2008 Trivia
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100 free 2008 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
2008 was the year the money ran out and the fireworks ran on computer. Banks toppled, oil spiked and crashed, a Belgian-Brazilian brewer swallowed Budweiser and a family sweet-maker bought the world's biggest chewing-gum firm, while Beijing staged an Olympics timed to the lucky number eight. These 100 questions go past the headlines everyone remembers to the second tier that makes a good pub round: the comic book that announced a web browser, the asteroid spotted before it hit, the journalist who quit a dance show because he might win, the dwarf planet named in July, the Nobel winners, the Christmas number one and the year's notable deaths. They are pitched for quiz nights, family rounds and anyone who was there and thinks they remember it. Roughly half should be gettable by a general player; the rest reward people who followed sport, science, politics or pop culture closely that year.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Why did Thailand's Constitutional Court oust Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in September?
He hosted TV cooking shows
He hosted TV cooking shows, 'Tasting and Grumbling' and 'All Set at 6 am', for months after taking office, which the court ruled made him a paid employee. His successor lasted only until December.
Q 02What did timekeepers insert at the end of 2008 so clocks could wait for the Earth's slightly slowing rotation?
A leap second
A leap second was inserted at the end of 2008 because the Earth's rotation runs slightly slower than atomic time, so clocks were paused to let the planet catch up. Clocks showed 23:59:60 before ticking over to 1 January.
Q 03Which laptop did Steve Jobs unveil at January's Macworld as the world's thinnest notebook, at 19 mm?
MacBook Air
The MacBook Air made its entrance when Jobs, saying it was thin enough to fit inside an office envelope, slid it out of a manila one on stage.
Q 04The 29 firework 'footprints' seen striding over Beijing on TV at the Olympic opening were what?
Largely computer animation
Largely computer animation replaced the live shot in the broadcast, although real footprints were fired at one per second, one for each of the 29 modern Olympiads. The 29th arrived at the Bird's Nest and became the Olympic rings.
Q 05Which sea creature gave science the glowing protein that won its discoverers the Chemistry Nobel?
A jellyfish
A jellyfish, Aequorea victoria, is the source of green fluorescent protein, first purified by Osamu Shimomura in the 1960s. Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien shared the 2008 prize for turning it into a tag that lights up living cells.
Q 06Which 'Santa Baby' singer, Catwoman in Batman's final TV season, died on Christmas Day, aged 81?
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt took over Catwoman from Julie Newmar in 1967, months before her US career stalled when she criticised the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon. She died of colon cancer at her Connecticut home.
Q 07Which airport's Terminal 5 opened in March with British Airways cancelling 34 flights on day one?
Heathrow
Heathrow's Terminal 5 had been opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 14 March, before it took its first passengers and promptly suspended baggage check-in. Until 2012 the building was used solely by British Airways.
Q 08Which Belgian-Brazilian brewer paid about $52 billion in cash for Budweiser's maker Anheuser-Busch?
InBev
InBev's all-cash offer of $70 a share created the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, uniting Budweiser and Michelob with Stella Artois, Bass and Brahma. Anheuser-Busch accepted on Sunday 13 July.
Q 09Which commodity's price hit a record $147 in July, then collapsed to about $32 by December?
Crude oil
Crude oil peaked at just over $147 a barrel in July 2008, then lost most of its value by December as the financial crisis and recession shrank demand for energy.
Q 10Microsoft bid an unsolicited $44.6 billion in February for which portal, then still chasing Google?
Yahoo
Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang answered Microsoft's approach with a search-advertising arrangement with Google instead, a plan abandoned after US regulators raised competition concerns.
Q 11Which Indian carmaker unveiled the 100,000-rupee Nano, then bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford?
Tata Motors
Tata Motors priced the Nano at one lakh rupees, about $2,500, when it went on show on 10 January, and set up Jaguar Land Rover Limited eight days later as the vehicle for taking both marques off Ford's hands.
Q 12Which model became France's first lady by marrying Nicolas Sarkozy in February?
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni married Sarkozy on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace after a brief romance, and released her third album, Comme si de rien n'était, that July. She stayed first lady until 2012.
Q 13Which Conservative unseated Ken Livingstone, London's first mayor, who had held the post since 2000?
Boris Johnson
Q 21Which team did Brett Favre play one season for after 253 straight starts for the Green Bay Packers?
New York Jets
The New York Jets had wanted Favre in the 1991 draft, when Ron Wolf worked in their front office, but Atlanta took him first with the 33rd pick. After a season in New York he finished with two years in Minnesota.
Q 22Whose Best Actress Oscar for playing Édith Piaf was the first won for a French-language performance?
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard shaved back her hairline and shaved off her eyebrows to resemble Piaf. She was the first Best Actress winner for a non-English-language role since Sophia Loren in the Italian film Two Women.
Q 23Which country's Dima Bilan won Eurovision in Belgrade with 'Believe', two years after his first try?
Boris Johnson beat Livingstone again in 2012, after which the man who had run the Greater London Council until its abolition in 1986 became a key ally of Jeremy Corbyn.
Q 14Which prime minister apologised on 11 June for Canada's residential schools for Indigenous children?
Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper's apology, made on behalf of the sitting Cabinet for past governments' policies of assimilation, came after his own Cabinet had earlier refused one, saying it was not part of the settlement agreement.
Q 15A vault to preserve the seeds of Earth's crops opened in February on which Norwegian archipelago?
Svalbard
Svalbard's Global Seed Vault formally opened on 26 February 2008 as a backup for the world's gene banks. Its first withdrawals began in 2015, after war forced the ICARDA seed bank near Aleppo in Syria to close.
Q 16What did Zhai Zhigang become the first Chinese citizen to do during September's Shenzhou 7 mission?
Walk in space
Zhai's walk in space was shown live on Chinese state television, and he waved a small Chinese flag outside the hatch while crewmate Liu Boming stood by in the airlock.
Q 17Which family-owned M&M's maker agreed in April to buy chewing-gum giant Wrigley for $23 billion?
Mars
Mars brought in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to help fund the all-cash deal, announced on 28 April, for the world's largest chewing-gum producer. Together the two firms sold over $30 billion of goods that year.
Q 18Which high-street chain's administrators said in December that its 807 UK stores would close, costing 27,000 jobs?
Woolworths
Woolworths opened in Liverpool in 1909 as the British arm of an American chain and outlasted its parent's shops: the last US Woolworth's stores closed in 1997. Its own final stores shut on 6 January 2009.
Q 19Which Briton's two Beijing swimming golds included breaking Janet Evans's 19-year-old 800 m record?
Rebecca Adlington
Rebecca Adlington won the 400 m and 800 m freestyle, and her home town of Mansfield renamed the Sherwood Baths, where she had trained for years, the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre.
Q 20Which nation won the Six Nations Grand Slam in March, its tenth Grand Slam and a 19th Triple Crown?
Wales
Wales took the Slam in Warren Gatland's first championship as coach, months after losing to Fiji and going out of the 2007 World Cup at the pool stage. It was their second Grand Slam in four years.
Russia
Russia's Dima Bilan shared the stage with Olympic figure-skating champion Evgeni Plushenko, who skated on a small artificial rink, and violinist Edvin Marton. It was the first contest staged with two semi-finals.
Q 24Whose 'Hallelujah' sold a record 105,000 copies in one day on its way to UK Christmas number one?
Alexandra Burke
Alexandra Burke's version became the UK's top-selling single of 2008 even though Jeff Buckley fans campaigned to take his recording to the Christmas top spot instead. The one-day tally was a European record.
Q 25Which political reporter left Strictly Come Dancing in week 10, saying he was in danger of winning?
John Sergeant
John Sergeant kept finishing bottom of the judges' scoreboard while the public kept voting to save him, so he bowed out with a farewell dance rather than risk 'a joke too far'. His partner was Kristina Rihanoff.
Q 26Which Wallace & Gromit film drew the biggest UK television audience of Christmas Day?
A Matter of Loaf and Death
A Matter of Loaf and Death drew over 14 million viewers on BBC One, the largest Christmas Day audience in five years, though it had already aired in Australia and leaked onto the Pirate Bay three weeks earlier.
Q 27Which 'Theme from Shaft' Oscar winner, later the voice of South Park's Chef, died in August aged 65?
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes started out at Stax as a session player and songwriter, writing Sam & Dave's 'Soul Man' with David Porter before finding fame under his own name.
Q 28Which Jurassic Park author, who also created the TV drama ER, died in November, aged 66?
Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton wrote thrillers under pen names while at Harvard Medical School, then never practised as a doctor. ER, which he created in 1994, drew on his own hospital training.
Q 29Which Cool Hand Luke star, dead at 83 in September, left his food company to a charity foundation?
Paul Newman
Paul Newman started Newman's Own in 1982 with a salad dressing he and writer A. E. Hotchner had been giving to friends, pledging to give all the profits away. He died at his Connecticut home on 26 September 2008.
Q 30Which Hollywood union's members voted on 12 February to end a 100-day strike?
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America's strike ran from 5 November 2007 to 12 February 2008, and 92.5% of those voting chose to end it. It reduced the Golden Globes to a press conference after actors said they would not cross picket lines.