2021

2021 was the 2021st year of the Common Era and the 2nd year of the 2020s decade. The year was heavily defined by the emergence of several COVID-19 variants, the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as part of the globale conomy, advances in space exploration, and coups or coup attempts in Sudan, Myanmar, Mali, Guinea, America, and Armenia.

Events[]

6 January - The 2021 United States coup d'etat attempt occurs as supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump attack the United States Capitol with the purpose to disrupting certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. Five people die in the ensuing riot, classified as a domestic terrorist attack and insurrection.
15 January - The global death toll from COVID-19 passes 2 million.
20 January - Inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States; Vice President Kamala Harris is the first Black, South Asian, and female in that role.
22 January - The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons comes into effect.
27 January - Poland bans abortion
1 February - Aung San Suu Kyi is overthrown in a military coup in Burma, leading to widespread protests
4 February - The United States cuts off arms shipments to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for use in the Yemeni Civil War.
19 February - The USA rejoins the Paris Climate Agreement
25 February - The Armenian military fails to secure Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation
28 February - The Nuevas Ideas party scores a landslide victory in El Salvador's legislative election.
20 March - Turkey withdraws from the Istanbul Convention on domestic violence.
2 April - Russia warns NATO against sending any troops to aid Ukraine amid reports of a large Russian military buildup on its borders.
11 April - Pedro Castillo's left-wing Free Peru patry win the Peruvian general election.
17 April - The global death toll from COVID surpasses 3 million.
19 April - Raul Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
20 April - Chadian dictator Idriss Deby is killed by rebels.
28 April - Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan engage in bloody border clashes.
11 May - Start of the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis as Hamas rocket attacks in retaliation for property disputes in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem lead to Israeli strikes on Gaza.
14 May - China becomes the fourth country to land a spacecraft on Mars and the second to land a rover.
20 May - The Israeli-Palestinian flare-up ends
23 May - Belarusian authorities kidnap dissident journalist Roman Protasevich from a Ryanair flight.
24 May - 2021 Malian coup d'etat
2 June - Naftali Bennett forms a coalition with the Israeli opposition to oust Benjamin Netanyahu from power; Netanyahu is voted out of office on 13 June.
9 June - El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as legal tender in the country
20 June - Nikol Pashinyan wins re-election.
24 June - A condominium in Surfside, Florida collapses, killing 98 people.
25 June - Derek Chauvin is sentenced to 22 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd.
28 June - The Tigray Defense Force captures the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle.
7 July - Haitian president Jovenel Moise is assassinated.
11 July - Outbreak of the 2021 Cuban protests; the Party of Action and Solidarity wins the Moldovan parliamentary elections; There Is Such a People wins the Bulgarian parliamentary elections.
19 July - Blue Origin conducts its first human test flight, carrying Jeff Bezos into space.
25 July - Tunisian president Kais Saied seizes power in a self-coup.
29 July - Iran attacks the oil tanker Mercer Street off Oman
3 August - Iran hijacks the Asphalt Princess off the United Arab Emirates.
15 August - The Taliban capture Kabul, ending the Afghanistan War and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
26 August - 182 people are killed, including 13 American service members, in an ISIL suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.
27 August - America kills ten civilians, including seven children, in an airstrike targeting the mastermind of the Kabul bombing.
30 August - The US completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
5 September - The 2021 Guinean coup d'etat
15 September - The AUKUS pact is formed by Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to counter the influence of China
16 September - The first all-civilian private spaceflight is launched by SpaceX
19 September - United Russia wins nearly 50% of the vote in the Russian legislative election
26 September - The German SPD ousts the CDU/CSU election from power at the legislative election.
9 October - Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigns amid a corruption probe
23 October - Colombian drug lord Dario Antonio Usuga is captured
25 October - 2021 Sudanese coup d'etat
31 October - The LDP retains a majority government at the Japanese general election
1 November - The COVID death toll surpasses 5 million
5 November - The TPLF allies with eight other rebel groups against the Ethiopian government.
6 December - The USA, Canada, Britain, and Australia boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
19 December - Leftist politician Gabriel Boric wins the Chilean presidential election.