October 23 Trivia – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the October 23 Trivia quiz, each with a short explanation. Fifteen questions from history to food - how broad is your knowledge? Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Which two teams are meeting in baseball's 2026 World Series?
Answer: Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers
The 2026 World Series pits the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays against the National League champion Milwaukee Brewers, with Game 1 on October 23 in Milwaukee. The Rays beat Cleveland in six ALCS games, while Milwaukee swept the Dodgers; neither franchise has ever won a title.
2. The Hundred Years' War was fought mainly between England and which country?
Answer: France
The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts fought from 1337 to 1453 between England and France, triggered by English claims to the French throne and ending with France expelling the English from all territory except Calais.
3. Which narrow strait separates Spain from Morocco?
Answer: The Strait of Gibraltar
The Strait of Gibraltar separates southern Spain from northern Morocco and is the only natural link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It is about 58 km long and narrows to roughly 13-14 km between Point Marroqui and Point Cires.
4. In golf, what name is given to a score of one stroke under par on a hole?
Answer: Birdie
In golf a birdie is a score of one stroke under par on a hole; two under is an eagle, three under an albatross, and one over par is a bogey. The term came from American slang around 1900, when 'bird' meant something excellent.
5. Which orchestral instrument typically has 47 strings and seven foot pedals?
Answer: The harp
The modern concert (pedal) harp typically has 47 strings spanning about six and a half octaves, plus seven foot pedals that each raise or lower all strings of one note name, allowing play in any key. The double-action design was patented by Sebastien Erard in 1810.
6. Japanese sake is brewed mainly from which ingredient?
Answer: Rice
Sake is brewed from rice, using polished rice, water, koji mould and yeast; the koji converts rice starch into sugar so yeast can ferment it, a process that happens simultaneously with fermentation.
7. Which mountain range is traditionally seen as the border of Europe and Asia?
Answer: The Urals
The Ural Mountains, running about 2,500 km from the Arctic Ocean to Kazakhstan, form the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia, a convention fixed by Russian cartographers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
8. Which living bird lays the largest eggs?
Answer: The ostrich
The ostrich lays the largest egg of any living bird, averaging about 1.4 kg and 15 cm long, roughly the volume of two dozen hen's eggs. Larger eggs were laid only by extinct birds such as Madagascar's elephant bird.
9. Which 1942 film includes the line "Here's looking at you, kid"?
Answer: Casablanca
"Here's looking at you, kid" is spoken by Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine to Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa in Casablanca, released in November 1942; the script originally read "Here's good luck to you, kid."
10. What is the official distance of a marathon, to the nearest kilometre?
Answer: 42 kilometres
The marathon is 42.195 km (26 miles 385 yards), a distance set by the 1908 London Olympic course and standardised by the international athletics federation in 1921.
11. In mobile networks such as 4G and 5G, what does the letter G stand for?
Answer: Generation
In 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G the G stands for generation of mobile network technology, with each generation bringing new standards: 4G arrived around 2009 and 5G from 2019.
12. In which year did the Chernobyl nuclear disaster take place?
Answer: 1986
The Chernobyl disaster happened on 26 April 1986, when reactor No. 4 at the plant near Pripyat in the Ukrainian SSR exploded during a botched safety test. Swedish monitoring stations detected the fallout two days later, forcing the Soviet Union to admit the accident.
13. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, lies in which country?
Answer: Tanzania
Mount Kilimanjaro lies entirely within northeastern Tanzania, in the Kilimanjaro Region close to the Kenyan border. Its summit, Uhuru Peak at 5,895 m, is Africa's highest point and the world's tallest free-standing mountain.
14. What is the traditional collective noun for a group of crows?
Answer: A murder
A group of crows is traditionally called a murder, one of the best-known English terms of venery dating from medieval hunting vocabulary. The grim name likely reflects old superstitions linking the scavenging black birds with death.
15. Which company owns and develops the Android mobile operating system?
Answer: Google
Android is owned and developed by Google, which bought startup Android Inc. for about $50 million in 2005. The first Android phone, the HTC Dream, went on sale in 2008, and the system now runs on billions of devices.