From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh kills over 1,000 people; the streak from the Chelyabinsk meteor that rocketed across the Russian morning sky; protests occur amid the coup d'état that overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt; smoke rises as a result of the Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, carried out by Al-Shabaab militants; the Boston Marathon bombing marks the first major Islamic terrorist attack in the U.S. since 9/11; Pope Francis is elected to the Papacy in the papal conclave.
Calendar year
2013 (MMXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2013th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 13th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2010s decade.
Calendar year
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four different digits (a span of 26 years).