Every Year Around This Time, Breaking News Breaks Us

A timeline of the worst news period of the year, starting in 2016

The front page of the ‘New York Times,’ October 7, 2018. Photo: Robert Alexander/Getty Images

It’s not just you. For the past four years, the kind of breaking news that wakes you at 4 a.m. and makes your heart drop has taken place in late September and early October.