Remembering the 60s - 1967 Americana Quiz

Answer: Astronauts

Tragically, the crew of Apollo I perished in a fire that swept through their space capsule during a launch pad test. Gus Grissom had flown both Mercury and Gemini flights, and Ed White had been the first American to walk in space. Roger Chaffee was preparing for his first flight.

Answer: Congressman from Maryland

Marshall, the grandson of slaves, was denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School in 1930 because of his race. Despite this early setback, he got his law degree from Howard University, and went on to a distinguished legal career. He successfully argued the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case of "Brown v. Board of Education", where the civil rights legal doctrine of "separate but equal" was struck down as unconstitutional.

He died in 1993.

Answer: Detroit and Newark

The arrest and beating of a cab driver for a traffic infraction sparked 6 days of violence in Newark, New Jersey, leaving 23 dead, hundreds wounded and over a thousand people arrested. But by far the worst rioting took place in Detroit, Michigan, sparked by unrest following a vice squad raid on an after-hours drinking club. Five days later, large portions of the city lay in ashes, 43 people were dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 had been arrested.

Answer: A murderer

The city of Chicago, Illinois was shocked and its citizens terrorized, when they learned that eight student nurses had been brutally slaughtered in their townhouse. Richard Benjamin Speck was arrested on July 19, 1966, and was identified by another nurse who had survived by hiding under a bed. On April 15, 1967 he was convicted and sentenced to death.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty saved his life, but he died in prison of a heart attack in 1991, a few weeks before his 50th birthday.

Answer: Fred Johnson

Fred Johnson was a character portrayed by actor Bill Raisch in the television series "The Fugitive". Better known as "the one-armed man", he had been pursued by actor David Janssen for four seasons on the popular television series. Dr. Richard Kimble had been wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, and a train wreck en route to death row allowed him to escape and pursue the real killer.

The two-part series finale, entitled "Judgment", was the highest rated television series to that date.

Answer: Jayne Mansfield

Mansfield, often called "the poor man's Marilyn Monroe", died when the car in which she was riding slammed into the rear of a semi-tractor trailer truck outside of New Orleans, Louisiana on June 29, 1967. Mansfield is the mother of actress Mariska Hargitay.

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

Contrary to the beliefs of many who claimed that the lyrics of "Purple Haze" dealt with drugs, Hendrix insisted that the inspiration for his song was a dream. In the dream, he was walking under the sea where a purple haze surrounded him and he got lost. The singer Dion's version of "Purple Haze" made the charts in 1969.

Answer: A city

Until April 20, 1967, Haiphong, North Vietnam had been spared from air raids for fear of hitting a foreign ship in the city's harbor. In a huge escalation of the war, President Lyndon Johnson ordered the port bombed, sparking a new wave of anti-war demonstrations.

Answer: Gene Wilder

With the glamorous Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the title roles, "Bonnie and Clyde" romanticized the story of a murdering, bank robbing Depression Era gang. In his film debut, Wilder appeared as Eugene Grizzard, a mortician who was briefly captured by the gang. Of course Wilder is much better know for his title role in "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in "Young Frankenstein".

Answer: Football game

The 1967 N.F.L. Championship was decided on Lambeau Field on December 31, 1967. The Green Bay Packers trailed the Dallas Cowboys 17-14 with 4:50 left in the game. Bart Starr led his team 68 yards and scored the winning touchdown. The game was called the "Ice Bowl" because it was played on the coldest New Year's Eve in Green Bay, Wisconsin's history.

The temperature was 13 below zero with a wind chill of 40 below zero.