The AllenBlog's
It was the year when the death of a blonde bombshell would lead to a paternity battle too hot for Maury Povich.
The year when a 400-plus page report would blow the lid off the great American pastime as to who got juiced.
The year when the "What happens in Vegas..." term didn't apply to O.J. Simpson this time around.
The year when over 30 people were gunned down to death in the bloodiest school massacre since Columbine.
The year when the sequels to "Spider-Man", "Shrek the Third", and "Pirates of the Caribbean" hit pay dirt, while "Norbit" and two Lindsay Lohan films (and her in general) hit rock bottom.
The year when a beauty queen gave "dumb blonde" a whole new meaning.
The year when America got knocked up...or in that case, the sister of a one-time teen pop queen. And speaking of which, the year when her reputation would be put on the line with a new album.
The year when the Presidential campaign would prematurely get into overdrive, with a former President on one candidate's side and a talk show icon on the other.
And it was the year when there were two different blackouts: The "Sopranos" ending and the writer's strike.
That year was 2007.
Join the AllenBlog as we take a look back at yet another tide-turning year.
The 2008 election underway...deadly mass shootings in Virginia and Nebraska...attempts to pull our troops out of Iraq as more of them die...a scathing name-dropping report that lists which baseball stars were juiced...and a mortgage crisis sending the stock market into a free-fall...you can't script all these in 2007; they were happening right before our eyes.
We began with a fond farewell to the last major person to die in 2006, as former President Gerald Ford was laid to rest in his home state of Michigan. Days after Nancy Pelosi took over the gavel as the Speaker of the House, a series of devastating storms including Hurricane Kyrill takes many lives in Europe. Microsoft's Windows Vista is unleashed to the public, while a winter tornado kills 20 in Florida.
In college football, it was the Florida Gators over Ohio State in the national championship game, while on the pro side at Super Bowl XLI, the Indianapolis Colts shuffled over the Chicago Bears. Kevin Harvick may have taken the checkered flag at the Daytona 500, but perhaps the biggest winter sports story of the year belonged to David Beckham; he announced he was taking his act to this side of the pond with the L.A. Galaxy. We'll get to wife Victoria in the Year in Entertainment.
The Chinese Correction in February caused stock markets worldwide to plummet, while a suicide attack at a military air base where Vice President Dick Cheney visited killed 23. And Illinois Sen. Barack Obama announced he's in as far as the 2008 election is concerned, but I'll have more on that later.
Lance Mackey overcame cancer and became the first dog musher to clinch both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod races in the same year; Florida remained the men's NCAA basketball champions while Tennessee claimed the women's crown; at the Masters, Zack Johnson out-putted all others to wear his first green jacket; and at a rain-shortened Indianapolis 500, Dario Franchitti got his first swig at the congratulatory bottle of milk. Too bad he didn't share it with Ashley Judd; if she chugged it down the photos would be all over the papers and Internet.
Mass murders once again were in the headlines, from five people killed at a Utah mall in January to recently in Nebraska at eight slain followed by the gunman. But the Virginia Tech massacre in April was the worst of them all, with Seung-Hi Cho pulling the trigger on 32 people and later himself, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history since Columbine in 1999.
In May, a deadly tornado wipes out nearly the entire town of Greensburg, Kansas, while four people were charged in a terrorist attempt to blow up JFK Airport in New York. On the sports side, the Anaheim Ducks cop the Stanley Cup; San Antonio claims another NBA championship; and one of the tragic stories of the year took a gruesome twist as WWE wrestler Chris Benoit and family were found dead by murder-suicide. Also, Tony Blair passes the torch after ten years as British Prime Minister to Gordon Brown while a massive heatwave crippling Greece and claiming 11 lives leads to a series of wildfires ablaze around the country.
Several floods break out through Great Britain in July, while in Phoenix, two TV news choppers collided in mid-air killing both crews. 13 people were killed after the Interstate 35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis collapses; another collapse happened at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, trapping six miners. That would be followed by yet another bridge collapse, this time in China with 22 lives lost and almost 40 missing.
The Dow Jones market had quite a wild 2007, starting with their first close above 13,000, followed by hitting the 14,000 mark. But it would all come to ahead later in the year, as the mortgage crisis would send the numbers tumbling up and down in the weeks to come. Guess my hard drive wasn't the only thing that crashed!
Over 500 were perished as a result of an 8.0 earthquake in Peru, while Hurricanes Dean and Felix take over Mexico and Central America respectively. In October, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returns to her native homeland, only to be met by a suicide bombing killing 136; thankfully, Bhutto was unharmed. And back in the States, wildfires all over Southern California destroyed over 1,600 homes and evacuated over a million people.
Two minor sports scandals made headlines in the fall. Marion Jones had to relinquish all five of her Olympic medals she won in 2000 after admitting she took steroids. And Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after tests revealed he was doping; Spain's Oscar Pereiro was the official champion (This year's was Alberto Contador, also from Spain).
But the biggest ones belonged to Michael Vick and O.J. Simpson. First, Vick: The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was indicted for running a dog fighting ring in Virginia and would be sentenced to almost two years in prison. And in September, Simpson would be charged in a robbery attempt in Las Vegas and will be facing trial yet again next spring.
And there was baseball in 2007, from Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home-run record to the Boston Red Sox sweeping yet another World Series over the Colorado Rockies. However, the sport's biggest story was in the off-season, as former U.S. Senator George Mitchell released a 409-page report that blew the whistle on former and current Major League Baseball players who allegedly used steroids in their careers. Among the famous names listed: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Eric Gagne, and the biggest surprise of all...Barry Bonds.
So, what was 2007's biggest story that will continue to roll over to 2008? The premature kickoff to the presidential campaign, with showdowns between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Democratic side and Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney on the Republicans. And this time around, there's backup, with former President Bill Clinton stumping for his wife and talk show icon Oprah Winfrey on the Obama bandwagon.
Some of the faces we've said goodbye to in 2007 included: Art Buchwald, Norman Mailer, Merv Griffin, Richard Jeni, Tom Poston, Wally Schirra, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jerry Falwell, former women's professional wrestlers Sherri Martel and Lillian "The Fabulous Moolah" Ellison, Joel Siegel, Tammy Faye Messner, newscaster Hal Fishman, television pioneers Augie Hiebert and Roger King, Leona Helmsley, Jane Wyman, Luciano Pavarotti, Joey Bishop, Evel Knievel, Benny Parsons, professional wrestlers Bam Bam Bigelow, Brian Adams, and Arnold Skaaland (Chris Benoit was already covered); Calvert DeForest (Larry "Bud" Melman), Kurt Vonnegut, Don Ho, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Kurt Waldheim, Liz Claiborne, former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, Beverly Sills, Phil Rizzuto, Sidney Sheldon, Yvonne De Carlo, jazz musician Oscar Peterson, and the one death which continued to make news just weeks after and making us all sick...Anna Nicole Smith.
Other than the election, what else will 2008 bring in store for us? Pope Benedict XVI's first U.S. trip is one of them, plus we've got the Summer Olympics in Beijing. And it will be an end of both eras for the New York Mets and Yankees, as their last games will be played at Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium respectively...unless one of both teams make the playoffs and/or the World Series. But like I said in the first paragraph, there'll be no scripting in what will transpire in the new year; all we have to do is see for ourselves.
It was the year when the death of a blonde bombshell would lead to a paternity battle too hot for Maury Povich.The year when a 400-plus page report would blow the lid off the great American pastime as to who got juiced.
The year when the "What happens in Vegas..." term didn't apply to O.J. Simpson this time around.
The year when over 30 people were gunned down to death in the bloodiest school massacre since Columbine.
The year when the sequels to "Spider-Man", "Shrek the Third", and "Pirates of the Caribbean" hit pay dirt, while "Norbit" and two Lindsay Lohan films (and her in general) hit rock bottom.
The year when a beauty queen gave "dumb blonde" a whole new meaning.
The year when America got knocked up...or in that case, the sister of a one-time teen pop queen. And speaking of which, the year when her reputation would be put on the line with a new album.
The year when the Presidential campaign would prematurely get into overdrive, with a former President on one candidate's side and a talk show icon on the other.
And it was the year when there were two different blackouts: The "Sopranos" ending and the writer's strike.
That year was 2007.
Join the AllenBlog as we take a look back at yet another tide-turning year.
The 2008 election underway...deadly mass shootings in Virginia and Nebraska...attempts to pull our troops out of Iraq as more of them die...a scathing name-dropping report that lists which baseball stars were juiced...and a mortgage crisis sending the stock market into a free-fall...you can't script all these in 2007; they were happening right before our eyes.We began with a fond farewell to the last major person to die in 2006, as former President Gerald Ford was laid to rest in his home state of Michigan. Days after Nancy Pelosi took over the gavel as the Speaker of the House, a series of devastating storms including Hurricane Kyrill takes many lives in Europe. Microsoft's Windows Vista is unleashed to the public, while a winter tornado kills 20 in Florida.
In college football, it was the Florida Gators over Ohio State in the national championship game, while on the pro side at Super Bowl XLI, the Indianapolis Colts shuffled over the Chicago Bears. Kevin Harvick may have taken the checkered flag at the Daytona 500, but perhaps the biggest winter sports story of the year belonged to David Beckham; he announced he was taking his act to this side of the pond with the L.A. Galaxy. We'll get to wife Victoria in the Year in Entertainment.
The Chinese Correction in February caused stock markets worldwide to plummet, while a suicide attack at a military air base where Vice President Dick Cheney visited killed 23. And Illinois Sen. Barack Obama announced he's in as far as the 2008 election is concerned, but I'll have more on that later.
