User:Omega933/brudnopis

Events

2020

January

• January 1
  • Croatia begins its term in the presidency of the European Union.
  • Flash floods struck Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 66 people in the worst flooding in over a decade.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
  • 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.
• January 8
  • Iran launches ballistic missiles at two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. soldiers, injuring over 100 personnel.
  • Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by Iranian forces shortly after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people on board.
• January 9
  • A rare, circumbinary planet called TOI 1338-b is discovered.
  • Islamic State millitants in the Greater Sahara assaulted a Nigerien military base in Chinagodrar, killing at least 89 Nigerien soldiers.
• January 10 – Haitham bin Tariq succeeds Qaboos bin Said as the Sultan of Oman.
• 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.
• January 12 – The Taal Volcano in the Philippines has had its first major eruption since 1977.
• January 16 – The first impeachment trial of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, begins in the U.S. Senate. He was acquitted on February 5.
• 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.
• January 20 – COVID-19 pandemic: Chinese authorities publicly confirm human-to-human transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
• January 22 – The Hellenic Parliament elects Katerina Sakellaropoulou as president of Greece.
• 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.
• January 26
  • The 2020 Peruvian parliamentary election is held to elect all 130 members of the Congress of the Republic of Peru.
  • Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash, alongside his daughter Gianna and seven others, in Calabasas, California.
• January 29 – U.S. President Donald Trump signs the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, a North American trade agreement set to replace NAFTA.
• January 30 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the outbreak of the disease a public health emergency of international concern, the sixth time that this measure has been invoked since 2009.
• January 31 – The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdraw from the European Union, beginning an 11-month transition period.

February

• February 6 – Livraga derailment: A Frecciarossa high-speed train traveling from Milan to Salerno derailed in Livraga, Lombardy, Italy. Two people were killed, and 31 were injured.
• February 8 – The 2020 Irish general election is held to elect 160 members of the 33rd Dáil, the lower house of the Oireachtas.
• February 11 – The COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization (WHO) names the disease COVID-19.
• February 13 – NASA publishes a detailed study of Arrokoth, the most distant body ever explored by a spacecraft.
• February 19 – Hanau shootings: Eleven people are killed and five injured in a terrorist shooting spree by a far-right extremist targeting shisha bars in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany.
• 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.
• 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 2007–2008 financial crisis.
• February 28 – Syrian Civil War: NATO expresses solidarity with Turkey after 34 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike by pro-Syrian government forces.
• 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.
  • 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.

March

• March 2 – The Yahoo! Time capsule, dating from 2006, is opened.
• 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.
• March 9
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Italy becomes the first country to implement a nationwide quarantine in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • 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.
• March 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
• 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.
• March 13 – COVID-19 pandemic: The government of Nepal announces that Mount Everest will be closed to climbers and the public for the rest of the season due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia.
• 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%.
• March 17
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • The European Union's external and Schengen borders are closed for at least 30 days in an effort to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • The Euro 2020 and 2020 Copa América association football tournaments are postponed until the summer of 2021 by UEFA and CONMEBOL, respectively.
• March 18
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 is cancelled due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe, the first cancellation in the contest's 64-year history.
    • The Solidarity Trial, a WHO-sponsored clinical trial dedicated to finding a cure against COVID-19, is announced.
• March 20
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 10,000 as the total number of cases reaches a quarter of a million.
  • The Bhadla Solar Park is commissioned and becomes the world's largest solar park.
• March 24
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • India and the United Kingdom go into lockdown to contain COVID-19. The total number of people in the world facing some form of pandemic-related movement restriction now exceeds 2.6 billion, a third of the global population.
    • 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.
    • The International Olympic Committee and Japan postpone the 2020 Summer Olympics to 2021. On March 30, the Summer Olympics will be rescheduled from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
• March 26
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • Global COVID-19 cases reach 500,000, with nearly 23,000 deaths confirmed. The U.S. surpasses China and Italy in the total number of known COVID-19 cases, with at least 81,321 cases and more than 1,000 deaths.
    • 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.
• March 27 – North Macedonia becomes the 30th country to join NATO.
• 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.

April

• April 1
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • China reports 130 asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, its first reported asymptomatic cases.
    • Yemen's internationally recognised government releases more than 470 of its prisoners amid concerns of the spread of the virus in Yemen's overcrowded jails. The United Nations Human Rights Council has called for the release of all political prisoners.
• April 2 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 1 million worldwide.
• April 5
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • The first case of COVID-19 in a zoo animal is reported: a four-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.
• 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.
• April 7 – COVID-19 pandemic: Japan declares a state of emergency in response to COVID-19 and finalises a stimulus package worth 108 trillion yen (US$990 billion), equal to 20% of the country's GDP.
• 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.
• April 10
  • Kivu Ebola epidemic: The Democratic Republic of the Congo reports the first case of Ebola since February 2020. The outbreak has killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018.
  • 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.
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • The death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 100,000 globally, a ten-fold increase from March 20.
    • EU finance ministers agree on a €540 billion loan package to alleviate the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
• April 12
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Pope Francis livestreams the Urbi et Orbi blessing for Easter; it is the second blessing in a month, with the first taking place on March 27 during a special prayer service for the end of the pandemic.
  • OPEC and allies strike a deal to cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day, the largest such cut agreed upon, starting May 1.

"April 14th 2020" redirects here. For the Fred Again song, see Actual Life (April 14 – December 17, 2020).

• April 14
  • COVID-19 pandemic
    • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it expects the world economy to shrink 3%, the worst contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
    • U.S. president Donald Trump announces that the U.S. will suspend funding towards the World Health Organization (WHO) pending an investigation of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship with China.
• April 15
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 2 million worldwide.
    • The 2020 Tour de France is delayed until August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • 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.
• 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.
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • 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.
    • Europe surpasses 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths.
    • 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.
• April 18 – 44 suspected Boko Haram members are found dead, apparently due to poisoning, inside a prison in N'Djamena, Chad.
• April 19
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Unrest breaks out in Paris, Berlin and Vladikavkaz as opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns continue.
• April 20
  • Oil prices reach a record low, with West Texas Intermediate falling into negative values.
  • 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.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White Alliance leader Benny Gantz agree on a deal to form a unity government, thus ending more than a year of political deadlock. As part of the deal, Netanyahu will hold onto his position for 18 more months, with Gantz replacing him afterwards.
• April 21 – Mozambique police say 52 male villagers were killed by Islamist militants earlier this month in Muidumbe District, Cabo Delgado Province, after they refused to join their ranks.
• April 22 – Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deploys the country's first military satellite, using a new satellite carrier called "Ghased" ("Messenger").
• 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.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Facebook removes "pseudoscience" and "conspiracy theory" as options for targeted ads as criticism mounts against social media for its role in spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
• April 25
  • Yemeni Civil War: The Southern Transitional Council (STC) announces the establishment of a self-rule administration in southern Yemen and deploys forces in Aden. Governors of multiple southern Yemeni Governorates and Socotra island reject the STC's claim to self-rule and declare their loyalty to President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Months later on July 19, the STC accepts a Saudi-brokered peace deal and abandons its self-rule aspirations.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 200,000. The UK becomes the fifth country to report 20,000 deaths.
• April 26 – King Salman issues a royal decree, declaring that people will no longer be executed in Saudi Arabia for crimes they were convicted of when they were minors.
• April 27 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases passes 3 million worldwide, while the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. passes 1 million.
• 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.
  • Colombia formalizes its membership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), becoming the 37th nation of the organization.
  • The Indian Ministry of External Affairs condemns the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom after its annual report recommends placing India on the "countries of particular concern" blacklist over the Citizenship Amendment Act, the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, and controversial comments made by Home Minister Amit Shah, among others.
• 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.
• 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.
  • Bulgaria applies for ERM II (the "waiting room" for the Eurozone), due to join along with Croatia in July 2020.

May

• May 1
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of recovered COVID-19 patients reaches 1 million worldwide, according to data from The Johns Hopkins University.
  • Guanare prison riot: A riot and attempted escape attempt leaves 47 dead and 75 injured in the Centro Penitenciario de los Llanos in Guanare, Venezuela.
• May 2 – The United Nations publishes a report stating that Russia's indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Syria constitutes a war crime.
• 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.
• May 4 – A team of British and Kenyan scientists announce the discovery of Microsporidia MB, a parasitic microbe in the Microsporidia fungi group that blocks mosquitos from carrying malaria, potentially paving the way for the control of malaria.
• May 5 – COVID-19 pandemic: The U.K. death toll from COVID-19 becomes the highest in Europe at 32,313 after exceeding the death toll of 29,029 in Italy.
• May 6
  • Astronomers announce the discovery of the first black hole located in a star system visible to the naked eye.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: New evidence indicates that an Algerian-born French fishmonger, who had not traveled to China and did not have contact with any Chinese nationals, was treated for pneumonia from an unknown source on December 27, 2019, now identified as COVID-19.
• 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.
• 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.
• May 10
  • The Iranian Navy frigate Jamaran accidentally strikes the Iranian support vessel Konarak with a missile, killing nineteen sailors. This is the first friendly fire incident since February 2019, when an Indian Mil Mi-17 helicopter was mistakenly shot down by Indian air defense forces.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Wuhan reports its first coronavirus cases in more than a month. An 89-year-old man is confirmed positive, but his wife and several members of the community are recorded as asymptomatic cases.
• 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.
• May 12 – Gunmen storm a maternity hospital and kill 24 people, including two newborn babies, in Dashte Barchi, a majority-Shia neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan. In a separate incident in Kuz Kunar, 32 people are killed at a funeral by a suicide bomber.
• May 14
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 300,000.
    • The UN warns of a global mental health crisis caused by isolation, fear, uncertainty and economic turmoil.
  • NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is "ready to support" the UN-recognized Government of National Accord 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.
• 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.
• May 16 – Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman responsible for supporting the Rwandan genocide, is arrested in Asnières-sur-Seine, France, after 26 years as a fugitive.
• May 18
  • The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announces that nearly 1 million people are affected and at least 24 people have died in flash floods that have hit Beledweyne and Jowhar, Somalia.
  • In a historic move, the World Health Organization holds its annual World Health Assembly using video conferencing instead of in-person meetings.
• 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.
• May 21
  • Cyclone Amphan makes landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh, killing over 100 people and forcing the evacuation of more than 4 million others. It causes over US$13 billion in damage, making it the costliest cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, shattering the record previously held by Nargis.
  • The U.S. announces it will withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty within six months, alleging continuous violations by Russia.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 5 million worldwide, with 106,000 new cases recorded over the past 24 hours, the highest single-day figure so far.
• May 22
  • Flight PK8303, a Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft, crashes in a residential area near Karachi, in Pakistan, killing 97 of the 99 total people on board and injuring dozens on the ground.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Brazil overtakes Russia to become the country with the second highest number of COVID-19 cases, with over 330,000 reported. President Jair Bolsonaro continues to dismiss the threat of the virus.
• May 23 – COVID-19 pandemic: China reports no new cases for the first time since the pandemic began, according to the National Health Commission.
• May 24
  • Mining corporation Rio Tinto admits to blowing up the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge caves in the Pilbara area of Western Australia. The firm later issues an apology to the two Aboriginal peoples who are the traditional owners of the site.
  • 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.
• May 25
  • The 2020 Surinamese general election is held to elect all 51 members of the National Assembly of Suriname.
  • Euroleague Basketball, announced that it cancelled the 2019-20 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup seasons due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• May 26
  • Protests caused by the murder of George Floyd break out across hundreds of cities in the U.S. and around the world. These are followed by further protests and rallies on June 6 against racism and police brutality around the world.
  • Costa Rica becomes the first Central American country to legalise same-sex marriage.
  • LATAM Airlines, the largest air carrier in Latin America, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• May 27
  • The Chinese National People's Congress votes in favour of national security legislation that criminalizes "secession", "subversion", "terrorism" and foreign interference in Hong Kong; the legislation grants sweeping powers to the Chinese central government to suppress the Hong Kong democracy movement, including banning activist groups and curtailing civil liberties. The U.S. government responds by declaring Hong Kong is "no longer autonomous" under the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The U.S. death toll passes 100,000 – more Americans than were killed in the Vietnam War and Korean War combined, and approaching that of the First World War, where 116,000 Americans died in combat. The total number of cases continues to rise, although the rate is slowing.
• 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.

June

• June 1 – Kivu Ebola epidemic: The World Health Organization reports six new cases of Ebola, and UNICEF reports five deaths, in a renewed outbreak of the disease in Mbandaka, Équateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 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.
• 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.
  • 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.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin declares a state of emergency after 20,000 tons of oil leaked into the Ambarnaya River near the Siberian city of Norilsk within the Arctic Circle on May 26, 2020. The World Wildlife Fund said the accident is believed to be the second-largest in modern Russian history.
• 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.
  • Hong Kong legislative council passed the controversial National Anthem Ordinance.
• June 5 – The 2020 Saint Kitts and Nevis general election is held to elect all 15 members of the National Assembly of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
• June 7 – COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 400,000.
• June 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 7 million worldwide.
• June 9 – COVID-19 pandemic: A Harvard University study suggests that COVID-19 may have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, based on hospital car park usage and web search trends.
• 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.
  • Turkish and Iranian forces commence air and artillery strikes against Kurdistan Workers' Party forces in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey launches a land operation in the region on June 17.
• June 16
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 8 million worldwide.
  • North Korea demolishes the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in Kaesong, established in 2018 to improve relations.
• June 21
  • An annular solar eclipse occurs.
  • The 2020 Serbian parliamentary election is held to elect all 250 members of the National Assembly of Serbia and the ruling For Our Children coalition won 188 out of 250 seats.
• June 22
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 9 million worldwide.
  • The 2020 Kiribati presidential election is held and incumbent president Taneti Maamau is reelected.
  • The 2020 Malawian presidential election is held and Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party is elected president.
• June 24 – The 2020 Mongolian legislative election is held to elect the State Great Khural and the ruling Mongolian People's Party wins 62 out of 76 seats.
• June 27
  • Micheál Martin succeeds Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach of Ireland, with Varadkar becoming Tánaiste in a historic three-party coalition government.
  • The 2020 Icelandic presidential election is held and incumbent president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson is reelected.
• June 28
  • COVID-19 pandemic:
    • The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 10 million worldwide. The U.S. continues to report the highest number of any country as it reaches 2.5 million, a quarter of all cases globally.
    • The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 500,000.
    • The first round of voting of the 2020 Polish presidential election is held.
• June 30 – China passes the controversial Hong Kong national security law, allowing China to crack down on opposition to Beijing at home or abroad.

July

• July 1 – Russian voters back a constitutional amendment that, among other things, enables Vladimir Putin to seek two further six-year terms when his current term ends in 2024, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2036.
• July 5
  • The 2020 Croatian parliamentary election is held to elect all 151 members of the Croatian Parliament.
  • 2020 Dominican Republic general election: Modern Revolutionary Party candidate Luis Abinader is elected president of the Dominican Republic, the Modern Revolutionary Party wins 17 out of 32 seats in the Senate and 86 out of 190 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
• July 7
  • Protests begin throughout Bulgaria with the goal of removing Borisov's cabinet and Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev from office.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Thousands of people rally outside the House of the National Assembly of Serbia in Belgrade in response to stricter lockdown measures proposed by President Aleksandar Vučić following an increase of cases in the city.
• 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.
• 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.
  • Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan orders the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul to be reverted to a mosque following a supreme court annulment of a 1934 presidential decree that made it into a museum.
  • 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.
• July 12 – The second round of voting for the 2020 Polish presidential election is held and incumbent president Andrzej Duda is reelected.
• July 15 – The Twitter accounts of prominent political figures, CEOs, and celebrities are hacked to promote a bitcoin scam.
• July 19 – Flooding of the Brahmaputra River kills 189 and leaves 4 million homeless in India and Nepal.
• July 21 – COVID-19 pandemic: European leaders agree to create a €750 billion (US$858 billion) recovery fund to rebuild EU economies impacted by the pandemic.
• July 22 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 15 million worldwide.
• July 25 – COVID-19 pandemic: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convenes an emergency meeting, declares a state of emergency, and orders the lockdown of Kaesong after a person suspected of having COVID-19 returned from South Korea. If confirmed, it would be the first case to be officially acknowledged by North Korea.
• 28 July – Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak is found guilty of all seven charges in the first of five trials on the 1MDB scandal, being jailed 12 years and fined RM210 million as a result.
• 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.

