2015

• Adele - "Hello"
• Andy Grammer - "Honey, I'm Good"
• Ed Sheeran - "Thinking Out Loud"
• Ellie Goulding - "Love Me Like You Do"
• Fifth Harmony Ft Kid Ink - "Worth It"
• Hozier - "Take Me to Church"
• Jason Derulo - "Want to Want Me"
• Justin Bieber - "Sorry"
• Justin Bieber - "What Do You Mean?"
• Major Lazer & DJ Snake Ft. MO - "Lean On”
• Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars - "Uptown Funk" 
• Maroon 5 - "Sugar"
• OMI - "Cheerleader"
• Pitbull & Ne-Yo - "Time of Our Lives"
• Rachel Platten - "Fight Song"
• Shawn Mendes - "Stitches"
• Taylor Swift - "Bad Blood"
• The Weeknd - "Can't Feel My Face"
• Vance Joy - "Riptide"
• Walk the Moon - "Shut Up and Dance"
• Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth - "See You Again"
• X Ambassadors - "Renegades"

• The Force Awakens
• Jurassic World
• Age of Ultron
• Inside Out
• Fast & Furious 7
• Minions
• Mockingjay - Part 2
• The Martian
• Spectre
• Rogue Nation
• Pitch Perfect 2
• The Revenant
• Ant-Man

• iZombie
• Daredevil
• Wayward Pines
• Zoo
• Fear the Walking Dead
• Blindspot
• Life in Pieces
• Limitless
• Scream Queens
• Quantico
• Supergirl
• Jessica Jones

• The Mentalist
• Two and a Half Men
• Glee
• Hart of Dixie
• Revenge
• The Following
• Under the Dome
• CSI

• Season: Cambodia
• Players were selected by public vote
• Winner: Jeremy Collins
• Votes: Jeremy (10), Spencer (0), Tasha (0)

• Season: Worlds Apart
• Location: Nicaragua
• Winner: Mike Holloway
• Votes: Mike (6), Carolyn (1), Will (1)

• Harry Connick Jr, Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez returned as judges for what was supposed the be the final season 
• Winner: Trent Harmon - released "Falling" (co-written by Keith Urban)
• Runner-up: La'Porsha Renae

• Winner: Jordan Smith
• Runner-up: Emily Ann Roberts
• Coaches:
• • Adam Levine*
  • Blake Shelton
  • Gwen Stefani
  • Pharrell Williams

• Winner: Sawyer Fredericks
• Runner-up: Meghan Linsey
• Coaches:
• • Pharrell Williams*
  • Adam Levine
  • Blake Shelton
  • Christina Aguilera

• Leonard Nimoy - actor, played Dr. Spock on "Star Trek"
• Scott Weiland - former frontman for Stone Temple Pilots
• Wes Craven - movie director, "Nightmare on Elm Street", and the "Scream" movies
• B.B. King - blue legend, "The Thrill is Gone"
• James Horner - film composer for "Titanic", "Braveheart"
• Sawyer Sweeten - actor, "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1996-2005)
• Minnie Minoso - major league baseball's first black player in Chicago in 1951
• Richard Bonehill - expert swordsman and horseman, played a stormtrooper, Rebel soldier and many other characters in the "Star Wars" universe
• Stuart Scott - anchor on ESPN's Sports Center since 1993, known for his catchphrases "Boo-yah!" and "cool as the other side of the pillow"
• Audree Norton - first deaf actress to appear in a featured role on an American network
• Ben E. King - singer, "Stand By Me"
• Yogi Berra - Hall of Fame catcher, with New York Yankees
• Caleb Logan Bratayley - YouTube star
• Bobbi Kristina Brown - daughter of singer Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown
• Uggie - acting dog in the movie "The Artist"
• Fred Thompson - former Republican senator and actor on "Law & Order"

• extreme risk protection order
• red flag law

The year was a quest to find the next presidential candidates. With countless interviews, campaign rallies and live debates, America narrowed down the Democrats to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The Republicans had a long list of hopefuls. The most controversy surrounded Republican hopeful and billionaire businessman, Donald Trump, who made many outlandish remarks regarding religion and race.

Terror struck in Paris one week into the New Year when 3 of men with extensive ties to terrorist organizations targeted the offices of a famed satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The shooters forced their way into the publication's offices, killing 13 people, mostly editorial staff gathered for their weekly meeting. The attacks continued in France for two more days, taking the lives of six others.

Walter Scott was fatally shot by a police officer following a traffic stop in South Carolina on April 4. Footage of the incident was recorded by a bystander that appeared to show Scott, who was unarmed, running away from the officer. Just over a week later, in Baltimore, a man named Freddie Gray was picked up by police and put in a police transport vehicle without being properly strapped in. He suffered spinal injuries during the ride, which led to his death. Protests, some of them violent, erupted across Baltimore.

One of this year’s deadliest mass shootings struck a particularly heartbreaking chord because of its location: inside a church. Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old, reportedly with white supremacist beliefs, attended a Bible study session at the famed predominantly African-American church before allegedly opening fire on the group. Roof later confessed to trying to start a race war.

After more than 50 sexual assault accusations, 78-year-old Bill Cosby was finally hit with a criminal charge. The comedian was charged for a 2004 incident involving a Temple University employee Andrea Constand. The rape case ended in mistrial, gets another trial date in 2018.

Three Americans - Spencer Stone (23), Anthony Sadler (23) and Alek Skarlatos (22) - helped foil a potential deadly terror attack when they subdued a perpetrator who opened fire in a Thalys train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on August 21. 

The racial identity of Rachel Dolezal, the president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington, came under scrutiny in June when her parents came forward to say their daughter was disguising herself as African-American, when she was really white. 

Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died while in police custody after a forceful arrest that left him in a coma. Gray was arrested in Baltimore for possessing what police said was an illegal switchblade, on April 12, before he suffered a severe spinal cord and neck injuries. He died six days later in prison. His death sparked violent riots about police brutality against African-Americans and gained national attention.

In South Carolina, on April 4, police office Michael Slager shot and killed unarmed Walter Scott, a 50-year-old black man, who attempted to flee the scene after he was pulled over for a broken brake light. A bystander captured the entire incident on camera, showing he was shot in the back as he ran away. 

A train derailment in Philadelphia killed eight and injured more than 200 Amtrak passengers in May after the train sped around a curve and went off the track. It was determined that the train accelerated before the crash and had been traveling in excess of 100 mph, which was more than twice the speed limit for that area of the track.

More than 9,000 people lost their lives after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal before triggering a massive avalanche on Mount Everest on April 25. The earthquake was the deadliest natural disaster to strike the country since 1934 and the deadliest day Mount Everest has ever seen in history. It is believed the disaster caused more than $5 billion in damages.

One of the biggest stories of the summer seemed like something straight out of a Hollywood movie. It involved two prisoners, a sexual liaison with a prison worker who smuggled tools hidden in frozen meat and a midnight escape with a smiley-faced getaway note. David Sweat and Richard Matt, both convicted murderers, escaped from the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York on June 6, crawling out of sewage pipes and digging through cell walls a la “The Shawshank Redemption.” There were hunted down over the next 3 weeks.

A series of coordinated terror attacks struck fear through the heart of the French capital on Friday Nov. 13. A combination of shooters and men wearing explosive vests targeted a football stadium, restaurants and a concert venue that evening, leaving 130 people dead.

American dentist Walter Palmer killed one of Africa's most famous lions, Cecil, sparking international outrage. Palmer, with the help of 2 Zimbabwean professional hunters, lured Cecil out of the protected game preserve, before the lion was shot by a bow and arrow and killed with a rifle some 40 hours later. Cecil was the most well-known animal in the park and wore a GPS tracking collar.

December 2: the 57th mass shooting of the year in the US (where at least 3 people were killed) and the deadliest took place in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed and 22 others seriously injured. A married couple opened fire during a Department of Public Health conference and holiday luncheon. Weeks before the shooting, the wife pledged her allegiance to ISIS via social media, and radicalized her husband.

Liberal Justin Trudeau defeated incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper to become the next Prime Minister. The Liberal Party's increase of 148 seats from the previous election was the largest-ever numerical increase by a party in a Canadian election. The election also had the highest voter turnout since 1993.

Thousands of people fleeing war-torn Syria and other areas in the Middle East and Africa spent much of this summer making the laborious, and dangerous, trek through Europe toward countries including Germany and Sweden in hopes of finding asylum. The influx of refugee families prompted international disputes and policy shifts as countries such as Hungary started to close some of their borders and put up fences with razor wire to prevent people from entering. 

Leonard Nimoy was best known for his long and prosperous run as Star Trek's Spock. Nimoytweeted in January that he had lung disease and signed the tweet with "LLAP," an acronym for his character's catchphrase, "Live Long and Prosper." He died Feb. 27 at age 83.

After months of media speculation that Bruce Jenner was in the process of transitioning into a woman, the Olympic athlete gave a special two-house interview with Diane Sawyer saying that he was indeed transgender. Caitlyn revealed her new image and name to the public in June. The world's first glimpse of Caitlyn was a Vanity Fair cover.

Reality TV star, Kim Kardashian, and her rapper husband, Kanye West, had their second child, a baby boy, on December 5. They named him Saint. Even by the eccentric standards of celebrity child names, Saint West was already raising virtual eyebrows on Twitter for its uniqueness and virtuous connotations. Saint's name may also disappoint fans hoping for another directional moniker, including those on the Internet who had urged the couple to name the boy "Easton" or "South."

Prince William and Kate welcomed their second child, a baby girl, on May 2.  They named her Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. She is fourth in line of succession to the British throne, after her paternal grandfather, Prince Charles, her father, and her elder brother.