Anyway, it always bugs me when the weekly newsmagazines, such as Time and Newsweek, do their Year in Reviews in mid-December. Obviously you're going to miss some stories, oh well. Usually they're only little ones, like say the deaths of James Brown, Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein.
Oops.
Not that I want them to anticipate the deaths, you know, like in the classic Saturday Night Live sketch with Dana Carvey as Tom Brokaw, pre-taping a winter's worth of news stories so he can go to Barbados. The one with the line, "Gerald Ford shot senselessly dead, at the age of 83."
Wait, bad example.
Anyway, enough mugging. Here's my list:
January 4 - His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai and Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, dies. He is succeeded by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. (Yes, there's a difference. A subtle, subtle difference.)
January 4 - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffers a massive stroke.
January 6 - The record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends.
January 7 - Several scandals later, former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay announces he will not seek to reassume his former post.
January 25 -Hamas, who is listed as a terrorist organization by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, wins the majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections.
January 31 - Samuel Alito is sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
January 31 - Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten apologizes over offensive cartoons printed in September 2005 of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
February 11 - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots Harry Whittington in the face with a shotgun. If this is how he treats his friends ... whoa ...
February 13 - Shareholders of British port operator Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company vote overwhelmingly in favour of Dubai Ports World's offer to acquire the firm for $6.8 billion.
Uh-oh.
February 16 - Seven U.S. lawmakers demand a committee to thoroughly review the P&O / DP World deal, citing the War on Terror and the fact the British company manages six major U.S. ports. Because we wouldn't want a foreign company managing six major U.S. ports.
February 16 - The United Nations call for the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay to be shut down. It won't be.
February 22 - The 1 billionth song is purchased from the Apple iTunes Store in a little under three years.
March 2 - Dubai Ports World gains approval of Britain's High Court for its purchase of P&O.
March 3 - The first World Baseball Classic opens in Tokyo, Japan.
March 9 - Dubai Ports World says it will transfer operations of six U.S. ports to an American company if lawmakers allow the sale.
March 11 -Slobodan Milosevic is found dead in his cell in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre in The Hague.
March 20 - Boston Red Sox, citing too many pitchers, trade Bronson Arroyo to the Reds for outfielder and slugger Wily Mo Pena.
(Arroyo, as you might recall, had two famous run-ins with Alex Rodriguez in the 2004 season. On July 24 Arroyo hit A-Rod with a pitch, causing a bench-clearing brawl the reinvigorated the Sox for the rest of the season. In Game Six of the ALCS playoffs A-Rod slapped Arroyo, knocking the ball from the pitcher's hand as he ran to first base to tag him out. A-Rod was initially called safe, but the call was overturned, and, well, we know what happened from there.)
March 25 - An estimated 500,000 people take to the streets in downtown Los Angeles to protest a proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration.
March 30 - The first World Baseball Classic ends in San Diego, California with Japan beating Cuba in the Championship. Some young pitcher named Daisuke Matsuzaka is the MVP.
April 8 - Boston Red Sox centerfielder Coco Crisp, the replacement to Johnny Damon, breaks his finger sliding into third base, pretty much ending his season.
April 11 - President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirms that Iran has successfully produced a few grams of low-grade enriched uranium.
April 11 - Former Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo hits his second home run of the the year (and career) giving him more homers than the power hitter for whom he was traded, Wily Mo Pena.
April 18 - Katie Holmes gave birth to a baby girl, Suri Cruise. She and the father, actor Chris Klein, are doing well.
April 18 - Ready to replace DVDs, the first HD DVD movies are released to consumers. "The Last Samurai", "Million Dollar Baby", "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Serenity" are your only choices, sadly.
April 27 - Construction on the foundation for the Freedom Tower at the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City begins.
April 28 - One of my co-workers in Portland, Maine found a gecko in his Amato's Italian sandwich. Seriously. I'm not making this up.
I took the photos.
April 29 - The third anniversary of The War in Iraq.
May 1 - The first meeting of the Red Sox and Yankees. It was supposed to be about Johnny Damon's first game in Boston since becoming a Yankee. But instead a last minute trade to reaquire catcher Doug Mirabelli from San Diego took center stage.
Mirabelli was the personal catcher to knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield for several years before being traded in the off-season. Young catcher Josh Bard attempted to learn how to catch Wakefield's knuckleball, but it was difficult and painful for all involved. General Manager Theo Epstein finally trades Bard, a young pitcher and the standard "player to be named later" to get Mirabelli back before the Sox played their biggest rivals.
Mirabelli landed at Logan airport at 6:48 pm - with a game time of 7:05 pm. A State Trooper escort got him to the park in 12 minutes, giving him just enough time to change into his uniform in the SUV and make it out for the opening pitch.
May 27 - Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling earned his 200th career win, and I was there.
June 9 - The 2006 FIFA World Cup begins in Germany. Most Americans don't care.
June 19 - A hockey team from south of the Mason-Dixon line beats a team from Canada for the Stanley Cup. Most Americans don't care. Canadians are furious. Or, at least as mad as they can get. They're just so cute, Candians!
June 20 - Ready to replace DVDs and HD DVD, the first Blu-ray Disc movies are released to consumers. "Hitch", "The Fifth Element", "House of Flying Daggers", "Underworld: Evolution", "50 First Dates", "XXX" and "The Terminator" are the first offerings, leading to wide speculation that the film industry wants Blu-ray to fail miserably.
July 9 - Italy wins the 2006 FIFA World C -- oh who cares?
July 12 - Israeli troops invade Lebanon in response to Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three. War breaks out.
August 5 - Liz and I have a wedding in Waterford, Maine.
August 24 - The International Astronomical Union pulls a recall on Pluto, demoting it from 'planet' to 'dwarf planet'.
September 2 - Dubai changes the work week to Sunday-Thursday from Saturday-Wednesday.
September 4 - "The Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin is killed by a stingray while shooting a documentary called Ocean's Deadliest. Liz will hurt me if I make a joke here.
September 11 - The fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
September 13 - Pluto's year keeps getting worse - Pluto's archrival, the solar system's largest dwarf planet, gets a name - Eris, making it the de-facto eleventh planet. Zecharia Sitchin fans wait with baited breath for the discovery of next planet.
September 22 - The first fatal accident involoving a maglev train is recorded in Germany. Fans of Josh will know that his eighth-grade science fair project was about magnetically levitated trains, and that he still cares for them deeply.
September 29 - U.S. Representative Mark Foley (R-FL) resigns after it is revealed that he sent explicit e-mails for several years to underage male pages.
October 17 - The United States population reaches 300 million based on a United States Census Bureau projection.
October 17 - President Bush signs the controversial Military Commissions Act of 2006 that allows for the suspension of habeas corpus rights to U.S. citizens. And if you think I'm going to make a joke here, you're mistaken. One wrong word, and I could end up an "enemy combatant" and shipped off to Guantanamo Bay for the rest of my life.
October 27 - The St. Louis Cardinals win the 2006 World Series.
October 28 - Former Boston Celtic coach Red Auerbach dies. Auerbach won nine NBA titles, including eight straight from 1959 to 1966 - the longest consecutive string of championships in the history of North American professional sports.
November 3 - Ted Haggard resigns as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, after allegations of methamphetamine use and sexual relations with a male prostitute.
November 5 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging after an Iraqi court finds him guilty of crimes against humanity. I so wish I had grabbed a copy of the Gulf News that had the big "Saddam Guilty" title.
Dang it!
November 7 - Democrats win control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994, followed closely by the real big story of the year ...
November 8 - ... Britney Spears files for divorce from Kevin Federline. (Sorry, I had to mention it).
November 9 - Journalist Ed Bradley dies.
November 12 - Gerald Ford surpasses Ronald Reagan as the longest-lived President of the United States.
November 14 - Boston Red Sox bid $51,111,111.11 just to negotiate with Japanese pitcher Daisuke ("Dice-K") Matsuzaka, the MVP of the World Baseball Classic.
November 14 - Fox News announced that it will air an interview with OJ Simpson in which he would discuss the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and promoted his upcoming book, If I Did It.
November 14 - Over five years later, Microsoft finally decides to take on the Apple iPod with their own MP3 player, the Zune. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Andy Ihnatko said that the Zune was "so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity".
November 17 - Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console released in U.S. at an MSRP of $499.99.
November 18 - Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are married in Italy. I was so excited I jumped up and down on my couch.
November 19 - Nintendo releases the Wii video game console in the U.S. at an MSRP of $279.95.
November 20 - News Corp, owner of Fox News and HarperCollins, announce they have canceled the OJ Simpson interview as well as the book.
November 20 - Film director Robert Altman dies.
November 23 - Former Russian KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko dies in London from a rare radiation poisoning under highly suspicious circumstances. Some people suspect the Russian Security Service, the FSB. Johnny Depp and Michael Mann are fighting over who wants to make the movie about the event, and thus who gets the next case of polonium-210 poisoning.
November 27 - At one thousand, two hundred and forty-five days, the Iraq War is now longer than the U.S. involvement in World War II.
November 27 -Pamela Anderson files for divorce from Kid Rock for a second time, after two weddings, two engagements, and sadly no funerals.
December 14 - The Boston Red Sox finally complete the contract for pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Konichiwa!
December 25 - "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown dies from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia. He leaves Tammi Rae Brown as a widow ... or wait, if they're not really married, is she even a widow? Huh.
December 25 - The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has reached 2,974, one more than the number of deaths in the September 11 terrorist attacks.
December 26 - Former US President Gerald Ford dies at his home in Rancho Mirage, California.
December 30 -Saddam Hussein, former Iraq president, is hanged in Baghdad.
December 31 - The U. S. military death toll in Iraq reaches 3,000.
