What was going on in the world the last time Manchester United won the Premier League?

Here’s a key reason why Manchester United won it all in 2013. The team was paced by the Premier League’s top goal scorer. Van Persie tallied 26 goals, three more than Luis Suarez had for Liverpool. The Dutch striker has been retired since 2019, when he finished his career with Feyenoord.

Ronaldo is still at it, though he is far from the player he used to be. The Portuguese icon, and former Man United player, ended up winning five Ballon d’Or’s, his most recent in 2017. Back in 2013, though, he won his second of these awards. Ronaldo was with Real Madrid at the time.

“Let It Go” has become a song you’ve heard so often you may never want to hear it again, and we’ve gotten a sequel to “Frozen” as well. Elsa is now enshrined in the Hall of Iconic Disney Princesses. The same year United lifted the Premier League trophy last, “Frozen” hit theaters. It would make over $1 billion USD, one of two films to do so that year. The other one? “Iron Man 3.”

Superman may be the iconic American superhero, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be played by a Brit. Cavill was cast in the role for the latest reboot of Superman. “Man of Steel” did reasonably well, but then the whole “Batman v. Superman” and “Justice League” thing happened. In 2025, once again Superman is being rebooted.

“Spaced” paved the way for “Shaun of the Dead,” perhaps the best horror-comedy ever made. This started a de facto trilogy of movies directed by Wright and co-starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. That trilogy concluded with “The World’s End” in 2013. Since then, Wright has directed three more movies and also gained, and lost, the opportunity to make “Ant-Man.”

The 50th anniversary special for “Doctor Who” aired in 2013, but that wasn’t the only notable thing for the good Doctor. Smith, the 11th Doctor, stepped into the TARDIS for the last time in 2013. That same year Peter Capaldi was announced as the 12th Doctor, but he didn’t debut until 2014.

The first episode of “Poirot,” starring David Suchet as Christie’s famed detective, debuted on ITV in 1989. Between that day and 2013, 70 episodes were produced, each with Suchet in the main role. On 13 November, “Curtains,” Christie’s last story, was adapted. It marked the end of the show’s run as well.

Whatever your feelings on the American adaptation of “The Office,” it was a huge hit. Also, given the nature of American television, it ran for much longer and produced many more episodes. In fact, the 201st, and final, episode aired right around the same time Manchester United was winning the Premier League.

Perhaps the thing we could say that makes you realize how long ago Man U won it all the most is “Robin Thicke had the biggest hit in the United Kingdom.” Yes, “Blurred Lines” was massive across the globe. The Canadian singer had a brief, flitting moment of success, but he’s been basically forgotten about for a decade by this point.

Ahh, the return of the boy band. One Direction, the five-member pop group, churned out the albums. In 2013 they released “Midnight Memories,” their third album. It wasn’t quite as popular as “Take Me Home,” but it was a huge success. Zayn Malik would leave the band in 2015, ending the run of One Direction. Harry Styles would become a solo superstar and a somewhat-successful actor. Also, unfortunately, Liam Payne would die in 2024 at the age of 31.

Or, perhaps, we should call it The Open Championship. The 2013 event was held at Muirfield Golf Links in Scotland. It was one of those years where scores were quite low, or rather high. Almost every golfer finished with a score above par. Henrik Stenson finished at even par, and in second. Mickelson, who was three under par, won it all. It was his first Open Championship.

Upsets abounded on the ladies' side of things at Wimbledon. In the finals, 15th-ranked Italian Marion Bartoli faced 23rd-ranked German Sabine Lisicki. Bartoli won handily, 6-1, 6-4. It was her only Grand Slam title, and also something of a swan song. She retired about a month later due to too many injuries suffered during her career.

With all due respect to Bartoli, who ended her career with a crowning achievement, the story at Wimbledon in 2013 was Murray winning the gentlemen's singles title. For years, British tennis fans had been waiting. People knew the name Fred Perry became he had been the last British man to win at Wimbledon…back in 1936. Murray bested Novak Djokovic, arguably the best player in tennis history, for a momentous title.

Sure, cycling isn’t as popular as tennis, and certainly not as popular as football, but we weren’t going to eschew the chance to shout out another sporting Brit. Froome won the Tour de France, the only cycling race people care about casually, for the first time. Not the last time, though. He would go on to win three more Tours de France before all was said and done.

Because of the ways in which video game technology is a product of planned obsolescence, the march of time can be felt in that world more than in others. The two biggest games of 2013 were “Grand Theft Auto V” and “The Last of Us.” Both were released long enough ago that they came out on the PlayStation 3. Also, “The Last of Us” has now been adapted into an HBO television series.

Okay, so actually the thing that probably makes the passage of time feel the most intense is when you remember fleeting memes of yesteryear. When was the last time you thought about the “Harlem Shake”? It was a song, yes, but it was really a meme backdrop. People from all walks of life were doing bits wherein a video would jump cut from everybody being placid and stoic to chaos. Costumes, dances, you name it. It was inescapable for, like, 10 days. Then, it was gone.

For a brief moment, people were obsessed with the cronut. Sure, it was just a croissant donut. That sounds totally fine, but not wild and revolutionary. It became a full-on trend, though. While the cronut still exists, it has fallen far from the heights of its 2013 glory. These days, most people will just have a more run-of-the-mill donut instead.

Joseph Ratzinger, known as Pope Benedict XVI, did something that hadn’t been done in literally 600 years: Resigned from the position of Pope. The conclave went into action in 2013 to decide who would step into the role. They opted for Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the son of an Italian and an Argentine who grew up in Buenos Aires. He was the first non-European Pope since the 8th century, and also became the first Pope to take on the name Francis.

What the United States government gets up to has a worldwide impact, and Edward Snowden revealed a significant reality at great cost to himself. While working for the NSA, Snowden realized the depths to which the intelligence organization was covertly spying on citizens. He stole classified information and leaked it to the public. It was truly a globe-shaking scandal, one that led to the United States revoking Snowden’s citizenship and leaving him living in a Russian airport for a month.

There are sea changes in this world sometimes, and same-sex marriage was at the forefront of a positive one in 2013. In the United States, same-sex marriages became legal on a federal level, making it legal across the country. Additionally, in the United Kingdom that same year the Marriage Act of 2013 made same-sex marriages legal in England and Wales. One could feel cynical about it taking so long, but progress is progress.

Thatcher is a polarizing figure, to be sure, but her significance to the history of the world, much less the United Kingdom, is obvious and unambiguous. She was the first female Prime Minister of the U.K. and served in that role from 1979 until 1990. Now, for those who aren’t fans of Thatcher’s conservative politics, we will point out an absurd turn of events that happened in 2013 in the wake of her death. Social media efforts were spearheaded to get the song "Ding-Dŏng! The Witch is Dead” from “The Wizard of Oz” onto the charts. It ended up rising to number two in the U.K.

Death is the one thing promised to us all, and as in any year some famous faces and notable names passed away in 2013. Tony Soprano himself James Gandolfini died, as did acting legend Peter O’Toole. On the political front, the iconic South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison before becoming president of his nation, died at the age of 95.

Hey, let’s not only focus on the end of life. England got a new prince in 2013 as well. The first son of William and Catherine, George, was born in 2013. Of course, at the time he was quite a ways away from the throne of England, but in the interim Queen Elizabeth II has died and Charles has become king. Prince William, aka George’s dad, is next in line, which means Prince George of Wales isn’t all that far from being king. Hopefully it’s still a while, though. We don’t need a teenaged king in modern times. Also, William is only in his early forties, so obviously only tragedy striking would pave the way for George at this point.

The primary reason why Manchester United hasn’t won a title since 2013 was hidden in plain sight all along. Ferguson took over as manager of Manchester United in 1989. Under his leadership the club won the Premier League 13 times. They won the Champions League twice for good measure. After hoisting the trophy one last time, Fergie retired after the 2012-13 campaign. Literally, the club has never recovered.