Do You Remember - the 1950s? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boston MA

Dressed in Brink's uniform along with the addition of Halloween masks and gloves, the gang entered the Brinks building in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts at 6:55pm and walked out just 35 minutes later with $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks and securities. The total haul of more than $2.77 million (worth about ten times that in today's money) was, at the time, the largest robbery in U.S. history.

The robbers left few clues, and it was not until just five days before the 6-year statute of limitations on robbery ran out that half of the gang were arrested and charged. Eight gang members received life sentences although all but one lived to be paroled after 15 years inside. Remarkably, only $58,000 was ever recovered.

Answer: Dennis the Menace

"Dennis the Menace" now appears daily in 48 countries in 19 languages a a single-panel throughout the week with a full strip on Sundays. Based on the adventures of the lovable, freckle-faced five-and-a-half-year-old Dennis Mitchell, the comic regularly features Dennis's parents, Alice and Henry, and his dog, Ruff. Other regular characters include the cranky George Everett Wilson Sr and his wife, Martha, who live next door to the Mitchells, along with some of Dennis's friends, notably Tommy, Joey, Margaret and Gina.

Quite coincidentally, a quite different cartoon strip of the same name also debuted in 1951, just five days after Ketchum's. First published weekly in "The Beano", the UK Dennis one also remains popular today and, like its American counterpart, has also spawned screen versions of the character and his adventures.

Of the alternatives, drawn by Gary Trudeau, "Doonesbury" first appeared in 1970; "Li'l Abner", written by the legendary Al Capp until shortly before his death in 1979, debuted in 1934; and "Blondie", created by Chic Young, first appeared in newspapers in 1930.

Answer: Jordan

Born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1909, Talal bin Abdullah became the second monarch in the history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan/Jordan on July 20, 1951. Little more than a year later, he was forced to abdicate for reasons reported as schizophrenia, elevating his 16-year old son, Hussein into the role he would occupy until his death more than 49 years later, in 1999.

Born in 1935 in the Jordanian capital, Amman, King Hussein became one of the most forward-thinking, admired and respected monarchs in the Middle East and, indeed, the world. And yet, his long reign was almost cut short before it began: he accompanied his grandfather to Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on July 20, 1951, when a Palestinian gunman fired three bullets into the King's head and chest, killing him instanly. Hussein, who was beside his grandfather at the time, was also hit but a medal (that his grandfather had insisted he should wear) deflected the bullet and saved his life.

Answer: I Love Lucy

A 2012 survey conducted by ABC TV and 'People Magazine' voted "I Love Lucy" as the "Best TV Show of All Time". The series ran for a total of 181 episodes (including the original pilot and the lost Christmas episode) over six seasons between October 1951 and May 1957.

During the second season, in December 1952, the episode "Lucy Is Enceinte" unveiled Lucy's "condition", although on the recommendation of an ad agency CBS refused to allow the word "pregnant" to be used (enceinte is French for "expecting"). The big event aired on January 19 in the episode "Lucy Goes to the Hospital", timed to coincide with Lucille Ball's real-life delivery of Desi Jr by Caesarean section. Remarkably, 71.1% of all the TV sets in the U.S. tuned in to watch the birth.

Contrary to popular belief, Lucy was not, though, the first on-screen pregnancy -- that had been Mary Kay in "Mary Kay and Johnny" a decade earlier.

Answer: City Hall, San Francisco CA

Just 10 days before her wedding day, on January 4, 1954, Monroe was suspended by her studio, 20th Century-Fox, for refusing to begin shooting a musical comedy co-starring Frank Sinatra. Tired of being typecast, Monroe wanted to perform in something other than musicals and comedies, but her contract (which dated back to 1950) gave the studio the right to choose her projects and co-stars. The result was that Monroe made front pages across the country, and virtually stayed there throughout the lead-up to the big event.

The wedding itself was held at the San Francisco City Hall. The honeymoon was a brief stop in Japan (coinciding with a pre-planned business trip for DiMaggio) after which Marilyn headed for Korea (where she performed for 60,000 US Marines) while Joe headed back to the U.S.

There was good news and bad news for Marilyn as the year moved on. In March, she signed a new contract with Fxo which included a starring role in Billy Wilder's upcoming film, which began shooting in September. DiMaggio, though, was apparently furious about the famous white dress scene in the movie, and when she returned to Hollywood in October she announced that she was filing for divorce -- her description of the baseball legend included words such as 'controlling', jealous' and 'abusive'.

