The year began in typically chilly but defiant style for a group of hardy North Yorkshire swimmers, who plunged into the icy waters at Scarborough for the annual New Year’s Day Dip.

In York, the city’s new Cycle Hub Station next to Lendal Bridge opened. And the earth moved for many across the region when an earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale struck late on the night on Sunday January 2. It was centred near Ripon, but the tremor was felt here in York. “The whole house shook, the sofa moved and a rumble could be heard,” said Claire Wright, of Poppleton, who had been sitting downstairs watching TV.

The New Year also brought a new wave of flu. Operations at York Hospital had to be cancelled as staff struggled to cope with a “massive surge” in flu and winter illnesses. A few days later, surgeries and pharmacies in the city warned that the supply of flu jabs was ‘running low’.

In a further sign of gloomy times to come, Chancellor George Osborne defended the rise in VAT as a “tough but necessary step towards Britain’s economic recovery.”

January saw the launch of the City of York Afghanistan Memorial Appeal, to raise money for an artwork to commemorate the role played by thousands of servicemen and women from our region in Afghanistan.

Kate Middleton and her husband-to-be Prince William visited North Yorkshire to attend the wedding of their friends Harry Aubrey-Fletcher and Louise Stourton at Aldborough Parish Church near Boroughbridge.

Grieving relatives mourned the death of their “beautiful, happy, confident daughter” – teenager Natalia Wiley, 15, who was tragically killed in a car crash on the A170 near Pickering.

In sport, England trounced Australia by an innings and 83 runs in the fifth test in Australia, securing the team’s first Ashes win down under for 24 years.

On the international scene, the revolution in Cairo gathered pace; thousands of British holidaymakers fled Tunisia as the Arab Spring spread there; Australia’s third-biggest city, Brisbane, was devastated by floods; and US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords survived being shot in the head, in an assassination attempt that saw six other people killed.

The month ended with the death of John Barry. York, and the world, mourned. “I’m very proud of him,” the York-born composer’s sister June Lloyd-Jones told The Press.

“He did well.”