Lucky or Unlucky, It's the 13th of June Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. June 13th 1381 proved to be an unlucky day for John of Gaunt, the son of King Edward III of England. His London residence was burned to the ground by Wat Tyler and his rag-tag army at the end of the Peasants' Revolt. Which building was this?

Answer: Savoy Palace

The Savoy Palace was famed as one of the most luxurious and beautiful manor houses in England at the time of the Peasants' Revolt. It even had its own laws and rules for the immediate surroundings.

In modern London, the Savoy Hotel and Savoy Theatre stand on the site of the former palace.

2. On June 13th in 1898, the Canadian Yukon Territory was officially formed. Which city was chosen to be the Capital of this new Territory?

Answer: Dawson

Dawson, sometimes also called Dawson City, was the capital until the late 1950s, when it was changed to Whitehorse. The change was due to the fact that the population of Dawson had fallen after the Alaskan Highway was opened, and Whitehorse had prospered by virtue of lying directly on the new main road.
Dawson was named after the geologist George Dawson, who was among the first people to explore, map, and record the region in the late nineteenth century.

3. On June 13th 1774, the first American anti-slavery law was passed, prohibiting the importation of slaves into which US State? (At the time it was of course a colony).

Answer: Rhode Island

The law was steered through the State Assembly by Stephen Hopkins, who would later be one of the original signatories of the Declaration of Independence.

4. On June 13th 2010, an unmanned Japanese spacecraft returned to earth safely. It had succesfully carried out a mission to obtain samples of the S-type asteroid Itokawa. What was the spacecraft called?

Answer: Hayabusa

The name Hayabusa translates into English as "peregrine falcon". The asteroid 25143 Itokawa was named for a Japanese scientist, and it circles the sun in an orbit which crosses that of the planet Mars. Hayabusa successfully obtained samples of dust from the asteroid surface and returned them to Earth, landing at Woomera in Australia.

5. On the very day I was born, June 13th 1970, the Beatles had their last Number One hit on the US Billboard Top 100, of the twentieth century. Which of their songs was this?

Answer: The Long and Winding Road

As well as being their last US Number One hit of the 20th century, "The Long and Winding Road" was the last single The Beatles released while all four members of the band were still living. The song featured on the "Let It Be" album, which was their twelfth studio album.

6. On June 13th 1967, Thurgood Marshall was nominated to be the first ever African-American Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States. Which president nominated him?

Answer: Lyndon B. Johnson

Thurgood Marshall had been a lawyer since 1936, and served the Supreme Court for almost twenty five years after his appointment in 1967.He is remembered for his civil rights and human rights work, and also for his views on the death penalty, which he was vehemently against. An award named for him is given in his memory to the top civil rights law student at each of Puerto Rico's four law schools each year.

7. In 1981, on June 13th, a teenager named Marcus Sarjeant made news headlines around the world. What did he do?

Answer: Fired blank rounds at Queen Elizabeth II of the UK

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth always celebrates the Trooping of the Colour ceremony on her official birthday, in June. As she rode her horse Burmese down The Mall in London, Sarjeant emerged from the crowds of spectators, pointed a gun at Her Majesty, and pulled the trigger, firing six times.

The rounds were later found to be blank, and Her Majesty was able to keep control over her startled horse, and was unharmed although obviously shaken. Sarjeant was arrested and was later tried under the provisions of the Treason Act, and sentenced to five years in jail.

8. Eventually becoming the "longest standing active treaty in the world", this treaty was signed on the 13th of June in 1373 by King Edward III, and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor. Which countries were they the monarchs of?

Answer: England and Portugal

The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty, declaring friendship and mutual assistance between England and Portugal, has been ratified several times over the years since the 1300s. It was cited as recently as the 1980s, during the Falklands Conflict, and is the oldest treaty of its kind still extant.

The only time the Treaty has been in abeyance was in the late 1500s and early 1600s, during the period of the Iberian Union, when Portugal was allied with Spain, and the UK was on the "other side" in an Anglo-Spanish war and the Dutch-Portuguese war.

9. On September 4th 1879, a ship owned by American news tycoon J. Gordon Bennett became trapped in the Arctic pack ice. On June 13th 1881, she was finally crushed and sank, leaving her crew to attempt a desperate march across the ice to safety. What was the doomed ship's name?

Answer: Jeannette

The USS Jeannette was originally built for the British Royal Navy, and named Pandora. She passed into private ownership in 1875, and made a successful trip to the Arctic. She was then sold to J. Gordon Bennett, and, with the assistance of the US government, was fitted out for another exploratory Arctic journey.
After she sank, some members of her crew did make their way to safety, although a large number of them died of starvation and/or exposure on their way. The expedition collected a large amount of very useful and valuable scientific data, almost all of which was saved.

10. June 13th 1934 saw the first ever face to face meeting of two world leaders. One later described the other as "a silly little monkey". Who were these two men?

Answer: Mussolini and Hitler

Mussolini and Hitler met for the first time in Venice, in Italy. At the time, Mussolini was not particularly enamoured of Hitler and the Nazi Party, and saw little reason to ally himself with them. Mussolini was a friend and supporter of the Austrian Chancellor, Dolfuss, and extracted promises from Hitler that he would support Dolfuss in his rule.

Unfortunately, less than two weeks after their historic meeting in Venice, Hitler had ordered the assassination of Dolfuss, and Mussolini was infuriated.

Source: Author Rowena8482

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

I was born on June 13th, so it is an important date for me. How many of these other events, all of which happened on that date, do you know?

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