Ask and Ye Shall Deceive! Trivia Quiz

Answer: She had male attributes

She also won Olympic silver four years later, in Berlin. When she was autopsied after her death in 1980, it was discovered that Stella had male organs but prominently female traits. She was what is now known as 'intersex'.

Answer: Two days in April were cancelled

April 5 and April 12 were the first two Fridays after April Fool's Day, and both were to be cancelled to bring British time in step with the rest of the world. Strangely enough, the concept of decimal time, with 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes in an hour and 10 hours in a day has been mooted, but not since the days of the French Revolution.

The other two wrong options are just silly, but will probably be used as a April Fool's joke in the future.

Answer: Stern

'Stern' copped a hammering after the journals were exposed as forgeries, with many of their editorial staff resigning in disgrace. The so-called experts had failed to realise that the types of paper and ink used were non-existent prior to 1945, and there were many factual errors. An American expert later noted that the diaries were "...bad forgeries but a great hoax".

'Tagesthemen' (translation 'Issues Of The Day'), is a German current affairs television show. 'Reader's Digest' and 'Newsweek' are both American-based magazines.

Answer: Girl You Know It's True

'Girl You Know It's True' was from the 1989 album of the same name (the album was named 'All or Nothing' in Europe), and hit the charts worldwide. Their follow-up singles, 'Baby Don't Forget My Number', 'Blame It on the Rain' and 'Girl I'm Gonna Miss You', also performed extremely well. The three incorrect answers were all albums released by German techno band, Kraftwerk.

Milli Vanilli were awarded the 1990 Grammy for Best New Talent, but were forced to return it shortly after. Pilatus never recovered from the scandal, and died from a drug overdose in 1998.

Answer: Piltdown Man

Piltdown is in southern England, and it is there where Dawson claimed to have unearthed parts of a skull and several teeth, totally dissimilar to existing relics. It was later discovered that the skull was relatively recent and that the teeth belonged to a orangutan, and not a human.

Cro-Magnon is a cave in France, where skulls were discovered. They have been estimated to be 43,000 years old. Peking Man was found in China and has been dated at about 750,000 years old. Vitruvian Man is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

Answer: Allied invasion of southern Europe

The Allies had defeated the Germans in north Africa and were on the way north. German High Command did not know which route the Allies would take- via Greece, or Italy, or even France. The papers in the phony officer's case convinced the Germans that the attack would be through Greece and the Balkans, and subsequently deployed the majority of their defences in that area.

History now shows that they guessed wrong, and that the Allies took the logical route through Sicily and Italy.

The story of the deception was told in the 1952 movie 'The Man Who Never Was'.

Answer: William Shakespeare

It is debatable that Vortigern ever existed, or was a semi-mythological figure like MacBeth or Robin Hood.

Ireland wrote the play and even staged a performance, but the critics of the day panned it. It was soon realised that the work was a hoax, and not a lost manuscript, after all. Ireland moved to France shortly after, and died there in 1835.

Answer: Fairies

The photos taken by the two girls eventually caught the attention of none other than Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the 'Sherlock Holmes' books, and he declared that they were genuine! His statement gave credence to the story and many 'experts' that should have known better were lured in.

As time passed, the girls got sick of the attention, but did not 'fess up until 1983. The fairies were simply cut out of a book and attached to branches with pins.

The case of the Cottingley Fairies is a fun story and demonstrates that some people just want to believe.

Answer: P T Barnum

All of these men would be likely suspects, but it was showman Phineas Taylor Barnum who sold this obvious fake to the world. Even though the public realised that most of his schemes were pure hokum, they lapped it up. It was alleged that a saying of his was 'There's a sucker born every minute',- it is not certain that he ever used those words, but he certainly knew what they meant!

Answer: Crop circles

Bower and Chorley confessed in 1991, but many did not believe their claims. Many theories have been put forward, from such logical things like concentrated weather patterns to more extreme causes. Alien landing pads, drunken wallabies, and quantum fields have all been suggested.

The battleship that was alleged to have disappeared in 1943 was the USS Eldridge. The US Navy denies any knowledge of the so-called Philadelphia Experiment, but rumours and stories persist to this day. Fascinating reading but it seems to be a total fabrication.

The Indian Rope trick has been debunked, but is still rather an impressive illusion, and frogs (and other wildlife) falling from the sky are a reality.