Was That a Fair Deal? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Peter Minuit

Peter Minuit (c. 1580-1638) worked at different times in establishing colonies in North America for both the Dutch (New Netherlands--New York) and for the Swedish (New Sweden--Delaware). In 1626 he purchased Manhattan from the Lenape Indians for 60 guilders worth of trade goods.

The often quoted figure of 24 dollars comes from 19th century historians trying to establish an equivalent figure. In the early 21st century, the trade goods would have a value in the thousands of dollars. This still seems like a good deal when you consider that in 21st century Manhattan a few square feet of land could be worth thousands of dollars. From the perspective of the Lenape Indians, however, the right to use property might not have been something that could be bought or sold.

They might have felt they got some free stuff for a few empty words.

Answer: Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (89-12 BC) had been an ally of Julius Caesar and a competent military general. The three incorrect choices were members of the First Triumvirate. (The important assassination was Julius Caesar's on the Ides of March, 44BC.) Although Lepidus was shut out of power and exiled, unlike Antony, who committed suicide to avoid capture by Octavian's army, Lepidus died of natural causes.

Answer: Hawaii

Liliuokalani (1838-1917) was the sister of the previous king, David Kalakaua. Believing it the wish of the Hawaiian people, she worked to overturn the "Bayonet" constitution of 1887 that had stripped many of the powers of the monarchy and placed high property and income requirements for voting that prevented many native Hawaiians from doing so. Foreign-born businessmen who had become wealthy from the sugar industry formed the majority of eligible voters. Wealthy American and European businessmen in Hawaii, with support from the US ambassador to Hawaii led a coup that overthrew the Queen. Appeals by Liliuokalani to the US government were unsuccessful.

In 1894 a Hawaiian republic was established by the businessmen and in 1898 Hawaii was annexed by the United States.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

The actual purchase price was $11.25 million. French debts to the US worth $3.75 million were cancelled, bringing the total to $15 million. The original mission on which Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) had sent his ambassadors, Robert Livingston and James Monroe, had been to purchase the city of New Orleans from France.

Farmers in the trans-Appalachian United States often used the Mississippi River as a way to get their goods to the world market. Control of New Orleans would have helped to gain that access. Napoleon I (1769-1821) surprised the ambassadors by offering the entire Louisiana territory. French soldiers had recently been pulled out of Santo Domingo (Haiti) and in general, Napoleon seemed disposed to focus more on his wars in Europe to holding territory in North America. Without much of a military presence in Louisiana, he might have felt that it would be easy pickings for the British or even the United States. By getting some money for it, he may have felt he was coming out ahead. The Louisiana Territory covered about 828,000 square miles. The size of the US before the purchase was about 893,000 square miles.

Answer: Gold

Ghana was described as the "land of gold". It is hard to picture a pound of gold and a pound of salt as having roughly equal value. Nowadays, a pound of gold would have the value of thousands of pounds of salt. It just goes to show you that the value of an object is based on supply and demand. What is inexpensive and common in one area can be valuable and rare in another. Foreign visitors to Ghana and Mali often emphasized the large amounts of gold in their writings.

It is said that when Mansa Musa, a fourteenth century ruler of Mali, traveled on his hajj or religious pilgrimage to Mecca that he distributed enough gold during a layover in Cairo to noticeably disrupt the local economy.

Answer: Animal House

"Animal House" (1978), starring John Belushi, has grossed over 141 million dollars. Donald Sutherland was paid $75,000 for his three days work as "Professor Jennings". Had he taken the percentage, he would have earned between three and four million dollars. "Animal House" tells the story of a fraternity at fictional Faber College (based loosely on the university Dartmouth College). Donald Sutherland managed to survive this mistake, appearing in many movies over a long and distinguished career from "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) and "MASH" (1970) to the "Hunger Games" series of the 2010s.

Answer: Alaska

Alaska covers over 663,000 square miles (of which 586,000 is land). It covers over 15% of the total land of the United States and is more than twice as large as the second biggest US state--Texas. William H. Seward (1801-1870) served as Secretary of State for both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

The Russian Empire was looking to move out of North America as they felt those holdings could be seized by another nation. From that perspective, the Russian government might have felt that it was better to get something than nothing for Alaska. Billions of barrels oil have been drilled in Alaska and millions of fish caught in its offshore waters.

Answer: Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings

Herschel Walker, a two-time player in the Pro Bowl, played for several teams and eventually returned to Dallas. The draft picks allowed the Dallas Cowboys to make several key selections in the NFL draft that would fill several important roles on their three Super Bowl champion teams of the 1990s. Minnesota had much less success in the following seasons than that.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

In 1854, the US political party system was in upheaval with the appearance of the Kansas-Nebraska act which had the potential to open those two US territories to slavery. The Whig party was disintegrating over this issue and the Republican party was still forming. In the first round of balloting in the Illinois legislature, Abraham Lincoln received 45 votes, the incumbent James Shields received 41 votes and Lyman Trumbull received 5 votes. Trumbull's voters refused to be budged.

Feeling that electing a candidate who was opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska act was more important than being personally elected, Lincoln withdrew from the election and instructed his supporters to vote for Lyman Trumbull, who won the election. Lincoln had previously served in the Illinois state legislature himself as well as one term in the US House of Representatives. He ran in and lost the 1858 senatorial election but was elected President of the United States twice, in 1860 and 1864.

Answer: Elvis Presley

Colonel Parker (1909-1997) was Elvis Presley's (1935-1977) manager from 1955 until Elvis's death. Their initial contract was for Parker to receive a commission of 25%. He marketed Elvis in a variety of ways from record deals to concerts to movies to merchandise. Later in his career, Elvis and the Colonel had a 50/50 "partnership" and in some cases the Colonel actually earned more than Elvis.