Month of the Year: November Trivia Quiz

Answer: the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 1975

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American ore freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on 10 November 1975. The ship and crew were lost. Robert J. Hemming wrote "The Gales of November: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1981) to describe the event. Popular singer Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976.

It includes the lines "That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed / when the gales of November came early" and "The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead / when the skies of November turn gloomy."

Answer: David Mamet

Set in the Oval Office of the White House a few days before a presidential election, "November" represents itself as a political comedy. Its opening was directed by Joe Mantello and starred Nathan Lane.

Answer: Jonestown, Guyana, mass suicide

Jeffrey Brailey was one of the medical personnel sent by the US State Department as part of the Joint Humanitarian Task Force deployed to recover the remains of the 919 people from Jonestown, Guyana. His recollections of that horrendous task were the basis for his book "The Ghosts of November: Memoirs of an Outsider Who Witnessed the Carnage at Jonestown, Guyana." One reviewer described the book as "nonfiction horror."

Answer: men's health issues

The Movember Foundation was founded in 2004 to promote awareness of and funding for men's health issues: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's mental health (especially suicide). Male Movember members grow moustaches during the month of November to demonstrate their support. November is also Alzheimer's Awareness Month but this is not called Movember. November is also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) but it is not called Movember.

In the US, November has been "American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month" since 1994 but it is not called Movember.

Answer: French and Italian

The Czech and Polish words for November are "listopad"; the Maori word is "Whiringa." The Old English word "November" entered English from the Old French "novembre" which derived from the Latin "novem" meaning nine, as November was then the ninth month in the Ancient Roman calendar.

Answer: nuclear-powered attack submarines

The November class of Soviet submarines were the first generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines in their fleet. The Russian name for the class was "kit" meaning whale. Fourteen were built and saw service from 1958 through 1990. These were double-hulled submarines, noisy, originally intended to launch nuclear-tipped torpedoes at naval bases but later redesigned to attack shipping and other submarines.

Answer: topaz and citrine

The two traditional birthstones for November are topaz and citrine. Topaz comes in numerous colours; citrine is found in yellow and orange. The word topaz may derive from the Sanskrit "tapas" meaning fire or heat or it may derive from the Greek "topazein" meaning the attempt to locate something. Citrine is a variety of quartz which has been used in jewelry since antiquity. For some reason, it was especially popular in Scotland during the Victorian era.

The word citrine probably derives from the French word "citron" meaning lemon.

Answer: she is terminally ill

Sara Deever is a woman dying slowly of cancer. She loves helping men to become better people but does not wish to leave any of them with the sad memories of her decline and death. So she limits her relationships to a calendar month and then ends them. In the original (1968) version, Sara Deever is played by Sandy Dennis and Charlie Blake by Anthony Newley. In the remake (2001), Sara is played by Charlize Theron and the male lead, Nelson Moss, by Keanu Reeves. The remake is not as sweet as was the original.

Answer: 30

"Countdown" is a long story about the consequences of an event which instantly kills six billion people, leaving only teenagers to survive. Adults and small children are reduced to puddles of "black goo." Each of the twelve volumes tells of the aftermath in one month of 1999. Daniel Parker is the pen name of Daniel Ehrenhaft, who writes lots of children's and YA books.

Answer: none of these

In Old English, November was called "Blotmonað" meaning blood month because it was the time when animals were sacrificed and their meat preserved for food. How fortunate that the Romans, when they kept a year with only ten months in it, counted November as the ninth month (omitting January and February). "Novem" is Latin for nine. "Novembris mensis" became the Old French month of "Novembre" which displaced the more sanguineous Old English name.