18 Major News Stories From 2012 You Already Forgot About

A lot happens every year and it's impossible to remember EVERYTHING. But you probably would have guessed you'd remember these. Here are 18 stories you forgot about... until right now.

1. Clint Eastwood Talked to a Chair

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This happened for over 10 minutes. On live television. The chair did not talk back.

2. The Olympics Happened

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Usain Bolt won medals, some other stuff happened. But - nothing really sticks in our memories. Even McKayla was not impressed.

3. David Petraeus Resigned in Disgrace

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General David Petraeus had to resign from serving as CIA Director after admitting to an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. We were all kinda shocked. And awed.

4. Jerry Sandusky was Convicted of Child Molestation

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Sandusky is locked away so we haven't thought about this for a while, but this sordid story completely grabbed our attention.

5. Replacement Refs Caused This Ending

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This bizarre ending to the Seahawks vs. Packers Monday Night Football game, when two referees shot up contradicting signals brought the end to the "Replacement Ref" era. Now, no one ever has any complaints about refs in any sport.

6. This Shooting

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Unfortunately, it's been a massacre-filled year and a half. And after the horrific Newtown shooting, it's hard to keep other tragedies top of mind. 12 people were killed in Aurora, Colorado after a showing of The Dark Knight Rises. The court is currently deliberating whether to accept James Holmes' "not guilty by reason of insanity" plea.

7. And This One

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Six people were killed in August when a shooter attacked a Sikh temple, before committing suicide, in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

8. ... And This One

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A clothing designer shot his former co-worker and nine others were injured in The Empire State Building in August. A day later, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirmed the injuries were caused by police gunfire, and not the gunman.

9. LINSANITY!

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Jeremy Lin absolutely owned New York, the NBA, and puns. Now he is a back up on the Houston Rockets. Sometimes there is a reason we forget stories.

10. HSBC Paid $1.9 Billion to Settle Money Laundering Charges

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There have been so many financial scandals over the last few years that it's easy to forget some like HSBC laundering more than 800 million dollars in drug money and their $1.9 billion penalty, the largest fine ever under the Bank Secrecy Act.

How is HSBC doing now? They're the second-most valuable company in the FTSE 100. Sigh.

11. Dominique Strauss-Kahn Settled

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After battling allegations of rape, Straus-Kahn, the former head of the IMF, reportedly paid $6 million to Nafissatou Diallo, the housekeeper who accused him of attacking her at a Midtown Manhattan hotel. He was, at one point, the frontrunner to be president of France. He is now the backrunner.

12. Ann Curry Got Fired From the Today Show

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This firing, less than a year after getting the position, raised a lot of questions about women's treatment in the entertainment industry. In her final show, Curry tearfully said "for all of you who saw me as a groundbreaker, I'm sorry I couldn't carry the ball over the finish line, but man I did try."

13. Jovan Belcher Killed His Girlfriend and Committed Suicide

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Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and then drove to the Chiefs facility where he committed suicide in front of team brass. The Chiefs played a game the next day.

14. Jonah Lehrer Made Up Bob Dylan Quotes -- And Resigned From the New Yorker

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Only a month after responding to allegations of recycling his own work, Lehrer was accused of fabricating quotes in his book "Imagination." In retrospect, he tried to tell us his intentions in the title, but it took more than that to find him out. In February 2013, Lehrer publicly apologized in a speech before the Knight Foundation, a speech that paid Lehrer $20,000.

15. Fred Willard Got Arrested in an Adult Theater

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Fred Willard was arrested after he was seen “engaging in a lewd act” in an adult movie theater by vice officers on routine inspection. Willard maintained he did nothing wrong and later that week told Jimmy Fallon "It's the last time I'm going to listen to my wife when she says, 'Why don't you go out and see a movie?"

16. Melky Cabrera's Ridiculous Fake Website

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In an attempt to avoid a 50-game ban for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, Melky Cabrera created a website for a fictitious product and blamed that non-existant product for making him accidentally consume the banned substance. He was found out very quickly.

How does he want to be treated now? "If the fans decide they want to boo, that is fine. If they decide to cheer, I would be fine with that too." We might err on the side of booing (his html skills.)

17. Occupy Wall Street

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In September, police arrested 185 people on the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protests. It doesn't seem like the second anniversary will have quite as much fanfare. Though it might be in the same place. They just announced plans to reclaim Zuccotti Park on their Facebook page.

18. Whitney Houston Died

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Houston sadly passed away in February 2012. Her funeral was covered on live TV and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie even ordered all New Jersey state flags to be flown at half-staff in memory of the Newark native. Even if we don't think about it regularly, we will always love her.

And Then There Are Stories We Might Want To Pay More Attention To...

Secret Service Agents Higher Prostitutes

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President Obama said that the Secret Service agents involved were outliers and "knuckleheads." We all waved off this scandal, but now that the Obama administration is awash in controversy, maybe we should have paid more attention to this one?