2016 in Europe

This is a list of events that took place in Europe in 2016.

European Union

 * President of the European Commission: Jean-Claude Juncker
 * President of the Parliament: Martin Schulz
 * President of the European Council: Donald Tusk
 * Presidency of the Council of the EU:
 * Netherlands (January–July)
 * Slovakia (July–December)

January

 * 1 January
 * The Netherlands takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council from Luxembourg.
 * San Sebastián (Spain) and Wrocław (Poland) are named European Capitals of Culture.
 * 8 January – 32 people, including 22 asylum seekers, are arrested in connection to a series of apparently co-ordinated sexual assaults and thefts in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.
 * 9 January
 * Tens of thousands of people take to the streets in cities around Poland to protest against a new law giving the government control of state media.
 * 14 people are injured and the government building is set alight as opposition protests in Kosovo's capital Pristina turn violent.
 * 12 January – A suspected suicide bombing kills at least 11 people and injures 14 in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square.
 * 24 January – Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is elected President of Portugal.
 * 28 January – A boat carrying Iraqi Kurdish migrants sinks off the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 24 people, including several children, with 11 others missing.
 * 30 January – A massive pile-up involving 70 vehicles, including a bus and several lorries, kills four people and injures 30 on A1 motorway in western Slovenia.

February

 * 9 February – Two passenger trains collide in the German town of Bad Aibling, with 11 people killed and 82 injured.
 * 12 February – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting since the East–West Schism in 1054.
 * 15 February – Bosnia and Herzegovina formally applies to join the European Union.
 * 28 February – A total of 36 people are presumed dead following three explosions at a coal mine in Vorkuta, Russia.

March

 * 5 March – The party of Slovak prime minister Robert Fico wins the election but loses the parliamentary majority.
 * 13 March – At least 34 people are killed and 125 wounded in a suicide car bombing in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
 * 18 March – Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam is shot and arrested in a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels after a four-month international manhunt.
 * 19 March – Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don Airport, Russia, killing all 62 people on board.
 * 20 March – At least 14 people are killed after a coach carrying Erasmus exchange students crashes near Barcelona.
 * 22 March – 32 people are killed and 316 injured in attacks at Brussels Airport and Maalbeek metro station.
 * 24 March – Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić is sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War.

April

 * 3 April – A ceasefire is announced after at least 193 soldiers are killed in clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
 * 4 April – Thousands of people protest in Reykjavík, asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, after Panama Papers investigation revealed that he had hidden investments in tax havens.
 * 18 April – More than 400 migrants and refugees drown in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross by boat from Egypt to Italy.
 * 21 April – The Bulgarian parliament approves the introduction of compulsory voting.
 * 29 April – A helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform crashes in the North Sea, killing all 13 people on board.

May

 * 11 May – Italy becomes the last Western European country to legalize same-sex civil unions.
 * 14 May – Jamala, representing Ukraine with the song "1944", wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden.
 * 19 May – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes off the Greek island of Karpathos, killing all 66 people on board.
 * 22 May
 * A gunman fires shots into a small crowd attending an open air concert in Nenzing, Austria, killing two people and wounding 11 others before shooting himself to death.
 * Independent Green Alexander Van der Bellen is narrowly elected President of Austria.
 * 29 May – 17 people die in a fire at a building housing elderly people in a village near Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

June

 * 1 June – Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel, opens in Switzerland. It is the first flat route through the Alps.
 * 3 June – Heavy rains cause severe flooding in parts of France as well as Belgium and Germany, with reports of at least 11 people dead.
 * 6 June
 * Three people are killed and 36 injured in a train crash in eastern Belgium.
 * A bus carrying school children, teachers and parents plunges into an irrigation canal in southern Turkey, killing 14 people.
 * 7 June – A car bomb attack targeting a police bus kills 11 people and injures 36 in central Istanbul.
 * 14 June
 * UEFA fines the Russian Football Union €150,000 and imposes a suspended disqualification on their team for violence at UEFA Euro 2016.
 * At least 40 people are injured in violence during street protests in Paris against French labor reform.
 * 19 June - Baku hosts the European Grand Prix which is won by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg
 * 23 June – The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
 * 25 June – Guðni Jóhannesson wins Iceland's presidential election.
 * 26 June – Conservative People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, gains the most seats in the Spanish repeat election but remains short of a majority.
 * 28 June – An armed attack at Istanbul Atatürk Airport leaves at least 41 people dead and 239 others injured.

