2013: Year in Review

February 15 – A meteor explodes over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,491 people and damaging over 4,300 buildings. It is the most powerful meteor to strike Earth's atmosphere in over a century. The incident, along with a coincidental flyby of a larger asteroid, prompts international concern regarding the vulnerability of the planet to meteor strikes.

February 21 – American scientists use a 3D printer to create a living lab-grown ear from collagen and animal ear cell cultures. In the future, it is hoped, similar ears could be grown to order as transplants for human patients suffering from ear trauma or amputation.

February 28 – Benedict 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.

March 5 - Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, dies at age 58 of a massive heart attack.

March 10 – Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, dies at age 97.

March 13 – Cardinal 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.

March 20 – Zillur Rahman, 19th President of Bangladesh dies at age 84 from a critical lung infection.

March 27 – Canada becomes the first country to withdraw from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

April 2 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons.

April 4 – Roger Ebert, American film critic and writer dies at age 70 from cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands.

April 8 – Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, dies at age 87 after a stroke.

April 15 – Two Chechen Islamist brothers explode two bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, killing 3 and injuring 264 others.

April 24 – An eight-story commercial building collapses in Savar Upazila near the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, leaving 1,129 dead and 2,500 injured. The accident is the deadliest non-terrorist structural collapse in modern times and the third-worst industrial disaster in history.

May 6 – Giulio Andreotti, 41st Prime Minister of Italy dies at age 94 from respiratory problems.

May 15 – In a study published in the scientific journal Nature, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University describe the first creation of human embryonic stem cells by cloning.

May 15 – Henrique Rosa, President of Guinea-Bissau dies at age 67 from lung cancer.

May 17 – Jorge Rafael Videla, 42nd President of Argentina dies at age 87 from multiple fractures and internal hemorrhaging caused by having slipped in a prison shower.

June 3 – Frank Lautenberg, Senator from New Jersey, dies at age 89 from viral pneumonia.

June 6 – American Edward Snowden discloses operations engaged by a US government mass surveillance program to news publications and flees the country, later being granted temporary asylum in Russia.

June 7 - Pierre Mauroy, Prime Minister of France dies at age 84 from lung cancer.

June 19 - James Gandolfini, American actor, dies at age 51 from a heart attack.

June 19 - Gyula Horn, Prime Minister of Hungary dies at age 80 from a serious brain malfunction.

June 23 - Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter dies at age 87.

June 24 – Emilio Colombo, 40th Prime Minister of Italy dies at age 93.

June 26 – Marc Rich, Belgian-born American commodities trader and criminal dies at age 78 from a stroke.

June 14–30 – Flash floods and landslides in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh kill more than 5,700 people and trap more than 20,000.

July 1 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

July 2 - Princess Fawzia Fuad of Egypt, Queen consort of Iran dies at age 91.

July 2 - Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist and inventor dies at age 88 due to kidney failure.

July 3 – Amid mass protests across Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi is deposed in a military coup d'état, leading to widespread violence.

July 12 – Amar Bose, American engineer and entrepreneur dies at age 83.

July 13 – Cory Monteith, Canadian actor dies at age 31 due to a toxic combination of heroin and alcohol.

July 20 – Helen Thomas, American journalist dies at age 92.

July 22 – Prince George of Cambridge is born.

July 22 – Dennis Farina, American actor, dies at age 69 from a pulmonary embolism.

July 28 – Eileen Brennan, American actress, dies at age 80 from bladder cancer.

August 12 – Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, dies at age 44 due to complications from being buried under an avalanche.

August 20 - Elmore Leonard, American novelist, dies at age 87 after a stroke.

August 21 – C. Gordon Fullerton, American astronaut, dies at age 76 due to a stroke.

September 12 – Ray Dolby, American engineer and inventor, dies at age 80 from leukemia.

September 19 – Hiroshi Yamauchi, Japanese businessman, dies at age 85 from pneumonia.

September 21 – al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 62 civilians and wounding over 170.

October 1 – Tom Clancy, American writer, dies at age 66.

October 4 – Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnamese General, dies at age 102.

October 9 – Wilfried Martens, 60th and 62nd Prime Minister of Belgium dies at age 77 from cancer.

October 10 – Scott Carpenter, American astronaut dies at age 88 from a stroke.

October 10 – Delegates 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.

October 18 – Saudi Arabia rejects a seat on the United Nations Security Council making the country the first one to reject a seat on the Security Council. Jordan takes the seat on December 6.

October 25 - Bill Sharman, American basketball player and coach dies at age 87 after a stroke.

October 25 - Marcia Wallace, American actress and comedienne, dies at age 70 from breast cancer.

October 28 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki, 1st Prime Minister of Poland, dies at age 86 from a fever.

November 1 – Hakimullah Mehsud, Emir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, dies at age 34 from a US drone strike.

November 2 – Walt Bellamy, American basketball player, dies at age 74.

November 8 – Typhoon Haiyan "Yolanda", one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, hits the Philippines and Vietnam, causing devastation with at least 6,149 dead.

November 19 – Frederick Sanger, British Nobel biochemist, dies at age 95.

November 24 – Iran agrees to limit their nuclear development program in exchange for sanctions relief.

November 28 – Mitja Ribičič, Slovene politician, 25th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, dies at age 94.

November 30 – Paul Walker, American actor, dies at age 40 due to a car wreck.

December 5 – Nelson Mandela, 1st President of South Africa and Nobel laureate, dies at age 95 from a respiratory infection.

December 7 – Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization delegates sign the Bali Package agreement aimed at loosening global trade barriers.

December 9 – Eleanor Parker, American actress, dies at age 91 from pneumonia.

December 12 – Jang Sung-taek, North Korean politician, dies at age 67 from an execution.

December 14 – Chinese 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.

December 14 – Peter O'Toole, British Irish actor dies at age 81.

December 15 - Harold Camping, American evangelist dies at age 92 due to complications from a fall at home.

December 18 – Ronnie Biggs, British criminal, dies at age 84.

December 23 – Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian inventor dies at age 94 from gastric hemorrhage.

December 31 – James Avery, American actor, dies at age 68 following open heart surgery.

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