hopefully a simple Mysql/php query : I'm working with a mysql date column called 'class_of' that has dates ranging from 2014-08-01 to 2019-08-01, all formatted as a date.  These dates coincide to what year an article was written. 

I have set up my php execution page to grab the year through a url action. 
for example - www.mywebsite.com/mypage.php?action=2016

\\\\
$classOf = ($_GET["action"]);
\\\\

I now need to somehow use said variable within a mysql query so my php while loop will only echo dates that have for example 2016 within the date.

This is what I have tried

This works, but I need the year to be a variable
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$query = 'SELECT * FROM news_content WHERE hot = "false" AND trash="false" AND class_of = DATE("2020-08-01") ORDER BY article_id DESC';
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I have tried the below, but with no success
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$query = 'SELECT * FROM news_content WHERE hot = "false" AND trash="false" AND class_of = DATE("<?php echo $classOf ?>-08-01") ORDER BY article_id DESC';
\\\

And 
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$query = 'SELECT * FROM news_content WHERE hot = "false" AND trash="false" AND class_of = "<?php echo $classOf ?>" ORDER BY article_id DESC';
\\\

And
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$query = 'SELECT * FROM news_content WHERE hot = "false" AND trash="false" AND class_of LIKE "%<?php echo $classOf ?>%" ORDER BY article_id DESC';
\\\

And
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$query = 'SELECT * FROM news_content WHERE hot = "false" AND trash="false" AND class_of = "<?php date("echo $classOf-08-01")?>" ORDER BY article_id DESC';
\\\

All of the above no success.

Hopefully some has a few ideas or a work around so my while loop only picks up the dates in my variable.

Thanks