This is the fourth (and last) part of a four-part Timeline of Human History.  To see the other parts, click on the following links:
Timeline of Human History I: Prehistory-1499
Timeline of Human History II: 1500-1799
Timeline of Human History III: 1800-1899
Timeline of Human History IV: 1900-1999

2000

• Israel ends its occupation of Lebanon.
• The Second Intifada begins between Palestinians and Israel.
• Zimbabwe’s Parliament votes to allow seizure of white-owned farms by blacks without compensation.
• The International Space Station becomes operational (US; Russia).
• The Human Genome Project announces its first draft of the human genome (US).
• The Netherlands becomes the first nation to legalize same-sex marriage.
• Fado em Mim, an album by Mariza (Portugal).
• In the Mood for Love, a film by Wong Kar-Wai (China).
  

  Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love.

2001

• On September 11, Al Qaeda terrorists hijack four planes and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing 3,000 people (US).
  

  September 11, 2001 – New York City.

• The US invades Afghanistan and overthrows the Taliban.
• Assassination of Congo President Laurent-Désiré Kabila (Dem. Rep. of Congo).
• George W. Bush becomes 43rd president of the United States.
• Right wing media magnate Silvio Berlusconi becomes Italian Prime Minister.
• The Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics jointly publish their sequencing of the human genome (US).
• Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launch the Wikipedia website (US).
• Tony Fadell, Michael Dhuey and Jonathan Ive at Apple invent the iPOD (US).
• After 76 victories and 7 championships, American race car driver Dale Earnhardt dies in a crash at the Daytona 500 (US).
• The Corrections, a novel written in English by Jonathan Franzen (US).
• Austerlitz, a novel written in German by W.G. Sebald (Germany).
• Band of Gypsies, an album by Taraf de Haïdouks (Romania).
• Spirited Away, a film by Hayao Miyazaki (Japan).
  

  A still image from Spirited Away.

• Mulholland Drive, a film by David Lynch (US).
  

  A still image from Mulholland Drive.

• Falling Man, a photograph by Richard Drew (US).
  

  The Falling Man.

• Claude E. Shannon dies.

2002

• East Timor achieves independence as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.
• UN troops bring end to rebellion by Saybana Sankoh and the Revolutionary United Front, ending 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone.
• Deposed Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah is again elected president.
• Jonas Savimbi is killed and UNITA becomes a political party, ending 26-year Angolan civil war.
• US establishes the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
• Chinese basketball player Yao Ming is drafted by the Houston Rockets (US).
• The Library of Alexandria, designed by Snøhetta (Egypt).
  

  A view of the new Alexandria library.

• Marsyas, a sculpture by Anish Kapoor (UK).
  

  Marsyas (installation at Turbine Hall).

• Cidade de Deus (City of God), a film by Fernando Meirelles (Brazil).
  

  A still image from City of God.

• Far From Heaven, a film by Todd Haynes (US).
  

  Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert in Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven.

• Habla Con Ella (Talk to Her), a film by Pedro Almodóvar (Spain).
  

  A still image from Talk to Her.

• Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album by Wilco (US).
• The Rising, an album by Bruce Springsteen (US).
  

  The cover of Bruce Springsteen’s album The Rising.

• Stephen Jay Gould dies.

2003

• The US invades Iraq and overthrows Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath Party.
• War begins in the Darfur region of Sudan.
• End of Second Congo War, which caused the deaths of more than five million people.
• The crew of Space Shuttle Columbia is killed during reentry (US).
• Peter Brown discovers Homo floresiensis (nicknamed ‘Hobbit’), a hominid species that lived between 95,000 and 17,000 years ago (Indonesia).
  

  A reconstruction of a Homo floresiensis female at the National Museum of Natural History.

• Belgium legalizes same-sex marriage.
• They Marched into Sunlight, a historical work written in English by David Maraniss (US).
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a novel written in English by Mark Haddon (UK).
• Lost in Translation, a film by Sofia Coppola (US).
  

  Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in Lost in Translation.

• American Splendor, a film by Shari Springer Berman (US).
  

  Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis in American Splendor.

• Speakerboxx/The Love Below, an album by Outkast (US).
• Elephant, an album by The White Stripes (US).
• Welcome Interstate Managers, an album by Fountains of Wayne (US).
• Yol Bolsin, an album by Sevara Nazarkhan (Uzbekistan).
  

  The cover of Yol Bolsin, an album by Sevara Nazarkhan.

• Edward Teller, ‘father of the hydrogen bomb’, dies.

2004

• A magnitude 9.2 earthquake in the Indian Ocean off Indonesia and the resulting tsunami kill 280,000 people in 14 countries.
• NATO and the European Union expand to include much of former Soviet bloc.
• The Kurdish separatist group PKK resumes armed conflict in Turkey.
• Massachusetts becomes the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage.
• Mark Zuckerberg and his team launch the Facebook website (US).
• The Boston Red Sox baseball team wins the World Series for the first time since 1918 (US).
• Michel Virlogeux and Norman Foster design the Millau Viaduct, the world’s tallest bridge (France).
  

  The Millau Viaduct is the tallest bridge in the world.

• Taipei 101, designed by C.Y. Lee, opens (Taiwan).
  

  Taipei 101 incorporates some architectural details of the traditional Chinese pagoda.

• Norman Foster designs 30 St Mary Axe (‘the Gherkin’) in London (UK).
  

  Norman Foster’s London skyscraper has acquired the nickname, “The Gherkin.”

• The Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus (US).
  

  Seattle Central Library.

• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, a novel written in English by Susanna Clarke (UK).
• Cloud Atlas, a novel written in English by David Mitchell (US).
• Sideways, a film by Alexander Payne (US).
  

  Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church in Alexander Payne’s Sideways.

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a film by Michel Gondry (US).
  

  Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

• Million Dollar Baby, a film by Clint Eastwood.
• How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, an album by U2 (Ireland).
• American Idiot, an album by Green Day (US).
• Van Lear Rose, an album by Loretta Lynn(US).
  

  The cover of Van Lear Rose, an album by Loretta Lynn.

• Francis Crick dies.
• Death of Ronald Reagan.

2005

• An earthquake in Kashmir kills 80,000 (India; Pakistan).
• Hurricane Katrina kills nearly 2000 people along Gulf of Mexico (US).
• Israel withdraws from Gaza.
• The Youtube video sharing website is launched (US).
• Canada and Spain legalize same-sex marriage.
• The US crashes a space probe into Comet Tempel I.
• The Kyoto Protocol for greenhouse gas emissions goes into effect.
• Mike Brown and his team discover Eris, a dwarf planet orbiting our sun (US).
  

  A diagram showing the location of Eris in our solar system.

