Top 24 Biggest Historic Events of Each Year (2000 - 2023)

[@WatchMojo]

Filtering an entire year into a single world-defining event is an impossible task. Were there major historical events that didn’t make our list? Let us know in the comments below! For more content like this, click here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmbbeYZ4nbCDg6M Don't forget to play our Live Trivia (www.watchmojo.com/play) games at 3pm EST for a chance to win cash! The faster you answer, the more points you get!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content 😊😊😊

[@erzaender]

the september 11 or 9/11 and obama becomes president

[@adamhoward1408]

2020 was not only the worst year it was a fuckin nightmare

[@TimLoyalToWifeHaterFreeZoneA]

Love It WatchMojo And Happy New Year.

[@rainbowrunner1550]

Hey WatchMojo, your "Top 10 Greatest Kids Movies of All Time" video was marked as "made for kids" by COPPA. This is the first time I've ever seen any of your vids marked as such. Please fix it! Your audience demographic is clearly not merely for younger people.

[@jhaarbur]

I think you totally missed 2004 - I think the biggest event that year was the tsunami at the end of it that effected a huge part of the Indian Ocean and killed 250,000 people. Yes, FB was big, but I think this event was much more significant.

[@arturogizquierdo6265]

Exactly!!!

[@brunogomes3699]

Agreed! 👍🏻

[@brandonbrown1908]

agreed

[@brewerrkjb]

My thinking exactly - I was like, where was the Tsunami of 2004?

[@jorgemario144]

Agree

[@peedipiper9048]

From Kobe Bryant's death, COVID-19 pandemic, and the roits that broke out on George Floyd's death, 2020 was a rather depressing year.

[@SolCresta3405]

Pretty much one of the reasons why the 21st century is hell.

[@hannahlowe794]

FACTS

[@JIMANGRYFOOTCOMICS]

Chadwick BOSEMAN

[@peedipiper9048]

@@JIMANGRYFOOTCOMICS oh yeah the lost of Chadwick Bosman and Tiny Lester jr a.k.a Debo as well

[@ryanfagen8248]

Mainly Covid-19, but it didn't actually impact me that much because I'm home most of the time anyways unless I'm at work.

[@justinguidroz9659]

Hurricane Katrina should have at least gotten a mention for 2005.

[@heathernks8]

Literally came to the comments for this.

[@tundegordian7273]

For the US yes for the world I don’t think so

[@justadreamaway8459]

Agreed! They still bring up Katrina in the local news to this day.

[@gletube3109]

they do in their vid thru 2021.

[@KegOfMeat]

Oh yeah true. I was saying it was the London 7/7 Bombings but it’s totally Katrina.

[@atran071]

The 2019-20 bushfire season was terrible for Australians, the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III are significant.

[@TheDas9582]

Yeah, that housing crisis in 2008 really f’d my parents. Never recovered from that.

[@gloria88246]

Same 😒

[@davidstephan5116]

Smart money bought all those foreclosed houses with cash and sat on them for a couple years. 😃👍🏼 thanks mom n dad

[@GuremaManaba]

I was born in 2000, the 90s people feared about the Y2K, but that year 2000 has it's true meaning to me, the new millennium and time is evolved...

[@cajayson8301]

I was 16 going on 17 when Y2k occurred. To be honest, I never bought any of it. Just seemed like utter paranoia and of course that's what it was in the end

[@thehumancomedy3891]

​@@cajayson8301It was "nothing" because of all the programmers that worked to fix everything before 2000 happened.

[@cajayson8301]

@@thehumancomedy3891 which I know. I'm just saying I never bought into this hysteria that everything would melt down a la the 2008 economy crashing.

[@GuremaManaba]

@@thehumancomedy3891 It means to me, and not to yourself! Year 2000 has it's meaning, a new millennium, our technology is evolved, new things, hope, terror, peace and the like...all of it are there, the true importance here...is time... forget the Y2K stuffs because it's some what a temporal superstition via machine...

