The United States of America Pt. 1 Quiz

Answer: Huntsville

Huntsville is home to one of the world's largest space museums, the Alabama Space and Rocket Center. It is known as the rocket capital of the world. It includes a museum which showcases the U.S space program throughout the period of the 'space race'.

The space camp is situated on the grounds of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center providing residential and day camp educational programs for children of all ages.

Answer: Bering Sea

The Bering Sea lies between the Gulf of Alaska, in the south, and the Chukchi Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean. It was first systematically explored by in 1741 by a Danish/Russian navigator called Vitus Bering.

Answer: 50 years

Kitt Peak Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). It supports the study of nighttime optical and infrared astronomy, and the daytime study of the sun. It shares its mountaintop site with the National Solar Observatory which was built in 1958.

Answer: Eureka Springs

Like the small spa towns in Europe, Eureka was first known for its revitalising waters and cures. In its heyday, the village grew to be home to 10,000 people. It was centred around the spa industry that had sprung up there. Due to its historical architecture, the whole town was put on the National Register for Historic Places.

Answer: Pacific Grove

Pacific Grove is a small Victorian town in Monterey County, California. In the mixed forests, to the south of the town, lies the breeding habitat of the monarch butterfly. After spending the summer in Canada, the butterflies travel 2,000 miles south to winter in Pacific Grove.

The local people help the butterflies by planting "Butterfly Gardens", with plants like lantera, Mexican Sage, and yellow aster.

Answer: Colfax Avenue

Colfax Avenue was named "the longest, wickedest street in America" by Playboy magazine because of its association with crime, prostitution, and the numbers of liquor establishments which abound on the avenue. Colfax Avenue runs east to west between Denver and Aurora and is named after the 19th century politician Schuyler Colfax.

The avenue was designated a Colorado Heritage Corridor by the state government in the late 1990s.

Answer: Dutch

Originally, half of Connecticut made up the colony of New Netherland, located between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. It wasn't until the 1630s that the first English settlers made their first major settlements.

Answer: New Sweden

Like many of the European 'superpowers' of the 17th century, Sweden created its own colony on the Delaware River in 1638 on the site of what is present-day Wilmington. However, it was not until the 19th century that a flood of Swedish immigration created the large Swedish-American communities found in Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

Answer: Niceville

With competitions such as the Billy Ray Cyrus look-alike contest and Boggy's Got Talent, the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival is an annual arts and seafood festival held in Niceville, Florida during the month of October.

It was created in 1976 by Walter Spence Jr, and normally lasts for three days. The festival is named after the fish called 'mullet', and not the rather naff hairstyle of the '80s and '90s.

Answer: Auraria

Findley Ridge was walking one day in 1828 when he kicked a rock and discovered that it was gold. At the time, the land was part of the Cherokee Indian territory, which became present-day Lumpkin County, Georgia. The natives were dismayed when prospectors poured into the area looking for gold, and so the ceded the territory in Georgia for territory in Oklahoma, beginning the infamous "Trail of Tears".

Answer: Daylight Savings Time

Because Hawaii has its own time zone, it is two hours behind the West Coast states. During the summer months, it is three hours behind the West Coast states when the Daylight Savings time changes are in effect in the USA.

Answer: Hells Canyon

Along the border of eastern Oregon and western Idaho lies the USA's deepest gorge, Hells Canyon. The ten-mile wide canyon was created by the Snake River and was the original home of the Nez Perce tribe.

Answer: Orchard Depot

Orchard Depot was the original name of the airport before it was changed to honour Lieutenant Commander Edward H. 'Butch' O'Hare, who was the U.S. Navy's first flying ace and Medal of Honor recipient in World War Two. The change in the airport's name was suggested by the publisher of the Chicago tribune, Colonel Robert R. McCormick.

The name change to O'Hare Airport occurred on September 19, 1949.

Answer: Battle of Corydon

On July 9, 1863, south of the original Indiana state capital Corydon, a force of 2500 cavalry attacked and sacked the town. The troop was led by Confederate Brig. General John Hunt Morgan. The raid was part of the Tullahoma Campaign and the Confederate soldiers were able to seize the commissary supplies at the edge of town, allowing Morgan to continue his raid deeper into Union territory.

Answer: Pella

The city of Pella hosts the Tulip Festival each year in May. There are six parades held over the three days, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The other three named towns are ghost towns in the state of Iowa.

Answer: 1887

In 1887, a small Quaker village called Argonia made American political history when it elected Susanna Madora Salter to the post of mayor. Born of Quaker parentage in 1860 in Ohio, Susan moved to Argonia with her husband, Lewis Salter, in 1882 where her husband ran a hardware store.

Answer: Bourbon County

Bourbon County's claim to fame is its association with Bourbon whiskey. The county was created from sections of Fayette County in 1785 and named after the royal family of France at the time. Bourbon whiskey was so named to differentiate between the different corn whiskeys made in the area.

Answer: Louis XIV

Louis XIV was famously known as the "Sun King" and was the longest reigning king of France. He reigned from 1638 to 1715. He was born to King Louis XIII and Anne of Austria on the 5th of September 1638. He was nicknamed "Louis-Dieudonne", which means Louis-God-given, due to his parents' previous 23 years of being unable to produce an heir to the throne.

Answer: Somes Sound

In the Acadia National Park in Maine, running deep into Mount Desert Island and almost splitting it in two, is Somes Sound. A fjard is a smaller drowned glacial embayment. It is named after the settler Abraham Somes, who had migrated from Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1761.

Answer: Saint Elizabeth Ann

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was born in New York City in 1775. Though raised in the Episcopal church, Elizabeth converted to Roman Catholicism in 1805. She converted during a trip to Italy with her dying husband, William Magee Seton. After experiencing religious bigotry, Elizabeth moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1809 and established Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School for the education of Catholic girls. Shortly afterward, she created the "Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph" in Emmitsburg, thus becoming the first religious community of apostolic women in the US. The charity was founded to help care for the children of the poor.

She was made Venerable by the Catholic Church in 1959, becoming beatified by Pope John XXIII in 1963. She was later canonised in 1975 by Pope Paul VI. Her feast day is January 4, and she is considered the patron saint of Catholic schools.

Answer: Norfolk County

John Adams, second President of the United States 1797-1801, was born in what is now known as Quincy, Massachusetts. His son, John Quincy Adams, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1767. He became the sixth President of the United States in 1825 and served for four years. John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1917 to Rose and Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States from 1961-1963. Finally, there is George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States (1989-1993).

He was born in 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts.

Answer: Lake Saint Clair

Although there have been ongoing proposals to include Lake Saint Clair with the other Great Lakes, it has never occurred. As such, the lake connects Lake Huron in the north to Lake Erie in the south. The lake is fed by Lake Huron through the St. Clair River and covers an area of 26 miles by 24 miles.

Answer: Artificial Blood

In 1979, a Jehovah's Witness was being treated for vascular disease when he suffered a severe loss of blood after undergoing surgery. Because of his religious beliefs, he refused a transfusion of human blood but consented to artificial blood called Fluosol, which had been developed in Japan.

Answer: Hiram Revels

Born as a free man in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1827, Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African-American to hold the post of US Senator. He was also the first to serve in the US Congress. In 1870 and 1871, he represented the state of Mississippi during the era of reconstruction that occurred after the American Civil War.

In 1868, he was elected alderman in Natchez before being elected to the Mississippi State Senate representing Adams County. In 1870, with a vote of 81 to 15 in his favor, he was elected to the US Senate to fill one of the two seats left empty by the Civil War.

Answer: Jesse Woodson James

Born on September 5, 1847 to Robert and Zerelda James, Jesse grew up in Clay County, Missouri in an area known as "Little Dixie". Near the end of the American Civil War, Jesse joined his brother Frank in "Bloody" Bill Anderson's guerrilla unit. After the war, Jesse and his brother teamed up with the Younger Boys to carry out criminal activities.