25 Moments Of The 2010s That Are Sure To Go Down In History Books (2 of 5)

Michael Phelps bags his 28th Olympics medal!

The 2010s was the era when a number of sportspersons aimed to claim that G.O.A.T (Greatest of All-Time) tag for themselves.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in football; Serena Williams and Venus Williams in women’s tennis; Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in men’s tennis; Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in basketball, and the list goes on!

However, none of these legends have been able to break a record that has withstood thousands of years. Well, except one person on this planet – Michael Phelps.

In the 2012 edition of Olympics, Michael Phelps won his 13th individual medal at the Olympics, which took his medal tally to 28 medals. And mind you, this includes 23 gold medals! And by winning his 28th, he broke a 2168 years old Olympics record that was held by a man named Leonidas of Rhodes.

In fact, Michael Phelps’s tally of 28 medals is way ahead of the total medal tally of several nations!

Same-sex marriages

With changing social attitudes towards the LGBT community, a lot of developments took place in the West, and parts of Africa and Asia.

In fact, a lot of these countries allowed same-sex marriage during this period. Some of these countries include Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, France, Germany, and Canada to name a few.

The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami took place in 2011, and are definitely meant for the history books, but sadly not because of a good reason.

The fourth most powerful earthquake of all time, the Tōhoku earthquake was Japan’s most powerful ever, as it generated tsunami waves that reached heights of around 130 feet!

It is reported that residents hardly got eight to ten minutes of warning for evacuation, and by the time tsunami was over, over nineteen thousand people were dead according to several estimates. It is the deadliest natural disaster of the twenty-first century so far.

Black-hole photographed!

The end of the 2010s came with a big victory for mankind, as scientists were able to capture a black hole for the first time – an achievement that is unprecedented.

The image that was captured by the scientists was a Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH), which is at the center of an elliptical galaxy M87 that is located in the Virgo constellation.

The accomplishment was only possible because of years and years of hard work that involved many observatories, astronomers, and institutions from all across the world.

Occupy Wall Street

2011 was truly the year of protests around the world. Apart from the Arab Spring, another major protest began in 2011, this time in the United States. Started in September of 2011, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a movement that happened largely in and around the Wall Street financial district. Economic inequality was the major reason for the protest.

The protest was initiated by a Canadian pro-environment, anti-consumerist magazine known as Adbusters. OWS gave birth to the legendary slogan “We are the 99%”, which refers to the skewed income inequality in the United States, with the wealthiest being the 1% and rest of the population being the 99%.