1976 Trivia
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36 free 1976 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
1976 was the year Britain ran dry. The hottest summer in living memory emptied reservoirs and cracked roads, a minister was appointed to make it rain, and the government went cap in hand for the biggest loan ever requested from an international lender. America threw a 200th birthday party, lost a president at the ballot box after a television gaffe, and saw a mystery illness sweep a veterans' convention. These 36 questions cover the news, sport, music, film and television of the year on both sides of the Atlantic: a hostage rescue in Africa, a boxer against a wrestler in Tokyo, a chipped penalty that named a technique, a punk gig with a tiny audience and a huge legacy, a computer sold at a devilish price, a shark nobody had seen before, and the births and deaths of a few household names. Most are pitched for a pub table, with a handful for people who really remember the year. Play on your phone with instant answers and explanations, or print it for a pub quiz, office quiz or a 1976-themed birthday.
30 of 36 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Israeli commandos freed hostages taken from a hijacked Air France jet at Entebbe airport in which country?
Uganda
Uganda's president Idi Amin collaborated with the hijackers, and the raid cost the lives of commander Yonatan Netanyahu and three hostages.
Q 02Which city's American Legion convention gave its name to a new pneumonia?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia's outbreak led to the discovery of Legionella, which also explained an earlier illness among health department workers in Pontiac, Michigan.
Q 03Who priced the first Apple computer at $666.66 because he liked repeating digits?
Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak, not Jobs, chose the price, and he has said it had nothing to do with the number of the beast.
Q 04North Korean soldiers killed two US Army officers at Panmunjom who were leading a work party trimming what?
A poplar tree
A poplar tree was the target, and after three days of deliberations the US sent hundreds of men, backed by B-52 bombers, just to cut it down.
Q 05Which Austrian city staged a second Winter Olympics in 12 years after Colorado voters refused to fund the original host?
Innsbruck
Innsbruck had hosted in 1964, and the IOC picked it again over a rival bid from Lake Placid.
Q 06Which TV series' fans wrote to the White House to rename the first space shuttle, which was to be called Constitution?
Star Trek
Star Trek fans got their Enterprise, but the orbiter was built only for atmospheric test flights and never went into space.
Q 07Anita Roddick opened the first branch of which chain, selling lotions in urine-sample bottles bought from a hospital?
The Body Shop
The Body Shop opened in Brighton with nothing tested on animals, and running short of the hospital bottles is what created its refillable-bottle policy.
Q 08Muhammad Ali fought a 15-round draw in Tokyo with which Japanese wrestler, who lay on his back kicking Ali's legs?
Antonio Inoki
Antonio Inoki was docked points for fouls while fighting from the canvas, and the bout was scored a draw.
Q 09Which shark species was discovered when one became tangled in a US Navy research vessel's sea anchor off Oahu?
Megamouth
The megamouth shark was hauled up from about 165 metres on 15 November 1976, and scientists had to create a new family, genus and species for it.
Q 10Which virus, named after a river, was first identified in simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and present-day DR Congo?
Ebola
Ebola is named after the Ebola River near Yambuku, and the simultaneous outbreak in Sudan turned out to be a different virus, now called Sudan virus.
Q 11Fearing a 1918 repeat, the US began mass vaccination against which flu after a soldier died at Fort Dix, New Jersey?
Swine flu
Swine flu vaccination ended after cases of Guillain–Barré syndrome turned up among people who had received the jab.
Q 12Microsoft, founded a year earlier, was registered as a company name in November with which state's Secretary of State?
New Mexico
New Mexico was home because Microsoft began in Albuquerque beside its first customer, MITS, and it moved to Bellevue, Washington, only in 1979.
Q 13Which US note came back in 1976 with John Trumbull's painting Declaration of Independence on its back?
The $2 bill
The $2 bill kept circulating after 1976, but it was printed less often than other notes, and many wrongly came to believe it had been discontinued.
Q 21Which writer's novel Sleeping Murder, locked away during the war, was published months after her death in 1976?
