Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (116 page)

JULY 14

1531
F
EARING THAT SHE’LL NEVER
be able to give him a son, Henry VIII separates from Catherine of Aragon, abandoning her at Windsor Castle on the pretext of leaving for a hunting trip. One down, five to go.

ALL I NEED IS THE HEIR THAT I BREED

Which of Henry VIII’s six wives…

1.
May never have slept with him

2.
Was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I

3.
Is buried beside him

4.
Doesn’t share her first name with any of the other five

5.
Was the daughter of Columbus’s patrons, Ferdinand and Isabella

6.
Died of cancer

7.
Was Anne Boleyn’s cousin

8.
Was German

9.
Was married four times herself

10.
Is rumored to have had six fingers on her left hand

1957
W
ITH BOTH MEN
in the legal doghouse due to tax troubles, Abbott and Costello split up amicably. They even agree to joint custody of Stinky.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

A quiz on other historic splits.

1.
What movie was split into two parts,
Death Proof
and
Planet Terror,
for overseas release?

2.
What rival faction split from the Bolsheviks at the Communist Party Congress of 1903?

3.
Name either of the two U.S. states that can split their presidential electoral vote by congressional district.

4.
The first atomic bomb test split an atom of what fissionable element?

5.
What two pins are left standing in bowling’s hardest split to pick up?

6.
What kind of animal was Snorky, the only one of the Banana Splits who didn’t talk?

7.
What split up into Gondwanaland and Laurasia?

8.
Who split up with the 2001 Oscar host in 1997 and with the 2007 Oscar host in 2000?

9.
What Omaha company has the New York Stock Exchange’s highest-priced stock, as it never allows stock splits?

10.
What band’s 2005 split led to the creation of Plus-44 and Angels and Airwaves?

JULY 15

971
T
HE BODY OF A
Winchester bishop named Swithin is moved indoors for his canonization, leading—so the legend goes—to a torrential rainstorm. According to tradition, if it rains in Britain on Saint Swithin’s Day, it will continue to rain for forty days straight.

HIT THE SHOWERS

Into every question, a little rain must fall.

1.
What supermodel plays the bride in Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” video?

2.
According to Dustin Hoffman in
Rain Man,
what’s the only airline that has never had a crash?

3.
What two Top Ten Creedence Clearwater Revival hits ask about the rain?

4.
Parts of what Chilean desert have gone four hundred years without rainfall?

5.
What baseball team has only ever had one home rainout, on June 15, 1976?

6.
What actor blogs at “Schrute-Space” at NBC.com?

7.
The Arabic word for “season” gave us what name for South Asia’s rainy season?

8.
Whose halftime set at Super Bowl XLI was, appropriately enough, per formed during a downpour?

9.
Gene Kelly sings “Singin’ in the Rain” over the end credits of what 1971 film?

10.
What precedes “The rain fell in torrents” as the first line of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel
Paul Clifford
?

1792
T
ODAY IS THE DEADLINE
for a contest to design the U.S. Capitol, still called the “Congress House.” None of the submissions sparks George Washington’s interest, so he chooses a late-arriving design from an amateur architect named William Thornton instead.

UNDA THE ROTUNDA

What U.S. state is represented by these figures in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall?

Easy

1.
George Washington and Robert E. Lee

2.
Stephen Austin and Sam Houston

3.
Father Damien and Kamehameha I

4.
Philo T. Farnsworth and Brigham Young

Harder

1.
Will Rogers and Sequoyah

2.
Jefferson Davis and James Zachariah George

3.
John Stark and Daniel Webster

4.
Andrew Jackson and John Sevier

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Oliver Morton and Lew Wallace

2.
Robert Fulton and John Muhlenberg

3.
Patrick McCarran and Sarah Winnemucca

4.
Jeanette Rankin and Charles Marion Russell

1978
C
OMICS-PAGE NEWCOMER
Garfield eats his very first lasagna. Heh heh, lasagna. Classic. And he hates Mondays!

GREED, FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD, IS GOOD

Get your fill of questions on Garfield-style gluttony.

1.
What animal, a U.S. state symbol, is sometimes also called the “glutton”?

2.
What “wafer-thin” food makes the morbidly obese Mr. Creosote explode in
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
?

3.
Who popularized the “turducken,” by offering one to the winner of Thanksgiving Day NFL games?

4.
In 2005, what product reintroduced its catchphrase “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”?

5.
What restaurant has hosted the famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island every Fourth of July since 1916?