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20 of 20 events · 36 BCE – 2024

The Story of

Kazakhstan

36 BCE – 2024

Sovereign state in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

  1. Battle of Zhizhi

    October 36 BCE – December 36 BCE

    The Battle of Zhizhi (郅支之戰) was fought in 36 BC between the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu chieftain Zhizhi Chanyu. Zhizhi was defeated and killed.

  2. Battle of Talas

    May 751 – September 751

    The Battle of Talas (Chinese: 怛羅斯戰役; pinyin: Dáluósī Zhànyì; Arabic: معركة نهر طلاس, romanized: Maʿrakat nahr Ṭalās) was an armed confrontation between the Abbasid Caliphate along with the Tibetan Empire against the Tang dynasty and its allies in 751. In July of that year, the Tang and Abbasid armies clashed at the Talas River over control of the regions surrounding the Syr Darya.

  3. Otrar Catastrophe

    December 1219 – February 1220

    The Otrar Catastrophe was a siege that took place between December 1219 and February 1220 during the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire at Otrar, a large trading city on the Syr Darya river. Inalchuq, the city's governor, had seized the goods of a Mongol trade caravan the previous year; after more provocations from Inalchuq's liege and ruler of the Khwarazmian Empire, Shah Muhammad II, Genghis Khan launched a full-scale invasion of the empire.

  4. Battle of Ican

    16 December 1864 – 18 December 1864

    The Battle of Ican (Russian: Иканское сражение, romanized: Ikanskoye srazhenie), occurred on 16 December 1864 near Ikan as a part of the Russian conquest of Central Asia. In the battle, a Kokand army under the command of Alimqul was defeated by a cossack detachment.

  5. 1911 Kebin earthquake

    3 January 1911

    The 1911 Kebin earthquake, or Chon-Kemin earthquake, struck Russian Turkestan on 3 January. Registering at a moment magnitude of 8.0, it killed 452 people, destroyed more than 770 buildings (which was almost all of the city) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and resulted in 125 miles (201 km) of surface faulting in the valleys of Chon-Kemin, Chilik and Chon-Aksu.

  6. Kazakh famine of 1919–1922

    1919–1922

    The Kazakh famine of 1919–1922, also referred to as the Turkestan famine of 1919–1922, was a period of mass starvation and drought that took place in the Kirghiz ASSR (present-day Kazakhstan) and Turkestan ASSR as a result of the Russian Civil War, in which 400,000 to 750,000 peasants died. The event was part of the greater Russian famine of 1921–22 that affected other parts of what became the Soviet Union, in which up to 5,000,000 people died in total.

  7. Tajikistani Civil War

    5 May 1992 – 27 June 1997

    The Tajikistani Civil War was an armed conflict in Tajikistan that began in May 1992 and ended in June 1997. Regional groups from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions of Tajikistan rose up against the newly formed government of President Rahmon Nabiyev, which was dominated by people from the Khujand and Kulob regions.

  8. Lisbon Protocol

    23 May 1992

    The Lisbon Protocol to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was a document signed by representatives of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine that recognized the four states as successors of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and all of them assume obligations of the Soviet Union under the START I treaty. These were the four countries in which strategic nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union remained.

  9. Kazakhstani presidential term referendum

    29 April 1995

    A referendum on extending the presidential term of Nursultan Nazarbayev was held in Kazakhstan on 29 April 1995. Voters were asked "Do you agree to prolong the term of office of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, publicly elected on 1 December 1991, until 1 December 2000?" The question was approved by 95.5% of voters, with turnout reported to be 91.2%.

  10. Iraq War

    20 March 2003 – 15 December 2011

    The Iraq War (Arabic: حرب العراق, romanized: ḥarb al-ʿirāq), also referred to as the Second Gulf War (Gulf War II), was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began in March 2003 with the invasion by a United States–led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein.

  11. Kyzyl-Agash Dam failure

    11 March 2010

    The Kyzyl-Agash Dam failure (Kazakh: Qyzylaǵash oqıǵasy), occurred in a dam located outside the village of Kyzyl-Agash, Jetisu Region, Kazakhstan. On 11 March 2010, the dam burst, flooding the village.

  12. 2011 Zhanaozen riots

    17 December 2011

    The Zhanaozen massacre (Kazakh: Жаңаөзен оқиғасы, romanized: Jañaözen oqiğasy) took place in Kazakhstan's western Mangystau Region over the weekend of 16–17 December 2011. At least 14 protesters were killed by police in the oil town of Zhanaozen as they clashed with police on the country's Independence Day, with unrest spreading to other towns in the oil-rich oblys, or region.

  13. 2012 Kazakhstan Antonov An-72 crash

    25 December 2012

    On 25 December 2012, an Antonov An-72 military transport aircraft operated by the Kazakh Armed Forces crashed about 20 km (12 mi) from the city of Shymkent, Kazakhstan, where the aircraft was preparing to land. All 27 people on board died in the crash.

  14. SCAT Airlines Flight 760

    29 January 2013

    SCAT Airlines Flight 760 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kokshetau to Almaty, Kazakhstan, operated by a Bombardier CRJ200 twinjet that on 29 January 2013 crashed in thick fog near the village of Kyzyltu, while on approach to Almaty. All 16 passengers and 5 crew on board were killed.

  15. Sleep hollow

    March 2013

    The sleeping sickness of Kalachi, Kazakhstan (with the place or the syndrome sometimes called sleepy hollow) is a conjectured medical condition which causes a person to sleep for days or weeks at a time, together with other symptoms such as hallucinations, nausea, intoxicated behavior, disorientation and memory loss. The phenomenon was only reported in Kalachi and the nearby village of Krasnogorsk.

  16. COVID-19 pandemic

    1 December 2019

    The global COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and then worldwide in early 2020.

  17. Bek Air Flight 2100

    27 December 2019

    Bek Air Flight 2100 was a domestic passenger flight from Almaty to Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, operated by a Fokker 100 that crashed on 27 December 2019 while taking off from Almaty International Airport. Of the 98 people on board (93 passengers and 5 crew), 13 died in the crash and 66 were injured.

  18. 2022 Kazakh unrest

    2022

    The 2022 Kazakh unrest, also known as January Events, Bloody January, or the January Tragedy, was a series of mass protests and civil unrest that began in Kazakhstan on 2 January 2022 after a sudden sharp increase in liquefied petroleum gas prices following the lifting of a government-enforced price cap on 1 January. The protests began peacefully in the oil-producing city of Zhanaozen and quickly spread to other cities in the country, especially the nation's largest city, Almaty, which saw its demonstrations turn into violent riots, fueled by rising dissatisfaction with the government and…

  19. 2024 Central Asian floods

    March 2024

    In April 2024, extensive flooding impacted several regions of Kazakhstan and Russia, specifically in the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Snow melt caused freshets resulting in the Orsk Dam collapsing.

  20. 2024 Kazakh nuclear power referendum

    6 October 2024

    A referendum on the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan took place on 6 October 2024. The initiative was aimed at reducing fossil fuel reliance, curbing greenhouse gas emissions and bolstering national electricity generation in light of frequent power outages in recent years.