2014: The Year in Review

The Pigeon Press staff selects what it believes are the top stories of 2014.

WORLD:

Ebola: In 2014, numerous African countries experienced an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. The outbreak is linked to a two-year old child, who passed away from the disease in Guinea in 2013. The disease then spread to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. As of October 15th, 2014 there have been 17 cases treated outside of Africa, thus far only two Americans have died from Ebola. However, an estimated 7,000 people in Africa have died so far. TIME Magazine named the doctors who fought against Ebola its Person of the Year.

Malaysia Airlines: In 2014, Malaysia Airlines lost two Boeing 777s. Flight 370, carrying 239 passengers, disappeared on March 8th over the Southern Indian Ocean, while traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. No debris or wreckage have been found from the flight and the search is the largest and most expensive search for a downed airliner in history. Flight 17, traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17th, 2014, killing all 238 passengers and 15 crew members. The flight is presumed to have been shot down by Ukrainian rebels.

ISIS: Ever since the civil war inside Syria erupted in 2011, moderate rebels have worked alongside extremist parts of the Islamic movement. In 2014, the extremists broke away from their moderate counterparts and created their own movement and message. These extremists named themselves The Islamic State In Syria (ISIS) The movement changed from fighting just inside Syria to working within Iraq as well. They have made many videos executing western journalists to show their anti-Christian message. ISIS caused problems within the Syrian rebellion because now moderate rebels are tasked with not only defending themselves from the current government, but from other rebels as well. Within Iraq the threat of ISIS only emphasized tension between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Russia Invades Crimea: In 2014, after months of public protest over the corrupt Ukrainian government, and its refusal to join the European Union; Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, was finally ousted. Following this, international intelligence agencies observed unmarked troops and military equipment, believed to be Russian, crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border. The forces congregated in the Southeast pro-Russian province of Crimea. The unidentified insurgents, who Russia claimed were not members of their armed forces, alongside local citizens closed the border between Ukraine and Crimea. In the following weeks, forces from Russia continued to supply the rebel groups with weapons.

Scotland: Leading up to the elections on September 24, 2014 in Scotland, Scottish citizens were perplexed by a referendum to secede from the United Kingdom. The final vote was 55% no and 44% yes. Even though it did not pass, the reverberations of the event shook the world. Never before did a province of a major world power try to succeed with almost no resistance. The UK government was prepared to accept the vote no matter the outcome, despite the large economic and socials problems that would had happened if the referendum passed. The vote was very close and could lead way for other provinces to seceded in the future.

U.S.:

Gay Marriage: As of 2014, 35 states have legalized same-sex marriage. In 2004, Massachusetts was the first U.S. state, and the sixth jurisdiction in the world, to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On May 19, 2014, Oregon became the 19th jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage. In just ten years, over half of the states in the US have legalized same-sex marriage. Although same-sex marriage is becoming more widely accepted, countries such as Germany, and 15 American states still have bans in place.

Marijuana Legalized: As of 2014, the number of states who have legalized the recreational use of marijuana has reached the grand total of four, as well as Washington D.C. Both Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana on a November, 2012 ballot. The 2014 Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, the only two states that had legalized marijuana at the time, was nicknamed the “Weed Bow.” Oregon has officially become the fourth state to legalize marijuana. Starting July 1, 2015, people in Oregon are allowed to have possession of up to 8 oz. in their home as well as 1 oz. in public. Homeowners are also allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants per household.

Ferguson: On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an African American teenager, was shot to death by police officer Darren Wilson. Protests erupted around the Ferguson area. The public responded with outcries about modern racism and police brutality. Controversy occurred when details about the case became unclear as multiple eyewitness account all contained conflicting information. Political groups and new organizations only heightened tensions between the protestors and the government. The anger seemed to cooled down until November 24, 2014 when a grand jury released their decision not to indict Officer Wilson. This only caused more anger and protests however this time around the country. The Ferguson movement has also created many trending hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, tumblr and other social media.

The Sony Hack: On November 24, 2014, information including emails between Sony employees, unreleased Sony movies, information about executive salaries along with other information was released by a group of Hackers going by the name “Guardians of Peace”. The CIA claims that North Korea was behind this attack. The group of hackers also requested that the Sony film, The Interview not be released, threatening terrorist attacks on theaters who shows the film. Sony later decided to fully pull the December 25 release date. Sony has no plans to release the film at all. The highly anticipated remake of Annie was also released onto pirated websites. Other movies released by the hacker group include, Fury, Mr. Turner, Still Alice and To Write Love on Her Arms.

POP CULTURE:

Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon: Jimmy Fallon’s first episode of “The Tonight Show” aired on February 17th, 2014, five months after the departure of Jay Leno. Fallon brought “The Tonight Show” back to its original filming location of NBC Studio 6-B in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, the same place where Johnny Carson filmed every episode. The debut episode had an overall viewership of 11.3 million, the second largest number of viewers in The Tonight Show history.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: In 2012, when Bostonian and former baseball player Pete Frates was diagnosed with ALS, his friend Pat Quinn created the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge gained popularity on social media in June 2014. During the summer of 2014, millions of people posted videos of themselves dumping a bucket of ice on them to raise money for the disease. As of July 29th, 2014 The ALS Association has received $115 million in donations.

