On the Last Day of the Year Trivia Quiz

Answer: East India Company

The East India Company was originally set up under the slightly less snappy title of 'Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies'. The charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I gave the company a trade monopoly with a range of countries located around the Indian Ocean. The company's work to develop trade routes across India, and its eventual seizure of control of large parts of the country, played a major part in establishing India as the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. One of the key factors in the success of the company was the fact that it commanded its own army - which had grown from around 30 European soldiers recruited to guard key factories (trading station) in around 1650 to a force of around 280,000 men of both European and Indian descent by 1857.

Many other European nations (including the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, France, Sweden and Austria) also set up their own East India Companies between 1602 and 1776. However, none of these organisations managed to match the success and longevity of the English/British version.

Answer: Kaliningrad

There was nearly 200 years between Russia's first attempt at annexing the city of Königsberg during the Seven Years' War and its ultimate success following the Second World War. The Seven Years' War was also a worldwide event with Britain, Prussia, Hanover and Portugal (amongst others) fighting France, Russia, Austria and Saxony (amongst others) in battles across Europe, North and South America, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The war marked the last part of Empress Elizabeth's reign over Russia - she died in 1762 and was succeeded by her nephew Peter III, who ended the fighting with Prussia.

Kaliningrad is located on the Baltic Sea and is the capital of Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of Russia bordered by Poland and Lithuania. The name change from Königsberg to Kaliningrad was made in honour of the Soviet leader Mikhail Kalinin. Despite its long history as a German city, Kaliningrad and the surrounding areas have a very small ethnic German population, as the majority were either killed during the war or abandoned the city prior to its Russian occupation.

Leningrad is the former name of St Petersburg; Volgograd was formerly known as Stalingrad and is famous for its resistance against the German army during the Second World War; and Kirovgrad is a town named after the Bolshevik leader Sergey Kirov.

Factoid: the fall of Königsberg on 9 April 1945 was hailed by the Red Army as a major success and 'was celebrated in Moscow with an artillery salvo by 324 [!] cannons firing 24 shells each'. (Wikipedia article on the battle)

Answer: Arthur Guinness

Arthur Guinness (c.1725-1803) set up what is possibly the most famous Irish company in history when he signed the lease for St James's Brewery on New Year's Eve, 1759. It was ten years before Guinness's product was first exported internationally (when six and a half barrels were sent from Dublin to England), so he probably couldn't have even begun to imagine the modern Guinness organisation with annual sales of around 1.5 billion pints in over 120 countries worldwide.

The Guinness brewery was also responsible for setting up the 'Guinness Book of Records' in 1954.

Thomas Caffrey founded the Ulster Brewery in Belfast in the 1890s although the Caffrey family also had a brewery in Dublin during the 18th century. James Murphy ran the Lady's Well Brewery (bought by Heineken in 1983) in Cork in the early 20th century. William Magner set up a cider production business in Tipperary in 1935.

Answer: Richard Montgomery

In 1775 the Continental Army began a two-pronged attack on the British province of Quebec. Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery led a small army which took the city of Montreal and moved on to attack the capital, Quebec City. Colonel Benedict Arnold (later to become a Major-General and achieve infamy as a traitor) led a second force which met up with Montgomery's army outside the city. On 31st December 1775 they attacked the city - Montgomery was killed and Arnold escaped with a badly injured leg. Montgomery died without knowing that he had been promoted to Major-General for his role in capturing Montreal.

The battle was a decisive victory for the British, with around 20 British troops killed or injured. The Continental Army had around 85 soldiers (including their leaders) killed or injured, with over 400 captured.

Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox were both Major-Generals in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Greene was known as the 'Savior of the South' and generally considered one of the most able American military leaders of the time. Knox went on to become the first United States Secretary of War in 1789 and gave his name to the US army base, Fort Knox.

Answer: Yes

Queen Victoria's decision to choose Ottawa as the capital of the Province of Canada was really made on the advice of her ministers. Her choice also reflected the wishes of the Canadian leader Sir George-Étienne Cartier. The choice was unpopular because Ottawa was a small settlement which had only recently been incorporated as a city and the other options included the more well-established cities of Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City - the inhabitants of which were distinctly disgruntled at their cities being apparently overlooked. Ottawa was the preferred choice simply because it was centrally located between the major cities, didn't favour either the French or English speaking communities, and was sufficiently far away from the US border.

Ottawa continued as capital of the Dominion of Canada, formed in 1867, and also went on to be the capital of Canada as a fully independent nation.

Answer: Battle of Stones River

The Battle of Stones River took place between 31st December 1862 and 2nd January 1863 near the city of Murfreesboro, a former state capital of Tennessee. The Union army, led by Major-General William S. Rosecrans, had marched to Murfreesboro in order to challenge the Confederate army (led by General Braxton Bragg) who were encamped there. The Union army emerged the winners - taking an important victory for Union morale following their recent defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg - but at huge cost to both themselves and the Confederates. In total, around 3,000 soldiers were killed with another 15,000 or more injured.

Both the Battle of Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg) and the Battle of Gettysburg (which had the largest number of casualties of any Civil War battle) were victories for the Union that took place in September 1862 and July 1863 respectively. The Second Battle of Bull Run was a Confederate victory of August 1862.

Answer: Incandescent light bulb

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was one of the world's most prolific inventors, with over 1,000 patents to his name. He gained the nickname 'The Wizard of Menlo Park' because many of his inventions, including the phonograph (an early form of record player) and the incandescent light bulb, appeared magical to the general public of the 19th century. Menlo Park was the location of Edison's laboratory in Middlesex County, New Jersey.

The basic design of modern 21st century incandescent light bulbs has barely changed from those used in Edison's 1879 demonstration. However, the availability of energy efficient light bulbs has dented the popularity of the humble incandescent light bulb - many countries have now introduced restrictions on their use, including the United States via legislation passed in 2007.

The phonograph was one of Edison's earliest inventions and was first introduced to the public in 1877. Edison was awarded the first patent for a carbon microphone in 1877 although earlier working models had been demonstrated by the inventor David Edward Hughes. A fluoroscope is a type of x-ray machine - Edison developed the first commercially viable fluoroscope during the 1890s.

Answer: Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe

The CAF was set up in 1953 and was a semi-independent, self-governing entity. It was a federal realm formed from the British protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. However, the growing movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s for African nationalism and the end of European colonisation of Africa led to the federation being dissolved by 1963. Following the dissolution Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland both gained independence as Zambia and Malawi respectively. Southern Rhodesia (or just Rhodesia by then) unilaterally declared independence in 1965, but this was not recognised until 1980 after which Robert Mugabe became president of the new nation of Zimbabwe.

Botswana and Nigeria also used to be British protectorates (Botswana was known as Bechuanaland). The other nations listed in the incorrect options were all formerly European colonies, highlighting the impact of the 19th century 'Scramble for Africa' conducted by the various European powers. Angola was Portuguese; Cameroon and Namibia were originally German colonies; while the Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon and Niger were all French.

Answer: 1918, independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which had collapsed after being defeated in the First World War. The industrial areas of Bohemia and Moravia (which were both Czech-speaking) joined forces with agricultural Slovakia to create a new multi-ethnic nation. It started out as a democratic republic, but was carved up between Germany, Hungary and Poland in the run up to the Second World War. After that war ended in 1945, Czechoslovakia re-formed and became a founding member of the United Nations. It then acquired to a Communist government, formally becoming a Communist state in 1948 and then a socialist republic in 1960.

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 returned the country to a democracy before it gave birth to two new nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, on 1st January 1993.

Answer: Times Square ball drop

The Times Square ball drop is the central part of New York's New Year celebrations. At a minute before midnight the Times Square Ball (an illuminated geodesic sphere, 12 feet in diameter and covered in crystal triangles) starts its descent down a flagpole, arriving at the bottom at midnight exactly. This method of signalling the New Year was first carried out in 1907 when Adolf Ochs, the owner of the New York Times, brought it in to attract more people to the New Year's celebrations outside the offices of his newspaper. Although the New York Times moved on to new offices in 1913, the Times Square ball drop has continued, the only exceptions being 1942 and 1943 when the Second World War forced its cancellation.

In 1996 the idea of inviting a special guest or celebrity to start the ball drop was introduced. Since then guest 'starters' have included Muhammad Ali (2000), Bill and Hillary Clinton (2008) and Lady Gaga (2011).

Adolf Ochs first organised a fireworks display outside his new Times Square office in 1904 (during the very first minutes of the New Year). Big Ben's chimes, indicating the stroke of midnight, are heard in London. 'Auld Lang Syne' is based on a 1788 poem by Robert Burns, which became a traditional New Year song in Scotland before it achieved worldwide fame.