US: 2016 Remarkable Events
Myriads of notable events were witnessed in the US in 2016. An addage says; ''A people without a past will never have a future''. Here is a run down of remarkable events as they unfolded in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN 2016.January 26 - After occupying a federal wildlife refuge headquarters in Oregon for 26 days to denounce federal land policies, protest leader Ammon Bundy and several fellow occupiers are pulled over on US Highway 395. Bundy is arrested, and LaVoy Finicum is killed.
February 9 - Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wins the New Hampshire primary, claiming victory with 60% of the vote. He's the first Jewish politician to win a presidential nominating contest.
February 16 - Apple refuses to comply with a California judge's order to assist the FBI in hacking the phone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook. A public letter signed by Apple CEO Tim Cook states why the company is refusing to abide by the government's demands. In March, the Department of Justice announces the FBI has retrieved the data on the iPhone with the help of an unnamed third party.
February 20 - Six people are killed, and two more are injured during an hours-long shooting rampage at three different sites in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The shooting suspect is identified as Jason Brian Dalton, 45, an Uber driver who apparently picked up and dropped off passengers between shootings.
February 25 - Cedric Ford, 38, kills three people and injures an additional 14 in shootings that end at his workplace, a lawn care machinery manufacturing company in Hesston, Kansas. Ford is killed by police, bringing the total number of fatalities to four.
March 7 - Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning announces he is retiring from the NFL, after 18 seasons.
March 8 - Four people are killed in Kansas City and a fifth is gunned down in Missouri. The shooting suspect, Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino had been deported to Mexico in 2004 but returned to the US illegally. Serrano-Vitorino is also charged with the murder of a Missouri man after his truck was found at the victim's home.
March 16 - President Barack Obama nominates Merrick Garland to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
March 20 - President Obama arrives in Cuba, becoming the first sitting US president to visit in 88 years.
March 23 - North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signs a controversial bill blocking cities from allowing transgender individuals to use public bathrooms for the gender they identify with -- as well as restricting cities from passing nondiscrimination laws more broadly. On May 9, the Justice Department files a civil rights lawsuit over the bill.
April 13 - Kobe Bryant plays his last NBA game, scoring 60 points to help the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Utah Jazz 101-96.
April 20 - Five former New Orleans police officers plead guilty and are sentenced in connection with the shootings of six unarmed people, two fatally, on the Danziger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina. Their sentences -- from three to 12 years in prison -- are remarkably less severe than the six to 65 years in prison to which they were originally sentenced back in 2012.
April 20 - Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announces that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill. She'll become the first black person to front a US banknote.
April 25 - Five hundred and fourteen residents and former residents of Flint, Michigan, file a class action lawsuit against the EPA. The plaintiffs allege negligence and demand more than $220 million in damages for the EPA's role in the Flint water crisis.
April 27 - Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $250,000 to a victims' fund in a hush money case that revealed he was being accused of sexually abusing young boys as a teacher in Illinois.
May 1 - For the first time in more than five decades, a US cruise ship sets sail for Cuba.
May 17 - The Senate confirms Eric Fanning to be secretary of the Army, making him the first secretary of a branch of the US military who is openly gay.
May 23 - The Supreme Court rules 7-1 in favor of African-American death row inmate Timothy Foster, in a case concerning race discrimination in jury selection. Twenty years after Foster's sentence, his attorneys obtained notes taken by the prosecution during jury selection, including marking potential jurors' names with a "b" for black. The decision does not vacate Foster's conviction; it opens the door for Foster's case to be remanded to the Georgia state court to argue for a new trial.
May 26 - Jairam Hathwar, 13, of Corning, New York, and Nihar Janga, 11, of Austin, Texas, are named co-champions of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition, the third set of co-champions in three years.
May 27 - President Obama becomes the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, Japan.
May 28 - The Cincinnati Zoo shoots and kills Harambe, a 17-year old, 400-pound western lowland gorilla, after a child slips into the animal's enclosure.
June 9 - President Obama endorses former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president.
June 12 - Omar Saddiqui Mateen, 29, opens fire inside Pulse, a gay nightclub, in Orlando, Florida. At least 49 people are killed and more than 50 are injured. Police shoot and kill Mateen during an operation to free hostages officials say he was holding at the club.
June 23 - The US Supreme Court upholds the Affirmative Action program by a vote of four to three, with Justice Elena Kagan recusing herself. The ruling allows the limited use of affirmative action policies by schools.
June 24 - President Obama announces the designation of the first national monument to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. The Stonewall National Monument will encompass Christopher Park, the Stonewall Inn and the surrounding streets and sidewalks that were the sites of the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City.
June 28 - After a two-year investigation of the Benghazi terror attack, House Republicans release a more than 800-page report faulting the Obama administration for security lapses which led to the deaths of four Americans, but contains no revelations likely to further damage Hillary Clinton. The report paints a picture of bureaucratic inertia, rapidly worsening security in Libya and inadequate resources in the months preceding the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues on September 11, 2012.
June 30 - Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announces the Pentagon is lifting the ban on transgender people serving openly in the US military.
July 4 - After an almost five-year journey, the Juno space probe successfully enters Jupiter's orbit.
July 5 - Alton Sterling is shot and killed after an encounter with two Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officers. Video shows Sterling on the ground, underneath officers, when shots are fired.
July 6 - Philando Castile is shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. His girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, live-streams the aftermath of the confrontation with the police officer, and says Castile was reaching for his identification when he was shot.
July 7-8 - Five police officers are killed, and seven other officers and two civilians are wounded when a sniper fires ambush-style during a peaceful protest in downtown Dallas. After a lengthy standoff with police in a parking garage, a Dallas police bomb squad robot kills the gunman, identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, a veteran who served in Afghanistan.
