The Biggest Stories of the Twitter Era

Year: 2009

At the time of Michael Jackson's death, Twitter was still in its early stages, nothing near the social media behemoth it is now. But, it was still making big waves: when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, conversation about his passing peaked at 456 tweets per second, which was considered a record back then.

Year: 2010

The Arab Spring began in Tunisia and ultimately spread through the Arab world. As several countries embarked on revolutions for freedom, Twitter became a crucial tool to make it all possible. Not only did the Arab Spring movement have multiple trending topics on its side (#tunisia, #egypt, etc.), but it peaked at 3,000 tweets per minute.

Year: 2011

The people of Japan encountered the seventh most powerful earthquake in recorded history just two years ago (along with a horrifyingly destructive tsunami). With the country's phone system knocked out, people took to Twitter for updates and other notifications. According to Tweet-o-Meter, the number of tweets coming from Tokyo were over 1,200 per minute.

Year: 2011

The engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton was actually announced on Twitter (they're so hip.) Then came the actual wedding. The wedding was easily one of, if not the most, discussed events on Twitter in 2011. There were several different global trending topics in relation to the wedding, with event peaking at around 16,000 tweets per minute. Talk about a royal takeover of Twitter.

Year: 2011

The death of Osama Bin Laden was one of the most tweeted events in history. In a way, the story broke on Twitter due to a tweet from Twitter user Sohaib Athar (he unknowingly reported on the Bin Laden raid when he tweeted about a helicopter flying over Abbottabad). Prior to President Obama announcing Osama's death, users generated 5,106 tweets per second. At one point, there was an average of 3,000 tweets per second, which equates to 27,900,000 tweets in just two hours and 35 minutes. One word: 'Murica.

Year: 2011

Two years ago, most of the U.S. eastern seaboard was shaken up by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. Some of Washington's National Cathedral was destroyed during the natural event. The quake peaked at 5,500 tweets per second, putting it past Osama Bin Laden's death and on par with the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that also occurred in 2011.

Year: 2011

Inspired by the Arab Spring that occurred in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, Occupy Wall Street was a movement that hoped to improve the United States' economic system through sit-ins, marches and other forms of protest. Though Occupy Wall Street didn't achieve its goals, it did use the internet, specifically Twitter, to its advantage. Even famed drummer Questlove of The Roots was looking out for Occupy Wall Street participants when he warned them of a police raid of Zucotti Park. Occupy Wall Street's Twitter presence wasn't as large as other stories featured on this list (according to one website the most tweets Occupy Wall Street peaked at per minute was 87) it was a big deal that showed Americans wouldn't stand down after the watching Wall Street run wild.

Year: 2012

Whitney Houston's death caused quite a stir on Twitter. Within the first hour of Houston's death hitting Twitter, over 2.5 million tweets and retweets occurred, amounting to more than 1,000 tweets per second, according to Topsy Labs. The news of Houston's death peaked at 5:23 p.m. PT on Feb. 12, with 61,227 tweets in that minute. It was a sad moment in pop culture and music history, but Twitter users made the best of it by tweeting lyrics from some of Houston's most popular songs.

Year: 2012

When President Obama announced that he was changing his stance on gay marriage through Twitter, over 1.6 million tweets soon came after. From U.S. Senator Patty Murray and Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker voicing their support of the president's announcement, to Jim De Mint, President of The Heritage Foundation, tweeting his opinions on the statement, discussion about the topic was spurring on Twitter. So much so, that the conversation peaked at 7,347 tweets per minute.

Year: 2012

The event that unfolded when moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado, went to see a late night showing of The Dark Knight Rises was surely the last thing they expected to occur. A man—described as wearing a gas mask and body armor—walked into a crowded theater where the movie was playing, set off tear gas rounds and began shooting at the audience. Excited tweets discussing the movie immediately turned into retweets of early news reports of the attack. Soon after, tweets with hashtags such as #theatershooting, #aurora and #aurorashooting began to appear, with the rate of Aurora-related tweets near 700 per minute.

