The Ultimate 21st Century History Test
- by Mark Gillespie
- – on
- in Mind Twisters
It's hard to believe but the 21st century is almost a quarter of a century old. For those of us who grew up in the nineties that's kind of a scary idea. Not because we live in a postmodern world full of violent terrorist acts, even more violent climate change, and a political system that seems destined for partisan failure. Nah son, it's scary because that means we are getting old. Events that happened when we were teens or in college are starting to fade into the dim recesses of time as we settle down with our families and corporate jobs.
But never fear, I'm here to help jog your collective memories and set the historical record straight. There's an awful lot of really vital, really important stuff that's happened in the last 17 years. There's also an awful of of crazy, ridiculous and yes, basically insane stuff that's occurred. The 21st century may not have the cachet (yet!) that the 20th century had- after all, there haven't been any World Wars, moon landings, presidential assassinations, or Woodstocks, but it has had plenty of its own excitement.
Let's take a look and see if you can name these important events from our very own century. Just watch out- there are definitely a few curveballs in here!
Where Was Captain Sully's Miraculous Plane Landing?
We are pretty used to seeing, hearing, or reading about terrible plane crashes in the news. I mean, we all know planes are the safest way to travel, with way fewer accidents than cars, but they also carry a lot more people and are a lot bigger so plane accidents always make the news. It's not often though, that we try to remember where a miracle emergency plane landing occurs as we are here. Captain Sullenberger and his crew successfully ditched their plane in this river, after losing all engine power at takeoff, saving all 155 souls aboard. It was a true miracle.
Where Did The Ariana Grande Terror Attack Happen?
OK, so now that I've got your attention with the trick question to open things up let's get down to the nitty gritty. This terror attack is still recent enough to traumatize many of us. On May 22, 2017, a crazy suicide bomber (and really, is there any other kind?) blew himself and 22 other people up as fans were leaving an Ariana Grande concert. Over 250 other people were also wounded in the blast. It happened during Grande's world tour in an English city.
When Did 9/11 Happen?
Well, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the events of September 11 would make a list of important happenings of the 21st century. In fact in many ways this may be the biggest event of our young century. It has clearly defined a post-terrorism world now full of ISIL radicals and a still deeply divided American electorate that can't decide whether to kill every Muslim out there or embrace them with McDonald's and Coke advertising.You should definitely be able to tell us when the twin towers came down.
Where Did The Killing Of Osama Bin Laden Happen?
One of the side effects of the Al Qaeda terror attack on America on 9/11 was the War on Terror that president George W. Bush instituted in the months and years to follow. Chief on that War on Terror "to do" list was to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden, the evil mastermind behind so many Islamic extremist attacks. One of the things people tend to forget is not just when we finally hunted down Bin Laden (it took awhile- 2011, to be precise) but where we did. Do you remember what country we finally caught up to him in?
Where Was The Japanese Nuclear Disaster?
Well at least our next question doesn't deal with terror or Islam. Instead we get to take a look at what effect large natural disasters can have on humanity. In March of 2011, the Tohoku Earthquake, which was one of the biggest ever recorded, occurred off the coast of Japan. It caused a horrendous tsunami to develop which then hit the Japanese mainland. The tsunami caused the emergency safeguards at one of Japan's biggest nuclear power plants to fail, creating massive hydrogen explosions, the release of radiation, and nuclear meltdowns in three (yup, three!) separate reactors at this site.
When Was President Obama First Elected?
Everybody should remember this milestone election. Coming on the heels of the seemingly endless War on Terror, Iraq War, and War in Afghanistan that the Bush administration had ushered into existence, Barack Obama's campaign to become president was met with a sense of hope and triumph. He was our first black president and one of the first presidents since Roosevelt to pass an insanely massive social services program, the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as "Obamacare." He also oversaw our slow, laborious rise out of the Great Recession, which began in this year that he was elected.
When Was The Boston Marathon Bombing?
If you're thinking that it seems like most of the events of the 21st century thus far are related to terrorist activities well, you're right. There have been hundreds of terrorist attacks, big and small, in the last 17 years. Don't worry we'll get to some other important events but unfortunately the War on Terror appears to be never ending. This particular attack occurred in Boston at the finish line of the much-loved Boston Marathon, one of the world's premier racing events and basically a state holiday in Massachusetts. When were the attacks?
