Social Change
Social movements, civil rights, abolition, and reform
History: January 1 (#3)
January 1, 2024 A 7.5 Mww earthquake strikes the western coast of Japan, killing more than 500 people and injuring over 1,000 others. A majority of direct deaths were due to collapsed homes....
History: January 2 (#1)
January 2, 2022 Massive nationwide protests and unrest break out in Kazakhstan over the sudden increase of liquefied petroleum gas prices, leading to 238 people dead and thousands injured by January ...
History: January 8 (#1)
January 8, 2021 Twenty-three people are killed in what is described as a police ″massacre″ in La Vega, Caracas, Venezuela....
History: January 12 (#1)
January 12, 2012 Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Băsescu's economic austerity measures. Clashes are reported in numerous ...
History: January 13 (#2)
January 13, 2018 A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii causes widespread panic in the state....
History: January 17 (#5)
January 17, 1998 Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website....
History: January 19 (#3)
January 19, 2007 Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast....
History: January 20 (#2)
January 20, 2021 Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America. At the time of his inauguration, he became the oldest person ever inaugurated. Kamala Harris became th...
History: January 24 (#4)
January 24, 1987 About 20,000 protestors march in a civil rights demonstration in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States....
History: January 26 (#1)
January 26, 2021 Protesters and farmers storm the Red Fort near Delhi, clashing with police. One protester is killed and more than 80 police officers are injured....
History: January 29 (#4)
January 29, 2009 Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appo...
History: February 4 (#3)
February 4, 2003 The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopts a new constitution, becoming a loose confederacy between Montenegro and Serbia....
History: February 7 (#3)
February 7, 2013 The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratifi...
History: February 20 (#3)
February 20, 2010 In Madeira Island, Portugal, heavy rain causes floods and mudslides, resulting in at least 43 deaths, in the worst disaster in the history of the archipelago....
History: February 21 (#4)
February 21, 1994 Aldrich Ames is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for selling national secrets to the Soviet Union in Arlington County, Virginia....
History: February 24 (#2)
February 24, 2020 Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia following an attempt to replace the Pakatan Harapan government, which triggered the 2020-2022 Malaysian political crisis....
History: March 1 (#2)
March 1, 2008 The Armenian police clash with peaceful opposition rally protesting against allegedly fraudulent presidential elections; as a result ten people are killed....
History: March 8 (#1)
March 8, 2021 International Women's Day marches in Mexico become violent with 62 police officers and 19 civilians injured in Mexico City alone....
History: March 8 (#3)
March 8, 2018 The first Aurat March (social/political demonstration) is held on International Women's Day in Karachi, Pakistan, since then held annually across Pakistan, and the feminist slogan "Mera...
History: March 9 (#1)
March 9, 2023 A shooting in the Alsterdorf quarter of Hamburg, Germany, kills eight people and injures another eight....
History: March 25 (#3)
March 25, 2006 Protesters demanding a new election in Belarus, following the rigged 2006 Belarusian presidential election, clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among severa...
History: March 28 (#2)
March 28, 2006 At least one million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law....
History: April 3 (#5)
April 3, 2008 Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS's YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be taken into state custody....
History: April 5 (#4)
April 5, 2007 The cruise ship MS Sea Diamond strikes a volcanic reef near Nea Kameni and sinks the next day. Two passengers were never recovered and are presumed dead....
History: April 16 (#3)
April 16, 2013 A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Sistan and Balochistan province, Iran, killing at least 35 people and injuring 117 others....
History: April 20 (#5)
April 20, 2013 A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands....
History: April 23 (#4)
April 23, 1993 Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum....
History: April 25 (#5)
April 25, 2004 The March for Women's Lives brings over one million protesters, mostly pro-choice, to Washington D.C. to protest the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, and other restrictions on a...
History: April 26 (#2)
April 26, 2015 Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan's history....
History: April 28 (#4)
April 28, 1994 Former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving US secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia....
History: April 29 (#1)
April 29, 2015 A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as t...
History: May 2 (#3)
May 2, 2011 An E. coli outbreak strikes Europe, mostly in Germany, leaving more than 30 people dead and many others are taken ill....
History: May 5 (#2)
May 5, 2010 Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek government-debt crisis....
