170 Fun Facts About Happy Birthday

The tune of 'Happy Birthday to You' was originally published in 1893 as a classroom song called what?

Good Morning to All is credited to the Hill sisters: Mildred, a composer, and Patty, a kindergarten principal who wanted a greeting her pupils would find easy to sing; the birthday words were attached to the tune later.

Guinness lists 'Happy Birthday to You', 'Auld Lang Syne' and which other song as the most frequently sung in English?

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow borrows its tune from an 18th-century French song, usually taken to be about the Duke of Marlborough, in which a general rides off to war and his lady learns he is dead and buried.

Which publisher refunded $14 million in 2016 after its copyright claim on 'Happy Birthday to You' was voided?

Warner/Chappell agreed in 2016 to refund about $14 million to licensees after a 2015 federal ruling found its 1935 registration covered only a piano arrangement, not the words and melody.

In the European Union, the copyright on 'Happy Birthday to You' expired on the first day of which year?

The EU term runs 70 years after the author's death; Patty Hill, the last surviving Hill sister, died in 1946, so protection ended on 1 January 2017.

Marilyn Monroe famously sang 'Happy Birthday' to President Kennedy in May 1962 at a gala held where?

Madison Square Garden hosted the Democratic fundraising gala on 19 May 1962, ten days before Kennedy turned 45; the audience gasped when Monroe slipped off a white fur coat to reveal her sheer, glittering dress.

Who wore Marilyn Monroe's 1962 'Happy Birthday' dress to the Met Gala sixty years later?

Kim Kardashian wore the original on the 2022 red carpet for only a few minutes, then changed into a replica to spare the fragile gown.

Which Motown star's 1981 single 'Happy Birthday' campaigned to make a civil rights leader's birthday a US holiday?

Stevie Wonder wrote it for the drive to honour Martin Luther King and hosted a rally in 1981; six million people signed the petition to Congress, and Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983.

The Beatles' song 'Birthday' opens the third side of which 1968 double LP?

The White Album's third side opens with 'Birthday', made up and recorded in a single evening: the band broke off to watch the rock 'n' roll film The Girl Can't Help It on television, then came back and finished it.

'Go, shorty, it's your birthday' is the opening hook of which 2003 hit by 50 Cent?

In da Club began as a beat offered to D12 for the 8 Mile soundtrack, who passed on it; 50 Cent wrote the lyrics in about an hour, reasoning that every day is someone's birthday.

The birthday cake with one candle per year of age is generally traced to 18th-century celebrations where?

Germany is where Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf's birthday party in 1746 featured a cake 'as large as any oven could be found to bake it', with a candle stuck into it for every year of his age.

One theory says ancient Greeks lit candles on cakes to honour which goddess's birth each lunar month?

Artemis, by this theory, was honoured on the sixth day of every lunar month; Athenians certainly offered her cakes ringed with burning candles at the Mounichia, a festival held at the full moon.

In Vietnamese tradition, everyone turns older together on which holiday, whatever their date of birth?

Tết, the Lunar New Year, is the traditional shared birthday: everyone is counted older from that day, and children wish their elders a long life in return for lucky money in red envelopes.

How many people must be in a room for a better-than-even chance that two share a birthday?

23 is enough because you are not comparing everyone with yourself but every pair with each other, and 23 people make 253 possible pairs.

Someone born on 29 February is commonly nicknamed a what?

A leapling, or leaper, has a true birthday only once every four years: someone born on 29 February 2000 had seen just six of them by 2024.

Which Texas town declared itself the 'leap year capital of the world' in 1988?

Anthony, which straddles the Texas–New Mexico line, took the title in 1988 at the urging of two residents born on 29 February, and holds a multi-day leap year festival every four years.

Which saint, per Irish legend, got St Patrick to let women propose on 29 February?

St Brigid, in the legend, complained to Patrick that women waited too long for men to propose; he offered them one day every seven years, and she bargained him down to one every four.

In US birth data from 1994 to 2014, the commonest birthdays cluster in which month?

September dominates the list, and 16 September was also the single commonest US birthday from 1973 to 1999; the peak comes about nine months after the winter holidays.

What is Korea's traditional first-birthday celebration, where a baby picks an object, called?

Doljanchi's highlight is the doljabi: whatever the baby grabs first, money for wealth or a brush for scholarship, is said to foretell its future; the feast mattered most when many infants died before their first birthday.

Koreans traditionally eat miyeok-guk, a seaweed soup, on the day they were born, to honour whom?

Their mother is honoured because Korean women traditionally eat the same seaweed soup for months after giving birth, so a bowl on your birthday thanks her for the labour.

Which dish is traditionally served at a Chinese birthday meal?

Longevity noodles (changshou mian) are served uncut at Chinese birthdays, the single long strand standing for a long life; dumplings belong to New Year and mooncakes to the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In Mexico, what is the birthday custom of pushing the celebrant's face into the cake called?

