The Year of the Ox Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1949-50

Our first "Year of the Ox" begins on 29 January 1949 and ends on 16 February 1950.
Other events that occurred during this year include: the end of clothes rationing in Britain; Garard Kuiper discovers Nereid, a moon of Neptune; the North Atlantic Treaty is signed, creating NATO; Ireland leaves the British Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland; Israel becomes the 59th member of the United Nations; the Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade; the first female member of Thailand's Parliament is elected; George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is published; the Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb; the Federal Republic of Germany is founded with Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor; and the People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed.
Births during this year of the Earth Ox include singers Billy Joel, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and Lionel Richie, actresses Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver, composer Alan Menken, guitarist Mark Knopfler, novelist Martin Amis, actor Richard Gere, footballer Joe Theismann, baseball legend Mike Schmidt, model Twiggy, assassin Carlos the Jackal, swimmer Mark Spitz, athlete Bruce Jenner and boxer Larry Holmes.
Those that died during the year include comedian Will Hay, composer Richard Strauss, and novelists Margaret Mitchell and George Orwell.

Answer: 1985-86

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 2 February 1985 and ends on 8 February 1986.
Other events that occurred during this year include: Mikhail Gorbachev becoming leader of the Soviet Union; "Neighbours" debuts on Australian TV; "Amadeus" wins Best Picture Oscar; Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases "New Coke"; 56 die in a fire at Bradford's Valley Parade soccer ground; 38 die during rioting at the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Belgium; "Live Aid" raises over £50 million; Pete Rose becomes baseball's all-time hit leader; 10,000 killed in earthquake near Mexico City; 22-year-old Garry Kasparov beats Anatoly Karpov to become the youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion; and Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing the crew of seven astronauts including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
Births during this year of the Wood Ox include tennis player Jelena Jankoviã, actresses Keira Knightley, Anna Kendrick and Rooney Mara, singers Leona Lewis, Lana Del Rey and Lily Allen, swimming sensation Michael Phelps and soccer star Wayne Rooney.
Those that died during the year include violinist Efrem Zimbalist, actors Sir Michael Redgrave, Yul Brynner and Rock Hudson, painter Marc Chagall, designer Laura Ashley, writers Christopher Isherwood, L. Ron Hubbard and E.B. White, director Orson Welles, comedian Phil Silvers, musician Phil Lynott, baseball legend Roger Maris and biologist Dian Fossey.

Answer: 1925-26

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 24 January 1925 and ends on 12 February 1926.
Events that occurred during this year include: Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, often called the "Scopes Monkey Trial", is held in Dayton TN; Oonagh Keogh becomes the first female member of any of the world's stock exchanges in Dublin; volume one of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" is published; the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Senators in the World Series, becoming the first team ever to win after trailing 1-3; 40,000 march in a Ku Klux Klan rally in Washington DC; John Logie Baird transmits the first television pictures; the first Surrealist art exhibition opens in Paris; French players René Lacoste and Suzanne Lenglen win the Men's and Women's Singles respectively at both the French Open and Wimbledon; and the airline "Deutsche Luft Hansa" is founded in Berlin.
Births during this year of the Wood Ox include actors Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Peter Sellers, Rod Steiger and Jack Lemmon, actresses Angela Lansbury and Elaine Stritch, directors Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah, cricket legend Everton Weekes, composer Pierre Boulez, UK politicians Margaret Thatcher and Tony Benn, astronaut Scott Carpenter, baseball great Yogi Berra, dictator Pol Pot, civil rights activists Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, singers Sammy Davis jr and Bill Haley, musician Mel Tormé, novelist Elmore Leonard, TV host Johnny Carson and US politician Robert F Kennedy.
Those that died during the year include artist John Singer Sargent, novelist H. Rider Haggard and baseball legend Christy Mathewson.

Answer: 1997-98

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 7 February 1997 and ends on 27 January 1998.
Other events that occurred during this year include: the birth of the first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep; "The English Patient" wins Best Picture Oscar; Tony Blair becomes British Prime Minister; Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov, the first time a computer beats a chess World champion; German Jan Ullrich wins the Rout de France; Strom Thurmond becomes the all-time longest-serving member of the US Senate; Tiger Woods becomes the first African-American winner of the Masters; "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is published; F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business; and Mike Tyson bites off a piece of the ear of Evander Holyfield.
Births during this year of the Fire Ox include actresses Chloë Grace Moretz, Maisie Williams and Isabelle Fuhrman, golfer Lydia Ko, singer Rebecca Black, and the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
Those that died during the year include humanitarian Mother Teresa, poet Allen Ginsberg, musicians Stéphane Grappelli and Jeff Buckley, explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, actors Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum, golf legend Ben Hogan, Diana Princess of Wales, artist Roy Lichtenstein, singers Sonny Bono and John Denver, novelists James Michener and Harold Robbins, and tennis great Helen Wills Moody.

