The top news stories of 2012 are listed below in chronological order.
New York Giants win 2nd Super Bowl with elite quarterback Eli Manning
It was Deja Blue all over again in 2012.
The Giants captured their second Super Bowl in five seasons on Feb. 5 with a remarkable playoff run eerily reminiscent of their 2007 roll to capture the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Once again, the Giants narrowly defeated the favored New England Patriots — this time 21-17.
PHOTOS: GIANTS RALLY IN SUPER BOWL XLVI
Once again, quarterback Eli Manning was named the MVP of the big game after outdueling the great Tom Brady.
Once again, a spectacular fourth quarter catch by a Giants wide receiver — this time a clutch grab by Mario Manningham — sparked an unlikely come-from-behind triumph.
When the final whistle blew in Indianapolis, where Eli’s big brother Peyton had dominated for so long, the kid quarterback owned more championship rings than the elder Manning, who has one from 2008.
RELATED: N.Y. GIANTS WIN SUPER BOWL XLVI
Coach Tom Coughlin equalled the legendary Bill Parcells’ mark of two Super Bowl titles with Big Blue.
And the team took its second ride of the 21st century through the Canyon of Heroes before a crowd of 1 million spectators.
Fan favorite Victor Cruz thrilled the throngs with his celebratory salsa dance on the steps of City Hall.
“Twice is nice!” the crowd chanted as confetti fell on the newly crowned champs.
“Twice is nice!” Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, after surveying the uproarious lower Manhattan celebration, declared the city was “the Big Blue Apple.” (Larry McShane)
MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
Singer Whitney Houston (L) and Dionne Warwick perform onstage during the 2011 Pre-Grammy Gala Salute to Industry Icons, with Clive Davis Honoring David Geffen at the Beverly Hilton on February 12, 2011.
Death of a Diva: Whitney Houston’s voice silenced at age 48
She burst into the 1980s limelight as a leggy ingénue with a powerhouse voice, and matured into a willowy movie star who moved audiences to tears with her soaring vocals.
By the time she died at age 48, Whitney Houston’s amazing artistic gift was reduced to a raspy whisper.
The onetime gospel singer, who grew up performing in the choir of her local Newark church, was found slumped over and unresponsive in her Beverly Hilton Hotel bathtub Feb 11.
It was an ignominious end to a life that, from the outside at least, had once seemed inordinately blessed.
Houston died just hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammy bash hosted by her longtime mentor Clive Davis.
Davis is the man who had discovered her at age 18, ushered her into superstardom, then stayed by her side as her career came apart amidst rampant drug use and a stormy, addiction-fueled marriage to Boston bad boy Bobby Brown.
Houston’s death prompted an outpouring of grief from Hollywood’s elite and her legions of loyal fans, who loved her despite her troubles.
She was buried with more pomp and circumstance than most heads of state, and admirers lined the streets hoping for a glimpse of her golden casket.
PHOTOS: LIFE OF WHITNEY HOUSTON
Her mother, Cissy Houston, and daughter, Bobbi Kristina, presided over a four-hour, invitation-only “home going” service at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark.
Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keyes and many others gave musical tributes to Whitney and shared their favorite memories.
Kevin Costner, her co-star in the 1992 box office smash “The Bodyguard,” spoke movingly of their time together on set.
Houston racked up dozens of Grammy nominations and won five — three in 1992 for “The Bodyguard” soundtrack.
It was the pinnacle of her career and the start of her deadly downward spiral into a raging crack habit.
In the end, Houston accepted responsibility for her drug addiction — but had yet to find a way to stay sober.
“The biggest devil is me,” Houston said once.
“I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy.” (Ginger Adams Otis)
Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News
NY Archbishop Tim Dolan on the day he was elevated to a cardinal by Pope Benedict, February 18, 2012.
High spirits: Dolan ascends to Cardinal Dolan
The gregarious leader of the Archdiocese of New York rose from archbishop to cardinal on Feb. 18, to the delight and pride of his mother, the Irish nun who taught him in second grade and the 2.6 million New Yorkers who are part of his flock.
