Timeline of the 21st century
Timeline of events 2001-present / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This is a timeline of the 21st century.
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For other timelines of modern history, see Timelines of modern history. For future timelines, see Timelines of the future.
2001
- January 15: Wikipedia is launched.
- January 20:
- President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines is ousted in the Second EDSA Revolution.
- George W. Bush is inaugurated as President of the United States.
- January 26: An earthquake strikes Gujarat, India, on Republic Day, resulting in more than 20,000 deaths.
- May 27: Dos Palmas kidnappings: Twenty tourists are abducted by the Abu Sayyaf Group terrorists from a popular island resort in the Philippines.
- June 1: Eleven members of the royal family of Nepal, including the king and queen, are killed by Crown Prince Dipendra, who wounds himself and dies three days later.
- September 11: September 11 attacks: Nineteen Al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four planes, crashing two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the third plane into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, while the fourth plane is downed on the outskirts of Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania. 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers, die in the attacks.
- October 7 – December 17: The United States invades Afghanistan and topples the Taliban regime, resulting in a long-term war.
- October 23: Steve Jobs introduces the first iPod.
- November 12: Crash of American Airlines Flight 587.
- December 3: Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a series of scandals.
- December 11: China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization.
- December 19 – 20: During an economic crisis in Argentina, the government effectively freezes all bank accounts for twelve months which leads to riots and President Fernando de la Rúa's resignation from office. There are five "presidents" in less than a month.
- The al-Aqsa Intifada continues.
- Dean Kamen unveils Segway.
- Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi is elected Prime Minister of Italy.
See also: 2001 § Deaths
2002
- January 1: The Euro enters circulation.
- February 8: The Algerian Civil War ends.
- February 27 – March 1: Riots and mass killings in the Indian state of Gujarat leave 1,044 dead.
- March 14: SpaceX is founded by Elon Musk.
- April 11 - 13: 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt fails to overthrow president Hugo Chavez.
- May 20: East Timor gains independence.
- July 1: The International Criminal Court is established.
- July 9: The African Union is founded.
- September 19: The First Ivorian Civil War begins.
- October 2 – 23: Beltway sniper attacks.
- October 12: The 2002 Bali bombings killed 202 people and injured 209 more.
- October 23 – 26: Chechen rebels seize a theater in Moscow. Amid this siege, around 200 people died.
- November 16: The 2002-2004 SARS outbreak begins in Guangdong, China.
- Switzerland joins the United Nations as the 190th member.
- Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world.
- 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff ends.
- Israel starts Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks.
- Construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier begins.
- America demands Iraq allow unfettered access to weapons inspectors.
- The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is established.
- Hu Jintao is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.
See also: 2002 § Deaths
2003
- February 1: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts on board.
- February 20: The Station nightclub fire.
- March 19: The United States invades Iraq and ousts Saddam Hussein, triggering worldwide protests and an 8 year war.
- August 5: 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing kills 12 people.
- August 27 – 29: The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
- November 3 – 23: The Rose Revolution occurs in Georgia.
- November 17: Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes Governor of California.
- The War in Darfur begins.
- The Human Genome Project is completed.
- The Second Congo War ends with more than 5 million dead.
- The Second Liberian Civil War ends.
- The last Volkswagen Beetle is made in Mexico, after 65 years in production.
- Final flight of the SST (Supersonic Transport) Concorde.
See also: 2003 § Deaths
2004
- February 4: Facebook is formed by Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
- March 11: Madrid train bombings killed 193 people and injured around 2,000, Europe's deadliest attack since Pan Am Flight 103.
- September 1 – 3: On the first school day in Russia, a group of Chechen terrorists held students, parents and teachers hostage in Beslan school, in North Ossetia–Alania. During three days under attack, 334 people died.
- October 23 – 27: Boston Red Sox wins the World Series for the first time since 1918, ending the Curse of the Bambino.
- November 7 – December 23: The Second Battle of Fallujah occurs. It is the deadliest American battle since the Vietnam War, killing 95 troops.
- November 18: Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
- December 8: Union of South American Nations formed.
- December 26: Boxing Day Tsunami occurs in the Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of 230,000.
- NATO and the European Union incorporates most of the former Eastern Bloc.
- War in North-West Pakistan begins.
- Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars.
- Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
- First surface images of Saturn's moon Titan.
See also: 2004 § Deaths
2005
- January 9: Second Sudanese Civil War ends.
- February 14: YouTube is founded by Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.
- February 14 – April 27: Cedar Revolution in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of Rafic Hariri.
- February 16: The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect.
- March 22 – April 11: Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.
- April 2 – 19: Pope John Paul II dies, Benedict XVI becomes Pope.
- July 7: 7/7 attacks on the London Underground.
- July 26 – 27: Floods in Maharashtra, India over 1000 people die.
- July 28: The Provisional Irish Republican Army ends its military campaign in Northern Ireland.
- July 29: Michael E. Brown confirms the discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.
- August 3: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran.
- August 18: Peace Mission 2005, the first joint China–Russia military exercise, begins its eight-day training on the Shandong Peninsula.
- August 29 – 31: Hurricane Katrina kills 1,836 people across the Gulf of Mexico coast.
- September 30: Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sparking outrage and violent riots by Muslims around the world.
- October 8: 80,000 are killed in an earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- November 22: Angela Merkel becomes Germany's first female Chancellor.
- November 30: Surgeons in France carry out the first human face transplant with Isabelle Dinoire becoming the first person to undergo it.
- Israel withdraws from Gaza.
- Second Sudanese Civil War ends.
See also: 2005 § Deaths
2006
- January 16: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes President of Liberia, and thus Africa's first elected female head of state.
- January 25: Hamas wins the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.
- February 17: 2006 Southern Leyte mudslide.
- February 22: 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing turns the escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq into a full-scale war (the Iraqi Civil War of 2006-2008).
- March 21: Twitter is launched.
- April 23: Spotify is launched.
- May 21 – June 3: Independence of Montenegro.
- July 11: Mumbai bombings.
- September 1: Roblox is released by David Baszucki.
- September 19: A coup d'état in Thailand overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
- October 9 – November 13: Google acquires YouTube for US$1.65 billion.
- November 1: Former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko dies from poisoning in the UK.
- November 21: Comprehensive Peace Accord ends the Nepalese Civil War.
- December 26: Death and state funeral of Gerald Ford.
- December 30: Execution of Saddam Hussein by hanging.
- 2006 Lebanon War.
- Mexican Drug War begins.
- Somalian War of 2006 begins.
- The International Astronomical Union creates the first formal definition of a planet, which drops Pluto's classification as a planet.
- Nintendo launches the Wii.
- The Baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin, becomes functionally extinct.
- Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is abducted by Hamas.
See also: 2006 § Deaths
2007
- January 1: Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union.
- January 4: Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
- January 9: Introduction of the iPhone.
- March 4: First Ivorian Civil War ends.
- April 16: Virginia Tech shooting.
- August 15: Anti-government protests in Myanmar suppressed by ruling junta.
- December 13: 27 EU member states sign the Treaty of Lisbon, with the treaty coming into effect on December 1, 2009.
- December 27: Assassination of Benazir Bhutto, opposition leader and former prime minister of Pakistan.
- Spike in food prices and subprime crisis help trigger global recession.
- First Ivorian Civil War ends.
- Crisis follows the Kenyan presidential election of 2007, leading to the formation of a coalition government.
See also: 2007 § Deaths
2008
- May 2: Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar.
- May 12: Magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurs in Wenchuan, China, causing almost 90,000 people to die or go missing.[1]
- May 28: The 1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly declares Nepal a republic, ending its monarchy.
- June 20 – 21: Sinking of MV Princess of the Stars.
- November 4: Barack Obama is elected the first African-American President of the United States.
- November 26 – 29: 2008 Mumbai attacks.
- Google Chrome is released.
- The Gaza War begins.
- 2008 South Ossetia war.
- Kosovo declares independence, though it is not recognised by the United Nations.
- Iraqi forces crack down on Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi forces in Basra and Sadr City.
- The Large Hadron Collider is completed as the world's largest and most powerful particle collider.
- Tesla Roadster launched, the first mass production lithium-ion battery electric car.
- Stock markets plunge around the world, signaling the start of the Great Recession.
