6. In Waterbury you can tour the plant of what popular ice-cream company? [Answer]
7. What short-lived nation came into being on July 8, 1777? [Answer]
8. What Revolutionary War band was headquartered in Bennington? [Answer]
9. In Arlington you can see hundreds of magazine covers by what famed American artist? [Answer]
10. The 260-mile Long Trail winds through what picturesque mountains? [Answer]
The Old Dominion, Virginia
1. What enormous geometrically shaped federal building is in Arlington? [Answer]
2. By the 1630s the Virginia Company exported 1.5 million pounds per year of what crop? [Answer]
3. The FBI academy is in what oddly named Virginia town? [Answer]
4. What glamorous actress was for a time married to Senator John Warner? [Answer]
5. What Virginia-born president designed the capitol building in Richmond? [Answer]
6. Why is Virginia called Mother of Presidents? [Answer]
7. What queen of England was Virginia named for? [Answer]
8. Liberty University was founded by what noted TV preacher? [Answer]
9. The world’s largest textile mill, Dan River, is found in what city? [Answer]
10. The late-summer festival in Virginia Beach is named for what ancient sea god? [Answer]
The Evergreen State, Washington
1. What destructive volcano made headlines in 1980? [Answer]
2. What national park has the wettest climate in the forty-eight contiguous states? [Answer]
3. According to the song, the bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in what city? [Answer]
4. Gonzaga University has the Crosby Center, named for what famous singing alumnus? [Answer]
5. What oddly named city is called “the city they liked so much they named it twice”? [Answer]
6. The Ski to Sea Festival involves what forms of racing? [Answer]
7. What city’s George Washington Park is named for a black man? [Answer]
8. What mighty river of the Northwest is tamed by the Grand Coulee Dam? [Answer]
9. What bland vegetable is the center of a festival in Pullman? [Answer]
10. What man-made project turned dry areas of Washington State into rich farmland? [Answer]
The Mountain State, West Virginia
1. What notorious feud began in 1882 with the murder of Ellison Hatfield? [Answer]
2. What summer holiday was first observed in West Virginia in 1908? [Answer]
3. What much loved Confederate general was born in Clarksburg in 1824? [Answer]
4. What town was the target of a raid by antislavery radical John Brown in 1859? [Answer]
5. What was the state’s proposed name when it seceded from Virginia in 1861? [Answer]
6. White Sulphur Springs has a spring festival honoring what pesky garden weed? [Answer]
7. What was the attraction of visitors to Berkeley Springs? [Answer]
8. In what unusual quarters is the Youth Museum of Beckley? [Answer]
9. What valuable energy source was discovered here in 1742? [Answer]
10. What key city lies on the Kanawha River? [Answer]
The Badger State, Wisconsin
1. As America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin has what state domestic animal? [Answer]
2. What metropolis has the Pabst Mansion, Pabst Theatre, and Pabst Brewery? [Answer]
3. How did the Apostle Islands get their name? [Answer]
4. What city has a lovely French name meaning “clear water”? [Answer]
5. What noted clothing manufacturer is headquartered in Oshkosh? [Answer]
6. What kind of creatures are the focus of the Honey Acres Museum? [Answer]
7. If you are riding in an amphibious vehicle called a Dells Duck, where are you? [Answer]
8. Monroe is known as the center of what cheese-making industry? [Answer]
9. What pro football team plays some of its exhibition games in Milwaukee? [Answer]
10. What city sits on a narrow piece of land between Lake Monona and Lake Mendota? [Answer]
The Cowboy State, Wyoming
1. What famous geyser erupts every seventy-four minutes? [Answer]
2. What “hole” in Wyoming is one of America’s main ski resorts? [Answer]
3. What spirited animal is on Wyoming license plates? [Answer]
4. What eye-catching landmark looks like a giant tree stump, eight hundred feet high? [Answer]
5. Why is Independence Rock called the Register of the Desert? [Answer]
6. What very western form of transportation has its own museum in Lusk? [Answer]
7. The world’s largest mineral hot springs are found where? [Answer]
8. The world’s largest geyser basin is in what national park? [Answer]
9. What distinctive type of ranch was first established in 1904? [Answer]
10. What is distinctive about the Rocky Mountain Rodeo in Rock Springs? [Answer]
A Capital City, D.C.
1. What memorial to an Asian war was dedicated in July 1995? [Answer]
2. What Asian country donated the two giant pandas in the National Zoo? [Answer]
3. What president’s memorial, with thirty-six Greek columns, has its back to the Potomac River? [Answer]
4. What name is given to the freeway that wraps around D.C.? [Answer]
5. What curious geometrical shape is the Hirschhorn Museum? [Answer]
6. The FBI building in D.C. is named for what longtime FBI director? [Answer]
7. In what museum could you see the Wright brothers’ plane and the Apollo 11 command module? [Answer]
8. If you wished to see the Declaration of Independence and the original Constitution, where would you go? [Answer]
9. Where could you see the First Ladies Collection? [Answer]
10. What war saw the burning of most of D.C.’s public buildings? [Answer]
The Bible in America
Many of America’s early settlers were Europeans fleeing religious persecution. Not surprisingly, the Bible had (and still has) a massive influence on American life.
