The News of 2016.

January:

• Saudi Arabia and several other countries end diplomatic relations with Iran following the execution of religious leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr
• Joaquin Guzmán, the world’s most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico
• 30 people are killed and 56 injured in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• In the general election of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the Democratic Progressive Party, secures a majority, the first by a non-KMT party and the first by the DPP; Tsai becomes the 14th President of Taiwan and the first female leader for China
• The World Health Organisation announces an outbreak of the Zika virus
• Two days after the release of his final studio album, Blackstar, David Bowie dies of liver cancer in his New York City apartment
• Arlene Foster becomes the first female leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and Northern Ireland’s first female First Minister
• Non-emergency junior doctors in England strike for 24 hours in a dispute with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt over pay and working hours
• Tim Peake conducts the first spacewalk by an “official” British astronaut, stepping outside an ISS airlock
• An inquiry into the murder of British ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 was “probably” approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin

February:

• Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leader of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their schism in 1054
• The Independent and the Independent on Sunday will cease to print and become online-only at the end of March
• BBC Three becomes the first UK television network to become online-only

March:

• The International Criminal Court finds the former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the first time the ICC convicted someone of sexual violence
• Barack Obama visits Cuba, the first time a sitting US President has visited the nation since Calvin Coolidge in 1928
• Suicide bomb attacks at Brussels’ Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station kill 35 people and injure 300 more
• Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War
• Four of the burglars involved in the Hatton Garden heist are sentenced to seven years imprisonment, a fifth is given six years while Brian Reader, the ringleader, is given more than six years
• Iain Duncan Smith resigns as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions claiming that he came under pressure to slice welfare
• England win the Six Nations Grand Slam, their first since 2003
• Transgender fell-runner Lauren Jeska attempts to murder UK Athletics official Ralph Knibbs fearing her records and ability to complete would be investigated
• Drivers on London Underground’s Piccadilly line go on strike for 24 hours over “bullying”
• Tata Steel reports it will sell off its British operations in a move to save money leaving thousands of jobs at risk

April:

• Clashes occur along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact with the Artsakh Defence Army, backed by Armenia, on one side and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on the other; a total of 350 are killed in the clashes, the worst since the 1994 ceasefire
• The International Consortium of Journalists and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung publish the Panama Papers, a set of 11.5 million confidential documents that provide detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, identifying shareholders and directors including noted personalities and heads of state
• The 2016 Dog Microchipping Legislation comes into force, requiring every dog over eight weeks old in England, Scotland and Wales to be micro-chipped
• Thousands protest against austerity cuts in central London including Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell
• Queen Elizabeth II marks her 90th birthday
• A jury at a coroner’s court in Warrington declares that the victims of the Hillsborough disaster were unlawfully killed

May:

• Rodrigo Duterte is elected the President of the Philippines
• Former Chadian President Hissène Habré is sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during his tenure from 1982 to 1990, the first time an African Union-backed court convicted a former ruler of a country within its jurisdiction
• Leicester City win the Premier League for the first time, having been quoted as 5000/1 outsiders before the start of the season
• Labour MP Sadiq Khan is sworn in as mayor of London, succeeding Boris Johnson and becoming London’s first Muslim mayor

June:

• The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the worlds longest and deepest railway tunnel, is opened following two decades of construction
• France hosts UEFA Euro 2016; Portugal defeat the hosts 1-0 after a goal by Eder in extra time
• A gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State opens fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others
• Labour MP Jo Cox is murdered in Birstall, West Yorkshire
• The UK votes to leave the European Union; David Cameron announces his intention to step down as Prime Minister following the result
• Islamic State is suspected to be responsible for attacking Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 45 people and injuring 230 others

July:

• Latvia becomes the 35th member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal/National Coalition Government is narrowly re-elected, defeating Bill Shorten’s Labour Party in the Australian federal election
• Pokémon Go is released, breaking records in terms of sales and revenue
• 86 people are killed and 400 others injured in a truck attack in Nice, France, during Bastille Day celebrations
• A faction of the Turkish Armed Forces, the Peace at Home Council, unsuccessfully stages a coup against the state institutions, resulting in the deaths of at least 240 people and triggering a series of unprecedented purges across the country
• Swiss Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth
• Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic Presidential candidate, the first female for a major US political party
• UKIP leader Nigel Farage resigns saying his “political ambition had been achieved” with the UK voting to leave the EU
• The Chilcott Inquiry into the Iraq War is released, showing that the UK went to war before peaceful options were exhausted, that military action was not the “last report”, ill-prepared troops were sent into battle with inadequate plans and that the threat from Saddam Hussein was overstated; ultimately rejecting former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s case for the 2003 invasion
• Women are permitted to serve in close combat roles in the British military service
• Theresa May is announced as the Conservative Party leader, and Prime Minister, after Andrea Leadsom withdraws from the leadership election
• MPs vote to back the renewal of the UKs Trident nuclear weapons programme in a vote of 472 to 117

