50 Fun Facts About 1992

Which royal residence burned in November after a spotlight set a curtain alight in the Private Chapel?

Windsor Castle's State Apartments burned for 15 hours, and four days later the Queen called the year her 'annus horribilis'.

Which capital's siege began in April and ran for 1,425 days, the longest of any capital city in modern warfare?

Sarajevo stayed encircled until 29 February 1996, a siege three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad and more than a year longer than the siege of Leningrad.

Which team beat Atlanta in six games to become the first World Series winner from outside the United States?

The Toronto Blue Jays won it in the 11th inning of Game 6, when 41-year-old Dave Winfield drove in two runs with the first extra-base hit of his World Series career.

Which British 400 m runner tore a hamstring in his Barcelona semi-final and finished the lap leaning on his father?

Derek Redmond's father Jim dodged the security guards to reach him on the track, and the crowd of 65,000 rose to cheer the pair all the way to the line.

Which country, invited only after Yugoslavia was expelled, beat Germany 2–0 to win the European Championship in Sweden?

Denmark had finished second to Yugoslavia in qualifying and got the call-up as the Yugoslav Wars tore that country apart; goals from John Jensen and Kim Vilfort settled the final.

Which Williams driver clinched the Formula One title with second place in Hungary, then left to race in IndyCar?

Nigel Mansell won the IndyCar title at his first attempt in 1993, making him the only driver ever to hold the Formula One and American open-wheel championships at the same time.

Which club, managed by Howard Wilkinson, won the final old First Division title before the Premier League began?

Leeds United then made one of the worst title defences on record, finishing 17th a year later, and Wilkinson remains the last English manager to win the title.

Which host left The Tonight Show on 22 May aged 66, a night after his final guests Robin Williams and Bette Midler?

Johnny Carson had hosted since 1962 and handed the desk to Jay Leno, then all but vanished from view. In his last years he quietly sent jokes to David Letterman for his monologues.

Which Texas billionaire announced his run on Larry King Live and took 18.9% of the presidential vote as an independent?

Ross Perot won about 19.7 million votes yet not a single electoral vote, even after quitting the race in July and jumping back in that October.

Which European system did the pound leave on 'Black Wednesday', after a one-day promise of 15% interest?

The Exchange Rate Mechanism exit was announced that evening by Chancellor Norman Lamont, after two rate rises in a single day failed to save the pound; the rise to 15% was scrapped and rates stayed at 12%.

Which West Bromwich MP was elected Speaker of the Commons by 372 votes to 238, the first woman to hold the post?

Betty Boothroyd, once a Tiller Girls dancer, beat Conservative Peter Brooke in the first contested vote for the chair in over 40 years, then declined to wear the Speaker's traditional wig.

Which Scottish MP succeeded Neil Kinnock as Labour leader in July, after the party's fourth successive election defeat?

John Smith had been Kinnock's shadow chancellor since 1987, and his sudden death from a heart attack in May 1994 opened the way for Tony Blair to lead the party.

Which tabloid claimed credit for John Major's surprise election win with a front page saying it 'wot won it'?

The Sun's boast angered its own proprietor: Rupert Murdoch later told the Leveson Inquiry the headline was 'tasteless and wrong' and that he had given editor Kelvin MacKenzie a fierce telling-off.

Which journalist's book Diana: Her True Story, published in June, laid bare the Prince and Princess of Wales's marriage?

Andrew Morton's secret informant was Diana herself: a doctor friend smuggled her taped answers out of Kensington Palace while the Palace insisted she had not co-operated. Morton confirmed it only after her death.

Over which network did Neil Papworth send the first ever text message, reading 'Merry Christmas', on 3 December?

Vodafone director Richard Jarvis read it at a Christmas party but could not text back: phones of the day could only receive messages, which is why Papworth had typed his on a computer.

Which became Britain's first national commercial radio station on 7 September, after a summer of birdsong test transmissions?

Classic FM's birdsong, recorded in its chief engineer's garden, became such a hit with listeners that years later the same recording returned as a digital radio channel of its own.

Which shopping centre, built around an indoor theme park, opened in August on the site of the Minnesota Twins' old stadium?

Mall of America keeps a red stadium seat bolted high on a wall of its theme park, marking where Harmon Killebrew landed the longest home run ever recorded at the Twins' old ballpark.

Which city hosted June's UN Earth Summit, where a 12-year-old Canadian girl addressed the delegates?

