What was that last digit again? Quiz

Answer: 2006

After the fall of the Ba'ath regime in 2003, the US-led coalition forces quickly pushed for a return to self-government in Iraq. This transition was overseen by a coalition authority under US diplomat Paul Bremer. The new Republic of Iraq was reestablished in June 2004 and its constitution adopted in October 2005.

In its first year, the new republic passed judgement on the Ba'ath leaders. Saddam Hussein was executed December 30, 2006, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice.

Answer: 2005

Angela Merkel grew up as the daughter of a protestant pastor in East Germany. In her youth, she was a member of the GDR's youth organizations, but first showed some free spirit and leadership by establishing a student organization not tied to the state at her university in the late 1970s. When the democracy movement gained momentum in 1989, she quickly became active in it.

She became the first female leader of her party, the Christian Democratic Union, in 2000 and led the party to a major election victory in 2005. She is standing for a fourth term as chancellor in the federal elections due September 2017.

Answer: 2008

For most of the 20th century, Bhutan had been a rather repressive monarchy that shunned many modern influences. Even television was completely banned until 1999. A new constitution formally initiated the transition of the country to a democratically rooted constitutional monarchy in 2005 and the process was completed with the election of 2008 and the resulting transfer of all relevant power to the democratic institutions.

Answer: 2007

The Schengen agreement dates back to 1985 but only became effective ten years later, encompassing France, Germany and the three Benelux states. It was extended in several steps and by 2015 covered most of continental Europe. It was temporarily suspended in several states in 2016 due to the European migrant crisis.

The ten new members in 2007 were the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Answer: 2003

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, better known as SARS started in China in late 2002. By early 2003 it had spread to Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada and the potential of it becoming a pandemic had become evident. The international response proved effective and through diligent isolation of infected cases, the disease was contained within just four months.

The official death toll of the epidemic was 775.

Answer: 2009

The Icelandic banking system had come under pressure in the middle of 2008 when it became apparent that Iceland's debts, both public and private, would become unsustainable. By October, the full extent of the crisis was known and the Icelandic currency fell sharply before trading was effectively suspended in November.

This brought massive problems to Iceland's citizens and, after large-scale peaceful protests in January, the entire government resigned.

Answer: 2004

SpaceShipOne was officially classified as a plane, but was developed as a suborbital spacecraft. Between May 2003 and October 2004, it made seventeen flights, eleven of them gliding flights at subsonic speeds and six powered flights at supersonic speeds, to a maximum of just above Mach 3.

The first of its three spaceflights in June 2004 was followed by two more just six days apart in September and October, thus fulfilling the conditions of the X Price for the first privately funded craft to make two successful spaceflights within ten days.

Answer: 2001

While Microsoft's professional operating systems had been based on a separate 32-bit kernel since the release of Windows NT in the mid-1990s, its consumer operating systems were still running on top of a MS-DOS layer of which some code dated back all the way to the early 1980s. Windows XP unified the two lines based on Windows NT code and concepts, ending twenty years of MS-DOS.

Answer: 2002

Located in The Hague, Netherlands, this court has jurisdiction only over certain particularly severe crimes, in particular war crimes and crimes against humanity. For a case to be tried there, the crime must also have been committed on the territory of a member state of the Rome Statute on the day of the offense.

In the first fourteen years of operation, the court has only convicted three people, two from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and one from the Central African Republic. All three received sentences between 12 and 18 years.

Answer: 2000

Under Kim Dae-jung, the so-called Sunshine Policy was established in South Korea, aiming at a gradual normalization of relationships with the Northern state. Joint projects included a railroad between the countries, a tourist region for Southern visitors in the North (Mount Kumgang) and later Kaesong Industrial Park.

Kim Dae-jung has no family ties to the North Korean Kims. The name is just extremely common in Korean.