Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (33 page)

FEBRUARY 27

1964
T
HE
I
TALIAN GOVERNMENT
requests international aid to save the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is getting dangerously close to toppling over.

THE TOWER AND THE GLORY

What city is home to these famous towers?

Easy

1.
The Sears Tower

2.
The CN Tower

3.
Trump World Tower

4.
Westminster Clock Tower

Harder

1.
John Hancock Tower

2.
Shukhov Tower

3.
Oriental Pearl Tower

4.
Coit Tower

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Milad Tower

2.
Rose Tower

3.
JP Morgan Chase Tower

4.
Telstra Tower

1973
T
HE
A
MERICAN
I
NDIAN
M
OVEMENT
occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota, beginning a seventy-one-day standoff with authorities.

WOUNDED KNEES

1.
Who delivered the tackle that snapped Joe Theismann’s leg below his right knee on
Monday Night Football
in 1985?

2.
Who lost her world number one ranking to Kim Clijsters in 2003 when she missed two months of tennis while recuperating from knee surgery?

3.
What Vikings QB became a victim of the “Madden curse” with a career-threatening knee injury in 2002?

4.
Because it can be caused by too much kneeling, what’s the more common name for prepatellar bursitis?

5.
What NBA star made an ill-fated trip to Eagle, Colorado, in 2003 for knee surgery?

1974
P
EOPLE
MAGAZINE DEBUTS.
The first cover promises interviews with tabloid faves like Richard Petty, Lee Harvey Oswald’s widow, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (!).

UP WITH PEOPLE

Who had hits singing about these kinds of people?

Easy

1.
Shiny Happy

2.
Everyday

3.
Short

4.
Ordinary

Harder

1.
Common

2.
The Beautiful

3.
24 Hour Party

4.
Rainy Day

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Lonely

2.
Voodoo

3.
Sunset

4.
Happy

FEBRUARY 28

1643
O
NE
R
OGER
S
COTT
is tried in Boston for repeatedly sleeping in church and then striking the poor tithingman who tried to wake him. He is ordered to be “severely whipped” for the lapse.

HOUSES OF THE HOLY

1.
The world’s largest church is the Our Lady of Peace Basilica in Yamoussoukro, what nation’s capital?

2.
How do Ben and Elaine get away from the church at the end of
The Graduate
?

3.
What “Best of My Love” trio started singing in church choirs as the Hutchinson Sunbeams?

4.
In what city is Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr., and his father were pastors?

5.
What Foursquare Church founder vanished mysteriously in Mexico in 1926?

6.
What two characters on the original
Star Trek
have names that are also words for types of churches?

7.
Christchurch is the largest city on what nation’s largest island, South Island?

8.
What movie classic begins at the “1st Methodist Church Kung Du” in German East Africa?

9.
What Thomas Hardy novel takes its quiet title from Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”?

10.
Who is the pipe-smoking figurehead of the Church of the SubGenius?

1983
T
HE FINAL EPISODE
of
M*A*S*H
becomes the highest-rated program in TV history.

GOODBYE, FAREWELL, AND AMEN

1.
Who divorced Neil Simon four years after starring in his film
The
Goodbye
Girl
?

2.
The fiddle-and-guitar folk song “Ashokan
Farewell
” became popular in 1990 when it was used as the theme for what PBS series?

3.
What title snatch of music from a Sir Arthur Sullivan song had “the sound of a great
Amen
”?

4.
What silent character ended the final telecast of
Howdy Doody
by saying, “
Good-bye,
kids”?

5.
Who warned against the “military-industrial complex” in his famous
farewell
address?

6.
On what golf course would you find the three tricky holes called the “
Amen
Corner”?

2002
T
HE FORMER NATIONAL CURRENCIES
of much of Europe cease to be legal tender, thanks to the Euro rollout. If Grandma left behind millions of francs, marks, or pesetas in a hidden stash in the attic, well, you now have a hilarious novelty gift.

YOU’RE NOT CUTE BUT EURO SO PRETTY

What countries feature (or will feature) the following on their 1-euro coin?

Easy

1.
The sacred owl of Athena

2.
King Juan Carlos I

3.
A tree, surrounded by the words “Liberté Egalité Fraternité”

4.
Mozart

Harder

1.
Vitruvian Man

2.
A Cláirseach harp

3.
The “federal eagle”

4.
Albert II (two answers)

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
The Idol of Pomos

2.
The Protestant reformer Primoz Trubar

3.
Two swans flying

4.
His Royal Highness the Grand Duke Henri