Trivia questions and answers

Bedford Falls. The story opens on Christmas Eve 1945, when prayers for George Bailey of Bedford Falls, New York, reach heaven and an angel is sent to help.

From the Classic Christmas films quiz

Joe Pesci. Daniel Stern plays his partner Marv, and the pair return to chase Kevin again in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

From the Modern Christmas films quiz

German. As 'Stille Nacht', its words were written as a poem in 1816 by the young priest Joseph Mohr, two years before the carol was first sung.

From the Christmas carols quiz

Band Aid. The song has topped the UK Christmas chart for three Band Aid line-ups: the original in 1984, Band Aid II in 1989 and Band Aid 20 in 2004.

From the Christmas songs and No. 1s quiz

Yule Goat. The name recalls an older Finnish custom involving a goat figure, and Joulupukki is said to live on Korvatunturi, a fell in Finnish Lapland.

From the Christmas around the world quiz

A paper crown. The cracker's bang comes from a thin strip of card treated with a tiny amount of silver fulminate, which snaps when the cracker is pulled apart.

From the Christmas in Britain quiz

Strawberries. The red-and-white strawberry cream cake became a Japanese Christmas favorite in the 20th century, and its colors are often said to echo the national flag.

From the Christmas dinner quiz

Peppermint. Peppermint is the traditional candy cane flavor, though today they come in many colors and flavors.

From the Christmas treats and drinks quiz

Saturn. Saturnalia honored Saturn with feasting, gift-giving and role reversals; historians debate how much it directly shaped Christmas, but some customs look strikingly similar.

From the Origins of Christmas quiz

Eight. The poem names eight reindeer; Rudolph, the famous ninth, was not created until more than a century later.

From the Santa, elves and reindeer quiz

Tiny Tim. By the end of the story Tiny Tim does not die, and Dickens tells us the reformed Scrooge became like a second father to him.

From the Christmas books and stories quiz

Channel 4. The film was first shown on 26 December 1982, during Channel 4's very first Christmas on air, and became a festive favorite.

From the Christmas TV quiz

Nairobi. Its name comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, 'place of cool waters'. Giraffes and lions roam Nairobi National Park inside the city's boundaries.

From the African capitals quiz

Nepal. UNESCO listed the temples, palaces and squares of the Kathmandu Valley as a World Heritage Site in 1979, made up of seven Monument Zones.

From the Asian capitals quiz

Bahamas. Named after William III, Prince of Orange-Nassau, it became a pirate haven in the early 1700s, visited by Blackbeard himself.

From the Capitals of the Americas quiz

Bern. Swiss law calls Bern the 'federal city' rather than the capital. Parliament chose it as the seat of the federal authorities in 1848.

From the European capitals quiz

Quito. In 1978 its historic center became one of the first places in the world to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From the World capitals quiz

Alaska. No roads connect Juneau to the rest of North America; people arrive by air or sea, and cars come by ferry or barge.

From the US state capitals quiz

Edinburgh Castle. The gun has been fired since 1861. The castle sits on Castle Rock, the plug of an ancient volcano that formed about 350 million years ago.

From the Landmarks of Britain and Ireland quiz

Rome. Begun under Emperor Vespasian and finished under his son Titus, it is thought to have held about 50,000 spectators for gladiator fights and other spectacles.

From the Landmarks of Europe quiz

Toronto. CN stands for Canadian National, the railway company behind it. On the EdgeWalk, visitors walk around the outside of its main pod, about 356 meters up.

From the Landmarks of the Americas quiz

Agra. Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned it in 1631 as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. More than 20,000 workers and artisans helped build it.

From the Landmarks of the world quiz

Pyrenees. The tiny landlocked country of Andorra sits high in the eastern part of the range, between the two nations.

From the Mountains, deserts and volcanoes quiz

Tiber. Legend says Rome's founders, the twins Romulus and Remus, were abandoned on its waters before being rescued by a she-wolf.

From the Rivers and lakes quiz

Pompeii. Volcanic ash preserved the town so well that excavators have even found carbonized loaves of bread still in a bakery oven.

From the History quiz

Barbara. Barbie made her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on 9 March 1959; Ken, named after Ruth's son, followed in 1961.

From the The 1950s quiz

Neil Armstrong. Armstrong stepped onto the surface on 20 July 1969 US time, with Buzz Aldrin following shortly after while Michael Collins orbited above.

From the The 1960s quiz

Star Wars. It opened in the US in May 1977 but did not reach UK cinemas until 27 December that year.

From the The 1970s quiz

Pac-Man. Designer Toru Iwatani said the shape was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing.

From the The 1980s quiz

Cher. The robotic vocal wobble came from pushing Auto-Tune pitch correction to extreme settings, and for years producers called it ‘the Cher effect’.

From the The 90s quiz

‘Can We Fix It?’ – Bob the Builder. The theme from the children's TV show was also the UK's Christmas number one in 2000 and sold more than a million copies.

From the The 2000s quiz

116 years. The conflict ran from 1337 to 1453, though it was really a series of wars broken up by long truces.

From the History quiz

Oxford. He clocked 3 minutes 59.4 seconds for the mile (1.61 km) at the Iffley Road track.

From the The 1950s quiz

It's All Over Now. The song was a cover of a recent US single by The Valentinos, a group that included a young Bobby Womack.

From the The 1960s quiz

Viking 1. Its lander touched down on 20 July 1976, seven years to the day after Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and kept working for more than six years.

From the The 1970s quiz

Philadelphia. Phil Collins performed at both shows on the same day, flying across the Atlantic between them on Concorde.

From the The 1980s quiz

Ancient Celts. Samhain was a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest and the start of winter, held around October 31 and November 1.

From the Halloween quiz

Massachusetts. A full-size replica, Mayflower II, was built in Brixham, England, and sailed across the Atlantic to Plymouth in 1957.

From the Thanksgiving trivia quiz

All Hallows' Eve. "Hallow" is an old word for a saint, so Halloween is the evening before All Hallows' Day, better known as All Saints' Day on November 1.

From the Halloween quiz

Pumpkin pie. Illinois grows about 90% of the pumpkins canned in the US, according to a 2020 University of Illinois Extension estimate.

From the Thanksgiving trivia quiz

Turnips. Carved turnip lanterns were an old custom in Ireland and Scotland; in North America, the larger and softer pumpkin became the favorite.

From the Halloween quiz

New York City. The first parade, in 1924, featured floats, bands and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo.

From the Thanksgiving trivia quiz

Stingy Jack. In the tale, Stingy Jack was barred from both heaven and hell and left to wander the dark with only a coal glowing inside a carved turnip.

From the Halloween quiz

Abraham Lincoln. Secretary of State William Seward drafted the proclamation, which asked Americans to implore the Almighty to "heal the wounds of the nation."

From the Thanksgiving trivia quiz

A fruit. Because a pumpkin grows from a flower and holds the plant's seeds, botanists class it as a fruit, even though we usually cook it like a vegetable.

From the Halloween quiz

Tom. Gobbling is chiefly a male call, used especially in spring to attract mates and announce his presence.

From the Thanksgiving trivia quiz

November 1 and 2. Families build colorful home altars called ofrendas with photos, candles and favorite foods to welcome and remember loved ones who have died.

From the Halloween quiz

Onions. Dorcas Reilly created the recipe in 1955 in the Campbell Soup Company's test kitchen in Camden, New Jersey.

From the Thanksgiving trivia quiz

11. Under the Laws of the Game, a match cannot continue if either team is reduced to fewer than seven players.

From the Football quiz

53.3 yards. An NFL field is 160 feet wide, which works out to 53 and one-third yards between the sidelines.

From the American Football quiz

10 feet. The 10-foot height dates back to 1891, when James Naismith fixed his baskets to a gym balcony rail that happened to be 10 feet off the floor.

From the Basketball quiz

Philadelphia Flyers. The Original Six were Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and the New York Rangers; Philadelphia arrived in the 1967 expansion that doubled the league.

From the Hockey quiz

6. Mandela wore a Springbok jersey with captain François Pienaar's number 6 when he handed over the trophy at Ellis Park in 1995.

From the Rugby Union quiz

Leighton Rees. The Welshman Leighton Rees beat John Lowe 11-7 in the 1978 final at the Heart of the Midlands club in Nottingham and collected £3,000.

From the Darts quiz

Silverstone. The first World Championship race was the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on 13 May 1950, watched by King George VI. Giuseppe Farina won it for Alfa Romeo.

From the Formula 1 quiz

0–0. The game was played at the Hamilton Crescent cricket ground on 30 November 1872, St Andrew's Day.

From the Football quiz

A power outage stopped play for 34 minutes. Half the lights at the Superdome went out early in the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII, and play was held up for around 34 minutes.

From the American Football quiz

Peach baskets. Naismith's peach baskets kept their bottoms, so someone had to fetch the ball after every basket; open-bottomed nets arrived years later.

From the Basketball quiz

The Mighty Ducks. Disney owned the club when it launched in 1993 as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim; the name was shortened to Anaheim Ducks in 2006.

From the Hockey quiz

Jannie de Beer. De Beer's five drop goals in the 44-21 quarter-final win over England in Paris are still a Test record for a single match.

From the Rugby Union quiz

Au. Au comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold, while silver's symbol Ag comes from the Latin argentum.

From the Science quiz

Three. Two hearts pump blood through the gills and the third pumps it around the body, and that blood is blue thanks to a copper-based protein.

From the Science quiz

Mars. Mars gets its rusty color from iron oxide in the dust and rocks that cover its surface.

From the Science quiz

Ohm. The unit is named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm and is written with the Greek letter omega, Ω.

From the Science quiz

Carbon dioxide. Plants use light energy to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar, releasing oxygen as a by-product.

From the Science quiz

Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri is about 4.24 light-years away, so the light we see from it left more than four years ago.

From the Science quiz

Mercury. Mercury does not freeze until it reaches −38.83 °C (−37.89 °F), which is why it was long used in thermometers.

From the Science quiz

Nitrogen. Nitrogen makes up about 78% of dry air, while oxygen accounts for about 21%.

From the Science quiz

Uranus. Uranus's axis is tipped about 98 degrees, so each pole gets roughly 42 years of continuous sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.

From the Science quiz

Mitochondria. Mitochondria have their own small set of DNA, which people inherit from their mother.

From the Science quiz

−273.15 °C (−459.67 °F). Absolute zero is the coldest temperature possible; scientists have cooled atoms to within a billionth of a degree of it, but it can never quite be reached.

From the Science quiz

Chemistry. Her 1911 prize recognized the discovery of the elements polonium and radium, and she was the first person ever to win two Nobel Prizes.

From the Science quiz

England. Stargazy pie comes from Mousehole in Cornwall. Its pilchard heads poke through the crust, and it is baked every 23 December for Tom Bawcock's Eve.

From the Food and Drink quiz

As you like it. Okonomiyaki roughly means 'grilled as you like it', because you pick what goes into the cabbage batter, from pork and squid to cheese or noodles.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Chicken tikka masala. In a 2001 speech about modern Britain, Cook said chicken tikka masala was a perfect example of how Britain absorbs and adapts outside influences.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Vieux Boulogne. In a 2004 study, Cranfield University tested cheeses with an 'electronic nose' and ranked Vieux Boulogne, a beer-washed cheese from northern France, the smelliest.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Mothering Sunday. Young people in service used to bake simnel cake to take home on Mothering Sunday. Today it is an Easter cake topped with 11 marzipan balls.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Restorative broths and soups. A restaurant was first a restorative broth. Parisian shops selling these 'restaurants' in the 1760s gave their name to the modern dining room.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Products selling out nationwide after she used them on television. When Delia Smith used ingredients or equipment on TV, sales shot up. Her 1998 series is credited with making eggs and omelette pans sell out across Britain.

From the Food and Drink quiz

150. Each crocus flower has only three red stigmas, and they must be picked by hand. That is why saffron is the world's most expensive spice by weight.

From the Food and Drink quiz

A species of sunflower. The plant is Helianthus tuberosus, a North American sunflower. 'Jerusalem' is probably a mangled version of girasole, the Italian word for sunflower.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Pollock. Surimi is a paste of minced white fish, usually Alaska pollock, that is flavored, colored and shaped to look like crab.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Tyrosine amino acid crystals that form during long ageing. The crunchy specks in long-aged Parmigiano Reggiano are tyrosine, an amino acid released as proteins break down while the cheese ages.

From the Food and Drink quiz

Anna Pavlova, the Russian ballerina. The dessert was named in honor of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova after her tours of Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s.

From the Food and Drink quiz

1776. Congress actually voted for independence on July 2. John Adams predicted that date would be celebrated with bells and bonfires for generations.

From the 5th grade trivia quiz

Blue whale. NOAA says blue whales can grow up to about 110 feet (33 meters) long, which is longer than a basketball court.

From the Trivia questions for kids quiz

90. Put two right angles side by side and you get a straight line, which measures 180 degrees.

From the 5th grade trivia quiz

Asia. It holds both the highest point on land, Mount Everest, and the lowest, the shores of the Dead Sea.

From the Trivia questions for kids quiz

Herbivores. Cows are a good example. Their single stomach is split into four sections, which helps them break down tough grass.

From the 5th grade trivia quiz

Butterfly. Butterflies taste with sensors on their feet. A mother taps leaves to check they are good food for her caterpillars before laying eggs.

From the Trivia questions for kids quiz

Earth rotating. At the equator, the ground moves at about 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h), but we don't feel it because everything moves along with us.

From the 5th grade trivia quiz

Five. Pierre de Coubertin designed the symbol in 1913. He said its colors, with the white background, matched every country's flag at the time.

From the Trivia questions for kids quiz

Atlantic Ocean. It is getting wider by about 1 inch (2.5 cm) a year as the seafloor spreads apart along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

From the 5th grade trivia quiz

Joey. A newborn is only about the size of a jellybean. A red kangaroo joey stays in its mother's pouch for about eight months.

From the Trivia questions for kids quiz

Thomas Jefferson. He wrote it on a portable wooden lap desk that he designed himself. The desk is now kept at the Smithsonian.

From the 5th grade trivia quiz

Nectar. A single worker bee makes only about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life.

From the Trivia questions for kids quiz

Canberra. Canberra was purpose-built as a compromise after rivals Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital.

From the General Knowledge quiz

Seize the day. It comes from the Roman poet Horace's Odes (23 BC); "carpe" literally means "pluck," as in picking ripe fruit.

From the Trivia for adults quiz

40. The rain lasted 40 days and nights, but the waters covered the earth for 150 days before they began to go down (Genesis 7:12, 7:24).

From the Bible quiz

Michelangelo. Michelangelo painted the ceiling between 1508 and 1512, even though he thought of himself mainly as a sculptor.

From the General Knowledge quiz

Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes and Dr. Watson first appeared in A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887.

From the Trivia for adults quiz

Jonah. Jonah spent three days and three nights inside the fish before it put him out onto dry land (Jonah 1–2).

From the Bible quiz

Love. So a game score of 15–0 is called "fifteen–love"; a duck, by contrast, is a score of zero for a batter in cricket.

From the General Knowledge quiz

Andes. It runs through seven countries, from Venezuela to Argentina, and its highest peak, Aconcagua, reaches 22,838 feet (6,961 m).

From the Trivia for adults quiz

Bethlehem. Luke calls Bethlehem "the city of David", because King David came from there (Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4–7).

From the Bible quiz

A murder. A parliament is a group of owls, a pride is a group of lions and a gaggle is a group of geese.

From the General Knowledge quiz

Chickpeas. Also called garbanzo beans, they were domesticated about 10,000 years ago, and India grew roughly 75% of the world's crop in 2023.

From the Trivia for adults quiz

Daniel. Daniel was found unharmed the next morning, saying God had sent an angel to shut the lions' mouths (Daniel 6).

From the Bible quiz