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50 free 2013 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
2013 was the year a pope quit for the first time in six centuries, a meteor blew out windows across a Russian city, a Baltimore–San Francisco Super Bowl paused for a blackout, and a 16-year-old from New Zealand knocked every other song off the top of the charts. This quiz walks through the whole year: the news (Snowden, the Boston Marathon, Rana Plaza, Typhoon Haiyan, Euromaidan, Mandela's death), the sports (the Red Sox, the Heat, Andy Murray at Wimbledon, the Har-Bowl) and the pop culture (Breaking Bad's finale, Frozen, House of Cards, the Harlem Shake, the PS4 launch, Sharknado). Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it doubles as a recap of the year that gave us the word 'bingeable'.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A meteor exploded over which Russian city on February 15, 2013, injuring about 1,500 people?
Chelyabinsk
It was the most powerful meteor to hit Earth's atmosphere since Tunguska in 1908, and most injuries came from shattered window glass.
Q 02Which pope resigned on February 28, 2013?
Benedict XVI
He was the first pope to step down since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.
Q 03Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina took which papal name in March 2013?
Francis
He became the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.
Q 04Park Geun-hye became the first female president of which country in February 2013?
South Korea
Her father, Park Chung-hee, had ruled the country from 1961 to 1979. She was impeached and removed in 2017.
Q 05Which former British prime minister died on April 8, 2013?
Margaret Thatcher
Her ceremonial funeral at St Paul's Cathedral was attended by the Queen, the first time she had attended a prime minister's funeral since Churchill's in 1965.
Q 06The April 2013 Savar garment-factory collapse, which killed 1,134 people, happened where?
Bangladesh
The Rana Plaza disaster led to international safety accords covering hundreds of Bangladeshi factories supplying Western clothing brands.
Q 07Willem-Alexander became king of which country on April 30, 2013?
Netherlands
His mother Beatrix abdicated after 33 years, making him the first Dutch king since 1890.
Q 08Emmelie de Forest won the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest for which country?
Denmark
The contest was held in Malmö, Sweden. The winning song was 'Only Teardrops'.
Q 09The widest tornado ever recorded, 2.6 miles across, struck near which Oklahoma town on May 31, 2013?
El Reno
Mobile radar measured winds up to 296 mph inside it. Eleven days earlier an EF5 had devastated Moore.
Q 10Which country granted Edward Snowden temporary asylum after his June 2013 NSA disclosures?
Russia
He spent more than a month in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport before the asylum was granted.
Q 11Which country became the 28th member of the European Union on July 1, 2013?
Croatia
It remains the most recent country to join. The UK's exit in 2020 took the count back down to 27.
Q 12Which Egyptian president was removed in a military coup on July 3, 2013?
Mohamed Morsi
He had been in office barely a year as Egypt's first democratically elected president.
Q 13A runaway oil train derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic in which Canadian province in July 2013?
Quebec
The disaster killed 47 people and destroyed much of the town centre, prompting new rail-safety rules across North America.
Q 21The Euromaidan protests began in November 2013 in which country?
Ukraine
They erupted after President Viktor Yanukovych shelved an EU association agreement in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Q 22Which country's Chang'e 3 spacecraft made the first soft Moon landing since 1976 in December 2013?
China
It carried the Yutu ('Jade Rabbit') rover, only the third robotic rover ever to drive on the Moon.
Q 23Which Canadian short-story writer won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature?
Alice Munro
She was the first Canadian-based writer to win, and the Swedish Academy called her a 'master of the contemporary short story'.
Q 14Philippe was sworn in as king of which country on July 21, 2013?
Belgium
His father Albert II abdicated on Belgium's national day. Spain's Juan Carlos would follow suit a year later.
Q 15Tony Abbott's Coalition defeated which Labor prime minister in Australia's September 2013 election?
Kevin Rudd
Rudd had only just returned as PM in June, three years after Gillard ousted him.
Q 16On September 7, 2013, the IOC awarded the 2020 Summer Olympics to which city?
Tokyo
Madrid and Istanbul were the other finalists. The Games were eventually held in 2021 because of the pandemic.
Q 17Which video game earned more than half a billion dollars on its first day, September 17, 2013?
Grand Theft Auto V
It passed $1 billion within three days, faster than any entertainment product before it.
Q 18Which operating system update did Microsoft release on October 17, 2013?
Windows 8.1
It brought back the Start button that Windows 8 had removed a year earlier.
Q 19Which country launched its uncrewed Mars Orbiter Mission from Sriharikota in November 2013?
India
Mangalyaan reached Mars orbit in September 2014, making India the first nation to succeed on its first attempt.
Q 20Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, devastated which country in November 2013?
Philippines
It was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded and killed more than 6,000 people, most of them around Tacloban.
Q 24François Englert and Peter Higgs shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in which field?
Physics
The award came a year after CERN confirmed the Higgs boson they had predicted in 1964.
Q 25Which organization won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize?
OPCW
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was in the middle of dismantling Syria's chemical arsenal when the prize was announced.
Q 26The United Nations designated 2013 the International Year of which food?
Quinoa
It was also the International Year of Water Cooperation. Bolivia, a major grower, proposed the quinoa designation.
Q 27Which Supreme Court ruling in June 2013 struck down a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act?
United States v. Windsor
It granted federal recognition to same-sex marriages; Obergefell would legalize them nationwide two years later.
Q 28In February 2013, hijacked Emergency Alert Systems at several US TV stations warned of what?
A zombie apocalypse
Stations in Montana, Michigan, Wisconsin and New Mexico aired the hoax, one of the largest breaches in the system's history.
Q 29Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013, at what age?
95
Around 170 countries sent representatives to his memorial at FNB Stadium, where the sign-language interpreter turned out to be a fake.
Q 30Prince George was born on July 22, 2013, at which London hospital?
St Mary's
His father William and uncle Harry were born in the same Lindo Wing. He was third in line to the throne at birth.