In This Year50 randomly selected In This Year questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 8th September 2025 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | Captained by Richard Phillips, the cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama was captured by Somali pirates|an outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus ("swine flu") was declared a global pandemic|Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 |
| 2. | Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman married|McDonald's opened restaurants in Russia and Mainland China for the first time|a U.S. District Court acquitted Imelda Marcos on racketeering and fraud charges |
| 3. | Construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt began|a mine collapse in Coalbrook, South Africa killed 500 miners|the Summer Olympic Games were held in Rome |
| 4. | Sarah Michelle Gellar|Thierry Henry|Emmanuel Macron|Floyd Mayweather, Jr.|Zachary Quinto|Kanye West |
| 5. | U.S. Navy pilot John McCain was shot down over North Vietnam and taken prisoner|Jim Thompson, co-founder of the Thai Silk Company, disappeared in Malaysia|the world's first automatic cash machine was installed at Barclays Bank in Enfield, England |
| 6. | Concorde made its first commercial flight|James Callaghan replaced Harold Wilson as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|at least 46 were killed in the Thammasat University massacre in Bangkok |
| 7. | A suicide bomb at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut killed 63 people|Sally Ride became the first American woman in space|Neil Kinnock was elected leader of the British Labour Party |
| 8. | The Winter Olympics were held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada|a Thai military crack down on the "Red Shirts" protests in Bangkok ended with 91 dead and more than 2,100 injured|Julia Gillard was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Australia |
| 9. | The Khmer Rouge won the Cambodian Civil War and took control of the country|Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila|Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, was shot dead by the Provisional IRA |
| 10. | Jeff Goldblum|David Hasselhoff|Imran Khan|Liam Neeson|Mr. T|Harvey Weinstein |
| 11. | Cyprus became independent from the United Kingdom|21-year-old American rock singer Eddie Cochran died in a car crash in south England|U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy was elected Democratic presidential candidate |
| 12. | Bill Bailey|Sherilyn Fenn|Eddie Irvine|Vinnie Jones|Piers Morgan|Marti Pellow |
| 13. | The Icelandic government and banking system collapsed|the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century occurred over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean|actor David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room |
| 14. | the FDA approved Viagra for use in erectile dysfunction|Titanic won 11 Academy Awards|the Winter Olympics were held in Nagano, Japan |
| 15. | An amateur video captured the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police|a Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Suphanburi, Thailand, killing all 223 on board|Mike Tyson was charged with the rape of Desiree Washington |
| 16. | John Candy|David Cassidy|Peter Gabriel|Ed Harris|Jay Leno|Julie Walters |
| 17. | Ferdinand Marcos became "President for Life of the Philippines"|U.S. President Richard Nixon was inaugurated for his second term|Bobby Riggs played Margaret Court and Billie Jean King in tennis' first two Battles of the Sexes |
| 18. | Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister of India for the first time|The Sound of Music won Best Picture at the Academy Awards|Patrick Troughton replaced William Hartnell as Doctor Who |
| 19. | Bob Hawke was elected Prime Minister of Australia|Tokyo Disneyland opened|in London, £26m worth of gold bars were stolen in the Brinks Matt robbery |
| 20. | 2001: A Space Odyssey premièred around the world|the Summer Olympics took place in Mexico|Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis |
| 21. | Alesha Dixon|James Franco|Katherine Heigl|Rachel McAdams|Zoe Saldana|Usher |
| 22. | Rain Man and Who Framed Roger Rabbit were the highest grossing films|a demonstration flight of the new Airbus A320 crashed into the tops of trees beyond the runway at Habsheim, France|the Iran–Iraq War finally came to an end |
| 23. | Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom died aged 81|U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York|Guglielmo Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, a Morse code letter 'S' sent from England to Newfoundland |
| 24. | The Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran|an accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, caused a partial meltdown|The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan |
| 25. | George W. Bush succeeded Bill Clinton as President of the United States|the Russian Mir space station re-entered the atmosphere to end its 15 year service in the Pacific Ocean|English politician and author Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to 4 years in prison |
| 26. | John Barnes|Phoebe Cates|Lisa Kudrow|Graham Norton|Conan O'Brien|Rob Schneider |
| 27. | Abdullah II inherited the throne after King Hussein of Jordan died from cancer|London was hit with a 13-day bombing campaign by Neo-Nazi militant David Copeland|the Kosovo War came to an end after Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo |
| 28. | Idi Amin deposed Milton Obote in a coup to become president of Uganda|East Pakistan became Bangladesh after gaining independence from Pakistan|Jim Morrison of The Doors was found dead in a bathtub in Paris, France |
| 29. | The first generation Apple iPhone went on sale in the USA|British child Madeleine McCann disappeared from an apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal|the final Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows, became the fastest selling book in history |
| 30. | The "Velvet Divorce" divided Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia|an IRA bomb exploded in Warrington, England killing two children|the Battle of Mogadishu, dubbed "Black Hawk Down", took place in Somalia |
| 31. | James Bulger was abducted, tortured and murdered by two 10 year old boys in Liverpool, England|the Battle of Mogadishu, dubbed "Black Hawk Down", took place in Somalia|tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed during a match in Hamburg |
| 32. | U2 released their studio album The Joshua Tree|The Simpsons cartoon first appeared as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show|the last remaining prisoner at Spandau Prison, Rudolf Hess, was found dead in his cell |
| 33. | U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles|English politician Enoch Powell delivered his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech|the Winter Olympics were held in Grenoble, France |
| 34. | Manuel Noriega surrendered to American forces in the wake of the U.S. Invasion of Panama|in the face of nationwide riots, the Poll Tax was introduced in England and Wales|Boris Yeltsin became the first ever elected Soviet president |
| 35. | Bill Clinton succeeded George H.W. Bush as President of the United States|James Bulger was abducted, tortured and murdered by two 10 year old boys in Liverpool, England|the Sunset Limited train crash in Alabama killed 47 |
| 36. | ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest singing Waterloo|Helmut Schmidt took over as Chancellor of West Germany after Willy Brandt resigned|Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle |
| 37. | Bradley Cooper|Tiger Woods|Milla Jovovich|will.i.am|Mel B|Tara Reid |
| 38. | Daniel Craig|Celine Dion|Hugh Jackman|Kylie Minogue|Will Smith|Owen Wilson |
| 39. | the first episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses was aired|François Mitterrand became the first socialist President of the French Fifth Republic|6,255 people crossed the finish line at the first London Marathon |
| 40. | Amy Adams|Victoria Beckham|James Blunt|Leonardo DiCaprio|Bear Grylls|Hilary Swank |
| 41. | Richard Ayoade|Tom Brady|John Cena|Michael Fassbender|Ronan Keating|Liv Tyler |
| 42. | Cilla Black|George Harrison|Julio Iglesias|Billie Jean King|John Major|Christopher Walken |
| 43. | Barry Gibb|David Gilmour|Al Green|Liza Minnelli|Keith Moon|Dolly Parton |
| 44. | the body of publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean|President George H. W. Bush ordered a cease-fire and declared victory over Iraq in the Gulf War|Slovenia and Croatia became the first republics to declare independence from Yugoslavia |
| 45. | Carmen Electra|Liam Gallagher|Jennifer Garner|Jude Law|Shaquille O'Neal|Gwyneth Paltrow |
| 46. | The Kobe earthquake in Japan killed 6,434 people|the Oklahoma City bombing claimed the lives of 168|O. J. Simpson was found not guilty of double murder in his criminal trial |
| 47. | Michael Caine|Jayne Mansfield|David McCallum|Willie Nelson|Joan Rivers|Gene Wilder |
| 48. | The Australian dollar replaced the Australian pound|Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? premièred worldwide|Luna 9 and Surveyor 1 achieved the first lunar soft landings |
| 49. | The Winter Olympics were held in Nagano, Japan|Titanic won 11 Academy Awards|the FDA approved Viagra for use in erectile dysfunction |
| 50. | The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago, Illinois| Albert Einstein published both his special theory of relativity and the famous equation E = mc2|Norway dissolved its union with Sweden to become an independent country |
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