2023 (MMXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2023rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 23rd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2020s decade.
The year 2023 saw the decline in severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the WHO (World Health Organization) ending its global health emergency status in May. Catastrophic natural disasters included the fifth-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead, Cyclone Freddy – the longest-lasting recorded tropical cyclone in history – leading to over 1,400 deaths in Malawi and Mozambique, Storm Daniel, which became the deadliest cyclone worldwide since Cyclone Nargis after killing at least 11,000 people in Libya, a major 6.8 magnitude earthquake striking western Morocco, killing 2,960 people, and a 6.3 magnitude quadruple earthquake striking western Afghanistan, killing over 1,400 people.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and Myanmar civil war continued in 2023, and a series of coups, several armed conflicts, and political crises broke out in numerous African nations, most notably a war in Sudan. An escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict occurred in October when Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, led an attack on Israel, leading the latter to declare war on Hamas. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict ended after over 100,000 Armenians fled the region after an Azeri military invasion.
A banking crisis resulted in the collapse of numerous American regional banks as well as the buyout of Credit Suisse by UBS in Switzerland. The two largest American banks to collapse were Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, two of the three largest banking collapses in US history. The most notable of numerous acquisitions in various industries included October's energy acquisitions with ExxonMobil and Chevron buying Pioneer Natural Resources and Hess respectively, the luxury fashion holding company Tapestry (Coach New York and Kate Spade New York) announcing its purchase of Capri Holdings (Michael Kors and Versace), and the closure of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
In the realm of technology, 2023 saw the continued rise of generative AI models, with increasing applications across various industries. These models, leveraging advancements in machine learning and natural language processing, had become capable of creating realistic and coherent text, images, and music. An AI arms race between private companies has continued since the late 2010s, with Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google owner Alphabet today most dominant among firms.
January 1 – Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area, becoming the 20th member state of the Eurozone and the 27th member of the Schengen Area. This is the first enlargement of the Eurozone since Lithuania's entry in 2015, and the first enlargement of the Schengen Area since Liechtenstein's entry in 2011.
Burkina Faso requests French forces to withdraw from its territory after suspending a military accord that allowed the presence of French troops in the country.
January 27 – Widespread unrest erupts in Israel following an Israeli militaryraid in Jenin the previous day which killed nine Palestinians. Incendiary air balloons are launched into Israeli-populated areas following it. Israel responds with targeted airstrikes. Later the same day, seven Jewish civilians are killed in a synagogue in Neve Yaakov in a terrorist attack.
The US announces it is tracking alleged Chinese spy balloons over the Americas, later announcing that the balloons did not collect any information. One balloon drifts from Yukon to South Carolina before being shot down the next day, and a second hovers over Colombia and Brazil. This event is followed by subsequent detections and shootdowns of high-altitude objects elsewhere.
February 6 – A 7.8 Mwwearthquake strikes southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria followed by a 7.7 Mww aftershock on the same day, causing widespread damage and at more than 59,000 fatalities and 121,000 injured.
March 31 – April 1 – A historic and widespread tornado outbreak occurs in the United States, killing 33 people, injuring more than 218 others, and caused over $5.4 billion in damage. This tornado outbreak produced 147 tornadoes, making it the third largest tornado outbreak in history.
May 1 – 2023 banking crisis: San Francisco-based First Republic Bank fails and is auctioned off by the US FDIC to JPMorgan Chase for $10.7 billion. The collapse surpasses March's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to become the second largest in US history.
The 2023 Kuwaiti general election is held; following the annulment of the results of the 2022 snap elections by the Constitutional Court. 38 members retained their seats from the annulled 2022 session, while two returned from the dissolved 2020 session. Ten new MPs were elected for the first time.
July 14 – SAG-AFTRA announces it will begin a strike against the major film and TV studios in protest of low compensation, ownership of work, and generative AI.
2023 Greece wildfires: Tens of thousands of tourists flee Rhodes, Greece, amid wildfires and a major heatwave, in what officials say is the largest evacuation in the country's history.
August 1 – Global warming: The world's oceans reach a new record high temperature of 20.96 °C (69.73 °F), exceeding the previous record in 2016. July is also the hottest month on record for globally averaged surface air temperatures by a considerable margin (0.3 °C (32.5 °F)).
August 8 – 2023 Hawaii wildfires: 17,000 acres of land are burned and at least 101 people are killed, with two others missing, when a series of wildfires break out on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
September 20 – Archaeologists in Zambia find the world's oldest wooden structure, dating back 476,000 years, consisting of two interlocking wooden logs connected by a notch securing one perpendicular to the other.
October 11 – ExxonMobil announces it will acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for $65 billion USD, the first of two major energy industry acquisitions of the month. The second occurs less than two weeks later on 23 October, where Hess announces it will be acquired by Chevron for $50 billion.
October 17 – An explosion occurs at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, where displaced Palestinians are taking refuge. Many fatalities are reported, but estimates vary significantly, from 100 to as many as 471, depending on the source.
November 14–17 – President Biden hosts the APEC summit in San Francisco which Chinese president Xi Jinping attends. Both countries at the conclusion of the summit agree to re-open suspended channels of military communications and to cooperate in their fight against climate change.
Israel and Hamas agree to a four-day ceasefire, the first pause in fighting since 7 October, during which many Israeli hostages will be released, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
November 30 – Brazil announces it will join OPEC+ at a meeting of the organization to discuss oil output strategy in 2024. Brazil is the largest oil producer in South America, producing 4.6 million barrels per day of oil and gas.
December
December 3 – 2023 Guyana–Venezuela crisis: Venezuela votes in a symbolic referendum on whether voters agreed with creating a subdivision in the disputed territory of Guayana Esequiba currently under the control of neighboring Guyana. Analysts say the referendum's practical implications are likely to be minimal.
December 12 – At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, a consensus is reached for countries to "transition away" from fossil fuels, the first such agreement in the conference's 30-year history. The transition is specifically for energy systems, excluding plastics, transport or agriculture.
December 18 – A number of shipping companies announce a temporary suspension of their operations in the Red Sea due to continued attacks on vessels by Houthi rebels.
December 29 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russialaunches the largest wave of drones and missiles on Ukrainian cities since the start of the war in a overnight assault, killing at least 39 people and injuring at least 160 others. Ukrainelaunches a drone assault the following day, killing at least 21 people, including three children, and injuring 110 others, including 17 children.
The world population on January 1, 2023 was estimated at 7.943 billion people, and was expected to increase to 8.119 billion on January 1, 2024. An estimated 134.3 million births and 60.8 million deaths were expected to take place in 2023. The average global life expectancy was 73.16 years, an increase of 0.18 years from 2022. The rate of child mortality was by the end of the year, expected to have decreased from 2022. Less than 23% of people were living in extreme poverty (on or below the international poverty line), a decrease from 2022. In April, India surpassed China as the most populated country in the world.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article 2023, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses. ®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.