T minus 20

Rewind to 8–14 October 2006 — when Google went shopping for the future, New York looked nervously to the skies, Tina Fey got her own TV show and apparently every man with a guitar had some feelings he urgently needed to discuss.

📹 Google hits Subscribe
YouTube is barely 20 months old, haemorrhaging money on bandwidth and staring down a mountain of copyright problems — so Google casually buys it for US$1...

Rewind to 1 - 7 October 2006 — when secrets were about to get a lot harder to keep, cerulean was absolutely not just blue and television introduced us to a serial killer we were somehow supposed to like.

💻 WikiLeaks enters the chat
Julian Assange launches WikiLeaks with a radical idea: give whistleblowers a way to expose the secrets of the powerful. What starts as a very 2006 internet experiment will eventually unl...

Rewind to 25–30 September 2006, when Facebook opened the gates, Five became four and Jackass once again tested the limits of human anatomy.

📱 Facebook lets everybody in
Got an email address? Congratulations, you can now join Facebook. Just weeks after freaking everyone out with the new News Feed, the former college-only network opens to the general public. Pokes, Walls, relationship-status drama and regrettable pho...

Rewind to 18–24 September 2006, when your car had an ashtray, your phone definitely wasn't connected to it and turning on the interior light was, according to every dad, a jailable offence.

🚗 Booster seats, but make it generational — New child-restraint laws hit Britain, requiring kids to use a booster until age 12 or 135cm. We use it as an excuse to remember the family cars of our childhood: cigarette smoke, ma...

Rewind to 10–16 September 2006, when Pluto's replacement got a name that perfectly matched the chaos, Michael Schumacher shocked Formula One, Dog the Bounty Hunter found himself on the wrong side of the law and Justin Timberlake proved sexy was, in fact, making a comeback.

🪐 Meet Eris... the planet that wasn't. The object that helped get Pluto kicked out of the planetary club was officially named Eris, the Greek godde...

Rewind to 3–9 September 2006, when Australia lost two legends, Paris Hilton discovered being rich couldn't get you out of probation and Sean Paul had every dancefloor speaking fluent gibberish.

🐊 Crikey... Australia says goodbye to Steve Irwin
The world lost its favourite wildlife warrior in a tragedy that still feels impossible to believe. After a lifetime wrestling crocodiles, dodging venomous snakes and getting far ...

Rewind to 27 August–2 September 2006, when one of the biggest gaming platforms in history quietly launched with almost nobody noticing, Jessica Simpson was trying to move on from America's favourite celebrity divorce and a pair of stolen masterpieces finally reappeared after two years on the run.

🎮 From blocky beginnings to global obsession
Roblox officially launched this week with a handful of simple games and bar...

Rewind to 20–26 August 2006, when one of Europe's biggest missing person mysteries finally came to an end, the internet started rewriting Hollywood scripts and Justin Timberlake confidently declared he was bringing sexy back.

🏃 The escape that stunned the world
After eight years in captivity, Natascha Kampusch escaped her abductor and brought one of Europe's most extraordinary missing person cases to an end. We unp...

Rewind to 13–19 August 2006, when internet petitions were becoming a thing, every celebrity seemed to have a side hustle and the Innovations catalogue was convinced you could get ripped without leaving the lounge room.

🎤 Beyoncé vs the internet
Déjà Vu hit the charts but it was the music video that stole the headlines. Thousands of fans signed an online petition demanding Beyoncé remake it, complete with less frant...

Rewind to 6–12 August 2006, when airport security changed forever, Christina Aguilera went full Old Hollywood, Tiger Woods was collecting milestones like Pokémon cards and your AOL search history suddenly wasn't as private as you thought.

✈️ The plot that changed flying forever
A foiled terror plot targeting multiple transatlantic flights threw airports into chaos and introduced the liquid restrictions we're still d...

Rewind to 30 July–5 August 2006, when The Terminator went green, YouTube discovered the secret to going viral and one of sport's greatest victories started falling apart almost as quickly as it happened.

🌍 The Governator goes green
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tony Blair teamed up to tackle climate change in what might be the most unexpected political crossover of the 2000s. One brought international diplomacy, the ot...

Rewind to 23–29 July 2006, when gossip blogs could make global headlines, Australians argued over drinking recycled water and apparently every second Neighbours actor fancied themselves the next pop star.

🎤 Lance Bass tells his story
After years of rumours and relentless tabloid speculation, the *NSYNC star came out in a People magazine exclusive. We rewind to one of the defining celebrity moments of the 2000s, unp...

Rewind to 16–22 July 2006, when reality felt increasingly stranger than fiction. A devastating tsunami caught thousands off guard, MySpace's biggest breakout star served up the ultimate kiss-off anthem, Criss Angel convinced us all that walking on water was totally plausible and Play School proved some childhood comforts never go out of style. 

🃏 Criss Angel turns emo into a superpower
Mindfreak premiered and suddenl...

Rewind to 9–15 July 2006, when your Top 8 could end friendships, everyone suddenly had an opinion in 140 characters and celebrity reality TV decided skating on knives sounded like a great idea.

🌐 MySpace officially wins the internet
Move over Yahoo! Mail. MySpace became the most visited website in America, proving we'd happily spend hours tweaking glittery profiles, choosing the perfect autoplay song and stressing over who...

Rewind to 2–8 July 2006

🌐 The internet officially won A UK survey revealed young people were now spending more time online than watching TV. We weren't doomscrolling TikTok just yet — we were busy on MySpace, MSN Messenger, Habbo Hotel and YouTube when it was still the new kid on the block. Turns out this was the moment the internet quietly took over our lives.

🚀 Houston, we have... confidence again NASA blasted Discove...

Rewind to 25 June – 1 July 2006

💰 Buffett drops the biggest tip jar in history
Warren Buffett announced he was giving away most of his fortune, pledging more than US$30 billion to the Gates Foundation. In a world obsessed with getting rich, the Oracle of Omaha casually decided to give it away instead. It was the biggest charitable donation the world had ever seen and kicked off a new era of billionaire philanthropy. 

...

Rewind to 18–24 June 2006, when Pluto got some new friends, a teenage country singer quietly launched a global empire and everyone suddenly learned what drifting was.

🤠 Taylor Swift starts the long game
A 16-year-old Taylor Swift released her debut single, ‘Tim McGraw’. It was a clever country song about hoping someone remembers you when they hear a favourite artist. Turns out the real story was that nearly 20...

Rewind to 11–17 June 2006, when Google officially became a verb, Nelly Furtado completed her glow-up from folk-pop darling to dancefloor queen and Pixar convinced an entire generation that a talking race car could have emotional depth.

🔍 Google wins the internet
This week, Google was officially added to the dictionary. That's right — a company became a verb. We look back at the moment Google conquered search, compar...

Rewind to 4–10 June 2006…

💃 New era, who dis?
Nelly Furtado drops Loose and flips her entire brand overnight. Gone is the floaty ‘I’m Like a Bird’ era, in comes full Timbaland-produced main pop girl energy. It’s wall-to-wall hits and suddenly she owns the clubs, the charts and your iPod. 

🚓 Small town, big feelings
After 12 years, Blue Heelers signs off and a nation quietly spirals....