1980's
This "King of Pop" released the best-selling album of all time in 1982, featuring hits like Billie Jean and Beat It.
Michael Jackson
Led by Kurt Cobain, this Seattle band brought grunge into the mainstream with their 1991 hit Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Nirvana
Christopher Nolan’s 2008 masterpiece The Dark Knight earned Heath Ledger a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as this villain.
The Joker
Launched by OpenAI in late 2022, this generative AI chatbot became the fastest-growing consumer app in history at the time.
ChatGPT
In 1980, the US Men's Ice Hockey team pulled off a massive upset by defeating the heavily favored Soviet Union team in an event dubbed/nicknamed this.
Miracle on Ice
In 1998, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivated the sports world by breaking Roger Maris’s single-season home run record of 61. How many home runs did McGwire end up hitting that season?
70
At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, this American swimmer won a historic eight gold medals in a single Games.
Michael Phelps
At the 2021 Grammy Awards, this teenager became the youngest artist in history to sweep all four general field categories (Best New Artist, Record, Song, and Album of the Year) in a single night.
Bille Eilish
Before launching his mega-hit solo career with albums like Faith, George Michael topped the charts throughout the 1980s as part of this British pop duo.
Wham!?
In 1994, after spending 27 years in prison, this anti-apartheid leader was elected as the first President of South Africa in a fully representative democratic election.
Nelson Mandela
Before it was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, YouTube was founded in 2005 by three former employees of this online payment company.
PayPal
In November 2022, NASA launched the unmanned Artemis I mission, sending this spacecraft to orbit the Moon and set the stage for returning humans to the lunar surface.
Orion
In 1986, this NASA space shuttle tragically disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight, taking the lives of all seven crew members.
Challenger
In 1996, sheep cloned by scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland became the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. What was her name?
Dolly
In 2000, the co-founders of Blockbuster famously turned down an offer to purchase this fledgling DVD-by-mail startup for $50 million—a company now worth hundreds of billions.
Netflix
In 2018, this rap star became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Kendrick Lamar
In May 1980, this Washington state stratovolcano catastrophically erupted, claiming 57 lives and sending ash across 11 US states.
Mount St. Helens
In 1996, this phenom was born into the world on June 22. In 8th grade, he helped Pana St. Pats win the state championship in basketball. He also was a co-recipient of the Illinois State Fair Talent Show in 2012. He has also had the opportunity to ride in a hot air balloon.
Brock Trexler
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto as a "dwarf planet" after defining three criteria for a full planet, one of which Pluto failed: doing this in its orbit.
Clearing the neighborhood around its orbit
In 2021, this Central American nation became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as official legal tender alongside the US Dollar.
El Salvador