1. What popular horror novelist began publishing biblical novels in 2005? [Answer]
2. What recent president said, “The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check”? [Answer]
3. What Bible version was the best-selling nonfiction book of 1972 and 1973? (Hint: alive) [Answer]
4. What biblical epic starring Charlton Heston was the top movie moneymaker of the 1950s? [Answer]
5. What organization founded in 1898 is famous for placing Bibles in hotel rooms? [Answer]
6. What dictionary maker published a “corrected” King James Version in which he pointed out words that had changed in meaning since the first publication of the KJV? [Answer]
7. What American president published an edition of the Gospels that left out all the miracles? [Answer]
8. What religious group famous for door-to-door evangelism publishes the New World version of the Bible? [Answer]
9. What president during the 1800s said that reading the Bible was “the best cure for the blues”? [Answer]
10. William Murray, author of My Life without God, was the son of what anti-Bible crusader? [Answer]
11. What version of the Bible did the Pilgrims bring with them in the 1620s? [Answer]
12. In what Pennsylvania city could you see the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, and the Sea of Galilee? [Answer]
13. What phenomenally popular translation was published in 1978? [Answer]
14. Which religious sect uses the Bible and a book titled Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures? [Answer]
15. What was the first book printed in America? (No, not the Bible, but you’re on the right track.) [Answer]
16. What famous movie director directed three lush epics about biblical subjects? [Answer]
17. What state capital city named for a biblical character was originally named Pig’s Eye? [Answer]
18. If y
ou wanted to see a 1456 Gutenberg Bible in Washington, D.C., where would you go? [Answer]
19. The year 2011 was the four hundredth anniversary of what significant event? [Answer]
20. What world-renowned evangelist (and former shoe salesman) founded a famous Bible college in Chicago? [Answer]
21. What breakfast cereal originally had the biblical name Elijah’s Manna? [Answer]
22. What Revolutionary War hero wrote a book denying that the Bible is the Word of God? [Answer]
23. In what year was the first English Bible published in America? [Answer]
24. Who were the “Bible communists”? [Answer]
25. What Bible passage was ordered removed from Kentucky public school classrooms after the 1980 Supreme Court decision Stone v. Graham? [Answer]
26. What leader of a Christian sect deduced (wrongly) from the Bible that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur in 1844? [Answer]
27. Which state was planned by its founders to be a “Bible commonwealth”? [Answer]
28. Which original Supreme Court justice helped support the American Bible Society in its early days? [Answer]
29. Which great statesman defended the Bible’s authority in the famous Scopes evolution trial in 1925? [Answer]
30. In the years before the Civil War, what Bible passages did the abolitionists use to prove slavery was unchristian? [Answer]
31. What is the claim to fame (biblically speaking) of New York commissioner of education James Edward Allen? [Answer]
32. What 1984 law gave public school students the right to hold religious meetings and study the Bible in schools—after class hours? [Answer]
33. What organization, famous for distributing free or inexpensive Bibles, was founded in 1816? [Answer]
34. In 1881 the Hare family of Philadelphia published the Christian Spiritual Bible. What strange teaching, popular today, was behind this version? [Answer]
35. What Bible passage was behind the Salem, Massachusetts, witch trials in the 1600s? [Answer]
36. What was the distinction of The New England Primer, the first children’s spelling book published in America? [Answer]
37. The first American Bible in a European language was not in English but in what language? [Answer]
38. Hiram Bingham, a missionary from Vermont, translated the Bible for what islands (which later became a state)? [Answer]
39. What organization, with its headquarters in Yankee territory, supplied Bibles for Confederate soldiers? [Answer]
40. What Old Testament book influenced Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves? [Answer]
Churches, Cathedrals, Chapels, Shrines
Churches are places to worship God. They’re also used for weddings, funerals . . . sometimes even political meetings. People argue about whether America is a “Christian nation,” but one thing’s for sure: churches have played a key role in our heritage.
1. Whose sermons are broadcast from the enormous Lakewood Church in Houston? [Answer]
2. Which California church is longer than a football field and composed of more than ten thousand panes of glass? [Answer]
3. What Christian denomination, famous for helping the poor, claims that the open air is “our greatest cathedral”? [Answer]
4. What historic southern city was known as the “Holy City” because of the many church spires on the city skyline? [Answer]
5. The beautiful cathedral in New Orleans’s Jackson Square is named for a king of France. Who? [Answer]
6. The First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois, has a pew used by what famous political family? [Answer]
7. New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in D.C. was pastored by one of America’s best-known twentieth-century preachers. Who? [Answer]
8. What ballistic souvenir does St. Paul’s church in Norfolk, Virginia, keep from the Revolutionary War? [Answer]
9. The Shrine of the Sun in Colorado Springs is a memorial to what lovable cowboy entertainer? [Answer]
10. If you are attending a French-language service in the historic Huguenot Church, where are you? [Answer]
11. Historic Christ Episcopal Church had George Washington, Betsy Ross, and Benjamin Franklin among its worshipers. In what Pennsylvania city is it? [Answer]
12. The lovely St. Matthew’s Cathedral in D.C. was the site of what assassinated president’s funeral? [Answer]
13. What phenomenal shopping center in Minnesota has had more than five thousand weddings (as of mid-2011) inside it? [Answer]
14. Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, was long pastored by what noted TV preacher? [Answer]
15. The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in the U.S., is in what city? [Answer]
16. The beautiful Gothic chapel at the University of Pittsburgh was named for a local food manufacturer. Who? (Hint: ketchup) [Answer]
17. The National Shrine of St. Dymphna in Ohio is a memorial to people with what sort of illness? [Answer]
18. The oldest Methodist church in the U.S. is St. George’s in what historic northeastern city? [Answer]
19. Washington, D.C.’s enormous National City Christian Church is of what denomination? [Answer]
20. Charleston, South Carolina’s famous St. Michael’s Episcopal Church is a noted landmark in the city. Its famous steeple was painted black during the Civil War. Why? [Answer]
21. Cincinnati has an oddly named Roman Catholic cathedral. What disciple of Jesus does it honor? [Answer]
22. The oldest cathedral in the U.S. is the Basilica of the Assumption in what eastern city? (Hint: orioles) [Answer]
23. Built in the 1600s, the San Miguel Mission is the oldest church still in use in the U.S. Where is it? [Answer]
24. In what beautiful Wyoming park can you see the log Chapel of the Transfiguration? [Answer]
25. The historic Gloria Dei church, Philadelphia’s oldest church, was of what denomination? [Answer]
26. What Episcopal church in D.C. is known as the “Church of the Presidents”? [Answer]
27. The largest Quaker church in the world is in what historically Quaker city? [Answer]
28. What famed Catholic cathedral, which can seat 2,400, is at Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street in New York? [Answer]
29. The Chapel in the Hills in South Dakota is modeled on the churches of what nation? [Answer]
30. The Boal Mansion in Pennsylvania has a four-hundred-year-old chapel that belonged to what famous explorer? [Answer]
31. The Chapel of the Presidents in D.C. is in what denomination’s National Church? [Answer]
32. The Washington Memorial Chapel can be found at what famous Pennsylvania site? [Answer]
33. Seaman’s Bethel is a “Whaleman’s Chapel” built like a ship. In what historic whaling port is it? [Answer]
34. What huge Manhattan church, under construction since 1892, will be the world’s largest Gothic building when completed? [Answer]
35. New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in D.C. has a marker on the pew of a famous president who attended there. Who? [Answer]
36. D.C.’s beautiful Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is better known by what name? [Answer]
37. What unpleasant news did Confederate president Jefferson Davis receive while worshiping at Richmond’s St. Paul’s Church? [Answer]
38. What multisite suburban Chicago church was first in the world to install enormous LED video screens in the sanctuary? [Answer]
Religious Notables
1. What megachurch pastor did Newsweek dub one of the “15 People Who Make America Great” in 2006? [Answer]
2. Who, on April 20, 2008, drew a crowd of sixty thousand to Yankee Stadium? [Answer]
3. What pizza millionaire founded a Christian university in Florida? [Answer]
4. Evangelist Charles Finney, known as the “Father of Modern Revivalism,” also served as president of what elite college? [Answer]
5. What American colonizer had been kicked out of Englan
d’s Oxford University for his nonconformist religious views? [Answer]
6. What politician, an ordained Baptist minister, plays with a band called Capitol Offense? [Answer]
7. What religious revival of the 1730s and 1740s had theologian Jonathan Edwards as one of its key movers? [Answer]
8. What pro baseball player left the game in 1890 and became one of the world’s greatest evangelists? [Answer]
9. What upbeat minister sold millions of copies of The Power of Positive Thinking? [Answer]
10. What Chicago shoe salesman became a world-famous evangelist in the 1870s? [Answer]
11. What televangelist, college founder, and political activist died in May 2007? [Answer]
12. The Christian Coalition was founded in 1989 by what televangelist? [Answer]
13. What dynamic author and speaker broadcasts the program Enjoying Everyday Life? [Answer]
14. Bill Bright, who died in 2003, founded what organization for college students? [Answer]
15. T. D. Jakes pastors what huge nondenominational church in Dallas? [Answer]
16. What department store founder, who originally called his stores Golden Rule stores, was noted for his charitable giving to religious groups? [Answer]
17. What evangelist opened the “City of Faith” medical complex in Tulsa, Oklahoma? [Answer]
18. What colony was founded in the 1600s because Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus wanted to convert Native Americans to Christianity? [Answer]
19. The Grand Ole Opry’s original home, the Ryman Auditorium, was originally built for what purpose? [Answer]
20. In 1740 evangelist George Whitefield attracted a crowd of thirty thousand people in what New England city? [Answer]
21. What televangelist has broadcast Life Today for many years? [Answer]
22. What sad fate befell frontier missionary Marcus Whitman, who helped settle Washington State? [Answer]
The Big Book of American Trivia Page 17