new year quiz questions and answers

40 New Year Quiz Questions

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These New Year quiz questions are divided into four different rounds of ten questions each. You can find the correct answers at the end of each round. Have fun and Happy New Year!

 New Year Quiz Round 1: Pot Luck

  1. What is the name given to the New Year celebrations in Scotland?
  2. What ceremony is performed by a tall dark-haired man at midnight on New Year’s Eve is supposed to promote the luck of the household?
  3. Who wrote the words of ‘Auld Lang Syne’?
  4. What is the gemstone of January?
  5. What is the Jewish New Year called?
  6. The sixth of January, which marks the end of Christmas, is sometimes referred to by what name?
  7. Which of these is not the name of a Chinese year – dog, eel, or rat?
  8. Who, on New Year’s Day 1985, made the first mobile phone call in the UK?
  9. On 1 January in which year did the UK become a member of the European Community?
  10. What event signalled the start of the New Year in ancient Egypt?

Round 1 Answers

  1. Hogmanay
  2. First-footing
  3. Robert Burns
  4. Garnet
  5. Rosh Hashanah
  6. Twelfth Night (or Old Christmas Day or Epiphany)
  7. Eel
  8. Ernie Wise – it was made in front of the press from St Katherine’s Dock, London, to Vodafone’s headquarters.
  9. 1973
  10. The flooding of the Nile

Round 2: In with the New

  1. Babies born on New Year’s Day share which star sign?
  2. Which US silversmith born on New Year’s Day is remembered for telling his neighbours ‘The British are coming’?
  3. Which Frenchman born on New Year’s Day 1863 went on to become the founder of the modern Olympic Games?
  4. Which British novelist who went on a passage to India was born on New Year’s Day 1879?
  5. On New Year’s Day 1925 the Norwegian city of Christiania changed its name to what?
  6. Which reclusive US author born on New Year’s Day 1919 created the fictional Holden Caulfield?
  7. Who was the FBI chief in the years 1924 to 1972 who was born on New Year’s Day 1985?
  8. What currency was introduced on 1 January 1999?
  9. Which major US sporting event first took place on New Year’s Day 1902?
  10. Which two central European countries came into being on 1 January 1993?

Round 2 Answers

  1. Capricorn
  2. Paul Revere
  3. Pierre de Coubertin
  4. E. M. Forster
  5. Oslo
  6. J. D. Salinger
  7. J. Edgar Hoover
  8. The euro
  9. The Rose Bowl (American football)
  10. The Czech Republic and Slovakia

Round 3: Out with the Old

  1. Which notorious British serial killer committed suicide on 1 January 1995, aged 53?
  2. In 1953 which country singer died in the back of a car on his way to a New Year’s Day concert in Ohio, aged 29?
  3. On New Year’s Day 1788 which British newspaper changed its name from the Daily Universal Register?
  4. Name the creator of private eye Sam Spade who died on New Year’s Day 1961.
  5. US actor Cesar Romero died on New Year’s Day 1994 – which part in the long-running US television series Batman did he play?
  6. The end of French rule on 1 January 1804 led to the establishment of the first independent country in the West Indies, under what name?
  7. What name did Turkish president Mustafa Kemal adopt on New Year’s Day 1935?
  8. What kind of advertising was banned on US television from 1 January 1971?
  9. On 1 January 1797 which city replaced New York City as the capital of New York state?
  10. The importation of what into the USA was banned on 1 January 1808?

Round 3 Answers

  1. Fred West
  2. Hank Williams
  3. The Times
  4. Dashiell Hammett
  5. The Joker
  6. Haiti
  7. Atatürk (Father of the Turks)
  8. Cigarette advertising
  9. Albany
  10. Slaves

Round 4: Pot Luck

  1. What bug failed to materialise on 1 January 2000?
  2. What title was bestowed upon Queen Victoria on New Year’s Day 1877?
  3. Who had a hit with ‘New Year’s Day’ in 1983?
  4. All racehorses become a year older on New Year’s Day – true or false?
  5. Who did Sherlock Holmes meet for the first time on New Year’s Day 1881?
  6. What announcement did the Japanese emperor Hirohito make on New Year’s Day 1946?
  7. Which British pop group auditioned for Decca on New Year’s Day 1962?
  8. Who began a famous diary on 1 January 1660?
  9. On Nea Year’s Day 1896 what did Wilhem Roentgen announce he had discovered?
  10. What hit single about a melancholy guesthouse did Elvis Presley record on New Year’s Day 1956?

Round 4 Answers

  1. The millennium bug
  2. Empress of India
  3. U2
  4. True (in the northern hemisphere)
  5. Dr Watson
  6. He announced that he was not a god
  7. The Beatles (they were turned down)
  8. Samuel Pepys
  9. X-rays
  10. ‘Heartbreak Hotel’

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