1973 Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
46 free 1973 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 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 46 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.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which landmark, whose design won a 1957 international competition, did Queen Elizabeth II open in October?
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House's architect Jørn Utzon was driven to resign after rows with politicians, and he never went back to see it finished.
Q 02Which Thames crossing, opened by the Queen, replaced an 1831 span sold to an American oilman for $2.46m?
London Bridge
London Bridge's 1831 predecessor was rebuilt at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and the tale that its buyer thought he was getting Tower Bridge has been discredited.
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 built the chorus of Merry Xmas Everybody from 'Buy Me a Rocking Chair', a song Noddy Holder had written in 1967, and it became their biggest seller.
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 picked Memphis because it was central and its airport was rarely closed by bad weather, and by 1983 it had reached $1 billion in revenue.
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 caught Crisp, the top weight, just before the post, after the Australian horse had led from the start almost all the way to the line.
Q 07Which Welshman finished 'that try' for the Barbarians against the All Blacks, begun by Phil Bennett's sidesteps?
Gareth Edwards
Gareth Edwards dived over to finish it, and the injured Gerald Davies's place went to John Bevan, who had been due to play for Cardiff that day.
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's 'Boy on the Bike' is often taken for a northern town, but Gold Hill is in Dorset, and the advert was voted Britain's favourite 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 been accused of taking kickbacks from engineers as Maryland governor and Baltimore county executive, and he got off with a $10,000 fine and probation.
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 opened on Judaism's holiest day, when many Israeli soldiers were away from their posts observing it.
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's 'Jane Roe' was Norma McCorvey, who had already given birth and placed the baby for adoption by the time the court ruled.
Q 13Which actress, whose sitcom-star father died young, read French and Russian at Oxford before playing the vampire Selene?
Kate Beckinsale
Q 21Which Chilean president died in La Moneda palace during the 11 September coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power?
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende was already dead when soldiers reached him in the palace, and his doctor believed he had taken his own life.
Q 22Which film cast Yul Brynner as a rogue robot and pioneered digital image processing on screen?
Westworld
Westworld's pixelated point-of-view shots came from John Whitney Jr., after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory quoted Crichton nine months and $200,000 for two minutes.
Q 23Which boxer floored Joe Frazier six times in Kingston, Jamaica, prompting Cosell's cry of 'Down goes Frazier!'?
George Foreman
Kate Beckinsale was still an Oxford student when Kenneth Branagh cast her in his film of Much Ado About Nothing.
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 first applied alongside Britain in 1961, before Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's bid in 1963.
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 first World Cup had no final, but its last round-robin match, England against Australia at Edgbaston, decided the title.
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 bring in to save electricity during his government's dispute with the miners?
Three-Day Week
The Three-Day Week was still in force when Heath called a snap election over who governed Britain, and the vote put Harold Wilson back in power.
Q 19Which 110-storey Chicago skyscraper was the world's tallest building for decades?
Sears Tower
Sears Tower was built as nine square tubes bundled together, a frame that let it climb to 110 storeys.
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 came to think of Edith as Lúthien and himself as Beren after she danced for him in a grove of hemlock at Roos.
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 24Which Roy Clarke sitcom, first seen in 1973, ran until 2010 as the world's longest-running sitcom?
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine ended without a special farewell episode, and its star Tom Owen criticised the BBC for not making one.
Q 25Which tech co-founders, both born in 1973, came from Michigan and Moscow?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin's family left the Soviet Union in 1979 to escape persecution, and he and Larry Page first met as Stanford doctoral students in the mid-1990s.
Q 26Which 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's 'Happy' was first recorded by CeeLo Green, but Green's team passed on it and Williams released his own version.
Q 27Which 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 28Which player broke Bobby Charlton's Manchester United appearance record?
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs was born Ryan Wilson and took his mother's maiden name after his parents split, having moved north when his father signed for a rugby league club.
Q 29Which US space station, launched on 14 May, lost its micrometeoroid shield and a solar array on the way up?
Skylab
Skylab was a converted Saturn V third stage; its first crew went up to repair the damage, three crews spent about 24 weeks aboard, and its decaying orbit brought it down in July 1979 amid worldwide attention.
Q 30Which underground creatures that recycle human rubbish were all voiced by Bernard Cribbins on BBC One?
The Wombles
The Wombles got their TV series because the first book had proved a hit when it was read on Jackanory.