2016

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century – 21st century – 22nd century
Decades:	1980s  1990s  2000s  – 2010s –  2020s  2030s  2040s
Years:	2013 2014 2015 – 2016 – 2017 2018 2019

2016 by topic:

Arts

Architecture – Comics – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) – Music (Country, Metal, UK) – Radio – Television – Video gaming

Politics

Elections – Int'l leaders – State leaders – Sovereign states

Science and technology

Archaeology – Aviation – Birding/Ornithology – Meteorology – Palaeontology – Rail transport – Spaceflight

Sports

Association football (soccer) – Athletics (Track and Field) – Australian Football League – Baseball – Basketball – Boxing – Cricket – Golf – Horse racing – Ice Hockey – Motorsport – Road cycling (men, women) – Rugby league – Tennis

By place

Afghanistan – Algeria – Antarctica – Argentina – Armenia – Australia – Austria - Azerbaijan – Bangladesh - Belgium - Brazil – Canada – Chile – China – Costa Rica – Croatia –Cuba – Denmark – El Salvador – Egypt – Estonia – Ethiopia – European Union – Finland – France – Georgia – Germany – Ghana – Greece – Hungary – Iceland – India – Indonesia – Iraq – Iran – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Japan – Kenya – Latvia – Lithuania – Luxembourg – Malaysia – Mexico – Moldova – Netherlands – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Palestinian territories – Philippines – Poland – Romania – Russia – Rwanda – Serbia – Singapore – South Africa – South Korea – Spain – Sri Lanka – Sweden – Turkey – United Arab Emirates – United Kingdom – United States - Vietnam

Other topics

Awards – Law – Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works – Introductions Works entering the public domain

2016 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	2016 MMXVI
Ab urbe condita	2769
Armenian calendar	1465 ԹՎ ՌՆԿԵ
Assyrian calendar	6766
Bahá'í calendar	172–173
Bengali calendar	1423
Berber calendar	2966
British Regnal year	64 Eliz. 2 – 65 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2560
Burmese calendar	1378
Byzantine calendar	7524–7525
Chinese calendar	乙未年 (Wood Goat) 4712 or 4652     — to — 丙申年 (Fire Monkey) 4713 or 4653
Coptic calendar	1732–1733
Discordian calendar	3182
Ethiopian calendar	2008–2009
Hebrew calendar	5776–5777
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2072–2073
- Shaka Samvat	1938–1939
- Kali Yuga	5117–5118
Holocene calendar	12016
Igbo calendar	1016–1017
Iranian calendar	1394–1395
Islamic calendar	1437–1438
Japanese calendar	Heisei 28 (平成２８年)
Juche calendar	105
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4349
Minguo calendar	ROC 105 民國105年
Thai solar calendar	2559
Unix time	1451606400–1483228799

2016 (MMXVI) is the current year, and is a leap year starting on Friday (dominical letter CB) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2016th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 16th year of the 3rd millennium, the 16th year of the 21st century, and the 7th year of the 2010s decade.

2016 has been designated as:

• International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.^[1]
• International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by The International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH).^[2]

Events

January

• January 3 – Following the fallout caused by the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.^[3]
• January 8 – Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world's most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison.^[4]
• January 16 – The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has adequately dismantled its nuclear weapons program, allowing the United Nations to lift sanctions immediately.^[5]
• January 28 – The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.^[6]

February

• February 7 – North Korea launches a long-range rocket into space, violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.^[7]
• February 12 – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.^[8]

March

• March 13 – A car bomb explodes in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 32.^[9]
• March 14 – The ESA and Roscosmos launch the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to Mars.^[10]
• March 21 – The International Criminal Court finds former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the first time the ICC convicted someone of sexual violence.^[11]
• March 22 – Three coordinated bombings in Brussels, Belgium kill at least 32 and injure at least 250. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attacks.
• March 24 – Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War.^[12]
• March 27 – A suicide blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore claims over 70 lives and leaves almost 300 others injured. The target of the bombing are Christians celebrating Easter.^[13][14]

