Culture

How long did the first ever powered flight, made by Wilbur and Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk in December 1903, last?

12 seconds

Who was the first female prime minister of India?

Indira Gandhi

In what country was the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta born?

The Dominican Republic

What is odd about the handwriting in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks?

It is backwards and requires a mirror to read it

Which German physicist is known as the Father of Quantum Physics?

Max Planck

At what age did Sir Francis Drake go to sea?

13

Richard Trevithick invented a steam engine that traveled on rails – what did he call it?

Catch Me Who Can

What was the name of Captain James Cook’s ship?

Endeavour

By what name is the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner, born in Albania as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, better known?

Mother Teresa

What does the word ‘rabbi’ mean in Hebrew?

My teacher

What was the name of the blind monk credited with inventing Champagne?

Dom Perignon

What food is associated with the immensely wealthy Rockefeller family?

Oysters

The ghost of which president is most frequently said to haunt the White House?

Abraham Lincoln

Which is the most common color to appear on national flags?

Red

Which country has the world’s largest number of military personnel?

China

What is the world’s highest capital city?

La Paz (in Bolivia)

A sumo ring is primarily made of what material?

Clay

In photography, what does the R stand for in SLR?

Reflex

Which country is the world’s greatest producer of uranium?

Canada

Which of Shakespeare’s plays involves a pound of flesh?

The Merchant of Venice

Of which structure was the world’s first aerial photograph taken?

The Arc de Triomphe

John F. Kennedy started which volunteer group in the 1960s?

The Peace Corps

Who said: ‘Every woman should have a little black dress’?

Coco Chanel

What is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In which country would you be if you were visiting the Serengeti National Park?

Tanzania

What is the name given to the lining of a cow’s stomach when eaten?

Tripe

What number does the Roman numeral D represent?

500

What name is given to a baby elephant?

Calf

Which company released the 1990s hit game ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’?

Sega

Which sitcom features an interior designer named Grace Adler?

Will & Grace

What gives the Spanish dish paella its yellow color?

Saffron

Which mythical creature is half man, half horse?

A centaur

Who was the youngest elected president of the USA?

John F. Kennedy

What is another name for the disease rubella?

German measles

Which Pacific islands are famous for their giant tortoises?

Galápagos Islands

Which country includes a bunch of bananas on its national flag?

Fiji

Who is the only British monarch to have willingly given up the throne?

Edward VIII

What was the name of the Greenpeace protest ship that was bombed in Auckland in 1985?

Rainbow Warrior

In timekeeping, what do the letters GMT stand for?

Greenwich Mean Time

How does a member of the US armed forces become eligible for a Purple Heart?

Being killed or wounded in duty

In Greek mythology, who is the god of the Sun?

Apollo

In which religion are Shiva and Vishnu major gods?

Hinduism

What type of calendar is used as standard today?

Gregorian

What is the southernmost capital city in the world?

Wellington

Life of Pi, The God of Small Things and Vernon God Little have all won which literary award?

The Booker Prize

‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin died in 2006 in an accident involving what animal?

Stingray

Which Dickens book was partly set in America?

Martin Chuzzlewit

Who ran for president of the United States of America with the campaign slogan ‘A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage’?

Herbert Hoover

Who are the indigenous people in New Zealand?

The Maori

© The Lagoon Group 2008

Music

What was Kylie Minogue’s first ever single, released only in Australia?

Locomotion

What major work was left unfinished at Mozart’s death?

Requiem

What was the Spice Girls’ first ever song?

Wannabe

What was the first rock-n-roll song to become number one in the charts?

Rock Around the Clock

Who did the vocals for Pink Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky?

Clare Torry

U2’s Angel of Harlem was written about which singer?

Billie Holiday

Who was rocketed to super-stardom in 1998 by the hit single Baby One More Time?

Britney Spears

Who was awarded the very first gold record?

Perry Como

Which of Sheryl Crow’s hit singles was adapted from the poem Fun by Wyn Cooper?

All I Wanna Do

Which pop singer is known as the Material Girl?

Madonna

What was the band known as Linkin Park originally called?

Xero

What Depeche Mode song was inspired by Priscilla Presley’s book Elvis and Me?

Personal Jesus

Rihanna’s number one hit single SOS includes a sample from which 1980s pop group?

Soft Cell

On which car company’s ads was Kelly Clarkson’s new song Go heard?

Ford

What is the name of the new single by Christina Milian featuring Young Jeezy?

Say I

Which character from children’s literature is mentioned in the title of Jewel’s new album?

Alice (from Alice in Wonderland)

Who was the first country and western artist to sell over 10 million copies of an album?

Garth Brooks

Which studio did the Beatles use to record 191 songs?

Abbey Road

What is Jay-Z’s real name?

Shawn Carter

What rock band was made up of Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and John Bonham?

Led Zeppelin

Who fronted the Black Eyed Peas and released her own album The Dutchess in 2006?

Fergie

What self-titled album by an American Idol contestant including singles It’s Not Over and Home easily outsold the debut album of winner Taylor Hicks?

Daughtry

Which British singer received three Grammy nominations in 2007 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist as well as

performing with John Legend and John Mayer during the show?

Corinne Bailey Rae

What is the minimum number of musicians a band must have to be considered a Big Band?

Ten

What musical instrument’s sales escalated from 228,000 in 1950 to 2.3 million in 1971?

The guitar

What is the only group to claim two of the top ten best-selling singles of the 1970s?

The Bee Gees

What jazz trumpeter was dubbed the ‘Prince of Darkness’?

Miles Davis

Which Californian group waited 22 years to have their first chart-topping single since 1966?

The Beach Boys

At what age did Michael Jackson start his musical career?

5

What Shania Twain recording became, in 1996, the best-selling country music album ever by a female artist?

The Woman in Me

Which singer from a British rock quartet changed his name from Frederick Bulsara?

Freddie Mercury

What rock star was trying to bite the head off a bat in concert when the bat decided to bite back?

Ozzy Osbourne

Madonna starred as who in the movie musical Evita?

Eva Peron

Which 1985 single by Madonna was her first UK number one hit?

Into The Groove

What was the first Spice Girls single not to reach number one in the UK?

Stop

Who produced Madonna’s album Ray of Light?

William Orbit

Richard Ashcroft sang with which successful UK band?

The Verve

By what single initial is Ian Watkins better known?

‘H’ (from Steps)

Which influential act has released the albums Blue Lines, Protection and Mezzanine?

Massive Attack

How old was Billie Piper when she had her first number one hit?

15

Which group sang Love Me For A Reason in 1994?

Boyzone

Who was the Spice Girls’ manager when they first hit the top of the charts?

Simon Fuller

Who is the lead singer and main writer with Take That?

Gary Barlow

Who sang the Christmas number one in 1997, Too Much?

The Spice Girls

What was Boyzone’s second album called?

A Different Beat

Who quit the Spice Girls in 1998?

Geri Halliwell

Who had a 1980s number one hit with Let’s Party?

Jive Bunny and The Mastermixers

What is Cliff Richard’s real name?

Harry Webb

In which British film can you hear the song You Sexy Thing?

The Full Monty

What was Lulu’s first top ten single?

Shout

© The Lagoon Group 2008

History

What did Ancient Egyptians do with papyrus?

Wrote on it

What is the name of the book that described the rituals to be performed when an Ancient Egyptian died?

The Book of the Dead

What was the nickname of the Roman emperor Vitellius?

The Glutton

If you signed up for the Roman Army, how long did you have to serve for before you could decide it wasn’t for you?

25 years

The Emperor Caesar was assassinated in what way?

He was stabbed 23 times

Who killed King Edward I?

His stepmother

The Vikings sometimes used the skulls of their victims as what?

Drinking vessels

King George IV and King William IV both died of what?

Over-drinking

How many assassination attempts did Queen Victoria survive?

Eight

What did Mussolini call 1922, the year he came to power?

Year One

What were gulags?

Soviet forced labor camps

How was Leon Trotsky killed?

With an ice pick to his head

How many wives did Henry VIII have?

Six

Tutankhamen had married and become ruler of the most powerful country on Earth by the time he was what age?

Nine

At the end of a gladiator fight, the crowd would sometimes shout ‘Lugula!’ What did this mean?

Kill him!

Who said, ‘Veni, vidi, vici’?

Julius Caesar

Who did Lady Diana Spencer marry?

Prince Charles

What year did the Spanish Civil War end?

1939

What year did World War II end?

1945

In which decade was the last execution at the Tower of London?

1940s

Ramses II’s mummy is the only one in history to be issued with what?

A passport

Why were the tops of British mailboxes painted green or yellow during World War II?

If mustard gas was dropped the paint would be stained and alert the authorities

If an air raid precaution warden walked along a street during the Blitz spinning a rattle, you had to do what?

Put your gas mask on

In the last free elections in pre-war Germany, the Nazis took power with what percentage of the vote?

33 percent

Hitler was sentenced to prison in 1923 for what?

Treason

The Ancient Egyptians sometimes used crocodile dung as what?

Eyewash

What was a wabet in Ancient Egypt?

The place where mummies were embalmed

The invention of what in 1867 made Alfred Nobel famous?

Dynamite

Who was the British prime minister at the outbreak of World War II?

Neville Chamberlain

In the United States, what became the 49th state to enter the union, in 1959?

Alaska

Who killed who in 1963 in what is generally regarded as the first murder televised live?

Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald

In what year was the first English translation of the Bible completed?

1388

What was the vomitorium in Roman times?

A side room to be sick in at great feasts

How did the Romans cross the terrible swampy fenlands of East Anglia when they were conquering Britain?

On stilts

How many barrels of gunpowder were discovered under the Houses of Parliament in 1605?

36

What did people pay one penny to watch at St Mary of Bethlehem in London every Sunday until 1815?

Lunatics

Captain Adam Seaborn wrote a best seller in 1820 about his voyage to the land of ‘Symzonia’. Where did he claim ‘Symzonia’ was?

In the middle of the earth

How did the MP William Huskisson get into the record books while attending the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester railway in 1830?

First man to die on the railroads

In what year were the first public toilets built in London?

1852

A lot of houses in the Dark Ages had walls made with what?

Pig excrement

In 1890 in New York, William Kemmler became the first person to do what?

Die in the electric chair

The two Italian cities of Bologna and Modena went to war against each other in 1325 when soldiers from Modena stole what from Bologna?

A wooden bucket

In 1364 a man was hired to paint red crosses around the Louvre art gallery and its gardens in the hope it might prevent what?

People urinating there

Which of Henry VIII’s wives outlived him?

Catherine Parr

Michelangelo is famous for painting which part of the Sistine Chapel?

The ceiling

What was the nickname of William IV?

Silly Billy

The Egyptians tested whether a woman was pregnant by placing what on her flesh?

An onion

How many layers of bandages does a mummy have?

20

Archaeologists believe Boudicca’s body may be buried where?

Under platform 8 at King’s Cross railway station in London

In what year did World War I end?

1918

© The Lagoon Group 2008

Movies

In the movie The Prestige, what is the name of the trick that puts all the previous acts to shame?

The Transporter Man

Which British comedy was marketed as a rom-zom-com?

Shaun of the Dead

What job does Robin Williams take up in order to spend time with his children in Mrs. Doubtfire?

Nanny

What is the title of Elvis Presley’s first movie?

Love Me Tender

What does the traveling salesman played by John Candy sell in Planes, Trains & Automobiles?

Shower curtain rings

What’s the name of the castle full of beautiful women in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

Castle Anthrax

What does Lex Luthor want in return for his help in delivering Superman to the planet Zod in Superman II?

Australia

Who is Captain America’s nemesis in the 1992 movie of the same name?

The Red Skull

Who wrote the original screenplay for Rocky?

Sylvester Stallone

In War of the Worlds, what kills off the Martians?

The common cold

What was John Wayne’s nickname?

The Duke

What is Corey Feldman’s character called in The Lost Boys?

Edgar Frog

What name is the serial killer in Se7en given?

John Doe

Who plays the American president in the Tim Burton movie Mars Attacks!?

Jack Nicholson

Who is Jodie Foster pursuing in The Silence of the Lambs?

Buffalo Bill

Who plays the young Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

River Phoenix

What cartoon character does Robin Williams play in the 1980 movie of the same name?

Popeye

What does the Wicked Witch of the West write in the sky over the Emerald City?

Surrender Dorothy

Which actor plays the character Bullet Tooth Tony in the movie Snatch?

Vinnie Jones

In the original Bionic Woman, how does Jamie suffer the injuries that led to her becoming bionic?

A skydiving accident

What is Joan Wilder’s occupation in the 1984 movie Romancing the Stone?

A romance novelist

Which host is the creator of the television company Bankable Productions and has a small role in the movie Coyote Ugly?

Tyra Banks

What type is the magic flower in Beauty and the Beast?

Rose

In Napoleon Dynamite, what does Napoleon like drawing?

Mythological creatures

What was the last movie personally overseen by Walt Disney?

The Jungle Book

What type of dragon does Harry face in the tri-wizard tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?

Hungarian Horntail

In which movie does Uma Thurman co-star as a sexy Swedish Broadway wannabe?

The Producers

In The Terminal, where is Tom Hanks from?

Krakozhia

The movies Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, both starring Morgan Freeman, were originally books written by which author?

James Patterson

What is the name of Quint’s boat in Jaws?

Orca

In which movie does Gwyneth Paltrow’s head end up in a box?

Se7en

In Closer, what does Natalie Portman’s character do for a living after being a waitress?

She becomes a stripper

Who plays the young man that Jennifer Aniston’s character has an affair with in The Good Girl?

Jake Gyllenhaal

Who plays Lindsay Lohan’s role in the original Freaky Friday?

Jodie Foster

Where is the money hidden that Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges have stolen in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot?

Behind a blackboard

In what time is Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal described as taking place?

A time of wonder

In The Devil Wears Prada, what is the Book?

A mock-up of the next issue of the magazine

In Brokeback Mountain, what job are the main two characters doing before they become distracted?

Tending sheep on Brokeback Mountain

What song did the steelworkers strip to in the final scene of the British comedy The Full Monty?

You Can Leave Your Hat On

In which Sandra Bullock movie is her character tagged as ‘unpolished, unkempt, unleashed and undercover’?

Miss Congeniality

Which Scottish actor stars in the thriller Shallow Grave?

Ewan McGregor

What is the name of the summer camp in Friday the 13th?

Camp Crystal Lake

Who was in competition with Audrey Hepburn for the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady?

Julie Andrews

What is the name of the ship that rescued the survivors in the movie Titanic?

Carpathia

Which singer played an alien in the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell to Earth?

David Bowie

In The Empire Strikes Back Obi-Wan Kenobi says that Luke is their last hope; who is Yoda referring to when he says, ‘There is another’?

Princess Leia

Who wrote the books that were the basis for the Bourne movies?

Robert Ludlum

What is the name of Harry Potter’s faithful owl?

Hedwig

What US sports team is Forrest Gump on when he is in the army?

Ping pong

What is the name of Robert De Niro’s oddball character in Taxi Driver?

Travis Bickle

Who played Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind?

Vivien Leigh

© The Lagoon Group 2008

Science

What did Foucault’s pendulum prove?

The rotation of the Earth

Which acid is found in sour wine?

Acetic acid

How many sides does a dodecahedron have?

12

Which of these is the SI unit of pressure?

Pascal

Approximately how long does it take for light to travel from the Sun to the Earth?

Eight minutes

When the Galileo probe entered Jupiter’s atmosphere it was traveling at the fastest impact speed ever recorded by a man-made object. How fast was it going?

106,000 mph (170,000 kph)

Where in the body would you find otoliths?

In the ear

A galactic year is the length of time it takes our solar system to make one revolution around the Milky Way galaxy – how long is it?

250 million Earth years

All of the blood in your body must be replenished with oxygen how often?

Once a minute

To what length can a tapeworm grow inside a human abdomen?

9 meters (30 feet)

What area of the body does mamillea refer to?

The nipples

What part of the brain controls conscious thought?

The forebrain

How much more acid rain is there now in the rain in Europe than there was in 1950?

80 percent

What is the name for a substance that is made up of atoms that are all alike?

Element

What is the medical term for the feeling when your hair stands on end?

Horripilation

About how long is the alimentary canal?

9 meters (30 feet)

Which fingernail grows the fastest?

The middle fingernail

How many different functions does the liver perform?

500

How much does a human eyeball weigh?

About 30 grams

What’s special about the hyoid bone?

It’s the only bone in the human body that isn’t connected to any other bone

If a satellite is in orbit 180 miles (300 km) above the ground, how long does it take for it to circle the Earth?

1 hour 30 minutes

What percentage of your blood could you lose without dying?

30 percent

What is a catalyst?

A substance that speeds up a chemical reaction but remains unchanged

Which element forms the most compounds and is the basis for the whole of organic chemistry?

Carbon

Where does 75 percent of marine pollution come from?

It runs off from the land

Which acid is in acid rain?

Sulphuric acid

Which country produces the most CO2 per person?

United Arab Emirates

How long is a day on Venus, expressed in Earth days?

117

Which is the largest planet in our solar system?

Jupiter

The Pioneer space probe that traveled to Venus, which is very hot, needed windows made of something that would not melt; what material did they use?

Diamonds

What are comets made of?

Ice and space dust

Which is the closest planet to the Sun?

Mercury

What is the fastest thing in the universe?

Light

If you could drive a car straight up at a speed of 46 mph (75 kph) how long would it take you to get into space?

One hour

What are shooting stars?

Meteors

What is the most poisonous metal in the world?

Arsenic

What percentage of the water in the world is salt water?

97.2 percent

What percentage of the Earth’s dry land is desert?

35 percent

What percentages of prescription medicines have plant origins?

25 percent

What percentage of the Antarctic is ice?

98 percent

What percentage of the world’s total store of fresh water is locked up as ice in the Antarctic ice cap?

70 percent

What percentage of the Earth’s oxygen supply is provided by the Amazon jungle?

15 percent

How far is it from the Earth’s core to its crust?

3,950 miles (6,370 km)

Which gas forms bubbles in a diver’s blood if he rises to the surface too quickly? (It is called ‘the bends’ and is very painful and can even by fatal)

Nitrogen

How hot is the Earth’s core?

9,032 - 10,832°F (5,000 - 6,000°C)

How many numbers from 1 to 1,000 are prime numbers?

168

If you mixed light beams of the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow), what color light would you get?

White

At which joint in the body can the carpel bones be found?

Wrist

Who invented the first thermometer?

Galileo

Thomas Edison was one of the most prolific inventors of all time and in 1877 he made the first sound-recording machine. What did he call it?

Phonograph

© The Lagoon Group 2008

Sports

In which sport do the rules specify that the ball used must not weigh less than 45.93 grams?

Golf

How long is an Olympic-sized swimming pool?

50 meters

What color is the center scoring zone on an archery target?

Gold

What did Maria Sharapova do on court when she won Wimbledon?

Called her mother on her cellphone

Which famous sportsman lit the torch at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games?

Muhammad Ali

Which famous race takes place annually between Putney and Mortlake?

The boat race (between Oxford and Cambridge universities)

Who were Manchester United playing when Eric Cantona performed a kung fu kick on a fan?

Crystal Palace

In which country was the game of golf invented?

Scotland

Which iconic leader is credited with inventing nine-pin bowling?

Martin Luther

What was the first non-US country to win the Little League baseball series?

Mexico

Tim Henman’s great-grandmother made history by being the first woman to do what at Wimbledon?

Serve overarm

On a dartboard what number falls between the numbers 9 and 11?

14

What color is the cue ball in pool?

White

What is the craft of making arrows called?

Fletching

In cycle racing, what is a sag wagon?

One of the last vehicles following road events and picking up riders who have dropped out

In ice hockey, what are puck stoppers?

Kneepads

When was the last time an Englishman won the Wimbledon singles?

1936

How many red balls are there in snooker?

15

When would an American auto racer see a white flag?

When there is one lap to go

In rugby league, how many players make up a team?

13

Which sport uses a stone and a house?

Curling

Kendo is a traditional Japanese martial art where participants use a type of sword. What material is the sword made from?

Strips of bamboo

In car racing, how do you get to pole position?

By having the fastest qualifying time

By what name is the Rugby Union World Cup trophy also known?

Webb Ellis Cup

Which Formula One team went into liquidation in January 2002?

Prost Grand Prix

In what decade was the first commercial snowboard created?

1960s

What does the S stand for in NASCAR?

Stock

From what fairly lightweight wood is the bat for cricket traditionally made?

Willow

What is it called when you hit a ball out of the park in baseball?

Home run

What type of golf club is used for long shots from the tee or fairway?

Wood

What is the duration of an international rugby union match?

80 minutes

Swilken Bridge belongs to which golf course?

St. Andrews

How many runs are there in the Olympic bobsled competition?

Four

Which national soccer team won the 1995 Women’s World Cup?

Norway

Which sprinter lost the gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games after being found to have taken steroids?

Ben Johnson

In which American resort did Lennox Lewis regain his heavyweight boxing titles by defeating Hasim Rahman?

Las Vegas

Where is the Happy Valley race course?

Hong Kong

Which golfer won the 1997 US Open?

Ernie Els

In which sport do you have to stand behind the oche?

Darts

Which country did swimmer Ian Thorpe represent in the Sydney Olympics?

Australia

The hole in a golfing green is also known as what?

The cup

With which famous horse race is the name Red Rum associated?

The Grand National

Whose 200-meter world record did Usain Bolt beat in the Beijing 2008 Olympics?

Michael Johnson

In cricket, what is the name for the two wooden rods which are placed on top of the stumps?

Bails

What time did Usain Bolt achieve in the 100 meters at the Beijing 2008 Olympics?

9.69 seconds

Who has won eight gold medals in one sport at one Olympics?

Michael Phelps

What is the highest individual score in Test cricket?

400 (by Brian Lara)

What do biathletes carry at all times?

A rifle and ammunition

Where are the 2012 Olympics taking place?

London

What do the Olympic rings symbolize?

The five rings represent the five continents and the colors represent the flags of the countries that participate in the Olympics. Each

flag includes at least one of the colors of the rings

© The Lagoon Group 2008