Set 01 Flashcards
In 183 BC, Hannibal committed suicide in which modern-day country?
Turkey
What is a shorthand term for the repertoire and performers associated with George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective and the distinctive style of funk music they performed, a term which may reference Plainfield, New Jersey?
P-Funk
Which Russian born geographer, meteorologist, climatologist and botanist of German descent gives his name to the system of climate characterisation and helped develop one of the world’s first cloud atlases?
Wladimir Köppen
The actinopterygii comprise an amazing 95% of all fish and are therefore the most common class of vertebrates in the world. What does actinopterygii literally mean?
Ray-finned
What word means a hardened deposit of calcium carbonate cementing together other materials, including gravel, sand, clay, and silt. Found in the High Plains of the western USA, and in the Sonoran Desert. The term is Spanish and is originally from the Latin calx, meaning lime?
Caliche
Marlon Brando was born on this day in 1924 – he was nominated for 8 acting Oscars during his lifetime – for which film did he receive his first nomination in 1952?
A Streetcar Named Desire
Double Falsehood the early eighteenth century play by Lewis Theobald is believed to be a re-writing of which lost play by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher?
Cardenio
The 1920 Treaty of Trianon formally ended WW1. It was signed by the Allied powers on the one hand and representatives of which (now EU member) country on the other’?
HUNGARY
This former Royal complex, the Golistan Palace (“Palace of Flowers”), is now a museum. It is to be found within which city’s Arg (citadel)?
TEHRAN
Marvel was the first comic company to give a black superhero his own comic book - which character made his first appearance in 1972?
LUKE CAGE
This theoretical contract, based on Islamic doctrine, grants special residence status to Jewish, Christian, and other non-Muslim subjects in return for taxes. While such persons have fewer 10 legal and social rights than Muslims, they are treated better than other non-Muslims. Derived from the Arabic for “people of the contract”, which Islamic term describes these non-Muslim subjects in states governed under Sharia law?
DHIMMI
In 2010, it hosted a major sporting spectacle: in which city is the ‘11 de Novembro’ stadium?
LUANDA (Africa Cup of Nations Final)
In the summer of 2010, which was the first Latin American country to legalise same-sex marriages nationwide?
ARGENTINA
In the troubled times of the 15th century, Yolande D’Aragon used her position to secure the French monarchy by marriage, diplomacy and force. She was the mother-in-law of which French king?
CHARLES VII
Which word derives from an ancient Persian one meaning a closing-off from the outside world (to keep out wild animals) to make a protected, horticultural space?
PARADISE (‘pairida?za’)
Some prisoners have been waiting on death row there for 40 years. Which Asian country’s courts show a 99% conviction rate in criminal cases?
JAPAN
Which word - from the Greek meaning “woman servant” - is a name give to a female “supporter” who assists a women through childbirth and charges for her services, these can include antenatal and postnatal visits and being on call?
DOULA
Name either of the European countries that joined NATO on 1 April 2009
ALBANIA or CROATIA
What is the name of the high school choir that is central to the US TV show ‘Glee’?
NEW DIRECTIONS
Similar in origin and meaning to ‘Baksheesh’, which term derives from a word once uttered by beggars in the dialect of Xiamen (a port in South East China) and now also refers to something obtained unofficially, whether deviously or by ingenuity?
CUMSHAW
Which German footballer’s last gasp equaliser took the 1966 World Cup Final into extra time?
Wolfgang WEBER
Claimed by some to be a homegrown US language, others have dismissed it as mere slang. Which term appeared in the mid 1970s to describe a version of English, incorporating the grammar of African languages, which also includes many words invented on the streets?
EBONICS
Micheline Roquebrune (b 1929) is a French artist. She is the second wife of which Oscar winner who celebrated his 80th birthday in August 2010?
Sean CONNERY
It carries 2 million passengers a year and each single trip lasts less than 90 seconds; which highly distinctive (and frankly unusual) part of the Paris Metro requires a separate ticket?
MONTMARTRE FUNICULAR
Created by Marvel comics, what first is claimed by Northstar, a French-Canadian mutant who revealed himself in 1992?
FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPERHERO
Established circa 7,000 years ago, which Lebanese city, founded as Gebal by the Phoenicians, got its current name from the ancient Greeks, who imported its papyrus?
