YEAR END
Review of news events in 2017
December 31, 2017 - A review of 2017 shows events including the inauguration of new U.S. President Donald Trump, who did not shy away from controversial decisions during his first year in office. Xi Jinping consolidated his power in China, as did President Erdogan in Turkey. Election winners included Emmanuel Macron of France, Angela Merkel of Germany, and Hassan Rouhani of Iran. North Korea stoked nuclear fears with regular missile launches, and although so-called Islamic State lost much of its territory in Iraq and Syria it inspired frequent terror attacks in multiple countries. On the political front Catalonia’s push for independence led to a crackdown by Spain, and Britain began the formal Brexit process. Major disasters included the Rohingya refugee crisis, three devastating Atlantic hurricanes, two earthquakes in Mexico, the Grenfell Tower fire in London and America’s worst mass shooting. Good news stories included a successful end to NASA’s Cassini mission, the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum, and a record price for a Leonardo da Vinci painting.
January 3: China issues its first-ever nationwide red alert for smog
January 20: Donald Trump is inaugurated as U.S. President, but arguably larger crowds show up for the next day’s Women’s March on Washington
February 6: Queen Elizabeth II’s reign passes 65 years. In November she and Prince Philip celebrate 70 years of marriage
February 26: There are red faces at the Oscars as La La Land is wrongly announced as Best Picture. Moonlight emerges as the real winner
March 15: President Trump’s “travel ban”, affecting people from six mainly Muslim countries, is temporarily blocked in some U.S. courts
March 26: Carrie Lam is elected Chief Executive of Hong Kong, its first female leader
March 29: The United Kingdom invokes Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on European Union, beginning the formal process of Brexit
April 16: A referendum in Turkey gives sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
April 30: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft begins a series of dives between Saturn’s rings before plunging into the planet’s atmosphere
May 7: Emmanuel Macron, 39, becomes France’s youngest leader since Napoleon
May 19: Hassan Rouhani is re-elected President of Iran by a huge margin
May 22: The deadliest of four terror attacks in Britain in three months kills 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester
June 1: President Trump confirms he will withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change
June 14: A deadly fire engulfs Grenfell Tower, an apartment block in west London, killing 71 people
June 19: Forest fires in Portugal claim at least 64 lives
July 4: North Korea tests its first long-range Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Further tests of increasingly powerful missiles, capable of striking the U.S. mainland, spark an ongoing nuclear crisis
July 9: Iraqi forces recapture Mosul, three years after Islamic State militants seized the city
August 14: As Saudi Arabia and Iran wage a proxy war in Yemen, the WHO warns cholera cases now top 500,000
August 25: Hurricane Harvey causes catastrophic flooding in Houston and much of eastern Texas
August 25: A crackdown on Rohingya militants in Myanmar leads to an exodus of over a million refugees to Bangladesh
September 6/18: Hurricanes Irma and Maria, both Category 5 storms, cause widespread destruction across the northern Caribbean
September 7/19: Two earthquakes hit Mexico just 12 days apart, claiming over 470 lives
September 24: Chancellor Angela Merkel wins a fourth term in Germany’s federal election, despite gains by the far-right AfD party
October 1/27: Catalonia’s controversial referendum on independence leads the Spanish government to strip the region of its autonomy and impose direct rule
October 1: A gunman kills 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history
October 5: Allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein launch a slew of sexual misconduct scandals
October 25: China’s Communist Party elevates Xi Jinping by enshrining his name and ideology in its constitution
November 3: Government forces recapture Deir ez-Zor, the last major Islamic State stronghold in Syria, soon after U.S.-backed militias regain the de facto IS capital of Raqqa
November 4: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman consolidates power with a major crackdown on corruption. Over 40 princes and ministers are arrested
November 11: The Louvre Abu Dhabi opens, the first museum of its kind in the Arab world
November 15: Salvator Mundi, a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, sells at auction for a world record $450.3 million
November 15: An Argentine submarine goes missing with 44 crew on board. International search and rescue efforts fail to find it
November 21: Robert Mugabe resigns as president of Zimbabwe after a military coup, ending 37 years of autocratic rule
December 4: Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is killed by Houthi forces, his former allies
December 6: Donald Trump overturns decades of official U.S. policy by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel