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55 bar trivia questions, with answers

Seven rounds for a bar or pub trivia night: general knowledge, geography, history, science and nature, food and drink, movies, TV and music, and sports, with a closest-number tiebreaker. Every answer links to its source.

Updated

Bar trivia questions with answers

Choose a score button to add a point. Scores last for this page visit.

H shows a hint. Space shows the answer, then the next card. Arrow keys move. With scores on, keys 1 to 6 add a team point. F fills the screen. Escape closes play.

General knowledge

  1. 1

    What is the name of the small plastic or metal sheath on each end of a shoelace?

    easy

    Answer

    An aglet.

    The word comes from an Old French word meaning "needle, pin", and wealthy people in the Roman era had their aglets made of precious metals such as brass or silver.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aglet?oldid=1378410081

  2. 2

    The Guinness Book of Records was dreamed up to settle arguments in pubs. In 1951, the brewery's managing director missed a shot at a bird, then argued over whether it was Europe's fastest game bird. Which bird?

    medium

    Answer

    The golden plover.

    The first edition, all 198 pages of it, was bound on August 27, 1955, and went to the top of the British bestseller list by Christmas.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Records?oldid=1383636463

  3. 3

    Bluetooth wireless technology is named after Harald Bluetooth, a 10th-century king who united the tribes of which country into a single kingdom?

    medium

    Answer

    Denmark.

    The Bluetooth logo is a bind rune that merges two runes, Harald's initials.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth?oldid=1382392729

  4. 4

    The Frisbee got its name from college students at Yale who tossed around empty pie tins. Which company made the pies?

    medium

    Answer

    The Frisbie Pie Company.

    Its inventor, Walter Frederick Morrison, designed a model called the Pluto Platter in 1955, and Wham-O gave it the brand name Frisbee in June 1957 after learning that college students called it that.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisbee?oldid=1380213266

  5. 5

    On June 26, 1974, at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a checkout scanned a UPC barcode on a product for the first time. What was the product?

    medium

    Answer

    A 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

    A facsimile of the gum packet went on display at the Smithsonian's American history museum in Washington, D.C.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code?oldid=1383325508

  6. 6

    Monopoly grew out of a game Lizzie Magie created in 1903 to show that an economy rewarding individuals beats one where monopolies hold all the wealth. What was her game called?

    medium

    Answer

    The Landlord's Game.

    Monopoly's original board named its properties after places in and around Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Parker Brothers first published it in 1935.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)?oldid=1383315669

  7. 7

    Before it became Scrabble, architect Alfred Butts's word game, with its 15-by-15 board, went by what name?

    hard

    Answer

    Criss-Crosswords.

    James Brunot bought the rights in 1948 and renamed the game Scrabble, a real word that means "scratch frantically".

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble?oldid=1381955353

  8. 8

    By 1968, workers at Bell Telephone Laboratories had coined the word "octothorp" for a symbol on one of two new keys they were adding to the telephone keypad. Which symbol?

    hard

    Answer

    The number sign, #.

    Since 2007, its use for tags on social media has led to the symbol itself sometimes being called a hashtag.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign?oldid=1382945567

Geography

  1. 9

    The Strait of Gibraltar separates Europe from Africa. Besides the small Spanish city of Ceuta, which country lies on its southern side?

    easy

    Answer

    Morocco.

    In ancient times, the mountains on either side of the strait, such as the Rock of Gibraltar, were called the Pillars of Hercules.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Gibraltar?oldid=1383392881

  2. 10

    Which lake in southern Siberia, the deepest in the world, holds more water than all of North America's Great Lakes combined?

    medium

    Answer

    Lake Baikal.

    At 25 to 30 million years, it is also the world's oldest lake.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal?oldid=1382990676

  3. 11

    In the Bering Strait, Big Diomede (Russia) and Little Diomede (Alaska) are nicknamed Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Island. Which line runs between them?

    medium

    Answer

    The International Date Line.

    The islands are only about 3.8 kilometers apart, yet Big Diomede's local time is 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede's.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diomede_Islands?oldid=1383136096

  4. 12

    Which country has the only national flag that is not a rectangle or a square?

    medium

    Answer

    Nepal.

    Its double-pennon shape combines two pennants once flown by rival branches of the ruling dynasty, and it is also the only national flag that is taller than it is wide.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Nepal?oldid=1383609908

  5. 13

    Counting its overseas territories, which country uses 12 different time zones, more than any other country in the world?

    medium

    Answer

    France.

    Its claim in Antarctica would make it 13, and every part of its overseas territories uses a different time zone from the mainland.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_France?oldid=1349654400

  6. 14

    What is the nickname of the point in the South Pacific that is farther from land than any other place in the ocean?

    medium

    Answer

    Point Nemo.

    It is so remote that sometimes the closest people are astronauts aboard the International Space Station, and the area is known as a "spacecraft cemetery" where old satellites are brought down.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility?oldid=1381723518

  7. 15

    Which group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic, a six-day journey from Cape Town, is considered the most remote inhabited place in the world?

    hard

    Answer

    Tristan da Cunha.

    The island has no airstrip, so the only way there is by ship, and its only settlement is called Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha?oldid=1382558068

  8. 16

    Uzbekistan is one of only two "doubly landlocked" countries, surrounded entirely by other landlocked countries. Which Alpine country is the other?

    hard

    Answer

    Liechtenstein.

    It uses the Swiss franc, and it is the world's smallest country to border two countries.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein?oldid=1382683407

History

  1. 17

    In late 1932, Australian soldiers armed with Lewis machine guns were sent to Western Australia's wheat country to cull which flightless birds?

    easy

    Answer

    Emus, in what became known as the Great Emu War.

    The birds proved so hard to stop that the commander compared them to tanks, and the defense minister was later called the "Minister of the Emu War" in parliament.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War?oldid=1369023440

  2. 18

    In 1911, a Manhattan bar was taken apart and shipped across the Atlantic to reopen as the New York Bar, later Harry's New York Bar. In which city?

    easy

    Answer

    Paris.

    The bar is said to be the birthplace of the Bloody Mary, the French 75 and the Sidecar, and George Gershwin composed An American in Paris at its piano bar.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry's_New_York_Bar?oldid=1363430359

  3. 19

    The Great Fire of London broke out shortly after midnight on September 2, 1666, in what kind of business on Pudding Lane?

    medium

    Answer

    A bakery (Thomas Farriner's).

    By the Tuesday, the fire had spread over nearly the whole city, destroying Old St Paul's Cathedral and leaping the River Fleet.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London?oldid=1383622561

  4. 20

    The first Oktoberfest, held in Munich on October 12, 1810, was a celebration of what event?

    medium

    Answer

    The wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese.

    The festival grounds were named Theresienwiese ("Therese's Meadow") the following year, and the first festival featured a horse race.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest?oldid=1383585561

  5. 21

    When it was completed in 1797, next to his gristmill, which Founding Father's whiskey distillery was the largest in America?

    medium

    Answer

    George Washington's, at Mount Vernon.

    By 1799 it was making 11,000 gallons of whiskey a year, and the most common recipe was 60% rye, 35% corn and 5% malted barley.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington's_Gristmill?oldid=1373299008

  6. 22

    On January 15, 1919, a huge storage tank burst in Boston's North End and sent a wave of what rushing through the streets?

    medium

    Answer

    Molasses.

    The tank belonged to the Purity Distilling Company, which piped the molasses to a plant in Cambridge to make ethanol.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood?oldid=1375476005

  7. 23

    An 1889 Harrisburg newspaper reported that "speak easy" was the local term for a saloon selling without a license in which Pittsburgh-area town?

    hard

    Answer

    McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

    The New York Times credits saloon owner Kate Hester, who ran an unlicensed bar there in the 1880s and supposedly told rowdy customers to "speak easy".

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakeasy?oldid=1381467901

  8. 24

    Traditionally, a cocktail was made of spirits, sugar, water and which other ingredient, a hint that it was first seen as a medicinal drink?

    hard

    Answer

    Bitters.

    The first known definition of a cocktail as an alcoholic drink appeared on May 13, 1806, in a newspaper in Hudson, New York.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail?oldid=1377674792

Science and nature

  1. 25

    The "waggle dance", a figure-eight dance that tells others the direction and distance to flowers, is performed by which insect?

    easy

    Answer

    The honey bee.

    Austrian scientist and Nobel laureate Karl von Frisch was one of the first to work out its meaning; the length of the waggle shows the distance.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance?oldid=1380539242

  2. 26

    Which Australian marsupial is famous for its cube-shaped droppings?

    medium

    Answer

    The wombat.

    Research into how it makes them won the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics, and the cube shape may keep them from rolling away, since wombats use them to mark territory.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombat?oldid=1379677697

  3. 27

    Which element was first detected as an unknown yellow line in sunlight during a solar eclipse in 1868, and is named after the Greek word for the Sun?

    medium

    Answer

    Helium.

    Of the astronomers who spotted the line, only Norman Lockyer proposed that it came from a new element.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium?oldid=1382827919

  4. 28

    Under ultraviolet light, tonic water glows. Which bitter ingredient in it causes that?

    medium

    Answer

    Quinine.

