Directory

2017 CE

A year defined by Donald Trump's first months in office, escalating North Korean missile tests, and the global emergence of the #MeToo movement.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on January 20. Executive orders in the first week targeted immigration from several Muslim-majority nations, triggering legal challenges and widespread protests.
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a rapid acceleration of ballistic missile testing, including two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July and a test in November that demonstrated potential range to reach the U.S. mainland.
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping consolidated power at the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October, enshrining his political thought in the party constitution alongside Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
  • The United Kingdom formally triggered Article 50 in March, beginning the two-year negotiation process for withdrawal from the European Union under Prime Minister Theresa May.
  • French centrist Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff in May, becoming the youngest president in French history and reshaping the country's political landscape.
  • The Gulf diplomatic crisis erupted in June when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.
  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in September but faced a weakened mandate as the far-right Alternative for Germany party entered the Bundestag for the first time with 12.6% of the vote.
  • The Trump administration announced in June that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, drawing condemnation from European and developing-nation leaders.
  • The United Nations General Assembly voted 128 to 9 in December to reject the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, though the declaration carried no binding enforcement mechanism.
  • Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe resigned in November after 37 years in power following a military intervention and pressure from his own ZANU-PF party. Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeded him.

Conflict & Security

  • The Islamic State lost its de facto capitals of Mosul in July and Raqqa in October to coalition-backed forces, effectively ending the group's territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
  • The Rohingya crisis escalated dramatically in August when Myanmar's military launched operations in Rakhine State, driving over 700,000 Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh in what the UN later characterized as ethnic cleansing.
  • A truck attack in Manhattan on October 31 killed eight people, carried out by an individual inspired by the Islamic State. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since September 11, 2001.
  • The Las Vegas mass shooting on October 1 killed 58 people and wounded over 400 at a music festival, making it the deadliest mass shooting by a single individual in modern U.S. history.
  • The Saudi-led coalition's military campaign in Yemen continued, with airstrikes and a naval blockade exacerbating what the UN described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
  • The conflict in eastern Ukraine continued at a low-intensity level, with sporadic shelling along the contact line in Donetsk and Luhansk despite the Minsk II ceasefire framework.
  • The Battle of Marawi in the Philippines lasted five months as government forces fought Islamic State-affiliated militants in the southern city, resulting in widespread urban destruction.
  • A bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England on May 22 killed 22 people and wounded hundreds, prompting heightened security measures across European public venues.
  • Al-Shabaab carried out a massive truck bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 14, killing over 500 people in what became the deadliest single terrorist attack in the country's history.
  • Boko Haram continued insurgent operations in northeastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin, with suicide bombings and village raids displacing over 2 million people across the region.

Economy & Finance

  • The global economy experienced synchronized growth for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, with the IMF raising its world growth forecast to 3.7% for the year.
  • Bitcoin rose from under $1,000 in January to nearly $20,000 in December, drawing mainstream attention to cryptocurrency markets before a sharp correction in early 2018.
  • The U.S. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December, the most significant overhaul of the federal tax code in over 30 years, reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
  • The U.S. Federal Reserve under Chair Janet Yellen raised interest rates three times during the year, continuing the gradual normalization cycle begun in December 2015.
  • The European Central Bank under President Mario Draghi maintained negative interest rates but announced a reduction in monthly asset purchases from 60 billion to 30 billion euros beginning in January 2018.
  • China's economy grew at 6.9%, exceeding the government's target and marking the first annual acceleration in GDP growth since 2010.
  • Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in June signaled the accelerating convergence of e-commerce and physical retail, sending shockwaves through the grocery industry.
  • India implemented the Goods and Services Tax in July, replacing a fragmented system of state and central levies with a unified national tax framework affecting over 1.3 billion people.
  • The eurozone's economic recovery strengthened, with unemployment falling to its lowest level since 2009 and GDP growth reaching 2.4%, the strongest in a decade.
  • Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a corruption crackdown in November, detaining over 200 business leaders and princes at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh in a consolidation of economic and political authority.

Technology & Infrastructure

  • Artificial intelligence research advanced with Google's DeepMind introducing a new version of AlphaGo that defeated the world's top Go player Ke Jie in May, and later AlphaGo Zero, which learned the game entirely through self-play.
  • The global WannaCry ransomware attack in May infected over 200,000 computers in 150 countries, disrupting the UK's National Health Service, FedEx, and numerous other organizations.
  • Facebook disclosed in September that Russian-linked accounts had purchased political advertising during the 2016 U.S. election, intensifying scrutiny of social media's role in democratic processes.
  • Apple released the iPhone X in November, introducing Face ID and an edge-to-edge OLED display that marked the most significant design change to the iPhone since its introduction.
  • SpaceX achieved a record 18 orbital launches during the year, including the first re-flight of a previously flown Falcon 9 first stage booster in March.
  • Tesla unveiled the Semi truck and the second-generation Roadster in November, while struggling to meet production targets for the Model 3 sedan throughout the year.
  • The Equifax data breach disclosed in September exposed personal information of approximately 147 million Americans, including Social Security numbers and credit data.
  • China's Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent expanded their AI research operations, with the Chinese government announcing a national plan to become the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030.
  • Self-driving car development accelerated across the industry, with Waymo launching a limited public pilot program in Phoenix and multiple automakers announcing autonomous vehicle timelines.
  • Net neutrality rules in the United States were repealed by the Federal Communications Commission in December under Chairman Ajit Pai, reversing the Obama-era open internet framework.

