HOT TOPICS

Quiz

1 Grossing over US$1.5 billion and counting, what is the highestgrossing Broadway musical ever?

2 Managua is the capital of what

Central American country?

3 Who founded the People's

Republic of China in 1949?

4 Nicknamed The Flying Scotsman, in what sport did Graeme Obree break two world records during the 1990s?

5 Who wrote the Greek epic poem

The Iliad?

6 What chemical element is represented by the symbol Au on the periodic table?

7 What character did actress Edie

Falco play on The Sopranos?

8 Sambucus is the scientific name

for what kind of berry?

9 If your birthday falls on September

18, what is your zodiac sign?

10 Who immediately preceded David Cameron as Prime Minister of the UK?

History

1558 Elizabeth I aged 25, ascends the English throne on death of her half sister, Queen ‘Bloody’ Mary.

1869 Tthe Suez Canal opens in Egypt.

1925 NZ Governor-general Sir Charles Fergusson opens the NZ and South Seas International Exhibition in Dunedin, which draws more than 3.2 million visitors in six months.

1947 US President Harry S Truman, in an address to a special session of Congress, calls for emergency aid to Austria, Italy and France.

1969 The first round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the US and Soviet Union opens in Helsinki, Finland.

1970 Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.

1979 Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 Black and/or female hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.

1997 62 people, most of them tourists, are killed when militants open fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers, who also hack their victims, are killed by police.

2003 Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as California governor.

2018 Argentina’s navy says searchers have found a submarine that disappeared a year earlier with 44 crewmen aboard.

Birthdays

● Singer Gordon Lightfoot is 84

● Movie director Martin Scorsese is 80

● Actor-director Danny Devito is 78

● Movie director Roland Joffe is 77

● Actor Dylan Walsh is 59

● Actor Rachel Mcadams is 44

● Rock musician Isaac Hanson (Hanson) is 42