USA (1900s) Flashcards
(132 cards)
1
Q
A 1909 expedition to Africa sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, which resulted in thousands of specimens (including dozens of big game animals) collected for American natural history museums, was led by what man, who arranged the expedition in part to give room to new U.S. President W.H. Taft?
A
Theodore Roosevelt
2
Q
On November 19, 1950 at 12:30 pm, the Chicago Historical Society celebrated a notable anniversary by displaying all five extant copies of what document?
A
The Gettysburg Address. The date is four scores and seven years after the speech was delivered.
3
Q
William Alexander Morgan was one of roughly two dozen Americans to fight in this revolutionary conflict. He was only one of three foreign nationals to hold the rank of “comandante” among rebel forces.
A
Cuban Revolution
4
Q
After World War II, the United States Time Corporation changed its name to this.
A
Timex
5
Q
Boulder City was founded in 1931 to house people constructing this.
A
Hoover Dam
6
Q
Who was Time’s first Man of the Year (a honor created, according to legend, because they had failed otherwise to put him on their cover during his glory year of 1927)?
A
Charles Lindbergh
7
Q
Since Franklin Roosevelt (the only three-time honoree), every American president except one has been named Person of the Year. Which one failed to receive the honor?
A
Gerald Ford
8
Q
Who is the only American to have been named Time’s Person of the Year twice without being president? He was first selected in 1943 and again in 1947?
A
George Marshall
9
Q
What woman, whose Fort Peck Dam appeared on the first cover of Life magazine in 1936, was one of the original staff photographers for the magazine, and later became the first woman photographer to work with the U.S. armed forces during World War II?
A
Margaret Bourke-White
10
Q
The 1932 Norris-La Guardia Act made unenforceable, and the 1935 Wagner Act made illegal, what colorfully named employment contract, which stipulates that a worker’s employment is conditional on not joining a trade union?
A
Yellow-Dog Contract
11
Q
Retired California physician and businessman Francis E. Townsend developed a namesake plan which, with millions of members of “Townsend clubs” across the U.S., spurred the development of what federal program?
A
Social Security
12
Q
Between 1973 and 1987, federal law mandated what maximum speed on U.S. highways?
A
55
13
Q
In October 1984, Barbara Bush characterized whom as a “four-million-dollar—I can’t say it, but it rhymes with rich,” following a lively debate the person in question had with Mrs. Bush’s husband a few days prior?
A
Geraldine Ferraro
14
Q
Oliver Sipple, a gay ex-Marine, foiled an assassination attempt on this person by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco.
A
Gerald Ford
15
Q
The farthest human-made object from the Earth, currently operating in interstellar space just over 13 billion miles from home, is one of the two probes built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a NASA space program whose original mission—to study the planetary systems of Jupiter and Saturn—was completed in 1981? What is the name of that space program?
A
Voyager
16
Q
Gregory Pincus, said one critic, sought to create a world where “man’s value was precisely zero.” Because his colleague, John Rock, was (said a supporter) “as handsome as a god, he can get away with just about anything.” What did Rock and Pincus invent?
A
Birth Control Pill
17
Q
For whom was Rudolph Abel traded in 1960?
A
Francis Gary Powers (U2 pilot)
18
Q
In what New York town did the Woodstock Festival actually take place?
A
Bethel
19
Q
The U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut from 1965, declared unconstitutional a law forbidding the use of what?
A
Birth Control/Contraception
20
Q
When the resolution that eventually became the U.S. Constitution’s 19th Amendment (prohibiting citizens from being denied voting rights on the basis of sex) was brought before the House of Representatives in 1919, there was only one woman in Congress able to vote on it. Name that Republican from Montana, who was the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. (She voted Yes to the resolution.)
A
Jeanette Rankin
21
Q
At the time of her death in 2007, an Inuit woman named Rose Okpeaha Leavitt was the last living witness to the 1935 deaths of what two famous Americans?
A
Rose and her father saw the Barrow, Alaska plane crash that killed Will Rogers and Wiley Post.
22
Q
The five burglars arrested on June 17, 1972, at the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel, were indicted by a federal grand jury on September 15 of that year, as were two other operatives. Name either of those two other men, both of whom served time in prison.
A
G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt
23
Q
Walton Rodger of the American Nuclear Society is widely credited with coining a now-familiar phrase, which he used as a term of derision against residents protesting nuclear facilities in their locality. That phrase is also known (and perhaps even better known) by its acronym, which is what?
A
NIMBY
24
Q
Name the man who served as Secretary of Defense for the duration of the presidency of John F. Kennedy (and continued in the role under Lyndon B. Johnson).
A
Robert McNamara
25
This actress became a controversial figure during the Watergate Era due to her outspoken comments about government and figures involved in the scandal. She was married to Nixon's attorney general turned 1972 campaign director.
Martha Mitchell
26
Given his noted thriftiness and unadorned reticence, The Autobiography of ___________ is the fittingly titled (and at a brisk 246 pages, fittingly terse) 1929 autobiography of what American (whose name fills in the blank)?
Calvin Coolidge
27
In 1942, vice president Henry Wallace announced that the 20th century would belong to whom, inspiring Aaron Copland to write that honoree a "Fanfare"?
The common man
28
In 1914, she founded the Woman Rebel magazine and distributed pamphlets on family planning.
Margaret Sanger
29
The Danish West Indies were sold to the United States in 1917 for $25,000,000. What is the current name for this group of islands?
U.S. Virgin Islands
30
Prior to becoming the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1953, this man acted as Governor of California for 10 years.
Earl Warren
31
What was the more familiar name for the "Act to Promote the Defense of the United States," which Congress passed in March 1941 to provide military aid to the Allies?
Lend-Lease Act
32
What famous American was born to the Knauss family in northern Yugoslavia in 1970?
Knauss is the German-ized maiden name of the woman born in Slovenia as Melanija Knavs, today Melania Trump.
33
He was a long-time assistant to Robert E. Peary and a co-discoverer of the North Pole.
Matthew Henson
34
By Act of Congress on June 2, 1924, all members of this group were declared U.S. citizens.
Native Americans
35
Famed for its health care system & medical school, it also sold 15 acres for $10 in 1947 to build CDC headquarters.
Emory University
36
In 1968, Ralph Abernathy took over as president of this organization and led the Poor People’s March to Washington.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
37
This middle name of President Warren G. Harding is the name of a teacher of Paul in the Bible.
Gamaliel
38
These two individuals served as Secretary of State under Bill Clinton. The first from 1993-1997, the second from 1997-2001.
Warren Christopher, Madeline Albright
39
Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce and W’s Secretary of Transportation, he was the first Asian American cabinet member
Norman Mineta
40
What was the colorful term used by Jesse Jackson for the alliance of liberal and minority groups he constructed during his 1984 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination?
Rainbow Coalition
41
Before he ran for President, this man worked to curb organized crimeand prosecuted several powerful mobsters.
Thomas Dewey
42
What two-word slogan and ideological term was used as the title of a 1954 book by Richard Wright and was later popularized by Stokely Carmichael during his time as Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) before evolving into a broader (and potent) political movement?
Black Power
43
The 12th of this group of proposals from Pres. Wilson called for free passage for ships through the Dardanelles.
Fourteen Points
44
In 1972 the AP broke the story of experiments on unconsenting subjects at this Alabama institute
Tuskegee ("Tuskegee Syphillis Study")
45
In 1963 he wrote to MLK seeking a United Front of “all Negro factions” against “a common problem posed by a Common Enemy.”
Malcolm X
46
Congressman Leo Ryan of California was one of five people shot and killed at the Port Kaituma airstrip on the afternoon of November 18, 1978; that night, hundreds more died (many in more compliant fashion). All were killed on the orders of what man?
Jim Jones
47
Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate President Truman at Blair House on November 1, 1950. Three and a half years later, four more gunmen led by Lolita Lebrón wounded five Congressmen in an attack at the United States Capitol. These six would-be assassins were all connected with, and hoped to draw attention to, what political cause?
Puerto Rican independence
48
From Interstate 294 east to Lake Michigan, the former 22nd Street in Chicago and several western suburbs bears the name of this man. The 34th mayor of the city, he held the office less than two years before his assassination in Miami (by a man believed to have been targeting Franklin D. Roosevelt).
Anton Cermak
49
The original law called this was passed in 1944; today there’s a “Post-9/11” version that also pays for 36 months of university education.
G.I. Bill
50
A year after his admission sparked a deadly riot, James Meredith became the first black graduate of this University.
Ole Miss
51
Prompted by the 1902-03 armed intervention of British and German forces in Venezuela to settle debt claims, an amendment to the Monroe Doctrine was issued stating that only the United States may act as an "international police power" in the Western Hemisphere. This supplement is commonly known by what name, after the man who issued it in 1904?
Roosevelt Corollary
52
The resolution by the US Congress in August 1964 that authorized President Johnson to escalate the Vietnam War is named after what body of water?
Gulf of Tonkin
53
The U.S. would have had its second bachelor president ever if what divorcee had won either of the 20th-century elections in which he was a major-party candidate?
Adlai Stevenson
54
Bill and Hillary Clinton were among the co-founders in 1978 of what corporation, which would finally be dissolved fourteen years later?
Whitewater
55
Henry Wallace’s term as this, 1941-1945, is perhaps best remembered for his “Century of the Common Man” speech.
Vice President
56
This is the name of the man convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Sirhan Sirhan
57
The military program announced by President Reagan in March 1983, which promoted funding for a shield of laser and particle-beam weapons in outer space that would eliminate oncoming ICBMs before they could reach the U.S., was known derisively as "Star Wars," but formally by what three-word name?
Strategic Defense Initiative
58
In 1982, a US Border Patrol blockade on US-1 cut off which city from the US mainland, prompting a tongue-in-cheek "independence" of the self-styled Conch Republic?
Key West
59
This woman became a national figure in 1991 after accusing then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment while he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the EEOC.
Anita Hill
60
The shooting and eventual death of this civil rights protestor in Marion, Alabama on February 26, 1965 was one of the main impetuses for the march from Selma to Montgomery.
Jimmie Lee Jackson
61
While the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol, the amendment was enforced by what 1919 federal act, sponsored by and named after a Congressman from Minnesota?
Volstead Act
62
In response to an offensive minstrel song, what Jamaican-born black nationalist and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) created the Pan-African flag in 1920? He started the transatlantic Black Star Line to transport willing African-Americans back to Africa, a dream that went unfulfilled after he was convicted of fraud.
Marcus Garvey
63
Between World War I and World War II, what was by far the world's most populous country never to officially join the League of Nations?
USA
64
In March 1933 CBS Radio’s Robert Trout said, “The President wants to come into your home… for a little” this.
Fireside Chat
65
In a hint of the future, in 1973 Marjorie Post gave it to the U.S. Govt. As a warm-weather presidential retreat, but it was returned
Mar-a-lago
66
This marine biologist and conservationist's 1962 book Silent Spring is credited with greatly advancing the global environmentalist movement. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.
Rachel Carson
67
A U.S. President born in 1884 was given what shortest presidential middle "name"? His parents chose this name to simultaneously name him after both of his grandfathers.
Harry S Truman
68
Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the largest-ever mass killing of American civilians happened in 1978 in what country?
Guyana (Jonestown Massacre)
69
After President Nixon visited China in 1972, China gifted the U.S. with two giant these.
