World Events

Union of South Africa consolidates British power after conquest

Belgium annexes the Congo Free State

Maji Maji uprising erupts against German rule in East Africa

First Moroccan Crisis extends imperial rivalry to North Africa

South African War begins over power in southern Africa

Fashoda Incident brings Britain and France to the brink

Battle of Omdurman crushes the Mahdist state in Sudan

Anglo-Zanzibar War confirms British dominance over Zanzibar

Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty redraws spheres of influence in East Africa

General Act of Berlin formalizes the rules of occupation

Fall of Barcelona ends major resistance in Spain

Treaty of Baden completes the wider peace settlement

Treaty of Rastatt ends the war between France and Austria

Treaty of Utrecht establishes the main political settlement

Battle of Malplaquet becomes a costly Allied victory

Battle of Oudenarde revives Allied momentum in Flanders

Battle of Almansa restores Bourbon control over much of eastern Spain

Relief of Turin secures Savoy and drives France from northern Italy

Battle of Ramillies breaks French control in the Spanish Netherlands

Battle of Blenheim halts the Franco-Bavarian threat

Egyptian military removes Morsi, signaling a major Arab Spring reversal

Mohamed Morsi is declared Egypt’s first elected civilian president

Yemen elects Hadi in a one-candidate transition vote

Ali Abdullah Saleh signs transfer deal in Yemen

Tunisia holds its first free post-revolution election

Muammar Gaddafi is killed as Sirte falls

Deadly protests in Daraa propel Syria into nationwide revolt

GCC troops enter Bahrain to support the monarchy

Libya’s Day of Revolt turns into an armed uprising

Bahrain’s Day of Rage opens a major Gulf front in the Arab Spring

Viking the Australian Shepherd wins Best in Show at Crufts 2024

Crufts 2021 is cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic

BBC ends its long-running television coverage after pedigree-dog controversy

International invitational agility competition is added

Discover Dogs is introduced at Crufts

Centenary show moves to the NEC in Birmingham

First official agility competition is held at Crufts

Crufts moves to Earls Court as attendance outgrows Olympia

Agility is demonstrated at Crufts for the first time

The show is officially rebranded from “Cruft’s” to “Crufts”

Power-sharing government is restored at Stormont

St Andrews Agreement revives devolved government plans

Omagh bombing becomes the deadliest single attack of the conflict

Good Friday Agreement creates a peace settlement framework

IRA announces a ceasefire

Downing Street Declaration sets out principles for peace

Enniskillen bombing provokes widespread revulsion

Anglo-Irish Agreement gives Dublin a formal advisory role

Bobby Sands dies during the hunger strike

Sunningdale Agreement proposes power-sharing and cross-border cooperation

China overhauls Hong Kong’s electoral system

Beijing imposes a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong

Extradition bill protests erupt into a major handover-era crisis

Umbrella Movement occupies central districts

Mass protest halts proposed Article 23 national security law

Hong Kong is handed over from Britain to China

Chris Patten becomes the last British governor of Hong Kong

National People’s Congress adopts the Basic Law

China and Britain sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration

Thatcher and Deng open formal talks on Hong Kong’s future

War mobilization begins to end Depression conditions in the United States

The recession of 1937-1938 interrupts recovery

Social Security Act creates a federal safety net

Wagner Act strengthens labor organizing rights

Works Progress Administration expands federal jobs relief

Black Sunday becomes the defining storm of the Dust Bowl

Banking Act of 1933 creates federal deposit insurance

Civilian Conservation Corps begins work relief for young men

Emergency Banking Act launches the first New Deal response

Roosevelt declares a national bank holiday

First nonracial democratic election ends apartheid rule

White voters endorse negotiations in apartheid referendum

Population Registration Act is repealed

Nelson Mandela is released and negotiations era begins

Soweto uprising ignites nationwide youth resistance

Rivonia Trial sentences key resistance leaders to life imprisonment

Sharpeville massacre shocks South Africa and the world

Mass arrests begin the Treason Trial

Freedom Charter adopted at the Congress of the People

Bantu Education Act restructures schooling for racial subordination

Ukraine launches a surprise cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region

Ukraine withdraws from Avdiivka as Russia captures the city

Kakhovka Dam is destroyed, causing catastrophic flooding

Russia claims capture of Bakhmut after a prolonged attritional battle

Ukraine recaptures Kherson city

Explosion damages the Kerch Bridge linking Russia and Crimea

Russia declares annexation of four occupied Ukrainian regions

Ukraine's Kharkiv counteroffensive liberates Izium

Sievierodonetsk falls after one of the war's bloodiest battles

Russian Black Sea flagship Moskva sinks

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk fulfills the peace promise at high cost

Bolsheviks disperse the Constituent Assembly

Bolsheviks secure victory in Moscow after heavy fighting

Decrees on Peace and Land define the new regime’s appeal

Council of People’s Commissars is formed under Lenin

Second Congress of Soviets endorses the transfer of power

Winter Palace falls and the Provisional Government is overthrown

The insurrection begins as Bolshevik forces move on Petrograd

Bolshevik Central Committee votes for armed uprising

Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee is formed

Deng Xiaoping publicly endorses the military suppression

The ‘Tank Man’ confrontation becomes an enduring global image

Tiananmen crackdown culminates in killings and the clearing of the square

Troops advance into Beijing and open fire

Students erect the Goddess of Democracy

Martial law is declared in parts of Beijing

Zhao Ziyang visits the square in a final conciliatory gesture

More than a million people march in support

Hunger strike begins in Tiananmen Square

May Fourth anniversary march renews the movement

Bushfires Royal Commission releases its final report

The 2019–20 bushfire season formally closes after months of destruction

Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements is established

Rain brings partial relief but does not end the fire crisis

Australian Defence Force reservists are mobilised for bushfire response

Kangaroo Island fires escalate into a full-scale emergency

Naval evacuation begins from fire-isolated Mallacoota

Smoke and fire drive hazardous air pollution across south-eastern Australia

Fire reaches Mallacoota and traps thousands on Victoria’s coast

Dunns Road fire begins in the Snowy Valleys

Palmer tsunami warning center is established in Alaska

George Plafker’s tectonic interpretation reframes the earthquake

Old Valdez is abandoned in favor of a safer new townsite

Reconstruction planning becomes a statewide federal priority

Air rescue and emergency observation expand as weather improves

President Lyndon B. Johnson declares Alaska a major disaster area

Regional tsunami spreads across Alaska and the Pacific coast

Turnagain Heights and downtown Anchorage suffer catastrophic ground failure

Seward is struck by slides, waves, and fire along Resurrection Bay

Port Valdez waterfront collapses in submarine slide and local wave

Quarantine ends and lunar samples move fully into scientific study

Apollo 11 astronauts receive a New York ticker-tape parade

The crew enters quarantine aboard USS Hornet

Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean

Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon

Eagle lifts off from the Moon and rejoins Columbia

Armstrong and Aldrin complete the first lunar EVA and collect samples

Eagle separates from Columbia for the descent to the Moon

Apollo 11 lands at Tranquility Base

Apollo 11 enters lunar orbit

East Germany is founded, sealing the political aftermath of the blockade

The Berlin Airlift officially ends

Federal Republic of Germany is founded, deepening the division exposed by the blockade

The Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade

The 'Easter Parade' sets a record and proves the airlift can outlast the blockade

Tegel airfield opens to expand airlift capacity

Operation Little Vittles begins to boost morale among Berlin children

Britain joins with full-scale air operations

The United States launches the Berlin Airlift

The Berlin Blockade begins

Deng Xiaoping praises the army and defines the official verdict

“Tank Man” is photographed confronting armored vehicles

Tiananmen Square is cleared in a bloody crackdown

Troops move into Beijing and fighting erupts

Goddess of Democracy statue is unveiled

Martial law is declared in Beijing

Zhao Ziyang makes his final public appeal to students

Gorbachev visit highlights the crisis before the world

Hunger strike begins in Tiananmen Square

May Fourth anniversary expands the protests

Wreck of Titanic is discovered on the ocean floor

Titanic Memorial is unveiled in Washington

International Ice Patrol is established

First Safety of Life at Sea convention is signed

British Wreck Commissioner’s inquiry begins in London

United States Senate inquiry opens

Carpathia arrives in New York with survivors

Carpathia rescues survivors from lifeboats

Titanic sinks with massive loss of life

Distress calls bring Carpathia racing to the scene

Dubček returns to public life during the Velvet Revolution

Dubček is removed and Gustáv Husák ushers in 'normalization'

