Raleigh, North Carolina Trivia Quiz

Answer: New Bern

Raleigh was specifically designed to be a capital city, with its site having been selected four years before the city was even established. The General Assembly, North Carolina's legislative body, first met there in December, 1794, and granted the city's charter the next month. Unlike New Bern, which is located on the coast, Raleigh is fairly close to the state's geographical center.

Answer: Oak

By virtue of the many oaks in the city, it is known as the City of Oaks. In fact, an oak is prominently featured on the city seal.

Answer: October

Because N.C. State's football team usually plays a major Atlantic Coast Conference foe at home during the State Fair, traffic tends to get a bit hectic on the west side of town. Carter-Finley Stadium, the Wolfpack's home turf, sits on the opposite side of Trinity Road from the State Fairgrounds. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services manages the fair.

Answer: Shaw University

Founded in 1865, Shaw University is a private liberal arts school that grants degrees in a number of disciplines, including computer science, public administration and business administration. Raleigh's other historically black college, St. Augustine's, was founded in 1867. Meredith College is a private women's school in the city and, according to the USjournal of Academics, is the largest such school in the Southeastern United States. North Carolina Central University, a historically black school and member of the University of North Carolina system, is located in Durham.

Answer: Fayetteville Street

Like many cities in the 1970s, Raleigh's downtown area suffered from urban flight, as people moved out to the suburbs. Converting Fayetteville Street into a pedestrian plaza lined with shops and adjacent to a new civic center was hoped to be a drawing card to revitalizing downtown.

But changing times forced the city's hand, and reopening the street was seen as being a catalyst to drawing folks back into the center city in the 21st Century.

Answer: They lost every game they played

Owned by George Shinn, the same man who brought the NBA's Hornets to Charlotte and eventually moved them to New Orleans, and playing their home games at Carter-Finley Stadium, the Skyhawks posted a perfect record during their one and only season--no wins, ten losses--and in the process set a standard for futility not often matched at any level of sports.

The Skyhawks managed to score a league-low 123 points, while giving up a league-high 300 points. The Skyhawks disbanded after that season; their replacements, the Ohio Glory, managed only one win the next season before the World League suspended operations.

Answer: Eddie Rickenbacker

In 1939, the North Carolina General Assembly formed the Raleigh-Durham Aeronautical Authority to see to the construction of a new airport that would serve Durham and Wake counties. In 1940, Rickenbacker, a World War I hero and then-president of Eastern Airlines, was eager to establish routes into the area.

He took out a full-page ad to express his own concerns about the project, reminding the builders to not "allow civic jealousies or selfish motives to creep into a project that means so much to all of you." The U.S. government, which had turned the fledgling field into an Army Air Corps training facility in 1942, allowed Eastern to fly into RDU in 1943. (Thanks to the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority for additional information.)

Answer: Capital Cities Communications bought ABC

Capital Cities Communications owned WTVD-TV 11, the CBS station for the market. Capitol Broadcasting Company owned WRAL-TV, which had enjoyed a long and successful run as an ABC affiliate. When Capital Cities bought ABC in 1985, WTVD became an O & O (or network-owned and operated) station.

As such, WRAL, became the CBS affiliate. The move has been good for WRAL, which is one of the most prolific affiliates in the network's chain. WPTF-TV 28, at that time owned by Durham Life Broadcasting, retained its NBC affiliation and was not affected by the switch.

Answer: Secretary of the Navy

A native of Washington, the seat of Beaufort County in coastal North Carolina, Josephus Daniels served in a number of positions, including chief clerk of the Department of the Interior during Grover Cleveland's second administration and as Ambassador to Mexico under FDR. During his time as Secretary of the Navy, Daniels issued General Order 99, on July 1, 1914, prohibiting the use of alcohol at all naval facilities.

But it was as the owner and publisher of The News & Observer that Daniels enjoyed his greatest success and, consequently, his greatest notoriety. An avowed racist, Daniels used the N & O and his connections within the Democratic Party to launch a campaign of white supremacy aimed at disenfranchising blacks and removing Republican and Populist politicians sympathetic to blacks from office. In fact, the commission charged with studying the 1898 race riot in Wilmington specifically cited the N & O as the catalyst for the riot.

Answer: Andrew Johnson

All four people listed here have ties to Raleigh. Elizabeth Edwards (born in Jacksonville, Florida) and her husband, former U.S. Senator John Edwards, worked as lawyers in the city. Jesse Helms (born in Monroe, North Carolina) worked at WRAL-TV as a political commentator before heading to the U.S. Senate. And Kristi Yamaguchi (born in Hayward, California) lives in Raleigh with her husband, longtime NHL defenseman Bret Hedican (himself a native of St. Paul, Minnesota), and their family. Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, was born in Raleigh on December 29, 1808.

Sources include Wikipedia, the City of Raleigh, The News & Observer, and WRAL-TV.