First Time, Last Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1896

The first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, over a thousand years after the demise of the ancient games. Fourteen nations were represented at this games comprising 241 athletes and 43 events. The first modern Olympic medallist was James Connolly, winning the triple jump.

Answer: 2018

The Parker Solar probe, first to be named after a living person (Eugene Parker), was launched from Cape Canaveral on 12 August 2018. The probe was designed to assess the structure and dynamics of the coronal plasma and magnetic field of the sun. The probe uses gravity from Venus to assist in the alteration of its orbit to gradually decrease the distance to the sun, with a plan to complete 24 orbits.

Answer: 1901

How better to spend your 63rd birthday than to be sealed in a barrel and sent over Niagara Falls, risking death. The barrel was padded with a mattress and Annie climbed in with her "lucky" pillow before the lid was screwed on and the barrel pressurised using a bicycle pump. Less than twenty minutes later, Annie was "rescued" with only a small gash on her head but otherwise uninjured.

Answer: 1957

Over the 21-day mission, Sputnik 1 completed 1440 orbits of the earth and travelled approximated 70 million km (43 million miles). Sputnik 1 was launched on 4th October 1957 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan, before running out of battery power three weeks later.

Answer: 1960

Being the first star to pose with her star is possibly where the myth originated about Joanne Woodward being the first to receive a star on the Walk of Fame. According to Wikipedia sources, Woodward's star was one of eight randomly chosen from the original 1558 stars to be installed as prototypes. The first permanent star completed belonged to director Stanley Kramer.

Answer: 1543

Catherine Parr was the final queen consort of the House of Tudor and the last of the six wives of Henry VIII (married in 1543). Henry was the third of Catherine's four husbands, with Catherine marrying Thomas Seymour in the same year of Henry's death. She passed away in September of 1548, aged 36.

Answer: 1972

Eugene Cernan was the eleventh and last person to walk on the moon during the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s. He travelled into space three times and was a backup crew member of three other missions. Cernan was the commander of the final Apollo mission - #17.

Answer: 2009

Millvena Dean was the youngest passenger on the RMS Titanic (at two months old) and the last survivor, passing away in 2009 at the age of 97. Dean, her mother and brother were among the first of the third-class passengers of the sinking ship, being placed in lifeboat 10 - the second to last lifeboat to be picked up by the Carpathia at approximately 8am, after about six hours in the water.

Answer: 1936

The last Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) in captivity died in 1936 after being held for around three years at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia. The last thylacine to die outside Australia died at London Zoo in 1931. The thylacine was referred to as a "tiger" due to the stripes on its back being similar to that of a tiger, but also referred to as a "wolf" because it had similar characteristics to a dog.

The closest living relative to the thylacine is the Tasmanian devil or numbat, and is one of only two marsupials to have a pouch in both sexes, the other being the water opossum.

Answer: 1990

Whilst several of Dr Seuss' books were published after his death in 1991, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" was published by Random House in 1990, and the last to be published before Seuss' death. This book is written in the style of "Green Eggs and Ham" and "The Cat in the Hat". Dr Seuss is recognised as one of the most popular children's authors of all time.