100 Fun Facts About 40th Birthday

Which famous visitor made its once-in-a-lifetime pass through the inner Solar System in 1986?

Halley's Comet was met by ESA's Giotto probe, which flew within 600 km of its nucleus and found a very dark surface with bright jets of gas and dust bursting out.

Which nuclear power plant suffered the world's worst reactor disaster on April 26, 1986?

Chernobyl stayed secret for two days, until its fallout set off radiation alarms at a nuclear plant in Sweden and the Soviet government was pressed into admitting the accident.

Which schoolteacher was among the seven crew killed on Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986?

Christa McAuliffe was chosen from more than 11,000 teachers who applied, and she planned to teach two lessons from orbit for broadcast to America's classrooms.

Which film was the highest-grossing movie in the world in 1986?

Top Gun made naval aviation look so good that Navy recruiters in some cities manned tables outside cinemas to catch would-be pilots on their way out.

Diego Maradona scored his 'Hand of God' goal in June 1986 against which team?

England lost the quarter-final 2-1. Minutes after the handball, Maradona ran from his own half past a string of defenders to score the 'Goal of the Century'.

A roller through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series handed a comeback to which team?

The New York Mets turned Buckner's tenth-inning error into an improbable win, then came from behind again in Game 7 to take the title from Boston.

Which animation studio was spun off from Lucasfilm in 1986 with Steve Jobs as its majority owner?

Pixar began as a hardware firm: Jobs first pushed it to sell the Pixar Image Computer, and John Lasseter's early shorts were made to show off what the machine could do.

Which daytime talk show went national on September 8, 1986, and ran for 25 seasons?

The Oprah Winfrey Show grew out of AM Chicago, a faltering local morning programme that Winfrey took over in 1984 and quickly turned into a hit.

Which space station did the Soviet Union launch in February 1986?

Mir outlasted the country that launched it: cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev flew up as a Soviet citizen in 1991 and, after 311 days aboard, landed to find the Soviet Union gone.

Hands Across America's 1986 human chain ended in Long Beach beside which ocean liner?

The Queen Mary marked the Pacific end. At least five million people turned out, yet the line never fully joined: it couldn't bridge every gap along the way.

Which musical, later Broadway's longest-running, opened at Her Majesty's Theatre on October 9, 1986?

The Phantom of the Opera followed its composer's earlier hit Cats to Broadway and then took its record, overtaking it as the longest-running show there.

Which manager was appointed by Manchester United on November 6, 1986?

Alex Ferguson earned the job by winning three Scottish league titles and a European trophy with Aberdeen, then won 13 Premier League titles with United.

Which two countries joined the European Community on January 1, 1986?

Spain and Portugal had been kept out while they were dictatorships; both regimes ended in the mid-1970s, and their entry took the Community from ten members to twelve.

Which country's president fled into exile in Hawaii in February 1986 after the People Power Revolution?

In the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos claimed victory over Corazon Aquino in an election widely seen as rigged; after four days of peaceful street protests he was airlifted from his palace.

Which Swedish prime minister was shot dead walking home from the cinema in Stockholm in February 1986?

Olof Palme had sent his bodyguards home for the day. One man was jailed for the murder and then cleared on appeal, and nobody has been convicted of it since.

Which magazine introduced the Big Mac Index, a semi-humorous purchasing-power measure, in 1986?

The Economist invented it as a light-hearted guide to whether currencies sit at their 'correct' level, swapping the economists' usual basket of goods for a single burger.

The 1986 Rutan Voyager flight was the first to do what?

To circle the world nonstop, unrefuelled, Voyager took off so heavy with fuel, nearly three-quarters of its weight, that its wingtips dragged along the runway.

The M25 motorway, completed in October 1986, encircles which city?

London's ring was out of date almost as soon as it was finished: traffic outgrew it within a few years, and it has been widened again and again since.

Which pop superstar was born Stefani Germanotta on March 28, 1986?

Lady Gaga's stage name comes from the Queen song 'Radio Ga Ga'. She left the Tisch School of the Arts after two years to manage her own career.

Which sport did Usain Bolt, born in August 1986, play seriously as a boy before turning to sprinting?

Cricket came first: Bolt was a promising fast bowler, and it was his speed on the pitch that led his school coaches to steer him towards the track.

Which Twilight star, born in May 1986, earlier played a Hogwarts student?

Robert Pattinson was killed off as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire three years before he came back as the undying vampire Edward Cullen.

