As this calendar draws to a close and we look forward to 2024, we again
take time to reflect on a selection of some of the things and events
that took place during the past year. Thanks as always for visiting. We’ve made it
through another wild year together.
january: Hundred of thousands pay their respects, attend funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, presided over by his predecessor in Vatican City. Supporters of defeated president Jair Bolsanaro stormed the capitol in Brasilia. 
Caches of official records and classified files have been discovered mishandled and stored in offices used by Joe Biden after his vice-presidency. Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck passes away, aged 78. Lisa Marie Presley, artist and singer, has died, aged 54. Wracked with successive and endemic problems, Haiti descends into anarchy after the last of its elected officials depart the country. Singer David Crosby has passed away, aged 81. Jacinda Arden steps down as Prime Minister of New Zealand. US and Germany agree to send tanks to Ukraine. A group of five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee brutally murder Tyre Nichols with no justifiable provocation. After speaking out against the criminalisation of same-sex partnerships and denial of basic civil rights, the Pope will journey to South Sudan, joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of Scotland for a dialogue with local church leaders preaching a gospel of intolerance. Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday Addams, passes away, aged 64.
february: After announcing that conflict with China was on the near horizon, the US acquires additional bases in the Philippines to encircle its rival and potential adversary. Just days ahead of US Secretary of State’s visit to Beijing, NORAD announces the detection of a Chinese spy balloon over western America, prompting Blinkin to cancel his trip. 
Fashion designer and perfumier Paco Rabane passes away, aged 88. The EU holds a summit in Kyiv on Ukraine’s bid for membership. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf passes away, aged 77, after contending with a long illness. A powerful earthquake on the border of Syria and Tรผrkiye claims over five thousand lives, the death toll soon quadrupling. Songwriter Burt Bacharach passes away, aged 94. Facing a series of crises and increasing pressure from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, the government of Moldova is dissolved. Top-tier Czech footballer Jakub Jankto comes out as homosexual, the first professional player to do so. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon surprises her party by announcing her departure with no clear successor. Actor Raquel Welch passes away, aged 82. North Korea resumes missile tests in the Pacific and the US warns that China may attempt to arm Russia and delegates at the Munich Security Conference urge immediate fortification of Ukraine in order to prevent imminent defeat. Stand-up comedian and tv detective Richard Belzer dies, aged 78. Humanitarian and former US president Jimmy Carter enters hospice care. Just ahead of the one year anniversary of the start of the invasion, Joe Biden makes a surprise visit to Kyiv. Tech companies and media outlets continue tranche after tranche of staff layoffs. US House Speaker gives previously unreleased trove of January Sixth insurrection footage to conservative pundit Tucker Carlson. The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks its one year anniversary.
march: Evidence emerges that Ukrainian saboteurs were responsible for the underwater explosions that 
ruptured the NordStream I pipeline though questions remain. In the second largest bank collapse in the history of the US and the first of its kind since the 2008 crash, the Silicone Valley Bank servicing tech-sector start-up has become insolvent and went into government receivership. Thousands of civil servants in France go on strike in protest of legislation to raise retirement age. After Manhattan district attorney investigation into Trump directing hush-money to Stormy Daniels, US presidential candidate announces that he expects to be arrested and calls for protests. Mounting evidence seems to vilify suggestions that COVID originated from a lab leak in Wuhan. Despite attempts to contain the contagion, the fall out from the crisis with California fintech institutions cause havoc with banking stocks worldwide. UBS absorbs a beleaguered Credit Suisse. Xi and Putin enter an apparent entente against American influence. UN warns that time has run out on combating runaway climate change. Deadly, hour-long tornado strikes ravage rural Mississippi and Alabama. Intel Corp founder and thinker behind the eponymous law about the exponential improvement of technology Alan Moore passes away, aged 94.
april: Trump arraigned in the Manhattan district court over falsifying business records pursuant to hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. A US federal judge in Texas suspends the 2000 approval by the country’s food and drug regulatory body on the safety of an abortion pill, restricting its use. Demanding stricter gun-laws in the wake of another school and church mass-shooting, the Tennessee state legislator expel two Black lawmakers for their stance. 
