Talk:Walk Around the Block with Barney (battybarney2014's version)/@comment-2604:2000:1343:C444:B4F7:A189:1D75:EB1C-20190505234611

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2013 was designated as:
 * International Year of Water Cooperation
 * International Year of Quinoa

January

 * January 10 – More than 100 people are killed and 270 injured in several bomb blasts in Pakistan.
 * January 11 – The French military begins a five-month intervention into the Northern Mali conflict, targeting the militant Islamist Ansar Dine group.
 * January 16–20 – Thirty-nine international workers and one security guard die in a hostage crisis at a natural gas facility near In Aménas, Algeria.
 * January 27 – 242 young people (range between 18 and 25) die in a nightclub fire in the Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

February

 * February 12 – North Korea conducts its third underground nuclear test, prompting widespread condemnation and tightened economic sanctions from the international community.
 * February 15 – A 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 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 that 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

 * 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 24 – Central African Republic President François Bozizé flees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after rebel forces capture the nation's capital, Bangui.
 * March 25 – The European Union agrees to a €10 billion economic bailout for Cyprus. The bailout loan will be equally split between the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, and the International Monetary Fund. The deal precipitates a banking crisis in the island nation.
 * March 27 – Canada becomes the first country to withdraw from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

April

 * April 2 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons.
 * April 15 – Two Chechnya-born Islamist brothers (one of whom was a United States citizen) explode two bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, killing 3 and injuring 264 others.
 * April 24 – The 2013 Savar building collapse, one of the worst industrial disasters in the world, kills 1,134 people in Bangladesh.
 * April 30 – Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix.

May

 * May 15 – In a study published in the scientific journal Nature, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in the United States describe the first production of human embryonic stem cells by cloning.
 * May 22 – 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.
 * May 31 – The El Reno tornado, near El Reno, Oklahoma, United States, having a record-breaking width 2.6 miles (4.2 km), with maximum wind speeds up to 301 mph (484 km/h), is the widest tornado ever recorded on earth.

June

 * June 6 – Former CIA employee 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.
 * June 25 – Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani abdicates and his son Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani assumes power.
 * June 26 – Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard in an Australian Labor Party leadership ballot and consequently becomes Prime Minister of Australia, three years after Gillard replaced Rudd.

July

 * July 1 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.
 * July 3 – Amid mass protests across Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi is deposed in a military coup d'état, leading to widespread violence.
 * July 21 – Philippe is sworn in as King of the Belgians, following the abdication of Albert II.

August

 * August 14 – Following the military coup in Egypt, two anti-coup camps are raided by the security forces, leaving 2,696 dead. The raids were described by Human Rights Watch as "one of the world's largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history".
 * August 21 – 1,429 are killed in the Ghouta chemical attack during the Syrian Civil War.
 * August 29 – The United Kingdom Parliament votes against UK military attacks on Syria.

September

 * September 7
 * Australian federal election, 2013: The Liberal/National Coalition led by Tony Abbott defeats the Labor Government led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Abbott would be sworn in on September 18th.
 * The International Olympic Committee awards Tokyo the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
 * September 21 – al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 62 civilians and wounding over 170.

October

 * 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 it the first country to reject a seat on the Security Council. Jordan takes the seat on December 6.

November

 * November 5 – The unmanned Mars Orbiter Mission is launched by India from its launchpad in Sriharikota.
 * November 8 – Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, hits the Philippines and Vietnam, causing devastation with at least 6,241 dead.
 * November 12 – Three Studies of Lucian Freud, a series of portraits of Lucian Freud by the British painter Francis Bacon, sells for US$142.4 million in a New York City auction, setting a world record for an auctioned work of art.
 * November 17 – Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.
 * November 21 – Euromaidan 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.
 * November 24 – Iran agrees to limit their nuclear development program in exchange for sanctions relief.

December

 * December 7 – Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization delegates sign the Bali Package agreement aimed at loosening global trade barriers.
 * December 14 – Chinese unmanned 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 15 – Fighting between ethnic Dinka and Nuer members of the presidential guard break out in Juba, South Sudan, plunging the country into civil war.
 * December 25 – 38 people are killed in the Christmas Day bombings in Iraq.

Births

 * July 22 – Prince George of Cambridge

January

 * January 1 – Patti Page, American singer (b. 1927)
 * January 2 – Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1945)
 * January 3 – Sergiu Nicolaescu, Romanian film director, actor, and politician (b. 1930)
 * January 5 – Fay Bellamy Powell, American civil rights leader (b. 1938)
 * January 7 – David R. Ellis, American film director (b. 1952)
 * January 9 – James M. Buchanan, American Nobel economist (b. 1919)
 * January 11
 * Aaron Swartz, American programmer (b. 1986)
 * Nguyễn Khánh, Vietnamese general and politician (b. 1927)
 * January 14
 * Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (b. 1923)
 * Danny Beath, British photographer and botanist (b. 1960)
 * January 15 – Nagisa Oshima, Japanese film director (b. 1932)
 * January 17 – James Hood, American civil rights activist (b. 1942)
 * January 18 – Jon Mannah, Australian rugby league player (b. 1989)
 * January 19 – Stan Musial, American baseball player (b. 1920)
 * January 21 – Michael Winner, British film director and producer (b. 1935)
 * January 22 – Said Ali al-Shihri, Saudi Arabian deputy leader (b. 1971)
 * January 23 – Józef Glemp, Polish cardinal (b. 1929)

February

 * February 1 – Ed Koch, American lawyer and politician (b. 1924)
 * February 2 – Chris Kyle, United States Navy sniper (b. 1974)
 * February 4
 * Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (b. 1932)
 * Reg Presley, British singer, songwriter and musician (b. 1941)
 * February 14 – Ronald Dworkin, American philosopher and lawyer (b. 1931)
 * February 17 – Tony Sheridan, British singer, songwriter, and musician (b. 1940)
 * February 18
 * Kevin Ayers, British singer, songwriter, and musician (b. 1944)
 * Damon Harris, American singer (b. 1950)
 * Chieko Honda, Japanese voice actress (b. 1963)
 * Otfried Preußler, German children author (b. 1923)
 * February 19
 * Armen Alchian, American economist (b. 1914)
 * Robert Coleman Richardson, American Nobel physicist (b. 1937)
 * February 22 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor and pianist (b. 1923)
 * February 23 – Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
 * February 25 – Carmen Montejo, Cuban-Mexican actress (b. 1925)
 * February 26 – Stéphane Hessel, French diplomat and writer (b. 1917)
 * February 27
 * Van Cliburn, American pianist (b. 1934)
 * Richard Street, American singer (b. 1942)
 * February 28 – Donald A. Glaser, American Nobel physicist (b. 1926)

March

 * March 3 – Luis Cubilla, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1940)
 * March 5
 * Arthur Storch, American actor (b. 1925)
 * Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela (b. 1954)
 * Paul Bearer, American professional wrestling manager (b. 1954)
 * March 6 – Alvin Lee, British guitarist (b. 1944)
 * March 7
 * Peter Banks, British guitarist (b. 1947)
 * Damiano Damiani, Italian film director and screenwriter (b. 1922)
 * March 10
 * Larisa Avdeyeva, Russian mezzo-soprano (b. 1925)
 * Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland (b. 1915)
 * March 12 – Clive Burr, British drummer (b. 1957)
 * March 14 – Ieng Sary, Vietnamese-born Cambodian politician (b. 1925)
 * March 16
 * José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Argentine executive and policy maker (b. 1925)
 * Jason Molina, American singer-songwriter (b. 1973)
 * March 20 – Zillur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (b. 1929)
 * March 21
 * Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer (b. 1930)
 * Pietro Mennea, Italian athlete (b. 1952)
 * March 22 – Bebo Valdés, Cuban pianist, bandleader, and composer (b. 1918)
 * March 23
 * Boris Berezovsky, Russian businessman (b. 1946)
 * Joe Weider, Canadian-born American bodybuilder and publisher (b. 1919)
 * March 27 – Hjalmar Andersen, Norwegian skater (b. 1923)
 * March 28 – Richard Griffiths, British actor (b. 1947)

