By: CNN Library – cnn.com – December 31, 2018

Here is a look back at the events of 2018.

Notable US Events:
January 4 – The Dow closes at 25,075.13, the first ever close above 25,000.
January 11 – During a White House meeting on immigration reform, President Donald Trump reportedly refers to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries.” He reportedly says that the United States should get more people from countries like Norway.
January 12 – The Wall Street Journal reports that President Donald Trump had an alleged affair with a porn star named Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels. The newspaper states that Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, arranged a $130,000 payment for a nondisclosure agreement weeks before Election Day in 2016. Cohen denies that Trump had a relationship with Clifford.

January 13 – In Hawaii, a state emergency management worker pushes the wrong button in the emergency operation center, sending out a false warning during a ballistic missile alert drill. The employee thought the attack was real when he sent out the warning, according to a Federal Communications Commission report.
January 17 – The Dow closes at 26,115.65, the first time it has closed above 26,000.
January 23 – A 15-year-old male student opens fire at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, killing two and injuring at least 14 others. The suspect is arrested at the scene, and later charged with two counts of murder and 14 counts of first-degree assault.
January 24 – Larry Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor, is sentenced to up to 175 years in prison, after more than 150 women and girls said in court that he sexually abused them over the past two decades.
February 5 – The Dow suffers its worst intra-day trading loss, plummeting 1,597 points.
February 12 – The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery unveils the official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. The portraits were painted by African-American artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, a first in the history of presidential portraits.
February 14 – A former student opens fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people. Nikolas Cruz, 19, is later charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
March 2-20 – Five package bombs explode killing two people and wounding five in Austin, Texas. The suspect, Mark Anthony Conditt, kills himself with his last explosive device after he is stopped by the police on March 21.
March 13 – President Donald Trump announces in a tweet that he has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and will nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Tillerson’s replacement.
April 26 – Comedian Bill Cosby is convicted on all three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in a Philadelphia suburb in 2004. Later, he is sentenced to 3-10 years in state prison.
May 3 – Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano begins erupting, sending a smoldering flow of lava into residential areas on the Big Island.
May 7 – US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings. Sessions says that individuals who violate immigration law will be criminally prosecuted and warns that parents could be separated from children.
May 9 – Three American detainees are released from North Korea. The Americans — Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim — were freed while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to discuss President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
May 17 – Gina Haspel is confirmed as the first female director of the CIA.
May 18 – Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, allegedly opens fire killing 10 and injuring 13 at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas. Pagourtzis is arrested and charged with capital murder and aggravated assault of a public servant.
May 22 – Stacey Abrams wins the Georgia Democratic primary election for governor. She is the first black woman in the US to win a major party’s nomination for the office.
May 25 – Film producer Harvey Weinstein is arraigned on charges of first- and third-degree rape and committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree, seven months after women began to come forward with stories alleging sexual misconduct by the famed Hollywood producer. The charges filed stem from incidents with two separate women in 2004 and 2013.
June 15 – The US Department of Homeland Security confirms that the US government has separated almost 2,000 children from parents at the border since implementing a policy that results in such family separations.
June 19 – Antwon Rose II, an unarmed 17-year-old, is shot and killed by police officer Michael Rosfeld in East Pittsburgh. Rose had been a passenger in a car that was stopped by police because it matched the description of a car that was involved in an earlier shooting. Rose and another passenger “bolted” from the vehicle, and Rosfeld opened fire, striking Rose three times, Allegheny County police says. On June 27, the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, district attorney charges Rosfeld with criminal homicide in the shooting death of Rose.
June 27 – Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy sends a letter to President Donald Trump announcing his retirement from the Supreme Court effective July 31, 2018.
June 28 – Five people are killed and two are injured when a gunman opens fire on the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.
July 5 – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigns after months of ethics controversies.
July 9 – President Donald Trump announces Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Kennedy’s decision to retire.
July 13 – The Justice Department announces indictments against 12 Russian nationals as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, accusing them of engaging in a “sustained effort” to hack Democrats’ emails and computer networks.
July 16 – During a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, President Donald Trump declines to endorse the US government’s assessment that Russia interfered in the election, saying he doesn’t “see any reason why” Russia would be responsible. The next day, Trump clarifies his remark, “The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.” He says he accepts the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the election but adds, “It could be other people also.”

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Source: 2018 In Review Fast Facts – CNN