Eighties Events Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dakota

The Dakota Apartments are located on the corner of 72nd street and Central Park West in Manhattan, New York City. It is one of the most prestigious co-operative buildings within the city - apartments sell for between $4 to $30 million each. Construction began in October 1880 and rumour has it that it gained its name because the area was considered as remote as Dakota Territory. Lennon lived at the apartments from 1973 until his murder at its entrance on 8th December 1980.

Answer: St Paul's Cathedral

The majority of Royal weddings and comparable events happen at Westminster Abbey but St Paul's was chosen for Charles and Diana's wedding as it has a seating capacity of 3,500 compared with the Abbey's capacity of 2,000. It also provided a much longer procession from Clarence House for the two million spectators that lined the route - plus the 4,000 police officers and over 2,000 military officers needed to manage the crowd.

The wedding, on 29th July 1981, was also viewed by 750 million people around the world.

Answer: Mary Rose

The Mary Rose was a purpose-built sailing warship that was launched in July 1511. As one of the largest ships in the English Navy and being involved in three decades of war with France, Scotland and Brittany, she was a huge favourite of Henry VIII. She finally sank in the Solent (the straits between the Isle of Wight and mainland England) while fighting a French invasion fleet on 19th July 1545, but the reason for her sinking is unknown. She was discovered in 1971 and finally salvaged eleven years later by the Mary Rose Trust. She has been kept in dry dock in Portsmouth ever since undergoing conservation and the Mary Rose Museum was finally opened in 2013.

The HMS Victory was a Royal Navy ship launched in the eighteenth century and best known as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. The Golden Hind was a galleon that circumnavigated the world in the sixteenth century with Sir Francis Drake. The Cutty Sark was one of the last British clipper ships to be built and was well known for her speed. She is kept on exhibition at Greenwich.

Answer: Australia II (Royal Perth Yacht Club)

The America's Cup is the oldest international sporting trophy in the world. It was first awarded in 1851 during a race around the Isle of Wight in England by the Royal Yacht Squadron. The race was won by the schooner America from which the trophy gained its name. The trophy was then held by the New York Yacht Club until 1983 when it was won by Australia II and thus ending the longest winning streak in sports history.

The other three were all Australian challengers for the cup: Gretel in 1962, Challenge 12 in 1983 and Spirit of Australia in 1992.

Answer: Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was India's third prime minister, serving two separate terms: one between 1966 and 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination on 31st October 1984. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first Prime Minister, 1947 to 1964) and she was his Chief of Staff throughout his term. Upon his death she was offered the position of prime minister but refused preferring to be a cabinet minister. Two years later she relented and took up the office.

She was assassinated while walking in her garden by the two bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, who fired 31 rounds of ammunition - 30 of which hit their target. On 30th October 1984, the day before her death, she made her last official speech which included the words: "I am alive today; I may not be here tomorrow. I shall continue to serve till my last breath and when I die every drop of my blood will strengthen India and keep a united India alive."

Gulzarilal Nanda was Indira's predecessor; Morarji Desai was the fourth prime minister and Chandra Shekhar the eighth.

Answer: Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson (Roy Harold Scherer Jr) was born in 1925 and died on 2nd October 1985. He was a well known American actor who starred in over 70 movies spanning a forty year career. He was diagnosed with AIDS in June 1984 and spent the next year visiting specialists in different countries trying to find some treatment for the disorder. He collapsed in Paris in July 1985 and a press release stated that he had inoperable liver cancer. Three days later his publicist confirmed the rumours that he did, in fact, have AIDS. A month later Hudson released another press statement believing that he could have contracted HIV during blood transfusions during open heart surgery in 1981.

The other three deaths all occurred in the 1990s - Freddie Mercury in 1991, Isaac Asimov in 1992 and Rudolf Nureyev in 1993.

Answer: John Denver

John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.) began to gain fame as a singer in the late 1960s and was still writing songs and performing thirty years later. He loved to fly and became interested, and an activist for, America's space program at NASA. He worked tirelessly on the "Citizens in Space" program and received a NASA Public Service Medal. In 1985 he passed the physical exam for NASA and became a finalist for the Space Shuttle flight that would be the first to take a civilian into space.

The program, however, decided that they would launch a "Teacher in Space" program and have two lessons being taught from the shuttle and Christa McAuliffe, a 37 year old teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, became the successful applicant. Challenger was launched on the 28th of January 1986 and disintegrated into the Atlantic Ocean 73 seconds later killing all seven crew members on board. Denver wrote his 1986 song "Flying for Me" while watching the news coverage of the disaster:

"Well I guess that you probably know by now
I was one who wanted to fly
I wanted to ride on that arrow of fire right up into heaven
And I wanted to go for every man
Every child, every mother of children
I wanted to carry the dreams of all people right up to the stars
She was flying for me
She was flying for everyone
She was trying to see a brighter day for each and everyone."

Answer: Butcher of Lyon

Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie was a Gestapo officer based in Lyon during the Second World War. He personally tortured and killed prisoners - men, women and children - and was responsible for the deaths of approximately 14,000 people. Despite this fact he was not brought to trial until 1987 as the Western Allies - the British, USA and West Germany - all recruited him for their own purposes. When the French found out he was in US hands they asked for his return but their Intelligence agency helped him escape to Bolivia where it is speculated that he helped with the Bolivian coup in 1980.

After the fall of the Bolivian dictatorship the new Bolivian Government extradited him to France and he finally stood trial for his crimes. He was tried on 41 counts of crimes against humanity and on 4th July 1987 was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died four years later at the age of 77.

"The Beast of Belsen" was Josef Kramer, Ilse Koch was the "Bitch of Buchenwald" and Joseph Mengele was the well-known "Angel of Death".

Answer: Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) was the daughter of former Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who formed the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). The PPP was a democratic socialist political party and Benazir became its chairperson when she was only 29. Six years later she was elected as Prime Minister. She was in office from 1988 to 1990 and was re-elected in 1993, she survived a 1995 coup d'état but not corruption charges in 1996.

Bhutto went into self-imposed exile in Dubai from 1999 to 2007 when she returned to Pakistan having had all charges dropped and being given amnesty by the serving President. Bhutto then became the leading opposition candidate in the January 2008 election but was assassinated in a bombing two weeks prior on 27th December 2007.

Answer: Killing spree at Columbine High School

The Columbine High School shootings occurred ten years later on 20th April 1999. Two high school seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, opened fired on students at their Colorado High School and then killed themselves. Thirteen people died in this tragedy and many more were injured.

The Exxon Valdez spill occurred first on 24th March 1989 when the large oil tanker struck a reef in the Prince William Sound, Alaska and spilled its contents of crude oil into the water causing a devastating environmental disaster.

The Tiananmen Square Massacre occurred on 4th June 1989 in Beijing, China. Student demonstrators had been protesting in the square for seven weeks. The military was ordered to enforce martial law and thousands were injured or killed as tanks and armed soldiers open fired on unarmed civilians.

On 9th November 1989 the East German Government announced that all citizens could move freely within the city and the first step to the fall of the Berlin Wall began. (The Wall was erected in 1961 to prevent free movement between socialist East Germany and the West.) It was the first step towards the reunification of Germany which became final on 3rd October 1990.