34. Naval hero James Lawrence uttered the famous line “Don’t give up the ship” during what war? [Answer]
35. Vice President Thomas Marshall, serving under Woodrow Wilson, stated that “what this country needs is a good five-cent” what? [Answer]
36. What world-famous newspaper did Adolph Ochs buy in 1896, giving it the motto “All the news that’s fit to print”? [Answer]
37. What legendary boxing champ was famed for entering a room and proclaiming, “I can lick any man in the house”? [Answer]
38. What radio talk show host refers to America as “the greatest nation on God’s green earth”? [Answer]
39. According to Chief Justice John Marshall, “The power to tax involves the power to” do what? [Answer]
Mottoes
1. In 1956, what was designated by Congress as the national motto? [Answer]
2. What federal agency’s motto is Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity? (Hint: note the letters) [Answer]
3. What major record company had His Master’s Voice as its motto? [Answer]
4. Be Prepared is the official motto of what boys’ organization? [Answer]
5. What girls’ organization, founded in 1910, has as its motto Wohelo—Work, Health, Love? [Answer]
6. What U.S. service academy has Duty, Honor, Country as its motto? [Answer]
7. The motto In God We Trust found on U.S. coins is also the official motto of what southern state? [Answer]
8. What world-famous newspaper has the motto All the News That’s Fit to Print? [Answer]
9. What eastern state’s motto has aroused controversy because of its political incorrectness? [Answer]
10. The smallest state also has the briefest state motto, Hope. What state? [Answer]
11. The inspiring quote “With God all things are possible” is the motto of what midwestern state? [Answer]
12. What Great Lakes state’s one-word motto is Forward? (Hint: cheese) [Answer]
13. What southwestern state’s motto is God Enriches? [Answer]
14. Labor Conquers All in what state with this motto? (Hint: oil wells) [Answer]
15. Eureka is a city in—and also the state motto of—what western state? [Answer]
16. What far northern state’s motto is the French L’Etoile du Nord (“Star of the North”)? [Answer]
17. What Appalachian state’s motto is Mountaineers Are Always Free Men? [Answer]
18. A. Schwab’s at 163 Beale Street has the famous motto If You Can’t Find It at A. Schwab’s, You Are Better Off without It. What southern metropolis is A. Schwab’s in? [Answer]
Word and Phrase Origins
1. What world-famous architect coined the word carport? [Answer]
2. Before hello was introduced into the language, what word did people use when answering the phone? [Answer]
3. What sluggish, marshy outlet of a lake or river takes its name from the Choctaw word bayuk? [Answer]
4. What term for Yankee adventurers came from the cheap luggage they carried south? [Answer]
5. What term did Vice President Alben Barkley coin as shorthand for his position? [Answer]
6. What famous Florida region takes its name from the Spanish word cayos, meaning “small islands”? [Answer]
7. What American humorist, famous for his book Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, coined the term “mutual admiration society”? [Answer]
8. What common term for stalling or hanging tough calls to mind a Civil War general? [Answer]
9. Texas congressman Maury Maverick coined a term to describe meaningless government chatter. The word sounds like a turkey call. What is it? [Answer]
10. What great American author took for his name a riverboat phrase meaning “water two fathoms deep”? [Answer]
11. The beautiful Toccoa Falls in Georgia take their name from a Native American word meaning what? [Answer]
12. What phrase did Maryland doctor Samuel Mudd contribute to our language? [Answer]
13. The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777, was the first document to use what four words to describe the new nation? [Answer]
14. The region of Acadia in Canada is the origin of the name of a group of people associated with Louisiana. Who are they? [Answer]
15. The word normalcy, which wasn’t a correct word at the time, was coined by what twentieth-century president? [Answer]
16. What is the meaning of “Hoosiers,” the name for Indiana residents? [Answer]
17. What did the Native Americans refer to as an “iron horse”? [Answer]
18. What name was given to the Sunday closing laws in the U.S.? [Answer]
19. Mesa is a common place name in the Southwest. It is a Spanish word meaning what? [Answer]
20. What autumn period took its name from the haze that resembled smoke from Native American campfires? [Answer]
Let’s Have a Contest!
Across America you could find a contest for practically everything—from beauty to running to frog jumping to chest hair. Does it mean we’re a highly competitive, driven people? Or does it mean we just like to have a good time? (Isn’t the answer obvious?)
