# U.S. History trivia quiz **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 26, 2007, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091 "2007-10-26T12:09:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 35
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/681 "2007-12-04T02:31:10Z")
[QUOTE=Danimal] Here are some random ones: 1. Under the original terms of the 1862 Homestead Act, how many acres could a homesteader claim? 2. Who wrote a famous early Cold War essay under the pseudonym, “X”? 3. What patron of the back-to-Africa movement founded the Black Star Line? [/QUOTE] 4. 160 5. George Keenan 6. Marcus Garvey ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/682 "2007-12-04T03:30:33Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] 395. I think you’re talking about the Anasazi. Who are getting more attention these days since the scarce evidence seems to indicate that their culture was victim of a massive ecological disaster/civilization-wide crops failure. [/QUOTE] The Anasazi people did not disappear, but rather the society did. I mean, it’s not like everyone vanished into thin air. They eventually became the Hopi and maybe some of the Pueblo Indians. I spent quite a bit of time at Anasazi sites in the Southwest way back when. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/683 "2007-12-04T04:53:46Z")
[QUOTE=Governor Quinn] … 408. George Keenan … [/QUOTE] 1. George F. **Kennan** (and I met him once in college!) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/684 "2007-12-04T14:51:48Z")
U.S. ambassadors and diplomacy… 1. As minister to Paris he charmed the French and, by implying that the new United States might strike a separate deal with Britain, insured vital French support for the war effort. 2. Appointed by Bill Clinton, she was the first female Secretary of State. 3. He served as U.S. ambassador to the UN, the first black man to do so, and was later elected mayor of Atlanta. 4. A self-described conservative Democrat, she served as President Reagan’s first ambassador to the UN. 5. The decoding and publication of this German diplomatic dispatch hastened U.S. entry into World War I. Why? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/685 "2007-12-04T15:17:59Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] 415. The decoding and publication of this German diplomatic dispatch hastened U.S. entry into World War I. Why? [/QUOTE] 1. The Zimmerman Telegram was an attempt to seduce Mexico into siding with the Central Powers in the event that the US entered the war. ISTR that it included promises of German support for territorial concessions from the US to Mexico, but I couldn’t guess what was being offered. Expired questions, and their answers: > [@](#): > > 1. Speaking of Jimmy Carter, he was a nuclear qualified engineering officer in the US Sub fleet. Can anyone name which of the Navy’s prototype reactor plants he qualified on for his nuke training? (And if you know this, you’ve just proven yourself to be a huge Navy fanboy/girl.) 1. The Navy’s S3G prototype at the KAPL in West Milton, NY. > [@](#): > > 1. Around the beginning of the first world war, there was a public catastrophe involving a group of teens going out in an overloaded motor vessel, which then sank in Boston Harbor. All aboard were killed. The M/V shared its name with a popular local soft drink of the era. What was it? 1. The launch was the M/V _Moxie_. Something like 10 or more teens crowded into a launch meant for five or six at most. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/686 "2007-12-04T15:53:41Z")
1. As minister to Paris he charmed the French and, by implying that the new United States might strike a separate deal with Britain, insured vital French support for the war effort. **Benjamin Franklin** 2. Appointed by Bill Clinton, she was the first female Secretary of State. **Madeleine Albright** 3. He served as U.S. ambassador to the UN, the first black man to do so, and was later elected mayor of Atlanta. **Andrew Young** 4. A self-described conservative Democrat, she served as President Reagan’s first ambassador to the UN. **Jeanne Kirkpatrick** 5. He went on statewide TV, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, to indignantly show pictures of students being turned back by bayonet-wielding U.S. troops during his state’s most notable crisis of the Civil Rights Movement. **Orval Faubus of Arkansas** ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/687 "2007-12-04T15:56:05Z")
[QUOTE=5 time champ] 412. Appointed by Bill Clinton, she was the first female Secretary of State. **Madeleine Albright** [/QUOTE] Thank you! I was going nuts. I knew she had the initials M. A., and all I could think of was Margaret Atwood. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/688 "2007-12-04T19:05:23Z")
[QUOTE=5 time champ] 411. As minister to Paris he charmed the French and, by implying that the new United States might strike a separate deal with Britain, insured [sic - ensured] vital French support for the war effort. **Benjamin Franklin** 1. Appointed by Bill Clinton, she was the first female Secretary of State. **Madeleine Albright** 2. He served as U.S. ambassador to the UN, the first black man to do so, and was later elected mayor of Atlanta. **Andrew Young** 3. A self-described conservative Democrat, she served as President Reagan’s first ambassador to the UN. **Jeanne Kirkpatrick** 4. He went on statewide TV, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, to indignantly show pictures of students being turned back by bayonet-wielding U.S. troops during his state’s most notable crisis of the Civil Rights Movement. **Orval Faubus of Arkansas** [/QUOTE] All correct, and **OtakuLoki** is correct about the Zimmerman Telegram. IIRC, Mexico was promised the land it lost to the U.S. in the Mexican War. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/689 "2007-12-05T03:54:12Z")
[QUOTE=5 time champ] 377. He went on statewide TV, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, to indignantly show pictures of students being turned back by bayonet-wielding U.S. troops during his state’s most notable crisis of the Civil Rights Movement. **Orval Faubus of Arkansas** [/QUOTE] Sadly, a distant relative of mine. My mother came from Arkansas hillbilly stock, and my great-grandmother’s maiden name was Faubus. ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/690 "2007-12-05T04:10:02Z")
[QUOTE=Governor Quinn] 407. 160 1. George Keenan 2. Marcus Garvey [/QUOTE] 3. Correct 4. Correct except as to spelling. 5. Correct. And **Julius Henry** is correct: Beecher’s Bibles were rifles that the abolitionist Reverend Beecher smuggled into Kansas in boxes marked as containing Chritian holy books. 1. Paul Morphy was 19th century America’s outstanding player of what game? 2. What important transportation innovation did Frank Sprague pioneer? ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/691 "2007-12-05T08:19:04Z")
1. Paul Morphy was 19th century America’s outstanding player of what game? Chess ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/692 "2007-12-05T08:22:40Z")
1. What railway innovation did Gustavus Swift use to revolutionize the Chicago meat-packing industry in the latter 19th century? Refrigerated cars. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/693 "2007-12-05T15:43:29Z")
Great battles in American history… 1. Frustrated by the bungling of Gen. Charles Lee during this battle, George Washington lost his temper and swore so long and profanely that a witness said nearby trees shook. 2. The victorious Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry wrote after this battle, “We have met the enemy and he is ours.” 3. The Marine Corps remembers this Mexican War battle in its anthem. 4. The Union’s strategic victory in this battle gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. 5. This bitter urban struggle of the Vietnam War is commemorated by the name of an Aegis missile cruiser. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/694 "2007-12-05T16:17:32Z")
1. Frustrated by the bungling of Gen. Charles Lee during this battle, George Washington lost his temper and swore so long and profanely that a witness said nearby trees shook. **Brooklyn** 2. The victorious Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry wrote after this battle, “We have met the enemy and he is ours.” **Lake Eire** 3. The Marine Corps remembers this Mexican War battle in its anthem. **Monterey** 4. The Union’s strategic victory in this battle gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. **Antietim** 5. This bitter urban struggle of the Vietnam War is commemorated by the name of an Aegis missile cruiser. **Tet**? ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/695 "2007-12-05T16:20:18Z")
House Judiciary Committee during Nixon Impeachment hearings 403. NJ Democrat & Committee Chair 1. NJ Republican & staunch defender of Nixon [odd last name] 2. IL Republican would later chair an impeachment hearing 3. MA Democrat & Roman Catholic priest [IIRC] 4. ME Republican would later serve in Cabinet ---
**Author:** ![usar\_jag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/696 "2007-12-05T17:03:04Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] 422. This bitter urban struggle of the Vietnam War is commemorated by the name of an Aegis missile cruiser. [/QUOTE] **USS Hue City** ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/697 "2007-12-05T17:14:06Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Fort Jefferson, which was and is in the Dry Tortugas. And I agree with you about Dr. Mudd’s level of culpability (I’ll be taking a “Booth’s escape route” tour next spring and expect to learn more). I _believe_ he was the only Lincoln conspirator sent to Fort Jefferson, but I may be wrong. Now don’t anybody go looking it up until the game is over! [/QUOTE] Fort Jefferson is on Key West. It’s historical significance is it was under Northern control during the war. However the prison is in the Dry Tortugas ,70 miles away accessable only by boat and air. I have visited both and Mudd did hard time. The prison is very depressing . ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/698 "2007-12-05T19:56:38Z")
[QUOTE=5 time champ] 418. Frustrated by the bungling of Gen. Charles Lee during this battle, George Washington lost his temper and swore so long and profanely that a witness said nearby trees shook. **Brooklyn** 1. The victorious Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry wrote after this battle, “We have met the enemy and he is ours.” **Lake Eire** 2. The Marine Corps remembers this Mexican War battle in its anthem. **Monterey** 3. The Union’s strategic victory in this battle gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. **Antietim** 4. This bitter urban struggle of the Vietnam War is commemorated by the name of an Aegis missile cruiser. **Tet**? [/QUOTE] 5. Incorrect. 6. Um… incorrect. (Eire is the Gaelic term for Ireland). 7. Well, I’m not sure. Can you quote the key phrase in the anthem? Then I’ll know if you’re right. 8. Antietam, yes. 9. Incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/699 "2007-12-05T20:00:23Z")
[QUOTE=5 time champ] House Judiciary Committee during Nixon Impeachment hearings 403. NJ Democrat & Committee Chair 1. NJ Republican & staunch defender of Nixon [odd last name] 2. IL Republican would later chair an impeachment hearing 3. MA Democrat & Roman Catholic priest [IIRC] 4. ME Republican would later serve in Cabinet [/QUOTE] Renumbered for consistency, given previous questions of those numbers. 1. Peter Rodino. 2. Dunno. 3. Henry Hyde, recently deceased. 4. Fr. Robert Drinan. 5. William Cohen, SecDef in President Clinton’s second term. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091/700 "2007-12-05T20:02:17Z")
[QUOTE=usar\_jag] [422. Aegis cruiser] **USS Hue City** [/QUOTE] Correct. Lead U.S. warship of the International Naval Review in New York harbor about a decade ago, BTW. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091.md?page=34) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-history-trivia-quiz/424091.md?page=36)