April

 * April 1 – Moses Blah, 23rd President of Liberia (b. 1947)
 * April 2 – Jesús Franco, Spanish film director and screenwriter (b. 1930)
 * April 3 – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German-born British novelist and screenwriter (b. 1927)
 * April 4 – Roger Ebert, American film critic and writer (b. 1942)
 * April 6 – Bigas Luna, Spanish film director (b. 1946)
 * April 8
 * Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (b. 1942)
 * Sara Montiel, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1928)
 * Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979–1990) (b. 1925)
 * April 9 – Paolo Soleri, Italian-born American architect (b. 1919)
 * April 10 – Robert Edwards, British Nobel physiologist (b. 1925)
 * April 11
 * Maria Tallchief, American prima ballerina (b. 1925)
 * Jonathan Winters, American comedian and actor (b. 1925)
 * Hilary Koprowski, Polish virologist and immunologist (b. 1916)
 * April 13 – Chi Cheng, American musician (b. 1970)
 * April 14
 * Colin Davis, British conductor (b. 1927)
 * Armando Villanueva, 121st Prime Minister of Peru (b. 1915)
 * April 17
 * Deanna Durbin, Canadian-born singer and actress (b. 1921)
 * Carlos Graça, 6th Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe (b. 1931)
 * April 18 – Storm Thorgerson, British graphic designer (b. 1944)
 * April 19
 * François Jacob, French Nobel biologist (b. 1920)
 * Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Russian-American terrorist (b. 1986)
 * April 22 – Richie Havens, American folk singer (b. 1941)
 * April 26
 * George Jones, American country music singer (b. 1931)
 * Maxine Smith, American civil rights activist (b. 1929)
 * April 28 – János Starker, Hungarian-born American cellist (b. 1924)

May

 * May 2 – Jeff Hanneman, American guitarist (b. 1964)
 * May 4
 * Christian de Duve, Belgian Nobel biochemist (b. 1917)
 * Mario Machado, Chinese-American journalist and actor (b. 1935)
 * Morgan Morgan-Giles, English admiral and politician (b. 1914)
 * César Portillo de la Luz, Cuban guitarist and composer (b. 1922)
 * May 6 – Giulio Andreotti, Italian politician, 41st Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1919)
 * May 7
 * Ray Harryhausen, American filmmaker and creator of visual effects (b. 1920)
 * Romanthony, American singer (b. 1967)
 * May 13 – Kenneth Waltz, American political scientist (b. 1924)
 * May 15 – Henrique Rosa, President of Guinea-Bissau (2003–2005) (b. 1946)
 * May 16 – Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss Nobel physicist (b. 1933)
 * May 17 – Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentinian politician, 42nd President of Argentina (b. 1925)
 * May 18 – Nam Duck-woo, 12th Prime Minister of South Korea (b. 1924)
 * May 20 – Ray Manzarek, American keyboardist (b. 1939)
 * May 22 – Henri Dutilleux, French composer (b. 1916)
 * May 23
 * Epy Guerrero, Dominican baseball player, coach, and scout (b. 1942)
 * Hayri Kozakçıoğlu, Turkish police officer and politician, 15th Governor of Istanbul Province (b. 1938)
 * Georges Moustaki, French singer and songwriter (b. 1934)
 * Flynn Robinson, American basketball player (b. 1941)
 * May 25 – Nand Kumar Patel, Indian politician (b. 1953)
 * May 26 – Jack Vance, American novelist (b. 1916)
 * May 31 – Jean Stapleton, American actress (b. 1923)

June

 * June 3
 * Frank Lautenberg, American politician (b. 1924)
 * Jiah Khan, Indian actress (b. 1988)
 * June 6
 * Jerome Karle, American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (b. 1918)
 * Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (b. 1921)
 * June 7
 * Pierre Mauroy, Prime Minister of France (b. 1928)
 * Richard Ramirez, American serial killer (b. 1960)
 * June 8
 * Yoram Kaniuk, Israeli writer (b. 1930)
 * Taufiq Kiemas, 5th First Gentleman of Indonesia (b. 1942)
 * June 9 – Iain Banks, British novelist (b. 1954)
 * June 11 – Robert Fogel, American Nobel Prize-winning economic historian (b. 1926)
 * June 15
 * Heinz Flohe, German footballer (b. 1948)
 * Stan Lopata, American baseball player (b. 1925)
 * Dennis O'Rourke, Australian director and producer (b. 1945)
 * Kenneth G. Wilson, American Nobel Prize-winning physicist (b. 1936)
 * June 16
 * Josip Kuže, Croatian footballer and coach (b. 1952)
 * Ottmar Walter, German footballer (b. 1924)
 * June 19
 * James Gandolfini, American actor (b. 1961)
 * Gyula Horn, Prime Minister of Hungary (1994–1998) (b. 1932)
 * June 23
 * Bobby Bland, American singer and songwriter (b. 1930)
 * Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (b. 1926)
 * Darryl Read, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor (b. 1951)
 * June 24 – Emilio Colombo, 40th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1920)
 * June 26 – Marc Rich, Belgian-born American commodities trader and criminal (b. 1934)
 * June 27 – Alain Mimoun, French track and field athlete (b. 1921)
 * June 29
 * Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist (b. 1922)
 * Jim Kelly, American martial artist and actor (b. 1946)

July

 * July 2
 * Princess Fawzia Fuad of Egypt, Queen consort of Iran (1941–1948) (b. 1921)
 * Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist and inventor (b. 1925)
 * July 3 – Radu Vasile, Romanian politician, 57th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1942)
 * July 12 – Amar Bose, American engineer and entrepreneur (b. 1929)
 * July 13 – Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and musician (b. 1982)
 * July 19
 * Mel Smith, British comedian and actor (b. 1952)
 * Bert Trautmann, German-born British footballer (b. 1923)
 * July 20 – Helen Thomas, American journalist (b. 1920)
 * July 22 – Dennis Farina, American actor (b. 1944)
 * July 23
 * Emile Griffith, American welterweight boxer (b. 1938)
 * Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer (b. 1929)
 * July 25
 * Walter De Maria, American sculptor and composer (b. 1935)
 * Bernadette Lafont, French actress (b. 1938)
 * July 26 – JJ Cale, American singer and songwriter (b. 1938)
 * July 28 – Eileen Brennan, American actress and singer (b. 1932)
 * July 29 – Christian Benítez, Ecuadorian footballer (b. 1986)
 * July 30 – Antoni Ramallets, Spanish footballer (b. 1924)

August

 * August 5 – George Duke, American keyboardist (b. 1946)
 * August 8 – Karen Black, American actress (b. 1939)
 * August 10
 * László Csatáry, Hungarian war criminal (b. 1915)
 * Eydie Gormé, American singer (b. 1928)
 * August 12 – Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, (b. 1968)
 * August 14 – Gia Allemand, American actress (b. 1983)
 * August 15
 * Marich Man Singh Shrestha, 28th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1942)
 * Lisa Robin Kelly, American actress (b. 1970)
 * August 18 – Dezső Gyarmati, Hungarian water polo player (b. 1927)
 * August 19
 * Cedar Walton, American pianist (b. 1934)
 * Lee Thompson Young, American actor (b. 1984)
 * August 20
 * Elmore Leonard, American novelist (b. 1925)
 * Marian McPartland, British-born pianist (b. 1918)
 * August 21 – C. Gordon Fullerton, American astronaut (b. 1936)
 * August 24 – Julie Harris, American actress (b. 1925)
 * August 25 – Gylmar dos Santos Neves, Brazilian footballer (b. 1930)
 * August 30 – Seamus Heaney, Irish Nobel poet (b. 1939)
 * August 31 – David Frost, British journalist and broadcaster (b. 1939)

September

 * September 1 – Tommy Morrison, American boxer (b. 1969)
 * September 2
 * Ronald Coase, British Nobel economist (b. 1910)
 * Frederik Pohl, American writer (b. 1919)
 * September 5 – Rochus Misch, German bodyguard of Adolf Hitler (b. 1917)
 * September 12 – Ray Dolby, American engineer and inventor (b. 1933)
 * September 18
 * Ken Norton, American boxer (b. 1943)
 * Marcel Reich-Ranicki, German literary critic (b. 1920)
 * September 19
 * Hiroshi Yamauchi, Japanese businessman (b. 1927)
 * Saye Zerbo, 3rd President and 4th Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (b. 1932)
 * September 22 – David H. Hubel, Canadian-born American Nobel neuroscientist (b. 1926)

October

 * October 1
 * Tom Clancy, American writer (b. 1947)
 * Giuliano Gemma, Italian actor (b. 1938)
 * Peter Broadbent, English footballer (b. 1933)
 * October 3 – Sergei Belov, Russian basketball player (b. 1944)
 * October 4 – Võ Nguyên Giáp, Vietnamese General (b. 1911)
 * October 7
 * Patrice Chéreau, French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer (b. 1944)
 * Ovadia Yosef, Israeli religious leader (b. 1920)
 * October 9 – Wilfried Martens, Belgian politician, 44th Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1936)
 * October 10 – Scott Carpenter, American astronaut (b. 1925)
 * October 11
 * María de Villota, Spanish racing driver (b. 1980)
 * Erich Priebke, German SS captain and convicted war criminal (b. 1913)
 * October 14 – Bruno Metsu, French football coach (b. 1954)
 * October 20 – Lawrence Klein, American Nobel economist (b. 1920)
 * October 23 – Anthony Caro, British sculptor (b. 1924)
 * October 24 – Manolo Escobar, Spanish singer (b. 1931)
 * October 25
 * Bill Sharman, American basketball player and coach (b. 1926)
 * Marcia Wallace, American actress and comedian (b. 1942)
 * October 27 – Lou Reed, American singer, songwriter, and musician (b. 1942)
 * October 28 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki, 1st Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1927)

November

 * November 1 – Hakimullah Mehsud, Emir of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (b. c. 1979)
 * November 2 – Walt Bellamy, American basketball player (b. 1939)
 * November 7 – Amparo Rivelles, Spanish actress (b. 1925)
 * November 10 – Richie Jean Jackson, American author, teacher, and civil rights activist (b. 1932)
 * November 12 – John Tavener, British composer (b. 1944)
 * November 15
 * Glafcos Clerides, 4th President of Cyprus (b. 1919)
 * T. J. Jemison, American clergyman and civil rights activist (b. 1918)
 * November 17 – Doris Lessing, British Nobel writer (b. 1919)
 * November 19 – Frederick Sanger, British Nobel biochemist (b. 1918)
 * November 20 – Joseph Paul Franklin, American murderer (b. 1950)
 * November 25
 * Bill Foulkes, British footballer (b. 1932)
 * Chico Hamilton, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1921)
 * November 26 – Arik Einstein, Israeli singer, songwriter, and actor (b. 1939)
 * November 27 – Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer (b. 1925)
 * November 28 – Mitja Ribičič, Slovene politician, 25th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1919)
 * November 30
 * Paul Walker, American actor (b. 1973)
 * Yury Yakovlev, Soviet and Russian film actor (b. 1928)

December

 * December 1 – Heinrich Boere, Dutch-German Nazi war criminal (b. 1921)
 * December 2 – Vernon Shaw, 5th President of Dominica (b. 1930)
 * December 5 – Nelson Mandela, 1st President of South Africa and Nobel laureate (b. 1918)
 * December 7 – Édouard Molinaro, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1928)
 * December 8 – John Cornforth, Australian–British Nobel chemist (b. 1917)
 * December 9 – Eleanor Parker, American actress (b. 1922)
 * December 10 – Jim Hall, American guitarist and composer (b. 1930)
 * December 12 – Jang Sung-taek, North Korean politician (b. 1946)
 * December 14 – Peter O'Toole, British-Irish actor (b. 1932)
 * December 15
 * Harold Camping, American evangelist (b. 1921)
 * Joan Fontaine, Japanese-born British American actress (b. 1917)
 * December 16 – Ray Price, American singer and songwriter (b. 1926)
 * December 18 – Ronnie Biggs, British criminal (b. 1929)
 * December 20 – Lord Infamous, American rapper (b. 1973)
 * December 21 – Peter Geach, British philosopher (b. 1916)
 * December 23
 * Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian inventor (b. 1919)
 * Yusef Lateef, American jazz musician and composer (b. 1920)
 * Vito Rizzuto, Italian-Canadian mobster (b. 1946)
 * December 26 – Marta Eggerth, Hungarian-American singer and actress (b. 1912)
 * December 29
 * Wojciech Kilar, Polish composer (b. 1932)
 * Eero Mäntyranta, Finnish Olympic cross-country skier (b. 1937)
 * December 31 – James Avery, American actor (b. 1945)

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel
 * Economics – Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller
 * Literature – Alice Munro
 * Peace – Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
 * Physics – François Englert and Peter Higgs
 * Physiology or Medicine – James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman, and Thomas C. Südhof

Pronunciation
There is a debate among experts and the general public on how to pronounce specific years of the 21st century in English. The year 2010 is pronounced either "twenty-ten" or "two thousand [and] ten". 2010 was the first year to have a wide variation in pronunciation, as the years 2000 to 2009 were generally pronounced "two thousand (and) one, two, three, etc." as opposed to the less common "twenty-oh-_".

January

 * January 4 – The tallest man-made structure to date, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is officially opened.
 * January 8 – The Togo national football team is involved in an attack in Cabinda Province, Angola, and as a result withdraws from the Africa Cup of Nations. The attack was perpetrated by the FLEC, their first since the Angolan Civil War.
 * January 12 – A 7.0-magnitude earthquake occurs in Haiti, devastating the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince. With a confirmed death toll over 316,000, it is the tenth deadliest on record.
 * January 14 – Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
 * January 15
 * The longest annular solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurs.
 * The Chadian Civil War officially ends.
 * Honduras withdraws from ALBA.
 * January 25 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashes into the Mediterranean shortly after take-off from Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, killing all 90 people on board.

February

 * February 3 – The sculpture L'Homme qui marche I by Alberto Giacometti sells in London for £65 million (US$103.7 million), setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction.
 * February 12–28 – The 2010 Winter Olympics are held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.
 * February 15 – Two trains collide in the Halle train collision in Halle, Belgium, killing 19 and injuring 171 people.
 * February 18 – The President of Niger, Mamadou Tandja, is overthrown after a group of soldiers storms the presidential palace and form a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy headed by chef d'escadron Salou Djibo.
 * February 27 – An 8.8-magnitude earthquake occurs in Chile, triggering a tsunami over the Pacific and killing at least 525. The earthquake is one of the largest in recorded history.

March

 * March 16 – The Kasubi Tombs, Uganda's only cultural World Heritage Site, are destroyed by fire.
 * March 26 – The ROKS Cheonan, a South Korean Navy ship carrying 104 personnel, sinks off the country's west coast, killing 46. In May, an independent investigation blames North Korea, which denies the allegations.

