2017 was a year filled with violence, upsets, political issues, Trump, wildfires, harassment, more Trump, and science. Will the emergence of super-giant companies from this year have repercussions in the future? Will women have more power as “me too” slogans bring awareness of sexual harassment? Is a flood of red in world politics the right answer for democracies? What was learned and what was lost?
The answers will not be answered in the near future, but regardless, reflection on this crazy year is needed.
When writing this article I simply used “On This Day” to refer to specific dates for each month, just as the website does. This will help freshen up your memories as I know it did for mine. This article covers more serious events from the year, so sorry not sorry if you don’t see the Kardashians or other pointless celebrities in this article.
I simply care more about the victims of terrorist attacks, scientific breakthroughs, people less fortunate than Americans, and what politicians are doing to only help the top one percent.
January
Women’s March in Washington, D.C. the day after President Trump’s inauguration.
12th: President Obama awards Vice President Joe Biden with the Presidential Freedom Reward.
17th: Nigerian military mistakenly bombs refugee camp killing more than 70 in Rann, Borno state.
18th: NASA and NOAA announced that 2016 was the hottest year on record, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 which itself topped a record set in 2014.
20th: Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the United States of America.
21st: More than 2 million people protest worldwide in the 'Women's March' against Donald Trump.
30th: Scientists in central China reveal oldest known human ancestor - 540-million-year-old Saccorhytus in a fossil.
February
After an embarrassing mixup for Best Picture, “Moonlight” was the big winner.
1st: Rex Tillerson is appointed as 69th Secretary of State.
5th: The New England Patriots defeat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in one of the greatest comebacks in Super Bowl history.
13th: Donald Trump accepts the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn over his dealings with Russia.
20th: Famine is declared in Unity State, South Sudan, affecting 4.9 million people.
21st: Bodies of 87 African migrants wash ashore at Zawiya, Libya.
26th: 89th Academy Awards: Best Picture "Moonlight,” Best Director Damien Chazelle, Best Actor Casey Affleck, Best Actress Emma Stone.
March
Aftermath of U.S. airstrike in Mosul, Iraq that killed over 100 civilians.
5th: Donald Trump accuses former President Obama without offering any evidence of wiretapping Trump Towers during the presidential campaign via Twitter.
13th: My birthday happened, it was pretty much a big deal.
22nd: Arctic records its lowest ever winter ice cover at 5.5 million square miles, according to US National Snow and Ice Data Center.
26th: Anti-corruption protests in Russia result in hundreds arrested. Moments like this makes me proud to be an American.
28th: The U.S. confirms the airstrike in Mosul, Iraq that led to the collapse of a building that killed more than 100 civilians was an American attack. Moments like this make me unproud to be an American.
28th: Donald Trump signs Energy Independence executive order undoing Obama climate-control measures.
29th: U.K. Prime Minister Teresa May signs and sends article 50 letter to the E.U., formally triggering Brexit.
April
The injured passenger who was removed from United Airlines flight.
1st: Chinese leaders announce plans to build a city in Xiongnu New Area, 3x size of New York
4th: The Syrian government unleashes a chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun, Syria that kills more than 80 civilians.
7th: Donald Trump orders a missile strike on a Syrian airfield after chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun, Syria.
9th: Footage of a passenger forcibly removed from United Airlines flight in Chicago after flight overbooking causes outrage nationwide.
15th: Suicide car bomb kills 126, 70 of them children. The terrorists targeted buses carrying Syrian evacuees in Rashidin.
19th: Fox News confirms they would be letting go of Bill O'Reilly after allegations of sexual harassment.
May
Police escorted injured victim from Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.
6th: 84 abducted schoolgirls released in exchange for Boko Haram suspects in Nigeria.
7th: Emmanuel Macron wins France's presidential election defeating Marine Le Pen.
8th: Donald Trump dismisses FBI Director James Comey because he didn’t want him to investigate Russian Collusion in the election.
16th: 10-year-old girl granted special 20-week abortion request in Rohtak, India. The fact that the girl had to even request this is sickening, but thankfully a 10-year-old didn’t have to endure childbirth.
22nd: Suicide bombing at Ariana Grande concert kills 22 and injures 59 in Manchester, England.
30th: South Korean President Moon Jae-in orders a probe into additional launchers for the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system. This is mainly because of North Korea, but others speculate it’s to better monitor Chinese military actions.
30th: Large suicide bomb in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul, Afghanistan kills more than 150 and injures 400.
June
Archeological remains of earliest discovered Homo Sapien.
2nd: Donald Trump announces the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement.
3rd: Terrorist attack in Borough Market, London. Three men drove their van into pedestrians then proceed after by stabbing pedestrians. Seven were killed and 48 wounded after attackers were shot dead by British police.
4th: Ariana Grande creates benefit concert for victims of her Manchester concert bombing, featuring Coldplay, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.
7th: Earliest-ever evidence of Homo Sapiens from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco unearthed by archaeologists published in "Nature," at 300,000 years old.
8th: Ex-FBI chief James Comey testifies to a U.S. Senate committee that President Donald Trump told "lies plain and simple."
8th: U.N. claims Islamic State forces have shot and killed hundreds of fleeing civilians during the battle for Mosul, Iraq in a two-week span.
8th: British General Election results in a hung parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative party lose their majority. She didn’t even have to have a special election.
13th: Otto Warmbier returns to the U.S. in an unresponsive state after being held in North Korean jail for 17 months.
14th: U.S. Senate approves new sanctions against Russia as punishment for meddling in the 2016 election.
16th: Amazon announces it is buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.
17th: Bill Cosby trial for aggravated assault declared a mistrial after jurors couldn't reach a verdict.
19th: A first full genetic study of cats published in "Nature Ecology and Evolution," reveals domestication occurred 9,000 years ago, descended from one species (African Wildcat).
19th: Russia warns the U.S. it will target American and allied aircraft over Syria after U.S. fighter shoots down a Syrian warplane.
20th: Daniel Day-Lewis, my favorite actor, announces his retirement from acting. Hopefully, he changes his mind..
27th: Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook has reached 2 billion monthly users.
30th: Germany votes to legalize same-sex marriage in a snap vote.
July
One of the largest icebergs ever viewed detaching from its ice shelf.
4th: North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan.
5th: 101 people reported shot, 15 killed in Chicago, Illinois over 4th July weekend. #Merica #smh
6th: France announces it will ban petrol and diesel cars by 2040.
7th: Tesla Motors produces its first mass-market car, the Model 3. This will be the first Tesla vehicle affordable to the middle-class at roughly $35,000.
9th: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claims victory over Islamic State forces in Mosul.
12th: Giant iceberg breaks away from Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica, about 6,000 sq km in length.
20th: Elon Musk tweets he has "verbal govt approval" to build 29-minute Hyperloop between New York and Washington D.C.
21st: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigns after opposing the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci.
24th: Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner says he did not collude with Russia after meeting with Senate investigators.
26th: President Donald Trump announces a policy to ban transgendered people from the military, overturning Obama era changes. Some say transgenders only join the military to help pay for their expensive medications, but hey why can’t everyone have an equal opportunity to serve and protect this nation?
26th: Great Britain announces it will ban gasoline and diesel cars by 2040.
29th: Terrorist plot to bring down a plane averted in Sydney, Australia, 4 arrested.
30th: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces American diplomats in Russia cut by 755 in response to American sanctions.
31st: Anthony Scaramucci removed as White House Communications Director after less than two weeks.
August
August 21st total solar eclipse.
2nd: First successful gene editing in human embryos to repair disease-causing mutation reported by scientists in "Nature."
2nd: President Donald Trump signs legislation imposing sanctions on Russia, limiting his ability to ever lift them
8th: Walt Disney Company announces plans to create its own streaming service, canceling ties with Netflix. This isn’t good for what Disney does in December.
9th: North Korea says it plans to fire rockets on U.S. territory Guam in continuing escalation of tension between it and the U.S.
10th: President Donald Trump declares opioid addiction a national emergency. Finally, something I can agree on.
