Score: 30% (6 out of 20)
Oops! Looks like you got some of your stars spangled
Sometimes the greatest of patriots come up short. Like Ben Franklin, who failed arithmetic twice (true!). Or the New England Patriots, who sometimes fail to win the Super Bowl (also
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Question 1
Can't read his, can't read his, no, you can't read his poker face.
Which president paid for his first Congressional campaign with poker winnings?
Your answer:
Calvin Coolidge
Correct answer:
Richard Nixon
Correct!
Question 2
The journalist doth protest too much: despite his denials, The Washington Post says this man coined the term "red and blue states" during the 2000 presidential election.
Your answer:
Tim Russert ("I'm sure I wasn't the first to come up with it," Russert later said. "But I will take credit for the white board.")
Correct!
Question 3
Babe Ruth, Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball, the Flintstones, and Santa Claus all appeared in TV ads for what product?
Your answer:
Cigarettes
Correct!
Question 4
Although their names sound like an amusing sitcom pairing, these bombs devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. What were they called?
Your answer:
Fat Man and Little Boy (The skinny uranium bomb, Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The three tubby plutonium bombs that comprised Fat Man devastated Nagasaki three days later.)
Question 5
In 1955, how many calories were in the largest size of soda available at McDonald's?
Your answer:
50 calories
Correct answer:
90 calories (By 1975, the largest soda available had 250 calories. And today, it's 310 calories for a "large" non-diet soft drink.)
Question 6
Which astronaut missed the postmark deadline for his astronaut application by nearly a week?
Your answer:
John Glenn
Correct answer:
Neil Armstrong (A friend of his who worked at the Manned Spacecraft Center dropped Armstrong's late application into the pile before anyone was the wiser.)
Question 7
Abraham Lincoln: President, Emancipator, Lawyer, Badass.
When one of his supporters was being harassed by a heckler at a rally in 1832, how did Lincoln react?
Your answer:
Tackled him and smeared his face in the mud
Correct answer:
Made like a bouncer and literally threw him out (Lincoln literally grabbed the guy by his shirt collar and the seat of his pants and tossed him right out of the rally.)
Question 8
Underneath The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, you'll find an exact replica of what?
Your answer:
Independence Hall
Correct answer:
The House and Senate Chambers (It was built so Congress would have a place to gather and be safe in the event of a nuclear bomb (or other catastrophic event). When it was exposed in the mid '90s, it was converted into storage and a tourist attraction.)
Question 9
By the end of WWII, the U.S. armed forces were distributing 50 million what per month?
Your answer:
Cans of Coca-Cola
Correct answer:
Condoms (By the war's end, the armed forces were distributing a remarkable 50 million condoms per month along with a short "educational" film popularizing the slogan, "Put it on before you put it in.")
Question 10
What country was Ronald Reagan referring to when he said, "We could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it, and still be home by Christmas"?
Your answer:
Cuba
Correct answer:
North Vietnam (The whole quote, given to the Fresno Bee in 1965, goes like this: "It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas.")
Question 11
What invention was referred to as "The Speedy Weenie" while still in developmental stages?
Your answer:
The George Foreman grill
Correct answer:
The microwave
Question 12
Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies fans received a surprise in the middle of the game on July 1, 1941. It was the first ever television commercial, which advertised what product?
Your answer:
Goblin Meat Pudding
Correct answer:
Bulova watches
Question 13
Proving that ridiculous amounts of ill-gotten money is no substitute for a good antibiotic, what venereal disease did Al Capone die of at the age of 48?
Your answer:
Gonorrhea
Correct answer:
Syphilis
Question 14
Spain has gotten a bad rap all of these years - the 1918 Spanish flu didn't originate there at all. Where did it come from?
Your answer:
California
Correct answer:
Kansas (Despite its Midwestern origins, the scourge became known as the "Spanish Flu" because Spain—a neutral country—hadn't initiated war time censorship, meaning that it was the only place the press could report the actual death toll (260,000).)
Correct!
Question 15
If Manhattan were purchased for the same amount of money today that it was purchased for in 1626, you could pay for it by cutting what out of your budget?
Your answer:
Eight gallons of milk (The entire island of Manhattan was purchased from uncomprehending natives for the legendary price of $24.)
Correct!
Question 16
In the ultimate white-collar crime, how much money is Boss Tweed believed to have stolen from New York City?
Your answer:
$200 million (That's the equivalent of $8 billion today.)
Question 17
Fashion kills. Famed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wife Frances could have avoided an untimely and tragic death if she hadn't been so concerned with the fashion of the day. How did she die?
Your answer:
She passed out from a too-tight corset and died from a head wound.
Correct answer:
Her hoop skirt caught on fire. (Frances' huge hoop skirt caught fire from a dropped match, according to her daughter. Longfellow tried to smother the flames, but the steel frame under her crinolines made it impossible. Longfellow never recovered from the tragedy.)
Correct!
Question 18
Many people regard Henry Ford as an inspiration, but the American entrepreneur may not have wanted everyone's praise. Which despot said, "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration."?
Your answer:
Hitler
Question 19
A progressive pirate who employed two women on his ship, Calico Jack Rackham was the first pirate to exhibit what particularly pirate-y item?
Your answer:
A pet parrot
Correct answer:
The skull and crossbones flag (Calico Jack flew the first Jolly Roger, a white skull with two crossed cutlass swords on a black background.)
Question 20
Who knew presidential assasination ran in the family? One infamous assassin had a father who also threatened to kill a U.S. president. Who was it?
Your answer:
Lee Harvey Oswald
Correct answer:
John Wilkes Booth (In 1835, Junius Booth threatened to kill Andrew Jackson in a letter. So it seems his son was just a crazy chip off an already unstable block
30% !!!