Simply September Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1975

22 years after New Zealander, Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese companion Norgay Tensing, reached the summit, two members of the British SW Face Expedition, led by Chris Bonington, matched their achievement.

Doug Scott and Dougal Haston were the first climbers to reach the summit via the South West Face and achieved this feat at 6pm on September 24, 33 days after setting up their base camp. As well as being the first successful ascent via the SW face, Scott and Haston also set a record for the fastest ever climb to the summit.

Haston was killed in a skiing accident less than 18 months later.

Answer: Carl Lewis

Ben Johnson won the initial race in a world record time of 9.79 seconds beating his existing world record of 9.83 set in the World Championships in Rome the previous year.

When Johnson was found to have banned steroid, Stanozolol, in his urine sample he was disqualified and banned from the sport for two years. As well as being awarded the gold medal, Carl Lewis was also credited with a new world record for the 100m after Johnson's record times were expunged from the record books. Lewis's time of 9.92secs was 1/100th of a second faster than the time that Calvin Smith had set in 1983.

Linford Christie's time of 9.97secs that won him the silver medal, broke the existing European record for the distance and made him the first European to complete the race in less than 10 seconds. Calvin Smith won the bronze with a time of 9.99secs.

Answer: 1

James Dean was killed on US Highway 466 (now California State Route 46) a few miles east of Paso Robles, California when a car turned across his path as he was driving towards a race meeting at Salinas, California. The two cars met head on and Dean received severe injuries. He was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Prior to this time, only "East of Eden" had been released into cinemas. "Rebel Without a Cause" was released less than one month after his death. Filming of Dean's part in "Giant" had finished the day before his death. During the editing of the film Nick Adams was used to re-dub some of Dean's lines. The film was released in the US in November 1956.

Answer: 1949

Inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917, Mao joined the Chinese Communist Party at its inception in 1921 and was soon elected to the party's Central Committee.

In 1931, Mao played an integral part in the CCP forming the Chinese Soviet Republic in the South East of the country and was elected as Chairman, but in 1934 the Communists were forced to retreat to the North West by the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-Shek, in what is known as "The Long March".

When Japan launched its invasion of China in 1937, the CCP joined the Kuomintang in repelling them. But in the background, Mao was strategically weakening the KMT and readying the CCP for a battle against them.

When the Sino-Japanese war ended in 1945, China descended into civil war. Mao and the CCP gradually made significant gains throughout the country and eventually in December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek fled the mainland to Taiwan when the Red Army held siege to the city of Chengdu, the last city that the KMT occupied. By this time, the People's Republic of China had already been established; Mao was confident enough of victory to declare China a people's republic on October 1, 1949 and he himself was proclaimed its Chairman. Chiang meanwhile was still claiming to be leader of China, ruling from Taiwan, a claim that was recognised by the international community.

The fighting in the civil war ended May 1950 although no document has ever been signed to officially end the war itself.

Answer: Salvador Allende

Allende was a socialist politician who was elected as president of Chile in November 1970, despite strong US influence on the Chilean congress to vote otherwise. During his period in office, Allende embarked upon an ambitious series of reforms to the economy which had some initial success but led to runaway inflation by 1972 and his re-establishing of links with Cuba caused clashes with both the US and his coalition partners.

A coup d'etat was first attempted by Col. Robert Souper in June 1973 but failed. On September 11, 1973, a second attempt was launched by the Chilean Armed Forces.

At 8.30 am the Armed Forces declared themselves in charge of the country and notified Allende that if he did not resign and depart the Presidential Palace (La Moneda), it would be bombed. Allende refused to leave and delivered a speech to the nation on the radio in which he accepted that he would be defeated but would not stand down.

Shortly afterwards General Pinochet, the Army's recently appointed Commander-in-Chief, gave the order to advance on to La Moneda and the Air Force began bombing of the palace. Allende died within the palace from a gunshot. It is still not known whether he committed suicide or was killed.

A military junta was estsablished following the coup and Pinochet was appointed President of Chile the following year, remaining in office until 1990.

Answer: Sam Torrance

The Ryder Cup was initially set up as a golfing competition between the best American professional golfers and their British counterparts. The first competition was held in 1927 at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts and was won comfortably by the US by nine and a half points to two and a half. The Brits won the first two competitions held on British soil in 1929 and 1933 but then won just once more in 1957 before the lack of parity between the sides led to the British team being expanded to include golfers from across Europe in 1979.

The 1985 Ryder Cup was held at The Belfry in Warwickshire, England and was only the second home tie for a European side. Going into the final day's singles matches, Europe led by nine points to seven but the US had a very strong record in the singles and were still considered favourites. Torrance, who had lost two and won one of his foursome and fourball matches, was drawn to play Andy North in the seventh singles match. As he drove off on the 18th tee, his match was all-square, Torrance having come back from being three holes down earlier in the round. Of the previous six matches, four had ended in European wins and one was halved meaning that if Torrance won the hole then Europe would be winners.

Torrance hit a mammoth drive and then landed his second 18 feet from the hole. North meanwhile put his initial drive into the lake and had taken four shots to reach the green. Therefore, Torrance had two putts to win. He took just one and Europe had its first ever win and the US had been defeated for the first time in 28 years. The final score was 16 1/2 - 11 1/2.

Answer: George III

King George III, probably now best remembered for his periods of insanity as portrayed in Alan Bennett's play (and subsequent film) "The Madness of King George III", reigned for 59 years and 96 days. Victoria became Queen after her two uncles, George IV and William IV both died without surviving heirs. Victoria's father Edward, Duke of Kent, had died just six days before his father.

Victoria's reign lasted 63 years and 216 days.

Answer: New York City

New York City was made the temporary capital of the US on September 13, 1788 just three months after New York had been ratified as the eleventh state of the Union. It remained capital for little more than a year before it was moved to Philadelphia in 1790 after agreement had been reached to build a capital city on federal land on the banks of the Potomac river, a site chosen by President George Washington.

Philadelphia remained capital whilst the District of Columbia was being constructed. The seat of government was transferred from Philadelphia to Washington DC on December 1, 1800.

Answer: USS Enterprise

The aircraft carrier was the eighth US ship to bear the name Enterprise, the first having been launched in 1775. The 1960 model has seen considerable service in over 40 years playing a vital blockading role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and becoming the first nuclear-powered vessel to be involved in combat in Vietnam in 1965.

It has continued in service into the 21st century, providing air support in the US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Answer: 1818

The first transfusion of human blood was conducted by Dr James Blundell when he treated a woman who was haemorrhaging after childbirth. The donor was her husband who provided 4 ounces of blood for the purpose.

Transfusions using animal blood had been recorded as far back as 1667 when Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys transfused sheep blood into a 15-year old boy, who recovered.