1965 Trivia
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6correct to beat the crowd
50 free 1965 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
1965 was the year the sixties stopped being polite. American Marines waded ashore in Vietnam, a colony in southern Africa declared itself independent without asking, a new flag went up in Ottawa and an island city-state was thrown out of its federation and told to govern itself. In Britain the death penalty was suspended, motorways got their first speed limit and a critic said a four-letter word on live television. These 50 questions cover the news, sport, music, film and television of the year with a British lean: a first FA Cup for a famous club, a winger retiring at 50, a horse from Maryland at Aintree, a record price for an Old Master, a zoo escape that stopped the traffic, the year's best-selling single, a flop musical and a satellite named after a cartoon Gaul. There are births and deaths too, from a boy wizard's creator to a modernist architect who died swimming. It is built for pub quizzes, classrooms and anyone who was there, or wishes they had been. Every answer comes with an explanation and a source, so the arguments can be settled.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which racquet sport was invented on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with leftover badminton and ping-pong kit?
Pickleball
Pickleball was improvised by Joel Pritchard, a future congressman, and a friend to entertain their bored children, using whatever equipment was lying around his summer home.
Q 02Which novel, turned down by over twenty publishers, was finally issued by a printer of car-repair manuals?
Dune
Dune was published by Chilton Books, which treated it as a write-off and fired the editor who championed it; the book then won the first Nebula Award for best novel.
Q 03Which fibre did DuPont's Stephanie Kwolek create while hunting for lighter tyres in a petrol-shortage scare?
Kevlar
Kevlar now lines bulletproof vests, but getting it made took persuasion: Kwolek had to talk a reluctant technician into spinning her thin, cloudy solution, which he feared would clog his machine.
Q 04Which winter sport grew from the 'Snurfer', which Sherman Poppen built for his children's amusement on Christmas Day?
Snowboarding
Snowboarding grew out of a toy: Poppen lashed two skis together for his daughters, his wife named it the Snurfer, and Brunswick sold about a million of them as novelties over the next decade.
Q 05Which country ran up a new flag on 15 February, retiring its Red Ensign after a rancorous 'Great Flag Debate'?
Canada
Canada's maple leaf was inaugurated on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and 15 February is now National Flag Day. Prime Minister Lester Pearson had forced the change through a divided Commons.
Q 06Which island state became independent on 9 August after being voted out of a federation it had joined in 1963?
Singapore
Singapore's expulsion from Malaysia passed 126–0 with no Singaporean MPs present, and Lee Kuan Yew fought back tears announcing it on television. He then governed the new republic until 1990.
Q 07Which driver skipped the Monaco Grand Prix to win the Indianapolis 500, then took that year's Formula One title as well?
Jim Clark
Jim Clark led 190 of the 200 laps in a rear-engined Lotus 38, the first such car to win at Indianapolis; the front-engined roadsters that had ruled the race were already down to six of the 33 starters.
Q 08Which Fairchild research chief told Electronics magazine that chip components would keep doubling every year?
Gordon Moore
Gordon Moore's forecast became 'Moore's law', which he slowed to a doubling every two years in 1975; he went on to co-found Intel and run it. The magazine had simply asked him to guess the next decade.
Q 09Which author, born in Yate, Gloucestershire, on 31 July, later gave that birthday to her most famous character?
J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling gave Harry Potter her own 31 July birthday; the K is borrowed, taken from her grandmother Kathleen when her publisher feared boys would not read a book by a woman.
Q 10Whose painting, sold as a portrait of his son Titus, did Norton Simon buy at Christie's in March for 760,000 guineas?
Rembrandt
Rembrandt's picture was first knocked down to another bidder; Simon protested that the auctioneer had missed his prearranged signal, and the bidding was reopened. His museum now doubts that the boy is Titus.
Q 11Which club won the FA Cup for the first time on 1 May, beating Leeds 2–1 after extra time at Wembley?
Liverpool
Liverpool's Gerry Byrne broke his collarbone in the opening minutes but, with no substitutes allowed, played on and set up Roger Hunt's opening goal in extra time; Ian St John headed the winner.
Q 12Which club beat 1860 Munich 2–0 at Wembley to win the Cup Winners' Cup, with both goals from Alan Sealey?
West Ham United
West Ham United's second came when the captain's cross was fumbled by goalkeeper Radenkovic; Sealey scored twice inside two minutes. A year later that same captain lifted the World Cup on the same pitch.
Q 13Which winger, knighted while still playing, made his last First Division appearance for Stoke on 6 February aged 50?
Q 21Which restaurant chain began when founder Boizot fetched an oven from Italy and opened in Wardour Street, Soho?
PizzaExpress
PizzaExpress began after Boizot asked why good pizza was so hard to find in London and was told it took a proper oven, so he went and bought one; its Dean Street branch later became a noted jazz club.
Q 22Which fast-food chain opened its first British branch at 92 Fishergate, Preston, on 1 May?
KFC
KFC beat McDonald's to Britain by nine years; the rival did not open until Woolwich in 1974. Colonel Sanders's chain was among the first American franchises to go abroad, reaching Mexico and Jamaica by the mid-1960s.
Q 23What kind of bird drew crowds to Regent's Park during nearly two weeks on the loose from London Zoo in March?
A golden eagle
Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews played only because injuries to two team-mates forced Stoke to recall him, five days after his 50th birthday; he later said he had retired too early.
Q 14Which cyclist became Britain's first professional world road-race champion, two years before he died on Mont Ventoux?
Tom Simpson
Tom Simpson also won the Giro di Lombardia that autumn and became the first cyclist named BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The post-mortem after his 1967 Tour collapse found amphetamines and alcohol.
Q 15Which Dodgers pitcher skipped Game 1 of the World Series for Yom Kippur, then won Game 7 on two days' rest?
Sandy Koufax
Sandy Koufax had thrown a perfect game against the Cubs that September, his fourth no-hitter, a record at the time. The decision made him a hero to American Jews and he retired a year later with an arthritic elbow.
Q 16Six days of rioting that killed 34 people began in which Los Angeles neighbourhood after a drink-driving stop?
Watts
Watts erupted after onlookers watched police arrest Marquette Frye, 21, beside his mother's Buick and distorted rumours of brutality spread; nearly 14,000 National Guardsmen were sent in.
Q 17Which colony declared independence from Britain on 11 November without consent, in order to keep white-minority rule?
Rhodesia
Rhodesia's Ian Smith signed the proclamation at 11 a.m. on Armistice Day, during the two minutes' silence, and Britain answered with sanctions rather than troops; white rule lasted until 1979.
Q 18Britain's 70 mph limit began on 22 December as a four-month trial after motorway pile-ups in which weather?
Fog
Fog crashes pushed Transport Minister Tom Fraser to cap speeds on roads that had no limit at all; the 'trial' was extended, and the limit was made permanent in 1967.
Q 19Which critic drew four Commons censure motions by saying the F-word on the BBC's late-night show BBC-3?
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan, the National Theatre's literary manager, was arguing against stage censorship when he said no rational person found the word forbidden; 133 backbenchers signed the motions. Others had reputedly said it on air before.
Q 20After Ian Brady's October arrest for the axe killing of a teenager, police dug up two graves on which upland?
Saddleworth Moor
Saddleworth Moor gave up the bodies of Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride that October; a third victim, Pauline Reade, was not found there until 1987, and a fourth never has been. Brady and Myra Hindley were jailed for life in 1966.
The golden eagle slipped away on 28 February while his cage was being cleaned, shrugged off Royal Navy equipment, and was finally lured down on 11 March with a dead rabbit. He escaped again that December.
Q 24Who became Conservative leader on 27 July in the party's first election by ballot of MPs, beating Reginald Maudling?
Edward Heath
Edward Heath's win was an upset: Maudling had been widely tipped as the favourite, but Heath took 150 votes to his 133, with Enoch Powell a distant third on 15.
Q 25Which non-driver took over Transport in a December reshuffle and went on to bring in the breathalyser?
Barbara Castle
Barbara Castle was asked on air 'You're only a woman, you don't drive, what do you know about it?'; road deaths fell 16.5 per cent in the breathalyser's first year. She also made seat belts compulsory fittings.
Q 26Which French stop-motion series reached BBC1 on 18 October with scripts Eric Thompson made up from the pictures alone?
The Magic Roundabout
The Magic Roundabout's Dougal was built without legs to make him easier to animate; Thompson's invented narration ran for 441 five-minute episodes until 1977.
Q 27Which Hammer horror star played the Doctor as a gentle human inventor in the first colour Doctor Who film?
Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing's film cashed in on the 'Dalekmania' craze: it retold the first Dalek serial in colour, and a sequel followed within a year, while William Hartnell carried on as the Doctor on television.
Q 28Which Peanuts special, the first ever made, was scored by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi and paid for by Coca-Cola?
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas had no laugh track and real children doing the voices, which convinced CBS it had a disaster; it won an Emmy and ran on US television every year for 56 years. It was made in six months on a small budget.
Q 29Which comedian had the year's best-selling UK single with 'Tears', a 1930 Rudy Vallée waltz he revived?
Ken Dodd
Ken Dodd's 'Tears' outsold every Beatles single that year, passing a million copies; across the whole decade only two records, both by the Beatles, sold more in Britain.
Q 30Which 17-year-old won Eurovision in Naples for Luxembourg with a Gainsbourg song, beating Kathy Kirby into second?
France Gall
France Gall chose 'Poupée de cire, poupée de son' from the ten songs offered to her, and the win kept the Gainsbourg hits coming for a singer who had started with jazz and children's songs. Kirby's 'I Belong' came second for the UK.