Famous Toms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson was born in 1743 and died in 1826, on the fifty year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and on the same day as the second President of the US, John Adams. His Presidency was an extraordinary one, as was the man himself. It included such highlights as the incredibly important Louisiana Purchase and the equally important Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson was President from 1801 to 1809.

Answer: Thomas Aquinas

Born in Aquino (Italy) in 1225, Aquinas passed away in 1274. Surnames were not then common in Europe so a person's "last name" was usually an indication of his or her place of birth. Aquinas was a leading thinker in natural philosophy. This was based on reason and everyday experience, as opposed to spiritual and scriptural revelation.

His great work "Summa Theologica" is one of mankind's classical works of philosophy and theology. Referring back constantly to the great thinkers of the past, it deals with the existence of God, the creation of the world, the nature of man, morality, vice and virtue, the work of Christ - and the end of the world, which was left unfinished. Thank goodness. I was getting a bit nervous there.

Answer: Thomas Edison

In the United States alone, Edison held over 1,000 patents for his many inventions, and 2,332 patents world wide. Among those inventions were an initial efficient means of distributing electricity for everyday domestic use, the carbon microphone, the first commercially available fluoroscope, the stock ticker, the phonograph and many other creations contributing to mass communications.

Rightly or wrongly, Edison has also been credited with inventing the light bulb, when in fact many other earlier inventors designed forms of this. These included Henry Woodward, Matthew Evans and Alessandro Volta. Some of these earlier creations had slight flaws, but others weren't commercially viable. It was Edison who gave the world the first commercially produced, viable model of the humble light bulb. This "Wizard of Menlo Park" has well and truly earned his place in history.

Answer: Thomas More

Sir Thomas More refused to recognise the Protestant Reformation. Even more dire, he opposed Henry's separation from the Catholic church and completely refused to accept the king as Supreme Head of the Church of England. Oh dear. To make matters even worse, he refused to uphold Henry's annulment of marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and subsequently refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as Henry's new queen. That was really asking for it. Thomas was hurled into the Tower of London in 1534 by the furious king, and, in 1535, tried for treason and beheaded.

He went to his death bravely. In 1935, More was canonised by the Catholic church. His feast day is 9 July. Perhaps surprisingly, More was in 1980 also added to the Church of England's list of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church. Now that's one in yer eye, Henry, old boy.

Answer: Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was born in Dorset, England, into a working class background. A bright, intelligent boy, his family's social background meant they lacked the means to provide him with a university education. Instead, he was initially apprenticed to, and became, an architect. After spending some years in London, he grew tired of the class divisions there and returned to Dorset to devote himself to writing, but initially relied on his architectural skills as well to keep himself fed. He married Emma Gifford in 1874 but later became estranged from her. At her death in 1912, he married a second time, to his secretary Florence Dugdale, a woman almost forty years his junior. Remorse over the death of his first wife led him to question traditional religious views and he grew obsessed with the supernatural.

All that aside, his gift for writing has given us such classics as those mentioned above, plus "Under the Greenwood Tree" and "A Pair of Blue Eyes" (drawing on memories of his courtship of his first wife), and that depressing piece of work "Jude the Obscure" which, unfortunately, I had to study at university. This novel, and indeed much of his writing, tended to shock the Victorian public because of his frank discussions of sexuality. Even his then wife Emma was horrified, fearful that people would think the work was autobiographical. The Bishop of Wakefield burnt his copy of the book, and in a later postscript to the work, Hardy wrote "After these (hostile) verdicts from the press, its next misfortune was to be burnt by a bishop - probably in his despair at not being able to burn me".

Answer: Thomas Hobbes

"Leviathan" was published in 1651. Today, most of the western world's political social contract theories expounding on the relationships between individuals and governments spring from this work. Yet Thomas Hobbes (who is known in some works as Thomas Hobbs) was a firm believer in absolutism of ruling sovereigns as well.

In his writings, he managed to marry up this thought, along with the rights of the individual, the view that all political power must be representative of, and based on, the power of the people, and his argument that people are free to do whatever the law does not forbid. What a minefield to pick one's way through. I'm surprised he didn't lose his head, and in fact, he almost did on several occasions, but survived it all and died at the ripe old age of ninety-one.

