2019

Events

January

• January 1
• * Romania takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Austrian presidency.
• * New Horizons makes a close approach to the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth at 05:33 UTC.
• * Jair Bolsonaro begins his four-year term as President of Brazil.
• * Qatar withdraws from OPEC.
• * Works published by authors who died in 1948 enter the public domain in many countries. In the U.S., all works published in 1923 enter the public domain, the first entry of published works into the public domain since 1998.
• January 2 – Adventist Health System rebranded its facilities to the trade name AdventHealth.
• January 3 – Chinese probe Chang'e 4 becomes the first artificial object to land on the far side of the Moon.
• January 5 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople issues a formal decree granting independence to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church.
• January 6 – Muhammad V of Kelantan abdicates the federal throne as the 15th monarch of Malaysia, the first Malaysian monarch to do so.
• January 7 – A faction of the Armed Forces of Gabon attempts a coup d'état.
• January 10 – Venezuela enters a presidential crisis as Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly declare incumbent President Nicolás Maduro "illegitimate".
• January 14 – Paweł Adamowicz, mayor of Gdańsk, died after he was stabbed shortly after his speech on 27. finale of WOŚP.
• January 23 – Venezuelan presidential crisis: Thousands of people protest in favor of disputed interim President Juan Guaidó. Several people are killed, and President Maduro severs U.S. diplomatic ties.
• January 25 – A mine tailings dam breaks in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil. At least 248 people are killed, with 22 missing.
• January 28 – The U.S. Justice Department charges Chinese tech firm Huawei with multiple counts of fraud, raising U.S.–China tensions.

  February

• February 1 – U.S. President Donald Trump confirms that the U.S. will leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, citing Russian non-compliance. The next day, Russia follows suit with suspension of its obligations to the treaty.
• February 3
• * Pope Francis arrives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, becoming the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula.
• * 2019 Salvadoran presidential election: Nayib Bukele is elected president.
• February 6 – The Freedom House declares that Hungary is no longer a free country, making it the first country in the EU to be labelled "partly free". It also states that Serbia is no longer free as well.
• February 7 – 2019 Haitian protests: Anti-government protests demanding the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse begin in several cities across the country.
• February 12 – The Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia, officially ending a decades-old dispute with Greece and paving the way for the former's integration into NATO and the EU.
• February 21 – SpaceIL launches the Beresheet probe, the world's first privately financed mission to the Moon.
• February 23
• * Venezuelan presidential crisis: President Maduro severs diplomatic ties with Colombia amid attempts to send humanitarian aid to the country across the border.
• * 2019 Nigerian general election: Incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari is reelected and the All Progressives Congress party wins 63 out of 109 seats in the Senate of Nigeria and 202 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives.
• February 24
• * 2019 Cuban constitutional referendum: The new constitution was approved by 90.61% of valid votes.
• * The 2019 Moldovan parliamentary election is held to elect all 101 members of the Parliament of Moldova.
• * 2019 Senegalese presidential election: Incumbent president Macky Sall is reelected.
• February 26–27 – The Indian Air Force launches airstrikes on purported militant camps in Balakot, Pakistan. It precedes a series of events that lead to the 2019 India–Pakistan standoff.
• February 27–28 – The 2019 North Korea–United States summit is held in Hanoi, Vietnam. It is the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

  March

• March 3
• * An uncrewed demonstration flight of the new crew capable version of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, intended to carry American astronauts into space, achieves successful autonomous docking with the International Space Station.
• * The 2019 Estonian parliamentary election is held to elect all 101 members of the Riigikogu.
• March 5 – A second case of sustained remission from HIV is reported, ten years after the Berlin Patient.
• March 6 – Venezuelan presidential crisis: Venezuela expels German ambassador Daniel Kriener for his alleged meddling in internal affairs.
• March 10 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, crashes shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. All Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are subsequently grounded worldwide.
• March 15
• * Cyclone Idai makes landfall on Mozambique, causing at least 1,073 fatalities, as well as mass flooding and power outages in southern Africa.
• * 51 people are killed and 50 others injured in terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is the deadliest mass shooting and terrorist attack in New Zealand's history.
• March 19 – Nursultan Nazarbayev resigns as President of Kazakhstan after 29 years in office and appoints Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as acting president. Astana is renamed Nur-Sultan the following day in his honor.
• March 20 – Europe's antitrust regulators fine Google €1.49 billion for freezing out rivals in the online advertising business, bringing the total cost of EU fines against Google at nearly €8.76 billion.
• March 23 – The final territory of the Islamic State, located in Al-Baghuz Fawqani, Syria, is liberated.
• March 24 – The first phase of Jakarta's MRT system opened with its first line.
• March 26 – The European Parliament votes by 348 to 278 in favour of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which expands legal liability for websites and includes the controversial Article 13.
• March 31 – Taiwan scrambles its fighter aircraft after two Chinese jets crossed the maritime border between the two nations. Just the day before, Japan had similarly scrambled its jets after Chinese jets flew between Miyako and Okinawa.

  April

• April 2 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns as President of Algeria amid widespread protests, after nearly two decades in office.
• April 4 – Second Libyan Civil War: The Libyan National Army launches a surprise offensive in western Libya, moving units towards the Government of National Accord-held capital Tripoli and capturing Gharyan.
• April 6 – 2019 Maldivian parliamentary election: The Maldivian Democratic Party wins 65 out of the 85 seats in the People's Majlis.

• April 10
• * Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.
• * Fossil fragments found in the Callao Cave in the Philippines reveal the existence of a new species of human, the Homo luzonensis. The species is named after Luzon, where the fossils were discovered.
• April 11
• * WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is arrested after seven years in Ecuador's embassy in London.
• * Amid mass protests, Omar al-Bashir is deposed as President of Sudan in a coup d'état, after nearly 30 years in office.
• April 15 – During Holy Week, a major fire engulfs Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, resulting in the roof and main spire collapsing.
• April 16 – The Howse Peak avalanche kills three noted mountaineers: Austrians Hansjörg Auer and David Lama, and Canadian Jess Roskelley.
• April 18 – NepaliSat-1 is launched. It is Nepal's first ever research satellite to be sent into space.
• April 21
• * A series of Islamist bomb attacks occur at eight locations in Sri Lanka, including three churches, four hotels and one housing complex in Colombo, on Easter Sunday, leaving 259 people dead and over 500 injured. It is the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009.
• * 2019 Ukrainian presidential election: Volodymyr Zelenskyy is elected the President of Ukraine in a landslide victory in the second round of voting. He took office on May 20, 2019.
• April 25 – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Russia to hold a series of summits with Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin.
• April 28 – Victor Vescovo achieves the deepest dive of any human in history, as he reaches Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,928 m.
• April 29 – Elusive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in undated footage released by the group, his first appearance on video since 2014.
• April 30
• * Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicates from his throne, the first abdication by a Japanese monarch in almost two centuries. The abdication ends the Heisei era of Japan and ushers in the Reiwa era with new emperor Naruhito ascending the throne on May 1.
• * Venezuelan presidential crisis: Venezuelan opposition leader and disputed interim President Juan Guaidó leads an attempted uprising against President Nicolás Maduro.