January •
January 1 •
Romania takes over the
Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the
Austrian presidency. •
New Horizons makes a close approach to the
Kuiper belt object (KBO)
486958 Arrokoth at 05:33
UTC. •
Jair Bolsonaro begins his four-year term as
President of Brazil. •
Qatar withdraws from
OPEC. • Works published by authors who died in
1948 enter the public domain in
many countries. In the
U.S., all works published in
1923 enter the public domain, the first entry of published works into the public domain since
1998. •
January 2 – Adventist Health System rebranded its facilities to the
trade name AdventHealth. •
January 3 –
Chinese probe Chang'e 4 becomes the first artificial object to land on the
far side of the Moon. •
January 5 –
Bartholomew I of Constantinople issues a
formal decree granting
independence to the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the
Russian Orthodox Church. •
January 6 –
Muhammad V of Kelantan abdicates the federal throne as the 15th
monarch of Malaysia, the first Malaysian monarch to do so. •
January 7 – A faction of the
Armed Forces of Gabon attempts a
coup d'état. •
January 10 –
Venezuela enters a
presidential crisis as
Juan Guaidó and the
National Assembly declare incumbent
President Nicolás Maduro "illegitimate". •
January 14 –
Paweł Adamowicz,
mayor of Gdańsk, died after
he was stabbed shortly after his speech on 27. finale of
WOŚP. •
January 23 –
Venezuelan presidential crisis: Thousands of people protest in favor of disputed interim President
Juan Guaidó. Several people are killed, and
President Maduro severs
U.S. diplomatic ties. •
January 25 – A mine tailings dam
breaks in
Brumadinho,
Minas Gerais,
Brazil. At least 248 people are killed, with 22 missing. •
January 28 – The
U.S. Justice Department charges
Chinese tech firm Huawei with multiple counts of fraud, raising
U.S.–China tensions.
February •
February 1 –
U.S. President Donald Trump confirms that the U.S. will leave the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, citing Russian non-compliance. The next day, Russia follows suit with suspension of its obligations to the treaty. •
February 3 •
Pope Francis arrives in
Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates, becoming the first
pope to visit the
Arabian Peninsula. •
2019 Salvadoran presidential election:
Nayib Bukele is elected
president. •
February 6 – The
Freedom House declares that
Hungary is no longer a free country, making it the
first country in the EU to be labelled "partly free". It also states that
Serbia is no longer free as well. •
February 7 –
2019 Haitian protests: Anti-government protests demanding the resignation of
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse begin in several cities across the country. •
February 12 – The
Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia, officially ending a decades-old
dispute with
Greece and paving the way for the former's integration into
NATO and the
EU. •
February 21 –
SpaceIL launches the
Beresheet probe, the world's first privately financed mission to the
Moon. •
February 23 •
Venezuelan presidential crisis:
President Maduro severs diplomatic ties with
Colombia amid attempts to send humanitarian aid to the country across
the border. •
2019 Nigerian general election:
Incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari is reelected and the
All Progressives Congress party wins 63 out of 109 seats in the
Senate of Nigeria and 202 out of 360 seats in the
House of Representatives. •
February 24 •
2019 Cuban constitutional referendum: The
new constitution was approved by 90.61% of valid votes. • The
2019 Moldovan parliamentary election is held to elect all 101 members of the
Parliament of Moldova. •
2019 Senegalese presidential election:
Incumbent president Macky Sall is reelected. •
February 26–
27 – The
Indian Air Force launches
airstrikes on purported
militant camps in
Balakot,
Pakistan. It precedes a series of events that lead to the
2019 India–Pakistan standoff. •
February 27–
28 – The
2019 North Korea–United States summit is held in
Hanoi,
Vietnam. It is the second summit between
U.S. President Donald Trump and
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
March •
March 3 • An uncrewed demonstration flight of the new crew capable version of the
SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, intended to carry American astronauts into space, achieves successful autonomous docking with the
International Space Station. • The
2019 Estonian parliamentary election is held to elect all 101 members of the
Riigikogu. •
March 5 – A second case of sustained
remission from HIV is reported, ten years after the
Berlin Patient. •
March 6 – Venezuelan presidential crisis: Venezuela
expels German ambassador Daniel Kriener for his alleged meddling in internal affairs. •
March 10 –
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a
Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for
Nairobi, crashes shortly after takeoff from
Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. All Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are
subsequently grounded worldwide. •
March 15 •
Cyclone Idai makes landfall on
Mozambique, causing at least 1,073 fatalities, as well as mass flooding and power outages in
southern Africa. • 51 people are killed and 50 others injured in
terrorist attacks on two mosques in
Christchurch,
New Zealand. It is the deadliest mass shooting and terrorist attack in
New Zealand's history. •
March 19 –
Nursultan Nazarbayev resigns as
President of Kazakhstan after 29 years in office and appoints
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as
acting president. Astana is renamed
Nur-Sultan the following day in his honor. •
March 20 –
Europe's antitrust regulators fine
Google €1.49 billion (US$1.7 billion) for freezing out rivals in the
online advertising business, bringing the total cost of EU fines against Google at nearly €8.76 billion. •
March 23 – The final territory of the
Islamic State, located in
Al-Baghuz Fawqani,
Syria, is
liberated. •
March 24 – The first phase of
Jakarta's
MRT system opened with its first line. •
March 26 – The
European Parliament votes by 348 to 278 in favour of the
EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which expands legal liability for websites and includes the controversial Article 13. •
March 31 –
Taiwan scrambles its fighter aircraft after two
Chinese jets crossed the
maritime border between
the two nations. Just the day before,
Japan had similarly scrambled its jets after Chinese jets flew between
Miyako and
Okinawa.
April •
April 2 –
Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns as
President of Algeria amid
widespread protests, after nearly two decades in office. •
April 4 –
Second Libyan Civil War: The
Libyan National Army (LNA) launches a
surprise offensive in western
Libya, moving units towards the
Government of National Accord-held capital
Tripoli and capturing
Gharyan. •
April 6 –
2019 Maldivian parliamentary election: The
Maldivian Democratic Party wins 65 out of the 85 seats in the
People's Majlis. image of the core of M87 black hole. The central dark spot is the shadow of M87* and is larger than the black hole's
event horizon. •
April 10 • Scientists from the
Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a
black hole, located in the centre of the
M87 galaxy. • Fossil fragments found in the
Callao Cave in the
Philippines reveal the existence of a new species of human, the
Homo luzonensis. The species is named after
Luzon, where the fossils were discovered. •
April 11 •
WikiLeaks co-founder
Julian Assange is
arrested after seven years in
Ecuador's embassy in London. • Amid
mass protests,
Omar al-Bashir is deposed as
President of Sudan in
a coup d'état, after nearly 30 years in office. •
April 15 – During
Holy Week, a major
fire engulfs
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, resulting in the roof and main spire collapsing. •
April 16 – The
Howse Peak avalanche kills three noted mountaineers: Austrians
Hansjörg Auer and
David Lama, and Canadian
Jess Roskelley. •
April 18 –
NepaliSat-1 is launched. It is
Nepal's first ever research satellite to be sent into space. •
April 21 •
A series of Islamist bomb attacks occur at eight locations in
Sri Lanka, including three churches, four hotels and one housing complex in
Colombo, on
Easter Sunday, leaving 259 people dead and over 500 injured. It is the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the
Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009. •
2019 Ukrainian presidential election:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is elected the
President of Ukraine in a landslide victory in the second round of voting. He took office on May 20, 2019. •
April 25 –
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Russia to hold a
series of summits with Russian leaders, including President
Vladimir Putin. •
April 28 –
Victor Vescovo achieves the deepest dive of any human in history, as he reaches
Challenger Deep within the
Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,928 m (35,853 ft). •
April 29 – Elusive
Islamic State leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in undated footage released by the group, his first appearance on video since 2014. •
April 30 •
Emperor Akihito of Japan
abdicates from his
throne, the first abdication by a
Japanese monarch in almost two centuries. The abdication ends the
Heisei era of Japan and ushers in the
Reiwa era with new emperor
Naruhito ascending the throne on May 1. •
Venezuelan presidential crisis: Venezuelan opposition leader and disputed interim President
Juan Guaidó leads
an attempted uprising against President
Nicolás Maduro.
May •
May 1 • King
Vajiralongkorn of Thailand marries his personal bodyguard
Suthida Tidjai – a
commoner – in a surprise ceremony, making her
queen consort of Thailand. •
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs into law a controversial "
sovereign internet" bill that allows
Russian authorities to better monitor internet routing and to steer
Russian internet traffic away from foreign servers. •
May 3 – The number of deaths from the
Kivu Ebola epidemic exceeds 1,000. It is the second deadliest
Ebola outbreak in history, only surpassed by the
Western African Ebola virus epidemic of 2013–2016. •
May 3–
6 –
May 2019 Gaza–Israel clashes: The
Gaza–Israel conflict escalates after the
Israeli military launches airstrikes into
Gaza killing more than 20 Palestinians including a pregnant woman and a toddler following the injury of two soldiers from Gazan sniper fire. •
May 5 –
Aeroflot Flight 1492 crash-lands and bursts into flames at
Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, killing 41 of the 78 people on board. •
May 6 • In its first report since 2005, the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warns that
biodiversity loss is "accelerating", with over a million species now threatened with extinction; the decline of the natural living world is "unprecedented" and largely a result of human actions, according to the report. •
Syrian civil war: The
Syrian Army launches a
major ground offensive against one of the last
rebel strongholds in the country. •
May 8 – A British teenager, Isabelle Holdaway, 17, is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified
phage therapy to treat a
drug-resistant infection. •
May 10 – Amid ongoing negotiations, the U.S.'s 25% tariff hike on US$200 billion worth of
Chinese imports takes effect, escalating tensions between the two nations in the ongoing
China–United States trade war. •
May 12 –
May 2019 Gulf of Oman incident: Four commercial ships, including two
Saudi Aramco oil tankers, are damaged near
Fujairah in the
Gulf of Oman. The
UAE claims it as a "sabotage attack", while an early U.S. assessment blames
Iran. The incident occurs after increased U.S.-Iran tensions provoked by the deployment of U.S. military to the
Persian Gulf in response to an
alleged plot by Iran to attack
U.S. forces. •
May 13 – Prosecutors in
