50 Fun Facts About 2015

Which country adopted the euro on January 1, 2015, becoming the 19th eurozone member?

Lithuania had first asked to join in 2006 and was turned down because its inflation ran at 2.7% against a limit of 2.6%; nine years on it gave up the litas, the last of the three Baltic states to switch.

Gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of which French satirical newspaper in January 2015?

Charlie Hebdo's surviving staff published the next issue a week later; instead of the usual 60,000 copies the print run climbed into the millions, and the first copies sold out within hours.

Which party, led by Alexis Tsipras, won Greece's January 2015 election?

SYRIZA won 149 of 300 seats, two short of a majority, so the left-wing party took office with the right-leaning Independent Greeks, a partner it shared little with beyond opposing the bailout cuts.

Which country won the 2015 Cricket World Cup, a tournament it co-hosted?

Australia won its fifth title, and captain Michael Clarke, playing his last one-day international, dedicated it to teammate Phillip Hughes, who had died four months earlier after a bouncer struck his neck.

NASA's Dawn probe entered orbit around which dwarf planet in March 2015?

Ceres made Dawn the first spacecraft to orbit two worlds beyond Earth, after the asteroid Vesta; the puzzling bright spots it found in Occator crater proved to be salt that had welled up from inside.

Whose Top Gear contract did the BBC decline to renew in March 2015?

Jeremy Clarkson had punched producer Oisin Tymon in a row over the lack of hot food after a day's filming; co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May then left with him for Amazon's The Grand Tour.

In March 2015 a Germanwings A320 was deliberately crashed in which mountain range?

The French Alps crash killed all 150 aboard after the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit; airlines then required two people on the flight deck at all times, a rule German carriers dropped in 2017.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in April 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people in which country?

Nepal's quake also set off an avalanche that swept through Everest Base Camp just as the climbing season was beginning, and a second major tremor, of magnitude 7.3, struck the country on May 12.

Which disease did the WHO declare eliminated from the Americas in April 2015?

Rubella was the third disease driven out of the Americas, after smallpox in 1971 and polio in 1994; a 15-year vaccination drive ended local spread of a virus that causes birth defects when caught in pregnancy.

Which artist's Les Femmes d'Alger sold for a record $179 million at Christie's in May 2015?

Pablo Picasso began the series in 1954, soon after the death of his friend and rival Henri Matisse, taking up the harem scenes Matisse was known for as a tribute.

Which country won the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with the song 'Heroes'?

Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw sang 'Heroes' alongside animated figures projected around him and beat Russia by 62 points; the win took the 2016 contest to Stockholm, where he came back as co-host.

Which FIFA president announced his intention to resign in June 2015 amid a corruption probe?

Sepp Blatter quit just four days after winning a fifth term, in a vote held two days after Swiss police, acting for US prosecutors, led FIFA officials out of a five-star Zurich hotel at dawn.

The inaugural European Games were held in June 2015 in which city?

Baku was the only candidate: Azerbaijan's capital offered to stage the brand-new event, and Europe's Olympic committees approved it in a single secret ballot in 2012, by 38 votes out of 48.

Laudato si', Pope Francis's 2015 encyclical, was devoted to which issue?

The environment is 'our common home' in the letter, which urged swift global action on warming; its title, 'Praise be to you', comes from a hymn to creation by St Francis of Assisi, the pope's namesake.

On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons became the first spacecraft to fly past what?

Pluto was reached after a journey of more than nine years, and the photographs sent back revealed a bright heart-shaped region whose western lobe is a vast glacier of nitrogen ice.

Which desktop operating system did Microsoft release on July 29, 2015?

Windows 10 skipped the number 9, and for its first year Microsoft gave the upgrade away free to Windows 7 and 8 users, dropping its old policy of charging for each major new version.

In July 2015 the IOC awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to which city?

Beijing beat Almaty by just 44 votes to 40 after Oslo, Stockholm and other European bidders pulled out over money and politics; it became the first city to be given both the Summer and the Winter Games.

Wing debris that washed up on Réunion in July 2015 was confirmed to come from which lost airliner?

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had vanished in March 2014 with 239 people aboard; the wing flap found 16 months later was the first piece of the jet ever identified, proof that it came down in the Indian Ocean.

Chemical warehouse explosions that killed more than 160 people in August 2015 struck the port of which Chinese city?

Tianjin's blasts began when dry nitrocellulose overheated and caught fire; the crews sent to fight it were never told that 800 tons of ammonium nitrate sat nearby, and firefighters made up most of the dead.

On September 9, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II passed whom as Britain's longest-reigning monarch?

Victoria was her great-great-grandmother; the Queen spent the day opening a railway in the Scottish Borders, where she said the record was 'not one to which I have ever aspired'.

Homo naledi, a new species of early human announced in September 2015, was found where?

South Africa's Rising Star cave gave up 15 partial skeletons from a chamber reached by a narrow crawl; the team argued, controversially, that this small-brained species had carried its dead there on purpose.

Gravitational waves were first detected in September 2015 by which observatory?

LIGO caught waves from two black holes that collided 1.3 billion years ago, confirming a prediction Albert Einstein made a century earlier; three of its architects won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Who replaced Tony Abbott as Australian Prime Minister in September 2015?

Malcolm Turnbull beat Abbott by 54 votes to 44 in a late-night party ballot, six years after losing the Liberal leadership to the same man by a single vote.

Which carmaker was accused in September 2015 of rigging diesel emissions tests worldwide?

Volkswagen had fitted 'defeat device' software that could tell when a car was being tested and cleaned up its exhaust only then; on the road the engines gave off up to 40 times the permitted nitrogen oxides.

Which team won the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England?

New Zealand became the first team to retain the title, winning the final 34–17 at Twickenham; fly-half Dan Carter, injured out of the 2011 tournament, kicked 19 points and was man of the match.

Which October 2015 hurricane became the strongest ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, with 215 mph winds?

Patricia grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in about a day, yet it came ashore on a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico's Pacific coast and weakened quickly, so the death toll stayed low.

A deadly 2015 fire at the Colectiv nightclub brought down the government of which country?

Romania's fire started when a band's fireworks set light to soundproofing foam in a Bucharest club; some 20,000 people marched against corruption and lax safety checks, and Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned within days.

Gunmen stormed which concert hall during an Eagles of Death Metal show on November 13, 2015?

The Bataclan was the deadliest site of that night's coordinated attacks, with 90 of the 130 people killed; it stayed shut for a year and reopened with a concert by Sting.

In November 2015 which NATO member shot down a Russian warplane it said had strayed into its airspace?

Turkey said the Su-24 had crossed into its airspace for 17 seconds after ignoring ten warnings in five minutes; Russia insisted its bomber never left Syria, and Vladimir Putin called the attack a 'stab in the back'.

Which non-profit AI research company was launched in December 2015?

OpenAI launched as a non-profit with $1 billion pledged by backers including Elon Musk, promising AI for the benefit of humanity; within four years it had added a profit-making arm to attract investors.

The December 2015 COP 21 climate pact was agreed in which city?

Paris gave the pact its name: six years after the Copenhagen talks failed, nearly 200 countries agreed that each would set its own emissions pledge and toughen it every five years.

Which Belarusian author of the oral history Voices from Chernobyl won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Svetlana Alexievich builds her books from interviews with ordinary people who lived through war and disaster; her criticism of the regime at home forced her to spend years living abroad.

The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize went to a national dialogue quartet from which country?

Tunisia's quartet was a labour union, an employers' federation, a human rights league and the lawyers' order; they joined forces in 2013 and brokered talks when the country stood on the brink of civil war.

Which team beat the Seattle Seahawks 28–24 in Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015?

The New England Patriots won when cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson at the goal line in the final seconds; Seattle had chosen to throw from the one-yard line instead of running the ball.

Which film won Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards in February 2015?

