Quiz on firsts

In the first week of 2020, we have a quiz on firsts.

First up

1 The major Indian cities during the British Raj slowly started getting electrified from the end of the 19th century. But it was a town that was the first to get electricity. Name the place.

2 With which Indian sporting first would you associate Japanese sportperson Rika Hiraki?

3 This game was originally called the Tournament East–West football game. Being played since 1902, it was started to fund a parade. It is now a New Year tradition and one of the most anticipated sporting matches on the first day of every January. What do we know it as today?

4 If Seven Beauties (1976), The Piano (1993) and Lost in Translation (2003) were close, who or what finally made it in 2009?

5 Which word for a type of low-intensity combat first came into common use during the 19th century Peninsular War when the Spanish and Portuguese rose against Napoleonic troops?

6 In 1994, who recorded a first for India, edging out the likes of Carolina Gomez of Colombia and Minorka Mercado of Venezuela?

7 In 1957, which state in India became the first to have a government in place with a non-Congress party in the majority?

8 The Bengali film Neel Akasher Neechey is a 1958 production directed by Mrinal Sen and produced by singer and music director Hemanta Mukherjee. In which regard was it a first in independent India?

9 Which team won the first ever Cricket World Cup played in 1973? Yes, you read that right.

10 Rome is regarded as the first city to have a population of over a million in the first century AD. In 1936, which city became the first to have over 10 million inhabitants?

Answers

1 Darjeeling, the summer capital of the British Raj when Calcutta was the capital

2 She partnered Mahesh Bhupathi in the mixed doubles when he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam title in the 1997 French Open

3 The Rose Bowl, an American football game between college teams

4 The Hurt Locker , directed by Katheryn Bigelow, the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Direction

5 Guerrilla warfare; guerrilla being the diminutive of ‘Guerra’ meaning war

6 Sushmita Sen, the first Indian winner of the Miss Universe contest

7 Kerala, with the CPI led by EMS Namboodiripad

8 The first film to be banned, as it featured an immigrant Chinese character at a time when tensions with China were rising

9 England. The first Cricket World Cup was actually a women’s tournament, two years before the first men’s event

10 New York

Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster;

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