July

 * 1 July – Latvia becomes the 35th member of the OECD.
 * 2 July – A gunman shoots five people dead and wounds 22 more after opening fire in a café in Žitište, Serbia.
 * 8–9 July – Leaders of NATO member states meet at the two-day summit in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
 * 12 July – 27 people are killed and dozens more injured in a head-on collision involving two passenger trains in the Apulia region of Italy.
 * 13 July – Theresa May replaces David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
 * 14 July – At least 86 people are killed after a truck is deliberately driven into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France.
 * 15–16 July – At least 265 people are killed and more than 3,000 members of Turkey's armed forces arrested after an attempted military coup.
 * 21 July – Rioting erupts in the Armenian capital of Yerevan as protesters clash with police over the government's handling of a four-day hostage crisis.
 * 22 July – A gunman opens fire near a shopping mall in Munich, Germany, killing 9 people and injuring 27.

August

 * 6 August – An accidental explosion and fire kill at least 13 people in a bar in the French city of Rouen.
 * 7 August – At least 21 people are dead and six are missing after torrential rains and flooding affect Macedonia's capital of Skopje.
 * 10 August
 * Three people are killed and hundreds left critically injured as major wildfires sweep across the Portuguese island of Madeira.
 * A wave of Kurdish rebel attacks targeting police and soldiers in southeast Turkey kill at least 12 people.
 * 20 August – At least 51 people are killed and scores more wounded in a suicide attack at a wedding ceremony in Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep.
 * 24 August – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits central Italy, killing at least 290 people.
 * 26 August
 * Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, the world's tallest suspension bridge, opens to traffic across the Bosphorus.
 * Kurdish militants attack a police checkpoint in southeast Turkey with an explosives-laden truck, killing at least 11 police officers and wounding 78 other people.
 * 27 August – At least 17 migrant workers die after a fire breaks out at a Moscow warehouse.

September

 * 18 September – Russia's parliamentary elections bring a landslide win for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia and its allies.

October

 * 9 October – A car bomb attack outside the Durak gendarmerie station in southeastern Turkey leaves 10 soldiers and eight civilians dead and scores of others injured.
 * 10 October – Kersti Kaljulaid becomes the first female President of Estonia.
 * 26 October – Powerful earthquakes rock central Italy, causing buildings to crumble, knocking power out and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets.

November

 * 9 November – A derailment on the Tramlink in Croydon, London, kills seven people and injures more than 50 others.
 * 13 November – Pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon wins the second round of Moldova's presidential election.
 * 14 November – Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov submits his resignation to the National Assembly after opposition-backed Rumen Radev wins the presidential runoff.
 * 16 November – Russian President Vladimir Putin issues a decree for Russia to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

December

 * 4 December – Alexander Van der Bellen wins the Austrian presidential election in a re-run of the second round.
 * 5 December – Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns after Italy votes no in a referendum on constitutional reform.
 * 9 December – The European Union grants visa-free travel for Georgia and Ukraine.
 * 10 December – A cargo train carrying propane-butane derails and explodes in a northeastern Bulgarian village, killing five people and injuring at least 27.
 * 17 December – A suspected suicide car bomb in central Turkey kills 13 soldiers aboard a bus and wounds 55 more.
 * 19 December
 * The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, is assassinated in Ankara.
 * At least 13 people are killed and more than 40 others are injured as a truck rams into a packed Christmas market in Berlin.
 * At least 75 people die from poisoning after consuming a bath lotion containing alcohol in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
 * 23 December – An Afriqiyah Airways flight originating from Sabha, Libya, is hijacked and forced to make an emergency landing in Malta.

