| Year | Hint | Answer | % Correct |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1876 | The Royal Titles Act is passed which grants Queen Victoria this title. | Empress of {India} | 93%
|
| 1888 | London's Whitechapel area is terrorised by this serial killer. | Jack the Ripper | 92%
|
| 1854 | This nurse leaves England for Scutari to care for troops during the Crimean War. | Florence Nightingale | 90%
|
| 1878 | Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates this device to Queen Victoria. | Telephone | 90%
|
| 1805 | At the Battle of Trafalgar, this naval leader is fatally wounded and dies soon after. | Horatio Nelson | 86%
|
| 1857 | The Indian Rebellion begins, a major uprising against the rule of this British company. | {East} India Company | 85%
|
| 1863 | The first section of this London transportation system opens between Paddington and Farringdon. | Underground | 85%
|
| 1865 | This future author, known for 'The Jungle Book', is born. | Rudyard Kipling | 83%
|
| 1871 | Parliament passes an act to allow four of these annual national public holidays. | {Bank} holidays | 81%
|
| 1833 | Campaigner William Wilberforce dies, just one month before an act is passed abolishing this practice in most parts of the British Empire. | Slavery | 81%
|
| 1840 | This public space in London is laid out along with the base of Nelson's Column. | Trafalgar Square | 81%
|
| 1841 | This survey is held, the first to record names and ages of every person in the UK. | Census | 80%
|
| 1830 | This Whig succeeds the Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister. Legend says that he later had a tea named after him. | Earl Grey | 80%
|
| 1892 | This prestigious football club in the north-west of England plays its first match. | Liverpool FC | 80%
|
| 1851 | The Great Exhibition opens at this dedicated venue in Hyde Park in London. | {Crystal} Palace | 79%
|
| 1897 | Ronald Ross discovers the means of transmission for this tropical disease. He later becomes the first Scot to win a Nobel prize for this work. | Malaria | 79%
|
| 1852 | The last fatal encounter of this type of arranged combat takes place in England between two French refugees. | Duel | 78%
|
| 1850 | Sir Robert Peel dies. He is perhaps best remembered as the founder of this force. | {Metropolitan} Police | 77%
|
| 1819 | The streets of Birmingham are lit by this fuel for the first time. | Gas | 76%
|
| 1883 | This adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson is published for the first time. | Treasure Island | 76%
|
| 1820 | This ship is launched, it will later take Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage. | HMS Beagle | 75%
|
| 1898 | This science fiction novel by H. G. Wells is published for the first time in book form. | The War of the Worlds | 75%
|
| 1839 | This Anglo-Chinese War begins between Britain and the Qing dynasty. | First {Opium} War | 74%
|
| 1823 | A monument to this 'national poet of Scotland' is opened in Alloway. | Robert Burns | 74%
|
| 1853 | A new Vaccination Act is passed, which requires all children to be inoculated against this disease during their first 3 months of life. | Smallpox | 74%
|
| 1817 | This Thames crossing opens and is named to commemorate a battle of 1815. | Waterloo Bridge | 74%
|
| 1800 | This reigning monarch survives two assassination attempts in London. | George III | 73%
|
| 1894 | This popular tourist attraction opens to the public at a Lancashire coastal town. | {Blackpool} Tower | 72%
|
| 1861 | The firing of the One o’Clock Gun occurs for the first time at this Scottish castle. | Edinburgh | 70%
|
| 1895 | This organisation is founded to look after places of historic interest or natural beauty permanently for the benefit of the nation. | National Trust | 70%
|
| 1886 | The Great Western Railway opens a railway tunnel under this major river. | Severn | 70%
|
| 1874 | This rural Wessex based novel by Thomas Hardy is published. | Far from the {Madding} {Crowd} | 69%
|
| 1802 | This woman first exhibits her wax sculptures in London. | Marie Tussaud | 69%
|