April

• April 2 – Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani military in Nagorno-Karabakh kill at least 193 people, which becomes the heaviest breach of the 1994 ceasefire.^[15]
• April 3 – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung publishes a set of 11.5 million confidential documents from the Panamanian corporate Mossack Fonseca that provides detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors including noted personalities and heads of state.^[16]

Predicted and scheduled events

June

• June 1 – Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel, is scheduled to be opened.^[17]

July

• July 4 – NASA's Juno spacecraft is expected to arrive at Jupiter.^[18]

August

• August 5–21 – The 2016 Summer Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[19]

September

• September 3 – NASA plans to launch the OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve a sample from the asteroid Bennu.
• China plans to complete the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope.^[20]

November

• November 1 – Sierra Nevada Corporation plans to launch Dream Chaser, a privately built spaceplane on an unmanned debut mission.^[21]

December

• December 31 – The last remaining American, British and Australian troops will withdraw from Afghanistan.

Date unknown

• The right of the United States Armed Forces to use Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands as a military base will end, but there will be a provision for an automatic 20-year extension of their lease.^[22]
• Orbital Technologies, a Russian private spaceflight company, plans to launch a space hotel for wealthy tourists in 2016.^[23]
• The Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church is planned to take place in Istanbul.^[24][25]

Births

• March 2 – Prince Oscar, Duke of Skåne
• April 19 – Prince Alexander, Duke of Södermanland

Deaths

January

Vilmos Zsigmond

David Bowie

Alan Rickman

• January 1 – Vilmos Zsigmond, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1930)
• January 2
  • Michel Delpech, French singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1946)
  • Sheikh Nimr, Saudi Arabian Shia religious leader (b. 1959)
• January 3
  • Paul Bley, Canadian pianist (b. 1932)
  • Peter Naur, Danish computer scientist (b. 1928)
• January 4 – Michel Galabru, French actor (b. 1922)
• January 5 – Pierre Boulez, French composer, conductor and writer (b. 1925)
• January 6 – Silvana Pampanini, Italian actress (b. 1925)
• January 7
  • Princess Ashraf of Iran (b. 1919)
  • André Courrèges, French fashion designer (b. 1923)
• January 8 – Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian racing driver (b. 1926)
• January 10 – David Bowie, English singer, songwriter and actor (b. 1947)
• January 14
  • René Angélil, Canadian singer and manager (b. 1942)
  • Alan Rickman, English actor and director (b. 1946)
• January 18
  • Glenn Frey, American musician (b. 1948)
  • Michel Tournier, French writer (b. 1924)
• January 19 – Ettore Scola, Italian screenwriter and film director (b. 1931)
• January 23 – Jimmy Bain, American musician (b. 1947)
• January 24 – Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist (b. 1927)
• January 26
  • Black, British singer-songwriter (b. 1962)
  • Abe Vigoda, American actor (b. 1921)
• January 28 – Paul Kantner, American singer and musician (b. 1941)
• January 29
  • Jean-Marie Doré, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (b. 1938)
  • Jacques Rivette, French film director and critic (b. 1928)
• January 30
  • Frank Finlay, British actor (b. 1926)
  • Francisco Flores Pérez, President of El Salvador (b. 1959)
• January 31 – Terry Wogan, Irish-British broadcaster (b. 1938)

