Are You Sure About That? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Psusennes I

When Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, it was found that it had been robbed at least twice in antiquity, and then re-sealed by Egyptian officials. Fortunately, the thieves had not penetrated to the burial chamber, so most of Tut's treasures remained.

In 1939, the French Egyptologist Pierre Montet discovered the completely undisturbed tomb of Psusennes I near Tanis in the Nile Delta. So why is Tutankhamun famous, while Psusennes remains relatively unknown? There are a couple of reasons. First, the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb received an enormous amount of publicity, while the outbreak of WWII obscured Montet's discovery. Secondly, Tutankhamun had ruled at the very height of Egyptian wealth and power, while Psusennes, whose reign began 300 years later, held sway over a much poorer country, and the treasures in his tomb did not display the superb artistry of the earlier period.

In addition, the damp conditions found in the delta had caused many of the non-metal objects - including the king's mummy - to deteriorate. Still, the treasures that were found in Psusennes' tomb were breathtaking.

He had been buried in a coffin of solid silver, a metal much rarer in Egypt at that time than gold. In 2011, the PBS series "Secrets of the Dead" aired an episode about Psusennes called "The Silver Pharaoh."

Answer: Great Britain and Ireland

England and Scotland became one country in 1707 when the Treaty of Union took effect on May 1, 1707. The official name of the new country that was formed was was simply "Great Britain," although it was often referred to as "The Kingdom of Great Britain." The term "United Kingdom" refers to the country formed when the Acts of Union were passed by the British and Irish Parliaments in 1800.

The new country that came into being on January 1, 1801 was "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." Five years after the formation of the Irish Free State, the name was changed to "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" on April 12, 1927.

Answer: Slavery was legal in Illinois until 1848

Many people believe that since Illinois was one of the states formed from the Northwest Territory, it was always a "free state." This is not true. The Ordinance of 1787 forbade slavery in the territory, but there were many loopholes in the law. When Illinois attained statehood in 1818, there was even a provision in its first Constitution to allow the use of slaves at the valuable salt works in the southern part of the state.

The Old Slave House in Gallatin County is still standing today. Its owner, John Crenshaw, owned hundreds of slaves.

As late as 1840, census records showed over 300 slaves in Illinois. It was not until a new Constitution was passed in 1848 that slavery was finally outlawed in Illinois.

Answer: Washington lived in relative comfort and luxury

Washington did spend the winter at Valley Forge - but in a comfortable stone house. The house was actually enlarged by building an addition to it. While common soldiers and junior officers lived in crude, hastily constructed huts and cabins, General George enjoyed the best of food and a roaring fireplace. Washington did send several letters to Congress begging for provisions for his troops, but he wasn't about to share their sufferings.

He even sent for his wife, Martha, to spend some time with him - at government expense.

He also had a staff of servants to do his laundry and other chores. That business about him praying in the snow? That probably never happened, either.

Answer: False

The reason so many people believe this is that it was long thought that both Shakespeare and Cervantes died on May 23, 1616. Well, maybe. But even if this is true, they died on the same *date*, but not the same *day*. Spain had adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, while England was still using the old Julian calendar.

The calendars at this time were ten days out of step with each other, so Cervantes would actually have died ten days before Shakespeare. Furthermore, it is now widely thought that Cervantes actually died on May 22, eleven days prior to the day the Bard of Avon shuffled off this mortal coil.

Answer: Large, but not extraordinary

The myth of Shakespeare's incredibly large vocabulary began in the 19th century, and has been repeated ever since. True, Shakespeare did use - and invent - more words than most writers of his time, but that is largely attributable to the fact that he wrote more works that have survived than most of them. If you write 37 plays and 154 sonnets, you're going to use a lot of words. I'll most likely use a thousand or more in writing this quiz. Thanks to the invention of computers, it's a lot easier to analyze the comparative vocabularies of writers, and also to make reliable estimates of how many words they knew but didn't actually use in their surviving works.

Thanks to computers, we know that Shakespeare wrote a total of 884,647 words, and used 29,044 different words. That sounds like a lot, and it is. However, that includes names, including names of characters in the plays, and different forms of the same word. For example, in this analysis "house" and "houses," or "ask" and "asked," are each counted as words. If we eliminate the various proper names, verb forms, and counting singulars and plurals as separate words, it can be shown that Shakespeare used about 15,000 distinct words.

That's still a lot, but how does Shakespeare compare with other contemporary authors? Someone actually counted the words and found that Thomas Nashe used more different words in his masque, "Summer's Last Will and Testament" than Shakespeare did in any of his plays. Hugh Craig, in a famous study, looked at the works of 13 Elizabethan writers. To adjust for variations in length, he used the first 10,000 words of works generally agreed to have been written entirely by by the author. The writer who used the most different words was John Webster; the ones who used the least were Robert Wilson and John Fletcher. Shakespeare was in seventh place, exactly in the middle.

It is estimated that Shakespeare had a total vocabulary of about 66,000 words, perhaps one-quarter of all words that existed in English during his lifetime. But there are a lot more words in use today, and several studies suggest that the average American college graduate may have a vocabulary of around 60,000 words. So it is quite possible that your own vocabulary is larger than Shakespeare's.

