One hundred years ago, on 22 January 1925, the first Hungarian crossword puzzle appeared in print. To mark this centennial milestone, the National Association of Puzzle Solvers (ROE) is hosting a grand competition in Budapest, celebrating a legacy of ingenuity.

Across the country and beyond Hungary’s borders, the day is observed through a wide variety of cultural programmes. In Budapest, the National Archives opens its doors to visitors today, showcasing treasures such as the first edition of Kölcsey’s poetry collection, which includes the ‘Himnusz’.

Hungarian Post has released its twelfth and final Chinese Zodiac stamp sheet, celebrating the Year of the Snake. The series, marking 12 years of honouring the Lunar New Year, underscores the enduring friendship between Hungary and China.

President Donald Trump is set to take office for the second time in Washington, D.C. today, 20 January. However, 20 January was not the original inauguration date. In fact, the first inauguration of George Washington was not even held in Washington, D.C. Here’s a brief rundown of the history of presidential inaugurations in the United States.

Aggtelek National Park, Hungary’s first protected area dedicated to geological and karst formations, marks its 40th anniversary in 2025. Throughout the year, special tours, events, and celebrations will showcase its natural wonders and conservation achievements.

The protagonist of the 2024 film The Brutalist is brilliant architect László Toth, who leaves Hungary in the aftermath of the Holocaust to rebuild his life in the United States. While Toth never existed, his character is based on two great Jewish Hungarian pioneer architects: Marcel Breuer and Ernő Goldfinger.

People’s Courts were special judicial bodies in Hungary set up after WWII, operating between February 1945 and 1 April 1950, established primarily for the purpose of prosecuting war criminals. However, they became the controversial instrument of a regime change originally intended to be democratic, sometimes abused to exact personal revenge.

‘After the expulsion of the Turks, Fehérvár could not regain its medieval importance…It was the festive year of St Stephen in 1938 that restored the town to its status as the number one St Stephen’s memorial site. The newly completed ruin garden, the dedication of the royal tomb and, last but not least, the extraordinary session of the Parliament here which legislated the national holiday of 20 August made it a unique year in the life of the city.’

How did a Jewish 1956 revolutionary become an informant in the Kádár regime, even reporting on his own wife? A tragic story with unexpected twists and turns from the era of retaliation after the revolution.

Katalin Karikó received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 for her contributions to developing the COVID-19 vaccination. The great Hungarian American biochemist, who is currently teaching at the University of Szeged in her home country of Hungary, is celebrating her 70th birthday today.

City Councilor Thu Nguyen in Worcester, Massachusetts has been refusing to show up to meetings in person despite the urging of Mayor Joseph Petty. She claims she feels ‘unsafe’ due to the transphobia of other Council members who have misgendered her. Nguyen prefers to be referred to by the pronouns ‘they/them’.

In 2024, the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden reached a milestone, welcoming over 1.1 million visitors at its City Park location—the highest since 2003. Including the Margitsziget Petting Zoo, the total attendance soared to over 1.3 million, reflecting remarkable growth.

Hungary’s new reintegration project aims to help prisoners successfully rejoin society. With over 835 participants already engaged, the initiative offers vocational training, rehabilitation, and support to reduce reoffending and foster social inclusion.

Hungary Helps, a humanitarian aid programme launched by the Hungarian government in 2017, has recently funded the construction of a new church at the site of Jesus Christ’s baptism by the Jordan River in Jordan. Hungary Helps focuses on oppressed Christians in the Middle East.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed its first deep-space data acquisition agreement with Hungary’s Puli Space Technologies. Their miniaturized neutron spectrometer, the Puli Lunar Water Snooper, will map lunar water ice concentrations on a historic mission.

The School in the Forest programme saw overwhelming interest, closing its registration within a day. This spring, 30,000 primary school students across Hungary will engage in forest education activities, focusing on sustainability and the wonders of soil.

‘Few things better illustrate the antisemitic recycling of certain Jewish concepts than the quote attributed to Dezső Szabó, “Every Hungarian is responsible for every Hungarian.” Of course, a reader with some knowledge of Jewish tradition will immediately recognize the Talmudic origin of this quote: “kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh,” which means, “All of Israel are responsible for one another.”’

From mesmerizing operas to energetic dance performances and family-friendly musicals, the Margaret Island Open-Air Theatre promises an exciting 2025 season from May to September, catering to audiences of all ages.

The Hungarian communication space has become heavily reliant on social media, with platforms like Facebook shaping public discourse. A recent Media Authority study analysed three million posts between 2021 to 2024, revealing key trends in online engagement and content dynamics.

At the 67th annual M4 Sport Athlete of the Year Gala, Olympic gold medalist swimmer Hubert Kós won Best Male Athlete of the Year, Olympic gold medalist pentathlonist Michelle Gulyás won Best Female Athlete of the Year; while the Best Team of the Year award was given to the Women’s Handball National Team, which came in third at the European Championship in December.

The University of Debrecen’s Faculty of Informatics is collaborating with Florida and Seoul Universities to develop a digital twin framework for improving road safety, traffic efficiency, and autonomous vehicle testing, supported by a HU-rizont programme grant.

Trump’s emphasis on national interests enables Hungary to prioritize its own, Balázs Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister’s political director, noted during a high-profile panel discussion held in Vienna, Austria on Sunday. The panel featuring international experts focused on the potential impact of Donald Trump’s second presidency on the future of Europe.

The United States has long given up any intent for territorial expansion. Incoming President Donald Trump, however, is bringing the spirit of ‘Manifest Destiny’ back to the White House, and is already making progress on making the acquisition of Greenland a reality.

Müpa Budapest will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a two-day cultural extravaganza on 15–16 March. The event promises a rich programme of classical and jazz concerts, contemporary dance, new circus performances, and family-friendly activities.

FILMIO, the streaming platform of Hungary’s National Film Institute (NFI), achieved remarkable growth in 2024. User engagement soared by over 20 per cent, with the platform introducing exciting new content, including classic restorations and new releases.

The Törley brand stands for excellence in Hungary, thanks to the high-quality sparkling wine that has been produced for almost 150 years now in the Budafok factory once owned by the Törley family.

‘The lapwing, the iconic bird of the wetlands of the Great Plain, has come back, which is also a kind of mirror. Where it subsists, things are fine; where it disappears, there is trouble.’

This little known case of Hungarian Israeli Rabbi Ottó Komlós not only provides insight into how the Hungarian Communist intelligence services viewed Israel’s most important Holocaust museum and its Hungarian employee, but also highlights the clumsiness of the covert activities of Kádár’s state security services in the early 1960s in Israel.

The Nyíregyháza Zoo has achieved a major milestone in wildlife conservation with the birth of twin Sumatran tiger cubs. This critically endangered species, with only 400–500 individuals left in the wild, marks a triumph in a decade-long breeding programme.

Researchers at the University of Szeged’s Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School are pioneering the development of technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases. Among other projects they are working on a new, portable respiratory function measuring device, also suitable for home use, for the diagnosis of respiratory diseases.