labor Party led by Bill Shorten.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Conservative leader, effective June 7, 2019.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – U.S. President Donald Trump, during an official state visit to Japan, becomes the first foreign leader to meet with Japanese emperor Naruhito.


date: June 3

text: June 3–5 – U.S. President Donald Trump makes a state visit to the U.K., meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May. It is the first official state visit to the U.K. by a sitting U.S. president since 2011. Trump also attends D-Day commemorative ceremonies.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – British Prime Minister Theresa May resigns as leader of the Conservative Party.


date: June 20

text: June 20–21 – Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a state visit to North Korea. It is his first visit to the country as president and the first visit to North Korea by a Chinese leader since Hu Jintao's visit 14 years prior.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – The European Parliament elects Ursula von der Leyen as the new President of the European Commission. Succeeding Jean-Claude Juncker, she will be sworn in on December 1, 2019. She is the first female to be elected to this office in EU history.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after defeating Jeremy Hunt in a leadership contest, succeeding Theresa May.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Giuseppe Conte offers his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy in order to avoid a no-confidence motion.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron describe the widespread Amazon fires as an international emergency, urging the matter to be discussed at the weekend's G7 summit.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announces the start of a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – 2019 Bolivian protests: Jeanine Áñez took power as interim President of Bolivia amidst political crisis.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Public impeachment hearings against U.S. President Donald Trump begin in the House of Representatives.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The U.S. House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Trump, making him the third president to be impeached in the nation's history.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Libya's Government of National Accord activates a cooperation accord with Turkey, allowing for a potential Turkish military intervention in the Second Libyan Civil War.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Venezuelan presidential crisis: Thousands of people protest in favor of disputed interim President Juan Guaidó. Several people are killed, and President Maduro severs U.S. diplomatic ties.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – 2019 Haitian protests: Anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse begin in several cities across the country.


date: February 26

text: February 26–27 – The Indian Air Force launches airstrikes on purported militant camps in Balakot, Pakistan. It precedes a series of events that lead to the 2019 India–Pakistan standoff.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Venezuelan presidential crisis: Venezuela expels German ambassador Daniel Kriener for his alleged meddling in internal affairs.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – 51 people are killed and 50 others injured in terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is the deadliest mass shooting and terrorist attack in New Zealand's history.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The final territory of the Islamic State, located in Al-Baghuz Fawqani, Syria, is liberated.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Taiwan scrambles its fighter aircraft after two Chinese jets crossed the maritime border between the two nations. Just the day before, Japan had similarly scrambled its jets after Chinese jets flew between Miyako and Okinawa.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Second Libyan Civil War: The Libyan National Army (LNA) launches a surprise offensive in western Libya, moving units towards the Government of National Accord-held capital Tripoli and capturing Gharyan.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Amid mass protests, Omar al-Bashir is deposed as President of Sudan in a coup d'état, after nearly 30 years in office.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Venezuelan presidential crisis: Venezuelan opposition leader and disputed interim President Juan Guaidó leads an attempted uprising against President Nicolás Maduro.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Army launches a major ground offensive against one of the last rebel strongholds in the country.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – May 2019 Gulf of Oman incident: Four commercial ships, including two Saudi Aramco oil tankers, are damaged near Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman. The UAE claims it as a "sabotage attack", while an early U.S. assessment blames Iran. The incident occurs after increased U.S.-Iran tensions provoked by the deployment of U.S. military to the Persian Gulf in response to an alleged plot by Iran to attack U.S. forces.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Liverpool F.C win their 6th UEFA Champions League title against fellow English club Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 2–0 at the Metropolitano Stadium, with goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Khartoum massacre: More than 100 people are killed when Sudanese troops and Janjaweed militiamen storm and open fire on a protest camp outside of a military headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Sudanese revolution: The African Union suspends Sudan's membership "with immediate effect" after the Khartoum massacre.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – The Iranian Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps captures British tanker Stena Impero and temporarily seizes British-operated and Liberian-flagged tanker Mesdar in the Persian Gulf. The British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, warns there will be "serious consequences" if Iran does not release the tanker.


date: July 27

text: 27 July – 40 killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Camp Ashraf in Iraq, targeting IRGC and PMF stockpiles of ballistic missile launchers.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – 2019–20 Hong Kong protests: Hong Kong International Airport is closed due to protests.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – 30 Afghan nut farmers are killed and 40 injured in a U.S. drone attack in Nangarhar Province.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – 2019–20 Hong Kong protests: A protester is shot in the chest with a live round of ammunition and critically injured.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – About 200 Extinction Rebellion activists block the gates of Leinster House (parliament) in the Republic of Ireland.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey announces a military invasion of north-eastern Syria, targeting the SDF and other Kurdish militias.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – An estimated one million people march through London in a protest organised by People's Vote, to demand a second referendum on Brexit.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – 2019–20 Hong Kong protests: A traffic officer shoots a youth in Sai Wan Ho during a city-wide strike. A man is also set on fire by protesters on the same day.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Victor Vescovo achieves the deepest dive of any human in history, as he reaches Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,928 m (35,853 ft).


