It’s been 10 years since the hashtag came into being. Since they were first used on Twitter in 2007, hashtags have grown to become a quintessential part of social media.
The hashtag was born on Twitter on 23 August 2007. From breaking news to world-changing movements, Twitter’s hashtags have done it all. Here's to 10 years of trending hashtags.
2007
The first hashtag, created by Chris Messina, was #barcamp and the tweet it appeared in looked like this:
#noticias, the Spanish word for news, became the most used Twitter hashtag of 2007.
2008
The 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks resulted in #Mumbai becoming a trending hashtag.
The #YesWeCan hashtag during the 2008 US Presidential Election Campaign became closely associated with former President Obama, and has been ever since.
2009
#inaug09 trended when Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, became the United States' first African-American president.
#Chandrayaan became a Twitter trend when the ISRO-designed spacecraft became the first to detect water on the moon.
#MusicMonday and #FollowFriday quickly were two of the most popular Twitter hashtags in 2009, and set off Twitter trends that are now a part of the site’s culture.
2010
The #HaitiEarthquake hashtag was a result of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that shook the nation on 12 January.
#imjustsaying, which has become a highly used phrase even in offline conversation, was one of the top trending hashtags in 2010.
2011
The hashtag #Japan trended after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the country’s Tohoku region and also caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s #RoyalWedding got tweeted at the rate of 300 tweets per hour at the peak of its popularity.
#OsamaDead, #September11 and #WarOnTerror were some of the trending hashtags on Twitter when Osama Bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALS in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
2012
With footage and photographs from war-ravaged #Syria breaking the internet, the country became a trending topic on Twitter.
#London2012 became a top hashtag during the 2012 London Olympics.
Twitter users went into celebration mode when former US President Barack Obama was re-elected for #4moreyears.
2013
Twitter was the place of origin of the #BlackLives Matter movement after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen, Trayvon Martin.
#DevyaniHumiliated - The arrest of Devyani Khobragade in New York had caused a major diplomatic row between the US and India.
#ThankYouSachin and #BornToPlayCricket | 16 November 2013; Wankhede Stadium and thousands of fans stood in respect for the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar.
2014
#HeForShe went viral in 2014 when Harry Potter star Emma Watson spoke at the United Nations about gender equality.
#IceBucketChallenge went viral on social media during July-August 2014 as a way to raise funds for MS.
2015
#DelhiDecides and #AapSweeps were the hashtags used for tweeting about the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP’s landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly Election.
Remember #TheDress? It seemed like the whole world had their say over whether a dress was black and blue or white and gold in February 2015.
2016
People took to tweeting about the demonetisation using the hashtags #Notebandi and #BlackMoney when the Indian government put 500 and 1000 rupee notes out of commission in November 2016.
#Brexit probably doesn't need an explanation, but the UK was divided over whether or not we should leave the European Union in June 2016.
#USElection2016 and #Trump were two of the most used Twitter hashtags, with the latter becoming the only person to make the 2016 list.
2017
#BTSBBMMAS The most popular hashtag of 2017 has already been used more than 300 million times. It refers to the K-Pop band BTS and their victory at this year’s Billboard Music Awards.
This year has seen Twitter users registering their disillusionment with US President Donald Trump with the hashtag #NotMyPresident.
Have other memorable hashtags you want to talk about? Tell us in the comments!
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