*sigh*
I guess I have to talk about this?
I mean, I'm not even from the US and I am glad the election is over.
But it was a big part of 2016 so let's just get it over with.
And just in case I sound a bit strange in this video
it's because I have a cold and there's not much I can do about that unfortunately.
Okay, so in case you missed it, like there was any chance of that, the new leader of
Freedom™ (USA) was finally elected in November.
It began in June of 2015 when Donald J. Trump officially announced that he would be running
for president of the United States and most people reacted much like this.
BILL MAHER: And which republican candidate has the best chance of winning the general election?
ANN COULTER: Of the declared ones? Right now, Donald Trump.
Very few people saw him as a serious candidate but that quickly changed and in July of 2016
Trump was officially selected as the Republican Party's nominee.
So now, it was Donald Trump up against the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Trump focused on making America great again and building walls.
DONALD TRUMP: We will build a great wall along the southern border!
DONALD TRUMP: And Mexico will pay for the wall, remember.
While Clinton went for the relatability approach.
HILLARY CLINTON: I don't know who created Pokémon Go.
HILLARY CLINTON: But I'm trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokémon Go to the polls.
Meanwhile the rest of the world looked on in disbelief as this reality TV-show, masquerading
as a presidential election, gradually descended into insanity.
A seemingly never-ending stream of scandals and controversies...
...debates mainly consisting of post-truth and he-said-she-said arguments...
HILLARY CLINTON: Well that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States.
DONALD TRUMP: No puppet! No puppet!
HILLARY CLINTON: It's pretty clear...
DONALD TRUMP: You're the puppet!
HILLARY CLINTON: It's pretty clear you won't admit...
DONALD TRUMP: No, you're the puppet!
...and actual news coverage of Tweets...
CNN: *quoting tweets on screen*
...has only proven that facts, reason, and civil discourse has long left planet Earth.
As the election finally came to a close in November
it was predicted by most that the Pokémon expert would win.
But as we all know, she did not, and not-a-puppet is now set to become the 45th president of the US of A.
KEITH ELLISON: And we better be ready for the fact that he might be leading the Republican ticket.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you don't believe that but I wanna go on...
In the midst of this political fiasco the world collectively decided it was time to obses over the death of a gorilla.
The gorilla, named Harambe, was shot to death at a zoo in the US after he got a hold of a child.
The incident received international coverage and induced global controversy.
Not only because the video was recorded vertically but also because Harambe was, well, killed.
Something that many argued could've been avoided.
Nevertheless, the three-year-old boy survived and a biopic is now set to be released in 2017.
2016 was also the year the UK voted to leave the European Union in a highly controversial
referendum known as Brexit.
Not to be confused with the highly controversial vote to eat Breakfast.
ANDREW R. T. DAVIES: Mark my words. We will make breakfast.. Brexit!
AARON HESLEHURST: Worldwide export drive saying breakfast?
NICOLA STURGEON: Brexit mean breakfast.
AARON HESLEHURST: Breakfast.. Brexit.
AARON HESLEHURST: After the UK. After breakfast.
AARON HESLEHURST: Okay, let us stay with the theme of breakfast.
The Breakfast campaign promoted independence as the solution to numerous concerns regarding
immigration, border control, and various economic and legislative issues.
However, while 52% of the population voted to leave, it seems that a large number of
voters did not fully comprehend the potential consequences of doing so.
Well at least they didn't parade around in a giant red bus with potentially voter-decisive
promises printed on the side only to backtrack on those promises after the fact.
That would've been strange.
SUSANNA REID: The £350 million pounds a week we send to the EU which we will no longer send to the EU.
SUSANNA REID: Can you guarantee that's gonna go to the NHS?
NIGEL FARAGE: No I can't. And I would never have made that claim.
SUSANNA REID: I don't know how many people voted on the basis of that advert but that was a huge part of the propaganda.
SUSANNA REID: You're now saying that's a mistake?
Whether or not independence will ultimately be a good thing for the UK or the prologue
to a Black Mirror episode remains to be seen.
It's difficult to pinpoint the single most widespread meme or viral trend of 2016 so
I guess the entirety of the US election will have to suffice.
I mean, it's even received a dedicated page on KnowYourMeme.com and we all know why.
DONALD TRUMP: I'm very highly educated. I know words, I have the best words. I have the be...
With that being said, while Mr. Trump may have won the electoral vote, we all know that
the true champion of the election was none other than Ken Bone.
ANDERSON COOPER One more question from Ken Bone.
KEN BONE: What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs.
KEN BONE: While at the same time remaining environmentally friendly.
KEN BONE: And minimizing job loss for fossil power plant workers.
Other memes include Ted Cruz being outed as the Zodiac killer...
...mother nature herself choosing Bernie Sanders when a bird landed on his podium,
Trump's tiny tiny hands...
DONALD TRUMP: He said I had small hands. They're not small, are they?
...and perfectly normal human reactions by Hillary Clinton.
Non-election related viral trends included the Mannequin Challenge, this feat of modern lyrical brilliance...
...a poorly animated frog on a unicycle...
