100 Fun Facts About Bar

What is the capital city of Australia?

Canberra is the capital and the largest population centre in the Australian Capital Territory; Sydney and Melbourne are bigger but neither is the capital.

Which mountain is the highest on Earth above sea level?

Everest, called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is the highest point above sea level. K2 is second.

Which is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population?

Vatican City covers 44 hectares and had a population of about 882 in 2024, making it the smallest by both measures.

Which planet is the largest in the Solar System?

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.

The chemical symbol Au stands for which element?

Au comes from the Latin word aurum, meaning gold. Silver is Ag, aluminium is Al and argon is Ar.

Roughly how many bones does an adult human skeleton have?

Babies are born with around 270 bones, which fuse to about 206 by adulthood, not counting accessory bones.

Who painted the Mona Lisa?

The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

Armstrong commanded Apollo 11 in 1969 and was the first person to walk on the Moon; Aldrin followed him down the ladder.

William Shakespeare was born and raised in which English town?

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.

The Beatles were formed in which city?

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960.

In which year did the RMS Titanic sink?

Titanic sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

The Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin from 1961 until which year?

The Wall stood from 1961 to 1989, separating West Berlin from East Berlin and East Germany.

How many FIFA World Cup titles did Pelé win as a player?

Pelé won the World Cup with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970, the only player to win it three times.

Which swimmer has won more Olympic medals than any other athlete?

Phelps won 28 Olympic medals across four Games, more than any other athlete.

Which Dane designed the Sydney Opera House?

Utzon won the 1957 design competition; the building was finished by an Australian team led by Peter Hall and opened in 1973.

The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu is in which country?

Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel on a mountain ridge in southern Peru, about 2,430 metres up.

What is the largest hot desert in the world?

At about 9.2 million square kilometres, the Sahara is the largest hot desert; only the deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic are bigger overall.

Which ocean is the largest and deepest on Earth?

The Pacific is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions.

Which planet is closest to the Sun?

Mercury is the first planet from the Sun and the smallest in the Solar System.

Which chemical element is the most abundant in the universe?

Hydrogen is the lightest element and makes up about 75% of all normal matter in the universe.

Albert Einstein won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics chiefly for his work on what?

The citation was for services to theoretical physics and especially the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, not relativity.

Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?

Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel, the first person to win two, and the only person to win in two different sciences.

Which Scottish physician discovered penicillin in 1928?

Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 as a crude extract of a Penicillium mould.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in which city?

Mozart was born in Salzburg and emerged as a child prodigy under his father Leopold.

How many novels are there in the main Harry Potter series?

Harry Potter is a series of seven children's fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling.

Who wrote the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four?

Nineteen Eighty-Four, also published as 1984, is by the English writer George Orwell.

Who directed the 1972 film The Godfather?

Coppola directed The Godfather and co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, whose 1969 novel it adapts.

How many Academy Awards did the 1997 film Titanic win?

Titanic had fourteen nominations at the 70th Academy Awards and won eleven, including Best Picture and Best Director.

In the sitcom Friends, what is the name of the coffee house where Rachel first works?

Rachel starts as a waitress at Central Perk before moving on to Bloomingdale's and Ralph Lauren.

The Simpsons is set in which fictional town?

The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield, in an unspecified US location. Quahog is Family Guy; South Park is its own show.

Elvis Presley was born in which Mississippi town?

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and his family moved to Memphis when he was 13.

Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the lead single from which album?

The song was released as the lead single from Queen's fourth studio album, A Night at the Opera (1975).

Michael Jordan won six NBA championships with which team?

Jordan played 15 NBA seasons between 1984 and 2003 and won six championships with the Chicago Bulls.

What colour jersey does the overall leader of the Tour de France wear?

The rider with the lowest cumulative time leads the race and wears the yellow jersey.

Wimbledon is the only tennis major still played on which surface?

Wimbledon has been held since 1877 on outdoor grass courts and is the only major still played on grass.

The Super Bowl is the championship game of which league?

The Super Bowl is the league championship final of the NFL.

Which country hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup in 1930?

The tournament has run every four years since 1930, and inaugural winner Uruguay has two titles.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 in which city?

The 1896 Games in Athens, the Games of the I Olympiad, were the first international Olympics of modern history.

Under appellation rules, Champagne's bubble-making secondary fermentation must happen where?

The AOC rules require secondary fermentation of the wine in the bottle to cause carbonation, along with strict grape sourcing and pressing methods.

Guinness stout originated in a brewery in which city?

Guinness originated in Arthur Guinness's brewery at St. James's Gate, Dublin, in the 18th century.

Tequila is distilled from which plant?

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, mainly around the town of Tequila and the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico.

Bourbon whiskey is made primarily from which grain?

Bourbon is a barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn.

Sake is a Japanese alcoholic drink made by fermenting what?

Sake, often called Japanese rice wine, is made by fermenting polished rice.

Coca-Cola was invented in the late 19th century in which US city?

John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in Atlanta; it was first sold as a temperance drink and patent medicine.

Which French sculptor designed the Statue of Liberty?

Bartholdi designed the copper statue, a gift from the people of France; Gustave Eiffel built its metal framework.

The Eiffel Tower was completed in which year?

Gustave Eiffel's company designed and built the tower between 1887 and 1889.

Strictly speaking, "Big Ben" is the nickname of what?

Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, and only by extension the tower.

Which river carries the largest volume of water in the world?

The Amazon is the largest river by discharge volume; whether it or the Nile is longest is disputed.

Which city is the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state?

Reykjavík sits at 64°08′ N on Faxaflói bay in southwest Iceland. Nuuk is further north but Greenland is not a sovereign state.

