Twenty Cool Facts but Only Ten Questions. Bargain! Quiz

Answer: 6

It has been well documented that the first time man landed on the moon was Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. Subsequently, five further Apollo missions landed on the moon: Apollos 12-17, with Apollo 13 being aborted due to an oxygen tank explosion in the command module before it could land on the moon. The six lunar landings occurred in 30 months between July 1969 and December 1972. Each mission had three astronauts, with two from each walking on the moon, conducting exploration and scientific observation tasks. In all, twelve men walked on the moon during the Apollo program, and importantly, all 21 astronauts in this section of the program returned to Earth. (Three astronauts perished in the AS-204 [posthumously designated Apollo 1] ground rehearsal on January 27, 1967).

The six realms of Buddhism are states of existence within samsara, which is the cycle of rebirth. The six cycles represent different levels of happiness and suffering dependent on Karma. Collectively, these levels are depicted as the Wheel of Life (Bhavacakra). They are considered rebirth. The six realms (highest to lowest) are: Gods (Deva), Demigods (Asura), Humans (Manussa), Animals (Tiryak), Hungry Ghosts (Preta), and Hell Beings (Naraka). Deva represents periods of heightened pleasure, power and long life associated with good karma, but this level is considered temporary. Naraka, the lowest level, is depicted as a realm of extreme suffering, pain and punishment. The third level, Manussa or human realm, is a mixture of pleasure and suffering and is considered the most fortunate level for reaching enlightenment.

Answer: 3

Alaska and Hawaii are two US states that are not part of the contiguous United States, so they have no borders with any US state (though Alaska has long borders with Yukon and British Columbia in Canada).

Maine is the only US state with only one state border (New Hampshire). Three states have exactly two borders with other US States. Florida borders Georgia and Mississippi; South Carolina borders its northern namesake and Georgia; and Washington borders Idaho and Oregon. Rhode Island has land borders with Connecticut and Massachusetts, but shares a much-publicised maritime border with New York along Long Island. Eight other states have borders with three other states; ten states have four borders with other states, ten have five, eleven have six and Kentucky and Colorado have seven. Tennessee and Missouri have the most borders with other states, with eight, including a shared border between them along the Mississippi River.

"The Three Faces of Eve" was a 1957 movie based on a book by Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley, psychiatrists who treated Costner Sizzemore, a patient with dissociative identity disorder. Joanne Woodward starred in the movie and won the Best Actress Academy Award for playing a young woman who had three different personalities: Eve White, Eve Black and Jane. Ms Woodward became the first actress to win an Oscar for playing three different characters. While Ms Woodward received much praise for her performance, the rest of the movie earned only mixed reviews. It became the first movie since 1936, when Bette Davis won Best Actress Oscar for "Dangerous" (1935), without the movie getting nominated in any other category.

Answer: 7

"The Waltons" was a successful American historical drama television series that ran from 1972 to 1981 and covered the timeframe between the Great Depression and World War II. The story was about a rural West Virginia family who tried to make ends meet in difficult times. The family was large; John and Olivia Walton had seven children. John-Boy was the eldest and 17 when the series started (he narrated the series), followed by Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, Jim-Bob and Elizabeth. John's parents also lived with the family. The show won many Prime Time Emmy Awards, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1973. Richard Thomas (John-Boy) won the Emmy for Lead Actor in the same year. Michael Learned (Olivia) won the Emmy for Lead Actress in 1973, 1974, and 1976; Ellen Corby (Grandma) was a winner in the Supporting Actress category, winning in 1973, 1975, and 1976; and Will Geer (Grandpa) won the Supporting Actor Emmy in 1975.

Nearly all mammals have exactly seven cervical vertebrae. While there is variability in the number of vertebrae in the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine, the number of cervical vertebrae has been remarkably constant in number through the epochs, due to the lack of mutation in the Hox genes, which regulate the expression of cervical vertebrae. This means that a cervical vertebra in a giraffe is 250-300 mm (10-12 in) long, and in a mouse, each is less than 1 mm (1/25 inch) long. In humans, the cervical vertebrae are between 103 and 137mm (4 - 6.5 in). The few mammalian exceptions are manatees and sloths. Manatees have only six CVs, the seventh becoming an extra thoracic vertebra. This reduces their neck mobility, so they cannot turn their heads sideways, requiring them to turn their whole bodies to look around. Sloths are quite low on the mammal evolutionary scale: the ability of the Hox genes in these species is less resistant to change than in other mammals. and they can have five or six (two-toed sloth) or nine (three-toed sloth) cervical vertebrae.

Answer: 4

On March 12, 1968, Mauritius gained independence from the United Kingdom. On the same day, it adopted an official flag, which became known as the Four Bands. The flag comprises four equal bands of (from top to bottom) red, blue, yellow and green. Each band has its own significance: red is for the struggle for independence; blue for the Indian Ocean; yellow for "new light of freedom and a bright future", and green represents agriculture and vegetation. It is the only four-horizontal-band national flag (although the flag of the Central African Republic has four horizontal bands of blue, white, green and yellow, but also has a single vertical band of red, with a yellow five-pointed star in the upper left corner).

Katharine Hepburn was the first actress to win four Academy Awards for Best Actress. She was nominated twelve times and won for "Morning Glory" (1933), "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), "The Lion in Winter" (1968), and "On Golden Pond" (1981). She never attended the ceremony to accept her award in person. She gave the reason as "My prize is my work". However, she attended the 1974 Awards in person to present the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to her friend, producer Lawrence Weingarten.

Answer: 11

Much has been made of the eleven-sided base that the Statue of Liberty rests on Liberty Island (or more correctly, the pedestal of the Statue rests on). It is a common misconception that the eleven sides represented the eleven million immigrants who had sailed into New York City harbour, but this was not the case, as the base is much older than its supported statue.

In 1800, the New York State Legislature signed over the island, then called Bedloe's Island, to the federal government, as it had been identified that New York City needed to be fortified. A fort was constructed from granite on the island between 1806 and 1811 in the shape of an 11-point star. This shape was chosen, a hendecagram, as it created overlapping fields of fire through 360 degrees with no blind spots. In 1814, the fortification was named Fort Wood after Lt. Col Eleazer Derby Wood, who was killed in the Siege of Fort Erie. When the site for the Statue of Liberty was chosen in the 1880s, the fort was obsolete and abandoned. It seemed a logical choice, especially as the alignment of the fort allowed the Statue to face southeast, which was the best view for the millions of immigrants who followed sailing into New York City Harbour.

"Stranger Things" was a hit TV series shown over five seasons between 2016 and 2025. It was a hard show to define as it contained horror, science fiction, mystery, coming-of-age, and drama. It was set in a small town in Indiana (actually shot in Georgia). The protagonist was a young girl called Eleven who had psychokinetic abilities. She had unknowingly created a wormhole called the Upside-Down at a research establishment on the edge of town. The show was both critically and commercially successful.

Answer: 10

Pearl Jam formed out of the Seattle rock band Mother Love Bone. When their lead singer overdosed in March 1990, guitarist Stone Gossard and bass player Jeff Ament went looking for a new lead singer and drummer. Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons was invited but contractually could not, but he knew Eddie Vedder and gave him an instrumental demo tape that the band had given him. Vedder, who lived in San Diego, spent one day writing lyrics and then added vocals to the three songs. He sent the enhanced tape back to Seattle. The band hired him as lead singer sight unseen. In October 1990, Vedder flew to Seattle, where the new band crammed recording all tracks for the new album in time for Vedder to fly back to San Diego for his next shift as a gas station attendant. The band called themselves Mookie Blacklock after the NBA basketball player when they found one of his trading cards in a band tape case. The first album was named after Blacklock's number - Ten. Their name changed to Pearl Jam before the album was released, but "Ten" stayed as the title of the album.

The 1979 movie "10" depicted Dudley Moore as George Webber, a 42-year-old famous composer who was not coping with advanced age. He spurned his girlfriend, Samantha (Julie Andrews), when he became obsessed with the beautiful Jenny Hanley (Bo Derek), who was on her way to church to be married. George followed her on her honeymoon to Mexico, where the pair had a brief tryst. George returned to his girlfriend, shamefaced and vowed to be more attentive and faithful.

The movie was a commercial success, and critics agreed. It was a star vehicle for Bo Derek, and it rejuvenated Dudley Moore's career.

Answer: 9

Liane Moriarty is an Australian author (born 1966) who released her tenth successful novel, "Here One Moment" in 2024. By then, she had also written three children's novels. In that time, five of her novels had had the rights purchased for movie/television. The first was "Big Little Lies", which was purchased by Nicole Kidman. A successful TV series ensued, starring Ms Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. "Nine Perfect Strangers" (2018) was her eighth novel. It told the story of nine people, unknown to each other, who met at a wellness retreat ostensibly for self-improvement or healing, only to discover they were part of some larger, nefarious social experiment. Its success was attributed to the novel's complex characters, humour, which was often bleak, and its unpredictable plot. In 2020, it was adapted into a TV series starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy.

Around 1321, Dante Alighieri wrote his 14th-century narrative poem "The Divine Comedy". It was divided into three parts: "Inferno", "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso". (Inferno is Italian for "Hell".) The first part described Dante's own [fictional] journey through Hell, led by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Hell was depicted as nine concentric circles within the Earth. Each was a place of torment and a realm for those who had rejected spiritual values. The nine levels represented a gradual increase in wickedness, which culminated in the ninth circle at the centre of the earth, where Satan is held in Frozen bondage. The nine levels were Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Heresy, Wrath, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. The poem was an allegory and represents the journey of the soul toward God. The Inferno described the acknowledgement and rejection of sin.

