2010s: A Decade In Review - Highlights of events from around the world between 2010 and 2019
A decade comes to an end this December 31. It has been one of the most significant decades in over a century. The way we live, work, eat, travel, and entertain has changed almost entirely - and our smartphones are leading the way. From getting a cab to ordering groceries, banking to making reservations, everything became just-a-click-away in the last 10 years.
Here is a quick 10-minute read on the decade's most memorable events - the breakthroughs, the heartbreaks, the giddying highs, the tragic lows, the achievements, and the milestones.
2010: The Year In Review
Apple founder Steve Jobs unveils the world's first iPad; Instagram is launched; WhatsApp comes to India; Uber and Ola make debut; Netflix starts expanding its streaming service to the international market; WikiLeaks is founded by Julian Assange; Burj Khalifa becomes the tallest building in the world; Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruptions cause enormous disruption to air travel; Scientists in a South African cave discover 2-million-year-old fossils of a new species called Australopithecus Sediba, which are potentially the ancestors to Humans. India's BrahMos missile, jointly developed with Russia, sets the world record for becoming the world's first and fastest supersonic cruise missile; Arab Spring protests spread across the middle-east and north Africa; Pakistan is devastated by massive floods resulting in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the country's history as 20 million are affected, 14 million left homeless; Ireland and Greece face a grave economic crisis; BP oil spill, also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico becomes the largest maritime oil spill in history; 16-year-old Justin Bieber becomes the youngest solo male to hit #1 on the album chart since 13-year-old Stevie Wonder in 1963; Australia elects its first female prime minister; Indian-American Ajay Banga takes over as CEO of Mastercard; Dozens of asylum seekers drown as the boat they were in crashed into rocks near Christmas Island; Paul the Octopus became a sensation across the world for accurately predicting the result of football matches during the 2010 FIFA (Football) World Cup.
Those who left us in 2010: Jyoti Basu, 5-time chief minister, and arguably West Bengal's tallest leader after India's independence, dies at 95.
Apple founder Steve Jobs unveils the world's first iPad in 2010 (File Photo)
2011: The Year In Review
Operation Geronimo: Osama Bin Laden is killed; India wins the cricket world cup; Scientists discover Kepler-22b - An extrasolar planet orbiting within the Goldilocks zone or habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-22. The planet is nearly 2.5 times the size of Earth and has a 290-day year; Formula One comes to India - Indian Grand Prix held at the Buddh International Circuit in Noida; Anna Hazare's Lokpal movement leads anti-corruption drive, protests; Royal Wedding: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge marry; Dominique Strauss-Kahn is arrested for assault in the US; Japan is hit be a massive earthquake and tsunami, which leads to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in the country; A big copyright dispute erupts on who owns the photographs after two monkeys (crested macaques) take selfies from British nature photographer David Slater's professional camera; News of the World shuts down; Occupy Wall Street protests surge; SpaceX announces plan for the world's first fully reusable rocket; Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer becomes the second most respected, admired and trusted individual in the world after Nelson Mandela.
Those who left us in 2011: Apple founder Steve Jobs dies at 56; Bollywood icon Dev Anand dies at 88; 'Ghazal King' Jagjit Singh dies at 70; Renowned music composer and singer Bhupen Hazarika dies at 85; Former Captain of the Indian Cricket team and 'Nawab of Pataudi' Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi dies at 70; Renowned Bollywood actor Shammi Kapoor dies at 80; Elizabeth Taylor, one of Hollywood's most iconic actresses dies at 79; Grammy Award winner Amy Winehouse dies at 27.