Which country has the only non-rectangular national flag?

Nepal's flag is the only non-rectangular national flag and the only one taller than it is wide. Switzerland's is square, but still four-sided.

What is the capital city of Canada?

Ottawa is the capital of Canada; Toronto is the largest city.

Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March in which year?

Caesar was killed by a group of senators on 15 March 44 BC at the Curia of Pompey in Rome.

Cleopatra was the last active pharaoh of which dynasty ruling Egypt?

Cleopatra was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC and the last active Hellenistic pharaoh.

Who sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?

Magna Carta is a royal charter of rights sealed by King John at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.

The US Declaration of Independence was adopted in which city?

It was adopted on July 4, 1776 by the Second Continental Congress at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in Philadelphia.

Abraham Lincoln was which number president of the United States?

Lincoln was the 16th president, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.

Nelson Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 until which year?

Mandela was president from 1994 to 1999, the country's first black head of state.

What was Sputnik 1?

Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.

Which two scientists first proposed the double-helix structure of DNA?

Watson and Crick proposed the double helix, building on the work of Rosalind Franklin, Raymond Gosling, Maurice Wilkins and others.

How many hearts does an octopus have?

An octopus has a systemic heart that pumps blood around the body and two branchial hearts that pump it through the gills.

How many squares are on a standard chessboard?

A chessboard has 64 squares, arranged eight by eight.

The original Monopoly board's properties are named after locations in which US resort town?

The original board's properties were named after locations in and around Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by a professor of architecture from which country?

Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, invented the 3D puzzle in 1974.

Which city is the de facto capital of Switzerland?

Bern is Switzerland's de facto capital, referred to as the federal city; Zurich is the largest city.

What is the highest mountain in Africa?

Kilimanjaro, at 5,895 m, is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world.

Which planet is the hottest in the Solar System?

Venus's surface averages about 464 °C, making it hotter than Mercury despite being further from the Sun.

What is the largest animal known to have ever existed?

The blue whale, up to about 30 metres long and 190-200 tonnes, is the largest animal known to have ever existed.

What is the fastest land animal?

The cheetah is a pursuit predator capable of 93-104 km/h (58-65 mph).

Which is the largest living bird?

The common ostrich is the largest living bird, which also makes it the largest living dinosaur.

Which are the only mammals capable of true, sustained flight?

Bats, order Chiroptera, are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight; gliders only glide.

The Great Barrier Reef lies off the coast of which Australian state?

The reef is in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland, separated from the shore by a channel up to 160 km wide.

Which continent is on average the coldest, driest and windiest?

Antarctica is on average the coldest, driest and windiest continent and has the highest average elevation.

Which naturally occurring substance is the hardest known?

Diamond has the greatest number of atoms per unit volume of any known substance, which is why it is the hardest and least compressible.

The Bluetooth wireless standard is named after a 10th-century king of which country?

The name comes from Harald Bluetooth, the 10th-century Danish king; the logo merges the runes of his initials.

Scrabble was invented in 1931 by an American who worked in which profession?

American architect Alfred Mosher Butts invented Scrabble in 1931.

The Kentucky Derby is run at which racetrack?

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race at Churchill Downs in Louisville; the winner is draped in roses.

The Ryder Cup is a biennial competition in which sport?

The Ryder Cup is a men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, held every two years.

Sherlock Holmes shares quarters with Dr Watson at which London address?

Holmes and Watson share rooms at 221B Baker Street, where many of the stories begin.

Who wrote the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby?

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 tragedy novel by the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Who wrote and directed the 1994 film Pulp Fiction?

Pulp Fiction was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.

The band Nirvana formed in 1987 in which US state?

Nirvana was formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987.

Which British writer created James Bond?

Ian Fleming was best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened to the public in which year?

The bridge opened to the public on May 27, 1937, painted in its famous International Orange.

The Lego Group is based in which country?

Lego is made by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make what?

Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo in 1889 to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards.

The United States bought Alaska in 1867 from which country?

The US purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7.2 million.

Which state became the 50th to join the United States, in 1959?

Hawaii joined the union on August 21, 1959, months after Alaska.

The Ashes is a series between England and Australia in which sport?

The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia.

Kangaroos belong to which group of mammals?

Kangaroos are marsupials from the subfamily Macropodinae, meaning large foot.

The painter of The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh, was from which country?

Van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter; The Starry Night is one of his swirl-filled works from Saint-Rémy.

What is the capital city of New Zealand?

Auckland is far bigger, but the seat of government sits at the southern tip of the North Island.

Which chemical element has the symbol K?

The K comes from kalium, the Neo-Latin name; its atomic number is 19.

How many players does each volleyball team have on court at one time?

Teams of six face each other across a net, and each side may touch the ball up to three times before returning it.

Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512?

He regarded himself primarily as a sculptor and took the commission reluctantly.

What is the longest river in Europe?

Its catchment lies almost entirely inside Russia, and it drains into the Caspian Sea rather than an ocean.

In which year did the First World War begin?

It ran from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918, which is why Armistice Day falls on 11 November.

How many strings does a standard violin have?

They are usually tuned in perfect fifths to G3, D4, A4 and E5.

Which writer created the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot?

Poirot is Belgian, not French, a point the fastidious detective corrects throughout the novels.

Which building has been the tallest in the world since its topping out in 2009?

The Dubai tower rises about 829 metres and took the record from Taipei 101, which had held it since 2004.

Which mythical beast is the heraldic symbol of Scotland, shown on its royal arms?

It was thought to be the natural enemy of the lion, the symbol the English royals had adopted about a century earlier.