164 Fun Facts About 2000s

What portable music player, introduced in 2001, changed how people listened to digital music?

The iPod went from idea to launch in under a year, built around a tiny hard drive that Apple's hardware chief had spotted at a supplier in Japan; that drive is how '1,000 songs' fitted in a pocket.

Which fantasy film trilogy concluded its initial cinematic run in 2003?

The Lord of the Rings was pitched as two films, and Miramax wanted it cut to one; New Line's Bob Shaye asked for three instead, and the 2003 finale won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for.

Which artist released the album 'The Marshall Mathers LP' in the year 2000?

Eminem's 'The Marshall Mathers LP' sold 1.76 million US copies in its first week; its single 'Stan', about an obsessed fan, gave English a new word for one, and 'stan' is now in the dictionary.

Which organization carried out the coordinated attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001?

Nineteen al-Qaeda hijackers seized four airliners; two struck the World Trade Center, one hit the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back.

Which reality competition, with contestants isolated on an island, premiered in the US in 2000?

Survivor was a British producer's idea first filmed in Sweden: Charlie Parsons's format aired there as Expedition Robinson in 1997, three years before CBS made it an American summer hit.

At which university was Mark Zuckerberg a student when he launched Facebook in February 2004?

Harvard students were the only people who could join at first; 'TheFacebook' then spread from campus to campus before opening in September 2006 to anyone aged 13 or over.

What Nintendo home video game console, known for its motion-sensing controllers, was released in 2006?

The Wii had less computing power than its rivals, which made it cheaper to build, yet within a year it was the best-selling console of its generation, and it went on to pass 101 million sales.

Which film released in 2009 became the highest-grossing film of that year worldwide?

Avatar opened in December 2009 and by late January 2010 had passed Titanic as the highest-grossing film to that date, so director James Cameron broke his own record; it was the first film to gross over $2 billion.

Which 2003 Dan Brown thriller features symbologist Robert Langdon?

Robert Langdon debuted in Angels & Demons, not here. The Da Vinci Code, published in March 2003, was Dan Brown's second Langdon novel and became one of the best-selling American novels of all time.

Which of these was the first full-length Pixar animated film released in the 2000s?

Monsters, Inc. reached cinemas in November 2001, two years after Toy Story 2 closed out the 1990s; Billy Crystal voiced Mike because he regretted having turned down Buzz Lightyear.

Which of these EU members kept its own currency when euro cash arrived in January 2002?

Britain kept the pound under an opt-out it had secured in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty; the euro, an accounting currency since 1999, became cash in twelve countries on 1 January 2002.

Which 2000 Linkin Park debut album became one of the 21st century's best sellers?

Hybrid Theory had been the band's own name until their label advised a change to avoid confusion with another act called Hybrid; they became Linkin Park and kept the old name as the title of their 2000 debut.

Which 2005 hurricane was then the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history?

Katrina did its worst damage after landfall in August 2005: the levees and floodwalls protecting New Orleans gave way, leaving about 80% of the city under water.

What was the 2001 opener of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth trilogy called?

"The Fellowship of the Ring" premiered in December 2001; all three films had already been shot back to back in New Zealand between 1999 and 2000.

Which social network, launched in 2003, dominated the mid-2000s before Facebook's rise?

MySpace eventually bowed to its rival by integrating Facebook Connect, branded 'Mash Up with Facebook'. Launched in August 2003, it was the home of bands and teenagers before Facebook swept past it in the late 2000s.

Which HBO crime drama, premiering in 1999, is widely considered one of the greatest TV series ever?

The Sopranos followed New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano from 1999 to 2007; its finale ended on a cut to black in mid-scene, so abrupt that many viewers thought their cable had gone out.

Which pop star's second album sold 1.3 million US copies in its first week in May 2000?

Britney Spears was hit on the head while filming the video for its title track, 'Oops!... I Did It Again'; reports said a camera had fallen on her, but the director says it was only the box that fits over the lens.

Which company bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, less than two years after the site was founded?

Google paid $1.65 billion in shares for a site with just 67 staff, even though it had a video service of its own, Google Video, which it kept running alongside its new purchase.

Which Wall Street investment bank's collapse in September 2008 became the largest bankruptcy in US history?

Lehman Brothers, founded in 1850, filed on 15 September 2008 with more than $600 billion in assets after rescue talks failed; that same weekend Merrill Lynch avoided its fate by selling itself to Bank of America.

Which film won Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Awards, held in March 2001?

Gladiator won Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe, but Ridley Scott lost Best Director to Steven Soderbergh, who was competing against himself with two nominations that night.

Which Nickelodeon cartoon reached cinemas in 2004 in a film with a David Hasselhoff cameo?

SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg, a former marine biology teacher, meant the 2004 film to end the series; it was a hit, so the show carried on and he handed the reins to Paul Tibbitt.

