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The 21st Century

Can you name these notable people, places, and things from the 21st century?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 26, 2022
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First submittedNovember 9, 2019
Times taken57,905
Average score75.0%
Rating4.43
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Year
Description
Answer
2022
Russia invades this country
Ukraine
2019
The Covid-19 pandemic starts in this city
Wuhan
2015
195 nations meet in this city and agree to lower carbon emissions,
but generally fail to meet their commitments
Paris
2015
A record 1.3 million people request asylum in the EU, with
the largest number coming from this wartorn nation
Syria
2014–15
An outbreak of this disease kills more than 10,000 people in West Africa
Ebola
2012
This leader ascends to power in China, marking an era of increased
state surveillance and abuse of ethnic minorities
Xi Jinping
2011
This African nation becomes the 193rd member of the UN
South Sudan
2011
This international protest movement leads to the overthrow of the governments
of Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya
The Arab Spring
2009
This sprinter sets a new record for the 100m dash: 9.58 seconds
Usain Bolt
2008
This person is elected as the first African-American President of the U.S.
Barack Obama
2008
This swimmer wins 8 gold medals at the Summer Olympics
Michael Phelps
2008
The world enters a sharp economic downturn which is commonly known as this
The Great
Recession
2005
This dwarf planet, 27% larger than Pluto, is dicovered and named for
the Greek goddess of discord
Eris
2005
This person is elected as the first female chancellor of Germany
Angela Merkel
2004
This website is started in a Harvard dorm room
Facebook
2004
This type of natural disaster kills over 200,000 people in 14 countries
Tsunami
2003
The U.S. invades this country, looking for weapons of mass destruction,
but doesn't find any
Iraq
2003
Scientists announce the completion of a project to sequence this
The Human
Genome
2001
This terrorist organization launches the 9/11 attacks against the United States
Al-Qaeda
2001
This country becomes the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriage
Netherlands
+9
Level 77
Nov 12, 2019
Poor Germany and Iraq...
+12
Level 78
Nov 12, 2019
I'd still say that Germany is rather well off if so many people want to go there...
+69
Level 75
Nov 13, 2019
Poor Germany? Do you mean because they took in refugees?

So not a thought for the people who lost their homes in the first place then?

Or was it a dig at Angela Merkel?

+11
Level 67
Feb 27, 2020
Most people migrating to Germany aren't refugees. They have no right to be there.
+14
Level 43
Mar 14, 2022
the name lmao
+4
Level 90
Nov 12, 2019
I kept putting antifa, couldn't understand why I wasn't getting it. face palm
+5
Level 80
Nov 12, 2019
In answer to which question??
+8
Level 90
Nov 12, 2019
The terrorist organization question.
+8
Level 58
Dec 5, 2019
Wow!
+1
Level 38
Dec 16, 2019
What even qualifies as a right-wing extremist ?
+6
Level 49
Dec 16, 2019
Right-wing terrorism is terrorism motivated by a variety of far right ideologies and beliefs, including anti-communism, neo-fascism, neo-Nazism, racism, xenophobia and opposition to immigration. This type of terrorism has been sporadic, with little or no international cooperation.
+7
Level 82
Dec 16, 2019
I thought Antifa killed 10,000 people in West Africa.
+12
Level 85
May 31, 2022
To be a terrorist organization, one must first be an organization.
+2
Level 67
Jun 30, 2023
sorry... you though antifa... did 9/11?
+15
Level 70
Nov 13, 2019
I keep putting the correct answer CIA and it doesn’t accept. Maybe they are looking for Mossad
+22
Level 90
Nov 17, 2019
Also... the Earth is flat, Elvis lives in Jacksonville, and Epstein killed himself.
+1
Level 71
Dec 16, 2019
No, Epstein didn't kill himself.

(I'm joking, please don't label me a conspiracy theorist)

+18
Level 82
Dec 16, 2019
You're insinuating that believing Epstein committed suicide is as ridiculous as believing in a flat Earth or that the Mossad planned 9/11? More than a bit of a stretch.
+1
Level 87
Jan 3, 2023
Not as much of a stretch as the hogwash we’ve all been told
+3
Level 70
Nov 14, 2019
Please accept "DNA", "humangenom" etc....
+16
Level 58
Dec 5, 2019
Please accept my sympathy for your ignorance
+3
Level 83
Dec 16, 2019
Yeah...I think there should be some latitude here. Something akin to DNA, gene, chromosone, etc. should be acceptable here.
+3
Level 72
Dec 16, 2019
chromosomes and genes are parts of DNA, but the human genome is the entire set of all genes expressed in human DNA, this number is in the billions and that's why it was a scientific achievement to sequence it. So gene and chromosome are not really correct answers.
+2
Level 75
Dec 29, 2022
As an analogy: if the human genome is a book, then a chromosome is a chapter, a gene is a sentence and DNA is ink and paper. These are not the same things.
+10
Level 76
Nov 19, 2019
Funniest part of the disease was that a known football/soccer player Dele Adebola had to actually release a brief statement that he did not 'ave it. ;)
+3
Level 72
Dec 16, 2019
why is that funny?
+10
Level 76
Feb 9, 2021
Because "Dele Adebola" sounds like "Dele (h)ad Ebola."
+21
Level 66
Nov 21, 2019
Never heard the Global Financial Crisis referred to as the Great Recession before.
+4
Level 67
Dec 16, 2019
In the US, it's always called that.
+9
Level 67
Dec 16, 2019
Everyone else in the world call it the GFC
+11
Level 67
Dec 16, 2019
The U.S. is a bit stubborn in calling (and doing) things different than the rest of the world. :P

(don't get me wrong, i'm not critisizing, just find it hilarious at times).