Kim and Kanye: In May of 2014, two of the world’s most famous figures, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, got married. Their wedding followed the June 2013 birth of their daughter, North West. Kardashian shared a photo of the wedding, featuring her and West kissing, on Instagram. The photo is now the most liked Instagram photo of all time with over 2.4 million likes. After her marriage to West and even greater spike in popularity, Kardashian is estimated to be worth $65 million and West is estimated to be worth $130 million.

Taylor Swift: On August 18th, 2014 Taylor Swift began to release songs from her new album 1989, beginning with her hit song “Shake It Off.” The song stayed #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from the day it released until September 6th. The album officially released on October 27th, 2014. 1989 became the highest selling album in a single week since 2002, making Swift the first artist to have three albums sell a million copies or more in a week; making 1989 the best selling album of 2014.

SPORTS:

Olympics: The 2014 Winter Olympics were held in Sochi, Russia last winter, Friday, February 7th through Sunday February 23rd. Slopestyle became a new skiing and snowboarding event. Sage Kotsenburg of the U.S. brought home the gold in men’s snowboarding slopestyle. Despite there being minimal problems with the food, overall Sochi was successful.

World Cup: Last summer, The World Cup was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Germany displayed their prowess, eliminating Brazil, in a 7-0 game, and eventually winning against Argentina. The Brazilian government was prepared for rioting. However, everything ran smoothly, and produced and exciting experience. The United States finished with 28 medals.

Michael Sam: Sam became the first openly gay football player to be drafted into the NFL. Drafted in the 7th round by the St. Louis Rams, he was cut, and then picked up by the Dallas Cowboys. Sam was recently waived by the Cowboys, and is now a free agent. Through a tweet, he made it apparent to the public that there was no prejudice in the Cowboy’s decision to waive him.

Donald Sterling: June, 2014, Donald Sterling, ex-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, made racist comments to his girlfriend due to pictures she posted on Instagram. He told her not to bring African Americans to Clipper games. These comments were leaked, and created unrest in the NBA community. Eventually Sterling lost his ownership of the Clippers.

Jeter: Fall, 2014, Major League Baseball said goodbye to one of the greatest shortstops to play the game. Derek Jeter debuted May 29th, 1995, and ended his Hall of Fame worthy career on September 28th, 2014. Jeter spent his entire career playing for the Yankees. In his last home game, Jeter hit a walk-off, game winning base hit in the bottom of the ninth. Textbook.

MEMORIALS:

Robin Williams (1951-2014): When Williams was 16 he moved to California with his family. He dropped out of Claremont Men’s College to pursue acting. He was admitted into College of Marin with an acting degree. After college, he worked as an actor and had a weekly stand up performance at a local comedy club. His big break was being ask to appear on the “Laugh-In Show” on television. He then went to play a role in some of the most iconic movies of 1980s and ’90s, including Aladdin, Good Will Hunting, Hook and Dead Poets Society. He committed suicide on August 11, 2014 after a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. He will be remembered as one of the best actors, comedians, improvisors and class clowns of all time.

Oscar de la Renta (1932-2014): Born July 22nd, 1932 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, de la Renta was famous fashion designer. In the 1960s de la Renta became a household name for dressing Jacqueline Kennedy. From 1993 to 2002 de la Renta designed haute couture collections for the house of Balmain, another famous designer. He continued to dress A-list celebrities, American icons and royalty. He died on October 20th, 2014 at his home in Kent, Connecticut from cancer. He was 82 years old.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014): Born July 23rd 1967 in Rochester, New York, Hoffman was an American actor, director and producer known for his ambitious role choices. Hoffman studied at the Tisch School of the Arts and then began his acting career in 1991, starting with an episode of “Law & Order.” In 2005 Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Truman Capote in the film Capote. In a 2006 interview with “60 Minutes,” Hoffman admitted that he had suffered from drug and alcohol abuse while in college. He entered a rehab at the age of 22, remained sober for 23 years, but sadly relapsed in 2012. On February 2nd, 2014 Hoffman was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment. He died of mixed drug intoxication. He was 46 years old.

Shirley Temple Black (1928-2014): Beloved child music star Black, born April 23, 1928, died this past February 10th. Black rose to fame began in 1932, at the mere age of three years old with her appearance in Baby Burlesks. Her first feature film was The Red-Haired Alibi. Her career started out slowly with small roles working for Educational Pictures. When Educational Pictures declared bankruptcy, she was quickly snatched up by Fox pictures. During her time with Fox pictures, she starred in Bright Eyes, with the feature song “On the Good Ship Lollipop.”