Religion
Religious events, movements, and the history of faith
History: January 7 (#3)
January 7, 2015 Two gunmen commit mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, executing twelve people and wounding eleven others....
History: January 9 (#2)
January 9, 2015 The perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris two days earlier are both killed after a hostage situation; a second hostage situation, related to the Charlie Hebdo shooting, ...
History: January 10 (#2)
January 10, 2015 A traffic accident between an oil tanker truck and passenger coach en route to Shikarpur from Karachi on the Pakistan National Highway Link Road near Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Karachi, killi...
History: January 12 (#4)
January 12, 2006 A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims....
History: January 19 (#5)
January 19, 1997 Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city....
History: January 22 (#5)
January 22, 1999 Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India....
History: January 25 (#2)
January 25, 2015 A clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in the Philippines kills 44 members of Special Action Force (SAF), at least 18 from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and five from the Bangsamoro ...
History: January 29 (#3)
January 29, 2017 A gunman opens fire at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City, killing six people and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting....
History: February 3 (#3)
February 3, 2005 One hundred five people are killed when Kam Air Flight 904 crashes in the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan....
History: February 5 (#3)
February 5, 2019 Pope Francis becomes the first Pope in history to visit and perform papal mass in the Arabian Peninsula during his visit to Abu Dhabi....
History: February 8 (#4)
February 8, 2010 Over 2 miles (3.2 km) of road are buried after a storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of avalanches, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000...
History: February 12 (#3)
February 12, 2016 Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their split in 1054....
History: February 13 (#4)
February 13, 2008 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations....
History: February 27 (#3)
February 27, 2008 Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari escapes from a detention center in Singapore, hiding in Johor, Malaysia until he was recaptured over a year later....
History: February 28 (#4)
February 28, 2013 Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so voluntarily since Pope Gregory XII in 1415....
History: March 3 (#1)
March 3, 2013 A bomb blast in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 48 people and injured 200 others in a predominantly Shia Muslim area....
History: March 9 (#4)
March 9, 2012 A truce between the Salvadoran government and gangs in the country goes into effect when 30 gang leaders are transferred to lower security prisons....
History: March 13 (#5)
March 13, 2013 The 2013 papal conclave elects Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio taking the name Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church....
History: March 23 (#3)
March 23, 2019 The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces capture the town of Baghuz in Eastern Syria, declaring military victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after four years of fightin...
History: March 28 (#1)
March 28, 2020 The region of Uusimaa (with the capital city Helsinki) is temporarily isolated from the rest of Finland due to increased COVID-19 infections....
History: April 10 (#2)
April 10, 2016 The Paravur temple accident, in which a devastating fire caused by the explosion of firecrackers stored for Vishu kills more than one hundred people out of the thousands gathered for t...
History: April 14 (#1)
April 14, 2014 Two bombs detonate at a bus station in Nyanya, Nigeria, killing at least 88 people and injuring hundreds. Boko Haram claims responsibility....
History: April 22 (#1)
April 22, 2025 At least 26 people are killed in a terrorist attack on a group of tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Pakistan-based militant group ...
History: April 24 (#1)
April 24, 2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI....
History: April 25 (#2)
April 25, 2007 Boris Yeltsin's funeral: The first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894....
History: April 30 (#3)
April 30, 2008 Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entir...
History: April 30 (#5)
April 30, 2000 Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide....
History: May 1 (#3)
May 1, 2018 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) resumes the Deir ez-Zor campaign in order to clear the remnants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria...
History: May 3 (#4)
May 3, 2015 Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting....
History: May 4 (#4)
May 4, 2002 One hundred three people are killed and 51 are injured in a plane crash near Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Nigeria....
History: May 7 (#5)
May 7, 1999 Pope John Paul II travels to Romania, becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054....
History: May 9 (#4)
May 9, 2002 The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different...
History: May 10 (#3)
May 10, 2017 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture the last footholds of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Al-Tabqah, bringing the Battle of Tabqa to an end....
