Forgotten Figures Trivia Quiz

Answer: Stan Lee

Most of us have heard of Stan Lee, creator of the Marvel superhero Spider-Man. Stan Lee made a cameo appearance in "The Amazing Spider-Man", and was featured in an episode of "The Big Bang Theory".

Unless you are a comic book aficionado, you may not have heard of Jack Kirby (1917-1994). Jack was a comic book artist responsible for creating Captain America and other superheroes for both "Marvel" and "DC Comics". Among his co-creations with Lee, Kirby gave us the Fantastic Four, X-Men and the Hulk.

Answer: Paul Revere

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere". Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized the silversmith in his poem "Paul Revere's Ride", which was about how Revere alerted the colonists that the British were coming on April 18, 1775.

Guess what? Paul was not alone on that fateful night. Also alerting colonial minutemen of the impending attack was another patriot named William Dawes. He took the land route that night to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that they were in danger of being arrested.

Answer: Francis Crick

Francis Crick and James Watson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. They discovered the structure of the DNA molecule in 1952, and received the prestigious award, along with Maurice Wilkins.

And then there was molecular biologist Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958). For a time, Franklin worked with Wilkins who initially treated her as a lab assistant, rather than a peer. In fact, it was with the help of Franklin's crystallographic DNA portraits that Watson was able to publish his ground-breaking findings.

Answer: Steve Jobs

Who has never heard of Apple Computer co-founder, chairman and CEO, Steve Jobs? His legacy as an inventor, industrial designer and businessman will live on in perpetuity, as will that of his co-founder, Steve Wozniak.

But there was a third founder named Ronald Gerald Wayne. In perhaps one of the greatest examples of forgotten figures, Wayne sold his shares in Apple on
April 12, 1976, less than two weeks after the company's founding. He sold his share for $800 (and later received $1,500 to relinquish all claims). In the late 2010s, his 10% stake would have been worth over $75 billion.

Answer: John Lennon

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Star, and even former drummer Pete Best will all go down in history as part of one of the world's most famous bands, i.e., The Beatles.

Then there was Stuart Sutcliffe (1940-1962), the original bass guitarist for the Beatles. Sutcliffe had previously attended Liverpool College of Art, and left the band to become a painter. In fact, it is said that he and Lennon came up with the name "Beetles", after Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets.

Answer: Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks has been called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement" for that fateful day on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, when she refused to give up her seat on the bus. Her action (or inaction) led to the Montgomery bus boycott and the modern Civil Rights movement.

However, almost exactly nine months earlier, on March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin was arrested for the same act on a Montgomery bus. So how come we've never heard of this pioneering young Black woman? Apparently, the NAACP did not think a reportedly pregnant teenager who was 'mouthy' and 'emotional' was a good symbol for the cause.

Answer: Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, has been honored with all kinds of awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, highways named for him, and his uniform number, '42', retired.

I guess being second does not demand the same acknowledgement. Larry Doby (1923-2003) was the second Black player in MLB, and the first in the American League. Just three months after Robinson joined the National League Brooklyn Dodgers, Doby joined the Cleveland Indians. He finally was selected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (by the Hall's Veterans Committee) in 1998.

Answer: Alexander Graham Bell

We all know that Scottish scientist and inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, patented the first telephone. On March 7, 1876 the US Patent Office issued a patent for "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal and other sounds telegraphically ...".

Elisha Gray was also experimenting with 'acoustic telegraphy' and filed a "caveat" with the US Patent Office on February 14, 1876. Bell has been accused of using Gray's water transmitter design and stealing the telephone, but Bell became world renowned, while Gray continued inventing, albeit inconspicuously.

Answer: Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale is given credit as the founder of modern nursing. She trained and managed nurses during the Crimean War, tended to wounded soldiers at night, and became "The Lady with the Lamp".

At the same time, during the Crimean War, Jamaican businesswoman Mary Jane Seacole (1805-1881) set up a 'British Hotel' behind enemy lines which provided food and lodging for the sick. With her knowledge of herbal medicine, she assisted soldiers wounded on the battlefield. In 1991, 100 years after her death, she was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit.

Answer: Michael Sam

Homosexuality has been treated as a crime, a sin, an evil and a shame. It was only during the late 20th century that some societies began to view this as an acceptable life style. The sports world has often lagged behind, so when Michael Sam "came out", in 2014, as the first publicly gay player to be drafted in the National Football League, it was big news.

Years before, in 1975, Dave Kopay became one of the first professional athletes to "come out" as gay. Of course, that was after his career as a player in the National Football League was over, and his admission went unheralded.