The new year is almost here, so here’s a quick look at some of the events coming up around the world.

2015 has been designated the International Year of Light and the International Year of Soils by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.  Mons in Belgium and Plzeň in the Czech Republic have been nominated as the European Capitals of Culture.  Expo 2015 will take place in Milan; this will be the second time the city hosts the exposition, the first being the Milan International of 1906.  Bristol will be the European Green Capital 2015, the first UK city to win this award which is run by The European Commission, and has previously been won by Stockholm, Hamburg, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Nantes and Copenhagen.

Turning to the skies, March 20 will bring a total solar eclipse which will be visible in the North Atlantic.  On April 4 there will be total lunar eclipse, with the resulting dark red moon visible throughout most of North America, South America, eastern Asia, and Australia.  Other parts of the world will get a chance to see the next total lunar eclipse on September 28. August 12 and 13 will bring us one of the most impressive meteor showers, the Perseids, producing up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak. The shower runs annually from July 17 to August 24, peaking this year on the night of August 12 and the morning of August 13 when it coincides with a thin crescent moon.

The world of sport brings us the usual wide range of events worldwide.  There is a useful calendar of key events here.  The first half of 2015 will see the launch of ticket sales for Rio 2016 – for all the latest information on the Rio Olympics watch this space.

2015 brings us a number of important anniversaries, including the 1,200th anniversary of the birth of Saint Methodius, creator, with his brother Cyril, of the first Slavic alphabet the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta; the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo; the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War; the 80th anniversary of Aghia Sofia becoming secular; and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.  On September 10, as long as she is still reigning, Queen Elizabeth II will surpass her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria to become Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

And, of course, it’s the turn of the odd-numbered biennials. The big one has to be the 56th Venice International Art Biennale, All the World’s Futures, with its various sub-festivals running throughout the year. The Photoquai exhibition will be back in Paris in September; Chicago will host its Architecture Biennial in September; New York’s Biennale Art will be back in November; and Alberta’s Biennial of Contemporary Art starts on 24 January.  The one I still want to visit is the light festival in Durham, England: although more sponsors are still needed it looks as though Lumiere will return to Durham this November for its fourth time.  It’s in my diary already!

Updated 30 December 2015.