What happened in 2013

45 events　World 1, Japan 2, North America 10, Europe 9, USSR / Russia 2, Asia 9, Middle East 4, Latin America 4, Africa 4

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Highlights of 2013

World1

  • Jan 10At least 130 people are killed and 270 are injured in several bomb blasts in Pakistan.

Japan2

  • Jun 12Jiroemon Kimura, the verified oldest man to have ever lived, dies at 116 years and 54 days old in Japan.
  • Oct 10Delegates from some 140 countries and territories sign the Minamata Treaty, a UNEP treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.

North America10

  • Apr 2The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons.
  • Apr 15Boston Marathon bombing: Two Chechnya-born Islamist brothers (one a United States citizen) detonate 2 bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, killing 3 people and injuring 264 others.
  • May 20An EF5 tornado in the US state of Oklahoma hits Moore and several other surrounding areas near Oklahoma City, resulting in 24 deaths and many injuries.
  • May 31The largest tornado ever recorded hits El Reno, United States. This rain-wrapped, multiple-vortex tornado was the widest tornado ever recorded, and results in eight deaths, including four storm-chasers. Measurements from mobile weather radars revealed extreme winds up to 296 mph (476 km/h) within the vortex, among the highest observed wind speeds on Earth. As it crosses U.S. 81, the tornado grows to a record-breaking width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km).
  • Jun 6Global surveillance disclosures: Former CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden discloses operations engaged in by a U.S. government mass surveillance program to news publications and flees the country, later being granted temporary asylum in Russia.
  • Jun 30Nineteen firefighters are killed as a result of the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona.
  • Jul 6Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing 3 people.
  • Jul 6A runaway train carrying crude oil derails in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, catching fire and exploding, killing 47 people.
  • Sep 16Twelve people are killed during the Washington Navy Yard shooting.
  • Oct 17Microsoft releases Windows 8.1.

Europe9

  • Jan 11The French military begins a 5-month intervention into the Northern Mali conflict, targeting the militant Islamist Ansar Dine group.
  • Feb 28Benedict 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.
  • Apr 8Death of Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
  • May 14The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 takes place in Malmö, Sweden, and is won by Danish entrant Emmelie de Forest with the song "Only Teardrops".
  • May 22Off-duty British Army soldier Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers is murdered in Woolwich, southeast London, by Islamic terrorists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
  • Aug 19All-time most expensive public school in Norway, Kuben Upper Secondary School, opens.
  • Sep 17Grand Theft Auto V earns more than half a billion dollars on its first day of release.
  • Nov 21Euromaidan pro-EU demonstrations begin in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych rejects an economic association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine in favor of closer ties to Russia.
  • Nov 29A police helicopter crashes into The Clutha, a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, killing 10 people and injuring 31.

USSR / Russia2

  • Feb 15A meteor explodes over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,489–1,492 people and damaging over 4,300 buildings. It is the most powerful meteor to strike Earth's atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event. The incident, along with a coincidental flyby of a larger asteroid, prompts international concern regarding the vulnerability of the planet to meteor strikes.
  • Nov 17Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.

Asia9

  • Feb 12North Korea conducts its third underground nuclear test, prompting widespread condemnation and tightened economic sanctions from the international community.
  • Apr 202013 Lushan earthquake: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake jolts Sichuan, China, leaving 193 people dead and more than 11,000 injured.
  • Apr 24The 2013 Savar building collapse, one of the worst industrial disasters in the world, kills 1,134 people in Bangladesh.
  • Oct 15A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Bohol, Philippines, leaving 222 dead, 8 missing, and 976 people injured.
  • Oct 16Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse Airport, Laos, killing all 49 people on board.
  • Nov 5The uncrewed Mars Orbiter Mission is launched by India from its launch pad in Sriharikota.
  • Nov 8Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, hits the Philippines and Vietnam, causing devastation with at least 6,241 people dead.
  • Dec 7Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization delegates sign the Bali Package agreement aimed at loosening global trade barriers.
  • Dec 14Chinese uncrewed spacecraft Chang'e 3, carrying the Yutu rover, becomes the first spacecraft to "soft"-land on the Moon since 1976 and the third ever robotic rover to do so.

Middle East4

  • Jul 3Amid protests, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is deposed in a military coup d'état, leading to widespread violence.
  • Aug 14Following the military coup in Egypt, two anti-coup camps are raided by the security forces, leaving 2,696 people dead. The raids are described by Human Rights Watch as "one of the world's largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history".
  • Aug 211,429 are killed in the Ghouta chemical attack during the Syrian Civil War.
  • Nov 24Iran agrees to limit their nuclear development program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Latin America4

  • Jan 27An estimated 245 people die in a nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  • Mar 13Cardinal 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.
  • Apr 13Venezuelan presidential election: Nicolás Maduro is declared winner with a narrow victory over his opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski. Protests continue to October.
  • Jul 22XIV World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Africa4

  • Jan 1639 international workers and 1 security guard die in a hostage crisis at a natural gas facility near In Aménas, Algeria.
  • Mar 24Central African Republic President François Bozizé flees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after rebel forces capture the nation's capital, Bangui.
  • Sep 21Al-Shabaab militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 62 civilians and wounding over 170.
  • Dec 15South Sudanese Civil War: Fighting between ethnic Dinka and Nuer members of the presidential guard break out in Juba, South Sudan, plunging the country into civil war.