Quiz of the Century

A Song lines

1 Who sang "Too Much Too Young"?

2 Who sang "Road to Nowhere"?

3 Who sang "Doobo dood'ndooba, doobedood'ndoobe"?

4 Who sang "Tell Laura I Love Her"?

5 Who wrote "I Get A Kick Out of You"?

6 Who wrote "I've Got You Under My Skin"?

7 Who wrote "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah"?

8 Who wrote "Supercalafajalistickespialadojus"?

9 Who was a sex machine in 1970?

10 Which Francis Albert was born on 12 December 1915?

B Who said

1 "Life's too short to stuff a mushroom."

2 "I'm glad we've been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face."

3 "A week is a long time in politics."

4 "There must be no whitewash at the White House."

5 "Every time Hitler occupies a country he sends me a message."

6 "You can't manufacture children overnight."

7 "Never give a sucker an even break."

8 "God does not play dice."

9 "I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."

10 "Fat is a feminist issue."

11 "Until I was fifteen I was more familiar with Africa than my own body."

12 "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."

C Beyond a joke?

1 Which bearded lady stood on deck in Weymouth Harbour in February 1910?

2 Who, in 1917, wrote a fake history of the American bathtub, which is still quoted as fact in reference works?

3 Who, in 1966, broadcast the assertion that "Many of you, I'm sure, will have seen pictures of the vast spaghetti plantations in the Po Valley"?

4 Who wrote Adrian Mole's secret diaries?

5 Who caused particular panic in Trenton, New Jersey in 1938?

6 Which novelist, among many other jokes, created the Anglo-Texan Society?

7 Which newspaper created the island of San Serriffe in 1976?

8 Which newspaper in the late Seventies regularly credited exploits and opinions to one Raphael Dunvant, such as his suggestion that service at Fortnum and Mason could be improved by slapping its salesgirls on the bottom? How was he caught out?

9 Whose handwriting led which newspaper to call upon Professor Hugh Trevor- Roper to say in 1983 that "the documents are authentic"?

10 Who were the authors of The Diary Of A Good Neighbour?

D Desperate acts

1 Who, herself a suicide, described which imminent suicide as "helpless, deserted, like some small animal left"?

2 Which American poet and critic jumped in front of an automobile in 1965?

3 Which American poet jumped off a bridge in Mississippi in 1972?

4 Which American poet gassed herself in London in 1963?

5 Which American poet gassed herself in her automobile in 1974?

6 Which American poet, having failed to write an epic about Mexico, was on board a ship with the first woman in his life but chose to play cards with sailors, who beat him up, after which he jumped overboard and drowned?

7 Which Scottish poet, having failed to write an epic about God and Mammon, and troubled by cancer and a debt to Shaw, drowned himself at Penzance?

8 Who, his books confiscated, killed himself on the Spanish border a day after the issue of visas was suspended in 1940?

9 Whose suicide in 1973 prevented him from writing the other two-thirds of a trilogy whose full title would have read across the spines See the Old Lady Decently Buried Although Amongst Those Left Are You?

10 Who attempted suicide twice when young, but lived to die in 1967, after which her ashes were kept in a filing-cabinet for many years - fit tribute to a celebrated witticism?

E Curiosities

1 John F Kennedy was shot on 22 November 1963. Two other eminent men died that day. Who were they?

2 Not a misprint: which novel by E M Forster contains a character called Hornblower?

3 Who knew Doris Day "before she was a virgin"?

4 Who died in 1959 while watching a private showing of a movie based on his screenplay I Shall Spit On Your Graves?

5 Where was Popeye hanged?

6 How were Ernst Lubitsch and Nelson Rockefeller united in death?

7 What gesture did Jean Cocteau make upon hearing of Edith Piaf's death?

8 What did American poet Karl Shapiro find the only possible answer to the clue "dead American poet" when solving the New York Times crossword one morning?

9 Which famous song's melody was first used for "Prayer", then "Manhattan Melodrama", and then "The Bad In Every Man" before turning to gold?

10 At which sport did Oxford and Cambridge compete for the first time in 1955?

F Politicians' mistresses

With whom were these smitten?

1 Venetia Stanley

2 Inga Arvad

3 Clara Petacci

4 Marilyn Monroe

5 Frances Stevenson

6 Judith Exner

7 Sarah Keays

8 Alicia Darr

9 Ann Fleming

10 Ellen Rometsch

G Who played

1 Zorba the Greek

2 The Man With Bogart's Face

3 The Elephant Man

4 Charlie Chan in London

5 One Good Cop

6 Nixon

7 Arthur

8 MacArthur

9 Patton

10 Machine Gun Kelly

11 Mary Poppins

12 Bonnie and Clyde

H Hit list

Who was assassinated on:

1 6 September 1901?

2 28 June 1914?

3 30 January 1948?

4 31 October 1984?

5 24 May 1991?

6 27 October 1984?

7 21 August 1940?

8 4 April 1968?

9 6 October 1981?

10 8 December 1980?

I Sporting matters

1 Which historic sporting event took place at Rushcutters' Bay in Sydney on Boxing Day in 1908?

2 Who in 1930 became the first player to win what was known as "The Impregnable Quadrilateral"?

3 Who was the Russian prince who was educated at Oxford and went on to become one of England's most celebrated sporting heroes?

4 Who was dismissed for a duck in his final Test innings, when he needed only four runs to end his career with a Test average of exactly 100?

5 Who was the Lion of Vienna?

6 Which famous landmark was established at an annual match between the Oxford University Athletic Club and the Amateur Athletic Association?

7 Which historic match in London in 1969 lasted for five and a quarter hours, played out over two days?

8 In 1985 which trophy did America fail to win for the first time in 132 years?

9 What did John Aldridge do in 1988 which no other footballer had ever done before?

10 How did Captain Keith Brown, formerly of the Third Hussars, earn notoriety on Merseyside in 1993?

How did pop music link these people in the 1960s?

1 Shirley Temple

2 Marlene Dietrich

3 Mae West

4 W C Fields

5 Marilyn Monroe

6 Marlon Brando

7 Fred Astaire

8 Johnny Weismuller

9 Tony Curtis

10 Diana Dors