Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (102 page)

JUNE 22

1808
A
FTER FIGHTING OVER A WOMAN,
M. de Grandpré and M. le Pique agree to settle the matter like gentlemen…in hot-air balloons, above Paris. Le Pique and his second are killed when de Grandpré’s shot puts a hole in their balloon.

RAMPANT INFLATION

1.
Whose famous balloon says “State Fair Omaha” on the outside?

2.
What billionaire piloted the first hot-air balloon ever to cross the Atlantic?

3.
What feline was the first-ever character balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?

4.
What color balloons were added to Lucky Charms in 1989?

5.
Who produced a sixty-inch balloon for the “bubble dance” she first performed at the 1934 World’s Fair?

1882
W
ILLIAM
M
ATTHIAS
S
CHOLL
—still twenty-two years from being foot care guru “Dr. Scholl”—is born in Chicago.

THE AGONY OF DE FEET

1.
What’s the more common name for the foot ailment also called verrucas?

2.
The cartoon
Happy Feet
is dedicated to what man, who plays an Australian elephant seal in the film?

3.
What two Olympic team sports are played barefoot? (These are genuine
team
sports, with multiple teammates and both teams in the game at the same time.)

4.
Achilles’ vulnerable heel was the result of his being dipped, as an infant, in what mythical river?

5.
From left to right, what are the
una corda, sostenuto,
and damper?

1975
“I’
M
N
OT IN
L
OVE”
hits number one in the UK, becoming the biggest hit ever for British band 10cc. Producer Jonathan King always claimed the band’s name came to him in a dream, despite the popular rumor that it’s meant to refer to a prodigious volume of, er, precious bodily fluids.

COLLECTED CONUNDRA

In honor of the band, can you name these 10 “C.C.”s?

1.
What’s another name for a “numismatist”?

2.
In a famous line from
The Third Man,
what Bavarian invention does Harry Lime mistakenly attribute to five hundred years of peace in Switzerland?

3.
Hearing of whose death led Dorothy Parker to quip, “How can they tell?”

4.
When I-580 is finally completed, it will mean that what city is no longer one of the five U.S. state capitals not served by the interstate highway system?

5.
What’s the largest land bird in North America?

6.
In 1999, at age 13, who became the youngest solo artist ever to have a record go platinum?

7.
Which Kurt Vonnegut novel is named for the game that physicist Felix Hoenikker was playing when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima?

8.
What usually has cream in its “New England” version and tomatoes in its “Manhattan” version?

9.
What did presidential candidate Estes Kefauver ill-advisedly wear on the cover of the March 24, 1952, issue of
Time
magazine?

10.
Unless you’re a marsupial, what band of white fibers in your cerebrum connects your left brain with your right brain?

JUNE 23

1894
P
IERRE DE
C
OUBERTIN
convenes the congress in Paris that begins the modern Olympic movement. However, since the first IOC constitution specified that the president should represent the Games’ host country, de Coubertin was
not
the first IOC president. Instead, a Greek businessman named Demetrius Vikelas was elected.

I’M IN CHARGE HERE!

What office or position was first held by…

Easy

1.
David Ben-Gurion

2.
Steve Allen

3.
Tom Landry

4.
Caesar Augustus

5.
John Adams

Harder

1.
Kenesaw Mountain Landis

2.
Trygve Lie

3.
James Forrestal

4.
John Dryden

5.
John A. McDonald

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
George Clinton

2.
Douglas Fairbanks

3.
Muhammad Naguib

4.
Margaret Gorman

5.
Margaret Farrar

1917
W
HEN
R
ED
S
OX PITCHER
Babe Ruth slugs an umpire and is ejected with nobody out in the first, Ernie Shore is tossed into the game with almost no warm-up. Ruth’s only base runner is caught stealing, and Shore retires the next twenty-six Washington Senators, for one of the oddest no-hitters in baseball history.

PITCHER PERFECT

1.
Who made Baseball Hall of Fame history by marrying a
Basketball
Hall of Famer, Ann Meyers, in 1986?

2.
What pitcher lent his name to UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) reconstruction?

3.
Since 1976, what product has sponsored the annual award to baseball’s best relief pitcher?

4.
In 1928, for the A’s, who became the only pitcher ever to throw two immaculate innings (nine pitches, three strikeouts) in the same season?

5.
What pitcher, named for one president, was portrayed by another onscreen?

1960
T
HE
FDA
APPROVES
“the Pill” for contraceptive use in the United States. Not every nation is so quick to hop on the birth control bandwagon—Japan won’t approve the Pill until 1999!

INCONCEIVABLE

1.
What family-planning pioneer coined the phrase “birth control” in 1914?

2.
What brand of contraceptive did Elaine Benes hoard on
Seinfeld
?

3.
What town in southwestern France is home, appropriately enough, to a museum of birth control devices?

4.
What “mocktail” can be mixed from cranberry and grapefruit juice and peach nectar?

5.
Who is killed by God in Genesis 38:10 for using coitus interruptus with his wife, Tamar?