2014

Events

January

• January 1 – Latvia officially adopts the euro as its currency and becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone.^[3]
• 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.^[4][5]
• February 7–23 – The XXII Olympic Winter Games are held in Sochi, Russia.^[6] 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.^[7]
• 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.^[8]

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.^[9]
• 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.^[10]
• March 16 – Crimean status referendum, 2014: A referendum on the status of the Crimean Peninsula is held.^[11]
• March 21 – Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signs a bill finalizing the process.^[12]
• March 24 – During an emergency meeting, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada temporarily suspend Russia from the G8.^[13]
• 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.^[14]
• 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.^[15]

April

• April 7 – The Donetsk People's Republic unilaterally declares its independence from Ukraine.^[16]
• 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.^[17]
• April 14 – An estimated 276 girls and women are abducted and held hostage from a school in Nigeria.^[18]
• April 16 – Korean ferry MV Sewol capsizes and sinks after an unmanageable cargo shift, killing 304 people, mostly high school students.^[19]
• April 27 – The Catholic Church simultaneously canonizes Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.^[20]
• 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.^[21]

May

• May 5
  • The World Health Organization identifies the spread of poliomyelitis in at least 10 countries as a major worldwide health emergency.^[22]
  • Boko Haram militants kill approximately 300 people in a night attack on Gamboru Ngala.^[23]
• May 12 – The Luhansk People's Republic unilaterally declares its independence from Ukraine.^[24]
• May 22
  • The Royal Thai Army overthrows the caretaker government of Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan after a failure to resolve the political unrest in Thailand.^[25]
  • 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.^[26][27]

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.^[28]
• June 12 – July 13 – The 2014 FIFA World Cup is held in Brazil,^[29] and is won by Germany.^[30]
• June 13 – The military intervention against ISIL begins.^[31]
• 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.^[32]

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,^[33] followed by a ground offensive a week later.^[34] 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.^[35]
• July 21 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2166 in response to the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.^[36]
• July 24 – Air Algérie Flight 5017 crashes in Mali, killing all 116 people on board.^[37]

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.^[38]
• August 8 – The United States military begins an air campaign in northern Iraq to stem the influx of ISIL militants.^[39]
• August 9 – The shooting of Michael Brown occurs in Ferguson, Missouri.^[40]

September

• September 18 – Scotland holds a referendum on whether to leave the United Kingdom, and a majority votes to remain part of the union.^[41][42]
• September 22 – The United States and several Arab partners begin their airstrike campaign in Syria.^[43][44]
• September 26 – The 2014 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, to be held in Cape Town from 13 to 15 October, 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".^[45][46]
• 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 19 – The Roman Catholic Church beatifies Pope Paul VI.^[47]
• October 31 – Longtime Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré resigns after widespread protests in response to his attempts to abolish presidential term limits.^[48]

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.^[49]
• November 12 – The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object.^[50]

December

• December 3 – The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches unmanned spaceprobe Hayabusa 2 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.^[51]
• December 17 – U.S. President Barack Obama announces the resumption of normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba.^[52]
• 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.^[53]