Q.1
What is found on the oldest complete manuscript of The Iliad (AD 900)?
five levels of scholarly annotation
graffiti
comic book style illustrations
Q.2
When was the Quran translated into English?
1549
1649
1749
Q.3
What is placed at the centre of the world in the Hereford Mappa Mundi (1280 - 1300)?
Jerusalem
Rome
London
Q.4
How many copies of the Gutenberg Bible were printed?
75 to 100
120 to 145
160 to 185
Q.5
Who bought the only privately owned scientific notebook of Leonardo da Vinci?
Michael Bloomberg
Bill Gates
Warren Buffett
Q.6
Out of five ships that began Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe in 1519 how many returned?
one
two
three
Q.7
How many days were skipped when the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582?
five
ten
fifteen
Q.8
How many literary quotations appear in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755)?
14,000
40,000
114,000
Q.9
How much did the U.S. spend per acre for the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?
about four cents
about forty cents
about four dollars
Q.10
How is the U.S. Constitution stored?
in an acid-free box
encased in inert helium gas
in a safe
Q.11
Where was the earliest surviving photograph taken (c. 1826)?
a country estate in France
a castle in Germany
a flat in London
Q.12
Where was the first underground railroad (1863)?
New York City
Paris
London
Q.13
Who was the only person capable of deciphering Tolstoy's handwriting on his manuscript for War and Peace?
his mother, Countess Mariya Tolstaya (Volkonskaya)
his wife, Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya
his friend, Vasily Botkin
Q.14
What was the first U.S. state to grant women the right to vote (1869)?
Massachusetts
Pennsylvania
Wyoming
Q.15
What were the first words recorded by phonograph (1877)?
"Mary had a little lamb."
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
"To be or not to be."
Q.16
For how many years had Howard Carter been digging in Egypt before he discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922?
ten years
twenty years
thirty years
Q.17
How long was FDR's speech to Congress to obtain a declaration of war against Japan (1941)?
seven minutes
seventeen minutes
twenty-seven minutes
Q.18
Where was the United Nations' founding conference held (1945)?
Ottawa
Geneva
San Francisco
Q.19
How many of the Beatles' fathers had to sign their 1962 recording contract because they were underage?
one
two
three
Q.20
What was the Two Plus Four Treaty?
the end of the Kosovo War
the reunification of East and West Germany
an agreement between Israel and Palestine