Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (118 page)

JULY 18

1936
T
HE FIRST
O
SCAR
M
AYER
Wienermobile, a thirteen-foot-long hot dog, rolls out of a General Motors factory in Chicago.

WHEEL PEOPLE

What distinctive vehicles were driven by…

Easy

1.
Michael Knight

2.
Speed Racer

3.
Bo and Luke Duke

Harder

1.
Fred Jones

2.
Arnie Cunningham

3.
The Green Hornet

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Jim Douglas

2.
Humbert Humbert

3.
Caractacus Potts

1941
M
ARTHA
R
EEVES, STILL
twenty years away from fronting the Vandellas, is born in Alabama.

SEND BACKUP!

Name these backing bands from their lead singers.

Easy

1.
Smokey Robinson

2.
Joan Jett

3.
Tom Petty

4.
Gladys Knight

5.
Buddy Holly

Harder

1.
Marky Mark

2.
Jonathan Richman

3.
George Thorogood

4.
Edie Brickell

5.
Bruce Hornsby

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Bobby “Boris” Pickett

2.
Bo Donaldson

3.
Robyn Hitchcock

4.
Billy J. Kramer

5.
Little Joe Cook

1976
N
ADIA
C
OMANECI SCORES
the first perfect 10 in women’s Olympic gymnastics history. The scoreboard, unequipped to handle the extra digit, displays her mark as a “1.00.”

PERFECTIONISM

Can you score a perfect 5.0 on these questions?

1.
What was Balki’s home island on TV’s
Perfect Strangers
?

2.
What New Wave band used to say, with some truth, that their name was Chinese for “perfect pitch”?

3.
Who’s the oldest man ever to pitch a major-league perfect game?

4.
The Michael Douglas/Gwyneth Paltrow film
A Perfect Murder
is a remake of what 1950s thriller?

5.
Perfecto, torpedo, and parejo are all shapes of what?

JULY 19

1946
M
ARILYN
M
ONROE TAKES
her first screen test and is subsequently signed by Twentieth Century–Fox. Her big debut: she’s visible for a few seconds on the church steps in 1948’s unforgettable
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!

NOD AT FIRST

What actress earned an Oscar nomination for these very first screen appearances?

Easy

1.
Mary Poppins

2.
Children of a Lesser God

3.
Dreamgirls

4.
The Piano

5.
Funny Girl

Harder

1.
Maria Full of Grace

2.
On the Waterfront

3.
Breaking the Waves

4.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips

5.
Raging Bull

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Gaslight

2.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

3.
The Turning Point

4.
Alfie

5.
Sayonara

1966
A
FTER THE HOME TEAM
spends three months playing on an outfield of green-painted dirt, enough artificial grass is finally produced to complete the field at the Houston Astrodome. The Monsanto product is soon renamed “AstroTurf.”

DOME SWEET DOME

1.
Who built the world’s first free-standing geodesic dome in 1949?

2.
Who called their signature red hats “Flowerpots” or “Energy Domes”?

3.
What California peak, which erupted in 1915, is the world’s largest lava dome?

4.
Who plays their home games in the so-called Dean Dome?

5.
Who was, appropriately enough, the first person buried in the crypt beneath the dome of Saint Paul’s Cathedral?

1984
G
ERALDINE
F
ERRARO WINS
the vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention, making her the first woman ever to appear on a major-party presidential ticket.

IT’S A MAN’S WORLD

Match these women with their electoral firsts. Bonus points for naming the specific state/city/office involved.