10 Question History Quiz: Which Happened First? | World History

Answer: IBM is founded

1924: IBM, the International Business Machine Corporation, began life as the 'Tabulating Machine Company' in Endicott NY in 1896. It was incorporated in 1911 and first listed on the NYSE in 1916. It adopted the 'IBM' name on Valentine Day in 1924.
1926: You do not normally associate the portly Babe Ruth with base-stealing, but he actually stole more than 120 times during his career, including 10 steals of home. Trailing 3-2 with two out in the ninth in the 1926 World Series, Ruth unsuccessfully tried to steal second, thus handing the title to the St Louis Cardinals. Of course, the following year, Ruth hit his record-setting 60 homers as the Yankees won 110 regular-season games (a record that would stand for 74 years) before skunking the Pirates in the Series.
1931: The lyrics to 'The Star Spangled Banner' were written back in 1814 by Francis Scott Key. It has been used officially by the Navy since 1899 but was not adopted as the official national anthem until March 3, 1931. Did you know that there are actually four verses, although only the first is normally used.
1933: Yoko Ono, wife of former Beatle John Lennon, was born in Tokyo, Japan on February 18, 1933. Her birth was, therefore, the last of these four events.

Answer: 14-year old Bobby Fischer wins the US Chess Championship

1958: Born in Chicago IL in 1943, Fischer won the US title for the first time at the age of 14 on January 8, 1958. He remains the youngest ever winner. Over the next decade he played in the championship eight times, winning every time. In 1972, in Reykjavik, Iceland, he defeated Russia's Boris Spassky in 'The Match of the Century' to become America's only World Champion. Fischer died in Reykjavik in January 2008 aged 64.
1961: Formed in 1882 by boys from the All Hallows Church bible class, Spurs did not win their first League title until 1951. Their second title came ten years later. That same year, they also became the first team in the 20th Century to win the League/FA Cup double. They defeated Leicester City 2-0 in the Final to won the FA Cup for the first time in 40 years. This was the first of their three FA Cup victories in the 1960s, and by the end of the century they had a total of eight wins to their name.
1963: The premiere of 'Cleopatra' co-starring Richard Burton and Rex Harrison took place on June 12, 1963. It was the year's top-grossing movie, ahead of 'How the West was Won', 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World' and 'Tom Jones', although the latter would go on to win the year's Best Picture Oscar.
1966: Indira Gandhi was elected on January 19, 1966 and sworn in as India's first, and so far only, female Prime Minister five days later. She remained in office for more than 11 years, and was then re-elected for a fourth term in January 1980. on October 31, 1984 she was assassinated by her own bodyguards.

Answer: The Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War

1856: The Treaty of Paris was signed on March 30, 1856. The combatants in the Crimean War were the Russian Empire assisted by Bulgarian volunteers on one side, with an alliance of the French, British and Ottoman Empires and the Kingdom of Sardinia on the other. The 3-year war had begun on March 28, 1853. The alliance lost more than 370,000 men, more than half of those Turks. Estimates of the number of Russian casualties vary, with some sources putting the figure at over 520,000. Some 70% of the allied casualties died of disease.
1867: On July 1, 1867 four provinces (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) amalgamated to create "one Dominion under the name of Canada". The first Prime Minister, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, held office until 1873 and then again from 1878 until his death in 1891.
1868: Liverpudlian William Ewart Gladstone was one of the dominant figures in British politics in the second half of the Victorian era. He held the Prime Ministerial office a record four times, spanning a total of more than 12 years. His first term began on December 3, 1868.
1875: 'Carmen', Paris-born Georges Bizet's most famous composition, premiered at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique in Paris on March 3, 1875, just three months before the composer's death.

Answer: Jay Leno takes over from Johnny Carson as 'The Tonight Show' host

1992: Yes, it really is that long since Johnny Carson retired. Although Jay Leno had been a regular 'guest host' on the show for quite some time, he officially began his 17-year tenure as host on May 25, 1992. 'The Tonight Show' began airing on NBC in 1954, with Steve Allen as the host. Jack Parr took over in 1957. Johnny Carson began his 30-year stint in 1962. Conan O'Brien becomes the fifth host on June 1, 2009.
1994: The Bills' 30-13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Superbowl XXVIII in Atlanta on January 30, 1994 established numerous records. Should the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s be considered a success or a failure? After all, they did become the first team ever to reach the Superbowl in four consecutive seasons. However, they also joined the Broncos and Vikings as the only team to lose four times in the season-ender. This was also the first time that the same two teams matched up in consecutive Superbowls.
1995: 'Forrest Gump' dominated the 67th Academy Awards on March 27, 1995. It won six awards from its 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Zemekis) and Best Actor (Tom Hanks). This particular Oscar show may best be remembered, though, for the performance of host David Letterman, whose particular brand of humor did not go down well with many critics.
1997: Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910 in Üsküp, Ottoman Empire (what is today Skopje in Macedonia), the Albanian Roman Catholic nun was widely known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her 'Missionaries of Charity' that she founded in Calcutta in 1950, now has more than 600 missions around the world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Following her death on September 5, 1997, she was beatified with the title 'Blessed Teresa of Calcutta' by Pope John Paul II.

