2016 in Europe

This is a list of events that took place in Europe in 2016.

Incumbents

Croatia

European Union

Ireland

Monaco

Russia

Turkey

Events

January

1 January
* The Netherlands takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council from Luxembourg.
* San Sebastián and Wrocław are named European Capitals of Culture.
8 January – 32 people, including 22 asylum seekers, are arrested in connection to a series of apparently co-ordinated sexual assaults and thefts in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.
9 January
* Tens of thousands of people take to the streets in cities around Poland to protest against a new law giving the government control of state media.
* 14 people are injured and the government building is set alight as opposition protests in Kosovo's capital Pristina turn violent.
12 January – A suspected suicide bombing kills at least 11 people and injures 14 in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square.
24 January – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is elected President of Portugal.
28 January – A boat carrying Iraqi Kurdish migrants sinks off the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 24 people, including several children, with 11 others missing.
30 January – A massive pile-up involving 70 vehicles, including a bus and several lorries, kills four people and injures 30 on A1 motorway in western Slovenia.

February

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatens to send the millions of refugees in Turkey to EU member states, saying: "We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses... So how will you deal with refugees if you don't get a deal? Kill the refugees?"
9 February – Two passenger trains collide in the German town of Bad Aibling, with 11 people killed and 82 injured.
12 February – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting since the East–West Schism in 1054.
15 February – Bosnia and Herzegovina formally applies to join the European Union.
28 February – A total of 36 people are presumed dead following three explosions at a coal mine in Vorkuta, Russia.

March

5 March – The party of Slovak prime minister Robert Fico wins the election but loses the parliamentary majority.
13 March – At least 34 people are killed and 125 wounded in a suicide car bombing in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
18 March – Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam is shot and arrested in a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels after a four-month international manhunt.
19 March – Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don Airport, Russia, killing all 62 people on board.
20 March – At least 14 people are killed after a coach carrying Erasmus exchange students crashes near Barcelona.
22 March – 32 people are killed and 316 injured in attacks at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek metro station.
24 March – Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War.

April

3 April – A ceasefire is announced after at least 193 soldiers are killed in clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
4 April – Thousands of people protest in Reykjavík, asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, after Panama Papers investigation revealed that he had hidden investments in tax havens.
18 April – More than 400 migrants and refugees drown in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross by boat from Egypt to Italy.
21 April – The Bulgarian parliament approves the introduction of compulsory voting.
29 April – A helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform crashes in the North Sea, killing all 13 people on board.

May

11 May – Italy becomes the last Western European country to legalize same-sex civil unions.
14 May – Jamala, representing Ukraine with the song "1944", wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden.
19 May – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes off the Greek island of Karpathos, killing all 66 people on board.
22 May
* A gunman fires shots into a small crowd attending an open air concert in Nenzing, Austria, killing two people and wounding 11 others before shooting himself to death.
* Independent Green Alexander Van der Bellen is narrowly elected President of Austria.
29 May – 17 people die in a fire at a building housing elderly people in a village near Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

June

1 June – Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel, opens in Switzerland. It is the first flat route through the Alps.
3 June – Heavy rains cause severe flooding in parts of France as well as Belgium and Germany, with reports of at least 11 people dead.
6 June
* Three people are killed and 36 injured in a train crash in eastern Belgium.
* A bus carrying school children, teachers and parents plunges into an irrigation canal in southern Turkey, killing 14 people.
7 June – A car bomb attack targeting a police bus kills 11 people and injures 36 in central Istanbul.
14 June
* UEFA fines the Russian Football Union €150,000 and imposes a suspended disqualification on their team for violence at UEFA Euro 2016.
* At least 40 people are injured in violence during street protests in Paris against French labor reform.
19 June - Baku hosts the European Grand Prix which is won by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg
23 June – The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
25 June – Guðni Jóhannesson wins Iceland's presidential election.
26 June – Conservative People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, gains the most seats in the Spanish repeat election but remains short of a majority.
28 June – An armed attack at Istanbul Atatürk Airport leaves at least 41 people dead and 239 others injured.

