Do You Have the Time? Trivia Quiz

Answer: 7:55 AM

With the attack ordered by Lt. Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida at 7:49, the first bombs began falling by 7:55. A second wave of Japanese planes attacked the Pearl Harbor area 15 minutes later. When all was said and done, there were over 3,000 U.S. casualties and eight U.S. battleships were damaged or sunk. Most Americans living during the time remember well what they were doing the moment the news hit that fateful Sunday morning/afternoon.

Answer: 6:53 PM

It was in the evening of November 9th, 1989 when the newly formed East German government held a press conference regarding the changing status of the former Soviet satellite. It was the low-key statement of this now-forgotten East German minister that finally broke the back of the Communist Bloc, and prompted thousands to take to the Berlin Wall with axes and picks. It was not long before the wall crumbled to pieces...

Answer: 73 seconds

A mere one minute, thirteen seconds into the flight of the ill-fated space shuttle Challenger, an o-ring malfunctioned and the American space vehicle was lost over the Atlantic Ocean. This occurred before the eyes of millions, who watched intently as the first American civilian, teacher Krista McAuliffe, was to grace the heavens. Sadly she, along with commander Dick Scobee, pilot Mike Smith, mission specialists Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik and Ron McNair, and payload specialist Greg Jarvis, never made it through Earth's atmosphere.

Much like the attack on Pearl Harbor, many folks remember precisely what they were doing at the time of this tragic disaster.

Answer: World War I

Armistice Day, the day that World War I ended, was celebrated first on November 11th, 1918, when the armistice officially took effect (negotiations on the Treaty of Versailles would begin the following year, and would be completed in March of 1920). This occurred at exactly eleven o'clock in the morning on that historic November, ending 'the war to end all wars', or so they said.

The phrase 'the 11th hour', meaning 'at the last moment', comes from this historic event. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson made November 11th an official holiday, which he called 'Armistice Day'.

It is now called 'Veteran's Day' in the United States. In Poland, November 11th is celebrated as their Independence Day.

Answer: 5:17 PM

Mehmet Ali Agca was pardoned by Pope John Paul II three days after the former's attempt on the latter's life. Though the pope was hit by four bullets, he miraculously survived the attack, as no vital organs were punctured. He has credited this 'miracle' to an intervention by the Virgin Mary of Fatima in Portugal.

As for the aspiring assailant, he was finally pardoned by the Italian president in June of 2000 and extradited to his native Turkey, where he began serving a 10-year sentence (commuted from an earlier death sentence in absentia).

Answer: None of these

Ah ha...you realize now that this was a trick question! Our time system does not apply on the moon, of course, and I did not signify a certain time zone on the Earth. My apologies for the 'trick', but it was irresistible. Let us say, for information's sake, that I asked what time it was on the U.S. east coast at the moment when Armstrong made his famous footfall.

The answer: 10:56 PM EDT. The 'Eagle' moon lander had touched down several hours before, at 4:18 PM EDT.

Answer: 9:00 AM

Indira Gandhi was shot 16 times by two of her bodyguards, both Sikhs, in New Delhi on October 31, 1984. The assassination was most likely politically motivated, as Gandhi had ordered a military operation earlier in the year, an attack on what the government claimed was a 'terrorist occupation' of the Golden Temple in Amritsar (Operation Bluestar). Mohandas Gandhi (no relation to Indira) was assassinated on January 30th, 1948, at approximately 5:00 PM local time.

Answer: American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon

The complete timeline of the awful events of that September morning are recounted at the following web link: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/

Answer: Louise Brown (Test tube baby)

Louise Brown, the world's first 'test tube' baby, was born in Oldham General Hospital (near Manchester), England, she was delivered via C-section from her mother Lesley Brown. The procedure by which she was born is nothing more than in-vitro fertilization, where a human egg cell is fertilized with a sperm cell outside the womb.

Answer: 1:30 PM

The Titanic was destined for New York City on its fateful maiden cruise that was cut short 4 days later, on April 14 at 11:40 PM, when the huge ocean liner collided with an iceberg in the north Atlantic. By 2:20 AM, April 15, the stern section of the gigantic ship settled into the water, not to be seen again for over 80 years.

The Carpathia, another ocean liner, picked up the 705 survivors and was off on its way to New York just six hours later. Thank you for having played this quiz, I hope you enjoyed it. I invite you to try more of my quizzes if you did.