January •
January 1 – The
African Continental Free Trade Area comes into effect. •
January 4 –
The border between
Qatar and
Saudi Arabia reopens. •
January 6 – Supporters of
US President Donald Trump attack the US Capitol, disrupting
certification of the
2020 presidential election, and forcing both houses of
Congress to evacuate. Five people die during the ensuing riot. The event is classified as a
domestic terrorist attack, and draws
international condemnation. •
January 9 –
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crashes north of Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 62 people on board. •
January 10 –
Kim Jong Un is elected as the
General Secretary of the ruling
Workers' Party of Korea, inheriting the title from his father
Kim Jong Il, who
died in
2011. •
January 13 – In
Lyon, France, the first
transplant of both arms and shoulders is performed on an Icelandic patient at the Édouard Herriot Hospital. •
January 14 – The
2021 Ugandan general election is held. Incumbent president
Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled since 1986, wins re-election. •
January 15 • The
Lao People's Revolutionary Party elects
Thongloun Sisoulith as its new
General Secretary, replacing retiring chief
Bounnhang Vorachith. Sisoulith is elected for a five-year term as top leader in
Laos. •
COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from
COVID-19 passes 2 million. •
January 20 –
Joe Biden takes office as
President of the United States. •
January 22 – The
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding international agreement comprehensively to prohibit nuclear weapons, comes into effect. •
January 24 –
2021 Portuguese presidential election: Incumbent president
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is reelected. •
January 26 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeds 100 million worldwide. •
January 27 • A
near-total ban on abortion comes into effect in Poland. • The
GameStop short squeeze reaches its peak of $483 per share, as the result of influence from the online community,
r/wallstreetbets, drawing international attention. •
January 29 – COVID-19 pandemic: The European Union invokes
Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol following a row over
COVID-19 vaccine supplies before reversing the decision. •
January 31 –
Nguyễn Phú Trọng is re-elected for a third five-year term as the
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
February •
February 1 • A
coup d'état in
Myanmar removes
Aung San Suu Kyi from power and restores
military rule leading to
widespread demonstrations across the country. •
Kosovo officially establishes diplomatic ties with Israel and announces plans to
open an embassy in
Jerusalem. • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of
vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 100 million. •
February 4 – US President Joe Biden announces that the United States will cease providing weapons to
Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) for
use in the
Yemeni Civil War. •
February 9 • COVID-19 pandemic: A joint
WHO–
China investigation into the source of the outbreak concludes. Investigators deem a
Wuhan laboratory leak to be "extremely unlikely", with a "natural reservoir" in
bats being a more likely origin. • The UAE's uncrewed
Hope spacecraft becomes the first
Arabian mission successfully to enter orbit around
Mars. •
February 13–
February 17 – A
major winter storm kills at least 136 people and causes over 9.9 million power outages in the
U.S. •
February 18 –
NASA's
Mars 2020 mission (containing the
Perseverance rover and
Ingenuity helicopter drone) lands on
Mars at
Jezero Crater, after seven months of travel. •
February 19 – The United States officially rejoins the
Paris Agreement, 107 days after leaving. •
February 20 –
2020–21 H5N8 outbreak: 7 people test positive for
H5N8 bird flu at a poultry farm in southern Russia, becoming the first known human cases. •
February 22 –
Luca Attanasio, the
Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is
murdered near
Goma. •
February 24 – COVID-19 pandemic: the
COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative delivers its first vaccines, delivering 600,000 doses for healthcare workers in
Ghana. •
February 25 – The
Armenian
military calls for
prime minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign. Pashinyan accuses the military of
attempting a coup d'état. •
February 28 –
2021 Salvadoran legislative election: The
Nuevas Ideas party wins 56 out of 84 seats in the
Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.
