2014
JANUARY
January 1- The following laws go into effect:
Thirteen states – Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington – all increase their minimum wages.
Numerous provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, go into effect.
Provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law by then-President George W. Bush, go into effect, banning the sale of 40-to-60 watt incandescent light bulbs throughout the nation.
The state of Oregon bans smoking in vehicles when children are present.
The state of Colorado allows the sale of recreational cannabis from legally licensed businesses.
A building explosion kills three and injures thirteen in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The cause is yet to be determined.
January 6
2014 BCS National Championship Game: The number-one-ranked Florida State Seminoles beats the number-two-ranked Auburn Tigers at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California by a score of 34–31.
The 2014 North American polar vortex hits the Northern United States, breaking coldest temperature records throughout the entire country.
January 7 – All fifty of the United States experience temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F). The National Weather Service observes that "It's not unprecedented, but it is unusual."
January 8 – The Baseball Writers' Association of America Baseball Hall of Fame announces its inductees. Pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine and slugger Frank Thomas are enshrined. Maddux sees his name appear on 97.2 percent of the ballots, falling short of the all-time mark still held by Tom Seaver, who was elected with 98.84 percent of the vote in 1992. Glavine receives 91.9 percent of the vote while Thomas is elected with 83.7 percent.
January 9
Cygnus CRS Orb-1, the second flight of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus unmanned resupply spacecraft, launches successfully at 13:07 EST
A steel storage tank near Charleston, West Virginia leaks the chemical 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM) in large quantities into the Elk River, part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, leaving 300,000 people in nine West Virginia counties without clean water.
January 14 – A federal judge rules that Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional but immediately stays the ruling.
January 16 – Nominations for the 86th Academy Awards are announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California. The nominees for Best Picture are 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
January 20 – A feed processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska explodes, killing two people.
January 25 – A gunman identified as 19-year-old Darion Marcus Aguilar opens fire at a shopping mall in Columbia, Maryland, killing two people and then himself. It is reported that the shooter was also carrying "crude explosives" at the time of the attack. Though authorities originally believed Aguilar had some relationship with the victims, this was later dismissed.
January 26 – The price of a first-class mail stamp increases to $0.49.
January 28 – President Barack Obama delivers his annual State of the Union Address, focusing on, among other issues, the country's environmental policies, creating jobs and immigration reform, saying he wants 2014 to be a "year of action." Special attention is brought to Obama's willingness to circumvent the decisions of Congress should they not go forward with his plans, which some critics believe would overstep his executive powers and undermine the system of checks and balances.
FEBRUARY
February 1 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees are announced: Walter Jones, Derrick Brooks, Michael Strahan, Andre Reed, Aeneas Williams, Claude Humphrey, and Ray Guy.
February 2 – Super Bowl XLVIII is played at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Seattle Seahawks win their first Super Bowl by defeating the Denver Broncos by a score of 43–8.
February 3 – Janet Yellen succeeds Ben Bernanke to become the 15th Chairperson of the Federal Reserve as well as the first woman to hold the position.
February 4
Sixteen missing children are rescued from Super Bowl-associated sex-trade slavery in an FBI sting.
American science educator and engineer Bill Nye (popularly known as "Bill Nye the Science Guy") defends evolution in the classroom in a debate with creationist Ken Ham on the topic of whether creation is a viable model of origins in the modern, scientific era.
February 7 – February 23 – The United States compete at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and win 9 gold, 7 silver, and 12 bronze medals.
February 10 – The Obama Administration delays the employer mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the second time.
February 12
A federal judge rules that Kentucky's ban on recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside the state is unconstitutional but later stays the ruling until March 20.[34]
President Obama signs an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10.
February 13
A federal judge rules that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional but immediately stays the ruling.
A federal judge rules that California's gun law restricting concealed weapons is unconstitutional because it violates the Second Amendment.
Comcast buys Time Warner Cable for $45 billion. If approved by the government, the merger will become the largest cable network provider in the nation.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility opens in the Mojave Desert of California, producing over 392 megawatts of electricity at full capacity and becoming the world's largest solar thermal power plant to date.
