Contemporary
Curiosity Rover (2012): Sky Crane Landing on Mars
Curiosity landed safely and found that an ancient lake in Gale Crater once offered conditions suitable for microbial life.
Region
Americas
Contemporary
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015): Same-Sex Marriage Across the US
The Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires every state to license and recognise marriages between two people of the same sex.
Contemporary
Falcon 9 First Booster Landing (2015): Reusable Rockets
The first stage of an orbital-class rocket was landed upright and intact after launching a payload to orbit, paving the way for routine booster reuse.
Contemporary
Gravitational Waves Detected (2015): LIGO Confirms Einstein
The first direct detection of gravitational waves, and the first observation of two black holes merging, opened gravitational-wave astronomy and earned a Nobel Prize in 2017.
Contemporary
Hurricane Harvey (2017): Record Rainfall and the Houston Floods
Harvey killed about 107 people and caused around 125 billion US dollars of damage, tying Katrina as the costliest US hurricane at the time, and set the US record for tropical-cyclone rainfall.
Contemporary
Hurricane Maria (2017): Devastation of Puerto Rico and Dominica
Maria caused around 90 billion US dollars of damage in Puerto Rico, the longest blackout in US history and an officially accepted 2,975 excess deaths, while devastating Dominica.
Contemporary
Camp Fire (2018): The Wildfire That Destroyed Paradise
The fire killed 85 people, destroyed about 18,800 structures including most of Paradise, and led PG&E to plead guilty to manslaughter and file for bankruptcy.
Contemporary
Ingenuity Helicopter (2021): First Powered Flight on Mars
Ingenuity made the first powered, controlled flight on another planet and went on to complete 72 flights before rotor damage ended its mission in January 2024.
Contemporary
2023 Maui Wildfires: The Destruction of Historic Lahaina, Hawaii
The fire killed 102 people and destroyed about 2,200 structures, most of Lahaina; it was the deadliest US wildfire since 1918.