The end of 2019 is more than just the end of a year, it’s the end of a decade. And what a decade it has been. South Africa brought the World Cup to African soil for the first time, we were introduced to a new genre of music called “party rock”, and, we came to “accept” mumble rappers.

A lot happened. This decade has been particularly interesting for the speed at which things have happened. For all the lovers of nostalgia, we have gone through the archives of the Internet to pick out some of the defining moments of the decade. Feel free to let us know on our socials!

Let’s get started with 2010:

January

• Earthquake devastates Haiti, killing approximately 160,000 and destroying the majority of the capital Port-au-Prince
• James Cameron’s “Avatar” swept the 67th Golden Globes

February

• New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl XLIV in Miami
• Bibliothèque Nationale de France purchases the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova a for € 7 million

March

• “Alice in Wonderland“, starring Johnny Depp, is released
• Carlos Slim, Mexican telecommunications tycoon, becomes the first Mexican and person from an emerging economy to top the Forbes list, with net worth of $53 billion

April

• To celebrate 50 years of independence, Senegal dedicates Africa’s tallest monument, the African Renaissance Monument, just outside outside Dakar.
• Rapper B.o.B drops “B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray“

May

• David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the UK, forming a coalition between Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party
• Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2-0 to win their 3rd Champions League title and secure their first treble

June

• Drake drops his first studio album, “Thank Me Later“. What a decade he went on to have.
• “Toy Story 3” premieres at the Taormina Film Fest in Italy – goes on to become 1st animated film to earn $ 1 billion
• South Africa kicks off the first World Cup on African soil with a 1-1 draw against Mexico

July

• “Inception“, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, premieres in London
• Spain win the World Cup in South Africa to become World Champions for the first time
• X Factor contestants Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson join forces to form the boy-band of the modern era: One Direction

August

• Katy Perry drops what goes on to be one of the biggest albums of the year, “Teenage Dream“
• The state of California legalizes same-sex marriage

September

• “The King’s Speech” premieres at the Telluride Film Festival
• Lady Gaga steals all the headlines by showing up to the MTV VMA’s (Video Music Awards) in a “meat dress”.
• “The Social Network“, the film telling the story of how Facebook was founded, premieres at the New York Film Festival

October

• Instagram, the picture-sharing app which would grow to become our favorite social network, launched
• Bruno Mars drops his first studio album, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans“, debuting at no. 3 on the Billboard 200.
• The Copiapó mining accident in Chile comes to a happy conclusion as all 33 miners arrive at the surface, surviving a record 69 days underground

November

• A big month for music, with album drops from Kid Cudi, Rihanna, P!nk, Nelly Furtado, the Black Eyed Peas and Nicki Minaj. Lest we forget Rolling Stone‘s Album of the Decade – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
• Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, announces engagement to Kate Middleton
• Adele’s career skyrockets after she drops her breakthrough single, “Rolling in the Deep“

December

• With the second launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first privately-owned company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft
• The year closed with one of the hit shows of the decade, The Walking Dead, premiered

At the end of each recap, we will close out with Billboard’s top 10 songs of the year, just so you can gauge what the music landscape was like:

1. TiK ToK – Ke$ha
2. Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
3. Hey, Soul Sister – Train
4. California Gurls – Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
5. OMG – Usher feat. Will.I.Am
6. Airplanes – B.o.B feat. Hayley Williams
7. Love the Way You Lie – Eminem feat. Rihanna
8. Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
9. Dynamite – Taio Cruz
10. Break Your Heart – Taio Cruz feat. Ludacris

Written by @Wenguss