CATEGORY / history

Trivia Night, 2017

Following up on last year’s successful CSEB Trivia Night, we held the 2017 version last week on May 19.  There was substantially less turnout, due to the timing, I believe. But fun was had by all.

There were three rounds of 15 questions, followed by a 4th round of just 5 questions, with the theme of round 4 being all things Canadian. Due to popular demand, the rules for round 4 were also changed on the fly, with each point being worth 2 points, rather than just one, and 2 points being deducted for either a blank or incorrect response.

Here were the results:

TEAM NAME round 1 round 2 round 3 round 4 sum
rayputyourpantson 11 9 9 2 31
victorious secrets 5 2 5 -6 6
lets get quizzical 5 6 8 -2 17

Note that RayPutYourPantsOn changed their name several times. I just call them “Team Asshole”, because, well, you know.

Here are some pics:

The winners: RayPutYourPantsOn

Let’s Get Quizzical

Victorious Secrets

And now the questions. How well would you have done?

ROUND #1

No Category Question Answer
1 Geography In which U.S. state would you find Mount Rushmore? South Dakota
2 History What was Malcolm X’s real surname? Little
3 History/ Science Who was the first female Canadian astronaut to actually go to space? Roberta Bondar
4 Science What was the first planet to be discovered using the telescope? Uranus
5 Geography What body of water separates Saudi Arabia from Africa? The Red Sea
6 History / Politics Who is the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms? Franklin D. Roosevelt
7 History In what year was Napolean defeated at Waterloo? 1815
8 Science What percentage of the world’s population is left-handed? 10%, 20%, or 30%? 10%
9 Art How many paintings did Vincent Van Gogh sell during his lifetime? One, “The Red Vineyard at Arles”
10 Sports Who was the last NHL player to play without a helmet? Craig MacTavish
11 Geography What is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea? Sicily
12 Science In computer science, what does “GUI” stand for? Graphical User Interface
13 Sports Who is the only athlete ever to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series? Deion Sanders
14 Geography /Business In what city was the very first Hard Rock Cafe opened?  

London, UK

15 Geography In which state of the United States would you find Fort Knox? Kentucky

ROUND #2

No Category Question Answer
1 Science Which liquor is made from the blue agave plant? Tequila
2 Geography Yerevan is the capital city of what country? The Republic of Armenia
3 Music Which one of Prince’s songs reached highest on the music charts? When Dove’s Cry
4 Geography / History / Politics What did the letters of the former communist country U.S.S.R. stand for? Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
5 Science /Math What is the largest three-digit prime number? 997
6 Business What was the first commercial product that had a Barcode? Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Gum
7 Sports What professional wrestler was the first to defeat the Undertaker at Wrestlemania? Brock Lesnar
8 Geography What nation produces two thirds of the world’s vanilla? Madagascar (also accept Malagasy Republic)
9 Art Which painter started the impressionist movement? Claude Monet
10 Geography What is the only sea on Earth with no coastline? Sargasso Sea
11 Sports Who was the shortest player ever to play in the NBA? Tyrone Bogues
12 History In 1783, the first free flight of a hot air balloon carrying a human occurred in what city? Paris
13 Art What does the Statue of Liberty hold in her right hand? A torch
14 History The Beothuks were the indigenous people of what Canadian province? Newfoundland
15 Geography What’s the capital city of Zambia? Lusaka

ROUND #3

No Category Question Answer
1 History Who was Canada’s first female Prime Minister? Kim Campbell
2 Geography What’s the capital city of Croatia? Zagreb
3 History / Geography Which Great Lake did the Ojibwe call “Gichi-Gami” Lake Superior
4 Science Which blood type is the universal donor? O-
5 Science How many people have walked on the Moon? 12
6 Sports Which country originated the sport of Curling? Scotland
7 Business In what year was the first iPhone released? 2007
8 Mythology Who is the Greek god of victory? Nike
9 Science On what planet would you find the biggest volcano in the entire solar system? Mars
10 Music What was the Beatles’ first single (1962) Love Me Do
11 History /Geography Founded in 1607, what is considered to be the first permanent English settlement in the New World? Jamestown, Virginia
12 Philosophy “The Analects” is the name given to the collected wisdom of what philosopher? Confucius
13 Philosophy Who said, “Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward.” Soren Kierkegaard
14 History In what year did American women gain the legal right to vote in federal elections? 1920
15 History Who was the first woman to be US Secretary of State? Madeleine Albright (1996)

ROUND #4

No Category Question Answer
1 Politics Who is the youngest Prime Minister in Canadian history? Joe Clark (40); Trudeau was 43
2 Music Who was the first person inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame? (1978) Guy Lombardo or Oscar Peterson
3 Business When did Canada abandon the gold standard? 1908, 1933, 1971, never was, still is 1933
4 Politics What Canadian province has the highest percentage of women in their provincial legislature? BC (39%)
5 Geography What is the only officially bilingual province? New Brunswick

Obscure Historical Figure of the Day #10: John Rykener

(For part 9, click here.)

Transgender rights are the frontier of human rights debates in Western countries at the moment. To many, gender fluidity in the West might seem a very modern idea. So it may come as a shock to some to learn of the not insignificant presence of transvestites and other gender-unspecific individuals throughout European history.

One particular noteworthy individual was John Ryken (also known as Eleanor), who was famously interrogated b y officials in the 14th century for being a “cross-dressing” male prostitute. Here is an image of the famous text describing Ryken’s questioning:

The document is notable, according to Wikipedia, as the only surviving official record from that period that mentioned same-sex intercourse. The entry also states that:

During his interrogation, Rykener claimed to have had many clients including priests, monks and nuns; he said that he preferred priests because they paid better than others.

You can read the full text of Rykener’s interrogation here.

Obscure Historical Figure of the Day #9: the Emancipated Duelist

(This article features images borrowed from the collections of Drew Hammond and Nile Crocodile.)

I haven’t updated this series in a while. For parts 7 and 8, please click here.

Most of us have a romantic image of private duels conducted in the age of swordplay. We usually imagine snotty European noblemen, possibly a little drunk, and definitely a little pompous, squaring off in the woods to battle to the “first blood” or, less commonly, to the death. (more…)

Trivia Night!


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