2017: Year in Review
Between the changing of the Hollywood sign, or more importantly, the Women’s March of 2017, it can be agreed that 2017 started off with a bang. Shortly after 2017 began, President Trump took office, and almost immediately signed an executive order, casually referred to as the “travel ban”.
Major social changes occurred through 2017. Beginning with the accusations posed against Harvey Weinstein, hundreds of women bravely came forward, depicting their experiences with men in Hollywood. By the end of 2017, over 50 men involved in Hollywood had been accused of sexual assault or misconduct. Many sub-movements began, such as the #metoo movement or #MeAt14 movement. One of the most significant series of claims made were the ones posed against former Chief Justice and Republican Senator of Alabama, Roy Moore. Many people were outraged when Roy Moore refused to step down from his position in the Senate. After a close election between Moore and Democrat Doug Jones for the seat in the Alabama Senate, Roy Moore was defeated, leaving Jones to fill his position. The series of claims and movements that occurred, bringing awareness to sexual assault in 2017 was a historic amount; all attempting to rid Hollywood and the government of all sexual assaulters.
Moving on from politics, the athletic world in 2017 was a very exciting scene. The Houston Astros won the World Series for the first time ever. After several thrilling rounds during March Madness, in a close game between Gonzaga and North Carolina, the North Carolina Tar Heels won. Later in the year, during the UEFA Euro Cup, not only did the Netherlands host the matches, but also took home the Cup.
Environmentally, 2017 was a difficult year. Starting in August, a series of hurricanes hit the south-east coast and the islands off of the US. First, Hurricane Harvey hit, dumping close to 40 inches of rain in some areas of Houston. Right after Harvey, Hurricane Irma affected both Florida and Puerto Rico, prompting donations and food and furniture drives from across the globe, including Derryfield. Immediately following Irma, Hurricanes Jose and Maria hit the South once again, causing even more damage. In total, after all the storms almost $200 billion dollars in damage were caused.
Turning to pop culture, Camila Cabello’s “Havana” was ranked best pop song of the year by Billboard top charts. Second on the top charts was “Perfect”, a duet featuring Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé. After it’s popularity this summer, “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber was the most streamed song of 2017 with 1,322,799,000 streams. In a distance, second place was Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” with 999,694,000 streams. Ed Sheeran did have a very successful year overall, releasing his album “Divide” which was the most streamed album of 2017. Additionally, voted by Billboard for Best New Artist was Khalid. Derryfield students enjoyed these top hits by dancing to them at school dances, listening to them in their free time, and listening to them while they study.
2017 was a largely successful year for the movie industry with several sequels, remakes, book adaptations, and animated films hitting the big screens. The tenth movie in the Star Wars series, The Last Jedi premiered and raked in 572 million dollars The beloved Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, originally released in the fall of 1991, was remade as a live action film. When it was released in 2017, grossed 504 million dollars Another popular movie that came out in 2017 was Wonder. The heartwarming story of Auggie Pullman, a fifth grader with facial differences, is originally based on the award-winning book by R.J. Palacio. This book also happens to be the best selling book of 2017 on Amazon.com. The second best selling book according to both Amazon and Barnes & Nobles was Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, a collection of poems. Turning to a different side of media, some of the trendiest apps on the iOS app store this year were Bitmoji, Snapchat, and YouTube. At Derryfield, these apps were definitely a hit as students could often be seen using them, along with enjoying the Derryfield School filters featured on Snapchat.
2017 was a year of growth. One of the things that grew the most was the world population. In 2017 alone, roughly 128 million babies were born worldwide. That’s about 353,000 babies a day, bringing the world population over 7.6 billion people. With all those babies being born, tons of unique names were given to the newest additions of the Earth. Some of the most popular names for girls were Sophia, Olivia, Emma, and Ava. Baby boys were most commonly named Jackson, Liam, Noah, and Aiden.
Overall, 2017 was a year full of ups and downs, but it’s definitely a year that we will always remember! Through the course of the year, politics played a key role particularly with President Donald Trump as the focus; all eyes were on him for his first year in office. Together we shared a historic 2017; experiencing wildfires, floods, social change, and a change in politics for the United States. Social media, music, TV, movies, and media all helped us recount our struggles and join together to create change and peace in the world. Here’s to hoping that 2018 holds to love, happiness, new beginnings, progress, and cherished memories with family and friends. Happy New Year!