1989
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7correct to beat the crowd
50 free 1989 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Few years changed the map as quickly as 1989. Across Eastern Europe, governments that had stood for four decades fell within months, while protests, an oil spill and an earthquake filled the evening news elsewhere. It was also the year a new president took office in Washington and a scientist quietly sketched out an invention that would reshape daily life. This quiz covers the whole of it: the politics and the disasters, the films that packed cinemas, the television shows that began long runs, and the records that topped the charts. There is a full round on sports too, from the Super Bowl and the World Series to tennis, cycling, hockey and English football. It is written for anyone who remembers 1989, was born in it, or is planning a class of 1989 reunion, a birthday party or a trivia night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print the questions as cards for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which singer, born in Pennsylvania in December 1989, named her 2014 pop album after her birth year?
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift called the album 1989 to mark a symbolic rebirth as she left country music for pop. It won her the Grammy for Album of the Year.
Q 02Which handheld console reached North America in July 1989 bundled with the puzzle hit Tetris?
Game Boy
Game Boy buyers found Tetris in the box, which drew in adults who had never owned a console. The grey handheld and its Color successor sold more than 118 million units.
Q 03Which animated family moved from shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show to a Fox series of its own in December 1989?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons opened with a Christmas special in which Homer bets on a greyhound that finishes last. It became America's longest-running scripted primetime series.
Q 04In which city did a spokesman's muddled press conference on 9 November 1989 send crowds through border crossings?
Berlin
Berlin filled with East Germans after Günter Schabowski, asked when new travel rules began, guessed that they applied at once. A checkpoint commander gave way that night and let the crowds through.
Q 05Which US state's coastline was blackened when the tanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef in March 1989?
Alaska
Alaska saw more than 10 million gallons of crude pour into Prince William Sound after the ship hit Bligh Reef. Congress answered with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
Q 06Which invention did Tim Berners-Lee first outline in a March 1989 proposal to his bosses at CERN?
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web had no name yet when the memo landed: it was headed Information Management: A Proposal. His manager judged the idea vague but exciting and let him pursue it.
Q 07Which actor played the Joker opposite Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster Batman?
Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson took the part on strict terms: top billing, his own shooting schedule and a share of the film's earnings, merchandise included.
Q 08Which soft drink brand dropped its Madonna commercial in 1989 after protests over her Like a Prayer video?
Pepsi
Pepsi cancelled the sponsorship after religious groups called for a boycott of its products. Madonna still kept her $5 million fee.
Q 09Which pop duo scored three US number-one singles in 1989 while secretly lip-syncing to other singers' vocals?
Milli Vanilli
Milli Vanilli were Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, hired to front songs recorded by session singers. They won the Best New Artist Grammy, the only Grammy ever revoked.
Q 10Which action star voiced baby Mikey's thoughts in the 1989 comedy hit Look Who's Talking?
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis is heard only by the audience, wisecracking as an infant while John Travolta and Kirstie Alley play the adults. The low-budget comedy grossed $297 million worldwide.
Q 11In which city did a lone man carrying shopping bags halt a column of tanks in June 1989?
Beijing
Beijing was where the man known only as Tank Man stepped in front of the lead tank near Tiananmen Square, a day after troops cleared it. He has never been identified.
Q 12Which dissident playwright became Czechoslovakia's president in December 1989 after the Velvet Revolution?
Václav Havel
Václav Havel was swept in by weeks of demonstrations at which crowds jingled their keys to show support. Alexander Dubček became speaker of parliament the day before.
Q 13Which country's dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown, tried and shot on Christmas Day 1989?
Romania
Q 21Which NBC sitcom about a New York stand-up comedian began with a poorly tested pilot in July 1989?
Seinfeld
Seinfeld nearly ended there: NBC left it off the schedule until an executive cancelled a Bob Hope special to pay for four more episodes. It went on to run for nine seasons.
Q 22Which teen sitcom set at Bayside High School began its NBC run in August 1989?
Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell was reworked from a Disney Channel series called Good Morning, Miss Bliss. That show was set in Indianapolis and built around a teacher played by Hayley Mills.
Q 23Which comedian hosted America's Funniest Home Videos when it first aired as a one-off ABC special in 1989?
Bob Saget
Romania staged the only violent overthrow among that year's Warsaw Pact revolutions. The dictator and his wife Elena were the last people executed there before the death penalty was abolished.
Q 14Which opposition movement led by Lech Wałęsa won a landslide in Poland's semi-free elections of June 1989?
Solidarity
Solidarity won all but one of the 100 Senate seats and every seat it was allowed to contest in the lower house. By the end of August it led Poland's government.
Q 15Which former CIA director and UN ambassador was sworn in as US president in January 1989?
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush was the first sitting vice president to win the White House since Martin Van Buren in 1836.
Q 16Which novelist was forced into hiding in February 1989 after Ayatollah Khomeini called for his death?
Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie lived under police protection for nine years over his novel The Satanic Verses. He later titled a memoir after the alias he used in those years, Joseph Anton.
Q 17Which country began its Heisei era in January 1989 when a new monarch succeeded his late father?
Japan
Japan's Showa era ended with the death of Emperor Hirohito, and the new era name was announced at a press conference shortly afterwards. His son Akihito reigned until he abdicated in 2019.
Q 18Which hurricane struck South Carolina near Charleston in September 1989 after battering Puerto Rico?
Hugo
Hugo came ashore at Sullivan's Island with 140 mph winds and a record storm surge. Its $11 billion in damage made it the costliest tropical cyclone on record at the time.
Q 19Which country did US troops invade in December 1989 to seize its ruler, General Manuel Noriega?
Panama
Panama's ruler hid in the Vatican's embassy while US troops outside reportedly played loud rock music day and night. He surrendered after ten days.
Q 20Which country did the last Soviet troops leave in February 1989 after more than nine years of war?
Afghanistan
Afghanistan had tied down the Soviet army for nearly a decade. The final armoured column drove home across a bridge into Soviet Uzbekistan under General Boris Gromov.
Bob Saget stayed on for the first eight seasons once the special became a weekly series, hosting it while also starring in the sitcom Full House.
Q 24Which 1989 film, loosely based on a Hans Christian Andersen tale, began the era called the Disney Renaissance?
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid earned Disney animation's first Oscar nominations since The Rescuers in 1977. It won two, for its score and for the song Under the Sea.
Q 25Which 1989 film, following an Atlanta widow across twenty-five years, won the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Driving Miss Daisy
Driving Miss Daisy began as a play by Alfred Uhry, and the film made 80-year-old Jessica Tandy the oldest Best Actress winner up to that time.
Q 26Which actor played Harrison Ford's father in the 1989 adventure Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?
Sean Connery
Sean Connery first turned the part down because he was only twelve years older than Ford. He had avoided big franchise films since leaving James Bond behind.
Q 27In which state does Kevin Costner's farmer build a baseball diamond in his cornfield in 1989's Field of Dreams?
Iowa
Iowa kept the ballpark: the diamond laid out for filming on a farm near Dyersville is still maintained as a tourist attraction.
Q 28Which actor played English teacher John Keating in the 1989 boarding-school drama Dead Poets Society?
Robin Williams
Robin Williams was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Daniel Day-Lewis. The film's only Oscar went to Tom Schulman's screenplay.
Q 29Which director also played pizza delivery man Mookie in his 1989 Brooklyn drama Do the Right Thing?
Spike Lee
Spike Lee shot the film on a single block in Bedford-Stuyvesant and set nearly all of its story on one hot summer day.
Q 30Which gadget does Marty McFly ride to escape Griff's gang in 1989's Back to the Future Part II?
Hoverboard
Hoverboard rumours spread after director Robert Zemeckis joked in a making-of featurette that the boards were real but withheld because parents feared for safety.