FunTrivia Blockbusters: I'll Have an 'H' Quiz

Answer: Hedgehog

A number of hedgehog species are native to Europe, Asia and Africa. The species is unknown naturally in the Americas and Australia.
Hedgehogs are noted by their spines, which they use for defence when they roll into a ball to deter predators.
Hedgehogs are nocturnal and hibernate in winter. They feed on snails, insects and frogs - which make them welcome in many gardens - as well as berries and birds' eggs.

Answer: Hourglass

An hourglass is two glass bulbs joined by a much narrower tube. The diameter of the tube regulates the passage of (usually) sand from one bulb to another. When the upper tube is empty, the device is turned over to start the process all over again.
Hourglasses are thought to have been first used in about 150 BC.
Each hourglass is uniquely accurate in that the sand will always take the same amount of time to completely pass from one bulb to another. However, in early days, even small differences in the size of tubes or the coarseness of sand meant that no two could be accurately compared to each other.

Answer: Kevin Hart

With earnings of $87.5 million, he became the first comedian ever to earn more than Jerry Seinfeld.
Hart was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in July 1979. He cut his teeth on the amateur comedy circuit in New England, before being cast in several movies and television shows.

Answer: Harry Houdini

Houdini was born Eric Weisz in Budapest in March 1874 and died in Detroit, Michigan, in October 1926.
He made escapology a specialty. Often his act showed him freeing himself from chains and handcuffs, even underwater. He almost died during a 'buried alive' escape. He made several movies, but, for all his claims, he was not slow to use stunt doubles for some of the more dangerous tricks.
He died after a trick went wrong. In a challenge, he was punched several times in the stomach, but was unprepared for the severity of the blows and died some time later of complications due to a ruptured appendix.

Answer: Huey

Huey, Dewey, and Louie were triplets and were created in 1937 to spice up the life of their uncle, Donald Duck.
Developed by the Disney Corporation, Huey, Dewey, and Louie became the subject of many animated movie shorts and were among the most published comic book characters in the world.
In the movies, they were voiced first of all by Clarence Nash, who was also the voice of Donald Duck.

Answer: Habeas Corpus

The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 was passed in Britain during the reign of King Charles II, although the principle was an ancient one.
It comes from the Latin "you have the body"
In the USA in 1991, the Supreme Court held "...writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action." [Brown v. Vasquez.]

Answer: Hebrides

The Hebrides form an archipelago of hundreds of islands. They comprise two groups, the Inner and the Outer Hebrides.
It is thought that the islands were first settled in around 6500 BC. Standing stones and other relics of the Neolithic period have been found.
In the ninth Century, the islands came under Norse control, but were ceded to Scotland by the Treaty of Perth in 1266.
The islands have long been noted for their traditional culture in music and literature. They are also home to the greatest concentration of Gaelic speakers in Scotland.

Answer: Hue

Between January 30 and March 3 1968, US and South Vietnamese allies battled for control of the city of Huế with the People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong.
After the Communist forces seized control of the city, they were driven out by the US forces and their allies, often through bloody hand-to-hand combat.
The battle is considered to have been a victory for America and her South Vietnamese allies. However, more than 5,000 civilians died - many of them executed by the Viet Cong. The communists lost up to 8,000 soldiers, while the allied forces lost just under 700 killed and around 3,700 wounded.
The Battle of Huế is considered a turning point in support for the war effort by people in the USA. Some consider that after Huế the pressure to withdraw from Vietnam became overwhelming.

Answer: Hummus

Hummus (aka Hommus) is of Arabic origin.
It is made by crushing and cooking any of several kinds of beans and blending them with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic.
Although its origins were in North Africa, its reputation for being a healthy foodstuff made it popular worldwide - except in darksplash's house, where even the dog would turn up her nose...or maybe not: she is a typical Labrador after all.

Answer: Hera

Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister to Poseidon, Hades, Zeus, Hestia and Demeter.
She was married to Zeus, her brother, king of the gods.
That marriage was not altogether happy, and Hera led other gods in an unsuccessful revolt against Zeus.
Legend has it that as punishment, Zeus hung her from the sky with gold chains until she agreed to never revolt again.

Answer: Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison (Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was born in March 1925 in Stamford, Connecticut, and died in August, 2012 in Brighton, England.
Harrison's career in Sci-fi began as an illustrator in comic books. He was an author and wrote under several pen names. He was lead writer for the "Flash Gordon" newspaper strip and also wrote stories for Leslie Chartis's "Saint".
In the late 1950s he began publishing under his own name. His most famous, and iconic, creation was 'The Stainless Steel Rat'. The 'rat' was actually a human conman and master criminal. In all, 13 'rat' books were published.

Answer: How Green Was My Valley

A star-studded cast led by Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall featured in the adaptation of Richard Llewelyn's 1939 novel.
Set in the South Wales coalfields at the turn of the 19th/20th Centuries, this was the story of one family's struggles.
The book and movie told their tale through the eyes of the youngest member of the Morgan family, Huw (played by Roddy McDowall).
From a pleasant place of greenery, the valley was despoiled by the ever encroaching coal minds and their spoil.
The movie was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five.

Answer: Horslips

Regarded as pioneers of the 'Celtic rock' genre, Horslips were largely active between 1970 and 1980, though continued to play occasional gigs into the 21st Century.
They produced ten well-received albums and looked set to make it big in the USA with "The Man Who Built America" (1978) before artistic difference and a weariness with the business caused them to fold in 1980.

Answer: Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson is claimed by both England and Ireland as a native. Details of his exact place and date of birth are sketchy. Some sources place his birth between 1565 and 1570, others place it as late as 1593.
What we do know is that he made three voyages to try to find a North East Passage between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Arctic north of Russia.
He then tried a fourth voyage to find a north western route. He explored what is now known as the Hudson River in North America.
In 1610 he set off again to find the North West Passage. However, he had disagreements with his crew who mutinied and set him and several others adrift in a small boat in the huge bay that bears his name. He is thought to have died in about June 1611.

Answer: Hiram

Hiram I, King of Tyre, lived about 989 to 948 BC.
The Holy Bible tells us that after David conquered Jerusalem, Hiram sent cedar wood and carpenters to help him build a house.
After David's death, Hiram supplied Solomon with cedar wood and Tyrian craftsmen for the building of the Temple.
Hiram is also a central figure in Freemasonry. In its ritual for the 'third degree', it tells that Hiram Abiff was actively involved in the construction of the temple and was killed by three Fellow Craft masons desperate to learn the secret password of the Master Mason.

Answer: Hydrogen

We all got this one correct, didn't we?
Put very simply, without Hydrogen there would be no life on earth. Every living organism contains hydrogen and it combines with oxygen to give us water.

Answer: Handball

Think of handball as a cross between soccer and basketball. The ball is propelled between members of a seven-player team, much as in basketball. The aim is to throw the ball past a goalkeeper into a set of goals, as in soccer.
The game is played at a fast pace and between skillful teams leads to a lot of goals.
Top handball players can throw their ball as hard as soccer players can kick theirs.
(In Ireland, a game called handball is played in the style of squash, but without racquets.)
All the wrong answers are legitimate sports, including Hardball Squash.

Answer: Happy Days

"Happy Days" was a sitcom that ran on US television for 11 seasons between January 1974 and September 1984. It was one of the highest rated shows of its time and was sold to several overseas broadcasters.
As initially conceived, it was the story of a regular Milwaukee, Wisconsin, family, the Cunninghams. They comprised a mom and dad and three teenage children.
As the show developed, a formerly minor character, Arthur "Fonzie"/"The Fonz" Fonzarelli, began to get greater prominence. In effect, he took over the show and took it to new levels that would have been difficult to sustain in the constraints of the original family setup.
The show made stars of Ron Howard, who played Richie Cunningham and Henry Winkler as The Fonz. Ron Howard branched out to become one of the most successful movie directors of his time. Winkler moved into production and had a wide range of acting roles on television and on the silver screen.

Answer: Halo

Appearing in 2001, "Halo" was a "shooter" game in which the players fought out combat situations between humans and aliens.
"Halo" had a sophisticated and carefully crafted back story - one as tightly detailed as many science fiction space shows.
Several spin-offs followed, and in 2014 it was announced that the franchise was expected to be further developed over the following 30 years.
In 2015, it was revealed that sales of all the "Halo" incarnations has passed $5 billion worldwide.

Answer: Haitian Gourde

The gourde was introduced in 1813.
In modern use, the Gourde is subdivided into centimes.
The banking abbreviation is HTG.