Q 01/05

Which physicist, born in Oxford on 8 January, arrived exactly 300 years to the day after Galileo died?

A) Stephen Hawking

B) Roger Penrose

C) Martin Rees

D) Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Answer · why

A) Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking returned to Oxford as a student at 17, where he coxed a college rowing crew with such a daredevil streak, his coach recalled, that boa...

Q 02/05

Which college football bowl game was played in Durham, North Carolina on 1 January, moved over fears of a Japanese attack?

A) Orange Bowl

B) Rose Bowl

C) Sugar Bowl

D) Cotton Bowl

Answer · why

B) Rose Bowl

The Rose Bowl came to Duke's own stadium, enlarged with seating borrowed from two neighbouring colleges, after the Blue Devils offered to host; the un...

Q 03/05

Which film star, with the composer George Antheil, won a US patent on 11 August for frequency-hopping torpedo guidance?

A) Greta Garbo

B) Ingrid Bergman

C) Hedy Lamarr

D) Marlene Dietrich

Answer · why

C) Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr and Antheil, a composer who had written for player pianos, used a piano-roll mechanism to hop among 88 frequencies; similar technology rea...

Q 04/05

Which actress, Clark Gable's wife, died on 16 January when her plane home from a war-bond tour hit a Nevada mountain?

A) Jean Harlow

B) Myrna Loy

C) Claudette Colbert

D) Carole Lombard

Answer · why

D) Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard's TWA flight hit Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas after most of the beacons that guided night flights had been switched off for fear of J...

Q 05/05

Which BBC radio programme, devised by Roy Plomley, began on 29 January with comedian Vic Oliver as its first guest?

A) Desert Island Discs

B) Music While You Work

C) The Brains Trust

D) Housewives' Choice

Answer · why

A) Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs came to Plomley one evening at home in 1941, and he wrote to the BBC proposing it; his first castaway, Vic Oliver, happened to be ...