Did You Know Mary? Trivia Quiz

Answer: First animal to be awarded a Blue Plaque.

Mary the pigeon was also called Mary of Exeter after her hometown. She was a carrier pigeon and was used by the British National Pigeon Service during World War II to carry secret messages from France to the UK. For her service, she was awarded the Dickin Medal, an award instituted to honour the work of animals during the war.

In 2018, she also became the first animal to be commemorated with a Blue Plaque. The Blue Plaque is a sign used in the UK to mark any person or occurrence of historical significance. Mary's Blue Plaque hangs outside the house of Charlie Brewer, a cobbler who owned Mary. Mary brought in her messages to the pigeon loft in Brewer's house.

Answer: An aromatic herb

The herb is rosemary but to get this you need to add four letters in front of 'Mary', not three.

The correct words are primary (main), nummary (relating to coins or money), and summary (synopsis).

Answer: Opera

Maria Callas was born in America to Greek parents. Her unusual voice was noticed early on by her mother, who forced her to take up singing. By the time Maria became a teenager, her parents' marriage had broken down and her mother took the two daughters back to Athens. Maria was enrolled at the Greek National Conservatoire where she underwent formal training under the tutelage of Maria Trivella, and later under Elvira de Hidalgo.

She made her debut in a lead role in 1941 essaying the role of Tosca.

The turning point in her career came in Venice in 1949 when another singer fell ill resulting in Maria portraying two widely divergent personas in the same season - the warrior Brünnhilde of Wagner's "Die Walküre" and the romantic Elvira of Bellini's "I Puritani". Maria's ability to pull off this seemingly impossible feat made the critics sit up and notice. Dubbed "La Divina" for her talent, Maria then went on to conquer the stage in all parts of Italy and across Europe.

Answer: Mini skirt

Born Barbara Mary Quant, this English fashion designer had a notable influence on fashion of the 1960s. The mini skirt was a popular fashion item that was created during this period. Quant is closely associated with it and is often credited with having been the first to create it, though this claim is now disputed. Quant stated that she had named the skirt after the car, Mini.

A few years later, Quant also popularized the trend of hot pants, extremely short shorts. In 2015 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to fashion and culture.

Answer: Little lamb

The nursery rhyme is believed to have been inspired by a real life incident of a girl bringing her pet lamb to school. Sarah Josepha Hale is credited with having written this poem and it was published in 1830.

An interesting fact associated with this rhyme is that when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, this was the first audio recorded by him.

The first verse goes as follows:

"Mary had a little lamb,
It's fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go."

Answer: Policeman

Used mainly in the United Kingdom, USA and New Zealand, the term Black Maria is used to describe a car or wagon used by the police to transport criminals. The vehicles were usually painted black or dark blue and this may have contributed to the name. The exact origin of the term is unknown.

Some sources claim it was named after an African-American woman named Maria who offered lodging for unruly, drunk sailors. Others claim that it was first used by the City of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in Missouri.

In the 1850s, the department hired a horse-drawn carriage with iron bars to transport criminals, instead of having the police walk them to the station. The Police Department used the term Black Maria for this carriage.

Answer: Los Angeles

Human inhabitation in the region of Los Angeles dates back to 8000 BC when the land was first settled by the native Chumash and Tongva tribes. The first Europeans to explore the area were the Spanish. In 1781, a small settlement was founded in this place and named El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles which translates to "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels".

The place was named in honour of the Virgin Mary, like many other such settlements founded by the Spanish in the Americas.

The city is now officially known as the City of Los Angeles, more popularly called just LA.

Answer: Mary I of England

Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor, was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. On Henry's death, she ascended the throne in 1553. Henry had broken off from the Roman Catholic Church when the Pope had refused to annul his marriage to his first wife, Catherine.

This led Henry to create the Church of England and declare the English monarch as Head of this church. When Mary I became queen, she sought to reverse this and turn England back to Roman Catholicism. In her bid to accomplish this, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake earning her the nickname of "Bloody Mary". Mary died five years after her ascension and since she had no children of her own, the throne passed to her half-sister, Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth I brought back the Church of England and this has continued to the present day.

Answer: Yellow

The name marigold is believed to have been derived from the term Mary's gold with gold referring to the bright yellow-orange colour of the bloom. The flowers are native to the Americas. In Mexico, they are used to decorate houses and graves during the Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities. Hindus in India make garlands of marigolds to adorn temples during religious rites.

Answer: My Fair Lady

The musical "My Fair Lady" is based on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". The main character is Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl. A professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, places a bet that within six months he would teach her to speak perfectly like an upper class lady.

In "The Sound of Music", the main character is Maria, a young woman preparing to become a nun, who takes up the post of governess to the Von Trapp children. The musical also has a song called "Maria", sometimes also referred to as "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?".

Another musical with a song called "Maria" is "West Side Story", an adaptation of the Bard's most famous love story ("Romeo and Juliet") set in New York City. Here the young star-crossed lovers are called Tony and Maria.

"Jesus Christ Superstar" is a rock opera re-telling of the last days in the life of Jesus. The Biblical characters of Mary, Jesus' mother, and Mary Magdalene, one of his early followers, appear in this musical.

Answer: Mary Westmacott

Mary Westmacott is the pseudonym used by Agatha Christie for a few romantic novels written by her. Starting with the publishing of her first book, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" in 1920, Christie became a favourite with both critics and readers. The characters of Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple became iconic with Christie unable to do away with the former even when she tired of him, due to fan pressure. Christie also has to her credit the longest running play of all time ("The Mousetrap"). She is the most translated individual author and the best selling novelist of all time, with only the Bible and Shakespeare ahead of her in terms of sales.

Mary Shelley is best known for having written "Frankenstein", now considered the first science-fiction novel.

Mary Higgins Clark is a mystery writer and has published at least forty standalone novels, apart from short story collections and collaborations with fellow author, Alafair Burke.

Apart from her evocative mysteries set in exotic locations, Mary Stewart is also known for her fantasy books woven with Arthurian legends.

Answer: Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep was born as Mary Louise Streep in New Jersey, USA in 1949. She made her big screen debut in the film "Julia" in 1977, having already received a Tony Award nomination the prior year for her stage performance. In 1978, she received her first Oscar nomination for the movie "The Deer Hunter". Since then she has been nominated for over twenty Academy Awards with seventeen of them being for Best Actress.

In every decade from the 1970s to the 2010s she has received at least one Oscar nomination - a remarkable feat by any measure!

Answer: Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson is one of the best selling artists of all time and is widely known as the 'King of Pop'. His 1982 album "Thriller" was the best selling album of its time and held this record for over thirty years. Among his many achievements were 15 Grammy Award wins, 13 Number One US singles and an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time.

"Maria (You Were the Only One)" featured on Jackson's debut studio album "Got to Be There" which was released in 1972. It also featured on the Jackson5 episode called "Michael in Wonderland".

Jackson was not the only one to record a song named Maria. Others include Santana ("Maria, Maria"), Blondie ("Maria"), Aretha Franklin ("Ave Maria), Sam Cooke ("They Called The Wind Maria"), and Tom Jones ("My Girl Maria"), to name just a few.

Answer: Winning two Nobel Prizes.

Marie Sklodowska is more famous as Marie Curie. Born in Warsaw, Poland, she continued her higher studies at the University of Paris, where she later also became the first woman professor. Along with her husband, Pierre, she conducted path breaking research in the field of radioactivity - this term was also coined by Marie Curie. In 1903, Marie and Pierre, along with Henri Becquerel won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Marie was the first woman to win the Nobel, but this wasn't all. Less than ten years later, she won another Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry. This made her the first person to win a Nobel in two different disciplines! She discovered two new elements - polonium, which she named after her native country of Poland, and radium.

Anna Maria "Marie" Tussaud was a French artist who created wax sculptures of people. She established her first permanent exhibition in London. The Madame Tussaud's wax museums are now found in many places around the world.

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician who developed a new method of teaching children called the Montessori method. These principles are used by schools across the world.

Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca was President of Malta from 2014 to 2019, the youngest person to hold this position at the time.

Answer: Australia

Born in Australia, Mary MacKillop was of Scottish descent. Along with Rev. Julian Tenison Woods, she established the order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in South Australia in 1866. Sometimes called the Josephites or the Brown Joeys, the sisters worked mainly in the field of education. Mary set up various schools in Australia and New Zealand, with an aim to provide education to the poor in rural regions.

She was declared a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2010, making her the first Australian to be canonized.

Answer: Jurassic Coast, England

Mary Anning was born and grew up in Lyme Regis in England. The coast of the region is rich in fossil finds and is known as the Jurassic Coast. Mary made many notable discoveries in the field of palaeontology, however, as women were not yet fully accepted by the British scientific community in the 19th century, her finds were largely not credited to her. Among her achievements are the discovery and identification of the first ichthyosaur skeleton, and the discovery of the first pterosaur skeleton in a location outside of Germany. To give an idea of the difficulty Mary faced in getting acceptance by the scientific community during her time, it is important to note that it was only in 2010, over 150 years after her death, that she was one of ten women included by the Royal Society as having made a significant contribution to science. Mary is also believed to have inspired the popular tongue-twister - "she sells sea shells by the sea shore".

Answer: Maria Sharapova - Swimming

Maria Sharapova is a Russian tennis player. She has won over thirty titles in the singles category of the game. In 2005, she attained the Number One ranking in the sport at the young age of eighteen, becoming the first Russian woman to do so. Her victories also include five Grand Slam titles and a silver in the 2012 Olympics. Maria is known for her grunts on the court, once recorded to have reached a high of 101 decibels during a Wimbledon match in 2005!

Answer: Joey from "Friends"

Iconic sitcom of the 90s, "Friends" revolved around the lives of six friends (what else?). Joey Tribbiani was one of the six main characters. He was introduced to the group when he became roommates with Chandler who was Ross' high school friend, who in turn was Monica's brother, who was Rachel's high school friend and Phoebe's flatmate. Phew!

Despite the fact that he wasn't particularly bright, Joey was very popular with women and had a string of good looking girlfriends and dates throughout the show's run. His sisters featured in a few episodes, most notably one where Chandler kissed one of them, but couldn't remember which one!

Answer: Mario

The character of Mario was first introduced in the "Donkey Kong" game in 1981. Two years later, the character got his own video game called "Mario Bros." which also featured his younger brother, Luigi. The characters were depicted as Italian plumbers. The game was set in sewers and the characters had to defeat different creatures lurking there. With his red cap and matching overalls, Mario went on to become one of the most popular gaming characters of all time, featuring in over 200 video games. The Super Mario Bros. franchise is the best-selling video game franchise.

Mario is derived from the Roman name Marius. Maria is the feminine equivalent of Marius.

Answer: Ireland

When Mary Robinson assumed office as the 7th President of Ireland in 1990, she was the first woman to hold this position. She served in this position until her resignation in 1997. She was succeeded by Mary McAleese, making it the first time in the world that a woman Head of State was succeeded by another woman. McAleese held the position of President until 2011. Both the Marys were popular with the government and the public during their terms and served to raise the profile of the position they held.