Happiness Is Easy Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alexandrina Victoria

Queen Victoria was born Alexandrina Victoria on 24 May 1819. Known as Drina in her childhood, she was fifth in line for the UK throne when she was born as her father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, was the fourth son of King George III. However, none of his elder brothers had legitimate issue before they died. She inherited the throne a month after her 18th birthday, narrowly avoiding a regency.

She was identified as having very strict standards of personal morality which influenced British society and culture, but she was not above trying to privately influence government policy including ministerial appointments.

In 1840, she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which Victoria described in her diary as the "happiest day of her life". The Queen detested childbirth, but had nine children anyway, most of which, in turn, married into royal and noble families across Europe She then became the "grandmother of Europe".

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was born on 26 August 1819 in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His family was connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs through marriage. As a royal consort, he felt constrained in his role, in which he had little power or responsibility. However, he pursued educational reform and the worldwide abolition of slavery. He also ran the Queen's household. Victoria came to be more dependent on Albert's support. He moderated his wife's often partisan views in her supposedly ceremonial-only connection with the British Parliament. They were clearly enamoured with each other.

In 1859 Albert became plagued with chronic stomach pain and William Jenner, his physician, diagnosed typhoid fever on 9 December 1861. He died five days later. Queen Victoria was overwhelmed with grief - some say she never recovered from it - and she wore black for the rest of her life. Many public monuments were built to commemorate Prince Albert. In fact, there are collectively more monuments dedicated to Albert than to Queen Victoria.

Victoria and Albert were married for 21 years. Victoria lived (and reigned) for another 40 years, but the the happiest times of her life were the times she lived alongside her husband.

Answer: Grace Kelly

Rainier III, Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, was born in 1923, and was Prince of Monaco from 1949 until his death in 2005. He was the only son of Hereditary Princess Charlotte and Prince Pierre. He was responsible for transforming Monaco's economy from a casino/gambling base to a tax haven and tourist destination.

Grace Patricia Kelly, born in 1929, was a talented American actress. Before her marriage, she starred in eleven Hollywood films from 1951-1956. In that time she received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. She retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier.

The two met at a photo shoot at the Prince's Palace when she headed the U.S. delegation at the nearby Cannes Film Festival in April 1955. After some initial complications, they married in Monaco in April 1956 in both a civil and a Catholic Church ceremony where she became the Princess of Monaco.

They had three children together: Princess Caroline in 1957, Prince Albert (heir to the throne) in 1958, and Princess Stephanie in 1965. They had a very successful and happy marriage.

Princess Grace died in 1982 in a car crash caused by a stroke. Prince Rainier vowed never to remarry, which he never did. He was buried alongside his wife in the Grimaldi family vault in Monaco in 2005.

Answer: Joanne Woodward

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward, born in 1930, was an esteemed American actress. She made her name in the 50s playing playing complex women with talent, depth, and aplomb. She won an Academy Award for her best-known movie, "The Three Faces of Eve" (1957), and also won three Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She married Paul Newman in 1958 after he divorced his first wife of nine years, Jackie Witte.

Paul Leonard Newman, born in 1925, was an American actor and film director after he served in the US Navy in WWII. Later he became a racing car driver and philanthropist. His talent as an actor can be measured, not by his Academy Award for Best Actor for "The Color of Money" (1986), but also by the fact that he was nominated for the same award a total of nine times.

The couple met in 1953 during the Broadway production of "Picnic". This was Newman's debut, while Woodward was an understudy. After they both filmed "The Long, Hot Summer" in 1957, Newman divorced his first wife to marry Woodward. They had three daughters together (Newman had a son and two daughters from his first marriage). They were married for fifty years until Newman died of lung cancer in 2008. According to a "Country Living" magazine article, he attributed relationship success with his wife to "some combination of lust and respect and patience. And determination."

