What links the gramophone and Antoinette Perry? The Saturday quiz

The questions

1 Who used to celebrate the anniversary of his 1658 kidney stone operation?
2 Virgil and Beatrice were whose poetic guides?
3 Which country is currently in its Reiwa era?
4 Who is the only driver to win world titles on two and four wheels?
5 Under what rural-sounding name did Amanda Owen find fame?
6 Which river flows from Black Forest to Black Sea?
7 Who is the Hindu creator god?
8 Cartoonist Rube Goldberg was the US counterpart of which British artist?
What links:
9 Lariat; opera; matinee; princess; choker?
10 Olly Alexander; Simon Le Bon; Karen O; Marti Pellow; Katie White?
11 A Room of One’s Own; The Common Reader; Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid?
12 46656; 3125; 256; 27; 4; 1?
13 Image orthicon tube; gramophone; Margaret Herrick’s uncle (possibly); Antoinette Perry?
14 Viv Anderson, 1978, and Kerry Davis, 1982?
15 Buchanan Castle; Tower of London; Spandau prison?

Dizzy over the Olly Alexander clue? Photograph: Polydor Records/PA

The answers

1 Samuel Pepys.
2 Dante (Divine Comedy).
3 Japan.
4 John Surtees.
5 Yorkshire shepherdess.
6 Danube.
7 Brahma.
8 Heath Robinson.
9 Lengths of necklace.
10 Singers in bands with repeated names: Years & Years; Duran Duran; Yeah Yeah Yeahs; Wet Wet Wet; Ting Tings.
11 Essays by Virginia Woolf.
12 x to the power of x, from 6 to 1.
13 Name origins of Egot awards: Emmy; Grammy; Oscar; Tony.
14 First black players for senior England men’s and women’s teams.
15 Rudolf Hess housed there after his flight to Scotland.