It's the Final Countdown Trivia Quiz

Answer: How many pipers pipe in the "12 Days of Christmas" song?

In the "12 Days of Christmas" song, there are eleven pipers piping. Nine ladies dance.
A Pinochle deck consists of 48 cards, with two copies of the cards from ace to nine in each of the four suits. The cards are not ranked numerically, though -- ace is high and then ten, king, queen, jack, nine. (Standard variations of Euchre use one copy of each card, so half a pinocle deck).
The muses (or water nymphs) in Greek mythology are the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania.
The fielding team at baseball has nine players: pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, short stop, third base, left field, centre field and right field.

Answer: Canada has three territories and how many provinces?

Since 1949 and the addition of Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada has had ten provinces in addition to its three territories: Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador. The three territories are Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
British king for less than a year, Edward VIII abdicated his throne in order to marry the divorcée Wallis Simpson. His younger brother, Albert, ascended to the throne as George VI.
Whether Germany were the eighth or ninth different winners in 2014 is a moot point, but certainly prior to that only eight countries had won since the competition began in 1930. Brazil (5 wins), Italy (4), West Germany (3), Argentina and Uruguay (2 each), France, England and Spain (1 each) were the previous winners.
When New Hampshire achieved statehood on June 21, 1788, it became the ninth state. The eight that had joined the Union earlier were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and South Carolina.

Answer: Which Beethoven symphony is known as the "Pastoral"?

Beethoven's Symphony number 6 in F major is the one known as the "Pastoral". He wrote this one simultaneously with his famous "Fifth Symphony", between 1804 and 1808 and both premiered in 1808. Beethoven's 3rd is nicknamed "Eroica" and his 9th (his final symphony) is known as the "Choral".

The Northern Cardinal is the official state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Curiously, this list includes neither state that has a major sports teams named the Cardinals -- the state bird of Missouri is the Eastern Bluebird and Arizona has the Cactus Wren.
The "seventh-inning stretch" takes place between the top and bottom halves of the seventh innings of Major League Baseball games. Fans often sing along to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", although since 9-11 this has been replaced by "God Bless America" at some stadiums. If a tied game should reach its fifth extra innings, the process may also be repeated with a "fourteenth-inning stretch".
Although early skirmishes began two years earlier, the main conflict of the war between France and England began in 1756. Often known as the "Seven Year War", hostilities ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Hubertusburg.

Answer: How many Winter Olympic Games were held before WWII?

The first Winter Olympics was staged in Chamonix, France in 1924. Subsequent games were held every four years: in St. Moritz, Switzerland in 1928, in Lake Placid, USA in 1932, and in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1936. The 1940 games, scheduled to be held in Sapporo, Japan, were canceled due to the war. The fifth Winter Olympics were next staged in St. Moritz in 1948.

Scottish actress Deborah Kerr, probably best-remembered for her role as Anna Leonowens in the 1956 classic "The King and I", was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar six times between 1949 and 1960 but never won. She was presented with an Academy Honorary Award in 1994.
Uranus is the seventh planet traveling outwards from the Sun. The six planets nearer to the Sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Jack Nicklaus's victory in the 1986 Masters was his 18th win in a major, obliterating the former record of 11 set by Walter Hagen in the post-WWI era. It was also two more Masters titles than the previous record set by Arnold Palmer. Nicklaus also won the PGA five times, equaling Hagens' total in that event. His four victories in the US Open tied the record set by Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones.

Answer: How many national capital cities start with the letter "N"?

There are actually at least eight national capitals starting with "N": Nairobi (Kenya), Nassau (Bahamas), Naypyidaw (Myanmar), N'Djamena (Chad), Niamey (Niger), Nicosia (Cyprus), Nouakchott (Mauritania) and Nukuʻalofa (Tonga), There are three additional capitals of autonomous states belonging to other countries, Ngerulmud (Palau), Nouméa (New Caledonia) and Nuuk (Greenland).