February 14 – Workers at the Volkswagen Chattanooga Assembly Plant in Tennessee reject unionizing by a vote of 712–626. The result is considered by many media outlets to be a defeat for labor unions in the United States.
February 17 – The Tonight Show broadcasts its first episode in New York City in nearly 42 years with new host Jimmy Fallon. The nationally televised late-night talk show moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
February 19 – A Nebraska judge rules that allowing the governor to directly approve the Keystone XL pipeline and bypass legislative commissions is unconstitutional, further complicating the widely publicized project to connect the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf of Mexico.
February 23 – In NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. eventually wins the Daytona 500, ending a 55-race winless streak in the Sprint Cup Series after the race is red-flagged for several hours due to heavy rain and a tornado warning is put into effect for the area.
February 24 – The Obama Administration proposes to significantly reduce the military budget to $522 billion and to shrink the army to a level not seen since the years prior to World War II.
February 26
A federal judge rules that Texas's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional but immediately stays the ruling.
Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona vetoes a bill that would have allowed business owners to refuse to serve people who are LGBT based solely on their religious beliefs.
MARCH
March 2 – 86th Academy Awards:
12 Years a Slave wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The Great Beauty, an Italian film, wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Alfonso Cuarón wins the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Gravity.
Matthew McConaughey wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club.
Cate Blanchett wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Blue Jasmine.
Frozen wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
March 7 – Massachusetts bans the taking of candid upskirt photographs in public.Two days earlier, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had ruled that the taking of such photographs is legal.
March 12 – A gas explosion collapses a building in New York City, killing at least eight people and injuring over 70 others. The search for additional victims is ongoing.
March 13
At the 2014 South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, a suspected drunk driver crashes through barricades and drives through a crowd of pedestrians, killing two people and injuring over 20 others.
President Obama signs an executive order directed at the Department of Labor to expand its role in regulating overtime pay.
March 18 – A television helicopter crashes in Seattle, Washington, killing two people.
March 21 – A federal judge rules that Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and does not stay the ruling, although the ruling is later suspended until at least March 26 by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in order to consider an appeal by Michigan's Attorney General.
March 22
A mudflow near Oso, Washington, kills 43 people.
A barge carrying nearly one million gallons of oil collides with a ship in Galveston Bay off the coast of Texas, causing a fuel oil spill.
March 24
Disney announces that it is buying Maker Studios, an internet-video based company, for $500 million.
A train derailment of the CTA Blue Line occurs at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, leaving 32 people injured.
March 26
Facebook announces that it is buying Oculus, a firm that specializes in virtual reality displays, for $2 billion.
Connecticut passes legislation that will raise its minimum wage from $8.70 to $10.10 by 2017, making it the first state to answer President Obama's call for an increase in the minimum wage.
March 28 – A 5.1 magnitude earthquake strikes the Los Angeles metropolitan area.Seismologists are concerned that the quake, originating from the usually silent Puente Hills Fault, could trigger quakes in the future stronger than those that originate from the more notable San Andreas Fault.Although no injuries or major damage is reported, the earthquake spawns a social media fad of people uploading selfies during the duration of the quake.
March 30 – Protests occur in Albuquerque, New Mexico after a video surfaces online of a March 16 fatal confrontation between local police and a homeless man.
March 31 – Open enrollment for the first year of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace ends, with the number of enrollees exceeding the Obama Administration's goal of 7 million.
APRIL
April 1 – General Motors CEO Mary Barra testifies in front of a congressional panel regarding the safety of their vehicles following a massive recall and the deaths of 13 people.
April 2
A gunman identified as Ivan Lopez opens fire at the Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas, killing 3 people and then himself. Fort Hood was previously the site of a shooting in 2009.
In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court strikes down certain campaign finance regulations limiting the total amounts of money that individuals can contribute to political campaigns during two-year election cycles.
