2019 has been an eventful year and it is finally coming to an end. It is that time of the year when you plan for your new year resolutions and look back at how things unfolded in the year past.
Plenty of things, both good and bad, have happened in 2019 and the next year is only a few days away. It will bring with it so many new adventures, and it will have its good and bad moments.
Coming back to 2019, it was a year to remember for many, while it wasn’t kind enough to others. Today, we take a look at what happened in the world through the lens of Twitter.
The microblogging platform has shared its end of the year list with hashtag #ThisHappened to reflect on the top trending events, teams, athletes, politicians, actors, movies, musicians and even smileys.
Let’s have a look at all these trending topics that made waves on Twitter in 2019:
News-Related Hashtags
Starting with major happenings across the globe, the Twitterati talked the most about the famous Notre Dame cathedral’s burning in Paris. Here are the top 10:
| Sr. No. | Trend | Details |
| 1 | #NotreDame | One of the finest examples of French gothic architecture, Notre-Dame de Paris was severely damaged by fire on 15th April. |
| 2 | #令和 | On 1st May, Japanese emperor Akihito’s elder son, Naruhito ascended the throne as 126th emperor of Japan. |
| 3 | #Venezuela | A bitter power struggle between Juan Guaidó and Nicolás Maduro has rocked Venezuela resulting in hyperinflation, power cuts and shortages of food and medicine. |
| 4 | #Brexit | Short for British Exit, Brexit is UK’s struggle to leave the European Union. |
| 5 | #TyphoonHagibis | Typhoon Hagibis struck Japan on 12th October causing widespread destruction; 93 people died and 87,000 homes damaged. |
| 6 | #PrayforAmazonia | The world’s most biodiverse rainforest, Amazon has witnessed a record-breaking increase in rates of fire count. |
| 7 | #HongKong | Protests have rocked Hong Kong since June against the extradition bill. |
| 8 | #ClimateStrike | To draw attention towards climate emergency, Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg-led Climate Strike to urge world leaders to act. |
| 9 | #Christchurch | The horrendous mass shootings took place in Christchurch mosques on 15th March as a white supremacist opened fire on dozens of praying Muslims. |
| 10 | #DemDebate | The Presidential Democratic debates in the US were a hot topic on Twitter. |
Despite tall claims, the Kashmir issue hasn’t managed to get into the top trends worldwide, which somewhat highlights the shortcomings of the Pakistan government to highlight the matter enough.
Sports
Sports are a widely discussed topic and this year was no different.
Sports Events
According to Twitter, the UEFA Champions League was the most talked-about sporting event of 2019.
Here are the top 5:
- #UCL – Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League title by defeating Tottenham Hotspurs.
- #RWC2019 – South Africa were crowned the Rugby World Cup champions for the third time.
- #CWC19 – England claimed the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in a controversial manner against New Zealand.
- #CopaAmerica – Hosts Brazil defeated Peru 3-1 in the final of Copa America 2019.
- #FIFAWWC – The United States Women won their 4th FIFA Women’s World Cup title.
Top Sports Teams and Athletes
As expected, the most loved sports teams were mostly from football leagues around the world, while athletes from tennis, football, and basketball got a lot of people talking.
| Sr. No. | Sports Teams | Male Athletes | Female Athletes |
| 1 | FC Barcelona | Neymar Jr | Megan Rapinoe |
| 2 | Real Madrid CF | Lionel Messi | Serena Williams |
| 3 | Manchester United | Christiano Ronaldo | Naomi Osaka |
| 4 | Liverpool FC | LeBron James | Alex Morgan |
| 5 | Paris Saint-Germain FC | Kawhi Leonard | Simon Biles |
| 6 | Juventus FC | Kobe Bryant | Becky Lynch |
| 7 | Manchester FC | Tom Brady | Marta |
| 8 | AFC Ajax | Kylian Mbappe | Ronda Rousey |
| 9 | Clube de Regatas do Flamengo | Keisuke Honda | Maria Sharapova |
| 10 | Los Angeles Lakers | Antonio Brown | Katelyn Ohashi |
Entertainment
When it comes to entertainment, people love to talk about the latest movies, TV shows, music albums, and actors. After seeing the list below, you will have a good list of movies, dramas, actors, and musicians to follow:
| Sr. No. | Movies | TV Shows | Actors | Musicians |
| 1 | The Avengers: Endgame | Game of Thrones | Tom Holland | BTS |
| 2 | Toy Story 4 | Stranger Things | Chris Evans | Ariana Grande |
| 3 | Joker | The Simpsons | Zendaya | Drake |
| 4 | Spiderman: Far From Home | La Casa De Papel | Robert Downey Jr. | Rihanna |
| 5 | The Lion King | Grey’s Anatomy | Cameron Boyce | Cardi B |
| 6 | 天気の子 (Weathering With You) | Love Island | Keanu Reeves | Justin Bieber |
| 7 | Captain Marvel | Catfish: The TV Show | Chris Hemsworth | Beyonce |
| 8 | IT Chapter 2 | Family Guy | Kanna Hashimoto | Kanye West |
| 9 | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | The Walking Dead | Jennifer Lopez | Billie Eilish |
| 10 | Frozen 2 | Narcos | Mark Ruffalo | Lady Gaga |
Top Politicians (and Emojis)
The heading has already explained what I am trying to do here, hasn’t it?
Politicians and feelings go hand in hand, so let’s have a look at which politicians ruled Twitter in 2019 and how people felt in the same year.
Note: These emojis don’t describe these politicians, otherwise the third one would have been different.
| Sr. No. | Politicians | Emojis |
| 1 | Donald Trump | ? |
| 2 | Barack Obama | ? |
| 3 | Narendra Modi | ? |
| 4 | Alexandria Oscario-Cortez | ? |
| 5 | Jair Bolsonaro | ? |
| 6 | Bernie Sanders | ? |
| 7 | Hillary Clinton | ? |
| 8 | Joe Biden | ? |
| 9 | Emmanuel Macron | ❤️ |
| 10 | Vladimir Putin | ? |
Note that the emojis have been ranked based on total tweet volume and politicians on the number of unique authors discussing them.
A little something for Imran Khan fans: He is among the top 10 most followed politicians worldwide, but, that doesn’t mean he was among the most talked-about world leaders in 2019.
To conclude this fairly long post, here’s a little something to cheer you all up. These tweets below are some of the most retweeted tweets worldwide in 2019:
https://twitter.com/aman9919/status/1112768261832228865
Can everybody just Please look at this cat pic.twitter.com/GEPe1XzurJ
— danee 🦖 (@itsdaneesaur) July 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/Apex_sH/status/1123337981677453313
What are your thoughts on the story? Let us know in the comments section.
