Events

A student-led protest movement in China culminating in a deadly military crackdown in Beijing on 3–4 June 1989.

A destructive earthquake that struck central Taiwan on September 21, 1999, prompting extensive reconstruction and seismic research.

The 2009 Fort Hood shooting was an attack by Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan that killed 13 people and prompted military trials, security reviews, and changes to victims’ award eligibility.

A terrorist mass shooting and attempted bombing in San Bernardino, California, on December 2, 2015, that killed 14 people.

A military parade held in Beijing on 3 September 2025 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II.

The import duties introduced or modified by the United States in 2025, their implementation, international responses, economic effects, and legal challenges.

The 20th Asian Games, held in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan, from 19 September to 4 October 2026.

The 2026 cycle of Atlantic tropical cyclone activity, including seasonal forecasts, individual storms, environmental influences, and documented impacts.

Brazil’s 2026 elections for the presidency, Congress, state governorships, and state and Federal District legislatures.

The 2026 El Niño event is an ongoing tropical Pacific warming episode, confirmed in June and forecast to reach exceptional strength during late 2026.

A student protest movement that spread across France in September and October 2026, demanding improved school staffing, facilities, and learning conditions.

The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African jurist Navi Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law.

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for discoveries on non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Canadian poet and classicist Anne Carson, announced by the Swedish Academy on 8 October 2026.

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Francis Halzen for his work on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos.

The 2026 medicine Nobel honored Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.

Tropical cyclone activity in the western North Pacific and South China Sea during 2026.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Panama on October 9, 2026, damaging buildings and infrastructure and beginning a sequence of strong aftershocks.

A suspected plague incident in Russia’s Irkutsk region prompted an international investigation, but no plague outbreak had been confirmed by 14 October 2026.

The 2026 Spanish general election is scheduled for 29 November to elect the Congress of Deputies and the directly elected members of the Senate.

Taiwan’s local elections scheduled for November 28, 2026, will elect mayors, magistrates, councillors, and other local officials in the “nine-in-one” electoral cycle.

The 2026 Tamil Nadu election produced a hung assembly, with Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam winning the most seats and subsequently forming the government.

The 2026 U.S. election cycle encompasses congressional, state, territorial, and local contests, with most general elections scheduled for November 3.

Scheduled elections for 35 United States Senate seats, including 33 regular contests and special elections in Florida and Ohio.

The Winter Olympics held across northern Italy in February 2026, officially known as Milano Cortina 2026.

Annual awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoring excellence in film; first presented in 1929 and known as the Oscars.

The 1861–1865 war between the United States and the Confederate States over secession and slavery, ending with Union victory, abolition and Reconstruction.

The political upheaval and war through which thirteen British colonies achieved independence and established the United States.

A civil war of 755–763 that weakened Tang imperial authority and transformed China’s military, economic, and cultural life.

Anthropic’s proposed initial public offering, following its confidential submission of a draft registration statement in June 2026.

APEC China 2026 is China’s third APEC host year, culminating in a leaders’ meeting scheduled for November 18–19 in Shenzhen.

Apollo 11 was the 1969 NASA mission that landed the first humans on the Moon and returned them safely to Earth.

The systematic destruction of Ottoman Armenians during World War I through mass killing, deportation, dispossession, and forced assimilation.

On 6 and 9 August 1945 the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, the only wartime uses of nuclear weapons to date, killing well over 100,000 people.

The Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii on December 7, 1941, that brought the United States into World War II.

A German criminal investigation into allegations that former intelligence chief August Hanning obtained classified documents and used secret information in contacts with foreign intelligence personnel.

A major Soviet victory in 1942–1943 that destroyed Germany’s Sixth Army and marked a turning point on the Eastern Front.

An annual international film festival in Berlin combining public screenings, competitive awards, film-industry markets, and filmmaker development programmes.

The Black Death was a devastating pandemic caused by *Yersinia pestis* that spread across Eurasia in the mid-14th century, peaking in Europe between 1347 and 1351 and killing an estimated 30 to 50 percent of its population.

A 1899–1901 anti-foreign, anti-Christian uprising in northern China that brought an eight-power military intervention and ended with the Boxer Protocol.

Brexit was the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union and the process of establishing their subsequent relationship.

A South Korean scandal exposed in 2019 involving nightclub-related crimes, celebrity sexual offences, and allegations of police collusion.

The 1927–1949 conflict between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party, which ended with Communist rule on the mainland and the Nationalist government's relocation to Taiwan.

The 1947–1991 rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies, fought mainly through diplomacy, proxy conflicts, arms races and ideological competition without direct full-scale war between the two superpowers.

The 2020–2023 global outbreak of COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, which killed millions and reshaped public health, economies and societies.

A mass extinction about 66 million years ago, driven principally by an asteroid impact, that eliminated non-avian dinosaurs and many other organisms.

Papally authorized religious wars originating in medieval Latin Christianity, principally associated with campaigns to conquer and defend the Holy Land.

The October 1962 confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, which brought the United States and the Soviet Union closest to nuclear war.

A mass political campaign launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 to purge perceived class enemies and reassert his authority, lasting until his death in 1976.

The Dartmouth workshop was a 1956 summer research gathering that helped establish artificial intelligence as a named field of scientific inquiry.

The Soviet Union formally ended in December 1991, after Gorbachev's reforms, the failed August coup, and republican independence declarations.

A diverse intellectual and cultural movement emphasizing reason, inquiry, and reform in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and the Atlantic world.

On 29 May 1453 Ottoman forces under Mehmed II captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire after a siege of about seven weeks.

The opening of Berlin’s border on 9 November 1989 ended the Wall’s function and helped pave the way for German reunification.

The end of imperial rule in the Latin West in the fifth century, traditionally dated to 476, and the debated causes and processes behind it.

China's state-run awards for excellence in television drama, first held in 1981 and held biennially since 2005, with a trophy modelled on the Apsaras of Dunhuang.

The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a radical upheaval that turned France from an absolute monarchy with legal orders into a republic based on popular sovereignty and equality before the law.

Gemini 4 was a four-day NASA mission flown in June 1965 that included the first American spacewalk.

A worldwide financial breakdown centered on 2007–2009 that disrupted banking, triggered a severe recession, and reshaped economic policy and financial regulation.

The overthrow of James II in 1688–1689 and the establishment of William III and Mary II under a new constitutional settlement.