Eventful December Trivia Quiz

Answer: Victims of the guillotine

Marie Gresholtz (her maiden name) was art tutor to the sisters of King Louis XVI of France. She was imprisoned after the French Revolution, but was freed in 1794 and married Frances Tussaud shortly afterwards. Although, in 1777, she had made a waxwork model of Voltaire, her career in waxworks really started when she began making death masks of aristocrats who had been guillotined.

In 1802 she brought this collection to Britain and went on tour with it before establishing a permanent site in Baker Street, London.

She added various items to her collection over the years, mainly murderers and body snatchers. She died in 1850 and it was her grandson who moved the collection to Marylebone Road in London and expanded it to include sports stars, politicians, and other famous people of the time, a tradition which continues.

Answer: Monopoly

Although Darrow received the US Patent, Monopoly is actually a derivative of The Landlord's Game, which was invented by Elizabeth Phillips in 1903. Over the years several variants of this game, all of which involved buying and selling property, were played. Darrow took parts of these games, added Chance and Community Chest, and several of the icons that are still part of the board. Parker Brothers originally turned it down, but when Darrow started to make good private sales with it they reconsidered, and once he had obtained the patent they bought the rights from him. Within a year they were producing 20,000 sets a week and Darrow became the first person to make a million US dollars out of designing a game.

Answer: Darwin

Cyclone Tracy made landfall on Christmas Eve 1974, and battered Darwin throughout Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Around 30,000 people were evacuated ahead of landfall, and many never returned, staying instead in Adelaide and other places that they had been evacuated to.

It destroyed around 70% of the buildings in Darwin, leaving some 41,000 people homeless. Seventy-one people were killed, and the bill for damage ran into several million Australian dollars.

Answer: Argentina

For many years after World War 2, Mossad, the intelligence arm of the Israeli Government, dedicated itself to hunting down known Nazis who had escaped capture. Eichmann, as one of the main organisers of the Holocaust, was very near, or even at the top, of their most wanted list.

In 1959 he was tracked down in Argentina. In May 1960 Israeli agents undertook a covert operation and kidnapped Eichmann, taking him to Israel. Argentina protested to the United Nations about the violation of their territory, but eventually a degree of agreement between Israel and Argentina was reached.

The question of whether or not the detention was legal was not something that was ever addressed in the trial. With Eichmann sitting in a bullet proof glass box the trial was broadcast worldwide.

It opened with evidence being given by Holocaust survivors, and anyone who watched any of the trial will not easily forget that testimony. He was found guilty, and was executed on May 31, 1962.

Answer: Lockerbie

Pan-Am Flight 103 left Heathrow Airport in London bound for New York at 6.25pm on 21st December 1988. Shortly after 7pm contact with the plane was lost when it was over Scotland. A bomb planted on board the aircraft exploded. The plane disintegrated, and all passengers and crew lost their lives. Pieces of the plane landed on the town of Lockerbie killing a further 11 people on the ground and causing massive damage. Several houses were completely destroyed and others were so badly damaged they had to be demolished.

It was established that the bomb had been planted by Libyan agents. It took until 1999 to persuade Libya to hand over the accused for trial. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty. He served just over 8 years of his life sentence. He was released in 2009 on compassionate grounds as he had cancer, and his prognosis was that he would live for only a further 3 months.

He returned to Libya, where he survived until May 2012.

Answer: Noel Edmonds

Noel Edmonds brought Mr Blobby to us as part of his very successful series, "Noel's House Party". It ran for eight years from 1988. The pink and yellow Mr Blobby even achieved a number one record in 1993 with "Mr Blobby".
Prior to "Noel's House Party" Noel Edmonds had been a radio DJ for some years, presented "Multi-Coloured Swap Shop" on Saturday morning television show, and presided over "Telly Addicts", a quiz show. After "Noel's House Party" finished he disappeared from mainstream television for a while, but came back in 2005 presenting the show "Deal or No Deal".

Answer: Piltdown Man

In December 1912 the Geological Society of London announced to the world that evidence of the missing links between apes and humans had been found at Piltdown in Sussex. The discovery was made by an amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson. For the next four decades the bones he found were the basis of most research into human evolution.

The trouble was they were fake; the discovery was a complete hoax. Other human fossils found in other parts of the world bore no resemblance to Piltdown Man, and the remains were re-tested.

They showed that the skull and jaw bones actually came from two separate species, one of which was quite possibly an orangutan. Close examination also showed that the teeth had been filed to change their shape, and that virtually all other finds in the grave had been stained so that they matched the local soil.

Answer: Chemistry

In 1903 Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize when she was honoured, along with her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity. In 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. This was for the discovery of radium and polonium.

This made her the first woman to win two Nobel prizes, and the first person to win in more than one discipline. World War I led her to develop mobile radiology units, and, as well as becoming a Director of the Red Cross, she set up France's first military radiology unit.

She died in 1934, ironically of aplastic anaemia, which had been caused by her years of exposure to radiation.

Answer: Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton formulated the theories of gravity and motion, which he published in his 1687 work "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica". He also built the first usable reflecting telescope, formulated theories on colour and did much of the early work on calculus.

In his later years he was Master of the Royal Mint, a job he took very seriously, doing much to ensure successful prosecutions of counterfeiters. He was also the Member of Parliament for Cambridge University from 1689-90 and 1701-02.

He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705.

Answer: Ringo Starr

Maureen Starkey, ex wife of Ringo Starr, died at the age of 48 in 1994. She first met Ringo Starr at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. She was a trainee hairdresser at the time. They married in 1965 and divorced in 1975. They had three children, two boys, Zak and Jason, and one girl, Lee. In 1989 she married Isaac Tigrett, one of the founders of Hard Rock Cafe. They had one daughter, Augusta. She was still married to him when she died. She died at home, and her four children, husband, and Ringo Starr were with her at the time.