2015

An airstrike in Sana'a, Yemen during the Yemeni Civil War.

2015 was the 2,015th year of the Common Era and the fifteenth year of the 21st century. The year is known for being a very violent year, seeing several deadly terrorist attacks by the Islamic State and other Islamist groups in addition to the escalation of the Syrian Civil War to involve Russia and Turkey.

Events

• Massacres in Paris, France and Baga, Nigeria by the Islamic State and Boko Haram on 7 January 2015. 12 killed at Charlie Hebdo and 5 more in Montrouge and Porte de Vincennes, while 2,000 die in Baga.
• On 22 January, the Shi'ite Houthis - backed by Iran - seize power in a coup in Yemen, overthrowing President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi's Sunni-led government. A day later, King Abdullah I of Saudi Arabia dies and is succeeded by King Salman I of Saudi Arabia, who takes an aggressive stance against Iranian intervention in the Arabian Peninsula.
• On 12 February, the Minsk ceasefire in Ukraine is declared, although 139 infractions are reported by both sides. The Donbass War continues, although on a smaller scale than the year before.
• Over a dozen Egyptian Christians are beheaded by the Islamic State in Libya on 16 February, leading to Egyptian airstrikes on IS militants in Libya.
• Boko Haram and the Islamic State, the two deadliest terrorist groups on Earth, merge on 12 March, with Boko Haram pledging allegiance to "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
• Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, and other Gulf countries begin an air campaign over Yemen to support the overthrown president Hadi's forces against the Houthis, leading to the Yemeni Civil War. Thousands of civilians will die in Saudi airstrikes, and the old city of Sanaa will be destroyed.
• 148 people are killed in an al-Shabaab attack on the Garissa school in Kenya on 2 April.
• Terrible earthquake hits Nepal on 25 April, leaving 8,857 dead, while 130 die in India, 27 in China, and 4 in Bangladesh. India's blockade of Nepal causes starvation in the already-hurt country.
• On 20 May, the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic announce that they will remain separate republics, abandoning the proposed Novorossiya union.
• FIFA corruption scandal leads to the resignations of several senior officials.
• India and Bangladesh exchange enclaves on their border, transferring populations if they wish.
• Three major IS attacks on 25-26 June 2015 during the holiday of Ramadan, killing 285 people in attacks in Sousse, Tunisia, Kobani, Syria, and at a mosque in Kuwait, called for by IS propagandists.
• Cuba eradicates mother-to-child transfer of the HIV and syphilis diseases, the first country to do so.
• Greece misses a payment to the International Monetary Fund, the first country to do so, during its economic crisis.
• Iran is permitted to use nuclear energy by the United States, ending embargoes in exchange for guarantees that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons.
• The USA agrees to end sanctions on Cuba, warming relations between the two nations.
• In July, Turkey begins to bomb Syria and Iraq to target the PKK, with a small amount of airstrikes against both the Islamic State and the YPG.
• Volkswagen is discovered to have lied about emissions on more than 11,000,000 vehicles, creating a scandal.
• A 24 September stampede in Mecca during the hajj leaves 2,200 dead, 900 wounded, and 650 missing.
• On 30 September, the Russian Air Force decides to intervene in the Syrian Civil War as an ally of the Syrian Arab Republic, bombing the positions of the Syrian Opposition and the Islamic State.
• On 3 October, the US Air Force accidentally bombs a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan while assisting the Afghan National Army in retaking the city from a renewed Taliban offensive.
• October sees two major Islamic State attacks: the bombing of a 10 October peace rally in Ankara leaves over 100 dead, while the bombing of a Russian plane over the Sinai Peninsula on 31 October leaves 224 people dead.
• November sees more Islamic State-related attacks. 12 November sees a series of suicide bombings in the Jabal Mohsen district of Lebanon, leaving 43 dead and 239 wounded. 13 November sees over 130 French civilians be killed in a series of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris, the second major attack in the city that year. This occurs on the same day as the Kurdish liberation of Sinjar in northern Iraq from the Islamic State.
• On 24 November 2015, Turkey shoots down a Russian jet over Turkish airspace in the first instance of a NATO member destroying a Russian plane since the Cold War in the 1950s.

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