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Africa. A census of the continent’s elephant population counts them at just over 350,000. In 1979, there were 1.3 million, 10 million in 1973, and 26 million in the 16th century.

Cologne, Germany. During the New Year’s Eve celebrations in the German city, gangs of young men, mostly immigrants from Islamic countries, terrorized many women and girls: there were some rapes, several assaults, and numerous thefts. This type of incident would be repeated in other European

Second black hole merger event, detected by LIGO in the United States and Virgo in Italy.

Syria. Samir Kuntar, the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel, is killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. In 1979, Kuntar, along with three other members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), infiltrated Israel by sea from Lebanon. The commando attacked a family home in Nahariya

11% of the world’s population is malnourished, compared to 28% in 1970.

Mecca. During a sandstorm, a giant crane falls on the Great Mosque, partially collapsing its ceiling. 107 people die and 238 are injured.

The EU and Greece agree on €86 billion in aid provided that Greece implements much-needed reforms, implemented in a forced phase within a few days.

Greece. The referendum on a possible agreement with the European Union sees a 61% no vote.

ISIS claims responsibility for several attacks against Western tourists (38 dead and 36 wounded) on two beaches in Sousse, Tunisia, against an American businessman (beheaded) in France, against African Union soldiers in Leego, Somalia (over 50 Burundian soldiers killed), and against worshippers gathered in the

Libya. A US airstrike was carried out using drones. The target is Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran jihadist best known for the massive kidnapping at In Amenas, an Algerian gasification plant where 39 people were killed in 2013. The outcome of the raid is unclear.

Syria. Kurdish militias capture the strategic town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Philae probe of the European spacecraft Rosetta temporarily wakes up, managing to send us the last data packets via the mother probe Rosetta in orbit around the comet.

The American FBI has several senior officials of the world soccer organization FIFA arrested in Switzerland. Even Blatter himself, the only member of the board initially unaffected by the investigation, will be forced to resign a few days after his umpteenth re-election.

Anbar, Iraq. An Iraqi airstrike kills Abu Samra, the director of ISIS propaganda videos. Also killed is the American ISIS “documentary filmmaker” Abu Osama al-Amriky.

Syria. ISIS conquers the historic city of Palmyra. The capital, Damascus, is located 230 km to the southeast.

Iraq. ISIS conquers the city of Ramadi, Anbar province. The capital, Baghdad, is located 120 kilometers to the east.

Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria. An American helicopter raid leads to the killing of Abu Sayyaf, ISIS’s oil minister, after a firefight. The nighttime raid was aimed at kidnapping Abu Sayyaf. His wife, Umm Sayyaf, is captured, and Abu Sayyaf’s computer equipment is seized. The operation

Yemen. Nasser bi-Ali’ al-Ansi, an al-Qaeda member and alleged organizer of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, which he himself claimed, is killed in a US drone strike. The news became public on May 8.

Tikrit, Iraq. Iraqi troops and some Shiite militias, with American air support, captured the city, previously occupied by ISIS. The Americans agreed to participate in the air operations on the condition that the Iraqi regular army would lead the ground forces. Muqtada al-Sadr’s Shiite militias

Yemen. Planes from a coalition of Sunni Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia begin bombing Houthi positions (pro-Iranian Shiites). The coalition includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, and Sudan.

Krapina, Croatia. Archaeologists Davorka Radovčić, Ankica Oros Sršen, Jakov Radovčić, and David W. Frayer find evidence of Neanderthals wearing bracelets and necklaces 130,000 years ago. This is well before modern Homo sapiens did so, and tens of thousands of years before modern Homo sapiens reached

Japanese giant Hitachi is acquiring the Italian companies Ansaldo Breda and Ansaldo STS, leaders in the rail transport sector, for €1.9 billion. This is Hitachi’s largest foreign acquisition and the largest Japanese investment in Italy.

Italy and Switzerland sign an agreement to end banking secrecy. A few days later, a similar agreement is signed with Liechtenstein.

Debaltsevo, Ukraine. Despite the Minsk II agreements, signed and broken for the second time, heavy artillery bombardment continues. Eight thousand Ukrainian regular soldiers, cornered in the Debaltsevo pocket by Russian forces (Novorussians), leave their positions and abandon the important railway hub of Debaltsevo.

Libya. Egyptian airstrikes on Islamic State positions in response to the beheading of Coptic Christians.

Libya. IS militants released a video documenting the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians kidnapped over New Year’s Eve.

Ukraine. The Minsk ceasefire between Putin, Hollande, and Merkel goes into effect, but is quickly violated by rebels who encircle 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the Debaltsevo pocket.

The Dawn probe has taken its first close-up photos of the dwarf planet Ceres. This is a joint effort between the US, Italy, and Germany.

