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Top Song(s)
• Pharrell Williams - Happy
• Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass
• Sam Smith - Stay With Me
• Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud
• Taylor Swift - Shake it Off
Top Film(s)
• Whiplash
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Interstellar
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Best Selling Book(s)
• My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult
• Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
• Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris
• The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
• The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen
Famous Deaths
• January 11 - Ariel Sharon, Israeli general, politician and Prime Minister of Israel (2001-06)
• February 19 - Valery Kubasov, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz 6, 19, 36/35)
• March 13 - Reubin Askew, American politician (37th Governor of Florida)
• April 21 - George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (helped invent LCD displays)
• May 19 - Michael Aldrich, British inventor (Online shopping)
• June 18 Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist and inventor (Kevlar)
• July 13 - Nadine Gordimer, South African author and Nobel laureate
• September 1 - Joseph Shivers, American chemist and inventor of Spandex
• October 16 - John Spencer-Churchill, 11th duke of Marlborough
• December 21 - Sonia d’Artois, British Canadian WWII resistance agent
Medical/Science/Technology
• A new way to destroy metastasizing cancer cells traveling through the bloodstream has been discovered by researchers at Cornell University.
• A Danish man has been fitted with a prosthetic hand capable of delivering a sense of touch.
• Stanford bioengineer develops a 50-cent paper microscope capable of a magnification of up to 2000 times.
• A battery that can charge in under 30 seconds is demonstrated at a technology conference in Tel Aviv.
• A new gene therapy technique has restored the sight of six patients who would otherwise have gone blind.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) announces that the spread of polio is a world health emergency.
• Earth and the Moon are 60 million years older than previously believed, according to new evidence.
• A new hybrid, flexible, energy-efficient circuit that merges carbon nanotubes with other thin film transistors that could replace silicon.
• Japanese scientists say they have found a way to slow down the ageing process in flowers by up to a half.
• HIV is evolving into a less deadly and less infectious form as it spends more time infecting people, according to a major scientific study.
Political
• January 1 - Numerous provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, go into effect.
• January 1 - Provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law by then-President George W. Bush, go into effect.
• January 1 - The state of Oregon bans smoking in vehicles when children are present.
• January 14 – A federal judge rules that Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional but immediately stays the ruling.
• February 10 – The Obama Administration delays the employer mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the second time.
• February 13 - A federal judge rules that California's gun law restricting concealed weapons is unconstitutional because it violates the Second Amendment.
• March 7 - Massachusetts bans the taking of candid upskirt photographs in public.
• April 23 - Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia signs the Safe Carry Protection Act into law.
• April 24 – The Food and Drug Administration announces its intention to begin regulating electronic cigarettes.
• April 28 – The Obama Administration's new economic sanctions against Russia go into effect.
National
• January 1 - A building explosion kills three and injures 13 in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• January 20 – A feed processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska, explodes, killing two people.
• February 13 - Comcast buys Time Warner Cable for $45 billion.
• March 12 – A gas explosion collapses a building in New York City, killing eight people and injuring over 70 others.
• April 2 - A gunman identified as Ivan Lopez opens fire at the Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas, killing 3 people and then himself.
• May 5 – In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court rules that opening prayers can precede town hall meetings without violating the Constitution.
• June 5 – Gunman Aaron Ybarra opens fire at Seattle Pacific University, killing one student and injuring two others.
• July 8 – Washington becomes the second state to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana.
• August 9 - NASCAR driver Tony Stewart runs over 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward Jr. during a sprint car race in northern New York.
• September 18 - Home Depot says that around 56 million customer debit and credit cards are at risk after a cyber attack on their payment systems.
Worldwide
• January 1 – Latvia adopts the euro as its currency and becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone.
• February 7–23 – The XXII Olympic Winter Games are held in Sochi, Russia.
• March 21 – Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signs a bill formalizing the process.
• April 14 – Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping: an estimated 276 girls and women are abducted from a school in Nigeria and held hostage.
• May 20 – 2014 Jos bombings: Terrorists in Nigeria detonate bombs at Jos, killing 118 people.
• June 19 – Felipe VI becomes King of Spain upon the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I.
• August 3 – Sinjar massacre, beginning of ISIS attacks resulting in the massacre of over 4,000 Yazidis in Iraq's Sinjar District.
• September 22 – American-led intervention in Syria: The United States and several Arab partners begin their airstrike campaign in Syria.
• November 1 – Bangladesh faces a nationwide blackout.
• December 31 – A stampede occurred on New Years' Eve in Shanghai, China, resulting in the deaths of 36 people and leaving 49 injured.