La mordida ('the bite') has guests chant 'mordida!' while the birthday person takes the first bite of the cake hands-free and is usually shoved face-first into the frosting.

Fairy bread, an Australian and New Zealand party staple, is buttered white bread covered in what?

Hundreds and thousands, the tiny round sprinkles, cover buttered white bread cut into triangles; the name may come from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1885 poem 'Fairy Bread', and the dish is first recorded at a Hobart children's party in 1929.

What are the points of a traditional star-shaped Mexican piñata said to represent?

The deadly sins are the seven points; the player is blindfolded to stand for faith, which must be blind, and the game let Spanish friars turn a party into a catechism lesson.

Which annual London ceremony marks the British sovereign's official birthday?

Trooping the Colour has marked the official birthday since 1748; Edward VII, born in November, kept the parade in early summer for the sake of the weather.

The British sovereign's official birthday was first marked in 1748 for which monarch?

George II's birthday was the first to be officially marked, in 1748; the custom of a separate official date is why Charles III, born in November, is publicly celebrated each June.

Why did Queen Beatrix keep the Dutch national holiday on Queen Juliana's date, 30 April, rather than her own?

Hers fell in mid-winter, on 31 January, no weather for a day of outdoor festivities, and keeping 30 April also honoured her mother; the holiday moved to 27 April under King Willem-Alexander.

The North Korean holiday named the Day of the Sun in 1997 celebrates whose birthday?

Kim Il Sung took that name, meaning 'become the sun', as a young guerrilla in the 1930s, which is why his 15 April birthday was renamed the Day of the Sun in 1997, three years after his death.

Since 1971, the US federal holiday for Washington's Birthday has fallen on which day?

The third Monday of the month, in February, was fixed by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act to create a three-day weekend, which means the holiday can never land on his real birthday, the 22nd.

In the Torah, the only birthday celebration mentioned is that of whom?

Pharaoh's birthday feast in Genesis 40 ends with his chief cupbearer restored to office and his chief baker hanged, exactly as Joseph had read their dreams in prison.

Which ancient people, per Herodotus, prized birthdays above all days, the rich roasting a whole ox or camel?

The Persians, Herodotus adds, served few main courses but many desserts, and said the Greeks rose from the table still hungry because nothing worth having was set before them after the meat.

A card from the British monarch marks which birthday, then comes again at 105 and every year after?

The 100th birthday brings the first message from the King and Queen; anyone drawing a UK State Pension is flagged automatically, so the card arrives without the family having to apply.

On the modern birthstone list that American jewellers agreed in 1912, which gem belongs to July?

Ruby is July's stone on a list drawn up because the older traditions disagreed; the trade still amends it, adding tanzanite for December in 2002 and spinel for August in 2016.

Shakespeare's birthday is observed on 23 April, also the feast day of which saint?

23 April is St George's Day, the feast of England's patron saint; Shakespeare's exact birth date is unknown, but he was baptised on 26 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616.

Which Swedish film star died on her 67th birthday, 29 August 1982?

Ingrid Bergman, born in Stockholm on 29 August 1915, worked through eight years of breast cancer and won a posthumous Emmy in 1982 for A Woman Called Golda.

Which British rock star shared an 8 January birthday with Elvis Presley, twelve years his senior?

David Bowie was born in Brixton on 8 January 1947, twelve years to the day after Elvis; his final album, Blackstar, came out on his 69th birthday, two days before he died.

Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in which Mississippi town?

Tupelo is where Elvis was born on 8 January 1935, in a two-room house his father had helped build; his twin, Jesse Garon, was stillborn 35 minutes earlier, and the family left for Memphis in 1948.

In Tolkien's Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings opens with Bilbo Baggins celebrating which birthday?

Bilbo calls his 111th his 'eleventy-first' birthday and shares the 22 September party with Frodo; hobbits give presents away on their birthdays rather than receiving them.

Hobbits are considered to come of age on which birthday?

The 33rd birthday is when a hobbit comes of age; Frodo reached his on the day of Bilbo's farewell party, and inherited Bag End when Bilbo slipped away that night.

In Sixteen Candles (1984), why does Samantha's family forget her birthday?

Her sister is getting married the next day, so the whole house is lost in wedding chaos; Sam even ends up on the sofa because her visiting grandparents have taken her bedroom.

On what is a 'name day', celebrated in countries like Greece and Poland, based?

The saint you were called after has a feast day in the church calendar, and that date becomes your name day: Sweden's Karls celebrate on 28 January, the day Charlemagne died.

Harry Potter shares his 31 July birthday with which real person?

J. K. Rowling was born on 31 July 1965 and gave her hero the same date; it is on his eleventh birthday that Hagrid arrives to tell Harry he is a wizard.

The word piñata probably comes from an Italian word meaning what?

Fragile pot is the usual gloss of the Italian pignatta, a clay cooking pot probably named for its pine-cone shape; the earliest piñatas were plain clay pots, smashed open to spill the treats.

A 'sweet sixteen' party is chiefly a tradition of which countries?

