On This Day: December 9 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ostrogoths

The long history of the Western Roman Empire ended in 476 AD when Emperor Romulus Augustus left the city during an attack by the Ostrogoths. They were led by Odoacer, King of Italy from 476-493, until he was assassinated by his successor, known as Theodoric the Great.

A war called the Gothic War began in 535 between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, who was driven by the ambition to reunite the old Roman Empire. After his general, Belisarius, easily defeated the Vandals in North Africa in 533, his attention turned toward Rome. By December 9, 536, the Ostrogoths left Rome with little resistance.

They did, however, lay siege to the city unsuccessfully three times before the Gothic War was finally over.

Answer: Mexico City

The term "Marian apparition" relates to a reported sighting of the Virgin Mary. Such an occurrence must be a sighting, as simply hearing her speak is known as an "interior locution." In her first appearance to Juan Diego the Virgin spoke in his native language, an old Aztec language called Nahuatl, and asked for a church to be built at the Hill of Tepeyac, a place where previously an Aztec goddess had been revered.

After speaking with the local Archbishop, who asked for tangible proof, Juan provided proof in the form of his cloak.

After Mary asked him to gather flowers on the hill, he put them in his cloak; the imprints from the flowers produced her image. A chapel was built at the site, which eventually became the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In 2002 Juan Diego was canonized by Pope John Paul II. His feast day is December 9.

Answer: Glorious Revolution

Charles I may have been the one to lose his head during the English Civil War, but it didn't take very long for England to become weary of the strict, Puritanical rule of Oliver Cromwell and his son, Richard. The two sons of Charles I, Charles II and James II, were eventually asked to return to England during a period known as the Restoration.

In fact, when Charles II became king, Parliament appeared to repudiate the rule of the Cromwells, saying that Charles II was the first legal monarch since the reign of Charles I. Tired of the repression of the Cromwell Interregnum (they even sought to outlaw Christmas!) the English people found life under Charles II much happier; when James II succeeded his brother, however, the attitude began to change.

He was overtly Catholic, and when his infant son was baptized a Catholic there was quite an uproar. On December 9, 1688, having been defeated by his daughter Mary's Protestant husband, William of Orange, James, his wife, and young son set out for France, an action that Parliament saw as an abdication of the throne.

The Glorious Revolution began!

Answer: Crimean War

The "Charge of the Light Brigade" took place at the Battle of Balaclava, which was fought during the Crimean War between the British and their against the Russians. The Light Brigade, a division of Light Dragoons, lancers and Hussars, somehow received the wrong orders before the battle, and suffered horrible losses.

The purpose of Tennyson's poem, published a little over a month after the battle, was to tell about how the Light Brigade valiantly fought. Some sources blame Captain Louis Nolan, who was apparently given written orders that he passed on orally; a letter found in 2016 in the British Library seems to substantiate this notion.

At the time it didn't seem necessary to further investigate Nolan's actions as he was one of the casualties in the 20 minute battle. Tennyson, the Poet Laureate of England at the time, published the poem in "The Examiner", presumably to help ease the sting of the loss.

Answer: Battle of Great Bridge

When the American Revolution began in April 1775 at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the colony of Virginia was still ruled by a royal governor, as it had been since its founding. Known as the 4th Earl of Dunmore, Royal Governor John Murray dismissed the House of Burgesses, the first representative government in the United States, and left Williamsburg in June; he took a position in a small town called Great Bridge, where there was a fortified bridge on the only road that led to North Carolina.

The Virginia colonials wasted no time in forming a militia, and in the Battle of Great Bridge, fought December 9, he and his men were defeated. The British were not yet completely ousted from Virginia, but the militia had made a good start!

Answer: Charlie Brown Christmas

Who doesn't love "A Charlie Brown Christmas", which was the first television special based on the already-popular comic strip, "Peanuts". Coca-Cola wanted to sponsor a Christmas program for advertising purposes, and after receiving a bit of a late notice, a group produced the show in less than six months! Charles Schultz wanted the theme of the beloved Christmas special to convey the true meaning of Christmas, including "winter, a school play, and jazz", according to director Bill Melendez. And that sweet tree? It was inspired by a Hans Christian Anderson story, "The Fir Tree", that producer Lee Mendelson had read to his children. Forty-five percent of the viewers watched the program on its debut night and people have been enjoying it ever since.

Answer: Bolivia

In the early 1800s (1808-29), Spanish-Americans fought a series of wars, rebelling against Spanish rule in the Americas. Even though there was disagreement with some of the Spanish policies, the main concern was the fact that France might be able to launch a successful invasion in the midst of the disunity. Of course, the name of Simon Bolivar, "The Liberator", is synonymous with this period.

However, you may also recognize the name of one of his generals, Sucre, as his name was used for the constitutional capital of Bolivia (La Paz is the seat of government), a department of Colombia, a state in Venezuela, an airport in Quito, and, until 2000, a monetary unit in Ecuador.

Answer: Heisman Trophy

The Downtown Athletic Club was a private social and athletic club located in New York City. Founded in 1926, the Art Deco club building was 45 stories tall and held all kinds of athletic facilities, dining rooms, and even living quarters. The first club award was given in 1935 to the most valuable U.S. college player east of the Mississippi. John Heisman was the club's first athletic director; when he died in 1936 the name of the award was changed and so was its scope, which grew to include all U.S. college players in all divisions.

Answer: Rod Blagojevich

In 2008, of course, Barak Obama was elected to the office of President of the United States. Then Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, apparently had tried to auction off Obama's recently vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder. He was charged with abuse of power and corruption, which led to his subsequent impeachment and removal from office; he was forbidden to ever hold office in Illinois again.

He was also indicted and found guilty of trying to sell the Senate seat in a federal court, where he was sentenced to a 14-year prison term in a federal prison.

Answer: China

Chinese students in Beiping (Beijing) began the December 9th Movement to demand that the Chinese government, controlled by the Kuomintang, resist Japanese aggression. Japan had already occupied Manchuria virtually unopposed in 1931, and in 1935 the Kuomintang had held negotiations which allowed the Japanese to gain parts of Northern China. After the Eastern Hebei Anti-Communist Autonomous Government, generally referred to as a buffer or puppet state, was established with a Chinese "leader", Chinese students began to organize a protest in Beiping, with rally cries like "Down with Japanese imperialism". It is estimated that 6,000 students participated in the protest held on December 9, and their actions forced the cancellation of the government political meeting, the Hebei-Chahar Political Council, that was to be held with Japan that day.

It may seem odd, but the student group was pro-Communist, as they believed the Communists would oppose Japanese imperialism. While the movement is seen as patriotic today, many modern students hold demonstrations calling for democracy.