Gather the family! Sharpen your pencil! Find out how much you remember from this fateful year.
Gather the family! Sharpen your pencil! Find out how much you remember from this fateful year.

Every time the year-end holidays arrive, there are the annual rituals. Maybe for you it’s celebrating Hanukkah, or St. Nicholas Day, or attending Christmas Eve midnight church services. Maybe you take part in the seven days of Kwanzaa. Or if you’re British, you enjoy Boxing Day, and if you’re not British, you Google “Boxing Day.” And New Year’s Eve itself might be a night of quiet relaxation or wild revelry. But here at The Voice of San Francisco, the calendrical turnover is the occasion for our Great Annual News Quiz, a proud yearly tradition since Tuesday.

Below are 16 questions meant to test your knowledge of the year’s happenings — good and bad. If you get 12–16 correct answers, give yourself an A. If you get 8–11 correct, good job, do better next year. If you get 1–7 correct, don’t tell anyone you tried the quiz.

Answers are at the bottom of the quiz. Now get started!

1. As mayor of Oakland, Sheng Thao had an interesting year. Which of the following happened to her in 2024?

  1. Her home was raided by the FBI
  2. Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland to deal with runaway crime
  3. She lost a recall election
  4. All of the above

2. Citing insufficient resources, what San Francisco cultural institution closed its doors in December for at least a year to try to deal with the situation?

  1. Museum of Modern Art
  2. Contemporary Jewish Museum
  3. Railway Museum
  4. War Memorial and Performing Arts Center

3. District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani easily won election to the State Assembly with nearly 62 percent of the vote. Whom did she defeat?

  1. Brandon Johnson
  2. Scott Wiener
  3. David Lee
  4. Honey Mahogany

4. The November passage of Proposition K, to permanently close the Upper Great Highway, resulted in a recall effort against whom?

  1. Joel Engardio
  2. Sheng Thao
  3. London Breed
  4. Matt Dorsey

5. This year saw the debut of The Voice of San Francisco. When did it first go online?

  1. January 1
  2. July 4
  3. April 15
  4. June 1

6. In the high-profile KQED/San Francisco Chronicle mayoral debate in early September, which candidate said, “They’ve built a corrupt system and then claim they’re the only ones who can fix it.”

  1. London Breed
  2. Donald Trump
  3. Aaron Peskin
  4. Daniel Lurie

There were a number of, er, colorful characters running for office across the nation in 2024.

7. What 2024 award-winning film told the coming-of-age story of a young immigrant in the East Bay?

  1. The Adamant Girl
  2. Darla in Space
  3. Nickel Boys
  4. Dìdi

8. In the hit Netflix series A Man on the Inside, Ted Danson plays a widower who goes undercover at a San Francisco seniors home to solve a mystery. What is the name of the seniors home?

  1. Merced Active Seniors Community
  2. Odd Fellow Rebekah Home Association
  3. The Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Home for the Aged Over 40
  4. Pacific View Retirement Community

9. The San Francisco 49ers were eliminated from playoff contention for the first time in four years after what results in Week 16?

  1. The Los Angeles Rams and Washington Commanders won their games
  2. The Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  3. The Berlin Thunder soundly defeated the Bad News Bears
  4. All of the above

10. There were a number of, er, colorful characters running for office across the nation in 2024. Which one of the following was not a candidate?

  1. Thomas Leager, senate candidate for Wisconsin, accused of being part of a plot to kidnap Michigan’s sitting governor
  2. Anna Luna, a former Instagram influencer and swimsuit model, who has enough disputed biographical details about her faith, her ancestors, and even her name to make her this year’s George Santos wannabe
  3. Katie Devorne, candidate for Wyoming’s single House seat, who previously served for four years as an inmate of a medium-security prison for stalking the parents of her son’s girlfriend
  4. Mark Robinson, candidate for North Carolina governor, who got embroiled in multiple scandals involving porn shops, Nazis, and pro-slavery writing

11. After playing their final game in Oakland in September, where will the Oakland Athletics play in 2025?

  1. Las Vegas
  2. Sacramento
  3. Stockton
  4. San Jose

12. In August, 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot in broad daylight at what location in San Francisco?

  1. The Presidio
  2. The Tenderloin
  3. Union Square
  4. North Beach

13. In November, a judge issued an injunction to Oakland’s airport to stop using “San Francisco Bay” in its name. While the case continues to work its way through the courts, by what name is Oakland’s airport known?

  1. The S.F. Bay Area International Airport
  2. The San Jose International Airport
  3. Metropolitan Oakland International Airport
  4. The South Berkeley International Airport

14. Former San Francisco Giants player Willie Mays died in June. How old was he?

  1. 93
  2. 89
  3. 77
  4. 85

15. For the first time in its history, San Francisco residents were warned about what in December?

  1. Werewolves
  2. Violent crime
  3. Wearing white after Labor Day
  4. A tornado

BONUS QUESTION: According to geologists, tectonic shifts will result in what happening in 20 million years?

  1. San Francisco will be under Hawai’i
  2. Los Angeles will be next to San Francisco
  3. Lake Tahoe will be underwater
  4. Market St. will run directly into Midtown Manhattan

ANSWERS: 

1) 4. 2) 2. 3) 3. 4) 1. 5) 3. 6) 4. 7) 4. 8) 4. 9) 1. 10) 3. 11) 2. 12) 3. 13) 3. 14) 1. 15) 4. BONUS) 2. 

John Zipperer is the editor at large of The Voice of San Francisco. He has 30 years of experience in business, technology, and political journalism. John@thevoicesf.org