2007 Snapshot
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The Vibe
Pop Culture
iPhone Release
Slang
"Fail"
Price Check
Gas: $2.80
Notable Deaths
Boris Yeltsin, Ingmar Bergman, Luciano Pavarotti
Music & Style
Electropop
World Affairs
Surge in Iraq
War in Waziristan
Year's Summary
- Global Events: Steve Jobs introduces the first iPhone, changing human communication forever. The global 'Great Recession' begins to brew with the subprime mortgage crisis.
- Culture & Mood: Peak 'Indie Sleaze' and Electro-pop. Netflix begins its transition from DVD-by-mail to online streaming.
- Fashion & Slang: Ray-Ban Wayfarers return; American Apparel hoodies. 'Stay thirsty, my friends.'
- Fun Fact: 2007 was the year the final Harry Potter book was released, and Mad Men brought 1960s style back into the mainstream.
- 9 Jan 2007: Steve Jobs Unveils the Original iPhone in San Francisco – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone at the Macworld convention in San Francisco, combining a touch-screen iPod, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator into a single handheld device that fundamentally transformed the smartphone industry and mobile technology worldwide.
- 16 Apr 2007: Virginia Tech Shooting Tragic Mass Casualty Event – A student gunman carried out a devastating mass shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, killing thirty-two students and faculty members before taking his own life, sparking nationwide grief and initiating intense national debates on campus safety and gun control laws.
- 27 Jun 2007: Gordon Brown Succeeds Tony Blair as British Prime Minister – Tony Blair formally tendered his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II after ten years in office, allowing his long-serving Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, to assume leadership of the Labour Party and officially become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amidst changing domestic economic conditions.
- 1 Aug 2007: I-35W Mississippi River Bridge Collapses in Minneapolis – During the evening rush hour, the eight-lane steel truss arch bridge carrying Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, suddenly collapsed, plunging dozens of vehicles into the river below. The catastrophic failure resulted in thirteen fatalities and over one hundred injuries, exposing critical infrastructure vulnerabilities across the United States.
- 9 Aug 2007: BNP Paribas Halts Funds Signaling Outbreak of Subprime Mortgage Crisis – French banking giant BNP Paribas froze three investment funds exposed to United States subprime mortgages due to a complete lack of liquidity in the market, marking the formal onset of the global credit crunch and signaling the early stages of the Great Recession.
- 18 Oct 2007: Benazir Bhutto Returns to Pakistan Amidst Bombing Attack – Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned from self-imposed exile to Karachi, where her welcoming motorcade was targeted by a massive suicide bombing that killed over 130 people. She survived the initial attack, only to be assassinated two months later during a campaign rally in Rawalpindi.