Events by Year
- Jan 1 A 42-year old American army veteran plows through New Year's Eve celebration on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in a rented pick-up truck; 14 people die and dozens injured, driver is killed in shoot-out with police[1]
- Jan 1 Bulgaria and Romania join the Schengen Area, lifting land border controls
- Jan 1 Fire destroys most of the Ghana's Kantamanto market in Accra - one of the largest secondhand clothes markets in the world[1]
- Jan 1 Ukraine stops the flow of Russian gas, ending its transit agreement with Gazprom, cutting off gas supply to Transnistria, a separatist region of eastern Moldova[1]
Youngest Ever Darts Champion
Jan 3 17 year old English darts prodigy Luke Littler becomes the youngest ever world champion when he beats 3-time title winnerMichael van Gerwen 7-3 in the PDC World C'ship final in London
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Jan 4 PresidentJoe Biden awards the US Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 people including chef-humanitarianJosé Andrés, politicianHillary Clinton, Vogue magazine editorAnna Wintour, actorDenzel Washington, soccer playerLionel Messi, actorMichael J. Fox, singerBono, and philanthropistGeorge Soros[1]
Trudeau Promises to Resign
Jan 6 Canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau promises to resign once a successor for the Liberal Party is found
- Jan 6 Large winter storm caused by a polar vortex moves east across the US from the central plains to the mid Atlantic, bringing 18 inches of snow to Kansas[1]
- Jan 6 US records its first person to die from bird flu, in southwest Louisiana[1]
- Jan 7 7.1-magnitude earthquake strikes Tibet, near the holy city of Shigatse, also causing damage in Nepal, China and India, killing about 126 people[1]
- Jan 7 Extreme Santa Ana winds cause wildfires across Los Angeles, including the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires causing tens of thousands to evacuate, burning over 16,000 structures and killing 29 people
No Fact-Checking on Facebook and Instagram
Jan 7 Meta CEOMark Zuckerberg announces moves to remove third party fact-checking from Facebook and Instagram[1]
Carter Lies in State
Jan 7 The body of former US PresidentJimmy Carter lies in state in the US Capitol
- Jan 9 $1 million prize offered for anyone who can decipher the script of the ancient Indus civilisation, by M.K. Stalin, chief minister of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu[1]
- Jan 9 Lebanon chooses a president - General Joseph Aoun, head of the army, at their 12th attempt at a vote since Michel Aoun's term ended on October 2022[1]
- Jan 10 Climate scientists announce that Earth in 2024 breached, for the first time, the 1.5 °C rise in temperature limit agreed at the Paris climate accord in 2015[1]
- Jan 10 NASA confirms 2024 the world's warmest year on record, topping the previous high set in 2023[1]
Look Up
Jan 10 Singing drummerRingo Starr releases his 21st solo album "Look Up"; his second country music tinged collection is produced by T-Bone Burnet and features guests Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle
Trump Gets No-Penalty
Jan 10 US President-electDonald Trump is sentenced by a federal NY court to no punishment after being convicted (May 2024) of falsifying business records in a hush money case[1]
California Wildfires
Jan 12 GovernorGavin Newsom says the California wildfires will be one of the worst natural disasters in US history; having blazed through 40,000 acres, damaged about 12,000 structures and killing at least 24 people[1]
- Jan 13 China announces a record trade surplus of $990 billion, with the country now producing a third of the world's manufactured goods[1]
- Jan 13 World's largest religious festival, the Mahakumbh Mela for 400 million people begins beside the Ganges in Prayagraj, India. Held every 12 years, 2025 is the grand Kumbh Mela, held every 144 years.[1]
- Jan 14 US Justice Department releases special counsel Jack Smith's final report on former and future presidentDonald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election; Trump responds on social media calling Smith "deranged" and "a lamebrain"
- Jan 15 An Israel - Hamas ceasefire agreement is announced, including a hostage and prisoner swap, to end the 15 month conflict (takes effect 19th Jan)[1]
