Spirit of America Bookstore U.S.  Timeline  –  2011  to  2016 Ancient Times - 3500 B.C.E to 1490 C.E. 1491 to 1800    •    1801-1900    •    1901-1930    •    1931-1950    •    1951-1968    •    1969-2000    •    2001-2010 •    jump to: 2017-2018    •    2019-2020    •    2021 to present    •    The Looming Future? The decision to split this page arose because the 2001-Present page grew overbig and would for many visitors take too long to load. The reasons for the break being exactly here are twofold: the year-break was at around half the page (60KB vs. 106KB) and also, 2010 was the last year of the existence of the U.S. Constitution. Barack  Obama's  Uphill  Battles The Republican Party of John Boehner and the Tea Party obstructionists still controlled the U.S. House of Representatives, the G.O.P. Economic Meltdown of 2008 continued to wreak havoc on the lives of 'Main Street' Americans, and by mid-2013, the war drums were beating loudly for an attack on Syria. 2011 Jan 6: A crazy man with a gun shot and killed six people at a shopping mall rally in Tucson, Arizona, also wounding Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in the head. (She recovered but resigned a year later.) 2011 Jan 14: Demonstrations by protesters in Tunisia forced dictator-President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country. 2011 Jan 25: Pro-democracy protestors occupied Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt demanding removal of President Hosni Mubarak; the series of events in Cairo became the symbolic beginning of the Arab Spring that changed governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, with 'civil uprisings' in Bahrain, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman. 2011 Jan 27: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released its "Final Report On The Causes of The Financial Crisis In The United States". 2011 Feb: N.A.S.A.'s space shuttle program extended only into 2011, with future events dependent on Russia's Soyuz rocket launches. 2011 Feb 1: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index rose above 12,000 for the first time since 2008, closing at $12,040.16. 2011 Feb 3: Rolling gas & electric power outages across Texas & New Mexico, due to continuing massive snowstorms from the Rockies to the East Coast. Feb 11: After 18 days of protests in Egypt, dictator-President Hosni Mubarak resigned and left Cairo. 2011 Monday Feb 14: Beginning of mass protests in the state capitol of Madison, Wisconsin against Gov. Walker's intentional fiscal breakdown, which grew to 30,000 or so by Thursday; the Republican fiscal chicanery is being used to justify eliminating the right to collective bargaining for public sector employees. 2011 Feb 17: All Democratic members of the Wisconsin Senate failed to appear (and hid out in secret locations), which eliminated the quorum needed for voting on the G.O.P. majority's bill attacking labor unions. 2011 Feb 24: N.A.S.A.'s final launch of the space shuttle Discovery from Cape Kennedy in Florida; Discovery landed safely in Florida on March 11. 2011 March 11: Japan was struck by a 9.0 earthquake off the east coast. The resulting tsunami raised the casualty count to 6,400 known dead, 2,400 injured, and 10,200 missing; the tsunami was felt as 6- to 8-foot high waves from Alaska to Chile. Two Japanese nuclear power plants were flooded by the tsunami, with two large explosions and leakage of radiation at Fukushima I (built in 1971 at Okama). The U.S. & Canada are concerned about airborne radiation reaching the West Coast over the next few weeks. 2011 April 4: First annual "We Are One Day", with over 1,000 rallies nationwide confirming the stand of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. for solidarity with all labor unions (on the anniversary of his assassination during the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968). 2011 April 15: Opening of the movie "Atlas Shrugged, Part I" in U.S.A., based on the classic 1957 novel by Ayn Rand [1905-82]. (And, boy do we need an Objectivist Renaissance!} 2011 April 21: The commodity gold reached $1,500 per ounce, closing at $1,507.00. 2011 May 1: President Obama announced that terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by a team of U.S. Navy Seals.    "No Easy Day: Autobiography of A Navy SEAL" [2012] by Mark Owen, with Kevin Maurer subtitle: "The Firsthand Account of The Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden"; the pseudonymous author has since been identified as Matt Bissonnette Kindle Edition from Penguin Publng [10/2012] for $12.99 Dutton Adult 9x6¼ hardcover [10/2012] for $15.30 2011 May 8: Broadcast of half-hour exclusive interview with President Obama by reporter Steve Kroft for "60 Minutes Overtime" about the mission to kill Osama bin Laden { view in new window }. 2011 May 16: N.A.S.A.'s final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour from Cape Kennedy in Florida; Endeavour landed safely in Florida on June 1st. 2011 May 22: A tornado of Force EF5 ripped thru Joplin, Missouri killing at least 158 people, with almost 1,000 injured, the worst U.S. tornado since 1947. 2011 June 13: First debate in the 2012 Presidential Race, with the seven Republican dwarfs presenting nothing better than anti-Obama tripe. 2011 June 20: The U.S. Supreme Court struck another blow for fascism and against freedom and liberty in the Dukes v Wal-Mart Stores [2000-2011] case by eliminating class action lawsuits against corporations. 2011 June 26: Start of the Las Conchas Fire in Northern New Mexico when a tree fell on a power line; the disaster lasted 36 days and burned 244 square miles in the mountains surrounding the town of Los Alamos. 2011 June 27: The Dodgers baseball team filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy after 53 years in Los Angeles. 2011 July 8: N.A.S.A.'s final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Cape Kennedy in Florida; Shuttle Atlantis ended its 33rd and final mission by landing at Cape Kennedy at 10am July 21st. 2011 July 10: Britain's News of The World tabloid newspaper - largest-selling paper in the world - shut down as a result of a phone-tapping and bribery scandal involving Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. conglomerate. 2011 July 12: Wisconsin voters rejected the Republicans-pretending-to-be-Democrats in six Democratic recall primary contests, with winners getting 55% to 70%. 2011 July 19: Democratic incumbent Wisconsin State Senator Dave Hansen whupped his Republican opponent in the recall election 66%-34%. 2011 July 21: Launch of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, headed by Richard Cordray. {"What Wall Street Reform Means for You" video [3:14] from the White House via YouTube} 2011 Thursday Aug 4: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index fell $512.76, the steepest point decline since 1 December 2008; S&P 500 futures fell 0.6 percent to $1,191.7. In worldwide trading over the next 24 hours London's FTSE 100 declined 3.5 percent to 5,393.14, Germany's DAX shed 3.8 percent to 6,172.00; France's CAC-40 lost 2.5 percent to 3,238.80; Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average slid 3.7 percent to 9,299.88; Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dived 4.3 percent to 20,946.14; China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.2 percent to 2,626.42. 2011 Friday Aug 5: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index fell 5.8 percent for the week; the S&P 500 fell 7.2 percent for the week and is down 10.8 percent since July 22; the NASDAQ Composite index fell 24 points, or 0.9 percent, and is down 11.4 percent since July 22. 2011 Aug 5: Standard & Poor's did not like Congress's solution to the artificial debt ceiling crisis and downgraded the long-term credit rating of the United States government from AAA to AA+. 2011 Aug 9: Wisconsin recall elections replaced only two Republican state senators (out of six), leaving the G.O.P. in control of the legislature, albeit 17 to 16 now in the Senate. 2011 Aug 11: The Republican Party staged another debate among their eight dwarves seeking to run for President in 2012 – Rep. Michele Bachmann [R-MN], Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Rep. Ron Paul [R-TX], former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum – with moderator Chris Wallace asking inane questions at Iowa State University. (Sarah Palin is still undeclared, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared earlier in the day.) 2011 Aug 16: Wisconsin voters re-elected two Democratic state senators in a recall election, leaving the G.O.P. in control of the legislature at 17 members to 16 in the Senate. 2011 Friday Aug 19: U.S. stocks fell for the fourth week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index closed at $10,817.65, down 4 percent for the week and down 15 percent since July 21. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index closed at $1,123.53, down 4.7 percent for the week (all ten industry groups that make up the index fell). The NASDAQ Composite index fell to 2,341.84, down 6.6 percent for the week. 2011 Aug 22: The commodity gold reached $1,900 per ounce, closing at $1,908.00. 2011 Aug 23: Rare East Coast earthquake of magnitude 5.8 struck at 1:51 pm EDT near Mineral, Virginia; although centered about 100 miles away, the quake caused damage to the Washington Monument, which is now closed. 2011 Aug 26: Capitalist Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased 50,000 preferred shares from Bank of America, for $100,000 each and a total of $5 billion; the share class promises to pay a 'whopping' 6% annual dividend, paid out each quarter. 2011 Sept 7: The Republican Party staged another showcase debate among candidates: 'Snowjob and the Seven Dwarfs'. 