The Plundering of Ukraine by Corrupt American Democrats, by Israel Shamir - The Unz Review

Genesis 8:21 

And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Exodus 8:1
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

Psalm 8
3 When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

Isaiah 64
1 Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence,
8 But now, O Lord, Thou art our father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech Thee, we are all Thy people.

Jeremiah 33
2 Thus saith the Lord the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it, to establish it; the Lord is His name;
3 Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against Me.

Matthew 16:16 
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

John 8
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Revelation 21:1
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

33 = the # of years Our Savior and God lived on earth in the flesh
21 = monthly day of Our Lady’s holiday
16 = monthly day of Our Lady’s Covenant of Mercy (ኪዳነ ምሕረት) holiday
64 = the # of years Our Lord’s mother lived on earth in the flesh
8 = √64

+  The Lord’s Day is also known as the “eighth day,” i.e. the day which will have “no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21: 23). The “eighth day” is a term which indicates the final age, when the new creation, already begun by the resurrection of Christ, will be fulfilled and completed; when the new world will be ushered in by the general resurrection.
+ Oxygen is the chemical element with atomic number 8. Diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20.8% (almost 21!) of the Earth’s atmosphere. 
+ 64 and 33 come after the 21st decimal point of the number π – 3.1415926535897932384626433
+ There are 8 known planets in the Solar System under the current definition of planet.
+ The O.T. religious rite of circumcision is held on a baby boy’s 8th day of life.
+ The number of Beatitudes (አንቀጸ ብፁዓን) is 8.
+ There were 8 people on Noah’s Ark.
+ International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year.
+ In music, an octave (Latin: octavus – eighth) or perfect octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the “basic miracle of music”, the use of which is “common in most musical systems”. The interval between the first and second harmonics of the harmonic series is an octave.
+ In the late 1880s, piano manufacturer Steinway created the 88-key piano. Other manufacturers followed suit, and Steinway’s model has been the standard ever since.
+ The number 8 is considered to be a lucky number in Chinese and other Asian cultures. Property with the number 8 may be valued greatly by Chinese. For example, a Hong Kong number plate with the number 8 was sold for 640,000.
+ The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing started at 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8 pm (local time) on 8 August 2008. + 8 is also considered a lucky number in Japan.
+ Eight-ball pocket billiards is played with a cue ball and 15 numbered balls, the black ball numbered 8 being the middle and most important one, as the winner is the player or side that legally pockets it after first pocketing its numerical group of 7 object balls.
+ In chess, each side has 8 pawns and the board is made of 64 squares arranged in an 8 by 8 lattice. The 8 queens puzzle is a challenge to arrange 8 queens on the board so that none can capture any of the others.
+ The shape of a sideways figure eight infinity symbol  ∞  is a mathematical symbol representing the concept of infinity.
+ 1776 (1+7+7+6=21) The Continental Congress ratifies the declaration by the United States of its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
+ A 21-gun salute is the most commonly recognized of the customary gun salutes that are performed by the firing of cannons or artillery as a military honor.

A.D. 640

+ July 6, 640 – Battle of Heliopolis: The Muslim Arab army (15,000 men) defeats the Byzantine forces near Heliopolis (Egypt).
+ December 22, 640 – On orders of the Saracen leader, Amar, the Serapeum of Alexandria, containing works that had survived the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, is burned down, along with its collection of 500,000 manuscripts.

A.D. 800

+ December 25, 800 – Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor as Charles I, with the title “Emperor of the Franks and the Lombards”. The coronation takes place during Mass at the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, on Christmas Day. The Frankish Empire is formed in Western Europe.

A.D. 833

+ 833 – Byzantine-Arab War: Emperor Theophilos signs an armistice for peace with the Abbasid Caliphate. He offers the caliph 100,000 gold dinars, in return for 7000 Byzantine prisoners.

864

+ The Christianization of Bulgaria begins: Boris I, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire, is converted to Orthodox Christianity. His family and high-ranking dignitaries accept the Orthodox faith at the capital, Pliska.
+ King Alfonso III conquers Porto from the Emirate of Cordoba. This is the end of the direct Muslim domination of the Douro region.

888

+ October 888 – Battle of Milazzo: the Aghlabids score a crushing victory over a Byzantine fleet off Sicily.

1016

+ The Pisan and the Genoese republics launch a naval offensive against the Muslim strongholds of Sardinia, in particular Porto Torres, and defeat the fleet of the taifa king.

1064
+ European warriors go to Spain, to participate in the siege of Barbastro. This expedition is sanctioned by Pope Alexander II – and is now regarded as an early form of Crusade.
+ The Seljuk Turks under Alp Arslan invade Anatolia, and capture Ani after a siege of 25-days. He sacks the city and slaughters its citizens.

1600

+ February 19, 1600 – Huaynaputina volcano in Peru undergoes a catastrophic eruption, the worst to be recorded in South America.
+ April 19, 1600 – The first Dutch ship ever to arrive in Japan, the Liefde (“Love”), anchors in Sashifu, in the Bungo Province.
+ October 21, 1600 – Battle of Sekigahara in Japan: Tokugawa Ieyasu gains nominal control over the whole country.
+ December 31, 1600 – The East India Company is granted a Royal Charter in the Kingdom of England for trade with Asia.
+ 1600 – Sumo wrestling becomes a professional sport in Japan.
+ 1600 – William Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV, Part 2, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing are published in London.

1616

+ March 1616 – Action of 1616, La Goulette, Tunisia: A Spanish squadron under Francisco de Ribera defeats a Tunisian fleet.
+ September 15, 1616 – The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.
+ November 30, 1616 – Cardinal Richelieu, Armand-Jean du Plessis, is named French Secretary of State by young king Louis XIII. Richelieu will change France into a unified centralised state, able to resist both England and the Habsburg Empire.
+ 1616 – Anti-Christian persecutions break out in Nanking, China, and Nagasaki, Japan. The Jesuit-lead Christian community in Japan at this time is over 3,000,000 strong.

1788

+ January 26, 1788 – Australia Day: Eleven ships led by Captain Arthur Phillip land at Sydney Cove (which will become Sydney), Australia.
+ March 21, 1788 – The Great New Orleans Fire kills 25% of the population and destroys 856 buildings, including St. Louis Cathedral and The Cabildo, leaving most of the town in ruins.
+ June 7, 1788 – France: Day of the Tiles, which some consider the beginning of the French Revolution.
+ August 8, 1788 – King Louis XVI of France agrees to convene the Estates-General meeting in May 1789, the first time since 1614.
+ October, 1788 – King George III of the United Kingdom becomes deranged.
+ November 25, 1788 – Fifty consecutive days of temperatures below freezing strike France, a record that would be unbroken more than 200 years later.

1800

+ April 24, 1800 – The U.S. Library of Congress is founded in Washington, D.C.

1808

+ January 1, 1808 – The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.
+ March 1, 1808 – The slave trade is abolished by the United Kingdom in all of its colonies.

1818

+ April 4, 1818 – The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States.
+ October 20, 1818 – A treaty between the U.S. and the United Kingdom establishes the boundary between the U.S. and British North America as the 49th parallel.
+ December 3, 1818 – Illinois is admitted as the 21st U.S. state.
+ December 24, 1818 – The Christmas carol “Silent Night” (Stille Nacht) is first performed at St. Nikolaus Parish Church, in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria.

1821

+ March 25, 1821 – the beginning of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
+ December 15, 1821 – The world’s first geographical society, the Société de géographie, is established in Paris.

1833

+ April 18, 1833 – Over 300 delegates from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland travel to the office of the Prime Minister, the Earl Grey, to call for the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire.
+ August 1, 1833 – The British Parliament passes the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, ultimately giving slaves in much of the British Empire their freedom.
+ November 25, 1833 – A major 8.7 earthquake strikes Sumatra.

1864

+ April 22, 1864 – The United States Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864, which mandates that the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
+ August 22, 1864 (በዓለ ፍልሰታ ለእግዝእትነ) – The First Geneva Convention, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, is signed in Geneva by 12 European states, under the auspices of the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded (predecessor of the International Red Cross Movement).

1888

+ January 13, 1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
+ August 5, 1888 – Bertha Benz arrives in Pforzheim having driven 40 miles (64 km) from Mannheim in a car manufactured by her husband Karl Benz, thus completing the first “long-distance” drive in the history of the automobile.
+ August 10,1888 – Dr Friedrich Hermann Wölfert’s motorised airship successfully completes the world’s first engine-driven flight, from Cannstatt to Kornwestheim in Germany.
+ October 14, 1888
– Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture in Leeds, England, two seconds and 18 frames in length.
– Battle of Guté Dili: Seeking to extend Mahdist control over what is now southwestern Ethiopia, governor Khalil al-Khuzani is routed by an alliance of Shewan forces, under Ras Gobana Dacche and Moroda Bekere, ruler of Leqa Naqamte. Only a handful, including Khalil, barely manage to flee the battlefield.

(Yekatit 23, 1888 Ethiopian cal.)
+ Emperor Menelik fought to defend Ethiopia’s independence against Italy in 1896 (1888 Ethiopian calendar), led the Ethiopian Army to a decisive victory against the Italians, which ensured an independent Ethiopia.

1908

+ August 8, 1908 – Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time, demonstrating true controlled powered flight in Europe.
+ September 27, 1908 – Henry Ford produces his first Model T automobile.
+ May 26, 1908 – At Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
+ July 3, 1908 – Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire begins.
+ December 28, 1908 – The 7.1 Mw  Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 75,000 and 200,000.

1916

+ May 16, 1916 – Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement, which is to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire, following the conclusion of WWI.
+ July 1–November 18, 1916 – WWI: Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Albert: More than one million soldiers die.
+ August 25, 1916 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation, creating the National Park Service.
+ September 27, 1916 – Iyasu V of Ethiopia is deposed in a palace coup, in favour of his aunt Zewditu.
+ October 16, 1916 – Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic, a forerunner of Planned Parenthood.
+ October 27, 1916 – Battle of Segale: Negus Mikael of Wollo, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu.
+ November 1, 1916
– Pavel Milyukov delivers his “stupidity or treason” speech in the Russian State Duma, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government.
– The first 40-hour work week officially begins, in the Endicott-Johnson factories of Western New York.
+ December 30, 1916 – The mystic Grigori Rasputin is murdered in Saint Petersburg.

1918

+ January 8, 1918 – Woodrow Wilson delivers his Fourteen Points speech.
+ June – August, 1918 – The “Spanish ‘flu” becomes pandemic. Over 30 million people die in the following 6 months.
+ July 17, 1918 – Execution of the Romanov family: By order of the Bolshevik Party, and carried out by the Cheka.
+ September 3, 1918 – The Bolshevik government of Russia publishes the first official announcement of the Red Terror as an “Appeal to the Working Class” in the newspaper Izvestia.
+ September 25, 1918 – WWI:The Battle of Megiddo ends with the Battle of Haifa, Battle of Samakh, and Capture of Tiberias.
+ November 11, 1918 – End of WWI: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1921

+ February 12, 1921 – The Democratic Republic of Georgia is invaded by forces of Bolshevist Russia.
+ July 1, 1921 – The Communist Party of China (CPC) is founded.
+ July 29, 1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of the Nazi Party.
+ November 9, 1921
– The National Fascist Party is founded in Italy.
– Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his work with the photoelectric effect.
+ July 27, 1921– Researchers at the University of Toronto, led by biochemist Frederick Banting, announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
+ December 6, 1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State, an independent nation incorporating 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties, is signed in London.

1928

+ February 8, 1928 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird broadcasts a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York.
+ August 2, 1928 – Italy and Ethiopia sign the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty.
+ August 27, 1928 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact is signed in Paris, the first treaty to outlaw aggressive war.
+ Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming recounted that the date of his discovery of penicillin was on the morning of Friday 28 Sept. 1928.

1933

+ January 15–March 2,1933 – A teenage girl, Mariette Beco, in Banneux, Belgium, reports eight Marian apparitions, which become known as Our Lady of Banneux.
+ January 30, 1933 – Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany.
+ October 17,1933 – Scientist Albert Einstein arrives in the United States, where he settles permanently as a refugee.
+ November 8, 1933 – New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.
+ November 16, 1933 – The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
+ December 15,1933 – The 21st Amendment officially goes into effect, making alcohol legal in the United States.

1938

+ April 16, 1938 – London and Rome sign an agreement that sees Britain recognise Italian control of Ethiopia (formally on November 16), in return for an Italian pledge to withdraw all its 10,000 troops from Spain, at the conclusion of the civil war there.
+ May 28, 1938 – In a conference at the Reich Chancellery, Hitler declares his decision to destroy Czechoslovakia by military force, and orders the immediate mobilization of 96 Wehrmacht divisions.
+ October 1, 1938 – German troops march into the Sudetenland. The Polish government gives the Czech government an ultimatum, the Czechs have little choice but to comply.
+ October 21, 1938 – In direct contravention of the recently signed Munich Agreement, Hitler circulates among his high command a secret memorandum stating that they should prepare for the “liquidation of the rest of Czechoslovakia.”
+ December 17, 1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear power, which marks the beginning of the Atomic Age.

1948

+ April 3, 1948 – United States President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
+ May 14, 1948 – The Israeli Declaration of Independence is made.
+ July 13, 1948 – The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Churches reach an agreement, leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church.
+ August 23, 1948 – The World Council of Churches is established in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
+ October 6, 1948 – Ashgabat earthquake: A 7.3 Ms earthquake near Ashgabat, Soviet Turkmenistan kills 10,000–110,000.
+ December 10, 1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1958

+ January 8, 1958 – Bobby Fischer, 14, wins the United States Chess Championship.
+ January 31, 1958 – The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit.
+ April 3, 1958 – Castro’s revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana.
+ April 4 – 7, 1958 – In the first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermaston, Berkshire, demonstrators demand the banning of nuclear weapons.
+ July 29, 1958 – The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
+ September 12, 1958 – Jack Kilby (born on Nov. 8) invents the first integrated circuit, while working at Texas Instruments.
+ October 4, 1958
– The new Constitution of France is signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.
– British Overseas Airways Corp becomes the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
+ December 18, 1958 – The United States launches SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite.

1964

+ January 8, 1964 – In his first State of the Union Address, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declares a “War on Poverty”.
+ January 18, 1964 – Plans to build the New York City World Trade Center are announced.
+ March 27, 1964 (Good Friday) – The Great Alaskan earthquake, the second-most powerful known (and the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history) at a magnitude of 9.2.
+ July 2, 1964 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, officially abolishing racial segregation in the United States.
+ October 14, 1964 – Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. 
+ October 21, 1964 – Abebe Bikila (Ethiopia) became the first person to win the Olympic marathon twice. He finished with a time of four minutes and eight seconds ahead of silver medalist Basil Heatley of Great Britain. Heatley, wearing #8, managed to stay close to Japan’s Kokichi Tsuburaya and passed Tsuburaya shortly before the finish line to win the silver medal.

1968

+ January 30, 1968 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
+ March 18, 1968 – Gold standard: The United States Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.
+ March 30, 1968 – Paradiso in Amsterdam opened its doors under the name ‘Cosmic Relaxation Centre Paradiso.’ It is housed in a converted former church building that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the Free Congregation.
+ April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead in Memphis, Tenn.
+ April 11, 1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
+ June 5, 1968 – U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, dies the next day.
+ .August 20–21, 1968 – Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia: The ‘Prague Spring’ of political liberalization ends.
+ August 24, 1968 – France explodes its first hydrogen bomb in a test in French Polynesia.
+ December 24, 1968 – Apollo program: The manned U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole, as well as having traveled further away from Earth than any people in history. Anders photographs Earthrise. The crew also reads from Genesis.

1978

+ February 27, 1978 – The first global positioning satellite, the Rockwell International-built Navstar 1, is launched by the United States.
+ March 3, 1978 – Ethiopia admits that its troops are fighting with the aid of Cuban soldiers against Somalian troops in the Ogaden.
+ March 15, 1978 – Somalia and Ethiopia sign a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.
+ June 30, 1978 – Ethiopia begins a massive offensive in Eritrea.
+ Sep. 16, 1978 – The 7.4 Mw Tabas earthquake affects the city of Tabas, Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 15,000 people were killed.
+ September 17, 1978 – The Camp David Accords are signed between Israel and Egypt.
+ September 28, 1978 – Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy.
+ October 8, 1978 – Australia’s Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 318 mph.
+ October 16, 1978 – Pope John Paul II succeeds Pope John Paul I as the 264th pope, resulting in the first Year of Three Popes since 1605. He is the first Polish pope in history, and the first non-Italian pope since the 16 century.
+ December 22, 1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
+ December 25, 1978 – Vietnam launches a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.

1988

+ February 15, 1988 – General Tariku Ayne, who had been absent from Afabet for medical treatment, was executed outside of Asmara. The death of one of Ethiopia’s most prominent generals surprised even the EPLF.
+ March 17-20,1988 – The Battle of Afabet was fought in and around the town of Afabet, a major turning point in the Eritrean War of Independence.
+ December 21, 1988 – Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747–121, was destroyed by a terrorist bomb over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.
+ The concept of the World Wide Web was first discussed at CERN in 1988.
+ The Soviet Union began its major restructuring towards a mixed economy at the beginning of 1988 and began its gradual dissolution.
+ The Iron Curtain began to disintegrate in 1988 as Hungary began allowing freer travel to the West.

(Ginbot 8, 1981 Ethiopian calendar)
+ The 1989 Ethiopian coup d’état attempt took place on May 16, 1989. The Minister of Defense, Haile Giyorgis Habte Mariam, was killed after refusing to join the revolt. 21 generals were killed or executed as a result of this failed coup.

(Dec. 8, 1991)
+ The Belovezha Accords forming the agreement that declared the USSR as effectively ceasing to exist signed on December 8, 1991.

1998

+ January 8, 1998 – Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
+ May 28, 1998 – In response to a series of Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan explodes five nuclear devices of its own.
+ July 17, 1998
– At a conference in Rome, 120 countries vote to create a permanent International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
– In Saint Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel, 80 years after he and his family were killed by the Lenin-led Bolsheviks in 1918.
+ August 4, 1998 – The Second Congo War begins; 5.4 million people die before it ends in 2003, making it the bloodiest war, to date, since World War II.

2008

+ January 21, 2008 – Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.
+ February 4, 2008 – Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket into space.
+ May 12, 2008 – An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale strikes Sichuan, China, killing an estimated 87,000 people.
+ August 2008 – The Russo-Georgian War took place, regarded as the first European war of the 21st century.
+ August 8, 2008 – A EuroCity express train en route from Kraków to Prague strikes a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the railroad track and derails, killing eight people and injuring 64 others.
+ November 4, 2008 – Senator Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first black president.
+ November 26–29, 2008 – Members of Lashkar-e-Taiba carry out four days of coordinated bombing and shooting attacks across Mumbai, killing 164 people.

2016

+ February 12, 2016 – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their schism in 1054.
+ March 21, 2016 – Barack Obama visits Cuba, marking the first time a sitting US president has visited the island nation since 1928.
+ June 1, 2016 – The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world’s longest and deepest railway tunnel, is opened following two decades of construction work.
+ July 14, 2016 – 86 people are killed and more than 400 others injured in a truck attack in Nice, France, during Bastille Day celebrations.
+ December 25, 2016 – jetliner of the Russian Defence Ministry crashes into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi while en route to Syria. All 92 people on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble choir of the Russian Armed Forces, are killed.

2018

+ March 18, 2018 – In the Russian presidential election, Vladimir Putin is elected for a fourth term.
+ April 27, 2018 – Kim Jong-un crosses into South Korea to meet with President Moon Jae-in, becoming the first North Korean leader to cross the Demilitarized Zone since its creation in 1953.
+ June 12, 2018 – the first summit between a United States President and the North Korean leader is held.
+ July 9, 2018 – Eritrea and Ethiopia officially declare an end to their twenty-year conflict.
+ Oct. 20, 2018 – President Trump announces that the US will “terminate” the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty over alleged Russian violations.
+ November 8, 2018 – The Camp Fire ignites, becomes California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire, with 88 deaths and 18,804 buildings destroyed.