Trivia People

The Marvelettes in a 1963 promotional photo, from left, Gladys Horton, Wanda Young, Georgeanna Tillman and Katherine Anderson.

Today is the 54th anniversary of the first No. 1 hit for Motown Records, “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes.

Here are some things you may not have known about Motown and the Marvelettes.

Motown was founded by Barry Gordy in 1959 in Detroit  and was originally known as Tamla Records. The first release was a song called “Come to Me” by Marv Johnson. In 1959, “Money (That’s What I Want)” by Barrett Strong hit No. 2 on the Billboard R&B charts. Motown’s first superstar group was the Miracles, with lead singer Smokey Robinson.

Motown’s roster grew to include many of the major American popular musical acts of the 1960s. To name a few: The Temptations, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells and Stevie Wonder.

The Marvelettes were from Inkster, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. They formed in 1960 after performing in a high school glee club and signed with Tamla Records a year later. A year after “Please Mr. Postman” hit No. 1, the group had a No. 17 hit with “Beechwood 4-5789.” In 1966 they had their final hit with “Don’t Mess With Bill.”

Our question, What was Motown’s Detroit headquarters known as?

Today is also: Youth Day and King Mohammed VI’s Birthday in Morocco and Ninoy Aquino Day in the Philippines. In the United States it is unofficially National Senior Citizens’ Day and National Spumoni Day. It’s the birthday of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, sprinter Usain Bolt, and musicians Kenny Rogers, Count Basie and Joe Strummer.

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Wallace, Idaho after the Great Fire of 1910. (Photo by National Photo Company via US Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons)

Today is the 105th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Fire of 1910, the largest forest fire in American history.

Here are some things you may not have known about “The Big Burn.”

The fire burned three million acres in northeast Washington, northern Idaho and northwestern Montana. It took the fire just two days to burn an area the size of the state of Connecticut.

The fire was stoked by dry, hurricane-force winds that blew in on the afternoon of August 20. The winds further dried an already-parched region. In addition to fanning the flames, the winds also blew flaming trees through the air. It is estimated by some that most of the 3-million acres burned in less than six hours.

87 firefighters were killed, the most in any single event until the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York. The death toll would have been higher if not for Ranger Ed Pulaski. Pulaski led his crew of 40 firefighters into a mine shaft as the area was overcome by flames. The air in the shaft was so filled with smoke that Pulaski had to threaten to shoot anyone who tried to leave. In the end, 35 of his 40-man crew survived the inferno.

Our question, who was president of the United States during the Big Burn?

Today is also: Saint Stephen’s Day in Hungary, Restoration of Independence Day in Estonia and World Mosquito Day, a commemoration of the discovery that mosquitos transmit malaria. In the United States it it unofficially National Radio Day and National Lemonade Day. It is also the birthday of former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison, author H.P. Lovecraft, boxing promoter Don King, and singer Robert Plant.

Sources:

www.idahoforests.org/fires/htm

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On this date in 1839, the French government presented the patent rights to the early photography process of daguerreotype as a gift to the world.

Here are a few things you may not know about Louis Daguerre and his process.

First, Daguerre was born near Paris in 1787 and was a noted theater designer and later invented the diorama. In 1829 he began working with Nicephore Niepce, who had previously developed heliography, a photoengraving process.

In the daguerrotype process, a thin sheet of silver-plated copper is coated with light-sensitive silver iodide. The plate then is exposed in a camera. The image is developed by exposing the plate to mercury vapors and then fixing the image by removing the rest of the silver iodide with a saltwater solution.

In 1838, Daguerre took the first candid photograph of a person. In a street scene called “Boulevard du Temple” two men at a shoeshine stand were motionless enough to be captured by the lengthy daguerreotype exposure.

Daguerre died in 1851 at the age of 63

Our question, What was the only country in which Daguerre retained patent rights to his process?

Women suffragists picketing in front of the White house. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Today is the 95th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which gave women the right to vote.

Here are some things you may not have known about the amendment.

The 19th amendment was introduced in 1878 by Senator Aaron A. Sargent of California, but was not passed by Congress until June 4, 1919. Six days later it was ratified by the legislatures of Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. The amendment gathered 22 of the needed 36 ratifications by the end of 1919. On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee legislature ratified it, officially adding it to the constitution.

The amendment was eventually ratified by all 48 states that were members of the Union at the time.

