2000s Trivia: Fun Facts From The Decade

Trivia from the 2000s, all of it dateable and checkable.

Every fact below has its year in brackets, so you can read the fact out, hide the year and use it as a quiz round - or leave the year in and use it for a birthday card or a reminiscence session.

For the same decade laid out year by year, use the 2000s calendar linked at the bottom.

Years covered in the 2000s

• 2000 - The Millennium Dome, the fuel protests and Big Brother arriving from nowhere. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2000
• 2001 - Foot-and-mouth, 11 September and the first iPod. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2001
• 2002 - The Golden Jubilee, the death of the Queen Mother and Pop Idol fever. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2002
• 2003 - Iraq, a record-breaking heatwave and England winning the Rugby World Cup. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2003
• 2004 - Strictly and The X Factor both started, and the year ended with the tsunami. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2004
• 2005 - The Olympic bid, the 7 July bombings and the Ashes coming home. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2005
• 2006 - Arctic Monkeys, the Wii and another World Cup penalty shoot-out. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2006
• 2007 - The iPhone, the smoking ban, the floods and the run on Northern Rock. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2007
• 2008 - The banking crash, a brilliant Olympics and Lewis Hamilton on the last corner. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2008
• 2009 - Recession, MPs' expenses and a Christmas number one campaign that worked. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2009
• That is every 2000s year we have written up so far: 2000 to 2009.

News facts from the 2000s

• The Millennium Dome opened on 1 January and struggled with visitor numbers all year. (2000)
• The foot-and-mouth outbreak closed footpaths and delayed the general election to June. (2001)
• The Golden Jubilee was celebrated in June, with a concert at Buckingham Palace. (2002)
• The invasion of Iraq began on 20 March, after a protest march in London in February that was the largest in British history. (2003)
• The Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December killed well over two hundred thousand people. (2004)
• London was awarded the 2012 Olympics on 6 July. (2005)
• Scotland's smoking ban came into force in March. (2006)
• The smoking ban came into force in England on 1 July. (2007)
• Lehman Brothers collapsed in September and the financial crisis deepened. (2008)
• The MPs' expenses scandal ran from May and ended several political careers. (2009)

More from the news

• Fuel protests in September brought petrol stations close to empty within days. (2000)
• The 11 September attacks in the United States were watched live on rolling news. (2001)
• The Queen Mother died on 30 March, aged 101. (2002)
• The August heatwave produced the highest UK temperature recorded up to that point, at Faversham in Kent. (2003)
• Ten more countries joined the European Union in May. (2004)
• Four bombs on London's transport network on 7 July killed 52 people. (2005)
• Twitter launched in the United States in July. (2006)
• Severe summer floods hit Gloucestershire, Yorkshire and Worcestershire. (2007)
• Northern Rock was nationalised in February; UK banks were part-nationalised in October. (2008)
• The UK was in recession for most of the year. (2009)

Television and film in the 2000s

• Big Brother launched on Channel 4 in July, and Craig Phillips won the first series. (2000)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring both opened. (2001)
• Freeview launched in October and replaced ITV Digital. (2002)
• The Return of the King and Finding Nemo filled cinemas. (2003)
• Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor both began. (2004)
• Doctor Who returned in March with Christopher Eccleston. (2005)
• Life on Mars, The Inbetweeners' precursors and Torchwood arrived; Big Brother was still huge. (2006)
• Gavin & Stacey began on BBC Three. (2007)
• The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! were the films of the year. (2008)
• Avatar opened in December and became the highest-grossing film ever at the time. (2009)

Music in the 2000s

• 'Can We Fix It?' by Bob the Builder was the Christmas number one. (2000)
• 'It Wasn't Me' by Shaggy and 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' by Kylie Minogue were the year's biggest singles. (2001)
• Will Young's 'Anything Is Possible'/'Evergreen' was the year's best-selling single after he won Pop Idol. (2002)
• 'Where Is the Love?' by the Black Eyed Peas was one of the year's biggest singles. (2003)
• 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Band Aid 20 was the Christmas number one. (2004)
• Downloads began counting towards the official singles chart in April. (2005)
• Arctic Monkeys' debut album became the fastest-selling debut in British chart history at the time. (2006)
• Rihanna's 'Umbrella' spent ten weeks at number one over a very wet summer. (2007)
• Alexandra Burke's 'Hallelujah' was the Christmas number one and the year's best-selling single. (2008)
• Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name' beat The X Factor to the Christmas number one after an online campaign. (2009)

Sport in the 2000s

• Britain had its best Olympics in decades at Sydney, with Steve Redgrave winning a fifth consecutive gold. (2000)
• England beat Germany 5-1 in Munich on 1 September. (2001)
• England reached the World Cup quarter-final in Japan and South Korea, losing to Brazil. (2002)
• England won the Rugby World Cup in Sydney on 22 November, with Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal in the last minute of extra time. (2003)
• Greece won Euro 2004; England went out on penalties to Portugal. (2004)
• England won the Ashes in September for the first time since 1987, and the team paraded through London. (2005)
• England went out of the World Cup in Germany on penalties to Portugal again. (2006)
• The new Wembley Stadium opened in March. (2007)
• Britain finished fourth in the medal table at the Beijing Olympics with nineteen golds. (2008)
• England regained the Ashes at the Oval in August. (2009)

Everyday life in the 2000s

• The Nokia 3310 went on sale and became the most indestructible phone ever made. (2000)
• The first iPod was launched in October. (2001)
• Text messaging became the main way teenagers arranged anything. (2002)
• The London congestion charge began in February. (2003)
• MySpace and Bebo were the places teenagers spent their evenings. (2004)
• Camera phones, ringtones and Bluetooth file swapping were everywhere in schools. (2005)
• The Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 launched at the end of the year. (2006)
• The iPhone went on sale in the UK on 9 November. (2007)
• The App Store opened in July and the phone became the main computer for most people. (2008)
• WhatsApp was founded; Twitter went mainstream in Britain. (2009)

How to use these as a quiz round

• Read the fact without the year and ask for the year - closest answer wins the point.
• Ten facts makes a round. Mix news with television and music so nobody sweeps it.
• For a care home or reminiscence session, use the everyday life facts first - they get the most talk.
• Anyone born in 2000 turns 50 in 2050, 60 in 2060 and 70 in 2070.

Shop birthday cards

How to write it so it lands

• Hide the bracketed year and you have a guess-the-year round ready to go.
• For a card, use the year they were born rather than the decade.
• In a reminiscence session, stop on whatever gets a reaction rather than finishing the list.

Where to shop next

• Look back to 2000
• Look back to 2001
• Look back to 2002
• Look back to 2003
• Look back to 2004
• Look back to 2005
• Look back to 2006
• Look back to 2007
• Look back to 2008
• Look back to 2009
• 2000s calendar: year by year
• The 2000s: the whole decade
• Retro gift guide: the 2000s
• 2000s party playlist
• 00s quiz questions
• Dial-up, MSN and MySpace
• Adverts we can still recite
• Decade music round questions
• Decade history: key events, politics and culture by era
• Decade books: best novels, authors and reading trends
• Decade calendar: every year from 1920
• Decade trivia: fun facts by era
• Decade trivia game: play for points
• Decade guides: books, films and TV by era
• Decade recipes: dishes and food trends by era
• Music by decade: albums, artists and songs
• Decade fashion: clothes, hair and accessories by era
• Nostalgia gift shop
• Retro party supplies
• Guess the year quiz
• Care home reminiscence quiz
• Milestone birthday cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What are some fun facts about the 2000s?

The Millennium Dome, the fuel protests and Big Brother arriving from nowhere. The lists above give the news, television, music, sport and everyday facts for every year from 2000 to 2009, each with its date.

What good 2000s quiz questions are there?

Any fact on this page works as a question if you read it out and ask for the year. Ten of them makes a round, and the answers are already in the brackets.

Where do these facts come from?

They are the same checked facts used on our year pages - real, dateable events only. The official UK singles chart begins in November 1952, so earlier years list popular songs rather than chart positions.

Do you sell anything to do with this decade?

We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK, including milestone birthday cards. This page is free to read and free to copy.