- Jan 15 At least 100 people thought to have died from starvation in a crackdown on illegal mining at the Stilfontein mine in South Africa, with 166 rescued[1]
- Jan 15 Daniel Chapo, the new head of the Frelimo party, is sworn in as the president of Mozambique, extending the party's rule to 49 years after months of protests[1]
- Jan 15 Ispace and Firefly Aerospace launch their missions to the Moon, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, included is art project of a little red model of a Swedish house[1]
Yoon Suk Yeol Arrested
Jan 15 South Korea's suspended PresidentYoon Suk Yeol is arrested after a weeks-long standoff at his Presidential compound in Seoul[1]
- Jan 16 Actor and director Justin Baldoni countersues actress Blake Lively for $400 million for defamation and extortion, over their film "It Ends With Us", after Lively earlier sued for him for harassment and a smear campaign[1]
- Jan 17 Earliest evidence for a human transport vehicle uncovered, with drag marks made by travois - long pieces of wood loaded with goods and dragged, 22,000 years old at White Sands, New Mexico[1]
- Jan 17 Pittsburgh Penguins Alex Nedeljkovic becomes first goalie in NHL history to have a goal and an assist in same game during 5-2 road win over the Buffalo Sabres
- Jan 19 Israel - Hamas ceasefire comes into effect in Gaza as the first Israeli hostages are released, with the Palestinian death toll at 46,800[1]
- Jan 20 Chinese start up DeepSeek launches AI model RI, with capabilities similar to other AI models but at a fraction of the cost, prompting experts to call it a “Sputnik moment”[1]
- Jan 20 In the first day of his return to office, PresidentDonald Trump issues pardons to over 1500 of his supporters charged in connection with the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, declares a national emergency at the southern border, and withdraws the US from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement on Climate[1][2]
Appointment of Interest
Jan 20Marco Rubio is confirmed as US Secretary of State by the US Senate[1]
- Jan 20 RepublicanDonald Trump is inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States of America, and JD Vance as the 50th Vice-President; Trump is oldest person to take the office, and joins Grover Cleveland as only the second elected to non-consecutive White House terms, the event is held indoors due to inclement weather
- Jan 20 US PresidentDonald Trump issues a executive order halting all foreign aid programs for 90 days, with some exceptions for humanitarian aid[1]
- Jan 20 US President Donald Trump issues an executive order for Federal agencies to slash diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives throughout the Federal government[1]
- Jan 21 79 people are killed in a hotel fire in the ski resort town of Balu in north-west Turkey, with 51 injured[1]
- Jan 21 Historic snowstorm hits US deep south, with Louisiana and parts of Texas issuing their first-ever blizzard warnings: record snow accumulations in Louisiana and Florida[1]
- Jan 23 Former US representative John Ratcliffe is confirmed by the US Senate as Director of the CIA[1]
- Jan 23 Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family who own the company agree to pay $7.4 billion to settle new lawsuits over the harm caused by the opioid epidemic[1]
- Jan 23 US PresidentDonald Trump issues pardons to 23 anti-abortion activists convicted of illegally blocking access to clinics[1]
- Jan 24 US PresidentDonald Trump fires over a dozen independent Inspectors General, without the required 30-day advance notice citing reasons for the firing to Congress
- Jan 27 James McHenry, the acting US Attorney General, fires more than a dozen prosecutors who worked for on special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution ofDonald Trump
- Jan 27 Rwanda-backed rebels, led by the Tutsi group M23, seize Goma, the biggest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, displacing 500,000 people[1]
- Jan 27 Stocks of Nvidia, leading supplier of AI chips, lose $588.8 billion in market value — the most a stock has ever lost in a single day, after the release of a Chinese AI model by DeepSeek[1]
- Jan 29 US Army helicopter practicing night vision flying, crashes mid-air into commercial jet, killing all 67 passengers, including dozens of figure skaters, and crew members, over the Potomac River while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington D.C.
- Jan 30 Former US Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey receives an 11-year prison sentence for his conviction of bribery while in office
- Jan 30 France closes its last military base in Chad, two months after the former French colony ended their defense cooperation agreement[1]
- Jan 30 Global planetary defence procedures triggered for the first time after 100-meter Asteroid 2024 YR4 is found to have a 1.3% chance of hitting Earth in 2032[1]
- Jan 31 US Department of Justice fires more than a dozen federal prosecutors who investigated the January 6 riot, and many of the FBI agents who investigated the riot or participated in the search for classified documents atDonald trump's Mar-a-Lago home
- Feb 1 For the first time in NBA history two reigning All-NBA players are traded for each other mid-season; the basis of the deal sees Luka Doncic go to the LA Lakers and Anthony Davis move to the Dallas Mavericks
- Feb 1 US President Donald Trump announces 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on China. Canadian PMJustin Trudeau announces retaliatory tariffs of 25% on $106.6bn worth of American goods[1][2]
Grammy Awards
Feb 2 67th Grammy Awards: Beyoncé wins Album of the Year and Best Country Album for "Cowboy Carter",Kendrick Lamar wins Song and Record of the Year for "Not Like Us", Chappell Roan Best New Artist[1]
- Feb 3 Edmond Dédé's opera "Morgiane" world premiere performance, 138 years after its composition, by the OperaCréole and Opera Lafayette at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C.[1]
- Feb 4 First clinical trial approved to transfer genetically modified pigs kidneys into humans by the US Food and Drug Administration[1]
- Feb 5 Thailand cuts power to several areas bordering Myanmar in an effort to curtail the large scam-factories located there, that house thousands of employees held against their will[1]
- Feb 5 US PresidentDonald Trump signs an executive order banning transgender women from competing in female sports[1]
- Feb 6 Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini is named Aga Khan V, spiritual leader of millions of Shia Ismaili Muslims in the will of his father Aga Khan IV[1]
- Feb 6 US PresidentDonald Trump reiterates that Gaza could be developed into a "Riviera of the Middle East" by the US, with its population moved elsewhere[1]
- Feb 7 Greek island of Santorini is placed under a state of emergency amid a swarm of earthquakes that began 27 January[1]
- Feb 9Kendrick Lamar performs halftime at Super Bowl LIX, with an appearance by Samuel L. Jackson[1]
Super Bowl LIX
Feb 9 Super Bowl LIX, Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana: Philadelphia Eagles claim second title in franchise history with a 40-22 win over 2-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs; MVP:Jalen Hurts, PH, QB
- Feb 10 Guatemala declares three days of national mourning after a bus crash kills 55 people after crashing into a ravine[1]
- Feb 12 Tulsi Gabbard confirmed as Director of National Intelligence by the US Senate[1]
- Feb 13 A humpback whale is filmed briefly swallowing a man on a kayak off Chilean Patagonia, before releasing him unharmed[1]
Highest Paid Athletes
Feb 13Cristiano Ronaldo was the world's highest athlete in 2024 earning $260 million, followed byStephen Curry andTyson Fury, with no women on the top 100 list compiled by Sportico[1]
- Feb 13 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary by the US Senate, after concerns over his anti-vaccine views[1]
- Feb 14 Pope Francis is admitted to hospital in Rome with a respiratory tract infection, that later develops into pneumonia[1]
- Feb 14 US Justice Department formally move to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but not until seven experienced department prosecutors quit rather than obey what they consider an ill-advised directive[1]
- Feb 15 A gold mine collapse in Mali kills about 42 people at Bilali Koto[1]
- Feb 15 Severe winter storm across Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee brings freezing temperatures and widespread flooding, resulting in the deaths of 21 people[1]
- Feb 15 South African imam Muhsin Hendricks, the world's first openly gay imam, is shot and killed in Bethelsdorp, South Africa
- Feb 16 67th Daytona 500: William Byron becomes first back-to-back winner since Denny Hamlin in 2019-20 after escaping the chaos that knocked out the bulk of contenders in 2 late-race accidents
- Feb 16 78th British Bafta film awards: "Conclave" Best Film, Best Director Brady Corbet for "The Brutalist", acting awards to Adrien Brody and Mikey Madison[1]
- Feb 16 Saturday Night Live celebrates 50 years with a special show “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” with celebrity guests and returning cast members[1]
