Elevensies Trivia Quiz

On July 11, 1914, Babe Ruth entered the Major League as a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. The 19-year-old pitched 7 innings giving up only 5 hits. Between 1916 and 1918 Ruth pitched 29 consecutive scoreless innings of World Series play for the Red Sox. Why would any owner want to sell Ruth's contract? Well, Harry Frazee wanted to fund a musical called "No, No Nanette", and selling Ruth to the Yankees would make that possible. Simply insane.

The Red Sox would go on to have an 86-year World Series Title drought, not to be broken until 2004.

The Yankees took the star pitcher, moved him to the outfield, and, one could say, things worked out just fine for them.

At 11 o'clock on November 11, 1918, the Allies and Germany agreed to a ceasefire for 36 days which would be renewed until the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The Western Front for Germany was starting to collapse towards the end of 1918, and the Allies proposed a harsh treaty for the Germans to sign that would leave them demilitarized and unable to continue hostility. The day before the armistice, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, and recommended the Germans agree to the cease-fire as he walked out the door.

Sadly, November 11 was still a bloody day with thousands killed before guns fell silent at 11 am Paris time. While we now think of this day as the end of the Great War, at the time it was just a ceasefire, and both sides had to be prepared for hostilities to start again for over six months.

On January 11, 1922, a 13-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson, who was dying of type 1 diabetes, was given the first dose of insulin derived from a cattle's pancreas. Unfortunately, the first dose caused an allergic reaction possibly from impurities. The insulin was better refined and given to the boy again on January 23rd, successfully lowering sugar levels to almost normal. Up until this time, type 1 diabetes was a death sentence that would kill the patient within a year of onset.

Injected insulin allowed Thompson to live another 13 years until he died of pneumonia unrelated to diabetes. Discoverers Banting, Best, and Macleod sold their patent to the University of Toronto where they worked as they believed Insulin did not belong to them but to the people.

On January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first person to successfully fly from Hawaii to California. She was the 11th person to try this solo feat with the previous 10 dying in the effort. For some perspective, her flight took 18 hours to fly the 2400 miles which was 600 miles longer than Charles Lindbergh's New York to Paris flight. Earhart claimed a $10,000 prize for her successful trip. Sadly, two years later she was lost over the Pacific near Howland Island while trying to fly around the world.

The most catastrophic motorsport accident in history occurred on June 11, 1955, during a crash at the Le Mans 24-hour race in the 35th lap of the race. The crash caused debris to fly into the spectator stand causing 83 people to die and another 120 people to be injured. Race driver Pierre Levagh whose car had flown into the spectators also died in the crash.

The crash was determined to be the fault of the track being poorly constructed for the ever-faster vehicles. There was not a slow lane for drivers to enter a pit stop and the slight turn in the track made it difficult for them to slow down for competitors who were pit stopping.

As a result of the French disaster, the neighboring Swiss government outlawed motorsport racing until 2022.

On February 11, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini took over the Iranian government. The Shah had exiled him fifteen years previously with Khomeini spending time in Iraq and France leading up to his triumphant return. In the late 70s, he had been planting the seeds of setting up a government that would respect democracy and limits the Islamic clerics' influence in the government. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth once he actually took power.

He quickly established Sharia law based on his Shi'a ideology.

While this was a dream come true for conservative Islam, it quickly became repressive for everyone else. Khomeini stayed in power until his death in 1989.

On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison. Mandela was instrumental in establishing the ANC, an anti-colonial organization opposed to the white-only National Party. Mandela spent the next 5 years organizing protests and resistance movements. Mandela escalated his rhetoric to suggest military action against the apartheid government might be necessary to bring change.

This heightened level of threat led to increased time in prison for Mandela and his conspirators. He was finally sentenced to life in prison of hard labor on Robben Island. With mounting global pressure to end apartheid, President F. W. de Klerk started the process of releasing Mandela from his life sentence.

In April of 1994, Mandela went on to become the first democratically elected President of South Africa.

In Kyoto, Japan, on December 11, 1997, a treaty was adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The treaty was signed by 37 countries with the goal of reducing greenhouse emissions. The gasses targeted include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulfur hexafluoride.

While the signers reduced their emissions from 1990 to 2010 the rest of the world increased their emissions by 32% over that time. The protocol expired on December 31, 2012, and was replaced by the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attack was planned and executed by the al-Qaeda militant group. The plan involved hijacking 4 jumbo jets intended to crash into each of the Twin Towers in New York, The Pentagon in Arlington, and the White House in DC.

While the first three jets hit their targets, the last one was stopped by the brave passengers who overpowered the hijackers and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Sadly, almost 3,000 people lost their lives because of the attacks.

The Fukushima nuclear accident occurred on March 11, 2011. The combination of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami resulted in a power grid failure and a compromised cooling system. The inability to shut down the reactors properly led to the local environment getting contaminated with radioactive waste. Due to the high population density of Fukushima, 164,000 residents had to permanently relocate.

It is estimated that once the water has been filtered completely it will take another 30 years for radiation to return to safe levels.

As for the land, it will take at least 100 years before the radiation will decay enough for the area to be safe to inhabit.