2016: Year in Review

January 3 – Following the fallout caused by the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
January 7 - Princess Ashraf of Iran, twin sister of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, dies at age 96 from Alzheimer's disease
January 8 – Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world's most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison.
January 8 – Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian racing driver and the first woman to race in Formula One, dies at age 89.
January 10 - David Bowie, English singer, songwriter and actor, dies at age 69 from liver cancer.
January 14 - René Angélil, Canadian singer and manager and husband of singer Celine Dion, dies at age 73 from throat cancer.
January 14 - Alan Rickman, English actor and director, dies at age 69 from pancreatic cancer.
January 16 – The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has adequately dismantled its nuclear weapons program, allowing the United Nations to lift sanctions immediately.
January 18 - Glenn Frey, American musician best known as a founding member of the rock band Eagles dies at age 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia, while recovering from gastrointestinal tract surgery.
January 24 - Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist concerned largely with research of artificial intelligence and co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, dies at age 88 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
January 26 - Abe Vigoda, American actor who starred in The Godfather, Barney Miller, and Fish, dies at age 94 of natural causes.
January 28 – The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.
January 28 - Paul Kantner, American singer and musician known for co-founding Jefferson Airplane, dies at age 74 from multiple organ failure and septic shock after he suffered a heart attack days earlier.
January 28 - Signe Toly Anderson, American singer who was one of the founding members of the rock band Jefferson Airplane, dies at age 74 from the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
February 3 - Joe Alaskey, American voice actor who alternated with Jeff Bergman and Greg Burson in voicing Warner Bros. cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, and Taz, among many others, dies at age 63 from cancer.
February 3 - Maurice White, American singer-songwriter and founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire dies at age 74 from the effects of Parkinson's disease.
February 4 – Edgar Mitchell, American astronaut and the sixth person to walk on the Moon, dies at age 85.
February 7 – North Korea launches a long-range rocket into space, violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.
February 12 – 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 split in 1054.
February 13 - Antonin Scalia, American Supreme Court Justice described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Court's conservative wing, dies at age 79 of apparent natural causes.
February 16 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1992 to December 1996, dies at age 93 after having been admitted to a hospital for a broken pelvis or leg.
February 19 - Umberto Eco, Italian writer and philosopher dies at age 84 of pancreatic cancer.
February 19 - Harper Lee, American writer, dies at age 89.
February 22 – Douglas Slocombe, British cinematographer who worked on three Indiana Jones films, dies at age 103 from complications following a fall.
February 23 – Donald E. Williams, American astronaut dies at age 74.
February 25 – Tony Burton, American actor known for his role as Tony "Duke" Evers in the Rocky franchise.  He is the only actor, other than Sylvester Stallone to appear in every film of that franchise.  He died at age 78 due to complications from pneumonia.
March 5 - Hassan Al-Turabi, Sudanese religious and Islamist political leader, dies at age 84 of a heart attack.
March 5 - Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971, dies at age 74 from a heart attack.
March 6 – Nancy Reagan, American actress, First Lady of the United States, dies at age 94 of congestive heart failure.
March 8 - George Martin, English record producer, composer, arranger and engineer referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" dies at age 90.
March 11 - Iolanda Balaș, Romanian athlete, Olympic champion, and former world record holder in the high jump. She was the first Romanian woman to win an Olympic gold medal and is considered to have been one of the greatest high jumpers of the twentieth century.  She died at age 79 following gastric complications.
March 14 – The ESA and Roscosmos launch the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to Mars.
March 21 – The International Criminal Court finds former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the first time the ICC convicted someone of sexual violence.
March 22 – Three coordinated bombings in Brussels, Belgium kill at least 32 and injure at least 250. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attacks.
March 22 – Rob Ford, Canadian politician who served as the 64th mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014, dies at age 46 from an abdominal tumor.
March 24 – 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.
March 24 - Garry Shandling, American actor and comedian, dies at age 66 from a blood clot in his lungs following deep vein thrombosis in his legs.
March 27 – A suicide blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore kills 75 people and injures around 340 others with a militant Sunni Islamic organization claiming responsibility for targeting Christians celebrating Easter.
March 29 – Patty Duke, American actress, dies at age 69 of sepsis from a ruptured intestine.
April 2 – Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani military in Nagorno-Karabakh kill at least 193 people, which become the heaviest breach of the 1994 ceasefire.
April 2 - Amber Rayne, American pornographic actress, dies at age 31 from of an accidental drug overdose.
April 3 – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung publish a set of 11.5 million confidential documents from the Panamanian corporate Mossack Fonseca that provides detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors including noted personalities and heads of state.
April 6 – Merle Haggard, American country singer, dies at age 79 of complications from pneumonia.
April 8 – Erich Rudorffer, German Luftwaffe fighter ace who was one of a handful who served with the Luftwaffe through the whole of World War II, dies at age 98.
April 17 – Doris Roberts, American actress, dies at age 90 from a stroke.
April 19 - Patricio Aylwin, 32nd President of Chile, and the first president of Chile after Pinochet; his election marked the Chilean transition to democracy in 1990.  He died at age 97.
April 20 - Guy Hamilton, British film director who directed 22 films from the 1950s to the 1980s, including four James Bond films, dies at age 93.
April 20 – Chyna, an American professional wrestler, glamour model, pornographic film actress, and bodybuilder, dies at age 46 from a drug overdose.
April 21 – Prince, American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, dies at age 57 from an accidental fentanyl opioid overdose.
April 25 – Martin Gray, Polish writer and Holocaust survivor, dies at age 93 in his swimming pool.
April 27 – Viktor Gavrikov, Lithuanian-Swiss chess Grandmaster, dies at age 58.
May 2 – Afeni Shakur, American music businesswoman, Black Panther, and mother of American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, dies at age 69 from a heart attack.
May 4 - Bob Bennett, United States Senator from Utah, dies at age 82 from pancreatic cancer.
May 8 – William Schallert, an American character actor who appeared in many films and television series, dies at age 93
May 19 – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes with 66 people on board over the Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo.
May 19 - Alan Young, English-Canadian actor, dies at age 96 of natural causes.
May 21 - Nick Menza, German-born American drummer for Megadeth, dies at age 51 after succumbing to heart failure while performing with his band.
May 26 - Arturo Pomar, Spanish chess grandmaster, dies at age 84 after a long illness.
May 30 – Former Chadian President Hissène Habré is sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during his tenure from 1982 to 1990, the first time an African Union-backed court convicted a former ruler of a country within its jurisdiction.
June 1 – The Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel, is opened following two decades of construction work.
June 3 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer, dies at age 74 from septic shock.
June 6 - Viktor Korchnoi, Russian-born Swiss chess grandmaster, dies at age 85.
June 10 - Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player, dies at age 88.
June 10 - Christina Grimmie, American singer known for her participation in the NBC singing competition The Voice, dies at age 22 from gunshot wounds.
June 12 – George Voinovich, American politician who served as a United States Senator for Ohio, Governor of Ohio, and as Mayor of Cleveland, dies at age 79.
June 19 - Victor Stănculescu, Romanian general and politician who played a central role in the overthrow of the dictatorship by refusing to carry out the orders of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, dies at age 88.
June 19 - Anton Yelchin, Russian-born American actor, dies at age 27 in a car accident.
June 23 – Brexit: the United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union.
June 27 - Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist, dies at age 87.
June 28 – ISIL claims responsibility for attacking Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, killing 45 and injuring around 230.
June 28 - Scotty Moore, American guitarist best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis's Hollywood years, dies at age 84.
June 28 - Pat Summitt, American basketball coach who accrued the most wins in NCAA basketball history, dies at age 64.
July 1 – Latvia becomes the 35th member of the OECD.