BYBLOS
Who was the first man of ‘Hispanic’ background ever to hold a version of the World Heavyweight Boxing title?
John “The Quietman” RUIZ (WBA)
With 180, which country has the most products with protected origin status in the EU?
ITALY
Between AD 195, when Septimius Severus sacked and re-built the city, and AD 330 when Constantine selected it as the capital of New Rome, by what name was Byzantium /Constantinople/Istanbul known?
ANTONINIA
Earlier films include ‘Read My Lips’ and the ‘Beat that My Heart Skipped; which French director’s movies include prison thriller A Prophet’ (2009)?
Jacques AUDIARD
Sometimes combined with silk or polyester to create a textile fabric which is lightweight and looks like linen; piña is a fibre made from the leaves of which plant?
PINEAPPLE
In January 2010, which country announced it was to have two rates of exchange - 2.60 to the $US for “priority” imports, and 4.30 for other items considered non-essential?
VENEZUELA (the Bolivar)
His name is synonymous with Funky Music. He’s backed every major ‘funk’ figure, from George Clinton to Prince. What is the surname of the saxophonist introduced by James Brown on the 1974 track ‘Soul Of A Black Man’ with the words: “Maceo! Come here quick, and bring that funky licking stick!”?
Maceo PARKER
He was killed on 13 January 1963 in what is regarded as Africa’s first post-colonial military coup; Sylvanus Olympio (b1902) served as Prime Minster (1958-1961) and then as the first ever President (1961-1963) of which African nation?
TOGO
Which city, perhaps inhabited since 10000 BC but certainly in continuous habitation for 6,000 years, became an important settlement after the Aramaeans arrived and established a network of canals that still forms the basis of its modern water networks?
DAMASCUS
Under the Gonzaga family it became one of the main cultural hubs of Northern Italy, and the country as a whole. Which city is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century - Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore (“Superior”, “Middle”, and “Inferior”) - a fourth lake, Lake Pajolo, which once completed a defensive water ring of the city, dried up at the end of the 18th century?
MANTOVA or MANTUA
FC Unirea Urziceni is a football team playing in which UEFA country, having won Liga 1 in season 2008/09?
ROMANIA
59 He has two elder sisters whose ex-husbands were Ricky Nelson and John DeLorean. He has been married to Pam Dawber since 1987. Who is this former UCLA star quarterback (his father was also a Heisman Trophy winner) and leading star of US TV?
Mark HARMON
Inhabited since 3650BC and with links to the Akkadians and Hittites, this city in southern Turkey is the country’s sixth largest. Its sights include the Ravanda citadel, restored by the Byzantines in the 6th century. Which city?
GAZIANTEP or ANTEP
After declaring independence from Ottoman rule, the major European powers formally recognized Albania as an independent principality in July 1913. Independence had been asserted by an assembly convened in the place which is now the country’s second largest port city, and which was Albania’s capital until 1914. Where was this?
VLORË or VLORA
Born Jozef De Veuster he is better known as Father Damian. In 2009 the Pope declared him a Saint for his charitable work with the lepers on which Hawaiian island, where he lived and eventually died himself of leprosy in 1889?
MOLOKAI
Whose body was exhumed on the orders of Colombian president Hugo Chavez in July 2010 to facilitate investigation of suspicions of foul play having been involved in his death?
Simón BOLIVAR
Joseph Bologne (1739-99) was among the most important figures in the Paris musical scene of his day. He was also famed as a swordsman and equestrian. Known as the “Black Mozart”, he was the Chevalier de… what?
SAINT-GEORGE(S)
Which country shares its name with the band of Savannah that stretches across Africa from Mali in the west to the Ethiopian Highlands in the East?
The SUDAN
Her work depicted the everyday life of urban African Americans. In 1985 she became Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Who had earlier been the first African American poet to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her 1949 collection ‘Annie Allen’?
Gwendolyn BROOKS
Which two-word term that first gained currency in the 1950s commonly refers to a person with a non-speaking or supernumerary role in an opera or stage play?
SPEAR CARRIER
Combining traditional folk music with Eastern European and Asian influences and driving beats, Chalga, or pop folk, is a phenomenon in which EU country?
BULGARIA
On 4 June 1979, a day before his 40th birthday, which leader of the Progressive Conservative Party became Canada’s youngest prime minister and the only person to ever defeat Pierre Trudeau in a federal election?