Sports

 * 2016 European Grand Prix
 * Euro 2016

January

 * 1 January – Vilmos Zsigmond, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1930)
 * 2 January – Michel Delpech, French singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1946)
 * 3 January – Peter Naur, Danish computer scientist (b. 1928)
 * 4 January – Michel Galabru, French actor (b. 1922)
 * 5 January – Pierre Boulez, French composer, conductor, writer and pianist (b. 1925)
 * 6 January – Silvana Pampanini, Italian actress and director (b. 1925)
 * 7 January – André Courrèges, French fashion designer (b. 1923)
 * 8 January – Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian racing driver (b. 1926)
 * 10 January – David Bowie, English singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1947)
 * 14 January – Alan Rickman, English actor and director (b. 1946)
 * 18 January – Michel Tournier, French writer (b. 1924)
 * 19 January – Ettore Scola, Italian screenwriter and film director (b. 1931)
 * 26 January – Black, English singer-songwriter (b. 1962)
 * 29 January – Jacques Rivette, French film director and film critic (b. 1928)
 * 30 January – Frank Finlay, English stage, film and television actor (b. 1926)
 * 31 January – Terry Wogan, Irish-British radio and television broadcaster (b. 1938)

February

 * 13 February
 * Trifon Ivanov, Bulgarian footballer (b. 1965)
 * Slobodan Santrač, Serbian football manager and player (b. 1946)
 * 15 February – George Gaynes, Finnish-born American actor (b. 1917)
 * 17 February – Andrzej Żuławski, Polish film director and writer (b. 1940)
 * 19 February – Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, essayist, literary critic, philosopher and semiotician (b. 1932)
 * 22 February – Douglas Slocombe, English cinematographer (b. 1913)
 * 29 February
 * Hannes Löhr, German football player and manager (b. 1942)
 * José Parra Martínez, Spanish football defender (b. 1925)

March

 * 5 March – Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Austrian conductor (b. 1929)
 * 8 March – George Martin, English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician (b. 1926)
 * 10 March – Keith Emerson, English keyboardist and composer (b. 1944)
 * 11 March
 * Iolanda Balaș, Romanian Olympic high jumper (b. 1936)
 * Dragan Nikolić, Serbian actor (b. 1943)
 * 14 March – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor (b. 1934)
 * 18 March
 * Lothar Späth, German politician (b. 1937)
 * Guido Westerwelle, Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany (b. 1961)
 * 20 March – Anker Jørgensen, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Denmark (b. 1922)
 * 21 March – Andrew Grove, Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, author and science pioneer (b. 1936)
 * 24 March
 * Roger Cicero, German jazz and pop musician (b. 1970)
 * Johan Cruyff, Dutch professional football player and coach (b. 1947)
 * 31 March
 * Georges Cottier, Swiss Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1922)
 * Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Vice Chancellor, Foreign Minister and Interior Minister of Germany (b. 1927)
 * Zaha Hadid, Iraqi-born British architect (b. 1950)
 * Imre Kertész, Hungarian author (b. 1929)

April

 * 3 April – Cesare Maldini, Italian football manager and player (b. 1932)
 * 4 April – Chus Lampreave, Spanish actress (b. 1930)
 * 12 April – Arnold Wesker, English dramatist (b. 1932)
 * 16 April – Louis Pilot, Luxembourgian football player and manager (b. 1940)
 * 19 April – Walter Kohn, Austrian-born American theoretical physicist and theoretical chemist (b. 1923)
 * 20 April – Guy Hamilton, English film director (b. 1922)
 * 24 April – Klaus Siebert, German biathlete (b. 1955)
 * 25 April – Martin Gray, Polish writer (b. 1922)
 * 27 April – Viktor Gavrikov, Lithuanian-Swiss chess Grandmaster (b. 1957)
 * 30 April – Harry Kroto, English Nobel chemist (b. 1939)

