2016 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal government

• President: Barack Obama
• Vice President: Joe Biden
• Chief Justice: John Roberts
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Paul Ryan
• Senate Majority Leader: Mitch McConnell
• Congress: 114th

  State governments

Governors

Lieutenant governors

Events

January

• January 1The following laws go into effect:
• * Hawaii becomes the first state to raise the legal smoking age to 21.
• * Texas allows the open carry of guns in public places.
• * Tennessee launches the nation's first statewide registry of animal abusers.
• * Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Maryland, ban the storage of food in Styrofoam containers.
• January 2–26The 3 Percenters and several other armed militia organizations take over the headquarters of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, in a series of incidents stemming from the 2014 Bundy standoff. The Federal Bureau of Investigation ends the occupation with a shootout, killing one militiaman and arresting five others, including leader Ammon Bundy.
• January 5President Obama introduces executive orders to expand the enforcement of federal gun laws.
• January 6 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens becomes the highest-grossing film in North America, beating previous record-holder Avatar lifetime gross of $760 million in just 20 days of release.
• January 8The Obama administration announces an alliance with tech companies—including Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter—to block the recruitment of Americans to Islamic extremist groups, specifically the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, via social media.
• January 9For the first time in its history, the national Powerball lottery prize surpasses $1 billion.
• January 1073rd Golden Globe Awards: The Revenant wins the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Leonardo DiCaprio winning the award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Alejandro G. Iñárritu winning Best Director. The Martian wins the award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Matt Damon wins Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Brie Larson wins Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Room, and Jennifer Lawrence wins Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Joy. Mr. Robot wins Best Television Series – Drama; Mozart in the Jungle wins Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy; and Wolf Hall wins Best Miniseries or Television Film.
• January 12President Obama gives his final State of the Union Address to the 114th United States Congress.
• January 14The nominees for the 88th Academy Awards are announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California. The nominees for Best Picture are The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, and Spotlight. The nominees are criticized for their lack of diversity, resulting in boycotts by celebrities like Will Smith and Spike Lee, an official motion by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to increase diversity in its membership. Chris Rock decides to stay on as Awards host and address the issue during the ceremony.
• January 15Myloh Jaqory Mason, a fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, is arrested in Thornton, Colorado, after being added to the list on December 17, 2015, for two bank robberies and two attempted murders.
• January 16
• * President Obama announces a federal state of emergency in Flint, Michigan, allowing additional support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security in response to the ongoing contamination of tap water in the city.
• * The United States lifts several economic sanctions against Iran in accordance with a multinational agreement made in July 2014 concerning Iran's nuclear program. Sanctions concerning Iran's human rights abuses, missile activity, and support for terrorism remain in effect.
• January 21–24A crippling winter storm hits the central and eastern United States, producing several feet of snow and ice and killing 55 people.
• January 25A Texas grand jury finds no wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood after a series of undercover videos made by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion organization, purported to show Planned Parenthood employees selling fetal tissue and organs. The grand jury indicts CMP founder David Daleiden and another videographer.
• January 30During a brawl between rival motorcycle clubs, gunfire and stabbings kill one person and injure seven at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado.

  February

• February 1
• * The February 2016 North American storm complex causes power outages for more than 70,000 people in Southern California.
• * The Iowa caucuses are held, beginning the Democratic and Republican nomination processes for the 2016 presidential election. Senator Ted Cruz wins the Republican caucuses, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic caucuses. After poor showings in Iowa, Democratic candidate Martin O'Malley and Republican candidate Mike Huckabee suspend their campaigns.
• February 3Senator Rand Paul and former Senator Rick Santorum suspend their presidential candidacies.
• * Barack Obama becomes the first U.S. president to visit a U.S. mosque in Baltimore, Maryland.
• February 4Six people are found dead, five from stab wounds and one from gunshot wounds, at a house in Chicago.
• February 7
• * Super Bowl 50 is played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The Denver Broncos defeat the Carolina Panthers by a score of 24–10.
• February 9The New Hampshire primaries are held. Donald Trump wins the Republican primary, and Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic primary.
• February 10New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina suspend their campaigns for the Republican nomination.
• February 12Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore suspends his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
• February 13Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dies at the age of 79.
• February 14The 2016 North American cold wave causes record low temperatures in New England.
• February 1558th Annual Grammy Awards: "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson, featuring Bruno Mars, wins the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Taylor Swift wins Album of the Year for 1989, Meghan Trainor wins Best New Artist, and Song of the Year is awarded to "Thinking Out Loud", by Ed Sheeran and Amy Wadge.
• February 18106-year old civil rights activist, Virginia McLaurin, visits Barack Obama at the White House, becoming the oldest known-person and first centenarian to the visit the White House.
• February 20A man kills six people and injures two in Kalamazoo, Michigan, before being apprehended by the police.
• February 21Denny Hamlin wins the Daytona 500 in the closest finish in the race's 58-year history, beating Martin Truex Jr. by 11 thousandths of a second.
• February 25A disgruntled former employee opens fire in an office building in Hesston, Kansas, killing three people and injuring fourteen others.
• February 27Three people are stabbed at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim, California, and several people are arrested.
• February 2888th Academy Awards: The ceremony, hosted by Chris Rock, is held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Tom McCarthy's Spotlight wins the Academy Award for Best Picture. Leonardo DiCaprio wins Best Actor for his performance in The Revenant, his first acting Oscar in five nominations. Brie Larson wins Best Actress for her performance in Room, her first acting Oscar and first nomination. Alejandro G. Iñárritu wins his second Best Director award for The Revenant, becoming the first director to win back-to-back Oscars since Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1949 and 1950. George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road wins six awards, the most for the evening. The telecast garners over 34.4 million viewers.
• February 29H2, History's secondary network, becomes Viceland, a lifestyle channel aimed at millennials which will include programming about music, cooking, sports, technology and hard-hitting documentaries. The change comes after A&E Networks purchased a 10% stake in Vice Media, Inc. in August 2014.

  March

• March 1Super Tuesday: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each win seven states on the Democratic and Republican sides, respectively. In the Democratic primaries, Clinton takes Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia; Bernie Sanders takes Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Vermont. In the Republican primaries, Trump wins Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia; Ted Cruz wins Alaska, Oklahoma, and Texas; and Senator Marco Rubio wins Minnesota.
• March 3 – 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney condemns GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in a speech at the University of Utah.
• March 4
• * Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson suspends his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
• * Walt Disney Animation Studios' 55th feature film, Zootopia, is released in theatres to acclaim as the studio's most critically well-received film since 1994's The Lion King. It is, at that point, Disney's second-most commercially successful animated film behind 2013's Frozen and the second to cross the billion-dollar mark.
• March 9
• * Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is arrested on suspicion of killing five men in a shooting spree.
• * The death toll in the country's largest outbreak of Elizabethkingia meningoseptica rises to 18 in Wisconsin, with 44 more infected.
• * Six people are killed and three others injured in a mass shooting at a house in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania.
• March 11At least four people are injured and five are arrested in Chicago when protesters demonstrating against Donald Trump scuffle with Trump supporters at a canceled Trump rally.
• March 14Abu Omar al-Shishani, a commander for the Islamic State, dies after being wounded in a U.S. airstrike near Al-Shaddadah, Syria, on March 4.
• March 15Marco Rubio suspends his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination after losing the primary in his home state, Florida.
• March 16President Obama nominates Merrick Garland to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
• March 21President Obama lands in Cuba for a meeting with Cuban President Raúl Castro, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928.
• March 25Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, directed by Zack Snyder, is released as the second film in the DC Extended Universe and a follow-up to 2013's Man of Steel. An extended cut, dubbed the "Ultimate Edition", is later released digitally on June 28.
• March 28
• * The Department of Justice announces that it has unlocked the iPhone of a suspect in the 2015 San Bernardino attack without the help of Apple, after a heated public debate over the department's handling of encryption software in counter-terrorism efforts.
• * The United States Capitol is placed under lockdown after a man opens fire near the Capitol Visitor Center. The suspect is shot by police and taken into custody.
• March 31–April 1The 2016 Nuclear Security Summit is held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., with 58 participants in attendance. It is the fourth edition of the conference, following the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit.