Q 01/05

Which company, founded on April Fools' Day 1976, priced its first computer at $666.66?

A) Atari

B) Commodore

C) Apple

D) Oracle

Answer · why

C) Apple

Apple had a third co-founder, Ronald Wayne, who got cold feet within two weeks and gave up his 10% stake for $800, leaving Steve Jobs and Steve Woznia...

Q 02/05

Which supersonic airliner began carrying paying passengers on 21 January 1976?

A) Tupolev Tu-144

B) Boeing 2707

C) Convair 990

D) Concorde

Answer · why

D) Concorde

Concorde's first fare-paying flights went from London to Bahrain and from Paris to Rio de Janeiro, because the United States had not yet agreed to let...

Q 03/05

Which home video format did JVC introduce in 1976?

A) Betamax

B) VHS

C) LaserDisc

D) Video 2000

Answer · why

B) VHS

VHS tapes ran for two hours when Sony's rival Betamax managed only one, an edge that helped JVC's format win the home video war of the 1980s.

Q 04/05

The Cray-1, first delivered by Seymour Cray's company in 1976, was a famous early what?

A) Supercomputer

B) Laptop computer

C) Pocket calculator

D) Home games console

Answer · why

A) Supercomputer

Supercomputer: the Cray-1 was the world's fastest machine for years. Its tower was curved into a C to keep the wiring short, and the padded bench arou...

Q 05/05

On July 20, 1976, Viking 1 became the first American spacecraft to land on which planet?

A) Venus

B) Mercury

C) Jupiter

D) Mars

Answer · why

D) Mars

Mars was meant to be reached on July 4, the Bicentennial itself, but the chosen site looked too rough from orbit. The landing slipped to the seventh a...