This is a timeline of the 21st century.
2001
- September 11 attacks: Al-Qaeda terrorists crash planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City , and The Pentagon in Washington, DC. A third plane is downed in the outskirts of Stonycreek Township, PA. Nearly 3,000 people die in the attacks.
- Massive earthquakes hit the western state of Gujarat, India, leaving at least 30,000 dead.
- The War on Terror is declared by President Bush, in response to 9/11.
- The United States invades Afghanistan and topples the Taliban regime.Armed insurgents continue to fight.
- Wikipedia founded.
- African Union founded.
- During economic crisis in Argentina government effectively froze all bank accounts for twelve months which led to riots and President de la Rúa's resignation from office.
- President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines impeached.
- Steve Jobs introduces the first iPod
2002
- 2002 Bali bombings.
- Riots and mass killings in the India n state of Gujarat leave 1044 dead.
- Israel starts Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks.
- Construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier begins.
- Chechen rebels seize theatre in Moscow.
- America demands Iraq allow unfettered access to weapons inspectors.
- Guantanamo Bay detention camp is established. Algerian Civil War ends.
- Beltway sniper attacks.
- Independence of East Timor.
- First Ivorian Civil War begins.
- Brazil win the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea & Japan
2003
- The United States leads a coalition invasion of Iraq and topples Saddam Hussein, triggering worldwide protests. Armed insurgency continues throughout the country.
- War in Darfur begins.
- The Human Genome Project is completed.
- Second Congo War ends with more than 5 million dead.
- Second Liberian Civil War ends.
- Space Shuttle Columbia is destroyed on re-entry.
- Rose Revolution in Georgia
2004
- Enlargement of NATO and the European Union incorporates most of former Eastern Bloc.
- Facebook formed by Mark Zuckerberg.
- Union of South American Nations formed.
- Madrid train bombings.
- Orange Revolution in Ukraine .
- Beslan school hostage crisis.
- Boxing Day Tsunami occurs in Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of 230,000.
- 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
2005
- IRA end military campaign in Northern Ireland.
- 7/7 attacks on London Underground.
- Angela Merkel becomes Germany's first woman Chancellor.
- Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.
- Second Intifada ends.
- Israel withdraws from Gaza.
- Cedar Revolution in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of Rafic Hariri.
- Second Sudanese Civil War ends.
- Hurricane Katrina kills 1,836 people in the Gulf of Mexico (particularly in New Orleans, Louisiana).
- 80,000 are killed in an earthquake in Kashmir.
- The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect.
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran.
- Benedict XVI becomes Pope.
- Michael E. Brown discovers Eris.
- YouTube formed by Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.
2006
2007
- Anti-government protests in Myanmar crushed by ruling junta.
- Spike in food prices and subprime crisis help trigger global recession.
- Assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- First Ivorian Civil War ends.
- Introduction of iPhone.
- Virginia Tech shooting.
2008
- Stock markets plunge around the world.
- End of Monarchy in Nepal.
- Barack Obama is elected as President of the United States.
- Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar. Gaza War begins.
- 2008 South Ossetia war.
- Kosovo declares independence, to mixed reaction.
- Battle of Basra - Iraqi forces crack down on Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi forces in Basra and Sadr City.
- 2008 Mumbai attacks.
- The Large Hadron Collider is completed as the world's largest and most powerful particle collider.
2009
- Gaza War ends; Gaza blockade continues.
- Sri Lankan Civil War ends.
- Election protests begin in Iran.
- Second Chechen War ends.
- Boko Haram rebellion begins in Nigeria.
- Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest skyscraper, is completed.
- Great Recession officially ends.
- Formation of BRICS economic bloc.
- Treaty of Lisbon ratified.
2010
- David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- Benigno Aquino III is elected as the 15th President of the Philippines.
- A 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills 230,000.
- The threat of Greece defaulting on its debts triggers the European sovereign debt crisis and Republic of Ireland's financial crisis.
- The largest oil spill in US history occurs in the Gulf of Mexico.
- North Korea shells the island of Yeonpyeong.
- Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.
- 2010 Moscow Metro bombings.
- Arab Spring triggered by self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on December 17, 2010 in Tunisia.
- 2010 Kyrgyzstani revolution.
- 2010 Nigerien coup d'état.
- The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, is among 96 killed when their airplane crashes in Smolensk on April 10.
- The Burj Khalifa located in Dubai opened to the public and stood as the tallest structure in the world, standing at 829.8 m (2,722 ft).
2011
- Independence of South Sudan.
- Arab Spring: revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya follow, as well as uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain, and protests in several other Arab countries.
- Syrian civil war begins.
- Second Ivorian Civil War.
- Occupy movement inspires worldwide protests.
- News International phone hacking scandal.
- A 9.0 earthquake in Japan triggers a tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
- Second Ivorian Civil War ends with the arrest of former president Laurent Gbagbo.
- Iraq War ends.
- Riots flare across England.
- Bombings occur In Russia and Somalia.
- World population reaches 7 billion.
- Floods in Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines kill roughly 2500 people.
2012
- Northern Mali conflict, the MNLA declares Azawad an independent state.
- Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh steps down.
- 2012 Benghazi attack leads to the death of US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
- Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, departs; Tawadros II succeeds him.
- The Higgs boson is discovered.
- Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia for the third time.
- Hurricane Sandy kills 209 people in North America, while Typhoon Bopha kills over 1,600 in the Philippines .
- Skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle.
- Conflict begins in the Central African Republic.
- UN Climate Change Conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.
- Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip.
- 2012 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état.
- The US rover, Curiosity, takes a selfie on Mars
- Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
- 2012 Aurora shooting.
- Costa Concordia disaster.
2013
- The French military intervenes in the Northern Mali conflict.
- Chelyabinsk meteor.
- Pope Benedict XVI resigns and Pope Francis becomes Pope.
- Terrorist attacks occur in Boston and Nairobi.
- The Rana Plaza collapses in Bangladesh.
- Edward Snowden releases classified documents concerning mass surveillance by the NSA.
- President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is deposed by the military in a coup d'état.
- Croatia becomes a member of the European Union.
- The Euromaidan protest begins in Ukraine .
- A chemical attack in Ghouta, Syria is blamed on President Bashar al-Assad.
- Typhoon Haiyan kills nearly 6,150 people in the Philippines and Vietnam.
- Conflict begins in South Sudan. Uruguay becomes the first country to fully legalize cannabis.
- End of 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis.
- Boston Marathon bombings.
2014
- The worst Ebola epidemic in recorded history occurs in West Africa, infecting nearly 30,000 people and resulting in the deaths of 11,000+.
- Euromaidan protest in Ukraine sparks a revolution and the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych, leading to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the War in Donbass.
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears from radar while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8. There were 239 people on board.
- A coup d'état in Thailand overthrows the caretaker government.
- King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates; his son becomes King Felipe VI.
- Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Java Sea, while Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Ukraine and Air Algérie Flight 5017 is downed in Mali.
- Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan kill over 130 students in Pakistan .
- Israel launches an assault on the Gaza Strip in response to tit-for-tat murder-kidnappings, leading to the deaths of 71 Israelis and 2100 Palestinians.
- ISIS begins its offensive in northern Iraq, leading to intervention in Iraq and Syria by a US-led coalition.
- Second Libyan Civil War begins.
- The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe becomes the first to successfully land on a comet.
2015
- Five former Soviet Union countries form the Eurasian Economic Union.
- Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris.
- Boko Haram perpetrates a massacre of over 2000 people in Baga, Nigeria, and allies itself with ISIL.
- Al-Shabaab perpetrates a a mass shooting in Kenya, killing 148.
- Houthis overthrow the government in Yemen, triggering a military response by Saudi Arabia.
- A series of earthquakes in the Himalayas kills over 10,000 people.
- ISIL claims responsibility for the Kobanî massacre in Syria, the Sousse attacks in Tunisia, a mosque bombing in Kuwait, the Suruç bombing in Turkey, multiple bombings in Beirut and a massacre in Paris, as well as the bombing of a Russian Airliner over Egypt. They also inspire a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.
- Turkey and Russia intervene in the Syrian Civil War.
- The heads of China and Taiwan meet for the first time, while the United States and Cuba resume diplomatic relations.
- 195 nations agree to lower carbon emissions.
- Liquid water is found on Mars.
- First close-up images of Ceres and Pluto.
- November 2015 Paris attacks.
- Charleston church shooting.
- 2015 San Bernardino attack.
2016
- An outbreak of the Zika virus is linked to a cluster of cases of microcephaly.
- The United Nations lifts sanctions on Iran in recognition of its dismantling of its nuclear program.
- ISIL claims responsibility for a series of bombings in Brussels, a massacre at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport and car ramming attacks in Nice and Berlin, in addition to inspiring a mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
- The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest railway tunnel, is completed.
- The people of the United Kingdom vote narrowly to leave the European Union; Theresa May becomes Prime Minister.
- Donald Trump is elected President of the United States.
- The Colombian government signs a peace deal with FARC despite losing a referendum.
- The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, is impeached.
- The government of Turkey begins a series of purges in reaction to a failed coup d'état attempt.
- Rodrigo Duterte becomes President of the Philippines. He soon initiates a controversial crack down on drug users in the country.
- Detection of gravitational waves by LIGO confirmed.
- Dhaka attack kills 29 people.
- A shooter kills 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
- 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers.
- 2016 Southern Taiwan earthquake.
2017
- Tensions between North Korea and the UN escalate as the country tests a hydrogen bomb and conducts a series of ballistic missile tests, including two launches over Japan and one said to pose a threat to Washington, DC. The UN responds with a wave of export sanctions.
- A terrorist bombing attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England kills 22 people and injures over 500.
- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launch simultaneous attacks in Tehran, destroy the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul Iraq, and kill 311 in Egypt, but are declared defeated in Iraq by the end of the year.
- A military operation targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar is declared ethnic cleansing by the UNHCR.
- A bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 14 kills 500+ people and injures 316. It is one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history.
- Hurricane Harvey kills 90 and becomes the costliest hurricane in US history, while Hurricane Irma kills 134, and Hurricane Maria kills 94.
- Two earthquakes strike Mexico on 7 September and 19 September, killing more than 350.
- Kurdistan and Catalonia declare independence from Iraq and Spain , respectively. Catalonia is not recognised, and Iraq engages the Kurds in conflict.
- Robert Mugabe is ousted in a coup d'état, while Ratko Mladić is declared guilty of genocide.
- The city of Charlottesville is the site of a far-right rally protesting the removal of Confederate statues throughout the US. During the event, a white supremacist rams his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, injuring 19 and killing one.
- 58 people are killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas
- Allegations of sexual abuse against film producer Harvey Weinstein lead to a wave of similar accusations from within Hollywood and other areas of primarily the English-speaking world.
- Grenfell Tower fire in London kills 72 and injures 70.
- 'Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object, is identified.
See also