2015 Event Australia's Liberal Party votes in Malcolm Turnbull to replace Tony Abbott as prime minister; Abbott had received majority backing from his party in a no-confidence vote just seven months ago 2015 Event Scientists discover a cache of skeletons of a new species of human ancestor, named Homo naledi, in a South African cave; the hominids are thought to have possibly lived up to three million years ago 2015 Event The death toll rises to 104 from a massive explosion three days ago at a warehouse containing hazardous chemicals in the port of Tianjin, China; 720 were also injured in the disaster 2015 Event Airplane debris is found off the coast of France's Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean; officials believe the debris is from a Boeing 777 and may be part of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared over a year ago without a trace 2015 Event The Brain Kids, a team of robots from Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology, wins this year's RoboCup, a robotic football (soccer) tournament started 18 years ago to encourage new developments in the robotics field 2015 Event British Petroleum (BP) reaches a settlement with U.S. federal, state and local government entities regarding damages from its Deepwater Horizon rig explosion five years ago; BP will pay USD $18 billion through the year 2030 2015 Event Golfer Jordan Spieth, 21 years old, wins the U.S. Open, making him the youngest to win since Bobby Jones over 90 years ago 2015 Event Ehud Olmert, former prime minister of Israel, is sentenced to eight months in prison after new evidence emerges proving corruption charges for which he had been acquitted three years ago 2015 Event Oil spill cleanup continues at Refugio State Beach in California after a pipeline burst two days ago; about 21,000 gallons of oil have been released into the ocean and 105,000 gallons on land 2015 Event A new birdlike dinosaur, Yi qi, has been discovered in China; the fossils suggest that it lived about 160 million years ago and had membranous, bat-like wings that not been seen in other dinosaur species 2015 Event The Cairo Criminal Court convicts Egyptian ex-President Mohammed Morsi for his role in illegal detentions and violent responses to protests against him three years ago; he and other Muslim Brotherhood defendants will serve a 20-year prison term 2015 Event TransAsia Airways suspends flights and begins retraining all its pilots in compliance with orders from Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration after the crash of Flight 235 into the Keelung River three days ago 2014 Event The NASA Mars rover Curiosity has returned images from the red planet's Gale Crater showing evidence of sediment deposits, suggesting that lakes and rivers potentially existed across the planet millions of years ago 2014 Event NASA awakens its New Horizons craft from hibernation for the last time; the vessel was launched 9 years ago to travel over 3 billion miles to Pluto and will be within range to begin data collection on the planet in January 2015 2014 Event Investigators will conduct a deep-sea sonar scan in the Indian Ocean for the remains of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370; satellite communication attempts have provided clues to the plane's likely trajectory before it disappeared eight months ago 2014 Event Four former guards of security company Blackwater have been convicted of manslaughter and murder charges in the shooting of 31 unarmed Iraqi civilians seven years ago in Baghdad; the incident resulted in 14 deaths and 17 injuries 2014 Event Palestine will be officially recognized as a sovereign state by the new government of Sweden; though the U.N. General Assembly supported such recognition two years ago, few nations have officially extended this recognition 2014 Event With help from Qatar officials, 45 U.N. peacekeepers from Fiji have been freed by their Syrian rebel captors; the troops were taken hostage two weeks ago after the rebels overtook the Syrian-controlled part of Golan Heights from government troops 2014 Event Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, announce that they are expecting their second child; baby Prince George celebrated his first birthday two months ago 2014 Event Bruce Levenson will sell his stake in the Atlanta Hawks after stating earlier this week that he sent a racially biased email two years ago; Levenson is freely following the path of Don Sterling, who was forced to sell the Clippers for similar reasons 2014 Event Iraqi troops and Shiite militia members, aided by U.S. air strikes, free the town of Amerli from Islamic State control; the rebel group seized the town two months ago, blocking access to food and supplies; rations were air-dropped after the victory 2014 Event Fossils of a new species of giant penguin, named Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, have been found on Seymour Island in Antarctica; the penguins lived about 40 million years ago and likely weighed about 250 pounds 2014 Event Mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is now one of the top three downloads in the free app category of the Apple App store in the U.S.; the game was released a little over two weeks ago 2014 Event Prince Felipe of Spain is coronated as King Felipe VI, following his father's abdication over two weeks ago; the simple ceremony sought to avoid displays of extravagance in a nation suffering high unemployment and growing disinterest in the monarchy 2014 Event African leaders meet in Paris to discuss ways to fight Boko Haram, the Islamist group that kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls over a month ago in Nigeria; the country's president, Goodluck Jonathan, has been seen as slow to respond to the situation 2014 Event A shipwreck off of Haiti may be that of the Santa Maria, one of the three ships led by Christopher Columbus; the wreck was discovered about 10 years ago, but has only now been tentatively identified in light of Columbus' writings and other evidence 2014 Event Union backers and California legislators are seeking to raise the state's minimum wage to $13 per hour; Governor Jerry Brown ratified a law only 8 months ago to raise the wage to $10 an hour by 2016 2014 Event Greenpeace releases its annual energy efficiency report praising several Internet companies, including Apple, which scored poorly a couple of years ago; Amazon was noted as lagging behind in use of renewable energy for its data centers 2014 Event Doctors announce that a 3D-printed plastic skull was successfully used to replace part of a woman's real skull in an operation three months ago in the Dutch city of Utrecht 2014 Event Google sells Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion after purchasing it three years ago for $12.5 billion, and selling off it's cable-box division for $2.4 billion 2013 Event One of the rarest mammals on earth, the saola, an Asian unicorn is released by WWF; the photo was taken by a camera trap in a forest in central Vietnam in September 2013, last seen 15 years ago 2013 Event A railway under the sea, first proposed by Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid 150 years ago is completed; the sea tunnel, connecting Europe and Asia is the deepest submerged railway tunnel of its kind in the world 2013 Event In Greenland. a canyon over 800km long is discovered up to 800m deep in different places below the ice sheet covering the country; the canyon is longer than Arizona's Grand Canyon; it was carved out by a river over four million years ago 2013 Event Teresa Heinz Kerry, 74, wife of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, was discharged from the hospital after suffering a seizer nearly three weeks ago; she is expected to make a full recovery 2012 Event At the 2012 U.S. Open, Andy Murray of the U.K. wins the Men's Singles, defeating Serbia's Novak Djokovic; Murray becomes the first British player to win a Grand Slam singles title since Fred Perry 76 years ago 2012 Event Illegally excavated Buddhist relics that were recovered by Pakistani police were stolen from a police station in Karachi; the pieces date back to the Gandhara civilization which existed over 2,000 years ago in Pakistan 2012 Event The China Central Television Headquarters, designed by the Officer for Metropolitan Architecture, a firm based in Rotterdam ten years ago, is finally completed in Beijing 2012 Event After losing power three days ago due to an engine room fire, the Costa Allegra cruise ship arrives at the Seychelles 2011 Event Peruvians reclaimed 45,000 Inca artefacts taken by Yale University from Machu Picchu over a hundred years ago, finally successful in their campaign to return of 'the dignity and pride of Peru' 2010 Event Remains of a human that lived 400,000 years ago are discovered in Israel, challenging the theory that humans originated in Africa 2010 Event Ghana begins pumping oil after its discovery of an offshore oil field three years ago 2010 Event The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded off the coast of Louisiana two days ago, sinks; the wreck is leading crude oil and diesel at an alarming rate 2009 Event A new kind of flying reptile fossil, Darwinopterus, lived over 160 million years ago, is found in China 1987 Event Paul McCartney releases "Once Upon a Long Ago" 1981 Event George Harrison releases "All Those Years Ago" in the United Kingdom 1928 Birthday David Somerset, born in England, David Robert Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort, British peer, criticized for accepting public funds on riverbed land granted to his dukedom 400 years ago