    Quinine was taken to prevent malaria; in 19th-century India, British officials and soldiers mixed it with soda and sugar to mask the bitter taste, creating tonic water.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_water?oldid=1375126915

  5. 29

    Turritopsis dohrnii is nicknamed "immortal" because, after reaching maturity, it can revert to its young polyp stage. What kind of sea creature is it?

    medium

    Answer

    A jellyfish (the "immortal jellyfish").

    Scientists found out about its immortality in 1992, after an Italian scientist accidentally left some to starve over a weekend.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii?oldid=1383429768

  6. 30

    Shrimp of the family Alpheidae snap an oversized claw so hard that the collapsing bubble can give off a flash of light. They are called snapping shrimp, cracker shrimp, or what other name?

    hard

    Answer

    Pistol shrimp.

    The snap sends out a wave of bubbles that can stun larger fish and break small glass jars, and colonies can be loud enough to interfere with sonar.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae?oldid=1382399679

  7. 31

    Brewer's yeast, used in brewing, winemaking and baking since ancient times, is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. What does "Saccharomyces" mean?

    hard

    Answer

    "Sugar-fungus" (or "sugar-mold").

    It is one of the most intensively studied model organisms in biology, much as E. coli is the model bacterium.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_cerevisiae?oldid=1381440436

Food and drink

  1. 32

    Which cocktail of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice is properly served in a copper mug?

    easy

    Answer

    The Moscow mule.

    A variation made with Mountain Dew instead of ginger beer is called a Moscow Mole.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_mule?oldid=1377908917

  2. 33

    In 1964, the U.S. Congress recognized which kind of whiskey as a "distinctive product of the United States"?

    easy

    Answer

    Bourbon.

    Its name comes from the French royal House of Bourbon, though nobody is sure whether the inspiration was Bourbon County, Kentucky, or Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_whiskey?oldid=1382876310

  3. 34

    Hawaiian pizza, topped with pineapple and ham, was invented in 1962 in which country?

    medium

    Answer

    Canada.

    Greek-born Sam Panopoulos created it at the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, and named it after the brand of canned pineapple he used, from the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_pizza?oldid=1382121670

  4. 35

    The Caesar salad was created on July 4, 1924, at Caesar Cardini's restaurant in which city?

    medium

    Answer

    Tijuana, Mexico.

    Cardini ran the restaurant there to attract Americans getting around Prohibition, and he invented the salad when a Fourth of July rush left the kitchen short of supplies.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_salad?oldid=1378078787

  5. 36

    Which cocktail of Prosecco and peach purée, created at Harry's Bar in Venice, is named after a 15th-century Venetian painter?

    medium

    Answer

    The Bellini.

    Giuseppe Cipriani named it after painter Giovanni Bellini because its pink color reminded him of one of his paintings, and it started as a seasonal specialty.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellini_(cocktail)?oldid=1376897368

  6. 37

    Pilsner takes its name from the Bohemian city where the world's first pale lager was brewed in 1842. Which city?

    medium

    Answer

    Plzeň (Pilsen), in what is now the Czech Republic.

    The brewery hired Bavarian brewer Josef Groll, who combined the city's remarkably soft water with Saaz hops from nearby Žatec.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilsner?oldid=1380491825

  7. 38

    Under the 1516 Bavarian beer law known as the Reinheitsgebot, the only ingredients allowed in beer were water, barley and what?

    medium

    Answer

    Hops.

    For centuries the law applied only in Bavaria; it was adopted for Germany as a whole in 1906.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot?oldid=1382510465

  8. 39

    In an early way of testing a spirit's "proof", what was soaked in the liquor to see whether it would still burn?

    hard

    Answer

    Gunpowder.

    It worked because potassium nitrate, a chemical in gunpowder, dissolves much more easily in water than in alcohol.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_proof?oldid=1371923184

Movies, TV and music

  1. 40

    On the sitcom Cheers, bar owner and bartender Sam Malone used to be a relief pitcher for which baseball team?

    easy

    Answer

    The Boston Red Sox.

    His nickname as a pitcher was "Mayday Malone", and he was played by Ted Danson.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheers?oldid=1382856864

  2. 41

    In Casablanca (1942), at Rick's Café Américain, Ilsa asks the pianist Sam to play which song, the one Rick had told him never to perform again?

    medium

    Answer

    "As Time Goes By".

    Only three of the film's credited actors were born in the United States: Humphrey Bogart, Dooley Wilson, who played Sam, and Joy Page.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)?oldid=1383579998

  3. 42

    On The Simpsons, which bartender is the regular target of Bart's prank phone calls asking for gag names?

    medium

    Answer

    Moe Szyslak.

