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50 free 1976 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Israeli commandos freed 102 hostages from a hijacked Air France jet at Entebbe airport in which country?
Uganda
The hijackers were welcomed to Uganda by its president and backed by over 100 Ugandan soldiers, 45 of whom died in the raid along with every hijacker. The lone Israeli death was Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of a future prime minister.
Q 02Which city's American Legion convention gave its name to a new pneumonia that killed 29 of the delegates?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel hosted the three-day convention in July, and the bacterium behind Legionnaires' disease was only identified months later and named Legionella pneumophila.
Q 03Which region's wines beat France's best in a Paris blind tasting judged by French experts, the 'Judgment of Paris'?
California
A Napa County, California wine was rated best in both the white and the red flight, to the shock of organiser Steven Spurrier, a British merchant who sold French wine and assumed the French would win.
Q 04Apple's first product, a pre-assembled board for hobbyists, went on sale at what price chosen for its repeating digits?
$666.66
The Apple I cost $666.66 because Steve Wozniak liked repeating digits and it was a one-third markup on the $500 wholesale price; he said he had no idea about the number of the beast. Jobs's first order was 50 boards for the Byte Shop.
Q 05North Korean soldiers killed two US Army officers at Panmunjom who were leading a work party trimming what?
A poplar tree
A poplar tree blocked the view between a UN checkpoint and an observation post, and three days later Operation Paul Bunyan felled it under a massive show of force, after which Kim Il Sung sent a message of regret.
Q 06Which 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 stepped in after Denver became the only city ever to hand back a Winter Games, following a 1972 referendum, so a second cauldron was built and lit beside the first.
Q 07Which TV series' fans wrote to the White House to rename the first space shuttle, which was to be called Constitution?
Star Trek
Enterprise was rolled out at Palmdale on 17 September with Gene Roddenberry and most of the original Star Trek cast watching, after the president admitted he was 'partial to the name'. It never flew in space.
Q 08Anita 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 09Muhammad 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 kicked Ali's legs 107 times from the mat under rules agreed shortly before the bout, and the Budokan crowd threw rubbish into the ring and chanted 'Money back!' at the so-called War of the Worlds.
Q 10Which 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, and only around 300 have been seen since, making it one of the rarest large animals known.
Q 11Which virus, named after a river, was first identified in simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and present-day DR Congo?
Ebola
Ebola took its name from the Ebola River near Yambuku, the village hit by the second outbreak, and the new virus was at first mistaken for the related Marburg virus.
Q 12Fearing a 1918 repeat, the US began mass vaccination against which flu after a soldier died at Fort Dix, New Jersey?
Swine flu
The swine flu never spread beyond Fort Dix, but the vaccine was linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome, the programme was suspended within three months, and the affair is blamed for feeding vaccine hesitancy to this day.
Q 13Microsoft, founded a year earlier, was registered as a company name in November with which state's Secretary of State?
New Mexico
Q 21Which sports minister was named Minister for Drought in the last week of August, days before heavy rain brought floods?
Denis Howell
Denis Howell was ordered by No. 10 to do a rain dance on the nation's behalf and was promptly renamed 'Minister for Floods'; in the harsh winter of 1978-79 he was made Minister for Snow.
Q 22Which body lent Britain $3.9 billion, its largest loan request ever, on condition of deep public spending cuts?
The IMF
The IMF bailout let the Callaghan government steady sterling, yet only half the loan was ever drawn and it was repaid by 4 May 1979, the day after the election that brought Thatcher to power.
Q 23Which ex-MP, nearly bankrupted by a fraud, wrote Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less to clear debts of almost £500,000?
Microsoft was run from Albuquerque, New Mexico, beside its first customer, and only moved to Bellevue, Washington, in 1979 because top programmers would not relocate to Albuquerque. Revenue for the year was $16,005.
Q 14Which US note came back after a ten-year gap, Trumbull's Declaration of Independence replacing Monticello on its back?
The $2 bill
The $2 bill's return in the spring coincided with the Bicentennial, which is why so many people believe it was issued to mark it, though the Treasury's real aim was to save on printing costs by replacing $1 notes.
Q 15Which president's debate claim of 'no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe' is blamed for losing him the election?
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford made the gaffe in the second of the first televised presidential debates since 1960; in the first, the sound failed 81 minutes in and both candidates stood silently at their lecterns for 27 minutes.
Q 16Who 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 disliked having a co-anchor at all, and the deal made her the highest-paid news anchor of either sex. She also moderated that year's third presidential debate.
Q 17Which reclusive tycoon died mid-flight from Acapulco to Houston, so wasted the FBI used fingerprints to identify him?
Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes, 6ft 4in tall, weighed barely 90 pounds with long hair and nails after a decade living in hotel suites, and with no valid will his estate was divided among cousins and other heirs.
Q 18Which Liberal leader quit in May amid rumours of a plot to kill ex-lover Norman Scott, whose Great Dane had been shot?
Jeremy Thorpe
Jeremy Thorpe was tried at the Old Bailey in 1979 for conspiracy to murder and acquitted, but the scandal ended his career; the bungling hitman had shot Scott's dog Rinka instead of Scott.
Q 19Whose separation from Lord Snowdon was announced in March, after a tabloid printed a swimsuit photo of her on Mustique?
Princess Margaret
Princess Margaret had been photographed on the island with Roddy Llewellyn, 17 years her junior, and the couple acknowledged on 19 March that the marriage had 'irretrievably broken down'.
Q 20Which 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.
Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Archer lost his first fortune in the Canadian Aquablast scheme, gave up his Louth seat rather than sit as a bankrupt, and wrote the book in autumn 1974; it reached British shops in autumn 1976 after a US release.
Q 24Which writer died in January, before the October release of Sleeping Murder, a Miss Marple case written in the Blitz?
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie wrote Sleeping Murder and Poirot's farewell Curtain during the Second World War and held them back for posthumous release, so it became the last Christie novel ever published.
Q 25Which Carry On star suffered a fatal heart attack on stage as the audience laughed, believing it was scripted?
Sid James
Sid James collapsed at the Empire Theatre on 26 April during a revival of The Mating Season, four days after the sixth series of Bless This House ended, and the technical manager closed the curtain and called for a doctor.
Q 26Halifax 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 on a fence reflected his headlights back at him on a dark Queensbury road, and the studs earned him an OBE for services to exports in 1965.
Q 27Which composer of Peter Grimes died at Aldeburgh months after becoming the first composer made a life peer?
Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten became Baron Britten of Aldeburgh in the summer, died of congestive heart failure within six months, and was buried in the Suffolk town whose festival he had founded in 1948.
Q 28Which Sherlock star, born in London on 19 July, is a distant cousin of Richard III and read at his 2015 reburial?
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch, the son of actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, is Richard III's third cousin 16 times removed and went on to play the king himself in The Hollow Crown.
Q 29Which Spice Girl, born in Finchley on 21 January, got her nickname as the youngest member, in pigtails with a lollipop?
Emma Bunton
Emma Bunton was 'Baby Spice', and after the group she co-presented Heart Breakfast in London with Jamie Theakston for five years.
Q 30Which Brazilian striker, born in Itaguaí on 18 September, scored both goals in the 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama?
Ronaldo
Ronaldo took the Golden Boot with eight goals as Brazil won a fifth title, tying Pelé's Brazilian record of 12 World Cup goals in a comeback from knee injuries that had threatened his career.