THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
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70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2457772.16
"Heavens above!"
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, January 20, 2017
Quiz XVIII: What Happened First?
Yes, the Daily Astronomer lets down its luxuriant tresses on Friday and has a great deal of fun. While we focus on astronomy M - Th, our Friday quiz can pertain to anything and everything. We've had quizzes about, well, anything and everything, hence that last sentence. This week's quiz is historical. However, it is not one of those annoying history quizzes that requires you to precisely know precise dates: Instead, one would need to know the proper historical order of events. Players have to determine which occurrence predated the other. For example, "What happened first: The battle of Hastings or The landing of the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 onto the moon?"
The answer is "The Battle of Hastings," since that fight happened in 1066 and the Luna 9 landing occurred in 1966. Of course, that one might have been a bit easy as nine full centuries separated the events. One will find as one proceeds through the test that the events might have occurred with a year or even with days of each other.
So, history buffs, sharpen your quills or pencils and delve deep into the past!
1. What happened first:
a. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated
b. Jules Verne published "Around the World in 80 Days."
2. What happened first:
a. The Great London Fire
b The Great Chicago Fire
3. What happened first:
a. Alaska became a state
b. Hawaii became a state
4. What happened first:
a. The bombing of Pearl Harbor
b. The broadcast of the first television commercial
5. What happened first:
a. The signing of the Magna Carta
b. Columbus' first voyage to the Americas
6. What happened first:
a. Cleopatra and Mark Anthony commit suicide after their defeat at the Battle of Actium
b. Roman Emperor Caligula choses his favorite horse, Incitatus to be a senator.
7. What happened first:
a. Galileo died
b. Isaac Newton was born
8. What happened first:
a. Babylonian astronomer Naburiannu determined the length of the lunar month
b. Greek astronomer Eratosthenes measured Earth's circumference.
9. What happened first:
a. MTV's first broadcast
b. Ronald Regan's first inauguration.
10. What happened first:
a. The first contingent of British prisoners set sail for Australia
b. Britain recognized the Independence of the United States
ANSWERS
1. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865; Jules Verne published "Around the World in 80 Days" in 1872.
2. The Great London Fire happened in 1666; The Chicago conflagration raged in 1871.
3. The US granted statehood status to Alaska on January 3, 1959; Hawaii received the same honor on August 21, 1959.
4. NBC broadcast the first commercial on July 1, 1941; Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941
5. The Magna Carta was signed and sealed by King John in 1215;
Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.
6. Cleopatra and Mark Anthony went to the next world in 31 BCE; Caligula named Incantatus to the Senate in 40 AD. Some historians wonder if the infamous Emperor actually named this horse to the senate. If he had done so, it might have been a symptom of psychosis or merely a gesture of contempt for the senate.
7. This one is close: Italian scientist Galileo Galilei died January 8, 1642; English scientist Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642
8. Babylonian astronomer Naburiannu determined the length of the lunar month in 500 BCE; Eratosthenes calculated Earth's circumference around 260 BCE
9. Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president on January 20, 1981 and MTV went on-line (with music, curiously) on August 1, 1981
10. The first ship carrying convicts and others to Australia set sail in May 1787; The Treaty of Paris, which included Britain's recognition of American Independence and a formal conclusion to the Revolutionary War, was ratified in September 1783.
RATINGS
10 CORRECT UBER-HISTORIAN!
Candidate for the Beer Prize. Now, don't become too excited. The George Louis Beer Prize is conferred onto a historian for a notable scholarly achievement in European history since 1895.
7- 9 CORRECT PREFIX-FREE HISTORIAN
Candidate for the Breasted Prize! Ok, before the angry phone calls....the James Henry Breasted Prize is given for any historical work related to the period prior to 1000 AD
3 - 6 CORRECT ASPIRING HISTORIAN
No prizes for wishes, of course; You look forlornly onto the coterie of the grey-haired and erudite marching in unison to the library reading room. You peer up admiringly at the oil on canvas visage of Edward Gibbon, you draw gratefully on your electronic cigarette and feel that you are, indeed, reposing in another age.
0 - 2 CORRECT There was this student one time who failed a history test so miserably, he not only scored a fat zero on the exam, but the teacher deemed it necessary to remove points from his most recent Physics test as a way to make up for the worst point deficit he had ever seen in his 110 years of mind molding.