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There are 205 nations in the world that participate in the Olympics. There were 14 in 1896.

Worldwide, 2,550,000 scientific articles are published annually. In 2000, they were half that number. And in 1665, they were only 119.

The death penalty is permitted in 89 out of 195 nations worldwide. There were 193 in 1900.

Worldwide, the percentage of land protected as national parks, nature reserves, or nature reserves is 14.7%. It was 0.03% in 1900.

Worldwide, the percentage of children who die before their fifth birthday is 4%. It was 44% in 1800, and 40% in 1900.

Solar panels cost $0.60/watt-hour. They cost $66/watt-hour in 1976.

Worldwide, only 6,000 tons of oil are lost at sea. In 1980, the figure was 636,000 tons per year.

Kirkuk, Iraq. ISIS, under attack in Mosul, counterattacks with commandos in Kirkuk, in Kurdish territory. Eighty people die. The Peshmerga intervene, and fighting continues for several hours. North of the city, three suicide bombers attack a power plant, killing 13 workers, including four Iranians, and

The European Mars probe Gas Trace Orbiter, equipped with Italian instruments to study methane emissions, successfully enters Martian orbit and releases the European Schiaparelli probe, with 34% Italian technological contribution, which attempts to land on Mars. The atmospheric entry is successful, as are the heat

The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding $14 billion from Deutsche Bank for toxic derivatives traded between 2005 and 2007. In a similar case, Goldman Sachs has settled for $5.1 billion. JP Morgan and Citigroup have also already paid significant sums.

NASA’s Osiris-REx probe is launched toward the asteroid Bennu. Osiris stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, and Osiris is also a deity associated with life, fertility, death, and resurrection. Bennu is a bird, symbolizing birth and resurrection. The probe is from

Brazil. The Senate, with a vote of 61 in favor and 20 against, finalized the removal of the former Brazilian president after the impeachment proceedings began: Michel Temer is the new president of Brazil. Rousseff has been in trouble since at least 2014, when her

North of Aleppo, Syria. Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman for the caliphate (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), and the organization’s number two, is killed in an airstrike. He had a $5 million reward on his head. The Russians and the Americans, both operating in the area with Su-34s

Charleroi, Belgium. A machete-wielding attacker, shouting “Allahu Akhbar!”, wounds two policewomen, one of them Muslim. She, wounded in the face, manages to shoot him dead.

Rouen, Normandy. Priest Jacques Hamel, 85, was slaughtered while celebrating Mass in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray during a kidnapping carried out by two Islamic extremists in his parish. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. One of the attackers was under surveillance and wearing an electronic

Afghanistan. Islamic State (aka IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) leader Hafiz Saeed Khan is killed by a US drone strike in Nangharhar province, during a joint operation with Afghan forces.

Kabul. Eighty people were killed and more than 200 were injured in an attack claimed by ISIS and carried out by a suicide bomber during a large demonstration in Kabul. A violent explosion rocked the city in broad daylight in the streets of the Dehmazang

Munich. An 18-year-old German-Iranian shoots at a McDonald’s and then at a shopping mall. He kills nine people and then commits suicide.

Nice. A large truck, traveling at about 80 km/h for several hundred meters, plowed into a crowd leaving the July 14th fireworks display at 10:30 PM on Thursday evening along the famous Promenade des Anglais, the seafront promenade. During the zigzag course to hit as

The American Juno probe enters orbit around Jupiter. A problem will then be encountered that will prevent it from circularizing its orbit, but most of its scientific objectives will still be achieved, including stunning unedited photographs of the king of the planets’ poles.

Baghdad, Iraq. A car bomb claimed by ISIS overnight killed 200 people and injured 250. The attack occurred shortly after midnight during the holy month of Ramadan, when people are in the markets. Many of the people inside the mall were burned or suffocated by

Elon Musk’s Tesla announces that each of its new vehicles will be equipped with all the necessary hardware for autonomous driving.

Orlando, Florida. 2:00 a.m. Omar Mateen, an American with an Afghan father, carries out a massacre with an automatic rifle in a gay nightclub, killing 49 and wounding 53. At 5:00 a.m., SWAT special forces enter in a vehicle, crashing through a wall. A brief

Brazil. The Senate votes to impeach President Dilma Rousseff for 180 days. The impeachment request is based on several factors, including Dilma’s manipulation of public finances to hide a deficit in the state budget and thus secure re-election in 2014. Besides the recession, the other

Sadiq Khan officially became London’s first Muslim mayor, winning the election with 56.8% of the vote. His victory marked the return of Labour to the capital after eight years. The son of Pakistani immigrants and a human rights lawyer, Khan, 45, a Labour member, won

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin (Amazon) completes its third suborbital flight with the same reusable rocket, launches the capsule that reenters by parachute, and the New Shepard rocket re-enters, landing vertically in West Texas on its intended landing pad. Jeff Bezos is wearing his cowboy boots

Palmyra, Syria. Government troops, supported by Russian air forces, retake the city of Palmyra and the Roman ruins, which they had seized from retreating ISIS.

