70 Fun Facts About 2010s

On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces in which Pakistani city?

The mission was codenamed Operation Neptune Spear, a nod to the Navy SEAL trident insignia.

How many Chilean miners were rescued in October 2010 after 69 days trapped at the San José mine?

Each man rode to the surface alone in a 54-centimetre-wide steel capsule named Fénix, watched live by an estimated billion people.

What was the name of the steel capsule that lifted the Chilean miners to the surface one at a time?

Fénix means phoenix; the Fénix 2 capsule was just 54 centimetres across.

What maximum rating did the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident receive on the International Nuclear Event Scale?

Only Chernobyl in 1986 had previously been rated a Level 7 major accident.

In the June 2016 referendum, what share of UK voters chose to leave the European Union?

Prime Minister David Cameron, who had called the vote, resigned the next month.

On 4 July 2012, CERN announced the discovery of a new particle consistent with which long-predicted one?

Peter Higgs and François Englert shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for predicting it half a century earlier.

LIGO's first direct detection of gravitational waves, in 2015, came from the merger of what?

The signal, GW150914, came from black holes of about 36 and 29 solar masses 1.4 billion light-years away, confirming a century-old prediction of Einstein's.

Which NASA spacecraft flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, returning the first close-up images?

It passed 12,500 km above the surface and went on to fly by the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth on New Year's Day 2019.

NASA's Curiosity rover, lowered by a 'sky crane', landed in which Martian crater in 2012?

The descent stage hovered and lowered the car-sized rover on a 20-metre tether before flying off to crash a safe distance away.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to which city?

The Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard has never been found, making it the deadliest unresolved aviation mystery.

The cruise ship Costa Concordia capsized in January 2012 after striking rocks off which Italian island?

Captain Francesco Schettino was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, elected pope in March 2013, was the first pope from which religious order?

He was also the first pope from the Americas and took the name Francis after Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years.

A fire on 15 April 2019 destroyed the roof and spire of which Paris landmark?

The spire fell at 19:50; the cathedral reopened on 7 December 2024 after a five-year rebuild.

The Ice Bucket Challenge that swept social media in summer 2014 raised money to fight which disease?

It raised more than $115 million for ALS research in 2014 alone, and helped fund the discovery of a gene linked to the disease.

Which company developed Pokémon Go, launched in July 2016?

It hit $600 million in revenue in 90 days, the fastest mobile game ever to do so.

Which 13-employee photo-sharing app did Facebook agree to buy for about $1 billion in April 2012?

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger had launched it in October 2010; it passed a billion users by 2018.

What was the starting price of the original iPad when it went on sale in April 2010?

Steve Jobs unveiled it on January 27, 2010; Apple sold 300,000 on launch day.

In December 2012, which song's video became the first on YouTube to reach one billion views?

Psy's horse-dance hit had been out only five months, released in July 2012.

The 2012 Summer Olympics made which city the first to host the modern Games three times?

Danny Boyle directed the opening ceremony; the United States topped the table with 48 golds.

Which country won its first World Cup in 2010, beating the Netherlands 1-0 in the final in South Africa?

South Africa was the first African nation to host the tournament, and the drone of the vuvuzela became its soundtrack.

Who scored Germany's extra-time winner against Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final?

The substitute chested down Schürrle's cross and volleyed home in the 113th minute, the first European win at a World Cup held in the Americas.

Leicester City won the 2015-16 Premier League after starting the season at what odds with bookmakers?

Claudio Ranieri's side clinched the title on 2 May 2016 when Tottenham drew at Chelsea.

The Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, their first title since which year?

Game 7 went to ten innings after a 17-minute rain delay, and Ben Zobrist's double won it 8-7.

The 2016 Cavaliers were the first team to win the NBA Finals after trailing by what margin?

They beat a Warriors team that had gone 73-9 in the regular season, ending Cleveland's 52-year title drought.

Which sprinter won the 100 m and 200 m at three straight Olympics, finishing in Rio 2016?

His 9.58-second 100 m world record from Berlin in 2009 still stood at the end of the decade.

Prince died on April 21, 2016, at his home and recording complex in Minnesota. What was it called?

He was 57; the cause was an accidental overdose of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.

The dress that divided the internet in February 2015 was actually which colours?

Retailer Roman Originals sold out within 30 minutes and later auctioned a one-off white-and-gold version for charity.

Harambe, the gorilla shot in May 2016 after a boy fell into his enclosure, lived at which zoo?

The 17-year-old western lowland gorilla became one of the biggest memes of the year.

In May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz made the first known commercial bitcoin purchase, paying 10,000 BTC for what?

May 22 is now celebrated by enthusiasts as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

Greta Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic to a UN climate summit in August 2019 aboard which racing yacht?

She had begun her school strike outside the Swedish parliament a year earlier, at 15, and was Time's Person of the Year in 2019.

Who designed Catherine Middleton's dress for her 2011 wedding to Prince William?

The lace bodice worked in symbols of all four UK nations; the UK TV audience peaked at 26.3 million.

Superstorm Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Brigantine in which US state?

Its tropical-storm-force winds spanned 1,150 miles, the widest Atlantic hurricane on record, and it flooded New York's subway tunnels.

The 2013–16 Ebola epidemic began with a toddler's death in which West African country?

Emile Ouamouno died in the village of Méliandou in December 2013; the outbreak went on to kill about 11,300 people.

Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's ruler since 1969, was captured and killed in 2011 in which city?

NATO airstrikes had stopped his convoy as he tried to flee his home town.

Which toy, built around a central ball bearing and weighted lobes, became a global craze in 2017?

Schools banned them within months; the fad had faded before the year was out.

Which company released the free-to-play Fortnite Battle Royale in September 2017?

By June 2018 it had 125 million players, and a Marshmello concert inside the game drew over 10 million in 2019.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton was inspired by a biography written by whom?

Miranda read it on holiday from In the Heights; the show won 11 Tonys from a record 16 nominations and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In July 2019, which film overtook Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie of all time?

The Russo brothers' film took about $2.79 billion and was the first Hollywood feature shot entirely on IMAX digital cameras.

Disney's Frozen (2013) was loosely based on a fairy tale by which author?

The Snow Queen adaptation won Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song and grossed $1.28 billion.

How many consecutive weeks did 'Old Town Road' spend at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 2019?

Billboard had pulled it from the country chart for not embracing enough elements of today's country music, which only fuelled the story.

Adele's album 21, the world's best seller of both 2011 and 2012, was named after what?

It followed her debut 19 and has sold more than 31 million copies.

Game of Thrones ended in May 2019 with how many Primetime Emmy Awards, a record for a drama?

It premiered on HBO on April 17, 2011, and its final-season cast earned $1 million per episode.

Who directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Released in December 2015, it grossed $2.07 billion and became the highest-grossing film ever in the US and Canada.

Parasite (2019) was the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar despite what?

It won four Oscars in all and briefly made the noodle dish ram-don a global craving.

What did SpaceX launch as the payload on the first Falcon Heavy flight in February 2018?

A spacesuited mannequin called Starman sat at the wheel with a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the glovebox.

The 12 boys rescued from a flooded Thai cave in July 2018 belonged to a football team with what name?

Two British divers found them alive after nine days; the boys were sedated and guided out one at a time between 8 and 10 July.

Which Icelandic volcano's April 2010 eruption grounded flights across Europe?

About 20 countries closed their airspace, stranding some 10 million travellers, and newsreaders worldwide struggled with the name.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion caused history's largest marine oil spill where?

Eleven workers died and BP's Macondo well leaked for 87 days.

Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, aged 56, of complications from a tumour of which organ?

He had been diagnosed with the neuroendocrine tumour in 2003, and was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022.

The Arab Spring began in 2010 when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in which country?

President Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January 2011, and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak resigned four weeks later.

How long could a video be on Vine, the looping-clip app Twitter launched in 2013?

Twitter had bought it for $30 million before it even launched, and it peaked at 200 million users.

In November 2014, which company bought Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, for $2.5 billion?

Markus 'Notch' Persson's block-building game went on to become the best-selling video game of all time.

'Despacito' in 2017 was the first Spanish-language Hot 100 number one since which 1996 hit?

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's track, boosted by a Justin Bieber remix, held No. 1 for 16 weeks and was the first video to hit three billion YouTube views.

The iPhone X, launched in November 2017 for the iPhone's tenth anniversary, replaced Touch ID with what?

Its $999 starting price was the highest ever for an iPhone at launch, and its notch was widely copied.

Prince Harry married Meghan Markle on 19 May 2018 at which venue?

Bishop Michael Curry's 14-minute sermon and the Kingdom Choir's 'Stand by Me' were the talking points; 29 million Americans watched.

By how many votes did Hillary Clinton win the 2016 popular vote?

Trump carried Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by fewer than 80,000 votes combined.

Whitney Houston died on February 11, 2012, in a hotel in Beverly Hills on the eve of which event?

She was 48 and had been due at Clive Davis's pre-Grammy party at the same Beverly Hilton that evening.

Stephen Hawking's ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey between which two scientists?

He had outlived his motor neurone disease prognosis by more than 50 years and sold about 9 million copies of A Brief History of Time.

David Bowie died on 10 January 2016, two days after his birthday and which final album's release?

He had kept his liver cancer private for 18 months; even longtime collaborators were surprised.

Which South Korean company's 'Baby Shark' became the most-viewed video in YouTube history?

It overtook Despacito in November 2020 and became the first video to reach 10 billion views.

In March 2014 Russia annexed which peninsula from Ukraine after seizing it with unmarked troops?

The 'little green men' took key sites from 27 February; a disputed referendum followed on 16 March and the treaty two days later.

The first-ever image of a black hole, released in 2019, showed one in which galaxy?

The M87 image took a planet-sized network of radio dishes to capture; the Milky Way's own black hole was imaged three years later.

Which film was wrongly announced as Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars before Moonlight was named the winner?

La La Land still took six awards that night, and Damien Chazelle became the youngest Best Director winner at 32.

Which spacecraft made the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, in January 2019?

Its Yutu-2 rover rolled out days later, and cotton seeds aboard the lander became the first plants to sprout on the Moon.

Flappy Bird, the 2014 mobile sensation, was created by a developer from which country?

Dong Nguyen said the game was earning $50,000 a day from ads before he abruptly pulled it from app stores.

To which city did Edward Snowden fly in May 2013 before revealing NSA documents to journalists?

After the US revoked his passport he ended up stranded in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he remained in Russia.

The 2016 Panama Papers leak came from which offshore law firm?

The 11.5 million documents reached the Süddeutsche Zeitung from an anonymous source known only as "John Doe".

What deficit did the Patriots overcome to beat the Falcons in overtime in Super Bowl LI?

It was the largest comeback in Super Bowl history and the first Super Bowl decided in overtime.

The June 2018 Trump–Kim summit took place at the Capella Hotel on which Singapore island?

It was the first-ever meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States.

By what vote did the US Supreme Court guarantee same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)?

The ruling required all 50 states to perform and recognise same-sex marriages under the Fourteenth Amendment.