Most Interesting History ... Trivia Quiz

Answer: A girl who was raped by a passing stranger, who then left

'Sleeping Beauty' was first written in 1636, in Italy. When she awoke 9 months later, she found that she had twins.

Answer: The electric chair

Edison used DC, which is low powered, while George Westinghouse used AC, which is high powered. By 1889 AC was the more popular current, and Thomas Edison pushed for New York to use the other company's current in the hope they would find it too dangerous to use, thereby knocking out his competition. However, his plan didn't work.

Answer: Cocaine

Cocaine was legal back then. It was a widely available over-the-counter medicine. In fact in 1908 you could have had cocaine, heroin and opium in your medicine without even needing a prescription!

Answer: Nothing, he died in debt to the tune of $200,000

By the time he discovered vulcanization, he was already deeply in debt, so he could not promote it anyway. His two-year-old son died around this time, and he had to borrow money to have him buried. Frank A. Sieberling founded a rubber company in 1898 and named it after Goodyear. No money exchanged hands and no royalites were ever paid to the Goodyear family.

Answer: Scotland

Though the guillotine is associated with France, the Scots had what was nicknamed the 'Scottish Maiden', which was basically a guillotine and used it in the 1500s. However, in 1792 the guillotine became the sole method of execution in France and and is closely associated with the Reign of Terror.

The Halifax Gibbet, used in England, may have been used earlier, however, official records were not kept until years later.

Answer: The disciples ate the last supper lying down

The Last Supper was, in fact, a Seder, celebrating Passover - the escape of the Jews from Egypt. A feature of the Seder is that everyone at the table eat in the reclining position in order to show their ease as free men.
According to the New Testament in John (13: 23-25) the future Saint John is 'lying close to Jesus's breast'.

Many artists have got around this point by depicting John as dozing. According to the Bible at that moment John, referring to the betrayal, asks the question "Lord, who is it?" That is difficult to ask if one is asleep.

Answer: Urine

Portuguese urine was regarded as the best, because it was considered the strongest. There is a 900-page document written by Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761) on the subject of dentistry, where he informs the reader that the urine has to stay in the mouth for some considerable amount of time and needs to be used for a number of days.

Answer: Jesus's foreskin

This is the most recent account of the 'holy' relic. In all there were twelve foreskins on display at different churches. As time went on the churches stopped putting them on display, but after the Vatican frowned upon these 'relics' the church in Viterbo had exposed the foreskin during the Feast of the Circumcision.

The police never solved the case.

Answer: Dynamite, blasting caps and smokeless gelatin

He was known as the merchant of death, for he created high powered explosives, his brother had died, but the obituary was in his name and he was horrified at the thought of being 'remembered' for the explosives, so he decided to create the prizes in the scientific field to go down in history as a 'good guy'.

Answer: The first slave trader in the New World

He returned from his first voyage with 10 Indians, and when he found out that he could actually make money from selling people, he routinely kidnapped and then sold Indians on his travels.