- Feb 17 An airplane crashes and flips over at Toronto airport, injuring 21 people, the fourth major aviation accident in North America in a month[1]
- Feb 18 Royal tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II (reign from about 1493 to 1479 BC) is discovered west of the Valley of the Kings - first tomb of a pharaoh found since Tutankhamun in 1922[1]
- Feb 18 The United States and Russia hold talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over the war in Ukraine without a representative from Ukraine[1]
- Feb 19 Fastest Atlantic crossing record-holding American ocean liner SS United States departs Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under tow on her final voyage before being scuttled to become the world's largest artificial reef[1]
- Feb 20 English micro artist David A Lindon sets a world record for the smallest handmade sculpture measuring 0.02517mm by 0.02184mm, made from a red Lego brick[1]
- Feb 20 Ex-Spanish soccer boss Luis Rubiales is found guilty of sexually assaulting player Jenni Hermoso, kissing her after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final; fined nearly US$13,000[1]
- Feb 20 Trump supporter and counterterrorism official Kash Patel is narrowly confirmed as FBI Director by the US Senate
- Feb 21 US President Donald Trump fires US Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown (63) as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as part of a Pentagon shake up
- Feb 23 German Elections: Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union wins the most votes with 28.6%, far-right Alternative for Germany wins their largest-ever share with 20.8%[1]
- Feb 25 A group of 1,000 artists including Annie Lennox, Billy Ocean, and Kate Bush, release a lyric-less album to protest a proposed British law allowing developers access to copyrighted material to train AI[1]
- Feb 25 Missouri woman Lisa Jeanine Findley pleads guilty to a brazen scam to steal the Graceland estate from Elvis Presley's family[1]
- Feb 26 First death from measles in the US occurs in Texas in a decade, and the first child to die in 22 years amid an outbreak affecting 124 people[1]
- Feb 28 Extraordinary meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House is curtailed after an argument in front of reporters[1]
- Mar 2 97th Academy Awards: Best Film "Anora"; Best Director Sean Baker; acting awards to Adrien Brody, Mikey Madison, Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña[1]
- Mar 2 Near-total power cut in Chile, due to a transmission line failure, leaves 8 million households without electricity[1]
- Mar 2 US firm Firefly's Blue Ghost spacecraft becomes only the second commercial vehicle to land on the Moon[1]
- Mar 4 Chinese architect Liu Jiakun is announced as the 2025 Pritzker Prize recipient[1]
- Mar 4 President Donald Trump, speaks to US Congress in the longest-ever speech by a president at 99 minutes, including a vow the US will acquire Greenland "we're going to get it - one way or the other"[1]
- Mar 4 US tariffs of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada come into effect, along with increasing tariffs on Chinese goods to 20%; Canada and China immediately retaliate[1]
- Mar 4 World's biggest iceberg A23a, weighing nearly a trillion metric tonnes (1.1 trillion tons), grounds off the coast of the island of South Georgia in the south Atlantic[1]
- Mar 5 Computing's top prize, the Turing Award is given to American researchers Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton for their work on reinforcement learning, a cornerstone of AI technology[1]
- Mar 5 Manufacture of bone tools by ancient humans is pushed back a million years by the discovery of a 1.5 million year old cache of bone tools in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania[1]
- Mar 6 Spacecraft Athena, carrying a NASA ice drill, built by Intuitive Machines, Texas, lands on its side on the Moon, ending its mission[1]
- Mar 7 Nikola Jokić makes NBA history recording the league's first ever 30-point, 20-rebound, 20-assist game as his Denver Nuggets beat the Phoenix Suns 149-141 OT
- Mar 8 Tropical Cyclone Alfred makes landfall in Australia on islands off the coast of Brisbane, Queensland, as a category one storm, bringing significant rainfall[1]
- Mar 9 Mark Carney is elected Leader of Canada's Liberal Party to replace Justin Trudeau[1]
- Mar 9 Worst fighting in Syria since the fall of Assad as 1,311 people are reported killed, including civilians from a Alawite religious minority in north-western Syria[1]
