110 Fun Facts About Retirement Party

Which country was the first to introduce state retirement benefits, in 1889?

Germany. Otto von Bismarck, a conservative chancellor, backed old-age pensions largely to draw workers away from the socialist movement.

Which Roman emperor retired in 305 to an Adriatic palace now at the centre of Split, Croatia?

Diocletian. Asked to return to power, he is said to have replied that nobody who saw the cabbages he had planted with his own hands would ask.

Which Roman emperor set up a state pension for army veterans in 13 BC?

Augustus. In one of the earliest pension schemes on record, veterans got a lump sum after 16 years in a legion and four in reserve, and he later created inheritance and sales taxes to pay for it.

Which US president signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935?

Franklin D. Roosevelt insisted workers pay in through payroll taxes so that, as he put it, no politician could ever scrap the programme.

Ida May Fuller of Vermont was the first person to receive what, in 1940?

A monthly Social Security cheque. Fuller, a retired legal secretary, had paid in for about three years; she lived to 100 and collected $22,888.92.

Which country saw months of strikes in 2023 over a law raising its retirement age from 62 to 64?

France. President Emmanuel Macron's government pushed the change through without a final vote in the National Assembly, using the constitution's Article 49.3.

The 401(k) retirement plan takes its name from what?

A section of the US tax code. Benefits consultant Ted Benna spotted that subsection 401(k) could let employees save pre-tax pay, and built a plan around it at his own firm.

In The Golden Girls, Sophia moves in with her daughter after a fire at which retirement home?

Shady Pines. Sophia was written as a minor character, but the pilot's audience took to Estelle Getty so strongly that she replaced the planned live-in housekeeper.

The 1974 law known as ERISA created which tax-advantaged savings account?

The IRA. It was meant for workers whose jobs came with no pension plan; only in 1981 did a new tax law open IRAs to every working taxpayer.

Which carmaker's 1963 plant closure, stranding workers' pensions, spurred US pension reform?

Studebaker. When its South Bend, Indiana, plant shut, thousands of workers lost some or all of their promised pensions, and the outcry led Congress to insure private pensions in 1974.

Which retirement account is named after the Delaware senator who sponsored it in 1997?

The Roth IRA. William Roth and fellow senator Bob Packwood had proposed it in 1989 as the 'IRA Plus', eight years before it passed under his name.

Which organisation for older Americans did retired high-school principal Ethel Percy Andrus found in 1958?

AARP. Andrus first organised retired teachers to win them health insurance, then opened the idea to all older Americans.

Which fictional detective retires to a small farm on the South Downs to keep bees?

Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle has him write a 'Practical Handbook of Bee Culture' in retirement, then use the book to trick a German spy on the eve of the First World War.

Which president signed Medicare into law in 1965?

Lyndon B. Johnson travelled to Independence, Missouri, to sign the bill beside Harry Truman, whose own push for national health insurance had failed two decades earlier.

Which lettered section of Medicare covers self-administered prescription drugs?

D. Medicare ran for four decades without a pharmacy benefit; Part D arrived in 2006 and is sold only through private insurers.

Which fast-food founder sold his roadside restaurant at 65 and took to the road to franchise his recipe?

Colonel Sanders. A new interstate had pulled traffic away from his Kentucky restaurant, so he sold it and drove around signing up restaurants to cook his chicken for a few cents a bird.

Retirement-town developer Del Webb was once co-owner of which New York sports franchise?

The Yankees. Webb and Dan Topping bought into the club in 1945, saw it win ten World Series, then sold control to the CBS television network in 1964.

Which Arizona retirement community, opened by Del Webb in 1960, drew 100,000 visitors on its first weekend?

Sun City. Home sales ran far ahead of the company's forecasts, and in 1962 Time magazine put its builder on the cover.

Which animation director announced his retirement in 2013, then came back with a new feature ten years later?

Hayao Miyazaki. His producer said he made The Boy and the Heron for his grandson, as a way of saying that Grandpa was moving on but leaving this film behind.

The Villages, Florida's sprawling retirement community, lies northwest of which city?

Orlando. The Villages grew out of a 400-unit mobile-home park run by its founder, who had earlier sold land by mail order.

Ryderwood, Washington, a retirement town since 1953, was built in the 1920s to house workers in which industry?

Logging. The Long-Bell Lumber Company built it as the 'World's Largest Logging Town', then three decades later sold the entire town to a developer who reopened it for retirees.

Retirees who head south each winter to escape the cold are commonly known as what?

Snowbirds. The word first meant real birds seen mostly in winter, such as the junco; by the 1920s it was being used for workers who went south for the cold months.

Britain's first state old-age pensions, paid from 1909, were collected each week at which institution?

The post office. Ministers kept the five-shilling pension away from the Poor Law authorities so that collecting it carried no stigma of charity.

In Australia and New Zealand, a workplace retirement plan is commonly called what?

Superannuation. Australians shorten it to 'super', and in 1992 the Keating government made it compulsory for employers to pay part of each worker's wages into a fund.

Which country marks Respect for the Aged Day as a public holiday each September?

Japan. It was fixed on September 15 until 2003, when the 'Happy Monday' reforms moved it to a Monday to give workers a three-day weekend.

A retired professor who keeps the use of their title is styled what?

Emeritus. In Latin the word described a veteran soldier who had served out his time and earned his discharge.

In business slang, what is a 'golden handshake'?

A generous severance payment. It is often offered to coax someone into early retirement, whereas a 'golden hello' is the bonus paid to lure a new recruit.

The four older women of The Golden Girls shared a house in which city?

Miami. Estelle Getty, who played the elderly mother, was in fact a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter.

In the 1985 film Cocoon, Florida retirees feel young again after swimming in a pool charged by whom?

Aliens. The visitors are using the pool to keep their cocooned companions alive, and the retirees next door keep sneaking in; Don Ameche won an Oscar for his role.

Which two actors play the terminally ill men in The Bucket List (2007)?

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The phrase 'bucket list', built on 'kick the bucket', was barely recorded before the film: dictionaries date it only to 2006.

Jack Nicholson plays a newly retired insurance man in which 2002 Alexander Payne film?

About Schmidt. With nobody else to confide in, Warren Schmidt pours out his frustrations in long letters to Ndugu, a six-year-old Tanzanian boy he sponsors through a charity.

In Pixar's Up, Carl floats his house by balloon to which South American destination?

Paradise Falls. Carl and his wife Ellie saved for the trip all their married life but kept having to spend the money, and he sets off only after her death.

Grumpy Old Men (1993) reunited which two long-time screen partners as feuding Minnesota neighbours?

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Real-life friends who made ten films together, they turned this one into enough of a hit to earn a sequel two years later.

In The Intern (2015), Robert De Niro's 70-year-old widower becomes an intern at what kind of company?

A fashion website. Its headquarters is the very building where De Niro's character spent his career making phone books, and he and his boss bond when she finds out.

In which country is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel's retirement hotel?

India. The British pensioners reach Jaipur to find that the luxurious retirement hotel in the brochure is really a dilapidated building run by an eager novice.

In which 2017 comedy do three retirees rob a bank after losing their pensions?

Going in Style. In the 1979 original the three friends robbed a bank just for kicks; in the remake they hit the very bank that holds their lost pension money.

In Space Cowboys (2000), four ageing former test pilots are sent into orbit to do what?

Repair an old Soviet satellite. Its electronics are so antiquated that only the retired engineer who designed the original system, Clint Eastwood's character, still understands them.

Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls before the 1993-94 season to try which sport?

Baseball. Jordan said he was chasing a dream of his late father, who had been murdered months earlier, and spent the 1994 season with the minor-league Birmingham Barons.

Which team did Michael Jordan play for when he came out of retirement a second time, from 2001 to 2003?

Washington Wizards. Jordan had been running the team as its president of basketball operations, and gave up that job and his ownership stake in order to play.

Which heavyweight champion retired undefeated in 1956 after 49 professional fights?

Rocky Marciano. He walked away at 32 while still champion and never fought professionally again; 43 of his 49 wins came by knockout.

Which amateur golfer retired from competition at 28, months after winning the 1930 Grand Slam?

Bobby Jones. He never turned professional, earning his living as a lawyer, and after quitting competition he founded Augusta National and co-founded the Masters.

Cal Ripken Jr. retired in 2001 holding the consecutive-games record he took from which player?

Lou Gehrig. His run of 2,130 games ended only when he took himself out of the lineup, weakened by the disease that now carries his name.

Which Tonight Show host retired in 1992 after 30 years?

Johnny Carson. An estimated 50 million people watched his farewell; NBC handed the desk to Jay Leno, and David Letterman was soon competing against it on a rival network.

Which broadcaster, the first woman to co-anchor a US network evening newscast, retired in 2014?

Barbara Walters. She helped create The View at 67, an age when many broadcasters have already retired, and stayed on its panel until she was 84.

Which pope resigned in 2013, the first to do so in almost 600 years?

Benedict XVI. The previous pope to step down, Gregory XII in 1415, quit to help end a schism between rival popes; Benedict said his strength was failing.

During a break from acting in the late 1990s, Daniel Day-Lewis apprenticed in which trade in Italy?

Shoemaking. He learned the craft in Florence during a three-year absence from the screen, until Martin Scorsese drew him back for Gangs of New York.

Which quarterback retired in 2011 holding the NFL career records for both touchdown passes and interceptions?

Brett Favre. It was his third farewell: he had announced his retirement in 2008 and again in 2009, and both times was playing again within months.

Toy merchant Edwin Lowe popularised modern bingo after seeing what game at a 1929 carnival?

Beano. Players covered their numbers with dried beans; one story has an excited winner blurting out 'Bingo!' instead, though the word's origin is uncertain.

Which tennis champion ended his career in 2022 by playing doubles alongside his great rival Rafael Nadal?

Roger Federer. Repeated knee problems forced the decision; he chose the Laver Cup in London for his goodbye, and the two old rivals lost the match.

Which motorhome brand shares its name with the Iowa county where it began making travel trailers?

Winnebago. Five local businessmen bought the shut travel-trailer plant and later gave the business their county's name.

Which former US president spent more than 30 years of his retirement building homes with Habitat for Humanity?

Jimmy Carter. In 2019, aged 95, he arrived at a Nashville build with a black eye and 14 stitches, hours after a fall at home.

Which country legislated in 2025 to raise its retirement age to 70 by 2040?

Denmark. Since 2006 it has tied its pension age to life expectancy and revised it every five years; the May 2025 law lifts it from 67 to 70 for everyone born after 1970.

Which singer announced his retirement in 1971 at 55, only to return to the stage two years later?

Frank Sinatra. He had complained that nobody was writing songs for him any more; the comeback album played on his nickname, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back.

Which quarterback announced his retirement in February 2022, then reversed the decision just 40 days later?

Tom Brady. He played one more season with Tampa Bay, then retired again a year to the day after the first announcement, this time adding the words 'for good'.

Shuffleboard moved from ship decks to dry land around 1913 at which Atlantic-coast Florida resort?

Daytona Beach. Passengers had been playing it on ocean liners; once a court was laid on land, the game swept through Florida and became a fixture of retirement communities.

Shuffleboard's '10 off' penalty zone shares which nickname with the no-volley zone in pickleball?

Kitchen is the name on both courts: in shuffleboard it costs a player ten points for each disc left in it, so rivals try to knock each other's discs in, while in pickleball it is the strip by the net where volleys are banned.

Which Florida city is home to the shuffleboard club, opened in 1924, that bills itself as the world's largest?

St. Petersburg's club grew to 110 courts, and it was there that the rules of the modern game were standardised, making the city the centre of the shuffleboard world.

Which name do American bingo halls give a game won only by covering every square?

Blackout, also called a coverall, is the typical jackpot game and often the last of a session: the big prize is paid only if a card is filled within a set number of calls, so it can build from one session to the next.

Which institutions adopted bingo as a fundraiser, sending its popularity soaring in the Great Depression?

Catholic churches caught on after a priest from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, brought Edwin Lowe his parish's money troubles; Lowe then had mathematician Carl Leffler devise 6,000 different cards so a whole hall could play.

Which Italian screen legend joined the cast of the 1995 sequel Grumpier Old Men?

Sophia Loren plays Maria, a five-times-married newcomer who buys the town's beloved bait shop to turn it into an Italian restaurant, starting a feud that ends with her marrying Max.

Irene Triplett, who died in 2020, was the last American to collect a pension from which war?

The Civil War ended in 1865, but its last pension was paid in 2020: Triplett's father, who fought for both sides, was 83 when she was born, and she inherited his $73.13 a month.

The savings term 'nest egg' comes from farmers leaving an egg in the nest to encourage what?

Hens to keep laying: a real or artificial egg left in the nest coaxes a hen to go on laying there, just as a first deposit is meant to attract more savings.

Which Shakespeare tragedy opens with an ageing ruler giving up power and testing his daughters' love?

King Lear plans to keep his title and a retinue of a hundred knights, but the two daughters whose flattery wins them the land soon strip him of both.

In the 2010 Bruce Willis action comedy RED, the title stands for 'Retired' and which two other words?

Extremely Dangerous completes the tag on the file of Willis's character, a black-ops agent pushed into retirement; the film grew out of a comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.

In Pixar's The Incredibles, what pushes the world's superheroes into early retirement and hiding?

A wave of lawsuits does it: a man Mr. Incredible stops from jumping off a building sues him, others follow, and the government moves the heroes into hiding.

Which Los Angeles Lakers star scored 60 points against the Utah Jazz in the final game of his career?

Kobe Bryant took a career-high 50 shots that April 2016 night and outscored the whole Jazz team 23–21 in the fourth quarter, closing 20 seasons with a single club.

Which American folk artist took up painting in earnest at 78, after arthritis made embroidery too painful?

Grandma Moses was discovered when a collector spotted her rural scenes in a drugstore window; she lived to 101, and one canvas later sold for $1.2 million.

Which British royal retired from public duties in 2017 at age 96, after 22,219 solo engagements?

Prince Philip bowed out by meeting Royal Marines in his last solo engagement, having also delivered 5,493 speeches since his wife became queen in 1952.

Which former US president took up painting in retirement and published a book of his portraits of veterans?

George W. Bush picked up a brush after reading Winston Churchill's essay Painting as a Pastime, and his 2017 book of veterans' portraits is called Portraits of Courage.

Which comic strip's final original page ran in February 2000, the day after its retired creator died?

Peanuts ran to 17,897 strips over almost 50 years, and Charles Schulz, who had announced his retirement in December 1999, died in his sleep the day before the farewell page appeared.

Which Scottish star made his last on-screen appearance in 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen before retiring?

Sean Connery fought to salvage the film in the edit and chose to retire rather than face such stress again; he had earlier turned down Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

Which swimmer retired after the London 2012 Olympics, then returned to win five more gold medals in Rio?

Michael Phelps came back in April 2014, and by the time he retired for good after Rio he had won more Olympic medals than 161 countries.

Which footballer was sent off for a headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final, the last match of his career?

Zinedine Zidane had already announced that the tournament would be his farewell; he scored in the final, then butted Marco Materazzi in the chest during extra time.

Which piano-playing star ended a five-year farewell tour of 330 concerts in Stockholm in July 2023?

Elton John launched the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in September 2018, and it went on to gross $939.1 million.

Which hockey great's number 99 was retired by the entire NHL after he stopped playing in 1999?

Wayne Gretzky wanted 9 in honour of his hero Gordie Howe, but a junior teammate already had it, so he doubled it; the NHL retired 99 league-wide at its 2000 All-Star Game.

Which tennis champion announced in Vogue in 2022 that she was evolving away from the sport?

