History Bowl Quiz

10. In 2008, George Carlin began a performance with a profanity-laced tirade about this man, and that was before more recent allegations of doping surfaced. Still, unlike Floyd Landis, at least his seven titles of his sport's signature event have not yet been stripped. For ten points, name this American who beat testicular cancer before beating hundreds of other cyclists in the Tour de France

Armstrong

9. Their civilization began to develop a unique character around 800 B.C., superseding the previous Iron Age Villanovan culture. Speaking a non-Indo-European language, they gave their name to one of the most picturesque regions of the world. Eventually they established a dynasty in their greatest rival, but that came to an end when Tarquinius Superbus was ejected in 509 B.C. For twenty points, name this people of ancient Italy who lived in Tuscany and who were ultimately overtaken by the Romans.

Etruscans

9. Founded in 1980, which channel featured the show Crossfire for 25 years and was acclaimed for its groundbreaking coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1991? It has also featured anchors Bernard Shaw and Christiane Amanpour, as well as Larry King Live.

CNN

6. The inhabitants of this city may have participated in child sacrifice in their worship of the god Baal. It is described in Book 1, Line 12 of the Aeneid as being both ancient and settled by colonists from Tyre. For ten points, name this city in modern-day Tunisia which was destroyed after the third Punic War with Rome.

Carthage

5. It was opened in the winter of 1859 but not completed until 1873. Sheep were actually kept in a particular part of it until the Great Depression when it was feared they would be eaten. It went into decline soon after it opened though due to lack of interest from Tammany Hall politicians. For twenty points, name this 843-acre preserve designed by Frederick Law Olmsted that has featured concerts by Paul Simon, the Dave Matthews Band, and others in the core of the Big Apple.

Central Park

2. His tombstone in Lexington Cemetery simply reads "I know no North, no South, no East, no West." Though he didn't know how to get elected to the White House either, failing twice in that endeavor, he was an effective legislator as a member of Congress. Two of the most famous laws he helped pass were the compromise tariff of 1833, which ended the nullification crisis, and the Missouri Compromise. He was also famous for his "American System" which laid a foundation for American industrial development through its encouragement of road and canal building. For twenty points, name this Senator and Speaker of the House from Kentucky, the Great Compromiser.

Clay

6. Which woman had a child with both a member of the first Roman triumvirate and a member of the second Roman triumvirate, namely Julius Caesar and Marc Antony?

Cleopatra

9. In 2000, you could see one at the Hotelissimo Hotel in Gonesse, France, or at least what was left of it. Today, you can see one on the deck of the Intrepid in New York, but you can't fly on it anymore as it was retired from passenger service in 2003. For ten points, name this aircraft used by British Airways and Air France which used to fly at Mach 2 over the Atlantic.

Concorde

8. This man was born in the secessionist state of Franklin before it became part of Tennessee. Later on, he would serve as a Congressman from that state although his defeat in 1834 inspired the line "you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas." He didn't fare much better in Texas, though, as he died in March of 1836 in San Antonio at the Alamo. For ten points, name this archetypical trapper, backwoodsman, and "king of the wild frontier."

Crockett

4. He was born in Illinois in 1928, but ended up spending much of his life in imprisoned in the South. In 1977, he successfully escaped from Brushy Mountain Prison in Tennessee but was captured a few days later. This marked his second time on the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives List, the first had ended with his capture at Heathrow Airport in June 1968. For twenty points, name this man whose crime at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968 later led to riots across the USA upon the death of his victim, Martin Luther King.

Ray

1. He spent much of his adult life affiliated with the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno. However, his scientific talents were identified at a young age, and actually fostered by church officials who sent him to Vienna. There he studied physics under Christian Doppler, but it is in another scientific field that he made his most important contributions, making full use of the monastery garden in order to do so. For twenty points, name this Augustinian priest, pea plant specialist, and father of modern genetics

Mendel

7. The turning point of this battle came when 36 American dive bombers led by Lt. Battle of Midway Commander Wade McCluskey spotted the main Japanese carrier force around 10:30 on June 4. Although the Japanese fleet was stronger than the American, excellent naval intelligence provided by codebreakers and a superior concentration of forces helped the USA destroy 4 Japanese carriers, against a loss of just 1 for the USA. For twenty points, name this major battle of the Pacific fought in 1942 near one of the westernmost of the Hawaiian islands.

Midway

3. This dynasty ended with the rebellion of Li Zicheng who established the short-lived Shun dynasty. One of the more interesting events of the dynasty was the voyage of the Muslim eunuch Zheng He across the Indian Ocean to Africa. Other events included the introduction of crops from the Columbian Exchange, which largely came via increased trade links with the Portuguese and the Dutch. For twenty points, name this Chinese dynasty that succeeded the Yuan dynasty and lasted from 1368-1644, often associated with vase painting.