The United States and Canada are its heartland: sixteen is when many teenagers there learn to drive and take a first job, so the party marks a step towards adulthood.

In the Philippines, the 'debut' is held for women at 18 and for young men on which birthday?

The 21st birthday is the men's occasion, usually marked with far less ceremony than the women's ball at 18, where chosen men each hand the debutante a rose and take a turn dancing with her.

A Jewish boy traditionally marks his coming of age with a bar mitzvah on which birthday?

The 13th birthday is when a Jewish boy becomes answerable for keeping the commandments himself, which is what bar mitzvah, 'son of the commandment', means; girls reach bat mitzvah at 12 or 13.

Japan's Coming of Age Day is held on which day each year?

Seijin no Hi falls on the second Monday of January, moved there from a fixed 15 January under the Happy Monday System in 2000; new adults attend city-hall ceremonies, many women in furisode kimono.

Under traditional East Asian age reckoning, how old was a baby considered on the day it was born?

A newborn counted as one year old under traditional East Asian reckoning; South Korea dropped this 'Korean age' for official purposes in June 2023, making people a year or two younger on paper.

In which 1963 Lesley Gore hit does Johnny vanish from the singer's birthday celebration with Judy?

It's My Party, recorded when Gore was 16 with Quincy Jones producing, topped the US chart; in the sequel, Judy's Turn to Cry, she kisses another boy to make Johnny jealous and wins him back.

On Gandhi's birthday, October 2, what closes across India in his honour?

All liquor shops must close because 2 October, Gandhi Jayanti, is a national dry day: alcohol sales are banned in honour of a leader who campaigned for prohibition.

One of the Vindolanda tablets, found at a Roman fort in northern England, is famous as what?

A birthday party invitation from Claudia Severa to her friend Sulpicia Lepidina, around AD 100: a scribe wrote most of it, but Severa added the closing greeting herself, among the earliest Latin known in a woman's hand.

What is the shared official birthday of every Northern Hemisphere racehorse?

New Year's Day adds a year to every Northern Hemisphere racehorse so that races can be run by age group; in the Southern Hemisphere the shared birthday is 1 August.

Which scientist invented the rubber balloon in 1824, during experiments with various gases in his laboratory?

Michael Faraday made the first rubber balloons in 1824 at the Royal Institution to hold hydrogen for his experiments, not for parties; Neil Tillotson's mass-produced latex party balloons followed in 1931.

In Denmark, what is traditionally flown outside a home to mark a birthday?

The national flag, the Dannebrog, is hoisted outside for a birthday, and Danes use it as a party decoration all year: strings of small flags even hang on the Christmas tree.

Which US federal holiday marks a birthday that falls in January?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day took until 2000 to be observed in every state; Arizona voters' rejection of it in 1990 cost the state the 1993 Super Bowl, which the NFL moved to California.

The Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to each birth year in a repeating cycle of how many years?

12 animals take a year each; in the folk tale of the great race the Rat came first by riding on the Ox's back, which is why the cycle opens with the Rat and the Ox comes second.

A 2012 Swiss study of four decades of death records found people about 14% likelier to die on which day?

Their own birthday carried 13.8% more deaths than expected in Swiss records for 1969 to 2008, with heart attacks, strokes, falls and suicides all up; the authors called it an 'anniversary reaction'.

Which small European country celebrates its monarch's official birthday as its national day, on 23 June?

Luxembourg fixed the date by decree in 1961 and has kept it through every reign since, although no grand duke or grand duchess has ever actually been born on 23 June.

At whose birthday banquet, in the Gospels, is John the Baptist's head demanded on a platter?

Herod Antipas had sworn to give his stepdaughter anything she asked after she danced for his guests; the church father Origen later cited the feast to argue that only sinners, never saints, keep birthdays.

Which Christian denomination does not celebrate birthdays, citing pagan origins?

Jehovah's Witnesses hold that the only event Christians are told to commemorate is Jesus's death, not anyone's birth, so they skip Christmas as well as birthdays.

Iran celebrates Mother's Day on the birthday of which historical figure?

Fatima al-Zahra, the Prophet Muhammad's daughter, is revered by Shia Muslims; Iran moved Mother's Day to her birthday after the 1979 revolution, and the lunar date falls on a different day each year.

What did the ancient Romans call a birthday?

Dies natalis, 'day of birth', also named the yearly founding day of a Roman temple, and universities such as Leiden still call their anniversary celebration the Dies Natalis.

What is the least common birthday in the US apart from February 29?

December 25 ranks last in US birth records, with Christmas Eve close behind: many births are now scheduled, and few parents or doctors pick a holiday for a delivery.

In the UK and Hong Kong, which date is the legal birthday in a non-leap year of someone born on 29 February?

March 1 is the rule in both: Hong Kong's law says the anniversary 'shall be taken to be March 1', and in the UK a first driving lesson at 17 has to wait until then.

US president Calvin Coolidge was born in 1872 on which holiday?

