Retired British businessman Christopher Tappin is sentenced to 33 months in prison by a U.S. court after pleading guilty to selling weapon parts to Iran.[15]
New York becomes the first state to pass a law relating to guns since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The new law bans possession of high-capacity magazines, requires a state-registry for assault-class weapons, and requires background checks.[19]
January 23 – Previously valued $2 billion video game company THQ sells most of its assets for $72 million after last month filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[34]
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifts the ban upon women serving in combat. Congress will have a month to review the decision before it goes into effect, and could block lifting the rule.[35]
Hermilo Moralez, an illegal immigrant to the United States from Belize is convicted of the 2010 murder of Joshua Wilkerson and sentenced to life imprisonment in Texas.[41]
An assailant believed to be Christopher Jordan Dorner kills a sheriff's deputy and injures another in and around Big Bear Lake, California. He then barricades himself in a cabin, which catches on fire during a police assault. It is believed that Dorner dies in the fire, however this is later dismissed by law enforcement officials. Ultimately he is named as a suspect wanted in connection to a series of shootings that occurred throughout Southern California that killed four people and wounded three others.[citation needed] On February 14, it is announced by the San Bernardino Sheriff's Office that the body discovered in the cabin had been positively identified by medical examiners as that of Dorner.[64]
February 20 – A federal grand jury in Georgia indicts four employees of bankrupt Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America for the 2009 salmonellaoutbreak that killed nine people and infected hundreds. The 75–count indictment describes contaminated or misbranded food by company owner Stewart Parnell, his brother and company vice president Michael Parnell, and two company managers. The charges are conspiracy, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. This infection triggered the most extensive food recall ever in United States history.[68]
Retired police sergeant Drew Peterson, whose fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007, is sentenced by the state of Illinois to 38 years incarceration for the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.[69]
A watchdog group releases a report that details write-downs of $19 billion on more than 168,000 properties by five United States banks. Under terms of a federal and state settlement of foreclosure-processing violations reached one year ago in March, Bank of America lost the most and had $13.5 billion in homeowner debts written off. The other banks are Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co, and Ally Financial Inc.[70]
The Air Force grounds its entire $400 billion fleet of 51 F-35 jets due to a major engine technical issue. During a routine inspection of the aircraft, maintenance personnel detected a cracked engine blade.[71][72] On February 28, the Defense Department lifts the grounding after an investigation concludes that the cracks in that particular engine resulted from stressful testing, including excessive heat for a prolonged period during flight, and did not reflect a fleetwide problem.[73][74][75] The total cost of all retrofits for problems found in flight testing is now $1.7 billion.[76]
SpaceX's CRS-2 is launched. This launch is the fourth flight for the unmanned Dragoncargo spacecraft. The launch is also the fifth overall and final flight for the company's two-stage Falcon 9 v1.0 launch vehicle. CRS-2 is the second SpaceX operational mission contracted to NASA under a Commercial Resupply Services contract of 12 total.[88] Once in orbit, CRS-2 encounters thruster issues, but they are ultimately resolved.[89]
A house fire kills five children (ages 10 months to 3 years) and two adults (including a pregnant woman) in the Gray community of Knox County, Kentucky.[94][95]
American musician Richard Hinds is sentenced to between five and ten years in prison for the murder of Irish tourist Nicola Furlong in Japan.[110][111]
The Supreme Court holds in a 6–3 decision that the first-sale doctrine applies to the domestic sale of foreign copies of copyrighted work lawfully made abroad. The first-sale doctrine (also known as the "exhaustion rule") is a core feature of both copyright and patent law. The doctrine holds that intellectual property rights associated with a particular copy of a work are exhausted once there is an authorized sale or manufacture of that copy. Although the decision does not mention patent law, the case also has obvious implications for patents. The case may also have some implications for streaming of copyrighted content based on national origin. A Thailand man, Supap Kirtsaeng, had moved to the US and set up a side business of importing textbooks from Thailand and reselling them on eBay in the US for a substantial profit. The imported books were not counterfeit but actual publisher-printed versions of textbooks. The publisher, John Wiley & Sons sued for copyright infringement and argued that the first-sale doctrine did not apply to its authorized foreign sales.[113]
A disgraced former jurist, Eric Williams, and his wife, Kim Williams, are charged with three counts of homicide for the murders of two Texas prosecutors and one wife.[127]
Disneyland announces that it would temporarily close three of its attractions at its California theme park due to multiple OSHA-related violations.[128]
April 15–19 – Two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon leave 3 people dead and 260 injured.[130][131] Authorities found clear video images of two suspects carrying black backpacks and with their faces visible, each suspect separately at the scene of one of the two explosions.[132][133][134] A campus police officer is shot dead in his vehicle at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[135][136] The Boston Police Department chases two carjacking suspects in the MIT campus shooting to the nearby suburb of Watertown where, after a gunfight that included explosives, one MBTA officer is injured, one suspect is killed, and the other is still at large.[137] The suspects are brothers. One suspect is identified as Kyrgyzstan-born Cambridge resident 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.[138] The deceased brother is identified as 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev. A number of YouTube videos, posted by the suspects, surface that seek Muslim takeover of Chechnya.[139] A tip leads police to the backyard-stored boat at a home in the Boston suburb of Watertown, Massachusetts, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is captured after an exchange of gunfire and a brief standoff.[140] The Boston Bruins home game against the Ottawa Senators scheduled for that day is postponed.