2011 Sept 8: Palestine launched their demand for membership in the United Nations, planning peaceful demonstrations in capital Ramallah, West Bank and a later vote at the U.N. in New York City. President Obama's 33-minute speech before a joint session of Congress on his proposed American Jobs Act. One-day wildcat longshoremen strike shut down the ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Longview, Everett, and Anacortes in Washington State; the matter was settled on September 14, with unions obtaining the right to work at the new state grain center. 2011 Sept 17: Start of the Occupy Wall Street Movement (on U.S. Constitution Day) in New York City, which has since expanded to dozens of cities thru mid-November. 2011 Oct: The world human population reached 7 billion sometime during the month of October. 2011 Oct 5: Sarah Palin declared that she is not running for President in 2012. 2011 Oct 16: President Barack Obama dedicated the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, DC (postponed due to Tropical Storm Irene). 2011 Oct 20: Libyan despot Muammar al-Gaddafi was shot dead by rebel troops; he ruled the country for 42 years. 2011 Nov 1: U.S. Senators Tom Udall [NM] and Michael Bennet [CO] introduced S.J.R. 29, the People’s Rights 28th Amendment to the constitution to grant Congress the authority to regulate the campaign finance system, i.e. to reverse the Citizens United decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. 2011 Nov 8: Ohio voters soundly rejected 60%-40% the fascist Republican attempt to curb unions by repealing a bill passed by the Ohio legislature last Spring. 2011 Nov 14: Five Congress members introduced H.J.R. 86, a constitutional amendment to grant Congress the authority to regulate the campaign finance system, i.e. to reverse the Citizens United decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. 2011 Nov 17: Re-Occupy America Day, on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Movement. 2011 Fall & Winter: The Occupy Wall Street Movement is still happening, with branches in cities across America, even in Valencia County, New Mexico where I live: 'Occupy Los Lunas' news story + 'Occupy Belén' news story. 2011 Dec 6: Parent company Alpha Natural Resources agreed to pay a $209 million penalty for Massey Energy's part in the lethal Upper Big Branch Coal Mine Disaster in April 2010; the record judgment includes a fine of $35 million, $1.5 million to the family of each of the 29 dead miners (and two severely-injured miners), plus $80 million toward safety improvements & disaster prevention. 2011 Dec 7: President Obama's 'Fair Shot' speech in Osawatomie, Kansas (on the anniversary of Teddy Roosevelt's 'New Nationalism' speech in 1910). { watch [55:05] free online at YouTube } 2011 Dec 30: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index ended the year at $12,217.56. 2011 Dec 31: President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 which includes the very scary Sections 1021 & 1022 that re-authorize the indefinite detention without due process of anyone deemed a suspected terrorist. 2012 Jan 12: The school board of Tucson, Arizona voted to ban all fifty books of the Xicano/Ethic Studies curricula, as response to the Arizona Legislature's passage of the HB 2281 'apartheid' law. In following days, fascist goons swept thru classrooms, taking the banned books from the hands of students and off the shelves of libraries and classrooms, to be packed away in storage at a secret location. (A partial list of the banned books is coded on Spirit of America Bookstore's America's Ethnic Authors Page.) 2012 Jan 18: 24-hour English-language Wikipedia blackout to protest S.O.P.A. & P.I.P.A. bills in Congress that would severely infringe freedom of the worldwide internet; blackout participants also included Craig's List, Google, Mozilla/Firefox, Flickr & news site Reddit. 2012 Sunday Jan 22: U.S. first class postage went up a penny, to 45¢. 2012 Jan 25: Congresswoman Gabrielle Dee 'Gabby' Giffords [Dem AZ-08], still recovering from the gunshot wound to her head in January 2011, resigned her seat and promised a return to political work. 2012 Feb 26: Afro-American teenager Trayvon Martin was shot to death by 'community watch captain' George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida; there were no witnesses, and the uproar that followed was mostly about the shooter's 'free pass' from the local police department: no arrest, no interrogation, no suspension. Outrage then grew at the attempts to blame the victim and to cover up the sources. 2012 Feb 28: Dow Jones Industrial Average index closed above 13,000 for the second time in history (the first was 25 April 2007), recovering from the low of 6,547 in March 2009. 2012 March 14: Major stock market rally, the NASDAQ Composite Index closed above 3,000 for the first time since December 2000. 2012 March 29: President Obama established National Vietnam War Veterans Day. 2012 April 11: George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and taken into custody on the same day. 2012 May 1: May Day demonstrations by Occupy Movement groups and labor unions in 100 cities across America; police in Oakland, California used tear-gas against peaceful demonstrators. 2012 May: Discovery of untouched ruins of La Cuidad Blanca (The White City) in the Mosquitia mountains of Honduras • { 5/2013 article in New Yorker Magazine • {1/2017 article in New Yorker Magazine } 2012 May 17: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's '47 Percent' speech at a fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida, which was secretly digitally-recorded by bartender Scott Prouty. { video excerpt [1:04] on YouTube } 2012 June 2-5: Four-day celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II who has reigned as Queen of England (et cetera) for 60 years. 2012 June 5: Major primary elections for federal & state offices in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota PLUS the recall election against nasty Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. RESULTS: Mitt Romney has enough delegates to cinch his nomination at the Republican convention; Gov. Scott Walker spent 8 times his Democratic opponent's ad campaign and essentially bought the remainder of his term as Wisconsin's fascist political despot. 2012 June 19: Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, applied for political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, England which prevented his extradition to Sweden on charges of sexual misconduct. (He is still inside the building in 2018.) 2012 June 28: Congress cited Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt for refusing to provide requested documents for Cong. Darrell Issa's witchhunt regarding the non-events of the 'Fast and Furious' border weapons fiasco. Later that day, the Justice Department decided that no crime was committed, so they will not prosecute Holder for contempt (per a policy in place since Ronald Reagan was president). 2012 June 28: The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act ('Obamacare'), specifically including the individual mandate, which it likens to a tax. 2012 July 17: Janitors strike began in Houston, Texas because the contract for 3,200 Houston area workers expired on May 31st and contractor management has since been harassing and threatening employees; the S.E.I.U. has filed 13 official complaints with the N.L.R.B.; rolling strikes by S.E.I.U. janitors in Los Angeles, Denver, Washington DC, and other cities began on July 19. 2012 July 20: Mass shooting inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado; a lone wacko gunman set off tear-gas and sprayed bullets into the audience killing 12 people and wounding 58. 2012 Aug 10: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney chose Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate. 2012 Aug 14: Houston, Texas janitors and the S.E.I.U. settled their 5-week strike for a paltry annual 25-cent wage increase for 4 years. 2012 Aug 16: Ecuador granted asylum to harried whistleblower Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. 2012 Aug 27-30: Republican Party National Convention in Tampa, Florida 2012 Sept: Founding of 'September is Hunger Action Month' by Feeding America [est. 1979]. 2012 Sept 3-6: Democratic Party National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina 2012 Sept 10: Beginning of the Chicago Teachers Union strike; teachers agreed to a new pact on September 18 and went back to work the next day; concessions won included addressing the 70% of school buildings without working air conditioning or heat, all schoolbooks available for students on Day One, and working computers (to take attendance) for teachers on Day One. 2012 Sept 11: The Battle of Benghazi: a mob of Islamic terrorists armed with guns and grenades attacked the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya killing two American diplomats; a second attack a few hours later at a different location killed two American contractors. {No matter how hard the Republican Party tries to deflect blame to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the true cause of the four deaths was that the year before Republicans in Congress reduced the State Department security budget by 25 percent!)    "Under Fire: The Untold Story of The Attack In Benghazi" [2013] New York Times bestseller by Fred Burton (Stratfor) & Samuel M. Katz Kindle Edition from Icon Books Ltd. [10/2014] for $7.55 Kindle Edition from St. Martin's/Macmillan [9/2013] for $9.99 Icon Books Ltd. 7¾x5 pb [10/2014] for $12.57 St. Martin's Press 9½x6½ hardcover [9/2013] for $16.25    "The Benghazi Hoax" [2013] by David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt, and Media Matters for America [est. 2004] 122-page Kindle Edition from Media Matters for America [10/2013] for 99¢ {sic} 120-page CreateSpace 8x5¼ pb [10/2013] for $5.73    "The Benghazi Report: Review of The Terrorist Attacks On U.S. Facilities In Benghazi, Libya [on] September 11-12, 2012" [2015] by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence 86-page CreateSpace 11x8½ pb [7/2015] for $9.95 "The Benghazi Report" [2014] with Introduction by Roger Stone & Annotations by others 97-page Kindle Edition from Skyhorse Publng [3/2014] for $7.99 96-page Skyhorse Publng 8x6 hardcover [3/2014] for $10.40    "The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don't Want You to Know" [2014] by Aaron Klein (employee of alt-right Breitbart News & extremist WorldNetDaily) author Klein is committed to many baseless conspiracy theories, the content here is poppycock Kindle Edition from W.N.D. Books [4/2016] for $0.00 W.N.D. Books 8¼x5¾ hardcover [9/2014] for $6.98    "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi" [2014] by Mitchell Zuckoff, with the Annex Security Team Kindle Edition from Twelve/Hachette [9/2014] for $11.99 Twelve 8x5¼ pb [11/2015] for $6.37 Twelve 9¼x6¼ hardcover [9/2014] for $15.43 "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" [Paramount Jan 2016] Paramount widescreen color Blu-ray [6/2016] for $8.94 Paramount widescreen color DVD [6/2016] for $7.50 full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia 2012 Sept 21: The commodity gold reached its 2012 record high, closing at $1,787.40 per ounce. 2012 Oct 3: First Presidential Debate at the University of Denver in Colorado 2012 Oct 11: Vice Presidential Debate at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky 2012 Oct 12: Official opening of the movie "Atlas Shrugged, Part II" in Washington, DC, based on the classic 1957 novel by Ayn Rand [1905-82]. 2012 Oct 16: Second Presidential Debate at Hofstra University on Long Island in New York 2012 Oct 22: Third Presidential Debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida 2012 Oct 23: Presidential debate for the four 'third party' candidates, moderated by Larry King and hosted by Free and Equal {dot} org; also second debate scheduled for October 30th. 2012 Oct-Nov: Hurricane Sandy was an unprecedented 'Frankenstorm', a confluence of three storm systems on America's East Coast that brought havoc from South Carolina to Maine to Ohio & Wisconsin during the week of Halowe'en and thru the election. The awed prediction of a gale-force wind diameter of 1,040 miles, the largest hurricane in Atlantic history, and the lowest barometric pressure came true. The megastorm accounted for 185 deaths and 22 people missing, and an estimated $52M in damage and business losses. Fourth Tuesday in November: Created in 2012 as 'a new day for giving back' and called 'Giving Tuesday'; sponsored by New York City's 92nd Street Y [est. 1874] in partnership with The United Nations Foundation [est. 1998].      2012 Nov 6: U.S. National Election for President & 35 Senators and all 435 Congress members, plus many state-level seats; incumbent Democrat Barack Obama beat Republican Mitt Romney, capturing 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206; also Washington State and Colorado legalized marijuana. 2012 Nov 7: Stock market 'sell-off', the worst trading day in 2012: the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index dropped below 13,000 (down 313 points, or 2.4%); the NASDAQ and S&P 500 also each sank more than 2%. (Wall Street's emotional reaction had more to do with European economic austerity events than the U.S. elections.) 2012 Nov 9: Beginning of the bakers union strike at Hostess Brands, Inc. by 5,000 mermbers of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. The hedge fund owners were asking their workers to take cuts in pay and healthcare and pensions, while giving themselves 80-percent pay increases. Hostess was already in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced November 16 that the company will now liquidate, a loss of 18,500 jobs. 2012 Nov 23: 'Black Friday' shopping day protests against Wal-Mart's vile labor practices. Wal-Mart corporate downplayed the turnout, reporting that only fifty employees participated nationwide (it was more like 5,000). Objective reports counted 1,000 protestors in Paramount, California - 17 identified as employees; 400 rallied at one Maryland store; 200 in bitter-cold St. Paul, Minnesota; large crowds protested in California, Oklahoma, DC Metro, and New Mexico, plus hundreds of other stores. (Broadcast media failed their duty to report the events, most likely to protect Wal-Mart ad revenue.) 2012 Dec: The U.S. Treasury sold its remaining stake in insurer A.I.G. at a profit of $22.7B, then announced that it is selling 200 million shares back to General Motors by year-end, followed by sale of its remaining stake in G.M. in the next 12 to 15 months (the G.M. deal is expected to produce a net loss of $36B for taxpayers). 2012 Dec 12: International Day of The Roadie, based on the standard microphone test "Check. One two... one two... one two..."       2012 Dec 14: Newtown, Connecticut Massacre, with a lone gunman killing 20 students and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before killing himself. 2012 Dec 21: The End of The World! As predicted by various loonies & fear-mongers to take place at the end of the 5,125-year-long Mayan calendar. (Since you are reading this, it did not happen.) {See Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment Essay #87: "The 2012 Hoax" [April 2009]} 2012 Dec 31: Newsweek Magazine [est. 1933] final print publication, will continue only as online edition called Newsweek Global. OMG! The Fiscal Cliff! 2013 Jan 3: U.S. 113th Congress began, with Republicans in charge of the House and Democrats in charge of the Senate. The Democratic House Caucus membership set an historic statistic: the majority is women or minorities - 61 women, 43 Afro-Americans, 27 Hispanics, 10 Asian-Americans, and 6 L.G.B.T. Americans (out of 195-200 Democrats). 2013 Jan 21: Barack Obama's second inauguration as President of the United States. 2013 Jan 21: The U.S. Senate confirmed Sen. John Kerry [MA Dem] to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. The Massachusetts Governor appointed his chief of staff, William 'Mo' Cowan, as interim Senator, with Cowan saying that he will not run in the June 2013 special election. 2013 Jan 25: The Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index rose above 1,500 for the first time. 2013 Feb 1: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index closed above 14,000 for the first time since October 2007: the Dow reached $14,009.79, the S&P 500 Index rose to $1,513.17, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 36.97, to $3,179.10. 2013 Feb 12: President Obama's State of The Union Address enhanced version, with charts & statistics [1:00:06] on YouTube. 2013 Feb 15: The large explosion of the Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia was picked up by a world-wide network of sound detectors; the near-Earth asteroid was approximately 20 m (66 ft) in diameter and weighed 12,000-13,000 tonnes; the object exploded at a height of around 29.7 km (18.5 mi; 97,000 ft) generating a bright flash, producing a hot cloud of dust & gas that penetrated to 26.2 km (16.3 mi), and producing many small fragmentary meteorites, as well as a large shock wave. No direct deaths or injuries were reported, but about 1,500 people were injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment, mainly due to indirect effects such as broken glass from windows that were blown in when the shock wave arrived: some 7,200 buildings in six cities across the region were damaged by the shock wave, and authorities scrambled to help repair the structures in sub-freezing temperatures. 2013 Feb 26: Afro-American Trayvon Martin (age 17) was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman (age 28) in Sanford, Florida. 2013 Feb 28: Whistleblower Bradley Manning pled guilty to ten of 22 charges in federal court, in exchange for a maximum sentence of 16 years. (His Army court martial began the following June.) 2013 March 5: Venezeulan President Hugo Chávez died of cancer at age 58. 2013 March 5: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index rose to an all-time high of $14,253.77, the best since October 2007; Wall Street declared the G.O.P. Economic Meltdown aka Great Recession to be over, disregarding the deprivation on Main Street U.S.A. 2013 March 28: The S&P 500 rose 6.34 points to $1,569.19, beating by four points its previous record close of $1,565.15 set on 9 October 2007. (The index is still shy of its all-time trading high of 1,576.09.) 2013 April: The Anonymous cyber collective launched its 'Operation Free Korea' initiative, which included hacking the North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri and compromising the connected Twitter and Flickr accounts, defacing the books & music website Ryomyong, and hacking the website of North Korea-linked political group A.I.N.D.F. (and lots more). 2013 April 12 & 15: Gold plunged for two days, down 17% since January First and at the lowest since February 2011. 2013 April 15: Two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon [2013 = #117]; three people killed, 260+ injured; culprits later identified as Islamic terrorists, one killed during a shootout with police and the second survived a second shootout; the latter was tried & convicted & sentenced to death. 2013 April 17: The fertilizer plant in West, Texas caught fire and then exploded, killing 15 people & injuring more than 160, and devastating the town (150 buildings damaged, exceeding $100M); early reports cited the absence of O.S.H.A. and state inspections as far back as 1995. 2013 April 18: Gold plunged further, to a low of $1,360 per ounce (then went up some in May and back down to $1,400 by month-end). 2013 April 18-19: Shootout with a suspected bomber near M.I.T. killed Muslim student from Chechen and a young M.I.T. police officer; all-day lockdown in Watertown, Massachusetts resulted in capture & hospitalization of suspect younger brother on Friday night. 2013 May 3: The Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index rose above 1,600 for the first time {sharpest rise since reaching 1,500 on January 25th}. 2013 May 7: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index set another milestone by closing above $15,000, a further rise since official recovery on March 5th; the Dow rose almost 15 percent since January First. Same day, the Nikkei Index of Japan rose above ¥14,000 for the first time. 2013 May 16: The fascist Republican U.S. Congress wasted two more days of taxpayer money for the 37th vote to repeal the 'ObamaCare' national health plan; the vote was 229 to 195, with only two Democrats voting for the bill; the Democratic majority in the Senate will ignore the Republican 'dog and pony show' legislation. 2013 May 14: The new city where I live had its first municipal elections; unofficial results have 'my guys' winning for mayor and two council seats, which pretty much guarantees that the city name change (to Paris, New Mexico!) ballot measure will be part of the March 2014 election. 2013 April & May: One-day strikes for wage hikes to living wage of $15/hour by fast food workers in New York City, Chicago, Illinois), St. Louis, Missouri, Detroit, Michigan , and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 2013 May 23: One section of the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in northern Washington State collapsed when an oversized truckload damaged a beam; two cars fell into the river, no deaths. The bridge was built in 1955 and has for years been listed as obsolete. (The event may finally wake people up to the $3 trillion in maintenance to America's infrastructure that was unfunded and postponed by George W. Bush.) 2013 June 6: Publication of leaked documents describing the N.S.A.'s broad-based unwarranted surveillance programs, including PRISM, in the Washington Post and the Guardian of London U.K. Whistleblower Edward Snowden obtained a leave of absence from his civilian job with Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii in May and fled to Hong Kong, then went undercover and is seeking political asylum, preferably in Iceland or Ecuador. 2013 June: Heat wave in Alaska, with 80-degree temperatures breaking records in Anchorage and elsewhere that were set 80-plus years ago. 2013 June 25: Texas State Senator Wendy Davis stood up and filibustered for 11 hours to prevent the closing of dozens of health clinics across the state that provide services to women. 2013 June 25: President Obama delivered the "National Climate Action Plan" speech at Georgetown University: transcript (at Bloomburg) • video [48:48] at YouTube. 2013 June 28: Prediction by the 'gold bug' folks that the spot price of gold would increase to a record high of $2,100 by June did not happen; New York spot gold price of $1,250 is way down from January's high of $1,680. 2013 July 1: Official completion of the merger of Penguin Books and Random House Publishing, creating the world's largest publisher; the combined Penguin Random House monster controls 25 percent of the U.S. book market. 2013 July 13: Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was acquitted of the February murder of unarmed Afro-American Trayvon Martin (age 17) by a jury of crackers in Sanford, Florida. The verdict was a travesty of justice, and civil lawsuits against Zimmerman will surely follow. 2013 July 13: As her response to the Zimmerman acquittal, Afro-American activist Alicia Garza of Oakland, California declared on Facebook that 'black lives matter', creating the meme for what later became a movement. 2013 July 22: Prince George Alexander Louis Windsor of Cambridge was born in London, England; the great-grandson of Elizabeth II is third in line of succession to the British throne. 2013 July 26: Shares of Facebook, Inc. soared 35 percent, increasing the net worth of Mark Zuckerberg by $4B in one day. 2013 July 29: One-day fast food strike in Manhattan, New York City. 2013 July 30: Whistleblower Bradley Manning was convicted in a U.S. Army court martial of 17 of 22 charges and acquitted of the charge of aiding the enemy – after receiving a sentence of 35 years in federal prison (not life, not execution) Manning asked that he be referred to as Chelsea Manning and treated as a female person in future. 2013 Thursday Aug 1: Stock market records broken again: the S&P Index closed over $1700 for the first time ever, NASDAQ closed at the highest since 9/2000 at $3,675.74, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index set another milestone by closing at $15,608.02. 2013 Aug 5: Amazon, Inc. founder Jeffrey P. Bezos agreed to purchase the Washington Post newspapers (with personal money) for $250 million. (The seller is keeping their non-newspaper companies and will change the corporate name.) 2013 Aug 21: U.S. Army whistleblower Bradley/Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison (less than the 90-year maximum). 2013 Aug 21-25: weeklong Occupy National Gathering [Aug 2013 = #2] in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 2013 Aug 22: Microsoft, Inc. announced that longtime CEO Steve Ballmer will retire within the next year. (Microsoft stock jumped 7 percent, and the value of Ballmer's $10.7B in stock shares increased by $769 million in that 24-hour period.) 2013 Aug 24-25: March on Washington 50th Anniversary Weekend in Washington, DC 2013 Aug 29: Underpaid workers at fast food chains planned a nationwide walkout, striking for a living wage of $15/hour; news reports said that the strikers showed up at dawn at 1,000 stores in 60 cities (a big win for S.E.I.U. and other unions). 2013 Sept 10: 2013 primary election for Mayor of New York City gave Bill de Blasio 40.8% in the Democratic primary and Joe Lhota got 52¾% in the Republican primary; more importantly, 691,801 citizens voted Democrat and 61,111 citizens voted Republican, which places De Blasio as the winner on November 5th. 2013 Sept 17: Historic first-ever departure of a bulk-cargo ship from Vancouver, BC to Finland via the Arctic Sea; the Nordic Orion carried 73,500 tons of coal (a 25% increase because not restricted by depth of the Panama Canal). 2013 Oct First: Formal implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. 2013 Oct First: The Republitards in Congress escalated their tantrum and shut down large parts of the federal government, which put 800,000 government employees out of work, closed the national parks, halted oversight by the I.R.S. and other agencies, froze passport processing, and generally messed with the non-recovered economy – because President Obama stood his ground and refused to approve the Keystone pipeline, to reduce taxes for the One Percent, to allow unregulated drilling for oil & gas, and other stealth provisions of the legislation proposed by the constipated House of Representatives. 2013 Oct 8: City election in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Republican Mayor Richard J. Berry won by a landslide, while the city council hangs on the balance until a November runoff. Wednesday Oct 16: The idiots of the Republican-led Congress folded in a last-minute vote to end the 16-day government shutdown impasse; the U.S. Senate voted a late-evening bipartisan 81-18, and the House then voted 185-144, while President Obama waited at the White House to apply his signature to a 'clean bill' that matched his proposal of two weeks prior; federal workers went back to work on Thursday and national parks & other facilities reopened, following what is being called the "16-Day TEA Party Shutdown"; the cost of this fiasco was elimination of $24 billion from the U.S. economy. 2013 Oct 27: The "60 Minutes" TV news program aired a report on the Benghazi attack of September 2012 that quickly proved to contain false information; the book published two days later by interviewee Dylan Davies was immediately pulled from the shelves by publisher Simon & Schuster; on-air correspondent Lara Logan apologized on "60 Minutes" on November 8 and was later suspended. 2013 Nov 5: Closely-watched U.S. elections were won by Democrats for Governor of Virginia and for Mayor of New York City, and Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie was re-elected. 2013 Nov 7: Five hundred WalMart workers & clergy & other supporters assembled in Downtown Los Angeles to protest Wal-Mart's poverty-level wages, watched by 100 L.A.P.D. personnel in riot gear; when the parade permit time expired, police arrested 54 protestors, some of whom were kept in jail overnight. 2013 December: An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa reached an epidemic state, expanding from Guinea to Liberia and Sierra Leone, with isolated cases spreading to Europe and the United States by way of aircraft passengers. By late October 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a total of 12,008 suspected cases and 5,078 deaths, while assuming that many cases are neither identified nor reported.    "The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of The Origins of The Ebola Virus" [New York Times bestseller 1994] by Richard Preston Kindle Edition from Anchor/Random House [3/2012] for $4.99 Anchor 8x5¼ pb [6/99] for $10.22 rebound pb 7x4¾ library hardcover [8/95] for $13.52 Random House 9½x6¼ hardcover [9/94] out of print/hundreds used 2013 Thursday Dec 5: The U.S. fast-food workers strike for a living wage expanded, with strikers in 110 cities across the country, and support protests in 100 other cities. 2013 Thursday Dec 31: While the Main Street economy got worse in 2013, Wall Street set records at year-end: the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index finished the year up 26.5%, its best return since 1995, rising to $16,576.66; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index soared nearly 30%, its best performance since 1997, rising to $1,848.36; and the tech-dominated NASDAQ Index gained 38.3%, its seventh-biggest annual gain ever and its best in four years, rising to $4,176.59. 2014 Jan 8: A chemical leak at the Freedom Industries storage facility near Charleston, West Virginia dumped at least 4,500 gallons (possibly 7,500 US gallons or 28,000 litres) of a methanol-alcohol chemical into the Elk River; the entire ecosystem in 9 counties is now contaminated and 30,000 residents could not wash food or clothing or themselves, nor drink tap water, and the tourist industry was effectively shut down – drinkable water was imported in large trucks from outside the area. ADDED 11/2016: The citizens sued for damages and the case was settled: West Virginia Water will pay $126 million (without raising rates) and supplier Eastman Chemical will pay $25 million. 2014 Friday Jan 24: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index set a negative milestone, tumbling 318 points in the worst day of trading since June 2013. 2014 Monday Feb 3: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index set another negative milestone, tumbling 326 more points in a further worst day of trading since June 2013. 2014 Feb 3: Janet Yellin sworn in as Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, succeeding Fed Chair Ben S. Bernanke. 2014 Feb 9: The People's Coalition Moral March in Raleigh, North Carolina brought together more than 80,000 protestors of all stripes, to demonstrate their anger at rollbacks of civil rights & voting rights by the Republican state legislature, in answer to Rev. Barber's call for action; you heard nothing about it during or after because of a NATIONAL NEWS BLACKOUT by all the major networks (USA Today broadcast one story). 2014 March 10-11: 28 U.S. Senators executed a 16-hour 'talkathon' inside the Senate chambers and carried live on C-SPAN that is designed to alter the conversation from Climate Change to the topic of 'the Climate Crisis'. 2014 April 2: Fascist Chief Justice John Roberts further destroyed democracy in McCutcheon v. F.E.C. 572 U.S.; the decision took away restrictions on political spending by millionaires & billionaires. 2014 April 8: Microsoft ended all support for the Windows® XP operating system (announced 10/2013). 2014 May: The White House announced completion of a new rooftop solar installation, saying that every component was made in America and that it would pay for itself in energy savings over the next eight years. 2014 Thursday May 15: Strike & picket actions took place in 150 U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and in more than 30 countries including Germany, Japan, and the U.K. seeking wages of $15 an hour and the right to unionize - organized by Fast Food Forward Campaign. 2014 May 22: The 2014 New Populism Conference featuring Sen. Elizabeth Warren & Sen. Bernie Sanders. 2014 May 24: March Against Monsanto #3 in over 400 cities in over 50 countries. 2014 June: A large number of U.S. states held Primary Elections for local, state & national offices. 2014 June 30: The Supreme Court's ludicrous Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision provides that 'the religious beliefs of a corporation' {sic} can officially override the health care options of their individual employees, such as in denying women any insurance coverage for birth control – another step backward for America. 2014 July 3: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index rose above 17,000 for the first time in history, closing at $17,068.20. 2014 July 17: Afro-American Eric Garner [1970-2014] of Staten Island, New York City died during an attempted arrest when an N.Y.P.D. officer used an illegal chokehold on him; the coroner ruled the death a homicide, but the local grand jury issued their findings on December 3rd and refused to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for his crime. (The family had already filed a $75 million wrongful death lawsuit against New York City, the N.Y.P.D., and the six police officers on the videotape.) 2014 July 30: For the first time in history, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to sue a standing President of The United States over the false premise that he has overstepped his authority (real reason?: 'black man in the White House'!). The House vote was 225 for the lawsuit (all Republicans) and 201 against; seven members were absent, five Republicans voted against. 2014 Aug 2: Officials in Ohio declared an emergency as the water system in Toledo, the state's fourth-largest city, was discovered to be contaminated with biotoxins; while tests were still being conducted, the best guess of officials was that the cause was an algae bloom in Lake Erie (in turn caused by global warming). As many as 400,000 residents were warned not to drink the water or use it to brush teeth or wash dishes; boiling the water only increases the biotoxins. 2014 Aug 9 (Saturday): Around 2:15 in the afternoon in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, a police officer stopped college-bound teenager Michael Brown and companion Dorian Johnson who were walking down the street; the unarmed Brown was shot multiple times and died instantly. A week of looting and rioting followed. 2014 Aug 10 (Sunday): Santa Fe, New Mexico author Douglas Preston's recently-formed group Authors United ran a two-page ad in the New York Times calling on Amazon, Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos to stop targeting Hachette authors (I was a signatory author); the New York Times ran a same-day favorable article on the front page. Amazon's response was an email to authors mis-quoting George Orwell's novel "1984", which got them chastised by the George Orwell Estate, who accused Amazon of Orwellian 'doublespeak'. 2014 Aug 15 (Friday): State police removed local and county police riot squads and armored vehicles and immediately took steps to sustain a peaceful environment in Ferguson, Missouri. That afternoon, Ferguson's Chief of Police named the involved police officer and began blaming the victim, by issuing surveillance video from a convenience store showing young men that might be Michael Brown & Dorian Johnson and alleging that Brown stole a box of cheap cigars there earlier that day. (1: The video does not prove the allegation; 2: Stealing cigars is still no excuse for shooting an unarmed teenager eight times; 3: The police officer had no idea that Brown was wanted for any crime.) 2014 Aug 24 (Sunday): Early morning 6.0 earthquake in Napa Valley, California - the biggest quake in California since Loma Prieta in 1989. 2014 Aug 24: The handpicked legislature of Thailand, established by a military junta in May, named Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha as Prime Minister, making the country a military dictatorship (alongside the ceremonial monarchy under King Bhumibol Adulyadej). 2014 Sunday Sept 21: The People’s Climate March in New York City two days prior to the United Nations Climate Summit meeting shattered expectations with 400,000 marchers (plus similar marches worldwide); there was a virtual blackout on American news channels. Next day, a few short reports under-counted the march at 100,000 and focused on the 100 people who were arrested. 2014 Sept 23: United Nations Climate Summit; speakers included Al Gore, Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio [3:30], and President Barack Obama [12:54]. 2014 Sept 24: annual National Voter Registration Day (sponsored by The League of Women Voters) - the best way to whup the fascist One Percent is to register and then vote. 2014 Oct 10: Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai won a shared Nobel Peace Prize (with Kailash Satyarthi of India) for activism against the oppression of children and young people. 2014 Oct 20: 17-year-old Afro-American Laquan McDonald was surrounded by Chicago police officers who were waiting for a Taser, but the boy was shot 16 times and killed. The incident was filmed on a patrol car dash cam, but Chicago has done everything in its power to keep that video private, including paying the family $5 million so that we never see the evidence. The F.B.I. is now investigating the case. 2014 Nov 4: National elections in U.S.A. for 35 Senators & all 435 members of Congress, plus state & local offices. 2014 Nov 4: Voters in Alaska passed Ballot Measure 2 at 53-47%, decriminalizing possession of cannabis at the state level effective 24 February 2015. 2014 Nov 6: Election Results - The Koch Brothers bought both houses of the 114th Congress: The Senate now has a Republican majority (Dems 43 + 2 independents, GOP 52, with Alaska & Virginia too close to call and Louisiana in a run-off election on December 6th). The GOP kept its majority in the House (Dems 180 to GOP 243, with at least ten races 'too close to call' or set for recount). Democrats lost three governor seats (Dems 17, GOP 31, independent 2). 