Rewind to 25 June – 1 July 2006

💰 Buffett drops the biggest tip jar in history
Warren Buffett announced he was giving away most of his fortune, pledging more than US$30 billion to the Gates Foundation. In a world obsessed with getting rich, the Oracle of Omaha casually decided to give it away instead. It was the biggest charitable donation the world had ever seen and kicked off a new era of billionaire philanthropy.

⚽ The Phenomenon strikes again
Brazil's Ronaldo silenced the critics and broke the all-time World Cup finals goal-scoring record with his 15th goal. If you spent June 2006 waking up at ridiculous hours to watch football on SBS, this one felt huge. Frosted tips, dodgy sleep schedules and peak World Cup fever.

🎵 Meet me in the mall...
Yung Joc's ‘It's Goin' Down’ was climbing the charts and helping Atlanta's snap music takeover go mainstream. Finger snaps, ringtone rap and simple hooks were becoming the blueprint for the next generation of viral music. TikTok trends before TikTok existed.

🌹 Axl Rose bites back. Literally.
After a concert in Stockholm, Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose was arrested following an altercation with a hotel security guard. The detail everyone remembers? He allegedly bit the guard on the leg. Chinese Democracy was still nowhere to be seen but Axl was keeping the headlines alive anyway.

📺 The Adam Sandler movie that made us cry
Click arrived looking like another goofy Adam Sandler comedy about a magic remote control. Then halfway through it blindsided audiences with an existential crisis about ageing, family and wasting your life. Nobody rented this expecting feelings.

🏡 Neighbours hits 5,000 episodes
Ramsay Street celebrated its 5,000th episode and somehow still had plenty of drama left in the tank. Plane crashes, kidnappings, amnesia and Paul Robinson plotting his latest scheme. Australian television institutions don't get much bigger than this.

📚 Dad fiction goes feral
Dean Koontz's thriller The Husband had readers hooked with kidnappings, ransom demands and enough landscaping references to apparently upset half of Goodreads. Critics complained about all the plant descriptions. Defenders pointed out the main character was literally a landscaper. Fair.

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