50 Fun Facts About 1996

Which two-word phrase did Fed chairman Alan Greenspan use in a December speech to question soaring share prices?

Irrational exuberance sent Tokyo's market down 3% while he was still speaking; Greenspan later wrote that the phrase came to him in the bathtub.

Which jockey rode all seven winners on one card at Ascot on 28 September, costing bookmakers an estimated £40 million?

Frankie Dettori's 'Magnificent Seven' came in at combined odds of 25,095–1 and turned him into a household name.

Which Pulp frontman ran onto the stage during Michael Jackson's 'Earth Song' at the Brit Awards in February?

Jarvis Cocker was questioned by police over the children on stage, having objected to Jackson's Christ-like staging of the song.

Which style did Diana lose when her divorce from Prince Charles was finalised on 28 August?

Her Royal Highness was dropped from Diana's style after the decree absolute, and her family decided against restoring it after her death.

Which boy band announced its split on 13 February, prompting the Samaritans to set up hotlines for distraught fans?

Take That had already lost Robbie Williams the previous summer; the remaining four finished a world tour and released a final single before parting.

Which singer led the Centre Court crowd in a singalong during a Wimbledon rain delay, at officials' request?

Cliff Richard was back on Centre Court in 2022, singing his 1963 hit 'Summer Holiday' for the tournament's centenary celebration.

Which Stephen King novel first appeared as six monthly paperback instalments, from March to August?

The Green Mile opened with the volume 'The Two Dead Girls' and won King the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

Which company did Apple agree to buy in December for $400 million, returning co-founder Steve Jobs after 11 years?

NeXT was chosen after Apple's talks to buy Be Inc. collapsed, and its NeXTSTEP operating system became the foundation of Mac OS X.

Which sitcom's Christmas episode 'Time on Our Hands', billed as the last ever, drew a record 24.3 million UK viewers?

Only Fools and Horses finally made the Trotters millionaires in that episode, through an antique watch found by Raquel's father James.

Which Ghanaian diplomat, then head of UN peacekeeping, was chosen in December to succeed Boutros Boutros-Ghali?

Kofi Annan was the first Secretary-General to rise from the UN's own staff, having headed its peacekeeping department since 1992.

Which Kansas senator, with Jack Kemp as running mate, lost the November presidential election to Bill Clinton?

Bob Dole took 40.7% of the vote and 159 electoral votes to Clinton's 379, in the last election a Democrat has carried Kentucky or Tennessee.

At which Tasmanian historic site were 35 people shot dead in April, prompting a national gun buyback?

Port Arthur's killings were the deadliest massacre in modern Australian history, and within two weeks the National Firearms Agreement brought a buyback and a national gun registry.

What did a four-year NTSB inquiry blame for the loss of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island in July, with 230 dead?

A fuel tank explosion, from flammable vapours igniting in the centre wing tank, was the verdict of the costliest air-crash investigation in US history to that point.

Which Jon Krakauer bestseller recounts the May blizzard that killed eight Everest climbers, among them guide Rob Hall?

Into Thin Air grew from Krakauer's Outside magazine assignment; he was climbing with Hall's Adventure Consultants team when the storm struck.

Which British export did the EU ban in March, days after ministers admitted a likely link to a new human brain disease?

Beef from Britain stayed banned for ten years, until May 2006, despite John Major's attempts that summer to have the ban lifted.

Which three-word list did Tony Blair give as his top priorities for government at Labour's autumn conference?

Education, education, education came seven months before Blair entered Downing Street, in the year Labour published its draft manifesto New Labour, New Life for Britain.

Where was the Stone of Scone placed in November after 700 years at Westminster, with a ceremony on St Andrew's Day?

Edinburgh Castle displayed the stone beside the Honours of Scotland; its return had been announced by the British government that July.

The IRA ended its 17-month ceasefire on 9 February with a lorry bomb that killed two people in which part of London?