April 3 – Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi signs a controversial bill that will allow individuals and businesses to deny service to anyone if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. Civil rights organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center[citation needed] and ACLU worry that such a law will have wide-ranging effects and lead to more animosity toward sexual minorities and members of faiths other than Christianity.
April 7
A critical bug called "Heartbleed" in OpenSSL is estimated to have left 17% of the Internet's secure web servers vulnerable to data theft.
The 2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game takes place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas with the Connecticut Huskies defeating the Kentucky Wildcats by a score of 60–54.
April 8 – Microsoft discontinues support for its Windows XP operating system.
April 9 – Twenty-two people are injured following a stabbing incident at a Pennsylvania high school.
April 10 – Ten people are killed when a semi-tractor trailer crosses the median and collides with a tour bus carrying high school students on a college visit in Orland, California.
April 10–13 – Bubba Watson wins the 2014 Masters Tournament.
April 12 – A grazing dispute in Nevada between a rancher and the federal government escalates to a standoff between Bureau of Land Management agents and armed militiamen from across the country.
April 13 – White supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr. opens fire at a Jewish community center in Overland Park, Kansas, killing three people.
April 14 – A federal judge rules that Ohio's ban on recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside the state is unconstitutional.
April 18 – SpaceX CRS-3, an uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with a cargo of experiments and equipment for the International Space Station.
April 22 – In a 6–2 decision, the Supreme Court upholds an amendment to the Michigan state constitution that bans the use of affirmative action in public education, employment, and contracting.
April 23
Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia signs the Safe Carry Protection Act into law, expanding the rights of gun owners to openly carry firearms in more public locations, such as government buildings, churches, and bars. The law is set to go into effect on July 1.
The Federal Communications Commission announces that it will consider a new rule that will allow Internet service providers to offer content providers a faster track to send content, thus reversing their earlier net neutrality position. A possible solution to net neutrality concerns may be municipal broadband, according to Professor Susan Crawford, a legal and technology expert at Harvard Law School.
April 24 – The Food and Drug Administration announces its intention to begin regulating electronic cigarettes.
April 27–30 – A series of tornadoes kills at least 35 people across the Midwest and the South.
April 28 – The Obama Administration's new economic sanctions against Russia go into effect, targeting companies and individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
April 29 – Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, is banned by the NBA from attending games and is fined $2.5 million after racist comments from the owner surface online.
MAY
May 2 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS virus) in the United States, contracted by an American health care worker from Illinois who was working in Saudi Arabia. The disease has killed more than 100 people in the Middle East.
May 3 – Victor Espinoza wins the 2014 Kentucky Derby riding California Chrome.
May 5 – In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court rules that opening prayers can precede town hall meetings without violating the Constitution.
May 8 – VA scandal: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki is subpoenaed and called to Congress to respond to allegations of the department covering up wait times for veteran healthcare.
May 9 – A state judge in Arkansas declares that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. On May 16, the Supreme Court of Arkansas stayed the decision pending an appeal by the state government.[citation needed]
May 15 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decides to consider two options regarding internet services: first, permit fast and slow broadband lanes, thereby compromising net neutrality; and second, reclassify broadband as a telecommunication service, thereby preserving net neutrality.
May 19 – A federal district court judge rules that Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Since the state government has declared no intention to appeal, same-sex marriage goes into effect immediately.
May 20 – A federal district court judge rules that Pennsylvania 's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and goes into effect immediately, making Pennsylvania the nineteenth state to legalize same-sex marriage when counting Illinois.
May 23 – 22-year-old Elliot Rodger kills 3 students by stabbing and another 3 by gunshot in Isla Vista, California near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, injuring an additional 13 before dying of a self-inflcited gunshot wound to the head. Rodger uploaded a YouTube video the day before the shooting claiming "retribution" for college girls' lack of sexual attention toward him, and his writings revealed that he was a misogynist and a racist.
May 25 – Ryan Hunter-Reay wins the 2014 Indianapolis 500, becoming the first American to win the race since 2006.
May 30 – VA scandal: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki resigns from office.
