Key Days in History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charlemagne

Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Carolingian Empire on Christmas Day, 800. The empire was centered around modern day France but also included all or part of several other countries including Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.

Charlemagne remained emperor until his death in 814 when his son Louis succeeded him for the next 26 years. Unfortunately, after his death in 840, civil war followed ultimately resulting in the breakup of the empire about 40 years later.

Answer: Orville Wright

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright along with his brother Wilbur flew the first heavier than air powered flights. Each brother made two successful flights that day with Orville being the first one to fly. Wilbur had attempted to fly three days earlier without success. Orville's first flight took 12 seconds and covered 120 feet, significantly less distance than a man can run in that time. The final flight of the day, by Wilbur, covered 852 feet.

Although the Wright brothers lived in Dayton, OH, their flights were made just south of Kitty Hawk, NC, over 600 miles away in the Outer Banks. They had made use of the Kitty Hawk area for glider experiments a few years earlier and they returned there for their powered flights. Orville, the younger of the two brothers was 32 when he made the flight. He eventually lived into his 70s. Wilbur was not so lucky and died of typhoid less than ten years later.

Answer: Isoroku Yamamoto

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese Imperial Navy Air Service attacked the US Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Admiral Yamamoto was the commander-in-chief of the Japanese fleet and led the attack. Although the attack was a short term success in that several ships were taken out, the attack also caused the United States to enter World War II which ultimately led to the defeat of Japan and their allies.

Answer: Guy Fawkes

The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to blow up the English House of Lords. It was scheduled for November 5, 1605, which was the opening of Parliament. The plot was an attempt by Catholics to remove the Protestant King James I who would be attending. Unlike modern day terrorists, these conspirators contacted Catholic members of Parliament and warned them to stay away that day.

This led to the plot being discovered prior to its execution. Guy Fawkes was responsible for igniting the gunpowder at the proper time but was caught, arrested, and eventually executed.

Answer: Christopher Columbus

During the latter half of the 15th century, explorers from Western Europe began to make their way down the west coast of Africa and around the southern tip in order to attempt to find a sea route to India which would be safer and cheaper than the overland route.

Meanwhile, Christopher Columbus miscalculated the distance to India if one were to leave Europe by the sea to the west rather than south and east. He was able to convince the Spanish monarchs to fund his journey and in 1492 he sailed west. On October 12 his party made landfall in what is now The Bahamas. While he was not the first European to travel to the Americas, he was the first to do so after the invention of the printing press. This led to his voyage being remembered more than previous ones and his receiving credit for "discovering" the new world.

Answer: Paul Tibbets

Paul Tibbets was the pilot who flew the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He was 30 years old at the time. The day before the flight he named the plane Enola Gay after his mother.

During the early part of the US involvement in the war he flew in Europe. Then in 1943 he became the test pilot during the development of the B-29 Superfortress and had more experience flying that aircraft than anyone else did. This was why he was chosen to fly the plane that dropped the bomb. He remained a military pilot after the war and became a brigadier general in 1959 before retiring from the military in 1966.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Second Continental Congress and the United States formally broke ties with Great Britain, although 5 more years of the Revolutionary War remained. Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration.

The congress had actually approved independence two days earlier but did not approve the wording of the formal declaration until the fourth. 50 years later, in 1826, Jefferson had a less fortunate experience on July 4, as both he and another founding father, John Adams, passed away on the 50th anniversary of the approval of the Declaration of Independence.

Answer: Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary was a beekeeper from New Zealand who switched to mountaineering shortly before World War II. In 1953 at the age of 33 he worked with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in an attempt to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. On May 29, the two became the first two people to reach the summit of Everest.

Although Hillary was from New Zealand, his famous climb was part of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition. In 1958 Hillary was part of an overland trek to the South Pole and in 1985 he and Neil Armstrong flew to the North Pole making Hillary the first person to stand at both poles and atop Mount Everest.

Answer: John Wilkes Booth

On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant ending the American Civil War. Five days later, President Lincoln decided to enjoy the first Friday night afterwards by going out and watching the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre.

Unfortunately, while there, actor John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, broke into Lincoln's box and assassinated the president. Lincoln died the following morning, the third president to die in office and the first to be a victim of assassination.

Answer: Buddy Holly

Following a show in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2, 1959, Buddy Holly chartered a plane to fly him and two performers he was touring with, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson to Fargo, North Dakota, the nearest city to the next stop on the tour in western Minnesota.

The band was normally travelling through the Midwest on an uncomfortable tour bus, and this was an opportunity for some of them to get some rest between shows rather than spend over 300 miles on the road. Unfortunately, there was snow falling and shortly after takeoff around 1am on February 3, the plane crashed in a cornfield where all three passengers died along with the pilot. The events of this night were immortalized in Don Mclean's song "American Pie".