80 Fun Facts About Multiple Choice

In which year did the Berlin Wall come down?

The Berlin Wall fell in 1989: on the evening of 9 November 1989 East Germany announced free crossing, and crowds opened the checkpoints that night.

Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March in which year?

Caesar was stabbed on 15 March 44 BC by conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius, three days before he was due to leave for a Parthian campaign.

Napoleon's final defeat in June 1815 came at which battle?

Waterloo, fought on 18 June 1815 in present-day Belgium, saw Wellington and Blücher end Napoleon's Hundred Days; he was exiled to Saint Helena.

The storming of the Bastille, the flashpoint of the French Revolution, happened in which year?

The Bastille was stormed on 14 July 1789; the fortress held just seven prisoners at the time, four of them forgers.

Cleopatra was the last active ruler of which Egyptian dynasty?

Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, founded by Ptolemy I, a Macedonian general under Alexander; Plutarch says she was the first Ptolemy to learn Egyptian.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose 1914 assassination triggered World War I, was shot in which city?

Gavrilo Princip shot the Archduke in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914; the Bosnian capital had been annexed by Austria-Hungary only six years earlier, in 1908.

World War II is generally said to have begun when Germany invaded which country in September 1939?

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later, on 3 September.

Machu Picchu was built by which civilization?

Machu Picchu was built by the Inca around 1450, probably as an estate for the emperor Pachacuti, at about 2,430 metres in the Peruvian Andes.

Roughly how long did the Pony Express mail service actually operate?

The Pony Express ran only about 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861, closing two days after the transcontinental telegraph was completed.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 started in a bakery on which street?

The fire began in Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on 2 September 1666 and gutted the medieval City inside the Roman wall.

Which English king sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?

King John sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede on 15 June 1215; his son Henry III reissued a trimmed version in 1216 to win baronial support.

Which city is the capital of Australia?

Canberra was purpose-built as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne; it sits inside the Australian Capital Territory and Parliament first met there in 1927.

Which is the world's largest island?

Greenland, about 2.17 million km², is the largest island not counted as a continent; roughly 80% of it lies under an ice sheet.

Which is the deepest lake in the world?

Lake Baikal in Siberia reaches 1,642 metres, the deepest of any lake, and holds more fresh water than all five North American Great Lakes combined.

Which is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population?

Vatican City covers about 0.44 km² (44 hectares) with a population under 1,000, making it the smallest sovereign state by both area and population.

Mount Fuji stands on which of Japan's main islands?

Mount Fuji, 3,776 metres, rises on Honshu, Japan's largest main island, about 100 km southwest of Tokyo.

What is the capital of Iceland?

Reykjavík, the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state, holds about a third of Iceland's population and hosted the 1986 Reagan–Gorbachev summit.

The Amazon River empties into which ocean?

The Amazon empties into the Atlantic near Belém, Brazil, discharging more water than any other river; before the Andes rose it probably drained west toward the Pacific.

Angkor Wat, the largest religious complex in the world, is in which country?

Angkor Wat stands near Siem Reap in Cambodia; built in the 12th century for King Suryavarman II, it appears on Cambodia's national flag.

Why does the Leaning Tower of Pisa lean?

The tower was built on soft, unstable ground of clay and sand; it began tilting in 1178 during construction and leans about four degrees after 1990s stabilization work.

The Sydney Opera House was designed by an architect from which country?

Jørn Utzon of Denmark won the 1957 design competition but resigned in 1966, seven years before the Sydney Opera House opened in 1973.

Antarctica, despite its ice, is technically classified as what kind of environment?

Antarctica is a desert: it averages only about 150–170 mm of precipitation a year, almost all as snow, and its interior gets under 50 mm.

Which country is the largest in the world by land area?

Russia, at about 17.1 million km², is by far the largest country; it spans eleven time zones and borders fourteen countries.

What is the chemical symbol for gold?

Gold's symbol Au comes from the Latin aurum; the element's atomic number is 79.

Which element has the atomic number 2?

Helium has atomic number 2; it is named from the Greek helios (Sun) because it was first detected in the solar spectrum in 1868.

Which planet rotates almost on its side, with an extreme axial tilt?

Uranus is tilted about 98 degrees, so it spins almost on its side; its rotation is retrograde and takes about 17 hours.

Which is the hardest natural material on the Mohs scale?

Diamond rates 10, the top of the Mohs scale; its rigid tetrahedral carbon bonds pack atoms more densely than almost any other substance.

Roughly how fast does light travel in a vacuum?

