The school year is drawing to a close. How does this particular finale compare to famous ends throughout history? Let’s take a sampling.

End of the Napoleonic Wars. Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon marked the end of the French domination of the European continent and a period of political chaos. The most heavily romanticized conqueror in modern history was vanquished. Napoleon contemplated another battle, but later declared, “Alas, I have dared only too much already.” He lives on in the French collective and visual memory, however. His “tomb” in Paris is the size of a cathedral.

End of “The OC.” The public may not remember this finale as much as “Seinfeld” or “M*A*S*H,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. The former cultural behemoth’s abbreviated final season ended with a whimper, not a bang, but we witnessed the end of Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts, and the beginning of many knockoffs (starting with “Hidden Palms,” apparently).

End of the Bush presidency. It hasn’t happened yet, but barring impeachment or a resignation, we only have a year and a half left. It can’t come soon enough.

End of Michael Jordan. I choose to remember his second retirement, when he hit that final jumper against Utah to win, and then that magnificent leap and fist-pump. Those two later seasons with the Washington Wizards were nonsense and tarnished his legacy.

End of “Titanic.” Much like the Bush presidency, this end should have come far sooner than it did. The film somehow stretched to three hours despite a near-total lack of plot (ship hits iceberg, ship sinks) or interesting reactions between the characters. And Leonardo DiCaprio took an interminably long to die, despite it seeming inevitable from the first scene of the film.

End of the Cold War. The war that spawned “Dr. Strangelove” and endless iterations of “Rocky” finally came to end in 1989, or a couple of years after, depending on who you ask. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a hugely symbolic moment for millions of people around the globe, enabling them to drink Coca-Cola and sell their assets to oil barons in peace.

End of “Harry Potter.” The seventh book is due to drop this summer, and millions of young’uns will be up past their bedtime for the midnight release. And that doesn’t include millions of high school and college students, and people with jobs. There are still three movies left to be released, however, and eventually, their remakes. Will one of the main characters be killed off? The world waits in suspense.