History: May 14 (#4)
May 14, 1988 Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in...
History: May 19 (#1)
May 19, 2024 A helicopter crash in Iran leaves 8 people dead, including the country's president Ebrahim Raisi & foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian....
History: May 22 (#2)
May 22, 2017 United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall....
History: May 23 (#4)
May 23, 2016 Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, kill at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen....
History: June 5 (#3)
June 5, 2017 Six Arab countries—Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates—cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region....
History: June 6 (#1)
June 6, 2017 Syrian civil war: The Battle of Raqqa begins with an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)....
History: June 9 (#2)
June 9, 1995 Ansett New Zealand Flight 703 crashes into the Tararua Range during approach to Palmerston North Airport on the North Island of New Zealand, killing four....
History: June 17 (#2)
June 17, 2015 Nine people are killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina....
History: June 25 (#4)
June 25, 2022 Two people are killed and 21 more injured after a gunman opens fire at three sites in Oslo in a suspected Islamist anti-LGBTQ+ attack....
History: June 26 (#5)
June 26, 2007 Pope Benedict XVI reinstates the traditional laws of papal election in which a successful candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes....
History: June 30 (#1)
June 30, 2023 A Tajik citizen with ISIS connections, wanted in Tajikistan for murder and kidnapping, kills two people at Chișinău International Airport in Moldova, after being denied entry to the cou...
History: July 2 (#5)
July 2, 1990 In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca....
History: July 6 (#1)
July 6, 2022 The Georgia Guidestones, a monument in the United States, are heavily damaged in a bombing, and are dismantled later the same day....
History: July 11 (#2)
July 11, 2010 The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carries out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others....
History: July 16 (#4)
July 16, 2013 Syrian civil war: The Battle of Ras al-Ayn resumes between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Islamist forces, beginning the Rojava–Islamist conflict....
History: July 19 (#1)
July 19, 2018 The Knesset passes the controversial Nationality Bill, which defines the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people....
History: July 25 (#4)
July 25, 1995 A gas bottle explodes in Saint Michel station of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). Eight are killed and 80 wounded....
History: August 2 (#3)
August 2, 1989 Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restored democracy for the first time since 1972....
History: August 4 (#3)
August 4, 2018 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor ca...
History: August 6 (#4)
August 6, 2001 Erwadi fire incident: Twenty-eight mentally ill persons tied to a chain are burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu....
History: August 26 (#2)
August 26, 2021 During the 2021 Kabul airlift, a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport kills 13 US military personnel and at least 169 Afghan civilians....
History: September 2 (#4)
September 2, 2022 Eighteen people are killed and 23 others are injured by a suicide bombing at a Sunni mosque in Herat, Afghanistan....
History: September 4 (#3)
September 4, 2020 Pope Benedict XVI becomes the longest-lived pope, 93 years, four months, 16 days, surpassing Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903....
History: September 7 (#2)
September 7, 2019 Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and 66 others are released in a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia....
History: September 8 (#3)
September 8, 2023 The 2023 Rugby World Cup, the tenth men's Rugby World Cup is held in France. The opening ceremony, directed and written by Jean Dujardin, Olivier Ferracci and Nora Matthey, took pla...
History: September 8 (#5)
September 8, 2017 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announce the beginning of the Deir ez-Zor campaign, with the stated aim of eliminating the Islamic State (IS) from all areas nor...
History: September 11 (#2)
September 11, 2015 A crane collapses onto the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing 111 people and injuring 394 others....
History: September 12 (#2)
September 12, 2014 Synagogue Church building collapse saw the deaths of 115 people and several injured, in the Church run by Nigeria's, T. B. Joshua....
History: September 16 (#4)
September 16, 2014 The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launches its Kobani offensive against Syrian–Kurdish forces....
History: September 24 (#2)
September 24, 2015 At least 1,100 people are killed and another 934 wounded after a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia....
History: September 26 (#3)
September 26, 2010 The Philippine Bar exam bombing occurs near the De La Salle University in Taft Avenue, Manila injuring 47 people....