Independence Day 1872 saw Calvin Coolidge born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont; three earlier presidents, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, died on the Fourth of July instead.

In which Kentucky city was songwriter Patty Hill a kindergarten principal?

Louisville's Experimental Kindergarten had Patty Hill as principal while her sister Mildred, a pianist, composed; a tune credited to the pair and sung to her pupils later carried the birthday words.

Which publisher registered a copyright on Happy Birthday to You in 1935?

The Clayton F. Summy Company registered the song in 1935; its successor, Birch Tree Group, was bought by Warner/Chappell for $25 million in 1988.

Poland's birthday song 'Sto lat' wishes the celebrant what?

A hundred years is what 'sto lat' means, a wish for a long life; Poles sing it at name days and other celebrations too, and at state events an orchestra or military band may strike it up.

In which 2004 comedy does wishing dust at a girl's birthday party turn her into Jennifer Garner overnight?

13 Going on 30 opens at Jenna's birthday party in 1987, where a cruel prank and a sprinkle of 'magic wishing dust' end her day; she wakes in 2004 as a fashion editor.

Which 1994 documentary paid $5,000 for the right to include Happy Birthday to You?

Hoop Dreams, which follows two Chicago teenagers chasing basketball careers, paid the fee so that the film could be distributed without a copyright fight.

Roughly how much a year did Happy Birthday to You earn in licensing fees before a 2013 lawsuit?

$2 million a year is the usual estimate of the fees; a judge threw out the copyright claim in 2015, and the publisher agreed to pay back $14 million.

Which song is traditionally sung at Mexican birthdays in place of 'Happy Birthday'?

Las Mañanitas, 'the little mornings', is traditionally sung early in the day to wake the birthday person, and its opening lines claim that King David used to sing the very same song.

In the party game pass the parcel, what tells a player to unwrap a layer?

The music stopping is the cue to tear off one layer; in one version each layer carries a forfeit, a fun task to perform, and only whoever unwraps the last layer keeps the prize.

In Israeli kindergartens, what is done with the birthday child's chair?

Lifted into the air once per year of age, the decorated chair then goes up one more time 'for the next year', with the birthday child still sitting on it.

In Scotland's birthday 'dumps', a child gets what for each year?

A thump for each year is the rule; in one form the child is held by the hands and feet and thumped on the floor, sometimes dropped on the final count.

In Brazil, Hungary and Spain, what birthday torment is traditional?

Pulling the earlobes is the Brazilian, Hungarian and Spanish custom, in Spain once for each year; Hungarians add a rhyme wishing you live until your ears reach your ankles.

Mass-produced birthday cards are generally traced to which country in the mid-19th century?

Britain had cheap printing and, after its postal reform, cheap postage, which turned greeting cards from costly handmade gifts into something anyone could send; the first Christmas card was printed in London in 1843.

Which author's 1959 picture book is titled Happy Birthday to You!?

Dr. Seuss's Happy Birthday to You! (1959) is set in the land of Katroo, where the Great Birthday Bird shepherds the child through a day of celebrations.

In the sweet sixteen shoe ceremony, what does a male relative help the girl into?

High heels replace the flat shoes she arrives in, slipped on by her father or another male relative to show she is becoming a woman; the quinceañera has a matching Change of Shoes.

Which empress of Mexico, wife of Maximilian I, is credited with reinforcing the quinceañera ball tradition?

Carlota, the Belgian-born empress, held a reception for her court in Mexico City in the 1860s that presented young women as ready for marriage, a custom the quinceañera ball still echoes.

What are the young men in a quinceañera's court called?

The court's young men are chambelanes (chamberlains) and the young women damas; the quinceañera's own escort is the chambelán de honor.

In Jamaica, birthday celebrants are traditionally ambushed and covered in what?

Jamaicans 'antique' the birthday person with a surprise dusting of flour, often sprung by friends at school or work, so a white-coated victim is a sign of a birthday.

Which Korean deity, guardian of children, receives an offering at a doljanchi?

Samsin Halmeoni, the grandmother goddess of childbirth and children, is offered rice, miyeok-guk and pure water at the dol; Dangun is the legendary founder of Korea.

When Japan made 18 the age of adulthood in 2022, what stayed barred until 20?

Drinking alcohol stayed off-limits until 20, as did smoking, even though 18-year-olds became adults who could sign contracts without a parent's consent.

Piñatas reportedly reached Mexico in the 1580s with which Christmas-season festival?

Las Posadas grew out of the Christmas masses that friars at Acolman, near Mexico City, were licensed to hold in 1586; piñatas are still most popular during its nine nights, with birthday parties second.

Which first-century historian linked the twelve stones of Aaron's breastplate to the months and zodiac signs?

Josephus wrote that the twelve stones could be read as the months or as the signs of the zodiac, the idea from which the custom of a stone for each birth month later grew.

Which years are exceptions to the every-four-years leap rule?

Centuries not divisible by 400 skip the leap day, so 1900 had none while 2000 did; dropping three leap days every 400 years keeps the calendar in step with the seasons.

