Monday, January 12, 2015

2 THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015

JANUARY

Jan. 1: India terminates the Rs.3,700 crore VVIP chopper deal withItalian rm AgustaWestland Inter-national Limited for breach of pre-contract integrity pact.

The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill,2013 gets presidential nod.

The Sangita Kalanidhi title is con-ferred on vocalist Sudha Ragunathanby the Andhra Pradesh GovernorE.S.L. Narasimhan at the sadas ofThe Music Academy, in Chennai.

Jan. 2: The Maharashtra Cabinetaccepts the Adarsh Commission ofInquiry Report. Action Taken Re-port lets off six indicted politicians.

India signs a labour cooperationagreement with Saudi Arabia, inNew Delhi.

Jan. 3: Normal life across 13 dis-tricts of Andhra Pradesh hit follow-ing a bandh against proposedbifurcation of the state.

Jan. 4: Nineteen workers arekilled and 16 injured following thecollapse of an under-constructionve storeyed building in Canacona,75 km from the Goa capital Panaji.

The Geosynchronous SatelliteLaunch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) poweredby an indigenous cryogenic engineputs the 1,982 kg GSAT-14 commu-nication satellite into a perfect orbitafter liftoff from Sriharikota.

Jan. 6: The former SupremeCourt judge Ashok Kumar Ganguly,accused by a law intern of sexualharassment, resigns as chairpersonof West Bengal Human RightsCommission.

The Supreme Court quashes Ta-mil Nadu governments February2009 order appointing an ExecutiveOfficer to manage the affairs andproperties of the Chidambaram Nat-arajar temple.

Telugu actor V. Uday Kiran com-mits suicide at his at in SrinagarColony at Punjagutta, Hyderabad.

The Mumbai police chargesheetNational Spot Exchange Ltd. CEOAnjani Sinha and four others in theRs. 5,600 crore NSEL payment scam.Jan. 9: Mahatma Gandhis grand-daughter Ela Gandhi, Australiansenator of Indian origin Lisa MariaSingh and the Ramakrishna Missionamong the 13 recipients of the 12thPravasi Bharatiya Samman Awardpresented by the President PranabMukherjee in New Delhi.

The former Karnataka Chief Min-ister B.S. Yeddyurappa formally re-joins the BJP.

Jan. 10: The Union EnvironmentMinistry gives nod for Poscos eightmillion tonnes per annum steelplant in Odisha.

Former Deputy Consul GeneralDevyani Khobragade reaches NewDelhi after the U.S. gives her fulldiplomatic immunity.

Jan. 12: Imbibe values advocatedby Swami Vivekananda, says PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh at thevaledictory of the 150 birthday feteof the Swamiji, in New Delhi.

Jan. 13: Kerala-based writerAnees Salim is named winner of TheHindu Prize for the Best Fiction2013 for his second novel, VanityBagh, a dark comic tale, at the vale-dictory session of The Hindu Lit forLife, in Chennai.

Jan. 16: India and South Koreasign Agreement on the Protection ofClassied Military Information andeight other pacts after talks betweenPrime Minister Manmohan Singhand South Korean President ParkGeun-hye, in New Delhi.

Jan. 17: Sunanda Pushkar, thewife of Union Minister of State forHuman Resource DevelopmentShashi Tharoor is found dead at theLeela Palace Hotel in New Delhisdiplomatic enclave.

Jan. 18: Eighteen persons die and45 suffer injuries in a stampede out-side Saifee Manzil, the house of Da-woodi Bohra spiritual leader SyednaMohammed Burhanuddin in upscaleWalkeshwar area in South Mumbai.

Mumbai-based author-journalistCyrus Mistry wins the DSC prize forSouth Asian literature for 2014 forhis book Chronicle of a CorpseBearer.

Jan. 20: Delhi Chief Minister Ar-vind Kejriwal dees prohibitory or-der to launch an unprecedentedprotest outside Parliament House,demanding executive control of theDelhi police.

Jan. 21: The Supreme Court com-mutes the death sentence of 15 per-sons, including four associates offorest brigand Veerappan.

Jan. 24: The former Union Min-ister, M.K. Alagiri is suspended fromthe DMK and relieved of his posts.

Namma Wi-Fi, free wireless In-ternet connectivity via Wi-Fi hot-spots is launched in ve locations inBangalore.

Jan. 25: Yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengarand the former chief of the CSIR R.A.Mashelkar are awarded the PadmaVibhushan.

Classical singer Parveen Sultana,Justice Dalveer Bhandari, authorRuskin Bond, former CJI J.S. Verma(posthumously), Tamil actor KamalHassan, lyricist Vairamuthu, ghatamartist T.H. Vinayakram, novelist An-ita Desai, former CAG V.N.Kaul,sportspersons Leander Paes, PullelaGopichand prominent among 25Padma Bhushan awardees.

Cine stars Paresh Rawal and VidyaBalan, sand artist Sudarshan Pat-naik, TAFE chairperson Mallika Sri-nivasan, cricketer Yuvaraj Singh,cinematographer Santosh Sivan andwheelchair tennis pioneer H.Boni-face Prabhu among those honouredwith Padma Shri.

The Centre for Study of Societyand Secularism is selected for theNational Communal HarmonyAward 2013.

Jan. 26: The 65th Republic Dayparade showcases the militarymight. A highlight being the displayof the nations rst indigenously de-veloped Light Combct Aircraft, Te-jas.

Jan. 27: Sensex tumbles by 426.11points to close at 20707.45.

Jan. 28: Former President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam inaugurates the cen-tenary celebrations of the Pambanrailway bridge, Indias rst cantilev-er bridge, connecting the pilgrim is-land of Rameswaram with themainland.

Jan. 30: The Supreme Courtclears the decks for the prosecutionof Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jaya-lalithaa for non-ling of IT returnsduring 1991-92 and 1992-93.

Nido Tania, son of Nido Pavitra,

Congress MLA from Arunachal Pra-desh, dies at the AIIMS of injuries hesustained in an attack by a group ofmen at a South Delhi market a dayearlier.

Jan. 31: The Supreme Court staysthe execution of Devender Pal SinghBhullar sentenced to death for abomb attack on the former IndianYouth Congress president Manin-derjeet Singh Bitta in 1993.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister VijayBahuguna resigns.

FEBRUARY

Feb. 1: Union Water ResourcesMinister Harish Rawat is sworn in asthe eighth Chief Minister of Uttarak-hand at the Raj Bhavan in Dehradun.

Feb. 3: One should not succumbto unscientic prejudices againstBt. Crops, says the Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, inaugurating the101st session of the Indian ScienceCongress in Jammu.

The Delhi Cabinet clears the Del-hi Lokpal Bill, 2014.

Feb. 4: Renowned scientist C. N.R. Rao and cricketer Sachin Tendul-kar are conferred the Bharat Ratnaat the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Feb. 5: The CBI charges formerIB Special Director Rajendra Kumarand three serving officers with themurder of college girl Ishrat JahanRaza on June 15, 2004, on an Ah-medabad street.

Feb. 6: The Union Cabinet givesnod for Vodafones proposal to buyout minority shareholders in its In-dian arm for Rs. 10,141 crore.

Feb. 7: The Union Cabinet clearsAndhra Pradesh Reorganisation Billfor the creation of Telangana.

Feb. 10: The role of GurunathMeiyappan in the IPL betting andspot xing muddle is proven, saysthe three-member panel appointedby the Supreme Court.

ATMs across the nation run dry asover eight lakh bank staff begin theirtwo-day strike.

Feb. 11: The Congress expels sixof its Lok Sabha MPs from the See-mandhra region who had given no-tice for a no-condence motionagainst the government.

Feb. 12: Railway Minister Malli-karjun Kharge announces the launchof 17 new premium trains, named JaiHind in the interim Railway Budgetfor 2014-15.

Feb. 13: The expelled CongressMP from Vijayawada, L. Rajagopalsprays from a can of chemical in theLok Sabha to protest against the ta-bling of the Andhra Pradesh Reorga-nisation Bill, 2013. Three MPs sufferfrom inhalation of fumes and rushedto hospital.

Feb. 14: Delhi Chief Minister Ar-vind Kejriwal resigns after his gov-ernment fails to introduce the DelhiJan Lokpal Bill in the Assembly.

Feb. 17: Union Finance MinisterP. Chidambaram allocates Rs. 1,000crore non-lapsable funds to theNirbhaya fund; Rs. 1,000 crore to theNational Skills Development Trustwhile presenting the interim budget2014-15. In principle nod for onerank, one pension for armed forces.

Presidents rule is imposed in Del-hi and the Assembly kept under sus-pended animation.

The Goa police charge the formerTehelka magazine editor-in-chiefTarun Tejpal with rape.

Guwahati teenager Afreed Islam, aclass X student, launches Revo Book,his prototype of a computer systemthat uses a microchip instead of ahard disk that also doubles as a stor-age unit.

Feb. 18: The 15th Lok Sabha pas-ses the A.P. Reorganisation Bill.

Jan. 19: Lalita Babar com-pletes a hat-trick of titles atthe Mumbai Marathon. Sets anew course record among In-dian women athletes by clock-ing 2:50:31.

President Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Bharat Ratna tocricketer Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Prof. C. N. RamachandraRao (left) at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Youth enjoying free wirelessInternet connectivity servicesnear the metro station on M.G.Road, in Bangalore.

NATIONAL

3THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015

Seven A.P. Ministers quit State-Cabinet. Union Minister D. Puran-deswari resigns her Cabinet post andparty membership.

The Supreme Court commutesthe death sentences of three convictsin the Rajiv Gandhi assassinationcase to life terms.

Feb. 19: N. Kiran Kumar Reddyresigns as Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister and quits the Congress andAssembly membership.

The Tamil Nadu government de-cides to free all the seven accused inthe Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Feb. 20: The Rajya Sabha givesnod for the Bill for creating Telanga-na amid bedlam.

Odia gets classical language status. Former DMDK leader Panruti S.

Ramachandran joins the AIADMK.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

announces special category Statestatus for the Seemandhra region.Six-point package for residuary And-hra Pradesh, including taxincentives.

Feb. 21: The country has the ca-pacity to rise above partisan politicsto enact crucial laws in the nationalinterest, says the Prime MinisterManmohan Singh on the last day ofthe 15th Lok Sabha.

The Rajya Sabha passes the Whis-tleblowers Protection Bill.

Feb. 24: The Lalu Prasad-led RJDsplits after six of its 22 MLAs an-nounce move to join the ruling JD(U) in Bihar.

Mehair, a non-scheduled air ser-vices provider launches a uniqueseaplane service, the rst of its kindin mainland India, linking MumbaisJuhu airport with tourist destina-tions of the State.

Feb. 25: Nine of the 13 rebelMLAs who broke away from theRashtriya Janata Dal return to theparty fold.

India and Saudi Arabia sign abreakthrough MoU on defencecooperation.

Feb. 26: Navy Chief Admiral D.K.Joshi resigns hours after a re onboard submarine INS Sindhuratnaoff Mumbai leaves two officers deadand seven others injured.

Feb. 27: The Supreme Court saystill March 6 the release of four con-victs Nalini, Robert Payas, Jaya-chandran and Ravichandran in theRajiv Gandhi assassination case.

In a rst-of-its-kind in the coun-

try, an electric passenger bus, withzero emission level, is inauguratedby the Karnataka Transport Minis-ter R.Ramalinga Reddy in Bangalore.

Union Finance Minister P.Chi-dambaram inaugurates the coun-trys rst post office savings bankATM at the Head Post Office inThyagaraya Nagar in Chennai.

Feb. 28: Sahara India chief Sub-rata Roy is arrested by the Uttar Pra-desh police for failing to refundRs.19,000 crore to investors.

MARCH

March 1: The former Army ChiefV.K.Singh joins the BJP .

President Pranab Mukherjee giveshis assent to the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Bill. Approves centralrule in the State.

March 2: The Union Cabinetclears reservation for Jats in ninenorthern states under OBC. Givesspecial category status for ve yearsto successor state of AndhraPradesh.

March 3: The Defence Ministryputs on hold all deals with Rolls-Royce the British engine maker. CBIprobe ordered into allegations ofkickbacks.

March 5: The Election Commis-sion announces a nine-phase pollschedule from April 7 to May 12 forthe 16th Lok Sabha and the Assemblyin Andhra Pradesh, Odisha andSikkim.

President Pranab Mukherjee ap-points former Delhi Chief MinisterSheila Dikshit as Kerala Governor.

The Supreme Court upholds theconviction of Sushil Ansal and GopalAnsal in the 1997 Uphaar cinematragedy that claimed the lives of 59people.

March 10: Expelled SamajwadiParty leaders Amar Singh and JayaPrada join the Rashtriya Lok Dal inNew Delhi.

March 11: Famous poets JavedAkhtar (Urdu), Subodh Sarkar (Ben-gali) and Ambika Dutt (Rajasthani)prominent among 18 presented withthe Sahitya Akademi awards at theannual Festival of Letters in NewDelhi.

March 13: The Delhi High Courtupholds the death sentence of all thefour convicts in the December 16,2012 gangrape case.

March 14: The Cuttack sessionsCourt sentences to 11 years MittuPatnaik, the main accused in the Au-gust 25, 2008 Kandhamal nun gan-grape case.

Seven persons are killed and veothers injured after a dilapidatedseven-storey building collapses on

an adjacent slum settlement in theMumbai suburb of Vakela.

March 15: The Supreme Courtstays the execution of two persons Mukesh and Pawan in the Delhigangrape case till March 31.

March 16: The 17th Gollapudi Sri-nivas national award for the best de-but lm is bagged by Gyan Correa forhis Gujarati lm The Good Road.

March 21: A Mumbai sessionsCourt awards lifer to four convictsfor the July 31, 2013 gangrape of atelephone operator on the ShaktiMills compound.

March 24: Sensex surges by 300points to close at a record high of22055.48 amidst renewed buying in-terest from FIIs.

Bank of India launches IMT (In-stant Money Transfer) which allowscardless cash withdrawal at its IMT-enabled ATMs.

March 25: The DMK expels M.K.Alagiri, its south zone organisationalsecretary and former Union Minis-ter for his anti-party activities.

The Indian Ordnance Factorylaunches a light-weight revolver,Nirbheek, designed especially forwomen.

March 27: The World Health Or-ganisation officially declares Indiapolio-free.

March 28: Five IAF personnelare killed after a C-130J Super Her-cules military transport aircraftcrashes in Karauli, near Gwalior af-ter taking off from Agra.

The Supreme Court upholds lawxing the age of a juvenile at 18.

March 29: The BJP expels seniorleader Jaswant Singh from the partyfor six years.

March 31: The Supreme Court

commutes the death sentenceawarded to Devendra Pal SinghBhullar in the 1993 Delhi bomb blastto lifer.

APRIL

April 1: The Supreme Court de-clines to review its February 18 rul-ing in the Rajiv Gandhi assassinationcase, commuting the death sentenceof Murugan, Santhan and Perariv-alan to lifer.

Meghalaya gets connected to theIndian Railway network.

April 2: The Delhi High Courtupholds the conviction of U.P. poli-tician D.P. Yadavs son Vikas Yadav,his nephew Vishal Yadav and theiremployee and co-accused Sukhdevin the 2002 Nitish Katara murdercase.

April 4: A Mumbai sessions courtawards death penalty to three repeatoffenders who gangraped a photo-journalist on the Shakti Mills com-pound in 2013.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehi-cle puts into orbit the countrys sec-ond navigation satellite, the 1,432 kg

Indian Regional Navigation SatelliteSystem (IRNSS-1B) after liftoff fromSriharikota.

A Division Bench of the KeralaHigh Court conrms lifer awarded toDharmarajan, prime accused in the18-year-old Suryanelli rape case. .

April 7: High turnout marks poll-ing in the six parliamentary constit-uencies of the North-East.

Arunachal Pradesh capital Itana-gar is put on the countrys railwaymap with the rst passenger trainarriving at Naharlagun.

April 9: The Supreme Court re-fuses to stay the Centres notica-tion to include Jats on the OtherBackward Classes list.

Mars Orbiter sails past 34-crorekm to the Red Planet.

Moderate to heavy polling is re-corded in the second phase coveringsix Lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya,Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland andManipur and in 49 constituencies ofthe 60-member Arunachal PradeshAssembly.

April 10: The third phase of poll-ing in 91 Lok Sabha constituenciesspread over 14 States and Union Ter-ritories passes off peacefully.

April 11: President Pranab Muk-herjee presents the Sangeet NatakAkademi Fellowships and SangeetNatak Akademi awards for 2013 at afunction at Rashtrapati Bhavan,New Delhi.

April 12: Lyricist lmmaker Gul-zar is chosen for the 45th Dada SahebPhalke award.

The fourth phase of Lok Sabhapolls records impressive turnout,with East Tripura registering 81.8per cent.

April 15: The Supreme Court rec-ognises transgender community as athird gender along with male andfemale.

April 16: Bilingual movie Ship ofTheseus wins the best feature lmaward at the 61st National FilmAwards 2013. The Nargis Dutt awardfor best feature lm on national in-tegration is bagged by Tamil movieThalaimuraigal. Thanga Meengal isadjudged the best Tamil lm. Mum-bai-based lmmaker Batul Muk-htiars Kaphal-Wild Berries bags theNational Award for Best ChildrensFilm.

April 17: Heavy voter turnoutmarks the fth phase of Lok Sabhapolls, covering 121 constituenciesspread across 12 states.

A special CBI court convicts theformer AIADMK Minister and sit-ting DMK Rajya Sabha MP, T.M. Sel-vaganapathy in the cremation shedscam.

Dadasaheb Phalke awardee andlyricist Gulzar.

The BMTC's electric bus in Bangalore.

Rishang Keishing (94), Indiasoldest parliamentarian retiresafter seven decades inpolitics.

4 THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015

Vice-Admiral R.K.Dhowan is ap-pointed as the Navy Chief supersed-ing Vice-Admiral Shekhar Sinha.

April 18: The DMK MP T.M. Sel-vaganapathy quits Rajya Sabha.

April 22: A Division Bench of theAndhra Pradesh High Court acquitsall the accused in the August 6, 1991massacre of eight Dalits at Tsundurvillage in Guntur district.

April 24: Record voter turnout insixth phase of Lok Sabha electionsinvolving 117 constituencies. Seven-tythree per cent polling in Tamil Na-du. Five Jharkhand Armed Policepersonnel and three polling staff arekilled in a blast in Dumka.

April 25: Constitution Bench tohear plea for release by seven con-victs in the Rajiv Gandhi assassina-tion case. Supreme Court extendsstay on Tamil Nadu Governmentsorder freeing them.

April 26: The Supreme Courtrules that Muslim women are entit-led to maintenance even afterdivorce.

The President Pranab Mukherjeepresents the Padma awards at afunction in Rashtrapati Bhavan,New Delhi.

The CJI Justice P. Sathasivamdemits office.

April 27: Justice Rajendra MalLodha is sworn in as the 41st ChiefJustice of India by the PresidentPranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.

April 28: The Supreme Courtstays the death sentence of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Mohd. Asif in the2000 Red Fort attack case.

April 30: High turnout marks theseventh phase of Lok Sabha polls.

MAY

May 1: Parchuri Swathi, a TCSemployee in Bangalore is killed and14 others injured after two blastsrock the Bangalore-Guwahati Ex-press as it pulls into the ChennaiCentral railway station.

May 2: The Army is called out andan indenite curfew imposed in theBodoland Territorial Area districtsof Kokrajhar and Baska in Assamafter militants kill 32 persons inthree incidents in the past two days.

May 3: The President PranabMukherjee presents the Dada SahebPhalke award to lyricist Gulzar at the61st National Film Awards at Vigyan

Bhavan, New Delhi. Amar Chitra Katha launches ACK

Comics, its official digital store appfor across platforms giving users ac-cess to over 300 of its titles.

May 4: At least 21 persons arekilled and more than 145 injured af-ter four coaches of the Diva-Saw-antadi Road passenger train derailoutside a tunnel near Nidi village inMaharashtras Raigad district.

May 5: The Supreme Court refus-es to stay the March 1 notication tobifurcate Andhra Pradesh into Te-langana and Seemandhra.

May 6: The RBI grants permis-sion to minors above 10 to open andoperate savings bank accountsindependently.

The Supreme Court upholds quo-ta for weaker sections in all schools.RTE Act provisions not applicable tominority institutions.

Imposition of mother tongue asmedium of instruction in primaryclasses unconstitutional, holds theSupreme Court.

Anshuman Acharya, Banglore-based writer and theatre artiste isthe winner of The Hindu-MetroplusPlaywright Award 2014 for his entryIn The Name of the Bully.

May 7: The Supreme Court de-clares unconstitutional a law passedby Kerala in 2006 to prevent TamilNadu from raising the water level inthe Mullaperiyar dam from 136 feetto 142 feet.

The Supreme Court bans jallik-kattu and bullock cart racing in Ta-mil Nadu.

Uttarakhand registers 62.75 percent turnout in the seventh phase ofthe Lok Sabha polls. High turnout inHimachal Pradesh.

May 9: The Supreme Court or-ders a CBI probe into the Saradhachit fund scam involving overRs.10,000 crore.

May 12: Fifty-six per cent pollingis recorded in Varanasi in the ninthand nal phase of the general elec-tion. High turnout marred by vio-lence in West Bengal.

May 16: Narendra Modi wins anunprecedented victory for the BJPdealing a crushing blow to the Con-gress in the 16th general election. Heregisters mammoth victories in Va-dodara and Varanasi.

The AIADMK notches up an im-pressive victory in Tamil Nadu bag-ging 37 Lok Sabha seats of the 39 itcontested. The DMK draws a blank.

The TDP bags over 106 of the 175Assembly constituencies in See-mandhra region. In Telangana, theTelangana Rashtra Samithi wins 11of the 17 Lok Sabha seats and bags 63

seats in the 119-member Assembly.May 17: Bihar Chief Minister Nit-

ish Kumar resigns owning respon-sibility for the Janata Dal (Uniteds)poor performance.

The Prime Minister ManmohanSingh submits resignation letter toPresident Pranab Mukherjee.

