As this calendar draws to a close and we look forward to 2022, we again take time to reflect on a selection of some of the things and events that took place in 2021. Thanks as always for visiting. We’ve made it through another wild year together and we’ll see this next one through together as well.
january: In the US state of Georgia’s run-off election, Democrat candidates prevail and thus switch the Senate’s controlling majority. The joint session of Congress to certify the votes of the Electoral College in favour of the Biden-Harris ticket is interrupted by a violent insurrection on the Capitol incited by Donald
Trump, yet the proceedings are resumed undeterred. For his gross incompetence and treasonous actions, the US House of Representatives
impeaches Trump for a second time.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are inaugurated president and vice-president of the United States of America in a socially-distanced ceremony held on the same portico where the violent coup attempt occured two weeks prior. Across Russia, thousands protest the arrest and detention of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. English filmmaker
Michael Apted (*1941), entertainer Siegfried Fischbacher (*1939, see also
last May) and baseball players Tommy Lasorda (*1927) and
Hank Aaron (*1941), actress
Cloris Leachman (*1926) as well as accomplished star of stage and screen
Cicely Tyson (*1924) pass away.
february: A military uprising in Myanmar wrests power from the government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Actor Hal Holbrook (*1925) and veteran become fund-raiser who raised millions for the National Health
Service
Sir Captain Thomas Moore (*1920) himself succumbed to COVID-19. French screen-writer and director
Jean-Claude Carriรจre (*1931) passed away, and so veteran actor
Christopher Plummer (*1929). The US Senate again
convenes as jury to vote on whether to acquit or prosecute Donald Trump’s impeachment.
Larry Flynt (*1942), publisher, pornographer and self-styled anti-censorship champion, passed away, as did jazz virtuoso and twenty-three-time Grammy Award winner
Chick Corea (*1941). The
US Senate votes not to acquit Donald Trump a second time after his second impeachment. A polar vortex brings
severe winter storms to Texas and Mexico, leaving millions without heat and electricity has the power grid is overwhelmed. Talk radio provocateur
Rush Limbaugh (*1951) dies after a year-long struggle with lung cancer. Poet and activist
Lawrence Ferlinghetti passes away, aged 101. Martian probe
Perseverance touched down on the Red Planet to begin a search for signs of past life. The US
rejoins the Paris Climate Agreement.
march: Oprah Winfrey interviews the estranged, self-exiled Sussexes about Meghan Markle’s treatment
by the Royal Family, causing consternation and many to question the
institution of the monarchy.
Phantom Tollbooth author
Norton Juster (*1929) passed away aged ninety-one. A
container ship gets lodged in the Suez Canal, hindering global trade and could potentially be stuck for weeks. Legislators in the American state of
Georgia pass selectively restrictive laws to disenfranchise Black voters. Children’s book author
Beverly Cleary (*1916) writer of the Ramona Quimby series passed away, aged 104. The usurping military forces in Myanmar gun down dozens of pro-democracy protesters. Islamic rebels besiege the city of Palma in Mozambique. Undercover operative whose missteps brought the Watergate scandal to the press and public,
G. Gordon Liddy (*1930) died, aged 90, as did author Larry McMurtry (*1936) who penned
Lonesome Dove,
The Last Picture Show and
Terms of Endearment.
april: Prince Phillip passes away, aged 99. As tensions escalate between Russia and NATO with a troop
build-up along the border with Ukraine, US President Joe Biden
proposes to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to normalise relations and restore diplomatic ties. The police officer who
murdered George Floyd is found guilty on all charges.
Walter Mondale (*1928), former vice president under Jimmy Carter, and presidential candidate with running-mate Geraldine Ferraro passed away, aged ninety-three. Astronaut
Michael Collins (*1930) who orbited the Moon while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the lunar surface passed away, aged ninety.
may: Accomplished actor
Olympia Dukakis (*1931) passed away, aged eighty-nine. Architect
Helmut Jahn (*1940) behind the
Messeturm in Frankfurt and the
Post tower in Bonn died in a bicycle accident. Dozens of
rebel priests across German defy the Catholic church and offer benedictions to same-sex couple. Israel airstrikes in
Gaza escalate. Actor, author, televangelist and TV’s
Captain Merrill Stubing Gavin MacLeod (*1931) after suffering a long bout of ill-health.
june: G7 leaders meet in Cornwall, in person. A coalition government in Israel unseats Netanyahu after a
dozen years as prime minister. The US government establishes Juneteenth as a new federal holiday though new laws to disenfranchise Black voters continues apace in many Republican controlled polities. The space station Tiangong receives its first crew. Software and computer security pioneer
John McAfee (*1945) found dead in a Spanish jail cell awaiting extradition to the US over charges of tax evasion. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, was
disbarred for peddling the lie that that the election was stolen from his former client. The US government issues a declassified report to congress regarding
unidentified aerial phenomenon. A twelve storey condominium complex near Miami, Florida
collapses with dozens injured and unaccounted for.
july: Outrage as more mass-graves of indigenous pupils found at historic Canadian residential schools. Hundreds perish from record heatwaves and wildfires along the Pacific coast of North America. Angela Merkel makes her last official visit to the United Kingdom, addressing the Houses of Parliament, the last
foreign leader to do so since Bill Clinton in 1997.
Richard Donner (*1930), film director behind
The Goonies,
Superman and the
Lethal Weapon franchise passed away. England plans to fully reopen with no COVID-19 restrictions late in the month despite a resurgence in cases and the rapidly spreading Delta variant. Jovenel Moรฏse, the
Haitian president, was assassinated. Continual and torrential rains exacerbated by the climate emergency caused severe flooding in
western Germany and the Henan region in
China. The Special Committee on the January 6
th Capitol Insurrection heard
opening testimony from law enforcement on the scene of the terror attack. Inventor and infomercial pitchman
Ron Popeil (*1935) passed away.
august: The UN Panel on Climate Change issues a stark,
bleak forecast for the planet’s future as a suitable place for life as we know it. Wildfires rage throughout the Mediterranean, Siberia and the North American west coast. As coalition forces depart, the
resurgent Taliban takes several regional capitals in weeks with Kabul poised to soon collapse as authorities flee and embassies are evacuated. A massive
earthquake strikes Haiti. Tragically, most Afghani government officials flee the country and the capital falls as the Taliban retakes power and restores the emirate after nearly two decades of warfare. US army installations in Germany assist with
Operation Allied Refuge (OAR) as thousands of Afghans are airlifted from the country. Rolling Stones drummer
Charlie Watts (*1941) passes away.
Just days ahead of the deadline imposed to complete evacuation missions out of the Hamid Karzai international airport, an Islamic State affiliate and sworn enemy of the Taliban for being too Westernised, lax, undisciplined
detonated twin suicide bombs outside the gates, killing dozens. Veteran actor and advocate
Ed Asner (*1929) passed away as did Jamaican musical giant
Lee “Scratch” Perry (*1936). On the sixteenth anniversary of the devastating Hurricane Katrina, a destructive storm called Ida makes landfall. The Taliban celebrates with fireworks and firing rifles in the air the departure of the last US flight from the Kabul airport, declaring victory.
