Complete Hotchpotch Trivia Quiz

Answer: Spain

Although the Bourbon family was an inseparable part of French history, this extremely powerful royal lineage managed to transfuse its way into the Spanish monarchy too, when Philip V assumed the Spanish throne in 1700, while he was also the King of France. Philip accepted the Spanish throne with great reluctance and even abdicated at one point to give the throne to his short-lived son, Louis I, but created one of the longest lasting monarchies to date.

While the Bourbon monarchy went through many ups and downs in France and the rest of Europe, the Spanish monarchy was fairly stable (despite Napoleons designs for Spain) until the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's.

Answer: Strange

Robert Strange McNamara was the eighth U.S. Secretary of Defense and held that position from January 21, 1961 to February 29, 1968 under both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Kennedy originally offered his post to former secretary Robert A. Lovett, but selected McNamara after Lovett turned down the offer and suggested McNamara instead. Prior to accepting the job, McNamara's military qualifications extended only to his service in the Army Air Force from 1943 to 1946 (he went from captain to lieutenant colonel within that period).

Other than that his background was business and accounting, having graduated from UCAL (Berkely) with and economics and philosophy degree and from Harvard with an MBA. He had worked for finance for both Price, Waterhouse and Ford (where he was actually president for five weeks before accepting Kennedy's offer). Upon assuming the role of Secretary of Defense, however, he became one of the most knowledgeable leaders to have assumed that position, ravenously learning all about the job and its various aspects. McNamara was in his position for the 'Berlin Crisis', the main stage of formulation of U.S. nuclear policy (the introduction of 'flexible response', rather than the previous attitude of 'massive retaliation', particularly towards the Communist Bloc, although this later turned into the deterrent policy of 'mutual assured destruction'), the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban missile crisis, troop deployment in the Dominican Republic in 1965 to stabilize the revolution, the build-up of troops for Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the beginning of the 'non-war' in Vietnam and the Tet offensive. Actually, by the time of the Tet offensive, McNamara had already tendered his resignation, which has mostly been attributed to a disillusionment with the ongoing war. McNamara's resignation was no surprise to the country, as his conflict and numerous differences with the Johnson administration had become quite public by 1967. What was surprising, however, was Johnson's announcement that McNamara was resigning to become president of the World Bank.

By the time of his resignation, he had served for the longest period of any Secretary of Defense and Johnson awarded him both the Medal of Freedom and the Distinguished Service Medal. During his time as Secretary, he also introduced a number of new defensive and offensive weapon, response and deployment systems, but vetoed and terminated most projects begun under the Eisenhower administration for being too costly. It was not that McNamara was stingy, instead he believed in ultra-efficiency and maximal output for every defense dollar, probably a result of his financial background. McNamara served as the president of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981. From 1982 to the publishing of a book by him in 1995, entitled 'In Retrospect', McNamara became an outspoken advocate of not being the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict and then of the elimination of nuclear weapons as an element of defensive posture.

Answer: Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a small Islamic country located on the east Coast of Africa. It population are referred to as Zanzibaris, who speak Kiswahili, which is more commonly known as Swahili. The shortest war in history occurred in this small country in 1896. The war was precipitated by the death of the ruling Sultan on August 25, Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini died.

The British had a considerable influence in Zanzibar at that time (the British Navy had been assigned the task of enforcing the suppression of the slave trade and, as a result, it effectively maintained a policing role up and down the East Coast of Africa during the last half of the 19th century.

It used Zanzibar as its base) and Hamad's successor, Hamoud, was appointed by the acting British Consul, Sir Basil Cave, the same day.

The appointment caused considerable furor and approximately two hours after Hamoud had been declared as the successor, another cousin of the recently deceased sultan, Khaled, stormed the royal palace, the Beit el Sahel, and declared himself the Sultan. Cave arrived at the palace to find it barred from within. Word from Blighty quickly arrived, ordering Cave to refuse to recognize Khaled's sovereignty.

A stand-off ensued and Royal Navy Marines surrounded the Palace and were stationed throughout the city, also protecting and evacuating local Europeans to the British Consulate. The following day, Khaled was issued an ultimatum to surrender by 9.00am. He attempted to pursue talks at about 8.00am, but the British refused to see his envoy. At 9.02am a barrage started from five ships in the harbour and ended at 9.40am when the flag flying over the palace was lowered. The barrage had effectively leveled the palace completely (along with approximately 500 dead). Khaled himself escaped to the nearby German consulate, where he then escaped to Mombasa, living out his life in exile. Little interesting aside...Freddie Mercury (former lead singer of Queen) was born in Zanzibar in 1946, with the birth name, Farouk Bulsara.

