U.S. History trivia quiz

The Game Room
761

Nope. The other SecWar/SecDef answers are correct.

762

OK, I’m game:

  1. This SecInt and former senator resigned in disgrace during the Teapot Dome scandal.
  2. This conservative SecInt ordered that the buffalo on the Department of the Interior’s seal be turned to face to… the right (yes, he was heraldically correct, but people still snickered).
  3. This Kennedy SecInt came from a prominent Western political family.
  4. This Bush SecInt was embarrassed when an article she wrote several years earlier, expressing support in principle for the Confederacy, came to light.
  5. This well-regarded Clinton SecInt was a former presidential candidate.
763

  1. This SecInt and former senator resigned in disgrace during the Teapot Dome scandal.
    Albert Fall

  2. This conservative SecInt ordered that the buffalo on the Department of the Interior’s seal be turned to face to… the right (yes, he was heraldically correct, but people still snickered).
    James Watt

  3. This Kennedy SecInt came from a prominent Western political family.
    Udall, Stewart?

  4. This Bush SecInt was embarrassed when an article she wrote several years earlier, expressing support in principle for the Confederacy, came to light.
    :smack: blanking on her name-from Colorado I think, not sure that I will be able to recall it
    On preview-Gale Norton?

  5. This well-regarded Clinton SecInt was a former presidential candidate.
    Bruce Babbit

So, next time they have open tryouts, you should go here http://www.jeopardy.com/contestants_searchinfo.php
I’ll give you a recommendation.

764

All correct. Damn, you’re good! I qualified for Jeopardy! once while I was in law school, c. 1991, but they never called me to be on the show. Bastards.

765

You have to be patient and persistent, I was on the waiting list three times before they finally called.

766

Okay, I have to ask - why would it have been heraldically correct to change the way that the buffalo faces on the Seal of the Department of the Interior?

767

Misc Secretaries
476. This SecAg from Indiana’s big mouth got him fired.

  1. This SecAg from Idaho was famous for potatoes.

  2. This SecAg under Eisenhower answered a higher calling later in life?

  3. The first SecVA?

  4. The second Cabinet Secretary to become President?

768

Madison was the second Secretary of State to become president. Jefferson was first.

769

  1. Earl Butz, fired by Ford for making an astonishingly racist remark during the '76 campaign.

  2. Ezra Taft Benson, who became the top Mormon dude (presiding bishop?).

770

Under the classical rules of heraldry, an animal should face to its right on a seal or coat of arms (as the bald eagle does on the Great Seal of the U.S.). The buffalo on the Department of the Interior’s seal faced to its left for many years, which wasn’t quite kosher, heraldically speakin’. Watt took some flak for seeming to indicate that the buffalo, too, had been caught up in the Reagan Revolution.

771

All correct so far.

Earl Butz’ "loose shoes . . " remark was made in the presence of & subsequently reported by john Dean of Watergate fame.

772

5 time, why was John Dean hanging out with Earl Butz? That would have been after Watergate.

Next… what is the significance of these dates in American history?

  1. Feb. 22, 1732
  2. Sept. 17, 1787
  3. July 4, 1826
  4. March 9, 1862
  5. Jan. 20, 1981
773

Hmm…

  1. I believe this is the date upon which both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died.

  2. This is the date that John Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan.
    Answering expired questions:

  1. Because the wreck was found in the 1980s and it became the first wreck of a pirate vessel to be examined using modern archaeologic techniques. (And I believe still the only known wreck of a pirate vessel.)
  1. Gen. Thomas Gage, who was relieved by Lord Howe after the Battle of Bunker Hill.
774

Two events: Ronald Reagan was inaugurated and the Iran hostages were released.

775

  1. Correct. Also the 50th anniversary of the public release of the Declaration of Independence (many but not all members of the Continental Congress signed it on the 2nd, but some didn’t for months or even years later, IIRC).

  2. Incorrect. Want2know has it, though.

776

George Washington’s date of birth.

777

  1. Sept. 17, 1787
    Adoption of the US Constitution

  2. March 9, 1862
    Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation ?

778

Correct.

779

  1. Yes, that was the day the Constitutional Convention voted to adopt it; it was ratified in 1788 by the requisite states.

  2. Incorrect.

Let’s turn to unsuccessful presidential candidates…

  1. This newspaper editor was defeated by Grant, and died soon afterwards.
  2. This candidate cried when she announced she was withdrawing from the 1988 race.
  3. This 1916 GOP nominee narrowly lost to Wilson, and later went on to serve as Chief Justice.
  4. This vainglorious general was defeated by Lincoln in 1864, but went on to serve as governor of New Jersey.
  5. This Maine Democrat ran for VP, then President, and eventually served as Secretary of State.
780

  1. Horace Greely?

  2. Ex-President Taft?

  3. Edmund Muskie.

Here are a couple more I thought of:

  1. Who was the last president born in a log cabin?

  2. Who was the first president born in a hospital?