Top 10 most-read NewsOK stories of 2016

10. Top 50 country songs of the decade

...the last decade, that is. In 2016, more than 50,000 readers found their way to this 2009 blog post about Billboard's top country songs of 2000-2009. Most users came to the post through Google searches like "best country songs of the 2000s" and "top 10 country songs 2000."

If you're wondering, the top pick was Keith Urban's 2002 hit "Somebody Like You."

9. Poll: Bernie Sanders overtakes Hillary Clinton in Oklahoma

Just a day before Super Tuesday, a Monmouth University poll showed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pulling even with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oklahoma Democratic Primary. Sanders would go on to win the Oklahoma primary before falling to Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in July.

8. Four Norman North High School wrestlers charged with rape

In February, prosecutors charged four Norman North High School wrestlers with rape by instrumentation after allegations that they sexually assaulted two of their teammates, ages 16 and 12, on a school bus as the school's junior varsity wrestling team returned from a tournament in Pauls Valley.

Three defendants, Sage Griffen Gandenberger, Hunter Oren Matthews and Chase Denton Smith, have since had their cases moved to juvenile court. The fourth defendant, Tanner Shane Shipman, is scheduled to appear in Garvin County district court on Jan. 13.

7. Amelia Molitor: ‘I’m not a quitter’

In the early morning hours of July 25, 2014, Oklahoma Sooners tailback Joe Mixon got into an altercation with a woman at a sandwich shop in Norman. Words were exchanged, she shoved him, he lunged at her, she slapped him, and he punched her in the face, sending her crashing into a table. With the woman still lying crumpled on the floor, Mixon and his friends walked quickly out of the sandwich shop.

Last July, nearly two years after the incident, Oklahoman sports columnist Berry Tramel sat down with the woman, Mia Molitor, to talk about how it had affected her.

The punch left Molitor with fractures in her jaw, cheekbone and other bones in her face. More than that, it changed the way she felt about the university, she told Tramel.

“It took something from our family,” Molitor said. “OU's been a part of my life. It will always have a part of my life. I've made lifelong friends here. But it's not some place I will encourage my children to come to. Not a place I expect to come back to. I don't ever see myself attending another OU game my entire life. It will never be the same for me.”

6. Aunt Bill's Brown Candy is a holiday tradition

Another entry from years gone by. About 81,000 readers found their way to this 2011 story from food editor Dave Cathey that features a recipe for Aunt Bill's Brown Candy, a Christmas candy dating back decades. The recipe has been a holiday tradition since in the pages of The Oklahoman since the late 1920s.

Although the newspaper and website have run the recipe several times since then, through the magic of social media, the 2011 post remains the most popular. Most readers found the recipe through posts on Pinterest and Facebook. Interestingly, readers read the recipe most often not near the holidays, but in March, when it saw nearly 27,000 views.

5. Whitewater Rafting Center to open May 7

In February, outdoor editor Ed Godfrey wrote a blog post highlighting the scheduled opening of Riversport Rapids, a $45 million whitewater rafting facility on the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City. The center is one of only three man-made whitewater rafting facilities in the United States. The facility opened in May.

4. Ireland monument to Choctaw Nation finished

Last year, an Irish artist completed a monument built in honor of a donation made by the Choctaw Nation during the Great Potato Famine. The monument, located in County Cork, was unveiled in the summer of 2015. Writer Adam Kemp wrote a feature about the monument in May, and then followed up with a blog post once the monument was complete.

Although the blog post ran in 2015, it saw heavy traffic this year, nearly all of it coming from a March 20 post on the social media site Reddit, in the subreddit "Today I Learned."

3. Oklahoma toddler's death puts spotlight on battery dangers

Two days after Christmas 2015, 2-year-old Brianna Florer, of Jay, began vomiting up blood. Her entire body turned blue. Just hours later, Brianna died at a Tulsa hospital. Officials said Brianna had swallowed a button battery, a type of small battery commonly used in wristwatches.

An official with the Oklahoma Poison Control Center said such batteries, when swallowed, generally pass through the digestive system. But if one becomes lodged in the esophagus or digestive tract, it can open and release chemicals that cause corrosive or burning injuries.

Officials warn parents to store batteries out of sight of children and only purchase products that require a screwdriver to open the battery compartment or that are closed with a child-resistant locking mechanism.

2. OU professor: Youths' attraction to Sanders shows education failure

In an op-ed column published in late January, David Deming, a professor in OU's School of Geology and Geophysics, wrote he was disheartened to see younger voters support the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Democrat who has described himself as a Democratic Socialist.

Sanders won Oklahoma's Democratic primary, but lost the Democratic nomination to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Deming, who also has served as an adjunct faculty member at the conservative think-tank Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, called young voters' support for Sanders "a symptom of our failure to educate them, not only in history, government and economics, but also basic morality."

In the editorial, Deming conflated Sanders' Democratic Socialism with more extreme versions of Socialist ideology, including Soviet-style Communism.

"You don't have to be a student of ancient history to know socialism doesn't work," Deming wrote. "The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 was an unequivocal demonstration of the moral and economic superiority of capitalism."

Although many readers agreed with Deming's critique of Socialist thought, others did not. Reader Sean O. Murphy wrote in the op-ed's comments section that Deming was confusing Communism, Socialism and Democratic Socialism.

"This is something my 7th grader understands," Murphy wrote. "Someone failed you along the way in your education or you're being purposefully misleading to serve a political agenda."

1. Joe Mixon videos released

Although released just weeks before year's end, a video showing Oklahoma Sooners running back Joe Mixon punching a woman in a Norman sandwich shop was this year's most-viewed news story on NewsOK.com.

By Dec. 28, the story had been viewed 771,604 times, nearly twice as many as the second-most-viewed story of the year.

The three-minute  video captures an altercation between Mixon and another OU student, Amelia Molitor, in the early morning hours of July 25, 2014, at Pickleman's Gourmet Cafe in Norman.

In the video, Molitor shoves Mixon, Mixon then lunges at Molitor, who then slaps Mixon. After the slap, Mixon punches Molitor in the face, sending her head crashing into a nearby table. Mixon quickly leaves the restaurant as Molitor lies on the floor.