It's The Five-year Anniversary Of The Dress And The Runaway Llamas

On February 26th, 2015, citizens of the world were glued to their computer screens as one of the most important days in meme history unfolded before their very eyes. It started around 2 P.M. EST, when Bub Bullis called 911 to inform Arizona authorities that two of his llamas were loose in the city. What unfolded was one of the most arresting police chases since O.J. Simpson's White Ford Bronco chase.

For an hour, the internet watched via live stream as cops attempted to wrangle two stray llamas. It was brilliantly gripping television, as the llamas managed to evade capture through an apparent combination of wits and human ineptitude. It was a landmark "only-on-the-internet" moment, a ludicrously silly drama aided by constant tweets and cameras creating a global audience.

On any other day, the "Llama Chase" would have been the top internet moment, no contest. But as fate would have it, the Llama Chase would be relegated to history as the other internet happening of February 26th, 2015. At around 6:00 P.M. EST, Buzzfeed posted one of the most viral articles in internet history, titled simply, "What Colors Are This Dress?"

The Dress, as it would come to be known, befuddled the internet to a heretofore unimaginable magnitude. The split between whether the dress was "white and gold" or "blue and black" was intense, as it seemed like either camp had a claim to an objective grip of reality. The Dress redefined what it meant to be viral. The article set the record for most concurrent visits on Buzzfeed's home page with over 673,000. Twitter reported it was getting 11,000 tweets per minute about The Dress. Eventually, as seemingly all viral content does, the dress and its owners went on Ellen.

There have been several similar reality-bending illusions to take the internet by storm since The Dress, but none have had the dress' widespread impact. It was a landmark story in the history of online culture, establishing not only Buzzfeed but arguably Twitter and all of social media as forces of undeniable social power.

On February 26th, 2016, Buzzfeed published an oral history of the same day a year prior, cementing February 26th, 2015 as one of the most important days in internet history. Five years later, The Dress remains one of the internet's most recognizable images, but if it weren't for a throwaway piece from a Buzzfeed editor about to leave for home, the llama drama from earlier that day may have been the story that stuck in our heads for years to come.