Answer: 12

The Uzbek people were originally a nomadic people. Urban centres arose in what is now Uzbekistan as the Silk Road traversed the region. During the 19th century, most of Central Asia was incorporated into the Russian Empire. In 1920, Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia became a part of the Soviet Union. The Central Asian region was divided into six Soviet republics along cultural lines, of which the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was created in 1924. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Uzbekistan declared independence on 31 August 1991. The Uzbekistan flag was adopted three months later. It consists of three horizontal bands of azure (blue), white and green, separated by two narrow red stripes. On the top azure band, there is a white crescent and three rows of twelve white five-pointed stars. There is no official significance to each of the elements on the flag. However, there are several unofficial versions of what each element means. Azure is a symbol of the sky, and it is also the colour of the Turkic peoples. White is for peace and good luck. Green symbolises nature, new life, and a good harvest. The red fimbriations represent the "power of life". The twelve stars on the flag of Uzbekistan represent twelve distinct oblasts (regions) of the country. The stars are arranged in three rows of 3, 4 and 5 stars. The crescent and stars together are a symbol of Islam, the main religion in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan is one of twelve landlocked countries in Asia, but it is the only doubly landlocked country in Asia (Liechtenstein is the only other double landlocked country in the world). Uzbekistan is surrounded by five landlocked countries: The former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan to the north, Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Tajikistan to the southeast, and Turkmenistan to the southwest, as well as Afghanistan to the south. Mongolia is wedged in between China and Russia. It is the second biggest landlocked country in the world after Kazakhstan. Two landlocked countries between China and India are Nepal and Bhutan (no common border between them). Laos is the only country in Southeast Asia that is landlocked. It is bordered by China and Myanmar to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west. Azerbaijan and Armenia are in the South Caucasus region on the border between eastern Europe and western Asia. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, as they border the Caspian Sea, are often not considered landlocked. However, this sea is an endorheic basin, which means it has no natural outlet to the world's oceans, and so these countries, as well as every other landlocked country, rely on neighbouring countries for port access to import and export goods and trade.

Answer: 5

South Australia is unique in that it has borders with all four other contiguous states (Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. It also has a border with one of Australia's two internal territories, the Northern Territory. The only state and territory the state does not border is Tasmania, which is not on the mainland but an island of its own; and the Australian Capital Territory, which is an enclave within NSW.

Professional baseball hit a crossroads in 1903 when the two main rival leagues, the American League and the National League (eight teams each), called a truce, and the first World Series was played between the leading club from each league. Until 1953, eight teams remained in both leagues (though there were name changes and relocations during that time). Between 1961 and 1962, both leagues expanded to 12 clubs each, and then in 1969, the two 12-team leagues split into East and West divisions, and then in 1994, with fourteen teams in each league, each league split into East, Central and West divisions. However, it was not until 2013 when the Houston Astros transferred from the National League Central to the American League West that each league had three divisions of five players. The top six teams in each league play off each season until the last team standing in each league plays off in the World Series.

Answer: 8

Mickey Rooney was married eight times: Ava Gardner (m. 1942-1943); Betty Jane Baker (m. 1944-1949); Martha Vickers (m. 1949-1951); Elaine Devry (m. 1952-1958)
Barbara Ann Thomason (m. 1958-1966); Marge Lane (m. 1966-1967); Carolyn Hockett (m. 1969-1975); and Jan Chamberlin (m. 1978-2014). He had nine children plus two stepchildren, and 19 grandchildren. Six of his marriages ended in divorce. His fifth wife, Barbara Ann Thomason (stage name Carolyn Mitchell), was murdered in 1966 by Milos Milos, who then shot and killed himself. His marriage to his last wife, Jan Chamberlin, lasted 34 years (more than his seven previous marriages combined) until he died in 2014, though the couple did separate in 2012.

On one hand, "Eight Days a Week" was just your 'average' Beatles single that went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (their seventh in a row in thirteen months). The song was not released as a single in the UK - "I Feel Fine" was released instead. However, there are a few notable features about this song, besides being a great song: the song features a fade-in - It starts with silence and builds up to full volume. It was a risky move as DJs do not like silence, but the Beatles could probably get away with it, and they did. Some fans claim this was the first pop song ever to contain such a fade-in, but the Supremes' "Come See About Me" was released a month before this song and had one and Johnny Horton's "The Wild One" (1958) song did not start from silence but it definitely increased in volume before the singing kicked in. This was also the first song the Beatles took to the studio unfinished. The song took two seven-hour sessions to finalise. The group then used this "unfinished at studio" technique commonly after this recording. And then there is the title. It is often attributed as a Ringo-ism (e.g. "Hard Day's Night", "Tomorrow Never Knows" ). Many people point to a 1984 "Playboy" Interview where Paul McCartney actually stated this, but a transcript revealed it was Linda McCartney who attributed the saying to Ringo Starr. A far more credible version was that McCartney was talking to a chauffeur who was driving him to John Lennon's house. He asked if the chauffeur was busy, and he replied, "Eight days a week". That was the title of the song, and a line of lyrics and basic melody is all they had before going into the studio to record the song.