Joe CLARK
In 2009, scare stories held that criminal gangs were killing peasant farmers and the fat from their bodies was being sold to European cosmetics manufacturers at £10,000 a litre. In which country were these (subsequently discredited) wild stories circulating?
PERU
Almost 300 years after their foundation, who or what did Constantine the Great replace in 310AD with the Scholae?
PRAETORIAN GUARD
What was the real first name of the character Corporal ‘Radar’ O’Reilly in ‘MAS*H’?
WALTER
During World War I, what was notable about the French government’s award of the Croix de Guerre to the US 369th Infantry Regiment?
ALL-BLACK (also first allied unit to reach the Rhine)
A Swedish soprano, her perfect singing and vivid acting made her a great heroine in operas by Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss and Janacek. She made her debut in 1947, aged just 20, and was still performing in the 1990s. In 1997 a Eurostar train was named in her honour. Which much loved singer died aged 82 in November 2009?
Elisabeth SÖDERSTRÖM
A mercenary leader known as ‘Mad Mike’, in July 1982, who was found guilty of hijacking a plane to escape from a failed coup in the Seychelles?
Colonel Mike HOARE
This dog has been seen at nearly every demonstration in Athens since 2008 and turned up again during the May 2010 protests against the government’s big spending cuts. How is he popularly known?
RIOT DOG’ or ‘PROTEST DOG’ real name, KANELLOS
In 2009, who became the first woman to referee snooker’s World Championship final?
Michaela TABB
It is so popular in Canada that versions of it are sold in the country’s Burger King, KFC and McDonald’s outlets; the classic version of which dish consists of French fries topped with fresh cheese curd, and covered with brown gravy?
POUTINE
Similar to the use of thread count for cotton fabrics, what unit of weight is traditionally used to measure the density of fabric made of what?
Momme
The 1969 Formula One Grand Prix championship was won by Jackie Stewart driving a car powered by a Ford engine, run by Ken Tyrrell. What was the name of the French company who built the car near Paris?
Matra
Who was the jockey who won the Grand National in 1967 on Foinavon?
A. John Buckingham
He won the English singles bowls title in 1960 (2pts) Born in North Somerset in 1931the son of an international bowler he won his first commonwealth games gold medal in 1962. (1pt) He won every Commonwealth Games singles bowls gold medal from 1962 to 1978 and was three times world singles champion. Who is this pipe smoking bowler who was still winning world championships in 1992?
David Bryant
The Marathon de Sables is a 6 day / 151 mile endurance race across the Sahara Desert normally taking place at the end of March / beginning of April. In which country does it take place?
Morocco
Billie Jean King won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. What was her maiden surname?
Moffitt
Since 1960 who has the unfortunate record of losing in the women’s singles final the most times (a total of seven)
Chris Evert
This Belgian lady was born in Liege in 1982. She has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, being four French Open titles (three being in a row), one Australian Open title, two US Open titles and gold in the singles at Athens 2004. In May 2008 she announced her retirement only to return in 2010 at the Australian Open on a wildcard entry. Who is she?
Justine Henin
The Hopman cup is a mixed tennis tournament for international teams which is held every year in which city?
Perth, WA
Tennis player Jelena Dokic played for Serbia and which other, adopted country?
Australia
The only left-handed player to win the World Championship (Ronnie O’Sullivan is ambidexturous) which he did in 2000 and 2003 he is known as the The Welsh Potting Machine. Who is he?
Mark Williams
Who is this former Finnish rally driver. Driving for Peugeot, he won the World Rally Championship in 2000 and 2002. After leaving Peugeot in 2005 he drove for Ford in 2006 and 2007 before retiring. Who is he?
Marcus Gronholm
Born in 1979 and with a Spanish grandfather. Who is the England and Sale Wing/Full back who is best remembered for his disallowed try in the 2007 World Cup final against South Africa?
Mark Cueto
These names are shared by an Englishman and an Australian both famous sportsmen (2pts) The Englishman was named after a Battleship on which his Father served and played and coached the Tampa Bay Rowdies. (1pt) The Australian was a wicketkeeper who in 96 Tests, set a world record of 355 wicketkeeping dismissals. Who are they?
Rodney Marsh
In a set of 28 dominoes how many have a total of exactly 6 dots?