• Danica Patrick becomes the first woman to lead the Indy 500 auto race (US).
• The Gates, an art installation in Central Park, New York, by Christo and Jeanne-Claude (US).
  

  A view of The Gates.

• The Matter of Time, a series of eight sculptures by Richard Serra, is unveiled at the Guggenheim Bilbao (Spain).
  

  The Matter of Time.

• The Year of Magical Thinking, a memoir written in English by Joan Didion (US).
• Never Let Me Go, a novel written in English by Kazuo Ishiguro (UK).
• Caché, a film by Michael Haneke (France).
  

  Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil in Michael Haneke’s Caché.

• Munich, a film by Steven Spielberg (US).
  

  A still image from Steven Spielberg’s Munich.

• Hans Bethe dies.
• Maclyn McCarty dies.
• Charles David Keeling dies.
• Jack Kilby dies.
• Death of Rosa Parks.
• Death of Pope John Paul II.

2006

• Montenegro becomes an independent nation.
• Israel invades Lebanon.
• Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes the first elected female African head of state.
  

  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

• South Africa legalizes same-sex marriage.
• French soccer player Zinedine Zidane headbutts Italy’s Marco Materazzi during the World Cup finals in Berlin (Germany).
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a book about food written in English by Michael Pollan (US).
• The Emperor’s Children, a novel written in English by Claire Messud (US).
• Pan’s Labyrinth, a film by Guillermo del Toro (Mexico).
  

  A still image from Pan’s Labyrinth.

• Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), a film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (Germany).
  

  Ulrich Mühle in The Lives of Others.

• United 93, a film by Paul Greengrass (US).
  

  A still image from Paul Greengrass’s United 93.

• The Greatest, an album by Cat Power (US).
• Modern Times, an album by Bob Dylan (US).
• Ys, an album by Joanna Newsom (US).
  

  Joanna Newsom performing in 2006.

2007

• Riots break out in Kenya following an election result that many believe was fraudulent.
• Assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan).
• Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho shoots and kills 32 people at the school before committing suicide (US).
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a novel written in English by Junot Díaz (US).
• Then We Came to the End, a novel written in English by Joshua Ferris (US).
• Tree of Smoke, a novel written in English by Denis Johnson (US).
• J.K. Rowling publishes Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the Harry Potter series (UK).
• There Will Be Blood, a film by Paul Thomas Anderson (US).
  

  Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood.

• No Country for Old Men, a film by the Coen Brothers (US).
  

  Javier Bardem in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men.

• Back to Black, an album by Amy Winehouse (UK).
  

  Amy Winehouse.

• Wátina, an album by Andy Palacio (Belize).
• Theodore Maiman dies.

2008

• Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar.
• Kosovo declares independence.
• Failure of US financial institutions triggers global economic crisis.
• War in Gaza between Israel and Palestinians.
• Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected US President.
  

  Official Presidential Portrait of Barack Obama in 2009.

• American swimmer Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals at the Beijing Summer Olympics (China).
• Beijing National Stadium (the ‘Birds’s Nest’), designed by Herzog & de Meuron, opens for the Summer Olympics (China).
  

  The Bird’s Nest was the home for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

• Unaccustomed Earth, a novel written in English by Jhumpa Lahiri (US).
• Netherland, a novel written in English by Joseph O’Neill (Ireland/US).
• WALL-E, a film by Andrew Stanton (US).
  

  A still image from Pixar’s Wall-E.

• Milk, a film by Gus Van Sant (US).
  

  Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant’s Milk.

• Santigold, an album by Santigold (US).
• Fleet Foxes, an album by Fleet Foxes (US).
• Dear Science, an album by TV on the Radio (US).
  

  TV on the Radio performs on the Tonight Show in 2008.

2009

• Government forces defeat the Tamil Tigers, ending the 26-year Sri Lankan civil war.
• Analog broadcast television in the US ends on June 12.
• After his Airbus 320 hits a flock of geese and loses engine power, Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger lands the plane on New York’s Hudson River; all passengers and crew survive (US).
  

  US Airways flight 1549 floating in the Hudson River in New York.

• Norway and Sweden legalize same-sex marriage.
• Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt sprints 100 meters in 9.58 seconds at the Berlin World Championships, breaking his own world record (Germany).
• Wolf Hall, a novel written in English by Hilary Mantel (UK).
• Lark and Termite, a novel written in English by Jayne Anne Philips (US).
• The Hurt Locker, a film by Kathryn Bigelow (US).
  

  A still image from Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.

• A Serious Man, a film by Joel & Ethan Coen (US).
  

  A still image from A Serious Man.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, an album by Phoenix (France).
• Veckatimest, an album by Grizzly Bear (US).
  

  The cover of Veckatimest, an album by Grizzly Bear.

• Norman Ernest Borlaug, Green Revolution pioneer, dies.
• Death of Michael Jackson.

2010

• A magnitude 7.0 earthquake kills 158,000-223,000 people in Haiti.
• Rescuers dig 16-year-old Darlene Etienne out of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince, 15 days after the earthquake (Haiti).
• The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano creates an ash cloud so large that it grounds air traffic over much of Europe (Iceland).
• Self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi triggers Arab Spring (Tunisia).
• Massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from an offshore BP rig (US).
• Iceland, Portugal and Argentina legalize same-sex marriage.
• Three stranded Spanish climbers are rescued by helicopter at 22,900 feet altitude on Annapurna (Nepal).
• The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team wins its 90th consecutive game in three seasons (US).
• Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, is completed in Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
  

  Dubai now boasts the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.

• The opening of a retaining wall in Harlingen marks the completion of the 50-year-long Delta Works project (The Netherlands).
• Siddhartha Mukherjee publishes The Emperor of All Maladies, an English language history of cancer (US).
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a scientific biography written in English by Rebecca Skloot (US).
• The Warmth Of Other Suns, a historical work written in English by Isabel Wilkerson (US).
• A Visit From The Goon Squad, a novel written in English by Jennifer Egan (US).
• Freedom, a novel written in English by Jonathan Franzen (US).
• The Social Network, a film by David Fincher (US).
  

  Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network.

• Black Swan, a film by Darren Aronofsky (US).
  

  Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.

• My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, an album by Kanye West (US).
• The Suburbs, an album by Arcade Fire (Canada).
  

  The cover of Arcade Fire’s album The Suburbs.

2011

• The magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and resulting tsunami cause a meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and the deaths of 16,000 people (Japan).
• South Sudan becomes an independent nation.
• Arab Spring revolutions succeed in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, with uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain.
• The Syrian Civil War begins.
• Occupy Movement protests begin.
  

  An Occupy protest march in New York City.