Docklands was hit at South Quay, outside Canary Wharf, just over an hour after the IRA told Irish broadcaster RTÉ its ceasefire was over; damage was put at £150 million.

What survived the 15 June Manchester lorry bomb despite standing yards from it, and now carries a small brass plaque?

A pillar box came through the largest peacetime bomb ever detonated in Great Britain, a 1,500 kg device whose blast sent a mushroom cloud 300 metres up.

Which campaign after the Dunblane school shooting in March helped bring in two Firearms Acts banning most handguns?

The Snowdrop Petition ran alongside Lord Cullen's official inquiry, and the resulting Acts prohibited private ownership of most handguns in Great Britain.

Which newspaper ran the front page 'Achtung! Surrender' before England's Euro 96 semi-final, then apologised?

The Daily Mirror's editor Piers Morgan was widely criticised for the page, whose strapline ran 'For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over'.

Which Michael Bay thriller sends Sean Connery's ex-SAS captain back into Alcatraz to stop rogue Marines with VX gas?

The Rock earned over $335 million on a $75 million budget, the fourth-highest gross of the year, with Nicolas Cage as the FBI chemist beside Connery.

Which actress won the Best Actress Oscar as Marge Gunderson, the pregnant police chief in Fargo?

Frances McDormand's award was one of two Oscars for Fargo from seven nominations, the other going to the Coens for Best Original Screenplay.

Which Christmas comedy has Arnold Schwarzenegger scouring Minneapolis on Christmas Eve for a sold-out Turbo Man doll?

Jingle All the Way cast comedian Sinbad as the rival father after Joe Pesci was considered, and takes its title from 'Jingle Bells'.

Which Toowoomba-born actor won the Best Actor Oscar for playing pianist David Helfgott in Shine?

Geoffrey Rush watched Helfgott himself play 'Flight of the Bumblebee' at the Oscar telecast; Shine drew seven nominations including Best Picture.

Which Mike Leigh film, with Brenda Blethyn as a mother traced by the daughter she gave up, won the Palme d'Or?

Secrets & Lies also won Blethyn the Best Actress prize at Cannes and went on to five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

The Fugees' 'Killing Me Softly', with Lauryn Hill on lead vocals, covered a 1973 number one by which singer?

Roberta Flack's original topped the US chart in 1973; the Fugees' version won a Grammy and prompted a 1996 remix of Flack's own recording.

Which Spice Girls ballad was the UK Christmas number one, the group's third consecutive chart-topper in six months?

2 Become 1 was the group's second million-seller, written at their first professional songwriting session with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard.

Which country won Eurovision in Oslo with Eimear Quinn's 'The Voice', its fourth victory in five years?

Ireland's record-extending seventh win came at the last contest decided purely by juries; televoting was trialled the following year.

Which band's Ian Broudie wrote the music for 'Three Lions', the Euro 96 anthem with lyrics by Baddiel and Skinner?

The Lightning Seeds' Broudie turned down the FA's offer to have players sing, not wanting the song to sound nationalistic; it has since had four separate stints at UK number one, across 1996, 1998 and 2018.

Which Oasis single, released in February, was the first with Noel Gallagher rather than Liam on lead vocals?

Don't Look Back in Anger became the band's second UK number one and was certified seven times platinum; Noel says he wrote it in Paris on a rainy night.

Whose 'I would love it if we beat them' outburst came as Newcastle's 12-point lead over Manchester United vanished?

Kevin Keegan's side finished second after leading the table for most of the season; the remarks were aimed at Alex Ferguson in a live post-match interview.

Whose late goal beat Liverpool 1–0 in the FA Cup final, making Manchester United the first club to win the Double twice?

Eric Cantona, United's captain, had returned that season from an eight-month ban; his shot through a crowded box also brought a record ninth FA Cup.

Which England defender missed in the Euro 96 semi-final shoot-out, then sent himself up in a Pizza Hut advert?

Gareth Southgate's sixth-round miss let Andreas Möller score the winner for Germany; the advert paired him with 1990 penalty missers Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle.

Which rower won coxless-pair gold with Matthew Pinsent, then said anyone who saw him near a boat again could shoot him?

Steve Redgrave's coxless-pair win was Britain's only gold of those Games; he rowed on regardless to a fifth gold at Sydney 2000, the 'shoot me' line having come in a TV interview minutes after the final.

Which unseeded Dutchman beat MaliVai Washington in the Wimbledon final, having ousted holder Pete Sampras?

Richard Krajicek only entered the draw as a replacement for the withdrawn Thomas Muster, and remains the only Dutchman to win a major singles title.

Which Williams driver, the first son of a world champion to win the Formula One title, was then dropped by the team?

Damon Hill won eight races that season; his father Graham was a two-time champion, and Nico Rosberg later became the second son to match the feat.

Which Ligier driver won a rain-hit Monaco Grand Prix from 14th on the grid, in a race that only three cars finished?

Olivier Panis's only Formula One victory was also Ligier's last, and the first for Mugen-Honda engines, sealed by a well-timed switch to slick tyres.

Which team won the cricket World Cup in Lahore, where Aravinda de Silva's unbeaten century sealed a seven-wicket win?

Sri Lanka, captained by Arjuna Ranatunga, had been handed two group wins by forfeit when opponents refused to play in Colombo after a Tamil Tiger bombing.

Which comet, found by a Japanese amateur in January, passed within 0.1 AU of Earth in March, a 200-year near-record?

Hyakutake, dubbed the Great Comet of 1996, stayed visible all night to northern observers because its path ran close to the pole star.

Which European rocket blew up 37 seconds into its June maiden flight, undone by software inherited from its predecessor?

Ariane 5's navigation code, carried over from Ariane 4, overflowed while converting a 64-bit number to a 16-bit integer, a loss put at more than $370 million.

Which British chemist shared the Nobel Prize for discovering fullerenes, the football-shaped carbon-60 'buckyballs'?

Harry Kroto spent some 40 years at the University of Sussex and shared the prize with the Americans Robert Curl and Richard Smalley.

Which August novel opened A Song of Ice and Fire, a saga George R. R. Martin had originally planned as a trilogy?

A Game of Thrones sold only a few thousand copies in its first printing, building a following by word of mouth.

Which Helen Fielding novel grew out of a newspaper column and borrows its plot from Pride and Prejudice?

Bridget Jones's Diary began as Fielding's columns in The Independent; she has said she simply 'stole the plot' from the Austen serial then airing on the BBC.

Which astronomer, presenter of Cosmos and author of the novel Contact, died of pneumonia on 20 December aged 62?

Carl Sagan's Cosmos had been seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries; the film of Contact, with Jodie Foster, followed in 1997.

Which 'First Lady of Song', winner of 14 Grammys, died at home after a stroke on 15 June aged 79?

Ella Fitzgerald had taken over Chick Webb's band after his death in 1939 and led it for three years before going solo.

Which actor, the third Doctor in Doctor Who and television's scarecrow Worzel Gummidge, died on 20 May?

Jon Pertwee carried a cobra tattoo from a drunken Navy birthday on his right forearm, visible in his first Doctor Who story, Spearhead from Space.

Which future Spider-Man, born in Kingston upon Thames on 1 June, went from a dance class into Billy Elliot the Musical?

Tom Holland is the son of photographer Nicola Frost and comedian-author Dominic Holland, and went on to his first film role in The Impossible (2012).

Guerrillas seized the Japanese ambassador's residence on 17 December, holding 72 hostages for 126 days, in which city?

Lima's siege by the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement began during a party for Emperor Akihito's birthday and ended with a commando raid in April 1997.

Jim Carrey became the first actor paid $20 million for one film with which dark comedy co-starring Matthew Broderick?

The Cable Guy was produced by Judd Apatow and directed by Ben Stiller, who pushed its script towards a satire of thrillers like Cape Fear.