When Hell Freezes Over Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Beatles

This damning assessment came from the Decca Recording Co. when it rejected the Beatles in 1962.

The "Fab Four" went on to sell 2,303,500,000 albums (and counting). During their career they spent 1,278 weeks on the US Billboard singles charts.

Answer: Airplanes

Frenchman Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, was not a fan.

This reflected a common conception among military people in the early years of the 20th century. Even when aircraft were introduced in WW1, it took some time for their full military potential to be recognised.

Answer: The Moon

This is attributed to Dr. Lee DeForest the "father of radio & grandfather of television."

Perhaps he had never read H. G. Wells. As everyone (excluding conspiracy theorists) knows, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans on the moon, landing on July 20, 1969.

Answer: Atomic bomb

This prediction by Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project, is one that many people probably wish had been accurate.

The first test explosion of an atomic bomb took place on July 16, 1945, in the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico.

Answer: iPhone

Reportedly said by Steve Balmer in 2007. He was the boss of Microsoft, rivals to iPhone maker Apple, so I guess he would say that, wouldn't he? Within seven years, Apple had sold more than 590 million iPhones and had passed the 1 billion mark by 2016.

Maybe we should cut Balmer some slack, though, for despite its iconic status and huge initial success, within 10 years of its launch the iPhone was not the market leader. While market share by manufacturer fluctuated regularly, the iPhone was accounting for fewer than 20 per cent of sales.

Answer: Computers

This pithy comment is attributed to Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM in 1943, although there is scant evidence that he actually said it.

What we do know is that IBM did believe that computers were so cumbersome and expensive in the mid-20th century there would be a limited market for them.

Answer: Telephone

This assessment was made in a Western Union internal memo in 1876 shortly after Alexander Graham Bell made what is claimed to be the first ever telephone call.
By the start of the 21st century, there were an estimated 1.1 billion telephone lines in the world. Added to that, there were more cellphones in use than people on the planet.

Answer: The Grand Canyon

This was the conclusion of US Army explorer Lt. Joseph Ives after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

Ives was born in New York City and between 1857 and 1858 commanded an expedition to explore the Colorado River from its mouth. His 1861 "Report Upon the Colorado River of the West" included early maps of the Grand Canyon.

By the early part of the 21st century, the Grand Canyon was attracting more than 4 million visitors a year.

Answer: Television

This was quite a surprising assessment from Lee De Forest, an inventor who did a lot of early work on developing radio technology and also pioneered the technology for adding sound to movie film. It may explain how he came to make, and lose, four fortunes.

Born in Iowa in 1873, De Forest had more than 180 patents to his name. While he did not invent radio telegraphy, he was convinced that he could do better than its pioneers, who included Marconi, and he proved it.

Answer: Talk

'Silents are golden' may well have been the view in 1927 of Harry Warner, one of the co-founders of the eponymous "Warner Bros." movie corporation. With his brothers Albert, Sam and Jack, he pioneered early movie-making in the USA.

In 1925, Sam Warner wanted to start using sound in cinema productions. Harry had reservations and initially only accepted background music to be added. By 1927, Warner Bros. had almost been bankrupted by their rivals and it was with some reluctance that Sam agreed to making the first ever 'talking movie', "The Jazz Singer" (1927).