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Top Song(s)
• Adele - Hello
• Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do
• Justin Bieber - Sorry
• OMI - Cheerleader
• The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face
Top Film(s)
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• Ex Machina
• Spotlight
• The Martian
• Room
Best Selling Book(s)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
• The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
• Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
Famous Deaths
• January 23 - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (2005-2015)
• February 27 - Malcolm Boyd, American Episcopal Priest, author and civil rights activist
• March 20 - Malcolm Fraser, Australian Prime Minister (Liberal, 1975-83)
• April 18 - Joseph Lechleider, American electrical engineer (invented DSL/high speed internet technology)
• May 18 - Raymond Gosling, British scientist involved in DNA structure research
• June 2 - Irwin Rose, American biologist (Nobel Prize Chemistry 2004)
• July 5 - Hemus Kriel, South African politician, 1st Premier of the Western Cape
• August 2 - Forrest Bird, American aviator and inventor (1st respirators and ventilators)
• September 14 - Fred DeLuca, American co-founder of the Subway chain
• November 6 - Yitzhak Navon, President of Israel (1978-83)
Medical/Science/Technology
• Iranian chemists from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad created biodiesel fuel from soya oil to decrease pollutions caused by fossil fuels.
• The FDA approves a new drug, Ibrance (palbociclib), for treating advanced breast cancer.
• Scientists have captured the first ever image of light as both a particle and a wave.
• A pioneering therapy using bone marrow stem cells to treat lung cancer patients is announced in the UK.
• An almost completely intact skeleton of a terror bird is found in Argentina.
• A 3-D technology known as tomosynthesis is shown to detect 40 percent more breast cancers than mammography.
• A titanium 3D-printed prosthetic jaw is successfully implanted in a male patient by surgeons in Melbourne, Australia.
• A potential new class of antibiotics based on modified sugar molecules is reported.
• Philips introduces the world's first quantum dot monitor.
• Scientists build a wrench just 1.7 nanometers wide, providing a fundamentally new way to control the shape of molecules.
Political
• January 1 - Louisiana's law allowing 16- and 17-year-old people to register to vote.
• January 3 – The 114th Congress begins, and, as per the 2014 elections, the Republican Party holds majority control.
• January 20 – President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union Address to the United States Congress.
• January 23 - The Supreme Court announces it will review the lethal injection protocol used by Oklahoma.
• February 13 – Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announces his resignation (effective February 18).
• February 17 – Ashton Carter is sworn in as the 25th Secretary of Defense, replacing Chuck Hagel.
• March 9 - President Barack Obama signs an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat to the U.S.
• March 23 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirms Wisconsin's law requiring voters to present photo identification to cast a ballot.
• April 1 – Governor Jerry Brown of California signs an executive order mandating that the state reduce its water use by 25%.
• April 11 – President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro discuss historic proposed normalizations to Cuba–United States relations.
National
• january 1 - California's affirmative consent law goes into effect.
• February 3 - A collision between a commuter train and a passenger vehicle kills six in Valhalla, New York.
• March 2 – Federal judge Joseph Bataillon strikes down Nebraska's ban on same-sex marriage.
• April 7 – Kentucky Senator Rand Paul announces his run for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election.
• May 5 - The Obama administration approves the first ferry service from the United States to Cuba in decades.
• June 2 - The USA Freedom Act passes the Senate after several delays and revisions since its inception and is signed into law.
• July 2 - BP agrees to pay the Department of Justice an $18.7 billion settlement in reparation for the 2010 BP oil spill.
• August 12 – Former President Jimmy Carter reveals that he is being treated for brain cancer.
• September 1 - A widespread manhunt begins in northern Illinois after three suspects shoot and kill a veteran Fox Lake police officer.
• December 2 - An E. coli outbreak involving over one dozen states and 150 000 products took place.
Worldwide
• January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency.
• February 14–15 – A lone gunman leaves 2 dead in a terrorist attack in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• March 12 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant becomes allies with fellow jihadist group Boko Haram.
• May 7 – The 2015 UK General Election results in the first Conservative majority government in 18 years.
• June 25–26 – ISIL claim responsibility for three attacks around the world during Ramadan.
• July 20 – Cuba and the United States, ending 54 years of hostility between the nations, reestablish full diplomatic relations.
• September 16 – An 8.4 earthquake strikes 46 km from Coquimbo (in Chile). 22 people are killed and 34 more injured.
• October 10 – A series of suicide bombings kills at least 100 people at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey, and injures more than 400 others.
• November 30 – The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Paris, attended by leaders from 147 nations.
• December 15 – The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition is formed in order to fight terrorism.