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Quiz about The Year that Was  1883
Quiz about The Year that Was  1883

The Year that Was - 1883 Trivia Quiz


Here, for your amazement and edification, are presented events related to ten different trivial categories. All of these marvellous happenings did truly occur in the Year of our Lord 1883, which must surely have been one of the most eventful years ever.

A multiple-choice quiz by Flamis. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
Flamis
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
325,113
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
786
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: PurpleComet (7/10), Guest 1 (4/10), rivenproctor (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Music - February 13
Having been born in 22 May 1813, in Leipzig, Germany, he has become known primarily as one of the world's greatest composers of grand opera. Now his cycle comes to a final twilight as he suffers a heart attack in Venice, Italy. Who dies?
Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Hobbies - February 16
This American periodical, to become known for over a century as a source of sensible advice on home management and cooking, is published for the first time as a separate magazine. What is it called?
Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Science - April 5, 1883
Two Polish professors in Krakow succeed in liquefying a measurable amount of a vital gas for the very first time. Which gas is this?
Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Entertainment - June 16
A children's variety performance at the Victoria Hall, in Sunderland, England ends in the deaths of 183 children between 3 and 14 years old. What causes their deaths?
Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Literature - June 30, 1883
The first part of a new work by Robert Louis Stevenson appears in "Young Folks: A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature". What is the name of this exciting new novel?
Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Sports - July 4, 1883
What is claimed to have been the first organized example of a certain type of sporting event is held in Pecos, Texas. What is this very American sport?
Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Animals - August 12, 1883
The last of its kind, a mare, dies at the Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam. The only known photograph shows that this animal appears to have the front half of a zebra, and the back half of a horse. What kind of creature is this marvel?
Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Geography - August 26, 1883.
A volcano erupts with such violence that ash is propelled eighty kilometres into the air, it is heard over 3000 miles away, and sends tsunamis half way round the world. The death toll is thought to have been at least 36,000 and quite possibly very many more. Where is this mighty eruption?
Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. World - November 18, 1883
The United States institutes five standard continental time zones, ending a muddle of thousands of local times, largely at the instigation of which commercial enterprise?
Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. People
Which of these historically significant people does NOT enter the world in 1883 (although his elder half-sister Angela IS born that year on 28 July in Austria)?
Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Mar 16 2024 : PurpleComet: 7/10
Mar 11 2024 : Guest 1: 4/10
Mar 04 2024 : rivenproctor: 10/10
Mar 01 2024 : 1995Tarpon: 10/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Music - February 13 Having been born in 22 May 1813, in Leipzig, Germany, he has become known primarily as one of the world's greatest composers of grand opera. Now his cycle comes to a final twilight as he suffers a heart attack in Venice, Italy. Who dies?

Answer: Richard Wagner

He'd probably have preferred that his best known music was something soaring like the "Ride of the Valkyries", but in fact its probably the "Bridal Chorus" from "Lohengrin", commonly known as "Here Comes the Bride"!
2. Hobbies - February 16 This American periodical, to become known for over a century as a source of sensible advice on home management and cooking, is published for the first time as a separate magazine. What is it called?

Answer: Ladies' Home Journal

The "Ladies' Home Journal" started out as a single page in the American magazine, "Tribune and Farmer" written by the publisher's wife, Louisa Knapp Curtis, and entitled "Women at Home". After a year, it became an independent magazine, called "The Ladies' Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper", dropping the last three words in 1886. The original "Life" magazine also began publication that year. "National Geographic" had its first publication in 1888. The "Library Journal" was founded in 1876.
3. Science - April 5, 1883 Two Polish professors in Krakow succeed in liquefying a measurable amount of a vital gas for the very first time. Which gas is this?

Answer: Oxygen

Their names were Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski, and they worked at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Carbon Dioxide doesn't liquefy at normal pressures, instead condensing into dry ice. Hydrogen was first liquefied by James Dewar in 1898, and helium wasn't liquefied until 10 July 1908 by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes.
4. Entertainment - June 16 A children's variety performance at the Victoria Hall, in Sunderland, England ends in the deaths of 183 children between 3 and 14 years old. What causes their deaths?

Answer: Human stampede

The children were offered free sweets at the conclusion of the show, and when the children in the gallery saw sweets being given out in the stalls they rushed for the exit. Unfortunately the exit was blocked, the door bolted so that only one child could pass at a time, presumably so tickets could be checked. The resulting crush caused the deaths of 183 children from compressive asphyxiation, the worst disaster of its kind in British history. The resulting public outrage led to the invention of the 'push bar' emergency doors familiar in halls and theatres everywhere today.
5. Literature - June 30, 1883 The first part of a new work by Robert Louis Stevenson appears in "Young Folks: A Boys' and Girls' Paper of Instructive and Entertaining Literature". What is the name of this exciting new novel?

Answer: The Black Arrow

The final part of the serial appeared in the issue dated October 20, 1883, but the novel wasn't published as a whole until 1888. The story is set during the Wars of the Roses, and tells the story of a young man, Dick Shelton, as he becomes a knight, rescues his lady, and obtains justice for his father's murder.
6. Sports - July 4, 1883 What is claimed to have been the first organized example of a certain type of sporting event is held in Pecos, Texas. What is this very American sport?

Answer: Rodeo

There appears to be a lot of argument about this one - the other main contender is Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1872. The difficulty appears to be that rodeo was evolved rather than invented. The word "rodeo" is Spanish, and means simply "round up". The contests that are part of modern rodeo grew out of the practices of cowboys and cattle ranchers in the western United States much as competitive sheep shearing grew out of sheep-farming practices in New Zealand.

Informal competition gradually developed into formal contests with prizes and rewards, and it's hard to determine just when and where rodeo was born.
7. Animals - August 12, 1883 The last of its kind, a mare, dies at the Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam. The only known photograph shows that this animal appears to have the front half of a zebra, and the back half of a horse. What kind of creature is this marvel?

Answer: Quagga

The Quagga was the first extinct species to have its DNA studied, and scientists have concluded it was in fact a kind of Plains Zebra. It was hunted to extinction, as was the Tarpan, a wild horse native to the steppes of Eurasia; the Aurochs, a wild bovine related to domestic cattle; and the Bluebuck, a species of antelope found in the savannah of southern Africa.
8. Geography - August 26, 1883. A volcano erupts with such violence that ash is propelled eighty kilometres into the air, it is heard over 3000 miles away, and sends tsunamis half way round the world. The death toll is thought to have been at least 36,000 and quite possibly very many more. Where is this mighty eruption?

Answer: Krakatoa, West of Java

The eruption began as early as 20 May 1883 with seismic activity and steam venting from Perbuatan, one of the island's three cones. It worked its way up to loud explosions on the 16 June, and a thick black ash cloud settled over the island. The eruptions intensified until 26-27 August, when the island literally blew itself apart.

The final explosion, at 10:41 on the 27th August, was heard as far away as Perth, Australia, and burst the eardrums of sailors on the Sunda Strait. It was arguably the loudest sound in historic times.

The resulting tsunami reached the shores of South Africa. Sunsets were seen around the world. By comparison, the other eruptions of that period were much smaller and killed far fewer people: Mount Tarawera erupted on 10 June 1886, Mount Bandai on July 15, 1888, and Cotopaxi in June 1877.
9. World - November 18, 1883 The United States institutes five standard continental time zones, ending a muddle of thousands of local times, largely at the instigation of which commercial enterprise?

Answer: Railroads

Sunday, November 18, 1883 was called "The Day of Two Noons" because the railroads changed the clocks at each station as soon as standard-time noon was reached in its time zone. The new time zones were named Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern, and Inter-colonial.
10. People Which of these historically significant people does NOT enter the world in 1883 (although his elder half-sister Angela IS born that year on 28 July in Austria)?

Answer: Adolf Hitler, future dictator of Germany, 20 April

Adolf Hitler was not born until 1889. Numerous other notables were also born in 1883, including Ichirô Hatoyama, Prime Minister of Japan; Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet; Celal Bayar, President of Turkey; King Faisal I of Iraq; Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate; Douglas Fairbanks, American actor; John Maynard Keynes, English economist; Pierre Laval, Prime Minister of France; Franz Kafka, Austrian writer; Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist; Coco Chanel, French stylist; and Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate. It was a busy year!
Source: Author Flamis

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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