March •
March 6 •
Pope Francis meets with
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in
Najaf,
Iraq. It is the first-ever meeting between a
pope and a grand ayatollah. •
2021 Ivorian parliamentary election: The
Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace coalition wins 137 out of 255 seats in the
National Assembly. •
March 15–
March 17 – The
Dutch general elections for the
House of Representatives of the Netherlands take place. •
March 19 •
North Korea severs diplomatic ties with
Malaysia due to a Malaysian court's ruling that a North Korean citizen could be extradited to the United States to face money-laundering charges. Malaysian authorities order North Korean officials to leave the country in 48 hours. •
Samia Suluhu Hassan is sworn in as
president of Tanzania following the death of her predecessor,
John Magufuli. •
March 20 –
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announces his country's withdrawal from the
Istanbul Convention, the first country to do so. •
March 21 –
Clashes in
Apure between Colombian
FARC dissidents and the
Venezuelan Armed Forces cause at least six casualties, as well as displacing 4,000 Venezuelans. •
March 23 • The
Israeli general elections take place, the fourth Knesset election in two years.'' blocking the
Suez canal on 24 March 2021 •
Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in the world,
runs aground and obstructs the
Suez Canal, disrupting global trade. The ship is freed on March 29. •
March 25 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of
vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 500 million.
April •
April 2 • Russia warns
NATO against sending any troops to aid Ukraine, amid reports of a large
Russian military build-up on its
borders. •
2021 Hualien train derailment: In
Taiwan, a
Taroko Express train collided with a truck that rolled down a slope and derailed, resulting in 49 deaths and 202 injuries. •
April 4 • The
2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election is held. • More than 270 people are killed in
Indonesia and
East Timor after
Cyclone Seroja strikes
East Nusa Tenggara and the island of
Timor. •
April 9 –
Roscosmos launches the
Soyuz MS-18 mission, carrying three
Expedition 65 crewmembers to the
International Space Station. •
April 11 •
Peru holds a
general election, with
Pedro Castillo and the
left-wing Free Peru party winning. • Iran accuses Israel of "nuclear terrorism" and vows revenge after a large explosion destroys the internal power system of the
Natanz uranium enrichment plant. •
Hideki Matsuyama wins the
2021 Masters Tournament, becoming the first man from Japan to win a major golf championship. •
April 13 –
Japan's government approves the
dumping of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean over the course of 30 years, with full support of the
International Atomic Energy Agency. The decision is opposed by China, South Korea, and Taiwan. •
April 15 – Scientists announce they successfully injected
human stem cells into the embryos of monkeys, creating
chimera-embryos. •
April 17 • COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 3 million. • The
Czech government concludes that the Russian
GRU was responsible for the
blast of two ammo warehouses in
Vrbětice in
2014. 18 Russian diplomats and alleged spies are subsequently expelled. • The
Soyuz MS-17 mission concludes, returning three crewmembers of
Expedition 64 to
Earth from the
International Space Station. •
April 18 • Twelve football clubs, including three from
La Liga and leading clubs from the
Premier League and
Serie A, agree to join a new breakaway
European Super League, prompting international condemnation. Two days later, following major protests from supporters, other clubs and politicians,
Manchester City withdraw from the league; this prompts all the remaining Premier League clubs and three others to do the same. • The
2021 Cape Verdean parliamentary election is held. •
April 19 • NASA's
Ingenuity helicopter, part of the
Mars 2020 mission, performs the first powered flight on another planet in history. •
Raúl Castro resigns as
First Secretary of the
Cuban Communist Party, ending more than 62 years of rule by the
Castro brothers in Cuba. •
April 20 –
Idriss Déby, President of
Chad, is killed in
clashes with rebel forces after 30 years in office. The
constitution is suspended and a
Transitional Military Council is established to govern the country for 18 months. •
April 22 – World leaders mark
Earth Day by hosting a virtual summit on
climate change, during which more ambitious targets for
greenhouse gas emission reductions are proposed, including a 40% cut by 2030 for the United States. •
April 23 •
SpaceX launches the
Crew-2 mission, carrying four crew members of
Expedition 65 and
66 to the
International Space Station aboard
Crew Dragon Endeavour. •
UEFA announces that due to a lack of guarantees regarding spectators caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,
Aviva Stadium in
Dublin, Ireland would be removed as a tournament host for the
UEFA Euro 2020. •
April 24 • Following an international search and rescue effort, the
Indonesian navy reports the sinking of
KRI Nanggala with 53 crew members, the largest loss of life aboard a submarine since
2003. • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of
vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 1 billion. Half of these doses have been administered in just three countries (the United States, China and India). • U.S. president
Joe Biden becomes the first U.S. president to formally recognize
the Ottoman killings of Armenians during
World War I as
genocide. •
April 25 –
Albania holds
parliamentary elections. •
April 28 • At least 55 people are killed and nearly 50,000 more are displaced in
one of the most serious clashes in
Central Asia following border disputes between
Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan. • The European Union approves the
EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, governing the relationship between the
EU and
UK after
Brexit. •
April 29 – The
China National Space Administration launches the first module of its
Tiangong space station, named
Tianhe, beginning a two-year effort to build the station in orbit.
