• When NBC was broadcasting the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony for the US, they skipped over the 7/7 London terror attack tribute and showed Ryan Seacrest interviewing Michael Phelps instead.
• Crime: There were no reports of violent crime in all of New York City on November 26, 2012. This is the first time this was known to have happened.
• The Top Song was Royals by Lorde
• The Big Movies included The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games.
• Price of iPad 2 in 2012: 4399.99
  Price of a Little Tykes Cozy Coup: $39.99
• The World Population was ~ 7,020,000,000
• There were 6500 US Veteran suicides in 2012, about 17.8 suicides a day.
• Between 2002 and 2012, college textbook prices rose 82% while overall consumer prices rose 28%.
• The Worst: Electronic Arts was voted “The Worst Company In America” by The Consumerist for two years in a row in 2012 and 2013
• Before 2012, the largest buyer of kale in the US was Pizza Hut, and they only used it as garnish around their salad bar.
• And… after the release of The Hunger Games and Brave in 2012, women’s participation in archery rose by over 100%.

Amy and Kate Elliot hold the world record for the “longest interval between the birth of twins” at 87 days. Which only broke the previous record by three days.

Camille Paglia called the finale of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” the greatest artwork of the modern era, citing its “overwhelming operatic power.”

There were no reports of violent crime in all of New York City on November 26, 2012. #peace

Jay-Z released Glory on January 9, 2012, a song dedicated to his first child, Blue Ivy Carter. Because Blue’s cries were included at the end of the song and she was officially credited on the song as B.I.C, at two days old, she became the youngest person ever to appear on a Billboard chart.

When the CERN team announced the Higgs boson findings, they presented their slides in Comic Sans.

Despite becoming a big hit in 2012, Ellie Goulding’s first hit single, “Lights,” was recorded in 2008.

A CME (coronal mass ejection) missed Earth by only nine days and would, if it had hit, caused global damage with recovery time, in the US alone, estimated at four to ten years.

Before 2012, the largest buyer of kale in the US was Pizza Hut, and they only used it as garnish around their salad bar.

A broken humerus of a giant fossil sea turtle was found in New Jersey in 1849. In 2012, another broken humerus was discovered, found to be the other half of the bone found 163 years prior.

The Dutch East India Company was the most valuable ever in world history. With a value of 78 million Dutch Guilders, adjusted to 2012 dollars, it was worth over $8 trillion.

Wladimir Klitschko auctioned off his 1996 Olympic gold medal in March 2012 for charity. The buyer paid $1 million but immediately returned it because he wanted it to stay in the family.

Choi Gap-bok escaped prison by squeezing his body through the food slot at the bottom of his cell door. The slot measured 5.9 inches tall and 17.7 inches wide. Choi, a yoga practitioner, applied skin ointment to his body and slipped out while three prison guards slept.

The NFL sued M.I.A. for showing Middle finger during the 2012 Superbowl Show.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that competitive cheerleading is NOT a sport and, thus, can not be used in place of another women’s sport under Title IX.

In 2012, Mathematician Vi Hart sent an open letter to Nickelodeon proving Spongebob’s Pineapple was geometrically impossible. Pineapple designer Kenny Pittenger responded by posting a new “mathematically correct” design. This new design is now used on the show.

On July 23, 2012, Earth had a near miss with a solar flare. Had it occurred a week earlier, it could’ve wiped out communication networks, GPS, and electrical grids.

A Pit Bull named Lilly pulled her unconscious owner from the path of an oncoming freight train. The driver said he saw the dog frantically pulling at the woman, not giving up even though the train didn’t stop in time. The dog saved the woman and survived impact injuries herself.

Rapper Drake graduated high school in October 2012 at the age of 25.

After Kirani James won Grenada’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in 2012, the country was so proud that the government held a giant 3-hour celebratory rally attended by thousands, gave him $186,000, printed new stamps, named a new stadium after him, and built a museum/gym in his home town.

In deep Africa, there are accounts of people seeing dinosaur-like creatures that resemble a Brachiosaurus or Apatosaurus. The locals call it Mokèlé-mbèmbé, and there have been several documented expeditions to find it from as early as 1776 to as late as 2012.

Disney World and Disneyland employees were prohibited from having mustaches, beards, and goatees for nearly 50 years until the ban was lifted in 2012. Soul patches are still banned.

BMW paid to name a cold snap weather event after its Mini Cooper car as a promo stunt. The stunt went sour after the snap killed 112 people in Eastern Europe.

Joe Flacco, in 2012, was widely mocked after claiming he was the best NFL quarterback, superior to Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers: “I don’t think I’d be very successful at my job if I didn’t feel that way.” Flacco won the Super Bowl that year.

