10 most popular tweets

Billions of messages are fired off weekly at Twitter, with some of them capturing defining moments in history or in the evolution of the San Francisco-based firm.

Below a sampling of ten memorable tweets since the Twitter era began.

"just setting up my twttr" @jack March 2006 Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet, an automated message saying "just setting up my twttr." That same day he sent the first live tweet, "inviting coworkers."
* "Arrested" @jamesbuck April 2008 US university student James Buck got off a one-word tweet after being taken into custody by Egyptian authorities at an anti-government protest in that country. In what is seen as an early demonstration of the power of Twitter to rally people to a cause, resulting outcry caused Buck to quickly regain his liberty. He proclaimed his release in a tweet reading "Free."

* 'There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy."

@jkrums January 2009 A US Airways jet crash-landed on the Hudson River in New York. This tweet and others by witnesses and passengers was accompanied by a link to a picture of the scene, breaking the news well ahead of mainstream media outlets.

* "HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY"

@Oprah April 2009 Talk show queen and media royalty Oprah Winfrey took Twitter mainstream with her debut post and now has more than 21 million followers. She follows 149 people, according to her Twitter profile.

* "From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!"

@astro_mike Astronaut Mike Massimino makes history with the first tweet from space. --- "Twitter Revolution" June 2009 Not a specific tweet, but an unofficial named given to a bold movement by thousands of Iranians who took to the streets to protest what they saw as a rigged presidential election and used Twitter to thwart government efforts to block them from communicating with one another and the world. Two years later, Twitter would become a vital tool used in "Arab Spring" uprising in an array of countries in the Middle East.

* "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)." @ReallyVirtual May 2011 IT consultant Sohaib Athar unknowingly tweeted about US Navy Seals raiding a nearby home in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was hiding out. Bin Laden was killed during the operation.

* "Four more years" @BarackObama November 2012 US President Obama put out word of his election victory along with a picture of him and his wife, Michelle, hugging. The post was "retweeted" more than 800,000 times, becoming the most shared Twitter message to date.

* "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."

@Pontifex December 2012 Pope Benedict XVI launched the first papal Twitter account, which had more than three million followers as of Thursday. The pontiff has a separate Twitter account in Spanish.

* "Power Out? No Problem. You can still dunk in the dark." @Oreo February 2013 A tweet fired off by the makers of Oreo cookies when a power outage interrupted the American football spectacle known as the Super Bowl was an instant hit, demonstrating the potential of Twitter to adapt cleverly to the real-time messaging platform.

* "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured."

April 2013 Hackers from a group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army commandeered a news wire account and posted this bogus message, showing that Twitter has become such a trusted place for the latest information that it had become a target.