• US forces kill Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
• Fidel Castro leaves Cuban government due to poor health.
• End of US-Iraq War.
• Death of Kim Jong-Il and ascension of his son Kim Jong-un as Supreme Leader of North Korea.
• Kelly Slater, age 39, becomes the oldest person to win the American Surfing Professionals men’s world champion title (US).
• The Marriage Plot, a novel written in English by Jeffrey Eugenides (US).
• The Tree of Life, a film by Terence Malick (US).
  

  A still image from Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life.

• A Separation, a film by Asghar Farhadi (Iran).
  

  A still image from A Separation.

• Bon Iver, Bon Iver, an album by Bon Iver (US).
• Bad as Me, an album by Tom Waits (US).
• 21, an album by Adele.
  

  The cover of Adele’s album 21.

• Lynn Margulis dies.
• Simon van der Meer dies.

2012

• Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager who spoke out on education for girls, survives a terrorist shooting (Pakistan).
  

  Malala Yousafzai after recovering from her gunshot wound.

• Aung San Suu Kyi is elected to Parliament (Myanmar).
  

  Aung San Suu Kyi in 2011.

• Denmark legalizes same-sex marriage.
• The Higgs boson is detected in the Large  Hadron Collider at CERN (Switzerland).
• Swiss tennis player Roger Federer wins a record-breaking 17th Grand Slam title.
• The hydroelectric Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is fully operational (China).
  
• Bring up the Bodies, a novel written in English by Hilary Mantel (UK).
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a work of non-fiction written in English by Katherine Boo (India).
• Zero Dark Thirty, a film by Kathryn Bigelow (US).
  

  A still image from Zero Dark Thirty.

• Amour, a film by Michael Haneke (France).
  

  Emmanuelle Riva in Michael Haneke’s Amour.

• Channel Orange, an album by Frank Ocean (US).
• Kendrick Lamar’s album good kid, m.A.A.d. city (US).
• Neil Armstrong dies.

2013

• The Chelyabinsk meteor hits Russia.
  

  The Chelyabinsk meteor.

• Military coup in Egypt deposes elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
• The PKK Kurdish separatists announce a unilaterial cease-fire and begin negotiations with the Turkish government.
• France and Brazil legalize same-sex marriage.
• The Neanderthal Genome Project sequences the genome of Homo neanderthalensis (Germany).
• Life after Life, an English-language novel by Kate Atkinson (UK).
• Tenth of December, stories written in English by George Saunders (US).
• 12 Years a Slave, a film by Steve McQueen (US/UK).
  

  A still image from 12 Years a Slave.

• Before Midnight, a film by Richard Linklater (US).
• Inside Llewyn Davis, a film by Joel & Ethan Coen (US).
  

  Oscar Isaac in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis.

• Yeezus, an album by Kanye West (US).
• Random Access Memories, an album by Daft Punk (France).
  

  The cover of Daft Punk’s album Random Access Memories.

• Trouble Will Find Me, an album by The National (US).
• Frederick Sanger dies.
• Death of Nelson Mandela.

2014

• Russia invades Ukraine and annexes Crimea.
• The US restores diplomatic relations with Cuba.
• The European Space Agency lands the Rosetta space probe on Comet 67P.
• The Kepler Space Telescope identifies the first exoplanet similar to Earth in size with an orbit within the habitable zone of another star (US).
• The Grand Budapest Hotel, a film by Wes Anderson (US).
  

  A still image from The Grand Budapest Hotel. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight.

• Boyhood, a film by Richard Linklater (US).
  

  A still image from Boyhood.

• LP1, an album by FKA Twigs (UK).
  

  The cover of LP1, an album by FKA Twigs.

• 1989, an album by Taylor Swift (US).

2015

• A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Gorkha, Nepal kills over 8,000 on April 25.
• Refugees from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries escaping war and deprivation flood into Europe.
• An investigation into corruption at FIFA leads to arrests of several officials.
• Volkswagen is discovered to have cheated on emissions tests of its diesel vehicles.
• In January, ISIS terrorists kill 17 people in Paris in reaction to anti-Islamic material in Charlie Hebdo magazine.
• In February, Iran-supported Houthi rebels capture Yemen’s capital and drive President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile, leading Saudia Arabia and a coalition of Arab states to intervene in Yemen’s civil war.
• The suicidal pilot of a Germanwings aircraft flies the plane into a Swiss mountain on March 24, killing all 150 aboard.
• On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that it is unconstitutional to ban same-sex marriage.
• Greeks elect an anti-austerity prime minister in January, and vote to reject the EU’s proposals on July 5, but by July 13, Greece accept the EU’s demands.
• On July 14, 2015, Iran, China, France, Russia, UK, US, Germany and the EU reach agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.
• An economic slowdown leads China to devalue its currency in August, causing the Chinese stock market to plunge.
• At least 2,236 pilgrims died in a crowd crush in Mina, Mecca on September 24.
• On September 28, NASA announces the strongest evidence yet that Mars has liquid water.
  

  This digitally enhanced image of the Martian surface shows evidence of flowing water.

• On September 30, Russia Intervenes on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War.
• On October 31, a bomb possibly planted by ISIS brings down a Russian passenger airliner over the Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.
• In November, ISIS strikes again in Paris, killing 130 in multiple coordinated attacks.
• Tensions rise between Russia and Turkey after Turkish F-16s shoot down a Russian fighter in Turkish air space on November 24.
• On December 2, a husband and wife who pledged allegiance to ISIS kill 14 people in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.
• In the December 12, 2015 Paris Agreement, 195 countries agree to take action to curb climate change.
• In movies, Carol and Inside Out are critics’ favorites.
• The year’s most highly regarded books are A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, and Between the World and Me, by ­Ta-­Nehisi Coates.
• Most highly praised music releases are Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly and Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell.

2016

• Earthquakes kill 350 in Ecuador and 247 in Italy.
• Colombia reaches peace agreement with rebel FARC group after 50 years of fighting.
• Amid scandals, Brazil removes President Dilma Rousseff from office.
• The war in Syria continues, with Assad’s forces, with Russian support, retaking Aleppo, causing huge numbers of civilian casualties.
• A failed military coup in Turkey is followed by a purge of suspected anti-government rebels.
• Controversial vigilante mayor Rodrigo Duterte becomes president of the Philippines.
  

  Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo by Dondi Tawatao/REUTERS.

• North Korea detonates first hydrogen bomb and continues to test missiles.
• UK votes to leave European Union in Brexit referendum vote.
• Russia interferes in U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
• Republican Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency in a surprise victory over first-ever female nominee, Democrat Hilary Clinton.
• Iran severs diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia after the Saudis execute Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
• Roman Catholic Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill meet in Cuba, the first meeting between leaders of the two churches in almost 1000 years.
• Terrorists attacks in Brussels, Belgium (34 killed), Nice, France (84 killed) and Orlando, Florida, US (49 killed).
• After the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, President Obama nominates Merrick Garland but the Republican-controlled Senate refuses to consider the nomination.
• The release of the Panama Papers reveals the ways the wealthy avoid paying taxes.
• The Zika virus becomes a major health threat in South and Central America and the southern United States.
• After voters reject his political reform plan, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns.
• Mother Teresa is canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.
• Scientists using the orbiting Kepler telescope discover 1284 new planets, nine of which might be able to support life
• Cuban revolutionary leader and president Fidel Castro dies at age 90.
• Most critically-acclaimed movies: Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea and La La Land.
• Critics’ favorite recordings: David Bowie – Blackstar; Beyoncé – Lemonade; Frank Ocean – Blonde.
• Best-reviewed books: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead; Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi; Swing Time, by Zadie Smith; When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi; Barkskins, by Annie Proulx; Evicted, by Matthew Desmond; and The Gene: An Intimate History, by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

2017

• In August and September, major hurricanes Harvey (Texas, US); Irma (Caribbean islands; Puerto Rico & Florida, US); and Maria (Puerto Rico, US) cause significant loss of life and property.
• Wildfires in California (US) and across the globe are the second worst in recorded history.
• North Korea increases its missile and nuclear testing in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
• Iraq announced that it had defeated the Islamic State (ISIS) but the group still survives in Syria and commits terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world.
• Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45^th US president. During his first year in office, he recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, withdraws from the Paris Climate Agreement, and bans immigration from several Muslim-majority countries.
• The Trump Administration is under investigation for colluding with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
• After militants from the Rohingya population ambush armed security forces, Myanmar launches a military crackdown on the Muslim minority group; over 650,000 Rohingyas flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
• Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe resigns after 37 years of rule.
• The UK reaches a ‘divorce’ agreement with the European Union.
• Spain’s Catalonia region votes for and declares independence, but Spanish authorities reject the move, suspend the region’s autonomy and exert control.
• Awareness of women’s rights issues in the US was highlighted by the massive women’s marches following Donald Trump’s inauguration and the outing of powerful and famous men who have committed sexual assault and harassment through the #metoo movement.
• Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman takes steps toward creating a more moderate Islamic state.
• Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen sever diplomatic ties with Qatar due to its support of terrorism.
• Moderate, pro-Europe candidate Emmanuel Macron defeats right-wing candidate Marine LePen to become president of France.
• Scientists’ observations of the collision and merger of two neutron stars provides evidence of gravitational waves and supports theories about the creation of heavy elements.
• An iceberg measuring 2,200 square miles detaches from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica.
• Most critically-acclaimed movies: Get Out (Jordan Peele); Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig); Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino); and The Florida Project (Sean Baker).
• Critics’ favorite recordings: Damn, by Kendrick Lamar; Ctrl, by SZA; Melodrama, by Lorde; and Masseducation, by St. Vincent. 
• Best-reviewed books: Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders; Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid; Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann; and Hunger, by Roxane Gay. 

2018

• The night of January 30-31 saw a Super Blue Blood Moon for the first time since 1866 (a total lunar eclipse during the second full moon of the month while the moon was at its closest point to Earth)
• South Korea hosts the Winter Olympics at PyeongChang in February.
• In February, a mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida leaves 17 dead. Other deadly mass shootings in the US include another school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas (10 killed) in May; an October shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead; and a shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California (23 killed) in November.
• On March 24, hundreds of thousands of people joined the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C. and 900 other cities around the world, protesting gun violence and mass shootings and calling for stronger gun control laws.
• China amends its constitution in March to remove term limits, making Xi Jinping “President for Life.”
• In March, Vladimir Putin wins election to a fourth six-year term as Russia’s president.
• In April, Miguel Diaz-Canel becomes president of Cuba after Raúl Castro steps down.
• In April, the Trump Administration implements a controversial family separation policy at the Mexican border, causing 2,300 children to be taken from their parents. After protests, the policy is rescinded in June.
• On April 14, in response to a suspected sarin gas attack on rebel-held Douma by the government of Syria in the Syrian Civil War, the US, the UK and France launch air strikes against government targets.
• On April 27, the leaders of North and South Korea meet for an historic summit in Pyongyang and agree to an official end of the Korean War.
• Cuban Air Flight 972 crashes shortly after take-off near Havana, Cuba, in May, killing 112 people.
• The US withdraws from the Iranian nuclear agreement in May; in June, the US withdraws from the UN Human Rights Council; and in October, the US withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in protest over allegations of Russian violations.
• UK’s Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle, a divorced, biracial American actress, on May 19.
• On May 20, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is reelected for a second six-year term in what many countries (including the US, the EU, and the Organization of American States) claim is a sham election.
• On May 25, an overwhelming majority of Irish voters choose to repeal the country’s ban on abortion.
• The US and North Korean leaders meet in their first summit in June to discuss denuclearization, but little concrete is accomplished.
• In July, France wins the FIFA World Cup, which is held in Russia.
• Japan and the European Union sign an Economic Partnership Agreement in July that creates an open trade zone covering 30% of global trade.
• After nationwide protests, the government of Saudi Arabia lifts the ban on women driving on June 24. The concession did not stop the Saudis from prosecuting the protestors, however.
• The 12 boys on a Thai soccer team and their coach are rescued in July after spending almost three weeks in a flooded cave.
• In July, the US begins a trade war with China by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods. In December, the countries agree to a truce in the war.
• The 20-year conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea finally ends with the signing of a peace deal in July.
• Following a series of cybersecurity scandals, including the sale of personal data from 50 million users to Cambridge Analytica, Facebook suffers a one-day, $109 billion drop in its market value in July.
• The Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy collapses in August, killing 43.
• In August, Apple, Inc. becomes the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in value.
• Arizona Senator and war hero John McCain dies on August 25.
• In August NASA launches the $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe, which will study our Sun, its corona and solar wind at close range.
• In September, the Indian Supreme Court strikes down a law criminalizing homosexual activity.
• Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil’s presidential election in October.
• In October, Canada legalizes the sale and recreational use of marijuana.
• On October 2, Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi is murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, triggering a diplomatic crisis. The CIA concludes that the murder was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• On October 6, despite credible allegations that he sexually assaulted women while in high school and college, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is narrowly approved by the US Senate in a 50-48 vote.
• The powerful Category 5 hurricane Michael hits the southeastern US in October, killing 46.
• In October, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a special report on global warming that warns that the Earth will warm by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2040 and that “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” are needed to reduce the threats.
• In November, several US government agencies issue a National Climate Assessment Report predicting severe damage to the US economy by climate change, including a huge increase in heart-related deaths.
• In response to reports of a large caravan of migrants coming to the US-Mexico border, President Trump deploys nearly 6,000 active-duty military troops to the border in November.
• In the November mid-term US elections, the Democrats take back control of the House of Representatives.  The election includes several historic firsts and records including: the most women ever elected to Congress, the election of the first Muslim women, the first Native American women, and the first openly bisexual senator.
• In November, former president George H.W. Bush dies at the age of 94.
• 2018 was the most destructive wildfire season ever in California, and culminates in November with the Camp Fire, which kills nearly 90 people in the northern California town of Paradise.
• In December, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded jointly to Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege, who works with victims of rape, and Yazidi assault survivor Nadia Murad “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”
• Yellow Vest protests over economic conditions continue in France, developing into riots during the week of December 1-8. On December 10, President Emmanuel Macron promises to raise the minimum wage.
• On December 12, British Prime Minister Theresa May survives a no confidence vote in Parliament, despite her inability to negotiate a Brexit deal with the EU that can win approval from the House of Commons.
• The most highly-regarded books of 2018 are: There There, by Tommy Orange; Circe, by Madeline Miller; The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: Stories, by Denis Johnson; Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight; Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover; Heavy: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon; and American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, by Terrance Hayes.
• The best-reviewed musical recordings of 2018 are: Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer; Mitski – Be the Cowboy; Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour; and Pusha T – DAYTONA.
• Critically-acclaimed films of 2018 include: Roma (Mexico/US, Alfonso Cuarón); If Beale Street Could Talk (US, Barry Jenkins); Burning (South Korea, Chang-dong Lee); and The Favourite (Ireland/UK/US, Yorgos Lanthimos).

