They're Dead, Jim: 1950-1959 Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, born on July 26, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland was an Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist known for his prolific writing and lasting influence on English-language drama. Shaw wrote over sixty plays, including "Pygmalion" (1913), later adapted into the musical "My Fair Lady," and "Man and Superman" (1903). His works are marked by incisive social commentary and his customary sharp wit.

Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925, which, true to his idiosyncratic nature, he considered declining. He was also a co-founder of the London School of Economics, an advocate of vegetarianism, and a noted public intellectual.

Remarkably, Shaw lived to age 94. His death resulted from complications following a fall after one final, ill-advised act of gardening.

Answer: William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst was the kind of man who could turn a newsstand into a street brawl. Born in 1863, he inherited a small newspaper, the "San Francisco Examiner", from his father and turned it into a launching pad for what would become the largest newspaper empire in the United States.

Hearst's papers were notorious for "yellow journalism", a mix of sensational headlines, bold illustrations, and occasionally... um, a flexible relationship with the truth. If you've ever seen the movie "Citizen Kane", you've seen a thinly veiled portrait of Hearst's extraordinary rise and controversial methods.

In his final years, Hearst's health declined, and he spent much of his time at his famous California estate, Hearst Castle. On August 14, 1951, at the age of 88, he died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills.

Answer: Eva Perón

Eva Perón (1919-1952), known as Evita, was Argentina's First Lady from 1946 until her death. Born into poverty, she became an actress before marrying Juan Perón, later president. As First Lady, she advocated for labor rights, social welfare, and notably, women's suffrage. Argentine women gained the vote in 1947, thanks in part to her efforts.

Perón established the Eva Perón Foundation, distributing aid with occasional fanfare, and became an enduring icon of populism. Diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer, she died on July 26, 1952, at age 33, prompting nationwide mourning and a cult of personality that continues to inspire debate and the occasional musical.

Answer: Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and premier of the Soviet state from the mid-1920s until his death. Originally from Georgia, Stalin emerged as the unquestioned leader of the USSR following Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924.

Under Stalin's direction, the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialization and aggressive collectivization of agriculture, policies that resulted in significant economic change and widespread famine, most notably the Holodomor in Ukraine. Stalin's regime was marked by extensive purges, mass arrests, and executions (the "Great Terror"), as well as the operation of the Gulag labor camps. Estimates for the total number of deaths attributed to his rule vary, with many historians citing figures in the millions.

Internationally, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939, only to join the Allies after Operation Barbarossa in 1941. He played a central role in the wartime conferences at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam, shaping the postwar order and initiating the Cold War's east-west divide. Stalin's combination of paranoia and Machiavellianism kept both his subordinates and foreign adversaries on edge.

Answer: Alan Turing

Born in 1912, Alan Turing had an extraordinary talent for approaching problems in ways nobody else imagined. He established the foundations of modern computer science with his idea of the "Turing machine", a conceptual framework that defined what it means for a problem to be computable.

During World War II, Turing put his genius to work at Bletchley Park, where he led the team that cracked the German Enigma code. This breakthrough in codebreaking is credited with shortening the war and saving countless lives.

On June 7, 1954, Turing died after ingesting cyanide, in what is widely regarded as suicide, though some uncertainty remains about the details. In the years since, his contributions have been increasingly recognized, including an official apology from the British government and a posthumous royal pardon. Today, Turing is honored as a wartime hero and a pioneering figure in the history of computer science.

Answer: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire in 1879. His years at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern gave him plenty of time to think about physics, and in 1905 he released his "Annus Mirabilis" papers, including the special theory of relativity. For bonus points, he also explained the photoelectric effect, which earned him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, and confirmed that not all genius work has to involve time-bending thought experiments, just some mind-bending transference of energy quanta, that would later make solar panels possible. Later, he developed the general theory of relativity, reshaping how scientists understood space, time, and gravity.

Einstein spent the latter part of his life in the United States, taking a position at Princeton University. He was a vocal advocate for civil rights, pacifism (with some exceptions during World War II), and the role of science in shaping a better world. His trademark messy hair and bright eyes didn't hurt his transformation into an icon of intelligence.

On April 18, 1955, Einstein died at the age of 76 in Princeton, New Jersey, due to an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Famously, he refused surgery, saying, "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially." His brain was removed for study--without his family's permission, which is a whole other story--and the rest of him was cremated, leaving behind equations that continue to challenge and inspire.

Answer: A. A. Milne

Alan Alexander Milne (now you know!) was born in 1882 and started out as a successful playwright and humorist before stumbling upon the literary jackpot: a little bear named Winnie-the-Pooh. Inspired by his son Christopher Robin and the boy's stuffed animals, Milne created stories set in the Hundred Acre Wood that combined gentle humor and a touch of melancholy. The characters (Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and the rest) have since become some of the most beloved in children's literature.

Milne's later years were marked by illness, including a stroke and brain surgery in 1952. He never fully recovered and died on January 31, 1956, at the age of 74. Although the Winnie-the-Pooh books made Milne world-famous and remains his lasting legacy, he was sometimes frustrated by how completely they overshadowed his other work, which included plays, novels, and essays.

Answer: Oliver Hardy

Oliver Hardy, often known simply as "Ollie," was born in 1892 in Harlem, Georgia. He began his film career in the 1910s, acting in numerous silent comedies before fate (and a casting director) paired him with Englishman Stan Laurel in the mid-1920s. Together, Laurel and Hardy became one of the most iconic comedy duos of all time, with their slapstick humor, impeccable timing, and Ollie's trademark exasperated looks directly into the camera. Their chemistry worked so well that they managed the tricky transition from silent films to sound films, something that derailed many of their peers.

By the 1950s, Hardy's health began to decline, especially after he suffered a series of strokes. His final years were quiet, spent largely away from the screen. On August 7, 1957, Oliver Hardy died at the age of 65.

Answer: Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli in 1876, became pope in 1939, just as World War II was beginning. A skilled diplomat before his papacy, Pacelli was deeply involved in church politics and international affairs long before donning the papal white. As pope, he faced one of the most challenging periods in modern history, steering the Catholic Church through the war, its aftermath, and the early years of the Cold War.

He is most controversial for his response to the Holocaust. While he made efforts to aid some refugees and condemned general acts of violence, critics argue that he failed to speak out forcefully and directly against Nazi atrocities, a silence that has cast a long shadow over his legacy.

Answer: Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday, nicknamed "Lady Day," was born Eleanora Fagan in 1915 and rose from a difficult childhood to become one of the most influential jazz vocalists of all time. She began singing in Harlem clubs as a teenager, and by the 1930s, she was performing with jazz greats like Count Basie and Artie Shaw.

Her recording of "Strange Fruit," a haunting protest against the lynching of Black Americans, is considered one of the most important songs of the 20th century. She also co-wrote "God Bless the Child," which became one of her signature pieces.

Sadly, Holiday's personal life was rife with abusive relationships, substance abuse, and legal woes. Her health declined in the 1950s, and she was hospitalized in 1959, where she was arrested for drug possession while on her deathbed. She died of heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver on July 17, 1959, at the age of 44.

(Her dog's name was Mister.)