Timeline of the history of the United States (2010–present)

This section of the timeline of United States history includes major events from 2010 to the present.

2010s

Presidency of Barack Obama

2010 – The Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the sea. The spill becomes the worst oil spill in American history. 2010 – In the 2010 Midterm elections, the Republicans retake the House of Representatives as the Democrats lose 63 seats. 2011 – Representative Gabrielle Giffords is severely wounded in an assassination attempt when a gunman went on a shooting spree, killing federal judge John Roll and five other people, and wounding at least 13 others, at an event Giffords was hosting in suburban Tucson, Arizona. 2011 – The ATF gunwalking scandal emerged, wherein thousands of guns were allowed to "walk" through interdiction to Mexico, supposedly to aid in the capture of criminals. 2011 – A series of tornadoes cause heavy damage in the South, Alabama being the hardest hit. 324 people are killed in the deadliest American natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina. 2011 – Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the September 11 attacks, is killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs. 2011 – Flooding devastates the Mississippi River valley causing $2 to $4 billion in damage. 2011 – A tornado devastates Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 and injuring over 1,000, making it the deadliest single U.S. tornado since the advent of modern weather forecasting 2011 – Casey Marie Anthony is acquitted of all charges related to the death of her daughter, Caylee; she was convicted of four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer. She was released a week later because of credit for time served. 2011 – STS-135: The Space Shuttle Atlantis touches down at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, ending the 30-year shuttle program, which began with the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981. 2012 – A gunman kills 12 and injures 70 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy strikes the Eastern Seaboard. 2012 – 2012 United States presidential election: Barack Obama reelected president, Joe Biden reelected vice president. 2012 – A gunman kills 26, including 20 children, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. January 20, 2013 – President Obama and Vice President Biden begin their second terms. 2013 – Christopher Dorner murders three people in Southern California, starting the largest manhunt in Los Angeles history. His spree ends in Big Bear Lake, California where he barricades himself in a cabin, kills a second officer, before committing suicide. 2013 – Edward Snowden leaks highly classified documents from the National Security Agency. 2013 – Terrorists attack the Boston Marathon by detonating two bombs at the finishing line of the race, killing three and injuring 283 runners and spectators. Suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev then led Boston police on a high-speed chase, killing one officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police and Dzhokhar was detained the day after. 2013 – A tornado devastates suburbs near Oklahoma City, killing 24. 2013 – The most destructive wildfire in Colorado history burns nearly 16,000 acres and kills two people. 2013 – The Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act, which banned the federal recognition of same-sex marriages and refused to recognize the legal standing of proponents of Proposition 8, which resulted in the re-legalization of same-sex marriage in California. 2013 – Black Lives Matter emerges as a political movement, protesting against widespread racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system. 2014 – A grand jury decides not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown inciting protests and riots against racism and police brutality in the St. Louis area Causing riot. 2014 – The Republicans win the Senate in the Midterm elections. 2015 – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is convicted and sentenced to death for committing the Boston Marathon bombing. 2015 – Dylann Roof kills 9 people during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. 2015 – Following Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex marriage is legalized nationwide. 2015 – Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik carried out an attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 and seriously injuring 22 others. 2016 – Omar Mateen kills 49 people and injures 53 members of the LGBT community at the Pulse nightclub. 2016 – 2016 United States presidential election: Donald Trump elected president, Mike Pence elected vice president. 2016 – 36 people are killed in the Oakland Warehouse Fire. 2017 – Fort Lauderdale airport shooting.

First presidency of Donald Trump

January 20, 2017 – Trump becomes the 45th president, Pence becomes the 48th vice president. Trump is the first person without prior military or government service to hold the office. 2017 – Trump fires FBI director James Comey, precipitating the Mueller investigation. 2017 – Relations between the U.S. and the U.N. and North Korea strain after the country tested missiles in various places. April 2017 – The United States drops missiles and bombs on Syria. 2017 – A white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia leads to three deaths and to the discussion about racism in modern American society. The term alt-right receives renewed popular consciousness. 2017 – Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in the United States, flooding broad swaths of Texas and Louisiana and causing tens of billions of dollars of damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. 2017 – Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Florida and causes tens of billions of dollars of damage. Irma also wrecks the Caribbean Islands. 2017 – Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico as a Category 5 hurricane, killing hundreds and knocking out the island's power. October 1, 2017 – A gunman opens fire at a Las Vegas Strip concert, killing 60 people and injuring 867. This was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. November 5, 2017 – A gunman kills 26 people and wounds 22 others at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, before killing himself. This was the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history and the deadliest shooting in an American place of worship in modern history. 2017 – Film producer Harvey Weinstein is accused of sexual harassment in a New York Times expose, marking the beginning of the Me Too movement. February 14, 2018 – A gunman kills 17 people and injures 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 2018 – Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore. 2018 – The entire West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals is impeached. 2018 – In the 2018 United States elections, the Democrats retake the House while the Republicans keep the Senate. October 27, 2018 - A gunman opens fire on the Tree of Life congregation in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting killing 11 and wounding 6. 2018 – Creator of SpongeBob SquarePants Stephen Hillenburg and Creative leader of Marvel Comics Stan Lee both die in November. November 30, 2018 – Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush dies from complications resulting from Parkinson's disease. He lies in the state at the U.S. Capitol building before being interred. 2019 – All the works published in 1923 except for sound recordings (2022 scheduled events) enter the public domain in the United States. January 1, 2019 – Washington bans all persons under 21 years of age from purchasing a semi-automatic rifle. January 25, 2019 – The second-longest government shutdown in American history, which lasted from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019 (35 days), officially ends. January 30, 2019 – Large portions of the United States are hit with a polar vortex. The city of Chicago once again hit a record low: 27 degrees below zero. It occurred for fifty-two straight hours. February 1, 2019 – President Donald Trump confirms that the U.S. will leave the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. 2019 – Mexican drug boss/lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is found guilty on all ten counts at a drug-trafficking trial in New York. February 22, 2019 – Singer R. Kelly charged with ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for incidents dating back as far as the year 1998. February 27, 2019 – 2019 North Korea – United States Hanoi Summit held in Vietnam. It is the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. March 26, 2019 – Vice President Mike Pence orders NASA to fly Americans to the Moon within the next five years, using either government or private carriers. 2019 –The Supreme Court case Bucklew V. Precythe rules 5 to 4 that inmates on death row are not guaranteed "painless executions" under the Constitution. April 4, 2019 – The 1973 War Powers Act Resolution is invoked for the first time when the House of Representatives votes 247–175 to end U.S. military assistance in Saudi Arabia in its intervention in the Yemeni Civil War. April 2019 – The first image of a black hole is taken. April 2019 – James Earl Carter Jr. becomes the longest ever living U.S. president at 94 years old, following the death of George H. W. Bush in December 2018. April 27, 2019 – A gunman kills one and injures three in a California synagogue. The suspect is white supremacist John Timothy Earnest, who was 19 years old at the time. May 31, 2019 – A city employee for Virginia Beach enters a municipal building with a gun and kills 12 people. June 8, 2019 – President Trump reaches an agreement with Mexico to avoid tariffs. June 9, 2019 – A construction crane falls on an apartment complex in Dallas, killing 1 person and injuring 6. June 14, 2019 – One person dies and two more are injured after a gunman entered a Costco in Southern California. July 26, 2019 – The Supreme Court rules in a 5–4 vote to give President Trump $2.5 billion to fund the Mexico–United States border wall.

August 3, 2019 – 23 people are killed and another 23 are injured in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. August 4, 2019 – A gunman opens fire on a bar in Dayton, Ohio. He kills nine people and injures another 27. August 10, 2019 – Financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is found dead in his prison cell under mysterious circumstances. It was declared a suicide by hanging, although the ruling is widely disputed. August 12, 2019 – An anonymous whistleblower filed a complaint against Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, claiming that the two sought foreign intervention in the 2020 presidential election. This complaint would lead to an investigation into the Trump-Ukraine scandal. September 24, 2019 – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announces the House of Representatives would begin an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. December 18, 2019 – The U.S. House of Representatives impeaches President Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors.

2020s

January 3, 2020 – President Donald Trump approves the targeted killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad, Iraq. January 16, 2020 – The first impeachment trial of President Donald Trump begins in the U.S. Senate. January 21, 2020 – The first patient in the United States is diagnosed with coronavirus. January 26, 2020 – Kobe Bryant, along with his daughter, Gianna, and 7 others, perish in a helicopter crash. February 5, 2020 – The majority of the United States Senate votes to acquit President Trump of charges related to the Trump-Ukraine scandal. February 24, 2020 – Former film producer Harvey Weinstein is found guilty of rape.