[@dillonkinder9296]

2020 really changed the world big

[@joshuahecht6866]

2020 changed everything forever I graduated in 2020 and felt its effects even after all these years. No one should forget it but we must be better than the ones before to not repeat the mistakes of our past.

[@CandyHatsuneWolff]

I agree with you. Sadly, as humans we seem to repeat our mistakes more often than not.

[@cba_2442]

It changed nothing because nothing needed changed.

[@emilypeterson1133]

That is how it was for 2001 too--you felt the effects for a long time, several years. I feel that will be the same for COVID19 too.

[@cenexxis]

2004 was the Seaquake in the Indian Ocean which caused 232.000 Deaths.

[@danieln6700]

2016 was crazy really. Seems like when Fandoms and things started getting infected by bs.

[@Dewald]

It's notable how desensitized we've become to mass shootings and school shootings, given that none of them have made it onto this list.

[@roberttalada5196]

I mean, there are multiple mass shootings every single day. It’s not like they exactly stand out

[@BigFella117]

I graduated from high school in 2020, but everything that happened that year made it sadder than it should have been.

[@Areniapixie]

Congrats on your graduation 🥳 I’m sorry that it wasn’t the experience you expected or deserved 😢

[@BigFella117]

@@Areniapixie thank you. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was a good farewell to my high school

[@legendslog3911]

I completed my masters in 2019, narrowly escaped the year 2020

[@thehumancomedy3891]

Aww poor baby

[@BigFella117]

@@legendslog3911 you got lucky my friend

[@gamingwithscottie1478]

To be honest, especially as a CT resident, I actually think the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown was 2012's most famous story, not that discovery. Not only was it Christmastime, nor it right being in my area, but it was super young kids, which still disgusts me even to this day, especially because one of the victims, Victoria Soto, was from my town.

[@goldenvulture6818]

Don't forget the first person the shooter killed that day was his mom

[@gamingwithscottie1478]

I know. Such a tragedy.@@goldenvulture6818

[@jacobdrolet4262]

Amazing video Rebecca from watch mojo of the human historic event throughout the different years in human history,fantastic job. Happy new year watch mojo

[@user-em6ie2be7x]

The COVID-19 Pandemic was Life Altering for everyone, but it was a Learning experience.

[@mr.twists9302]

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if aliens came down this year.

[@CashelOConnolly]

Why would they want to visit this 💩show

[@danieln6700]

2007 was also peak runescape too.

[@samuelmelendez7566]

You just listed everything that happened in my entire lifetime up to this point

[@Bjorngrim74]

Angela Merkel was amongst the most respected and derided of politicians in the last decade. WatchMojo needs to illustrate both ends of the spectrum better.

[@melaniesenf7175]

I am from Germany. She was a horrible leader and opened our downfall!

[@Jeremiah_Rivers76]

The Paris terror attacks were hard for me to watch while waiting for pizza that day. That’s right: I saw them unfold while I was at a Pizza Hut a few minutes from my grandparents’ house.

[@K.J.S.est1994]

For 2019, you didn’t even choose the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand or the Notre Dame Cathedral Fire?

[@kieranfrancke790]

I have to argue for hurricane katrina in 2005. It was very historic as well. So was queen Elizabeth’s death.

[@josephbrownjr3564]

You missed the tsunami of 2004

[@billcurtis1157]

2005 also had hurricane Katrina.

[@AmericanEnglishman]

I track what I consider to be the most important events each year too and this is a really good list. Only a few disagreements: 2005 - Hurricane Katrina 2011 - Bin Laden killed 2013 - Pope Francis and a change at the top of the Catholic Church 2019 - Trump's (first) impeachment

[@Emir_969]

2010 or 2011 should be Arab Spring.

[@gevorg1989]

He wasn't impeached. He stayed in rule

[@Caady]

3 things only applies to the US...

[@loboblanco4426]

Excellent video!

[@joenesvick7043]

The year 2000 isn't part of the twenty-first century, surprised some people still think it is

[@gloria88246]

I remember on Y2K my uncle who was drunk got super upset and confused if Y2K was supposed to happen at midnight and New York is 3 hours ahead of us and they did their countdown on TV before we did, when was it supposed to hit LOL He was furious 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤯

[@alexiskuwata]

Oof

[@Destinychanged]

In these past few years I feel like I’m my Dad experiencing the 60s.

