80th Birthday Trivia
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99 free 80th Birthday trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
These 80th birthday trivia questions are built for the party. Anyone turning eighty in 2026 was born in 1946, the first year of the baby boom, so most of the quiz is about that year: the first bikini and the first Vespa, the unveiling of the 30-ton ENIAC computer, Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, the first United Nations meetings, the birth of Tupperware and the Magic 8 Ball, and a cinema year that gave us It's a Wonderful Life, The Best Years of Our Lives and Gilda. There is a round on famous people who share the birthday year (three US presidents, Freddie Mercury, Cher, Dolly Parton, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg), and a short round on the number eighty itself: Phileas Fogg's wager, the 80-20 rule, and what an eightieth wedding anniversary is called. Questions range from easy warm-ups everyone at the table can attempt to a few genuinely hard ones for the history buffs. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Japanese emperor issued the 'Humanity Declaration' renouncing his divinity on January 1, 1946?
Hirohito
Hirohito's New Year rescript of January 1, 1946, known as the Humanity Declaration, rejected the idea that the emperor was a living god.
Q 02Which US president was in office throughout 1946?
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman closed 1946 with Proclamation 2714 on December 31, officially ending hostilities in World War II more than a year after Japan's surrender.
Q 03Where did Winston Churchill give his famous 'Iron Curtain' speech in March 1946?
Fulton, Missouri
Churchill delivered the 'Iron Curtain' speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on March 5, 1946, with President Truman sharing the platform.
Q 04Which swimsuit was first modelled in Paris on July 5, 1946?
The bikini
Louis Réard unveiled the bikini at the Piscine Molitor in Paris on July 5, 1946, naming it after Bikini Atoll, where the US had tested an atomic bomb four days earlier.
Q 05Which early electronic computer was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946?
ENIAC
ENIAC, built by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, was publicly unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School on February 14, 1946.
Q 06Roughly how much did ENIAC weigh?
60,000 pounds
ENIAC weighed roughly 60,000 pounds, about 30 tons, and used some 17,468 vacuum tubes spread across 40 panels.
Q 07Which Italian scooter brand built its first model in 1946?
Vespa
Piaggio's Vespa, designed by aeronautical engineer Corradino D'Ascanio, was patented in April 1946 and entered production that year at Pontedera.
Q 08Which famous film festival was founded in 1946?
Cannes
The first Cannes Film Festival opened on September 20, 1946, in the town's old casino, with films from 21 countries.
Q 09Which Christmas film starring James Stewart was released in December 1946?
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life premiered on December 20, 1946, disappointed at the box office, and became a holiday staple after its copyright lapsed in 1974.
Q 10Which 1946 film about three returning servicemen swept the Oscars, winning seven including the top prize?
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Best Years of Our Lives won seven Oscars including Best Picture; Harold Russell, a real disabled veteran, took Best Supporting Actor plus an honorary award for the same performance.
Q 11Which actress performed 'Put the Blame on Mame' in the 1946 film Gilda?
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth performed 'Put the Blame on Mame' in Gilda, which opened on February 14, 1946; her singing voice was dubbed by Anita Ellis.
Q 12Which Hitchcock thriller starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman came out in 1946?
Notorious
Notorious, released in August 1946, paired Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock's spy story set among Nazi exiles in Rio de Janeiro.
Q 13Which comedy duo staged their first show together at Atlantic City's Club 500 in July 1946?
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis first worked as a team at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 25, 1946, and split exactly ten years later in July 1956.
Q 21Which country voted in a June 1946 referendum to abolish its monarchy and become a republic?
Italy
Italy's referendum of June 2, 1946 chose a republic by roughly 12.7 million votes to 10.7 million, and King Umberto II left for exile in Portugal.
Q 22Which Asian nation became fully independent on July 4, 1946?
The Philippines
The Philippines became fully independent from the United States on July 4, 1946, with Manuel Roxas as its first president; Spanish rule had begun in 1565.
Q 23Which Nazi leader poisoned himself two hours before his scheduled execution at Nuremberg in October 1946?
Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring swallowed cyanide in his cell on the night of October 15, 1946; the other ten condemned men were hanged hours later in the prison gymnasium.
Q 14Which food-storage brand introduced its airtight plastic containers to the public in 1946?
Tupperware
Earl Tupper, who had worked at DuPont, launched Tupperware's airtight polyethylene containers in 1946; the home-party selling that made the brand famous came later.
Q 15Which fortune-telling toy was invented in 1946 by Albert C. Carter and Abe Bookman?
Magic 8 Ball
The Magic 8 Ball began in 1946 as Carter and Bookman's Syco-Seer; Brunswick Billiards asked for the black billiard-ball housing in 1950.
Q 16Which Japanese electronics company was founded in May 1946 as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering?
Sony
Sony began on May 7, 1946, when Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo with about 20 employees; the Sony name was adopted in 1958.
Q 17Which high-IQ society was founded in Oxford in October 1946?
Mensa
Mensa was founded at Oxford on October 1, 1946, by Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware; the name is Latin for 'table', signalling a round-table society of equals.
Q 18Which UN agency for children was founded on December 11, 1946?
UNICEF
UNICEF was created by the UN General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to feed and care for children in countries devastated by the Second World War.
Q 19In which city did the United Nations hold its very first meeting in January 1946?
London
The UN General Assembly first convened on January 10, 1946, at Methodist Central Hall in London, with 51 member states represented.
Q 20Who became the first Secretary-General of the United Nations in February 1946?
Trygve Lie
Norway's Trygve Lie was elected the first UN Secretary-General on February 1, 1946; Dag Hammarskjöld succeeded him in 1953.
Q 24Which Argentine leader was elected president in February 1946?
Juan Perón
Juan Perón won Argentina's presidential election on February 24, 1946, and took office on June 4; his wife Eva's European 'Rainbow Tour' came in 1947.
Q 25Which king came to the throne of Thailand in June 1946 and reigned until 2016?
Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej became king on June 9, 1946, after his elder brother Ananda Mahidol was found shot dead, and reigned 70 years until October 2016.
Q 26The first official Formula One Grand Prix was held in September 1946 in which city?
Turin
The Turin Grand Prix of September 1, 1946, run in Valentino Park and won by Achille Varzi in an Alfa Romeo, was the first race held under the new Formula One rules.
Q 27Santa Claus Land, which opened in Indiana in August 1946, is credited as the first what?
Themed amusement park
Santa Claus Land is credited as the first themed amusement park, opening nine years before Disneyland; it was renamed Holiday World in 1984.
Q 28What banking innovation debuted at a Chicago branch in November 1946?
Drive-up teller windows
Exchange National Bank of Chicago opened ten drive-up teller windows in November 1946, letting motorists bank without leaving their cars.
Q 29Project Diana in January 1946 bounced radar waves off what?
The Moon
On January 10, 1946, Project Diana at Camp Evans, New Jersey, bounced radar signals off the Moon and received the echo about 2.5 seconds later, founding radar astronomy.
Q 30Which of these US presidents was NOT born in 1946?
Barack Obama
Barack Obama was born in 1961; Trump arrived on June 14, Bush on July 6 and Clinton on August 19 of 1946.