Answer: Henry VIII is crowned King of England

1509: On April 21 1509, the 17-year old became the second Tudor monarch on the death of his father, King Henry VII. His formal coronation was held two months later, on June 24, just four days before his 18th birthday. His 38-year reign is now probably best remembered for his succession of wives, six in all. He would be followed on the throne by three of his children, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
1517: Martin Luther's posting of his '95 Theses' on the church door at Wittenberg is now celebrated annually on Reformation Day, October 31. Thus began the Protestant Reformation which would end with 'The Peace of Westphalia' more than a century later, in 1648.
1521: Magellan and a fleet of five ships (Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria and Santiago) left Seville on August 10, 1519. They first traveled down the eastern coast of South America, then passed through what is now called the Strait of Magellan to become the first Europeans to reach the ocean that Magellan named 'Mar Pacifico'. After crossing the Pacific, they reached the Philippines. During a battle on April 27, 1521 Magellan was shot with a poison arrow before being killed with spears. The Trinidad finally made it back to Spain in 1525, thus becoming the first to compete a circumnavigation of the globe, but more than 230 of the original crew of 270 had died on the journey.
1547: Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra was born on September 29, 1547 in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Novelist, poet and dramatist, he is remember as the author of the first modern novel, 'Don Quixote'. It is widely considered amongst the most important works in Western Hemisphere literature and one of the best novels ever written.

Answer: Jimmy Connors wins three of the four Grand Slam Singles events

1974: Jimmy Connors would finish his career with eight victories in Grand Slam singles events -- one Australian, two Wimbledon titles, and five victories in the US Open. He also reached seven other finals. His first three victories came in 1974, and he didn't play in the French that year. He defeated Phil Dent in four sets to win the Australian, and scored straight set victories over Ken Rosewell in the other two finals. He also won the US (1975) and Wimbledon (1973) Men's Doubles playing with Ille Nastase.
1976: The 20-year old newspaper heiress and socialite, granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, had been kidnapped in 1974 but then later joined her kidnappers in an armed robbery of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. Defended by the legendary F. Lee Bailey, her trial began in January 1976 and she was convicted on March 20. President Carter commuted her 7-year sentence in 1979 and she was released after 22 months. President Clinton granted her a full pardon in one of his final acts as President, in January 2001.
1977: The first of two 'Centenary Test Matches' between England and Australia was played in Melbourne between March 12-17, 1977. This marked the 100th anniversary of the first cricket test match, played in 1877 in Melbourne. By a strange quirk of fate, Australia won the commemorative test by 45 runs, which was exactly the same result as the first match 100 years earlier. The second anniversary, in 1980 at Lord's, commemorated the first test match played in England, at The Oval in 1880.
1978: Although the pre-ceremony talk was of 'Star Wars', which was nominated in 10 categories, the 50th Academy Awards on April 3 1978 was Woody Allen's night. 'Annie Hall' won three of the four major awards, Best Picture, Best Director (Allen) and Best Actress (Diane Keaton) as well as Best Original Screenplay (Allen and Marshall Brickman). This was a bumper year for excellent movies: 'The Goodbye Girl' (my all-time favorite film, Richard Dreyfuss winning Best Actor), 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', 'Equus', 'Saturday Night Fever', 'Julia' (Jason Robards and Vanessa Redgrave taking the two 'Supporting' awards), 'Looking for Mr Goodbar' and 'The Turning Point'.

Answer: King Edward VII of Great Britain

1910: Born Albert Edward on November 9, 1841, he took the name Edward VII when he became king on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, on January 22 1901. Due to the record length of Victoria's reign, he was both the heir apparent and the Prince of Wales longer than anyone in history. Both records are in danger of falling to Prince Charles. Assuming that both Charles and Queen Elizabeth II are still alive, Charles will break Edward's record of 59y 2m 14d as heir apparent on April 21 2011. Edward was Prince of Wales for 59y 1m 13d and Charles will pass this mark if he is still waiting to become king on September 9 2017. Edward reigned for less than 10 years, dying on May 6, 1910.
1914: Born on December 18 1863, Franz Ferdinand was heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne when he was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28 1914. The result of his assassination was for Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia a month later, on July 28. Thus began the chain of events that resulted in World War I.
1918: Born Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov om May 18 1868, he became the 'Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias' on the death of his father, Alexander III, on November 1 1894. Nicholas II officially abdicated on March 15 1917 following the Russian Revolution. Already under house arrest, Nicholas and his whole family along with their servants were murdered on Lenin's orders on July 17, 1918.
1919: Born on October 27 1858, Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President of the US on September 14 1901, following the death of the incumbent, William McKinley, who had been shot eight days earlier. At 42, Roosevelt thus became (and remains) the youngest person ever to hold the office of President. (Note that Kennedy is the youngest person ever elected President -- he was 43 when elected and Roosevelt was 46 by the time he was re-elected in November 1904.) He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 -- the first American Nobel laureate. He also became the first President to travel outside of the US when he visited the construction site of the Panama Canal.

