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Top Song(s)
• Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe
• PSY - Gangnam Style
• Rihanna - Diamonds
• Adele - Skyfall
• Flo-Rida - Whistle
Top Film(s)
• Django Unchained
• The Avengers
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Moonrise Kingdom
• The Hunt
Best Selling Book(s)
• The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
• Insurgent - Veronica Roth
• Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
• City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare
• Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver
Famous Deaths
• January 1 - Kiro Gligorov, 1st President of the Republic of Macedonia (1991-99)
• February 16 - Baddeley Devesi, first Governor-General of the Solomon Islands
• March 10 - Mykola Plaviuk, Ukrainian president (1978-81)
• April 1 - Miguel de la Madrid, Mexican President
• June 7 - Phillip Tobias, South African paleoanthropologist and three time Nobel Prize nominee
• June 30 - Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli Prime Minister (1983–84, 1986–1992) and Zionist
• July 24 - Robert Ledley, American scientist (invented the CT scanner)
• August 20 - Meles Zenawi, Ethiopian politician (President, 1991-95; Prime Minister, 1995-2012)
• October 6 - Chadli Bendjedid, Algerian president
• November 30 - I. K. [Inder Kumar] Gujral, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (1997-98)
Medical/Science/Technology
• The British Army announces the development of a conductive smart fabric for infantry uniforms.
• Austrian and Japanese researchers unveil solar cells that are thinner than a thread of spider silk.
• A new treatment for prostate cancer can rid the disease from nine in ten men without debilitating side effects.
• Researchers identify 53 key neurons in the brains of homing pigeons which may explain how the birds navigate using Earth's geomagnetic field.
• Scientists report that a new genetic test could diagnose the risk of breast cancer years before the disease actually develops.
• Researchers extend the lifespan of mice by 24%, using gene therapy applied when the mice were adults.
• Scientists successfully sequence the tomato genome, and state that tastier and more pesticide-resistant tomato.
• American glass manufacturer Corning Inc. unveils an ultra-thin, flexible glass dubbed "Willow Glass".
• The US Naval Research Laboratory has developed a form of underwater solar energy.
• American scientists build a tabletop-sized X-ray laser, vastly smaller and cheaper than most such devices.
Political
• January 3 – Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum wins the Republican Iowa Caucus.
• January 9 – White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley steps down.
• January 22 - U.S. House Representative Gabby Giffords of Arizona announces her resignation from office.
• January 24 - President Barack Obama delivers his 2012 State of the Union Address.
• February 7 – A federal appeals court upholds the district court decision that struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage.
• April 2 - The U.S. Supreme Court makes a controversial 5–4 decision that law enforcement officials can strip-search newly admitted jail inmates.
• May 9 – Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to announce support for gay marriage.
• June 5 – Incumbent Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker wins a recall election against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
• June 15 - President Barack Obama announces that the U.S. will stop deporting some illegal immigrants.
• November 6 – Barack Obama is reelected President of the United States, defeating his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
National
• January 10 - Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour pardons 200 prisoners.
• January 16 - Zappos.com computer system is hacked, compromising the personal information of 24 million customers.
• January 19 - Kodak files for bankruptcy protection. Kodak is best known for its wide range of photographic film products.
• February 15 – The Kellogg Company purchases snack maker Pringles from Procter & Gamble for US$2.7 billion.
• March 2 - Tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2012: 40 people die in the South and the Ohio Valley.
• April 24 – The USDA announces that bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease") was found in a dairy cow in California.
• May 7 - The first licenses for autonomous cars in the U.S. are granted in Nevada to Google.
• July 2 - NASA and Lockheed Martin unveil the first space-bound Orion spacecraft in Cape Canaveral.
• July 20 – Twelve people die and 70 are injured in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.
• October 3 – The first U.S. presidential debate of 2012 is held at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado.
Worldwide
• January 13 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off the coast of Italy, causing 32 deaths.
• February 6 - A magnitude 6.7 earthquake strike in the central Philippines island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.
• March 13 – After 246 years since its first publication, the Encyclopedia Britannica discontinues its print edition.
• April 20 – Bhoja Air Flight 213 crashes near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, killing all 127 people on board.
• May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 meters high, is opened to the public.
• June 7 – Morley and Dianella in Perth, Western Australia, have a once in a decade tornado.
• September 7 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran.
• October 16 – Seven paintings worth $25 million are stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
• November 25–December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people missing.
• December 18 – At least 55 people drown after an overcrowded boat capsizes off the coast of Somalia.