In 2016 one of the biggest stories was Brexit. The referendum on whether Britain should leave membership of the European Union, was promised in 2015 by then Conservative Party Prime Minister David Cameron as a re-election commitment.

In 2017 one of the biggest stories in Australia was the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Up until this year, same-sex unions were treated as de-facto unions, with having some, but not all legal rights as marriages.

In 2018, the world held their collective breath when twelve boys and their football coach become stranded several kilometres inside a cave in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province.

We are celebrating 50 years at SBS by bringing you some of the biggest stories from the past five decades. The Black Summer bushfires in late 2019 was one of the worst on record. A long and dry weather spell created a catastrophic condition.

As SBS turns 50, we're looking back at our biggest stories. In 2020 the Coronavirus pandemic struck across the globe.

In February 2021, Facebook banned Australians from posting or sharing news content on their site. The move was in response to the Federal Government’s proposed news Media Bargaining Code, which would require technology companies to negotiate with media outlets to carry their news content online.

In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in a significant escalation of conflict which commenced in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to support the breakaway Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, with claims Ukraine was led by neo-Nazis and Russia was under threat from NATO expansion.

When Anthony Albanese was elected prime minister in 2022, he committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, which includes a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice to Parliament. The referendum was held on the 14th of October 2023.

In 2024 the American people have handed Donald Trump a resounding mandate to re-take the White House, beating Democrat Kamala Harris for the top job.