May

 * 5 May – Siné, French political cartoonist (b. 1928)
 * 6 May – Margot Honecker, East German politician (b. 1927)
 * 16 May – Giovanni Coppa, Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1925)
 * 19 May
 * Alexandre Astruc, French film critic and film director (b. 1923)
 * Marco Pannella, Italian politician (b. 1930)
 * Alan Young, English-born Canadian-American actor (b. 1919)
 * 21 May
 * Sándor Tarics, Hungarian Olympic water polo player (b. 1913)
 * Nick Menza, German-born American drummer (b. 1964)
 * 22 May – Bata Živojinović, Serbian actor and politician (b. 1933)
 * 26 May
 * Loris Francesco Capovilla, Italian Roman Catholic prelate and cardinal (b. 1915)
 * Arturo Pomar, Spanish chess grandmaster (b. 1931)
 * 28 May
 * Giorgio Albertazzi, Italian actor and film director (b. 1923)
 * David Cañada, Spanish professional road racing cyclist (b. 1975)
 * 31 May – Corry Brokken, Dutch singer (b. 1932)

June

 * 2 June – Tom Kibble, British theoretical physicist (b. 1932)
 * 3 June – Luis Salom, Spanish motorcycle racer (b. 1991)
 * 6 June
 * Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter (b. 1926)
 * Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess grandmaster and author (b. 1931)
 * 8 June – Pierre Aubert, Swiss politician and lawyer (b. 1927)
 * 11 June – Rudi Altig, German professional track and road racing cyclist (b. 1937)
 * 18 June – Vittorio Merloni, Italian entrepreneur and industrialist (b. 1933)
 * 19 June
 * Victor Stănculescu, Romanian general (b. 1928)
 * Anton Yelchin, Russian-born American actor (b. 1989)
 * 20 June – Edgard Pisani, French statesman, philosopher, and writer (b. 1918)
 * 25 June – Maurice G. Dantec, French science fiction writer and musician (b. 1959)
 * 27 June – Bud Spencer, Italian actor, filmmaker, and professional swimmer (b. 1929)
 * 28 June – André Guelfi, French racing driver (b. 1919)

July

 * 1 July – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet and art historian (b. 1923)
 * 2 July
 * Rudolf E. Kálmán, Hungarian-born American electrical engineer, mathematician, and inventor (b. 1930)
 * Michel Rocard, Prime Minister of France (b. 1930)
 * Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Holocaust survivor, and Nobel laureate (b. 1928)
 * 6 July – Turgay Şeren, Turkish footballer (b. 1932)
 * 9 July – Silvano Piovanelli, Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1924)
 * 12 July
 * Goran Hadžić, Serbian politician and alleged war criminal (b. 1958)
 * Zygmunt Zimowski, Polish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1949)
 * 13 July – Bernardo Provenzano, member of the Sicilian Mafia (b. 1933)
 * 14 July – Péter Esterházy, Hungarian writer (b. 1950)
 * 20 July – Radu Beligan, Romanian actor, director, and essayist (b. 1918)
 * 23 July – Thorbjörn Fälldin, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1926)
 * 25 July – Halil İnalcık, Turkish historian (b. 1916)
 * 27 July
 * Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer (b. 1928)
 * Piet de Jong, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1915)