Answer: Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' is published

1859: The 22-year old Charles Darwin left Plymouth aboard HMS Beagle in December 1831, returning to Falmouth almost five years later in October 1836. It would be more than 20 years before he eventually published his findings in a coherent theory. When it eventually came out on November 22 1859, the book now commonly known as 'On the Origin of Species' had the grandiose title "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life".
1863: The most famous speech in American history lasted just two minutes. The official occasion was the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, PA. The speech was delivered on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19 1863, before the end of the Civil War and just a few months after the decisive Union victory on the same site.
1869: The Suez Canal is 119 miles (192 km) long and connects the Gulf of Suez in the Red Sea with the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. Construction took an estimated 30,000 forced laborers 11 years and the canal opened to shipping on November 17 1869. Contrary to myths about the Great Wall of China being visible from the Moon, the Suez Canal is the man-made object which can be seen from furthest out into space.
1870: Charles John Huffman Dickens was born in Portsmouth on February 7 1812. His novels were originally published monthly in serial form. First came 'The Pickwick Papers', with chapters 1-2 published in March 1836 and the bumper final double-edition appearing in October 1837. Before readers had even reached the end of that one, 'The Adventures of Oliver Twist' followed, with the first chapters appearing in early 1837. In total, he published 15 novels plus five Christmas books, including 'A Christmas Carol', as well as numerous short stories. His final novel, 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' began publication in April 1870 but only half of the intended 12 installments had been written when the author died aged 58 on June 9 1870.

Answer: The first 'Apple Macintosh' goes on sale

1984: The 'Mac' is still a familiar if somewhat denigrated brand name today, but at the time of its release on January 24 1984 it was revolutionary. It was effectively the first personal computer to feature a graphical interface and a mouse. It remained the market leader for best part of a decade, before the introduction of IBM PCs running MS-DOS and Windows.
1986: 'Challenger' first blasted into space on April 4 1983, becoming the second opes rational Space Shuttle, 'Columbia' having led the way two years earlier. Its tenth mission, on January 28 1986, was a high-profile one, with much media coverage surrounding the presence of New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAullife. More than half of America's High School students watched live TV pictures of the launch only to see the craft disintegrate 73 seconds into its flight.
1987: The New York Giants finally broke their Superbowl duck on January 25 1987 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena CA. The favored Giants, who had gone 14-2 in the regular season, established a new Superbowl record for second-half points as they came back from a 9-10 halftime deficit to defeat the Denver Broncos 39-20. Giants quarterback Phil Sims, whose 85% completion rate (22-of-25) established a new Superbowl record, was named MVP.
1988: Bernardo Bertolucci's epic biopic about the life of China's child emperor, Puyi, dominated the 60th Academy Awards on April 11 1988. Nominated for nine Oscars, it won all nine thus tying a record established by 'Gigi' in 1958. ('Ben Hur' and 'West Side Story' has won 11 and 10 Oscars respectively, but neither scooped every category in which they were nominated.) Other contenders that year included 'Moonstruck' (for which Cher won Best Actress), 'Wall Street' (Michael Douglas winning Best Actor), 'Fatal Attraction', 'Ironweed', 'Cry Freedom', 'Radio Days' and 'The Untouchables'.

Answer: Woody Allen

1935: Yes, I know he seems to have been around forever but it's still hard to believe that Woody Allen in that old. Born Allan Stewart Konnigsberg on December 1 1935 in Brooklyn NY, he won Best Director and Best Screenplay (shared with Marshall Brickman) Oscars for 'Annie Hall' in 1977. The film also won Best Picture and Best Actress (Diane Keaton), while Allen himself was nominated for Best Actor. He won the Best Screenplay award again in 1986 for 'Hannah and her Sisters'. In all, he has a remarkable total of 21 nominations to his name (14 screenwriting, six directing and one acting). Also born in the same month as Allen were actress Lee Remick and baseball legend Sandy Koufax.
1937: The former Iraq Dictator, Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, was born on April 26 1937 in Al-Awja near Tirkit, Iraq. He was executed on December 30 2006. Other notable people born in the same month as Hussein include US Secretary of State Colin Powell, country singer Merle Haggard and iconic actor Jack Nicholson.
1940: Born Jack William Nicklaus in Columbus OH on January 21 1940, 'The Golden Bear' is and probably always will be the greatest golfer of all time, Tiger Woods breaking his records notwithstanding. He won two US Amateur titles before turning pro in 1961 and then promptly won the 1962 US Open to announce his presence to the golfing world. He finished his career with a record 18 wins in the Majors (6 Masters, 5 PGA, 4 US Open and 3 Open Championship). He finished in the top three a remarkable 46 times in his 163 starts in the four Majors. Also born in the same month as Nicklaus were actor John Hurt and Chinese novelist and Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian.
1941: Born José Plácido Domingo Embil on January 21 1941 on the outskirts of Madrid, his family moved to Mexico when he was eight. Known as one of the greatest operatic tenors ever, he is also an accomplished actor and conductor. January 1941 was a bumper month for notable births -- singers Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Captain Beefheart and Long John Baldry, US Vice-President Dick Chaney, Monty Python's Graham Chapman, and actors Faye Dunaway and Scott Glenn.