BRAINtest

The theme this week is the 1950s.

1. Which 1958 Hollywood musical features characters named Bloody Mary, Nellie Forbush and Stewpot? A) East Pacific, B) West Pacific, C) North Pacific, D) South Pacific

2. In 1959 Fidel Castro launched a coup in which country?

3. What “B” is a unit of digital information comprising of eight bits? It was coined in 1956.

4. In which country was abstract expressionist artist Willem de Kooning, who produced much of his work in the 1950s, born?

5. His first name is Harry and he had a 1956 hit with “Banana Boat (Day-O)”. What is his full name?

6. Which US artist had more US number ones in the 1950s than anyone else (10)?

7. Which Australian city hosted the 1956 Olympic games?

8. What links a spicy Indian yoghurt drink to a 1950s TV show starring a rough collie dog?

9. Who directed the 1956 film “The Ten Commandments”?

10. Syria and which other modernday country comprised the United Arab Republic from 1958-1961? A) Lebanon, B) Egypt, C) Iraq, D) Iran

11. Which African country was the first former British colony to be granted independence from Britain (in 1957)?

12. Louis St Laurent and John Diefenbaker were leaders of which country in the 1950s?

13. What famous agreement was drawn up at Kliptown in 1955?

14. Which American president won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography “Profiles in Courage”? A) Truman, B) Eisenhower, C) Johnson, D) Kennedy

15. The 1950s singer JP Richardson was known by what name?

A) Little Richard, B) Dizzy Gillespie, C) The Big Bopper, D) Fats Domino

16. Which one of these events happened in the 1950s? A) TV is invented, B) Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier, C) Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth, D) The polio vaccine is made public

17. With what discovery would you associate the names Rosalind Franklin, Francis Crick and James Watson?

18. Francois Duvalier, also known as “Papa Doc” was the dictatorial ruler of which country between 1957 and 1971?

19. Which was the first novel in the James Bond series?

A) “Casino Royale”, B) “Dr No”, C) “Goldfinger”, D) “Octopussy”

20. In 1951 in a cricket test against South Africa, England batsman Len Hutton became the first (and still only) man in test history to be dismissed in a certain way? How? Answers on this page