CHRISTMAS QUIZ
IT HAPPENED IN 2018
1. Recently discovered items of Roman sporting equipment went on display at Vindolanda Roman fort in Northumberland. What were they?
2. What 18th-century American item was bought for £15 and then sold to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for £460,000?
3. Which two historians and broadcasters received a damehood and knighthood respectively in the 2018 honours list?
4. Which English battlefield will be partially built upon following the local council’s decision to allow the construction of a driverless car testing track on a section of it?
5. After studying his letters and journals, researchers at the University of Glasgow concluded this Scot may have suffered from bipolar disorder. Who was he?
2019 ANNIVERSARIES
6. 700th Where did a hurriedly raised English army suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the Scots on 20 September 1319?
7. 550th Which Northamptonshire battle of July 1469 resulted in a victory for the supporters of Warwick the Kingmaker over forces loyal to King Edward IV (right)?
8. 500th In June 1519 Elizabeth Blount gave birth to a son, Henry. Which famous figure was the father?
9. 350th Who stopped writing what on 31 May 1669?
10. 300th Which novel, set near the mouth of the Orinoco river, was first published on 25 April 1719?
11. 250th Which two famous adversaries were both born in 1769?
12. 200th Around 15 people were killed and hundreds were wounded when government forces brutally dispersed a public demonstration on 16 August 1819. Where?
13. 150th Which inspirational political leader was born on 2 October 1869?
14. 100th Which charity (still active today) was founded in 1919 by Eglantyne Jebb to help fight the malnutrition caused by the Allied blockade of Germany during the First World War?
15. 50th On 21 July 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon. Who piloted the command module while they did so?
SAINTS AND ANGELS
16. In which English cathedral would you find a 13th-century Angel Choir, home to a mischievous stone imp?
17. Who is the first recorded British Christian martyr?
18. Which English royal saint has his shrine in an Orthodox church in Brookwood Cemetery?
19. What was unusual about Guinefort, a French 13th-century saint? 20. Who was the ‘Angel of Arnhem’? 21. With which cathedral would you associate St Osmund? 22. Which sculpture now stands on the site of a colliery that first opened in the 1720s? 23. Who did Reginald Fitzurse and Hugh de Morville kill?
FUN AND GAMES
24. Which popular board game began life as The Landlord’s Game?
25. Which iconic objects were found in 1831 on a beach in the Outer Hebrides?
26. How is the ancient Greek game of apodidraskinda better known today?
27. What first appeared in the New York World newspaper on 21 December 1913?
28. Which autumnal game was first recorded in 1848 on the Isle of Wight (pictured)?