50 Fun Facts About 40th Birthday

Which famous visitor made its once-in-a-lifetime pass through the inner Solar System in 1986?

It will not be back until mid-2061; ESA's Giotto probe photographed its nucleus that March.

Which nuclear power plant suffered the world's worst reactor disaster on April 26, 1986?

At least 350,000 people were resettled and traces of the fallout reached nearly every country in the northern hemisphere.

Which schoolteacher was among the seven crew killed on Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986?

US Navy divers found the crew compartment on the seabed six weeks later.

Which film was the highest-grossing movie in the world in 1986?

Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone helped push the soundtrack to seven million US sales.

Diego Maradona scored his 'Hand of God' goal in June 1986 against which team?

Four minutes later he dribbled past the whole team for the 'Goal of the Century'; Argentina won the tournament.

A roller through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series handed a comeback to which team?

The Mets took Game 7 too, winning the series four games to three.

Which animation studio was founded on February 3, 1986, by John Lasseter and Steve Jobs?

Microsoft held its stock-market flotation just five weeks later, on March 13.

Which daytime talk show went national on September 8, 1986, and ran for 25 seasons?

It clocked 4,561 episodes before ending in May 2011.

Which space station did the Soviet Union launch on February 19, 1986?

It stayed in orbit until 2001 and hosted the first long-term international crews.

On May 25, 1986, about five million people held hands from New York City to which city?

Hands Across America raised money to fight hunger and homelessness; the western end was at the Queen Mary's mooring.

Which musical, later Broadway's longest-running, opened at Her Majesty's Theatre on October 9, 1986?

The same day, News Corporation completed the Metromedia deal that launched the Fox network.

Which manager was appointed by Manchester United on November 6, 1986?

He stayed for more than 26 years.

Which two countries joined the European Community on January 1, 1986?

The same month, Britain and France announced plans for the Channel Tunnel.

Which country's president fled into exile in Hawaii in February 1986 after the People Power Revolution?

Corazon Aquino became the first Filipino woman president; the same month Baby Doc Duvalier fled Haiti.

Which Swedish prime minister was shot dead walking home from the cinema in Stockholm in February 1986?

His deputy Ingvar Carlsson took over the following day.

Which magazine introduced the Big Mac Index, a semi-humorous purchasing-power measure, in 1986?

The idea is that a burger sold everywhere makes a handy yardstick for comparing currencies.

The 1986 Rutan Voyager flight was the first to do what?

Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager took nine days, three minutes and 44 seconds.

The M25 motorway, opened by Margaret Thatcher in October 1986, encircles which city?

It became Europe's second-longest orbital road on completion.

Which pop superstar was born on March 28, 1986?

Rihanna arrived two years later and Taylor Swift three.

Which sprinter, the fastest man in history, was born on August 21, 1986?

The fastest man in history was born the day the Lake Nyos disaster killed nearly 2,000 people in Cameroon.

Which Twilight star was born on May 13, 1986?

Megan Fox followed three days later on May 16.

Which Canadian rapper, born October 24, 1986, is a 1986 baby?

The former Degrassi actor shares his birth year with Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington.

Which tennis champion was born on June 3, 1986?

The Olsen twins came along ten days later, on June 13.

Which Game of Thrones star, born October 23, 1986, played Daenerys Targaryen?

Kit Harington, her on-screen nephew, was born two months later on December 26.

Which actress, born July 2, 1986, starred in Mean Girls and The Parent Trap?

Amanda Bynes is also a 1986 baby, born on April 3.

What is Andy's job in the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin?

Judd Apatow cast Steve Carell after seeing him in Anchorman; the film was Apatow's directing debut.

What does the '40' in WD-40 stand for?

It was made in 1953 to keep the Atlas missile's skin from rusting, and the recipe has never been patented.

The reggae band UB40 took their name from what?

They formed in Birmingham in 1978 and have sold more than 100 million records.

Which gemstone marks a 40th wedding anniversary?

Silver is 25 and gold is 50, a pairing recorded in Germanic countries since the 1500s.

The 1932 bestseller that made 'life begins at forty' a catchphrase was written by whom?

When it came out, US life expectancy at birth was only around 60, up from about 40 fifty years earlier.

At what temperature do the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales read the same number?

It is the one point where you can skip the conversion formula entirely.

The word 'quarantine' comes from a 40-day isolation of ships first set by which city's senate in 1448?

Dubrovnik had already been holding arriving sailors for up to 40 days at its Lazzarettos.

The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds found between which latitudes?

Farther south come the Furious Fifties and the Shrieking Sixties.

Which Central Asian country's name derives from a word meaning 'land of forty tribes'?

In neighbouring Kazakh culture a folk saying runs 'forty – age, forty – experience'.

Which country has the international dialling code +40?

Its neighbour Bulgaria is +359 and Hungary is +36.

According to the Quran, at what age does a person reach maturity?

In Jewish tradition, forty is also the traditional minimum age for a man to study Kabbalah.

Which biblical figure walked 40 days and 40 nights to reach Mount Horeb?

Moses spent three separate periods of forty days and nights on Mount Sinai.

The Sanhedrin's punishment of '40 lashes' was in practice reduced to how many?

Deuteronomy sets the limit at forty, and one was withheld to avoid ever exceeding it.

How many days did rain fall during the biblical Flood?

Noah then waited another forty days after the mountaintops appeared before releasing a raven.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was added to the One Thousand and One Nights by which French translator?

He heard it from the Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab; it was not in the original Arabic manuscripts.

Who invented the Top 40 radio format at station KOWH in Omaha in the early 1950s?

He built the weekly list from how often records were played on jukeboxes.

A midlife crisis is typically described as occurring between what ages?

Researchers found only about 15% of middle-aged adults actually experience the classic turmoil.

The Hindu prayer Hanuman Chalisa is named for having how many verses?

'Chaalis' is Hindi for forty; many popular Hindu prayers run to forty couplets.

Which royal wedding took place at Westminster Abbey on July 23, 1986?

Charles and Diana had married five years earlier at St Paul's.

Whom did Mike Tyson beat in November 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history?

Tyson was 20 years and 4 months old and had won his first 19 pro fights by knockout, 12 in the first round.

The first Legend of Zelda game, released in 1986, was made for which Nintendo hardware?

Set in Hyrule, it sent Link after eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom to rescue Princess Zelda from Ganon.

Which chemical element has the atomic number 40?

The greyish-white transition metal was first identified in 1789 and closely resembles hafnium.

Lent's Latin name, Quadragesima, literally means what?

The season echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, the same span attributed to Moses and Elijah.

Interstate 40 runs east from California to which state?

At 2,556 miles it is the third-longest Interstate, crossing Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee on the way.

Who served as the 40th president of the United States?

He was inaugurated on 20 January 1981 and served two terms, through 1989.