History: May 6 (#3)
May 6, 2013 Three women, kidnapped and missing for more than a decade, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States....
History: May 11 (#4)
May 11, 2022 Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is killed while covering a raid in Jenin. Israel eventually admitted and apologized for the murder, after initial denials....
History: May 13 (#4)
May 13, 1998 Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped....
History: May 20 (#4)
May 20, 2013 An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others....
History: May 20 (#5)
May 20, 2012 At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy....
History: May 21 (#5)
May 21, 2006 The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence....
History: May 28 (#3)
May 28, 2011 Malta votes on the introduction of divorce; the proposal was approved by 53% of voters, resulting in a law allowing divorce under certain conditions being enacted later in the year....
History: June 3 (#5)
June 3, 2006 The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence....
History: June 5 (#2)
June 5, 2022 A constitutional referendum is held in Kazakhstan following violent protests and civil unrest against the government....
History: June 5 (#4)
June 5, 2015 An earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.0 strikes Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia, killing 18 people, including hikers and mountain guides on Mount Kinabalu, after mass landslides that occurre...
History: June 5 (#5)
June 5, 2009 After 65 straight days of civil disobedience, at least 31 people are killed in clashes between security forces and indigenous people near Bagua, Peru....
History: June 10 (#2)
June 10, 2024 A plane crash in Malawi leaves 10 people dead, including the country's Vice President Saulos Chilima....
History: June 19 (#1)
June 19, 2020 Animal rights advocate Regan Russell is run over and killed by a transport truck outside of a pig slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario....
History: June 20 (#3)
June 20, 1991 The German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital of Berlin....
History: June 30 (#2)
June 30, 2021 The Tiger Fire ignites near Black Canyon City, Arizona, and goes on to burn 16,278 acres (6,587 ha) of land before being fully contained on July 30....
History: July 7 (#3)
July 7, 2019 The United States defeated the Netherlands 2–0 at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Lyon, France....
History: July 7 (#4)
July 7, 2016 Ex-US Army soldier Micah Xavier Johnson shoots fourteen policemen, killing five of them, in downtown Dallas, Texas at the end of a protest of recent police killings of Black men. He is s...
History: July 9 (#5)
July 9, 2002 The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The organization's first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa....
History: July 21 (#4)
July 21, 2019 Yuen Long attack or "721 incident" in Hong Kong. Triad members indiscriminately beat civilians returning from protests while police failed to take action....
History: July 30 (#1)
July 30, 2011 Marriage of Queen Elizabeth II's eldest granddaughter Zara Phillips to former rugby union footballer Mike Tindall....
History: August 4 (#4)
August 4, 2018 Crisis in Venezuela: Seven people are injured when two drones detonate explosives on Avenida Bolívar, Caracas while president Nicolás Maduro is giving a speech to the Venezuelan Nation...
History: August 9 (#1)
August 9, 2014 Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, is shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to ste...
History: August 9 (#3)
August 9, 2007 Air Moorea Flight 1121 crashes after takeoff from Moorea Airport in French Polynesia, killing all 20 people on board....
History: August 12 (#5)
August 12, 1994 Major League Baseball players go on strike, eventually forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series....
History: August 16 (#2)
August 16, 2015 Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibil, Bintang Mountains Regency, killing all 54 people on board....
History: August 19 (#2)
August 19, 2010 Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait....
History: August 20 (#4)
August 20, 2008 Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. Of the 172 people on board, 146 die immediately, and eight more later die...
History: August 22 (#1)
August 22, 2012 Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya's Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths....
History: August 27 (#1)
August 27, 2011 Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage....
History: September 7 (#3)
September 7, 2012 Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over nuclear plans and purported human r...
History: September 8 (#2)
September 8, 2023 A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes Morocco, killing nearly 3,000 people and damaging historic sites in Marrakesh....
History: September 10 (#3)
September 10, 2017 Hurricane Irma makes landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida as a Category 4, after causing catastrophic damage throughout the Caribbean. Irma resulted in 134 deaths and $77.2 billion (201...
History: September 12 (#5)
September 12, 2008 The 2008 Chatsworth train collision in Los Angeles between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train kills 25 people....