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Japan announces tightening high-tech exports to South Korea, thus beginning the trade dispute between the two countries.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Romania takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Austrian presidency.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople issues a formal decree granting independence to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Pope Francis arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, becoming the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – During Holy Week, a major fire engulfs Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, resulting in the roof and main spire collapsing.


text: July 1 – Finland takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Romanian presidency.


text: July 1 – 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests: During the annual July 1 protests that mark the anniversary of the British handover of the city to China, a group of a few hundred protesters stormed the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, defacing various portraits and destroying furniture before being dispersed by police using tear gas.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The Supreme Court of Spain unanimously rules in favour of the exhumation of the remains of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco from the Valle de los Caídos. He is finally exhumed on October 24, being re-inhumed in a private crypt with his wife.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – The Amazon Catholic bishops synod proposes that married men be ordained as priests, which would reverse the Church's centuries-old discipline of celibacy.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – The Supreme Court of India awards a holy site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh to Hindus, rejecting a Muslim claim. The move is likely to spur sectarian disputes.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Pope Francis abolishes pontifical secrecy in sex abuse cases; the move follows the Vatican's Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church months prior. The Pope also raises the definition of "child pornography" from 14 to 18 years old.


text: January 1 – Qatar withdraws from OPEC.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Europe's antitrust regulators fine Google €1.49 billion (US$1.7 billion) for freezing out rivals in the online advertising business, bringing the total cost of EU fines against Google at nearly €8.76 billion.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Amid ongoing negotiations, the U.S.'s 25% tariff hike on US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports takes effect, escalating tensions between the two nations in the ongoing China–United States trade war.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – China–United States trade war: Google pulls Android update support for Huawei phones, as well as the Google Play Store and Gmail apps, after the company's blacklisting by the U.S. government.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests: Hong Kong announces it will indefinitely suspend the controversial extradition bill, but protests continue, this time calling for the total withdrawal of the bill and the resignation of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – 2019–2020 Japan–South Korea trade dispute: Japan announces the removal of South Korea from its list of most trusted trading partners, effective on August 28.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The Trump administration announces it will delay its proposal for 10 percent tariffs slated to take effect from September 1 on certain consumer goods from China while exempting other products — less than two weeks after Trump announced the new proposed tariffs.


text: August 12 – 2019–2020 Japan–South Korea trade dispute: South Korea announces the removal of Japan from its list of most trusted trading partners, effective on September 18.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – The main yield curve for U.S. Treasury bonds inverts, as the yield rate for 2-year bonds rises higher than the yield rate for 10-year bonds.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – The Dow Jones plunges more than 500 points, due to concerns over the yield curve inversion.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – The European Central Bank shuts down PNB Banka after ruling it had become insolvent; this bank, previously called Norvik Banka, has been Latvia's sixth-largest lender, and a critic of the Baltic country's financial authorities.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission threatens to fine YouTube and Google up to $170 million for violation of collecting personal information from children under 13. Google tracked children's YouTube history to regulate targeted advertising and the FTC took notice and took action.


text: September 4 – 2019–20 Hong Kong protests: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announces the official withdrawal of the controversial Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019, and setting up of an independent study to probe social and economic inequality within the territory.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Interest rates on repurchase agreements (or "repos") in the United States experience a sudden and unexpected spike.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – One of the largest and oldest travel firms, Thomas Cook, goes bankrupt as last-minute rescue negotiations fail, stranding 600,000 tourists worldwide.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – The United Nations University Centre for Policy Research's Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking releases its final report, Unlocking Potential: A Blueprint for Mobilizing Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – European Commission spokesperson Daniel Rosario threatens retaliatory measures if the United States imposes a US$7.5-billion (approximately €6.8-billion) tariff on products such as olives, whiskey, wine, cheese, yogurt, and airplanes. The tariffs are scheduled to take place on October 18.


date: December 2

text: December 2–13 – The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Madrid, Spain, after Chilean President Sebastián Piñera announced in October that his country could not host the conference due to political unrest in the country.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – The World Trade Organization is left unable to intervene in trade disputes after the U.S. blocks the appointment of new panel members.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Corporate defaults on corporate bonds in China reach a new record.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – A mine tailings dam breaks in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil. At least 248 people are killed, with 22 missing.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – The first phase of Jakarta's MRT system opened with its first line.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Japan resumes commercial whaling after a 30-year moratorium, following its withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The Nanfang'ao Bridge, the only steel single-arch bridge in Taiwan, collapses, killing six people and injuring more than twenty others.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – U.S. President Donald Trump announces that the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in a U.S. special forces operation. It is reported that al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest after being chased into a tunnel.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – IPv4 address exhaustion: The RIPE NCC, which is the official regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, officially announces that it has run out of IPv4 addresses.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Shandong, China's first fully domestically built aircraft carrier, enters naval service.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – New Horizons makes a close approach to the Kuiper belt object (KBO) 486958 Arrokoth at 05:33 UTC.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Chinese probe Chang'e 4 becomes the first artificial object to land on the far side of the Moon.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – SpaceIL launches the Beresheet probe, the world's first privately financed mission to the Moon.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – An uncrewed demonstration flight of the new crew capable version of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, intended to carry American astronauts into space, achieves successful autonomous docking with the International Space Station.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Fossil fragments found in the Callao Cave in the Philippines reveal the existence of a new species of human, the Homo luzonensis. The species is named after Luzon, where the fossils were discovered.