May 31
Bowe Bergdahl, a United States Army soldier who was being held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan since June 2009, is released back to the United States, traded for five Guantanamo Bay detainees. Many critics believe the handover was illegal.
Two 12-year-old girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, in Waukesha, Wisconsin stab their friend, also 12, in the arms, legs and torso nineteen times, leaving her hospitalized. The two girls appear in court and are tried as adults for attempted first-degree intentional homicide. The two girls confirm they were inspired by a horror website based around the fictional character and Internet meme Slender Man.
JUNE
June 1 – Illinois's same-sex marriage law goes into effect.
June 2 – The City Council of Seattle, Washington passes a local ordinance to increase the minimum wage of the city to $15 an hour, giving the city the highest minimum wage in the United States.
June 5 – Gunman Aaron Ybarra opens fire at Seattle Pacific University, killing one student and injuring two others. According to law enforcement, he had a well-documented pent-up sense of anger toward society.
June 6
President Barack Obama and several other world leaders and war veterans gather in Colleville-sur-Mer in France to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1944 invasion of Normandy in World War II.
A federal district court judge rules that Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Marriages are later halted by a different judge pending appeal.
June 8 – Couple Jerad and Amanda Miller open fire inside a CiCi's restaurant in Las Vegas, killing 2 police officers. They then move to a Walmart, where they kill a civilian before getting into a firefight with police, resulting in their deaths. The couple was motivated by a desire to start a "revolution."
June 10
Gunman Jared Michael Padgett, age 15, opens fire at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon, 12 miles west of Portland, killing one student and then himself, as well as wounding a teacher. Everytown for Gun Safety reports that it is the 74th school shooting incident in the country since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012.
House majority whip Eric Cantor (R-VA7) is defeated by primary opponent Dave Brat, becoming the first sitting House majority leader to lose a primary since 1899.
June 13 – In the NHL, The Western Conference champions, the Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup in double overtime against the Eastern Conference champions, the New York Rangers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals to have a 3-2 victory to have a 4-1 series win.
June 14
The FBI captures Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the suspected leaders of the 2012 Benghazi attack, in Libya with no casualties.
The Green Line light rail from Minneapolis to Saint Paul, Minnesota begins service.
June 15 – The San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals 4 games to 1.
June 16 – A tornado outbreak in northeastern Nebraska produces rare twin tornadoes and destroys the town of Pilger, killing two people. Storms in this sequence also affected parts of Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin.
June 19
President Barack Obama announces that he will send up to 300 military advisers, but not troops, to Iraq to help the Shiite government and to protect the American ambassadors in the United States Embassy in the capital city of Baghdad, threatened by a heavily-armed Sunni militant group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (also known as the ISIS, or ISIL).
An estimated 86 Atlanta-based workers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been confirmed to have been unintentionally exposed to anthrax while working.
June 23 – The FBI announces that, in the week prior, during an annual nationwide crackdown, the bureau had rescued 168 children from sex trafficking, many of whom had never been reported as missing.
June 25
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, declares that police must obtain a warrant in order to search through a phone or digital device.
The Supreme Court, in a 6—3 decision, rules against Aereo for their practice of rebroadcasting over-the-air programming without applying for retransmission consent.
The 10th Circuit Federal Appeals Court rules against Utah's same-sex marriage ban, becoming the first appeals court in the United States to rule in favor of same-sex unions.
A federal judge in Indiana strikes down that state's same-sex marriage ban.
Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner announces his intention to ask the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) to file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama to counter his recent executive orders, saying these orders supersede the powers granted to the president in the Constitution. Obama later dismisses the lawsuit as a "stunt", and says his orders are in response to the lack of productivity in the current Congress, saying, "If you're really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, why don't you try getting something done through Congress?"
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency publicly condemns the upcoming American comedy film The Interview, promising "stern" and "merciless" retaliation if the film is released.
June 26 – The Supreme Court in an unanimous ruling limits the Executive branch's power to bypass the Legislature in appointing positions during short-recess periods.
