People, places, and events from today’s date, March 19th, feature in these questions.
One
On this date, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened. In what decade did this occur?
Two
A writer who had been born in 1917 died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 19 March 2008. His best-known works include the script he wrote with director Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey and his novel of that film. Who is this writer?
Three
This American actor, who was born in West Germany in 1955, earned a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination in 1990 for his role as Emmett Smith in the film In Country. Who is he?
Four
This 20th-century national leader issued his ‘Nero Decree’, ordering that all of the nation’s ‘industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities be destroyed’? Who was he, and what was the country?
Five
American actress Glenn Close, born on 19 March 1947 in Greenwich, Connecticut, received her first Academy Award nomination for her debut film. This was for her role as Jenny Fields in a 1982 film with a five-word title: The World ——. What film?
Born 1980. Actress who links the following roles: Penelope (in 2004), Isolde (2006), Erika (2003 and 2006), Darcy (2014) and Freya (2008). Who is she?
Rose Keegan
Sophia Myles
Lucy Russell
Answer: 2. Sophia Myles.
Sophia Myles, an English actress, who portrayed the following characters in the associated film. Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in Thunderbirds(2004), Isolde in Tristan & Isolde(2006), Darcy in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Erika in Underworld(2003) and Underworld: Evolution (2006), and Freya in Outlander (2008)”
Two
Born 1837, Grover Cleveland, served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Where was he born?
Amherst, New Hampshire
Brighton, New York
Caldwell, New Jersey
Answer: 3. Caldwell, New Jersey.
Stephen Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, was the first Democrat elected after the Civil War and the first president to serve non-consecutive terms. A Bourbon Democrat, he championed political reform, fiscal conservatism and classical liberalism. His presidency was marked by significant legislation like the Interstate Commerce Act and the Dawes Act, as well as challenges like the Panic of 1893 and the Pullman Strike.
Three
Anthem for Doomed Youth was written by a war poet born this day in 1893. Who was he?
Rupert Brook
Wilfred Owen
Siegfried Sassoon
Answer: 2. Wilfred Owen.
Wilfred Owen, an English poet and soldier, expressed anger at war’s cruelty and waste through his poetry. Based on his World War I experiences, his war poetry was about the horrors of trenches and gas warfare. At only 25 years of age, he was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre on 4 November 1918, exactly a week before the war’s end. His best-known works— most of which were published posthumously— are Anthem for Doomed Youth, Dulce et Decorum est, Futility, and Spring Offensive.
Four
Who is Dana Elaine Owens, born 18 March 1970, a musician and actress, better known as?
Lauryn Hill
Missy Elliott
Queen Latifah
Answer: 3. Queen Latifah.
An American musician and actress, Queen Latifah rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album, All Hail the Queen, which blended diverse styles and feminist themes. The name Latifah is Arabic for ‘delicate’ or ‘sensitive’.
Five
Born today in 1869, this British prime minister returned from Germany with a ‘piece of paper’ promising to ‘have brought you back peace — but a peace I hope with honour’. Who was he?
Stanley Baldwin
Neville Chamberlain
Winston Churchill
Answer: 2. Neville Chamberlain.
Prime Minister of the UK from 1937 to 1940 Neville Chamberlain is known for his policy of appeasement towards Hitler’s Germany. He served in various government positions, including Chancellor of the Exchequer, before becoming Prime Minister. Despite signing the Munich Agreement with Hitler in 1938, Chamberlain declared war on Germany less than a year later following the Nazi invasion of Poland.
Born 1980. Actress who links the following roles: Penelope (in 2004), Isolde (2006), Erika (2003 and 2006), Darcy (2014) and Freya (2008). Who is she?
Rose Keegan
Sophia Myles
Lucy Russell
Two
Born 1837, Grover Cleveland, served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Where was he born?
Amherst, New Hampshire
Brighton, New York
Caldwell, New Jersey
Three
Anthem for Doomed Youth was written by a war poet born this day in 1893. Who was he?
Rupert Brook
Wilfred Owen
Siegfried Sassoon
Four
Who is Dana Elaine Owens, born 18 March 1970, a musician and actress, better known as?
Lauryn Hill
Missy Elliott
Queen Latifah
Five
Born today in 1869, this British prime minister returned from Germany with a ‘piece of paper’ promising to ‘have brought you back peace — but a peace I hope with honour’. Who was he?
This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast…
This quote is the opening of Breakfast of Champions, a 1973 novel by a writer born in Indianapolis in 1922. Who is the writer?
Answer: Kurt Vonnegut.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions is a satirical novel critiquing American society through the story of Kilgore Trout and Dwayne Hoover, whose meeting leads to Hoover’s insanity. The novel addresses themes of free will, suicide and race relations.