| 1896 | A railway commences public operation.to the summit of this mountain. | Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) | 69%
|
| 1858 | The Lutine bell is salvaged and later hung in the offices of this London insurer. | Lloyd's | 67%
|
| 1870 | This society for aid to the sick and wounded is established. | British {Red} {Cross} | 66%
|
| 1816 | This Romantic poet flees Britain to escape a scandal and rising debts. | Lord Byron | 66%
|
| 1868 | The Earl of Derby resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by this person. | Benjamin Disraeli | 65%
|
| 1866 | This company starts selling cocoa suitable for drinking for the first time. | Cadbury's | 65%
|
| 1828 | The Offences Against the Person Act replaces Clause XXVI of this ancient charter. | Magna Carta | 65%
|
| 1829 | William Booth, future founder of this church charitable organisation, is born. | Salvation Army | 64%
|
| 1887 | This book is published, to become Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel. | A Study in {Scarlet} | 63%
|
| 1815 | The novel by Jane Austen becomes the last one published during her lifetime. | Emma | 63%
|
| 1860 | The first professional tournament for this sport is held at Prestwick. | Golf | 63%
|
| 1856 | This art gallery in London opens for the first time. | National {Portrait} Gallery | 63%
|
| 1845 | Stephen Perry is granted a patent for this stretchy item, used to hold multiple objects together. | Rubber band | 62%
|
| 1872 | The first ever final for this trophy is held, the world's oldest football competition. | FA Cup | 61%
|
| 1884 | This prominent department store chain starts life as a market stall in Leeds. | Marks & Spencer | 61%
|
| 1885 | Artist and poet Jeanette Pickersgill becomes the first legal recipient of this type of human body disposal. | Cremation | 60%
|
| 1877 | Anna Sewell lives just long enough to see publication of this book, her only novel. | Black Beauty | 56%
|
| 1827 | This military leader becomes Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. | Arthur Wellesley | 55%
|
| 1881 | This large museum opens in South Kensington, London. | Natural History Museum | 55%
|
| 1846 | This complex of dock buildings and warehouses is officially opened in Liverpool. | Royal {Albert} Dock | 55%
|
| 1808 | This future travel agency and 'package tour' pioneer is born in Derbyshire. | Thomas Cook | 55%
|
| 1849 | This distinctive felt headware is created by, and named after, two London hatmakers. | {Bowler} hat | 54%
|
| 1890 | This link between North and South Queensferry near Edinburgh opens to rail traffic. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. | Forth Bridge | 54%
|
| 1814 | The first match is played at this cricket ground in St John's Wood, London. | Lord's | 54%
|
| 1812 | The 'Frame Breaking Act' makes it a capital offence to destroy mechanised looms in a move designed to stop the actions of this group of disgruntled textile workers. | Luddites | 49%
|
| 1899 | This orchestral work by Edward Elgar premieres in London. | {Enigma} Variations | 48%
|
| 1873 | Now the oldest such club in the world, this canine society is formed. | The Kennel Club | 48%
|
| 1893 | W.E. Johns is born. He goes on to write about adventure stories about this fictional pilot. | Biggles | 46%
|
| 1801 | The first one-inch-to-the-mile map is published by this national institution. | {Ordnance} Survey | 46%
|
| 1813 | USS Chesapeake is captured in Boston Harbor by the Royal Navy during this conflict. | War of 1812 | 46%
|
| 1818 | The first successful instance of this life-saving human to human procedure is performed by James Blundell | Blood transfusion | 45%
|
| 1806 | Ralph Wedgwood obtains a patent for this method of creating duplicate documents. | {Carbon} paper | 45%
|
| 1807 | The first occurrence of this major horse race is held at Ascot race course. | {Gold} Cup | 42%
|
| 1821 | John Constable completes this now famous painting. | The Hay Wain | 42%
|
| 1835 | Henry Fox Talbot produces a picture titled 'Latticed window at Lacock Abbey', perhaps the earliest example of this method of reproduction. | Photograph | 41%