Drake, born in October 1986, found fame as Jimmy Brooks in which teen drama?

Degrassi: The Next Generation cast him as a basketball star left in a wheelchair after a classmate shoots him, and he put out his first mixtape while still on the show.

Which tennis champion, the 'King of Clay', was born on June 3, 1986?

Rafael Nadal was taught from early childhood by his uncle Toni, who stayed on as his coach on the professional tour; another uncle was an international footballer.

Which Game of Thrones star, born October 23, 1986, played Daenerys Targaryen?

Emilia Clarke was not the first Daenerys: Tamzin Merchant played her in the original pilot, and the episode was shot again once the part had been recast.

Which actress, born July 2, 1986, starred in Mean Girls and The Parent Trap?

Lindsay Lohan had already appeared in more than 60 TV commercials when Disney cast her as both twins in The Parent Trap, her first film.

In the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Andy works at what kind of store?

Electronics: Andy's co-workers at the store invite him to a poker game, where their bragging exposes the secret he has kept for years.

What does the '40' in WD-40 stand for?

The 40th formula attempted is the one in the can, by the maker's account: WD stands for 'water displacement', and it first kept rust off the skin of the Atlas missile.

The reggae band UB40 took their name from what?

A British unemployment benefit form gave the band its name, and they kept the joke going: their first album's sleeve copied the card, rubber-stamped with its title, Signing Off.

Which gemstone marks a 40th wedding anniversary?

Ruby stands for 40 years. When Elizabeth II reached that mark as queen in 1992, she summed the year up in a speech as her 'annus horribilis'.

Which former Beatle wrote the song 'Life Begins at 40' in 1980, the year he reached that age?

John Lennon wrote it for Ringo Starr, who also turned 40 that year, to record on his next album; after Lennon was killed that December, Starr couldn't bring himself to.

At minus 40, which two temperature scales show the same reading?

Celsius and Fahrenheit cross there: a Fahrenheit degree is smaller than a Celsius one, so Fahrenheit's 32-degree head start at freezing point is used up by the time both reach minus 40.

The word 'quarantine' comes from the forty days that plague-era ships had to wait off which Italian port?

Venice kept ships from plague-stricken ports waiting at anchor for forty days, 'quaranta giorni' in Italian, to be sure that no hidden cases were aboard.

The Roaring Forties, the westerlies that sped sailing ships, are named for their what?

Latitude: the Roaring Forties blow between 40 and 50 degrees south, where there is little land to break the wind; farther south sailors named the Furious Fifties and the Screaming Sixties.

Which Central Asian country's flag shows a sun with 40 rays, one per legendary tribe?

Kyrgyzstan's flag gives the sun a ray for each of the forty tribes the hero Manas is said to have united. The country's name is often traced to a Turkic word for forty as well, but its origin is disputed.

After the US Civil War, freed families were famously promised '40 acres and' which animal?

A mule: General Sherman's 1865 order set aside 40-acre plots for freed families and the army later lent them mules, but President Andrew Johnson overturned it within months.

40 Wall Street lost the race to be the world's tallest building when which rival raised a secretly built spire?

The Chrysler Building's architect had its spire assembled in secret inside the tower, then raised it into place in about 90 minutes to beat his former partner's bank tower.

Which prophet, fleeing Queen Jezebel, walked 40 days and 40 nights to reach Mount Horeb?

Elijah made the journey on the strength of two meals an angel brought him, and at Horeb he found God not in wind, earthquake or fire but in a gentle whisper.

Which planet did Voyager 2 fly past in January 1986, the only spacecraft ever to have visited it?

Uranus got only a few hours of close study as Voyager 2 swept past, yet the probe found a string of new moons there before heading on towards the edge of the Solar System.

In Genesis, which bird did Noah send out first, before the famous dove, forty days after the mountaintops appeared?

A raven went first and simply kept flying back and forth. The dove went out three times, bringing back an olive leaf from its second trip and not returning from its third.

Which magic words does the hero overhear in 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'?

Open sesame is the command that opens the thieves' treasure cave. The tale joined the Arabian Nights only in the 1700s, added by its first European translator, Antoine Galland.

Which radio host began counting down the hits on American Top 40 in July 1970?

Casey Kasem turned the weekly chart into a show by wrapping the hits in stories about the artists, and he was still counting songs down on the radio 39 years later.

In April 1986, Geraldo Rivera opened which gangster's sealed vault on live television and found almost nothing inside?

Al Capone's supposed vault drew nearly 30 million viewers, with forensic examiners and tax agents standing by; behind the wall were dirt and a few empty bottles.

The Hanuman Chalisa is a 40-verse Hindu hymn to a god who takes the form of which animal?

A monkey: Hanuman commands the monkey army of the Ramayana and helps Rama win back his wife, Sita, from the demon king Ravana.

Which royal wedding took place at Westminster Abbey on July 23, 1986?

Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were given the titles Duke and Duchess of York that day, but the marriage did not last: they separated in 1992 and divorced four years later.

Which boxer knocked out Trevor Berbick in November 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history?

Mike Tyson was 20 and needed less than two rounds; within a year he had added the other two major belts to hold all three at once.

In The Legend of Zelda, first released in 1986, what is the name of the hero the player controls?

Link: Zelda is the princess of Hyrule whom he sets out to rescue from Ganon, so the title names the person being saved, not the hero.

In the arms-for-hostages scandal that broke in November 1986, the United States had secretly sold weapons to which country?

Iran got the weapons despite an arms embargo, in the hope of freeing American hostages held in Lebanon; proceeds from the sales were meant for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

'Lent', the forty-day fast, takes its name from an Old English word for which season?

Spring: 'Lent' comes from the Old English 'lencten', the season when the days lengthen. The Latin name for the fast, Quadragesima, means 'fortieth', after its forty days.

Interstate 40 runs east from California to which state?

North Carolina's port city of Wilmington is the eastern end; west of Oklahoma City, I-40 took the place of the old Route 66 all the way to Barstow, California.

Who served as the 40th president of the United States?

Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor, was shot by a would-be assassin barely two months into his first term and was back at work within weeks.

Spelled out in English, forty is the only number whose letters fall in which order?

Alphabetical order runs F, O, R, T, Y, and no other number name in the language manages it. The obsolete spelling 'fourty', with its U, would have broken the run.

A sheep cloned from an adult cell in Scotland in 1996 was named after which country singer?

Dolly Parton got the honour because the donor cell came from a mammary gland, a joke the lead scientist happily owned up to. The lamb had three mothers: one gave the egg, one the DNA and one carried her.

Which civil rights leader's birthday was first observed as a US federal holiday in January 1986?

Martin Luther King was honoured nationwide on January 20, 1986, three years after the holiday was signed into law. Not until 2000 did every state observe the day under his name.

Which carmaker moved its factory workers to a five-day, 40-hour week in May 1926?

Ford dropped the sixth working day without cutting anyone's pay. The reasoning was commercial as much as kind: people with a free Saturday would spend more on leisure and shopping.

Which now-common phrase was coined by psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques in a 1965 essay?

Midlife crisis first appeared in an essay about the working patterns of creative geniuses, not about ordinary forty-somethings. The transition is usually placed anywhere between 40 and 65.

Which classic board game is played around a square track of exactly 40 spaces, 28 of them for sale?

Monopoly fits 22 streets, four railroads and two utilities onto that track. The remaining spaces are the four corners, two taxes and three each of Chance and Community Chest.

Which rock star played Jareth, ruler of the goblins, in Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy Labyrinth?

David Bowie starred opposite a teenage Jennifer Connelly. Labyrinth underperformed in US cinemas, then won a large cult following through home video and television.

Which search engine began in 1996 as a Stanford research project nicknamed BackRub?

Google swapped its first nickname for a misspelling of googol, the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. The choice was meant to signal how much information the engine would handle.

In tennis, 40-all is called by which name, with play continuing until one player leads by two points?

Deuce is called again every time the score levels in that game. Whoever takes the next point holds the advantage, and losing the one after sends both players straight back.

Which American monument reopened in July 1986, its centenary year, after a two-year restoration?

Statue of Liberty restorers replaced the leaking old torch with a replica whose flame is covered in 24-karat gold. A four-day party named Liberty Weekend marked the unveiling.

Which siblings, born in June 1986, took turns playing Michelle on Full House from nine months old?

The Olsen twins were cast at six months and shared the part until the sitcom ended in 1995. Both later left acting behind to work as fashion designers.

Which TV alien from the planet Melmac crash-landed in the Tanner family's garage in 1986?

ALF stands for Alien Life Form, a nickname given by the dad, Willie; the visitor's real name is Gordon Shumway. He spends his stay eyeing the family cat, Lucky, as a meal.

Which trio's 1986 debut Licensed to Ill became the first rap album to top the Billboard 200?

Beastie Boys also collected only the second platinum certification ever awarded to a rap album.

Which actor played the fourth-wall-breaking truant in the 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

Matthew Broderick talks straight to the camera throughout, explaining his techniques for bunking off. Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey both turn up in supporting roles.

Which country hosted the 1986 FIFA World Cup after Colombia withdrew for economic reasons?

Mexico beat rival bids from Canada and the US, and so became the first nation to host two World Cups. It had staged the 1970 tournament only sixteen years earlier.

Which singer cut business ties with her famous family before recording the 1986 album Control?

Janet Jackson had just fired her father as manager and had a brief marriage annulled. Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis then gave her a sound that made all three leading names in R&B.

Which biblical leader guided the Israelites through 40 years in the desert after leaving Egypt?

Moses never finished the journey himself: he died on Mount Nebo, within sight of the Promised Land. The wandering was meant to outlast the generation that had refused to enter Canaan.

The phrase 'forty winks', in print by 1821, is a playful name for which everyday activity?

A short nap is the meaning, possibly one lasting only as long as it takes to blink forty times. An 1821 guide to prolonging life through food, wine and sleep already used the phrase.

Which egg-shaped digital pet from Bandai became a global toy craze after its 1996 launch in Japan?

Tamagotchi blends the Japanese words for egg and watch. Owners raise the pet through its life stages using nothing but three buttons.

The 2012 comedy This Is 40 follows Pete and Debbie, a couple first seen in which earlier film?

Knocked Up introduced the pair in 2007, and Judd Apatow's follow-up was billed as a sort-of sequel. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann play the couple, whose strained marriage is tested as each turns 40.

Which rock band marked 40 years together in 2002 with the career-spanning compilation Forty Licks?

Rolling Stones collectors got something new: the first retrospective to put the band's 1960s Decca recordings beside the post-1970 songs they own themselves. Rival rights holders had kept the two eras apart.

The U2 song '40', which closes the 1983 album War, takes its words from which book of the Bible?

Psalms came to the rescue when Bono, stuck for a lyric in the last hours of the sessions, opened a Bible at number 40. The band walked out of the studio as soon as the track was mixed.

Which director followed The Terminator by writing and directing the 1986 sequel Aliens?

James Cameron wrote his first treatment in three days, built on the producers' suggestion of Ripley and soldiers. The shoot at Pinewood Studios was marked by running conflicts with the crew.

Which NFL team released 'The Super Bowl Shuffle' weeks before winning Super Bowl XX in January 1986?

Chicago Bears players earned a gold record and a Grammy nomination for their rap single. They then backed up the boasting by beating the Patriots 46-10.

Greg LeMond became the first non-European winner of which famous cycling race in 1986?

Tour de France glory came two years after LeMond finished third on his debut in the race. He went on to win it three times in all.

Which teacher leads impossible field trips in The Magic School Bus books, first published in 1986?

Ms. Frizzle, first name Valerie, drives a sentient bus to places like the Solar System, the clouds and the inside of the human body. Her first outing was a humbler one, to the waterworks.

Which red-haired Winter Olympic champion, nicknamed the Flying Tomato, was born in September 1986?

Shaun White was born with a heart defect and needed two open-heart operations before his first birthday. He grew up to win three Olympic golds in half-pipe snowboarding.

Pokémon Red and Blue offer a choice of first partner: Bulbasaur, Charmander or which third creature?

Squirtle shares a designer, Atsuko Nishida, with both of its fellow starters and with Pikachu. Only in the later Yellow edition does the famous electric mouse become the player's partner.

Which loss of close-up focus, the usual reason for reading glasses, tends to set in after 40?

Presbyopia is a normal part of ageing that reaches everyone to some degree, worsening until about 65. The classic sign is holding the page farther away to make out small print.

Which American comedian and violinist spent decades on radio and television insisting he was 39?

Jack Benny played a vain miser who sawed away badly at his violin and never admitted to turning 40. Born Benjamin Kubelsky, he had started out as a violinist on the vaudeville circuit.

Which metal, atomic number 40, lends its name to a cubic crystal sold as a diamond lookalike?

Zirconium takes its own name from the mineral zircon, a word related to the Persian for gold-like. Cubic zirconia has been the diamond's chief synthetic rival since production began in 1976.

In Star Trek, which fictional planet orbits the real star 40 Eridani A, about 16 light-years away?

