The Ebola virus epidemic begins, infecting at least 28,616 people and killing at least 11,310

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 en route to Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, loses contact with the ground for unknown reasons but flies on for five hours and vanishes, causing a massive international search.

Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signs a bill finalizing the process.

In the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping: more than 250 girls and women are abducted by Boko Haram to be held hostage.

Supporters of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy and law enforcement confront each-other following a 21-year legal dispute in which the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) obtained court orders directing Bundy to pay over $1 million in withheld grazing fees for Bundy's use of federally owned land.

Less than two weeks after the abduction of the Nigerian schoolgirls Boko Haram militants make a night raid on the towns of Gamboru and Ngala, killing about 300 people

Lethal attacks attributed to Boko Haram take place in a marketplace and bus station in Jos, Nigeria

A Sunni militant group emerges calling itself the Islamic State, now widely known as ISIS.

In the Camp Speicher massacre Isis kills 1,566 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets. It is the second deadliest terrorist attack in history.

2,100 Palestinians and 71 Israelis are killed in seven weeks of fighting

The Sinjar massacre is the beginning of ISIS attacks resulting in the massacre of over 4,000 Yazidis in Iraq's Sinjar District.

The shooting of Michael Brown, an African American, by a police officer occurs in Ferguson, Missouri triggering riots.

The uncrewed Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object.

Peshawar school massacre: The Pakistani Taliban carry out a mass shooting, killing at least 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.

A series of massacres in Baga, Nigeria and surrounding villages by Boko Haram kill more than 2,000 people.

Two gunmen belonging to Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch kill 12 people and injure 11 more at the Paris headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

NASA's Dawn probe enters orbit around Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet

The ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, famous for its remains of classical architecture, is captured by the Islamic State (ISIS)

Cuba becomes the first country in the world to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft performs a close flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft in history to visit the distant world.

Iran agrees to long-term limits of its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief

Scientists announce the discovery in South Africa of Homo naledi, a previously unknown species of early human

Queen Elizabeth II, having been on the throne for 63 years, 217 days, becomes the longest-reigning British monarch, surpassing the reign of Queen Victoria

Gravitational waves are detected for the first time, by LIGO

Automaker Volkswagen is alleged to have been involved in worldwide rigging of diesel emissions tests, affecting an estimated 11 million vehicles globally