Every year has its defining moments, and 2018 is no exception.

A year that started with Baltic temperatures, also had one of the hottest summers on record.

There was an England World Cup run that came so close, two Royal weddings, one royal baby, one royal pregnancy and, of course, the continued presence of Donald Trump.

The US president even managed a visit to the UK this year - although he did his best to avoid the mass protests.

There's no denying 2018 has been a year.

These are the 12 most 2018 stories of 2018 - and there's not a single mention of Brexit.

1. YouTube star Logan Paul posted a video of a dead body at a Japanese forest infamous for suicides

At the turn of the year Logan Paul was incredibly famous - on YouTube at least. But he soon became infamous.

He was a superstar and regularly posted videos of himself, sort of, jerking around with his friends.

But he made a huge misjudgement when he decided to film a video at Aokigahara by Mt. Fuji, also known as “suicide forest.”

Paul and his friends stumbled upon a body of a man who had hanged himself, apparently just hours before, and proceeded to, sort of, jerk around.

Logan Paul, wearing an 'alien' hat, in the suicide forest (
Image:
YouTube/Logan Paul)

The video got 6.3m followers within 24 hours of uploading.

Following a massive backlash Paul removed the video, wrote a written apology, then published a video apology.

YouTube removed him from the 'Google preferred' ad program... for all of a month before he was restored to his former glory.

(Okay, so it was actually uploaded on December 31 but the HUGE reaction was in the New Year.)

Later in the year he fought UK YouTube personality Olaajide 'JJ' Olatunji, known as KSI, because OF COURSE HE DID.

2. We all survived the great KFC chicken shortage of 2018

Cast your mind back to February of this year and you may remember the great KFC chicken shortage - which caused 'chaos' for lovers of greasy fast food everywhere.

The popular chain had changed their chicken supplier to DHL and QSL, but it ended in disaster.

More than half of KFC's 900 UK outlets were forced to close after they ran out of chicken.

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"To put it simply,” KFC tweeted at the time, “we’ve got the chicken, we’ve got the restaurants, but we’ve just had issues getting them together."

Well, their dedicated customers expected better.

One irate fried-chicken-lover called 999 where they  bemoaned 'having to go to Burger King'.

In early March, once the scandal had largely dropped out of the press, KFC rehired their original chicken suppliers Bidvest Logistics.

Since then nation has been able to chow down on a Bargain Bucket whenever they so wish.

3. A Canadian skier at the Winter Olympics was arrested for allegedly stealing a red Hummer while drunk

The Winter Olympics is Canada's thing.

Thanks to their climate they are renowned for being damn good and collecting a whole stack of medals.

Pity then Canadian skiier David Duncan whose Olympics ended on a sour note when he, along with his wife and a ski coach called Willy Raine, was arrested on suspicion of stealing a red Hummer while drunk.

Duncan was not the driver of the vehicle but nonetheless he was fined and the three of them were not allowed to participate in the closing ceremony.

David Duncan apologised and was made to pay a fine (
Image:
Getty Images)

All three apologised.

"We are deeply sorry," a statement by the Duncans read.

"We engaged in behaviour that demonstrated poor judgment and was not up to the standards expected of us as Members of the Canadian Olympic Team or as Canadians."

4. An American pastor spoke at the Royal Wedding and the Royal Family were shook

Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle in a stunning ceremony at Windsor Castle in May of this year.

It was a fairytale wedding and the ceremony included more than a nod to Meghan's American and mixed-race heritage.

The Bishop in action (
Image:
PA)

Bishop Michael Curry's address, filled with the sort of fervour and energy not often associated with Royal weddings, left members of the royal family looking bemused while others laughed and nodded.

He soon became an internet sensation.

His wide-ranging and colourful speech was seen as a significant break from tradition.

He told the service: “There’s power in love. Love can help and heal when nothing else can.

"There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.”

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He even referenced the African-American spiritual song Down by the Riverside, which was sung by slaves:  "When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more.

"When love is the way, there's plenty good room, plenty good room for all of God's children.

"Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we're actually family."

Amen to that.

5. The UK got so unbearably hot we almost lost our sense of humour about it

Oh lordy was it hot. We couldn't sleep.

Colleagues were having deep conversations about whether to fork out an eye-watering amount of money for air conditioning.

There was a nationwide run on fans.

A dog licking an ice cube to cool down in the heatwave (
Image:
Daily Mirror)

The summer of 2018 was the joint hottest on record for the UK and the hottest EVER for England.

Day upon day of relentless heat in June and July meant we almost ran out of the memes required to express our discomfort at the decidedely un-British weather.

The hottest day of 2018 so far was Thursday, 26 July, when temperatures reached 35.3C in Faversham, Kent.

Even Siri started taking the mick.

6. England beat Tunisia, Panama, Colombia and Sweden and everyone lost their minds

A combination of outrageously high temperatures and a genuine World Cup run led to widespread craziness in much of England at the end of June and beginning of July.

The Three Lions cast aside footballing giants Tunisia, Panama, Colombia and Sweden before bravely falling to Croatia in the semi-finals.

But that extra time defeat has long vanished from the memories.

Most footballing fans now only remember how Gareth Southgate suddenly became a fashion inspiration, Harry Kane was the best striker in the world and, of course, England finally won a penalty shootout.

England actually won a penalty shoot out causing widespread scenes (
Image:
PA)

Some people did take the excitement levels too far - footage of fans dancing on top of an ambulance in London Bridge was widely condemned.

But on the whole it was a euphoric experience for a nation that has been jaded towards international football following years of chronic underachievement.

(England also lost 2-0 in the third place play off against Belgium but everyone forgot that match before it even kicked off so it doesn't really count).

7. Elon Musk baselessly called a cave diver who helped save the lives of 13 people a "pedo"

The world was united in joy in July when 12 members of a junior football team, and their coach, were rescued from Tham Luang cave following a huge international rescue operation.

They had been trapped underground for 18 days but a treacherous and and risky plan to free them, involving some 10,000 people, was a success.

So far, so normal.

The group were are rescued from the cave (
Image:
Thai Navy SEALs via Getty)

But then billionaire Elon Musk got involved.

Musk flew to Thailand and suggested the use of a sort-of mini submarine.

Hero cave diver Vernon Unsworth was not too impressed said it was a "PR stunt" and the tube "had absolutely no chance of working".

He told reporters: "Musk can stick his submarine where it hurts."

Vernon Unsworth is now suing the billionaire
Elon Musk baselessly claimed Unsworth was a 'pedo' (
Image:
AFP)

The billionaire wasn't pleased and said that Unsworth was a "pedo".

After an initial apology and apparent retraction Musk then doubled-down on the baseless allegation.

Unsworth is now suing Musk for $57,000 (£43,300).

8. A chef called James Cochran got into a row with the restaurant where he once worked... called James Cochran

James Cochran left James Cochran in early 2018 - but not before the restaurant trademarked his name.

Cochran, who has starred on BBC's Great British Menu and once had two Michelin stars, was not happy that the restaurant continued to trade with his name.

On the eve of his BBC Two debut, Rayeula set up a website, jamescochran.co.uk, which advertised the use of his name and recipes for £25 a week to pubs and restaurants.

In August he tweeted: “Anyone wanna buy me? My ex-employers are the lowest of low trying to sell off my name as recipes plans??!!

"Wtf?? Who is going to pay £25 a week just to add my name in front of the recipe?? I will give you the recipes for free if you’re that low!!”.

James Cochran wasn't pleased with his former restaurant (
Image:
BBC)
(
Image:
Twitter/@cochran_ja)

The owners of the James Cochran brand said they had trademarked his name long ago, before he left the company, and that it was well before he secured his appearance on the Great British Menu.