2019

• Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest reach record proportions.
• Hurricane Dorian kills 74 (with over 250 still missing) in The Bahamas.
• A volcano erupts on White Island in New Zealand, killing 20.
• A proposed extradition bill sparks widespread protests and violence in Hong Kong.
• The U.S. House of Representatives impeaches President Donald Trump for abuse of power after he withholds aid from Ukraine in an attempt to obtain negative information on his political rival.
• The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team wins the World Cup for the fourth time.
• A fire partially destroys Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
• The leaders of North Korea and the U.S. meet twice, and President Donald Trump becomes the first sitting U.S. president to enter North Korea.
• After the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, killing 157, all Boeing 737 Max aircraft are grounded.
• China lands an unmanned space probe on the dark side of the moon.
• Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, located in the center of the M87 galaxy.
• After failing to obtain a deal on Brexit, UK Prime Minister Theresa May resigns, to be replaced by Boris Johnson.
• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who is currently seventh in line to the British throne.
• Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg became the face of climate change activism: she led thousands in protest marches; spoke to the United Nations; and was designated Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
• Venezuela enters a presidential crisis as Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly declare incumbent President Nicolás Maduro “illegitimate”; Guiadó declared himself president of Venezuela, but Maduro refused to step down. In April, an attempted uprising against Maduro fails.
• In April, Japanese Emperor Akihito formally stepped down after a 30-year reign, ending the Heisei era and becoming the first Japanese monarch in some 200 years to abdicate. Akihito’s son Naruhito succeeded him on the Chrysanthemum Throne, marking the start of the Reiwa imperial era.
• ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a U.S. special forces operation.
• An Ebola epidemic killed over 2,000 people in Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia, officially ending a decades-old dispute with Greece.
• In October, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir exit  the International Space Station, becoming the first to complete an all-female spacewalk.
• A series of bomb attacks occur at eight locations in Sri Lanka leaves 259 people dead.
• Anti-Muslim terrorist attacks at two mosques in New Zealand leave 51 dead.
• Mass shootings in El Paso, Texas (22 dead) and Dayton Ohio (10 dead) during a 24-hour period in August. El Paso shooter allegedly motivated by hatred of immigrants.
• In India, a landslide win for Narendra Modi and his right wing BJP party; rescinding of autonomy for Kashmir and Jammu; controversial new citizenship law that prefers non-Muslim immigrants; also, Pakistan-India tensions increase.
• The best-reviewed musical recordings of 2019 are: Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!; Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?; FKA Twigs – MAGDALENE; and Tyler, The Creator – IGOR.
• The most highly-regarded books of 2019 are: Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder And Memory In Northern Ireland, by Patrick Radden Keefe; Trick Mirror: Reflections On Self-Delusion, by Jia Tolentino; The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom; Trust Exercise, by Susan Choi; On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong; Ducks, Newburyport, by Lucy Ellmann; Normal People, by Sally Rooney; The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead; Fleishman Is In Trouble, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner.
• The most critically-acclaimed films of 2019 are: The Irishman (US, Martin Scorsese); Parasite (South Korea, Bong Joon-ho); Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (US/UK, Quentin Tarantino); and Marriage Story (US/UK, Noah Baumbach).

2020

• A pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 spreads across the globe, killing millions of people and infecting many more (including Donald Trump).  Safety measures to reduce the spread of the disease, including lockdowns, quarantines, and mask mandates, cause economic recession and some backlash. Late in the year, the arrival of vaccines offers hope.
• In American politics, the Senate acquits President Donald Trump after he was impeached by the House.
• Trump loses re-election to Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris, the first ever woman, Black and South Asian vice-president. The high voter turnout sets records.
• In January, a U.S. drone strike kills Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, elevating tensions.
• The U.S. brokers peace deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
• The killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota leads to nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
• Australia and the western U.S. experience devastating wildfires.
• The U.K.’s Brexit from the European Union becomes official in January.
• Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce they would “step back” from the British royal family on January 8.
• Basketball star Kobe Bryant and his daughter die in a helicopter crash.
• Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite becomes the first foreign-language film to win the Academy Award for best motion picture.
• Movie producer Harvey Weinstein is found guilty of sex crimes.
• In August, a fire in a waterfront warehouse in Beirut, Lebanon ignites a cache of ammonium nitrate, causing an explosion that killed nearly 200 people and injured more than 6,000.
• Liberal Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies, giving Donald Trump the opportunity to replace her with conservative Amy Coney Barrett.
• Computer hackers target American public figures in a bitcoin scam in July.
• U.S. government computers are subject to a massive cyberattack, likely coming from Russia.
• China, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. all launch unmanned space missions to Mars.
• U.S. and Japanese probes land on asteroids and collected dust and rocks to bring back to Earth.
• In January, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 is shot down by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards after taking off from Tehran, killing 176 people.
• The best-reviewed musical recordings are: Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Run the Jewels – RTJ4; Taylor Swift – Folklore; Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher; Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud; and Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia. 
• The most highly-regarded books are: Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell; Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhar; The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett; Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson; Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald; and African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song, edited by Kevin Young.
• The most critically-acclaimed films are: Small Axe: Lovers Rock (UK, Steve McQueen); First Cow (US, Kelly Reichardt); Never Rarely Sometimes Always (US/UK. Eliza Hittman); Nomadland (US, Chloé Zhao); Collective (Romania, Alexander Nanau); and Mank (US, David Fincher).

