WORLD HISTORY · 2015 日本語
Events of 2015Heisei 27 (Japan) · Year of the Goat
What happened in 2015?
In January 2015, ISIL held Japanese nationals hostage, and in March the Hokuriku Shinkansen opened to Kanazawa. In September, Japan passed new security legislation, and in December Japan and South Korea reached an agreement on the "comfort women" issue.
- Charlie Hebdo attack in ParisEurope
- ISIL releases video of Japanese hostagesAsia
- Hokuriku Shinkansen opens to KanazawaAsia
- Major earthquake strikes NepalAsia
- Japan's security legislation passedAsia
- Coordinated terrorist attacks in ParisEurope
- Paris Agreement on climate change adoptedEurope
- Japan, South Korea reach comfort women dealAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
2015 at a glance
| Japanese era | Heisei 27 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Goat |
| Age of people born in 2015 | Turn 11 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 2014 (Heisei 26) ／ 2016 (Heisei 28) |
| Events | 117 |
| AP World History | Unit 9 (Globalization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 2015
Our birthday pages list 1 people born in 2015. Here are some of them.
- Princess Charlotte of WalesBorn May 2 · turns 11 this year
Events of 2015 (timeline · 117)
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The Eurasian Economic Union comes into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.
A car bomb explodes outside a police college in the Yemeni capital Sanaa with at least 38 people reported dead and more than 63 injured.
Two gunmen commit mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, executing twelve people and wounding eleven others.
The perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris two days earlier are both killed after a hostage situation; a second hostage situation, related to the Charlie Hebdo shooting, occurs at a Jewish market in Vincennes.
A mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique involving beer that was contaminated with Burkholderia gladioli leaves 75 dead and over 230 people ill.
A traffic accident between an oil tanker truck and passenger coach en route to Shikarpur from Karachi on the Pakistan National Highway Link Road near Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Karachi, killing at least 62 people.
The Swiss National Bank abandons the cap on the Swiss franc's value relative to the euro, causing turmoil in international financial markets.
A clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in the Philippines kills 44 members of Special Action Force (SAF), at least 18 from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and five from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
An aircraft crashes at Los Llanos Air Base in Albacete, Spain, killing 11 people and injuring 21 others.
Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) recaptures the city of Kobanî from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), marking a turning point in the Siege of Kobanî.
TransAsia Airways Flight 235, with 58 people on board, en route from the Taiwanese capital Taipei to Kinmen, crashes into the Keelung River just after takeoff, killing 43 people.
The European Space Agency's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle is launched on a Vega rocket.
A university student is murdered as she resists an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women.
Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.
Two trains collide in the Swiss town of Rafz resulting in as many as 49 people injured and Swiss Federal Railways cancelling some services.
A ferry carrying 100 passengers capsizes in the Padma River, killing 70 people.
A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California following a collision with a truck, leaving more than 30 injured.
Russian politician Boris Nemtsov is assassinated in Moscow while out walking with his girlfriend.
At least 34 miners die in a suspected gas explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in the rebel-held Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Two Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil helicopters collide in mid-air over Villa Castelli, Argentina, killing all 10 people on board both aircraft, including French athletes Florence Arthaud, Camille Muffat and Alexis Vastine, as well as producers and guests for the French TV show Dropped.
Serbian Army Mi-17 helicopter crashes near Belgrade airport while transporting a 5-day-old baby with respiratory problems to hospital, killing all 7 on board.
The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. Twenty-four people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.
Syrian civil war: The Siege of Kobanî is broken by the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Free Syrian Army (FSA), marking a turning point in the Rojava–Islamist conflict.
Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.
Al-Shabab militants attack and temporarily occupy a Mogadishu hotel leaving at least 20 people dead.
Air Canada Flight 624 skids off the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, after arriving from Toronto shortly past midnight. All 133 passengers and five crews on board survive, with 23 treated for minor injuries.
Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area in what has been called the "largest burglary in English legal history."
Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland.
At least 8,962 are killed in Nepal after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal.
Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan's history.
Peaceful protesters install the first anti-monument in Mexico, Antimonumento +43, as a call for justice and remembrance to commemorate the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping, later inspiring similar memorials elsewhere in the country and Latin America.
A baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox sets the all-time low attendance mark for Major League Baseball. Zero fans were in attendance for the game, as the stadium was officially closed to the public due to the 2015 Baltimore protests.
Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
A train derailment in Philadelphia, United States, kills eight people and injures more than 200.
At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar.
The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast.
The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to utilise a public referendum to legalise gay marriage.
At least 30 people are killed as a result of floods and tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.
A ship carrying 458 people capsizes in the Yangtze river in China's Hubei province, killing 442 people.
An earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.0 strikes Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia, killing 18 people, including hikers and mountain guides on Mount Kinabalu, after mass landslides that occurred during the earthquake. This is the strongest earthquake to strike Malaysia since 1975.
American businessman Donald Trump announces his campaign to run for President of the United States in the upcoming election.
Nine people are killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Afghan National Assembly building is attacked by gunmen after a suicide bombing. All six of the gunmen are killed and 18 people are injured.
Five different terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Syria occur on what was dubbed Bloody Friday by international media. Upwards of 750 people are either killed or injured in these uncoordinated attacks.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Formosa Fun Coast fire: A dust fire occurs at a recreational water park in Taiwan, killing 15 people and injuring 497 others, 199 critically.
A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people on board crashes in a residential area in Medan, Indonesia, resulting in at least 116 deaths.
Chile claims its first title in international football by defeating Argentina in the 2015 Copa América final.
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security Altiplano prison in Mexico, his second escape.
NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System.
Four U.S. Marines and a United States Navy Sailor are killed in the a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades.
A huge explosion in the mostly Kurdish border town of Suruç, Turkey, targeting the Socialist Youth Associations Federation, kills at least 31 people and injures over 100.
Seven people are killed and many injured after gunmen attack an Indian police station in Punjab.
The first piece of suspected debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is discovered on Réunion Island.
The Environmental Protection Agency at Gold King Mine waste water spill releases three million gallons of heavy metal toxin tailings and waste water into the Animas River in Colorado.
A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people at a mosque in the Saudi city of Abha.
At least two massive explosions kill 173 people and injure nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China.
At least 76 people are killed and 212 others are wounded in a truck bombing in Baghdad, Iraq.
The U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off.
North Korea moves its clock back half an hour to introduce Pyongyang Time, 81⁄2 hours ahead of UTC.
More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma.
Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibil, Bintang Mountains Regency, killing all 54 people on board.
A bomb explodes near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing at least 19 people and injuring 123 others.
Two U.S. journalists are shot and killed by a disgruntled former coworker while conducting a live report in Moneta, Virginia.
A crane collapses onto the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing 111 people and injuring 394 others.
The first observation of gravitational waves is made, announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016.
A 8.3 Mw earthquake strikes the Chilean city of Illapel, killing 15 people, injuring at least 34, leaving at least six missing, and causing extensive damage. One person also dies in Argentina.
Two security personnel, 17 worshippers in a mosque, and 13 militants are killed during a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a Pakistan Air Force base on the outskirts of Peshawar.
Adventist Health System agreed to pay $118.7 million to settle allegations of fraud. It was the largest a hospital network has ever paid.
At least 1,100 people are killed and another 934 wounded after a stampede during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The American cargo vessel SS El Faro sinks with all of its 33 crew after steaming into the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin.
Forty-two people are killed and 33 go missing in the Kunduz hospital airstrike in Afghanistan.
A suicide bomb attack in Tonsa, Pakistan kills at least seven people and injures 13 others.
The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 and causing over $280 million in damages.
A driver deliberately crashes into the Oklahoma State Homecoming parade, killing four people and injuring 34.
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Hindu Kush mountain range in South Asia, killing 399 people and leaving 2,536 people injured.
A fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital of Bucharest kills sixty-four people and leaves more than 147 injured.
Metrojet Flight 9268 is bombed over the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
A cargo plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport in Juba, South Sudan, killing at least 37 people.
A building collapses in the Pakistani city of Lahore resulting in at least 45 deaths and at least 100 injuries.
Rona Ambrose takes over after Stephen Harper as the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
An iron ore tailings dam bursts in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, flooding a valley, causing mudslides in the nearby village of Bento Rodrigues and causing at least 17 deaths and two missing.
Two suicide bombers detonate explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, Beirut, killing 43 people and injuring over 200 others.
Islamic State operatives carry out a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, including suicide bombings, mass shootings and a hostage crisis. The terrorists kill 130 people, making it the deadliest attack in France since the Second World War.
The government of Belgium imposes a security lockdown on Brussels, including the closure of shops, schools, and public transportation, due to potential terrorist attacks.
Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.
An explosion on a bus carrying Tunisian Presidential Guard personnel in Tunisia's capital Tunis leaves at least 14 people dead.
A Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jet is shot down by the Turkish Air Force over the Syria–Turkey border, killing one of the two pilots; a Russian marine is also killed during a subsequent rescue effort.
A terrorist attack on a hotel in Al-Arish, Egypt, kills at least seven people and injures 12 others.
An active shooter inside a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, shoots at least four police officers. One officer later dies. Two civilians are also killed, and six injured. The shooter later surrendered.
San Bernardino attack: Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik kill 14 people and wound 22 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California.
A firebomb is thrown into a restaurant in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing 17 people.
Venezuelan parliamentary election: For the first time in 17 years, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela loses its majority in parliament.
The JAXA probe Akatsuki successfully enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt.
Rojava conflict: The Syrian Democratic Council is established in Dêrik, forming the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.
The Paris Agreement relating to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is adopted.
A bomb explodes at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, killing one airport cleaner. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks claim responsibility for the attack four days later.
A violent EF-4 tornado hits Garland, Texas, killing nine and injuring almost 500 others.
A fire breaks out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates, located near the Burj Khalifa, two hours before the fireworks display is due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 2015 in the Japanese calendar?
2015 was Heisei 27 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 2015?
2015 is the Year of the Goat.
How old is someone born in 2015?
They turn 11 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 2015?
In January 2015, ISIL held Japanese nationals hostage, and in March the Hokuriku Shinkansen opened to Kanazawa. In September, Japan passed new security legislation, and in December Japan and South Korea reached an agreement on the "comfort women" issue.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.