2010 has been a year of many happenings, some good, some bad, and some will easily be forgotten shortly after the New Year has begun. Here are the 7 most memorable happenings in 2010 that I can recall. They might not all be that interesting to you, but they each caught my attention for some reason.
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This 21 year old Olympic athlete from the country of Georgia died during a training exercise. It’s reported that Nodar had told his father he feared the luge track he would later be competing on. It was during a practice run that Nodar had the fatal accident. His luge sled reached up to 90 miles per hour at the time of the accident.
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With a 7.0 magnitude, this earthquake rocked Haiti right at the start of the year. The initial quake took place on the 12th of January, but continued to be a constant reminder up until the 24th of the same month with a little over 50 aftershocks measuring around 4.5 or greater. 230 thousand people died, 300 thousand were injured, and more than a million became homeless. Even the 1946 earthquake that struck the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, didn’t produce the amount of damage that the 2010 earthquake in Haiti displayed.
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The Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted twice in less than a month’s time. Hundreds of people had to flee, due to rising floodwaters, and flights were cancelled into and out of Iceland. The rising floodwaters were caused by the melting of a glacier near the volcano. Also, the flights weren’t only cancelled on the continent of Iceland, but surrounding countries as well.
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A non-profit organization known as WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of documents known as the Iraq War Logs during the month of October. The following month this same organization released diplomatic cables from the US State Department. There seems to be a split between the reactions to these ‘leaks’. A lot of criticism and praise are both being noted in regards to what WikiLeaks has provided to the public.
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Whether it’s called the Macondo blowout, the Gulf of Mexico oil Spill, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, or the BP oil disaster, the outcome is still the same. 11 men were killed and 17 others were injured during the initial explosion that caused the oil to begin gushing on the sea floor in April of 2010. The leak was stopped by mid-July after a whopping 4.9 million barrels of crude oil were lost. This total is a little more than 205 million gallons of crude oil.
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Having a scientific background, just about anything science related fascinates me. After the Big Bang occurred over 14 billion years ago, most of the antimatter disappeared from the universe. A group of scientists in Geneva have been working on the big bang machine and were finally able to create, capture, and then release antimatter. This is an extremely difficult task to achieve since normal matter and antimatter annihilate one another whenever they meet.
Image source: complexmanmag.com
I was in awe to see all 33 miners rescued from the underground mine after being trapped for more than 2 months. Long ago when a mine would collapse, it was rare for anyone to make it out alive. Thankfully the technology and know-how of today have changed all that and each of the 33 miners was able to see their loving families once again.
As with past years, there were also many deaths of celebrities during 2010. I’m sure the deaths of these famous individuals would make the list of the 7 most memorable happenings in 2010 for other people. Although I do remember the many celebrities who died this past year, I chose the above 7 headline events instead. What is the most memorable event you can recall from 2010?
Top Photo Credit: {Marzia}