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"16 Things You Forgot Happened in 2012\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. GoDaddy Supported SOPA and Faced the Consequences\n\nTechnically this debacle took place in the last week of 2011, but the backlash lasted well into 2012. GoDaddy, the popular domain registrar and web hosting company, showed early support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a hotly contested bill regarding copyright violations that was introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith. Many Internet users believed SOPA would lead to extreme censorship of the web and were shocked to hear that GoDaddy supported it.\nAs a result, hundreds of high-profile sites joined a boycott and mass-transfer movement sparked by Ben Huh, founder of the Cheezburger Network, moving their domains away from GoDaddy. The company eventually withdrew its support for SOPA, but not before it lost many customers.\nIn September 2012, GoDaddy faced another PR nightmare when its DNS servers went down due to a distributed denial of service attack, and with the servers went many customers' websites for a long period of time. The company apparently didn't have a backup plan, furthering soiling its reputation.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, dsleeter_2000.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Teen Urged the Web to Boycott Girl Scouts for Allowing Transgender Members\n\nA teenage Girl Scout's YouTube video gained traction in January. In it she calls for a boycott on the famous cookies because a seven-year-old transgender girl was admitted into a Colorado troop. Many people around the web took to social media and called the eight-minute video hate speech, and the video was eventually marked private.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, kidmissile.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. #Linsanity Took Over Social Media\n\nIn 2012, the NBA introduced Jeremy Lin, then-point guard for the New York Knicks. Lin lit up scoreboards early in his career and amazed basketball fans with his stats, quickly becoming social media's newest athlete darling and spurring the hashtag #Linsanity.\nSince his streak, Lin became a free agent, had knee surgery and was picked up by the Houston Rockets. But for a brief time, he held many Twitter users on the edge of their seats.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, nikk_la.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. News of Whitney Houston's Death Broke on Twitter\n\nWhitney Houston died at age 48 on Feb. 11. Her body was found in a Beverly Hills hotel after an accidental drowning and the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use. The news of Houston's death broke on Twitter 27 minutes before the press covered the story, illustrating another powerful tool of social media.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Beacon Radio.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5. \"KONY 2012\" Went Viral and Backfired\n\nNon-profit Invisible Children released \"KONY 2012,\" a video about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. The video went viral soon after posting, but it drew critics who claimed the video had a narrow view, lack of information and a \"white savior\" mentality.\nAmid the backlash, Invisible Children co-founder and \"KONY 2012\" director Jason Russell seemingly buckled under the pressure and was arrested in San Diego for public drunkenness and lewd behavior.\nThe sequel to \"KONY 2012,\" \"Move,\" tried to address these issues, but it was nowhere near as successful as the original.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, infomatique.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6. TIME's Breastfeeding Cover Shocked the Internet\n\nTIME's controversial May 2012 cover pictured a 26-year-old mother breastfeeding her almost four-year-old son. The photo caused intense reactions from Internet users, who either criticized, applauded or manipulated the image in Photoshop.\nImage courtesy of TIME.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7. The 'Amercian' Dream\n\nThe Mitt Romney team released an official iPhone app, \"With Mitt,\" in May 2012. It revealed one of the campaign's biggest digital gaffes. One of the banner options read, \"A Better Amercia,\" instead of \"America.\" The gaffe quickly went viral, and Twitter users showed off their best Amercia jokes.\nThe typo was eventually fixed, but one person was able to get some extra attention for the misspelling. A man named John Chen from Shanghai, China, had purchased the domain name Amercia.com back in July 2009. Three years later, after the gaffe, the domain was appraised at $9,000.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Gage Skidmore.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8. Bullied Bus Monitor Got the Vacation She Deserved, and Then Some\n\nWhen Redditor Max Sidorov saw the YouTube video of young students bullying bus monitor Karen Klein to tears, he started an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for Klein. The campaign met its $5,000 goal within five hours and reached more than $700,000 in total.\nSome people worried that the funds would not actually go to Karen Klein, but ultimately she did receive the money (tax-free), retired and used a portion of the money to start an anti-bullying foundation.\nImage courtesy of Indiegogo, Lets Give Karen -The bus monitor- H Klein A Vacation!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9. Reddit Solved a Cryptic Code and Brought Adventure to the Web\n\nReddit user delverofsecrets posted photos of a cryptic note, which a man on the 1 train in New York City had handed him without explanation. Within three hours, his fellow Redditors solved the code, which consisted of Russian, Basque and Hebrew characters. It read, \"There's plenty more money to make. Figure this out and prepare to meet July 19th, 56th &amp; 6th. There's a hot dog stand outside Rue57 cafe. Ask for Mr. Input.