Here Comes The Sun Quiz | Newspapers & Magazines

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "Gotcha!" That single word made up one of the most famous British newspaper headlines of all times. It appeared in "The Sun" in 1982. To which of these events did it refer?

Answer: Sinking of an Argentinian battleship

At the height of the Falklands War, a British submarine torpedoed and sank the Argentinean warship "The General Belgrano". In all, 770 on board were rescued, but 330 died.
(In 1985, The New York Daily News reprised that heading with coverage of the re-election as mayor of Ed Koch with the heading "KOTCHA!")

2. This headline appeared on the front page of a British tabloid newspaper in 1992: "It's The Sun Wot Won It". What did "The Sun" claim to have won?

Answer: The British general election

Prior to the 1992 election, it looked as if the Labour Party would win, but "The Sun" campaigned vigorously in favour of the Conservative Party and denounced Labour. It claimed - and no one will ever know how justifiably - that it was its support that brought victory for the Conservatives.

3. Which of these was a nickname for the British tabloid newspaper "The Sun"?

Answer: The Currant Bun

This was a half admiring, half denigrating nickname, particularly among other members of The Fourth Estate. "The Sun" thrived on controversial and sensational stories, which it presented in a quickly-read format, with no demanding analysis. Celebrity stories were a staple of its pages.

Its high circulation figures, especially among 'working class' voters, gave it a great deal of power: all politicians badly wanted those voters.

4. In 1970, the British daily newspaper "The Sun" introduced a feature that resulted in pretty girls being photographed topless. The photographs generally appeared in the same place in the newspaper each day. Where was that?

Answer: Page Three

"Page Three" became almost shorthand for any newspaper topless photographs, in much the same way as "Hoover" was tagged onto any vacuum cleaner. Feminists hated the "Page Three" feature; they claimed it exploited women and was only a ploy so that ogling men would buy the paper. That latter part may well have been true, but was undermined by the fact that many women liked and bought "The Sun."

5. "The Sun" was a British daily newspaper that was founded in 1964, but began to predominate daily sales after it was taken over in 1969 by one of the modern era's toughest and most controversial media moguls. Who was he?

Answer: Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch was born in Australia, though later took on American citizenship in order to get around newspaper ownership laws. He re-launched 'The Sun" as a tabloid aiming to take on head-to-head "The Daily Mirror", at the time the top selling daily. "The Sun" soon took over that position, with three million copies being sold each day by 2008. That put it ninth in a league table of newspaper circulations. Only one other English language paper sold more; "The Times of India". Murdoch was ultimate boss of News Corp in the USA and News International in the UK.

His empire consisted of newspapers and broadcast organisations throughout the world. It was said that political leaders courted his support to win, or stay, in power. That empire was rocked in 2010 and 2011 by revelations that "The News Of The World", a British Sunday newspaper, had hacked into private mobile phone messages.

6. Following a soccer disaster in 1989, people living in a major British city began a boycott of the leading newspaper "The Sun". Where was that city?

Answer: Liverpool

In April 1989, 96 football fans died at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield during a match between Sheffield Wednesday and Liverpool. "The Sun" claimed that Liverpool football supporters stole from dead bodies and abused rescuers.
That - totally unsubstantiated - claim sparked off a boycott of "The Sun" in Liverpool. Daily sales fell by three-quarters. The paper was later to apologise for "the worst mistake in our history", but even 20 years afterwards, circulation in Liverpool remained low.

7. Which of these was a real front page headline in "The Sun" in 1986 about a popular British comedian?

Answer: Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster

The paper claimed that Starr was staying at the home of a friend and asked his friend's girlfriend to make him a sandwich. She refused and Starr (so the paper said) went to the kitchen and put her hamster between two pieces of bread, which he then ate. Starr, naturally, denied it saying: "I have never eaten or even nibbled a live hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, mouse, shrew, vole or any other small mammal."

Whatever, it boosted Starr's career!

(What would make the Dawson idea funny is that he devoted a lot of his act to making unflattering jokes about his mother-in-law).

8. On the day that the UK went to the polls in a General Election in 1992 "The Sun" published a front page headline: "If Kinnock Wins Today, Will The Last Person To Leave Britain Turn Out The Lights?" Which political party did Neil Kinnock lead?

Answer: Labour

The Labour Party duly lost the election. In 1997, "The Sun" did a U-turn by declaring "The Sun Backs Blair", another leader of the Labour Party. At the 2010 General Election, "The Sun" switched back to supporting the Conservative Party.

9. The British tabloid newspaper "The Sun" was never short on jingoism and loved to get its teeth into foreign political leaders. Which European leader did "The Sun" brand "un ver" (a worm)?

Answer: Jacques Chirac

In 2003, "The Sun" produced a special edition that it handed out on the streets of Paris branding the then President "a disgrace to Europe by constantly threatening to veto military action to enforce the will of the United Nations in Iraq." It also accused him of forgetting that it was American and British help that "saved France in World War Two".

10. In 1999, the sensationalist British daily newspaper "The Sun" produced a book to mark the Millennium and 1,000 years of British History in its own inimitable style. What was it called?

Answer: Hold Ye Front Page

Chapters included: "You Canute Be Serious!"; "The Bigger They Come The Armada They Fall"; and "Napoleon Blown Apart". The book was a bestseller and won the Cudlipp Award for excellence in tabloid journalism.

Source: Author darksplash

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Here Comes The Sun Trivia Quiz

"The Sun" was the biggest selling British daily newspaper for many years. Sensation and controversy were never far away from its pages.

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