Now Reading: 10 Things That Happened 10 Years Ago: July 13-18
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10 Things That Happened 10 Years Ago: July 13-18
The first Amazon Prime Day, butt covers for cats, and Tom Cruise is crazy. Here are 10 things that happened 10 years ago this week.
The first Amazon Prime Day was a huge flop – except it wasn’t
People complained the deals sucked, and #PrimeDayFail started trending. But behind the scenes, Amazon sold more products than they did on Black Friday. In the decade since, it’s become a massive sales event and helped Jeff Bezos accumulate enough cash to rent out a whole city for his (relatively cheap) $50 million Venetian wedding in June 2025.
Tom Cruise clung to the side of an airplane
The producers of “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” released behind-the-scenes footage of how they did the shot where he clings to the side of an Airbus A400M. Turned out they just strapped him to it and hoped he didn’t die. We knew he did his own stunts, but damn.
Marshawn Lynch’s socks doubled as food storage
The five-time NFL Pro Bowler was helping out at a free football clinic in his hometown of Oakland, CA when he tucked a few chicken wings in his sock to save for later. He ended up suffering a string of injuries that fall (as far as we know, unrelated to the wings) and missed half of the Seahawks’ 2015 season.
Boner-hiding boxers and butt covers for cats
A start-up called Bloxers claimed their special underwear with an inner layer of compression fabric could hide your accidentally engorged junk. Teenage boys rejoiced, but the company only raised $2,400 on Indiegogo.
Meanwhile, a company called Twinkle Tush went viral for selling jewels you could hang off your cat’s tail to hide its butthole. Cat owners loved the gag gift. Cats themselves were predictably nonplussed.
“Ant Man” was Marvel’s 12th movie to open at #1
But with an opening of just $57 million, critics wondered if it would make back its sizable $114 million budget. (It did and then some, grossing $519 million worldwide.) Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow’s “Trainwreck” had also just opened to rave reviews, and the first trailer for DC Comics’ “Suicide Squad” landed the same week after debuting at Comic-Con.
Donald Trump said John McCain wasn’t a war hero
At the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, he said, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Many experts predicted it would be the nail in the coffin of Trump’s campaign.
Barack Obama said Bill Cosby would keep his Presidential Medal of Freedom
Dozens of women had accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them. Obama said there was no mechanism for revoking a Presidential Medal of Freedom (which the comic was awarded in 2002), but called the accusations against him “rape” if proven true. Cosby was found guilty in 2018, but his conviction was overturned in 2021.
50 Cent filed for bankruptcy five years after being worth $500 million
Fans wondered how anyone could blow through that much cash, and it turned out he didn’t. He was dealing with a lawsuit, and it was a strategic business move. He wasn’t really broke.
DMX got six months in jail for ducking child support
He’d been arrested a month earlier for owing $400,000 in unpaid child support. He spent another year behind bars in 2018-19 for tax fraud. Sadly, the rapper died in 2021 of a heart attack, reportedly caused by a drug overdose.
“Game of Thrones” was nominated for 24 Emmys
It went on to snag 12 of them – including Outstanding Drama Series – the most ever for one show in a single year, at the time. If you count miniseries, “John Adams” won 13 Emmys in 2008, but it matters not. “Shōgun” blew them both away with 18 wins in 2024.
