This has been a big year for Twitter. The platform saw its active user base rise to more than 200 million people.
Jump ahead for the most memorable tweets of 2012 >
The 2012 presidential election became the most tweeted-about political event ever, with 20 million tweets.
The London Olympics generated more than 150 million tweets. 2012 even saw the invention of Twitter toilet paper.
And of course, it was on everyone's favorite fast-paced social network that so much of this year's news broke and played out, in bursts of 140 characters or less.
Here, a look back at some of the most memorable Twitter moments of 2012.
1. The deepest tweet
Just arrived at the ocean's deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can't wait to share what I'm seeing w/ you @deepchallenge
— James Cameron (@JimCameron) March 25, 2012
It wasn't enough for Titanic director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron to design a submarine. He then took it to the Earth's deepest point, the Mariana Trench.
When he got there, he let the world know with a tweet, "to the puzzlement of dozens of Twitter users who struggle to get a signal in an elevator or in their own apartments," notes Forrest Wickman at Slate.
Cameron's tweet was actually pre-written and sent from the surface by a friend once the director reached his goal, but his epic journey to the bottom of the ocean was nothing short of amazing.
2. CNN speaks too soon
Supreme Court strikes down individual mandate portion of health care law. on.cnn.com/LvVRcK
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 28, 2012
Oops. What's that old saying? It's better to be right than first?
CNN learned that the hard way when they hastily and incorrectly reported that the Supreme Court had struck down the controversial individual mandate in President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
The mistake sparked an avalanche of criticism, and has been dubbed the modern-day version of the Chicago Tribune's infamous "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline.
3. The NRA shows very poor timing
At approximately 12:30 am on July 20, James Holmes allegedly walked into a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. and opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.
Seven hours later, the National Rifle Association, which either hadn't been reading the news or had its Twitter account set on autopilot, issued this controversial tweet polling gun-enthusiasts on their weekend plans.
"Yeah, just gonna mourn a bit. And you?" responded one offended user. The tweet, and subsequently the entire account, were deleted later that day.
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