12th: "Unite the Right" march in Charlottesville, Virginia turns violent when car rams protesters killing one and injuring 19.
12th: President Donald Trump at a press conference at Trump Tower says “there is blame on both sides” about Charlottesville violence, provoking widespread condemnation.
14th: President Donald Trump condemns racist violence at the White House after criticism of his earlier response to Charlottesville violence. Too bad the world leader couldn’t do it the first time.
15th: Scientists genetic study of the apple reveal its origin was in Kazakhstan, published in "Nature Communications."
16th: Baltimore city council removes confederate statues under cover of darkness in response to Charlottesville violence.
17th: Collision of two neutron stars witnessed for the first time first picked up by U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo).
18th: White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon is fired by President Donald Trump
21st: Total solar eclipse visible from North America.
25th: Category 4 Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas northeast of Corpus Christi with 130 m.p.h. winds.
26th: Hurricane Harvey downgraded to a tropical storm, National Hurricane Center warns of “multi-day rainfall disaster.”
27th: Former five-weight world boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats MMA fighter Conor McGregor in his debut match in the 10th round in Las Vegas.
28th: Kenya brings in world's toughest ban on plastic bags with possible U.S. $38,000 fine and four years in jail.
29th: Hurricane Harvey sets rainfall record (51.88 inches in Cedar Bayou) from a tropical cyclone in the continental U.S., according to U.S. National Weather Service.
September
Hurricane Maria was a category 5 when it struck the island country of Dominica, leaving only 10% of its infrastructure intact.
4th: President Donald Trump announces Dreamers program, The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) will be stopped. These are the children of illegal immigrants that were born on American soil and have known no other home besides America, now they will be forced to leave the country for paying their taxes and doing nothing wrong...
5th: Hurricane Irma becomes the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history with winds of 185mph.
7th: Consumer credit reporting agency Equifax reports earlier cyberattack could affect 143 million Americans. That’s over half of the adult population of America.
12th: Apple unveils premium iPhone X costing $999, along with iPhone 8.
14th: Bodleian Library reveals the earliest evidence of the zero symbol in 3rd or 4th Century Bakhshali (Pakistan) manuscript, through carbon dating.
18th: Hurricane Maria passes over the Caribbean island of Dominica as a category 5 hurricane, destroying 90% of structures and killing 27.
20th: Hurricane Maria makes landfall on Puerto Rico as a category 4 hurricane, knocking out all power and killing 25.
21st: Discovery of the first brainless animal that sleeps, the jellyfish Cassiopea, research published in "Current Biology" by Caltech scientists.
22nd: President Donald Trump withdraws an invitation to the White House for NBA champions Golden State Warriors after Stephen Curry says he doesn't want to attend.
24th: NFL players kneel, lock arms or stay in their dressing room during the anthem in protests against comments made by President Donald Trump.
25th: Ex-New York congressman Anthony Weiner sentenced to 21 months in jail for sexting underage girl.
26th: Saudi Arabia announces it is overturning its ban on women driving--last country in the world to do so.
28th: Hugh Hefner dies.
October
On November 29th Matt Lauer was let go from the “Today” show due to sexual misconduct.
1st: At a concert in Las Vegas Stephen Paddock kills 58 people and injures another 489 in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
2nd: Tom Petty, the American classic rock singer, dies of a heart attack at 66.
3rd: Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves."
4th: Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for their work on cryo-electron microscopy.
5th: Iraqi forces claim victory and control over Islamic State's last urban stronghold Hawija, Northern Iraq.
5th: "The New York Times" publishes an investigation into sexual harassment behavior by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
6th: Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
7th: Rapper Nelly arrested for rape in Auburn, Washington.
8th: Wildfires ignite in Northern California wine country, killing at least 41 over the next week, with 20,000 evacuated.
9th: Producer Harvey Weinstein is fired from The Weinstein Company after allegations of sexual abuse.
13th: Archaeologists announce the discovery of Arabic characters "Allah” and “Ali” on Viking funeral costumes from a grave in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden. Not sure how this happened but this is too cool! #nerdlife
14th: Terrorist bomb attack on a truck in Mogadishu, Somalia leaves more than 300 dead and hundreds injured.
14th: Producer Harvey Weinstein is expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after historical revelations of sexual harassment and rape.
15th: 500 wildfires occur in Portugal and Northern Spain fanned by winds from Hurricane Ophelia, killing at least 35.
16th: Findings published of neutron star collision, the first cosmic event seen in gravitational waves and light, confirms heavy elements such as gold are the result of such collisions.
17th: Islamic State headquarters Raqqa declared under full control of US-led alliance by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Sello after 4 months of fighting.
20th: Pollution linked to 1 in 6 deaths worldwide or 9 million in 2015 report published in "The Lancet."
27th: First operation to separate conjoined twins joined at the head in India completed in New Delhi.
30th: President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and associate Rick Gates are indicted on fraud charges, advisor George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to the FBI.
30th: Actor Kevin Spacey issues an apology after actor Anthony Rapp accuses him of inappropriate sexual behavior when he was 14.
31st: Terrorist attack in New York when a truck mows down people on a cycle lane, killing eight and injuring 10.
November
On the 21st an interstellar asteroid dubbed Oumuamua was the first discovered asteroid that came from another star system other than our own.
1st: Houston Astros win their first baseball World Series defeating the LA Dodgers 5-1 in game 7 at Dodger Stadium.
3rd: Pakistani woman charged with poisoning 17 members of husband's family in an attempt to escape a forced marriage in Punjab Province.
5th: Gunman shoots 26 dead and injures 20 at a church in Sunderland Springs, Texas.
7th: U.S. Democrats dominate off-year elections; Ralph Northam wins Governor of Virginia and Philip Murphy Governor of New Jersey.
9th: Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls in "Washington Post" report.
13th: World's earliest wine-making uncovered from Khramis Didi Gora, Georgia, in clay pots from 6,000BC.
15th: Three UCLA basketball players suspended after admitting shoplifting in China, only released at President Trump's request.
16th: 19 countries pledge to phase out coal at U.N. Climate Summit in Bonn, Germany. Why is America the only country not doing this?
21st: Oumuamua comet, 400 meters and reddish, first known comet from another star system revealed by scientists.
22nd: Uber admits hackers stole personal information affecting 57 million people worldwide and paid $100,000 to keep quiet.
29th: American TV host Matt Lauer is fired from NBC's "Today" show after an allegation of sexual misconduct.
December
California wildfires ignite in the month of December.
1st: President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the F.B.I.
3rd: First pizza party in space held by astronauts of the International Space Station.
4th: President Trump scales back Utah National Parks--Bears Ears National Monument (85%), Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (50%).
4th: Thomas fire begins and spreads to Ventura, California.
5th: Russia is banned from the next Winter Olympics in South Korea over state-sponsored doping.
5th: Democratic representative John Conyers resigns from U.S. Congress after allegations of sexual harassment.
6th: Time Magazine names their Person of the Year "The Silence Breakers," people who came forward to report sexual misconduct.
6th: President Donald Trump officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, announcing plans to move US embassy there. No president has done this in the past 45 years, and for good reason. Hopefully, a religious war doesn’t break out.
6th: "Supermassive" most distant black hole discovery announced by astronomers in the journal "Nature," 13 billion light-years away, 800 x bigger than the Sun.
7th: Virtual currency Bitcoin rises in value, passing $18,440 on some exchanges.
7th: Former U.S. gymnastics physician Larry Nasser is sentenced to 60 years on child pornography charges.
7th: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Australia.
11th: Saudi Arabia announces an end to its 35-year ban on cinemas.
11th: U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand calls for the resignation of President Donald Trump given 16 women have accused him of sexual harassment.
11th: Six wildfires in Southern California now cover an area larger than New York City and Boston combined.
12th: Democrat Doug Jones defeats Republican Roy Moore for Alabama Senate seat in upset win marked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore.
14th: The Walt Disney Company buys most of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion.
14th: U.S. media regulator the Federal Communications Commission votes to end net neutrality. Netflix could cost more now.
20th: U.S. House and Senate pass $1.5 trillion tax bill, biggest tax overhaul for decades.