April

 * April 7 – Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev flees the country amid fierce anti-government riots in the capital, Bishkek.
 * April 10 – The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, is among 96 killed when their airplane crashes near Smolensk, Russia.
 * April 14 – Volcanic ash from one of several eruptions beneath Mount Eyjafjallajökull, an ice cap in Iceland, begins to disrupt air traffic across northern and western Europe.
 * April 20 – The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers. The resulting Horizon oil spill, one of the largest in history, spreads for several months, damaging the waters and the United States coastline, and prompting international debate and doubt about the practice and procedures of offshore drilling.
 * April 27 – Standard & Poor's downgrades Greece's sovereign credit rating to junk 4 days after the activation of a €45-billion EU–IMF bailout, triggering the decline of stock markets worldwide and of the euro's value,  and furthering a European sovereign debt crisis.

May

 * May 2 – The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund agree to a €110 billion bailout package for Greece. The package involves sharp Greek austerity measures.
 * May 4 – Nude, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso sells in New York for US$106.5 million, setting another new world record for a work of art sold at auction.
 * May 6 – The 2010 Flash Crash, a trillion-dollar stock market crash, occurs over 36 minutes, initiated by a series of automated trading programs in a feedback loop.
 * May 7
 * Chile becomes the 31st member of the OECD.
 * Scientists conducting the Neanderthal genome project announce that they have sequenced enough of the Neanderthal genome to suggest that Neanderthals and humans may have interbred.
 * May 12 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes at runway at Tripoli International Airport in Libya, killing 103 of the 104 people on board.
 * May 19 – Protests in Bangkok, Thailand, end with a bloody military crackdown, killing 91 and injuring more than 2,100.
 * May 20
 * Scientists announced that they have created a functional synthetic genome.
 * Five paintings worth €100 million are stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
 * May 22 – Air India Express Flight 812 overshoots the runway at Mangalore International Airport in India, killing 158 and leaving 8 survivors.
 * May 28 – the 2010 Ahmadiyya mosques massacre in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, killed 94 people during Friday prayers at two mosques.
 * May 31 – Nine activists are killed in a clash with soldiers when Israeli Navy forces raid and capture a flotilla of ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade.

June

 * June 10–14 – Ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks result in the deaths of hundreds.
 * June 11 – July 11 – The 2010 FIFA World Cup is held in South Africa, and is won by Spain.
 * June 24 – Julia Gillard is elected unopposed in a Labor Party leadership ballot and sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Australia following the resignation of Kevin Rudd.

July

 * July 8 – The first 24-hour flight by a solar-powered plane is completed by the Solar Impulse.
 * July 21 – Slovenia becomes the 32nd member of the OECD.
 * July 25 – WikiLeaks, an online publisher of anonymous, covert, and classified material, leaks to the public over 90,000 internal reports about the United States-led involvement in the War in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
 * July 29 – Heavy monsoon rains begin to cause widespread flooding in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Over 1,600 are killed, and more than one million are displaced by the floods.

August

 * August 10 – The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns.
 * August 21 – Australian federal election, 2010: Julia Gillard's Labor Government is re-elected, narrowly defeating the Liberal/National Coalition led by Tony Abbott.

September

 * September 4 – A 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocks Christchurch, New Zealand causing large amounts of damage but no direct fatalities. It is the first in a series of earthquakes between 2010 and 2012 that resulted in the deaths of 187 people and over $40 billion worth of damage. Seismologists noted that the earthquake sequence was highly unusual, and likely to never happen again anywhere else in the world.
 * September 7 – Israel becomes the 33rd member of the OECD.
 * September 30 – Germany pays war reparations for World War I.

October

 * October 3–14 – 2010 Commonwealth Games takes place in Delhi, India.
 * October 10 – The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved, with the islands being split up and given a new constitutional status.
 * October 22 – The International Space Station surpasses the record for the longest continuous human occupation of space, having been continuously inhabited since November 2, 2000 (3641 days).
 * October 23 – In preparation for the Seoul summit, finance ministers of the G-20 agree to reform the International Monetary Fund and shift 6% of the voting shares to developing nations and countries with emerging markets.
 * October 25 – An earthquake and consequent tsunami off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, kills over 400 people and leaves hundreds missing.
 * October 26 – Repeated eruptions of Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java, Indonesia, and accompanying pyroclastic flows of scalding gas, pumice, and volcanic ash descending the erupting volcano kill 353 people and force hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate.

November

 * November 4 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883 crashes in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board.
 * November 11–12 – The G-20 summit is held in Seoul, South Korea. Korea becomes the first non-G8 nation to host a G-20 leaders summit.
 * November 13 – Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi is released from her house arrest after being incarcerated since 1989.
 * November 17 – Researchers at CERN trap 38 antihydrogen atoms for a sixth of a second, marking the first time in history that humans have trapped antimatter.
 * November 20 – Participants of the 2010 NATO Lisbon summit issue the Lisbon Summit Declaration.
 * November 21 – Eurozone countries agree to a rescue package for the Republic of Ireland from the European Financial Stability Facility in response to the country's financial crisis.
 * November 23 – North Korea shells Yeonpyeong Island, prompting a military response by South Korea. The incident causes an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula and prompts widespread international condemnation. The United Nations declares it to be one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War.
 * November 28 – WikiLeaks releases a collection of more than 250,000 American diplomatic cables, including 100,000 marked "secret" or "confidential".
 * November 29 – The European Union agree to an €85 billion rescue deal for Ireland from the European Financial Stability Facility, the International Monetary Fund and bilateral loans from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden.
 * November 29 – December 10 – The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Cancún, Mexico. Also referred to as the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), it serves too as the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6).

December

 * December 9 – Estonia becomes the 34th member of the OECD.
 * December 17 – The attempted suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Tunisia, triggers the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring throughout the Arab world.
 * December 21 – The first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Northern winter solstice and Southern summer solstice since 1638 takes place.

January

 * January 4
 * Johan Ferrier, 1st President of Suriname (b. 1910)
 * Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese dual atomic bomb survivor (b. 1916)
 * January 9 – Armand Razafindratandra, Malagasy cardinal (b. 1925)
 * January 10 – Crispin Sorhaindo, 4th President of Dominica (b. 1931)
 * January 11
 * Miep Gies, Dutch humanitarian (b. 1909)
 * Éric Rohmer, French film director (b. 1920)
 * January 13
 * Teddy Pendergrass, American singer-songwriter (b. 1950)
 * Jay Reatard, American musician (b. 1980)
 * January 15 – Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American biologist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1927)
 * January 17
 * Jyoti Basu, Indian politician (b. 1914)
 * Erich Segal, American author, screenwriter, and educator (b. 1937)
 * January 22
 * Iskandar of Johor, 8th King of Malaysia (b. 1932)
 * Jean Simmons, British actress (b. 1929)
 * January 24 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (b. 1928)
 * January 25 – Ali Hassan al-Majid, Iraqi politician and military commander (b. 1941)
 * January 27
 * J. D. Salinger, American author (b. 1919)
 * Howard Zinn, American historian (b. 1922)
 * January 29 – Karen Schmeer, American film editor (b. 1970)

February

 * February 1 – Steingrímur Hermannsson, 19th Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1928)
 * February 7 – André Kolingba, 4th President of the Central African Republic (b. 1936)
 * February 10
 * Charlie Wilson, American politician (b. 1933)
 * José Joaquín Trejos Fernández, 35th President of Costa Rica (b. 1916)
 * February 11 – Alexander McQueen, British fashion designer (b. 1969)


 * February 14 – Dick Francis, British author and jockey (b. 1920)
 * February 17 – Kathryn Grayson, American singer (b. 1922)
 * February 18 – Ariel Ramírez, Argentine composer (b. 1921)
 * February 20 – Alexander Haig, 59th United States Secretary of State (b. 1924)