Light travels about 300,000 km per second in a vacuum; the exact value, 299,792,458 metres per second, has defined the metre since 1983.

Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in which two sciences?

Marie Curie won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, and the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering radium and polonium.

Charles Darwin's five-year voyage from 1831 to 1836 was aboard which ship?

Darwin sailed on HMS Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy from December 1831 to October 1836; on the way he ate puma, iguana and giant tortoise.

Which planet's position was worked out by mathematics before anyone had knowingly seen it?

Neptune's position was predicted mathematically by Urbain Le Verrier; Johann Galle found it on 23 September 1846 within a degree of the predicted spot.

In plants, photosynthesis takes place inside which organelle?

Photosynthesis happens in chloroplasts, which hold the green pigment chlorophyll; a typical leaf cell contains between 10 and 100 of them.

Which is the hottest planet in the Solar System?

Venus is the hottest at about 464 °C, beating Mercury, because its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere, 92 times Earth's surface pressure, traps heat.

Alexander Fleming's 1928 discovery of penicillin came from what kind of organism?

Penicillin came from a mould, Penicillium notatum, that contaminated a Petri dish; Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize with Florey and Chain.

Which film won 11 Oscars in 1998, tying Ben-Hur's record?

Titanic won 11 Oscars at the March 1998 ceremony, tying Ben-Hur's 1960 record, from a record-equalling 14 nominations; James Cameron took Best Director.

Who directed the 1972 film The Godfather?

Francis Ford Coppola directed The Godfather and co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, author of the 1969 novel; the film won Best Picture.

The original 1977 Star Wars film was later given which subtitle?

The subtitle A New Hope and the Episode IV label were added to the opening crawl for the film's April 1981 theatrical re-release.

What is the official name of the Oscar statuette?

The statuette's official name is the Academy Award of Merit; it depicts a knight holding a sword on a reel of film and stands 13.5 inches tall.

Which was Walt Disney's first full-length animated feature film, released in 1937?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in December 1937 after more than three years in production; Disney followed it with Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940.

The Simpsons live in a fictional town with what name?

The Simpsons live in Springfield, whose state the show deliberately never reveals; Homer works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

Rick Blaine's nightclub in the film Casablanca is in which country?

Rick's Café Américain is in Casablanca, Morocco; the story is set in December 1941 while the city was under Vichy French control.

The TV drama Breaking Bad is set and filmed in which city?

Breaking Bad is set and shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico; its story runs from 2008 to 2010 and the follow-up film El Camino came out in 2019.

In The Wizard of Oz (1939), what is the name of Dorothy's dog?

Dorothy's dog is Toto, a Cairn terrier played by a dog named Terry; Almira Gulch tries to seize him with a sheriff's order after being bitten.

The Beatles formed in 1960 in which English city?

The Beatles formed in Liverpool, growing out of John Lennon's skiffle group the Quarrymen, and honed their act at the Cavern Club and in Hamburg.

Beethoven's famous 'Ode to Joy' theme comes from which of his symphonies?

The Ode to Joy theme is the choral finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, premiered in Vienna in 1824, which sets Schiller's poem 'An die Freude'.

Mozart was born in which city?

Mozart was born in Salzburg on 27 January 1756; he served the city's prince-archbishop as a court musician before leaving for Vienna in 1781.

What was the name of Elvis Presley's mansion in Memphis?

Elvis bought Graceland in March 1957 for about $102,500 and died there on 16 August 1977, aged 42; the mansion opened to the public in 1982.

Which album is the best-selling of all time?

Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) has sold an estimated 70 million copies, more than any other album, and was the US best-seller in both 1983 and 1984.

How many keys does a standard modern piano have?

A standard piano has 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black, spanning A0 to C8; Bösendorfer's Imperial model extends to 97 keys.

Queen singer Freddie Mercury was born on which island?

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Stone Town, Zanzibar, in 1946 to Parsi parents; the family moved to England after the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution.

Which team won the first Super Bowl, played after the 1966 season?

The Green Bay Packers beat the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35–10 in January 1967, with quarterback Bart Starr named MVP.

Which country hosted and won the very first FIFA World Cup in 1930?

Uruguay hosted the 1930 World Cup and beat Argentina 4–2 in the final; every match was played in Montevideo, mostly at the Estadio Centenario.

The first modern Olympic Games in 1896 were held in which city?

Athens hosted the first modern Olympics in April 1896; the choice was made at the 1894 Paris congress that founded the IOC.

How long is a marathon?

A marathon is 26.2 miles (42.195 km), a distance standardised in 1921 based on the course used at the 1908 London Olympics.

In the Tour de France, what colour jersey does the overall race leader wear?

The overall leader wears the yellow jersey (maillot jaune), introduced in 1919; it goes to the rider with the lowest cumulative time.

Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament, is played on which court surface?

Wimbledon has been played on grass since the first championships in 1877; from 1913 to 1923 it was officially billed as the World Grass Court Championships.

How many NBA championships did Michael Jordan win with the Chicago Bulls?

Jordan won 6 championships with the Bulls in two three-peats, 1991–93 and 1996–98, and was named Finals MVP each time.

Under what name was Muhammad Ali born?

Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky, on 17 January 1942, and took his Muslim name in 1964 after joining the Nation of Islam.

Who wrote the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four?

George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four on the Scottish island of Jura; it was published in June 1949, months before his death in January 1950.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is loosely based on her childhood in which state?

Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, the model for the novel's Maycomb; Atticus Finch was drawn from her lawyer father, A. C. Lee.

In Moby-Dick, what is the name of the obsessed captain of the Pequod?

Captain Ahab commands the Pequod; narrator Ishmael recounts Ahab's vengeful hunt for Moby Dick, the white whale that took his leg.

William Shakespeare was born and raised in which town?

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and baptised at Holy Trinity Church there on 26 April 1564.

Who wrote Pride and Prejudice?

Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice anonymously in January 1813, four years after her family settled at Chawton in Hampshire.

Under the AOC rules, where must the secondary fermentation that makes champagne fizzy take place?

That in-bottle fermentation is what creates the carbonation; the rules also restrict grapes to designated vineyards in the region.

Chocolate is made from the fermented seeds of which tree?

Chocolate comes from the seeds of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, domesticated in present-day Ecuador more than 5,000 years ago before it reached Mesoamerica.

According to legend, the red, white and green of a pizza Margherita were chosen to represent what?

Legend says pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito made it for Queen Margherita in 1889, its tomato, mozzarella and basil echoing the Italian flag; historians doubt the tale.

Which ingredient is the defining component of sushi?

Sushi is defined by its vinegared rice, not raw fish; nigiri is credited to Hanaya Yohei, who pressed seafood onto hand-formed vinegared rice in 1820s Edo.

Marzipan is made mainly from sugar and which ground nut?

Marzipan is a paste of ground almonds and sugar; Geneva's Escalade festival each December smashes a chocolate cauldron filled with marzipan vegetables.

Which country grows more coffee than any other?

Brazil has been the top coffee producer for more than 150 years, growing roughly a third of the world's beans, with Vietnam a distant second.

Bitcoin's 2008 white paper was published under which pseudonym?

Satoshi Nakamoto posted 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' to a cryptography mailing list on 31 October 2008; the author's real identity has never been confirmed.

Who invented the World Wide Web while working at CERN in 1989?

Tim Berners-Lee proposed the Web at CERN in March 1989 and built the first browser and server in 1990, choosing hyperlinks over tree-style document systems.

Larry Page co-founded Google in 1998 with whom?

The pair began it as a research project in 1996, and the original logo was Brin's own design.

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and which third partner?

Ronald Wayne held a 10% stake but sold it back for $800 after just 12 days; Apple was incorporated in January 1977 without him.

The Wright brothers made the first powered flight in 1903 near which town?

The Wrights flew on 17 December 1903 at Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; the first flight lasted 12 seconds.

The Mona Lisa hangs in which museum?

The Mona Lisa has hung in the Louvre in Paris since 1797, apart from its 1911 theft and wartime evacuations; the sitter is thought to be Lisa del Giocondo.

In which year did Vincent van Gogh paint The Starry Night?

Van Gogh painted The Starry Night in June 1889 from his asylum window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, adding an imaginary village.

Pablo Picasso was born in which Spanish city?

Picasso was born in Málaga on 25 October 1881; his daughter-in-law Christine and grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso helped found the Museo Picasso Málaga, opened in 2003.

For how many years was the Eiffel Tower the world's tallest human-made structure?

The Eiffel Tower was the tallest human-made structure for 41 years, from its 1889 completion until New York's Chrysler Building overtook it in 1930.

Emi Koussi, the highest peak in the Sahara, is a shield volcano in which country?

It rises from the Tibesti range in northern Chad; the Sahara is dotted with volcanic mountains such as the Ahaggar and Aïr ranges.

By what nickname is the Eiffel Tower affectionately known?

Parisians call the Eiffel Tower La dame de fer, 'The Iron Lady', after its wrought-iron construction; it was built as the centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair.