660 BC Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
708 Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
1180 First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.
1183 Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
1188 Accession to the throne of Japan by emperor Antoku.
1192 Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the ''de facto'' ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1253 Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds ''Nam Myoho Renge Kyo'' for the very first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
1281 The Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.
1293 An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 30,000.
1549 The Jesuit priest Francis Xavier's ship reaches Japan.
1573 Battle of Mikatagahara, in Japan; Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
1597 A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate that in effect rules Japan until the mid-nineteenth century.
1609 ''Daimyo'' (Lord) of the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyūshū, Japan, completes his successful invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in Okinawa.
1615 Siege of Osaka: Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan.
1700 The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake takes place off the west coast of the North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.
1707 The 1707 Hōei earthquake causes more than 5,000 deaths in Honshu, Shikoku and Kyūshū, Japan
1707 Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1783 Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing 35,000 people.
1854 Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
1854 The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
1857 An earthquake in Tokyo, Japan kills over 100,000.
1858 United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.
1863 The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain of Japan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
1867 Emperor Meiji becomes the 122nd emperor of Japan.
1867 Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji of Japan, marries Masako Ichijō. The Empress consort is thereafter known as ''Lady Haruko''. Since her death in 1914, she is called by the posthumous name Empress Shōken.
1867 The 15th and the last military Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate resigns in Japan, returning his power to the Emperor of Japan and thence to the re-established civil government of Japan
1867 Tokugawa Shogunate hands power back to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration.
1868 Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
1868 The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.
1868 Japanese Boshin War: end of the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle, former Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikkō.
1869 The Naval Battle of Hakodate takes place in Japan.
1869 Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).
1869 The Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto.
1872 The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture.
1873 Japan begins using the Gregorian calendar.
1874 Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
1875 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
1885 The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrive in Hawaii.
1885 Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1888 The stratovolcano Mount Bandai erupts killing approximately 500 people, in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
1889 Meiji constitution of Japan is adopted; the first Diet of Japan convenes in 1890.
1890 The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.
1891 The Ōtsu incident : Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia (later Nicholas II) suffers a critical head injury during a sword attack by Japanese policeman Tsuda Sanzō. He is rescued by Prince George of Greece and Denmark.
1891 The Mino-Owari Earthquake, the largest earthquake in Japan's history, strikes Gifu Prefecture.
1894 The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
1894 First Sino-Japanese War: Japan defeats China in the Battle of Pyongyang.
1895 The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.
1895 The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.
1895 The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
1896 The most destructive tsunami in Japan's history kills more than 22,000 people.
1899 NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
1900 A joint European-Japanese-United States force (Eight-Nation Alliance) occupies Beijing, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
1904 Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.
1904 Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
1905 The Eulsa Treaty is signed between Japan and Korea.
1906 San Francisco public school board sparks United States diplomatic crisis with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
1907 Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.
1910 Korea was annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
1910 Japan changes Korea's name to ''Chōsen'' and appoints a governor-general to rule its new colony.
1914 World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
1914 A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine, Kyūshū, Japan, kills 687.
1915 Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1918 The Japanese Imperial Navy battleship ''Kawachi'' blows up at Shunan, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621.
1918 Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.
1919 May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
1922 The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
1923 Namba Daisuke, a Japanese student, tries to assassinate the Prince Regent Hirohito.
1925 Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are established.
1926 Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
1928 Japanese atrocities in Jinan, China.
1930 The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
1931 The Mukden Incident gives Japan the pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.
1932 Japanese forces attack Shanghai.
1932 Japan occupies Harbin, China.
1932 The May 15 Incident: in an attempted Coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.
1934 "Fujifilm", the foundation of Fujifilm, the photographic and electronic industry in "Tokyo", "Japan".
1934 A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing 3,036 people.
1934 Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
1936 In the February 26 Incident, young Japanese military officers attempt to stage a coup against the government.
1936 Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
1936 In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, agreeing to consult on measures "to safeguard their common interests" in the case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation. The pact is renewed on the same day five years later with additional signatories.
1937 The Japanese city Handa is founded in Aichi Prefecture.
1937 Japanese troops take control of Shanghai, China.
1938 Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Nationalist government creates the 1938 Yellow River flood to halt Japanese forces. 500,000 to 900,000 civilians are killed.
1939 A Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump explodes at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94.
1940 Three trains on the Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. 181 people are killed.
1940 Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
1940 World War II: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.
1940 The German cruiser ''Atlantis'' captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan.
1941 French-Thai War: Final air battle of the conflict. Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.
1941 Pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1941 World War II: in response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
1941 Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.
1941 The United States and the Republic of China declare war against Japan.
1941 World War II: UK declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.
1941 World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
1941 World War II: A formal treaty of alliance between Thailand and Japan is signed in the presence of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew.
1941 World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.
1942 World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces
1942 World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
1942 World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma
1942 World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
1942 World War II: Ten Japanese warplanes raid the town of Broome, Western Australia killing more than 100 people.
1942 World War II: In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands.
1942 World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
1942 World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.
1942 World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
1942 World War II: Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.
1942 World War II: Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
1942 World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland.
1942 World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier ''Ryūjō'' is sunk and US carrier {{USS|Enterprise|CV-6|6}} heavily damaged.
1942 World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.
1942 World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Gotō dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
1942 World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal. The battle lasts for three days.
1942 World War II: Guadalcanal Campaign: Battle of Tassafaronga — A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizo Tanaka defeats a US cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright.
1942 World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.
1943 World War II: Operation Ke, the successful Japanese operation to evacuate their forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign, begins.
1943 World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. The {{USS|Chicago|CA-29}} is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
1943 World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
1943 World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
1943 Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city).
1943 Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
1943 World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins – United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.
1944 World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1944 World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
1944 World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
1944 World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
1944 World War II: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam.
1944 General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
1944 The first kamikaze attack: A Japanese plane carrying a {{convert|200|kg|lb}} bomb attacks {{HMAS|Australia|D84|6}} off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
1944 World War II: The Japanese aircraft carrier ''Zuikaku'', and the battleship Musashi are sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
1944 Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
1944 World War II: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
1945 World War II: Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan.
1945 World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
1945 World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
1945 World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier {{USS|Franklin|CV-13|6}}, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
1945 World War II: the Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.
1945 Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).
1945 An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.
1945 Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1945 Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
1945 Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
1945 Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan formally surrenders to China.
1945 World War II: Australian 9th Division forces liberate the Japanese-run Batu Lintang camp, a POW and civilian internment camp on the island of Borneo.
1945 The Republic of China takes over administration of Taiwan following Japan's surrender to the Allies.
1945 Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
1946 Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
1946 World War II: The US Congress's Pearl Harbor Committee says Franklin D. Roosevelt is completely blameless for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and calls for a unified command structure in the armed forces.
1948 In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.
1950 The Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burns down.
1951 Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
1953 A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns near Tokyo, Japan killing 129.
1953 Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
1954 Japanese rail ferry ''Toya Maru'' sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan killing 1,172.
1954 Japanese rail ferry ''Toya Maru'' sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan killing 1,172.
1955 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, sells its first transistor radios in Japan.
1956 A new year event causes panic and stampedes at Yahiko Shrine, Yahiko, central Niigata, Japan, killing at least 124 people.
1956 A doctor in Japan reports an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata disease.
1956 Japan joins the United Nations.
1957 Heavy rain and a mudslide in Isahaya, western Kyūshū, Japan, kill 992.
1958 Japanese ferry ''Nankai Maru'' capsizes off southern Awaji Island, Japan, 167 killed.
1958 Japanese ferry ''Nankai Maru'' capsizes off southern Awaji Island, Japan, 167 killed.
1959 Nearly 5000 people die on the main Japanese island of Honshū as the result of a typhoon.
1960 Inejiro Asanuma, Chair of the Japanese Socialist Party, is assassinated in Japan by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17-year-old. The cameras were rolling at the time, so the moment was caught on film.
1962 Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
1963 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.
1963 At Miike coal mine, Miike, Japan, an explosion kills 458, and hospitalises 839 with carbon monoxide poisoning. Also, in Japan, a three-train disaster occurs in Yokohama, kills more than 160 people.
1964 Japanese ''Shinkansen'' ("bullet trains") begin high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka.
1964 The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.
1966 BOAC Flight 911 crashes on Mount Fuji, Japan, killing 124.
1967 Vietnam War: More than 100,000 war protesters gather in Washington, D.C.. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility. Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
1968 Jurō Wada successfully performs Japan's first heart transplant.
1968 Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
1969 U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, D.C. on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
1970 In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and one compatriot commit ritualistic suicide after an unsuccessful coup attempt.
1971 An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Japan killing 162.
1972 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
1972 The Asama-Sansō hostage standoff begins in Japan.
1972 Sino-Japanese relations: Japan establishes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.
1973 Palestianian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai.
1974 Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
1974 A powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 8 are killed, 378 are injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.
1976 Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during the imperial Japan's conquest of the country in the Second World War
1976 Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.
1981 More than 100 workers are exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan.
1982 Heavy rain causes a mudslide that destroys a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, killing 299.
1983 Compact Disc players and discs were released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had only been available in Japan before then.
1983 A strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 104 people and injures thousands. Many people go missing and thousands of buildings are destroyed.
1983 Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced to 4 years in jail.
1985 Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
1985 Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
1987 In Japan, NEC releases the first 16-bit home entertainment system, the TurboGrafx-16, known as PC Engine.
1989 Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary.
1990 Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.
1990 Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan becomes active again and erupts.
1991 Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.
1991 Doi Takako, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
1992 Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery (Comfort women) during World War II.
1993 Heavy rains and debris kill 72 in the Kagoshima and Aira areas of Kyūshū, Japan.
1994 China Airlines flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
1994 Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan; 7 persons are killed, 660 injured.
1995 Body Worlds opens in Tokyo, Japan
1998 In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about $3.8 billion USD, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
1998 India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
1998 Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of nuclear tests by India with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
1998 Japan launches a probe to Mars, and thus joins the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
1999 ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan.
2003 A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan.
2004 A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
2005 Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized about Japan's war records.
2005 107 die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.
2007 Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.
2007 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake: an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing 8 people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.
2009 North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.