2025 - What a Year!

I love reading the many articles that come out at the end of every year depicting lists of things that happened during the year, the latest statistics, the news, who rose or fell in the charts, the political, economic and social events that shaped our world. I could spend literally days on these lists in various posts but for sake of brevity, will give you just a snapshot from various sources I've read so far - Time Magazine, LinkedIn, New York Times and just random websites I found. Enjoy! :)

Let's start with some of the folks we lost in 2025:

January

Wayne Osmond, 73, singer and guitarist for The Osmonds

Peter Yarrow, 86, part of the folk-music trio Peter, Paul and Mary

Anita Bryant, 84, singer and vocal opponent of gay rights

Bob Uecker, 90, longtime Brewers announcer dubbed ‘Mr. Baseball’

David Lynch, 78, visionary filmmaker behind ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’

Marianne Faithfull, 78, British singer-actress

Dick Button, 95, Olympic great and voice of figure skating

Sam Moore, 89 - half of the duo Sam and Dave (Soul Man, Hold On, I'm Coming)

Garth Hudson, 87- Keyboardist for the Band

February

Gene Hackman, 95, Academy Award-winning actor

Clint Hill, 93, Secret Service agent who leapt onto JFK’s car after the president was shot

Roberta Flack, 88, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter

Al Trautwig, 68, iconic New York Sports broadcaster

Boris Spassky, 88, Soviet chess champion who lost famed match to Bobby Fischer

Michelle Trachtenberg, 39, (Harriet the Spy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl fame)

March

Carl Dean, 82, Dolly Parton’s husband for nearly 60 years

Pamela Bach, 62, ‘Baywatch’ actress and the ex-wife of David Hasselhoff

John Feinstein, 69, one of the country’s top sportswriters

Alan Simpson, 93, Former U.S. Senator

George Foreman, 76, boxing legend and TV pitchman

Kitty Dukakis, 88, Wife of former Mass governor Michael Dukakis

David Childs, 83, Lead architect of One World Trade Center Skyscraper

Richard Chamberlain, 90, TV actor who starred in ‘Dr. Kildare’

April

Val Kilmer, 65, ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Batman Forever’ star

Jay North, 73, ‘Dennis the Menace’ star

Wink Martindale, 91, legendary game show host

Pope Francis, 88, first Latin American leader of the Catholic church

Steve McMichael, 67, NFL Hall of Famer and wrestling legend

Virginia Giuffre, 41, Sex trafficking rights advocate -lead witness against Jeffrey Epstein

May

Jill Sobule, 66, rocker known for 1990s hit ‘I Kissed a Girl’

Ruth Buzzi, 88, comedic actor who gained fame on ‘Laugh-In’

George Ryan, 91, former tough on crime Illinois Governor

George Wendt, 76, actor best known as Norm from ‘Cheers’

David Souter, 85, former Supreme Court justice

Loretta Swit, 87, actor who played Maj. Margaret Houlihan on TV’s ‘M*A*S*H’

Phil Robertson, 79, of Duck Dynasty fame

June

Sly Stone, 82, a pioneer who revolutionized American popular music

Brian Wilson, 82, visionary genius behind the Beach Boys

Anne Burrell, 55, Food Network star 

Bobby Sherman, 81, former teen idol

Bill Moyers, 91, acclaimed TV journalist

Rick Hurst, 79, Cletus from ‘Dukes of Hazzard’

July

Jimmy Swaggart, 90, televangelist who fell from grace

Michael Madsen, 67, ‘Kill Bill’ Actor

Julian McMahon, 56, ‘Fantastic Four’ star

Fauja Singh, 114, Indian-born runner and world's oldest marathoner (ironically hit by a car)

Connie Francis, 87, iconic pop singer of the ’50s and ’60s

Felix Baumgartner, 56, daredevil who skydived from the edge of space

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 54, ‘Cosby Show’ star

‘Papa Jake’ Larson, 102, D-Day veteran and TikTok star

Ozzy Osbourne, 76, legendary rocker

Chuck Mangione, 84, beloved horn player

Hulk Hogan, 71, wrestling legend

Tom Lehrer, 87, musical satirist of midcentury America

Ryne Sandberg, 65, Hall of Fame baseball star

August

Loni Anderson, 79, star of ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’

Jim Lovell, 97, astronaut and Apollo 13 commander

Danielle Spencer, 60, Dee from ‘What’s Happening!!’