The text of the amendment was nearly identical to that of the 15th amendment, which granted the vote to those disenfranchised on the basis of race. Because of this precedent , the 19th amendment stood up to an almost-immediate constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court in the case of Leser vs. Garnett.

Our question, In what year did Mississippi become the final state to ratify the 19th amendment?

Today is also: Constitution Day in Indonesia, Vietnam Veterans’ Day in Australia and National Science Day in Thailand. In the United States it is unofficially National Ice Cream Pie Day and National Mail Order Catalog Day. It’s the birthday of American explorer Meriwether Lewis, American actor Robert Redford, and former Mexican president Felipe Calderon.

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Cover of the first edition of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” published in Great Britain on Aug. 17, 1945. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1945, George Orwell’s novella “Animal Farm” was published in Great Britain.

Here are some things you may not have known about Orwell and “Animal Farm.”

Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a response to the British public’s admiration for Joseph Stalin as an ally during World War II. Orwell used the character of Napoleon, a Berkshire Boar, to represent Stalin. Napoleon establishes himself as leader of Animal Farm by dispatching his enemies and twisting the original aims of the Animalism movement.

The book was chosen as one of Time magazine’s 100 best English-language novels in 2005. It was also a selection in the Great Books of the Western World.

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, who was born in British-controlled India in 1903. Orwell was a Democratic Socialist, who believed that Stalinism was giving socialism a bad name. “Animal Farm” made him a bestselling author. Four years after the publication of “Animal Farm,” his masterpiece “Nineteen Eighty-Four” was published.

Orwell died of tuberculosis six months after the publication of “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” He was 46 years old.

Today is also: Independence day in Indonesia and Gabon. It’s Flag day in Bolivia and San Martin Day in Argentina. In the United States it is unofficially National Thrift Shop Day. It’s also the birthday of American frontiersman Davy Crockett, former president of China Jiang Zemin and Amercian actor Robert De Niro.

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Question 1
How much RAM did an original base-model IBM PC come with?

    64 kilobytes

    16 kilobytes

    32 kilobytes

    4 kilobytes

Question 2
Lenovo, the company that bought IBM's PC business, is based in what country?

    Vietnam

    South Korea

    China

    Japan

Question 3
What percentage of the world's population is estimated to be left-handed?

    15 percent

    50 percent

    35 percent

    10 percent

Question 4
Which king built the fortress that eventually became the Louvre?

    Louis XIV

    John I

    Charles IV

    Phillip II

Question 5
How was Japan's surrender at the end of World War II made public?

    Newspaper announcement

    Radio broadcast

    Public speech

    Newsreel film

Question 6
What game show did Monty Hall host?

    "Let's Make a Deal"

    "Jeopardy!"

    "Match Game"

    "The Price is Right"

Question 7
Which U.S. president signed legislation that created The Smithsonian Institution?

    Franklin Pierce

    John Quincy Adams

    James K. Polk

    John Adams

Question 8
What was Marilyn vos Savant's highest reported IQ test score?

    197

    185

    228

    246

Question 9
Which of the following U.S. Presidents was NOT left-handed?

    George H.W. Bush

    George W. Bush

    Bill Clinton

    Barack Obama

Question 10
On what ship named after an American state was Japan's official instrument of surrender signed?

    Iowa

    Arizona

    Missouri

    Kansas

This week we talked about:

• The Louvre and Smithsonian Institution

• Genius Marilyn vos Savant and the Monty Hall Problem

• The introduction of the IBM Personal Computer

• International Left-Handers Day

• Japan’s surrender to end World War II

This week’s quiz will be posted soon.

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Also,

Victor Jorgensen’s photograph of the VJ Day kiss in Times Square, New York on August 14, 1945. (Via Wikimedia Commons)

Today is the 70th anniversary of the announcement of Japan’s surrender which ended World War Two.

Here are some things you may not have known about what has come to be known as VJ Day.

The surrender came nine days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and five days after another atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. On the same day as the bombing of Nagasaki, the Soviet army also declared war on Japan. The Japanese government accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration which called for their unconditional surrender.

The announcement came at noon in Tokyo on August 15, 1945, which was 11 p.m. on August 14th in Washington D.C. The announcement was made by Emperor Hirohito via a phonograph recording made in the Imperial Palace. A group of Japanese army officers attempted to prevent the surrender by launching an ultimately unsuccessful coup d’etat against Hirohito. The phonograph record was smuggled out of the palace in a laundry basket and broadcast as planned.

