The Year 2017 in Review: Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historic Highlights

This quick read is a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historical events from the year 2017. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, computer and Internet news, entertainment trivia, and much more.

1. On January 20, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, and Mike Pence was sworn in as the nation’s 48th vice president.
2. In 2017, the U.S. unemployment rate hovered around 4.1%, inflation averaged 2.13%, and the median household income was $61,372.
3. At the grocery store, one pound of potatoes cost 72 cents, eggs were $1.43 a dozen, and one pound of sliced bacon was $5.79.
4. Health care costs increased in 2017 faster than the rate of inflation. Under Obamacare, the average monthly individual health insurance premium was $393, up from $321 in 2016, $286 in 2015, and $271 in 2014. The average monthly family health insurance premium was $1,021, up from $833 in 2016, $727 in 2015, and $667 in 2014.
5. According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy at birth in the U.S. during 2017 dropped for the second year in a row to 78.7 years. The updated average life expectancy puts the United States behind other “developed countries” such as Canada, Germany, and Japan.
6. In 2017, over a billion people around the world needed glasses, and another 36 million were blind. In the United States, about 75% of American adults used some form of vision correction.
7. In January, Norway completed its transition to digital audio broadcasting (DAB), becoming the first country in the world to end FM radio broadcasts. The Guardian tells us that “The transition allows for better sound quality and more channels and functions at an eighth of the cost of FM radio.”
8. In January, the most expensive house in the U.S. went on the market in Bel Air, California. Its asking price was $250 million.
9. On January 18, MLB legends Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Ivan Rodriguez were added to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
10. On January 27, President Trump signed Executive Order 13769, also known as "Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States." The order “suspended travel to the U.S. for 90 days for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The order also included the indefinite suspension of entry for Syrian refugees.”
11. On January 30, President Trump fired acting United States Attorney General Sally Yates after she instructed the U.S. Justice Department not to carry out President Trump's recent executive order (13769) on refugees and immigrants.
12. On February 26, at the 89th Academy Awards, Moonlight won an Oscar for Best Picture, and Damien Chazelle (La La Land) won an Oscar for Best Director. Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) won an Oscar for Best Actor, and Emma Stone (La La Land) won an Oscar for Best Actress.
13. On March 6, President Trump issued Executive Order 13780, which replaced Executive Order 13769 from January 27. The new order removed Iraq from the list of banned countries.
14. On March 15, federal judges Derrick Watson in Hawaii and Theodore D. Chuang in Maryland blocked President Trump's revised travel ban on Muslims and refugees.
15. In April, Starbucks introduced a “limited-edition menu item” called a “Unicorn Frappuccino.”
16. On April 4, China-based Alibaba became the world's largest retailer. In 2016 fiscal sales, Alibaba surpassed Walmart, thus making it “the world’s largest retailer by sales volume of merchandise.”
17. In May, the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm infected over 300,000 computers that used the Microsoft Windows operating system. It attacked Britain’s National Health Service as well as companies in Spain, Russia, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
18. On May 10, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) released a report saying that some glaciers in Montana’s Glacier National Park have receded by as much as 85% in the last 50 years, while the average loss is 39%.
19. On May 21, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus staged the final show in its 146-year history at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
20. On June 16, Amazon merged with Whole Foods.
21. On July 27, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly became the world's richest man, overtaking Bill Gates for half a day.
22. In August, fifty-three-year-old Mavis Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts, won $758.7 million in the Powerball Jackpot. It was the “largest single-ticket lottery prize in U.S. history” up to that time.
23. On August 18, the USS Indianapolis was rediscovered by civilian researchers 8,000 feet below the Pacific surface, more than 70 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes. MentalFloss.com points out that “Around 300 to 400 sailors and Marines were killed in the attack; the rest were stranded in the Pacific Ocean for several days.”
24. On August 21, most of North America experienced an eclipse of the sun. Space.com tells us that “skies darkened from Oregon to South Carolina in the first total solar eclipse visible from coast to coast across the United States in 99 years.”
25. In September, Apple introduced the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
26. In November, Twitter increased the character limit for most users from 140 to 280 characters. Money.CNN.com reports that "The new character length won't apply to Japanese, Korean, or Chinese-language tweets. Those languages can convey twice as much information in less space, so tweets will remain at 140 characters."
27. On November 27, Britain's Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle announced their engagement.
28. In December, Starbucks opened its largest cafe in the world in Shanghai. It was 30,000 square feet, one-half the size of a football field.
29. Throughout 2017, Europe experienced a wave of terror attacks. According to ABC News, the attacks included “a truck attack in Stockholm, the shooting of police officers at the Champs-Élysées boulevard in Paris, and twin vehicle attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain.”
30. In 2017, the average American spent nearly 25 hours a week watching television and another 135 minutes per day on social media.
31. The top five Google searches for the year were Hurricane Irma, iPhone 8, iPhone X, Matt Lauer, and Meghan Markle. “How to” searches were also popular, with people wondering how to make glasses for the solar eclipse and how to make slime.
32. Matt Damon’s movie Suburbicon was the biggest box-office flop of 2017. Other box-office bombs for the year included Tulip Fever, A Cure for Wellness, Unforgettable, Life, Collide, The House, King Arthur: The Last Sword, and Ghost in the Shell.
33. Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, premiered in Los Angeles. It was the first superhero film directed by a woman.
34. The Silence Breakers—those who spoke out against sexual assault and harassment—were Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year.” According to Deadline.com, the shortlist of candidates included Jeff Bezos, the Dreamers, Patty Jenkins, Kim Jong Un, Colin Kaepernick, the #MeToo movement, Robert Mueller, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Donald Trump, and Xi Jinping.
35. The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary announced that “feminism” was the “word of the year.”
36. Other popular dictionary words in 2017 were "complicit," "recuse," "empathy," "dotard," "syzygy," "gyro," "federalism," "hurricane," and "gaffe."
37. The Ford F-Series was the best-selling vehicle, followed by the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram pickup trucks.
38. Tsingtao, Bud Light, and Skol were the most popular brands of beer.
39. Volvo was the first automaker to announce that all new models by 2019 would either be hybrids or battery-powered.
40. Here are some sports facts from 2017: The Houston Astros were the World Series champions, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl, and the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched the Stanley Cup.

References:

1. https://www.food.ee/blog/top-10-food-trends-of-2017/
2. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-2015.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_in_the_United_States
4. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/2017
5. https://www.delish.com/food/g4669/best-worst-food-trends-2017/
6. https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/06/the-10-best-selling-cars-of-2017.aspx
7. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/beauty/fitness-wellbeing/news/a39139/2017-most-popular-new-years-resolutions/
8. https://deadline.com/2018/05/2017-2018-tv-series-ratings-rankings-full-list-of-shows-1202395851/
9. https://www.computerhope.com/history/2017.htm
10. https://www.factinate.com/things/27-fun-facts-2017/

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor