50 Fun Facts About Battle of the Sexes

Which color did most big US stores recommend for baby boys in a 1927 Time magazine chart?

Pink was the pick for boys at six of the ten stores Time listed, against four for blue; pink for girls only became the settled rule in the mid-20th century.

Which women's fashion staple began with Persian cavalrymen keeping their feet in the stirrups?

High heels arrived in Europe with Persian envoys in the early 1600s as a sign of masculinity and rank, and France's Louis XIV wore them at court.

Which sideline activity began as an all-male pursuit at the University of Minnesota in 1898?

Cheerleading stayed male for decades: Minnesota first let women join in 1923, and they only took over the sidelines when college men were drafted for World War II.

Which tennis champion beat Bobby Riggs in the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" at the Houston Astrodome?

Billie Jean King won in straight sets before an estimated 90 million TV viewers worldwide, four months after Riggs had beaten Margaret Court.

In which small fish does the male carry the eggs in a pouch and give birth to the young?

Seahorse fathers take up to 1,500 eggs from the female, typically give birth at night and are ready for the next batch by morning.

The circle-and-cross symbol for female was borrowed by Carl Linnaeus from the sign for which planet?

Venus lent its sign to female flowers and Mars lent its sign to male ones when Linnaeus began marking plants with planetary symbols in the 1750s.

Which facial hair style is named, with its syllables swapped, after an American Civil War general?

Sideburns flip the name of Ambrose Burnside, whose whiskers ran from his ears into his moustache while his chin stayed clean-shaven.

Which retired Monopoly token did fans vote back into the game in 2022?

The Thimble had been retired with the Boot and the Wheelbarrow to make room for new tokens including a rubber duck and a T-Rex, and it took the dinosaur's place on its return.

What does the WD stand for in WD-40, a spray first made to protect Atlas missiles from rust?

Water displacement was the aim, and the 40 suggests the chemists only got the recipe right with their 40th formula.

In which insect do only the females bite, needing the protein in blood to produce their eggs?

Mosquito males live on nectar and plant juices, and so do the females until they need a blood meal to build their eggs.

Which cosmetic is still called 'rímel' in Spanish, after the perfumer who developed its modern form?

Mascara in its modern form came from Eugène Rimmel, who used newly invented petroleum jelly; a similar mix made for a sister named Mabel grew into Maybelline.

Which wardrobe staple did Audrey Hepburn wear, designed by Givenchy, in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"?

The little black dress was no novelty by then: American Vogue ran a short, simple one in 1926 and predicted "a sort of uniform for all women of taste".

Which perfume did Marilyn Monroe name in 1952 when Life magazine asked what she wore to bed?

Chanel No. 5 was the first perfume from couturier Coco Chanel, who picked the fifth of the numbered sample vials her perfumer offered and kept its number as the name.

Which film has Patrick Swayze's Johnny Castle declare, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner"?

Dirty Dancing drew on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's own summers in the Catskills, where she entered dance contests and was nicknamed Baby herself.

Which haircut named after a 'Friends' character became one of the most requested of the 1990s?

The Rachel was created by stylist Chris McMillan for a practical reason: to repair Jennifer Aniston's damaged hair and grow out her bangs.

Which sturdy cotton fabric takes its name from the French city of Nîmes?

Denim is a contraction of the French phrase 'serge de Nîmes', meaning serge from Nîmes.

Which flower did Anna Jarvis make the emblem of Mother's Day because her own mother loved it?

Carnations have marked the day since Jarvis delivered 500 to the first celebration in 1908; she chose white ones for the purity of a mother's love.

Which Italian dessert has a name meaning 'pick me up'?

Tiramisu is younger than it tastes: the recipe appears in no cookbook before the 1960s.

Which of the four Cs used to grade diamonds measures the stone's weight, in units of 200 milligrams?

Carat comes, through Italian and Arabic, from the Greek for a carob seed, because the seeds were long used to weigh jewelry.

Which French fashion house created the Birkin bag in 1984 after its chief met actress Jane Birkin?

Hermès began in 1837 as a saddlery and harness maker, and built the roomy bag for an actress known for carrying her things in a basket.

Which cross-tipped screwdriver is named after an Oregon businessman who sold the idea to carmakers?

Phillips bought the design in 1935 from inventor John P. Thompson, who had failed to interest manufacturers; General Motors was using it on Cadillac lines a year later.

In American football, which two-point score comes from tackling a ball carrier in his own end zone?

Safety scores are the least common way to put points on the board in American football, and play restarts with a free kick.

Which cut of beef from the breast of the animal is the star of slow-smoked Texas barbecue?

Brisket starts out tough with connective tissue, which is why it is smoked for hours, and the same cut is cured to make corned beef and pastrami.

In poker, which unbeatable hand runs from ten up to ace, all in a single suit?

A royal flush is simply the top-ranked version of a straight flush, and nothing outranks it unless wild cards are in play.

Which action film has New York cop John McClane battling Hans Gruber's gang in Nakatomi Plaza?

Die Hard takes place on Christmas Eve and is often named one of the best Christmas films ever made, though whether it counts as one is still disputed.

Which crime film gave Marlon Brando the line "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"?

The Godfather line was voted the second most memorable in cinema by the American Film Institute, yet a near-identical one appears in a 1933 John Wayne western.

Which Nintendo hero was called Jumpman in the instructions for the arcade game Donkey Kong?

Mario was a carpenter in that first game because it is set on a construction site; he became a plumber when Mario Bros. moved the action underground.

Which sports-car maker's raging-bull emblem was chosen by a founder who was a Taurus himself?

Lamborghini took the emblem after founder Ferruccio visited the Seville ranch of fighting-bull breeder Eduardo Miura in 1962 and was struck by the animals.

In a manual-transmission car, what does the pedal on the far left of the footwell operate?

Clutch pedals disconnect the engine from the driven wheels for a moment, which is what lets the driver change gear.

Which NFL prize is named after the coach who led Green Bay to wins in the first two Super Bowls?

The Lombardi Trophy began as a sketch on a cocktail napkin, drawn by a Tiffany & Co. vice president over lunch with the NFL commissioner in 1966.

Which bird's males balance a single egg on their feet all through the Antarctic winter?

Emperor penguin fathers eat nothing for more than two months while the females feed at sea, losing around 12 kg before the egg hatches.

Which insect, named for its folded forelegs, has females that sometimes eat the male after mating?

Praying mantis males usually get away: in the wild, only about a quarter of encounters end with the female eating her mate.

In a honey bee colony, what are the stingless males that gather no nectar or pollen called?

Drones grow from unfertilized eggs, so every male honey bee has a mother but no father.

Which word for a female fox is also the name of one of the eight reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh?

Vixen is one of very few modern English words to keep a southern dialect 'v' where the northern form, as in fox, has an 'f'.

Which inherited vision condition affects up to 1 in 12 men but only about 1 in 200 women?

Color blindness of the red-green type is carried on the X chromosome; men have only one X, so a single affected gene is enough.

Which country became the first where all women could vote, after a campaign led by Kate Sheppard?

New Zealand changed its law in 1893, after a suffrage petition carrying nearly 32,000 signatures was presented to Parliament.

Who became the first American woman in space aboard the shuttle Challenger in 1983?

Sally Ride was the third woman in space overall, and later the only person to serve on the inquiries into both the Challenger and Columbia losses.

Who is the only person to have won Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, physics and chemistry?

Marie Curie shared the 1903 physics prize with her husband Pierre, then took the 1911 chemistry prize for discovering radium and polonium, which she named after her native Poland.

Which daughter of the poet Lord Byron is often considered the first computer programmer?

Ada Lovelace earned the title with her notes on Charles Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine, which set out a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers.

Which race did Kathrine Switzer finish in 1967 after an official tried to tear off her bib number?

The Boston Marathon did not officially accept women until 1972; Switzer had entered under her initials and sent a male runner to collect her number, 261.

Which Jane Austen novel, first drafted as 'First Impressions', pairs Elizabeth Bennet with Mr Darcy?

Pride and Prejudice was sold outright to its publisher for £110, though Austen had asked for £150; it has since sold over 20 million copies.

In knitting, which stitch alternates with the knit stitch to make stockinette fabric and ribbing?

Purl is simply the knit stitch seen from behind: a stitch that looks knitted on one side of the fabric appears purled on the other.

Which shoe designer's signature red soles began with a coat of an assistant's nail polish?

Christian Louboutin got his start backstage at the Folies Bergère cabaret in Paris, assisting the entertainers, before going freelance as a designer.

Which baseball feat, about as rare as a no-hitter, is a single, double, triple and homer in a game?

The cycle is called 'natural' when the four hits arrive in order, from the single up to the home run, which is rarer still.

Which player's silhouette, taken from a photograph, is the basis of the NBA logo designed in 1969?

Jerry West picked up the nickname 'the Logo' as a result, after designer Alan Siegel based the figure on a picture of the Lakers guard.

Which term, borrowed from cricket, describes one ice hockey player scoring three goals in a game?

Hat trick dates from 1858, when fans held a collection for a bowler who took three wickets with three balls and presented him with a hat bought from the proceeds.

Which Shakespeare comedy about Petruchio and Katherina inspired "10 Things I Hate About You"?

The Taming of the Shrew also became Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me, Kate and a 1967 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Which soul singer wrote and first recorded "Respect" two years before Aretha Franklin's version?

Otis Redding's 1965 original has no spelling: the 'R-E-S-P-E-C-T' and 'sock it to me' lines were worked out by Franklin and her sister Carolyn.

Which chess piece moved just one diagonal step until a 15th-century change made it the strongest?

The Queen acquired its modern move in Spain, and the earliest surviving treatise to describe it appeared during the reign of Isabella I of Castile.

Which Irving Berlin musical introduced the duelling duet "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)"?

Annie Get Your Gun is a fictionalized life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, and the song is her boasting match with fellow marksman and love interest Frank Butler.