January

9: Iran arrests over 3,700 demonstrators after days of protests that claim at least 21 lives

20: Turkey launches a military offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria’s Afrin region
——
February
6: SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy rocket on its maiden flight, carrying Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload

9: Teams from North and South Korea march under a united flag at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang

14: Cyril Ramaphosa becomes president of South Africa after Jacob Zuma resigns amid corruption claims
——
March
4: Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned by a nerve agent in Salisbury, England. Moscow denies involvement but many countries expel Russian diplomats in response

19: Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros, dies in Kenya

24: Mass protests across the U.S. call for tighter gun control after a school shooting in Florida kills 17
——
April
10: Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress over Facebook’s massive data privacy scandal

14: The U.S., Britain and France strike multiple government targets in Syria following a chemical weapons attack by Assad forces

18: Miguel Diaz-Canel succeeds Raul Castro as President of Cuba, ending almost 60 years of Castro rule

27: Korean leaders Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in hold a historic summit aimed at formally ending the Korean War
——
May
8: U.S. President Donald Trump quits the nuclear agreement with Iran and reimposes economic sanctions

10: Malaysia’s former leader Mahathir Mohamad, 93, becomes the world’s oldest head of government after a shock election victory

19: Britain’s Prince Harry and U.S. former actress Meghan Markle marry at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
——
June
3: Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego volcano erupts without warning, killing at least 190 people 

12: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump hold a historic summit in Singapore 

15: President Trump’s trade war hots up with tariffs on China, after hits on steel and aluminium imports from Europe and North America

24: A decades-old ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is lifted
——-
July
10: A cave rescue in Thailand successfully extracts 12 boys and their soccer coach, trapped for 17 days after heavy rains flooded narrow passages

23: Extreme summer heat causes wildfires in Greece that claim 99 lives. A heatwave in Japan also causes multiple casualties

25: Former cricketer Imran Khan becomes prime minister of Pakistan after an election marred by violence
——-
August
2: Apple becomes the first public company valued at $1 trillion

8: Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is declared entirely in drought after one of the driest winters on record

14: A 200m section of a motorway bridge collapses in Genoa, Italy, killing 43 people

22: The exodus of Venezuelans continues as the country’s economic and humanitarian crisis worsens
——-
September
3: Fire ravages Brazil’s 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro

28: A major earthquake in Sulawesi, Indonesia, kills over 2,200 people
——-
October
2: Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, is murdered inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul

12: An ever-growing migrant caravan sets out from Honduras with hopes of making it to new lives in the U.S.

15: As famine looms, the UN calls for a halt on Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen

15: Right-winger Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil’s presidential election, pledging to clean up politics and crack down on crime
——
November
6: Democrats win control of the House of Representatives but the Republicans extend their Senate majority in the U.S. midterm elections

8: California’s deadliest wildfire kills at least 88 people and destroys the town of Paradise

16: An Argentinian submarine lost a year ago with 44 crew, is found in the South Atlantic

25: Russian forces seize three Ukrainian naval ships in the disputed Kerch Strait

26: NASA’s InSight probe lands on Mars to study the deep interior of the Red Planet
——-
December
1: “Yellow vest” protests against fuel taxes spark violent unrest in Paris

1: Left-winger Andrés Manuel López Obrador is sworn in as president of Mexico after a landslide election victory

10: UK Prime Minister Theresa May postpones a crucial Brexit vote ahead of a near certain defeat in parliament