And, You Know... Trivia Quiz

Answer: U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon was a staunch anti communist.

By the time of his election to the presidency in 1968, the Scottish-descended Richard Nixon was a veteran politician, having served in the House of Representatives and the Senate from his home state of California and as vice president for two terms under Dwight David Eisenhower. A lifelong member of the Republican Party, he was a strong, consistent and sometimes fanatical opponent of communism. Thus, it was thought that, with his background, he would be the ideal person to "open" red China, that is to make overtures towards normalization of relations between the two countries, since he was neither sympathetic to their political and economic system nor susceptible to their blandishments.

Nixon's visit to Peking (as Beijing was then known in the West) was a great success. Though Sino-American relations have ebbed and flowed in the years since, the U.S. has never again attempted to completely isolate the People's Republic of China from the world community.

Answer: They turned pro after the 1980 Olympics and enjoyed a long, successful career.

Tai and Randy came in fifth at Innsbruck in the 1976 Winter Olympics. In the succeeding years they had an increasingly successful record in competition, being five-time U.S. national champions and winning the gold medal at the 1979 World Championships.

They were expected to do well at Lake Placid in 1980 but, heartbreakingly, they had to withdraw when Randy sustained an injury. Despite this setback, they turned professional and performed together until 2008, when Randy suffered another injury. After their long and successful partnership ended, Tai made a few guest appearances on television while Randy became a skating choreographer and coach.

Answer: The Arab Oil Embargo

The causes of the Arab Oil Embargo or, as it came to be called in later years the first energy shock, were many and complex, involving global economics and foreign policy. The proximate cause was the support of a number of European, southern African and North American countries for Israel in the (Fourth) Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Pres. Richard Nixon's right hand man Henry Kissinger, first the National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State, seriously misread the position and capabilities of the Arab-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), failing to take Saudi King Faisal's threats to cut production and impose an embargo seriously. So, when the oil shipments stopped on October 17, 1973, it came as an unpleasant and unwelcome shock. Though the embargo was lifted in March of 1974 (in the U.S. It lasted longer in some countries), its effects were global, profound and long lasting.

It was, for example, as a direct effect of the oil embargo that strategic oil reserves were established in several countries, including the USA. This crisis also prompted the establishment of CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards for motor vehicles that have led in subsequent decades to improved auto design and engineering as well as improved fuel efficiency of vehicles. It also led to the establishment of a uniform 55 miles per hour speed limit across the USA.

Answer: Brooklyn

Set at the fictional James Buchanan High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, "Welcome Back Kotter" (aired September 9, 1975 through May 17, 1979) starred Gabe Kaplan as Gabe Kotter, a wisecracking Social Studies teacher who returns to his alma mater to teach a remedial class known as the Sweathogs, a group he had helped found during his own high school days.

The story follows four of these: Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo) and Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs). Barbarino in particular became a heartthrob, giving Travolta his break out role.

Answer: Three Mile Island

Beginning at 4:00 A.M. on the morning of March 28, 1979 there occurred an hours-long series of events that came to be known as the Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident. The long and the short of it is, owing to multiple facility design flaws and poor staff training, the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, near the state capital, Harrisburg, experienced a partial meltdown, resulting in the release of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment.

By December 2023, Three Mile Island remained the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. On the seven-point logarithmic International Nuclear Event Scale, it is rated Level 5 ("Accident with Wider Consequences").

Socially and politically, one of those wider consequences with the intensification of the anti-nuclear movement in the U.S. and the subsequent sharp reduction in nuclear power plant construction and the abandonment of large scale reliance on such plants in American civilian energy policy.

Answer: Utah

Utah natives Donny and Marie Osmond, younger siblings of The Osmond Brothers (Merrill, Wayne, Alan and Jay) who had been a successful musical act since the 1960s, were teen heartthrobs, each of whom had a successful solo recording career as well as their duo act. Their variety show, "The Donny & Marie Show", ran from January, 1976 to May, 1979.

Answer: No

Article II, section 2 of the United States Constitution gives the president the right "to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."

Pres. Richard Nixon resigned from office before articles of impeachment against him were brought to a vote before the full House of Representatives. He refused to issue a statement of contrition, maintaining that he had committed no crimes despite the weight of evidence brought before both the Senate Select Committee that investigated Watergate and the House Judiciary Committee. Pres. Ford apparently accepted that evidence, however, and granted a full and free pardon to his disgraced predecessor, precluding the possibility of indictment, on the grounds that the country ought to be spared the ordeal of the former Commander in Chief's criminal trial.

Though Ford's decision proved unpopular at the time, historians generally agree it was the right one.

Answer: Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R) Tolkien and his third child and youngest son Christopher were both members of the Oxford literary circle known as The Inklings, which also included C.S. Lewis and his brother Warren, Owen Barfield and Charles Williams. Christopher (November 21, 1924 to January 16, 2020) also followed in his father's footsteps as an English professor at Oxford; but, his career there was short. Following his preparation of the material published in 1977 as "The Silmarillion", he devoted the rest of his life to sorting, arranging, studying and preparing for publication his father's mass of work, primarily on Arda, the secondary (fictional) world including Middle-earth where "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" take place.

A considerable scholar himself, Christopher Tolkien selflessly devoted himself to his father's oeuvre, painstakingly disentangling, notating and cross referencing and providing commentary on Arda and its evolution, organic and literary. Besides all this, as a young man he drew all the maps for "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings".

J.R.R. Tolkien produced the gems that are "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", but Christopher Tolkien provided the exquisite, lovingly fashioned setting that allows them to shine.

Answer: Tehran, Iran

Amid the revolutionary turmoil in the late 1970s that saw the exile of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and the return and rise to power of the nationalist religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a group of radicalized university students seized the American embassy in Tehran.

They held fifty-two Americans hostage from November 4, 1979 till January 20, 1981. The diplomacy of Undersecretary of State Warren Christopher eventually led to the hostages' release, but not until after a failed rescue attempt. Pres. Jimmy Carter's refusal to use military force to obtain the release of the hostages was, unfairly, seen as weakness, damaging his administration's reputation at home and abroad.

At the same time, many felt that the delay of the release until the day of Ronald Reagan's inauguration as president was meant to embarrass Carter.

Answer: Hagar the Horrible

"Hagar the Horrible", drawn and written by Dik Browne, first hit American newspapers on February 4, 1973. Following Dik's retirement in 1988, his son Chris (May 16, 1952 to February 5, 2023) continued the strip until his own death, with artwork by Gary Hallgren.

A commentary on modern-day life in the United States through a loose interpretation of Viking Age Scandinavian life, the strip follows the adventures and misadventures of an overweight, red-bearded, endearingly inept Viking named Hagar, his family and shipmates.

The beloved comic strip "Peanuts" drawn and written by Charles M. Schulz debuted on October 2, 1950. B.C. by Johnny Hart first appeared on February 17, 1958, while "The Wizard of Id", conceived by Johnny Hart and Brant Parker, began on November 16, 1964.