Historical Events I Remember 2 Quiz

Answer: millennium

Did pick the correct spelling? Not many people do. Well, just like the Comet Kahoutek from 1973 (which you also probably don't remember) the Y2K scares fizzled out into a non-event. Planes did not fall from the sky, the stock market did not crash and all our appliances continued to work. I can't wait to see what they're predicting for Y3K!

Answer: Tuesday

It was quite warm in New York for a Tuesday in September. I went to my office at 7 World Trade Center early that morning, as usual; it was the last 'usual' day I can recall. It was about quarter to nine when the lights of the building started flickering on and off...we all ran to look out the window when we saw the top of the North Tower explode. We could only see it from the front so we thought it was a bomb! There were no fire alarms, no instructions when someone shouted "it's a bomb; let's get out of here". We ran down the 30 flights of stairs just in time to see the South Tower go. I managed to get out of the building and just walked and walked and walked ...

Answer: Columbia

As Yogi Berra once said "It was like deja vu all over again". But, unlike the Challenger disaster of 1986, the shuttle Columbia had completed its 16 day mission to explore microgravity and do Earth science research. The Columbia shuttle's 28th mission, launched on January 16, 2003, ended in disaster during re-entry over Texas at 9 A.M. with all seven of the crew lost.

As a result, the space shuttle program was grounded for over two years until the Discovery was launched on July 26, 2005. In 2011, the space shuttle program completed its final mission.

Answer: Athens

Athens, Greece where the modern Olympics began in 1896 ... Athens was chosen over Rome, Cape Town, Stockholm and Buenos Aires. The major medal winners were USA (106), Russia (92) and China (63). It was the year of the 'Phelps', i.e., Michael won 5 gold and 2 bronze medals in swimming.

Answer: 2005

It was August 2005 when Category 5 Hurricane Katrina paid a visit to the Gulf Coast region of the United States and swept through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. At the time, it was the costliest natural disaster, and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States.

At the time I had a friend who lived in 'New Awlins' and, when communications were restored, he kept me apprised of the loss and the devastation suffered - it was unimaginable!

Answer: Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet

In 2006 we lost both a tyrant and a planet. Pluto was discovered and became our ninth planet in 1930 and changed the lives of astronomers everywhere. Then, in August, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) demoted Pluto and its five moons to 'dwarf planet' status; this was sad for those of us growing up under a nine planet system and having memorized the fact that a day on Pluto is 153 hours and a Plutonian year would amount to 248 Earth years.

Answer: Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto became the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988 and served two non-consecutive terms. When you realize the status of women in Muslim countries, you see how remarkable her achievement was. She was born in Karachi in 1953 and, at 16 years old, came to America to go to Radcliffe College; she then received a degree from Oxford University in 1977.

She returned to Pakistan where her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been elected Prime Minister; unfortunately, that was short-lived, as the military seized power, imprisoned and later hanged him. Benazir, herself, was imprisoned many times, elected, exiled, returned and, finally, assassinated.

Answer: Lehman Brothers

The incorrect choices also filed for bankruptcy, but in 2009. Lehman was one of the leaders of the "too big to fail" theory, but fail they did, and a large portion of the economic stability of the USA went along, too. Before filing for Chapter 11 on September 15, 2008, Lehman was the 4th largest investment bank in the USA behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.

Answer: Fukushima

This disaster swept approximately 5 million tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean, some of which may still be washing ashore in Oregon and Southwest Washington in the United States. Here is a timeline for this tragedy: March 11th - 8.9 magnitude earthquake; March 12th - aftershocks of 6.2 and 6.3 felt; March 13th - people living within 6 miles of the Fukushima Daini and Fukushima Daiichi power plants are ordered by the government to evacuate; March 14th - the earthquake was upgraded to 9.0. The nuclear accident was later ruled a result of "human error" and, in April, it was determined that Fukushima was on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union.

Answer: Mayan

The Mayans were a civilization living in Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. All Mayan rituals were determined by the 260-day Sacred Round calendar.The long-count calendar spans over 5,000 years beginning in 3114 B.C. and ending on December 2012. The naysayers and doomsday prophets (like Harold Camping) took this as a definite sign that the world would end (and just before Christmas too).

However, that did not happen! Scholars advised us that it was simply the end of a cycle, like a 1960s car which after 99,999.9 miles would reset to zero, or like the ending of a new year.

Incidentally, the Mayans didn't even predict their own collapse.