Lance Mackey overcame cancer and became the first dog musher to clinch both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod races in the same year; Florida remained the men's NCAA basketball champions while Tennessee claimed the women's crown; at the Masters, Zack Johnson out-putted all others to wear his first green jacket; and at a rain-shortened Indianapolis 500, Dario Franchitti got his first swig at the congratulatory bottle of milk. Too bad he didn't share it with Ashley Judd; if she chugged it down the photos would be all over the papers and Internet.
Mass murders once again were in the headlines, from five people killed at a Utah mall in January to recently in Nebraska at eight slain followed by the gunman. But the Virginia Tech massacre in April was the worst of them all, with Seung-Hi Cho pulling the trigger on 32 people and later himself, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history since Columbine in 1999.
In May, a deadly tornado wipes out nearly the entire town of Greensburg, Kansas, while four people were charged in a terrorist attempt to blow up JFK Airport in New York. On the sports side, the Anaheim Ducks cop the Stanley Cup; San Antonio claims another NBA championship; and one of the tragic stories of the year took a gruesome twist as WWE wrestler Chris Benoit and family were found dead by murder-suicide. Also, Tony Blair passes the torch after ten years as British Prime Minister to Gordon Brown while a massive heatwave crippling Greece and claiming 11 lives leads to a series of wildfires ablaze around the country.
Several floods break out through Great Britain in July, while in Phoenix, two TV news choppers collided in mid-air killing both crews. 13 people were killed after the Interstate 35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis collapses; another collapse happened at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, trapping six miners. That would be followed by yet another bridge collapse, this time in China with 22 lives lost and almost 40 missing.
The Dow Jones market had quite a wild 2007, starting with their first close above 13,000, followed by hitting the 14,000 mark. But it would all come to ahead later in the year, as the mortgage crisis would send the numbers tumbling up and down in the weeks to come. Guess my hard drive wasn't the only thing that crashed!
Over 500 were perished as a result of an 8.0 earthquake in Peru, while Hurricanes Dean and Felix take over Mexico and Central America respectively. In October, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returns to her native homeland, only to be met by a suicide bombing killing 136; thankfully, Bhutto was unharmed. And back in the States, wildfires all over Southern California destroyed over 1,600 homes and evacuated over a million people.
Two minor sports scandals made headlines in the fall. Marion Jones had to relinquish all five of her Olympic medals she won in 2000 after admitting she took steroids. And Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after tests revealed he was doping; Spain's Oscar Pereiro was the official champion (This year's was Alberto Contador, also from Spain).
But the biggest ones belonged to Michael Vick and O.J. Simpson. First, Vick: The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was indicted for running a dog fighting ring in Virginia and would be sentenced to almost two years in prison. And in September, Simpson would be charged in a robbery attempt in Las Vegas and will be facing trial yet again next spring.
And there was baseball in 2007, from Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home-run record to the Boston Red Sox sweeping yet another World Series over the Colorado Rockies. However, the sport's biggest story was in the off-season, as former U.S. Senator George Mitchell released a 409-page report that blew the whistle on former and current Major League Baseball players who allegedly used steroids in their careers. Among the famous names listed: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Eric Gagne, and the biggest surprise of all...Barry Bonds.
So, what was 2007's biggest story that will continue to roll over to 2008? The premature kickoff to the presidential campaign, with showdowns between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Democratic side and Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney on the Republicans. And this time around, there's backup, with former President Bill Clinton stumping for his wife and talk show icon Oprah Winfrey on the Obama bandwagon.
Some of the faces we've said goodbye to in 2007 included: Art Buchwald, Norman Mailer, Merv Griffin, Richard Jeni, Tom Poston, Wally Schirra, Charles Nelson Reilly, Jerry Falwell, former women's professional wrestlers Sherri Martel and Lillian "The Fabulous Moolah" Ellison, Joel Siegel, Tammy Faye Messner, newscaster Hal Fishman, television pioneers Augie Hiebert and Roger King, Leona Helmsley, Jane Wyman, Luciano Pavarotti, Joey Bishop, Evel Knievel, Benny Parsons, professional wrestlers Bam Bam Bigelow, Brian Adams, and Arnold Skaaland (Chris Benoit was already covered); Calvert DeForest (Larry "Bud" Melman), Kurt Vonnegut, Don Ho, former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Kurt Waldheim, Liz Claiborne, former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, Beverly Sills, Phil Rizzuto, Sidney Sheldon, Yvonne De Carlo, jazz musician Oscar Peterson, and the one death which continued to make news just weeks after and making us all sick...Anna Nicole Smith.
Other than the election, what else will 2008 bring in store for us? Pope Benedict XVI's first U.S. trip is one of them, plus we've got the Summer Olympics in Beijing. And it will be an end of both eras for the New York Mets and Yankees, as their last games will be played at Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium respectively...unless one of both teams make the playoffs and/or the World Series. But like I said in the first paragraph, there'll be no scripting in what will transpire in the new year; all we have to do is see for ourselves.
Tomorrow as the Year in Review continues, a look back at the biggest entertainment and celebrity stories of 2007.
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