January 3: China issues its first-ever nationwide red alert for smog 20: Donald Trump is inaugurated as U.S. President, but arguably larger crowds show up for the next day’s Women’s March on Washington —— February 6. Queen Elizabeth II’s reign passes 65 years. In November she and Prince Philip celebrate 70 years of marriage 26: There are red faces at the Oscars as La La Land is wrongly announced as Best Picture. Moonlight emerges as the real winner —— March 15: President Trump’s “travel ban”, affecting people from six mainly Muslim countries, is temporarily blocked in some U.S. courts 26: Carrie Lam is elected Chief Executive of Hong Kong, its first female leader 29: The United Kingdom invokes Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on European Union, beginning the formal process of Brexit —— April 16 A referendum in Turkey gives sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 30 NASA’s Cassini spacecraft begins a series of dives between Saturn’s rings before plunging into the planet’s atmosphere —— May 7: Emmanuel Macron, 39, becomes France’s youngest leader since Napoleon 19:Hassan Rouhani is re-elected President of Iran by a huge margin 22: The deadliest of four terror attacks in Britain in three months kills 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester —— June 1: President Trump confirms he will withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change 14: A deadly fire engulfs Grenfell Tower, an apartment block in west London, killing 71 people 19: Forest fires in Portugal claim at least 64 lives —— July 4: North Korea tests its first long-range Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Further tests of increasingly powerful missiles, capable of striking the U.S. mainland, spark an ongoing nuclear crisis 9: Iraqi forces recapture Mosul, three years after Islamic State militants seized the city —— August 14: As Saudi Arabia and Iran wage a proxy war in Yemen, the WHO warns cholera cases now top 500,000 25: Hurricane Harvey causes catastrophic flooding in Houston and much of eastern Texas 25: A crackdown on Rohingya militants in Myanmar leads to an exodus of over a million refugees to Bangladesh —— September 6/18: Hurricanes Irma and Maria, both Category 5 storms, cause widespread destruction across the northern Caribbean 7/19: Two earthquakes hit Mexico just 12 days apart, claiming over 470 lives 24: Chancellor Angela Merkel wins a fourth term in Germany’s federal election, despite gains by the far-right AfD party —— October 1/27: Catalonia’s controversial referendum on independence leads the Spanish government to strip the region of its autonomy and impose direct rule 1: A gunman kills 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history 5: Allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein launch a slew of sexual misconduct scandals 25: China’s Communist Party elevates Xi Jinping by enshrining his name and ideology in its constitution —— November 3: Government forces recapture Deir ez-Zor, the last major Islamic State stronghold in Syria, soon after U.S.-backed militias regain the de facto IS capital of Raqqa 4: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman consolidates power with a major crackdown on corruption. Over 40 princes and ministers are arrested 11: The Louvre Abu Dhabi opens, the first museum of its kind in the Arab world 15: Salvator Mundi, a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, sells at auction for a world record $450.3 million 15: An Argentine submarine goes missing with 44 crew on board. International search and rescue efforts fail to find it 21: Robert Mugabe resigns as president of Zimbabwe after a military coup, ending 37 years of autocratic rule —— December 4: Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is killed by Houthi forces, his former allies 6: Donald Trump overturns decades of official U.S. policy by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel