Netherlands People: Famous & Historical Trivia

1. Born in Leiden, which famous Dutch painter's best known works include "The Night Watch" and "Bathsheba at her Bath"?

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden then in the Dutch Republic in 1606. He was active primarily during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. His most recognizable painting is "The Night Watch" which is on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The painting is so large that the people depicted in it are nearly life sized.

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

KLM began regular scheduled flights in 1919 and has continued to do so ever since, except in World War II. In its early days flights to Indonesia, then a Dutch colony, were regularly scheduled. Before World War II very few other airlines had regular services over such long routes.

From Quiz World Famous Dutch People

Answer: Peter Stuyvesant

He ruled New Amsterdam from 27 May 1647 until it was conquered by the British on 9 September, 1664. The burgomasters ('masters of the civilians') proclaimed Captain Richard Nicholls governor. He was a captain of four English vessels, sent by the Duke of York, and the town was called New York. All that remains today is a Stuyvesant Street, a Stuyvesant High School and Middle School and a neighborhood called Stuyvesant Town. In his early childhood Stuyvesant's name was Pieter. He Latinized that name into Petrus. In the nineteenth century his name was anglicized by American historicist into Peter, a form not used in the seventeenth century. A replica of the tombstone of Stuyvesant can still be admired in New York. It can be found on the outside of the St. Mark's church wall. Learn more about Stuyvesant at http://www.peterstuyvesant.org.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: Famke Janssen

Famke Janssen was born in Amstelveen, Netherlands. She is best known for playing Phoenix, one of the mutant superheroes in the "X-Men" franchise as well as playing Lenore, Liam Neeson's ex-wife in the action franchise "Taken". Prior to either of those roles, she portrayed Bond femme fatale Xenia Onatopp in "Goldeneye".

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: Queen Wilhelmina

Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962) granted KLM the title 'Royal Dutch Airlines' in 1919 upon the inauguration of its first scheduled flights. She was a proud supporter and friend of Dutch aviation throughout her reign.

From Quiz World Famous Dutch People

Answer: Arie Luyendijk

When Arie moved to the States he renamed himself "Luyendyk". Besides his great achievement in Indianapolis, Arie won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1989, co-driving a Nissan GTP with Geoff Brabham and Chip Robinson and backed up his sports car racing credentials with a popular victory in the 1998 24 Hours of Daytona, sharing the winning MOMO Ferrari 333SP with Gianpiero Moretti, Didier Theys and Mauro Baldi. Arie has also been invited to represent IndyCar racing in the International Race of Champions (IROC) series. Becoming to old to drive himself, Arie shifted his focus on managing Arie Luyendyk Jr. He is a talented driver in the open wheel cars and races in the A1GP. Jan Lammers and Rob Slotemakers are well know racers in The Netherlands but their stardom seldomly crossed the Dutch Border.

From Quiz Quadruple Dutch

Answer: MC Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was not a painter, but produced woodcuts and lithographs. Typical of his work is the stunning play with perspective, such as a staircase that seems always to go up until the point where one started, or a waterfall that goes round back to its starting point. I especially like the graphic "Sky and Water", which has geese at the top and fish at the bottom, and in the middle these two animal species seamlessly merge into each other. He came in at number 37 on the list of the Greatest Dutchman. The Baroque painter Rembrandt (1606-1669) and the post-impressionist painter Van Gogh (1853-1890) both ended in the top-10 of the Greatest Dutchman: Rembrandt at number 9 and Van Gogh at number 10. Rembrandt is of course best known for his work "The Night Watch", while Van Gogh excelled at painting "Sunflowers". Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944) painted in various styles, but is best known for his abstract tableaux of large rectangles in primary colours (red, yellow, blue and white). He is listed as number 90 on the Greatest Dutchman.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: Alex & A

Alex Van Halen was born in Amsterdam in 1953 while Eddie was born in the city in 1955. The brothers, along with Mark Stone and David Lee Roth, founded the band Van Halen in 1972. Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the most popular rock bands of all time. Eddie was the guitarist and Alex was the drummer. The band played together frequently until Eddie passed away in 2020 from a stroke and the band broke up shortly afterward.

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: He flew a red Fokker DR 1 Triplane

Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918) also known as 'The Red Baron' was a famous fighter pilot in WWI. He was victorious in over 80 missions until his red Fokker was shot down and he was killed in 1918. His nickname was due to the fact that on all of his missions during WWI, he flew the Fokker DR 1 Triplane, which was solid red.