Washington's Birthday became a federal holiday in 1879, at first only where?

D.C. came first: federal workers in the District of Columbia got 22 February off, some of them without pay; Congress extended the holiday to federal employees everywhere in 1885.

Lincoln's Birthday marks his birth on February 12, 1809, in which Kentucky town?

Lincoln was born in a log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky; his birthday is not a federal holiday, and only some states, such as Illinois and New York, observe it.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on which date in 1929?

King was born on 15 January 1929 at the family home on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of a Baptist minister.

Where in London is the ceremony for the British sovereign's official birthday held each June?

Horse Guards Parade, off Whitehall, hosts it; the monarch travels down The Mall from Buckingham Palace to take the salute from more than 1,400 soldiers.

Where was the Buddha born, according to tradition?

Tradition places the Buddha's birth in Lumbini, in present-day Nepal; the Ashoka Pillar erected there in 249 BCE records the emperor's pilgrimage to the birthplace.

The festival of Mawlid honours the birth of which religious figure?

Muhammad's birthday was staged as a lavish public festival by Gökböri, a deputy of Saladin, in the early 1200s; Salafi and Wahhabi scholars reject Mawlid as an innovation.

Janmashtami, when Hindus fast and keep vigil until midnight, celebrates the birth of which deity?

Krishna is held to have been born at midnight, hence the vigil; at Dahi Handi, part of the festival, teams build human pyramids to break a pot of curd hung high overhead.

India marks Children's Day on 14 November, the birthday of which leader?

Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, was known to children across India as Chacha Nehru, 'Uncle Nehru', which is why his birthday is kept as Bal Diwas, Children's Day.

Which Japanese botanist bred the begonia Kimjongilia for Kim Jong Il's 46th birthday?

Kamo Mototeru, a Japanese botanist, presented the red begonia Kimjongilia in 1988 for Kim Jong Il's 46th birthday; the orchid Kimilsungia, named for his father, came from Indonesia's Sukarno in 1965.

Thailand celebrates Mother's Day on 12 August, the birthday of which royal?

Queen Sirikit was born on 12 August 1932; the Thai government made her birthday a national holiday in 1976, and it is still kept as Mother's Day after her death in 2025.

Which poet's birthday is marked each winter with haggis, whisky and recitals of his verse?

Robert Burns was first honoured this way in July 1801, when nine friends met at Burns Cottage on the fifth anniversary of his death; the supper later moved to his birthday.

In German, musical chairs is called a 'journey to' which city?

Jerusalem: Germans call the game Reise nach Jerusalem, and English once had 'Going to Jerusalem' too; nobody knows why, though some link the name to the costly journeys of the crusades.

Thailand's Father's Day, 5 December, is the birthday of which king?

Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) was born on 5 December 1927; the date is still Thailand's Father's Day, and the United Nations named it World Soil Day in honour of his work in soil science.

A Gurpurab is the birthday festival of a guru in which religion?

Sikhism's Gurpurab for its founder, Guru Nanak, lasts three days: a non-stop scripture reading, then a street procession with hymn singers, brass bands and martial-arts displays.

Who in 2024 became the first US president to live to the age of 100?

Jimmy Carter reached the milestone on 1 October 2024 at home in Plains, Georgia, some twenty months after entering hospice care, and died that December.

Which retailer sells the Colin the Caterpillar cake, introduced in 1990?

Marks & Spencer has sold Colin since 1990, and in 2021 it went to the High Court claiming that Aldi's Cuthbert the Caterpillar was a copy.

Jeanne Calment, the oldest person ever, released what in her 120s?

A CD, Time's Mistress, set her spoken memories to backing tracks that included rap; at 114 she had already played herself in a film, the oldest actress on record.

What is someone aged 110 or over called?

Supercentenarian first meant anyone well past 100 before demographers fixed the line at 110; those who reach it tend to stay free of serious age-related illness until their last few years.

Roughly how many people worldwide were 100 or older in 2020?

600,000 is the order of the UN's estimates for 2020, three to four times the figure for 2000; as life expectancy rises the total keeps climbing, and it passed 700,000 by 2024.

Isaac Newton's Christmas Day 1642 birth date is reckoned in which calendar?

Julian dates were still the rule in England, so Newton's birth on 25 December 1642 at Woolsthorpe falls ten days later, in 1643, by the Gregorian calendar used today.

After Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe sang President Kennedy new words to which 1938 song?

Thanks for the Memory, which Bob Hope and Shirley Ross sang in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938, got new words from Monroe thanking the president for 'all the things you've done'.

Katy Perry's Birthday appears on which 2013 album?

Prism's fourth single came with a hidden-camera video: Perry, disguised as five dreadful party entertainers, crashed real birthday parties and ruined them.

Purcell's 1694 ode 'Come Ye Sons of Art' celebrated whose birthday?

Queen Mary II got the last of Purcell's six birthday odes in April 1694; she died of smallpox that December, and he composed the music for her funeral instead.