Terence Stamp, 87, British actor who specialized in villains

Frank Caprio, 88, compassionate judge who drew a huge online audience

James Dobson, 89, Founder of the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family

Brent Hinds, 51, former Mastodon singer-guitarist

September

Graham Greene, 73, Oscar nominee for ‘Dances With Wolves’

Giorgio Armani, 91, fashion icon

Patrick Hemingway, 97, Ernest Hemingway’s last surviving child

The Duchess of Kent, 92, a Wimbledon fixture

Charlie Kirk, 31, American right-wing political activist, entrepreneur and media personality

Mark Volman, 78, cofounder of the Turtles

Polly Holliday, 88, Flo on the sitcom ‘Alice’

Robert Redford, 89, legendary Hollywood actor, director and independent-film champion

Brett James, 57, popular songwriter

Bernie Parent, 80. Philadelphia Hockey goalie and Hall of Famer

Claudia Cardinale, 87, star of Italian cinema

Sara Jane Moore, 95, attempted assassin of President Gerald Ford in 1975

Russell M. Nelson, 101, oldest president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

October

Jane Goodall, 91, groundbreaking primatologist 

Joan Kennedy, 89, Ted Kennedy’s first wife

John Lodge, 82, singer and bassist for psychedelic rockers the Moody Blues

Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, 106, chaplain for Loyola University’s men’s basketball team

Diane Keaton, 79, Oscar-winning star of ‘Annie Hall’

D’Angelo, 51, R&B superstar who pioneered the neo-soul movement

Ace Frehley, 74, Kiss guitarist

Susan Stamberg, 87, trailblazing NPR journalist

June Lockhart, 100, Actor and mother figure for Lassie and Lost-in-Space

November

Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, 78, Grateful Dead vocalist

Diane Ladd, 89, a three-time Oscar nominee

Dick Cheney, 84, former vice president

James Watson, 97, DNA pioneer

Sally Kirkland, 84, Oscar-nominated actor

Cleto Escobedo III, 59, Jimmy Kimmel’s bandleader

Todd Snider, 59, American roots musician and cosmic stoner

Jimmy Cliff, 81, reggae pioneer

Fuzzy Zoeller, 74, golfer

December

Brigitte Bardot, 91, film legend and sex symbol

Chris Rea, 74, British singer-songwriter behind ‘Driving Home for Christmas’

Betty Reid Soskin, 104, America’s oldest Park Ranger

Greg Biffle, 55, NASCAR driver who flew rescue missions in NC after Hurricane Helene

Peter Arnett, 91, a daring journalist who reported from the world’s war zones

Gil Gerard, 82, starred on TV as Buck Rogers

Joe Ely, 78, legendary Texas singer-songwriter

Anthony Geary, 78, best known as Luke from ‘General Hospital’

Rob Reiner, 78, one of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers

Raul Malo, 60, frontman for the Mavericks

Sophie Kinsella, 55, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ author

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, 75, star of the 'Mortal Combat' films

Frank Gehry, 96, famed architect and designer

Now, some fun (and some frightening) facts about what happens on earth in 2025 every SINGLE SECOND:

• about 4 children are born (Most likely 2 in Asia, 1 in Africa, 1 in South America)

• about 2 people pass away

• 4 million emails, 3 million text messages, 10,000 tweets are sent

• Google handles over 100,000 searches

• 23,000 cups of coffee are consumed

• 25,000 cans of Coke are consumed

• 12,000 pints of beer are downed

• 400 slices of pizza are eaten

• 100 lightning strikes hit somewhere on the planet's surface

• 1 earthquake is recorded every second somewhere on the planet

• 2 car crashes happen somewhere in the world

• Humanity uses 1,200 barrels of oil every second

• 1,100 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere

• Costco sells about 6 hotdogs somewhere in the world every second

• Elon Musk gains about $3,000 dollars

• Amazon and Walmart make about $15,000 dollars a second

• 5 million likes are given somewhere on social media

Let's wrap up with good things that happened in 2025:

• The Catholic Church elected Robert Prevost to become the first American pope. The Chicago native took the name Leo XIV.

