Up to that point, 2019 had been described as the "best year in human history" by some newspapers and media outlets in the United States, including The New York Times and WNYC.[2][3]
Works published by authors who died in 1948 enter the public domain in many countries. In the U.S., all works published in 1923 enter the public domain, the first entry of published works into the public domain since 1998.[7]
An uncrewed demonstration flight of the new crew capable version of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, intended to carry American astronauts into space, achieves successful autonomous docking with the International Space Station.[32]
May 13 – Prosecutors in Sweden reopen the rape allegation investigation against Julian Assange. Swedish prosecutors mention their intent to seek extradition of Assange from the U.K. after he has served his 50-week prison sentence for skipping bail.[86]
July 10 – The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in Puebla, Mexico. The last of 5,961 "Special Edition" cars will be exhibited in a museum.[135]
August 1 – Danish polar research institution Polar Portal reports a large spike in Greenland ice loss, with 11 billion tons melted in one day and 197 gigatonnes during the month of July.[148]
August 7 – The Singapore Mediation Convention, also known as the UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, comes into effect. States that have ratified the treaty must enforce international commercial agreements in their courts.[154]
August 8 – Nyonoksa radiation accident: Reports indicate that there may have been a nuclear explosion at the Nyonoksa weapons-testing site in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. At least five people were killed and three others injured in the blast, with radiation levels in Severodvinsk, 47 km (29 mi) from the site, being 20 times above normal levels temporarily.[155]
The Trump administration announces it will delay its proposal for 10 percent tariffs slated to take effect from September 1 on certain consumer goods from China while exempting other products — less than two weeks after Trump announced the new proposed tariffs.[166]
August 13 – The main yield curve for U.S. Treasury bonds inverts, as the yield rate for 2-year bonds rises higher than the yield rate for 10-year bonds.[167]
August 15 – The European Central Bank shuts down PNB Banka after ruling it had become insolvent; this bank, previously called Norvik Banka, has been Latvia's sixth-largest lender, and a critic of the Baltic country's financial authorities.[171]
August 18 – 100 activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland hold a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after once covering 15.5 km2 (6 sq mi).[173]
August 19 – 2019 Papua protests erupt, mainly across Indonesian Papua, in response to an incident in Surabaya where a group of Papuan students were arrested for alleged disrespect of the Indonesian flag. In Jayapura, Sorong, Fakfak, Timika and Manokwari, protests turned violent, with various private buildings and public facilities being damaged or burned. The protests and unrest were described by Reuters as "the most serious civil unrest in years over perceived racial and ethnic discrimination."[174]
August 25 – 2019 Beirut drone crash: According to Lebanese officials, two Israeli drones attack Beirut, Lebanon. One crashed into the roof of the Hezbollah Media Center, about 45 minutes before the second exploded in the air and damaged the building.[179] It is the first such incident between Israel and Lebanon since the 2006 Lebanon War.[180]
September 1 – Hurricane Dorian makes landfall on The Bahamas as the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin outside the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, with sustained wind speeds of 185 mph.[182] 43 deaths are reported.[183]
Sinking of MV Conception: 34 people are killed following a fire and subsequent sinking of a dive boat near Santa Cruz Island, California, United States.[184] It is the worst maritime disaster in California in more than 150 years.[185]
Iranian woman Sahar Khodayari sets herself on fire after being arrested for attending a soccer game in Iran. She dies a week later.[186]
In the United States the Federal Trade Commission threatens to fine YouTube and Google up to $170 million for violation of collecting personal information from children under 13. Google tracked childrens YouTube history to regulate targeted advertising and the FTC took notice and took action.[188]
September 6 – Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar probe, is successfully placed in lunar orbit, but the lander Vikram crashes into the surface of the Moon.[189]
September 14 – 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack: Two Saudi Aramco oil refineries in Abqaiq and Khurais, Saudi Arabia, are attacked by drones, resulting in fires. Houthi militants claim responsibility, saying that they used ten drones for the attack. Aramco's oil exports and production are disrupted by five million barrels a day, close to half of the entire Saudi Arabian oil exports.[194]
September 22 – Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Dorian makes landfall on The Bahamas, the official death toll stands at 52 and 1,300 are reported missing. Rescuers report the widespread stench of rotting bodies in the rubble.[204]
One of the largest and oldest travel firms, Thomas Cook, goes bankrupt as last-minute rescue negotiations fail, stranding 600,000 tourists worldwide.[205]
The United Nations University Centre for Policy Research's Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking releases its final report, Unlocking Potential: A Blueprint for Mobilizing Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.[213]
The Nanfang'ao Bridge, the only steel single-arch bridge in Taiwan, collapses, killing six people and injuring more than twenty others.[217]
October 2 – 25 soldiers are killed and 60 missing following attacks on two army camps in Boulkessi and Mondoro, Mali.[218]
October 3 – European Commission spokesperson Daniel Rosario threatens retaliatory measures if the United States imposes a US$7.5-billion (approximately €6.8-billion) tariff on products such as olives, whiskey, wine, cheese, yogurt, and airplanes. The tariffs are scheduled to take place on October 18.[219]
October 12 – Typhoon Hagibis makes landfall in Japan, the biggest storm to hit the region in decades, with over seven million people urged to evacuate.[226]
October 16 – Venezuelan councilman and opposition politician Edmundo Rada is reported missing. He is found dead the following day on the side of the road out of Petare, Caracas,[230] burned and with two coup de grâce shots in the back of his neck.[231]
October 17 – Shootouts erupt in Culiacán, Mexico, after the arrest of El Chapo's son, Ovidio Guzmán López, on an arrest warrant for drug dealing in the United States.[232] Eight people are killed and 56 convicts escape from prison; 7 are recaptured by October 18. Guzmán López is released in an effort to restore peace and to prevent more bloodshed.[233]
October 25 – Tourists visit the summit of Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) for the last time, as a ban on climbing the famous rock in Australia's Northern Territory comes into effect.[243]
Social media website Twitter bans all political advertising worldwide.[247]
An earthquake of 6.5. Mw rocks the Philippine island of Mindanao two days after an earthquake killed at least five and left around 12,000 people homeless.[248]
Heavy rain and flooding leave 3 dead and 200,000 people are homeless in Beledweyne, Somalia. Meanwhile, 29 are dead and 29,000 homeless due to flooding in nearby Kenya.[251]
The United States formally begins process to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.[254]
November 5 – 11,000 scientists from around the world publish a study in the journal BioScience, warning "clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency".[255][256][257]
2019–20 Hong Kong protests: A traffic officer shoots a youth in Sai Wan Ho during a city-wide strike.[265] A man is also set on fire by protesters on the same day.[266]
2019–20 Hong Kong protests: The Chinese University of Hong Kong officially announces a premature end to the semester as a result of large-scale protests and civil unrest. Besides CUHK, several Hong Kong universities switch to online learning and suspend on-campus class. The Education Bureau in Hong Kong officially announces to close all schools in Hong Kong due to the ongoing protests.[270][271]
IPv4 address exhaustion: The RIPE NCC, which is the official regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, officially announces that it has run out of IPv4 addresses.[282]
2019 Chilean protests: Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issue reports on Chile's situation denouncing grave human rights violations, including excessive violence use and detention abuses by police forces.[285][286] Among police brutality acts there are records of police agents firing non-lethal ammunition to protesters' faces against provider's regulations, resulting in more than 200 people with severe eye trauma and more than 50 requiring prosthetic eyes.[287]
The CHEOPS space telescope, whose mission is to study the formation of extrasolar planets and determine their precise radius, likely density and internal structure, is launched.[311]
The Dutch Supreme Court affirms that the Dutch government is responsible for management of carbon dioxide emissions for the country and is bound to protect human rights.[318] The ruling reiterated from the Court of Appeals is that "every country is responsible for its share" of emissions.
Five men are sentenced to death and another three face 24 years in prison for their roles in the murder of dissident journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.[319]
28 people are killed and 13 others injured after a bus plunges into a ravine on a winding road in South Sumatra.[320][importance?]
A report by the Multi-Sector Epidemic Response Committee (CMRE) indicates that 2,231 people have died so far in the 2018–20 Kivu Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[326]
The Taliban's ruling council agrees to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, opening a door to a peace agreement with the United States.[327]
^Rostad, Ida Louise (September 4, 2019). "Helikopterulykken i Alta". NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on August 31, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
^"Con Evo en México y en ausencia del MAS, Jeanine Áñez asume la Presidencia". Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. November 12, 2019. Archived from the original on December 8, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2022. ...según el documento leído por Áñez, 'constituye un abandono material de sus funciones...'. En ausencia de ambos exmandatarios, el caso 'obliga a activar la sucesión presidencial...'. 'Por consiguiente, aquí se está frente a una sucesión presidencial originada en la vacancia de la presidencia..., [y] como presidenta de la Cámara de Senadores asumo de inmediato la presidencia del Estado...'.
