January 1 - Sydney, Australia swelters through its hottest New Years Day on record. The thermometre peaked at 45 degrees celsius, sparking bushfires and power outages.
January 4 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
January 8 - A magnitude 6.9 earthquake with its epicenter just off the Greek island of Kythira hits much of the country and is felt throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea.
January 12 - The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany declare that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have reached a dead end and recommend that Iran be referred to the United Nations Security Council.
January 12 - A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims.
January 12 - Turkey releases Mehmet Ali Ağca from jail after he served 25 years for shooting Pope John Paul II.
January 12 - The French warship Clemenceau reaches Egypt and is barred access to the Suez Canal. Greenpeace activists board the ship.
January 16 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.
January 19 - Terrorist blows himself up in Tel Aviv, killing only himself but injuring 20 people, one of them seriously.
January 19 - A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.
January 19 - The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.
January 22 - Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.
January 25 - Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.
January 26 - Western Union discontinues use of its telegram service.
February 4 - A stampede occurs in the ULTRA Stadium near Manila killing 71.
February 12 - A powerful winter storm blankets the Northeastern United States dumping 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington DC up to Boston, Massachusetts. The storm dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow in New York City.
February 16 - The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
February 17 - A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
February 22 - At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or 78€ million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
February 23 - Dubai Ports World agrees to postpone its plans to take over management of six U.S. ports after the proposal ignited harsh bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.
February 24 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.
March 1 - Tarja Halonen is inaugurated as President of Finland for the second and last time.
March 1 - English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.
March 4 - Final contact attempt with Pioneer 10 by the Deep Space Network. No response was received.
March 6 - South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signs a bill into legislation that would ban most abortions in the state.
March 9 - Liquid water is discovered on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn.
March 10 - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.
March 10 - Mass unrest by the PCC started in São Paulo (the biggest city in Brazil) which would eventually kill more than 152 people.
March 11 - Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female president of Chile.
March 16 - The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the UN Human Rights Council.
March 20 - Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop.
March 20 - Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.
March 21 - Immigrant workers constructing the Burj Dubayy in Dubai, The United Arab Emirates and a new terminal of Dubai International Airport join together and riot, causing $1M in damage.
March 22 - ETA, armed Basque separatist group, declares permanent ceasefire.
March 22 - BC Ferries' M/V Queen of the North runs aground on Gil Island British Columbia and sinks; 101 on board, 2 presumed deaths.
March 22 - Three Christian Peacemaker Teams Hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox.
March 23 - The Federal Reserve discontinues publishing M3 money supply.
March 24 - Long-term protests in Belarus are broken by police.
March 25 - Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
March 25 - Protesters demanding a re-election in Belarus following the rigged Belarusian presidential election, 2006 clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.
March 26 - In Scotland, the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places comes into force.
March 26 - The military junta ruling Burma officially named Naypyidaw, a new city in Mandalay Division, as the new capital. Yangon had formerly been the nation's capital.
March 27 - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights holds its final meeting.
March 28 - At least 1 million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.
March 30 - Marcos Pontes is the first Brazilian astronaut in space.
April 1 - The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the 'British FBI', is created in the United Kingdom.
April 2 - Over 60 tornadoes break out, hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed.
April 6 - NZSL (New Zealand sign language) is made an official language of New Zealand.
April 8 - Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot to death, are found in a field in Ontario, Canada. The murders are soon linked to the Bandidos motorcycle gang.
April 11 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.
April 22 - 243 people are injured in pro-democracy protest in Nepal after Nepali security forces open fire on protesters against King Gyanendra.
April 22 - Four Canadian soldiers are killed 75 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan by a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants, the worst single day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War.
April 27 - Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.
May 1 - The Puerto Rican government closes the Department of Education and 42 other government agencies due to significant shortages in cash flow.
May 3 - Armavia Flight 967 crashes into the Black Sea, killing 113 people on board, with no survivors.
May 3 - Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.
May 5 - The government of Sudan signs an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
May 9 - Estonia ratifies the European Constitution.
May 9 - George Preca is canonised as the first Maltese saint in history.
May 13 - 2006 São Paulo violence: a major rebellion occurs in several prisons in Brazil.
May 16 - A large earthquake (7.4 on the Richter scale) occurs near New Zealand.
May 17 - The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to be an artificial reef
May 18 - The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country.
May 21 - The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.
May 21 - The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles separately in the same year.
May 22 - Results from the Montenegrin independence referendum, 2006 are announced. 55.4% of voters vote to become independent from the Serbia and Montenegro Union.
May 26 - The May 2006 Java earthquake kills over 5,700 people, leaves 200,000 homeless.
May 27 - The May 2006 Java earthquake strikes at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta killing over 6,600 people.
June 3 - The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence.
