1975 Trivia
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7correct to beat the crowd
100 free 1975 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
1975 was the year the quiet stories beat the loud ones. A Japanese climber dug herself out of an avalanche and went on to stand on top of the world, a world chess championship changed hands without a single move being played, an engineer taped a fuzzy picture onto a cassette and invented the digital camera, and a video recorder that could hold an hour of television went on sale in Japan. These 100 questions cover the films, music, television, sport, science, politics and business of the year, with a British lean: a self-sufficient couple in a suburban sitcom, a detective series named in rhyming slang, a spoken-word number one by a television cop, a cricket final that ran until a quarter to nine on a June evening, a knighthood that came six weeks too late and the first oil from the North Sea. There are births of a footballer, an actress and a golfer who became household names, and a sprinkling of deep cuts for those who really remember the year. Most are pitched for a pub table. Play on your phone with instant answers and explanations, or print it for a pub quiz, office quiz or a 1975-themed birthday.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which climber, buried by an avalanche twelve days earlier, became the first woman to summit Everest on 16 May?
Junko Tabei
Junko Tabei was knocked unconscious under the snow and dug out by her Sherpa guides, then reached the top with Ang Tsering; in 1992 she became the first woman to complete the Seven Summits.
Q 02Which 'Bayonne Bleeder' was finally floored with 19 seconds left in the 15th round against Muhammad Ali?
Chuck Wepner
Chuck Wepner's stand moved Sylvester Stallone to write Rocky, released the following year. The nickname began as an insult about his facial cuts, and he adopted it as his own.
Q 03Which Soviet grandmaster became world champion on 3 April by forfeit, after the American holder refused FIDE's terms?
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov, determined to prove himself a legitimate champion, played nearly every major tournament for the next ten years. FIDE president Max Euwe made the declaration.
Q 04Which company's engineer Steven Sasson built the first self-contained digital camera, needing 23 seconds per image?
Kodak
Kodak's 8-pound prototype saved each 100-by-100-pixel image to cassette tape, yet the company later struggled with the very switch from film to digital that Sasson's camera began.
Q 05Which Sony home-video format went on sale in Japan on 10 May, with early tapes limited to an hour of recording?
Betamax
Betamax lost the format war to VHS, yet Sony kept making recorders until August 2002 and blank cassettes until March 2016. The first US model came bundled with a 19-inch Trinitron television.
Q 06Which band's 'Bye, Bye, Baby' was the UK's best-selling single of the year, spending six weeks at number one from March?
Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers' chart-topper was a cover that outdid its original: the Four Seasons' 1965 single had reached only number 12 in America.
Q 07Which BBC sitcom, first shown on 4 April, has a 40-year-old plastics designer quit the rat race to go self-sufficient?
The Good Life
The Good Life starred Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal, and its 1978 farewell episode was recorded as a Royal Command Performance before the Queen and Prince Philip.
Q 08Which 18-year-old, beaten by Chris Evert in the US Open semi-finals, went to a New York immigration office to defect?
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova was stripped of her Czechoslovak citizenship for seeking political asylum and became a US citizen in 1981; she took Czech citizenship as well in 2008.
Q 09Which North American Soccer League club brought Pelé out of semi-retirement to debut against Dallas Tornado on 15 June?
New York Cosmos
The New York Cosmos spray-painted the bare Downing Stadium pitch green for the CBS cameras, and Pelé scored in a 2–2 draw; he bowed out in 1977 by playing a half each for the Cosmos and Santos.
Q 10Which side won the first Cricket World Cup final at Lord's, helped by Clive Lloyd's 82-ball century, by 17 runs?
West Indies
The West Indies beat Australia in a game that ended at 8:43pm after nearly ten hours, with Viv Richards, who had failed with the bat, running out three batsmen.
Q 11Which Bryan Forbes film of an Ira Levin novel has Katharine Ross uncover the secret of a too-perfect Connecticut town?
The Stepford Wives
The Stepford Wives has the town's men swap their spouses for submissive robot replicas, explaining that they do it 'because they can', and 'Stepford wife' passed into the language.
Q 12Which trio topped the US chart in March with 'Lady Marmalade', an Allen Toussaint production with a French chorus?
Labelle
Labelle's lead singer Patti LaBelle later said nobody had told her what the French refrain meant: 'Do you want to sleep with me tonight?'
Q 13Which golfer, invited after winning the 1974 Monsanto Open, became the first Black player to compete in the Masters?
Lee Elder
Q 21Which Ken Russell film of a Who rock opera had Elton John play the Pinball Wizard in gigantic Dr. Martens boots?
Tommy
Tommy's Ann-Margret won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, while Elton John reportedly took the part on condition he could keep the boots. Roger Daltrey played the deaf, mute and blind title role.
