WASHINGTON — 2023 was a year full of stunning and historic moments, including a former president facing multiple criminal charges, a missing underwater tourist sub, an athlete's near-death experience during an NFL game and multiple historic union strikes.
From sports to politics to entertainment, here are some of the major events of 2023 that shaped the year.
Damar Hamlin collapses on-field
On Jan. 2, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and needed to be resuscitated after what appeared to be a routine tackle during the first quarter of a game at Cincinnati.
The sight of an elite-level athlete nearly dying on the field shocked the NFL and the world, and Hamlin's charitable organization raised more than $9 million after an outpouring of donations.
Hamlin made his official return to the football field in November after a remarkable recovery.
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House speaker chaos
It took 15 ballots for Republican Kevin McCarthy to be elected House speaker in January, battling holdouts from his own ranks as he was nominated and rejected again and again.
Though he was eventually elected, his tenure was short, ending in a historic ouster in October. McCarthy’s chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, orchestrated a rare vote on the obscure “motion to vacate," and a small group of detractors — many of the same hard-right holdouts who tried to stop him from becoming speaker in January — essentially forced him out.
After three weeks without a House speaker and a number of failed candidates, Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson was elected with broad GOP support.
Bruce Willis diagnosed with dementia
In February, Bruce Willis' family announced the acclaimed actor had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. The "Die Hard" actor stepped away from acting in 2022 because of aphasia, a condition that impacts cognitive abilities.
His daughter described his dementia as "aggressive" and said their family is being open about his condition to raise awareness of FTD.
Alec Baldwin charged with manslaughter
The legal saga of the 2021 fatal shooting on the set of the film "Rust" continued in 2023, when Alec Baldwin was charged in February with involuntary manslaughter for the death of Halyna Hutchins. By April, prosecutors had dismissed the charges, citing new evidence and the need for more time to investigate. In October, prosecutors signaled they plan to present evidence to a grand jury and possibly charge Baldwin again.
Jimmy Carter enters hospice
Former President Jimmy Carter, the longest-lived American president, entered home hospice care in Plains, Georgia in February.
After a series of short hospital stays, Carter “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”
Rosalynn Carter dies after dementia diagnosis
Just a few months after her husband entered hospice care, former first lady Rosalynn Carter was diagnosed with dementia in April.
In November she entered home hospice care, and a few days later the 96-year-old former first lady died peacefully with family by her side.
Ke Huy Quan wins an Oscar
Ke Huy Quan, a former child actor who had all but disappeared from Hollywood, made a stunning comeback and won the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in "Everything Everywhere All At Once."
Quan is just the second Asian winner ever in the supporting actor category. The Vietnam-born actor, whose family immigrated to California in the late 1970s, first gained attention as a pre-teen in the hugely popular 1980s movies "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and “The Goonies.”
Donald Trump indicted
Former president Donald Trump made history in March, becoming the first former U.S. president to have ever been charged with a crime when he was indicted by a New York grand jury. The charges involved payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.
In June, he became the first former U.S. president to face federal criminal charges when he was indicted for mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate.
In August, Trump was charged in a third criminal case in Georgia, when he and 18 of his allies were charged with scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
Unions show their power
From Hollywood's writing rooms to auto factory floors, unions took a stand for workers this year.
For the first time in 15 years, television and movie writers launched an industrywide strike in May when studios refused to meet their contract demands. Actors joined them on the picket lines in July. It was the first time the two unions, WGA and SAG-AFTRA, had been on strike together since 1960.
The studios and writers reached a deal that brought their strike to an end on Sept. 26, and actors reached a strike-ending deal in November.
In September, nearly one in 10 of America’s unionized auto workers went on strike to pressure Detroit’s three automakers into raising wages. President Joe Biden hit the picket lines with striking workers in an unparalleled show of support for organized labor by a modern president. The United Auto Workers reached deals with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis by the end of October, securing raises for workers at American factories.
Missing Titanic sub
In June, the world was captivated by the search for a tourist submersible that had lost contact on its way to the wreckage of the Titanic.
Rescuers raced against the clock to find the Titan deep-sea watercraft in case the vessel was still in tact, but the oxygen supply was expected to run out after a few days.
The Coast Guard found evidence that the boat imploded near the site of the shipwreck, killing all five people on board. OceanGate, the company operating the submersible, charged passengers $250,000 each to participate in the voyage.
Student loan forgiveness struck down
A sharply divided Supreme Court effectively killed President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans with a ruling in June.
The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, said the Biden administration overstepped its authority with the plan. After more than three years of paused payments and interest, federal student loan payments resumed for borrowers in October.
Twitter becomes X
Elon Musk revealed Twitter would become X in July, replacing everything: the name and URL would change, tweets would become posts, and its whimsical blue bird icon would bite the dust. Users pushed back on the change in branding, and the social media site's influence on popular culture appeared to be waning.
Since Musk's takeover, the company has been bombarded by allegations of misinformation, endured significant advertising losses and suffered declines in usage. Musk went on an expletive-ridden rant in an on-stage interview about companies that had stopped spending on X, asserting that advertisers that pulled out were engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to get lost.
Barbenheimer
An unlikely double feature brought Americans back to the movies in July. Barbenheimer, the affectionate nickname fans dubbed the pairing of Greta Gerwig’s "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer."
"Barbie" became a billion-dollar hit, easily becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023 and Gerwig becoming the only woman director to lead a $1 billion live-action movie.
2023 (Taylor's Version)
Taylor Swift dominated popular culture, with her record-shattering $1 billion Eras Tour concert tour, her anointment as Time magazine’s Person of the Year and her high-profile romance with Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs football star.
The Swift phenomenon even extended into the realm of the national economy. Economist Sarah Wolfe of Morgan Stanley has calculated that Swifties spent an average of $1,500 on airfares, hotel rooms and concert tickets to her shows.
Israel-Hamas conflict
The bloodiest war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, when militants broke through the walls surrounding the seaside enclave of the Gaza Strip. Its fighters killed some 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 200 others hostages. The attack was described as the worst one-day mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a massive campaign of retaliatory airstrikes. Israeli troops also entered the Gaza Strip for the first time in years, moving into Gaza City and fighting intense street-to-street combat. The offensive killed over 21,300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million residents also facing an Israeli siege largely blocking food, fuel, water and medicine shipments.
George Santos expelled
George Santos, the freshman New York Republican most famous for lying about nearly every part of his backstory, was expelled from the House of Representatives after a blistering ethics report on his conduct.
Santos is just the sixth member in history to be expelled and only the third since the Civil War.
Santos' life story began to unravel before he was even sworn into office, as reports emerged he had lied about having Jewish ancestry, a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree, among other things. In May, he was indicted by federal prosecutors on multiple charges.
These days, you can find him on Cameo selling personalized videos.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.