Today’s Grab Bag Tough Trivia question is:

There is one specific feature or quality that puts these people on the same list, these people and only these people. What is that thing which brings them together? Bonus points if you can also list them in the proper order of their placement on this list (rather than the simple alphabetical order in which they are presented here). Anousheh Ansari, Richard Garriott, Guy Laliberte, Gregory Olsen, Mark Shuttleworth, Charles Simonyi, and Dennis Tito.

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Yesterday’s question was:

Popular movies make money. Very popular movies spawn sequels. Incredibly popular movies become franchises. How many movies have been made in each of the following franchises?

The answers are:

The Fast and the Furious: 9 (starting in 2001)

Harry Potter: 10 (starting in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)

Indiana Jones: 4 (starting with 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark)

James Bond: 25 Eon Productions films (starting with 1962’s Dr. No) plus two non-canon films (1967’s Casino Royale and 1983’s Never Say Never Again)

Jurassic Park: 5 (starting in 1993)

Middle-earth: 6 (starting with 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring)

Pirates of the Caribbean: 5 (starting in 2003)

Planet of the Apes: 9 (starting in 1968)

Rocky: 8 (starting in 1976)

Star Trek: 13 (starting with 1979’s Star Trek the Motion Picture)

Star Wars: 11 (starting with 1977’s Star Wars, later subtitled “A New Hope”)

X-Men: 12 (starting in 2000)

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Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog (Monday’s category is History; Tuesday is Arts; Wednesday is Science; Thursday is Entertainment; and Friday is Grab Bag). Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

And if you’ve got a favorite trivia question—or even just a topic for which you’d like to see a question—let me know! Reader participation is warmly encouraged.