100 Fun Facts About 2016

Which drug lord was recaptured in January 2016 after escaping a Mexican maximum-security prison?

He had slipped out through a tunnel under his cell's shower in July 2015.

Tsai Ing-wen was elected the first female president of which country in January 2016?

Her Democratic Progressive Party also won its first-ever legislative majority; she was sworn in on May 20.

The WHO announced an outbreak of which mosquito-borne virus in January 2016?

The CDC confirmed in April that it causes birth defects, and it shadowed the Rio Olympics that summer.

Pope Francis's 2016 meeting with Patriarch Kirill was the first since a schism of which year?

The leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches signed a joint declaration in Havana.

Barack Obama's March 2016 trip to Cuba was the first by a sitting US president since whom?

The previous presidential visit was in 1928; Obama met Raúl Castro in Havana.

The March 2016 suicide bombings at Zaventem airport and a metro station struck which city?

The attacks killed 35 people and injured some 300 more.

The 11.5 million leaked documents published in April 2016 became known as what?

They came from the law firm Mossack Fonseca and detailed more than 214,000 offshore companies.

Which Beyoncé album was released in April 2016, premiering as an hour-long HBO film?

It streamed exclusively on Tidal for 24 hours before going wide and debuting at No. 1.

Which club won the 2015–16 Premier League after starting the season at 5000–1 odds?

Claudio Ranieri's side was confirmed champion on May 2, one of the great upsets in sport.

Who was elected President of the Philippines in May 2016?

Later that year his government allowed Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in the Heroes' Cemetery, sparking protests.

Ukraine's Jamala won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with which song?

The contest was held in Stockholm after Sweden's win the previous year.

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

The 17-year-old western lowland gorilla became one of the year's most enduring internet memes.

The world's longest and deepest railway tunnel opened in June 2016 in which country?

The Gotthard Base Tunnel took two decades to build and runs about 57 km beneath the Alps.

Which team won UEFA Euro 2016, hosted by France?

The winners beat the hosts in extra time in the final, despite losing Cristiano Ronaldo to injury early on.

The June 2016 referendum in which the UK voted to leave the EU came to be known as what?

The vote on June 23 triggered David Cameron's resignation and years of withdrawal negotiations.

NASA's Juno spacecraft entered orbit around which planet on July 5, 2016?

It began a planned 20-month survey of the gas giant's interior and magnetic field.

Which augmented-reality mobile game, released July 6, 2016, broke sales and revenue records?

Players roamed parks and streets catching creatures through their phone cameras within days of launch.

A truck attack during Bastille Day celebrations in July 2016 killed 86 people in which French city?

The attack on the Promenade des Anglais came eight months after the Paris attacks.

A faction of which country's armed forces staged a failed coup on July 15–16, 2016?

At least 240 people died and the government launched sweeping purges afterward.

Which Japanese company made the world's last videocassette recorder in July 2016?

Four days later Solar Impulse 2 completed the first solar-powered flight around the world.

The 2016 Summer Olympics were the first held on which continent?

Rio de Janeiro hosted from August 5 to 21; the US led the medal table with 46 golds.

Which Brazilian president was impeached and removed by the Senate in August 2016?

The vote was 61–20; Vice President Michel Temer served out the rest of her term.

OSIRIS-REx, launched in September 2016, was NASA's first mission to return samples from what?

It reached Bennu in 2018 and dropped its samples back on Earth in September 2023.

Two Van Gogh paintings found in 2016 had been stolen in 2002 from a museum in which city?

Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen were worth a combined $100 million.

Hurricane Matthew killed 842 people in October 2016 when it hit which country as a Category 4?

Damage was estimated at $2.8 billion before the storm moved up the US southeast coast.

The Chicago Cubs' 2016 World Series win ended a drought dating back to which year?

They beat Cleveland 8–7 in 10 innings in Game 7, the longest title drought in North American sports.

Which country abruptly demonetised its high-value banknotes in November 2016?

The announcement came on November 8, the same day as the US presidential election.

The November 2016 LaMia Flight 2933 crash killed most of which Brazilian football squad?

The plane went down near Medellín, Colombia, on the way to a cup final; 71 of 77 aboard died.

Who formally became King of Thailand on December 1, 2016?

He succeeded his father after a seven-week mourning period following a 70-year reign.

Which four chemical elements were officially named on December 28, 2016?

They are elements 113, 115, 117 and 118, completing the seventh row of the periodic table.

Who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first songwriter to do so?

The Peace Prize that year went to Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos for the FARC peace deal.

A study in December 2016 found the first proven vaccine against which disease?

The VSV-EBOV vaccine proved between 70 and 100 percent effective.

