ALBUM OF FLOWERS | INTERESTING TIMES
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS INCLUDED IN THE NEWSPAPER MATERIAL IN THE SERIES
2016 was the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency and Hillary Clinton became the Democratic presidential nominee, making history as the first woman to be nominated by a major political party. Donald Trump, an underdog, and political outsider stunned the world when he was nominated and then elected president.
Internationally, US intelligence agreed that Russian operatives interfered in the US presidential election. Britain voted to leave the European Union. Colombia struck a peace deal. The Syrian civil war continued. North Korea conducted nuclear tests. Major terrorist attacks took place in Nice, Belgium, and Orlando. President Obama made a historic visit to Cuba.
The Zika virus emerged as a global health threat. 2016 went down as the hottest year on record and Houston was flooded by 2 feet of rain in a single day, signaling the threat of Climate Change. President Obama declared a state of emergency in response to the Flint water crisis. The rise of hate crimes in the US was linked to Trump’s rhetoric. The Catholic Church sex abuse scandal continued. Women’s US soccer team players voiced the bias in wages. The fight for transgender rights came to a head over bathroom bills that limited bathroom access. Five police officers were killed as payback for the traffic stop fatal shooting of Philando Castile, an African American man. It signaled rising intolerance to a racist criminal justice system.
The US Treasury announced it would replace former President Andrew Jackson with abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, an effort later sidelined by the Trump administration. Simone Biles impressed the world with her gold medal winning achievements at the Olympic games in Brazil. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years. Lin- Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical Hamilton was a smash hit. NASA’s space probe Juno arrived at Jupiter. Scientists proved that Einstein’s general theory of relativity is correct.
The public figures who died included musicians David Bowie and Prince, actors Gene Wilder and Carrie Fisher, conductor Neville Mariner, playwright Edward Albee, author Harper Lee, fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, architect Zaha Hadid, artist Marisol, television news reporter Morley Safer, boxer Muhammad Ali, golfer Arnold Palmer, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, astronaut John Glenn, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, former Israeli president Shimon Peres, and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel.
During January 2017, Barack Obama’s presidency ended, and Donald Trump was inaugurated. In Washington DC, anti-Trump protests broke out. The day after the inauguration, the Women’s March, a worldwide protest prompted by Trump’s statements considered offensive and anti-women, took place. President Trump signed an executive order halting all refugee admissions to the US and barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries.