More Mixed People Limericks Trivia Quiz

Answer: Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. Her father was a grocer, alderman and Methodist preacher. Thatcher served in the Conservative government led by Edward Heath between 1970 and 1974 as Secretary of State for Education and Science, where she came to prominence mainly for the decision to withdraw free milk from school children between the ages of seven and eleven. While in that role, in a famous interview on a children's TV programme, she expressed the view that there would be no female Prime Minister in her lifetime, and that she was not experienced enough to be Prime Minister. When, in 1975, after losing the 1974 election, Heath put himself up for re-election by the party's Members of Parliament, Margaret Thatcher emerged as the main challenger, and defeated him on the first ballot. She became the UK's first female leader of a major political party, and won the subsequent election in 1979, defeating James Callaghan's Labour Party. The first woman to be UK Prime Minister, she was also the the first holder of a science degree to hold that office. Margaret Thatcher won three consecutive general elections, leaving office in 1990.

Barbara Castle was an MP for over thirty years and served in several roles in Harold Wilson's Cabinets of the 1960s and 1970s.
Ellen Wilkinson was an MP for the constituency of Jarrow from 1935 and Minister of Education in the post-war Labour Government from 1945 until her death in 1947.
Jennie Adamson also served in Clement Attlee's post-war government, as a junior minister.

Answer: Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an abbot and friar in Brno who carried out methodical experimentation and statistical analysis with pea plants and the way traits - such as height, wrinkly seeds and pod shape - are inherited. His work disproved the conventional wisdom that offspring would show traits that were a blend of their parents'. It introduced concepts such as dominant and recessive traits passed on by discrete units. When Mendel presented his work in 1862, it went over the heads of his peers, and it wasn't until more than twenty years after his death that its importance to biology was recognised. The term "genetics" was first coined by William Bateson in 1905.

Gregory of Narek (951-1003) was an Armenian monk, mystic and poet.
Gregory Mertens (1991-2015) was a Belgian football player who died at the age of 24 playing a match.
Grigori Rasputin (1869-1916) was a mystic who became influential on the Russian royal family.

Answer: Judy Garland

Judy Garland (1922-1969), one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century, was born Frances Gumm, youngest of three sisters. They performed as a trio under the name The Gumm Sisters, but changed the unfortunate name - it is said they were once introduced as "The Glum Sisters" - to The Garland Sisters, and Frances called herself "Judy" after a popular song by Hoagy Carmichael.
Judy Garland performed in movie musicals such as "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and "Easter Parade" (1948). She was Oscar nominated for "A Star is Born" (1954) and "Judgement at Nuremberg" (1961). Her best known songs include "The Trolley Song", "Get Happy" and "The Man That Got Away". She was married five times, and had three children: singer and actor Liza Minnelli with Vincente Minnelli, then Joey Luft and singer Lorna Luft with Sidney Luft.

Judy Geeson was an English actor whose movies included "To Sir With Love" (1967).
Judy Davis was an Australian actor whose movies included "My Brilliant Career" (1979).
English actor Judy Carne was best known for her performances in the TV show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" between 1968 and 1970.

Answer: Crippen

Hawley Harvey Crippen (1862-1910) was the first criminal to be caught with the use of wireless telegraphy. He was an American doctor of homeopathic medicine, who moved to England with his second wife, Corrine, a music-hall performer. He was not allowed to practice as a doctor in the UK, and he became a medicine salesman. When, after a party early in 1910, his wife went missing, and he started living with his mistress, Ethel Le Neve, Crippen was interviewed by the police and his house searched. He told them Corinne had returned to the US. The police were satisfied with his responses, but he was rattled and fled. A further police search of the Crippen residence uncovered a human torso. Crippen and Le Neve, the latter disguised as a boy, boarded the SS Montrose in Belgium to escape to Canada. The captain recognised the man and was sure the "boy" wasn't a boy. He had a message telegraphed to the UK just before the Montrose went out of range of its transmitter. Chief Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard took a quicker ship, and reached Quebec before the Montrose. When he boarded the boat to apprehend Crippen, the murderer said: "Thank God it's over. The suspense has been too great. I couldn't stand it any longer." Crippen was returned to England and tried and convicted of poisoning his wife, and he was hanged at Pentonville Prison.

William Burke was a "resurrection man", who, with his partner, William Hare, improved the supply of corpses to medical experimenters, by murdering people rather than just digging up bodies. They were believed to have committed sixteen murders in 1828 in Edinburgh.
John Christie murdered at least eight people in London in the 1940s and 1950s.
John Haigh was convicted of murdering six people and disposing of their remains by using sulphuric acid. His murders occurred in the 1940s.

Answer: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan was an influential songwriter, whose songs included "Like a Rolling Stone", "Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)", "Hurricane" (co-written with Jacques Levy) and "When the Ship Comes In". He started as a folk singer, using acoustic guitar. As he incorporated electric instruments into his performances, not all his fans appreciated the change. In 1966, touring in Manchester, England, he played the first half of his concert as an acoustic set. For the second part he was accompanied by an electric band, and the concert became edgy and confrontational with heckles and slow hand claps. It culminated while he and his band were playing their final number, "Like a Rolling Stone". When an audience member shouted "Judas", Dylan retorted: "I don't believe you. You're a liar", and told his band to play loud. More controversy accompanied the award to Dylan of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, the first song writer to be so recognised.

Bob Wills was known as the "King of Western Swing" and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968.
Bob Geldof sang with The Boomtown Rats, and went on to become an entrepreneur. He is best known for his fundraising work with Band Aid and Live Aid.
Bob Marley was a leading Jamaican singer and songwriter, who performed as part of The Wailers and as a solo artist.

Answer: Francis Drake

Francis Drake (c.1540-1596) was a notable English sailor, famed for his exploits on behalf of Elizabeth I. In his early career in the Americas he was a buccaneer, stealing gold and silver from the Spanish in a raid on the Isthmus of Panama. Following that, he carried out a circumnavigation of the globe between 1577 and 1580 in his boat Pelican, which he renamed Golden Hind during the voyage in honour of a patron. He returned to Plymouth in 1580, with plundered Spanish treasure. The Queen knighted him in 1581. In 1588, Drake was second in command of the British forces that defeated the Spanish Armada. The story that he decided to conclude a game of bowls when informed of the approaching Spanish is probably apocryphal.

James Saumarez was a British Naval Commander who defeated the French in the Second Battle of Algeciras in 1801.
English yachtsman Francis Chichester was the second person to sail single handed around the world, in 1966-67.
Martin Frobisher was an English sailor and privateer who plundered money from French ships, helped defeat the Spanish Armada, and made three voyages in search of the North West Passage.

Answer: L. Ron Hubbard

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1911 - 1986) was a prolific writer in many genres, but was chiefly known for his contribution to Science Fiction's "Golden Age". He developed a psychotherapeutic discipline he called "Dianetics", which led to the set of religious beliefs and practices he set up in 1954 and called Scientology.
Responding to an audience question during a meeting in 1948, he was reported to have said: "You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion." The American IRS recognised Scientology as a religion in 1993. In other countries, such as Germany and France, it is considered a commercial enterprise.

Joseph Smith was the American who founded Mormonism in the 1820s.
Mary Baker Eddy founded Christian Science in the late 19th century.
Charles Taze Russell founded the Bible Student Movement that led to the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Answer: George Foreman

Born in 1949, George Foreman won a gold medal in the Mexico Olympics in 1968 and turned professional the next year. When he defeated Joe Frazier in two rounds in 1973 he become the world champion heavyweight boxer. By the time he fought Muhammad Ali in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1974, his record was forty fights, forty wins, and he had only been taken the distance three times. The fight became known as "The Rumble in the Jungle". Ali was famous for his movement, but in this fight he adopted a tactic he later called "rope a dope" - allowing Foreman to punch him on the arms and body and tire himself out. Foreman said "... about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' ". Ali knocked Foreman out in the eighth round. Foreman had six further fights before retiring in 1977 after losing to Jimmy Young. He experienced a spiritual awakening and became an ordained minister. About ten years later he stunned the world of boxing by making a comeback. He also displayed a new public persona. He had previously been surly and intimidatory. He became jokey and friendly. He marketed products including his George Foreman grill, for which he eventually earned more than he did from all his fights. In his comeback he fought two world title bouts - losing on points to Evander Holyfield and Tommy Morrison. He also starred in a TV sitcom, "George". In 1994, at the age of 45, he won the IBF and WBA World titles by beating Michael Moorer, twenty years after he lost to Ali. After a controversial loss to Shannon Briggs in 1997, he retired from boxing.

Ken Norton held the WBC title in 1977 and 1978. He had three epic fights against Ali and one against Larry Holmes.
Leon Spinks won the undisputed heavyweight championship in 1978 by beating Ali. He lost the rematch.
Sonny Liston was world heavyweight champion from 1962 to 1964.

Answer: Elvis Presley

When Elvis Presley (1935-1977) performed "Hound Dog" on the Milton Berle show in 1956, his gyrations caused some commotion. The New York Daily News stated that popular music had "...reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley". A Jacksonville, Florida judge ordered him to tone down his act, to which his response was to wiggle his little finger. Ed Sullivan, despite earlier calling him "unfit for family viewing", had him on his show and Presley's performance of "Love Me Tender" was a sensation, resulting in a million advance sales.

Cliff Richard was a British pop star, who was born in India and recorded "Move It" and "Living Doll" with the Shadows (who were called the Drifters at the time).
Chuck Berry was a pioneer of rock and roll, born in Missouri, whose songs include "Maybelline" and "Johnny B. Goode".
Jerry Lee Lewis was a rock and roll star who was born in Louisiana, with songs including "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless".

Answer: Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie (née Miller) (1890-1976) was one of the most successful authors of all time. Her books have been translated into more than 100 languages and she is said to have sold more than 2 billion books, behind only the Bible and Shakespeare. She wrote "The Mousetrap", the longest continuously running play in history, which started in London in 1952 and reached 25,000 performances in 2012. In 1926, the mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie occurred. Her husband, Archie, had asked Agatha for a divorce because he was in love with his mistress, Nancy Neele. They argued - Archie went off to be with Nancy and Agatha disappeared. Her car was discovered at the top of a quarry. A massive fuss was made - the Home Secretary got involved and 15,000 volunteers helped in the search for the missing novelist. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle consulted with a spiritualist. She turned up after ten days in a hotel in Harrogate, booked in under the name of "Neele". She was diagnosed with amnesia, but the whole episode remains a mystery. Agatha and Archie divorced in 1928, but she retained his surname for her works.

Ngaio March was a New Zealand crime writer who created the character Inspector Alleyn.
Dorothy L. Sayers was a British writer whose most well-known character was Lord Peter Wimsey.
Donna Leon was an American author known for her books set in Venice and featuring Commissario Brunetti.