May •
May 2 – The
SpaceX Crew-1 mission ends, returning four crew members of
Expedition 64 and
65 to
Earth from the
International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon
Resilience. •
May 3 –
Mexico City Metro overpass collapse: 26 people were killed and 98 people were injured when a
Mexico City Metro train bridge collapsed when a train passed it. •
May 11 –
2021 Israel–Palestine crisis: Israel hits the
Gaza Strip with
airstrikes as
Hamas increases
rocket fire. This follows tensions over the possible eviction of several
Palestinians due to a long-standing property dispute in the
Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of
East Jerusalem. •
May 12 –
COVID-19 pandemic in India: The country's death toll exceeds 250,000.
Delhi cremation grounds were running out of places while hundreds of bodies were reported washed up on the banks of the
Ganges. •
May 14 – The
China National Space Administration lands its
Zhurong rover at
Utopia Planitia on Mars, making China the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the planet and only the second to land a rover. •
May 15 – Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants continues to escalate, as the death toll exceeds 150. An Israeli airstrike destroys a high-rise office building in
Gaza occupied by
Associated Press,
Al Jazeera, and other media outlets. •
May 17 –
Discovery, Inc. agrees to buy
media conglomerate WarnerMedia and all of its subsidiaries from
AT&T for US$43 billion. The merger is set to be complete the following year. •
May 18–
May 22 – The
Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is held in
Rotterdam,
Netherlands, after the cancellation of the
2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The contest is won by
Italian entrants
Måneskin with the song "". •
May 19 – The
European Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the formal suspension of
accession negotiations between the
European Union and
Turkey. •
May 20 – Following international pressure, and nearly 250 deaths, Israel agrees to a ceasefire deal to end the conflict with
Gaza militants, effective the next day at 2:00 am
local time. •
May 23 –
Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by
Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist
Roman Protasevich. •
May 24 • A
coup d'état in
Mali removes interim president
Bah Ndaw and the acting prime minister,
Moctar Ouane, from power and restores
military rule leading to the country being suspended from the
Economic Community of West African States and the
African Union, as well as France suspending its military operations in the country. • The
Government of Guillermo Lasso is formed in
Ecuador. •
May 26 •
Shell becomes the first company to be legally mandated to align its
carbon emissions with the
Paris climate accord, following a landmark court ruling in the Netherlands. • The
2021 Syrian presidential election is held. •
May 28 –
The New York Times breaks the story on a
Canadian Indian Residential School Cemeteries announcement, incorrectly reporting
a discovery of "
mass graves" of Indigenous children at a former school site. The reporting would help "spawn a new holiday,
Truth and Reconciliation Day,
prompt an official visit by Pope Francis, and result in Canadian flags being kept at half-mast for a record-breaking five consecutive months.” •
May 29 –
2021 UEFA Champions League Final;
Chelsea become champions, defeating fellow English club
Manchester City 1–0 to win the
UEFA Champions League for the second time. •
May 30 – The
2021 Cypriot legislative election is held.
June •
June 2 – The
2021 Israeli presidential election is held, and won by
Isaac Herzog. In order to remove Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu from power,
Naftali Bennett agrees to form a coalition with the Israeli opposition as a
rotation government that will come to take effect after eleven days. •
June 5 – The
G7 agrees on a global
minimum corporate tax rate of 15% intended to prevent
tax avoidance by some of the world's biggest multinational companies. •
June 7 • The
Juno spacecraft performs its only flyby of
Jupiter's moon
Ganymede, the first flyby of the moon by any spacecraft in over 20 years. •
2021 Ghotki rail crash: In
Pakistan, 2 trains collided in
Daharki, in the
Ghotki District of
Sindh. Killing 65 people and injuring 150 people. •
June 9 • The
2021 Mongolian presidential election is held. • The
Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passes legislation to adopt
Bitcoin as
legal tender in the country, becoming the first country to adopt the cryptocurrency alongside the
U.S. dollar. •
June 10 – An
annular solar eclipse is visible from Canada,
Greenland, the
North Pole, and the
Russian Far East. •
June 11–
July 11 – The delayed
UEFA Euro 2020, hosted by 11 different countries, is held, and is won by
Italy after beating
England on penalties in the
final. •
June 11–
June 13 – World leaders meet at the
47th G7 summit, hosted by the United Kingdom, with topics of discussion including the
COVID-19 pandemic,
climate change, and the corporate taxation of multinationals. •
June 12 – The
2021 Algerian parliamentary election is held to elect all 407 seats in the
People's National Assembly. •
June 13 –
Benjamin Netanyahu,
the longest-serving prime minister of Israel, is voted out of office;
Naftali Bennett and
Yair Lapid are sworn in as
Prime Minister of Israel and as
Alternate Prime Minister of Israel, respectively. •
June 13–
July 10 – The
2021 Copa América, hosted behind closed doors by Brazil, is held, and
is won by
Argentina. •
June 17 – The
China National Space Administration sends its first three astronauts to occupy the
Tiangong Space Station, the country's first space station. •
June 18 – The
2021 Iranian presidential election is held. •
June 20 –
2021 Armenian parliamentary election: Acting PM
Nikol Pashinyan wins the country's snap election, with his
Civil Contract party gaining 54% of the vote. •
June 23 –
2021 ICC World Test Championship Final: New Zealand wins the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship. •
June 24 –
Surfside condominium collapse: A portion of the Champlain South Towers
condominium building collapses in
Surfside, Florida, United States, leaving 98 people dead. One survivor was pulled from the wreckage while 35 others were evacuated from the uncollapsed section of the building. •
June 25 –
Derek Chauvin is convicted and sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison, for the
murder of
George Floyd. Despite this, the civil unrest still goes on. •
June 28 –
Tigray War: The
Tigray Defense Force seizes the Tigrayan capital
Mekelle shortly after the Ethiopian government declares a ceasefire. •
June 29 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of
vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 3 billion.
July •
July 3 – Over 130
wildfires, fuelled by
lightning strikes, burn through
Western Canada following a record-breaking
heatwave in North America that results in over 600 deaths. •
July 5 – More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers flee to neighbouring
Tajikistan after
clashing with Taliban militants. •
July 7 –
Assassination of Jovenel Moïse: Haitian President
Jovenel Moïse is shot to death by unidentified gunmen at 1:00 am local time in his home. First Lady
Martine Moïse is injured and hospitalized. •
July 8 –
COVID-19 pandemic: The number of deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 4 million. •
July 10–
August 1 – The
2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup is held in, and
is won by, the United States. •
July 11 • Thousands of
Cubans, most of them young, attend a rare
anti-government protest in
San Antonio de los Baños to protest the increased food and medicine shortages brought on by the
COVID-19 pandemic. •
Moldova holds
a parliamentary election, with the
Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) obtaining a majority of seats. • Bulgaria holds
a parliamentary election, with the party
There Is Such a People (ITN) leading. •
July 12 –
2021 European floods: Heavy rain causes flooding in the border region of Germany and Belgium, resulting in 229 deaths, including 184 in Germany, 42 in Belgium with 1 person still missing there, and 2 in Romania. The event is attributed to a slowed
jetstream caused by
climate change. •
July 18 –
An international investigation reveals that
spyware sold by Israel's
NSO Group to different governments is being used to target heads of state, along with thousands of activists, journalists and dissidents around the world. •
July 19 •
Blue Origin successfully conducts
its first human test flight, with a reusable
New Shepard rocket delivering four crew members into space including its founder
Jeff Bezos. • Leftist schoolteacher
Pedro Castillo is confirmed as
President of Peru over a month after the
2021 Peruvian general election. • Day of
Hajj: For the first time, women are permitted to attend without a male guardian (
mehrem) provided they go in a trustworthy group. •
July 23–
August 8 – The
2020 Summer Olympics were held in
Tokyo, Japan. They were originally scheduled for 24 July–9 August 2020, but were postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. •
July 23 – The Court of Appeal of Samoa deemed the swearing-in of
Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa and her government as constitutional, ending
a three-month constitutional crisis. •
July 25 –
Tunisian president
Kais Saied formally
takes power in the country, suspending the
parliament and sacking the
prime minister. •
July 28 – The first direct observation of
light from behind a
black hole is reported, confirming Einstein's theory of
general relativity. •
July 29 •
Roscosmos'
Nauka laboratory docks with the
International Space Station following a protracted seventeen-year development and launch on 21 July. Hours after docking, a malfunction of its thrusters causes a temporary loss of control of the station, spinning it up to 45 degrees from its normal
orbital attitude. • The oil tanker
Mercer Street is attacked off the coast of
Oman.
August •
August 3 • The oil tanker
Asphalt Princess is
hijacked off the coast of the
United Arab Emirates. •
Wildfires in Greece begin. •
August 4 •
2020 Summer Olympics: Belarusian sprinter
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is given
political asylum in Poland through a
humanitarian visa after attempts by the
Belarus Olympic Committee to
repatriate her against her will. • COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpasses 200 million worldwide. •
August 5 –
Tigray War: The Tigray Defense Forces seize the
UNESCO World Heritage Site of
Lalibela. •
August 9 – The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the first part of its
Sixth Assessment Report, which concludes that the effects of human-caused
climate change are now "widespread, rapid, and intensifying". •
August 12 – The
2021 Zambian general election is held. •
August 14 –
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti, killing more than 2,500 people. •
August 15 –
2021 Taliban offensive: The Taliban
capture Kabul; the
Afghan government surrenders to the Taliban. •
August 24–
September 5 – The
2020 Summer Paralympics were held in
Tokyo, Japan. They were originally scheduled for 25 August–6 September 2020, but were postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. •
August 26 –
2021 Kabul airport attack: At least 182 people are killed, including 13 U.S. service members, in a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport. •
August 27 – The United States launches an
airstrike that it claims killed the
Islamic State member who was believed to have planned the
Kabul airport bombings. However, the U.S. Defense Department later acknowledged that the strike instead killed ten civilians, including seven children, and that no terrorists were killed. •
August 29 –
Hurricane Ida strikes
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, after having caused devastation in
Venezuela. •
August 30 • The
UN Environment Programme announces that
leaded petrol in road vehicles has been phased out globally, a hundred years after its introduction. • The United States withdraws its last remaining troops from
Hamid Karzai International Airport,
Kabul, ending 20 years of
operations in Afghanistan.