Between 2002 and 2012, college textbook prices rose 82% while overall consumer prices rose 28%.

In 2012, the Smithsonian officially recognized video games as an art form and had an exhibit to “comprehensively examine the evolution of video games as an artistic medium.”

Cost of a 30-second Superbowl ad: 3.8 Million dollars

Ted ‘Unabomber’ Kaczynski updated his alumni information at Harvard in 2012: he called his eight life sentences “awards” and his current occupation as a “prisoner.”

In 1911, a colony of Adélie penguins was discovered to have homosexual and necrophilic behaviors. It was at the time considered too indecent for publication. The findings were finally published in 2012.

Etan Patz was the 1st missing child to have their picture on a milk carton in 1979, and his murderer was caught in 2012.

Due to a record 103° temperature in the Chicago area, a retired couple, Burt and Zorine Lindner, was killed when a railroad track warped and caused a train to derail, burying the couple and their car in coal.

When Taylor Swift held a public vote for where she would visit and perform a free concert, trolling 4chan users voted for Boston’s Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a children’s school for the deaf, and won the vote. The school donated instead of the concert. Mountain Dew had a contest to name a new green apple-flavored drink. 4chan picked up on this, and the winning submissions were “Hitler did nothing wrong” and “diabeetus.” Neither was chosen.

This year, suicides killed 803,900 people. There were 504,587 homicide deaths, and 119,463 people died in war-related incidents.

In October 2012, thirteen-year-old Erin Gallagher committed suicide due to bullying and cyberbullying. Two months later, Erin’s fifteen-year-old sister Shannon committed suicide. Shannon claimed she couldn’t live without her Erin.

London was the first city to have ever hosted the Olympics three times. 1908, 1948, and 2012.

When NBC was broadcasting the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony for the US, they skipped over the 7/7 London terror attack tribute and showed Ryan Seacrest interviewing Michael Phelps instead.

One hundred fifty thousand condoms were provided to the athletes at the 2012 Olympics, enough for each athlete to have protected sex 15 times.

17-year-old Stacey Irvine was rushed to the hospital with difficulty breathing, anemia, and severe vitamin deficiencies. This was caused by her diet of only chicken nuggets and French fries.

Apple products accounted for 14% of all theft crimes in New York City in 2012.

A Coronal mass ejection barely missed Earth in 2012, which could have caused $2 trillion in damages. There is a 12% chance one will hit by 2022.

The body of Richard III, the infamous king of England, was lost for over 500 years before being found beneath a parking lot in 2012. #hideandseekchampion

One proposed solution to the US debt ceiling crisis of 2012 was the minting of a 1 trillion dollar coin that would be used to pay off the country’s debt.

Google avoided $2 billion in taxes in 2012, by transferring royalty payments from its Irish and Dutch subsidiaries to a Bermuda unit, headquartered in a local law firm.

Nate Hill, a NY artist dressed up as the Hamburglar, biked around New York City, throwing partially eaten McDonald’s cheeseburgers at bystanders. The artist said he wanted it to be “one of those little things that messes up your whole day.”

Amanda Bynes was hospitalized in a mental care facility multiple times after she retired from acting in 2012. After numerous run-ins with the law, control over her finances and medical care was handed over to her mother.

(Data is compiled from charts including Billboard’s Pop, Rock, Airplay, R&B/Dance, and Singles Charts. The Hot 100 is the primary chart used for this list.)

January 7, 2012 – February 3, 2012: LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It

February 4, 2012 – February 17, 2012: Adele – Set Fire to the Rain

February 18, 2012 – March 2, 2012: Kelly Clarkson – Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)

March 3, 2012 – March 16, 2012: Katy Perry – Part of Me

March 17, 2012 – April 27, 2012: Fun featuring Janelle Monáe – We Are Young

April 28, 2012 – June 22, 2012: Gotye featuring Kimbra – Somebody That I Used to Know

June 23, 2012 – August 24, 2012: Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe

August 25, 2012 – August 31, 2012: Flo Rida – Whistle

September 1, 2012 – September 28, 2012: Taylor Swift – We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

September 29, 2012 – November 30, 2012: Maroon 5 – One More Night

December 1, 2012 – December 21, 2012: Rihanna – Diamonds

December 22, 2012 – February 1, 2013: Bruno Mars – Locked Out of Heaven

(according to boxofficemojo)
1. Marvel’s The Avengers
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. The Hunger Games
4. Skyfall
5. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
6. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
7. The Amazing Spider-Man
8. Brave
9. Ted
10. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, Brave, The Dark Knight Returns, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hunger Games, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Skyfall, Ted, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2