It Happened in 1900 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brownie

The Eastman Kodak Company, popularly referred to as just Kodak, was founded by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong in 1892. For almost a hundred years, the company dominated the photographic film segment. In 1900, it introduced the Brownie camera. Named after a type of fairy folk, the camera was created solely with the objective of aiding the sales of photographic film.

The ease of use and small size resulted in the camera gaining quick popularity.

Answer: Paris

The World Exhibition or World's Rair, also known as Exposition Universelle, was held at Paris, France in 1900. The theme for the exhibition was "19th Century: An Overview". It was held from April to November 1900 and attended by an astounding 50 million people.

Innovations displayed included escalators, electric cars, and talking films, to name just a few. During the course of this exhibition, the city also hosted the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Answer: Sigmund Freud

Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud, is considered the "father of psychoanalysis". He established his practice in Vienna in 1886, eventually leaving Austria in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution and dying only a year later in London, England. Freud published the first volume of his most important work "The Interpretation of Dreams" in 1900.

This book introduced Freud's groundbreaking theory of using the unconscious to interpret dreams.

Answer: United States

The Davis Cup is an international tournament in the field of men's tennis. It is held annually and played at a country level. Teams of various countries compete against each other in a knock-out format. The Cup first began in 1900 as a match between Great Britain and the United States, which the latter won, before evolving into its current format.

Answer: Karl Landsteiner

Born in Baden in 1868, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Karl Landsteiner was a physician and biologist. His interest in the study of blood developed while he was still a student at the University of Vienna. In 1900, he first published his works identifying the ABO blood group classification system. Subsequently, he published further studies that blood transfusion between people having the same blood group did not result in destruction of blood cells of the patient.

This analysis, coupled with his later work identifying the Rhesus factor, led to him being called "the father of blood transfusion".

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930.

Answer: Hamburger

Located in New Haven, Connecticut, the Louis' Lunch restaurant claims to have invented the hamburger in 1900. This was originally established as one of the few places in the US at the time to serve steak sandwiches. Per the restaurant, a customer once requested a quick takeaway lunch which resulted in the creation of the hamburger.

At the time, it wasn't called the hamburger though. It was a few years later, after the dish had gained popularity in many parts of the country, that it ended up with the name.

While many others lay claim to having invented the hamburger, in 2000, the US Library of Congress recognized Louis' Lunch as the creator.

Answer: New York

On 24 March 1900, work officially commenced on the first subway of New York City. This covered the stretch from the City Hall to the Bronx. The cost of construction was significant and, at the time, there was no company that was willing to take such a huge project risk.

The city of New York ended up stepping in to build the subway. Funds were raised through the issue of rapid transit bonds by the city. The work was successfully completed ahead of schedule in October 1904.

Answer: L. Frank Baum

The US Library of Congress has declared this novel to be "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale". Written by L. Frank Baum, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published in 1900 and became an immediate success. The story follows a young girl, Dorothy, who, along with her dog, gets transported to the Land of Oz by a tornado.

The success of the book led to a Broadway musical adaptation in 1902 and, a few decades later, to the movie version in 1939.

Answer: Germany

The zeppelin is an airship that was invented by German general, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Zeppelin spent many years in the late 19th century creating and improving the design for this airship. He finally patented his design in Germany in 1895 and four years later in the US.

The first flight was successfully carried out on 2nd July 1900 over Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen, Germany. However, the zeppelin did not prove to be very successful over the long term. The Wright Brothers testing of the airplane in 1906 quickly overshadowed the zeppelin. Eventually the Hindenburg disaster of 1937 was the final nail in the coffin.

Answer: Max Planck

Max Planck was a German theoretical physicist. He postulated the quantum theory and discovered the energy quanta. This is regarded as the breakthrough in the development of quantum physics. On 14 December 1900, he first announced his discovery of the law of black body emission. This is commonly known as the birth of quantum physics. Planck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.