Each passing year is highlighted by major accomplishments, disasters, celebrity deaths, scandals and other news worthy of trending on Twitter.
2016 had its fair share of news that trended in the Tweetosphere. Come to think of it, 2016 could be in the running for the most intriguing year in this decade.
Here is how 2016 did:
The Good
#Rio2016
The #Rio2016 was a popular hashtag during the year but some specific tweets related to the recent Olympics made news, as well. Speedster Usain Bolt's tweet congratulating the Brazilian football team and featuring Neymar imitating Bolt's famous celebration had more than 71,000 likes and 48,000 retweets. The "flirting" that ensued between Rio 2016 superstar Simone Biles and actor Zac Efron over Twitter also trended.
#PokemonGo
The Pokemon Go game from Nintendo and Niantic was an instant hit even before it was officially released globally. The sight of people from children to young professionals (and maybe even some from the older generation) looking at their phones while trying to catch a Pokémon was a common one. It also was among the most tweeted hashtags for the year.
The Bad
#RIP(place name of celebrity here)
David Bowie
When the music legend succumbed to liver cancer last Jan. 10, the whole world knew a day later when his son Duncan Jones tweeted the sad news.
Alan Rickman
The well-loved veteran actor bid farewell after a battle with cancer at the age of 69. Twitter was flooded with tributes to the "Harry Potter" and "Love Actually" star.
Prince
The "Purple Rain" singer passed away at the age of 57.
Muhammad Ali
The Greatest of All Time said his goodbyes last June after a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 73.
Leonard Cohen
Cohen wrote his dying muse Marianne Ihlen a letter highlighted by the words, "our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon". Sadly, he did. The iconic singer and poet died on Nov. 11 at the age of 82. Marianne, the inspiration for the song "So long, Marianne", died in July.
George Michael
In an ironic twist of fate, singer George Michael passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 53.
Other celebrities who were laid to rest in 2016 and had a last run at the limelight by trending on Twitter were Harper Lee, Arnold Palmer, Gene Wilder, Florence Henderson, and Zsa Zsa Gabor, among others.
The Ugly
#Election 2016/#Trump
Nothing can be uglier than the recently-concluded U.S. National Elections. All throughout the campaign period, the world bore witness to some of the craziest, most disrespectful, and inappropriate comments from supposed leaders of the country. Twitter was a big part of it. In fact, more than 1 billion tweets were sent out about the election by people in the United States alone.
President-elect Donald Trump is an avid Twitter user and has used the service to voice out his often unbelievable, opinions. But Hillary Clinton may have won the Twitter battle when she tweeted Trump to "delete your account." The tweet got more than 550,000 retweets at the time.