2021

• Extreme weather due to human-caused climate change is increasing. The American southwest experiences record drought and the Pacific Northwest suffers through a record-breaking heat wave. Flooding devastates Belgium and western Germany; wildfires ravage Greece; and late-season monsoons cause devastation in India and Nepal.
• The COVID-19 pandemic continues, with the new Delta variant becoming the dominant strain, another variant, Omicron, arrives late in the year. More than five million people die from the illness by year’s end, 800,000 of those in the U.S. The new COVID-19 vaccines prove effective in reducing the death toll. By the end of the year, nearly eight billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.
• The pandemic results in supply chain disruptions across the globe, leading to shortages of many goods. These problems are exacerbated when the container ship Ever Given runs aground in the Suez Canal in March, blocking one of the world’s major waterways for a week and generating costs estimated to run $9.6 billion a day.
• After Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump in the race for U.S. president, Trump and his supporters spread false claims of election fraud. One result is attempted insurrection on January 6, when a hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators break into the U.S. Capitol and commit acts of violence in an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transition of power. The same false claims of fraud lead Republican states to impose restrictions on the right to vote.
• Soon after assuming office as the 46th U.S. President in January, Joe Biden returns the U.S. to the Paris Climate Agreement and  the World Health Organization.
• In the summer, President Biden abruptly withdraws American troops from Afghanistan shortly before an agreed-upon deadline, causing disruption and provoking criticism. Shortly after the withdrawal, the Taliban completes its takeover of the country and returns to power after 20 years.
• A military coup in Myanmar in February deposes the popularly elected government of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party. NLD President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi are arrested and charged with crimes against the state.
• The Libyan-based rebel group Front for Change and Concord in Chad launches an offensive that results in the killing of Chadian President Idriss Déby in April.  Déby had been president since a military coup in 1990. His son Mahamat Déby immediately becomes acting President of Chad.
• Also in April, Raul Castro steps down as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, marking the first time since the 1959 Revolution that Cuba is not ruled by a member of the Castro family.
• In July, gunmen assassinate Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse, plunging the country into political chaos. A few weeks later, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hits southwestern Haiti, followed by flash floods. Tens of thousands of Haitian refugees flee the country. Many attempt to cross from Mexico into the U.S., exacerbating an already-chaotic situation at the southern border.
• Rivals of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, form a loose coalition to oust him from power in June. Naftali Bennett is sworn in as the new Prime Minister.
• Germany’s Angela Merkel leaves office after 16 years, becoming the first chancellor in the nation’s history to leave power on her own terms.
• Upon the return of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny from exile in Germany (where he was recovering from being poisoned), Vladimir Putin’s government arrests Navalny and a court orders him to prison, sparking widespread protests and international condemnation.
• In October, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists release the Pandora Papers, more than 12 million documents that show how the wealthy and powerful use offshore accounts to evade taxes and hide money.
• In September, President Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson jointly announce AUKUS, a new trilateral security partnership, which includes a U.S. pledge to provide Australia with technology to build eight nuclear-powered (but not nuclear-armed) submarines.
• In April, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 2020 death of George Floyd. The killing sparked protests against systemic racism and police violence in more than 2,000 U.S. cities and 60 countries around the globe in 2020.
• The private space tourism industry gets underway with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, and Elon Musk’s Space X sending civilians into space.
• After being delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Olympics take place in Tokyo.
• This year’s highly acclaimed books include: Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe; Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead; Detransition, Baby, by Torrey Peters; Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead; Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner; and How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith.
• The best-reviewed music albums are: Promises, by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and the London Symphony Orchestra; Call Me if You Get Lost, by Tyler, the Creator; New Long Leg, by Dry Cleaning; Hey What, by Low; and Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, by Little Simz.
• The most highly regarded films are Licorice Pizza, Drive My Car, The Power of the Dog, Dune, and The Souvenir, Part II.
• The critics’ favorite TV shows are: Succession, The White Lotus, Hacks, The Underground Railroad, and Reservation Dogs.
• Notable deaths of 2021: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, baseball great Hank Aaron, Queen Elizabeth’s husband Prince Philip, author Beverly Cleary, Republican leader Bob Dole, talk show host Larry King, musical theater legend Stephen Sondheim, actress Cicely Tyson, and South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