June 30 – The Supreme Court rules in a 5-4 decision that the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act cannot be enforced on closely held corporations, in a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts store chain Hobby Lobby and Pennsylvania-based wood manufacturer Conestoga Wood Specialties.
JULY
July 3–7 – According to Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy, 14 people are killed and an additional 68 are wounded in numerous separate gunfights in Chicago, making the weekend one of the most violent periods in the city, which is one of the most dangerous in the country, and drawing criticism of the city's police force.[citation needed]
July 8 – Washington becomes the second state to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana for use.
July 9
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is sentenced to ten years in prison for bribery, money laundering and several other charges.[156]
A state judge in Colorado strikes down the state's same-sex marriage ban, but also stays his ruling pending an appeal by Attorney General John Suthers. Several county clerks defied the stayed ruling and continued to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing the recent ruling by the Tenth Circuit.
Suspect Ronald Lee Haskell Jr. kills six people in the town of Spring, Texas, all of whom were related to his ex-wife. After a standoff, Haskell surrenders to police.
July 16 – President Obama announces new sanctions targeting Russia's banking and energy sectors over Russia's continuing involvement in the Ukraine Crisis and annexing Crimea.
July 18 – A federal appeals court upholds a federal judge's ruling overturning Oklahoma's same-sex marriage ban. However, since the appeals court put its ruling on hold pending an appeal, same-sex couples will not be immediately allowed to marry.
July 25 – The 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which has killed over 600 people, claims its first American life when health worker Patrick Sawyer dies in a Nigerian hospital after contracting the virus in Liberia. The news worries the American news media that the virus could spread to the US.
July 28
Barack Obama accuses Russia of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an agreement made between the United States and the Soviet Union, citing cruise missile tests dating back to 2008, and promises even tougher economic sanctions against the country in response.
A federal appeals court upholds a federal judge's ruling[36] overturning Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. It's not presently clear if or when Virginia would need to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
July 30 – The Government Accountability Office releases a non-partisan study that concluded the Obama administration did not provide "effective planning or oversight practices" in developing the HealthCare.gov website.
July 31 – John O. Brennan, the Director of the CIA, issues an apology to the United States Senate, admitting that the agency had spied on Senate staffers who backed an investigation into the agency's controversial interrogation program.
AUGUST
August 7 – Barack Obama signs into law a bill that ensures that the United States Department of Veterans Affairs has the necessary financial resources to provide adequate care for war veterans.
August 8 – The US begins conducting targeted airstrikes on ISIS militants in Iraq to prevent an invasion of the Kurdistan Region capital city of Erbil. President Obama warns the airstrike campaign could last for several months, but that no actual troops will be sent to Iraq.
August 9
In auto racing, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart runs over 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward, Jr. during a sprint car race in northern New York. Ward is pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
A policeman in Ferguson, Missouri fatally shoots an unarmed black teenager, triggering riots and looting across the St. Louis suburb.
August 11
Academy Award-winning actor Robin Williams commits suicide in his Paradise Cay, California home at the age of 63.
A Tennessee state judge upholds that state's same-sex marriage ban, breaking a string of legal victories for same-sex marriage supporters.
August 16 – Shooting of Michael Brown: The governor of Missouri issues a state of emergency for Ferguson and a curfew lasting from Midnight to 5:00AM (CDT).A second curfew is approved the following night.
August 19 – An online video surfaces showing James Foley, an American photojournalist held hostage in Syria, being beheaded by ISIS militants in response to the US airstrike campaign in Iraq.
August 21 – A federal district court judge rules that Florida's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, but immediately stays the ruling, pending an appeal by the state circuit court.
August 24 – A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes Napa, California injuring 120 people, 6 critically. It is the largest earthquake to strike the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
August 25 – 66th Primetime Emmy Awards:
The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards for American television shows are held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California on a Monday for the first time since 1976 (to avoid conflicts with NBC's Sunday Night Football and MTV's Video Music Awards on the 24th).
Modern Family wins the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series tying with Frasier at most wins in that category with five each.[citation needed]
Breaking Bad wins the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.
August 26 – Amazon purchases the live streaming site Twitch for $970 million.
August 31 – A group of hackers utilize sites like Reddit and 4chan to release hundreds of private, many of them nude, photographs of around 100 individuals, most of them A-list celebrities, leading to an investigation by the FBI and criticism of Apple's iCloud service.
SEPTEMBER
September 1 – In response to several weeks of protests following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, police in Ferguson, Missouri begin to wear body cameras donated by two private security firms.
September 2 – ISIS militants release an online video showing the beheading of American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff.
September 3 – CVS Pharmacy rebrands itself as CVS Health, and phases out cigarette sales to reflect the name change.
September 4 – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit deems the same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana unconstitutional and immediately stays the ruling pending appeal.
September 5 – At the NATO summit in Wales, President Barack Obama enlists nine international allies to "degrade and destroy" the ISIS threat in Iraq and Syria, fearing that such a group cannot be simply contained.
September 10 – President Barack Obama gives a televised speech detailing the country's plan to "degrade and destroy" the ISIS threat in the Middle East with the help of a multinational coalition, which includes increasing the number of non-combat American military advisers in Iraq, heightening airstrike efforts in Iraq and Syria, stemming the flow of funding to ISIS, and increasing humanitarian efforts to the minorities facing genocide from ISIS
September 12 – Self-taught survivalist Eric Matthew Frein opens fire outside the Troop R barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, killing one trooper and critically injuring another, prompting a weeks-long manhunt.
September 14 – The 88th Miss America pageant is held. Kira Kazantsev of New York wins the title, becoming the third consecutive Miss America winner from that state after Mallory Hagan and Nina Davuluri.
September 15 – Microsoft announces that it is purchasing Mojang, creator of the popular sandbox video game Minecraft, for $2 billion.
September 18
Home Depot says that around 56 million customer debit and credit cards are at risk after a cyber attack on their payment systems.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visits the United States Congress to seek assistance in combating pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
A grandfather in the town of Bell, Florida fatally shoots his adult daughter and six grandchildren, prompting an investigation.
September 19 – Armed with a knife, Iraq War veteran Omar Gonzalez jumps the fence of the White House and allegedly enters the East Room of the building, where he was then subdued. The incident draws criticism of the United States Secret Service.
September 22 – The United States and several Arab partners begin their airstrike campaign in Syria.
September 24 – At a food processing plant in Moore, Oklahoma, Alton Alexander Nolan beheads coworker Colleen Hufford in a fit of rage after being fired.
September 30
The CDC reports the first Ebola case diagnosed in the United States in Dallas, Texas.
Amid criticism related to a September 19 White House infiltration incident, the Secret Service's competence is questioned after it is revealed that an armed ex-convict was allowed on an elevator with Barack Obama during the President's visit to Atlanta, Georgia on September 16.
OCTOBER
October 1 – Former head of corporate security for Comcast Joseph Clancy takes over as Director of the United States Secret Service after previous director Julia Pierson resigns following several scandals surrounding the agency.
October 3 – The United States Department of Labor reports that in September 2014, employers added 248,000 new jobs to the U.S. economy, setting the unemployment rate to 5.9%, the lowest since July 2008 at the onset of the 2008 global financial meltdown.
October 6–12 – The Supreme Court decides to not hear cases on same-sex marriage appeals, thus immediately legalizing same-sex marriage in Virginia, Utah, Indiana, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. The action is followed by the legalization of same-sex marriage in Nevada, Colorado, West Virginia, Idaho, North Carolina, and Alaska.
October 12 – The CDC confirms that a health care worker in Texas was found to be positive for the Ebola virus, the first known case of the disease to be contracted in the United States.
October 17
President Barack Obama names Ron Klain as "Ebola response coordinator" (or, less officially, Ebola "czar"), to help coordinate the nation's response to the Ebola virus.
A federal district court judge strikes down Arizona's ban on same-sex marriage and does not stay the ruling, allowing marriages to begin in the state immediately. The same day, a judge strikes down Wyoming's same-sex marriage ban, staying the ruling until October 23.
October 22 – Homeland Security Council Kenneth L. Wainstein releases a report revealing that, for 18 years, many student athletes attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were given passing grades in "nonexistent classes" in order to remain eligible for school sports.
October 23 – A hatchet-wielding man, Zale H. Thompson, attacks and injures two police officers on a New York City sidewalk before the officers shot and killed him. The incident is investigated as an act of terrorism, as Thompson was a recent convert to Islam.
October 24 – A 14-year-old student at Marysville Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington, fatally shoots four students before committing suicide.
October 28 – An Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus CRS Orb-3 unmanned resupply spacecraft explodes shortly after liftoff at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia when two NASA operators push a self-destruct button in response to a rocket malfunction.
October 29 – The San Francisco Giants defeat American League champion Kansas City Royals 4 games to 3 in the 2014 World Series.
October 30
After a 48-day manhunt, survivalist Eric Matthew Frein, accused of killing a Pennsylvania State Police trooper in September, is arrested outside an abandaoned airfield in Tannersville, Pennsylvania. Prosecutors announce several hours after that they will be seeking the death penalty for Frein.
A Beechcraft King Air B200 plane crashes into the FlightSafety International building at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kansas, killing three people in the building and injuring five.
October 31 – During a test flight, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo experiences an in-flight anomaly followed by an explosion and crash in the Mojave desert, killing the co-pilot and injuring the pilot.
NOVEMBER
November 3 – The new One World Trade Center building in New York City opens.[
November 4 – The 2014 senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial elections are held.
November 6 – For the first time since the United States v. Windsor case, an appellate court (6th Circuit Court of Appeals) defends state same-sex marriage bans, effectively sending the issue back to the Supreme Court. The 6th Circuit's ruling applies to Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
November 7 – President Obama authorizes sending over 1,500 troops back into Iraq to combat the Islamic terrorist organization ISIL.
November 10 – President Obama recommends the FCC reclassify broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service in order to preserve net neutrality.
November 12
President Obama and Chinese Presidnet Xi Jinping announce an agreement between the US and China to increase efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the two countries by 2030.
The Supreme Court lifts the stay on a ruling overturning the ban on same-sex marriage in the state of Kansas.
November 14 – The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. invites five Muslim groups to participate in the Church's first Islamic prayer service.
November 16 – ISIS militants in Syria release an online video showing the beheading of American aid worker Peter Kassig, who was a recent convert to Islam.
November 17
Dr. Martin Salia, after being rushed to the United States for ebola treatment, dies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, becoming the second death in the nation due to the outbreak.
It is announced that 80-year-old convicted serial killer Charles Manson has successfully obtained a marriage license, and plans to marry 26-year-old Afton Elain "Star" Burton while still in prison.
November 18 – A major lake effect snow storm, dubbed Winter Storm Knife, hits the Great Lakes region, dumping a record breaking 8 feet (2.4 m) of snow in the Buffalo, New York region. The storm strands hundreds, kills 13, and causes Governor Andrew Cuomo to call a state of emergency in the area.
November 19 – A federal judge in Montana strikes down that state's same-sex marriage ban.
November 20 – President Barack Obama gives a televised speech announcing his plans to use executive action to reform American policy on immigration, proposing a "commonsense, middle-ground approach" that would deport criminals and grant citizenship to about 4.4 million illegal immigrants. The proposal is met with severe backlash from the Republican Party.
November 21 – Ricky Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio, are released from prison. Jackson becomes the person with the longest time in incarceration among those who have been released on a wrongful conviction in the US (39 years).
November 22 – The Texas Board of Education approves a new controversial version of textbooks to be used in the state, ending months of outcry over lessons some say exaggerate the influence of Moses in American democracy and negatively portray Muslims. The board sanctions 89 books and classroom software packages for more than 5 million public school students to begin using next fall after hours of sometimes testy discussion and hundreds of last-minute edits, some to no avail.
November 24 – Shooting of Michael Brown: Riots break out in Ferguson, Missouri after it is announced that there was insufficient evidence to indict officer Darren Wilson. The protests include mass looting and the burning of 12 buildings in Ferguson, as well as 29 arrests. Protests also break out in other major cities including New York City and Los Angeles and continue for over a week.
November 25 – The University of Virginia suspends its fraternity program after a highly controversial report in the December 2014 issue of Rolling Stone released on November 19 alleges a vicious gang rape on the UVA campus by one of the university's fraternities. Protests on the campus of UVA and other universities nationwide are sparked.
DECEMBER
December 1 – Actor and comedian Bill Cosby resigns from Temple University's board of trustees in light of accusations of sexual assault by at least 26 women.
December 2 – The FBI launches a probe into a massive hacking attack on Sony Pictures, believing the leadership of North Korea to be responsible.
December 4 – Death of Eric Garner: Protests erupt in New York City after a grand jury decides not to indict NYPD officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico in the death of Garner. Protests continue throughout the week in cities across the country for both the deaths of Garner and Michael Brown.
December 5 – The first test flight of the Orion spacecraft successfully takes place from Space Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
December 6 – An American civilian and a South African civilian held hostage by al-Qaeda die during an attempt to rescue the two of them by U.S. Navy SEALs in Yemen.
December 7 – A chlorine gas leak injures 19 at Chicago's "Furfest", a furry convention. Police say the act was intentional.
December 9 – A coalition of Democrats in the Senate releases a highly redacted 500-page report of its four-year investigation into the CIA's torture interrogation methods during the Bush Administration, which concludes that the interrogation methods were inhumane and largely ineffective. Most of the Republican Party criticizes the release of the report as a political stunt, though Republican 2008 presidential candidate John McCain came out in support of the report.
December 10
In light of the Senate Democrats critical report of the CIA, the Obama Administration orders the release of the final detainees of the Parwan Detention Facility in Afghanistan, ending American operation of prisons in the country after 13 years.
A federal appeals court overturns the insider trading convictions of two former hedge fund traders, Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson, based on the "erroneous" instructions given to jurors by the trial judge.
December 13 – The Downtown Athletic Club names Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota the most outstanding player in college football awarding him the 2014 Heisman Trophy.
December 15
The Supreme Court of the United States rules by an 8–1 vote that evidence collected based on a reasonable misinterpretation of the law can be used at trial and is not deemed an unreasonable search or seizure.
35-year-old Bradley William Stone kills six people in a rampage shooting in Salford Township, Pennsylvania. A large manhunt follows in pursuit of the shooter ending in the discovery of Stone dead in the woods from a drug overdose
December 17
President Barack Obama announces the resumption of normal relations between the US and Cuba, and an end to the United States embargo against Cuba, for the first time since January 1961.
New York becomes the first state in the nation to issue a full and complete ban on any hydraulic fracturing.
In response to the release of sensitive information and threats of violence by a group sympathetic to North Korea, and the decision by five major American theater chains to refuse to show the film, Sony Pictures decides to cancel the release of the upcoming comedy film The Interview. The decision is made despite assurances by the US Department of Homeland Security that there is "no credible evidence" of an imminent attack, and is met with harsh criticism from many individuals in the film industry.
December 18 – President Barack Obama signs Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014 into law.
December 20 – 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley fatally shoots two NYPD police officers sitting in their police cruiser, supposedly in retaliation for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, before committing suicide in a subway station
December 24 – Sony gives the controversial film The Interview a limited theatrical release and also releases the film on Google Play, YouTube, Xbox Live, and the film's website.
December 24–26 – Hacker group Lizard Squad takes credit for crashing both Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox Live servers in an apparent DDos attack.
December 28 – The United States and the United Kingdom officially withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, marking the end of their 13-year involvement in the Afghan Civil War. The United States completes its scaling back of combat operations in Afghanistan, leaving a small residual force in the country until 2016.
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