Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (150 page)

SEPTEMBER 6

1952
C
ANADA’S FIRST TELEVISION STATION,
CBFT in Montreal, goes on the air.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE

Name the Canadian regular on these American TV shows.

Easy

1.
Family Ties

2.
Lost

3.
In Living Color

4.
Perry Mason

5.
Primetime Glick

Harder

1.
Alias

2.
Sex and the City

3.
Bonanza

4.
Law & Order

5.
Grey’s Anatomy

Yeah, Good Luck (two answers each)

1.
NewsRadio

2.
Party of Five

3.
Star Trek

4.
St. Elsewhere

5.
Beverly Hills 90210

1953
A
T THE
E
LEVENTH
World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia, sci-fi author Theodore Sturgeon gives a speech in which he formulates the now-famous Sturgeon’s Law: “Ninety percent of everything is crud.”

SOMETHING’S FISHY

Answer these questions about other folks with ichthyological names.

1.
What vocal range did Lance Bass sing in ’N Sync?

2.
What TV host served as Edmund Hillary’s zoologist during his 1960 Yeti-hunting expedition in the Himalayas?

3.
What
Mulholland Drive
actress is titled Countess von Bismarck-Schönhausen?

4.
What Treasury secretary in Lincoln’s cabinet appeared on the $10,000 bill?

5.
What reporter traveled the world accompanied by Captain Archibald Haddock?

6.
What author’s alter ego is a pulp science fiction author named Kilgore Trout?

7.
What explorer discovered the mountain that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write “America the Beautiful”?

8.
What did FCC Chairman Newton Minow famously compare television to, in a 1961 speech?

9.
What four-letter initialism has been added to the Oxford American College Dictionary, thanks to Rachael Ray?

10.
Whose painting
No. 5, 1948
became the world’s most expensive when David Geffen sold it in 2006?

1991
L
ENINGRAD IS RENAMED
St. Petersburg, after almost seven decades with its Communist name. Hey, Ontario had a township named after Stalin until 1986.

ISTANBUL, NOT CONSTANTINOPLE

What’s the current name of the city formerly known as…

Easy

1.
Saigon

2.
New Amsterdam

3.
Edo

4.
Bombay

5.
Peking

Harder

1.
Batavia

2.
Danzig

3.
York

4.
Leopoldville

5.
Christiania

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Salisbury

2.
North Tarrytown, New York

3.
Gorky

4.
Lourenço Marques

5.
Jesselton

SEPTEMBER 7

1775
H
ISTORY’S FIRST SUBMARINE
attack takes place off what is now called Liberty Island, as the American
Turtle
takes on HMS
Eagle.
As the little one-man contraption fails in both its attempts to sink the
Eagle,
this is also history’s first
completely unsuccessful
submarine attack.

TURTLE POWER

1.
Which two of the four artists with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles named for them are famous for sculptures of David?

2.
What kind of nut is traditionally found in “turtle” candy?

3.
What Mike Myers character had a black turtleneck and a monkey named Klaus?

4.
In 1968, whom did the Turtles regale with the vaguely flattering line “You’re my pride and joy, et cetera”?

5.
As a culinary in-joke, what kind of animal’s head does the “Mock Turtle” have in the original illustrations to
Alice in Wonderland
?

6.
What TV show’s character Turtle is based on Mark Wahlberg’s real-life personal assistant, Donkey?

7.
The world’s largest tortoises are natives of what archipelago?

8.
What movie hero’s two pet turtles, Cuff and Link, reappeared for the first time in decades in a 2006 sequel?

9.
Lisp, Delphi, or Logo—what language, often used to educate kids about computer programming, used a graphical cursor called a “turtle”?

10.
What was first called Liquid Plastone when it was invented in 1941 by Ben Hirsch, also the inventor of the chocolate-covered banana?

11.
What are you doing if you are performing spinning floats like the Turtle, the Cricket, or the Jackhammer?

12.
Who created Yertle the Turtle in 1958 as a metaphor for fascism?

13.
Where would you find the turtlelike creatures called Koopa Troopas?

14.
What state’s official state reptile is the diamondback terrapin?

15.
When the Bible says “the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,” what nonreptilian animal is actually meant?

1985
Z
AK
S
TARKEY’S WIFE,
Sarah, gives birth to little Tatia Jayne Starkey, making Ringo Starr the first Beatle grandfather.

GRANDCHILDREN OF MEN

1.
What mystery novelist has a granddaughter named Kinsey, named for her most famous creation?

2.
Which two-time presidential also-ran was the grandson, and namesake, of Grover Cleveland’s second vice president?

3.
What propitious distinction is shared by Perry Como and Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler?

4.
Max Planck, Max Born, or Max Factor—Olivia Newton-John is the granddaughter of what Nobel Prize–winning German physicist?

5.
Who chose his grandson Gary, an attorney, to start accompanying him in TV ads in 1983?