Not even halfway through this year, I remember thinking that 2011 was already a remarkable year for major events happening. The rest of the year did not disappoint.

Certainly, the major themes for the year have been global unemployment and the resulting Arab Spring and Occupy movements. Any other year, you’d think that the weather would be the big story of the year, what with record Texas wildfires, Mississippi floods, multi-state tornadoes, Hurricane Irene going all the way to Vermont, and earthquakes in Virginia and Oklahoma.

2011 saw the end of several eras, including NASA’s shuttle program, Oprah, Border’s, and any respectability that college football ever had.

Month by month, the news just took it to a new level all year-long with all things tragic, heartbreaking, and awe-inspiring.

JANUARY

Right off the bat, it seemed that this was going to be a notable year when a deranged gunman shot U.S. Senator Gabby Giffords and nineteen others. Six were killed, including a sitting federal judge and 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who was born on 9/11.

On January 11, Tunisia’s president fled the country, leading to a series of unrest called the Arab Spring that would shake the political landscape of the entire Middle East.  By the 25th, protests had begun in Cairo.

FEBRUARY

Incredibly, and, for the most part on the demonstrator’s side, nonviolently, Egyptian President Mubarak left office after a 3-decade-long reign.

MARCH

You know, in most years, an earthquake that leads to a devastating killer tsunami that leads to a nuclear meltdown would probably qualify as the biggest story of the year. In 2011, we just called it “March.” When you think about it, it sounds like the plot to a bad Michael Bay film that would sound too incredible when pitched. But on March 11, it happened. The toll of the dead and missing was over 20,000. But who knows how many others will succumb to the radiation leaked into Japanese ground and water.

APRIL

From April 24-27, the U.S. saw the largest outbreak of tornadoes in world history, easily doubling the old record. In that four-day period, there were 353 tornadoes in 21 states that killed 321 people. The most notable was the April 27 storm that ravaged Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

All right, compared to the rest, it’s probably not that big of a story but we need something hopeful by now, don’t we. The best I can give you was the April 29 nuptials of Will and Kate. Seriously, that’s all I’ve got for ya.

MAY

Back to the shoot ‘em up video game that was 2011, we have the stunning death of Osama Bin Laden on May 1 at the hands of Seal Team 6 and a dog named Cairo. We all know that evil world villains die in 3′s, so let’s call this #1.

May 14th saw the arrest and sexual allegations against Dominique Straus Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund. As big a story as this was at the time, much of it was discredited along with the reputation of the accuser.

On May 22, the town of Joplin, Missouri, was nearly wiped off the map by another killer tornado.

JUNE

June was pretty quiet except for the Twitter scandal and resignation of Congressman Anthony Weiner. All public figures took notice that sharing stuff on Twitter is not a private conversation.

JULY

July was a rough month for the Brits. It began on July 4 (ironically, American Independence Day) with the breaking phone hacking scandals in Britain and the end of News of the World, Rupert Murdoch’s news outlet that began publishing in 1843.

The, on July 23, came the death of troubled British musician Amy Winehouse.

AUGUST

On August 6, came the worst single-day American casualties for the entire Afghan war, including a helicopter crash that killed most (25 members) of Seal Team 6. Since then, conspiracy theories have run amok with Jack Ruby-like tales of cover-ups and getting rid of witnesses. Everything is all top-secret of course, which only leads to further conspiracies.

On August 23, Libyan rebels took the capital city of Tripoli and ransacked Muammar Gaddafi’s (insert your own spelling) palace.

SEPTEMBER

I thought that the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 came and went without much fanfare, which I consider to be a good thing.

On September 16, American citizens took over Zuccotti Park in New York City and proclaimed their movement as Occupy Wall Street. Say what you want about their lack of a cohesive message or leadership, the Occupy movement swept the globe (there was even an Occupy Tehran!) and changed the national discussion from one of mortgage crisis and unemployment to one of income inequality between the uppermost 1% and the rest of the 99%. This conversation is likely to shape most of the election season for 2012, especially once the GOP picks their nominee.

OCTOBER

October was marked by two notable passings. One was Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the fifth. The other was the inevitable death of Gaddafi on the 20th. Call him evil world villain #2 to pass off this mortal coil.

NOVEMBER

On November 9th, longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was relieved of duty in the wake of the sex scandal that rocked the university. Joe joined former Ohio State coach Jim Tressell on the sidelines in a year full of scandals and malfeasance in college football.

As a financial crisis rocked Europe, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou left office on November 8th. That was followed by the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on November 11. I submit that never has there been another year in which so many longtime national leaders left office nonviolently. The European financial crisis remains one of the most ominous threats to global financial security as we go into 2012.

DECEMBER

I don’t even know how to shoehorn this one in but one year out from the 2012 presidential election, one has to note the chaos and clown car mentality that is the GOP presidential field. When Herman Cain suspended his campaign on December 3rd, it was just one in a series of astonishing statements and resumes for this group of candidates. At this point, it truly feels like the Republicans are going to choke away any chance to win an election against what has to be the most vulnerable presidential incumbent since Jimmy Carter. Of course, there’s still ten months to go and, as we learned this past year, anything can happen.

On December 19, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il passed away from heart disease. Call him global villain #3 in our death troika of evil super geniuses. Perhaps they are in hell trying to start a boy band and waiting for Syrian President Assad or Iranian President Ahmadinejad to fill out their numbers. Well, they’ve got nothing by time.

Again, you might assume that the end of nine-year war might crack the top three news stories of the year, but when the last U.S. troops left Iraq on December 18, it barely cracked the evening news for that day. I fear that this nation is so war-weary of hearing of roadside bombings, suicide vests, and drone strikes that any further news accounts from the Middle East tends to bounce right off our collective consciousness. I also fear that the current administrations increasingly secret drone wars and wanton treatment of civil rights could come back to bite them in the coming year’s election. We’ll see.

All in all, for a news hound like myself, 2011 was a remarkable year. Now comes the sequel: 2012. You know, the year in which the Mayan calendar says we all get canceled. Well, we all know they have to ratchet things up for the sequel. So, buckle in. It could be a bumpy ride.