This Is Monumental Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boll weevil

The citizens of Enterprise erected this unusual monument in 1919 to express their appreciation to the insect for destruction of the cotton crops in the early twentieth century, which forced their farmers to diversify their crops. The monument, which is the only known one to a pest, consists of a woman in a white gown holding a black boll weevil above her head. If you want to know more, check out http://www.eprisenow.com/bollweevil.html.

Answer: Rio de Janeiro

This 38-meter tall statue, of Christ standing with his arms outstretched, is familiar from many postcard views of the city of Rio (Brazil). Erected in 1931, the statue underwent major restorations in 2000. You can ride a train up Corcovado Mountain and visit the statue up close.

Answer: Shakespeare

The Bard was born on April 23, 1564, and died on April 23, 1616. He was both baptized and buried in the Holy Trinity Church. Shakespeare had a placard put on his grave, which reads: "Good frend, for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased here Blese be they man y spares thes stones And curst be he y moves my bones." Every year, near the anniversary of his birth and death, a large pageant parades through the town to lay flowers at Shakespeare's grave.

Answer: the Magyar conquest of Hungary

The memorial, built from 1891-1898, marks the one-thousandth anniversary of Hungary's statehood. "Each part of the monument represents an important section of Hungarian history. In the focus of the semicircular colonnade stands the bronze statue of Archangel Gabriel on a 36-meter-high column, which was awarded a Grand Prix at the Paris World Exposition in 1900. According to an old Hungarian legend, the angel appeared in the dreams of first Hungarian king Saint Stephen and gave him the holy crown.

The equestrian statues of the seven legendary chieftains who lead migrating Hungarians to the Carpathian Basin stand on the pedestal of the obelisk. The two circular peristyles present statues of famous kings, emperors and personalities of Hungarian history."- budapestinfo.com

Answer: de Soto

Spaniard Hernando de Soto procured a permit for colonization of the Gulf Coast of what is now Florida. He and 600 of his closest friends are believed to have put ashore at this spot on May 30, 1539. They continued on through Arkansas to Oklahoma, "discovering" the Mississippi River in 1541. De Soto died in 1542, but his associates continued on to the area of the Panuco River, in modern-day Mexico.

Answer: Australia

The statue, located in the Western Australia town of Kalgoorlie, is dedicated to the man who discovered the Kalgoorlie Gold Fields in 1892, thereby starting the Australian Gold Rush. Paddy Hannan was born in Ireland in 1840 and emigrated to Australia in 1863 to work as a miner. He's buried in Melbourne.

Answer: the Cenotaph

The Cenotaph, a war memorial designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1920, is located in London. The Luxor Obelisk, found in the Place de la Concorde, was presented to Charles X by the viceroy of Egypt in 1829; the Column of July, in the Place de la Bastille, marks the site of the former prison; and the Pantheon holds the tombs of such famous Frenchmen as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Zola.

Answer: Rotterdam

The Dutch city of Rotterdam was mostly destroyed by German bombers in 1940, and had to be almost completely rebuilt. Osip Zadkine's sculpture "Monument for the Destroyed City", which portrays an anguished man raising his arms in self-defense, stands as testimony to this.

Answer: Winston Churchill

This was the site where Churchill made his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College on March 5, 1946. This was the speech in which he coined the term "Iron Curtain" in referring to the imaginary barrier that separated the Soviet bloc nations from the rest of the world. On the quadrangle at the college there is a memorial entitled "Break Through", made in part of a piece of the fallen Berlin Wall acquired by Churchill's granddaughter.

Answer: Dublin

This 205-foot tall granite obelisk, located in Dublin's Phoenix Park, was erected in 1817 by the citizens of Dublin at the cost of 20,000 pounds. The memorial is dedicated to the Irish-born Duke of Wellington, who, on March 21, 1829, fought a bloodless duel with the Earl of Winchelsea over the Duke's support for Catholic emancipation.

Answer: Warsaw

The statue named "Syrenka Warszawska" on the bank of the river Vistula (Wisla) is the symbol of the city of Warsaw (Warszawa), the capital of Poland. No one is quite sure why the mermaid was chosen as the symbol of this colorful city (which is not at the seaside), but historians date the presence of some sort of sea creature holding a sword being used as the city's logo as far back as 1609.

Answer: Volunteer firefighters

This 210-foot tall tower on Telegraph Hill provides sweeping panoramas of the city and the bay. It was built in 1933 with funds left to the city by Lillie Hitchcock Coit as a memorial to the volunteer firefighters who had served the city during the 1906 earthquake. The inside of the structure features murals depicting scenes of life in the 1930s.

Answer: Vienna

The Vienna Plague Column, or Pestsaule, was erected by the townspeople in 1679 to celebrate the end of the epidemic plague. The original column was wooden, but was replaced in 1693 by the current one.

Answer: John F. Kennedy

Sure enough, perched along the Thames in Runnymede is this memorial to an American President. Unveiled in 1965, the monument reads: "This acre of English ground was given to the United States of America by the people of Britain in memorial of John F. Kennedy, President of the United States 1961-1963 died by an assassin's hand 22 November 1963." Nearby is a memorial to the men and women of the Commonwealth Air Force killed during World War II. And, oh yea- something else happened here- on June 15, 1215, the historic Magna Carta was signed by King John I, marking the first step towards democracy.

Answer: Dijon

This historic city in the Burgundy region of France was the capital of Burgundy from 1000 AD until 1477, when it was incorporated into the French kingdom. Along with the tombs, which are located in the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, you can see Notre Dame, a 13th- century Gothic church, and St. Bénigne church, with its tenth-century circular crypt.