The language used by Hirohito was in classical Japanese that most ordinary listeners would not have been able to understand. This, combined with the poor audio quality of the recording, left many listeners confused as to whether Japan had in fact surrendered. After the announcement, an announcer clarified the Emperor’s message. The original record was eventually recovered, but has never been played again.

The instrument of surrender was signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Our question, what year did Hirohito’s reign as Emperor of Japan end?

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Today is International Left-Handers Day.

Here are some things you may not have known about southpaws.

Left-handers make up about seven to ten percent of the world’s population. About 70-90 percent is right-handed.

For centuries cultures have favored right-handers over lefties and that extends to language. The fact that Right also means correct, is no accident. The Latin word for “left” and “unlucky” is “sinister.”

Since 1923, six U.S. presidents have been left handed. Three Democrats: Harry S Truman, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; and three Republicans: Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. In the 1992, 1996 and 2008 presidential elections all the major candidates were left-handed.

Our question, why are left-handers known as “southpaws” in the United States?

Today is also: Independence Day in Central African Republic, Women’s Day in Tunisia and in the United States it is Filet Mignon Day. It is the birthday of film director Alfred Hitchcock, golf legend Ben Hogan and  Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

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The IBM 5150 Personal Computer (Photo by Ruben de Rijcke via Wikimedia Commons)

Today is the 34th anniversary of the release of the IBM Personal Computer.

Here are some things you might not have known about the machines.

First, a base model original IBM PC cost $1,565 and had 16 kilobytes of RAM and no disk drives and no monitor. The model with 64 kilobytes of RAM, a 5 1/4-inch floppy drive and a monitor sold for $3,005, roughly $7,800 today. The next model, introduced two years later featured a 10-megabyte hard drive. It shipped with an Intel CPU and Microsoft’s Disk Operating System.

Second, The inclusion of products by Intel and Microsoft set the stage for these two companies to dominate personal computing for the next three decades. PC Clones began appearing in 1982, with the Compaq Portable. Eventually as the clones began to increase market share, the fact that a machine was “IBM compatible” became less important that whether it ran on “Wintel,” a portmanteau of Microsoft’s Windows and Intel.

Third, IBM sold its personal computer business to the Chinese company Lenovo in 2005. The original IBM PCs are collectable and can sell for as much as $4,500.

Our question, what year did Microsoft Windows debut?

Today is also: International Youth Day, World Elephant Day. In the U.S. it is National julienne Fries Day, National Vinyl Records Day and National Middle Child Day. It’s the birthday of filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, musician Buck Owens and tennis great Pete Sampras.

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Marilyn vos Savant (Image from Parade.com)

Today is the birthday of the person who held the world record for highest IQ.

Here are some things you may not have known about Marilyn vos Savant.

First, Savant is an author, columnist and lecturer who was born on August 11, 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of 10 she said she took an IQ test which was scored at 228. The test she took has a score ceiling of 170, so the 228 figure was an extrapolation that has been criticized by many in the field of intelligence testing. A later score of 186, was achieved on another test, the design of which some have taken issue. Guinness has stopped listing the highest IQ due to inconsistency in scoring.

Second, she has written a column for Parade magazine since 1986. In the column, she answers readers’ questions, gives advice and offers quizzes and answers.  Among the most famous of her columns is one that featured what is known as “The Monty Hall Problem,” named after the former host of the game show “Let’s Make a Deal.” The problem starts with three choices: Door number 1, 2 or 3. Behind one of the doors is a car; the other doors hide goats. After the contestant picks a door, the host, who knows what’s behind each door, opens one of the unchosen doors to reveal a goat. The host then offers the contestant the chance to change his choice to the other unopened door. Is it to the contestant’s advantage to change doors? The answer is that the contestant’s odds of winning the game increase from 1-in-3 to 2-in-3 by changing to the other unopened door. 97 percent of reader-submitted computer simulations reached the same answer.

Our question, Marilyn vos Savant is married to medical pioneer Robert Jarvik. What device did Jarvik help develop?

Today is also: Independence Day in the country of Chad, Flag Day in Pakistan, and Mountain Day in Japan. In the U.S. it is National Son’s and Daughter’s Day, National Presidential Joke day and National Raspberry Bombe day.

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