2014 Nov 13: A federal grand jury in Charleston, SC handed up a four-count indictment against Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship relating to the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster of April 2010; charges included conspiracy to violate safety and health laws, conspiracy to provide advance warning of government inspections, and making false statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about Massey’s safety practices prior to the explosion. 2014 Friday evening Dec 12: Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivered the 'Enough Is Enough!' Senate speech asking to break up Citibank watch [9:43] at YouTube 2014 Dec 21: The Fox News Channel decided to play hardball and not negotiate for renewed carriage on the Dish Satellite Network, so when the contract expired, Dish removed Fox from its scheduling. Fox's audience dropped 45% (1.65 million in 2013 versus 939,000 same week in 2014). By year's end, Fox had promoted 20,000 telephone calls threatening to cancel their Dish subscription. But Dish doesn't much care about that, since the satellite service has 14 million subscribers (and 25,000 U.S. employees). 2015 Jan 3: The fascist Republican 114th Congress began its attempt to destroy the United States. The Senate has 54 Republican members (up nine), 44 Democrats, and 2 independents; the House has 188 members in the Democratic caucus (down 13, now 43%), 246 members in the Republican caucus (57%), and one G.O.P. vacancy. 2015 Jan 23: Two Detroit, Michigan police units pulled over 57-year-old Afro-American Floyd Dent for running a stop sign and proceeded to beat and taser the man; Dent received multiple injuries including broken face bones. A silent dash-cam video showing the actions of the three white cops surfaced in March. Inkster, Michigan police officer Bill 'Robocop' Melendez was taken off patrol until being fired on April 13th; he was charged a week later with three felonies in the brutal beating, including planting drug evidence in the car; there are twelve civil suits pending against Melendez for use of excessive force, i.e. police brutality. 2015 Feb 11: Congress passed a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline, with several really bad 'rider' attachments. 2015 Feb 19: Retailer Wal-Mart, Inc. announced pay raises effective in April to at least $9 an hour for 500,000 full-time & part-time associates, more than a third of its work force at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. By next February 1, their pay will go to at least $10 an hour. 2015 Feb 24: President Obama used his third-ever veto to cancel Congressional approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. 2015 Feb 24: Ballot Measure 2, passed by Alaska voters at 53-47% in November, went into effect, decriminalizing possession of cannabis at the state level. 2015 Feb 26: Republican Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich, aged 54, was found dead of a supposedly self-inflicted gunshot wound. Don't you believe it. He had announced his candidacy for governor on the platform of rooting out rampant corruption in state and local government. He made calls that morning inviting two newspaper reporters to attend a press conference that same afternoon. This was NOT suicide. 2015 Feb 26: U.S. government agency Federal Communications Commission issued strong new rules protecting net neutrality (basically by decreeing the internet to be a public common carrier, to be regulated just like the telephone companies, citing Title II of the Telecommunications Act). 2015 March 2: The NASDAQ Composite Index closed at over $5,000 for the first time in 15 years. 2015 March 2: Facing pressure from labor groups, retailer Target Stores announced that it will increase the minimum pay of its workers to at least $9 an hour, joining retailers like Wal-Mart, Inc. and T.J.X. in raising their minimum hourly wage. 2015 March 27: Democrat U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, age 75, announced that he will not seek re-election in 2016 and will instead concentrate on his job as Minority Leader, as well as helping to bring control of the Senate back to the Democratic Party - watch official video [3:35] on YouTube. 2015 March 29: The official spokesman for the Missouri State Auditor's Office Robert 'Spence' Jackson, aged 44, was found dead at his home in Jefferson City of a supposedly self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said that he left a note, the contents of which were released several days later: "I'm so sorry. I just can't take being unemployed again." Don't you believe it, II. 2015 April 1: McDonald’s announced that they will raise the minimum wage for employees to an average of $9.90 by July 1, "up from $9.01"; the move will cover roughly 90,000 people but does not include the 90 percent of McDonald’s 14,350 locations that are franchised: the company is unable to dictate wage hikes at franchise locations, but "it’s possible that franchisees could follow [corporate's example]". While the minimum wage increase was announced in advance of the wave of strikes planned for April 15, the strikes for the $15 an hour living wage took place as planned. 2015 Thursday April 2: The fake T.E.A. Party of Miami, supported by Koch Brothers dark money, produced a fake 'Stop The Land Grab' protest outside the South Florida Water Management District building in West Palm Beach, Florida hoping to sway officials against the purchase (by eminent domain) of 46,000 acres of farmland, to preserve that land south of Lake Okeechobee and remediate it as part of the dying Everglades. Good coverage on TV, with less coverage about the fact that the 50-odd protestors were local actors paid $75 for two hours work ('no lunch') and that the fake T.E.A. Party of Miami 'has no [valid] contact information on its website and is not registered to do business in Florida'. 2015 April 3: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the nuclear proliferation treaty between Iran and six nations - England, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the U.S. - is completed, with tight restrictions that prevent Iran from making any moves toward nuclear weapons. (In return, the six nations will stop the devastating economic sanctions against Iran.) 2015 April 7: The turnout for the Ferguson, Missouri city election was three times the last one (but still only 30% of voters participated). Two Afro-Americans were newly elected to the City Council, making three (of six members); the mayor was re-elected. 2015 April 12: Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her campaign for election as U.S. President. 2015 April 15: Strikes by fast-food workers for a $15 hourly wage took place as planned across America and around the world; organizers hope to turn the fast-food workers’ fight into a broad national movement of all low-wage workers that combines the spirit of Depression-era labor organizing with the uplifting power of Dr. King’s civil rights campaign. Besides tens of thousands of U.S. strikers from Brooklyn to Oakland, strikes also took place at McDonald's stores in Athens, Toronto, Sao Paulo, and Hong Kong. 2015 May 9: A transformer fire at the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear energy plant in Buchanan, New York leaked thousands of gallons of fuel oil into the Hudson River; one of the three nuclear units was shut down as a precaution, nuclear material was not involved, the event was an environmental incident. 2015 May 12: Amtrak's Northeast Regional #188 passenger train derailed at Frankford Junction in Port Richmond, Philadelphia; the train left Washington, DC bound for New York City and increased its speed from 70mph to over 100mph just before a 4° curve that has long been restricted to 50mph; eight people died and over 200 were injured. The immediate cause of the accident is still being investigated; the real cause of the accident is prior reduction of Amtrak safety funding by Republicans in Congress. 2015 June 12: Congress voted against the T.A.A. bill that was part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership giveaway; the vote was 302 against and 126 for the proposal – 'it went down in flames'; that vote was followed by a meaning-less vote on the Fast Track bill from the Senate (219 to 211) that merely gives Republicans plausible deniability: 'Yeah, T.P.P. did not happen, but don't blame me because I voted for Fast Track'. 2015 June 18: Pope Francis issued the 'Laudato Si' encyclical paper on climate change, a radical indictment of the amoral, materialistic, and wasteful society of today that is damaging the planet and hurting its poorest people; he challenges the world to stop pollution, to recycle & carpool, and to do without air conditioning. 2015 June 24: Congress pulled a fast one on the American people and passed T.P.A. (fast-track) with T.A.A. (unemployed worker program) removed; the T.A.A. was passed separately on June 29, and President Obama signed both bills into law that evening. 2015 Friday July 3: The index of the mainland Chinese stock market fell 28.6% since a June 12 record high (5166 down to 3686); the index was back up just a little by Monday July 13, to 3970. 2015 July 10: After much fuss, the Battle Flag of the Confederacy was taken down from a flagpole at the Civil War memorial next to the State Capitol Building in Charlotte, North Carolina; many saw this as a 'let's be done with it, already' symbolic end to the Civil War [1861-1865]. Yet the fight against ignorance and racism and discrimination continues. 2015 July 10: President Obama proclaimed the Basin and Range National Monument, permanently protecting 704,000 acres of land in eastern Nevada. 2015 July 15: Amazon, Inc. launched the Prime Day 24-hour sales event in 2015 in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. to celebrate Amazon's 20-year anniversary. 2015 July 19: Full diplomatic relations were restored between the U.S. and Cuba (halted back in 1961). 