People C-D Trivia

1. Where was Frederick Douglass born into slavery?

From Quiz The Life of Frederick Douglass

Answer: Maryland

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland to Harriet Bailey. Using records of his first owner, Aaron Anthony, historians have estimated he was born in February of 1818. He was separated from his mother in infancy and lived with his grandparents, a slave woman and a free black man. A few years later, he was separated from his grandparents and taken to the Wye House plantation.

From Quiz March, March, Dabrowski

Answer: Józef Wybicki

The Polish National Anthem is a lively folk dance with patriotic words written by Józef Wybicki shortly after the country lost its independence in a series of three partitions by Austria, Russia, Prussia (1772, 1791, 1795). Lech Walesa is a 20th Century Polish President Edward Ro¿nowski is Wybicki's grandson Jan Dabrowski is the Patriotic General about which the song was written

From Quiz Desmond Doss: Pacifist or Patriot?

Answer: Seventh Day Adventist

Desmond's mother, Bertha Edward Doss, was a devout Seventh Day Adventist, and he followed her example. It was important to keep the Sabbath, practice non-violence, and follow a vegetarian lifestyle. Born in 1919, Doss attended a Seventh Day Adventist school until the eighth grade; he subsequently took a job to help the family during the Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, like many young men in his community, Desmond wanted to enlist in the army; on April 1, 1942, he enlisted, however, as a conscientious objector.

From Quiz The Case of Dr Crippen

Answer: Michigan

Crippen was born on 11th September 1862, to Myron Augustine Crippen and Andresse Skinner Crippen; the family lived in the small town of Coldwater, where his father owned a dry goods store. The family were quite prosperous and by all accounts lived a good life

From Quiz Madame Curie

Answer: Sklodowska

She was born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland. Her birthday was November 7, 1867, the fifth of five children. At the time Warsaw was under Russian control, but she grew up a Polish national who deeply resented the Russian suppression of the Polish people. One interesting thing came out of the Russian-Polish connection. Her cousin who taught her how to work in a laboratory had once worked as an assistant to Dmitri Mendeleev, the father of the periodic table.

From Quiz Nirod C. Chaudhury, the controversial Indian

Answer: Autobiography of an Unknown Indian

Nirod C. Chaudhury's autobiography, entitled 'Autobiography of an Unknown Indian', was published when he was 53. It stormed to popularity just after its publication. It became his masterpiece. 'My Days' was the autobiography of R.K. Narayan while 'Story of My Life' and 'My Confessions' were the autobiographies of George Sand and Leo Tolstoy respectively.

From Quiz George Washington Carver, Man of Science

Answer: He was born a slave, owned by Moses Carver

George was one of many children, most of whom died in infancy or childhood, of Mary and Giles, slaves owned by Moses Carver. Moses Carver opposed slavery in principle, but found that he needed some in order to run his Missouri farm. The exact date of George's birth is not known, but it was probably around 1864. When George was very young, he was kidnapped, along with his mother and a sister, and sold in Kentucky. Moses Carver was able to recover George, and brought him back to the farm. When slavery was abolished, Moses and Susan Carver decided to raise George and his brother James in their home along with the nieces and nephews that they had adopted after Moses's brother died.

From Quiz Sir Robert Carey - Adventurer and Courtier

Answer: The English had recently executed Mary, Queen of Scots.

Anglo-Scottish relations were often stormy, and there were real fears of war following Queen Mary's execution. King James warned Robert Carey against entering Scotland because he heard of plans to kill him, and Carey had to hand over his message at the border to James' men. In the end there was no war; James hoped to become Elizabeth's successor when she died (which he did), and didn't want to jeopardise this, not even to avenge his mother's execution. Carey visited Scotland later, and was on good terms with King James throughout his life.

From Quiz The "Dahling" of Literature

Answer: South Wales

Roald Dahl was born to Harold and Sofie (nee Hesselberg) Dahl in Llandoff, South Wales. He was named after Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

From Quiz The Ultimate Dancer, Isadora Duncan!

Answer: San Francisco

Isadora was born in 1877, the youngest of Joseph and Dora Duncan's four children. Her given name was Angela but at the age of sixteen she started using her mother's name, Isadora. Her father, a businessman and thirty years older than her mother left soon after she was born, due to a banking scandal. Her mother taught music to give the family an income (supposedly)! I have found so many different accounts of Isadora's early life, it's impossible to be sure. In Isadora's autobiography, she says they were so poor, almost starving, that she put her hair up (pretending to be sixteen rather than eleven) and went out to work. However, her ballet lessons, for one, suggest to me that there may be more to this story!

From Quiz Howard Carter

Answer: Painting

Howard Carter's father, Samuel John Carter, was an artist who specialised in animal paintings for the higher social classes. Whilst a boy, Howard Carter developed a talent in watercolour painting as well and, following in his father's footsteps, made it his career (mainly due to his limited education and social class standing). However, this talent was soon seen by the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, who in fact was looking for an artist to work for them in Egypt. Impressed by Carters talent, the Fund offered him a job. Aged at only seventeen Carter was to help Percy E. Newberry with the epigraphic recording of tombs in Egypt, and so left for the 'mysterious land' in the autumn of 1891.

