2013

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
 * 2013 Australian federal election: 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.