Jan Palach’s self-immolation becomes a moral protest against repression

A treaty legalizes the continued stationing of Soviet troops

The Moscow Protocol compels the leadership to accept rollback

The 14th Extraordinary Party Congress defies the occupiers

Citizens resist in Prague, including at Czechoslovak Radio

Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia

The Bratislava Declaration briefly suggests a compromise

Čierna nad Tisou talks expose the gap between Prague and Moscow

The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War

Emily Hobhouse’s reporting turns camp suffering into an international scandal

British scorched-earth and concentration camp policies expand during the guerrilla phase

The Siege of Elands River shows the war shifting toward dispersed, mobile fighting

Pretoria falls to British forces and both Boer capitals are occupied

The Siege of Mafeking is lifted after 217 days

British troops capture Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State

Ladysmith is relieved after 118 days under siege

Cronjé surrenders at Paardeberg in a major British victory

The Battle of Spion Kop becomes one of the war’s most notorious British setbacks

Beijing imposes the Hong Kong national security law, reshaping the protest era

New demonstrations erupt against Beijing’s planned national security law

District Council elections deliver a landslide for pro-democracy candidates

Polytechnic University siege becomes the movement’s last great battlefield

General strike day brings shooting, arson, and a new peak of violence

Government invokes emergency powers to impose a mask ban

National Day clashes include the first police shooting with live ammunition

Carrie Lam announces formal withdrawal of the extradition bill

Prince Edward station incident deepens anger over police violence

Airport occupation brings the crisis to a global audience

Plague is confirmed in San Francisco, extending the pandemic story to the United States

Scientists identify the plague bacterium during the Hong Kong outbreak

The Great Plague of London becomes the last major English plague epidemic

Ragusa adopts one of the earliest formal quarantine systems

The pestis secunda confirms that plague has become recurrent

England enacts the Statute of Labourers in response to plague disruption

The first great wave of the Black Death subsides in much of Europe

The Strasbourg massacre links plague panic to anti-Jewish persecution

Flagellant movements spread as communities seek spiritual explanations

The Black Death arrives in England at Melcombe Regis

Lunar samples and mission data begin transforming planetary science

New York City ticker-tape parade celebrates the Apollo 11 crew

The crew enters quarantine aboard USS Hornet

Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean

Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to step onto the Moon

Eagle lifts off from the Moon and begins rendezvous operations

Buzz Aldrin joins Armstrong for the first lunar EVA

The lunar crew docks with Columbia in orbit around the Moon

Apollo 11 departs lunar orbit for Earth

Eagle separates from Columbia in lunar orbit

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen codifies Enlightenment rights language

The French Revolution begins and carries Enlightenment into a mass political crisis

Kant defines Enlightenment as humanity’s emergence from self-incurred immaturity

The American Declaration of Independence turns Enlightenment ideas into state-making

Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations

Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments launches penal reform

Rousseau’s The Social Contract radicalizes Enlightenment politics

The first volume of the Encyclopédie appears in Paris

Montesquieu publishes The Spirit of Laws

Voltaire’s Letters on the English publicizes a comparative Enlightenment critique

The Paris Agreement enters into force less than a year after COP21

Paris Agreement opens for signature at the United Nations

Countries adopt the Paris Agreement by consensus

The final text elevates the 1.5°C benchmark in global climate diplomacy

Talks run past the official closing date as the presidency seeks consensus

A new draft narrows options as ministers tackle the toughest disputes

Lima-Paris Action Agenda showcases non-state climate action

First consolidated Paris draft is handed to ministers

COP21 opens at Le Bourget with an unprecedented leaders event

Mission Innovation and parallel clean-energy initiatives are launched during COP21