Top 10 Cultural Events of 2016

Screencap from the movie Suicide Squad; Will Smith (left) as Deadshot and Margot Robbie (right) as Harley Quinn

Well, as you all know, 2016 was a jam packed year full of events that most people want to forget about. Obviously, if you're an American you can attest to this fact. Politics aside, there were plenty of other events, for better or worse, that occurred this year that will make it memorable for various reasons. I give you a look at 10 cultural events that changed America this year (that don't involve politics).

1. Musicians and actors galore died this year: Pop culture took some massive hits this year. Prince and David Bowie's deaths were massive and unexpected, but they weren't the only cultural icons to die this year. The music industry lost Glenn Frey, Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard, Maurice White, George Martin, Natalie Cole, and Vanity. The silver screen and boob tube didn't go without their shocking deaths either. Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, Doris Roberts, Anton Yelchin, Garry Marshall, Mickey Rooney, Alan Thicke, Noel Neill, Theresa Saldana, Patty Duke, Florence Henderson, Garry Shandling, Abe Vigoda, David Margulies, and Pat Harrington Jr. As far as writers go, Harper Lee passed on as well. And the sports world took massive hits when Arnold Palmer and Muhammad Ali passed on...oh and Chyna died too.

2. Cuba is ripe for the change: Now I know I said I would try to stay out of politics, but I put this topic here because of the cultural significance. President Obama visited Cuba early in the year and just recently with the death of Fidel Castro, the door to Cuba opening up to the world has cracked open a little bit. A country rich with music, sports, and art, if Cuba were to join the rest of the world in the 21st century, a new wave of pop culture and sports stars could feasibly find its way into America. From a tourism standpoint, people can visit the very same beaches that the mob once hoped to turn into a second Las Vegas with nightclubs and casinos. Fidel's brother Raul is still in power and he is surrounded by hardliners, but maybe with continued pressure to join the rest of the world, Cuba's oppressive system will eventually collapse.

3. Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature...and he couldn't care less: Now it may be debatable that song lyrics count as literature, but the Nobel committee apparently thought so. The awarded Dylan with the award, but they failed to receive an immediate response from the music legend. Once they did, Dylan informed the committee that he wouldn't be able to attend the ceremony and that he "might" make it to Stockholm in 2017. At least that's what we think he said, but sometimes Dylan can be hard to understand.

4. The Cubbies finally won the World Series: Just a year too late to make Back to the Future writer, Robert Zemeckis, look like a genius, the Chicago Cubs not only made their first World Series appearance since 1945, they won their first World Series since 1908. Events such as World War I, the Titanic sinking, and women gaining the right to vote, happened more recently than a Cubs World Series victory. The last time the had made it to the World Series, black baseball players hadn't even been integrated into Major League Baseball.

5. The rise of data collecting devices hit an all-time high: On the surface, devices like Amazon's Echo and Dot with the virtual assistant known as Alexa; and Google's "Google Home" seem pretty cool, but that's only if you don't value your privacy. With a generation of youth that values privacy less than the previous generation, it should be no surprise that a device that presumably captures, stores, and utilizes keywords you say in front of it, has begun to integrate itself into many Americans' everyday lives. Las Vegas hotels have started installing Amazon Echo into their rooms to control functions such as temperature and to possibly order room service. What you don't see is that the information collected helps companies customize the advertisements you are exposed to and stores this information on a database that will either be sold or hacked one day.

6. Apple went toe-to-toe with the government: Shortly after the San Bernardino, California terrorist attack, the FBI wanted to hack into one of the shooter's phones to gain a better idea if the attackers were directed to conduct the attack or if they were lone wolves. A debate erupted when Apple told the government that they wouldn't develop software to allow the United States to access the shooter's personal information from his phone. On one side of this debate was that Apple should be patriotic and do what they can to assist the government to possibly prevent further terrorist efforts. On the other side of the debate was that giving the US government the necessary software to break into Apple produced phones would only lead to a slippery-slope of determining when the software should and shouldn't be used. Eventually the government announced that they were successful in hacking the shooter's phone without the help of Apple. Even then, debates across the country argued when does patriotism override one's right to privacy?

7. Nerds across America wandered around the map to catch fictional creatures: Pokémon Go sprung up out of nowhere to become one of the most successful games in cellphone history. People who rarely stepped foot outside in the real world were forced to visit new places to catch fictional characters that only they could see with the help of their phones. Along the way, the occasional car accident or mugging would occur, but that still didn't appear to hurt the game's popularity. But just as fast as the game gained popularity, the game would decline severely in users within three months of the game's release.

8. Nintendo rehashes their old games...again: When the Nintendo company comes up with a hit game or character, they keep releasing games and re-releasing games with these same characters over and over again. This year was no different. A popular item for Christmas is the Nintendo NES Classic Edition which brings back 30 of those games you played to death in 1980's. All the games are pre-installed into the system, so now you don't have to have all those cartridges that you used to blow into before shoving it into your system.

9. Los Angeles gains at least one NFL team with the possibility of a second coming soon: Several NFL teams flirted with the idea of moving to Los Angeles. In the end, the Rams moved back to LA and the Chargers might not be far behind. The country's second largest city went from no teams to possibly two. So far, the Rams haven't done well, even behind a head coach that had experience guiding a team that changed cities. It took in what seemed forever for the Rams to even play their number one overall draft pick from the 2016 NFL Draft.

10. Every other female under the age of 30 dressed up as Harley Quinn for Halloween: Suicide Squad hit theaters earlier this year and the character of Harley Quinn broke free from being popular with comic book fans to becoming popular with all of America. Margot Robbie's portrayal of Joker's former girlfriend became an instant hit with both males and females alike. By the time Halloween rolled around, tons of women were wearing t-shirts reading "Daddy's Lil Monster" while wearing booty shorts and fishnets. It's conceivable that this costume could end up becoming the Halloween male version of The Crow where guys would still dress up as the undead character years after the movie release. With several more movies in slated to be released featuring Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, her costume is bound to be seen for years to come.