20 questions · Current events
2017 began with an inauguration that upended the world: Donald Trump moved into the White House and by June had announced America's exit from the Paris climate accord. Europe answered with a young star: 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron became France's youngest president. Germany had a whirlwind year: parliament passed marriage equality in June, former chancellor Helmut Kohl died, barricades burned in Hamburg during the G20 summit, and after an election that brought the AfD into the Bundestag for the first time, coalition talks collapsed spectacularly. In October, a hashtag shattered the silence: after the Weinstein revelations, #MeToo made sexual abuse a worldwide reckoning. Catalonia held a banned independence vote, Zimbabwe's Mugabe era ended after 37 years, and Austria got a 31-year-old chancellor in Sebastian Kurz. The cosmos sent its first interstellar visitor, Oumuamua, the Cassini probe burned up after 13 years at Saturn, Neymar moved for an unheard-of 222 million euros, "Despacito" played on endless repeat and Bitcoin raced towards 20,000 dollars for the first time. Add a total solar eclipse sweeping across America, and you have twenty questions about a breathless year.
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Paris Agreement
His successor Biden rejoined in 2021: Trump exited again in 2025.
💡 Did you know? "I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris," Trump argued.
Foto: The White House from Washington, DC · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Emmanuel Macron
He beat Marine Le Pen clearly in the runoff.
💡 Did you know? Macron had never before been elected to any office.
AfD
Both major parties posted historically weak results.
💡 Did you know? For the first time since the 1950s, six parliamentary groups sat in the Bundestag.
Paris
On the same day the IOC awarded the 2028 Games to Los Angeles: a double award without precedent.
💡 Did you know? Hamburg, Rome, Budapest and Boston had all dropped out of the race, often after referendums or fierce local debate.
marriage equality
Merkel herself voted no but freed her MPs to vote their conscience.
💡 Did you know? The first same-sex couple married as early as October 2017.
MeToo
The producer was later convicted, including a 16-year sentence in California in 2023.
💡 Did you know? Activist Tarana Burke had coined "Me Too" back in 2006.
Catalonia
Regional leader Puigdemont later fled to Belgium.
💡 Did you know? Madrid temporarily placed Catalonia under direct rule.
Hamburg
Hundreds of police and protesters were injured.
💡 Did you know? Trump, Putin and Erdoğan were meeting just a few hundred metres away.
iPhone X
Face ID replaced the fingerprint sensor.
💡 Did you know? Its 999-dollar starting price shattered all habits.
Bitcoin
In 2018 it crashed to a sixth of that.
💡 Did you know? At the start of 2017, one bitcoin cost about 1,000 dollars.
Foto: NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Cassini
The "Grand Finale" dive protected the moons from Earth microbes.
💡 Did you know? Cassini discovered water plumes on the moon Enceladus.
Oumuamua
The cigar-shaped object sped away again at high velocity.
💡 Did you know? Its odd shape even fuelled alien-probe speculation.
222 million euros
PSG simply paid his full release clause.
💡 Did you know? The fee doubled the previous transfer record in one stroke.
Despacito
It became the first video ever to hit five billion YouTube views.
💡 Did you know? It was the first Spanish-language US number one since "Macarena".
Sebastian Kurz
His ÖVP governed with the far-right FPÖ.
💡 Did you know? The government fell in 2019 over the Ibiza affair.
Zimbabwe
His former deputy Mnangagwa succeeded him.
💡 Did you know? Mugabe had been the world's oldest head of state.
Foto: Christian Lambiotte · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Helmut Kohl
He received the first-ever European act of mourning, in Strasbourg.
💡 Did you know? Kohl remains the Federal Republic's longest-serving chancellor.
Saudi Arabia
Women actually took the wheel from June 2018.
💡 Did you know? Some activists who fought for it still sat in prison.
Grenfell Tower
The fire triggered worldwide debates about facade insulation.
💡 Did you know? High-rises in many countries were inspected and evacuated afterwards.
total solar eclipse
Millions travelled into the narrow band of totality.
💡 Did you know? It was nicknamed the "Great American Eclipse".
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