Yesterday ... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Louis Washkansky

Sadly, Louis Washkansky's tomorrows were few and he died from pneumonia just 18 days after the operation. The heart he received from car crash victim Denise Darvell was transplanted by Dr Christiaan Barnard and was still going strong at his death. Philip Blaiberg was Barnard's second heart transplant patient and the heart he received on 2 January 1968 served him well for 19 months.

Answer: Christa McAuliffe

Chosen from over 11,000 applicants, Christa McAuliffe took a year's leave of absence from her teaching position and joined the NASA training program. She was scheduled to carry out some experiments and to teach two lessons from space but on 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle "Challenger" exploded 73 seconds after launch with the loss of all seven personnel on board. Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, also on "Challenger" in 1983. Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian, was the first woman in space in 1963 when she piloted "Vostok 6" on a three day mission which involved orbiting Earth 48 times. Eileen Collins became the first female pilot of a Space Shuttle in 1995 when she took "Discovery" to the "Mir" Space Station.

Answer: Boston Molasses Disaster

The little trouble was the collapse of a huge molasses tank. Jell came in for criticism as he had overseen the construction of the tank, which had a capacity of more than two million US gallons (almost nine million litres), but had failed to test it for leaks and ignored the numerous leaks which did appear, even having the tank painted brown to hide them.

His employers, the "Purity Distilling Company" were found liable even though a definite cause for the failure of the tank was never established.

It was speculated that the molasses fermented and caused a build up of carbon dioxide gas which the faulty tank could not withstand. The molasses released by the tank's collapse travelled in a wave up to 15 feet high at speeds estimated at 35 miles per hour, and killed 21 people, injuring at least 150 more.

Answer: Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Moisseiff's design for the bridge was chosen because it was cheaper, mainly because it had shallower supports than the other designs. This meant that the deck lacked rigidity and even during construction, moderate winds produced movement which resulted in the nickname "Galloping Gertie". The footage of the actual collapse was recorded by a local camera shop owner.
Moisseiff never recovered his reputation and died of a heart attack in 1943.
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay, Florida was damaged by a freighter in 1980. Bridge 9340 carried Interstate 35W across the Mississippi in Minneapolis, Minnesota and collapsed in 2007, The Silver Bridge across the Ohio collapsed in 1967.

Answer: Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier

News of the Montgolfiers' demonstration of hot air air balloon flight rapidly spread. In September they sent animals up and the first humans took to the skies in a tethered balloon in October. The first free flight was made a month later over a distance of more than 5 miles (9 km).

The Montgolfiers were unable to maintain their initial advantage against the competition from others, especially the use of gas balloons, and went back to paper-manufacture. Etienne died in 1799. Joseph continued to develop other ideas such as the hydraulic ram, distilling and fruit-drying devices.

He received several honours and died in 1810. The Wrights pioneered powered flight, Albert Santos-Dumont developed the dirigible (a steerable airship) and Louis Bleriot worked on ornithopters, gliders and other aircraft as well as being the first man to fly the English Channel.

Answer: Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards

Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards exploited a loophole in Olympic rules which allowed him to represent Britain at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988 despite having only two years experience and no previous success or participation in international ski jump competitions.

He came last in both the events he entered and his presence led to changes in the rules. Some thought he embodied the Olympic spirit, others that he was an insult to the other athletes but either way he became a celebrity. After Calgary, he did continue with ski jumping for a while but later returned to the building industry.

He was not forgotten in his home country and featured in various television programmes and advertisements in the years after his Olympic appearance. Freddie Flintoff is a cricketer, Kevin Keegan and Ben Burgess, soccer players.

Answer: Beatrix Potter

Her private publication attracted attention and the following year "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" was published by Frederick Warne & Co. Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated more than 20 books in the years before her death in 1943. In later life, she married and became a sheep breeder and fell farmer in the English Lake District, leaving a legacy of 4000 acres of land and farms to the National Trust. Mabel Lucie Attwell and Cicely Mary Barker were contemporary illustrators and Enid Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, including the "Noddy", "Famous Five" and "Secret Seven" stories.

Answer: Go on a spending spree

The words she used were "Spend, spend, spend." And she did. Within four years the money was all gone and nothing lasting to show for it. Her second husband died in a road accident in 1965 and she turned to night club singing and working in a shop. She married again several times, struggled with alcoholism and did not lose the taste for luxury the pools win gave her.

In 1998, her life story was turned into the musical "Spend Spend Spend" which opened at the West Yorkshire Playhouse with Barbara Dickson playing Viv.

Answer: Che Guevara

Alberto Korda's photograph of the Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara became one of the most famous and recognisable images of the latter part of the 20th Century. Korda received no royalties for the image (Castro would not sign the Berne Convention which protected intellectual property) which he gave to an Italian publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, in 1967, asking no payment from a supporter of the revolution.

At the time, Guevara was in Bolivia where he was being hunted down and Feltrinelli gambled on there being a business opportunity if he did not survive. Guevara was duly captured and was executed on 9th October and, within months, Feltrinelli had sold over two million posters of Korda's picture. Alberto Korda was Castro's personal photographer for ten years and then specialised in underwater photography.

His work became popular in his later years. He died in 2001.

Answer: Field Marshal Montgomery's double

From Gibraltar, M.E. Clifton James, who had been born in Australia, went to Algiers where he successfully impersonated Montgomery. His role was short-lived and he returned to the Pay Corps, his contribution to the war largely unacknowledged and forgotten until he told the story in a book in 1954.

This was made into the film "I was Monty's Double" in which Clifton James acted alongside John Mills and Cecil Parker as himself and Monty. He died in 1963.