Birdman stars Michael Keaton, a former Batman, as a faded superhero actor trying to stage a Broadway play; the film won four Oscars, but Keaton himself lost Best Actor to Eddie Redmayne.

Which horse won the 2015 Kentucky Derby and went on to the first Triple Crown in 37 years?

American Pharoah's name is a misspelling of 'pharaoh' that slipped through when he was registered; the name had been picked from a fans' online naming contest run by his owner's stable.

Who took over The Late Show on CBS after David Letterman's final episode in May 2015?

Stephen Colbert retired the mock-conservative pundit he had played for nine years on The Colbert Report and hosted as himself, starting on September 8.

Caitlyn Jenner introduced herself to the world on the cover of which magazine in June 2015?

Vanity Fair's cover line was 'Call Me Caitlyn'; her new Twitter account reached a million followers in just over four hours, beating a record Barack Obama had set only weeks before.

The Golden State Warriors won their first NBA title in 40 years in 2015 by beating whom?

The Cleveland Cavaliers led 2–1 until the Warriors moved reserve Andre Iguodala into the starting five for Game 4 to guard LeBron James; Golden State won three straight and Iguodala was named Finals MVP.

Which NHL team won the 2015 Stanley Cup, its third in six years?

The Chicago Blackhawks celebrated on home ice for the first time in 77 years, having sealed their 2010 and 2013 titles on the road; Duncan Keith scored the opening goal of the 2–0 clincher and was named playoff MVP.

Which figure's $10 bill did the US Treasury say in June 2015 would be redesigned to feature a woman?

Alexander Hamilton kept his place after all: in 2016 the Treasury changed course, leaving him on the $10 and choosing Harriet Tubman for the front of the $20, with Andrew Jackson moved to the back.

Which justice wrote the majority opinion in the June 2015 ruling guaranteeing same-sex marriage?

Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Ronald Reagan, sided with the Court's four liberal justices in Obergefell v. Hodges; he had also written its three earlier landmark gay-rights rulings, Romer, Lawrence and Windsor.

The US beat which team 5–2 in the 2015 Women's World Cup final?

Japan had beaten the US on penalties in the 2011 final; this time Carli Lloyd scored a hat-trick inside 16 minutes, the third from the halfway line, and the Americans led 4–0 before Japan replied.

Which comedian hosted his final episode of The Daily Show on August 6, 2015?

Jon Stewart signed off after 16 years with a send-off from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; Trevor Noah took over the desk that September, and in 2024 Stewart came back to host on Monday nights.

The Kansas City Royals won the 2015 World Series by beating which team?

The New York Mets led at some point in all five games and lost three they were winning in the eighth inning or later; in Game 5 Eric Hosmer's dash home on a groundout tied it in the ninth, and Kansas City won in the 12th.

Who succeeded John Boehner as Speaker of the House in October 2015?

Paul Ryan had insisted he did not want the job; he ran only after favourite Kevin McCarthy quit the race and the party's factions met his conditions, becoming at 45 the youngest Speaker since 1869.

Which 2015 release followed Avatar and Titanic past $2 billion at the worldwide box office?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the first film in the saga made after George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney for about $4 billion in 2012; it finished on $2.07 billion worldwide.

Which 2015 animated film was the first non-Disney animation to gross $1 billion?

Minions gave the yellow henchmen of Despicable Me a prequel of their own, and the sidekicks out-earned both films they had supported; by the end of its run only Frozen had earned more among animated films.

Which song spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015, the year's longest run?

Uptown Funk paired producer Mark Ronson with singer Bruno Mars; after a legal claim, the five writers of The Gap Band's 1979 hit 'Oops Upside Your Head' were added to its credits, taking the total to eleven.

Which singer's album sold a record 3.38 million US copies in its first week in November 2015?

Adele kept 25 off Spotify and other streaming services until the following June, so fans had to buy it; the first-week total beat the 2.42 million set by NSYNC's No Strings Attached in 2000.