From Quiz World Famous Dutch People

Answer: van Rijn

Vincent Van Gogh is also a famous Dutch painter who lived in the 19th century. "Rhine" is the English translation of the river The Rijn. The Maas is an other major Dutch river, like the Rijn. Maes (Nicolaes) was one of the students of Rembrandt. Rembrandt van Rijn created a total of 300 paintings, 300 sketches and more than 2000 drawings. His best known artwork is The Nightwatch. In 1715 this masterpiece was moved to a different location where is had to fit between two windows. They simply trimmed the sides and cut of three figures. How rude! Rembrandt is undoubtedly the most important artist from the 17th century. Born in 1606 in Leiden, he was the son of a windmill owner. Very Dutch indeed. During the last years of his live, Rembrandt created his best self portraits. In these you can really see all the suffering. He went bankrupt and three of his new born babies died shortly after birth. The fourth son (named Titus) did survive but then his wife (Saskia) died shortly after giving birth. He remarried and had a daughter Cornelia. He outlived his son Titus and his second wife Hendrickje. He died on October 4 1669 and was buried in an unmarked grave.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: No one knows

Mata Hari was an exotic dancer who led an interesting life. She married a man named Rudolph MacLeod who likely gave her and their children syphilis. The MacLeods led a promiscuous lifestyle until their divorce in 1906. During World War I, Mata Hari traveled around Europe which was deemed suspicious but also advantageous. She was recruited by the French to seduce Crown Prince Wilhelm II, whom the French incorrectly assumed was a leader in the German forces. What exactly happened is unclear. It is believed she attempted to secure a meeting with the Crown Prince by promising the Germans French military secrets as a ploy. However, the Germans exposed her as a double agent when she provided them only with personal information about the sex lives of important Frenchmen. At her trial, she admitted to being a German spy, although there is a large following that believes she is a scapegoat. Mata Hari was executed by firing squad in 1917. Since no one claimed her body, it was donated to the Museum of Anatomy. Her head was preserved but there is no account of what the museum did to the rest of her body. In addition, her head has since disappeared. The disappearance was first noticed in 2000 but may have been gone as early as the 1950s.

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: Albert Plesman

Albert Plesman (1889-1953) was the founder of KLM and was knighted by Queen Wilhelmina for his pioneering work in aviation. He received the highly respected Order of Orange-Nassau.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: Theo van Gogh

Theo van Gogh was assassinated by Mohammad Bouyeri in an apparent response to van Gogh's film "Submission" which exposed violence against Muslim women in Arab countries. Theo van Gogh's collaborator on the film, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was also threatened. Bouyeri shot and stabbed van Gogh while the latter was cycling in Amsterdam. Using a knife, Bouyeri stabbed several death notes onto van Gogh's stomach to Ali, Jews and other people and organizations. The assassination shocked Amsterdam, which is generally known as a peaceful, harmonious city.

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: Anton Fokker

Anton Fokker (1890-1930) is famous for the aircraft he produced during and after WWI. His company was the premier manufacturer of civilian planes during the 1920s and early 1930s. In addition, Fokker aircraft were instrumental in many famous flyers' lives as well as in one major disaster.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: Desiderius

Desiderius Erasmus was born in Rotterdam in 1466. He was a Catholic priest who wrote about philosophical issues in his day. Erasmus remained loyal to the Catholic Church during the Reformation, despite his many criticisms of it. He was generally seen as offering a compromise between the two sides of the schism. He is best known, perhaps, for retranslating the New Testament into Greek and Latin.

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: Jacob van Zanten

Jacob van Zanten (1927-1977) perished in the Tenerife Plane Disaster along with over 500 others. It was determined that the crash of two planes on the runway was due to pilot error and control tower misinformation.

From Quiz World Famous Dutch People

Answer: Germany

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was born in 1929 in Germany in Frankfurt am Main. Her family fled to Amsterdam when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. In 1941 all German Jews who lived outside Germany were declared stateless by a Nazi law. Anne desired to become Dutch. She spoke and wrote in Dutch. The Frank family and their friends, who hid in the Backhouse, were betrayed and arrested in 1944. Only the father, Otto Frank, survived the war, all others died in imprisonment. Otto published the 324 pages 1947 but onely after a lot of hesitations. The diary has been translated all over the world, making Anne's story world famous. Trivially enough Anne Frank was on the list of "greatest Dutch Person (grootste Nederlander)" in 2004 as well as "Greatest German Person (Unsere Besten)" in 2003. She made it to the 8th and 134th place respectively, which confirms my point that she is often regarded as a Dutch girl.

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: Knute Rockne

Knute Rockne (1888-1931) was also one of the most celebrated college football coaches of all time. His association with The University of Notre Dame is legendary, even leading to a film about his career there. He is credited with refining the forward pass among other plays in American football.

From Quiz World Famous Dutch People

Answer: A flight in the Space Shuttle

All are important events in 1985 but Wubbo only participated in the Space Shuttle Flight Challenger launched on October 31st. He was in Spacelab D-1 responsible for the test equipment and a lot of scientific experiments. With that flight he also became the first Dutchman in space. Born Dutchman Lodewijk van den Berg flew with the Challenger a half year earlier but he became American citizen in 1975. The International Astronomical Union named a planetoid after Wubbo Ockels, full name "9496 Ockels". The tiny planet revolves between Mars and Jupiter around the sun and has a maximal diameter of 11.4 kilometers.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: Astronomy

Jan Oort is a Dutch astronomer best known for his research into the Milky Way Galaxy. He was the first person to consider the possibility of dark matter. He also calculated the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and determined such a place was not the Sun as was commonly believed in the day. He is best known for his namesake Oort Cloud which is believed to be were comets originate and form something of a boundary to the solar system.