Vulcan is home to Spock's people, and astronomers reach for the name whenever the real search for planets around the star comes up. The star itself is easily visible to the naked eye.

Which actor swears off sex for Lent in the 2002 romantic comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights?

Josh Hartnett plays Matt, a San Francisco web designer hoping the vow will sort out his troubled love life. Director Michael Lehmann had earlier made the dark teen comedy Heathers.

Since an 1854 act of Congress, the 40th parallel has divided Nebraska from which state?

Kansas was divided from its neighbour along that line when both were territories, years before statehood. Farther west the same parallel passes through Boulder, and to the east through Columbus, Ohio.

Which Christian feast is traditionally kept on a Thursday, the fortieth day of the Easter season?

Ascension Day follows the account that the risen Jesus appeared to his followers for 40 days before being taken up. Some denominations have moved the observance to the following Sunday.

In the Book of Jonah, which Assyrian city is warned it will be overthrown in forty days?

Nineveh took the warning to heart: its ruler put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, and even the animals were dressed for mourning. The prophet delivered the message only after his detour inside a great fish.

In Islamic tradition, which angel first visited Muhammad in the Cave of Hira when he was 40?

Gabriel is said to have ordered him to read and, when he answered that he could not, to have gripped him tightly three times. What he was shown became the beginnings of the Quran.

A weather proverb says rain on which saint's day, 15 July, means forty more days of rain?

St Swithin was a bishop of Winchester who asked to be buried outdoors, where raindrops from the eaves could fall on his grave. His body was moved into a new basilica on 15 July 971.

Arba'in, marking forty days after Ashura, draws millions of pilgrims on foot to which Iraqi city?

Karbala holds the shrine of Husayn ibn Ali, a grandson of Muhammad who was killed in battle there in 680. The pilgrimage is counted as the largest annual public gathering on Earth.

Which rapper founded the 40/40 Club, an upscale sports bar chain, in 2003?

Jay-Z used the club's opening to announce The Black Album, the record that led into his first retirement. He had co-founded the clothing label Rocawear four years earlier.

Which designer, once a competitive figure skater and Vogue editor, turned to bridal wear at 40?

Vera Wang entered fashion after missing out on the US Olympic skating team, and became the youngest editor at Vogue. Skaters such as Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan later wore her costumes at the Games.

Which US network launched in October 1986 with a late-night talk series hosted by Joan Rivers?

Fox built its debut around Rivers, who had been the permanent guest host of NBC's rival Tonight programme. She was fired the following May, and Arsenio Hall later had a 13-week turn in the chair.

Which 1986 Nintendo game ends by revealing that its armoured hero, Samus Aran, is a woman?

Metroid shows her without the suit only to players who finish fast enough, which made it an early favourite for speedrunning. Its designers named the film Alien as a huge influence.

Brain, the first virus for the IBM PC, was written in 1986 by two brothers in which country?

Pakistan was home to the Alvi brothers of Lahore, who said they wrote it only to protect their medical software from illegal copying. They were stunned when angry calls started coming in from abroad.

Which Nigerian playwright, author of The Lion and the Jewel, won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Wole Soyinka worked as a play reader at London's Royal Court Theatre early in his career. As a student he co-founded the Seadogs, the first confraternity in his home country.

Which 1986 Hayao Miyazaki adventure about a flying island was Studio Ghibli's debut animated feature?

Castle in the Sky reached Japanese cinemas in August 1986, barely a year after the studio opened its doors. The team was built up along the way by recruiting animators from companies its founders had worked with.

Which European act topped the US chart in March 1986 with a German-language hit about Mozart?

Falco, from Austria, was inspired by the film Amadeus and sang about the composer's popularity and his debts. It became the first German-language song to peak at number one on the Hot 100.

Which European city hosted the October 1986 arms summit between the US and Mikhail Gorbachev?

Reykjavik saw the talks collapse at the last minute, yet the progress made there led to the 1987 treaty on intermediate-range nuclear forces. Gorbachev had proposed the meeting only a month beforehand.

Which trio of brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma, reached number one in 1997 with 'MMMBop'?

Hanson were aged 11, 14 and 16 when the single took off, reaching number one in at least 12 countries. It had first appeared at a slower tempo on an independent album the year before.

In the 1990 comedy Home Alone, the McCallister family flies to which city, leaving Kevin behind?

Paris is where the family discovers that every flight home is booked for the next two days. The film made Macaulay Culkin a child star and stood as the top-grossing live-action comedy for two decades.