1. What award is given in the Miss America contest to the contestant best liked by her peers? [Answer]
2. At what famous southern speedway could you see the Mountain Dew 250 and Aaron’s 499? [Answer]
3. What New England city is host to a twenty-six-mile footrace each April, probably the most famous marathon in the world? [Answer]
4. What type of vehicles are raced at the Little 500 in Bloomington, Indiana? [Answer]
5. What national cooking contest, which began in 1949, now has a $1 million first prize? [Answer]
6. What two contests are highlights of Tom Sawyer Days in Hannibal, Missouri? [Answer]
7. In the annual Texas Water Safari, what types of motorless boats race over a 262-mile course? [Answer]
8. If you attended California Calico Hullabaloo, what type of spitting contest could you enter? [Answer]
9. What lofty Colorado mountain is the site of a grueling footrace every August? [Answer]
10. In what heavily forested state would you be able to see the Loggerodeo? [Answer]
11. If you wished to enter the Miss Crustacean contest, what New Jersey resort would you go to? [Answer]
12. The Mayor’s Marathon is held each June in what far northern location? [Answer]
13. What appropriate name is given to the Omak, Washington, race where horses and riders race down a cliff and across a river? [Answer]
14. Gilroy, California, hosts an annual cook-off for foods with what smelly vegetable? [Answer]
15. What three contests comprise the IronMan Triathlon? [Answer]
16. Akron, Ohio, is the site for what motorless race for kids? [Answer]
17. The Great American Duck Race takes place in a state not noted for abundance of water. What southwestern state is it? [Answer]
18. If you wanted to watch the Golden Girl of the Old West contest, where would you go? [Answer]
19. Nashville’s annual Swine Ball is held in conjunction with what type of cook-off? [Answer]
20. What airy form of transportation is the focus of an annual race in Indianola, Iowa? [Answer]
21. Imperial Beach, California, hosts an annual competition for what “gritty” constructions? [Answer]
22. What California city hosts an international auto race on its downtown streets? [Answer]
23. What famous horse race—part of the Triple Crown—is run at Pimlico in Baltimore? [Answer]
24. What men-only contest started by Carnival cruise line is now a feature of every cruise ship? [Answer]
25. If you wanted to test your lungs in the Conch Shell Blowing Contest, what Florida island would you go to? [Answer]
26. What type of small buildings are raced in Mountain Home, Arkansas, during the annual Bean Days? [Answer]
27. What type of (distinctively country) music competition is held in Nashville each June? [Answer]
28. In what w
estern state could you watch a Kinetic Sculpture Race? [Answer]
More Famous Firsts
1. In 1987 what Republican president submitted the first trillion-dollar budget to Congress? [Answer]
2. What city in 1996 became the first southern city to host the Olympics? [Answer]
3. What new ride did George Ferris introduce at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago? [Answer]
4. What cartoon cat was the first animated creature to be transmitted on TV? [Answer]
5. Who first placed his (very large) signature on the Declaration of Independence? [Answer]
6. In 1951 parties were first held to sell what line of plastic housewares? [Answer]
7. What classic book for kids was the first novel ever completed on a typewriter? (Hint: whitewashing a fence) [Answer]
8. “A. Mutt,” America’s first daily comic strip, evolved into what strip with two men in its title? [Answer]
9. In 1890 murderer William Kemmler became the first man to be executed by what method? [Answer]
10. What twentieth-century president was the first to be born in a hospital? (Hint: peanuts) [Answer]
11. What place was Alan Shepard the first American to visit in May 1961? [Answer]
12. What railroad line, the nation’s first, was started at Baltimore, Maryland? [Answer]
13. What event began a world-changing communications revolution in America on August 20, 1920? [Answer]
14. Astronaut Ed White became the first American astronaut to do what? [Answer]
15. The first theme park built around a country music theme was what? [Answer]
16. Which of the thirteen colonies was the first to authorize its representatives to vote for separating from Britain? [Answer]
17. Who was the first president born in the twentieth century? (Hint: assassination) [Answer]
18. What Confederate state was the first to reenter the Union after the Civil War ended? [Answer]
19. The first use of artificial rain to fight a forest fire was in 1947 near Concord in this “Granite State.” What state? [Answer]
20. In 1928, who became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic? [Answer]
21. In 1939 who became the first British monarch to visit the U.S.? [Answer]
22. On July 4, 1831, “America” was first sung at what historic city’s Park Street Church at the foot of Beacon Hill? [Answer]
23. Who was the first president whose parents survived him? [Answer]
24. What great artist was just twenty-two when he illustrated his first Saturday Evening Post cover in 1916? [Answer]
25. During the War of 1812, who became the first president to face enemy gunfire while in office? [Answer]
26. In 1835 who became the first (and only) president to pay off the national debt? [Answer]
27. Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, was born in what state? [Answer]
28. What explorer, who has a mountain named for him, led the first American group into Colorado? [Answer]
29. The world’s first commercial airline service was established in 1914 between what two Florida cities? [Answer]
30. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, had the first state college in America. What college? [Answer]
31. America’s first written constitution, signed in 1620 aboard a ship, was drawn up by what group? [Answer]
32. What aviation feat did C. P. Rodgers accomplish in 1911? [Answer]
33. The House of Burgesses, the New World’s first representative assembly, met in what colony in 1619? [Answer]
34. What was significant about the 1927 Al Jolson film The Jazz Singer? [Answer]
35. The first English settlement in America was named for what famous English soldier and author? [Answer]
36. A 1903 trip from New York to California was the first coast-to-coast trip made in what form of transportation? [Answer]
The Heart of Dixie, Alabama
1. The famous Iron Bowl, first held in 1893, is between which two renowned college football teams? [Answer]
2. What polluted steel town had the nickname Pittsburgh of the South? [Answer]
3. Cloudmont, an Alabama ski resort, seems too far south for snow. Why is there snow there so often? [Answer]
4. What city is considered the birthplace of the U.S. space program? [Answer]
5. What port city has a Mardi Gras second only to the one in New Orleans? [Answer]
6. What pioneering country music star has a memorial in Montgomery? (Hint: cheatin’ heart) [Answer]
7. Talladega has a hall of fame for what sport? [Answer]
8. In what noted college town could you drive on Paul W. Bryant Drive? [Answer]
9. Tuskegee University is connected with which noted black scientist? [Answer]
10. How did the town of Haleyville react when the state seceded from the Union in 1861? [Answer]
The Last Frontier, Alaska
1. What boom began at Bonanza Creek in 1897? [Answer]
2. The Diomede Islands off Alaska are divided between the U.S. and what nation? [Answer]
3. The state song, “Alaska, My Alaska,” uses the tune from what familiar Christmas song? [Answer]
4. The name of the state sport might remind you of cornmeal. What is the sport? [Answer]
5. Capt. Vitus Bering, visiting Alaska in 1740, claimed it for what nation? [Answer]
6. What well-loved cowboy comic died in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935? [Answer]
7. What playful sea animal was almost wiped out by Russian fur traders in the 1700s? [Answer]
8. Purchased for the U.S. in 1867 by Secretary of State William Seward, Alaska was called Seward’s Folly. What nation was it purchased from? [Answer]
9. You can visit the Last Chance Mining Museum in what capital of the Last Frontier? [Answer]
10. Practically no trees grow in this 1,100-mile-long island chain, but there are grasses and flowers. What islands? [Answer]
The Grand Canyon State, Arizona
1. The University of Phoenix Stadium is host to what football bowl game? [Answer]
2. The Native Americans who first led Spanish explorers to the Grand Canyon belonged to what tribe? [Answer]
3. What beautiful spot has served as the most popular background scenery in western movies? [Answer]
4. Lake Havasu City has what enormous structure, brought over from London? [Answer]
5. What large, extinct creatures could you see in animated form in the Mesa Southwest Museum? [Answer]
6. What weather phenomenon waters the green fields of cotton, melons, and lettuce near Phoenix? [Answer]
7. Known as the Jewel of the Desert, the Biltmore Hotel is in what major city? [Answer]
8. The beautiful sandstone fort in Pipe Spring National Monument was built by what religious group? [Answer]
9. What animals can you ride into the Grand Canyon? [Answer]
10. Why does the town of Bisbee not have mail delivered to people’s homes? [Answer]
The Land of Opportunity, Arkansas
1. What national park centers around 143-degree water? [Answer]
2. What 1848 event in California changed Fort Smith, Arkansas, into a boomtown? [Answer]
3. What is Hope famous for? [Answer]
4. Eureka Springs has a museum devoted to figurines of what water creatures? [Answer]
5. Governor Winthrop Rockefeller founded a museum devoted to one of his favorite hobbies. What? [Answer]
6. Mountain View is host to what popular music contest? [Answer]
7. What type of structures are raced in Mountain Home’s annual Bean Days? [Answer]
8. Rogers has a museum devoted to what type of weapon for children? [Answer]
9. What town claims that it saw the first fighting of the Civil War? [Answer]
10. What crucial metal originates in the state of Arkansas? [Answer]
The Golden State, California
1. What famous mail service had its western end in California? [Answer]
2. Beverly Hills is
entirely surrounded by what metropolis? [Answer]
3. What popular attraction lies on eighty acres in Anaheim? [Answer]
4. Grizzly Peak towers above what college town? [Answer]
5. California’s highest and lowest points are only eighty miles apart. What are they? [Answer]
6. Big Sur on the coast is home to what awesome trees? [Answer]
7. What pro baseball team plays its home games in Anaheim Stadium? [Answer]
8. Calexico sits across the border from what Mexican city? [Answer]
9. Telescope Peak, eleven thousand feet high, towers above what low-lying site? [Answer]
10. What island paradise was developed by chewing-gum dollars? [Answer]
The Centennial State, Colorado
1. Why is Colorado the Centennial State? [Answer]
2. “Bolder Boulder,” held in Boulder, is what type of event? [Answer]
3. Pike’s Peak towers over what major city? [Answer]
4. What federal military school has an eye-catching modern campus in Colorado Springs? [Answer]
5. What sport did Norwegian Carl Howelsen bring to Steamboat Springs in 1913? [Answer]
6. What substance covers the dome of Colorado’s capitol? [Answer]
7. What moneymaking operation is found in Denver? [Answer]
8. What city receives thousands of valentine cards each year? [Answer]
9. What sports commission has its headquarters in Colorado Springs? [Answer]
10. What famous lawman was sheriff of Trinidad, Colorado? [Answer]
The Constitution State, Connecticut
1. What familiar Revolutionary War song is the state song? (Hint: macaroni) [Answer]
The Big Book of American Trivia Page 14