May 18: Congress leader NabamTuki is sworn in Arunachal PradeshChief Minister for the second con-secutive term.

May 20: Jitan Ram Manjhi issworn in Bihar Chief Minister.

May 21: Naveen Patnaik is swornin Odisha Chief Minister for thefourth time in a row.

Narendra Modi demits office asGujarat Chief Minister after being atthe helm for 12 years.

May 22: Anandiben Patel issworn in as the 15th Chief Minister ofGujarat at a grand event in the cap-ital Gandhinagar.

May 23: T. R. Zeliang of the Naga

Peoples front is appointed as thenew Chief Minister of Nagaland.

May 25: Malavath Poorna (13) ofNizamabad district, Andhra Pra-desh, becomes the youngest girl toconquer Mt. Everest.

Hindustan Motors stops produc-tion of the iconic Ambassador car.

May 26: Narendra DamodardasModi is sworn in as the 15th PrimeMinister. Fortyfour members of hisCabinet take oath. SAARC leaders,including, Pakistan Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif attend function.

Murder charges are led againstall the 17 accused in the May 2011killing of auxiliary nurse BhanwariDevi in Rajasthan.

At least 30 persons are killed and100 injured after the Gorakhdam Ex-press from New Delhi rams a sta-tionary goods train at Chureb, 45 kmfrom Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.

May 31: The Narendra Modi gov-ernment announces abolition ofall the nine Groups of Ministers and21 Empowered Group of Ministersset up by the UPA government.

Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba is ap-pointed Vice-Chief of Naval Staff in amajor shake-up of the top brass.

JUNE

June 1: Indias 29th state of Te-langana is born.

June 2: K. Chandrasekhar Rao issworn in Telanganas rst ChiefMinister. Mahmood Ali and T. Ra-jaiah chosen Deputy ChiefMinisters.

The Supreme Court stays the exe-

cution of the death sentence of Ya-kub Abdul Razak Memon,mastermind of the 1993 Mumbaiserial blasts that claimed 200 lives.

June 3: The Union Rural Devel-opment Minister Gopinath Mundedies in a road accident in New Delhi.

June 5: Nearly 10 months afterINS Sindhurakshak sank in theMumbai harbour, it has beensalvaged.

June 6: BJPs veteran MP Sumi-tra Mahajan is elected Lok SabhaSpeaker.

Sensex vaults by 377 points toclose at a historic high of 25396.46points.

June 7: The Kudankulam Nucle-ar Power Plants rst unit attains itsmaximum capacity of 1,000 Mwe.

June 8: N. Chandrababu Naidutakes oath as the rst Chief Ministerof Andhra Pradesh at an openground opposite Acharya NagarjunaUniversity campus near Vijayawada.

Twentyve engineering studentsfrom Hyderabad are washed away inthe Beas river following water re-lease from the Larji hydroelectricpower project near Mandi, HimachalPradesh.

June 9: Seventeen Uttarakhandpolicemen, convicted for the abduc-tion and murder of MBA graduateRanbir Singh on July 3, 2009, aresentenced to life by a special CBIcourt in New Delhi

June 10: Sirikonda Madhusudha-na Chary of the TRS is unanimouslyelected the rst Speaker of the Te-langana Assembly.

June 11: The Mars Orbiter Mis-sion is put on precise path after theISRO ground controllers correct thespacecrafts trajectory.

The Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterJayalalithaa launches sale of AmmaSalt at the Secretariat in Chennai.

June 12: Vishal Sikka, is namedInfosys CEO for a ve-year term. N.R. Narayanamurthy announcesretirement.

June 13: The Maharashtra Legis-lature passes Bill banning dancebars.

June 17: Uttar Pradesh GovernorB.L. Joshi resigns.

June 18: The Union Cabinet givesnod for setting up a supervisory pan-el to monitor the safety of the Mulla-periyar dam.

Chhattisgarh Governor ShekharDutt resigns.

June 20: Noted Hindi poet Ke-darnath Singh is chosen for theJnanpith award for 2013.

Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, seniorTDP leader is elected rst Speaker ofthe Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

Narendra Modi signs the register after taking oath as the 15thPrime Minister of India, at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan inNew Delhi.

Divyanshu Ganatra becomesthe only visually challengedIndian para-glider to haveown solo after undertakingthe ight at Kamshet, nearPune.

Gopinath Munde

5THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015

June 25: Four passengers arekilled and many injured as 12 coach-es of the Delhi-Dibrugarh RajdhaniExpress derail close to Golden Ganjrailway station near Chapra in Bihar.

Nagaland Governor Ashwani Ku-mar resigns.

June 26: The Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister Jayalalithaa launches 10Amma Pharmacy outlets across theState.

June 27: At least 19 persons arecharred to death and 18 suffer burnsin a massive explosion in a GAIL-operated gas pipeline passingthrough Nagaram village in East Go-davari district, Andhra Pradesh.

June 30: The West Bengal Gov-ernor M.K. Narayanan resigns.

Indias Polar Satellite Launch Ve-hicle C-23 successfully puts ve for-eign satellites into a 660-km sunsynchronous orbit following a per-fect liftoff from the spaceport inSriharikota.

JULY

July 1: The Supreme Court grantsbail to former Tehelka editor TarunTejpal.

The Madras High Court sets asidea January 5, 1994 circular exemptinguse of Tamil in lower courts.

Shah Rukh Khan is conferred withthe Knight of the Legion of Honour,the top French civilian award at afunction in Mumbai.

State Bank of India launches sixdigital branches (sbiINTOUCH)across the country.

July 2: Sensex gains 324.86points to close at 25841.21.

July 3: The Tamil Nadu govern-ment appoints retired Madras HighCourt judge R. Reghupathy as theone-man commission to probe theMoulivakkam building collapse.

July 4: Goa Governor Bharat VirWanchoo resigns.

July 5: The 46 nurses freed byIraqi militants arrive in Kochi to anemotional reunion.

July 6: Gujarat Governor KamlaBeniwal is transferred to Mizoram.Vakkom Purushothaman, Governorof Mizoram is appointed as NagalandGovernor. Rajasthan Governor Mar-garet Alva to hold additional chargeas Gujarat Governor.

July 7: Sensex surpasses the26000 mark for the rst time ever

and closes at 26100.08.Margaret Alva is sworn in Gujarat

Governor. To hold charge of Goa too.July 8: The rst Railway Budget

by the Narendra Modi governmentfocusses on a massive facelift of thesector. FDI to nance the Rs. 9 lakhcrore plans. Mumbai gets 864 newlocal trains. Bullet train in Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector to be introduced.

Sensex plunges by 517.97 pointsand closes at 25582.11. Rail stockscrash.

July 9: Amit Shah is named thenext BJP president.

July 10: Union Finance ministerArun Jaitley unveils a pragmaticprogramme of economic reformsand gives relief to taxpayers in hismaiden Union Budget. FDI cap inthe Defence and Insurance sectorshiked to 49 per cent.

Indian Navy gets Kolkata its rstdomestically built guided missiledestroyer.

July 11: Lok Sabha passes TheAndhra Pradesh Reorganisation(Amendment) Bill that paves theway for the shifting of seven mandalsfrom Telangana to Andhra Pradeshfor the Polavaram Project.

Puducherry Lt. Governor Viren-dra Kataria is sacked.

The Haryana Assembly passesThe Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Man-agement) Bill 2014.

Vaikkom Purushothaman resignsas Mizoram Governor.

July 12: Bandh against passage ofBill on the Polavaram Project thatseeks to transfer 205 villages in thesubmergence zone hits life inTelangana.

A major re breaks out at the SBIbuilding on Rajaji Salai in Chennai.

INS Kamorta, rst Indian warshipbuilt in the country with almost 90per cent indigenous content, ishanded over to the Navy at a ceremo-ny in Kolkata.

July 14: The Lok Sabha passesthe Telecom Regulatory Authority(Amendment) Bill.

The Supreme Court stays the exe-cution of the two remaining con-demned Vinay Sharma andAkshay Thakur in the December 16,2012 gangrape case.

Ram Naik is appointed U.P. Gov-ernor and Om Prakash Kohli GujaratGovernor. Balramji Dass Tandon isnamed Chhattisgarh Governor.Keshari Nath Tripathi to take over asWest Bengal Governor and Padma-nabha Acharya is named NagalandGovernor.

Parliament passes the Bill on Po-lavaram Project.

July 15: The SEBI bars erstwhile

Satyam Computers Chairman B. Ra-malinga Raju and its former top offi-cials from accessing the securitiesmarket for 14 years. Asked to dis-gorge the wrongful gain.

Rajya Sabha passes the TRAI Bill.Environmentalist, social activist

and Chipko movement founderChandi Prasad Bhatt is presentedthe Gandhi Peace Prize 2013 by Pres-ident Pranab Mukherjee at a func-tion in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

July 16: Om Prakash Kohli issworn in Gujarat Governor.

July 17: After 37 years, all the 13shutters of surplus weirs are loweredin the Periyar dam to raise the stor-age level from 136 feet to 142 feet.

July 18: Sabyasachi Panda, Od-ishas most wanted Maoist leaderand main accused in the 2008 mur-der of VHP leader Laxmananand Sa-raswati is held in Berhampur town inGanjam district.

July 20: The Music Academychooses eminent vocalist T.V.Gopa-lakrishnan for the Sangita Kalanidhititle and Bharatanatyam exponentLeela Samson for the Natya KalaAcharya Award.

July 24: Fourteen schoolchil-dren are killed after the Nanded-Se-cunderabad passenger train rams aprivate school bus at an unmannedrailway level crossing at Masaipet inMedak district, Telangana.

July 25: The Supreme Court setsup a Special Court to try the coalscam cases.

Senior BJP leader Balramji DassTandon sworn in ChhattisgarhGovernor.

July 26: Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi launches an online plat-form mygov.nic.in to engage citizensin the task of good governance.

Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issworn in as the Chief Justice of theMadras High Court.

July 30: At last 153 persons arecrushed to death and 160 otherstrapped under debris following alandslide triggered by the relentlessrain in the remote tribal village ofMalin in Punes Ambegaon taluka.

The Gujarat High Court grantsbail to former Minister MayabenKodnani and suspends her sentencein the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacrecase.

The Principal District and Ses-sions Court, Thanjavur sentences tolifer the founder of the Sri KrishnaSchool in Kumbakonam for the July16, 2004 re that left 94 studentsdead.

The Supreme Court stays furtherproceedings pending in the AndhraPradesh High Court in the August 6,1991 Tsundur massacre case.

July 31: Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag

takes over as the Chief of the ArmyStaff from Gen. Bikram Singh.

Former Gujarat Minister May-aben Kodnani is freed on bail.

S.Kunju Mohammed, an accusedin the February 14, 1998 Coimbatoreserial blasts case and absconding formore than 16 years, is nabbed by theCB-CID police at Panangangara nearMalappuram, Kerala.

AUGUST

Aug. 6: Kamala Beniwal is re-moved as Mizoram Governor.

Lok Sabha passes The SecuritiesLaws (Amendment) Bill, 2014 aimedat tackling the ponzi menace.

Aug. 7: The Supreme Court re-strains the Haryana Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee from tak-ing control of 51 of the 52 gurdwarasin the State.