The earthquake behind the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck off which Indonesian island?

Sumatra's Aceh province lay closest to the rupture and was hit hardest; over the next seven hours the waves crossed the whole ocean, killing at least 225,000 people as far away as East Africa.

Saddam Hussein was executed in Baghdad in December 2006 by which method?

Hanging was the sentence an Iraqi court passed for the killing of 148 people in Dujail in 1982; Saddam had asked to be shot instead, arguing that a firing squad was the proper death for a military commander.

Which country became the first in the world to fully legalise same-sex marriage, on 1 April 2001?

The Netherlands' law took effect at midnight on 1 April 2001, and minutes later Amsterdam's mayor, Job Cohen, married four couples at city hall; Belgium followed in 2003.

Which country's 2006 independence from Serbia dissolved the last remnant of Yugoslavia?

Montenegro's May 2006 referendum needed 55% in favour and got 55.5%; independence followed on 3 June, dissolving the union with Serbia that was the last remnant of Yugoslavia.

Which former Portuguese colony regained its independence from Indonesia in 2002?

East Timor declared independence from Portugal in November 1975, was invaded by Indonesia days later, and finally became fully independent on 20 May 2002 after a 1999 UN-backed referendum.

Mass protests after a disputed election in 2000 forced which Yugoslav president to resign?

Slobodan Milošević quit after crowds broke into the federal parliament in Belgrade on 5 October 2000, the 'Bulldozer Revolution'; arrested in 2001, he died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before his trial ended.

The 2004 Orange Revolution followed a disputed presidential election in which country?

Ukraine's Orange Revolution erupted in November 2004 after a rigged runoff; a court-ordered revote gave Viktor Yushchenko the presidency over Viktor Yanukovych. Georgia had its Rose Revolution the year before.

Which pope was elected on 19 April 2005, seventeen days after the death of John Paul II?

Benedict XVI, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected on 19 April 2005; in 2013 he stepped down, the first pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415.

Who succeeded Vladimir Putin as president of Russia in 2008?

Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated as president on 7 May 2008, with Putin becoming his prime minister; that August Russia fought a short war with Georgia and recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In 2006, who became the first female president of Chile?

Michelle Bachelet took office in March 2006; three decades earlier Pinochet's regime had held her and her mother at the Villa Grimaldi torture centre, and her father, an air force general, had died in its custody.

The three-day school siege of September 2004 took place in which Russian town?

Beslan's School No. 1 was seized on 1 September, the first day of term, when parents and relatives fill Russian schools for Knowledge Day; that is why more than 1,000 people were taken hostage.

Which European capital's commuter trains were bombed on 11 March 2004?

Madrid's bombings killed more than 190 people; the government spent two days blaming the Basque group ETA, and three days after the attack it was voted out of office.

Which US Secretary of State made the case for war with Iraq to the UN Security Council in February 2003?

Colin Powell held up a model vial of anthrax as he set out the evidence; the weapons he described were never found, and in 2005 he called the speech a blot on his record that was still painful.

Who succeeded Kofi Annan as UN Secretary-General on 1 January 2007?

Ban Ki-moon, then Seoul's foreign minister, won a race that was widely expected to go to Asia, which had not held the post since 1971; he served two terms before António Guterres took over in 2017.

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake on 8 October 2005 killed more than 70,000 people in which country?

Pakistan bore almost the whole toll of the Kashmir earthquake: it struck during a school day, and about 19,000 of the dead were children killed when their schools collapsed.

The 2009 swine flu pandemic was caused by a new strain of which influenza virus?

H1N1 was also the subtype behind the 1918 pandemic; in 2009 about a third of people over 60 already carried antibodies to the new strain, so, unusually for flu, most deaths were among the under-65s.

Which airliner had its only fatal crash near Paris in July 2000 and was retired three years later?

Concorde ran over a metal strip that had fallen from another jet; the burst tyre ruptured a fuel tank, and all 109 people aboard and four on the ground were killed. The fleet was retired in 2003.

Which Space Shuttle disintegrated on re-entry over Texas on 1 February 2003?

Columbia broke apart over Texas on 1 February 2003 while returning from mission STS-107, killing all seven crew; the shuttle fleet was grounded until Discovery flew again in July 2005.

Pluto's 2006 demotion to dwarf planet followed the 2005 discovery of which more massive body?

The 2005 discovery of Eris, then thought larger than Pluto, forced the IAU to define 'planet' in August 2006; Pluto, counted as a planet for 76 years, became a dwarf planet alongside Ceres and Eris.

Which Russian spacecraft carried Dennis Tito to orbit in 2001 as the first paying space tourist?

Soyuz TM-32 took him to the International Space Station after he paid a reported $20 million; NASA had objected, and its managers in Houston refused to train alongside him.

