- OIG Inspection of Embassy Tokyo, Japan in February/March. (See separate blog)
  |
Side trips to Shibamata suburb of Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto
For other photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog Shibamata ; Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog Nikko Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog Kyoto
- After Japan we spent a week in Bangkok (3/21-28) visiting friends, jeweler and tailor.
- Attended the Bob Dylan concert at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center April 17.
- From April to June we participated in Low Country Explorers trips to Shem Creek, a Harbor Cruise on board the Schooner Pride and a tour and presentation at the States Port Authority Wando terminal.
South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA), established in 1942, owns and operates public port facilities in Charleston, Dillon, Greer and Georgetown. Port operations facilitate 187,200 statewide jobs and generate nearly $53 billion annual economic activity. SCPA is home to the deepest harbor on the U.S. East Coast at 52 feet and is the 8th largest port in the U.S. It can now handle vessels carrying up to 18,000 containers. In 2017 SCPA handled 2.2 million twenty-foot equivalent container units. 235,000 finished vehicles were shipped from the Columbus Street Terminal. Once a vessel ties up at the dock, the port averages 38 moves per hour per crane cross the port. Truck turn times average 23 minutes per gate mission with a nine-minute average queuing time outside the interchange gates.
- Attended the Doobie Brothers Concert with Don Felder, formerly of the Eagles at Family Circle Stadium May 3rd.
- Attended two Spoleto Chamber Music Concerts at the Dock Street Theater then end of May.
- Attended the Rolling Stones "Zip Code" Concert in Atlanta June 9.
- Attended "A Night in Monte Carlo" at the Library Society in June.
- Stayed at the Rhett House Inn and attended the annual Water Festival in July.
- Took Brielle and Harlie to the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden In Columbia in July.
- On August 6 attended the Hard Hat Tuning Concert for the new Gaillard Center Performance Hall.
- Continued shagging at the Folly Beach fishing pier at the Moonlight Mixers on Friday evenings during the summer.
- Toured the Spanish 16th Century ship El Galeon.
- Attended Chamber Music at the Charleston Library: "Rock & Rondo" September 10.
- Saw the Munich Symphony at the Gaillard in November.
- Thanksgiving Dinner at Middleton Place with David.
- Visited Raine and Dick in Rye, NH in early December and stayed at a nice B&B, the Arbor Inn. Favorite restaurant Petey's.
- Out in San Francisco for the annual Meehan family Christmas party and saw the 49'ers at Levi Stadium play the Cincinnati Bengals and lose 24-14.
- Chef Bernard Bougnat closes restaurant.
- New England Cruise on American Cruise Lines in May to New Bedford, MA, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, Newport and Bristol RI.
For other photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog New England Cruise
In September we visited Cypress Gardens with the Low Country Explorers.
For other photos and narrative see: Doris and Bill Travel Adventures Blog Timeslide Amsterdam to Basel
May 12 - Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 derails in
Philadelphia, killing eight people and injuring more than 200, as the train
goes 106 mph into a curve that had a speed limit of 50 mph.
May
17 - Gunfire breaks out in Waco,
Texas, between two rival biker gangs. Nine people are killed, and at least 18 are injured and 177 people are arrested.June 17 - Dylann Roof, 21, kills nine people at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina.
June
25 - The Supreme Court rules 6-3 in favor of upholding all of the Obamacare subsidies for
low-income Americans trying to purchase insurance.
June
26 - The Supreme Court rules 5-4 in favor of same sex marriage, making it legal in
all 50 states.July 16 - In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mohammed Abdulazeez opens fire on a military recruitment center followed by a naval reserve facility seven miles away. Five people are killed, and Abdulazeez is shot and killed in a gunfight with police.
July
23 - John Russell Houser shoots 11 people in a movie theater in Lafayette,
Louisiana. Two people are killed and nine are wounded. Houser
kills himself after police arrive on the scene.
August
5 - The Animas River in Colorado turns orange after millions
of gallons of contaminated water poured out of an abandoned mine. The accident
occurs when EPA officials try to safely pump and treat the toxic water.
September
22-28 - Pope Francis becomes
the "fourth head of the Church to visit the United States, nearly 50 years
after Pope Paul VI made the first visit by a pontiff to the country in October
1965." While in the United States, Pope Francis visits Washington, D.C.,
speaks at a joint meeting of Congress, addresses the U.N. General Assembly in
New York, and holds Mass at Madison Square Garden, and attends the Festival of
Families in Philadelphia.
October
1 - Gunman Christopher Sean
Harper-Mercer shoots and kills nine people, injuring another nine, at Umpqua
Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The shooter
commits suicide after exchanging gunfire with officers.
October
24 - Four are killed and almost 50 are
hurt when Adacia
Chambers crashes a car into a crowd of spectators at Oklahoma
State University's homecoming parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
October
29 - Paul Ryan officially
becomes the 54th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, replacing the
retiring John Boehner.
November
27 - Two civilians and a police officer
are killed when a gunman opens
fire at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in a nearly
six-hour standoff. The suspected gunman is 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear.
November
30 - Officer William Porter, the first of
six Baltimore police officers, goes on trial. Porter is charged with
manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment in the death of Freddie Gray.
December
2 - Married couple Syed Rizwan Farook
and Tashfeen Malik open fire on a holiday party taking place at Inland Regional
Center in San Bernardino, killing 14 people.
January
7 - Two gunmen, Said and Cherif
Kouachi, attack the
Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo,
wounding 11 and killing 12. The gunmen attack Charlie Hebdo in order to punish
the magazine for the publication of cartoons that mocked the Prophet Mohammad.
Later on January 9, the Kouachi brothers are shot and killed in a standoff with
police in Dammartin-en-Goele, France.
January
9 - Amedy Coulibaly, an associate of
Said and Cherif Kouachi, attacks a Jewish grocery store in Paris taking more
than a dozen people hostage and killing four. Coulibaly also shot and killed a
policewoman on January 8. Couliably is killed when police stormed the kosher
market in the evening.
March
18 - Benjamin Netanyahu is re-elected prime minister of
Israel.
March
24 - Germanwings
Flight 9525 crashes into the French Alps after taking off from
Barcelona, Spain, en route to Dusseldorf, Germany. All 150 people on board are
killed. On March 26, 2015, officials say that 27-year-old co-pilot Andreas
Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane after locking the pilot out of the
cockpit. A later investigation reveals that he had suffered from
depression in the past.
March
27 - Italy's Supreme Court
overturns Amanda Knox's and Raffaele Sollecito's murder convictions for the
death of Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher in November 2007.
April
2 - Four masked gunmen attack Garissa University College in eastern Kenya,
killing 147 people and injuring 104. The Somalia-based
Al-Shabaab militant group claims responsibility for the attack.
April
25 - A 7.8-magnitude earthquake
strikes Nepal,
near Kathmandu, killing more than 8,000 people and injuring 17,866. Just weeks
later on May 12 a second 7.3-magnitude earthquake strikes the country.
May
2 - The Duchess of
Cambridge gives birth to her second child with Prince
William. Their daughter, weighing 8lbs 3oz, will be known as Her
Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.
May
9 - The World Health Organization
declares the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic
in Liberia over, after more than a year.
July
14 - A deal is
reached to substantially limit Iran's nuclear weapons program. In
exchange, various international sanctions on Iran will be loosened.
July
20 - Cuba and the United States
officially re-establish
diplomatic relations after 54 years.
July
31 - Beijing is chosen to host of the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter
Games. This will make Beijing the first city to host both the
Summer and Winter Olympics in the 120-year history of the modern games.August 12 - Explosions occur at a warehouse in Tianjin, China, killing over a hundred people and injuring more than 700. The blasts are estimated to be the equivalent of a 2.9 magnitude earthquake.
August
20 - Greece receives the first portion of its third bailout. All
of the countries that use the euro have agreed in principle to the bailout;
however, the IMF did not contribute direct financial support, unlike in
previous bailouts and is only monitoring the situation. This package is worth
up to 86 Billion euros ($95 billion).
September
18 - U.S. regulators say that
Volkswagen has programmed some 500,000 vehicles to emit lower
levels of harmful emissions in official tests than on the
roads. Volkswagen later reveals that internal investigations had found
significant discrepancies in 11 million vehicles worldwide.
September
19 - Pope Francis visits Cuba for the
first time and praises the reconciliations taking place between Cuba and the
United States. Francis also asks Cuba to allow for more religious freedom as
the communist country prepares to build the first Catholic Church since the Cuban
Revolution.
September
- During the annual Hajj
pilgrimage, a stampede kills more than 700 people and injures nearly
900 others, according to state media. The incident occurs during the ritual
known as "stoning the devil" in the tent city of Mina, Saudi Arabia.
October
23 - Hurricane
Patricia, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded, makes landfall
as a Category 5 storm over southwestern Mexico.
October
31 - Kogalymavia
Flight 9268, a Russian passenger plane breaks into pieces before
hitting the ground in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard.
November
13 - Three teams of gun-wielding
ISIS suicide bombers hit six locations around Paris, killing 130
people and wounding hundreds.
November
24 - Turkey shoots
down a Russian warplane near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey
says it hit the plane after it violated Turkey's airspace and ignored 10
warnings - which Russia denies.December 12 - A landmark climate change agreement is approved in Paris at the 21st Conference of Parties, or COP21.
December
28 - The Iraqi
military announces it has retaken the city of Ramadi from ISIS.
Super Bowl
With the Seattle Seahawks sitting
on the 4 yard-line with one minute remaining and down by four points, it looked
as though the New England
Patriots were headed to another disappointing Super Bowl finish.
But the Seahawks made the controversial decision to throw the ball, the Patriots
Malcom Butler intercepted on the 1-yard line and New England went on to win,
28-24. Tom Brady mounted
a comeback, throwing two touchdowns in the final eight minutes to guide his
team to the win.
World Series
The 2015 World Series was between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals. The
Royals won the series 4 games to 1. Catcher
Salvador Pérez, who batted 8-for-22 (.364) in the series, won
the World Series Most Valuable Player
Award. He became the first catcher to win the award since Pat Borders
won it in the 1992 World Series and the second time a Venezuelan player, following Pablo Sandoval, who won it in the 2012 World Series.
Recap of 2015 Grand Slam Tennis Tournament Winners
·
Australian Open Men's
Singles. Winner – Novak
Djokovic defeated Andy Murray
·
French Open Men's
Singles. Winner– Stan Wawrinka defeated Novak Djokovic
·
Wimbledon Men's
Singles. Winner – Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer
·
US Open Men's Singles.
Winner – Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer
·
Australian Open Ladies
Singles. Winner – Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova
·
French Open Ladies
Singles. Winner– Serena Williams defeated Lucie Safarova
·
Wimbledon Ladies
Singles. Winner – Serena Williams defeated
Garbine Muguruza
·
US Open Ladies
Singles. Winner – Flavia Pennetta
defeated Roberta Vinci