Pandas
70
This lieutenant general is the most decorated Marine in American history. He served in World War II and the Korean War and fought guerrillas in Haiti and Nicaragua.
Chesty Puller
71
In 1999 the U.S. Government was ordered to pay his family $16 million for less than 30 seconds of film.
Abraham Zapruder
72
Name one of two states whose first-ever electoral votes were cast for Woodrow Wilson.
Arizona, New Mexico
73
The 1st segment of this U.S. landmark was dedicated on July 4, 1930; the next, Aug. 30, 1936; Section 3, on Sept. 17, 1937 and the last, on July 2, 1939.
Mt. Rushmore
74
In 1961 this private Texas school provided most of the land that became NASA’s Mission Control Center.
Rice University
75
“Peace Through Strength” is the motto of the U.S. aircraft carrier named for this man who professed the same policy.
Ronald Reagan
76
This politician was the first Southern African-American woman elected to the House of Representatives. She is best known for her opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Nixon, and later being the first woman to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.
Barbara Jordan
77
On December 6, 1969, an auto raceway east of San Francisco hosted a free rock festival featuring among others the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane. It became notorious for violence and a stabbing, allegedly perpetrated by the unusual security presence.
Altamont, Hell's Angels
78
This Native American man came down from the Sierra Nevada in 1911 and the press called him "the last wild Indian in America." He was the last known member of the Yahi tribe. The name by which he is known to posterity was not his personal name, just the Yahi word for man. Their custom was not to divulge your name yourself. Whoever introduced you would relate your name to the stranger. And there was no one left to introduce him.
He went from Oroville to San Francisco where he lived and worked as a researcher and informant at the Museum of Anthropology, then at UCSF.
So by what name was our Yahi fellow known?
Ishi
79
He used the slogan “Return to Normalcy” in his 1920 presidential campaign.
Warren Harding
80
On the radio in 1937 this 3-word exclamation came after “the smoke and the flames now…not quite to the mooring mast.”
"Oh, the humanity."
## Footnote
Spoken by Herbert Morrison about the Hindenburg crash.
81
What former Minnesota governor unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President of the U.S. nine times between 1944 and 1992, with his best showing a third-place finish in the 1948 primary?
Harold Stassen
82
What former U.S. President served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from July 1921 to February 1930?
Taft
83
What iconic ship was christened at its January 1944 launching by Margaret Truman, then a U.S. senator's daughter?
Considering that her dad wasn't yet president or even vice president, why was Margaret Truman chosen to break the champagne bottle? Because the battleship in question was named for her home state: it was the soon-to-be-iconic **_USS Missouri_**.
84
This former vice president and Democratic nominee for president taught at the University of Minnesota in the early 1940s and then served as mayor of Minneapolis.
Hubert Humphrey
(Vice President under Lyndon Johnson 1965-69)
85
What organization was founded by Stanley "Tookie" Williams in Los Angeles in 1969, named perhaps for the fashionable canes its members carried?
Is a street gang an "organization"? It's not always well-organized. The pimp-style canes are the prevailing theory to explain the etymology of how the "**_Crips_**" got their name.
86
Events that occurred in the evening of October 20, 1973, involving Elliot Richardson, William Ruckelshaus, Robert Bork, Archibald Cox, and others, quickly thereafter became known by what three-word phrase?
Saturday Night Massacre
87
DC residents were granted the right to vote with the ratification of the 23rd amendment. During the first election after ratification, they voted 85% in favor of this candidate.
Lyndon Johnson (1964)
88
Which President signed into law the legislation that laid the groundwork for National Public Radio to replace its forerunner, the National Educational Radio Network?
Lyndon Johnson
89
In service from 1959-64, this was the first operational ICBM used by the United States.
SM-65 Atlas
90
This 1970 act, referred to usually by its acronym, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act)
91
Living people are rarely seen on a stamp, but in July 1945 the USPS issued one depicting this military event.
