Quiz | Easy like Sunday morning

1 / 10 |
Born this day in 37 AD in Italy, this person was one of the most controversial emperors of all time. To maintain power, he orchestrated the deaths of many, including his close family. Who was this notorious ruler, who was also supposedly responsible for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD?

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Holland granted a patent to Cornelis van Uitgeest on this date in 1593 for a crankshaft that converted the horizontal power of wind into a vertical sawing motion. As a result, his sawmill could convert logs into planks 30 times faster than before. This led to the popularity of what structure that has become iconic for the country?

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This French civil engineer, born on December 15, 1832, co-designed two of the most iconic monuments in the world. After building bridges for the French railway, he designed a tower for the Exposition Universelle of 1889 and then a centennial gift for the United States. Who was this engineer, whose name has been immortalised by the tower?

4 / 10 |
Henri Becquerel, born this day in 1852, was a French scientist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with Pierre and Marie Curie. He had been inspired by Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays to study more about emission of light. His work led to the discovery of a phenomenon that played a huge role in history. What did he discover that has his name as its SI unit?

5 / 10 |
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s ‘Symphony No. 9,’ a.k.a ‘New World Symphony,’ premiered in New York City on this day in 1893. The first few bars are two notes on a cello that are played and become faster, giving it a menacing tone. Known for being used for the villain in a Spielberg movie, it became more famous as the first notes of a children’s song that hit 10 billion views on YouTube in 2022. Which song that features the same villain is this?

6 / 10 |
Italo Marchiony, a food cart vendor in New York, received a U.S. patent on this day in 1903 for inventing a machine that makes an edible container that we are very familiar with. He used to sell lemon ice in small glass dishes, which people either kept breaking or forgetting to give back. What did his machine make that solved his problem?

7 / 10 |
Max Yasgur, an American dairy farmer, was born this day in 1919 and owned a 600-acre farm outside of New York. When some producers approached him for hosting a music festival, he obliged, wanting to bridge ‘the generation gap’. The result was a historic moment in pop culture. What iconic festival eventually took place for three days in 1969 on his farm?

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Born this day in 1922, Alan Freed was an American DJ who used to work on the Armed Forces Radio. He later worked on public radio, where he became popular for playing hot jazz and pop. He was responsible for popularising a term about the then new genre of music, which was fast and had a big beat. What term is this that features in the titles of many songs now?

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In 1954, four engineers were working on a top secret mission at General Electric labs called ‘Project Superpressure’. Using extremely high temperatures and pressures, they were able to create a blob. On December 15, they reported that the blob had destroyed all their polishing wheels. What had they been able to create for the first time?

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This gentleman, born on December 15, 1976, is an Indian footballer and was the first Indian player to sign with a European club. He was known as the ‘Sikkimese Sniper’ because of his shooting skills. Who is this iconic footballer?