Sweden reopen the
rape allegation investigation against
Julian Assange. Swedish prosecutors mention their intent to seek extradition of Assange from the
U.K. after he has served his 50-week prison sentence for skipping bail. •
May 14–
18 – The
Eurovision Song Contest 2019 takes place in
Tel Aviv,
Israel, and is won by
Dutch entrant
Duncan Laurence with the song "
Arcade". •
May 17 –
Taiwan's parliament becomes the first in
Asia to legalise
same-sex marriage. •
May 18 –
2019 Australian federal election:
Scott Morrison's
Liberal/
National Coalition government is narrowly re-elected, defeating the
Labor Party led by
Bill Shorten. •
May 19 –
China–United States trade war:
Google pulls
Android update support for
Huawei phones, as well as the
Google Play Store and
Gmail apps, after the company's blacklisting by the
U.S. government. •
May 20 – The
revision of the
SI system of measurement adopted by the majority of countries in the world takes effect. •
May 23 –
2019 Indian general election:
Narendra Modi secures a
landslide victory, with his party
BJP alone gaining 303 of the 543 seats in
parliament, and his political alliance
NDA winning 353 seats of the 543. •
May 24 •
British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as
Conservative leader, effective June 7, 2019. •
A prison riot in
Acarigua, Venezuela, leaves 29 prisoners dead and 19 guards injured. •
May 26–
27 –
Amazonas prison massacres: More than 50 prisoners are killed in a series of riots at four different prisons in
Amazonas, Brazil. •
May 27 –
U.S. President Donald Trump, during an official
state visit to Japan, becomes the first foreign leader to meet with
Japanese emperor Naruhito. •
May 30–
July 14 – The
2019 Cricket World Cup is held in England (one match in Wales) with England defeating New Zealand in the final.
June •
June 1 –
Liverpool F.C win their 6th
UEFA Champions League title against fellow English club
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 2–0 at the
Metropolitano Stadium, with goals from
Mohamed Salah and
Divock Origi. •
June 2 • Nearly five years after
abdication,
King Juan Carlos I retires from public life. •
2019 San Marino referendum:
Sammarinese voters vote to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and initiate a popular legislative initiative for the
reform of the electoral system. •
June 3 –
Khartoum massacre: More than 100 people are killed when
Sudanese troops and
Janjaweed militiamen storm and open fire on a
protest camp outside of a military headquarters in
Khartoum, Sudan. •
June 3–
5 –
U.S. President Donald Trump makes a
state visit to the
U.K., meeting with
Queen Elizabeth II and outgoing
Prime Minister Theresa May. It is the first official state visit to the
U.K. by a sitting U.S. president since 2011. Trump also attends
D-Day commemorative ceremonies. •
June 5–
8 –
Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a
state visit to Russia, where he also attends the
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. •
June 6 –
Sudanese revolution: The
African Union suspends Sudan's membership "with immediate effect" after the
Khartoum massacre. •
June 7 –
British Prime Minister Theresa May resigns as leader of the
Conservative Party. •
June 7–
July 7 – The
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup is held in
France and is won by the
United States. •
June 9 •
2019–2020 Hong Kong protests: Over 1 million people in
Hong Kong protest against
proposed legislation regarding
extradition to
mainland China. It is the largest protest in Hong Kong since the
1997 handover. • A large
explosive eruption of
Mount Sinabung in
Indonesia sends a 7,000-meter
ash column into the air, generating a
pyroclastic flow 3–3.5 kilometers long towards the south and southeast of the mountain. •
June 11 –
Botswana decriminalizes homosexuality. •
June 12 • The
Supreme Court of Ecuador rules in favor of
same-sex marriage, making it legal throughout the country. •
12 June 2019 Hong Kong protest: The
Hong Kong government and
police controversially declare that the protest has "turned into a
riot". •
June 13 –
June 2019 Gulf of Oman incident: Two oil tankers are attacked near the
Strait of Hormuz while transiting the
Gulf of Oman amid heightened tension between
Iran and the U.S., with the latter blaming the former for the incident. •
June 15 –
2019–2020 Hong Kong protests:
Hong Kong announces it will indefinitely suspend the controversial
extradition bill, but protests continue, this time calling for the total withdrawal of the bill and the resignation of
Chief Executive Carrie Lam. •
June 16 – A large-scale
power outage hits
Argentina,
Uruguay and
parts of Paraguay, affecting nearly 50 million people. •
June 17 –
A triple suicide blast kills 30 and injures over 40 in
Borno,
Nigeria, at a hall where people were watching a football match. •
June 18 – The
U.S. sends an additional 1,000 troops to the
Middle East as tensions build with
Iran. •
June 19 – Four men are charged with murdering the 298 passengers and crew of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an airliner shot down while flying over
Eastern Ukraine in July 2014. •
June 20–
21 –
Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a
state visit to
North Korea. It is his first visit to the country as president and the
first visit to North Korea by a Chinese leader since
Hu Jintao's visit 14 years prior. •
June 20 –
2019 Iranian shoot-down of American drone:
Iran shoots down a U.S.
RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone over the
Strait of Hormuz after claiming it violated their airspace. The U.S. claims it has been shot down in international airspace in an "unprovoked attack". •
June 22 –
Amhara Region coup attempt: In the
Amhara Region of Ethiopia, regional president
Ambachew Mekonnen and national-military chief of staff
Se'are Mekonnen are assassinated. •
June 30 – During a
trilateral gathering at the
Panmunjom Truce Village between
South Korean President Moon Jae-in,
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un and
U.S. President Donald Trump, Trump becomes the first sitting U.S. president to cross the
Korean Demilitarized Zone and enter North Korea. Trump and Kim also agree to restart stalled
denuclearization negotiations.
July • July – The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports, on August 15, that July 2019 has been the hottest month on record globally, at 0.95 °C (1.71 °F) above the
20th-century average. •
July 1 •
Finland takes over the
Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the
Romanian presidency. • Japan resumes
commercial whaling after a 30-year moratorium, following its withdrawal from the
International Whaling Commission. • Japan announces tightening high-tech exports to South Korea, thus begin the
trade dispute between the two countries. • The
International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that
Iran has breached the limit on its stockpile of
enriched uranium. •
2019–2020 Hong Kong protests: During the annual July 1 protests that mark the anniversary of the
British handover of the city to China, a group of a few hundred protesters stormed the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong, defacing various portraits and destroying furniture before being dispersed by police using
tear gas. • A fire on the Russian deep-diving submarine
Losharik kills 14 crew members. Submarine commander Denis Dolonsky is among those killed. •
July 2 – A total
solar eclipse occurs over
South America. It is the 58th solar eclipse from
Saros cycle 127. •
July 3 –
2019 Tajoura migrant center airstrike: An airstrike by Field Marshal
Khalifa Haftar's
Libyan National Army hits the Tajoura Detention Center outside
Tripoli,
Libya, while hundreds of people are inside the facility, killing at least 53 of them and injuring 130 others. •
July 7 –
2019 Greek legislative election: The
New Democracy party wins 158 of 300 seats in the
Hellenic Parliament. •
July 10 – The last
Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in
Puebla, Mexico. The last of 5,961 "Special Edition" cars will be exhibited in a museum. •
July 12 –
Asasey Hotel attack: A car bomb and a gun attack kill at least 26 people, including two prominent journalists and nine foreigners, in
Kismayo,
Somalia. Islamist group
al-Shabaab claims responsibility. •
July 13 –
Hurricane Barry strikes the
Gulf Coast, killing one and causing over $500 million (2019 USD) in damages. •
July 16 – The
European Parliament elects
Ursula von der Leyen as the new
President of the European Commission. Succeeding
Jean-Claude Juncker, she will be sworn in on December 1, 2019. She is the first female to be elected to this office in EU history. •
July 17 •
United States v. Guzmán:
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, former head of the
Sinaloa Cartel, which became the biggest supplier of drugs to the U.S., is sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. • The
World Health Organization (WHO) declares the
Kivu Ebola epidemic to be a
public health emergency of international concern. •
July 18 – 36 people are killed and more than 30 others injured after an
arson attack at an animation company in
Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the
deadliest massacres in the country's history since the end of
World War II and the deadliest building fire in the country in 18 years, since the
Myojo 56 building fire in 2001. •
July 19 – The
Iranian
Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps captures
British tanker
Stena Impero and temporarily seizes British-operated and
Liberian-flagged tanker
Mesdar in the
Persian Gulf. The British
Foreign Secretary,
Jeremy Hunt, warns there will be "serious consequences" if Iran does not release the tanker. •
July 21 – A mob of over 100 suspected
triad members dressed in white and armed with batons
attack commuters indiscriminately at MTR
Yuen Long station in
Hong Kong, injuring 45, including a pro-democracy legislator and a pregnant woman.
Hong Kong police have been accused of allowing the violence to happen due to their delayed response and decision to limit emergency services in the area. (
The Guardian) (SCMP) •
July 24 –
Boris Johnson becomes
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after defeating
Jeremy Hunt in a
leadership contest, succeeding
Theresa May. •
July 26–
August 11 – The
2019 Pan American Games are held in
Lima,
Peru. •
July 30 – India bans
triple talaq.