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie had left Sleeping Murder to her husband Max, and Poirot's farewell, Curtain, to her daughter Rosalind.
Q 22Halifax inventor Percy Shaw, who died in September, had patented which road-safety device in 1934?
Cat's eyes
Cat's eyes reputedly came to Shaw when a cat's eyes caught his headlights as he drove home in the dark, saving him from a crash.
Q 23Which actor, born in 1976, is a distant cousin of Richard III and read a poem at the king's 2015 reburial?
Benedict Cumberbatch
Q 14Which president said in a 1976 TV debate that there was 'no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe'?
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford made the gaffe in the second debate; in the first, a technical failure cut the sound and halted the broadcast for almost half an hour.
Q 15Who became the first woman to co-anchor a US network evening newscast, joining ABC on a five-year, $5 million contract?
Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters sat beside Harry Reasoner, who privately dismissed her hiring as a gimmick, and the deal made her the highest-paid news anchor of either sex.
Q 16Which reclusive tycoon died mid-flight from Acapulco to Houston?
Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes had grown emaciated after years as a recluse, and his aides were flying him to hospital when he died.
Q 17Whose separation from Lord Snowdon was announced in March, after she holidayed on Mustique with Roddy Llewellyn?
Princess Margaret
Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon's separation statement said there were no plans for divorce, yet they divorced in 1978.
Q 18Which famous clock's chiming mechanism broke on 5 August when a fully wound four-ton weight spun its winding drum loose?
Big Ben
Big Ben's air-brake speed regulator failed from torsional fatigue after more than a century of use, and the clock was shut down for 26 days over nine months before full service resumed on 9 May 1977.
Q 19Which body did Callaghan's government turn to in 1976 as the pound plunged?
The IMF
The IMF demanded massive public spending cuts in return for its loan, a deal that shored up the pound.
Q 20Which ex-MP, nearly bankrupted by a failed investment, wrote Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less to pay off his debts?
Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Archer's novels went on to restore his fortune, turning an ex-MP who had faced bankruptcy into a bestselling author.
Benedict Cumberbatch went on to play Richard III himself in the BBC's The Hollow Crown.
Q 24Which Spice Girl, born in 1976, got her nickname as the group's youngest member, in pigtails?
Emma Bunton
Emma Bunton's Baby Spice name came from Top of the Pops magazine, which gave all five members nicknames that the group then embraced.
Q 25Which Brazilian striker, born in 1976, scored both goals in the 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama?
Ronaldo
Ronaldo beat Oliver Kahn in the 67th and 79th minutes, completing a comeback from knee injuries that had sidelined him for years.
Q 26Which actress debuted on screen in Dino De Laurentiis's remake of King Kong, beating Goldie Hawn to the role?
Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange was a New York model when De Laurentiis spotted her, and she won the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year even though the film and her performance were widely panned.
Q 27Which gangster musical cast only children, Jodie Foster among them, and armed them with cream-firing 'splurge guns'?
Bugsy Malone
Bugsy Malone came about after Alan Parker's son suggested the heroes should be kids, and it starred Jodie Foster and Scott Baio.
Q 28Laurence Olivier's Nazi dentist in Marathon Man drills Dustin Hoffman's teeth while repeating which three-word question?
"Is it safe?"
"Is it safe?" comes from Szell, who tortures Babe because he fears Babe's brother told him about the diamonds Szell has hidden in New York.
Q 29Which British group won Eurovision in The Hague with 'Save Your Kisses for Me'?
Brotherhood of Man
Brotherhood of Man's winner ends with a twist: the girl the singer hates leaving for work turns out to be his three-year-old daughter.
Q 30Which guitarist's drunken call at a Birmingham gig to vote for Enoch Powell led to the founding of Rock Against Racism?
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton had had a 1974 hit with a cover of Bob Marley's 'I Shot the Sheriff', and an outraged letter to NME from Red Saunders and friends turned an idea into a movement in August.