A. Four
Why were the times achieved by runners unusually slow at the Olympic 3000 metre steeplechase in 1932?
They ran one lap too many
Who was the last rider not born in Northern Ireland to hold the title of champion National Hunt jockey, way back in 1992?
Peter Scudamore
In the standard ranking for hands of poker, which hand of five cards comes immediately above two pairs?
Three of a kind
As a young man in WW2 his ship was torpedoed. One of a handful to survive he escaped from being a German POW by jumping from a train and eventually got to Spain. In London in the 1950’s he married a lady of Indian descent and they had a son who became a famous sportsman. Who is the son?
Sebastian Coe
Welsh Rugby star Andy Powell (nicknamed “Brain Dead”) was charged with drunken driving in February after he was stopped driving along the hard shoulder of the M4 in the early hours of the morning. What was his chosen mode of transport?
Golf buggy
When the referee Tony Bates was injured in a match between Coventry and Nottingham Forest in February 2010 the fourth official had to take over. Thus for the first time a woman took charge of a football league match. What was her name?
Amy Fearn
Which city, with a population of 4 million, is only the seventh largest in India and the second largest in Maharashtra after Mumbai?
Pune
He represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is best known for a remarkable opening bowling partnership along with fellow West Indian Curtly Ambrose for several years and held the record of most Test wickets. He spent 14 years with Gloucestershire from 1984. Who is he?
Courtney Walsh
Who was the Northern Irish F1 driver who in 1979 moved to McLaren where he gave them their first victory in over three years by winning the 1981 British Grand Prix?
John Watson
Born in Stepney in 1939 one of his first jobs was as a bouncer at Ilford Palais which was managed by Jimmy Savile at the time. He also worked as a Billingsgate porter (2pts) His brother George was his manager and invested his earnings in a string of London nightclubs. (1pt) His nickname was “Golden Boy”. His professional record was 21 wins (16 by knockout), 8 losses and 2 draws. During 1967, he fought for both the British and European titles, losing to Henry Cooper (Great Britain) and Karl Mildenberger (West Germany) respectively. Who was he?
Billy Walker
What is the common name for the garden flower echinacea?
(PURPLE) CONEFLOWER
Give the surname of the classical music piano soloist sisters, Katia and Marielle?
LABEQUE
In Gustav Holst’s work “The Planets Suite” which planet is termed “The Mystic”?
NEPTUNE
Tavel and Hermitage wines are produced in which French wine growing area?
RHONE VALLEY
Which British Prime Minister maintained a secret correspondence with Venetia Stanley?
H H Asquith
Which Dutch Renaissance artist painted “The Hunters in the Snow”, in 1565?
PETER BRUEGEL (The Elder)
How many contestants are there in Channel 4’s TV game show, “Deal or No Deal”?
22
Under the recent vehicle registration plate nomenclature, cars beginning with the letter H, come from which area of the UK?
HAMPSHIRE
In a railway carriage near which city in Northern France did the allies and the Germans sign the Armistice which ended WWI?
COMPIEGNE
In April 2009, ex lawn tennis player Mirka Vavrinec, married which famous sportsman?
ROGER FEDERER
Vouvray and Sancerre wines come from which wine region of France?
LOIRE VALLEY
In which African country is the Danikil Desert?
ETHIOPIA
Who was the Prime Minister of France at the outbreak of WWII?
EDOUARD DALADIER
Which scientist’s autobiography was called ‘What Do You Care What Other People Think?’
Richard Feynman
Which former college of the University of London became independent in July 2007?
IMPERIAL COLLEGE
Colonel Nicholson is one of the main characters in which famous 1957 war film?
BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
What was the middle name of Senator Edward M Kennedy, who died in August 2009?
MOORE
Which composer, born in Grenoble in 1803 wrote “Benvenuto Cellini”, the first of his three operas?
HECTOR BERLIOZ
In which month of the year is Walpurgis Night celebrated in Europe and Scandinavia?
APRIL (Eve of May Day)
Which well known 1987 film, featured a character named Private Pyle, played by Vincent D’Onofrio?
FULL METAL JACKET
In which town is the Devonshire Royal Hospital, now the Devonshire campus of the University of Derby?
BUXTON
With which antique dealer did Paddington Bear have his elevenses each day?
