Television appearances and happy birthday returns – take the Thursday quiz

Here is Michael Gambon, who we sadly lost last week. But in which Doctor Who story did he star? Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

It is the quiz master’s birthday today, and for that reason, he is a million miles away from the Guardian website. Still, before he went, he scribbled down 15 questions tangentially related to last week’s news, birthdays, anniversaries, and things he found buried down the back of the sofa. There are no prizes as it is just for fun, but let everyone know how you got on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 128

1. 

   BIRTHDAY SONG #1: Who is traditionally credited with writing the song Happy Birthday to You, regarded as the most recognised in the English language after boring people at birthday parties for decades?

   1. Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan

   2. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein

   3. Lucy Stone and Frances Harper

   4. Patty and Mildred Hill

2. 

   BIRTHDAY SONG #2: Which Beatles album (not pictured) has the song Birthday on it?

   1. Revolver (1966)

   2. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

   3. The Beatles (1968)

   4. Abbey Road (1969)

3. 

   SPACE ODDITY: It is World Space Week apparently. The timing is so it roughly coincides with the anniversary this week of the launch of the first human-made satellite, Sputnik 1. But in which year was that launch?

   1. 1957

   2. 1959

   3. 1961

   4. 1963

4. 

   REST WELL: We lost Michael Gambon last week. As well as blessing us with his presence in the Singing Detective and Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Gambon played Kazran Sardick and his father, Elliot, in which Doctor Who Christmas special?

   1. The Christmas Invasion

   2. The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

   3. A Christmas Carol

   4. Doctor Who and the 30-50 Feral Hogs

5. 

   MATHS WITH GOTHS: Fields of the Nephilim have built a number machine that takes the form "Input → -6 → x2 → +2 → Output". What is the output if singer Carl McCoy puts in 1 as the input?

   1. -8

   2. -12

   3. 8

   4. 16

6. 

   MATHS WITH RISHI SUNAK: At the weekend UK prime minister Rishi Sunak told Laura Kuenssberg on television that inflation is a tax. Is inflation a tax?

   1. Yes

   2. No

7. 

   GCSE BIOLOGY CORNER: What process do producers complete that others in a food chain do not?

   1. Respiration

   2. Decomposition

   3. Photosynthesis

   4. Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow

8. 

   HELPS YOU WORK REST AND PLAY: Earlier this year Mars bars trialled eco-friendly paper wrappers. But when was the confectionery first introduced?

   1. 1932

   2. 1942

   3. 1952

   4. 1962

9. 

   REVOLUTION #9: It is the anniversary of the 5 October revolution when Portugal overthrew their monarchy (not pictured) and became a republic. When?

   1. 1890

   2. 1910

   3. 1930

   4. 1950

10. 

    ODDS OR EVENS WITH SHAKIN' STEVENS: This week the Welsh rock'n'roll legend wants to know how many moons does the planet Neptune have?

    1. Odds – 13

    2. Evens – 14

11. 

    NORTH OR SOUTH WITH THE POKÉMON MEOWTH: Which of these central American countries contains the farthest mainland northern point?

    1. Belize

    2. Guatemala

    3. Nicaragua

    4. Panama

12. 

    TELEVISION PERSONALITIES: It is the anniversary of the first ever televised address by a US president from the Oval Office, made in 1947. By which president?

    1. Franklin D Roosevelt

    2. Harry S Truman

    3. Dwight D Eisenhower

    4. The ghost of Abraham Lincoln

13. 

    FORTY LOVE: 5 October is a busy day in history. It is also the anniversary of the death of Roland Garros. The tennis complex where the French Open is played is named in his honour. But what did he do to become famous?

    1. He was the leader of the first French expedition to reach the Antarctic

    2. He was a pioneering pilot who fought for France in the first world war

    3. He invented the scoring system for modern tennis, which was first adopted in France

    4. He was the chief French government negotiator that oversaw the treaty of Versailles

14. 

    FORTY WINKS: This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz, asleep. Sleep in humans is divided into REM sleep and non-REM sleep. How many stages of non-REM sleep are there according to the NHS?

    1. One

    2. Two

    3. Three

    4. 1,057

15. 

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME: Which member of Sparks shares their birthday (today) with the quiz master?

    1. Ron, the keyboard player

    2. Russell, the singer

Solutions

1:D - At one point the music publishers Warner Chappell claimed to own the copyright on it and wanted to charge people for public performances of it. The song's melody originated from a school teachers' greeting song titled Good Morning to All, composed by the US sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893, although this accreditation has been questioned. But it certainly wasn't any of the other three options., 2:C - It opens up side three of the LP often referred to as the White Album. That picture is a panda enjoying some birthday cake, by the way. It isn't a Beatle in a panda costume., 3:A - Sputnik 1 was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and sent a radio signal back for three weeks before its batteries ran out. It crashed back to the Earth in 1958., 4:C - In the episode, loosely based on the "past, present, future" concept in Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, the Doctor travels back in time to befriend a young Kazran in the hope he won't grow up to be such a spiteful misery, a role beautifully played by Gambon. , 5:A - 1 minus 6 gives you -5, multiply that by two to get -10, add two to get -8. Simple stuff, moonchild., 6:B - Rishi Sunak's words were "This is really important because you just said something that I completely disagree with. Inflation is a tax. You just said it isn't. Inflation is a tax". The Bank of England defines inflation as "a measure of how much the prices of goods and services have increased over time". It is not a tax., 7:C - It's true. Producers, also known as autotrophs, make their own food. They make up the first level of every food chain. Autotrophs are usually plants or one-celled organisms., 8:A - It was first manufactured in Slough, England, under the Mars bar name in 1932 by Forrest Mars. He modelled it after his father's Milky Way bar, which was already popular in the US, adjusting the recipe to – apparently – better suit European tastes., 9:B - Manuel II of Portugal, sometimes tagged "o Desventurado" or "the unfortunate", had ended up on the throne after his father, King Carlos I, was assassinated in 1908, but only lasted two years before the monarchy was ended., 10:B - Neptune has 14 known moons, which are named after minor water deities in Greek mythology. The largest is Triton. Discovered a mere 17 days after the discovery of Neptune in 1846, it is an absolute whopper and the sixth-largest moon in the solar system. Shakin' Stevens' latest album, Re-Set, came out in April., 11:A - Its eastern coast and border with Mexico stretches further north than Guatemala, which is to Belize's west., 12:B - The subject of his talk was food aid support for the reconstruction of Europe after the second world war. Truman delivered a live version for television, and then made a separate recording that could be used in newsreels in cinemas., 13:B - Garros is credited with developing the workable mechanism to allow front-mounted guns to fire without hitting an aircraft's own propellor, which was generally deemed to be a suboptimal turn of events if you were flying in it., 14:C - NHS fact sheets generally divide non-REM sleep into three phases: the dozing stage, light sleep and deep sleep or slow-wave sleep. Humans are recommended to get between seven and nine hours sleep a day. Miniature dachshunds appear to prefer about 23 hours of sleep a day., 15:B - Russel Mael was also born on 5 October, a couple of years earlier than me. Happy birthday Russell! Happy birthday me! May you all enjoy a wonderful day too!

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – but not as much fun as the quiz master is having on his birthday!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and he really has got better things to do on his birthday than read his email.