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Top Song(s)
• Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
• Lukas Graham - Seven Years
• Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling
• Zayn - Pillow Talk
• Mike Posner - I Took A Pill In Ibiza
Top Film(s)
• Arrival
• Your Name
• La La Land
• Captain America: Civil War
• Moonlight
Best Selling Book(s)
• A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas
• Empire of Storms - Sarah J. Maas
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two - J.K. Rowling
• Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo
• Lady Midnight - Cassandra Clare
Famous Deaths
• January 5 - Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian politician (Mayor of Quebec City)
• February 4 - Edgar Mitchell, American NASA astronaut (Apollo 14)
• March 6 - Nancy Reagan, US First Lady (1981-89)
• April 19 - Patricio Aylwin, Chilean lawyer, politician and President of Chile (1990-94)
• June 3 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer (world heavyweight champion 1964-7 74-8)
• June 12 - George V. Voinovich, US politician, Senator and Governor of Ohio
• August 22 - S. R. [Sellapan Ramanathan] Nathan, 6th President of Singapore (1999-2011)
• September 2 - Islam Karimov, President of Uzbekistan (1991-2016)
• October 13 - Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand (1946-2016)
• November 7 - Janet Reno, first female US Attorney General (1993-2001)
Medical/Science/Technology
• Glycerol 3-phosphate phosphatase (G3PP), an enzyme that prevents sugar being stored as fat, is identified by scientists.
• A successful head transplant on a monkey by scientists in China is reported.
• A breakthrough in cryopreservation is announced, with a rabbit's whole brain shown to have a well-preserved ultrastructure.
• Researchers at the University of Toronto use stem cell therapy to reverse age-related osteoporosis in mice.
• The discovery of quantum tunneling of water molecules is reported.
• Oxygen is detected in the Martian atmosphere for the first time in 40 years.
• Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital announce a new method for long-term culturing of adult stem cells.
• The first known death caused by a self-driving car is disclosed by Tesla Motors.
• Researchers at University College London devise a software algorithm able to scan and replicate almost anyone's handwriting.
• MIT announces a breakthrough which can double lithium-ion battery capacity.
Political
• January 5 – President Obama introduces executive orders to expand the enforcement of federal gun laws.
• January 16 - President Obama announces a federal state of emergency in Flint, Michigan,in response to the ongoing contamination of tap water in the city.
• February 3 – Barack Obama becomes the first U.S. president to visit a U.S. mosque in Baltimore, Maryland.
• February 9 – The New Hampshire primaries are held. Donald Trump wins the Republican primary, and Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic primary.
• March 1 – Super Tuesday: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each win seven states on the Democratic and Republican sides, respectively.
• March 21 – President Obama lands in Cuba for a meeting with Cuban President Raúl Castro, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since 1928.
• April 5 - The Wisconsin primaries are held. Ted Cruz beats Donald Trump and Ohio Governor John Kasich to win the Republican race.
• April 11 – John Kerry becomes the first Secretary of State to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
• April 26 – Super Tuesday III: Donald Trump wins all five states holding Republican primaries.
• November 8 - The 2016 presidential election is held. Donald Trump is elected as the 45th president of the United States.
National
• January 1 – Hawaii becomes the first state to raise the legal smoking age to 21.
• February 1 - The February 2016 North American storm complex causes power outages for more than 70,000 people in Southern California.
• February 27 – Three people are stabbed at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim, California, and several people are arrested.
• March 3 – 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney condemns GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in a speech at the University of Utah.
• April 2 - A Lancair IV monoplane crashes into a parked car along a highway 50 miles north of San Diego, injuring five people and killing one.
• May 6 - Three people are killed and three others injured during a two-day shooting spree in Potomac, Maryland.
• June 24 – At least 23 people are killed after a huge flood hits areas of West Virginia.
• July 1 - The U.S. military officially lifts its ban on transgender people serving openly in the armed forces.
• August 2 – A charter bus crashes on Highway 99 in Merced County, California, killing four people.
• September 17 - A pipe bomb explodes near a U.S. Marine Corps charity 5K run in Seaside Park, New Jersey.
Worldwide
• January 12 – Ten people are killed and 15 wounded in a bombing near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
• February 6 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.
• April 16 – A 7.8 earthquake strikes northwestern Ecuador killing 676 people and injuring over 6,000.
• May 20 – Tsai Ing-wen is sworn in as the President of the Republic of China.
• June 23 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, triggering the so-called Brexit.
• July 14 – 86 people are killed and more than 400 others injured in a truck attack in Nice, France, during Bastille Day celebrations.
• August 5–21 – The 2016 Summer Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the first time in South America.
• September 9 – The government of North Korea conducts its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test.
• October 13 – The Maldives announces its decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations.
• December 4 – A constitutional referendum is held in Italy, resulting in the resignation of the Prime Minister.