5 Dates That Will Define 2019

5 min readDec 30, 2019

For years, esteemed television journalist Barbara Walters selected 10 individuals annually who she deemed were the year’s “most fascinating.”

Last year, I decided, as then-news editor of my college newspaper, that I was Walters’ natural successor and published Sean Newhouse’s 10 Most Fascinating People of 2018.

This year I’ve decided to switch it up, so, instead of 10 fascinating people, I’ve listed five year-defining dates. I still enumerated my 10 most fascinating people for 2019, which is at the bottom of the article.

Here are five dates that will define 2019:

Feb. 27

On this Wednesday….

· U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un met in Vietnam for their second nuclear summit. Despite Trump’s efforts to persuade Kim to denuclearize the isolated East Asian country, North Korea threatened the U.S. with a “Christmas gift” and weapon testing continues.

· While Trump and Kim were meeting in Vietnam, Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen (who was #6 on my 10 Most Fascinating People of 2018 list) was testifying before the House, which had just been retaken by Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections. Cohen, who testified before going to prison for illicit work he performed while being employed by Trump, likened his former boss to a mobster.

April 14

On this Sunday….

· Pete Buttigieg announced his campaign to be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. The rise of the openly gay and Afghanistan War veteran mayor of South Bend, IN to national political stardom is, perhaps, the most unexpected story of 2019.

· The disappointing final season of “Game of Thrones” premiered.

· Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters Tournament, which earned him a Medal of Freedom. (One of my political science professors is quoted in the USA Today article hyperlinked to “Medal of Freedom.”)

The next day the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire in an event that captivated the world’s attention. Three days before April 14, Sudan’s 30-year authoritarian leader Omar al Bashir was ousted from power following mass protests, an event that should have received more global attention.

Following the Notre Dame fire, there was a social media trend in which people shared their Paris vacation photos. I didn’t participate in the trend then, so here are my pictures of Notre Dame from my weekend in Paris in 2018.

The much-anticipated Mueller Report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which Trump both criticized as a “witch hunt” and praised as “exonerating,” was released four days after April 14. And this is about the time when Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, which initially garnered attention on TikTok, began its record-breaking 19 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

April 25

On this Thursday….

· Former Vice President Joe Biden announced he was running for president. He remains the leading 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

· There were early showings of “Avengers: Endgame,” which is now the highest-grossing film of all time.

· Following a cryptic social media campaign that alluded to a surprise announcement, American Music Award artist of the decade Taylor Swift dropped a new music video for her single “ME!”

· Everyone was excited for the Battle of Winterfell in episode three of the “Game of Thrones” final season, which was premiering that Sunday and, in my opinion, got more buzz than the series finale.

· This also was the height of the Hong Kong protest movement against Chinese encroachment on the semi-autonomous city.

Sept. 20

Photo from my university’s climate strike

On this Friday….

· The Wall Street Journal published its exclusive story that a whistleblower had alleged that Trump pressed the Ukrainian president in a phone call to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in relation to Hunter’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company that had been under investigation. This led to the impeachment inquiry.

· Students from all over the world protested inaction on climate change, which was inspired by youth climate activist and Time Person of the Year Greta Thunberg’s climate strike.

· This was the same weekend the box office smash “Downton Abbey” hit theaters.

My thoughts on the “Downton Abbey” movie

Dec. 18

On this Wednesday….

· The House of Representatives voted, mostly along partisan lines, to impeach President Donald Trump, who became the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.

Sean Newhouse’s 10 Most Fascinating People of 2019

My criteria for selection was based on the following: 1. Is this person going to make an impact for years to come? 2. Will their notoriety be associated with the year 2019?