Here we are again, the last article of the year. We have had a lot to think about in 2016. Sometimes things didn’t go the way people wanted and sometimes they did, depending on who you are and what you wanted. We had a chance to see a political meltdown which we could only compare to the meteor strike that wiped out the dinosaurs and it isn’t finished yet. The old administration is using a machine gun to take pot shots at the incoming one. The incoming one is using social media in a way it has never been used before. If healing was ever needed in the political establishment it is needed now. We had leaked emails, Wikileaks outdoing the established news media, politicians from one party putting down their party’s candidate and allegations that a foreign nation fixed the election. I don’t think anyone could say politics was dull this year.

We seemed to have more famous people die this year than usual. Carrie Fisher’s death surprised everyone since it seemed to be premature. On top of that the beloved actress Debbie Reynolds, her mother died immediately after. Prince was even younger when he died and his huge fan base will miss him. David Bowie died at age 69 and Pat Harrington Jr. died at 86. Many will remember him as the handyman Dwayne Schneider on “One Day at a Time.” Edgar Mitchell the famous Apollo 14 astronaut died this year, but will exist forever as an Apollo legend. When Antonin Scalia the Supreme Court judge died it caused a political fight over his replacement which hasn’t been chosen yet. Harper Lee the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” didn’t make it to 2017. Many older readers will remember George Kennedy. His movie career was quite long. He made it to 91 years old. Some people were very sad to hear Nancy Reagan died, but she had a long life, making it to 94 years of age. Frank Sinatra Jr. died. He never made it to the stature of his father, but was famous never the less. Patty Duke’s death saddened a lot of us. Merle Haggard the country music star bit the dust this year. Though not as famous in this country Papa Wemba the man known as the king of Congolese rumba died this year. Morley Safer won’t be doing any more new reports. Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers in history died on June 3rd.  Gordie Howe who was known as Mister Hockey also died. Elie Wiesel the famous Nazi hunter succumbed this year. Gene Wilder didn’t make it past 2016. Golf will never be the same, because of the death of Arnold Palmer. You may not have liked Fidel Castro, but there is no denying he did have an effect on history. Another space pioneer John Glenn died at 95 years old. Zsa Zsa Gabor one of the famous Gabor sisters made it to 99 years of age. Many others died, some more famous than others. I didn’t have the room to name them all.

One can’t talk about big events in 2016 without talking about Brexit. Britains decided they had enough of the European Union and voted to leave it. The powers that be couldn’t believe what had happened. It was sort of the equivalent of when Trump got elected. The people felt they wanted their own country to make decisions not politicians sitting up in Brussels. This decision sent a Shockwave throughout the European Union and to some lesser extent the United States. People rose up against their government in Poland and there were several demonstrations.

North Korea snubbed its nose at the rest of the world and continued with rocket tests and even conducted a nuclear test. They also continued to execute party officials who fell out of favor such as the Premier for Education Kim Yong Jin. It has been said the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un had executed hundreds of people since he took power and one was his uncle. He is also known for making the families watch the executions. They don’t call him mister nice guy for nothing.

Star Wars takes the audiences by storm AGAIN! Hulk Hogan single-handedly takes down Gawker Media when he wins a lawsuit against the media company for publishing a sex tape with Hogan on it from 2012. The amount of the award was 140 million dollars which put the company out of business. Superhero movies were everywhere in 2016 which saw Batman, Superman, Deadpool, Suicide Squad, Captain America and Doctor Strange.

Something very strange happened in 2016, a game company had people running all over the place looking for non-existent characters. It got so bad people were complaining about them running all over their property trying to find the characters which would appear on phones as you looked for them. It was a financial windfall for Nintendo which released Pokémon Go. For about a month almost everyone was playing and it became very annoying for those whose property was targeted as ground zero. The summer Olympics made it to Rio, but not everyone was happy about it. There were many complaints about the facilities and the water used for the events, but in the end everything seemed to turn out okay.

No report on 2016 could be complete without talking about the Chicago Cubs. It took seven games, but the team won the World Series, the first time it had won since 1908. It seemed everyone was pulling for them. Asteroid 2016 QA2 passed close to the earth. It was much closer to us than the moon. Two presidents were impeached in 2016. The first was Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and the other was South Korean President Park Geun-hye. A Coup took place in Turkey and it failed. Rodrigo Duterte became the president of the Philippines and insulted President Obama. China held a meeting of world leaders and rolled out the red carpet for them when they deplaned. They refused to roll out red carpet and stairs for Air Force One. President Obama left the plane by the cargo entrance on a rickety staircase. Talk about losing face.

Every year there are a lot of things that happen we would be interested in. If I were to list everything it would easily fill a book. I think I have covered the more interesting events of the year.