Murders, Disasters, Massacres, and Tragedies Quiz

1. Mudit Aggarwal

2. Rools
 Pay attention to everything that’s underlined.
 All questions are worth 10 points.
 On Pounce : +15/-10
 Answer on Drekt : +10/-0
 Due to the difficult nature of this quiz, relevant hints
have been underlined.
 Needless to say, every answer will be related to either a
Disaster, Murder, Massacre or Tragedy.

3.  Lastly,
The correctness of your answer will be impartially
determined by a demographically selected customer
service focus consultancy broken down by age and sex

4. i.e. Me

5.  Because there is no one more broken down by age and
sex than me.

6. “Don’t Let It End Like This. Tell Them I
Said Something”
– Pancho Villa

7. Q1
X is the 4th single from Y’s debut album Bad Blood. It is rare
that a song named like X would reach the top ten charts.
“It's a moment of reflection and introspection, but they're
trapped in time so it's a moment that'll go on for an
eternity,” frontman Dan Smith explained to NME. “It is
essentially about fear of stasis and boredom,” he added.
"Being quite a shy, self-conscious person, I was afraid my
life might get stuck.“
ID X.

9. Pompeii
Death toll : 1,150+

10. Q2
 Jonestown was the informal name for The Peoples Temple
Agricultural Project formed by the Peoples Temple under the
leadership of Jim Jones in Guyana. It became famous on November
18, 1978, when 909 people died in remote commune.
 A 44 minute cassette tape known as the Death Tape records
meeting Jones called under the pavilion in the early evening. Aides
prepared a large metal tub with grape flavour drink poisoned with
Valium, chloral hydrate, cyanide and Phenergan.
 What phrase / idiom used in colloquial english does this incident
give rise to?

12. Drinking the Kool Aid
Death toll : 909

13. Q3

15. Columbine High School
Massacre
Death toll : 15

16. Q4
The following is an excerpt from
the movie The Wind Rises,
Hayao Miyazaki’s last movie.
The event is an Earthquake in
1923. The Earthquake had a
magnitude of 7.9, and even
challenged the location of the
capital to be changed due to the
massive deathtoll.
What is the name of the
Earthquake?
The Earthquake famously struck at 11:59
am during lunch time. Due to open
stoves during 1923, there were
widespread fires.
Hint available

17. Q4
 It is regularly covered in red lipstick kisses and
is both a lovers’ rendezvous and a rallying
point against homophobia. The memorial – a
naked birdman made by the sculptor, Jacob
Epstein – has proved controversial. Unveiled
in 1914, it had to be covered up because of
complaints about the figure’s exposed genitals.
A fig leaf was added but in the 1920s a group
of anti-censorship protestors tried to chisel it
off and ended up inadvertently carrying out a
castration. The detached lump of stone was
said to have ended up as a paperweight on the
cemetery superintendent’s desk
 Whose grave is this?

20. Oscar Wilde

21. Q5
From 1991 to 1995, this particular event was banned due to
death threats from militants. In 1996, the militants assured
that no harm would come upon the participants of this
event. Releasing a build-up of 5 years, record number of
people took part (about 100,000).
However, 242 participants lost their lives due to exhaustion,
exposure, freezing, etc.
The report blamed a lack of contingency plan.
What event?

23. Amarnath Yatra
Death Toll : 242

24. Q6 (Hint available)
X is the footballing ground of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. It is
a 19,732 capacity stadium.
X is famous, in part, due to the flood on 25th June, 2007,
when the river Don burst its banks during a period of
severe weather in the area and the whole ground was
flooded in several feet of water. This cost millions of
pounds in renovation and clean up. A memorial to the
floods was unveiled on 25th June 2008.
Name the stadium – X

25. Q6
X is the footballing ground of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. It is a
19,732 capacity stadium.
X is famous, in part, due to the flood on 25th June, 2007, when
the river Don burst its banks during a period of severe weather
in the area and the whole ground was flooded in several feet of
water. This cost millions of pounds in renovation and clean up.
A memorial to the floods was unveiled on 25th June 2008.
Name the stadium – X
Hint : There is a memorial at another English stadium that is
related to events that occurred in this one.

27. Hillsborough
Death Toll : 96

28. Q7
 Xerxes’ Pontoon Bridges were constructed in 480 BC during the second
Persian invasion of Greece. The only evidence for the structure of these
bridges is provided by Herodotus.
 Herodotus states that the bridges were destroyed by a storm, however, very
little information is provided. It is doubtful that such a structure was ever
created at all. However, the detail provided by Herodotus is descriptive
enough that it seems unlikely.
 Herodotus later in his text says that the cause of the destruction was in fact the
rage of Xerxes and his outburst.
 Modern scientists however, have concluded that this might be the first
recorded instance of something.
 What is that thing?

30. Tsunami
Death Toll :
Indefinite

31. Q8
 The London X are a baseball team based in London, Ontario.
 The franchise was founded as Slippery Rock Sliders in 2007 and named to
Midwest Sliders in 2008. After being renamed again as the Midwest Sliders of
Ypsilanti in 2009 and to Oakland County Cruisers in 2010, the franchise
resurrected in 2012 and became the “X”.
 The name X is highly controversial. Megan Walker, director of local London
Abused Women’s Center stated that “People are outraged. I think it's
appalling. It's insulting and stupid and they better rethink their entire
marketing strategy”.
 The name X is related to a series of events in London, England.
 ID X, or the series of events.

33. Rippers
Death Toll : 11 at least

34. Q9
 Below is the painting Chichester Canal by J.M.W. Turner. The painting is
famous for its spectacular sunset which, by all accounts is true to the event.
The event that caused this had massive ramifications in all fields.

35.  One of the unusual effects of the event was that A moved from
Vermont to New York for richer soil, and better growing
conditions. A, on his travels, experienced several supernatural
incidents that led to the formation of X.
 Incessant rainfall during the wet, ungenial summer forced B, and
his/her friends to stay indoors at Villa Diodati overlooking Lake
Geneva. They contested who could write the scariest story. Thus Y
was written.
 Lack of oats to feed horses may have inspired the German inventor
Karl Drais to invent the C and D, which were the forerunners of Z
 ID X,Y,Z, and the event (Part points – 10 each)
 P.S. Most specific answer gets the points
 Hints available if needed – A, B, C and D

37. A Year Without Summer
 Or Summer of 1816 X : Mormonism
Y : Frankenstein
Z : Bicycle
Death toll : can’t be calculated

38. Q10
 The event was the first-ever benefit concert of
such a magnitude and featured a supergroup of
performers that included Harrison, fellow ex-
Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric
Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the
band Bad finger. In addition, Shankar and Ali
Akbar Khan – both of whose ancestry is from X
- performed an opening set of Indian classical
music. Decades later, Shankar would say of the
overwhelming success of the event: "In one day,
the whole world knew the name of X. It was a
fantastic occasion ...“
 For what cause was the concert organised?

40. 1971 Bangladesh Genocide
Death Toll : 3,000,000

41. Q11
 Harry Meadows was a pensioner and an accidental killer.
 In 1961, Harry Meadows did something that killed 3 residents of
the Haslemere Home for the Elderly.
 A year before, 81 year old Gladys of the same old age home
performed a striptease for her fellow residents and killed one
resident through shock.
 Harry Meadows himself was 87 years old when he decided to
“perform his act”.
 The home was forced to shut down due to these to events.
 What act did Meadows put on?

43. Dressed as the Grim Reaper
Death Toll : 3

44. Q12
 The pole of inaccessibility is a point on a landmass that is furthest
from any coastline.
 The pole of inaccessibility of Antarctica, or the Southern Pole of
Inaccessibility refers to the site of the X research station lying 878
km from the South Pole. It is considered much more difficult to
reach this point as compared to the geographic South Pole.
 The building still remains at this location, although buried under
snow. Only the bust of Y is still visible which was atop the research
station, built 57 years ago.
 ID Y.

46. Vladimir Lenin
Death Toll : 4,000,000

47. Q13
 Contrary to popular belief, X used to send a 30 day notice
regarding their arrival.
 When X came to an area, a member would go to the Sunday Mass
and preach the Edict of Faith. In the Edict of Grace, the member
gave several week period in which people could confess their own
actions. However, if the person chose not to repent, then he/she
would be excommunicated.
 ID X.

49. The Spanish Inquisition
Death Toll : approx 150,000
P.S. I had to throw one in
there :p

50. Q14
 Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier christened the X. Sentenced to die for
robbery and murder, the execution had stayed as the means to
execute Pelletier were being developed. Judge Moreau implored the
developments be hurried as “For a man condemned to death, every
moment that prolongs his life must be a death for him”.
 As the execution took place, successful from the eyes of the
inventor and executioners, the crowd seemed displeased. “Give me
back my wooden gallows” one man cried.
 ID X.