[@kieranfrancke790]

How old are you?

[@VictorRFrancisco]

Of course it is an US-European centric video, but still amazing!

[@tashacooper1753]

We do cause most of the worlds problems

[@davidstephan5116]

No other countries really matter

[@centralgirl10]

@@tashacooper1753 Haha it's because youtube is an AMERICAN company. WatchMojo are americans.

[@alexphillips4644]

I was starting middle school when 9/11 happened. My dad was living on Long Island. I foolishly thought he had a job in NYC. I was wrong. But it was a scary time back then.

[@joannewilson1162]

2004 was the hardest one to call. Because you had Facebook begin which was huge… but she also had the Indian Ocean tsunami, which took the lives of over 250,000 people. Then again in 2005, you had a lot of hurricanes that were crazy in the United States. The the strongest one, and the one that everybody remembers, was hurricane Katrina. But I think Germany electing their first female president was pretty significant too. Like you said, trying to sum up years in one event that changed history is impossible. Because there’s other things that happened throughout those years that were also significant

[@NarsUchiha]

2020 has to be one of the most depressing years in human history

[@K.J.S.est1994]

Years 1939-1945: *”Am I a joke to you?”*

[@RenandStimpyandSonicfan]

1914-1918

[@keithkarvelis82]

It was the worst year of our lifetimes.

[@keithkarvelis82]

It was the worst year of our lifetimes.

[@JZJ7777]

@@K.J.S.est1994a majority of us weren’t alive during those years.

[@jessrosefawkes2721]

I was terrified of the millennium bug. I was 10 and I thought an actual giant bug was guna take over earth lol x

[@bastionsea2829]

My dad was a computer programmer in 'Y2K' he assured us that most of the had been taken care of years prior

[@G1Grimlock94]

History goes crazy like Greek

[@danieln6700]

Interesting video. Be good for some younger ppl to see who probably don't know of some

[@littlemissgwendolen1466]

2020 had enough events for a whole decade

[@Classical01]

You should've put everything for 2020, there was always something new every month.

[@sferg3291]

um.... did we forget the passing of the Queen ? That was a pretty historical moment IMO.

[@goldenvulture6818]

If what happened on 1/6/21 in Washington D.C. was in fact an actual insurrection then how come everyone who's been charged for the incident wasn't charged with the crime of insurrection?

[@theywouldnthavetocensormei9231]

Now we're asking the real questions. It's amazing how they can just call it an insurrection as though it's a fact, even being as generous as we can possibly be, that's an opinion. A very misinformed opinion.

[@AnimalsVehiclesAndMore]

@@theywouldnthavetocensormei9231 That event has left so many people heavily divided. Some people say it was an attack against America, and some say it was an attack by America against domestic enemies being influenced by foreign foes. My political beliefs are split down the middle, so I won't confirm or deny either view.

[@tylerleitzke]

This is the agenda pushed by the far left to try and make the idea that "Trump = bad" in an abysmal attempt for the left to try and gain power! Yet Donald Trump has never been legally convicted, let alone charged with the crime of insurrection. Everyone on the left just constantly repeat "insurrection" like sheep. I'm surprised the liberal snowflakes haven't melted yet.

[@quintangeorge94]

Tupac Shakur would've been Proud to have Seen Barack Obama's Presidency.

[@luukdetruck]

I missed the Paris attacks in 2015 and of course all the terrorist attacks in that period by ISIS. I think that was an event that had a major impact on the world.

[@Bluestar-bh3bf]

The covid 19 pandemic was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced restaurants were only taking to go orders, a select number of people were allowed to enter a store at a time, classes were held online, and masks were mandatory everywhere

[@cba_2442]

It was a complete joke for sure. Luckily I never wore a mask.

[@AnimalsVehiclesAndMore]

At least the pandemic is now over, and everything's back to the way it is.