July 1 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet who published a number of translations, most notably the plays of William Shakespeare which are considered among the best in French, dies at age 93.
July 2 - Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born American Nobel writer and political activist and Holocaust survivor, dies at age 87.
July 4 – NASA's Juno spacecraft enters orbit around Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet.
July 12 – The Philippines wins the arbitration case they filed at the Permanent Court of Arbitration regarding the legality of China's "Nine-Dash Line" claim over the South China Sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
July 13 - Bernardo Provenzano, Italian criminal who was a member of the Sicilian Mafia (Cosa Nostra) and was suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006, dies at age 83 of complications from bladder cancer.
July 16 – Nate Thurmond, American basketball player who spent the majority of his 14-year career with the Golden State Warriors, dies at age 74 after a short battle with leukemia.
July 19 - Garry Marshall, American film director, television producer and actor, dies at age 81 from pneumonia.
July 22 – The final videocassette recorder is manufactured by the Japanese company Funai.
July 24 – Marni Nixon, an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals, dies at age 86 from breast cancer.
July 25 - Dwight Jones, American basketball player who was the leading scorer and rebounder on the 1972 Olympic team that lost the controversial gold medal game to the Soviet Union, dies at age 64.
July 25 - Tim LaHaye, American evangelist and author best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction and The Act of Marriage, dies at age 90 after suffering from a stroke.
July 26 – Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.
July 27 - Jerry Doyle, American talk show host and actor, dies at age 60 from complications from chronic alcoholism.
July 31 - Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler who only weighed 260 pounds, dies at age 61 from pancreatic cancer.
August 2 - David Huddleston, American actor, dies at age 85 from heart and kidney disease.
August 5–21 – The 2016 Summer Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
August 13 - Kenny Baker, British actor best known for portraying the character R2-D2 in the Star Wars science fiction movie franchise, dies at age 81 following a brief illness.
August 19 - Lou Pearlman, American music manager and record producer who was the manager of successful 1990s boy bands such as Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, dies at age 62 from cardiac arrest.
August 23 - Steven Hill, American film and television actor, dies at age 94.
August 29 – Gene Wilder, American actor, dies at age 83 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
August 31 – The Brazilian Senate votes (61–20) to impeach the President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff. The Vice President of Brazil, Michel Temer, who had assumed the presidential powers and duties as Acting President of Brazil during Rousseff's suspension, takes office for the remainder of her term.
September 1 – Jon Polito, American actor, dies at age 65 from multiple myeloma.
September 3 – The US and China, together responsible for 40% of the world's carbon emissions, both ratify the Paris global climate agreement.
September 5 - Hugh O'Brian, American actor, dies at age 91.
September 5 - Phyllis Schlafly, American writer and political activist, dies at age 92 from cancer.
September 8 – NASA launches OSIRIS-REx, its first asteroid sample return mission. The probe will visit Bennu and is expected to return with samples in 2023.
September 9 – The government of North Korea conducts its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test. World leaders condemn the act, with the South calling it "maniacal recklessness".
September 11 – Alexis Arquette, transgender American actor, dies at age 47 from aortic dissection caused by HIV.
September 17 - Charmian Carr, American actress and singer best known for her role as Liesl, the eldest Von Trapp daughter in the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music, dies at age 73 from dementia.
September 20 – Curtis Hanson, American film director and screenwriter, dies at age 71 from frontotemporal dementia.
September 24 - Bill Nunn, American actor, dies at age 62 from leukemia.
September 25 - Arnold Palmer, American golfer, dies at age 87 while awaiting heart surgery.
September 28 International investigators conclude that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Buk missile that came from an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
September 28 - Global CO2 levels exceed 400 ppm at the time of year normally associated with minimum levels.  A 400 ppm level is believed to be higher than anything experienced in human history.
September 28 – Shimon Peres, 9th President and 8th Prime Minister of Israel, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies at age 93 after he suffered a massive stroke.
September 30 – Two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, which had been stolen on December 7, 2002 from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, are recovered with a combined value of $100 million.
