Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (204 page)

DECEMBER 6

1884
T
HE CAPSTONE IS PLACED
atop the Washington Monument during its dedication ceremony. The pyramidal cap is made of a rare element as precious, at the time, as silver: aluminum!

LANDMARK DECISIONS

1.
Inside what world landmark can you see a plaque bearing the equation “
y
=-127.7 ft ×cosh(
x
/127.7 ft) + 757.7 ft”?

2.
What Indian city is home to the Taj Mahal?

3.
What lies broken at the feet of the Statue of Liberty?

4.
What’s the more common name for the Duomo’s campanile at the Campo dei Miracoli?

5.
What was originally painted Galaxy Gold, Orbital Olive, and Re-entry Red for its 1962 opening?

6.
What did Danish architect Jørn Utzon design to be built on Bennelong Point in 1957?

7.
What landmark’s history did Spinal Tap describe by saying “No one knows who they were or what they were doing”?

8.
What nation is missing from this list? Greece, Greece, Egypt, Egypt, Turkey, Turkey, _____.

9.
In 1969’s
The Love Bug,
Herbie tries to kill himself at what landmark?

10.
For what saint is the famous onion-domed cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square named?

1964
R
UDOLPH THE
R
ED
-N
OSED
R
EINDEER
debuts in glorious stop-motion on NBC. Since then, no TV special has been aired in more consecutive years.

OH CAROL, I’M SO IN LOVE WITH YOU

1.
In what modern-day country is Good King Wenceslas’s feast day a public holiday?

2.
Where should the comma go in “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen”?

3.
What’s the last Christmas carol sung in both
A Charlie Brown Christmas
and
It’s a Wonderful Life
?

4.
On how many of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” are birds given as the new gift?

5.
What does Alvin want for Christmas, according to “The Chipmunk Song”?

6.
In Irving Berlin’s original “White Christmas,” the song is set in what city?

7.
What name is given to the snowman in “Winter Wonderland”?

8.
“Silent Night,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” or “Jingle Bells”—what was the first song ever broadcast to Earth from space?

9.
What jazz singer cowrote “The Christmas Song,” though he didn’t record it until decades later?

10.
“What Child Is This?” is sung to the tune of what old standard?

DECEMBER 7

1905
T
HE FIRST SUCCESSFUL
human organ transplant is performed by Austrian ophthalmologist Eduard Zirm. Laborer Alois Grogar, who was blinded in an accident, gets a new set of corneas.

DOCTOR, MY EYES

1.
What country is led today by London-trained ophthalmologist Bashar al-Assad?

2.
What eye doctor, along with neurologist Bernard Sachs, first discovered a namesake disease among Ashkenazi Jewish patients?

3.
What language was invented by Polish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof?

4.
Who was working as an eye doctor when he unsuccessfully killed off his most famous character in the short story “The Final Problem”?

5.
In what sci-fi movie does Peter Stormare play shady eye doctor Solomon Eddie?

1941
A
N ANONYMOUS CHAPLAIN
(often credited as Howell M. Forgy aboard the USS
New Orleans
) steps into military history with his seven-word Sunday-morning sermon at the Pearl Harbor gun turrets: “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”

MESSAGE IN A BATTLE

Who spoke these famous quotes from American military lore?

Easy

1.
“I have not yet begun to fight.”

2.
“Damn the torpedoes!”

3.
“I shall return.”

Harder

1.
“War is hell.”

2.
“You may fire when ready, Gridley.”

3.
“We have met the enemy and they are ours.”

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
“Nuts!”

2.
“Don’t give up the ship!”

3.
“Lafayette, we are here.”

1963
CBS
TRIES OUT
instant replay during its telecast of the Army-Navy football game. “This is not live!” announcer Lindsey Nelson tells confused viewers. “Ladies and gentlemen, Army has not scored again.”

FOR INSTANTS

How fast can you answer these questions about other “instant” things?

1.
What company produced the first commercial instant camera, in 1947?

2.
What movie features the line “Howard Beale is processed instant God, and right now, it looks like he may just go over bigger than Mary Tyler Moore”?

3.
“Let’s see if they notice!” What brand of instant coffee secretly replaced restaurant coffee in 1980s TV ads?

4.
What Stephen King novel takes its title from the chorus of John Lennon’s “Instant Karma!”?

5.
What does the instant-messaging acronym “A/S/L” request?