The Bombay High Court stays theprosecution of Congress leader Ash-ok Chavan in the Adarsh housing so-ciety scam case.

Aug. 8: A Delhi Court convictsSher Singh Rana for the murder ofPhoolan Devi, Samajwadi Party MPand ex-dacoit on July 21, 2001 inNew Delhi. Eleven others acquitted.

Aug. 11: Tata-SIA Airlines Limit-ed announces the brand name of itsnew airline will be Vistara or limit-less in Sanskrit with aubergine andgold its colours.

Aug. 12: The Tamil Nadu Entryinto Public Places (Removal of Re-strictions on Dress) Act, 2014 isadopted by the Assembly.

Aug. 13: The Lok Sabha passesthe National Judicial AppointmentsCommission Bill, 2014. Collegiumsystem scrapped.

The Womens Reservation Billlapses due to lack of consensus.

AIADMKs Thambidurai is elect-ed Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker.

Aug. 14: Rajya Sabha gives nod tothe NJAC Bill.

Major Mukund Varadarajan isposthumously awarded Ashok Chak-ra, the nations highest peace timegallantry award. He died ghtingmilitants in Shopian, South Kashmirin April.

The Supreme Court suspends theAugust 11 Bombay High Court orderrestricting the height of human pyr-amids formed for the dahi handisport. Kids above 12 can take part.

Lok Sabha passes the Apprentices(Amendment) Bill.

A New Delhi trial Court awardslifer to Sher Singh Rana in the Phoo-lan Devi murder case.

Aug. 15: Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi announces the setting upof a new institution to replace the

Family members and relatives of nurses evacuated from Iraqwelcoming them at the Kochi International Airport, atNedumbassery.

President Pranab Mukherjeepresenting the Gandhi PeacePrize 2013 to Chipko founderChandi Prasad Bhatt.

June 28: At least 61 personsare killed after the collapse ofa under construction multi-storey building in Moulivak-kam near Porur, Chennai fol-lowing heavy showers.

6 THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015

Planning Commission and calls up-on global investors to make in Indiain his address to the nation on the68th Independence Day in NewDelhi.

Aug. 16: Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi commissions the largest-ever indigenous worship INS Kolka-ta into the Navy in Mumbai.

Aug. 21: The Kerala governmentdecides to shut down 730 bars belowthe ve star category.

Human rights activist Irom Shar-mila released two days earlier after14 years of imprisonment is rearrest-ed by Manipur Police.

Aug. 24: Maharashtra GovernorK. Sankaranarayanan quits after be-ing shifted to Mizoram abruptly.

Aug. 25: The Supreme Court de-clares all 218 coal block allocationsmade from 1993 to 2011 illegal andarbitrary.

Aug. 26: Kalyan Singh, VajubhaiRudabhai Vala, Ch. Vidyasagar Raoand Mridula Sinha are appointedGovernors of Rajasthan, Karnataka,Maharashtra and Goa respectively.

Aug. 27: Chargesheeted personsshould not be made Ministers, saysthe Supreme Court in a ruling thatseeks to decriminalise politics.

Aug. 28: The Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi opens a record 1.5 crorebank accounts across the nation tomark the launch of the PradhanMantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

Vinod Kumar Duggal resigns asManipur Governor.

Aug. 30: BJP leader Ch. Vidyasa-gar Rao is sworn in as MaharashtraGovernor.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 1: Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala issworn in Karnataka Governor.

Sept. 3: Sensex closes at an alltime high of 27139.94.

Sept. 5: India and Australia sign acivil nuclear cooperation agreementin New Delhi.

The former CJI P. Sathasivam issworn in the 23rd Governor ofKerala.

An Armed Forces Tribunal Benchquashes the courtmartial of Lt. Gen.P.K. Rath, former 33 Corps Com-mander, in the 2008 Sukna landscam.

Sept. 6: The toll in the JammuKashmir rains touches 160. Over

2,600 villages affected in the worstoods in six decades.

The fth unit at Rawatbhatta ofthe Rajasthan Atomic Power Stationrecords a continuous run of 765 daysat its full capacity of 220 MWe.

Sept. 7: The J & K oods a na-tional-level disaster, says the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi after an ae-rial survey. An additional allocationof Rs. 1,000 crore announced besidesthe Rs. 1,100 crore made available tothe State Government.

Sept. 8: Naval Commandos join inthe J & K rescue efforts, even as thetoll in the worst oods in 109 yearstouches 200.

The Supreme Court stays the exe-cution of Surinder Kohli for killingchildren at his employers house inNithari Village in Noida in 2006.

Sept. 9: The Bombay High Courtupholds the death sentence awardedto Santosh Mane, a former StateTransport driver who went on a ram-page after hijacking an empty bus inPune on January 25, 2012 leavingnine dead and 36 injured.

Sept. 10: Arun Selvarajan, a SriLankan national is arrested by theNational Investigation Agency inChennai in an espionage case regis-tered in 2013.

Sept. 11: The Supreme Courtstops the Kerala government fromimplementing its new liquor policy.

Sept. 12: The Jammu and Kash-mir government announces an aidpackage of Rs. 200 crore for theood-hit.

Maharashtra, Haryana Assemblypolls to be held on October 15.

The Delhi High Court sets asidethe July 13 order of the poll panelagainst former Maharashtra ChiefMinister Ashok Chavan in an ex-penses case during the 2009 As-sembly election.

Sept. 13: Average turnout in by-elections to three Lok Sabha seatsand 33 Assembly segments acrossnine States.

Sept. 16: The BJP suffers a set-back in by-polls. Loses 13 of the 33seats it held in U.P., Gujarat andRajasthan.

Sept. 17: India and China sign twoagreements and an MoU as Presi-dent Xi Jinping begins his three-dayvisit.

Rajasthan becomes the rst Stateto ratify the National Judicial Ap-pointments Commission Bill, 2014.

Goa is formally made the perma-nent venue for the IFFI.

The BJPs national executivemember Lalitha Kumaramangalamis appointed National Commissionfor Women chairperson.

Sept. 18: India and China sign 13agreements in New Delhi. ChinesePresident Xi Jinping announces anew route through Nathula Pass inSikkim for pilgrims to Kailash-Man-sarovar in the Tibetan AutonomousRegion.

Sensex soars 481 points to close at27112.21, its best daily gain sinceMay 12, fuelled by foreign funds.

The Tamil Nadu Government is-sues an order bringing all schoolswithin the purview of the Tamil Na-du Tamil Learning Act, 2006.

Sept. 19: Thirteen persons areconvicted by a district court for thegangrape of a woman on January 20,2014 at the behest of a kangaroocourt at Labhpur in West BengalsBirbhum district.

Sept. 23: The toll in ash oods inAssam and the Garo hills districts inMeghalaya goes up to 46.

A youth is mauled to death by awhite tiger in Delhis National Zo-ological Park after he jumps into itsenclosure.

Sept. 24: ISROs Mars OrbiterMangalyaan enters the Red Planetsorbit. Beams back 10 pictures of thesurface which show some craters.

The Supreme Court cancels all butfour of the 218 coal block allocationsdeclared arbitrary and illegal by it.

The Union Cabinet decides towithdraw the Higher Education andResearch Bill, 2011.

Sept. 25: FDI should be under-stood as First Develop India alongwith Foreign Direct Investment,says the Prime Minister NarendraModi launching the Make In Indiacampaign at a high-prole event inNew Delhi.

In Maharashtra, the BJP pulls outof its 25-year-old alliance with theShiv Sena. The NCP ends its 15-year

partnership with the Congress.The Supreme Court declares as

unconstitutional the National TaxTribunal Act as it took away the pow-ers of the High Courts.

Sept. 26: The Maharashtra ChiefMinister Prithiviraj Chavan resigns,a day after the NCP withdraws sup-port to the government.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jaya-lalithaa announces the launch ofAmma Cement.

Sept. 27: Tamil Nadu Chief Min-ister Jayalalithaa is jailed for fouryears and ned Rs.100 crore by aSpecial Court in Bangalore after be-ing found guilty in the Rs.66.65-crore disproportionate assets case.Loses post and stands disqualied asMLA. Co-accused Sasikala, Sudhak-aran, Elavarasi too get four-yearterms.

Justice R.M. Lodha retires as theCJI.

Sept. 28: Justice HandyalaLakshminarayanaswamy Dattu issworn in as the 42nd Chief Justice ofIndia, in New Delhi.

Sept. 29: O.Panneerselvam issworn in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.A new Council of Ministersinducted.

Sept. 30: Thirteen persons arekilled and 47 injured following thecollision between the Krishak Ex-press and the Lucknow-Barauni Ex-press at the Nandnagar railwaycrossing in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pra-desh.

OCTOBER

Oct. 1: Malayalam poet and socialactivist Sugathakumari is chosen forthe Mathrubhumi Literary Awardfor 2014.

Oct. 2: The Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi launches the SwachhBharat Mission in New Delhi.

Oct. 7: The Karnataka High Courtrefuses to release on bail theAIADMK general secretary Jayala-lithaa and rejects her plea to suspendthe four-year prison term in the dis-proportionate assets case.

Oct. 9: The AIADMK general sec-retary Jayalalithaa moves the Su-preme Court challenging theKarnataka High Court order refus-ing her bail.

Oct. 10: The Bombay High Courtrules in favour of Vodafone in the Rs.3,200-crore transfer pricing case re-lating to undervaluation of sharecapital issued by the rm to itsMauritius parent.

Oct. 12: Cyclone Hudhud causesextensive devastation as it makeslandfall at Visakhapatnam. Six killedin Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

Oct. 14: Prime Minister NarendraModi announces a Rs. 1,000-croreinterim relief for all areas affected inAndhra Pradesh after an aerial sur-vey of the devastation.

Oct. 15: Haryana records its high-est ever turnout of 73 per cent inAssembly polls marred by violence.Maharashtra registers 63.4 per centvoting.

Oct. 16: The Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi launches ve schemes,including Shram Suvidha portal andthe Universal Account Number forall PF contributors, in New Delhi.

ISRO launches the 1,425 kg IndianRegional Navigation Satellite Sys-tem IRNSS-1C.

Oct. 17: The Supreme Court sus-pends the four-year jail sentence offormer Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterJayalalithaa and grants her bail. Theother three accused too get bail.

Indias rst indigenously designedand developed long-range subsoniccruise missile, Nirbhay is successful-ly ight-tested in Balasore, Odisha.

The Centre gives nod for Karnata-

School children celebrating the success of the Mars mission bycreating a replica of the planet using sweets in Ahmedabad.

Nirbhay missile being flighttested from the Integrated TestRange (ITR), Balasore, Odisha.

Aug. 22: The Hindu launchesFriends of Chennai an onlineplatform (www.friendsof-chennai.com) as a gift to Ma-dras that is now Chennai onher 375th birthday.

7THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015

kas proposal to rename 12 cities andtowns, including Bangalore.

Oct. 19: The BJP bags 122 of 288seats, in Maharashtra Assemblypolls. In Haryana, the BJP gets aclear majority with 47 seats in the90-member House.

Oct. 20: Government to e-auctioncoal mines.

Oct. 25: The EC announces ve-phase polls in J & K and Jharkhand.

Oct. 26: Manohar Lal Khattar issworn in Haryanas 10th Chief Minis-ter heading the rst-ever BJP gov-ernment in the state.

Oct. 28: The Supreme Court dis-misses Nithari serial killer SurinderKohlis plea for review of death sen-tence.

Oct. 30: Violence in Rameswa-ram, Tamil Nadu following news ofthe Colombo High Court verdictsentencing to death ve shermen.

The Kerala High Court upholdsthe governments liquor policy , butallows bars in four-star and heritagehotels.

The new capital of Andhra Pra-desh to come up in Guntur district.

Oct. 31: Devendra Fadnavis, issworn in Maharashtra Chief Minis-ter, heading the rst BJP govern-ment, in Mumbai.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 3: The former Union Ship-ping Minister G.K. Vasan quits theCongress and oats new party.

Nov. 4: The President PranabMukherjee dissolves the Delhi As-sembly, in suspended animationsince mid-February.

Nov. 5: Sensex crosses the histor-ical 28000-mark for the rst time.

Nov. 8: Three-time BJP MLALaxmikant Parsekar is sworn in asthe 11th Chief Minister of Goa.

Nov. 9: Manohar Parrikar issworn in Defence Minister and Sure-sh Prabhu gets Railway portfolio inthe Union Cabinet expansion.

Nov. 10: President Pranab Muk-herjee confers the 49th Jnanpithaward upon Hindi poet KedarnathSingh, in New Delhi.

Nov. 11: Eleven women die afterundergoing faulty sterilisationsurgeries at a family planning campin Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh.

Nov. 13: The Army sentences veof its personnel to lifer for the stagedencounter killing of three Kashimiricivilians on April 30, 2010 in the

Macchil area of Kupwara district.Nov. 14: The Bombay High Court

puts on hold the 16 per cent quota forMarathas in government jobs andeducation.

Nov. 17: Former BCCI presidentN. Srinivasan not guilty of match-xing or scuttling probe, says theJustice Mukul Mudgal panel. Guru-nath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra arefound guilty.

Nov. 18: The Nanavati Commis-sion of Enquiry probing the 2002post-Godhra riots submits nal re-port to Gujarat Chief Minister Anan-diben Patel.

Nov. 19: The fugitive godmanRampal is arrested from his Satlokashram in Barwala, Hisar in Haryanaafter a violent standoff which leavessix dead.

ISRO is chosen for the IndiraGandhi Prize for Peace, Disarma-ment and Development for 2014.

Nov. 20: The Centenary Awardfor Indian Film Personality of theYear is conferred on actor Rajini-kanth at the inaugural of the 45th

IFFI in Goa capital Panaji.Centre gives in-principle nod

for the Chennai Monorail ProjectPhase-1.

The level in the Mullaperiyar damtouches 142 feet after three-and-a-half decades.

In an all stock amalgamation, INGVysya Bank decides to merge withKotak Mahindra Bank.

Nov.21: The dismantling of the16,000-tonne ship, INS Vikrant, thecountrys rst aircraft carrier beginsat a ship breaking yard in SouthMumbai.

Nov.25: Jammu & Kashmir re-cords 71.28 per cent polling in therst phase of the Assembly electionand Jharkhand 61.92 per cent in 13assembly seats.

The Rajya Sabha passes labour re-forms Bill by voice vote.

Seven naval officers are found

guilty in the case of a re on boardsubmarine INS Sindhuratna inFebruary.

The former CJI M.N.Venkatacha-liah presents the rst N.Ramachan-dran Foundation Award to Kasturi &Sons Ltd. Chairman N. Ram inThiruvananthapuram.

Nov.26: Massive culling oper-ation in Keralas Kottayam, Alap-puzha and Pathanamthitta districtsto check spread of bird u.

The Rajya Sabha passes The Ap-prentices (Amendment) Bill .

Nov. 28: The former Union Min-ister G.K. Vasan relaunches the Ta-mil Maanila Congress in Tiruchi.

Parliament clears bill to amend la-bour laws after LS nod for the draftlegislation.

Nov. 29: The Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi ags off the rst pas-senger train from Meghalaya toGuwahati, Assam at a function at theRailway Stadium, Maligaon.

Nov. 30: The Russian lm Levia-than by Andrey Zvyagintsev bags theGolden Peacock for the best lm atthe 45th IFFI closing ceremony inPanaji, Goa.

DECEMBER

Dec. 1: Fourteen CRPF personnelare killed by Maoists after an am-bush near Kasalpara village inChhattisgarhs Sukma district.

Dec. 2: Seventyone per cent poll-ing in Phase II of Assembly polls in J& K. It is 65 per cent in Jharkhand.

The Supreme Court sets up a So-cial Justice Bench to monitor socialissues.

Dec. 4: The SP, JD (U), RJD, Ja-nata Dal (Secular), INLD and Samaj-wadi Janata Party agree in principleto merge.

Sixty people lose their eyesight af-ter botched cataract surgeries at acamp at Ghuman village in PunjabsGurdaspur district between Oct. 31

and November 4.Dec. 5: Twentyone persons are

killed in four separate militant at-tacks in the Kashmir valley.

The Shiv Sena joins the DevendraFadnavis Cabinet in Maharashtra.

A 27-year-old woman MNC exec-utive is raped by a cab driver in NewDelhis Inderlok area.

Dec. 7: Over 30,000 people cometogether in Chennai to create theworlds largest human formation of anational ag, a Guinness WorldRecord.

Dec. 8: Andhra Pradesh and Sin-gapore sign MoU to build capitalcity.

The MDMK quits the NDA.An economic offences court in

Hyderabad sentences to six monthjail term B. Ramalinga Raju andthree others in the rst ruling in theRs. 14,000-crore Satyam Computeraccounting scandal.

Dec. 9: Jharkhand records 61 percent voting and J & K 59 per cent inthird phase of Assembly polls.

Dec. 10: The Union Cabinet givesnod for raising from 26 per cent to 49per cent the FDI cap in the insurancesector.

The Government announces deci-sion to decriminalise attempt tosuicide.

Dec. 11: Russia accepts Indias of-fer to make light-utility helicoptersjointly. Seven pacts signed after Mo-di-Putin talks in New Delhi.

Dec. 12: The Lok Sabha passesThe Coal Mines (Special Provisions)Bill, 2014.

Dec. 13: Bangalore City Police ar-rest Mehdi Masroor Biswas, for wag-ing war against friendly state.

Dec. 14: J&K records 49 per centvoting and Jharkhand 61.65 per centin phase IV of Assembly polls.

Dec. 15: T.V. Gopalakrishnan ispresented the Sangita KalanidhiM.S. Subbulakshmi Award by the IS-

RO chairman K. Radhakrishnan inChennai.

Dec. 16: India bans the IS terrorgroup.

Sensex plummets by 538.12 pointsto close at 26,781.44.

Dec. 18: The Supreme Court ex-tends till April 18, 2015 the bail forformer Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterJayalalithaa.

The GSLV Mark III rocket islaunched from Sriharikota.

Lifer for four Anand Margis in theL.N. Mishra murder case.

Dec. 19: The Union Finance Min-ister, Arun Jaitley introduces TheConstitution (122nd Amendment)Bill in the Lok Sabha.

Tamil writer Poomani is chosenfor the Sahitya Akademi award for2014 for his novel Angnaadi.

Dec. 20: The External AffairsMinistry relieves diplomat DevyaniKhobragade of her post for failing toinform authorities about her chil-drens U.S. passports.

J&K registers 65 per cent turnoutin the fth phase of Assembly polls.Jharkhand records 66 per cent.

Dec. 21: The SASTRA-Ramanu-jam Award 2014 is conferred on Pro-fessor James Maynard of OxfordUniversity, in Kumbakonam.

Dec. 23: At least 75 persons arekilled by militants in Assams Kok-rajhar and Sonitpur districts.

The BJP gets absolute majority inJharkhand. Hung Assembly in J&K.

Dec. 24: The Centre confers Bha-rat Ratna on Atal Bihari Vajpayeeand Madanmohan Malaviya.

Ordinance route for coal blockse-auction and FDI cap hike in insur-ance sector.

Dec. 26: Union Cabinet nod forNeutrino observatory in Theni, Ta-mil Nadu.

Dec. 28: Raghuvar Das is sworn inJharkhand Chief Minister.

A Chennai woman is killed andthree injured in a blast in Bengaluru.

Dec. 29: Union Cabinet nod forordinance to amend Land Act.

Dec. 30: A special CBI court dis-charges BJP president Amit Shahfrom the November 2005 Sohrabud-din Sheikh fake encounter case.

The A.P. Capital Region Develop-ment Authority Act, 2014 comes intoforce.

Dec. 31: Presidential nod for set-ting up NJAC.

The ISRO chairman K. Radhak-rishnan retires.

A Pakistani shing boat is setablaze by its crew after being inter-cepted by the Coast Guard off Por-bandar, Gujarat.

Adivasis moving to a safe place after the killings, in Tenganalavillage in Sonitpur district of Assam.

Maharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis.

BJPs Pritam Munde creates arecord by winning the BeedLok Sabha bypoll by 6,92,245votes.

8 THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015

JANUARY

Jan. 1: Jamal al-Jamal, the Pal-estinian Ambassador in Czech Re-public is killed in an explosion at hishome in Prague.

Latvia joins the Eurozone.The Affordable Care Act, the U.S.

President Barack Obamas landmarkhealthcare reform policy takeseffect.

Jan. 6: Aitizaz Hussain, a teenag-er who tried to stop a suicide bomberfrom entering his school in Pakis-tans Hangu district is killed after theattacker blows himself up.

The Awami League led by PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina wins an ab-solute majority in parliamentarypolls.

Janet Yellen is conrmed as thechairwoman of the U.S. Federal Re-serve by the Senate.

Jan. 7: Temperature dips well be-low zero in Chicago as dangerouslycold polar air snaps decades-old re-cords as it spreads from the Midwestto Southern and Eastern parts of theU.S.

Jan. 10: Aitizaz Hussain, theyoung braveheart from Hangu,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province inPakistan is conferred the civilianhonour Sitara-e-Shujaat.

Jan. 12: A 49-member Cabinetled by Bangladesh Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina is sworn in in Dhaka.

American Hustle, the stylishcrime caper bags best musical/com-edy lm and two acting awards at the71st annual Golden Globes in Los An-geles. Historical drama lm 12 yearsa Slave bags the coveted best dramaprize. Woody Allen receives the Ce-cil B. DeMille award for lifetimeachievement at the Globes.

Jan. 13: Thai opposition protes-ters seeking resignation of PrimeMinister Yingluck Shinawatra occu-py major streets in Bankgkok .

Jan. 15: Egyptians cast ballotswrapping up a two-day key referen-dum on a new Constitution as a pre-cursor to presidential polls.

Jan. 16: China detains IlhamTohti, a prominent Uighur econo-mist and scholar.

Jan. 18: The Hindu In School e-paper version is launched at TheHindu India Education Fair, Dubai.

Jan. 19: Twenty security person-nel are killed and 30 others injuredin a bomb attack on a convoy in Ban-nu Cantonment in Pakistans Khyb-er Pakhtunkhwa province.