August

 * 1 August – Queen Anne of Romania (b. 1923)
 * 2 August – Franciszek Macharski, Polish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1927)
 * 5 August – Alphons Egli, Swiss politician (b. 1924)
 * 9 August – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster (b. 1951)
 * 13 August
 * Kenny Baker, English actor and musician (b. 1934)
 * Françoise Mallet-Joris, Belgian author (b. 1930)
 * 14 August – Hermann Kant, German writer (b. 1926)
 * 15 August
 * Dalian Atkinson, English footballer (b. 1968)
 * Stefan Henze, German slalom canoeist (b. 1981)
 * 18 August – Ernst Nolte, German historian and philosopher (b. 1923)
 * 19 August – Nina Ponomaryova, Russian discus thrower (b. 1929)
 * 22 August – Toots Thielemans, Belgian jazz musician (b. 1922)
 * 24 August
 * Michel Butor, French writer (b. 1926)
 * Walter Scheel, President of the Federal Republic of Germany (b. 1919)
 * 25 August – Sonia Rykiel, French fashion designer and writer (b. 1930)
 * 26 August – Harald Grønningen, Norwegian cross country skier (b. 1934)
 * 30 August
 * Věra Čáslavská, Czech artistic gymnast (b. 1942)
 * Marc Riboud, French photographer (b. 1923)

September

 * 2 September – Daniel Willems, Belgian road bicycle racer (b. 1956)
 * 3 September – Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, French mathematician (b. 1957)
 * 12 September – Sándor Csoóri, Hungarian poet, essayist, writer and politician (b. 1930)
 * 13 September – Jonathan Riley-Smith, English medieval historian (b. 1938)
 * 16 September
 * Gabriele Amorth, Italian Roman Catholic priest and an exorcist (b. 1925)
 * Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, 10th President and 49th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1920)
 * 17 September – Sigge Parling, Swedish footballer (b. 1930)
 * 23 September – Marcel Artelesa, French footballer (b. 1938)

October

 * 1 October – David Herd, Scottish footballer (b. 1934)
 * 2 October – Neville Marriner, English conductor (b. 1924)
 * 4 October – Brigitte Hamann, German-Austrian author and historian (b. 1940)
 * 5 October – Michal Kováč, 1st President of Slovakia (b. 1930)
 * 8 October – Stylianos Pattakos, Greek military officer (b. 1912)
 * 9 October – Andrzej Wajda, Polish film and theatre director (b. 1926)
 * 13 October – Dario Fo, Italian actor, Nobel playwright and comedian (b. 1926)
 * 14 October – Klim Churyumov, Ukrainian astronomer (b. 1937)
 * 16 October – Viktor Zubkov, Russian basketball player (b. 1937)
 * 23 October – Pete Burns, English singer-songwriter and television personality (b. 1959)
 * 24 October
 * Benjamin Creme, Scottish artist, author and esotericist (b. 1922)
 * Reinhard Häfner, German footballer and coach (b. 1952)
 * 29 October – Roland Dyens, French classical guitarist, composer and arranger (b. 1955)
 * 31 October – Silvio Gazzaniga, Italian sculptor (b. 1921)

November

 * 2 November – Oleg Popov, Russian clown and circus artist (b. 1930)
 * 5 November – Marek Svatoš, Slovak professional ice hockey winger (b. 1982)
 * 6 November – Zoltán Kocsis, Hungarian virtuoso pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1952)
 * 9 November - La Veneno, Spanish transsexual vedette, singer and actress (b. 1964)
 * 11 November
 * Ilse Aichinger, Austrian writer (b. 1921)
 * Željko Čajkovski, Croatian football player and coach (b. 1925)
 * 13 November – Enzo Maiorca, Italian free diver (b. 1931)
 * 16 November – Daniel Prodan, Romanian footballer (b. 1972)
 * 20 November
 * Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, 5th President of Greece (b. 1926)
 * William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer (b. 1928)
 * 23 November
 * Andrew Sachs, German-born British actor (b. 1930)
 * Rita Barberá, Spanish senator and Mayoress of Valencia (1991-2015) (b. 1948)
 * 25 November – David Hamilton, English photographer and film director (b. 1933)
 * 27 November – Ioannis Grivas, 176th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1923)
 * 28 November – Mark Taimanov, Russian chess Grandmaster and concert pianist (b. 1926)

December

 * 4 December – Gotlib, French comic artist (b. 1934)
 * 5 December – Geydar Dzhemal, Russian Islamic revolutionist, philosopher, poet, political and social activist (b. 1947)
 * 14 December - Bernard Fox, Welsh actor (b. 1927)