August

• 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.
• August 2 – COVID-19 pandemic: In rare talks, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hold a video call to discuss various regional issues, including combating COVID-19 in their respective countries.
• August 4 – An explosion caused by unsafely stored ammonium nitrate kills at least 218 people, injures thousands, and severely damages the port in Beirut, Lebanon. Damage is estimated at $10–15 billion, and an estimated 300,000 people are left homeless. The following day, the Lebanese government declares a two-week state of emergency.
• 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.
• August 7 – Air India Express Flight 1344 crashes after overrunning the runway at Calicut International Airport in Kerala, India, killing 19 of the 191 people on board.
• August 9 – A presidential election in Belarus which led to incumbent Alexander Lukashenko's reelection sparks protests throughout the country after major opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya rejected the results. Seven days later, the largest political march in Belarusian history takes place, with an estimated 300,000 people in Minsk and 200,000 in other Belarusian cities and towns.
• August 10
  • An intense derecho kills 4 and brings widespread damaging wind to much of the Midwestern United States in what becomes the costliest thunderstorm event in US history.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 20 million worldwide.
  • The 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election is held to elect all 41 members of the House of Representatives of Trinidad and Tobago, the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago and the People's National Movement party, led by prime minister Keith Rowley won 22 out of 41 seats.
• August 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia has approved the world's first COVID-19 vaccine.
• August 13 – Israel and the UAE agree to normalise relations, marking the third Israel–Arab peace deal.
• August 15 – The Japanese bulk carrier Wakashio, which stranded on a reef in Mauritius last month, breaks in half. Approximately 1,000 tonnes of oil are spilled into the ocean, becoming the largest environmental disaster in the history of Mauritius.
• August 18 – A mutiny in a military base by soldiers of the Malian Armed Forces develops into a coup d'état. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and Prime Minister Boubou Cissé, among other senior governmental and military officers, are arrested. The next day, Keïta announces his resignation on state television.
• 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.
• August 22 – COVID-19 pandemic: The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 800,000.
• August 23 – Bayern Munich wins the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League by beating Paris Saint-Germain in the final 1–0.
• August 25 – Africa is declared free of wild polio, the second virus to be eradicated from the continent since smallpox 40 years previously.
• August 26 – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becomes the first person in history to have a net worth exceeding US$200 billion, according to Forbes.
• August 27 – Hurricane Laura makes landfall in Lake Charles, Louisiana with winds of 150 mph, making it the strongest hurricane to ever strike the state in terms of windspeed, tied with the 1856 Last Island Hurricane.
• 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.
• August 30 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 25 million worldwide. India continues to record the highest daily increase of cases.

September

• September 3
  • Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Abdelaziz al-Hilu, the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM–N), sign an agreement to transition the country into a secular state. The agreement comes three days after the signing of a peace deal between Sudan's transitional government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front, which the SPLM–N opted out of. Weeks later on October 3, the transitional government signed a peace deal with the main rebel groups, including the SPLM–N, which had refused to engage in previous talks.
  • 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.
• September 4
  • Pope Benedict XVI becomes the longest-lived pope at 93 years, 4 months, and 16 days, surpassing Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Bahrain and Israel agree to normalise relations, marking the fourth Israel–Arab peace deal.
• September 6 – Typhoon Haishen makes landfall on Japan and then South Korea as a strong category 2-equivalent typhoon. It later makes landfall on North Korea where widespread flooding occurs.
• September 14
  • Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak is listed on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) online database of corruption offenders convicted locally. His name at the top of the first page of the MACC Corruption Offenders Database.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• September 16
  • A United Nations Human Rights Council fact-finding mission formally accuses the Venezuelan government of crimes against humanity, including cases of killings, torture, violence against political opposition and disappearances since 2014. President Nicolás Maduro and other senior Venezuelan officials are among those implicated in the charges.
  • Yoshihide Suga becomes the new Prime Minister of Japan, replacing Shinzo Abe.
  • Hurricane Sally makes landfall on the Alabama coast as a high-end Category 2 hurricane, causing over $8 billion in damages and killing 8 people.
• September 17
  • France, Germany, and the United Kingdom issue a joint note verbale to the United Nations rejecting China's claims to the South China Sea, and supporting the ruling in Philippines v. China that said the historic rights per the nine-dash line ran counter to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the statement says that on "territorial sovereignty" they "take no position".
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 30 million worldwide.
• September 19 – A 1634 edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen, the last play by English playwright William Shakespeare, is discovered at the Royal Scots College's library in Salamanca, Spain. It is believed to be the oldest copy of any of his works in the country.
• September 20 – BuzzFeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) release the FinCEN Files, a collection of 2,657 documents relating to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network describing over 200,000 suspicious transactions valued at over US$2 trillion that occurred from 1999 to 2017 across multiple global financial institutions.
• 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.
• 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.
• September 29
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds one million.
  • The Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Sabah dies at the age of 91. Crown Prince Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is named his successor.

October

• October 1 – The EU began legal proceedings against the UK after it ignored their deadline to drop controversial sections from its internal market Bill.
• October 5 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 35 million worldwide. The news coincides with the World Health Organization estimating that total worldwide cases may be around 760 million; roughly a tenth of the global population.
• October 6 – Serious floods affected in Central Vietnam, lasted nearly 3 months and killed at least 249 people.
• October 15
  • 2020 Thai protests: The Government of Thailand declares a "severe" state of emergency banning gatherings of five or more people, initiating a crackdown on demonstrations and imposing media censorship.
  • President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov resigns from office after weeks of massive protests in the wake of the October 2020 parliamentary election; opposition leader Sadyr Japarov assumes office as both the acting president and Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan.
• October 17 – 2020 New Zealand general election: Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party wins a landslide second term in office, defeating the National Party led by Judith Collins and gaining the country's first parliamentary majority since the introduction of the MMP voting system.
• October 19 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 40 million worldwide.
• 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 due for return to Earth in 2023.
• October 21 – Heavy rains brought by tropical storm Linfa caused landslides at the Rao Trang 3 hydroelectric plant in Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam, killing 17 construction workers and 13 soldiers who were on a rescue mission.
• October 22 – The Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women's Health and Strengthening the Family is signed by government representatives from 34 countries.
• 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.
  • Israel and Sudan agree to normalise relations, marking the fifth Israel–Arab peace deal.
• 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.
• October 29 – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) confirms the death of at least 140 migrants who drowned off the coast of Senegal on a vessel bound for the Spanish Canary Islands, making it the deadliest shipwreck of 2020.
• October 30
  • 2020 Aegean Sea earthquake: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits Turkey and Greece, killing 119 people and injuring over 1,000.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 45 million worldwide.
• October 31 – Typhoon Goni makes landfall in the Philippines, becoming the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone in history, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and killing dozens of people in the region.

November

• November 1 – 2020 Moldovan presidential election: Former Prime Minister and Minister of Education Maia Sandu is elected as the 6th President of Moldova, becoming the first woman to ever hold the post.
• November 3 – 4
  • 2020 United States presidential election: The election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States is called by many news media organizations after remaining vote counts (November 7) come in from key states delayed by an influx of mail-in ballots caused by the pandemic, defeating incumbent President Donald Trump.
  • 2020 United States Senate elections take place, ending in an overall success for the Democratic party.
  • The United States formally exits the Paris Agreement on climate change.
  • 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.
• November 7 – Hurricane Eta makes landfall in Nicaragua, killing over 100 people in Central America as a category 4.
• November 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 50 million worldwide.
• November 9
  • Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia sign a ceasefire agreement, formally ending the war.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The first successful phase III trial of a COVID-19 vaccine is announced by drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, which is 90% effective according to interim results.
• November 10 – Apple releases the first Mac computers (a new MacBook Air, Mac mini and MacBook Pro) powered by Apple silicon chips.
• November 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: The Sputnik V vaccine is proven to be 92% effective against COVID-19 according to interim results.
• November 12 – 13
  • Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers resign en masse, in response to four lawmakers' disqualification made by the government.
  • Typhoon Vamco makes landfall in Vietnam, after crossing the Philippines and killing at least 69 people. The storm causes the worst floods in the region since Typhoon Ketsana in 2009.
  • Western Sahara conflict: fighting erupts between Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic when Moroccan forces launch a military operation to capture the town of Guerguerat, located in a UN-monitored buffer zone.
• November 15
  • The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is signed by 15 Asia-Pacific countries to form the world's largest free-trade bloc, covering a third of the world's population.
  • 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.
  • Lewis Hamilton wins his seventh Formula One World Drivers' Championship at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix, equalling the record set by Michael Schumacher in 2004.
• November 16
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is proven to be 94.5% effective against COVID-19 based on interim results, including severe illnesses. The vaccine has been cited as being among those that are easier to distribute as no ultra-cold storage is required.
  • Hurricane Iota makes landfall in Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane just two weeks after Hurricane Eta made landfall, devastating the same areas.
• November 17 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 55 million worldwide, with around a million cases recorded every two days on average.
• November 18 – COVID-19 pandemic: Pfizer and BioNTech complete trials on their COVID-19 vaccine, with an overall effectiveness rate of 95% without adverse events.
• November 19
  • The Brereton Report into Australian war crimes during the War in Afghanistan is released.
  • Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart wins the 2020 Booker Prize.
  • The PlayStation 5 is released worldwide.
• November 22 – The United States withdraws from the Treaty on Open Skies.
• November 23 – COVID-19 pandemic: AstraZeneca's AZD1222 vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University, is shown to be 70% effective in protecting against COVID-19. The efficacy can be raised to 90% if an initial half dose is followed by a full dose a month later, based on interim data.
• November 25 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 60 million worldwide.
• November 27 – Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is assassinated near Tehran.
• November 28 – Koshobe massacre: Boko Haram terrorists attack a village in Borno, Nigeria, killing 110 people and wounding 6 people.
• November 30
  • A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs; the last of four lunar eclipses in 2020.
  • Protein folding, one of the biggest mysteries in biology, is solved by AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence algorithm developed by DeepMind.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Moderna files an application for Emergency Use Authorization in the United States after its vaccine achieved an efficacy of 94.1% from full trials without safety concerns. It also plans to do the same in EU soon.

December

• December 1
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Pfizer and BioNTech announced an Emergency Use Authorization application to the European Medicines Agency.
  • The Arecibo Telescope of the Arecibo Observatory collapses, just weeks after the announcement of its planned demolition.
• December 2
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The United Kingdom approves Pfizer-BioNTech's BNT162b2 vaccine, being the first country in the world to do so.
  • Three activists in Hong Kong were jailed for their roles in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, with Joshua Wong getting the heaviest at 13.5 months.
  • The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs votes to remove cannabis from the treaty list of dangerous drugs in recognition of its medical value, although some controls will remain.
• December 4
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 65 million worldwide, with the global death toll exceeding 1.5 million. Figures reflect that, in the last week, over 10,000 people worldwide have died on average every day, with one death every nine seconds. According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 had caused more deaths in 2020 than tuberculosis in 2019, as well as four times the number of deaths than malaria.
  • Somali Civil War: The United States announces its withdrawal from the conflict over the next month.
• December 5 – COVID-19 pandemic: Russia begins mass vaccination against COVID-19 with the Sputnik V candidate.
• December 6 – The 2020 Venezuelan parliamentary election takes place.
• December 8
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The United Kingdom becomes the first nation to begin a mass inoculation campaign using a clinically authorised, fully tested vaccine, Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Margaret Keenan, 90, becomes the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine after trials.
  • Nepal and China officially agree on Mount Everest's actual height, which is 8,848.86m.
• December 10
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The United States and Saudi Arabia approve the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, while Argentina approves Sputnik V.
  • Western Sahara conflict, Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel and Morocco normalise diplomatic relations. Simultaneously, the United States reaffirms its previous recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara and announces plans to build a consulate there.
  • The Nicolas Sarkozy corruption trial concludes in France.
• December 11 – The European Union agrees to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% over the next decade.
• December 12
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 70 million worldwide.
  • Bhutan and Israel normalise diplomatic relations.
• December 14
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The United States and Canada begin mass vaccination with the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, Singapore approves the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, with other companies to provide vaccines progressively.
  • Sudan–United States relations: The United States removes Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
  • 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.
  • A total solar eclipse is visible from parts of the South Pacific Ocean, southern South America, and the South Atlantic Ocean.
• December 18
  • Media outlets report that astronomers have detected a radio signal, BLC1, apparently from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Astronomers have stated that this and other, yet unpublished, signals, are thought to likely be "interference that we cannot fully explain" and that it appears to be among the two strongest candidates for a radio signal humanity received from extraterrestrial intelligence so far.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 75 million worldwide.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The United States approves Moderna's vaccine for emergency use, the second brand available there.
• December 20 – COVID-19 pandemic: A highly infectious new strain of SARS-CoV-2 spreading in Europe and Australia provokes international border closures.
• December 21
  • COVID-19 pandemic: 36 cases are reported on the Base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme in the Chilean Antarctic Territory, marking the first infections in Antarctica, the last continent to report infections.
  • 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.
• December 24
  • The United Kingdom and the European Union agree to a comprehensive free trade agreement prior to the end of the transition period.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Sinovac's vaccine reached a rate of 91.25% efficacy in trials in Turkey.
• December 27 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 80 million worldwide.
• December 29 – The 2020 Petrinja earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 strikes Croatia, killing seven and injuring more than 20.
• December 30 – COVID-19 pandemic: The United Kingdom approves AstraZeneca-Oxford's vaccine, the second one available. The vaccine is easier to store as it only requires normal fridge temperatures, making distribution easier.
• December 31 – The transition period following the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union on January 31, 2020, expires.

2021

January

• January 1
  • The African Continental Free Trade Area comes into effect.
  • The normal/global variant of Adobe Flash Player has been deprecated.
• January 4 – The border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia reopens.

  

  Crowd outside the US Capitol on January 6

• January 6 – Supporters of US President Donald Trump attack the US Capitol, disrupting certification of the 2020 presidential election, and forcing Congress to evacuate. Five people die during the ensuing riot. The event is classified as a domestic terrorist attack, and draws international condemnation.
• January 10 – Kim Jong Un is elected as the General Secretary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, inheriting the title from his father Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011.
• January 13 – In Lyon, France, the first transplant of both arms and shoulders is performed on an Icelandic patient at the Édouard Herriot Hospital.
• January 14 – The 2021 Ugandan general election is held. Incumbent president Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled since 1986, wins reelection.
• January 15
  • The Lao People's Revolutionary Party elects Thongloun Sisoulith as its new General Secretary, replacing retiring chief Bounnhang Vorachith. Sisoulith is elected for a five-year term as top leader in Laos.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 passes 2 million.
• January 20 - Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in as the 46th President and 49th Vice President of the United States.
• January 22 – The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding international agreement comprehensively to prohibit nuclear weapons, comes into effect.
• January 24 – 2021 Portuguese presidential election: Incumbent president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is reelected.
• January 26 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeds 100 million worldwide.
• January 27
  • A near-total ban on abortion comes into effect in Poland.
  • The GameStop short squeeze reaches its peak of $483 per share, as the result of influence from the online community, r/wallstreetbets, drawing international attention.
• January 29 – COVID-19 pandemic: The European Union invokes Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol following a row over COVID-19 vaccine supplies before reversing the decision.
• January 31 – Nguyễn Phú Trọng is re-elected for a third five-year term as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

February

• February 1
  • A coup d'état in Myanmar removes Aung San Suu Kyi from power and restores military rule leading to widespread demonstrations across the country.
  • Kosovo officially establishes diplomatic ties with Israel and announces plans to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 100 million.
• February 4 – US President Joe Biden announces that the United States will cease providing weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for use in the Yemeni Civil War.
• February 9
  • COVID-19 pandemic: A joint WHO–China investigation into the source of the outbreak concludes. Investigators deem a Wuhan laboratory leak to be "extremely unlikely", with a "natural reservoir" in bats being a more likely origin.
  • The UAE's uncrewed Hope spacecraft becomes the first Arabian mission successfully to enter orbit around Mars.
• February 13–February 17 – A major winter storm kills at least 136 people and causes over 9.9 million power outages in the U.S.
• February 18
  • Malaysian court orders Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former Prime Minister Najib Razak to enter defence on all three graft charges.
  • NASA's Mars 2020 mission (containing the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter drone) lands on Mars at Jezero Crater, after seven months of travel.
• February 19 – The United States officially rejoins the Paris Agreement, 107 days after leaving.
• February 20 – 2020–21 H5N8 outbreak: 7 people test positive for H5N8 bird flu at a poultry farm in southern Russia, becoming the first known human cases.
• February 22 – Luca Attanasio, the Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is murdered near Goma.
• February 24 – COVID-19 pandemic: the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative delivers its first vaccines, delivering 600,000 doses for healthcare workers in Ghana.
• February 25 – The Armenian military calls for prime minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign. Pashinyan accuses the military of attempting a coup d'état.
• February 28 – 2021 Salvadoran legislative election: The Nuevas Ideas party wins 56 out of 84 seats in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.

March

• March 6
  • Pope Francis meets with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq. It is the first-ever meeting between a pope and a grand ayatollah.
  • 2021 Ivorian parliamentary election: The Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace coalition wins 137 out of 255 seats in the National Assembly.
• March 15–March 17 – The Dutch general elections for the House of Representatives of the Netherlands take place.
• March 19
  • North Korea severs diplomatic ties with Malaysia due to a Malaysian court's ruling that a North Korean citizen could be extradited to the United States to face money-laundering charges. Malaysian authorities order North Korean officials to leave the country in 48 hours.
  • Samia Suluhu Hassan is sworn in as president of Tanzania following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
• March 20 – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announces his country's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, the first country to do so.
• March 21 – Clashes in Apure between Colombian FARC dissidents and the Venezuelan Armed Forces cause at least six casualties, as well as displacing 4,000 Venezuelans.
• March 23
  • The Israeli general elections take place, the fourth Knesset election in two years.

    

    Satellite image of Ever Given blocking the Suez canal on 24 March 2021

  • Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in the world, runs aground and obstructs the Suez Canal, disrupting global trade. The ship is freed on March 29.
• March 25 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 500 million.

April

• April 2 – Russia warns NATO against sending any troops to aid Ukraine, amid reports of a large Russian military build-up on its borders.
  • 2021 Hualien train derailment: In Taiwan, a Taroko Express train collided with a truck that rolled down a slope and derailed, resulting in 49 deaths and 202 injuries.
• April 4
  • The 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election is held.
  • More than 270 people are killed in Indonesia and East Timor after Cyclone Seroja strikes East Nusa Tenggara and the island of Timor.
• April 9 – Roscosmos launches the Soyuz MS-18 mission, carrying three Expedition 65 crewmembers to the International Space Station.
• April 11
  • Peru holds a general election, with Pedro Castillo and the left-wing Free Peru party winning.
  • Iran accuses Israel of "nuclear terrorism" and vows revenge after a large explosion destroys the internal power system of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
  • Hideki Matsuyama wins the 2021 Masters Tournament, becoming the first man from Japan to win a major golf championship.
• April 13 – Japan's government approves the dumping of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean over the course of 30 years, with full support of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The decision is opposed by China, South Korea, and Taiwan.
• April 15 – Scientists announce they successfully injected human stem cells into the embryos of monkeys, creating chimera-embryos.
• April 17
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 3 million.
  • The Czech government concludes that the Russian GRU was responsible for the blast of two ammo warehouses in Vrbětice in 2014. 18 Russian diplomats and alleged spies are subsequently expelled.
  • The Soyuz MS-17 mission concludes, returning three crewmembers of Expedition 64 to Earth from the International Space Station.
• April 18
  • Twelve football clubs, including three from La Liga and leading clubs from the Premier League and Serie A, agree to join a new breakaway European Super League, prompting international condemnation. Two days later, following major protests from supporters, other clubs and politicians, Manchester City withdraw from the league; this prompts all the remaining Premier League clubs and three others to do the same.
  • The 2021 Cape Verdean parliamentary election is held.
• April 19
  • NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, part of the Mars 2020 mission, performs the first powered flight on another planet in history.
  • Raúl Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, ending more than 62 years of rule by the Castro brothers in Cuba.
• April 20 – Idriss Déby, President of Chad, is killed in clashes with rebel forces after 30 years in office. The constitution is suspended and a Transitional Military Council is established to govern the country for 18 months.
• April 22 – World leaders mark Earth Day by hosting a virtual summit on climate change, during which more ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions are proposed, including a 40% cut by 2030 for the United States.
• April 23
  • SpaceX launches the Crew-2 mission, carrying four crew members of Expedition 65 and 66 to the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour.
  • UEFA announces that due to a lack of guarantees regarding spectators caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland would be removed as a tournament host for the UEFA Euro 2020.
• April 24
  • Following an international search and rescue effort, the Indonesian navy reports the sinking of KRI Nanggala with 53 crew members, the largest loss of life aboard a submarine since 2003.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 1 billion. Half of these doses have been administered in just three countries (the United States, China and India).
• April 25 – Albania holds parliamentary elections.
• April 28
  • At least 55 people are killed and nearly 50,000 more are displaced in one of the most serious clashes in Central Asia following border disputes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
  • The European Union approves the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, governing the relationship between the EU and UK after Brexit.
• April 29 – The China National Space Administration launches the first module of its Tiangong space station, named Tianhe, beginning a two-year effort to build the station in orbit.

May

• May 2 – The SpaceX Crew-1 mission ends, returning four crew members of Expedition 64 and 65 to Earth from the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon Resilience.
• May 3 - Mexico City Metro overpass collapse: 26 people were killed and 98 people were injured when a Mexico City Metro train bridge collapsed when a train passed it.
• May 11 – 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis: Israel hits the Gaza Strip with airstrikes as Hamas increases rocket fire. This follows tensions over the possible eviction of several Palestinians due to a long-standing property dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.
• May 12 – COVID-19 pandemic in India: The country's death toll exceeds 250,000. Delhi cremation grounds were running out of places while hundreds of bodies were reported washed up on the banks of the Ganges.
• May 14 – The China National Space Administration lands its Zhurong rover at Utopia Planitia on Mars, making China the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the planet and only the second to land a rover.
• May 15 – Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants continues to escalate, as the death toll exceeds 150. An Israeli airstrike destroys a high-rise office building in Gaza occupied by Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and other media outlets.
• May 17 – Discovery, Inc. agrees to buy media conglomerate WarnerMedia and all of its subsidiaries from AT&T for US$43 billion. The merger is set to be complete the following year.
• May 18–May 22 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, after the cancellation of the 2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The contest is won by Italian entrants Måneskin with the song "Zitti e buoni".
• May 20 – Following international pressure, and nearly 250 deaths, Israel agrees to a ceasefire deal to end the conflict with Gaza militants, effective the next day at 2:00 am local time.
• May 23 – Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.
• May 24
  • A coup d'état in Mali removes interim president Bah Ndaw and the acting prime minister, Moctar Ouane, from power and restores military rule leading to the country being suspended from the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union, as well as France suspending its military operations in the country.
  • The Government of Guillermo Lasso is formed in Ecuador.
• May 26
  • Shell becomes the first company to be legally mandated to align its carbon emissions with the Paris climate accord, following a landmark court ruling in the Netherlands.
  • The 2021 Syrian presidential election is held.
• May 29 – 2021 UEFA Champions League Final; Chelsea become champions, defeating fellow English club Manchester City 1–0 to win the UEFA Champions League for the second time.
• May 30 – The 2021 Cypriot legislative election is held.

June

• June 2 – The 2021 Israeli presidential election is held, and won by Isaac Herzog. In order to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power, Naftali Bennett agrees to form a coalition with the Israeli opposition as a rotation government that will come to take effect after eleven days.
• June 5 – The G7 agrees on a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% intended to prevent tax avoidance by some of the world's biggest multinational companies.
• June 7 – The Juno spacecraft performs its only flyby of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the first flyby of the moon by any spacecraft in over 20 years.
  • 2021 Ghotki rail crash: In Pakistan, a 2 trains collided in Daharki, in the Ghotki District of Sindh. Killing 65 people and injuring 150 people.
• June 9
  • The 2021 Mongolian presidential election is held.
  • The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passes legislation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in the country, becoming the first country to adopt the cryptocurrency alongside the U.S. dollar.
• June 10 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Canada, Greenland, the North Pole, and the Russian Far East.
• June 11–July 11 – The delayed UEFA Euro 2020, hosted by 11 different countries, is held, and is won by Italy after beating England on penalties in the final.
• June 11–June 13 – World leaders meet at the 47th G7 summit, hosted by the United Kingdom, with topics of discussion including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and the corporate taxation of multinationals.
• June 12 – The 2021 Algerian legislative election is held to elect all 407 seats in the People's National Assembly.
• June 13 – Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister of Israel, is voted out of office; Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid are sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel and as Alternate Prime Minister of Israel, respectively.
• June 13–July 10 – The 2021 Copa América, hosted behind closed doors by Brazil, is held, and is won by Argentina.
• June 17 – The China National Space Administration sends its first three astronauts to occupy the Tiangong Space Station, the country's first space station.
• June 18 – The 2021 Iranian presidential election is held.
• June 20 – 2021 Armenian parliamentary election: Acting PM Nikol Pashinyan wins the country's snap election, with his Civil Contract party gaining 54% of the vote.
• June 23 – 2021 ICC World Test Championship Final: New Zealand wins the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship.
• June 24 – Surfside condominium collapse: A portion of the Champlain South Towers condominium building collapses in Surfside, Florida, United States, leaving 98 people dead. One survivor was pulled from the wreckage while 35 others were evacuated from the uncollapsed section of the building.
• June 25 – Derek Chauvin is convicted and sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison, for the murder of George Floyd and for starting the national and international protest. Despite this, the civil unrest still goes on.
• June 28 – Tigray War: The Tigray Defense Force seizes the Tigrayan capital Mekelle shortly after the Ethiopian government declares a ceasefire.
• June 29 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 3 billion.

July

• July 3 – Over 130 wildfires, fuelled by lightning strikes, burn through Western Canada following a record-breaking heatwave in North America that results in over 600 deaths.
• July 5 – More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers flee to neighbouring Tajikistan after clashing with Taliban militants.
• July 7 – Assassination of Jovenel Moïse: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is shot to death by unidentified gunmen at 1:00 am local time in his home. First Lady Martine Moïse is injured and hospitalized.
• July 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 4 million.
• July 10–August 1 – The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup is held in, and is won by, the United States.
• July 11
  • Thousands of Cubans, most of them young, attend a rare anti-government protest in San Antonio de los Baños to protest the increased food and medicine shortages brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Moldova holds a parliamentary election, with the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) obtaining a majority of seats.
  • Bulgaria holds a parliamentary election, with the party There Is Such a People (ITN) leading.
• July 12 – 2021 European floods: Heavy rain causes flooding in the border region of Germany and Belgium, resulting in 229 deaths, including 184 in Germany, 42 in Belgium with 1 person still missing there, and 2 in Romania. The event is attributed to a slowed jetstream caused by climate change.
• July 13 – After the Supreme Court declares his incumbency unconstitutional, KP Oli is succeeded by Sher Bahadur Deuba as 43rd Prime Minister of Nepal.
• July 18 – An international investigation reveals that spyware sold by Israel's NSO Group to different governments is being used to target heads of state, along with thousands of activists, journalists and dissidents around the world.
• July 19
  • Blue Origin successfully conducts its first human test flight, with a reusable New Shepard rocket delivering four crew members into space including its founder Jeff Bezos.
  • Leftist schoolteacher Pedro Castillo is confirmed as President of Peru over a month after the 2021 Peruvian general election.
  • Day of Hajj: Women are permitted to attend without a male guardian (mehrem) provided they go in a trustworthy group.
• July 23–August 8 – The 2020 Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo, Japan. They were originally scheduled for 24 July–9 August 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• July 23 – The Court of Appeal of Samoa deemed the swearing-in of Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa and her government as constitutional, ending a three-month constitutional crisis.
• July 25 – Tunisian president Kais Saied formally takes power in the country, suspending the parliament and sacking the prime minister.
• July 28 – The first direct observation of light from behind a black hole is reported, confirming Einstein's theory of general relativity.
• July 29
  • Roscosmos' Nauka laboratory docks with the International Space Station following a protracted seventeen-year development and launch on 21 July. Hours after docking, a malfunction of its thrusters causes a temporary loss of control of the station, spinning it up to 45 degrees from its normal orbital attitude.
  • The oil tanker Mercer Street is attacked off the coast of Oman.
  • 738,000th day of the Proleptic Gregorian Calendar in the Common Era reached. The 739,000th day would be 24 April 2024.

August

• August 3
  • The oil tanker Asphalt Princess is hijacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
  • Wildfires in Greece begin.
• August 4
  • 2020 Summer Olympics: Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is given political asylum in Poland through a humanitarian visa after attempts by the Belarus Olympic Committee to repatriate her against her will.
  • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpasses 200 million worldwide.
• August 5 – Tigray War: The Tigray Defense Forces seize the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lalibela.
• August 9 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report, which concludes that the effects of human-caused climate change are now "widespread, rapid, and intensifying".
• August 12 – The 2021 Zambian general election is held.
• August 14 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti, killing more than 2,500 people.

  

  UK coalition forces assist a child during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul

• August 15 – 2021 Taliban offensive: The Taliban capture Kabul; the Afghan government surrenders to the Taliban.
• August 24–September 5 – The 2020 Summer Paralympics were held in Tokyo, Japan. They were originally scheduled for 25 August–6 September 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• August 26 – 2021 Kabul airport attack: At least 182 people are killed, including 13 U.S. service members, in a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport.
• August 27 – The United States launches an airstrike that it claims killed the Islamic State member who was believed to have planned the Kabul airport bombings. However, the U.S. Defense Department later acknowledged that the strike instead killed ten civilians, including seven children, and that no terrorists were killed.
• August 29 – Hurricane Ida strikes New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, after having caused devastation in Venezuela.
• August 30
  • The UN Environment Programme announces that leaded petrol in road vehicles has been phased out globally, a hundred years after its introduction.
  • The United States withdraws its last remaining troops from Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, ending 20 years of operations in Afghanistan.

September

Military parade in Kaloum, a day after the coup

• September 5 – 2021 Guinean coup d'état: Guinea's President Alpha Condé is detained by an elite military unit led by a former French legionnaire, Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, claiming to have seized power.
• September 7 – El Salvador becomes the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as an official currency.
• September 13
  • Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the main Malaysian opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, sign a confidence and supply agreement ending the 18-month political crisis that has led to the fall of two successive governments in Malaysia.
  • The 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election is held.
• September 14
  • North Korea demonstrates two short-range ballistic missiles that land just outside Japan's territorial waters; and then only hours later South Korea demonstrates its first submarine-launched ballistic missile.
  • The inaugural season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, the third tier of European club football, kicks off with Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv winning 4–1 against Armenian club FC Alashkert.
• September 15
  • AUKUS: A trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States is formed, to counter the influence of China. This includes enabling Australia to build its first nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
  • Several ministers of the Argentine president Alberto Fernández's cabinet resign after the government's defeat in the primary elections, triggering a political crisis in the country.
• September 16 – Inspiration4, launched by SpaceX, becomes the first all-civilian private spaceflight, carrying a four-person crew on a three-day orbit of the Earth. Sian Proctor becomes first female commercial astronaut spaceship pilot and Hayley Arceneaux becomes first astronaut with a prosthesis.
• September 19 – The 2021 Russian legislative election is held, with the United Russia party winning nearly 50% of the vote.
• September 20 – The 2021 Canadian federal election is held, with Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party retaining a minority government.
• September 25 – The 2021 Icelandic parliamentary election is held.
• September 26 – The 2021 German federal election is held, with Olaf Scholz and the Social Democratic Party beating out the CDU/CSU coalition.

October

• October 1 – The 2020 World Expo in Dubai begins. Its opening was originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• October 3 – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and assorted media partners publish a set of 11.9 million documents leaked from 14 financial services companies known as the Pandora Papers, revealing offshore financial activities that involve multiple current and former world leaders.
• October 4 – Fumio Kishida becomes the 100th Prime Minister of Japan, succeeding Yoshihide Suga.
• October 5
  • Microsoft releases the desktop operating system Windows 11.
  • Roscosmos launches the Soyuz MS-19 mission, which carries an Expedition 66 crewmember and two Channel One Russia personnel to the International Space Station. The two Channel One crew will perform principal photography on the film Vyzov aboard the station.
• October 6 – The World Health Organization endorses the first malaria vaccine.
• October 6–October 10 – The 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals is held in Italy, and is won by France. They were originally scheduled for 2–6 June 2021, but were moved following the rescheduling of UEFA Euro 2020 to June and July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• October 8–October 9 – The 2021 Czech legislative election is held, with the main opposition coalition alliance of SPOLU and Pirates and Mayors gaining a legislative majority.
• October 9 – Sebastian Kurz announces his resignation as Chancellor of Austria as a result of a corruption probe launched against him.
• October 16 – The Lucy spacecraft is launched by NASA, the first mission to explore the Trojan asteroids.
• October 17–November 14 – The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup is held in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, and is won by Australia.
• October 23 – Colombia's most wanted drug lord, Dario Antonio Úsuga, whose Gulf Clan controls many smuggling routes into the US and other countries, is captured by Colombia's armed forces.
• October 24 – The 2021 Uzbek presidential election is held.
• October 25 – The Sudanese military launches a coup against the government. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is placed under house arrest. President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declares a state of emergency and announces the dissolution of the government.
• October 31
  • The 2021 Japanese general election is held, with Fumio Kishida and the Liberal Democratic Party along with its coalition partner Komeito retaining a majority government.
  • October 31–November 13 – The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Glasgow, after being postponed in 2020 due to COVID-19. A deal is agreed by world leaders, which includes a "phasedown" of unabated coal power, a 30% cut in methane emissions by 2030, plans for a halt to deforestation by 2030, and increased financial support for developing countries.

November

• November 1 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of recorded deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 5 million.
• November 5
  • Tigray War: The Tigray People's Liberation Front forms a coalition with eight other rebel groups with the aim of defeating the Ethiopian government "by force or by negotiations."
  • A crowd crush at the Astroworld Festival hosted by Travis Scott in Houston, Texas, kills 10 people and causes 300+ injuries.
• November 11 – SpaceX launches the Crew-3 mission, carrying four Expedition 66 crew members to the International Space Station.
• November 14
  • The 2021 Argentine legislative election is held.
  • The 2021 Bulgarian general election is held.
• November 16 – Russia draws international condemnation following an anti-satellite weapon test that creates a cloud of space debris, threatening the International Space Station.
• November 21 – The 2021 Chilean general election is held.
• November 24
  • NASA launches the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first attempt to deflect an asteroid for the purpose of learning how to protect Earth.
  • Magdalena Andersson resigns as Prime Minister-elect of Sweden hours after the Riksdag voted her in as Sweden's first female prime minister. She was due to take office on 26 November. Instead, she takes office on 30 November.
• November 24–December 12 – Magnus Carlsen beats Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2021 World Chess Championship. Magnus has been World Chess Champion since 2013.
• November 26 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization convenes an emergency meeting in Geneva amid concerns over Omicron, a highly mutated variant of COVID-19 first identified in South Africa that appears more infectious than Delta.
• November 30–December 18 – The 2021 FIFA Arab Cup is held in Qatar, and is won by Algeria.

