June 20, 2010

A Big Mac cost $3.73 that summer of 2010, and the Dow Jones sat at 11,578 — just as Israelis and Palestinians were being called back to the negotiating table after months of stalled diplomacy. On American screens and airwaves, "Modern Family" was drawing wide audiences as one of television's breakout hits, while Katy Perry's "California Gurls" sat at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for most of the season. In a landmark moment for renewable energy, the Solar Impulse completed the world's first 24-hour flight by a solar-powered aircraft on July 8, demonstrating that a plane could fly through an entire night powered solely by energy collected from the sun.