Ten Events to Watch in Vancouver

Women’s Alpine Combined
SUN Feb 14 – NBC – 7pm
Lindsey Vonn was supposed to be the clear star of the Vancouver Olympics. She’s won 31 separate races on Alpine Skiing’s World Cup circuit, as well as the much-coveted Overall title for the past two seasons, and was considered a possible medal contender in all five Women’s alpine events. She’s already a media star, serving as one of the centerpieces of 2010’s Olympic marketing campaigns, blessed with an outgoing personality and much remarked-upon good looks. She not only featured as the cover athlete for the Sports Illustrated Olympic preview issue (which took the opportunity to declare her “America’s Best Woman Skier Ever”), she also appeared in the magazine’s recent swimsuit edition.
Then in the final week before the Olympics Vonn revealed an apparently serious shin injury that she calls the worst of her career (and she has had her fair share of injuries). Now there’s a question whether she’ll compete at all, though all indications Thursday were she was at least going to try to gut it out. Her effectiveness if she does compete is an entirely different matter.
The first Women’s Alpine event of the games is the Women’s Combined, in which competitors race first the Downhill, then the Slalom. It’s intended to find the best overall racer in the sport, a title that normally would seem to fit Vonn to a T. The course in Whistler is apparently scary enough as is… a formal training run was cut short Thursday when the second competitor on the course, American Stacey Cook, took a bad crash in the fog and had to be flown to the hospital in a helicopter.
Vonn’s biggest competitor is generally considered to be Maria Riesch of Germany, who should be a major contender in this race as well as the more “technical” alpine events. (i.e. slalom, etc.) Sweden’s Anja Paerson is another all-arounder who won the last Combined event on the World Cup circuit coming in. Austria is always the class of the Alpine world for both the Men and the Women, so it would not be a surprise if multiple Austrians make the podium.

Women’s Snowboard Cross
TUE Feb 16 – NBC 8pm
Perhaps the defining moment of the 2006 games, for me anyway, was the Final of the Women’s Snowboard Cross competition, the inaugural version of the event. The world number one, Maelle Ricker of Canada, crashed badly partway down, leaving the reigning World Champion, a pretty, curly-haired American girl named Lindsay Jacobellis, well ahead of a Swiss girl in second place. In heedless celebration, Jacobellis did a little trick grab of her snowboard… and fell inexorably sideways, slowing just enough for the Swiss girl to catch her. She proceeded to caper around the finish area with a Swiss flag, thrilled, while Jacobellis stood and sat stunned for what felt like half an hour, staring into space.
As we come to the 2006 competition, Jacobellis is once again the reigning World Champion, and Maelle Ricker is once again holds the number one ranking. They will not, of course, be without competitors. As we saw in 2006, this is an event where anything can happen, and no one would bat eye to see a victory from Helene Olafson of Norway, or Alexandra Jekova of Bulgaria, or a half dozen others. I have this feeling, though, that there will be some event surrounding one Lindsay Jacobellis that will either serve as a redemptive climax or a continuation of the crushing cautionary tale. Or maybe something new and unexpected.

Half-Pipe
Men WED Feb 17 – NBC 3pm & 8:30pm - Women THU Feb 18 – NBC 3:30pm & 8pm
Perhaps the single biggest story of the past decade of the Winter Olympics is the meteoric rise of the sport of Snowboarding. From the moment it burst on the scene in 1998 (and then the first Gold Medalist was temporarily stripped of his Gold after testing positive for Marijuana), it created its own banner headlines, and now there is speculation that for NBC the Snowboarding competition might receive higher ratings than those for Figure Skating. Half-Pipe is the signature snowboarding event, in which a great run from a top competitor seems to transcend our earthly reality, completely effortless, totally cool.
The highest paid athlete at these games will not be an NHL pro, or a superstar figure skater, but Shaun White, he of the flying red curly hair, the defending Gold Medalist in this event. Many believe that if he hits in Vancouver there is no one in the world that can beat him. He plans to throw a “1260”, which is crazy because I remember in 1998 a “720” was a huge deal. The U.S. could easily sweep the medals, as it did in 2006. In addition to White, the team includes Columbus native Louie Vito, who learned to board at Mad River Mountain in Bellefontaine. However, I will be rooting for the team’s third member, Graham Watanabe, who, when recently asked how it felt to be a member of the U.S. Olympic team, replied thusly: "Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth. I somehow tame it and ride it into the sky in the clouds and sunshine and rainbows. That's what it feels like." Exactly.
The women’s competition should be harder fought. The American team is stacked with the sport’s superstars, including defending champ Hannah Teter, 2006 Silver Medalist Gretchen Bleiler, and 2002 Gold Medalist Kelly Clark, who seems to be the hot hand of late and has been tabbed as the favorite. Just as big a star, however, is Torah Bright, an Australian Mormon with oft-noted movie star looks and her own video game. And some think the entire party might be crashed by a young Chinese girl named Liu Jiayu, who, those who have seen her say, can do things no one else can.

Men’s Figure Skating
Free Program THU Feb 18 – 8pm
Ladies’ Figure Skating is usually the single marquee event of a Winter Olympics. This year, however, there doesn’t seem to be the same buzz, at least partially because Kim Yu-Na of South Korea is event’s first prohibitive favorite since at least Kristi Yamaguchi in 1992. She’s won 11 of the last 13 major competitions in which she’s competed, most of those by huge margins. Most feel that the only skater who has a hope of challenging her is Japan’s Mao Asada, who might have been the best in the world four years ago but was at that time too young to compete (the “Tara Lipinski Rule”).
So eyes turn to the Men’s event, where the field is wide open. Defending champ Yevgeny Plushenko has come out of three years of retirement to win the European Championship, and is considered by some to be the favorite. He would be the first man to win back-to-back Golds since Dick Button. The U.S. has a deep team, any one of whom could medal. Evan Lysacek is the defending World Champ, but was beaten by Jeremy Abbott at the last two U.S. Championships. Abbott’s recent performance to make the team in Spokane was considered by some aficionados to be worthy of a possible Gold if he could just repeat it in Vancouver. And then of course there’s Johnny Weir, who may be the gayest star ever in the world’s gayest sport, and has his own reality show.
It’s entirely possible that none of these men will even make the podium. Switzerland’s Stephane Lambiel will try to overcome the superior athleticism of some of the other skaters with his spectacular spins. France’s Brian Joubert is a world-class talent, left out of the medals at the last two Olympics despite winning several European championships in the interim. And the biggest story of all may be a Vancouver native, Patrick Chan, who comes in riding a hot streak after winning several big events this year. Chan, who won a silver medal at the most recent Worlds, is being picked by many to win Gold. If that happens, Hockey may have to take a back seat, if just for a day or two.

Men’s 1500m Long Track Speed Skating
SAT Feb 20 – NBC 8pm
This should be, by rights, a golden age for American Speed Skating. And yet the team struggles for media attention, racking up victories but little glory in its own country. In Torino, both Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis won Gold, Davis the first African-American man to ever do so in the Winter Games, and yet it did not seem enough. An off-hand remark by Hedrick was fanned by the media into a feud between the two, and the Olympics ended with a sour taste.
Davis has lost this race only once in the last two years (to Hedrick), but he is a strange figure. He comes from a single-parent home on the South Side of Chicago. His mother is seen as domineering by some, a hero by others. She has publicly and repeatedly made statements like “Shani would be dealing drugs right now on a street corner if it wasn’t for me.” He has refused to train or take coaching from the national team, or with anyone else. He’s refused almost all interview requests. When asked about Stephen Colbert’s involvement with the National team, he responded simply “Stephen Colbert is a jackass, and you can put that in the paper.” A few months later he ended up on Colbert’s show to make peace, but the scrutiny had reappeared.
The 1500m will feature all three major figures of the U.S. team, in addition to Davis there is Hedrick, a Texan inliner originally, who in Torino was known as cocky and a serial partier. In four years he has married and had a kid, and is now talking to anyone who will listen about how he’s found Jesus. There is also Trevor Marsicano, only twenty, who finished second to Davis in this event at the last World Championships. In addition to that trio there are the ever-present Dutch (Sven Kramer is the heavy favorite in the two distance events) and the Canadians, especially Denny Morrison, who have not been letting anyone else train on the Richmond Oval in hopes of gaining an advantage. Speed Skating is a strange universe, and it should have many subplots.

Men’s 1000m Short Track Speed Skating
SAT Feb 20 – NBC 8pm
The “other” big story of the games, the one not involving hockey, snowboards, or Lindsey Vonn, is that of Apolo Anton Ohno, who feels like he has been around forever now (I was reading about him in Sports Illustrated for Kids when I was 10). He was always a very heart-on-his-sleeve kind of guy from Seattle, with a publicly complex relationship with everyone from his father to his greatest rival, South Korea’s Ahn Hyun-Soo. He’s put his sport on the map and since the last Olympics won a season of Dancing With the Stars, something which NBC never seems to tire of mentioning despite it not even being their show.
He has five medals from the last two Olympics. The all-time career record for an American winter Olympian is Six, by Bonnie Blair. If Ohno can win medals in two of the four events, something that does not seem out of the question but isn’t a given this time around in this unpredictable sport, he will break the record. There seems to be a bit of anti-climax to the whole thing… Michael Phelps is just off winning eight Golds in just one summer games, which makes Ohno’s feats seem less impressive. And even if he breaks Blair’s record, she will still seem more impressive… five of her six were Golds, while Ohno has only two, and the opportunity to win medals in the relay, something Blair lacked.
Still, Short Track is a fun sport, full of crashes, speed, and mayhem, yet easy to follow. Its main drawback is that most of its biggest winners tend to be Koreans or Chinese who, to American eyes in any case, often seem to lack personality. Ohno has changed that, and now he has paved the way for his possible successor, one J.R. Celski, another Seattleite. In this race, if Ohno has medaled in the 1500, he might break the record, or we might see a changing of the guard. Or the Koreans might dominate, as they sometimes do, or a victory for a member of the home team might set the crowd to rocking. You never know.

Ski Cross
Men SUN Feb 21 – NBC – noon and 7pm – Women TUE Feb 23 – NBC – 3pm and 8pm
There will be only one new Olympic event in 2010, and it appears to be a pretty cool one. Ski Cross sounds pretty obvious when you think about it. Four skiers race down a curvy, bumpy course, first to cross the finish line wins. It’s more of straight-up “race” than the traditional one-at-a-time approach of Alpine Skiing, and it’s less objective than the other Freestyle Skiing events with which the Olympics have chosen to lump it in. It’s similar to Snowboard Cross, which was such a hit at the 2006 games.
On the Women’s side, the huge favorite is Ophelie David of France, who grew up on the island of Corsica and has a long, colorful history that includes a 1994 Olympic appearance as an Alpine Skier representing Hungary. She has been ranked number one in the world since 2004 and won the last six world championships. Still, this is the sort of sport where anything can happen, especially considering that several of the other most prominent contenders are Canadian.
The Men’s race seems less certain. Many are picking a local guy, Christopher Del Bosco. However, the current world number one is Michael Schmid of Switzerland. The event will even feature one Errol Kerr, representing Jamaica, who not only will be the nation’s first Olympic skier ever, but apparently has an actual chance of finishing in the top ten or so. The U.S. has produced a couple of major contenders who switched over from Alpine, Daron Rahlves and Casey Puckett. I have vivid memories of how much NBC insisted on talking about Rahlves in 2002, despite the fact that we all knew he wasn’t really going to win the Downhill. However, they both injured themselves spectacularly during the run-up to the games, with Rahlves wiping out during the Winter X Games and ending up essentially bouncing down the course on his side, so their participation seems in doubt. Still, whatever happens, it should be fun to watch.

Team Nordic Combined
TUE Feb 23 – NBC – 8pm
Nordic Combined, a combination of ski jumping and cross-country skiing dreamed up by Norwegians to prove… I’m not sure what, exactly, has been in every Winter Olympics in one form or another, and in all that time no American has ever won a medal. At the most recent World Championships, however, Americans somehow won all three events (Normal Hill, Large Hill, and Team). Nobody thinks they’ll repeat this performance, but they have a deep squad that includes names I’ve heard for years like Bill Demong, Jonny Spillane, and Todd Lodwick, and it would be a major surprise if they didn’t break that medal drought somehow.
The best chance is probably the team event. Like the rest of the sports’ events, this became much more watchable circa 1990 when they realized that they could stagger the start of the skiing portion based on the results of the ski jump, so that the winner actually crossed the finish line first and fans could tell what was happening just by looking at it. In the old days, the cross-country actually happened first.
Anyway, the U.S. won’t be able to walk to a Gold, and probably isn’t even really the favorites. Germany and Austria are at least as deep, while France’s Jason Lamy-Chappuis (who was actually born in the U.S.) has emerged as probably the best individual Nordic Combined athlete in the world this year, though France doesn’t really have the team to back him up. It’s hard for a lot of people to “get” this sport, but once we’re down to the end and Bill Demong is out there on the anchor leg trying to do the one thing these guys have been talking about for decades it should be pretty cool.

Curling
Men’s Final SAT Feb 27 – CNBC 6pm – Women’s Final FRI Feb 26 – CNBC 6pm
There is another sport besides Hockey on its home ground in these games. 90-something percent of the world’s curlers are Canadian, they say. In America, and much of the world, the sport enters our consciousness every four years. We come home from work and school to find an afternoon match on the TV, and find ourselves debating the strategies and groaning when the skip misses with his last rock. Curling is the closest the Olympics get to Chess, and to a certain group of us the sport has become a strange quadrennial tradition. The curling venue should have a different feel this time around. The arena in downtown Vancouver seats 7,000, and yet many locals have complained it is not large enough to satisfy demand.
And yet there is another seat of the sport, where the game was invented and all stones are required by rule to originate, in Scotland. Great Britain won the women’s competition four years ago, and this time around, it is the Men’s team that many think might take the Gold. If the all-Scottish team does not meet the wildly-supported hosts in the Final of the tournament, it will be a surprise to many.
Meanwhile, Canada faces its biggest challenge from an unlikely source on the Women’s side. China had never competed in any Olympics in Curling, then showed up at last year’s World Championships in South Korea with a team of highly-trained former gymnasts from Harbin and won the whole thing. Everyone was and is still very confused. Yet it is hard not to give them a chance in Vancouver.

Men’s Ice Hockey
Final SUN Feb 28 – NBC – 3pm
There are noises out there that the NHL and the Players Association are going to fight over participating in the Olympics 2014 (the league wants to back out, the players don’t), so this could end up as the last Olympic tournament with NHL stars for a while. If so, what a way to go out. Canada can hardly contain itself, it is so excited about this tournament, held on home ice, with a home team led by Sidney Crosby. Some say that many Canadians will consider the entire Olympics a failure if they don’t win Hockey Gold.
But they are far from the only contenders… Russia’s Alexander Ovechkin is Crosby’s main rival for Best Player in the World honors and the two REALLY don’t like each other. Russia defeated Canada in the 2006 Quarterfinals (Sweden eventually won the Gold) and then again in the final of the most recent World Championship. Sweden, the only nation to win two hockey golds in the past two decades, will be back with a team of NHL stars, as will the 1998 champs from the Czech Republic and 2006 silver medalists Finland. The U.S. will also send a team of NHL players, though interestingly few seem to give them much of a shot at a medal. (they’ve been placed in the same preliminary group with Canada) When the NHL first returned to the Olympics in 1998, many referred to these nations as the “Big Six”, but since then the field has caught up, with Slovakia. Belarus finished fourth four years ago, and Slovakia are also considered major contenders for a medal this time around.
The biggest event, however, will be the event itself… compared to the past three Olympics (two of which were held in the usually hockey-free zones of Japan and Italy), the atmosphere for hockey in Vancouver should be absolutely crazy. If you think Canadians are a little weird about hockey now, just wait for their team to open against Norway (the lowest-ranked team in the tournament) on Tuesday night. And if the home team isn’t up to the task, the rest of the Olympics could be pretty depressing.

A Decade in Review: 2009

January

NEWS

• Barack Obama is inaugurated in Washington D.C. as the 44^th President of the United States, in front of a record crowd on the National Mall.
• Within a week, President Obama announces plans to close Guantanamo Bay prison within a year and bans the use of torture.
• U.S. Airways Flight 1549 has a flock of birds fly into its engine upon take-off from Newark International Airport and is forced to land in the Hudson River. All 155 passengers are evacuated successfully as the plane gradually sinks on live television. Pilot Chesley Sullenberger is acclaimed as a hero and becomes something of a celebrity.
• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decleares a unilateral cease fire after three weeks of intense fighting in Gaza. However, Israeli Defense Forces remain in Gaza for a few more weeks. International observers are mostly frustrated, but at least 1,000 are estimated to have been killed.
• Gov. Rod Blagojevich is impeached and convicted in the state legislature on corruption charges and is removed from office. His Lieutenant Governor, Pat Quinn, assumes office as Governor.
• Slovakia becomes the 16^th nation to adopt the Euro as its currency.
• The Sri Lankan army captures the city of Klinochchi, long a stronghold of the rebel Tamil Tigers. By May the government declares victory in the lengthy Sri Lankan Civil War.
• New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdraws from Barack Obama’s nomination for Secretary of Commerce after corruption charges come to light.
• The Minnesota Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and former comedian and liberal radio host Al Franken ends in a virtual tie and enters a protracted, disputed legal process.
• The State Department announces it will not renew the contract of private military contractor Blackwater, much used by the Bush administration, amidst a variety of congressional investigations.
• Michael Steele becomes the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee.
• The U.K. announces a 300 pound bailout of its national banking industry, and Germany announces its own 50 billion euro economic stimulus package.
• The Icelandic government collapses as a result of the economic problems in that nation.
• 598,000 Americans lose their jobs this month, the worst single-month total since 1974.
• The number of unique worldwide internet users reaches one billion for the first time.

ARTS

• Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” has the best title of the year and becomes a #1 hit.
• John Updike and Ricardo Montalban die.
  

SPORTS

• The Florida Gators win their second straight NCAA football National Championship over the Oklahoma Sooners.

February

NEWS

• President Obama’s early appointments experience some difficulties. Former Sen. Tom Daschle withdraws as Secretary of Health and Human Services over tax issues and is replaced by Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius. Republican New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg is nominated for Secretary of Commerce by soon decides his differences with the President are too irreconcilable and withdraws, going on to become on the administration’s biggest critics.
• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a massive economic stimulus package, is passed by Congress and signed by the President.
• President Obama announces he will withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq by summer 2010. Meanwhile, he authorizes the dispatch of 12,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
• Southeastern Australia experiences a massive heat wave. Nearly 200 die in bushfires in the state of Victoria that destroy several towns. A hundred thousand are without power for an extended period.
• 651,000 more jobs are lost in the United States this month.
• The number of worldwide connections to the cellular network reaches four billion.
• The U.K. Conservative Party admits to altering Wikipedia’s article on the painter Titian for political purposes.

ARTS

• Slumdog Millionaire wins eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle. Heath Ledger receives a posthumous Best Supporting Actor award for his role in The Dark Knight. Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, and Penelope Cruz win other awards. There is some controversy after popular and critically-acclaimed films like The Dark Knight and WALL-E are left out of major categories in favor of smaller Oscar-bait films like The Reader and Frost/Nixon.
• Joss Whedon’s latest SF series Dollhouse debuts on FOX. It will end within a year despite critical acclaim, though it receives two full seasons.

SPORTS

• The Pittsburgh Steelers win their record seventh Super Bowl 27-23 over the surprising and high-flying Arizona Cardinals. Santonio Holmes makes an all-time great catch of a Ben Roethlisberger pass in the corner of the end zone as time expires to win the highly entertaining game.
• Reports surface that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids after MLB instituted a testing policy in 2003. Those that tested positive at that time were never supposed to have been revealed. He admits wrongdoing within a few days but says he has not used banned substances since that time.
• USA Swimming suspends Michael Phelps for three months after photos surface of him smoking a bong at a party.

March

NEWS

• President Obama lifts George W. Bush’s restrictions on funding for stem cell research.
• North Korea detains two journalists working for Al Gore’s CurrentTV channel and sentences them to hard labor, causing an international incident.
• Hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu wins election as the next Prime Minister of Israel.
• Rick Wagoner resigns as CEO of General Motors after the company posts nine billion dollars in losses in the most recent quarter.
• AIG announces its lost $61 billion since receiving its last bailout and receives additional federal funds.

ARTS

• Zack Snyder’s almost obsessive-compulsive film version of the Graphic Novel Watchmen debuts in theaters.
• Dreamworks animated film Monsters vs. Aliens is a box office hit. It is released, as are many major films this year, in 3D, leading much debate as to whether this is a fad or the next big thing in movies.
• Battlestar Galactica airs its controversial final episode.

SPORTS

• Martin Brodeur becomes the winningest goalie in NHL history while playing for the New Jersey Devils.
• Japan wins its second World Baseball Classic, defeating a surprising South Korean team in the final.
• Syracuse defeats Connecticut in a record-setting six overtime endurance contest during the Big East Conference basketball tournament. Syracuse goes on to earn a surprise bid to the national tournament.
• Connecticut completes their third undefeated season by winning the school’s sixth national title.

April

NEWS

• “Swine Flu” breaks out, first in Mexico, where it shuts down the capital, and then spreading quickly around the world. The disease is not as bad as first feared but does seem to be more deadly than usual for normally healthy demographics. Hundreds die worldwide.
• Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, long one of the more liberal Republicans in Congress, defects to the Democrats.
• The so-called “Tea Party” movement, a larger-than-expected coalition of various extreme right-wing elements opposed to government spending and President Obama in general, bursts into the public eye in a series of large demonstrations around the country on Tax Day. It is debated whether this is a great moment for democracy or makes Republicans just look really extra silly.
• President Obama announces plans for worldwide nuclear disarmament.
• Chinese and Russian hackers allegedly infiltrate the U.S. electrical grid.
• Piracy off the Somalian coast intensifies and makes international headlines with the hijacking of a French naval yacht. The French Navy eventually rescues the hostages and kills the pirates. In a separate incident, a U.S. ship is taken hostage, and President Obama orders the pirates executed in a successful raid.
• The U.S. Consumer Price Index experiences its first year-on-year deflation since 1955.
• The White House announces it will not pursue charges against CIA operatives who tortured terrorism suspects.
• Chrysler Motors declares bankruptcy, after several months of media reports that the Big Three automakers are about to go under.
• The United Kingdom officially ends combat operations in Iraq.
• Iceland elects a lesbian Prime Minister, the first nation to have an openly gay leader since the Roman Empire.
  

ARTS

• ER airs its final episode.
• Lady Gaga has her second straight #1 single, “Poker Face”. It is the biggest hit of the year, vaulting the theatrical and controversial singer to superstar status.
• Run-DMC and Metallica are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
• The fourth film in its series, Fast & Furious is a surprise smash in theaters.
• Susan Boyle’s performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent becomes an international sensation after it shows up on YouTube.

SPORTS

• North Carolina beats Michigan State in the final of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
• Famous NFL announcer and video game guru John Madden retires.
• The New York Yankees open their new stadium.

May

NEWS

• President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. She is eventually confirmed and is the first Hispanic-American to serve on the Court.
• The European Union levels a 1 billion euro fine against Intel for anti-competitive practices.
• Maine legalizes same sex marriage.
• Blackwater ends its operations in Iraq.
• General Motors and Chrysler announce nearly 2,000 dealership closings across the U.S.
• Manmohan Singh is elected for his second term as Prime Minister of India.
• The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes the final service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
• A scandal in the British parliament causes several cabinet ministers to resign. It turns out they had been charging unreasonable expenses to the government such as moats for their estates to the government. Americans make fun of British MPs for having moats.
• Dr. George Tiller, a well-known provider of late-term abortions, is assassinated in Kansas, becoming a symbol in the ongoing American dispute over abortion.
• Gen. Stanley McChrystal replaces Gen. David McKiernan as the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. He becomes a controversial national figure after repeated public face-offs with President Obama over more troops being sent to the region.
• Former Vice Presidential candidate and NFL quarterback Jack Kemp dies.

ARTS

• Blockbuster season begins with Star Trek. Director J.J. Abrams completely re-energizes the franchise with this franchise reboot, casting Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Simon Pegg as Scotty, and Karl Urban as McCoy.
• Pixar’s Up achieves widespread critical acclaim, though it is probably the least successful computer animated Pixar film at the box office.
• Angels & Demons, Terminator Salvation, and Night at the Museum: Escape from the Smithsonian are among a rash of forgettable big budget sequels.
• Green Day releases their album 21^st Century Breakdown, which is met with a generally underwhelmed response.
• Jay Leno leaves his hosting duties at The Tonight Show after 17 years, instead hosting a show five nights a week for NBC at 5pm in an attempt to save money by the network. He is replaced by Conan O’Brien.
• FOX debuts Glee, possibly the first musical series to be successful for a major network.

SPORTS

• FC Barcelona upsets Manchester United to win a high-profile Champions League final. Barcelona, led by Argentinean World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, goes on to win six major trophies this year, a record.
• Mine That Bird wins the Kentucky Derby as a 50-1 long shot.
• Manny Ramirez is suspended 50 games after testing positive for a hormone usually given to pregnant women. Everyone seems to forgive him immediately and some news stories start to run that people are tired of the steroids controversy.

June

NEWS

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is re-elected as President of Iran despite suspicious circumstances and mass opposition rallies. Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi stage mass protests, resulting a great deal of violence. The attempted revolution is at least partly organized and popularized on Twitter, but is rather brutally put down by the government. A woman named Neda is shot and killed at a rally by government troops and becomes an international symbol after video of the incident appears on the internet.
• General Motors declares bankruptcy.
• President Obama gives a much-watched speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, praised by some and criticized by others for its admissions of American fallibility.
• Everyone goes a little nutso after it becomes clear that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is “missing”. His staff eventually says he went to hike the Appalachian Trail, but this story doesn’t hang together, and it turns out he flew to Argentina to see his mistress after having marital problems. He returns and gives a long, rambling confession. He never actually resigns.
• An elderly white supremacist attacks the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., shooting at least two.
• Al Franken is finally officially certified as a Senator from Minnesota, and Norm Coleman concedes. With this victory, the Democrats finally reach the magical “60” number needed to pass legislation through the Senate without opposition… in theory, anyway.
• Air France Flight 447 disappears off the coast of Brazil. A few days of searching turns up a few pieces of wreckage and it is assumed that the plane crashed, killing all on board.
• New Hampshire legalizes same sex marriage.
• Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi is embroiled in scandal after nude pictures of him and various young women at his villa in Sardinia are published in a Spanish newspaper. It is soon revealed that he routinely slept around and tried to appoint women he’d slept with to the European Parliament.
• Palm launches its Palm Pre smartphone, as everyone else catches up to the iPhone all of a sudden.
• Chrysler is purchased by Italian automaker Fiat.
• The World Health Organization declares that Swine Flu has reached the level of a worldwide pandemic.
• New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is quarantined on Shanghai on the suspicion he may have Swine Flu. He does not.
• Rather hilarious political theater breaks out in New York after two Democrats switch parties to swing the State Senate to the Republicans. Both sides try to hold meetings in the Senate chamber simultaneously, and at another point Democrats lock themselves inside the chamber. Gov. Paterson eventually forces things to proceed.
• A Red Line train derails on the Washington D.C. metro, killing nine. There is speculation that the driver, killed in the crash, was texting at the time.
• China decides to block Google.
• The President of Honduras is exiled by his opposition, leading to a smaller, Latin American political crisis that gets pushed off front pages by news from Iran and Los Angeles.
  

ARTS

• Michael Jackson dies from cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles. Worldwide mourning ensues, though a few of us just don’t get it. Tabloids go into overdrive, and many feel that the fact that internet celebrity news organization TMZ broke the story is significant. There is speculation that Jackson’s death was brought on by a cocktail of drugs he was taking from a rather shady doctor.
• Farah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and David Carradine die, too.
• The raunchy comedy The Hangover is released in theaters. It surprisingly becomes the highest grossing adult comedy in box office history.
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen directed by Michael Bay is among the year’s most critically reviled films but becomes the year’s highest-grossing film in the U.S.
• Television broadcasts in the U.S. switch from analog to digital.

SPORTS

• LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, with what most fans think is their best team ever, are upset in the Eastern Conference Finals by Orlando Magic. The Magic go on to lose in the Finals to the Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers.
  The Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby reverse their defeat of the previous year with a Game 7 victory over the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
• Sammy Sosa is the latest baseball superstar to revealed to have tested positive during the 2003 round of drug testing. Most people feel like they already had figured this one out.

July

NEWS

• The first vaccine for swine flu is created in Germany.
• Sarah Palin rather inexplicably resigns as Governor of Alaska, citing how the “liberal media” hounds her. It seems to many like she’s resigned so she can have more time to be a celebrity and/or run for President.
• Widespread riots break out in the Chinese city of Urumqi between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese.
• Current CIA chief Leon Panetta accuses former Vice President Cheney of hiding various CIA programs from Congress, including a group of “secret assassins”.
• The Sears Tower in Chicago, once the world’s tallest building, is renamed the Willis Tower.
• It’s announced that the recession has ended in Canada, causing many to wonder how they got out of it and nobody else has.
• A car bomb goes off at a Spanish Guardia Civil barracks on Mallorca, killing two. Travel is completely disrupted in the area after authorities close ports and airports in order to prevent the attackers from escaping.
• Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates is arrested for “breaking into” his own house, seemingly because police assumed he was a criminal because he was black. This causes a media sensation and results in President Obama inviting both Gates and the arresting officer to the White House to “work things out over beers.”
• The “Cash for Clunkers” program, involving massive federal rebates to all cosumers buying more fuel efficient cars, results in the first up month in forever for the American auto industry.
• Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara dies.

ARTS

• Michael Jackson’s memorial service is held before 17,000 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and is broadcast around the world.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released in theaters. It is another huge box office success and is considered by most to be the best film of the series thus far.
• The Sci-Fi Channel changes its name to SyFy amidst much geek complaining.
• Author Frank McCourt and my childhood hero Walter Cronkite die.

SPORTS

• Steve McNair, Tennesee Titans QB in probably my favorite Super Bowl, is found dead in his Nashville apartment, apparently shot in the head by his mistress, who then killed herself.
• President Obama throws out the first pitch at the baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis, but gets booed. Republicans assume this is because people don’t like the President, but it’s probably because he insists on wearing a White Sox jersey.

August

NEWS

• The last surviving Kennedy brother Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, dies of brain cancer. Paul Kirk is eventually appointed to replace him.
• Former President Bill Clinton arrives in Pyongyang and secures the release of two American journalists who had been held in North Korea for months, seemingly in exchange for a photo-op with Kim Jong Il.
• The War in Iraq continues apace. A series of car bombings in Baghdad kills 100 on a single day.
• Yukio Hatoyama is elected as the next Prime Minister of Japan as elections throw out the previous government. His wife gives a speech within a few days describing her experience riding a UFO to Venus.

ARTS

• My childhood favorite Reading Rainbow airs its final episode after 26 years.
• After years of threatening, Noel Gallagher finally leaves Oasis.
• Disney buys Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.
• Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” becomes the longest-running single in the history of the Hot 100, with 71 straight weeks on the chart.
• Paula Abdul announces she’s leaving “American Idol”, the first major change since the mega-hit program began.
• District 9 is released in theaters. It becomes a hit despite its seemingly difficult subject matter, a science fiction, documentary-style take on alien-human relations in South Africa.
• Another surprise box office success is Quentin Tarantino’s latest, Inglourious Basterds, in which he explores revenge fantasies and cinema’s relationship with the Nazis.
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman becomes the first book to win both the Newbery Medal and the Hugo for Best Novel.
• Les Paul and John Hughes die.

SPORTS

• Brett Favre unretires again and signs with the Minnesota Vikings, arch-rivals of the Green Bay Packers who he spent most of his career with.
• Usain Bolt sets yet another 100 Meters record.

September

NEWS

• President Barack Obama gives a speech to Congress laying out his plans for health care reform. The speech is infamously interrupted by Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who shouts “You lie!” after Obama says his plan won’t cover illegal immigrants.
• Pittsburgh completely shuts down for several days out of fear of mass protests when it hosts a G20 summit. There are some protests, but nothing like what Pittsburgh seemed to be fearing.
• President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize, seemingly for not being George W. Bush. Republicans go apoplectic.
• Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says he believes the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s is about to end, though “job growth may be a lagging indicator”.
• Over 100 die in the Samoan islands after an earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.
• Thailand and the U.S. army announce that they may have discovered a vaccine for HIV.
• Ireland bans samurai swords in an effort to reduce crime.
• Two Bangladeshi newspapers apologize after publishing an article from The Onion, believing it to be real.
• Tea Partiers protest President Obama’s message urging school children to study hard and stay in shool, saying it is politically motivated.

ARTS

• Director Roman Polanski is arrested in Zurich on 31-year-old charges of sleeping with an underage girl in Los Angeles. This leads to a rather unreasonable amount of protest in the Hollywood community and Polanski ends up staying under house arrest at his Gstaad villa.
• Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV awards for Best Video is interrupted by a crazy-sounding Kanye West, declaring that Beyonce should have won for “the greatest video of all time”. A side controversy occurs after President Obama is caught on tape calling Kanye West a “jackass”.
• The final episode of 70-year-old soap opera Guiding Light airs, signaling the death of the afternoon soap.
• This Is It, a concert documentary featuring Michael Jackson’s last recorded performances, is a major hit in a limited two week run.
• A buddy comedy called Zombieland and an artsy adaptation of the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Spike Jonze create buzz in theaters for widely disparate reasons.
• Muse releases their new single “Uprising”, which becomes an international hit and will be played on every sports broadcast from now until the end of time.
• Major TV debuts include Modern Family, Community, The Cleveland Show, and FlashForward.
• Patrick Swayze dies.

SPORTS

• The Dallas Cowboys lose their first game in the new high-tech Cowboys Stadium on a last-second field goal to the New York Giants after an overblown pregame presentation referencing “great buildings of history”.

October

NEWS

• An earthquake strikes Sumatra, killing over a thousand.
• Ireland finally approves the Treaty of Lisbon, making the Czech Republic (where the President refuses to sign it) the final hold out before implementing the new governing system.
• Congressional debate is dominated by health care reform. Many legislators are dumb enough to hold public forums in their own districts that pretty much universally devolve into screaming by Tea Party activists and a few times into burnings in effigy. Discussion intensifies about what’s happened to the tone of the dialogue here.
• President Obama announces that he’ll end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning gays from the U.S. military. However, he has yet to actually do this. Thousands of protesters march for gay rights in Washington D.C. Later this month he does sign an act adding anti-gay crimes to the federal Hate Crimes law.
• GM sells its Hummer division to a Chinese company.
• Finland becomes the first nation to declare broadband internet access to be a legal right.
• A worldwide media circus surrounds an incident in Colorado where a six-year-old boy is alleged to have taken off by himself in a hot air balloon. It later becomes clear that it is a hoax perpetrated by his parents in an attempt to get a reality TV show. They both go to prison.
• The Government of Maldives holds the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in an attempt to raise awareness of global warming.
• Yahoo! discontinues its Geocities service, on which I built my first web page.

ARTS

• The Late Show host David Letterman causes controversy by admitting on-air to having extramarital affairs with members of his staff. A lot of people don’t seem to care, except, weirdly, for Sarah Palin.

SPORTS

• A Monday Night Football game on ESPN between Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers becomes the most watched program in cable TV history.
• Rio de Janeiro is awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics.
• The United Football League, an inept-seeming attempt to create a second football league in the U.S., begins play.

November

NEWS

• The President of the Czech Republic finally signs the Treaty of Lisbon. It goes into effect soon after. Herman van Rompuy is the first permanent President of the European Council and Catherine Ashton is the EU’s first Foreign Minister.
• 13 people die and 30 more are wounded after a Muslim doctor, Nidal Malik Hassan, goes on a shooting spree at Ft. Hood in Texas. The gunman is shot by police but survives. It is at first reported to be a possible terrorist attack but is later discovered to be the doctor most likely acting alone.
• A ship carrying 100 tons of hydrochloric acid collides with another ship and sinks in the Yangtze River.
• Tea Party activists run a third party candidate in a New York special congressional election, but this ends up backfiring on them when Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava is hounded into withdrawing and endorses the Democrat, who goes on to win.
• Republicans win previously Democratic governorships in Virginia and New Jersey in off-year elections, which some take to be a rejection of President Obama’s policies.
• John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the “Beltway Sniper” attacks, is executed in Virginia.
• President Obama visits China. He tries to hold a town hall-style meeting with students in Shanghai, but the Chinese government won’t broadcast it on television.
• The population of Africa reaches one billion.
• Healthcare reform debate continues in the U.S. Congress. It becomes clear that it will be hard to satisfy both the liberal and conservative wings of the Democratic Party with the same bill.
• It’s revealed that the government owned development corporation in Dubai is billions of dollars in debt. It is later bailed out by a similar corporation in Abu Dhabi.
• Terrorist attacks on trains in Russia kill two dozen.
• Police in Hong Kong attempt to find the founder of a Facebook group that claims all its members will commit suicide on December 21.

ARTS

• The Twilight sequel New Moon opens big in theaters. It breaks The Dark Knight’s opening day record but drops off sharply afterwards and does not really threaten the opening weekend record.
• Other box office hits include Roland Emmerich’s over-the-top disaster epic 2012 and the feel-good football story The Blind Side.
• The Original of Laura, an incomplete novel by Vladimir Nabokov, is published 32 years after his death despite his wishes that it be burned.
• Michelle Obama goes on Sesame Street for its 40^th anniversary and promotes vegetables, prompting lots of Tea Party shouting about how she’s trying to indoctrinate our children as vegetarians.
• Oprah Winfrey announces she will end her popular talk show in 2011.

SPORTS

• The mighty and controversial New York Yankees win their first championship since 2000 with a four games to two defeat of the Philadelphia Phillies. Alex Rodriguez is declared to be “redeemed” after steroids allegations after his dominance lifts the Yankees to the title. Some of us were unaware this was how you redemmed yourself for performance enhancing drugs.
• Tiger Woods is hospitalized after a car accident outside his home. It is later revealed he was fleeing from a domestic dispute and may have had at least a dozen separate extramarital affairs, some with porn stars. Many of Woods’ large corporate endorsements drop him and he eventually decides to take an indefinite leave of absence from golf.
• Controversy reigns in the European World Cup qualifiers after France defeats Ireland in a play-off where the winning goal was scored after star Thierry Henry admits to hittng the ball with his arm. Meanwhile, a victory by Algeria over Egypt in a similar playoff results in rioting.

December

NEWS

• President Obama announces plans for a “surge” in Afghanistan of 30,000 additional American troops, followed by an eventual U.S. withdrawal.
• A week or so later, President Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo with a long, eloquent speech essentially defending “Just War Theory”, which surprises many.
• The Copenhagen Conference on global warming is held, with some anticipating breakthroughs on climate change. The Conference is mostly derailed by disagreements between the U.S., China, and a coalition of developing nations.
• The Health Care Reform bill is finally passed by the U.S. Senate, though it has severe discrepancies with the House version and is thought by some liberals to be so neutered as to not be worth supporting. Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is so vilified by Liberals for his stance against the bill that it is rumored he will run as a Republican in the next election.
• A Nigerian national attempts to blow himself up on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, leading to a severe increase in security restrictions on international flights and much domestic political yelling. The wannabe terrorist is later discovered to be trained by al-Qaeda in Yemen, leading Sen. Lieberman, among others, to call for U.S. military intervention in that nation.
• Annise Parker is elected as Mayor of Houston, becoming the first openly gay mayor of a major American city.
• Defense Secretary Robert Gates admits that the U.S. has not had any information about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden for many years.
• SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first commercial spacecraft, is unveiled in New Mexico.
• Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is injured after being hit in the face by a model of a church thrown by a protester while visiting Milan.
• Mexico legalizes Same Sex Marriage and LGBT adoption.
• The death of liberal cleric Ayatollah Montazeri results in clashes between protesters and police that continue to escalate in Iran. Pro-government hackers manage to temporily shut down Twitter at one point in an attempt to forestall revolutionaries.
• Pope Benedict XVI is knocked over by a woman who jumped barricades at St. Peter’s Cathedral during the traditional Christmas Eve service.
• General Electric sells its NBC Universal holdings to Cable TV giant Comcast.
• I recap the decade on this blog.

ARTS

• Avatar, a SF epic James Cameron has been working on since Titanic, opens in theaters and has spectacular word of mouth growth due to its spectacular breakthroughs in special effects and 3D technology.
• Soap Opera As the World Turns is cancelled after 54 years.
• Roy E. Disney and Brittany Murphy die.

A Decade in Review: 2008

January

NEWS

• There are presidential primaries every week as states compete to be earlier and more prominent in the race. Among Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama wins in Iowa and South Carolina, Sen. Hillary Clinton wins in Michigan, Florida, and New Hampshire, and they essentially tie in Nevada. On the Republican side, Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas gains an upset victory in Iowa, while Sen. John McCain wins in New Hampshire and Florida while former Gov. Mitt Romney wins in Michigan and Nevada. By the end of the month, the field is essentially down to those five candidates
• Election results in Kenya seem to be disputed by everyone involved, and this results in escalating violence between the two sides. The 2000 Florida situation starts to look like a best case scenario.
• Growing fears of an American recession cause global stock markets to plummet. French trader Jerome Kerviel makes things worse by losing nearly $5 billion for Societe Generale in a scheme that I do not fully understand. The Fed responds with the largest interest rate cut in history.
• We all still have it better than those in Zimbabwe, where inflation this month is something like 150,000%.
• To everyone’s surprise, the government of Italy collapses, resulting in a call for elections.
• Bobby Jindal is sworn in as Governor of Louisiana. He is the first Indian-American Governor in the nation and the youngest in the country at 36.
• Sir Edmund Hillary dies.

ARTS

• Actor Heath Ledger dies of a medication overdose.
• Due to the writers’ strike, NBC holds an awkward press conference to announce the Golden Globes winners instead of actually putting on the awards ceremony.
• Cloverfield, a movie about a huge monster attacking New York City (as supposedly recorded by bystanders on their home movie camera) creates buzz with its release in theaters.
• FOX debuts its SF series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

SPORTS

• A bizarre series of events on the final day of the season leads to Ohio State getting back into the National Championship, this time against Louisiana State. For the second straight year, they get blown out, resulting in national grumbling.
• The NHL holds its first outdoor game New Years Day in a snowstorm in Buffalo, and it is a huge success. The league ends up making it an annual tradition.

February

NEWS

• 24 states hold their primaries on “Super Tuesday”. Sen. Barack Obama pulls ahead with 13 victories but Sen. Hillary Clinton still wins in nine states. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain wins nine, Mitt Romney wins seven, and Gov. Mike Huckabee wins five, all southern states. Romney drops out within the week. Obama then wins four more states the next week and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager resigns. McCain and Obama continue to win in various primaries the rest of the month and take the lead in their respective races.
• Fidel Castro resigns as President of Cuba in favor of his younger brother Raul.
• President Bush proposes a $158 billion economic stimulus plan, but it can’t get 60 votes in the Senate.
• The United States files charges against six alleged 9/11 conspirators, seeking the death penalty for “war crimes and murder”.
• The U.S. Senate votes to grant immunity to telephone companies complicit in the NSA’s warrantless wire-tapping.
• A gunman opens fire at a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, leaving six people dead and few dozen injured.
• The parliament of Kosovo declares its independence from Serbia. Mass protests follow in the Serbia capital of Belgrade. Demonstrators attack the embassies of several major powers, including an attempt to set the U.S. embassy on fire. Russia refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence, but most other major powers do so.
• The EU Anti-Trust Commission fines Microsoft a record 899 million euros for various violations.
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy marries former model Carla Bruni in Paris.

ARTS

• The Writers’ strike finally ends and Hollywood gets back into production.
• No Country for Old Men wins Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (the Coen brothers), and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem). Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard take home other acting awards.
• Paintings by Degas, Monet, Cezanne, and van Gogh are stolen from a museum in Zurich.
• Toshiba announces it will no longer produce HD-DVDs, signaling the end of this particular “format war” and the victory of BluRay.
• Actor Roy Scheider dies.

SPORTS

• The New England Patriots’ perfect season ends after a spectacular Super Bowl that ends with a 17-14 New York Giants victory. The Giants final, successful drive features an immediately famous catch by reserve WR David Tyree, while Plaxico Burress catches the final touchdown. Tyree has not played in the NFL since. It is the second most watched television program of all time and the most watched sporting event.
• A Senate committee holds a hearing regarding steroids in baseball at which Roger Clemens appears. This results in a rather hilarious show of craziness on all sides, most memorable to me for Mr. Clemens’ popularizing of the term “misremember”.

March

NEWS

• Dmitry Medvedev is elected to succeed Vladimir Putin as President of Russia, though by this point most realize that Putin isn’t going anywhere and will still pretty much be in charge. Sure enough, he stays on as Prime Minister.
• Wins in Texas and Ohio put John McCain over the top as the Republican candidate for President. Mike Huckabee withdraws.
• Sen. Barack Obama gives a famous speech in Philadelphia addressing racial divisions in America.
• New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is linked with a criminal investigation into an online prostitution ring. He admits to partaking in the service and resigns. He is replaced by David Paterson, who is legally blind and also becomes New York’s first African-American governor.
• Congress tries to outlaw torture techniques such as waterboarding, but President Bush vetoes the legislation.
• Investment bank Bear Sterns threatens to collapse overnight, receiving emergency funding from JPMorgan Chase to stay afloat. JPMorgan Chase then buys the bank for $2. The Federal Reserve makes emergency loans to 20 investment banks.
• Widespread unrest in Tibet is put down pretty firmly by China, resulting in over 100 deaths. France threatens to boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics because of this.
• The Iraqi military attacks the city of Basra, seen as the last major al-Qaeda stronghold in the country. Intense fighting leaves 40 dead and 200 injured over a weekend. Amidst the fighting, the U.S. suffers its 4,000th casualty in Iraq.

ARTS

• Amid industry skepticism, Hulu.com, a joint online video venture of Fox and NBC, goes online. It fairly quickly becomes a major force in the television industry.
• The merger of the two major satellite radio companies, Sirius and XM, is approved by the Department of Justice despite anti-trust concerns.
• Author Arthur C. Clarke and Director Anthony Minghella die.

SPORTS

• Green Bay Packers superstar QB Brett Favre tearfully announces his retirement from the NFL after 17 years.
• Anti-Chinese protestors threaten to disrupt the lighting of the Olympic torch at Olympia.

April

NEWS

• Congress votes to approve $50 billion in aid to Africa to fight AIDS and other diseases.
• Skybus Airlines very suddenly goes out of business and cancels all flights.
• Silvio Berlusconi is elected to a third go-round as Prime Minister of Italy. Hilarity ensues.
• Hillary Clinton continues to win various Democratic primaries and refuses to withdraw from the race, despite some pointing out is unlikely at this point that she will catch Barack Obama.
• The Josef Fritzl case, involving a man imprisoning his daughter in his basement in Amstetten, Austria and fathering several children by her, makes international headlines.
• Gas prices continue to skyrocket. Polls find that “consumer confidence” is at an all-time low.

ARTS

• Charlton Heston dies.
• Grand Theft Auto IV becomes the fastest selling video game in history, moving 609,000 copies in 24 hours.
• Madonna breaks the all-time record for most top ten singles with her song “Four Minutes”.
• Actor Wesley Snipes is sentenced to three years in prison for tax violations.

SPORTS

• The Memphis Tigers blow a late lead and lose in overtime to the Kansas Jayhawks in an exciting NCAA basketball Final.
• The Olympic Torch is met with thousands of protestors on a swing through London and Paris. Several attempts are made to put out the torch. A run through San Francisco is changed to a different route the day of, leading to mass confusion.
• Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300, the first American top-flight racing win for any woman.

May

NEWS

• A massive earthquake hits China’s Sichuan province. At least 62,000 are killed as shoddily constructed buildings collapse, many of them schools. Scenes of the destruction are broadcast around the world. China ends up relaxing its “one child” policy for families who lost a child in the earthquake.
• Cyclone Nargis slams into Myanmar, causing widespread devastation and more than 78,000 possible deaths. The situation is exacerbated when the Myanmar government refuses to accept most outside assistance.
• A series of increasingly bad tornadoes hits areas across the United States, resulting in dozens of deaths over the course of a week.
• Tens of thousands protest in Seoul against their government opening up importation of U.S. beef, believing there is a danger of mad cow disease.
• Rebels from Darfur attempt to attack the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, leading to increasing chaos and Sudanese accusations that Chad was truly behind the attack.
• The U.S. Department of the Interior declares that the polar bear is a threatened species due to destruction of its habitat by global warming.
• The Supreme Court of California rules that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, legalizing gay marriage in the state.
• The Phoenix lander successfully touches down on Mars.
• The Democratic presidential race continues, with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama splitting races. Clinton appears to be too far behind, and makes an emergency appeal for donations.
• Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts endorses Barack Obama for President. Shortly thereafter it is revealed that Sen. Kennedy has a brain tumor.

ARTS

• Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role is released in theaters and becomes something of a surprise megahit considering the main character is not among Marvel’s better known. However, it is helped considerably by the movie being, you know, really good.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earns over $100 million in its opening weekend but is thoroughly disparaged by fans of the series.
• The film adaptation of the TV series Sex and the City is a major box office hit, leading to much debate about the neglected tastes of the female audience.
• Director Sydney Pollack dies.

SPORTS

• Big Brown wins the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, once again raising hopes of a Horse Racing Triple Crown. Fillie Eight Belles breaks down after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby and must be euthanized, raising safety concerns once again.
• Manchester United win an all-English Champions League final on penalties over Chelsea.
• Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt bursts onto the world scene with a world record of 9.72 at 100m in New York.

June

NEWS

• Sen. Hillary Clinton suspends her presidential campaign and endorses Sen. Barack Obama for President, essentially giving him the Democratic Party nomination.
• The U.S. Supreme Court rules that terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay can challenge their detention in the American court system. The Bush administration publicly disagrees with and then ignores the ruling.
• In a separate case, the Supreme Court rules that the death penalty may not be imposed for crimes other than murder, overturning the sentences of Louisiana inmates convicted of rape.
• Hundreds die in the Philippines as the result of Typhoon Fengshen. The majority of the death toll are passengers on the MV Princess of the Stars, a crowded ferry which sunk in the storm, killing at least 800.
• The Caribbean Monk Seal is officially declared extinct.

ARTS

• Pixar releases what many consider to be its best movie yet, the science fiction robot love story WALL-E. The first half-hour of the movie is almost entirely without dialogue, yet the film becomes a huge success.
• Rapper Lil Wayne releases his album Tha Carter III, which becomes a huge success and sells a million copies in a week.
• The video game Metal Gear Solid 4 is released worldwide to massive sales.
• NBC reporter and Meet the Press host Tim Russert and comedian George Carlin die.

SPORTS

• The Boston Celtics defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. The Celtics are led by a triumvirate of stars in Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce, with the first two acquired in the previous off-season.
• Tiger Woods famously holds off Rocco Mediate in an 18-hole playoff at the U.S. Open, golfing with an injured knee. He then takes the next several months off to try and recuperate.
• The favored Detroit Red Wings defeat a Pittsburgh Penguins team led by superstar Sidney Crosby in six games to win the Stanley Cup.
• Big Brown finishes last in the Belmont Stakes, pulled up by his jockey who states that he felt like something was wrong. No physical problem with the horse is found. Da’Tara wins the race.
• Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, under investigation for connections to gamblers, accusing other NBA referees of rigging various games, including the key Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings.
• The European Championship in soccer is held in Austria and Switzerland. Spain prevails 1-0 in the final over Germany.

July

NEWS

• President Bush lifts a ban on off-shore drilling in an attempt to mitigate oil prices. It does not work. He also signs the Housing and Economic Recovery Act in an attempt to assist with the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
• Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate reaches 2.2 million percent. The Bank of Zimbabwe issues a 100-billion-dollar bank note.
• Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio presents articles of impeachment for President Bush to a House Committee, but they are never voted on.
• Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is indicted on seven counts related to his conduct as a Senator. He strenuously disputes the charges but does not get re-elected.
• Bruce Ivins, suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings, kills himself.

ARTS

• The Dark Knight, the second Batman film directed by Christopher Nolan, breaks the opening weekend box office record with $158.4 million. The late Heath Ledger co-stars as the Joker. The film receives universal acclaim, seen as the superhero film achieving the status of art. It eventually becomes only the fourth film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.

SPORTS

• Rafael Nadal defeats Roger Federer in a marathon that many say is the greatest Tennis match they’ve ever seen to win the Wimbledon title.
• Iraq is banned from participating in the upcoming Olympic Games after the government takes over the Iraqi Olympic Committee. Negotiations allow for the eventual reversal of this decision, but too late for many Iraqi athletes to compete.
• A year after returning to baseball after a battle with drug addiction, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers causes a sensation when he hits 28 homers (a record by far) in a round of the Home Run Derby, held as part of the All-Star festivities at Yankee Stadium.

August

NEWS

• The Democratic Party holds its convention in Denver. It nominates Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois for President and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware for Vice President. Obama gives a much-watched speech at a packed football stadium. Sen. Obama is the first African-American to be nominated for President by a major American party.
• Sen. John McCain suddenly elevates Alaska Governor Sarah Palin onto the national stage by choosing her as his running mate. Her conservative positions and folksy demeanor make her an immediate center of attention.
• The former Soviet republic of Georgia takes military action against separatists in its province of South Ossetia. Russia intervenes in this matter, becomes the only foreign nation to recognize South Ossetia, and invades Georgia. The city of Tshkinvali, caught in the middle, is pretty much completely leveled and thousands die. After a week or so of international crisis, President Medvedev announces that Georgia has been sufficiently “punished” and Russian forces gradually leave.
• In Pakistan, opposition parties in control of parliament move to begin impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf. He angrily resigns.
• Sen. John Edwards, former Vice Presidential candidate, admits to cheating on his wife during her battle with breast cancer.
• Tropical Storm Fay hits the Caribbean and south Florida, killing at least a dozen.
• Widespread protests demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister paralyze Thailand. Orange-clad demonstrators shut down Bangkok’s major airports for several days.
• The Gulf Coast is threatened by Hurricane Gustav, leading to another mass evacuation of New Orleans and much national apprehension.

ARTS

• Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, the final book in her immensely popular vampire romance Twilight series, is published to the largest sales this side of Harry Potter.
• NBC’s hilariously over-the-top soap opera Passions airs its final episode.
• Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac die.

SPORTS

• The Summer Olympics are held in Beijing, China. They generate huge interest worldwide, both due to the political situation with China and some high-profile competitions. The Opening Ceremonies are not boycotted as had been discussed, and considered the most spectacular in history. China has 51 gold medals but the U.S. has 110 total medals, leaving the two nations to publicly squabble about who’s really on top of the medals table. American swimmer Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals, some of them in extremely tight, exciting races, breaking records for most golds in one games and most career gold medals. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt becomes an international celebrity after three very impressive gold medal, world record performances in the sprint events.
• Brett Favre makes a strange decision to “unretire”, but the Packers announce they have moved on and eventually trade Favre to the New York Jets.
• The Boston Red Sox finally get tired of the antics of their star outfielder Manny Ramirez and trade him to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he hits a stunning .399 for the remainder of the season.

September

NEWS

• The Republican Party holds its convention at St. Paul, Minnesota. It nominates Sen. John McCain of Arizona for President and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska for Vice President.
• Seemingly overnight, the sudden collapse of investment firm Lehman Brothers causes waves throughout world economies. The American International Group (AIG) seeks a $40 billion emergency loan to stay afloat. In the end the Federal Reserve agrees to lend them $85 billion in exchange for, essentially, control over the company. Bank of America agrees to buy Merrill Lynch in an attempt to combat troubles at both firms.
• The Dow Jones average falls a thousand points in just a few days at this news. Worldwide markets experience similar falls. Trading has to be halted at several world exchanges, but this does little to stop the crash.
• The Bush administration asks Congress for $700 billion in bailout money to buy bad mortgages causing collapses at financial firms.
• John McCain “suspends” his campaign to help deal with the crisis. Barack Obama does not. Both head to Washington for talks with President Bush regarding bailout plans.
• Washington Mutual is seized by the FDIC, with most of its assets sold to JPMorgan Chase. This is the largest bank failure in American history. Meanwhile, Citigroup agrees to buy Wachovia and take on its massive debts. The Dow Jones drops 777 points in a single day, a record. It goes up 500 points the next day.
• Hurricane Gustav quickly weakens to a tropical storm and has a relatively light impact on the Gulf Coast. A few weeks later Hurricane Ike hits the Texas coast and causes a great deal of damage and eight deaths. Ike then continues at surprisingly high strength into the American heartland, causing blackouts for days, several deaths, and widespread destruction in areas not equipped to handle hurricanes. I am without power for about a week.
• Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda abruptly resigns less than a year after taking office. Taro Aso is elected to replace him.
• The U.S. economy loses a hundred thousand jobs this month alone.
• Asif Ali Zardari is elected as the next President of Pakistan.
• The Brahmaputra River floods in India, causing 24 deaths and displacing over two million people.
• An American air raid in Herat, Afghanistan, is estimated to leave 90 civilians dead. The U.S. military opens an inquiry into the matter. Intial claims that the destruction was overblown are put to rest by cell phone videos posted on the internet.
• The Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva is successfully used for the first time. The world is not eaten by a black hole as some had predicted.
• Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai sign a power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe under which Mugabe gets to remain President but Tsvangirai is granted considerable powers.
• An election is held in Thailand to address the current crisis and a new Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat, is elected.
• Rwanda becomes the first nation where women outnumber men in the legislature.
• The media discovers that Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol is five months pregnant, beginning a public soap opera that continues to this day.

ARTS

• Major new TV debuts include the vampire series True Blood, the biggest ratings hit in the history of HBO, CBS’ The Mentalist, Sons of Anarchy on FX, and The CW’s remake of 90210.
• Paul Newman and David Foster Wallace die.

SPORTS

• The New York Yankees defeat the Baltimore Orioles in their final game at Yankee Stadium.
• Tom Brady suffers a catastrophic season ending knee injury in the New England Patriots first game, eventually causing the NFL to rewrite some of its rules in order to better protect quarterbacks.

October

NEWS

• Congress passes the $700 billion dollar bank bailout and it is signed by President Bush.
• The Dow breaks its single day record again with an 800 point drop in one day. European markets fall an average of about 8% the same day. A week or so later it rises over 900 points in a day.
• The U.S. national GDP shrinks over the course of a month for the first time in 17 years.
• Sens. Obama and McCain engage in a tense series of debates. Sarah Palin and Joe Biden debate as well, leading to the seemingly disparate schools of opinion that Palin was terrible or amazing.
• Former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell publicly endorses Barack Obama for President.
• All three of Iceland’s major banks fail, causing grave financial fallout all over Europe and pretty much destroying that nation’s economy.
• The Connecticut Supreme Court rules that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry in that state.
• The U.S. announces it is ending its Space Shuttle program and plans to rely on Russia for space launches between 2010 and 2015.
• Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party are re-elected in Canada.
• India launches Chandrayaan-1, an unmanned lunar exploration mission.
• Two neo-Nazi white supremacists are arrested on charges of plotting to assassinate Barack Obama.
• Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota makes national headlines for the first time when she makes national headlines when she calls for investigations into “anti-American” activities by members of Congress during an interview on MSNBC.

ARTS

• Britney Spears has her first number one hit in several years with “Womanizer”.
• Another #1 hit this month is “I Kissed a Girl”, the debut single from Katy Perry. Amusingly, this becomes the 1000th #1 hit of the rock era, according to Billboard.

SPORTS

• The Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series four games to one over the surprising upstarts Tampa Bay Rays, who had previously not been remotely competitive since entering the league in 1998. This sets off wild celebrations in normally hard-luck sports town Philly. Game Five is halted with the score tied due to rain and the final three innings played two days later as the Phillies clinch.

November

NEWS

• Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is elected President, the first African-American to achieve that office. While not a landslide the margin is wider than some anticipated, with the final electoral count 365 to 178. Obama accepts in front of a huge, emotional rally in Chicago’s Grant Park.
• It is soon after announced that Barack Obama will nominate Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State and Timothy Geithner to be Secretary of the Treasury. It becomes clear that he intends to keep Robert Gates on as Secretary of Defense.
• The Democratic Party picks up five seats in the Senate and also slightly expands its margin in the House of Representatives. Mark Begich becomes the first Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress in 28 years. Democrats also gain the majority in the Ohio House of Representatives.
• California controversially passes Proposition 8, which once again bans gay marriage in the state.
• Mumbai experiences ten major coordinated terrorist attacks over the course of three days. At least 173 and killed and several hundred are wounded. The attackers turn out to be members of a Pakistani Islamic terrorist organization.
• The Bush government announces a second, smaller bailout of AIG. A few weeks later, the Federal Reserve announces a new $800 billion stimulus package designed to help unclog the frozen credit market. Included is a bailout of Citigroup.
• Circuit City goes bankrupt.
• The European Union undergoes officially enters its first recession ever. Japan is also officially in recession for the first time since 2001.
• The American auto industry appears to be on the brink of total collapse and all executives of the Big Three automakers appear before Congress asking for a bailout.
• Political tensions in Thailand escalate once again. Thousands of protestors shut down Bangkok airports. The government declares a state of emergency in an attempt to clear out the protestors.
• Malaysia bans the practice of yoga, claiming it is not compatible with Islam.

ARTS

• Slumdog Millionaire, a vaguely Bollywood tale of triumph over poverty in India directed by Danny Boyle, is the critical hit of the year and also becomes a success at the box office.
• Taylor Swift’s Fearless album is released, destined to become a huge hit and make her a megastar.
• The film adaptation of the popular young adult vampire romance novel series Twilight hits theaters and is a great success. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson become superstars due to their performances in the title roles.
• Daniel Craig’s second James Bond film, the puzzlingly-titled Quantum of Solace, is released. Most conclude it is a major step down after Casino Royale.
• Guns N Roses’ Chinese Democracy album finally comes out after seventeen years. Collective reaction is “eh…”
• MTV airs the final episode of the video countdown show Total Request Live, its influence having declined since the halcyon days circa 2000.
• FX airs the final episode of The Shield.
• CNN debuts a rather wacky system of field reporters appearing in the studio via holograms rather than on video screens during its election night coverage. Also inexplicably appearing via hologram is Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.
• Author Michael Crichton dies.

SPORTS

• The Columbus Crew win their first Major League Soccer title.

December

NEWS

• Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is arrested by the FBI on corruption charges. He is accused of attempting to sell his appointment of a successor in Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. He refuses to resign and the state legislature begins impeachment proceedings against him. He eventually appoints Roland Burris to the seat. After much drama and theatrics on all sides he is eventually allowed to take his post.
• Israel begins air strikes and other attacks against the Gaza Strip in an attempt to strike at Hamas-backed terrorists. Over 300 are killed in the first few days of the attack.
• The protests in Thailand are resolved after the Constitutional Court dissolves the government and bans the current leaders from participating for five years.
• Financier Bernie Madoff is arrested and admits to running the largest pyramid scheme in American history.
• President Bush visits Baghdad. The biggest news of the trip occurs when an Egyptian journalist throws his shoes at the President during a press conference.

ARTS

• Perhaps chief among the Oscar-bait films released is David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which Brad Pitt plays the backwards-aging title character. It becomes a box office success. Also released are Frost/Nixon, Doubt, and Gran Torino, among others.
• Beyonce scores another number one hit with “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)”
• Eartha Kitt, Harold Pinter, Mark Felt, and Bettie Page die.

SPORTS

• The New York Yankees are the only baseball team willing to spend money due to the financial crisis and end up signing C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and A.J. Burnett to rich contracts.
• The Detroit Lions become the first NFL team since 1976 to go winless through an entire season.
• O.J. Simpson is sentenced to 15 to 33 years in prison for the kidnapping and robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas.
• Sammy Baugh, considered by some the first great “modern” quarterback, dies.

A Decade in Review: 2007

January

NEWS

• President Bush announces plans for a “surge” (a short period of increased troops) to try and end the conflict in Iraq. He names Gen. David Petraeus the top commander in Iraq.
• Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York officially announces her intention to run for President.
• Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union.
• Russian oil supplies to Ukraine, Germany, Poland and Belarus are cut due to an escalating price dispute. As Russia is the main source for most of these countries, this causes widespread craziness. Supplies are restored three days later.

ARTS

• The Shins’ album Wincing the Night Away is a surprise hit, signaling the “indie rock” community reaching full-fledged mainstream acceptance.
• Somehow, Celebrity Big Brother manages to cause protests in both the U.K. and India after charges of racism are leveled.

SPORTS

• Soccer superstar David Beckham agrees to join Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy.
• The Ohio State Buckeyes do not look like they belong on the same field against Florida in the NCAA football National Championship and get blown out.
• Kentucky Derby-winner Barbaro is finally put down after several months where it was thought he might recover. Much debate ensues regarding whether horse racing is too dangerous.

February

NEWS

• Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois announces his candidacy for President from the steps of the Illinois State House in Springfield.
• Also officially announcing his candidacy is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who had finished second in the 2000 Republican race.
• Vice President Cheney visits Afghanistan, where a suicide bomber apparently attempts to kill him. The Vice President is not present when the bomb goes off.
  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues a report stating that global warming is “very likely” to have a human cause.
• Chinese President Hu Jintao signs a series of economic deals with the government of Sudan, raising allegations that China is complicit in the Darfur situation.
• Meanwhile, world stock markets plummet after both China and Europe issue smaller-than-expected growth reports in what becomes known as the “Chinese Correction.”
• Astronaut Lisa Nowak causes a media sensation for her attack on a romantic rival. Wacky details continue to emerge for several days, including the fact that Nowak wore a diaper while driving cross-country so she wouldn’t have to stop to use the bathroom.

ARTS

• Martin Scorsese finally wins his Oscar for The Departed, which takes Best Picture and Best Director.
• Fall Out Boy, and pop-punk as a subgenre in general, reach the zenith of their popularity with the release of their album Infinity on High.
• The Dixie Chicks sweep Song, Record, and Album of the Year at the Grammys.
• The O.C. goes off the air, having successfully brought back the prime-time teen soap and then gone off the rails.
• Anna Nicole Smith dies, causing one of the decade’s least justifiable media circuses.

SPORTS

• Peyton Manning, perhaps the biggest star of his era, finally gets his Super Bowl championship when the Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.
• Tennessee CB PacMan Jones instigates one of the more entertaining sports scandals of the decade after his attempt to shower strippers in dollar bills ends in someone getting shot. He has since played again, but this pretty much signaled the end of Mr. Jones’ young career.

March

NEWS

• As talk of a “surge” continues, a series of suicide bombings kills hundreds in Iraq, including several attempts on the lives of international leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon. Both houses of Congress vote to remove all troops from Iraq by March 2008, but President Bush vetoes the bill.
• Scooter Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney, is found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame case.
• Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina announces that he will run for President despite the recent revelation that his wife has cancer.
• In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe’s arrest of several opposition leaders, including Morgan Tsangvirai, sparks mass protest and an international crisis.
• A similar situation ensues in Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf has the nation’s Chief Justice arrested for “abuse of power”.
• Congress investigates the firing of eight U.S. District Attorneys by the Bush administration, believing them to have been politically motivated. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledges that “mistakes were made”.
• Turkey bans access to YouTube after clips insulting Ataturk are found on the site. This act is illegal in Turkey.
• President Bush goes on a tour of several South American nations, but is greeted everywhere he goes by mass protests.
• The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Washington D.C.’s anti-hand guns law (essentially a ban), holding that it violates the Second Amendment.
• Congressman Pete Stark of California becomes the first member of the U.S. Congress to openly state that he does not believe in God.
• Switzerland accidentally invades Liechtenstein after a platoon of soldiers gets lost.

ARTS

• Media giant Viacom, who owns broadcast network CBS and several cable channels as well as Paramount Pictures, decides to sue Google and its subsidiary, YouTube, for posting its products in violation of copyright law.
• Zack Snyder’s crazy sword-and-sandals graphic novel adaptation 300 is a box office hit, produces several iconic over-the-top lines, and sets new trends for action movies.
• David Fincher’s nearly three hour drama Zodiac, about the vain search for a serial killer in 1970s San Francisco, is released. It becomes one of my favorite films of the decade.
• R.E.M. and Van Halen are among those inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

SPORTS

• Former Major League pitcher Ugueth Urbina is sentenced to 14 years in prison in his native Venezuela after apparently trying to hack someone to death with a machete.
  

April

NEWS

• A student named Seung-Hui Cho goes on a violent rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech, killing 32 and wounding many others prior to committing suicide. It is soon revealed that Cho had sent an large package to NBC just prior to the shootings, in which he rants angrily about his fellow students. The state of Virginia tightens gun laws within the month.
• The U.S. and Australia issue public warnings telling their citizens not to travel to the Philippines, apparently due to some supposedly imminent terrorist threat.
• Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and Former Senator Fred Thompson enter the race for the Republican Presidential nomination.
• Gov. John Corzine of New Jersey suffers multiple injuries after a hit-and-run accident on the Garden State Parkway. Police reports show he was not wearing his seatbelt.
• The Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan is assassinated outside his re-election campaign headquarters, apparently by the Yakuza.
• Boris Yeltsin dies.
• The V.A. officially allows Wiccan symbols to appear on the headstones of deceased soldiers.

ARTS

• Author Kurt Vonnegut dies.
• Talk radio host Don Imus causes a circus-level scandal after he refers to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” on his program. CBS Radio ends up firing him, though he eventually returns to the airwaves.
• Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s weird experiment Grindhouse is released in theaters and pretty much fails at the box office.
• Avril Lavigne’s ridiculously catchy “Girlfriend” is a #1 hit.
• Nine Inch Nails release The Year Zero, their last studio album prior to going on “indefinite hiatus”. I play it so much this summer that my roommate has to ask me to stop.

SPORTS

• The Florida Gators defeat the Ohio State Buckeyes in the final of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Ironically, Florida becomes the first school ever to win the national basketball and football titles in the same year, and in both cases defeated Ohio State in the final.

May

NEWS

• The 2008 Republican Presidential candidates debate for the first time. The field includes John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, Rudy Giuliani, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, and Tommy Thompson.
• Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, announces he is running for President.
• Footage showing a 17-year-old Kurdish girl being publicly stoned to death is posted on YouTube, causing widespread international outcry.
• Conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is elected President of France. Many predict this will end an era of tense relations between the U.S. and France. This only sort of happens.
• A compromise measure continuing funding of the Iraq war makes it through Congress. It sets “achievement benchmarks” as a condition of the funding.
• Former Bush administration official Paul Wolfowitz resigns as head of the World Bank after alleged repeated ethics violations.
• Six muslim men are arrested on charges that they were plotting a terrorist attack against Fort Dix in New Jersey.
• Jerry Falwell dies.
• I graduate from college.

ARTS

• Spider-Man 3 is thought by most not to be close in quality to the first two films of the series but still sets yet another opening weekend box office record. Topher Grace and Thomas Haden Church play the villains Venom and Sandman.
• Also released this month is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which concludes the improbably trilogy and goes on to become the year’s highest grossing film.
• The Palme d’Or at Cannes goes to the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. It becomes one of the most critically acclaimed films of the decade but never really gets a decent release in the U.S.
• Michael Chabon’s noirish alternate history The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is published. It eventually earns a Hugo, thought by some to signal hardcore sci-fi’s acceptance of mainstream popularity.
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is published.
• Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight album is a megahit.

SPORTS

• The first F.A. Cup final is played at the new Wembley Stadium in London. Chelsea beats Manchester United 1-0 in overtime.
• Later this month, AC Milan defeats Liverpool for the Champions League title.
• Dogfighting allegations emerge against superstar Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick. He eventually loses his job with the Falcons and spends several months in prison, though he has since returned to the NFL.

June

NEWS

• Apple releases the iPhone, leading to the mass adoption of the PDA.
• Gordon Brown, formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer, replaces Tony Blair as leader of the Labor Party and Prime Minister of Great Britain.
• Turkish forces cross (or maybe do not cross) the Iraqi border while pursuing Kurdish militants, adding an extra bit of international crisis to the already chaotic Iraq situation.
• The European Union issues a report revealing “secret prisons” by the United States in Poland and Romania in which terror suspects could be held and tortured without public record.
• A car on fire crashes into the main terminal building at Glasgow International Airport, but fails to explode in an apparently foiled terrorist attack. Security pulls two men from the wreckage and beats the crap out of them.
• Both houses of Congress pass a bill that would ease restrictions on funding for stem cell research, but President Bush vetoes it.
• Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City, leaves the Republican Party and registers as an Independent.
• Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho is arrested at the Minneapolis airport for supposedly soliciting a male undercover officer for sex in the men’s bathroom using coded signals. Sen. Craig confesses, but later retracts this, stating he didn’t fully realize what was going on.
• Japan officially changes the name of Iwo Jima to Iwo To, “to reflect the wishes of its original inhabitants.”
• The Bald Eagle is removed from the endangered species list.

ARTS

• The final episode of The Sopranos is aired. Its ending, a mid-scene cut to black, is heavily debated across America.
• Flight of the Conchords debuts on HBO.
• The comedy Knocked Up makes a star out of Seth Rogen and signals Judd Apatow’s takeover of Hollywood comedy.
• Rihanna’s album Good Girl Gone Bad is released. It spawns several hits, notably “Umbrella” and “Disturbia”.
• MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski protests on air when she is forced to lead with Paris Hilton being released from prison instead of the Iraq War, and at one point attempts to set her script on fire on air but is prevented by her co-anchor.

SPORTS

• The Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James make a very fun run to the NBA finals, highlighted by James’ single-handed domination of the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, the team runs into a brick wall in the NBA Finals and is swept by the San Antonio Spurs.
• The Anaheim Ducks become another very random Stanley Cup winner in five games over the Ottawa Senators.

July

NEWS

• Democratic Party presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, and Mike Gravel, answer questions submitted via YouTube in an interactive debate.
• President Bush pardons Scooter Libby for his role in the Plame Affair, because why not at this point, right?
• A list of names of alleged clients of a Washington D.C. escort service (the so-called “D.C. Madam Case”) are released. Most prominent is Sen. David Vitter of Lousiana, who admits to the allegations and apologizes but does not resign.
• The National Counterterrorism Center issues a reporting stating that “al-Qaeda has regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001.” President Bush responds that this is “simply not the case.”
• Conflict breaks out in the Pakistani province of Waziristan, on the Afghan border. At least 24 Pakistani soldiers are killed in a suicide attack. The conflict continues to this day.
• Portugal legalizes abortion.
• Rupert Murdoch buys Dow Jones (and hence the Wall Street Journal) for $5 billion.
• A heat wave kills several hundred in Eastern Europe.
• Two news helicopters collide while trying to cover a high-speed chase in Phoenix, killing all on board.
• The U.S. minimum wage increases for the first time in ten years, to $5.85 per hour.
• The Burj Dubai overtakes Taipei 101 as the world’s tallest building and is still a year or so away from completion.

ARTS

• The final book in J.K. Rowling’s mega-bestselling Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is published to mostly good reviews. It sells a record 11 million copies in the first 24 hours.
• Meanwhile, the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the first of the films directed by David Yates, who will gain critical praise as he finishes out the series) is another hit in theaters.
• AMC premieres its first original drama series, Mad Men, about 1960s ad executives. It becomes a surprise critical hit, and before long becomes the closest thing in a while to the consensus best show on TV.
• Michael Bay’s Transformers film officially makes superstars of Shia LaBoeuf and Megan Fox and is a box office hit of surprising proportions.
• Drew Carey replaces Bob Barker as host of The Price Is Right.
• Film Directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni die.

SPORTS

• The 2007 Tour de France is nearly destroyed by doping allegations, as multiple race leaders test positive during the course of the race and more than one entire team withdraws from the race. It is eventually won by Alberto Contador.
• The International Olympic Committee selects Sochi, Russia as host of the 2012 Winter Olympics.
• 21 Chilean soccer players are arrested after they scuffle with Toronto police following a game in the U-20 World Cup

August

NEWS

• The I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis suddenly collapses during evening rush hour, killing 13 and injuring 135. The ensuing investigation reveals that much of the U.S. infrastructure is not properly maintained and decaying.
• The “Subprime Mortgage Crisis” hits the fan. Foreclosures begin in numbers not seen since the Depression. Stock markets worldwide take a nose dive.
• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces his resignation. Many connect it to the investigation into Justice Department firing of district attorneys. Also resigning this month is Karl Rove, Bush campaign guru and White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
• A court in Iowa rules that gay marriage must be allowed under the state constitution, making it the first “middle America” state to legalize the practice.
• An earthquake kills over 500 in Peru.
• The first-ever U.N. special session on climate change is extended an extra day because there are so many “worried nations” that want to describe their climate-related problems.
• Democratic Presidential participate in a forum focusing on gay and lesbian issues, a first for a major party.

ARTS

• The Disney Channel’s High School Musical 2 becomes the most-watched program in cable TV history.

SPORTS

• Barry Bonds, under a cloud of steroid suspicion, breaks the all-time career home run record while playing for the San Francisco Giants when he hits his 756^th against the Washington Nationals, passing Hank Aaron.
• The Texas Rangers break another record by scoring 30 runs in a single game against a hapless Baltimore Orioles squad.

September

NEWS

• The U.K. begins to pull out of its main Iraq base at Basra, handing control over to the local Iraqi government. President Bush orders “gradual” reductions in American troops but stands firm against “drastic” reductions.
• The Financial Times reports that China recently successfully hacked into the Pentagon’s main computer network.
• Massive flooding in Mozambique leaves hundreds of thousands homeless and at least 200 dead.
• Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett is reported missing over the Nevada desert. He is never found.
  
• The high-speed Eurostar train line is opened between Paris and London.
• A video surfaces of Osama bin Laden, his first public appearance since 2004. There had been rumors that he was dead.
• Thousands march in Buddhist-led anti-government protests in Rangoon, the largest public uprising in Myanmar in 20 years. The government cuts off the internet and cracks down.
• The so-called “Jena Six”, a group of African-American youths jailed after a schoolyard brawl, are supported by tens of thousands of protestors who descend on the Louisiana town.
• President Bush nominates Michael Mukasey to be the new Attorney General.
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travels to New York City to speak to the United Nations, but gets headlines for a speech at Columbia University in which he denies the Holocaust, says Americans should look at “who was truly involved” in the 9/11 attacks, and says that there is no such thing as gay Iranians.
• Gen. David Petraeus testifies against troop decreases in Iraq before a Congressional committee. MoveOn.org takes out a full page ad in the New York Times calling him “General Betray Us”.
• Andrew Meyer, a 21-year-old undergrad, interrupts a speech by Sen. John Kerry at the University of Florida and ends up getting tackled and tasered. The incident is of course immediately uploaded to YouTube, resulting in Meyer’s cry of “Don’t taze me, bro!” becoming a national catchphrase.
• The Canadian dollar reaches parity with the American dollar for the first time since 1976.

ARTS

• Halo 3 is released for the Xbox360. It breaks every sales record on the books for video games.
• Kanye West and 50 Cent release albums the same week. West’s Graduation debuts at number one.
• The networks somehow manage to produce a fall schedule without a single major new hit, prompting some to declare the era of network dominance over.
• Author Madeleine L’Engle and singer Luciano Pavarotti die.

SPORTS

• Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell sets a new 100m World Record of 9.74 seconds while running in a meet in Rieti, Italy.
• FCS team Appalachian State beats national power Michigan, 35-32, in what some call the biggest upset in College Football history. Michigan has since entered a downward spiral.
• Former NFL star O.J. Simpson is charged with six felonies in regards to an attempted robbery at a sports memorabilia auction in Las Vegas. He claims he was just trying to get his stuff back.
• The New York Mets lead the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East by seven games with seventeen left to play but completely collapse and fail to make the playoffs.

October

NEWS

• Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returns to her home country after an eight year exile. Thousands greet her in Karachi. Two bombs go off nearby, killing over 100.
• Leaders of the European Union reach agreement on the Lisbon Treaty strengthening relations among member states.
• Meanwhile, the Euro reaches a record high against the dollar.
• Wildfires in Southern California force a million people to temporarily evacuate. Gov. Schwarzenegger announces that he will “personally hunt down” those responsible for starting the fires.
• President Bush asks Congress for another $189 billion to fund the war in Iraq.
• Apple releases the Leopard operating system.

ARTS

• Radiohead, without a record contract, releases its album In Rainbows online, allowing consumers to pay any price they want for it. This is apparently a great success. I pay 2 pounds.

SPORTS

• The Cleveland Indians have probably their best season of the decade behind stars like C.C. Sabathia, Grady Sizemore, and Victor Martinez. They upset the New York Yankees in the first round of the playoffs and are three games up on the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS before falling apart like a house of cards.
• The surprising Colorado Rockies win 14 of their last 15 to squeak into the playoffs and then sweep their way to an NL title.
• The Rockies then run into a brick wall against the Boston Red Sox and crash out of the World Series. The Red Sox win their second title in four years and Boston sports fans become increasingly hard to live with.
• Five-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones tearfully admits at a press conference to using performance-enhancing drugs throughout her athletic career. She is eventually stripped of all medals. Recently the IOC ruled that the 2004 Women’s 100m that Jones won never officially happened.
• South Africa defeats England in the finals of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

November

NEWS

• Pervez Musharraf declares a National State of Emergency in Pakistan, resulting in widespread protests and arrests. He engages in power-sharing talks with Benazir Bhutto, which go nowhere.
• The Labor Party wins elections in Australia, with Kevin Rudd as the new Prime Minister.
• The Writers Guild of America goes on strike over a dispute with studios over residuals, particularly for internet video. Television shows shut down production, and many movies later released are obviously lacking badly-needed rewrites. The strike drags on for weeks before the union essentially caves.
• France is disrupted by massive transport and energy worker strikes in response to Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposed welfare and pension reforms.

ARTS

• The Coen Brothers’ Cormac McCarthy adaptation No Country for Old Men draws critical raves and sharply divides audiences (I remember the people behind me in the theater declaring it the worst movie they’d ever seen). Many consider it one of the decade’s definitive films.
• Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan publishes a “tell-all” book, including allegations that President Bush himself was involved in the Plame affair.
• Norman Mailer dies.

SPORTS

• Baseball superstar Barry Bonds is indicted by a San Francisco Grand Jury for perjury, apparently for lying under oath about his use of steroids. Though he never officially retires, no team will hire him to play for them after this.
• Daredevil Evel Knievel dies.
• Sean Taylor, star Safety for the Washington Redskins and formerly for the University of Miami, is murdered in his home after he catches burglars in the act.

December

NEWS

• A suicide bomber assassinates Benazir Bhutto and 22 others at a rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
• Kevin Rudd is sworn in as Prime Minister of Australia and immediately signs the Kyoto Protocol, leaving the U.S. as the only major hold-out.
• The U.S. Senate passes an energy bill that increases automobile fuel economy standards for the first time in three decades.
• Nepal abolishes its 240-year-old monarchy.
• Sen. Barack Obama receives the public presidential endorsement of Oprah Winfrey.

ARTS

• Oscar-bait films are in full swing. Paul Thomas Anderson’s unique oil epic There Will Be Blood is hailed as a major achievement, while screenwriter Diablo Cody bursts onto the scene for her quirky teen pregnancy drama Juno. It will earn a Best Picture nomination while Cody wins a Writing Oscar.
• Will Smith’s apocalyptic I Am Legend sets records for a December opening.
• Ike Turner dies.

SPORTS

• The Mitchell Report into steroids in Major League Baseball is released, and though it receives heavy criticism on a variety of fronts, it reveals wide-spread steroid use throughout the mid-90s. Several well-known players are mentioned by name, among them Yankees star pitchers Andy Pettitte, who immediately admits his wrongdoing and Roger Clemens, who does not.
• The New England Patriots become the first team since 1972 to finish an NFL regular season undefeated. They destroy every scoring record in the book, as Tom Brady breaks the single season Passing TD record with 50 and Randy Moss breaks the single season Receiving TD record with 23. The Patriots are roundly accused by running up the score on battered opposing defenses, continuing to pass well into the fourth quarter with huge leads. The final regular season game versus the New York Giants is broadcast on ESPN and becomes the highest rated cable program in history.