Which team won Super Bowl 50, beating the Carolina Panthers 24–10?

Played at Levi's Stadium, it was Peyton Manning's final game; Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars played halftime.

Which film won Best Picture at the 88th Academy Awards in February 2016?

Leonardo DiCaprio finally won Best Actor that night for The Revenant on his fifth acting nomination.

Which Supreme Court justice died in February 2016, leaving a seat open through the election?

President Obama nominated Merrick Garland in March, but the Senate never held a hearing.

How many points did Kobe Bryant score in his final NBA game in April 2016?

It set a record for a farewell game, against the Utah Jazz, after 20 seasons with the Lakers.

The 2015–16 Golden State Warriors set a regular-season record with how many wins?

They passed the 1995–96 Bulls' mark, then lost the Finals to Cleveland in seven games.

Which musical won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama?

Lin-Manuel Miranda's show went on to win 11 Tony Awards from a record 16 nominations that June.

Cities lit buildings in which color after Prince died in April 2016?

He died at 57 at his Paisley Park studio in Minnesota.

Which boxing legend died in Scottsdale, Arizona, in June 2016 at the age of 74?

Born Cassius Clay, the three-time heavyweight champion died of septic shock.

Which NHL team beat the San Jose Sharks in six games to win the 2016 Stanley Cup?

It was the franchise's fourth Cup; they would repeat in 2017.

The 2016 NBA title was the first major pro championship for a Cleveland team since which year?

The Cavaliers came back from 3–1 down to beat Golden State in seven games.

How many gold medals did the United States win at the 2016 Rio Olympics?

The haul of 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze topped the medal table comfortably.

Which smartphone did Samsung discontinue in October 2016 after reports of it catching fire?

Airlines banned the device from flights before the recall was made permanent.

How many electoral votes did Donald Trump receive when the Electoral College met in December 2016?

Hillary Clinton received 227; at 70 he was then the oldest person elected president.

Which actress died on December 27, 2016, one day before her mother Debbie Reynolds?

The Star Wars star suffered a cardiac arrest on a transatlantic flight four days earlier.

Which 2016 release became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time worldwide?

It passed The Matrix Reloaded with $783.1 million and was the top superhero film without Batman, Spider-Man or Iron Man.

Which two animated films each grossed over $1 billion in 2016, a first for a single year?

Zootopia also became the highest-grossing original animated film ever, passing Finding Nemo.

Which song spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016, the year's longest run?

The Chainsmokers and Halsey edged Drake's 'One Dance', which managed 10 weeks.

David Bowie's final album, released two days before his death in January 2016, was titled what?

It became his first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

The British polar ship that a 2016 online poll voted to name Boaty McBoatface instead honors which famous Briton?

David Attenborough got the honor after ministers set aside the runaway poll winner, which drew 124,109 votes. The joke name went to one of the ship's remotely controlled submersibles.

LIGO scientists announced in February 2016 the first direct detection of what, produced by two merging black holes?

Gravitational waves from the merger had crossed about 1.4 billion light-years before reaching Earth in September 2015. Einstein predicted them in 1916 but doubted they could ever be detected.

Which nation, co-managed by a practicing dentist, knocked England out of Euro 2016 in the round of 16?

Iceland was playing in its first major tournament and went on to a quarter-final against host nation France. Joint manager Heimir Hallgrímsson kept working as a dentist in his home village.

Which abolitionist did the US Treasury say in April 2016 would replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill?

Harriet Tubman had topped a 2015 grassroots poll of more than 600,000 people on which woman should appear on US paper money. The plan moved Jackson, a slaveholder, to the back of the bill.

Which animal did the IUCN move from endangered to vulnerable in 2016 after a survey counted 1,864 in the wild?

The giant panda's change of status was taken as a sign that decades of conservation were working. Chinese authorities waited until July 2021 to make the same change themselves.

Water in the diving pool at the 2016 Rio Olympics made headlines by turning which color after a cleaning mix-up?

Green water appeared after 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide were mistakenly added to the pool during cleaning. Officials had first blamed heat and a lack of wind in the venue.

In May 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit which Japanese city?

Hiroshima received the visit 71 years after the US atomic bombing. Obama paid tribute to the victims at the Peace Memorial Park alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Which viral craze of late 2016 was filmed by groups, often to Rae Sremmurd's song Black Beatles?

The Mannequin Challenge had crowds stand frozen in place while a camera moved among them. Its spread sent Black Beatles to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which app for sharing six-second looping videos did Twitter announce in October 2016 that it was shutting down?

Vine had cost Twitter a reported $30 million in 2012, just four months after the startup was founded. By mid-2016 more than half of its biggest creators had quit for rival platforms.

Which Cold War leader, the target of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, died in November 2016 aged 90?

Fidel Castro was cremated and his ashes were interred in Santiago de Cuba on 4 December. Cuba declared nine days of national mourning, with public events and activities halted.

Who became Britain's second female prime minister in July 2016, less than three weeks after the EU referendum?

Theresa May was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II on 13 July, two days after becoming Conservative leader. Margaret Thatcher was the only woman to hold the office before her.

Who became the first woman nominated for US president by a major party at a July 2016 convention in Philadelphia?

Hillary Clinton went on to become the first woman to win the national popular vote for president, while losing the Electoral College.

Which actor won his first Oscar in February 2016, after five earlier nominations, for the survival drama The Revenant?

Leonardo DiCaprio's nominations had stretched across two decades, back to a supporting nod at age 19 for What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Which American gymnast won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, including the individual all-around title?

Simone Biles became the first woman in 32 years to win four gymnastics golds at one Games, and added a bronze on the balance beam.

Who was the unanimous MVP of the 2016 NBA Finals, the first in which a team overturned a 3–1 series deficit?

LeBron James averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists as the Cavaliers won three straight games to take the title from the Warriors.

Which 49ers quarterback began kneeling during the US national anthem in 2016 to protest police brutality?

Colin Kaepernick first sat, then knelt, through the 2016 pre-season and regular season. Teammate Eric Reid was the first player to join him.

Which singer of Faith and Careless Whisper died at his Oxfordshire home on Christmas Day 2016?

George Michael died of heart disease at his home in Goring-on-Thames. Decades earlier he had given the profits from the Wham! single Last Christmas to charity.

Which Netflix series, set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, released its first season in July 2016?

Stranger Things was developed by the Duffer Brothers as a blend of investigative drama and supernatural horror, steeped in 1980s pop culture. Winona Ryder led the cast as Joyce Byers.

Which DeepMind program beat Lee Sedol, a master of an ancient board game, four games to one in March 2016?

AlphaGo won every game except the fourth, each by resignation, in a match played in Seoul. Korea's Go association then gave the program an honorary top rank of 9 dan.

Which company landed a rocket booster on a drone ship at sea for the first time in April 2016?

SpaceX brought its Falcon 9 booster down on a ship named Of Course I Still Love You after four earlier attempts ended in destruction. That same booster flew again in 2017.

Which climate deal, opened for signature on Earth Day 2016, entered into force that November?

The Paris Agreement was signed by 175 parties on its first day at UN headquarters in New York. It took effect once the European Union's ratification carried it past the required threshold.

Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for trying to end a 50-year conflict in which country?

Colombia's voters had narrowly rejected his peace deal with the FARC guerrillas in a referendum shortly before the prize was announced. A revised deal went to Congress instead.

Nuclear sanctions on which country were lifted in January 2016 after inspectors certified it had kept a 2015 deal?

Iran's sanctions were lifted by the UN, the EU and the US on 16 January, a date the deal called Implementation Day, after the IAEA certified its compliance.

Which Nobel Peace Prize-winning nun did Pope Francis declare a saint at a Vatican ceremony in September 2016?

Mother Teresa was canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta on 4 September, one day short of the 19th anniversary of her death in 1997.

Lead-contaminated drinking water led President Obama to declare a January 2016 emergency in which Michigan city?

Flint's supply was switched in April 2014, during a financial crisis, from Detroit's system to the Flint River. The city went back to Detroit water in October 2015.

Protesters camped near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation from April 2016 to oppose which oil pipeline?

The Dakota Access route passes under Lake Oahe near the reservation, and the Standing Rock Sioux called it a serious threat to the region's water. The campaign spread online as #NoDAPL.

Which judge did Barack Obama nominate to the Supreme Court in March 2016, only for the Senate to refuse a hearing?

Merrick Garland's nomination lasted 293 days before expiring in January 2017, when the congressional term ended. He went on to serve as US attorney general from 2021.

Which company, then run by Jeff Weiner, did Microsoft agree to buy for $26.2 billion in June 2016?

LinkedIn kept its own brand and its chief executive under the deal. It stayed Microsoft's biggest purchase until the Activision Blizzard takeover, agreed in 2022.

Which US bank was fined $185 million in September 2016 after staff opened about two million unauthorized accounts?

Wells Fargo traced the fake accounts to aggressive internal sales goals placed on branch staff. The scandal led to the resignation of chief executive John Stumpf.

Disney opened a theme park in June 2016, majority-owned by local partner Shendi Group, in which Asian city?

