The Fifth of November Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ibrahim the Mad

Like many Ottoman sultans, Ibrahim was confined to the palace before he ascended the throne. He ruled as Sultan from 1640-1648. He was forced to abdicate and was strangled shortly thereafter.

Answer: William III

William of Orange's wife and first cousin was Mary II, elder daughter of James II (and VII of Scotland). James had converted to Catholicism before ascending the throne and had recently had a son (later known as the Old Pretender), by his second wife.

The idea of a Catholic dynasty ruling England concerned many people, who preferred the solidly-Protestant William and Mary. The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA is named for the royal couple.

Answer: The Treaty of Fort Stanwix

The Royal Proclamation Line attempted to set a boundary or limit to where European or European-American settlers could reside in British North America. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, negotiated between the British and the Six Nations of the Iroquois, moved the original line, further to the west.

The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. One of the Treaties of Versailles ended World War I. The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War.

Answer: Nat Turner

Nat Turner (1800-1831) led a rebellion of enslaved and free African Americans in Southhampton, VA, in the summer of 1831. In the aftermath of the rebellion, a Virginia convention seriously debated what sort changes might occur with the status of slavery in Virginia. "The Confessions of Nat Turner" was a controversial 1967 novel by William Styron which dealt with this subject matter.

Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey led other unsuccessful slave rebellions, in Virginia and South Carolina, respectively. Joseph Cinque (or Sengbe Pieh) was one of the enslaved people on the infamous slave ship "Amistad".

Answer: George McClellan

While all of these men commanded the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, only McClellan (1826-1885) gained and lost command twice. His second removal from command came in the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg, when he was only able to fight the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to a draw. McClellan ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic Party's candidate against Abraham Lincoln in the Presidential Election of 1864.

He later was elected as the Governor of New Jersey.

Answer: Susan B. Anthony

Following her voting, Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was arrested and later placed on trial. At her trial, Anthony was not allowed to speak. I was surprised to find out that in many US trials of the time, the criminal defendant was not usually allowed to speak.

She was fined $100. Anthony declared that she would not pay this and the court made little attempt to collect from her. At the time of her death, four US states and territories allowed women to vote. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women nationwide the right to vote, was passed in 1920.

Answer: George B. Selden

Selden (1846-1922) was a patent lawyer and investor who lived most of his life in New York State. While he received a patent, he did not start a company to manufacture automobiles himself. Instead he sold licensing rights to other companies, earning several hundred thousand dollars in the late 1800s and early 1900s this way.

Answer: Woodrow Wilson

Here's how the election turned out. Wilson (Democrat) received 41.8% of the popular vote and 435 electoral votes. Roosevelt (Progressive or Bull Moose) received 27.4% of the popular vote and 88 electoral votes. Taft (Republican) received 23.2% of the popular vote and 8 (yes, 8) electoral votes. Eugene Debs (Socialist) received 6.0% of the popular vote, but no electoral votes.

This election is interesting for several reasons. Wilson was the first president who was born in the South since Zachary Taylor in the election of 1848. Roosevelt was the most successful 3rd party presidential candidate of all time (save possibly Abraham Lincoln if you consider the Republican party in 1860 a "third" party). Eugene Debs was the most successful U.S. Socialist party Presidential candidate as of 2015.

There's still more. Debs would be sent to jail while Wilson was president for publicly speaking against the draft during World War I. While in prison in 1920 he ran for president again and received over 3% of the popular vote. He was released from prison in 1921 by order of the new president, Warren G. Harding.

Answer: Colombia

Hopefully you noticed that Colombia is the only one of these nations in South America. Costa Rica is in Central America. Cuba and Haiti are both islands in the Caribbean Sea.

The United Nations was formed in San Francisco, CA. It was chartered on June 26, 1945 and the charter went into effect on October 24, 1945. After meeting in other cities during its first few years, the UN moved into its permanent headquarters in New York in 1952.

Answer: China

Chang'e 1, representing the People's Republic of China, went into orbit around the moon on November 05, 2007. Both the US and the USSR have launched satellites around the moon and missions (manned or unmanned) to the moon in the decades up to 2007. According to Wikipedia, two of the jobs of the satellite are to obtain 3D images of the moon's surface and determine the commonness of various elements on the moon.