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50 free 1973 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
1973 was the year the post-war world wobbled. A president's aides began resigning on live television, Arab oil producers turned off the taps and quadrupled the price of a barrel, Britain joined the Common Market and, by December, was being told to ration its electricity. A coup in Santiago and a surprise attack on Israel's holiest day made the news everywhere. These 50 questions cover the news, music, film, sport and television of the year, with a British lean: a harbourside landmark opened by the Queen, a glam-rock Christmas single that never went away, a cup final upset, a try still called the greatest ever scored, a courier's first night in the air and a comet that failed to show up. 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.
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Q 01Which landmark, picked from 233 design entries, did Queen Elizabeth II open in October after 14 years of construction?
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon had quit in 1966 and, though invited, stayed away so the row would not overshadow the day; the Queen's speech never mentioned him.
Q 02Which Thames crossing, opened by the Queen on 16 March, replaced an 1831 span sold to an American oilman for $2.46m?
London Bridge
London Bridge's 1831 predecessor was bought by Robert McCulloch in 1968 and rebuilt at Lake Havasu City, Arizona; the tale that he thought he was getting Tower Bridge was denied by the councillor who sold it to him.
Q 03Who first played James Bond in Live and Let Die, with a theme song written and performed by Paul McCartney and Wings?
Roger Moore
Roger Moore had been considered for Dr. No and On Her Majesty's Secret Service before Cubby Broccoli overruled United Artists, which wanted an American; the film's 1980 ITV premiere drew a record 23.5 million British viewers.
Q 04Which band's 'Merry Xmas Everybody' went straight in at UK number one in December, the third of their singles to do so?
Slade
Slade's single had 250,000 pre-orders, enough for a silver disc on release day, sold over half a million on its first run and has been re-released in every decade since; it was also their last number one.
Q 05Which courier carried just 186 packages on its first night, 17 April, using 14 Dassault Falcon jets out of Memphis?
Federal Express
Federal Express was losing up to a million dollars a month in its first year, and founder Fred Smith once flew to Las Vegas and won $27,000 at blackjack to cover a $24,000 fuel bill and keep the planes flying.
Q 06Which horse ran down the Australian chaser Crisp on the Aintree run-in to win the first of his three Grand Nationals?
Red Rum
Red Rum was still 15 lengths adrift at the final fence, but Crisp, carrying 23 lb more, tired on the 494-yard run-in and was caught two strides from the post; the time beat Reynoldstown's 1935 record.
Q 07Which Welshman finished 'that try' for the Barbarians against the All Blacks, begun by Phil Bennett's sidesteps?
Gareth Edwards
Gareth Edwards dived in at the left-hand corner 22 seconds after Bennett picked up near his own line; Cliff Morgan, a same-day stand-in for flu-struck Bill McLaren, called it as the Barbarians won 23–11, the All Blacks' first loss to them.
Q 08Which artist died at Mougins in France on 8 April aged 91, having painted until 3 a.m. the night before?
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso died of a heart attack brought on by pulmonary edema, weeks before the Avignon Arts Festival opened a show of 201 of his latest canvases; two of the women in his life later took their own lives.
Q 09Which bread brand's 'Boy on the Bike' advert, shot by Ridley Scott on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, first aired?
Hovis
Hovis hired Ridley Scott six years before Alien; the advert set a Dorset cobbled street to the slow movement of Dvořák's New World Symphony rearranged for brass, and has been voted Britain's favourite advertisement of all time.
Q 10Which US vice president resigned on 10 October after pleading no contest to a single charge of tax evasion?
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew had taken kickbacks from contractors as Baltimore county executive and Maryland governor; fined $10,000 and put on probation, he later borrowed $200,000 from Frank Sinatra to cover his bills.
Q 11Which war began on 6 October when Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and Syrians pushed into the Golan Heights?
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War caught Israel on its holiest day, which also fell on the 10th of Ramadan; Israeli intelligence had dismissed the Egyptian build-up as a training exercise, and both sides accepted a UN ceasefire on 22 October.
Q 12Which 7–2 Supreme Court ruling, issued on 22 January, the day Lyndon Johnson died, struck down Texas's ban on abortion?
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade was brought by Norma McCorvey, a pregnant Texan suing under the pseudonym 'Jane Roe', and Harry Blackmun spent a week at the Mayo Clinic researching the history of abortion before writing the opinion.
Q 13Which actress, whose sitcom-star father died at 31, read French and Russian at Oxford before playing the vampire Selene?
Q 21Which Chilean president died in La Moneda palace during the 11 September coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power?
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende gave a farewell speech on live radio as gunfire echoed around the palace, and a 2011 international autopsy concluded he had shot himself with an AK-47 rifle.
Q 22Which Crichton film cast Yul Brynner as a rogue robot gunslinger and pioneered digital image processing on screen?
Westworld
Westworld's pixelated android's-eye view ran about two and a half minutes; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had quoted Crichton nine months and $200,000 for two minutes, so he turned to John Whitney Jr. instead.
Q 23Which Second Division club beat holders Leeds United 1–0 in the FA Cup final thanks to an Ian Porterfield goal?
Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale was five when her father Richard, the Porridge and Rising Damp star, died of a heart attack; born in Isleworth on 26 July, she rose to fame in 2001 as the nurse torn between two pilots in Pearl Harbor.
Q 14Which two countries joined the EEC with Britain on 1 January, after Norway's voters had rejected membership?
Ireland and Denmark
Ireland and Denmark had each approved membership by referendum in 1972, whereas Charles de Gaulle had vetoed Britain's first application in 1963, calling the UK a 'trojan horse' for the United States.
Q 15Which tax replaced Purchase Tax on 1 April at a flat 10 per cent, a consequence of Britain joining the EEC?
Value Added Tax
Value Added Tax was set by Chancellor Anthony Barber and is now the third-largest source of UK government revenue; Denis Healey cut the standard rate to 8 per cent in 1974 while taxing luxuries at up to 25 per cent.
Q 16Which sport held its first World Cup as a women's event in England, bankrolled by Jack Hayward and won by the hosts?
Cricket
Cricket's women got their World Cup two years before the men; Hayward put up £40,000, Princess Anne presented the cup at Edgbaston and Edward Heath hosted the winning side at a reception in 10 Downing Street.
Q 17Which Olympic gold medallist married Princess Anne at Westminster Abbey on 14 November, watched by 500 million?
Mark Phillips
Mark Phillips had won his gold at the 1972 Olympics; the wedding fell on Prince Charles's 25th birthday, was declared a special bank holiday, and drew 27.6 million viewers in the UK alone.
Q 18Which emergency measure did Edward Heath announce on 13 December to save electricity during the miners' overtime ban?
Three-Day Week
The Three-Day Week took effect on 1 January 1974, confining commercial electricity users to three consecutive days a week, and Heath called a snap election under the slogan 'Who governs Britain?', losing his majority.
Q 19Which Chicago skyscraper, topped out on 3 May at 1,451 feet, became the world's tallest building for the next 25 years?
Sears Tower
Sears Tower lost the title only when Malaysia's Petronas Towers claimed it in 1998 by counting decorative spires, to the fury of Chicagoans who noted their top floor was higher; it was renamed for the Willis Group in 2009.
Q 20Which author, who died on 2 September aged 81, is buried in Oxford as 'Beren' beside his wife Edith's 'Luthien'?
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien died of a bleeding ulcer and chest infection 21 months after Edith, and his son Christopher went on to publish The Silmarillion and a shelf of further books from his father's notes.
Sunderland
Sunderland were the first Second Division side to lift the Cup since West Bromwich Albion in 1931, and Jim Montgomery's double save, turning Peter Lorimer's blast onto the bar, is counted among Wembley's greatest.
Q 24Which boxer floored Joe Frazier six times in Kingston, Jamaica, prompting Cosell's cry of 'Down goes Frazier!'?
George Foreman
George Foreman, 37–0 going in against Frazier's 29–0, took the heavyweight title by second-round TKO in the 'Sunshine Showdown' on 22 January; Howard Cosell's call came on ABC's rebroadcast.
Q 25Which Roy Clarke sitcom, piloted on Comedy Playhouse on 4 January, ran until 2010 as Britain's longest-running sitcom?
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine followed a trio of elderly Yorkshiremen through 295 episodes and 31 series, every one written by Roy Clarke, and the BBC refused a special final episode when it ended.
Q 26Which pair of tech co-founders were born five months apart, one in Lansing, Michigan, and the other in Moscow?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Larry Page and Sergey Brin were born on 26 March and 21 August; Brin's family fled Soviet antisemitism when he was six, and the pair met at Stanford, where Brin had enrolled for a computer science PhD in 1993.
Q 27Which bassist's 'Can the Can', written by Chinn and Chapman, spent a single week at UK number one in June?
Suzi Quatro
Suzi Quatro's hit made her the first female bass guitarist to become a major rock star, breaking a barrier to women in rock; it was only her second solo single and also went to number one in Australia.
Q 28Which producer, born in Virginia Beach on 5 April, formed the Neptunes with Chad Hugo and got an Oscar nod for 'Happy'?
Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams was a Best Original Song nominee for 'Happy' at the 2014 Oscars and a Best Picture nominee in 2017 as a producer of Hidden Figures; with Chad Hugo, the Neptunes put more than a dozen productions into the Billboard top ten.
Q 29Which model, born near Cologne on 1 June, became the first German Victoria's Secret Angel and hosted Project Runway?
Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum was voted the winner of a national contest called 'Model 92' from 25,000 entrants, and her Project Runway work earned a 2013 Emmy for Outstanding Host; she also fronts Germany's Next Topmodel.
Q 30Which Cardiff-born winger, signed on his 14th birthday, made a club-record 963 appearances for Manchester United?
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs was born a Wilson, son of rugby league player Danny Wilson, and won 13 Premier League titles, more than any other player; he captained England Schoolboys yet was never eligible for the senior England side.