Here is the next installment of more retro trivia facts from the 1950’s. Lets see if you can improve on your score from the 1940’s quiz. As always the answers will be listed below. Have fun!
How man presidents were elected in the 1950’s?
Name the pope elected in 1958.
Who did George Jorgensen become?
Name the first atomic submarine.
What lamp reached it’s height of popularity in the 1950’s?
What British king died in 1952?
The Ford Motor Company has never lived down the failure of what car, introduced in the 50’s?
Name the political group that was established in 1950 by H.N. Arrowsmith, Jr,
Established in 1953, NASA stands for what?
What Russian word, popularized in the late 1950’s , means “fellow wayfarer”?
BONUS Question
Where did the unoccupied Soviet spacecraft Lunik journey?
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Answers
One, John XXIII, Christine Jorgensen, The Nautilus, Pole Lamp, King George VI, The Edsel, The American Nazi Party, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Sputnik, BONUS- To the Moon,
Are you loving this GD cold weather and snow as much as I am. Trapped in my house patiently waiting for the oil delivery to arrive so I can shell out 400 more dollars to keep my water lines from freezing. Even my man-cave is suffering. No matter what I do it remains quite chilly and making typing this post a real chore. Here is a little sample of obscure Art related mish/mosh and now I can return upstairs to the warm rooms. Enjoy . . . .
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Before he became an artist Vincent van Gogh worked as an evangelist in Belgium.
American Gothic, the famous painting of a couple with a pitchfork, was done by Grant Wood in 1930. The couple that posed for the painting were his dentist and his sister.
The actual name of the famous painter El Greco was Domenikos Theotokopoulos.
Painter Paul Gauguin was once a stockbroker.
American painter Norman Rockwell became the art director of Boy’s Life magazine while he was still a teenager.
The National Gallery of Art opened in Washington DC on March 17, 1941.
Charles M. Shultz’s comic strip Peanuts debuted in October, 1950.
The deep red sunset seen in Norwegian Edward Munch’s The Scream is believed to reflect the intense sunsets seen throughout the world following the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s fresco, The Last Supper, is located in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.
I’ve always been a huge fan of westerns especially those starring John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. The western genre has also been exported to the entire planet making it possible to see many fans wearing boots and cowboy hats even in Japan. We’re in the final days leading up to the holiday and what better way to relax from all of the Christmas insanity, than to take a short mental trip to the Old West by way of limericks. These should be considered “PG”. Enjoy . . . Partner!
I love reading odd facts about damn near anything. For years I religiously read the Darwin Awards and while they offer stories on weird ways to die, they are at times humorous as hell. People might take offense to that but I really don’t care because funny is still funny regardless of the circumstances. I recently stumbled upon three short stories on death that actually became a part of history. They’re not all that funny but they are definitely interesting. Let’s get started.
On September 14, 1899, Henry Bliss stepped down from a streetcar at West 74th and Central Park West in New York City. As he turned to help a female passenger down the stairs, he was struck by a passing cab, making the 68-year-old man the first pedestrian ever killed by an automobile in the United States.
Five years after their historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers took their new plane, the Wright Flyer, on a cross-country tour to prove it could safely carry passengers. The third stop was at Fort Myers, Virginia, on September 17, 1908. As a crowd of 2000 cheered, Orville Wright and his passenger, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge of the US Army Signal Corps, lifted off into the sky. Then the propeller snapped in two and the Wright Flyer nosedived 150 feet to the ground. Selfridge was killed instantly; Wright suffered multiple hip and leg fractures that plagued him with chronic pain for the rest of his life. This was the first documented death on an airplane.
Here’s another oldie but goodie that occurred during the September 15, 1833 at the launch of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England. It was attended by the Duke of Wellington and William Huskisson, a member of Parliament. Ignoring the engineers warning to remain on the train, Huskisson joined the other passengers and disembarked to gawk at the engines lined up on the parallel tracks. He stepped onto an empty track just as an engine called the Rocket barreled into the station. Huskisson fell beneath the wheels of the locomotive and lost his leg and died a few minutes later. He was unaware that he had made history as the first person ever killed by a train.
My father, a former USN sailor, absolutely loved Bermuda. His ship made numerous stops there during the war and he told me on many occasions how he wished he could live there. I’ve never been lucky enough to visit Bermuda but it certainly looks like a wonderful place. Here’s a short historical story you might enjoy.
Fact: Bermuda has a robust history of pirating.
Seven supply ships sent out for Virginia in June 1609. It was the maiden voyage of the London Companies flagship Sea Venture, the first British merchant vessel designed to transport passengers. Battered for days by a hurricane, the fleet was scattered, and construction flaws caused the Sea Venture to leak badly. Spotting land, company Adm. Sir George Somers deliberately steered the ship onto the reefs, enabling his crew and passengers to escape. Stranded on a desert island, the survivors built two boats and finally reached Jamestown nine months later.
Based on that shipwreck, England laid claim to Bermuda, which was incorporated into the London Company’s charter. And a later account by Sea Venture survivor William Strachey reached England and became the inspiration for William Shakespeare’s final play, the Tempest.
Fact: Rainwater captured from the roofs of its buildings is Bermuda’s only source of fresh water.
A poem of Bermuda:
wings catch the wind’s plea, ancient calls across the miles, new lands greet the sun.
I’m feeling the need to post another quiz. In recent weeks I’ve posted quizzes from pop culture in the 1960’s and 1970’s and the age of the reader almost always determined their average score. Apparently looking back isn’t very popular these days with our younger generations. Todays attempt at reawakening the past will include questions of Science facts from the 1970’s. The answers will be posted below.
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THE CONCORDE
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EVERYONE LUVS SCIENCE
__________ was one of two Soviet cosmonauts who took part in the Apollo-Soyuz mission.
How fast could the Concorde jets fly?
