December 30 Events Trivia Quiz

Answer: A village in Staffordshire, UK

Rudyard Lake in England is where Kipling's parents met. His mother was named Alice MacDonald before marrying Lockwood Kipling. As far as can be ascertained, young Rudyard did not have red hair, and at the time of his birth, the Nobel Prize had not been heard of (it was not instituted until 1901).

Kipling wrote 'The Jungle Book', 'If', 'Just So Stories', 'Kim', 'Captain Courageous' and many more novels and short stories.

Answer: Buenos Aires

The aftermath saw the owner of Republica Cromagnon club get a long jail sentence, and the city safety inspection procedures given a radical overhaul. The club did not have fire extinguishers installed, and many of the fire exits were chained closed. An enquiry found that the fire was started by flares igniting flammable decorations on the ceiling of the dance floor.

Answer: Iraq

Hussien was President of Iraq from 1979 until he was the subject of a nation-wide game of hide and seek in 2003, when the US invaded the country. He was charged by the Iraqi government with many offences, including unlawful arrest, torture and murder. He was hanged in the capital, Baghdad, aged 69.

Answer: Joseph Stalin

Stalin was a radical, and in his early life, he was an out-and-out criminal, involved in murder, robbery and kidnapping. He made his way through the mess that was early 20th century Russia, survived the Russian revolution in 1917 and clawed his way up the communist ladder. He had a formidable opponent in Lenin, until the latter's death in 1924. After that, Stalin was ruthless, quashing challenges and even his own people, until his death in 1953.

Trotsky was involved in a power struggle with Stalin, and was sacked from the Communist Party in 1927. He was expelled from Russia and murdered in Mexico in 1940, on the orders of Stalin.

Khrushchev was Stalin's successor, and was seen as a moderate, with plans to improve life for his people. However, his foreign policies were seen as confrontational, with the Cold War arm-wrestle between USSR and USA keeping the world on tenterhooks. The Cuba Missile Crisis was a prime example, but that situation was defused, and tensions eased fractionally until Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev in 1964. He died in 1971.

Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov was better known as Tsar Nicholas II, and he was assassinated, together with his family and staff, in 1918.

Answer: War of the Roses

The War of the Roses lasted from 1455 to 1485 and was fought between the Houses of York and Lancaster. The Battle of Wakefield, fought on December 30, pitted the Duke of York against the army of King Henry VI. York lost, and he was killed in the battle.

The French Revolution (1789-94), the First Anglo-Chinese War, aka Opium War (1839-42), and the American Civil War, (1861-65) all took place hundreds of years later.

Answer: The Monkees

The Monkees starred in their own television show for three years in the late 1960s, and were regarded as more of a comedy show than as serious musicians. In fact, they were known as the 'pre-fab Four', a direct reference to the Beatles.

However, their music still endures, and they have sold over 60 million records, so they must be doing something right. Michael Nesmith was born in Houston in 1942 and Davy Jones was born in Manchester in 1945, and died in 2012.

Answer: Shoes

Marcos died in exile in 1989, leaving a complex trail of fraud and embezzlement. His widow accumulated thousands of pairs of shoes which were unearthed in the Presidential Palace when the Marcoses flitted off to Hawaii. The exact number is uncertain, but estimates range from 1,100 to more than 7,000 pairs.

Answer: Bo Diddley

With such early classics as 'Diddley Daddy', 'You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover', 'Pretty Thing', 'Road Runner' and 'Diddy Wah Diddy', he became one of the founding fathers of rock. One British band of unknowns were influenced by him- the Rolling Stones owe a lot to his influence.

Elvis was born in Mississippi, but not quite as early. His birth happened in 1935. Eddie Cochran was born in Minnesota in 1938 and Jimi Hendrix greeted the world in 1942, in Seattle.

Answer: Tont

Kal-El is Superman's name on his birth planet of Krypton, and Vijay Singh is a world-class golfer from Fiji.

Eldrick Tont Woods has a list of firsts as long as your arm and has won more than a dozen majors. He has been honoured by California's Sporting Hall of Fame, 'Sports Illustrated' magazine, and attracts considerable corporate sponsorship.

Answer: George Harrison

Ex-Beatle Harrison and his wife, Olivia, were attacked at 3:30am by Michael Abram, a former drug addict. Abram was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and spent the next two years in a mental hospital.

George died of cancer in 2002.