The Cassini-Huygens mission's Huygens probe landed on which moon of Saturn in 2005?

Huygens drifted down through Titan's haze under parachutes for more than two hours on 14 January 2005, then kept transmitting from the surface; it was the first landing in the outer Solar System.

Which climate treaty, adopted in 1997, entered into force in February 2005?

The Kyoto Protocol could only start once countries with 55% of industrialised-world emissions had ratified it; with the United States staying out, Russia's approval in November 2004 tipped the balance.

Which US stock index hit a record close of 14,164 in October 2007?

The Dow Jones closed at 14,164.53 on 9 October 2007, then lost more than half its value in seventeen months, falling to 6,547.05 on 9 March 2009.

Which photo-sharing site, launched in 2004, was bought by Yahoo the following year?

Flickr began as a photo-sharing tool inside an online game, Game Neverending; the tool took off, its Vancouver makers scrapped the game, and Yahoo bought the company in March 2005.

Which 2001 film won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature?

Shrek took the new Oscar in March 2002. Its star was a replacement: Chris Farley had recorded most of the ogre's lines before he died in 1997, and Mike Myers began again, adding the Scottish accent.

Who had a hit song in 2002 with 'Complicated'?

Avril Lavigne's label had failed to find her a direction until it sent her to the production team The Matrix for a couple of days; 'Complicated' came out of that first meeting.

Which city hosted the first Summer Olympics of the 2000s?

Sydney's Games opened in September 2000 with Cathy Freeman, an Aboriginal Australian sprinter, lighting the flame; ten days later she won the 400 metres in front of a home crowd.

Which company dominated the pre-smartphone mobile market with durable devices like the 3310?

Nokia began in 1865 as a Finnish wood-pulp mill and merged with a rubber works before it ever made phones; the 3310, launched in September 2000, went on to sell about 126 million.

Which e-reader, launched in November 2007 at $399, could download a book wirelessly in under a minute?

The Kindle needed no computer: Amazon built in a cellular link so that, as Jeff Bezos put it, you could think of a book and have it in under 60 seconds. Barnes & Noble's Nook followed in 2009.

Which web browser did Mozilla release as version 1.0 in November 2004?

Firefox 1.0 arrived on 9 November 2004 with tabbed browsing and a built-in pop-up blocker; within nine months it was the first browser to seriously challenge Internet Explorer's dominance.

Which driver won five consecutive Formula One world titles with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004?

Michael Schumacher's 2000 title was Ferrari's first drivers' championship in 21 years; he then won the next four as well, taking his total to seven, before Fernando Alonso ended the run in 2005.

Which animal killed the wildlife presenter Steve Irwin on the Great Barrier Reef in 2006?

Stingray stings are almost never fatal: the fish are normally placid and strike only in defence, but this one's barb pierced Irwin's heart as he swam over it for a documentary.

Which DVD-by-mail company launched its online streaming service in January 2007?

Netflix could have been Blockbuster's: the rental chain turned down the chance to buy it for $50 million in 2000. 'Watch Now' streaming arrived in January 2007, and Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

Which singing competition ran on Fox for fifteen seasons from 11 June 2002?

American Idol premiered on Fox on 11 June 2002 and ran 15 seasons there before moving to ABC in 2018; it was adapted from the British format Pop Idol, which its creators had struggled to sell to US networks.

Which country was the world's most populous throughout the 2000s?

China led throughout the decade, while the world grew from about 6.1 to 6.9 billion people; it stayed the most populous country until India overtook it in 2023.

Which website, launched in January 2001, published its millionth English-language article in March 2006?

Wikipedia began as a side project to feed Nupedia, an expert-written encyclopedia that finished only 21 articles in its first year; the open version reached a million English articles in five.

Which search engine did Microsoft launch in June 2009 to replace Live Search?

Bing replaced Live Search on 3 June 2009; within two months Yahoo had agreed to stop running its own search engine and use Bing's instead, in a ten-year deal.

Which court in The Hague opened in 2002 to try individuals accused of genocide?

The International Criminal Court opened on 1 July 2002, when its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, took effect; weeks earlier the United States, which had signed the treaty, formally withdrew its signature.

What was the core flaw behind the Y2K problem?

Programs stored years as two digits because early memory and storage were costly, so '00' could be read as 1900 rather than 2000; fixing it before the deadline cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Human Genome Project finished fifty years after which pair described DNA's double helix?

Watson and Crick published the double helix in April 1953; James Watson went on to be the genome project's first director, and the sequence was finished two years ahead of schedule.

Where did Steve Jobs unveil the original iPhone on January 9, 2007?

Macworld in San Francisco was also where, in the same keynote, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would drop 'Computer' from its name, reflecting its turn towards phones and other consumer electronics.

What was Twitter's original name when created in 2006?

