2016+Year+in+Review

=2016 Year in Review- Triumphs and Tragedies.=

Looking back on the past year, what do you think were the year's most important stories? What was the best news? What was the worst new? Which of these stories is most likely to become history- that is, studied in the future as something that significantly changed the course of events.

Please read/ skim through the following list of events from the December 26 issue of the __Plain Dealer__ and make your case. If there is something missing from the following list of key news stories, please add it through your post.

__**Year marked by triumph, tragedy**__ balbrecht@plaind.com

//**The triumphs and tragedies reported on the national and international front were many this year. Here's a chronology of some of the top stories in those categories for 2016. **//

Jan. 8: Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera is recaptured six months after his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.

Jan. 11:The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its use of elephant acts 18 months early and retiring all of its touring pachyderms in May.

Jan. 14: Three winners will split a record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot.

Jan. 20: During a visit to Detroit, President Barack Obama calls the ongoing crisis in Flint, Michigan, where a state-approved plan to save money by using Flint River water resulted in a supply contaminated with lead and pollutants, inexplicable and inexcusable.

Feb. 1:The World Health Organization declares that the Zika virus, a mosquito-transmitted illness spreading across Latin America and a suspected link to birth defects, represents an international public health emergency. That designation ended Nov. 18.

Feb. 11: The last holdout in an armed takeover of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon surrenders to authorities, ending a 41-day standoff.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Feb. 29:<span class="Fid_2"> Navy Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward Byers, a Toledonative, receives the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama for Byers' actions in 2012 to help rescue an American civilian held hostage in Afghanistan.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">March 1:<span class="Fid_2">NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returns to Earth after spending 340 days aboard the International Space Station, the longest any American has spent in space.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">March 17:<span class="Fid_2"> SeaWorld announces it will no longer breed killer whales in captivity and will stop making them perform tricks in shows.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">March 20:<span class="Fid_2"> Barack Obama makes the first visit by a U.S. president to Cuba in nearly 90 years. Two months later he becomes the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, site of the first atomic bombing in World War II.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">April 20:<span class="Fid_2"> Black abolitionist and former slave Harriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">June 12:<span class="Fid_2"> Forty-nine people are killed and at least 53 wounded when a gunmanopens fire with an assault rifle inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The gunman is killed in a shootout with police.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">June 23:<span class="Fid_2"> A majority of voters in the United Kingdom opt to leave the European Union and Prime Minister David Cameron resigns.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">July 7:<span class="Fid_2"> A sniper kills five Dallas police officers and wounds seven others, plus two civilians, during a Black Lives Matter protest. The suspect is subsequently killed by police during a standoff.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">July 26:<span class="Fid_2"> At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman ever nominated by a major political party to run for president.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Aug. 28:<span class="Fid_2"> Researchers say that an analysis of the bones of Lucy, the early human ancestor who lived 3.2 million years ago, show that she died from a fall from a great height, probably a tree.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Oct. 16:<span class="Fid_2"> Iraqi forces, supported by U.S. coalition forces, launch their operation to retake Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and thelast major stronghold of ISIS.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Nov. 8:<span class="Fid_2"> In a surprise victory, Donald Trump is elected the 45th president. In other election news, three states fully legalize marijuana.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Dec. 4:<span class="Fid_2"> The Army Corp of Engineers announces it will not immediately grant the Dakota Access Pipeline the right to cross the Missouri River next to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. The decision is praised by the National Congress of American Indians, which has been leading protests against the pipeline, charging that it could pollute drinking water and threatenssacred sites.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Dec. 13:<span class="Fid_2"> After months of heavy fighting and a crippling siege, Syrian rebels evacuate Aleppo where they had fought government troops since 2012.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Dec. 15:<span class="Fid_2"> Dylann Roof is convicted of killing nine black church members in South Carolina in 2015. Roof told FBI agents he wanted to bring back segregation or start a race war with the slayings.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Dec. 15:<span class="Fid_2"> The Obama administration says Russian President Vladimir Putin personally authorized the hacking and release of Democratic emails before the presidential election, helping Donald Trump's campaign.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Dec. 19:<span class="Fid_2"> A truck rammed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others in what witnesses described as a deliberate attack.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Fid_2"> On Dec. 23, Tunisian fugitive Anis Amri, the suspect in the attack, was killed in a shootout with police in the northern Italian city of Milan.