50 Fun Facts About 40th Birthday

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

Halley's Comet was met by ESA's Giotto probe, which flew within 600 km of its nucleus and found a very dark surface with bright jets of gas and dust bursting out.

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

Chernobyl stayed secret for two days, until its fallout set off radiation alarms at a nuclear plant in Sweden and the Soviet government was pressed into admitting the accident.

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

Christa McAuliffe was chosen from more than 11,000 teachers who applied, and she planned to teach two lessons from orbit for broadcast to America's classrooms.

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

Top Gun made naval aviation look so good that Navy recruiters in some cities manned tables outside cinemas to catch would-be pilots on their way out.

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

England lost the quarter-final 2-1. Minutes after the handball, Maradona ran from his own half past a string of defenders to score the 'Goal of the Century'.

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

The New York Mets turned Buckner's tenth-inning error into an improbable win, then came from behind again in Game 7 to take the title from Boston.

Which animation studio was spun off from Lucasfilm in 1986 with Steve Jobs as its majority owner?

Pixar began as a hardware firm: Jobs first pushed it to sell the Pixar Image Computer, and John Lasseter's early shorts were made to show off what the machine could do.

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

The Oprah Winfrey Show grew out of AM Chicago, a faltering local morning programme that Winfrey took over in 1984 and quickly turned into a hit.

Which space station did the Soviet Union launch in February 1986?

Mir outlasted the country that launched it: cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev flew up as a Soviet citizen in 1991 and, after 311 days aboard, landed to find the Soviet Union gone.

Hands Across America's 1986 human chain ended in Long Beach beside which ocean liner?

The Queen Mary marked the Pacific end. At least five million people turned out, yet the line never fully joined: it couldn't bridge every gap along the way.

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

The Phantom of the Opera followed its composer's earlier hit Cats to Broadway and then took its record, overtaking it as the longest-running show there.

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

Alex Ferguson earned the job by winning three Scottish league titles and a European trophy with Aberdeen, then won 13 Premier League titles with United.

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

Spain and Portugal had been kept out while they were dictatorships; both regimes ended in the mid-1970s, and their entry took the Community from ten members to twelve.

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

In the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos claimed victory over Corazon Aquino in an election widely seen as rigged; after four days of peaceful street protests he was airlifted from his palace.

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

Olof Palme had sent his bodyguards home for the day. One man was jailed for the murder and then cleared on appeal, and nobody has been convicted of it since.

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

The Economist invented it as a light-hearted guide to whether currencies sit at their 'correct' level, swapping the economists' usual basket of goods for a single burger.

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

To circle the world nonstop, unrefuelled, Voyager took off so heavy with fuel, nearly three-quarters of its weight, that its wingtips dragged along the runway.

The M25 motorway, completed in October 1986, encircles which city?

London's ring was out of date almost as soon as it was finished: traffic outgrew it within a few years, and it has been widened again and again since.

Which pop superstar was born Stefani Germanotta on March 28, 1986?

Lady Gaga's stage name comes from the Queen song 'Radio Ga Ga'. She left the Tisch School of the Arts after two years to manage her own career.

Which sport did Usain Bolt, born in August 1986, play seriously as a boy before turning to sprinting?

Cricket came first: Bolt was a promising fast bowler, and it was his speed on the pitch that led his school coaches to steer him towards the track.

Which Twilight star, born in May 1986, earlier played a Hogwarts student?

Robert Pattinson was killed off as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire three years before he came back as the undying vampire Edward Cullen.

Drake, born in October 1986, found fame as Jimmy Brooks in which teen drama?

Degrassi: The Next Generation cast him as a basketball star left in a wheelchair after a classmate shoots him, and he put out his first mixtape while still on the show.

Which tennis champion, the 'King of Clay', was born on June 3, 1986?

Rafael Nadal was taught from early childhood by his uncle Toni, who stayed on as his coach on the professional tour; another uncle was an international footballer.

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

Emilia Clarke was not the first Daenerys: Tamzin Merchant played her in the original pilot, and the episode was shot again once the part had been recast.

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

Lindsay Lohan had already appeared in more than 60 TV commercials when Disney cast her as both twins in The Parent Trap, her first film.

In the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Andy works at what kind of store?

Electronics: Andy's co-workers at the store invite him to a poker game, where their bragging exposes the secret he has kept for years.

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

The 40th formula attempted is the one in the can, by the maker's account: WD stands for 'water displacement', and it first kept rust off the skin of the Atlas missile.

The reggae band UB40 took their name from what?

A British unemployment benefit form gave the band its name, and they kept the joke going: their first album's sleeve copied the card, rubber-stamped with its title, Signing Off.

