Timeline of the 21st century

For other timelines of modern history, see Timelines of modern history. For future timelines, see Timelines of the future.

Millennium:	3rd millennium
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Timelines:	20th century 21st century 22nd century
State leaders:	20th century 21st century 22nd century
Decades:	2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s 2060s 2070s 2080s 2090s
Categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments

This is a timeline of the 21st century.

2001–2009

2001

• 15 January: Wikipedia is launched.
• 20 January: George W. Bush is inaugurated as President of the United States.
• 26 January: An earthquake strikes Gujarat, India, on Republic Day, resulting in more than 20,000 deaths.
• 1 June: Eleven members of the royal family of Nepal, including the king and queen, are killed by Crown Prince Dipendra, who wounds himself and dies three days later.
• 11 September: September 11 attacks: Al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four planes, crashing two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the third plane into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, while the fourth plane is downed on the outskirts of Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania. 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers, die in the attacks.
• 7 October to 17 December: The United States invades Afghanistan and topples the Taliban regime, resulting in a long-term war.
• 23 October: Steve Jobs introduces the first iPod.
• 12 November: Crash of American Airlines Flight 587.
• 3 December: Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a series of scandals.
• 11 December: China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization.

See also: 2001 § Deaths

2002

• 1 January: The Euro enters circulation.
• 3 February: Tom Brady leads the New England Patriots to win their first Super Bowl; during a nearly two decade span, they would appear in nine, winning six.
• 6 February: Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
• 27 February to 1 March: Riots and mass killings in the Indian state of Gujarat leave 1,044 dead.
• 20 May: East Timor gains independence.
• 1 July: The International Criminal Court is established.
• 9 July: The African Union is founded.
• 19 September: The First Ivorian Civil War begins.
• 23 September: Mozilla Firefox is released.
• 12 October: The 2002 Bali bombings killed 202 people and injured 209 more.
• 23-26 October: Chechen rebels seize a theater in Moscow. Amid this siege, around 200 people died.
• Switzerland joins the United Nations as the 190th member.
• Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world.
• Israel starts Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks.
• Construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier begins.
• SpaceX is founded by Elon Musk.
• America demands Iraq allow unfettered access to weapons inspectors.
• The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is established.
• The Algerian Civil War ends.
• Hu Jintao is elected as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.

See also: 2002 § Deaths

2003

• 1 February: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon reentry, killing all 7 astronauts on board.
• 20 February: The Station nightclub fire.
• March: The United States invades Iraq and ousts Saddam Hussein, triggering worldwide protests and an 8 year war.
• 27-29 August: The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
• 3-23 November: The Rose Revolution occurs in Georgia.
• The War in Darfur begins.
• The Human Genome Project is completed.
• The Second Congo War ends with more than 5 million dead.
• The Second Liberian Civil War ends.
• The last Volkswagen Beetle is made in Mexico, after 65 years in production.
• Final flight of the SST (Supersonic Transport) Concorde.

See also: 2003 § Deaths

2004

• 4 February: Facebook is formed by Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
• 27 February: The 2004 SuperFerry 14 bombing kills 116 people.
• 11 March: Madrid train bombings killed 193 people and injured around 2,000, Europe's deadliest attack since Pan Am Flight 103.
• 1-3 September: On September 1st (first school day in Russia), a group of chechen terrorists held students, parents and teachers hostage in Beslan school, in North Ossetia–Alania. During three days under attack, 334 people died.
• 23-27 October: Boston Red Sox wins the World Series for the first time since 1918, ending the Curse of the Bambino.
• November-December: The Second Battle of Fallujah occurs. It is the deadliest American battle since Vietnam, killing 95 troops.
• 11 November: President of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat dies.
• 8 December: Union of South American Nations formed.
• 26 December: Boxing Day Tsunami occurs in Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of 230,000.
• NATO and the European Union incorporates most of the former Eastern Bloc.
• Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars.
• Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
• First surface images of Saturn's moon Titan.

See also: 2004 § Deaths

2005

• 14 February: 2005 Valentine's Day bombings.
• 14 February: YouTube is founded by Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.
• 14 February to 27 April: Cedar Revolution in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of Rafic Hariri.
• 16 February: The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect.
• March-April: Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.
• 2-19 April: Pope John Paul II dies, Benedict XVI becomes Pope.
• 23 June: Reddit is founded by Steve Huffman, Aaron Swartz and Alexis Ohanian.
• July: Floods in Maharashtra, India kill over 1000 people.
• 7 July: 7/7 attacks on London Underground.
• 29 July: Michael E. Brown confirms Eris.
• 29-31 August: Hurricane Katrina kills 1,836 people in the Gulf of Mexico.
• 14-16 September: 2005 World Summit.
• 8 October: 80,000 are killed in an earthquake in Kashmir.
• 22 November: Angela Merkel becomes Germany's first female Chancellor.
• The Provisional Irish Republican Army ends its military campaign in Northern Ireland.
• Israel withdraws from Gaza.
• Second Sudanese Civil War ends..

See also: 2005 § Deaths

2006

• 16 January: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes President of Liberia, and thus Africa's first elected female head of state.
• May-June: Independence of Montenegro.
• 11 July: Mumbai bombings.
• 19 September: A coup d'état in Thailand overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
• October-November: Google gets YouTube for US$1.65 billion.
• 21 November: Comprehensive Peace Accord ends the Nepalese Civil War.
• 30 December: Execution of Saddam Hussein.
• 2006 Lebanon War.
• The International Astronomical Union creates the first formal definition of a planet, and excludes Pluto from the list.
• Twitter is launched.
• Nintendo launches the Wii.

See also: 2006 § Deaths

2007

• 16 April: Virginia Tech shooting.
• 3 May: Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
• 22-24 June: Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide.
• 27 June: Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 27 December: Assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
• Anti-government protests in Myanmar suppressed by ruling junta.
• Spike in food prices and subprime crisis help trigger global recession.
• First Ivorian Civil War ends.
• Introduction of the iPhone.

See also: 2007 § Deaths

2008

Tesla Roadster launched in 2008, the first mass production lithium-ion battery electric car

• Stock markets plunge around the world, signaling the start of the Great Recession.
• May: Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar.
• 7 May: Dmitry Medvedev becomes President of Russia.
• 28 May: The 1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly declares Nepal a republic, ending its monarchy.
• 4 November: Barack Obama is elected to become the first black President of the United States.
• 26-29 November: 2008 Mumbai attacks.
• Google Chrome is released.
• The Gaza War begins.
• 2008 South Ossetia war.
• Kosovo declares independence, though it is not recognised by the United Nations.
• Iraqi forces crack down on Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi forces in Basra and Sadr City.
• The Large Hadron Collider is completed as the world's largest and most powerful particle collider.
• Tesla Roadster launched, the first mass production lithium-ion battery electric car.

See also: 2008 § Deaths

2009

• January: The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is launched.
• 20 January: Barack Obama is inaugurated as President of the United States, the first African-American to hold the office.
• 16 June: Formation of BRICS economic bloc.
• 25 June: Death of Michael Jackson.
• September: Typhoon Ketsana kills 789 people in the Philippines.
• 1 December: Treaty of Lisbon .
• The Gaza War ends while Gaza blockade continues.
• The Sri Lankan Civil War ends.
• Election protests begin in Iran.
• The Second Chechen War ends.
• Boko Haram rebellion begins in Nigeria.
• 2009 swine flu pandemic began in North America.

See also: 2009 § Deaths

2010s

2010

• 12 January: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills 230,000.
• 18 February: 2010 Nigerien coup d'état.
• 29 March: 2010 Moscow Metro bombings.
• 10 April: The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, is among 96 killed when their airplane crashes in Smolensk.
• 20 April: The largest oil spill in US history occurs in the Gulf of Mexico.
• 11 May: After the 2010 United Kingdom general election, David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 31 May: Gaza flotilla raid.
• 11 June to 11 July: The FIFA World Cup is held in Africa for the first time.
• July-August: 2010 Colombia–Venezuela diplomatic crisis.
• 23 November: North Korea shells the island of Yeonpyeong.
• Avatar overtakes Titanic as the highest-grossing film.
• A military crackdown occurs in Thailand.
• The threat of Greece defaulting on its debts triggers the European sovereign debt crisis and Republic of Ireland's financial crisis.
• Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.
• Arab Spring starts.
• Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010.
• The Burj Khalifa in Dubai becomes the tallest structure in the world, standing at 829.8 m (2,722 ft).
• Dilma Rousseff is elected as the first female president of Brazil.
• The iPad is introduced.
• Instagram is launched.

See also: 2010 § Deaths

2011

• World population reaches 7 billion.
• 22 February: Christchurch earthquake kills 185 and injures 2,000.
• 11 March: A 9.0 earthquake in Japan triggers a tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
• 29 April: Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
• 2 May: Osama bin Laden is shot dead by United States Navy SEALs in Pakistan.
• 9 July: Independence of South Sudan.
• 22 July: 2011 Norway attacks.
• August: Riots flare across England.
• 20 October: Muammar Gaddafi is captured and killed during the Battle of Sirte.
• Snapchat launched.
• Arab Spring: revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya follow, as well as uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain, and protests in several other Arab countries.
• Syrian civil war begins.
• Second Ivorian Civil War.
• Occupy movement inspires worldwide protests.
• News International phone hacking scandal.
• The Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, the world's longest, opens in China.
• Second Ivorian Civil War ends with the arrest of former president Laurent Gbagbo.
• Iraq War ends.
• Bombings occur in Russia and Somalia.
• Floods in Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines kill roughly 2,500 people.
• Space Shuttle program is officially ended.
• Amazon Rainforest and River, Hạ Long Bay, Jeju Island, Iguazú Falls, Puerto Princesa Underground River, Komodo Island and Table Mountain were named as the world's New7Wonders of Nature.
• NASA launches spacecraft to visit Jupiter and Mars.

See also: 2011 § Deaths

2012

• 13 January: Costa Concordia disaster.
• 26 February: Killing of Trayvon Martin: The 17-year-old African-American high school student was killed in Sanford, Florida.
• 7 May: Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia for the third time.
• 20 July: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting.
• 14 October: Skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle.
• October-November: Hurricane Sandy causes $70 billion in damage and kills 233 people.
• 6 November: Barack Obama wins second term as President of the United States, defeating former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
• 15 November: Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
• 26 November to 8 December: UN Climate Change Conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.
• 14 December: Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
• The Higgs boson is discovered.
• Conflict begins in the Central African Republic.
• Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip.
• The US rover, Curiosity, takes a selfie on Mars and finds evidence of an ancient streambed of water on the Red Planet.
• Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

See also: 2012 § Deaths

2013

• 15 February: An undiscovered meteor strikes the Chelyabinsk oblast in Russia, with an airburst injuring thousands and damaging many buildings.
• 28 February to 13 March: Pope Benedict XVI resigns, the first Pope to do since 1415, and Pope Francis is elected, becoming the first Pope from Latin America.
• 5 March: Death and state funeral of Hugo Chavez.
• 24 April: The Rana Plaza collapses in Bangladesh.
• 3 July: President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is deposed by the military in a coup d'état.
• 21 August: A chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria is blamed on President Bashar al-Assad.
• 15 October: A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Bohol, kills 222.
• November: Typhoon Haiyan kills nearly 6,150 people in Vietnam and the Philippines.
• 21 November: The Euromaidan protest begins in Ukraine.
• 5 December: Death and state funeral of Nelson Mandela.
• The French military intervenes in the Northern Mali conflict.
• Terrorist attacks occur in Boston and Nairobi.
• Edward Snowden releases classified documents concerning mass surveillance by the NSA.
• Croatia becomes a member of the European Union.
• Conflict begins in South Sudan.
• Uruguay becomes the first country to fully legalize cannabis.
• End of 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis.

See also: 2013 § Deaths

2014

• The worst Ebola epidemic in recorded history occurs in West Africa, infecting nearly 30,000 people and resulting in the deaths of 11,000+.
• February: Euromaidan protest in Ukraine sparks a revolution and the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, leading to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the War in Donbas.
• 8 March: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears from radar while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8. There were 239 people on board
• 16 April: The MV Sewol sinks, killing 304 of 476 passengers, 250 of which were students at Danwon High School
• 22 May: A coup d'état in Thailand overthrows the caretaker government.
• 19 June: King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates; his son becomes King Felipe VI.
• 9 August: The shooting of African-American teenager Michael Brown by police leads to violent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
• 12 November: The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe becomes the first to successfully land on a comet.
• 16 December: Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan kill over 130 students in Pakistan.
• Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Java Sea, while Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Ukraine and Air Algérie Flight 5017 is downed in Mali.
• Israel launches an assault on the Gaza Strip in response to tit-for-tat murder-kidnappings, leading to the deaths of 71 Israelis and 2,100 Palestinians.
• ISIS begins its offensive in northern Iraq, leading to intervention in Iraq and Syria by a US-led coalition.
• Second Libyan Civil War begins.
• Narendra Modi is elected as the Prime Minister of India.

See also: 2014 § Deaths

2015

• 3-7 January: Boko Haram perpetrates a massacre of over 2,000 people in Baga, Nigeria, and allies itself with ISIL.
• 2 April: Al-Shabaab perpetrates a mass shooting in Kenya, killing 148.
• April-May: The death of African-American teenager Freddie Gray by police leads to violent unrest in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 30 November to 12 December: 195 nations agree to lower carbon emissions.
• A series of terrorist attacks occur in Paris.
• A series of earthquakes in the Himalayas kills over 10,000 people.
• The heads of China and Taiwan meet for the first time, while the United States and Cuba resume diplomatic relations.
• Liquid water is found on Mars.
• First close-up images of Ceres and Pluto.
• China announces the end of One-child policy after 35 years.
• European migrant crisis.
• The Supreme Court of the United States determines that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
• Homo naledi, a species of early human, is discovered in Africa.
• Volkswagen emissions scandal.

See also: 2015 § Deaths

2016

• 12 June: A shooter kills 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
• 23 June to 13 July: The people of the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union; David Cameron resigns as a result, and Theresa May succeeds him as the Prime Minister.
• October-November: Chicago Cubs wins the World Series for the first time since 1908, ending the Curse of the Billy Goat.
• 4 November: The Paris Agreement, signed by 195 nations to fight global warming, formally goes into effect.
• 8 November: Donald Trump wins the 2016 presidential election, in an upset against Hillary Clinton, the first female to be nominated for a major party.
• El Chapo is recaptured following his escape from a high-security prison in Mexico.
• The United Nations lifts sanctions from Iran in recognition of the dismantling of its nuclear program.
• Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign the Ecumenical Declaration, the first meeting between Catholic and Orthodox heads since their split in 1054.
• Barack Obama becomes the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
• Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information of 214,888 offshore companies.
• ISIL claims responsibility for a series of bombings in Brussels, a massacre at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport and car ramming attacks in Nice.
• The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel, is completed.
• Juno enters orbit into Jupiter.
• Augmented-reality game, Pokémon Go, is released, breaking records in revenue, and becoming the best-selling mobile game.
• The Colombian government signs a peace deal with FARC to end the Colombian conflict, despite narrowly losing a referendum.
• The government of Turkey begins a series of purges in reaction to a failed coup d'état attempt.
• Detection of gravitational waves by LIGO confirmed.

See also: 2016 § Deaths

2017

• 20 January: Donald Trump is inaugurated as President of the United States.
• 21 January: Millions of people participated in the Women's March, as a response to the inauguration of Donald Trump.
• 13 February: Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong-Un, is assassinated in Kuala Lumpur.
• 22 May: A terrorist bombing attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England kills 22 people and injures over 140.
• 11-12 August: The city of Charlottesville is the site of a far-right rally protesting the removal of Confederate statues throughout the US. During the event, a white supremacist rams his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, injuring 19 and killing one.
• 21 August: A solar eclipse passes throughout the contiguous United States for the first time since 1918.
• September: Two earthquakes strike Mexico on September 8 and September 19, killing over 400 people.
• 1 October: 60 people are killed in a mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas.
• 14 October: A bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 14, kills 587 people and injures 316. It is one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history.
• 5 November: 26 people are killed in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
• Tensions between North Korea and the UN escalate as the country tests a hydrogen bomb and conducts a series of ballistic missile tests. The UN responds with a wave of export sanctions.
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launch simultaneous attacks in Tehran, destroy the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul Iraq, and kill 311 in Egypt, but are declared defeated in Iraq by the end of the year.
• A military operation targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is declared ethnic cleansing by the UNHCR.
• This year's Atlantic Hurricane season features Hurricane Harvey, which kills 107 and becomes the costliest hurricane in US history, as well as Hurricane Irma, killing 134, and Hurricane Maria, killing 3,059.
• Robert Mugabe is ousted in a coup d'état, while Ratko Mladić is declared guilty of genocide.
• Allegations of sexual abuse against film producer Harvey Weinstein lead to a wave of similar accusations from within Hollywood and other areas of primarily the English-speaking world.

