It’s time to ring in the New Year, where we often find ourselves looking forward to the next year, as well as back on where we’ve been. In fact, January’s namesake, Janus, is the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future.
Here are some links, statistics, and other fun information for this time of year!

2013 in Review

• Time Magazine has put together its Top 10 of Everything: 54 lists of “the highs and lows, the good and the bad of the past 12 months.”
• Notable Deaths from 2013 have been compiled by the Chicago Tribune.
• Detroit homicides declined significantly in 2013, “with the city on pace to record fewer than 350 homicides for only the fourth time in 30 years.”
• Cost of loaf of bread in 2013: $2.00; cost of loaf of bread in 1963: $0.32.

2014 Happenings

• February 7 – 23: The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia.
• June 12 – July 13: The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be held in Brazil.
• August 24: NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will cross the orbit of Neptune after travelling for over eight years. The spacecraft’s mission target is Pluto, which New Horizons should reach in 2015.
• December 31: The United States and England will officially withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.

Did You Know?

• Each year, 1 million people gather in Times Square for the ball drop, with roughly 1 billion people watching on television around the world.
• 360 million glasses of sparkling wine are poured during the holiday season.
• The Rose Parade in Pasadena, which has been happening since 1890, uses 18 million flowers in its floats.
• Julius Caesar made January 1 the first day of the year in 46 B.C., but England and the American colonies didn’t follow suit until 1752.

As you reflect on 2013, and look forward to 2014, all of us at Wright Beamer wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year!