See also: 2008 § Deaths
2009
- January 3: The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is launched.
- January 15: US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River in an accident that becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson", as all 155 people on board are rescued.
- June 16: Formation of BRICS economic bloc.
- September 26: Typhoon Ketsana kills 789 people in the Philippines.
- December 18: Avatar is released in cinemas and becomes the highest-grossing film of all time.
- The Gaza War ends while the Gaza blockade continues.
- The Sri Lankan Civil War ends.
- Election protests begin in Iran.
- The Second Chechen War ends.
- The Boko Haram insurgency begins in Nigeria.
- 2009 swine flu pandemic begins in North America.
See also: 2009 § Deaths
2010
- January 12: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills 230,000.
- February 18: 2010 Nigerien coup d'état.
- March 29: 2010 Moscow Metro bombings.
- April 10: The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, is among 96 killed when their airplane crashes in Smolensk, Russia.
- April 20: The largest oil spill in US history occurs in the Gulf of Mexico.
- May 31: Gaza flotilla raid.
- July 22 – August 10: 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis.
- November 23: North Korea shells the island of Yeonpyeong.
- A military crackdown occurs in Thailand.
- The threat of Greece defaulting on its debts triggers the European sovereign debt crisis and Republic of Ireland's financial crisis.
- Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.
- Arab Spring starts.
- Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010.
- The Burj Khalifa in Dubai becomes the tallest structure in the world, standing at 829.8 m (2,722 ft).
- Dilma Rousseff is elected as the first female president of Brazil.
- The iPad is introduced.
- Instagram is launched.
- 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull.
- Julia Gillard is elected first woman Prime Minister of Australia.
See also: 2010 § Deaths
2011
- February 22: Christchurch earthquake kills 185 and injures 2,000.
- March 11: A 9.1 earthquake in Japan triggers a tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
- May 2: Osama bin Laden is shot dead by United States Navy SEALs in Pakistan.
- July 9: Independence of South Sudan.
- July 22: 2011 Norway attacks.
- August 6 – 11: Riots flare across England.
- October 20: Muammar Gaddafi is captured and killed during the Battle of Sirte.
- World population reaches 7 billion.
- Arab Spring: revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya follow, as well as uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain, and protests in several other Arab countries.
- Syrian civil war begins.
- Second Ivorian Civil War.
- Occupy movement inspires worldwide protests.
- News International phone hacking scandal.
- Death and state funeral of Kim Jong-il.
- The Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, the world's longest, opens in China.
- Second Ivorian Civil War ends with the arrest of former president Laurent Gbagbo.
- Iraq War ends.
- Bombings occur in Russia and Somalia.
- Floods in Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines kill roughly 2,500 people.
- Space Shuttle program is officially ended.
- NASA launches spacecraft to visit Jupiter and Mars.
See also: 2011 § Deaths
2012
- May 7: Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia for the third time.
- July 20: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting.
- September 11 – 12: 2012 Benghazi attack leads to the death of US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
- October 14: Skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle.
- October 22 – November 22: Hurricane Sandy causes $70 billion in damage and kills 233 people.
- November 6: Barack Obama wins second term as President of the United States, defeating former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
- November 15: Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.
- November 26 – December 8: UN Climate Change Conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.
- December 4 – 9: Typhoon Bopha kills over 1,600 in the Philippines.
- December 14: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
- The Higgs boson is discovered.
- Conflict begins in the Central African Republic.
- Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
- The US rover, Curiosity, takes a selfie on Mars and finds evidence of an ancient streambed of water on the Red Planet.
- Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, dies; Tawadros II succeeds him.
- Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh steps down.
- Northern Mali conflict, the MNLA declares Azawad an independent state.
See also: 2012 § Deaths
2013
- February 15: An undiscovered meteor strikes the Chelyabinsk oblast in Russia, with an airburst injuring thousands and damaging many buildings.
- February 28 – March 13: Pope Benedict XVI resigns, the first Pope to do since 1415, and Pope Francis is elected, becoming the first Pope from Latin America.
- March 5: Death and state funeral of Hugo Chavez.
- April 24: The Rana Plaza collapses in Bangladesh.
- May 22: British Army soldier Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers is murdered in Woolwich, southeast London by Islamic terrorists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
- July 1: Croatia becomes a member of the European Union.