March

 * March 3 – Michael Foot, British politician (b. 1913)
 * March 4 – Vladislav Ardzinba, Soviet-born politician (b. 1945)
 * March 6
 * Mark Linkous, American singer-songwriter (b. 1962)
 * Carol Marsh, British actress (b. 1926)
 * March 10
 * Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, Egyptian Muslim cleric (b. 1928)
 * Corey Haim, American child actor (b. 1971)
 * March 11 – Merlin Olsen, American football player and actor (b. 1940)
 * March 12 – Miguel Delibes, Spanish author and journalist (b. 1920)
 * March 14 – Peter Graves, American actor (b. 1926)
 * March 17 – Alex Chilton, American singer-songwriter (b. 1950)
 * March 20 – Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepalese politician (b. 1925)
 * March 21 – Wolfgang Wagner, German festival director (b. 1919)
 * March 22
 * James Black, British pharmacologist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1924)
 * Valentina Tolkunova, Soviet and Russian singer (b. 1946)
 * March 24 – Robert Culp, American actor, screenwriter and director (b. 1930)
 * March 27 – Vasily Smyslov, Soviet-Russian chess grandmaster (b. 1921)
 * March 30 – Martin Sandberger, German army officer (b. 1911)

April

 * April 1
 * John Forsythe, American actor (b. 1918)
 * Tzannis Tzannetakis, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1928)
 * April 3 – Eugène Terre'Blanche, South African politician and white supremacist (b. 1941)
 * April 8
 * Malcolm McLaren, British musician and manager (b. 1946)
 * Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean politician (b. 1925)
 * April 10
 * 96 people (89 passengers, 7 pilots) are killed in plane crash near Smolensk. Among the victims were:
 * Ryszard Kaczorowski, Polish statesman (b. 1919)
 * Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland (b. 1949)
 * Maria Kaczyńska, First Lady of Poland (b. 1942)
 * Sławomir Skrzypek, President of the National Bank of Poland (b. 1963)
 * April 14 – Peter Steele, American musician (b. 1962)
 * April 15
 * Michael Pataki, American voice actor (b.1938)
 * Benjamin Hooks, American civil rights activist (b. 1925)
 * April 16 – Tomáš Špidlík, Czech cardinal (b. 1919)
 * April 19 – Guru, American rapper (b. 1961)
 * April 20 – Dorothy Height, American civil rights activist and educator (b. 1912)
 * April 21 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish sports official (b. 1920)
 * April 25 – Alan Sillitoe, British writer (b. 1928)
 * April 30 – Paul Mayer, German cardinal (b. 1911)

May

 * May 2 – Lynn Redgrave, British actress (b. 1943)
 * May 4 – Luigi Poggi, Italian cardinal (b. 1917)
 * May 5
 * Giulietta Simionato, Italian opera singer (b. 1910)
 * Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, 13th President of Nigeria (b. 1951)
 * May 8 – Andor Lilienthal, Hungarian chess grandmaster (b. 1911)
 * May 9 – Lena Horne, American singer and actress (b. 1917)
 * May 10 – Frank Frazetta, American artist (b. 1928)
 * May 11 – Doris Eaton Travis, American dancer and actress (b. 1904)
 * May 16
 * Ronnie James Dio, American musician (b. 1942)
 * Oswaldo López Arellano, Honduran two-time former president (b. 1921)
 * May 17
 * Bobbejaan Schoepen, Belgian singer (b. 1925)
 * Yvonne Loriod, French pianist (b. 1924)
 * May 18 – Edoardo Sanguineti, Italian writer (b. 1930)
 * May 22
 * Martin Gardner, American science author (b. 1914)
 * Hasri Ainun, 3rd First Lady of Indonesia, wife of B. J. Habibie (b. 1937)
 * May 24 – Paul Gray, American musician (b. 1972)
 * May 28 – Gary Coleman, American actor, voice artist and comedian (b. 1968)
 * May 29 – Dennis Hopper, American actor, filmmaker, photographer and artist (b. 1936)
 * May 31 – Louise Bourgeois, French-born American sculptor (b. 1911)

June

 * June 1 – Andrei Voznesensky, Soviet-Russian poet (b. 1933)
 * June 2
 * Giuseppe Taddei, Italian baritone (b. 1916)
 * Dorothy DeBorba, American child actress (b. 1925)
 * June 3 – Vladimir Arnold, Soviet-Russian mathematician (b. 1937)
 * June 13 – Jimmy Dean, American singer, actor, and businessman (b. 1928)
 * June 14 – Leonid Kizim, Soviet-Ukrainian cosmonaut (b. 1941)
 * June 16 – Marc Bazin, 4th Prime Minister of Haiti (b. 1932)
 * June 18
 * Marcel Bigeard, French military officer (b. 1916)
 * José Saramago, Portuguese writer and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
 * June 19 – Manute Bol, Sudanese basketball player (b. 1962)
 * June 23 – Mohammed Mzali, former Prime Minister of Tunisia (b. 1925)
 * June 26 – Algirdas Brazauskas, 9th President of Lithuania (b. 1932)
 * June 28 – Robert Byrd, American politician (b. 1917)

July

 * July 5
 * Cesare Siepi, Italian opera singer (b. 1923)
 * Nasr Abu Zayd, Egyptian Qur'anic theologian (b. 1943)
 * July 13 – George Steinbrenner, American businessman and owner of the New York Yankees (b. 1930)
 * July 14 – Charles Mackerras, Australian conductor (b. 1925)
 * July 19 – Lorenzen Wright, professional basketball player (b. 1975)
 * July 22 – Phillip Walker, American singer and guitarist (b. 1937)
 * July 24 – Alex Higgins, Northern Irish snooker player (b. 1949)
 * July 29 – Zheng Ji, Chinese nutritionist and biochemist (b. 1900)

August

 * August 5 – Godfrey Binaisa, 5th President of Uganda (b. 1920)
 * August 6 – Tony Judt, British historian (b. 1948)
 * August 7 – Bruno Cremer, French actor (b. 1929)
 * August 8 – Patricia Neal, American actress (b. 1926)
 * August 9 – Ted Stevens, American politician (b. 1923)
 * August 12 – Guido de Marco, 6th President of Malta (b. 1931)
 * August 13 – Lance Cade, American professional wrestler (b. 1981)\
 * August 14 – Abbey Lincoln, American jazz vocalist and civil rights advocate (b. 1930)
 * August 16 – Nicola Cabibbo, Italian physicist (b. 1935)
 * August 17 – Francesco Cossiga, 63rd Prime Minister and 8th President of Italy (b. 1928)
 * August 18 – Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Spanish aristocrat (b. 1930)
 * August 22 – Stjepan Bobek, Yugoslav footballer (b. 1923)
 * August 23 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese anime film director (b. 1963)
 * August 26
 * William Lenoir, American astronaut (b. 1939)
 * Raimon Panikkar, Spanish theologian (b. 1918)
 * August 27 – Anton Geesink, Dutch judoka (b. 1934)
 * August 28 – Sinan Hasani, 10th President of Yugoslavia (b. 1922)
 * August 30 – Francisco Varallo, Argentine footballer (b. 1910)
 * August 31 – Laurent Fignon, French road bicycle racer (b. 1960)

