Revisiting 2011 to 2015 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Arab Spring

Although protests in Tunisia in December 2010 were credited as being the start of the Arab Spring, it became one of the main news events in 2011, with governments being overthrown in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia and civil war breaking out in several countries including Syria. Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed during the upheavals, and long-time Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ended up in prison.

While some protests ended with government concessions, some nations ended up destabilized, leading to the establishment of ISIS or ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Iraq and Syria.

Answer: South Sudan

After many years of violence, a referendum was held and almost 99% of the population voted for South Sudan to become independent from Sudan. Since gaining independence, South Sudan has joined the United Nations and the Organization for African Unity and become signatory to the Geneva Conventions.

Answer: Italy

Launched in 2005, the Concordia was carrying 3,206 passengers and 1,023 crew members on a week-long cruise from Rome when it struck a rock off the coast of Isola del Giglio in Tuscany. The ship wasn't sailing along its approved route at the time; the ship's captain had steered the ship closer to Giglio reportedly to perform a "sail-by salute" to a previous captain.

After the crash, he left the ship before all of the passengers had been removed, and he ended up getting a sixteen year prison sentence for causing the shipwreck and abandoning passengers. Thirty-two passengers or crew members lost their lives in the accident, and over 150 were seriously injured.

Answer: December 21

December 21, 2012 was hyped up for a long time as being a veritable "end of days" for either Earth or, at the very least, human civilisation, as the last day of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar (colloquially referred to as the Mayan calendar, as they are most recognised for using it). Thankfully, as anyone who was alive on that day will tell you, it was just another ordinary day on the planet, but that's not what the Internet or many media outlets would have had you believe.

Many, often opposing, opinions of what exact form this cataclysm was to take did the rounds, with some going as far as speculating that a black hole would swallow the Earth or that humanity would suddenly undergo mass extinction or the Sun would unleash a solar flare, the likes of which would be more catastrophic than billions of nuclear weapons. Needless to say, those truly concerned about the future of humanity breathed a collective sigh of relief when December 22nd rolled around.

Answer: Resign

Nearly six hundred years since the last recorded resignation of an incumbent Pope, Benedict XVI announced on February 11, 2013 that he would be stepping down due to "declining health". As could be imagined, this took the Catholic Church by surprise, though the papal conclave to elect a new Pope did not start until one month after the first announcement. Thus, upon Benedict XVI's official resignation of February 28, 2013, there was no Pope for around two weeks until Pope Francis was elected to the post on March 13, 2013. Francis's succession also carried a Gregorian connection - before Francis, the last Pope to be born outside Europe was Gregory III, whose papacy began in 731, nearly 1300 years earlier.

Answer: Boston Marathon

It was four hours into the third wave of runners of 117th Boston Marathon when two bombs exploded, thirteen seconds apart, near the finish line. Two suspects were identified from security camera images, both brothers of Chechen descent. One was killed during the ensuing manhunt and the other was captured and sentenced to death.

They reportedly were self-radicalized and were motivated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Three people died as a result of the bombing: A 29-year-old restaurant manager, a 23-year-old Chinese graduate student, and an eight-year-old boy.

A police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was also killed by the perpetrators during the manhunt. Additionally, 264 people were treated for injuries from the bombing, with at least sixteen losing limbs.

Answer: Malaysia Airlines

MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing. However, in under one hour, it had lost communication with air traffic control. Soon afterwards, radar communication had also stopped. After the flight failed to arrive at its intended destination at the expected time, Malaysia Airlines formally announced its disappearance and an international search began. An unprecedented effort covering a phenomenal area of the Indian Ocean failed to find anything of substance during the first month after MH370's disappearance.

Initial findings suggested the aircraft had crash-landed into the ocean, with pieces of aircraft allegedly being discovered off the coast of Western Australia. The search continued well into 2014 and it wasn't until July that the first confirmed pieces of the MH370 wreckage were found off the coast of Africa.

This catastrophic event was one of the worst in aviation history, with all 239 crew and passengers on board declared as fatalities. July 2014 also saw the loss of a further 298 lives with flight MH17 (also a Malaysia Airlines flight) being shot down over Ukraine.

Answer: Ukraine

In early February 2014, a crisis erupted in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych was evicted from power. Ukraine had been pursuing closer ties with the West, but Yanukovych chose instead to pursue closer ties with Russia, which led to violent protests.

He ended up fleeing to Russia with an arrest warrant issued in Ukraine, charging him with "mass killing of civilians". Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin maintained that a civil war had erupted in Ukraine, and he needed to protect ethnic Russians living there, so he moved troops to the Crimea and annexed it.

Answer: Mars

The findings were announced following decades of research into climatic conditions on Mars. Liquid water can only exist for brief periods of time under very particular conditions, although ice is present in the polar caps and in patches and "lakes" across a large part of the planetary surface.

The findings led to the hope that further research could discover life of some kind - albeit microbial - on our nearest neighbour. In 2016, NASA played down the discovery, stating that the gullies on Mars were not likely formed by liquid water.

Answer: France

On January 7th 2015, two gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the "Charlie Hebdo" magazine, killing twelve people and injuring others. Two days later, four more victims were killed at a Jewish supermarket in a Paris suburb. There were other attacks in February, June, and August before the November 13th coordinated attacks on the Stade de France, which was hosting a football match between France and Germany at the time, the Bataclan theatre, which was hosting a concert by the band, Eagles of Death, and several restaurants and cafes in the 10th and 11th arrondissements.

In the November attacks, 130 died and more than 360 were injured. Nine men were determined to be responsible for the attacks; seven died at the scenes, and the other two were killed in police raids shortly thereafter.