In This Year50 randomly selected In This Year questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 20th October 2025 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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1. | The TV miniseries Roots first aired around the world|the Space Shuttle Enterprise made its first test free-flight from the back of a Boeing 747|Elvis Presley was found dead at his home in Graceland |
1977 | |
2. | John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth|West Side Story won Best Picture at the Academy Awards|Beatles drummer Pete Best was fired and replaced by Ringo Starr |
1962 | |
3. | Fred and Rosemary West were arrested in England after police excavated human bones in their back garden|between 500,000 and 1 million people were slaughtered in the Rwandan Genocide|Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna was killed in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix |
1994 | |
4. | Woody Allen|Julie Andrews|Jerry Lee Lewis|Dudley Moore|Elvis Presley|Donald Sutherland |
1935 | |
5. | David Blaine|Heidi Klum|Seth MacFarlane|Sean Paul|Monica Seles|Kristen Wiig |
1973 | |
6. | 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 |
1960 | |
7. | John Candy|David Cassidy|Peter Gabriel|Ed Harris|Jay Leno|Julie Walters |
1950 | |
8. | Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union|a fire on the Scandinavian Star, a ferry en route from Norway to Denmark, killed 158|East Germany and West Germany reunited into a single Germany |
1990 | |
9. | John F. Kennedy succeeded Dwight D. Eisenhower as President of the United States|a plane crash near Brussels, Belgium wiped out the entire United States figure skating team|construction of the Berlin Wall began |
1961 | |
10. | Kevin Bacon|Tim Burton|Jamie Lee Curtis|Bruce Dickinson|Sharon Stone|Ice T |
1958 | |
11. | George W. Bush began his second term as President of the United States|Pope John Paul II died|the Prince of Wales married Camilla Parker Bowles |
2005 | |
12. | Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by Soviet fighters|seatbelt use for drivers and front-seat passengers became mandatory in the United Kingdom|United States troops led the Invasion of Grenada |
1983 | |
13. | Tony Abbott|Seve Ballesteros|Michael Clarke Duncan|Caroline Kennedy|Paul Merton|Jayne Torvill |
1957 | |
14. | The Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, New York|the arcade game Pac-Man was released by Namco|the album Back in Black was released by Australian band AC/DC |
1980 | |
15. | Jacinda Ardern|Eva Green|Jake Gyllenhall|Christina Ricci|Jason Segel|Rebel Wilson |
1980 | |
16. | Tim Allen|Kim Basinger|Michael Bolton|Griff Rhys Jones|Rick Moranis|Leon Spinks |
1953 | |
17. | Hogan's Heroes actor Bob Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment|a bomb explosion at Northwestern University, Illinois marked the Unabomber's first attack|Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, was released worldwide |
1978 | |
18. | At Camp David, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin formally declared that the Cold War was over|Microsoft released Windows 3.1|a fire at Windsor Castle caused over £50 million worth of damage |
1992 | |
19. | Racing driver Jim Clark was killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim|Richard Nixon won the U.S. presidential election|The Beatles released their self-titled album, popularly known as the White Album |
1968 | |
20. | The RMS Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbour|Ceylon became a Republic and changed its name to Sri Lanka|Eugene Cernan became the last person to walk on the moon |
1972 | |
21. | Kate Hudson|Adam Levine|Jennifer Love-Hewitt|Jason Momoa|Chris Pratt|Maggie Q |
1979 | |
22. | Cleopatra premièred around the world|ZIP codes were introduced by the U.S. Postal Service|British prostitute Christine Keeler was arrested and convicted of perjury for her part in the Profumo Affair |
1963 | |
23. | "Liberty by Lily Allen" is a product launched by the singer in October 2020, garnering many 5-star reviews. What is it? |
Vibrator (Womanizer Liberty by Lily Allen) | |
24. | Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds premiered around the world|John F. Kennedy delivered his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin|Cleopatra premiered around the world |
1963 | |
25. | Windows XP was launched by Microsoft|George Harrison died at the age of 58|a Paris–Miami flight was diverted to Boston after passenger Richard Reid attempted to set light to his explosive-filled shoe |
2001 | |
26. | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder, premiered around the world|President Richard Nixon declared the U.S. "War on Drugs"|the first book in the Mr. Men series, Mr. Tickle, was first published |
1971 | |
27. | the Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea|Australian soap opera Home and Away was aired for the first time|Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing a total of 270 people |
1988 | |
28. | Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed the Apple Computer Company|Nadia Comăneci scored seven perfect 10s at the Summer Olympics|Viking 1 successfully landed on Mars |
1976 | |
29. | an earthquake in Haiti killed more than 316,000 people|the Deepwater Horizon oil spill discharged nearly 5 billion gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico|David Cameron became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
2010 | |
30. | "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole|U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were bombed, killing 224 and injuring more than 4,500|Hugo Chávez was elected President of Venezuela |
1998 | |
31. | Jason Bateman|Cate Blanchett|Jennifer Lopez|Marilyn Manson|Matthew McConaughey|Michael Sheen |
1969 | |
32. | Rowan Atkinson|Willem Dafoe|Steve Jobs|Olga Korbut|Bill Paxton|Angus Young |
1955 | |
33. | 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 |
2007 | |
34. | 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 |
1901 | |
35. | Czechoslovakia beat West Germany 5–3 on penalties to win the UEFA European Football Championship|China's Chairman Mao Zedong died of a heart attack|Jimmy Carter defeated the incumbent Gerald Ford in the U.S. presidential election |
1976 | |
36. | 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 |
1981 | |
37. | Michael Caine|Jayne Mansfield|David McCallum|Willie Nelson|Joan Rivers|Gene Wilder |
1933 | |
38. | Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in for his own full term as U.S. President|in Rhodesia, Ian Smith declared de facto independence from the UK|the red and white maple leaf design replaced the Union Flag as the flag of Canada |
1965 | |
39. | The Green Bay Packers won the first ever Super Bowl|Celtic became the first non-Latin football club to win the European Cup|The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band |
1967 | |
40. | The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication was celebrated in New York Harbor|British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher officially opened the M25 Motorway| and Mike Tyson won his first world boxing title by defeating Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas |
1986 | |
41. | 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 |
2009 | |
42. | U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy was elected Democratic presidential candidate| Cyprus became independent from the United Kingdom|21-year-old American rock singer Eddie Cochran died in a car crash in south England |
1960 | |
43. | Daniel Day-Lewis|Gloria Estefan|Dawn French|Steven Fry|Dolph Lundgren|Donny Osmond |
1957 | |
44. | Björk|Kevin James|Jeremy Kyle|Martin Lawrence|Chris Rock|Slash |
1965 | |
45. | Part of her Heretic range, what actress launched scented candles labelled "This Smells Like My Vagina" and "This Smells Like My Orgasm" in 2020? |
Gwyneth Paltrow | |
46. | Carmen Electra|Liam Gallagher|Jennifer Garner|Jude Law|Shaquille O'Neal|Gwyneth Paltrow |
1972 | |
47. | The comet Hale-Bopp made its closest approach to Earth|Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing|Diana, Princess of Wales died following a car crash in Paris |
1997 | |
48. | In the 2020 U.S. presidential election, to the nearest million, how many million more people voted for Joe Biden than Donald Trump? |
7 (81,281,502 vs 74,222,593) | |
49. | The World Wide Web was opened up as a free public service|the Maastricht Treaty took effect, formally establishing the European Union|Schindler's List, The Pelican Brief, and Philadelphia all premièred around the world |
1993 | |
50. | Kobe Bryant|James Corden|Ashton Kutcher|Manny Pacquiao|Katie Price|Nicole Scherzinger |
1978 | |
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