Assorted General Trivia VII Online Trivia | Mixed 10 Questions

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What musical tune is usually played during the title or credits on movie shorts starring The Three Stooges? (Hint: She cut off their tails with a carving knife.)

Answer: Three Blind Mice

The original Stooges that most people remember were Moe Howard (born Harry Horwitz, 1897-1975), his brother Curly (born Jerry Horwitz, 1903-1952), and Larry Fine (born Louis Feinberg, 1902-1975). The first 97 films they made starred the original trio. After Curly suffered a stroke in 1946, he was replaced by his brother Shemp, then by Joe Besser, and finally by 'Curly Joe' De Rita.

2. What was the name of the world's first electronic, programmable computer? (Hints: This British computer was used during World War II to help decode German messages coded on the Enigma machine; all the wrong answers are U.S. computers.)

Answer: Colossus

During the Second World War, Colossus was installed at Bletchley Park, England. Code-breakers (helped by the Colossus computer) deciphered messages encoded on the German Enigma machines and read secret communications between German headquarters and field units.

This intelligence, code named Ultra, was kept secret until the mid-1970s, when the 30-year rule allowed its release. This secrecy is why many people think the U.S. Eniac was the first programmable electronic computer.

3. Who was the Russian Premier who pounded his shoe on the podium in protest at a meeting of the United Nations during the Cold-War era? (Hint: In 1959, U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon and this Soviet leader engaged in an impromptu debate in a replica of a suburban American kitchen in a U.S. cultural fair in Moscow about the merits and disadvantages of capitalism and communism.)

Answer: Nikita Khrushchev

At a notable UN meeting in the 1960s, Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev declared, 'We will bury you,' while pounding his shoe on the podium. Khrushchev was referring to the rapid pace of growth occurring in the USSR at the time. During the 1950s, the Soviet economy was growing at an 8 to 9 percent annual rate.

4. Which of these is NOT a horse that was in a U.S. television series?

Answer: Alf

'Silver' was the Lone Ranger's horse in the TV series from 1949-1957. 'Flicka' was the trick horse in the 1956 TV series 'My Friend Flicka.' 'Trigger' was Roy Rogers horse in the 1951-1957 TV series. 'ALF' (which stood for 'Alien Life Form') was a U.S. TV series from 1986-1990.

5. In the H.G. Well's story "The Time Machine," the Morlocks were the people who lived below ground. Who were the people who lived above ground? (Hint: They were raised to be eaten by the Morlocks.)

Answer: Eloi

In the 1960 movie "The Time Machine," Rod Taylor played George (H. G. Wells) and Yvette Mimieux played the Eloi named Weena.)

6. When the first transcontinental railroad was completed in the U.S. in the 19th century, in what (now) U.S. state did the two parts coming from the east and west meet? (Hint: Brigham Young and his followers settled in what is now this state.)

Answer: Utah

A golden spike (later retrieved) was the final railroad tie spike driven in a 10 May, 1869 ceremony in Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. Transcontinental railroad passenger train service began 5 days later from Omaha with a first-class trip (scheduled to take slightly more than 4 days) costing $111. The second-class fare was $80 with fewer amenities and the raw immigrant class was $40, with no amenities. Utah became the 45th state of the U.S. on 4 January, 1896.

7. What European country founded the first continuous, permanent settlement in North America? (Hint: The settlement's name is St. Augustine.)

Answer: Spain

Spain founded the city of St. Augustine, Florida in 1565, and it has been inhabited every year since then. By comparison, the Pilgrims settled in Massachusetts in 1620. The Viking Leif Eriksson may have visited North America even earlier than that, but no settlement he founded remains.

The city of Santa Fe, New Mexico is the oldest state capital city in the U.S. (founded by the Spanish in 1610).

8. German Enigma code machines used in World War II were captured from several different German submarines. The capture from which one of these submarines was a Hollywood creation and did NOT really happen? (Hint: It was the title of a 2000 movie.)

Answer: U-571

The movie "U-571" shows an Enigma machine being captured, but that was a screenwriter's blending of several other actual captures. Although there was an actual U-571, no Enigma machine was captured when it was sunk on 28 January 1944 after fighting on the surface with an Australian Sunderland aircraft from the RAAF 461 Squadron.

Historical note:
British sailors on HMS Bulldog captured the first Enigma machine captured at sea from U-110 in May 1941. German sub U-505 and an Enigma machine were captured by the USS Guadalcanal task group just two days before the D-Day invasion (giving rise to fears the Germans might change the code just before the invasion). The captured German sub is on public display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois, USA. British sailors captured Enigma codebooks from U-559 in October 1942 in the Mediterranean Sea. These were instrumental in breaking the fourth-rotor Enigma complexity the German navy introduced in late 1941.

9. What color was the bathing suit on the famous 'diving girl' logo of the Jantzen Bathing Suit Co? (Hint: This color was considered risqu� at a time when women typically wore black, knee-length suits.)

Answer: Red

Jantzen's Diving Girl logo showing a diving girl in a red one-piece tank suit was created in 1920. This was considered pretty risque at the time, since women vacationers of the late 19th century typically wore black, knee-length, puffed-sleeve wool dresses, often featuring a sailor collar, and worn over bloomers or drawers trimmed with ribbons and bows.

10. Winston Churchill used the phrase 'iron curtain' in a famous speech at the beginning of the cold war. In what U.S. state did he give his speech? (Hint: Churchill's speech was given at Westminster College in the city of Fulton.)

Answer: Missouri

Winston Churchill gave his famous speech "The Sinews of Peace," better known as his "Iron Curtain" speech, at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946 after receiving an honorary degree. Although many people think Churchill originated the phrase "iron curtain" to describe the division between western powers and the area of Europe controlled by the Soviet Union, it actually was used earlier by other world figures. Known speakers include Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Allen Dulles, later US Director of Central Intelligence (in a speech on 3 December 1945).

Source: Author root17

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Assorted General Trivia VII Trivia Quiz

I'll give you 10 questions from various fields. You choose from the multiple choices the answer you think is correct. If you enjoy these, you would probably like my other general-trivia quizzes. You can locate them by clicking on 'root17' (my ID).

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>