Answer: Choked

Tennessee Williams is most well-known for only a few of his many works, most notably 'A Streetcar Named Desire', 'The Glass Menagerie', 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof', 'Orpheus Descending' and 'Night of the Iguana'. What is little-known about the playwright and writer, is that much of what he wrote was heavily influenced by real events and characters from his own life. Williams was actually born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi (he later renamed himself 'Tennessee', the state that his father had been born in).

He came from a somewhat dysfunctional family, with an over-bearing and overtly masculine father and a zealous, status-obsessed and controlling mother (who was the daughter of a minister). His dad was to become his model for the characters model for Big Daddy and Stanley Kowalski in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire' respectively, while his mother was the blueprint for Blanche DuBois and Amanda Wingfield in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'The Glass Menagerie'. One of Williams' more tragic characters is Laura Wingfield in 'The Glass Menagerie', who suffers greatly and mentally deteriorates due to her mother's influence on her. Sadly, Tennessee based this character on the all-to-real situation that occurred to his sister, Rose, at the hands of his mother.

His mother allowed doctors to perform a frontal lobotomy on his sister, which left her a shell of her former self. Tennessee took care of his sister for the remainder of her life. Williams started his career path in 1927, when he came third in a national essay contest. He had decided to become a playwright at the University of Missouri in 1929, but his plans were put on hold by his father forcing him to withdraw and work as a shoe salesman. Tennessee wasn't to finish school until 1938, when he graduated from the University of Iowa. Shortly afterwards he moved to New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that Tennessee began to recognize his homosexuality and in 1947, Tennessee met Frank Merlo, who he would live with until Frank's death in 1961 of lung cancer. Merlo had been a very calming influence on Williams and his death began a spiral of depression that was to lead to Tennessee's own death in 1983. Along with his depression, Tennessee fought constantly with a fear that he would go insane, like his sister and with a drug and alcohol dependency. On February 24, 1983, Tennessee Williams choked to death on the cap of a bottle of nose-spray, in a hotel room that he had taken as his residence in the Hotel Elysee. In New York City. He is buried in St. Louis, Missouri. Among many accolades, Williams won a Pulitzer in 1948 for 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and another in 1955 for 'Cat On a Hot Tin Roof'. He also won four New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, as well as writing a ton of screenplays, short plays, short stories and poems, two novels, a novella, an autobiography and, for what he is most famous for, twenty five full plays.

Answer: Virgins

In fact he demanded 1,000 virgins every year. Having plenty of wives was very important back then! Ghengis Khan (there are a variety of spellings, but this one will do) ruled over the largest land empire that has ever existed form. There are many reasons why he and his Mongol people were so successful, although much of it has to do with two main factors: the disunity that existed amongst other kingdoms and nations, {and;} the effectiveness of Ghengis' powerfully mobile military force. Ghengis was a chieftain on the Steppe at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries. 'Ghengis Khan', is not actually a name in and of itself, but a part of a title conveyed upon him by fellow chieftains.

It means either 'strong ruler' or 'oceanic ruler' (the translation is disputed), either of which essentially meant that the other local warlords and chieftains recognized him as their leader. 'Him' was actually born Temujin, which means 'blacksmith', in or about 1165. Temujin started off with a particularly bad string of luck...his father, a minor chieftain, was poisoned to death in about 1174, by a rival tribe called the Tatars (whom Yisugei, Temujin's father, had robbed years earlier), his father's followers defected to other tribes, his family became outcasts, he and his younger brother earned their mother's continued displeasure when they stalked and killed their older half-brother with an arrow (who would take their catch each time they went fishing)(1180) and in the early days of his own chieftainship, his wife was kidnapped (1183).

This would, ironically, actually be the turning point in Temujin's life. His wife was kidnapped by another tribe called the Merkit, as revenge on Temujin's father for stealing one of their brides many years before (grudges apparently lasted a long time). Temujin gathered several hundred soldiers and allies and swarmed the Merkit, reclaiming his wife and a lot of other booty on the way. The act put Temujin on the map and by 1200, he was recognized as quite the force on the Steppe, with a number of tribes already considering him their khan. During this period he also virtually wiped out the Tatars, who killed his father. At a kuriltai (great assembly) in 1206, Temujin had the title 'Genghis Khan' bestowed upon him (he is only about 40). To make his people more unified, Ghengis imposes a number of new laws and systems. Ghengis started his foreign military campaigns in 1209 and continued to campaign until 1226, during which time he conquered most of present day China and the rest of Asia from the Russian Steppe all the way to the edge of Europe (he never actually went into India though). He obliterated the Kingdom of Xi Xia (his first and last conquest), stomped all over the Jin Dynasty in China and ripped apart the Khwarizm Empire (Shah Muhammad, it's ruler, went back on a peace treaty by sending back the severed head of a Mongol emissary). The Mongol population during these conquests was somewhere in the region of 200,000. China had a population of 100 million, without counting the other kingdoms that the Mongols conquered, but the Mongols were successful because they used the disunity in the various kingdoms and based their military on the horse. This meant more flexibility, as they could wage all out war or rely on guerrilla style tactics. Ghengis died in 1227, at about the age of 60.

Answer: Dealt furniture

Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 17, 1899 to Italian immigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone. His wasn't born into an impoverished family, nor a violent family. Capone's first exposure to violence probably came from playing on the street or at school.

He was introduced to gangster Johnny Torrio (and also his future wife Mae) at a young age and ran errands for him. Torrio's influence diminished though when Torrio moved to Chicago in 1909. The more violent influence came from a man called Frankie Yale, an Italian immigrant (Francesco Ioele) and violent gangster. Yale hired the eighteen-year-old Al Capone to be a bartender in his bar, on the recommendation of Torrio. Al soon tried to become respectable after the birth of his son and his marriage to Mae Coughlin and moved to Baltimore, where he worked as a bookkeeper for a construction firm, but for some reason changed his mind when his father died in 1920. Capone reacquainted himself with Torrio and moved to Chicago in 1921. Torrio worked for Big Jim Colosimo, the gangster supreme in Chicago. Colosimo was assassinated by Yale in his own nightclub in 1920, but it was Torrino who took over where Colosimo had left off. Capone was twenty-two, but soon became Torrio's partner, rather than employee. Al set up house in a wealthy neighbourhood and called himself a dealer in second-hand furniture to his neighbours to keep up a front of respectability. Things were good until Mayor Dever replaced the corrupt Thompson as mayor of Chicago. Dever tried to clean the city up. Torrio and Capone moved to nearby Cicero, but things turned ugly when Torrio left for a brief period. Capone was fixing the 1924 primary election with kidnaping and threats, when his brother, Frank was gunned down by twenty-nine police officers carrying shotguns and machine guns. Capone responded by kidnaping actual officials (one of whom was murdered). Capone earned further notoriety by shooting a hood who had beaten up a friend of his, Jack Guzik. By now he had a lot of power and many others wanted to take him out. Killings became common-place. Torrio returned, but left in 1925 (leaving his empire to Capone), after an assassination attempt on his life in revenge for his complicity in the slaying of another gangster Dion O'Banion. Around this time Capone started to make himself more respectable and visible, by attending society functions and buttering up City officials. Capone's big mistake came through his use of money.

He usually used middle men, so the job of tracking his income was virtually impossible for the IRS intelligence unit, until he brought a hugely lavish Estate at 93 Palm Island in Miami. The IRS had proof positive of vast wealth and started an intense scrutiny from 1928 on. The Valentine Day Massacre made matters worse by attracting the attention of President Hoover. Shortly afterwards Elliot Ness was appointed to look into Capone's prohibition violations and he closed down many of Capone's operations. On March 13, 1931, a federal grand jury indicted Capone for a tax liability of {$32,488.81} and again on June 5, 1931, for twenty-two counts of tax evasion totaling over {$200,000.} One week later, a third indictment was added, with approximately 5,000 counts of violating the Volstead Act (the Prohibition Act). The Court refused to accept a deal that would have reduced a 34 year sentence to two to five, but Capone felt confident anyway as all of the jury had been bribed. The judge (Wilkerson) had another trick to play, however, and ordered that a different judge's jury be switched for his own. Capone was sentenced to eleven years, {$50,000} in fines and court costs of another {$30,000.} Bail was denied and Capone went to jail. He was quickly transferred to Alcatraz where he held absolutely no power due to very strict rules implemented by the warden. During his time in prison, his syphilis (contracted many years earlier) moved into its tertiary stage. He was released in November, 1939. Capone slowly became more quiet and confused from his illness and died on January 25, 1947 of a cardiac arrest in his Palm Island estate in Florida.

Answer: 2

Old Sarum is one of England's oldest historical sights of interest. It is located a short few miles away from the City of Salisbury in Wiltshire. The fact that Old Sarum had two Members of Parliament prior to 1832, is actually a very interesting fact, because nobody had lived in Old Sarum since the from about 1514 (when Henry VIII granted Thomas Compton the right to remove the last remnants of the city).

The fact that it had two MP's will be discussed a bit further down, but to understand why, one need to take a brief glimpse at Old Sarum's history. Old Sarum started out as a prehistoric 'hill fort' sometime around 3000B.C., was reinforced in the Bronze and Iron Ages and then further reinforced by the Romans (so much so it scared off the Vikings who invaded after the Romans left!).

The Romans also founded a small settlement just outside the walls of the fort itself. The Saxons moved in following the departure of the Romans and the town outside of the walls grew, but they were in turn replaced by the Normans, following William's Conquest in 1066.

The fort was considered of such importance that William quickly constructed a castle (1069) within the existing earthen structure (following the typical Norman practice of Motte and Bailey), paid off his conquering troops in the outer bailey (1070) and made his major landholders gather at Old Sarum to swear their oath of loyalty (1089). Such added importance also helped the town outside continue to grow. A cathedral was built within the grounds of the fort in 1092, but was badly damaged shortly after its consecration. The castle was fortified with stone in 1100 and further developed in 1130 to 1139 to include a palace (quite lavishly by standards at the time too). A new cathedral was ordered built in the early twelfth century (completed in 1190) and Sarum had turned into a city (renamed Salisberrie to honour the landowner of the time). In 1219, a new cathedral was started a couple of miles away (even using stones, carvings and gargoyles from the first two cathedrals) and soon everything began to move towards the new cathedral (although the jail in the castle was used until 1450). By the end of the fifteenth century, Old Sarum was deserted and New Sarum (the town that had sprung up around the new cathedral) was renamed Salisbury. With the advent of Parliament in the seventeenth century, the tradition of 'rotten boroughs' was formed. Essentially, it became common practice for a landowner to grant a short lease (or leases) on plots of land within their property. The leaseholders were then obliged to vote for the landowner at Parliamentary elections, which ensured that the landowner would remain in parliament (with all of its cozy perks)! This practice continued until 1832 when it was abolished. Despite being pasture land, Old Sarum was still designated a 'City' and the landowner split the land in two and offered leases for each parcel. Local farmers used the land and in return voted in Parliament for the actual landowner.

Answer: Flights to the moon

Pan Am (to most of us) began as Pan American Airways back on October 28, 1927, when one of its two single engine fokker aircraft did a mail run from Florida to Cuba. The airline was born and would become a pioneer in the world aviation scene. It became the first real commercial passenger aviation transport company in the world, developed global flight routes for most of the world and was the first company to operate daily flights that would circle the globe.

It also led the way in aircraft development.

The company was started by Juan Terry Trippe, with twenty-four employees. By 1928, Pan Am had developed routes throughout much of the Caribbean and Trippe turned to Charles Lindbergh for technical assistance (Lindbergh was to remain a technical advisor to Pan Am until 1973) and it was Lindbergh who would be one of the first to determine the various routes used by Pan Am. Pan Am completed the first transpacific flight with a flying boat in 1935, offered the first hot meal on a plane in 1935, started the first routine transatlantic flight in 1939, completed the first around the world flight in 1942, played a major role for the U.S. military in the Second World War, introduced the idea of economy class tickets, began accepting reservations for flights to the moon in 1969, introduced passenger jets to the U.S. and introduced the first non-stop flights to anywhere in 1976.

After a number of firsts and many years, Pan Am went under in 1991. Pan Am is also sadly remembered for being the airline involved in the Lockerbie disaster in 1988, when an explosion from a terrorist bomb ripped Pan Am flight 103 into pieces, which then fell on the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. 259 people were killed on the plane and a further 11 killed on the ground.

Answer: Krypto

Superman was the creation of two high school friends from Cleveland, Ohio, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (actually a Canadian from Toronto whose parents had moved to Cleveland). Siegel came up with the concept in 1934 and told his friend Joe (the artist of the two), who then drew up the first Superman.