Twttr dropped its vowels partly to match the five-character length of American SMS short codes; six months after launch the team bought the twitter.com domain and put them back.

Which email service launched on 1 April 2004 with so much storage that many thought it a hoax?

Gmail offered a full gigabyte, far more than its rivals, and its maker was known for April Fools' pranks, so an executive had to tell reporters that the announcement was not a hoax.

What does the DS in Nintendo DS stand for?

DS stands for Dual Screen: two displays working together, the lower one a touchscreen. Nintendo designed it to reach people who did not usually play games, and the family sold about 154 million units.

Which studio developed Halo: Combat Evolved, released for Xbox in November 2001?

Bungie first showed Halo in 1999 as a game for the Mac; Microsoft bought the studio the following year and made it the Xbox's launch title, and Bungie left to go independent in 2007.

Grand Theft Auto III's Liberty City is loosely based on which real place?

New York is also home to the game's publisher, Rockstar, which delayed the release after the September 11 attacks and repainted Liberty City's police cars so they no longer resembled the NYPD's.

Which 2004 online role-playing game peaked at 12 million subscribers?

World of Warcraft made news in 2005 when a programming slip let a boss's 'Corrupted Blood' plague escape into its cities; epidemiologists later studied how players fled from it or spread it.

Who directed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003?

Gore Verbinski directed the first three Pirates films for producer Jerry Bruckheimer; Johnny Depp recalls that Disney's chief Michael Eisner, seeing early footage of Jack Sparrow, complained he was ruining the film.

Which 2002 blockbuster was the first to gross $100 million in a single opening weekend?

Spider-Man took $114.8 million in its first three days in May 2002; months earlier Sony had recalled its teaser trailer and poster, which showed the Twin Towers, after the September 11 attacks.

Which film earned Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar at the February 2009 ceremony?

The Dark Knight won Heath Ledger the supporting-actor award thirteen months after his death, and his family accepted it on his behalf. Only Peter Finch had won an acting Oscar posthumously before.

Which film won eight Oscars in 2009?

Slumdog Millionaire almost missed American cinemas: Warner Bros. doubted its prospects and thought of sending it straight to video, before Fox Searchlight took over the US release.

Which 2003 Beyoncé hit, featuring Jay-Z, builds its horn fanfare on a 1970 Chi-Lites sample?

Crazy in Love takes its horns from the Chi-Lites' 'Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)', which earned Eugene Record a writing credit; Jay-Z joined late and is said to have improvised his verse in ten minutes.

Which 2003 OutKast hit says to 'shake it like a Polaroid picture'?

Hey Ya! was written and produced by André 3000. Polaroid answered that shaking its modern film does nothing to speed it up and could ruin the picture.

Which producer worked with Amy Winehouse and the Dap-Kings on Back to Black?

Mark Ronson cut his share of the album with the Dap-Kings. 'Rehab' began on a walk to a shop, when Winehouse told him how she had refused treatment and he urged her to turn the line into a song.

Rihanna's Umbrella was the lead single from which 2007 album?

Good Girl Gone Bad opens with Umbrella, which began when producer Tricky Stewart toyed with a hi-hat sound he found in GarageBand; it then topped the UK chart for ten weeks in a summer of floods.

Which 2004 Usher album sold 1.1 million US copies in its first week?

Confessions gained its biggest hit late: Usher had handed the album in when he and Arista's boss agreed it needed one or two more songs, and one of them, Yeah!, then spent twelve weeks at number one.

Michael Jackson died in 2009 of acute intoxication from which drug?

The coroner ruled that Michael Jackson died on 25 June 2009 of acute propofol intoxication; his physician Conrad Murray, who had also given him lorazepam and midazolam, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011.

Which team did the Red Sox sweep in the 2004 World Series, ending an 86-year drought?

Boston swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games for its first title since 1918; days earlier it had become the first Major League Baseball team to win a series from 3–0 down, against the Yankees.

Which Chinese artist helped design Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium, then boycotted the 2008 opening ceremony held in it?

Ai Weiwei was artistic consultant to the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, but a year before the Games he dismissed the celebrations as a 'pretend smile' and said he would stay away.

Whose 1972 record of seven golds at one Games did Michael Phelps break in 2008?

Mark Spitz's seven golds were matched when Phelps, seventh at the turn, won the 100 m butterfly by one hundredth of a second; the medley relay then brought the eighth.

Which sprinter cut the 100 m world record to 9.58 seconds in 2009?

Usain Bolt took 0.11 seconds off the 9.69 he had run at the Beijing Games a year earlier; Tyson Gay ran 9.71, then the third-fastest time ever, and still finished second.

Which race did Lance Armstrong win seven years running, only to be stripped of every title in 2012?

Tour de France records now show no winner for 1999 to 2005: cycling's governing body chose not to pass the titles to other riders, saying a cloud of suspicion hung over the whole era.

Who ended Roger Federer's run of five straight Wimbledon titles in the 2008 final?

Rafael Nadal had lost the two previous Wimbledon finals to Federer; this time he won 9–7 in the fifth set, after rain delays had stretched a 4-hour-48-minute match into the dusk.

Which outsiders beat hosts Portugal in both the opening match and final of Euro 2004?

Greece won every knockout match 1–0: past the holders France, then the Czech Republic, and finally Portugal, when Angelos Charisteas headed in a corner.

Which nation became the first from Asia to reach a World Cup semi-final, in 2002?

South Korea beat Portugal and Italy, then Spain on penalties, before losing 1–0 to Germany in the semi-final; coach Guus Hiddink was rewarded with honorary South Korean citizenship.

Which Italian player did Zidane headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final?

Marco Materazzi had already shaped the final: he gave away the penalty Zidane scored, then headed Italy's equaliser. The headbutt got Zidane sent off in his last match, and Italy won 5–3 on penalties.

Before the 2007 Patriots, which team last finished an NFL regular season undefeated?

The 1972 Miami Dolphins went 14–0 in the regular season and completed a 17–0 perfect season by winning the Super Bowl; the 2007 Patriots went 16–0 but lost Super Bowl XLII to the Giants.

Which four countries sent troops into Iraq in the March 2003 invasion?

US, UK, Australia and Poland supplied the invasion force; Poland's small contingent included GROM commandos, who helped seize Iraq's offshore oil terminals in the Gulf.

Which state did Joe Biden represent in the Senate when Barack Obama made him his 2008 running mate?

Delaware first elected Joe Biden to the Senate in 1972. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he commuted home to Wilmington by train for 36 years, which earned him the nickname 'Amtrak Joe'.

Which city's transport network was struck by four suicide bombers on 7 July 2005, killing 52 people?

London had been celebrating: one day earlier it had been awarded the 2012 Games. Three bombs went off on Underground trains at about 8.50 am, and a fourth an hour later on a bus in Tavistock Square.

Which Indonesian island's Kuta nightclub strip was bombed on 12 October 2002, killing 202 people?

Bali's attack came in two blasts: a suicide bomber struck Paddy's Pub, and twenty seconds later a van bomb exploded among the crowd outside the Sari Club. Eighty-eight of the dead were Australians.

How long were NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity built to last when they landed in 2004?

90 Martian days was the plan, yet Spirit kept working for six years and Opportunity for more than fourteen, until a planet-wide dust storm silenced it in June 2018.

Which particle accelerator did CERN switch on beneath the French–Swiss border in September 2008?

The Large Hadron Collider ran for only nine days: on 19 September 2008 a magnet fault damaged more than 50 of its superconducting magnets, and it did not restart until November 2009.

Dolly the sheep, put down at Roslin in 2003, is now displayed in which city?

Edinburgh's National Museum of Scotland displays Dolly's remains. She was cloned from a mammary-gland cell, which is why the scientists named her after the singer Dolly Parton.

Which invention, hyped for months under the codename 'Ginger', did Dean Kamen unveil in 2001?

Segway's secret project set off wild predictions: investor John Doerr thought it would matter more than the internet. Only about 140,000 were ever sold.

Which company paid $2.6 billion for the internet-calling service Skype in September 2005?

eBay hoped buyers and sellers would talk by voice, but the idea never took; in October 2007 it took a $1.4 billion charge on Skype, admitting it had overpaid.

The first-generation Tesla Roadster of 2008 was based on which car's chassis?

Lotus Elise technology underlay the Roadster, and Lotus built the bare cars, called gliders, at Hethel in England; Tesla fitted the batteries and motors until the glider contract ran out at the end of 2011.

Which airline flew the first passenger service of the Airbus A380, in October 2007?

Singapore Airlines flew the first A380 passengers to Sydney on 25 October 2007, in seats sold at a charity auction for up to $100,380; wiring problems had delayed the aircraft by about two years.

Which skyscraper, completed 31 December 2004, was the world's tallest until the Burj Khalifa?

Taipei 101 hangs a 660-tonne steel sphere near its top: the pendulum swings against the tower's sway to steady it in the typhoons and earthquakes that regularly strike Taiwan.

Which company principally backed HD DVD in its format war with Blu-ray?

Toshiba led the HD DVD camp against the Blu-ray alliance of Sony, Panasonic and Philips; it gave up on 19 February 2008, six weeks after Warner Bros. said it would release films only on Blu-ray.

Which single was Kelly Clarkson's 2002 debut and the year's best-seller in the US?

A Moment Like This was written before anyone knew who would sing it: the four remaining finalists of her TV talent contest each recorded a version, and Clarkson's jumped from number 52 to number one.

