April 12: A Day To Remember Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vostok 1

Vostok 1 can be viewed at the RKK Energiya Museum outside of Moscow. The mission lasted 1 hour 48 minutes. Gagarin completed one full orbit of the Earth then returned. His call sign was Kedr which in Russian means Siberian Pine.

Gagarin visited numerous countries including Canada and the United Kingdom following the flight to promote the Soviet Union's accomplishment. He died tragically, in 1968, during a training flight in a MiG fighter plane at age 34.

Answer: American Civil War

Seven states announced secession from the Union in February 1861. At that time South Carolina demanded that all U.S. Army troops pull out. Major Robert Anderson of the U.S. Army controlled Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and refused to leave. Confederate forces led by P.G.T. Beauregard bombarded the fort on the morning of April 12, 1861. The assault lasted 34 hours until Anderson surrendered.

President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers following this attack and the civil war had begun. The war lasted four years, ending in 1865. Strangely enough, not a single man died during the attack on Fort Sumter from either side. The first deaths of the civil war occurred during a gun salute on the 14th of April at Fort Sumter. Ammunition cartridges blew up from a spark, killing two men.

Answer: Battle of Vimy Ridge

Vimy Ridge is an escarpment that rises approximately 500 feet above the Douai Plains in France. One can see for many miles in all directions from this ridge which is roughly 8 kilometers (5 miles) long.

The Canadian objective was to take control of the entire ridge so the main army could advance from the south without any overhead fire from the Germans. The Germans had been in control of the ridge since 1914. The Canadian Corps took the ridge on the 12th of April after beginning the assault on the 9th. Canadian casualties of this battle were over 3,500 dead and over 7,000 wounded.

Today, a memorial stands at the site of the battle in memory of the Canadian soldiers who died in the battle. King Edward VIII of England unveiled the monument along with Albert Lebrun, President of France, on July 26, 1936.

Answer: Ohio

Federal Labor Union 18384 authorized a strike in Toledo on April 12 against the Electric Auto-Lite Company demanding wage increases, seniority rights and improved working conditions. In early May, there were only 4 picket lines and just forty men. By May 23, there were thousands of picketers. It was then that the police arrested 5 men. The crowd outside the plant threw rocks and other things at the police.

On May 24, 900 national Guard members arrived at the site. In the evening, they fired gas canisters into the crowd. When the crowd continued to fight back, they fired bullets, killing two men. On the 25th of May, more National Guard arrived, bringing the total to over 1,300, which at the time was the largest military street presence in Ohio history. The whole event now encompassed eight city blocks around the Auto-Lite plant. Troopers arrested hundreds of people and the whole thing finally quieted down on the 28th of May.

The strike officially ended on June 3, with the union winning a five percent wage increase and a minimum wage of 35 cents per hour. Federal troops were recalled on June 5. The Auto-Lite plant closed in 1962 and was eventually demolished in 1999.

Answer: Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley

Bill Haley and His Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" at Pythian Temple studios in New York City for Decca Records. The song reached number one on the Billboard chart on July 8, 1955 and remained there for eight weeks.

"Rock Around the Clock" has been covered many times by many artists over the years. It was also the theme song for the television show Happy Days (1974-1984) for the first two seasons. It is also included in the soundtrack for the movie American Graffiti(1973).

It should be noted that no one song has been officially credited with starting the rock and roll era. "Rock this Joint" by Jimmy Preston and "Rocket 88" by Ike Turner are two songs which also claim to be the first.

Answer: Jonas Salk

Salk first developed the vaccine in 1952 at the University of Pittsburgh. It took three years of testing before it was approved. Poliomyelitis or polio is a viral infectious disease which is spread person to person. In 1952, polio became an epidemic with close to 58,000 cases reported.

Salk initiated field trials in 1954. Over 20,000 doctors and 1.8 million school children participated in the trials. He even volunteered himself as well as his wife and children to test the vaccine. By 1994, polio was declared eradicated from all of North America. The disease has since been eradicated in many other countries.

Frederick Banting was the doctor who isolated insulin. Barnard completed the first successful heart transplant, and Joslin was the first doctor in the U.S. to specialize in diabetes.

Answer: Columbia

Columbia's first mission lasted two days and the shuttle orbited the Earth 36 times. John Young was the commander for the first flight. In 1999, Lt. Col. Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a spacecraft and she did it aboard Columbia. Columbia safely completed 27 missions, orbited the Earth 4,808 times, spent 300 days in space and deployed 8 satellites, and traveled over 200 million total kilometers. On her 28th mission, on February 1, 2003, the shuttle broke apart and burned upon re-entry, killing all seven crew members.

Insulating foam that broke off the shuttle proved to be the reason for the accident.

Answer: A run by Terry Fox to raise money for cancer research

Terry Fox was diagnosed with cancer in 1977 and had his right leg amputated. He was a long distance runner for Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He would walk with the help of an artificial leg.

With the Marathon of Hope, Fox hoped to raise one dollar for every person in Canada for running across the entire country from Newfoundland to British Columbia. He started on April 12 and by September 1 he had run for 143 days and over 5000 kilometers and had reached Thunder Bay, Ontario. At this time he suffered intense chest pains and was taken to hospital. The cancer had spread to his lungs and he was forced to stop the run.

Fox had raised over 1.7 million dollars at the time he stopped running. Later that month he was honored as a Companion of the Order of Canada. He was named Canada's news maker of the year for 1980.

Terry Fox died in June of 1981 from cancer, one month shy of his 23rd birthday. There are many monuments dedicated to Terry Fox across the country of Canada. The Terry Fox Run is an annual event that takes place on September 19 each year to raise money for cancer and is the single largest single day cancer fundraiser in the world with many countries participating.

Answer: Innocent III

The Fourth Crusade was supposed to conquer Jerusalem. At some point during the Crusade, the plan changed and the goal became to put the deposed Emperor Isaac II back on the Byzantine throne.

A few failed attempts to conquer the city of Constantinople were made in 1203. On April 12, 1204, the Crusaders finally breached the walls and were able to take over the city in just one day. The Library of Constantinople was destroyed and close to 1 million silver marks were stolen, and a large portion of the city brought down by fire.

Innocent III was Pope from 1198 to 1216. In 1215, he initiated the Fourth Lateran Council, which introduced over seventy new laws. His real name was Lothario dei Contidi Segni.

Gregory VIII was Pope for just 57 days in 1187. Adrian IV was the first Pope from England and John XXI was from Portugal and was Pope for less than one year.

Answer: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FDR was born January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York. His family was very wealthy. He attended Columbia Law School but never graduated. He married Eleanor in 1905 and they had six children.

Roosevelt was Governor of New York from 1929-1932 before being elected to the Presidency. He was able to be elected four straight times as President(1933-1945) because the law concerning two terms maximum, in the 22nd Amendment, did not come into effect until after his death. He contracted polio in 1921. The disease left him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.