1946ers: What a Year: Part I Trivia Quiz

Answer: Clement Atlee

Clement Atlee (1883-1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945-1951. He was preceded and succeeded by Winston Churchill.
Ben Chifley (1885-1951) was the Prime Minister of Australia from 1945-1949. William Lyon MacKenzie King (1874-1950) was Prime Minister of Canada from 1921-1926, 1926-1930 and 1935-1948.

Answer: Bill Haley

Bill Haley (1925-1981) replaced Kenny Roberts in the Down Homers in April 1946. His stay in the group was fairly short and he achieved greater success with Bill Haley & His Comets in the 1950s with "Rock Around the Clock", "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "See You Later Alligator".
Dean Martin (1917-1995) had been a nightclub singer but his career really started in July 1946 when he and Jerry Lewis teamed up together and made their debut at Atlantic City's 500 Club.
B.B. King (1925-2015) got his break in 1946 when he followed the American Delta blues guitarist and singer Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee as White was a cousin.
Frankie Laine (1913-2007) released his first chart hit "That's My Desire" in August 1946.

Answer: The Lost Weekend

"The Lost weekend" won Best Picture (Charles Brackett-Producer), Best Actor (Ray Milland), Best Director (Billy Wilder) and Best Screenplay (Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett).
"Spellbound" was an Alfred Hitchcock thriller with six nominations with one Academy Award. "The Bells of St. Mary's" received eight nominations with one Academy Award win. "National Velvet" received five nominations with two Academy Award wins.

Answer: Patty Duke

Patty Duke won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the 1962 movie "The Miracle Worker", when she was 16 years of age. Sally Field won the Academy Award for Best Actress in the 1979 movie "Norma Rae". Tommy Lee Jones won there Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in "The Fugitive" (1993) and Steven Spielberg won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for "Schindler's List" (1993).

Answer: Yvon Petra (France) and Pauline Betz (USA)

In the Men's Singles Final Yvon Petra (1916-1984) beat Geoff Brown (Australia) in five sets. He had been the French Doubles and Mixed Doubles champion and had been a POW during WWII. He was the last men's Wimbledon champion to wear long trousers. Geoff Brown had been an RAF gunner during WWII. Pauline Betz (1919-2001) beat Louise Brough (1923-2014) in two sets. Pauline Betz also won four US Open titles. Louise Brough went on to win six Grand Slam singles titles including four at Wimbledon. Jack Kramer (1921-2009) and Tom Brown (1922-2011) won the Wimbledon Men's Doubles title in 1946 and Louise Brough won the Wimbledon Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles in 1946.

Answer: Bikini

Louis Reard (1897-1984) is best known for introducing the two piece swimming costume which he dubbed "bikini" which was inspired by the news of the USA atomic test that took place during that week on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Founded in April 1946, the company Piaggio & Co.S. p. A. introduced the Vespa motor scooter which means "wasp" in Italian.

The first mobile telephone call was made on July 17, 1946 introduced by Bell Systems, the future AT & T. The initial wave of Stiletto shoes with the refined heels started in the 1950's but reached their peak in the 1960s.

Answer: St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox in 7 games in 1946.
The New York Yankees won the World Series in 1947 beating the Brooklyn Dodgers also in 7 games.
The Detroit Tigers won the World series in 1945 beating Chicago Cubs also in 7 games.

Answer: The Kingdom of Italy

Umberto II(1904-1983) was the last King of Italy and the referendum resulted in a 54.3% in favour of a republic.
Simeon II was the last King (or Tsar) of Bulgaria. The kingdom had been in existence since 1908. It is rumoured that the results were falsified by the communist government with a 95% in favour of a republic.
Charles Vyner Brooke (1874-1973) was the last White Rajah of Sarawak and the kingdom had been in existence since 1841.
Miklüs Horthy (1868-1957) served as Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary and the decision of abolishment of the kingdom which had been in existence since 1920 was done by Parliament.

Answer: Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946) was a German dramatist and novelist and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.
H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer of many genres, but is best known for his science fiction novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in four different years.
Damon Runyon (1880-1946) was an American newspaperman and author. He is best known for his short stories involving the world of Broadway in New York during the Prohibition era.
Booth Tarkington (1869-1946) was an American novelist who is one of the few novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once.

Answer: Donovan

Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist. His single "Sunshine Superman" reached number one on September 3, 1966. Gilbert O'Sullivan is an Irish singer-songwriter and his single "Alone Again (Naturally)" reached number one on July 29, 1972. Linda Ronstadt is an American singer of popular music and her single "You're No Good" reached number one on February 15, 1975. Dolly Parton is an American singer-writer, actress, author and businesswoman who is best known for her country music.

However, her first number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 was "9 to 5" on February 21, 1981.