Second Best Trivia Quiz

Answer: Linus

Not much is known about Linus, except that he was Pope for about 12 years, from about 67 AD through 76 AD He may be the Linus mentioned in II Timothy 4:21. Legend says that he was martyred, and buried next to St. Peter, but this is doubtful. He decreed that women should cover their heads when entering a church. Linus is also a saint, as are almost all the early Popes.

His feast day is September 23.

Answer: Hor-Aha

Hor-Aha was probably Narmer's son. His name means "Fighting Hawk," or "Horus the Fighter." He founded the city of Memphis, which became Egypt's capitol and endured for thousands of years. The Egyptian historian Manetho says he reigned for 62 years (probably an exaggeration) and that he died when he was "carried off by a hippopotamus!"

Answer: Khafre

Khafre (also known as Cephren) was Khufu's son. His pyramid measured 447 1/2 feet in height, and is thus slightly smaller than his father's, which was 481 feet high. But he built his pyramid on higher ground than Khufu's, so if you visit Giza (as I have), it actually looks larger! It also better preserved, with some of the original outer casing stones intact. Khafre ruled from about 2558 - 2532 b.c., and also built the famous Sphinx, whose face bears his features.

Answer: Tiberius

Tiberius was Augustus' stepson. He is usually depicted as a cruel, depraved tyrant, but it should be remembered that most of the surviving histories were written by Roman senators, who were hostile to Tiberius. His reign lasted from 14 AD to 37 AD. He was the Emperor at the time of Christ's crucifixion.

Answer: William II

Most contemporaries of William II, who ruled England from 1087 to 1100, agree that he was a very bad king. He was called William Rufus ("rufus" is Latin for red) either because he had red hair, had a ruddy complexion, or had a bad temper - perhaps all three.

He was the second surviving son of William the Conqueror; he became King instead of his elder brother, Robert, because Robert had rebelled against his father and was thus out of favor at the time of William the Conqueror's death. He imposed crushing taxes on commons and nobles alike, and showed little respect for the Church.

But he is best remembered for how he died. On August 2, 1100 he was hunting with his friend, Walter Tirel, when Tirel shot at a stag; he missed and the arrow struck William in the chest. Tirel claimed it was an accident, but many suspect that William was the victim of murder, or even human sacrifice!

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson served as Vice President under John Adams (1797 - 1801), even though they belonged to different political parties. The Constitution provided that the person who received the most electoral votes would become President, the one receiving the second most votes would be Vice President.

This didn't work out when political parties came into being. The 12th Amendment (1804) provided for separate election of President and Vice President.

Answer: California

California, with an area of 155,973 square miles, just beats out Montana (145,556 sqm) for second place.

Answer: The Great Star of Africa

The Great Star of Africa, at 530.2 carats, was by far the largest cut diamond in the world for many years. It is also known as the Cullinan I, since it was the largest gem cut from the Cullinan Diamond, a rough diamond found in 1905 in South Africa. It is now part of the British Crown Jewels.

Answer: Rogers Hornsby

Rogers Hornsby spent most of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals.
In 23 major league seasons spanning 1915 to 1937, he compiled a career batting average of .359, compared to Cobb's .366. But Hornsby was a right-handed batter, and Cobb was a lefty. Since most pitchers are right-handed, left-handed batters have a distinct advantage when it comes to hitting. 8 out of the top 10 all-time batting leaders were left-handed batters.

Answer: Gus Grissom

Virgil "Gus" Grissom was born April 3, 1926. He was a veteran fighter pilot prior to becoming an astronaut. He was the pilot of the second Mercury mission, the Liberty Bell 7, which was launched on July 21, 1961. He nearly drowned when his Mercury capsule started taking on water after it splashed down in the Atlantic. Grissom was rescued, but his space capsule was not recovered until 1999. Grissom later became commander of the first manned Gemini space mission, and was preparing for the first Apollo mission when he, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee, died in a fire on January 27, 1967.

Answer: Sir Patrick Spens

"The King sits in Dunfermline town/Drinking the blood-red wine/"O where shall I get a skeely skipper/To sail this good ship o' mine?"

Okay, I found this hard to believe myself. This is an old Scottish ballad about the marriage of King Alexander III's daughter to the King of Norway in 1281. Many of the Scots were drowned on their way home to Scotland. By the way, none of the other poems mentioned make the Top 20!

Answer: Johnson

The five most common surnames in the U.S. are: Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones and Brown, in that order. Smith is also the most common name in England, followed by Jones. In Scotland, Smith is still number one, followed by Brown. In Wales, Jones is first, followed by Williams, and in Ireland Murphy is the most common, followed by Kelly.

Answer: Gypsum

All of these minerals appear in the Mohs scale, but gypsum is the second softest, with a hardness of 2. Your fingernail has a hardness of about 2.5, so it will scratch gypsum. Gypsum is a very common mineral and has many uses; it is the main component of drywall and Plaster of Paris, for example. Very fine-grained, white gypsum is known as alabaster, and has been used for carving since ancient times.

Answer: Casablanca (1942)

"Chinatown" (1974), "Tootsie" (1982) and "Pulp Fiction" (1994) all made the Top 100, leading one to question AFI's judgment.

Answer: Mississippi

South Carolina left the Union on December 20, 1860, followed by Mississippi on January 9, 1861.

Answer: Amelia Earhart

She did this in 1932 - becoming only the second person and the first woman to do so. It was only one of the many accomplishments of this amazing woman. Beryl Markham was the first person to fly solo, non-stop from London to North America.

Answer: False

Although it is known as the "Second City," Chicago ranks third in population behind New York (1st) and Los Angeles (2nd).

Answer: Saturn

It is best known for it rings. Saturn is also the least dense of all the planets, with a specific gravity of only .7 - if you could find a bathtub large enough to put it in, Saturn would float! Earth is about 8 times denser than Saturn.

Answer: William and Mary

Harvard was founded in 1636; the College of William and Mary in 1693. Located in Williamsburg, Virginia, it is the only U.S. institution to possess a Royal Charter. It is the "Alma Mater" of Thomas Jefferson, among others.

Answer: Jared

Jared, who, by the way, was Methuselah's grandfather, died at the tender age of 962.

Answer: Victoria

Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years, 7 months, and 3 days. George III reigned for 59 years, 3 months, and 5 days (1760 - 1820). Another curious fact about Victoria and George III is that their lives were almost exactly the same length; Victoria died at the age of 81 years, 7 months, and 29 days, while George III lived for 81 years, 7 months, and 25 days.

Answer: Helium

Helium is the simplest element in structure after hydrogen; stars "burn" by fusing hydrogen into helium, so while it's rare to find it on earth, there's a lot of it in stars and scattered around the universe. It gets its name from the Greek word for the sun, "helius," because it was discovered in 1868 by Sir Norman Lockyer while studying the sun's spectrum during an eclipse.

He noticed a bright yellow line that could not be produced by any known element. It wasn't until 1895 that scientists finally isolated it in the laboratory. Most helium is produced commercially as a by-product of natural gas mining.

Answer: Charles Guiteau

Charles Julius Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield in a train station near the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 1881. Garfield did not die until September 19, 1881, and might have eventually recovered from his wounds had it not been for inept medical treatment. Guiteau was certainly a little batty and probably insane.

His reason for shooting Garfield is that he had been denied the post of Consular General to Paris. He was hanged on June 30, 1882, there being no government subsidy for trial lawyers to postpone justice in the 19th Century.

Answer: Alydar

In 1977, Affirmed and Alydar raced against each other six times as 2 year olds, each winning three of the races. In 1978, Affirmed won the Triple Crown, defeating Alydar in all three of the classic races, in what has become known as racing's greatest rivalry.

But Alydar beat Affirmed in the Travers Stakes later that year, and was much more successful as a sire, fathering great horses like Easy Goer, Alysheba, and Althea. Alydar died in 1990.

Answer: Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin

Of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin are the two who walked on the moon, while Collins stayed aboard Apollo 11's command module, the "Columbia."