Question: Before Washington became President in 1789 of the newly independent United States of America there had been Presidents variously of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies (formed 1774), then the United States Congress under the Articles of Confederation; how many presidencies were there?
Answer: 16

Question: Despite being named for the Ebola River in Congo the virus was first isolated some distance away; where?
Answer: Yambuku

Question: What musical has the characters Christian, Satine, Harold Zidler, The Duke of Monroth, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Narcoleptic Argentinean, The Doctor, China Doll, Audrey, Nini Legs-in-the-Air and La Petite Princesse?
Answer: Moulin Rouge!

Question: What is not true to say of the bog myrtle?
Answer: It is a myrtle

Question: He was a composer whose music lay behind the poignant appeal of many films, notably Titanic, A Beautiful Mind, Field of Dreams, Apollo 13, Braveheart, and Avatar; when he died in 2015 what was the cause?
Answer: The plane he was piloting crashed

Question: What is an alcoholic apritif, a type of bitters, obtained from the infusion of bitter herbs, aromatic plants and fruit in alcohol and water?
Answer: Campari

Question: Which is the main river inside Uruguay?
Answer: Rio Negro

Question: Which Italian opera singer, considered to be one of the finest tenors in the recorded history of music rose to international prominence after the death of Italian tenor Enrico Caruso in 1921, and was often called "Caruso Secondo"?
Answer: Beniamino Gigli

Question: In India, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Transcaucasus, the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia, Burma and Bangladesh, what is a tandoor (also known as a tonir and a tone) used for?
Answer: Cooking

Question: Who were the stars of the 1945 film "Brief Encounter"?
Answer: Trevor Howard & Celia Johnson

Question: In which US/Canada TV series do the Goa'uld feature?
Answer: Stargate SG-1, and spin-offs

Question: What is another name for horizontal roll vortices?
Answer: Cloud streets

Question: The Chuckchi Sea washes the shores of which two countries?
Answer: Russia and the USA

Question: Where would the phenomenon reported by locals as Naga Fireballs be found?
Answer: Mekong River

Question: What instrument is played by blues artists Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Charlie Musselwhite and Junior Wells?
Answer: Harmonica

Question: What are Portman Park and Steepledowns?
Answer: Virtual racecourses

Question: What was the musical work by Mike Oldfield released as an album, containing only one track on each side, in 1973?
Answer: Tubular Bells

Question: In 2015 palaeontologists from Edinburgh and Beijing announced the discovery of the fossil of an almost complete feathered and winged, although almost certainly flightless, theropod which is an ancestor of what?
Answer: Velociraptor

Question: In Western films, what is a "saloon"?
Answer: Bar

Question: In which situation does REM rebound not happen?
Answer: Following prolonged deep sleep

Question: On 15 December 1940, whose remains (except for his heart, intestines and viscera) were transferred from Vienna to the dome of Les Invalides in Paris as a "gift" to France by Adolf Hitler?
Answer: Napoleon II

Question: What is the closest description of the interior of South Africa?
Answer: Plateau

Question: How did Shakespeare in his play "Cymbeline" end the line, "Golden lads and girls all must as chimneysweepers come to..."?
Answer: Dust

Question: A small sandbar island emerged in the Bay of Bengal in the aftermath of the Bhola cyclone in 1970, but in 2010 it was discovered it had been completely submerged by rising water levels. Which 2 countries had claimed sovereignty?
Answer: India and Bangladesh

Question: Why did Philae become especially well-known in December 2014?
Answer: It was the first probe landed by humans on a comet

Question: Who is the lawyer in Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations"?
Answer: Jaggers

Question: Which is the main language spoken by the Suriani, a minority religious group in the Turkey-Syria-Iraq area?
Answer: Aramaic

Question: Which entertainment American cable TV network is owned by Time Warner Inc.?
Answer: Adult Swim

Question: Whose theme song was "Thanks For The Memory"?
Answer: Bob Hope

Question: How is a door that is slightly open described?
Answer: Ajar

Question: Its capital city is Chiinu, and it is surrounded by the Ukraine and Romania; which country is it?
Answer: Moldova

Question: Who were the winning team at the first World Aerobatic Championships in 1960?
Answer: Czechoslovakia

Question: What organisation developed the Rosetta space mission?
Answer: European Space Agency (ASE)

Question: Who wrote the song to which Miley Cyrus famously twerked in 2013?
Answer: J. Dash

Question: Why, in November 2009, was the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, shut down?
Answer: A bird dropped some bread into it

Question: Which club won UEFA's inaugural European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1956?
Answer: Real Madrid

Question: The period known as "The Time of Troubles" 1598-1613 refers to which country?
Answer: Russia

Question: Where in the human body is the coccyx?
Answer: At the base of the spine

Question: What was the Halifax gibbet, used from at least the 13th to the 17th century in the town of Halifax in Yorkshire, England?
Answer: A type of guillotine, with a weighted blade

Question: Which classic poem contains the line "Far from the madding crowd"?
Answer: Elegy in a Country Churchyard

Question: How did Faisal Shahzad make the news in May 2010?
Answer: As the "Times Square bomber"

Question: In what sport would you use a niblick?
Answer: Golf

Question: Which Irish-born novelist wrote the satire "Gulliver's Travels"?
Answer: Jonathan Swift

Question: Who founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra?
Answer: Thomas Beecham

Question: What is one of the s which differentiate Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador from Chile?
Answer: Their territories straddle the Andes

Question: Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, wagered $50 that Seuss could not write a book using only fifty different words. Seuss won by writing which book?
Answer: Green Eggs and Ham

Question: Which bandleader was at the top of the Billboard "Best Sellers in Stores" chart from 29 November 1941 to 2 May 1942 (except for one week) with four different tunes?
Answer: Glenn Miller

Question: In terms of world tennis what is considered a complete Grand Slam?
Answer: Winning all four of the Majors in one calendar year

Question: The liver of a goose or duck, when made into food, is called what?
Answer: Foie gras

Question: What is the setting for the musical "Oliver!"?
Answer: London

Question: Although the speed of light is a constant 186,000 miles per second (299,792,458 metres per second) when passing through a vacuum, it slows in dense mediums. What is the densest of these mediums, i.e. slows light the most?
Answer: A gas of bosons (BoseEinstein condensates) at near absolute zero

Question: Who created the character of Horatio Hornblower?
Answer: C S Forester

Question: Who wrote "Farewell To Arms" (published 1929), "For Whom The Bell Tolls" (1940), and received a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for Literature for "The Old Man And The Sea" (1952)?
Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Question: Who wrote the music for the song "Smile", a hit for Nat King Cole in 1954 that was recorded by Michael Jackson for his 1995 double album "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I"?
Answer: Charlie Chaplin

Question: Shomyo, gagaku, and min'yo are terms relating to what Japanese art form?
Answer: Traditional and folk music

Question: Who wrote "A Year in Provence"?
Answer: Peter Mayle

Question: Who made the longest Oscar acceptance speech, at five minutes and 30 seconds, when collecting her Oscar for Best Actress in 1942 for her role as Mrs. Miniver?
Answer: Greer Garson