  

  The Governor-General of Barbados Sandra Mason is sworn in as the country's first President

• November 30 – Barbados becomes a republic on its 55th anniversary of independence while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

December

• December 4 – The 2021 Gambian presidential election is held and incumbent president Adama Barrow is reelected.
• December 6 – The United States announces a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in response to China's human rights record. Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia join shortly after.
• December 9
  • A truck crash in Chiapas, Mexico, kills 55 migrants who were being smuggled in it from Guatemala through Mexico to its border with the United States.
  • December 9–December 10 – The Summit for Democracy, a virtual summit, is hosted by the United States "to renew democracy at home and confront autocracies abroad".
• December 10–December 11 – A late season tornado outbreak occurs in the Southern and Midwestern United States, causing major damage and killing at least 94 people. One of the longest-tracked tornadoes in history occurred, which impacted western Kentucky, particularly Mayfield.
• December 11 – New York City FC defeat the Portland Timbers at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon 5–3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw, and win MLS Cup title for the first time in their history.
• December 12
  • The 2021 New Caledonian independence referendum is held.
  • Max Verstappen won his first Formula One World Championship and the first for a Dutch driver, driving for Red Bull Racing at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
• December 16 – Typhoon Rai, also known as Typhoon Odette, hits the Philippines and caused destruction to agriculture, establishments, and houses, and caused many injured and deaths.
• December 19
  • The 2021 Hong Kong legislative election, originally scheduled for 6 September 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is held.
  • The second round of the 2021 Chilean presidential election is held; leftist candidate Gabriel Boric is elected President.

    

    Artistic conception of the James Webb Space Telescope

• December 25 – NASA, ESA, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute launch the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope.

2022

January

• January 1 – The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest free trade area in the world, comes into effect for Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• January 2 – Abdalla Hamdok resigns as Prime Minister of Sudan amid deadly protests.
• January 4 – The five permanent members of the UN Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States—issue a rare joint statement affirming that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought."
• January 5 – A nationwide state of emergency is declared in Kazakhstan in response to the 2022 Kazakh unrest. The cabinet of prime minister Askar Mamin resigns, while president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev removes former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, widely regarded as being the real power in the country, from his position as Chairman of the Security Council of Kazakhstan.
• January 6 – The CSTO deploys a "peacekeeping" mission in Kazakhstan, including Russian paratroopers, following a request by Kazakh president Tokayev.
• January 7 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of COVID-19 cases exceeds 300 million worldwide.
• January 9 – February 6 – The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations is held in Cameroon, with Senegal winning their first championship.
• January 10 – The first successful heart transplant from a pig to a human patient occurs in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
• January 13 – Bikaner-Guwahati Express derailment: The Bikaner-Guwahati Express train derailed in Maynaguri. 9 people were killed and 50 people were injured. This was the first major train accident of 2022.
• January 15 – A large eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai, a submarine volcano in Tonga, triggers tsunami warnings in Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand, Samoa, and the United States.
• January 16 – World No. 1 tennis champion Novak Djokovic is deported from Australia following a high-profile legal case regarding his COVID-19 vaccination status, preventing his participation in the 2022 Australian Open.
• January 17 – In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a terrorist attack against 3 oil tanker trucks and an under construction airport extension infrastructure is conducted by the Houthi movement using drones and missiles, killing 3 people and injuring 6 others.
• January 23
  • Tropical Storm Ana kills 115 people in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique, days after a series of floods killed 11 people in Madagascar.
  • A coup d'état in Burkina Faso removes president Roch Kaboré from power. The Burkinabé military cites the government's failure to contain activities of Islamist militants within the country as a reason for the coup.
• January 24 – The federal government under Scott Morrison announces that, after more than three years of confidential negotiations, copyright ownership of the Australian Aboriginal flag has been transferred to the Commonwealth.
• January 28 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 10 billion.

February

• February 3 – Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi is killed in Atme during a counter-terrorism raid by U.S. special forces in north-western Syria.
• February 4 – China and Russia issue a joint statement opposing further NATO expansion, expressing "serious concerns" about the AUKUS security pact, and pledging to cooperate with each other on a range of issues.
• February 4 – February 20 – The 2022 Winter Olympics are held in Beijing, China, making it the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics.
• February 5 – Cyclone Batsirai kills a total of 123 people across Madagascar, Mauritius, and Réunion two weeks after Tropical Storm Ana killed 115 people in the same region.
• February 6 – Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her "Platinum Jubilee", marking 70 years as Queen of the United Kingdom.
• February 9 – The biggest breakthrough in fusion energy since 1997 is reported at the Joint European Torus in Oxford, the UK, with 59 megajoules produced over five seconds (11 megawatts of power), more than double the previous record.
• February 21 – February 24 – Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a decree declaring the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as independent from Ukraine, and, despite international condemnation and sanctions, begins a full-scale invasion of Ukraine; at dawn on 24 February missiles strike Kyiv. Ukraine severs diplomatic relations with Russia, followed by the Federated States of Micronesia on 25 February.
• February 26 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The EU, US, and their allies commit to removing Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system, as well as imposing measures on the Russian Central Bank and further restrictions on Russian elites. These and other sanctions fuel a financial crisis in Russia.
• February 27
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Putin orders Russia's nuclear deterrent forces to be on "special alert", their highest level, in response to what he calls "aggressive statements" by NATO. The move is condemned by the US.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: European nations ban Russian flights in their airspace.
  • In a constitutional referendum, Belarus votes to revoke its non-nuclear status and to allow the country to host Russian forces permanently.
• February 28
  • The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the second part of its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change. It concludes that many impacts are on the verge of becoming "irreversible".
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russian and Ukrainian officials meet on the Belarus-Ukraine border for the first round of peace talks, with no resolution.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA suspend Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions.
  • 2022 Russian financial crisis: In an unprecedented move, Switzerland, Monaco, Singapore and South Korea impose unilateral sanctions over Russia including the introduction of export controls and asset freezes.

March

• March 1
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: World Athletics bans both Russia and Belarus from competing in all of its events.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: In an emergency session, United Nations member states pass a resolution deploring Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calling for the immediate withdrawal of its forces.
• March 2
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russia captures its first large city, the Black Sea port of Kherson, as shelling intensifies across many parts of Ukraine, including civilian areas.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: The United Nations reports that over a million refugees have now fled from Ukraine to other countries.
  • The International Criminal Court begins an investigation into possible war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
• March 3
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russia is condemned by world leaders following an attack by its troops on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – the largest in Europe – which led to a fire at the site.
  • The National Assembly of Armenia elects incumbent minister of High-Tech Industry and former mayor of Yerevan, Vahagn Khachaturyan, as president of Armenia following the resignation of Armen Sarkissian.
• March 4 – March 13 – The 2022 Winter Paralympics are held in Beijing, China, making it the first city to host both Summer Paralympics and Winter Paralympics.
• March 4 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: An Afghan man on behalf of the Islamic State – Khorasan Province commits a suicide attack at a Shia mosque in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, killing 63 people.
• March 5 – Researchers in the Antarctic find Endurance, one of the greatest ever undiscovered shipwrecks, which sank in 1915 during Ernest Shackleton's exploration.
• March 7 – COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 6 million.
• March 8 – The US and UK announce a ban on Russian oil, while the EU announces a two-thirds reduction in its demand for Russian gas.
• March 9
  • 2022 South Korean presidential election: People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol is narrowly elected President of South Korea.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russia is condemned by world leaders following an air strike in Mariupol that destroys a hospital including a maternity and children's ward.
• March 10 – The National Assembly of Hungary elects former minister for Family Affairs, Katalin Novák, as president of Hungary in a 137–51 vote.
• March 11 – Gabriel Boric is sworn in as President of Chile. He becomes the youngest head of state in the nation's history and the first to be born during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
• March 12 – 2022 Turkmenistan presidential election: Serdar Berdimuhamedow, son of former President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, wins with 89% of the total votes.
• March 16 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: A Russian airstrike on the Mariupol Theatre in Mariupol kills an estimated 600 civilians sheltering inside.
• March 19 – The apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium, reforming the Roman Curia, is promulgated by Pope Francis, coming into force on 5 June.
• March 21 – China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashes in Guangxi, China, killing all 133 people on board.
• March 24 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: NATO announces that four new battlegroups totaling 40,000 troops will be deployed in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, along with enhanced readiness for potential chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
• March 27 – The M23 offensive begins in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• March 29 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is admitted to the East African Community.
• March 31 – Expo 2020 closes in Dubai after a 6-month run; originally scheduled for 10 April 2021, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

April

• April 3
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: As Russia's forces retreat from areas near Kyiv, it is accused by Ukraine of war crimes, amid mounting evidence of indiscriminate civilian killings, including the Bucha massacre.
  • The second round of voting of the 2022 Costa Rican general election is held, and Social Democratic Progress Party presidential candidate Rodrigo Chaves Robles is elected president.
• April 4 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the third and final part of its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change, warning that greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030, in order to limit global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F).
• April 6 – The first known dinosaur fossil linked to the very day of the Chicxulub impact is reported by palaeontologists.
• April 7
  • The UN votes by 93–24 to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, with 58 countries abstaining.
  • President of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi resigns from office, dismisses vice president Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, and transfers both offices' powers to the newly formed eight-member Presidential Leadership Council, chaired by Rashad al-Alimi.
• April 8
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russia is condemned by world leaders following a missile attack on Kramatorsk train station, which kills 59 civilians trying to evacuate, including seven children.
  • Global food prices increase to their highest level since the UN's Food Price Index began in 1990, with commodities such as wheat rising by nearly 20% as a result of the Ukraine crisis.
• April 11 – The National Assembly of Pakistan elects leader of the opposition Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister of Pakistan, after Imran Khan is removed from office following a motion of no confidence two days prior.
• April 13 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases exceeds 500 million worldwide.
• April 14 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Russian flagship Moskva becomes the largest warship to be sunk in action since World War II. Ukraine claims to have struck it with Neptune anti-ship missiles, while Russia claims it sank during stormy weather after an onboard fire.
• April 18 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The battle of Donbas begins, leading to the deaths of several thousand military personnel and civilians.
• April 19 – The second round of voting of the 2022 East Timorese presidential election is held and the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction party presidential candidate, former president and former prime minister José Ramos-Horta is elected.
• April 20 – A European Southern Observatory team announce the discovery of micronovae, a new type of exploding star.
• April 22 – The Large Hadron Collider recommences full operations, three years after being shut down for upgrades.
• April 24 – The 2022 Slovenian parliamentary election is held to elect all 90 members of the National Assembly of Slovenia, the lower house of the Slovenian Parliament; the Freedom Movement party becomes the largest party, winning 41 of 90 seats.
• April 25 – Elon Musk reaches an agreement to acquire the social media network Twitter (which he later rebrands as X) for $44 billion USD, which later closes in October.
• April 27 – The European Union accuses Russia of blackmail after gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria are halted by energy giant Gazprom.
• April 28 – The Parliament of Montenegro elects a new government with Dritan Abazović as prime minister, following a motion of no confidence against the government of Zdravko Krivokapić.

May

• May 6 – 2022 monkeypox outbreak: An outbreak of monkeypox begins when the first monkeypox virus case is reported in London, the United Kingdom.
• May 9
  • Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns as a result of massive protests against his government across the country. He is succeeded by Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister three days later.
  • 2022 Philippine presidential election: Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte are elected the 17th President and 15th Vice President of the Philippines in a landslide victory.
• May 10–May 14 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 is held in Turin, Italy. The contest is won by Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra with their song "Stefania".
• May 12 – The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration reveals its first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
• May 13 – Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is elected as the 3rd president of the United Arab Emirates by the Federal Supreme Council following the death of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan a day earlier.
• May 15 – Former President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is elected president again, beating President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
• May 16 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Siege of Mariupol ends in a Russian victory as Ukrainian troops are evacuated from Mariupol.
• May 18 – Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO.
• May 20 – 2022 monkeypox outbreak: The World Health Organization (WHO) holds an emergency meeting to discuss the spread of monkeypox in nearly a dozen countries, as the number of reported cases reaches 100.
• May 21 – 2022 Australian federal election: The Labor party, led by Anthony Albanese, defeats the Liberal-National Coalition government led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Albanese is sworn in as Prime Minister two days later.
• May 24 – Uvalde school shooting: 18-year-old Salvador Ramos fatally shoots 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.
• May 27 – Fiji announces that it will become the 14th member of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in order to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific. This comes amid a visit by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to Kiribati.
• May 28 – Spanish club Real Madrid beat English club Liverpool 1–0 to win the UEFA Champions League final played at the Stade de France in Paris, France.

June

• June 4 – Retired general Bajram Begaj is elected President of Albania by the parliament in the fourth round of voting.
• June 5 – At least 50 people are killed in a dual mass shooting-bomb attack in Owo, Nigeria.
• June 8 - 2022 South Khorasan train derailment: In Iran, a passenger train derailed travelling from Tabas to Yazd crashed into an excavator and derailed, killing 18 and injuring 87.
• June 14 – Canada and Denmark end their competing claims for Hans Island by dividing the island roughly in half, ending what was referred to as the Whisky War.
• June 19
  • The second round of the 2022 legislative election is held in France, resulting in a hung parliament, with President Macron's coalition losing its majority in the National Assembly. A newly-formed coalition of left-wing parties, led by far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, makes significant gains. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally also makes historic gains, increasing its number of MPs tenfold and becoming the largest opposition party in Parliament. Two weeks later, Macron's government is reshuffled, continuing as a minority administration.
  • The second round of the 2022 Colombian presidential election is held, and former guerrilla fighter for the 19th of April Movement and incumbent senator, Gustavo Petro, defeats businessman and former mayor of Bucaramanga, Rodolfo Hernández Suárez.
• June 22 – A 6.2 earthquake strikes the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 1,163 people.
• June 23
  • The European Council granted Moldova and Ukraine the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union.
  • Dickon Mitchell's party wins a majority of seats in Grenada's general election, defeating Prime Minister Keith Mitchell's party. Dickon Mitchell is sworn in the following day.
• June 26 – G7 leaders gather for a summit in Germany to discuss the situation in Ukraine. A ban on imports of Russian gold is announced.
• June 27 – 53 migrants from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador are found dead in a tractor trailer in San Antonio, Texas, United States.
• June 28 – June 30 – A NATO summit is held in Madrid, Spain along with the presence of guest countries from the European Union and the Indo-Pacific primarily searching for a consensual defensive reinforcement after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sustained threatening over the territorial integrity of other countries.

July

• July 1 – Yair Lapid succeeds Naftali Bennett as Prime Minister of Israel, while Bennett succeeds Lapid as Alternate Prime Minister of Israel; this arrangement had been created after the 2021 Israeli legislative election, in which no party won an outright majority.
• July 6 – July 31 – UEFA Women's Euro 2022, originally intended for 2021 but indirectly delayed due to UEFA Euro 2020 being delayed, is held in England, with the hosts winning their first major tournament since 1966.
• July 7 – July 17 – The 2022 World Games is held in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
• July 7 – After revelations over his appointment of Chris Pincher as Deputy Chief Whip triggered a series of resignations from his government, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces his intention to resign, triggering the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.
• July 8 – Former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe is assassinated while giving a public speech in the city of Nara, Japan.
• July 11 – The first operational image from the James Webb Space Telescope, showing the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, is revealed to the public.
• July 18 – Droupadi Murmu is elected as President of India, making her the first tribal and youngest person to be elected to the office.
• July 19 – 2022 European heat waves: A series of severe heatwaves from July to August hit Europe, causing at least 53,000 deaths and additionally causing major wildfires, travel disruption, and record high temperatures in many countries.
• July 21
  • The Parliament of Sri Lanka elects Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as President of Sri Lanka, following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid protests over the ongoing economic crisis.
  • The European Central Bank raises its key interest rate for the first time in more than 11 years, from minus 0.5 per cent to zero, with plans for further increases later in the year.
• July 22 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine sign the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to facilitate the shipment of grain exports and reduce soaring global food prices.
• July 23 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the recent monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, as the number of reported cases exceeds 17,000 in 75 countries.
• July 27 – A 7.0 earthquake strikes the island of Luzon in the Philippines killing 11 people and injuring over 600.
• July 28–August 8 – The 2022 Commonwealth Games is held in Birmingham, England.
• July 31 – Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian terrorist who became the 2nd Emir of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden's death in 2011, is killed in an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan conducted by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency.

August

• August 4
  • China conducts its largest ever military exercise around Taiwan in response to a controversial visit by Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan since the 1990s.
  • The Prime Minister of Peru, Aníbal Torres, resigns following multiple criminal investigations against the President of Peru, Pedro Castillo.
• August 5 – August 7 – Israel launches airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, killing Islamic Jihad military leader Tayseer Jabari. Both parties agree to a ceasefire after three days of skirmish.
• August 6 – Terrance Drew is sworn in as prime minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
• August 9 – 2022 Kenyan general election: William Ruto is elected as Kenya's 5th president, defeating longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga. His victory is certified by the nation's election supervisory agency on August 15 amid protests and violence by Odinga supporters.
• August 10 – Spanish club Real Madrid beat German club Eintracht Frankfurt 2–0 to win the 2022 UEFA Super Cup played at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland.
• August 12 – Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie is stabbed multiple times as he is about to give a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, United States.
• August 17 – Turkey and Israel agree to restore full diplomatic relations after a period of tensions.
• August 19 – The coalition government of Montenegrin prime minister Dritan Abazović collapses after the 81-seat Parliament of Montenegro passes a motion of no confidence in a vote of 50–1, following dispute within the coalition over an agreement the government signed with the Serbian Orthodox Church.
• August 27 – September 11 – The 2022 Asia Cup is held in the United Arab Emirates, and is won by Sri Lanka.
• August 28 – 2022 Pakistan floods: Pakistan declares a "climate catastrophe" and appeals for international assistance, as the death toll from recent flooding in the country exceeds 1,000, the world's deadliest flood since 2017. Several nations, alongside the UN, pledge millions in funding for aid.
• August 30 – Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union, dies at the age of 91.

