Another year, another World Almanac Time Capsule, filled with ten items that represent some of the trends and events that defined the year, from politics to sports to pop culture. Disagree with our choices? Let us know in the comments.
| J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with a purchase receipt from its July 21 release date--on which it sold more than 10 mil copies in the U.S. and U.K. | |
| The gavel used by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), the first woman elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to open the 110th Congress. | |
| A pouch of contaminated pet food, one of the first of many tainted consumer products yanked from store shelves in 2007. | |
| A candle from Virginia Tech's Apr. 17 nighttime vigil in memory of the victims of the Apr. 16 shootings. | |
| Barry Bond's 756th home run ball, purchased at auction by designer Marc Ecko for $752,467. Ecko later sponsored an online vote which determined that the ball should be branded with an asterisk and donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame. | |
| A copy of Climate Change 2007, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which called the global warming trend "unequivocal" and said that human behavior was "very likely" contributing to it. | |
| A gallon of ethanol, which was produced in the U.S. in record amounts in 2007--13 mil barrels in July alone, a 33% increase over July 2006. | |
| Florida Gators football and basketball jerseys, in honor of their unprecedented dual championship seasons. | |
| One of the record number of foreclosure notices (nearly 250,000 in August alone) that were served upon home buyers in 2007 in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. | |
| An iPhone, preloaded with an mp3 of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," in honor of the last scene in the final season of The Sopranos. |
