It’s hard to believe that it is almost 2010. This is the perfect time to reflect on the year 2009. This week I will recap world-wide events. It’s almost comical to realize what we tend to focus our attention on, as some of the events in my list seem pretty trivial in comparison to others. Do you remember all of these….

• Barack Obama takes the oath of office and becomes the nation’s first African-American President
• A US Airways A320 jet lost power in both engines after colliding with geese upon taking off from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. Captain Chelsey Sullenberger steered the craft into the Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers and crew.
• An earthquake struck central Italy’s Abruzzo region on April 6^th. The quake, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale killed 297 people and left thousands homeless.
• Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, at age 50 died on the same day as actress Farrah Fawcett.
• Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video to announce that it really should have been Beyonce’s award. Celebrities and fans all agreed that West needed to keep his mouth shut.
• Jon and Kate – definitely did not make the couple of the year list.
• Nadya Denise Doud-Suleman Gutierrez gives birth to eight children on January 26. Nadya had already given birth to six other children and received a lot of public scorn for her new additions to her family.
• Ellen DeGeneres is chosen to replace Paula Abdul on the judges panel for American Idol.
• Senator Ted Kennedy died on August 25.
• Eight passengers and a train operator were killed and some 80 passengers injured on June 22, when a Washington D.C. Metro train hurtled into a standing train.
• After 18 years, kidnap victim Laycee Lee Dugard is found.
• Protesting a rigged election, irate citizens in Iran, take to the streets to challenge their theocratic regime
• The World fights a flu – H1N1 – As of August 2009, there were 160,000 lab confirmed cases of H1N1 world wide. This number has grown considerably as the flu-season continues.

So, do you remember where you were when these events took place? Some trivial, some record-breaking, but all believed to be newsworthy in the year 2009. Please feel free to comment or add to this list of events of this past year. I am currently working on the Year in Review for the Fargo-Moorhead area. I’m sure that water… and running… will top the list.

To find out more information about the Fargo-Moorhead community, check out the Directory of Fargo-Moorhead website.