January 21–24 – Acrippling winter storm hits the central and eastern United States, producing several feet of snow and ice (as well as strong winds and tornadoes in some areas) and killing 55 people.
February 29 – H2,History's secondary network, becomesViceland, a lifestyle channel aimed at millennials which will include programming about music, cooking, sports, technology and hard-hitting documentaries. The change comes afterA&E Networks purchased a 10% stake inVice Media, Inc. in August 2014.[27]
Walt Disney Animation Studios' 55th feature film,Zootopia, is released in theatres to acclaim as the studio's most critically well-received film since 1994'sThe Lion King. It is, at that point, Disney's second-most commercially successful animated film behind 2013'sFrozen and the second to cross the billion-dollar mark.
March 11 – At least four people are injured and five are arrested in Chicago when protesters demonstrating against Donald Trump scuffle with Trump supporters at acanceled Trump rally.[35]
Pharmaceutical companiesPfizer andAllergan terminate a planned $160 billion merger because of the Obama administration's new regulations ontax inversion. Pfizer will have to pay $400 million to Allergan for expenses in relation to the deal.[48]
TheWisconsin primaries are held. Ted Cruz beats Donald Trump and Ohio GovernorJohn Kasich to win the Republican race. Bernie Sanders defeats Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race.[52]
Disappearance of Arianna Fitts in San Francisco, California. The two-year-old child and her mother went missing together, the girl's mother was found dead on April 8. No trace of Arianna Fitts has ever been found.[53]
April 7 –American Idol concludes its 15-season run onFox, withTrent Harmon being declared the final winner of the reality competition series' original run. (Idol would be revived onABC after a two-year hiatus in March 2018.)[54]
Bernie Sanders accepts an invitation byPope Francis to visit theVatican, becoming the first American presidential candidate to receive such an invitation.[56]
April 12 – Two unarmed RussianSukhoi Su-24 jets fly simulated attacks against theU.S. Navy destroyerDonald Cook in theBaltic Sea. Later, a RussianKamov Ka-27 naval helicopter is seen making seven passes around the warship while taking pictures.[60]
April 13
Louisiana GovernorJohn Bel Edwards signs an order banning discrimination against the LGBT community. The order reverses the policies of his predecessor,Bobby Jindal, who signed laws limitingsame-sex marriage and the ability of transgender people to use the public restrooms of their choice.[61]
Kobe Bryant plays his finalNBA game for theLos Angeles Lakers. Bryant, who played his entire 20-year career with the Lakers, sets a new points record for a final game, scoring 60 against theUtah Jazz.[63]
Microsoftfiles a lawsuit against the United States, stating that it has been prevented from disclosing information to its customers when the government obtains a warrant to read emails or access data through the cloud.[65]
A RussianSukhoi Su-27 fighter jet intercepts and threatens a U.S. Air ForceBoeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.[66]
CIA programmerJoshua Schulte allegedly stole backup files from a program called Confluence prior to the program's hacking tools being leaked.[73]
April 21 – Music legendPrince dies at the age of 57. To celebrate his legacy, cities across the U.S. hold vigils and light buildings, bridges, and other venues in purple.[74]
John Kasich and Ted Cruz announce that they will coordinate strategies to stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination:Kasich's campaign will ensure Cruz a "clear path" inIndiana, whileCruz's campaign will cut campaigning inNew Mexico andOregon.[77]
A court settlement calls for the city ofCleveland, Ohio, to pay $6 million to the family ofTamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was shot and killed by two police officers in November 2014 after his toy gun was mistaken for a real one.[78]
April 26 – Super Tuesday III: Donald Trump wins all five states holding Republican primaries (Connecticut,Delaware,Maryland,Pennsylvania, andRhode Island). In the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton takes Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, while Bernie Sanders takes Rhode Island.[80]
April 27
The bodies of American climberAlex Lowe and photographer David Bridges, who were killed and buried during an avalanche in 1999, are discovered on theHimalayan mountainShishapangma.[81]
Dennis Hastert, a former Speaker of the House, is sentenced to 15 months in prison for breaking banking laws through the payment of "hush money" to victims whom he had sexually abused.[82]
Ted Cruz announces that Carly Fiorina will be his running mate if he wins the Republican presidential nomination.[83]
The United States Air Force lands twoF-22 Raptors inLithuania for the first time in a show of support for Lithuania and surrounding countries, which have been worried over Russia's involvement inUkraine.[85]
A cruise ship sets sail from Miami toHavana, Cuba, with more than 700 passengers on board, becoming the first in more than half a century to make the trip. The ship,Carnival Cruise Line'sAdonia, was able to depart after a policy banning Cuban-born citizens from returning to the United States by sea was loosened. It docks in Havana on May 2.[90][91]
May Day: Protesters inSeattle begin to riot and attack law enforcement, injuring five police officers. Nine people are arrested.[92]
Fourteen of 175 cars of aCSX freight train derail in Washington, D.C., leaking three chemicals that are deemed hazardous to the public.[95]
May 2 –The Loud House premieres onNickelodeon and becomes the number-one children's animated series on television within its first month on the air.[96]
May 3
A city bus is hijacked in Washington, D.C., and the suspect crashes it into a gas station, killing a pedestrian.[97]
Three people are killed and three others injured during a two-day shooting spree inPotomac, Maryland. The suspect is believed to be a former police officer.[107]
Three women are arrested atO'Hare International Airport in Chicago after being caught trying to smuggle 70 pounds ($3 million worth) ofopium into the U.S.[109]
Four people are stabbed, two of them fatally, at a home and a shopping mall inTaunton, Massachusetts. The assailant is shot and killed by an off-duty sheriff.[113]
May 12
Susannah Mushatt Jones, the world's oldest person and the last surviving American born in the1800s, dies in New York at age 116.[114]
TheDepartment of Education and Department of Justice advise public school districts across the country to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity, rather than the gender assigned to them at birth.[116]
A skydiving tour plane crashes in Hawaii, killing five people.
The U.S. lifts its embargo on arms trade inVietnam.
May 25 – An audit by theState Department Inspector General finds that Hillary Clinton violated directives from the department in heruse of a private email server for government business during her time as Secretary of State. The Inspector General says that Clinton did not request approval to use the private server, and that such a request would have been denied because of security risks.[120]
Harambe was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo.
May 29 – 24-year-old rookieAlexander Rossi wins the 100thIndianapolis 500 mile race in front of a record crowd of 350,000. His car runs out of fuel coming to the finish line.
May 30 – FormerStanford University studentBrock Turner is sentenced to six months in prison for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. The short sentence, as well as statements by Turner's parents in the following weeks, draw significant controversy.[121]
June 7 – The final major state primaries are held for the 2016 presidential election, withHillary Clinton andDonald Trump emerging as the presumptive nominees for the Democratic and Republican races, respectively.[125]
June 10
PresidentBarack Obama formally endorses Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.[126]
The 70th annualTony Awards are presented, the cultural icon musicalHamilton wins 11 awards including Best Musical from a record 16 nominations. The performance of the cast ofHamilton was introduced by a filmed message from President and First Lady Obama andChance the Rapper calling the show "one of the greatest pieces of art ever made."
June 15–16 – In response to the attack in Orlando, SenatorChris Murphy (D-Connecticut) holds afilibuster for nearly fifteen hours, demanding new gun control laws from Congress. The filibuster ends when the Senate agrees to vote on two measures: one that would require universalbackground checks for gun sales, and another that would ban the sale of weapons to individuals ongovernment watch lists of suspected terrorists.[131]
June 18 – A 19-year-old man is arrested after attempting to pull a gun from a policeman's holster at a Donald Trump rally inLas Vegas. He later admits he was planning to use it to kill Trump.[132]
The U.S. military officially lifts its ban on transgender people serving openly in the armed forces.[137]
Attorney GeneralLoretta Lynch announces that she will leave it up to the FBI to decide whether to bring charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as Secretary of State.[138]
Vermont'sGMO labeling law goes into effect—the first in the U.S.[139]
Gypsy Rose Blanchard pleads guilty of the murder of her motherDee Dee Blanchard who had abused her for many years, forcing her to use a wheelchair and to pretend to be ill. She is sentenced to 10 years in prison.[143]
Multiple cellphone video recordings capture the police shooting ofAlton Sterling, a man selling CDs outside a convenience store inBaton Rouge, Louisiana, sparking wide outrage. The Department of Justice opens a federal investigation.[144]
July 6
AfterFBI DirectorJames Comey recommends against indicting Hillary Clinton, Attorney GeneralLoretta Lynch announces that the federal investigation of Clinton will be closed with no charges.[145]
July 7 – During aBlack Lives Matter protest inDallas, Texas, asniper later identified as Micah Xavier Johnsonopens fire, killing five Dallas police officers and injuring another eleven people in the deadliest incident for U.S. law enforcement sinceSeptember 11, 2001. Johnson is later found to have targeted white people (specifically white police officers) and to have been interested in severalblack nationalist groups. He is killed by aC-4 bomb delivered by a robot, the first use of lethal force by a robot by an American police department.[147][148][149]
July 8 – Despite the conclusions of the FBI and attorney general, the State Department reopens its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.[150]
July 9 – The government ofthe Bahamas releases a rare advisory to Bahamian citizens traveling to the United States to be non-confrontational and cooperative with police after recent racial tensions in the country.[151]
July 17 – Three police officers areshot dead and three others are injured inBaton Rouge,Louisiana. The shooter has been killed and an investigation is underway.[153]
All 16 occupants of ahot air balloon arekilled – the deadliest incident of its kind in U.S. history – after hitting power lines and crashing near Austin, Texas.[154]
SkydiverLuke Aikins sets a new world record for the highest altitude jump without a parachute, falling 25,000 ft into a safety net.[155]
August 10 – Police inDallas, Texaskill Tony Timpa, who had schizophrenia and depression, after he asked for help. The police laughed as he asked for help 30 times while they pinned his shoulders, knees, and neck to the ground.[167]
August 16 – TheBlue Cut Fire occurs in California, displacing more than 82,000 residents, burning over 37,000 acres (150 km2) and threatening at least 34,500 structures.
