January

Jan 1: State of California legalises cannabis for recreational use.

Jan 4: Liverpool and Egyptian Forward, Mohamed Salah named African Football Player of the Year.

Jan 9: Bomb blast in Quetta, targeting a police truck, claims 7 lives.

Jan 30: Saudi Arabia begins anti:corruption purge, seizes $100 billion through financial settlements.

February

Feb 6: 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Hualien County, Taiwan, leaving 10 dead and over 50 missing.

Feb 11: Russian airliner crashes south-east of Moscow, killing all 71 on board.

Feb 20: Venezuela becomes the first country to launch a virtual currency, the petro, to counteract their financial crisis.

Feb 26: 7.5 magnitude earthquake in central Papa New Guinea kills at least 100.

March

Mar 3: Senate of Pakistan elections were held.

Mar 6: World’s oldest message in a bottle found in Western Australia, thrown from German ship Paula 132 years ago (12 June 1886).

Mar 8: 5 million Spanish women mark International Women's Day by striking over gender inequality and sexual discrimination.

Mar 10: Two girls aged 8 and 6 become the first female weightlifters to appear on Iranian television after a protest.

Mar 12: Plane crash of US airliner at Kathmandu airport kills at least 49 after plane approaches runway from wrong end.

Mar 14: World Happiness Report names Finland as world's happiest country and Burundi the unhappiest.

April

April 4: Researchers announced the presence of a dozen black holes at the centre of the galaxy.

April 14: Muhammad Inam Butt wins Gold Medal at Commonwealth Games.

April 8 : At least 70 people are reported to have died and hundreds suffering injuries after a chemical attack in Douma, the last rebel-held town in Syria's Eastern Ghouta.

April 25: Suicide bomber attacked officers in Quetta, killing six and injuring another eight.

April 30: 200,000 people in Kenya forced to evacuate their homes after heavy rains led to landslides. At least 100 people have been reported as dead.

May

May 5: NASA announced a new mission on Mars called InSight, that will focus on the interior of the planet.

May 7: Two trains collided in Southern Germany, killing two people and injuring several more.

May 8: 17 people reported to have been died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in this region.

May 11: Indonesia evacuated Java residents and shutdown an airport after a volcano erupted.

Jolt in Jerusalem

May 14: United States opens its new embassy in Jerusalem, infuriating the Palestinians - who also claim the holy city as their capital - and flouting years of international policy. Clashes erupt on the border with Israel and the Palestinian territory of Gaza: after the bloodiest day in the dragging conflict in years, around 60 Palestinians are dead, killed by Israeli gunfire.

May 18: Prince Harry and Meghan officially tied the knot. The ceremony took place at the medieval Windsor Castle.

May 21: A heat wave in Pakistan killed 65 people in the course of three days.

June

June 4: 25 people died after Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupted.

June 4: A new therapy for breast cancer saved a terminal woman. The technology is described as a “living drug” and is still in its experimental phase.

June 12: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 struck Sumatra.

June 19: Heavy rains trigger floods in India and Bangladesh killing dozens of people and displacing more than a million.

June 24: Saudi Arabia lifts ban on women drivers.

Jun 25: General elections in Pakistan held.

July

6 July: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Safdar Awan sentenced for 10, 8 and 1 years respectively on corruption charges.

Thai cave rescue

July 10: 12 young football players and their coach are extracted safely from a flooded cave in northern Thailand where they got trapped 17 days earlier.

The fate of the junior football team had captured world attention, with US and British diving experts joining the rescue effort and former Thai navy diver losing his life.

July 23: 8 people killed after a bomb went off in a Nigerian mosque. Seven other people injured by the blast.

July 25: A suicide bomber detonated a bomb outside a polling station in Quetta. The explosion left at least 31 people dead. There have been minor attacks elsewhere throughout the country as people try to vote.

July 28: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf emerges as the major party after winning 116 seats in the National Assembly.

August

August 2: Apple is now worth more than $1 trillion, it has been announced. Apple is the first American company to reach the milestone.

August 10: Heavy rainfall causes severe floods in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the worst flood to hit the state in a century.

August 12: NASA launched its mission to send a satellite closer to the sun. The Parker Solar Probe is meant to provide answers to the mysteries about the sun.

Imran Khan elected Prime Minister of Pakistan

August 16: Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan elected as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan after lawmakers of the Lower House of the Parliament voted in his favour. Imran Khan secured 176 votes in the elections for the top slot of the country against Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz President, Shehbaz Sharif who managed to clinch 96 votes.

Speaker Asad Qaiser announced the official results, to the thunderous applause of the lawmakers from PTI.

August 18: Imran Khan sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad.

September

September 4: PTI’s Dr. Arif Alvi elected as President of Pakistan.

September 6: The Supreme Court of India decriminalises homosexuality.

September 12: Apple announced the new iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR.

September 20: Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib charged with over 25 corruption charges.

September 23: Porsche announced to stop making diesel cars, and instead focus on environment-friendly models instead.

September 28: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake hits Sulawesi, Indonesia, causing a tsunami that kills at least 2,256 people and injures more than 10,679 others.

October

October 11: Eight children die and three are injured when the wall of a house collapses in the suburban area of Sukkur.

October 25: Facebook fined for $641,651 for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine was administered by UK data protection, and is the maximum amount allowed.

November

November 2: Yemeni children continue to die of starvation and disease as aid workers and trucks were blocked at the border. The UN is predicting that if this continues, 14 million people will be affected by famine in the country.

November 5: Death toll due to the Sicily flood rose to 29. The floods have caused more than $1.14 billion worth of damages.

November 6: US midterm elections see the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives while the Republicans bolster their majority in the Senate.

The new French revolution

November 17: Protests flare across France in opposition to rising fuel taxes and living costs, later swelling into a broad movement against the policies of the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

The "yellow vest" protests, named after the flourescent safety jackets worn by demonstrators, come to a head with rioting and looting in Paris.

After the government backs down on the planned fuel tax, Macron on December 10 outlines other measures to calm the anger, including a boost to the minimum wage.

November 23: Legislation banning gay marriage ruled unconstitutional by Bermuda’s top court. The appeal faces one final vote.

November 25: After 17 months of negotiations, the European Union and Britain agree on an accord covering Britain's exit from the bloc by March 2019.

November 26: NASA's InSight probe successfully lands on the surface of Mars.

November 30: A magnitude 7 earthquake in Alaska surprised residents, and led to a tsunami warning. Various roads and buildings were destroyed.

December

December 3: 64 satellites launched into orbit by SpaceX. This is the company’s 19th mission this year, breaking the previous record of 18.

December 10: British Prime Minister Theresa May postpones a parliament vote on Brexit deal set for the following day, acknowledging it would be rejected.

December 12: Theresa May survives an internal party no-confidence vote on December 12 on Brexit deal.

December 14: A new Facebook bug, that compromised 6.8 million users, discovered.

December 15: More than 90 worshippers were hospitalised, and 11 pronounced dead, after eating food at a religious gathering in Sulivadi village in the Chamarajanagar district of India.