It's Obvious... Right? Trivia Quiz

Answer: 2

No one will argue that King Henry VIII participated in six different marriages with six different women. However, from a legal point of view, only two of those marriages ever actually happened. His marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled on May 23, 1533; his marriage to Anne Boleyn was annulled on May 17, 1536; his marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled on July 9, 1540; and his marriage to Catherine Howard was annulled on November 23, 1541. Since those marriages never officially happened, Henry is left with only two wives - Jane Seymour, who died after complications in childbirth; and Catherine Parr, who survived Henry.

Marriage is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law." To annul something is "to declare or make legally invalid or void." Since annulling a marriage makes it void in retrospect, those marriages never technically happened in the eyes of the law, which is technically the only way a marriage (especially of a king) can be recognized.

Answer: North Carolina

The California Gold Rush certainly is the most famous gold rush in American history, with the Yukon close behind, but it was not the first by far. In 1799, almost 50 years before gold was found at Sutter's Mill, 12-year-old Conrad Reed found "a yellow substance shining in the water" near his home in Meadow Creek, North Carolina. Weighing 17 pounds, his family decided it was a wonderful doorstop until 1802, when his father, John Reed, took it to a jeweler in Fayetteville. He told Mr. Reed it was gold, but John had no idea of the value of gold. When asked to name a price he would sell it for, John said $3.50 ($54.07 in 2011) while its worth was roughly $3,600 ($55,614.37 in 2011).

Not long after, John returned and received around $1,000 more from the jeweler, having learned of gold's true worth. The next year, Reed, his brother-in-law, a reverend, and a landowner from around Meadow Creek went searching for gold, and found another 28-pound gold nugget. In 1805, the gold rush was on, perhaps led by William Thornton, the designer of the US Capitol Building. Thornton bought 35,000 acres in Montgomery County (now Stanley County). In 1825, Matthias Barringer found gold could be harvested from white quartz, and a secondary rush followed. In the end, the Carolina Gold Rush started the American gold fever, and brought so many European immigrants with a mining background that many later went to California to use their techniques and procure more riches.

Answer: 1, obviously

Well, that was easy. The moon is, in fact, THE moon after all. There have been several near-Earth objects that have been thought to be moons, but they are at best quasi-satellites. The best candidate for a second moon is 3753-Cruithne, which has a 1:1 orbital resonance with Earth. Cruithne actually orbits the Sun in a 364-day year, with its orbit going from inside Mercury's orbit to outside the orbit of Mars. At best, Earth and Cruithne come closest to each other every November, to the tune of about 10 million miles.

There are other near-Earth asteroids that appear to the untrained eye to be moons of some sort. 2010 TK7 was the first Earth trojan asteroid ever discovered, orbiting the sun 60 degrees in front of Earth in the L4 Lagrangian point (if you're wondering, the L1 point is between the Earth and Sun; L2 is "behind" the Earth from the Sun; L3 is on the exact opposite side of the Sun from Earth; and L5 is 60 degrees behind Earth in its orbit). Also, 2010 SO16, (164207) 2004 GU9, (277810) 2006 FV35, and 2002 AA29 were all at one point considered candidates for the second moon, but all orbit the Sun.

Answer: Ecuador

Unfortunately for Mount Everest, the globe is not a perfect sphere. Due to Earth's rotation, the equator is bulged out compared to the rest of the planet. If you are standing at the equator, on average you will be 13.27 miles farther from the center of the planet as compared to standing at either pole. A second blow to Everest is the fact that from its base, Mauna Kea is roughly 33,500 feet tall from base to peak. Making up part of the island of Hawaii, it reaches only 13,796 feet above sea level, but goes down to the ocean floor nearly 20,000 feet farther.

Due to this geologically oddity, the point farthest from Earth's center is the peak of Chimborazo in Ecuador. Standing only 20,565 feet above sea level, it is over 3,000 feet away from being ranked in the 100 tallest mountains on Earth. However, it reaches to 3,967.1 miles from the center of the Earth, estimated to be just less than 100 feet farther from the center as compared to Huascarán in Peru. On this list, Everest only ranks fifth, with Cotopaxi (another mountain in Ecuador) and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania also ahead of it.

Answer: Juan Sebastián Elcano

The main difficulty with crediting Magellan as being the first person to circumnavigate the globe is that he never circumnavigated the globe - in fact, he never came close. The journey had many tribulations, including an attempted mutiny at Puerto San Julián in modern-day southern Argentina (in which Elcano was involved, but his life was spared - those not spared were drawn and quartered, then impaled on the coast), losing one ship scouting the Strait of Magellan, a battle in the Philippines, and mass starvation. The fight in the Philippines was set on because Rajah Humabon of Cebu convinced Magellan to kill Datu Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island. During the attack, the Spaniards were outnumbered to the tune of 1,500 to 49. Magellan was hit by a spear and then mobbed by the natives. Lapu-Lapu decided to keep Magellan's body as a war trophy, despite being offered bribes for his return.

Following Magellan's death, the fleet was down to only two ships - the "Trinidad" (flagship) and "Victoria" - with Duarte Barbosa and Jao Serrao in command. Within a week, both were killed after being betrayed by Rajah Humabon, and Joao Lopez Carvalho took over. Following a stop in the Spice Islands, "Trinidad" began taking on water, and Carvalho chose to stay with the flagship, while the "Victoria" went on with its cargo of incredibly valuable cloves under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano. "Trinidad" was eventually captured by the Portuguese, but sank not long after. By the time the "Victoria" made the Cape Verde Islands, 20 men had died from starvation. On September 6, 1522, it finally reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda with only 18 survivors.

