This last year has been another chaotic year for the record books. We say this every year, but something about 2023 was just odd. It felt long and never ending, until all of a sudden it was December and we were heading into a new year. It was a year where we had Chinese spy balloons, which felt like a lot longer ago than last February. We had two bank failures, Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, the latter being the second largest in U.S. history. We had a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria followed by a 7.7 magnitude aftershock on the same day, causing widespread damage and more than 59,000 fatalities and 121,000 injuries. Clearly it was a chaotic year, making it even more reason to go through it.
Entertainment
We’ll start off with the event of the summer: Barbenheimer. Premiering on the same day, July 21, the films Barbie and Oppenheimer caused a major internet and cultural event. Both movies received critical acclaim and blown past box-office expectations. Music was also a blockbuster hit with tours like Taylor Swift’s the Eras Tour and Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour. The Eras Tour became the highest grossing tour of all time and the first to surpass $1 billion in revenue.
Strikes
2023 didn’t come without its fair share of strikes. The entertainment industry was deeply affected by the Writer’s Strike and Actor’s Strike. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike from May 2 until Sept. 27 while SAG-AFTRA was from Jul. 14 to Nov. 9. 2023 had a third strike as The United Auto Workers (UAW) began a strike against the three largest American automakers, namely Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis on Sept. 15 and officially ended on Oct. 30. The three strikes have hurt the United States economy as according to Yahoo Finance, more than 75,000 jobs have been lost due to the strikes.
International
2023 came with its own war. Hamas launched an incursion into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, prompting a military response from the Israel Defense Forces. Since Oct. 7, more than 30,000 people in Gaza have been killed, including more than 13,000 children according to ABC News. In addition to the Hamas-Israel war, 2023 marked the second year for the Russia-Ukraine war and on Apr. 10, two documents from the Pentagon detailing foreign military aid relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine were leaked onto the Internet.
Politics
It was definitely an interesting year for politics, especially involving American politics. We had two Speaker of the House after Kevin McCarthy was historically ousted from office, being replaced by Mike Johnson. Of course we don’t want to forget about Donald Trump, who became the first former president to face criminal charges (91 federal and state charges in fact). Trump wasn’t the only politician to face criminal charges, George Santos was expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives following 23 fraud related charges.
Environment
2023 was a record for the environment as the world’s oceans reached record high temperatures (69.73 °F) and was the hottest year on record. For the first time in recorded history, the global average temperature temporarily exceeds 2 °C above the pre-industrial average. Then on June 6, New York City was declared to have the worst air quality out of any city in the world due to smoke from wildfires in Canada, according to IQAir, a Swiss air monitoring company. On the island of Maui in Hawaii, a series of wildfires broke out resulting in 17,000 acres of land being burned and at least 100 people were killed.
All in all, 2023 was another chaotic and exhilarating year like others before. We will have years like 2023 in the future filled with things that make us go “that wasn’t on my bingo card.” Hope that the years to come will be filled with “what is happening” moments and history making moments like 2023 brought us.