Serena Williams bowed out at the 2022 US Open, the tournament where she had won her first major singles title 23 years earlier, as a teenager in 1999.

Which former child star retired from films at 22 and later became US ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia?

Shirley Temple was Hollywood's top box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, all before her eleventh birthday; her second career in diplomacy also made her the first female US Chief of Protocol.

Which boxer returned after ten years away and regained the world heavyweight title in 1994 at age 45?

George Foreman spent those years as an ordained minister, preaching on street corners and leading a Houston congregation, then knocked out a champion 19 years his junior.

After two terms as president, George Washington retired to which Potomac estate and built a whiskey distillery?

Mount Vernon's distillery, suggested by farm manager James Anderson in 1797, became the estate's most profitable venture, and a working replica opened on the site in 2007.

Which manager retired in 2013 after 26 years and 13 Premier League titles at Manchester United?

Alex Ferguson had planned to step down in 2002, but his family talked him out of it on Christmas night 2001; when he did go, he had 38 trophies and had just won the league.

Which 1992 Best Picture winner stars Clint Eastwood as a retired outlaw scraping by as a hog farmer?

Unforgiven was only the third Western to win Best Picture, and Eastwood dedicated it to his mentors, the directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel.

Which actor won Best Actor for his last big-screen role, a crusty retired professor in On Golden Pond?

Henry Fonda and co-star Katharine Hepburn had never even met before the shoot, despite their long careers and many mutual friends; both won Oscars for the film.

Which Agatha Christie detective is living in retirement in King's Abbot when Roger Ackroyd is murdered?

Hercule Poirot had retired by that 1926 novel, only his third, yet Christie kept him solving cases in print until Curtain appeared in 1975.

Which British TV presenter set his debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club, in a luxury retirement village in Kent?

Richard Osman got the idea on a visit to an upmarket retirement village and wrote the book in secret over 18 months; it became the first debut novel to be the UK's Christmas number one.

Which school did Thomas Jefferson found in his retirement, designing its buildings and first courses himself?

University of Virginia was one of just three achievements Jefferson chose for the epitaph he wrote for his own grave at Monticello, and the presidency was not among them.

Which author published the memoirs that a bankrupt, dying Ulysses S. Grant wrote in his final year?

Mark Twain sent ten thousand agents across the North with a sales script he devised himself, and Grant's widow received about $450,000 in the first three years.

Which former president skipped retirement to serve in the House of Representatives until his death in 1848?

John Quincy Adams is the only ex-president ever elected to the House, where he led the fight to repeal the gag rule that blocked debate on anti-slavery petitions.

Which rapper billed 2003's The Black Album as his retirement record, then resumed his recording career?

Jay-Z promoted the album with a retirement tour, and retirement is a recurring theme of its songs, yet he was back to making records within two years.

Which country superstar retired in 2001, vowing to stay away until his youngest daughter finished high school?

Garth Brooks eased back with a weekend residency in Las Vegas, then launched a full comeback world tour in September 2014 with his wife, Trisha Yearwood.

Which two-time Oscar winner retired after 2004's Welcome to Mooseport and spent his later years writing novels?

Gene Hackman confirmed the decision in 2008 while promoting his third novel; his only later screen work was narrating the occasional television documentary.

What name is given to the scarlet-coated army veterans of the London retirement home founded in 1682?

Chelsea Pensioners wear blue around the Royal Hospital and save the scarlet coats and tricorne hats for travel and ceremony; women have been admitted since 2009.

Which Paris landmark, home to Napoleon's tomb, was built by Louis XIV as a retirement home for old soldiers?

Les Invalides was ordered in 1670 for the aged and disabled veterans of the king's many campaigns, and the complex continues to house a hospital and a home for old soldiers.

Which company, founded to forward freight, set up one of America's first private employer pension plans in 1875?

American Express was a parcel-forwarding firm, decades away from its first charge card, when it launched the plan; the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad followed five years later.

Which country banks its surplus oil revenue in the Government Pension Fund Global, set up in 1990?

Norway calls it the Oil Fund, and despite the official name it is not a conventional pension fund: its money comes from petroleum profits, not from workers' contributions.

Which financial product, typically sold by insurers, turns a lump sum into a regular income for life?

An annuity works as longevity insurance: the risk of outliving your savings passes to the insurer, which spreads it by pooling many customers.

Which investment scheme, named after a Neapolitan banker, pays surviving members more as each fellow investor dies?

A tontine takes its name from Lorenzo de Tonti, credited with devising it in 1653; the last survivor of one early scheme died in 1726 aged 96, after a final payout of 73,000 livres.

Which NFL rushing champion announced his retirement from a film set in England while shooting The Dirty Dozen?

Jim Brown quit at his peak after the Cleveland owner threatened to fine him for every week of training camp he missed; he had led the league in rushing in eight of his nine seasons.

Which Formula One driver announced his retirement just five days after clinching his only world title in 2016?

Nico Rosberg, whose father Keke was also world champion, said he wanted more time with his family and went on to become a television pundit and eco-entrepreneur.

In Roman tradition, who left his plough to rule as dictator, won a war in sixteen days and returned to his farm?

Cincinnatus became the byword for handing power back: a society of Revolutionary War officers took his name in 1783, and an Ohio city was in turn named after the society.

Which Holy Roman Emperor gave up his thrones in 1556 and retired to the Spanish monastery of Yuste?

Charles V split his vast inheritance between his son, who took Spain, and his brother, who took the Austrian lands, then died at Yuste within two years of moving in.

Which 1939 film stars Robert Donat as a schoolmaster who retires, then returns as headmaster in wartime?

Goodbye, Mr. Chips won Donat the Best Actor Oscar; his Mr Chipping retires at 69 in 1914, only to be summoned back when the war leaves the school short of teachers.

Which actor was Oscar-nominated as a music teacher whose job is axed after three decades in Mr. Holland's Opus?

Richard Dreyfuss plays Glenn Holland, who takes the job in 1964 to buy time for composing; at his send-off, former pupils finally perform the symphony he spent those years writing.

Which retired New York City high-school teacher won a Pulitzer Prize for his memoir Angela's Ashes?

Frank McCourt taught English at schools across New York, among them Stuyvesant High School, and was 66 when the memoir of his Limerick childhood came out in 1996.

Which industrialist's foundation created TIAA in 1918 to give college professors a fully funded pension?

Andrew Carnegie's foundation, set up in 1905 to advance teaching, also gave American education the Carnegie Unit and the Flexner Report that reshaped medical schools.

Which former Potions professor does Dumbledore lure back to Hogwarts in the sixth Harry Potter book?

Horace Slughorn is wanted for more than his lessons: Dumbledore needs a memory he has been hiding, of the young Voldemort asking him about Horcruxes.

Which teacher did the producers of The Simpsons retire in 2013 after voice actress Marcia Wallace died?

Edna Krabappel, Bart's fourth-grade teacher, had married Ned Flanders in the twenty-third season, and her last original speaking part aired in season 25.

Which TV sleuth of Cabot Cove, Maine, was a retired English teacher turned best-selling mystery writer?

Jessica Fletcher was played by Angela Lansbury across 264 episodes of Murder, She Wrote between 1984 and 1996, and four television films followed the series finale.

Which UCLA basketball coach, once a high-school English teacher, retired in 1975 straight after a tenth national title?

John Wooden announced he would leave at 64 right after the semi-final, an overtime win over a team coached by his own former assistant, and the Bruins then won him the final.

Which fantasy author retired in 1959 after 14 years as Merton Professor of English at Oxford?

J. R. R. Tolkien found his retirement overrun by fans: he had to take his number out of the phone book, and he and his wife eventually moved to the seaside at Bournemouth.

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan was, from 2003 to 2012, principal owner of the parent company of which NHL team?

Toronto Maple Leafs came bundled with basketball's Raptors and soccer's Toronto FC under one parent company, which the teachers' fund sold to two telecom firms in 2012.