Judy Skatssoon, AAP World Editor
(Australian Associated Press)
A timeline of international events that grabbed our attention, shook our foundations and shaped the world in 2017:
Jan 20 – Donald Trump is inaugurated as 45th US president
Feb 12 – North Korea conducts its first known test of a new mid-range ballistic missile Pukguksong-2
Feb 15 – Kim Jong-un’s half brother Kim Jong-nam is assassinated at an airport in Kuala Lumpur when two women attack him with the VX nerve agent
March 22 – Khalid Masood drives a car over Westminster Bridge in London and kills three pedestrians before stabbing a police officer to death and being shot dead by police
March 29 – UK triggers Article 50 to formally begin Brexit
April 4 – Gas attack kills scores of people in Idlib, Syria
April 7 – US orders a barrage of missile strikes against an airfield in Syria to punish the Assad regime for the Idlib attack
April 12 – Australian woman Cassie Sainsbury is arrested with almost 6kg of cocaine in her luggage at Colombia’s El Dorado airport
May 8 – Emmanuel Macron wins the French presidential election, defeating populist Marine Le Pen
May 10 – Donald Trump fires FBI director James Comey, as Comey steps up investigation into Trump-Russia probe
May 14 – North Korea premiers a newly developed intermediate range missile, Hwasong-12
May 19 – Sweden’s top prosecutor says she is dropping an investigation into rape claims against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
May 22 – Suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonates a bomb at Manchester Arena as fans are leaving an Ariana Grande concert, killing himself and 22 others
June 2 – President Donald Trump announces he is pulling the US out of the Paris Climate accord
June 3 – Eight people, including Australians Sara Zelanak and Kirsty Boden, are killed in a terror attack on London Bridge and Borough Markets
June 8 – Theresa May’s conservatives fail to win a majority in a shock result in the snap British election, forcing her to broker a deal with Northern Ireland’s DUP
June 15 – Fire rips through Grenfell Tower in West London, killing 71 people
July 4 – North Korea conducts its first flight test of an ICBM, the Hwasong-14
July 12 – Scientists confirm that a one trillion tonne iceberg measuring 5800 square km has calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica, one of the biggest icebergs on record to break away from the continent
July 15 – Australian woman Justine Damond is fatally shot by a US police officer outside her home in Minneapolis after making an emergency call
July 21 – Donald Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer resigns, following the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci
July 28 – North Korea conducts its second test of the Hwasong-14 ICBM
July 31 – Anthony Scaramucci is ousted by new chief of staff John Kelly after 10 days on the job
Aug 1 – A calf born in Texas makes global headlines for it’s uncanny resemblance to KISS frontman Gene Simmons
Aug 8 -Trump threatens North Korea with ‘fire and fury” if it threatens the US, North Korea responds by saying it will attack Guam
Aug 12 – A woman is killed and 19 people are injured when a car ploughs into a crowd at a White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virgina. Trump condemns violence “on many sides” and later says there were some “very fine” people on both sides
Aug 18 – A van ploughs into crowds in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district in a terror attack, killing seven-year-old NSW boy Julian Cadman and injuring four other Australians including his mother
Aug 25 – Myanmar’s military launches a sweeping military offensive in response to coordinated attacks on the security forces by Rohingya muslim insurgents in the north of Rakhine State
Sept 3 – North Korea tests a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile, its most powerful nuclear test to date
Sept 15 – North Korea fires another Hwasong-12 missile over Japan into the Pacific, marking it the country’s longest missile flight
Sept 4 – Kensington Palace announces a third royal baby is on the way for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
September 15 – A home-made bomb explodes on a packed rush-hour commuter train in London injuring 30 people
Sept 15 – Cassini spacecraft plunges into Saturn’s atmosphere and burns up after 20 year mission
Sept 19 – Earthquake in Mexico City kills 370
Sept 19 -Trump delivers maiden speech to UN General Assembly taunting Kim Jong Un as “rocket man” and threatening to “totally destroy North Korea”. Kim retorts by calling Trump a mentally deranged dotard
Sept 24 – Angela Merkel wins a fourth term as German Chancellor
Oct 1 – Gunman Stephen Paddock kills 58 people in worst mass killing in modern US history when he opens fire on concertgoers in Las Vegas
Oct 5 – The New York Times publishes a story chronicling decades of sexual harassment by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein
Oct 17 – US-backed militias in Syria declare victory over Islamic State in its capital Raqqa
Oct 19 – Winston Peters announces he’ll form a coalition government with Labour, handing Jacinda Ardern the prime ministership of New Zealand.
Oct 23 – Philippines declares end to fighting in Marawi
Oct 27 – Catalan parliament declares independence from Spain
Oct 31 – Sayfullo Saipov ploughs a rented ute into a New York bicycle path killing eight people
Nov 13 – Earthquake near Iraq-Iran border kills 530 people
Nov 27 – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their engagement, ending months of feverish speculation
Nov 29 – North Korea launches its Hwasong 15, an ICBM capable of reaching the US mainland
Dec 6 – IOC bans Russia from Winter Olympics
Dec 7 – Trump announces US will recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel
