Well, another year has gone by faster than we want to believe. It is hard to comprehend the significance of each passing day on its own, but string the hours together in groups of 365 (or 366) and the reality of the speed at which our lives advance dawns sadly upon us.
Anyways, philosophical rambling aside, 2012 has been quite an eventful year. Here are some of the more positive (well, sort of- it’s a matter of perspective) events that have made big news this year:
1. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II: The incredible 60 year long reign of the Queen called for much celebration. In fact, besides Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II is the only royal of the Commonwealth to have experienced such an anniversary. The British enjoyed a four day holiday over the Central Weekend, during which there were concerts, lunches, and services. The royal family toured the Commonwealth to mark the occasion throughout the year.
On another note, I’ll just casually mention that Justin Bieber also received a medal commemorating the Jubilee this year for achievement abroad that “brings credit to Canada.” (Not that that’s relevant of course….)
2. Facebook Goes Public (May): If you don’t understand stocks, the basic gist of it all was that Facebook decided- sorry, was forced- to allow the public to invest in the company. In other words, Facebook switched hands from being owned by a few people to being owned by public investors and companies. However, it’s launch into the stock market was a disappointment, performing well below what was expected.
3. Egypt Votes (June): Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood saw victory over Ahmed Shafik, who had been the former President of the country for only a month before resigning in 2011. Morsi, being the country’s first freely elected president, won with a 51.7% lead over Shafik. Not a bad victory for the initial back-up candidate.
4. London Olympics (July): The highly anticipated sporting event started with a ceremony filled of appearances from Rowan Atkinson, JK Rowling, and Paul McCartney, to name a few. Michael Phelps’ and Usain Bolt’s performances were eagerly awaited, and it was no surprise when they both won multiple golds. The Fab Five, Ye Shiwen, Missy Franklin, and Tom Daley were amongst the young winners who have no doubt, bright futures ahead.
Amongst all the highs, there were also lows: much talked about Liu Xiang fell in the hurdles, Canada’s relay team won bronze and then lost it, and the Canadian women’s soccer team controversially lost in a nail biting match against the Americans.
Overall, the third hosting of the Games by London saw many surprises. Not surprisingly though, the United States and China came out on top in the medal count, and Great Britain made an unforeseen leap in gold medals to finish 3rd in the rankings overall. Canada finished with one gold, five silver, and twelve bronze for a total of eighteen medals.
5. Gangnam Style (July): Everybody’s heard of this song and it’s artist, PSY by now. And if you haven’t, a single Google search brings up an overwhelming 564 million results- though, it is still shy of the billion views the video has since received, earning the title of most watched YouTube video ever. The K-Pop song, released in July, blew up over the internet in August and September. In just a few months, PSY has become a household name, with various parodies and covers of his song earning just as much success as he himself. I mean, how can horse-dancing just go unnoticed?
6. Landing of Curiosity (August): Technology and space travel have definitely advanced to mind-blowing stages, and the landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover was anotherdefining moment of space travel. Launched November 2011, Curiosity’s main purpose in mind was to search for pre-existing life on Mars. Since the landing, Curiosity has since discovered several complicated- and organic- compounds. Sadly (or not so sadly), they aren’t sure indicators of previous life.
7. The Big Jump (October): Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner took a huge leap (what an understatement) from the Earth’s stratosphere on October 14- a project sponsored by Red Bull and determined to set big records. Baumgarnter’s jump broke the sound barrier, claimed the records of highest freefall parachute jump and greatest freefall distance, and even set the record for most live stream views on YouTube at the time of his leap. Well, everyone certainly did “jump for joy” (ha ha) when Baumgartner made it safety down to Earth.
8. USA Presidential Election: The election was quite the epic showdown between Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. In the end, it was President Obama who won the election, with 332 electoral votes, while Governor Romney earned only 206. Interestingly, both Romney and Ryan lost the votes of both their home states, and 60% of young voters voted Obama.
9. The End of the World! (December): The day we all waited for- December 21, 2012- came and went with no real eventful catastrophes. Being another failed doomsday prediction, the day was much hyped about- after all, no one can forget that $200 million dollar movie produced off the fuel from the anticipation of this day. Thankfully, the Mayans were wrong and we can live to see 2013 (and Iron Man 3 in May).
