Leo’s home, Italian kings and Tom’s Diner – take the Thursday quiz

Visitors attend a digital exhibition dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci. Photograph: Dia Images/Getty Images

The quiz master is away, but never fear, secret blueprints were delivered via a submarine in Regent’s Canal to the Guardian’s London office, and here we all are. There are 15 questions on general knowledge and vaguely topical trivia to tackle, as well as some hidden Doctor Who references to spot, and Ron from Sparks’ baleful stare to face down. It is just for fun. There are never any prizes. Let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 47

1. 

   ON THIS DAY SCIENCE CORNER: Element number 98 in the periodic table was first synthesised on 17 March 1950 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which was then known as the University of California Radiation Laboratory. What is element 98 called?

   1. Berkleyium

   2. Lawrencium

   3. Americium

   4. Californium

2. 

   HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is Clare Grogan's birthday today. You can see where this is going. Happy birthday, Clare! What was the name of the band with which she had a UK hit single called Happy Birthday?

   1. Aztec Camera

   2. Alphaville

   3. Altered Images

   4. Animotion

3. 

   ENSEMBLE CASTS: Which 1990s TV show featured these actors as recurring characters – Mitch Pileggi, William B Davis and Nicholas Lea

   1. The X-Files

   2. Millennium

   3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

   4. Charmed

4. 

   GEOGRAPHY: In modern times the River Nile is regarded as having three main tributaries – well, according to the National Geographic website, anyway. One of them is Atbara. What are the other two called?

   1. The Blue Nile and the White Nile

   2. The Blue Nile and the Gold Nile

   3. The Blue Nile and the Red Nile

   4. The Blue Nile and the Yellow Nile

5. 

   MOON OVER KENTUCKY: That is a 1972 Sparks song where they urge you to 'cut your ties with this possessive mother'. But that's not important right now. How far, on average, is Earth's moon from Earth?

   1. 184,400km

   2. 284,400km

   3. 384,400km

   4. 484,400km

6. 

   MYSTERY SHOPPER: In 1800, Mary Jones was reputed to have walked 26 miles barefoot from Llanfihangel-y-Pennant to Bala in Wales to buy what?

   1. Medicine for her father, inspiring Betsi Cadwaladr to found the first Welsh mobile nursing practice

   2. A Welsh Bible, inspiring the foundation of the British and Foreign Bible Society

   3. A bando, the curved stick used in the 18th-century Welsh sport bando, inspiring the formation of the first Welsh women's bando team

   4. A flock of seagulls, sparking a joyless row in the comments about whether it is a joke about an 80s band or an inaccuracy because there is no such thing as a seagull

7. 

   FIBONACCI NUMBERS: First described in Indian mathematics, and forming a sequence where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, F₄ is three. But what are the names of the Three Wise Men who visited the baby Jesus in the western church tradition?

   1. Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar

   2. Melkur, Calufrax and Bandril

   3. Malchiel, Caiphas and Bashemath

   4. Tom, Joe and Allanah

8. 

   SWEET BABY CHEESES: Which of these options is NOT a delicious cheese produced in Scotland?

   1. Dunsyre Blue

   2. Morangie Brie

   3. Red Anster

   4. Dandie Dinmont

9. 

   THIS IS A FAKE: The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world and hangs in the Louvre in France. But where was Leonardo da Vinci born?

   1. Vinci in Tuscany

   2. Padua in Veneto

   3. Perugia in Umbria

   4. Vigevano in Lombardy

10. 

    WHO AM I? I am an Irish comic born in Kildare and my credits include guest spots on Taskmaster and Doctor Who and my own show This Way Up?

    1. Sharon Horgan

    2. Aisling Bea

    3. Ardal O'Hanlon

    4. Pauline McLynn

11. 

    WHY THE LONG FACE?: According to the timeline on the British Dressage website, the first known dressage competition was held in the mainland European city of Pressburg. When?

