Question: A 2009 referendum in which country banned the construction of new Islamic minarets?
Answer: Switzerland

Question: Which country saw court battles surrounding gay marriage and specifically the ceremony for Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Bello?
Answer: Argentina

Question: The new Dreamliner passenger aircraft launched in 2009 is Boeing number what?
Answer: 787

Question: A Ryanair jet slid off the runway at which Scottish airport?
Answer: Prestwick

Question: From whom did Susan Sarandon announce a split after a long partnership?
Answer: Tim Robbins

Question: Which band claimed the UK Christmas number one after an internet campaign against Simon Cowell's X-Factor?
Answer: Rage Against the Machine

Question: Who famously withdrew from his own Chevron World Challenge charity sports event?
Answer: Tiger Woods

Question: Who won a third term as Mayor of New York City in 2009?
Answer: Michael Bloomberg

Question: Which English town became the first to be twinned with Walt Disney World in Florida?
Answer: Swindon

Question: The body of which country's former president was stolen from its grave a day before the anniversary of his death?
Answer: Cyprus

Question: Which city hosted the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference?
Answer: Copenhagen

Question: What invertebrate species what filmed for the first time using a tool?
Answer: Octopus

Question: In what TV soap did Tony confess to murdering Liam?
Answer: Coronation Street

Question: What was Dan Brown's 2009 bestselling and Christmas number one book?
Answer: The Lost Symbol

Question: Michale Schumacher announced his Formula One 2010 comeback would be with what team?
Answer: Mercedes

Question: Takuo Toda broke the world record for a paper plane flight, launched by hand from the ground, for what time?
Answer: 26.1 seconds

Question: Ike Aronowitz who died age 86 in 2009 captained what vessel, subject of a highly symbolic book and film?
Answer: Exodus

Question: Part of which iconic leader's palace was discovered by archaeologists in the Mediterranean Sea?
Answer: Cleopatra

Question: Who was announced as the eleventh Dr Who, replacing the outgoing David Tennant?
Answer: Matt Smith

Question: Nashville based Mac McAnally was named for the second consecutive year Musician of the Year at which 2009 awards event?
Answer: CMA Awards

Question: Discovered in 1996, element 112, symbol Cp, was added to the periodic table with what name, in honour of a famous astronomer?
Answer: Copernicium

Question: Which football club was the first to win the sextuple of all possible major competitions?
Answer: Barcelona

Question: What was the destination city of the plane carrying Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 'underpants bomber'?
Answer: Detroit

Question: A hugely valuable little sculpted guitar recently recovered by police in Italy was made by which cubist artist for his daughter Paloma?
Answer: Pablo Picasso

Question: What TV artist who helped popularise the Morph animated character died in 2009?
Answer: Tony Hart

Question: Which Premier League football club was subject to a winding up petition by HM Revenue and Customs at the end of 2009?
Answer: Portsmouth FC

Question: What irreverent publication founded by Chris Donald celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2009?
Answer: Viz

Question: What type of musical instrument is a tabor?
Answer: Drum

Question: A heptathlon is an athletic contest of how many separate events?
Answer: Seven

Question: Which performer opened the 1969 Woodstock festival?
Answer: Richie Havens

Question: Who played Commodus in the 2000 film Gladiator?
Answer: Joaquin Phoenix

Question: The Japanese company Ajinomoto (meaning 'essence of taste') was formed in 1909 to market which popular food ingredient?
Answer: Monosodium glutamate

Question: What was serial killer John Christie's London address, and the title of the 1970 film about him starring Richard Attenborough?
Answer: 10 Rillington Place

Question: Palamino is a variety of which fruit?
Answer: Grape

Question: Forefathers Day is celebrated in the US on which date?
Answer: 21 December

Question: What city has the busiest European underground railway system?
Answer: Moscow

Question: Joseph Addison and Richard Steele founded (in 1711), and Boris Johnson edited, which British magazine?
Answer: The Spectator

Question: Who was burned at the stake, age 19, in Rouen in 1431?
Answer: Joan of Arc

Question: What is the plant genus of the decorative bouquet filler used by florists called baby's breath or soap wort?
Answer: Gypsophilia

Question: What were Brazilians encouraged to grow in 2009 as a protest against president Sarney, accused of embezzlement and nepotism?
Answer: Moustaches

Question: Catherine of Valois was the wife of which English king?
Answer: Henry the Fifth

Question: How many times did Martina Navratilova reach the Women's Singles Final at Wimbledon?
Answer: Twelve

Question: What is the capital of the Bahamas?
Answer: Nassau

Question: What number is produced by displaying one of each of the Roman numerals, in descending order?
Answer: 1666

Question: What commonly occurring gas has the chemical formula CH4 ?
Answer: Methane

Question: What character normally appears with the % (percentage) symbol on its key of a QWERTY keyboard?
Answer: 5

Question: Which late ostentatious US pianist's first names were Wladziu Valentino?
Answer: Liberace

Question: What type of dangerous creature is a massasauga?
Answer: Snake

Question: The British road sign of a red diagonal cross on a blue background in a red circle means what?
Answer: No stopping

Question: What was the only painting Vincent Van Gogh is known to have sold in his lifetime?
Answer: Red Vinyard at Arles

Question: In Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, what is the name of Shakespeare's sister?
Answer: Judith

Question: What is the fourth root of 81?
Answer: 3

Question: Which English rock band were originally called the Spectres?
Answer: Status Quo

Question: The plant Nicotiana tabacum is more commonly known by what name?
Answer: Tobacco

Question: What is a meeting hall of the Salvation Army called?
Answer: Citadel

Question: Uxoricide is the killing of one's what?
Answer: Wife

Question: Approximately how many kilometres does light travel in an hour?
Answer: A billion

Question: What big disastrous English event happened in 1666?
Answer: The Great Fire of London

Question: What formal two-word term refers to the investigation before completing a business investment or acquisition?
Answer: Due diligence

Question: People born between about 1960-1980 are often referred to as Generation what?
Answer: X

Question: What note is the second (second highest) string on a guitar when tuned to standard concert pitch?
Answer: B

Question: Donald Tusk became the prime minister of which country in November 2007?
Answer: Poland

Question: Called Coleoptera, meaning sheathed wing, what commonly known order of creatures contains more species than any other?
Answer: Beetles

Question: The symbol ∞ (sideways 8) means what in mathematics?
Answer: Infinity

Question: Who was Henry the Eighth's sixth wife?
Answer: Katherine Parr

Question: In poker which two-card combination has various cryptic nicknames related to dogs?
Answer: King and Nine

Question: What type of food is taleggio?
Answer: Cheese

Question: Which playwright wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
Answer: Tennessee Williams

Question: What does a Leyden jar store?
Answer: Static electricity

Question: Which singer/musician was born Steveland Judkins?
Answer: Stevie Wonder

Question: Which organisation retains copyright ownership of the laws of cricket?
Answer: Mcc

Question: MICEX is the major stock exchange of which country?
Answer: Russia

Question: In which English midlands city was author Alan Sillitoe born?
Answer: Nottingham

Question: In which country was the painter Ford Madox Brown born?
Answer: France

Question: Loosehead is a position in which sport?
Answer: Rugby