+6
Level 79
Jan 2, 2023
Global financial crisis would be a much better answer than the US-centric term which before just looking it up I had never before heard used in my country (Australia).
+3
Level 71
Jan 23, 2023
I've only heard it called "the financial crisis (of 2008)".
+1
Level 72
Dec 16, 2019
So, the 2004 was the year of disasters.
+13
Level 67
Dec 16, 2019
9/11 and the development of Facebook are two tragedies the scale and impact of which will not be readily comprehensible for decades.
+8
Level 38
Dec 16, 2019
I'm sorry but Michael Phelps shouldn't be in this list.
+1
Level 49
Dec 16, 2019
4y
+4
Level 86
Dec 16, 2019
One or two lighter questions don't hurt.
+5
Level 82
Dec 16, 2019
why? His achievements at the Olympics were unprecedented and historic.
+3
Level 82
Sep 12, 2020
and, of course, nobody is complaining about the inclusion of Usain Bolt because he's not American.
+4
Level 45
Nov 3, 2020
He is American tho. Jamaica is in America
+10
Level 76
Feb 9, 2021
tahkuegyt - Question: What word do you use to specifically refer to someone from the United States of America?
+4
Level 82
Jun 26, 2022
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood in Boston. Let's give tah the benefit of the doubt and assume he thought Bolt was from Massachusetts.
+2
Level 81
May 26, 2023
I thought it was Jamaica, Queens
+3
Level 72
Dec 16, 2019
Didn't find anything worth mentioning in six of the 19 years since the beginning of the decade? (Loved the quiz. It's just that my OCD brain would have preferred one event for each year...)
+1
Level 32
Dec 17, 2019
Algeria did not have an uprising on 2011, not until this last year, when they overthrew their leader.
+5
Level 62
Jul 24, 2020
I already know the question for 2020.
+3
Level 47
Nov 14, 2020
The dwarf planet mentioned is no longer thought to be larger than Pluto
+1
Level 66
Sep 8, 2021
It's smaller by volume but larger by mass. You could argue the question needs rephrasing but it's still pretty clear.
+11
Level 49
Dec 21, 2020
pls accept winnie the pooh as an answer
+2
Level 49
Dec 21, 2020
I would say that the Japan tsunami should be included
+1
Level 82
Dec 26, 2021
very weird to think about how I'm the same age as same-sex marriage
+1
Level 66
Dec 26, 2022
I don't think it came into existence when it was legalized.
+1
Level 85
Dec 26, 2022
Is there such a thing as illegal marriage?
+1
Level 55
Dec 26, 2022
2022 – I’m sure there was more than one Russian involved.
+2
Level ∞
Dec 26, 2022
Typo fixed
+1
Level 77
Dec 27, 2022
Grrrrr. Eris...not Iris. Should have been 100%
+3
Level 83
Dec 28, 2022
That statement about F-book is the official story but not the real one. Anyone who's done any coding can appreciate that the likelihood of a single person writing hundreds of thousands of lines of code in a single weekend in their dorm room is essentially nil.
+1
Level 62
Jan 30, 2023
Exactly, same as claiming that DaVinci invented and made all the things by himself, that would normally take humanity a millenia.
+5
Level 63
Dec 29, 2022
Wildest comment section on jetpunk right here and jeez there are some shocking ones
+2
Level 52
Jan 23, 2023
I'm just gonna tell myself that many of those comments were jokes. Yeah that's it.
+3
Level 53
Jan 5, 2023
Can 'The Facebook' be accepted as an answer for those of us that are massive pedants?
+1
Level 52
Jan 24, 2023
i actually started typing facebook and deleted it so i could see if thefacebook was accepted. imagine my disappointment.
+5
Level 72
Jan 10, 2023
You have "discovered" written as "dicovered"
+2
Level 67
Jan 23, 2023
Can you accept “Winnie the Pooh” for the 2012 question?
+1
Level 67
Jan 25, 2023
Facts
+2
Level 73
Jan 25, 2023
This dwarf planet, 27% larger than Pluto, is diScovered
+1
Level 67
Jan 25, 2023
Just forgot Netherlands
+3
Level 62
Jan 30, 2023
This quiz name should be changed into "21st century, as viewed by USA"
+1
Level 62
Jul 8, 2023
The US did find chemical weapons, included under the definition of WMDs, in Iraq