History of Sorts

As we bid farewell to 2023, and 2024 is upon us it may be a good time to reflect on the last 12 months, but at some of the stories which may have been forgotten.

January 1 Avenger’s actor Jeremy Renner is accidentally run over by a snowplow, breaking more than 30 bones in his body near Reno, Nevada
January 4,Actors Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, who starred in the 1968 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, file a lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court against Paramount Pictures for US$500 million, alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and fraud, and for being filmed in the nude without their knowledge.

February 9 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) suspends its operations in north-west Burkina Faso following the killings of two of its Burkinabé aid workers near Dédougou.
Feb 23 Former Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 years in prison for rape in Los Angeles, on top of the 23 years he is already serving for sex crimes

March 12 95th Academy Awards: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” best film, best director Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Michelle Yeoh second woman of color to win best actress, Brendan Fraser best actor
March 16 French President Emmanuel Macron invokes a Constitutional amendment allowing him to circumvent the National Assembly in order to pass a controversial reform bill raising the retirement age in the country from 62 to 64, without the bill going to a vote.

April 16 Broadway’s longest-running show, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart’s musical “Phantom of the Opera”, directed by Hal Prince and starring Laird Mackintosh substituting for ill Ben Crawford) and Emelie Kouatchou, closes at Majestic Theater, NYC, after 13,981 performances and 7 Tony Award wins
April 19 Thousands of Sudanese civilians cross the closed border with Chad as refugees and are detained, according to Chadian Defence Minister Daoud Yaya Brahim. Brahim also states that the Chad National Army detained and disarmed a contingent of 320 Sudanese troops who crossed the border.

May 4 Ed Sheeran found not guilty of copying Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 single “Thinking Out Loud” by a Manhattan federal jury; copyright infringement suit was filed by the heirs of Gaye’s co-writer Ed Townsend.
May 16,The Supreme Court of Namibia recognises foreign same-sex marriages between citizens. However, homosexual acts remain illegal in Namibia under a rarely enforced colonial-era law from 1927

June 3 In association football, Manchester City beat rivals Manchester United 2–1 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium in London to win their seventh FA Cup title. İlkay Gündoğan breaks the record for the fastest goal in an FA Cup final, scoring after just 12 seconds
June 24 Wagner Group mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin rebel against Vladimir Putin’s government, march towards Moscow, only a last minute deal by Aleksander Lukashenko gets them to stand down and move to Belarus

July 1 Dutch King Willem-Alexander makes formal apology for the country’s role in the slave trade, at 160th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands
July 5 Aerospace manufacturer Arianespace launches its Ariane 5 launch vehicle for the final time from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying French and German military satellites.

August 2 The Wall Street Journal discloses that cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues to do business within the People’s Republic of China despite a formal prohibition of such activity by PRC authorities in 2021; WSJ says that more-or-less open trading totals US$90 billion per month
August 28 “Barbie” becomes Warner Bros’ highest-grossing global release, overtaking “Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows Part 2” taking $1.34 billion

September 3 Dutch world champion Max Verstappen scores his record 10th straight F1 victory of the season in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza; beats Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez by 6.064s
September 19 Documents allegedly from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicate that the Polish embassy in Minsk, Belarus, issued 784,173 visas to individuals from 65 countries with the aid of a Moscow-based company. Individuals who were denied entry at the Belarus-European Union border during the Belarus–European Union border crisis may also have been granted visas.

October 7 Hamas launches a major air and ground attack on Israel from Gaza, killing over a thousand people and taking hundreds of hostages.
October 11 In association football, UEFA announces that the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland will host UEFA Euro 2028, while Italy and Turkey will host UEFA Euro 2032.

November 2 Apple Records release the last Beatles song “Now and Then” as a double A-sided single, backed with their first “From Me To You”; the new song was built from an unfinished 1978 John Lennon demo and 1995 attempt to complete it that had been abandoned due to technical issues, resolved by new technology.November 9 The High Court of Ireland convicts Slovak man Jozef Puška of Ashling Murphy’s murder. Puška faces a mandatory life sentence.

December 1 The International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders Venezuela to refrain from any action that would alter the status quo in Guayana Esequiba ahead of a referendum on its rights to the disputed territory, but does not forbid Venezuela from going ahead with the referendum as Guyana requested.
December 3 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony held for pop singer Dionne Warwick, singer-songwriter Barry Gibb, comic-actor Billy Crystal, operatic soprano Renée Fleming, and singer-actress Queen Latifah, in Washington D.C.