From Quiz Flying Dutchmen

Answer: Frank Versteegh

Frank Versteegh began participating in aerobatic events at the age of 18 in 1972. Although his stunts have a daredevil aspect, he promotes safety in all areas of aviation.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: Swimming

Inge de Bruijn was an eight-time Olympic medalist (including four gold). She was born in Barendrecht and her brother is also an Olympic athlete in water polo. She competed in four Olympics from 1992-2004 but only one medals in 2000 and 2004. Her gold-medal win the 50m Freestyle in 2004 was historic because she was, at the time, the oldest person to win a gold medal in swimming at the Olympic Games. Pieter van den Hoogenband was born in Maastricht and was a seven-time Olympic medalist (three gold). Like de Bruijn, he won medals at both the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. He was best known for swimming freestyle.

From Quiz Quadruple Dutch

Answer: Anton Philips

Anton Philips is listed 17 on the Greatest Dutchman. The Philips family started a plant for the production of domestic lighting in 1891. In 1912 Anton Philips (1874-1951) and his brother Gerard diversified into household appliances. Later on the Philips Group further diversified into medical equipment (most notably scanners for radiology). The lighting division was completely outsourced in 2018, and the household appliances division was sold in 2021. At number 18 we find Freddy Heineken (1923-2002), the former chairman of the eponymous brewery. Albert Heijn (1865-1945), the founder of the eponymous supermarket chain, is listed at number 85. And at number 51 we find Joop van den Ende (born 1942), the founder of the television producing company Endemol.

From Quiz Dutch Babies

Answer: The Hiding Place

Corrie ten Boom was a Christian watchmaker who, along with her elderly father Casper and her sister Betsie, shielded an estimated 800 Jews during the Holocaust. The ten Booms opened there house to Jewish refugees and secured hard to come by ration cards to secure food for them. They were active in the Dutch Underground until they were betrayed by an informant and sent to concentration camps. Bestie and Casper died but Corrie survived and was released before the camp was liberated. After securing her freedom, Corrie continued her work particularly with the mentally disabled. In 1971, she published "The Hiding Place" about her life and experiences.

From Quiz World Famous Dutch People

Answer: Heineken

Heineken owns and manages one of the world's leading portfolios of beer brands and is one of the world's leading brewers in terms of sales volume and profitability. Strong in taste, it is the favored beer by consumers worldwide who appreciate the high quality flavor. Rumor has it that Heineken recruited hundreds of people whose job it was to ask specifically for Heineken in American bars. If this is true, it worked! The company 'Heineken' was formed when the twenty-two year old Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought brewery 'De Hooiberg' (translation 'The Haystack') in Amsterdam in 1863. In 1886 Dr. Elion, a student of Louis Pasteur, developed a special Heineken A-yeast. This yeast is still the basis for the Heineken recipe. Alfred (Freddy) Heineken (the grandson of Gerard) joined the company in 1941. Under his command the Dutch beer developed into the world famous brand. Freddy Heineken died on January 3, 2002 aged 78. Freddy's daughter, Charlene de Carvalha-Heineken, took over the beer empire. She became the richest woman in the Netherlands instantly (yes, even richer than the Queen). Her estimated value in 2007 was 7.2 billion dollars, about 12% of Bill Gates' assets, which placed her on position 102 in the Forbes list 2007. The abduction of Freddy Heineken and his chauffeur (Doderer) took place on November 9, 1983. After a brilliantly constructed ransom payment, the abductors escaped. Heineken and Doderer were found alive in a shed in Amsterdam on November 30, and the criminals were apprehended a few weeks later. Most of the ransom money was recovered but 8 million Guilders (4 million Euros) is still missing. Corona, officially Corona Extra, a Mexican beer brand by brewery Grupo Modelo. It is light colored and in a transparent bottle, therefore it can not be stored very long. During the production cheap alternatives are used like corn and rice. This is why the taste is kind of neutral which is compensated by putting a lemon or lime slice in the bottle. The best feature of this brand is its marketing. It is very popular under young drinkers. Genuine Bud often abbreviated to Bud, is the most important beer brand of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. The "King of Beers" is the best selling beer worldwide followed by Bud Light. Budweiser is an American lager, low on taste and high on carbonic acid. Budweiser has a long dispute with the Czech brewery Budweiser Budvar. Several attempts by Anheuser-Busch to buy the factory failed. Budweiser is very well known because of the sports event sponsorships. Arthur Guinness started brewing ales initially in Leixlip. In 1759 he moved to the St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin Ireland. The beer is based on the porter style that originated in London in the early 1700s. The distinctive feature in the flavor is the roasted barley which remains unfermented. For many years a portion of the beer was aged to give a sharp lactic flavor, but Guinness has refused to confirm if this still occurs. The thick creamy head is the result of a nitrogen mix being added during the serving process.

This is category 21200

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.