2016 Year in Review - News & Events

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

And may 2017 bring you a year filled with happiness, good times, and...well...everything that 2016 did not!  And as you can see, the blog has a new look for the new year!  Nothing fancy, but I think it works.

You know, looking back on the year of 2016, it was considered by many to be a massive flop.  Certainly the news and events of the year were nothing to be happy about.  We saw terrorist attacks, civil war, celebrity deaths by the truckload, and a presidential candidate that should probably never have been allowed to tweet.

So I ask this question...is there ANYTHING good about the year that has gone by?  Well, I'm going to try to answer those questions in this look back at the year gone by.

We're going to start with a month by month breakdown of the events of 2016.

JANUARY

8 - El Chapo Guzman - considered to be the world's most powerful drug trafficker - is recaptured upon his escape from prison

22 - Several states in the United States were left immobilized following a heavy blizzard which dropped as much as two feet of snow in some areas

28 - The Zika Virus outbreak is announced by the World Health Organization

FEBRUARY

7 - The Denver Broncos win Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers with a score of 24-10

MARCH

14 - The ESA and Roscosmos launch the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to Mars

22 - The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant claim responsibility for a series of bombings taking place in Brussels, Belgium that kill 32 people and injures at least 250 others

24 - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is sentenced to 40 years in jail for genocide and crimes against humanity

27 - 75 are killed and another 340 injured when a suicide blast takes place in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore

APRIL

2 - Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani military in Nagorno-Karabakh kill 193 people - and becomes the heaviest breach of the 1994 ceasefire

18 - The Boston Marathon takes place; Lemi Berhanu Hayle and Atsede Baysa are the winners

MAY

3 - Fort McMurray, Alberta is evacuated after wildfires go out of control; several homes and businesses are destroyed

19 - EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes

20 - Jesse Olivieri is shot and later arrested following a shooting incident outside of the White House

28 - Harambe the Gorilla is shot and killed following an incident in which a three year old boy was dragged into his enclosure

JUNE

1 - A murder-suicide takes place at UCLA

12 - The Pittsburg Penguins win the Stanley Cup

12 - A mass shooting takes place at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 and wounding 53 others

23 - The world learns the meaning of the word "Brexit" as Britain votes to leave the European Union

28 - Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey is attacked by terrorists, killing 45

JULY

5 - The shooting of Alton Sterling leads to protests in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and is one of the many events that lead to the Black Lives Matter movement

6 - Philando Castile is fatally shot by a Minnesota police officer after he is pulled over - the incident is caught on camera

7 - Five police officers are shot and killed during a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, Texas

14 - A truck plows into Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, France, killing 86 people

18 - Charles Kinsey, a mental health therapist, is shot by police as he is trying to negotiate between officers and the patient in his care

22 - The very last VCR is manufactured by Funai Electronics

26 - Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar powered aircraft to circumnavigate the earth

30 - Sixteen people are killed in a hot-air balloon crash near Lockhart, Texas, making it the deadliest ballooning disaster in the United States

AUGUST

5 - The 2016 Summer Olympics begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and run until the 21st

14 - Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte makes a statement that he was robbed at gunpoint by several men - but his statement later proves to be false

SEPTEMBER

2 - Hurricane Hermine strikes the Florida Panhandle

3 - An earthquake registering 5.8 on the Richter scale strikes Oklahoma

9 - The North Korean government conducts its fifth and reportedly largest nuclear test causing outcry from the rest of the world

17 - A mass stabbing occurs at the Crossroads Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota - ten people are stabbed before the stabber is shot dead by police

26 - The first of three presidential debates take place between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

28 - Hurricane Matthew begins to form - would become the season's first Category 5 storm

29 - A commuter train crashes in Hoboken, New Jersey, killing one and injuring 114

30 - Two Van Gogh paintings that were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in December 2002 are recovered

Also in September, the first reports of a massive data breach involving Yahoo Mail is reported

OCTOBER

7 - A 2005 video leaks showing Access Hollywood host Billy Bush and presidential candidate Donald Trump making crude sexual comments towards soap opera actress Arianna Zucker leading to Bush being let go from the Today Show

NOVEMBER

2 - The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time in 108 years!

8 - The United States elections take place; Donald Trump becomes the president-elect of the nation

27 - The Ottawa Redblacks win the Grey Cup

DECEMBER

2 - A warehouse fire in Oakland, California kills 36 people who had gathered there for a concert

18 - Stephanie Del Valle is crowned Miss World 2016

19 - A truck deliberately crashes into the Berlin Christmas Market, killing twelve people

19 - The Russian ambassador to Turkey - Andrei Karlov - is assassinated in an Ankara art gallery

22 - A vaccine against the Ebola Virus is proven to be 70-100% effective

25 - 92 people are killed when a Tupolev Tu-154 crashes near Sochi, Russia

So, are you starting to see why I look at 2016 as being one major suckfest?  Okay, sure, there were some good moments peppered in with the bad.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of bad.  And I didn't even get into the Syrian War because it was easily the top news story of the year.  So much devastation and so much loss, and how so many people are still trying to rebuild their lives after having so much taken away.  It sort of makes us all take a step back and realize that compared to them, many of us should count our blessings.

And the 2016 In Memoriam section is a lengthy one.  I predicted that I'd need at least four pages to get through them all.  Here are all of the famous people that we lost in 2016 starting with January and working our way to the end of the year...

IN MEMORIAM

January 10 - DAVID BOWIE, 69, singer/actor

January 14 - RENE ANGELIL, 73, producer

January 14 - ALAN RICKMAN, 69, actor

January 18 - GLENN FREY, 67, singer/musician

January 26 - ABE VIGODA, 94, actor

January 31 - TERRY WOGAN, 77, broadcaster

February 3 - JOE ALASKEY, 63, voice actor

February 3 - MAURICE WHITE, 74, singer/songwriter

February 15 - GEORGE GAYNES, 98, actor

February 19 - HARPER LEE, 89, author

February 25 - TONY BURTON, 78, actor
February 28 - GEORGE KENNEDY, 91, actor

March 6 - NANCY REAGAN, 94, former First Lady

March 10 - KEITH EMERSON, 71, musician

March 17 - LARRY DRAKE, 67, actor

March 22 - ROB FORD, 46, politician

March 23 - KEN HOWARD, 71, actor

March 24 - GARRY SHANDLING, 66, comedian/actor

March 29 - PATTY DUKE, 69, actress

April 6 - MERLE HAGGARD, 79, country singer

April 17 - DORIS ROBERTS, 90, actress

April 21 - PRINCE, 57, singer-songwriter

April 24 - BILLY PAUL, 81, singer

May 19 - ALAN YOUNG, 96, actor

May 21 - NICK MENZA, 51, drummer

June 3 - MUHAMMAD ALI, 74, boxer

June 6 - KIMBO SLICE, 42, mixed martial artist

June 6 - PETER SHAFFER, 90, playwright

June 10 - GORDIE HOWE, 88, hockey player

June 10 - CHRISTINA GRIMMIE, 22, singer

June 19 - ANTON YELCHIN, 27, actor

June 23 - RALPH STANLEY, 89, bluegrass musician

June 27 - ALVIN TOFFLER, 87, writer

June 28 - PAT SUMMITT, 64, basketball coach

July 19 - GARRY MARSHALL, 81, director/producer/actor

July 24 - MARNI NIXON, 86, vocalist

July 25 - DWIGHT JONES, 64, basketball player

July 27 - JERRY DOYLE, 60, actor/talk show host

July 30 - GLORIA DEHAVEN, 90, actress

August 2 - DAVID HUDDLESTON, 85, actor

August 13 - KENNY BAKER, 81, actor

August 14 - FYVUSH FINKEL, 93, actor

August 22 - TOOTS THIELEMANS, 94, jazz musician

August 23 - STEVEN HILL, 94, actor

August 25 - JAMES CRONIN, 84, physicist

August 28 - JUAN GABRIEL, 66, singer-songwriter

August 29 - GENE WILDER, 83, actor

September 1 - JON POLITO, 65, actor

September 5 - HUGH O'BRIEN, 91, actor

September 11 - ALEXIS ARQUETTE, 47, actress

September 17 - CHARMIAN CARR, 73, actress

September 20 - CURTIS HANSON, 71, director

September 24 - BILL NUNN, 62, actor
September 25 - ARNOLD PALMER, 87, golfer

September 26 - HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS, 90, director

October 20 - MICHAEL MASSEE, 60, actor

October 23 - PETE BURNS, 57, singer

October 24 - BOBBY VEE, 73, singer

November 7 - LEONARD COHEN, 82, singer-songwriter
November 7 - JANET RENO, 78, former U.S. Attorney General

November 11 - ROBERT VAUGHN, 83, actor

November 12 - LUPITA TOVAR, 106, actress

November 13 - LEON RUSSELL, 74, musician

November 24 - FLORENCE HENDERSON, 82, actress

November 25 - FIDEL CASTRO, 90, former Cuban President

November 25 - RON GLASS, 71, actor

December 6 - PETER VAUGHAN, 93, actor

December 7 - GREG LAKE, 69, musician

December 8 - JOHN GLENN, 95, astronaut/politician
December 8 - JOSEPH MASCOLO, 87, actor

December 13 - ALAN THICKE, 69, actor/songwriter

December 14 - BERNARD FOX, 89, actor

December 17 - HARRY HEIMLICH, 96, physician
December 18 - ZSA ZSA GABOR, 99, actress/socialite

December 24 - RICK PARFITT, 68, musician
December 24 - LIZ SMITH, 95, actress

December 25 - GEORGE MICHAEL, 53, singer
December 26 - BARBARA TARBUCK, 74, actress

December 27 - CARRIE FISHER, 60, actress
December 28 - DEBBIE REYNOLDS, 84, actress

December 31 - WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER, 84, actor

Well, okay...I only needed two.  But still...what a year of losses.  Here's hoping that 2017 is not as depressing in that regard.

And that about wraps up the news and events of 2016.  Tomorrow, I'll share with you some of my own thoughts about the year gone by...