A History Lesson from Billy Joel Quiz

Answer: Chicago Daily Tribune

To be fair, the Tribune was not quite in top condition at the time. The Printer's Union was on strike, so the paper was being typed and put together by inexperienced workers. If they were to have waited until the election results were known, they would have taken much longer to get the paper on the street. They decided to take a gamble on what seemed a likely election result, and lost.

Answer: George VI

George VI was king from 1936-1952. He guided Britain through the turmoil of World War II and the following years. During the war, he announced he would remain at Buckingham Palace during the German air-raids on London and defend the city with his own pistol if necessary. This did much to enhance the public's view of the Royal Family.

Answer: A novelist and philosopher

Santayana was known for works such as 'The Sense of Beauty' and 'The Life of Reason'. In these works, he explained his belief that man's knowledge and goodness came from his response to reality (matter). Santayana served as a mentor to such luminaries as T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost. He may be best remembered for his quote "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it".

Answer: Finland

Finland was ruled by Russia in the 19th century, but not after World War I. It declared independence in 1917 while Russia was distracted by a series of revolutions. By the 1960s Finland and Norway were the only European country bordering the U.S.S.R. which did not have Communists in power.

Answer: Vietnam

The French were defeated there by the communist Viet Minh. The Viet Minh were led by Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen Giap (both of whom were familiar to Americans through the Vietnam War). The United States had been giving clandestine support to the French before the battle and two of the pilots killed on the French side were Americans. Needless to say, this did not help their later relations with the North Vietnamese government.

Answer: Little Rock

The Supreme Court had ruled in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education that the concept of "Separate, but equal" was no longer valid. All public schools therefore must be open to all races. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus decided the ruling didn't apply to his state and submitted the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the enrollment of nine black students.

This in turn forced President Eisenhower to send in Federal troops to enforce the court's decision.

Answer: Morning sickness

In 1961 it was discovered that babies born to mothers who used Thalidomide often suffered stunted limbs, eye and ear defects, and worse. It was immediately pulled off the market, but the legacy remains. Interestingly, thalidomide remains in use today.

It is used to treat such diverse ailments as leprosy, arthritis, and some symptoms of the HIV virus. Women who take the drug must now go through a rigorous series of tests to make sure they are not pregnant and have no risk of repeating the horrors of the 1950's.

Answer: Abel and Baker

Albert, the first "Space Monkey" went up in a V2 rocket all the way back in 1948. Unfortunately, many of the earliest animals in space (including Albert, the spider monkey Gordo, and the dog Laika) either failed to survive the flight or failed to survive the return to earth.

Although Able and Miss Baker both survived their return to earth, Able was to die on the operating table shortly afterwards. Miss Baker lived another 26 years after her return.

Answer: Fulgencio Batista

Batista also came to power in a coup by overthrowing Socarras in 1952. Castro had planned to run for parliament in this election, but instead took up arms against this new government. Although his initial revolt failed, (he was arrested and later given amnesty), he returned to Cuba and led a series of guerrilla campaigns.

This revolt eventually led to Batista fleeing the country and Castro setting up a communist dictatorship. Relations between Cuba and the United States have been strained ever since (especially since the "Bay of Pigs" invasion of 1961, also mentioned in the song).

Answer: Radio music shows

The term payola comes from a combination of pay and Victrola (a brand of record player at the time). In 1959 disc jockey Alan Freed (who also coined the term "rock and roll") was arrested by two detectives who charged him with accepting $2500 to give a song more airplay. Congressional hearings soon followed where it was revealed this "pay for play" system was common practice.

Answer: Robert Heinlein

The novel tells of a human named Valentine Michael Smith. Born on Mars to a lost expedition, he is brought back to Earth by two astronauts. Although he is lost in an unfamiliar culture at first, he soon goes on to gain fame, riches, and the leadership of a new cult that he founded.

The novel is famous both for its unique way of looking at human culture from an outside perspective and for being one of the precursors to the era of free love. It also introduced such ideas as "grokking" and the waterbed. Seventy thousand words were cut from the original edition to keep the novel from being too socially radical.

Answer: John Kennedy

Nixon lost in the election of 1960 and again in the race for governor of California in 1962. By that point Nixon's career was thought to be finished for good. This was actually Nixon's second major political comeback. He managed to survive a scandal and remain on Eisenhower's 1952 ticket as the vice-presidential candidate by his famous 'Checkers' speech.

Answer: Anwar Sadat

The 1978 Camp David accords would lead to a Nobel Peace Prize shared by Sadat and Begin. This was the first Peace Prize ever awarded to leaders from the Middle East. The presenter noted that their's was the second peace treaty concluded between Egypt and Israel in 6,000 years, the first being between Solomon and an Egyptian Pharaoh!

Answer: No

Sally's 1983 flight only made her the third woman in space (she was the first American woman in space). Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut, flew on the Vostok 6 spacecraft in 1963. Unlike Tereshkova (who left the program after her first flight) Ride went up multiple times. She accumulated more than 340 hours in space.
Svetlana Savitskaya was the second woman in space.

Answer: Bernhard Goetz

Goetz's name was abbreviated to Bernie in the song. He was acquitted of attempted murder charges (but convicted of illegal weapons posession) in 1987. Nine years later, Darrell Cabey, one of the youths shot, filed suit in a civil court. Cabey claimed that Goetz did not simply act in helpless self-defense.

Instead, he was a racist who intended to needlessly maim the black men who had approached him. In a civil suit a jury awarded Cabey $43 million in damages.