Hard General Knowledge Questions with Answers

Questions I

1. Two famous authors died on the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated, can you name either?
2. Watership Down is a hill in the north of which English county?
3. The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, trying to dock at a naval air station in which US state?






4. How many vertebrae or bones are there in a giraffe's neck?
5. What number President of the United States was Abraham Lincoln?
6. Which university was the first winners of the quiz show University Challenge in 1963?
7. What is the registered logo of the Encyclopaedia Britannica?
8. Montana's Holter Dam is on which river?
9. Which leader established The Yuan dynasty?
10. In 1976 the mnemonic 'SPLINK' was introduced on televison - what does the 'P' stand for?
11. Which birds are the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird in the world?
12. Who wrote the foreword to the 1756 book An Introduction to the Game of Draughts by William Payne, it was the earliest book in English about the game?
13. Name any owner of the company W. Chump & Sons Limited?
14. If Grand Ole Opry is the longest in the world, which British program is the second longest?
15. Which external device can be attached to the stern of a boat to slow it down and keep the boat steady in a storm?

Answers:

1. CS Lewis or Aldous Huxley
2. Hampshire (near the area where author Richard Adams grew up)
3. New Jersey
4. Seven (same number as a human)
5. 16th
6. Leicester University
7. A (blue) thistle
8. Missouri
9. Kublai Khan
10. Pavement (in the Green Cross Code adverts with actor John Pertwee)
11. Cassowary






12. Samuel Johnson
13. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, or Andy Wilman (the company produced The Grand Tour)
14. Desert Island Discs (second longest-running radio programme in the world)
15. Drogue

Hard Questions II

1. In 1974, which song was the most famous release of the folk band the Corries?
2. Chicago born Janet Jagan was the first female President of which South American country?
3. Kishinev, situated on the river Bic, is the capital of which country?
4. Cyclist Chris Froome and singer Roger Whittaker were both born in which non British city?
5. Which poet wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake?
6. In which modern day country is Colchis - best known in Greek mythology as the home to Medea and the Golden fleece?
7. The nursery rhyme 'Pop Goes the Weasel' celebrates which profession?
8. Which British Labour Party politician succeeded Javier Solana in 1999?
9. To the nearest day, how long was the Apollo 11 mission which landed man on the Moon?
10. Which actor created the charitable foundation SixDegrees.org - the The Guardian also named 'one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination'?
11. Which moon in the solar system is named after the ferryman who took souls across the River Styx?
12. Author John Milton invented what name for the capital of Hell?
13. Which former World War Two RAF pilot and Victoria Cross winner founded a hospice that grew into a national disability charity?
14. Singer Peter Gabriel, TV presenter David Dimbleby and scout's founder Robert Baden-Powell all went to which public school?
15. What term is given for a chapter of the Koran?

Answers:

1. Flower of Scotland
2. Guyana
3. Moldova
4. Nairobi, Kenya
5. Cecil Day-Lewis
6. Georgia
7. Pawnbroker
8. George Robertson (became tenth Secretary General of NATO)
9. 6 days (5 days, 22 hours and 54 minutes)
10. Kevin Bacon
11. Charon
12. Pandemonium
13. Leonard Cheshire
14. Charterhouse
15. Surah (there are 114 Surahs)