MR GRUBER
Which British stamp issued in 1870 was the country’s smallest ever and shares its name with a farmyard animal?
Bantam
In the poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat”, by Edward Lear, how much was paid to the pig for the ring at the end of its nose?
ONE SHILLING
Which actress played the title role of Sylvia Broome in the 2005 motion picture ‘The Interpreter’?
NICOLE KIDMAN
Who was Prime Minister of Gt. Britain, under whose premiership the Life Peerages Act was introduced?
HAROLD MACMILLAN
The body of which US President, who died in 1885, lies in Riverside Park in Manhattan, in the largest mausoleum in North America?
ULYSSES S GRANT
In the TV comedy ‘Last of the Summer Wine’, what is the name of Nora Batty’s husband?
WALLY
In classical mythology, of what was Plutus, (not to be confused with Pluto), the God?
WEALTH
Which star of the TV series, “Casualty”, played an IRA assassin in the TV mini series, “Harry’s Game”?
DEREK THOMPSON
To travel from Manhattan to new Jersey, one may ride the PATH train. For what does the H in PATH stand?
HUDSON
Who chaired the convention, which was established by the European Council in December 2001, to produce a draft Constitution for the European Union?
VALERY GISCARD D’ESTAING
In the nursery rhyme, “There was a Jolly Miller”, where did the jolly miller live?
ON THE RIVER DEE
In 1882, Britain issued a £5 postage stamp, which, up to then, was the largest British postage stamp ever printed. What colour was it?
ORANGE
Who eventually broke Bob Beamon’s 23 year-old long jump record, in 1991?
MIKE POWELL
Who wrote the book Half of A Yellow Sun, about the Biafra conflict?
Chimimanda NGOZI ADICHIE
The acclaimed 2009 vampire film Let The Right One In is filmed and set in which country?
Sweden
The Maitisong festival of music, dance and theatre takes over which African capital city annually?
Gabarone
Never one to shy away from potentially controversial subjects, God Resigns at the Summit Meeting is a play by which Egyptian feminist? She was charged with “insulting Islam” and all original Arabic copies of the play being destroyed?
Nawal El Saadawi
From the Choctaw language, what does the word ‘bobbasheely’ mean in the southern US?
A very close friend
What kind of animal, in the USA, is a ‘stone toter’?
A fish
Both ‘bobbasheely’ and ‘stone toter’ are found in the book called DARE. What is DARE, finally published in 2009 after decades of research, an acronym for?
Dictionary of American Regional English
The name of which Islamic insurgency group in Somalia means literally ‘The Lads’ or ‘The Youths’?
Al-Shabab
In a similar vein, which Egyptian musical channel showcases hip-hop with an Islamic message and has been called the ‘MTV of the Middle East’?
4Shbab
Which Belfast-born actor has appeared in such films as Veronica Guerin, There Will Be Blood, and Munich, and will play Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth in the last Harry Potter film?
Ciaran Hinds
Which Japanese multinational sponsors the annual World Photography Awards?
Sony
What is the name of the French equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize?
Prix Constantine
What name is given to the dialect or form of non-Standard Spanish spoken around the River Plate, i.e in northern Argentina and Uruguay?
Rioplatense
What is the Rioplatense equivalent of the French ‘verlan’, i.e a slang reversing the order syllables in words?
Vesre
Which world music band based in Paris has a vesre name referencing its roots in Argentinian dance?
Gotan Project
Russia and which other country both claim writer Nikolai Gogol, holding rival festivals in his honour?
Ukraine
Pieter-Dirk Uys, well-known for his character Evita Bezuidenhout (also known as Tannie Evita) is a South African comedian and that country’s version of which Australian?
Barry Humphries/Dame Edna Everage
Shenzhen, Pyongyang and Burma Chronicles are graphic novels inspired by the time which Canadian comic boook author spent in Asia?
Guy Delisle
What is an alternative name for the musical genre ‘8 bit’?
Chiptune
Thriller writer Deon Meyer specialises in fast-paced novels of revenge and redemption that also manage to give a revealing portrait of a country in transition. Including the famous Adderley Street flower market, places in which city influence his best-selling books?
Cape Town
The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival and its related awards are most associated with which city?
Cork
Which Indian-American’s debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name?
Jhumpa Lahiri
Petina Gappah is an internationally acclaimed short story writer and novellist whose work deals mainly with life in which country?