[@gletube3109]

I have watched both of your vids, and not a mention of 2011 Arab Spring.

[@julianhall1866]

I thought the Dark Knight massacre was gonna be 2012, total 11 people died youngest was a 6 yr old girl.

[@user-em6ie2be7x]

Brexit - it's always bad watching a nation crumble to bits, but Brexit was the first time in History a Country actually voted for it.

[@Xunkun]

Trump supporters: "Hold my beer."

[@AlejandroLopez-ed8kj]

This is the first time in history that a country imposed economic sanctions upon itself.

[@BethelAbba]

You guys blew it --- the Nuclear power plant displayed at 12:55 is not Fukushima, but rather Three Mile Island in America. I would have assumed you'd know that.... since Three Mile Island was nearly 60 years ago and on a different continent..... I guess you guys just thought one nuclear plant looks the same as any other. Oh well.... in any case, you dropped the ball on this one.

[@adminjamie]

As a 90s kid : i had no idea about this Y2k thing

[@sean.furlong1989]

I remember it a little. My family thought it was all bs so it wasn't something we talked about much.

[@mrtelevisionandmovies]

The 21st century has already very big historic events. Wondering what the biggest historic event of this year will be and the next decades.

[@תוםסיוןאזולאי-י9מ]

messi and argentina wins the world cup finals

[@Shadow224_Sombra]

Born in 04 I grew up through most of this

[@JZJ7777]

I was born in that year too, so same. I mean, I don’t remember these things when they happened, at least early on, but I was alive when they happened.

[@SG-fm9wd]

I was in online class when my cousin came down and told me about the January 6th insurrection and I was like "Well that's something you don't see or hear about everyday"

[@cba_2442]

It was hilarious watching it though.

[@penguinctc]

2021: Max Verstappen beats Mercedes

[@rcisneros8567]

Y2K was a real problem that was fixed. One system was missed in Japan they lost complete access to GPS. (Shipping, police, etc.) Just because people went nuts, doesn't mean there weren't a lot of things to fix.

[@NickCC23]

Note that 2021,2022, and 2023 evenst have one person in common: Vladimir Putin. The century's greatest chaos agent by far.

[@gevorg1989]

You misspelled "American Establisment"

[@arachniweasel]

my mom was in the nypd, and was a first responder at the wtc bombing in 1993. she saw a lot of her friends die on live tv. and in the years after, around ten of her surviving friends have died of cancer.

[@kelleyk28]

I saw the second plane hit on live TV. It was weird. I was at work and there was a TV above my desk. (EDI company owned by GE.) This guy walks up and went to ask me for the person he needed to see. He looked up and said, "a plane just hit the World Trade Center". I came around the desk in time to see the second plane. A lot of people freaked out. My mom's job would not allow their employees to call relatives, it was business as usual. I did not know this and I couldn't reach her. It was very scary.

[@cassandrakarpinski9416]

Im sorry but 2004 should have been the boxing day tsunami, NOT facebook. Is Facebook big, yes, but having so many die in the worst natural disaster is way more important

[@LuisGonzalez-px4sj]

I probably be dead by then I wonder what’s going to happen in 2100?

[@BlackEnigma908]

Thought the queen's death would have been the most influential event in 2022

[@Irishnihoih]

Man, WatchMojo doesn't even hide their biases

[@Vampiricspektor2]

annnnnnnnnd this morning 2024....japan was hit with another earthquake :(

[@ajpat9620]

But nothing can be truly compared of the impact of the earthquake and Tsunami that has struck Japan in 2011, which led to a Fukushima nuclear disaster.

[@davidstephan5116]

If it happened in the US, it might be important

[@JZJ7777]

Oh, good grief.

[@tylerthetiger2659]

The music sadly died around the late 2010s😔

[@The_Infamous_Boogyman]

2007 should be Spider-Man 3, but I worked for home gold, the company ripping people off for mortgages in 2008, I quit after 4 days. 2 days later the feds busted in

[@jackson_and_ryder_playz]

hi you probably won't see this but i think you should redo the worst saw traps video and add the newest traps to the list.