India win the 2011 Cricket World Cup as Captain MS Dhoni hits a massive six in the 49th over, dedicates win to legend Sachin Tendulkar
2012: The Year In Review
Nirbhaya gang rape in Delhi; The rise of Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party; Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was one of the terrorists in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks hanged; Scientists discover the existence of the Higgs boson or God particle; NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft becomes the first human-made object to leave the solar system and venture into interstellar space; Facebook goes public, launches IPO; Barack Obama re-elected as US President; Vladimir Putin is re-elected as Russia's President; Elon Musk first mentions the concept for a "fifth mode of transport", calling it Hyperloop; Hurricane Sandy causes widespread disaster in the US; Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting leaves 27 dead in US; Red Bull Stratos: Millions watched LIVE as Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumps from the edge of space (128,100 feet) wearing a spacesuit - Records set: Balloon altitude record and sound barrier broken; 'Gangnam Style' takes the world by storm, becomes the first YouTube video to reach one billion views; American athlete Lance Armstrong, the only cyclist to win 7 Tour de France titles (1999-2005), stripped of all his titles after investigation reveals his involvement in a doping scandal.
Those who left us in 2012: Nirbhaya dies two weeks after the attack; Bollywood icon Rajesh Khanna dies at 69; Pakistani ghazal singer and icon Mehdi Hassan dies at 84; American singer Whitney Houston dies at 48; Neil Armstrong, US Astronaut and first person to walk on the Moon, dies at 82.
Hundreds of thousands of people protest across the country as India is outraged over Nirbhaya's gang rape
2013: The Year In Review
Sachin Tendulkar retires from all forms of cricket; India sends its last telegram, STOP: India sends its last telegram on July 14, after using the once revolutionary technology for fast communication for 163 years; Commander Abhilash Tomy of the Indian Navy becomes the first Indian to complete a solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the world under sail; Massive floods across north India leaves nearly 6,000 dead, becoming India's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami; Kedarnath flood: Large-scale destruction in surrounding areas, but Kedarnath temple unaffected; Video shows massive Chelyabinsk meteor entering Earth's atmosphere over Russia; Scientists study the air trapped in the Antarctic ice and find that 2013 is the first time in 800,000 years that we have over 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere; Boston Marathon Bombing: 2 homemade pressure cooker bombs detonated 14 seconds and 210 yards apart leave more than 264 injured; Black Lives Matter movement gains momentum; The west African Ebola virus epidemic becomes the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history; Coup overthrows Egyptian government; Malala Yousafzai survives assassination attempt; Xi Jinping is elected as the President of China; Edward Snowden exposes US's NSA surveillance program; Bitcoin demand surges; Jeff Bezos buys Washington Post; Twitter goes public, launches IPO; Alibaba goes public, launches IPO; Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen becomes World Chess Champion - holds it even today.
Those who left us in 2013: Former South African President and global icon Nelson Mandela dies at 95; The Fast and the Furious star Paul Walker tragically dies in a high-speed car accident; 'Lawrence of Arabia' star Peter O'Toole dies at 81; Renowned Bollywood actor and iconic movie villain Pran (Pran Krishan Sikand) dies at 93.
Indian cricket legend and global icon Sachin Tendulkar retires from all formats of the game in 2013.
2014: The Year In Review
"Modi Wave" across India: Narendra Modi is elected Prime Minister of India, forms a majority government after the world's largest-ever elections held till now; Indian Cricket Captain MS Dhoni retires from Test cricket after a sudden decision following a drawn Test match against Australia in Melbourne, Virat Kohli takes over; Indian social reformer Kailash Satyarthi wins the Nobel Peace Prize, Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai wins it too; MH370 disappears: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mysteriously disappears mid-flight; India becomes the first nation to successfully reach Mars in the first attempt; ISIS takes Mosul, expansion of ISIS gains momentum; The Ice Bucket Challenge goes viral on social media, to promote awareness about ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis); Sydney hostage crisis: A gunman with an ISIS flag takes dozens of people hostage at a Lindt Cafe in Sydney; ISIS offshoot Boko Haram spreads across north Africa, especially Nigeria; Boko Haram kidnaps 276 girls from a college in Nigeria's Chibok; Over a hundred missing even today, many feared dead; India safely brings back 46 nurses from ISIS captivity in Iraq; Mount Everest Avalanche: Ice avalanche kills 16 climbing sherpas, injures 9 others; Satya Nadella takes over as Microsoft CEO; Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar found dead in her hotel room in Delhi; Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation; Rosetta's Philae lander becomes the first space probe to soft land on a comet (Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko); Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Ukraine; North Korea hacks Sony Pictures; South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius (nicknamed Blade Runner), who made history in 2012 as the first amputee to compete in track events at the Olympics, convicted for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Those who left us in 2014: Robin Williams commits suicide at 63; American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou diesat 86; Lauren Bacall, one of Hollywood's iconic actresses dies at 89; American comedian and actress Joan Rivers dies at 81.
