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50 free 1996 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
1996 was the year football nearly came home: England hosted Euro 96, lost a semi-final on penalties and sang about thirty years of hurt. Scientists cloned a sheep, a girl group told the world what it really, really wanted, and the IRA's ceasefire ended with a bomb in London and a bigger one in Manchester. These 50 questions go past the headlines: a webmail launch timed for Independence Day, a Fed chairman's two-word warning, a jockey who went through the card, a pop star invading a Brit Awards performance, the sitcom episode that drew a record audience and a front page a newspaper had to apologise for. There is news, UK life, film, music, sport, science and the year's births and deaths. Most are pitched for a pub table, with a handful for people who really remember the year. Play on your phone with instant answers and explanations, or print it for a pub quiz, office quiz or a 1996-themed birthday.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which two-word phrase did Fed chairman Alan Greenspan use in a December speech to question soaring share prices?
Irrational exuberance
Irrational exuberance sent Tokyo's market down 3% while he was still speaking; Greenspan later wrote that the phrase came to him in the bathtub.
Q 02Which jockey rode all seven winners on one card at Ascot on 28 September, costing bookmakers an estimated £40 million?
Frankie Dettori
Frankie Dettori's 'Magnificent Seven' came in at combined odds of 25,095–1 and turned him into a household name.
Q 03Which Pulp frontman ran onto the stage during Michael Jackson's 'Earth Song' at the Brit Awards in February?
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker was questioned by police over the children on stage, having objected to Jackson's Christ-like staging of the song.
Q 04Which style did Diana lose when her divorce from Prince Charles was finalised on 28 August?
Her Royal Highness
Her Royal Highness was dropped from Diana's style after the decree absolute, and her family decided against restoring it after her death.
Q 05Which boy band announced its split on 13 February, prompting the Samaritans to set up hotlines for distraught fans?
Take That
Take That had already lost Robbie Williams the previous summer; the remaining four finished a world tour and released a final single before parting.
Q 06Which singer led the Centre Court crowd in a singalong during a Wimbledon rain delay, at officials' request?
Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard was back on Centre Court in 2022, singing his 1963 hit 'Summer Holiday' for the tournament's centenary celebration.
Q 07Which Stephen King novel first appeared as six monthly paperback instalments, from March to August?
The Green Mile
The Green Mile opened with the volume 'The Two Dead Girls' and won King the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.
Q 08Which company did Apple agree to buy in December for $400 million, returning co-founder Steve Jobs after 11 years?
NeXT
NeXT was chosen after Apple's talks to buy Be Inc. collapsed, and its NeXTSTEP operating system became the foundation of Mac OS X.
Q 09Which sitcom's Christmas episode 'Time on Our Hands', billed as the last ever, drew a record 24.3 million UK viewers?
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses finally made the Trotters millionaires in that episode, through an antique watch found by Raquel's father James.
Q 10Which Ghanaian diplomat, then head of UN peacekeeping, was chosen in December to succeed Boutros Boutros-Ghali?
Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan was the first Secretary-General to rise from the UN's own staff, having headed its peacekeeping department since 1992.
Q 11Which Kansas senator, with Jack Kemp as running mate, lost the November presidential election to Bill Clinton?
Bob Dole
Bob Dole took 40.7% of the vote and 159 electoral votes to Clinton's 379, in the last election a Democrat has carried Kentucky or Tennessee.
Q 12At which Tasmanian historic site were 35 people shot dead in April, prompting a national gun buyback?
Port Arthur
Port Arthur's killings were the deadliest massacre in modern Australian history, and within two weeks the National Firearms Agreement brought a buyback and a national gun registry.
Q 13What did a four-year NTSB inquiry blame for the loss of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island in July, with 230 dead?
A fuel tank explosion
Q 21Which newspaper ran the front page 'Achtung! Surrender' before England's Euro 96 semi-final, then apologised?
Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror's editor Piers Morgan was widely criticised for the page, whose strapline ran 'For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over'.
Q 22Which Michael Bay thriller sends Sean Connery's ex-SAS captain back into Alcatraz to stop rogue Marines with VX gas?