Which gemstone marks a 40th wedding anniversary?

Ruby stands for 40 years. When Elizabeth II reached that mark as queen in 1992, she summed the year up in a speech as her 'annus horribilis'.

Which former Beatle wrote the song 'Life Begins at 40' in 1980, the year he reached that age?

John Lennon wrote it for Ringo Starr, who also turned 40 that year, to record on his next album; after Lennon was killed that December, Starr couldn't bring himself to.

At minus 40, which two temperature scales show the same reading?

Celsius and Fahrenheit cross there: a Fahrenheit degree is smaller than a Celsius one, so Fahrenheit's 32-degree head start at freezing point is used up by the time both reach minus 40.

The word 'quarantine' comes from the forty days that plague-era ships had to wait off which Italian port?

Venice kept ships from plague-stricken ports waiting at anchor for forty days, 'quaranta giorni' in Italian, to be sure that no hidden cases were aboard.

The Roaring Forties, the westerlies that sped sailing ships, are named for their what?

Latitude: the Roaring Forties blow between 40 and 50 degrees south, where there is little land to break the wind; farther south sailors named the Furious Fifties and the Screaming Sixties.

Which Central Asian country's flag shows a sun with 40 rays, one per legendary tribe?

Kyrgyzstan's flag gives the sun a ray for each of the forty tribes the hero Manas is said to have united. The country's name is often traced to a Turkic word for forty as well, but its origin is disputed.

After the US Civil War, freed families were famously promised '40 acres and' which animal?

A mule: General Sherman's 1865 order set aside 40-acre plots for freed families and the army later lent them mules, but President Andrew Johnson overturned it within months.

40 Wall Street lost the race to be the world's tallest building when which rival raised a secretly built spire?

The Chrysler Building's architect had its spire assembled in secret inside the tower, then raised it into place in about 90 minutes to beat his former partner's bank tower.

Which prophet, fleeing Queen Jezebel, walked 40 days and 40 nights to reach Mount Horeb?

Elijah made the journey on the strength of two meals an angel brought him, and at Horeb he found God not in wind, earthquake or fire but in a gentle whisper.

Which planet did Voyager 2 fly past in January 1986, the only spacecraft ever to have visited it?

Uranus got only a few hours of close study as Voyager 2 swept past, yet the probe found a string of new moons there before heading on towards the edge of the Solar System.

In Genesis, which bird did Noah send out first, before the famous dove, forty days after the mountaintops appeared?

A raven went first and simply kept flying back and forth. The dove went out three times, bringing back an olive leaf from its second trip and not returning from its third.

Which magic words does the hero overhear in 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'?

Open sesame is the command that opens the thieves' treasure cave. The tale joined the Arabian Nights only in the 1700s, added by its first European translator, Antoine Galland.

Which radio host began counting down the hits on American Top 40 in July 1970?

Casey Kasem turned the weekly chart into a show by wrapping the hits in stories about the artists, and he was still counting songs down on the radio 39 years later.

In April 1986, Geraldo Rivera opened which gangster's sealed vault on live television and found almost nothing inside?

Al Capone's supposed vault drew nearly 30 million viewers, with forensic examiners and tax agents standing by; behind the wall were dirt and a few empty bottles.

The Hanuman Chalisa is a 40-verse Hindu hymn to a god who takes the form of which animal?

A monkey: Hanuman commands the monkey army of the Ramayana and helps Rama win back his wife, Sita, from the demon king Ravana.

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

Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were given the titles Duke and Duchess of York that day, but the marriage did not last: they separated in 1992 and divorced four years later.

Which boxer knocked out Trevor Berbick in November 1986 to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history?

Mike Tyson was 20 and needed less than two rounds; within a year he had added the other two major belts to hold all three at once.

In The Legend of Zelda, first released in 1986, what is the name of the hero the player controls?

Link: Zelda is the princess of Hyrule whom he sets out to rescue from Ganon, so the title names the person being saved, not the hero.

In the arms-for-hostages scandal that broke in November 1986, the United States had secretly sold weapons to which country?

Iran got the weapons despite an arms embargo, in the hope of freeing American hostages held in Lebanon; proceeds from the sales were meant for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

'Lent', the forty-day fast, takes its name from an Old English word for which season?

Spring: 'Lent' comes from the Old English 'lencten', the season when the days lengthen. The Latin name for the fast, Quadragesima, means 'fortieth', after its forty days.

Interstate 40 runs east from California to which state?

North Carolina's port city of Wilmington is the eastern end; west of Oklahoma City, I-40 took the place of the old Route 66 all the way to Barstow, California.

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

Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor, was shot by a would-be assassin barely two months into his first term and was back at work within weeks.