Year 2007 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 2007. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, historic firsts, entertainment news, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. In 2007, George W. Bush was the president of the United States, and Dick Cheney was the nation’s vice president.
2. In December, the U.S. unemployment rate was 5.00%. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “From 2006 to 2007, annual average unemployment rates declined in 28 states and the District of Columbia, rose in 16 states, and were unchanged in 6 states.”
3. The nation’s inflation rate was 2.85%.
4. The average retail price for a gallon of gas was $3.38.
5. The minimum wage was $5.15.
6. The average annual household income in the U.S. was $50,823.00.
7. In January, the median cost of a newly built, single-family home in the United States was $254,400, while the average price was $314,600.
8. At the grocery store, a loaf of white bread cost $1.20, a dozen eggs was $1.68, and one pound of sliced bacon was $3.66.
9. Here were the sticker prices for three best-selling 2007 cars: A Chrysler Sebring cost $18,995, a Ford Explorer (Eddie Bauer edition) was $32,080, and a Toyota Corolla cost $12,499.
10. On January 1, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) changed the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to a 13-digit format. ISBN-International.org explains that “An ISBN is essentially a product identifier used by publishers, booksellers, libraries, internet retailers, and other supply chain participants for ordering, listing, sales records, and stock control purposes. The ISBN identifies the registrant as well as the specific title, edition, and format.”
11. On January 1, Apple announced that it would drop “computer” from its brand name.
12. On January 1, the European Union adopted Bulgarian, Romanian, and Irish as official languages. The other 20 recognized languages of the EU at the time were Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish.
13. On January 4, the 110th United States Congress convened and elected Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House.
14. On January 11, author J. K. Rowling finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last Harry Potter novel. The book sold 11 million copies in twenty-four hours.
15. At the 79th Academy Awards on February 25, The Departed won an Oscar for Best Picture, and Martin Scorsese (The Departed) won an Oscar for Best Director. Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) won an Oscar for Best Actor, and Helen Mirren (The Queen) won an Oscar for Best Actress.
16. On March 4, the Baltic state of Estonia became the first country in the world to use Internet voting during a national election.
17. On April 16, the Virginia Tech massacre—the third deadliest shooting rampage in American history up to that time—took place on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. South Korean-born Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 23 others before taking his own life.
18. On May 25, President Bush signed the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 into law. The act amended the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase the federal minimum wage in three increments: to $5.85 an hour on the 60th day after enactment (7-24-07); to $6.55 an hour 12 months after the 60th day (7-24-08); and to $7.25 an hour 24 months after the 60th day (7-24-09).
19. On May 25, Google launched Google Street View, a technology that gives visitors to Google Maps panoramic images of streets from around the globe.
20. On June 29, Apple introduced the first-generation iPhone to the general public.
21. On July 1, England banned smoking in all enclosed workplaces, following similar bans in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
22. On July 26, the domain name “Business.com” was sold to the R. H. Donnelley Corporation for $345 million. (Just so you know, R. H. Donnelley was once a leading publisher of telephone directories like the Yellow Pages and White Pages.)
23. On August 8, Carlos Slim surpassed Bill Gates as the world's richest person. Slim, a Mexican business magnate and engineer, had an estimated net worth of $59 billion.
24. On August 22, the "Storm botnet," a “remotely controlled network of ‘zombie’ computers,” sent out a record 57 million e-mails in a twenty-four-hour period. The Scholarly Community Encyclopedia tells us that “at its height in September 2007, the Storm botnet was running on anywhere from 1 million to 50 million computer systems and accounted for 8% of all malware on Microsoft Windows computers.”
25. On August 23, U.S. product designer Chris Messina first used the hashtag in a tweet.
26. At the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards on September 16, 30 Rock (NBC) won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, and The Sopranos (HBO) won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.
27. On September 29, two of the four cooling towers of Calder Hall, the world's first nuclear power station located in northwest England, were demolished during a controlled explosion.
28. On October 9, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,164.53, an all-time high.
29. On November 5, Google launched the Android operating system.
30. On November 14, Con Edison ended 125 years of “direct current electricity service” that began on September 4, 1882, when Thomas Edison opened the first central power plant at 255-257 Pearl Street in Manhattan.
31. On November 19, Amazon released the first Kindle e-reader to the American public.
32. On December 20, Queen Elizabeth II became the oldest-ever monarch of the United Kingdom.
33. On December 31, the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, also known unofficially as the Big Dig, ended in Boston, Massachusetts. NBCNews.com explains that the Big Dig built a “dizzying array of underground highways, bridges, ramps, and a new tunnel under Boston Harbor—all while the city remained open for business.”
34. In 2007, the most popular websites were Yahoo!, Google, eBay, MSN, and Windows Live. Blogger was #16, Facebook was #21, and Monster.com was #29.
35. Popular web searches for the year were American Idol, baby names, Britney Spears, cars, Chris Brown, food, games, Jessica Simpson, music, MySpace, New York, Pamela Anderson, poems, Shakira, song lyrics, Wiki, Wikipedia, and World Cup.
36. The most popular web browsers were Internet Explorer (56%) and Firefox (36.3%). Other browsers included Safari (1.8%), Opera (1.6%), and Mozilla (1.2%).
37. The Atari 2600 game system, Kite, and Raggedy Andy were all inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
38. Fashion trends in 2007 included super-frosty lips, low-rise jeans, tiny little vests, Von Dutch T-shirts, popped collars, customized Converse sneakers, and denim miniskirts with cropped leggings.
39. American Idol (Fox) was a popular television show, Spider-Man 3 was the highest-grossing film, and John Grisham’s Playing for Pizza was a best-selling book.
40. Here are some sports facts from the year 2007: The Boston Red Sox won the World Series, the San Antonio Spurs were the NBA champs, and the Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl. In addition, the cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad was $2,600,000.

References:

1. https://www.computerhope.com/history/2007.htm
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_the_United_States
3. https://www.delish.com/food/
4. https://www.infoplease.com/awards/nobel/2007-nobel-prize-winners
5. https://www.onthisday.com/date/2007
6. https://www.socialtalent.com/blog/recruiting/top-12-websites-in-the-world-then-and-now-2012-2007-2001
7. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-2007.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_the_United_States
9. https://www.infoplease.com/year/2007
10. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2007/

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor