Famous Dates in US History Trivia Quiz

Answer: An isle he called San Salvador Island, Bahamas

Columbus made four voyages to the New World. On his first trip he stopped at the Canary Islands to make repairs and to board supplies. After another five weeks, land was spotted that he called San Salvador, now part of the Bahamas Islands. He then proceeded south and went along the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola. Columbus characterized the natives he met as intelligent, resourceful and said they would make fine slaves.

However, he found them also to be suspicious and hostile. He took several prisoners but only seven survived the voyage back to Spain.

Answer: Spain

In 1565 Pedro Menéndez de Aviles established Saint Augustine that served as the capital of Florida under Spanish rule for 200 years. It remained the capital under both British and American regimes until 1824 when it was moved to Tallahassee in 1824. Now it is mainly a tourist attraction due its preservation of historical buildings.

It is not unusual to see a plaque noting the building dates from the 17th century but enter it to find that it sells designer sun glasses. However, just walking through the old section gives one a sense of history.

Answer: Plymouth

Although much tradition is based on the Plymouth Rock landing, it probably did not happen. As travel writer Bill Bryson said "The one thing the Pilgrims certainly did not do was step ashore on Plymouth Rock. Quite apart from the consideration that it may have stood well above the high-water mark in 1620, no prudent mariner would try to bring a ship alongside a boulder on a heaving December sea when a sheltered inlet beckoned from near by."

The location was first identified by 94-year-old Thomas Faunce in 1741, a 121 years after the event. The romance of the rock has led to myths and to adoration of the spot. However, no written records have ever been found prior to Faunce's oral testimony.

Answer: 0

The twenty convicted 'witches' were hanged. The Salem Witch Trials were, according to one observer, "The nation's most notorious cases of mass hysteria (and)... as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, and lapses in due process." The so-called victims would writhe on the floor, appear to be having a fit accompanied by shrieking and screaming. The blame fell mostly upon social isolates in the community for casting 'spells'.

A 1976 "Science Magazine" article suggested that the fungus ergot (found in rye, wheat and other cereals) can cause symptoms such as delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms. This may in some respect explain the 'spells', although historians discount it.

Answer: Doubled the number of slaves in a few years

Often times a labor saving device will eventually create alternate occupations. Finding a new way to take the seeds out of cotton rather than by hand had this effect. Invention of the cotton gin (short for engine) made cotton a more valuable crop as it became a prime method of making clothing. Slaves that might have spent hours picking seeds now went to the fields for the plowing, planting, tending, and harvesting.

The popularity of cotton, also as an export, brought the need for cheap labor that the slaves provided.

Answer: James Bowie and William B. Travis

Sam Houston sent Jim Bowie to the Alamo because he felt that it could not be defended. Bowie was to evacuate and destroy the Alamo. But he had a change of heart and decided to fight to defend it. Bowie was the leader of the settlers and adventurer there while Travis had responsibility for the military.

Santa Ana brought 1,800 men to attack a mission defended by a rag tag group of soldiers, settlers, and adventures. The fighting spirit of those men is legend bordering on myth. The Mexicans lost an estimated 600 men. All of the 187 defenders of the Alamo died. Those few that surrendered were executed by Santa Ana.

Answer: Harpers Ferry

On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a group of 21 men in a raid on the military arsenal located at Harpers Ferry, WV (then Virginia). Five of the men were African American, three free African Americans, one a freed slave, and one a fugitive slave. As part of his planning, he invited Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to take part but both declined believing the attack would fail. Brown believed that the raid would cause slaves all over the south to raise up against their masters.

Robert E. Lee, who took charge of the opposition to the raid believed John Brown was insane, and "...the plan [raiding the Harpers Ferry Arsenal] was the attempt of a fanatic or mad­man." Brown and six of his men were captured and executed. As word spread, many Southerners lived in fear of a slave uprising. Initially he was hailed as a hero and martyr in the North. Most interesting was a quote from noted pacifist Henry David Thoreau. He said in "Harpers Magazine", "I think that for once the Sharp's rifles and the revolvers were employed in a righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could use them ... He has a spark of divinity in him. Though "Harpers Ferry was insane ... "the controlling motive of his demonstration was sublime".

This incident is often cited as the real beginning of the American Civil War.

Answer: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

The stated purpose of the National Association or the Advancement of Colored People--NAACP is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination." It has retained the term 'colored people' by tradition.

The meeting cited was one of several meeting that came to culmination of the organization. To list all the important issues that the NAACP has advocated and achieved would be long. Even when other civil rights organizations came along later, the NAACP retained a respected and leadership example.

Answer: Montgomery, Alabama

Bus driver James F. Blake ordered Parks to move to the 'colored section' of the Montgomery bus to accommodate a white passenger. Others had defied this order in other cities before, but it was felt Parks was the strongest candidate for a court test. She became the inspiration for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

She worked in collaboration with many of the civil rights leaders of her time including Martin Luther King, Jr.. Moving to Detroit from 1965-1988 she served as secretary to John Conyers, an African-American member of the House of Representatives. After her death in 2005 she became the first woman to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda. Some states have designed February 4 as "Rosa Parks Day".

Answer: 2001

While George Bush sat stunned in a second grade class in Sarasota, Florida and Vice-President Dick Cheney was whisked away to a secret secure location, most Americans sat stunned with the realization that terrorism, that was something you read about in foreign countries, had come to the USA. The suicidal terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center Twin Towers, damaged the Washington D.C. Pentagon office building, and killed the passengers in a crash in Pennsylvania, and brought the ruthlessness of terrorism to the American conscience.

Osama bin Laden was the architect and probable financier of the venture. Years were spent tracking and killing him. Drastic changes came with the Homeland Security Act and security of domestic and foreign air travel.