Preoccupied with filibusters over trans-rights, the Nebraska state senate fails to pass a single law in this year’s legislative session. Tory ministers begin to walk-back plans for a full-scale repeal of EU regulations following an inter-party revolt against the post-Brexit arrangement. Phasing out of nuclear energy entirely, Germany closes its final remaining reactors. Revival military leaders have brought Sudan to the brink of civil war as factions of the regular army face the paramilitary rapid response force in Khartoum. More media organizations fold as ad revenue dries up and newsrooms turn to AI to generate copy, like BuzzFeed and Vice being the two latest to declare bankruptcy and curtail operations. Comedian and creator of Dame Edna Barry Humphries has passed away, aged 89. Civil rights activist and entertainer Harry Belafonte dies, aged 96. Joe Biden declares his party’s candidacy for a second term for president of the United States.
may: Gordon Lightfoot, folk legend, dies, aged 84. The WHO declares the global COVID-19 health 
emergency over. Charles III and Camilla are enthroned during a lavish ceremony in London. A jury finds Donald Trump guilty on the charge of sexual abuse and battery, labelling him a predator and pest. Elon Musk appoints a former television advertising executive as head of Twitter as he announces plans to transform the ailing social network into a multi-purpose app similar to China’s WeChat. Harry and Meghan are recklessly pursued by paparazzi in New York—with strong echoes of the death of his mum’s fatal encounter. China begins to call in loans to some of the world’s most impoverished countries after making them dependent on cheap credit. Tina Turner passed away peacefully, aged 83, in her home outside of Zurich—Simply the Best. Florida governor Ron DeSantis announces his presidential candidacy on Twitter.
june: The death toll of a catastrophic train crash in India approaches three hundred with countless more injured. After months of drama and tension, the US raises its debt ceiling to avoid default. A dam breach, blamed on Russia, causes massive flooding along the Dnipro river and forces tens of thousands to 
evacuate. Astrud Gilberto, the Queen of Bossa Nova, and original singer of the infinitely covered ‘Girl from Ipanema,’ has passed away, aged 83. Wildfires rage in Canada, smoke enveloping the Eastern Seaboard. The awaited Ukraine counteroffensive begins. Four children who survived an airplane crash in the jungles are Columbia are found alive having survived the forty day ordeal. Donald Trump is indicted on federal charges for retention of classified documents imperilling US national security. Boris Johnson quits Parliament ahead of an official rebuke from the House of Commons over Partygate. Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber and CIA UK Ultra test subject, is dead, aged 81. Media tycoon and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi passes away, aged 86. NATO holds large scale military exercises in Germany. The whistleblower and leaker behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, passes away, aged 92. A submersible taking a compliment of five tourist to the wreck of the Titanic is lost. Mercenary Wagner Group turns critical of the invasion of Ukraine and stages a mutiny after announced take-over by the Russian defence ministry, occupying Rostov-on-Don and proposing a march on Moscow, reaching half-way to the capital before a truce is negotiated by the Belarusian president. France riots over the death of a teenager after being shot by a police officer. US Supreme Court overturns affirmative action in college admissions, student loan forgiveness and LGBTQI+ anti-discrimination laws, though at least on the last case, it looks as if evidence was fabricated.
july: Joseph Pedott, marketing virtuoso, passed away, aged 91. Israel conducts a major military raid into a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. Despite warnings from humanitarians and a ban in place for their use 
by over a hundred countries, the US is sending surplus cluster-bombs from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts to Ukraine. Catastrophic flooding devastates Vermont and other parts of New England. Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild joins the writers’ strike. Jane Birkin, singer, activist and French icon, dies aged 76. Crooner Tony Bennett passes away, aged 96. After months of media hype and anticipation, the Barbieheimer phenomenon comes to cinemas. Singer Sinรฉad O’Connor has died, aged 56—nothing compares 2 u. Hunter Biden appears before court on charges of tax evasion and illegal gun-ownership, days after boudoir photos of him enter the congressional record, possibly in violation of laws against revenge porn. The Nigeria government falls to a military coup d’etat with the president taken into custody. Paul Reubens, the actor who portrayed Pee-Wee Herman, passed away aged 70, after a private bout with cancer. Voyager 2 after two weeks of radio silence has re-established contact with Earth.
august: Donald Trump is indicted for his role in fanning the flames that culminated in the January Sixth 
raid on the Capitol and attempts to over turn the 2020 election. Wildfires devastate the Hawaiian island of Maui and the town of Yellowknife is evacuated as forests are engulfed in Canada. A rare hurricane, the first in eighty years, passes over Baja California, causing flooding and heavy rains, a year’s worth in a single day. Ex-Wagner chief and senior leadership perish in an airplane crash. Indian lands a probe at the lunar south pole. Trump is arrested, booked and released on bail after in Fulton County Georgia. Long-time US game show host Bob Barker dies, aged 99 (playing by Price-is-Right rules until the end). An unprecedented hurricane strikes Florida’s Big Bend region between the panhandle and peninsula. “Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffett passes away, aged 76.
september: Drought and wildfires are followed by flooding in Greece. An earthquake strikes the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, killing hundreds and destroying parts of Marrakesh. Rupert Murdoch steps down from News Corp. Fighting erupts in Nagorno-Karabakh, the breakaway region of Azerbaijan. After more than five months, the Hollywood Writers’ Guild reaches a deal with the studio and ends its strike. In solidarity with striking autoworkers, US president Joe Biden joins the picket line, the first for a sitting holder of the high office. As counter-programming to the second Republican debate, Trump also makes an appearance with union workers.
october: Hamas and other terror groups launch a surprise attack on Israel, causing Tel Aviv to declare war against Gaza with thousands killed on both sides. Earthquakes in Afghanistan leaves over a thousand dead. An eastern Pacific tropical cyclone devastates Acapulco with hundreds killed and many more displaced.
november: Three-hundred thousand marched for peace in Palestine through London during Armistice Day celebrations after earlier rallies drawing in huge numbers to urge Israel enact a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. 
Pope Francis dismisses an ultra conservative bishop in Texas who criticised the pontiff's more progressive stance on non-gender-conforming members of the Church. OpenAI’s board of directors have ousted founder and CEO Sam Altman, the chief representative of the chatbot revolution and proponent for regulatory framework, for his lack of candour and transparency. Microsoft immediately hired Altman and fellow defectors. Humanitarian and former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter passes away. Rightwing populist Geert Wilders wins a controlling share of the Netherlands’ parliament. A temporary cease-fire is called in Gaza to allow the release of hostages and more humanitarian aid to enter the beleaguered city. Henry Kissinger dead at one-hundred.
december: Fabulist and fraudster George Santos expelled from the US congress. Israel renews attacks on 
Palestine after a temporary truce. Legendary television producer Norman Lear passes away at 101. Israeli forces extend attacks in southern Gaza, where many fled to avoid the violence. Ousted US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy tenders his retirement from Congress, leaving the Republicans a controlling majority of only two seats. The EU enacts the world’s first comprehensive AI regulatory framework. A volcanic eruption occurs on the Icelandic Reykjanes peninsula with Sundhnรบkagรญgar dumping lava and prompting evacuations. Trump confidant and former New York City mayor Rudi Guliani declares bankrupcy after being ordered to pay nearly one hundred-fifty million dollars in restitution for libelling Georgia election workers. Houthi pirates attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea cause transportation to round the Cape of Good Hope. A mass shooting in Prague leaves fifteen individuals dead. Missing Russian opposition figure Alexei Nalvalny emerges, detained in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle. A heavy barrage of missiles hit Kyiv as US financial and materiel backing driess up.Veteran German parliamentarian Wolfgang Schรคuble passes away, aged 81. Jacques Delors, statesman who helped shaped the European Union dead at 98. Entertainer Tommy Smothers dies at 86. Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues, with the death toll of civilians surpassing twenty-thousand.
Reclassified several times from a planet-proper, to dwarf planet, to asteroid and presently with a dual designation combining the last two—the only one of the latter catalogued not beyond the orbit of outer planets, it is about a quarter of the size of the Earth’s Moon and is cryovolcanically active with an extremely rarefied atmosphere of water vapour. Piazzi’s original proposal was to name his discovery after the Roman goddess of agriculture (hence the sickle and whose main temple and earthly home was in Sicily), Ceres Ferdinandea—the latter in honour of his patron and king Ferdinand III was roundly rejected (see Neptune above) by the international community. Ceres was visited in 2015 and studied closely by NASA’s Dawn mission in 2015 and return trips are planned by the European and Chinese Space Agencies.
