2021 Events Pictured Trivia Quiz

Answer: JWST

The year 2021 proved to be a busy one with records for the most orbital launches (146) and the most people in space concurrently (19). All the devices listed were launched during this period including the long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST was placed at Earth's L2 Lagrange point. Designed for infrared astronomy, it became the largest telescope in space with the reflector made from hexagonal panels as shown on the image.

As the infrared spectrum has longer wavelengths compared to the visible spectrum observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the JWST only provides similar resolution to the HST despite having a mirror diameter 2.7 times larger than the HST.

Answer: Myanmar

Coups took place in all these countries during 2021. The one occuring on 1 February 2021 was that of the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military, which displaced the National League for Democracy, winners of the 2020 election. The date of the coup was the day before the new government was to be sworn in by the Parliament of Myanmar.

A year-long state of emergency was declared and the 2020 election results declared invalid. A multi-sided civil war then ensued.

Answer: Ever Given

Many ships or boats sank or ran aground during 2021, including 15 on 29 August 2021 alone as a result of Hurricane Ida. All the ones listed ran aground, however it was the Ever Given which managed to block the Suez Canal in March for six days. By the time the container ship was unstuck, over 350 boats were in the queue behind it. Much of the canal was too narrow for ships to pass each other and traffic travels in convoys until reaching passing places.

Winds can make the passage hazardous and it was a sandstorm that caused the 400-metre long ship to end up wedged across the canal. On its twenty-third passage through the canal, the Ever Given was fifth in a convoy of twenty vessels. After being freed, the vessel was impounded until an insurance settlement of $540 million was reached.

Answer: Tokyo

Tokyo 2020 was meant to take place in 2020 however the COVID pandemic put paid to that, resulting in a postponement until 2021. This was the first time that the Games had been postponed (as distinct from cancelled), and it was largely a closed event in that there were no public spectators. It was also the second time that Tokyo had been the host city. The volcano Mount Fuji, shown in the image, lies to the south-west of Tokyo. It is the highest peak in Japan.

Answer: Ingenuity

NASA's Mars 2020 mission saw the Perseverance rover landed on Mars on 18 February 2021. It carried a small helicopter named Ingenuity which first flew on 19 April 2021. One of the issues it had to overcome was the extremely thin Martian atmosphere. Ginny, as it was nicknamed, continued to operate until 2024 when it suffered rotor damage on landing during the 72nd flight.

There was opposition in NASA to Ingenuity being included in the mission. Some saw it as a distraction from the Perseverance mission, however it proved that controlled flight was possible on another planet and was able to scout out routes for Perseverance. In the end it flew 17.2 km (10.7 mi) in just over two hours of flying time, flying 14 times further than originally planned.

Answer: Kabul

Typically, there are multiple wars or armed conflicts going on around the world at any one time. The 20-year war that came to a rapid conclusion in August 2021 was the one in Afghanistan. The conflict was started by Operation Enduring Freedom, which was the name given for the invasion of Afghanistan by the US following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan (or the United States-Taliban deal) signed in 2020 was a major factor in the collapse of the Afghan government and its armed forces.

The Afghan government was not party to the 2020 deal and, following the signing of the deal, they faced an upsurge in the Taliban insurgency.

Answer: El Salvador

It was El Salvador that became the first country in the world to adopt the cryptocurrency bitcoin as legal tender. The decision was criticised both in-country and abroad. A partial retreat followed in 2024 as part of an International Monetary Fund agreement and in 2025 the decision to make it legal tender was rescinded. Bitcoin's volatility, the environmental impact associated with its use and the lack of transparency involved were some of the arguments against it remaining as legal tender.

It was not extensively used for day-to-day transactions in-country during this period.

Answer: Max Verstappen

There were seventeen Formula One drivers from the Netherlands between 1952 and 2021. Max Verstappen was the first one to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship. In fact he won the Championship four times between 2021 and 2024 with Red Bull Racing team. His father Jos Verstappen was also a Formula One driver, whilst his mother Sophie Kumpen was a Belgian kart racing champion.

Answer: Adama Barrow

Adama Barrow came to politics after a career with a local energy company and then his own real estate business. In 2017 he displaced the long-time incumbent Yahya Jammeh, who had been President since 1996. Jammeh came to power in The Gambia during a coup in 1994 and reluctantly accepted the 2017 result after the military intervention of ECOWAS, a regional political and economic union of twelve West African countries. Barrow was re-elected President in 2021.

Marbles, rather than paper ballots, were used to cast votes in this election. Each candidate had a different-coloured drum with their portrait affixed. The voting process saw the voter's marble put into their candidate's sealed drum via a tube. The small drums were concealed from officials by the voting booth but a bell inside each drum was struck by the marble when a vote was cast. A low cost system, it was said to have an extremely low error rate for miscast ballots. The system was introduced by the British in 1965 due, in part, to the population's low literacy rates at the time.

Answer: Haiti

The year 2021 was an active year for earthquakes. There were nineteen earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.0 or greater, including three with a magnitude exceeding 8.0. The 7.2 magnitude Haitian earthquake caused the most fatalities and was the deadliest natural disaster of the year causing at least 2,248 deaths.

Over 900 aftershocks and over 8,400 landslides covering 45.6 sq km (17.6 sq mi) were recorded. Rescue and aid responses were complicated by the political turmoil following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse on 7 July 2021, the activities of gangs and Hurricane Grace which hit Haiti two days after the earthquake.