As the iPhone turns 10, let's look back at 2007

2007, what a year. Troops surged, the economy tanked and a B-52 bomber accidentally wandered the skies of America loaded with live nuclear weapons. But there was some good news too: the Apple iPhone went on sale in June 2007, ushering in the mobile era in earnest.

Although it's hard to imagine a time before we all had smartphones, perhaps we can help cast your mind back with a look at some of 2007's most popular films, songs, TV shows and news stories.

When the iPhone was announced, Beyoncé was in the middle of a ten-week run at the top of the Billboard charts with "Irreplaceable", from the album "B'Day".

Rihanna and Jay Z proved that genius is 99 percent precipitation with their 2007 hit "Umbrella".

For their seventh album, "In Rainbows", Radiohead adopted a novel strategy: you could pay as much or as little as you wanted for it.

The soulful 2007 album "Back to Black" by the late Amy Winehouse was the highest debut for a British solo female singer on the Billboard chart -- until Joss Stone charted even higher just one week later.

T-Pain and Yung Joc drank in the success of their hit "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')".

The best selling album of the year across the entire world was Avril Lavigne's "The Best Damn Thing", led by the catchy single "Girlfriend".

Through 2007 we were rocking' out to My Chemical Romance's rock opera "Welcome to the Black Parade". 

Fresh off their record "Taking the Long Way", country band Dixie Chicks won Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammies in February 2007.

In 2006, "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley had been the first song to go to No. 1 in the UK on the strength of digital downloads alone, and it returned to the charts in 2007 when the rules were changed.

2007 was the year that digital downloads became eligible for the UK singles charts even without a physical release. Big winners from that change included Nelly Furtado's "Man-eater", which returned to the charts and went gold thanks to downloads.

The new chart rules meant in theory any song available digitally could feasibly chart, given enough support. So British DJ Chris Evans mobilised his listeners behind "Honey to the Bee" by Billie Piper -- released in 1999 when she was a teen pop star, long before "Doctor Who" -- and the song duly surged to No. 17 on digital sales alone.

The world went mad for the "Mad Men" of Madison Avenue in AMC's sharp-dressed 1950s drama.

Among the popular shows of 2007 were "30 Rock", "Lost", "Friday Night Lights" and "The Office".

One of the greatest TV shows of all time, HBO's "The Sopranos", came to a much-debated end in 2007. Don't stop believin'...

One step ahead of the explosion in digital communication heralded by the iPhone, US President George W Bush signed a law that allowed spies to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant. Of course, thanks to Edward Snowden we'd later learn that this was just the half of it.

In August 2007 Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit a record-breaking 756th home run. Sadly, he was indicted in a doping scandal just a couple of months later.

On 16 April, 32 people were murdered at Virginia Tech, at the time the deadliest school shooting in US history.

On 3 May, British tourists Kate and Gerry McCann discovered their 3-year-old daughter Madeleine McCann had disappeared while they were on holiday in Portugal. She has never been found.

A terrorist attack on Scotland's Glasgow airport was foiled by locals, prompting this unforgettable headline.

An out-of-this-world love story led to a bizarre crime when NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak donned diapers worn during spaceflight so she could drive across the country to assault a love rival.

Following Britney Spears' performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in September, fan Chris Crocker posted a tearful video titled "Leave Britney Alone!" on YouTube. It became an early viral video hit.

We rocked out with our consoles out in 2007 when Rock Band took the stage. Hands up, who has a broken set of those drums in your spare room?

On July 21, the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's wizardry series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in the US.

Among the big games of 2007 were Halo 3, BioShock and Mass Effect, as well as the Orange Box containing Half-Life 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2.

Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz" and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" were in theatres, as well as "There Will Be Blood" and "The Lives of Others".

Javier Bardem took home an Oscar for his chilling turn in the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning "No Country for Old Men".

Sequels in 2007 included "Spider-Man 3", "Live Free or Die Hard" and "The Bourne Ultimatum".

Homer and the family came to the big screen in 2007.

The first ever iPhone commercial appeared during the Academy Awards in February 2007, cutting together 32 legendary movie stars in a supercut of scenes in which they answer the phone and say "Hello?".