Jan 3 - US President Donald Trump tweets that his nuclear button is "much bigger" than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's.

Feb 14 - Jacob Zuma resigns as president of South Africa.

Feb 14 - Nikolaus Cruz, 19, opens fire at a Florida high school, killing 17 people.

March 4 - Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia are found on a bench in Salisbury, England, poisoned with a nerve agent.

March 22 - Trump sets in motion tariffs on as much as $US60 billion in Chinese imports to the US, prompting retaliatory action from China.

March 25 - A fire at a Siberian shopping mall kills 64 people.

April 4 - The US commemorates the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King.

April 11 - A military plane carrying soldiers and their families crashes in Algeria, killing 257 people.

April 26 - Comedian Bill Cosby is convicted of aggravated indecent assault and faces the rest of his life behind bars.

May 8 - Trump pulls the US out of an international nuclear deal with Iran.

May 14 - In Gaza nearly 60 Palestinians are killed by Israeli fire during a mass border protest.

May 18 - A passenger jet crashes after take-off from Havana, killing 110 people.

May 18 - A 17-year-old student opens fire at his Texas high school, killing 10 people before surrendering.

May 19 - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are married at Windsor Castle, watched by millions around the world.

May 24 - Australian grandmother Maria Exposto is sentenced to death in Malaysia on drug smuggling charges.

June 12 - Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un meet for a summit in Singapore to discuss denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.

July 10 - An international team of divers complete their mission to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand.

July 16 - Trump meets Vladimir Putin for a summit in Helsinki, prompting outrage by appearing to side with the Russian leader over allegations the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 US election.

July 23 - A wildfire near Athens kills scores of people.

August 5 - A 6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia's island of Lombok, killing hundreds of people.

September 15 - Super typhoon Mangkhut pummels the Philippines, causing dozens of deaths and widespread destruction.

September 20 - A ferry sinks in Lake Victoria in Tanzania, killing more than 227 people.

September 21 - Australian filmmaker James Ricketson receives a royal pardon in Cambodia after being sentenced to six years in jail for spying.

September 28 - More than 2000 people die after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, triggering a tsunami.

October 6 - Turkish officials say Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

October 6 - Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in as a US Supreme Court justice after the Senate narrowly confirms him.

October 10 - Hurricane Michael slams into Florida, causing deaths across four states.

October 17 - A student sets off explosive devices at a college in the Crimea then shoots fellow pupils before killing himself, leaving 19 dead and dozens injured.

October 20 - Trump announces the US will pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed with Russia in 1987.

October 26 - Cesar Sayoc, suspected of mailing pipe bombs to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Trump critics, is arrested in Florida on federal charges.

October 27 - A gunman murders 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the US.

October 29 - A jet operated by Indonesian budget airline Lion Air crashes in the Java Sea, killing all 189 people aboard.

November 4 - New Caledonia votes against independence from France.

November 6 - Democrats win control of the US House of Representatives in a blow to Trump. but Republicans hold the Senate.

November 7 - A gunman opens fire in a Californian bar popular with college students, killing 12.

November 8 - Dozens of people are killed and hundreds go missing after the deadliest wildfire in Californian history rips through the town of Paradise.

November 11 - A day of tributes to the millions of soldiers killed during World War I including a ceremony in Paris attended by dozens of world leaders.

November 20 - Trump vows to remain a "steadfast partner" of Saudi Arabia despite saying Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have known about the plan to murder journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

November 20 - Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence is released from an Indonesian prison and flies home to Australia.

November 26 - Russia seizes three Ukrainian naval ships off Crimea after opening fire and wounding sailors.

December 2 - China and the US agree to halt additional tariffs with the aim of reaching a trade agreement within 90 days.

December 3 - Paris experiences its worst rioting since 1968, with hundreds of "yellow vest" protesters demonstrating against the high cost of living.

December 10 - UK Prime Minister Theresa May postpones a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, knowing it won't pass. But the EU signals it won't renegotiate, increasing the risk of a chaotic "no-deal" Brexit.

December 12 - Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen is sentenced to three years in jail for tax evasion, lying to Congress and arranging illegal payments to silence women who posed a risk to Trump's presidential campaign.

December 13 - Gunman Cherif Chekatt, who killed three people at a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg, is shot dead by police after being on the run for 48 hours.

December 19 - Drones flying near London's Gatwick Airport force the closure of the runway and disrupt the Christmas travel plans of tens of thousands of people.

December 20: US Defence Secretary James Mattis resigns after Trump announces he's withdrawing US troops from Syria. A drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan is also planned.

December 22 - A tsunami hits coastal areas of Indonesia's Java and Sumatra islands, killing hundreds of people.

Australian Associated Press