American History by Decade: The 1950s Quiz

Answer: Capo di tutti capi

The Kefauver Committee on Organized Crime interviewed an all-star list of American criminals including Mickey Cohen, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky, and was fictionalized in a scene in "The Godfather Part II". The American public first learned the term "capo di tutti capi" (boss of all bosses) during the hearings to denote the head of the New York mafia families.

Answer: The United Nations

The U.N. Security Council authorized a dispatch of military forces to protect South Korea. The multinational force included soldiers from 21 different countries (although more than 90% of the troops were supplied by the United States).

Answer: The Rosenbergs were executed

Julius Rosenberg had recruited a Manhattan project scientist to pass him top secret information. There were protests worldwide against the harsh sentence, and Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Pope Pius XII all pleaded for the Rosenbergs to be pardoned to no avail. Many people still believe that Ethel Rosenberg bore no responsibility for the spying.

Answer: President of Columbia University

Stevenson was only able to win nine states, all in the Democratically "solid South," in the election of 1952. Eisenhower was named President of Columbia in 1948 (and was allowed a leave of absence for two years to become Supreme Commander of NATO) and never got along very well with the liberal Columbia faculty.

Answer: Gen. Douglas MacArthur represented the U.S. at the Armistice agreement

MacArthur had been commander of UN forces at the start of the Korean War, but Harry Truman fired him for insubordination in 1951 when it was discovered that MacArthur had told the Portuguese and Spanish embassies in Japan that he planned to widen the war to include communist China.

The Korean War is often called "The Forgotten War" because (other than the TV show "MASH") it received very little public attention either contemporaneously or afterwards.

Answer: Disneyland

Disneyland is the only Disney park whose construction was actually overseen by Walt Disney. Walt Disney created a show in 1954 for the ABC television network and in exchange they financed Disneyland. When Nikita Kruschev visited the U.S. in 1959, his only requests were to meet John Wayne and to visit Disneyland.

Answer: Kefauver was the Democrat and Nixon was the Republican

Richard Nixon had been serving as Eisenhower's vice president and had only been retained on the ticket during the 1952 election because of his famous "Checkers" speech. The former states of the Confederacy had voted reliably Democratic in every presidential election since the 1870s, but the 1956 election was the last time the Democrats controlled the "solid South."

Answer: The Little Rock Nine

The Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 legally mandated the integration of previously racially segregated schools. The Little Rock, Arkansas School Board began gradual integration by allowing nine black students to attend Central High School. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from enrolling, but President Eisenhower responded by protecting the students with the 101st Airborne Division.

Answer: Both Alaska and Hawaii

The sugarcane growers in Hawaii opposed statehood because they thought it would prohibit them from importing cheap foreign labor. The "Alaska Syndicate" owned by J.P. Morgan which controlled copper mines, railroads, and salmon packing companies opposed statehood because they thought it would increase regulations.

Answer: The Day the Music Died

Celebrated rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper all died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa while traveling to a show in North Dakota. The phrase "The Day the Music Died" comes from the 1974 song "American Pie" by Don McLean.