The Shouting End of Life II Trivia Quiz

Answer: drowning

Born in Dublin in 1449, George Plantagenet was the brother of two kings - Edward IV and Richard III. He became the Duke of Clarence in 1461, after his father died, and his brother - Edward - ascended to the throne. In 1469 George married Isabel Neville, and they had four children, two of which survived infancy. Shortly after giving birth to their fourth child, Isabel died, and George was convinced she had been poisoned. Never considered stable, his mental state led him into a plot against his brother, Edward, and George soon found himself imprisoned in the Tower of London.

He was executed in 1478, and according to popular history, his chosen method of execution was to be drowned in a vat of Malmsey wine.

Answer: dancing

The Dancing Plague of 1518 occurred in Strasbourg, France, and lasted for more than a month. Started by a single woman, Frau Troffea, the affliction spread, and within a week she was joined by at least 30 others, and within a month more than 400 citizens were dancing.

As some dropped dead from exhaustion, heart attack or stroke, the local authorities, baffled as to the outbreak's cause, decided to erect a platform for the dancers, and provide music. Around a month passed before the plague ended, with the dancers falling still bit by bit, with no explanation for the cause of the affliction. Similar cases of the frantic dancing affliction have occurred elsewhere, including Germany in the 1300s and Madagascar in 1840s. And, there have been documented instances of mass laughing, crying and fainting events as well.

Answer: Corpus Christi College

Corpus Christi College, officially known as the College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is one of the colleges within the University of Cambridge. In 1667, Elizabeth Spencer and her beau, James Betts, were having tea together in her room.

When her father, the College Master, interrupted them, she hid Betts in a wardrobe - which could only be opened from the outside. Possibly to distract her father, she left the room, and when she returned, Betts had perished. Distraught to the point of madness, Elizabeth committed suicide by jumping off the college's rooftop.

The two, Elizabeth and James, are said to haunt the college's corridors on Christmas Eve. At the time, Master Spencer's wife and Elizabeth were the only women in the college.

Answer: True

Born in 1710, Adolf Frederick reigned as the King of Sweden from 1751 - 1771. During his reign, parliament (Riksdag) was controlling Sweden, with the King more of a symbol or figurehead than a power. After his death in 1771, Frederick's son, Gustav III, took the throne, and began a process to restore absolute rule to the monarchy in 1772.

His success led to the end of Riksdag power, a change which lasted for more than a century. His death occurred on February 12th, at his palace in Stockholm. Following a huge dinner which included lobster, sauerkraut and caviar, and 14 servings of semla - a sweet pastry - in bowls of warm milk, Adolf Frederick died of an apparent stroke.

His final massive meal, however, led him to be known as 'The King Who Ate Himself to Death'.

Answer: British

Captain John Kendrick was a navigator, explorer and privateer from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He worked on a whaling schooner, fought in the French and Indian War and owned and captained his own ships until the American Revolutionary War began. He captained the privateer 'Fanny', the first ship in the Continental Navy. Following the war, Kendrick resumed his whaling and shipping career, and in 1787, he headed an expedition to explore the Pacific Northwest.

He spent the next seven years at sea, exploring and trading between East Asia and the Pacific Northwest.

In 1794, he sailed into the waters of Honolulu, just as a conflict between the Hawaiians broke out. Two British ships were already in the harbor - the Jackal and the Prince Lee Boo.

The next day, after the battle was over, Kendrick's ship fired a thirteen-gun salute. His salute was answered by a salute from the Jackal, which actually included real grapeshot. Captain Kendrick and several of his crew were killed, and ended up buried on Oahu in a grove of palm trees.

Answer: beer

On October 17th, 1814, in the parish of St. Giles, London, England, a beer vat ruptured, and at least seven people died in the resulting flood. The Horse Shoe Brewery, owned by Meux and Company Brewery, was located in a relatively poor area where several families occupied basements, and when a vat holding 135,000 imperial gallons of porter ruptured, the basements were flooded, two buildings were destroyed and a pub was damaged.

When the first vat ruptured, other vats in the brewery were hit by the rush of beer, and collapsed, adding their contents to the flood.

In total, some 323,000 Imperial gallons flooded the neighborhood.

Answer: True

On August 16th, 1870, a French mob exercised their fears, resentment and alcohol-fueled violence by torturing, and finally burning, a young nobleman. In an atmosphere of uncertainty over the war with Prussia, the people of Hautefaye, France, were ready to lash out at anyone, especially a member of the nobility. During a fair, when a local nobleman, Camille de Maillard, came under attack for reporting news on the war, he successfully fled, but his cousin, Alain de Moneys, was not so lucky. For hours the young Alain was tortured, before his body was set alight.

There is some doubt as to whether he was still alive by the time of his burning, but popular legend has him suffering through the burning, and his hot drippings being caught on bits of bread and consumed. The horrific event was not simply dismissed or forgotten.

The twenty-one thought guilty were charged, and among other punishments, four were guillotined in the village square.

Answer: seaplane

A noted American music critic and author, Gustave Kobbe's favorite hobby was sailing. On July 27th, 1918, he was indulging himself in New York's Great South Bay, when a seaplane came in for a landing. Either not seeing him, or unable to correct its path, the seaplane struck Kobbe, killing him immediately.

His literary masterpiece "The Complete Opera Book", was published posthumously in 1919, by Putnam and Sons.

Answer: Boston

The Great Boston Molasses Tragedy occurred in the early afternoon of January 15th, 1919. The weather had been cold for days, but the temperature rose, up from near-zero to the mid-40s on the 15th. In the north end of Boston, at the Purity Distilling Company, crude molasses in a huge vat was fermenting, and the sudden temperature spike possibly accelerated the process.

The cast-iron tank holding two-and-a-half million gallons of crude molasses ruptured, and sent a wall of molasses rushing through the area. Somewhere between eight and fifteen feet in height, and traveling at up to 35 mph, the sweet sticky flood killed 21 people, and injured at least 150 others.

Answer: France

Isadora Duncan was born Angela Isadora Duncan on May 27th, 1877. She was intrigued with dancing at a very young age, and by the time she was six years old she was dancing for money, and teaching other children how to dance. She came to be known as the mother of "modern dance,", founding schools to teach others her philosophy of the natural movements of dance.
Her death occurred on September 14th, 1927, when she departed a gathering of friends in Nice, France. Wearing a long scarf given to her by a friend, she was riding in an Amilcar when her scarf caught in a rear wheel, breaking her neck, and according to some reports, nearly decapitating her.
And, as an interesting tidbit, Zelda Fitzgerald threw herself down a flight of stairs at a party in Paris because her husband, Scott, was talking to Isadora Duncan, and ignoring Zelda.