Cochran is now head chef at his own restaurant, 1251 in Islington. And he's changed his Twitter name to The Real James Cochran.

James Cochran (the restaurant) hasn't tweeted since August and the website is no longer active.

9. The one where a man who looked like Ross from Friends allegedly stole booze

Let's not kid ourselves - 2018 has been an intense year.

So it was with unbridled glee the internet seized on the story of the (alleged) thief in Blackpool who looked strikingly similar to Ross from Friends (or, to give him his real name, David Schwimmer).

The story quickly went viral and it was taken up another notch when Schwimmer himself spoofed the footage.

Schwimmer's tweet has been retweeted 185,000 times.

Does this look like Ross from Friends to you? (
Image:
SWNS.com)

Perhaps owing to the huge publicity of the footage, a suspect, Abdulah Husseni was arrested and charged with stealing a crate of beer.

Husseini is accused of stealing items including a coat, a phone and a wallet from the Mr Basrai’s World Cuisines buffet restaurant in Blackpool.

He failed to appear at a scheduled court appearance on December 18 and he is wanted by police once again.

10. A Banksy painted shredded itself seconds after being sold for £1m at Sotheby's

This was a story that not only shocked the art world but the wider world too. Kind of.

Seconds after Banksy's Girl With Red Balloon sold for £1m at Sotheby's auction house the work partially shredded itself.

People were stunned and analysts fell over themselves trying to guess what Banksy meant by his daring act.

Was it a statement on the value of art in high society? Was it a damning rebuke of empty consumerism? Or was he simply trolling the art world?

The artwork shredded itself (
Image:
PA)

Regardless, the purchaser of the painting (who has remained anonymous) was still laughing.

The 'stunt' helped increase the estimated value of the work, renamed Love Is In The Bin, to at least £1.5m.

A jubilant Sotheby's released a statement that called it "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction"

11. Bungling Russian spies were caught trying to launch a cyber attack on a weapons watchdog

Four smartly dressed Russians who arrived in the Netherlands trying to pass themselves off as tourists, were, of course nothing of the sort.

They were undercover officers working for GRU, Russia's biggest and most powerful spy agency.

They were on a mission to try and hack in to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OCPW).

But their GRU training must have skipped over some of the important lessons for covert spies.

British intelligence knew of their April plot in advance and tipped off their Dutch colleagues.

When counter-espionage officials felt they had enough evidence they swooped on the four and found fairly damning evidence of an attempted cyber attack(Russia denies they were spies).

In the car boot was a 4G smartphone, a transformer, a battery bag and a WiFi panel antenna.

Oh but there's more. In the car was €20,000 and $20,000 in crisp hundred denomination bills.

And on their phones were even photos of taxi receipts one of the men had used to get from GRU HQ to the airport where they flew to Amsterdam.

James Bond, they ain't.

12. Witches complained about Donald Trump calling the Mueller investigation a "witch hunt"

The ongoing soap opera that is the Trump White House means this entire list could have been made of stories surrounding the US President.

But our pick is a late entry from December - when witches complained about Donald Trump repeatedly calling the Mueller investigation into possible collusion with Russia a "WITCH HUNT" (caps in original).

Robert S. Mueller's wide-ranging probe continued to create headaches for the bouffant-haired President.

He could not resist repeatedly taking to Twitter to label it a 'witch hunt', while also decrying the lack of federal investigations into his political opponent from 2016 Hillary Clinton.

By December the witches of the United States had had enough.

Witches aren't happy with Donald Trump (
Image:
Getty Images)

For those who practice witchcraft, the president’s words bring up a painful period in history, when men and women were accused of being witches and murdered, both in the American colonies and in Europe.

Kitty Randall, who uses the name “Amber K.” in the witching world, calls the period a “traumatic emotional imprint” on modern-day witches.

She told The Daily Beast: "To have him compare his situation to the worst period in our history is just infuriating."