\"\nIn the end, the code didn't amount to anything (as far as we know) because delverofsecrets deleted his account after receiving threatening messages and phone calls. \nImage courtesy of Flickr, carlosgomez.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10. Marissa Mayer Became the First Pregnant Fortune 500 CEO\n\nThe tech and business worlds were surprised to hear that Marissa Mayer, the 20th employee of Google and vice president of search product, was leaving the company in July to become Yahoo's new CEO. Another shocker was her pregnancy announcement in Fortune, revealing her to be the first Fortune 500 CEO to be pregnant at the same time. Conversation stirred on the web about Mayer's competency to take on both a struggling company and motherhood at the same time. \nImage courtesy of Flickr, Giorgio Montersino.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11. Twitter Suspended Journalist Who Tweeted Olympics President's Email Address\n\nGuy Adams, a Los Angeles correspondent for London newspaper The Independent, was suspended from Twitter in July after tweeting the email address of Gary Zenkel, the president of NBC Olympics. The account was suspended after NBC Sports filed a complaint for \"posting an individual's private information,\" though Adams asserted that Zenkel's email address was public information.\nThe action caused controversy over account suspension circumstances. Twitter eventually reinstated Adams' account.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Thomas Hawk.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12. Jonah Lehrer Plagiarized Himself and Falsified Quotes\n\nIn July, New Yorker writer Jonah Lehrer resigned from his position at the magazine after admitting to fabricating quotes in his latest book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, as well as borrowing from his own articles at other publications (he was formerly a columnist at Wired and wrote pieces for The Wall Street Journal).\n\u201CThe lies are over now,\" Lehrer said in a statement to The New York Times. \"I understand the gravity of my position. I want to apologize to everyone I have let down, especially my editors and readers.\"\nImage courtesy of Flickr, wiccked.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n13. Police Officer Who Pepper Sprayed Students Loses Job\n\nJohn Pike, a University of California, Davis police officer, pepper sprayed several peaceful Occupy Wall Street student protesters in November 2011. Once the video of his actions hit YouTube, people around the country immediately called on UC Davis for disciplinary action, or at least for Pike's resignation.\nAn investigation to see whether or not Pike used excessive force lasted into early 2012, and by July 31, Pike was no longer employed by the university. On Sep. 19, it was decided that Pike would not be prosecuted for his actions.\nThe incident inspired an array of Internet memes with Pike cavalierly spraying everything from cartoon characters to famous works of art.\nImage courtesy of peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14. Curiosity Rover Checked In to Foursquare for the First Time\n\nThe Curiosity Mars rover has tweeted and posted photos for a while, but she checked in to Foursquare for the first time in October, at the Gale Crater. She'll be checking in throughout her 23-month expedition on the Red Planet, giving travel tips for future space tourists in a mix of science and comedy.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, NASA Goddard Photo and Video.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n15. KitchenAid Tweeted Joke About Obama's Dead Grandmother\n\nWhen President Obama mentioned in one of the debates that his grandmother died a few days before he was elected in 2008, KitchenAid's official U.S. Twitter account tweeted, \"Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! 'She died 3 days b4 he became president'. #nbcpolitics.\"\nThe company quickly apologized, explaining that a member of its team mistakenly posted the tasteless tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal handle, and that he or she would no longer be tweeting from @KitchenAidUSA.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Barack Obama.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n16. Google Fiber Expanded in the Midwest\n\nGoogle first launched its fiber-optic network in Kansas City, Mo. in 2011, but in early October 2012, the search giant expanded its network in the Midwest, giving various startups a much-needed boost. Google itself believed Fiber could help improve local economies, but not all businesses shared the enthusiasm. Time Warner and AT&amp;T expressed concerns about governments offering Google special incentives. Further construction is due to start in the spring.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, D.Clow - Maryland.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis has been quite the eventful year. What with the U.S. presidential election, Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath, the continued influence of social media in the Arab Spring and countless other major headlines, it's easy for smaller yet nonetheless significant news events to escape our memories.\nSEE ALSO: 40 Essential Mashable Stories You May Have Missed in 2012\n\nSince it's nearly impossible to remember everything that happened in 365 days, we've rounded up 16 stories that you may have forgotten about in 2012. From the serious to the hilarious, the offensive to the heartwarming, you'll be reminded of something worth remembering.\nWhat other 2012 news do you think is worth remembering? Share your small but important picks in the comments.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, infomatique."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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