Odd One Out: Just People! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Giacomo Casanova, author

Archetypal cad Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) was born in Venice and is something of a local hero. In his later years he ended up as Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein's librarian at Duchcov Castle, Bohemia. Apparently, he found it all a bit dull there compared to his notorious exploits in his home town, not to mention his flagrant gallivanting across Europe. He is said to have become suicidal but resisted such drastic measures and chose to carry on getting his extraordinary life down on paper. He was buried in Duchov but nobody seems to remember exactly where and his grave might well be lost.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) isn't really closely connected with Venice and doesn't seem to have spent any significant amount of time there, but is buried on San Michele. Maybe he wanted to be buried close to his dear myrmidon, Sergei Diaghilev, who had died in Venice and been interred on the island in 1929.

History has dealt American-born Ezra Pound (1885-1972) a raw deal since his brilliance as a Modernist poet and patron of the arts (he was instrumental in the careers of such luminaries as Hemmingway, T.S. Eliot and Joyce) is overshadowed by his political views, and in particular his siding with Fascist Italy during World War II. He was charged with treason in 1945 and never really recovered physically or mentally. His reputation never did, either. Unfortunately his name has been further sullied by a xenophobic, far-right group of quasi-political hoodlums, Casa Pound, adopting his name.

Although painter Emilio Vedova (1919-2006) is not a household name outside of his native Italy, he was one of the most successful artists of his generation domestically. He was known by foreign cognoscenti, and highly influential on other Italian artists of the time.

Question supplied by thula2.

Answer: Keanu Reeves

Keanu (Cool Breeze over the Mountains in Hawaiian) Reeves was actually born in Beirut, Lebanon, to an English mother and a Hawaiian-born father. When his parents divorced, Keanu, his mother and younger sister moved to Toronto, Canada. Keanu still maintains his Canadian citizenship.

Australian actress Nicole Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii when her parents were there on temporary educational visas. Her Hawaiian name is Hokulani (which was the name of a baby elephant born at the same time at the Honolulu zoo).

Popular singer Bruno Mars (real name Peter Hernandez) was born in raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his musical career.

44th President of the US, Barack Obama, was also born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents divorced when he was 2, and when his mother remarried the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia. At age 10, his mother sent him back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Question submitted by Fifiscot

Answer: Andrew Jackson

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (1848-1929) could not have met Andrew Jackson (1767 - 1845) who was US President from 1829 to 1837.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was US President from 1861 to 1865.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) was US President from 1961 to 1963.

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (1913-2006), born Leslie Lynch King Jr., was US President from 1974 to 1977.

Question submitted by shipyardbernie

Answer: Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova, born in 1937, is the Soviet cosmonaut who, on 16 June 1963, became the first woman in space. Jeanne Baré, a French woman born in 1740, was the first woman to circumnavigate the world. She did so dressed as a man as a member of the Louis Antoine de Bougainville expedition. Annie Londonderry, born in 1870 in what is now Latvia, was the first woman to bicycle around the world. Isabella Bird, born in 1831 in England, travelled extensively throughout her life and was the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Geographical Society.

Question submitted by pitegny.

Answer: Nicolae Ceausescu

In 1989, communist Eastern Europe was coming apart at the seams. Nicolae Ceausescu had been leader of the governing Romanian Communist Party since 1965. Although he had at times been popular both at home and abroad, he became a ruthless despot and headed a corrupt and oppressive state. In late 1989, the Romanian Revolution spurred Ceausescu and his wife Elena to flee. However, they were caught, and following a trial by drum-head court martial were sentenced to death for genocide as well as sabotaging the Romanian economy. They were rushed outside and shot so swiftly that the television crew recording events missed the actual deed.

In October 1978, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin declared war on neighbouring Tanzania. Many exiled Ugandans had found haven in Tanzania and had formed the Uganda National Liberation Front. Along with the Tanzania People's Defence Force, they took Kampala in April 1979, but Amin managed to escape to Libya. The following year he moved on to Saudi Arabia where he lived in luxury until his death from kidney failure in 2003.

Jean-Bédel Bokassa pompously called himself Emperor of Central Africa and even had himself crowned. To most ordinary people he was the blood-thirsty, tyrannical head of state of Central African Republic, which he renamed Central African Empire, from 1966 until 1979. Bokassa was overthrown by David Dacko, the very same man he had ousted in 1966.

