Christopher Howse

2020 Christmas quiz

Set by Christopher Howse. Illustrated by Castro

Out of the ordinary

In 2020:
1. The town of Asbestos voted to change its name to Val-des-Sources. In which country does it lie?
2. What town between Dunstable and Milton Keynes was hit by four earthquakes in a fortnight?
3. In a heatwave in America where was a temperature of 130˚F recorded?
4. In April a volcano erupted on an island in the caldera of its predecessor, which exploded in 1883 and went by what name?
5. Which Mediterranean island nation gave each of its citizens €100 to spend in bars?
6. Chad began to send 75,000 cattle as repayment of a debt of $100 million to which other African country?
7. In February, who won the New Hampshire Democratic primary?
8. Which former CEO of Nissan started the year in Lebanon, having been smuggled out of Japan for a flight to Istanbul hidden in a container for audio equipment?
9. What denomination coins were issued by the Royal Mint showing Piglet and marked ‘Copyright Disney’?
10. Which country sent a spacecraft to retrieve rocks from the Moon?








The horse’s mouth

In 2020:
1. Who said: ‘We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again’?
2. Who told the Commons that the UK Internal Market Bill ‘does break international law in a very specific and limited way’?
3. Which department chain decided to drop the slogan in use since 1925: ‘Never knowingly undersold’?
4. What value coin was minted with the inscription: ‘Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations’?
5. In October, who told those with holidays booked in Wales: ‘My message to them is that they must not come.’
6. Who said: ‘And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?’
7.





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