100 Fun Facts About 2018

Which US state received a false ballistic missile alert on January 13, 2018?

Hawaii's alert went out because a worker mistook a drill for a real attack, and it took 38 minutes to send a correction.

Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, announced in 2018, were the first of which animals cloned the way Dolly the sheep was?

Monkeys had been cloned before only from split embryos or embryonic cells; Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua came from a fetal body cell's nucleus, as Dolly did from an adult's.

Which company flew its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time on February 6, 2018?

SpaceX's test payload was Elon Musk's own red Tesla Roadster, with a dummy astronaut named Starman at the wheel, launched off into deep space.

The 2018 Winter Olympics were held in Pyeongchang in which country?

South Korea marched into its own opening ceremony alongside North Korea under a unification flag, and the two fielded a joint women's ice hockey team.

Which country won the most medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics, with 39?

Norway's 39 beat the 37-medal record the US set in 2010, and before the Games a Google Translate slip got its chefs 15,000 eggs instead of 1,500.

Jacob Zuma resigned as president of which country in February 2018?

South Africa's ruling ANC ordered Zuma out, and he resigned on the eve of a no-confidence vote that his own party had said it would back.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with Novichok in which English city in March 2018?

Salisbury's two suspects later went on Russian TV to insist they were only tourists who had come to see the city's cathedral and its 123-metre spire.

In March 2018, China removed term limits for its leader, benefiting whom?

Xi Jinping's amendment passed China's legislature by 2,958 votes to 2, and in 2023 it let him take an unprecedented third term as president.

The world's last male northern white rhinoceros died in March 2018 in which country?

In Kenya, Sudan lived under round-the-clock armed guard, and a year before he died his keepers put him on Tinder to raise money for breeding research.

Which airline launched the first regular non-stop flights between Australia and the UK in March 2018?

Qantas's Perth–London service was the first regular non-stop link, though a Qantas 747 had set a record flying London to Sydney non-stop in 1989 on special fuel.

Which film was the first shown when cinemas reopened in Saudi Arabia in April 2018 after 35 years?

Black Panther premiered in Riyadh in a building first meant as a symphony concert hall, which AMC converted into a cinema once the kingdom lifted its ban.

Miguel Díaz-Canel replaced Raúl Castro as president of which country in April 2018?

It was the first time since 1959 that Cuba was not led by a Castro, though Raúl stayed on as Communist Party first secretary.

Which African kingdom officially changed its English name in April 2018, as it marked 50 years of independence?

Swaziland's King Mswati III said people abroad kept calling his country Switzerland, and announced the new name, Eswatini, at celebrations of his 50th birthday and 50 years of independence.

In April 2018, Kim Jong Un crossed the DMZ's border line to meet which president?

Moon Jae-in greeted Kim at the border line, and Kim then invited him to step briefly into North Korea, the pair holding hands.

Which European separatist group announced its final dissolution in May 2018, after a 40-year armed campaign?

ETA began in 1959 as a student group promoting Basque identity, took up arms the next decade, and killed 829 people between 1968 and 2010.

In July 2018, divers rescued a boys' football team and their coach from a flooded cave in which country?

Thailand's rescue brought out all 12 boys and their coach, but former Navy SEAL Saman Kunan died while delivering oxygen tanks inside the cave.

Netta Barzilai won the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Toy' for which country?

Israel's Netta hoped to see the next contest in Jerusalem, but the 2019 edition was staged in Tel Aviv instead.

Mahathir Mohamad's alliance ended a ruling coalition's 61-year hold on power in which country in May 2018?

Malaysia's Mahathir came out of retirement and joined the opposition to beat his former protégé Najib Razak, ousting the coalition he had once led.

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

At St George's Chapel, Windsor, American bishop Michael Curry preached on the power of love, quoting Martin Luther King Jr.

Which EU privacy law took effect on May 25, 2018, prompting a flood of policy-update emails?

GDPR fines can reach 4% of a firm's worldwide turnover, so some US services, such as Instapaper, simply blocked European users when it took effect.

Which country voted by 66.4% in May 2018 to repeal its constitutional ban on abortion?

