The Whitaker’s Almanack Quiz: Can you remember the faces, places, sights and sounds of 2010?

It's been a year of natural disasters and human triumphs, of political marriage-making and celebrity car crashes (literal and metaphorical) ... But can you remember the faces, places, sights and sounds of 2010? Let 'Whitaker's Almanack', the definitive source of facts, trivia and ephemera, test your knowledge

International affairs

1) In which month did the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull reach its "explosive" phase?

2) Which country was hit by an earthquake, a tsunami and a volcanic eruption in the space of 24 hours in October?

3) Which chamber did the Democrats lose control of in the mid-term elections in the USA – the House of Representatives or the Senate?

4) In which country was Aung San Suu Kyi kept under house arrest for 15 years before her release in November this year?

5) Which spiritual leader announced in November that they might retire from political life in less than a year?

6) In October, which country's bid to join the EU progressed to the European Commission despite concerns over unapprehended war criminals?

7) Between which two countries is the Verkhny Lars crossing, which was reopened in March, nearly four years after it was closed?

8) Who gave the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a red iPod Nano in September?

9) What did the French senate vote 246 for and 1 against in September?

a. Increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62

b. Illegalising the Islamic veil in public places

c. Expelling Roma immigrants.

10) For what crime is Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo serving an 11-year prison sentence?

a. Inciting the subversion of state power

b. Undermining the community, peace and stability of China

c. Disseminating rumours and destroying social order.

Art and literature

1) In February, whose sculpture L'Homme qui marche I became the most expensive piece of art sold at auction when it fetched £65m at Sotheby's?

2) How many individually crafted porcelain sunflower seeds make up Ai Weiwei's artwork in the Tate Modern turbine hall?

3) Whose novel had to be reprinted in October after the wrong draft of the manuscript was sent to the printers?

4) Which Booker-longlisted novel was described as full of "unbelievable misogyny"?

5) What have Giles Coren and Boris Johnson's sister both been given that Alistair Campbell claimed to covet – but again missed out on – this year?

6) Where were 11 pieces of "degenerate art" unearthed in October?

7) What had Wolfgang and Helene Beltracchi allegedly been doing for 14 years before they were arrested in September?

8) Which book this year beat The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Peppa Pig to first place in a Booktrust survey of children's favourite books?

9) Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction this year, Barbara Demick's book Nothing to Envy is about defectors from which totalitarian state?

10) Whose Letters to Monica, described by one critic as "nearly 500 pages of misanthropy, glumness, cowardice and hypochondria" was published this year?

11) Which literary figure links Philip Gross, Little Gidding in Cambridgeshire, and Wilton's Music Hall in London in 2010?

12) Which posthumous David Foster Wallace novel's cover was unveiled in September?

Business and the economy

1) Which two mobile phone companies agreed to share their 2G networks in September?

2) Which of the following retailers did not go into administration in 2010?

a. Faith

b. Wallis

c. Confetti.

3) Which leader reportedly remarked: "If this is the sort of club the euro is becoming, perhaps [we] should leave"?

4) What is the name of the company which became the first high street bank to launch in the UK for more than 100 years when it opened a branch in Holborn, London in July?

5) Which car manufacturer recalled millions of its vehicles in January and February owing to faulty accelerator pedals?

6) From the following, pick the three EU countries which were in recession in the 3rd quarter of this year:

a. Greece, Ireland, Malta

b. Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg

c. Greece, Ireland, The Netherlands.

7) In September how many people did HM Revenue and Customs announce had paid the wrong amount of tax through the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) system between 2008 and 2010?

a. 3 million

b. 6 million

c. 9 million.

8) The former Polly Peck CEO Asil Nadir returned to the UK on 26 August to face £34m fraud charges relating to the collapse of his business empire in 1990. Where had he been living for the last 17 years?

9) International Airlines is the name of the holding company for which two airlines that finally merged in April?

Election special

1) What town was Gillian Duffy, Gordon Brown's so-called "bigoted woman" from?

2) Which musical "megastar" joined Gordon Brown on the election campaign trail in Northampton?

3) Name the newly created Lord who had previously said he was "against too much flunkery and titles".

4) What cabinet post did new Labour leader Ed Miliband hold before the general election?

5) Who did Danny Alexander replace as Chief Secretary to the Treasury just one month after the general election?

6) According to David Cameron, whose reappearance on the campaign trail was "very good for the sales of Tango"?

7) Sky News political editor Adam Boulton lost his temper with which key Labour figure in a live interview following Gordon Brown's resignation speech?

8) Which political party did each of the following newspapers officially back for the 2010 general election:

a. The Guardian

b. The Sun

c. The Mirror.

9) Whose light aircraft, towing an election banner, crashed into a field on election day?

Celebrity

1) George Michael crashed into which branch of Snappy Snaps while driving under the influence of drugs?

2) Which celebrity wore a dress that appeared to be made entirely of raw meat to the MTV video awards in September?

3) Why did celebrities, including Alicia Keys, Usher and Serena Williams, recently take an indefinite break from posting on Facebook and Twitter?

4) Which Strictly Come Dancing contestant was described as "a Dalek in drag", by judge Bruno Tonioli?

5) Whose family life in Alaska is documented in a reality TV show?

6) Match the stars to the Christmas lights they switched on:

Sport

1) Why did Pavlos Joseph spring to fame in June after getting lost while looking for a toilet?

2) "The Best of Enemies" was the marketing name given to which event?

3) Michael Schumacher achieved how many podium finishes during his return season to Formula One?

a. Zero

b. One

c. Two.

4) Who in August was declared the highest-paid female athlete in the world according to Forbes?

5) In which event did Amy Williams win gold for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver?

6) After how many failed attempts did Tony McCoy finally win the Grand National in April, on Don't Push It?

a. 10

b. 12

c. 14.

7) "USA WINS 1-1" was a headline from which newspaper after the World Cup draw between the USA and England?

8) What caused Ashley Kerekes, a 22-year-old babysitter from Massachusetts to proclaim "I AM NOT A FREAKING CRICKET MATCH!!!" on Twitter?

9) "The greatest advertisement we've ever had for our sport" is a quote by which pundit concerning which event?

10) At the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, what were deployed outside some of the venues to keep away small simians?

Music

1) Why did Glastonbury announce that 2012 would be a "fallow year" with no festival?

2) Sony announced it had ceased production of which iconic device in October?

3) Which former singer announced that he would stand for president in Haiti in August, but was later disqualified?

4) The final episode of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross was screened in July. Which band performed live on the show?

5) Susan Boyle accomplished which feat in November, which only The Monkees and The Beatles had so far achieved?

6) Who received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the 2010 Brit Awards in February?

7) Whose musical debut, a rap cameo on the song "Autograph", failed to make the UK chart?

8) Edison Peña, one of the rescued Chilean miners, gave an impromptu rendition of which song during his appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman? [above]

9) After a performance by The Who on 7 February, what now links the English rock band with New Kids on the Block, Michael Jackson and P Diddy?

10) Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg revealed his Desert Island Discs in October. Which of these was not one of them?

a. "Life on Mars" by David Bowie

b. "Waka Waka" (2010 World Cup Theme) by Shakira

c. "This Charming Man" by The Smiths.

Science and environment

1) Name the material that won its discoverers the Nobel Prize in Physics this year. (Clue: it's a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon that is 100 times stronger than steel.)

2) What rare items did Jeffrey Lendrum attempt to smuggle from Britain to Dubai by taping them to his chest and attempting to board a flight?

3) What is the name of the process whereby heavy mud and cement is used to force oil back into a well to plug a leak, which BP eventually used to end the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster?

4) NASA recently announced the discovery of a microbe that survives by using which usually toxic chemical?

5) The shooting of a 135kg (300lb) red stag, believed to be the largest wild animal in Britain, caused outrage earlier this year. What was its nickname?

6) In July, which musician had his genome sequenced, only to discover he had Neanderthal lineage?

7) What is the current name of the super-heavy element, atomic number 117, discovered in January by a team from Russia and the US?

8) Which breed of bat, the smallest of Europe's whiskered bats, was discovered in Yorkshire in April, taking the number of British bat species to 17?

9) How did the nation's science research budget fare in October's comprehensive spending review?

10) Where could you find ALICE, ATLAS and, in November, the first direct observation of "jet quenching"?

Go figure

Why were these numbers in the news in 2010? Match each number with the correct description.

9,000

183

622

57

51,300,000

50,000,000,000

2,450,000

72,000,000,000

67.08

a. The number of games in Wimbledon's longest-ever tennis match.

b. The number of seats won by the Liberal Democrats in the general election.

c. The depth below ground (in metres) of the trapped Chilean miners.

d. The estimated number of planets with a similar mass to Earth orbiting stars in the Milky Way.

e. The number of unemployed people in the UK as at September 2010.

f. The height (in cm) of the new world's shortest man, 18-year-old Khagendra Thapa Magar (right).

g. The total amount (in pounds) a Qianlong 18th-century porcelain vase was sold for after being discovered by a brother and sister clearing their parents' home.

h. The cost (in pounds) of the bailout of the Republic of Ireland in November.

i. Maximum university tuition fees (in pounds) from 2012.

PM's Gift List

Match the person to the gift they gave to David Cameron.

1) Set of ties

2) Pen set

3) iPad

4) Jewellery and clock

5) Painting

a) Nicolas Sarkozy

b) King of Bahrain

c) Barack Obama

d) Silvio Berlusconi

e) Michael Bloomberg.

Bonus question: In order to keep gifts worth over £140, ministers must pay for them out of their own pocket. How many of the above did David Cameron choose to keep?

Quotes: I beg your pardon?

1) "I don't want to be here. I was made to be here ... This is an inconvenience to me."

2) "Whatever type of Wall's sausage is contrived by this great experiment ... the meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative."

3) "Obviously, we've got to stand with our North Korean allies ... "

4) "I was with God and I was with the devil. They fought over me but God won."

5) "It's better to like beautiful girls than be gay."

6) "Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?"

7) "F**k my victims. I carried them for 20 years, and now I'm doing 150 years."

8) "Listen and look before you march and shout."

9) "I enjoy events involving the participation of fauna."

10) "If you hang in there long enough they'll throw you a bone."

a) Christine O'Donnell (Tea Party candidate, Delaware)

b) Boris Johnson

c) Mario Sepulveda (rescued Chilean miner, one of "Los 33")

d) Naomi Campbell e) Sarah Palinf) Bernard Madoff g) Sandra Bullock

h) Vladimir Putin

i) Silvio Berlusconi

j) Nick Clegg.

Births, marriages and deaths

1) Which celebrity couple married in an Indian ceremony in October, with a marriage procession reportedly featuring elephants, camels and horses?

2) To which of the Queen's cousins were three grandchildren born in three consecutive months?

3) In which month did Paul, the World Cup-results-predicting Octopus, die?

4) Why was Prime Minister David Cameron's daughter Florence, born in August, given the middle name Endellion?

5) Name the agony aunt, writer and broadcaster who died in October at the age of 79.

6) Which 1972 and 1982 world champion snooker legend died in July?

7) Where is the wedding ceremony of Prince William and Kate Middleton due to be held in 2011?

8) Fashion designer Catherine Walker died in September; who was her most-famous client?

9) Whose fourth child, born in September, was named Buddy Bear Maurice?

Media

1) Whose redundancy package was rumoured to be around £1m after 32 years' service?

2) Whose vehicles gathered personal data from our homes accidentally?

3) What colour is the giant 'i' on the front page of the newly launched i newspaper?

4) Which of the following novels was not made into a film in 2010?

a. Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

b. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

c. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

5) What is the name of the new hands-free motion controlled console for the Xbox?

6) Who was recently cast to play Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's film The Hobbit?

7) What do Dhruv Baker, Josie Gibson and Arjun Rajyagor have in common?

8) Which film became the highest-grossing animated film of all time in 2010?

9) What is the name of the breakfast TV show that Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles began presenting in September?

10) Of the following personalities, who is not scheduled to guest edit the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this Christmas?

a) Dame Clara Furse

b) Sam Taylor-Wood

c) Katie Price.

Whitaker's Almanack 2011 is published by A & C Black Publishers Ltd (£45). To order a copy for the special price of £36 (free P&P) call Independent Books Direct on 08430 600 030, or visit www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk