95 Fun Facts About Trivia for Adults

Which country was the first in the world to give all women the right to vote in national elections?

New Zealand's 1893 Electoral Act, won by Kate Sheppard's petition campaign, made it the first self-governing country to let all adult women vote; Sheppard now appears on the NZ$10 note.

Which US president said 'tear down this wall' in Berlin?

Ronald Reagan said it at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, keeping the line although top advisers had urged him to drop it.

Which English king sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?

King John sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in June 1215 but soon got Pope Innocent III to annul it, and civil war with the barons followed.

Who flew the first solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927?

Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis carried a fuel tank ahead of the cockpit, so he had no front windshield and could see ahead only through a periscope or side windows.

Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest-reigning sultan of which empire?

Suleiman ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until he died besieging Szigetvár in Hungary in 1566, and his death was kept secret from his soldiers.

The Titanic, lost on her maiden voyage, was built at a shipyard in which city?

Belfast's Harland and Wolff built Titanic, and her sinking prompted the first international Safety of Life at Sea convention, adopted in 1914.

Who designed the new St Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire of London?

Christopher Wren was Oxford's professor of astronomy when he turned to architecture, a few years before the 1666 fire destroyed old St Paul's.

Who resigned as Soviet president in December 1991?

Mikhail Gorbachev had been weakened by a failed coup in August 1991, when hardline communists briefly held him under house arrest.

Who is the only US president to have resigned from office?

Richard Nixon resigned on 9 August 1974 rather than face likely impeachment for his part in the Watergate cover-up.

Which amendment to the US Constitution ended nationwide Prohibition of alcohol?

The Twenty-first Amendment left alcohol control to the states, and some stayed dry for decades: Mississippi kept statewide prohibition until 1966.

Who holds the record for the longest reign of any British monarch?

Elizabeth II was in Kenya, on a tour bound for Australia, when news came in February 1952 that her father had died and she was queen.

Which country was the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriage?

The Netherlands' law took effect on 1 April 2001, when Amsterdam's mayor, Job Cohen, married four same-sex couples at midnight.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

Neil Armstrong took over piloting the lunar module late in the descent to steer past a boulder-strewn landing area.

Which Chicago gangster built a bootlegging empire during US Prohibition?

Al Capone ran Chicago's bootlegging rackets, but what finally sent him to federal prison, in 1931, was a conviction for tax evasion.

Which city was built as Australia's capital as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne?

Canberra took over in 1927, when Parliament moved from Melbourne, which had served as the temporary seat of government while the capital was built.

Counting overseas territories, which country has the most time zones?

France spans 12 time zones once French Polynesia, Réunion and New Caledonia are counted, one more than Russia's 11.

Which river is Europe's longest, pushing the Danube into second place?

The Volga flows through Russia into the landlocked Caspian Sea, so Europe's longest river never reaches an ocean.

Which is the world's smallest sovereign state by area?

Vatican City became an independent state in 1929 through the Lateran Treaty with Fascist Italy, which settled the long dispute over the pope's status in Rome.

Which city spans two continents, with districts on both the European and Asian shores?

Istanbul was an imperial capital for centuries, yet the new Turkish Republic chose Ankara as its capital in 1923.

Which is the most populous country in Africa?

Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja, but Lagos remains the country's leading commercial and industrial city.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in which country?

Kilimanjaro stands in northern Tanzania near the Kenyan border, and although it lies close to the Equator, its summit carries an ice cap.

Which US state has the longest coastline?

Alaska was sold to the United States by Russia in 1867, largely because Russia feared losing the hard-to-defend colony to Britain.

Which country has the world's only non-rectangular national flag?

Nepal's flag is two stacked pennants, and until the 1962 redesign the sun and moon on it had human faces.

What is the largest hot desert in the world?

The Sahara has swung between desert and savanna over thousands of years, and people once lived, hunted and fished beside lakes there.

Which river carries more water to the sea than any other in the world?

The Amazon is said to take its name from Francisco de Orellana's reports of battles with warrior women, whom he likened to the Amazons of Greek myth.

Which building, completed in 2010, became the world's tallest at about 828 metres?

Burj Khalifa was called Burj Dubai until its opening, when it was renamed after Abu Dhabi's ruler, whose emirate had just helped Dubai pay off its debts.

The Swiss franc is legal tender in Switzerland and which other country?

Liechtenstein shares Switzerland's franc and a customs union with it, and it abolished its own army in 1868.

What is the chemical symbol for gold?

Au comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold, and because gold does not corrode it is used to coat electrical connectors.

Which planet is sometimes called Earth's twin?

Venus is near Earth's size, yet its thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet, hotter even than Mercury.

How many bones does a typical adult human skeleton have?

An adult has 206 bones, but a newborn has more, because many of a baby's bones fuse together as it grows.

What is the hardest known natural material?

Diamond tops the Mohs scale at 10, yet the scale is uneven: diamond is several times harder than corundum, which sits just below it at 9.

Which gas makes up about 78 percent of dry air?

Nitrogen makes up most of the air, but plants take it up as nitrates, many made by soil bacteria that fix nitrogen straight from the atmosphere.

Whose theory of gravity, known as general relativity, was published in 1916?

Albert Einstein's general relativity describes gravity not as a pull between masses but as the curving of space and time by matter and energy.

People with which blood type are often called universal donors for red cell transfusions?

O negative red cells carry neither A, B nor RhD antigens, so they are the ones reached for in emergencies before a patient's blood is typed.

Which element has atomic number 1?

Hydrogen filled the Hindenburg airship, and the flammable gas caught fire as it came in to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937.

Which vitamin does the skin produce when exposed to ultraviolet B light from the sun?

Vitamin D forms when UVB light converts a cholesterol compound in the skin, and a shortage of it causes rickets in children.

Which planet rotates on its side, with an axial tilt of more than 80 degrees?

Uranus's sideways spin gives it extreme seasons, with each pole spending decades in sunlight and then decades in darkness.

In 2006 the International Astronomical Union reclassified which body as a dwarf planet?

Pluto was reclassified after similar worlds such as Eris were found beyond Neptune, because it has not cleared its orbital zone of other objects.

Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?

Marie Curie was left out of the 1903 nomination at first, until a committee member warned Pierre Curie, who insisted that she share the prize.

What is the longest bone in the human body?

The femur takes so much force to break that young adults who fracture it often do so in high-energy trauma such as car crashes.

Which 1927 war film won the first Academy Award for Best Picture?

Wings was given to director William Wellman because he had flown in combat in World War I, which was rare in Hollywood at the time.

Who directed the 1975 shark thriller Jaws?

Steven Spielberg's mechanical sharks kept malfunctioning, so he mostly kept the shark out of sight and let John Williams's ominous theme signal its approach.

Which 2009 film overtook Titanic to become the highest-grossing film of all time?

Avatar was James Cameron's first feature film since Titanic, and in the years between he made documentaries about deep-sea exploration.

Which actor played the Joker in The Dark Knight and won a posthumous Oscar for it?

Heath Ledger died while making The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, so Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell finished it by playing versions of his character.

The Godfather was adapted from a best-selling 1969 novel by which author?

Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather to make money: his earlier novels won good reviews but few sales, and he was deep in debt, some of it to bookmakers.

Black Panther is the monarch of which fictional African kingdom?

Wakanda owes its futuristic technology to vibranium, a rare and nearly indestructible metal that came from a meteorite.

Which alias does Walter White adopt in Breaking Bad?

Heisenberg is Walter White's alias, and the show's creator said his goal was to turn Mr. Chips into Scarface.

Which country had won the most FIFA World Cups by the end of the 2022 tournament?

Brazil's third title in 1970 let them keep the original Jules Rimet trophy for good, so a new FIFA World Cup trophy had to be made.

What do the five interlocking rings on the Olympic flag stand for?

The rings stand for the inhabited continents, and Pierre de Coubertin said their colours, with the white background, reproduced the colours of every competing nation's flag at the time.

In tennis scoring, what does the word 'love' mean?

'Love' means zero, probably from the old phrase 'playing for love', meaning playing for nothing rather than for a stake.

Which city hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896?

At Athens in 1896, the hosts' biggest moment came when Greek runner Spyridon Louis won the first Olympic marathon.

In golf, what is a score of one stroke under par on a hole called?

Birdie is American golf slang: one story ties it to a shot that struck a bird, another to 'bird', old slang for anything excellent.

In ten-pin bowling, what are three strikes in a row called?

A turkey is three strikes in a row, and because each strike adds the next two balls as a bonus, its first frame scores the maximum 30 points.

Wimbledon is the only tennis Grand Slam played on which surface?

Wimbledon has been the only grass-court major since 1988, when the Australian Open switched from grass to hard courts.

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

Cricket's Ashes began as a joke: after Australia's 1882 win at The Oval, a mock obituary said English cricket's body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

Who scored the 'Hand of God' goal at the 1986 World Cup?

Diego Maradona punched the ball in for the Hand of God goal against England, and four minutes later dribbled past five players to score the winner.

Which spirit is the base of a classic mojito?

Rum is the base of the Cuban mojito, and one origin story traces the drink to El Draque, an earlier mix named after Sir Francis Drake.

Marzipan is made mainly from sugar and which ground nut?

Almonds make marzipan, and though cooks call them nuts, botanically an almond is the seed of a drupe, the fruit type of peaches and cherries.

Japanese sake is brewed by fermenting which grain?

Rice becomes sake through koji, a mould that turns the grain's starch into fermentable sugar.

Which cheese gives tiramisu its creamy layer?

Mascarpone is in tiramisu's cream, and Treviso in Veneto claims the dessert, yet in 2017 Italy listed it as a traditional product of rival region Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Paella originally comes from which country?

Paella began in the Valencia region of Spain, and its name is the Catalan and Valencian word for the wide, shallow pan it is cooked in.

The Scoville scale measures which property of a food?

Wilbur Scoville's early-1900s test measured spiciness by diluting pepper extract in sugar water until a panel of tasters could no longer detect the heat.

A margarita is made with lime juice, triple sec and which spirit?

Tequila makes a margarita, and one theory says the drink began as a tequila version of the daisy, an older cocktail, since margarita is Spanish for daisy.

Arthur Guinness began brewing at St James's Gate in 1759 in which city?

Dublin's St James's Gate brewery made ales at first, and Guinness began brewing porter, a dark beer whose stronger versions were called stout, only in the late 1700s.

Which country drank the most beer per person in 2023, as it had every year since 1993?

The Czech Republic, home of the original pilsner from Plzeň, topped Kirin's per-capita beer table every year from 1993 through 2023, even as its consumption slowly fell.

Which band released the album Abbey Road in 1969?

Abbey Road was the last album The Beatles recorded, but Let It Be, mostly taped in January 1969, was released after it, in 1970.

Which composer wrote the violin concertos known as The Four Seasons?

Antonio Vivaldi spent decades teaching music at a Venice orphanage, and wrote many of his concertos for its orchestra of orphaned girls.

Which singer is known as the Queen of Soul?

Aretha Franklin's signature song Respect was a cover: Otis Redding recorded the original, and her 1967 version topped the charts.

The pop group ABBA came from which country?

ABBA broke through by winning Eurovision in 1974 with Waterloo, which was Sweden's first victory in the contest.

The Ode to Joy is the final movement of which composer's Ninth Symphony?

Beethoven's Ode to Joy theme became Europe's anthem, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1972 and later used by the European Union.

As of the 2025 ceremony, which artist had won the most Grammy Awards?

Beyoncé won Album of the Year in 2025 with Cowboy Carter, a country album she said was born of an experience where she did not feel welcomed.

Queen frontman Freddie Mercury was born on which island?

Zanzibar-born Freddie Mercury put his art-college graphic design training to use by drawing Queen's crest logo, built from the band members' zodiac signs.

Who wrote the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four?

George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four as a warning against totalitarianism, and its Big Brother and doublethink became everyday bywords.

Which novel opens with the line 'Call me Ishmael'?

Moby-Dick was a commercial failure in Herman Melville's lifetime and was hailed as a great American novel only decades after his death.

Who wrote Pride and Prejudice?

Jane Austen first wrote the novel in the 1790s as First Impressions, but a London publisher declined it, and it appeared as Pride and Prejudice only in 1813.

Which author created the detective Sherlock Holmes?

Arthur Conan Doyle killed Holmes off in 1893 to turn to what he saw as better work, but public outcry was so great that he brought the detective back.

Who wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude, the story of the Buendía family of Macondo?

Gabriel García Márquez spent his early childhood with his grandparents in Aracataca, and their stories and way of telling them fed this novel.

The magician Prospero and his daughter Miranda appear in which Shakespeare play?

The Tempest opens with a storm at sea, and Prospero, the Duke of Milan ousted by his brother, uses his magic on the enemies it brings to his island.

Who wrote The Great Gatsby?

The Great Gatsby was a commercial disappointment for F. Scott Fitzgerald, and it was still selling slowly when he died in 1940.

Which museum has held the Rosetta Stone since the early 1800s?

The British Museum received the Rosetta Stone after the French surrendered Egypt to British forces in 1801.

Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?

Michelangelo painted the ceiling from 1508 to 1512, mostly standing on scaffolding with his head tipped back rather than lying on his back.

The Mona Lisa hangs in which museum?

The Louvre lost the Mona Lisa to theft in 1911, and the media sensation that followed helped make it the world's most famous painting.

Which painter cut his own left ear in December 1888, while living in Arles?

Vincent van Gogh had been sharing the Yellow House in Arles with Paul Gauguin, and the injury followed a blazing row between them.

What is the largest animal known to have ever existed?

The blue whale grows that big almost entirely on krill, tiny shrimp-like animals it strains from seawater through its baleen plates.

What is the fastest land animal?

The cheetah's flexible spine lengthens its stride, powering short sprints that no other land mammal can match.

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

Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight, and despite the saying 'blind as a bat', no bat species is actually blind.

Which material replaced plastic on the first iPhone's screen weeks before launch?

Glass replaced the plastic screen after Steve Jobs found that keys in his pocket had scratched a prototype.

Who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975?

Paul Allen flew to Albuquerque in 1975 to demonstrate the BASIC he and Bill Gates had written for the Altair, and he then went to work for its maker, MITS.

What does HTTP stand for in a web address?

Hypertext Transfer Protocol sends pages unencrypted, so in 2018 Google Chrome began labelling plain HTTP sites Not secure to push them toward HTTPS.

What is the title of the 19-second clip by co-founder Jawed Karim, the first video ever uploaded to YouTube?

Me at the zoo shows Jawed Karim in front of the elephants at San Diego Zoo, and was uploaded on April 23, 2005.

Which car model is the best-selling nameplate of all time?

Toyota named the Corolla from a Latin word for a small crown or garland, following a naming tradition built around its Crown sedan.

The properties on the original Monopoly board are named after streets in which US city?

Atlantic City's streets fill a game that grew out of Lizzie Magie's Landlord's Game, patented in 1904, long before Charles Darrow sold Monopoly to Parker Brothers in 1935.

London black-cab drivers must pass which famously hard test of London's streets?

London cabbies who passed The Knowledge had a larger rear hippocampus, a brain region for spatial memory, and the longer they had driven, the larger it was.

Which ancient poet guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory in the Divine Comedy?

Virgil stands for human reason, so he leaves Dante at the top of Purgatory, as far as reason can go, and Beatrice guides him into Paradise.

Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred with Eddie Murphy in which comedy?

Jamie Lee Curtis was known as a horror scream queen, yet her comic role in Trading Places won her a BAFTA.