Saying goodbye to a decade!

2010 to 2019: Ten years in trivia

A new decade is just around the corner… What will the “twenty-twenties” hold for all of us and for the planet? Great things, we hope! Rather than try to gaze into a crystal ball, though, we’re going reflect on the ten years that have just passed.

Back on 1 January 2010, workers in Dubai were putting the finishing touches on the Burj Khalifa, in time for the building’s grand opening on 4 January. A decade down the track, “the Burj” is still the tallest man-made structure on the planet (828 metres). But a lot other stuff has changed! Enjoy a look back with our list of facts, trivia, highlights and lowlights of the years 2010 to 2019.

Notable social media launches

• Instagram (2010)
• Pinterest (2010)
• Snapchat (2011)
• Tinder (2012)
• TikTok (2017)

Web browsers we used

• Start of 2010: Internet Explorer 55%, Firefox 31%, Chrome 6%, Safari 4%
• End of 2019: Chrome 71%, Firefox 9%, Safari 5%, Internet Explorer 5%

Notable natural/non-natural disasters and incidents

• 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill
• 2010 Eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull
• 2011 Christchurch earthquake
• 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami / Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
• 2012 Hurricane Sandy
• 2014 Disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
• 2015 Nepal earthquakes
• 2017 Grenfell Tower fire
• 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue
• 2019 Australian bushfires

Songs we listened to

• “Gangnam Style”, Psy
• “Somebody That I Used to Know”, Gotye featuring Kimbra
• “Uptown Funk”, Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
• “Hello”, Adele
• “Shape of You”, Ed Sheeran

10 new dictionary words

• Noob
• Schmoozefest
• Twittersphere
• YOLO
• Gaydar
• Emoji
• Twerk
• Glamping
• Hangry
• Binge-watch

Gadgets we (or our kids) used

• Fidget spinners
• Selfie sticks
• Smartwatches
• Electric scooters
• Drones

iPhone updates

• Latest Apple iPhone version available at the start of 2010: iPhone 3GS
• Latest Apple iPhone version available at the end of 2019: iPhone 11 Pro Max

Biggest developments in health

• AIDS became a treatable condition
• Africa was struck by two Ebola epidemics
• 3D-printed body parts became a reality
• Healthcare apps and online communities became commonplace
• Self-powered pacemakers were trialled in animals

5 world leaders remaining in power the entire decade

• Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
• Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
• Lee Hsien Long, Prime Minister of Singapore
• Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran
• Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria

Video games we (or our kids) played

• Pokemon Go
• Candy Crush (okay, that was mostly us, not our kids…)
• Minecraft
• Breath of the Wild
• Fortnite

10 pieces of sporting trivia

• Usain Bolt becomes the world’s most successful sprinter of all time in terms of world records, world championship titles and Olympic gold medals.
• Leicester City goes from the 5,000-to-1 underdog to win a miraculous English Premier League title in the 2015-16 season.
• John Isner defeats Nicolas Mahut in a marathon tennis match at Wimbledon 2010; it takes three days to finish and ends 70-68 in the last set.
• London hosts the Olympic Games for the third time in 2012, becoming the first city to do so.
• Lance Armstrong is stripped of all his Tour de France titles in 2012 after being found to have used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.
• In 2019, Tiger Woods completes an amazing comeback to win his first major title since 2008.
• “Deflategate” hits the 2014-15 NFL Playoffs, with quarterback Tom Brady accused of deliberately letting air out footballs.
• Michael Phelps wins his 23rd Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Games in Rio.
• Spain becomes the first international football team to win three consecutive major tournaments, including the 2010 World Cup.
• In October 2019, following threats from governing body Fifa, Iran overturns a 40-year ban on female spectators watching football and other sports in its stadiums.

10 fashion trends that came and went (or stayed)

• Wedge sneakers
• Hipster fashion
• Naked dresses
• Athleisure
• Mom jeans
• Festival wear / Coachella style
• White sneakers
• High-waisted pants
• Slow fashion
• VSCO girls

Films we watched

• Marvel films (21 released in the decade, starting with Iron Man 2 in May 2010, and ending in Spider-Man: Far From Home in July 2019)
• Star Wars films (5 released in the decade, including 3 “main” films, and 2 “anthology” films)
• Frozen
• Harry Potter films (the final 2 films in the series were released in 2010 and 2011)
• Furious 7

Films we might have missed that were critically acclaimed

• The Social Network
• Boyhood
• Interstellar
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• Moonlight

Prominent political events

• Ongoing: Arab Spring / Syrian civil war
• 2011: Occupy Wall Street movement
• 2013: Death of Nelson Mandela
• 2015: Adoption of the Paris Agreement on global warming
• 2016: Brexit referendum (51.9% vote to leave)
• 2016: Election of Donald Trump as 45th President of the United States
• 2019: Hong Kong protests

10 bizarre world records set

• 2010: Most naked riders on a theme park ride (102, set in Somerset, England)
• 2012: Longest time to spin a basketball on a toothbrush while holding the toothbrush in the mouth (22.41 seconds)
• 2012: Most number of bees on a human body (331,000, by a Chinese beekeeper)
• 2013: Most number of facial masks applied simultaneously by a group of people for 10 minutes (1,213, in Taipei)
• 2015: Most balloons blown up by an individual in one hour (910)
• 2016: Most eggs cracked with a whip in 30 seconds (17, by a 17-year-old girl in Illinois)
• 2016: Most apples crushed with the bicep in one minute (14, by former Australian rugby star Drew Mitchell)
• 2018: Longest jump by a cat (2.13 metres, by Waffles the Warrior Cat)
• 2018: Most toothpicks placed in a human beard (3,500)
• 2019: Most people lying on top of each other in a multi-layered bed-of-nails “sandwich” (9)

Growth of Netflix

• Number of countries Netflix was available in at the start of 2010: 1
• Number of countries Netflix is available in at the end of 2019: 190

TV shows we watched

• Mad Men
• Breaking Bad
• House of Cards
• Game of Thrones
• The Crown

10 food buzzwords

• Gluten-free
• Acai bowl
• Craft beer
• Veganism
• Cronut
• Avocado toast
• Chipotle
• Clean meat
• Almond milk
• Kombucha

Like this? Read more in our Living in Singapore section.