2014 SO FAR

January[edit]

• January 1 – Latvia officially adopts the Euro as its currency and becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone.^[2]

February[edit]

• February–ongoing – The 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak infects 528 people and kills at least 337 people.^{[citation needed]}
• February 7–23 – The XXII Olympic Winter Games are held in Sochi, Russia.^[3][4]
• February 13 – Belgium becomes the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia for terminally ill patients of any age.^[5]
• 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.^[6]

March[edit]

March 8: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

• 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.^[7]
• 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.^[8]
• March 16 – A referendum on the status of Crimea is held.^[9]
• March 21 – Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signed a bill finalizing the annexation process.^[10]
• March 24 – During an emergency meeting, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada temporarily suspend Russia from the G8.^[11]
• 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.^[12]
• 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.^[13][14]

April[edit]

• 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.^[15]
• April 14 – An estimated 276 girls and women are abducted and held hostage from a school in Nigeria.^[16]
• April 27 – The Catholic Church canonizes Popes John XXIII and John Paul II on Divine Mercy Sunday.^[17]
• 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.^[18]

May[edit]

• May 5
  • The World Health Organization identifies the spread of poliomyelitis in at least 10 countries as a major worldwide health emergency.^[19]
  • Boko Haram militants kill approximately 300 people in a night attack on Gamboru Ngala.^[20]
• 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.^[21][22]

June[edit]

• 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.^[23]
• June 12 – July 13 – The 2014 FIFA World Cup is being held in Brazil.
• June 19 – King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, who ascends the Spanish throne as King Felipe VI.