Noteworthy news you may have missed

Well, we made it. You and I have traveled yet one more year around the sun. True to form, 2019 was full of wonder, mistakes, successes, and a smorgasbord of conundrums and craziness.

As usual, I kept track of a few of the lesser but still extraordinary events and findings during the year.

January 22 — According to a report from nonprofit Oxfam, the world’s 26 wealthiest people are worth the same amount of money as the world’s poorest 3.8 billion.

January 30 — The temperature dropped to -48 degrees with a wind chill of -65 in Norris Camp, Minnesota, making it the coldest place in the lower 48 states

February 1 — The BBC reported that January was the hottest month on record in Australia and that five days were among the top 10 on record for the warmest.

February 13 — NASA announced that it had declared the Mars rover dead after being unable to communicate with it following a massive dust storm on the red planet.

March 25 — A British Airways flight bound for Dusseldorf, Germany, instead accidentally landed in Edinburgh, Scotland, because the company filed the wrong flight papers.

March 27 — Airbnb, the online home-sharing site, surpassed Hilton Hotels in annual sales.