Answer: Ruth Ellis

Born in 1926 in the seaside resort of Rhyl on the northeast coast of Wales, Ruth Ellis worked in London as a nightclub hostess and manager. She met Blakely in 1953, and within weeks he had moved into her flat even though he was engaged to another woman. Ellis soon became pregnant but aborted the child, and the two
continued seeing each other even through both were living with other people. Ellis again fell pregnant, but this time she miscarried after Blakely punched her in the stomach during an argument in January 1955. On April 10, Easter Sunday, Ellis set out to track down Blakely and found his car parked outside the Magdala public house in London's fashionable Hampstead district. When Blakely emerged and whilst he was looking for his car keys, Ellis pulled out a .38-calibre Smith & Wesson and started shooting. The first missed, but she pursued him around the car and the second shot knocked him down. She then stood over him and fired three more shots at point-blank range.

More than 50,000 people signed a petition for clemency, but the Home Secretary rejected it. The British people still generally supported execution for murder, but the political will was swinging against the principle: Ellis was the last woman executed in the country, and the last execution of all took place in 1964.

Of the alternatives, Ethel Rosenberg and her husband, Julius, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in New York on June 19, 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage; prostitute Jean Lee and her two pimps were executed on February 19, 1951 for the murder and torture of a 73-year-old bookmaker, thus becoming the last woman hanged in Australia; Imre Nagy, the former President of Hungary, was executed on June 16, 1958 after he was found guilty of treason at a secret trial.

Answer: Pakistan

Following the UK's agreement to the partitioning of India, the British "Dominion of Pakistan" was formed on August 14, 1947 (the 27th of Ramadan, 1366 in the Islamic Calendar), comprising the states of Balochistan, East Bengal, the North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab and Sindh.

The country's Constituent Assembly first met three days before independence, on August 11, with the objective or formulating a constitution for the new sovereign state. The process took more than eight years, and the Assembly finally adopted the new constitution on February 29, 1956, with it taking effect on March 23.

The new status quo did not last long, with President Iskander Mirza staging a coup d'état in October 1958, declaring martial law and abrogating the constitution. A new constitution was adopted in 1962, which in turn was superseded by the 1973 document that remains in force today. One factor has remained constant since 1956, though, Pakistan's status as an Islamic Republic.

Answer: Kazakhstan

Sputnik I was launched from what was then called "Site No.1", later renamed "Gagarin's Start" and now officially called the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan. The site was first used to launch the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka, in May 1957. On October 4 of that same year, Sputnik I began its 3-month journey as the world's first artificial Earth satellite. Four years later, in 1961, Yuri Gagarin blasted off in Vostok I to become the first human in space. It is now managed by the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The radio signals sent out by Sputnik I could be tracked by amateur radio operators around the world, although the batteries lasted only 21 days and the last signal was received on October 26. The satellite itself travelled a total of 43 million miles in three months before burning up re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on January 4, 1958.

Answer: Manchester United

After playing their European Cup semi-final match against Red Star Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia, the flight carrying the young Manchester United team (already twice English champions and dubbed by the media as the "Busby Babes") stopped at Munich-Reim Airport in Bavaria to refuel. The third attempt by British European Airways flight 609 to take-off from the slush-covered runway proved fatal. There were 44 people on the plane, including team players and management, journalist, supporters and crew: 20 died immediately including seven team members, and a further three later perished from their injuries in a Munich hospital.

United players Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Liam "Billy" Whelan along with trainer Tom Curry, chief coach Bert Whalley and club secretary Walter Crickmer all died at the scene of the crash. The 21-year old England international and rising superstar Duncan Edwards survived the crash but died 15 days later from his injuries. Amongst the survivors were Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower, neither of whom ever played football again. Other survivors included the 20-year old Bobby Charlton, who would lead England to victory in the World Cup eight years later, and Sir Matt Busby, the team manager, who was seriously injured in the crash but recovered to lead United to an FA Cup win in 1963, to two more League titles, in 1965 and 1967, and to a European Cup victory in the 1967-68 season, the first English club to lift that trophy.

Answer: The Marx Brothers

There were five members of the family comedy act, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo, although it was the three elder brothers (Chico, Harpo and Groucho)who formed the core of the act. They adapted their stage show (which had begun in 1905) to make the first of their 13 feature films, "The Cocoanuts" (based on their 1925 Broadway musical), in 1929. Over the next 20 years, they produce numerous films still considered classics today, including "Animal Crackers" (1930), "Duck Soup" (1933), "A Night at the Opera" (1933) and "A Day at the Races" (1935).

They had appeared in individual scenes (in "The Story of Mankind" in 1957) and as pairs (in "Love Happy" in 1949), but "The Incredible Jewel Robbery" was notable not only as the troupe's final TV appearance but also as the first appearance of all three main Marx Brothers in the same scene since "A Night in Casablanca" in 1946. That it would be their last appearance together was confirmed in the most emphatic way possible just two years later by the death of Leonard Marx (aka Chico) at the age of 74. Adolph Marx (aka Harpo) followed his brother at the age of 75 in 1964, whilst Julius Henry Marx (aka Groucho) survived until 1977 and the age of 86.