Bokassa fled to Ivory Coast where he stayed a while before settling in France. He went back to the Central African Republic in 1986 and was immediately arrested. He was tried for various crimes, including murder and cannibalism. He was convicted of many crimes, although not of cannibalism, and sentenced to death. However, President Kolingba vetoed the death penalty. Bokassa was supposed to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement, but amnesty was granted in 1993. He died a free man 1996.

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was in charge from 1973 to 1990. The country's human rights record under his rule is horrific. Apart from murder and torture, forced disappearances were common. He was also personally involved in all sorts of dodgy deals, tax evasion, and money-laundering. On 3rd December 2006, he had a heart attack whilst under house arrest. On the 4th of December, the house was lifted so he could be taken into intensive care, which he was on 10th December. He died the same day.

Question provided by thula2.

Answer: First person to receive two Nobel Prizes in the same year

Marie Sklodowska Curie was born in Warsaw in 1867. She left for France in 1891 to continue her studies at the University of Paris. She received her first Nobel Prize in 1903 in Physics, awarded jointly to Marie, her husband Pierre, and Antoine Henri Becquerel, for their work on radiation. In 1911, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of radium and polonium, thus becoming both the first person to receive a second Nobel Prize and the first person to receive Nobel Prizes in two separate sciences.

While Marie Curie is one of the earliest Nobel Prize prize winners, she is also, unfortunately, one of the few women laureates. Between 1901 and 2015, 870 individuals and 23 organizations received Nobel Prizes (some more than one); of these, only 49 were women.

Question submitted by pitegny.

Answer: El Greco

Tintoretto, Titian and Rapahel were all born in Italy.

El Greco was born in Crete in 1541, and he died in Toledo, Spain, in 1614 aged 73. During his lifetime Crete was ruled by the Republic of Venice and named Candia. His real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos.

He originally trained as an icon painter in Crete. When he was 26 he moved to Venice, and then to Rome when he was 29. In 1577 he travelled to Toledo, Spain, where he remained for the rest of his life.

He was named by the Spanish as "El Greco", meaning "The Greek". However, he signed most of his works with his Greek name in Greek letters.

Question provided by wenray.

Answer: Jim Clark

Jim Clark was born James Clark Jr. in Kilmany, Fife, Scotland, UK, in 1936. He won the Formula One Racing Championship in 1963 and 1965. He was killed in a Formula Two racing accident at the Hockenheimring racing circuit in Germany in 1968 aged 32.

James Simon Wallis Hunt was born in Belmont, Sutton, Surrey, England, in 1947. He won the Formula One Racing Championship in 1976. He died of a heart attack in Wimbledon, London, England, in 1993 aged 45.

Nigel Ernest James Mansell was born in Upton-upon-Severn, England in 1953. He won the Formula One Racing Championship in 1992.

Damon Graham Devereux Hill was born in Hampstead, London, UK, in 1960. He won the Formula One Racing Championship in 1996. His father, Norman Graham Hill, won the Formula One Racing Championship in 1962 and 1968.

Question provided by shipyardbernie.

Answer: Scott Walker - whisky

Scott Walker became a huge star with The Walker Brothers before going on to a carve out a fascinating solo career as an avant-garde pop singer and beyond.

There is a whisky called Johnny Walker which is named after a shopkeeper John (Johnnie) Walker from Kilmarnock in Scotland. He didn't actually have a lot to do the company, which was his son Alexander's egg. It's one of the biggest selling whisky in the world.

Alessandro Martini and Luigi Rossi founded what would become the massive drinks company Martini and Rossi in Turin in 1863. They make both red and white vermouths and even lend their name (or at least Alessandro's) to various cocktails.

Alexander Gordon founded Gordon's Gin in South London in 1769.

Samuel Smith started the Samuel Smith's brewery in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, in 1758. It boasts a reputation as one of the more traditional British breweries.

Question supplied by thula2.

Answer: Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai was the young Pakistani girl who was shot in the face by the Taliban in retaliation for her advocacy of education for women. She was also the youngest person at the time to become a Nobel Prize laureate. She was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist from India.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been the president of Liberia since 2005 and the first elected female head of state in Africa.

Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist whose work with the peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, helped to end the Liberian civil war in 2003.

Tawakkol Karman is a journalist and politician from Yemen. She is the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman and only the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.

These three women were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 "For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."

Question submitted by dekeaunt.