- January 15
- The global death toll from COVID-19 passes 2 million. [1420]
- The Lao People's Revolutionary Party elects Thongloun Sisoulith as its new General Secretary, replacing retiring chief Bounnhang Vorachith. Sisoulith is elected for a five-year term as top leader in Laos. [1420]
- January 22
- The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding international agreement comprehensively to prohibit nuclear weapons, comes into effect. [1420]
- January 24
- 2021 Portuguese presidential election: Incumbent president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is reelected. [1420]
- January 26
- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeds 100 million worldwide. [1420]
- January 31
- Nguy?n Phú Tr?ng is re-elected for a third five-year term as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. [1420]
- February 1
- Kosovo officially establishes diplomatic ties with Israel and announces plans to open an embassy in Jerusalem. [1420]
- The number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 100 million. [1420]
- Military in Myanmar seizes power in a coup. [1408.22] [1413.28] [1420] [1526.6]
- February 4
- US President Joe Biden announces that the United States will cease providing weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for use in the Yemeni Civil War. [1420]
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- February 9
- A joint WHO-China investigation into the source of the outbreak concludes. Investigators deem a Wuhan laboratory leak to be "extremely unlikely", with a "natural reservoir" in bats being a more likely origin. [1420]
- The United Arab Emirates' uncrewed Hope spacecraft becomes the first Arabian mission successfully to enter orbit around Mars. [1420] [1599.41]
- February 13
- Mario Draghi is sworn in as prime minister of Italy. [1599.10,42]
- February 18
- NASA's Mars 2020 mission (containing the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter drone) lands on Mars at Jezero Crater, after seven months of travel. [1420]
- February 19
- The United States officially rejoins the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, 107 days after leaving. [1420]
- February 20
- Seven people test positive for H5N8 bird flu at a poultry farm in southern Russia, becoming the first known human cases. [1420]
- February 21
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is appointed as director-general of the World Trade Organization. [1599.62]
- February 22
- Luca Attanasio, the Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is murdered near Goma. [1420]
- February 25
- The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 2.5 million. [1420]
- February 28
- The Nuevas Ideas party wins 56 out of 84 seats in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador. [1420]
- March 6
- The Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace coalition wins 137 out of 255 seats in the National Assembly of the Ivory Coast. [1420]
- Pope Francis meets Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq. First meeting of a Pope and a Grand Ayatollah. [1408.22] [1420]
- March 19
- North Korea severs diplomatic ties with Malaysia due to a Malaysian court's ruling that a North Korean citizen could be extradited to the United States to face money-laundering charges. Malaysian authorities order North Korean officials to leave the country within 48 hours. [1420]
- March 20
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces his country's withdrawal from the 2011 Istanbul Convention on violence against women, the first country to do so. [1420]
- March 21
- Clashes in Apure between Colombian FARC dissidents and the Venezuelan Armed Forces cause at least eight casualties, as well as displacing 4,000 Venezuelans. [1420]
- March 23
- Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in the world, runs aground and obstructs the Suez Canal, disrupting global trade. [1420]
- March 25
- The number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 500 million. [1420]
- March 29
- The container ship Ever Given is freed from blocking the Suez Canal. [1408.22]
- April 2
- Russia warns NATO against sending any troops to aid Ukraine, amid reports of a large Russian military build-up on its borders. [1420]
- April 4
- More than 270 people are killed in Indonesia and East Timor after Cyclone Seroja strikes East Nusa Tenggara and the island of Timor. [1420]
- April 9
- Roscosmos launches the Soyuz MS-18 mission, carrying three Expedition 65 crewmembers to the International Space Station. [1420]
- April 11
- Peru holds a general election with Pedro Castillo and the left-wing Free Peru party winning a close election. [1420]
- Iran accuses Israel of "nuclear terrorism" and vows revenge after a large explosion destroys the internal power system of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant. [1420]
- April 13
- Japan's government approves the dumping of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean over the course of 30 years, with full support of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The decision is opposed by China, South Korea, and Taiwan. [1420]
- April 15
- Scientists announce they successfully injected human stem cells into the embryos of monkeys, creating chimera-embryos. [1420]
- April 17
- The Czech government concludes that the Russian GRU was responsible for the blast of two ammunition warehouses in Vrbetice in 2014. [1420]
- The Soyuz MS-17 mission concludes, returning three crewmembers of Expedition 64 to Earth from the International Space Station. [1420]
- The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 3 million. [1420]
- April 19
- NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, part of the Mars 2020 mission, performs the first powered flight on another planet in history. [1420]
- Raúl Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, ending more than 62 years of rule by the Castro brothers in Cuba. [1420]
- April 20
- Idriss Déby, President of Chad, is killed in clashes with rebel forces after 30 years in office. The constitution is suspended and a Transitional Military Council is established to govern the country for 18 months. [1420]
- April 22
- World leaders mark Earth Day by hosting a virtual summit on climate change, during which more ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions are proposed, including a 40% cut by 2030 for the United States. [1420]
- April 23
- SpaceX launches the Crew-2 mission, carrying four crew members of Expedition 65 and 66 to the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour. [1420]
- April 24
- The number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 1 billion. [1420]
- Following an international search and rescue effort, the Indonesian navy reports the sinking of KRI Nanggala with 53 crew members, the largest loss of life aboard a submarine since 2003. [1420]
- April 28
- At least 55 people are killed and nearly 50,000 more are displaced in one of the most serious clashes in Central Asia following border disputes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. [1420]
- The European Union approves the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, governing the relationship between the EU and UK after Brexit. [1420]
- April 29
- The China National Space Administration launches the first module of its Tiangong space station, named Tianhe, beginning a two-year effort to build the station in orbit. [1420]
- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeds 150 million worldwide. [1420]
- May 2
- The SpaceX Crew-1 mission ends, returning four crew members of Expedition 64 and 65 to Earth from the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon Resilience. [1420]
- May 3
- An overpass of Mexico City's subway collapses, killing 26. [1407.71]
- May 5
- SpaceX successfully flies, lands, and recovers a Starship prototype for the first time, after four unsuccessful previous attempts. [1420]
- May 14
- The China National Space Administration lands its Zhurong rover at Utopia Planitia on Mars, making China the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the planet and only the second to land a rover. [1420]
- May 15
- Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants continues to escalate, as the death toll exceeds 150. An Israeli airstrike destroys a high-rise office building in Gaza occupied by Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and other media outlets. [1420]
- May 17
- Discovery, Inc. agrees to buy media conglomerate WarnerMedia and all of its subsidiaries from AT&T for US$43 billion. [1420]
- May 18
- (to May 22) The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, after the cancellation of the 2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 contest is won by Italian entrants Måneskin with the song "Zitti e buoni". [1420]
- May 20
- Following international pressure, and nearly 250 deaths, Israel agrees to a ceasefire deal to end the conflict with Gaza militants, effective the next day at 2:00am local time. [1420]
- May 23
- Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist Roman Protasevich. [1420]
- May 24
- A coup d'état in Mali removes interim President Bah Ndaw and the acting Prime Minister, Moctar Ouane, from power and restores military rule. [1420]
- May 26
- Shell becomes the first company to be legally mandated to align its carbon emissions with the Paris climate accord, following a landmark court ruling in the Netherlands. [1420]
- May 28
- In the United Kingdom, the Royal Mail receives the final design entries for a proposed set of postage stamps designed by children, to honor COVID workers. The stamp designs were submitted in a design contest by UK children ages 4 through 14. The Royal Mail received 606,049 entries, breaking the Guiness world record for largest postage stamp design competition. (The set of eight first-class rate stamps are issued March 23, 2022.) [1484.1]
- June 2
- The 2021 Israeli presidential election is held, and won by Isaac Herzog. In order to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power, Naftali Bennett agrees to form a coalition with the Israeli opposition as a rotation government that will come to take effect after eleven days. [1420]
- June 5
- The G7 agrees on a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% intended to prevent tax avoidance by some of the world's biggest multinationals. [1420]
- June 7
- The Juno spacecraft performs its only flyby of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the first flyby of the moon by any spacecraft in over 20 years. [1420]
- June 9
- The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passes legislation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in the country, becoming the first country to adopt the cryptocurrency alongside the U.S. dollar. [1420]
- June 10
- An annular solar eclipse is visible from Canada, Greenland, the North Pole, and the Russian Far East. [1420]
- June 11
- (to June 13) World leaders meet at the 47th G7 summit, hosted by the United Kingdom, with topics of discussion including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and the corporate taxation of multinationals. [1420]
- June 13
- Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister of Israel, is voted out of office; Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid are sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel and as Alternate Prime Minister of Israel, respectively. [1420]
- June 17
- The China National Space Administration sends its first three astronauts to occupy the Tiangong Space Station, the country's first space station. [1420]
- June 20
- Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia wins the country's snap election, with his Civil Contract party gaining 54% of the vote. [1420]
- June 24
- A portion of the Champlain South Towers condominium building collapses in Surfside, Florida, United States, leaving 98 people dead. [1420]
- June 28
- The Tigray Defense Force seizes the Tigrayan capital Mekelle shortly after the Ethiopian government declares a ceasefire. [1420]
- June 29
- The number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide exceeds 3 billion. [1420]
- (month unknown)
- Archaeologists discover ancient Egyptian city of tehn Aten, along the west bank of the Nile in Luxor. [1616.23]
- July 3
- Over 130 wildfires, fuelled by lightning strikes, burn through Western Canada following a record-breaking heatwave in North America that results in over 600 deaths. [1420]
- July 5
- More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers flee to neighbouring Tajikistan after clashing with Taliban militants. [1420]
- July 7
- Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is shot to death at 1:00am local time in his home. First Lady Martine Moïse is injured and hospitalized. [1420]
- Death of Jovenel Moïse, assassinated by Colombian mercenaries; 42nd President of Haiti. [1420] [1533.76]
- July 8
- The number of deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 4 million. [1420]
- July 11
- Moldova holds a parliamentary election, with the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) obtaining a majority of seats. [1420]
- After taking off from Spaceport America, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, USA, VMS Eve carrier aircraft launches VSS Unity rocket plane, with two pilots and four passengers, which then flies into space and back. [1575.24]
- Thousands of Cubans, most of them young, attend a rare anti-government protest in San Antonio de los Baños to protest the increased food and medicine shortages brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. [1420]
- July 12
- Heavy rain causes flooding in the border region of Germany and Belgium, resulting in 229 deaths, including 184 in Germany, 42 in Belgium, and 2 in Romania. [1420]
- July 13
- After the nepal Supreme Court declares his incumbency unconstitutional, KP Oli is succeeded by Sher Bahadur Deuba as 43rd Prime Minister of Nepal. [1420]
- July 18
- An international investigation reveals that spyware sold by Israel's NSO Group to different governments is being used to target heads of state, along with thousands of activists, journalists and dissidents around the world. [1420]
- July 19
- Blue Origin successfully conducts its first human test flight, with a reusable New Shepard rocket delivering four crew members into space: its founder Jeff Bezos, Bezos' brother Mark, 18-year-old Oliver Daemen (who becomes the youngest person to go into space), and 82-year-old aviator and Mercury 13 member Wally Funk (who becomes the oldest person to go into space). [1420]
- Leftist schoolteacher Pedro Castillo is confirmed as President of Peru over a month after the 2021 Peruvian general election. [1420]
- July 20
- Heavy flooding in the city of Zhengzhou, China, leaves 398 people dead or missing, including 14 in a subway station. [1420]
- July 23
- The Court of Appeal of Samoa deems the swearing-in of Fiame Naomi Mata?afa and her government as constitutional, ending a three-month constitutional crisis. [1420]
- (to August 8) The 2020 Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo, Japan. They were originally scheduled for July 24 to August 9, 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [1420]
- July 25
- Tunisian president Kais Saied formally takes power in the country, suspending the parliament and sacking the prime minister. [1420]
- July 28
- The first direct observation of light from behind a black hole is reported, confirming Einstein's theory of general relativity. [1420]
- July 29
- The oil tanker Mercer Street is attacked off the coast of Oman. [1420]