September , a day after the
coup •
September 5 –
2021 Guinean coup d'état: Guinea's President
Alpha Condé is detained by an elite military unit led by a former French legionnaire,
Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, claiming to have seized power. •
September 7 –
El Salvador becomes the first country in the world to accept
Bitcoin as an official
currency. •
September 13 •
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and
Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the main Malaysian opposition coalition
Pakatan Harapan, sign a
confidence and supply agreement ending the
18-month political crisis that has led to the fall of two successive governments in Malaysia. • The
2021 Norwegian parliamentary election is held. •
September 14 •
North Korea demonstrates two short-range ballistic missiles that land just outside Japan's territorial waters; and then only hours later
South Korea demonstrates its first submarine-launched ballistic missile. • The
inaugural season of the
UEFA Europa Conference League, the third tier of
European club football, kicks off with Israeli club
Maccabi Tel Aviv winning 4–1 against Armenian club
FC Alashkert. •
September 15 •
AUKUS: A trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States is formed, to counter the influence of China. This includes enabling Australia to build its first
nuclear-powered submarine fleet. • Several ministers of the Argentine president
Alberto Fernández's cabinet resign after the government's defeat in the primary elections, triggering a political crisis in the country. •
September 16 –
Inspiration4, launched by
SpaceX, becomes the first all-civilian
private spaceflight, carrying a four-person crew on a three-day orbit of the Earth.
Sian Proctor becomes first female commercial astronaut spaceship pilot and
Hayley Arceneaux becomes first astronaut with a prosthesis. •
September 19 – The
2021 Russian legislative election is held, with the
United Russia party winning nearly 50% of the vote. •
September 20 – The
2021 Canadian federal election is held, with
Justin Trudeau and the
Liberal Party retaining a
minority government. •
September 25 – The
2021 Icelandic parliamentary election is held. •
September 26 • The
2021 German federal election is held, with
Olaf Scholz and the
Social Democratic Party beating out
Armin Laschet's CDU/CSU coalition and
Annalena Baerbock's Green Party. •
Lewis Hamilton wins his 100th Grand Prix in
Formula 1, becoming the first to reach the milestone, at an eventful
Russian Grand Prix.
October •
October 1 – The
2020 World Expo in
Dubai begins. Its opening was originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 but was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. •
October 3 – The
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and assorted media partners publish a set of 11.9 million documents leaked from 14 financial services companies known as the
Pandora Papers, revealing offshore financial activities that involve multiple current and former world leaders. •
October 4 –
Fumio Kishida becomes the 100th
Prime Minister of Japan, succeeding
Yoshihide Suga. •
October 5 •
Microsoft releases the desktop operating system
Windows 11. •
Roscosmos launches the
Soyuz MS-19 mission, which carries an
Expedition 66 crewmember and two
Channel One Russia personnel to the
International Space Station. The two Channel One crew will perform
principal photography on the film
Vyzov aboard the station. •
October 6 – The
World Health Organization endorses the first
malaria vaccine. •
October 6–
October 10 – The
2021 UEFA Nations League Finals is held in Italy, and is won by
France. They were originally scheduled for 2–6 June 2021, but were moved following the rescheduling of
UEFA Euro 2020 to June and July 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. •
October 8–
October 9 – The
2021 Czech legislative election is held, with the main opposition coalition alliance of
SPOLU and
Pirates and Mayors gaining a legislative majority. •
October 9 –
Sebastian Kurz announces his resignation as
Chancellor of Austria as a result of a
corruption probe launched against him. •
October 16 – The
Lucy spacecraft is launched by NASA, the first mission to explore the
Trojan asteroids. •
October 17–
November 14 – The
2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup is held in the
United Arab Emirates and
Oman, and
is won by
Australia. •
October 23 – Colombia's most wanted drug lord,
Dario Antonio Úsuga, whose
Gulf Clan controls many smuggling routes into the US and other countries, is captured by Colombia's armed forces. •
October 24 – The
2021 Uzbek presidential election is held. •
October 25 – The
Sudanese
military launches a
coup against the
government. Prime Minister
Abdalla Hamdok is placed under house arrest. President
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declares a state of emergency and announces the dissolution of the government. •
October 31 • The
2021 Japanese general election is held, with
Fumio Kishida and the
Liberal Democratic Party along with its coalition partner
Komeito retaining a majority government. •
October 31–
November 13 – The
2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in
Glasgow, after being postponed in 2020 due to
COVID-19. A deal is agreed by world leaders, which includes a "phasedown" of unabated
coal power, a 30% cut in
methane emissions by 2030, plans for a halt to
deforestation by 2030, and increased financial support for developing countries.
November •
November 1 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of recorded deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 5 million. •
November 5 •
Tigray War: The
Tigray People's Liberation Front forms a
coalition with eight other rebel groups with the aim of defeating the
Ethiopian government "by force or by negotiations." • A
crowd crush at the Astroworld Festival hosted by
Travis Scott in
Houston,
Texas, kills 10 people and causes 300+ injuries. •
November 11 –
SpaceX launches the
Crew-3 mission, carrying four
Expedition 66 crew members to the
International Space Station. •
November 13 – Five Indian soldiers and two civilians are killed in an ambush by unknown gunmen in
Churachandpur,
Manipur. The
People's Liberation Army of Manipur(PLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. •
November 14 • The
2021 Argentine legislative election is held. • The
2021 Bulgarian general election is held. •
November 16 – Russia draws international condemnation following an
anti-satellite weapon test that creates a cloud of
space debris, threatening the
International Space Station. •
November 21 – The
2021 Chilean general election is held. •
November 24 • NASA launches the
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first attempt to deflect an
asteroid for the purpose of learning how to protect Earth. •
Magdalena Andersson resigns as
Prime Minister-elect of Sweden hours after the
Riksdag voted her in as Sweden's first female prime minister. She was due to take office on 26 November. Instead, she takes office on 30 November. •
November 24–
December 12 –
Magnus Carlsen beats
Ian Nepomniachtchi in the
2021 World Chess Championship. Magnus has been World Chess Champion since
2013. •
November 26 – COVID-19 pandemic: The
World Health Organization convenes an emergency meeting in
Geneva amid concerns over
Omicron, a highly mutated
variant of COVID-19 first identified in
South Africa that appears more infectious than
Delta. •
November 30–
December 18 – The
2021 FIFA Arab Cup is held in
Qatar, and
is won by
Algeria. of
Barbados Sandra Mason is sworn in as the country's first
President •
November 30 –
Barbados becomes a
republic on its 55th anniversary of independence while remaining a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations.
December •
December 4 – The
2021 Gambian presidential election is held and incumbent
president Adama Barrow is reelected. •
December 6 – The
United States announces a diplomatic boycott of the
2022 Winter Olympics in
Beijing in response to China's human rights record.
Canada, the
United Kingdom, and
Australia join shortly after. •
December 9 –
A truck crash in
Chiapas,
Mexico, kills 55 migrants who were being
smuggled in it from
Guatemala through Mexico to
its border with the United States. •
December 10–
December 11 – A late season
tornado outbreak occurs in the
Southern and
Midwestern United States, causing major damage and killing at least 94 people. One of the
longest-tracked tornadoes in history occurred, which impacted western Kentucky, particularly
Mayfield. •
December 11 –
New York City FC defeat the Portland Timbers at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon 5–3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw, and win MLS Cup title for the first time in their history. •
December 12 • The
2021 New Caledonian independence referendum is held. •
Max Verstappen won his first
Formula One World Championship and the first for a Dutch driver, driving for
Red Bull Racing at the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. •
December 16 –
Typhoon Rai, also known as Typhoon Odette, hits the Philippines and caused destruction to agriculture, establishments, and houses, and caused many injured and deaths. •
December 19 • The
2021 Hong Kong legislative election, originally scheduled for 6 September 2020 but postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, is held. • The second round of the
2021 Chilean presidential election is held; leftist candidate
Gabriel Boric is elected
President. •
December 25 –
NASA,
ESA, the
Canadian Space Agency and the
Space Telescope Science Institute launch the
James Webb Space Telescope, the successor of the
Hubble Space Telescope. == Births and deaths ==