Trivia & Moments in Time - Nov. 26, 2009

TRIVIA TEST

1. GEOGRAPHY: Where is the Kenai Peninsula?

2. MEDICINE: What human organ is affected by Bright’s Disease?

3. FAMOUS QUOTATIONS: Who once said, “Man is by nature a political animal”?

4. MOVIES: What famous 1960s movie featured the character Benjamin Braddock?

5. COLLEGE TEAMS: What is the nickname for the University of Minnesota sports teams?

6. TELEVISION: What kind of pets did Bert own on the children’s show “Sesame Street”?

7. FOOD & DRINK: What kind of vegetables are known as capsicums?

8. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: Who was the founder of the Salvation Army?

9. AD SLOGANS: What brand of detergent touted its effectiveness against “ring around the collar”?

10. ANIMAL KINGDOM: How many quills does an adult porcupine have?

Answers

1. Southern Alaska

2. Kidneys

3. Aristotle

4. “The Graduate”

5. Golden Gophers

6. Goldfish

7. Peppers

8. William Booth

9. Wisk

10. 30,000

(c) 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.

MOMENTS IN TIME

The History Channel

• On Dec. 10, 1901, the first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. Although Nobel offered no reason for his creation of the prizes, it is believed he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.

• On Dec. 12, 1917, in Omaha, Neb., Father Edward J. Flanagan, a 31-year-old Irish priest, opens the doors to a home for troubled and neglected children. Today “Boys and Girls Town” includes a grade school, a high school and a career vocational center on a farm 10 miles west of Omaha.

• On Dec. 7, 1925, future Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller sets the world record for the 150-yard freestyle swim. Already a gold medalist from the 1924 Olympics, Weissmuller competed again in 1928, taking five gold medals in all. In 1931, MGM cast Weissmuller to play the title role in “Tarzan the Ape Man.”

• On Dec. 11, 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations votes to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an organization to help provide relief and support to children living in countries devastated by the war.

• On Dec. 13, 1950, an unknown actor named James Dean appears in a Pepsi commercial. Dean would later personify the angry, restless youth culture in the film “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955). He died in a car crash in 1955 at age 24.

• On Dec. 8, 1987, at a summit meeting in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear arsenals. Previous agreements had merely been attempts by the two Cold War adversaries to limit the growth of their nuclear arsenals.

• On Dec. 9, 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announces the formal separation of Charles, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, and his wife, Princess Diana. The report came after several years of speculation by the tabloid press that the marriage was in peril.

(c) 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.