- Roscosmos' Nauka laboratory docks with the International Space Station following a protracted seventeen-year development and launch on 21 July. Hours after docking, a malfunction of its thrusters causes a temporary loss of control of the station, spinning it up to 45 degrees from its normal orbital attitude. [1420]
- August 3
- The oil tanker Asphalt Princess is hijacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. [1420]
- August 4
- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpasses 200 million worldwide. [1420]
- August 5
- The Tigray Defense Forces seize the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lalibela. [1420]
- August 9
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report, which concludes that the effects of human-caused climate change are now "widespread, rapid, and intensifying". [1420]
- August 14
- A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti, killing more than 2,100 people. [1420]
- August 15
- The Taliban capture Kabul; the Afghan government surrenders to the Taliban. [1420]
- August 26
- At least 182 people are killed, including 13 U.S. service members, in a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport, Afghanistan. [1407.71] [1420]
- August 30
- The UN Environment Programme announces that leaded petrol in road vehicles has been phased out globally, a hundred years after its introduction. [1408.22] [1420]
- The United States withdraws its last remaining troops from Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, ending 20 years of operations in Afghanistan. [1420]
- September 5
- Guinea's President Alpha Condé is detained by an elite military unit led by a former French legionnaire, Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, claiming to have seized power. [1420]
- September 7
- El Salvador becomes the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as an official currency. [1420]
- El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as an official currency, first country to do so. [1408.22]
- September 13
- Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the main Malaysian opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, sign a confidence and supply agreement ending the 18-month political crisis that has led to the fall of two successive governments in Malaysia. [1420]
- September 14
- North Korea demonstrates two short-range ballistic missiles that land just outside Japan's territorial waters; and then only hours later South Korea demonstrates its first submarine-launched ballistic missile. [1420]
- September 15
- A trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States is formed, to counter the influence of China. This includes enabling Australia to build its first nuclear-powered submarine fleet. [1420] [1532.28]
- Several ministers of the Argentine president Alberto Fernández's cabinet resign after the government's defeat in the primary elections. [1420]
- September 16
- Inspiration4, launched by SpaceX, becomes the first all-civilian spaceflight, carrying a four-person crew on a three-day orbit of the Earth. [1420]
- September 19
- The 2021 Russian legislative election is held, with the United Russia party winning nearly 50% of the vote. [1420]
- September 20
- The 2021 Canadian federal election is held, with Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party retaining a minority government. [1420] [1517.30]
- September 26
- The 2021 German federal election is held, with the Social Democratic Party beating out the CDU/CSU coalition. [1420]
- October 1
- The 2020 World Expo in Dubai begins. Its opening was originally scheduled for October 20, 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [1420]
- October 3
- The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and assorted media partners publish a set of 11.9 million documents leaked from 14 financial services companies known as the Pandora Papers, revealing offshore financial activities that involve multiple current and former world leaders. [1420]
- October 4
- Fumio Kishida becomes the 100th Prime Minister of Japan, succeeding Yoshihide Suga. [1420]
- October 5
- Roscosmos launches the Soyuz MS-19 mission, which carries an Expedition 66 crewmember and two Channel One Russia personnel to the International Space Station. The two Channel One crew will perform principal photography on the film Vyzov aboard the station. [1420]
- October 6
- The World Health Organization endorses the first malaria vaccine. [1420]
- October 8
- The Nobel Prize Committee announces that the winner of the Peace Prize is journalists Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines. [1408.24]
- (to October 9) The 2021 Czech legislative election is held, with the main opposition coalition alliance of SPOLU and Pirates and Mayors gaining a legislative majority. [1420]
- October 9
- Sebastian Kurz announces his resignation as Chancellor of Austria as a result of a corruption probe launched against him. [1420]
- October 13
- Blue Origin New Shepard capsule blasts off with William Shatner aboard. Oldest person into space, age 90. [1586.24]
- October 16
- The Lucy spacecraft is launched by NASA, the first mission to explore the Trojan asteroids. [1420]
