Q 01/05

Which Lloyd Webber musical, set to poems Eliot wrote for his godchildren, opened in the West End in May?

A) Evita

B) Starlight Express

C) Cats

D) Song and Dance

Answer · why

C) Cats

Cats premiered at the New London Theatre on 11 May 1981, setting verse from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats to music. A poem Eliot had cut as 'too...

Q 02/05

Which reggae star died in Miami on 11 May, aged 36, having refused to have a cancerous toe amputated?

A) Peter Tosh

B) Bob Marley

C) Jimmy Cliff

D) Toots Hibbert

Answer · why

B) Bob Marley

Bob Marley was diagnosed in 1977 with a melanoma under a toenail and declined amputation, citing his religious beliefs. A flight home from Germany was...

Q 03/05

Who took over the CBS Evening News the Monday after Walter Cronkite's final sign-off on 6 March?

A) Tom Brokaw

B) Peter Jennings

C) Dan Rather

D) Ted Koppel

Answer · why

C) Dan Rather

Dan Rather forced CBS's hand with a rival offer from ABC, and Roger Mudd, long the heir apparent to Cronkite, left for NBC after being passed over.

Q 04/05

Which country, a democracy again only since 1974, became the tenth member of the European Communities?

A) Greece

B) Spain

C) Portugal

D) Turkey

Answer · why

A) Greece

Greece joined on 1 January 1981, and that October elected Andreas Papandreou, whose socialists had promised a referendum on membership; once in office...

Q 05/05

Which probe, launched in 1977, flew past Saturn in August, then went on to Uranus and Neptune?

A) Voyager 1

B) Pioneer 11

C) Galileo

D) Voyager 2

Answer · why

D) Voyager 2

Voyager 2 rode a rare alignment of the outer planets, using each giant's gravity to fling it on to the next; no other spacecraft has visited Uranus or...