Whose birthday is June 23? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edward VIII

Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David (born 1894), known as 'David' to the royal family, became King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, Defender of the Faith, etc., etc., etc. (phew!) upon the death of his father, King George V in January 1936.

Rumors of his romance with a soon-to-be-twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson, became widely known, and in November of the same year, Edward informed Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin of his intent to marry Mrs. Simpson even if it meant abdication. On December 11, 1936, Edward abdicated for "the woman he loved", leaving the throne to his brother Albert (George VI), the father of Queen Elizabeth II.

Relations between the Duke and the royal family remained strained until his death in Paris in 1972.

Prince Philip (b. 1921), of course, is Queen Elizabeth II's consort. Lord Mountbatten was a member of the royal family, last Viceroy of India and a favorite of Prince Charles. He was assassinated by the IRA in 1979.

Answer: Frances McDormand

Born in Chicago, Frances was adopted by minister Vernon McDormand and his wife Noreen and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. A graduate of Bethany College, West Virginia, she also earned an MFA from Yale in 1982.

She began her career on stage and, in 1984, starred in "Blood Simple" directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. She married Joel in 1984 and they adopted a son, Pedro, from Paraguay in 1994.

Nominated for four Academy Awards, she won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role as pregnant sheriff Marge Gunderson in "Fargo" (1996). She also won a Tony in 1988 in a revival of Tennessee Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire". She's also won an American Comedy Award ("Fargo"), an Emmy Award ("Hidden in America", 1996), and two Independent Spirit Awards (1997, "Fargo" and 2007 "Friends With Money"). In total, Frances has won or been nominated for more than 25 major acting awards.

Michelle Pfeiffer (b. 1958), Jamie Lee Curtis (b. 1958) and Holly Hunter (b. 1958) are all talented, award-winning actresses in their own right.

Answer: Joss Whedon

Joseph Hill Whedon was born in New York City and received a degree in film studies from Wesleyan University. Whedon started his career writing four episodes of "Roseanne". In 1992, his screenplay for the movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was produced and from 1997-2003 the T.V. series of the same name was a mega-hit that also spawned the popular spin-off "Angel".

Whedon also created and wrote the painfully short-lived series "Firefly" (2002-2003) and the movie based on the series, "Serenity" (2005). He's worked in virtually every aspect of film/television, including producer, writer, director, musician and even an actor ("Veronica Mars", "Buffy...", "Angel") and has appeared as himself ("Battlestar Galactica", "Robot Chicken").

Extra trivia - Joss' dad, Tom Whedon was also a prolific television writer and producer ("The Golden Girls", "The Electric Company", "Benson" among others); his grandfather, Don Whedon wrote for many 'classic' T.V. series, including "Leave it to Beaver", "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Andy Griffith Show").

Joss and his wife, Kai Cole, live in Los Angeles with their son, Arden, 6.

David E. Kelly (b. 1956) is the creator of T.V. hits such as "Boston Legal", "The Practice" and "Picket Fences". Rick Berman (b. 1945) has produced many entries in the "Star Trek" universe, including "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine" and several of the films. Seth McFarland (b. 1973) is the animator, producer, writer and voice talent behind "Family Guy" and "American Dad").

Answer: Stuart Sutcliffe

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and brought up in Liverpool, England, Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe met John Lennon while both were attending the Liverpool College of Art.

Sutcliffe joined the Beatles during their early years in Hamburg, Germany, (with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Pete Best), but friction between Sutcliffe and McCartney (and later Lennon), led to Sutcliffe leaving the group to stay in Hamburg at art school with his fiancée, photographer Astrid Kircherr.

Some believe the hemorrhage that took Sutcliffe's life was caused by an earlier fight in which he suffered a fractured skull, but no 'official' cause has ever been determined.

Pete Best (b. 1941) was the original Beatles drummer, fired by Brian Epstein and replaced by Ringo Starr. Rory Storm (1939-1972), was leader of Liverpool band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and employed Ringo Starr as drummer until Ringo left to join the Beatles. Billy J. Kramer (b. 1943) was another "Merseybeat" singer and contemporary of the Beatles who, with The Dakotas, recorded several Lennon and McCartney tunes.

Answer: Roy Scheider

Chicago born Robert Louis (Bob) Fosse began dance lessons at age nine. His first Hollywood break came in 1953 in "Give a Girl a Break" and "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis".

"With pigeon toes and slouching posture, Fosse hardly fit the dance ideal so he focused more on rhythm and style to make up for what he lacked physically", and gave him the unique style that would be his trademark until his unfortunate, and premature, death from a heart attack in 1987 during a revival of "Sweet Charity".

Answer: Johannes Gutenberg

Henne Gänsfleisch zur Laden, commonly known as Johannes (or Johann) Gutenberg, made literacy available to virtually everyone through his invention of moveable type. Although Laurence Koster of the Netherlands also laid claim to inventing the printing press, it is generally accepted that Gutenberg is "the father of modern printing."

According to "The Great Idea Finder" (http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/gutenberg.htm#The%20Story:), "When Johannes Gutenberg began building his press in 1436, he was unlikely to have realized that he was giving birth to an art form which would take center stage in the social and industrial revolutions which followed. He was German, his press was wooden, and the most important aspect of his invention was that it was the first form of printing to use movable type."

Although most famous for the "Gutenberg Bible" (first completed probably c. 1452, containing more than 1280 pages), Gutenberg also printed legal documents, poetry and indulgences ("printed slips of paper sold by the Catholic Church to remit temporal punishments in purgatory for sins committed in this life, for those wealthy enough to afford indulgences").

Gutenberg died February 8, 1468, in Mainz, Germany.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), was a Danish astronomer known for his accurate planetary observations. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), was a Dutch tradesman known as "The Father of Microbiology". Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), was the first to formulate the theory that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

Answer: Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing was born in Paddington, London, on 23 June 1912, the son of Julius Mathison, of the Indian Civil Service, and Ethel Sara Turing, daughter of the chief engineer of the Madras Railways.

According to http://www.turing.org.uk/bio/part1.html (contents provided by Alan Hodges, author of "Alan Turing: The Enigma"): "In four inadequate words Alan Turing appears now as the founder of computer science, the originator of the dominant technology of the late twentieth century, but these words were not spoken in his own lifetime, and he may yet be seen in a different light in the future."

Turing formalized the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing Machine. With the Turing Test, he made a significant contribution to debates regarding artificial intelligence and arguments as to whether or not a machine has consciousness and can think.

Although Turing played a pivotal role in cryptography during WWII, his arrest for a homosexual relationship with a young man in 1952 made it impossible for him to obtain security clearance during the Cold War. He died in 1954 of cyanide poisoning and his death was declared a suicide.

George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911), was an Irish physicist best known for his identification of the natural units of physical quantities; H. D. Turing, Alan's uncle, is best remembered for his knowledge of fly fishing, and had nothing to do with science or mathematics.

Answer: June Carter Cash

Valerie June Carter was born in Maces Spring, VA. She was the second of three daughters (along with Anita and Helen) of Maybelle Carter of the legendary Carter Family. After the original family group retired in 1943, June continued to play (the auto harp and guitar) and sing with Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters on numerous radio stations. Beginning in 1959, they were regulars on the Grand Ole Opry.

In the 1950s, June married Carl Smith with whom she had a daughter Carlene, who later recorded as Carlene Carter. During this decade Col. Tom Parker became her manager and she toured with Elvis Presley.

In the 1960s, she began working with the Johnny Cash show. The pair had a big hit in 1967 with "Jackson" and married in 1968. In 1970 they had a son, John Carter Cash.

June Carter Cash died May 23, 2003. The 2005 movie "I Walk the Line" earned Reese Witherspoon an Oscar for her portrayal of June.

Info from: http://www.junecartercash.com/bio/bio.html

Loretta Lynn (b. 1935), Patsy Cline (1932-1963) and Tammy Wynette (1942-1998), are/were all popular country divas, each with numerous hits including "Coal Miner's Daughter" (Lynn), "Crazy" (Cline) and "Stand By Your Man" (Wynette).

Answer: Dr. Alfred Kinsey

Born in Hoboken, NJ, in 1894, Alfred Charles Kinsey graduated magna cum laude from Bowdoin College, Maine, and received his Sc.D. from Harvard in 1919.

By 1937, "American Men of Science" listed Kinsey as one of their "starred" scientists. In 1938, he began gathering case histories of sexual behavior. After more than 18,000 interviews, Kinsey and his staff published "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" in 1948, and "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" in 1953--startling publications during a time of purported innocence! These are sometimes known simply as "The Kinsey Report". Alfred Kinsey died in 1956.

Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903-1998) wrote the seminal parenting tome: "Baby and Child Care"; Dr. Timothy Leary (1920-1996) was a writer and psychologist famous for his exhortation to "turn on, tune in, drop out", and William Masters (b. 1915), along with Virginia Johnson (b. 1925), pioneered studies into human sexuality and dysfunction from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Answer: Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1940 and weighed only 4.5 lbs. at birth. In junior high she joined the girl's basketball team, but was not asked to play a game for three years. After becoming a starting guard in her sophomore year, Wilma was spotted by Ed Temple, coach of the Tennessee State University Women's Track Team, the Tigerbells. Following high school, the University offered her a full scholarship.

In 1956, she received her first Olympic medal, a bronze, in the 4x4 relay and, in 1960, won her three gold medals in Rome for the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and running the anchor on the 400-meter relay team.

Among her many accomplishments, Wilma was named both the United Press International and Associated Press Women's Athlete of the year in 1960, presented with the Babe Zaharis Award in 1962, and the Christopher Columbus Award for Most Outstanding International Good Sportsmanship in 1960. She was inducted into the Black Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. She's also been a goodwill ambassador and started her own non-profit outreach program, The Wilma Rudolph Foundation, which helps provide free coaching for a variety of sports as well as academic support.

Wilma Rudolph died at her home in Nashville on November 12, 1994, aged 54.

Babe Didrikson Zaharis (1911-1956) is considered by many to be the greatest female athlete of all time; Peggy Fleming (b. 1948) won an Olympic gold medal for figure skating in 1968 (Grenoble, France); Althea Gibson (1927-2003) was the first African-American to play in the U.S. Open (1950) and to win Wimbledon (1952).