Iskanderiyah, Iraq. ISIS claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion last night in the small Iraqi town of Iskanderiyah, near the capital Baghdad. The blast killed 41 people during a soccer match, 16 of them between the ages of 10 and 16.

Brussels. Suicide bombing by four ISIS members, some of whom were involved in the previous Paris attacks. Thirty-one people die and 210 are injured. The attacks take place on the subway and at the airport.

Colombia. Peace agreement between the Marxist FARC forces and the Colombian government, after decades of guerrilla warfare.

Ankara. A suicide car bomb explodes again at a bus station, not far from the site of the February 17 attack. Twenty-seven people are killed and 75 are injured.

Ben Guerdane, Tunisia, on the Libyan border. A group of jihadists from Libya clashed with Tunisian border forces. Twenty-eight jihadists, five Tunisian soldiers, and five civilians were killed, while six wounded jihadists were captured. The fighting began at 4:00 a.m. and continued for hours.

Sabrata, Libya. Two Italian hostages have been freed from jihadist groups. They will be returned to Italy within two days. Until two days earlier, they were with their two colleagues who died shortly afterward in the intervention of government militias.

Sabratha, Libya. Salvatore Failla and Fausto Piano, employees of Bonatti, Parma, which works on ENI’s facilities in Libya, are killed in an attack by government militias.

Libya. The first post-Gaddafi national unity government seeks a vote of confidence.

Ankara. A powerful explosion in the center of the Turkish capital, caused by a car bomb that exploded as a convoy of buses carrying Turkish soldiers passed by. Twenty-nine people were killed and 60 injured.

Sabratha, Libya. The USAF strikes a farm used by ISIS as a training center, killing dozens. Noureddine Chouchane, a terrorist considered the mastermind behind numerous attacks in Tunisia, and two Serbian hostages are also killed.

Ouagadougou, Brunei Faso. At least 27 people were killed and 33 injured, approximately 150 hostages of 18 different nationalities were freed after a lengthy firefight, and four terrorists were killed. A group of armed men stormed the Splendid Hotel and the “Le Cappuccino” café-restaurant, frequented

New York. David Bowie dies.

There are more telephone subscriptions in the world than there are people on the planet.

A modern SUV or pickup truck from the early 2000s consumes 99% less fuel than a typical 1970s small car, in terms of emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. In practice, a modern car driven at full speed consumes less fuel

North Korea tested its fourth nuclear device at Sungjibaegam, Punggye-ri, in North Hamgyong Province, in the northeastern part of the country. The government claims the test was a “miniaturized H-bomb.” There are doubts that it was a hydrogen bomb, however, and the explosion is thought

University of North Carolina. The molecular “killer” that destroys movement neurons in many patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) has been unmasked: it is an extremely unstable and reactive protein aggregate that “poisons” the central nervous system, leading to paralysis. The study, published in the

Syria. Just east of Damascus. Zahar Alloush, leader of the anti-Assad and anti-ISIS movement Jaysh al-Islam, is killed in a Russian airstrike. The rebel group immediately appoints a successor: Essam al-Buwaydhani, aka Abu Hamman.

The Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator is powered up for the first time in Germany. Initially, it will run on helium. It is a prototype nuclear fusion reactor with a design that is innovative compared to the traditional tokamak. The project has a budget of 1.06 billion

Worldwide, 90% of girls attend primary school. It was 65% in 1970.

Worldwide, 88% of people have running, drinkable water at home. This figure was 58% in 1980.

In the world, 6,210,002 songs are released on the market every year. Ten years ago, there were only a tenth of them.

Venezuela. The right-wing party wins two-thirds of the parliamentary seat in the elections, defeating Chávez’s party, which has been in power for 16 years. The country faces 200% inflation and a crumbling economy, partly due to oil prices at $40 a barrel, the lowest in

Regional elections in France: Marine Le Pen’s far-right populist Front National is the largest party in France.