Which flight crashes in the 2004 pilot of Lost, leaving its passengers stranded on a mysterious island?

Oceanic Flight 815's crash opened a two-part pilot reported to be the costliest ABC had ever made. Its writers planned to kill the hero, Jack, halfway through, until a studio chief argued that viewers would stop trusting the show.

Which British sitcom was remade for NBC in 2005, moving from Slough to Scranton?

The Office began in America with a near copy of the British pilot. Steve Carell's summer film hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin then gave the show a lift as its second season began, and it ran for nine.

Which network aired Breaking Bad and Mad Men, both launched in the late 2000s?

AMC premiered Mad Men in July 2007 and Breaking Bad in January 2008, transforming the former movie channel into a home for prestige drama.

Which storytelling device defined the series 24, which premiered in November 2001?

Real-time narration gave each episode one hour of a single day. Fox at first ordered only 13 episodes, so the rescue that closes the first half was written to work as a finale if the show ended there.

Which 2004 ABC hit is narrated by a neighbour who dies in episode one?

Desperate Housewives, narrated from beyond the grave by Mary Alice Young, was turned down by HBO, CBS, NBC, Fox, Showtime and Lifetime before ABC bought Marc Cherry's script.

Which author began the Twilight novels after dreaming of a sparkling vampire?

Stephenie Meyer woke from the dream on 2 June 2003 and says she finished the novel in three months; her letters to about fifteen literary agents brought a run of rejections before one agency asked to read it.

Whose missing-child poster did Rowling ask shops to display at the Deathly Hallows launch?

Madeleine McCann had vanished from a Portuguese resort eleven weeks before the book came out; Rowling had already given money towards the £2.5 million reward offered for her return.

Which economist co-wrote the 2005 bestseller Freakonomics with journalist Stephen Dubner?

Steven Levitt met Dubner when the journalist was sent to profile him for a magazine; Levitt agreed to the interview only because his mother liked the magazine, and the article grew into the book.

Which 2003 debut novel follows Amir from a Kabul childhood to exile in California?

The Kite Runner began as a 25-page short story that Khaled Hosseini wrote in 1999, after a news report that the Taliban had banned kite flying, the sport of his own Afghan childhood.

Which footwear brand launched its first model, the Beach, at the 2002 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show?

Crocs sold all 200 pairs it had made for the show. Its three founders had taken the foam clog's design from a Quebec company, Foam Creations, drawn by its comfort and practicality.

Which sport joins tennis, baseball, bowling and golf in Nintendo's 2006 pack-in sports game?

Boxing completed the five. Bundled with the console in most countries, the game sold about 82 million copies and is credited with drawing older and more casual players to gaming.

Which single was Coldplay's breakthrough from their 2000 debut Parachutes?

Yellow got its title, Chris Martin has said, when he needed one more word for the song and the nearest thing to hand was a Yellow Pages phone book; it reached number four in the UK.

Seven Nation Army came from which 2003 White Stripes album?

Elephant opens with Seven Nation Army, named for Jack White's childhood mishearing of 'Salvation Army'; its bass-like riff is his guitar, dropped an octave by an effects pedal.

Which 2004 Green Day rock opera follows the 'Jesus of Suburbia' and later became a Broadway musical?

American Idiot exists because an earlier album vanished: the master tapes of 'Cigarettes and Valentines' were stolen, and rather than record it again Green Day started afresh.

Which 2001 album was Shakira's first English-language release?

Laundry Service was written, Shakira said, with a dictionary in one hand and a thesaurus in the other: urged by Gloria Estefan to sing in English, she bought rhyming dictionaries and studied Bob Dylan's lyrics.

Which 2006 song was the first UK number one on download sales alone?

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley reached number one before any CD was on sale; after nine weeks at the top the duo and their label pulled the single from shops so that people would not get sick of it.

Which financier's Ponzi scheme, exposed in December 2008, showed $65 billion on clients' statements?

Bernie Madoff was arrested after his own sons alerted the authorities; analyst Harry Markopolos had warned regulators repeatedly that the returns could not be real, and was ignored.

Which state did Sarah Palin govern when she became the 2008 Republican VP nominee?

Sarah Palin was the governor of Alaska, elected in 2006, when John McCain picked her in August 2008; she resigned the governorship in July 2009.

Which Big Five accounting firm collapsed in 2002 after shredding the audit papers of a scandal-hit client?

Arthur Andersen was convicted of obstructing justice in 2002 and surrendered its licences that August; the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the verdict in 2005, far too late to revive the firm.

Which Canadian province went dark alongside eight US states in the Northeast blackout of August 2003?

Ontario lost power with the eight states after a software bug silenced the alarms in an Ohio utility's control room, so its operators missed the overloaded lines; about 55 million people were cut off.