Hillary Clinton becomes overheated and faints at a9/11 memorial service in New York City, and is later revealed to have been diagnosed withpneumonia in the days prior.[170]
A man dressed in a private security company uniformstabs and wounds nine people in aSt. Cloud, Minnesota mall before being shot and killed by an off-duty police officer.[174]
September 18
Followingexplosions in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan, New York, on the previous day, another explosive device was discovered at a transit station inElizabeth. The device was accidentally detonated in the early hours of September 19 when operated on by a bomb squad robot.[175]
September 21 – A state of emergency is declared inCharlotte, North Carolina, after protests over the police killings of three black men in a single week.[179]
September 26 – Presidential candidatesDonald Trump andHillary Clinton take part in their first live televiseddebate, with an estimated audience of up to 100 million viewers.[181]
The New York Times publishes parts ofDonald Trump's 1995tax records, which show that he suffered a $916 million loss during that year, which would have given him the ability to avoid payingincome taxes for up to 18 years. This occurs while Trump is under intense scrutiny byHillary Clinton and other political opponents to release his current tax records as is tradition in modern presidential elections.[184]
The Washington Post releases a2005 videotape ofDonald Trump making lewd comments toAccess Hollywood hostBilly Bush about a married woman and commenting on how he can grab women "by the pussy" without repercussions because he is "a star". The comments are met with reactions of disgust and disbelief from the media and mainstreamRepublicans, as well as numerous Republicans rescinding their endorsements of his campaign.Speaker of the HousePaul Ryan disinvites Trump from aWisconsin campaign event in response. Trump issues an apology video online shortly after.[188][189][190][191]
October 10 –Samsung announces an official discontinuation of theSamsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after reports of the phone overheating and combusting, posing a severe health risk.[192]
36-year-old Ryan Collins is sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to the2014 hacking and distributing of numerous celebrities' nude photos.[199]
The2016 presidential election is held.Donald Trump is elected as the 45th president of the United States andMike Pence is elected the 48th vice president, with Trump becoming the oldest man elected president at the age of 70 as well as the first president in history to take the office without any prior political or military experience. The win is considered one of the most shocking upsets in U.S. history, with most news outlets and experts considering a Trump victory unlikely. The result is also highly controversial due toHillary Clinton's popular vote lead of nearly 3 million votes over Trump, who won via theElectoral College.[202][203][204]
Four states – California, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts – vote to legalize the use, sale, and consumption of recreationalmarijuana.[205]
November 18 –Donald Trump agrees to pay a $25 million settlement to two class action lawsuits and a New York state civil lawsuit regarding his now defunct unlicensedTrump University.[206]
Donald Trump becomes the first US president or president-elect since 1979 to make direct contact with thepresident ofTaiwan, upsetting Chinese diplomats and sparking concern over whether Trump will uphold the "One China policy" at the foundation ofChina-U.S. relations.[213]
A man fromSalisbury, North Carolina briefly opens fire with anAR-15 stylerifle insideComet Ping Pong, apizzeria in Washington, D.C., wishing to "self-investigate" the establishment implicated in a falseconspiracy theory that claims the restaurant is used by members of theDemocratic Party for achild-sex ring. No injuries are reported, and the man is arrested without incident and immediately charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.[216]
Yahoo discloses that adata breach in 2013 compromised more than 1 billion user accounts' information, such as names, passwords, and unencrypted messages, making it the largest data breach in thehistory of the Internet. Yahoo already disclosed a smaller 2014 data breach in September 2016.[225]
TheFederal Reserve raises its benchmark interest rate by 0.25%, only the second increase in a decade, citing strong economic growth and rising employment, thoughChairwomanJanet Yellen says the outlook for the US economy going forward is "uncertain".[226]
December 24 –Donald Trump announces that he will be dissolving hisfoundation to avoid potential conflicts of interest in his presidency.New York Attorney GeneralEric Schneiderman asserts that Trump will not be able to do so until an ongoing investigation into the foundation has completed.[234][235]
December 27 –Carrie Fisher, known for playing the iconic characterPrincess Leia in theStar Wars film series, as well as being a notedscript doctor and mental health advocate, dies at the age of 60 after having a cardiac arrest on a transatlantic flight four days earlier. Her mother, actressDebbie Reynolds dies the next day, after having a stroke while preparing for Fisher's funeral.[236]
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