Quiz | Easy like Sunday morning: What has December 22 ever given us?

1 / 10 |
This day in 1808, a composer debuted his Symphony No. 5 and No. 6, Choral Fantasy and Piano Concerto No. 4 (featuring himself as soloist) in Vienna. Of these, #5 known as ‘Fate Symphony’ became famous for its dramatic opening chords characterised as “fate knocking at the door”. Who was this composer?

2 / 10 |
In 1851, this day, ‘Jenny Lind’, a steam engine specially shipped from England, hauled construction material. It ran from Roorkee to Piran Kaliyar (10 km) to take the material for a canal construction. What record did this set in India?

3 / 10 |
Pierre Jules Janssen has already been in these quizzes for discovering Helium in Guntur. On December 22, 1870, he escaped from the Siege of Paris in a balloon, not for his life but to witness a scientific phenomenon. What did he undertake this dangerous escape to see, only for it to be obscured by clouds?

4 / 10 |
This day in 1882, Edward Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs on a wire that could be rolled. He then took a dynamo made by his friend Thomas Edison and set his main item on it, so that it could rotate with the lights on it. He wanted to make a safer alternative to the candles that had been used till then. What did he invent, which we see during this season now?

5 / 10 |
In 1885, this day, Itō Hirobumi, became the first Prime Minister of Japan. Born Hayashi Risuke into a poor farming family, he eventually was responsible for shaping the constitution of Japan and moving it towards westernisation. When he was younger though, he was a member of a powerful warrior class where he got his name. What was Hirobumi before a politician?

6 / 10 |
December 22, 1887, is the birthday of a child prodigy who mastered trigonometry by age 12 and just a year later was discovering complicated theorems on his own. Who was this iconic person, who died young but according to Thomas Hardy was a 100/100 mathematician?

7 / 10 |
This day in 1891, Max Wolf, a 28-year-old German astronomer discovered an asteroid and called it (323) Brucia. What made it special was the equipment he used. What did he use to discover the asteroid, something we now use on a daily basis?

Answer : A camera (astrophotography)

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8 / 10 |
Born this day in 1923, Joseph Muhler was an American biochemist and dentist. He led the team that came up with the formula for Crest Toothpaste, which was the first to have certain compounds that protected teeth from cavities and decay. What type of toothpaste was this?

9 / 10 |
This day in 1932, a movie starring Boris Karloff was released in the US. It was the first to feature an ancient historical artefact as a villain. Karloff plays the title character of Imhotep. What was the title of the movie?

10 / 10 |
10. Celebrating his 82nd birthday today is Dick Parry. He is an English saxophonist. Among other things, the only non-full-time member of a legendary band to have played on four songs, over three albums. The band famously reunited onstage in 2005, along with him. How do we know this band, famous for lit up prisms, marching hammers and flying pigs?