- July 3: President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is deposed by the military in a coup d'état.
- July 22: Birth of Prince George of Wales.
- August 21: A chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria is blamed on President Bashar al-Assad.
- September 9 – 28: Zamboanga City crisis.
- September 17: Rockstar Games release Grand Theft Auto V.
- October 15: A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Bohol, kills 222.
- November 8: Typhoon Haiyan kills nearly 6,150 people in Vietnam and the Philippines.
- November 21: The Euromaidan protest begins in Ukraine.
- December 5: Death and state funeral of Nelson Mandela.
- The French military intervenes in the Northern Mali conflict.
- Terrorist attacks occur in Boston and Nairobi.
- Edward Snowden releases classified documents concerning mass surveillance by the NSA.
- Conflict begins in South Sudan.
- Uruguay becomes the first country to fully legalize cannabis.
- End of 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis.
- Kiss nightclub fire.
- 2013 Alberta floods.
- 2013 Lahad Datu standoff.
- Death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher.
See also: 2013 § Deaths
2014
- February: Euromaidan protest in Ukraine sparks a revolution and the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, leading to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas.
- March 8: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears from radar while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. There were 239 people on board.
- April 16: The MV Sewol sinks, killing 304 of 476 passengers, 250 of which were students at Danwon High School.
- May 22: A coup d'état in Thailand overthrows the caretaker government.
- June 19: King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates; his son becomes King Felipe VI.
- August 9: The shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown by police leads to violent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
- September 18 – Scotland votes to remain part of the United Kingdom during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
- November 12: The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe becomes the first to successfully land on a comet.
- December 16: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan kill over 130 students in Pakistan.
- The worst Ebola epidemic in recorded history occurs in West Africa, infecting nearly 30,000 people and resulting in the deaths of 11,000+.
- The Yemeni Civil War begins after the Houthi takeover in Yemen.
- Persecution of Uyghurs in China in Xinjiang increases.
- Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Java Sea, while Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Ukraine and Air Algérie Flight 5017 is downed in Mali.
- Israel launches an assault on the Gaza Strip in response to tit-for-tat murder-kidnappings, leading to the deaths of 71 Israelis and 2,100 Palestinians.
- ISIL begins its offensive in northern Iraq, leading to intervention in Iraq and Syria by a US-led coalition.
- Second Libyan Civil War begins.
- Narendra Modi is elected as the Prime Minister of India.
- Joko Widodo is elected President of Indonesia.
See also: 2014 § Deaths
2015
- January 1: Five former Soviet Union countries form the Eurasian Economic Union.
- January 3 – 7: Boko Haram perpetrates a massacre of over 2,000 people in Baga, Nigeria, and allies itself with ISIL.
- April 2: Al-Shabaab perpetrates a mass shooting in Kenya, killing 148.
- April 25 – May 3: The death of an African-American man, Freddie Gray by police leads to violent unrest in Baltimore, Maryland.
- May 13: Kentex slipper factory fire.
- July 14: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement reached, setting limits to Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
- September 30: Russia begins air strikes against ISIL and anti-government forces in Syria
- November 30 – December 12: 195 nations agree to lower carbon emissions by negotiating the Paris agreement.
- A series of terrorist attacks occur in Paris.
- A series of earthquakes in the Himalayas kills over 10,000 people.
- The heads of China and Taiwan meet for the first time, while the United States and Cuba reestablish full diplomatic relations.
- Liquid water is found on Mars.
- First close-up images of Ceres and Pluto.
- China announces the end of One-child policy after 35 years.
- European migrant crisis.
- The Supreme Court of the United States determines that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
- Homo naledi, a species of early human, is discovered in Africa.
- Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525.
- Volkswagen emissions scandal.
- Charleston church shooting.
- Assassination of Boris Nemtsov.
- 2015 FIFA corruption case.
2016
- February 11: Detection of gravitational waves by LIGO confirmed.
- March 9-15: Artificial intelligence program AlphaGo defeats top Go player Lee Sedol in a series of 5 games, winning 4 out of 5 games.
- March 20: Barack Obama becomes the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
- April 3: Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information of 214,888 offshore companies.
