2012

January

 * January 7 – A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.
 * January 10 – A bombing in Khyber Agency, Pakistan, kills at least 30 people and 78 others injured.
 * January 12 – Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Basescu's economic austerity measures. Clashes are reported in numerous Romanian cities between protesters and law enforcement officers.
 * January 13 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.
 * January 19 – The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI.
 * January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: the European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of its continued effort to enrich uranium.

February

 * February 6 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marks the 60th anniversary of her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth.
 * February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France, following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.
 * February 21 – Greek government-debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.

March

 * March 13 – After 246 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.
 * March 22 – The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.

April

 * April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.
 * April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.
 * April 13 – Kwangmyongsong-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands. The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the republic.
 * April 26 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

May

 * May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.
 * May 7 – Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.
 * May 12 – August 12 – The 2012 World Expo takes place in Yeosu, South Korea.
 * May 20 – An annular solar eclipse was visible from Asia and North America, and was the 58th solar eclipse from 73 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 128.
 * May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 metres high, is opened to the public.

June

 * June 5–6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.
 * June 8 – July 1 – Poland and Ukraine jointly host the UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament, which is won by Spain.
 * June 18 – Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female, docks manually with orbiting module Tiangong-1, making them the third country, after the United States and Russia, to successfully perform the mission.
 * June 24 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies, dies in Galápagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct.
 * June 30 – Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, is elected 5th President of Egypt, sparking mixed reactions and protests throughout the country.

July

 * July 4 – CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
 * July 20 – 2012 Aurora shooting: Twelve people die and 58 are injured in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The shooter, James Holmes, opens fire on a crowd during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. He is found behind the theater claiming to be "The Joker".
 * July 27 – August 12 – The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, England, United Kingdom.
 * July 30–31 – In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.

August

 * August 6 – Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars.
 * August 31 – Armenia severs diplomatic relations with Hungary, following the extradition to Azerbaijan and subsequent pardoning of Ramil Safarov, who was convicted of killing an Armenian soldier in Hungary in 2004. The move is also met with fierce criticism from other countries.

September

 * September 7 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran, and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and human rights abuses.
 * September 11–27 – A series of terrorist attacks are directed against United States diplomatic missions worldwide, as well as diplomatic missions of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the US, opinions are divided over whether the attacks are a reaction to a YouTube trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. In Libya, among the dead is US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

October

 * October 14 – Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 128,000 ft equaling 24 mi over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States.
 * October 16 – Seven paintings worth $25 million are stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

November

 * November 6 – Barack Obama is reelected President of the United States.
 * November 13 – A total solar eclipse occurred in parts of Australia and the South Pacific. It was the 45th of 72 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 133.
 * November 14–21 – Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following week 140 Palestinians and five Israelis are killed in an ensuing cycle of violence. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the week-long escalation in hostilities in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.
 * November 25–December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people still missing. The typhoon causes considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.
 * November 29 – The UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer state status.

December

 * December 8 – In Qatar, the UN Climate Change Conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.
 * December 14 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.