Ten Major Events from 1950-1959 Quiz

Answer: Sigingstone

On March 12, 1950, an Avro 689 Tudor V airplane, flying out of Dublin Airport in Ireland to return the Welsh Rugby team to Wales, which initially only held 72 people, was renovated to fit 78 people and took off with good weather clearance. It was preparing to land too low in Llanddow in Sigingstone, South Wales, when the pilot managed to get the plane back up, but the airplane then stalled. It then just fell to the ground. The right wing of the aircraft hit the ground first, then the left wing and nose, which got separated from the main part of the plane.

Two passengers in the add-on seats were completely unharmed. Another man, who was using the airplane bathroom, was hospitalized for four months after being knocked out, but also survived. Everyone else, eighty passengers died, 72 died instantly, and the other eight died later in the hospitals from injuries obtained in the crash.

The cause of the plane crashing was determined to be the renovating to add the extra people.

Answer: Winter of Terror

During the winter of 1950-1951, 649 avalanches killed more than 265 people and destroyed much property. Austria lost the most people with 135 deaths. Along with people and property, Austria and Switzerland lost a lot of forests. Switzerland also lost five hundred cattle.

Answer: Finland

Armi Helena Kuusela was born on August 20, 1934, in Muhos, Finland. She won Miss Finland in May of 1952. The following month she was crowned Miss Universe at the age of seventeen. That same year, she was in a Finnish movie about her called (in English): "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World." During her travels as Miss Universe, she met a man named Virgilio Hilario near Manila, The Philippines.

After a short courting period, Kuusela gave up her crown to marry the man she loved. The couple had five children. Sadly, her first husband died in 1975 after a heart attack.

In 1978 she remarried a man named Albert N. Williams.

Answer: Jonas Salk

Jonas Edward Salk was born on October 28, 1914, in New York City, NY, USA. It took him several years to develop a polio vaccine. Within twenty-five years of the vaccination, polio was eradicated from the United States of America.

Salk spent the end of his life trying to create a vaccine against AIDS. He died on June 23, 1995 at the age of 80.

Answer: Schools can't be segregated

On May 17, 1954, in Brown V the Board of Education in Topeka, it was ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools. In 1896 Plessy v Ferguson had ruled that it was okay to segregate if everything else was equal, but Brown v Board of Education went further to say even if everything is equal, it's still not allowed.

In the case, Oliver Brown was a black man who wanted his daughter to go to the local school instead of the far-away black school which required her to ride a bus. He and a dozen other black families sued the Topeka Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall was the Brown's lawyer. The hearings lasted from December 8, 1953, to May 17, 1954, with the Browns winning.

Answer: Jim Henson

James Maury Henson was born on September 24, 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi, USA. He became interested in puppetry while in high school. In 1955, Jim Hensen and a woman he would later marry named Jane Nebel created the show "Sam and Friends." The life-action and puppet show combo was about five minutes long and preceded "The Tonight Show."

Kermit the Frog was first used in "Sam and Friends" and was voiced by Jim Hensen until Hensen died in 1990. Steve Whitmire took over following Hensen's death until 2016. In 2017, Matt Vogel took over, and others have done the voice as well. Kermit has also been on "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show." He has also done several movies, including "The Muppet Movie" (1979), "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984), and "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992).

Answer: Morocco

Morocco is located in North Africa. France and Spain split Morocco into protectorates in 1912. In 1953, France forced Sultan Mohammed V into exile in Madagascar and replaced him with Mohammed Ben Aarafa, who was not well-liked in Morocco. This caused the Moroccans to riot, and by 1955 France allowed Mohammed V back into Morocco.

Then in 1956, Morocco regained their independence and became one again. In 1958, after the Ifni War (also called the Forgotten War), Spain also recognized Morocco's independence.

Answer: New Zealand

Bolton was born on August 13, 1888, in Wanganui, New Zealand. In 1913 he married Beatrice Mabel Jones, who died on July 11, 1956. Although she had been ill for a long time, Bolton was charged with murder, convicted, and hanged on February 18, 1957, at age 68.

Bolton had argued that his wife probably had arsenic in her system due to the water on the farm where he used arsenic. Despite the fact he and his daughter also had traces of arsenic in their systems, he was still found guilty. His son, James, has tried to clear his father's name, and it has become a bit of a conspiracy about whether Bolton was guilty of murder. Unfortunately, he was having an affair with his wife's sister, which didn't help the case.

Answer: Eisenhower

Dwight David Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, and raised in Abilene, Kansas. In 1915, he graduated from West Point and also married Mamie Doud. The couple had two sons. In 1952 and 1956, Eisenhower won the presidential elections by many votes. He was a Republican. While president, his goals were to keep communism from spreading and lowering the national debt.

In 1957, he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which integrated schools, such as the school in Little Rock, Arkansas, with the famous "Little Rock Nine." These students were prevented from going to white schools by the then-governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, so the president interceded on their behalf and made sure they got into the schools.

On May 22, 1958, Eisenhower was the first president on color television, making an appearance for NBC's new studio dedication. He said a few words about the significance of color television.

Answer: Mercury

Minamata disease is a neurological disease which can cause coordination problems, muscle weakness, damage to the sight and hearing senses. It can also, but more rarely, make a person go insane, become paralyzed, become comatose, or even die. In an unborn child, it can also cause cerebral palsy.

It is most commonly happens after eating seafood that contains mercury from the Minamata Bay, which is how the disease was named.

The researchers at Kumamoto University (called Kumadai as well) noticed that cats in families in the Minamata Bay area would die soon after eating scraps from the table. This led the team to conclude that it was a type of food poisoning. They also suspected the poisoning came from seafood. When they checked the mercury amounts in the Minamata Bay they couldn't believe how much was found. The main source of mercury came from the Chisso factory.