Q 22Which Gerry Anderson series, Britain's costliest yet, has a nuclear-waste explosion hurl the Moon out of Earth's orbit?
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 began life as a planned second series of the Andersons' UFO, reworked with a new cast led by the American couple Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.
Q 23Which TV detective star took a spoken-word reading of Bread's ballad 'If' to two weeks at UK number one in March?
Telly Savalas
Lee Elder returned to Augusta in April 2021 to take part in the Masters' traditional ceremonial start, 46 years after his debut.
Q 14Which footballer, born in Leytonstone on 2 May, was given the middle name Robert in honour of Bobby Charlton?
David Beckham
David Beckham's parents were such fanatical Manchester United supporters that they drove 200 miles from London to Old Trafford for home matches. He signed for the club as a trainee in July 1991.
Q 15Which actress, born on 4 June, had a bit part aged seven in Lookin' to Get Out, a film starring her father?
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie's father is Jon Voight, but it was watching films with her mother, not his career, that drew her to acting, and in 2002 she legally dropped his surname.
Q 16Which golfer, born in Cypress, California on 30 December, putted against Bob Hope on TV before turning three?
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods was nicknamed after his father's South Vietnamese army friend, colonel Vuong Dang Phong, also known as 'Tiger'. The 1978 putting contest came on The Mike Douglas Show.
Q 17Which Merv Griffin game show, based on hangman, premiered on NBC on 6 January with Chuck Woolery as host?
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune grew out of a 1973 pilot called Shopper's Bazaar, built around a shopping element; Pat Sajak took over in 1981 after Woolery left in a salary dispute with Griffin.
Q 18Which club won the FA Cup 2–0 against a Fulham side including Bobby Moore, with both goals scored by Alan Taylor?
West Ham United
West Ham United were facing their former captain: the Wembley final on 3 May was Bobby Moore's last appearance at the stadium.
Q 19Which team beat the Boston Red Sox in a seven-game World Series famed for Carlton Fisk waving his Game 6 homer fair?
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds, the 'Big Red Machine', trailed 3–0 in Game 7 before Joe Morgan's ninth-inning single won their first title since 1940.
Q 20Which Euston Films series, launched on ITV on 2 January, takes its name from the rhyming slang for the Flying Squad?
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is short for Sweeney Todd, Cockney rhyming slang for the Flying Squad; John Thaw's Jack Regan had first appeared in Regan, a 1974 film for Armchair Cinema.
Telly Savalas, television's Kojak, topped the British and Irish charts by speaking rather than singing, yet at home the record reached only number 12 on Billboard's easy-listening chart.
Q 24Which sitcom's Windsor Davies and Don Estelle, in character, took 'Whispering Grass' to UK number one for three weeks?
It Ain't Half Hot Mum
It Ain't Half Hot Mum drew on writer Jimmy Perry's own Royal Artillery concert party in India, and Windsor Davies's sergeant major was based on Perry's real battery sergeant major.
Q 25Which BBC drama from Winston Graham's novels has Robin Ellis reviving derelict copper mines in 18th-century Cornwall?
Poldark
Poldark's hero loses his fiancée Elizabeth to his cousin Francis and ends up marrying his servant Demelza, played by Angharad Rees; the series ran until 1977.
Q 26Which creator of the Daleks debuted in Terry Nation's serial Genesis of the Daleks, opposite Tom Baker's Doctor?
Davros
Davros, played by Michael Wisher, debuts in the serial where the Doctor, poised to destroy the Daleks, asks 'Do I have the right?'; Doctor Who Magazine readers voted it the greatest story in 1998.
Q 27Which club won the League title in Dave Mackay's first full season as manager, a second championship in four years?
Derby County
Derby County had lost Brian Clough after a row with the chairman in 1973; Mackay, whom Clough had signed as a player in 1968, returned as his successor and won the title.
Q 28Which club retained the European Cup in Paris, beating Leeds United 2–0 with late goals from Franz Roth and Gerd Müller?
Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich were held until the 71st minute, after Leeds had a Peter Lorimer goal disallowed for offside against Billy Bremner and two penalty appeals refused.
Q 29Which lander sent the first pictures from another planet's surface, lasting 53 minutes on Venus on 22 October?
Venera 9
Venera 9 was still working when it fell silent: the Soviet orbiter relaying its signal simply moved out of radio range, after readings of about 90 atmospheres and 485 °C.
Q 30Which Soviet hydrogen-bomb designer won the Nobel Peace Prize but was refused permission to collect it in Oslo?
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov's wife, Yelena Bonner, read his speech at the ceremony in his place. His 'Third Idea' design matched the Teller–Ulam configuration used in the United States.