• The U.S. economy kept growing throughout 2025, thanks largely to a boom in AI innovation. The S&P 500 soared to new heights, up more than 15 percent for the year.

• GLP-1 drugs continued their revolution in treating diabetes and obesity. The U.S. obesity rate fell to 37 percent, down from its peak of almost 40 percent in 2022.

• Overdose deaths continued their steady decline, with the most recent provisional data from April showing a roughly 25 percent drop compared to the previous year.

• The U.S. maintained its role as the center of global medical innovation. The Food and Drug Administration approved a twice-a-year HIV shot, the closest thing to an AIDS vaccine. Meanwhile, new blood tests show promise to detect signs of ALS years before symptoms emerge, and scientists have begun to uncover how faulty mitochondria can contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, opening pathways for potential treatments.

• Quantum computing technology made enormous strides. Google announced that a new machine could run an algorithm 13,000 times faster than a top supercomputer would be able to in the realm of classical physics.

• NASA scientists published a study containing the most compelling evidence yet of ancient microbial life on Mars.

• The commercial space industry pulled off impressive engineering feats. Firefly Aerospace became the first company to successfully land a probe on the Moon. Blue Origin launched its first NASA mission and managed to land the rocket’s booster. Meanwhile, SpaceX launched more than 100 Starlink missions this year, often using the same booster dozens of times.

• No hurricanes made landfall in the United States for the first time in a decade.

• In a sign that U.S. energy markets are becoming increasingly diverse and competitive, March was the first month the country recorded making more than half its electricity from non-carbon-based sources.

• Support for nuclear energy reached new highs in 2025, with 59 percent of Americans backing it. That includes a majority of Democrats, up 15 points since 2020.

• China’s carbon emissions appeared to plateau in 2025. If that trend holds, it means the world’s largest contributor to global greenhouse gases might have stalled.

• Targeted conservation efforts managed to notch some wins for wildlife. Green sea turtles are no longer endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A study out of India, home to 75 percent of the world’s wild tigers, found that the country’s population of the big cat doubled in the last decade. And after the removal of four dams in Oregon and California’s Klamath River, salmon returned after having disappeared for more than a century.

• More than 20 states enacted laws or policies banning or restricting cellphone use in K-12 classrooms, helping children focus again on learning.

• Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming adopted universal school choice programs, bringing the total to 18 states.

• California enacted a law to embrace phonics, an enormous victory for advocates of the science of reading.

• Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado came out of hiding to collect the Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting freedom under the nose of dictator Nicolás Maduro.

• The last surviving Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, regained their freedom after more than two years in captivity as part of a peace deal to stop hostilities in Gaza.

• Eight million people escaped extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $3 a day.

• Bolivian voters elected centrist Rodrigo Paz as president, ending two decades of socialist misrule. The economist campaigned on the slogan “capitalism for all.”

• Costa Rica became the newest country to earn the status of being a “high-income” country, according to the World Bank, thanks to multiple years of strong growth.

• New York City is finally getting its rat population under control, thanks to the belated embrace of keeping trash in containers.

• Sports fans witnessed extraordinary accomplishments: Shohei Ohtani delivered the greatest single-game performance in baseball history. Rory McIlroy won the Masters Tournament, completing his career Grand Slam. U.S. track star Melissa Jefferson-Wooden smashed a world championship record at the 100-meter world finals.

• Netflix saved “Sesame Street.” The streaming giant provided a new home for the iconic children’s show, which had long struggled financially.

• Trials began for the first vaccine to prevent lung cancer.

• Scientists from Texas A&M University have developed a fully sustainable way for concrete to ‘heal’ its cracks itself, using synthetic lichen – improving on existing bacteria methods that aren’t fully autonomous.

• In Zurich, a human patient received the world's first 3D bio-printed human heart made from their own cells. This medical marvel may make organ donor waitlists a thing of the past.

  
  

• In one of the most unexpected wins for climate science, a mass pilot program using seaweed farms off the coasts of Indonesia and Norway reduced ocean acidification and captured 4 million metric tons of carbon in just 5 months. Who knew kelp would become Earth’s best friend?

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026. Thanks for helping with the success of Robert's Reader.