A Sprinkling of June Trivia Quiz

Answer: Westminster Abbey

The cool and rainy weather didn't deter thousands of people from lining the streets of London on 02 June 1953 to watch their young Queen, Elizabeth II, be crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. The event came exactly 15 months and 25 days after she had ascended to the throne upon the death of her father on 06 February 1952 to provide for a suitable mourning period. At the young Queen's insistence the whole event, including the ceremony inside Westminster Abbey, was televised live by the BBC and it is estimated that over 27 million people in the United Kingdom alone watched this historic event. It would be the first time that a television audience had outnumbered that of radio listeners.

The Queen wore the Coronation Dress which had been designed by Sir Norman Hartnell and which was embroidered with the floral symbols of all her realms. She was crowned with King Edward's Crown, a gold and jewel encrusted crown which dates back to Edward the Confessor and which weighs in at a uncomfortable 2.2 kilograms. The first peer to give homage following her crowning was her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. After the service and wearing the Imperial State Crown, the Queen undertook a 7.2 kilometre procession through the capital's streets where thousands stood in the rain to cheer on their new monarch.

Answer: Donald Duck

On 09 June 1934, Donald Fauntleroy Duck made his cinematic debut with he appeared in an episode of Walt Disney's "Silly Serenades" called "The Wise Little Hen". Donald played a lazy duck on a houseboat, which is how he got his famous sailor suit. He was voiced by Clarence "Ducky" Nash, who Walt Disney had heard on the radio reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and who gave Donald his trademark grumbling voice. Donald's personality as a short-tempered squawker quickly became popular and he proved to be a perfect counterpoint to Mickey Mouse. By 1937, he had his own series of cartoons with the first installment called "Don Donald". It was in this series that such beloved characters as Donald's nephews, Huey, Louie and Dewey, and his love interest, Daisy, were added to the family.

Donald Duck has appeared in more 190 films, the most of any Disney character. Walt Disney, who liked to refer to his characters as family, once said of Donald, "Like many large families, we have a problem child. You're right, it's Donald Duck."

Answer: The Boat Race

The annual rowing competition between the crews of Cambridge and Oxford Universities has become one of the iconic sporting events in Britain. Known simply as "The Boat Race", it was born from an 1829 holiday encounter, while out rowing, between two friends who had attended Harrow school together. Charles Merivale was a student at Cambridge University's St John's College while his friend, Charles Wordsworth, attending Christ Church College at Oxford University. The idle conversation between them about the two universities having a race against each other reached culmination when the president of the Cambridge University Boat Club wrote to his counterpart at Oxford and issued a challenge to a race. The first race took place at Henley-on-Thames on 10 June 1829 where Oxford emerged as an easy winner. The winning boat now proudly resides in the River and Rowing Museum in Henley. However, it took until 1856 for the event to become an annual one and in 1927, the first women's race was added to the challenge.

The usual route for the race is called the Championship Course which is 6.8 kilometre stretch of the Thames River between Putney and Mortlake. Crew members who compete in this race as traditionally known as "blues", as Cambridge normally wears light blue and Oxford dark blue. Every year the two club presidents toss an 1829 gold sovereign for the right to choose which side of the river they would like to row on.

Answer: True

On 18 June 1873, Circuit Judge Ward Hunt of New York State directed the jury in the case of United States v Susan B. Anthony to find the defendant guilty of violating the Enforcement Act of 1870 and New York state law when, on 05 November 1872, she voted in the presidential election in Rochester, New York. The problem with this act of hers was that, at the time, women were not permitted to vote. For the record, she voted for the incumbent, Ulysses S. Grant. Two weeks after this, Anthony, who was a vocal leader of the women's suffrage movement, was arrested and charged. Her trial started on 17 June 1873. Anthony was prohibited from speaking in her defense throughout the trail, but was routinely asked by the judge before her sentencing whether she had anything to say.

Oh boy! Did she ever! In what has become recognized as one of the most famous speeches of the women's suffrage movement, Anthony castigated Judge Hunt and declared (amongst other things) the trial as one of "the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded". She cited the recently proclaimed 14th amendment to the US Constitution which stated that "all persons born and naturalized in the United States...are citizens of the United States," and as such cannot be denied the "privileges and immunities" of citizenship - including the privilege of voting." Judge Ward disagreed and fined her $100. She declared that "I shall never pay a penny of your unjust penalty". She never did, but Judge Ward thwarted her by not enforcing jail time, so preventing her from taking her case to the Supreme Court. However, the case brought the women's suffrage movement centre and forward in national interest. It would, though, take until another June day, this time the 4th, in 1920 for the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, to be enacted. Unfortunately, Susan B. Anthony did not live to see the fruit of her struggle as she died aged 86 on 13 March 1906.

Answer: Hovercraft

The SR.N1 proudly rose on her cushion of air and "flew" across the waters of The Solent off Cowes on the Isle of Wight for her maiden voyage on 11 June 1959. This journey was the culmination of a six year project for the craft's inventor, English engineer Christoper Cockerell. SR.N1, which is short for Saunders-Roe Nautical1, was the world's first successful hovercraft. The name "hovercraft, is trademarked to SR.N1's builders, Saunders-Roe, but it has come over the years to be a generic term for an air cushion vehicle or ARV. A Hovercraft is, to put it simply, a craft which can move over surfaces on a cushion or air that is created by blowers. The idea had been around for a long time and different methods had been tried, but Christopher Cockerell was the first person to devise a method of successfully trapping a cushion of air under the hull to make the craft rise and glide over the surface on which it was traveling.

SR.N1 was dubbed "Britain's Flying Saucer" and on 25 July 1959, a few weeks after her initial voyage, she became the first craft to successfully cross the English Channel. She carried four people. SR.N1 today resides in the Science Museum's National Collection Centre near Swindon. She still still sports her "Royal Dent", which she acquired to her bow in 1959 while being piloted at great speed by the Duke of Edinburgh and which was never allowed to be repaired. Christopher Cockerell was knighted for his services to engineering in Britain in 1969.

Answer: True

Leland Stanford, the founder of Stanford University, was also an avid horse breeder and was always looking for ways to improve the performance of his horses.To achieve this, he wanted to analyze their gait and, specifically, find out whether, at any point, all four of a horse's hooves were off the ground. To this end, he began a collaboration with English photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, to try and record this. On 15 June 1878, in Palo Alto, California, Muybridge set up his experiment. He hung a white sheet as a backdrop, painted the walls of the track white and sprinkled marble dust and lime on the track so that the dark horse would stand out against the light backdrop. He then set up a series of twelve cameras along the track with strings attached to their shutters so that when the horse ran by, the strings would break and trip the shutters, taking twelve sequential pictures. The horse was Sallie Gardner, one of Leland Stanford's prize mares and she was ridden by a jockey only identified as G. Domm at a steady pace of 1 minute 40 seconds per mile along the track.

At the end of the run they had twelve photographs which Muybridge developed there and then on site to avoid any suggestion of manipulation. This series became known as "The Horse in Motion" as when they were viewed sequentially, an image of the horse galloping was formed. And yes, they showed that, at some point during a run, all of a horse's hooves are in the air at once, thus ending a long standing debate.

Answer: Tomato

The humble tomato is one of the crops for which the state of New Jersey has, justifiably, become known. The good farmers of New Jersey can thank one man for debunking the popular belief at the time that tomatoes were deadly poisonous. Yes, they are a member of the nightshade family and yes, they do contain tomatine, an alkaloid which can be toxic. However, the amount found in tomatoes is too low to cause a normal human being any problems. On 28 June 1820, so local legend has it, gentleman farmer and avid tomato grower, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson undertook to prove this fact. In front of a crowd of some 2000 townspeople, he marched onto the steps of the Old Salem County Court House in Salem, New Jersey with a basket of his tomatoes. At 12 noon he then proceeded to eat them, one after the other amid cheers and gasps from the crowd.

Seeing as Colonel Johnson went on to live for another 30 years after this demonstration, dying on 02 October 1850 at the ripe old age of 79, it is safe to say that he proved his point rather ably.

Answer: George Mallory

George Mallory is the English climber who made the famous comment, "because it's there", when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. Together with his climbing partner, Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, who were both part of the 1924 British expedition to conquer Everest, they are responsible for one of the mountaineering world's greatest mysteries. On 08 June 1924, did or didn't they, or either of them, become the first person(s) to set foot on the top of the world and summit Mount Everest? All that has been confirmed is that the pair left their Camp VI at 8170m on the morning of 08 June to make a last push for the summit. One of their fellow expedition members stated that he caught a glimpse of them on the north face in the afternoon about 250m from the summit. That was the last time either Mallory or Irvine were seen alive. They never returned.

For 75 years, no trace of either man was found. In 1999, a team of American climbers put together the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition to try and answer the question. The pair had been carrying a portable camera which might, if found, answer the question. On 01 May, Conrad Anker, one of the team, found a body at 8155m on the north face of Everest. It was that of George Mallory, identified by clothing tags and written papers. However, no trace of Sandy Irvine or the camera was found. Another expedition in 2001 also came up empty handed.

Answer: Secretariat

The 105th running of the Belmont Stakes took place at Belmont Park, New York on 09 June 1973. In beautiful conditions, the race got under way. Two minutes and 24 seconds later, a new name had been added to the list of horses that had won the Triple Crown. It was added in great style, I might add, as Secretariat stormed through the field to win by an astonishing 31 lengths in a new record time. This was the first Triple Crown success in the 25 years since Citation did it in 1948. Secretariat had, earlier in the year, comfortably won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes finishing two and half lengths clear of his nearest rival in both races. "Big Red" as he was affectionately known, became an equine superstar. He showed promise from the start of his career and in 1972 became only the second two year old to be awarded the prestigious Horse of the Year Award. After winning his final race, the Canadian International Championship on 28 October 1973, Secretariat retired to stud at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. He remained there until the effects of laminitis required him to be euthanised on 04 October 1989 at the age of 19.

Secretariat was foaled at Meadow Wood Farm in Virginia on 30 March 1987. There's a nice story as to how he came to be named Secretariat. According to his then owner, Penny Chenery, the first five names they submitted to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association were rejected as they had previously been used and Penny's father's secretary, Elizabeth Ham, suggested Secretariat as it reminded her of her days when she worked at the League of Nations secretariat in Geneva.

Answer: Monterey

It was 1967, the year of the "summer of love". It is said that it all kicked off with the groundbreaking Monterey Pop Festival which was held in the Monterey County Faigrounds in Monterey, California from Friday 16 June till Sunday 18 June in beautiful weather. It was a music festival quite unlike any other that had gone before it, featuring an eclectic line-up of style, sound and acts. Tickets ranged from $3.50 - $6.50 for the three days and it is estimated that some 200 000 people attended during this period. As for the line-up, eclectic it certainly was, ranging from the first American performances by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Who, sets by the South African trumpeter, Hugh Masekela and the Indian sitar player, Ravi Shankar. There were contributions from Janis Joplin, Simon and Garfunkel, Otis Reading among others.To finish off the festival, the Mamas and the Papas played the closing set. They brought along along on stage, Scott McKenzie to perform "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair), his hit song which was written by the Mamas and The Papas' John Phillips especially as a promotional song for the festival.

The festival was the brainchild of record producer Lou Adler together with John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. It would introduced an American audience to acts that had never previously be exposed to and launched many a career. Janis Joplin's Big Brother and the Holding Company were offered a record deal on the strength of their set. With the exception of Ravi Shankar, artists performed for free, although their expenses were paid and all the festival's proceeds were donated to charity. The Monterey Pop Festival set the tone and format for festivals to come including, two years later, the more famous Woodstock. A film called "Monterey Pop" was made of the event.