| 10-26th February 2006 | The 2006 Winter Olympic Games are held in Turin, Italy. |
| 22nd February 2006 | Over £53.1 million is stolen during the Securitas depot robbery, the largest ever cash robbery in the United Kingdom. |
| 15th-26th March 2006 | The 2006 Commonwealth Games takes place in Melbourne, Australia. |
| 5th April 2006 | A swan with Avian Flu is discovered in Cellardyke in Fife, Scotland. This is the first case of ‘bird flu’ found in the United Kingdom. |
| 16th April 2006 | Albert II, Prince of Monaco, becomes the first ever reigning monarch to reach the North Pole. |
| 27th May 2006 | An earthquake strikes central Java in Indonesia, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale. Over 6,000 people are killed, at least 36,000 are injured and 1.5 million people are left homeless. |
| 3rd June 2006 | Montenegro declares independence after a referendum held on 21st May. The state union of Serbia and Montenegro is dissolved on 5th June, leaving Serbia as the successor state. |
| 9th June - 9th July 2006 | Germany holds the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The competition is eventually won by Italy, following a penalty shoot-out against France in the final. |
| 12th July 2006 | Israeli troops invade Lebanon in response to Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others. Hezbollah declares open war against Israel two days later. |
| 10th August 2006 | London Metropolitan Police make twenty-one arrests in connection to a terrorist plot involving an aeroplane travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States. Liquids and gels are banned from hand luggage and airports are plunged into chaos due to lengthy security checks. |
| 2nd September 2006 | A Nimrod MR2 based at RAF Kinloss, Scotland, crashes in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, due to a technical fault. All fourteen of the crew onboard are killed. |
| 12th September 2006 | Pope Benedict XVI gives a lecture in Germany; he quotes a criticism of the Islamic faith, sparking mass protests. |
| 9th October 2006 | North Korea claims to have conducted its first ever nuclear test. |
| 5th November 2006 | Saddam Hussein and two of his senior allies are sentenced to death by hanging after an Iraqi court finds them guilty of crimes against humanity. |
| 12th December 2006 | Peugeot produces their last car at the Ryton Plant, signalling the end of mass car production in a city that was once a major centre of the British motor industry; Coventry. |
| 19th December 2006 | The bodies of five murdered prostitutes are discovered at different locations near Ipswich in Suffolk. A huge investigation is launched, which eventually leads to the conviction of Steve Wright. |
| 30th December 2006 | Saddam Hussein, former Iraq president, is executed in Baghdad. |
| 31st December 2006 | The Met Office announces that England has experienced its warmest year since records began in 1659, with an average temperature of 10.82 °C (51.48 °F). |