2015 July 19: Flash floods from Tropical Storm Dolores caused collapse of two freeway bridges on I-10 near Desert Center, California; the two-way closure is longterm and traffic is being diverted until further notice: eastbound traffic goes south on Highway 86 at Indio to the I-8 Freeway, westbound traffic goes north on I-95 at Blythe to Highway 62 and thru the high desert. (The Federal Highway Administration lists 119 obsolete bridges and 79 structurally-deficient bridges in Riverside County, California.) 2015 July 21: The deceptive reactionary anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress released two videos that manipulate footage to falsely portray a Planned Parenthood official discussing the handling of fetal tissue; the smear campaign caused 'pro-life' people to go nuts calling for the end of all government funding for Planned Parenthood programs. Planned Parenthood issued a video statement [2:19] denying the 'pro-life' lies. 2015 Aug 5: The Animas River Spill began: E.P.A workers cleaning up an abandoned mine near Silverton, Colorado accidentally released a million gallons of dirty water into Cement Creek, which quickly flowed into the Animas River; the yellow-colored spill is not especially toxic, although it does contain excess levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum, copper, and calcium. 2015 Aug 6: The Fox Republican Presidential Primary Circus First Debate in Cleveland, Ohio with Top Ten Clowns (announced 8/4) Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, and Gov. Scott Walker. 2015 Aug 8-9: Spillage size increased to three million gallons; La Plata County and the City of Silverton in Colorado declared states of emergency; San Juan County in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation (NM, AZ, UT) declared states of emergency; Gov. Martinez declared a state of emergency in northwestern New Mexico – due to the destruction of plant and animal habitat and closures of polluted wells and agricultural irrigation ditches; these closures will remain in effect until further notice. 2015 Aug 10: The yellow mine tailings spill 'plume' from Colorado had traveled 120 or so miles down the Animas River Valley past Farmington, New Mexico to the San Juan River, which flows about 200 miles farther to meet the Colorado River at Lake Powell in Utah. The Navajo Nation filed suit against the E.P.A. for the possibly longterm contamination of drinking water wells and irrigation systems. 2015 Aug 15: Restrictions on use of water in the San Juan and Animas Rivers were lifted. 2015 Aug 31: President Obama restored the name of Alaska's Mt. McKinley to the original name of Denali. 2015 Sept 16: The C.N.N. Republican Presidential Primary Circus Second Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California with the same Top Ten Clowns plus candidate Carly Fiorina. 2015 Sept 23-27: Pope Week in the U.S.A. began with Pope Francis meeting with President Obama for breakfast, then canonization of California pioneer Junípero Serra [1713-84] on Wednesday the 23rd, then an address to Congress on the 24th; address to the United Nations and visit to Ground Zero Memorial in New York City on the 25th; then two days in Philadelphia: speeches at Independence Mall and at the World Meeting of Families on the 26th, and further meetings and a parade in the Popemobile on Sunday the 27th. 2015 Sept 24: The American Registry for Internet Numbers announced that it had given out the last of the IPv4 addresses that it had in its free pool for North America. (The IPv6 solution is a long, long way from implementation.) 2015 Oct 1: The threatened government shutdown caused by Republican Party refusal to pass a feasible non-austerity budget was averted, with a 90-day extension — the 'Bonehead Congress' has avoided doing their job – yet again! 2015 Oct 1: A non-student on a shooting rampage killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon; the crazed gunman was killed in a shootout with police, so the toll was ten dead and seven wounded; police found five handguns and a semi-automatic assault rifle; this shooting was the 45th mass shooting in the U.S.A in 2015. There have been 142 school shootings in America since the Sandy Hook massacre. 2015 Oct 9: Student-on-student shooting at the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff, Arizona; an overnight confrontation between two groups of students escalated into early-morning gunfire by a freshman; one student killed and three others wounded. 2015 Oct 13: The first Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debate in Las Vegas, Nevada - moderated by Anderson Cooper; media pundits declared Hillary the winner, while independent focus groups found Bernie the winner. Both Jim Webb and Lincoln Chaffee withdrew from the race a week later. 2015 Oct 28: Third Republican Presidential Primary Circus Debate in Boulder, Colorado was broadcast on CNBC, drawing an all-time record 14 million viewers. 2015 Nov 2: Owner TransCanada asked the Obama administration to suspend the application for Keystone XL construction approval; common conjecture is that TransCanada is hoping that a Republican will be elected U.S. President in 2016 and that that person will naturally & quickly approve construction. 2015 Nov 4: The U.S. State Department rejected the request by TransCanada to suspend the application for phase 4 of the Keystone XL pipeline. 2015 Nov 5: Mikhail Lesin [1958-2015], former key adviser to Vladimir Putin, was found dead in his room at The Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, DC; the official ruling is that he died of blunt force trauma after falling repeatedly in his room while intoxicated; the 2016 Steele Dossier suggests that Lesin was accidentally bludgeoned to death by Russian security who were supposed to scare him; Levin's death took place just days before he was to meet with Justice Department officials about the inner workings of the Russian television channel RT. A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed nearly two years prior finally produced documents from the city’s medical examiner in March 2019: Lesin sustained a complete fracture of his neck 'at or near the time of his death', which finding offers no clear-cut evidence of foul play. 2015 Nov 6: President Obama announced his rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline phase 4; he cited consideration that the U.S. must show the world that we are serious about reducing greenhouse emissions (especially since the 2015 World Climate Summit meets in Paris, France in just a few weeks). 2015 Nov 6: Fourth Republican Presidential Primary Circus Debate in Madison, Wisconsin 2015 Nov 13: A coordinated series of terrorist attacks in Paris, France included 4 suicide bombings, mass shootings, and the capture of the Bataclan Theater during the evening performance. The Islamic attackers at the theater killed 89 people and wounded 200 before police surrounded the building; two attackers exploded suicide vests, a third attacker was killed before he could detonate his vest. A total of 129 civilians and seven attackers were killed; 415 injured were taken to hospital, with 80 deemed serious. The terrorist Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, citing French military involvement in the Middle East as justification. 2015 Nov 14: The second Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debate in Des Moines, Iowa. 2015 Nov 30-Dec 11: World Climate Summit #21 met in Paris, France. 2015 Dec 15: Fifth Republican Presidential Primary Circus Debate in Las Vegas, Nevada 2015 Dec 18: Release of the seventh 'Star Wars' movie, "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens". 2015 Dec 19: The third Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debate in Manchester, NH. 2016 Jan 17: The fourth Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debate in Charleston, SC. "all eyes are on the Iowa primary on February First" 2016 February or March: The fifth Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debate in Miami, Florida. 2016 February or March: The sixth Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debate in Wisconsin. 2016 Feb 12/13: Antonin Scalia, execrable Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1986, died in his sleep. Since Congress is held hostage by the Republican Party, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately stated that there would be no hearings and no up-or-down vote on his replacement until after the election in November (hoping that a Republican will be elected to the White House). 2016 March 14: An eastbound Amtrak passenger train derailed just after midnight near Cimarron, in rural southwest Kansas; five train cars derailed and 28 people were injured, three seriously; the other passengers and crew spent 12 hours at the 4-H recreation center and were then bused to Kansas City. Investigation determined that a local feed truck got loose, backed down a hill, and banged against the railway track, moving it 12-14 inches. The driver and the feed company did not report the incident and B.N.S.F. and Amtrak quickly sued them for $75,000 damages each. {entry at Wikipedia} 2016 March 16: President Obama officially nominated Judge Merrick Garland for the open U.S. Supreme Court Justice position; Congress continues to refuse to do their job, i.e. hold hearings and an up-or-down vote. 2016 April 3: Leakage of the Panama Papers, which exposed 140 government officials and others and international corporations who used offshore bank accounts to hide illegal or politically questionable activities. The 11.5 million documents {2.6 million terabytes of data} were delivered by an anonymous source in August 2015 to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and later to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [est. 1997] (a project of the Center for Public Integrity [est. 1989]). After examination by 400 journalists in 80 countries, the first data release took place on April 3rd, of 149 documents; two days later the Prime Minister of Iceland resigned. 