June 5 - Serbia declares independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
June 7 - British Houses of Parliament temporarily shut down due to anthrax alert.
June 18 - The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat is launched.
June 19 - Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial "laying of the first stone" at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway.
June 21 - Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix & Hydra.
June 28 - The Republic of Montenegro was admitted as the 192nd Member of the United Nations by General Assembly resolution 60/264.
June 29 - Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
July 1 - The first operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the People's Republic of China.
July 3 - Asteroid labeled as 2004 XP14 flies 432,308 km (268,624 miles) by Earth.
July 4 - North Korea tests four short-range missiles, one medium-range missile, and a long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2 reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan/East Sea.
July 5 - North Korea launched at least two short-range Nodong-2 missiles, one SCUD missile and one long-range Taepodong-2 missile.
July 5 - Emergency United Nations Security Council meeting held at the U.N in New York City because of the North Korean missile tests a day before.
July 6 - The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.
July 9 - At least 122 people are killed after a Sibir Airlines Airbus A310 passenger jet, carrying 200 passengers on board veers off the runway while landing at Irkutsk Airport in Siberia in wet conditions.
July 10 - Pakistan International Flight PK-688 crashes in Multan, Pakistan, shortly after takeoff, killing all 45 people on board.
July 11 - 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.
July 12 - Hezbollah initiates Operation True Promise.
July 27 - The Federal Republic of Germany is deemed guilty in the loss of Bashkirian 2937 and DHL Flight 611, because it is illegal to outsource flight surveillance.
July 30 - World's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
July 31 - Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro. This leads to a celebration in Little Havana (La Pequeña Habana in Spanish), Miami, Florida, where many Cuban Americans participated.
August 4 - Dame Silvia Cartwright steps down as the Governor-General of New Zealand and is replaced by The Honourable Anand Satyanand, who is sworn in on 23 August.
August 10 - Scotland Yard disrupts major terrorist plot to destroy aircraft travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States. All toiletries are banned from commercial airplanes.
August 23 - Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.
August 24 - The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is considered a Dwarf Planet.
August 27 - Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead in the hours following the crash.
August 31 - Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream was recovered from a raid by Norwegian police. The paintings were said to be in a better-than-expected condition.
September 1 - Luxembourg became the first country to complete the move to all digital television broadcasting.
September 13 - At Dawson College (Montreal), Kimveer Gill kills one student and wounds 19 others before committing suicide.
September 18 - Right wing protesters riot the building of the Hungarian Television in Budapest, Hungary, one day after an audio tape was made public, in which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admitted he and his party lied during the 2006 general elections.
September 19 - The Thai military stages a coup in Bangkok. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.
September 22 - The F-14 Tomcat retires from the United States Navy.
September 22 - A German maglev train crashes, killing 23.
September 29 - US Representative Mark Foley resigns after allegations of inappropriate emails to house pages were revealed.
September 30 - the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Constitutional Act that proclaimed the new Constitution of Serbia.
October 2 - Five school girls are murdered by Charles Carl Roberts in a shooting at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before Roberts commits suicide.
October 9 - North Korea allegedly tests its first nuclear device.
October 17 - The United States population reaches 300 million.
October 22 - A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama.
October 24 - Justice Rutherford of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down the "motive clause", an important part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act.
October 28 - Funeral service takes place for those executed at Bykivnia forest, outside Kiev, Ukraine. 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100,000) executed by Bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s – early 1940s are reburied.
November 5 - Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for the role in the massacre of the 148 Shi'as in 1982.
November 10 - Sri Lankan Tamil Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj is assassinated in Colombo.
November 11 - The New Zealand war memorial monument was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.
November 12 - The former Soviet republic of South Ossetia holds a referendum on independence from Georgia.
November 17 - Official naming of element 111, Roentgenium (Rg).
November 21 - Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in suburban Beirut.
November 24 - Israeli rapist Benny Sela escapes from police custody while being transferred to a court hearing.
November 27 - The Canadian House of Commons endorses Prime Minister Stephen Harper's motion to declare Québécois a nation within a unified Canada.
November 27 - Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician and former President of the Italian Republic, resigned from his position as lifetime senator.
December 4 - An adult giant squid is caught on video by Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo.
December 5 - Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
December 6 - NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
December 7 - A tornado struck Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging around 150 properties.
December 9 - Moscow suffers its worst fire since 1977, killing 45 women in a drug rehabitational center.
December 10 - One million Lebanese opposition supporters gather in downtown Beirut, calling for the government to resign.
December 11 - The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
December 12 - Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.
December 13 - The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, announced as extinct.
December 15 - First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
December 20 - A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
December 21 - Puzzle Play aired to network Ten, replacing In the Box
December 26 - The 2006 Hengchun earthquake with 7.1 magnitude hit Taiwan.
December 30 - Madrid Barajas International Airport is bombed.
December 30 - Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging.
