Lloyd Jones, AAP World Bureau Chief
(Australian Associated Press)
A TIMELINE OF INTERNATIONAL EVENTS THAT GRABBED OUR ATTENTION AND SHAPED THE WORLD IN 2018:
Jan 3 – US President Donald Trump boasts on Twitter that his nuclear button is “much bigger and more powerful” than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s.
Feb 14 – Jacob Zuma resigns as president of South Africa.
Feb 14 – Nikolaus Cruz, 19, opens fire at a Florida high school, killing 17 people.
March 4 – Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are found on a bench in Salisbury, England, poisoned with a nerve agent.
March 22 – Trump sets in motion tariffs on as much as $US60 billion in Chinese imports to the US, prompting a threat of retaliation from China.
March 25 – A fire at a Siberian shopping mall kills 64 people.
March 26 – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologises after media outlets reveal the social networking giant leaked the data of millions of people, which may have been misused for political ads during the 2016 US presidential election.
April 4 – The US commemorates the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King.
April 11 – A military plane carrying soldiers and their families crashes in Algeria, killing 257 people.
April 26 – Comedian Bill Cosby is convicted of aggravated indecent assault and faces the rest of his life behind bars.
May 8 – Trump pulls the US out of an international nuclear deal with Iran.
May 14 – In Gaza nearly 60 Palestinians are killed by Israeli fire during a mass border protest.
May 18 – A passenger jet crashes after take-off from Havana, killing 110 people.
May 18 – A 17-year-old student opens fire at his Texas high school, killing 10 people before surrendering to police.
May 19 – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are married at Windsor Castle with the telecast watched by millions around the world.
May 24 – Australian grandmother Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto is sentenced to death in Malaysia on drug smuggling charges.
June 12 – Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un meet for a summit in Singapore to discuss denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.
July 2 – Twelve boys and their football coach missing for 10 days in a flooded cave in Thailand are found alive by divers.
July 16 – Trump meets Vladimir Putin for a summit in Helsinki, prompting outrage by appearing to side with the Russian leader over allegations the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 US election.
July 23 – A wildfire near Athens kills scores of people and injures many more.
August 5 – A 6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia’s island of Lombok, killing hundreds of people.
September 15 – Super typhoon Mangkhut pummels the Philippines, causing dozens of deaths and widespread destruction.
September 20 – A ferry sinks in Lake Victoria in Tanzania, killing more than 227 people.
September 21 – Australian filmmaker James Ricketson receives a royal pardon in Cambodia after being sentenced to six years in jail for spying.
September 28 – A 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, triggering a tsunami and leading to the deaths of more than 2000 people.
October 6 – Turkish officials say Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
October 6 – Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in as a US Supreme Court justice after the Senate narrowly confirms him.
October 10 – Hurricane Michael slams into Florida, causing deaths across four states.
October 17 – A student sets off explosive devices at a college in the Crimea then shoots fellow pupils before killing himself, leaving 19 dead and dozens injured.
October 20 – Trump announces the US will pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed with Russia in 1987.
October 26 – Cesar Sayoc, suspected of mailing pipe bombs to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Trump critics, is arrested in Florida on federal charges.
October 27 – A gunman murders 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the US.
October 29 – A jet operated by Indonesian budget airline Lion Air crashes in the Java Sea, killing all 189 people aboard.
November 4 – New Caledonia votes against independence from France.
November 6 – Democrats win control of the US House of Representatives in a blow to Trump but Republicans hold the Senate.
November 7 – A gunman opens fire in a Californian bar popular with college students, killing 12.
November 8 – Dozens of people are killed and hundreds go missing after the deadliest wildfire in Californian history rips through the town of Paradise.
November 11 – A day of tributes to the millions of soldiers killed during World War I is headed by an Armistice commemoration ceremony in Paris attended by dozens of world leaders.
November 20 – Trump vows to remain a “steadfast partner” of Saudi Arabia despite saying Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have known about the plan to murder journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
November 20 – Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence is released from an Indonesian prison and flies home to Australia.
November 25 – EU leaders agree to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
November 26 – Russia seizes three Ukrainian naval ships off Crimea after opening fire and wounding sailors, risking a dangerous new crisis between the two countries.
November 27 – We learn that Bitcoin’s price has slumped 80 per cent in a year, with many questioning whether cryptocurrencies have a future.
December 2 – China and the US agree to halt additional tariffs as both nations engage in new trade negotiations with the goal of reaching an agreement within 90 days.
December 3 – Paris experiences its worst rioting since 1968, with hundreds of “yellow vest” protesters demonstrating against the high cost of living.
December 9 – The world’s oldest-known wild bird – Wisdom the Laysan albatross – lays yet another egg at 68 on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean.
December 10 – UK Prime Minister Theresa May postpones a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, knowing it won’t pass. But the European Union signals it won’t renegotiate, increasing the risk of a chaotic “no-deal” Brexit.
