Famous Left-Handers Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Garfield

Born in Ohio in 1831, James Garfield became a Republican politician and served as an Ohio State Senator from 1859 to 1861. He also practiced law, and had a military career, fighting against the Confederate states in the American Civil War first as a Lieutenant Colonel, and was then promoted to Brigadier General. He opposed slavery, and wanted a universal educational system to avoid the scenario where the black population became the "peasantry" of the country.

In July 1881, President Garfield was shot twice by Charles J. Guiteau, and died in September of a heart attack and a ruptured splenic aneurysm, related to the blood poisoning sustained from the bullet wounds, two months before his 50th birthday.

Answer: Talking Heads

David Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1952. His family moved first to Ontario, Canada, and then to Maryland, USA, when he was about eight years old. As well as eight albums with Talking Heads, who formed in 1975, David has released nine solo albums.

He is a fan of cycling, and has published many books, such as "Arboretum" (2006), which is a collection of his tree drawings. In 1987, along with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the movie "The Last Emperor".

Answer: Hanover

The House of Hanover ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 after the death of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, until Victoria's death in 1901. Victoria married her first cousin, Albert, in 1840; he was of the House of Saxe-Coburg- Gotha, and thus their son, later King Edward VII, was the first ruling monarch of this House.

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is technically the same one that still rules the United Kingdom under Elizabeth II. However, Edward VII's son, George V, renamed the House to Windsor during World War I, to avoid association with Germany.

Answer: James Baldwin

James Baldwin was born in New York, USA, in 1924. Black people and gay people were not widely accepted in the USA at this time, and he left for Paris, France, in order to see himself in another context and to get away from prejudice. "Go Tell It On The Mountain" was his first novel, a semi-autobiographical work describing the experiences of a young African American whose stepfather is strictly religious and a very harsh man.

Despite expectations that his second novel would focus on black characters, "Giovanni's Room" concerns white characters, and was rather infamous for its portrayal of homosexuality.

In fact, Baldwin's publisher reportedly told him to burn the book to avoid alienating his black readers! Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison called Baldwin her inspiration in the eulogy she wrote for him.

Answer: Bending spoons

Uri Geller, pronounced "oori", was born in 1946 to Austrian and Hungarian parents in Tel Aviv, which was then part of the British Mandate of Palestine. He is trilingual, speaking Hebrew, English and Hungarian fluently. Geller's tricks, as well as bending spoons, include dowsing, and like most claimants of paranormal powers, he has met with much criticism. According to magicians, his tricks can be replicated using stage magic, but despite this, Geller insists that he uses only his mind.

In 1992, he caused much controversy when he predicted that a kidnapped Hungarian model, Helga Farkas, would be found alive and well - unfortunately, she was killed by her captors.

He appeared in the UK reality series "I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here" in 2002, which involves celebrities living in the Australian jungle for several weeks and performing difficult and often disgusting tasks.

Answer: Pompey

Despite their differences, Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus formed the First Triumvirate, which was an unofficial political alliance. Crassus was incredibly jealous of Pompey, who had acquired the not-so-charming nickname of "teenage butcher", or, in Latin, "adulescentulus carnifex"; both men shared the consulship in 70 BC. Around 60 BC, Caesar won election to the consulship himself, and allied himself with Crassus. To secure Pompey's support, he arranged for his daughter Julia, his only child at the time, to marry Pompey, a man six years older than Caesar!

Perhaps Caesar encouraged the use of the right-handed handshake in order to leave his left hand, with which he wielded his weapon, free!

Answer: Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger was born toward the end of the 15th century in Augsburg, in what was then the Holy Roman Empire. He achieved success by painting portraits of Desiderius Erasmus, who gave him a recommendation when he went to England seeking work. Eventually, in 1532, he became King's Painter to Henry VIII. The portrait in question was destroyed when the Palace of Whitehall, in which it was housed, burned down in 1698.

"The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb" was painted from 1520 to 1522 in oil and tempera. His body is depicted as emaciated and putrefying. It is a rather grotesque image, showing Christ as a mere human following death, undergoing the normal processes of decay.

Answer: Goodfellas

Robert De Niro was born in 1943 in New York City, USA. Many of his roles were playing gangsters, and his character in "Goodfellas" was no different; the movie was based on "Wiseguy", a non-fiction book by crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi about Mafia gangster Henry Hill, whom Ray Liotta played in the movie. The movie won many other awards as well as De Niro's Best Actor; for example, Joe Pesci won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2006, De Niro received Italian citizenship, something that angered many Italians who felt he had dishonored them by playing so many Italian or Italian-American Mafia members. However, he has starred in various other genres of movies, such as comedies including "Analyze This" (1999) and "Meet The Parents" (2000), and he had the main role in "Hide and Seek" (2005), which is a horror-thriller.

Answer: Yes

Helen Keller's mother read about a deafblind girl, Laura Bridgman, who had been successfully educated, and through other contacts, including inventor Alexander Graham Bell, she and her husband got in touch with Perkins Institute for the Blind, where Anne Sullivan had been educated. Anne was visually impaired by an eye disease called trachoma, and became Helen's companion, patiently teaching her words for various objects throughout her childhood; at the time, in 1886, Anne was 20 years old, and Helen six.

They remained together until Anne died in 1936, with Helen lovingly holding her hand. Helen herself died in 1968, having written books, given many speeches and fought for women's rights, among other things. She was an advocate for disabled people, particularly the blind.

Answer: Joe Jackson

It is not known to what extent "Shoeless Joe" Jackson was actually involved in the Black Sox Scandal, although much evidence suggests that he was not guilty. He spent much of his later life insisting his innocence. At the time, he tried on multiple occasions to refuse the bribes from the other players, and also tried to expose the conspiracy to the team owner. Furthermore, he attended none of the meetings of the conspirators. During the trial, he was unable to afford a lawyer, and was represented by the team's attorney, who persuaded him to sign a waiver granting immunity prosecution even though Jackson was illiterate.

The attorney also reportedly got him drunk on whiskey to elicit his confession. The eight players were banned from organized baseball for life by the Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Cincinnati Reds won the best-of-nine series 5-3.