Answer: 1961-62

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 15 February 1961 and ends on 4 February 1962.
Other events that occurred during this year include: Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human in space; the Peace Corps is established; The Bay of Pigs attempted U.S. invasion of Cuba takes place; "The Apartment" wins Best Picture and Best Director Oscars; In tennis, Australia dominates, winning the Davis Cup, the Australian Open (Roy Emerson) and both singles titles at Wimbledon (Rod Laver and Margaret Smith Court); Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space; In soccer, Spurs are the first team in the 20th century to win the English league and cup double; Fidel Castro is excommunicated; and Roger Maris hits 61 home runs to beat Babe Ruth's single-season record.
Births during this year of the Metal Ox include Diana Princess of Wales, actors Michael J. Fox, Jim Carrey and George Clooney, basketball great Dennis Rodman, comedian Harry Enfield, singers Boy George, Axl Rose and Enya, cyclist Greg LeMond, U.S. President Barack Obama, New Zealand PM John Key, football legend Dan Marino, Australian PM Julia Gillard, director Peter Jackson, actress Meg Ryan, and gymnast Nadia Comãneci.
Those that died during the year include comedians George Formby and Chico Marx, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, King Zog of Albania, psychiatrist Carl Jung, actor Gary Cooper, novelist Ernest Hemingway, baseball legend Ty Cobb, and U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.

Answer: 1889-90

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 31 January 1889 and ends on 20 January 1890.
Other events that occurred during this year include North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington all becoming U.S. states; Preston North End wins the inaugural English Football League title unbeaten, a record unmatched until Arsenal did the same in 2003-04; South Africa plays its inaugural Test match against the touring England cricket team; and the "Moulin Rouge" cabaret opens in Paris.
Births during this year of the Earth Ox include Girl Guides founder Lady Olave Baden-Powell, director Victor Fleming, actors Charlie Chaplin and Claude Rains, dictator Adolf Hitler, helicopter inventor Igor Sikorsky, novelists Jean Cocteau and Erle Stanley Gardner, Indian PM Jawaharlal Nehru and astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Those that died during the year include poets Robert Browning and Gerard Manley Hopkins, U.S. First Ladies Lucy Webb Hayes and Julia Gardiner Tyler, novelist Wilkie Collins, physicist James Prescott Joule and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Answer: 1937-38

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 11 February 1937 and ends on 30 January 1938.
Other events that occurred during this year include: hundreds killed in the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War; Joe Louis beats James Braddock to win the World Heavyweight title; George VI is crowned King at Westminster abbey; Wallis Simpson marries The Duke of Windsor; and Neville Chamberlain becomes British PM.
Births during this year of the Fire Ox include actors Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Sir Tom Courtenay, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Warren Beatty, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright, singer Merle Haggard, dictator Saddam Hussein, baseball great Brooks Robinson, NASCAR racer Richard Petty, artist David Hockney, comedians Peter cook and Bill Cosby, soccer legends Gordon Banks and Bobby Charlton, and actresses Jane Fonda and Barbara Windsor.
Those that died during the year include aviator Amelia Earhart, novelists Edith Wharton, J.M. Barrie and H.P. Lovecraft, golfer Harry Vardon, philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, actress Jean Harlow and physicist Ernest Rutherford.

Answer: 1901-02

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 19 February 1901 and ends on 7 February 1902.
Other events that occurred during this year include: the first Australian Parliament opening in Melbourne; Robert Falcon Scott sets sail on the RRS Discovery to explore the Ross Sea in Antarctica; US President William McKinley is assassinated; the first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm; the first Rose Bowl football game is held in Pasadena, California.
Births during this year of the Metal Ox include double Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, actor Gary Cooper, Indonesia's President Sukarno, singer Nelson Eddy, novelist Barbara Cartland, musician Louis Armstrong, sailor Sir Francis Chichester, actress Marlene Dietrich, TV host Ed Sullivan, physicist Enrico Fermi, aviator Charles Lindbergh and film producer Walt Disney.
Those that died during the year include US President Benjamin Harrison, impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Answer: 1973-74

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 3 February 1973 and ends on 22 January 1974.
Other events that occurred during this year include: Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" is released; TV soap "The Young and the Restless" debuts; the last United States soldier leaves Vietnam; The World Trade Center officially opens in New York City; Second Division team Sunderland beat Leeds United in the FA Cup Final; Skylab, the first US space station, is launched; Senate hearing on Watergate are televised; and The Bahamas gain full independence.
Births during this year of the Water Ox include cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar, models Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum, boxer Oscar De La Hoya, actress Kate Beckinsale, athletes Haile Gebrselassie and Paula Radcliffe, rugby union legend George Gregan, actor Adam Garcia and soccer great Ryan Giggs.
Those that died during the year include novelists Pearl Buck and J.R.R. Tolkien, composer Sir Noel Coward, artist Pablo Picasso, actress Betty Grable, cricketer Wilfred Rhodes, Israel PM David Ben-Gurion, actors Lon Chaney jr and Bruce Lee, poet W.H Auden, WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, athlete Paavo Nurmi, King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and musician Gram Parsons.

Answer: 1913-14

This "Year of the Ox" begins on 6 February 1913 and ends on 25 January 1914.
Other events that occurred during this year include: Pancho Villa returning to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in the US; Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" premieres; Suffragette Emily Davison dies after running out in front of the King's horse at the Derby; the temperature only July 10 is recorded at 134 F in Death Valley CA, the world's highest ever and still a record a century later; Roland Garros crosses the Mediterranean in an airplane; and the Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.
Births during this year of the Water Ox include US labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, musician Muddy Waters, fashion designer Oleg Cassini, athlete Jesse Owens, actors Tyrone Power and Peter Cushing, football legends Vince Lombardi and Paul 'Bear' Bryant, US President Gerald Ford, Israel PM Menachem Begin, actress Vivien Leigh, UK politician Michael Foot, and soccer legend Bill Shankly.
Those that died during the year include abolitionist Harriet Tubman, US financier J.P. Morgan and inventor Rudolf Diesel.