What year did Amtrak begin service?
By 1972, __________ percentage of American homes had color TV’s?
What year was smallpox eradicated?
The first Apple Computer available on the market was the __________.
Amtrak immediately cut the number of passenger train routes from ___________ to __________.
In what country was the last reported naturally occurring case of smallpox?
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and __________ are the founders of Apple.
The Apollo-Soyuz used mission allowed the Soviets/Russians to build the __________.
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THE MIR
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Answers
Alexi Neonov or Valeri Kubasov, Mach 2.02 or 1330 mph, 1971, 50%, 1977, Apple I, 366 to 184, Somalia, Ronald Wayne, the Mir space station.
It’s time for a short quiz to challenge all of you sports fanatics on sports other than the big three, NFL, NBA, and MLB. These questions are extremely random but I still found them interesting. Maybe you will as well. As always the answers will be listed below.
1. What card game gave us the term bilk?
2. What popular sport did Joe Sobek invent at the Greenwich, Connecticut, YMCA in 1950?
3. How many world records did swimmer Mark Spitz set when he won seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics?
4. In cross-country bike racing, what the initials BMX represent?
5. Who was the first Olympic gold medalist to win a professional world boxing title?
SUPER POLO
6. In the very first Boston Marathon, 15 runners competed. How many finished?
7. What professional ice hockey star didn’t hang up his skates until he was 52?
8. What was a fitting name of the first miniature golf course in the United States?
9. What popular sport was known in ancient Germany as Heidenwerfen?
10. In what sport is a stimpmeter used, and what does it measure?
AUSSIE HORSE RACING
Answers
Cribbage, Racquetball, 7, Bicycle Moto X, Floyd Patterson, 10, Gordy Howe, The Tom Thumb Golf Course, Bowling, Green Speed in Golf.
I love weird. Always have and always will. That being said here are a few samples of unusual facts you may not have heard before. Like I always say, THE WEIRDER THE BETTER.
Killer whales occasionally will eat a deer that’s not paying attention while getting a drink.
Approximately 80% of all individual animals on the earth are nematodes.
For every human on the earth, there are approximately 1,000,000 ants.
Bananas are technically berries. Strawberries and raspberries are not.
The average weight of a cumulus cloud is 1.1 million pounds.
Monogamous animals include beavers, wolves, and swans.
Algae and plankton produce more oxygen than trees.
It would take over one million mosquitos to completely drain a human being of blood.
The average 200-pound human carries between two and six pounds of bacteria.
Female koala bears have two vaginas.
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A Fav
Buzz Aldrin claims to be the first man to pee on the moon.
I know there are millions of Disney fans in this country and maybe not as many they’d like due to recent political choices made by their management. My better-half surprised me with an article dated July 1993 containing a Disney World trivia quiz. Please don’t email me to tell me that some of the answers aren’t accurate because this retro quiz contains information that’s thirty-two years old. Here are ten questions for those true Disney lovers out there. As always, the answers will be posted below.
Mickey’s Starland opened in 1988 with a different name. What was the name and why?
How many countries are included in World Showcase? Name them in order around the lagoon.
What is the name of the shipwrecked boat atop Mount Mayday at Typhon lagoon?
What is the name of the first hotel ever constructed at Walt Disney World?
The Empress Lillie at the Disney Village Marketplace is named after what lucky lady?
What is the name of the largest water slide at Typhon Lagoon?
What two colonial cities inspired the design of The Hall of Presidents in the Magic Kingdom?
What is the hat size of the Mickey Mouse ears atop the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park’s landmark, the Eiffel Tower?
The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s-MGM Studios Theme Park is narrated by two famous personalities? Who are they?
What Disney World resort is home to Doubloon Lagoon, a themed swimming pool with a serpent?
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Answers
Mickey’s Birthdayland (his 60th), 11- Mexico-Norway-China-Germany-Italy-USA-Japan-Morocco-France-England-Canada, The Miss Tilly, The Contemporary, Walt’s wife Lillian, Humunga Kowagunga, Philadelphia & Boston, 342 1/2, Robin Williams & Walter Cronkite, Magic Journeys.
To say I’m pleased about the current situation in our country is the biggest understatement of my life. I’m not going to list all of the wonderful things I’ve been seeing and hearing because it would only get me inundated by hateful trolls of the liberal persuasion. This is a country that leads and has always been a source of “firsts”. It has always been the “first” to initiate programs and to do many things that the rest of the world just loves to endlessly talk about. Here’s what a little bit of my research found out about some other “firsts” here in the good old U.S. of A.
The world’s “first” underwater tunnel., the Holland, opened in 1927 in New York under the Hudson River.
Tiros I was the “first” weather satellite launched.
Rev. John Mitchell of Oklahoma, in 1909, organized the “first” troop of the Boy Scouts of America.
In 1958 the “first” commercial jet service, National Airlines, began regular flights between New York and Miami.
In 1995 the Walt Disney company released Toy Story, the “first” film entirely computer-generated.
In 1799 a 12-year-old North Carolina boy discovered gold for the “first” time.
In 1909 Admiral Robert Peary was the “first” man to reach the North Pole.
In 1927 Time magazine’s Man of the Year was Charles Lindbergh for his “first” solo transatlantic flight to Paris.
In 1914 the city of Cleveland installed the “first” traffic light.
The famous four-word phrase, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, was used for the “first” time in York, Pennsylvania in 1777.
Admiral Robert Peary
I could have listed many more ‘firsts”, but I think I’ve made my point. We Americans began as over-achievers when we landed in Plymouth and hopefully it will never stop. Let’s now be the first major power in history to clean up the mess of our Federal Government and begin to once again overachieve.
everyuselessthing.com 