Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (84 page)

MAY 23

1928
M
ICKEY
M
OUSE SPEAKS
for the first time in
The Karnival Kid.
Walt Disney himself provides the voice for that fateful first line: “Hot dogs, hot dogs!”

CARRYING A TOON

Who provided the original voice for these animated characters?

Easy

1.
Buzz Lightyear

2.
Marge Simpson

3.
Daffy Duck

4.
Aladdin’s Genie

5.
Shrek

Harder

1.
Stewie Griffin

2.
The Iron Giant

3.
Hank (
King of the
) Hill

4.
The Lion King (as an adult)

5.
Mr. Magoo

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Inspector Gadget

2.
SpongeBob SquarePants

3.
Garfield

4.
Winnie-the-Pooh

5.
Yogi Bear

1974
K
EN
J
ENNINGS, OF
J
EOPARDY
!
streak fame, is born in Washington, while Ray Stevens’s novelty hit “The Streak,” appropriately enough, sits atop the
Billboard
charts.

IRON HORSES

Answer these questions about
much
more impressive streaks.

1.
Who had a 2,495-game winning streak ended by the New Jersey Reds on January 5, 1971?

2.
What author wrote America’s bestselling novel every year from 1993 to 2000, with a
different
novel every year?

3.
Pitchers for what major league baseball team have owned the record for “most consecutive scoreless innings” since 1962?

4.
What Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men collaboration topped the

Hot 100 chart for a record sixteen weeks in 1995?

5.
What’s the only name ever used by four British kings in a row?

6.
After his famous hitting streak ended, Joe DiMaggio said he’d been one game away from an endorsement by what company?

7.
What William Hurt movie is the box-office Nancy Zerg that ended
Titanic
’s fifteen-week earnings streak?

8.
Who began forty-five straight lines of his poem
Howl
with the word “who”?

9.
What did the Federal Reserve System do a record seventeen consecutive times between 2004 and 2006?

10.
What event was won by the same team the first twenty-five times it was held, from 1851 to 1983?

11.
What’s the only TV show to top the Nielsen ratings five seasons in a row, from 1972 to 1976?

12.
Whose thirty-year-old record did Roger Federer break in 2007 with 161 straight weeks atop the men’s tennis rankings?

13.
In 2004, what replaced
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
as the longest-running sitcom in American history?

14.
What NFL quarterback shattered Ron Jaworski’s old record for most consecutive starts?

15.
Who has won more Senate elections—nine straight—than any other politician in history?

MAY 24

1626
P
ETER
M
INUIT “BUYS
” the island of Manhattan from the local Canarsie tribe (who don’t even live there) for 60 guilders’—about $24—worth of cloth and buttons.

INDIGENOUS INDIGNATION

1.
What legendary chief’s death on December 15, 1890, led directly to the famous massacre at Wounded Knee?

2.
What U.S. state has the slogan “Native America” on its license plates?

3.
What great Onondaga orator persuaded five Indian nations to form the Iroquois Confederacy?

4.
According to General Philip Sheridan’s famous quote, “The only good Indians I ever saw were” what?

5.
What Wampanoag chief saved the Plymouth colony from starvation and attended their 1621 harvest festival—the “first Thanksgiving”?

1941
B
RITISH ACTOR
E
SMOND
K
NIGHT
is left totally blind by a German shell during the Battle of Denmark Strait. Remarkably, he returns to acting, convincingly playing the (sighted) Nazi villain in 1943’s
The Silver Fleet.
Despite never regaining most of his sight, Knight will go on to have a forty-five-year screen acting career.

MUST-SEES

Who played the blind character in each of these movies?

Easy

1.
Wait Until Dark

2.
Ray

3.
Scent of a Woman

4.
Daredevil

5.
The Miracle Worker

Harder

1.
Red Dragon

2.
Tommy

3.
Jennifer Eight

4.
The Village

5.
Butterflies Are Free

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Sneakers

2.
City Lights

3.
A Patch of Blue

4.
The Hotel New Hampshire

5.
Places in the Heart

1969
A
T A
S
AN
D
IEGO CONCERT
, backed by the original members of the Experience for one of the last times, Jimi Hendrix playfully misquotes his famously misheard lyric to “Purple Haze” by clearly singing, “’Scuse me while I kiss that guy.”

MONDEGREEN DAY

From what songs do these other famous “mondegreens”—commonly misunderstood lyrics—come? (Bonus points for naming the artist and correct lyric.)

1.
“There’s a bathroom on the right.”

2.
“We split up on the docks at night.”

3.
“The girl with colitis goes by.”

4.
“Last night I dreamt of some bagels.”

5.
“Wrapped up like a douche”

6.
“Hold me closer, Tony Danza”

7.
“Here we are now, in containers”

8.
“Round John Virgin, mother and child”

9.
“You and me and Leslie”

10.
“Lock the cashbox”