Where Did The US Defeat Saddam Hussein's Regime?
One of the major events of our century was the War against Saddam Hussein's regime. The evil dictator, known the world over for his terrible treatment of his own people, his aggressive wars against his neighbors, and his decadent lifestyle, had already been subject to the Gulf War back in the early 1990s, when President Bush ("The Elder," George H.W. Bush) sent troops across the border of his country to kick his army out of Kuwait. Bush's son, president George W. Bush, finished the job in 2003, as U.S. led coalition forces seized Hussein's country.
Where Did Donald Trump Announce His Candidacy?
He's the President of the United States now, after his stunning defeat of Hillary Clinton last November, but when Donald Trump first strode to the podium in this city to announce that he was running for the highest office in the land people were beyond shocked. In fact many election observers thought his candidacy would be a total joke. I guess they were kind of wrong about that one, huh? When Trump stood up here and said he was running for president he was most definitely not joking.
When Was Saddam Hussein Captured?
Remember good old Saddam, everybody's favorite vicious dictator? Well, after the American-led coalition took down his regime, Saddam managed to flee his capital city, hiding throughout his country for months before he was captured. Near the end of this year U.S. military special forces soldiers found him in the infamous "spider hole," an underground bunker. He had almost a million dollars in U.S. currency on him, so he was clearly ready to get out of Dodge, as the saying goes. He was also armed but gave up very quickly when the soldiers surrounded him.
Where Did The 2004 Tsunami Happen?
Well continuing in the same vein is our next question, which asks in what body of water did the horrible 2004 tsunami that basically destroyed Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand occur? The tsunami was caused by an underwater earthquake so big that the Richter Scale readings blew up at 9.3 It also had a devastating effect on humanity, killing over 250,000 people. The waves hitting the beaches and coast in some parts of Indonesia were almost 100 feet high- it was not something that people could easily escape, hence the horrible death toll.
Where Did Nelson Mandela Die?
Nelson Mandela was a towering figure of the 20th century who continued to be important in this century as well. The civil rights activist was profoundly influential in the fight in his country to end Apartheid (the racist laws that had previously governed the country) and was a worldwide symbol of peace and freedom. He spent much of his adult life in prison for his political and social beliefs until he was released due to political pressure. He promptly won the first true democratic election in his country and served as president and then as a philanthropist in his golden years.
When Was The Arab Spring?
Our century has seen massive political upheaval across the world, from Brexit to the last presidential election in the U.S. One of the most vigorous movements was the Arab Spring, which was a huge revolutionary movement across much of the Middle East. It affected many countries, among them Egypt, Libya, and Syria, and saw regimes toppled, protestors clashing in the streets with authorities, and even a few civil wars. Essentially protesters tended to be democratically inclined while the governments were ruled by the Islamic religious elite.When did it happen?
When Did Keeping Up With The Kardashians debut?
Well, I wasn't able to do a quiz about the 21st century without including America's "First Family." That's right- I'm talking about Kim, Kourtney, Khloe and all the rest of those crazy Kardashians, whose TV show debuted in this year. It only seems like they have been with us since like 1980. The Kardashians parlayed the debut of their show into an entertainment empire that doesn't seem to show any sign of ever slowing down. They are like cockroaches of reality TV.
When Did Star Wars Episode III Premiere?
With all of the hoopla surrounding the Force Awakens and its subsequent sequels, not to mention last year's awesome standalone film Rogue One, Star Wars Fanboys would be happy to forget all about the sequel trilogy that George Lucas gave us earlier this century. Unfortunately I'm not so kind and I think everyone needs to remember when Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the last of those three awful movies, came out. It would be a few years after he laid Jar Jar Binks, Hayden Christianson and the rest of the gang on us before Lucas would return with his newer, better movies.
When Did Hurricane Katrina Happen?
Japan was not the only country to suffer from huge natural disasters in the 21st century. Right here in our very own United States total disaster hit the Gulf Coast when Hurricane Katrina touched down in this year. Hit particularly hard was New Orleans, where tens of thousands of homes were destroyed and people had to shelter in the Superdome. Katrina was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, causing over 1,200 deaths and billions and billions of dollars in property damage. It took New Orleans years to recover.
Where Did NASA's Spirit & Opportunity Rovers Land?
