Like every year, 2019 was also full of records. All over the world, of all kinds: from sport to finance, from the climate (ahinoi) to the most disparate facts of Italian and international news. We have tried to draw up a small list, inevitably incomplete: in some cases, these are very significant records, in others particularly curious ones, about which perhaps little has been written or read in recent months.
CLIMATE
Let's start with the climate, one of the great paradigms of the year that we are leaving behind, with records that unfortunately are increasingly negative, if not dramatic. For example, according to Legambiente, 231 people have lost their lives in Italy due to bad weather since 2010, and 42 deaths have been recorded in the last 12 months alone (single year record after 32 victims in 2018). Again in Italy, 12 extreme events were recorded in the last 157 months, against 148 in the previous year.
Not only that: the month of July, according to the American Agency for Oceans and Atmosphere (Noaa), was the hottest month on record in the world over the past 140 years, with a global average temperature 0,95 degrees above average. In Italy, the month of October was the second hottest ever since 1800, behind only 2001, with an anomaly of +1,74°C. Abnormal temperatures compared to the season average were also recorded during these Christmas holidays, with Turin, for example, between 24 and 25 December, recording a maximum of 17,8 degrees (all-time record).
The primacy of CO2 emissions is also sad. The annual report of the Global carbon project indicates 36,8 billion tons of CO2 emissions at the end of 2019: they have never been so high in history.
FINANCE AND MARKETS
The financial markets are about to put an extraordinary year behind them: in the year in which global growth stood at the lowest levels since 2008 (GDP no more than 3%) and contrary to the forecasts of many analysts, the value of global stock exchanges has grown by 17 trillion dollars (jumping from 67 trillion to 84 trillion dollars), that of bonds increased by 6 trillion, reaching the uncharted territory of 6 trillion.
For Business Square, is grew by about 28% and broke the quotation record since 2000, registering 41 new admissions of securities on the lists in the calendar year: 35 were IPOs (compared to 31 in 2018 and 32 in 2017), of which 4 on MTA (2 on Star) and 31 on Aim Italy. Speaking of IPOs, the "disappointing" one of Uber in May should be mentioned, in any case the largest of the year in the USA with a valuation between 75,5 billion and 82,4 billion dollars, at the lows of the price range and well below the $120 billion price tag the company was targeting.
The absolute record – of the year and of history – instead goes to Saudi Aramco, which debuted Dec. 5 at the top-of-the-range price, valued at $1,7 trillion. Aramco's market capitalization has risen to $2 trillion on its second day of trading on Saudi Arabia's Tadawul Stock Exchange. A few weeks earlier, the record for the world's largest IPO had been set by Alibabaon the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
SPORTS
2019 in Italy was marked by the eighth consecutive Scudetto for Juventus, an absolute record. It was then the year of Liverpool as European champion, but holder of a negative record: failing to win the English title despite totaling the beauty of 97 points. Lionel Messi, Barcelona's Argentine ace, broke the record he himself held, together with Cristiano Ronaldo, by winning his sixth career Ballon d'Or. Record also for football on TV in Italy: Inter-Juventus last October 6, with 3 million 243 thousand average spectators, it was the most-watched match ever on Sky.
Looking at other sports, Moto GP was literally dominated by Marc Marquez. The Spaniard dominates the MotoGP season, winning 12 races out of 17 appointments. With the exception of Austin, where he slipped, the Honda ace has always finished in the top two, a feat achieved in the top class by Mick Doohan in 1997 and Jorge Lorenzo in 2012. But above all he rewrote the new record for points scored in a season : 420. Never before had a rider passed the 400m mark. Staying with the engines, sixth title for Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1: it's not yet a record, because Schumacher won 7, but he could become one in 2020.
Tennis: Rafa Nadal won his XNUMXth Roland Garros. No one has ever won a tournament so many times. In July, however, one was held epic Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic: duration 4 hours and 55 minutes, it was the longest ever for the English tournament. Record also for the number of points played, 421, with Federer who won the most, despite losing the match (218 to 213). Speaking of the Swiss, among the many firsts of his infinite career we limit ourselves to mentioning those obtained on the London grass: twenty-first Wimbledon consecutive played, 12 finals, 101 matches won, 353 successes at Grand Slam level and 187 on grass.
VARIOUS
Sifting through the records, one finds the most disparate ones. For example, 2019 was the year of records for mass shootings in the United States: there were 41, the highest number since 1970. Thirty-three were shootings and in total there were 211 fatalities. The primacy of the Camino de Santiago is quite different, this year it beats the number of pilgrims for the third consecutive year and reaches 350.000. Still in the religious sphere, the Vatican has recorded a record number of reports of sexual abuse: there are about 1.000 cases on which the Holy See is investigating, all over the world.
In cinema, the most watched film of the year in Italy was the Lion King, but last summer at an absolute level Avengers: Endgame was crowned as the highest-grossing film ever, ousting Avatar. The Marvel film had stopped just $ 43 million away from Cameron's blockbuster, but Disney gave the decisive push by making it return to theaters with some added scenes, thus realizing the historic overtaking. Record also for e-commerce with the Black Friday: in Italy it was the best ever with 37 orders per second on Amazon, while in the USA the figure (7,4 billion dollars) exceeds that of 2018, but remains the second highest ever behind Cyber Monday 2018, which had touched 7,9 billion dollars.
