2006 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

Quick Facts from 2006:

• World Changing Events: Facebook became open to any over age 13
• Twitter.com was launched
• The Top Song was Irreplaceable by Beyonce
• The Movies to Watch include Dreamgirls, Mission: Impossible III, The da Vinci Code, and Happy Feet
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably
• Notable books include: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and Wisdom of Our Fathers by Tim Russert
• Price of Hershey Kisses, 14 oz in 2006: $2.50
  I Can’t Believe It’s not butter, 15 oz, $2.29
• The Funny Guys were: Jim Gaffigan & Demetri Martin
  The Controversial Funny Guy: Stephen Colbert
• The Chicken Noodle Soup dance was popular during late 2006, Crank That (Soulja Boy) by Soulja Boy Tell’em outlasted it.
• #TBT: Throwback Thursday is the trend of posting older, nostalgic photos on Thursdays under the hashtag #ThrowbackThursday or #TBT. An old concept, it reached mainstream Pop Culture this year.
• Created in 2000, Blu-Ray discs were made available in 2006. They can contain up to 5 times more information than a DVD.
• The Message: Founded in 1856, Western Union didn’t stop sending telegrams until 2006.

The Scandals:
Mark Foley, Republican from Florida, was a member of the United States Congress who sent sexually explicit emails to an underage page.

Duke University lacrosse team scandal took place when some members allegedly took advantage of a dancer/stripper. The stripper, we found out later, made up the story.

Terrell Owens supposedly tried to kill himself by taking 35 painkillers.

Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi during the World Cup Final

Pop Culture Facts & History:
Russ Heller set a record for listening to Starship’s We Built This City. Russ listened to the song consecutively for 24 hours, reaching 324 listens.

M&Ms created an ad campaign offering 2 million dark chocolate M&Ms for the one who returns “The Scream”, a painting that was stolen in 2004, in Norway. Just days after the campaign, the painting was found by the Norwegian Police.

NASCAR’s Allstate 400 had 36 cars start the race, a NASCAR record.

Skiing is one of the fastest non-motorized sports on land. Skiers can ski faster than a car and this was proven by Simone Origone in 2006 that set a world speed skiing record at 156.2 miles per hour compared to the speed of road cars at 120 miles per hour.

The song Year 3000 was originally released in 2003 by the English pop-punk band Busted, and was covered by the Jonas Brothers in 2006 for their first album.

The first Youtuber was Peter Oakley, known as Geriatric1927, he was the most subscribed youtube account in 2006. On his channel, he talked about his life experiences, such as growing up in the UK during WW2 and experiencing the British inter-war school system. He passed away in 2014 at the age of 86.

In 2006, Katie Melua gave a concert at 303 meters below sea level in one of the legs of the “Troll A” oil rig, earning a Guinness record for “deepest underwater concert”.

After the sale of Pixar to Disney in 2006 Steve Jobs became the largest individual shareholder of Disney with 7% ownership.

The US Senate was one vote away from passing a constitutional amendment banning flag burning. 66 senators, Democrat and Republican alike, voted in favor of the resolution.

iTunes billionth song was downloaded in February 2006. It was Speed of Sound by Coldplay.

We only have 8 planets in the solar system instead of 9, because in 2006 a panel of 424 astronomers in a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague has demoted and reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet.

Russian cosmonaut hit a golf ball in space for an estimated 2.2 billion yard drive, during a spacewalk.

Corn Pops debuted in 1950 as ‘Corn Pops’. Name changed twice in 1951 to ‘Sugar Corn Pops’ then ‘Sugar Pops’. In 1978 it changed back to ‘Sugar Corn Pops’ then finally back to original ‘Corn Pops’ in 1984. In 2006 it became to ‘Pops’ and then back to ‘Corn Pops’ a few months later.

Western Union sent their last telegram in 2006.

Bambi and Bambi II hold the record for the longest gap in between movie sequels, the first being released in 1942, the second being released 64 years later in 2006.

Disney quietly cut ties with McDonald’s in 2006 so as not to be associated with childhood obesity. The last Kid’s Meal toys were Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

Earning just $462 million at the box office, the 2006 movie Cars earned $10 billion in merchandise sales over the next 5 years.

There is controversy over the first words of Neil Armstrong on the moon: Armstrong said:
“That’s one small step for a man…”.
“It’s just that people just didn’t hear the ‘a’,” he told the press.  In 2006, Peter Shann Ford found evidence that the missing “a” had been spoken after all. #goodluckmrgorsky

William Shatner auctioned off a kidney stone. The $25,000 it fetched was given to Habitat For Humanity.

The first female space tourist was Iranian Anousheh Ansari. She paid $20,000,000 to get onto the International Space Station.

Lambda Lambda Lambda, the fictional fraternity from Revenge of the Nerds, ended up being formed as a real fraternity at the University of Connecticut in 2006

Kongō Gumi was a Japanese construction company that was the world’s oldest continuously ongoing independent company, operating for 1,441 years. In 2005 it had 100 employees and annual revenue of $70m USD. In 2006 they fell on hard times and were absorbed into a larger company.

On Domino Day, November 13, 2009, a total of 4,491,863 dominos were toppled – the record as of this writing…

In October 2000, Heinz introduced colored ketchup products called EZ Squirt, which eventually included green (2000), purple (2001), mystery (pink, orange, or teal, 2002), and blue (2003). The products were discontinued in 2006.

Cost of a Super Bowl ad in 2006: $2,500,000

The Strange:
In 1867, a jar was found in Paris containing a human rib among other artifacts, and a label claiming that they belonged to Joan of Arc. Tests conducted in 2006 revealed that they came not from Joan of Arc, but an Egyptian mummy.

In 2006, Disney traded sports broadcaster, Al Michaels, to NBC in return for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character Universal took from Walt Disney in 1927.

Napoleon signed the Louisiana Purchase in his bathtub at the Tuileries Palace. An American hotelier in Louisiana bought the tub in 2006 and put it in a hotel in New Orleans for guests to bathe in.

Dick Cheney accidentally shot his (now ex?) friend Harry Whittington in the face. Love Mr. Cheney, or hate him, you don’t mess with this ex-Vice-President.

The Break Ups:
Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline
Paul McCartney and Heather Mills
Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown

2006 Billboard Number One Songs:
December 30, 2005 – January 13, 2006:
Don’t Forget About Us – Mariah Carey

January 14 – January 20:
Laffy Taffy – D4L

January 21 – February 3:
Grillz – Nelly Featuring Paul Wall, Ali, and Gipp

February 4 – March 10:
Check on It – Beyoncé featuring Slim Thug

March 11 – March 17:
You’re Beautiful – James Blunt

March 18 – March 31:
So Sick – Ne-Yo

April 1 – April 7:
Temperature – Sean Paul

April 8 – May 12:
Bad Day – Daniel Powter

May 13 – June 2:
SOS – Rihanna

June 3 – June 16:
Ridin’ – Chamillionaire featuring Krayzie Bone

June 17 – June 30:
Hips Don’t Lie – Shakira Featuring Wyclef Jean

July 1 – July 7:
Do I Make You Proud – Taylor Hicks

July 8 -August 19:
Promiscuous – Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland

August 19 – September 8:
London Bridge – Fergie

September 9 – October 27th:
SexyBack – Justin Timberlake

October 28 – November 10th:
Money Maker – Ludacris Featuring Pharrell

December 2 – December 15:
I Wanna Love You – Akon Featuring Snoop Dogg

December 30, 2006 – February 23, 2007:
Irreplaceable – Beyonce