America's Second Cities Trivia Quiz

Answer: Riverbanks Zoo

Situated on the Ashley and Cooper rivers on the South Carolina coast, Charleston boasts a number of different sights and attractions. Fort Sumter, where the American Civil War started in 1861, is situated in Charleston Harbor. The South Carolina Aquarium is seated on the shore next to the harbor. Also, Patriots Point, across the harbor in Mount Pleasant, is home to a historic flotilla of retired ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.

The popular Riverbanks Zoo is located on the banks of the Saluda River in Columbia, South Carolina's state capital and most populous city.

Answer: Mountain West Conference

The Mountain West Conference is made up primarily of teams that were previously part of the Western Athletic Conference. Air Force is a member of the conference and has the smallest student population of the nine member schools. Six schools in the conference--Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming--are state-supported schools, while Brigham Young and Texas Christian University are private schools. Colorado's most populous city is Denver, which is also the state capital.

Answer: Hertz

Although well known for being the home of Anheuser-Busch, the famed brewing company, St. Louis's corporate families have included: Monsanto, the company that created AstroTurf; Ralston Purina, a former conglomerate that now exists as several distinct pieces that produce breakfast cereals, pet foods, and batteries; and brokerage firm A.G. Edwards, which merged with Wachovia Securities and became Wells Fargo Advisors as part of the Wells Fargo/Wachovia merger. One of Hertz's chief competitors, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, is based in St. Louis.

Hertz itself, however, is based in New Jersey. St. Louis is Missouri's second most populous city, behind Kansas City.

Answer: True

The Ethel M Botanical Cactus Garden boasts over 300 different species of cacti and succulent plants--those that store water in its leaves, stems, or roots. The garden is watered with wastewater recycled from the adjacent Ethel M Chocolate Factory. Both facilities are owned by Mars Incorporated, makers of Milky Way candy bars and Uncle Ben's-brand rice.

Henderson is southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada's most populous city.

Answer: Warren Burger

Warren Burger succeeded Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the United States in June, 1969, and served until September, 1986. Burger's term included a number of groundbreaking cases, including Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971, school integration), Roe v. Wade (1972, abortion) and Furman v. Georgia (1972, death penalty).

Actress Winona Ryder was born Winona Horowitz in Olmsted County in southeastern Minnesota. Hall-of-Fame pro football coach John Madden was born in Austin, also in southeastern Minnesota. Finally, Hall-of-Fame golfer Patty Berg was born in Minneapolis, the state's largest city, on the opposite side of the Mississippi River from St. Paul.

Answer: Alabama State University

Founded as Lincoln Normal School in 1867, Alabama State University is regarded as America's first state-supported institution specifically for black students. Among the school's notable alumni are comedian Rickey Smiley, civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy, former Chicago mayor Eugene Sawyer, and actress Tangi Miller.

The University of South Alabama is located in Mobile, down Interstate 65 from Montgomery. Alabama A & M is located in Normal, which is near Huntsville. And there is no campus of the University of Alabama in Montgomery. Birmingham, which is a short drive north of Montgomery on I-65, is Alabama's largest city.

Answer: Islam

Cedar Rapids boasts a strong Muslim influence thanks to the immigration of people from Lebanon and Syria in the late 19th century. The National Muslim Cemetery, built on land donated for that purpose in 1948, and the Mother Mosque of America, built in 1934, allowed the followers of Islam who came to that area to worship and to honor those who had died. Cedar Rapids is traditionally second in population to Des Moines, Iowa's capital city.

Answer: True

Most of the city of Aurora lies within Kane County. However, parts of the city also lie in DuPage, Kendall and Will counties. Aurora is known as "The City of Lights" because it was one of the first cities in the United States to install an all-electric street lighting system. Aurora is a suburb of Chicago, the most populous city in Illinois and third most populous city in the United States.

Answer: It hosted the 1973 NCAA Men's Final Four

Opened as the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in 1961, Mellon Arena was built primarily to house the Pittsburgh Civic Light Orchestra, which had previously played its concerts at Pitt Stadium, giving audiences an opportunity to enjoy music under the stars on clear nights and in dryness and warmth when raining. The Penguins moved into the arena in 1967, after the NHL granted Pittsburgh a franchise. The orchestra moved out in 1972. The retractable-roof venue, the first of its kind anywhere, was featured in the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie "Sudden Death", and has hosted numerous concerts and events, including first and second rounds games during the Men's NCAA Tournament in 1997. However, it didn't host the 1973 Final Four. That distinction went to the St. Louis Arena in St. Louis, Missouri.

Pittsburgh is the most populous city in western Pennsylvania, and is number two overall behind Philadelphia.

Answer: Edmonton, Canada

In addition to Edinburgh, Perth and Warsaw, other sister cities to San Diego include Vladivostok, Russia, Yokohama, Japan, and Ankara, Turkey. Edmonton, the capital and second most populous city in Alberta, is a sister city to Nashville, the capital and second most populous city in Tennessee.

San Diego has been one of the ten most populous cities in the United States for years. It is south of California's biggest city, Los Angeles, which is itself the second most-populous city in the country.