March 18, 2010

Gas cost $2.79 a gallon in the spring of 2010, and the Dow Jones stood at 11,578 — a major healthcare overhaul was making its way through the final stages of implementation after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in March, reshaping how millions of Americans thought about medical coverage. On the radio, Rihanna's "Rude Boy" held the top spot, while audiences were filling theaters for "Clash of the Titans" and readers were working through Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." The Los Angeles Lakers claimed the NBA championship that June by defeating the Boston Celtics, and earlier that spring, a Pablo Picasso painting, "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," sold at auction in New York for $106.5 million, setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction.