July 18, 2007

A Big Mac cost $3.22 that summer of 2007, and the Dow Jones sat at 13,265 — the U.S. was deep into its ongoing debate over the Iraq War, with Republican senators beginning to break publicly with President Bush over military strategy. On the pop culture front, Rihanna's "Umbrella" dominated radio all summer long, while J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" sold 11 million copies in its first 24 hours of release, setting a publishing record that stood for years. On August 4, NASA launched the Phoenix spacecraft toward Mars on a mission to study the planet's north polar region, part of a sustained effort to understand whether conditions there could support life.