Year: 2012

More than 20 million tweets were sent during Hurricane Sandy's takeover of the eastern U.S. seaboard a year ago. From concerned tweets from people on the opposite coast, to joke-based and fake tweets relating to Sandy, the event peaked at 1,600 tweets per minute. Looks like Hurricane Sandy couldn't stop the power of Twitter.

Year: 2008 and 2012

Twitter had a decent contribution to Obama's election in 2008, and an even bigger contribution in 2012. As soon as President Obama tweeted "Four more years" after locking in the win over Mitt Romney, the social media platform went into a frenzy, with conversation about the election hitting a peak of 327,452 tweets per minute. Many people shared positive updates, while other Twitter users decided to voice their disapproval in the crudest ways possible. Yet, whether you liked it or not, President Obama was back to stay.

Year: 2012

When tragedy struck at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, we all anxiously awaited for updates. Although we hoped for the best, and after many misleading stories being reported, it didn't turn out that way. Yet, in a time of sadness and confusion, people across America reached out through Twitter to those directly affected by the tragedy. Celebrities Snoop Dogg, Demi Lovato, Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Alba tweeted their condolences, while Twitter hashtags such as #PrayForNewtown and #SandyHookElementary immediately became trending topics.

Year: 2013

Practically a story that was born through Te'o's Twitter account, the controversy with the football player began when website DeadSpin released a story that stated Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, never existed. Although there were accounts where Te'o claimed to speak with Kekua for eight hours straight—as well as tweet to her—it turns out that Lennay was made up (using the image of a girl named Reba from California.) The controversy would inevitably take many confusing turns, and leave people wondering if Te'o was a part of the hoax or not.

Year: 2013

That's right: Pope Francis, the curent pope of the Catholic Church, has also been one of Twitter's biggest stories. According to Topsy analysis, there were over 137,773 tweets being posted per minute at the peak around 12:15 p.m. PT on Mar. 13. It seems that Pope Francis is the sovereign of both Vatican City and the Twitter-verse.

Year: 2013

During this year's Boston Marathon two explosions detonated near the finish line of the event, leading to unfortunate injuries and deaths. News of the catastrophe began to spread quickly, especially on Twitter. One tweet from the Boston Globe was retweeted more than 10,000 times, and Twitter mentions related to the Boston Marathon were near 700,000. The hashtag #prayforboston began to trend on Twitter shortly after, and according to Topsy between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. ET that same day, more than 75,000 tweets mentioned "Pray for Boston."

Year: 2013 

The Supreme Court's historic ruling that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act sparked intense debate on Twitter. Celebrities such as Adam Lambert, Neil Patrick Harris and Leonardo DiCaprio voiced their approval of the Supreme Court's decision, adding to the event's peak 9,188 tweets per minute. Yet, not everyone was as pleased with the ruling. Fox News and Commentary host Todd Starnes tweeted in opposition of the decision, and Bryan Fischer, who's associated with the American Family Association, basically took advantage of the occasion to compare same-sex marriage to beastiality and incest (yeah, we don't understand how that makes sense either).

Year: 2013

It was a tweet read around the world: William and Kate had a baby. The child, George Alexander Louis, made history as the first royal birth announced with a tweet. But, there was other Twitter-related history to be made with George's birth. More than two million tweets about the royal baby were sent out, rampantly spreading as soon as Duchess Kate checked into the hospital early in the morning, reaching peak buzz at nearly 25,300 tweets per minute. George is already making history—and the kid can't even talk yet.

Year: 2013

When George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the recent murder case of Trayvon Martin, Twitter was set ablaze with opinions from both sides of the case. Some people argued that the verdict was an injustice while others voiced their approval of the decision. Overall, tweets containing words related to Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman reached nearly 64,000 tweets per minute. Sadly, we expect this won't be the last case that strikes a racial nerve here in America.