52. Guillotine
Death Toll : at least 40,000

53. Q15
 The figure shows the mechanism of a device
used until the mid-19th century.
 Variations of it are still present today, however,
there is no need of them now, and they usually
have aesthetic or traditional value
 1. What was the use of the device?
 2. What mid-19th century invention caused its
use to stop?
 3. What phrase was inspired by this device and
was also the name of a 90s sitcom?
(10 points each, part points available)

55. Safety Coffin
 1. Safety Coffin
 2. Stethoscope
 3. Saved by the Bell

56. Q16
 The song Goodbye Horses by Q Lazzarus is, according to its writer “about
transcendence over those who see the world as only earthly and finite. The
horses represent the five senses from Hindu philosophy and the ability to lift
one’s perception above physical limitations and to see beyond this limited
Earthly perspective.”
 It was released in 1988 and has been featured in Married to the Mob, Clerks II,
and the Maniac remake. It is the official song of OverDrive1050.
 However the most famous use of this song connects it to Ted Bundy, Jerry
Brudos, Edward Gein, Gary M. Heidnik, Edmund Kemper and Gary Ridgway
– all serial killers, who have inspired the connect.
 What is the most famous use of this song?

57. Q16
 The song:

59. Silence of the Lambs
Buffalo Bill , Death Toll : 5

60. Q17 (Hint available)
 Chocolate Syrup was responsible for the success of one of the most
famous murders in 1960. How?
 Very specific answer needed on pounce
 Most specific answer gets it on direct
#kolstylz

62. Blood in Psycho Shower scene
Death Toll : It’s a movie

63. Q18
 Saturn Return is an astrological phenomenon that occurs when
Saturn returns to the same place in the sky that it occupied at the
moment of person’s birth. It is seen as the first time a person is
faced with adult challenges and responsibilities.
 This phenomenon has been connected to a series of deaths, that
have continued till date. Mostly identified as the person failing to
enter into adulthood due to any reason – drinking, drugs or they
didn’t deserve it.
 What is this death-related phenomenon known as popularly?

65. 27 club

66. Q19
 The family of Sardar Himmat Singh, a noble in the court of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh, owned this land.
 Himmat Singh originally hailed from the village of ____________, now
in the Fatehgarh Sahib District of Punjab.
 The principal seat of the family later became known as Alavarpur in
Jalandhar district.
 The site is an uneven unoccupied space, an irregular quadrangle,
indifferently walled 225 x 180 meters which was used as a dumping
ground more than anything else before something happened there that
made it famous.
 What is the significance of this site today?

68. Jallianwala Bagh
Death toll : 379

69. Q20
 Abhishek Sharma, director of Tere Bin Laden wrote the graphic novel
__________ about a misunderstood superhero, who is a result of a
science experiment gone wrong.
 The events are based on true life events that occurred in Delhi in 2001
and Kanpur in 2002.
 The entire incident resulted in 2 deaths when people jumped off roofs
frightened.
 What is being talked about?

71. Monkeyman
Death toll : 2

72. Q21
 In 1956, gull population in England arose due to the huge amount of
organic matter being generated in landfills.
 The reason for this amount of garbage was Y. Y was a law enacted to
prevent X.
 Y prevented traditional treatment of garbage that had stopped landfills
from being formed.
 X took 12,000 lives, and is considered to be the worst event of its type.
 ID X.

74. London Smog
Death toll : 12,000

75. Q22
 Hannibal, days after the surrender of Carthage, was put in charge to
fight against a rival navy. Though outnumbered, Hannibal came up with
a plan.
 The plan that Hannibal came up with bears striking resemblance to a
2006 movie.
 The movie was an internet phenomenon and was alluded on television,
fan films, video games and literature.
 Hannibal’s story is historic proof that the scenario in the movie, would
indeed be deadly when put into reality.
 ID the movie.

77. Snakes on a Plane

78. Q23 – Fill in the Blank
 The following text was a radio announcement by Herbert O. Morrison during
the Hindenburg Disaster.
 Morrison and engineer Charlie Nehlsenhad been assigned by station WLS in
Chicago to cover the arrival of the Hindenburg in New Jersey for delayed
broadcast.
 Radio network policy in those days forbade the use of recorded material
except for sound effects on dramas, and Morrison and Nehlsen had no
facilities for live broadcast. Still the results became the prototype for news
broadcasting in the war years to follow. The fame of this recording had no
effect on network policies, however, and it was not until after the end
of World War II that recordings were regularly used.
 Morrison's description began routinely but changed instantly as the airship
burst into flames:

81. Oh, the Humanity