2018

Events

January

• January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
• January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of South Sudan.
• January 12–13 – The first round of voting in the 2018 Czech presidential election is held.
• January 13 — At 8:08 AM HST, an inbound missile alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert System over television, radio, and cellular networks in the U.S. state of Hawaii. 38 minutes later, the alert was confirmed as false by state officials, and blamed a miscommunicated drill at the HI-EMA.
• January 20 – Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announces the beginning of a military offensive to capture a portion of northern Syria from Kurdish forces, amidst the ongoing Kurdish–Turkish conflict.
• January 20–22 – The US government enters a federal government shutdown as a result of a dispute over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
• January 24 – Scientists in China report in the journal Cell the creation of the first monkey clones using somatic cell nuclear transfer, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.
• January 26–27 – The second round of voting of the 2018 Czech presidential election is held and incumbent president Miloš Zeman is reelected.
• January 28
• * 2018 Finnish presidential election: Incumbent president Sauli Niinistö is reelected on the first round of voting.
• * The first round of voting of the 2018 Cypriot presidential election is held.
• January 31 – A total lunar eclipse takes place, the 49th eclipse of Lunar Saros 124. This was referred to by the media as a 'super blue blood moon' as it was close to a supermoon, with perigee being on January 30, and a blue moon eclipse, the first since 1982.

  February

• February 4
• * The second round of voting of the 2018 Cypriot presidential election is held and incumbent president Nicos Anastasiades is reelected.
• * 2018 Costa Rican general election: The first round of voting of the presidential election and legislative election are held.
• February 6 – SpaceX successfully conducts its maiden flight of its most powerful rocket to date, the Falcon Heavy, from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
• February 9–25 – The 2018 Winter Olympics are held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
• February 10 – Kay Goldsworthy becomes the first female archbishop in the Anglican Communion on her installation in the Anglican Diocese of Perth, Western Australia.
• February 11 – 2018 Monegasque general election: The Priorité Monaco party, led by Stéphane Valeri, won 21 out of the 24 seats in the National Council.
• February 14
• * Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa after nine years in power.
• * A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 17 injuries.
• February 18 – Kizlyar church shooting: a man carrying a knife and a double-barreled shotgun opens fire on a crowd at an Orthodox church in Kizlyar, Dagestan, killing five women and injuring several other people; the perpetrator is shot and killed by police.

  March

• March 4
• * Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, are poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England. UK counter-terrorism police investigate amid speculation the Kremlin was behind the incident.
• * The 2018 Salvadoran legislative election is held to elect all 84 members of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador.
• * The 2018 Italian general election is held to elect all 315 members of the Senate of the Republic and all 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies.
• March 6 – 2018 Russian Air Force Antonov An-26 crash: An Antonov An-26 transport aircraft operated by the Russian Air Force crashes on approach to Khmeimim air base in Syria, killing all 39 people on board. All of them were servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces, including Major-General Vladimir Yeremeyev.
• March 9–18 – The 2018 Winter Paralympics are held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
• March 9
• *President of the United States Donald Trump accepts an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a meeting in May to discuss the denuclearisation of North Korea.
• * Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, a UAE princess, escaped Dubai with a group of other people. She was arrested by Indian and UAE authorities, a few kilometers off the coast of India. She was then taken back to the UAE.
• March 11
• * China's government approves a constitutional change that removes term limits for its leaders, granting Xi Jinping the status of "President for Life". Xi is also the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.
• * The 2018 Colombian parliamentary election is held to elect all 102 members of the Senate of Colombia and all 165 members of the House of Representatives of Colombia.
• March 12 – Flight BS211 crashes and bursts into flames at Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal, killing 51 of the 71 people aboard. The 20 surviving passengers were seriously injured from the impact and the fire.
• March 13 – The 2018 Grenadian general election is held to elect all 15 members of the House of Representatives of Grenada, the lower chamber of the Parliament of Grenada and the New National Party won all 15 seats for the second consecutive time.
• March 14 – In response to gun violence in the United States, and particularly triggered by the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, thousands of high school students across the country participate in an organized protest they called the National School Walkout.
• March 18 – In the Russian presidential election, Vladimir Putin is elected for a fourth term.
• March 19 – The world's last male northern white rhinoceros dies in Kenya, making the subspecies functionally extinct.
• March 21 – The 2018 Antiguan general election is held to elect all 17 members of the House of Representatives of Antigua and Barbuda, the lower chamber of the Parliament of Antigua and Barbuda and the governing Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party win 15 out of 17 seats.
• March 23 – An Islamic terrorist attack in Carcassonne and Trèbes, France, kills five people, including the perpetrator.
• March 24 – In over 900 cities internationally, people participate in demonstrations against gun violence and mass shootings, calling for stronger gun control in the "March for Our Lives".
• March 25
• * Qantas launches direct non-stop Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights between Perth Airport and Heathrow Airport, making it the first commercially non-stop service between Australia and the United Kingdom.
• * 2018 Kemerovo fire: At least 60 people are killed and 79 others injured in a fire at the Winter Cherry shopping mall and entertainment complex in Kemerovo, Russia.
• March 26 – More than 100 Russian diplomats are expelled by more than 20 countries in the wake of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
• March 28
• * North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un meets Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping, leaving the country for the first time since assuming office in 2011.
• * At least 78 people die in a fire in the police headquarters of Valencia, Venezuela.

