2023 was a transformative year. The COVID-19 pandemic has finally been declared over by the WHO, India has surpassed China in population, and artificial intelligence has taken over our lives!
Really, artificial intelligence had a huge impact on everything. However, in spite of these developments, the tech sector suffered from widespread layoffs.
The world was enthralled with Barbie, Oppenheimer, in addition the FIFA Women’s Soccer World Cup, but not nearly as much as with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which made her the cover star of Time Magazine.
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Still, things did not go as planned this year. The war between Russia and Ukraine grew more intense, Israel attacked HAMAS in Gaza, Greece saw devastating wildfires in the midst of record-breaking summer temperatures, and the crew of Oceangate’s Titan submarine tragically perished.
In lighter news, leaders around the world sophisticated plans to tackle climate change, tropical countries rejoiced over the authorization of an innovative malaria vaccine, and the UK unveiled a medication that could cut breast cancer rates in half.
Even though 2023 had its share of low points, the future is bright overall thanks to advancements in equality, technology, and medicine!
Explore the news, quotes, quotes from famous people, events, and deaths that shaped 2023 by reading on.
Facts and Events
Jan 1: Croatia switched from using the kuna as its official currency to the euro.
Jan 10: Prince Harry of the United Kingdom released Spare, his candid memoir about growing up in the Royal Family.
Jan 20: On his ninetieth birthday, Buzz Aldrin—the second person to put a foot on the moon—married Anca Faur.
Jan24: Following further intensifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Doomsday Alarm clock was reset to 90 seconds to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock shows how close we are to a major global disaster or full-scale nuclear conflict. With this adjustment, the clock approached midnight for the first time since it was made in 1947.
Feb 1: The renowned rock vocalist Ozzy Osbourne declared his retirement from live performances.
The 74-year-old had long-term health issues, such as a spinal injury and a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. In an effort to better his health, he took the difficult decision to stop touring after several postponed shows.
Feb 6: A devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria claimed 59,259 lives.
More than 10,000 aftershocks were felt in the area during the following three weeks. It was the worst earthquake to strike Syria since 1822 and Turkey since 526 AD.
Feb 11: The land border between Armenia and Turkey reopened after a 35-year closure.
In order to facilitate a convoy of vehicles delivering relief to Turkey’s disaster-stricken areas affected by the Turkey-Syria Earthquake of 2023, the border was temporarily opened. Turkey sent aid to Armenia following yet another devastating earthquake in 1988, marking the last time the border was opened.
Feb 28: The FBI declared in the open that they thought COVID-19 started in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Mar 9: Vinyl record sales have surpassed CD sales for the inaugural time since 1987, according to the US record industry.
Mar 14: An enhanced version of their well-known AI chatbot, GPT-4, was made available by OpenAI.
Mar 17: Vladimir Putin is the target of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
Forcibly removing minors from areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation and sending them back to Russia is the offence for which the warrant was issued. The Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights was also the target of an arrest warrant for the same offence.
Mar 31: Italy outlawed the use of ChatGPT by OpenAI due to worries about data security.
Italian data privacy regulators expressed concerns, but OpenAI chose to ignore them by shutting down support for Italian users. The following month, ChatGPT was brought back with modifications that let users stop the chatbot from utilising their personal information.
Apr 3: For the first lunar mission in more than 50 years, NASA revealed the astronauts.
For Artemis II, a fly-by the mission to the moon, pilot Victor J. Glover, the air engineer Christina Koch, mission experts Jeremy Hansen, and commander Reid Wiseman were selected.
Apr 4: Finland became the 31st nation to join the safety alliance when it formally joined NATO.
Apr 20: Four minutes into the Starship rocket’s first full flight test, SpaceX’s vehicle exploded.
The most potent rocket ever constructed, the Starship, is expected to deliver human colonists to the planet Mars in the future. The launch was celebrated by SpaceX’s engineers despite the explosion because it yielded priceless data.
Apr 29: Celebrated country music artist Willie Nelson turned ninety this year and threw a two-day music festival.
May 1: The “Godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, left Google as worries about AI grew.
The “godfather,” who rose to fame for his groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence, stepped down to assist in raising awareness of the risks associated with this cutting-edge technology.
May 2: Following a labour dispute, the Authors Guild of the United States went on strike.
The largest stoppage of US television and film production because the COVID-19 pandemic occurred was caused by the strike towards the Alliance of Picture or Television Producers (AMPTP). Members of the guild went to the picket lines to demand better pay and job security.
May 4: Carrie Fisher, the actress from Star Wars, received a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Hall of Fame posthumously.
May 25: Elon Musk was given permission by the FDA to test his Neuralink implantable brains on people.
Jun 8: Donald Trump, the former US president, was formally charged with improper handling of classified documents.
Jun 16: The Grammy Awards revised their rules to prohibit songs created by artificial intelligence.
It was made clear by the new regulations that songs created entirely by AI would not be eligible for awards. Songs with “meaningful” human contributions and only a portion written by AI are still permitted.
Jun 18: A Titan submersible owned by OceanGate imploded while on a trip to the Titanic wreck.
Titan submerged for only an hour along with forty-five minutes before losing all communication with the submersible. The Titanic’s wreckage was discovered four days later, 500 metres (1,600 feet) away from the ship. Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the CEO of Oceangate, was among the five participants in the expedition who died.
Jun 30: In “Indiana Jones as well as the Dial of Destiny,” Harrison made a comeback to television screens.
Antonio Banderas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and John Rhys-Davies also starred in the fifth and last film in the Indiana Jones franchise. The only movie in the trilogy that the Steven Spielberg did not helm is this one.
Jul 8: Stockholm, Sweden hosted Elton John’s farewell concert, marking the end of his touring career.
Jul 21: Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan and Barbie by Greta Gerwig both debuted in theatres.
Many people went to the movies to see both movies back-to-back, combining them into a fun five-hour marathon that became known as “Barbenheimer.”
Jul 22: The 1975’s lead singer smacked his bandmate on the stage in demonstrate of Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, causing the Good Vibes Festival to be cancelled.
In Malaysia, a nation with a majority of Muslims, homosexuality is illegal. An advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, Matty Healy, made a point by kissing bassist Ross MacDonald and chastised the government for its position.
Jul 26: Mohamed Bazoum, the president of Niger, was overthrown by a military takeover.
This marked the country of Niger’s fifth coup following its 1960 separation from France. Numerous eminent political and institutional organisations around the world, such as the African Union, the UN, and the World Bank, denounced the coup.
Aug 10: In San Francisco, California, two competing driverless taxi businesses were granted permission to run around the clock.
Before receiving final approval, the two businesses, Cruise and Waymo, spent a year testing their offerings in the city.
Aug 19: The lunar lander mission Luna 25 from Russia made a crash landing on the moon.
This trip represented the first lunar landing attempt by Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos. The Soviet space programme supported the final Russian attempts, which took place in the 1970s.
Aug 23: India achieved spacecraft landing success on the Moon, making it the fourth country to do so.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon Lander touched down, joining the ranks of the US, China, and Russia. The fact that India was the first to set foot on the Moon’s uncharted south pole sets its landing apart from all other landings.
Aug 24: The mug shot of Donald Trump was the first of any former US President.
In response to 13 felony counts pertaining to his attempts to tamper with the 2020 presidential election, Trump turned himself in at the Fulton County jail. Trump had turned himself in four times in the previous six months as a result of criminal charges being brought against him.
SEP 12: Kim Jong-Un travelled by armoured train to Russia in order to meet with Putin, the president, and discuss possible military cooperation.
Sep 13: Before the Mexican Congress, “UFO expert” Jaime Maussan displayed the bodies of two purported aliens.
