January
3: SAUDI ARABIA/IRAN - Saudi Arabia breaks off diplomatic ties with Iran in a row over the execution of a Shiite cleric, sparking protests during which the kingdom's embassy in Tehran is firebombed.
16: IRAN - Iran's historic nuclear deal with global powers comes into force. Under the deal, all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran are lifted. In return, Tehran accepted curbs on a programme that Western powers feared would pave the way for atomic weapons.
February
11: SCIENCE - Scientists say they have glimpsed gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein.
12: VATICAN - In Cuba, Pope Francis meets Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill -- the first such meeting between the heads of their two branches of the Church in nearly 1,000 years.
March
18: TURKEY-EU - Turkish and EU leaders agree a deal to curb the huge flow of asylum-seekers to Europe, aimed at easing the biggest migration crisis since World War II.
20-22: US/CUBA - US President Barack Obama holds talks with Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in Havana, setting aside a bitter standoff between the United States and the communist island that had lasted more than 50 years.
30: MYANMAR - Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy movement takes power after 50 years of military rule in Myanmar, with a close aide of the Nobel Peace Laureate sworn in as president.
April
3: PANAMA PAPERS - A massive leak of 11.5 million documents allegedly exposes the secret offshore dealings of aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin, world leaders and celebrities including Barcelona's Lionel Messi.
May
9: PHILIPPINES - Firebrand Philippine politician Rodrigo Duterte secures a landslide presidential victory built on foul-mouthed populist tirades.
21: AFGHANISTAN - Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour is killed in a US air strike, in a blow to the resurgent militant movement.
27: US/JAPAN - Obama pays tribute to victims of the world's first atomic bomb and calls for an end to nuclear weapons as he makes a historic visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
June
4: BOXING - Death of triple world champion Muhammad Ali.
12: UNITED STATES - Forty-nine people are killed when a gunman, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, opens fire and seizes hostages at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The gunman is killed in a shootout with police.
23: BRITAIN - Britain votes by almost 52 percent to leave the European Union in a shock referendum result. Prime Minister David Cameron steps down and is replaced in July by Theresa May.
28: TURKEY - Forty-seven people are killed and more than 200 are injured in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's main airport, one of a series of bloody attacks in the country blamed on IS or Kurdish guerrillas.
July
3: IRAQ - More than 300 people are killed when a suicide car bomber attacks a busy shopping area in Baghdad. The blast is claimed by IS.
14: FRANCE - A Tunisian national rams a truck into people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 86. IS claims the attack.
15: TURKEY - A rogue military faction tries unsuccessfully to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The regime says exiled Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen is behind the putsch and carries out a purge in which more than 100,000 people are detained, dismissed or suspended over alleged links to the coup-plotters.
August
5: OLYMPIC GAMES - The Rio summer Olympic Games open in Brazil, the first time they are held in Latin America.
9: RUSSIA/TURKEY/SYRIA - Russia's Putin and Turkish counterpart Erdogan hold their first meeting since a bitter feud erupted over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane over the Turkey-Syria border. At the meeting in Saint Petersburg they pledge to reinvigorate ties.
31: BRAZIL - President Dilma Rousseff is impeached for illegally manipulating the national budget. She is replaced by bitter rival Michel Temer.
September
1: VENEZUELA - Mass street protests take place in Venezuela, with the opposition seeking a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro.
4: VATICAN - Pope Francis declares Mother Teresa a saint.
9: NORTH KOREA - Pyongyang carries out its fifth and most powerful nuclear test to date.
30: SPACE - Europe's Rosetta spacecraft concludes a 12-year odyssey with a controlled crash-landing onto the comet it orbited and probed for two years in a quest to demystify the Solar System's origins.
October
13: MUSIC - The Nobel Literature Prize is awarded to US singer/songwriter Bob Dylan.
17: IRAQ - Iraqi forces launch an offensive aimed at retaking Mosul, IS's last stronghold in the country. Since the launch of the assault more than 80,000 people have fled the fighting.
November
8: UNITED STATES - Republican billionaire Donald Trump defeats Hillary Clinton to take the US presidency, stunning America and the world in an explosive upset fuelled by a wave of grassroots anger.
15: SYRIA - Regime forces and their ally Russia launch a new assault to recapture the entire northern city of Aleppo from rebels. Rebel areas come under the heaviest bombardment for two years and regime forces have so far seized more than 90 percent of the rebel territory. Since March 2011, the country's civil war has killed more than 312,000 people.
24: COLOMBIA - President Juan Manuel Santos, the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono sign a new peace deal to end their half-century conflict.
26: CUBA - Death of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
December
1: GAMBIA - Adama Barrow wins the presidential election. Current President Yahya Jammeh initially accepts defeat before challenging the vote a week later.
1: FRANCE - President Francois Hollande announces he will not seek re-election next year, four days after Francois Fillon, a conservative reformist, clinches the rightwing nomination.
4: ITALY - Italian voters overwhelmingly reject constitutional reform proposals in a referendum. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns.
12: UN - Portugal's Antonio Guterres becomes the ninth UN secretary general.