Ireland's voters had added the ban to the constitution by referendum in 1983, and in 2018 every constituency except Donegal voted to remove it.

Real Madrid beat which club 3–1 in the 2018 Champions League final in Kyiv?

Liverpool keeper Loris Karius gifted Madrid two goals, and doctors later found he had played on with a concussion suffered during the match.

Which team won the 2018 Stanley Cup, beating the expansion Vegas Golden Knights?

The Washington Capitals won their first Stanley Cup in their 44th season, giving the city its first major-league title since the Redskins' 1992 Super Bowl.

The first summit between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader was held where in 2018?

Singapore hosted the first Trump–Kim meeting, but their second summit, in Hanoi in 2019, ended abruptly without a deal and its signing ceremony was cancelled.

A June 2018 deal with Greece ended a 27-year naming dispute with which country?

Macedonia agreed to become North Macedonia because Greece's own northern region bears the name, and Greece in turn dropped its veto on NATO membership.

France beat which country 4–2 in the 2018 FIFA World Cup final in Moscow?

It was Croatia's first World Cup final. Kylian Mbappé became the first teenager to score in a final since Pelé in 1958.

Canada legalised recreational cannabis nationwide in 2018, five years after which country had become the first?

Uruguay legalised cannabis sales in 2013, while the Netherlands, often assumed to be first, has only ever tolerated sales in its coffee shops.

Eritrea formally ended a 20-year conflict with which neighbour in July 2018?

Ethiopia's prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize chiefly for his initiative to resolve the border conflict with Eritrea.

In July 2018, scientists reported radar signs of a buried lake of liquid water on which planet?

Mars's possible lake, 1.5 km beneath the south polar ice, was later questioned by a study suggesting the radar echoes came from volcanic rock.

On August 2, 2018, which firm became the first US public company worth $1 trillion?

Apple was hailed as the world's first, though PetroChina had been valued near $1 trillion at its 2007 Shanghai debut, when few of its shares traded.

Launched in August 2018, NASA's Parker probe was sent to study what?

NASA's probe to the Sun was the first spacecraft it had named after a living person, and physicist Eugene Parker, then 91, watched it launch.

The Morandi Bridge, which collapsed in August 2018 killing 43 people, was in which Italian city?

A replacement designed by Genoa-born architect Renzo Piano opened in August 2020.

Which Swedish teenager began skipping school in August 2018 to protest climate inaction?

Greta Thunberg was 15 when she sat alone outside Sweden's parliament with a hand-painted sign, sparking the global Fridays for Future movement.

KSI boxed which fellow YouTuber at Manchester Arena in August 2018?

Logan Paul fought KSI to a draw, while on the same card Logan's younger brother Jake beat KSI's younger brother Deji.

Hurricane Michael hit Mexico Beach in which US state as a Category 5 storm in October 2018?

Florida's Hurricane Michael was rated Category 4 at landfall, and a review the next April upgraded it to the first US Category 5 landfall since Andrew in 1992.

The BepiColombo spacecraft, launched in October 2018, was sent to orbit which planet?

Mercury-bound BepiColombo was briefly logged as a new near-Earth asteroid when it swung past Earth in April 2020, until astronomers spotted the mix-up.

The world's longest sea-crossing bridge, opened in 2018, links Hong Kong and Macau with which city?

Zhuhai's bridge keeps traffic on the right like mainland China, so drivers from left-driving Hong Kong and Macau switch sides at the crossing.

Which Rockstar Games western was released on October 26, 2018?

Despite its number, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel, set in 1899, about a decade before the story of the first game.

Who was elected president of Brazil in October 2018 with 55% of the vote?

Jair Bolsonaro beat Fernando Haddad, who had replaced former president Lula as candidate after a corruption conviction barred Lula from standing.

Which NASA probe crossed the heliopause into interstellar space in November 2018?

Voyager 2 launched 16 days before Voyager 1 in 1977, but its twin took a quicker path and reached interstellar space six years earlier, in 2012.

The Camp Fire, California's deadliest wildfire, destroyed which town in November 2018?

Paradise was engulfed by a fire that PG&E's equipment started, killing 85 people, and the utility later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

In November 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced that he had done what?

He edited the DNA of twin babies, Lulu and Nana, to try to make them resistant to HIV, and a Chinese court jailed him for three years in 2019.

Drone sightings shut down which London airport for more than a day in December 2018?

Gatwick's closure hit about 140,000 passengers, yet police never found a culprit or proof of a drone, and the couple they arrested were released without charge.

Which quarterback caught a touchdown on the 'Philly Special' and was MVP of Super Bowl LII?

Nick Foles caught Trey Burton's pass for the score, after Tom Brady had dropped a pass on a similar Patriots trick play earlier in the game.

Who was Finals MVP when the Warriors swept the Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals?

Kevin Durant won his second straight Finals MVP; in Game 1, Cleveland's J.R. Smith dribbled away from the basket with the score tied, and Golden State won in overtime.

The Boston Red Sox beat which team in five games to win the 2018 World Series?

The Los Angeles Dodgers won an 18-inning Game 3 that ran longer than the entire 1939 World Series, then lost the next two games.

Which 2018 release became the first superhero film to gross $2 billion worldwide?

Avengers: Infinity War ended with its villain, Thanos, winning and wiping out half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers.

Which Guillermo del Toro film won Best Picture at the Oscars in March 2018?

The Shape of Water grew from a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake del Toro once pitched, in which the creature and the heroine end up together; Universal said no.

Which Marvel Comics legend died on November 12, 2018, aged 95?

Stan Lee defied the Comics Code in 1971, publishing a Spider-Man story that warned against drug abuse without the Code's seal of approval.

Which 'Queen of Soul' died on August 16, 2018?

Aretha Franklin's 1967 hit 'Respect' flipped an Otis Redding original, in which a man coming home from work was the one demanding respect.

Which artist's Girl with Balloon shredded itself moments after selling at Sotheby's in October 2018?

Banksy had hidden a shredder in the frame and says it was meant to destroy the whole canvas, but it stopped halfway. The work was renamed Love Is in the Bin.

A viral audio clip in May 2018 split listeners between hearing 'Laurel' and which other name?

Yanny is what 47 percent of over 500,000 respondents to one Twitter poll heard. The clip was an opera singer recording the word 'laurel' for Vocabulary.com in 2007.

Which American restaurant chain pretended to change its name in June 2018 to promote its burgers?

IHOP said it would flip its 'p' and become 'IHOb', then revealed the b stood for burgers. The stunt was meant to shake the idea that the chain was mainly about breakfast.

Which gorilla, known for using American Sign Language signs, died in California in June 2018?

Koko was 46 and had twice been a National Geographic cover story, once pictured with her pet kitten, All-Ball. Her story became the best-selling children's book Koko's Kitten.

Which unit did scientists vote in 2018 to redefine by the Planck constant, not a metal cylinder?

The kilogram had been defined since 1889 by Le Grand K, a golfball-sized cylinder of platinum and iridium. Every national representative at the vote backed the change.

Antoine Griezmann celebrated a 2018 World Cup final goal with a dance from which video game?

Fortnite is free to play and makes its money from V-Bucks spent on outfits and dance emotes. Up to 100 players fight to be the last one remaining.

Which sportswear brand made quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of a September 2018 ad campaign?

Nike had kept Colin Kaepernick under contract since 2011, and the ad told viewers to 'Believe in something'. Its 'Just Do It' slogan dates from a 1988 campaign.

Which name did Prince William and Catherine give their third child, born in April 2018?

Louis was named in honour of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, his great-great-great-uncle, and is pronounced 'Loo-ee'. He was born at St Mary's Hospital in London.

Which scientist's ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey in 2018 between Newton and Darwin?

Stephen Hawking died aged 76, though doctors who diagnosed his motor neurone disease at 21 had given him two years to live.

Which chain with a giraffe mascot named Geoffrey closed its last American stores in June 2018?

Toys "R" Us had filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2017 and won court approval to liquidate in March 2018. Some of its divisions abroad carried on.

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in October 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in which city?

Istanbul's consulate had been secretly bugged by the Turkish government, so Khashoggi's final moments were recorded. He had gone in for papers he needed to marry his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.

In which capital did Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin hold their first official summit in July 2018?

Helsinki's Presidential Palace hosted the talks, where Putin handed Trump a match ball from that summer's football World Cup. Finland's president, Sauli Niinistö, was the host.

In May 2018 President Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal with which country?

Iran's agreement is formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. European leaders answered that the UN Security Council resolution endorsing it remained binding.

Which judge joined the US Supreme Court in October 2018 after a 50–48 Senate confirmation vote?

Brett Kavanaugh took the seat of Anthony Kennedy, the justice he had clerked for in 1993 alongside Neil Gorsuch. Donald Trump nominated him that July.

Which chain closed some 8,000 American stores on May 29, 2018, for a staff seminar on racial bias?

Starbucks acted after two men were arrested at one of its Philadelphia cafés that April, when a manager claimed they were trespassing.

Which firm was revealed in 2018 to have harvested data from up to 87 million Facebook profiles?

Cambridge Analytica got the data through a personality app called This Is Your Digital Life. Mark Zuckerberg apologised and testified before Congress that April.

Which carmaker's boss tweeted in August 2018 that he might take it private at $420 a share?

Tesla's Elon Musk ended the tweet 'Funding secured.' The plan never happened, and a securities fraud charge cost him a $20 million fine and his seat as chairman.

The lip-syncing app Musical.ly was merged in August 2018 into which other app?

TikTok kept its own name and took over Musical.ly's existing accounts and data. ByteDance had bought the rival app in November 2017.

Which planet-hunting NASA telescope was retired in October 2018 after it ran out of fuel?

Kepler found over 2,600 exoplanets in nine years by watching for stars that dimmed as a world crossed in front of them. It was left in a safe orbit away from Earth.

French protesters who blocked roads over fuel prices in late 2018 were named after which garment?

Yellow vests were an easy symbol to adopt, because every French driver has had to keep one in the car since 2008. The protests grew out of an online petition started that May.

Which England striker won the Golden Boot as top scorer at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with six goals?

Harry Kane's hat-trick against Panama made him only the third England player to score three in a World Cup match, after Geoff Hurst and Gary Lineker.

Which defending champions went out in the 2018 FIFA World Cup group stage, their first opening-round exit since 1938?

Germany have won four World Cups and had not gone out in the first round since 1938, before a group stage even existed.

Who beat Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open final to win her first Grand Slam singles title?

Naomi Osaka won 6–2, 6–4 in a final where Williams was given three code violations, the last one costing her a game. Osaka had grown up idolising her opponent.

Which golfer won the Tour Championship in September 2018, his first victory in five years?

Tiger Woods took his 80th PGA Tour title at East Lake Golf Club, then won the 2019 Masters, his first major in 11 years.

Which player beat Marin Čilić in the 2018 Australian Open final to claim a 20th Grand Slam singles title?

Roger Federer was 36, the oldest man to win a major singles title since Ken Rosewall in 1972. It turned out to be the last major of his career.

Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid in 2018 for which club, in a €100 million transfer?

Juventus paid what was then the highest fee ever for a player over 30. Three months earlier Ronaldo had scored a bicycle kick against them in the Champions League.

Which NBA player left the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018 to sign a four-year deal with the Lakers?

LeBron James's contract was worth $154 million, and in 2020 he won another title to become the first player named Finals MVP with three different teams.

Ester Ledecká won gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in snowboarding and in which other sport?

Alpine skiing gave Ledecká a shock super-G win, making her the first person to take gold with two different types of equipment at one Winter Games.

Which colt won American racing's Triple Crown in 2018 despite never having raced as a two-year-old?

Justify broke the 'Curse of Apollo', named after the last horse to win the Kentucky Derby without a start at two, back in 1882. He was the 13th Triple Crown winner.

Which runner took 78 seconds off the marathon world record in Berlin in September 2018?

Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:01:39, the biggest improvement in the marathon world record since 1967. He later cut another 30 seconds off his own mark.

Which rapper won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first winner from outside classical and jazz?