In 2015, statistics show that 56% of American teenagers talk on the phone while driving. 2,715 of them died in 2015, and 221,313 were injured in car accidents, half of which involved a single vehicle. By contrast, in 2015, self-driving cars (without drinking, distractions, and

Akatsuki, the Japanese mission to Venus, was launched in 2010. At the crucial moment of entering Venusian orbit, it went into safe mode, and missed the opportunity. But the Japanese team did not lose heart: they developed a rescue plan and on December 7, 2015,

San Bernardino, California. Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook enter a center for the disabled, where the man worked, and armed with automatic weapons, carry out a massacre: 14 deaths. The two then flee and are killed by police a few hours later. ISIS claims

The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is born: an organization founded and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, with a 99% investment of the couple’s lifetime wealth from their Facebook shares. It will invest $3 billion to prevent, cure, or manage any

Turkey’s southern border with Syria. A Turkish F-16 fighter jet shoots down a Russian Sukhoi-24 strategic bomber. According to the Turks, the plane had repeatedly crossed the border and had received ten warnings in the previous five minutes. The two pilots parachuted out, one killed

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origins launches and recovers the New Shepard rocket. The rocket reaches 100 kilometers in the air, releases the capsule, and then re-enters and lands vertically in a controlled manner.

Bamako, Mali. A group of 13 terrorists, believed to be led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, entered the Radisson Hotel, a popular Western destination, shouting “Allahu Akhbar.” They blocked the exits, held more than 100 people hostage, released those who could recite verses from the Quran, and

Syria. The Russian Air Force is intensifying its operations against ISIS after intelligence agencies confirmed the ISIS origins of the in-flight explosion of a Russian plane. They are carrying out 127 strikes on 206 targets, with flights from bases near Latakia in Syria, but also

Saint Denis, a suburb of Paris. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, mastermind of the Paris attacks, is killed during a raid by French special forces. His cousin Hasna blows herself up with the explosive belt she was wearing.

Sinjar, northwestern Iraq, on the border with Syria. The city, previously held by ISIS, is captured by the Kurdish Peshmerga, supported by American airstrikes. The fighting lasts for 48 hours.

The IAAF, the governing body of global athletics, has suspended Russia after being found guilty of tampering with thousands of its athletes’ test tubes in past competitions. In a report by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), a repentant inspector from RUSADA (the state anti-doping agency, which

At the Atlas computing center of the Max Planck Institute in Hannover, shortly before 12:00 p.m., Italian physicist Marco Drago (a young postdoc), responsible for studying some of the data arriving from the two large LIGO antennas in the United States, designed to detect gravitational

Mosul, Iraq. ISIS’s number two (al-Baghdadi’s deputy) was killed in a US raid while he was in his car. He was Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, known as Haji Mutaz.

Emilio Bianchi, the last of the fantastic six of the Decima Mas (X Mas), the underwater raiders of the Italian Royal Navy who on the night of 18 December 1941 sank two English battleships (the Queen Elisabeth and the Valliant) and an auxiliary oil tanker

Yemen. United Arab Emirates troops land in the country and occupy Aden, displacing the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels.

Pakistan. The Taliban admit the death of their leader, Mullah Omar, which Afghan intelligence reports occurred in 2013.

1:49:59 PM Italian time. The American probe New Horizons (aka Pluto Express) passes, as scheduled, 12,000 km away from Pluto, at a speed of 13.78 km/s.

Vienna. After nearly two years of negotiations, the Iranian nuclear deal is confirmed.

Hadramaut, Yemen. The leader of the Yemeni al-Qaeda faction, Nasir Abdel Karim al-Wuhayshi, is killed by an American drone strike.

Great Britain. David Cameron’s Conservative Party wins the election and an overall majority of seats.

A 7.8 earthquake in Nepal has caused a death toll of over 7,700.

Nigeria. Muhammadu Buhari (Muslim), a 72-year-old former general who led a military junta in the 1980s, defeats outgoing Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (Christian). This is a momentous event for Nigeria: for the first time in its history, since independence from Great Britain in 1960, the

Mosul, Iraq. ISIS fighters destroy, loot, and desecrate the Church of St. George in Mosul.

Iraq. Regular Iraqi troops, heavily supported by Iranian commanders and elements, enter the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s former stronghold and hometown, now controlled by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) and heavily dominated by Sunni Muslims. However, they fail to take the city center due to

President Barack Obama presents Katherine Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an honor John Glenn had received in 2012. Katherine Johnson is one of several women calculators who helped shape NASA’s history in the 1960s. Among them were Dorothy Vaugham, Margery Hannah, Mary Jackson,

Paris. Over 40 heads of state march through the streets of Paris in a demonstration for freedom of expression.

The average American spends 25% of his or her income on necessities. It was 60% in 1935.

The number of democracies (defined by the Polity Project as having an index greater than 6.0 on their scale) has a new high at 103 (there were 87 in 2009, 52 in 1989, 36 in 1962, 12 in 1942, 29 in 1922).

For the first time since the beginning of the Industrial Age, the planet is becoming greener. This is thanks to reforestation in Russia and China, but also in the West (thanks to the abandonment of rural mountain villages in Europe, and the massive reduction in

The world population living in extreme poverty, which had been increasing since 1820 in absolute terms (not percentage), began to decline in 1970, even as the total world population continued to grow, and by a significant amount. The world population in extreme poverty, after peaking