I remember.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Channel
The Weather Channel

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Australian Weather Channel that formerly went by the same name as the U.S. channel, see Sky News Weather Channel. For the former parent company of the Weather Channel now owned by IBM, see The Weather Company.
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel logo since 2005
Country United States
Broadcast area United States (including Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands) and The Bahamas[1]
Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Programming
Language(s) English and Spanish
Picture format
1080i (HDTV)
480i (SDTV; letterboxed with weather information)
Ownership
Owner Entertainment Studios
Parent Weather Group Television, LLC
Sister channels
Weatherscan
Local Now
Entertainment Studios Networks
Justice Central
History
Launched May 2, 1982; 41 years ago
Links
Website weather.com
Availability
Streaming media
Official service www.streamtwc.com
(requires subscription or trial to access content)
Service(s) Frndly TV, FuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group.[2][3] The channel's headquarters is located in Atlanta. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news and analysis, along with documentaries and entertainment programming related to weather. A sister network, Weatherscan, was a digital cable and satellite service that offered 24-hour automated local forecasts and radar imagery. Weatherscan was officially shut down on December 12, 2022.[4] The Weather Channel also produces outsourced weathercasts, notably for CBS News and RFD-TV.[5][6]

In August 2023, it was announced that IBM was selling The Weather Company and its assets to the Francisco Partners.[7]

History
Main article: History of The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel was founded on July 18, 1980,[8] by television meteorologist John Coleman (who had served as a chief meteorologist at ABC owned-and-operated station WLS-TV in Chicago and as a forecaster for Good Morning America) and Frank Batten, then-president of the channel's original owner Landmark Communications (now Landmark Media Enterprises). The channel launched at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 2, 1982.[9] Originally, regional and local information was obtained from the National Weather Service for broadcast. Since 2002, all forecasting has been done on-site in Atlanta.[10]

Sale to NBCUniversal, Bain, and Blackstone
On January 3, 2008, Landmark Communications put the Weather Channel and its assets up for sale.[11] On July 6, 2008, NBC Universal, Bain Capital, and Blackstone Group agreed to jointly purchase the Weather Channel from Landmark, making it the channel's first ownership change in 26 years.[12] The sale was finalized on September 12, 2008.

NBC Universal also owned NBC Weather Plus, a rival service which was carried by and featured content from the NBC television network's local network affiliates; that service announced its discontinuation three months later. Over-the-air digital subchannels carrying Weather Plus have since switched to the similarly formatted The Local AccuWeather Channel, kept the Weather Plus engine, or switched affiliations to other networks such as This TV or the Retro Television Network; some have shut down entirely.

From November 2008 to February 2009, the Weather Channel laid off seven long-time on-camera meteorologists: Kristina Abernathy, Eboni Deon, Kristin Dodd, Rich Johnson, Cheryl Lemke, Mark Mancuso and Dave Schwartz (Schwartz would return to TWC in April 2014,[13][14] but died of cancer on July 30, 2016). With the exception of Deon, all had been on the air for more than ten years, and three of them had been employed by the network for more than twenty years.

In July 2010, the Weather Channel terminated Bill Keneely, the last of the original on-camera meteorologists who appeared on the network's first broadcasts in 1982. In December of that year, the network also laid off on-camera meteorologist Nicole Mitchell, who later would file a lawsuit against the Weather Channel in 2012, alleging that she had been terminated because the channel's new owners disapproved of the time required by her simultaneous duties as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve as one of the "Hurricane Hunters" team;[15] such reserve duties are protected by U.S. law (Mitchell later served as the chief meteorologist at Al Jazeera America, which for a time also employed Eboni Deon).

Inevitably, the merger of NBC on-air meteorologists began in May 2009. Former NBC Weather Plus meteorologist Todd Santos joined the Weather Channel on May 2 of that year. Al Roker of NBC's Today began hosting a one-hour morning program called Wake Up With Al, alongside meteorologist Stephanie Abrams later in the summer.

However, for New York City-based forecasting operations (those utilized for forecasts on MSNBC and CNBC, for instance), the former NBC Weather Plus forecasting, radar and graphics systems remain in place, with banners changed to fit the Weather Channel's graphics scheme. On September 10, 2009, the Weather Channel co-founder Frank Batten died.[16][17]

2012 to 2018
In January 2012, David Kenny took over as chief executive officer of the Weather Channel, replacing former AOL executive Mike Kelly, who had been appointed as the company's CEO in the summer of 2009. Although all operations, sales support and marketing and the bulk of employees are located in the headquarters in Atlanta, Kenny declined to move there, and continues to live in Boston as a remote worker.[18]

Later in 2012, the Weather Channel's holding company changed its name from The Weather Channel Companies to The Weather Company.[19] The company also purchased competing weather service and website Weather Underground the same year. On March 10, 2015, Verizon FiOS dropped the Weather Channel and WeatherScan for their rival AccuWeather.

On September 9, 2015, the channel announced a phased overhaul of its programming schedule during 2016, in which the channel would gradually shift its focus back towards a forecast-based lineup. The channel cancelled Wake Up with Al, citing high production costs in New York City compared to Atlanta. It announced that AMHQ would be refocused on weather, eliminating lifestyle segments, with Stephanie Abrams becoming host and original host Sam Champion as a contributor for its prime time schedule starting November 2.

The network also announced it would no longer greenlight original long-form programming, and expanded live forecast programming on its schedule throughout 2016 after all remaining long-form programs already in development concluded their runs. In a memo sent out to network staff by Weather Company CEO David Kenny, it explained its refocus on weather-based programs was done so that "our most passionate fans come to us for the weather and the science behind the weather, not our original shows." Around 50 TWC employees–including production, engineering, and financial staff–were laid off, and the television channel's budget was reduced to shift resources to the company's Internet and mobile properties.[20][21][22][23]

The channel's original format was similar to that of a news and information cable network. Since the creation of the series Atmospheres in 2000 and Storm Stories in 2003, the Weather Channel had seen a gradual transition toward a mix of weather forecasting and weather-related entertainment programming that paralleled the launch of sister network Weatherscan, the evolution of the always-on "L" bar/weather ticker, the development of weather.com and popular branded mobile phone applications, and the increased viewing and interest in documentary programs on the topic of weather.

In November 2013, the channel introduced a new initiative of "weather all the time" in response to the criticism. All original programming–which was rebranded under the tagline Natural Drama – now had direct relevance to weather-related subjects, and the network emphasized its promise to interrupt original programming either regionally or nationally during major weather events. In addition, the Weather Channel extended the display of its lower display line (which was revamped with a new graphics package) to commercial breaks and through entire broadcasts of its original programs.[24]

In August 2015, reports surfaced that the Weather Company's owners were considering a sale of all or part of the venture, having hired Morgan Stanley and PJT Partners to explore their options.[25] On October 28, 2015, it was announced that IBM would acquire most of the Weather Company's assets, including weather.com, Weather Underground, the related mobile applications, and their underlying data platforms, for an undisclosed amount.[26]

IBM planned to leverage its Watson technology as part of the acquisition, foreseeing its use for weather analytics and predictions. The deal, which closed the following January,[27] does not include the Weather Channel itself, which remained owned by the Bain/Blackstone/NBCUniversal consortium, and entered into a long-term licensing agreement with IBM for use of its weather data and "The Weather Channel" name and branding.[26][28][29]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012
2012

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"MMXII" redirects here. For the albums, see MMXII (Killing Joke album) and MMXII (Mezarkabul album).
This article is about the year 2012. For the apocalyptic phenomena that happened that year, see 2012 phenomenon. For the film, see 2012 (film). For other uses, see 2012 (disambiguation).
2012JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
Millennium: 3rd millennium
Centuries:
20th century21st century 22nd century
Decades:
1990s2000s2010s 2020s2030s
Years:
2009201020112012 201320142015
2012 (MMXII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2010s decade.

2012 was designated as:

International Year of Cooperatives[1]
International Year of Sustainable Energy for All[2]
Events
January
January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins.
January 12 – Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Băsescu's economic austerity measures. Clashes are reported in numerous Romanian cities between protesters and law enforcement officers.[citation needed]
January 13 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off the coast of Italy, causing 32 deaths.[3][4]
January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: the European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of its continued effort to enrich uranium.[5]
February
February 1 – Egypt's deadliest football incident known as the Port Said Stadium riot is sparked after local Port Said Al Masry fans attack supporters of Cairo-based team Al Ahly SC. The massacre results in 74 deaths: 72 Al Ahly fans, 1 Al Masry fan and 1 police officer. Most of the deaths are caused by stabbing, fans thrown off the stands and a stampede.
February 6
Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her "Diamond Jubilee," marking 60 years as Queen of the United Kingdom.
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake strike in the central Philippines island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.[6]
February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France, following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.[7]
February 21 – Greek government-debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.[8]
February 27 – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh formally transfers power to Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, after a year of mass protests, ending his 33-year-long reign.
March
March 1 – Sauli Niinistö is inaugurated as the 12th President of Finland.[9]
March 4
A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead.[10]
Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.
March 5 – Air date of Kony 2012 (viral documentary film) on YouTube.[11][12][13]
March 12 – A coach carrying school pupils and teachers crashes while travelling through Sierre Tunnel on the A9 motorway in western Switzerland. Of the 52 people on board, 28 are killed, among them 22 children.
March 13 – After 246 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.[14]
March 15 – Communist party chief of Chongqing Bo Xilai, well known for his neo-Maoist leanings and policies, is removed from his post after a large scandal involving the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood and an incident involving the Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun.[15]
March 22
The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.[16]
Pakistan wins the 2012 Asia Cup cricket tournament.
April
April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.[17]
April 11 – An 8.6 earthquake strikes Indonesia triggering a small tsunami that hits the coast of Aceh.
April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.[18]
April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands.[19] The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the republic.[19]
April 20 – Bhoja Air Flight 213 crashes near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, killing all 127 people on board.[20]
April 25 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.[21]
May
May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.[22][23]
May 6 – Legislative elections are held in Greece to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the New Democracy party led by Antonis Samaras, comes out as the largest party winning 108 out of 300 seats.[24][25]
May 12–August 12 – The 2012 World Expo takes place in Yeosu, South Korea.[26]
May 19 – Chelsea wins the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League held in Munich, Germany by beating the home side Bayern Munich in the final.[27]
May 20 – An annular solar eclipse visible from Asia and North America is the 58th solar eclipse from 73 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 128.
May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 metres high, is opened to the public.[28]
May 22–26 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, and is won by Swedish entrant Loreen with the song "Euphoria".
June
June 5–6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.[29]
June 6 – 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak first identified.
June 7 – Morley and Dianella in Perth, Western Australia, have a once in a decade tornado.
June 8 - UEFA Euro 2012, hosted by Poland and Ukraine, begins in Warsaw, with a match between Poland and Greece, which ends 1-1.
June 17 – Snap legislative elections are held in Greece, following failure to form a government, to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the New Democracy party, led by Antonis Samaras, comes out as the largest party winning 129 out of 300 seats.[30][31]
June 18 – Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female, docks manually with orbiting module Tiangong-1, making this the third country, after the United States and Russia, successfully to perform the mission.[32]
June 21 – The Congress of Paraguay approves the impeachment of president Fernando Lugo.
June 22 – Fernando Lugo is removed from power. Vice President Federico Franco becomes the new president of Paraguay.
June 24 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies, dies in Galápagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct.[33]
June 30 – Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, is elected 5th President of Egypt, the first elected democratically by the Egyptian people, sparking mixed reactions and protests throughout the country.[34]
July
