2025: Facts & Events That Happened in This Year

Jan 20

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States of America.

On his first day returning to the Oval Office, Trump signed a series of executive orders to slow immigration, withdraw from the WHO, and exit the Paris Agreement. He also announced sweeping changes to policies on gender equality, energy production, freedom of speech, and even regulations concerning TikTok.

Jan 27

Nvidia stocks fell by $588.8 billion after the release of Chinese AI model DeepSeek.

DeepSeek surprised the world by announcing that they could perform at the level of ChatGPT but at a fraction of the cost, sending US tech stocks plummeting. Nvidia's loss was the largest loss of any stock in a single day in history, over double the previous record loss of $240 billion set by Meta in 2022.

Jan 29

A US Army helicopter crashed into a commercial jet during night training near D.C., killing all 67 on board.

Feb 10

World leaders from over 100 countries gathered in Paris to discuss and promote the responsible development of AI.

During the AI Action Summit, leaders, including France's Emmanuel Macron and India's Narendra Modi, pledged to invest billions and issued a joint declaration on the governance of inclusive AI.

Feb 15

A gold-mine collapse near Kéniéba in Mali killed 42 people and injured several others.

Feb 25

A nationwide blackout in Chile left over 90% of the country without power.

A state of emergency was declared, and the military was deployed nationwide to enforce an overnight curfew while the power grid was restored. At least 8 million homes were affected, along with Chile's copper mines, the largest in the world.

Mar 9

For the first time, a colossal squid was captured on video in its natural habitat.

Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or the colossal squid, can reach at least 1,000 lbs (453 kg) in mass. The particular one caught on camera was young and measured just one foot (30 cm) long.

Mar 14

Canada swore in Mark Carney as its new Prime Minister, ending 9 years of Justin Trudeau’s rule.

Mar 26

Masaki Kashiwara became Japan’s first mathematician to win math’s greatest award.

The prestigious Abel Prize was awarded to Kashiwara for his important contributions to various areas of mathematics, particularly algebraic analysis.

Apr 5

Inventors of the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy were awarded the $3 million Breakthrough Prize.

The medications, which work by mimicking a hormone to stimulate insulin release in the gut, showed potentially revolutionary results in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Apr 7

Asia-Pacific stock markets experienced their largest decline in decades after Trump announced tariffs of up to 46%.

Apr 16

Chess grandmaster Ju Wenjun won her fifth Women’s World Chess Championship title in a row.

The victory also made Ju Wenjun the first Chinese player to win the title five times, which is an even more impressive feat considering all of them were consecutive wins.

May 4

Donald Trump announced that he would impose a 100% tariff on all films “produced in foreign lands” and imported into the U.S.

May 8

Cardinal Robert Provost was elected as the 267th pope, taking on the name Pope Leo XIV.

May 28

An Alpine village in Switzerland was completely wiped off the map by the collapse of a glacier.

The village of Blatten was destroyed, although fortunately, the shift in the glacier was detected on May 20, so Blatten's 300 residents, along with their sheep, cows, and rabbits, were all safe further down the mountain when tragedy struck.

Jun 8

2,000 members of the National Guard were deployed against anti-ICE protestors in Los Angeles, California.

Protests began in LA on June 6 when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a number of locations across the city. By the end of the next day, Donald Trump federalized California's National Guard and ordered them to quell the protests, only adding fuel to the flames.

Jun 12

Air India Flight 171 from Ahmedabad, India, to London crashed 30 seconds after taking off.

Of the 230 passengers and 12 crew members aboard, only one passenger survived the devastating crash. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner struck a medical college's hostel block and exploded, killing another 19 people and injuring over 60 more.

Jun 28

Up to 200,000 people took to Budapest’s streets to participate in a banned Pride march.

The annual Pride march, which had legally taken place in Hungary's capital since 1995, was banned by right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Budapest's mayor, Gergely Karacsony, allowed the event to go ahead by rebranding it as "Budapest Pride Freedom," a technically city-run event supposedly celebrating Hungary's freedom from Soviet rule.

Jul 11

A new Guinness World Record was set in Tijuana, Mexico, for the largest margarita ever, with a volume of 34,419 liters (7,579.7 imperial gallons).

Jul 29

65,000 fans gathered in London to celebrate the Lionesses’ winning the Euro 2025 soccer championship.

With a 2-1 victory over Spain, the Lionesses captured the cup and their second consecutive European title.

Jul 30

Russia’s Klyuchevskoy Volcano erupted on the Kamchatka Peninsula, coinciding with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake.

The earthquake hit off the coast and triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific, prompting evacuations in Japan and Hawaii and alerts in multiple countries, including China, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Aug 11

Fictional girl group HUNTR/X from the Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, with their viral song “Golden.”

This marked the first time an all-female group topped the chart since Destiny's Child in 2001. Much like Gorillaz, HUNTR/X is voiced by real musicians.

Aug 15

The first-ever World Humanoid Robot Games opened in Beijing, China, featuring over 500 androids from 16 countries.

Aug 28

An AI-enhanced immersive version of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz premiered at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Sep 16

The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Jerry Greenfield, resigned after the parent company, Unilever, limited the brand’s activism.

Ben & Jerry's was founded on strong social principles, something Greenfield said Unilever failed to respect. The dispute began when Unilever forced Ben & Jerry's to resume selling its products in Israeli-occupied territories, which the company had halted in 2021. The move was a protest against what the United Nations and several human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have described as war crimes committed by Israel.

Sep 23

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned to late-night television after ABC briefly suspended the show over Kimmel’s comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The suspension drew sharp criticism from viewers, industry groups and free-speech advocates, who said the move amounted to censorship. When the show came back, the episode drew about 6 million viewers, one of the highest audiences in the program's 22-year run outside of specials.

Sep 25

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to 5 years in jail for financing his political campaign with funds from Libya.

Oct 7

The price of gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached $4,000.00 an ounce for the first time.

Oct 12

Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina fled the country after the military sided with Gen Z-led protestors.

Oct 19

Thieves disguised as construction workers stole over $100 million in Napoleonic jewels from the Louvre Museum in a daylight heist.

Within just eight minutes, two thieves used a furniture lift to access an upper-floor window, cut through it, smash their way into display cases, and return to their two accomplices. The four then escaped on mopeds, but not for long; six days later, two of the thieves had already been arrested.

Nov 4

Zohran Mamdani was elected as the 111th mayor of New York City.

Mamdani defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo with 50.4% of the vote, becoming the city's first South Asian and first Muslim mayor. Although the race was close, Mamdani ultimately won with a platform focused on housing, transit, and police reform.

Nov 12

The United States Mint in Philadelphia made the last-ever penny for general use, ending over two centuries of production.

Aside from being worth too little to bother using anymore, pennies also simply became too expensive to produce. By 2025, the cost to make the 1-cent coin had risen to 3.7 cents!

Nov 23

Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi volcano erupted for the first time in recorded history, and no one was injured.

Dec 10

Australia became the first country in the world to ban under-16s from social media.

The controversial ban was brought into place to try to protect teens from mature content across the internet. Many disagreed with the plan, calling it a gross restriction on freedom of expression and a lazy solution. The banned sites and apps included Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and Reddit.

Dec 14

Two gunmen killed 15 people at an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah in Bondi Beach, Australia.

Forty people were injured before the father-and-son terrorist team was apprehended. The attack at Sydney's most popular beach was linked to the terrorist organization the Islamic State. This was the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre that led to the country implementing some of the world's strictest gun laws.

Dec 20

German engineer Michaela Benthaus became the first wheelchair user to travel to space.

She flew aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-37 on a suborbital space tourism flight, reaching an altitude of just over 65 miles (106 kilometers) and experiencing several minutes of weightlessness after crossing the recognized boundary of space.