Zimbabwe
Who wrote Q and A- the basis for Slumdog Millionaire?
Vikas Swarup
Author Seth Grahame-Smith is best known for which Jane Austen parody?
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Powerful grid computers have revived a musical instrument that was last heard in Ancient Greece. It’s a 48 stringed instrument named after its inventor. Whilst no complete example survives, the instrument, somewhat similar to a harp, had a soundboard and was plucked like a guitar, What’s it called?
Epigonion
Tash Aw’s second novel ‘Map of the Invisible World’ is about which country in the midst of the purges of 1964? Supposed communists were the target of army crackdowns.
Indonesia
Which six-letter word, meaning ‘difficult to get on with’ or ‘stubborn’, is a contraction of a very common word used every day?
Ornery (from Ordinary)
Which man conned c18 London into thinking he was from ‘Formosa’, even inventing a non-existent language and tricking the Bishop of London into giving him a lectureship at Oxford in Formosan history?
George Psalmanazar
P T Barnum once exhibited the head and torso of a dead monkey attached to the tail of a dried-out fish under what name?
The Feejee Mermaid
George Hull, who rivalled Barnum as a hoaxer, buried and then claimed to have discovered a huge carved gypsum figure on a farm in upstate New York. What was this figure known as by the gullible masses?
The Cardiff Giant
Oscar Hartzell, in the early c20 conned thousands in America by leading them to believe that they could have a share of the legacy of which deceased Englishman?
Sir Francis Drake
Which devious mafia boss feigned insanity for many years depite still running a large chunk of the New York mafia in the 1970s, 80s and 90s?
Vincent ‘The Chin’ Gigante
Jimmy’s World’ was a faked ‘exclusive’ story about young drug addicts in 1980 that ruined the reputation of which otherwise well-respected US newspaper?
The Washington Post
H L Mencken was the original source of an entirely fabricated story, quoted as fact for many years, that which otherwise ineffective US President installed the first ever bathtub in the White House?
Millard Fillmore
Which loyal Persian tricked the Babylonians into surrendering their city to King Darius by mutilating himself, and then claiming to the Babylonians that he was a tortured refugee from Darius’ regime, eventually rising to military commander of the city, at which point he opened the gates?
Zopyrus
The Era of the Warring States lasted from c425 BC to c221 BC in the history of which country?
China
Which doddery, old, and gullible Austrian general surrendered the bridge at Austerlitz after the French tricked him into believing that an armistice had been signed? He was court-marshalled for his error.
General Auersperg
The British managed to capture Beersheeba during WW1 from the Ottoman empire by an elaborate ruse gulling the Turks into thinking they would attack Gaza instead. Which man, who never rose above the rank of Colonel, was responsible for the deception?
Richard Meinertzhagen
What was the name of the fictional Major in Operation Mincemeat?
William Martin
What was the name given to the large-scale operation of deception in 1944, designed to fool the Nazis into thinking the Allies could invade mainland Europe anywhere from Norway to the Mediterranean?
Operation Bodyguard
What name was given to the part of Bodyguard that made the Nazis believe a huge American force was gathering in SE England and preparing to invade via Calais?
Operation Quicksilver
Which forged document, which was used by the Popes in the Dark Ages to buttress and justify their authority, was proven as a fake by Lorenzo Valla in 1440?
The Donation of Constantine
At which battle in Northern Italy in 1525 was Francis I of France captured and held as a prisoner of war?
Pavia
Which forged document was used to justify Bismarck’s invasion of France in 1870?
The Ems Telegram
Which Act was passed by Hitler after he was elected as Chancellor that gave him all the powers of the Reichstag for the next four years?
The Enabling Act
Which dictator’s wife was particularly fond of claiming (incorrectly) that she was an eminent scientist in her own country, a deception in which her husband connived?
Elena Ceausescu
In 1984, Hosni Mubarak approved the faking of an execution in Egypt of which of Gaddafi’s former Prime Ministers, who Gaddafi had tried to hire a real hit squad to kill?
Abdul Hamid Bakkush
Which US President approved the cover-up of the Gary Powers incident?
Eisenhower
The Vietnam war really started in 1964, when the US claimed that its destroyers anchored in which body of water off North Vietnam had been fired upon?
Gulf of Tonkin
Which US President opted to have dangerous surgery for cancer of the jaw performed on board his yacht at sea because he wanted to cover up how ill he was?
Grover Cleveland
Which US vice-president, to Woodrow Wilson, was called ‘a small-calibre man’ by Wilson himself and therefore it was Wilson’s wife who took over many presidential duties after Wilson suffered a stroke?
Thomas Marshall
Who claimed to have discovered Piltdown Man?
Charles Dawson
In c18 England, Mary Tofts claimed to have given birth to which animals?
Rabbits
In 2002, a cult called Clonaid announced (it was a hoax) that they had cloned a daughter from cells taken from a mother. What was the name of the ‘daughter’?
Eve
What was the name of the ‘lost’ Shakespeare play that William Ireland claimed to have found in the c18- in fact he had written it and it was rubbish?
Vortigern and Rowena
Until exposed as frauds in the 1960s, New York’s Museum of Metropolitan Art displayed huge statues from which European civilisation as the genuine article?
Etruscan
Many of the September 11 terrorists, Timothy McVeigh, Hitler and Henry Ford all studied which (fake) document that claimed to be a ‘confession’ that Jews wanted to run the world?
Protocol of the Elders of Zion
Which Pope, who reigned from 1073 to 1085, claimed infallibility was ceded to the Catholic Church by God and that it had never erred, ‘nor can it err until the end of time’?
Gregory VII
During the Albigensian Crusades, Papal commander Arnaud Amalric uttered the famous words ‘Kill them all- God will recognise his own’ during an attack on Cathars in which French city?
Beziers
Which Pope launched the Inquisition with the words ‘It is the duty of every Catholic to persecute heretics’?
Gregory IX
What motto appeared on the belt buckles of Kaiser Wilhelm’s troops in WW1?
Gott Mit Uns
The notorious verse Leviticus 20:13 is taken as justification for an anti-homosexual stance by some Christians. In that case, if they also follow Leviticus 11:12, they should not do what?
Eat shellfish
In Russian history, how is the former monk Grigori Otrepyev better known?
The False Dmitri
The Prussian Karl Wilhelm Naundorff was the most successful and tenacious of the men claiming to be who?
Louis XVII of France
Polish peasant Franziska Schanzkowska took what name in her attempt to claim that she was a famous figure from history? (She wasn’t)
Anna Anderson
Which ancient rhetorician recorded a number of brilliant escapes in his Strategems of War (c2 AD)?
Polyaenus
Which man escaped from the Tower of London thanks to his wife helping to disguise him as a woman after being sentenced to death for his part in attempting to restore the Old Pretender to the throne?
Lord Nithsdale (5th Earl of)
In 1849, what innovative method did Henry Box Brown apply to escape from slavery? He eventually made it to Britain.
Posted himself to the North in a crate
Of whom did Churchill say ‘He Came, He Saw, He Capitulated’, blaming him for the Gallipoli fiasco?
Lt Gen Charles Monro
Which building, important in WW2, stands on a high rocky outcrop over the River Mulde in central Germany?
Colditz Castle
Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths are most associated with which hoax?
The Cottingley Fairies
Which British novelist and a group of friends once convinced the British navy to show them around the Dreadnought as they had disguised themselves as the Ethiopian royal family?
Virginia Woolf
Which Swiss town was the location of the BBC’s infamous spaghetti harvest hoax?
Ticino
Qanik and aput are two Inuit words meaning respectively what?
Snow in the air and snow on the ground (there are no other words for snow)
Amateur New York psychologist James Vicary is most associated with which technique, which has since been proven not to work (although banned anyway)
Subliminal messages
In the Bible, which was the brother of Joseph that convinced the others not to kill him but to leave him in a pit for wild beasts to eat?
Reuben
Which son of King David lusted after his half-sister Tamar and tricked her into ‘lying with him’?
Amnon
In the Bible, Ahab was king of which kingdom?
Samaria
Ahab coveted the vineyard of which Jezreelite?
Naboth
What is the name of the villainous sergeant at arms in Billy Budd, who falsely accuses Billy of sedition?
Claggart
Both Claggart and Budd are on board which ship?
The HMS Bellipotent
In To Kill a Mockingbird, which drunken bigot, who shares his surname with a small town in Surrey, accuses a black man falsely of raping his daughter Mayella?
Bob Ewell
