1917 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mexico

The Zimmermann telegram, passed via the German ambassadors in the United States and Mexico, proposed a Mexican alliance with Germany against the United States and offered the prospect of regaining lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The message was intercepted and decoded by British Naval Intelligence and eventually passed on to American authorities.

Its inflammatory contents played an important role in President Wilson's decision to ask Congress to declare war on Germany. War was declared on April 6, 1917.

Answer: Denmark

Danish settlement in the West Indies began on the island of St. Thomas in 1672 and soon expanded to neighboring St. John. St. Croix was purchased from the French in 1733. The United States purchased the islands as a potential naval base during the period of unrestricted German submarine warfare in the months before its entry into World War I. Danish administration of the islands officially ended on March 31, 1917.

Answer: Montana

Rankin (1880-1973) was born in Missoula and attended the University of Montana. A lifelong pacifist, she was the only member of Congress to vote against American entry into World War I. Twenty-four years later, she again was the only member of Congress to vote against the declaration of war against Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Late in her life, she was an activist against the Vietnam War.

Answer: Canada

Vimy Ridge stands as a landmark in the history of Canadian national identity, much as the experience at Gallipoli galvanized Australians and New Zealanders two years earlier. The four divisions comprising the Canadian Corps were joined by the British 5th Infantry Division. Australian troops fought further south in the overall Arras offensive, but not in this particular attack. The United States, having just declared war, was not yet an active participant.

Answer: Zurich, Switzerland

Lenin lived in Switzerland during the early years of World War I. The train passed through Berlin, Stockholm, and Helsinki on the way to Petrograd.

Answer: Brookline

JFK began his political career in Boston, attended Harvard in Cambridge, and vacationed in Hyannisport, but he was born in Brookline.

Answer: Paris

The first contingent of American troops accompanying Pershing landed at Boulogne on June 13th and proceeded to Paris. On July 4th, a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette in Paris, where the words are said to have been spoken. Belleau Wood and Chateau Thierry were the first major actions fought by the American Expeditionary Force the following summer.

Answer: Passchendaele

British hopes for a breakthrough at Ypres turned into a bloody exercise in futility. The offensive gained a few miles of mud before finally being called off in November. Langemarck, Messines,and Wytschaete were also bitterly contested localities in the Ypres sector.

Answer: Simbirsk

Kerensky's father was headmaster of the secondary school attended by Vladimir Illich Ulyanov, who became known to the world as Lenin. During the Soviet era, Simbirsk was called Ulyanovsk in honor of Lenin's family name. Nizhny Novgorod and Tsaritsyn, also on the Volga, have also undergone name changes. Nizhny Novgorod, birthplace of Maxim Gorky, was renamed in honor of this writer before reverting to its original name after the fall of the Soviet Union. Tsaritsyn became Stalingrad in 1925 and was renamed Volgograd in 1961 during Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization campaign. Kiev, capital of Ukraine, is on the Dnieper River, not the Volga.

Answer: Halifax, Nova Scotia

The French-owned "Mont Blanc," loaded with TNT, collided with a Belgian relief ship and exploded in Halifax harbor. More than 2,000 people were killed and much of the city was flattened. Messina, St. Pierre, and Thessaloniki also suffered grievous disasters in the early twentieth century. St. Pierre was wiped out by the eruption of Mount Pelee in 1902, Messina was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 1908, and much of Thessaloniki (Salonica) was razed by a fire in 1917.