Science & Discovery

  • The LIGO and Virgo collaborations detected gravitational waves from a neutron star merger for the first time in August, simultaneously observed across the electromagnetic spectrum in a breakthrough for multi-messenger astronomy.
  • NASA's Cassini spacecraft completed its 20-year mission by plunging into Saturn's atmosphere in September, transmitting data until its final moments after 13 years orbiting the planet.
  • Researchers announced the discovery of TRAPPIST-1's seven Earth-sized exoplanets in February, three of which were located in the habitable zone of the ultracool dwarf star.
  • Chinese quantum physicists led by Pan Jianwei demonstrated satellite-based quantum key distribution over a distance of 1,200 kilometers, a milestone for secure quantum communication.
  • CRISPR gene-editing technology continued to advance, with researchers reporting successful correction of a disease-causing mutation in human embryos for the first time, raising ethical debate.
  • The first interstellar object observed passing through the solar system, designated 'Oumuamua, was detected in October by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii.
  • The Juno spacecraft continued its orbital study of Jupiter, returning high-resolution images and data on the planet's atmospheric structure, magnetic field, and polar cyclones.
  • Scientists at the Institut Laue-Langevin achieved the most precise measurement of the neutron lifetime to date, constraining models of nucleosynthesis and the early universe.
  • A team at the University of Manchester created a molecular-level robotic arm capable of performing basic chemical synthesis tasks, advancing the field of molecular machines.
  • Paleontologists reported the discovery of the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, dated to approximately 300,000 years ago, pushing back the origin of the species by 100,000 years.

Health & Medicine

  • The opioid crisis in the United States was declared a public health emergency by President Trump in October. Over 47,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses during the year.
  • The World Health Organization prequalified the first generic versions of key hepatitis C treatments, expanding potential access in low- and middle-income countries.
  • CAR-T cell therapy received its first FDA approvals, with Novartis's Kymriah for pediatric leukemia in August and Gilead's Yescarta for certain lymphomas in October.
  • A major cholera outbreak in Yemen, exacerbated by the ongoing conflict, produced over one million suspected cases by December, the largest recorded outbreak in modern epidemiological history.
  • Gene therapy achieved a milestone with the FDA approval of Luxturna in December for an inherited form of vision loss, the first directly administered gene therapy approved in the United States.
  • Antibiotic resistance continued to grow as a global health concern. The WHO published its first Essential Diagnostics List to improve rational antibiotic prescribing in resource-limited settings.
  • The global HIV/AIDS response showed continued progress, with UNAIDS reporting that 21.7 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy, up from 19.5 million the previous year.
  • Madagascar experienced a large outbreak of pneumonic plague from August through November, with over 2,400 confirmed and suspected cases prompting international medical assistance.
  • The Zika virus outbreak that had peaked in 2016 subsided significantly, though the WHO maintained surveillance and continued research into the virus's link to microcephaly.
  • Mental health received increased global attention after the WHO launched its campaign emphasizing depression as the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting over 300 million people.

Climate & Environment

  • Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas Gulf Coast in August, producing record rainfall of over 60 inches in some areas and causing an estimated $125 billion in damage, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history at the time.
  • Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm, devastated Caribbean islands in September before making landfall in Florida, causing widespread destruction across Barbuda, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Florida Keys.
  • Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20 as a Category 4 storm, destroying the island's electrical grid and causing an estimated 2,975 excess deaths in the following months.
  • Global carbon dioxide emissions rose again after a three-year plateau, reaching a record 36.2 billion metric tons according to the Global Carbon Project.
  • China announced a national carbon trading scheme in December, the world's largest, covering power sector emissions though implementation and enforcement details remained in development.
  • Severe flooding in South Asia during the monsoon season affected over 40 million people across India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, killing more than 1,200 and displacing millions.
  • The Great Barrier Reef experienced back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, with aerial surveys confirming severe coral loss across two-thirds of the reef system.
  • Wildfires in Northern California in October destroyed over 8,900 structures and killed 44 people, followed by the Thomas Fire in Southern California in December, which became the largest wildfire in state history at the time.
  • Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent in September at 4.64 million square kilometers, the eighth lowest on record, continuing the long-term decline measured since satellite observations began.
  • The European Union strengthened its emissions trading system with reforms agreed in November, tightening the carbon market cap to accelerate reductions in industrial and power sector emissions.

Culture & Society

  • The #MeToo movement erupted in October after the New York Times and the New Yorker published investigations into sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, triggering a global reckoning across industries.
  • The Women's March on January 21 drew millions of participants across hundreds of cities worldwide, becoming one of the largest single-day demonstrations in history.
  • White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia in August, resulting in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer when a participant drove a car into a crowd.
  • Catalonia held a contested independence referendum on October 1 despite Spanish government opposition. The Spanish Senate subsequently authorized direct rule over the autonomous region.
  • The global refugee population reached 25.4 million according to UNHCR, the highest level recorded, driven by conflicts in Syria, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.
  • Saudi Arabia announced the lifting of its ban on women driving in September, with the policy taking effect in June 2018, as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's social reform agenda.
  • The Panama Papers investigation, which had broken in 2016, continued to produce consequences as governments worldwide pursued tax evasion cases and legislative reforms based on the leaked documents.
  • Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons for its work on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
  • The final season of the BBC's Blue Planet II drew over 14 million viewers in the UK and catalyzed global public attention to ocean plastic pollution, influencing corporate and government policy.
  • The film Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele, became a cultural phenomenon and critical success, blending horror with social commentary on race relations in America.