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YouTube no-hoper, a moon called Europa, and firing a billionaire into space – take the Thursday quiz

<span>Photograph: Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock</span>
Photograph: Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock

It is Thursday lunchtime, and once again the summons arrives to pit your wits against our astonishingly named Thursday quiz. Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical news trivia with some jokes thrown in. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but do let us know how you get on in the comments below.

The Thursday quiz, No 7

  1. Queen
    Queen

    COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING: From left to right this picture is Brian, Freddie, John and Roger. But which member of Queen was born first?

    1. Brian
      Brian

      Brian

    2. Freddie
      Freddie

      Freddie

    3. John
      John

      John

    4. Roger
      Roger

      Roger

  2. Europa
    Europa

    SPACE: This is Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Who is generally credited with discovering it?

    1. Tycho Brahe

    2. Galileo Galilei

    3. Nicolaus Copernicus

    4. Isaac Newton

  3. Meghan and Harry
    Meghan and Harry

    BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY: Speaking of the Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced the birth of a daughter they have named after her, called Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. But what was Meghan, Duchess of Sussex named when she was born?

    1. Rachel

    2. Phoebe

    3. Monica

    4. Anneke

  4. Euro 2020 Trophy
    Euro 2020 Trophy

    SPORT: Euro 2020 makes a belated kick-off this weekend. Who won the inaugural European Nations' Cup in 1960?

    1. Yugoslavia

    2. France

    3. Czechoslovakia

    4. Soviet Union

  5. Ruud Gullit of Holland
    Ruud Gullit of Holland

    DUTCH ROYAL FAMILY: Who was the monarch of the Netherlands when the country won the European Championship in 1988?

    1. Willem-Alexander

    2. Beatrix

    3. Juliana

    4. Wilhelmina

  6. Chris tthe Redeemer
    Chris tthe Redeemer

    FROM THE AIR: OK, that is more than enough football-related shenanigans. The statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooks which Brazilian city?

    1. Belo Horizonte

    2. São Paulo

    3. Brasília

    4. Rio de Janeiro

  7. Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga and Kate Bush
    Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga and Kate Bush

    MUSIC: Who famously turned up at the 2010 MTV video awards wearing a dress made of raw meat? Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga or Kate Bush?

    1. Rihanna
      Rihanna

      Rihanna

    2. Gwen Stefani
      Gwen Stefani

      Gwen Stefani

    3. Lady Gaga
      Lady Gaga

      Lady Gaga

    4. Kate Bush
      Kate Bush

      Kate Bush

  8. THE PERIODIC TABLE: The Periodic Table of elements is arranged so that most metals appear on one side, and non-metals on the other. Which side are the metals on?

    1. Left

    2. Right

  9. Woman angry at internet
    Woman angry at internet

    GLOBAL NEWS: Large chunks of the world wide web, including this website, became unavailable on Tuesday when there was a service outage where…?

    1. Cloudflare

    2. Fastly

    3. WOTAN

    4. Squarespace

  10. A rocket doing rocket things
    A rocket doing rocket things

    GALACTIC NEWS: Which tech billionaire has announced that they will literally be fired into space in late July?

    1. Bill Gates

    2. Mark Zuckerberg

    3. Elon Musk

    4. Jeff Bezos

  11. CITIES: If you were travelling from Vieux-Port to Saint-Barnabé, which French city's transport system would you be using?

    1. Lille Metro

    2. Lyon Metro

    3. Marseille Metro

    4. Paris Métro

  12. ART: The most expensive painting ever sold at auction was a Leonardo da Vinci which went for $450m in 2017. Which one?

    1. Salvator Mundi

    2. Lady with an Ermine

    3. Portrait of Ginevra Benci

    4. Virgin of the Rocks

  13. Floyd Mayweather Jr
    Floyd Mayweather Jr

    DIGITAL CULTURE: Retired boxer, 44-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr, fought an eight-round exhibition match this weekend against which prominent 26-year-old YouTuber who is 34lbs heavier than him?

    1. Felix Kjellberg

    2. Logan Paul

    3. Jimmy Donaldson

    4. Whindersson Nunes

  14. Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope
    Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope

    FILM & TV: In the first Star Wars movie, often referred to as Episode IV: A New Hope, on which planet do we first meet Luke Skywalker, as played by Mark Hamill

    1. Alderaan

    2. Jakku

    3. Tatooine

    4. Gallifrey

  15. Cobby in happier times
    Cobby in happier times

    AND FINALLY: Sadly this week Cobby the chimp died. He was the oldest known living chimpanzee in any registered zoo in North America. How old was he?

    1. 33

    2. 43

    3. 63

    4. 73

Solutions

1:B - It's Freddie Mercury. He was born Farrokh Bulsara in 1946. Brian was born in 1947, Roger in 1949, and John was the baby of the group, born in 1951. Freddie once said of meeting Sid Vicious that "I called him Simon Ferocious or something, and he didn't like it at all.", 2:B - Europa is generally credited as being observed for the first time in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. It is thought that Simon Marius also observed it independently at a similar time, but Galileo published first and the rest is history. Marius doesn't even get a name-check in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, the rotters., 3:A - She was born Rachel Meghan Markle on 4 August 1981. The new baby is eighth in line to the throne, but needn't give up hope. Queen Victoria was only fifth in line when she was born, and Cnut the Great wasn't even particularly related at all, just barged his way in during 1016 as he fancied a bit of it., 4:D - The Soviet Union won the first final in Paris 2-1 against Yugoslavia after extra time. Hosts France finished fourth after losing the third place play-off to Czechoslovakia. Of the four, France are the only nation state that still competes in international football under that name., 5:B - It looked like a football question, but actually it was a trick to find out how well you know know your Dutch monarchy. Beatrix was monarch from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. She was succeeded by Willem-Alexander, and preceded by Juliana (1948-1980) and Wilhelmina (1890-1948). That is a lot of very long reigns there, to go from 1890 to 2013 with just three monarchs. Stable at the back, just like that winning Dutch Euros team., 6:D - Thirty metres tall and constructed between 1922 and 1931, the statue looks out over Rio de Janeiro, a city often mistakenly thought to be Brazil's capital., 7:C - Designed by Franc Fernandez and styled by Nicola Formichetti, the dress has been preserved like a type of beef jerky for display in a museum, and has its own Wikipedia page, something the author of this quiz is yet to achieve., 8:A - Yes. Provided you ignore Hydrogen lurking at the very top left, the left side of the table features Lithium, Beryllium, Sodium, Magnesium and so on, while the right-hand side features the noble gases like Neon and Argon on the right-most column., 9:B - The outage was traced to a failure in a content delivery network (CDN) run by Fastly. Visitors to a huge number of sites began receiving error messages including, “Error 503 service unavailable” and a terse “connection failure”. The company runs an “edge cloud”, which is designed to speed up loading times for websites, protect them from denial-of-service attacks, and help them deal with bursts of traffic. Except on Tuesdays., 10:D - It's not happening quite the way some people wished for. The Amazon founder says he will be blasting off into space on the first crewed flight of his New Shepard rocket ship, temporarily making Elon Musk the richest person on earth until Bezos lands. Who hasn't reacted to a recent costly divorce by wanting to get away from it all though?, 11:C - The name Vieux-Port (Old Port) might have clued you in that you were looking for a coastal town. The Métro de Marseille has 2 lines serving 31 stations., 12:A - The purchase has since been mired in controversy over the authenticity of the painting and whether, when it was on display in the National Gallery, it had already been put up for sale, which would have been against the gallery's normal policy., 13:B - Paul's weight advantage didn't help much as he landed just 28 of his 217 punches during the fight against Mayweather Jr, who had retired from boxing with a perfect 50 out of 50 record. The end of the "fight" was greeted with boos. A lot of money was made by all involved, except the punters., 14:C - Home to Mos Eisley and a notorious base for scum and villainy, twin-sunned Tatooine had been Luke's home since being adopted. The planet has subsequently featured in many of the Star Wars movies and the spin-off TV series The Mandalorian., 15:C - He was 63. While there are inevitably concerns over keeping primates in captivity, life expectancy isn't always one of them. Chimps in the wild can expect to live for 20-30 years, but can often live much longer in captivity. That was a good innings, Cobby.

Scores

  1. 15 and above.

    A perfect score? Congratulations

  2. 6 and above.

    Don't forget to let us know how you get on in the comments!

  3. 0 and above.

    Don't forget to let us know how you get on in the comments!

  • If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quizmaster’s word is always final but disputes may be resolved by arm-wrestling at the author’s discretion.