National Trivia Day is celebrated across the United States each year on January 4.
The word “trivia” is plural for the word “trivium”.
In ancient times, the term “trivia” was appropriated to mean something very new.
Nostalgic college students in the 1960s along with others, began to informally trade questions and answers about the popular culture of their youth. After writing “trivia” columns, Columbia University students Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky created the earliest inter-collegiate quiz bowls that tested culturally (and emotionally) significant, yet essentially unimportant facts, which they dubbed “trivia contests”. Trivia (Dell, 1966) was the first book treating “trivia” in the radical new sense, authored by Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky. This book achieved a ranking on the New York Times best seller list.
Over time, the word “trivia” has come to refer to obscure and arcane bits of dry knowledge as well as nostalgic remembrances of pop culture.
In North America, the game, Trivial Pursuit. peaked in 1984, a year in which over 20 million games were sold.
Steven Point, Wisconsin holds the largest current trivia contest at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s college radio station WWSP 89.9 FM. April, 2013 hosted the 44th annual contest which usually has 400 teams ranging from 1 to 150 players. The contest, which is open to anyone, spans 54 hours over a weekend with eight questions each hour.