September

 * September 5 – Shoya Tomizawa, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1990)
 * September 9 – Bent Larsen, Danish chess grandmaster (b. 1935)
 * September 11 – Kevin McCarthy, American actor (b. 1914)
 * September 12
 * Claude Chabrol, French film director (b. 1930)
 * Swarnalatha, Indian playback singer (b. 1973)
 * Honor Frost, pioneer in underwater archaeology (b. 1917)
 * September 16 – Donald Zilversmit, Dutch-American nutritional biochemist, researcher, and educator (b. 1919)
 * September 22 – Eddie Fisher, American singer and actor (b. 1928)
 * September 24 – Gennady Yanayev, Soviet politician; mastermind of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt (b. 1937)
 * September 26 – Gloria Stuart, American actress (b. 1910)
 * September 28 – Arthur Penn, American film director (b. 1922)
 * September 29
 * Georges Charpak, French Nobel physicist (b. 1924)
 * Tony Curtis, American actor (b. 1925)
 * September 30 – Stephen J. Cannell, American director and producer (b. 1941)

October

 * October 4 – Norman Wisdom, British actor and comedian (b. 1915)
 * October 7 – Milka Planinc, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from 1982-86 (b. 1924)
 * October 9 – Maurice Allais, French Nobel economist (b. 1911)
 * October 10 – Solomon Burke, American soul musician (b. 1940)
 * October 11 – Joan Sutherland, Australian opera singer (b. 1926)
 * October 14 – Benoît Mandelbrot, French-American mathematician (b. 1924)
 * October 18 – Elsie Steele, British supercenterian (b. 1899)
 * October 19 – Tom Bosley, American actor (b. 1927)
 * October 20
 * W. Cary Edwards, American politician (b. 1944)
 * Farooq Leghari, 9th President of Pakistan (b. 1940)
 * October 23 – David Thompson, 6th Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1961)
 * October 25 – Gregory Isaacs, Jamaican musician (b. 1951)
 * October 27 – Néstor Kirchner, 54th President of Argentina (b. 1950)
 * October 28 – Jonathan Motzfeldt, 1st Prime Minister of Greenland (b. 1938)
 * October 30 – Harry Mulisch, Dutch writer (b. 1927)
 * October 31 – Theodore Sorensen, American lawyer, speechwriter (b. 1928)

November

 * November 2 – Rudolf Barshai, Soviet-Russian conductor and violist (b. 1924)
 * November 3 – Viktor Chernomyrdin, 31st Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1938)
 * November 5
 * Jill Clayburgh, American actress (b. 1944)
 * Hajo Herrmann, German fighter pilot and lawyer (b. 1913)
 * November 8 – Emilio Eduardo Massera, Argentinian admiral (b. 1925)
 * November 10
 * Dino De Laurentiis, Italian film producer (b. 1919)
 * Nicolo Rizzuto, Italian-Canadian mobster (b. 1924)
 * November 12 – Henryk Górecki, Polish composer (b. 1933)
 * November 24 – Annie Lee Cooper, American civil rights activist (b. 1910)
 * November 25 – Peter Christopherson, English musician and artist (b. 1955)
 * November 27 – Irvin Kershner, American film director (b. 1923)
 * November 28 – Leslie Nielsen, Canadian-American actor (b. 1926)
 * November 29
 * Bella Akhmadulina, Soviet-Russian poet (b. 1937)
 * Mario Monicelli, Italian actor, screenwriter and director (b. 1915)

December

 * December 7 – Gloria Blackwell, American educator, civil rights activist (b. 1927)
 * December 10 – John B. Fenn, American Nobel chemist (b. 1917)
 * December 12
 * Timothée Malendoma, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1935)
 * Tom Walkinshaw, British racing car driver and team owner (b. 1946)
 * December 13 – Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (b. 1941)
 * December 14 – Pascal Rakotomavo, 10th Prime Minister of Madagascar (b. 1934)
 * December 15 – Blake Edwards, American film director (b. 1922)
 * December 17 – Captain Beefheart, American musician (b. 1941)
 * December 21 – Enzo Bearzot, Italian footballer and coach (b. 1927)
 * December 23 – Celestino Rocha da Costa, 2nd Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe (b. 1938)
 * December 25 – Carlos Andrés Pérez, 55th President of Venezuela (b. 1922)
 * December 26 – Salvador Jorge Blanco, 48th President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1926)
 * December 30
 * Ellis Clarke, 1st President of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1917)
 * Bobby Farrell, Dutch musician and performing artist from Aruba (b. 1949)

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki
 * Economics – Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides
 * Literature – Mario Vargas Llosa
 * Peace – Liu Xiaobo
 * Physics – Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov
 * Physiology or Medicine – Robert G. Edwards

New English words and terms

 * Arab spring
 * gamification

January

 * January 1 – Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro.
 * January 14 – At 19:04:39 UTC, the unmanned MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.
 * January 21 – Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.


 * January 24 – A peace deal is signed in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, ending the Kivu conflict.

February

 * February 4 – Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket into space.
 * February 13 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.
 * February 17 – Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, with a mixed response from the international community.

March

 * March–April – Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.
 * March 2 – Venezuela and Ecuador move troops to the Colombian border, following a Colombian raid against FARC guerrillas inside Ecuadorian territory, in which senior commander Raúl Reyes is killed.
 * March 9 – The first European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo spacecraft for the International Space Station, launches from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
 * March 24 – Bhutan holds its first-ever general elections following the adoption of a new Constitution which changed the country from an absolute monarchy to a multiparty democracy.
 * March 25 – African Union and Comoros forces invade the rebel-held island of Anjouan, returning the island to Comorian control.

April

 * April 22 – Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first successful operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into two blind patients.

May

 * May 2 – The Chaitén volcano in Chile enters a new eruptive phase for the first time since around 1640.
 * May 3 – Cyclone Nargis passes through Myanmar, killing more than 138,000 people.
 * May 12 – An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale strikes Sichuan, China, killing an estimated 87,000 people.
 * May 23
 * The Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental organization between states in South America, is founded.
 * The International Court of Justice awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
 * May 25 – NASA's unmanned Phoenix spacecraft becomes the first to land on the northern polar region of Mars.
 * May 28 – The Legislature Parliament of Nepal votes overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing the country's 240-year-old monarchy, turning the country into a republic.
 * May 30 – The Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted in Dublin.

June

 * June 7–29 – Austria and Switzerland jointly host the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, which is won by Spain.
 * June 11
 * The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched.
 * Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologizes, on behalf of the Canadian government, to the country's First Nations for the Canadian Indian residential school system.
 * June 14 – Expo 2008 opens in Zaragoza, Spain, lasting to September 14, with the topic "Water and sustainable development".

July

 * July 2 – Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC rebels by Colombian security forces.
 * July 21 – Radovan Karadžić, the first president of the Republika Srpska, is arrested in Belgrade, Serbia, on allegations of war crimes, following a 12-year-long manhunt.

August

 * August 1 – Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions die on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.
 * August 6 – President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania is deposed in a military coup d'état.
 * August 7 – Georgia invades the breakaway state of South Ossetia, sparking a war with Russia as the latter intervenes in support of the separatists in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
 * August 20 – Spanair Flight 5022 crashes at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 154 people on board.
 * August 8–24 – The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.

September

 * September 10 – The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.
 * September 20 – A suicide truck bomb explosion destroys the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 54 and injuring 266.
 * September 13 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall in Galveston, Texas
 * September 28 – SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.
 * September 29 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, hitherto the largest single-day point loss in its history.

October

 * October 3 – Global financial crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush signs the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, creating a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets.
 * October 7 – Spotify music streaming service is launched in Sweden.
 * October 21 – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially inaugurated at Geneva.
 * October 22 – The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission.

November

 * November 1 – Satoshi Nakamoto publishes "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".
 * November 4 – Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first black President of the United States.
 * November 19 – Claudia Castillo of Spain becomes the first person to have a successful trachea transplant using a tissue-engineered organ.
 * November 26–29 – Members of Lashkar-e-Taiba carry out four days of coordinated bombing and shooting attacks across Mumbai, killing 164 people.

