Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (139 page)

AUGUST 21

1858
T
HE FIRST
L
INCOLN
-D
OUGLAS DEBATE
is held, in Ottawa, Illinois. Jim Lehrer not having been invented yet, the leisurely format allows each candidate to speak for an hour uninterrupted.

WALL OF SOUND BITES

Who gave these famous quotes from twentieth-century debates?

1.
“Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.”

2.
“There you go again.”

3.
“I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all my life.”

4.
“There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.”

5.
“Who am I? Why am I here?”

1986
I
N A RARE “LIMNIC ERUPTION,”
the volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon suddenly releases 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide into the surrounding valley, suffocating thousands.

THE HOT SPOT

In what countries would you find, or try
not
to find, these active volcanoes?

Easy

1.
Etna

2.
Lassen Peak

3.
Krakatoa

4.
Fuji

Harder

1.
Pelée

2.
Santorini

3.
Popocatépetl

4.
Erebus

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Nevado del Ruiz

2.
Lamington

3.
Nyiragongo

4.
Taal

1997
O
LDSMOBILE BECOMES THE FIRST
American car brand to celebrate its one hundredth anniversary. Suggested new ad slogan: “This is not your great-grandfather’s Oldsmobile!”

CENTURY CITY

1.
The NAACP dates its founding to February 12, 1909, to honor the hundredth anniversary of what event?

2.
Which U.S. state is called the “Centennial State”?

3.
What privately funded spacecraft made its first powered flight on December 17, 2003, one hundred years to the day after the Wright brothers’ first flight?

4.
What team won the hundredth anniversary Stanley Cup—its twenty-fourth Cup—in 1993?

5.
On his hundredth birthday, the intersection of Hollywood and Vine was officially renamed for whom?

AUGUST 22

1485
T
HE
B
ATTLE OF
B
OSWORTH
F
IELD
marks the end of the Plantagenet dynasty—but it also marks the first outbreak of a strange, virulent epidemic called the “English sweat,” which kills thousands, often within hours of the first symptoms. The cause of the mysterious plague is still unknown.

PARTS UNKNOWN

And, speaking of unknown…

1.
What war saw the first soldier buried at Arlington’s Tomb of the Unknowns?

2.
What unusual item was worn by
The Gong Show
’s Unknown Comic, Murray Langston?

3.
What ominous phrase, used to mark
terra incognita
on old maps, derives from the sixteenth-century Hunt-Lenox globe?

4.
What was poured on anyone who said “I don’t know” on
You Can’t Do That on Television
?

5.
In what movie is $200,000 of Confederate gold buried in the grave marked “Unknown” next to Arch Stanton?

1932
T
HE
BBC
BEGINS
experimental television broadcasts from its Broadcasting House in London.

LITTLE BRITAIN

What British TV series featured these characters?

1.
Mr. Steed and Emma Peel

2.
James Hacker, MP, and Sir Humphrey Appleby

3.
Basil and Sybil

4.
Saffron and Bubble

5.
Eddie “Fitz” Fitzgerald and Jane “Panhandle” Penhaligon

6.
Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po

7.
The “It’s” Man, Mr. Eric Praline, the Spanish Inquisition

8.
Dave Lister and Frankenstein

9.
David Brent and Gareth Keenan

10.
Jeff Tracy and Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward

1978
P
RESIDENT
J
OMO
K
ENYATTA,
the founding father of Kenya, dies in Mombasa.

PATER PATRIAE

Name these countries from their national heroes, considered “founding fathers.”

Harder

1.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah

2.
José de San Martín

3.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

4.
Eamon de Valera

5.
José Martí

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Bernardo O’Higgins

2.
Stefan Stambolov

3.
Patrice Lumumba

4.
Afonso I

5.
Obafemi Awolowo

Easy

1.
Sun Yat-sen

2.
Peter the Great

3.
Giuseppe Garibaldi

4.
Mahatma Gandhi

5.
Otto von Bismarck