20 questions · Current events
"Wir schaffen das" ("We can do this") no sentence shaped 2015 more than Angela Merkel's response to the refugee crisis, as hundreds of thousands of people seeking protection reached Germany via the Balkan route in late summer. The year had begun with terror: in January, Islamists murdered the editorial staff of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo; in November, the Paris attacks around the Bataclan killed 130 people. Germany also mourned the 150 victims of the Germanwings crash in the Alps and experienced its biggest post-war industrial scandal with VW's Dieselgate. Yet 2015 delivered hope almost weekly: the world agreed the historic Paris climate accord, the West and Iran sealed the nuclear deal, the US and Cuba reopened embassies after 54 years, and the New Horizons probe beamed back the first sharp images of Pluto. Greece stumbled through a referendum and a third bailout, FIFA sank into a corruption scandal, Germany lost elder statesman Helmut Schmidt and Robert Lewandowski made football history with five goals in nine minutes, while SpaceX landed a rocket upright for the first time. Twenty questions about a year that changed Europe.
Practise for freePurFact brings every card back right before you would forget it. That's how knowledge sticks.
Wir schaffen das
About a million people seeking protection reached Germany in 2015.
💡 Did you know? The sentence divides assessments of her chancellorship to this day.
Charlie Hebdo
Millions rallied under the motto "Je suis Charlie".
💡 Did you know? Over 40 heads of state joined the solidarity march.
Bataclan
The Stade de France and street cafés were also attacked.
💡 Did you know? France declared a state of emergency for the first time since 2005.
Germanwings
Sixteen pupils from a German school class were among the victims.
💡 Did you know? Many airlines introduced a two-person cockpit rule as a result.
Volkswagen
Software detected test rigs and only fully cleaned exhaust there.
💡 Did you know? The scandal cost VW over 30 billion euros.
Paris Agreement
Almost every country on Earth signed.
💡 Did you know? It even enshrined a 1.5-degree aspiration.
Iran
The US under Trump withdrew again in 2018.
💡 Did you know? The deal's acronym is JCPOA.
Foto: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Pluto
The images revealed a giant heart-shaped ice plain.
💡 Did you know? The "Pluto heart" is officially Tombaugh Regio: after Pluto's discoverer.
Cuba
In 2016 Obama became the first US president to visit in 88 years.
💡 Did you know? The thaw was largely frozen again under Trump.
Nepal
Centuries-old temples in Kathmandu collapsed.
💡 Did you know? The quake shifted Kathmandu by about three metres.
Sepp Blatter
The FBI had senior officials arrested in Zurich beforehand.
💡 Did you know? Gianni Infantino became his successor in 2016.
Foto: Hans Schafgans · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Helmut Schmidt
He shaped the era of the oil crisis and RAF terrorism.
💡 Did you know? He became famous managing Hamburg's 1962 flood disaster.
Greece
A third bailout package followed weeks later anyway.
💡 Did you know? Banks closed for a time and withdrawals were capped at 60 euros a day.
Windows 10
Microsoft called it the "last Windows": until Windows 11 arrived.
💡 Did you know? Its pushy upgrade prompts drew plenty of criticism.
The Force Awakens
It broke almost every opening record.
💡 Did you know? It was the first Star Wars film under Disney.
Robert Lewandowski
Four Guinness records in one evening.
💡 Did you know? Bayern trailed 1:0 at half-time: final score 5:1.
Angela Merkel
The euro crisis and refugee policy tipped the scales.
💡 Did you know? She was the first individual woman on the cover in 29 years.
Hello
The album "25" sold 3.38 million US copies in its first week: a record.
💡 Did you know? "Hello" sold over a million US copies: in one week.
SpaceX
Reusable boosters slashed the cost of spaceflight.
💡 Did you know? Rival Blue Origin had landed a suborbital rocket weeks earlier.
Heroes
Germany finished last with zero points.
💡 Did you know? Australia took part in Eurovision for the first time as a guest.
Home · All topics · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms · Contact
