These 20 Events From 2010 Will Make You Feel So Old

It's easy to feel like 2010 wasn't actually that long ago. But looking back at the biggest events that happened that year—from The Tonight Show drama with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien to the release of Apple's first iPad (Note: There have been 20 additional models since)—it's almost as if 2010 was another lifetime altogether. Social media was just starting to become an everyday part of people's lives, Uber had just launched, and Barack Obama was only just beginning his presidency. If those factoids don't make you feel old enough already, some of the following events from 2010 sure will! And for more about what life was like at the start of the decade, check out these 13 Everyday Things That Became Obsolete in the Last Decade.

Forget about the newest Apple Watch or the iPhone 11s. Before 2010, we didn't even have iPads. In January of that year, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's newest creation, and when the tablet was released on Apr. 3 of that year, the company sold more than 300,000 iPads on that first launch day.

To put that into perspective, there have been 20 additional models of the iPad since 2010, and by 2018, Statista reported that more than 350 million iPads had been sold.

In 2010, we bore witness to the biggest controversy in late-night TV history. After hosting NBC's The Tonight Show for less than one season, Conan O'Brien was forced out in favor of his predecessor, Jay Leno, due to a time-slot ratings debacle.

As you may recall, Leno had retired from The Tonight Show and moved on to his own NBC primetime series, The Jay Leno Show, in Sept. 2009. But when it failed to catch on in its 10 p.m. time slot, the network announced in January 2010 that it would shorten The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, and move it to 11:35 p.m—the time slot The Tonight Show had held for nearly 60 years. O'Brien's Tonight Show would therefore have been pushed back to 12:05 a.m., which was effectively the time slot O'Brien had been keeping warm on Late Night with Conan O'Brien for 16 years.

"I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it," O'Brien said in a statement. "But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the internet a time slot doesn't matter. But with The Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more." Unfortunately, NBC would not budge, so O'Brien decided to say goodbye to The Tonight Show.

On Jan. 22, 2010, as the Tonight Show band played a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird," O'Brien signed off, making his stint as host the shortest of all time. Seeing as O'Brien has been killing it for years with his late-night TBS show, Conan, it's hard to believe that just 10 years ago, he was dealing with what Entertainment Weekly deemed the biggest "late-night disaster" of all time.

The average American probably hasn't thought about the swine flu since 2010, but that year, everyone was panicking over whether they would be the next to fall victim to the virus (formally called H1N1). Starting in 2009 and lasting until the end of 2010, it was the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People all across the globe were wearing face masks on trains, at work, and even while out on the town. And it wasn't for naught: From April 2009 to April 2010, the CDC estimated there were 12,469 deaths in the United States due to the swine flu.

It's hard not to know who Jennifer Lawrence is these days, whether you know her from her infamous awards show falls or her starring roles in major franchises like Hunger Games and X-Men. However, in 2010, Lawrence was just a fresh face on the scene, garnering major buzz for her role in Winter's Bone (which would eventually earn Lawrence her first Academy Award nomination).

She had just turned 19 when the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010. And just to give you some more insight into young Lawrence at the time, she had this to say to Interview of a particularly graphic scene involving cutting open a dead squirrel: "That was big-time acting. I couldn't eat spaghetti for a long time, and I love spaghetti—I was p*****." Classic J. Law.

The original Hunger Games book series has been neatly wrapped-up for awhile now (until author Suzanne Collins announced her plans for a prequel novel earlier in 2019, but that's another story). But in 2010, the last book of the series, Mockingjay, was just hitting shelves and fans were flocking to find out the fate of Katniss. (For reference, it wasn't until 2011 that it was announced that Lawrence take on the role in the film franchise and the first movie didn't come out until 2012!)

In 2019, it was the Game of Thrones series finale that left fans shouting angrily at their TV screens and computers. But 10 years ago, people were huddled around their not-yet-HD TVs, eagerly waiting to find out how Lost was going to end. And no fan could forget the confusion, anger, and disappointment they felt when the series finale aired on May 23 of that year.

In fact, showrunner Damon Lindelof left Twitter because of the backlash, he revealed later in a 2014 interview with The New York Times. Ironically, Lindelof also told Interview in 2013 that George R.R. Martin, the writer behind the A Song of Ice and Fire book series on which Game of Thrones is based, also mocked Lost's ending. "When a reporter asked him about the ending of Game of Thrones, which was still three books away at the time, he said … 'What if I do a Lost?'" Lindelof recalled. "That was the hurtful part because there is an implication that everyone knows what you mean by 'do a Lost.'" Well, you know what they say about karma, Mr. Martin!

WikiLeaks was founded by Julian Assange in 2006 with a mission of publishing classified government information and exposing acts of corruption. And it all came to a head between April and July of 2010 when the site released almost half a million government documents relating to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These 2010 leaks pushed the U.S. government to prosecute whistleblowers, starting with the charges that year against Chelsea Manning for being involved in the leak of 750,000 classified and sensitive military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks.

Meghan Markle is known as the Duchess of Sussex these days, and the wife of Prince Harry. But back in 2010, the pair didn't even know one another. Harry was still involved with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Chelsy Davy and Markle was guest starring on CSI: Miami in April of that year. Her USA series Suits wasn't even on the air yet and she'd not yet married her first husband, Trevor Engelson! How times have changed.

Lady Gaga has made headlines for numerous reasons over the years, but she's arguably done nothing as jaw-dropping as wearing that infamous meat dress to the MTV Video Music Awards in Sept. 2010. For Gaga, it was a statement against the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" army policy (which President Obama repealed at the end of 2010). "If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones," Gaga said at the time.

At the beginning of 2010, One Direction was just a glimmer in Simon Cowell's eye. And today? Well, they no longer exist. A lot can happen in a decade! The five-piece boy band was formed at the end of 2010 after they all auditioned separately for The X Factor in the U.K.—it was Cowell who then put them together. One Direction went on to earn the bronze title during The X Factor Season 7 in Dec. 2010.

And who could forget The Beatles-like success they amassed in the years following—or the devastation when they announced their indefinite hiatus in 2016? But with Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, and Niall Horan all pursuing solo careers now, it's hard to remember them as the teenagers they were auditioning for The X Factor just 10 years ago.

In 2010, Kesha's "TikTok" was the No.1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart, and to say her life has changed since is an understatement. In 2014, Kesha's career came to a halt due to a series of lawsuits in which Kesha accused producer Dr. Luke of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, while he claimed defamation. It's hard to think of Kesha today as the young woman singing about "errbody gettin' crunk," but with her new powerful hits like "Praying" and her upcoming album High Road, she's showing the world her many layers.

With the controversy surrounding "fake news" and Facebook's aide in it, it's safe to say Mark Zuckerberg isn't exactly everyone's favorite person these days. However, in 2010, he was at the peak of his career with Facebook's undeniable success as a game-changing social media platform. Zuckerberg was on such a high, in fact, that he was even named Time's Person of the Year in December of 2010. How the mighty have fallen.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

The worst oil spill in U.S. history is one many will never forget, but it's hard to believe it's already been 10 years since the BP oil spill. An estimated 3.19 million barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig (which had been leased to BP) exploded, sending citizens rallying to help protect wildlife and the environment in the wake of the disaster.

Approximately three million people were affected when Haiti experienced its worst natural disaster in history: a magnitude-7.0 earthquake in the beginning of 2010. It's hard to forget the footage from Port-au-Prince in January of that year and though many of us pledged our help during the most-watched telethon in history , "Hope for Haiti Now" (which raised $58 million), a decade later, the country is still struggling to recover from this disaster.

In 2009, an infamous National Enquirer story revealed evidence of pro-golfer Tiger Woods' infidelity. And as dozens of women started to release stories about their alleged affairs with Woods, his good guy image was swiftly destroyed. So, no one can forget how the golfer was forced to air an apology speech on national television in February of 2010 after the scandal threatened his entire career. "I know I have bitterly disappointed all of you. I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. I'm embarrassed that I have put you in this position," he said. "For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I have a lot to atone for."

While many scandals rocked the start of the decade, 2010 was also the year that a new world's tallest building was crowned. Topping out at 2,722 feet tall, the Burj Khalifa was completed in 2009, and opened the following year. Dubai took the title from Taiwan, which had the tallest building since 2004: the 1,671 foot tall Taipei 101. Dubai's Burj Khalifa has kept the title since.

When Kathryn Bigelow won the Best Director Oscar for her work on The Hurt Locker in March 2010, it was a momentous occasion, seeing as she was the first woman to ever win the award. However, 10 years later, she remains the only woman to earn the coveted honor—proof that 10 years sometimes isn't enough for serious progress.

These days, Justin Bieber is newly married to Hailey Baldwin, and Selena Gomez is back to releasing new music, which many assume is about her former relationship with Bieber. But 10 years ago, in Dec. 2010, TMZ was just breaking the news about a possible first date between Bieber and Gomez. Known as "The Pancake Date," the outlet posted photos of the pair arm-in-arm after leaving an IHOP in Philadelphia. After their tumultuous on-and-off relationship throughout the last decade, it's hard to believe there were simpler times in the journey of "Jelena."

Ariana Grande is a household name these days, with some even dubbing her this generation's "Queen of Pop." But 10 years ago, Grande wasn't a pop star at all; in fact, she wasn't even a star yet. After a stint on Broadway, Grande got her big break on the Nickelodeon show Victorious, which premiered in March of 2010. She played the supporting role of the ditzy Cat Valentine, dyed red hair and all. In fact, it wouldn't be until three years later that Grande would finally break into the music industry with her first album, Yours Truly, in 2013.

Sure, these days we have Harry Potter spin-offs like Fantastic Beasts to look forward to, but back in 2010, we still had new movies and midnight premieres to be excited about. In 2010, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 hit movie screens and everyone left theaters simultaneously eagerly awaiting the final installment, Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and heartbroken over it.