Dutch Babies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden then in the Dutch Republic in 1606. He was active primarily during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. His most recognizable painting is "The Night Watch" which is on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The painting is so large that the people depicted in it are nearly life sized.

Answer: Famke Janssen

Famke Janssen was born in Amstelveen, Netherlands. She is best known for playing Phoenix, one of the mutant superheroes in the "X-Men" franchise as well as playing Lenore, Liam Neeson's ex-wife in the action franchise "Taken". Prior to either of those roles, she portrayed Bond femme fatale Xenia Onatopp in "Goldeneye".

Answer: Alex

Alex Van Halen was born in Amsterdam in 1953 while Eddie was born in the city in 1955. The brothers, along with Mark Stone and David Lee Roth, founded the band Van Halen in 1972. Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the most popular rock bands of all time. Eddie was the guitarist and Alex was the drummer.

The band played together frequently until Eddie passed away in 2020 from a stroke and the band broke up shortly afterward.

Answer: No one knows

Mata Hari was an exotic dancer who led an interesting life. She married a man named Rudolph MacLeod who likely gave her and their children syphilis. The MacLeods led a promiscuous lifestyle until their divorce in 1906.

During World War I, Mata Hari traveled around Europe which was deemed suspicious but also advantageous. She was recruited by the French to seduce Crown Prince Wilhelm II, whom the French incorrectly assumed was a leader in the German forces. What exactly happened is unclear. It is believed she attempted to secure a meeting with the Crown Prince by promising the Germans French military secrets as a ploy. However, the Germans exposed her as a double agent when she provided them only with personal information about the sex lives of important Frenchmen. At her trial, she admitted to being a German spy, although there is a large following that believes she is a scapegoat.

Mata Hari was executed by firing squad in 1917. Since no one claimed her body, it was donated to the Museum of Anatomy. Her head was preserved but there is no account of what the museum did to the rest of her body. In addition, her head has since disappeared. The disappearance was first noticed in 2000 but may have been gone as early as the 1950s.

Answer: Theo van Gogh

Theo van Gogh was assassinated by Mohammad Bouyeri in an apparent response to van Gogh's film "Submission" which exposed violence against Muslim women in Arab countries. Theo van Gogh's collaborator on the film, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was also threatened. Bouyeri shot and stabbed van Gogh while the latter was cycling in Amsterdam. Using a knife, Bouyeri stabbed several death notes onto van Gogh's stomach to Ali, Jews and other people and organizations.

The assassination shocked Amsterdam, which is generally known as a peaceful, harmonious city.

Answer: Desiderius

Desiderius Erasmus was born in Rotterdam in 1466. He was a Catholic priest who wrote about philosophical issues in his day. Erasmus remained loyal to the Catholic Church during the Reformation, despite his many criticisms of it. He was generally seen as offering a compromise between the two sides of the schism.

He is best known, perhaps, for retranslating the New Testament into Greek and Latin.

Answer: Discovered the rings of Saturn

Christiaan Huygens worked in many different scientific fields. He is best known as an astronomer who invented the ocular lens, or Huygenian eyepiece, for telescopes. He also discovered Titan, Saturn's largest moon. He is sometimes incorrectly credited as having discovered Saturn's rings. That accomplishment belongs to Galileo but Huygens did conduct extensive research into the rings.

His best known invention is the pendulum clock which allowed for highly accurate timekeeping and was the most accurate clock for centuries. Huygens is also known for his work with centrifugal force, light and probability.

Answer: Astronomy

Jan Oort is a Dutch astronomer best known for his research into the Milky Way Galaxy. He was the first person to consider the possibility of dark matter. He also calculated the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and determined such a place was not the Sun as was commonly believed in the day.

He is best known for his namesake Oort Cloud which is believed to be were comets originate and form something of a boundary to the solar system.

Answer: Swimming

Inge de Bruijn was an eight-time Olympic medalist (including four gold). She was born in Barendrecht and her brother is also an Olympic athlete in water polo. She competed in four Olympics from 1992-2004 but only one medals in 2000 and 2004. Her gold-medal win the 50m Freestyle in 2004 was historic because she was, at the time, the oldest person to win a gold medal in swimming at the Olympic Games.

Pieter van den Hoogenband was born in Maastricht and was a seven-time Olympic medalist (three gold). Like de Bruijn, he won medals at both the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. He was best known for swimming freestyle.

Answer: The Hiding Place

Corrie ten Boom was a Christian watchmaker who, along with her elderly father Casper and her sister Betsie, shielded an estimated 800 Jews during the Holocaust. The ten Booms opened there house to Jewish refugees and secured hard to come by ration cards to secure food for them.

They were active in the Dutch Underground until they were betrayed by an informant and sent to concentration camps. Bestie and Casper died but Corrie survived and was released before the camp was liberated. After securing her freedom, Corrie continued her work particularly with the mentally disabled.

In 1971, she published "The Hiding Place" about her life and experiences.