October 25 Trivia – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the October 25 Trivia quiz, each with a short explanation. Fifteen questions from every corner of knowledge – how wide is your world? Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Over 400,000 people protested on Saturday, challenging which European leader?
Answer: Emmanuel Macron
On Saturday, October 24, 2026, France's Interior Ministry counted about 410,000 demonstrators nationwide, including 110,000 in Paris, in a fresh challenge to President Emmanuel Macron.
2. Which empire did Montezuma II rule when Spanish forces arrived in 1519?
Answer: The Aztec Empire
Montezuma II (Moctezuma II) was the ninth Aztec emperor, ruling from about 1502 until 1520. He met Hernán Cortés on a causeway into the capital Tenochtitlan on 8 November 1519, after the Spanish landed near modern Veracruz that April.
3. Which country is entirely surrounded by the territory of South Africa?
Answer: Lesotho
Lesotho is a landlocked enclave completely encircled by South Africa, one of only three such countries in the world alongside San Marino and Vatican City. Neighbouring Eswatini borders both South Africa and Mozambique.
4. Which land animal has the longest pregnancy, lasting about 22 months?
Answer: Elephant
Elephants have the longest gestation of any land mammal, around 22 months (roughly 640-680 days). The long pregnancy allows the calf's large body and brain to develop enough that it can stand and walk within about an hour of birth.
5. In rugby union, how many points is a try worth?
Answer: 5
Under World Rugby's laws, a try in rugby union is worth 5 points, with a conversion kick adding 2 more. In rugby league a try is worth only 4 points, and since 2017 a union penalty try is automatically 7 points with no kick.
6. Tequila is distilled from the fermented juice of which plant?
Answer: Blue agave
Tequila must be made from the blue agave, Agave tequilana Weber var. azul, whose roasted hearts (piñas) are fermented and distilled. Mexican rules restrict production to Jalisco and parts of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit and Tamaulipas.
7. Which Wonder of the Ancient World stood on the island of Pharos?
Answer: The Lighthouse of Alexandria
The Lighthouse (Pharos) of Alexandria stood on the island of Pharos at the entrance to Alexandria's harbour in Egypt. Built around 280 BCE under the Ptolemies, it rose over 100 metres and gave its name to the word for lighthouse in many languages.
8. The River Danube empties into which sea?
Answer: The Black Sea
The Danube flows some 2,850 km from Germany's Black Forest to the Black Sea, entering it through the Danube Delta shared by Romania and Ukraine. The delta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Europe's best-preserved wetland.
9. How many compartments does a cow's stomach have?
Answer: Four
A cow is a ruminant with a single stomach divided into four compartments: rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. Microbes in the rumen ferment plant fibre, while the abomasum acts as the 'true' stomach similar to a human's.
10. In chess, which piece moves only in diagonal lines?
Answer: The bishop
The bishop is the only chess piece that moves purely on diagonals, any number of unblocked squares. Because of this it stays on one colour of square for the whole game, so each player has a light-squared and a dark-squared bishop.
11. In computing, what do the letters PDF stand for?
Answer: Portable Document Format
PDF stands for Portable Document Format, created by Adobe and released with Acrobat 1.0 on 15 June 1993. It grew out of John Warnock's 'Camelot' project and became the open ISO 32000 standard in 2008.
12. The Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering which ancient writing system?
Answer: Egyptian hieroglyphs
The Rosetta Stone, found in Egypt in 1799, carried the same decree in hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek, letting Jean-Francois Champollion announce his decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs on 27 September 1822 in Paris.
13. Besides the platypus, which egg-laying mammal is found in Australia?
Answer: The echidna
The only egg-laying mammals (monotremes) are the platypus and the echidnas, found in Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea; wombats, numbats and quokkas are marsupials that give birth to live young.
14. Cheddar cheese takes its name from a village in which country?
Answer: England
Cheddar cheese is named after the village of Cheddar in Somerset, south-west England, where cheesemaking is documented from the 12th century and cheeses were matured in the caves of Cheddar Gorge.
15. Which tennis Grand Slam tournament is played on clay courts?
Answer: The French Open
The French Open at Stade Roland Garros in Paris is the only Grand Slam played on clay, a surface used there since 1908; Wimbledon is on grass and the US and Australian Opens on hard courts.