[@sethleger6105]

2000 wasn’t in the 21st century it was the 20th century

[@garveyneal1672]

Can you do Top 24 best cartoon shows of each year (2000-2023)?

[@CandyHatsuneWolff]

Y2K was an absolute, well, nothing burger. I fixed PCs for a living, my Dad was an electrical engineer, and my Mom repaired and maintained mainframe computers for a living (think ancient machines the size of a refrigerator with less power than the stupidest smart phone.) The _only_ Y2K bug we encountered was *one* PC that wouldn't boot. We patched it and it was fine. I said to the owner, "You have my first Y2K bug!" Even Windows 95 looked forward enough toward Y2K that it was designed to function properly until, IIRC, 2035. They just shifted the 2-digit year. Other pieces of hardware and software obsolescence were way more troublesome than Y2K. Like September 11th, a lot of hucksters made money selling questionable "survival" products to wait out the Y2K bug, the Rapture, the Sun exploding, whatever. However, there was also a job market for programmers who knew ancient (even then!) computer languages like COBOL. Like today, many government offices and large companies stuck with these old systems because they were stable and because upgrading was expensive and wrapped up in red tape. Good for the programmers who got a second chance to use their skills!

[@wintersnoob]

The COVID pandemic was the biggest historic event of the millennium.

[@JZJ7777]

It’s a major pandemic, but to say it’s the biggest historic event of the millennium might be going a bit far. A millennium is 1000 years, after all.

[@melaniesenf7175]

I just realized, I’m a part of a very depressing history

[@waittillfamewtf2385]

2024: A Whole New World 🌎

[@Spawnwick_Boseman82820]

Let's hope so

[@signergirl1]

A dazzling place I never knew

[@alexiskuwata]

​@@signergirl1HELP!? 😭

[@abbeymclane6985]

Can you do WWE Superstars Each Year countdown next?

[@luckybuckeye2283]

I know COVID will be 2020’s big event. But nothing will ever top the passing of Kobe Bryant in 2020. NOTHING! R.I.P Kobe, Gianna and the 7 innocent souls in that tragic crash. Mamba Forever!

[@YusufYildirim61]

Yeah millions of innocent people died because of that virus but you're right, millions are "NOTHING" next to some famous guy and his family.

[@davidstephan5116]

Yeah, he’s more important than the millions that died from Covid. SMH, the girl from Colorado disagrees with you

[@Gor85]

23 years in 17 minutes. Nice to remember some things😊9/11 is terrible! Mom was at the doctor,she thought it's a joke when she heared America is attacked. Dad and I watched the news. It's terrible,people waving. Humanity and world changed forever. Nice to remember 2004 when Facebook was founded. You remembered :) Angela is one of the most powerful women in history.Invention of I phone is also really nice. Obama did nothing won Nobel prize almost immediately. Later came wars. It's terrible what happened in 2014 in Ukraine. Maidan was created,Nazis came to power in Ukraine,genocide started. It's horrible. I think it's good England left EU though it's not for noble reason whatsoever. Great Recession was really felt worldwide. It hit us really strong too. I think it's Great Trump won in 2016. He turned Us to itself,to protect itself. Nationalistic,homeland approach. He made a mistake when he said his supporters not to send votes by mail. Huge mistake! That's why he lost. 2020 is one of the worst years in history. By 15th March entire Europe was closed down! Everything. Entire cities,traffic,people,borders,trains. Everything! State of Emergency here has finished on 6th May. Russian attack on Ukraine is not fullscale,yet It's self-defence preservation. Survival of Russia. I like history. Nice to remember these things😊Great video

[@notjustklownin9506]

And the U.S. is involved in someway in every single military conflict on this list.

[@meitavaizik]

Yeah it's the US mentality of everything is about me and I must control everything's going on

[@notjustklownin9506]

@@meitavaizik yup, the U.S. thinks they're the world police.

