Just a Day in February Trivia Quiz

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Moliere, was a playwright and actor known as the father of modern French comedy and the author of "Tartuffe," "The Misanthrope", and "The Miser." His plays have been performed at the French state theater, the Comedie-Francaise, more than those of any other playwright. The name and "Tartuffe" has come to mean a hypocrite.

Moliere suffered from tuberculosis and died after suffering a coughing fit while on stage performing in his final play, "Le Malade Imaginaire". He was 51 years old.

1801 was the first election where the parties nominated a candidate for both president and vice president. Previously, the vice president was the runner up.

The incumbent Federalists nominated John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney, while the Democratic-Republicans (who eventually became the modern Democratic Party) nominated sitting Vice President Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. After a bitter campaign, Jefferson and Burr defeated Adams and Pinckney 73 to 65.

In 1819, the United States had 11 states where slavery was legal and 11 free states. Missouri requested statehood as a slave state, but James Talmadge submitted amendments which would restrict slavery in Missouri. That angered Southern legislators, while Northerners did not want the balance to tip towards slave states. Maine petitioned for statehood as a free state and the two petitions were linked. Debate on the bill opened on February 13, 1819, and the bill passed four days later.

Maine was admitted as the 23rd state in 1820 and Missouri became the 24th state the following year.

Initially formed as the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, the International Red Cross is a humanitarian organization which won the Nobel Peace Prize three times (1917, 1944, and 1963).

The organization first set out to improve medical treatment in battlefield situations and changed its name to the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1876. During WWI, the Red Cross set up a prisoner of war agency which delivered letters and packages to POWs, a task they continued to do during WWII. They were also able to get some relief packages into concentration camps; however, they did not publicize the conditions in the camps or the fact that the Nazis were exterminating Jewish people. The Red Cross continues to provide humanitarian aid in war zones today.

The Armory Show ran from February 17 through March 15, 1913, in New York City. The first major show of Modern Art, it included works by Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse, Edward Hopper, Augusta Rodin, and Wassily Kandinsky. Schools of art that were displayed included Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism.

Ruth Rendell was British author who wrote over 50 mystery novels under her own name and 14 under the name Barbara Vine. Twenty-four of her novels, including her first, "From Doon with Death" (1964), feature Inspector Reginald Wexford, a police detective in the fictional town of Kingsmartin, England. Several of the Wexford novels were adapted into a TV series starring George Baker as the main character.

Rendell's novels explored the psychological motivations for crimes, and, with "A Dark Adapted Eye" (1986) she branched into psychological thrillers under the Barbara Bine pseudonym. Ruth Rendell died at age 85 on May 2, 2015.

The Classic Beetle was produced from 1938 through 2003. Initially promoted by the Nazi government as a "people's car," the car was made for export after WWII. Sales rose dramatically in the United States between 1960 and 1965, and the car was immortalized in the movie "The Love Bug" (1969), the first of several movies featuring a VW Beetle named Herbie.

Sales began to decline as the 1970s approached, but Beetle #15,007,034 rolled off the assembly line on February 17, 1972, surpassing the number of the Ford Model T between 1908 and 1927.

Writer Randy Shilts was a reporter for "The Advocate" and several San Francisco area papers and TV stations. His first book was a biography of murdered San Francisco activist and politician, Harvey Milk. His second book, "And the Band Played On" (1987) chronicled the early years of the AIDS epidemic and made him a household name.

The book was praised by both scientists and literary critics for its detail and readability. Shilts wrote a third book, about LGBT people in the military, before succumbing to AIDS on February 17, 1994 at the age of 42.

The Russian chess champion became the youngest world champion in 1985, and held the world #1 ranking from 1984 until his 2005 retirement. In 1989, he defeated Deep Thought, a chess playing computer built by Carnegie Mellon University. In 1996, he met the computer's successor, Deep Blue, in Philadelphia for a six game match. Kasparov won 4-2, but lost a 1997 rematch 3 1/2-2 1/2.

I was a student at CMU when Kasparov defeated Deep Thought.

An autonomous region of Serbia during the Cold War years, when Yugoslavia broke up in 1992, it initially remained part of Serbia. Kosovo separatists began a separatist movement in 1996, and, by 1999, NATO intervened. Negotiations led to the 2008 Declaration of Independence, but the status of the region remains in dispute. Kosovo has not been recognized by the United Nations, but has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee, sending 9 athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympics.