Here We Go Again Trivia Quiz

Answer: Russia

In 1812, French forces led by Napoleon invaded Russia. Although the French had a numbers advantage, the French Army saw little success in battle, only winning a few narrowly that achieved little value. The French losses in skirmishes and the freezing temperatures dwindled the Army considerably until only about 10,000 of the original 500,000 remained.

In 1941, Hitler and Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the hopes of securing the nation's oilfields and capture Soviet citizens for slave labor. Unlike Napoleon who only had small successes, the Germans had major wins. However like Napoleon, the Germans failed to capture Moscow and were repelled to the loss of over 200,000 men killed or missing.

The failure of both men to capture Moscow significantly weakened their battle efforts going forward and are seen as significant turning points against them.

Answer: Both were shot in a theater

There are a number of infamous comparisons between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy. Conspiracies aside, both men were elected in years ending in 60 and had vice presidents named Johnson who were senators from Southern states. Their assassins were John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald who were both young men in their 20s from Southern states. In addition, they were both shot in the head on a Friday immediately before a holiday with Lincoln being shot on the Friday before Easter (Good Friday) and Kennedy being shot on the Friday before Thanksgiving.

However, Kennedy was not shot in a theater like Lincoln, but his assassin was captured in one.

Answer: Coral reef

There are a lot of similarities between the 1822 sinking of the Tek Sing and of the Titanic ninety years later in 1912. The Tek Sing was a Chinese junk that sank in the South China Sea on its way to the Dutch East Indies. It is even referred to as the Titanic of the East.

The Tek Sing sank when it struck a coral reef. Roughly 200 of the 1,800 people on board survived when they were picked up by a passing ship. Both ships had high casualty rates caused by, in part, a lack of lifeboats, preventative and escape measures and cold weather. Both wreckages were also not discovered until well after their demises.

Answer: Chester A. Arthur

So-called birthers believed and spread conspiracy theories that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and thus would be ineligible to serve as President of the United States. However, Obama was not the first president to be the victim of this sentiment. Prior to him, Chester A. Arthur's opponents spread a campaign that Arthur was born in Canada and not in his native Vermont. Rumors popped up almost immediately after Arthur ascended to the presidency after James Garfield died in September 1881.

The rumor was aided by the fact that Arthur's father was foreign-born and brought his family into Canada from time to time for his work as a teacher and minister.

Answer: Long Depression

The Long Depression began in 1873 and ended in 1879 (in the U.S.) or 1896 in some places worldwide. It was originally called the Great Depression and saw tens of thousands of businesses and ten states go bankrupt. It lasted longer than what we now call the Great Depression, although it was not as severe.

When the Great Depression that began in 1929 happened, it was renamed the Long Depression because of its duration.

Answer: Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook

Ferdinand Magellan died in 1521 at the Battle of Mactan against Lapu-Lapu, leader of the Mactan people. Magellan was on a mission to Christianize the Philippines and had some success. This caused him to go into Mactan land overconfident in his abilities and with just a small crew. Lapu-Lapu and his forces easily defeated Magellan who was killed by the chief with a bamboo spear.

James Cook died in Hawaii in 1779. Cook attempted to kidnap the King of Hawaii but was prevented from doing so by the king's wife and others. They surrounded Cook and killed him. Cook went ashore with only a small crew with the remainder still on the ship and watching through a spyglass.

Answer: Lono

The legend that the Aztecs believed Cortes was their god Quetzalcoatl comes directly from Cortes himself. It is a widely believed claim, though it is dubious because the Aztecs did not believe Quetzalcoatl would return to Earth. Nonetheless, this story is commonly used to explain how Cortes easily conquered the Aztecs when they let him into their kingdom.

Similarly before his 1779 death, Cook returned to Hawaii and made landfall during Makahiki, a festival dedicated to the Hawaiian god Lono. Cook's crew claimed the native Hawaiians treated Cook like a god because they thought he was Lono but there is no independent analysis to prove this claim.

Answer: Bad weather

Kublai Khan twice tried to invade Japan, a land he longed to conquer and absorb into his kingdom. Both times, in 1274 and 1281, a typhoon spared Japan. The on in 1281 was particularly brutal. Japan was vastly outnumbered but were able to stall and delay the Mongol invasion until a series of devastating storms brewed. The storms collided and the Mongols, who had not experienced storms of this variety at this severity, embarked on their ships rather than wait it out on land. Most of the ships sank or crashed into one another.

King Philip II of Spain's invasion of Britain is often compared to Khan's failure with Japan. In 1588, the mighty Spanish Armada set sail for England, only to lose a third of its ships to storms. The English lured the Spanish into stormy areas around the coast of Scotland and England in the hopes of defeating the armada. Philip would later rebuild his armada but both times storms defeated those ships as well. Early in the century, hurricanes also prevented the Spanish from making bigger gains in what is now the United States.

Answer: Salem Witch Trials

There are a number of similarities between the 20th century red scares and the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s. In both cases, the accusations of communism and witchcraft, respectively, were typically used as masks to disguise what was really a power and political struggle.

In order to spare themselves, the accused would baselessly accuse others of the same offenses. These witch hunts (both literal and figurative) pitted neighbor against neighbor, family against family and friend against friend. Playwright Arthur Miller, who was accused of communism and appeared before the House of Un-American Activities, wrote the play "The Crucible" comparing his experience to that of the Salem Witch Trials.

Answer: 2016 & 2020

Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential Election with an electoral vote count of 304 with 227 going to Hillary Clinton. However, Trump earned 306 electoral votes from states he won and Clinton earned 232. Faithless electors (two for Trump and five for Clinton) caused the actual vote to be 304-227.

Had it not been for those faithless electors, the 2020 Presidential Election would have resulted in the same 306-232 split, only this time Joe Biden earned the 306 and Trump the 232 electoral votes. There were no faithless electors in 2020 and it would have been the first time an electoral count repeated in American history.