Events
January
- 1 January
- The Netherlands takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council from Luxembourg.
- San Sebastián (Spain) [1] and Wrocław (Poland) [2] are named European Capitals of Culture.
- 8 January – 32 people, including 22 asylum seekers, are arrested in connection to a series of apparently co-ordinated sexual assaults and thefts in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve. [3] [4]
- 9 January
- 12 January – A suspected suicide bombing kills at least 11 people and injures 14 in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square. [9] [10]
- 24 January – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is elected President of Portugal. [11]
- 28 January – A boat carrying Iraqi Kurdish migrants sinks off the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 24 people, including several children, with 11 others missing. [12]
- 30 January – A massive pile-up involving 70 vehicles, including a bus and several lorries, kills four people and injures 30 on A1 motorway in western Slovenia. [13]
February
- Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatens to send the millions of refugees in Turkey to EU member states, [14] saying: "We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses ... So how will you deal with refugees if you don't get a deal? Kill the refugees?" [15]
- 9 February – Two passenger trains collide in the German town of Bad Aibling, with 11 people killed and 82 injured. [16] [17] [18]
- 12 February – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting since the East–West Schism in 1054.
- 15 February – Bosnia and Herzegovina formally applies to join the European Union. [19]
- 28 February – A total of 36 people are presumed dead following three explosions at a coal mine in Vorkuta, Russia. [20] [21] [22]
March
- 5 March – The party of Slovak prime minister Robert Fico wins the election but loses the parliamentary majority. [23]
- 13 March – At least 34 people are killed and 125 wounded in a suicide car bombing in the Turkish capital of Ankara. [24] [25]
- 18 March – Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam is shot and arrested in a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels after a four-month international manhunt. [26]
- 19 March – Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don Airport, Russia, killing all 62 people on board. [27] [28]
- 20 March – At least 14 people are killed after a coach carrying Erasmus exchange students crashes near Barcelona. [29] [30]
- 22 March – 32 people are killed and 316 injured in attacks at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek metro station. [31] [32] [33]
- 24 March – Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War. [34]
April
- 3 April – A ceasefire is announced after at least 193 soldiers are killed in clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. [35] [36]
- 4 April – Thousands of people protest in Reykjavík, asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, after Panama Papers investigation revealed that he had hidden investments in tax havens. [37]
- 18 April – More than 400 migrants and refugees drown in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross by boat from Egypt to Italy. [38]
- 21 April – The Bulgarian parliament approves the introduction of compulsory voting. [39] [40]
- 29 April – A helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform crashes in the North Sea, killing all 13 people on board. [41] [42]
May
- 11 May – Italy becomes the last Western European country to legalize same-sex civil unions. [43] [44]
- 14 May – Jamala, representing Ukraine with the song "1944", wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden.
- 19 May – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes off the Greek island of Karpathos, killing all 66 people on board. [45] [46]
- 22 May
- A gunman fires shots into a small crowd attending an open air concert in Nenzing, Austria, killing two people and wounding 11 others before shooting himself to death. [47]
- Independent Green Alexander Van der Bellen is narrowly elected President of Austria.