[@davidstephan5116]

Without the US, the nazis would control Europe

[@The_king567]

Nice try dude go cry somewhere else

[@The_king567]

@@meitavaizikgood

[@johncomerford9919]

2016 was great. Hopefully 2024 will be too😁

[@julianhall1866]

You must be a supporter of half Hitler.

[@stefantsarev4442]

In 2015 the Migrant wave in Europe started. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Afghans and people from Sub-Saharan Africa were welcomed to several countries in Western Europe. They were not integrated, instead they initiated a wave of violence against the locals, which Europe suffers from to this day.

[@MsDaughteroftheking7]

The earthquake was pretty bad but given how many people ended up dieing from the 9/11 attacks I was surprised finding and killing Bin Laden was not the top story of 2011.

[@Emir_969]

2010 or 2011 should be Arab Spring.

[@theredguy8746]

Covid 19 nearly destroyed my life. I never suffered from it directly however, it affected me in a different way. A few months before Covid hit the world I had just moved with my parents from the south east of England, where I lived for 21 years, all the way up to Scotland. I had never moved house once until then. It was a huge change for me. I had to leave all of my friends behind and I had never lived so far from family before. Given that I take longer than others to adapt to such a change such as finding things to go out and do, making new friends and so on, Covid hit at the absolute worst time possible for me. Both my academic and social life were in ruins as I literally couldn't do anything. I had never felt so lonely and depressed, and I also had to drop out of college just after the year had started due to everything becoming online which is not how I'm used to doing things. It was literally two years after I had moved to Scotland that I made my first proper friend. During the worst of those times I became suicidal. Now though things are much better, not perfect but much more bearable. I beg that I never find myself in a similar situation again.

[@vincentsudario3322]

Wasn't Arab Spring important too since it had a domino effect in the region

[@4kpingu]

I'm suprised the bit for 2011 didn't include the Joplin Misouri Tornado, it's damage is the most expensive in tornado damage history, EVER, it caused almost 5.5 BILLION dollars in damage.

[@beckykerr5829]

2004 was the Boxing Day sunarmi 2016 was the deaths of many many celebrities

[@sean.furlong1989]

2009 saw the deaths of many celebrities too.

[@sonofkarma5461]

We will never forget the Pandemic that’s for sure, and the Israel/Hamas War is absolutely shocking, Hamas makes the Taliban look like the Red Cross

[@meitavaizik]

I mean the Taliban and the red cross already have a lot in common honestly i don't know if I should laugh or cry about it

[@rody995]

It looks like you don't know enough about what's happening there

[@wally81000]

It's always a bit annoying when people shrug off Y2K - the reason it was "just a blip" was because programmers (my father included) knew about it and worked on the the issue a decade before 2000 rolled around. Saying 'nothing really happened' kinda undermines the work and man hours everyone put in to make sure everything was still functioning like normal on January 1st.

[@eateateat7118]

Yeah I totally love how Angela Merkel got Europe’s biggest economy addicted to Russias gas. She is so brilliant and should be remembered as a respected genius.

[@MistaPeanutt]

Honorable mention the Alabama Brawl

[@zaralobnerold]

2000 was such a terrible year to me. I mean that whole y2k stuff is better left in the dust. Ironically I was born that year though 😂.

[@shigshug8581]

Millennials remember all of it.

[@Goldmaster]

4:44 unfortunately look at how it's monopolised things

[@jmw9904]

Do we really need a recap of 20-23?

[@nonenone7761]

It’s amazing that the most impactful event in this century, has impacted life more than all of the others combined. I can’t even get more than a few seconds in to contemplating where we’d be without September 11th happening, because of how much it changed, it makes you have to go back and reconsider again.

[@StellaWayua-ew4vc]

Blessed with a little more

[@okayrookie]

We're in a new era after all, the Anthropocene Epoch.

[@candiceperry9803]

The thing I remember is the COVID-19 virus which happened in 2020

[@zincorner]

You missed about Myanmar Civil War.

[@user-em6ie2be7x]

The Moment The World Threw up at once. 18:29

[@redvelvetrose]

Surprised Hurricane Katrina wasn’t on the list!