It's a Date! Trivia Quiz

Answer: February 3, 1959: Buddy Holly's plane crash

On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson, and Richie Valens were killed in the crash of their chartered plane shortly after takeoff from Mason City airport, Iowa.

Years later, in 1971, Don McLean wrote his immortal song "American Pie" and referred to that event as "the day the music died".

Answer: August 15-18

Billed as "Three days of peace and music", Woodstock took place (officially-unofficially there were stragglers there for days afterward) August 15-18, 1969. The gathering, for which around 186,000 tickets had been sold, unexpectedly mushroomed into an unwieldy massing of around 500,000, and overran the area.

Despite high heat, torrential downpours, a sea of mud, and a constant flow of "good" and "bad" psychedelic drugs, the festival went off with few serious hitches. Opinions about Woodstock vary, from those who saw the whole thing as a debauchery and a drug fest, to those who deemed Woodstock to personify all that was right with the flower child movement-for three days, it was one of the largest cities in New York, there was no crime, people helped each other in need, shared what they had, and lived, loved, and reveled in music without need of outside authority to control them. Forty-odd years later, it looks like a period piece, but it remains a unique event in the history of music.

Answer: 1989

The Tiananmen Square student-led uprising took place in early June, 1989. It began as a gathering in honor of liberal reformer Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, who had died shortly after being forced out of office earlier in the year. The protesters occupied the square for seven weeks, voicing criticism of government corruption, limited job opportunities, and inflationary trends. There was widespread popular support for the protest across the country, but the government eventually decided to use military force to end the protests, a decision widely condemned by other countries.

The military fired live ammunition at protesters and bystanders, killing hundreds of mostly unarmed citizens, between June 3 and 5. The exact number of dead is unknown, but estimates range from 200 to over 800 people. The government has since placed stringent restrictions on discussions of or memorials to the uprising.

Answer: 1215

Although much of the original document dealt with issues specific to King John's reign, Magna Carta encompassed a number of principles that formed the cornerstone for Britain's, and to some degree a number of other nations', constitutions. It established for the first time that every person, up to and including the King, is subject to the rule of law; and it set forth the principle that all men are entitled to a fair trial when accused of wrongdoing.

Answer: Robert E. Lee formally surrendered.

The Confederacy surrendered to the Union on that date, officially ending the U.S. Civil War - but the issue of race relations persists in the U.S. more than 100 years after the war's end.

Answer: Bernard-René de Launay

Bernard-René de Launay held the position of Governor of the Bastille, a position his father held when he was born. He was attacked, killed, and beheaded by those who stormed the Bastille on that fateful day. Of the others, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were married to one another, were beheaded in 1793, for the crime of treason against the French people; and the Marquis de Lafayette died in France of natural causes in 1831.

Answer: Clark Gable

Known as "The King", Gable was most famous for his role of Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind", but he co-starred with Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer, and Joan Crawford, among others, and won an Oscar for his performance in "It Happened One Night".

Answer: The Panama Canal opened for business.

La Guardia opened in 1939; in 1914 production of Model T's was under 500,000 (but it was the year Ford raised his employees' pay to $5.00 a day!); and the Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937.

Answer: February 26, 1993

A group of terrorists loaded a truck with explosives and drove it into the public parking garage under the North Tower. Their intent was to detonate the explosives, causing the North Tower to fall into the South Tower, destroying both. That plan failed, but six people were killed and over 1,000 were injured.
Ramzi Yousef, the head of the group that carried out the attack, flew to Pakistan a couple hours after the bomb went off. He was apprehended in Pakistan in 1995 and extradited to the US, where he was tried and sentenced to two life terms in prison.

Answer: August 9, 1945

All the dates listed were significant milestones in the ending of the war. May 8, 1945, was the date the news broke that the Germans were surrendering to the Russians, and was dubbed "Victory in Europe Day". August 2, 1945 was the date of the signing of the Potsdam Agreement, which established military occupation and reconstruction of the German Reich by the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union; the agreement also set forth terms of Germany's making reparations, prosecution of war criminals, and demilitarization of Germany. Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, and Nagasaki on the 9th. Finally, September 2, 1945 was the day of the official surrender ceremony of the Japanese, on board the USS Missouri, and was declared VJ (Victory over Japan) Day.