The world's first gun produced by Defense Distributed using a 3-D printer is fired successfully in Austin, Texas. Security officials worry that such plastic weapons could evade detection at airport screenings.[157][158]
Bank of America agrees to pay $1.6 billion to insurer MBIA to settle a long-running dispute between MBIA and two companies Bank of America had since acquired.[159]
Singer Lauryn Hill is sentenced to prison for three months after being convicted of tax evasion.[160]
Three women missing (Michele Knight, Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus) for more than a decade are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, while a man, Ariel Castro, is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.[161][162][163]
May 9 – It is revealed that in February, hackers stole $45 million from worldwide bank ATMs with large numbers of criminals using fraudulent debit cards.[168]
Kermit Gosnell, a U.S.abortionphysician, is found guilty in Pennsylvania of three counts of murder of newborn infants, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and various other charges.[172][173] In a plea bargain later he trades away his appeals in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of parole.[174]
May 24 – Eight year old boy Gabriel Fernandez dies after being fatally beaten and tortured by his mother Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. The pair are later convicted of murder, with the case highlighting numerous failings by social services in Los Angeles County.
May 25 – Two freight trains collide fifteen miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, causing a highway overpass to collapse; causing seven injuries.[185]
May 26–31 – An outbreak of tornadoes affects the Great Plains, particularly Oklahoma and Kansas. Around 76 tornadoes were reported in the event including the widest tornado ever recorded near El Reno, Oklahoma, at a very large 2.6 miles in width. A total of ten confirmed fatalities were reported with the outbreak.[186]
June 7 – A spree shooting occurs at Santa Monica College in California, with six deaths and more than four injuries. Shooter John Zawahri killed his father and brother and set their house on fire before going on a rampage, ending with him being shot dead by police.[192]
July 10 – With still two years until its closest approach, NASA's New Horizons team releases the spacecraft's first high resolution view of the Pluto/Charon dwarf planet system.[206]
August 28 – Former U.S. Army Major and psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan is sentenced to death for the November 5, 2009, Fort Hood massacre that killed 13 and wounded 32 others. He will be granted an automatic appeal; the Army general (convening authority) who will review the case can grant him life without parole; any eventual military execution would need presidential approval.[222]
September 16 – A gunman opens fire at Washington, D.C.'s Naval Yard; with twelve victims killed and eight injured. The perpetrator, Aaron Alexis, was killed by arriving police officers. It is the second worst shooting on a military base after the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.[237][238][239]
Miriam Carey, a 34-year-old woman with a history of mental health issues, who was a New York and Connecticut-licensed dental hygienist, is shot and killed by police in Washington, D.C. The incident leads to a lockdown in the city.[245]
Adobe reveals that 2.9 million customers' data was stolen in security breach which included credit card information.[246]
November 1 – A gunman suspected to be 23-year-old Paul Ciancia opens fire at the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, killing one Transportation Security Administration officer and injuring an additional six people. The apprehended suspect sustains several gunshot wounds from police officers and survives. A handwritten note is later found in Ciancia's bag describing his desire to kill TSA officers and "pigs". A text message sent to one of his siblings suggests he was suicidal.[257]
November 18 – MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) launches as a space exploration mission to send a space probe to orbit Mars and study its atmosphere. After its scheduled September 22, 2014 Martian orbital insertion, it will help determine what caused the Martian atmosphere—and water—to be lost to space, making the climate increasingly inhospitable for life.[261]
November 19 – In the largest-ever settlement with the U.S. government, banking giant JPMorgan Chase agrees to pay $13 billion and admits to making serious misrepresentations over mortgage-backed securities.[262]
November 20 – Illinois becomes the sixteenth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Provisions of the bill will not go into effect until June 1, next year.[263]
Crystal Mangum, the false rape accuser in the Duke lacrosse case, is found guilty of murdering her boyfriend Reginald Daye and sentenced to 14–18 years in prison.[265]
Walt Disney Animation Studios' 53rd feature film, Frozen, is released in theatres. Considered by some to be on the level of the studio's Renaissance-era output, the film receives critical acclaim and is by far their biggest commercial success at that point, grossing $1.280 billion in worldwide revenue throughout its run. To date, it is the most recent fairy tale adaptation that the studio has produced.
December 1 – At least four are dead and 63 others injured following a Metro-North Railroad train derailment near Spuyten Duyvil, The Bronx, New York City.[266] Preliminary reports by the NTSB determine that the train was traveling at 82 miles per hour; the speed limit for the section of track involved is 30 miles per hour.
December 2 – In the New Hampshire's U.S. District Court, the former medical technician David Kwiatkowski is sentenced to 39 years in prison for infecting unknown numbers of patients in various states with hepatitis C through the reuse of his contaminated syringes.[267]
The U.S. National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable internet advertisers to track consumers, such tools are known as cookies; specifically, Google cookies are being tracked in order to determine targets for hacking.[citation needed]
December 18 – An EPA employee who committed fraud regarding his vacation pay is sentenced to 32 months in prison. John C. Beale had perpetrated a scam whereby he disappeared from work for years at a time saying he was a covert CIA agent.[286]
American Express is ordered to pay $75.7 million in restitution and fines to customers and federal regulators over billing people for services they never received.[295]
The deadline for U.S. residents to sign up without penalty for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.[298]
December 25 – An unnamed gunman shoots three teenagers, two fatally, in a neighborhood near Interstate 78 in Newark, New Jersey. This occurs shortly after three other men are killed and two more wounded by a shooting at a strip club in Irvington.[299]
^"Red Sox savor title, and comfort of home". USA Today. Retrieved July 16, 2016. It has been 95 years since the Red Sox last won a World Series championship at Fenway, and it was as if everyone wanted to remember this moment, just in case it doesn't happen again this century.
^Monica Garske, R. Stickney and Greg Bledsoe (November 13, 2013). "4 Marines Killed at Camp Pendleton". NBC News San Diego. Retrieved November 13, 2013.