Answer: The French

Okay, they were French allied to the English. But they were still French. Joan was captured by Burgundian forces on May 23, 1430 (at this time, Burgundy was a Duchy independent of France, and allied with the English), at the siege of Compiègne. The Burgundians turned her over to the English for a payment of 10,000 livres, and the English, in turn, handed her over to the French ecclesiastical authorities. Her trial on charges of heresy was conducted by Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, and her executioner was Geoffrey Therage, another Frenchman. It can be argued that these men were acting at the behest of the Engish, but the situation in France at the time was very much one of a civil war. Many of the French preferred the English claimant, Henry VI, over the Dauphin, and Henry had been recognized as the legitimate King of France by Burgundy and Brittany as well.

Although she was declared a saint in 1920, Joan's life does not appear to have been a particularly saintly one. And those movies that show her clad in armor, leading armies into battle? Never happened. The French seem to have regarded Joan as something of a mascot or good-luck charm, but even the French weren't about to turn their army over to a teenage girl who heard voices. They did let her carry a banner sometimes, and she was present at many battles, and was even wounded (slightly) twice, once by an arrow, and once by a crossbow bolt. But Joan's testimony at her trial makes it clear that she never did any fighting.

Answer: The Games were viewed as a triumph for Nazi Germany

Jesse Owens was a great athlete, one of the greatest of all time. At the Berlin Games, he won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4x100 meter relay. But most of what is written about the 1936 Games is nonsense.

First of all, Hitler did not "snub" Owens by refusing to shake his hand. On the first day of the Games, Hitler had shaken hands with winning German athletes. The Olympic Committee told him he would have to shake hands with all of the winners, or none of them. So after the first day, Hitler didn't shake hands with anyone. In Owens' own words: "Hitler didn't snub me - it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram." Hitler had sent Owens a letter and a signed photograph after the games. In addition, black athletes at the Games stayed in the same hotels as white members of the team, and didn't face any travel restrictions in Germany. In contrast, when Owens attended a banquet in his honor at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, he was forced to ride in the freight elevator. Owens was so incensed by the shabby treatment given him by FDR that he became a Republican, and campaigned for Roosevelt's opponent, Alf Landon, in the 1936 presidential election. But he frequently stated that he was treated well in Germany, both by German athletes and by the spectators, who cheered wildly for him.

As far as "shattering the myth of Aryan supremacy" goes, the exact opposite is true. Owens may have won four gold medals, but Germany won more gold medals (34) than any other country at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and more total medals (90) than the second and third place countries (the U.S. and Hungary) combined. Athletic prowess seems a strange criterion upon which to base the idea of a "master race," but if that is what you want to use, the Nazis certainly seemed to have been vindicated. The Games were viewed as a great triumph by Hitler. By the way, the Germans finished second at the 1936 Winter Olympics as well.

Answer: The American forces were greatly outnumbered by the British

The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, and was a triumph for the American forces, who were outnumbered more than two to one by the British. The battle was so one-sided that it is sometimes called "the American Agincourt." Historians disagree about the number of casualties on each side, but a contemporary source says that 13 Americans were killed, as opposed to 291 British, including Generals Pakenham and Gibbs. The battle made Andrew Jackson a hero, but most of credit goes to the fact that the Americans held a very strong defensive position, and the British decision to attempt a frontal assault against their lines was incredibly foolish. Even following their disastrous defeat, the British still contemplated another attempt to capture New Orleans, and did not withdraw until almost a month later.

There is a popular myth that the Battle of New Orleans was fought after the War of 1812 had ended. This is not true. The Treaty of Ghent, which was to end the war, was signed on December 24, 1814, and ratified by Parliament on December 30. But it was not ratified by the United States Senate until February 18, 1815, so the U.S. and the United Kingdom were still at war when the battle took place.

Answer: 0

Nero could not have thrown any Christians to the lions in the Colosseuem, because it was not opened until 80 AD, twelve years after his death. The historian Tacitus tells us that following the Great Fire of Rome, Nero tried to shift the blame for the fire to the Christians, and ordered a "vast multitude" of them to be executed. He said that some were killed by dogs, but no mention is made of lions. The majority appear to have been crucified, and some were set on fire to serve as human torches. Tacitus says these executions took place in the gardens of the Imperial Palace.

Actually, there isn't much historical evidence that large numbers of Christians were ever killed in the Colosseum, by lions or any other means. Some may have been, but the historical evidence is slight. After the reign of Nero, there were local and sporadic persecutions of Christians, particularly in North Africa, but it doesn't seem there was any centralized Imperial persecution of Christians until the reign of Trajan Decius (249-51 AD). The Colosseum doesn't feature prominently in many of the tales of the early Church; it was not until the 18th century that Pope Benedict XIV dedicated the Colosseum to the memory of the Christian martyrs "killed in the arena." When Christians or criminals were executed by beasts, they were usually tied to a stake, and bears, wild boars, and leopards seem to have been used more often than lions to kill them.