Do you remember NASA? They used to run the space shuttle program, which was pretty awesome, until they scuttled it and downsized. But for quite awhile now NASA has been focusing on unmanned missions to various places in our solar system and beyond. That means probes and rovers. These two particular "exploration" rovers, called Spirit and Opportunity, were sent off in summer 2003 and reached their objective in January of 2004. They were tasked with exploring everything they could about their landing spot. They were also only supposed to last about 90 days. One of them made it to 2010 and the other one is still going strong!
When Did The Haiti Earthquake Happen?
And back we go to the land of terrible natural disasters. This time we're asking when did the brutal earthquake in Haiti take place? This too was one of the worst natural disasters of the 21st century, viciously striking down a poor country that was unable to respond with the proper emergency services. International relief organizations are still trying to help out Haiti. The epicentre of the earthquake was less than 50 miles from Port Au Prince, the country's capital and that city lost thousands of buildings. The country as a whole lost well over 100,000 citizens to deaths related to the earthquake.
When Was Facebook Launched?
I bet you've checked your Facebook feed at least once in the past 30 minutes, haven't you? Maybe more- maybe a lot more if you keep all of your notifications on. Well, when's the last time you thought about life before Facebook? Probably not very much recently- the world's biggest social media service (by quite a lot, mind you) is everywhere these days, like some chatty version of Big Brother that just wants to sell you things you don't need. But Facebook is a relatively new invention, having only been around since this year.
Where Did Hurricane Sandy Happen?
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history but Hurricane Sandy was pretty bad too. It mostly affected a very different area than Katrina, although it did make landfall across much of the Eastern Seaboard. It damaged cities in this particular area to the tune of $75 billion in property loss and over 200 people were killed by the storm. It is considered the second worst hurricane for property damage ever. It also caused a state of emergency in this area and flooded public transport hubs among other things.
When Was YouTube Launched?
How about a question that's a little less serious? Yeah, I thought we needed a break too. OK, so everybody who has never watched a YouTube video raise your hand... Really, not a single one of you has never watched YouTube? Why does that not surprise me- I live for funny cats videos. Anyway, YouTube was started in this particular year of our brave new century and, as of 2017 was the second most popular website in the world, with an estimated 400 hours of new content posted every minute of every day. Have fun!
Where Was The Second Battle Of Fallujah?
If there's one thing the U.S. has done really, really well in the 21st century, it has been to start wars all around the world. We've fought in a bunch of countries since 2000 and sometimes we've seen our soldiers get in deep messes. One such mess occurred in 2004 during this fun little war when U.S. Marines led a force against the insurgency of this country. Observers said it was the worst urban combat the Marines had seen since the Vietnam War in 1968. There were over 600 American casualties, including 95 dead, so I think those observers had a point.
Where Was The Orange Revolution?
Very recently this country (you'll remember it when you see the answer? It's a former Soviet Republic!) has been in the news because the Russians (remember them? They want to be the Soviet Union again!) keep trying to take chunks of it away. But there was a time in this century when the people of this country had to protest against their own corrupt government just to get democratic elections. It all happened here back in 2004-5 and the people, for once, won, getting international monitors in to help hold "fair and free" elections in January 2005.
When Did Napster Launch?
Does anybody remember a little music sharing service called Napster? I bet you do, even if you don't really want to admit to it. Napster once made plenty of waves by offering file sharing music of major artists from just about every musical genre. They garnered so much attention, in fact, for their not-quite-legal escapades, that bands like Metallica sued them and they ended up in court on multiple copyright infringement charges. Napster is sort-of, kind-of still around in a radically different form as a legit music service but they certainly don't have the cachet they did back in this year of their launch.
Where Was Spotify Launched?
Here's another fun one. If I live for funny cats videos on YouTube then I would die without my Spotify playlists. But in what city did Spotify get its start? Not that I really care, mind you- I just want my music when I want it. Spotify currently has an annual revenue of over $2 billion and almost 2,000 employees spread across the world. It's headquartered in New York City. It also has about 140 million users so it's not quite at the level of Twitter or YouTube but give it time, give it time.
When Was Tesla Launched?
Elon Musk is a brilliant innovator and businessman. Well, he would have you think that anyway. The thing is, he's probably right. Not only did he launch SpaceX (you did see what I did there, right???) in 2002 but he also founded Tesla, the luxury car company that only creates electric cars. It was started in this particular year and quickly gained infamy for its "Roadster" the first electric sports car. It also gained attention for its cars being rather pricey- like $100K for the Roadster nowadays.
When Did The First Prius Appear?
Unlike Tesla, the Prius is touted as a more affordable "Hybrid" car, one that has incredibly efficient energy usage (i.e. gas mileage) but works on both electric and gasoline power. It was introduced to the U.S. market in this particular year by Toyota and quickly became extremely popular. You can get a 2017 Prius for about $25K so if you had the cash you could actually purchase a whole fleet of Prii for the same cost as one Tesla. I'm not sure the driving experience is quite the same though.
Where Did The Stanley Cup Finals Riot Occur?
I think you probably need to be a hardcore hockey fan to remember this one. I remember it well because my team was one of the two playing in this particular finals and I was pretty surprised by this riot breaking out. It only happened a couple years ago but I'm not going to say exactly when in case you can figure it out that way. I think where it happened just might surprise you as well. It's not like there haven't been big riots after championship events in many sports before but here???
When Did Twitter Launch?
Does anybody remember a time when there was no Twitter? Nah, I didn't think so. The immensely popular social networking and media tool has seemingly been around forever but when did it really get its start?. I mean, when you read that a service has 319 million users you know it's doing something right. But Twitter is actually a 21st-century phenom that was founded in San Francisco in this year and currently has offices worldwide. It's worth over $2 billion so I think it's probably going to be around for awhile longer yet.
Where Did President Obama Sign The ACA?
If you're not aware of the impact the existence of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," has had on our country then I certainly hope someone else is taking care of your health insurance for you. President Obama signed the ACA into effect on March 23, 2010, in this room in the White House, immediately changing the way Americans deal with health care. The bill tried to make it mandatory that all Americans have health insurance while also reducing the rising cost of insurance premiums for people by creating health insurance exchanges. And if that's not an oversimplification nothing is...
Where Did The Nargis Cyclone Hit?
And back we go to natural disasters. Unfortunately, they tend to make the world go round sometimes. This terrible cyclone occurred in 2008 and was the worst natural disaster to ever hit this country in the Bay of Bengal. It was particularly brutal because the cyclone developed off the coast of the country and then traveled up a heavily populated river delta. Fatalities from the storm were estimated at almost 150,000 deaths and the property damage was immense- over $10 billion in U.S. dollars.
When Did The "7/7 London Bombings" Happen?
Back we go to the world of terror for our next question, which asks in what year these horrendous bombings occurred in. The 7/7 bombings were a large-scale, coordinated series of attacks set off by suicide bombers during London's morning rush hour on July 7. It was the first Islamic act of terror ever on British soil and killed over 50 people. The terrorists bombed underground train stations ("The Tube") and a double-decker bus. Sadly, of the people killed, all were British citizens but they represented 18 different nationalities, proving terrorists don't really seem to care about multiculturalism.
Where Did The 2006 Train Bombings Happen?
Terror rears its ugly head across the world no matter where people are. In 2006 Islamic jihadists (or Pakistani intelligence agents, depending on who you believe) struck again, setting off seven homemade bombs on seven different trains. All of the trains were part of the suburban rail network in this massive city of almost 19 million people, the largest city in its country. Over 200 people were killed on various trains and over 700 wounded. The bombing took place during rush hour because terrorists are evil but unfortunately not stupid.
When Did Pluto Lose Its Status As A Planet?
Let's stay in an astronomical vein for awhile and talk about Pluto. Pluto used to be sort of a joke way back in the day. Not only was it the smallest of the nine planets in our solar system it was also the furthest away from the sun. It was basically a remote, uninteresting, cold as sh*t little planet that nobody cared about studying. Then in September of this particular year astronomers piled the ultimate indignity on poor Pluto- they reclassified it as a "dwarf" planet, taking away its real planet status forever.
When Did The Soviet Union Fall?
We end with an easy one. Anyway, I hope it's an easy one- it was only one of the biggest events in human history after all. The Soviet Union (or USSR, as it was known) was one of the biggest countries the world has ever seen and also the preeminent Communist regime. Unfortunately for the Soviets they were also a brutal and inefficient country and many of the areas inside the union desperately wanted out. They got their wish through mostly peaceful revolution, the Berlin Wall came down, and countries like Armenia, Georgia, the Ukraine and Lithuania became independent once again.