See also: 2017 § Deaths

2018

• 24 March: March for Our Lives occurs in 900 locations worldwide in response to the 14 February Parkland shooting.
• 19 May: Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
• 2 October: Exiled Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, triggering a diplomatic crisis for Saudi Arabia.
• Turkey invades northern Syria, while 70 die in a chemical attack, triggering a missile strike against Bashar al-Assad.
• Pakatan Harapan becomes the first opposition party to assume power in Malaysia since independence.
• The first summit between the US and North Korea and the first ever crossing of the Korean Demilitarized Zone by a North Korean leader occur.
• Twenty-year Eritrean–Ethiopian border conflict formally ends.
• Yellow vests movement becomes France's largest sustained period of civil unrest since 1968.
• The Sunda strait tsunami kills 426 and injures 14,000 and the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami kills 4,340 and injures 10,700.
• Macedonia and Greece reach a historic agreement in the Macedonia naming dispute, in which the former is renamed in 2019 to the 'Republic of North Macedonia'.
• Saudi Arabia allows women to drive.
• China's National People's Congress votes to abolish presidential term limits, allowing Xi Jinping to rule for life. Xi is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the highest position without term limits.
• 2018 Armenian revolution occurs.
• First post-ISIS election in Iraq.

See also: 2018 § Deaths

2019

• 3 January: Chang'e 4 becomes the first object to land on the far side of the Moon.
• 15 April: A major fire engulfs Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, resulting in the roof and main spire collapsing.
• 5 August: India revokes the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
• 18 October: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the ISS.
• 18 December: US President Donald Trump is impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
• New Horizons takes the first close up image of a classical kuiper belt object.
• Christchurch mosque shootings kill 51 people, while a suicide bombing in Iran kills 41, and a series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka kills 250.
• The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant loses the last of its territory.
• Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns as President of Algeria, while Omar al-Bashir is deposed as President of Sudan in a coup d'état amid widespread protests in both countries.
• The Event Horizon Telescope takes the first ever image of a black hole, at the core of galaxy Messier 87.
• Victor Vescovo breaks the human depth record, reaching 10,928 m in the Challenger Deep.
• Protests begin in Hong Kong over an extradition bill.
• Wildfires spike in Brazil, while Australia endures the most widespread brush fires in its history.
• Avengers: Endgame was released in theaters, breaking many box-office records, including becoming the highest-grossing movies of all time.
• Isabelle Holdaway is the first patient to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.
• Pope Francis abolishes pontifical secrecy in sex abuse cases.
• The COVID-19 pandemic begins in Wuhan, China; the start of an ongoing global pandemic.
• The United States Space Force is announced by Vice President Mike Pence and created in December.
• Parliament of India signs into law the Citizenship Act 2019.

See also: 2019 § Deaths

2020s

2020

• The COVID-19 pandemic spreads from China to the vast majority of the world's inhabited areas, infecting at least 81 million and killing at least 1.8 million people in its first year.
• 3 January: Qasem Soleimani is targeted and killed at Baghdad International Airport.
• 8 January: Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 is shot down by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) shortly after taking off from Tehran, killing all 176 onboard.
• 16 January to 5 February: Donald Trump is acquitted by the United States Senate in his first impeachment trial.
• 31 January: The United Kingdom formally withdraws from the European Union.
• May: Cyclone Amphan becomes the costliest cyclone ever recorded in the Northern Indian Ocean.
• 25 May: The murder of George Floyd sparks protests across the United States and the world.
• 30 May: Crewed spaceflight resumes in the United States for the first time since 2011.
• 30 June: China's National People's Congress grants itself sweeping powers to curtail civil liberties in Hong Kong.
• 9 July: Protests begin in Bulgaria against the government of Boyko Borisov.
• 27 September to 10 November: 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• Fears of COVID-19 cause the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall ten percent in one week, its largest drop in history, triggering the COVID-19 Recession, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
• The United States signs a tentative peace agreement with the Taliban.
• Silurian millipede Kampecaris obanensis, the oldest known land animal, is discovered in Scotland.
• China and India engage in border skirmishes, the largest escalation between the two powers in 50 years.
• China launches Chang'e 5 and becomes the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to return samples of the moon.
• Joe Biden wins the 2020 United States presidential election and becomes the 46th President of the United States.
• Kamala Harris becomes the first female, black, and Asian vice president in US history.

See also: 2020 § Deaths

For the current year, see 2021 and 2021 in politics and government.

See also

• Timeline of the 20th century
• Timelines of the future