Year 2014
Events
January
January 1 – Latvia officially adopts the euro as its currency and
becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone.
January 5 – A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the
GSLV Mk.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic
rocket engine.
January 19 – 2014 Bannu bombing: a Taliban vehicle bomb attack on a
Pakistani military convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26
soldiers and injures 38 others.
February
February – The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa begins, infecting at
least 28,616 people and killing at least 11,310 people, the most severe
both in terms of numbers of infections and casualties.
February 7 – 23 – The XXII Olympic Winter Games are held in Sochi,
Russia. Slopestyle events are introduced for the first time.
February 13 – Belgium becomes the first country in the world to legalise
euthanasia for terminally ill patients of any age.
February 22 – 2014 Ukrainian revolution: The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian
parliament) votes to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office,
replacing him with Oleksandr Turchynov, after days of civil unrest
leaving around 100 people dead in Kiev.
March
March 5 – Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, severs diplomatic
and political ties with Panama, accusing Panama of being involved in a
conspiracy against the Venezuelan government.
March 8 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 airliner en route
to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappears over the Gulf of Thailand with
239 people on board. The aircraft is presumed to have crashed into the
Indian Ocean.
March 16
2014 Crimean status referendum: A referendum on the status of the
Crimean Peninsula is held.
The fifth ICC T20 World Cup is held in Bangladesh.
March 21 – Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin
signs a bill finalizing the process.
March 24 – During an emergency meeting, the United Kingdom, the United
States, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada temporarily suspend
Russia from the G8.
March 27 – The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 68/262,
recognizing Crimea within Ukraine's international borders and rejecting
the validity of the 2014 Crimean referendum.
March 31 – The United Nations International Court of Justice rules that
Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not scientific but commercial and
forbids grants of further permits.
April
April 7 – The Donetsk People's Republic unilaterally declares its
independence from Ukraine.
April 10 – In response to the 2014 Crimean crisis, the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passes a resolution to
temporarily strip Russia of its voting rights; its rights to be
represented in the Bureau of the Assembly, the PACE Presidential
Committee, and the PACE Standing Committee; and its right to participate
in election-observation missions.
April 14 – An estimated 276 girls and women are abducted and held
hostage from a school in Nigeria.
April 16 – Korean ferry MV Sewol capsizes and sinks after an
unmanageable cargo shift, killing 304 people, mostly high school
students.
April 25 — The water source for Flint, Michigan is changed, starting the
Flint water crisis.
April 27 – The Catholic Church simultaneously canonizes Popes John XXIII
and John Paul II.
April 28 – United States President Barack Obama's new economic sanctions
against Russia go into effect, targeting companies and individuals close
to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
May
May 5
The World Health Organization identifies the spread of poliomyelitis in
at least 10 countries as a major worldwide health emergency.
Boko Haram militants kill approximately 300 people in a night attack on
Gamboru Ngala.
May 12 – The Luhansk People's Republic unilaterally declares its
independence from Ukraine.
May 20 – Terrorists in Nigeria detonate bombs at Jos, killing 118
people.
May 22
The Royal Thai Army overthrows the caretaker government of Niwatthamrong
Boonsongpaisan after a failure to resolve the political unrest in
Thailand.
The Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic declare
the formation of Novorossiya, also referred to as the Union of People's
Republics.
June
June 5 – A Sunni militant group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (also known as the ISIS or ISIL) begins an offensive through
northern Iraq, aiming to capture the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad and
overthrow the Shiite government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
June 12 – July 13 – The 2014 FIFA World Cup is held in Brazil, and is
won by Germany.
June 13 – The military intervention against ISIL begins.
June 19 – Felipe VI becomes King of Spain upon the abdication of Juan
Carlos I.
June 29 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declares itself a
caliphate.
July
July 8 – August 26 – Amid growing tensions between Israel and Hamas
following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June
and the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager in July, Israel
launches Operation Protective Edge against Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip
starting with numerous missile strikes, followed by a ground offensive a
week later. In seven weeks of fighting, 2,100 Palestinians and 71
Israelis are killed.
July 17 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes in eastern
Ukraine after being shot down by a missile. All 298 people on board are
killed.
July 21 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2166 in
response to the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
July 23 – August 3 – The 2014 Commonwealth Games takes place in Glasgow,
Scotland.
July 24 – Air Algérie Flight 5017 crashes in Mali, killing all 116
people on board.
August
August 7 – Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are found
guilty of crimes against humanity and are sentenced to life imprisonment
by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
August 8 – The United States military begins an air campaign in northern
Iraq to stem the influx of ISIL militants.
August 9 – The shooting of Michael Brown occurs in Ferguson, Missouri.
September
September 18 – In a referendum, Scotland votes against independence from
the United Kingdom.
September 22 – The United States and several Arab partners begin their
airstrike campaign in Syria.
September 26 – The 2014 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, to be
held in Cape Town from October 13 to 15, is suspended after a boycott of
Nobel Laureates to protest the third time refusal of a visa to the 14th
Dalai Lama by a South African Government "kowtowing to China".
September 28 – Hong Kong protests: Benny Tai Yiu-ting announces that
Occupy Central is launched as Hong Kong's government headquarters is
being occupied by thousands of protesters. Hong Kong police resort to
tear gas to disperse protesters but thousands remain.
October
October 3 – Stefan Löfvén replaces Fredrik Reinfeldt as Prime Minister
of Sweden
October 19 – The Roman Catholic Church beatifies Pope Paul VI.
October 20 – Joko Widodo was inaugurated as the 7th President of
Indonesia.
October 24 – Alan Eustace, an American computer scientist, set the
current world record highest and longest free fall jump from 135,908
feet (41.425 km) over Roswell, New Mexico, United States, breaking the
sound barrier without any machine assistance during a record space dive
out of a massive helium-filled balloon. His descent to Earth lasted 4
minutes 27 seconds and stretched nearly 26 miles (42 km) with peak
speeds exceeding 822 miles per hour (1,323 km/h), setting new world
records for the highest free-fall jump and total free-fall distance
123,414 feet (37,617 m).
October 31 – Longtime Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré resigns
after widespread protests in response to his attempts to abolish
presidential term limits.
November
November 2 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
releases the final part of its Fifth Assessment Report, warning that the
world faces "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage from global
emissions of CO2.
November 3 – The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the One
World Trade Center opens.
November 12 – The unmanned Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe
successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a
spacecraft has landed on such an object.
December
December 3 – The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches unmanned
spaceprobe Hayabusa2 from the Tanegashima Space Center on a six-year
round trip mission to Ryugu to collect rock samples.
December 16 – The Pakistani Taliban carry out a mass shooting at an army
school in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing at least 145 people, mostly
schoolchildren.
December 17 – U.S. President Barack Obama announces the resumption of
normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
December 28 – Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia to
Singapore crashes into the Java Sea just southwest of Borneo, killing
all 162 people on board.
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