|
| 1834 | These six Dorset farm workers are sentenced to be transported to a penal colony for forming a trade union. | {Tolpuddle} Martyrs | 41%
|
| 1889 | This luxury hotel opens in the Strand in central London. | Savoy | 39%
|
| 1879 | A major rail bridge over this Scottish river collapses during a violent storm. | Tay | 39%
|
| 1837 | This station is opened to become London's first mainline railway terminus. | Euston | 38%
|
| 1831 | This scientist demonstrates electromagnetic induction and makes the first dynamo. | Michael Faraday | 38%
|
| 1859 | A lighthouse is illuminated for the first time on these rocks off the Isle of Wight. | The Needles | 38%
|
| 1836 | Charles Dickens has this novel published, the first of 15 books. | The Pickwick Papers | 38%
|
| 1875 | This football club is founded by Irishmen in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh. | Hibernian F.C. | 37%
|
| 1869 | This ship is launched in Dumbarton, the only clipper to still survive in the UK. | Cutty Sark | 36%
|
| 1825 | This rail line opens for the first time, the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives. | Stockton and {Darlington} | 35%
|
| 1826 | Felicia Heman's poem 'Casablanca', starting with this line, is first published. | The Boy stood on the Burning {Deck} | 35%
|
| 1891 | Rachel Beer becomes the first woman to edit a national newspaper when she takes over this long running Sunday publication. | The Observer | 34%
|
| 1867 | Joseph Lister's paper on this method of preventing infection after surgery leads to its widespread use. | Antiseptic | 33%
|
| 1809 | This prominent prison opens in Devon to house French prisoners of war. | Dartmoor | 33%
|
| 1838 | This iconic painting of an old ship on the Thames is completed by J.M.W. Turner. | The {Fighting} Temeraire | 33%
|
| 1882 | London Zoo sells this famous elephant to the American showman P. T. Barnum. | Jumbo | 31%
|
| 1864 | This long running Cricketers' Almanack is published for the first time. | Wisden | 31%
|
| 1862 | This well known Geordie folk song is written and performed for the first time. | {Blaydon} Races | 28%
|
| 1843 | This ship, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is launched. She later becomes the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic Ocean. | SS Great Britain | 28%
|
| 1803 | An act is passed authorising construction of this waterway along the Great Glen. | {Caledonian} Canal | 26%
|
| 1822 | William Reading is the last person to be hanged for shoplifting at this notorious prison. | Newgate | 24%
|
| 1880 | This English land agent is ostracised by his local community in Ireland resulting in his name becoming part of the English language to signify what happened to him. | Charles Boycott | 22%
|
| 1842 | This British Army officer and inventor dies; his name has entered the English language as being synonymous with an anti-personnel fragmentation weapon. | Henry Shrapnel | 21%
|
| 1810 | Chemist Humphrey Davy proposes that this halogen is an element and gives it its name. | Chlorine | 20%
|
| 1811 | The first complete fossil of this 'fish lizard' is found by Mary Anning at Lyme Regis. | Ichthyosaur | 17%
|
| 1855 | This Scottish scientist unifies electricity and magnetism into a single theory and shows that light is an electromagnetic wave. | James Clerk Maxwell | 17%
|
| 1848 | A military conflict breaks out in the Punjab between the British and this Empire. | Sikh | 16%
|
| 1847 | This Act of Parliament restricts the working hours of women and young persons (13-18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. | {Factories} Act | 15%
|
| 1824 | This distillery in Moray is established and begins to produce single malt whisky. | Glenlivet | 12%
|
| 1844 | Considered the start of the cooperative movement, this group of people open a store in the north of England. | Rochdale {Pioneers} | 10%
|
| 1804 | William Blake writes the first part of this epic poem. | Milton | 9%
|
| 1832 | This act permits unclaimed bodies from public institutions to be available for dissection. | Anatomy Act | 8%
|