February

Edgar Mitchell

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Harper Lee

• February 1 – Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores, President of Guatemala (b. 1930)
• February 3
  • Joe Alaskey, American voice actor (b. 1952)
  • Maurice White, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
• February 4 – Edgar Mitchell, American astronaut (b. 1930)
• February 9 – Sushil Koirala, 37th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1939)
• February 13
  • Trifon Ivanov, Bulgarian footballer (b. 1965)
  • Slobodan Santrač, Serbian football player and manager (b. 1946)
  • Antonin Scalia, American Supreme Court Justice (b. 1936)
• February 15 – George Gaynes, Finnish-born American actor (b. 1917)
• February 16 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat, Secretary-General of the UN (b. 1922)
• February 17
  • Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Egyptian journalist (b. 1923)
  • Andrzej Żuławski, Polish film director and writer (b. 1940)
• February 19
  • Umberto Eco, Italian writer and philosopher (b. 1932)
  • Harper Lee, American writer (b. 1926)
• February 22 – Douglas Slocombe, British cinematographer (b. 1913)
• February 23 – Donald E. Williams, American astronaut (b. 1942)
• February 25 – Tony Burton, American actor (b. 1937)
• February 28 – George Kennedy, American actor (b. 1925)
• February 29
  • Hannes Löhr, German footballer (b. 1942)
  • José Parra Martínez, Spanish footballer (b. 1925)

March

Nancy Reagan

Keith Emerson

Anker Jørgensen

Garry Shandling

Imre Kertész

• March 5
  • Hassan Al-Turabi, Sudanese spiritual leader (b. 1932)
  • Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Austrian conductor (b. 1929)
  • Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer (b. 1941)
• March 6 – Nancy Reagan, American actress, First Lady of the United States (b. 1921)
• March 8 – George Martin, English record producer, composer, arranger and engineer (b. 1926)
• March 9 – Naná Vasconcelos, Brazilian jazz percussionist and vocalist (b. 1944)
• March 10
  • Anita Brookner, British novelist (b. 1928)
  • Keith Emerson, British musician (b. 1944)
  • Roberto Perfumo, Argentine footballer and sport commentator (b. 1942)
• March 11
  • Iolanda Balaș, Romanian athlete (b. 1936)
  • Dragan Nikolić, Serbian actor (b. 1943)
• March 12 – Lloyd Shapley, American Nobel mathematician (b. 1923)
• March 13 – Hilary Putnam, American philosopher, mathematician and computer scientist (b. 1926)
• March 14 – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor (b. 1934)
• March 17
  • Meir Dagan, Israeli general and former Director of Mossad (b. 1945)
  • Larry Drake, American actor (b. 1949)
• March 18
  • Lothar Späth, German politician (b. 1937)
  • Guido Westerwelle, German politician (b. 1961)
• March 20 – Anker Jørgensen, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1922)
• March 21 – Andrew Grove, Hungarian-American electronic executive (b. 1936)
• March 22 – Rob Ford, Canadian politician (b. 1969)
• March 23 – Ken Howard, American actor (b. 1944)
• March 24
  • Roger Cicero, German jazz and pop musician (b. 1970)
  • Johan Cruyff, Dutch professional footballer and manager (b. 1947)
  • Garry Shandling, American actor and comedian (b. 1949)
• March 26 – Raúl Cárdenas, Mexican footballer and coach (b. 1928)
• March 29 – Patty Duke, American actress (b. 1946)
• March 31
  • Georges Cottier, Swiss cardinal (b. 1922)
  • Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician (b. 1927)
  • Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-British architect (b. 1950)
  • Imre Kertész, Hungarian Nobel author (b. 1929)

April

Patricio Aylwin

Prince

Banharn Silpa-archa

• April 2 – Gato Barbieri, Argentine jazz saxophonist (b. 1932)
• April 3
  • Amber Rayne, American pornographic actress (b. 1984)
  • Cesare Maldini, Italian football player and manager (b. 1932)
  • Kōji Wada, Japanese rock singer (b. 1974)
• April 4 – Chus Lampreave, Spanish actress (b. 1930)
• April 6 – Merle Haggard, American country singer (b. 1937)
• April 12
  • Balls Mahoney, American professional wrestler (b. 1972)
  • Arnold Wesker, British playwright (b. 1932)
• April 16 – Louis Pilot, Luxembourgian football player and manager (b. 1940)
• April 17 – Doris Roberts, American actress (b. 1925)
• April 19
  • Patricio Aylwin, 32nd President of Chile (b. 1918)
  • Ronit Elkabetz, Israeli actress and film director (b. 1964)
  • Walter Kohn, Austrian-born American Nobel physicist (b. 1923)
• April 20 – Chyna, American professional wrestler (b. 1969)
• April 21
  • Guy Hamilton, British film director (b. 1922)
  • Prince, American singer-songwriter (b. 1958)
• April 23 – Banharn Silpa-archa, 21st Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1932)
• April 24
  • Billy Paul, American singer (b. 1934)
  • Klaus Siebert, German Olympic biathlete (b. 1955)
  • Papa Wemba, Congolese singer (b. 1949)
• April 25 – Martin Gray, Polish writer (b. 1922)
• April 26 – Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (b. 1937)
• April 27 – Viktor Gavrikov, Lithuanian-Swiss chess Grandmaster (b. 1957)
• April 30 – Harry Kroto, English Nobel chemist (b. 1939)

May

• May 1 – Solomon W. Golomb, American mathematician (b. 1932)
• May 2 – Afeni Shakur, American music businesswoman (b. 1947)
• May 4
  • Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, 2nd President of Burundi (b. 1946)
  • Bob Bennett, American politician (b. 1933)
• May 5 – Siné, French political cartoonist (b. 1928)

See also

• List of international years

References

1. "United Nations Observances: International Years". United Nations. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
2. "2016 to be the International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU)". Retrieved 7 Jan 2016.
3. "Agence France-Presse on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
4. "'El Chapo': Sean Penn interviewed Guzman before recapture". BBC News. 10 Jan 2016. Retrieved 10 Jan 2016.
5. "Iran nuclear deal: 'New chapter' for Tehran as sanctions end". BBC. 17 Jan 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
6. "'Zika virus spreading explosively'". CNN. 28 Jan 2016. Retrieved 28 Jan 2016.
7. "North Korea fires long-range rocket despite warnings". BBC. 7 February 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
8. "Unity call as Pope Francis holds historic talks with Russian Orthodox Patriarch". BBC. 2016-02-13. Archived from the original on 2016-02-12. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
9. "Turkey explosion: Ankara car bomb kills at least 32". BBC. March 13, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
10. "ESA - Robotic Exploration of Mars: ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)". Retrieved February 25, 2015.
11. Bowcott, Owen; correspondent, Legal affairs (2016-03-21). "Congo politician guilty in first ICC trial to focus on rape as a war crime". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
12. "Radovan Karadzic jailed for Bosnia war Srebrenica genocide". BBC. March 24, 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
13. "Pakistan explosion leaves many dead at Lahore park". BBC News Online. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
14. "72 killed, over 300 injured in Lahore suicide blast". The News. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
15. "Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Situation Report No. 1 (as of 03 Apr 2016)". ReliefWeb. 3 April 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
16. Vasilyeva, Natalya; Anderson, Mae (April 3, 2016). "News Group Claims Huge Trove of Data on Offshore Accounts". The New York Times. Associated Press. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
17. "Die Schweizer haben den Längsten". Die Welt (in German). 2015-12-31. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
18. "Juno Mission to Jupiter" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
19. "Rio 2016 Olympic Games". Retrieved February 25, 2015.
20. "The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) Project". Retrieved February 25, 2015.
21. "Private Dream Chaser Space Plane to Launch 1st Orbital Flight in 2016".
22. "Chagossians in Seychelles seek to meet UK contracted experts on resettlement study". August 5, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
23. "'Space hotel' plan unveiled in Russia". BBC. September 30, 2010. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
24. Afanasieva, Dasha; Heneghan, Tom (March 10, 2014). "Orthodox Churches Will Hold First Ecumenical Council In 1,200 Years In Istanbul". The Huffington Post.
25. "Communiqué of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches, At the Phanar, March 9, 2014".