2012 Fun Facts, History and Trivia

2012 Pop Culture History

Quick Facts from 2012:

• Map Changing Event: Sandy Island, New Caledonia was a nonexistent island that was mapped from 1774 until it’s ‘un’discovery in 2012.
• The Top Song was Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson
• The Movies to Watch include The Avengers, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo, John Carter, Rock of Ages, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hunger Games, Brave and Life of Pi
• People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive: Channing Tatum
• The Bestselling books included: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
• Price of a postage stamp in 2012: 45 cents
  Price of a Blu-Ray movie: 19.99
  Price of a music CD: $9.99
• Before 2012 the largest buyer of kale in the US was Pizza Hut, and they only used it as garnish around their salad bar.
• The Funny Guys were: John Mullaney & Ron White & Aziz Ansar
• The Mouse: Employees of Disney World and Disneyland were prohibited from having mustaches, beards, and goatees until the ban was lifted in 2012. Soul patches are still banned.
• The Conversation: Electronic Arts were voted “The Worst Company In America” by The Consumerist for 2 years in a row in 2012 and 2013

“The Quotes:”
“There are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business you didn’t build that.” – President Barack Obama

“Puny god”
-Hulk in The Avengers

“The ‘D’ is silent.”
Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained

The Scandals:
The middle finger that M.I.A. flashed during the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show was a result of the singer’s Hindu spiritual enlightenment, she claimed.

Most of the millions of fans who were watching her back up Madonna disagreed. When sued by the NFL for $1.5 million, she defended herself by saying that it was no big deal since there were young, provocative cheerleaders also performing.

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) blackout as the largest protest in the history of the internet, so far.

The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar reached the date 13.0.0.0.0 on December 21, 2012. Many people thought that this would be the end of the world.

Pop Culture History:

Stephen Hawking won the $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize, the most lucrative academic prize in the world

Google’s Gmail became the world’s most popular email service

Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, passed the heliopause, entering interstellar space. (The heliopause is the theoretical boundary where the Sun’s solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium; where the solar wind’s strength is no longer great enough to push back the stellar winds of the surrounding stars.)

Walt Disney purchased Lucasfilm Ltd and its rights for Star Wars and Indiana Jones for $4.05 billion

Russian scientists regenerated Silene stenophylla (a flower) from a 31,800 year old group of cells, a record for regeneration.

Edvard Munch’s famous painting ‘The Scream’ sold at auction for $119,922,500.

Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey resulting in 110 deaths and $50 billion in damage and forces the New York stock exchange to close

In March, Wendy’s overtook Burger King to become the second best selling hamburger chain.

For the first time since 1977 no Pulitzer Prize is awarded for fiction.

‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’ grossed $500 million in 24 hours to become the biggest entertainment launch of all time

Broadway Show – Once (Musical) Opened on March 18, 2012 and Closed: January 4, 2015

Broadway Show – Newsies (Musical) Opened on March 29, 2012 and Closed: August 24, 2014

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 Monae – 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