september: The legislature of the state of Texas passes a tranche of new laws curtailing voting access, restricting teaching of America’s racist past and present, mandating the national anthem at sporting events, permitting universal carry laws for firearms and doing away with licensure or training requirements and
essentially banning abortion by placing a bounty on abettors and deputising neighbours to litigate the ban against neighbours. New Wave actor
Jean-Paul Belmondo (*1933), whose roles defined the genre and called the French counterpart of Marlon Brando, James Dean and Humphrey Bogart, passed away. El Salvador becomes first country to adopt
Bitcoin as legal tender. “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” singer
Marรญa Mendiola (*1952) of Baccara passed away in Madrid. An effort to recall and replace Democrat governor of California fails and Gavin Newsome retains his place, though the balloting and counter-campaigns cost taxpayers of the state in excess of a quarter of a billion dollars. The first commercial, all-amateur
space tourism mission safely splashes down after three days in orbit. Entrepreneur, inventor and computing pioneer behind the
ZX Spectrum,
Clive Sinclair passed away, aged 81 (*1940). Justin Trudeau’s party retains power following national elections. After three years under house arrest in Canada and fighting extradition to America on charges of espionage and circumventing sanctions against Iran, business executive
Meng Wangzhou, daughter of the head of Chinese communications giant Huawei, is released.
october: US president Biden’s agenda is derailed, diminished by moderate voices in his party. A vaccine for malaria is trialled in Africa. Amid a growing corruption scandal, Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz
tenders his resignation, though choosing to remain leader of his political party and will retain his seat in parliament. William Shatner, aged ninety, as a
space tourist becomes the oldest human to enter the Earth’s orbit. Attending an open-advice surgery for his constituents from Leigh-on-Sea, long-time
MP David Amess was murdered by an attacker with a knife. Former US Joint-Chief-of-Staff and Secretary of State,
Colin Powell (*1937) dies from complications arising from COVID-19. President Biden’s
Build Back Better plan, under pressure from elements of his own party, is rather austerely pared back, dropping proposed benefits like universal college tuition and paid family-leave. Garbage social media network rebrands its parent company as
Meta as it prepares to build and embrace its concept of the metaverse. A military coup in Somali plunges the country into chaos with no signs of peaceful resolution.
november: A powerful storm-flood in western Canada cuts off Vancouver from the rest of British Columbia. Weaponised refugees massed at the EU frontier by a provoking Belarus at enormous personal
cost are slowly being repatriated to the lands they fled. After exonerated in a gross miscarriage of justice, Republicans acclaim a teenage, white supremacist murderer as their new hero. Award winning Broadway songwriter
Stephen Sondheim passes away, aged ninety-one in the same week as
Schoolhouse Rock! lyricist
Dave Frishberg (*1933). The COVID-19
Omicron-variant, first detected in South Africa, is causing major concerns as convention cases rage resurgent in Europe, poised to be more widespread and deadly than the same time a year ago. Inflation and supply-chain issues threaten global economic recovery.
On the anniversary of its independence from the UK in 1966,
Barbados becomes the world's newest republic, with Sandra Mason as the island’s president.
december: Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows releases Power Point slide-deck that outlined options for Trump to hold on to the presidency in the chaos of the 6. January insurrection to the 
commission investigating the attempted coup. Monkees singer Mike Nesmith (*1942) passes away. An unseasonal tornado rips through western Kentucky, leaving over a hundred dead. Gothic novelist Anne Rice (*1941 as Howard Allen Francis O’Brien) passed away. Tensions continue to mount at the Russo-Ukraine border with Russia putting forward a litany of demands for NATO to avoid invasion. Journalist and author Joan Didion (*1934) passed away due to complications from Parkinson’s 
disease. Borders close and travel-restrictions re-imposed over truly exponential spread of the the Omicron variant; preliminary findings suggest although less lethal, hospitals and other essential services could be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and vulnerable populations still need protection. Archbishop Desmond Tutu (*1931), anti-apartheid hero and moral-centre, passes away aged ninety. Sadly veteran blogger Jonco, behind Bits & Pieces, passed away quite suddenly, leaving the blogosverse a dimmer place. On the last day of the year and just weeks short of planned celebrations for her one-hundredth birthday, beloved talent and treasure with a career spanning over eight decades, Betty White (*1922) passed away.
The non-uniformity of these deposits—which will be sampled and hopefully returned to Earth for further study in 2030, suggests that different catalysts were in action to synthesise or metabolise these chemicals over time, preserving them under distinct conditions, possibly consistent with biological processes. Learn more at the links above.