The flag-raising at Iwo Jima
92
Police officers in Jackson, Mississippi are seen here blocking the funeral march of which civil rights activist? He was murdered on June 12, 1963 by a member of a White Citizens' Council, who was not convicted until 1994.
Medgar Evers
93
German saboteurs enlisted the help of the Irish republican Clan na Gael and Indian revolutionary Ghadar Party to trigger the massive Black Tom Island explosion, permanently closing part of which nearby landmark?
(Torch of) The Statue of Liberty
94
Culminating on Aug. 26, 2020, the U.S. will celebrate the 100th anniversary of this egalitarian milestone.
Women's Suffrage
95
What now-familiar news cliche was first trotted out in 1907 for the three months of headlines that followed the murder of architect Stanford White?
Harry Thaw's shocking public murder of White (over a woman!) led to the first ever "**_Trial of the Century_**." It was far from the last.
96
A good deal of the credit for revealing that a strange burglary in the Watergate office complex was much more and uncovering a national political scandal went to what two reporters, whose in-depth reporting led the Washington Post to win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1973? (Name both reporters.)
Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
97
In investigative committee hearings, TN senator Howard Baker asked WH counsel John Dean a question that has echoed through succeeding administrations: "What did the president know and…" What five words complete the query?
When Did He Know It
98
What Washington Post editor played a key role in both the release of the Pentagon Papers and exposing the Watergate Scandal?
Ben Bradlee
99
In 1933, Frances Perkins became the first female cabinet member when she was appointed to what position?
Secretary of Labor
100
The 1956 U.S. Supreme Court case Browder v. Gayle upheld lower court rulings on the unconstitutionality of statutes regarding segregation on city buses. The case's named defendant, W.A. Gayle, was mayor of what city?
Montgomery, Alabama
101
Jimmy Carter's July 1979 speech "A Crisis of Confidence," about fixing a floundering American economy, is today better known by what name, even though Carter never used the word in the speech?
The "malaise" speech
102
At the Scopes trial, this politician said he’d seen nothing to accept the word of scientists against the inspired Word of God.
William Jennings Bryan
103
Of the fifteen costliest Atlantic hurricanes in history, only one dates back to the 20th century. What was that 1992 storm that struck in August, unusually early in the season?
So early that it was the first hurricane of 1992, and therefore started with the letter 'A'. **_Hurricane Andrew_** did $26.5 billion of direct damage to Florida.
104
A fraud perpetrated by a group associated with President Warren Harding known as the "Ohio Gang" involved the siphoning of oil, intended for the U.S. Navy, to the Mammoth Oil Company. What was the name of the oil field in Wyoming in which this oil was located?
Teapot Dome
105
What two-word term was famously used in the Watergate transcripts to replace profanity from the Nixon White House?
The whole thing was a big load of [**_EXPLETIVE DELETED_**].
106
What man, along with his family, was an occupant of a Washington, DC residence known as Blair House from 1948 until 1952?
Harry Truman
107
This governor's stern response to a Boston police strike got him the 1920 Republican VP nod, and he soon succeeded to the presidency.
Calvin Coolidge
108
The Midwest region of the Great Plains known by this two-word nickname had 1930s soil blizzards that blocked the sun.
Dust Bowl
109
The people who founded this charitable organization in 1976 had previously built a bunch of homes in Zaire.
Habitat for Humanity
110
A third party candidate hasn’t won a state in a presidential election since 1968 when this American Independent Party nominee carried Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and his native Alabama.
George Wallace
111
In 1930 this “Main Street” author became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Sinclair Lewis
112
What 20th-century U.S. president hoped to be nominated for a third term, but received no party support due to his poor health?
The Democratic Party wasn't necessarily wrong to bench **_Woodrow Wilson_** in 1920 even though they got creamed by Warren G. Harding. Wilson was in poor health for the next three years, and died before the next election. Then again, so did Harding.
