Who or What Came First? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Person: Ty Cobb is born

Hall of Fame baseball player, Ty Cobb, was born in 1886. The Detroit Tigers outfielder was nicknamed the Georgia Peach, a nickname given to him from his birth state and his reputation as being one of the best to play the game. Cobb finished his career with an average of .366 while playing his whole career with the Detroit Tigers.

President McKinley was assassinated in 1901. "The Call of the Wild" was published in 1903. The Model T automobile was introduced in 1908.

Answer: Event: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in 1872. The largest art museum in North and South America, it is found in New York City. It's home to some legendary works of art, including Van Gogh's "Self-Portrait With A Straw Hat" and "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Emanuel Leutze.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" was published in print in 1899. Groucho Marx, originally Julius Henry Marx, was born in 1890 in New York City. The prototype of the zipper for a patent began in 1891.

Answer: Book: William Shakespeare, "Macbeth"

"Macbeth" was published in 1606. In "Macbeth" we see an obsessive drive for power by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth that ultimately leads to their ultimate demise. The William Shakespeare play contained the classic line "Fair is foul, and foul is fair".

The Thirty Years War began in 1618. Sir Isaac Newton, known for his laws on universal gravitation, was born on Christmas Day in 1642. The pendulum clock was patented in 1657.

Answer: Book: Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book"

"The Jungle Book" was published in 1894. Author Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India, but wrote "The Jungle Book" while living in Vermont in the United States. While Vermont did not play a role in the ideas of the book, he spent the time in the Northeastern state reminiscing about his days in the Indian jungle. "The Jungle Book" included the story of Mowgli, a human boy raised by wolves. Mowgli was mentored by the jungle animals to survive and thrive in the wild.

Sonar was developed in 1917. The Russian October Revolution took place in 1917. Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. He is best known for being among the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Answer: Event: The Magna Carta is signed

King John signed the original Magna Carta on June 15, 1215. The famous document was actually written on animal skin and became a precursor to other legal documents like the U.S. Constitution five centuries later. In the Magna Carta, we read how everyone is subject to the law, including those in power. It laid the early ground rules for what became modern democracy and details about a trial by jury system.

Eyeglasses were invented in the 1280s in Italy. The world traveler, Marco Polo, was born in Venice, Italy in 1254. Chaucer began writing "The Canterbury Tales" in 1387.

Answer: Invention: the cotton gin

The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented in 1794. The machine allowed cotton seeds to separated from flax over fifty times quicker than what an individual human could do without the cotton gin.

The Louisiana Purchase took place in 1803. The sixteenth American President, Abraham Lincoln, was born in 1809 in a log cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky. "Pride and Prejudice" was published in 1813.

Answer: Invention: the sewing machine

The sewing machine was patented by Elias Howe in 1846. The actual invention of the sewing machine has a long history, including Thomas Saint's design in 1790. Barthelemy Thimonnier built the first working model of a sewing machine in 1830, but Howe is the one credited with the invention's patent.

Nicknamed The Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison, was born in Ohio in 1847. The California Gold Rush began in 1848. "A Tale of Two Cities" was published in 1859.

Answer: Person: Charles Darwin is born

Remember the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Charles Darwin's defining moment was his study of evolution and his work was captured in his book, "The Origin of Species". Darwin took a famous five mile trip on a ship called "The Beagle" that included a lengthy stay on the Galapagos Islands in South America. While observing the animals there, he noticed many animals had unique physical adaptations that improved their quality of life based on which island they lived. This led to his exploration of the concept of evolution.

Charles Darwin was born on February 22, 1809. The stethoscope was invented in 1816. "Frankenstein" was published in 1818. The Battle of Waterloo took place in 1815.

Answer: Person: René Descartes is born

René Descartes began his existence and his cogitating in 1596. He was a philosopher, scientist, mathematician, and theologian. His works were used to create the Cartesian plane graphs found in most Algebra classes.

Part one of "Don Quixote" was published in 1605. Guy Fawkes was executed on January 31, 1606. The telescope was invented in 1608.

Answer: Person: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is born

Martin Luther King was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He became a Baptist minister who fought for an end of racial segregation. His "I Have A Dream" speech was given in Washington D.C. to a crowd of over 200,000 people. During his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech he declared that he had the "audacity to believe" that all people should have respect and basic human rights.

DuPont first announced the commercial use of nylon in 1938. The Spanish Civil War began in 1936. Ernest Hemingway published "For Whom The Bell Tolls" in 1940.