Rio de Janeiro's summit heard Severn Cullis-Suzuki, whose children's group had raised its own money to travel from Vancouver and tell the adults 'you must change your ways'.

To which country did President Bush send US troops in December on the famine-relief mission Operation Restore Hope?

Somalia's beach gave the first Navy SEALs ashore a surprise: they crept in before dawn to find waiting television crews, whose lights dazzled their night-vision gear.

Which Spanish city staged Expo '92, marking 500 years since Columbus sailed, and got Spain's first AVE high-speed line?

Seville's showpiece Pavilion of Discoveries burned down two months before the gates opened, a blow to a fair whose whole theme was the Age of Discoveries.

Which High Court of Australia decision, brought by a Torres Strait Islander, rejected the doctrine of terra nullius?

Mabo v Queensland came too late for Eddie Mabo, a former university gardener who died of cancer that January, months before the judges ruled that Australia had never been nobody's land.

In which Indian city did a rally of Hindu activists tear down the 16th-century Babri Masjid on 6 December?

Ayodhya's mosque stood on the spot many Hindus hold to be Rama's birthplace; its fall set off riots that killed about 2,000 people, and in 2019 India's Supreme Court awarded the site for a temple.

Which French forward joined Manchester United on 26 November after his club rang to ask about buying Denis Irwin?

Eric Cantona cost £1 million after chairman Bill Fotherby's call about Irwin prompted Alex Ferguson to ask for the Frenchman instead, two days after Cantona had faxed in a transfer request.

Which Scot won ten frames in a row from 14–8 down to beat Jimmy White 18–14 in the World Snooker Championship final?

Stephen Hendry turned it at 14–9 with a risky brown he later called one of the best shots of his career, when the safe option was a snooker. White reached six world finals and lost every one.

Which side, told by their captain to play like 'cornered tigers', beat England by 22 runs in cricket's World Cup final?

Pakistan's captain Imran Khan had seen his side bowled out for 74 by England in the group stage, only for rain to wash the game out; that rescued point kept them alive to reach the final.

Which striker's England career ended with his substitution against Sweden, one goal short of Bobby Charlton's then record?

Gary Lineker had wasted the perfect chance a month earlier, chipping a penalty against Brazil so weakly that the goalkeeper saved it with ease. He never scored for England again.

Which ex-world chess champion re-emerged to beat Boris Spassky in an unofficial rematch in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade?

Bobby Fischer played on in Yugoslavia despite a United Nations embargo, so the US government issued a warrant for his arrest and he lived the rest of his life as an émigré.

Which Clint Eastwood western became the third of its genre to win Best Picture, after Cimarron and Dances with Wolves?

Unforgiven waited years for its star: Eastwood held on to David Webb Peoples' script until he was old enough to play its ageing killer, then dedicated the film to directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.

Which actor played Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, vowing to act as if with the Royal Shakespeare Company?

Michael Caine played it dead straight opposite Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit, with Gonzo narrating as Charles Dickens so the script could keep the original prose.

Which Robert Rodriguez debut was shot for about $7,000, partly raised by volunteering for clinical drug trials?

El Mariachi was meant only for the Spanish-language video market until Columbia Pictures bought it, and Rodriguez shot it himself, pushed around in a wheelchair in place of a camera dolly.

Which actress won Best Supporting Actress as Mona Lisa Vito, fiancée of Joe Pesci's rookie lawyer in My Cousin Vinny?

Marisa Tomei's character wins the case herself: called as an expert witness, she draws on a childhood in her family's garage to show the skid marks came from a Pontiac Tempest, not the defendants' Buick.

Which BBC1 Halloween show, fronted by Michael Parkinson as a live investigation, was in fact a scripted drama?

Ghostwatch fooled so many viewers that frightened and angry calls flooded the BBC, which refused to repeat it; a decade passed before it resurfaced, on DVD.

Which Jennifer Saunders sitcom pairs PR boss Edina with her friend Patsy Stone, played by Joanna Lumley?

Absolutely Fabulous grew out of a 1990 French and Saunders sketch, and Lumley's agent had to talk her into the pilot before the character was reshaped around her modelling past.

Which BBC soap set among expatriates in the fictional Spanish town of Los Barcos replaced Wogan's chat show in July?

Eldorado was shot in a village the BBC built for it in the hills near Marbella, whose echoing rooms left viewers struggling to hear the dialogue. It was axed after a year.