Although George Dewey (US Navy) and John Pershing (US Army) had previously been promoted from 4-Star rank (in 1903 and 1919 respectively), the rank of 5-Star was only created during WWII. The ranks were officially retired in 1981 on the death of General Omar Bradley.
Peter Davison became the fifth incarnation of the title character in the long-running UK TV series "Doctor Who" in 1982. He remained for Seasons 19-21 before he was succeeded by Colin Baker in 1984. The Doctors prior to Davison were played by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.
There are only five oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic. These five oceans contain around 97% of the water on the planet. With an average depth of nearly 12,000 feet, there is approximately 320 million cubic miles of water in the oceans, only about 5% of which has so far been explored!

Answer: Deuteronomy is which book of the Old Testament?

The first five books of the Old Testament are known as the 'Pentateuch' of the "Five Books of Moses". They are, in order, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is, therefore, the fifth book and not the fourth.

Between 1896 and 2012, and The Summer Olympics has been staged 27 times, and four of those have been held in the U.S.A. Saint Louis MO was the first US city to host the games, in 1904. Los Angeles held the games in 1932 and again in 1984. The games returned to the U.S. for the fourth time in 1996, in Atlanta. The Winter Olympics of 2002 in Salt Lake City was the fourth time the U.S. had hosted that variation of the Olympics.
Between 1933 and 1981, Katharine Hepburn was nominated twelve times for a Best Actress Oscar. She won a record four times: for "Morning Glory" in 1933, for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" in 1967, for "The Lion in Winter" in 1968 and for "On Golden Pond" in 1981. Following the 2015 Academy Awards, twelve actresses were tied with two wins each, with only Meryl Streep (with 15) having received more nominations that Hepburn.
German princess Anne of Cleves was the fourth of Henry's wives, and this was by far the shortest of his marriages, lasting just six months and three days. That he referred to her as "A Flanders Mare" might have had something to do with that! She was the second to 'escape' with a divorce (Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived is the way to remember their fates) -- although hers was technically an annulment.

Answer: How many times did Eddie Arcaro win the Kentucky Derby?

The great Eddie Arcaro rode his first Kentucky Derby winner, Lawrin, in 1938. He subsequently won on Triple Crown-winner Whirlaway in 1941, on Hoop Jr in 1945, and on Citation, another winner of the Triple Crown, in 1948. His final victory came on Hill Gail in 1952 when he was 36 years old. Arcaro's record was subsequently tied between 1957 and 1969 by Bill Hartack. Bill Shoemaker won three times between 1955 and 1965 and then added a fourth win a remarkable 21 years later.

Only three of the 50 current U.S. state capitals were officially capitals prior to independence. The oldest is Santa Fe, which became capital of the Sante Fe Territory in 1610. Boston became capital of the Massachusetts Colony in 1630 and Annapolis became capital of the Province of Maryland in 1694. The oldest city to have acquired capital status since independence is Dover DE, which became capital of the First State in 1777.
There are only five convex regular polyhedral (or Platonic solids), a tetrahedron, a square, a octahedron, a dodecahedron and an icosahedron. The faces on a cube are square and on a dodecahedron are pentagons. On the other three shapes, the faces are triangular.
The U.S.A. is the world's fourth largest country. Only Russia, Canada and China have a larger land area. Brazil, Australia, India, Argentina, Kazakhstan and Algeria round out the largest ten countries. (Sudan was in the Top 10 until South Sudan gained independence in 2011).

Answer: Which amendment to the US Constitution protects the right to a fair and speedy public trial by jury?

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the "Bill of Rights" were all submitted for ratification on September 25, 1789. The ratification process was completed on December 15, 1791. The "protection of the right to a fair and speedy public trial by jury, including the rights to be notified of the accusations, to confront the accuser, to obtain witnesses and to retain counsel" were the basis for the Sixth Amendment. The Second Amendment, as we still hear regularly in the media more than two centuries later, "protects the right to keep and bear arms".

In basketball, shots from beyond the '3-point line' are worth three points. Those made from open play within the zone enclosed by that line, also known as 'the paint', are worth two points. Free throws are worth one point each.
In the NATO flag system there are flags for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet and for each of the ten single digit numbers. Three horizontals stripes of yellow-red-yellow represents the number two. (Red-yellow-red is 1.)
About the same size and Austria or the U.S. state of South Carolina, Ireland is the third-largest island in Europe. Great Britain (about the size of Utah) is more than twice the size of Ireland, and Iceland (slightly larger than South Korea) is about 20% larger.

Answer: Henry VII was Shakespeare's 41st play, and Henry VI Part 1 was his which?

"Henry VI Part 1" was one of Shakespeare's early works, but it was not his first play. In fact, both "Henry VI Part 2" and "Henry VI Part 3" preceded it. Written between 1589 and 1591, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is generally acknowledged as Shakespeare's first play, with "The Taming of the Shrew" next. Then come the three "Henry VI" histories in their strange order. "The Two Noble Kinsmen", a Jacobean tragedy generally attributed as co-written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher, is considered the Bard's 42nd and final work.

Osborne Earl "Ozzie" "The Wizard" Smith, shortstop extraordinaire, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002, his first year of eligibility, with 91.7% of the votes. A World Series winner in his first year with the Cardinals (1982) after coming from San Diego, he played in St Louis for 15 years. A 15-time All-Star, he won 13 consecutive Gold Glove awards. He retired having played a NL record 2,511 games at shortstop having set major league records for assists (8.375) and double plays (1,590) at the position. (The latter record has since been beaten by Omar Vizquel.) The Cardinals retired his number one on September 26, 1996 (three weeks BEFORE he played his final game), the ninth Cardinal so honored. Other notable players whose number one has been retired include Billy Martin of the Yankees and Pee Wee Reese of the Dodgers.
The Polynesian island national of Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, certainly is small, just 10 square miles. Midway between Australia and Hawaii, it comprises three reef islands and six true atolls. There is one smaller independent island nation though, the Republic of Nauru. Formerly known as Pleasant Island, this island country in Micronesia has a land area of just 8.1 square miles.
With a length of 3,917 miles, the Yangtze River ranks first in a list of rivers in Asia. The world's third-longest river, after the Nine and the Amazon, it is the longest river that flows through only a single country. Rising in the Tanggula Mountains in Qinghai Province in northwestern China, the Yangtze flows southeast and then east through China to discharge into the South China Sea near Shanghai.

Answer: In how many U.S. states is jousting the official state sport?

No, really, I kid you not, but jousting really has been the official state individual sport of Maryland since 1962. The same state also adopted lacrosse as its official team sport in 2003. Only twelve states have official state sports and they include mushing (Alaska), ice fishing (Minnesota), stock car racing (North Carolina) and golf (Tennessee). There are also three states, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming, where rodeo is their official state individual sport.

With an area of just 175 square miles Africa's smallest country, the island nation of The Seychelles, is tiny. It would fit into the smallest U.S. state, Rhode Island, almost nine times, and into the smallest country in Continental Africa, The Gambia, 25 times.
The first Academy Award for Best Director was presented in 1927-28 to Frank Borzage. Since then, the award has been handed out annually. Remarkably, though, Kathryn Bigelow's victory in 2009 (almost a century later) for "The Hurt Locker" was the first time the coveted statuette was won by a female director. Barbra Streisand had become the first female winner of a Golden Globe for Best Director 25 years earlier, in 1984, for "Yentl".
The reign of Pope Adrian VI, the only Dutch pope, was a short one, lasting just over 20 months from January 1522 until September 1523. Along with Pope Marcellus II, who reigned for only 22 days in 1555, he is the only pope in the modern era to retain his baptismal name. He was also the last non-Italian Pope for more than 450 years, until the election of the Poland's John Paul II in 1978.