2022

• The world’s population reaches eight billion people, according to a United Nations projection, and will likely grow to 10 billion by the end of the century.
• Once rare extreme weather events are becoming commonplace as human-caused climate change intensifies. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations warns in April that the effects of climate change will soon become irreversible. Europe, Pakistan, China, and the southwestern U.S. experience unprecedented heat waves, which cause crop failures and human suffering. Hurricane Ian wreaks havoc on Florida. Drought brings starvation to the Horn of Africa.
• In August, President Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims in part to invest in domestic energy production while promoting clean energy.
• Yvon Chouinard, founder of the clothing company Patagonia, donates all his firm’s profits from September 2022 forward to environmental protection and sustainability.
• The COVID-19 pandemic begins to ease in most of the world, although the infection rates and deaths (mostly from the omicron variant) continue. The U.S. death toll reaches one million. In December, China lifts restrictions without providing an effective vaccine, raising concerns.
• In July, the World Health Organization declares monkeypox a public health emergency, although the availability of an effective vaccine reduces the new threat.
• On February 24, 2022, Russia invades Ukraine, sparking a war that is roundly condemned by many nations, including the U.S. Fierce fighting by Ukrainian forces thwarts predictions of a quick Russian victory. Aid pours into Ukraine from the U.S. and other Western countries and President Volodomyr Zelensky vows to fight until all Russian-occupied land is returned. Sanctions against Russia and other war-related obstacles lead to price shocks, supply disruptions, and food shortages.
• A months-long shortage of baby formula in the U.S. exemplifies the continued problems plaguing supply chains.
• The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are among the causes of a significant rise in inflation across the globe, reaching a high of 9.1% in the U.S. over the summer. Interest rates rise, real wages decline, and the public is angry about price increases.
• As inflation rises, the cryptocurrency bubble pops, exemplified by the collapse of the FTX exchange.
• The United Kingdom undergoes political turmoil, with three Conservative prime ministers serving in two months. First, scandal-plagued Boris Johnson resigns in July; Liz Truss then serves for 44 days; following her is Rishi Sundak, the UK’s first prime minister of South Asian descent, who takes over in October.
• The UK monarchy also experiences a change, the first since Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne 70 years earlier. Elizabeth dies in September, at age 96, after setting the record for longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her son succeeds her as King Charles III.
• The return of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the presidency after defeating incumbent right-winger Jair Bolsonaro signals a shift to the left for Brazil.
• Protests erupt in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody after being arrested by the so-called morality police for failing to cover her hair properly. Iranian security forces respond in force, killing hundreds of protestors.
• Rising tensions between the U.S. and China are highlighted by the controversial visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August, a decision that triggers military exercises by China simulating an invasion of the island.
• Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is fatally shot while giving a speech. The alleged gunman, who uses a gun he assembled himself using online instructions, is upset Abe’s involvement with the Unification Church.
• In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision recognizing a federal constitutional right to abortion.  Soon after, conservative states pass laws restricting or banning abortion, while liberal states – including California, Michigan, and Vermont – successfully enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions.
• Just days after the abortion decision in Dobbs, President Biden’s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Mass shootings continue to disrupt communities across the U.S. On May 14, a white gunman fatally shoots ten Black people in a Buffalo, NY supermarket. On May 24, a gunman shoots and kills 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. On November 19, five people are killed and 25 are injured by a gunman in an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs.
• In June, President Biden signs the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first gun reform law passed in the 10 years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six adults.
• In late October, a crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood causes the deaths of 158 people, mostly young people in the 20s out to celebrate Halloween after the lifting of COVID restrictions.
• Trump News:  A Congressional probe into the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol concludes with criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump. In August, the FBI raids Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, where they find classified documents. At the end of the year, Trump announces he is running for president again in 2024.
• Despite a predicted “red wave,” the midterm elections for the U.S. Congress favor the Democrats, with small gains in the House and retention of control of the Senate by a slim margin.
• After some conflict, billionaire and free-speech hawk Elon Musk buys the social media platform Twitter in October and immediately fires a large number of employees.
• In sports, the Winter Olympics are held in Beijing, with Norway taking the most medals; Argentina, with star Lionel Messi, defeats France in the World Cup in Qatar; and WBNA star Britney Griner is detained in Russia due to possession of hashish oil, although she is released through a prisoner exchange by the end of the year.
• In March, researchers discover the wreck of Endurance, the ship from Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated trans-Antarctic expedition that got underway in 1914.
• The best rated films of the year are: Aftersun, Everything Everywhere All at Once (which won the Oscar for Best Picture), Nope, The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave, and the Indian film RRR.
• TV critics singled out Better Call Saul, Barry, Reservation Dogs, and Severance.
• Critically-acclaimed albums included: Renaissance, by Beyoncé; Motomami, by Rosalía; Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, by Kendrick Lamar; Un Verano Sin Ti, by Bad Bunny; and Big Time, by Angel Olsen.
• Highly regarded books are: The Candy House, by Jennifer Egan; Either/Or, by Elif Batuman; Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng; Vladimir, by Julia May Jonas; and The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, by Stacy Schiff.

2023

• According to the UN World Meteorological Organization, 2023 is the hottest year on record.
• In drought-stricken Hawaii, wildfires kill 100 and destroy the town of Lahaina in August.
• Heavy rainfall in Libya causes the collapse of two dams in September. The resulting flooding kills 4,000 people.
• At the 28^th UN climate change conference in Dubai in December, the nearly 200 members adopt an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
• Investments in clean energy are up and the costs of wind and solar power are falling.
• A 7.8 level earthquake (followed quickly by a 7.5 aftershock) strikes Turkey and Syria in February, killing nearly 60,000 people and destroying many buildings.
• In September, an earthquake in Morocco kills nearly 3,000 people and brings down entire villages.
• India – with an estimated 1.43 billion people – passes China as the world’s most populous country.
• On May 5, the World Health Organization declares an end to the global health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO confirms more than 765 million cases of illness and seven million deaths so far.
• As the respiratory virus RSV spreads among the world’s children, scientists announce the creation of the first vaccine for the illness.
• On October 7, Hamas launches a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 240 people hostage. Israel responds with a massive air bombing, followed by a ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Israel’s military action creates a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, due to the large number of civilian deaths and lack of food, water, medical supplies, and power. The US backs Israel, which claims that Hamas is using civilians as human shields.
• A Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia’s invading forces begins in June but Ukrainian forces fail to gain much ground. Russia doubles the number of troops in Ukraine and some call for the parties to consider a negotiated settlement.
• In June, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the the Wagner Group, a private Russian mercenary force, leads a short-lived mutiny against the Russian military. A few months after a negotiated settlement allows Prigozhin to escape to Belarus, he dies in a plane crash.
• NATO accepts Russia’s neighbor Finland as its newest member in April.
• Tensions between the U.S. and China flare up when a high-altitude balloon appears over the U.S. in February and travels over the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. According to U.S. officials, what the Chinese claim is an off-course weather instrument is actually a spy balloon. The U.S. Air Force eventually shoots down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
• Amid tensions, Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in November during his first visit to the U.S. since 2017.
• At the August summit of the BRICS bloc, existing members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa agree to admit six more countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Argentina.
• After a seven-year break in diplomatic relations, Iran and Saudi Arabia exchange ambassadors.
• In Niger, a military coup ousts the country’s democratically-elected president.
• In Gabon, a coup replaced long-time president Ali Bongo with his cousin Brice Oligui Nguema.
• A shaky coalition between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, falls apart in April, when RSF forces attack SAF bases across the country, beginning a civil war in Sudan.  By fall, the country is divided, with RSF in control of Khartoum and SAF holding Port Sudan.
• In Myanmar’s civil war, a fall offensive by a coalition of armed ethnic rebel groups surprises the ruling military junta.
• In May, Charles III is crowned as king of the United Kingdom, along with his queen consort, Camilla.
• In US politics, the House of Representatives takes 15 ballots to elect California Republican Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. In October, McCarthy is ousted by his opponents, and the country goes three weeks without a speaker until Mike Johnson of Louisiana is elected to replace McCarthy.
• In a rare move, the House expels freshman New York Republican George Santos in December after Santos is indicted by federal prosecutors and faces numerous ethics violations.
• Donald Trump becomes the first former U.S. president to be indicted. In March, a New York grand jury indicts Trump for violations of campaign finance laws in connection with payments made to a porn actress. In June, he is indicted in Florida on federal charges for mishandling classified documents, and in August, he is charged in relation to his attempt to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia. By the end of the year, Trump faces a combined 91 civil or criminal charges.
• Five people die in June when the private Titan Submersible suffers a catastrophic implosion on the way to view the wreckage of the Titanic.
• A six-week strike by the United Auto Workers beginning in September results in record wage increases for workers in American factories.
• In May, the union for television and movie writers begins a strike, which is joined in July by the actors’ union.  Both strikes are resolved by the end of the year, with issues of pay for streaming services and the threat of artificial intelligence at the forefront of negotiations.
• As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT become more powerful, they are subject to debate. Experts say AI is making scientific, medical, and mathematical breakthroughs and reducing inefficiencies, but some warn about job losses, data insecurity, online fraud, and worse.
• India makes advances in its space program. On August 23, it lands an unmanned spacecraft near the moon’s south pole and in September, it launches a rocket to study the sun.
• Russia’s Luna 25 mission to the moon ends in disaster when the craft crashes into the lunar surface.
• In July, American moviegoers return to the theaters for a blockbuster opening weekend of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.  The unlikely double feature is dubbed Barbenheimer.
• U.S. pop star Taylor Swift’s $1 billion Eras concert tour breaks earnings records and stokes the economies of the cities where she performs.
• In baseball, the Texas Rangers defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks to win their first World Series in the history of the franchise.
• Rosalynn Carter, the wife of former President Jimmy Carter, dies at the age of 96.

2024

• Human-caused climate change continues to heat up the planet, making 2024 the hottest year on record, with the average global temperature exceeding the pre-industrial average by 1.46 degrees Centigrade.
• Drought and wildfires afflict the Amazon river basin, areas around Athens, Greece, and parts of the U.S.
• In September, catastrophic floods affect millions in Central and Eastern Europe, while floods kill 200 in eastern Spain in October.
• On April 8, millions watch as a total solar eclipse occurs across parts of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
• NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are stuck on the International Space Station after the Boeing Starliner that was due to return them to Earth develops mechanical problems. Their planned nine-day mission is now expected to last for nearly a year, with a rescue scheduled for April 2025.
• The war in Ukraine continues with a Russian offensive in the east beginning in July, and a surprise attack by Ukrainian troops into Russia’s Kursk province in August. Casualty estimates are now: 115,000 killed and 500,000 wounded for Russia, and 43,000 killed and 370,000 wounded for Ukraine.
• The year saw the entry of more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers into the Ukraine war on the side of Russia, highlighting closer cooperation between Russia and North Korea.
• In December, Ukrainian intelligence assassinates senior Russian general Igor Kirillov outside his Moscow apartment.
• The war between Hamas and Israel develops into a regional conflict. While Israel’s invasion of Gaza causes a humanitarian crisis, with 45,000 killed (mostly civilians) and Gazan infrastructure decimated, the conflict expands to include Iran and Hezbollah.
• In April, Israel bombs Iran’s consulate in Damascus, which leads Iran to launch missiles and drones against Israel.
• After Israel assassinates a senior Hamas leader in July while he was in Tehran, Iran retaliates with another missile strike.
• Israel, aided by the US, deflects most of the Iranian attacks with its air defense systems.
• In September, Israel strikes back against Hezbollah’s missile and rocket attacks from Lebanon by first detonating small bombs hidden in Hezbollah pagers, followed by the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
• Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court requests arrest warrants for leaders of both Israel and Hamas for alleged crimes against humanity.
• Many are astonished when, in early December, rebel forces in Syria quickly and almost bloodlessly overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad and end the 13-year-long Syrian civil war. The new leaders, former allies of Al-Qaeda, pledge to bring democracy to Syria.
• Assad and his family flee to Russia, which loses an ally in the region in the rebel takeover of Syria.
• Also in Russia, Vladimir Putin wins his fifth term as president after garnering nearly 88% of the vote. Notably, all viable political opponents are either imprisoned or censored prior to the election.
• In October, Claudia Sheinbaum is sworn in as Mexico’s first female president and the first Jewish person to hold the post.
• Sweden officially joins NATO in March, bringing the alliance to 32 member countries.
• On January 1, Azerbaijan officially dissolves the Republic of Artsakh (also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), which returns the region to Azerbaijan control.  The republic, which was created by ethnic Armenians at the end of the first Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, lost territory in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, but a 2023 Azerbaijani offensive brought about the collapse of the republic and the exodus of most of the ethnic Armenians from the territory.
• In the presidential election in the U.S., a disastrous debate performance by 81-year-old incumbent Joe Biden leads him to withdraw from the race in July.
• In Biden’s place, the Democrats nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to be a major party candidate for president in U.S. history.
• In March, a New York jury finds Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of violating campaign finance law by paying hush money to an adult film actress. This is the first time a current or former president is convicted of a crime.
• In July, Trump narrowly escapes an assassin’s bullet during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, leading to criticism of the Secret Service.  A second assassination attempt – this time at a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida – is thwarted by the Secret Service before any shots are fired.
• In November, Trump wins the presidential election, making him only the second person (after Grover Cleveland) to win nonconsecutive presidential terms. Unlike the election of 2016, this time Trump wins the popular vote as well as the electoral vote.  Despite accusations that Trump will lead the U.S. closer to authoritarianism, polls indicate that many voters blamed the incumbents for inflation and sought a change of leadership.
• The brazen daytime murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City street in December sparks a national conversation about access to health insurance. After suspected murderer Luigi Mangione is arrested for the crime, some label him a hero.
• Artificial intelligence becomes more readily available to Americans as AI programs become incorporated into smartphones, social media, search engines, and other technology.
• The 33rd Olympic Games are held in Paris over the summer. Successful U.S. Olympians include swimmer Katie Ledecky, gymnast Simone Biles, and married couple Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis-Woodhall.
• Critically-acclaimed films of 2024 include: Anora, Green Border, Nickel Boys, I Saw the TV Glow, and No Other Land.
• Highly-rated TV shows were: Baby Reindeer, Shōgun, Say Nothing, and Somebody Somewhere.
• Critics’ favorite albums were: Brat, by Charli XCX; Cowboy Carter, by Beyoncé (which won the Grammy for Album of the Year); and Tigers Blood, by Waxahatchee.
• The best-reviewed books were: James, by Percival Everett; All Fours, by Miranda July; Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar; Challenger, by Adam Higginbotham; Knife, by Salman Rushdie; and There’s Always This Year, by Hanif Abdurraqib.
• Notable deaths in 2024: English singer Liam Payne, at 31; English actress Maggie Smith, at 89; and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, at 100.

This is the conclusion of the Timeline of Human History.  To start again at the beginning, click on the link below:
Timeline of Human History I: Prehistory-1499