The Chinese spacecraft Change 3, carrying a robotic rover, achieves the first soft landing on the moon since 1976

A vast crowd assembles in Kiev to protest against President Yanukovych's rejection of an alliance with the European Union, preferring one with Russia

War erupts in South Sudan between followers of the president, Salva Kiir, and of the former vice-president, Riek Machar

The military government in Egypt outlaws the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization

The number of Iraqis killed in 2014 (according to the UN, 8868 deaths) is the greatest since 2008, the main reason being the escalating terrorist conflict between Shia and Sunni

Haruko Obakata announces a potentially very significant discovery in Japan, that cells can be converted into stem cells by submersion in a weak acidic solution for half an hour

Researchers in Canada show that highly specific antibodies derived from llamas can control C. difficile infections, making possible new engineered antibodies to fight this dangerous disease

Latvia adopts the euro as its national currency, becoming the 18th member of the Eurozone

12 Years a Slave, based on the 1853 autobiographical account by Solomon Northup and directed by the British Steve McQueen, wins the Oscar for Best Picture

The Rolling Stones, after fifty-two years together as a group, undertake a world tour spread out through the year

Australia wins a 5-nil victory over England in the Ashes series, achieving a 'whitewash' for the third time in Ashes history

Campaigning begins in earnest between the Yes and No camps for the referendum on Scottish independence scheduled for September 18

Stores open in the US state of Colorado freely selling 'recreational' cannabis, under a new state law

Chemists at Radboud University in Nijmegen create a plastic artificial cell containing organelles capable of producing the steps in a chemical reaction

Data from a NASA astronomical satellite records what appears to be the first observed example of a black hole tearing apart and absorbing a nearby star

A nuclear deal is agreed between Iran and western powers led by the USA, with Iran accepting restrictions on its nuclear programme and the west agreeing to reduce certain sanctions

The Thai government imposes a state of emergency in response to increasingly large demonstrations demanding the resignation of the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra

Mille Markovic, a Swedish gangster who claimed to have compromising photos of King Carl XVI Gustav (later proved to be forgeries), is shot and killed in Stockholm

Violent riots in San Pãolo erupt during a demonstration against the high cost of Brazil's hosting the football World Cup

Tunisia, where the Arab Spring was launched, adopts a new constitution recognizing Islam as the state religion while also guaranteeing freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the rights of women

Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Yahoo admit that they submit users' data to the US government, under court orders to comply with NSA's secret Prism programme

Turkey passes a law giving the government the right to block websites and to force internet providers to hand over customers' details

Facebook buys the mobile-messaging company Whatsapp for $19 billion

Jose Salvador is washed up in his boat on a beach in the Marshall Islands thirteen months after being blown out to sea in Mexico

China and Taiwan hold high-level talks, the first between the two countries since the defeated Chiang Kai-shek set up a government in exile in 1949