History: September 28 (#4)
September 28, 2014 The 2014 Hong Kong protests begin in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing....
History: October 5 (#1)
October 5, 1994 Swiss police find the bodies of 48 members of the Order of the Solar Temple, who had died in a cult mass murder-suicide....
History: October 12 (#4)
October 12, 2010 The Finnish Yle TV2 channel's Ajankohtainen kakkonen current affairs program airs controversial Homoilta episode (literally "gay night"), which leads to the resignation of almost 50,...
History: October 14 (#2)
October 14, 2017 An Al-Shabaab suicide bomber detonated a massive truck bomb at the Zobe junction in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, killing 587 people, injuring 316 others, and leaving more than 500 m...
History: October 16 (#2)
October 16, 1978 Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523....
History: October 23 (#4)
October 23, 2017 War against the Islamic State: Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana declares the end of the Siege of Marawi....
History: October 24 (#2)
October 24, 2016 Three heavily armed terrorists from the Islamic State – Khorasan Province open fire on and eventually suicide bomb a police training centre in Balochistan, Pakistan, killing at least...
History: October 26 (#1)
October 26, 2015 A 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Hindu Kush mountain range in South Asia, killing 399 people and leaving 2,536 people injured....
History: October 27 (#1)
October 27, 2019 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the U.S. military Barisha raid in no...
History: October 27 (#2)
October 27, 2018 A gunman opens fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing eleven and injuring six, including four police officers....
History: November 1 (#1)
November 1, 2012 A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, killing 26 people and injuring 135....
History: November 1 (#5)
November 1, 1991 President of the Chechen Republic Dzhokhar Dudayev declares sovereignty of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from the Russian Federation....
History: November 2 (#2)
November 2, 2020 In Vienna's Innere Stadt district, an ISIL sympathizer shoots and kills four people and injures 23 more, before being shot and killed by the police....
History: November 6 (#1)
November 6, 2016 Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces launch an offensive to capture the ISIL-held city of Raqqa....
History: November 15 (#2)
November 15, 2016 Hong Kong's High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament....
History: November 17 (#4)
November 17, 1997 In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre....
History: November 25 (#1)
November 25, 2009 Jeddah floods: Freak rains swamp the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during an ongoing Hajj pilgrimage. Three thousand cars are swept away and 122 people perish in the torrents, with ...
History: November 26 (#4)
November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks, a series of terrorist attacks killing approximately 175 citizens by 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan based extremist Islamist terrorist organisation....
History: November 30 (#4)
November 30, 2005 John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York....
History: December 1 (#4)
December 1, 2005 As a result of the merger of the Perm Oblast and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, a new subject of the Russian Federation, the Perm Krai, was created....
History: December 11 (#4)
December 11, 2012 At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria....
History: December 14 (#1)
December 14, 2025 At least 16 people are killed, including one gunman, and 43 injured in a mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in the deadliest terror incident in Australia....
History: December 15 (#5)
December 15, 2001 The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean....
History: December 16 (#1)
December 16, 2024 The Abundant Life Christian School shooting in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, takes place, resulting in the death of three people....
History: December 18 (#1)
December 18, 2022 Argentina win the FIFA World Cup final, defeating title holders France 4–2 on penalties following a 3–3 draw after extra time....
History: December 20 (#1)
December 20, 2024 Six people are killed and over 200 are injured when an anti-Islam activist drives a car into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany....
History: December 23 (#4)
December 23, 2007 An agreement is made for the Kingdom of Nepal to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state....
History: December 24 (#5)
December 24, 1999 Indian Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked in Indian airspace between Kathmandu, Nepal, and Delhi, India. The aircraft landed at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The incident ended on December ...
History: December 28 (#2)
December 28, 2019 A truck bomb is detonated in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing at least 85 people and injuring over 140 more. The militant group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility....
History: December 28 (#5)
December 28, 2009 Forty-three people die in a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, where Shia Muslims are observing the Day of Ashura....