Two
Following Sauron’s defeat in The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is crowned king. What name does he adopt on his coronation?
Answer: Elessar (aka Elfstone).
After Sauron’s defeat, Aragorn is crowned King Elessar, meaning ‘Elfstone’. This Quenya name was given to him by his grandmother, Galadriel. He marries Arwen at midsummer and becomes the twenty-sixth King of Arnor, the thirty-fifth King of Gondor, and the first High King of the united Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor. His lineage is known as the House of Telcontar, meaning ’Strider’ in Quenya.
Three
Time it was And what a time it was, it was A time of innocence A time of confidences
These are the opening lyrics to a 1968 song that served as the title track for an album. Please name the track/album and the artist?
Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel
The post title Bookends derives from this track and album. Bookends is a concept album exploring a life journey from childhood to old age. Side one marks life stages, while side two includes singles and unused material. Today’s quiz is bookended by questions one and five being about books.
Four
T.E. Lawrence is commonly known by what name?
Answer: Lawrence of Arabia.
T.E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a British Army officer, archaeologist, and writer. He gained fame for his role in the Arab Revolt during World War I and his subsequent work with Emir Faisal. Lawrence published his autobiography, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and later served in the Army and RAF before his death in a motorcycle accident in 1935.
Five
What fish does the fisherman have an epic struggle to catch in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea?
Answer: Marlin.
Ernest Hemingway’s short, heroic novel The Old Man and the Sea, published in 1952 and winning the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, marked his final major work of fiction. The story follows an ageing fisherman’s epic struggle to catch a giant marlin.
Bookends — Post title
See explanation in Three above.
Bookends
Simon and Garfunkel
Time it was And what a time it was, it was A time of innocence A time of confidences
Long ago it must be I have a photograph Preserve your memories They’re all that’s left you — AZ Lyrics
The term ’calf’, when referring to a young whale, is derived from the same root as the word for a young cow, which comes from Old English cealf and Proto-Germanic kalbam. This usage has been extended to marine mammals, where the adults are called bulls and cows, and the young are referred to as calves/calves.
Two
What were the first names of Mason and Dixon, after whom the Mason-Dixon Line is named?
Answer: Charles and Jeremiah.
The Mason-Dixon Line, surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon from 1763 to 1767, initially served to resolve a land dispute between the Penn and Calvert families by marking the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. It later became a symbolic boundary between slave and free states in the United States before the Civil War.
Three
What eight letter word means ‘the study of Chinese language, history, customs, and politics’, and from what does the first three letters of the word ultimately derive?
Answers: Sinology; Qin.
The terms sinology and sinologist were coined around 1838, Sinae, in turn from the GreekSinae, from the ArabicSin—which ultimately derive from Qin, i.e. the Qin dynasty. — Wikipedia ultimately the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 3rd edition 1992): 1686.
The astronomical seasons are based on the position of the Earth in relation to the sun. The equivalent meteorological seasons are also shown. This image is for the northern hemisphere. Image Wikimedia Commons
Four
In the northern hemisphere, what astronomical season ends at the vernal equinox and what three months form the equivalent meteorological season?
Answers: Astronomical winter; December, January and February.
Astronomical winter starts with the Winter Solstice about December 21st in the northern hemisphere and ends with the Vernal Equinox about March 20th. Meteorological winter covers the months of December, January and February.
Five
Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.
The opening words of which English novel, first published in Florence Italy in 1928, are quoted above. What is the novel’s title and who is the author?
Answer: Lady Chatterley’s Lover; D.H. Lawrence.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D. H. Lawrence’s final novel, explores the relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman. The novel, influenced by Lawrence’s life and the story of Lady Ottoline Morrell, faced obscenity trials in the UK and US before becoming a bestseller. It was not published fully and openly in the UK until 1960.
Sailing to Philadelphia – The Post Title
The title refers to Mark Knopfler’s album from 2000, and its title track which was inspired by Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, a novel about Mason and Dixon. The track features American singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Sailing to Philadelphia
Mark Knopfler
I am Jeremiah Dixon I am a Geordie Boy A glass of wine with you, sir And the ladies I’ll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland Is measured up by my own hand It was my fate from birth To make my mark upon the earth…
He calls me Charlie Mason A stargazer am I It seems that I was born To chart the evening sky
They’d cut me out for baking bread But I had other dreams instead This baker’s boy from the west country Would join the Royal Society…
We are sailing to Philadelphia A world away from the coaly Tyne Sailing to Philadelphia To draw the line The Mason-Dixon line
Now you’re a good surveyor, Dixon But I swear you’ll make me mad The West will kill us both You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty How can America be free A Geordie and a baker’s boy In the forest of the Iroquois…
Now hold your head up, Mason See America lies there The morning tide has raised The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun A new morning is begun Another day will make it clear Why your stars should guide us here…
We are sailing to Philadelphia A world away from the coaly Tyne Sailing to Philadelphia To draw the line The Mason-Dixon Line
What were the first names of Mason and Dixon, after whom the Mason-Dixon Line is named?
Three
What eight letter word means ‘the study of Chinese language, history, customs, and politics’, and from what does the first three letters of the word ultimately derive?
Four
In the northern hemisphere, what astronomical season ends at the vernal equinox and what three months form the equivalent meteorological season?
Five
Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.
The opening words of which English novel, first published in Florence Italy in 1928, are quoted above. What is the novel’s title and who is the author?
On this day a proposal was submitted to The European Organization for Nuclear Research for an information management system which would subsequently develop in the World Wide Web.
Who submitted the proposal?
What is The European Organization for Nuclear Research more commonly known as?
Answers.
Tim Berners-Lee
CERN Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 at CERN to facilitate information sharing among scientists. CERN released the web software into the public domain in 1993, enabling its widespread adoption. The acronym CERN relates to the original provisional council which was set up in 1952 — Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research).
Two
Urban II, elected Pope on this day, initiated the Crusades. In which century did he become Pope?
Answer: 11th Century.
Urban II, pope from 1088 to 1099, furthered ecclesiastical reforms, launched the Crusade movement, and strengthened the papacy’s political power.
Three
James Taylor was born on this day in 1948. The singer-songwriter’s breakthrough came in 1970 with the single Fire and Rain, which reached number three in the charts. The following year, he had his first number one hit with You’ve Got a Friend. Who wrote these two songs?
Answers: James Taylor; Carole King.
Fire and Rain by James Taylor, released in 1970, is about his friend’s suicide and his struggles with addiction and fame. You’ve Got a Friend is a 1971 song by Carole King, recorded for her album Tapestry. James Taylor’s version, featuring Joni Mitchell, reached number one in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100.
Four
André Le Nôtre, was born on this day, designed a 2,000-acre (800 ha) formal garden that now forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Which one?
Answer: Palace and Park of Versailles.
The Palace and Park of Versailles, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, served as the residence and seat of power for the French monarchy from Louis XIV to Louis XVI. The site, a masterpiece of French art and architecture, includes the Palace, Trianon châteaux, and gardens, all designed by renowned artists and architects. Despite the loss of its original function during the Revolution, the site’s integrity and authenticity have been preserved through conservation efforts and the reconstruction of interior spaces and furnishings.
Five
An English author who died on this day in 2015 created characters named Cheery Littlebottom, a dwarf and Detritus a troll who are both sergeants in a city’s police force. Who is the author?
Answer: Terry Pratchett.
The Ankh-Morpork City Watch, founded in 1561 UC, evolved from a small, ineffective force to a modern, multi-ethnic police department. Under the leadership of Sam Vimes and Carrot Ironfoundersson, the Watch was revitalised, merging the Day Watch, Night Watch and Palace Guard. The Watch now serves as a powerful deterrent to crime, with a focus on public service and a strong presence in the city. Cheery, the first female dwarf in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, revolutionises dwarfish culture by openly identifying as female. Detritus, a troll, joined the Ankh-Morpork City Watch under Lord Vetinari’s hiring procedures. Despite being initially considered stupid, he became a natural sergeant, aided by a cooling helmet that improved his intelligence. He is known for his destructive crossbow, the Piecemaker, and his overprotective nature, earning him the respect of Commander Vimes.
Down the Rabbit Hole
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice falls into a rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland. Today the phrase ‘down the rabbit hole’ is commonly used to describe endlessly clicking through online links or items. As Collins Dictionary puts it, ‘The internet is a great research tool – but be warned you might end up down a rabbit hole.’
On this day a proposal was submitted to The European Organization for Nuclear Research for an information management system which would subsequently develop in the World Wide Web.
Two
Urban II, elected Pope on this day, initiated the Crusades. In which century did he become Pope?
Three
James Taylor was born on this day in 1948. The singer-songwriter’s breakthrough came in 1970 with the single Fire and Rain, which reached number three in the charts. The following year, he had his first number one hit with You’ve Got a Friend. Who wrote these two songs?
Four
André Le Nôtre, was born on this day, designed a 2,000-acre (800 ha) formal garden that now forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Which one?
Five
An English author who died on this day in 2015 created characters named Cheery Littlebottom, a dwarf and Detritus a troll who are both sergeants in a city’s police force. Who is the author?