The Rock
The Rock earned over $335 million on a $75 million budget, the fourth-highest gross of the year, with Nicolas Cage as the FBI chemist beside Connery.
Q 23Which actress won the Best Actress Oscar as Marge Gunderson, the pregnant police chief in Fargo?
Frances McDormand
A fuel tank explosion, from flammable vapours igniting in the centre wing tank, was the verdict of the costliest air-crash investigation in US history to that point.
Q 14Which Jon Krakauer bestseller recounts the May blizzard that killed eight Everest climbers, among them guide Rob Hall?
Into Thin Air
Into Thin Air grew from Krakauer's Outside magazine assignment; he was climbing with Hall's Adventure Consultants team when the storm struck.
Q 15Which British export did the EU ban in March, days after ministers admitted a likely link to a new human brain disease?
Beef
Beef from Britain stayed banned for ten years, until May 2006, despite John Major's attempts that summer to have the ban lifted.
Q 16Which three-word list did Tony Blair give as his top priorities for government at Labour's autumn conference?
Education, education, education
Education, education, education came seven months before Blair entered Downing Street, in the year Labour published its draft manifesto New Labour, New Life for Britain.
Q 17Where was the Stone of Scone placed in November after 700 years at Westminster, with a ceremony on St Andrew's Day?
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle displayed the stone beside the Honours of Scotland; its return had been announced by the British government that July.
Q 18The IRA ended its 17-month ceasefire on 9 February with a lorry bomb that killed two people in which part of London?
Docklands
Docklands was hit at South Quay, outside Canary Wharf, just over an hour after the IRA told Irish broadcaster RTÉ its ceasefire was over; damage was put at £150 million.
Q 19What survived the 15 June Manchester lorry bomb despite standing yards from it, and now carries a small brass plaque?
A pillar box
A pillar box came through the largest peacetime bomb ever detonated in Great Britain, a 1,500 kg device whose blast sent a mushroom cloud 300 metres up.
Q 20Which campaign after the Dunblane school shooting in March helped bring in two Firearms Acts banning most handguns?
The Snowdrop Petition
The Snowdrop Petition ran alongside Lord Cullen's official inquiry, and the resulting Acts prohibited private ownership of most handguns in Great Britain.
Frances McDormand's award was one of two Oscars for Fargo from seven nominations, the other going to the Coens for Best Original Screenplay.
Q 24Which Christmas comedy has Arnold Schwarzenegger scouring Minneapolis on Christmas Eve for a sold-out Turbo Man doll?
Jingle All the Way
Jingle All the Way cast comedian Sinbad as the rival father after Joe Pesci was considered, and takes its title from 'Jingle Bells'.
Q 25Which Toowoomba-born actor won the Best Actor Oscar for playing pianist David Helfgott in Shine?
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush watched Helfgott himself play 'Flight of the Bumblebee' at the Oscar telecast; Shine drew seven nominations including Best Picture.
Q 26Which Mike Leigh film, with Brenda Blethyn as a mother traced by the daughter she gave up, won the Palme d'Or?
Secrets & Lies
Secrets & Lies also won Blethyn the Best Actress prize at Cannes and went on to five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Q 27The Fugees' 'Killing Me Softly', with Lauryn Hill on lead vocals, covered a 1973 number one by which singer?
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack's original topped the US chart in 1973; the Fugees' version won a Grammy and prompted a 1996 remix of Flack's own recording.
Q 28Which Spice Girls ballad was the UK Christmas number one, the group's third consecutive chart-topper in six months?
2 Become 1
2 Become 1 was the group's second million-seller, written at their first professional songwriting session with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard.
Q 29Which country won Eurovision in Oslo with Eimear Quinn's 'The Voice', its fourth victory in five years?
Ireland
Ireland's record-extending seventh win came at the last contest decided purely by juries; televoting was trialled the following year.
Q 30Which band's Ian Broudie wrote the music for 'Three Lions', the Euro 96 anthem with lyrics by Baddiel and Skinner?
The Lightning Seeds
The Lightning Seeds' Broudie turned down the FA's offer to have players sing, not wanting the song to sound nationalistic; it has since had four separate stints at UK number one, across 1996, 1998 and 2018.