October 13 – The Maldives announces its decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations.
October 15 – 150 nations meeting at the UNEP summit in Rwanda agree to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, as an amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
October 20 - Michael Massee, American actor, dies at age 64 of stomach cancer.
October 20 - Junko Tabei, Japanese mountaineer.  She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and the first woman to ascend all Seven Summits by climbing the highest peak on every continent.  She died at age 77 from cancer.
November 7 - Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer, songwriter and poet, dies at age 82 from cancer.
November 7 - Janet Reno, American lawyer, was the first woman to serve as Attorney General and the second-longest serving Attorney General in U.S. history.  She died at age 78 from Parkinson's disease.
November 11 - Ilse Aichinger, Austrian writer known for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry, dies at age 95.
November 11 - Robert Vaughn, American actor, dies at age 83 from acute leukemia.
November 12 – Lupita Tovar, Mexican-American actress best known for her starring role in the 1931 Spanish language version of Dracula, dies at age 106 from heart disease.
November 16 - Melvin Laird, American politician and writer, who was a congressman from Wisconsin before serving as Secretary of Defense under President Richard Nixon, dies at age 94 of congestive heart failure.
November 18 – Denton Cooley, American heart surgeon famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart, dies at age 96.
November 23 – Andrew Sachs, German-born British actor whose family immigrated to London in 1938 to escape persecution under the Nazis, dies at age 86 from vascular dementia.
November 24 – The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army sign a revised peace deal, bringing an end to the Colombian conflict.
November 24 - Florence Henderson, American actress, dies at age 82 from heart failure.
November 25 – Fidel Castro, brutal Communist dictator of Cuba for over 50 years, dies at age 90.
November 25 - David Hamilton, British photographer best known for his nude images of young women and girls, dies at age 83 from suicide by asphyxiation.
November 28 - Mark Taimanov, Russian chess Grandmaster and concert pianist, dies at age 90.
December 2 – Sammy Lee, American Olympic diver who was the first Asian American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States, dies at age 96 from dementia and heart disease.
December 6 – Peter Vaughan, British actor, dies at age 93.
December 8 - John Glenn, American aviator, astronaut and politician, and the first American to orbit the Earth, dies at age 95.
December 8 - Joseph Mascolo, American actor best known for playing supervillain Stefano DiMera, on NBC's Days of Our Lives, dies at age 87 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
December 13 - Alan Thicke, Canadian actor and songwriter, dies at age 69 from an aortic dissection.
December 14 - Bernard Fox, Welsh actor, dies at age 89 from heart failure.
December 17 - Benjamin A. Gilman, American politician and Member of Congress from New York, dies at age 94 from surgical complications.
December 17 - Henry Heimlich, American physician and inventor of the Heimlich maneuver, dies at age 96 from a heart attack.
December 18 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite, dies at age 99 from cardiac arrest.
December 19 – Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, is assassinated in Ankara.
December 22 – A study finds the VSV-EBOV vaccine against the Ebola virus between 70-100% effective, and thus making it the first proven vaccine against the disease.
December 23 – United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2334 condemning "Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967".
December 23 - Piers Sellers, British-American astronaut and meteorologist, dies at age 61 from pancreatic cancer.
December 23 - Vesna Vulović, Serbian air disaster survivor who holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 33,333 ft., dies at age 66.
December 24 - Richard Adams, British author of Watership Down, dies at age 96 from complications of a blood disorder.
December 25 – A Tupolev Tu-154 crashes near Sochi, Russia, killing all 92 people on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble.
December 25 - George Michael, British singer, dies at age 53.
December 25 - Vera Rubin, American astronomer, dies at age 88.
December 26 – Ashot Anastasian, Armenian chess grandmaster, dies at age 52.
December 27 - Carrie Fisher, American actress and writer, dies at age 60.
December 28 - Debbie Reynolds, American actress, dancer, and singer, dies at age 84 from a stroke.

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