2016 April 13: 40,000 members of the Communications Workers of America union walked off the job and struck Verizon and Verizon Wireless on the east coast (Massachusetts to Virginia), the largest U.S. strike since the one against Verizon in 2011; management wants employees to accept a 60% pay cut and loss of health benefits while the CEO receives a $20M per year salary. 2016 April 15: Sen. Bernie Sanders traveled by invitation to Vatican City (Rome, Italy) to deliver an address on income inequality and the environment. "The challenges facing our planet are not mainly technological or even financial, because as a world we are rich enough to increase our investments in skills, infrastructure, and techno-logical know-how to meet our needs and to protect the planet. Our challenge is mostly a moral one, to redirect our efforts and vision to the common good." 2016 May 14: Japanese scientists recorded the first CO2 reading of 400 parts per million in Antarctica. 2016 May 31: Verizon announced settlement of the 40,000-member strike by the Communications Workers of America union, agreeing to 1,300 new call center jobs and an 11% pay increase over four years, but also getting health insurance concessions. 2016 June 9: Meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York City {details revealed in July 2017}. 2016 June 12: In the early hours of Sunday morning, an American-born Afghani Muslim opened fire inside an Orlando, Florida nightclub whose patrons are mostly L.G.B.T. Forty-nine people died, plus the shooter; officials listed 53 people wounded and taken to a hospital. The incident is the worst mass shooting since Virginia Tech in April 2007 and the worst hate crime in U.S. history and the worst terrorist killing in the U.S. since September 11, 2001. (His wife was acquitted by a Florida jury in March 2018 of all charges in relation to her husband's rampage.) 2016 June 15: Democrats in the U.S. Senate began a talking filibuster demanding that the Republican majority allow a vote on preventing anyone on the federal No Fly List or suspected of terrorist activity from purchasing any firearm or potential weapon of mass destruction. 38 Democratic Party Senators spoke for nearly 15 hours and the filibuster ended when Republicans promised to vote on gun control legislation (details not revealed). 2016 July: Production of commercial and at-home V.C.R. (video cassette recorder & player) devices ended (videocassette technology was launched in 1975). 2016 July 12: Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton for President {excerpts}. 2016 July 14: A terrorist with French-Tunisian citizenship drove a large truck into crowds along the beach in Nice, France who were watching the Bastille Day fireworks; so far 84 people dead, including a father & son from Texas and nine other children; over 200 injured were taken to hospitals; after over a mile-long spree of carnage, police were able to shoot and kill the driver. 2016 July 15: Donald Trump named Indiana Governor Michael R. 'Mike' Pence as his running mate. 2016 July 15: Members of the military in the Republic of Türkiye staged an unsuccessful coup against the Muslim-friendly civilian government, with tanks and troops spreading out in Istanbul and Ankara and other cities; by next day, 294 people were killed, 1,400 wounded, and 6,000 arrested, including senior military officers. 2016 July 18–21: Republican Party National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio - the result was nominees Donald Trump and Mike Pence. 2016 July 25–28: Democratic Party National Convention in Philadelphia, PA - the result was Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. 2016 August: Donald Trump, Jr. met in Trump Tower with an emissary of two Saudi princes offering help in winning the presidential election; the meeting was arranged by Erik Prince (of Blackwater). Trump Jr. said later that the meeting happened, but that he rejected the offers. 2016 Sept 26: The first presidential debate at Hofstra University, on Long Island in New York. 2016 Late Sept: After their first bid was rejected, pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG [est. 1863] of Germany increased their purchase offer to $66B, which the board of sprawling international agrichemical behemoth Monsanto Company accepted (pending governmental approval). 2016 Sept 28: Long-lived Hurricane Matthew became the first Category 5 storm since 2007; it hit Haiti (estimated 1,000 dead) and the Bahamas, then hit Florida (12 dead, one million without power), Georgia (3 dead, 250,000 without power), South Carolina (3 dead, 473,000 without power), and North Carolina (severe inland flooding, 17 dead, 680,000 without power); the storm officially dissipated on October 9th, delivering heavy rains on October 10th & 11th from Virginia northward to Canada. 2016 October: Hackers stole names, email addresses, and phone numbers of 57 million Uber riders around the world; data on more than 7 million Uber drivers was also stolen, including over 600,000 drivers' license records. Rather than coming forward about this, Uber's head of security gave a $100,000 bribe to the same hackers who stole the data in order to keep them quiet and delete the evidence. The Uber data breach was revealed by Bloomberg News in November 2017. 2016 October: Porn star Stormy Daniels had extramarital sexual encounters with then-candidate Donald Trump (she denies that it was 'an affair'). Revealed by The Wall Street Journal and other news media in January 2018: a shell corporation was set up to pay Daniels $130,000 to deny everything; documents use pseudonyms, except Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen used his real name. 2016 Oct 9: The second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri: Trump went down in flames, followed by a week of gutterballs. 2016 Oct 11-12: Early voting began in 33 U.S. states, with restricted early voting in the rest. 2016 Oct 13: King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand died at age 88; he was the world’s longest-reigning monarch. 2016 Oct 13: Music legend Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature. 2016 Oct 19: The third presidential debate at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 2016 Nov 2: The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan [est. 1946] officially endorsed Donald J. Trump and his 'Make America Great Again' slogan on the front page of their Crusader newspaper. 2016 Nov 2: The Chicago Cubs baseball team won the World Series against the Cleveland Indians; the Cubs lost to the Detroit Tigers in both the 1935 and 1945 World Series; the last World Series win for the Cubs was 108 years prior in 1908. 2016 Nov 6: A magnitude 5.0 earthquake centered near Cushing, Oklahoma brought down building facades and shattered windows, rendering century-old buildings unsafe and raising concerns about key infrastructure; no one was injured, 40 to 50 buildings were damaged, but the large oil storage hub outside of town reported no damage. 2016 Nov 8: The critical Election 2016: America vs. Fascism Idiot billionaire Republican Donald J. Trump won the United States presidential election, while Republicans retained control of the House and the Senate. Y'all thought this was over, huh? 2016 Wednesday Nov 23: Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein announced that she will ask for recounts in the three very close swing states if We The People step up and provide the money to do so. (Wisconsin and Michi-gan and Pennsylvania had a difference between Trump & Clinton of less than 100,000 votes.) The first $2.5 million for a Wisconsin recount - Friday deadline - was raised from grassroots donors by the end of the day! The recount costs for Pennsylvania - Monday deadline - and Michigan - Wednesday deadline - total another $4.5 million. As-of Thursday afternoon, the Election Integrity funding website had already received $4.1 million! 2016 Nov 25: Cuban revolutionary and dictator Fidel Castro died at age 90; his brother Raul Castro has been running the country since 2008. 2016 Dec 2: Republican Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a court action asking the State Supreme Court to preemptively shut down any attempt at a presidential election recount. 2016 Dec 10: Runoff election in Louisiana for one U.S. Senate seat, two U.S. House seats, and dozens of municipal jobs; the competition for the Senate seat is between Democrat Foster Campbell and Republican State Treasurer John Kennedy. 2016 Dec 19: Meetings of the Presidential Electors: a handful of protest votes were cast, then rejected and the voter replaced by an alternate; in Hawai'i, one vote went to Bernie Sanders; in Texas, one vote went to John Kasich and one to Ron Paul; in Washington State, three votes went to Colin Powell, and one to Faith Spotted Eagle; the official tally will be January 6th in joint session of Congress. Spirit of America Bookstore's U.S. History Timeline Pages Ancient Times - 3500 B.C.E to 1490 C.E.    •    1491-1800    •    1801-1900    •    1901-1930    •    1931-1950 •    1951-1968    •    1969-2000    •    2001-2010    •    2011-2016 { top of this page }   • next: 2017-2018    •    2019-2020    •    2021 to present    •    The Looming Future?    Spirit of America's U.S.A. Timeline of the COVID-19 Epidemic    Spirit of America's New Mexico Timeline of the COVID-19 Epidemic

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