July

1 July – Latvia becomes the 35th member of the OECD.
2 July – A gunman shoots five people dead and wounds 22 more after opening fire in a café in Žitište, Serbia.
8–9 July – Leaders of NATO member states meet at the two-day summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
12 July – 27 people are killed and dozens more injured in a head-on collision involving two passenger trains in the Apulia region of Italy.
13 July – Theresa May replaces David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
14 July – At least 86 people are killed after a truck is deliberately driven into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France.
15–16 July – At least 265 people are killed and more than 3,000 members of Turkey's armed forces arrested after an attempted military coup.
21 July – Rioting erupts in the Armenian capital of Yerevan as protesters clash with police over the government's handling of a four-day hostage crisis.
22 July – A gunman opens fire near a shopping mall in Munich, Germany, killing 9 people and injuring 27.

August

6 August – An accidental explosion and fire kill at least 13 people in a bar in the French city of Rouen.
7 August – At least 21 people are dead and six are missing after torrential rains and flooding affect Macedonia's capital of Skopje.
10 August
* Three people are killed and hundreds left critically injured as major wildfires sweep across the Portuguese island of Madeira.
* A wave of Kurdish rebel attacks targeting police and soldiers in southeast Turkey kill at least 12 people.
20 August – At least 51 people are killed and scores more wounded in a suicide attack at a wedding ceremony in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep.
24 August – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits central Italy, killing at least 290 people.
26 August
* Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, the world's tallest suspension bridge, opens to traffic across the Bosphorus.
* Kurdish militants attack a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey with an explosives-laden truck, killing at least 11 police officers and wounding 78 other people.
27 August – At least 17 migrant workers die after a fire breaks out at a Moscow warehouse.

September

18 September – Russia's parliamentary elections bring a landslide win for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia and its allies.

October

2 October – 2016 Hungarian migrant quota referendum: 3,362,224 or 98.36% of valid votes reject EU's mandatory migrant quotas.
9 October – A car bomb attack outside the Durak gendarmerie station in southeastern Turkey leaves 10 soldiers and eight civilians dead and scores of others injured.
10 October – Kersti Kaljulaid becomes the first female President of Estonia.
26 October – Powerful earthquakes rock central Italy, causing buildings to crumble, knocking power out and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets.

November

9 November – A derailment on the Tramlink in Croydon, London, kills seven people and injures more than 50 others.
13 November – Pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon wins the second round of Moldova's presidential election.
14 November – Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov submits his resignation to the National Assembly after opposition-backed Rumen Radev wins the presidential runoff.
16 November – Russian President Vladimir Putin issues a decree for Russia to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

December

4 December – Alexander Van der Bellen wins the Austrian presidential election in a re-run of the second round.
5 December – Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns after Italy votes no in a referendum on constitutional reform.
9 December – The European Union grants visa-free travel for Georgia and Ukraine.
10 December – A cargo train carrying propane-butane derails and explodes in a northeastern Bulgarian village, killing five people and injuring at least 27.
17 December – A suspected suicide car bomb in central Turkey kills 13 soldiers aboard a bus and wounds 55 more.
19 December
* The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, is assassinated in Ankara.
* At least 13 people are killed and more than 40 others are injured as a truck rams into a packed Christmas market in Berlin.
* At least 75 people die from poisoning after consuming a bath lotion containing alcohol in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
23 December – An Afriqiyah Airways flight originating from Sabha, Libya, is hijacked and forced to make an emergency landing in Malta.

Sports

Deaths

January

1 January – Vilmos Zsigmond, Hungarian-American cinematographer
2 January – Michel Delpech, French singer-songwriter and actor
3 January – Peter Naur, Danish computer scientist
4 January – Michel Galabru, French actor
5 January – Pierre Boulez, French composer, conductor, writer and pianist
6 January – Silvana Pampanini, Italian actress and director
7 January – André Courrèges, French fashion designer
8 January – Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian racing driver
10 January – David Bowie, English singer, songwriter and producer
14 January – Alan Rickman, English actor and director
18 January – Michel Tournier, French writer
19 January – Ettore Scola, Italian screenwriter and film director
26 January – Black, English singer-songwriter
29 January – Jacques Rivette, French film director and film critic
30 January – Frank Finlay, English stage, film and television actor
31 January – Terry Wogan, Irish-British radio and television broadcaster

February

13 February
* Trifon Ivanov, Bulgarian footballer
* Slobodan Santrač, Serbian football manager and player
15 February – George Gaynes, Finnish-born American actor
17 February – Andrzej Żuławski, Polish film director and writer
19 February – Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, essayist, literary critic, philosopher and semiotician
22 February – Douglas Slocombe, English cinematographer
29 February
* Hannes Löhr, German football player and manager
* José Parra Martínez, Spanish football defender

March

5 March – Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Austrian conductor
8 March – George Martin, English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician
10 March – Keith Emerson, English keyboardist and composer
11 March
* Iolanda Balaș, Romanian Olympic high jumper
* Dragan Nikolić, Serbian actor
14 March – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor
18 March
* Lothar Späth, German politician
* Guido Westerwelle, Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany
20 March – Anker Jørgensen, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Denmark
21 March – Andrew Grove, Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, author and science pioneer
24 March
* Roger Cicero, German jazz and pop musician
* Johan Cruyff, Dutch professional football player and coach
31 March
* Georges Cottier, Swiss Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
* Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Vice Chancellor, Foreign Minister and Interior Minister of Germany
* Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-born British architect
* Imre Kertész, Hungarian author

April

3 April – Cesare Maldini, Italian football manager and player
4 April – Chus Lampreave, Spanish actress
12 April – Arnold Wesker, English dramatist
16 April – Louis Pilot, Luxembourgian football player and manager
19 April – Walter Kohn, Austrian-born American theoretical physicist and theoretical chemist
20 April – Guy Hamilton, English film director
24 April – Klaus Siebert, German biathlete
25 April – Martin Gray, Polish writer
27 April – Viktor Gavrikov, Lithuanian-Swiss chess Grandmaster
30 April – Harry Kroto, English Nobel chemist

May

5 May – Siné, French political cartoonist
6 May – Margot Honecker, East German politician
16 May – Giovanni Coppa, Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
19 May
* Alexandre Astruc, French film critic and film director
* Marco Pannella, Italian politician
* Alan Young, English-born Canadian-American actor
21 May
* Sándor Tarics, Hungarian Olympic water polo player
* Nick Menza, German-born American drummer
22 May – Bata Živojinović, Serbian actor and politician
26 May
* Loris Francesco Capovilla, Italian Roman Catholic prelate and cardinal
* Arturo Pomar, Spanish chess grandmaster
28 May
* Giorgio Albertazzi, Italian actor and film director
* David Cañada, Spanish professional road racing cyclist
31 May – Corry Brokken, Dutch singer

June

2 June – Tom Kibble, British theoretical physicist
3 June – Luis Salom, Spanish motorcycle racer
6 June
* Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter
* Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess grandmaster and author
8 June – Pierre Aubert, Swiss politician and lawyer
11 June – Rudi Altig, German professional track and road racing cyclist
18 June – Vittorio Merloni, Italian entrepreneur and industrialist
19 June
* Victor Stănculescu, Romanian general
* Anton Yelchin, Russian-born American actor
20 June – Edgard Pisani, French statesman, philosopher, and writer
25 June – Maurice G. Dantec, French science fiction writer and musician
27 June – Bud Spencer, Italian actor, filmmaker, and professional swimmer
28 June – André Guelfi, French racing driver

July

1 July – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet and art historian
2 July
* Rudolf E. Kálmán, Hungarian-born American electrical engineer, mathematician, and inventor
* Michel Rocard, Prime Minister of France
* Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Holocaust survivor, and Nobel laureate
6 July – Turgay Şeren, Turkish footballer
9 July – Silvano Piovanelli, Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church
12 July
* Goran Hadžić, Serbian politician and alleged war criminal
* Zygmunt Zimowski, Polish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church
13 July – Bernardo Provenzano, member of the Sicilian Mafia
14 July – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer
20 July – Radu Beligan, Romanian actor, director, and essayist
23 July – Thorbjörn Fälldin, Prime Minister of Sweden
25 July – Halil İnalcık, Turkish historian
27 July
* Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer
* Piet de Jong, Prime Minister of the Netherlands

August

1 August – Queen Anne of Romania
2 August – Franciszek Macharski, Polish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
5 August – Alphons Egli, Swiss politician
9 August – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster
13 August
* Kenny Baker, English actor and musician
* Françoise Mallet-Joris, Belgian author
14 August – Hermann Kant, German writer
15 August
* Dalian Atkinson, English footballer
* Stefan Henze, German slalom canoeist
18 August – Ernst Nolte, German historian and philosopher
19 August – Nina Ponomaryova, Russian discus thrower
22 August – Toots Thielemans, Belgian jazz musician
24 August
* Michel Butor, French writer
* Walter Scheel, President of the Federal Republic of Germany
25 August – Sonia Rykiel, French fashion designer and writer
26 August – Harald Grønningen, Norwegian cross country skier
30 August
* Věra Čáslavská, Czech artistic gymnast
* Marc Riboud, French photographer

September

2 September – Daniel Willems, Belgian road bicycle racer
3 September – Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, French mathematician
12 September – Sándor Csoóri, Hungarian poet, essayist, writer and politician
13 September – Jonathan Riley-Smith, English medieval historian
16 September
* Gabriele Amorth, Italian Roman Catholic priest and an exorcist
* Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 10th President and 49th Prime Minister of Italy
17 September – Sigge Parling, Swedish footballer
23 September – Marcel Artelesa, French footballer

October

1 October – David Herd, Scottish footballer
2 October – Neville Marriner, English conductor
4 October – Brigitte Hamann, German-Austrian author and historian
5 October – Michal Kováč, 1st President of Slovakia
8 October – Stylianos Pattakos, Greek military officer
9 October – Andrzej Wajda, Polish film and theatre director
13 October – Dario Fo, Italian actor, Nobel playwright and comedian
14 October – Klim Churyumov, Ukrainian astronomer
16 October – Viktor Zubkov, Russian basketball player
23 October – Pete Burns, English singer-songwriter and television personality
24 October
* Benjamin Creme, Scottish artist, author and esotericist
* Reinhard Häfner, German footballer and coach
29 October – Roland Dyens, French classical guitarist, composer and arranger
31 October – Silvio Gazzaniga, Italian sculptor

November

2 November – Oleg Popov, Russian clown and circus artist
5 November – Marek Svatoš, Slovak professional ice hockey winger
6 November – Zoltán Kocsis, Hungarian virtuoso pianist, conductor and composer
9 November - La Veneno, Spanish transsexual vedette, singer and actress
11 November
* Ilse Aichinger, Austrian writer
* Željko Čajkovski, Croatian football player and coach
13 November – Enzo Maiorca, Italian free diver
16 November – Daniel Prodan, Romanian footballer
20 November
* Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, 5th President of Greece
* William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer
23 November
* Andrew Sachs, German-born British actor
* Rita Barberá, Spanish senator and Mayoress of Valencia
25 November – David Hamilton, English photographer and film director
27 November – Ioannis Grivas, 176th Prime Minister of Greece
28 November – Mark Taimanov, Russian chess Grandmaster and concert pianist

December

4 December – Gotlib, French comic artist
5 December – Geydar Dzhemal, Russian Islamic revolutionist, philosopher, poet, political and social activist
14 December - Bernard Fox, Welsh actor