Annus horribilis (pl.anni horribiles) is aLatin phrase that means "horrible year". It is complementary toannus mirabilis, which means "wonderful year".
The phrase"annus horribilis" was used in 1891 in anAnglican publication to describe 1870, the year in which thedogma ofpapal infallibility was defined in theCatholic Church.[1]
The expression was brought to prominence byQueen Elizabeth II. In a speech atGuildhall on 24 November 1992, marking herRuby Jubilee on the throne, she said:[2]
1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be anannus horribilis.
The "sympathetic correspondent" was later revealed to be her former assistant private secretarySir Edward Ford.[3] The unpleasant events which happened to theroyal family in this year include:[4]
After the Queen delivered her speech, one more notable event transpired:the separation of Charles and Diana (9 December).
The year 2019 was described by some commentators as a secondannus horribilis for theBritish royal family.[5] In January that year, 97-year-oldPrince Philip crashed his car into another carrying two women and a baby, and subsequently surrendered his driving licence. Later on in August, the Queen was involved ina constitutional crisis whenPrime MinisterBoris Johnsonadvised her toprorogue Parliament, a recommendation later ruled unlawful by theSupreme Court of the United Kingdom. Her sonPrince Andrew gave auniversally-criticised BBCNewsnight interview about his relationship with convicted child-sex offenderJeffrey Epstein,[6] and there was increasedtabloid scrutiny of rifts between theCambridge andSussex households.[6]
Time magazine described 1998 inRussian politics as anannus horribilis because ofBoris Yeltsin'sisolationist and militarist policies, theEast Asian financial crisis, and Western countries cutting off the reform money that they gave to the Russian government in prior years.[7]
Hollywood actor and filmmakerBen Affleck once said that 2003 was hisannus horribilis.[8] Affleck starred in the filmsDaredevil andGigli, both of which received negative reviews from critics.Gigli was abox-office bomb and drew particular ire from Hollywood critics and moviegoers, which culminated in six wins at the24th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony. In addition, Affleck with his fiancée and later second wife,Jennifer Lopez, were mocked and criticised by the public for their seemingly accommodating attitudes to and henceforth over-exposure in the tabloid media.[citation needed]
Kofi Annan, theUnited Nations Secretary-General, used the phrase in his year-end press conference on 21 December 2004. He reflected: "There's no doubt that this has been a particularly difficult year, and I am relieved that thisannus horribilis is coming to an end."[9] His remarks were widely interpreted as having alluded to persistent allegations of corruption in the UN's IraqOil-for-Food Program.[10] He also spoke of upheaval and violence inAfghanistan, theDemocratic Republic of the Congo,Iraq,Palestine, andSudan; the ongoing process of UN internal reform; and "persistent...criticism against the UN" and himself personally.[9][10] Annan's remarks came five days before the deadliest event of the year (and one of thedeadliest natural disasters in history): theIndian Ocean tsunami on 26 December, which killed 227,898 people.
In 2007, theSpanish royal family, in particularKing Juan Carlos I, faced a difficult year. Family tragedy and a series of controversies led Spanish newspapers to refer to the year as the king'sannus horribilis.[11]
Michael J. Fox used the term in his 2020 memoirNo Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality multiple times (in Chapters 19 and 21) to describe his experiences in 2018; he also referred to 2018 as "a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" year.[13]
The year 2020 was widely remarked as being anannus horribilis for the entire world in general, most notably due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, which began in late 2019 and rapidly spread worldwide throughout 2020.[14][15][16] 2020 was also awarded a "Special Governors' Award for The Worst Calendar Year EVER!" at the41st Golden Raspberry Awards. At the end of the year,Netflix releasedDeath to 2020, a mockumentary discussing the events of the year.
JournalistDavid Leonhardt of theNew York Times described 2024 as anannus horribilis for theIranian government, citing the failed outcome of thestrikes against Israel in April, thedeath ofPresidentEbrahim Raisi in May, the death of the core leadership of the Iranian-backedHamas andHezbollah during their respective wars against Israel (including theassassination of Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh inTehran on July), thereelection ofDonald Trump in November, and thecollapse of the Assad regime inBa'athist Syria in December.[17]