- Mar 10 Collision in the North Sea off the coast of England between a cargo ship and a tanker carrying jet fuel which catches fire, killing one person[1]
- Mar 10 NASA is the first US federal agency to begin firing career employees under President Trump's downsizing directives[1]
- Mar 11 132-year old shipwreck rediscovered in Lake Superior of steel streamer "The Great Western" which sank in 1892 with the loss of 27 lives[1]
- Mar 11 Astronomers announce the discovery of 128 new moons orbiting the planet Saturn, bring the planet's total to 274 moons[1]
- Mar 11 Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte is arrested in Manila after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity over his "war on drugs"[1]
- Mar 11 NASA's space telescope, the Spherex observatory, is launched by SpaceX from California to study how galaxies are formed by observing their cosmic glow[1]
- Mar 11 Pakistani Jaffa Express train hijacked by the Balochistan Liberation Army travelling from Quetta to Peshawar - results in a 30-hour siege and the deaths of over 50 people[1]
- Mar 11 World Air Quality Report identifies Byrnihat, India, as the world's most polluted city, with Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India the most polluted countries[1]
- Mar 13 Donatella Versace steps down after 28 years as Chief Creative Officer of Italian fashion house Versace, founded by her brother, with Dario Vitale taking over her role[1]
- Mar 14 A severe storm system begins across the US South and Midwest bringing high winds, dust storms and more than 60 tornadoes over two days, killing at least 42 people[1]
- Mar 14 Mark Carney is sworn in as Canada's new Prime Minister, replacing Justin Trudeau after nine years[1]
- Mar 15 Serbia's largest-ever rally held in Belgrade with 325,000 protesting against the government, fueled by the deadly collapse of the Novi Sad railway station[1]
- Mar 15 US launches airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen killing at least 53 people, after the militia group said they would resume attacks on Israeli shipping[1]
- Mar 15 WPL Cricket Final, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai: Mumbai Indians claim 2nd title with 8 run win over Delhi Capitals; Player of the match: Harmanpreet Kaur (MI) 66 (44)
- Mar 16 A fire caused by pyrotechnic devices at a nightclub hosting a concert in Kocani, North Macedonia, kills at least 59 people[1]
- Mar 16 Asian Film Awards: Payal Kapadia’s "All We Imagine as Light" wins Best Film, Best Director Yoshida Daihachi, acting awards to Sean Lau and Shahana Goswami[1]
- Mar 16 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Irishman Rory McIlroy earns his second Players title in a three-hole aggregate playoff against J. J. Spaun after both finished at 12-under-par 276
- Mar 18 NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore finally return to Earth from the International Space Station after nine months, instead of one week, aboard a SpaceX capsule[1]
- Mar 19 New data on dark energy from the DESI telescope further upends scientific belief that the universe is constantly expanding, its results show it has instead weakened over the last 4.5 million years[1]
- Mar 20 A wildfire ignites in Uiseong county, South Korea, burns for 10 days killing 30 people and destroying 4,000 structures including UNESCO World Heritage sites[1]
- Mar 20 Former swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe is the first woman and the first African to be elected president of the International Olympic Committee[1]
- Mar 24 "The Atlantic" publishes "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans" claiming US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth included a journalist in a group chat detailing airstrikes in Yemen[1]
- Mar 26 Masaki Kashiwara is the first Japanese mathematician to be awarded Mathematics' greatest award, the Abel Prize, for his work on the theory of symmetry[1]
- Mar 27 European space telescope Gaia is shut down after a decade of charting the Milky Way and collecting data on nearly two billion stars and other celestial objects[1]
- Mar 27 Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces a major restructure of the US Department of Health, including laying off 33 % of its workforce, about 10,000 employees[1]
- Mar 28 7.7 magnitude earthquake, followed by 6.4 magnitude aftershock strikes central Myanmar, causing devastating damage across Southeast Asia, leaving more than 2,000 people dead and dozens trapped in collapsed buildings[1]
- Mar 31 France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen is found guilty of embezzlement of EU funds, barring her from running for office for five years[1]
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