People Honored with New York Ticker-tape Parades Quiz

Answer: Van Cliburn

Van Cliburn received a standing ovation in Moscow lasting eight minutes. Since this took place at the height of the Cold War, the judges felt compelled to ask Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev if it was OK to give the first prize to an American. Khrushchev reportedly replied, "Is he the best? Then give him the prize!"

Answer: Chuck Yeager

Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947 and in addition had many other flying accomplishments, for which he received numerous awards, but no ticker-tape parade. Lindbergh's parade was in 1927 after his solo flight across the Atlantic, and Earhart had hers in 1932 after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Byrd was honored with three ticker-tape parades during this same era, in recognition of his many aviation feats.

Answer: Albert Einstein

All the men listed were winners of the Nobel Prize in physics, but the others were not nearly as well known as Einstein, who had become a world-wide celebrity by 1921.

Answer: Ben Hogan

Ben Hogan won the first two major golf championships in 1953, the Masters and the U.S. Open, and then won the British Open as well. He could not compete in the fourth major, the PGA Championship, since it overlapped with the British Open. Part of Hogan's appeal was that he had suffered a horrific car accident in February of 1949, after which the doctors feared he might never walk again, let alone play golf. Hogan overcame this adversity with his tremendous perseverance, and was back on the PGA Tour the following year. Hogan remained the only golfer to win three major championships in a year until Tiger Woods accomplished the feat in the year 2000.

Answer: Douglas MacArthur

MacArthur was extremely popular in the United states, and returned to a hero's welcome. Truman, by contrast, became very unpopular after his firing of MacArthur, sinking to an approval rating of only 22 percent, the lowest ever recorded for a sitting president.

The other choices were three of Truman's top advisers, all of whom agreed that MacArthur needed to be removed from command. Marshall was Secretary of Defense, Bradley was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Acheson was Secretary of State.

Answer: astronauts

Astronauts received six ticker-tape parades in the '60s, beginning with John Glenn in 1962, following the mission in which he became the first American to orbit the earth, and ending in 1969 with Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts who had been to the moon.

Answer: Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson received her parade after winning at Wimbledon in 1957. She was the first African-American tennis star, and only the second African-American to receive a ticker-tape parade, the first having been Jesse Owens in 1936. Elder and Sifford were groundbreaking African-American golfers, while Ashe's tennis stardom came in the '60s and '70s, not the '50s.

Answer: Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt had his parade in June of 1910. After his return to the U.S., he grew increasingly disenchanted with his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, and ran as a third-party candidate in the 1912 election, beating Taft but losing to Woodrow Wilson.

Answer: West Berlin

Brandt was mayor of West Berlin from 1957 to 1966, a time of great Cold War tensions including the building of the Berlin Wall. Brandt stayed active in German politics for many years, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his work in easing East-West tensions. He was also named "Time" Magazine's Man of the Year for 1970.

Answer: True

The New York Yankees had parades for winning the World Series in 2000 and 2009, and the New York Giants had one for their 2008 super bowl win.