- October 23
- Colombia's most wanted drug lord, Dario Antonio Úsuga, is captured by Colombia's armed forces. [1420]
- October 25
- The Sudanese military launches a coup against the government. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is placed under house arrest. President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declares a state of emergency and announces the dissolution of the government. [1420]
- October 31
- The 2021 Japanese general election is held, with Fumio Kishida and the Liberal Democratic Party along with its coalition partner Komeito retaining a majority government. [1420]
- (to November 13) The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held, after being postponed in 2020 due to COVID-19. A deal is agreed by world leaders, which includes a "phasedown" of unabated coal power, a 30% cut in methane emissions by 2030, plans for a halt to deforestation by 2030, and increased financial support for developing countries. [1420]
- November 1
- The number of recorded deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 5 million. [1420]
- November 9
- The Omicron variant of SARS-COV-2 is first detected, in South Africa. [1401.61]
- November 11
- SpaceX launches the Crew-3 mission, carrying four Expedition 66 crew members to the International Space Station. [1420]
- November 16
- Russia draws international condemnation following an anti-satellite weapon test that creates a cloud of space debris, threatening the International Space Station. [1420]
- Sotheby's auctions a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo for record-breaking US$34.9 million. [1407.8]
- November 23
- A bus crashes in Pernik Province, Bulgaria, killing 46 Macedonian tourists returning from Istanbul. [1420]
- November 24
- German coalition government forms, of Social Democrats, Green Party, and Free Democrats, with chancellor Olaf Scholz. [1398.16]
- India's health ministry announces the country's overall fertility rate has dropped to 2.0 children per woman, and to 1.6 in cities. [1399.71] [1411.39]
- The Omicron strain of SARS-COV-2 is first identified. [1411.17]
- NASA launches the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first attempt to deflect an asteroid for the purpose of learning how to protect Earth. [1420]
- Magdalena Andersson resigns as Prime Minister-elect of Sweden hours after the Riksdag voted her in as Sweden's first female Prime Minister. [1420]
- November 26
- The World Health Organization convenes an emergency meeting in Geneva amid concerns over Omicron, a highly mutated variant of COVID-19 first identified in South Africa that appears more infectious than Delta. [1420]
- November 28
- Presidential election in Honduras, won by Xiomara Castro. [1583.23]
- General election in Kyrgyzstan. President Sadyr Japarow is re-elected to majority in parliament. [1411.40]
- November 30
- Barbados becomes a republic on its 55th anniversary of independence while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. [1420] [1443.93] [1583.20]
- December 1
- The European Union launches the Global Gateway initiative, to support US$340 billion of infrastructure in the developing world by 2027. [1411.55]
- December 4
- The 2021 Gambian presidential election is held and incumbent president Adama Barrow is reelected. [1420]
- December 6
- The United States announces a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in response to China's human rights record. (Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia join shortly after.) [1420]
- Court in Napyidaw, Myanmar, sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to 4 years in prison for breaching coronavirus restrictions and disturbing public order. [1399.38]
- December 9
- (to December 10) The Summit for Democracy, a virtual summit, is hosted by the United States "to renew democracy at home and confront autocracies abroad". [1420]
- A truck crash in Chiapas, Mexico, kills 55 migrants who were being smuggled in it from Guatemala through Mexico to its border with the United States. [1420]
- December 10
- 36 tornados in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee kill over 90 people. [1439.48]
- December 12
- A referendum in New Caledonia votes 96.5% to 3.5% to remain a territory of France. [1400.30] [1420]
- December 16
- Typhoon Rai hits the Philippines, making land fall in Siargao, with sustained 195kph winds and gusts to 240kph. The strongest storm to hit the Philippines in 2021. 500,000 homes damaged, 4.2 million people affected, 400 killed, 1100 injured. [1401.31]
- December 19
- The second round of the 2021 Chilean presidential election is held; leftist candidate Gabriel Boric is elected President. [1401.27] [1420]
- December 22
- Annual Christmas lottery "el gordo" in Spain, total US$2.7 billion in prizes. [1401.41]
- December 24
- Trade and co-operation agreement is signed between the United Kingdom and the European Union. [1401.43]
- December 25
- NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute launch the James Webb Space Telescope from French Guiana aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket. [1420] [1421.10] [1734.66]
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