September 23rd Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nintendo

After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I read that the company's original founder, Fusajiro Yamauchi, began the business by manufacturing playing cards called 'Hanafuda' in his home office in Kyoto. It wasn't until 1975 they developed a video game system using an electronic video recording player. Two years later, the first home-use video games hit the market.

Answer: 'I have not yet begun to fight.'

During the American Revolution, Jones, known as 'Father of the U.S. Navy', encountered the British warships 'Serapis' and 'Countess of Scarborough' off Flamborough Head on the English coast. When British Captain Richard Pearson demanded Jones 'strike his colors' (signifying surrender), Jones responded with the famous quote.

After the fighting resumed, an American grenade found its way to the 'Serapis', causing a massive explosion. The British surrendered and the Americans took control, moments before the 'Richard' sank below the waves.

Answer: The Merkle Boner

The Giants were in a tense late-season battle with the Chicago Cubs for the National League pennant at their home field in the Polo Grounds. In the 9th inning, Al Birdwell hit the supposed game-winning hit for the Giants. However, Merkle forgot to tag second base and trotted off the field to celebrate with his teammates.

This caught the attention of Chicago second baseman Johnny Evers (of the famed 'Tinkers to Evers to Chance'), who grabbed the baseball and tagged the base, calling Merkle out and nullifying the winning run. Because the Giants fans were all over the field, the game was called that day.

The Cubs eventually won the rematch and went on to win the World Series. From that day on Merkle wore the nickname 'Bonehead'.

Answer: The U.S.S.R. got the atomic bomb

Thanks mostly to German physicist and spy Klaus Fuchs, who was stationed at the Los Alamos facility, the Soviets got the means by which to join the nuclear race on August 29, 1949. France wasn't able to test their own bomb until 1960. China entered the nuclear neighborhood in 1964 and India joined in 1974.

Answer: Lewis and Clark

Meriweather Lewis and William Clark set off to survey much of the area from St. Louis to the Pacific Northwest for the U.S. government over a year before, August 31, 1803.

Answer: Richard Nixon

Faced with reports of questionable contributions during his term as junior senator from California, Nixon, the Vice-Presidential running mate under Eisenhower, took to the air (both radio and the new media of television) to tell his side of the story. Among the purported things he did admit to getting from one supporter, Texas salesman Lou Carrol, was the family dog, a cocker spaniel named 'Checkers'.

The positive response to the 'Checkers Speech' persuaded Eisenhower to keep Nixon and win the election.

Answer: The Jetsons

Made as a space-age answer to the popular 'Flintstones', the saga of George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy and Jane, his wife, only had 24 episodes in its prime-time run. Dick Clark's 'Bandstand' started years earlier, in 1952, 'The Fugitive', with David Janssen, debuted in '63, with Irwin Allen's 'Voyage' setting sail the following year.

Answer: Neptune

The orbit of the giant blue planet was actually charted as far back as 1612 by Galileo, who thought it was a fixed star. German astronomer Johann Gottlieb Galle, French mathematician Urbain La Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams all shared in the discovery.

Answer: 'Typhoid Mary'

Irish-born Mary Mallon was healthy in her own right, but she was a natural-born carrier of the bacteria that caused typhoid fever. That fact alone wasn't enough ... She insisted the only thing she was qualified to do was cook, so she did. Nearly 50 people were infected from her meals and three people died before she was finally tracked down and put in quarantine for the rest of her life.

She finally died in 1938 ... of pneumonia.

Answer: Sending federal troops to Little Rock, AR

Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had called out the National Guard to keep nine black students from integrating the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School. In fact, that same day (September 23), the 'Little Rock Nine' tried to attend class through a side door, but an unruly mob forced a hasty retreat. Eisenhower's executive order put the Guard under federal control and dispatched the Army to insure the nine would get into the school. Korea, McCarthyism (and McCarthy himself) and the founding of NATO were all in the history books by this point.