Who Said? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Harry Truman

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) became the 33rd President of the United States, following the death of Franklin Roosevelt, on April 12, 1945. As you can see from the quote, "The buck stops here", he took responsibility for the actions of his administration. Among those actions were: The Marshall Plan, founding NATO, the use of nuclear weapons during World War II and the Truman Doctrine. Btw, the "S" in his middle name did not stand for anything.

Answer: Greta Garbo

Movie actress Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1930 films "Romance" and "Anna Christie", for "Camille" (1936), and for "Ninotchka" (1938). In 1999, the American Film Institute named her fifth on the list of the "greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema".

She 'retired' at 35 and led a private life, shunning the spotlight, as illustrated by her comment "I want to be alone".

Answer: George Santayana

Spanish philosopher and writer George Santayana (1863-1952) was born with the name Jorge Augustin Nicolas Ruiz de Santayana y Borras. He was raised in the United States, graduated from Harvard in 1886, and later taught at the University until 1912. It was in his 1905 book, "The Life of Reason: Reason in the Common Sense", that he wrote the oft-quoted aphorism "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

Answer: Martin Luther King, Jr.

In "Letter from Birmingham Jail" on April 16, 1963, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) said "We are not makers of history. We are made by history." Just four months later, on August 28th, the minister made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the "March on Washington". His words and his philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience helped change the course of history.

Answer: Neville Chamberlain

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) uttered the phrase "Peace for our time" on September 30, 1938. Hoping to avoid war, the day before, he (along with France and Italy) signed the Munich Pact ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Germany, to appease Hitler. Less than one year later, on September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, and War II had begun.

There is a lesson here!

Answer: Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain (1835-1910), was one of America's greatest writers and humorists. He was born in Florida, Missouri (yes, Missouri has a Florida too). His novels and short stories continue to be popular to this day, with memorable characters like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

In 1897, following an illness suffered by the author, an American newspaper actually printed Twain's obituary, to which he replied "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated".

Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was the longest-serving First Lady in the history of the United States, serving from 1933 to 1945. She took the role of the president's wife to new heights, becoming the first delegate to the United Nations. Even after her husband's death in April 1945, Mrs. Roosevelt continued her activism and her fight for civil rights, women's rights and human rights.

She encouraged people to stretch their thinking and to live up to their potential, as evidenced by her statement, "You must do the things you think you cannot do".

Answer: Isaac Newton

The brilliant English mathematician, astronomer and physicist, Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was, undoubtedly, one of the greatest scientists of all time. Besides formulating the laws of gravity and of motion, he was able to explain the trajectories of comets and tides.

Although his discoveries about the earth and the solar system were world-changing, his humility was just as great, i.e., "If I have seen father than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants".

Answer: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a theoretical physicist born in Ulm, Germany. One of the world's most brilliant minds, he received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his discovery of the 'photoelectric effect'. However, prior to that, in 1905 he developed the theory of relativity.

When Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein remained in the United States. He alerted President Roosevelt to the dangers of a 'new bomb' being created, and warned "I know not with what weapons WW III will be fought, but WW IV will be fought with sticks and stones".

Answer: Kellyanne Conway

On January 22, 2017, Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, first uttered the famous phrase "alternative facts". During a "Meet the Press" interview, Ms Conway was defending White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's 'false statement' about the size of the attendance at the inauguration of Donald Trump.

When questioned about Mr. Spicer's obvious lie, she said he was giving "alternative facts". She later defended her comment by defining 'alternative facts' as "additional facts and alternative information".