Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac (137 page)

VIRGIN RECORDS

Whose celebrity celibacy allowed them to accomplish the following feats?

1.
Defeating Rutherford B. Hayes in the 1876 popular vote

2.
Playing in a record 1,192 consecutive NBA games

3.
Becoming Britain’s youngest-ever prime minister

4.
Inventing calculus

5.
Founding the nursing school at London’s St. Thomas’ Hospital

1969
C
HARLES
M
ANSON IS ARRESTED,
along with twenty-five followers, in a police raid at “The Family”’s mountain ranch.

TALL IN THE FAMILY

Match up the first names of the fathers of these famous families.

AUGUST 17

1986
A
YEAR AND A HALF
after losing his left arm in a street-racing accident, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen rejoins the band live for the first time, seated behind a specially customized drum kit at the “Monsters of Rock” festival.

RE-PERCUSSIONS

1.
Queen and Duran Duran both had drummers with what name?

2.
According to a famous
SNL
catchphrase, what’s the only prescription for Christopher Walken’s fever?

3.
Who published his Civil War poetry in
Drum-Taps
?

4.
What cousin of the glockenspiel was named for its ethereal, “heavenly” sound?

5.
On what TV show did Gene Gene the Dancing Machine perform?

6.
Who composed the song “Peace on Earth” to accompany Bing Crosby’s rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy”?

7.
In what Caribbean country did steel drums originate?

8.
The Strokes, the Hives, or the Killers—what band took its name from the fictional band name on the drum in the New Order video “Crystal”?

9.
What drummer died after accompanying Paul McCartney to a screening of
The Buddy Holly Story
?

10.
Who performed an over-the-top spoken-word version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” on his album
The Transformed Man
?

1987
M
ANILA
I
NTERNATIONAL
A
IRPORT
is renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport, after the exiled Filipino leader assassinated there in 1983. Naming an airport after someone who died there? It’s certainly an honor, but…sort of a macabre one, right?

FLIGHT CLUB

What city named its airport after these luminaries?

Easy

1.
John Lennon

2.
Charles de Gaulle

3.
Louis Armstrong

4.
John Foster Dulles

5.
Ayatollah Khomeini

Harder

1.
Leonardo da Vinci

2.
Frédéric Chopin

3.
Jomo Kenyatta

4.
Marco Polo

5.
Benito Juárez

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Lester Pearson

2.
Toussaint Louverture

3.
Ted Stevens

4.
Galileo Galilei

5.
Lech Walesa

1998
B
ILL
C
LINTON
T
ESTIFIES,
for the first time, to having had an “improper physical relationship” with intern Monica Lewinsky.

AFFAIRS OF STATE

Match the chief executives to their reported flings.

AUGUST 18

1785
T
HE
C
OUNTESS DE
L
AMOTTE,
a con artist, is arrested for her part in the notorious scandal called “the affair of the necklace,” which implicated Marie Antoinette herself.

JEWELRY BOX

1.
Who got his signature left-ear piercing in 1986, after interviewee Liza Minnelli encouraged him to do it?

2.
What cartoon character is named for Princess Dala’s diamond in a 1963 film?

3.
What piece of jewelry—which turns out to be fake—does Madame Loisel lose in the title of Guy de Maupassant’s most famous short story?

4.
Tiffany and Co. has a registered trademark on its signature shade of what color?

5.
“Tennis bracelets” are so named because of a 1987 incident involving what athlete?

6.
What film coined the term “cameo appearance” for a brief star turn in a movie?

7.
Who blinded himself with Jocasta’s brooch?

8.
What shape was the nipple shield that Janet Jackson sported during her 2004 Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction”?

9.
Girl with a Pearl Earring
is one of only thirty-five extant works of what Dutch painter?

10.
Who wears the “Pescatorio,” or Ring of the Fisherman?

1868
F
RENCH ASTRONOMER
P
IERRE
J
ANSSEN
discovers helium—not on Earth, which has plenty of the stuff, but on the sun! Scientists scoff at the idea of detecting an element in space before it’s found on Earth, but Janssen’s findings are soon confirmed.

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON

Which element of the periodic table was named for…

Easy

1.
The inventor of dynamite

2.
The Norse god of thunder

3.
A U.S. state

4.
A married couple

5.
The seventh planet from the sun

Harder

1.
The moon

2.
The sun

3.
An Italian

4.
A Titan of Greek myth

5.
The formulator of the periodic table

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Paris

2.
The inventor of the cyclotron

3.
The father of Pelops

4.
A New Zealander

5.
A Scottish village

1961
T
HOUSANDS OF SEABIRDS
suddenly and mysteriously pummel coastal homes in Santa Cruz, California. Alfred Hitchcock requests a local newspaper report of the incident, which will inspire scenes in his upcoming thriller
The Birds.

BIRD IS THE WORD

A major character in these movies uses what bird name as a surname?

Harder

1.
My Favorite Year

2.
Psycho

3.
The Jazz Singer

Yeah, Good Luck

1.
Sexy Beast

2.
Dead End

3.
This Gun for Hire

Easy

1.
To Kill a Mockingbird

2.
Clue

3.
The Silence of the Lambs