text: April 10 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – NepaliSat-1 is launched. It is Nepal's first ever research satellite to be sent into space.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Russia to hold a series of summits with Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – 2019 Iranian shoot-down of American drone: Iran shoots down a U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz after claiming it violated their airspace. The U.S. claims it has been shot down in international airspace in an "unprovoked attack".


text: July 1 – The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran has breached the limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – A total solar eclipse occurs over South America. It is the 58th solar eclipse from Saros cycle 127.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar probe, is successfully placed in lunar orbit, but the lander Vikram crashes into the surface of the Moon.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and 66 others are released in a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Astronomers announce the detection of water in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b, the first such discovery for an exoplanet in the habitable zone around a star.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The Republic of Ireland promises to plant 440 million trees in twenty years to combat climate change.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Google announces that its 53-qubit "Sycamore" processor has achieved quantum supremacy. IBM disputes the claim.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – 11,000 scientists from around the world publish a study in the journal BioScience, warning "clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency".


date: November 25

text: November 25 – The World Meteorological Organization reports that levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high of 407.8 parts per million, with "no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline."


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The CHEOPS space telescope, whose mission is to study the formation of extrasolar planets and determine their precise radius, likely density and internal structure, is launched.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The United States founds the United States Space Force, a branch of the United States Armed Forces dedicated to space warfare.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from South Asia. This is a part of Saros 132.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Adventist Health System rebranded its facilities to the trade name AdventHealth.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The number of deaths from the Kivu Ebola epidemic exceeds 1,000. It is the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, only surpassed by the Western African Ebola virus epidemic of 2013–2016.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – A British teenager, Isabelle Holdaway, 17, is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests: Over 1 million people in Hong Kong protest against proposed legislation regarding extradition to mainland China. It is the largest protest in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – A large-scale power outage hits Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Paraguay, affecting nearly 50 million people.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the Kivu Ebola epidemic to be a public health emergency of international concern.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – India bans triple talaq.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – A gas explosion in Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia sets off a fire in a bioweapons plant that houses viruses including smallpox, ebola and anthrax.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – 2019–20 Hong Kong protests: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the Chief Executive in Council invokes the Emergency Regulations Ordinance and banning the face mask in public gatherings with immediate effect.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – A New York Times investigation reveals that Russian planes had bombed at least 50 hospitals and clinics in opposition-held Idlib, Syria.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Tourists visit the summit of Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) for the last time, as a ban on climbing the famous rock in Australia's Northern Territory comes into effect.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Google enters the video game market with the launch of Stadia.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – COVID-19 pandemic: First known human case of Coronavirus disease 2019, in Wuhan, Hubei, China.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – A locust plague devastates 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares) of crop and grazing land in Ethiopia and Somalia.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – COVID-19 pandemic: First official reports of "viral pneumonia" from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.


date: January 28

text: January 28 – The U.S. Justice Department charges Chinese tech firm Huawei with multiple counts of fraud, raising U.S.–China tensions.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – A second case of sustained remission from HIV is reported, ten years after the Berlin Patient.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is arrested after seven years in Ecuador's embassy in London.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Elusive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in undated footage released by the group, his first appearance on video since 2014.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Prosecutors in Sweden reopen the rape allegation investigation against Julian Assange. Swedish prosecutors mention their intent to seek extradition of Assange from the U.K. after he has served his 50-week prison sentence for skipping bail.


text: July 17 – United States v. Guzmán: Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, former head of the Sinaloa Cartel, which became the biggest supplier of drugs to the U.S., is sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – 2019 Iraqi protests: 91 people are killed by police during a week of demonstrations in Iraq.


text: October 14 – Trial of Catalonia independence leaders: The Supreme Court of Spain sentences nine Catalan independence movement leaders to 9 to 13 years of prison for sedition and misuse of public funds. Three others are disqualified for 1 year and 8 months for disobedience. Violent protests erupt across Catalonia.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Venezuelan councilman and opposition politician Edmundo Rada is reported missing. He is found dead the following day on the side of the road out of Petare, Caracas, burned and with two coup de grâce shots in the back of his neck.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Shootouts erupt in Culiacán, Mexico, after the arrest of El Chapo's son, Ovidio Guzmán López, on an arrest warrant for drug dealing in the United States. Eight people are killed and 56 convicts escape from prison; 7 are recaptured by October 18. Guzmán López is released in an effort to restore peace and to prevent more bloodshed.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The bodies of 39 people are found in a truck container in Essex, England. A 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland is arrested on suspicion of murder.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Amnesty International alleges that Bangladesh killed 466 people in 2018 under the guise of an anti-drugs campaign in what appears to be a wave of extrajudicial executions.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda is sentenced to 30 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the longest sentence ever handed down by the International Criminal Court.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.


text: December 19 – A court in the Philippines convicts Andal Ampatuan Jr., his brother Zaldy Ampatuan and 31 others including three members of the Ampatuan clan, of 57 counts of murder and sentences them to life imprisonment without parole for their role in the Maguindanao massacre.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Five men are sentenced to death and another three face 24 years in prison for their roles in the murder of dissident journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Chinese authorities announce that He Jiankui, who claimed to have created the world's first genetically edited human babies, has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan (US$430,000) for his genetic research efforts.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, crashes shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. All Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are subsequently grounded worldwide.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – A series of Islamist bomb attacks occur at eight locations in Sri Lanka, including three churches, four hotels and one housing complex in Colombo, on Easter Sunday, leaving 259 people dead and over 500 injured. It is the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Aeroflot Flight 1492 crash-lands and bursts into flames at Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, killing 41 of the 78 people on board.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – A triple suicide blast kills 30 and injures over 40 in Borno, Nigeria, at a hall where people were watching a football match.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Four men are charged with murdering the 298 passengers and crew of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an airliner shot down while flying over Eastern Ukraine in July 2014.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – A fire on the Russian deep-diving submarine Losharik kills 14 crew members. Submarine commander Denis Dolonsky is among those killed.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – Nyonoksa radiation accident: Reports indicate that there may have been a nuclear explosion at the Nyonoksa weapons-testing site in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. At least five people were killed and three others injured in the blast, with radiation levels in Severodvinsk, 47 km mi from the site, being 20 times above normal levels temporarily.


date: August 10

text: August 10–25 – 2019 Canary Islands wildfires: A number of forest fires break out in the Canary Islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Lanzarote. The fires on the island of Gran Canaria were the most severe, resulting in the loss of large areas of the island's forests and leading to the evacuation of thousands of residents from a number of towns and villages.


text: August 10 – Morogoro tanker explosion: A fuel tanker truck explodes in Morogoro, Tanzania, killing at least 89 people and injuring dozens more.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – 2019 Beirut drone crash: According to Lebanese officials, two Israeli drones attack Beirut, Lebanon. One crashed into the roof of the Hezbollah Media Center, about 45 minutes before the second exploded in the air and damaged the building. It is the first such incident between Israel and Lebanon since the 2006 Lebanon War.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – 2019 Alta helicopter crash: A sightseeing helicopter crashes in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta Municipality, Norway, killing all 6 occupants.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Sinking of MV Conception: 34 people are killed following a fire and subsequent sinking of a dive boat near Santa Cruz Island, California, United States. It is the worst maritime disaster in California in more than 150 years.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – A fire destroys much of the 500-year-old Japanese Shuri Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


text: October 31 – A train catches fire near Rahim Yar Khan in Pakistan. The blaze, sparked by gas used by passengers cooking on board, kills at least 74 people.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – 2019 Fada N'Gourma attack: At least 37 people are killed and 60 others injured when gunmen attack a Canadian gold mining company convoy on a road in Burkina Faso.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – 2019 Busy Bee crash: A plane crashes shortly after takeoff in a densely populated area of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing all 19 people on board and at least 10 more on the ground.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – A fire at a factory in Delhi, India, kills 43 people and injures at least 50 others.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – 2019 Chilean Air Force C-130 crash: A Chilean military transport aircraft crashes while en route to Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva in Antarctica, killing all 38 people on board. The crash site is located on December 12.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – 28 people are killed and 13 others injured after a bus plunges into a ravine on a winding road in South Sumatra.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Thousands of Muslims protest the December 20 burning of four mosques in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Cyclone Idai makes landfall on Mozambique, causing at least 1,073 fatalities, as well as mass flooding and power outages in southern Africa.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The Howse Peak avalanche kills three noted mountaineers: Austrians Hansjörg Auer and David Lama, and Canadian Jess Roskelley.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – 2019 Ukrainian presidential election: Volodymyr Zelenskyy is elected the President of Ukraine in a landslide victory in the second round of voting. He took office on May 20, 2019.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – In its first report since 2005, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warns that biodiversity loss is "accelerating", with over a million species now threatened with extinction; the decline of the natural living world is "unprecedented" and largely a result of human actions, according to the report.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – 2019 Indian general election: Narendra Modi secures a landslide victory, with his party BJP alone gaining 303 of the 543 seats in parliament, and his political alliance NDA winning 353 seats of the 543.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – A large explosive eruption of Mount Sinabung in Indonesia sends a 7,000-meter ash column into the air, generating a pyroclastic flow 3–3.5 kilometers long towards the south and southeast of the mountain.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Hurricane Barry strikes the Gulf Coast, killing one and causing over $500 million (2019 USD) in damages.


