First Heard Where? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Battle of Copenhagen

During the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, Nelson's ships were coming under heavy fire from the large Danish and Norwegian fleet, prompting Admiral Sir Hyde Parker to signal for Nelson to retreat. When informed of the signal by his lieutenant, Nelson allegedly responded by raising his telescope to his injured eye and proclaiming, "I really do not see the signal."

The battle lasted for over three hours with much damage on both sides, until Nelson sent word to Crown Prince Frederick, the Danish commander, requesting a truce, which the Prince accepted. Following negotiations between the two, an armistice was declared and Nelson became commander-in-chief in the Baltic Sea.

Answer: Scotland

15th century Scottish law stated that "If he be not taken red-hand the sheriff cannot proceed against him." as the evidence of blood on one's hands provided the most compelling proof of such a crime and the earliest known example of the phrase is found in the Scottish Acts of Parliament of James I (1432).

Interestingly, there is a legend, but no proof, that the phrase originated in the northern Irish province of Ulster. Myth tells of a boat race in which the first to touch the shore was to become the province's ruler, and an ingenious competitor guaranteed his win by cutting off his hand as the shoreline approached and throwing it to the shore ahead of his rivals. This is the reason for the red hand on the official flag of Ulster.

Answer: Advancement of Learning by Sir Francis Bacon

In Bacon's "Advancement of Learning" (1605), he wrote "Cleanness of body was ever esteemed to proceed from a due reverence to God, to society, and to ourselves." The phrase as we know it today was a favourite of Methodist preacher, John Wesley, who circa 1791 gave a sermon in which he stated, "Let it be observed, that slovenliness is no part of religion; that neither this, nor any text of Scripture, condemns neatness of apparel. Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. "Cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness." The phrase covers much more than personal hygiene, with cleanliness referring to ones moral purity just as as much as ones ablution habits.

Answer: US presidential elections of 1840

The elections of 1840 pitted incumbent President, Martin Van Buren against the Whig pairing of General William Harrison and John Tyler. Harrison, who had fought against Tecumseh's confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe" from this battle, and this was used in what many consider to be the first campaign slogan of 'Tippecanoe and Tyler, too'.

As part of his campaign, he also used Victory Balls, which were not dances as one would expect, but ten-foot diameter globes made of tin and leather, which were pushed from one campaign rally to the next. His supporters were encouraged to attend rallies and to push the ball on to the next town, chanting 'keep the ball rolling'.

Harrison won the presidential election and was inaugurated on March 4, 1841, but died on April 4 the same year, making him president for just 31 days as well, as being the first US president to die in office.

Answer: Cockney Rhyming Slang

Although the urban legend persists that "put your dukes up" is related to The Marquis of Queensbury, there is no evidence to support this, and, of course, he was a marquis, not a duke.

It is Cockney rhyming slang though that brought us this phrase as going back to the 18th century, hands and fingers were referred to as "forks". In rhyming slang, forks became Duke of Yorks, hence dukes were forks, meaning hands. This rhyming slang is also the base for the phrase "fork out", meaning to hand over money.

Answer: Daniel Defoe

Franklin did write the better known phrasing of "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789. English writer, Daniel Defoe, perhaps best remembered for the novel, "Robinson Crusoe" (1719), first wrote such a statement in his book, "The Political History of the Devil" (1726) though when he opined, "Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed."

"The Political History of the Devil" is certainly an interesting read, with many students of literature being of the opinion that Defoe, as a Presbyterian, actually believed the Devil influenced world events and was in league with Europe's Catholic powers.

Answer: False

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" is certainly an old phrase, and is indeed much older than Shakespeare. The first recorded example of the phrase appears in 1175 in "Old English Homilies", where it was written as "Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him self nule drinken? (who can give water to the horse that will not drink of its own accord?).

Other phrases such as, "A friend in need is a friend indeed", also appeared around the same time, but as that initially appeared in 5th century Greece, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink", may well be the oldest English phrase still in use.

Answer: Pheasant

Yeah, "a red rag to a pheasant" doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it? Going back to 1724 though, in Trenchard and Gordon's religious essays, "Cato's Letters", it was stated, "Foxes are trapann'd [trapped] by Traces, Pheasants by a red Rag, and other Birds by a Whistle; and the same is true of Mankind."

By the late 18th century "red rag" had come to mean a person's tongue, and Francis Grose's "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" (1785) gives the example, "Shut your potatoe trap, and give your redrag a holiday." Back to animals, the next animal to be associated with the red rag was the viper as recorded in The Times in March 1809: "Truth to a lawyer was like a red rag to a viper - it extracted his venom."

It wasn't until 1873 that the bull made an appearance, this being in Charlotte Yonge's novel, "Pillars of the House", which included the line, "Jack will do for himself if he tells Wilmet her eyes are violet; it is like a red rag to a bull."

Answer: Harry Truman

Truman was a well known plain speaker with a style that most would not find acceptable today, as shown in "Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman" (1974) by Merle Miller. In the book, which was a series of interviews with Truman, he candidly said, "I didn't fire him [General MacArthur] because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three quarters of them would be in jail."

Truman's famous line "If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen" was one he used before becoming president, and, as early as 1942, a piece in the Idaho newspaper "The Soda Springs Sun" read, "Favorite rejoinder of Senator Harry S. Truman, when a member of his war contracts investigating committee objects to his strenuous pace: 'If you don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen'." He did use the phrase when president too, telling newly appointed staff who had concerns about criticism from their appointments, "I'll stand by you, but if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Answer: True

In Job 19:20, the King James Version of the Bible says, "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." In the earlier Geneva Bible, it is written as, "I have escaped with the skinne of my tethe."