July 12 - Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) endorses Hillary Clinton for president.
July 15 - GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump tweets that he has chosen Governor Mike Pence of Indiana to be his running mate.
July 17 - A gunman ambushes and kills three law officers and wounds three other officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The shooter, later identified as Gavin Long, 29, of Kansas City, is killed by police officers in the ensuing gun battle.
July 19 - Donald Trump officially becomes the Republican Party nominee for president.
July 21 - Roger Ailes resigns as chairman and CEO of Fox News amid sexual harassment allegations.
July 22 - Wikileaks releases nearly 20,000 emails from Democratic National Committee staffers. The leaked emails appear to show the committee favoring presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the US presidential primary season.
July 22 - US Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is named as Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate.
July 26 - Hillary Clinton officially becomes the Democratic Party nominee for president and the first woman in the history of the United States to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party.
July 27 - A federal judge grants John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, "full-time convalescent leave" from St. Elizabeths Hospital.
July 27 - Baltimore prosecutors drop charges against the three remaining officers awaiting trial in connection with Freddie Gray's death. The other three officers charged in the case have already been acquitted.
July 30 - A hot air balloon carrying 16 people catches fire and crashes in central Texas. It is the deadliest hot air balloon accident in US history.
August 10 - The Justice Department releases a report showing that the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in unconstitutional practices that led to disproportionate rates of stops, searches and arrests of African-Americans, and excessive use of force against juveniles and people with mental health disabilities.
August 12 - Alex Rodriguez plays in his final MLB game at Yankee Stadium as the New York Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays.
September 2 - After serving three months behind bars for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner is released from a California jail.
September 16 - Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby fatally shoots Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old unarmed black man, after his car is found abandoned in the middle of the road. On September 22, Officer Shelby is charged with felony manslaughter in the first degree.
September 17 - A garbage can explodes at a Marine Corps charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey. No one is wounded in the blast, and two other unexploded bombs are found nearby. Later in the evening, an explosion in New York's Chelsea neighborhood injures 29 people. Law enforcement cordons off the area, and investigators find a pressure cooker four blocks away. On September 18, a backpack with five bombs inside is found in a wastebasket near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey. On September 19, after a shootout with law enforcement in Linden, New Jersey, suspected bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami is taken into custody.
September 17 - Dahir Adan, 22, allegedly stabs 10 people at a St. Cloud, Minnesota, mall before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer.
September 20 - Keith Lamont Scott, 43, is fatally shot by a police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina. Police say the officer opened fire after Scott stepped out of a vehicle with a gun in his hand and didn't obey commands to drop his weapon.
September 23 - Five people are killed after a gunman opens fire at a Washington state mall in Burlington, an hour north of Seattle. Shooting suspect Arcan Cetin, 20, is taken into custody on
September 24 after a nearly 24-hour manhunt.
September 28 - A 14-year-old male opens fire on the playground of Townville Elementary School southwest of Greenville, South Carolina. Two children and a teacher are wounded. Jacob Hall, one of the wounded children, dies three days later. Authorities believe before going to the school, the teen shot and killed his father. He is taken into custody.
September 29 - A New Jersey commuter train crashes into the Hoboken Terminal during morning rush hour, leaving one dead and more than 100 injured.
October 7-8 - Hurricane Matthew hits Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, leading to record-breaking flooding and millions of power outages. At least 45 US deaths are blamed on the storm. Before hitting the United States, Hurricane Matthew tore through Haiti on October 4, killing more than 500 people.
October 22 - AT&T announces an $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner, the parent company of CNN.
October 28 - In a letter to Congress, FBI Director James Comey says the FBI is reviewing new emails related to Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state. The emails were discovered as part of an investigation into former Congressman Anthony Weiner and were sent or received by his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
November 2 - The Chicago Cubs win their first World Series since 1908 by defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in a 10 inning Game 7 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
November 4 - Two former officials linked to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's office are found guilty on all charges in connection with the closure of lanes in 2013 on the George Washington Bridge in an apparent act of political retribution, the fallout for which has come to be known as Bridgegate. Bridget Anne Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff to Christie, and Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, both faced seven counts of various charges including conspiracy, fraud, and civil rights deprivation.
November 6 - Based on a review of the newly discovered emails, James Comey tells lawmakers that the agency has not changed its opinion that Clinton should not face criminal charges.
November 8 - Donald Trump is elected president, defeating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the general election.
November 16 - Republicans re-elect Mitch McConnell as Senate majority leader, and Democrats elect Chuck Schumer as Senate minority leader.
November 18 - Donald Trump agrees to pay $25 million to settle three lawsuits against Trump University, without admitting any wrongdoing.
November 21 - A school bus crashes in Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing six children and injuring dozens. The driver, 24-year-old Johnthony Walker, is later arrested on vehicular homicide charges.
November 22 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 19,023.87, the first close above 19,000.
November 28 - An Ohio State University student drives his car into a group of people on the Columbus campus and then charges at passersby with a knife, injuring 11. Ohio State University police shoots the suspect, later identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, after he fails to obey orders to stop.
December 2 - At least 36 people die in a fire at an Oakland, California, converted warehouse where an electronic dance party was being held.
December 5 - The judge declares a mistrial on the fourth day of deliberations in the murder trial of Michael Slager, a former police officer charged with killing an unarmed black motorist in North Charleston, South Carolina.
December 7 - Two juveniles are charged in connection with a deadly Tennessee wildfire that began in late November and spread to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Fourteen people lost their lives in the fires and more than 175 more were injured, according to officials.
December 15 - A jury finds Dylann Roof guilty of all 33 federal charges he faced after last year's massacre at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. In the next phase of the trial, scheduled to begin in January, jurors will weigh whether Roof, 22, should be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.