date: July

text: July – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports, on August 15, that July 2019 has been the hottest month on record globally, at 0.95 °C (1.71 °F) above the 20th-century average.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Danish polar research institution Polar Portal reports a large spike in Greenland ice loss, with 11 billion tons melted in one day and 197 gigatonnes during the month of July.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – 32 are killed and 1,000,000 evacuated as Typhoon Lekima makes landfall in Zhejiang, China. Earlier it had caused flooding in the Philippines.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – 100 activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland hold a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after once covering 15.5 km2 sqmi.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires: Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reports fires burning in the Amazon rainforest at a record rate, with more than 36,000 in the year to date, while smoke reaches São Paulo more than 1700 mi km away.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Hurricane Dorian makes landfall on The Bahamas as the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin outside the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, with sustained wind speeds of 185 mph. 43 deaths are reported.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Dorian makes landfall on The Bahamas, the official death toll stands at 52 and 1,300 are reported missing. Rescuers report the widespread stench of rotting bodies in the rubble.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in Japan, the biggest storm to hit the region in decades, with over seven million people urged to evacuate.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – An earthquake of 6.5. M w rocks the Philippine island of Mindanao two days after an earthquake killed at least five and left around 12,000 people homeless.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Heavy rain and flooding leave 3 dead and 200,000 people are homeless in Beledweyne, Somalia. Meanwhile, 29 are dead and 29,000 homeless due to flooding in nearby Kenya.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Cyclone Bulbul kills seven in West Bengal, India and seven in Bangladesh. 2,000,000 people are evacuated.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Italy declares a state of emergency in Venice following record flooding.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – 2019 Albania earthquake: 51 people are killed and around 2,000 others injured in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in northwestern Albania. The earthquake is the strongest to hit Albania in more than 40 years, and the world's deadliest earthquake in 2019.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Typhoon Kammuri hits the Philippines, causing the evacuation of 200,000 people, but without reports of injuries or serious damage.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – The 2019 Burundi landslide is reported to have caused at least 26 deaths.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – A volcano erupts on White Island in New Zealand, killing 22 people and injuring 25 others.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party win a landslide victory in the 2019 United Kingdom general election achieving a majority in the House of Commons of 80 seats.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – King Vajiralongkorn of Thailand marries his personal bodyguard Suthida Tidjai – a commoner – in a surprise ceremony, making her queen consort of Thailand.


date: May 14

text: May 14–18 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 takes place in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is won by Dutch entrant Duncan Laurence with the song "Arcade".


date: May 20

text: May 20 – The revision of the SI system of measurement adopted by the majority of countries in the world takes effect.


date: May 30

text: May 30–July 14 – The 2019 Cricket World Cup is held in England (one match in Wales) with England defeating New Zealand in the final.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – 2019 San Marino referendum: Sammarinese voters vote to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and initiate a popular legislative initiative for the reform of the electoral system.


date: June 7

text: June 7–July 7 – The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup is held in France and is won by the United States.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Botswana decriminalizes homosexuality.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – 12 June 2019 Hong Kong protest: The Hong Kong government and police controversially declare that the protest has "turned into a riot".


text: June 12 – The Supreme Court of Ecuador rules in favor of same-sex marriage, making it legal throughout the country.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in Puebla, Mexico. The last of 5,961 "Special Edition" cars will be exhibited in a museum.


date: July 26

text: July 26–August 11 – The 2019 Pan American Games are held in Lima, Peru.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – 2019–20 Hong Kong protests: Amid ongoing protests, Hong Kong is hit by the first general strikes of their kind since 1967.


date: September 20

text: September 20–November 2 – The 2019 Rugby World Cup is held in Japan and is won by South Africa who defeated England in the final.


text: September 20 – An international strike and protest led by young people and adults is held three days before the latest UN Climate Summit, to demand action be taken to address the climate crisis. Gathering 6 million people in 4,500 locations across 150 countries, the event is one of the largest climate mobilizations in history.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – 500,000 people march in a climate change protest led by activist Greta Thunberg and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Montreal, Canada. 4,000,000 go on strike around the world.


text: December 9 – The World Anti-Doping Agency votes unanimously to ban Russia from international sport for four years for doping offences, meaning it will be excluded from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Works published by authors who died in 1948 enter the public domain in many countries. In the U.S., all works published in 1923 enter the public domain, the first entry of published works into the public domain since 1998.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Paweł Adamowicz, mayor of Gdańsk, died after he was stabbed shortly after his speech on 27. finale of WOŚP.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – 2019 Indian floods: At least 114 people, including 57 in Kerala, 30 in Karnataka and 27 in Maharashtra, are reported to have died in monsoon-related floods in India. At least 227 died across India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Iranian woman Sahar Khodayari sets herself on fire after being arrested for attending a soccer game in Iran. She dies a week later.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The last known Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia dies.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – A report by the Multi-Sector Epidemic Response Committee (CMRE) indicates that 2,231 people have died so far in the 2018–20 Kivu Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


text: Battle of Bowang: Warlord Liu Bei defeats Cao Cao's forces under Xiahou Dun.

source_section: Events › By place › China


text: Severus launches a campaign in Africa; Legio III Augusta under Quintus Anicius Faustus fights a guerrilla war against the Garamantes along the Limes Tripolitanus. They capture several settlements such as Cydamus, Gholaia and their capital Garama, 600 km south of Lepcis Magna. The province of Numidia is enlarged: the Romans annex Castellum Dimmidi, Gemellae and Vescera.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: A Roman law bans female gladiators.


text: In order to avoid Septimus Severus' persecution of Christians, Clement of Alexandria seeks refuge with Alexander in Cappadocia.

