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2010s

In 2015, Pope Francis visited Philadelphia and the first-generation Apple Watch was released, and in 2016 the new Media-Upper Providence Free Library building opened at 1 E. Front Street.

Books that spent time atop The New York Times Best Sellers list

YearFictionNonfiction
2010The Help by Kathryn StockettGame Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
2011Tick Tock by James Patterson and Michael LedwidgeSteve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
2012Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. JamesWild by Cheryl Strayed
2013Inferno by Dan BrownProof of Heaven by Eben Alexander
2014Gone Girl by Gillian FlynnUnbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
2015The Girl on the Train by Paula HawkinsAmerican Sniper by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice
2016The Girl on the Train by Paula HawkinsWhen Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
2017Camino Island by John GrishamHillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance
2018The President Is Missing by James Patterson and Bill ClintonFire and Fury by Michael Wolff
2019Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia OwensBecoming by Michelle Obama

Interesting items (items of local interest)

2010

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa
  • The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo was published
  • Kathryn Bigelow won the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, the first woman to do so
  • Meadowlands Stadium, the new home of the Giants and Jets, opened in August
  • The average cost of a movie ticket was  $8, a large popcorn $6

2011

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer 
  • On May 1st, President Obama announced “Justice has been done” upon the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. military operation in Pakistan
  • PBS’ blockbuster Downton Abbey premiered in January
  • The Oprah Winfrey Show ended on May 25th
  • Taylor Swift won the Grammy award for Entertainer of the Year for the 2nd time

2012

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Chinese writer Mo Yan
  • The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service went to The Philadelphia Inquirer for its exploration of pervasive violence in the city’s schools, which showed crimes committed by children against children and stirred reforms to improve safety for teachers and students
  • The International Cycling Union banned Lance Armstrong for life
  • The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 hit movie theaters
  • The U.S. minimum wage was $7.25/hour

2013

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Canadian Alice Munro
  • Dan Brown released his fourth novel in the Da Vinci Code series, Inferno
  • Breaking Bad won the award for Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmys
  • Earth-like calcium-rich deposits and water-bearing minerals were found on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity Rover
  • The game Grand Theft Auto V smashed sales records with $1 billion in 3 days

2014

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to French writer Patrick Modiano
  • A photo on Facebook received 100 million likes, the first time since its creation in 2004
  • Justin Bieber, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg participated in the Ice Bucket Challenge, raising millions of dollars for charities associated with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
  • The oldest piece of Earth (4.4 billion years old) was found at a sheep ranch in Western Australia
  • The most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus occurred In West Africa

2015

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich
  • Harper Lee announced plans to publish a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird -Set a Watchman 
  • The Supreme Court ruled Gay marriage was legal on June 26th
  • Pope Francis visited Philadelphia September 26–27, celebrating Mass on the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps
  • Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog took to Twitter to tell the public that they had broken up
  • NASA’s Mars Odyssey completed its 60,000th orbit around Mars

2016

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan for creating new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition
  • Britain voted to leave the European Union – the only country to formally do so
  • Selena Gomez achieved a world record as the 1st person with 100 million Instagram followers
  • A John Lennon fan bought a lock of his hair for $35,000 at an auction in Dallas, Texas
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama

2017

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Colton Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
  • Tennis sisters Serena and Venue Williams went head-to-head in the Australian Open 
  • The world’s largest dinosaur footprint (5.5 feet) was discovered in Western Australia
  • Apple became the first company worth more than $800 billion

2018

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Olga Tokarczuk
  • A Thai soccer team trapped in an underground cave was rescued in twelve days
  • The Sahara Desert was blanketed in snow
  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth reached $106 billion
  • NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover sent its last signal to Earth

2019

  • The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Peter Handke 
  • The Pulitzer Prize in Biography was awarded to The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
  • The first cannabis cafe in the United States opens in Los Angeles, California
  • Google employee Emma Haruka Iwao calculated Pi to 31.4 trillion digits
  • The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire, which destroyed the roof