1983 Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
100 free 1983 trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
1983 was the year the Cold War came closest to going wrong and almost nobody noticed. A Soviet duty officer decided a satellite warning of incoming missiles was a glitch, an airliner was shot down over the Sea of Japan, and Reagan unveiled a missile shield that a senator mocked with the name of a film. Meanwhile the first American woman flew on the shuttle, the first handheld mobile phone went on sale and a computer network quietly switched to the protocol the internet still runs on. These 100 questions cover the year's news, films, television, music and sport: a war-hospital sitcom signing off to a record audience, a 14-minute horror-movie music video, a Heathrow warehouse raid that netted three tonnes of gold, a yacht with a secret keel, a cricket upset at Lord's, a Derby winner stolen from his stud and the a cappella cover that took Christmas number one. A final run covers the actors and singers born that year. Most are pitched for a pub table, with a handful for people who really remember the year. Play on your phone with instant answers and explanations, or print it for a pub quiz, office quiz or a 1983-themed birthday.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which astronaut became the first American woman in space on Challenger's STS-7 flight, aged just 32?
Sally Ride
Sally Ride was only the third woman in space, after two Soviet cosmonauts, and NASA engineers infamously asked whether 100 tampons would be enough for her six-day flight.
Q 02Which Star Wars film, released on 25 May, was the year's highest-grossing film worldwide?
Return of the Jedi
Return of the Jedi opened six years to the day after the original Star Wars, and an early teaser trailer had advertised the film as Revenge of the Jedi.
Q 03Which series ended with a 2½-hour finale watched by 106 million Americans on CBS, a record that stood until 2010?
M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H ran for 11 seasons about a war that lasted three years, and its finale, 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen', drew 77 percent of everyone watching television that night.
Q 04Which robbery at a Heathrow warehouse netted three tonnes of gold from a gang expecting only cash?
Brink's-Mat
Brink's-Mat's £26 million haul was partly laundered by Kenneth Noye, who melted the bars down and mixed in copper to disguise where the gold had come from.
Q 05Which trio of future Labour leaders won their first Commons seats in June's Thatcher landslide?
Blair, Brown and Corbyn
Blair, Brown and Corbyn arrived as Labour shed over three million votes on a manifesto Gerald Kaufman called 'the longest suicide note in history'.
Q 06Which Soviet duty officer judged a satellite warning of five incoming US missiles on 26 September to be a false alarm?
Stanislav Petrov
Stanislav Petrov reasoned that a real US first strike would mean hundreds of simultaneous launches, not five; the alarm was later traced to sunlight glinting off high-altitude clouds.
Q 07Which airline's Flight 007, New York to Seoul via Anchorage, was shot down by a Soviet fighter with 269 aboard?
Korean Air Lines
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 had drifted into Soviet airspace with a US congressman aboard, and Reagan responded by ordering GPS opened to civilian use once it was ready.
Q 08Truck bombs killed 241 US servicemen and 58 French paratroopers at peacekeepers' barracks in which city on 23 October?
Beirut
Beirut's twin bombings were France's worst military loss since the Algerian War, and within months the multinational peacekeeping force had pulled out of Lebanon altogether.
Q 09Which Caribbean island did the US invade in Operation Urgent Fury, citing 600 American medical students there?
Grenada
Grenada's prime minister, Maurice Bishop, had been deposed by hardliners in his own party and was executed six days before the landings, and the US feared Soviet use of an airstrip Cubans were helping to build.
Q 10Which missile-defence programme, announced by Reagan on 23 March, was nicknamed 'Star Wars' after a Ted Kennedy jibe?
Strategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative got its nickname from a newspaper report the next day of Kennedy's 'reckless Star Wars schemes' jibe, and Lucasfilm later sued two lobby groups over the term and lost.
Q 11Which West German magazine paid 9.3 million marks for sixty Hitler diaries that proved to be Konrad Kujau forgeries?
Stern
Stern's scoop had been authenticated by the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who changed his mind at the very press conference called to announce publication.
Q 12Which coin entered British circulation on 21 April, replacing a banknote that stayed legal tender until 1988?
The £1 coin
The £1 coin arrived because pound notes were wearing out after about nine months each, while the Royal Mint reckoned a coin could last 40 years or more.
Q 13Which ITV breakfast station launched on 1 February with a 'Famous Five' of presenter-shareholders led by David Frost?
TV-am
Q 21Which ITV comedy-drama, launched on 11 November, made stars of Jimmy Nail, Tim Healy, Kevin Whately and Timothy Spall?
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet followed British builders working on a site in Düsseldorf, and Nail, who had never acted, only auditioned because his girlfriend Miriam suggested it.
Q 22Which club, after a 2–2 draw immortalised by 'and Smith must score', beat Brighton 4–0 in the FA Cup final replay?
Manchester United
Manchester United only got a replay because Gary Bailey saved Gordon Smith's shot in the last seconds of extra time, and Brighton had just been relegated from the First Division.
Q 23Which Scottish club under Alex Ferguson beat Real Madrid 2–1 in Gothenburg to win the European Cup Winners' Cup?
TV-am's news-heavy launch lost viewers so quickly that a puppet, Roland Rat, brought in that Easter, was famously credited with saving the station.
Q 14An IRA car bomb outside which London department store killed six people on 17 December, a week before Christmas?
Harrods
Harrods' bombers phoned a warning 37 minutes beforehand, but the area was not cleared, and the IRA Army Council said it had not authorised the attack.
Q 15From which prison did 38 IRA inmates break out of H-Block 7 on 25 September, the UK's biggest peacetime escape?
The Maze
The Maze breakout was planned by Bobby Storey and Gerry Kelly, who took orderly jobs in H7 to study its weak points, and one prison officer died during it.
Q 16Which Derby winner, victorious by a record ten lengths, was kidnapped from the Aga Khan's Irish stud in February?
Shergar
Shergar's kidnappers demanded £2 million and went unpaid, and a former IRA member later said the theft was an IRA operation to raise money for arms.
Q 17Whose self-titled debut album, released by Sire Records on 27 July, yielded 'Holiday', 'Lucky Star' and 'Borderline'?
Madonna
Madonna's 'Holiday' had been offered to Mary Wilson of the Supremes and to Phyllis Hyman before it became her breakout single.
Q 18Which a cappella group of former actors took a cover of Yazoo's 'Only You' to the UK Christmas number one?
Flying Pickets
Flying Pickets took their name from the 1970s miners' strikes some members had supported, and began singing a cappella in the 7:84 theatre company's play One Big Blow.
Q 19Which Brian De Palma remake of a 1932 gangster film cast Al Pacino as Cuban refugee Tony Montana?
Scarface
Scarface's 'Say hello to my little friend' sits at 61 on AFI's list of movie quotes, and Oliver Stone wrote the script in Paris to get away from his own cocaine habit.
Q 20The Black Adder, first shown on BBC1 on 15 June, imagines that which king won the Battle of Bosworth?
Richard III
Richard III wins in The Black Adder, only for Rowan Atkinson's Edmund, arriving late for the battle, to behead him by mistake, which puts Edmund's own father on the throne.
Aberdeen
Aberdeen won it in extra time with a diving header from substitute John Hewitt, and Real's coach Alfredo Di Stéfano said they had what money can't buy: a soul, a team spirit.
Q 24Which Brazilian, 14 points behind Alain Prost with three races left, won the first Formula One title in a turbo car?
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet won at Monza and Brands Hatch, then cruised home third in South Africa after Prost's turbo failed on lap 35, and Renault and Prost split acrimoniously within days.
Q 25Which American won the 100 metres, long jump and relay at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki?
Carl Lewis
Carl Lewis beat Calvin Smith into second place only five weeks after Smith had broken the 100 m world record with 9.93, and the two then won relay gold together.
Q 26Which team beat the Miami Dolphins 27–17 in Super Bowl XVII, with John Riggins rushing for a record 166 yards?
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins trailed until Riggins broke a 43-yard touchdown run on fourth down with ten minutes left, capping a season cut short by a players' strike.
Q 27Corbiere's win made Jenny Pitman the first woman to train the winner of which famous race?
Grand National
Grand National glory came to Pitman again in 1995 with Royal Athlete, though her Esha Ness had passed the post first in 1993 only for the race to be declared void.
Q 28Which singer, born in north London on 14 September, won five Grammys in one night in 2008?
Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse performed by satellite from a London studio because her US visa had not come through in time, and Rehab alone took both Record and Song of the Year.
Q 29Which actor, born in Melbourne on 11 August, played Kim Hyde in Home and Away before Hollywood made him a superhero?
Chris Hemsworth
Chris Hemsworth was reportedly rejected for Thor at first, then given a second chance to read for the part that made him famous.
Q 30Which Ukrainian-born actress, born 14 August, was cast in That '70s Show at 14 after saying she 'would be 18'?
Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis never said when she would be 18, and the producers who worked out the fib kept her anyway; she had reached Los Angeles aged seven as a religious refugee.