  April

• April 1 – 2018 Costa Rican general election: The second round of voting for the presidential election is held and Citizens' Action Party candidate Carlos Alvarado Quesada is elected president.
• April 4–15 – The 2018 Commonwealth Games are held in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
• April 5 – Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid a slaughterhouse in Tennessee, detaining nearly 100 undocumented Hispanic workers in one of the largest immigration raids in the history of the U.S., prompting protests and federal lawsuits.
• April 6 – A semi-truck collides with a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos ice hockey junior team in Saskatchewan, Canada, killing 16 and injuring 13 people.
• April 7 – 2018 Münster attack: In a suicide attack, a man drives a van into people seated outside restaurants in a pedestrianised square in the old part of the German city of Münster, resulting in 5 other deaths.
• April 8
• *Syrian Civil War: At least 70 people are reported to have died and hundreds suffering injuries after a chlorine chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.
• *The 2018 Hungarian parliamentary election is held to elect all 199 members of the National Assembly of Hungary and the Fidesz–KDNP Party Alliance won 133 out of 199 seats.
• April 11 – 257 people are killed after an Ilyushin Il-76 belonging to the Algerian Air Force crashes near Algiers.
• April 14 – Syrian Civil War: The United States, the United Kingdom and France order the bombing of Syrian military bases in response to the sarin attack allegedly by the Bashar al-Assad regime on civilians in Ghouta.
• April 15 – The 2018 Montenegrin presidential election is held and the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro candidate, former prime minister and former president Milo Đukanović is elected on the first round of voting.
• April 18
• * In Nicaragua, protests begin against announced reforms of Social Security which would decrease retirement pension benefits. An estimated number of 34 protesters are killed by police.
• * Cinemas open in Saudi Arabia for the first time since 1983 with the American film Black Panther chosen as the first to be screened.
• * NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is launched.
• April 19
• * Miguel Díaz-Canel is sworn in as President of Cuba, replacing Raúl Castro, but Castro remains the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most powerful position in Cuba.
• * Swaziland changes its English name, officially becoming the Kingdom of Eswatini.
• April 20 – The 2018 Bhutanese National Council election is held to elect 20 out of 25 members of the National Council of Bhutan, the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Bhutan.
• April 21 – Nabi Tajima, the last known person born in the 19th century dies.
• April 22 – The 2018 Paraguayan general election is held to elect the president of Paraguay, all 45 members of the Chamber of Senators of Paraguay and all 80 members of the Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay. Colorado Party candidate Mario Abdo Benítez is elected president, the Colorado Party wins 17 out of 45 seats in the Chamber of Senators and 42 out of 80 members in the Chamber of Deputies.
• April 23 – A vehicle-ramming attack kills 10 people and injures 16 others in Toronto, Canada. A 25-year-old suspect, Alek Minassian, is arrested.
• April 27 – Kim Jong Un crosses into South Korea to meet with President Moon Jae-in, becoming the first North Korean leader to cross the Demilitarized Zone since its creation in 1953.