Which Scottish band's Happy Birthday reached number two in the UK in 1981?

Altered Images, fronted by Clare Grogan, took 'Happy Birthday' to number two in October 1981; Martin Rushent, fresh from the Human League's Dare, produced the single.

Whose first full-length play was The Birthday Party, performed in 1958?

Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, his first full-length play, opened in 1958 and closed within a week in London; it is the classic 'comedy of menace', with Stanley hounded by Goldberg and McCann.

Which character in Through the Looking-Glass received an 'un-birthday present' cravat?

Humpty Dumpty's cravat was an un-birthday present from the White King and Queen; Alice first mistakes it for a belt, and he explains that a year holds 364 un-birthdays.

What colour is traditionally worn at kanreki, Japan's 60th-birthday celebration?

Red stands for a second babyhood: at 60 the calendar's sixty-year cycle returns to the sign of your birth year, so the celebrant is dressed in a red cap and vest as if born again.

Björk first found fame with 'Birthday', a 1987 single by which band?

The Sugarcubes formed on 8 June 1986, the very day Björk gave birth to her son; 'Birthday', from their first album, became the band's first international single.

Which Beatles song asks 'Will you still need me, will you still feed me'?

When I'm Sixty-Four, on Sgt. Pepper (1967), was written by McCartney as a teenager and recorded with three clarinets; the finished tape was sped up, lifting his voice by about a semitone.

Birthday Honours lists have been issued since at least which monarch's reign?

Queen Victoria's birthday list of 1860 appeared in the London Gazette; today's lists come out each June, on the sovereign's official birthday rather than the real one.

In which slasher film does a student relive her own murder, on her birthday, again and again?

Happy Death Day stars Jessica Rothe as Tree, who has to find her own killer to break the loop; made for about $5 million, it took more than $125 million worldwide.

The candy bag given at Japan's Shichi-Go-San festival shows a turtle and which bird, both signs of long life?

Crane and turtle decorate the bag of chitose ame, 'thousand-year candy', long thin sticks given to children of three, five and seven to wish them healthy growth and long lives.

A Clemson University study found a 1,400% rise in what on cake icing after birthday candles were blown out?

Bacteria travel in the breath: the researchers had volunteers eat pizza, then blow out candles standing in a foil-covered mock cake, and compared its icing with icing nobody blew on.

Emperor Hirohito's 29 April birthday is still a holiday in Japan, opening which annual run of public holidays?

Golden Week begins with it: after his death in 1989 the day was renamed Greenery Day for the emperor's love of plants, and since 2007 it has been Showa Day.

Which NASA rover played 'Happy Birthday to You' to itself on Mars in 2013, a year after landing?

Curiosity marked one Earth year in Gale crater by playing the tune out loud to an empty planet. The car-sized rover went on to outlast its planned two-year mission by more than a decade.

In the nursery rhyme 'Monday's Child', the child born on which day of the week is 'full of woe'?

Wednesday is the sorrowful one, which is why the creator of The Addams Family gave the name to his 'child of woe'. An 1887 printing of the rhyme blamed Friday instead.

Which physicist was born on 14 March, the date now celebrated by maths fans as Pi Day?

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm on 14 March 1879. Princeton, where he lived for more than twenty years, celebrates both at once with pie eating and an Einstein look-alike contest.

Which English naturalist was born on 12 February 1809, the very same day as Abraham Lincoln?

Charles Darwin was born at The Mount, his family's home in Shrewsbury, on the day Lincoln arrived in a one-room log cabin across the Atlantic.

Trick birthday candles relight themselves after being blown out thanks to which metal hidden in the wick?

Magnesium in the wick ignites the paraffin vapour that drifts off a blown-out candle. Because they can relight in the bin, the advice is to soak them in water before throwing them away.

In Pixar's Toy Story, which new toy arrives as Andy's birthday present and replaces Woody as his favourite?

Buzz Lightyear was a present from Andy's mother. An early draft of the script instead followed Tinny, a one-man-band toy given to a boy as a birthday gift.

Which Winnie-the-Pooh character is given a popped balloon and an empty honey jar for his birthday?

Eeyore gets the jar from Pooh 'for keeping things in' and the red balloon from Piglet to keep in it. Fans in Austin, Texas, hold an annual festival called Eeyore's Birthday Party in his honour.

Which Roman had his birth month renamed after him by the Senate in 44 BC, a name still on every calendar?

Julius Caesar was born in the month Romans called Quintilis, the fifth of a year that began in March. Augustus later got a month too, but picked it for his victories, not his birth.

Mickey Mouse's birthday, 18 November 1928, is the date of the New York premiere of which cartoon short?

Steamboat Willie counts as Mickey's debut even though he had appeared months earlier in a test screening of Plane Crazy. For his 50th anniversary he became the first cartoon character with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

Which zodiac sign for late September and October birthdays is the only one represented by an object?

Libra is drawn as a pair of scales, based on the Scales of Justice held by Themis in Greek myth. The other eleven signs are all animals or mythological characters.

In Disney's Tangled, what do the king and queen release every year on their lost daughter's birthday?

Sky lanterns go up each year in the hope they will guide Rapunzel home. The image arrived late in development, when animator John Ripa floated the idea at a story meeting.

Which Hogwarts character breaks the news to Harry Potter that he is a wizard on his eleventh birthday?

Rubeus Hagrid, a half-giant, turns up to invite him to a school of magic. Apart from its first chapter, the whole of the first book happens around and in the year after that birthday.

In The Lord of the Rings, which character murders a relative to claim the One Ring as a birthday present?

Gollum, then known as Sméagol, was out fishing with Déagol in the Gladden Fields on his birthday. He demanded the Ring as a gift and strangled Déagol for refusing.

In Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Aurora is cursed to prick her finger on what on her sixteenth birthday?

A spindle on a spinning wheel conjured by Maleficent does the damage, although three good fairies hide Aurora until that very day. One of them, Merryweather, had already softened the curse from death to a deep sleep.

Which birthday-party pizza chain with animatronic shows was founded by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell?

Chuck E. Cheese was meant to be a coyote until Bushnell learned the costume he had bought was a rat. His aim was to move arcade games out of pool halls and into family venues.

The United Nations marks 18 July, the birthday of which South African leader, as a day of public service?

Nelson Mandela fought for social justice for 67 years, so the day asks people to give 67 minutes of their time to others. The UN General Assembly declared it in November 2009.

Which birthstone for April takes its name from the Greek 'adamas', meaning unbreakable?

Diamond is the hardest known natural material, and the hardest stones can be scratched only by other diamonds. It also marks a sixtieth anniversary, as in a Diamond Jubilee.

Which February birthstone did ancient Greeks carve into drinking cups to ward off drunkenness?

Amethyst comes from the Greek for 'not intoxicated'. Anglican bishops often wear one in their rings, a nod to the Apostles being 'not drunk' at Pentecost.

Which zodiac sign for late May and June birthdays is represented by the brothers Castor and Pollux?

Gemini recalls the myth in which Pollux begged Zeus to share his immortality with the dead Castor, uniting them in the heavens. Babylonian astronomers called the two stars the Great Twins.

In the Chinese zodiac's Great Race legend, which animal finished first after hitching a ride on the Ox?

The Rat leapt off at the finish to reach the Jade Emperor ahead of the Ox, which is why it comes first in the cycle. In one telling it also pushed the Cat into the river on the way.

Which singer released the album B'Day in September 2006 to coincide with her own 25th birthday?

Beyoncé named the album after the occasion and put it out worldwide on 4 September 2006, the day she turned 25. American fans had to wait one more day.

Which actress stars in 13 Going on 30 as a girl whose birthday wish turns her into an adult overnight?

Jennifer Garner won wide praise for her first leading film role, one critic writing that you can pinpoint the moment she becomes a star. Some countries released the film as Suddenly 30.

In which 1997 comedy does a boy's birthday wish force his lawyer father to tell only the truth for a day?

Liar Liar stars Jim Carrey as Fletcher Reede, whose son Max makes the wish after his dad misses his fifth birthday party. A year on, Max's next wish is only for rollerblades.

Which comic-strip cat celebrates his birthday every 19 June, the date his strip debuted nationwide in 1978?

Garfield's backstory has him born in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni's Italian Restaurant. The strip itself launched nationwide in just 41 newspapers.

Which company invented the singing telegram in 1933 with a birthday greeting sung to star Rudy Vallée?

Western Union's publicity chief wanted telegrams, long tied to news of deaths, to feel fun, so he had operator Lucille Lipps sing the message down the phone. He recalled being told he was making the company a laughingstock.

Which teenager topped the US chart in 1963 with 'It's My Party', a birthday lament produced by Quincy Jones?

Lesley Gore was a high-school junior when she picked the song from some two hundred demos Jones brought to her family home. Its sequel, 'Judy's Turn to Cry', reached number five.

Which pop star, credited under a fake name, voiced a Simpsons guest who co-writes 'Happy Birthday Lisa'?

Michael Jackson was credited as 'John Jay Smith' and wrote the song himself, but a soundalike did the singing because of his record contract.

Which Italian opera composer was a leap-day baby, born on 29 February 1792 in the Adriatic town of Pesaro?

Gioachino Rossini, the son of a trumpeter and a singer, was composing by the age of twelve. His best-known opera, The Barber of Seville, followed in 1816.

In which Gilbert and Sullivan opera does Frederic's leap-day birthday keep him an apprentice until 1940?

The Pirates of Penzance turns on a contract binding Frederic until his twenty-first birthday. Born on 29 February, he has had only five of them and will be in his eighties before he is free.

Which diarist received her red-and-white checked notebook as a thirteenth birthday present in June 1942?

Anne Frank was given what was really an autograph book, with a small lock on the front. Her father Otto, the family's only survivor, published the diary in 1947.

