It Takes Time to Become ‘Annual’

With the recent turning of the calendar to a new year, even a new decade, I thought I’d refresh some annual facts.  I’m not the first to do so via this forum, but it’s a red-flag hot-topic for those who do a lot of journalistic-type writing.
Here are the basics:

Annual plants complete their life cycle within one growing season, typically from spring to fall.

“Annuals” and “yearbooks,” which are published at the end of a school year to memorialize the previous academic year, are interchangeable in terms of meaning and use, although the former is on the road to becoming archaic.
Annual events don’t become “annual” until AFTER their second year.  The AP stylebook says so. The progression is this:

• The first, first-ever or inaugural…
• The second…
• The third annual…

Once an event has been held twice, the first two occurrences can then be retro-called “first annual” and “second annual.”
This topic causes such a roar when it is brought up that it is worth reviewing more than once every few years.