Answer: John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown

The first ever transatlantic flight was completed by a plane, but not really one person or crew. The US Navy's NC-4 biplane left New York City on May 8, and stopped in Chatham, Massachusetts; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Trepassey, Newfoundland along with two other planes (NC-1 and NC-3), before finally leaving the continent on May 16. Flying from Newfoundland to the Azores, the planes encountered heavy fog, and NC-1 and NC-3 both had to land in the ocean, and did not complete the journey. NC-4 had mechanical issues as well, but reached Lisbon, Portugal on May 27. This completed the transatlantic flight, but the plane still went to Ferrol, Spain, and Plymouth, England, to complete the planned route.

John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight on June 14-15, 1919, flying from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland, in 14 ½ hours. Upon arriving, they decided to put down on what seemed to be a field, but instead was actually a bog. After landing, the plane tipped up on to its nose, but neither pilot was injured. Charles Lindbergh did make the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, however, aboard the monoplane "Spirit of St. Louis," barely getting over telephone wires after he took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island. Roughly 33 ½ hours later, he landed in Paris, and was greeted upon landing by an enormous crowd, and instantly became a celebrity that lasted for his lifetime and beyond.

Answer: London, England

The historical accuracy of the legend of Pheidippides is questionable at best, but none of the accounts have him running around 26.22 miles. If he ran from Marathon to Athens, he would have had to go around Mount Penteli, which gave him two routes. The southern route was much flatter and ran roughly 25 miles. The northern route included running up a steep incline, but was much shorter at 22 miles. Herodotus only mentions Pheidippides as a messenger sent to run from Athens to Sparta (150 miles) in order to request reinforcements from the Persian attack, and then ran back to Athens - surviving both trips.

In fact, the first 26.22-mile marathon was run at the 1908 Olympics in London, England. The 1896, 1900, and 1904 Olympics all had marathons around 25 miles, staying closer to the legend if he took the longer route to Athens. However, the organizers in London determined it should start at Windsor Castle and end at the royal viewing box in White City Stadium, a distance that equated to 26 miles and 385 yards. It was a controversial finish as Italian Dorando Pietri was helped over the line after collapsing, but American Johnny Hayes appealed and was granted the gold medal. Following the 1908 Olympics, the 1912 Stockholm Olympics went back to a nearly 25-mile marathon, while the 1920 Olympics (1916 being cancelled due to WWI) was the longest at 26.56 miles. Since then, the marathon has always been set at 26.22 miles.

Answer: Louis Le Prince

Louis Le Prince invented the first single-lens motion picture camera in 1888, but his patent for it in the United States was refused - although he did get a patent for a 16-lens camera. Undeterred, he went around the UK and France promoting his new invention. He left from his home in Dijon, France, to Paris on September 16, 1890, and was never seen again. Only his brother remembered seeing him at the Dijon station, and nobody ever remembered seeing him on the train, nor was his luggage ever located. The next year, Thomas Edison applied for the patent of a single-lens motion picture camera, and it was accepted - thereby getting him the credit for inventing it.

This was not the first nor last time Edison got credit for something he did not create. As mentioned in the question, he made plenty of money showing "A Trip to the Moon" in the United States - a movie he illegally obtained after viewing it in Europe and brought it to America before the actual producer, Georges Méliés, could do so. Méliés would later go bankrupt after realizing his creation had been effectively pirated. Also, Humphrey Davy invented the first light bulb in 1801 or 1809 (depending on the source), and Joseph Swan created the first long-lasting incandescent light bulb. Edison improved on their designs, making an even-longer lasting, practical bulb. Thomas Edison may be credited with being one of the greatest inventors of all time, and he did invent some new things, but many of his creations were mere improvements on already-existing objects.

Answer: The Jazz Singer, obviously

"The Jazz Singer" was indeed the first feature-length (that being the key term) talkie. "Dream Street" was released in 1921, but was a short film. "Don Juan" included synchronized sound effects and music, but no dialogue. "The Jazz Singer" for the most part synchronized Al Jolson singing, but his first spoken line was the iconic "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet." Although being an historic film and one of the most successful of the year, it did not earn a spot among the films nominated for Best Picture (then called Outstanding Picture) during the inaugural Academy Awards. "Wings" ended up winning, becoming the only silent film to win the award until 2012, when "The Artist" won for being a (mostly) silent feature.

Answer: Soviet

Apollo 11 was certainly the first manned mission to the moon, but the USSR reached the moon almost an entire decade earlier. The Soviet Luna 2 was launched on September 12, 1959 (September 13 in Moscow), and after just 33 ½ hours impacted with the moon, becoming the first man-made object to visit the body.

The spacecraft carried two spherical-shaped mass of emblems that broke up upon impact, scattering them across the surface as proof the USSR had landed there. The mission followed the failure of Luna 1 to impact the moon, although it had several firsts: including being the first object to leave Earth orbit, observe solar wind, become an artificial comet, and enter a heliocentric orbit. Until Luna 1 is retrieved or impacts with any other object, it will remain between the orbits of Earth and Mars.