The duo based Superman and his supporting cast on a number of different people. Superman himself is based on a host of characters himself, including Hugo Danner (a cartoon character from 'Gladiator', the comic, not the Russell Crowe movie!), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and Doc Savage. Siegel contended that Superman's alter ego, came from a mixture of two of their movie heros, Clark Gable and Kent Taylor. Superman's chiseled looks are based on Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

Although Lois Lane was physically modeled on Joanne Carter (the woman who Siegel would later marry), her name and character are in fact based upon a girl from the boys' high school, Lois Amster (who many of the boys at school had a crush on).

After vainly trying to sell their idea as a newspaper strip, they sold the first drafts of Superman and all rights to the character in 1938 for {$130.00} (which they split). Superman quickly became a background feature in the 'Action 1' comic book, but was moved into his own comic book in 1939, after kids began asking just for Superman. Siegel and Shuster continued to draw the comic, but made a small sum in comparison to the amount that the comic book itself was making. In 1941, the comic made {$1.5} million, while the artists split approximately {$150,000.00} between them and their staff of five. During those initial few years, Superman developed greatly from a very strong man into a super-human being. He was still susceptible to damage in his very early days (a bomb or more could puncture his skin), couldn't fly (he could only leap the height of one eighth of a mile) and could only run as fast as a speeding train. Shortly afterwards, however, his other powers began to emerge as the artists realized the greater potential for stories that came with greater powers. 'Krypton' is actually named after the chemical element, which is in turn based on the Greek word for 'hidden', but it is used in the same manner that the scientist (Sir William Ramsey) who discovered Krypton meant to use it, which is 'unknown' (as he knew he had discovered a new element). Shortly after the Second World War, both Siegel and Shuster began a series of litigation to get damages for the use of their character and to retake the rights to Superman, which was to last until 1975, when Warner Communications finally settled with them (by adding in the line 'created by Siegel and Shuster' into comic and everywhere else and by paying {$20,000.00} plus medical benefits to the two for life) to divert bad public attention away from the new 'Superman' movie.

Answer: Her brothers fought for the Confederacy

Mary Todd Lincoln was born in Lexington, Kentucky on December 13, 1818 to the very prominent and wealthy family of Robert and Eliza Todd. Her mother died when Mary was six, but her father remarried. She was living with her sister, Elizabeth, in Springfield, Illinois, in 1839, when she met Abraham Lincoln, nine years her senior and at the time a lawyer and state legislator.

They were married on November 4, 1842 after a four year courtship (considered very lengthy for the time) and a previously broken engagement.

The two were quite polar opposites, but she had a deep belief in her husband and was extremely proud of his legal and political aspirations and he seemed to be buoyed by her unending energy. They had four children, but only one survived his parents and reached full maturity (Edward died in his infancy, William at age twelve, and Thomas at the age of eighteen). Essentially coming from the Kentucky aristocracy, Mary had extremely high expectations and it appeared as though she had achieved them when her husband became President in 1860.

Her busy-body attitude and somewhat arrogant demeanor, however, made her many enemies. She was often criticized for spending too much on frivolities and in entertaining at the White House, but then was criticized for not entertaining or spending enough when she became slightly withdrawn after the death of one of her sons, William in 1862. While the Civil War raged on, she was also unfairly suspected of being a traitor by pro-Unionists, due to her family connections within the Confederacy (she lost several family members and all four of her brothers held ranks within the Confederate army) and similarly was considered a traitor by former friends and some family in the South. Mary was present with Lincoln at Ford's Theater on April 15, 1865 when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (she was in fact holding Lincoln's hand) and the event, naturally, deeply scarred her. She moved to Chicago, where she caused great scandal by selling her wardrobe, insisting that she was impoverished (although she actually had quite a large sum from Lincoln's Estate, as well as an annuity from Congress (which was {$3,000.00,} but increased to {$5,000.00).} She left for Europe and returned in 1871. Shortly after returning, her son Thomas died and this was the final push to send her into a very dangerous mental state, where she saw poverty and murder everywhere, even though none existed. Her surviving son, Robert, brought insanity proceedings in 1875 to prevent his mother from squandering the Estate or committing suicide. She was released into the care of her sister after four months in a Sanatorium. After another brief spell of living in Europe, she returned to the U.S. in 1880 and died a sad and melancholy figure on July 16, 1882 in the same house (her sister's) in Springfield, Illinois where she had met Lincoln.