2014

2014 (MMXIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2014th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 14th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2010s decade.

The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the most widespread outbreak of the Ebola virus in human history, resulting in 28,646 confirmed infections and 11,323 confirmed deaths according to the World Health Organization, who declared it a Public Health Emergency in August. The virus caused major socioeconomic disruption in the region, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Other notable health concerns in 2014 included a significant increase in polio cases in Pakistan.

The rise of ISIS became a major geopolitical crisis in 2014 after the group declared a global caliphate and launched devastating offensives in Iraq and Syria. The Camp Speicher massacre in which the Islamic State murdered 1,566 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets and the Fall of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, prompted a U.S led military intervention, which would later become a global effort. The Islamic State committed numerous atrocities, including mass beheadings, mass executions of civilians, and the genocide and persecution of religious minorities like the Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims. ISIS would attract thousands of foreign fighters from across the world to join their military, drawn by their ideology and promises of establishing a global Islamic state. ISIS led to a massive displacement of people in Iraq and Syria, creating a major humanitarian crisis for millions of peoples.^[1] Another notable conflict was the 2014 Gaza War, which Israel began 26 days after three Israeli teenagers were murdered in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants, the large-scale military operation, codenamed "Operation Protective Edge" saw intense fighting, with Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions into Gaza, killing 2,310 and wounding 10,626 Palestinians. The conflict would end on August 26, 2014, after a ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt went into effect.

The Euromaidan protests, a series of demonstrations in Ukraine, were triggered by President Viktor Yanukovych's sudden decision to pursue closer economic ties with Russia and his refusal to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, which culminated in the Revolution of Dignity in February. Following this, a disputed referendum led to Russia occupying and annexing crimea from Ukraine, subsequent pro-Russian unrest led to Russian backed seperatist forces in eastern Ukraine seizing control of key areas, leading to the War in Donbas in April. The war escalated after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by Russian-backed forces while flying in Eastern Ukraine.

Political crises continued across the globe, with Thailand experiencing a military coup in May as the Royal Thai Army overthrew the caretaker government. Three main airplane disasters happened, the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, and the crash of Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501, collectively claiming over 700 lives. Civil unrest emerged in Ferguson, Missouri in the United States due to the killing of Michael Brown and in Hong Kong, during the 2014 Hong Kong protests. Despite all these challenges, scientific achievement provided hope as India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars with its Mangalyaan mission, and the Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe completed humanity's first landing on a comet.

2014 was designated as:

• International Year of Crystallography^[2]
• International Year of Family Farming^[2]
• International Year of Small Island Developing States^[2]
• International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People^[2][3]