60 Fun Facts About Guess the Year

In which year did the Berlin Wall fall?

It came down on 9 November during the Peaceful Revolution, after East Berlin's transit restrictions were simply overwhelmed.

In which year did the Titanic sink?

She struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York and went down in the early hours of 15 April.

In which year was the first iPhone released?

Steve Jobs announced it on 9 January and it went on sale in the US on 29 June.

In which year did Apollo 11 land the first humans on the Moon?

It was the fifth crewed Apollo mission, flying from 16 to 24 July.

In which year did reactor 4 explode at the Chernobyl nuclear plant?

It happened on 26 April near the town of Pripyat in what is now Ukraine.

In which year did King John seal Magna Carta at Runnymede?

The 'Great Charter' was sealed on 15 June, near Windsor.

In which year did Christopher Columbus make his first voyage across the Atlantic?

He made four voyages in all, the last ending in 1504.

In which year was the Bastille stormed in Paris?

The 14 July attack on the fortress-prison is still France's national day.

In which year was the Battle of Hastings fought?

William of Normandy beat Harold Godwinson on 14 October and the Norman Conquest of England began.

In which year was the United States Declaration of Independence adopted?

Congress ordered the engrossed copy on 19 July; the famous signatures came later that summer.

In which year did the Wright Flyer make the first sustained powered flight?

The flights at Kitty Hawk on 17 December were the first by a manned, powered, controlled heavier-than-air aircraft.

In which year was Facebook founded?

Mark Zuckerberg started it with Harvard roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

In which year was Google founded?

Larry Page and Sergey Brin were PhD students at Stanford at the time.

In which year did the First World War begin?

It ran from 28 July until the armistice of 11 November 1918.

In which year did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

The surprise raid on the US Pacific Fleet at Oahu came on 7 December.

In which year did Nazi Germany's surrender bring the war in Europe to an end?

VE Day was 8 May; the definitive surrender document was signed that night in Karlshorst, Berlin.

In which year was Nelson Mandela released from prison?

President F. W. de Klerk freed him after 27 years, amid fears of a racial civil war.

In which year did euro coins and banknotes enter circulation?

The euro had existed as an accounting currency since 1999; the physical money arrived on 1 January and had replaced the old currencies by March.

In which year was the Great Fire of London?

It burned from Sunday 2 to Wednesday 5 September and gutted the medieval City inside the old Roman wall.

In which year did William Shakespeare die?

He died on 23 April, traditionally also his birthday, aged 52.

In which year was the Battle of Waterloo?

Fought on Sunday 18 June near a village then in the Netherlands and now in Belgium, it was Napoleon's last battle.

In which year did the Wall Street Crash begin?

Prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed in October, ushering in the Great Depression.

In which year was President John F. Kennedy assassinated?

He was shot in Dallas on Friday 22 November.

In which year was the Eiffel Tower completed?

Gustave Eiffel's company built it in just over two years for that year's World's Fair.

In which year was the Statue of Liberty dedicated?

The dedication took place on 28 October; the statue was a gift from the people of France.

In which year did the Suez Canal officially open?

Construction had taken ten years; the opening ceremony was on 17 November.

In which year did Krakatoa erupt catastrophically?

The eruption in the Sunda Strait began on 19 May and lasted more than five months.

In which year did Mount Vesuvius bury Pompeii?

It remains one of the deadliest eruptions in history, and one of the best documented thanks to Pliny the Younger.

In which year was Julius Caesar assassinated?

He was stabbed on the Ides of March by a group of senators at the Curia of Pompey in Rome.

In which year were the first modern Olympic Games held, in Athens?

They were officially the Games of the I Olympiad.

In which year did New Zealand become the first self-governing country to give women the vote?

The Electoral Bill got royal assent on 19 September and women voted in the general election that November.

In which year did production of the Ford Model T begin?

The first one left the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit on 27 September; production ran until 1927.

In which year did Prohibition begin in the United States?

The country went dry on 17 January and stayed that way until 1933.

In which year did Alexander Fleming discover penicillin?

He found it as a crude extract of a Penicillium mould growing on a neglected culture plate.

In which year was Hong Kong handed over from Britain to China?

The handover came at midnight on 1 July, under terms set by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

In which year was the first Star Wars film released?

It opened in a handful of US cinemas on 25 May and became a surprise blockbuster.

In which year did MTV launch?

It went on air at 12:01 am on 1 August with music videos introduced by VJs.

In which year was Amazon founded?

Jeff Bezos started it as an online bookshop in Bellevue, Washington, and briefly called it Cadabra.

In which year was the bitcoin network created?

Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block on 3 January.

In which year did the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union?

The referendum was held on Thursday 23 June in the UK and Gibraltar.

In which year did the WHO declare COVID-19 a pandemic?

It was declared a public health emergency on 30 January and assessed as a pandemic on 11 March.

In which year was Barack Obama first elected president?

The election was held on 4 November; John McCain had secured the Republican nomination by March.

In which year did the Beatles break up?

Brian Epstein's death, McCartney's leadership and Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono were among the strains.

In which year did the United States buy the Louisiana Territory from France?

The formal cession came on 20 December, three weeks after Spain handed the territory back to France.

In which year was the Battle of Trafalgar?

Nelson's fleet met the combined French and Spanish navies on 21 October during the War of the Third Coalition.

In which year was Abraham Lincoln shot at Ford's Theatre?

It happened on 14 April, one month into his second term, as the Civil War was ending.

In which year did the Hindenburg airship burn at Lakehurst, New Jersey?

The disaster on 6 May came at the start of the airship's second season of transatlantic service.

In which year did the so-called Spanish flu pandemic begin?

The earliest probable cases were recorded in March in Haskell County, Kansas; the misleading name stuck anyway.

In which year did the Russian Revolution begin?

It opened with the February Revolution in the middle of the First World War.

In which year did Canadian Confederation create the Dominion of Canada?

Three provinces united on 1 July under the British North America Act.

In which year did the Australian colonies federate as the Commonwealth of Australia?

The constitution came into force on 1 January, and Edmund Barton was caretaker prime minister at the first election that March.

In which year was the first Super Bowl played?

The Packers beat the Chiefs at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 15 January; it was billed as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game.

In which year did Microsoft release Windows 95 to retail?

It hit shops on 24 August after being released to manufacturing on 14 July.

In which year did Ernő Rubik invent the Rubik's Cube?

He was a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture at the time.

In which year was Pac-Man released in arcades?

Namco released it in Japan on 22 May as Puck Man; Midway brought it to North America that August.

In which year was the Soviet Union formally dissolved?

It ceased to exist as a sovereign state on 26 December.

In which year is the Taj Mahal believed to have been completed?

The cost at the time was put at around 32 million rupees.

In which year was Newton's Principia first published?

Samuel Pepys, as president of the Royal Society, authorised it in 1686; two corrected editions followed in Newton's lifetime.

In which year was Darwin's On the Origin of Species published?

It came out on 24 November; Darwin said he had clearly conceived the theory twenty years earlier.

In which year did the Panama Canal formally open to shipping?

The cargo ship SS Ancon made the ceremonial first passage on 15 August, days after the First World War began.