    The joke backfired on Bart in "Flaming Moe's", when the gag name he asked for belonged to a real customer in the bar.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_Szyslak?oldid=1383116556

  4. 43

    In Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953), Bond invents a cocktail of gin, vodka and Kina Lillet and names it after which woman?

    medium

    Answer

    Vesper Lynd (the drink is the Vesper).

    Fleming's friend Ivar Bryce devised the drink; Fleming wrote in Bryce's copy of the book, "For Ivar, who mixed the first Vesper".

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesper_(cocktail)?oldid=1376897333

  5. 44

    Which 1958 instrumental by the Champs is named after the one word spoken three times during the tune?

    medium

    Answer

    "Tequila".

    It won the Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance at the first Grammy Awards, and it began as the last tune of a recording session, essentially a jam.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tequila_(The_Champs_song)?oldid=1379900540

  6. 45

    Which band took a 1983 cover of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine", in a lighter reggae style, to No. 1 in the UK?

    medium

    Answer

    UB40.

    When Diamond's old label, Bang Records, released the song as a single, it added a background choir without his involvement or permission.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Red_Wine?oldid=1379968155

  7. 46

    "Piano Man" retells Billy Joel's six months as a lounge pianist at a Los Angeles bar in 1972 and 1973. Under what name did he play there?

    hard

    Answer

    Bill Martin.

    The bar was the Executive Room in the Wilshire district, and Joel has said all of the characters in the song were based on real people.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Man?oldid=1383334038

  8. 47

    Rupert Holmes first wrote the chorus of "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" as "If you like..." which movie star, before swapping in a cocktail at the last minute?

    hard

    Answer

    Humphrey Bogart.

    The song was the last No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 of 1979 and of the 1970s, and it returned to No. 1 in January 1980, topping the chart in two different decades.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_(The_Piña_Colada_Song)?oldid=1374696769

Sports

  1. 48

    Foosball got its American name from German imports of the game, called "tischfußball". What does that German word mean?

    easy

    Answer

    "Table football".

    In 1921, Harold Searles Thornton patented the game in the United Kingdom as an "Apparatus for playing a game of table football".

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foosball?oldid=1381389267

  2. 49

    Churchill Downs has promoted which bourbon cocktail, made with sugar, crushed ice and fresh mint, alongside the Kentucky Derby since 1938?

    easy

    Answer

    The mint julep.

    It is traditionally served in a silver or pewter cup held only by the top and bottom edges, perhaps to keep the heat of the hand from warming the cup.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mint_julep?oldid=1375734611

  3. 50

    Winners of the Indianapolis 500 get a bottle of milk in victory lane. The tradition goes back to Louis Meyer, who asked for a glass of what after winning in 1933?

    medium

    Answer

    Buttermilk.

    A local dairy executive saw a marketing opportunity and, not knowing it was buttermilk, offered milk to future winners; it has been presented every year except 1947 to 1955.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_500?oldid=1378224540

  4. 51

    In darts, what is the name of the line behind which a player's feet must stay while throwing?

    medium

    Answer

    The oche.

    Darts became legal in English pubs in 1908, when it was declared a game of skill after the landlord of the Adelphi Inn in Leeds was prosecuted for allowing it.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darts?oldid=1383302944

  5. 52

    The oldest of the many traditions around hockey's Stanley Cup is the winning team drinking what from it?

    medium

    Answer

    Champagne.

    The trophy was commissioned in 1892 and named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the governor general of Canada, who donated it.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Cup?oldid=1380651148

  6. 53

    The term "hat-trick", now used in hockey and soccer, was first used in 1858 in which sport?

    medium

    Answer

    Cricket.

    It described H. H. Stephenson taking three wickets with three consecutive deliveries, after which fans held a collection and bought him a hat.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat-trick?oldid=1380566781

  7. 54

    Snooker was first played in the second half of the 19th century by British Army officers stationed in which country?

    hard

    Answer

    India.

    "Snooker" was army slang for new recruits, and officer Neville Chamberlain used it to tease a young fellow officer who played badly.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker?oldid=1383568628

Tiebreaker

  1. 55

    On December 31, 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a lease on the unused St. James's Gate brewery in Dublin. For how many years did the lease run?

    medium

    Answer

    9,000 years.

    The rent was £45 a year, and the brewery became one of the largest in the British Empire.

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness?oldid=1378495418

Run it as a bar trivia night

Give each team one answer sheet per round, collect the sheets when the round ends, and read the answers aloud while you mark them. Phones stay face down until the last round is in. Each right answer scores one point. Tied at the end? Ask the tiebreaker last: the closest number wins.

Timer and team scores

8 turns × 60 seconds = 8 minutes of play, plus instructions and breaks.

60

Pause whenever the group needs more time.

Team Lime's turn

Team Lime: 0

Team Violet: 0