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10 who had their 15 minutes in 2014

By their own doing or by the whim of circumstance, these are 10 who had their 15 minutes in 2014.

Larry Copeland
USA TODAY
Alex Lee  is a teen-age Target employee from Frisco, Texas.

Every year, a number of relative unknowns get their 15 minutes.

These are people who, by their own doing or by the whim of circumstance, flash across our collective consciousness for a time. For days or weeks, they are a regular presence in the zeitgeist, and then we move on.

Among those who had their 15 minutes in 2014: The pilot whose airliner vanished without a trace, the man who jumped 25 miles from the stratosphere to earth in record time, and ex-con who set hearts aflutter.

Here are some of those whom the nation came to know for a brief spell in 2014.

Alex Lee The 16-year-old Target employee from Frisco, Texas, became an Internet sensation – "Alex from Target" – on Nov. 2 after a British teen posted a Tumblr photo of him on her Twitter account. Young girls practically mobbed his store to take pictures with him; by the end of his shift that day, he had more than 100,000 Twitter followers. He later appeared on Ellen and amassed more than 755,000 followers on Twitter. But fame came with a price, as Alex said he and his family were the target of death threats.

Mug shot of Shanesha Taylor went viral.


Shanesha Taylor – The 35-year-old homeless Phoenix mom was arrested March 20 for leaving two of her children in a hot car while she went to a job interview. Her teary-eyed mug shot went viral and prompted a national outpouring of sympathy: Strangers donated more than $114,775 to a fund set up on her behalf.

A judge cut a deal in which she could avoid felony charges by depositing $40,000 in trust funds for her children. Taylor failed to meet deadlines for depositing the money, telling reporters she disagreed with terms of the trust funds requiring that her children get the money only if they attended post-secondary education. She denied spending the money frivolously. She is scheduled to stand trial in February.

Omar Jose Gonzalez – With almost casual ease, this Iraq War veteran broke into one of the most secure facilities in the country. On the night of Sept. 22, Gonzalez, 42, jumped a fence on Pennsylvania Avenue, ran 70 yards across the North Lawn and into the front door of the White House. He made it all the way to the East Room before the Secret Service accosted him. Authorities found 800 pounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in his car a few blocks away.

Hannibal Buress – The 31-year-old stand-up comedian, who has written for Saturday Night Live and was already known to comedy die-hards, was performing on Oct. 16 at a Philadelphia comedy club when he was videotaped doing a routine that ripped Bill Cosby as a hypocrite for lecturing blacks on their behavior while "you rape women." The bit went viral and reignited decade-old allegations against the legendary comedian. Buress has said that he had been doing the bit for about six months before that night. The ensuing imbroglio is threatening to destroy Cosby's career.

Mo'ne Davis delivers a pitch against Tennessee during a baseball game in United States pool play at the Little League World Series tournament in South Williamsport, Pa.

Mo'ne Davis The 13-year-old Philadelphia pitcher became the first girl ever to pitch a winning game in Little League World Series history and the first girl to pitch a shutout in Little League postseason history on Aug. 15. The game she pitched drew the highest rating for a Little League game on ESPN. She later appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and became the first Little Leaguer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Davis' 15 minutes might not be up yet: After her history-making game, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett predicted that she would one day play professional baseball.

Alan Eustace – On Oct. 24, Eustace, who was 57 and a senior vice president of Google, parachuted to earth from a balloon near the top of the stratosphere. He descended faster than the speed of sound, plunging over 25 miles in 15 minutes. His jump broke a world altitude record that had been set just two years earlier by Felix Baumgartner.

Booking photo released by the Stockton Police Department shows Jeremy Meeks, who was arrested on felony weapons charges in Stockton, Calif.


Jeremy Meeks - Baby blue eyes, chiseled cheek bones and a rap sheet. Meeks, 30, caused a sensation worldwide after his mug shot was posted in June by the Stockton, Calif., Police Department. It went viral and prompted various memes for the "hot mugshot guy" and "hot felon." On Facebook, someone created a Jeremy Meeks fan page, which had almost 100,000 likes in days. Stories swirled about modeling contracts and Hollywood agents – which didn't materialize. In July, a federal grand jury indicted Meeks on gun charges. He preciously spent two years in prison for a grand theft conviction.

But fans are fickle. Before long they had transferred their affections to Sean Kory, whose mug shot was splashed cross the Internet after he was arrested on assault charges in California.

Joaquin Guzman– Nicknamed El Chapo, he was head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and that nation's top drug kingpin from 2003 until his Feb. 22 arrest. The U.S. Treasury Department called Guzman, whose age has been reported as 57 or 59, "the most powerful drug trafficker in the world" and Forbes magazine ranked him one of the world's most powerful people, with a reported net worth of $1 billion.

He had escaped from a Mexican prisoner in 2001 and is a legend in Mexico: His biographer told Reuters that Guzman had paid for schools, hospitals and other public projects and that he was the sole employer in some parts of Sinaloa. He was arrested at his condo in Sinoloa without a shot being fired. He was indicted by a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn in September, and the USA is seeking to extradite him.


Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, right, and V. Stiviano, left, watch the Clippers play the Sacramento Kings during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles on Oct. 25, 2013.

Donald Sterling On April 21, TMZ released a recording of a chat between Sterling, 80 and then-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and his friend V. Stiviano. Sterling could be heard slighting National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson and making racist remarks about black fans attending his team's games. The tape touched off a national furor. Later that month, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Sterling had been banned from the league for life and fined $2.5 million.

Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah – On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished with 239 passengers and crew aboard after taking off from Kuala Lumpar bound for Beijing. Shah, 53, was the pilot. The plane's disappearance touched off the largest search in history. For a time, attention focused on Shah, his reportedly troubled marriage and his actions prior to the flight. He has never been officially accused of any wrongdoing.

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