The Perils of 1901 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Victoria

Queen Victoria died at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight. She was eighty-one years old at the time of her death. Her state funeral was held on February 2, 1901, in the United Kingdom at St. George's Chapel in Windsor. Archduke Ferdinand and Kaiser Wilhelm were guests at her funeral. Queen Victoria planned her own funeral in 1897 and wanted people to wear white clothing instead of funeral black.

She was interred with her husband Albert at the Royal Museum on the grounds at Frogmore.

Answer: South Wales

Universal Colliery was a coal mine that was located in the town of Senghenydd in south Wales. The explosion occurred at 5:00 am in the east pit of the mine where the men were working seven hundred yards from the bottom of the pit. Because the explosion rendered the shaft that sent air to the miners useless, the shaft that air went out of was used to rescue the trapped men. Rescue efforts lasted five hours and only one man survived out of the eighty-two men in the mine.

The explosion destroyed the roof supports causing the roof to cave in which made it weeks before all the bodies could be extracted from the mine.

Answer: Morphine

Jane became a servant of the Toppan family after leaving the orphanage. She changed her name from Honora Black to Jane Toppan to honor the family that gave her a home. When Jane became a nurse in 1885, she would experiment on her patients, mostly elderly, with morphine and atropine. Jane became a private nurse after being fired from Massachusetts General and Cambridge for the suspicious deaths of her patients. Toppan went to work as a private nurse for the Davis family. She killed four members of the Davis family as well as her landlord and his wife with morphine.

One year after Jane Toppan was arrested, she admitted to killing thirty-one people with morphine. She was found not guilty on reason of insanity and committed to a hospital for the insane.

Answer: Rio de Janeiro

Steamship Rio de Janeiro sank after hitting a reef hidden by heavy fog while entering San Francisco Bay. The ship was iron-hulled and followed its normal course from Hong Kong to San Francisco. The number of casualties was one-hundred twenty eight made up of American officers and Chinese seamen. Eighty two people were rescued from the water.

The wreckage of the Steamship Rio de Janeiro sits two-hundred eighty seven feet below the San Francisco Bay. The wreckage is on the National Historic Places Registry. After the disaster, Congress gave funds to have a light house built close to the wreckage of the Steamship Rio de Janeiro.

Answer: Benjamin Harrison

Doctors believed Benjamin Harrison came down with a case of influenza when he became ill in 1901, but it was later discovered that he had developed pneumonia. Former President Harrison was treated with oxygen and steam. Instead of improving, his condition worsened and former President Benjamin Harrison died on March 13, 1901, at the age of sixty-seven. Former President Harrison was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The White House issued a proclamation of flying flags at half-staff on March 14 in honor of former President Harrison.

Answer: Lifeboat

On November 13, 1901, a lifeboat was summoned during a storm in Norfolk, England, in the town of Caister-on-Sea. A boat had sent up flares during the storm. The lifeboat was sent out and returned due to the harshness of the rain and the waves. The boat was sent out again and capsized because of the waves. Twelve men were on the lifeboat and only three survived.

The wreckage of the lifeboat was taken to a boatyard and taken apart. Before the lifeboat had been destroyed, it had saved one-hundred forty-six lives.

Answer: William McKinley

On September 6, 1901, President McKinley and Leon Czolgosz were at the Pan-Amerian Expo in Buffalo, New York when Leon Czolgosz shot President McKinley twice while the men were shaking hands. Leon Czolgosz wanted to kill President McKinley because Leon believed his presidency was a sign of oppression. The first bullet grazed President McKinley, but the second one entered his stomach. The second bullet could not be found in the stomach and President McKinley died of gangrene on September 14, 1901.

After President McKinley's death, the Secret Service was put in charge of protecting the future presidents. As for Leon Czolgosz, he was put to death on October 29, 1901, for the assassination of President William McKinley.

Answer: Black Sea

The 7.2 earthquake that struck in the Black Sea occurred on March 31, 1901. The earthquake caused thirteen to sixteen foot tsunamis which devastated coastline villages. The countries of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Indonesia, Anatolia, and Hungary felt the effects of the 7.2 earthquake.

Answer: Heidi

Before her death in 1901, Johanna became an invalid. She died while living in Zürich, Switzerland. She was buried at the family cemetery in Sihlfeld-A Cemetery in Switzerland. Even though she wrote upwards of twenty books, her most famous book was "Heidi", written in 1880 about a young girl and her grandfather.

Answer: Railroads

For the first time the New York Stock Exchange crashed on May 17, 1901 because of railroads. J.P. Morgan, Jacob Schiff, and E.H. Harriman all wanted control of the Northern Pacific Railway. Harriman bought as much stock as he could in the NPR causing other stocks to drop dramatically. Because of this, stockholders were selling their stocks at a fast pace.

In result of the NYSE crash, Morgan, Schiff, and Harriman came together to form the Northern Securities Company to get control of the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, and the Burlington Railways. The company was shut down after violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The government won the lawsuit against NSC and the company was dissolved. After dissolution, the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Burlington Railways went back to being independently run.

The stock market crash of 1901 is now commonly known as "the rich man's panic".