Answer: Simone de Beauvoir

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980) was a French polymath who included philosophy, novel, play, and biography authorship, screenwriting, literary criticism, and political activism as his occupations. He is particularly remembered for his Marxism philosophy and his leadership in existentialism which massively influenced sociology, critical theory and post-colonial theory. Despite declining official honours, he was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, and feminist activist. She did not consider herself a philosopher, but she had significant influence and input into both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. Her best-known works were "The Second Sex" (1949), and her novels, "She Came to Stay" (1943) and "The Mandarins (1954)".

The two met in 1926 and became a couple in 1929, though neither of them considered marriage. Beauvoir called their relationship a lifelong "soul partnership", and they were together 51 years, though their partnership was not exclusive. This did not seem to diminish their relationship with each other. They both died in the 1980s, and share a grave at the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

Answer: Mumtaz Mahal

Mirza Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (1592 - 1666), also known as Shah Jahan I (translation -'King of the World'), was the fifth Mughal emperor, reigning from 1628 until 1658. He was the third son of Jahangir (reigned 1605 -1627), and earned his family's respect by leading military campaigns against the Sisodia Rajputs of Mewar and the nobles of the Deccan. When his father died in 1627, Shah Jahan defeated his youngest brother Shahryar Mirzaand, and became emperor. He then killed off all of his other rival claimants to the throne.

Mumtaz Mahal (The Exalted One of the Palace) was born Arjumand Banu Begum in 1593 to a wealthy Persian family. She became the empress consort of the Mughal Empire, aged 19, from 1628 to 1631 as the chief consort of Shah Jahan. (He had four wives, and she was the second and was married to him two years after Kandahari Begum, his first). He was so taken with Mumtaz that he rarely exercised his polygamous rights with his two other concurrent wives, other than siring one child with each.

She was clearly his favourite wife, and she bore him 14 children and died during the childbirth of the 14th. Shah Jahan had already commissioned many notable buildings, including the Red Fort and Shah Jahan Mosque. He then built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for her as a measure of his undying love. From reports, he was inconsolable and he went into secluded mourning for an entire year. When he emerged from mourning, his hair had turned white and he was physically much weaker. Illness plagued him thereafter.

In 1657 when he felt his end was near, he appointed his eldest son Dara Shikoh as his successor. However, he had three sons, and his third son, Aurangzeb, emerged as the victor and became the sixth emperor, executing all of his brothers to eliminate any further challenge. Shah Jahan had recovered, however, so in July 1658 Aurangzeb imprisoned his father in Agra Fort until his death in January 1666. He was granted his last wish, and was interred with his wife in the Taj Mahal.

Answer: Goldie Hawn

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell met on a movie set in 1968, but at that stage the six-year age difference (she was 23, he was 17) kept them apart. At an audition for "Swing Shift" in 1983, the two met again and 40+ years later they are still together. This makes their relationship one of the longest in Hollywood (along with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and Denzel and Pauletta Washington).

They never married, but have been often quoted that the reason they are still together is because they did not get married. They have successfully raised a blended family; Goldie had two children (Oliver and Kate Hudson) with her second husband, Bill of the Hudson Brothers (rock band), Kurt had a son, Boston, with his wife, actress Season Hubley (1980 - 1983), and together they have a son, Wyatt, (born 1986) who is also an actor.

Answer: María Eva Duarte

The Perons were an Argentine political power couple who appeared devoted to one another. Juan Peron came from a lower middle-class background and had a military career before he commenced in politics in 1941. He was 48 and Secretary for the Department of Labour when he met 24-year-old María Eva Duarte, a radio actress, at a political fundraiser in 1944. They were married in 1945, and Juan was elected President of Argentina the following year.

Whilst Eva, known by her nickname of Evita, had no political knowledge or ambition when she met Juan, this quickly changed. She became the darling of the working class. She became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, fighting for labour rights. She also ran two large ministries - Labor and Health, she founded the charity Eva Perón Foundation, campaigned fervently for Argentine women's suffrage in Argentina, and established and managed the nation's first female political party, the Female Peronist Party.

Her husband founded the Argentine political ideology of justicialism, which became more popularly known as Peronism; it had three major concepts: "Economic Independence", or an economy that does not depend on other countries by promoting and increasing its own national industry base, "Social Justice", the continual fight against socio-economic inequalities, and "Political Sovereignty", rejecting any interference of foreign powers in the domestic affairs of the country. It was his wife's drive for social justice that gave the ideology its second 'plank'.

On Evita's 33rd birthday (May 7, 1952), she was given the title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation" by Juan. She became quite ill soon afterwards and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. A month later Eva joined Juan in a parade through Buenos Aires to celebrate his re-election as President of Argentina, but Eva needed a frame under her coat to allow her to stand as she was now in great pain. She died on July 26, 1952, and was given a state funeral, the first non-politician to be afforded such an honour.

Answer: Maria Sklodowska

Maria Salomea Sklodowska was born in Warsaw in 1867. She gained her first degree at the Flying University, and began her practical scientific training soon after. At 24, she and her elder sister moved to Paris to earn higher degrees. She met Pierre Curie, an instructor at The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI Paris), where he found some space in his small laboratory for Marie, as she was then known in France.

Their mutual passion for science brought them closer. Pierre proposed, but Marie did not accept, as she wanted to go back to Poland to work. Undaunted, Pierre said he would follow, even if it meant he would have to teach French to work. However, she was refused a university position because of sexism in academia. Pierre talked her into returning to Paris to earn a PhD. She did and they were married in 1895, resuming their work together.

Marie was a pioneer in radiation. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She was also the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the first person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her husband, Pierre Curie, became a co-winner of her first Nobel Prize, therefore making them the first married couple to win this prize.

Pierre was tragically killed in 1906, when he slipped and fell under the wheel of a horse-drawn cart, which killed him instantly. Marie died a widow in 1934, aged 66, from aplastic anaemia. It was thought that she became anaemic from her long-term radiation exposure. However, after her body was exhumed in 1895 her illness was more likely to have been due to her use of unprotected radiography during WWI.

Answer: Linda Eastman

Linda Eastman was born in New York City in 1941. She was a noted photographer and animal rights activist. Her career as "Town and Country" magazine photographer gave her many assignments to photograph musicians. She met Paul McCartney at the Bag O'Nails club on May 15, 1967, while on a London photo assignment. They met sporadically in New York and London after that. Eastman had a daughter, Heather, to which McCartney adopted and had a special bond. The couple was married in a small civil service in London in 1969.

Despite a public backlash against her marrying her husband, Linda had a huge effect on her celebrity husband. She shielded him from the public glare, she grounded him in an ordinary life by living on a secluded farm, he drove their kids to school in a Land Rover, and she converted him to vegetarianism. He in turn taught her to play the keyboards and they recorded the album "Ram" (1971) together. They formed the band Wings in the same year.

The couple appeared to be devoted to each other and stayed together until Linda died prematurely at 56 from breast cancer in 1995.

Answer: Jacqueline Bouvier

Jacqueline Bouvier was a reporter for the "Washington Times-Herald" and was introduced to John F. Kennedy, a senator from Massachusetts, by journalist Charles Bartlett, according to James Patterson's "The House of Kennedy" (2020). Jackie interviewed him shortly after she met him. They were engaged and married within a year on September 1953 with 600 political and social figures attending the ceremony and close to 900 at the reception. JFK's presidency was celebrated by the nation as they were a young family; Jackie was 31 when the president was elected and she gave birth to her son John Junior two weeks after the election.

Despite reports of infidelity, in a 2023 interview with "People" magazine one of the couple's close friends was quoted as, "At the end of the day, Jack came back to Jackie - and that was it. They loved each other." JFK's brother, Teddy, claimed in Sarah Bradford's book, "America's Queen" (2000), "My brother really was smitten with her right from the very beginning when he first met her at dinner".

Perhaps, the closeness of their relationship was best demonstrated, publicly at least, when the couple lost their son Patrick soon after he was born in August 1963.

The couple had only ten years of married life together before JFK was assassinated. Most would remember the courage and dignity of Jackie Kennedy in the days that followed, and the massive steps she took to effort to preserve her husband's public legacy. Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill in a 2023 interview stated that "She wanted to be sure he was remembered as a great president."