Ming

5. Which state's name was paired with "Chesapeake" in the name of a 19th century canal, and with "Baltimore" in the name of a 19th century railroad? This Midwestern state was also the home of 8 U.S. Presidents, including Garfield, McKinley, and Harding.

Ohio

2. What civilization would you have been in, if in the year 470 BC, you were traveling from Sardis to Susa on the Royal Road, and then stopped to worship Ahura Mazda (accept Achaemenid) at a temple that had been built by King Xerxes (pr. Zerk-zees)?

Persian

4. Which painter's important works includes portraits of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, his mistress Dora Maar, and the author Gertrude Stein? He also painted the masterpieces Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (pr. lay dem-wah-SELLS davv-in-YON) and Guernica (pr. GWAIR-nikk-uh), a painting depicting a scene from the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso

7. This author was once part of the group that boarded the British battleship HMS Dreadnought as an elaborate practical joke, pretending they were African royalty. That contrasts with her more serious literary works as a member of the Bloomsbury Group, such as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. For ten points, name this British author whose name is found in the title of an Edward Albee play that is a pun on a question found in a fairy tale.

Woolf

1. His "dollar diplomacy" proved to be a largely ineffective foreign policy, and he was much happier as a Supreme Court Chief Justice than as a President. He was also the only sitting president to finish third in the Electoral College in a presidential election, in the election of 1912. For ten points, name this president who, though he lived a long life, was obese and once famously got stuck in the bathtub.

Taft

1. Which president's pre White-House career included a failed haberdashery, a stint as an artillery officer in World War I, ten years as a Senator from Missouri, but less than three months as vice-president before becoming president in 1945?

Truman

7. Which African-American woman who became active in the Women's Suffrage movement, reminisced at meetings of suffragettes that she "never lost a passenger" during her time spent leading slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad?

Tubman

4. This country made effective use of ski troops in the Winter War with the Soviet Union. Martti Ahtisaari, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 served as this country's president in the 1990's. During the Cold War, it prospered economically despite its precarious location close to Leningrad. For ten points, name this country that was the site of the 1975 Helsinki Accords.

Finland

5. She was an active suffragette and donor to the NAACP- especially surprising as she was from Alabama, a state whose quarter she appears on. After coming out as a socialist, though, she encountered criticism from many people who had previously admired her ability to overcome adversity. For ten points name this Radcliffe graduate and famous pupil of Annie Sullivan who was both blind and deaf

Helen Keller

10. For which Constitutional Amendment did Utah's ratification in 1933 ironically bring it into effect? It's the only amendment to repeal a different amendment, the 18th, which introduced Prohibition.

21

8. He was clearly the most competent commander for his state in World War I, although that couldn't prevent his state's defeat at the hands of Lawrence of Arabia, among others. His military prowess also proved useful in the war against Greece which soon followed. Following the war, he helped institutionalize secular principles in his country and introduced the Latin alphabet in lieu of Arabic. For twenty points, name this man whose mausoleum can be seen in Ankara, the founder of modern Turkey.

Ataturk

10. This man, over a century after his death, lent his name to the place where Malcolm X John James was shot. Of French extraction, he was born in Haiti, but then came to the fledgling USA where he did his most famous work as a painter. He painted mammals but the fact that a shearwater and a form of the yellow-rumped warbler are named after him show that he's most famous for his work with a different class of vertebrates. For twenty points, name this ornithologist and namesake of bird and wildlife conservation societies throughout the USA.

Audubon

2. The first World War II Liberty Ship was named after this man. A Virginia college with a conservative reputation is also named for him, which is appropriate as he was an anti-Federalist and suspicious of centralized government. For ten points, who told the House of Burgesses on March 23, 1775, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, Give me Liberty or give me death!"

Henry

6. Although a colony of Portugal not of Britain, it is still a member of the Commonwealth Nations. And although not home to a communist government, its flag still features the star of Marxism and an AK-47. Just like another Portuguese colony, roughly 1500 miles to its northwest, Angola, it won independence in 1975. For twenty points, name this country on the east coast of Africa whose foreign relations with neighboring Zimbabwe and South Africa improved dramatically in the 1980's

Mozambique

3. Which country has fought intermittently since 1984 with its much larger neighbor to the east over control of the Siachen Glacier? The fighting here, on one of the world's highest battlefields at over 20,000 feet, has been a flashpoint in the Kashmir conflict between itself and India.

Pakistan

3. Admirers of this city are known as Laconophiles. If you yourself are one, then you surely would recognize the significance of the year 404 B.C. Most of the people that lived there were known as helots, but even the citizens didn't exactly have an easy time of it. For ten points, name this home of Menelaus, rival of Athens, and source of the nickname for Michigan State.

Sparta