Defining Moments of the Decade: WTF, 2010s

2012: It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Some had predicted the world would end on Dec. 12, 2012, the date the Mayan calendar allegedly ended – except, the world didn’t end and the Mayan calendar didn’t end on Dec. 21, 2012, NASA said.

“The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth,” NASA explained. “This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012 and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 – hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.”

Dec. 21 was not the end of the Mayan calendar, rather the end of the Mayan long-count period.

“Just as your calendar begins again on January 1 – another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar,” NASA added.

Gangnam Style

Gangnam Style by PSY music video

Source: PSY – GANGNAM STYLE(강남스타일) M/V | officialpsy

Coinciding with the date the world was “supposed to end,” Korean rap artist PSY’s music video for his global hit “Gangnam Style” was the first YouTube video to reach one billion views, HISTORY reported.

“Though no longer the most-watched video on YouTube, ‘Gangnam Style’ was an inescapable cultural phenomenon, serving as an introduction to K-pop for millions around the world and as a lasting example of internet virality.”

“Gangnam Style” becomes the first YouTube video to reach one billion views | HISTORY

2012 United States Presidential Election

With 332 electoral votes and 65,446,032 popular votes, Barack Obama was elected to serve a second term with Vice President Joe Biden, according to the map on 270toWin.

Colorado and Washington Go Green

Colorado Amendment 64 and Washington Initiative 502 passed in 2012, making them the first states to legalize recreational cannabis.

Now, more than half of the United States has decriminalized or legalized cannabis on a medical or recreational level, according to a DISA map of cannabis legalization throughout the nation.

Mass Shootings

During the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo. 12 people lost their lives and 70 more were injured in a mass shooting on July 20, 2012, CNN reported. James Holmes was found guilty on all 165 counts against him three years later.

One of the deadliest school shootings took place in United States history shortly thereafter. After taking his mother’s life, 20 children, and six adults were fatally shot by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. Lanza died by suicide, as well.

Curiosity Reaches Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars

Source: Curiosity has Landed | NASA

The car-sized NASA rover Curiosity touched down on the surface of Mars on Aug. 5, 2012, says NASA’s Curiosity Overview.

Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes as part of a long-term effort to explore the planet through robotics.

Since then, Curiosity has discovered conditions once habitable for ancient life, NASA reported in March 2013.

“Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon – some of the key chemical ingredients for life – in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month,” NASA said.

Curiosity is still making groundbreaking discoveries, the latest being the way oxygen behaves on Mars that “so far scientists cannot explain through any known chemical processes,” NASA said in Nov. 2019.

#HappyNewYear, Earth! ?

I hope this coming year is as full of all the vision and clarity we could want out of an orbit named 2020…

…and that you’ll continue to join me on this journey of exploration. https://t.co/kqC5sXawre pic.twitter.com/YVYEWvlYag

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) January 1, 2020

Continue to 2013 –>