History: September 21 (#1)
September 21, 2019 A 5.6 Mw earthquake shakes the Albanian port of Durrës. Forty-nine people are injured in the capital, Tirana....
History: September 25 (#4)
September 25, 1985 3 civilians killed by alleged supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Larnaca yacht killings....
History: September 26 (#1)
September 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Perry, Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, killing over 250 people, causing US$78.7 billion in damage and becoming the deadliest hurricane in the ...
History: September 29 (#2)
September 29, 2011 The special court in India convicted all 269 accused officials for atrocity on Dalits and 17 for rape in the Vachathi case....
History: October 1 (#4)
October 1, 2018 The International Court of Justice rules that Chile is not obliged to negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with Bolivia....
History: October 6 (#1)
October 6, 2025 The 2025 Alberta teachers' strike begins, leaving approximately 51,000 teachers off-work, impacting about 730,000 Albertan students....
History: October 6 (#2)
October 6, 2018 The United States Senate confirms Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Associate Justice, ending a contentious confirmation process....
History: October 11 (#3)
October 11, 1991 Prof. Anita Hill delivers her televised testimony concerning sexual harassment during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination....
History: October 11 (#4)
October 11, 1987 The AIDS Memorial Quilt is first displayed during the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights....
History: October 12 (#2)
October 12, 2019 Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in Japan, killing 10 and forcing the evacuation of one million people....
History: October 13 (#1)
October 13, 2019 Kenyan Brigid Kosgei sets a new world record for a woman runner with a time of 2:14:04 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon....
History: October 14 (#1)
October 14, 2023 Australians vote to reject a constitutional amendment that would have established an Indigenous Voice to Parliament....
History: October 16 (#5)
October 16, 1968 Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute....
History: October 23 (#5)
October 23, 2015 The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hour...
History: October 28 (#1)
October 28, 2025 Hurricane Melissa makes landfall near Black River, Jamaica, killing over 30 people, as well as tying the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the most intense landfall in the North Atlantic....
History: October 30 (#2)
October 30, 2020 A magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, triggering a tsunami. At least 119 people die mainly due to collapsed buildings....
History: October 30 (#4)
October 30, 2014 Sweden becomes the first European Union member state to officially recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state....
History: October 31 (#4)
October 31, 2003 Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia and is replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, marking an end to Mahathir's 22 years in power....
History: October 31 (#5)
October 31, 2002 A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas indicts former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice ...
History: November 9 (#2)
November 9, 2012 A train carrying liquid fuel crashes and bursts into flames in northern Myanmar, killing 27 people and injuring 80 others....
History: November 17 (#2)
November 17, 2013 A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoe...
History: November 26 (#2)
November 26, 2019 A magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes western Albania leaving at least 52 people dead and over 1,000 injured. This was the world's deadliest earthquake of 2019, and the deadliest to st...
History: December 1 (#1)
December 1, 2019 Arsenal Women 11–1 Bristol City Women breaks the record for most goals scored in a FA Women's Super League match, with Vivianne Miedema involved in ten of the eleven Arsenal goals....
History: December 4 (#4)
December 4, 2005 Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the government to allow universal and equal suffrage....
History: December 9 (#5)
December 9, 2008 Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama....
History: December 10 (#1)
December 10, 2021 A widespread, deadly, and violent tornado outbreak slams the Central, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States. Eighty-nine people are killed by the tornadoes, with mos...
History: December 11 (#2)
December 11, 2019 The results of the 2019 Bougainvillean independence referendum are announced. The results are overwhelmingly one-sided. Over 98% of voters vote for Bougainville's independence....
History: December 17 (#3)
December 17, 2003 The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, is found guilty of perverting the cours...
History: December 17 (#4)
December 17, 2003 Sex work rights activists establish December 17 (or "D17") as International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers to memorialize victims of a serial killer who targeted prostitute...
History: December 18 (#3)
December 18, 2006 The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced....
History: December 19 (#5)
December 19, 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky....
History: December 27 (#2)
December 27, 2009 Iranian election protests: On the Day of Ashura in Tehran, Iran, government security forces fire upon demonstrators....
History: December 29 (#2)
December 29, 2023 South Africa files a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over Israeli conducts in the Gaza Strip....