113
Along with Ellen Gates Starr, what woman was a co-founder of the establishment located at 800 S. Halsted St. in Chicago, Illinois, and later became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize?
Jane Addams (Hull House)
114
Despite her most notable accessory being banned on the House floor, in 1970 what native New Yorker used the campaign slogan, "This woman's place is in the House... the House of Representatives!"?
Bella Abzug
115
An act of the U.S. Congress passed on December 22, 1970, specified that "none of the funds authorized or appropriated pursuant to this or any other Act may be used to finance the introduction of United States ground combat troops into" what country?
Cambodia
116
On March 25, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and 25,000 supporters completed a five-day, 54-mile freedom walk that began and ended in what two cities?
Selma, Montgomery
117
From the election of 1964 onward, there have been two individuals elected Vice President of the United States who were primarily affiliated with the state of Indiana (Dan Quayle and Mike Pence). What is the only other state that can claim this distinction within this time period?
(Card created September 8th, 2020)
Minnesota
* Hubert Humphrey (Johnson)
* Walter Mondale (Carter)
118
"United We Stand America" was a tax-exempt "educational" organization founded and financed in the 1990s by what political figure?
H. Ross Perot
119
In the 20th century, a "Zonian" was someone born in part of what is now what nation?
The U.S.-controlled "Canal Zone" was handed back to **_Panama_** by Jimmy Carter in 1979.
120
Dolores Huerta co-founded this migrant laborers association in 1962 & served as its vice president for nearly 4 decades
United Farm Workers
121
This temperance crusader gave lectures billed as "The Famous & Original Bar Room Smasher"
Carrie Nation
122
Give the last name of either of the public figures prominent during the 1980s who had nicknames that referenced the synthetic fluoropolymer polytetrafluoroethylene.
Ronald Reagan, John Gotti
| (Teflon)
123
In the late 1970s, attorneys for Dan White, the former San Francisco Supervisor who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, blamed their client's actions on depression and diminished mental capacity which were indicated by his overindulgence in sugary food. This claim came to be known as what "Defense"?
Twinkie Defense
124
What was the last name of the patriarch and self-made millionaire who was the first chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1934, chair of the powerful US Maritime Commission in 1937, and the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1938?
(Joseph P.) Kennedy
125
In 1913 this future president was born in Omaha as Leslie King Jr.
Gerald Ford
126
In 1917 this priest rented a boarding house in Omaha to care for 5 neglected boys; later, he bought a farm and it became Boys Town
Father Edward J. Flanagan
127
The policy with respect to Latin America during the early Franklin D. Roosevelt administration had what popular name, which today may be more associated with State Farm Insurance, but in the 1930s reflected America's intended hands-off approach and military withdrawal from the region?
Good Neighbor Policy
128
Colonel John T. Thompson was an inventor whose best-known creation is associated most closely with American gangsters of the Prohibition era. What is the common name used for this invention?
Tommy Gun
129
In every US presidential election starting 1952 and ending in 2004, there was either a Bush, a Dole, or a Nixon on the GOP ticket, except for one year. Give the name of either of the Republicans on the national ticket in that exception year. (Note, answer with a name, not the year.)
Barry Goldwater, William Miller
130
As published in the New York Charities Directory of 1917, what organization—incorporated six years prior—conceived as its mission to "make 12 million Americans physically free from peonage, mentally free from ignorance, politically free from disenfranchisement, and socially free from insult"?
NAACP
131
Martin Luther King Jr.'s August 28, 1963, "I Have a Dream" speech begins with the line "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation." It ends—as Dr. King states, "in the words of the old Negro spiritual"—with what three words?
Free at Last
132
What word, not a neologism (as is commonly asserted) but not in frequent use at the time, was popularized by Warren G. Harding in the US presidential election of 1920, in connection with his promise to bring the country back to a calm social and political order after the turmoil of the Wilson years?
Normalcy
