50 Fun Facts About 2025

Which country became a full member of BRICS on January 6, 2025?

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's most populous country, joined weeks after Donald Trump threatened 100% tariffs on BRICS members if they moved to replace the dollar. The bloc had approved its bid in 2023.

Which metropolitan area suffered the most destructive wildfires in its history in January 2025?

Greater Los Angeles burned as Santa Ana winds gusting to nearly 100 mph drove the Palisades and Eaton fires through hills left dry by months of drought.

Which Chinese chatbot's rise wiped almost $600 billion off Nvidia's value in one day in January 2025?

DeepSeek had just topped Apple's US App Store, and reports that it was built at a fraction of rivals' costs made investors doubt demand for Nvidia's chips. No US company had ever lost so much value in a day.

Which comic-strip character's 1929 debut entered the US public domain on January 1, 2025?

Popeye first appeared in the Thimble Theatre strip in January 1929, so that version is now free to use. He did not credit spinach for his strength until 1931.

Which country became the first in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage in January 2025?

Thailand's law took effect on January 23, 2025, and hundreds of couples married that same day, many at a mass wedding that city officials helped stage in a Bangkok shopping mall.

A US Army Black Hawk collided with a regional jet near which airport on January 29, 2025?

Washington National's helicopter corridor left as little as 75 feet between helicopters and jets landing on runway 33, investigators found. All 67 people on the two aircraft died.

Who was appointed president of Syria in January 2025 after leading the rebels who toppled Bashar al-Assad?

Ahmed al-Sharaa led the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The US had offered $10 million for his arrest and scrapped the reward only in December 2024, weeks before he became president.

Which team beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40–22 in Super Bowl LIX in February 2025?

The Philadelphia Eagles sacked Patrick Mahomes six times without calling a single blitz, denying Kansas City what would have been the first run of three straight Super Bowl wins.

Egypt hailed Thutmose II's tomb, announced in February 2025, as the first pharaoh's tomb found since whose a century earlier?

Tutankhamun's tomb was found in 1922, though Psusennes I's turned up intact in 1940, which undercuts the boast. Thutmose II's was identified from alabaster vessels naming him and his wife Hatshepsut.

Which country's 2025 constitutional reform made spouses Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo its co-presidents?

Nicaragua's reform raised Murillo from vice president to rule beside her husband, and it also stretched the presidential term from five years to six.

Which company's Blue Ghost made the first fully successful commercial Moon landing in March 2025?

Firefly Aerospace's lander came to rest stable and upright on March 2, 2025. A year earlier Intuitive Machines had become the first private firm to land on the Moon, only for its craft to tip onto its side.

Which former Philippine president was arrested in March 2025 on an International Criminal Court warrant?

Rodrigo Duterte was seized at Manila's airport as he flew home from Hong Kong and put on a chartered jet to The Hague that night, to answer for thousands of killings in his anti-drug crackdown.

Which former swimmer was elected president of the International Olympic Committee in March 2025?

Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwe's double Olympic backstroke champion, won exactly the 49 votes she needed in the first round of a seven-way race tipped to run several rounds. She is the first woman and first African in the job.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28, 2025, killed thousands of people in which country?

Myanmar's military rulers, who seized power in a 2021 coup and usually shun outside help, made a rare appeal for international aid after the quake flattened buildings around Mandalay.

Which pop star flew to the edge of space in April 2025 on Blue Origin's all-female flight?

Katy Perry kissed the ground after the 11-minute trip with five other women, among them TV host Gayle King. Blue Origin called it the first all-female spaceflight since Valentina Tereshkova flew alone in 1963.

Colossal Biosciences claimed in April 2025 to have revived which extinct animal?

The dire wolf pups were born to dog surrogates after 20 edits to 14 grey wolf genes. Colossal's own chief scientist later conceded they are 'grey wolves with 20 edits'.

Astronomers reported possible signs of life on exoplanet K2-18b in April 2025 using which space telescope?

The James Webb Space Telescope picked up hints of gases that on Earth come from marine plankton and bacteria. The signal reached only 'three sigma', well short of what scientists need to claim a discovery.

Pope Francis died in 2025 the morning after his final public appearance on which Christian feast?

On Easter Sunday the 88-year-old greeted the crowd from the balcony of St Peter's and toured the square in his popemobile. He died of a stroke at 7:35 the next morning.

Who became Prime Minister of Canada in 2025 after Justin Trudeau's resignation?

Mark Carney had never held elected office: he had run the Bank of Canada and then the Bank of England, as its first non-British governor. Weeks after being sworn in, he won a snap election.

A blackout on April 28, 2025, cut power for hours across which two countries?

Spain and Portugal went dark when about 15 gigawatts, some 60% of Spain's demand at the time, dropped off the grid within five seconds. Passengers had to be evacuated from stranded trains.

Who became Chancellor of Germany in May 2025 only after losing the first round of parliamentary voting?

Friedrich Merz fell six votes short on the first ballot even though his coalition held 328 seats, a failure without precedent in post-war Germany. He won a second vote hours later with 325.

What papal name did Robert Francis Prevost take after the May 2025 conclave?

Leo XIV said he chose the name to follow Leo XIII, the pope who defended workers during the industrial revolution, because artificial intelligence now poses a new challenge to human dignity and labour.

The pope elected in May 2025 was born in which American city?

Chicago-born Robert Prevost spent years in Peru, became bishop of Chiclayo and took Peruvian citizenship in 2015, before becoming the first pope from the United States.

Which Swiss city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2025?

Basel staged the contest because Nemo had won for Switzerland a year earlier with 'The Code'. The country also hosted the very first Eurovision, in 1956.

Which country's contestant JJ won Eurovision 2025?

Austria's JJ won on the juries' votes with 'Wasted Love', while Israel topped the public vote and finished second. Pre-contest favourites Sweden came fourth.

What was the code name of Ukraine's June 2025 drone attack on air bases deep inside Russia?

Operation Spiderweb took 18 months to prepare: Ukraine smuggled 117 small drones into Russia, hid them under the roofs of wooden cabins on lorries and launched them by remote control near the bases.

Who won South Korea's June 2025 presidential election, held after Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office?

Lee Jae Myung had lost the 2022 election to Yoon by just 0.73 points, the closest presidential race in South Korea's history, and survived a stabbing in the neck in 2024.

Air India Flight 171, which crashed seconds after take-off in June 2025, was which type of aircraft?

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner hit a medical college in Ahmedabad less than a minute after take-off, the type's first fatal accident. Of 242 people aboard, only the man in seat 11A walked away.

Which club won the first 32-team FIFA Club World Cup, held in the United States in 2025?

Chelsea stunned Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain 3–0 in the final in New Jersey. Cole Palmer scored twice in eight minutes, and all three goals came before half-time.

US forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites on June 22, 2025: Natanz, Isfahan and which third location?

Fordow is built deep inside a mountain, so B-2 bombers dropped 30,000-pound 'bunker buster' bombs down its ventilation shafts. A Pentagon team had spent 15 years studying the site.

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off which Russian peninsula on July 30, 2025?

Kamchatka's quake was one of the strongest ever recorded and sent millions to higher ground around the Pacific, with workers pulled out of Japan's Fukushima plant. The waves did little damage.

Which OpenAI model was released on August 7, 2025?

GPT-5 replaced the older models in ChatGPT, and so many users mourned the chattier GPT-4o that OpenAI brought it back for paying customers a day later.

In which Alaskan city did Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet in August 2025 to discuss the war in Ukraine?

Anchorage's Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson rolled out a red carpet for Putin, on land the US bought from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. The talks ended with no deal on Ukraine.

Which country both hosted and won the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup?

England beat Canada 33–13 at Twickenham in front of 81,885 fans, a record for a women's rugby match, three years after losing the previous final to New Zealand.

Nepal's interim prime minister was chosen in September 2025 partly through a poll on which online platform?

Discord is a chat app built for gamers. After protests over a social media ban toppled Nepal's government, thousands of young Nepalis debated and voted there, backing former chief justice Sushila Karki.

Which former South American president was sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years for plotting a coup?

Jair Bolsonaro was convicted by four of five Supreme Court judges of leading a plot to cling to power after losing Brazil's 2022 election to Lula. Prosecutors said he knew of a plan to kill his rival.

In 2025 Sarah Mullally became the first woman named to which post?

Archbishop of Canterbury is the Church of England's top job. Mullally trained as a nurse and was England's youngest chief nursing officer, then left that government post in 2004 to become a full-time priest.

How did the thieves who stole crown jewels from the Louvre in October 2025 get into the gallery?

By truck-mounted lift: the gang rode it up to a first-floor balcony, cut through a window and were inside for about four minutes. They fled on scooters with eight pieces, dropping Empress Eugénie's crown.

Who became Japan's first female prime minister on October 21, 2025?

Sanae Takaichi, who played drums in a college band and admires Margaret Thatcher, won office only after her party's coalition partner of 26 years walked out and she struck a deal with a right-wing rival.

Which country became the 11th member of ASEAN in October 2025?

Timor-Leste applied in 2011 and waited 14 years to be let in. No country had joined the bloc since Cambodia in 1999.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 storm on October 28, 2025, in which country?

Jamaica had never recorded a stronger hurricane: Melissa's 185 mph winds outdid Hurricane Katrina's. Towns in the south-west such as Black River were cut off by mud and washed-out bridges.

Who won the 2025 World Series?

The Los Angeles Dodgers were two outs from losing Game 7 in Toronto when Miguel Rojas homered to tie it. Will Smith's home run in the 11th inning made them baseball's first repeat champions in 25 years.

The COP30 climate summit in November 2025 was held in which Brazilian city?

Belém, on the Amazon delta, ran so short of rooms that Brazil promised 26,000 extra beds in docked cruise ships, schools and military buildings, and many delegations brought fewer people.

A UN report in November 2025 said which city had overtaken Tokyo as the world's largest?

Jakarta, put at nearly 42 million people, leapt from 33rd place in the UN's previous ranking. The new report sizes every city by one common yardstick instead of each country's own definition.

Who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize?

María Corina Machado had spent more than a year in hiding in Venezuela. She was smuggled out by sea at night and reached Oslo hours after her daughter had accepted the prize for her.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature went to the novelist László Krasznahorkai of which country?

Hungary's Krasznahorkai is known for long, winding sentences with barely a full stop. The Swedish Academy honoured work that 'in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art'.

Which 2025 animated film became the first non-English-language movie to gross $2 billion?

Ne Zha 2, a Chinese fantasy about a mythical boy who battles demons, earned almost all of its $2 billion in China itself. The rest of the world added only a few tens of millions of dollars.

Who won the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta?

Rory McIlroy let a lead slip on the final day and needed a sudden-death playoff to beat Justin Rose. His first major since 2014 made him the sixth man to complete golf's career Grand Slam.

Which country was the first to recognize Somaliland, on December 26, 2025?

Israel's move ended more than 30 years without recognition for Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991. In return, Somaliland said it would join the Abraham Accords.

Which Blue Origin rocket landed its booster for the first time on November 13, 2025?

New Glenn landed its booster on a barge at sea on only its second flight, after sending NASA's twin ESCAPADE probes on their way to Mars. The booster on its January debut had been lost.