Who was the first recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize?

The correct answer is B, Oslo. Alfred Nobel's will placed the peace prize in the hands of a Norwegian body, so the winner is chosen by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the prize is presented at Oslo, the capital of Norway. Option A is wrong because Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is where the prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and economic sciences are presented, all on the same day, 10 December. Option C is wrong because Geneva is the seat of the International Committee of the Red Cross and of many United Nations bodies, but no Nobel Prize is given there. Option D is wrong because Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, which has no part in the Nobel Prizes. This division between Norway and Sweden is the single most asked fact about the peace prize.

The correct answer is A, Henry Dunant. The Swiss humanitarian Henry Dunant, whose account of the battlefield at Solferino led to the founding of the Red Cross and to the first Geneva Convention, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize of 1901 with the French campaigner Frederic Passy. Option B is wrong because Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer who became the first High Commissioner for Refugees, received the prize later, in 1922, and the Nansen Refugee Award is named after him. Option C is wrong because Woodrow Wilson, the American President associated with the League of Nations, received it for 1919. Option D is wrong because Theodore Roosevelt received it in 1906 for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. Dunant's name is the one to remember, because the Red Cross itself later won the prize three times.

The correct answer is B, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917 and 1944 for its work in the two World Wars and again in 1963, the centenary year of its founding. Option A is wrong because UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, received the prize once, in 1965. Option C is wrong because Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, received it once, in 1999. Option D is wrong because the World Food Programme received it once, in 2020, for feeding people in conflict zones. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is the organisation with two prizes, in 1954 and 1981, so a question may also ask for that. Remember the numbers as three for the Red Cross and two for the UNHCR.

The correct answer is B, 1979. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work among the destitute and the dying in Kolkata through the Missionaries of Charity, which she had founded in 1950. Option A is wrong because 1973 is the year she became the first recipient of the Templeton Prize, a different award. Option C is wrong because 1980 is the year she was given the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, which came a year after the Nobel. Option D is wrong because 1962 is the year of her Ramon Magsaysay Award. All four years belong to her, which is what makes the question difficult, so learn the sequence: Magsaysay 1962, Templeton 1973, Nobel 1979, Bharat Ratna 1980. Note also that the Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded, has its headquarters in Kolkata.

The correct answer is A, Malala Yousafzai. The prize for 2014 was shared by Kailash Satyarthi of India, who founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan against child labour, and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who campaigned for girls' education and who remains the youngest person to receive any Nobel Prize. Option B is wrong because Nadia Murad shared the prize for 2018 with Denis Mukwege for work against sexual violence in war. Option C is wrong because Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, received it for 2019. Option D is wrong because Maria Ressa shared it for 2021 with Dmitry Muratov for the defence of free expression. The pairing of an Indian and a Pakistani in one award is the reason this question is set so often. Malala was seventeen years old when she received it, which is a fact papers ask separately.