September

• September 1 – The UN releases a report stating that the Chinese government's Xinjiang internment camps and treatment of Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity.
• September 2 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The G7 economies agree to impose a price cap on Russian petroleum exports.
• September 5 – A 6.8 earthquake strikes Luding County in Sichuan province, China, killing 117 and injuring 424.
• September 6 – Liz Truss is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after winning the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.
• September 8 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms dies at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96. Her son Charles III succeeds her as King.
• September 11 – The 2022 Swedish general election is held to elect all 349 seats of the Riksdag. Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson resigns after her centre-left bloc narrowly loses to a bloc of right-wing parties, 176 seats to 173; Andersson is succeeded as prime minister by Ulf Kristersson in October.
• September 12 – September 2022 Armenia–Azerbaijan clashes: Azerbaijan attacks Armenian positions near the cities of Vardenis, Goris, Sotk and Jermuk, and occupies certain areas of its territory along the Armenia–Azerbaijan border. Over the next few days, more than 100 Armenian soldiers are killed in the clashes, while Azerbaijan acknowledges 71 fatalities among its forces.
• September 14–September 20 – 2022 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan clashes: Dozens are killed as sporadic clashes occur between Kyrgyz and Tajik troops along their countries' respective border.
• September 14–September 25 – The Atlantic hurricane Fiona hits Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Lucayan Archipelago, Bermuda, and Eastern Canada.
• September 16 – Protests erupt in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country's "morality police".
• September 19 – The state funeral of Elizabeth II is held in Westminster Abbey, London. Her coffin is then taken by procession to Windsor Castle for burial with her husband, parents and sister in the King George VI Memorial Chapel. The funeral is speculated to be the most watched television event in world history.
• September 21 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Following a major counteroffensive by Ukraine in the east of the country, Putin announces a partial mobilisation of Russia and threatens nuclear retaliation, saying "this is not a bluff".
• September 22 – October 1 – The 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is held in Sydney, Australia. In the final, the United States wins 83–61 against China.
• September 24 – The 2022 Nauruan parliamentary election is held, which is followed by Ubenide parliament member Russ Kun being elected president by parliament.
• September 25 – The 2022 Italian general election is held to elect all 400 seats of the Chamber of Deputies and 200 seats of the Senate of the Republic (reduced from 630 and 215 respectively according to the outcome of the 2020 constitutional referendum). Observers commented that the results shifted the geopolitics of the European Union, following far-right gains in France, Spain, and Sweden. It was also noted that the election outcome would mark Italy's most right-wing government since 1945.
• September 26
  • NASA's DART crashes into the asteroid Dimorphos in a first test of potential planetary defense.
  • The Nord Stream pipeline sabotage occurs by an unknown perpetrator off the coast of Bornholm, Denmark with explosions on two pipelines leaving them inoperable.
• September 27–September 30 – Hurricane Ian impacts Cuba and the United States, causing catastrophic damage to both nations, killing at least 157 people, 16 missing, and leaving millions without power, including the entire nation of Cuba.
• September 27 – Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine claim that their annexation referendums show an overwhelming support for the annexation by Russia of the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, and parts of Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast. However, the voting is widely dismissed as a sham referendum.
• September 30
  • Annexation of Southern and Eastern Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin signs treaties absorbing the occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into the Russian Federation. This annexation is seen as a breach of international law by the global community.
  • Burkina Faso's military junta is overthrown by the country's second coup of the year, led by army captain Ibrahim Traoré.

October

• October 1 – A fatal human crush occurs during an association football match at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang Regency, East Java, Indonesia, killing 135 people and injuring more than 500.
• October 5 – OPEC+ imposes a production cut of up to 2 million barrels per day.
• October 8 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: An explosion occurs on the Crimean Bridge connecting Crimea and Russia, killing three and causing a partial collapse of the only road bridge between the Crimean Peninsula and the Russian mainland. Two days later, retaliatory missile strikes are conducted by Russia across Ukraine, the most widespread since the start of the invasion, notably including attacks on Kyiv.
• October 12–October 13 - 2022 Bratislava shooting, killing 3 (including the perpetrator) and injuring one. The shooting occurred outside of a gay bar in Bratislava known as Tepláreň. Two people (excluding the perpetrator) died as a result of the shooting. Juraj Vankulič, a non-binary person, and Matúš Horváth, a bisexual man. The perpetrator (Juraj Krajčík) was found dead due to a self-inflicted gunshot the morning after the attack.

• October 16–October 23 – The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held. Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary by the Central Committee, beginning a third term as the paramount leader of China.
• October 20 – Amid a government crisis, Liz Truss announces her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party and her intention to resign as prime minister of the United Kingdom, after 45 days in office.
• October 25 – Rishi Sunak becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following the resignation of Liz Truss the previous week resulting in a 50-day tenure, making him the first person of colour to become the prime minister.
• October 28
  • Elon Musk completes his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
  • Sam Matekane is sworn in as Prime Minister of Lesotho after securing a victory in the 7 October elections.
• October 29
  • At least 158 people are killed and another 197 injured in a crowd crush during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea.
  • A double car bombing by al-Shabaab in Mogadishu, Somalia kills at least 121 people and injures around 300.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: In response to an alleged Ukrainian drone attack against the Black Sea Fleet, Russia suspends its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
• October 30
  • 2022 Brazilian general election: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeats incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election after neither candidate secured a majority in the first round of voting. Lula da Silva is the first president elected three times, and also the oldest one, at 77.
  • The collapse of a suspension bridge in Gujarat, India, leaves at least 135 dead.

November

• November 1
  • 2022 Israeli legislative election: A bloc of right-wing and far-right political parties led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wins a 64-seat majority (out of 120), allowing him to be sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel for a third time in December.
  • 2022 Danish general election: A bloc of left-leaning political parties wins a narrow one-seat majority of 90 seats. Incumbent Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's second government takes office in December, in the form of a coalition with Venstre and the Moderates.
• November 2–November 3 – Tigray War: The Ethiopian government and the TPLF agree to a formal cessation of hostilities, signing a peace agreement in Pretoria, South Africa.
• November 6–November 18 – The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) on climate change mitigation takes place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
• November 11
  • The cryptocurrency exchange FTX, once valued at $18 billion, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in a collapse that affects the cryptocurrency environment.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Ukrainian forces recapture Kherson, the only regional capital to be taken by Russia since the start of the war.
• November 15
  • The world population reaches 8 billion.
  • The 2022 G20 Bali summit in Bali, Indonesia takes place.
• November 16 – NASA launches Artemis 1, the first uncrewed mission of its Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever to reach orbit. The onboard Orion capsule orbits the Moon before returning to Earth, as a demonstration of planned human missions.
• November 19 – The 2022 Malaysian general election results in a hung parliament, which is the first in the country's history. Long-time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is appointed by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Abdullah as prime minister five days later to break the political deadlock and form a unity government.
• November 19–November 26 – The 2022 Central American and Caribbean Beach Games are held in Santa Marta, Colombia.
• November 20–December 18 – The 2022 FIFA World Cup is held in Qatar and won by Argentina.
• November 20 – 2022 Nepalese general election: The Nepali Congress, led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, emerged as the largest party with 89 seats, but the governing bloc falls short of the majority by two seats, leading into likely coalition government.
• November 21 – A 5.6 earthquake strikes near Cianjur in West Java, Indonesia, killing 635 people and injuring 7,700 more.
• November 30 – OpenAI releases ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot able to answer questions and write essays.

December

• December 2 – The G7 and Australia join the EU in imposing a cap of $60 a barrel on Russian crude oil, designed to "prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression against Ukraine."
• December 5 – The National Ignition Facility achieves fusion ignition, a major milestone in the development of nuclear fusion power.
• December 7
  • The Congress of Peru removes President Pedro Castillo from office and arrests him after he tries to dissolve Congress in a self-coup attempt. Vice President Dina Boluarte becomes the first female President of Peru.
  • After substantial protests against China's Zero-COVID policies, the Chinese government eases on its COVID restrictions.
• December 17 – Leo Varadkar succeeds Micheál Martin as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, as part of a rotation agreement made in 2020.
• December 18 – Argentina wins the 2022 FIFA World Cup against runners-up France.
• December 19 – At the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), nearly 200 countries agree a landmark deal to protect a third of the planet for nature by 2030.
• December 21–December 26 – A major winter storm hits the northern United States and southern Canada. Killing at least 91 people, the storm also severely disrupts North American air traffic, with Southwest Airlines alone canceling more than half of its schedule.
• December 24 – 2022 Fijian general election: The Parliament of Fiji elects Sitiveni Rabuka as Prime Minister of Fiji, defeating incumbent Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama after a contentious election.
• December 29 – Brazilian football legend Pelé dies at the age of 82, with his funeral being held at the Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos.
• December 31 – Former Pope Benedict XVI dies at the age of 95, with his funeral being held in St. Peter's Square, presided over by Pope Francis and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

2023

January

Funeral of Pope Benedict XVI

• January 1 – Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area, becoming the 20th member state of the Eurozone and the 27th member of the Schengen Area. This is the first enlargement of the Eurozone since Lithuania's entry in 2015, and the first enlargement of the Schengen Area since Liechtenstein's entry in 2011.
• January 5 – The funeral of Pope Benedict XVI is held at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City. The funeral was attended by an estimated 50,000 people.
• January 8
  • The 2023 Beninese parliamentary election is held, with the Progressive Union for Renewal party winning a plurality of seats.
  • Following the 2022 Brazilian general election and the inauguration of Lula da Silva as president of Brazil, supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro storm the Brazilian National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court and the Presidential Palace of Planalto.
• January 9 – Juliaca massacre: At least 18 people are killed and over 100 others are injured when the Peruvian National Police fire upon demonstrations in Juliaca.
• January 10–17 – A cold snap in Afghanistan kills 166 people and nearly 80,000 livestock.
• January 15 – Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashes during final approach into Pokhara, Nepal, killing all 72 people on board.
• January 16 – Tigray War: Amharan Special Forces withdraw from the Tigray Region in line with an African Union-backed peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
• January 17 – Nguyễn Xuân Phúc resigns as President of Vietnam amid several recent scandals in the government.
• January 18 – A helicopter crash in Brovary near Kyiv, Ukraine kills 14 people including Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrsky.
• January 20 – The Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago elects former senate president, minister and lawyer Christine Kangaloo as president in a 48–22 vote.
• January 21
  • Burkina Faso requests French forces to withdraw from its territory after suspending a military accord that allowed the presence of French troops in the country.
  • Tigray War: Eritrean forces withdraw from Shire and other major towns in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
• January 25 – Chris Hipkins succeeds Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister of New Zealand, six days after she announced her resignation.
• January 27 – Widespread unrest erupts in Israel following an Israeli military raid in Jenin the previous day which killed nine Palestinians. Incendiary air balloons are launched into Israeli-populated areas following it. Israel responds with targeted airstrikes. Later the same day, seven Jewish civilians are killed in a synagogue in Neve Yaakov in a terrorist attack.
• January 27–28 – The second round of the 2023 Czech presidential election is held, with Petr Pavel declared winner.
• January 30
  • A Jamaat-ul-Ahrar suicide bombing inside a mosque in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, kills 84 people and injures over 220 others.
  • Prime Minister of Fiji Sitiveni Rabuka confirms that Kiribati will rejoin the Pacific Islands Forum after leaving the organization the previous year.

February

• February 1 – Lebanese liquidity crisis: The central bank of Lebanon devalues the Lebanese pound by 90% amid an ongoing financial crisis.
• February 2
  • Israel and Sudan announce the finalization of an agreement to normalize relations between the two countries.
  • The European Central Bank and Bank of England raise their interest rates by 0.5 percentage points to combat inflation, one day after the US Federal Reserve raises its federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage points.
• February 3
  • The US announces it is tracking alleged Chinese spy balloons over the Americas, later announcing that the balloons did not collect any information. One balloon drifts from Yukon to South Carolina before being shot down the next day, and a second hovers over Colombia and Brazil. This event is followed by subsequent detections and shootdowns of high-altitude objects elsewhere.
  • A Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derails in East Palestine, Ohio. Multiple train cars burn for more than two days, followed by emergency crews conducting a controlled burn of several additional cars, releasing hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the atmosphere.

Cyclone Freddy near Madagascar

• February 4 – Cyclone Freddy forms in the Indian Ocean. It would become the longest lasting tropical cyclone in history and cause over 1,400 deaths and countless injuries and property damage across southeastern Africa.
• February 5 – The 2023 Cypriot presidential election is held, with Nikos Christodoulides elected president.
• February 6 – A 7.8 M_ww earthquake strikes southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria followed by a 7.7 M_ww  aftershock on the same day, causing widespread damage and at more than 59,000 fatalities and 121,000 injured.
• February 13 – The 2023 Bangladeshi presidential election scheduled for 19 February is held, with Shahabuddin Chuppu of the Awami League, the only nominated candidate, elected unopposed.
• February 14 – The European Parliament approves a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in the European Union from 2035, citing the need to combat climate change in Europe and promote electric vehicles.
• February 16 – Lawmakers in the Russian State Duma vote to withdraw Russia from 21 conventions of the Council of Europe.
• February 17 – The South African Navy hosts a ten-day joint military exercise in the Indian Ocean with Russia and China.
• February 19 – Libyan Crisis: The African Union announces the organization of a peace conference to address the instability in Libya.
• February 21 – Vladimir Putin announces that Russia is suspending its participation in New START, a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US.
• February 23 – Oman opens its airspace to Israeli airlines for the first time, in an upgrade of bilateral relations.
• February 25 – 2023 Nigerian general election: Bola Tinubu is elected as Nigeria's president, defeating former vice president Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.
• February 27 – The United Kingdom and the European Union reach an agreement surrounding modifications to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
• February 28 – A train crash in Thessaly, Greece, kills 57 people and injures dozens. The crash leads to nationwide protests and strikes against the condition of Greek railways and their mismanagement.

March

Võ Văn Thưởng becomes the new president of Vietnam

• March 2 – The National Assembly of Vietnam declares Võ Văn Thưởng as the country's new president after receiving 98.38% votes from the Vietnamese parliament.
• March 4
  • UN member states agree on a legal framework for the High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.
  • Kivu conflict: Burundi deploys 100 troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help fight insurgencies by militias, including M23.
• March 5 – The 2023 Estonian parliamentary election is held, with two centre-right liberal parties gaining an absolute majority for the first time.
• March 8–21 – The 2023 World Baseball Classic is held in, and won by, Japan.
• March 8 – Allied Democratic Forces jihadist insurgents use machetes to kill about 35 people in the village of Mukondi, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Xi Jinping is re-elected as the president of the People's Republic of China

• March 10
  • The 2023 Chinese presidential election is held with the National People's Congress unanimously re-electing Xi Jinping as the President of the People's Republic of China to an unprecedented third term.
  • Iran and Saudi Arabia agree to resume diplomatic relations which were severed in 2016, at talks mediated by China.
  • Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the United States, fails, creating then the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis, affecting companies around the world.
  • Kivu conflict: Angola announces the deployment of troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following the failure of a ceasefire between government forces and M23 rebels in North Kivu.
• March 14 – OpenAI launches GPT-4, a large language model for ChatGPT, which can respond to images and can process up to 25,000 words.
• March 17 – The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, marking the first arrest warrant against a leader of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
• March 19 – In a deal brokered by the Swiss government, investment bank UBS agrees to buy Credit Suisse for CHF 3 billion (US$3.2 billion) in an all-stock deal.
• March 20 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the synthesis report of its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change.
• March 23 – World Athletics, the global governing body for athletics, bans trans women who have gone through male puberty from competing in female events.
• March 24–27 – A tornado outbreak kills at least 26 people in Mississippi and Alabama. This includes a violent tornado which devastated the city of Rolling Fork and the town of Silver City in Mississippi, killing 16 people and injuring 165 others.
• March 26
  • Honduras switches its formal diplomatic recognition of "China" from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.
  • 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests: Large-scale spontaneous protests erupt across Israel in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firing his defense minister who criticized the government's judicial overhaul plan.
• March 29
  • Brazil and China sign an agreement to trade in their own currencies, ceasing the usage of the United States dollar as an intermediary.
  • Burkina Faso formally resumes diplomatic relations with North Korea after suspending them in 2017.
• March 30 – The International Court of Justice rules that the United States violated its Treaty of Amity with Iran when it allowed its domestic courts to freeze assets held by Iranian companies.
• March 31 – April 1 – A historic and widespread tornado outbreak occurs in the United States, killing 33 people, injuring more than 218 others, and caused over $5.4 billion in damage. This tornado outbreak produced 147 tornadoes, making it the third largest tornado outbreak in history.

April

• April 2
  • The 2023 Bulgarian parliamentary election results in a GERB—SDS–PP–DB coalition government headed by Nikolai Denkov as prime minister, and ends two years of political deadlock.
  • The 2023 Montenegrin presidential election is held, with Jakov Milatović of the Europe Now! movement winning in the second round, becoming the first president not from the DPS party since the introduction of a multi-party system in 1990.
  • The 2023 Finnish parliamentary election is held, with the centre-right National Coalition led by Petteri Orpo receiving the most votes.
  • The 2023 Andorran parliamentary election is held, with the ruling Democrats for Andorra led by Prime Minister Xavier Espot winning the majority of the seats.

Finland joins NATO as the 31st member

• April 4 – Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO, doubling the alliance's border with Russia.
• April 5 – Clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli police happen at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
• April 10 – Two document leaks from the Pentagon detailing foreign military aid relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine are leaked onto the Internet.
• April 11 – Myanmar civil war: In the village of Pazigyi, at least 165 people are killed by the Myanmar Air Force during the opening celebrations of a People's Defence Force administration office.
• April 14 – Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) to search for life in the Jovian system, with an expected arrival date of 2031.
• April 15
  • Nuclear power in Germany ends after 50 years, with the closure of the final power plants.
  • Fighting breaks out across Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The RSF captures Khartoum International Airport, and the presidential palace in Khartoum.
• April 19 – At least 90 people are killed and another 322 injured in a crowd crush during a Ramadan charity event in Sanaa, Yemen.
• April 20 – SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time in a test flight from Texas. It explodes four minutes after launch.
• April 21 – The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, representing a majority of the global Anglican population, reject the leadership of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as the head of global Anglicanism over his support for same-sex marriage.
• April 25 – A mass cult suicide is uncovered in Shakahola forest in Kenya. 429 followers of the Good News International Ministries are found in shallow graves throughout the forest, with over 613 people missing.
• April 29 – The 2023 Niuean general election is held and incumbent Dalton Tagelagi is re-elected as Premier of Niue.
• April 30
  • The 2023 Paraguayan general election is held, with the Colorado Party candidate Santiago Peña being the president-elect of Paraguay, winning in a plurality.
  • The second round of the 2023 French Polynesian legislative election is held; the Tāvini Huiraʻatira party wins a majority of seats. Moetai Brotherson, Tāvini Huiraʻatira's deputy leader, is elected President of French Polynesia.

May

• May 1 – 2023 banking crisis: San Francisco-based First Republic Bank fails and is auctioned off by the US FDIC to JPMorgan Chase for $10.7 billion. The collapse surpasses March's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to become the second largest in US history.
• May 3 – A school shooting occurs in Belgrade, Serbia. A second mass murder occurs the next day near Mladenovac and Smederevo. These events leave 19 people dead, causing the government to increase regulations on gun ownership and mass anti-government protests to begin.
• May 4 – A series of floods and landslides strikes villages in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in over 400 deaths.
• May 5 – The World Health Organization ends its declaration of COVID-19 being a global health emergency, but continues to refer to it as a pandemic.
• May 6 – The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms is held in Westminster Abbey, London.
• May 7 – Syria is readmitted into the Arab League after being suspended since 2011.
• May 9 – Cyclone Mocha forms in the Indian Ocean, killing over 400 people and injuring over 700 as it strikes Myanmar and Bangladesh.
• May 9–13 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 is held in Liverpool, UK. Swedish contestant Loreen wins with the song "Tattoo".
• May 11 – The World Health Organization ends its declaration of mpox being a global health emergency.
• May 14
  • The 2023 Thai general election is held, with pro-democratic parties such as the Move Forward and Pheu Thai parties gaining a majority of seats in the House of Representatives while pro-military parties such as Palang Pracharat lost seats.
  • The 49th G7 summit takes place in Hiroshima, Japan. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Japan on the second day of the summit.
• May 21
  • The May 2023 Greek legislative election is held; the ruling New Democracy wins a plurality of seats in the Hellenic Parliament. Just days later, incumbent prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for another snap election to be held in June.
  • The 2023 East Timorese parliamentary election is held, with the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction and Fretilin parties receiving the most votes. Xanana Gusmão is elected Prime Minister of East Timor.
• May 24 – Canada and Saudi Arabia agree to restore full diplomatic relations after a breakdown in relations in 2018 over the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
• May 25 – Russia and Belarus sign an agreement in Minsk allowing the stationing of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.
• May 27 – The second round of the 2023 Mauritanian parliamentary election is held, with the ruling El Insaf Party receiving the most votes.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected as president of Turkey

• May 28 – The second round of the 2023 Turkish presidential election is held; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defeats Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu with 52.18% of the vote to win a third term as president.
• May 31 – The 2023 Latvian presidential election is held; Edgars Rinkēvičs is elected the President of Latvia.

June

A train collision kills 296 in India

Aftermath of the destruction of the Kakhova dam

• June 2 – A train collision in Odisha, India results in at least 296 deaths and more than 1,200 others injured.
• June 6
  • The 2023 Guinea-Bissau legislative election is held; the coalition Inclusive Alliance Platform – Terra Ranka led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, wins a majority of seats.
  • The 2023 Kuwaiti general election is held; following the annulment of the results of the 2022 snap elections by the Constitutional Court. 38 members retained their seats from the annulled 2022 session, while two returned from the dissolved 2020 session. Ten new MPs were elected for the first time.
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled region of Kherson is destroyed, threatening the region with devastating floodwaters.
  • Due to smoke from wildfires in Canada, New York City in the United States is declared to have the worst air quality out of any city in the world.
• June 11 – Honduras opens its first embassy in Beijing, China, after breaking off relations with Taiwan in March.
• June 12 – Eritrea rejoins the Intergovernmental Authority on Development trade bloc after suspending its membership in 2007.
• June 13 – At least 106 people are killed when a wedding boat capsizes on the Niger River in Kwara State, Nigeria.
• June 14
  • Scientists report the creation of the first synthetic human embryo from stem cells, without the need for sperm or egg cells.
  • At least 82 people die and 500 are reported missing after a boat carrying migrants capsizes off the coast of the Peloponnese.
• June 18 – Titan submersible implosion: All five crew members of Titan, a deep-sea submersible exploring the wreck of the Titanic, are killed following a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.
• June 19
  • The United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopts the High Seas Treaty, the first treaty aimed towards marine conservation in international waters.
  • Qatar and the United Arab Emirates announce that they will restore diplomatic relations after relations were suspended during the Qatar diplomatic crisis.
• June 20 – At least 46 people are killed after a riot between MS-13 and Barrio 18 gang members at a women's prison near Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
• June 23 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, begins an armed conflict with the Russian military, seizing the city of Rostov-on-Don and portions of the Voronezh Oblast before withdrawing the next day, after a peace agreement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
• June 25 – The June 2023 Greek legislative election is held; Kyriakos Mitsotakis becomes prime minister after his centre-right party, New Democracy, wins a majority of seats in the Greek parliament.
• June 28 – The 2023 Sierra Leonean general election is held; Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People's Party is re-elected president.
• June 30 – The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to end MINUSMA, its peacekeeping mission in Mali.

July

• July 3
  • Indian oil refiners start payments for Russian oil imports in Chinese yuan as an alternative to the US dollar due to increasing sanctions against Russia.
  • In the largest incursion by Israel into the West Bank since the Second Intifada, the Israeli military deploys ground forces and armed drones into the Jenin camp, killing 13 and injuring more than 100. An attack claimed by Hamas as retaliation for the incursion, occurs in Tel Aviv the following day, injuring nine.
• July 4 – Iran joins the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, becoming the organization's ninth member.
• July 8 – In the Netherlands, the governing coalition collapses and Prime Minister Mark Rutte announces his upcoming resignation.
• July 9
  • The 2023 Uzbek presidential election is held; Shavkat Mirziyoyev is re-elected president of Uzbekistan.
  • New Zealand signs a free trade agreement with the European Union, increasing bilateral trade.
• July 10
  • China and the Solomon Islands sign a cooperation agreement between the People's Police and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force in an upgrade of bilateral relations.
  • The European Commission and the U.S. government sign a new data communication agreement aimed at resolving legal uncertainties that European and American companies face when transferring personal data.
• July 13 – Pita Limjaroenrat fails to become Prime Minister of Thailand in a National Assembly vote after forming a coalition with pro-democracy parties following the 2023 Thai general election.
• July 14 – SAG-AFTRA announces it will begin a strike against the major film and TV studios in protest of low compensation, ownership of work, and generative AI.
• July 19 – Typhoon Doksuri forms in the eastern Pacific Ocean, going on to kill 137 people in Southeast Asia.
• July 20–August 20 – The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is held in Australia and New Zealand. In the final, Spain wins 1–0 against England.
• July 20 – Bolivia and Iran sign a memorandum of understanding, in an upgrade of bilateral relations, expanding cooperation in the security and defense sectors.
• July 21 – The films Barbie and Oppenheimer open, while being paired as a major internet and cultural event, Barbenheimer.

Aereal view of the fires on the greek island of Rhodes

• July 23
  • 2023 Greece wildfires: Tens of thousands of tourists flee Rhodes, Greece, amid wildfires and a major heatwave, in what officials say is the largest evacuation in the country's history.
  • Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard wins the Tour de France for the second consecutive time.
  • The 2023 Cambodian general election is held, with the dominant Cambodian People's Party retaining control of every seat in the National Assembly.
  • The 2023 Spanish general election is held, with the People's Party becoming the largest party in the Congress of Deputies.

ECOWAS after the 2023 Niger coup

• July 26 – President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger is toppled in a coup d'état after members of his presidential guard and the armed forces seize control of the country and install General Abdourahamane Tchiani as leader of a military junta.
• July 30 – 63 people are killed and over 200 are injured after a suicide bombing occurs in Khar, Pakistan; the Islamic State – Khorasan Province claims responsibility for the attack.

August

• August 1 – Global warming: The world's oceans reach a new record high temperature of 20.96 °C (69.73 °F), exceeding the previous record in 2016. July is also the hottest month on record for globally averaged surface air temperatures by a considerable margin (0.3 °C (32.5 °F)).
• August 8 – 2023 Hawaii wildfires: 17,000 acres of land are burned and at least 101 people are killed, with two others missing, when a series of wildfires break out on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
• August 10 – Tapestry, the holding company of Coach New York and Kate Spade, announces it will acquire Michael Kors' Capri Holdings, which also owns Versace and Jimmy Choo.
• August 16–21 – Hurricane Hilary, a Category 4 Pacific Hurricane, strikes the Baja California peninsula and later causes record flooding in Southern California.
• August 18 – American–Japanese–Korean trilateral pact: The United States, Japan, and South Korea agree to sign a trilateral pact.
• August 20 – 2023 Guatemalan presidential election: After two rounds of voting, Bernardo Arévalo of Semilla is elected with 58% of the vote.

Wildfire near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories

• August 21
  • 2023 Canadian wildfires: 68% of the Northwest Territories are forced to evacuate to other parts of the country due to wildfires.
  • Saudi Arabia is accused of mass killing hundreds of African migrants attempting to cross its border with Yemen.
• August 22 – Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returns to Thailand after 15 years of political exile.
• August 23
  • India's Chandrayaan-3 becomes the first spacecraft to land near the south pole of the Moon, carrying a lunar lander named Vikram and a lunar rover named Pragyan.
  • Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder Dmitry Utkin and eight others are killed when their plane crashes in Russia.
• August 30 – Following the announcement of incumbent president Ali Bongo Ondimba's reelection as President of Gabon after the 2023 presidential election, the military launches a successful coup d'état and creates the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions to govern the country, ending the rule of the Bongo family after 56 years in power.
• August 31 – 2023 Johannesburg building fire: 77 people are killed and more than 85 are injured in a fire in a building that had been taken over by gangs who rented it out to squatters.

September

2023 Al Haouz earthquake

Storm Daniel near Libya

• September 1 – 2023 Singaporean presidential election: Economist and former deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is elected president with a vote share of over 70%.
• September 2 – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launches Aditya-L1, India's first solar observation mission.
• September 8 – October 28 – The 2023 Rugby World Cup is held in France. South Africa beat New Zealand 12–11 in the final at the Stade de France, claiming their 4th Rugby World Cup title.
• September 8 – 2023 Marrakesh–Safi earthquake: A 6.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Marrakesh–Safi province in western Morocco, killing at least 2,960 people and damaging historic buildings.
• September 9 – At the 18th G20 summit in New Delhi, the African Union is announced as the 21st permanent member of the G20.
• September 10 – Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone, kills at least 5,000 people, with a further 10,000 to 100,000 reported missing. In the city of Derna in Libya, two dams collapse, resulting in a quarter of the city being destroyed.
• September 14 – The European Central Bank (ECB) raises eurozone interest rates to an all-time high of 4%, amid ongoing inflationary pressures across the continent.
• September 19 – Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: Azerbaijan launches a military offensive against the Armenia-backed Republic of Artsakh, which ends with a swift Azerbaijani victory. Protests erupt in Armenia, Artsakh announces the dissolution of government institutions, and over 100,000 ethnic Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh.
• September 20 – Archaeologists in Zambia find the world's oldest wooden structure, dating back 476,000 years, consisting of two interlocking wooden logs connected by a notch securing one perpendicular to the other.
• September 21 – Rupert Murdoch announces his retirement and passes his businesses on to his son Lachlan. Murdoch led News Corp and Fox, and formerly Sky Group.
• September 24 – 2023 Nigerien crisis: French President Emmanuel Macron announces that France will end its military presence in Niger and will recall its ambassador from the country.
• September 25 – An estimated 170 people are killed and over 300 are injured during a explosion at a gas station in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.
• September 30 – 2023 Slovak parliamentary election: Smer, under the leadership of former prime minister Robert Fico, wins a plurality of seats in the National Council.

October

• October 3
  • Elected on January 8, Kevin McCarthy is removed as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, with Mike Johnson being elected new Speaker on October 25.
  • Sam Bankman-Fried, an American entrepreneur and founder of cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, is put on trial and later convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison on March 28, 2024.
• October 5 – November 19 – The 2023 Cricket World Cup is held in India, with Australia defeating India in the final.
• October 7
  • Israel–Hamas war: Hamas launches an incursion into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and taking about 240 hostages, prompting a military response from the Israel Defense Forces. Israel launches numerous air strikes on Lebanon after rockets are fired by Hezbollah and further attempts are made to penetrate Israel.
  • A series of earthquakes occur in Herat Province in Afghanistan, killing over 1,000 people and injuring nearly 2,000, with tremors felt in Iran and Turkmenistan. The earthquakes are the deadliest in the country since 1998.
• October 8 – Israel's Security Cabinet formally declares war for the first time since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
• October 11 – ExxonMobil announces it will acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for $65 billion USD, the first of two major energy industry acquisitions of the month. The second occurs less than two weeks later on 23 October, where Hess announces it will be acquired by Chevron for $50 billion.
• October 13 – After British regulators' approval, Microsoft closes its $68.7 billion USD acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
• October 14
  • 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum: A majority of Australians vote against establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the constitution.
  • 2023 New Zealand general election: The National Party wins a plurality of seats under leader Christopher Luxon, while the Labour Party suffers the worst result for an incumbent ruling party in modern New Zealand history.
• October 15
  • In the second round of the 2023 Ecuadorian general election, Daniel Noboa of the National Democratic Action is elected as the youngest-ever President of Ecuador.
  • 2023 Polish parliamentary election: The Law and Justice party wins the most seats, but loses its majority, with its incumbent president Mateusz Morawiecki being succeeded by the Civic Platform party's Donald Tusk on 13 December.

Donald Tusk is elected as the Polish prime minister

• October 17 – An explosion occurs at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, where displaced Palestinians are taking refuge. Many fatalities are reported, but estimates vary significantly, from 100 to as many as 471, depending on the source.
• October 22 – 2023 Swiss federal election: The Swiss People's Party retains its majority in the National Council.
• October 25 – Hurricane Otis, an eastern Pacific tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Mexico near Acapulco, leaving at least 80 dead. It is the most powerful Eastern Pacific hurricane to make landfall in Mexico, with the highest winds reaching 165 mph, surpassing Hurricane Patricia's landfall in 2015.
• October 31 – Israel intercepted a Yemeni Houthi ballistic missile with its Arrow 2 missile defense system. The interception occurred above Earth's atmosphere above the Negev Desert, making it the first instance of space combat in history.

November

• November 1 – The first AI Safety Summit takes place in the United Kingdom, with 28 countries signing a "world first agreement" on how to manage the riskiest forms of artificial intelligence.
• November 2 – The Beatles release "Now and Then", the band's last ever song, featuring restored vocals by John Lennon (1940–1980), as well as guitar tracks by George Harrison (1943–2001).
• November 6 – Israel–Hamas war: The death toll in Gaza is reported to have passed 10,000. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres calls for a humanitarian ceasefire to increase the flow of aid to civilians.
• November 7 – The Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa announces his pending resignation. The President of Portugal decides to dissolve the parliament and call for early elections to be held on 10 March 2024.
• November 9 – U.S. surgeons at NYU Langone Health announce the world's first whole eye transplant.
• November 10 – In the Falepili Union treaty, Australia grants "special" freedom of movement and defence rights to Tuvaluans for residence and employment for climate reasons.
• November 14–17 – President Biden hosts the APEC summit in San Francisco, which Chinese president Xi Jinping attends. Both countries, at the conclusion of the summit, agree to re-open suspended channels of military communications and to cooperate in their fight against climate change.
• November 17 – The global average temperature temporarily exceeds 2 °C above the pre-industrial average for the first time in recorded history.

