MEGALANIA U.S. HISTORY QUIZ PAGE
How much do you know about U.S. History? If you want to test your know-how, answer these questions and then look at the answer key below. Remember to phrase your answer in the form of an answer. Give yourself one point if you answer one part of a two-part question correctly. Multiply the number of points you get by four to determine your grade.
A really good grade would be about a sixty-eight. Fifty or less means that you should do a little brushing up if you're interested in U.S. History in the first place. Above eighty means that you're a U.S. History maven!
GOOD LUCK! YOU'LL NEED IT, I'M TOLD!!!
1) Who was the eleventh president? What was the most notable thing he did? (2 points)
2) On what piece of territory was the Battle of Bunker Hill fought? Be specific. (1 point)
3) The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all of the slaves. Which ones were not freed? (1 point)
4) During the Gilded Age, where was "Millionaire's Row"? (1 point)
5) In what year did Richard Nixon resign from the presidency? (1 point)
6) What institution did Senator Joe McCarthy attack which finally led to the downfall of his own campaign of Communist hysteria? (1 point)
7) In what year was the first Thanksgiving meal (that is, the meal of the Plymouth Pilgrims and their Wampanoag neighbors)? (1 point)
8) What large French fortress in Canada was besieged and captured by New Englanders in 1745? (1 point)
9) In what decade did the song "Yes, We Have No Bananas" become a national obsession in America? (1 point)
10) What did President Woodrow Wilson do for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in return for Roosevelt's key support of Wilson at the 1912 Democratic National Convention? (1 point)
11) What distinguished George Bush's enlistment in the U.S. Navy when he joined in 1942? (1 point)
12) In what year did the initial colonists arrive at Jamestowne? What three ships brought them? (2 points)
13) When Union troops defeated Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg (July 3, 1863), what did they shout at the fleeing rebels? Why? (2 points)
14) What was undoubtedly the most important thing that ever happened on Max Yasgur's farm, and in what year did it happen? (1 point)
15) Who was the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs from 1985 to 1989 who allegedly solicited $10 million from the Sultan of Brunei to purchase arms for the Contras? (1 point)
16) Give the popular names for the four scandals that rocked the Grant presidency (for instance, one from Ronald Reagan's presidency is known as "Iran/Contra"). Score a half-point for each right answer.
17) Americans participated in the largest naval battle in history. What is it's name? (1 point) Give yourself a bonus point if you can name both U.S. fleets involved, no mean feat.
18) What was the Trail of Tears? (1 point)
19) What action, meant to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression, did the U.S. Congress take in 1930 which actually made matters worse and completed the ruin of the U.S. economy? Why did it backfire? (2 points)
20) In 1895 William Randolph Hearst bought his first New York newspaper. What was it's name? (1 point)
1) James K. Polk. He annexed the entire Southwest and California from Mexico by force of arms.
2) Breed's Hill (a hill to the east of Bunker Hill).
3) Slaves "owned" in states not currently in rebellion against the Union were not freed.
4) Millionaire's Row was a line of huge mansions on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. A few remain today.
5) Nixon resigned in 1974.
6) McCarthy attacked the U.S. Army.
7) The first Thanksgiving was in 1621.
8) The French fortress was oft-besieged, oft-taken Louisbourg. The French had a difficult time relieving besieged towns in Canada.
9) "Yes We Have No Bananas" was sung by virtually everyone in the 1920's.
10) In appreciation for Roosevelt's support at the Convention, Wilson appointed Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913.
11) Bush joined the Navy on his 18th birthday, and was accepted as a pilot, making him at that time the youngest pilot in the U.S. Navy.
12) Jamestowne was first settled in 1607. The ships were the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery.
13) The Union troops shouted one word over and over again at the fleeing Confederates: "Fredericksburg." They did this because the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had inflicted terrible slaughter upon the Union Army of the Potomac on Marye's Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg the year before, in much the same manner that the Union troops defeated Pickett's Charge.
14) Max Yasgur was host to thousands attending the concert known as Woodstock, in 1969.
15) The accused Assistant Secretary of State was Elliot Abrams. He ultimately plea-bargained.
16) The major scandals of Grant's terms were known as the Credit Mobilier Scandal, the Whiskey Ring, the Gold Conspiracy and the Salary Grab. Grant was too great a national hero to be directly implicated but his presidency is remembered as highly corrupt.
17) The largest naval battle in history, both in terms of numbers of ships involved and in geographical area, was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 23-25, 1944, against the Imperial Japanese Navy. After a bumpy start the Japanese were defeated. The U.S. fleets were the Third and the Seventh Fleets.
18) "The Trail of Tears" refers to the route taken during the enforced removal in 1838 of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia to Oklahoma, a thousand-mile death march on which the Cherokee were allowed to bring little if any food or shelter, and on which at least 4,000 Cherokee died.
19) To protect U.S. businesses, Congress enacted tough trade barriers (the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930) which in turn resulted in a dramatic decline in sales of U.S. goods overseas -- causing the loss of millions of more jobs and the closing of many more banks. This action finally pushed the U.S. into the depths of the Great Depression (1932).
20) The New York Journal.
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Hope you had fun and learned a history fact or two. Larry Dunn, 1998
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