Arising From R.E.M. Lyrics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Harold MacMillan

In 1961, a call girl named Christine Keeler began a short affair with the British Minister of War, John Profumo. Nothing more would have come of this had it not been discovered that she had also slept with Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attache. Keeler claimed an acquaintance, Stephen Ward, was a Soviet spy who used her liasons with both Profumo and Ivanov to sell state secrets.

However because this was played out during the Cold War, the implications were far-reaching. Suddenly the cocktail of adultery, traitors and scandal threw the media into a frenzy and had the public clamouring for details. No one was interested in the possible breech of security; but rather the sordid details of Keeler's life and the lives of the rich, famous and influential. Profumo was forced to admit his affair and resign from the Cabinet. Prime Minister MacMillan also resigned, blaming the scandal for exacerbating his ill health. Ivanov was recalled to Moscow and never heard from again.

Answer: Boston, 1919

Fraudulent pyramid schemes are tricks to give the impression that people are making money for nothing. As members pay their "fees" or "donations" they are really supplying the returns for those who are higher up in the scheme. The name given to these illegal scams is 'Ponzi Finance', named for the Italian immigrant, who in 1919 began a 'Securities and Exchange Co.' which offered a 50% return on all investments after 45 days; 100% in 90 days.

The scheme was around long before Ponzi duped his "investors", he was just one of its most shameless promoters. Journalists investigating the excitement and popularity surrounding this event brought about government intervention. Ponzi was tried and convicted but he jumped bail and started other equally ridiculous schemes elsewhere before he was deported back to Italy where he eventually died.

Answer: Mali

During the period of colonial expansion, the desire to gain political and economic power was the drive behind much of Europe's decision to colonise Africa, South-East Asia and South and Central America. The hope of finding wealth and riches in the form of raw materials, minerals, gold, silver and slave trading was a determining factor for some shameful and inhuman behaviour. No less intriguing was the supposed wonderland of the oasis Timbuktu.

In his book, 'Grains of Sand' Martin Buckley writes "In particular Timbuktu was seen as a treasure house of inconceivable riches".

This myth unleashed imaginings of gold, silver, ivory, silk among others. Little encouragement was needed for the colonial powers to send in their armies and overrun the local population and amass the wealth in the name of progress, civilisation and religion.

The wealth of Timbuktu was in fact its fertile lands for agriculture and its fields for grazing. However it was the sensationalism of the legend and folklore that saw it colonised by the French as a part of French Sudan. Today it is situated in the Republic of Mali, which gained independence in 1960.

Answer: Paris

Not quite autumn, in fact it was the dead of winter. The Ayatollah was exiled in 1964 because of his opposition to the Shah's reign, which he called a tyranny. I suppose perspective is relative if someone is threatening your own beliefs. The Shah's position on alcohol, media and the West was unacceptable to the Ayatollah's beliefs.

As with all revolutions it is the economic background that forces issues one way or another. Oil had polarised Iran into rich and poor and it was the poor who were the most religious and least westernised and opposed the Shah, calling for a return to the basic Islamic lifestyle. Protests, strikes and martial law alienated the Shah's leadership and suddenly the country was propelled towards massive change. On January 16,1979 the Shah fled Iran and on February 1, the Ayatollah returned triumphant from Paris to a country where orthodox Islam could be put into practice.

He remained the Supreme Leader until his death on June 3, 1989.

Answer: August 13, 1961

While it stood, the wall was perhaps the strongest symbol of the Cold War, defining what it was to enjoy freedom. It was erected in an attempt to stop the exodus of East Berliners to the West. Berlin, as indeed the whole of Germany, was divided among the Allied forces: Britain, France, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. The Marshall Plan was implemented by the U.S. in an attempt to reconstruct the war-devastated and Nazi-ruined West. The Soviets offered nothing of the sort for the East. While the West progressed after the war the East moved at a slower rate, perhaps even stagnating somewhat. Contrasting images of flourishing free societies vs. the oppression and terror of Communism captured the imaginations of the press and Hollywood for decades. While Germany was divided some 5,000 East Germans tried to cross the wall, 191 died trying. None more poignant that 19-year-old Peter Fechter who was shot trying to escape in 1962 while reporters were watching. The image of his body being carried by East German police is an enduring image of the division of the Cold War. In November 1989, after 28 years, philosophical musing finally became a reality and the Berlin Wall came down.

Thanks to Newsweek Vol. 114 No. 20, November 8, 1989 for additional information.

Answer: Washington

We learn that Milo Thatch was employed at a university in Washington, in 1914. He was convinced that the city of Atlantis existed. He, like his grandfather the explorer Thaddeus Thatch, believed that there was every possibility of finding it if only he could get hold of the mythical 'Shepherd's Journal' which gave detailed explanations about the directions to the lost underwater city of Atlantis. Milo's ideal was to find the city and its power source and bring it back to the surface.

He was convinced that Atlantis had been an advanced and highly developed civilisation. Naturally he had a motley crew to help him realise his dream, embark on his journey and learn a lesson. All I can say is that it may not have been a high point in Disney's history but at least they ditched the standard formula of songs and just let the story flow on its own.

The premise for the idea of the lost city of Atlantis actually comes from Plato who wrote, "in a single day and night of misfortune, the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea".

It is this that has prompted theories of great catastrophes, tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides that lead to the tragic end of a fabled city. If Atlantis is down below the Atlantic ocean, we may never find it. The ocean floors are too deep and too vast for man to find very much. We barely know much about the lands we live on let alone what lies under the oceans.

Answer: 1958

Nothing can predict the sex of a child. Several old wives tales exist for determining the gender of an unborn child. They involve various different ideas. Some monitor the mother's hair growth or whether she has a cravings for sweet or sour foods. There are theories about morning sickness and the shape of the pregnant belly.

Some ideas revolve around the baby kicking on the left or the right; high or low. None have ever proved to be true. However the most relied upon method is the ultrasound. Invented in Sweden in 1953 it works by transmitting a high-frequency sound-wave that echos back a reading which is then transformed into a picture on the screen. Ultrasounds are used to check the health of the foetus, its position, size and if there is a multiple pregnancy. An added bonus is determining the sex of the baby before it is born, although this is not always possible.

Answer: The earth and planets revolve around the sun

Galileo is regarded as the first modern astronomer. As a professor at the University of Pisa he was required to teach the accepted theory supported by the Church, that the sun and planets revolved around the earth. Galileo proved the Copernican system correct thanks to his invention of a telescope more powerful than any other in Europe.

It could magnify objects 20 times and therefore he was able to discover, among other things, the larger moons of Jupiter and the sunspots. With proof Galileo supported this sun-centred theory which did not go down well with the Catholic Church.

He was called before the Inquisition, found guilt of heresy and sentenced to life imprisonment which was reduced to house arrest. He died in 1642 branded a heretic by a Church that would be proved wrong.

In 1989 NASA launched a spacecraft built to travel to Jupiter to study the gas giant and its moons. They named it Galileo in his honour.

Answer: Ian Curtis of Joy Division hanging himself

It was in 1980 that this grizzly event occurred and the angst and rebellion of the youth generation who caught the wave of punk was in steep decline. The attitude and image of the original punk bands, The Sex Pistols, The Damned and The Clash no longer had the novel and outrageous hook that had once reeled its audiences in.

Although punk is regarded as an English phenomenon its roots are found in the U.S. with groups like the New York Dolls and the Stooges, formerly the Psychedelic Stooges formed by Iggy himself. Punk was about revolution and excitement and attitude.

It was largely a reaction to the strangeness of the early 1970s which saw glam rock pivoted to the foreground. However its hostility and controversy had run its course and by 1981 the new generation was calling for a new culture. That culture was found in pop.

Answer: A safe sea passage to India and China

With the safe passage land to the Far East no longer guaranteed to Europeans it was suddenly necessary to find an alternative sea-faring route. One possibility was to hug the coast of Africa and hope to round her southernmost point before sailing across the Indian Ocean to Calcutta but no one could say for sure that going across the Atlantic would result in reaching India. Columbus accepted that by crossing this ocean he would reach the Far East.

He never did, instead he landed in the Caribbean. However convinced as he was that he had reached Asia he named the natives 'Indians' and insisted that the mountains in Cuba were in fact the Himalayas.

A controversial figure, he is honoured by some for his voyages, reviled by others for the tragedy and exploitation they opened up. Which ever way you look at it, the discoveries of Columbus were purely unintentional.