Trivia Bits 22 June

 

Playing the titular role in the 2012 American biographical comedy-drama Hitchcock was Anthony Hopkins which centres on the relationship between director Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) during the making of Psycho, a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career.

Io is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter of 3,642 kilometres (2,263 mi), the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the mythological character Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus.

An Open Swimmer was Australian novelist and short story writer Tim Winton’s first novel published in 1981 winning The Australian/Vogel Literary Award.

The Arctic Winter Games, founded in 1969, are held biennially for athletes from the "circumpolar North" with The Hodgson trophy for fair play and team spirit awarded at the end of every games.

The famed River Danube runs through the Hungarian city of Budapest.

Involved in the collision with South African athlete Zola Budd at the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles, California was American world champion Mary Decker in the 3000 m race.

The inhabitants of the Syrian village of Kafr Zita claim descent from the Mawali tribes who dominated the northern Syrian Desert until the 18th century.

The smallest state in Australia is the island state – Tasmania.

The 364-metre pier in Withernsea, England built in 1877 was struck by ships four times, finally leaving it only 15 metres long.

The famed message "England expects that every man will do his duty" - a signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805 is misquoted on Nelson's Column in London as the original quote was “England Confides That Every Man Will Do His Duty”.

The 2012 Guia Race of Macau was the last car race in which Chevrolet participated as a works team in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC).

Armenia is bordered by Turkey to the west and Georgia to the north.

In 1964 historian Mary C. Wright became the first woman to be named as a full professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University.

The 2013 Canadian-Irish historical drama television series Vikings was filmed in Ireland.

William Shakespeare’s famous lines All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players come from As You Like It and is believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the First Folio, 1623.

The cartoon character Garfield is an orange tabby cat in Feline terms.

Australian singer born Helen Porter Mitchell is better known as Dame Nellie Melba.

Vyacheslav Molotov was a Soviet Union politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s and served under Joseph Stalin.

The Calayan Rail flightless bird that inhabits Calayan Island in the Philippines is a significant recent species discovery, announced on 16 August 2004.

After France, the country with the highest population of French speaking people is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.