Born Timothy Michael Dolan in 1950, the ever-smiling, red-cheeked religious leader was elevated to cardinal in a two-hour ceremony filled with pomp and ritual alongside Pope Benedict at the Vatican.
PHOTOS: POP NAMES NY ARCHBISHOP TIMOTHY DOLAN A CARDINAL
Considered by many to be the spiritual heart of the American Catholic Church, the famously witty Dolan, 62, is now one of just 125 men with the right to vote for the next Pope when the time comes.
Dolan, who entered the seminary in 1964, declared himself “honored, humbled and grateful” by his rise to the top of the church hierarchy.
And the beloved New York figure — embraced as a native even though he was born in St. Louis, Mo., — said the blessing was shared with all in his sphere: “It’s as if Pope Benedict is putting the red hat on top of the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty, or on home plate at Yankee Stadium; or on the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral or any of our other parish churches.”
RELATED: DOLAN PROMOTED TO CARDINAL
Across New York, his ascension was celebrated with special Masses, and he was greeted by cheering fans and an Irish pipe-and-drum band at St. Patrick’s in midtown upon his return from Rome.
A beaming Dolan waved to the public and effusively thanked the musicians but couldn’t resist a little fun when one of the reporters crowding around him asked how it felt to be home.
“It feels great,” he said. “In fact, I’m looking for a hot dog stand if you’ll get out of the way.” (Ginger Adams Otis)
Kevin Hagen/for the New York Daily News
Participants held signs and chanted “No justice, no peace!” during the march protesting police handling of the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford, Fla. March 31, 2012.
Florida teen Trayvon Martin shot dead sparks national outrage
It was a shot heard ‘round the world.
The Feb. 26 death of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin — gunned down by overzealous community watchman George Zimmerman — set off an explosive and racially charged global debate on hoodies, weapons and Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law.
Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, was walking toward his stepdad’s house in a middle-class gated community in Sanford, Fla., when he crossed paths with Zimmerman, 28, a chronically underemployed insurance broker who fantasized about being a cop and acted as a volunteer watchman in the complex.
PHOTOS: TRAYVON MARTIN PROTESTS HELD NATIONWIDE
Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, zeroed in on Martin when he spotted the teen — wearing in a black sweatshirt with the hood pulled up — “cutting in-between houses,” and “looking at all the houses,” according to logs from a police call in which the dispatcher told Zimmerman to stand down.
Zimmerman maintains that the rangy teenager — who stood 5-feet-11 and weighed 168 pounds — attacked him, knocking him on his back, breaking his nose and hitting his head into the sidewalk.
Zimmerman pulled his weapon and fatally shot the teen.
The nation reacted with immediate outrage — but split largely along racial and political lines.
Donations came pouring into Zimmerman’s website defense fund from sympathetic gun supporters who back the Stand Your Ground law that says people have the right to shoot first in self-defense and ask questions later.
Meanwhile, Martin’s family and black leaders organized “million hoodie marches” in New York, Sanford and elsewhere, alleging that Martin had been racially profiled, and that local police initially gave Zimmerman kid-glove treatment.
“My son is your son,” said Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton.
“This is not about black and white — this is about right and wrong.”
Zimmerman’s trial is scheduled for June 2013. (Ginger Adams Otis)
Howard Simmons/New York Daily News
New York Mets starting pitcher Johan Santana (57) throws 1st no-hitter in club history.
‘NO-HAN!’ Johan Santana pitches Mets first ever no-hitter
It took 50 seasons, 8,020 games and 134 pitches — but it was worth the wait.
On June 1, 2012, in the midst of an otherwise dismal baseball season in Queens, lefty Johan Santana took the ball at Citi Field and delivered the first no-hitter in New York Mets history.
Santana succeeded where so many great Mets hurlers had failed through the years: Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Dwight Gooden, Frank Viola, David Cone — and most memorably Tom Seaver, who barely missed a perfect game in 1969.
