October 28, 2013

That fall of 2013, gas ran $3.53 a gallon and Obama was in the White House — the government had just come through a 16-day federal shutdown in October after Congress failed to pass a spending bill, sending roughly 800,000 federal workers home without pay before a last-minute deal reopened federal agencies. On television, "Breaking Bad" had just aired its celebrated series finale to massive audiences, and at the multiplex, "Gravity" was pulling in record crowds as the fall's dominant box office hit. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series over the St. Louis Cardinals, and that November, India launched its Mars Orbiter Mission, making the country the first in Asia to successfully send a spacecraft toward Mars.