Read the salient features of all World Cup Games here

1st Game - 1930
--One city, 3 stadiums
--13 Teams, 18 Games

3rd Game - 1938
--4 new countries - (1) the Netherlands, (2) the Dutch East Indies, (3) Cuba and (4) Norway. (Mexico withdrew)

1942 and 1946 Games were wiped out because of WWII

4th Game - 1950
--Started in new format - 4 pools of 13 nations, winner of each of the 4 pools to forward to ....
--The Italian vice-president of FIFA, hid the World Cup trophy in a shoebox under his bed throughout World War II so it would not fall into the hands of the occupying troops.
--India qualified for the World Cup but withdrew because FIFA would not allow the team to play barefoot.
--No Red Card

5th Game - 1954
--First to be televised locally
--FIFA coins were issued

6th Game - 1958
--16 Teams in 4 Groups - but this time (unlike in Switzerland) all the teams in a group played with each other and extra time was not used to settle draws. The top two Teams would move on to the quarterfinals, with a one-game playoff used when the second- and third-place teams finished tied on points.
--Pele (Edson Arantes do Nascimento, more famously known as Pele) of Brazil is born
--First to be Internationally televised

7th Game - 1962
--16 Teams

8th Game - 1966
--16 teams divided in 4 Groups
--1st World Cup won by Host Nation

9th Game - 1970
--16 teams divided in 4 groups, with top 2 advancing to the Quarterfinals
--To be televised in color
--Morocco was just the second nation from Africa ever to play by qualifying All-African Competition - Egypt was the first one to participate in World Cup 1934 without being qualified in competition
--No Red Card

10th Game - 1974
--16 teams divided in 4 Groups - but this time a second group stage replaced the Knockout Quarterfinal Round: the top 2 teams from each group would then be placed into two groups of four with the winners meeting in the final.
--Gerd Muller from Germany retired after winning.
--It was the first time that England failed to qualify for since it began participating in 1950.
--Australia was the first nation from Oceania to qualify for the World Cup finals.
--Zaire was the first sub-Saharan team to ever appear at the World Cup finals.
--A New Trophy - The 1974 tournament in West Germany marked a new era in World Cup history as a new trophy, simply called the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was introduced. Designed by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, the current trophy, unlike its predecessor, cannot be won outright: the winners of the tournament receive it on loan for four years and must return it before the next World Cup. The winners receive a replica to keep.

11th Game - 1978
--16 Teams divided in 4 Groups - the top 2 teams in each group would then be placed into 2 groups of 4 with the winners meeting in the final.
--Diego Maradona, 17, was rejected by the then coach
--Tunisia's 3-1 victory against Mexico in the opening round marked the first victory by an African nation at the World Cup.

12th Game - 1982
--24 teams divided in 6 groups of 4 teams each - top 2 teams advancing to the next stage - 12 survivors divided into 4 groups of 3 teams each - then 4 winners advancing to Quarterfinals
--14 Stadiums in 14 cities of Spain
--Entry of Maradona from Argentina
--Entry of Algeria
--Runners-up in 1974 and 1978, the Netherlands was nowhere to be found in Spain as they failed to qualify for the tournament. The Dutch also didn’t make the grade in 1986 and would have to wait until 1990 to make their World Cup return.

13th Game - 1986
--24 teams divided in 6 groups of 4 teams each - top 2 teams in each group, along with the 4 best 3rd place finishers, qualified for the round of 16.
--Canada's entry - 1st and last
--Maradona's show

14th Game - 1990
--24 teams divided in 6 groups of 4 teams each - top 2 teams in each group, along with the 4 best 3rd place finishers, qualified for the round of 16.
--No player captured the hearts of spectators in Italy more than Cameroon’s Roger Milla, the aging forward who became a fan favorite for his brilliant goals and colorful dance celebrations. It was in Italy that Milla achieved global fame when he scored four goals, all as a substitute.
--Mexico was banned from the 1990 World Cup for illegal use of over-aged players in a FIFA youth tournament.

15th Game - 1994
--Same as 1990, with the 8 Group winners, and the top 4 3rd place teams advancing...
--Robert Baggio from Italy
--Leonardo from Brazil
--Roger Milla from Cameroon - the oldest player, 40 years, to score and play in a World Cup
--Maradona is the best, but was expelled from the Game because of the use of drug
--Russia competed for the first time in the World Cup after breaking from the Soviet Union.
--Colombia’s Andras Escobar paid the ultimate price for his own-goal against the US when he and his teammates returned home in disgrace after being knocked out in the first round. On July 2, less than two weeks after losing to the U.S., the Colombian defender was assassinated in brutal fashion for his mistake, gunned down outside a restaurant in a suburb of Medellin. According to his girlfriend, the killer callously shouted “goal” for each of the 12 bullets he fired into Escobar.

Humberto Munoz Castro was found guilty of Escobar’s murder in June 1995 and sentenced to 43 years in prison. The sentence was later reduced to 26 years due to his submitting to the ruling penal code, but Munoz was controversially released from prison in 2005 after serving approximately 11 years of his sentence.
--Birth of Major League Soccer (MLS) to fulfill the promise made by US Soccer officials to FIFA to establish a pro league in exchange for staging the 1994 World Cup on American soil.

16th Game - 1998
--First to feature 32 teams under 8 Groups and 64 total games (12 more than 1994) - top 2 winners from each Group advancing for 2nd Round -
--With 8 teams added to the field for the finals, a record 174 countries entered the qualifying competition.
--Played in France after 60 years
--Zinedine Zidane from France
--Ronaldo from Brazil, unused substitute of 1994, was sick on the day of Final and did not play in this game - so Brazil paid the price to France.
--Entry of Croatia as an independent nation - before it was under Yugoslavia.
--Golden Goal - 1998 was the first to use Golden Goal that went to extra time. The Golden Goal was introduced into soccer to encourage offensive play in extra time in an attempt to limit the number of games decided by penalty shootout.

17th Game - 2002
--S Korea and Japan co-hosted the Game.
--Entry of Senegal of Africa
--Ronaldo from Brazil
--France's worst game
--The “Golden Goal” was used at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan – three “golden goals” were scored – but in February 2004 the International Football Association Board, the body that determines soccer’s laws and rules, ruled it would no longer be used to decide games that went to extra time.

18th Game - 2006
--The top teams from each of the 8 Groups of 4 teams advanced to the Knockout Round
--Zidane from France, got a Red Card, Golden Ball Trophy
--Fabio Grosso from Italy
--Ronaldo from Brazil
--Muller from Germany
--Entry of 8 new nations - Angola, Czech Republic, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine and Serbia & Montenegro. The Czech Republic, Serbia & Montenegro and Ukraine were making their first appearance as independent nations, having previously participated as part of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, respectively.
--345 Yellow Cards and 28 Red Cards - Record
--Germany created a party-like atmosphere never before seen at the World Cup by setting up fan parks and street festivals all across the country where fans could congregate and watch the games together.
--The 2006 World Cup was a tournament of many firsts, including the first where the defending champions were no longer granted automatic qualification – Brazil had to qualify like everybody else.

19th Game - 2010
--32 Teams divided in 8 Groups of 4 Teams - top 2 teams from each Group to proceed to Knockout Round
--Kaka of Brazil
--Lionel Messi of Argentina
--South Africa became the 1st African nation to host the tournament.
   Spain was the 1st new nation to win the World Cup after France won it in 1998.
--Spain won all four of its knockout games—second round, quarterfinal, semifinal and final - by the same score: 1-0.
--World Cup champions Italy and 2006 runners-up France were both eliminated in the first round of the tournament after both nations failed to win a single game.
--North Korea qualified for the first time since 1966. Honduras and New Zealand were both making their first appearances since 1982. Algeria was back at the finals for the first time since the 1986 competition.
--Of the six African nations (Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Egypt, South Africa, and Algeria) only Ghana progressed out of the first round. The Black Stars became only the third African team to reach the quarterfinals (after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002).
--The bidding process for hosting the tournament was open only to African nations. FIFA selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco.
--Spain shockingly lost 1-0 to Switzerland in its opening match. Previously, no team had ever won the World Cup after losing its first game.

20th Game - 2014, 12 June-13 July
--32 Teams divided in 8 Groups of 4 Teams - top 2 teams from each Group to proceed to Knockout Round
--World Cup champion Spain and 2006 runners-up France were both eliminated in the first round of the tournament after both nations failed to win a single game.