- May 9: Rodrigo Duterte becomes President of the Philippines, and initiates a controversial drug war.
- June 1: The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel, is completed.
- June 12: A shooter kills 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
- June 23 – July 13: The people of the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union; David Cameron resigns as a result, and Theresa May succeeds him as the second female Prime Minister of the UK.
- July 4: Juno enters orbit around Jupiter
- September 4: Mother Teresa is officially canonized by Pope Francis.
- November 4: The Paris Agreement, signed by 195 nations to fight global warming, formally goes into effect.
- November 8: Donald Trump wins the 2016 presidential election, in an upset against Hillary Clinton, the first woman to be nominated by a major party.
- The United Nations lifts sanctions from Iran in recognition of the dismantling of its nuclear program.
- Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign the Ecumenical Declaration.
- ISIL claims responsibility for a series of bombings in Brussels, a massacre at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport and car ramming attacks in Nice.
- Augmented-reality game, Pokémon Go, is released, breaking records in revenue, and becoming the best-selling mobile game.
- The Colombian government signs a peace deal with FARC to end the Colombian conflict, despite narrowly losing a referendum.
- The government of Turkey begins a series of purges in reaction to a failed coup d'état attempt.
- US troops withdraw from Afghanistan after 15 years.
- The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, is impeached.
- King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand dies after 70 years on the throne and is succeeded by his son Vajiralongkorn.
- Andrei Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, is assassinated at an art exhibition in Ankara.
- Tsai Ing-wen is elected as the first female President of Taiwan.
- 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
- Radovan Karadžić is found guilty of 10 of 11 counts of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War and is sentenced to 40 years in prison.
- Dhaka attack kills 29 people.
- A third set of locks in the Panama Canal opens for commercial traffic.
- 2016 Southern Taiwan earthquake.
- An outbreak of the Zika virus is linked to a cluster of cases of microcephaly.
- Death and state funeral of Fidel Castro.
- TikTok is launched.
See also: 2016 § Deaths
2017
- January 20: Donald Trump is inaugurated as President of the United States.
- January 21: Millions of people participate in the Women's March in response to the inauguration of Donald Trump.
- February 13: Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong-Un, is assassinated in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- May 13: Pope Francis canonizes Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the three Fátima children who reported seeing the Virgin Mary in the spring and summer of 1917.
- May 22: A terrorist bombing attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England kills 22 people and injures over 140.
- June 2: 36 people are killed in an attack in Resorts World Manila.
- August 11 – 12: Charlottesville, Virginia becomes the site of a far-right rally protesting the removal of Confederate statues throughout the US. During the event, a white supremacist rams his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, injuring 19 and killing one.
- September: Two earthquakes strike Mexico on September 8 and September 19, killing over 400 people.
- October 1: 60 people are killed in a mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas.
- October 14: A bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia kills 587 people and injures 316. It is one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history.
- October 28: 'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object, is identified.
- November 5: 26 people are killed in a church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
- North Korea tests a hydrogen bomb and conducts a series of ballistic missile tests. The United States responds with a wave of export sanctions.
- ISIL launches simultaneous attacks in Tehran, destroy the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq, and kill 311 in Egypt, but is declared defeated in Iraq by the end of the year.
- A military operation targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is declared ethnic cleansing by the UNHCR.
- This year's Atlantic Hurricane season features Hurricane Harvey, which kills 107 and becomes the costliest hurricane in US history, as well as Hurricane Irma, killing 134, and Hurricane Maria, killing 3,059.
- Robert Mugabe is ousted in a coup d'état.
- Serb military commander Ratko Mladić is declared guilty of genocide in the Bosnian Genocide.
- Allegations of sexual abuse against film producer Harvey Weinstein lead to a wave of similar accusations from within Hollywood and other areas of primarily the English-speaking world.
- Grenfell Tower fire in London kills 72 and injures 70.
- The President of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, is impeached, while Moon Jae-in is elected president.
- Emmanuel Macron becomes President of France after defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
See also: 2017 § Deaths
2018
- March 24: March for Our Lives occurs in 900 locations worldwide in response to the 14 February Parkland shooting.
- June 12: The first summit between the US and North Korea and the first ever crossing of the Korean Demilitarized Zone by a North Korean leader occur.
- June 23 – July 10: Twelve boys and their football coach are successfully rescued from the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Thailand.
- June 24: Saudi Arabia allows women to drive.
- October 2: Exiled Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, triggering a diplomatic crisis for Saudi Arabia.
- Turkey invades northern Syria, while 70 die in a chemical attack, triggering a missile strike against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
- Pakatan Harapan becomes the first opposition party to assume power in Malaysia since independence.
- Twenty-year Eritrean–Ethiopian border conflict formally ends.
- Yellow vests movement becomes France's largest sustained period of civil unrest since 1968.
- The Sunda strait tsunami kills 426 and injures 14,000 and the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami kills 4,340 and injures 10,700.
- Macedonia and Greece reach a historic agreement in the Macedonia naming dispute, in which the former is renamed in 2019 to the 'Republic of North Macedonia'.
- China's National People's Congress votes to abolish presidential term limits, allowing Xi Jinping to rule for life. Xi is also the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the highest position without term limits.
- China–United States trade war begins.
- 2018 Armenian revolution occurs.
- First post-ISIL election in Iraq.
- The Trump administration reimposes sanctions against Iran.
- The first monkeys are cloned, and first genetically modified humans reported, in China.
- Four people are poisoned with a nerve agent, one fatally, in Salisbury and Amesbury, England in a suspected Russian assassination attempt.
- The northern white rhinoceros becomes functionally extinct.
See also: 2018 § Deaths
2019
- January 3: Chang'e 4 becomes the first object to land on the far side of the Moon.
- January 25: Establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
- January – June: A series of suicide bombings occur in Sulu, Philippines.
- April 10:
- The Event Horizon Telescope takes the first ever image of a black hole, at the core of galaxy Messier 87.
- Fossil fragments found in the Callao Cave in the Philippines reveal the existence of the Homo luzonensis species of humans.
- April 15: A major fire engulfs Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, resulting in the roof and main spire collapsing.
- April 30: Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicates from his throne, the first abdication by a Japanese monarch in almost two centuries. The abdication ends the Heisei era of Japan and ushers in the Reiwa era with new emperor Naruhito ascending the throne on May 1.
- August 5: India revokes the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
- October 18: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the ISS.
- December 18: US President Donald Trump is impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
- December 20: The United States Space Force is announced by Vice President Mike Pence.
- New Horizons takes the first close up image of a classical kuiper belt object.
- Christchurch mosque shootings kill 51 people, while a suicide bombing in Iran kills 41, and a series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka kills 250.
- ISIL loses the last of its territory.
- Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns as President of Algeria, while Omar al-Bashir is deposed as President of Sudan in a coup d'état amid widespread protests in both countries.
- Victor Vescovo breaks the human depth record, reaching 10,928 m in the Challenger Deep.
- Protests begin in Hong Kong over an extradition bill.
- Wildfires spike in Brazil, while Australia endures the most widespread brush fires in its history.
- Isabelle Holdaway is the first patient to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.
- Pope Francis abolishes pontifical secrecy in sex abuse cases.
- The 2019–2020 dengue fever epidemic begins in Southeast Asia.
- Protests erupt in Bolivia and Venezuela over disputed elections.
- Nursultan Nazarbayev resigns as President of Kazakhstan. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev assumes power. Astana is renamed Nur-Sultan in his honor.
- The EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is passed over intense opposition.
- Bashar al Assad launches multiple offensives in Northwestern Syria; Turkey launches an offensive into northeastern Syria.
- More than a hundred people are killed after police and Janjaweed attack protesters in Sudan.
- The United States blames attacks on ships in the Gulf of Oman on Iran, escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf.
- Barisha raid ends in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
- A 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Albania, kills 51 people.
- More than 50 prisoners are killed in a series of riots in Amazonas, Brazil.
- A trilateral gathering is held at the Panmunjom Truce Village between South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.
- Japan and South Korea trade dispute.
- Sahar Khodayari dies after setting herself on fire after being arrested for attending a soccer game in Iran.
- Twelve Catalan independence movement leaders found guilty of sedition and misuse of public funds and they were sentenced to 9 to 13 years in prison.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
See also: 2019 § Deaths