Javier Milei wins the 2023 Argentine presidential election

• November 19 – 2023 Argentine presidential election: Following the first round on 22 October 2023, Javier Milei wins in the second round of the election, assuming office on 10 December with Victoria Villarruel as his vice president.
• November 20 – A Boeing P-8A Poseidon operated by the United States Navy overshot the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Kaneohe, Hawaii. No one died.
• November 22
  • Israel and Hamas agree to a four-day ceasefire, the first pause in fighting since 7 October, during which many Israeli hostages will be released, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
  • 2023 Dutch general election: Far-right Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) wins the most seats.
• November 23 – Riots broke out in Dublin, Ireland after a mass stabbing on Parnell Square East which injured 4 people.
• November 24 – Somalia is admitted as the eighth member of the East African Community, having applied for membership in 2012.
• November 27 – After forming a coalition Government with the right-wing ACT and New Zealand First parties, Christopher Luxon is sworn in as the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand. The new administration opposes policies promoting Māori culture and addressing inequity between Māori and non-Māori, which leads to allegations of inflaming racial tensions.
• November 30 – Brazil announces it will join OPEC+ at a meeting of the organization to discuss oil output strategy in 2024. Brazil is the largest oil producer in South America, producing 4.6 million barrels per day of oil and gas.

December

Propagandistic map published by the venezuelan governemnt including the Esequiba territory

• December 3 – 2023 Guyana–Venezuela crisis: Venezuela votes in a symbolic referendum on whether voters agreed with creating a subdivision in the disputed territory of Guayana Esequiba currently under the control of neighboring Guyana. Analysts say the referendum's practical implications are likely to be minimal.
• December 6 – Google DeepMind releases the Gemini Language Model. Gemini will act as a foundational model integrated into Google's existing tools, including Search and Bard.
• December 10–12 – 2023 Egyptian presidential election: Incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wins a third term with 89.6 percent of the vote in the election.
• December 12 – At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, a consensus is reached for countries to "transition away" from fossil fuels, the first such agreement in the conference's 30-year history. The transition is specifically for energy systems, excluding plastics, transport or agriculture.
• December 16 – Emir of Kuwait Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah dies at the age of 86 and is succeeded by his half-brother Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
• December 17 – The 2023 Serbian parliamentary election is held, with the SNS coalition, led by Miloš Vučević, winning 128 of 250 seats in the Serbian National Assembly.
• December 18 – A number of shipping companies announce a temporary suspension of their operations in the Red Sea due to continued attacks on vessels by Houthi rebels.
• December 20 – 2023 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election: Incumbent President Félix Tshisekedi wins re-election, defeating two major challengers.
• December 21
  • The European Court of Justice rules that threats by FIFA and UEFA to sanction football clubs that wish to join the European Super League are unlawful.
  • The deadliest mass shooting in the Czech Republic's history occurs at a Prague university, with 15 killed and 25 others wounded.
• December 22 – Israel–Hamas war: The death toll in Gaza is reported to have passed 20,000, almost 1 percent of its population and surpassing the casualties in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

• December 29
  • Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russia launches the largest wave of drones and missiles on Ukrainian cities since the start of the war in a overnight assault, killing at least 39 people and injuring at least 160 others. Ukraine launches a drone assault the following day, killing at least 21 people, including three children, and injuring 110 others, including 17 children.
  • A genocide case against Israel is brought towards the International Court of Justice by South Africa for Israel's invasion and subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip, and its role in the subsequent humanitarian crisis.

• December 31 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announces her abdication effective January 14, 2024, after 52 years on the throne.

2024

January

Damage caused by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent fires in the city of Wajima, Japan

• January 1
  • Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates become BRICS members.
  • The Republic of Artsakh is formally dissolved as Nagorno-Karabakh was recaptured by Azerbaijan.
  • A 7.5 Mww earthquake strikes the western coast of Japan (Noto Peninsula), killing at least 462 people and injuring 1,344 others. A further five are killed the next day when a Coast Guard aircraft carrying humanitarian aid collides with a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 aircraft, destroying both aircraft. All 379 people aboard the passenger jet are evacuated safely.
  • Ethiopia announces an agreement with Somaliland to use the port of Berbera. Ethiopia also says that it will eventually recognize Somaliland's independence, becoming the first country to do so.
• January 2 – 2023 Marshallese general election: The Legislature of the Marshall Islands elects Hilda Heine as President for a second non-consecutive term during its first session following the general election.
• January 3 – 2024 Kerman bombings: An Islamic State double bombing kills 94 people during a memorial event commemorating the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in Kerman, Iran. The bombing was carried out using two briefcase bombs placed at the entrance that were detonated remotely.
• January 7 – 2024 Bangladeshi general election: The Awami League, led by incumbent Sheikh Hasina, wins a fourth consecutive term amid protests by opposition parties and a large drop in voter turnout.
• January 8 – 2024 conflict in Ecuador: Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declares a state of emergency following the escape of Los Choneros drug cartel leader José Adolfo Macías Villamar from prison. The military was deployed onto the streets and into prisons, while setting a national nighttime curfew.
• January 11 – Riots break out throughout Papua New Guinea after an alleged rounding error causes pay cuts for police officers and soldiers.
• January 12 – Operation Prosperity Guardian: A U.S.-led coalition launches airstrikes at Houthi militant locations in Yemen, marking a retaliation to the Houthis' attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
• January 13 – 2024 Taiwanese presidential election: Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party wins with 40% of the vote.
• January 14
  • Margrethe II formally abdicates as Queen of Denmark on the 52nd anniversary of her accession, with her eldest son Frederik succeeding her as King Frederik X.
  • 2024 Comorian presidential election: Amid an opposition boycott, incumbent president Azali Assoumani wins re-election with 62.9% of the vote and only 16.3% voter turnout.
• January 15 – Following a brief political crisis in the aftermath of the 2023 elections, Bernardo Arévalo is inaugurated as the 52nd President of Guatemala.
• January 16 – Iran carries out a series of missile and drone strikes within Pakistan's Balochistan province, claiming that it had targeted the Iranian Baloch militant group Jaish ul-Adl.
• January 18 – Pakistan conducts retaliatory airstrikes on Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province.
• January 19 – Japan becomes the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, with its SLIM mission.
• January 24 – 2024 Korochansky Ilyushin Il-76 crash: A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane carrying (according to Russia) 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, 6 crew members, and 3 guards crashes in Russia's Korochansky District, near the Ukrainian border, killing everyone on board.
• January 26
  • Israel–Hamas war: The UN's International Court of Justice rules that Israel must take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stops short of ordering an immediate halt to operations.
  • 2024 Tuvaluan general election: Kausea Natano, the incumbent Prime Minister of Tuvalu, loses reelection to Parliament. A month later, Feleti Teo was elected prime minister.
• January 31 – Sultan of Johor Ibrahim Iskandar ascends the throne as the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

February

Sebastián Piñera, former President of Chile, died in a helicopter crash on February 6

• February 2 – The US launches airstrikes on 85 targets in Iraq and Syria in response to a deadly drone attack on a US military base.
• February 4
  • President of Namibia Hage Geingob dies at the age of 82, and is succeeded by his vice-president Nangolo Mbumba.
  • 2024 Salvadoran general election: Incumbent President Nayib Bukele wins the election with over 80% of the vote, becoming the first president to be reelected in El Salvador since 1944.
• February 6 – Former President of Chile Sebastián Piñera dies in a helicopter crash at the age of 74.
• February 7 – 2024 Azerbaijani presidential election: Amid an opposition boycott, President Ilham Aliyev is reelected to a fifth term.

• 

  Alexander Stubb is elected in the closest presidential election in Finnish history on February 11.

  February 8 – 2024 Pakistani general election: Independent politicians, most of whom are members of the banned political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, win a plurality of seats in the National Assembly.
• February 11 – 2024 Finnish presidential election: In the closest presidential election in Finnish history, Alexander Stubb is elected president in the second round.
• February 14 – 2024 Indonesian general election: Prabowo Subianto wins the presidential election, and the Democratic Party of Struggle wins the most votes in the legislative election.
• February 16 – Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, dies under mysterious circumstances at the age of 47.
• February 22 – American company Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander becomes the first commercial vehicle to land on the Moon.
• February 28 – 2024 Haitian jailbreak: A state of emergency is declared by the Haitian government after gangs storm two prisons and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
• February 29 – Israel–Hamas war: Soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces open fire on a crowd of civilians in Gaza City, killing more than a hundred people, as the Palestinian casualties of the war exceed 30,000.

March

Vladimir Putin was reelected in the 2024 Russian presidential election, held from March 15 to 17

• March 7 – As the final Nordic country to join the alliance, Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming its 32nd member after Finland a year earlier.
• March 10 – 2024 Portuguese legislative election: The Democratic Alliance wins a plurality of seats and forms a minority government amid losses by the incumbent Socialist Party and major gains by the right-wing Chega party.
• March 11 – Haitian acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry announces his pending resignation from both offices amid an ongoing crisis marked by gang warfare in the country.
• March 13 – The Artificial Intelligence Act, the world's first comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, is passed by the European Union.
• March 14 – The United Nations estimates that at least 56% of Palestinian civilians killed in the Israel–Hamas war were women and children.
• March 15–17 – 2024 Russian presidential election: Incumbent Vladimir Putin is reelected for a fifth term.
• March 22 – Islamic State-affiliated gunmen attack concertgoers at Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Russia, killing at least 145 people and injuring 551.
• March 24 – 2024 Senegalese presidential election: Bassirou Diomaye Faye is elected president after his party and its former candidate Ousmane Sonko were disqualified.
• March 25 – The UN Security Council passes a resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
• March 26 – A container ship collides with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, causing a total collapse of the bridge and the deaths of six people.
• March 31
  • Bulgaria and Romania become members of the Schengen Area through sea and air routes.
  • 2024 Turkish local elections: CHP wins 37.8% of the vote, marking its first victory in a popular vote since 1977 and the first nationwide defeat for the AKP.

Sixteen people were killed in an Israeli attack in Damascus on April 1

April

• April 1 – Israel attacks the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing 16 people.
• April 3 – A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 strikes off the eastern coast of Taiwan, with small tsunamis reaching heights of 20–30 cm (8–12 in) hitting Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
• April 4 – 2024 Kuwaiti general election: Opposition candidates maintain a majority in the National Assembly.
• April 5 – Ecuadorian police raid the Mexican embassy in Quito in order to arrest former vice-president Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum by Mexico. This action violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and Mexico and Nicaragua break off diplomatic relations with Ecuador.

The solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 is visible across North America.

Simon Harris becomes Ireland's youngest Taoiseach on April 9 after Leo Varadkar resigned.

• April 6 – Peter Pellegrini is elected President of Slovakia in the second round of the 2024 Slovak presidential election.
• April 8 – A total solar eclipse is visible across North America.
• April 9 – After Leo Varadkar resigned, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris becomes Ireland's youngest Taoiseach after a Dáil vote of 88–69 and being appointed by President Michael D. Higgins.
• April 10 – 2024 South Korean legislative election: The Democratic Party and Democratic Alliance wins 176 seats, while the People Power and People Future, to which President Yoon Suk Yeol belongs, wins only 108 seats.
• April 13 – Iran launches retaliatory strikes against Israel after an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus earlier in the month.
• April 16 – 2024 Persian Gulf floods: At least 32 people are killed when heavy rainfall strikes the Middle East, causing flash flooding. This caused many disruptions for Emirates Airlines at Dubai International Airport.
• April 17
  • 2024 Solomon Islands general election: Incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's OUR Party wins a plurality of seats.
  • 2024 Croatian parliamentary election: Incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's Croatian Democratic Union coalition wins a plurality of seats.
• April 19 – Israel conducts airstrikes against Iran, in response to Iran's missile and drone attack on Israel earlier on April 13.
• April 25 – Following the resignation of Haiti's acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a Transitional Presidential Council takes power as the new head of state of Haiti.
• April 29
  • Floods in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul cause dozens of deaths and leave thousands homeless.
  • 50 people are killed, and 84 reported missing, when a railway embankment fails near Mai Mahiu, Kenya, adding to the devastation caused by wider floods in Kenya and Tanzania which have caused the deaths of 488 people and the displacement of 503,000.

    

    José Raúl Mulino won the 2024 Panamanian general election on May 5

• April 30 – The G7 countries agree to phase out unabated coal power by 2030–2035.

May

• May 5 – 2024 Panamanian general election: José Raúl Mulino is elected president.
• May 6 – 2024 Chadian presidential election: Mahamat Déby wins election to a full term as president, succeeding his father Idriss Déby.
• May 7–11 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 is held in Malmö, Sweden. Swiss contestant Nemo wins with the song "The Code".
• May 8 – In North Macedonian elections, the right-wing party VMRO-DPMNE wins in a landslide in the parliamentary elections, while its presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is elected as the first female president of the country in the second round of the presidential election.
• May 10
  • The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution to grant the State of Palestine the right to be seated among member states in alphabetical order. This will go into effect at the next session of the UN General Assembly on 10 September 2024.
  • A series of solar storms and intense solar flares impact the Earth, rated G5 by NOAA, creating aurorae at more southerly and northerly latitudes than usual. This was the first G5 storm since 2003.

    

    Luis Abinader won the 2024 Dominican Republic general election on May 19

• May 15
  • Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore since 2004, is succeeded by former Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as prime minister, ahead of the next general election to be held by 2025.
  • Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is shot and hospitalized while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian are killed, along with seven other passengers and crew, in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan–Iran border on May 19.

• May 19
  • 2024 Dominican Republic general election: Incumbent Luis Abinader is reelected for a second term as president.
  • Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian are killed, along with seven other passengers and crew, in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan–Iran border.
  • A coup d'état attempt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reportedly led by Christian Malanga leads to unrest in Kinshasa. Government soldiers quickly intervene, arresting the coup leaders and reportedly restoring calm.
• May 20 – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeks arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar over alleged war crimes.

  

  Incumbent president Gitanas Nausėda wins a landslide victory on May 26 in the 2024 Lithuanian Presidential Election for a second term in office.

• May 24
  • The UN's highest court, the ICJ, rules that Israel must halt its military offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza.
  • A major landslide in Papua New Guinea kills 160–2,000+ people, with many more buried.
• May 26 – 2024 Lithuanian presidential election: Incumbent president Gitanas Nausėda wins a landslide victory for a second term in office.
• May 28 – Spain, Ireland and Norway recognize the State of Palestine.
• May 29
  • 2024 South African general election: The ANC party fails to win a majority of the vote for the first time in South Africa's democratic history.
  • 2024 Malagasy parliamentary election: President Andry Rajoelina's party, Tanora Malagasy Vonona, loses their majority at the National Assembly, winning only 80 seats out of 163.
• May 30 – Former United States President Donald Trump is found guilty on 34 counts in his hush money trial, the first time any American president had been found guilty of a crime.

Halla Tómasdóttir wins the 2024 Icelandic presidential election on June 1.

June

• June 1
  • The 2024 Indian general election, which began on April 19, concludes. In the Lok Sabha, the BJP party loses its outright majority, but its electoral alliance, the National Democratic Alliance, retains its majority.
  • The 2024 Icelandic presidential election is held, with Halla Tómasdóttir elected president of Iceland.
• June 1–29 – The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup is co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States, and is won by India.
• June 2 – The 2024 Mexican general election is held, with Claudia Sheinbaum elected as president of Mexico.
• June 5 – Starliner Crewed Flight Test launches atop an Atlas V rocket to the ISS.
• June 6–9 – The 2024 European Parliament election is held. The EPP, of incumbent Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, retains its status as the largest group in parliament amid notable gains by far-right political groups.
• June 9
  • 2024 San Marino general election: The Democracy and Freedom alliance, headed by the PDCS, wins a plurality in the Grand and General Council.
  • 2024 Belgian federal election: The New Flemish Alliance remains the largest party in the Chamber of Representatives while Open Vld, the party of outgoing Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, loses seats.
  • June 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election: Boyko Borisov's coalition GERB–SDS wins a plurality of seats but fails to form a stable government.

• 

  A plane crash on June 10 near Chikangawa, Malawi, kills nine people, including Vice President of Malawi Saulos Chilima

  June 10 – A plane crash near Chikangawa, Malawi, kills nine people, including Vice President of Malawi Saulos Chilima.
• June 12 – The United Nations' first inquiry into the October 7 attacks and resulting conflict finds that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes.
• June 14 – 2024 South African general election: The ANC and other opposition parties agree to form a national unity government, with Cyril Ramaphosa being re-elected President of South Africa.
• June 14 – July 14 – UEFA Euro 2024 is held in Germany, and is won by Spain.
• June 20 – July 14 – The 2024 Copa América is held in the United States, and is won by Argentina.
• June 23
  • On the Grand Duke's Official Birthday, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg announces that his son and heir Guillaume will assume royal duties beginning in October, in preparation for Henri's eventual abdication.

  • 

    Julian Assange was freed from prison on June 24

    2024 Hajj disaster: More than 1,300 people are reported to have died due to extreme heat during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
  • 2024 Dagestan attacks: Two coordinated attacks occur in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent in the Republic of Dagestan in southern Russia, injuring 46 and killing 28 people.
• June 24 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the United Kingdom after being freed from prison in a plea deal with the United States. He returns to his native Australia two days later.
• June 26 – A failed coup d'état attempt in La Paz, Bolivia is led by the former General Commander Juan José Zúñiga.
• June 28 – 2024 Mongolian parliamentary election: The Mongolian People's Party wins a reduced majority of seats in the State Great Khural amid gains by the Democratic Party.
• June 29
  • 2024 Mauritanian presidential election: Incumbent president Mohamed Ould Ghazouani wins re-election to a second term.
  • 2024 Borno State bombings: 30 people are killed and 100 are injured when three separate bomb blasts occur in the town of Gwoza in Borno State, Nigeria.

Donald Trump's ear was injured in a failed assassination attempt on July 13

July

• July 1 – Hurricane Beryl becomes the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record after devastating the island of Carriacou, Grenada.
• July 4 – 2024 United Kingdom general election: Sir Keir Starmer leads the Labour Party to a landslide victory, returning the party to government for the first time in 14 years.
• July 5 – 2024 Iranian presidential election: Masoud Pezeshkian is elected president of Iran.
• July 7 – 2024 French legislative election: The left-wing New Popular Front wins the most seats in the National Assembly, upsetting a first-round victory by the far-right National Rally, but fails to achieve a majority.
• July 9–11 – The 33rd NATO summit is held in Washington, D.C.
• July 13 – While campaigning for the 2024 United States presidential election, former President Donald Trump is shot in the right ear in an assassination attempt at a rally he held near Butler, Pennsylvania.
• July 15 – 2024 Rwandan general election: Incumbent Paul Kagame is reelected for a fourth term.

• 

  The Student–People's uprising breaks out in Bangladesh

  July 19
  • Global IT outages impact a variety of businesses and organisations across the world.
  • 75 people are killed during the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement. The government of Bangladesh imposes a curfew.
• July 21 – Incumbent United States President Joe Biden ends his candidacy in the 2024 United States presidential election.
• July 22 – Landslides kill 257 people and bury two villages in Geze Gofa, Gofa Zuria, Ethiopia.
• July 23 – China brokers a unity agreement between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to form a single government.
• July 26 – August 11 – The 2024 Summer Olympics are held in Paris, France. The controversial opening ceremony and the boxing match of Luca Hámori and Imane Khelif spark international debate.

• 

  María Corina Machado and Edmundo González along with his wife, addressing supporters in Caracas following the 2024 presidential election results

  July 28 – 2024 Venezuelan presidential election: Incumbent President Nicolás Maduro declares victory against opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia amid alleged irregularities, causing numerous South American states to refuse to acknowledge the results or suspend diplomatic relations with the Maduro government and sparking nationwide protests.
• July 30
  • At least 334 people are killed, over 200 injured and 281 missing following landslides in Wayanad district, Kerala, India.
  • Israel carries out an airstrike in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who it accused of ordering the Majdal Shams attack.
  • 2024 United Kingdom riots: Far-right riots break out throughout the United Kingdom in response to a mass stabbing in Southport, England.
• July 31
  • Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, is assassinated at his residence in Tehran, Iran.
  • Moussa Dadis Camara, the former military ruler of Guinea, is found guilty of crimes against humanity in the massacres that occurred in 2009 and is sentenced to twenty years in prison by a Guinean court.

Twenty-six individuals are released on August 1 from Ankara Esenboğa Airport in the largest prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.

August

• August 1 – 2024 American–Russian prisoner exchange: Twenty-six individuals are released from Ankara Esenboğa Airport in the largest prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.
• August 5 – Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina announces her resignation and flees to India following nationwide protests.
• August 6 – Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip, is appointed as the chairman of Hamas' political bureau.
• August 7 – The Move Forward Party is dissolved and Pita Limjaroenrat, alongside other senior politicians from the party, are banned from politics by the Constitutional Court of Thailand.
• August 8 – Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus assumes office as Chief Adviser of an interim government formed after Sheikh Hasina's resignation in Bangladesh.
• August 9 – Voepass Flight 2283, an ATR 72, crashes near Vinhedo, São Paulo, Brazil, killing all 62 people on board.

• 

  Paetongtarn Shinawatra succeeds Srettha Thavisin as Prime Minister of Thailand after the latter's dismissal by the Constitutional Court of Thailand on August 14.

  August 11 – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announces that the Ukrainian military is conducting a cross-border offensive inside Russia's western Kursk Oblast. Russia says that 76,000 people have been evacuated from the region.
• August 14
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) declares mpox a public health emergency of international concern for the second time in two years, following the spread of the virus in African countries.
  • The Constitutional Court of Thailand dismisses the Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin for illegally appointing a minister to his cabinet who had a prison sentence. Paetongtarn Shinawatra succeeds him as Prime Minister of Thailand.
• August 17 – Indonesia's 79th Independence Day celebration is held in Nusantara. The celebration is supposed to inaugurate Nusantara as the new capital of Indonesia, but this does not occur due to delays.
• August 23 – In Solingen, Germany, a Syrian immigrant stabs three people to death, which leads to the intensification of the debate on migration in Germany.
• August 24 – In Barsalogho, Burkina Faso, 600 civilians are victims of a massacre by Islamists associated with Al-Qaeda.
• August 25 – The Israel Defense Forces begin a series of preemptive strikes against targets in the south of Lebanon.
• August 28 – September 8 – The 2024 Summer Paralympics are held in Paris, France.
• August 31 – A helicopter crashed in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, killing all 22 occupants onboard.

Infrared satellite imagery of Typhoon Yagi making landfall over Hainan on September 6

September

• September 2 – The Brazilian Supreme Court upholds a decision to block the social media platform X (also known as Twitter) over what the Brazilian government determined to be rampant disinformation and Elon Musk's failure to name a legal representative to the country.
• September 7 – 2024 Algerian presidential election: Incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune is reelected for a second term.

  

  Weather in Central Europe on 12 September, right before floods

• September 12
  • Heavy rainfall in Central Europe triggers the worst flooding in the region since 2010.
  • The first commercial spacewalk is conducted by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman as part of the Polaris Dawn mission, which also includes the highest altitude orbit by a human crew since the Apollo program.
• September 15 – Ryan Wesley Routh is accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump in Florida. Ryan is later captured and arrested, and a trial date has been set for 2025.
• September 17–18 – Thirty-two people are killed and more than 3,200 are injured after pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah militants and medics explode in two massive cyberattacks. Israel is the presumed perpetrator.
• September 20 – Israel assassinates Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil and ten other senior leaders in Beirut following an intensification of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in the wake of the pager explosions that occurred earlier in the week.
• September 21 – 2024 Sri Lankan presidential election: Anura Kumara Dissanayake is elected President of Sri Lanka, with a second round of vote counting held for the first time in Sri Lanka's history.

• 

  Hurricane Helene made landfall in the United States on September 26

  September 23 – The deadliest day of the Hezbollah–Israel conflict since 2006 occurs, with 569 people killed and 1,835 wounded by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.
• September 26 – Hurricane Helene, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Maria in 2017, makes landfall in Florida as a category four hurricane. It has a death toll of 236 and leaves more than 685 missing.
• September 27 – The Israeli Air Force bombs the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut, killing several people, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
• September 29 – 2024 Austrian legislative election: Far-right Freedom Party secures a historical victory, but does not reach a majority in the National Council. The results are deemed the first far-right win since World War II.
• September 30 – The UK becomes the first G7 country to phase out coal power for electric generation, after 142 years of using the energy source.

Iran attacks Israel with ballistic missiles as a response to Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on October 1

October

• October 1
  • The Israel Defense Forces invade southern Lebanon, escalating its conflict against Hezbollah.
  • The Japanese parliament elects Shigeru Ishiba as the new prime minister of Japan, with members from the Liberal Democratic Party forming the majority. Following his appointment, he reveals his cabinet and calls for a snap election on October 27, securing a national mandate.
  • Iran attacks Israel with ballistic missiles as a response to Israel's assasination of Hassan Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh.
• October 3–20 – The 2024 ICC Women's T20 World Cup is held in the United Arab Emirates, and is won by New Zealand.
• October 6
  • The 2024 Kazakh nuclear power referendum is held and approved.
  • 2024 Tunisian presidential election: Incumbent Kais Saied is reelected for a second term.

• 

  Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas, was killed on October 16

  October 7 – Hurricane Milton becomes the fifth most intense hurricane in the Atlantic Basin, and the second most intense storm in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Rita in 2005. Milton is also the first hurricane to reach a pressure below 900 millibars in nearly 20 years.
• October 9 – 2024 Mozambican general election: Daniel Chapo is elected president while the ruling FRELIMO party retains a majority in the Assembly of the Republic.
• October 12 – The long-period comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), described as the "comet of the century", makes its closest approach to Earth.
• October 13 – SpaceX achieves the first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly.
• October 14 – The Europa Clipper spacecraft is launched to investigate Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter.
• October 16 – Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas, is killed in a gunfight with Israeli forces in Rafah.
• October 20 – The 2024 Moldovan European Union membership referendum is held and narrowly approved.

• 

  Duma Boko won the 2024 Botswana general election on October 30

  October 21 – The National Assembly of Vietnam elects Lương Cường as the new president of Vietnam. He replaced Tô Lâm, who was formally appointed as the general secretary of the Communist Party.
• October 24 – The first case of the 2024 Kwango province disease outbreak is reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• October 26 – 2024 Georgian parliamentary election: Amid suspicions of interference, ruling pro-Russian party Georgian Dream wins a majority.
• October 27
  • 2024 Japanese general election: The governing LDP loses its parliamentary majority for the first time since 2009, but still wins the most seats. The CDP wins its best result in party history.
  • The October 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election is held.
  • 2024 Lithuanian parliamentary election: The leftist opposition Social Democratic Party of Lithuania wins a majority.
• October 30
  • 2024 Botswana general election: The ruling BDP party is voted out of power, ending 58 years of uninterrupted governance. Duma Boko of the UDC party is elected President of Botswana.
  • 2024 Spanish floods: Spain experiences its worst flooding in half a century, with over 200 killed and many more missing, as a year's worth of rain falls in eight hours.

Donald Trump won the 2024 United States presidential election on November 5

November

• November 3 – 2024 Moldovan presidential election: Incumbent Maia Sandu is reelected for a second term.
• November 5
  • 2024 United States presidential election: Donald Trump, with his running mate JD Vance, is elected for a second non-consecutive term, the first candidate to do so since Grover Cleveland in 1892, and only the second in American history.
  • 2024 Palauan general election: Incumbent Surangel Whipps Jr. is reelected for a second term as president.
  • German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismisses FDP leader Christian Lindner from his position as finance minister, leading to two other FDP ministers resigning and the collapse of the governing coalition.
• November 9 – A suicide bombing at the Quetta railway station in Balochistan, Pakistan kills at least 26 people. The bombing was orchestrated by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and is the first time that the organization had attacked the center of Quetta.
• November 10 – 2024 Mauritian general election: The electoral alliance Lepep of incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth is defeated by that of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, with the latter taking all but two seats.

  

  COP29 is held in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11-22

• November 11–22 – COP29 is held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
• November 12 – Justin Welby announces his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury following the publication of a report critical of his handling of the abuse of children within the Church of England by John Smyth.
• November 13 – 2024 Somaliland presidential election: Opposition candidate Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi of the Waddani party is elected president.
• November 14 – 2024 Sri Lankan parliamentary election: President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's National People's Power coalition wins a supermajority in the 17th Parliament of Sri Lanka.

  

  French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal is put in custody by Algerian authorities after his landing in Algiers on November 16.

• November 16
  • The 2024 Gabonese constitutional referendum is held and approved.
  • French-Algerian dissident writer Boualem Sansal is put in custody by Algerian authorities after his landing in Algiers.
• November 17 – 2024 Senegalese parliamentary election: President Bassirou Diomaye Faye's party PASTEF wins an absolute majority at the National Assembly.
• November 21
  • The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif on accusations of war crimes committed during the Israel–Hamas War.
  • Terrorists in Peshawar, Pakistan, ambush a group of vehicles carrying Shiite Muslims, killing 46 and injuring 20.
  • Researchers using the Very Large Telescope announce the first-ever "close-up" image of a star outside the Milky Way Galaxy, WOH G64.

    

    Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is elected as the first female president of Namibia on November 27.

• November 24 – 2024 Uruguayan general election: Leftist opposition candidate Yamandú Orsi is elected president.
• November 26 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that a ceasefire deal has been agreed to end fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
• November 27 – 2024 Namibian general election: Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the SWAPO party is elected as the first female president of Namibia.
• November 29 – 2024 Irish general election: Centre-right party Fianna Fáil remains the largest party in Dáil Éireann, increasing its number of seats to 48.
• November 30
  • 2024 Icelandic parliamentary election: Opposition party Social Democratic Alliance wins 15 seats in the Althing, with the incumbent Independence Party winning 14 seats. However, no party achieved a majority.
  • Syrian civil war: Opposition forces seize control of most of Aleppo, Syria, prompting the first Russian airstrikes on the city since 2016.

December

• December 1 – 2024 Romanian parliamentary election: The incumbent National Coalition for Romania wins a plurality of votes, with far-right parties making substantial gains.

• 

  Speaker of the National Assembly Woo Won-shik signing the article of impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol following the South Korean martial law crisis on December 3

  December 3 – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declares martial law during a late-night address broadcast live on YTN television, accusing the country's main opposition Democratic Party of sympathizing with North Korea and engaging in anti-state activities.
• December 4
  • 2024 French political crisis: Michel Barnier becomes the first prime minister of France to lose a motion of no-confidence since Georges Pompidou in 1962.
  • Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shot and killed by a lone gunman in Midtown Manhattan, sparking debate and criticism of the health insurance industry in the United States.
• December 6 – 2024 Romanian presidential election: The Constitutional Court of Romania annuls the results of the first round, amid accusations of Russian interference after the unexpected advancement of pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu to the runoff.
• December 7
  • 2024 Ghanaian general election: John Mahama of the NDC is elected president for a second non-consecutive term.
  • The Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens to the public after previously being damaged by a structural fire in 2019.

    

    President of Syria Bashar al-Assad's regime was overthrown as rebel forces captured the capital Damascus on December 8

• December 8 – Syrian civil war: President of Syria Bashar al-Assad leaves Damascus after being overthrown, ending his presidency and the Ba'athist Syria regime after a total of 61 years. The Syrian opposition forms the Syrian Transitional Government as a provisional government.
• December 11 – FIFA announces that Morocco, Portugal and Spain will jointly host the 2030 World Cup, with anniversary matches to be held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, while Saudi Arabia is confirmed as the host for 2034.
• December 12 – Indian chess prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju defeats former world champion Ding Liren in the 2024 World Chess Championship, breaking the previous age record of 22 set by Garry Kasparov by becoming champion at 18 years, 195 days old.
• December 14
  • 2024 Georgian presidential election: Mikheil Kavelashvili of People's Power is elected unopposed.
  • South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's powers and duties are suspended after MPs vote to impeach him, following his martial law declaration the previous week.
  • Cyclone Chido makes landfall in Mayotte, causing at least 172 deaths and bringing devastating damage to the island.
• December 17 – The capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila, suffers extensive damage after a M_w 7.3 earthquake. At least 16 people are killed.
• December 19
  • The Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán has granted political asylum to Polish MP of Law and Justice Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted on the European Arrest Warrant for being accused of defrauding 100 million zł from the Fundusz Sprawiedliwości (Justice Fund) when he was deputy minister of justice during the PiS government.
  • Mazan rapes trial: The Judicial Court in Avignon, France, finds Dominique Pelicot guilty of the aggravated rape of his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot and imposes the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The 50 other defendants in the case are also convicted of crimes ranging from attempted rape to aggravated rape, and receive prison sentences ranging from three to 15 years.
• December 20 – Five people are killed, while another 235 are injured, after a car is driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.

  

  Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashes near Aktau International Airport, Kazakhstan, on December 25.

• December 21 – Forty-one people die and another seven are injured after a multiple-vehicle collision occurs on the BR-116 highway in Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is the deadliest traffic accident on federal highways in Brazil since 2007, when numbers were first monitored.
• December 24
  • The 2025 Jubilee in the Catholic Church begins.
  • The Parker Solar Probe breaks the previous record set in 2018 for the closest artificial object to the Sun by 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles), becoming the closest and first man-made object to approach and "touch" the Sun.
• December 25 – Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, an Embraer ERJ-190AR, crashes in Kazakhstan. Twenty-nine out of the 67 on board survive the crash.

  

  Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashes at Muan International Airport, South Korea on December 29.

• December 27 – Acting President of South Korea Han Duck-soo is impeached by MPs for failing to promulgate two bills related to president Yoon's legal proceedings. He is succeeded by deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok.
• December 29
  • Jeju Air Flight 2216, a Boeing 737-800 passenger flight from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, veers off the runway at Muan International Airport and crashes into a barrier, killing 179 people. Two injured survivors are reported.
  • A truck carrying passengers falls off a bridge over the Ganale Doria River in Bona Zuria, Sidama Region, Ethiopia, killing 71 people and injuring 4 others.

2025

January

Logo of Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union

• January 1
  • Poland takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union after Hungary.
  • Bulgaria and Romania complete the process of joining the Schengen Area, lifting land border controls.
  • Liechtenstein becomes the 37th country to legalize same-sex marriage.
  • Ukraine halts the transportation of Russian gas supplies through the country following the expiration of a 5-year transit deal, while also becoming a state party in the International Criminal Court.
  • Fifteen people are killed (including the perpetrator) and 35 others are injured during a vehicle-ramming and shooting attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
  • Twelve people are killed and four more injured in a shooting in Cetinje, Montenegro.
• January 4 – Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer announces his resignation.
• January 6 – Justin Trudeau announces his resignation as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Prime Minister of Canada after nine years in office.