August •
August 1 – Danish polar research institution Polar Portal reports a large spike in
Greenland ice loss, with 11 billion tons melted in one day and 197 gigatonnes during the month of July. •
August 2 • The United States officially withdraws from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty established with Russia in 1987. •
2019–2020 Japan–South Korea trade dispute: Japan announces the removal of South Korea from its list of most trusted trading partners, effective on August 28. •
August 3 - Twenty-three people are killed during the
2019 El Paso Walmart shooting. •
August 5 •
Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir: India revokes the
part of its constitution that gives
Indian-administered Kashmir special status in an unprecedented move. •
2019–20 Hong Kong protests: Amid ongoing protests,
Hong Kong is hit by the first
general strikes of their kind since 1967. •
August 7 – The
Singapore Mediation Convention, also known as the UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, comes into effect. States that have ratified the treaty must enforce international commercial agreements in their courts. •
August 8 –
Nyonoksa radiation accident: Reports indicate that there may have been a nuclear explosion at the
Nyonoksa weapons-testing site in
Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. At least five people were killed and three others injured in the blast, with radiation levels in
Severodvinsk, from the site, being 20 times above normal levels temporarily. •
August 10 •
Morogoro tanker explosion: A fuel tanker truck explodes in
Morogoro,
Tanzania, killing at least 89 people and injuring dozens more. • 32 are killed and 1,000,000 evacuated as
Typhoon Lekima makes landfall in
Zhejiang, China. Earlier it had caused flooding in the
Philippines. •
August 10–
25 –
2019 Canary Islands wildfires: A number of
forest fires break out in the
Canary Islands of
Gran Canaria,
Tenerife and
Lanzarote. The fires on the island of Gran Canaria were the most severe, resulting in the loss of large areas of the island's forests and leading to the evacuation of thousands of residents from a number of towns and villages. •
August 11 –
2019 Indian floods: At least 114 people, including 57 in
Kerala, 30 in
Karnataka and 27 in
Maharashtra, are reported to have died in monsoon-related floods in
India. At least 227 died across India,
Nepal,
Bangladesh and
Pakistan. •
August 12 •
2019–20 Hong Kong protests:
Hong Kong International Airport is closed due to protests. •
2019–2020 Japan–South Korea trade dispute: South Korea announces the removal of Japan from its list of most trusted trading partners, effective on September 18. • The Trump administration announces it will delay its proposal for 10 percent tariffs slated to take effect from September 1 on certain consumer goods from China while exempting other products — less than two weeks after Trump announced the new proposed tariffs. •
August 13 – The main yield curve for
U.S. Treasury bonds inverts, as the yield rate for 2-year bonds rises higher than the yield rate for 10-year bonds. •
August 14 – The
Dow Jones plunges more than 500 points, due to concerns over the
yield curve inversion. •
August 15 – The
European Central Bank shuts down
PNB Banka after ruling it had become insolvent; this bank, previously called Norvik Banka, has been Latvia's sixth-largest lender, and a critic of the Baltic country's financial authorities. •
August 16 – Russian airstrike kills
20 civilians in the Hass refugee camp •
August 18 – 100 activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in
Iceland hold a funeral for
Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after once covering . •
August 19 –
2019 Papua protests erupt, mainly across
Indonesian Papua, in response to an incident in
Surabaya where a group of Papuan students were arrested for alleged disrespect of the
Indonesian flag. In
Jayapura,
Sorong,
Fakfak,
Timika and
Manokwari, protests turned violent, with various private buildings and public facilities being damaged or burned. The protests and unrest were described by
Reuters as "the most serious civil unrest in years over perceived racial and ethnic discrimination." •
August 21 •
2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires: Brazil's
National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reports fires burning in the
Amazon rainforest at a record rate, with more than 36,000 in the year to date, while smoke reaches
São Paulo more than away. •
Giuseppe Conte offers his resignation as
Prime Minister of Italy in order to avoid a no-confidence motion. •
August 23 – German Chancellor
Angela Merkel and French President
Emmanuel Macron describe the widespread
Amazon fires as an international emergency, urging the matter to be discussed at the weekend's
G7 summit. •
August 25 –
2019 Beirut drone crash: According to Lebanese officials, two Israeli drones attack
Beirut, Lebanon. One crashed into the roof of the Hezbollah Media Center, about 45 minutes before the second exploded in the air and damaged the building. It is the first such incident between Israel and Lebanon since the
2006 Lebanon War. •
August 31 –
2019 Alta helicopter crash: A sightseeing helicopter crashes in the mountains of
Skoddevarre in
Alta Municipality,
Norway, killing all 6 occupants.
September •
September 1 –
Hurricane Dorian makes landfall on
The Bahamas as the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin outside the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, with sustained wind speeds of 185 mph. 43 deaths are reported. •
September 2 •
Sinking of MV Conception: 34 people are killed following a fire and subsequent sinking of a dive boat near
Santa Cruz Island, California, United States. It is the worst maritime disaster in California in more than 150 years. • Iranian woman
Sahar Khodayari sets herself on fire after being arrested for attending a soccer game in
Iran. She dies a week later. •
September 4 •
2019–20 Hong Kong protests:
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announces the official withdrawal of the controversial
Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019, and setting up of an independent study to probe social and economic inequality within the territory. • In the United States, the
Federal Trade Commission threatens to fine
YouTube and
Google up to $170 million for violation of collecting personal information from children under 13. Google tracked children's YouTube history to regulate
targeted advertising and the FTC took notice and took action. •
September 6 –
Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar probe, is successfully placed in
lunar orbit, but the lander
Vikram crashes into the surface of the Moon. •
September 7 •
Afghan peace process: U.S. President
Donald Trump announces he "called off" planned peace talks with the
Taliban at
Camp David after they claimed responsibility for
the September 2 and 5 bombings in Kabul which killed a U.S. soldier, among others. • Ukrainian filmmaker
Oleg Sentsov and 66 others are released in a prisoner exchange between
Ukraine and
Russia. •
September 10 – The
Parliament of the United Kingdom is
prorogued amid unprecedented protests from opposition MPs, who hold up signs in the House of Commons and refuse to back the shutdown. •
September 11 – Astronomers announce the detection of water in the atmosphere of
exoplanet K2-18b, the first such discovery for an exoplanet in the
habitable zone around a star. •
September 14 –
2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack: Two
Saudi Aramco oil refineries in
Abqaiq and
Khurais, Saudi Arabia, are attacked by drones, resulting in fires.
Houthi militants claim responsibility, saying that they used ten drones for the attack. Aramco's oil exports and production are disrupted by five million barrels a day, close to half of the entire Saudi Arabian oil exports. •
September 16 – A gas explosion in
Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Oblast,
Russia sets off a fire in a bioweapons plant that houses viruses including
smallpox,
ebola and
anthrax. •
September 17 – Interest rates on
repurchase agreements (or "repos") in the United States experience a
sudden and unexpected spike. •
September 19 – 30
Afghan nut farmers are killed and 40 injured in a U.S. drone attack in
Nangarhar Province. •
September 20 – An international
strike and protest led by young people and adults is held three days before the latest
UN Climate Summit, to demand action be taken to address the
climate crisis. Gathering 6 million people in 4,500 locations across 150 countries, the event is one of the largest climate mobilizations in history. •
September 20–
November 2 – The
2019 Rugby World Cup is held in
Japan and is won by
South Africa who defeated
England in
the final. •
September 21 – U.S. President
Donald Trump approves deployment of several hundred troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and
United Arab Emirates following the
September 14 attack on Saudi oil refineries. Both Saudi Arabia and
Iran vow to defend themselves. •
September 22 – Nearly three weeks after
Hurricane Dorian makes landfall on
The Bahamas, the official death toll stands at 52 and 1,300 are reported missing. Rescuers report the widespread stench of rotting bodies in the rubble. •
September 23 • One of the largest and oldest travel firms,
Thomas Cook, goes bankrupt as last-minute rescue negotiations fail, stranding 600,000 tourists worldwide. • Russia formally adopts the
Paris climate agreement. •
September 24 • The
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously rules in
R (Miller) v The Prime Minister that the
September 2019 prorogation of Parliament is unlawful and void. • The
Supreme Court of Spain unanimously rules in favour of the exhumation of the remains of Spanish dictator
Francisco Franco from the
Valle de los Caídos. He is finally exhumed on October 24, being re-inhumed in a private crypt with his wife. • U.S. Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi announces the start of a formal
impeachment inquiry against President
Donald Trump. •
September 27 • 500,000 people march in a
climate change protest led by activist
Greta Thunberg and Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau in
Montreal, Canada. 4,000,000 go on strike around the world. • The
United Nations University Centre for Policy Research's
Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking releases its final report,
Unlocking Potential: A Blueprint for Mobilizing Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. •
September 30 – The
Republic of Ireland promises to plant 440 million trees in twenty years to
combat climate change.
October •
October 1 •
2019–20 Hong Kong protests: A protester is shot in the chest with a live round of ammunition and critically injured. • The
Nanfang'ao Bridge, the only steel single-arch bridge in
Taiwan, collapses, killing six people and injuring more than twenty others. •
October 2 – 25 soldiers are killed and 60 missing following attacks on two army camps in Boulkessi and
Mondoro,
Mali. •
October 3 –
European Commission spokesperson Daniel Rosario threatens retaliatory measures if the
United States imposes a US$7.5-billion (approximately €6.8-billion) tariff on products such as olives, whiskey, wine, cheese, yogurt, and airplanes. The tariffs are scheduled to take place on
October 18. •
October 4 –
2019–20 Hong Kong protests:
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and the
Chief Executive in Council invokes the
Emergency Regulations Ordinance and banning the
face mask in public gatherings with immediate effect. •
October 5 –
2019 Iraqi protests: 91 people are killed by police during a week of demonstrations in
Iraq. •
October 8 •
2019 Ecuadorian protests: The
Government of Ecuador, headed by President
Lenín Moreno, moves to
Guayaquil as the
Carondelet Palace in
Quito is overtaken by protesters and chaos persists in the capital. • About 200
Extinction Rebellion activists block the gates of
Leinster House (parliament) in the
Republic of Ireland. •
October 9 •
2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria: President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of
Turkey announces a military invasion of north-eastern Syria, targeting the
SDF and other Kurdish militias. • The
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the
U.N. Human Rights Office issue a report that says that U.S. bombings in
Nimroz and
Farah Province, Afghanistan, that killed 39 civilians are unlawful. The U.S. said the attacks were against drug labs that fund the
Taliban. •
October 12 –
Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in
Japan, the biggest storm to hit the region in decades, with over seven million people urged to evacuate. •
October 14 •
Trial of Catalonia independence leaders: The
Supreme Court of Spain sentences nine
Catalan independence movement leaders to 9 to 13 years of prison for sedition and misuse of public funds. Three others are disqualified for 1 year and 8 months for disobedience. Violent
protests erupt across Catalonia. • A
New York Times investigation reveals that
Russian planes had bombed at least 50 hospitals and clinics in opposition-held
Idlib, Syria. •
October 16 – Venezuelan councilman and opposition politician
Edmundo Rada is reported missing. He is found dead the following day on the side of the road out of
Petare,
Caracas, burned and with two
coup de grâce shots in the back of his neck. •
October 17 – Shootouts erupt in
Culiacán,
Mexico, after the arrest of
El Chapo's son,
Ovidio Guzmán López, on an arrest warrant for drug dealing in the United States. Eight people are killed and 56 convicts escape from prison; 7 are recaptured by October 18. Guzmán López is released in an effort to restore peace and to prevent more bloodshed. •
October 18 •
NASA astronauts
Jessica Meir and
Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the
International Space Station. •
Riots in Chilean capital city Santiago erupt as civil unrest escalated as a reaction to a series of economic measures and Government's declarations labeled as abuse by protesters •
October 19 – An estimated one million people march through
London in a protest organised by
People's Vote, to demand a second referendum on
Brexit. •
October 23 •
The bodies of 39 people are found in a truck container in
Essex,
England. A 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland is arrested on suspicion of murder. •
Google announces that its 53-
qubit "Sycamore" processor has achieved
quantum supremacy.
IBM disputes the claim. •
October 25 – Tourists visit the summit of
Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) for the last time, as a ban on climbing the famous rock in Australia's
Northern Territory comes into effect. •
October 26 – The
Amazon Catholic bishops synod proposes that married men be ordained as priests, which would reverse the Church's centuries-old discipline of celibacy. •
October 27 – U.S. President
Donald Trump announces that the leader of the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in a U.S. special forces
operation. It is reported that al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest after being chased into a tunnel. •
October 30 • Social media website
Twitter bans all political advertising worldwide. •
An earthquake of 6.5. Mw rocks the Philippine island of
Mindanao two days after an earthquake killed at least five and left around 12,000 people homeless. •
October 31 • A fire destroys much of the 500-year-old Japanese
Shuri Castle, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. •
A train catches fire near
Rahim Yar Khan in Pakistan. The blaze, sparked by gas used by passengers cooking on board, kills at least 74 people. • Heavy rain and flooding leave 3 dead and 200,000 people are homeless in
Beledweyne, Somalia. Meanwhile, 29 are dead and 29,000 homeless due to flooding in nearby
Kenya.
November •
November 4 •
LeBarón and Langford families massacre: Nine Americans are killed when Mexican gang members open fire on their vehicles while driving to a wedding about south of the
Mexico–United States border. •
Amnesty International alleges that
Bangladesh killed 466 people in 2018 under the guise of an anti-drugs campaign in what appears to be a wave of
extrajudicial executions. • The United States formally begins process to pull out of the
Paris Agreement on climate change. •
November 5 – 11,000 scientists from around the world publish a study in the journal
BioScience, warning "clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency". •
November 6 –
2019 Fada N'Gourma attack: At least 37 people are killed and 60 others injured when gunmen attack
a Canadian gold mining company convoy on a road in
Burkina Faso. •
November 7 – Former
Congolese rebel leader
Bosco Ntaganda is sentenced to 30 years in prison for
war crimes and
crimes against humanity, the longest sentence ever handed down by the
International Criminal Court. •
November 9 • The
Supreme Court of India awards a holy site in
Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh to Hindus, rejecting a Muslim claim. The move is likely to spur sectarian disputes. •
Cyclone Bulbul kills seven in
West Bengal, India and seven in
Bangladesh. 2,000,000 people are evacuated. •
November 10 –
2019 Bolivian protests:
Evo Morales and
Álvaro García Linera resigns in response to fierce three-week long protests. Within hours,
Adriana Salvatierra and
Víctor Borda also tender their resignations, leading to a
political crisis. •
November 11 • A
transit of Mercury occurs. •
2019–20 Hong Kong protests: A traffic officer shoots a youth in Sai Wan Ho during a city-wide strike. A man is also set on fire by protesters on the same day. •
November 12 –
2019 Bolivian protests:
Jeanine Áñez took power as interim
President of Bolivia amidst political crisis. •
November 13 •
Public impeachment hearings against U.S. President Donald Trump begin in the
House of Representatives. •
2019–20 Hong Kong protests: The
Chinese University of Hong Kong officially announces a premature end to the semester as a result of large-scale protests and civil unrest. Besides CUHK, several Hong Kong universities switch to online learning and suspend on-campus class. The
Education Bureau in Hong Kong officially announces to close all schools in Hong Kong due to the ongoing protests. •
November 14 – Italy declares a state of emergency in
Venice following record flooding. •
November 17 –
2019–20 Hong Kong protests: Police use tear gas and water cannons against protesters who try to break through cordons and reach
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which is at the center of a week-long standoff between demonstrators and law enforcement. Protesters fight back with
Molotov cocktails, arrows, and bricks. •
November 19 –
Google enters the video game market with the launch of
Stadia. •
November 21 – Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. •
November 23 – The last known
Sumatran rhinoceros in
Malaysia dies. •
November 23–
December 7 – A non-binding
independence referendum was held in
Bougainville, an autonomous
region of
Papua New Guinea. Voters overwhelmingly voted for independence. •
November 24 –
2019 Busy Bee crash: A plane crashes shortly after takeoff in a densely populated area of
Goma,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing all 19 people on board and at least 10 more on the ground. •
November 25 • The
World Meteorological Organization reports that levels of heat-trapping
greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere have reached another new record high of 407.8 parts per million, with "no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline." •
IPv4 address exhaustion: The
RIPE NCC, which is the official regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, officially announces that it has run out of
IPv4 addresses. •
November 26 •
2019 Albania earthquake: 51 people are killed and around 2,000 others injured in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in northwestern Albania. The earthquake is the strongest to hit Albania in more than 40 years, and
the world's deadliest earthquake in 2019. •
2019 Chilean protests:
Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International issue reports on Chile's situation denouncing grave human rights violations, including excessive violence use and detention abuses by police forces. Among police brutality acts there are records of police agents firing non-lethal ammunition to protesters' faces against provider's regulations, resulting in more than 200 people with severe eye trauma and more than 50 requiring prosthetic eyes. •
November 27 – The U.S. Government passes the
Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
December •
December 1 –
COVID-19 pandemic: First known human case of
Coronavirus disease 2019, in
Wuhan,
Hubei,
China. •
December 2 –
Typhoon Kammuri hits the
Philippines, causing the evacuation of 200,000 people, but without reports of injuries or serious damage. •
December 2–
13 – The
2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in
Madrid, Spain, after Chilean President
Sebastián Piñera announced in October that his country could not host the conference due to
political unrest in the country. •
December 5 – The
2019 Burundi landslide is reported to have caused at least 26 deaths. •
December 8 –
A fire at a factory in
Delhi, India, kills 43 people and injures at least 50 others. •
December 9 • The
World Anti-Doping Agency votes unanimously to ban
Russia from international sport for four years for doping offences, meaning it will be excluded from the
2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the
2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the
2022 World Cup in Qatar. • A volcano
erupts on
White Island in
New Zealand, killing 22 people and injuring 25 others. •
2019 Chilean Air Force C-130 crash: A Chilean military transport aircraft crashes while en route to
Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva in
Antarctica, killing all 38 people on board. The crash site is located on December 12. •
December 10 –
Sanna Marin, at the age of 34, becomes the world's youngest serving prime minister after being selected to lead
Finland's
Social Democratic Party. •
December 11 – The
World Trade Organization is left unable to intervene in trade disputes after the U.S. blocks the appointment of new panel members. •
December 12 –
Boris Johnson and his
Conservative Party win a
landslide victory in the
2019 United Kingdom general election achieving a majority in the
House of Commons of 80 seats. •
December 16 –
Pope Francis abolishes
pontifical secrecy in
sex abuse cases; the move follows the Vatican's
Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church months prior. The Pope also raises the definition of "
child pornography" from 14 to 18 years old. •
December 17 –
Shandong, China's first fully domestically built
aircraft carrier, enters naval service. •
December 18 • The
CHEOPS space telescope, whose mission is to study the formation of
extrasolar planets and determine their precise radius, likely density and internal structure, is launched. • The
U.S. House of Representatives approves two
articles of impeachment against President Trump, making him the third
president to be impeached in the nation's history. •
December 19 • Libya's
Government of National Accord activates a cooperation accord with
Turkey, allowing for a potential Turkish military intervention in the
Second Libyan Civil War. • A
locust plague devastates 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares) of crop and grazing land in
Ethiopia and
Somalia. • A court in the
Philippines convicts
Andal Ampatuan Jr., his brother
Zaldy Ampatuan and 31 others including three members of the Ampatuan clan, of 57 counts of
murder and sentences them to
life imprisonment without
parole for their role in the
Maguindanao massacre. •
December 20 • The United States founds the
United States Space Force, a
branch of the
United States Armed Forces dedicated to
space warfare. • The Dutch Supreme Court affirms that the Dutch government is responsible for management of carbon dioxide emissions for the country and is bound to protect human rights. The ruling reiterated from the Court of Appeals is that "every country is responsible for its share" of emissions. •
December 23 • Five men are sentenced to death and another three face 24 years in prison for their roles in the
murder of dissident journalist and
Washington Post columnist
Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. • 28 people are killed and 13 others injured after a bus plunges into a ravine on a winding road in South
Sumatra. •
December 24 – Thousands of Muslims protest the December 20 burning of four
mosques in the
Amhara Region of Ethiopia. •
December 26 – An annular
solar eclipse is visible from South Asia. This is a part of
Saros 132. •
December 27 – Corporate defaults on corporate bonds in China reach a new record. •
December 28 – A
truck bomb attributed to
al-Shabaab kills at least 78 and wounds 125 in
Mogadishu, Somalia. •
December 29 • A report by the Multi-Sector Epidemic Response Committee (CMRE) indicates that 2,231 people have died so far in the
2018–20 Kivu Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. • The
Taliban's ruling council agrees to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, opening a door to a peace agreement with the United States. •
December 30 – Chinese authorities announce that
He Jiankui, who claimed to have created the world's
first genetically edited human babies, has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan (US$430,000) for his genetic research efforts. •
December 31 • Iraqi militiamen and protesters
breach the front gate checkpoint of the
United States embassy in Baghdad following a U.S.
military operation that targeted an Iraqi militia on December 29. •
COVID-19 pandemic: First official reports of "viral pneumonia" from the
Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. == Births and deaths ==