1978
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50 free 1978 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
1978 was a year of disco on the radio, toga parties on campus and pixelated aliens in the arcades. It was also a year of hard news: a peace summit in the Maryland hills, a tax revolt out west, a tragedy at a jungle commune and an unusually busy few months at the Vatican. This quiz covers the whole year: the films and TV shows that premiered, the songs and albums on the charts, the champions in boxing, baseball, basketball and horse racing, the world headlines, the brands and gadgets that first appeared, some of the year's oddest stories, and a few questions on what things cost. Most are pitched for anyone who lived through it, with some tougher ones for news and sports buffs. It is written for class-of-1978 reunions, 1970s nights and birthday parties for anyone born that year. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print it for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1978 musical starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John follows the seniors of Rydell High School?
Grease
Grease was the highest-grossing film of 1978 and took the record for biggest film musical from The Sound of Music, which had held it for 13 years.
Q 02Which comic strip created by Jim Davis made its debut in 41 American newspapers on June 19, 1978?
Garfield
Garfield went on to hold the Guinness World Record as the world's most widely syndicated comic strip, running in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals by 2013.
Q 03Which arcade game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado did Taito release in Japan in the summer of 1978?
Space Invaders
Space Invaders reached the rest of the world later that year through Midway, and its octopus-like aliens were inspired by the novel The War of the Worlds.
Q 04In which country was Louise Brown, the first baby conceived by IVF, born at Oldham General Hospital in July 1978?
England
Louise Brown was born in England after a procedure developed by Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards and Jean Purdy. Edwards won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the work.
Q 05Which cartoon character turned 50 in November 1978 and became the first to receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star?
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse got his star in November 1978, fifty years after Steamboat Willie premiered at the Colony Theater in New York on November 18, 1928.
Q 06Which silent film legend's coffin was dug up and stolen from a Swiss cemetery in March 1978 and held for ransom?
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin's coffin turned up that May, buried in a field in nearby Noville, after police caught the two men who had tried to extort money from his widow, Oona.
Q 07In which South American country did more than 900 followers of Jim Jones die at a remote commune in November 1978?
Guyana
Guyana was also where US congressman Leo Ryan was shot dead at a nearby airstrip that day, as he tried to leave with members who wanted out.
Q 08Which country was the homeland of John Paul II, elected in October 1978 as the first non-Italian pope in 455 years?
Poland
Poland's Karol Wojtyła was the third man to hold the office in 1978, the first year of three popes since 1605.
Q 09Which boxer became the first three-time heavyweight champion by winning a September 1978 rematch at the Superdome?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali outpointed Leon Spinks, who had taken the title from him seven months earlier in only his eighth professional fight.
Q 10Which film franchise spawned a 1978 CBS holiday special so widely panned that it has never been rebroadcast?
Star Wars
Star Wars creator George Lucas had little to do with the two-hour special, which aired just once, on November 17, 1978, and introduced Boba Fett in a cartoon segment.
Q 11Which then-unknown actor starred opposite Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman in the December 1978 film Superman?
Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve refused to wear a padded muscle suit for the part and instead bulked up under David Prowse, the bodybuilder who wore Darth Vader's costume.
Q 12Which 1978 comedy starring John Belushi follows the misfit Delta fraternity at Faber College in 1962?
Animal House
Animal House was filmed for only $3 million and took in more than $141 million, making it the highest-grossing comedy of its time.
Q 13Which 1978 Vietnam War drama starring Robert De Niro follows three steelworkers and won the Best Picture Oscar?
The Deer Hunter
Q 21Which costumed disco group released the single Y.M.C.A. on Casablanca Records in the autumn of 1978?
Village People
Village People singer Victor Willis wrote the song with producer Jacques Morali, who first had to ask him what the YMCA actually was.
Q 22Which Pasadena band's self-titled debut album, released in February 1978, includes the guitar instrumental Eruption?
Van Halen
Van Halen's debut peaked at only number 19, but guitarist Eddie's solo helped popularize two-handed tapping and is ranked among the greatest ever recorded.
Q 23Which 19-year-old topped the UK chart in March 1978 with a debut single based on an Emily Brontë novel?
Kate Bush
The Deer Hunter won five Oscars, including Best Director for Michael Cimino, and was the final film of John Cazale.
Q 14Which Woody Allen comedy won Best Picture at the April 1978 Oscars, a ceremony its director did not attend?
Annie Hall
Annie Hall won four Oscars, including Best Actress for Diane Keaton, who was born Diane Hall and was nicknamed Annie.
Q 15Which CBS drama about the feuding, oil-rich Ewing family began as a five-part miniseries in April 1978?
Dallas
Dallas ran for 14 seasons and became famous for its cliffhangers, above all the mystery of who had shot the scheming oil tycoon J.R.
Q 16Which comedian shot to fame in September 1978 as an alien from the planet Ork in the sitcom Mork & Mindy?
Robin Williams
Robin Williams won the part by sitting on his head when asked to take a seat at his audition, and producer Garry Marshall cast him on the spot.
Q 17Which child actor played Arnold Jackson when the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes premiered in November 1978?
Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman starred beside Todd Bridges as brothers from Harlem who are taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue businessman.
Q 18Which robot race hunts the human fleet in Battlestar Galactica, the ABC sci-fi saga that premiered in September 1978?
Cylons
The Cylons debuted in a pilot budgeted at $8 million, one of the most expensive of its time. High costs and falling ratings ended the series after 24 episodes.
Q 19Off which country's coast did the tanker Amoco Cadiz run aground in March 1978, causing a then-record tanker spill?
France
France saw some 220,000 tonnes of crude foul the beaches of Brittany after a steering failure left the ship to drift onto the Portsall Rocks, where it split in three.
Q 20Which group dominated 1978 with the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, which led the US album chart for 24 straight weeks?
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees won the Album of the Year Grammy for the soundtrack, which was the best-selling album in music history until Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Kate Bush became the first female artist to reach number one in the UK with a song she had written entirely by herself.
Q 24Which British rock band lost its drummer Keith Moon to a prescription drug overdose in London in September 1978?
The Who
The Who replaced him with Kenney Jones, formerly of the Faces. Moon had died in the Mayfair flat where Cass Elliot died four years earlier.
Q 25In which country did the Saur Revolution of April 1978 overthrow President Daoud Khan and bring communists to power?
Afghanistan
Afghanistan's new rulers, the People's Democratic Party, aligned the country closely with Moscow, and the Soviet army invaded in December of the following year.
Q 26Which policy was at stake when the Supreme Court ruled for rejected medical school applicant Allan Bakke in June 1978?
Affirmative action
Affirmative action survived the split ruling: the court struck down a quota of 16 reserved seats out of 100 but let race remain one of several factors in admissions.
Q 27Which singer recorded I Will Survive in 1978 as the B-side of a single called Substitute?
Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor's session band had only 35 minutes left to record the B-side, which went on to win the only Grammy ever awarded for Best Disco Recording.
Q 28Which rock band had all four of its members release solo albums on the same day in September 1978?
Kiss
Kiss owed its label four solo records under a 1976 contract, each one counting as half an album toward the band's five-record commitment.
Q 29Which Minneapolis musician sang every vocal and played every instrument on his April 1978 debut album, For You?
Prince
Prince had signed with Warner Bros. as a teenager, and his perfectionism pushed the record's cost to $170,500, three times its original budget.
Q 30Which presidential retreat gave its name to the September 1978 accords between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin?
Camp David
Camp David hosted twelve days of secret talks in the Maryland hills, and the deal won the Egyptian and Israeli leaders that year's Nobel Peace Prize.