100 Fun Facts About 2015

Which country adopted the euro on January 1, 2015, becoming the 19th eurozone member?

Lithuania had first asked to join in 2006 and was turned down because its inflation ran at 2.7% against a limit of 2.6%; nine years on it gave up the litas, the last of the three Baltic states to switch.

Gunmen killed 12 people at the offices of which French satirical newspaper in January 2015?

Charlie Hebdo's surviving staff published the next issue a week later; instead of the usual 60,000 copies the print run climbed into the millions, and the first copies sold out within hours.

Which party, led by Alexis Tsipras, won Greece's January 2015 election?

SYRIZA won 149 of 300 seats, two short of a majority, so the left-wing party took office with the right-leaning Independent Greeks, a partner it shared little with beyond opposing the bailout cuts.

Which country won the 2015 Cricket World Cup, a tournament it co-hosted?

Australia won its fifth title, and captain Michael Clarke, playing his last one-day international, dedicated it to teammate Phillip Hughes, who had died four months earlier after a bouncer struck his neck.

NASA's Dawn probe entered orbit around which dwarf planet in March 2015?

Ceres made Dawn the first spacecraft to orbit two worlds beyond Earth, after the asteroid Vesta; the puzzling bright spots it found in Occator crater proved to be salt that had welled up from inside.

Whose Top Gear contract did the BBC decline to renew in March 2015?

Jeremy Clarkson had punched producer Oisin Tymon in a row over the lack of hot food after a day's filming; co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May then left with him for Amazon's The Grand Tour.

In March 2015 a Germanwings A320 was deliberately crashed in which mountain range?

The French Alps crash killed all 150 aboard after the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit; airlines then required two people on the flight deck at all times, a rule German carriers dropped in 2017.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in April 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people in which country?

Nepal's quake also set off an avalanche that swept through Everest Base Camp just as the climbing season was beginning, and a second major tremor, of magnitude 7.3, struck the country on May 12.

Which disease did the WHO declare eliminated from the Americas in April 2015?

Rubella was the third disease driven out of the Americas, after smallpox in 1971 and polio in 1994; a 15-year vaccination drive ended local spread of a virus that causes birth defects when caught in pregnancy.

Which artist's Les Femmes d'Alger sold for a record $179 million at Christie's in May 2015?

Pablo Picasso began the series in 1954, soon after the death of his friend and rival Henri Matisse, taking up the harem scenes Matisse was known for as a tribute.

Which country won the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with the song 'Heroes'?

Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw sang 'Heroes' alongside animated figures projected around him and beat Russia by 62 points; the win took the 2016 contest to Stockholm, where he came back as co-host.

Which FIFA president announced his intention to resign in June 2015 amid a corruption probe?

Sepp Blatter quit just four days after winning a fifth term, in a vote held two days after Swiss police, acting for US prosecutors, led FIFA officials out of a five-star Zurich hotel at dawn.

The inaugural European Games were held in June 2015 in which city?

Baku was the only candidate: Azerbaijan's capital offered to stage the brand-new event, and Europe's Olympic committees approved it in a single secret ballot in 2012, by 38 votes out of 48.

Laudato si', Pope Francis's 2015 encyclical, was devoted to which issue?

The environment is 'our common home' in the letter, which urged swift global action on warming; its title, 'Praise be to you', comes from a hymn to creation by St Francis of Assisi, the pope's namesake.

On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons became the first spacecraft to fly past what?

Pluto was reached after a journey of more than nine years, and the photographs sent back revealed a bright heart-shaped region whose western lobe is a vast glacier of nitrogen ice.

Which desktop operating system did Microsoft release on July 29, 2015?

Windows 10 skipped the number 9, and for its first year Microsoft gave the upgrade away free to Windows 7 and 8 users, dropping its old policy of charging for each major new version.

In July 2015 the IOC awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to which city?

Beijing beat Almaty by just 44 votes to 40 after Oslo, Stockholm and other European bidders pulled out over money and politics; it became the first city to be given both the Summer and the Winter Games.

Wing debris that washed up on Réunion in July 2015 was confirmed to come from which lost airliner?

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had vanished in March 2014 with 239 people aboard; the wing flap found 16 months later was the first piece of the jet ever identified, proof that it came down in the Indian Ocean.

Chemical warehouse explosions that killed more than 160 people in August 2015 struck the port of which Chinese city?

Tianjin's blasts began when dry nitrocellulose overheated and caught fire; the crews sent to fight it were never told that 800 tons of ammonium nitrate sat nearby, and firefighters made up most of the dead.

On September 9, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II passed whom as Britain's longest-reigning monarch?

Victoria was her great-great-grandmother; the Queen spent the day opening a railway in the Scottish Borders, where she said the record was 'not one to which I have ever aspired'.

Homo naledi, a new species of early human announced in September 2015, was found where?

South Africa's Rising Star cave gave up 15 partial skeletons from a chamber reached by a narrow crawl; the team argued, controversially, that this small-brained species had carried its dead there on purpose.

Gravitational waves were first detected in September 2015 by which observatory?

LIGO caught waves from two black holes that collided 1.3 billion years ago, confirming a prediction Albert Einstein made a century earlier; three of its architects won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Who replaced Tony Abbott as Australian Prime Minister in September 2015?

Malcolm Turnbull beat Abbott by 54 votes to 44 in a late-night party ballot, six years after losing the Liberal leadership to the same man by a single vote.

Which carmaker was accused in September 2015 of rigging diesel emissions tests worldwide?

Volkswagen had fitted 'defeat device' software that could tell when a car was being tested and cleaned up its exhaust only then; on the road the engines gave off up to 40 times the permitted nitrogen oxides.

Which team won the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England?

New Zealand became the first team to retain the title, winning the final 34–17 at Twickenham; fly-half Dan Carter, injured out of the 2011 tournament, kicked 19 points and was man of the match.

Which October 2015 hurricane became the strongest ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, with 215 mph winds?

Patricia grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in about a day, yet it came ashore on a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico's Pacific coast and weakened quickly, so the death toll stayed low.

A deadly 2015 fire at the Colectiv nightclub brought down the government of which country?

Romania's fire started when a band's fireworks set light to soundproofing foam in a Bucharest club; some 20,000 people marched against corruption and lax safety checks, and Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned within days.

Gunmen stormed which concert hall during an Eagles of Death Metal show on November 13, 2015?

The Bataclan was the deadliest site of that night's coordinated attacks, with 90 of the 130 people killed; it stayed shut for a year and reopened with a concert by Sting.

In November 2015 which NATO member shot down a Russian warplane it said had strayed into its airspace?

Turkey said the Su-24 had crossed into its airspace for 17 seconds after ignoring ten warnings in five minutes; Russia insisted its bomber never left Syria, and Vladimir Putin called the attack a 'stab in the back'.

Which non-profit AI research company was launched in December 2015?

OpenAI launched as a non-profit with $1 billion pledged by backers including Elon Musk, promising AI for the benefit of humanity; within four years it had added a profit-making arm to attract investors.

The December 2015 COP 21 climate pact was agreed in which city?

Paris gave the pact its name: six years after the Copenhagen talks failed, nearly 200 countries agreed that each would set its own emissions pledge and toughen it every five years.

Which Belarusian author of the oral history Voices from Chernobyl won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Svetlana Alexievich builds her books from interviews with ordinary people who lived through war and disaster; her criticism of the regime at home forced her to spend years living abroad.

The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize went to a national dialogue quartet from which country?

Tunisia's quartet was a labour union, an employers' federation, a human rights league and the lawyers' order; they joined forces in 2013 and brokered talks when the country stood on the brink of civil war.

Which team beat the Seattle Seahawks 28–24 in Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015?

The New England Patriots won when cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson at the goal line in the final seconds; Seattle had chosen to throw from the one-yard line instead of running the ball.

Which film won Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards in February 2015?

Birdman stars Michael Keaton, a former Batman, as a faded superhero actor trying to stage a Broadway play; the film won four Oscars, but Keaton himself lost Best Actor to Eddie Redmayne.

Which horse won the 2015 Kentucky Derby and went on to the first Triple Crown in 37 years?

American Pharoah's name is a misspelling of 'pharaoh' that slipped through when he was registered; the name had been picked from a fans' online naming contest run by his owner's stable.

Who took over The Late Show on CBS after David Letterman's final episode in May 2015?

Stephen Colbert retired the mock-conservative pundit he had played for nine years on The Colbert Report and hosted as himself, starting on September 8.

Caitlyn Jenner introduced herself to the world on the cover of which magazine in June 2015?

Vanity Fair's cover line was 'Call Me Caitlyn'; her new Twitter account reached a million followers in just over four hours, beating a record Barack Obama had set only weeks before.

The Golden State Warriors won their first NBA title in 40 years in 2015 by beating whom?

The Cleveland Cavaliers led 2–1 until the Warriors moved reserve Andre Iguodala into the starting five for Game 4 to guard LeBron James; Golden State won three straight and Iguodala was named Finals MVP.

Which NHL team won the 2015 Stanley Cup, its third in six years?

The Chicago Blackhawks celebrated on home ice for the first time in 77 years, having sealed their 2010 and 2013 titles on the road; Duncan Keith scored the opening goal of the 2–0 clincher and was named playoff MVP.

Which figure's $10 bill did the US Treasury say in June 2015 would be redesigned to feature a woman?

Alexander Hamilton kept his place after all: in 2016 the Treasury changed course, leaving him on the $10 and choosing Harriet Tubman for the front of the $20, with Andrew Jackson moved to the back.

Which justice wrote the majority opinion in the June 2015 ruling guaranteeing same-sex marriage?

Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Ronald Reagan, sided with the Court's four liberal justices in Obergefell v. Hodges; he had also written its three earlier landmark gay-rights rulings, Romer, Lawrence and Windsor.

The US beat which team 5–2 in the 2015 Women's World Cup final?

Japan had beaten the US on penalties in the 2011 final; this time Carli Lloyd scored a hat-trick inside 16 minutes, the third from the halfway line, and the Americans led 4–0 before Japan replied.

Which comedian hosted his final episode of The Daily Show on August 6, 2015?

Jon Stewart signed off after 16 years with a send-off from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; Trevor Noah took over the desk that September, and in 2024 Stewart came back to host on Monday nights.

The Kansas City Royals won the 2015 World Series by beating which team?

The New York Mets led at some point in all five games and lost three they were winning in the eighth inning or later; in Game 5 Eric Hosmer's dash home on a groundout tied it in the ninth, and Kansas City won in the 12th.

Who succeeded John Boehner as Speaker of the House in October 2015?

Paul Ryan had insisted he did not want the job; he ran only after favourite Kevin McCarthy quit the race and the party's factions met his conditions, becoming at 45 the youngest Speaker since 1869.

Which 2015 release followed Avatar and Titanic past $2 billion at the worldwide box office?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the first film in the saga made after George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney for about $4 billion in 2012; it finished on $2.07 billion worldwide.

Which 2015 animated film was the first non-Disney animation to gross $1 billion?

Minions gave the yellow henchmen of Despicable Me a prequel of their own, and the sidekicks out-earned both films they had supported; by the end of its run only Frozen had earned more among animated films.

Which song spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015, the year's longest run?

Uptown Funk paired producer Mark Ronson with singer Bruno Mars; after a legal claim, the five writers of The Gap Band's 1979 hit 'Oops Upside Your Head' were added to its credits, taking the total to eleven.

Which singer's album sold a record 3.38 million US copies in its first week in November 2015?

Adele kept 25 off Spotify and other streaming services until the following June, so fans had to buy it; the first-week total beat the 2.42 million set by NSYNC's No Strings Attached in 2000.

What were the true colors of 'the dress', the viral photo that split the internet in February 2015?

Black and blue was the dress as sold by retailer Roman Originals, which later made a one-off white and gold version for charity. More than ten million tweets mentioned the photo within a week.

Cecil the lion, killed by a US dentist on a trophy hunt in July 2015, lived in which country?

Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park was his home, where Oxford University researchers had followed his movements by GPS collar since 2008. The hunter held a permit and was never charged.

Which film character travels forward in time to October 21, 2015, a date fans celebrated when it finally arrived?

Marty McFly lands on that day in Back to the Future Part II, which imagined hoverboards and the Cubs winning the 2015 World Series. The real Cubs were knocked out of the playoffs that very day.

Which host named the wrong Miss Universe winner in December 2015, crowning Miss Colombia before apologizing on stage?

Steve Harvey returned minutes later to say Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines had won. Both names were on his card, and he missed the "1st" printed beside the runner-up.

Oxford Dictionaries chose which emoji, rather than a word, as its Word of the Year for 2015?

Face with Tears of Joy made up 20% of all emoji used in the UK that year, up from 4% in 2014. Oxford said it best reflected the mood and preoccupations of 2015.

North America's highest peak was officially renamed in August 2015 from Mount McKinley to which Koyukon name?

Denali had been the Koyukon people's name for the peak for centuries before a gold prospector named it in 1896 for presidential candidate William McKinley. The federal name reverted in 2025.

Which author's Go Set a Watchman, written in the 1950s, was finally published in July 2015?

Harper Lee finished it in 1957, and it turned out to be a first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Amazon called it its most pre-ordered book since the last Harry Potter novel.

Which singer's Super Bowl XLIX halftime show in February 2015 made a meme of an offbeat dancer called Left Shark?

Katy Perry drew over 118 million viewers on NBC, with Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott as guests. The shark was one of her longtime backing dancers, and her choreographer said his loose moves were intentional.

What first name did Prince William and Catherine give their daughter, born in London on May 2, 2015?

Charlotte Elizabeth Diana later became the first British princess to rank above a younger brother in the line of succession, thanks to a rule change agreed before her birth.

Which long-running children's show struck a 2015 deal to premiere its new episodes on HBO before PBS?

Sesame Street was running at an $11 million loss in 2014, and under the five-year deal each new episode reached PBS stations nine months after its HBO debut.

With which country did the United States restore full diplomatic relations in July 2015, reopening its embassy there?

Cuba and the United States had kept only "interests sections" in each other's capitals for decades. John Kerry flew to Havana to watch the flag go up over the reopened embassy.

Which country agreed in Vienna in July 2015 to limit its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief?

Iran struck the deal with six world powers and the European Union. The United States pulled out of it in 2018.

Which country in May 2015 became the first to legalize same-sex marriage by a national popular vote?

Ireland voted 62% in favor, and just one constituency, Roscommon–South Leitrim, returned a No majority.

Who became Canada's prime minister after leading the Liberals from third place to a majority in October 2015?

Justin Trudeau's Liberals went from 36 seats at dissolution to 184, the largest numerical increase by any party in a Canadian election. His father, Pierre, had held the same office.

In which country did Aung San Suu Kyi's party win the first openly contested election since 1990, in November 2015?

Myanmar's constitution barred her from the presidency because her children are foreign citizens, so a new post, State Counsellor, was created to let her lead the government.

Which leader, who kept her country's borders open to asylum seekers, did Time name Person of the Year for 2015?

Angela Merkel's government suspended the EU rule that asylum seekers must apply in the first member state they reach, and about 890,000 arrived in Germany that year.

Which ancient Syrian city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, did Islamic State seize in May 2015 and partly demolish?

Palmyra's retired antiquities chief, Khaled al-Asaad, was killed that August after refusing to tell his captors about the city's treasures. The Syrian Army retook the ruins in March 2017.

Which Chinese rule, in force since about 1980, did the Communist Party announce in October 2015 it would abolish?

The one-child policy gave way to a two-child limit for every family, as leaders worried about an aging population and a lopsided ratio of boys to girls.

In which country did women vote and run for office for the first time in municipal elections in December 2015?

Saudi Arabia saw 20 women win among roughly 2,100 council seats contested. The councils handle local matters such as rubbish collection and local maintenance.

Who won Nigeria's March 2015 presidential election, the first time an incumbent Nigerian president lost at the polls?

Muhammadu Buhari, a general who had ruled as military dictator from 1983 to 1985, won by more than 2.5 million votes. His rival conceded before all 36 states had reported.

Which company in December 2015 became the first to land an orbital rocket's first stage upright after launch?

SpaceX brought its Falcon 9 booster down at Landing Zone 1, near the launch site, after sending 11 Orbcomm satellites on their way. It was the eighth descent test and the first landing.

Which NASA astronaut began a 340-day space station stay in March 2015 while his identical twin stayed on Earth?

Scott Kelly flew with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, and scientists compared his body with that of his twin, Mark, a retired astronaut who served as the control on the ground.

Tu Youyou shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for a drug, drawn from sweet wormwood, against which disease?

Malaria patients had long been given the herb for intermittent fevers, and a text written in 340 by the scholar Ge Hong gave her the idea of extracting it at low temperature.

Which space telescope, launched by shuttle with a wrongly ground mirror, marked 25 years in orbit in April 2015?

Hubble went up aboard Discovery on April 24, 1990, and its blurred optics were put right by a servicing mission in 1993.

What name did Google give the new parent holding company it created in a 2015 corporate restructuring?

Alphabet took over Google and its side ventures, with Larry Page moving up to run it and Sundar Pichai replacing him as Google's chief executive.

Hackers calling themselves the Impact Team leaked user data in 2015 from which website for extramarital affairs?

Ashley Madison's owners ignored the hackers' demand to shut the site down, and more than 60 gigabytes of data, including user details, went public that August.

Whose open letter in June 2015 led Apple Music to pay artists royalties during its free trial period?

Taylor Swift had threatened to hold back her album 1989 from the new service, and the company reversed course within a day.

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics honored the discovery that which elusive particles change type and so must have mass?

Neutrinos were caught switching between flavors on their way to huge underground detectors, a trick that is only possible with mass and that forced a change to the Standard Model.

Which pharmaceutical executive drew outrage in September 2015 for raising a drug's price from $13.50 to $750 a pill?

Martin Shkreli's company had just bought the rights to Daraprim, an antiparasitic approved in 1953 whose patent had expired but which had no generic rival.

Which twelve-nation trade pact, agreed in October 2015, did the United States abandon in 2017 before it took effect?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership took 19 formal negotiating rounds and was signed by all twelve countries in February 2016, but it could not take effect once Washington pulled out.

Which 2015 Pixar film is set largely in the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley?

Inside Out grew from director Pete Docter watching his own daughter's personality change as she grew older. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Which 2015 film starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard set a new record for the largest worldwide opening weekend?

Jurassic World went on to gross $1.6 billion, then the third-highest total of all time, with BD Wong reprising his role from the 1993 original.

Which 2015 action film, shot largely in the Namibian desert, went on to win six Academy Awards?

Mad Max: Fury Road was due to shoot at Broken Hill until heavy rain covered the desert there in wildflowers, sending the production to Namibia instead.

Which 2015 film starring Matt Damon is based on a novel Andy Weir first self-published as a serial on his blog?

The Martian later reached Kindle readers for 99 cents, the lowest price Weir was allowed to set, before a major publisher re-released it in 2014.

Which AMC drama ended in May 2015 with its hero meditating at a retreat before a 1971 Coca-Cola advert plays?

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner wrote and directed the finale, Person to Person, which closes on the real "Hilltop" commercial rather than on anything shot for the show.

Which HBO series set a new Emmy record in 2015 by winning 12 awards in a single year?

Game of Thrones also won Outstanding Drama Series that year, becoming only the second HBO show to take that prize, after The Sopranos.

Which singer quit One Direction in March 2015, saying he wanted to live as a normal 22-year-old out of the spotlight?

Zayn Malik walked away mid-tour and signed a solo deal with RCA Records. His first single and album later both debuted at number one in the UK and the US.

Which music streaming service did Jay-Z relaunch in March 2015, promoting it as the first owned by artists?

Tidal came with Jay-Z's $56 million bid for its Scandinavian parent company, Aspiro, made two months before the relaunch.

Which actor, who died in February 2015, had written two memoirs titled I Am Not Spock and I Am Spock?

Leonard Nimoy played the half-Vulcan science officer for over 40 years and brought the Vulcan salute to the series. He died at 83 of chronic lung disease.

Which author of the 41-novel Discworld series died in March 2015, seven years after revealing an Alzheimer's diagnosis?

Terry Pratchett's final novel, The Shepherd's Crown, came out that August, five months after his death. He had been knighted for services to literature in 2009.

Which eight-division world champion lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a May 2015 bout billed as the Fight of the Century?

Manny Pacquiao lost a unanimous decision at the MGM Grand, and his team disclosed hours later that he had hurt his right shoulder in training and re-injured it in the fourth round.

Which 21-year-old golfer won the 2015 Masters at 18 under par, tying a scoring record set by Tiger Woods?

Jordan Spieth won the US Open two months later as well, making him that championship's youngest winner since Bobby Jones in 1923.

Whose bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam ended with a 2015 US Open semifinal loss to Roberta Vinci?

Serena Williams had already won four majors in a row across 2014 and 2015, her second "Serena Slam", before the Italian stopped her two matches short of the calendar-year set.

Which unbeaten UFC champion lost her title in November 2015 when Holly Holm knocked her out with a kick in round two?

Ronda Rousey was a heavy betting favorite making her seventh title defense, and the UFC 193 crowd of 56,214 set a company attendance record.

Which English king, found beneath a Leicester car park, was reburied in the city's cathedral in March 2015?

Richard III, killed at Bosworth in 1485, was identified by DNA matched to descendants of his sister Anne. Benedict Cumberbatch, a distant relative, read a poem at the service.

Which Mexican drug lord escaped a maximum-security prison in July 2015 through a tunnel dug up to his cell's shower?

El Chapo, born Joaquín Guzmán, was recaptured after a shoot-out in January 2016 and extradited to the United States a year later. A motorcycle was found in the tunnel.

Which Greek finance minister resigned in July 2015, the day after voters rejected bailout terms in a referendum?

Yanis Varoufakis, an academic economist turned minister, quit rather than back what he considered a surrender to austerity demands.

Which proposed oil pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska did the Obama administration reject in November 2015?

Keystone XL, whose initials stand for "export limited", would have carried up to 830,000 barrels of crude a day. Its builder finally gave up on the project in June 2021.

Which Russian opposition leader, once a deputy prime minister, was shot dead near the Kremlin in February 2015?

Boris Nemtsov was killed hours after appealing to the public to join a march against the war in Ukraine. He had been first deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin.

Which Jamaican author won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for a novel built around the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life?

Marlon James saw his first novel rejected dozens of times before it found a publisher. He was the first Jamaican-born author to win the prize.