Jan. 20: Thirteen persons in-cluding eight security forces person-nel are killed and 29 injured in asuicide bombing near the GeneralHeadquarters of the Pakistan mil-itary in Rawalpindi.

The comet-chasing probe Rosettais operational after a 31-month hi-bernation, says the European SpaceAgency.

Iran halts production of 20 percent enriched uranium at Natanzand Fordo sites marking the entryinto force of an interim deal on itsnuclear programme.

Jan. 23: South Sudans govern-ment and rebels sign a ceasereagreement at the Ethiopian capitalAddis Ababa.

Jan. 26: . Karl Slym, the manag-ing director of Tata Motors dies inBangkok after falling from a highoor of a hotel.

Daft Punk, a French duo who havebecome elder statesmen of electron-ic dance music wins four prizes, in-cluding album of the year forRandom Access Memories duringthe 56th Grammy Awards at the Sta-ples Center in Los Angeles.

Jan. 28: Ukraines Prime Minis-ter Mykola Azarov resigns.

Egypts deposed President Mo-hamed Morsy stands trial inside thepolice academy in Cairo.

Jan. 29: Tunisias new techno-cratic government headed by PrimeMinister Mehdi Jomaa is sworn inafter a marathon overnight parlia-mentary session.

Jan. 30: A Special court in Chit-

tagong, Bangladesh, hands the deathpenalty to the ULFA (Independent)chief Paresh Barua and 13 others forsmuggling 10 truck loads of arms in-to the nation in 2004.

Amanda Knox, an American stu-dent is awarded 28 years and herboyfriend Raffaele Sollecito 25 yearsby a court of appeal in Florence afterreconvicting them for the November1, 2007 murder of Meredith Kercherin Perugia.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga, a casta-way who spent 13 months adrift inthe Pacic lands at an atoll in theMarshall Islands.

Jan. 31: Ukraines President Vik-tor Yanukovych signs into law repealof anti-protest legislation and anamnesty bill.

FEBRUARY

Feb.1 : Fourteen persons, includ-ing four schoolchildren are killed af-ter being engulfed in scorching ashclouds spat by Indonesias Mount Si-nabung at Sigarang-Garang in Karodistrict, North Sumatra province.

Feb. 2: Academy-winning actorPhilip Seymour Hoffman (46) isfound dead of an apparent heroinover-dose in his apartment in NewYork City.

Opposition protesters preventvoting at thousands of polling sta-tions in Thailand during the generalelections.

Feb. 3: Janet Yellen is sworn inthe rst woman president of the U.S.Federal Reserve in Washington.

Microsoft appoints Hyderabadnative Satya Nadella as its new CEO.

Feb. 7: Eightythree children,women and elderly people who sur-

vived more than 600 days of armysiege are evacuated from Homs, Sy-ria, in a U.N.-supervised operation.

Feb. 10: Sushil Koirala, presidentof the Nepali Congress assumes of-ce as Nepal Prime Minister.

Feb. 11: Officials from China andTaiwan hold their rst official-leveltalks since the end of the ChineseCivil War in 1949, in Nanjing.

Feb. 12: A snowmageddon kills12 persons in the U.S. and knocks outpower supply to 800,000 homes andbusinesses, mainly in Georgia andNorth and South Carolina.

Feb. 13: Belgiums Parliament le-galises euthanasia for children.

Feb. 14: Italian Prime MinisterEnrico Letta resigns after just 10months, heading a fragile coalition.

Feb. 15: Lebanon announces theformation of a 24-member Govern-ment under Prime Minister Tam-mam Salam after a 10-monthpolitical vacuum.

Syria peace talks in Geneva breakoff with no progress made.

The Chinese lm Bai Ri Yan Huo(Black Coal, Thin Ice) bags the Gold-en Bear for best picture at the 64th

Berlin International Film Festival.Wes Andersons Grand BudapestHotel takes home the Silver Beargrand jury prize.

Feb. 16: All 18 passengers onboard a Nepal Airlines ight arekilled after a crash shortly after take-off from the tourist town of Pokhara.

Feb. 19: Twentysix persons arekilled and 750 injured in two days ofviolence in the Ukrainian capitalKiev.

French industrialist and SenatorSerge Dassault is taken into custody

for alleged vote buying which inu-enced the outcome of three mayoralpolls in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Feb. 20: Ukraine violence toll upto 94 and injured number 900 asbloody clashes erupt again in Kiev.

Feb. 21: Ukrainian President Vik-tor Yanukovych and opposition re-ach deal. Legislators vote to revert tothe 2004 Constitution.

Feb. 22: Ukraines Parliamentvotes to remove President Viktor Ya-nukovych from power. FormerPrime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko isfreed from prison.

Matteo Renzi is sworn in ItalysPrime Minister heading the young-est government in the nationshistory.

Feb. 24: Ugandan President Yow-eri Musaveni signs into law a contro-versial bill that will see homosexualsjailed for life.

The Egyptian Prime Minister Ha-zem al-Beblawi submits resignationto interim President Adly Mansour.

Feb. 25: Outgoing Housing Min-ister Ibrahim Mahlab is appointedEgyptian Prime Minister.

Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, once theworlds biggest bitcoin exchangegoes offline.

Feb. 26: Michael Adebolajo gets alife term and Michael Adebowle issentenced to 45 years in jail for theMay 2013 killing of British soldierLee Rigby on a London street.

More than 170 Islamist rebelghters are killed in a Syrian armyambush near Damascus.

Feb. 27: Ukraines ousted Presi-dent Victor Yanukovych ees nationand seeks refuge in Russia amid agrowing revolt in Crimea. Parlia-ment votes in a new government.Arseniy Yatsenyuk is appointedPrime Minister.

Feb. 28: Thierry Atangana, aFrenhman kept in solitary conne-ment in Cameroon for 17 years fol-lowing a controversialembezzlement conviction arrives inParis after a presidential pardon onFebruary 18.

MARCH

March 1: Thirtynine persons arekilled and 109 injured in knife at-tacks at Kunming railway station, inChinas south-western Yunnanprovince. Four attackers shot deadby police.

March 2: Harrowing historicaldrama, directed by a black lm-mak-er Briton Steve Mcqueen 12 Years aSlave wins the best picture Oscar atthe 86th Academy Awards ceremonyin California. Matthew McConaugh-ey wins the best actor for role in

INTERNATIONAL

(L-R): Best actor Matthew McConaughey, best actress CateBlanchett, best supporting actress Lupita Nyong'o, and bestsupporting actor Jared Leto posing with their Oscar Awards.

Civilians walking towards ameeting point to be evacuatedfrom a besieged area of Homs,Syria.

Jan. 2: All 52 passengers of aRussian ship MV AkademikShokalskiy are rescued by aChinese icebreaker Xue Longafter remaining trapped in theice off Antarctica for over aweek.

9THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015 ND-N

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true-life AIDS activist-drama DallasBuyers Club. Australias Cate Blan-chett bags best actress award forWoody Allens Blue Jasmine. 3Dspace thriller Gravity becomes thetop winner with seven Oscars.

A septuagenarian who was ttedwith the French bio-medical rmCarmats rst articial heart on De-cember 18, 2013 dies at a hospital inParis.

March 3: Ten persons, includingthree lawyers are killed in a suicideattack and ring in the district andsessions court complex in Pakistanscapital Islamabad. Additional ses-sions judge Rafakat Awan is acciden-tally shot dead by his security guard.

March 9: Japanese rm Mt. Gox,once the worlds largest bitcoin ex-change, les for U.S. bankruptcy inDallas.

March 11: The Parliament in pro-Russian Crimea declares independ-ence from Ukraine.

China allows, for rst time, thesetting up of ve private banks on atrial basis.

Crimean Peninsula proclaims in-dependence from Ukraine.

E-fan, the worlds rst electricaircraft developed by Airbus takesoff from an airport near Bordeaux inFrance.

March 12: A U.S. judge throwsout the visa fraud case against Indiandiplomat Devyani Khobragade rul-ing that she had full diplomatic im-munity.

March 13: Czech priest and in-tellectual Tomas Halik wins thepound 1.1 million 2014 Templetonprize.

March 14: U.S. Federal prosecu-tors re-indict Indian diplomat De-vyani Khobragade on visa fraudcharges, after a grand jury returns atrue bill on the two-count criminalindictment.

In a landmark ruling, a Frenchcourt sentences Pascal Simbikang-wa, a former Rwandan captain to 25years in jail over the 1994 genocide.

March 16: The people of Crimeagive a resounding yes to splittingfrom Ukraine and rejoining Russiain a referendum.

March 17: Crimeas parliamentadopts a declaration ofindependence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

signs a decree formally recognisingCrimea as an independent state inthe Kremlin.

March 18: Italys Supreme Courtupholds a two-year ban from publicoffice against the former Prime Min-ister Silvio Berlusconi as part of a taxfraud conviction.

March 20: Russias Parliamentoverwhelmingly raties the treatyon reunication of Crimea.

March 21: Thailands Constitu-tional Court declares invalid generalelections held in February.

Russias President Vladimir Putinsigns into law Crimeas absorptioninto the nation, shortly after Parlia-ments upper house raties acces-sion treaty.

The EU welcomes Ukraine intothe Western fold, signing the politi-cal provisions of a landmark accordin Brussels.

Parliamentary polls open in theMaldives.

March 23: Adolfo Suarez (81),Spains rst Prime Minister after thedeath of General Francisco Francoin 1975 dies at a Madrid Hospital.

Maldives President Abdulla Ya-meens Progressive Party of Mal-dives attains majority with the helpof its coalition partners.

March 24: The missing Malay-sian Airlines Flight MH370, Boeing777 aircraft has gone down in theremote waters of the southern Indi-an Ocean killing all on board, saysMalaysian Prime Minister NajibRazak.

The U.S. and its allies suspendRussia from the Group of Eight onthe sidelines of a nuclear securitysummit at The Hague.

Shigeru Ban, Japanese architectknown for his creative and inexpen-sive designs for disaster relief shel-ters wins the 2014 PritzkerArchitecture Prize.

March 25: The U.S. Court of Ap-peals for the Second Circuit upholdsthe 2012 guilty verdict against RajatGupta, former Goldman Sachs Di-rector and McKinsey ManagingPartner on insider trading charges.

March 26: Russian mathemati-cian Yakov Grigorevich Sinai is cho-sen fro the 2014 Abel Prize.

March 27: The U.N. HumanRights Council launches a probe intoalleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. In-dia abstains from voting on a resolu-tion against the island nation.

March 28: Former NorwegianPrime Minister Jens Stoltenberg isnamed the next NATOSecretary-General.

March 29: The historic law onsame-sex marriage passed by the

British Parliament in 2013 takes ef-fect in England and Wales.

March 31: Former Pakistan Pres-ident Gen. (Retd) Pervez Musharrafis indicted for high treason by a spe-cial court for imposing emergencyon November 3, 2007 at Rawalpindias Chief of the Army Staff.

APRIL

April 1: Manuel Valls takes overas Frances Prime Minister.

April 2: NATO suspends bilateralcooperation with Russia.

Australias High Court in a land-mark ruling recognises the existenceof a third non-specic gender thatis neither male nor female.

Eighteen countries ratify a land-mark treaty at the U.N. regulatingthe multibillion dollar global armstrade.

April 4: Anja Niedringhaus (48), aGerman photographer working forAssociated Press is shot dead andKathy Gannon, a Canadian colleaguewounded in an attack in the Tanaidistrict of Khost province inAfghanistan.

April 5: Afghans cast ballots tochoose a successor to President Ha-mid Karzai in the countrys rstdemocratic transfer of power.

April 7: Peaches Geldof (25),daughter of Band Aid founder andmusician Bob Geldof and a mediaand fashion personality is founddead at her home in Kent, southernEngland.

Hungarys Prime Minister ViktorOrban wins parliamentary polls.

April 12: At least 13 persons arekilled and more than 10,000 evac-uated after a huge re rips throughChiles historic port city of Valparai-so, ravaging 2,000 acres.

April 13: The Hunger Games:

Catching Fire bags the prize for bestlm at the 22nd Annual MTV MovieAwards.

April 14: Indian-born poet VijaySeshadri wins the 2014 PulitzerPrize for poetry for his collection ofpoems 3 Sections.

Nigerian extremist outt BokoHaram abducts 276 teenage girlsfrom a government school in Chiboktown in the remote northeast of thecountry.

April 15: Ukraine launches offen-sive to crush anti-government pro-tests.

April 16: At least 300 people aredrowned after the 6,825-tonne ferry,Sewol capsizes, with 475 on board,mostly high school students boundfor Jindo a holiday island in SouthKorea.

April 17: Russia, the U.S., the E.U.and Ukraine agree on a plan to re-solve the Kiev crisis after eight-hourtalks in Geneva.

Algerians cast ballots in presiden-tial polls.

April 18: At least 13 Sherpas andmountaineering persons are killedafter an avalanche sweeps down aclimbing route on Mount Everest.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bou-teika wins a fourth term.

April 21: Win Tin (84), one of thefounders of Myanmars pro-democ-racy opposition and the nationslongest-serving political prisoner,dies at a hospital in Yangon.

April 23: The PLO and the GazaStrips Islamist Hamas rulers sign areconciliation agreement.

April 24: Israel halts peace talkswith the Palestinians.

BJP leader Narendra Modi, AAPleader Arvind Kejriwal and authorArundhati Roy, NSA whistleblowerEdward Snowden, education activistMalala Yousafzai are among Worlds100 most inuential people listed inTIME magazines 11th annualcollection.

April 25: Finnish telecom majorNokia completes the $ 7.8 billiondeal to sell its mobile handset busi-ness to Microsoft.

April 26: Farhan Akhtar starrerBhaag Milkha Bhaag bags ve majorhonours, including best actor, bestdirector Rakeysh Omprakash Mehraand best picture at the IIFA Awards,in Tampa, Florida. Deepa Padukonegets best female actor award forChennai Express.

April 27: Pope Francis proclaimshis predecessors John XXIII andJohn Paul II saints in front of half amillion pilgrims in the Vatican.

April 28: An Egyptian court sen-tences to death 683 backers of theMuslim Brotherhood, including Su-preme Guide Mohamed Badie.

April 29: At least 60 persons arekilled in violence in Syrias Damas-cus and Homs.

April 30: Iraqis cast ballots in therst general election since U.S.troops withdrew.

MAY

May 2: At least 500 people areburied alive following landslips inAab Bareek village in AfghanistansBadakshan province.

May 4: Libyas Parliament swearsin Ahmed Matiq Prime Minister de-spite a disputed vote.

May 5: Nigerias Boko Harammassacres 375 people in Gamburotown, close to the border withCameroon.

May 7: Thailands ConstitutionalCourt dismisses caretaker PrimeMinister Yingluck Shinawatra andnine Ministers for abuse of power.South Africans cast ballots in land-mark general election.

The evacuation of rebel-held partsof Syrias Homs begins after an un-precedented deal with thegovernment.

Relatives of a passenger aboard the sunken ferry Sewol weep asthey await news on the rescue operation, at a port in South Korea.

Vijay Seshadri

March 8: A Beijing-boundMalaysian Airlines ight with239 people, including ve In-dians on board disappearsover the South China Sea offthe coast of Vietnam.

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The Chinese e-commerce jugger-naut Alibaba les initial public of-fering in the U.S.

Pakistan human rights activistand lawyer Rashid Rehman is shotdead in his office in Multan.

May 12: Ukraines Russian-speaking eastern regions declare in-dependence from Kiev following anoverwhelming vote for sovereigntyin a referendum.

Major General Kristin Lund isnamed the rst-ever woman to serveas the head of a U.N. PeacekeepingOperation by the Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon.

May 13: At least 300 persons arekilled in an explosion triggered by anelectrical fault at a coal mine in Somatown in Turkeys Manisa province.

May 14: The New York Timesres its erstwhile Executive EditorJill Abramson.

May 15: The U.S. President Ba-rack Obama inaugurates a hauntingGround Zero museum dedicated tothe Al-Qaeda attacks which killednearly 3000 people.

May 20: Japanese scientists un-veil a pint-sized roller-skating robotEMIEW2 with a sense of humour.

At least 130 persons are killed intwin car bombings at a crowded mar-ket in the central Nigerian city ofJos.

May 21: China and Russia sign alandmark gas deal ending more thandecade-long negotiations.

Akhil Rekulapelli, an Indian-American student wins the NationalGeographic Bee Championship in

the nal round held in Washington.May 22: The Thailand Army chief

General Prayut Chan-O-Cha seizespower in a military coup.

At least 39 persons are killed andclose to 100 injured in the biggestever terror attack on Chinese soil asexplosives-laden vehicles ploughthrough a market in Xinjiang capitalUrumqi.

Britain casts votes for EuropeanParliament.

May 23: The Indian consulate inHerat, Afghanistan comes under at-tack by Pakistan-basedLashkar-e-Taiba.

May 24: . Thailands military jun-ta disbands Senate. Conrms deten-tion of former Premier YingluckShinawatra.

Turkeys Nuri Bilge Ceylan winsthe Palme dOr at the 67th CannesFilm Festival for his Winter Sleep, aslow-burn domestic drama.

Two rebel Ukrainian regions Donetsk and Luhansk announceformation of Novorossiya or NewRussia, a new independent state.

May 25: Ukrainians cast ballotsin snap presidential polls.

May 26: Eurosceptic partiesmake it big in the European Parlia-ment polls.

Chocolate king Petro Poroshenkowins Ukrainian presidential polls.

Egyptians begin casting ballots inthree-day presidential polls.

May 29: The Presidents of Russia,Belarus and Kazakhstan sign theEurasian Economic Integrationagreement in the Kazakh capitalAstana.

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypts for-mer Army chief coasts to a landslidevictory after low voter turnout.

Space X unveils Dragon V2, asleek, white gum-drop shaped cap-sule that aims to carry up to sevenastronauts to the ISS and return toland anywhere on Earth.

Two Indian-Americans SriramJ. Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe scripthistory by becoming co-championsof the Scripps Spelling Bee.

May 31: A U.S. soldier Sgt. BoweBergdahl of 1st Battalion, 501st Para-chute Infantry Regiment is releasedby Taliban after ve years in captiv-ity in exchange for ve Guantanamodetainees.

JUNE

June 2: A historic Palestinianunity government comprising a 17-member Cabinet headed by PrimeMinister Rami Hamdallah is swornin in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Spanish King Juan Carlos (76) an-nounces his abdication in favour of

his son Prince Felipe, ending a 39-year reign.

June 5: Japanese mobile compa-ny Softbank launches Pepper, a ro-bot that can read emotions

June 7: Two days of ghting innorthern Iraq between securityforces and militants leaves 59 per-sons killed. In Ramadi, gunmen inl-trate Anbar University.

Petro Poroshenko is sworn in asUkraines fth post-SovietPresident.

June 8: Former army chief AbdelFatah al-Sisi is sworn in EgyptPresident.

June 9: Thirtyseven persons arekilled as Pakistan military ghts anall-night battle with Taliban gunmenwho besieged Karachi airport.

A Russian court jails two womenfor life for the October 7, 2006 mur-der of investigative journalist AnnaPolitkovskaya.

Syrias President Bashar al-Assadannounces an unprecedented pris-oner amnesty.

June 10: Jihadists seize Iraqssecond city of Mosul after launchingan all-out assault on the securityforces a day earlier.

Reuven Rivlin, a former Speakerof Israeli Parliament is electedPresident.

June 11: Militants belonging tothe Islamic State of Iraq and the Le-vant seize the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

June 14: Afghans cast votes inpresidential run-off marred by vio-

lence that leaves 50 dead.June 15: Frozen underworld is

discovered in Greenland and imagespublished in the journal NatureGeoscience.

Colombian centre-right presidentJuan Manuel Santos wins a secondterm.

June 16: A strong and prosperousIndia will be benecial for the coun-tries of the region, especially SAARCmembers, says Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi addressing a joint ses-sion of the Bhutan Parliament.

The U.N. General Assembly ap-proves the nomination of JordansPrince Zeid al-Hussein as the nexthuman rights chief.

Iraqi insurgents abduct 40 Indiannationals and hold them captive at acotton factory near Mosul.

June 18: Former Norwegian Pre-mier Gro Harlem Brundtland isnamed the rst recipient of the TangPrize, touted as Asias version of theNobels.

King Juan Carlos of Spain signsthe Act of Parliament ending his fourdecade reign.

June 20: Indian-born BookerPrize winning author Salman Rush-die is named the winner of Pen Pin-ter prize for 2014.

June 21: Albie Sachs, the SouthAfrican judge who rose to fame forhis role in the anti-apartheid strug-gle, is awarded the Tanga Prize forhis contribution to human rights andjustice.

An Egyptian court conrms deathsentences for more than 180 Isla-mists, including Muslim Brother-hood chief Mohamed Badie.

June 24: Rebekkah Brooks, a for-mer condante of Rupert Murdochis cleared of all charges over phone-hacking. Andy Coulson, former

News of the World editor is foundguilty.

Japanese scientists unveil Kodo-moroid, the worlds rst news read-ing android.

June 27: Ukraine signs landmarkdeal with the European Union inBrussels. Georgia and Moldova tooseal partnership pacts.

June 29: The Islamic State ofIraq and Syria announces the settingup of a Caliphate.

June 30: The bodies of threeJewish seminary students kid-napped on June 12 are found in theoccupied West Bank.

JULY

July 1: Google announces plan toshut down Orkut, the original socialnetwork on September 30. It was setup in 2004.

Japans Cabinet gives nod for col-lective self-defence in a highly con-troversial shift in the nationspacist stance.

July 2: The abduction and killingof a Palestinian youth in east Jerusa-lem sparks clashes.

The former French President Ni-kolas Sarkozy is charged with cor-ruption-related offences.

July 4: Fortysix Indian nurseswho had been under captivity arefreed by the Iraqi militants at Dubok,north of Mosul.

Andy Coulson, the former editorof Rupert Murdochs News of theWorld is jailed for 18 months for hisrole in the phone-hacking scandalthat led to the closure of the tabloidin July 2011.

July 5: An Egyptian court sen-tences Muslim Brotherhood leaderMohamed Badie and 36 other Isla-mists to lifer.

July 7: The U.N. PermanentCourt of Arbitration awards Dhaka19,467 sq.km. of 25,602 sq.km. seaarea of the Bay of Bengal bringing toan end the maritime dispute withIndia.

July 10: Over a million publicsector workers strike work in theU.K. against pay caps and job cuts.

July 14: The Church of EnglandGeneral Synod in York votes in fa-vour of allowing female bishops forthe rst time in its nearly 500-yearhistory.

July 15: The Fortaleza declara-tion adopted at the sixth BRICSSummit in Brazil announces forma-tion of the BRICS Bank of Shanghaito be named New Development Bankand a contingency reserve fund.

July 16: Syrias President Basharal-Assad is sworn in for a new seven-year term, in Damascus, following

Major General Kristin Lund of Norway with the United NationsSecretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Hitachi's humanoid robotEMIEW2 .

Scientists announce the dis-covery of Kepler-10C, a God-zilla among planets that is 17times the size of earth, at themeeting of the American As-tronomical Society in Boston.

11THE HINDU MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2015 ND-

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victory in the June 3 polls.Archie, the famous freckle-faced

comic book icon who rst appearedin 1941 dies while intervening in abid on Kevin Keller, Archie Comicsrst openly gay character.

July 17: All 298 people on boardan MH17 Malaysian jet are killed af-ter Ukrainian militants bring itdown using a Soviet-era missile, inGrabovo in Donetsk region. U.S.,E.U. slap fresh sanctions on Moscow.

Australia abolishes a divisive car-bon tax after years of vexed politicaldebate.

Bolivias Vice-President signs intolaw a bill that legalises child labourfrom age 10.

July 21: Seven Israeli soldiers arekilled taking the Israeli toll to 27.Israeli planes strike homes acrossGaza and the toll goes up to 550,besides 3,350 wounded.

July 22: Governor of Jakarta, Jo-ko Widodo nicknamed Jokowi is de-clared the winner of Indonesiaspresidential election.

Somali lawmaker and prominentsinger-songwriter Saado Ali War-same is shot dead in the capitalMogadishu.

July 24: Kurdish politician FuadMasum becomes the new IraqiPresident.

Ukraines Prime Minister ArseniyYatsenyuk resigns after the collapseof his European Choice coalitiongovernment.

All 118 people on board an Air Al-gerie plane are killed after it crashesin Mali shortly after take-off fromOuagadougou in Burkina Faso.

India blocks the Trade Facilita-tion Agreement at the WTO GeneralCouncil meeting in Geneva.

July 25: Fifty Syrian soldiers arekilled most of them being beheaded,after an ambush by jihadists fromthe Islamic State group in Raqaprovince.

The rst Turkish high-speed trainconnecting Asia and Europe is inau-gurated by Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan.

July 26: The India-Nepal JointCommission meets in Kathmanduafter 23 years.

The toll in Gaza clashes crosses1,000. Over 130 bodies are recoveredduring the 16-hour truce.

July 29: Prosecutors shelve pro-ceedings against Finmeccanica, theparent company of AugustaWes-tland for alleged kickbacks in the Rs.3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal.

July 30: Seventeen persons arekilled and 200 wounded in Israeli airstrike on a market in Shejaiya in Ga-za City. At least 16 persons are killedas tank shells slam into a U.N. schoolin the Jebaliya refugee camp.

Chinese journalist Hu Shuli andenvironmental lawyer Wanga Canfaalso from China among six winnersof the Ramon Magsaysay Award,2014.

A New York court rules in favourof the Union Carbide Corporation ina case brought by the victims of theDecember 3, 1984 Bhopal gasdisaster.

July 31: Sierra Leone, Guinea andLiberia agree to launch a $100 mil-lion response plan to tackle theworlds worst ever outbreak of theebola virus .

LUnita, the left-wing daily found-ed by Italian Marxist theoreticianAntonio Gramsci suspendspublication.

AUGUST

Aug. 1: Gaza truce collapses inhours and dozens killed in Israelishelling.

Ugandas constitutional courtoverturns a tough new anti-gay law.

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberiarevive a disease-ghting tactic notused in nearly a century: the cordonsanitaire to confront the Ebolaoutbreak.

Aug.2: A massive landslide inSindhupalchowk district in Nepalwipes out an entire village andblocks the Sunkoshi river.

Aug. 3: Prime Minister NarendraModi announces a $ 1-billion line ofcredit for Nepals infrastructure de-velopment.

At least 589 people are killed and1,800 injured after a 6.5 magnitudeearthquake strikes southern Chinas

Yunnan province.Jihadists storm Sinjar town in

Iraq sending tens of thousands ofcivilians eeing to the mountains toits north.

Aug. 5: Yoshiki Sasai, the co-au-thor of a now discredited research onstem-cell treatment is found dead atthe Riken institute where he workedin Kobe, Japan.

A 72-hour truce takes hold in Gazaas Israel withdraws troops after amonth of ghting with Hamas.

Aug. 6: Samsung and Apple de-cide to end all patent litigation out-side the U.S.

Aug. 7: Khmer Rouge leaders Nu-on Chea (88) and Khieu Samphan(83) are jailed for life after beingfound guilty of crimes againsthumanity.

Aug. 8: The U.S. launches target-ed airstrikes in Iraq. Food and waterairdropped in the mountainous re-gion of Sinjar to help 40,000 strand-ed Yazidis.

Aug. 9: Michael Brown, an un-armed African-American teenager iskilled by a white police officer inFerguson, Missouri.

Aug. 10: Turkish Prime MinisterRecep Tayyip Erdogan wins an out-right victory in the rst round ofpolls.

Aug. 11: Robin Williams (63), A-cademy Award winning king of com-edy dies at his California home and issuspected to have committed sui-cide.

Aug. 13: Canadian-AmericanManjul Bhargava among four win-ners of the Fields Medal announcedat the inaugural of the nine-day In-ternational Congress of Mathemat-icians in Seoul. Maryam Mirzakhanirst woman winner of the covetedprize.

Aug. 14: Iraqi Prime Minister,Nouri al-Maliki resigns paving the

way for a unity government. Britaindecides to arm Kurds.

Aug. 17: Salman Rushdie is pre-sented the Hans Christian AndersenLiterature Award, Denmarks mostimportant literature accolade, in thetown of Odense.

The toll in the Nepal oods trig-gered by torrential rain that causedmultiple landslides touches 97.

Aug. 19: Israel and Palestinianmilitants resume ring across theGaza border. The wife and infant sonof Hamas top military commanderMohammed Deif are killed in a mis-sile attack.

The Islamic State releases a videoshowing the beheading of James Fo-ley, a U.S. journalist in Syria who hasbeen missing since November 22,2012.

Aug. 21: Three senior Hamascommanders and four childrenamong 24 Palestinians killed in Ga-za.

Thailands Parliament choosescoup leader General Prayut Chan-O-Cha as Prime Minister.

Former Irish Prime Minister Al-bert Reynolds (81), a central gure inthe Northern Ireland peace processwho helped broker the 1994 IRA cea-sere dies.

Aug. 22: Malaysia observes a dayof mourning to sombrely welcomehome the rst remains of its 43 citi-zens killed in the MH17 disaster onJuly 17.

Aug. 24: Peter Theo Curtis, a U.S.journalist missing since 2012 is re-leased by kidnappers in Syria.

Abraham Borbor, a Liberian doc-tor treated with experimental Amer-ican anti-Ebola serum ZMapp dies.

Pop diva Miley Cyrus wins videoof the year for Wrecking Ball at theMTV Video Music Awards.

Aug. 25: Modern Family wins arecord-tying fth best comedy series

Emmy Award. Bryan Cranston ishonoured as best actor in a drama forBreaking Bad.

NASA probe New Horizons, pas-ses Neptunes orbit nearly 25 yearsafter Voyager 2 spacecrafts rst everyby of the planet.

Aug. 26: A long term truce be-tween the Palestinians and Israeltakes effect ending 50 days of vio-lence. Eight-year blockade of Gazalifted.

Aug. 30: Varanasi and Kyoto signa partner city affiliation agreementin the presence of Prime MinistersNarendra Modi and Shinzo Abe.

At least three persons are killed inpolice ring and more than 200 pro-testers injured in the VIP area of thePakistan capital Islamabad as a 17-day standoff seeking Prime MinisterNawaz Sharifs resignation turnsviolent.

Abdul Alim, a prime war crimesconvict of Bangladesh serving a liferdies of cancer at a Dhaka hospital.

Aug 31: Iraqi forces breakthrough to the jihadist-besieged Shiatown of Amerli where thousandshave remained trapped for morethan two months.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 1: Prime Ministers Naren-dra Modi and Shinzo Abe announcethe Japan-India Investment Pro-motion Partnership in Tokyo.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chiefImran Khan and Pakistan AwamiTahreek leader Tahir-ul-Qadri arebooked under the Anti-Terrorist Actfor bid to attack Parliament.

Sept. 2: The Islamic State posts avideo showing the beheading of U.S.reporter Steven Sotloff kidnapped in2013 in Aleppo, Syria.

Sept. 5: Ukraine signs ceasereagreement with rebels to end nearlyve months of ghting in the na-tions east, in the Belarussian capitalMinsk.

Sept. 6: Swedish Director, RoyAnderssons A Pigeon Sat on aBranch While Reecting on Exist-ence bags the Golden Lion at the 71stVenice Film Festival. Joshua Oppen-heimers The Look of Silence picksup the grand prix.

Sept. 8: Mathew Martoma, an In-dian-origin portfolio manager isjailed for 9 years by a federal court inNew York for his role in an insidertrading scheme involving $276million.

Sept. 11: The U.S. President Ba-rack Obama orders airstrikes in Sy-ria against Islamic State.

Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius isnot guilty of premeditated murder,

Medical staff putting on protective gear before entering anisolation area at the MSF Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.

Actor Robin Williams.

July 23: Indias rst multi-sensor moored observatoryIndARC is deployed inKongsfjorden Fjord of theArctic roughly half way be-tween North Pole and SouthPole.

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says the High Court in Pretoria.Sept. 12: Paralympian Oscar Pis-

torius is found guilty of culpablehomicide for the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February2013.

Three men are handed downdeath sentence and a woman lifer forthe mass stabbing on March 1 at atrain station in Kunming, China thatkilled 39 persons.

Ian Paisley (88), former NorthernIreland First Minister and Protes-tant leader dies in Belfast.

Sept. 13: Southern Cross Auste-reo, an Australian radio station atthe centre of a royal hoax call rowdonates Aus $500,000 to the familyof Indian-born nurse in a Britishhospital Jacintha Saldhana sincedead.

Islamic State militants release avideo that purported to show the be-heading of U.K. aid worker DavidHaines who was kidnapped in March2013 in Syria.

Sept. 14: Swedens Social Demo-crat-led bloc ousts the ruling centre-right coalition led by Prime MinisterFredrik Reinfeldt in parliamentarypolls.

Sept. 16: The Ukrainian and Eu-ropean Parliaments ratify a land-mark pact. Kiev adopts a peace planthat offers three years of limited self-rule to rebel-held regions.

Sept. 17: The Appellate Divisionof the Bangladesh Supreme Courtcommutes the death sentence of topJama