Bits of This and Bits of That Trivia Quiz

Answer: Amerigo Vespucci

Vespucci discovered Venezuela and his name was mistakenly given to the continent. Columbus never found North America. Magellan passed through the straits at the southern tip of South America during the first circumnavigation of the globe. Sir Walter Raleigh helped to colonise Virginia many years after the continent had been discovered.

He sent three expeditions to the sub continent but never went there himself.

Answer: The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell was cast in London, England in 1752 and later re-cast in Philadelphia. Great Paul hangs in St. Paul's Cathedral (London, England) and Great Peter is in York Minster - also in England.

Answer: Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was arrested for her action and put on trial. A 381-day bus boycott ensued. Eventually the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation on transportation was unconstitutional.

Answer: James Wilson Marshall

I invented the names of John Wilson Marshall, Jack Jones and Big Billy Smith.
It is ironical that finding gold on his land benefited hundreds of people, but not Marshall himself. He died penniless.

Answer: Minnehaha

Longfellow based this long and beautiful poem on American-Indian folk tales and legends. Minnehaha meant 'Laughing Water' - after the waterfalls that she lived near. Nokomis was the 'Daughter of the Moon'. She was the mother of Wenonah who died after she had given birth to Hiawatha.

It was Nokomis who became responsible for her grandson's upbringing. Mudjekee'wis was the 'West Wind' and father of Hiawatha.

Answer: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The name 'New Deal' was given to the policy of Roosevelt, which was meant to restore the people's confidence after the Great Depression of the early 1930s. He hoped to provide relief for the poor and to ease the unstable economic and financial conditions.

Answer: An alternative name for Alcatraz is 'Sing Sing'.

I have visited Alcatraz as a tourist. It wasn't, altogether, a pleasant experience. No human being deserves to be treated as brutally as many of the prisoners there were. It is located in San Francisco, California.

Answer: John Rolfe

John Smith was the man whose life she saved. He is, perhaps, best remembered for his work with mapping the coastal areas of New England. John Cabot was a 15th century discoverer of North America. William Brooke is fictitious.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Both Bell and Edison were born almost a century and a half later than Franklin, so the latter was really breaking new ground in the field of electricity. Frankenstein (as most of us know) was a figment of Mary Shelley's imagination. He, too, used the power of an electrical storm - to bring life to his monstrous creation.

Answer: Mark Twain

Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. In his twenties he worked as a pilot on a Mississippi river boat. The words 'Mark Twain' would have been very familiar to him when he heard the leadsman call out the depth of water in the river. He later adopted these words as his pseudonym when he started to write.