A Date with History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Manhattan

The building of the first atomic bomb was known as the Manhattan Project by scientists in America because ten of its key sites were in Manhattan.

The test for the first atomic bomb occurred in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. No one knew just what the nuclear bomb was going to do and a lie had to be made up to explain the large hole made by the detonation of the bomb. After a successful detonation, President Truman was told that the atomic bomb had worked perfectly.

Answer: Black Tuesday

Because of the stock market crash of 1929, the banking system was a mess when President Roosevelt became president in 1933. In order to fix the damage as best he could, President Roosevelt closed all the banks for three days. Before re-opening, each bank was given strict guidelines on citizens withdrawing money from the banks.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was started because of the stock market crash. With the FDIC, banks could go out of business, but depositors would still get their money through the government.

Answer: Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln in the third year of the American Civil War. This executive order was put into effect after Lincoln threatened the South with it in August of 1862. The Emancipation Proclamation nominally freed the slaves in the Confederate states, but for the most part, could not be put into effect immediately.

It also give freed slaves the right to join the military and by war's end over 200,000 former slaves had served in the American Civil War. However, it was the 13th Amendment rather than the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery.

Answer: 1969

On the moon, a crew of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first and second men to walk on the moon while Michael Collins was the command module pilot and had to stay in the space shuttle to pilot it. The crew of Apollo 11 left an American flag, a patch honoring the crew of Apollo 1, and a plaque that stated "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

Answer: Brown vs. Board of Education

Brown vs. Board of Education was brought about when father Oliver Brown thought his child's 14th amendment rights to equality were being infringed upon by her not attending school closer to where she lives because it wasn't a black school. Oliver Brown's daughter had to travel miles out of the way to attend her all black school when Sumner Elementary, a white school, was a mile from the Brown house.

When thirteen other families along with the Browns took their children to enroll them in Sumner Elementary they were turned away.

This action gave the families what they needed to take the Kansas Board of Education to court. Because Oliver Brown was the only male parent in the group of thirteen parents, his name was put on the case against the BOE.

When the case favored for segregating students, an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed with Oliver Brown and the other families on May 17, 1954 and segregation in schools was suspended based on the 14th amendment.

Answer: Spanish

The United States declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898 after the USS Maine was destroyed in Havana harbor. The Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American war and left Spain with no control over Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. With Spain giving up control of these countries, the United States now had power in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Answer: Watergate

The Watergate hotel in Washington D.C. was the home of the office for the Democratic National Committee. On the night of June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for trying to break into DNC headquarters. There involvement was traced back to a Nixon cover-up and two years later President Richard Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment.

Answer: World War I

Early in 1917 Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, thus violating undertakings it had made to the U.S. At the same time Germany was trying to persuade Mexico to go to war against the U.S. On 2 April 1917 President Wilson took the matter to Congress and four days later declared war on Germany. The United States declared on Austria-Hungary later - on 7 December 1917.

Answer: Sutter's Mill

Sutter's Mill was co-owned by John Sutter and James Marshall. The mill was close to the South Fork American River where James Marshall found flakes of gold on January 24, 1848. Those few flakes of gold changed the landscape of California forever. The Smithsonian now holds a flake of gold that John Marshall discovered on that January day.

Answer: 1991

The U.N. authorized a coalition force of thirty-six nations to head to the Middle East to defend Kuwait against an Iraqi invasion. The first images broadcast of Operation Desert Storm were of the bombing of Baghdad.