PHOTOS: JOHAN SANTANA THROWS 1ST NO HITTER IN METS HISTORY
Hall of Famer Tom Terrific took another no-hitter into the ninth inning in 1972 — but again came up short.
The near-misses and never-happeneds all disappeared as Santana whiffed Cardinals third basement David Freese to close out his 8-0 win.
“NO-HAN” read the message on the scoreboard as Santana’s teammates mobbed him on the mound.
A sensational seventh-inning grab by left fielder Mike Baxter preserved the no-no that once seemed destined to remain a never-never.
“I knew that the Mets have never had a no-hitter,” Santana said after the game.
“I never had one. To be able to accomplish this, it’s an honor. I know how much it means to New York and the New York Mets.”
While many may later claim they were there to see history, the actual number of attendees was fairly exclusive: Just 27,069 showed up and witnessed the end of the historic streak. (Larry McShane)
Diane L cohen
Katie Holmes back from her Thanksgiving with family in Ohio comes for her performance at the Music Box Theatre. Photos diane cohen 11/25/12
Katie Holmes cruises out on Tom
Whirlwind romance, storybook love affair, Hollywood business arrangment — whatever the reality was between actress Katie Holmes and movie star Tom Cruise, their bizarro marriage caught everyone by surprise. Their divorce didn’t.
Nicknamed Tom-Kat by a relentless press, they were a mismatched couple from the start.
Holmes, 33, was a shy, soft-spoken cipher, a relative unknown beyond her turn as Joey Potter in the 1990s teen TV drama “Dawson’s Creek.”
PHOTOS: KATIE HOLMES’ TRANSFORMATION FROM HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY TO SINGLE NYC
Cruise, 17 years her senior, was a mega-movie star dogged by persistent rumors of hidden homosexuality with two failed marriages under his belt and slavish devotion to the cult of Scientology, which reportedly rules every facet of his life.
Whether it was the iron grip of Scientology on their relationship or fear that her now 6-year-old daughter, Suri, would get sucked into the cult, Holmes made a break for it in a well-orchestrated move this summer when Cruise was filming out of town.
Citing “irreconcilable differences,” Holmes severed their five-year marriage with a stroke of the pen June 29.
A media frenzy erupted and the dark-haired beauty, on her own after years of careful handling in Cruise’s inner circle, was like a deer in the headlights.
Voracious press tracked her every move — to her new apartment, Suri’s new school, even their day-to-day shopping trips and downgrade from luxury limos to cabs.
Cruise was reportedly shocked, devastated and taken completely unaware, but he recovered quickly enough to reach one of the fastest divorce settlements in history.
Although Holmes — now starring on Broadway in soon-to-be-shuttered “Dead Accounts” — signed a prenuptial agreement days before the wedding, she was reportedly more than happy with Cruise’s offer to pay $400,000 a year for Suri’s needs, including tuition and medical expenses, until she turns 18. (Ginger Adams Otis)
Thomas Cooper/Getty Images
Movie theater where James Holmes shot and killed 12 and injured 58.
‘Dark Knight’ madness at Aurora, Colo. movie theater
The killer was as crazy as any Batman villain.
He sat in the front row of a darkened theater in Aurora, Colo., with about 100 other moviegoers eagerly anticipating a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight” on July 20.
Twenty minutes into the film, James Eagan Holmes slipped out the exit door, leaving it ajar, and went to his car — where he donned a gas mask, a load-bearing vest, a ballistic helmet, bullet-resistant leggings, a throat and groin protector and tactical gloves.
PHOTOS: ‘DARK KNIGHT RISES’ SCREENING SHOOTING IN COLO.
He retrieved a 12-gauge Remington shotgun, a Smith Wesson semiautomatic rifle with a 100-round drum magazine, and a Glock .22 handgun.
He returned to the exit door at approximately 12:30 a.m., and few even noticed him — until he started shooting into the densely packed crowd.
He sprayed his bullets upward first, aiming toward the back of the theater, then raked those fleeing in the aisles.
