Meet the teams of the 2010s

Women took center stage – literally and figuratively. Lady Gaga wore a “meat dress,” Taylor Swift won her first Grammy Award, and Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director at the Oscars. Malala Yousafzai became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17, while 15-year-old Greta Thunberg called for stronger action by the world's leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference. Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history with a combined total of 25 World and Olympic medals by 2019 (she added even more medals during the 2020/21 Tokyo Olympics before she retired). Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi created the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and activist Tarana Burke’s simple phrase “me too” provided a unifying anti-harassment megaphone for women around the world. There were a few other notable moments during this decade, including:

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2010: The Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare) passes in Congress, giving millions of uninsured Americans access to health insurance (3/21); iPad debut (4/3)

2011: Osama Bin Laden, the 9/11 attacks mastermind, was found and killed by US Navy Seals during a raid in Pakistan (5/2); Music streaming service Spotify is launched in the US (7/14); Apple founder, Steve Jobs, dies (10/20)

2012: Marvel’s “The Avengers” is released and becomes one of the highest-grossing films of all time (4/11); NASA’s “Curiosity” rover successfully lands on Mars (8/5); The Mayan Calendar ended on 12/21/2012, causing some people to wonder if that meant the world was going to end on that date – spoiler alert: it didn’t (12/21)

2013: LeBron James becomes the youngest player in NBA history, at age 28, to score 20,000 points (1/16); Edward Snowden leaks US NSA secrets (6/6); Nelson Mandela dies (12/5)

2014: Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappears over the South China Sea (3/8); K-pop single video, “Gangnam Style” reaches 2 billion views on YouTube (6/1)

2015: Customers order 34.4 million items during Amazon’s first Prime Day (7/15); The Paris climate accord is signed (12/12)

2016: The UK votes to leave the European Union through a referendum known as “Brexit” (6/23); US swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, ends his career by winning his 23rd gold medal, bringing his total Olympic medal count to 28 (8/13)

2017: The Women’s March on Washington, which took place the day after Donald Trump's inauguration, became one of the largest single-day demonstrations in U.S. history (01/21)

2018: A "Super Blue Blood Moon" lunar event was observed for the first time since 1866 (1/30); Xi Jinping becomes China’s president for life when presidential term limits are abolished (3/11)

2019: Astronomers capture the first photo of a black hole (4/10); “Baby Yoda” takes over the world (11/12)