2023 will go down in history as The Year of the X, probably not because of the renaming of a certain social media company into just one letter but because everything's gone X-crazy these days. Anyway, as the world wraps up the Year of the X, it's time to do the Year in Review segment, summing up the twenty things we've learned from 2023, the Year of the X.
1) A powerful earthquake hits Turkey and Syria on the 6th of February, killing over 50,000 people.
2) On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed over 1,200 people in Israel, prompting the Israeli forces to declare war for the first time since 1973. The course of the bloody war saw Gaza casualties spike 20 times more than Hamas did in Israel during the attack.
3) On July 24, 2023, following last year's acquisition of Twitter, Elon Musk renamed the social media site X after merging Twitter with his company X Holdings, the parent company of Tesla and SpaceX.
4) King Charles III is crowned in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023. His coronation is the first in seven decades following the death of Queen Elizabeth II last year.
5) The OceanGate Titan submersible is believed to have imploded hours after beginning its descent into the Titanic shipwreck on June 18, 2023. All five passengers on the missing submersible are presumed dead and debris was found near the Titanic site. In the wake of the tragedy, the company OceanGate suspends its operations.
6) The Eat Bulaga war between the TVJ trio and TAPE Inc. forever shook the history of Philippine television. The TVJ and the Dabarkads enjoyed the spoils of the success of their show for over four decades until the Dark Age of Eat Bulaga came. No, it's not because of the COVID pandemic, it's because of the Jalosjos family in charge of TAPE that spurred a feud between TVJ and TAPE, Inc. That feud between them because of the show's proposed changes prompted the TVJ trio to leave TAPE for good at the end of May 2023 along with the other Dabarkads. Their farewell speech wasn't televised and instead streamed on the official Eat Bulaga Facebook page.
7) The summer of 2023 saw the Writers' Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA trigger the most historic strike in Hollywood, paralyzing nearly all of Hollywood until the demands were met such as fair pay and AI concerns. The strike caused delays in the production of movies and TV shows.
8) 2023 saw the arrival of the first-ever F1 Academy all-female junior race series. 15 aspiring female drivers from five teams with record experiences with past and current aspirants from other junior races like F2 are competing to determine who will be the first-ever F1 Academy champion. This series will serve as a turning point for female drivers looking for ascension to top-level motorsports such as F3, F2, and of course, F1. Marta Garcia made headlines as the first F1 Academy world champion while the team she represents, PREMA, was named the series' first team champions.
9) Republican takeover of the US House of Representatives following their midterms win is met with discord as they've ousted their own House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a first in US history. Following McCarthy's ousting, Republican lawmakers named Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, as their new House Speaker. Republicans right now are facing the heat following the blocking of passage calls for additional funding for Israel and Ukraine because of border issues with Mexico.
10) 19 wins per season, this is a historic record Max Verstappen set in the F1 2023 season, where he claimed his third world champion title. Red Bull had a near-perfect winning score this season and despite being spoiled by Ferrari in Singapore, Red Bull Racing clinched its sixth constructor's championship title.
11) Early January 2023 saw the professional racing driver and Hoonigan co-founder Ken Block die at the age of 55. Block died in a snowmobile accident, as confirmed by Hoonigan. Ken Block got his shot at fame for his Gymkhana videos. The recent ELECTRIKHANA 2 video is the last to feature Ken Block before his passing.
12) The 2023 season of the Supercars Championship marked the beginning of the Gen3 era of Australia's premier touring car racing series. The Camaro-Mustang rivalry has arrived in the Land Down Under in the form of their newest Supercars racing machines. While General Motors' announcement to ax the Chevrolet Camaro after 2023 spoiled its welcoming feat, the 2023 season marked the final season for Shane Van Gisbergen as he heads to NASCAR in 2024 following his shock Chicago win. The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship concludes with Brodie Kostecki crowned the champion, a first for a Camaro driver, while the team he represented, Erebus, nailed its double championship win.
13) The State Farm Stadium roars to life with the Super Bowl LVII where the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles clash to determine who will win the championship title but there's more to it than that because not only this Super Bowl match is a clash between the Kelce brothers, Chiefs' Travis v Eagles Jason, it's the first time the final two teams led by black quarterbacks, making this Super Bowl very special. Thanks to Harrison Butker's field goal with eleven seconds left in the game, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles at the score of 38-35, winning Super Bowl LVII. Patrick Mahomes was named MVP.
14) July 14, 2023, saw the showing of Studio Ghibli's most secretive movie in Japanese cinemas titled The Boy and The Heron, it is by no means the most secretive movie in the world. What's known to be the ultimate masterpiece of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki nearly a decade in the making is surprisingly a masterpiece with a mystery.
15) The return of the Miami Heat at the NBA Finals as well as the rise of the Denver Nuggets saw these two teams locked in on an epic best-of-7 final battle to determine which team will win the title. As both teams delivered their close-call performances, the Denver Nuggets nabbed their first championship title after defeating the Miami Heat at the score of 94-89.
16) Two Hollywood movies clash on the big screen on July 21, 2023, with the Oppenheimer biopic movie and the live-action Barbie movie, sparking the Barbenheimer phenomenon. The live-action Barbie movie became the highest-grossing film directed by a woman.
17) The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup saw Spain defeat England by a point, clinching its first championship title. However, their victory parade was overshadowed by a kissing controversy by the team's boss.
18) India became the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon with its Chandrayaan-3 probe on August 23, 2023. The Indian spacecraft became the first to land in the Moon's south polar region.
19) The return of Ferrari in the 2023 WEC Season with their 499P Hypercar prompted a clash between Ferrari and Toyota. The most famous one is the 24 Hours of Le Mans race where Toyota's hopes for a three-peat in a GR010 ended in a heartbreaking failure with the #7 breaking down and the #8 colliding with the Arnage barrier as it struggled to chase the lead. It's no surprise that Ferrari made history in the centennial running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race as the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P made a historical win while the #34 Inter Europol Competition won the LMP2 class and the #33 Corvette Racing C8.R for the GTE-AM class.
20) The Conservative-ruled US Supreme Court ruled in favor of axing race-based affirmative action in college admissions in the United States on June 29, 2023, causing controversy among colleges across the US.
As the saying goes; "end of one nightmare, prelude to the another". So, what will the year 2024 bring us? Brace for impact and turbulence for whatever the year 2024 will bring us. Until then, have a happy new year.
No comments:
Post a Comment