Which word did Vice-President Dan Quayle wrongly 'correct' at a Trenton, New Jersey spelling bee by adding an 'e' to it?

Potato was spelled 'potatoe' on the cue card Quayle had been handed, and he trusted the card over the 12-year-old at the blackboard, who had written it correctly.

Which duo of Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit spent eight consecutive weeks at UK number one with the ballad 'Stay'?

Shakespears Sister ended in public a year later: with Fahey absent, her publisher read out an awards speech closing 'All's well that ends well' as Detroit sat in the audience, and the two did not talk for 26 years.

Which Scottish act topped the UK chart for four weeks with 'Ebeneezer Goode', a song accused of chanting 'Es are good'?

The Shamen pulled the single from sale while it was still number one. The BBC put that down to tabloid pressure, but the band insisted its long run was simply 'messing up our release schedule'.

What did the KLF dump at the Brit Awards after-party in February, after firing machine-gun blanks over the audience?

A dead sheep was the tame option: Drummond and Cauty had wanted to disembowel one on stage or throw buckets of blood, until BBC lawyers and their vegetarian collaborators Extreme Noise Terror objected.

Whose 'Somebody to Love' with Queen was the acclaimed highlight of April's Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley?

George Michael later revealed he had sung it for his partner Anselmo Feleppa, then secretly ill with the disease that had killed Mercury. Released on an EP a year later, the recording topped the UK chart.

Which country won Eurovision in Malmö with 'Why Me?', sung by Linda Martin, the contest's runner-up eight years earlier?

Ireland's song came from Johnny Logan, who had won twice as a singer and had also written Martin's 1984 runner-up. This time it beat the favourite, Britain's Michael Ball.

Which guitarist won six Grammys after his MTV Unplugged set featured 'Tears in Heaven', written for his late son Conor?

Eric Clapton has said he disliked the recording so much that he wanted it limited to about 500 copies, and bet his label boss $100 it would miss the top 50. It went to number one.

Which Shuttle's May maiden flight rescued a stranded Intelsat satellite with the first three-person spacewalk?

Endeavour's crew improvised after a purpose-built capture bar failed on two spacewalks: three astronauts went outside together and caught the spinning satellite, which weighed more than four tons, by hand.

Which Chicago-raised doctor was the first African-American woman in space, flying in September with Mamoru Mohri?

Mae Jemison began each shift in orbit with 'Hailing frequencies open', the line of Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura, who had inspired her as a girl. A year later she had a guest role in The Next Generation.

Around what kind of object did Wolszczan and Frail confirm the first planets ever found outside the Solar System?

A pulsar gave up its planets thanks to a shutdown: with the giant Arecibo dish closed to outside astronomers for maintenance, staff astronomer Wolszczan used the freed-up time to find the star whose uneven ticking betrayed them.

Which Robert James Waller novel pairs an Iowa housewife with a National Geographic photographer from Bellingham?

The Bridges of Madison County reached the New York Times list in August, climbed to number one and stayed on it for 164 consecutive weeks, more than three years.

Which K'iche' Maya activist from Guatemala won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work for the region's indigenous peoples?

Rigoberta Menchú won in the very week of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's landing, a date indigenous groups were marking not with celebration but as the start of five centuries of oppression.

Which US Navy rear admiral and COBOL pioneer, whose team taped a computer moth into a logbook, died on New Year's Day?

Grace Hopper had been retired by the Navy for her age in 1966, only to be recalled within months to sort out its computer languages. She did not leave for good until she was 79, by then its oldest officer on active duty.

Which singer, born Destiny Hope in Franklin, Tennessee on 23 November, is the daughter of the 'Achy Breaky Heart' star?

Miley Cyrus owes her name to 'Smiley', the nickname her sunny nature earned her as a baby. It stuck so firmly that in 2008 she made it legal, swapping Destiny Hope for Miley Ray.

Which LWT game show for ITV, presented by Ulrika Jonsson and John Fashanu and narrated by John Sachs, began in October?

Gladiators was a copy that ended up hosting the original: when International Gladiators pitted the world's versions against each other, American Gladiators and its host Mike Adamle came to the British show's arena in Birmingham.

Which Brazilian forward, born in Mogi das Cruzes on 5 February, rose through the youth ranks at Santos?

Neymar almost slipped away as a young teenager, when he shone on trial at Real Madrid yet went home to Santos. When he did move to Spain years later, it was to Madrid's rivals Barcelona.