Tough The 1950s Quiz | 15 Questions | History

Answer: Korean War

On 25th June 1950, North Korean forces began their assault across the 38th parallel (the line of latitude that had become the boundary between the newly independent countries of North and South Korea). The North Koreans had been supplied by the Soviets and the vast number of soldiers made the surprise attack a devastating success, forcing South Korean forces to retreat within days.

The United Nations authorised its members, which included the United States and its allies to use force against North Korea.

Although a cease-fire was established in 1953, technically the Korean War continues.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Just months after VE day, Winston Churchill's Conservatives had lost the 1945 general election by a landslide to Clement Attlee and the Labour Party. The result was a surprise to many, since Churchill was still very popular due to his wartime leadership.

However, at the next election in 1950, the Conservatives made a massive recovery, giving Labour an unworkably slim majority. Attlee was forced to call another election in 1951, which returned Churchill to power with a majority of 17.

Answer: Kenya

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor entered the Treetops Hotel in Aberdares National Park, Kenya on 5th February 1952 as a princess, but left the next day as Queen Elizabeth II, as her father, King George VI, had died of lung cancer in the night. She was the first British monarch since the formation of the United Kingdom to be out of the country at the time of succession.

Answer: Georgy Malenkov

Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov became the Premier and First Secretary of the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, but only for six months. Malenkov was forced to step down as First Secretary after pressure from the Presidium, and was replaced by Nikita Khrushchev. Malenkov remained as Premier until 1955.

Answer: Roger Bannister

On 6th May 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, Roger Gilbert Bannister became the first known human to run a mile in under four minutes. His official time was 3 min 59.4s. Bannister's record was broken 41 days later on 21st June by John Landy, who ran the mile in 3 min 58s.

Answer: Albania

The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance, (the Warsaw Pact), was a military alliance of the Soviet backed countries in Eastern Europe. The nations that joined were the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, East Germany, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Albania was the last to ratify, on 6th June 1955. The first was Poland on 19th May 1955.

Answer: James Dean

James Byron Dean rose to fame in films such as "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without a Cause". He died on 30th September 1955, when he crashed his Porsche 550 Spyder near Cholame, California after Donald Turnupseed turned his car into his lane. His tragic death, at such a young age, made Dean a cult figure.

Answer: Alabama

On 1st December 1955, Rosa Parks got onto a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. As a black woman, she was obliged by state law to give up her seat to any white person who wanted it. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and as a result was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

This led to a bus boycott across Montgomery that lasted until 13th November 1956, when the United States Supreme Court declared Alabama bus segregatation laws unconstitutional. Perhaps a more important effect of the bus boycott was that it borught Martin Luther King to the attention of the public.

Answer: Heartbreak Hotel

"Heartbreak Hotel" was Elvis' sixth single, but his first on the RCA record label. It reached number one in April 1956. Elvis started a revolution in music and almost thirty years after his death, he is still known as 'The King' of rock and roll.

Answer: Sputnik

Sputnik 1, Russian for traveller, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in present day Kazakhstan, on 4th October 1957 at 19:12 UTC, and became Earth's first artificial satellite. The craft was small by today's standards, weighing only 83 kg (184 pounds) and orbited the Earth every 96 minutes.

Its signal, which could be picked up by any radio transceiver, announced to the world the birth of the space age.

Answer: John

Pope John XXIII was one of the most radical pontiffs of the twentieth century and although he was only pope for five years, he revolutionised the Roman Catholic Church. John convened the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, that completely changed the Catholic Mass. John's legacy of humour and humanity still impacts on the papacy today.

Answer: Senator McCarthy's anti-Communist "witch hunts"

"The Crucible" is centred on the events of the Salem witch-hunts of the late seventeenth century. Miller used this as an allegory to condemn Senator McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which investigated individuals suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers.

The hearings became known as "Communist witch hunts" and Arthur Miller was himself called up to speak at one of them.

Answer: True

On 1st January 1959 Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba since he seized power seven years earlier, was overthrown by Fidel Castro. Initially Castro's plans for the future were unclear but within months he declared Cuba a communist state, the first in the western hemisphere, just a few miles off the United States' mainland. Tension between the US and Cuba rose during the next few years, until October 1962 when the island almost triggered a nuclear war, during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Answer: Adlai Stevenson

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, governor of Illinois 1949-1953, was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 1952 and 1956, and he lost to Dwight D. Eisenhower both times. After his loss in 1952, Stevenson famously stated, "A funny thing happened to me on the way to the White House..."

Answer: 1956

The Suez Crisis started when President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal on 26th July 1956. Egypt was subsequently invaded by France and the United Kingdom, in an attempt to restore the canal to Anglo-French ownership and control.

The invasion was a disaster for the invading forces and within months France and the United Kingdom, under massive, combined pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union, were forced to withdraw. As a result of the conflict, British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden was forced to resign.