2013 wrap-up

I started this blog 3 years ago as a New Years resolution for myself. I resolved that I would regularly post about something I loved (history) in order to really learn about blogging. The ultimate goal was to have a record of something as I went on my future job hunts, but this blog became something more to me: it became a place where I could find something interesting, research it, and add to my knowledge base.

And since starting this blog so many years ago, things have changed: I graduated from college, and ultimately found a job. A job takes a lot of time out of my day, and things slowly fell threw the cracks, this blog being one of them. I had some great topics I wanted to post on this year, that I just missed pure and simple. And as I look back on 2013, I see the 7 (yes, only 7 ... this makes 8) posts and realize that this blog is something I miss. So one of my resolutions for 2014 is to pick blogging back up. Maybe not every week like I intended initially, but at least twice a month.

2014 promises to be a good year, and also a historic one. We will be celebrating 100 years since the start of WW1, a monumental landmark in how it changed Europe, and ultimately laid the foundations for the start of WWII. I have a lot of things I want to say about 1914, so I’m looking forward to what is yet to come.

But before I sign off, I want to do my 2013 wrap-up. I missed this last year, and it may be one of my favorite posts of the year. So, here are some historic moments from 2013 that I think will go down in history.


- 2/10/13 Pope Benedict XVI resigns, the first to do so since Gregory XII in 1415
- 3/13/13 Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected as the 266 pope, and takes the name Francis
- 4/8/13 Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, dies.
- 4/16/13 Boston Marathon explosion shakes the city (and the country)
- 7/22/13 Prince Charles is born
- 8/21/13 Reports that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad gasses neighborhoods surrounding Damascus.
- 11/7/13 Super Typhoon Haiyan devastates the Phillippines leaving over 6,000 dead.
- 12/4/13 Nelson Mandela, former South African president, dies.