No. 3: Borders
September 18 marked the last chapter in the story of Borders. The chain started out in 1971 as a used bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and expanded to more than 1,000 stores from coast to coast. But like all stories, Borders would come to an end. As the digital age…
No. 2: Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey’s decision to pull the plug on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” was a long time coming. Though the final episode made for a sad day for her gazillions of die-hard fans, it was hardly a shock. She’d been threatening to end the long-running No. 1 talk show for years,…
No. 1: Space Shuttle Program
As a record crowd looked on, the space shuttle Atlantis landed softly at Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011, marking the final shuttle mission for NASA and ending the 30-year program. The idea for the reusable spacecraft was hatched in 1972, during the Nixon administration. It was intended to…
End of an Era
An era is truly known only when it’s over. In 2011, institutions closed shop, government programs ended, and others simply moved on. While an era might be a grandiose way to describe the end of, say, Borders or “Kate Plus 8,” each of these finales symbolized, in their own fields,…
No. 10: Late Fall Storms
As the year draws to a close, extreme weather events have somewhat calmed in comparison to earlier months, but have not settled down completely. In early November, mother nature hit Oklahoma with a one-two punch, delivering an earthquake and tornado within six hours. Just days later, an epic storm was…
No. 9: October Nor’easter
An early and historic snowstorm hit New England in late October just before Halloween, leaving 3 million without power and facing freezing temperatures from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire. Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey were especially hard hit, with some residents without power for nearly a week. The snow levels broke…
No. 7: Hurricane Irene
In the final days of August, Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast with severe winds and intense rainfall, causing widespread flooding and damage. The hardest hit was Vermont, swamped with its worst floods in 75 years, cutting power, ruining fall harvest crops, and destroying roads and historic bridges. Hurricanes are…
No. 8: Wallow and Bastrop Fires
On May 30, an abandoned campfire became the largest wildfire in Arizona history. The Wallow fire raged under severe drought conditions, and spread rampantly through the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, burning 500,000 acres in Arizona and New Mexico before it was contained on July 8. The record drought conditions that fueled…
No. 6: Summer Heat Wave
The U.S. had its second hottest summer on record this year, and July was blazing hot, breaking or tying 2,676 records for highest daily temperatures. If you include nighttime high and low temperatures, the month of July broke nearly 9,000 heat records nationwide. Newark, N.J., reached 108 degrees on July…
No. 1: New Year Blizzards
As the new year rolled in, a series of snowstorms buried the mid-Atlantic states and Midwest in a thick blanket of snow and ice. Records were broken in New York City, Tulsa, and Dallas. These dramatic storms brought extremes all across North America, from Canada to northern Mexico. The mid-Atlantic,…