October 26 Trivia – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the October 26 Trivia quiz, each with a short explanation. Fifteen questions from every corner of general knowledge — how broad is your brain? Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Which country was the first to grant women the right to vote nationally?
Answer: New Zealand
New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women the vote in national elections when Governor Lord Glasgow signed the Electoral Act on 19 September 1893; women first voted that November. Australia followed in 1902 and Finland in 1906.
2. Who won Sunday's Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin?
Answer: Kimi Antonelli
Kimi Antonelli won the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas on October 25, 2026, leading from pole to flag for his ninth win of the season. He beat Charles Leclerc by 13.078 seconds, with Max Verstappen third, moving to the brink of the drivers' title.
3. Istanbul sits on both sides of which narrow strait?
Answer: The Bosphorus
Istanbul spans both banks of the Bosphorus, a roughly 31-km strait linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, making it the only major city sitting on two continents, Europe and Asia.
4. The spice cinnamon is harvested from which part of a tree?
Answer: The bark
Cinnamon is the inner bark of tropical evergreen trees of the genus Cinnamomum; harvesters strip the outer bark and peel the inner layer, which curls into quills as it dries.
5. How long is an Olympic-standard swimming pool?
Answer: 50 metres
Olympic (long course) pools are 50 metres long and usually 25 metres wide with 10 lanes, per World Aquatics (formerly FINA) rules; 25-metre pools are used for short-course events.
6. In music, what does the marking 'forte' tell a performer to do?
Answer: Play loudly
Forte, marked with a lowercase f, is Italian for 'strong' and tells a performer to play loudly; its opposite is piano (p), meaning soft, and the two words combine in the name pianoforte.
7. Which 1919 treaty formally ended the First World War with Germany?
Answer: The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, formally ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied powers. It took effect on 10 January 1920 and required Germany to disarm, cede territory and pay reparations.
8. Which salty lake bordered by Jordan and Israel has Earth's lowest shoreline?
Answer: The Dead Sea
The Dead Sea, a hypersaline lake in the Jordan Rift Valley bordered by Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, has the lowest exposed land shoreline on Earth, now more than 440 metres below sea level. Its level keeps dropping by roughly a metre a year.
9. Which particle inside an atom carries a negative electric charge?
Answer: The electron
Electrons carry a negative charge of -1, exactly balancing the proton's +1, while neutrons are electrically neutral. Electrons orbit outside the nucleus and have only about 1/1836 the mass of a proton.
10. How many players make up a cricket team fielding on the pitch?
Answer: Eleven
Law 1 of the Laws of Cricket states a match is played between two sides of eleven players, and no more than eleven may field at any time. The eleven-a-side convention was formalised in the written codes from the 18th century onward.
11. Which country has been the world's biggest producer of coffee for decades?
Answer: Brazil
Brazil has been the world's leading coffee producer since around 1850, supplying roughly a third to 40 percent of global output, chiefly arabica from states such as Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo. Vietnam is second, mostly growing robusta.
12. The Christ the Redeemer statue towers over which city?
Answer: Rio de Janeiro
Christ the Redeemer, completed in 1931, stands 30 metres tall on Corcovado mountain above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
13. Which lake is the deepest in the world, holding a fifth of its fresh surface water?
Answer: Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal in southern Siberia is the world's deepest lake at about 1,642 metres and holds roughly 20% of the planet's unfrozen fresh surface water, more than all five North American Great Lakes combined.
14. Honey bees tell hive mates where food is by performing which dance?
Answer: The waggle dance
Honey bees perform a figure-eight waggle dance on the comb to signal the direction and distance of food; Karl von Frisch decoded it and shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the work.
15. Traditional balsamic vinegar is most associated with which Italian city?
Answer: Modena
Traditional balsamic vinegar is made from cooked grape must aged at least 12 years and carries PDO status in only two Emilia-Romagna provinces, Modena and neighbouring Reggio Emilia, with Modena by far the best known.