1996 Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
49 free 1996 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 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 49 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 49 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 was his warning about what became the dot-com bubble, and stock markets around the world fell after he said it.
Q 02Which jockey rode all seven winners on one card at Ascot on 28 September?
Frankie Dettori
Frankie Dettori's seven came in at combined odds of 25,095–1, costing the betting industry an estimated £40 million.
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 went under letters patent issued a week before the divorce, which ended the style for royal wives who divorced.
Q 05Which boy band announced its split on 13 February, prompting helplines for distraught fans?
Take That
Take That's farewell single, a Bee Gees cover, went to number one, and the reunited band topped the chart again with 'Patience' in 2006.
Q 06Which singer led the Centre Court crowd in a singalong during a Wimbledon rain delay?
Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard's rain-delay set is unlikely to be repeated, because Centre Court has had a retractable roof since 2009.
Q 07Which Stephen King novel first appeared as a serial, released in instalments?
The Green Mile
The Green Mile came out in six Dickens-style monthly parts, a format King called 'the opposite of instant gratification', since readers could not skip to the end.
Q 08Which company did Apple agree to buy in December, bringing back its co-founder Steve Jobs?
NeXT
NeXT beat Be Inc., Apple's other candidate, and its NeXTSTEP operating system became the foundation of Mac OS X.
Q 09Which sitcom's Christmas episode 'Time on Our Hands' drew 24.3 million UK viewers?
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses finally made the Trotters millionaires in that episode, after Raquel's antiques-dealer father spotted a long-lost antique watch in their garage.
Q 10Which Ghanaian diplomat, then head of UN peacekeeping, was chosen in December to succeed Boutros Boutros-Ghali?
Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan got the job because a lone US veto had blocked Boutros-Ghali's second term, despite 14 votes in favour on the Security Council.
Q 11Which Kansas senator, with Jack Kemp as running mate, lost the November presidential election to Bill Clinton?
Bob Dole
Bob Dole had resigned from the Senate that June to campaign full-time, then lost the Electoral College by 379 votes to 159.
Q 12At which Tasmanian historic site were 35 people shot dead in April, prompting a national gun buyback?
Port Arthur
Port Arthur's killings led, within two weeks, to the National Firearms Agreement, which also created a waiting period for gun sales.
Q 13What did a four-year NTSB inquiry blame for the July loss of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island?
A fuel tank explosion
Q 21Which newspaper ran an 'Achtung!' front page before England's Euro 96 semi-final, then apologised?
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan ran the page, and Germany went on to beat England on penalties in the semi-final, then win Euro 96.
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: flammable vapour in the centre wing tank ignited, and the FAA later ordered airlines to cut fuel-tank flammability.
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 criticised guide Anatoli Boukreev, who answered in 1997 with his own book, The Climb.
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 was soon banned worldwide, not just across the EU, a serious economic blow.
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 months before Labour won the 1997 election on a manifesto promising smaller class sizes.
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 kept the stone until 2024, when it moved to Perth Museum near Scone, on the proviso that it returns to England for coronations.
Q 18The IRA ended its 17-month ceasefire on 9 February with a lorry bomb in which part of London?
Docklands
Docklands was hit at South Quay, and the IRA did not renew its ceasefire until July 1997, which let Sinn Féin into the peace talks.
Q 19What survived the 15 June Manchester lorry bomb despite standing yards from it?
A pillar box
A pillar box survived a lorry bomb that injured over 200 people yet killed no one, because police had cleared tens of thousands after a coded warning.
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 helped win a first Act from John Major's government, and Tony Blair's new government then banned the remaining .22 handguns.
Frances McDormand's Fargo opens by calling itself a true story, but the Coens later admitted that claim was untrue.
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 actor won the Best Actor Oscar for playing pianist David Helfgott in Shine?
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush resumed piano lessons he had dropped at 14 so he could play the film's piano scenes without a hand double.
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 grew from months of improvisation, in which Leigh and his actors built the characters before any script existed.
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 hit grew, Lori Lieberman has said, from how moved she was watching Don McLean perform.
Q 28Which Spice Girls ballad was the UK Christmas number one, the group's third consecutive chart-topper?
2 Become 1
2 Become 1's single version rewrote a line about boys and girls, because the group felt it needed to be more inclusive of their LGBTQ fans.
Q 29Which country won Eurovision in Oslo with 'The Voice', its fourth victory in five years?
Ireland
Ireland's Eimear Quinn won, yet the UK's entry, Gina G's 'Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit', became the bigger international hit and earned a Grammy nomination.
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' Ian Broudie heard German fans singing 'Three Lions' after Germany knocked England out of Euro 96.