What Happened in ...? (1930s edition) Quiz

Answer: American Gothic

Wood submitted "American Gothic" to a contest at the Art Institute of Chicago, and won $300 and a bronze medal. The painting is still there in Chicago, and has become something of a cultural touchpoint--it has been parodied by "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (with Riff and Magenta standing in for the farmer and his companion) and in the opening sequence of the "Green Acres" television show.

Answer: Al Capone

Capone was brought down by Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, who chipped away at the gangster's 'businesses' and scotched a plan by Capone to bribe a jury by bringing in a new, untouched jury to hear the mobster's income tax evasion trial. Capone was jailed in Atlanta, and then went to Alcatraz.

By the time he got out, his empire had crumbled and the man (wracked by syphilis) was a shell of his former self. He died in 1947.

Answer: Charles Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh II was abducted from his home in East Amwell, New Jersey on the night of March 1, and was found near the home in May, dead of a massive fracture of the skull. Eventually a German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann, was arrested and convicted of the crime. He was executed in 1936.

Answer: The Loch Ness Monster

While in their car, the Spicers saw a gigantic creature (25 feet long, with a ten-foot long neck) squirming across the road before them. It made its way to the Loch, destroying underbrush with its bulk, and then disappeared into the water. Later that year, motorcyclist Arthur Grant claimed to have almost crashed into a similar creature, and Margaret Munro thought she saw something with elephantine skin, a small head and flippers.

The "famous picture" of Nessie was taken the next year, in 1934.

Answer: The Dionne Quintuplets

Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie Dionne were the first set of quintuplets to survive their infancies. They became a national sensation, and the Ontario government stepped in to promote their curiosity value--the quints were taken from their parents and moved into a specially-built hospital built across from their farm, in order to assure their survival.

The hospital also had a playground area so that tourists could watch the children play.

Answer: The beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous

By 1937, AA had helped 40 people stay sober, and 100 by 1939 (including one woman). By 2001, membership in the program was estimated at 2 million people worldwide. Smith and Bill Wilson (a former soldier, stock speculator and fellow alcoholic) were responsible for the birth of the organization, and they chose the date of Smith's last alcoholic drink to mark the anniversary of AA.

Answer: A Rome-Berlin Axis

Germany had backed Italy's play in Abyssinia when the League of Nations had condemned it, so Hitler and Mussolini approved an alliance between the two countries, which would expand to include Japan, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia (in 1940), and Bulgaria (in 1941). Collectively, these were the Axis Powers.

Answer: The Hindenburg fire

Herbert Morrison, a reporter for Chicago's WLS, provided the voice for the tragedy, and his "Oh, the humanity!" has become famous. 36 people died in the fire, the implosions and the crash, including 13 passengers and one member of the ground crew. A picture of the burning airship was used by the band Led Zeppelin for the cover to its first album.

Answer: The ballpoint pen

Bíró, a Hungarian, also patented the invention of the ballpoint (or biro) in London and, in 1940, in Argentina (he was fleeing the Nazis). In 1979, Papermate released their erasable ballpoint (the Erasermate), and in the early '80s the rollerball pen (which uses water-based ink rather than oil-based) came along.

Answer: Goldfish swallowing

Withington swallowed a live goldfish as a campaign stunt (he was running for class president), and reporters happened to be present when he did it. Soon, high-schoolers and college men around America were enjoying do-it-yourself sushi.

Phonebooth stuffing began in the '50s in South Africa, streaking goes back as far as 1804 (and was endorsed by Robert E. Lee for young men at Washington and Lee University) and Coed Naked Water Polo, as far as I can find, never caught on.