Point of No Return Trivia Quiz

Answer: Julius Caesar

"Alea iacta est," is Latin for "The die is cast," and was reportedly spoken by Julius Caesar as he crossed the Rubicon River further into Italy from Gaul with his troops, thus igniting a civil war which led to a series of military victories and his various dictatorships and consulships. Caesar was well aware of the potential consequences of his actions at the time (the penalty was death), but chose to march on Rome nevertheless.

He thus pushed himself beyond his own point of no return.

Answer: The Donner Party

The Donner Party was an offshoot of a larger west-bound wagon train, one of many that headed across the Oregon Trail in the 1840's. The Party was persuaded that a route south through Utah to Nevada would save them time as compared to the more-travelled but longer northerly route through Oregon (referring to the present location of these modern states, though they did not exist as such in 1846).

However, the opposite turned out to be correct, and by the time they rejoined the California Trail in late October they were over a month behind schedule and their supplies, animals, and unit cohesion were severely depleted.

As they headed into the Sierra Nevada mountains they were met by early snowstorms and had no choice but to make a winter camp. During the terrible winter the party suffered greatly, especially due to starvation, and some members almost certainly resorted to cannibalism.

The group was not all rescued until April, 1847; 39 of the original 87 Donner Party members died. Had the Party resisted the temptation to take the ill-advised shortcut in July, it is likely they would have made it across the Sierra ahead of the snows.

Answer: General George Pickett

Although other commanders were involved, "Pickett's Charge" is the name commonly used for an attack by Confederate infantry across nearly a mile of open fields towards the Union lines on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) in the US Civil War.

The attack was devised by Confederate Supreme Commander Robert E. Lee who, emboldened by near-misses on the first two days of the battle, believed that an all-out attack on the center of the Union lines would fracture their army and lead to the major defeat on Northern soil that Lee craved.

However, the attack was not a good idea; and almost everyone else on the battlefield knew it. Union battle commander Gen. George Meade predicted it; Confederate corps commander Gen. James Longstreet advised against it; and as the late Civil War historian Shelby Foote put it, "there was scarcely a trained soldier who didn't know it was a mistake at the time, except possibly Pickett himself, who was very happy he had a chance for glory." Owing to artillery failures and Union preparation, the attack failed, Pickett's division was decimated (over 50% dead or wounded), and the Battle of Gettysburg ended with the Confederates retreating back south. Lee's army never completely recovered; and although the Civil War went on for nearly two more years, the Confederate cause languished on borrowed time. Had Lee been persuaded to change his strategy on that July day, the battle, the war, and, perhaps, the Confederacy itself might have turned out very differently.

Answer: George Custer

The US Army battled the Plains Indians, notably the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne, in the Black Hills War (1876-1877). The conflict was ignited by an influx of settlers, encroaching on Indian lands, caused by the discovery of gold in the Black Hills.

As one of several units involved in the fighting, Custer and his 700 men initially set out, not so much to fight the Indians, but to keep them from scattering, so that they could be compelled back to their reservation. However, due to several command failures, chiefly a gross underestimation of the number of Indian warriors before him, combined with the discovery that Indian scouting parties were aware of their approach, Custer ordered his troops into action in ways that led to disaster. The Indian leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, were inspired by the visions of Chief Sitting Bull.

In the end, Custer, two of his brothers, some of his other relatives, and much of his command, totaling five companies and 268 persons, were killed. Custer's name and his "Last Stand" became emblazoned in history, largely as a symbol of fighting against a lost cause and against all odds.

But Custer was in that situation largely due to the failure of his own leadership, and, had he received more accurate intelligence and deployed his men more appropriately in response, things may have turned out better or at least less disastrously.

Answer: The Romanovs

As revolution raged in Russia, the former ruler, Tsar Nicholas Romanov II was forced to abdicate in March, 1917. After that he and his family, former Empress Alexandra, their son, four daughters, and a few servants, were shuttled around Russia under house arrest.

They ended up in Yekaterinburg by May, 1918. The family was a bit of a hot potato for the emerging power structure. The Bolsheviks were becoming stronger, but forces were still active in opposition to them, including some whose aim was to restore the Tsar to the throne.

While a faction among the Bolsheviks credibly advocated trying the Tsar for his numerous crimes against his people, time was running out as an opposition legion was marching towards Yekaterinburg, although it is doubtful that the marchers even knew the Romanovs were there. Believing this opposition army was coming to free the Romanovs, their captors jumped the gun and prepared to execute them.

The family was wakened, told they were going to be moved to yet another location, and taken to a basement room. From there on their ultimate fates were sealed.

