In the spirit of the King William's College General Knowledge Paper, released each December for completion over the Christmas break, I offer my own set of questions for the holidays.

While you are welcome to answer these questions from your own knowledge, it is intended that you may use any means of research available to you.

You still do not get a bonus mark for knowing which Princess Charlotte.

There is no prize. Please don't post answers here, to avoid spoilers for other quizzers. I shall release them in January.

Many thanks to my wife for having a collection of obscurities that overlaps with mine.

(Yes, it's another short one this year. [Shrug] 2023.)

1. In 1923:

1. What spun up for the first time?
2. What provider of sudden darkness began its operations in the Union of South Africa?
3. Where was a port opened, with a city to follow, just round the coast from the established ones, but with a crucial distinction of political control?
4. Where was the British Empire Exhibition Stadium opened?
5. What acronymic company for the exploitation of aerial navigation conducted its first flight?
6. Into what was more than half of the world's available helium gathered?
7. Where was a deadly earthquake followed by ethnically-motivated violence?
8. What technology was the subject of British and American patents, a prototype in Hastings and a demonstration in the USA?
9. Where did a number of US warships run aground, in succession, at speed in heavy fog?
10. What was written on the Californian real-estate advertising sign, later to become more famous in a shorter form?

2.

1. Who got his name because he had clearly led a roving and adventurous life?
2. Whose long-standing feud led to cries of "Curse you!" and a pop song which reached #1 in Australia, #2 in the USA and #6 in the UK?
3. Whose name was belied by his sex?
4. Who knocked over a tea-table and was immortalised in song?
5. Whose devotion to duty led to a bloody and undeserved death?
6. Who spent his life waiting for 1 to return home under a different name?
7. Who first appeared in 1922 and had a renaissance in a different form in 1962, followed by a rapid name-change?
8. Who was associated with the Edinburgh police and shared a name with London policemen?
9. Whose ghost-busting adventures came about as a reaction against violence, and was originally Too Much?
10. Who might have spoken but chose not to, managing to reveal a fake by pulling back a curtain?

3. In 1823:

1. Who found the bones that turned out not to be of a lady at all (though they were decorated)?
2. Who put together an 11-man force to protect settlers in a territory of newly-independent Mexico?
3. How was Hannibal elevated into dead men's shoes?
4. Who purportedly invented a sport named after its place of origin?
5. Which stage adaptation of a recent work of science fiction opened in London?
6. What institution's new building, to handle its ever-growing collection (including a donation from the King), was begun in London?
7. Who (allegedly) took six weeks to reach civilisation after being left for dead from a grizzly attack?
8. Which of the Gothic greats turned her last phrase?
9. Where would you find the Countess Euthanasia?
10. What nonexistent island was reported near Antarctica?

4.

1. What were seen bleating terribly and tearing up the ground?
2. Who was best friends with Lenny and greatly opposed to Big Baz?
3. Who enjoyed life in Tipperary, but was taken as far afield as Deauville?
4. Who opened a hairdressing salon with Shaun?
5. Who presented knitting needles for oars, and sold an egg which developed very strangely?
6. Who was pitted against the grocer, the policeman and the Mayor?
7. Who was demonically depicted when he ran for a Republican primary, and defeated (perhaps) as a result?
8. What was rescued by Dick in a scene of derring-do?
9. Why was nobody tied under an animal during an escape?
10. Who wrote about a sheep-herding pig?

5. In 2023:

1. Where did what open for the first time since 1988, and for very nearly the same reason?
2. What vessel sank in the same place as its near namesake, though after a few more voyages?
3. Who brought a five-year event, and his own life on the road, to an end in Stockholm?
4. Who came back for the fifth time to prove that more than ever he belongs in a museum?
5. What was successfully transplanted for the first time?
6. Of what club did India become the fourth member?
7. What in Ohio might have recalled European battlefields of 1915?
8. What caused the second, third and fourth largest bank collapses in US history?
9. Where did at least 400 cult members die, with as many more not accounted for?
10. Where did the eight-year journey of Juice begin?