August 1, 2014

A Big Mac cost $4.79 that summer of 2014, and the Dow Jones sat at 17,823 — the Dow Jones sat at 17,823 — the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that President Obama had exceeded his authority with recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, one of several legal disputes that summer testing the boundaries of executive power. On movie screens, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" was drawing steady crowds at the multiplex, while on television "Game of Thrones" was collecting Emmy Awards and pulling in some of the largest cable audiences in years. In August, a Cambodian court delivered life sentences to two of the last surviving senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, closing a legal process that had taken decades to complete and marking the first time the regime's top officials had been formally convicted of crimes against humanity.