December

 * December 5 – Human remains found in 1991 are identified as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, using DNA analysis.
 * December 10 – The Channel Island of Sark, a British Crown dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.
 * December 18 – The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Théoneste Bagosora and two other senior Rwandan army officers guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentences them to life imprisonment for their role in the Rwandan genocide.
 * December 23 – A military coup d'état deposes the government of Guinea shortly after the death of longtime President Lansana Conté.
 * December 27 – Israel invades the Gaza Strip in response to rockets being fired into Israeli territory by Hamas and due to weapons being smuggled into the area.
 * December 31 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.

Births

 * April 16 – Princess Eléonore of Belgium
 * June 3 – Harshaali Malhotra, Indian actress
 * July 15 – Iain Armitage, American actor
 * August 18 – Gordey Kolesov, Russian-Chinese chess player

January

 * January 2 – Galyani Vadhana, Princess of Naradhiwas, Princess of Thailand (b. 1923)
 * January 3 – Choi Yo-sam, Korean boxer (b. 1972)
 * January 10 – Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress and television personality (b. 1922)
 * January 11 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist (b. 1919)
 * January 15 – Brad Renfro, American actor (b. 1982)
 * January 16 – Nikola Kljusev, 1st Prime Minister of Macedonia (b. 1927)
 * January 17
 * Bobby Fischer, American chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion (b. 1943)
 * Allan Melvin, American actor (b. 1923)
 * January 19 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (b. 1937)
 * January 22
 * Heath Ledger, Australian actor (b. 1979)
 * Claude Piron, Swiss linguist and psychologist (b. 1931)
 * January 25 – Aziz Sedky, 36th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1920)
 * January 26 – George Habash, Palestinian politician (b. 1926)
 * January 27
 * Gordon B. Hinckley, American Mormon leader (b. 1910)
 * Suharto, 2nd President of Indonesia (b. 1921)
 * January 28 – Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens (b. 1939)
 * January 29 – Margaret Truman, American singer and writer (b. 1924)

February

 * February 2 – Joshua Lederberg, American Nobel molecular biologist (b. 1925)
 * February 5 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1917)
 * February 7 – Andrew Bertie, 78th Grand Master of the Order of Malta (b. 1929)
 * February 9 – Baba Amte, Indian social activist (b. 1914)
 * February 10 – Roy Scheider, American actor (b. 1932)
 * February 11
 * Tom Lantos, American politician (b. 1928)
 * Alfredo Reinado, East Timorese rebel (b. 1967)
 * February 12
 * Imad Mughniyah, Lebanese militant (b. 1962)
 * Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgian businessman and politician (b. 1955)
 * February 13
 * Kon Ichikawa, Japanese film director (b. 1915)
 * Henri Salvador, French singer (b. 1917)
 * February 16 – James Orange, American pastor and civil rights activist (b. 1942)
 * February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and filmmaker (b. 1922)
 * February 19
 * Natalia Bessmertnova, Russian ballerina (b. 1941)
 * Yegor Letov, Russian singer (b. 1964)
 * February 23
 * Janez Drnovšek, 2-Time Prime Minister and 2nd President of Slovenia (b. 1950)
 * Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver (b. 1917)
 * February 25 – Static Major, American musician (b. 1974)
 * February 27
 * William F. Buckley Jr., American author and conservative commentator (b. 1925)
 * Ivan Rebroff, German singer (b. 1931)
 * February 29 – Tommy Glencross, Scottish boxer (b. 1947)

March

 * March 1 – Raúl Reyes, Colombian guerrilla (b. 1948)
 * March 2 – Jeff Healey, Canadian musician (b. 1966)
 * March 3
 * Giuseppe Di Stefano, Italian operatic tenor (b. 1921)
 * Norman Smith, English singer and record producer (b. 1923)
 * March 4 – Gary Gygax, American writer and game designer (b. 1938)
 * March 5 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German-American author and computer scientist (b. 1923)
 * March 6 – Peter Poreku Dery, Ghanaian cardinal (b. 1918)
 * March 12 – Howard Metzenbaum, American politician (b. 1917)
 * March 14 – Chiara Lubich, Italian Catholic activist (b. 1920)
 * March 18 – Anthony Minghella, English film director and screenwriter (b. 1954)
 * March 19
 * Arthur C. Clarke, English author, inventor, and futurist (b. 1917)
 * Hugo Claus, Flemish writer, painter and film director (b. 1929)
 * Paul Scofield, English actor (b. 1922)
 * March 21 – Klaus Dinger, German musician (b. 1946)
 * March 22 – Adolfo Suárez Rivera, Mexican cardinal (b. 1927)
 * March 24
 * Neil Aspinall, British record producer and business executive (b. 1942)
 * Richard Widmark, American actor (b. 1914)
 * March 26 – Manuel Marulanda, Colombian guerrilla (b. 1930)
 * March 27 – Jean-Marie Balestre, French sports executive (b. 1921)
 * March 30 – Dith Pran, Cambodian-American photojournalist (b. 1942)
 * March 31 – Jules Dassin, American film director (b. 1911)

April

 * April 3 – Hrvoje Ćustić, Croatian footballer (b. 1983)
 * April 5 – Charlton Heston, American actor (b. 1923)
 * April 8 – Stanley Kamel, American actor (b. 1943)
 * April 10 – Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, Mexican cardinal (b. 1919)
 * April 12 – Patrick Hillery, 6th President of Ireland (b. 1923)
 * April 13 – John Archibald Wheeler, American theoretical physicist (b. 1911)
 * April 14 – Ollie Johnston, American animator (b. 1912)
 * April 15 – Benoît Lamy, Belgian motion picture writer-director (b. 1945)
 * April 16 – Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (b. 1917)
 * April 17 – Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (b. 1913)
 * April 29 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist and writer (b. 1906)

May

 * May 1 – Anthony Mamo, 1st President of Malta (b. 1909)
 * May 2 – Philipp von Boeselager, German military officer (b. 1917)
 * May 3 – Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish Prime Minister (b. 1926)
 * May 8
 * Eddy Arnold, American country music singer (b. 1918)
 * François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (b. 1982)
 * May 10
 * Leyla Gencer, Turkish soprano (b. 1928)
 * Jessica Jacobs, Australian actress and singer (b. 1990)
 * May 12
 * Robert Rauschenberg, American pop artist (b. 1925)
 * Irena Sendler, Polish humanitarian (b. 1910)
 * May 13
 * Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, 4th Emir of Kuwait (b. 1930)
 * Bernardin Gantin, Beninese cardinal (b. 1922)
 * May 15 – Willis Lamb, American Nobel physicist (b. 1913)
 * May 17 – Roberto García-Calvo Montiel, Spanish judge (b. 1942)
 * May 23 – Cornell Capa, Hungarian-American photographer (b. 1918)
 * May 26
 * Sydney Pollack, American actor, director and producer (b. 1934)
 * Koloa Talake, 7th Prime Minister of Tuvalu (b. 1934)
 * May 28 – Sven Davidson, Swedish tennis player (b. 1928)
 * May 29 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (b. 1927)

June

 * June 1
 * Tommy Lapid, Israeli television presenter, journalist, and politician (b. 1931)
 * Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer (b. 1936)
 * June 2
 * Bo Diddley, American musician (b. 1928)
 * Mel Ferrer, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1917)
 * June 5 – Jameson Mbilini Dlamini, 7th Prime Minister of Swaziland (b. 1921)
 * June 4 – Agata Mróz-Olszewska, Polish volleyball player (b. 1982)
 * June 7
 * Mustafa Khalil, 40th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1920)
 * Dino Risi, Italian director (b. 1916)
 * June 8 – Šaban Bajramović, Serbian musician (b. 1936)
 * June 9
 * Karen Asrian, Armenian chess grandmaster (b. 1980)
 * Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American science fiction writer (b. 1931)
 * June 10 – Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstani writer (b. 1928)
 * June 11
 * Ove Andersson, Swedish rally driver (b. 1939)
 * Võ Văn Kiệt, 5th Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1922)
 * June 13 – Tim Russert, American journalist (b. 1950)
 * June 15 – Stan Winston, American special effects and makeup artist (b. 1946)
 * June 17 – Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (b. 1922)
 * June 18 – Jean Delannoy, French film director (b. 1908)
 * June 22 – George Carlin, American author, actor, and comedian (b. 1937)
 * June 23 – Arthur Chung, 1st President of Guyana (b. 1918)
 * June 24 – Leonid Hurwicz, American Nobel economist and mathematician (b. 1917)
 * June 27 – Sam Manekshaw, Indian Field Marshal (b. 1914)
 * June 28 – Ruslana Korshunova, Kazakhstani model (b. 1987)
 * June 29 – Don S. Davis, American actor (b. 1942)

July

 * July 3 – Larry Harmon, American entertainer and television producer (b. 1925)
 * July 4
 * Jesse Helms, American politician (b. 1921)
 * Evelyn Keyes, American actress (b. 1916)
 * July 5 – René Harris, 4-Time President of Nauru (b. 1947)
 * July 11 – Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and inventor (b. 1908)
 * July 12 – Tony Snow, American political commentator (b. 1955)
 * July 13 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian and politician (b. 1932)
 * July 15 – György Kolonics, Hungarian canoeist (b. 1972)
 * July 16 – Jo Stafford, American singer (b. 1917)
 * July 22 – Estelle Getty, American actress (b. 1923)
 * July 25
 * Johnny Griffin, American saxophonist (b. 1928)
 * Randy Pausch, American author and computer scientist (b. 1960)
 * July 27 – Youssef Chahine, Egyptian film director (b. 1926)
 * July 29 – Mate Parlov, Croatian boxer (b. 1948)

August

 * August 1 – Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Indian politician (b. 1916)
 * August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian Nobel writer (b. 1918)
 * August 4 – Anita Farra, Italian actress (b. 1905)
 * August 9
 * Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (b. 1941)
 * Bernie Mac, American actor and comedian (b. 1957)
 * August 10 – Isaac Hayes, American musician (b. 1942)
 * August 11 – Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician (b. 1929)
 * August 13 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1904)
 * August 15 – Jerry Wexler, American music producer (b. 1917)
 * August 16
 * Ronnie Drew, Irish singer (b. 1934)
 * Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese microbiologist (b. 1913)
 * August 19
 * Levy Mwanawasa, 3rd President of Zambia (b. 1948)
 * LeRoi Moore, American saxophonist (b. 1961)
 * August 20 – Hua Guofeng, Chairman of the Communist Party and Chinese premier (b. 1921)
 * August 23 – Thomas Huckle Weller, American Nobel virologist (b. 1915)
 * August 28 – Phil Hill, American race car driver (b. 1927)

September

 * September 1
 * Don LaFontaine, American voice actor (b. 1940)
 * Jerry Reed, American actor and country singer (b. 1937)
 * September 2 – Bill Melendez, Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer (b. 1916)
 * September 6
 * Antonio Innocenti, Italian cardinal (b. 1915)
 * Anita Page, American actress (b. 1910)
 * September 9 – Nouhak Phoumsavanh, 3rd President of Laos (b. 1910)
 * September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American writer (b. 1962)
 * September 15 – Richard Wright, English keyboardist (b. 1943)
 * September 18 – Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer (b. 1931)
 * September 21 – Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, 9th Prime Minister and 4th President of Sri Lanka (b. 1916)
 * September 26 – Paul Newman, American actor (b. 1925)

October

 * October 1 – Boris Yefimov, Russian political cartoonist (b. 1900)
 * October 6 – Paavo Haavikko, Finnish poet (b. 1931)
 * October 8 – George Emil Palade, Romanian Nobel cell biologist (b. 1912)
 * October 10 – Alexey Prokurorov, Russian cross-country skier (b. 1964)
 * October 11 – Jörg Haider, Austrian politician (b. 1950)
 * October 13
 * Alexei Cherepanov, Russian Hockey Player (b. 1989)
 * Guillaume Depardieu, French actor (b. 1971)
 * Antonio José González Zumárraga, Ecuadorian cardinal (b. 1925)
 * October 20 – Sœur Emmanuelle, Belgian-born French nun (b. 1908)
 * October 25 – Muslim Magomayev, Azerbaijani singer (b. 1942)
 * October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American writer (b. 1925)
 * October 29 – William Wharton, American author (b. 1925)
 * October 31 – Studs Terkel, American author and liberal commentator (b. 1912)

November

 * November 1
 * Jacques Piccard, Swiss explorer and engineer (b. 1922)
 * Yma Sumac, Peruvian soprano (b. 1923)
 * November 2 – Joseph Alliluyev, Russian cardiologist (b. 1945)
 * November 4
 * Michael Crichton, American author and producer (b. 1942)
 * Juan Camilo Mouriño, Mexican politician (b. 1971)
 * November 9 – Miriam Makeba, South African singer (b. 1932)
 * November 10 – Kiyoshi Itō, Japanese mathematician (b. 1915)
 * November 12 – Mitch Mitchell, English drummer (b. 1946)
 * November 14 – Tsvetanka Khristova, Bulgarian athlete (b. 1962)
 * November 22 – Ibrahim Nasir, 2nd President of the Maldives (b. 1926)
 * November 27 – V. P. Singh, 7th Prime Minister of India (b. 1931)
 * November 29 – Jørn Utzon, Danish architect (b. 1918)

December

 * December 1 – Mikel Laboa, Basque singer and songwriter (b. 1934)
 * December 2
 * Frank Crean, Australian politician (b. 1916)
 * Odetta, American singer (b. 1930)
 * December 4 – Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent (b. 1916)
 * December 5
 * Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (b. 1928)
 * Nina Foch, Dutch-born American actress (b. 1924)
 * December 8 – Robert Prosky, American actor (b. 1930)
 * December 9
 * Yury Glazkov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1939)
 * Dražan Jerković, Croatian football player and manager (b. 1936)
 * December 11
 * Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, American Nobel physician (b. 1923)
 * Bettie Page, American pin-up model (b. 1923)
 * December 12
 * Avery Dulles, American cardinal (b. 1918)
 * Van Johnson, American actor (b. 1916)
 * Tassos Papadopoulos, 5th President of Cyprus (b. 1934)
 * December 13 – Horst Tappert, German actor (b. 1923)
 * December 15 – León Febres Cordero, 35th President of Ecuador (b. 1931)
 * December 18
 * Majel Barrett, American actress (b. 1932)
 * Mark Felt, American FBI agent (b. 1913)
 * December 19 – James Bevel, American minister and civil rights leader (b. 1936)
 * December 20
 * Joseph Conombo, 3rd Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (b. 1917)
 * Olga Lepeshinskaya, Russian ballerina (b. 1916)
 * Robert Mulligan, American director (b. 1925)
 * December 22 – Lansana Conté, 2nd President of Guinea (b. 1934)
 * December 24
 * Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist (b. 1927)
 * Harold Pinter, English playwright (b. 1930)
 * December 25 – Eartha Kitt, American singer and actress (b. 1927)
 * December 29 – Freddie Hubbard, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1938)

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, and Roger Y. Tsien
 * Economics – Paul Krugman
 * Literature – Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
 * Peace – Martti Ahtisaari
 * Physics – Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa, and Yoichiro Nambu
 * Physiology or Medicine – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Harald zur Hausen, and Luc Montagnier

New English words

 * Bitcoin
 * burner phone
 * dumpster fire
 * exome
 * hate-watch
 * mansplain
 * photobomb