50 free 2015 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
2015 was the year a probe finally reached Pluto, a horse ended a 37-year Triple Crown drought, Adele sold 3.38 million albums in a week and Star Wars came back to break every box-office record on the books. This quiz walks through the whole year: the news (Charlie Hebdo, the Iran deal, the Obergefell ruling, the Paris climate agreement), the sports (Super Bowl XLIX, the Warriors' first title in 40 years, the Royals, the US women's World Cup win), and the pop culture (Letterman's farewell, Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover, Windows 10, the Nobel winners). Every answer has a short explanation, so it doubles as a recap of a year that already feels like a different era.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country adopted the euro on January 1, 2015, becoming the 19th eurozone member?
Lithuania
It replaced the litas. Latvia had joined a year earlier and Croatia would not switch until 2023.
Q 02Gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris offices of which satirical newspaper in January 2015?
Charlie Hebdo
The attack prompted a march attended by more than a million people and over 40 world leaders.
Q 03Which party, led by Alexis Tsipras, won Greece's January 2015 election?
SYRIZA
It took 149 of 300 seats. By July, Greece had become the first advanced economy to miss an IMF payment.
Q 04Which country won the 2015 Cricket World Cup, a tournament it co-hosted?
Australia
The tournament was co-hosted by the two finalists, Australia and New Zealand.
Q 05NASA's Dawn probe entered orbit around which dwarf planet in March 2015?
Ceres
It was the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet, four months before New Horizons reached Pluto.
Q 06Whose Top Gear contract did the BBC decline to renew in March 2015?
Jeremy Clarkson
The decision ended his run on the 2002-format show; his co-hosts soon followed him to Amazon's The Grand Tour.
Q 07In March 2015 a Germanwings A320 was deliberately crashed in which mountain range?
The French Alps
All 150 people aboard died after the first officer locked the captain out of the cockpit.
Q 08A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in April 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people in which country?
Nepal
Nineteen of the dead were at Everest base camp; a 7.3 aftershock in May killed more than 200 more.
Q 09Which disease did the WHO declare eradicated from the Americas in April 2015?
Rubella
In a separate milestone that June, Cuba became the first country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
Q 10Which Picasso painting sold for a record $179.3 million at Christie's in May 2015?
Les Femmes d'Alger
The same sale set a sculpture record when Giacometti's L'Homme au doigt fetched $141.3 million.
Q 11Who won the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with the song 'Heroes'?
Måns Zelmerlöw
The Swedish singer's win brought the contest to Stockholm in 2016.
Q 12Which FIFA president announced his intention to resign in June 2015 amid a corruption probe?
Sepp Blatter
The announcement came days after his re-election, as an FBI-led investigation swept through football's governing body.
Q 13The inaugural European Games were held in June 2015 in which city?
Baku
Azerbaijan's capital hosted the first edition; Minsk staged the second in 2019.
Q 21Homo naledi, a new species of early human announced in September 2015, was found where?
South Africa
The fossils came from the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg.
Q 22Gravitational waves were first detected in September 2015 by which observatory?
LIGO
The detection was kept quiet until February 11, 2016, when it was announced to the world.
Q 23Who replaced Tony Abbott as Australian Prime Minister in September 2015?
Malcolm Turnbull
He won a Liberal Party leadership ballot on September 14 and was sworn in the next day.
Which carmaker was accused in September 2015 of rigging diesel emissions tests worldwide?
Q 14Pope Francis's 2015 encyclical on the environment was titled what?
Laudato si'
Dated May 24 and released June 18, it arrived months before the Paris climate conference.
Q 15On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons became the first spacecraft to fly past what?
Pluto
The same day, Iran agreed to long-term limits on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Q 16Which desktop operating system did Microsoft release on July 29, 2015?
Windows 10
It skipped the number 9 entirely, following Windows 8.1.
Q 17In July 2015 the IOC awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to which city?
Beijing
It made Beijing the first city to host both Summer and Winter Games, after 2008.
Q 18Debris found on Réunion Island in August 2015 was confirmed to come from which lost airliner?
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
The aircraft had been missing since March 2014; the flaperon was the first physical evidence recovered.
Q 19Explosions that killed 173 people in August 2015 struck the port of which Chinese city?
Tianjin
Investigators blamed overheated nitrocellulose and about 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate.
Q 20On September 9, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II passed whom as Britain's longest-reigning monarch?
Victoria
She overtook a reign of 63 years and 216 days, set when Victoria died in January 1901.
Volkswagen
About 11 million vehicles were affected; the US ordered a recall of roughly 500,000 cars.
Q 25Which team won the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England?
New Zealand
The All Blacks beat Australia in the final to become the first team to retain the title.
Q 26Hurricane Patricia, the Western Hemisphere's most intense on record, hit what peak wind speed?
215 mph
Its pressure bottomed out at 872 mbar in October before it weakened rapidly over Mexico.
Q 27A deadly 2015 fire at the Colectiv nightclub brought down the government of which country?
Romania
Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned days later amid mass protests in Bucharest.
Q 28How many people were killed in the coordinated Paris attacks of November 13, 2015?
130
ISIL claimed the attacks, which hit the Bataclan theatre, cafés and the Stade de France.
Q 29In November 2015 which NATO member shot down a Russian fighter jet on its border with Syria?
Turkey
It was the first time a NATO member had destroyed a Russian aircraft since the 1950s.
Q 30Which non-profit AI research company was founded on December 11, 2015?
OpenAI
Eleven days later SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster, the first reusable rocket to reach orbital space and return.