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 opposition defeats the ruling party. For the first time, a government hands over to a new administration without a coup.

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 heavy losses caused by fierce ISIS resistance. After a few days, they are forced to abandon their advance and withdraw.

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, and many others. Many of them were black.

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 cultivated land in the United States, albeit with increased production thanks to a much higher yield per hectare). Savannah is also increasing in size in Africa and Australia. The Amazon rainforest, on the other hand, is shrinking due to human exploitation, but the global increase in vegetation capable of absorbing carbon dioxide is significantly increasing, although far from sufficient to absorb all the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere by human activities.

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 at 2 billion people in 1970, has declined almost steadily, reaching 705 million in 2015. Over the same period, the total world population will increase from 4 billion to 8 billion. There are fewer people in extreme poverty in the world in 2015 than in 1800, when the world population was vastly smaller. In percentage terms, in the different regions of the world, the share of the population in extreme poverty in 2015 is: 40% in Sub-Saharan Africa (it was 60% in 1990), 20% in South Asia (it was 50% in 1990), less than 8% in the rest of the world (for example in East Asia and the Pacific, it was 60% in 1990!).

Jamrud, Khyber region, bordering Peshawar. The leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban, known as “Saddam,” is killed by Pakistani security forces. He was believed to have instigated the attack on the army school a few days earlier, killing 132 students.

Fallujah, Iraq. Yet another act of barbarity by ISIS. The Ministry of Human Rights in Baghdad denounces the murder by ISIS of at least 150 women, most of them Yazidi, some of them pregnant, who had refused to marry the jihadists. The massacre was ordered by Abu Anas al-Libi. These women are just some of those who, according to the UN, are kidnapped, enslaved by ISIS, and deported to other provinces.

Strong pressure from Saudi Arabia and Egypt is pushing Qatar back in its support for Sunni jihadism.

The American probe New Horizons (aka Pluto Express) wakes up, as scheduled, 4.7 billion km and 4.5 light hours from Earth.

NASA’s new Orion system completes its maiden launch, carrying the spacecraft, capable of carrying four astronauts, to an altitude of 5,800 kilometers, before reentering the Pacific Ocean and being recovered. The rocket, manufactured by United Launch Alliance (ULA), is based on a Delta IV Heavy Rocket with three RS-68 boosters. The mission is successfully completed.

Nigeria. Three bombs exploded in quick succession inside the Sanusi Mosque of rival Muslim religious leader Lamido Sanusi, killing 120 people and wounding 270. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack.

Yahyakhail, Afghanistan. A suicide bomber, mingling with the crowd, sneaks into a volleyball game and then blows himself up. Forty-five people are killed and 56 are injured.

Kenya. On a road bordering Somalia, the Islamic extremist group Al Shabaab stopped a bus carrying 60 people. They were forced off the bus and separated into Somalis and non-Somalis. The non-Somalis were then asked to read verses from the Quran. Those unable to read were killed on the spot with a shot to the head. Twenty-eight people died.

5:00 PM Italian time. The Philae probe of the European Rosetta spacecraft touches down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The harpoons fail to activate, it bounces for hundreds of meters, and after two hours, at 5:26 PM, it touches down again, bounces again, and finally, at 5:33 PM, it settles back on the comet’s surface, where it will remain. The feat is epic and never before attempted. We have arrived on a comet.

In the private space launch sector, there are 39 space transport vehicles from 26 different companies (nine of which are American). Two are operational: Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus (five successful flights out of six), launched by the Antares rocket, and Space X’s Dragon (five successful flights out of five), launched by the Falcon 9 rocket. Nine other different systems are in the testing phase. Five operational launch vehicles are: Minotaur C (aka Taurus), Antares (both Orbital Sciences), ATEA1 (Rocket Lab), SR-M (Scorpius Space), and Falcon 9 (Space X). Finally, seven companies are active in space mining, with Planetary Resources in the product development phase. This is in addition to the “traditional” eight companies active in the space sector: Airbus Defence and Space (France/Germany/Spain/UK), OHB (Germany), Thales Alenia Space Europe (France/Italy, formerly Alcatel Alenia Space), JSC Information Satellite Systems (Russia, with 1160 satellites launched, formerly called NPO PM), Boeing (US), Lockheed Martin (US), Indian Space Research Organisation (India, with 74 satellites launched), Space Systems/Loral (US, with 240 satellites launched).

Kot Radha Kishan (south of Lahore), Chak Village 59, Pakistan. Two Christian spouses, 26-year-old Shahzad and 24-year-old Shama, were burned alive by a mob of Muslims from five nearby villages, accusing them of burning pages of the Quran. They were burned alive in the brick kiln at the company where they worked.