Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (123 page)

JULY 29

1947
ENIAC,
THE FIRST PROGRAMMABLE
digital computer, is switched on at the army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where it begins eight years of continuous operation.

GET WITH THE PROGRAM!

What popular computer language shares its name with…

1.
The most populous island in the world

2.
The serpent Apollo slew at Delphi

3.
John Travolta’s
second
movie with Samuel L. Jackson

4.
The vitamin formerly known as ascorbic acid

5.
The SI unit of pressure

1998
P
UFF
D
ADDY
A
NNOUNCES
his upcoming fashion line, to be called “Sean John” after the mogul’s two given names.

RHYME AND REASON

Give these answers made up of two rhyming words, like “Sean John.”

1.
Who was introduced to his future partner, Kyle Gass, by actor Tim Robbins?

2.
Who titled his 1989 autobiography
Holy Cow!
?

3.
Which character in
Through the Looking-Glass
is a self-portrait of author Lewis Carroll himself?

4.
The Empire State Building went dark for fifteen minutes to mark the August 2004 death of what actress?

5.
What did Malcolm X describe as “a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic’s cell”?

6.
What famed London street was home to gentlemen’s clubs like the Athenaeum and the Reform Club?

7.
Who were Pete Cochran, Linc Hayes, and Julie Barnes?

8.
What metal band usually depicts a man wearing a Hannibal Lecter mask and a straitjacket on its album covers?

9.
What peace activist was the emcee at Woodstock?

10.
What White Mountains cave complex was one of the last Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan?

11.
What TV title character lived at 485 Mapleton Drive, Mayfield?

12.
What song did U2 introduce by saying, “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back”?

13.
What movie’s title mission is completed using the Five-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique?

14.
What nickname is shared by Charles Russell, Harold Reese, and Paul Reubens?

15.
What massive database of legal documents and news articles sued Toyota for trademark infringement in 1987?

JULY 30

1619
T
HE FIRST ELECTED LEGISLATURE
in the New World meets for the first time when the Virginia House of Burgesses convenes in Jamestown.

ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE

What nations are governed by these legislatures?

Easy

1.
The Diet

2.
The House of Lords

3.
The Knesset

4.
The Bundestag

5.
The Duma

Harder

1.
The States-General

2.
The Althing

3.
The Dáil Éireann

4.
The Rajya Sabha

5.
The Riksdag

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
The Eduskunta

2.
The Great Khural

3.
The Kuvendi

4.
The Storting

5.
The Jatiyo Sangshad

1916
G
ERMAN SABOTEURS SET OFF
bombs on Black Tom Island in New York Harbor. The resulting blasts are felt as far away as Philadelphia and do $100,000 in damage to the Statue of Liberty, popping bolts right out of her right arm. The arm has been closed to tourists ever since.

ARMED AND DANGEROUS

1.
What do you do to put your arms “akimbo”?

2.
What epic poem begins “
Arma virumque cano
” (“Of arms and the man I sing”)?

3.
What does an NFL referee signal by stretching his arms out at his sides with his palms down?

4.
How many arms does a squid have?

5.
How many arms does the U.S. Senate have?

1932
T
HREE-STRIP
T
ECHNICOLOR
debuts in Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony
Flowers and Trees,
which will go on to win the first Oscar for animated shorts.

TINT POLE MOVIES

What color has described these things in movie titles?

Easy

1.
Haze, Noon, Rain

2.
Heat, Chicks, Oleander

3.
Cadillac, Flamingos, Motel

Harder

1.
Bears, State, Streak

2.
Narcissus, Rain, Sunday

3.
Chips, Collar, Thunder

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Fire, Ice, Mansions

2.
Corner, Scorpion, Sorghum

3.
Earth, Sky, Jack