August:

• The 2016 Summer Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, the first time in South America; the United States top the medal table with 46 gold and 121 overall medals
• A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hits central Italy killing 299 people
• The Brazilian Senate votes to impeach the President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff; Vice President Michel Temer takes office for the remainder of her term
• The Bank of England cuts interest rates from 0.5% to 0.25%, a record low and the first cut since 2009
• A five-day strike by Southern Rail workers begins, the longest rail strike in the UK since 1968
• Mumin Sahin and Emin Ozmen are jailed for a total of 42 years for their part in the UK’s largest ever drugs haul, in which 3.2 tonnes of cocaine worth £512 million was seized
• The worlds largest wind farm consisting of 300 turbines producing 1.8 gigawatts of clean energy, is approved for construction off the Yorkshire coast

September:

• The US and China, together responsible for 40% of the worlds carbon emissions, formally join the Paris global climate agreement
• North Korea conducts its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test
• International investigators conclude that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, shot down by a Buk missile in 2014, was perpetrated by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine
• Global CO2 levels exceed 400ppm, believed to be higher than anything experienced in human history, at a time of year normally associated with minimum levels
• Two Van Gogh paintings with a combined value of $100 million, Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, are recovered having been stolen in December 2002 from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam
• Nicholas Chamberlain, the Bishop of Grantham, becomes the first Church of England bishop to openly declare he is gay and in a relationship
• The first Bank of England polymer banknote enters circulation
• The UK government approves the £18 billion Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant
• Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected as leader of the Labour Party following an unsuccessful challenge by Owen Smith

October:

• US intelligence agencies publicly accuse the Russian government of using computer hacking to interfere with the US election process; The Washington Post releases a videotape showing presidential candidate Donald Trump privately bragging about sexual improprieties; and WikiLeaks release thousands of private emails from inside the political campaign of candidate Hillary Clinton, all on the same day
• The Maldives announces its decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations
• 150 nations meet at the United Nations Environment Programme summit in Rwanda and agree to phase out hydrofluorocarbons as an amendment of the Montreal Protocol
• Diane James quits as leader of UKIP after only 18 days in the post
• Communities Secretary Sajid Javid approves plans for fracking at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site in Lancashire, overturning an earlier decision by the local council
• Welsh footballer Ched Evans is cleared of rape in a retrial, having previously been wrongfully convicted for the offence, serving two and a half years in prison
• The UK government approves a third runway at Heathrow; Richmond Park MP, Zac Goldsmith, resigns in protest

November:

• The Government of India announces the demonetisation of certain banknotes, causing prolonged cash shortages in the following weeks and significant disruption throughout the economy
• Businessman and television personality Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States
• The remains of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos are buried in a private ceremony prompting protests throughout the Philippines
• The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army sign a revised peace deal, slowing the Colombian conflict
• LaMia Flight 2933 crashes into a mountain near Medellin, Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 people on board, including members of the Brazilian Chapecoense football squad
• Andy Murray becomes ATP world number one, the first British player of either sex to reach number one in the modern era
• The British Medical Journal backs the legislation of drugs for the first time, arguing the “War on Drugs” has failed
• Paul Nuttall is elected leader of the UKIPs

December:

• A constitutional referendum held in Italy, results in the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
• Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, is assassinated by an off-duty Turkish police officer at an art exhibition in Ankara
• A study finds the VSV-EBOV vaccine against the Ebola virus between 70 and 100% effective, thus making it the first proven vaccine against the disease
• The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
• A Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner of the Russian Defence Ministry crashes into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from the Sochi International Airport, killing all 92 onboard including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble choir of the Russian Armed Forces
• The withdrawal of the majority of US troops from Afghanistan after 15 years of war is initiated
• A riot occurs at HMP Birmingham, described as the worst since the Strangeways prison riot and protest of 1990; authorities regain control of all four wings after more than 12 hours of disorder involving 600 inmates

Other:

• The best selling single in the UK is “One Dance” by Drake
• Earning over $1 billion, the highest grossing film worldwide is Captain America: Civil War