July 1 - The final match of the UEFA Euro 2012 takes place in Kyiv between Spain and Italy. Spain wins 4–0, achieving victorious from the third international tournament in a row, after winning UEFA Euro 2008 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
July 4
CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.[35][36][37][38][39]
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista wins the Copa Libertadores by beating the Boca Juniors
July 20 – 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting: 12 people are killed and 58 are injured in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The shooter, James Holmes, opens fire on a crowd during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises.[40]
July 21 – Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç becomes the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.
July 23 – The Solar storm of 2012 is an unusually large coronal mass ejection emitted by the Sun which barely misses the Earth by nine days. If it had hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.[41]
July 27–August 12 – The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, England, United Kingdom.[42]
July 30–31 – In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.[43][44][45]
August
August 1 – Microsoft finishes development of Windows 8, with general availability announced for October 26[46]
August 6 – Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars.[47]
August 24 – The House of Representatives of Japan passes a resolution criticizing the President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak's visit to the disputed Liancourt Rocks.[48][importance?]
August 31 – Armenia severs diplomatic relations with Hungary, following the extradition to Azerbaijan and subsequent pardoning of Ramil Safarov, who was convicted of killing an Armenian soldier in Hungary in 2004. The move is also met with fierce criticism from other countries.[49]
September
September 7 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran, and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and human rights abuses.[50]
September 11–27 – A series of terrorist attacks are directed against United States diplomatic missions worldwide, as well as diplomatic missions of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the US, opinions are divided over whether the attacks are a reaction to a YouTube trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. In Libya, US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens is among those killed during attacks in Benghazi.[51][52][53][54][55]
September 22 – The United Kingdom informs the World Health Organization about a novel coronavirus case originating from Saudi Arabia.[56]
October
October 14 – Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance, during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 128,000 ft (24 miles (39 km)) over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States.[57][58][59]
October 16 – Seven paintings worth $25 million are stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.[60][61][62][63]
October 22 – November 2 – Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record (as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 900 miles (1,400 km)), wreaks havoc, resulting in 233 total deaths and $68.7 billion (2012 USD) damage.[64]
October 26 – Windows 8 released to the general public.[65]
October 28 – Jorge Lorenzo becomes the World Champion of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.
November
November 6 – 2012 United States presidential election: Barack Obama is reelected President of the United States, defeating his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
November 13 – A total solar eclipse occurs in parts of Australia and the South Pacific. It is the 45th of 72 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 133.
November 14–21 – Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following week 140 Palestinians and five Israelis are killed in an ensuing cycle of violence. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the week-long escalation in hostilities in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.[66][67][68][69][70]
November 25–December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people missing. The typhoon causes considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.[71][72][73]
November 29 – The UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer state status.[74]
December
December 6 – The U.S. state of Washington becomes the first jurisdiction in the modern world to officially legalize the possession of cannabis for personal use.[75]
December 6–16 – The 2012 FIFA Club World Cup is held in Japan and won by Sport Club Corinthians Paulista.
December 8 – The UN Climate Change Conference in Qatar agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.[76]
December 12
North Korea successfully launches satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2.[77]
December 12 is the last time in the 21st century that the month, day and final two digits of the year are the exact same (12/12/12). The next time this will happen will be on New Year's Day in 2101 (01/01/01).
December 14 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
December 17 – Spanish bank Grupo Santander announces the acquisition of the remaining 10% of Banesto it did not yet own, effectively absorbing it into Banco Santander.[78]
December 18 – At least 55 people drown after an overcrowded boat capsizes off the coast of Somalia.[79]
December 21 – 2012 phenomenon: End of 13th b'ak'tun in the Mayan calendar, supposed end of the world according to new age beliefs. Festivities took place to commemorate the event in the countries that were part of the Maya civilization (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador), with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala.[80][81][82]
Births and deaths
Main pages: Category:2012 births and Deaths in 2012