Kendrick Lamar won for his album Damn, three years after his first Billboard Hot 100 number one, a remix of Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood'.

Which group's Love Yourself: Tear became the first K-pop album to top the US Billboard 200, in May 2018?

BTS earned 135,000 album-equivalent units in the record's first week, which also made it the highest-charting album by an Asian act up to then.

At which California festival did Beyoncé become, in 2018, the first African-American woman to headline?

Coachella had first booked her for 2017, but she withdrew on doctors' advice while pregnant. Her show paid tribute to the culture of HBCUs, complete with a full marching band.

In which December 2018 Netflix thriller does Sandra Bullock's character wear a blindfold to survive?

Bird Box drew more than 45 million viewers in its first seven days by Netflix's own count, and set off a craze for attempting everyday tasks blindfolded.

Which revived ABC sitcom was cancelled in May 2018 after its lead actress tweeted about Valerie Jarrett?

Roseanne came back that October without its lead as The Conners, a spin-off about the same working-class family that ran until 2025.

The 'Kiki Challenge' dance craze of 2018 was set to which Drake song?

In My Feelings topped the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks after comedian Shiggy posted a video of himself dancing to it. Copycats stepped out of moving vehicles to join in.

Which Michelle Obama memoir, published in November 2018, was the year's best-selling book in the US?

Becoming set that record just 15 days after publication, with over two million copies sold. One million more were donated to a charity that gives books to children.

Which 2018 film of a Kevin Kwan novel became the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the US in a decade?

Crazy Rich Asians was the first major Hollywood studio film in a modern setting with a majority cast of Chinese descent since The Joy Luck Club in 1993.

Which teenager takes over as Spider-Man in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?

Miles Morales is voiced by Shameik Moore in the film, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Its look mixes computer animation with hand-drawn comic techniques.

The 2018 documentary Free Solo follows Alex Honnold's ropeless climb of which Yosemite rock face?

El Capitan rises about 3,000 feet, and nobody had free-soloed a route on it before Honnold did in June 2017. The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

A deadly December 2018 tsunami in Indonesia's Sunda Strait followed the partial collapse of which volcano?

Anak Krakatau, the 'Child of Krakatau', rose from the sea decades after the 1883 eruption destroyed its parent. Its flank gave way at night, and no warning reached the coast.

A September 2018 fire destroyed most of the National Museum of Brazil's collection in which city?

Rio de Janeiro's firefighters found the hydrants all but useless, because water pressure on the museum's hilltop was too low. Around 92% of its 20 million items were lost.

Which African city spent early 2018 bracing for 'Day Zero', when it could run out of municipal water?

Cape Town would have been the first major city in the world to run dry. Falling water use pushed the date back, and strong rains from June 2018 refilled the dams.

Which World Cup-winning former cricket captain became prime minister of Pakistan in August 2018?

Imran Khan captained Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and retired after the final. He served as prime minister until a no-confidence vote removed him in April 2022.

Which former UN secretary-general, who shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize with the UN, died in August 2018?

Kofi Annan, from Kumasi in what is now Ghana, led the UN from 1997 to 2006 and was given a state funeral.

A scandal at which body meant that no Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded during 2018?

The Swedish Academy postponed the award after a member's husband was accused of sexual assault and of leaking winners' names. Olga Tokarczuk was named the 2018 laureate in October 2019.

Which Yazidi activist shared the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize with Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege?

Nadia Murad was the first Iraqi to win the prize, honoured with Mukwege for efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

In 2018 Donna Strickland became the first woman in 55 years to win the Nobel Prize in which field?

Physics had honoured only two women before her, Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963. Strickland won for a technique that makes ultrashort, intense laser pulses.

Which Australian city hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the first with equal events for men and women?

Gold Coast, in Queensland, staged the fifth Commonwealth Games held in Australia. Seven women's events were added to the programme to even up the numbers.

Which Team Sky rider won the 2018 Tour de France, ahead of his four-time-champion teammate in third?

Geraint Thomas was the first Welshman to win the race, after years as a support rider in the Grand Tour victories of Chris Froome, who came third.