A Date That Lives in Infamy - December 7 Quiz

Answer: Delaware

Delaware, the second-smallest of today's 50 US states, has numerous nicknames including "The Small Wonder", "The Blue Hen State" and "The Diamond State". It is also known as "The First State" because it was the first to ratify the Constitution, and it did so on December 7, 1787.

Answer: Covent Garden

Home of the Royal Opera, the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera House Orchestra, the building is often referred to simply as "Covent Garden". The current building is actually the third incarnation on the same sit -- the first two were destroyed by fire, in 1808 and 1857. The alternatives are three more iconic London locations: Smithfield is the home of London's historic meat market, and there has been a market on this site since the 10th Century; Drury Lane borders Covent Garden to the east and is the location of numerous famous theaters as well the first Sainsbury's store, opened in 1869; Fleet Street is the historic location for the newspaper industry, and although the last of the news offices left here in 2005 'Fleet Street' is still used to mean the 'national press'.

Answer: Cernan, Evans & Schmitt

The Apollo 17 mission was commanded by Eugene Andrew Cernan, who had previously piloted the Gemini 9A in 1966 and had also traveled to the Moon aboard Apollo 10 in 1969. The other two members of the team were Command Module Pilot Ronald Ellwin Evans, Jr., a former captain in the US Navy and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt. Schmitt became the twelfth and the last man (in the 20th century) to walk on the Moon, but at the end of the mission he re-entered the Lunar Module first, making Cernan the last man on the surface. Schmitt, who would later go on to represent New Mexico in the US Senate, is also the only man to walk on the Moon who had never served in the military. (He was not the only civilian, though, since Neil Armstrong's military career had ended before his historic visit in 1969, so technically he was a civilian at the time.) The alternatives all flew in earlier flights: John Young, Thomas Mattingly II and Charles Duke jr flew aboard Apollo 16; David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin crewed Apollo 15; whilst Charles "Pete" Conrad jr, Richard Gordon jr and Alan Bean visit the Moon aboard Apollo 12.

Answer: Jesse James

Born in Kearney MO in 1847, Jesse James and his James Younger Gang were responsible for numerous robberies, holdups and killings across the Midwest states in the years following the US Civil War. Although the gang were involved in earlier robberies, it was the holdup of the Davies's County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri on December 7, 1869 that made James famous across the country.

Not only did Jesse shoot and kill the cashier, but he and his brother Frank made a daring escape through the middle of a posse of lawmen. Jesse James survived until the age of 34, when he was killed by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang living in his house. Ford hope to collect the reward offered for James "Dead or Alive".

Answer: Jupiter

Launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis, Galileo used fly-bys of both Venus and Earth to gain the momentum needed to propel it to its final destination -- Jupiter. It thus became the first spacecraft to orbit the Solar System's largest planet. It is from information sent back by Galileo that we know about the ammonia clouds that make up Jupiter's atmosphere, about volcanoes on the moon Io, about the liquid ocean beneath the surface of the moon Europa, and about the magnetic field on the largest of Jupiter's moons, Ganymede.

Answer: Larry Bird

Larry Joe Bird was born in the small town of West Baden Springs (population just over 500) in French Lick Township, which is in Orange County in southern Indiana. It seems fitting that one of the NBA's greatest ever players should be born in a state where basketball is bordering on a religion.
Drafted out of Indiana State by the Celtics with the sixth overall pick of the 1978 draft, Larry Bird would play 13 seasons in Boston, leading the Celtics to three championships. He was league MVP three times and an All-Star 12 times -- in every season except 1989. His #33 was retired by the Celtics.
After his playing career was over, Bird spent three years as coach of the Indiana Pacers, and during that time became the first person ever to have won both the League MVP as a player and the Coach of the Year award.

Answer: Eli Wallach

The film was the classic 1966 spaghetti western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in which Eastwood played Blondie aka "The Man with No Name" (the Good), van Cleef played Angel Eyes (the Bad), and Eli Wallach played Tuco (the Ugly). Wallach was born Eli Herschel Wallach in Brooklyn NY on December 7, 1915.
Of the alternatives, both Quinn and Mostel were also born in 1915 whereas Bronson was younger, born in 1921.

Answer: Johnny Bench

Born Johnny Lee Bench, he played all of his 17 seasons in the Majors with the Cincinnati Reds. Ten times a Gold Glove winner and selected to the All-Star Game an amazing 14 times in those 17 seasons, Bench led the Reds to back-to-back World Series wins in 1975 and 1976.

The Reds retired Bench's #5 in 1986 and three years later he was elected the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year or eligibility. Two of the three alternatives were also born in 1947: Berra was older than the other three, born in St Louis MO in 1925; Munson in Akron OH in June 1947, and 'Pudge' Fisk was born in Bellows Falls VT, less than three weeks after Bench, on the day after Christmas 1947.

Answer: Cicero

Born Marcus Tullius Cicero in Arpinum (modern-day Arpino, Italy) in 106 BC, he had a profound influence on the shape of the Latin language and prose and, hence, on many European languages for the next two millennium. It was his involvement in Roman politics, though, that was to prove fatal.

Answer: Thornton Wilder

Born Thornton Niven Wilder in Madison WI in 1897, won his first Pulitzer for the 1927 novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey". He subsequently won the Drama award for "Our Town" (1938) and for "The Skin of Our Teeth" (1942).
The alternatives are three more Pulitzer Prize winners: Eugene O'Neill died in 1953 aged 65; Arthur Miller died in 2005 aged 89; and Tennessee Williams died in 1983 aged 71.