    1. 1813

    2. 1873

    3. 1913

    4. 1973

12. 

    ON THIS DAY: The unification of Italy is celebrated on 17 March because the Kingdom of Italy was declared on that day in 1861. How many monarchs did the Kingdom of Italy have between 1861 and becoming a republic via a constitutional referendum in 1946?

    1. Two

    2. Four

    3. Six

    4. Eight

13. 

    ALLONS-Y: Wikivoyage lists 23 locations visited by fictional Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. No 7 is Mumbai, India. But which coast of India is it on, east or west?

    1. East

    2. West

14. 

    THE PLAY'S THE THING: The Staple of News, Every Man in His Humour and The Devil is an Ass are plays generally ascribed to which of these Elizabethan playwrights?

    1. Thomas Middleton

    2. Christopher Marlow

    3. John Fletcher

    4. Ben Jonson

15. 

    MUSIC: In 1990 a remix by DNA of an acapella song called Tom's Diner by which of these artist was a global smash hit?

    1. Alanis Morissette

    2. Suzanne Vega

    3. Sheryl Crow

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:D - Element 98 was named Californium. Americium is the real name of another transuranic element, with the atomic number 95. There is no such thing as Berkleyium, although Berkelium is element 97., 2:C - The former schoolmates got their first break by asking Siouxsie and the Banshees if they could support them when they toured Scotland. The band released three albums between 1981 and 1983. Happy Birthday and I Could Be Happy were their two biggest hits. Clare asked the quizmaster if he was in the queue for the bar at a recent Echo & the Bunnymen gig, 3:A - That's Walter Skinner, Cigarette Smoking Man and Alex Krycek to you, 4:A - It is the Blue Nile and the White Nile. Of your other options, the Gold Nile is a jewellery shop, the Red Nile is a fascinating book by Robert Twigger about the history of the river, and the Yellow Nile is the name of an ancient tributary whose remains are now known as Wadi Howar., 5:C - Exactly the right distance that means it exactly covers the sun when it swings by in front of it for an eclipse. Makes you think, eh? You can tell by his face that Ron from Sparks thinks you should have known that, 6:B - The story goes that she had saved up for six years in order to purchase a Welsh-language Bible, and her determination to get hold of one was used by Bible-seller Thomas Charles who went on to be one of the founders of the Bible Society, 7:A - Their names aren't actually given in the New Testament, which means there are different versions of them. The Syrian church regards them as Larvandad, Gushnasaph and Hormisdas, while the Ethiopian Church gives Hor, Karsudan and Basanater, 8:D - The Dandie Dinmont is actually a rather cute little breed of dog, rather than a cheese, 9:A - He was born in Vinci. The answer is literally in his name – Leo from Vinci. You must be absolutely gutted if you talked yourself out of choosing such an obvious answer, 10:B - Did you know she was born as Aisling Clíodhnadh O'Sullivan? Bea co-wrote This Way Up and stars in it with Sharon Horgan. Horgan hasn't been in Doctor Who though. Ardal O'Hanlon and Pauline McLynn have both appeared in Doctor Who, but neither were born in Kildare, 11:B - They say it was 1873. Pressburg was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Spanish Riding School had been established in Vienna many years earlier, 12:B - They were Victor Emmanuel II (1861–1878), Umberto I (1878–1900), Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946) and Umberto II (34 days in 1946), 13:B - Mumbai is situated on India's west coast. It has been inhabited for a very long time, and was known to the Greek geographer Ptolemy as Heptanesia, or Cluster of Seven Islands. It is now among the top 10 most populous cities in the world, 14:D - Jonson lived from around 1572 to 1637 and is credited with popularising the 'comedy of humours', where characters have overriding traits that determine their actions with hilarious results, 15:B - It was originally a bootleg remix, but when her record company heard it, with Vega's permission as she liked it, instead of suing them A&M bought the recording and released it officially

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

• If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and he really isn’t going to answer anyway.