- 29 May – 17 people die in a fire at a building housing elderly people in a village near Ukraine's capital Kyiv. [48]
June
Leave
Remain
- 1 June – Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel, opens in Switzerland. It is the first flat route through the Alps. [49]
- 3 June – Heavy rains cause severe flooding in parts of France as well as Belgium and Germany, with reports of at least 11 people dead. [50]
- 6 June
- 7 June – A car bomb attack targeting a police bus kills 11 people and injures 36 in central Istanbul. [54] [55]
- 14 June
- UEFA fines the Russian Football Union €150,000 and imposes a suspended disqualification on their team for violence at UEFA Euro 2016. [56] [57] [58]
- At least 40 people are injured in violence during street protests in Paris against French labor reform. [59]
- 19 June - Baku hosts the European Grand Prix which is won by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg
- 23 June – The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union. [60]
- 25 June – Guðni Jóhannesson wins Iceland's presidential election. [61] [62]
- 26 June – Conservative People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, gains the most seats in the Spanish repeat election but remains short of a majority. [63] [64]
- 28 June – An armed attack at Istanbul Atatürk Airport leaves at least 41 people dead and 239 others injured. [65]
July
- 1 July – Latvia becomes the 35th member of the OECD. [66]
- 2 July – A gunman shoots five people dead and wounds 22 more after opening fire in a café in Žitište, Serbia. [67] [68]
- 8–9 July – Leaders of NATO member states meet at the two-day summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
- 12 July – 27 people are killed and dozens more injured in a head-on collision involving two passenger trains in the Apulia region of Italy. [69] [70] [71]
- 13 July – Theresa May replaces David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. [72] [73]
- 14 July – At least 86 people are killed after a truck is deliberately driven into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France. [74] [75] [76] [77]
- 15–16 July – At least 265 people are killed and more than 3,000 members of Turkey's armed forces arrested after an attempted military coup. [78] [79] [80]
- 21 July – Rioting erupts in the Armenian capital of Yerevan as protesters clash with police over the government's handling of a four-day hostage crisis. [81] [82]
- 22 July – A gunman opens fire near a shopping mall in Munich, Germany, killing 9 people and injuring 27. [83] [84]
August
- 6 August – An accidental explosion and fire kill at least 13 people in a bar in the French city of Rouen. [85] [86]
- 7 August – At least 21 people are dead and six are missing after torrential rains and flooding affect Macedonia's capital of Skopje. [87] [88]
- 10 August
- 20 August – At least 51 people are killed and scores more wounded in a suicide attack at a wedding ceremony in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep. [92] [93]
- 24 August – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits central Italy, killing at least 290 people.
- 26 August
- Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, the world's tallest suspension bridge, opens to traffic across the Bosphorus.
- Kurdish militants attack a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey with an explosives-laden truck, killing at least 11 police officers and wounding 78 other people. [94]
- 27 August – At least 17 migrant workers die after a fire breaks out at a Moscow warehouse. [95]
September
- 18 September – Russia's parliamentary elections bring a landslide win for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia and its allies. [96] [97]
October
- 9 October – A car bomb attack outside the Durak gendarmerie station in southeastern Turkey leaves 10 soldiers and eight civilians dead and scores of others injured. [98] [99]
- 10 October – Kersti Kaljulaid becomes the first female President of Estonia. [100]
- 26 October – Powerful earthquakes rock central Italy, causing buildings to crumble, knocking power out and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets. [101] [102] [103]
November
- 9 November – A derailment on the Tramlink in Croydon, London, kills seven people and injures more than 50 others. [104]
- 13 November – Pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon wins the second round of Moldova's presidential election. [105] [106]
- 14 November – Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov submits his resignation to the National Assembly after opposition-backed Rumen Radev wins the presidential runoff. [107] [108]
- 16 November – Russian President Vladimir Putin issues a decree for Russia to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. [109]
December
- 4 December – Alexander Van der Bellen wins the Austrian presidential election in a re-run of the second round. [110] [111]
- 5 December – Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns after Italy votes no in a referendum on constitutional reform. [112] [113]
- 9 December – The European Union grants visa-free travel for Georgia and Ukraine.
- 10 December – A cargo train carrying propane-butane derails and explodes in a northeastern Bulgarian village, killing five people and injuring at least 27. [114]
- 17 December – A suspected suicide car bomb in central Turkey kills 13 soldiers aboard a bus and wounds 55 more. [115]
- 19 December
- The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, is assassinated in Ankara.
- At least 13 people are killed and more than 40 others are injured as a truck rams into a packed Christmas market in Berlin. [116] [117] [118] [119]
- At least 75 people die from poisoning after consuming a bath lotion containing alcohol in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.[ citation needed ]
- 23 December – An Afriqiyah Airways flight originating from Sabha, Libya, is hijacked and forced to make an emergency landing in Malta.