On which river did pilot Chesley Sullenberger ditch US Airways Flight 1549 in January 2009?

Hudson River ferries reached the floating Airbus within minutes, after a flock of Canada geese had knocked out both engines just after take-off; all 155 people aboard survived.

Which Pixar film became the best-selling DVD title of all time?

Finding Nemo had sold over 40 million DVDs by 2006. Its dentist's fish tank comes from director Andrew Stanton's childhood, when he assumed the fish in his dentist's tank wanted to go home to the ocean.

Which sitcom ended on 6 May 2004 with a finale watched by 52.5 million Americans?

Friends ended with its six stars on equal pay of about $1 million an episode: from the third season they had insisted on negotiating as a group, against the studio's wish for separate deals.

Which 2004 Motorola phone became the best-selling clamshell 'flip' phone of all time?

The Razr V3 sold about 130 million units after its 2004 launch, the most of any clamshell; it was the best-selling US handset until the iPhone 3G overtook it in late 2008.

Which rival music game did Harmonix create in 2007 after developing the original Guitar Hero?

Rock Band exists because Guitar Hero's makers were split in 2006: Activision bought the publisher RedOctane, which held the name, and MTV's owner bought Harmonix, which answered with drums and a microphone.

Which codename was given to the December 2003 raid that captured Saddam Hussein?

Operation Red Dawn took its name from the 1984 film; searchers found Saddam in a 'spider hole' near Tikrit on 13 December 2003 after two sites dubbed Wolverine 1 and 2 came up empty.

Which state's disputed recount decided the 2000 US presidential election between Al Gore and George Bush?

Florida's official margin was 537 votes out of almost six million; the Supreme Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore on 12 December, five weeks after polling day, ended the recount and the contest.

Which company produced the Livestrong charity wristbands launched in 2004?

Nike launched the silicone band in May 2004 to raise money for Lance Armstrong's cancer charity; in October 2012, as the doping evidence came out, it dropped him on the day he stepped down as the charity's chairman.

Which file-sharing service, launched in 1999, was shut down by court order in July 2001?

Napster drew Metallica's fury when an unreleased demo of the band's reached radio through the service; the band sued and delivered a list of more than 300,000 users it wanted removed.

Which Swedish music-streaming service launched in October 2008 as a legal alternative to file-sharing piracy?

Spotify's co-founder Daniel Ek knew file-sharing from the inside: he had briefly run the torrent program μTorrent, and its creator Ludvig Strigeus later joined him as a Spotify developer.

Winning which tournament in 2001 completed Tiger Woods's 'Tiger Slam' of four straight majors?

The Masters of April 2001 gave Woods all four major titles at once. It was dubbed the Tiger Slam, not a Grand Slam, because the run began at the 2000 U.S. Open and so straddled two seasons.

Who directed the first Harry Potter film, released in 2001?

Chris Columbus was chosen after Steven Spielberg, who had worked on a draft of the script, left the project; Spielberg had reportedly wanted an animated film with an American actor voicing Harry.

Which 2004 teen comedy, written by Tina Fey, pits newcomer Cady Heron against a clique called the Plastics?

Mean Girls grew out of a self-help book for parents, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which Tina Fey read and pitched to producer Lorne Michaels as a film.

Which medical drama, which premiered on ABC in March 2005, follows surgical interns at Seattle Grace Hospital?

Grey's Anatomy takes its title from Gray's Anatomy, the classic medical textbook first published in 1858, respelled to match lead character Meredith Grey.

Which girl group scored US number-one singles with Independent Women and Bootylicious at the start of the 2000s?

Destiny's Child first released Independent Women Part I as the theme song for the 2000 film Charlie's Angels. The trio have sold more than 60 million records.

Which fashion dolls, launched by MGA Entertainment in 2001, became a popular competitor to Mattel's Barbie?

Bratz were created by former Mattel employee Carter Bryant, and after a lengthy legal fight with Mattel over the design rights a federal jury sided with MGA in 2011.

Which 2008 Suzanne Collins novel sends teenager Katniss Everdeen into a televised fight to the death?

The Hunger Games was built on the Greek myth of Theseus: author Suzanne Collins has described Katniss as a futuristic Theseus.

Which NBA team won three straight championships from 2000 to 2002 behind Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant?

The Los Angeles Lakers were coached to the three-peat by Phil Jackson, and Shaquille O'Neal was named Finals MVP all three times.

Which life-simulation game, designed by Will Wright and released in 2000, overtook Myst as the best-selling PC game?

The Sims attracted casual and female gamers in huge numbers; Will Wright said women made up almost 60% of its players.

Which 2008 superhero film starring Robert Downey Jr. was the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Iron Man began filming without a finished script, so much of its dialogue was improvised, including Robert Downey Jr.'s closing line, "I am Iron Man".

Which Rick Astley hit became the bait in 'Rickrolling', the link prank that spread across the web from 2007?

Never Gonna Give You Up was first disguised as a link to the eagerly awaited Grand Theft Auto IV trailer in May 2007. Downloads of the 1987 song climbed as the prank spread.

On whose talk show did Tom Cruise jump on a couch in May 2005 while declaring his love for Katie Holmes?

Oprah Winfrey looked on as Cruise climbed onto her sofa and stood there to make the announcement, weeks after the couple, dubbed TomKat, first appeared in public.

Into which river did Chesley Sullenberger ditch US Airways Flight 1549 after geese knocked out both engines in 2009?

The Hudson landing was survived by all 155 people aboard, and a safety official called it the most successful ditching in aviation history.

Which state's recount, fought over 'hanging chads' on punched ballots, decided the 2000 US presidential election?

Florida was certified for George W. Bush by just 537 votes out of nearly six million cast, after weeks of arguing over incompletely punched ballots.

Which sea creature killed 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin as he filmed a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in 2006?

A stingray drove its barb into Irwin's chest at Batt Reef, off Queensland. His death is believed to be the only fatal stingray attack ever captured on video.

Which state's voters recalled Governor Gray Davis in 2003 and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place?

California's recall ballot listed 135 candidates, and Schwarzenegger announced his own run on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Which deadly agent was mailed to two US senators and several news offices in the weeks after September 11, 2001?

Anthrax spores in the letters killed five people, and in 2008 prosecutors named Bruce Ivins, a government biodefence scientist, as the sole culprit.

Which Indian city endured a coordinated series of attacks on hotels, a cafe and a railway terminus in November 2008?

Mumbai was reached from the sea: the gunmen landed in inflatable speedboats, then struck targets including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

Elián González, the boy rescued at sea and fought over in a 2000 custody battle, was returned to which country?

Cuba got the boy back in June 2000, seven months after two fishermen found him floating on an inner tube; his mother had drowned on the crossing.

Which Russian nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000, killing all 118 crew on board?

Kursk was wrecked when a leaking dummy torpedo exploded, and Russia accepted British and Norwegian rescue help only after five days had passed.

Which religious figure was depicted by the two giant cliff statues that the Taliban destroyed at Bamiyan in March 2001?

The Buddha statues, 55 and 38 metres tall, had stood for about 1,400 years when Taliban leader Mullah Omar ordered every statue in Afghanistan destroyed.

Which phrase did George W. Bush use to brand three hostile states in his January 2002 State of the Union address?

"Axis of evil" was drafted by speechwriter David Frum as "axis of hatred"; the final word was changed before Bush delivered the speech.

In October 2003, which country became only the third to send a person into orbit aboard its own spacecraft?

China launched former fighter pilot Yang Liwei aboard Shenzhou 5; he circled the Earth 14 times and landed 21 hours after lift-off.

Which country joined the European Union in May 2004 while still divided by a United Nations buffer zone?

Cyprus joined just a week after its Greek Cypriot voters rejected a United Nations reunification plan in a referendum on 24 April 2004.

Who revealed to Vanity Fair in 2005, at the age of 91, that he was Watergate's secret source Deep Throat?

Mark Felt was the FBI's deputy director during Watergate, and reporter Bob Woodward had vowed not to name his source while the man was still alive.

Which radioactive element, slipped into a teapot, killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006?

Polonium-210 gives off very little gamma radiation, so ordinary detectors missed it; doctors learned what the poison was only shortly before Litvinenko died.

Which former prime minister of Pakistan was assassinated after addressing a party rally in Rawalpindi in December 2007?

Benazir Bhutto was attacked as she left Liaquat Bagh, the same park where Pakistan's first prime minister was assassinated in 1951.

Which European country saw all three of its major banks, grown to over ten times its economy, collapse in late 2008?

Iceland's three banks held assets worth more than 11 times national GDP, making the collapse the largest any country has suffered relative to the size of its economy.

Off which country's coast did pirates seize the Maersk Alabama and its captain, Richard Phillips, in April 2009?

Somalia's pirates had made the first successful seizure of a US-flagged ship since the early 19th century; Navy SEAL snipers shot three of them to free Phillips.

Cyclone Nargis, which sent a storm surge up the Irrawaddy delta in May 2008, devastated which country?

Myanmar suffered the worst natural disaster in its recorded history: the surge pushed 40 kilometres up the crowded delta and at least 138,000 people died.

In which US city did the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapse during the evening rush hour in August 2007?

Minneapolis lost 13 people in the collapse, which investigators traced to a design flaw: steel gusset plates too thin for the load they carried.

Which former research scientist became the first woman elected chancellor of Germany in November 2005?

Angela Merkel holds a doctorate in quantum chemistry and was also the first chancellor of reunified Germany to have been raised in the former East.