...and what can only be described as an ad for a shoe brand.
A leak known as the Panama Papers unraveled over the course of 2016.
The leak consisted of 11.5 million documents and originated from a Panamanian law firm
known as Mossack Fonseca.
The documents contained financial information about shell corporations owned by or connected
to presidents, kings, politicians, executives, celebrities, and many other powerful and influential
individuals around the globe.
But what's so interesting about many of these shell corporations is that they have been
used for various illegal purposes such as tax evasion, fraud, kleptocracy, money laundering, etc.
In other words, the rich and powerful have taken advantage of various loopholes in an
effort to remain rich and powerful.
And the world collectively gasped in shock.
Some people with direct or indirect ties to these documents include the Prime Minister of Iceland,
the President of Argentina, friends and relatives of Vladimir Putin, the King of Saudi Arabia,
the Prime Minister of Italy, various people connected to the Clinton family,
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, members and Presidents of FIFA,
Lionel Messi, Tiger Woods, Jackie Chan, Simon Cowell, and many many others.
As I've covered anniversaries in my last two end-of-the-year videos, it only seems appropriate
to continue that tradition and to remind you all that your youth is slipping away as the
inevitability of death is approaching ever so swiftly.
10 years ago; the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 were released.
Twitter was launched.
Google acquired YouTube.
The two sitcoms That '70s Show and Malcolm in the Middle concluded.
And the solar system lost a planet as the word "planet" was formally redefined and as
a consequence Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet.
50 years ago; Star Trek began while the animated show The Flintstones concluded after six seasons.
75 years ago; the attack on Pearl Harbor took place
and consequently lead to the United States' entry into World War II.
100 years ago; one of the bloodies battles in not only World War I but all of human history,
known as the Battle of the Somme claimed the lives of over a million soldiers.
Pokémon became a widespread phenomenon this year due to the immensely popular mobile augmented
reality game Pokémon Go.
It's been downloaded over half a billion times and has been praised for incentivizing people
to become more physically and socially active.
However, it also generated controversy due to various accidents and safety concerns.
Some examples include people getting lost, increased inattentiveness, trespassings,
traffic accidents, and even a few deaths.
On the 15th of July, soldiers marched unto the streets of Istanbul and other major cities across Turkey.
They were part of a faction of the Turkish military who wanted to overthrow the Turkish
government due to various political motivations.
Over 300 people were killed as a result but the coup ultimately failed as the attackers
were defeated by forces still loyal to the state.
Tens of thousands were arrested and detained in the aftermath and the president of Turkey
issued a three-month state of emergency.
It's believed that the coup leaders where part of a movement known as the Gülen movement
that is led by an Islamic preacher living in the United States.
And even though Mr. Gülen has denied any involvement, hundreds of thousands have now
been fired from their jobs on accusations of simply having connections to the movement.
On August the 19th, Samsung released their latest smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7.
Demand for the phone was initially high and sales exceeded expectations.
But then, something interesting happened.
Reports from all over the globe suggested that the phone had severe issues with overheating.
A defect that was so extreme that the phone could literally burst into flames or even explode.
Samsung were then quick to identify a defect in the battery of the phone and began offering replacements.
That is, until the replacement phones began exploding as well.
Perfectly illustrated here in this real-to-life recreation.
Cars were set aflame and multiple flights had to be canceled.
Production of the Galaxy Note 7 was eventually discontinued and the company lost an estimated
$17 billion due to the mishap.
As divisive as this year has been for many, most seem to agree that 2016 has not been great.
And I must concur as it was truly a challenge to find positive things to say about 2016.
Natural disasters.
Unnatural disasters.
Celebrities and other public figures passing away.
But through the chaos and destruction a beacon of hope is shining as bright as ever.
It's been a pretty exciting year for astronomy and related fields beginning with a revolutionary
astronomical observation.
A phenomenon known as gravitational waves, that had been predicted by Albert Einstein
exactly 100 years ago in 1916, was in February announced to have been detected and observed
for the very first time.
Thus confirming the last remaining unproven prediction of general relativity and redefining
the future of astrophysics forever.
In September, a 30 tonne meteorite was discovered in Argentina, making it the forth largest
meteorite ever discovered on Earth.
An earth-like exoplanet was found orbiting within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri,
the closest star to the Sun.
In a new effort to find life on the planet Mars, the ESA and Roscosmos launched the ExoMars mission.
Unfortunately, the probe that was supposed to land on the Martian surface crashed into
the planet and left a tiny black dot as evidence of its demise.
The world's largest radio telescope was completed in China and will, among other things, be
used to scan the cosmos for signs of intelligent life as none have been found on planet Earth.
The spacecraft Juno began orbiting Jupiter and photographed the planet's north- and south
pole for the very first time.
Many had speculated that the poles of Jupiter may exhibit a hexagonal shape, much like the
north pole of Saturn, but as we now know this is not the case.
And finally, the private spaceflight company SpaceX performed a vertical landing on a floating
platform after numerous failed attempts.
A perfect example of how science fiction becomes science fact.