Kobane, Syria. ISIS forces are forced to withdraw from the Kurdish city of Kobane due to pressure from Kurdish ground forces and allied bombings. The city is reduced to a ghost of its former self.

ISIS beheads second Japanese hostage, Kenji Goto, 47, a prominent journalist.

Sergio Mattarella is the new Italian president following the resignation of Giorgio Napolitano. Mattarella was the candidate proposed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. He was elected on the fourth ballot, with a majority nearly two-thirds above the expected two-thirds for the first three.

Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria. A 10-year-old girl is stopped at the market entrance because the metal detector went off. The guards barely have time to search her before the explosives inside her body are detonated. Twenty people are dead and many more injured, 18 of them

The number of hate crime incidents in the United States is 2,000 against blacks, 800 against Jews, 800 against whites, 200 against Asians, and 300 against Muslims (the latter is the only rising rate). In 1996, the figures were 3,500 against blacks, 1,000 against Jews,

Life expectancy for African Americans in the United States rises to 76 years (78 for Caucasians). For African Americans, it was 33 years in 1900 (50 for Caucasians). In 2015, African Americans who reach age 65 have a longer life expectancy than Caucasians at the

Infant mortality and maternal mortality have halved compared to 1990 levels in middle-, lower-middle-, and low-income countries.

Following Western sanctions for the invasion of Crimea, but above all the sudden drop in oil prices, the ruble collapsed vertically, losing half its value.

The price of oil has fallen to $50 a barrel, its lowest in several years. The reasons are likely also due to the enormous quantities of oil and gas extracted using fracking techniques in the United States.

US President Barack Obama opens a new chapter in relations with Cuba, lifting sanctions and the embargo against the neighboring Caribbean country. The breakthrough was made possible by the initiative and mediation of Pope Francis and the cooperation and openness of Raúl Castro. Obama proclaims

Yemen. Military intervention with American drones and Yemeni ground support for the release of two Western hostages threatened with execution in the coming hours. The two hostages are fatally wounded by Islamic terrorists. They are American journalist Luke Somers and South African Pierre Korkie, who

Pakistan. In an airstrike in South Waziristan, “pilot” Adnan al-Shukrijumah is killed. An al-Qaeda technical expert and operative, he was accused of several attacks and suspected of planning a future attack on the New York subway.

Yemen. Military intervention to free American journalist Luke Somers on the Saudi border. The operation is successful, and eight Saudi, Yemeni, and Ethiopian hostages are freed, but the American hostage is missing. He will be killed by his captors during a second military intervention to

Ottawa, Canada. Michael Zihaf-Bibeau, the son of a Libyan father and a Canadian mother, who converted to Islam several years ago, attacks the Canadian Parliament with a gun. He kills soldier Nathan Cirillo, a guard. The swift and cold-blooded intervention of guard Kevin Vickers kills

Northern Iraq. French Rafale fighter-bombers carry out their first bombing raids on IS targets.

Northern Iraq. The Iraqi army and Shiite militias, supported by American bombings, lift the siege of the city of Amerli and liberate the Turkmen population threatened by Sunni jihadists.

Two satellites from Europe’s Galileo constellation were mistakenly launched into highly elliptical orbits. The problem, acknowledged by Arianespace and for which it apologized to the EU, appears to have occurred after the FREGAT-MT upper stage separated from the Soyuz R-7 rocket.

According to NATO, the first Russian armored vehicles and soldiers without insignia have crossed the Ukrainian border.

Cambodia. Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two, and Khieu Samphan, president of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia’s former name under the Khmer Rouge), were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Port of Gioia Tauro. A good use of chemistry (one of many): to dissolve chemical weapons (residues that, in this case, are then incinerated in Great Britain and Germany). The storage of 280 containers full of Syrian chemical weapons begins aboard the US naval vessel

In his speech proclaiming the caliphate, al-Baghdadi indicated the objective of conquering Rome.

The kidnapping and killing of three young Israelis provoked a violent Israeli military reaction, with bombings of Hamas targets and the subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip, which in turn caused hundreds of Palestinian casualties, and rocket fire into Israel by Hamas, some of which

European Elections. In almost all of Europe, anti-European and populist parties are winning successes and sometimes even majorities (as in France and the United Kingdom). The exception is Italy, where Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party wins 40.7%, and Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement stops at half

While Putin flies to Sochi for the Olympics closing ceremony, the Defense Minister begins mobilizing the army in an anti-Ukrainian guise. Paratroopers from the elite 76th Pskov Division are sent to support the special forces already stationed in Sevastopol, Crimea, and 150,000 soldiers are transferred

Ukraine. Parliament removes President Yanukovych, who is then stopped at the airport while attempting to flee to Russia. His sumptuous residence (featuring a personal zoo, a collection of vintage cars, a lake with a galleon, and personalized gold bars) is overrun by crowds of onlookers.

