The Year that was 2014

2014 (MMXIV) was the year, and was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar (dominical letter E), the 2014th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 14th year of the 3rd millennium, the 14th year of the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2010s decade. This post reflects the highs and lows of 2014. All links are to the Wikipedia Website and that particular entry

Famous Births:

February 20 – Princess Leonore, Duchess of Gotland
December 10

Famous Deaths:

January 5 – Eusébio, Portuguese footballer (b. 1942)
January 11 – Ariel Sharon, 11th Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1928)
January 15 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, British actor (b. 1944)
February 24 – Harold Ramis, American film director, writer, and actor (b. 1944)
March 14 – Tony Benn, British politician and diarist (b. 1925)
April 8 – The Ultimate Warrior, American professional wrestler (b. 1959)
April 10 – Sue Townsend, British novelist and playwright (b. 1946)
April 29 – Bob Hoskins, British actor (b. 1942)
June 9 – Rik Mayall, British comedian, writer and actor (b. 1958)
June 15 – Casey Kasem, American radio host and voice actor (b. 1932)
August 11 – Robin Williams, American actor and comedian (b. 1951)
August 24 – Richard Attenborough, British actor and film director (b. 1923)
September 4 – Joan Rivers, American comedian, actress, and television host (b. 1933)
September 12 – Ian Paisley, British politician and First Minister of Northern Ireland (b. 1926)
November 2 – Acker Bilk, British jazz clarinetist (b. 1929)
November 12 – Warren Clarke, English actor (b. 1947)
November 27 – P. D. James, English writer and life peer (b. 1920)
December 22 – Joe Cocker, English singer (b. 1944)

Events

January

January 1 – Latvia officially adopts the euro as its currency and becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone.

February

February–ongoing – The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa begins, infecting over 20,000 people and killing at least 7,000 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.
February 13 – Belgium becomes the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia for terminally ill patients of any age.
February 22 – The Ukrainian parliament votes to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office, replacing him with Oleksandr Turchynov, after days of civil unrest left around 100 people dead in Kiev.
February 26–ongoing – The pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine leads to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and an insurgency in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

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 – A referendum on the status of Crimea is held.
March 21 – Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signed a bill finalizing the annexation 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 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 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 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.

June

June 5–ongoing – A Sunni militant group called the Islamic State in 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 19 – King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, who ascends the Spanish throne as King Felipe VI.

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 on the Palestinian Gaza Strip starting with numerous missile strikes, followed by a ground invasion a week later. In 7 weeks of fighting, 2,100 Palestinians and 71 Israelis are killed.
July 17
- After a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire, Israel confirms the beginning of a ground offensive in Gaza.
- 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 24 – Air Algérie Flight 5017 crashes in Mali, killing all 116 people on board.

August[edit]

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 ISIS militants.

September

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 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".

October

October 19 – The Roman Catholic Church beatifies Pope Paul VI.
October 31 – Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré resigns after widespread protests in response to the attempt in abolishing 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 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.

December

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 disappears on a flight between Surabaya, Indonesia and Singapore with 162 people aboard.The plane is later found to have crashed in the Java Sea off the coast of Borneo.