Maussan had previously made a number of unfounded claims, and on this particular day, he asserted that the mummified “aliens” were “not part of our earth-based evolution.” The entire thing has since been denounced by scientists all over the world as just another complex hoax.
Sep 16: One of Rolling Stone’s co-founders, Jann Wenner, was expelled from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The decision was made shortly after Wenner published a book titled “The Masters,” in which he conducted exclusive interviews with white male musicians. In response to racist and sexist comments he made about the lack of Black or female artists in his book, the magazine’s board of directors eliminated Wenner from the list.
Sep 27: The American Writers Guild’s strike against the Motion Picture and TV Producers Alliance came to an end.
There had never been a Writers Guild strike as long as the 148-day one. In addition to demanding greater compensation and benefits, writers staged picket lines to protect their jobs from AI chatbots such as ChatGPT.
Oct 5: The presence of humans in the continent of America more than 21,000 years ago was established by research conducted on fossil footprints found in White Sand National Park in the state of New Mexico.
Previous theories suggest that humans first arrived in the Americas only 15,000 years ago, when they crossed the Bering Strait to get from present-day Russia to Alaska. The age of the footprints was ascertained by the new research using a variety of techniques, and all of the findings pointed to a date of between 21,000 and even 23,000 years ago.
Oct 8: After a surprise attack in Israeli-controlled territory by Hamas operatives, Israel officially declared war on the organisation.
By the time the declaration was made, 1,100 people had died on both sides.
OCT 13: Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft for a record-breaking $69 billion.
The head of Microsoft’s gaming division declared that players’ favourite franchises would still be available on the standard platforms even after the acquisition.
Oct 30: An executive order governing the use of AI in federal agencies was signed by US President Joe Biden.
NOV 1: “AI” was declared by Collins Dictionary to be the most important word of 2023.
Nov 10: A campaign to sterilise Pablo Escobar’s wild hippos got underway in Colombia.
Four hippos were brought into the nation illegally in the 1980s by infamous cartel boss Pablo Escobar. The hippos were abandoned to the wild after his death in 1993. Their numbers reached the hundreds and they were declared an invasive species since they had no natural predators.
Nov 13: Disgraced former British prime minister David Cameron rejoined the UK administration.
In 2016, David Cameron announced his resignation as prime minister after the Brexit referendum was handled so badly. Many were taken aback by Cameron’s return as Foreign Secretary to PM Rishi Sunak because it seemed he would never be permitted to return.
Nov 24: Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza agreed to a four-day cease-fire.
Israel freed 39 Palestinians on the first day in exchange for 24 hostages. Apart from that, the truce made it possible for foreign relief organisations to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Dec 6: Time Magazine named Taylor Swift the Individual of the year.
The well-known pop singer along with cultural icon had been the very first to ever receive the esteemed award based on artistic achievement. Historically, men have received this award, especially those in positions of authority.
ZODIAC CHINESE 2023
In 2023, the Chinese zodiac cycle—which happens once every twelve years—named us The Year of the Rabbit.
Not many people are aware, though, that the five elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal (gold), and Water are also incorporated into the Chinese zodiac cycle. As a result, 2023 will truly be the Year of the The water Rabbit, following a cycle that lasts for sixty years.
Since the Chinese calendar is based on the lunar cycle, Chinese New Year fell on January 22, 2023.
Individuals with Rabbit birth signs are typically kind, sympathetic, and creative. They are sensitive and creative people who value peace and quiet. They have a harmonious nature.
Three bright examples of the achievement as well as talent that come with being born in the Several years of the Rabbit are Johnny Depp, Tessa Brooks, and DJ Khaled!
2023 TRIVIA
July 4, 2023: The average global temperature reached 62.92°F (17.18°C), making it the hottest day on Earth since at least 1979.
As reported by the National Centres for Environmental Prediction in the United States, this temperature milestone denotes an important event.
Some scientists have concluded that July 4th may rank among the warmest days on Earth in the past 125,000 years, blaming rising global temperatures on the effects of climate change.
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