The European spacecraft Rosetta awakens from a slumber lasting several years. Everything is going according to plan, and the probe can continue its journey toward comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe awakens from a 31-month deep sleep. Immediately afterward, the spacecraft’s star trackers,

Fifteen percent of the world’s population over 15 years of age is illiterate. The figure was 44% in 1980.

Central African Republic. France, supported by a UN resolution, begins deploying 1,200 troops, adding to the 6,000 permanent troops in the country, to counter the increase in violence in recent months, following the civil war between Islamic and Christian militias. The Muslim Seleka gangs kill

Vodaphone is selling its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless in the United States to Verizon Communications for $130 billion.

United States. Oil production in the United States reaches and exceeds 7.57 million barrels per day, thus surpassing the previous peak dating back to December 1989. All of this is made possible thanks to shale gas technologies.

India. A submarine accident in port kills all 18 sailors on board. India had just launched its first aircraft carrier (a decommissioned former Russian aircraft carrier) and its first nuclear-powered submarine built with Indian technology.

Egypt. The army opened fire on pro-Morsi (Muslim Brotherhood) protesters in a Cairo square. Approximately six hundred people died.

Luca Parmitano’s “Volare” mission lasted five months aboard the ISS space station.

Gorham Cave, Gibraltar. Archaeologist Clyve Finlayson, an expert on Neanderthal sites, finds an incredible double mark (a sort of X with other marks that make it look like a hashtag #) in the rock at one of these sites. He calls another expert, Francesco d’Errico,

Pakistan. An American drone strike kills the Taliban’s second-in-command, Wali ur Rehman, along with five other extremists, in the Miranshah area of North Waziristan. Rehman had organized the suicide attack on the CIA’s Chapman base in Khost on December 30, 2009. Seven American agents were

London. Ingrid Loyau-Kenneth, 48, a mother of two, steps off the bus and sees the two Muslim youths who hung, maced, and beheaded the British soldier. She speaks with one of them for several minutes, as evidenced by a video taken by other passersby (who

Syria. The Israeli Air Force conducted a raid with at least 15 aircraft, striking Iranian weapons depots northwest of Damascus destined for Lebanese Hezbollah. The civil war in Syria has raged for nearly three years, resulting in 80,000 deaths so far.

Modena. A tornado and a strong hailstorm, with hailstones as large as fists, caused damage and injuries in the provinces of Modena and Mantua.

Ernico Letta, 47, forms a government with the support of the Democratic Party, People of Freedom (PD), and Civic Choice. It is one of the youngest and most female-led governments in the history of the Republic.

Boston. The perpetrators of the terrorist attack have been identified: two brothers of Chechen origin who have been living in the United States for several years. The younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is an American citizen and studies at a prestigious university where he is

NASA’s Kepler satellite team has announced the discovery of five planets around the star Kepler-62. These aren’t just any planets, like the hundreds and hundreds of others already discovered by Kepler (a new one is discovered practically every week—there’s even a free iPhone app that

Boston. At the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two homemade bombs exploded within seconds of each other, killing three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and injuring more than a hundred. Several people had their legs amputated.

Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” as she was dubbed by the Soviets, has died. She was 87. She was the first and, to date, only woman to hold the office of Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, leading the Conservatives to three election victories and

Apple wins a landmark lawsuit against Samsung in San Diego, requiring the latter to pay $1.05 billion for infringing three Apple patents.

Global Financial Crisis. Greece suffers a controlled technical default with a bond swap and debt conversion, thus managing to overcome the debt crisis. Athens thus manages to halve its private debt from €206 billion to €100 billion, compared to a total debt of €368 billion.

Worldwide, the percentage of children between the ages of 5 and 14 working full-time in poor conditions is 10%. It was 28% in 1950.

Northwest Nigeria. Italian engineer Bruno Lamolinara and British engineer Christopher McManus, hostages of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, are killed during an intervention by British forces and the Nigerian army.

The American probe Dawn enters orbit around the asteroid Vesta. It will remain there for over a year for a detailed observation campaign, before departing for the asteroid Ceres, arriving a few months before New Horizons lands at Pluto, making Dawn the first probe to

Sana’a, Yemen: Street protests are bloodily repressed, leaving dozens dead.

Manama, Bahrain: Shiite street protests against the Sunni monarchy leave 200 injured and three dead, including a policeman. The Shiites are supported by Iran, and the Sunnis by Saudi Arabia.

Libya: Gaddafi’s militias besiege Benghazi and Misrata; the latter is conquered and lost several times. Benghazi airport is bombed several times after two rebel jets sink a pair of government naval vessels.

San Francisco, California. iPad 2 is unveiled by Apple’s Steve Jobs.