Quiz of the Day
The Nobel Prizes & Peacemakers
Monday, 21 September 2026
The UN International Day of Peace is 21 Sep — questions on Nobel laureates, famous peacemakers and world-changing prizes
1. The Nobel Prizes were established by the will of which Swedish inventor?
- Carl Linnaeus
- Anders Celsius
- Lars Magnus Ericsson
- Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel was a chemist and engineer who invented dynamite and held hundreds of patents. When a French newspaper mistakenly published his obituary calling him 'the merchant of death,' he was reportedly moved to leave his fortune to fund prizes recognizing those who benefit humanity. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, five years after his death.
2. In which city is the Nobel Peace Prize awarded each year?
- Oslo
- Geneva
- Copenhagen
- Stockholm
While most Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, the Peace Prize is uniquely presented in Oslo, Norway. Alfred Nobel's will specified that the Peace Prize be chosen by a committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament. At the time of his death, Norway and Sweden were joined in a union under a single monarch.
3. Which civil rights leader won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence?
- Malcolm X
- Thurgood Marshall
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Rosa Parks
At 35, Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the youngest people ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the time. He donated the entire prize money of about $54,000 to the civil rights movement. He was recognized for leading nonviolent resistance to end racial segregation in the United States.
4. Which South African leader shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk for ending apartheid?
- Oliver Tambo
- Desmond Tutu
- Steve Biko
- Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison before his release in 1990. He and President F. W. de Klerk were jointly honored for their work to peacefully dismantle apartheid and lay the foundations for a democratic South Africa. Mandela went on to become South Africa's first Black president in 1994.
5. Who became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate when she won the Peace Prize in 2014?
- Nadia Murad
- Emma Watson
- Greta Thunberg
- Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai was just 17 when she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy of girls' education. She had survived being shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 for campaigning for the right to attend school. She shared the prize with Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.
6. Which scientist is the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, Physics and Chemistry?
- Marie Curie
- Lise Meitner
- Rosalind Franklin
- Dorothy Hodgkin
Marie Curie won the Physics Prize in 1903 (shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel) and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for her work on radioactivity and the elements polonium and radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She remains the only person to win Nobels in two distinct scientific fields.
7. Which Indian-born nun won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her charitable work in Kolkata (Calcutta)?
- Mirabai
- Amrita Sher-Gil
- Mother Teresa
- Sister Nirmala
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in what is now North Macedonia, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She was recognized for her work aiding the poor, sick and dying in India. She was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2016.
8. How many Nobel Prize categories were originally established in Alfred Nobel's will?
- Five
- Six
- Four
- Seven
Nobel's will established five prizes: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. A sixth prize in Economic Sciences was added in 1968, funded by Sweden's central bank, and is officially the 'Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.' It is not technically one of the original Nobel Prizes.
9. The UN International Day of Peace, observed on 21 September, was established by which body?
- The European Union
- The United Nations General Assembly
- The Nobel Committee
- The Red Cross
The International Day of Peace was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1981. In 2001, the Assembly fixed the date as 21 September each year and declared it a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. The day is often marked by the ringing of the Japanese Peace Bell at UN headquarters in New York.
10. Which US president won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War?
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Woodrow Wilson
- William Taft
- Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in any category. He helped negotiate the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the war between Russia and Japan. He was also honored for his role in resolving a dispute with Mexico through arbitration.
11. Which Egyptian president shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for the Camp David Accords with Israel?
- Anwar Sadat
- Gamal Abdel Nasser
- Hosni Mubarak
- Yasser Arafat
Anwar Sadat shared the 1978 prize with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for negotiating the Camp David Accords, brokered by US President Jimmy Carter. The agreement led to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by militants opposed to the peace deal.
12. Which organization has won the Nobel Peace Prize a record three times, in 1917, 1944 and 1963?
- Doctors Without Borders
- The United Nations
- Amnesty International
- The International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the only three-time Peace Prize laureate. Its founder, Henry Dunant, also shared the very first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. The organization was recognized for its humanitarian work protecting victims of armed conflict, especially during the two World Wars.
13. Which Polish-born scientist and peace activist gave up the profits from the discovery of radium, refusing to patent it?
- Maria Goeppert Mayer
- Irène Joliot-Curie
- Marie Curie
- Chien-Shiung Wu
Marie and Pierre Curie chose not to patent the radium-isolation process, believing scientific discoveries should benefit all of humanity freely. During World War I, Marie developed mobile X-ray units, nicknamed 'petites Curies,' to help treat wounded soldiers near the front lines. Her notebooks remain so radioactive they are kept in lead-lined boxes.
14. Which Kenyan environmentalist won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for founding the tree-planting Green Belt Movement?
- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
- Leymah Gbowee
- Wangari Maathai
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Her Green Belt Movement encouraged communities, especially women, to plant trees to combat deforestation and poverty, resulting in tens of millions of trees planted. She linked environmental sustainability directly to peace and democracy.
15. Which Vietnamese leader declined the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, making him one of the few to refuse it?
- Ho Chi Minh
- Vo Nguyen Giap
- Le Duc Tho
- Ngo Dinh Diem
Le Duc Tho was jointly awarded the 1973 Peace Prize with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for negotiating a ceasefire in the Vietnam War. He declined the prize, stating that peace had not yet truly been established in Vietnam. He remains the only person to voluntarily turn down a Nobel Peace Prize.