The prisoners were machine-gunned and stabbed; their bodies burned and buried in a pit. It is noteworthy that even as time ran out on the Romanovs, their captors were experiencing similar feelings of inevitability. In his diary Leon Trotsky - fated to be assassinated himself - wrote of the moment, stating that there was "no turning back."

Answer: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow

Bonnie and Clyde, along with varying members of their gang, conducted a crime spree throughout the central United States from 1932-1934. Although lionized in the contemporary press for a time, public opinion turned on them after the killings of two Texas highway patrolmen.

In fact, the gang was responsible for robbing numerous small stores and gas stations, at least a dozen banks, and killing at least nine police officers and an unknown number of civilians. Following the Texas killings, law enforcement ratcheted up the search for Bonnie and Clyde, offering a reward for their bodies and appointing an elite group to track them down.

They were finally found in Louisiana, where the police enlisted the help of the father of one of their cohorts to stop them.

As the couple came down the road, the six-man posse opened fire with machine guns, shotguns, and pistols. Bonnie's and Clyde's bodies each received anywhere from 15 to 50 gunshot wounds, depending on the historical source. It is unclear whether the couple actually stopped for their associate's father.

However, they had to know that at the moment they saw his car they had moments to live.

Answer: John Dillinger

John Dillinger was a notorious Depression-era gangster whose criminal career began in his teens. His specialty was bank robbery, although he was suspected of the murder of an Indiana policeman and his associates murdered an Ohio sheriff. An escape artist, he eluded police and the early version of the FBI on several occasions, even breaking out of jail a couple of times.

Infuriated by Dillinger's elusiveness, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover appointed a special task force, headquartered in Chicago, to find him.

As fate would have it, Dillinger was actually in Chicago: hiding in plain sight, working as a clerk, even attending Chicago Cubs games. He was betrayed to the FBI by Ana Cumpanas, a madam hoping to avoid deportation to her native Romania. She planned to attend the movies with Dillinger and his girlfriend at the Biograph Theater; and she wore an orange-red dress as a signal to the agents that Dillinger was with her. Upon sighting Dillinger coming out of the theater, the agents chased him into an alley, where he appeared to go for his gun.

He died in a hail of gunfire. As acute as his evasive instincts were, Dillinger was no match for the group of agents arrayed against him that night.

Answer: Amelia Earhart

In the era that gave birth to celebrity aviation, Amelia Earhart was the most famous female pilot. As such, she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1932, and was an early and enthusiastic proponent of the cause of women's aviation and flying generally. Because of her physical resemblance and career similarities to Charles Lindbergh, she was nicknamed "Lady Lindy." In 1936 she planned to pilot a flight around the world in 1937.

The mission was fraught with difficulty - she crashed on takeoff in an early leg, necessitating extensive repairs to her plane.

She resumed her flights in June, 1937, accompanied by a navigator. The trip was progressing as planned until the leg from New Guinea to Howland Island, a relative speck in mid-Pacific Ocean.

The flight never arrived, and the last word from Earhart was her one-way radio calls trying to home in on her target.

Answer: Bernard Madoff

Bernard (Bernie) Madoff actually had a legitimate career as a stock trader for a time, pioneering the use of information technology in trading. However, at some point (investigators differ as to exactly when, and Madoff is not talking) Madoff began to operate a giant pyramid scheme, in which profits paid to early investors were taken from later investments.

The most notable characteristic of these schemes is that they require greater and greater numbers of investors as time goes on; and if anything happens to curtail the flow of new investment the schemes collapse. Madoff apparently never actually invested any of his clients' money: the whole enterprise was made up.

This fake business operated for years by relying on its selectivity, exclusivity, and nearly irrational rates of return; but it also made use of completely false account statements, which were sent to investors on a regular basis and rarely questioned by them. Madoff's fund attracted many prominent individuals, charities, and even other, smaller, investment funds as clients.

Despite mounting questions about the whole enterprise, Madoff managed to elude authorities until late 2008 when, under questioning by his sons, who were employed by him but not directly related to the criminal scheme, he confessed to the fraud. In the end, the lives of many investors were ruined; several people committed suicide, including one of Madoff's sons; people relying on help from many charities suffered; and a number of people went to jail, including Madoff himself, who was sentenced to 150 years.

Answer: Osama Bin Laden

Bin Laden was hunted as the leader of Al Qaeda, the group responsible for numerous terrorist atrocities, even before the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City. From then on, however, he was the number-one person on the United States' Most Wanted List.

Despite a few close calls, he managed to elude capture for years in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. By the time the Navy Seals moved in on Bin Laden's compound in 2011, other terrorist leaders had also come to prominence; and even though his capture or killing would still have been enormously significant, it was assumed that his leadership activity had been eclipsed by others.

However, records captured in the raid showed that Bin Laden was still very much in command of Al Qaeda and was in detailed operational control of its activities.