Major Events Occurring in the World During 2018-2

Areths Frabklin Passes Away

Aretha Franklin, the former gospel singer who went on to reign over the music industry as the Queen of Soul with hit songs such as “Respect,” “Chain of Fools” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” died in August this year. She was 76. Franklin died of pancreatic cancer at her home in Detroit. In March, Franklin had canceled a scheduled tour for medical reasons. Her last known performance was at Elton John’s annual AIDS Foundation gala. Khashoggi Killing

On 2 October, Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known journalist and critic of the Saudi government, walked into the country's consulate in Istanbul and never came out alive. Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor has since said that Khashoggi was murdered inside the building on the orders of a rogue intelligence officer. But what was even more bizarre was US President Donald Trump’s take on the killing. “[I]t could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump wrote in a statement. “We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.” Trump refused to see his killing, an event that brought international condemnation of Saudis, as a reason to sever or weaken ties with Riyadh. “The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other part in the region,” he said. Kavanaugh Hearing/

Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in on 6 October as the 114th justice of the US Supreme Court, after a wrenching debate over sexual misconduct and judicial temperament that shattered the Senate, captivated the nation and ushered in an acrimonious new level of polarization – now encroaching on the court that the 53-year-old judge may well swing rightward for decades to come. The climactic 50-48 roll call capped a fight that seized the national conversation after claims emerged that he had sexually assaulted women three decades ago – allegations he emphatically denied. Those accusations transformed the clash from a routine struggle over judicial ideology into an angry jumble of questions about victims' rights, the presumption of innocence and personal attacks on nominees. SpaceX Falcon Heavy Laubch

Elon Musk’s SpaceX pulled off a seemingly impossible feat in February this year when it launched the world’s most powerful rocket in 45 years, then flew two of its spent boosters back to the Florida coast for a spectacular, simultaneous recovery on land. Musk then pulled off something perhaps even more surprising – he delivered a cherry red Tesla Roadster with a space-suit wearing mannequin at the wheel toward an Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun. On the car's center screen, Musk’s team had written, "DON'T PANIC!”, seemingly a message for the ‘spaceman’. “It seems surreal to me,” Musk, 46, had said during a post-launch press conference. “Crazy things can come true.” Stephen Hawking Passes Away

Veteran physicist, cosmologist and professor Stephen Hawking breathed his last on Wednesday, 14 March, leaving behind a black hole in the mortal world. Hawking, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21, was told by his doctors that he would only live for two more years. Like every other standardised theory he had a problem with, Hawking decided to challenge and make a breakthrough in this one as well, and went on to create scientific history till the ripe old age of 76. While Hawking has been the poster-man for and inspiration behind every science club formed in school, with his personal journey of struggling through his disability to making way towards greatness marking every inspirational textbook, Hawking’s identity goes far beyond that of a kind of ‘Science Lord’ awarded to him by his fans.