Which actor earned his first Oscar nomination as Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July?

Tom Cruise played a man whose birthday really is 4 July: Kovic was born on that day in 1946. On the last day of filming, Kovic gave him his own Bronze Star for a 'heroic performance'.

Which jazz trumpeter often claimed a 4 July 1900 birthday but is now believed to have been born in August 1901?

Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo, is now believed to have been born in New Orleans on 4 August 1901, though even that date has been heavily debated.

Which Japanese character's official profile gives her a 1 November birthday and a home in suburban London?

Hello Kitty's full name is Kitty White, and her profile lists her height as five apples and her weight as three. She shares the family home with a twin sister, Mimmy.

Birth rates in Chinese communities often spike in years of which zodiac animal, considered especially lucky?

Dragon years bring marked jumps in births because children born then are thought to have better lives ahead. The animal is not universal: Thailand's calendar replaces it with the nāga.

Which UN Secretary-General's first name marks him, in the Akan naming tradition, as a boy born on a Friday?

Kofi Annan was born on a Friday in a culture where some children are named for their day of the week. His middle name, Atta, means twin, and he shared it with his twin sister.

In the British party game pass the parcel, a player unwraps one layer each time what happens?

The music stops and whoever is holding the parcel peels off a layer, keeping any small prize hidden beneath it. Some hosts hide a prize in every layer, others only in the last.

In Disney's Alice in Wonderland, which character explains unbirthdays and gives Alice an unbirthday cake?

The Mad Hatter is singing 'The Unbirthday Song' with the March Hare and the Dormouse when Alice stumbles on their party. He brings the party up again as a witness at her trial.

In Disney's Frozen Fever, whose surprise birthday party does Queen Elsa plan while fighting off a cold?

Anna gets her party, but each of Elsa's sneezes produces little snow-babies called Snowgies, which set about pulling down the decorations.

In The Twilight Saga: New Moon, what injury at Bella's eighteenth birthday party nearly gets her attacked?

A paper cut is enough to send Jasper Hale into a frenzy, convincing Edward she is not safe among vampires. The film opens with her dreaming that she has grown old while he stays young.

Which Australian singer fronted The Birthday Party, a post-punk band that left Melbourne for London in 1980?

Nick Cave was notorious in those years for shrieking and throwing himself about the stage. After the group ended in 1983, he and bandmate Mick Harvey went on to form the Bad Seeds.

Which composer woke his wife Cosima with the 'Siegfried Idyll', a birthday present played on their stairs?

Richard Wagner had a small ensemble play it on Christmas morning 1870, and Cosima awoke to its opening melody. He called it a 'symphonic birthday greeting'.

Which festival, named after a lunar month, marks the Buddha's birthday across South and Southeast Asia?

Vesak honours the Buddha's enlightenment and death as well as his birth, all on one full-moon day. A 1950 conference in Sri Lanka settled on it as the shared date for his birthday.

Which Brill Building songwriter reached the US top ten singing 1961's 'Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen'?

Neil Sedaka had joked to lyricist Howard Greenfield that the pair were so hot they could write a birthday song and it would be a hit. Greenfield took him at his word, and it reached number six.

Which Australian magazine's Children's Birthday Cake Book is famous for its train and swimming-pool cakes?

Women's Weekly sold more than a million copies of the cookbook, which many simply call 'the book with the train on the cover'. The jelly-filled swimming pool was dubbed 'the crowning glory' because it looked so hard to build.

Which Russian-born composer reworked 'Happy Birthday to You' into the orchestral 'Greeting Prelude' in 1955?

Igor Stravinsky first met the tune in 1950, when an orchestra sprang it on him in rehearsal and he did not recognise it. He wrote the prelude for conductor Pierre Monteux's 80th birthday.

In Thailand, which colour of the day belongs to people born on a Monday, including two recent kings?

Yellow fills Thailand's streets on both kings' birthdays for exactly that reason. Many Thais still pick their clothes to match the colour assigned to each day of the week.

Which US military service marks its birthday every 10 November with a ball and a cake-cutting ceremony?

The Marine Corps traces its founding to a Continental Congress resolution of 10 November 1775. At the ceremony, the oldest Marine present hands a piece of cake to the youngest.

In The Office, whose birthday do Jim and Dwight forget after taking charge of the Party Planning Committee?

Kelly Kapoor ends up with a hastily thrown party, horrible decorations and two planners who cannot remember her age. They got the job because Phyllis and Angela kept fighting over it.

Which party attraction grew from engineer John Scurlock's 1950s work on inflatable covers for tennis courts?

Bouncy castle history begins with Scurlock's 'Space Pillow', which had little in common with today's versions. Renting them out for parties was the idea of his wife, Frances.

Which October birthstone is the national gemstone of Australia, long cited as the main source of world supply?

Opal from Australia has been cited as 95 to 97 per cent of the world's precious supply, though newer data suggest that is overstated. Before its fields opened in the 19th century, Europe's opal came from mines in what is now Slovakia.