Bullets went through the walls and hit people in the adjacent theater.
Some witnesses said Holmes discharged smoke or tear gas, adding to the confusion and terror as people screamed and ran for cover.
In 90 seconds, Holmes fatally shot 12 people and injured 58.
He might have shot more had his Smith Wesson not jammed.
Holmes was apprehended in the cinema parking lot near his car.
With bright red hair and bulging, raving-mad eyes, Holmes didn’t look too far from the Joker — the psycho Batman character he claimed to be.
Amid the shock and destruction, tales of heroism emerged: many victims died shielding friends and loved ones from the madman’s bullets.
But it was cold comfort for the families of the 12 people killed.
The oldest victim was 51, and the youngest was 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan.
Her mother, Ashley Moser, who was three months pregnant at the time, was sitting next to her in the theater.
Moser was critically injured by shots to her throat and abdomen.
She was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors fought to save her.
She survived with likely permanent partial paralysis, but her unborn child died. (Ginger Adams Otis)
Lyle A. Waisman / WireImages
President Obama after his victory speech on Tuesday.
Thrill gone, but Obama wins reelection
Promising America “the best is yet to come,” President Obama rolled into a second term with a clear victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney on Nov. 6.
Obama’s reelection campaign was a lackluster affair compared with the sizzle and swagger of his “Hope and Change” platform in 2008 — but he got the job done thanks in large part to the war chest amassed by the Democratic Party.
PHOTOS: PRESIDENT OBAMA REELECTED
It almost wasn’t enough to overcome his poor showing in the first debate, when he fumbled to give clear answers and was often left flatfooted by a grinning, souped-up Romney.
It even briefly allowed the GOP to turn what had been their strangest political moment in 2012 — Clint Eastwood rambling to an empty chair on stage at their Tampa convention — into a campaign meme: Obama as an empty candidate.
His biggest challenge was to persuade voters to give him a second chance after a first term mired in economic woes that put a crimp in the middle-class dreams of millions of Americans.
As ballots were cast and counted in 75% of the nation’s precincts, Obama held a narrow advantage in the popular vote, leading by about 25,000 out of more than 99 million cast.
But his stellar performance in the battleground states allowed him to run up a 303-to-203 margin in the competition for electoral votes, where the White House is won or lost.
Obama captured seven of the nine states where the rivals poured nearly $1 billion into dueling television commercials.
The 2012 race was one of the most expensive on record: Romney’s final operating expenses came in at $885 million, and Obama topped that with a whopping $919 million.
Obama’s supporters around the world reacted with jubilation and shouts of “four more years” rang from Kansas to Kenya as Romney called his competitor with a gracious concession. (Ginger Adams Otis)
David Handschuh/New York Daily News
Helicopter views of damage from hurricane Sandy on Rockaway, Queens on Wednesday, October 31, 2012. More than 100 burned out homes in Breezy Point.
Hurricane Sandy a brutal reminder of Nature’s fury
She was a real freak of nature.
Superstorm Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record with winds spanning 1,000 miles, forged a path of destruction from Cuba to Canada and nearly pounded the New York-New Jersey coastline into oblivion over 24 hours starting late in the afternoon of Oct. 29.
By the time the rain stopped and the swirling, debris-filled flood waters receded, Sandy had killed at least 253 people and caused an estimated $65.6 billion in damage — making it the second costliest Atlantic hurricane behind Katrina.
PHOTOS: APOCALYPSE N.Y. – HURRICANE SANDY CRUSHES BIG APPLE
Preparations began early in New York and New Jersey as officials scrambled to evacuate ahead of the fast-moving storm.
By early morning Oct. 29, New York City’s subway system had shut down, and throughout lower Manhattan, the Rockaways, Staten Island, Long Island and down the barrier island of New Jersey residents were urged to move to higher ground.
Schools and universities closed, highways were blocked off and even Atlantic City’s 24-7 casinos went dim.
The Greater New York area was braced for the worst — and that’s what we got.
For almost 24 hours Sandy’s rage pounded into coastal communities.
It reduced houses to matchsticks, turned precious pictures and mementos into muddy rubble, pulled relentlessly at power lines and downed hundreds of trees.
PHOTOS: HURRICANE SANDY – VIEW FROM ABOVE ONE MONTH LATER
Cars became toys, bobbing and scraping along with the floods, before being deposited haphazardly where the water left them.
All the while, the surging water rose, and rose, and rose. It flooded half the city of Hoboken, swamped Jersey City and nearly turned Staten Island, parts of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan into a modern-day Atlantis.
The merciless waves claimed the first victims: two young children torn from their mother’s arms as she tried to make a late evacuation from Staten Island; a car attendant in Manhattan submerged in an underground garage; and three people, aged 50, 57 and 72, drowned in separate basements in the Rockaways.
High-velocity winds turned trees into towering killers: among the many crushed by whipping branches and uprooted trunks were two boys, 11 and 13, in Westchester County, and two twentysomethings out walking their dog in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.
In all, officials said, Sandy killed 97 people in a 65-mile radius of New York City.
By the time Sandy exhausted itself, seven city subway lines were underwater, all of Manhattan below 34th St. was without power along with thousands in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey.
Gov. Cuomo and Gov. Chris Christie both declared states of emergencies.
Gas shortages caused lines as long as 20 blocks at local stations and cramped rescue and outreach efforts to the needy.
Many New York and New Jersey residents were powerless for more than a week, including those in many of the city’s high-rise public housing complexes.
The lack of power left the elderly and infirm on the highest floors at the mercy of volunteers who trudged up and down pitch-black stairs with food, water and medical supplies.
Cuomo’s latest estimate of New York’s damage was $42 billion — and that number is expected to go higher. (Ginger Adams Otis )
Jessica Hill/AP
A woman waits to hear about her sister, a teacher, following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. where authorities say a gunman opened fire, leaving 27 people dead, including 20 children, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012.
Madman kills 20 beautiful children 6 brave teachers at Newtown, Conn. elementary school
Every parent’s worst nightmare turned into vivid, terrifying reality at 9:40 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn.
An unhinged gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School carrying several guns, including at least one assault weapon, that he’d stolen that morning from his mom.
He blasted his way into the school and went on a 10-minute killing spree.
PHOTOS: SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MASSACRE
By the time Adam Lanza, 20, was done, 26 innocent people were dead — plus his mother, whom he’d shot in the face earlier that morning.
As police closed in, Lanza turned his gun on himself, bringing the number of dead to 28.
It wasn’t the largest gun massacre in U.S. history — the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting claimed 32 — but in terms of sheer horror, Newtown stands alone.
Lanza’s mayhem was unleashed upon 20 schoolkids, all first graders between 6 and 7 years old.
PHOTOS: NEWTOWN SCHOOL SHOOTING VICTIMS
He left a trail of bloody bodies and broken dreams behind him as he methodically worked his way through Sandy Hook Elementary, rooting mercilessly through classrooms brightly decked out for the holidays.
Teachers and students huddled in closets, under coats, in bathrooms and behind shelves, holding their breath and hoping the killer wouldn’t find them as he stalked past.
Six heroic school staffers were gunned down — many while sheltering their tiny charges.
As the depth of the carnage was revealed, a bottomless grief rolled across the nation.
“They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own,” President Obama said as he teared up in an emotional press conference.
For the surviving families, there simply were no words.
They buried daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, wives and girlfriends in a bleak wave of funerals the week before Christmas.
Sometime soon, the children who survived the Sandy Hook shooting will go back to school, in a different building about 6 miles away.
When they get there, they will find things nearly the same as in their old classrooms.
School officials are bringing the students’ chairs and desks.
They’ll have the same water bottles and crayon boxes on their desks, and cubbyholes, and book shelves will be in the same locations.
Their walls will be painted the same colors and be hung with the same pictures.
But try as we might to console them, there are some things that will never be the same. (Ginger Adams Otis)