Stayin' Alive in '65 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Operation Rolling Thunder

Operation Rolling Thunder. Over 600,000 tons of bombs were dropped, at a cost of more than 900 aircraft in the time frame of the operation.
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation to capture bridges over the Meuse and the Rhine river in 1944. Operation Mongoose was a top secret program against Cuba aimed at removing Castro from power. Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.

Question by Hermit007, Team Old Farts

Answer: The Seekers

The Seekers were the three Melbournians Athol Guy (born 1941), Bruce Woodley (born 1942), Judith Durham (born 1943) and Sri Lankan Keith Potger (born 1941).

They had six Top Ten Hits on the UK singles chart between 1965 and 1967. These included the two number one hits "I'll Never Find Another You", number one for two weeks in 1965 and "The Carnival Is Over", number one for three weeks also in 1965. "The Carnival Is Over" sold more than a million copies in the UK alone and The Seekers spent more weeks on the UK singles chart in 1965 than any other act.

Question submitted by shipyardbernie of The Misplaced team

Answer: Mary Quant's mini skirt is launched with great fanfare.

London in the Swinging 60s was international youth's fashion capital. After the stunning success of Mary Quant's mini, even the French fashion gurus were forced to follow suit, reworking their Fall-Winter collections to copy the new line.
The bikini was first shown in 1946 (disgusting! It will never last!), Ronald Reagan's Star Wars was announced in 1983, and the Cuban Missile Crisis was a standoff in 1962, where the world put its collective fingers to its ears, waiting for either Khrushchev or Kennedy to press that red button.

Question by Windrush, Team Old Farts

Answer: The Sound of Music

"The Sound of Music" was directed by Robert Wise and was based on a true story. It stars Julie Andrews as Maria, Christopher Plummer as Captain Von Trapp and Eleanor Parker as The Baroness. The movie was adapted from the 1959 Broadway musical of the same name, with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story tells of a young woman in Austria, studying to become a nun, but failing dismally, so she was sent to the home of a widowed retired naval officer, to become a governess to his seven children. They are all affected by the outbreak of World War II, and eventually escape to Switzerland.

The movie was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including best Picture and Best Director. It was nominated for four Golden Globes and won two. Worldwide, the movie grossed over $286 million and was made on an estimated budget of $8.2 million.
The film was so popular in South Korea that theatres ran it several times a day. In fact, in order to get more sessions in one day, one Korean entrepreneur decided to cut all the musical numbers out of the film.

The house owned by the real-life Von Trapp family was taken over by Heinrich Himmler after the family escaped to Switzerland, and Adolph Hitler visited Himmler there several times.

Question provided by wenray of The Misplaced Team

Answer: Mont Blanc Tunnel

The Mont Blanc tunnel passes under the tallest mountain in Western Europe, and links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy. The French and Italians first signed an agreement authorizing the project in 1947 and work began on the tunnel ten years later in 1957. It is 7.215 mi/11.611 km in length. In 1999, a deadly fire in the tunnel killed 38 people, leading to the re-evaluation of tunnel security measures in many parts of Europe.

Question by Pitegny, Team Old Farts

Answer: New Zealand

It was a time of protest in New Zealand. The list of Kiwi combat forces killed and wounded in the Vietnam War mounted. The Americans tested nuclear bombs in the South Pacific and thousands objected, 'not in my backyard'. Apartheid in South Africa had prevented Maori All Blacks from playing there and in 1965 when the Springboks visited New Zealand, massive anti-apartheid rallies were held right across the country. Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) became Air New Zealand and Kiri Te Kanawa's career was launched when she won the Mobil Song Quest.

Question provided by Waitakere of The Misplaced Team.

Answer: Winston Churchill

His accolades are numerous, and among his many accomplishments and awards is a Nobel Prize for Literature. His witty remarks are repeated throughout the world, and his paintings show his love of nature.
He is buried at St. Martin's Church, Bladon, near his ancestral home of Blenheim Palace. His wife of 56 years, Clementine, survived him for another 13 years and is buried alongside Winston and three of their children.


Question by Fifiscot, Team Old Farts

Answer: Aleksei Leonov

Aleksei Leonov was a Russian cosmonaut. He was the co-pilot of Voskhod 2 when, on March 18, 1965, he left the spacecraft for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. When he tried to re-enter the craft he realized that his space suit had inflated to a point where he could not fit back into the airlock. He was able to release some of the air using a valve and just barely squeezed back into the vessel.

Edward White II was the pilot of Gemini 4 when, on June 3, 1965, he became the first American to walk in space.

L Ron Hubbard was the founder of Dianetics and the Church of Scientology.

Leonard Nimoy - ah, Calling all Trekkies! He found fame (and pointy ears) as Mr Spock on Star Trek.

Question provided by Dekeaunt of The Misplaced Team.

Answer: Cigarettes

Funny, isn't it? TV advertising for cigarettes was banned, but loose tobacco and cigars were perfectly acceptable till 1991, when the European Union adopted its Television Without Frontiers legislation.

Prior to the '65 legislation cigarette advertising emphasised the macho/feminine side of smokers and encouraged people to be "cool" and smoke. Now in the UK all tobacco for sale is hidden away. Alcohol advertising is very much allowed (so far), and contraceptive adverts have never been banned and in fact were welcomed by health authorities.

Question by Possum1 of Team Old Farts.

Answer: Jerzy Kosinski

"The Painted Bird" garnered controversy when claims of plagiarism surfaced. Furthermore, many claimed Jerzy Kosinski had wilfully misled publishers, critics, and punters alike into believing that the novel was biographical, or at least semi-biographical. Unfortunately, Kosinski is often referred to as an opportunist hoaxer, but that shortchanges a brilliant author who was obsessed with concepts of identity. Not only in "The Painted Bird" and his other literary works, but also in his private life Kosinski was a notorious trickster who enjoyed nothing more than playing around with fake personas.

About the red herrings: Polish-born Joseph Conrad somehow managed to become one of the greatest English authors of his generation despite English not being his native language, Russian-born Mikhail Sholokhov won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965, and American-born Kurt Vonnegut had "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" published in 1965.

Question by thula2 of the Misplaced Team.