His last words were said to be, "A great leap in the dark". Was he referring to his great works - or his forthcoming journey?

Answer: Thomas Mann

Mann became a naturalised citizen of the USA in 1944 but moved back to Europe in 1952, and spent the remainder of his life there, dying in Zurich at the age of eighty. Though he married and had six children he struggled with his homosexual inclinations for much of his life.

This is particularly apparent is his 1913 novella, "Death in Venice". It was subsequently made into a film and an opera, and led his old enemy, Alfred Kerr (a renowned German theatre critic and writer), to remark sarcastically that Mann had made "... pederasty acceptable to the educated middle classes." Mann was the most famous of the German writers in exile in 1933-1945.

These were anti-Nazi German writers who had fled the country and published dissident works from abroad.

Answer: Thomas Becket

Poor old Thomas was born circa 1118, on the feast day of Thomas the Apostle, and into the family of a knight of low rank. After an early education in England, he studied canon and civil law in Paris when he was in his early twenties. Owing to his father's financial troubles, he had to leave early to take up a position as clerk in the household of the then Archbishop of Canterbury. His efficiency in this line of work led him to be eventually appointed to the post of Lord Chancellor in the hire of Henry II in 1155.

Following Becket's own appointment to the archbishopric in 1162, a series of conflicts developed between the king and Becket over various matters relating to Becket's role as archbishop and those involving secular court decisions involving clergymen. By 1164, Henry was trying to weaken the link between Rome and English clergymen, but Becket refused to sign the relevant documents. He fled to Europe for several years, relentlessly pursued by Henry, until the Pope intervened and Becket was returned to his uneasy position in England. Another row followed in 1170 where Becket excommunicated several archbishops who had supported Henry in a ceremony involving the young Henry, and from which Becket had been excluded from his traditional role. Henry lost his temper on hearing of the excommunications and those of others in the church who supported Henry, and uttered words damning the rebellious archbishop. These words were misinterpreted by several knights - and you know the rest.

Answer: Thomas Paine

Paine was born in England in 1737 but migrated to the USA in 1774, just in time to have an input into the American Revolution. His most widely known 1776 work was "Common Sense", the all-time best-selling clarion call for independence from Great Britain. Second President of the USA, John Adams, said of this work that without it, "the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain".

Paine then moved to France in 1789 and was one of the major forces behind the French Revolution. He attacked religion and his work on this, "The Age of Reason", promoted reason and freethinking, at the same time as it castigated religion and Christianity. He then assaulted both Napoleon and Washington with his pen, before moving on to property owners, and just about every other established way of life he possibly could, before he moved back to the USA in 1802. He died there in 1809. Because of his attacks on Christianity, no church would carry out his funeral service, and he was planted under a walnut tree on his farm instead. This, it seemed, actually made him a naughty property owner himself. Only six people attended his funeral. Most papers, when Paine passed away, reprinted his obituary from the "New York Citizen" newspaper which stated in part that Paine had "lived long, did some good, and did much harm" (!).

Answer: Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry were created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1940 for the MGM film company's animation division. Gene Deitch took over as chief animator in 1960, and then the baton was handed to Chuck Jones until 1967, when production was halted on the series. Tom and Jerry were re-united with, and re-animated by, Hanna and Barbera in 1975 and the series then continued to be produced by various animators until 2008, when production ceased altogether.

In the early days of Tom and Jerry, they were the closest rival that Walt Disney had for his "Silly Symphonies" series, and tied with that series by winning the Academy Award seven times for Best Animated Short Film. Not only did they appeal to children, however. Young and old adults could also be seen in those old movie theatres of long ago roaring their heads off with laughter at the antics of those two beloved cartoon characters up on the silver screen. Tom, who was originally called Jasper in his first appearance, was a pampered cat in a middle class household. Jerry, a mouse of great intelligence and surprising strength, was the bane of Tom's existence. That was the basic format of the series, with many variations on the theme appearing on screen since. Today, these cartoons can still be seen on television screens throughout the world, still giving delight to millions of people everywhere.