Shanghai Disneyland left Disney itself with a 43 percent stake. Work on its Enchanted Storybook Castle had begun three years before the park opened.

Which Formula One driver won the 2016 world championship and announced his retirement just five days later?

Nico Rosberg said he wanted more time with his family. He and his father Keke are only the second father and son to both win the title, after Graham and Damon Hill.

Which tennis player won Wimbledon and Olympic gold in 2016 and finished the year as men's world number one?

Andy Murray's win in Rio made him the first player, male or female, to take two Olympic singles golds, having also won in London four years earlier.

Which Pacific nation won its first Olympic medal of any color, a rugby sevens gold, at the 2016 Rio Games?

Fiji's gold came in the men's tournament as rugby returned to the Olympics for the first time since 1924, this time in its seven-a-side form.

Which Japanese emperor hinted in a rare televised address in August 2016 that he wished to abdicate?

Akihito cited his advanced age and declining health, and stepped down in April 2019. No emperor had given up the throne since Kokaku in 1817.

Who was chosen in October 2016 to succeed Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General of the United Nations?

António Guterres had run the UN refugee agency from 2005 to 2015. He became the first European in the post since Kurt Waldheim left it in 1981.

Which novelist, who published only two books 55 years apart, died in February 2016 aged 89?

Harper Lee followed To Kill a Mockingbird only in 2015 with Go Set a Watchman, an earlier draft marketed as a sequel. In between she gave almost no interviews.

A May 2016 wildfire forced upwards of 88,000 people to flee which community in Alberta's oil sands region?

Fort McMurray's fire did an estimated C$9.9 billion of damage, at the time the costliest disaster in Canadian history, and forced the largest wildfire evacuation Alberta had seen.

A tribunal in The Hague ruled in July 2016 against Beijing's sweeping historic claims over which sea?

The South China Sea case was brought by the Philippines, and the tribunal found Beijing's nine-dash line claim had no lawful effect under the UN sea convention. Beijing rejected the ruling.

Captain America: Civil War, the highest-grossing film of 2016, introduced which actor as Marvel's new Spider-Man?

Tom Holland followed it with Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017, which made him, at the time, the youngest actor to play a title role in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film.

Which term did Oxford Dictionaries name its 2016 Word of the Year after a twentyfold jump in usage?

Post-truth may have first been used by playwright Steve Tesich in a 1992 essay in The Nation, almost a quarter of a century before Oxford's editors recorded its surge.

Syrian government forces retook all of which city in December 2016 after four years of fighting?

Aleppo, Syria's largest city, had been divided for years, with rebels holding its eastern half. Combatants nicknamed the struggle Syria's Stalingrad.

Aung San Suu Kyi, barred from the presidency, became State Counsellor of which country in April 2016?

Myanmar's constitution kept her from the presidency because her late husband and children are foreign citizens, so a new post akin to prime minister was created for her.

Which South Korean president was impeached in December 2016 over a scandal involving unofficial aide Choi Soon-sil?

Park Geun-hye was suspended after 234 of the National Assembly's 300 members voted to impeach her. Her aide had sought donations from conglomerates despite holding no official post.

The prime minister of which country resigned after losing a constitutional referendum in December 2016?

Italy's voters turned down his constitutional reform with about 59 percent against, and Renzi stepped down after less than three years in office.

Who was elected Mayor of London in May 2016, defeating the Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith?

Sadiq Khan became the city's first Muslim mayor and the first from an ethnic minority, then gave up his seat in Parliament.

Which country voted in March 2016 to keep its existing flag rather than adopt a silver fern design?

New Zealand's second referendum pitted the existing flag against a black, white and blue design by Kyle Lockwood, which had won an earlier vote among the alternatives.

Whose portrait replaced Elizabeth Fry's on the polymer £5 note that the Bank of England introduced in September 2016?

Winston Churchill appears in his 1941 Roaring Lion portrait by Yousuf Karsh, beside a view of the Houses of Parliament, on the plastic note.

Astronomers announced in August 2016 a planet in the habitable zone of which star, about 4.2 light-years away?

Proxima Centauri b was announced by the European Southern Observatory after years of measuring tiny Doppler shifts in its parent star, the closest to the Sun.

Which European Space Agency probe ended its mission in September 2016 by hard-landing on the comet it had orbited?

Rosetta had become the first spacecraft to orbit a comet in August 2014, and sent down the Philae lander for the first controlled touchdown on a comet nucleus.

Which aircraft landed in Abu Dhabi in July 2016 to complete the first round-the-world flight powered only by sunlight?

Solar Impulse 2 touched down 506 days after setting off, having covered about 42,000 km in stages flown by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg.