'Time' Magazine Reports: The 1920s Quiz

Answer: Smoking in public

According to 'Time' "The Freeman's League is agitating for the repeal of the law. The Mormon Church is in favor of the anti-tobacco legislation." Anti-smoking laws were passed by 15 U.S. states between 1890 and 1920.

Answer: Filibuster

Senate rules allow a minority (even a single senator) to stop the body from voting on a bill which would otherwise pass by a majority vote. In 1923, Kansas Senator Charles Curtis optimistically predicted changes would be made to limit the power of the minority. If anything, modifications over the years have made it even easier for a small number of senators to keep the Senate from functioning by majority vote.

Answer: Lenin

Ulyanov took 'Lenin' as his nom de guerre in 1901. The power struggle following his death ended with the USSR in the hands of Stalin who quickly eliminated all opposition to his rule. In 1999 'Time' named Lenin one of its 100 most important people of the 20th century.

Answer: Teaching of evolution

Biology teacher John Scopes was fined $100 for teaching evolution to high school biology classes in defiance of Tennessee's Butler Act. His conviction was overturned on appeal. The Butler Act remained on the books until 1967 and the US Supreme Court ruled such laws unconstitutional the following year. 'Time' gave the trial and its lead-up lengthy coverage throughout the year, devoting lots of space to coverage of the celebrity attorneys, William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense.

Answer: Bobby Jones

Jones defeated Walter Hagan by two strokes. A couple of weeks later he won the US Open, becoming the first player to win what was then known as 'The Double'. In his career he won seven combined US and British Open championships.

Answer: Holland Tunnel

Named for Clifford Holland who designed it, the Holland connects Jersey City and Manhattan with two separate, parallel tubes each holding two traffic lanes. Holland's biggest challenge was ventilating the tunnel to remove the poisonous exhaust gasses of the more than 30 million vehicles traversing it every year.

Answer: Great Mississippi Flood

It began to rain in the mid-Mississippi region in the summer of 1926 and it kept raining for almost a year. The Mississippi and its tributaries rose to record levels throughout the winter of 1926 and 1927 and only began to subside in August of 1927. In August, 'Time' reported that damage continued in "the greatest national calamity since the Civil War-a crawling sheet of water that left few dry spots between southern Illinois and the Gulf of Mexico."

On April 15, 1927 the Mississippi broke through levees in 115 locations. At its peak, the flood submerged 27,000 square miles. 14 percent of the state of Arkansas was under water at one time.

Answer: Exploration of the North Pole

After reaching the North Pole and circling several times to take various scientific readings, the 'Italia' turned to return to its base on Spitzbergen Island in Norway. Facing strong headwinds, the ship's controls began icing and the ship lost altitude until if finally hit the ice.

The crash separated the control gondola from the envelope which began rising and disappeared into the storm with six crew members. They were never seen again. The survivors in the gondola radioed an SOS triggering an international rescue effort which eventually located nine survivors.

Answer: The Broadway Melody

'Time's reviewer called 'The Broadway Melody' "a tedious musical comedy embedded in a routine story like a fly in celluloid". 'Time' didn't note that it was the first feature length musical of the 'talkie' era.

1929 saw Hollywood deeply into the transition from silent films to 'talkies'. 'In Old Arizona' was the first full length movie with sound filmed outdoors. 'On With the Show' was the first color feature with sound.

Answer: Black

'Time' grandly compared great capitalists moving to stop the market's bleeding to gallant soldiers protecting the nation. Over the next few weeks these efforts sometimes had positive temporary results but ultimately failed. The Dow fell from its high point of over 350 points in mid-1929 to less than 50 in 1932. The market wouldn't reach 1929 levels again until the early 1950s.