January

-The French military begins a five-month intervention into the Northern Mali conflict, targeting the militant Islamist Ansar Dine group.

-Thirty-nine international workers and one security guard die in a hostage crisis at a natural gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria.

-The U.S. Senate bipartisanly approves a deal to avert general tax hikes and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff”.

-An airstrike on a petrol station outside the capital Damascus kills and injures dozens of people. The United Nations says the death toll from the conflict could be more than 60,000 people.

-Police in India charge five men with the murder of a 23-year-old woman who was gang-raped on a bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012.

-Pakistani schoolgirl blogger Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban in October 2012, is discharged from hospital in the UK.

-In ice hockey, the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association reach an agreement that ends the 201213 NHL lockout and averts the cancellation of the 201213 NHL season.

Notable deaths: Patti Page, American singer; Nguyen Khanh, Vietnamese general and politician; Patty Andrews, singer (The Andrews Sisters).

February

-North Korea conducts its third underground nuclear test, prompting widespread condemnation and tightened economic sanctions from the international community.

-A meteor explodes over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,491 people and damaging over 4,300 buildings. It is the most powerful meteor to strike Earth’s atmosphere in over a century. The incident, along with a coincidental flyby of a larger asteroid, prompts international concern regarding the vulnerability of the planet to meteor strikes.

-Hillary Clinton steps down as United States Secretary of State; she is succeeded by Senator John Kerry.

-American scientists use a 3D printer to create a living lab-grown ear from collagen and animal ear cell cultures. In the future, it is hoped, similar ears could be grown to order as transplants for human patients suffering from ear trauma or amputation.

-Benedict XVI resigns as pope, becoming the first to do so since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.

-Christopher Dorner, a former LAPD police officer and United States Navy Reserve officer who was charged in connection with a series of shooting attacks on police officers and their families, is found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Dorner was the subject of one of the largest manhunts in LAPD history, spanning two U.S. states and Mexico.

-Former United States Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and another man are killed at a shooting range near Glen Rose, Somervell County, Texas.

Notable deaths: Ed Koch, American lawyer and politician; Tony Sheridan, British singer, songwriter, and musician; Van Cliburn, American pianist; Donald A. Glaser, American Nobel physicist; Mindy McCready, American country music singer; C. Everett Koop, Surgeon General

March

-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected the 266th pope, whereupon he takes the name Francis and becomes the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere.

-The European Union agrees to a $10 billion economic bailout for Cyprus. The bailout loan will be equally split between the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, and the International Monetary Fund. The deal precipitates a banking crisis in the island nation.

-Former Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick is convicted on corruption charges.

-United States Senator Rand Paul ends a 13-hour filibuster to block voting on the nomination of John O. Brennan as the Director of the CIA, questioning President Barack Obama and his administration’s use of drones, and the stated legal justification for hypothetical lethal use within the United States targeting against noncombatants. Attorney General Eric Holder states that combat drones would not be used to target and kill, without due process, Americans not engaged in combat on American soil.

Notable deaths: Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president; Bonnie Franklin, American actress; Phil Ramone, record producer.

April

-The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons.

-Two bombs explode at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing 3 and injuring 264 others.

-An eight-story commercial building collapses in Savar Upazila near the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, leaving 1,129 dead and 2,500 injured. The accident is the deadliest non-terrorist structural collapse in modern times and the third-worst industrial disaster in history.

-The wrongful death of Michael Jackson trial gets underway with jury selection.

Notable deaths: Roger Ebert, American film critic; Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Jonathan Winters, American comedian and actor; Richie Havens, American folk singer; George Jones; American country music singer; Shain Gandee, reality TV star (“BUCKWILD”).

May

-In a study published in the scientific journal Nature, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in the United States describe the first creation of human embryonic stem cells by cloning.

Notable deaths: Ray Harryhausen, American filmmaker and creator of visual effects; Ray Manzarek, American keyboardist; Jack Vance, American novelist; Jean Stapleton, American actress

June

-American Edward Snowden discloses operations engaged by a US government mass surveillance program to news publications and flees the country, later being granted temporary asylum in Russia.

-Flash floods and landslides in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh kill more than 5,700 people and trap more than 20,000.

Notable deaths: Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress; Pierre Mauroy, Prime Minister of France (19811984); Richard Ramirez, American serial killer; James Gandolfini, American actor; Bobby “Blue” Bland, American singer.

July

-Amid mass protests across Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi is deposed in a military coup d’etat, leading to widespread violence.

-Prince George Alexander Louis, heir to the British throne and only child of Prince William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, is born in London.

Notable deaths: Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist and inventor; Cory Monteith, Canadian actor; Helen Thomas, American journalist; Dennis Farina, American actor; Eileen Brennan, American actress.

AUGUST

-The U.S. states of Minnesota and Rhode Island begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

-A man crashes his car into a crowd of pedestrians in Venice Beach, California, U.S., injuring eleven people and killing one. The driver fled the scene and is being sought by authorities.

-Ben Affleck is named to follow Christian Bale as the caped crusader in Batman.

-Pop music singer and former Disney star Miley Cyrus creates a stir with a lewd and lascivious performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Notable deaths: George Duke, American keyboardist; Karen Black, American actress; Eydie Gorme, American singer; Elmore Leonard, American novelist; David Frost, British journalist and broadcaster.

September

-al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 62 civilians and wounding over 170.

Notable deaths: Ray Dolby, American engineer and inventor; Ken Norton, American boxer.

October

-One year later, residents of the east coast are still rebuilding after Hurricance Sandy. More than 650,000 structures across the region, including some 366,000 in New York City and New Jersey, were impacted by Sandy.

-From October 1 through 16, 2013, the United States federal government entered a shutdown and curtailed most routine operations after Congress failed to enact legislation appropriating funds for fiscal year 2014, or a continuing resolution for the interim authorization of appropriations for fiscal year 2014. Regular government operations resumed October 17 after an interim appropriations bill was signed into law.

Notable deaths: Tom Clancy, American writer; Lou Reed, American singer, songwriter, and musician.Scott Carpenter, American astronaut; Manolo Escobar, Spanish singer; Marcia Wallace, American actress and comedienne.

November

-Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, makes landfall in the Philippines, causing devastation and, according to estimates, thousands of casualties.

-Three Studies of Lucian Freud, a series of portraits of Lucian Freud by the British painter Francis Bacon, sells for US$142.4 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.

Notable deaths: Walt Bellamy, American basketball player; Kurt Caselli, American motocross rider; Barbara Park, children’s book author; Charlie Trotter, chef & restaurateur