What happened in 2023

World6

• Feb 4Cyclone Freddy forms in the Indian Ocean. It would become the longest lasting tropical cyclone in history and cause over 1,400 deaths and countless injuries and property damage across southeastern Africa.
• Jun 6Russo-Ukrainian war: The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled region of Kherson is destroyed, threatening the region with devastating floodwaters.
• Jun 23Russo-Ukrainian war: The Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, begins an armed conflict with the Russian military, seizing the city of Rostov-on-Don and portions of the Voronezh Oblast before withdrawing the next day, after a peace agreement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
• Sep 10Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone, kills at least 5,000 people, with a further 10,000 to 100,000 reported missing. In the city of Derna in Libya, two dams collapse, resulting in a quarter of the city being destroyed.
• Dec 18A number of shipping companies announce a temporary suspension of their operations in the Red Sea due to continued attacks on vessels by Houthi rebels.
• Dec 29Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia launches the largest wave of drones and missiles on Ukrainian cities since the start of the war in an overnight assault, killing at least 39 people and injuring at least 160 others. Ukraine launches a drone assault the following day, killing at least 21 people, including three children, and injuring 110 others, including 17 children.

North America13

• Feb 3A Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derails in East Palestine, Ohio. Multiple train cars burn for more than two days, followed by emergency crews conducting a controlled burn of several additional cars, releasing hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the atmosphere.
• Feb 3The US announces it is tracking alleged Chinese spy balloons over the Americas, later announcing that the balloons did not collect any information. One balloon drifts from Yukon to South Carolina before being shot down the next day, and a second hovers over Colombia and Brazil. This event is followed by subsequent detections and shootdowns of high-altitude objects elsewhere.
• Mar 4UN member states agree on a legal framework for the High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.
• Mar 10Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the United States, fails, creating then the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis, affecting companies around the world.
• Apr 10Two document leaks from the Pentagon detailing foreign military aid relating to the Russo-Ukrainian war are leaked onto the Internet.
• Apr 20SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time in a test flight from Texas. It explodes four minutes after launch.
• May 12023 banking crisis: San Francisco-based First Republic Bank fails and is auctioned off by the US FDIC to JPMorgan Chase for $10.7 billion. The collapse surpasses March's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to become the second largest in US history.
• Jun 18Titan submersible implosion: All five crew members of Titan, a deep-sea submersible exploring the wreck of the Titanic, are killed following a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.
• Jun 19The United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopts the High Seas Treaty, the first treaty aimed towards marine conservation in international waters.
• Jul 14SAG-AFTRA announces it will begin a strike against the major film and TV studios in protest of low compensation, ownership of work, and generative AI.
• Aug 82023 Hawaii wildfires: 17,000 acres of land are burned and at least 101 people are killed, with two others missing, when a series of wildfires break out on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
• Oct 3Elected on January 8, Kevin McCarthy is removed as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, with Mike Johnson being elected new Speaker on October 25.
• Oct 2540-year-old Robert Card shoots and kills 18 people at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, making it one of the deadliest spree shootings in U.S. history.

Europe25

• Jan 18A helicopter crash in Brovary near Kyiv, Ukraine kills 14 people including Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrsky.
• Jan 27The second round of the 2023 Czech presidential election is held, with Petr Pavel declared winner.
• Feb 5The 2023 Cypriot presidential election is held, with Nikos Christodoulides elected president.
• Feb 28A train crash in Thessaly, Greece, kills 57 people and injures dozens. The crash leads to nationwide protests and strikes against the condition of Greek railways and their mismanagement.
• Mar 17The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, marking the first arrest warrant against a leader of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
• Apr 2The 2023 Montenegrin presidential election is held, with Jakov Milatović of the Europe Now! movement winning in the second round, becoming the first president not from the DPS party since the introduction of a multi-party system in 1990.
• Apr 14Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) to search for life in the Jovian system, with an expected arrival year of 2031.
• May 3A school shooting occurs in Belgrade, Serbia. A second mass murder occurs the next day near Mladenovac and Smederevo. These events leave 19 people dead, causing the government to increase regulations on gun ownership and mass anti-government protests to begin.
• May 6The coronation of Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms is held in Westminster Abbey, London.
• Jun 14At least 82 people die and 500 are reported missing after a boat carrying migrants capsizes off the coast of the Peloponnese.
• Jul 8In the Netherlands, the governing coalition collapses and Prime Minister Mark Rutte announces his upcoming resignation.
• Nov 23Riots broke out in Dublin, Ireland after a mass stabbing on Parnell Square East which injured 4 people.
• Dec 6Google DeepMind releases the Gemini Language Model. Gemini will act as a foundational model integrated into Google's existing tools, including Search and Bard.
• Dec 21The deadliest mass shooting in the Czech Republic's history occurs at a Prague university, with 15 killed, including the perpetrator, and 25 others wounded.
• Dec 31Queen Margrethe II of Denmark announces her abdication effective January 14, 2024, after 52 years on the throne.

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USSR / Russia1

• Aug 23Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder Dmitry Utkin and eight others are killed when their plane crashes in Russia.

Asia18

• Jan 15Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashes during final approach into Pokhara, Nepal, killing all 72 people on board.
• Jan 30A Jamaat-ul-Ahrar suicide bombing inside a mosque in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, kills 85 people and injures over 217 others.
• Apr 11Myanmar civil war: In the village of Pazigyi, at least 165 people are killed by the Myanmar Air Force during the opening celebrations of a People's Defence Force administration office.
• May 32023 Manipur violence: Ethnic violence erupts in the state of Manipur between the Kuki and Meitei people.
• May 9Cyclone Mocha forms in the Indian Ocean, killing over 400 people and injuring over 700 as it strikes Myanmar and Bangladesh.
• Jun 2A train collision in Odisha, India results in at least 296 deaths and more than 1,200 others injured.
• Jul 9The 2023 Uzbek presidential election is held; Shavkat Mirziyoyev is re-elected president of Uzbekistan.
• Jul 3063 people are killed and over 200 are injured after a suicide bombing occurs in Khar, Pakistan; the Islamic State – Khorasan Province claims responsibility for the attack.
• Aug 11The Narendra Modi led NDA government wins a no confidence motion in the Lok Sabha moved by the INDIA Alliance after an opposition walkout in response to the ethnic violence in the state of Manipur.
• Aug 23India's Chandrayaan-3 becomes the first spacecraft to land near the south pole of the Moon, carrying a lunar lander named Vikram and a lunar rover named Pragyan.
• Sep 12023 Singaporean presidential election: Economist and former deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is elected president with a vote share of over 70%.
• Sep 2The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launches Aditya-L1, India's first solar observation mission.
• Sep 9At the 18th G20 summit in New Delhi, the African Union is announced as the 21st permanent member of the G20.
• Sep 19Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: Azerbaijan launches a military offensive against the Armenia-backed Republic of Artsakh, which ends with a swift Azerbaijani victory. Protests erupt in Armenia, Artsakh announces the dissolution of government institutions, and over 100,000 ethnic Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh.
• Sep 25An estimated 170 people are killed and over 300 are injured during an explosion at a gas station in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Middle East15

• Jan 27Widespread unrest erupts in Israel following an Israeli military raid in Jenin the previous day, which killed nine Palestinians. Incendiary air balloons are launched into Israeli-populated areas following it. Israel responds with targeted airstrikes. Later the same day, seven Jewish civilians are killed in a synagogue in Neve Yaakov in a terrorist attack.
• Feb 6A 7.8 earthquake strikes southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria followed by a 7.7 aftershock on the same day, causing widespread damage and at more than 59,000 fatalities and 121,000 injured.
• Mar 262023 Israeli judicial reform protests: Large-scale spontaneous protests erupt across Israel in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firing his defense minister who criticized the government's judicial overhaul plan.
• Apr 5Clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli police happen at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
• Apr 19At least 90 people are killed and another 322 injured in a crowd crush during a Ramadan charity event in Sanaa, Yemen.
• May 28The second round of the 2023 Turkish presidential election is held; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defeats Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu with 52.18% of the vote to win a third term as president.
• Jul 3In the largest incursion by Israel into the West Bank since the Second Intifada, the Israeli military deploys ground forces and armed drones into the Jenin camp, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. An attack claimed by Hamas as retaliation for the incursion, occurs in Tel Aviv the following day, injuring nine.
• Oct 7Gaza war: Hamas launches an incursion into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and taking about 240 hostages, prompting a military response from the Israel Defense Forces. Israel launches numerous air strikes on Lebanon after rockets are fired by Hezbollah and further attempts are made to penetrate Israel.
• Oct 7A series of earthquakes occur in Herat Province in Afghanistan, killing over 1,000 people and injuring nearly 2,000, with tremors felt in Iran and Turkmenistan. The earthquakes are the deadliest in the country since 1998.
• Oct 17An explosion occurs at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, where displaced Palestinians are taking refuge. Many fatalities are reported, but estimates vary significantly, from 100 to as many as 471, depending on the source.
• Oct 31Israel intercepted a Yemeni Houthi ballistic missile with its Arrow 2 missile defense system. The interception occurred above Earth's atmosphere above the Negev Desert, making it the first instance of space combat in history.
• Nov 6Gaza war: The death toll in Gaza is reported to have passed 10,000. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres calls for a humanitarian ceasefire to increase the flow of aid to civilians.
• Dec 102023 Egyptian presidential election: Incumbent President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wins a third term with 89.6 percent of the vote in the election.
• Dec 16Emir of Kuwait Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah dies at the age of 86 and is succeeded by his half-brother Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
• Dec 22Gaza war: The death toll in Gaza is reported to have passed 20,000, almost 1% of its population and surpassing the casualties in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Latin America8

• Jan 8Following the 2022 Brazilian general election and the inauguration of Lula da Silva as president of Brazil, supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro storm the Brazilian National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court and the Presidential Palace of Planalto.
• Jan 9Juliaca massacre: At least 18 people are killed and over 100 others are injured when the Peruvian National Police fire upon demonstrations in Juliaca.
• Jun 20At least 46 people are killed after a riot between MS-13 and Barrio 18 gang members at a women's prison near Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
• Aug 16Hurricane Hilary, a Category 4 Pacific Hurricane, strikes the Baja California peninsula and later causes record flooding in Southern California.
• Aug 202023 Guatemalan presidential election: After two rounds of voting, Bernardo Arévalo of Semilla is elected with 58% of the vote.
• Oct 15In the second round of the 2023 Ecuadorian general election, Daniel Noboa of the National Democratic Action is elected as the youngest-ever President of Ecuador.
• Oct 25Hurricane Otis, an eastern Pacific tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Mexico near Acapulco, leaving at least 80 dead. It is the most powerful Eastern Pacific hurricane to make landfall in Mexico, with the highest winds reaching 165 mph, surpassing Hurricane Patricia's landfall in 2015.
• Dec 32023 Guyana–Venezuela crisis: Venezuela votes in a symbolic referendum on whether voters agreed with creating a subdivision in the disputed territory of Guayana Esequiba currently under the control of neighboring Guyana. Analysts say the referendum's practical implications are likely to be minimal.

Africa12

• Jan 16Tigray War: Amharan Special Forces withdraw from the Tigray Region in line with an African Union-backed peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
• Apr 15Fighting breaks out across Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The RSF captures Khartoum International Airport, and the presidential palace in Khartoum.
• Apr 25A mass cult suicide is uncovered in Shakahola forest in Kenya. 429 followers of the Good News International Ministries are found in shallow graves throughout the forest, with over 613 people missing.
• May 4A series of floods and landslides strikes villages in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in over 400 deaths.
• Jun 13At least 106 people are killed when a wedding boat capsizes on the Niger River in Kwara State, Nigeria.
• Jul 26President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger is toppled in a coup d'état after members of his presidential guard and the armed forces seize control of the country and install General Abdourahamane Tiani as leader of a military junta.
• Aug 30Following the announcement of incumbent president Ali Bongo Ondimba's reelection as President of Gabon after the 2023 presidential election, the military launches a successful coup d'état and creates the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions to govern the country, ending the rule of the Bongo family after 56 years in power.
• Aug 312023 Johannesburg building fire: 77 people are killed and more than 85 are injured in a fire in a building that had been taken over by gangs who rented it out to squatters.
• Sep 82023 Marrakesh–Safi earthquake: A 6.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Marrakesh–Safi province in western Morocco, killing at least 2,960 people and damaging historic buildings.
• Sep 242023 Nigerien crisis: French President Emmanuel Macron announces that France will end its military presence in Niger and will recall its ambassador from the country.
• Dec 202023 Democratic Republic of the Congo general election: Incumbent President Félix Tshisekedi wins re-election, defeating two major challengers.
• Dec 29A genocide case against Israel is brought towards the International Court of Justice by South Africa for Israel's invasion and subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip, and its role in the subsequent humanitarian crisis.

Oceania2

• Oct 142023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum: A majority of Australians vote against establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the constitution.
• Nov 27After forming a coalition Government with the right-wing ACT and New Zealand First parties, Christopher Luxon is sworn in as the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand. The new administration opposes policies promoting Māori culture and addressing inequity between Māori and non-Māori, which leads to allegations of inflaming racial tensions.