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: An edict bans conversions to Christianity and all Christian propaganda.


text: Rome is a city of about 1.5 million citizens, its people housed mostly in 46,600 insulae or apartment blocks, each three to eight stories high, flimsily made of wood, brick or rubble.


text: Some 400,000 slaves perform the menial work of Rome, with middle-class citizens often owning eight; the rich from 500 to 1,000; an emperor as many as 20,000. Free urban workers enjoy 17 to 18 hours of leisure each day, with free admission to baths, sport events and gladiatorial games.


text: Emperor Septimius Severus returns to Rome after a five-year absence. Festivals are held to celebrate his six-year reign. Severus undertakes changes in the imperial government, giving the Roman army a dominant role, raising pay in the legions and permitting legionaries to marry in order to secure their loyalty.


section: Births

text: Jiang Wei, Chinese general and regent (d. 264)

source_section: Births


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Yuan Shao, Chinese warlord (b. 154)

source_section: Deaths


text: Pang Ji (or Yangtu), Chinese official and adviser


text: Lady Wu, wife of Sun Jian and mother of Sun Ce


text: Irenaeus, Greek bishop and theologian (b. 130)


date: January 5

text: January 5 – 2019–20 Croatian presidential election: The second round of voting is held, and Zoran Milanović of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia defeats incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Presidential and legislative elections are held in Taiwan. Incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen is reelected, and the Democratic Progressive Party wins a majority of 67 out of 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The Pakatan Harapan coalition government of Malaysia collapses and is replaced by the Perikatan Nasional coalition. Muhyiddin Yassin becomes the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia on March 1.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – A conditional peace agreement is signed between the United States and the Taliban. The U.S. begins gradually withdrawing combat troops from Afghanistan on March 10.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The Euro 2020 and 2020 Copa América association football tournaments are postponed until the summer of 2021 by UEFA and CONMEBOL, respectively.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – The 2020 South Korean legislative election is held to elect all 300 members of the National Assembly of South Korea and the Democratic Party of Korea-Platform Party alliance wins 180 out of 300 seats.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Colombia formalizes its membership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), becoming the 37th nation of the organization.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is "ready to support" the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Libya while Greece, a member state of NATO, strongly criticizes Stoltenberg's remarks, saying his recognition of the "Muslim Brotherhood government" does not reflect the positions of the military alliance.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announces the termination of all agreements, including security ones, with Israel and the United States in response to Israel's plans to annex the Jordan Valley.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pardons 3,157 prisoners to celebrate Eid al-Fitr and, two days later, President of Zambia Edgar Lungu pardons nearly 3,000 inmates to commemorate Africa Freedom Day.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Micheál Martin succeeds Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach of Ireland, with Varadkar becoming Tánaiste in a historic three-party coalition government.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – China passes the controversial Hong Kong national security law, allowing China to crack down on opposition to Beijing at home or abroad.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The 2020 Singaporean general election is held to elect all 93 members of the Parliament of Singapore and the People's Action Party, led by prime minister Lee Hsien Loong wins 83 out of 93 seats.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The second round of voting for the 2020 Polish presidential election is held and incumbent president Andrzej Duda is reelected.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar travels to Taiwan, the highest U.S. official visit to the country in 40 years. The PRC condemns the visit.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Israel and the UAE agree to normalise relations, marking the third Israel–Arab peace deal.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – Bayern Munich wins the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League by beating Paris Saint-Germain in the final 1–0.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in the history of Japan, announces his resignation from office, citing ill health.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Kosovo and Serbia announce that they will normalize economic relations. The two countries will also move their Israeli embassies to Jerusalem, becoming the third and fourth countries to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

source_section: Events › September


text: September 4 – Bahrain and Israel agree to normalise relations, marking the fourth Israel–Arab peace deal.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Yoshihide Suga becomes the new Prime Minister of Japan, replacing Shinzo Abe.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Israel and Sudan agree to normalise relations, marking the fifth Israel–Arab peace deal.

source_section: Events › October


text: October 23 – At the end of an 11-year demining process, the Falkland Islands are declared free of land mines, 38 years after the end of the 1982 war.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Turkey–United States relations: The United States places sanctions on Turkey in retaliation for their purchase of a S-400 missile system from Russia, marking the first time they have sanctioned a NATO ally.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – The Royal Australian Air Force and Navy are deployed to New South Wales and Victoria to assist mass evacuation efforts amidst the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – A United States drone strike at Baghdad International Airport kills ten people, including the intended target, an Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Second Libyan Civil War: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announces the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya on behalf of the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Iran launches ballistic missiles at two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. soldiers, injuring over 100 personnel.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Yemeni Civil War: 111 Yemeni soldiers and five civilians are killed in a drone and missile attack on a military camp near Maʼrib.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Barquisimeto shooting: During a demonstration, pro-government colectivos shoot at disputed President and Speaker of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó and his supporters in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, leaving five injured.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The International Criminal Court authorizes the Afghanistan War Crimes inquiry to proceed, reportedly allowing for the first time for U.S. citizens to be investigated.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Militants in the Philippines, Syria, Yemen, and Libya agree to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' call for a ceasefire; some accept medical aid for themselves and civilians in their communities. Colombia and Venezuela discuss a common response to the global pandemic, and the UAE airlifts aid to Iran.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The United States designates the Russian Imperial Movement as a terrorist organization and imposes sanctions on its leaders; it is the first white supremacist group the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: The Saudi–led coalition declares a unilateral ceasefire in its operations against Houthi forces in Yemen in accordance with United Nations-led efforts.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The U.N. Human Rights Office accuses Myanmar of carrying out daily airstrikes in the Rakhine and Chin states and that at least 32 civilians have been killed since March 23. The separatist Arakan Army unilaterally declared a month-long ceasefire to fight the pandemic, but the military rejected the ceasefire claiming a previous ceasefire had been reneged by the insurgents.


text: April 17 – China revises the COVID-19 death toll in Wuhan upward, adding 1,290 more fatalities to bring the country's reported COVID-19 deaths to 4,632.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Syrian Civil War: Two former high-ranking members of the Syrian Army go on trial in Koblenz, Germany, for alleged war crimes committed during the civil war. It is the first time that Syrian military officials are prosecuted for their roles in the conflict.


date: May 3

text: May 3–4 – Venezuelan dissidents and a North American-based private military company, Silvercorp USA, unsuccessfully attempt to infiltrate Venezuela and forcibly remove President Nicolás Maduro from office.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Several Chinese and Indian soldiers are injured in a cross-border clash at the Nathu La crossing. About 150 troops participated in the face-off, which involved fistfights and stone-throwing.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) says they are in full control of the capital, Tripoli, after forces of the Libyan National Army (LNA) retreat from the territory following months of intense fighting in the city.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – At least 20 Indian soldiers and over 40 Chinese forces are killed or injured in skirmishes in the disputed Galwan Valley, the largest escalation along the Sino-Indian border in five decades.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Protests begin throughout Bulgaria with the goal of removing Borisov's cabinet and Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev from office.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – At least 180 bodies are found in mass graves in Djibo, Burkina Faso, where soldiers are fighting jihadists. It is suspected that government forces were involved in mass extrajudicial executions.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – The Special Tribunal for Lebanon convicts in absentia Salim Ayyash, a senior member of Hezbollah, for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Beginning of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: deadly clashes erupt in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Artsakh introduce martial law and mobilize forces.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – The Brereton Report into Australian war crimes during the War in Afghanistan is released.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 27

text: November 27 – Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is assassinated near Tehran.


date: November

text: Beginning of the Tigray War: Ethiopia launches an offensive in Tigray following an attack on Ethiopian military bases by the Tigray People's Liberation Front.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – The skeletons of 200 mammoths and 30 other animals are unearthed at a construction site for the Mexico City Santa Lucía Airport. It is the largest find of mammoth bones to date, surpassing The Mammoth Site in the U.S. which had 61 skeletons.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – U.S. President Donald Trump signs the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, a North American trade agreement set to replace NAFTA.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 27

text: February 27 – 2020 stock market crash: Triggered by fears of the spreading of COVID-19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plunges by 1,190.95 points, or 4.4%, to close at 25,766.64, its largest one-day point decline at the time. This follows several days of large falls, marking the worst week for the index since the 2008 financial crisis.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – International share prices fall sharply in response to a Russo-Saudi oil price war and the impact of COVID-19. The DJIA plunges more than 2,000 points, the largest fall in its history up to that point. Oil prices also plunged by as much as 30% in early trading, the biggest fall since 1991.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Global stock markets crashed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the United States travel ban on the Schengen Area. The DJIA goes into free fall, closing at over −2,300 points, the worst loss for the index since 1987.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The DJIA falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war: The price of Brent Crude falls 9% to $23 per barrel, the lowest level since November 2002.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it expects the world economy to shrink 3%, the worst contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The China Securities Regulatory Commission approves a transaction in which Switzerland's Credit Suisse will take a majority interest in a China securities firm, making Credit Suisse the first foreign bank to own a majority of such a company since the easing of foreign ownership rules in 2018.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Oil prices reach a record low, with West Texas Intermediate falling into negative values.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – LATAM Airlines, the largest air carrier in Latin America, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

source_section: Events › May


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the UK will change immigration laws to offer a pathway to UK citizenship for all Hong Kong citizens who are eligible for BN(O) status if the government of China imposes new security laws on the territory.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The ECB accepts Bulgaria and Croatia into ERM II, a mandatory stage for countries wishing to adopt the euro. This is the currency union's first major expansion in half a decade.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The Twitter accounts of prominent political figures, CEOs, and celebrities are hacked to promote a bitcoin scam.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becomes the first person in history to have a net worth exceeding US$200 billion, according to Forbes.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Microsoft agrees to buy video game holding company ZeniMax Media, including Bethesda Softworks and their following subsidiaries for US$7.5 billion, in what was the biggest and most expensive takeover in the history of the video game industry.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The EU began legal proceedings against the UK after it ignored their deadline to drop controversial sections from its internal market Bill.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The United Kingdom and the European Union agree to a comprehensive free trade agreement prior to the end of the transition period.

source_section: Events › December


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The Yahoo! Time capsule, dating from 2006, is opened.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The Bhadla Solar Park is commissioned and becomes the world's largest solar park.


text: April 20 – The Industrial Bank of Korea agrees to pay US$86 million and will enter a two-year deferred prosecution agreement to settle lawsuits with the U.S. Department of Justice and the state of New York over a 2011 scheme to help transfer US$1 billion to Iran.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The biggest television network in the Philippines, ABS-CBN, ceased operations for the first time in almost five decades because of the loss of its franchise.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – The Aurangabad railway accident occurred in India. 17 migrants were sleeping on the trains when a freight train collided and killed 16 people and injured 1.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – North Korea demolishes the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in Kaesong, established in 2018 to improve relations.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – The Barakah nuclear power plant in the UAE becomes operational following delays since 2017. It is the first commercial nuclear power station in the Arab world.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – The La Línea highway tunnel, the longest road tunnel in South America at a length of 8.65 kilometres (5.37 mi), is opened in Colombia after 14 years of construction and several delays.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Apple releases the first Mac computers (a new MacBook Air, Mac mini and MacBook Pro) powered by Apple silicon chips.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – A rare, circumbinary planet called TOI 1338-b is discovered.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – NASA publishes a detailed study of Arrokoth, the most distant body ever explored by a spacecraft.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The ESA/JAXA space probe BepiColombo makes its final gravity assist around Earth and begins to depart for Venus, where it will make several gravity assist maneuvers before finally arriving at Mercury in 2025.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deploys the country's first military satellite, using a new satellite carrier called "Ghased" ("Messenger").


date: April 28

text: April 28 – A fast radio burst is detected from the Magnetar SGR 1935+2154, the first ever detected inside the Milky Way, and the first to be linked to a known source.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – (52768) 1998 OR2, a near-Earth asteroid that is 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) wide, makes a close approach of 0.042 AU (6.3 million km; 16 LD) to Earth. It will not approach closer than this until 2079.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – NASA officially selects SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to build its next-generation lunar lander to carry American astronauts to the Moon by 2024.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Astronomers announce the discovery of the first black hole located in a star system visible to the naked eye.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology publishes the result of radiocarbon and DNA analysis from the fossils that has been found in the Bacho Kiro cave, Bulgaria. The result, showing that the fossils belong to Homo sapiens instead of Neanderthal, indicates that modern humans may have arrived in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Researchers announce a 2.5 cm millipede fossil belonging to the Kampecaris genus, discovered on the island of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, is the world's oldest-known land animal, which lived 425 million years ago in the Silurian period.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – The first crewed flight of the SpaceX Dragon 2 (initially scheduled for May 27 but delayed due to weather) is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first crewed spacecraft to take off from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – A US$5 billion class action lawsuit is filed against Alphabet Inc. and Google, alleging the company violates users' right to privacy by tracking them in Chrome's incognito mode.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – SpaceX successfully launches and deploys 60 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, bringing the total number of Starlink satellites in orbit to 482.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – NASA successfully launches its Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples for return to Earth. The mission includes technology demonstrations to prepare for future human missions.

source_section: Events › July


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Intel introduces a new logo and its slogan "What's inside has never mattered more.", which was later changed to "Do something wonderful.".


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The Royal Astronomical Society announces the detection of phosphine in Venus' atmosphere, which is known to be a strong predictor for the presence of microbial life.


text: September 14 – The first discovery of the perfectly preserved remains of a cave bear, believed to be 22,000 to 39,500 years old (Late Pleistocene), is made in Lyakhovsky Islands, Siberia in the thawing permafrost.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touches down on Bennu, becoming the agency's first probe to retrieve samples from an asteroid, with its cargo later successfully returning to Earth on September 24, 2023.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – NASA confirms the existence of molecular water on the sunlit side of the Moon, near Clavius crater, at concentrations of up to 412 parts per million.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – NASA and SpaceX launch the SpaceX Crew-1 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A to the ISS, the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon capsule.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – The PlayStation 5 is released worldwide.'


date: November 30

text: November 30 – Protein folding, one of the biggest mysteries in biology, is solved by AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence algorithm developed by DeepMind.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Arecibo Telescope of the Arecibo Observatory collapses, just weeks after the announcement of its planned demolition.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – COVID-19 pandemic: Chinese authorities publicly confirm human-to-human transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – COVID-19 pandemic: The Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, is quarantined, with all scheduled public transport services and intercity flights halted.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – COVID-19 pandemic: Italy becomes the first country to implement a nationwide quarantine in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reports that the domestically transmitted epidemic is now under control. Two days later, China temporarily suspends entry for foreign nationals with visas or residence permits, effective midnight on March 28.