From Quiz Lucius Clay: The 20th Century's Forgotten Man

Answer: Senator

Clay's father was Alexander Stephens Clay, a three-term U.S. senator from Georgia. Lucius Clay was born April 23, 1898, but later told the army he was born in 1897 in order to win an early appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

From Quiz S.S. Van Dine

Answer: Willard Huntington Wright

The S.S. stood for 'steamship'. The 'Van Dine' was a family connection that has not been verified by later biographers. He had a classical education at Pomona College and Harvard, followed by study abroad in Munich and Paris.

From Quiz Arthur C. Clarke - Space Cadet

Answer: Minehead beach and the sea

Arthur had a great affinity with the sand and the sea throughout his life. He was quoted as saying the only place he ever felt completely relaxed is by the edge of the sea. His grandmother, whom he visited often, lived only a quarter mile from the beach and the Bristol Channel. His short story 'Transience' gives three descriptions of a lone boy on a beach in three vastly different times and could well reflect his time spent on Minehead beach.

From Quiz Stephen Crane

Answer: New Jersey

Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, on November 1, 1871. Crane was often sick as a young boy, and his parents feared that he would die at an early age. Despite his frail health, young Stephen learned to read at about age four. He also began writing poetry before he ever attended elementary school.

From Quiz Clive Cussler

Answer: Alhambra

Alhambra is situated in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County (not the city). Cussler attended Pasadena City College for two years before joining the U.S. Air Force at the time of the Korean Conflict. He was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1931.

From Quiz Julia Child: America's French Chef

Answer: Pasadena, California

Julia had a brother and a sister (and all three were quite tall and very athletic). She lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for many years, but was born and died in California.

From Quiz A Knighted Painter

Answer: Antwerp

Anthony van Dyck was born in 1599 in Antwerp, Belgium, to wealthy parents. He was a precocious child and apparently took up painting at a very early age.

From Quiz Ann Coulter: Blonde, Brainy and Brash

Answer: December 8, 1961

Ann Hart Coulter was born in New York City, but grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. Her father was an attorney. She has two older brothers, James and John. She sometimes claims to have been born in 1963, but all the evidence points to 1961 as the correct date. For you astrology buffs, Ann has her sun, moon, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter all in the sign of Sagittarius.

From Quiz Michael Crichton

Answer: John Lange

Michael Crichton's first work of fiction was 'Odds on' (1966). He wrote this novel under the pen-name of John Lange. Crichton also used the pen name of Jeffrey Hudson. Both these pseudonyms were based on his height. 'Lange' is a German term meaning tall and Jeffrey Hudson was a dwarf, who was a courtier in 17th century England. Crichton also wrote a book 'Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues' along with his brother Douglas Crichton. The pseudonym used for this book was a mixture of both their names - Michael Douglas. Michael Crichton is 6ft 9in tall (2.06m).

From Quiz The Life and Works of Wilkie Collins

Answer: Artist

William Wilkie Collins, son of the landscape and portrait painter, William John Thomas Collins, was born in London on 8 January 1824. He was named after his godfather, the artist Sir David Wilkie.

From Quiz The Theo Durrant Affair

Answer: William Henry Theodore Durrant

He was born in Toronto, but moved to California a few years later.

From Quiz Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Answer: Jane Grey

John Dudley and Robert Dudley were both part of the plot to get the Lady Jane Grey on the throne of England after the death of King Edward VI. When their attempt failed and Mary Tudor took the throne for herself, she had John executed for the part he played and left Robert in the Tower as a prisoner.

From Quiz Famous Poles: Nicholas Copernicus

Answer: Torun, Poland

Copernicus was born in 1473 to a middle-class family in Torun, Poland. If you were tempted by Krakow, just remember that's where he had his famous observatory.

From Quiz Aleister Crowley

Answer: Edward Alexander Crowley

Crowley was named after his father, Edward, and a pious family friend called Alexander.

From Quiz Telescope Builders, Alvan Clark & Sons

Answer: Ashfield, Massachusetts

He was the fifth of ten children, born on March 8, 1804 and he died on August 19, 1887. He didn't start building telescopes until he was forty. Before that he was an engraver and a painter of portraits. He was also a marksman with a rifle. Toward the end of his life he painted portraits of his two sons and his grandson. He had not painted a portrait in 25 years.

From Quiz Astronomer Annie Jump Cannon

Answer: Wellesley

The college she attended is in Massachusetts. She graduated in 1884 with a degree in physics.

From Quiz The Life of Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Answer: 1821

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow in 1821, son of the hospital physician Mikhail Andreyevich and Marya Fyodorovna.

From Quiz A Sometimes Blithe Spirit: Noel Coward

Answer: Teddington

Despite his later gloss of sophistication, elegant persona, and that too-too upper class accent, the debonaire Coward was born into a barely-middle class family. His father, Arthur, was an unsuccessful piano salesman (I guess because it's hard to get a piano into a sample case), and the family was often strapped for cash. Violet Coward, however, did her best to make the family's poverty at least genteel! She even made sure that her talented boy got dance lessons.

From Quiz The Life of Aleister Crowley

Answer: 1875, Leamington Spa

Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 in Leaminton Spa (England). Crowley's family was rich and well thought of in the town, but the young Edward rebelled at an early age and renamed himself Aleister. The reason he later gave was that he did not want to share a name with his father. He seems to have developed an early and intensely powerful erotic interst in women, apparently losing his virginity at 14 and contracting gonorrhoea three years later from a street prostitute.

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