Narendra Modi becomes Prime Minister of India, forms a majority government after a "Modi Wave" sweeps competitors away in 2014
2015: The Year In Review
Nepal is devastated by a massive 7.8 earthquake - nearly 9,000 dead, 22,000 injured, 3.5 million people homeless; Himalayan earthquake leads to avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least 22 people, making it the deadliest avalanche to hit the world's highest peak; Operation Raahat: Indian Armed Forces and the Ministry of External Affairs evacuate more than 5,600 people, including 960 foreign nationals from Yemen during the 2015 military intervention by Saudi Arabia and its allies; Wing Commander Pooja Thakur of the Indian Air Force becomes the first female officer to lead the Guard of Honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan during the visit of then US President Barack Obama; Sheena Bora murder case: Indrani and Peter Mukerjea arrested; Volkswagen emission scandal - findings cover 482,000 cars in the US alone; US legalises same-sex marriage; Greece plunges into severe debt, pressuring EU; Dramatic visuals of the TransAsia Airways Flight 235 crash in Taiwan shocks the world; 'Je suis Charlie': Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in France condemned globally; India initiates the International Solar Alliance in major step towards green energy, 121 other countries join; Sundar Pichai takes over as Google CEO; Zika virus epidemic spreads rapidly across South America, quarantine zones set up at ports, airports and hospitals across the world; The heartbreaking image of 3-year-old drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi lying face down on a sandy beach in Turkey changes the global conversation on the Syrian refugee crisis; BBC sacks Jeremy Clarkson, co-presenter of renowned motor show Top Gear for allegedly punching a producer; Saina Nehwal becomes badminton world no. 1 - is the first and only women's player from India to achieve it.
Those who left us in 2015: Renowned scientist, teacher and former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam dies at 83; Grammy-winning blues legend BB King dies at 89; Leonard Nimoy, Spock from Star Trek, dies at 83.
Sundar Pichai, born and raised in India, becomes the CEO of Google a year after another Indian, Satya Nadella, becomes CEO of Microsoft
2016: The Year In Review
Demonetisation in India; India carries out surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir; Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav abducted from Iran, held captive by Pakistan; Mukesh Ambani commercially launches Reliance Jio, makes India the cheapest market for mobile internet data in the world; Mother Teresa canonised posthumously as 'Saint Teresa of Calcutta' by Pope Francis at a ceremony in St Peter's Square in Vatican City; Brexit Vote: Britain votes to leave the EU - The British Exit is termed Brexit; 'Obama Out': President Obama drops mic on stage as a symbol of the end of his presidency; Donald Trump is elected as US President; Amazon Prime Video launches worldwide; The historic Paris Climate Agreement in signed to take effective measures against Climate Change; Scientists invent the Crispr-Cas9, a unique technology that enables medical researchers to edit and delete DNA, thereby allowing effective genetic engineering; Florida nightclub shooting: Omar Mateen kills 49 people and wounds 53 at a gay nightclub in Orlando; Dhaka Cafe Attack: 5 terrorists take dozens hostage at the Holey Artisan cafe in Dhaka, kill 22 civilians, 2 cops; The haunting image of 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh sitting shell-shocked in the back of an ambulance in Aleppo, covered in dust with blood on his face and clothing becomes the face of the Syrian war; Scientists and researchers successfully detect the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory or LIGO - The existence of gravitational waves was first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916; Pokemon Go, an augmented reality mobile game, got millions of people out on the street; American singer-songwriter and music icon Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize in Literature; Leonardo DiCaprio wins the Oscar for The Revenant; Brangelina divorce: Angeline Jolie files for divorce from Brad Pitt; Swimmer and Olympic champion Michael Phelps, holder of the maximum Olympic medals in history by an individual (23 Gold, 28 total) and 7 world records, retires.
