2016 Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
100 free 2016 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
2016 was the year of the upset: Leicester City at 5000-1, the Cubs after 108 years, the Cavaliers from 3–1 down, Brexit and an American election almost nobody called. It was also the year Pokémon Go emptied living rooms, Hamilton swept the Tonys and the last VCR rolled off the line. This quiz covers the news (the Panama Papers, the Rio Olympics, the Turkish coup attempt, the Paris agreement taking force), the sports, the science (Juno at Jupiter, four new elements, a proven Ebola vaccine) and the pop culture, from Lemonade and Views to Spotlight and Zootopia. Every answer is explained, so it works as a recap of a year that was strange even while it was happening.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which drug lord was recaptured in January 2016 after escaping a Mexican maximum-security prison?
Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán
He had slipped out through a tunnel under his cell's shower in July 2015.
Q 02Tsai Ing-wen was elected the first female president of which country in January 2016?
Taiwan
Her Democratic Progressive Party also won its first-ever legislative majority; she was sworn in on May 20.
Q 03The WHO announced an outbreak of which mosquito-borne virus in January 2016?
Zika
The CDC confirmed in April that it causes birth defects, and it shadowed the Rio Olympics that summer.
Q 04Pope Francis's 2016 meeting with Patriarch Kirill was the first since a schism of which year?
1054
The leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches signed a joint declaration in Havana.
Q 05Barack Obama's March 2016 trip to Cuba was the first by a sitting US president since whom?
Calvin Coolidge
The previous presidential visit was in 1928; Obama met Raúl Castro in Havana.
Q 06The March 2016 suicide bombings at Zaventem airport and a metro station struck which city?
Brussels
The attacks killed 35 people and injured some 300 more.
Q 07The 11.5 million leaked documents published in April 2016 became known as what?
The Panama Papers
They came from the law firm Mossack Fonseca and detailed more than 214,000 offshore companies.
Q 08Which Beyoncé album was released in April 2016, premiering as an hour-long HBO film?
Lemonade
It streamed exclusively on Tidal for 24 hours before going wide and debuting at No. 1.
Q 09Which club won the 2015–16 Premier League after starting the season at 5000–1 odds?
Leicester City
Claudio Ranieri's side was confirmed champion on May 2, one of the great upsets in sport.
Q 10Who was elected President of the Philippines in May 2016?
Rodrigo Duterte
Later that year his government allowed Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in the Heroes' Cemetery, sparking protests.
Q 11Ukraine's Jamala won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with which song?
1944
The contest was held in Stockholm after Sweden's win the previous year.
Q 12Harambe, the gorilla shot in May 2016 after a boy entered his enclosure, lived at which zoo?
Cincinnati Zoo
The 17-year-old western lowland gorilla became one of the year's most enduring internet memes.
Q 13The world's longest and deepest railway tunnel opened in June 2016 in which country?
Switzerland
The Gotthard Base Tunnel took two decades to build and runs about 57 km beneath the Alps.
Which team won UEFA Euro 2016, hosted by France?
Q 21The 2016 Summer Olympics were the first held on which continent?
South America
Rio de Janeiro hosted from August 5 to 21; the US led the medal table with 46 golds.
Q 22Which Brazilian president was impeached and removed by the Senate in August 2016?
Dilma Rousseff
The vote was 61–20; Vice President Michel Temer served out the rest of her term.
Q 23OSIRIS-REx, launched in September 2016, was NASA's first mission to return samples from what?
An asteroid
It reached Bennu in 2018 and dropped its samples back on Earth in September 2023.
Portugal
The winners beat the hosts in extra time in the final, despite losing Cristiano Ronaldo to injury early on.
Q 15The June 2016 referendum in which the UK voted to leave the EU came to be known as what?
Brexit
The vote on June 23 triggered David Cameron's resignation and years of withdrawal negotiations.
Q 16NASA's Juno spacecraft entered orbit around which planet on July 5, 2016?
Jupiter
It began a planned 20-month survey of the gas giant's interior and magnetic field.
Q 17Which augmented-reality mobile game, released July 6, 2016, broke sales and revenue records?
Pokémon Go
Players roamed parks and streets catching creatures through their phone cameras within days of launch.
Q 18A truck attack during Bastille Day celebrations in July 2016 killed 86 people in which French city?
Nice
The attack on the Promenade des Anglais came eight months after the Paris attacks.
Q 19A faction of which country's armed forces staged a failed coup on July 15–16, 2016?
Turkey
At least 240 people died and the government launched sweeping purges afterward.
Q 20Which Japanese company made the world's last videocassette recorder in July 2016?
Funai
Four days later Solar Impulse 2 completed the first solar-powered flight around the world.
Q 24Two Van Gogh paintings found in 2016 had been stolen in 2002 from a museum in which city?
Amsterdam
Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen were worth a combined $100 million.
Q 25Hurricane Matthew killed 842 people in October 2016 when it hit which country as a Category 4?
Haiti
Damage was estimated at $2.8 billion before the storm moved up the US southeast coast.
Q 26The Chicago Cubs' 2016 World Series win ended a drought dating back to which year?
1908
They beat Cleveland 8–7 in 10 innings in Game 7, the longest title drought in North American sports.
Q 27Which country abruptly demonetised its high-value banknotes in November 2016?
India
The announcement came on November 8, the same day as the US presidential election.
Q 28The November 2016 LaMia Flight 2933 crash killed most of which Brazilian football squad?
Chapecoense
The plane went down near Medellín, Colombia, on the way to a cup final; 71 of 77 aboard died.
Q 29Who formally became King of Thailand on December 1, 2016?
Vajiralongkorn
He succeeded his father after a seven-week mourning period following a 70-year reign.
Q 30Which four chemical elements were officially named on December 28, 2016?
Nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, oganesson
They are elements 113, 115, 117 and 118, completing the seventh row of the periodic table.