At the 2012 World Championship John Higgins made the 500th century break of his career in his match against Stephen Hendry. Two frames later Hendry made his 775th.
Ken Doherty became the first snooker player to win the World Championship at junior, amateur and professional level in 1997.
During the 1997 World Championship, Ronnie O'Sullivan made the quickest maximum break 147 in history with a time of 5 minutes and 20 seconds, and the fourth in the history of the tournament.
Wenbo Liang suffered embarrassment when he punched the air in premature celebration of a 13-10 victory over Joe Swail. However Swail gained a snooker and won the frame. Swail recovered and brought the match to 12-12. Unfortunately he missed the brown while clearing the colors in the final frame and lose the match 13-12. The result meant that he would not be in the top 16 the following season. After the match Joe Swail complained bitterly that in the final frame the referee had incorrectly replaced the cue ball after calling a miss, giving Liang an easier escape from a snooker, and accused Liang of unprofessional conduct for not pointing out the referee's mistake.
Barry Hawkins made his Crucible debut in 2006. Oddly this was the first time that just one player made his Crucible debut.