Initial Reaction Trivia Quiz

Answer: Taliaferro

Booker Taliaferro was born in 1856. When he started school, he took his step-father's - Washington Ferguson - given name as his new surname, but retained the initial letter of his original surname. One of the greatest black Americans of his generation, Booker T. Washington rose from poverty to become the founding Principal of the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. Washington's mentor was General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, head of the Hampton Institute in Virginia - where Washington had taken himself as a sixteen-year-old. Armstrong's educational philosophy centred around hard work, self discipline and self reliance - characteristics which Washington carried with him to Tuskegee.

Answer: Edmund

Dewey (1902-1971) was a prominent Prosecuting Attorney, who served as Governor of New York between 1943 and 1955. Standing as the Republican Presidential nominee against Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dewey's chances of success were dismissed because of FDR's popularity - and so it proved. Four years later, Dewey was pitted against Harry S. Truman, regarded by many pundits as a stop-gap President.

The Chicago Tribune was so confident of Truman's demise that its post-election headline blared out: "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN". To the great surprise of most - especially the editor of the Chicago Tribune - Dewey lost.

He did achieve "fame" on one other front. Al Taliaferro, creator of the 'Huey, Dewey and Louie' comic strip, named Dewey after him!

Answer: Fahrid

F. Murray Abraham (born 24 October 1939, is best known for his Oscar winning role as composer Antonio Salieri in "Amadeus". But he also displayed his talents to good effect in other films, such as the ambitious District Attorney standing for Mayor of New York City in "The Bonfire of the Vanities", and as a convict in "An Innocent Man".

Answer: Nothing; it was added to give his name greater effect.

Tom T. Hall was born in a log cabin in Tickridge, near Olive Hill, Kentucky. He was one of eleven children born into a financially struggling family. His success as a singer/song-writer stems from the fact that much of his material was gleaned from personal experience.

For example "Harper Valley PTA", recorded by Jeannie C. Riley, was based on an incident in Hall's childhood where he recalled that: "I wrote about a lady who criticised a teacher for spanking her child to get at her". Favourite songs of Tom T. Hall include ("Old Dogs, Children) and Watermelon Wine", "I Love", and "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died".

He added the "T" in 1968, when he signed with the Mercury label.

Answer: Nothing

Although it has always been assumed that the 'S' in Ulysses 'S' Grant was an abbreviation for his mother's maiden surname of Simpson, according to the Ulysses S. Grant website, this is not the case. Grant had a distinguished career in the Civil War, and later served two terms as US President.

Answer: Antonia Susan

Dame Antonia Susan Byatt (born 24 August 1936) won the prestigious Booker Prize (as it was then called) in 1990 for "Possession: A Romance" Novelist, short story writer and critic, A.S. Byatt is the half-sister of fellow English author Margaret Drabble.

Answer: Charles Edwin Woodrow

C.E.W. Bean (1879-1968) was Australia's official War Correspondent during World War I. His account of Australia's involvement was recorded in "The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918". Bean was also instrumental in the establishment of the Australian War Museum in Canberra, which opened on Armistice Day 1941.

Answer: Burrhus Frederic

Skinner's theory of operant conditioning centred around the idea that an individual's behaviour changes in response to stimuli from their environment. His theory held that where a behavioural goal was set, any steps taken in the direction of that goal should rewarded with verbal praise or some other form of positive re-inforcement which would encourage further progress along the desired path.

Answer: John Peter Rhys

JPR Williams (b 1949) played 55 times for Wales between 1969 and 1981. His team won the Five Nations Championship Grand Slam - competed for then by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France - in 1971, 1976 and 1978. An all-round sportsman, JPR won the British Junior Tennis Championship in 1966.

Answer: Sydenstricker

Born Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker, Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) spent the first forty years of her life in China where her parents were missionaries. When she married John Lossing Buck, she adopted the initial letter of her maiden name. Pearl S. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932, and in 1938 became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.