2015 Annual History Facts

2015 Annual History Facts

  • The Internet: Between 2000-2015, Google had an informal motto of Don’t be Evil. The idea was to have a motto: “once you put it in there, would be hard to take out”. When Google began to track users in 2012, there was a public backlash to the motto.
    The motto was replaced by Do the Right Thing in 2015.
  • The Top Song was Uptown Funk! by Mark Ronson with Bruno Mars
  • The Big Movies included Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, and Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Price of a gallon of gas in 2015: $2.51
  • The World Population was ~ 7,250,000,000
  • Selfie RIP: 39 people died while taking a selfie in 2015, the same year Disney banned selfie sticks from all its theme parks worldwide.
  • In 2015, an estimated 610,042 humans were sleeping in bus stops, abandoned buildings, makeshift campsites, motels, inside parked cars, or in public spaces in the US.
  • Junior Fight Club: Two daycare employees at Lightbridge Academy in Cranford, New Jersey, were imprisoned for running a toddler fight club among a dozen boys and girls aged 4-6.
  • $3.19 was the average Tooth Fairy Rate for a Tooth in 2015.
  • And… 10 Billion Kuerig pods were produced in 2015.

World Series Champions

Kansas City Royals

Superbowl Champions

New England Patriots

National Basketball Association Champions

Golden State Warriors

NHL Stanley Cup Champions

Chicago Blackhawks

US Open Golf

Jordan Spieth

US Open Tennis (Men Ladies)

Novak Djokovic/Flavia Pennetta

Wimbledon (Men/Women)

Novak Djokovic/Serena Williams

NCAA Football Champions

Alabama

NCAA Basketball Champions

Duke

Bowl Games

Orange Bowl: December 31, 2014 – Georgia Tech over Mississippi State
Rose Bowl: January 1, 2015 – Oregon over Florida State
Sugar Bowl: January 1, 2015 – Ohio State over Alabama
Puppy Bowl XI: February 1, 2015, Team Ruff over Team Fluff, 87-to-49. Most Valuable Puppy: Henry (a Lab Mix)

Kentucky Derby

American Pharoah

Westminster Kennel Best in Show Dog

Tashtins Lookin For Trouble

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

Angela Merkel

Miss America

Kira Kazantsev

Miss USA

Olivia Jordan (Oklahoma)

Fashion Icons and Movie Stars

Erin Andrews, Hayley Atwell, Elizabeth Banks, Melissa Benoist, Ashley Benson, Julie Benz, Alison Brie, Priyanka Chopra, Emilia Clarke, Lauren Cohan, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Kaley Cuoco, Alexandra Daddario, Brooklyn Decker, Cara Delevingne, Kat Dennings, Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Dormer, Hilary Duff, Gal Gadot, Selena Gomez, Ellie Goulding, Ariana Grande, Gigi Hadid, Lena Headey, Sarah Hyland, Holly Holm, Katie Holmes, Samantha Hoopes, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Kendall Jenner, Scarlett Johansson, Dakota Johnson, Victoria Justice, Ellie Kemper, Jennifer Lawrence, Evangeline Lilly, Blake Lively, Caity Lotz, Demi Lovato, Tatiana Maslany, Katherine McNamara, Maria Menounos, Rose Mciver, AJ Michalka, Olivia Munn, Rachel Nichols, Lupita Nyong’o, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Olsen, Rita Ora, Katy Perry, Emily Ratajkowski, Bar Refaeli, Alexis Ren, Rihanna, Margot Robbie, Ronda Rousey, Zoe Saldana, Nicole Scherzinger, Léa Seydoux, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Ivanka Trump, Melania Trump, Sophie Turner, Kate Upton, Sofia Vergara, Alicia Vikander, Emma Watson, Deborah Ann Woll

“The Quote”

Sarah Barnes burned down the 5th oldest tree in the world, by setting a fire to see better while smoking meth inside the hollow trunk. Friends turned her in after showing them pictures of the fire and telling them “I can’t believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus.”

2015 Pop Culture History

Among the words added to the dictionary in 2015 were Masshole, twerk, fo’shizzle, stanky, and twitterati.

Benjamin Careathers filed a class action lawsuit against RedBull in 2015, stating that after ten years of consuming the product, he received no wings or enhanced physical or intellectual performance, as their ads suggested. Redbull lost the 13,000,000 suit.

In the 2015 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, Eminem was commended for having the most words in a hit single, Rap God, totaling 1,560 words in 6 minutes and 4 seconds.

A research study on the efficiency of mosquito repellents found that Victoria’s Secret’s Bombshell perfume repelled mosquitoes better than nearly all the other non-DEET products.

The population of London in 2015 exceeded its 1939 population by only one person.

The Neiman Marcus Holiday Catalog featured a $150,000 motorcycle that comes with a 2-day ride along the California Coast with actor Keanu Reeves.

Disney banned selfie sticks from all its theme parks worldwide.

A new frog, Hyalinobatrachium dianae, was discovered. It’s noteworthy because they look like Sesame Street’s Kermit The Frog.

In 2015, Costco sold more than 128 million hot dogs in their food courts. That’s four times the amount of hot dogs sold in all MLB ballparks combined.

Researchers built a bot capable of playing classic Atari 2600 games after learning the game’s rules. The bot attained a level equivalent to ‘a professional human games tester.’

Foo Fighter’s frontman Dave Grohl broke his leg on stage during a show in Sweden. He returned to the show and finished the concert sitting in a chair.

2015 is 11111011111 in binary, making it year a palindrome year. We won’t have another one of these until 2047.

$3.19 was the average Tooth Fairy Rate for a Tooth in America.

A French court renamed a baby ‘Ella’ after the judge ruled that the parent’s decision to name the child “Nutella” was not in the child’s best interest.

US homeownership rates have not changed much in the last few decades… 2015 and 1967 were the same (63.4%), and it’s never been over 70%.

It was illegal for the British monarch to be Catholic or marry a Catholic until 2015.

Until 2015, more people had stood on the moon (12) than had completed a continuous thru-hike of the Grand Canyon.

Rapper J. Cole graduated from St. John’s University in 2009 but did not receive his diploma until 2015 due to an overdue library book.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum displayed Wonder Woman’s famous Invisible Jet for one day, on April 1, 2015.

The world population living in extreme poverty went from 94% of the world population in 1820, down to 9.6% of the world population in 2015.

Oklahoma City once had the most cafeterias per capita and was known as the “Cafeteria Capital of the World.” The last cafeteria in OKC closed in 2015.

In 1917, during WWI, Sgt Henry “Black Death” Johnson was wounded 21 times in a German Soldier raid and was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor. He was the first American in WWI to be awarded the Croix De Guerre by France. Racism was still a barrier and was never recognized by the U.S. until 2015.

Godzilla was named an official citizen and tourism ambassador of Japan in 2015.

Japan lifted its 67-year-old ban on dancing after midnight.

Cost of a 30-second Superbowl ad: 4.5 Million dollars

RIP, Scandals, Sad and Odd News

In the US, an estimated 1,670 children died from abuse or neglect in 2015. This translates to a rate of 2.25 children per 100,000 children in the general population and an average of nearly five children dying every day from abuse or neglect.

Scientists discovered that Boa Constrictors kill their prey by cutting off their blood supply, not by suffocating as initially assumed.

Despite the reputation, Australia had no spider bite-related deaths from 1979 until 2015.

In 2015, Americans left 658 million vacation days unused. Two hundred twenty-two million of those days were lost because they could not be rolled over.

A man called into C-SPAN and began talking about West Philadelphia and got through the first two stanzas of the Fresh Prince theme song before being cut off.

Untitled, an all-white painting by Robert Ryman, was sold for ~15 million dollars. His all-white 1980 piece Bridge went for $20.6 million, and 2002’s Link sold for $11.4 Million.

More people died by taking selfies (12) than shark attacks (8) in 2015.

Microbeads, the little abrasive beads found in soap products, were deemed potentially dangerous to the environment and banned in the US.

France passed a law to address planned obsolescence, which requires companies to replace any defective products within two years free of charge. This was the first time any legislature in the world openly acknowledged the existence of planned obsolescence.

In 2015, it was discovered that a mysterious unknown radio signal first detected in 1998 by Australian astronomers at Parkes Observatory was caused by a microwave in the kitchen of the observatory.

Firsts and the Biggest Christmas Gifts

New Nintendo 3DS

The Habits

Pokemon Go was the game everyone played.

The Mannequin Challenge

2015/16 Biggest Television Shows

(according to Nielsen TV Research)
1. NCIS (CBS)
2. Sunday Night Football (NBC)
3. The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
4. Thursday Night Football (CBS)
5. Empire (FOX)
6. NCIS: New Orleans (CBS)
7. Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
8. Blue Bloods (CBS)
9. The Voice (NBC)
10. The X-Files (FOX)

Popular Music Artists

The Biggest Pop Artists of 2015 include:
Adele, Chris Stapleton, Demi Lovato, DJ Snake, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Fall Out Boy, Fetty Wap, Hozier, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Luke Bryan, Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, Meek Mill, Meghan Trainor, Mumford & Sons, Muse, OMI, One Direction, Pitbull, Rachel Platten, Sam Smith, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Walk The Moon, The Weeknd, Wiz Khalifa, Zac Brown Band

(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.)

Number One Hits of 2015

November 29, 2014 – January 16, 2015: Taylor SwiftBlank Space

January 17, 2015 – April 24, 2015: Mark Ronson featuring Bruno MarsUptown Funk

April 25, 2015 – June 5, 2015: Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie PuthSee You Again

June 6, 2015 – July 24, 2015: Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick LamarBad Blood

July 25, 2015 – August 21, 2015: OMICheerleader

August 22, 2015 – September 18, 2015: The WeekndCan’t Feel My Face

September 19, 2015 – October 2, 2015: Justin BieberWhat Do You Mean?

October 3, 2015 – November 13, 2015: The WeekndThe Hills

November 14, 2015 – January 22, 2016: AdeleHello

Popular Movies

(according to boxofficemojo)
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2. Jurassic World
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron
4. Inside Out
5. Furious 7
6. Minions
7. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
8. The Martian
9. Cinderella
10. Spectre

Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cinderella, Furious 7, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, Inside Out, Jurassic World, The Martian, Minions, Spectre, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Scroll to Top