Those who left us in 2016: Tamil icon and former chief minister Jayalalithaa dies at 68; American singer-songwriter Prince dies at 57; English singer-songwriter George Michael found dead in his bed in his home in England; Singer-songwriter David Bowie dies at 69; Alan Rickman, who played Hogwarts professor Severus Snape in Harry Potter dies at 69; Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali dies at 74; Cuban communist revolutionary Fidel Castro dies at 90; American actress Carrie Fisher, best known for her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, dies at 60 - her mother, renowned American actress and singer Debbie Reynolds dies of a stroke a day later, aged 84.
Mukesh Ambani commercially launches Reliance Jio, makes India the cheapest market for mobile internet data in the world
2017: The Year In Review
One nation, one tax - India adopts GST, biggest reform since opening of the economy; Kulbhushan Jadhav sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court - India, denied consular access on multiple occasions, takes Pakistan to UN court ICJ; India's ISRO set the world record for the largest number of satellites ever launched successfully on a single rocket - 104 satellites; The India-China border standoff at Doklam lasts 73 days; SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket becomes the world's first reusable rocket to successfully complete a mission; Phase 1 of the Iran-India Chabahar Port opens; Indian priest Father Tom Uzhunnalil rescued from ISIS captivity in Yemen, returns safely to India; London's Grenfell Tower fire: 72 people die, 70 others critical in one of Britain's worst fires; Texas church shooting - 26 people killed in mass shooting by Devin Patrick Kelley in Sutherland Springs in US; Las Vegas Strip shooting: Stephen Paddock opens fire on a crowd of concert-goers, killing 58 people and wounding 413; Charlottesville white supremacy march gathers momentum; Australia legalises same-sex marriage; #MeToo movement spreads across the world; Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases - Dozens of women reveal they were raped, assaulted and sexually abused by Weinstein over a 30 year period; Oscars faux pas: La La Land was given the Best Picture award, only to be take away and given to Moonlight, causing a massive embarrassment at the Oscars; Sprinter and Olympic champion Usain Bolt, the fastest human on Earth, 11-time world champion, and holder of the 100-meter and 200-meter world record, retires.
Those who left us in 2017: Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna dies at 70; Bollywood legend Om Puri dies at 66; Bollywood superstar Shashi Kapoor dies at 79; Legendary comedian Don Rickles dies at 90; Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dies at 91; Rock 'n' roll music pioneer Chuck Berry dies at 90; Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington commits suicide; American musician Tom Petty dies at 49.
India's ISRO set the world record for the largest number of satellites ever launched successfully on a single rocket - 104 satellites
2018: The Year In Review
Tesla Motors' sports car orbits Earth with astronaut at the wheel; India decriminalises section 377 - consensual homosexual sex between adults; Supreme Court of India rules that women of all age groups can enter Kerala's Sabarimala temple - the verdict is now being reviewed by a larger, 7-judge bench; India and Oman sign agreement under which India gets access to the facilities at Duqm for the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy; India completes nuclear triad (Air, land and sea, undersea ballistic missile capability): Completion of the nuclear triad with the first successful deterrence patrol by INS Arihant; Kerala devastated by floods: Nearly 500 dead, 140 missing, over 2 lakh people homeless; India brings back the mortal remains of 39 Indians killed by ISIS in Iraq's Mosul; Air India makes history, becomes first and only airline in the world to fly to Israel over Saudi airspace; India's 'Statue of Unity' becomes the tallest statue in the world; Roger Federer becomes the first male tennis player to win 20 grand slams; The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal; Royal Wedding: Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex marry; Indra Nooyi steps down as CEO of PepsiCo Inc after 12 years in office; California wildfires in the US; Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh faces sexual assault allegations; US-China trade war begins; Saudi author and columnist Jamal Khashoggi who fled in 2017, killed in Turkey; Tham Luang cave rescue: The miraculous cave rescue in Thailand - 12 boys of a football team, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old assistant coach enter a cave which gets flooded. The rescue ops take 18 days; US House of Representatives passes bill and allocates funds to build the US-Mexico border wall; American comedian and television icon Bill Cosby "unmasked" as a predator, gets 3 to 10 years for sex assault.
Those who left us in 2018: Former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee dies at 93; Tamil icon and former chief minister Karunanidhi dies at 94; Former Lok Sabha Speaker and Communist Party stalwart Somnath Chatterjee dies at 89; Former US President George HW Bush dies at 94; Former US Senator John McCain dies at 82; Comedian and Bollywood actor Kader Khan dies at 81; Bollywood actress Sridevi dies at 54; Legendary American comic book writer Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, and many more, dies at 95; Celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain commits suicide at 61; Swedish DJ and electronic artist Avicii (real name: Tim Bergling) commits suicide at 28.
Tennis legend and global icon Roger Federer gets emotional after becoming the first male tennis player to win 20 grand slams
2019: The Year In Review
World celebrates the 150th year of Mahatma Gandhi's birth; Narendra Modi is re-elected Prime Minister of India, forms a 2nd majority government after the world's largest-ever elections; Supreme Court of India delivers its verdict on the Ayodhya land dispute case, settling one of the longest disputes globally; India sends its second lunar exploration mission, Chandrayaan-2; India-American Abhijit Banerjee wins the Nobel Prize in the field of Economic Sciences; Balakot airstrikes: India carries out pre-emptive airstrikes on a JeM terror training facility in Pakistan's Balakot; Parliament of India declares the practice of Triple Talaq illegal and unconstitutional; Kulbhushan Jadhav case: International Court of Justice rules in favour of India - 16-judge UN court bench ruled 15-1 in favour of India, stops Kulbhushan Jadhav's execution, tells Islamabad to give consular access; India revokes the "temporary" Article 370 from its Constitution; Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh become union territories; India successfully tests anti-satellite or ASAT weapon under the mission code-named Mission Shakti, becomes a space power; Sundar Pichai takes over as CEO of Alphabet - Google's parent company; Notre-Dame de Paris fire: Massive fire at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in France; Flight Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth become India's first woman air force pilot to qualify to undertake combat missions on a fighter jet; Sub-Lieutenant Shivangi of the Indian Navy becomes its first woman pilot; Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azhar designated a global terrorist by the UN Security Council; Donald Trump becomes the first sitting US President to set foot in North Korea; Operation Kayla Mueller: ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed by the US military; India's fastest train - Train 18, also known as Vande Bharat Express, flagged off by PM Modi; India announces plan to launch its own space station; missions to Mars, Venus, and Sun; Sri Lanka Easter bombings: 259 people killed, over 500 injured after 3 churches and 3 luxury hotels are targeted in a series of coordinated terrorist suicide bombings; New Zealand's Christchurch mosque shootings: Gunman kills 51 people, injures 49, live-streams the attack on Facebook; American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein commits suicide; Walmart shooting: El Paso, Texas - A gunman shot and killed 22 people and injured 24 others; Families of illegal migrants separated at the US-Mexico border - Children separated from parents; Hong Kong Protests: Anti-China protests rock Hong Kong; First black hole image captured on camera, viewed by 2 billion people worldwide; T-Series overtakes PewDiePie to become the most subscribed YouTube channel globally; Climate activist Greta Thunberg makes powerful speech at the UN Climate Change summit; Students across the world protest demanding climate action; Anti-CAA, Anti-NRC Protests: Protests across India over the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens; Donald Trump Impeached, becomes the 3rd US President to be impeached in the House of Representatives; Tiger Woods completes stunning comeback after a fourth back surgery, wins 2019 Agusta Masters championship; Indian tennis icon Leander Paes announces he will retire in 2020; PV Sindhu creates history, is the first Indian to become Badminton World Champion.
Those who left us in 2019: Former Defence Minister and Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar dies at 63; Former Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit dies at 81; Former Foreign Minister and senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj dies at 67; Former Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley dies at 66; Renowned lawyer Ram Jethmalani dies at 95.
India sends its second lunar exploration mission, Chandrayaan-2, which regularly sends detailed images for scientific study