| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| An a cappella group of “Jubilee Singers” from this U.S. state raised money for Black education in affiliation with Fisk University. This state experienced protests of the working conditions under mayor Henry Loeb, which led to the deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker. Sanitation workers went on strike in 1968, in, for ten points, what U.S. state where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel? | Tennessee |
| Early Spanish explorers purported this route to be the Strait of Anián, which led to the notion of California as an island. Roald Amundsen spent three years sailing between Norway and San Francisco via this route, and Henry Hudson led numerous expeditions to find this route. For ten points, name this sea route that explorers sought to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via the Arctic. | Northwest Passage (s) |
| Leaders of this country unsuccessfully negotiated for independence aboard the HMS Tiger and HMS Fearless. This country was dissolved after a conflict involving Joshua Nkomo known as the Bush War. Under Ian Smith, this former country fought a civil war against Robert Mugabe [[moo-GAH-beh]]. Like South Africa, this African nation was governed by a white minority. For ten points, name this precursor state of Zimbabwe. | Republic of Rhodesia (accept Southern Rhodesia; prompt on “Zimbabwe”) |
| One work by this painter was the most expensive individual painting sold as part of Paul Allen's art collection. Another work by this artist shows citizens at leisure on a riverbank in Asnières [[AHN-yehr]], and another painting by this artist may have commented on class divisions by depicting the opposite bank of that same river. Pointillism was co-developed by, for ten points, what French painter of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte? | Georges Seurat (or Georges Pierre Seurat) |
| In one work by this man, he claims that, upon the burning of a stable, a man asks if anyone was hurt, without mentioning the horses. A work by this man is among the Five Classics, and a 241-year chronicle of the State of Lu traditionally authored by this man came to be known as the Spring and Autumn Annals. Veneration of ancestors and filial piety were championed by, for ten points, what ancient Chinese philosopher? | Confucius (accept Kǒng Fūzǐ; accept Master Kǒng) |
| This man, a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, co-authored a mystery novel named Mycroft Holmes with screenwriter Anna Waterhouse. This man led UCLA to three national basketball championships in the late 1960s. Losing his most famous record to LeBron James in 2023, for ten points, name this former Showtime Lakers superstar and longtime holder of the NBA’s career points record. | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (or Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr.) |
| This daughter of the Duke of Suffolk married the first son of the Duke of Northumberland, Thomas Seymour. An amendment included this figure in addition to her "heirs males" in a "devise for the succession." After a failed rebellion led by Thomas Wyatt the Younger, this noblewoman was beheaded at the Tower of London. Reigning between Edward the Sixth and Mary the First, this is, for ten points, what English monarch and "Queen for Nine Days?" | Lady Jane Grey (or Lady Jane Dudley) |
| One of this U.S. state's sheriffs, Nucky Johnson, was a major bootlegger who hosted a 1929 Conference of East Coast mobsters in this state. Frank Hague was a mayor in this state who opposed the unionization of workers on the Pulaski Skyway. This state was struck by a series of shark attacks in 1916, one of which occurred near Asbury Park. For ten points, identify this U.S. state that built a namesake turnpike in the 1950s along the Northeast Corridor. | New Jersey |
| In one speech, this man asked listeners to "express your utmost horror" at people who "deluge our rising Empire in Blood." This man, who gave the Newburgh Address, noted how "no People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand" in his first inaugural address. In one letter, this man asked the government to "steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." For ten points, name this president, who released his Farewell Address in 1796 before the selection of John Adams. | George Washington |
| After giving his Farewell Address, Washington retired to this Virginia estate to manage some 300 enslaved workers. | Mount Vernon |
| In 1989, Daniel Arap Moi lit fifteen tons of this commodity on fire to persuade the world to halt its production. Prior to rubber, the Congo Free State primarily exported this commodity, whose ban led to a recovery in populations of a certain animal. For ten points, name this controversial good, which names an African country governed from Yamoussoukro. | Ivory (accept Ivory Coast; prompt on “Tusks” or “animal teeth” or similar answers) |
| Ivory and bronze were used to make royal altars in this Nigerian kingdom, which now names an independent country to the west of Nigeria. | Benin Kingdom |
| This man led the Salò Republic for two years before his execution, where Clara Petacci allegedly threw herself over him. This man led the Pacification of Libya to end resistance in his country's African colonies, and signed the Lateran Treaty to recognize the authority of the Holy See. This man, known as "Il Duce" [[ILL DOO-cheh]] is considered the founder of fascism, and ruled under King Victor Emmanuel the Third. For ten points, name this dictator of Italy during most of World War Two. | Benito Mussolini |
| Mussolini's corpse was hung upside down to confirm his death in this city, the capital of Lombardy, which is today known as a center of finance and fashion. | Milan (or Milano) |
| These disasters, which tend to form near the Cape Verde archipelago, heavily damaged Belize City, forcing a change in capital to Belmopan. One of these disasters in 1992 destroyed the wind gauge on the National Center for these disasters in Coral Gables. For ten points, name these natural disasters, including examples such as Andrew and Maria which devastate the Caribbean and Gulf Coast. | Hurricanes (prompt on "storms," "tropical cyclones," "typhoons," or similar answers) |
| This devastating hurricane inundated Waveland, Mississippi with its storm surge in 2005, causing widespread damage and displacement alongside a heavily-criticized federal government response. | Hurricane Katrina |
| According to Greek mythology, this deity persuaded Hephaestus to free Ares and Aphrodite from a trap designed to expose their adultery. This deity and Apollo were enslaved to King Laomedon and tasked with building the impenetrable walls of Troy. This god sent a monstrous flood to punish the people of Athens after they defied him to choose Athena as their patron goddess. The father of Triton, this is, for ten points, what Greek god of earthquakes and the sea? | Poseidon (do not accept or prompt on “Neptune”) |
| Poseidon was the chief deity of this Greek city-state which named a Macedonian alliance and was later violently sacked by Roman general Lucius Mummius. | Corinth (accept League of Corinth; accept Corinthians) |
| This man starred opposite Marlene Dietrich as the title lawman in Destry Rides Again and co-starred with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story. This man starred in the Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window and starred opposite Kim Novak as John Ferguson in Vertigo. For ten points, name this mid-20th century actor known for starring in It's A Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. | Jimmy Stewart (or James Maitland Stewart) |
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life were both directed by this man. This man also directed the Why We Fight series of films for the U.S. war effort in World War Two. | Frank Capra (or Frank Russell Capra; or Francesco Rosario Capra) |
| One Austrian with this name married Casmir the Fourth Jagiellonian, becoming Queen Consort of Poland in 1454. A woman with this name overthrew the fourteen-month-old Ivan the Sixth to become Tsarina, and another woman with this name was on tour in Kenya when she was informed of the death of her father, George the Sixth. For ten points, what is this name of two British monarchs, the most recent of whom died in 2022? | Elizabeth (accept Elizabeth of Austria; or Elizabeth of Russia; or Elizabeth the First; or Elizabeth the Second) |
| Elizabeth of Russia was succeeded by the pro-Prussian Peter the Third, who was almost immediately deposed by this wife of his, who went on to be a patron of the Enlightenment era. | Catherine the Great (or Catherine the Second) |
| Rutherford B. Hayes appointed this man a marshal for the District of Columbia, and he was later named the city’s first recorder of deeds by James Garfield. Without his consent, this man was made the vice presidential candidate of the Equal Rights party on a ticket that included Victoria Woodhull. For ten points, name this orator and abolitionist who wrote about his time as a slave in a Narrative of his life. | Frederick Douglass |
| Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland near the towns of Hillsboro and Cordova. This other abolitionist, who has been proposed to appear on US currency, was also born in Maryland in Dorchester County. | Harriet Tubman (or Araminta Ross) |
| Nation against which the U.S. was engaged in the Space Race. | Soviet Union (accept Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; or Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; or USSR; or CCCP; or SSSR; prompt on “Russia”) |
| First human to walk on the moon. | Neil Armstrong (or Neil Alden Armstrong) |
| Specific mission which that man commanded. | Apollo 11 (prompt on "Apollo") |
| Florida site from which that mission launched. | John F. Kennedy Space Center (accept Cape Canaveral; accept Cape Kennedy; prompt on "Merritt Island") |
| Site on the moon at which the mission landed. | Sea of Tranquility (or Mare Tranquilitatus; accept Tranquility Base; prompt on partial answers) |
| Commander of the backup crew who was played by Tom Hanks in a 1995 movie. | Jim Lovell (or James Arthur Lovell, Jr.) |
| Country that was separated from its western neighbor by the Berlin Wall. | East Germany (or German Democratic Republic; or Deutsche Demokratische Republik) |
| Nation that failed to resist Soviet pressure after the Prague Spring. | Czechoslovakia (or Czechoslovak Socialist Republic) |
| Former country that maintained neutrality under former Partisan leader Josip Tito. | Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia |
| Polish Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the Solidarity trade union. | Lech Walesa [[vah-WEN-sah]] (accept phonetic pronunciations) |
| Communist dictator assassinated in a Romanian uprising in 1989. | Nicolae Ceaușescu [[chow-SHESS-koo]] (be lenient on pronunciation) |
| Country invaded in 1956, after which the Soviets put János Kádár in power. | Hungary (or Magyarország; accept Hungarian People's Republic) |
| Capital, named after the victor at Waterloo. | Wellington (accept Duke of Wellington) |
| Indigenous Polynesian people, known for their hakka war dances. | Māori |
| Largest city, named for a British lord of the admiralty. | Auckland (accept George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland) |
| Dutch explorer, considered the first European to reach New Zealand. | Abel Tasman (or Abel Janszoon Tasman) |
| Labour prime minister who resigned in 2023 and became a fellow at Harvard. | Jacinda Ardern (or Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern) |
| 1840 treaty with the British which ended the Musket Wars. | Treaty of Waitangi |
| This college is the only one in the United States with a Coat of Arms from London’s College of Arms, and the Wren Building on the campus of this college is the oldest extant college building in the United States. (+) Four of the first ten presidents graduated from this college, though one of them would launch a rival university elsewhere in the state. (*) For ten points, name this Virginia college, which was established and named after a pair of English monarchs. | The College of William and Mary in Virginia |
| Members of one subset of this class called the murmillo replaced the Gallus class. Members of this class called retiarius wielded weighted nets and a (+) trident in the style of fishermen. A hand signal known as the pollice verso, meaning “with a turned thumb,” determined the fate of members of this class when (*) defeated by their opponents. For ten points, name these warriors who fought for entertainment in Rome’s Colosseum. | Gladiators (prompt on "Warriors" or similar answers until mentioned) |
| Keith Windschuttle wrote about the “Fabrication” of the history of these people, who were the focus of the report (+) Bringing Them Home. Creating conditions favorable for hunting is a purported motive of the fire-stick farming practiced by this group. Members of the Stolen Generations were comprised of these people and the (*) Torres Strait Islanders. For ten points, name these indigenous people of Australia. | Aboriginal Australians (accept Aborigines; prompt on “indigenous Australians”) |
| This man gained power after his father, Sin-Muballit, abdicated the throne due to poor health. Posthumously, this king was commemorated as a “great dragon among kings” in a namesake royal hymn. This ancient king conquered the civilization of (+) Elam and the city-states of Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari. One set of laws issued by this king was supposedly received directly from Shamash. (*) For ten points, name this Babylonian ruler who created a legal text famous for its “eye for an eye” doctrine. | Hammurabi (accept Hammurabi's Code; or Code of Hammurabi) |
| This man condemned American imperialism in the essay To the Person Sitting in Darkness and later condemned the Philippine–American War in the short story The War Prayer. This man's days as a miner in California inspired his short story (+) "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." This author "came and went with Halley's Comet" and recounted his days as a steamboat pilot in (*) Life on the Mississippi. For ten points, name this American author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. | Mark Twain (or Samuel Langhorne Clemens) |
| This peninsula is home to an English-speaking country that relocated its capital after devastation from Hurricane Hattie. This peninsula’s (+) Chicxulub crater resulted from the asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the (*) dinosaurs. For ten points, name this peninsula where the colony of British Honduras became the independent nation of Belize. | Yucatán Peninsula |
| This person attempted to get rid of advisors from the "Chosen Council," prompting a conflict that lost Ingria and Livonia. This man called a (+) zemskii sobor, or “assembly of the land,” as part of a series of reforms. This man created the oprichnina state police to battle against the influence of the boyars, and this ruler also launched the Massacre of (*) Novgorod. For ten points, name this first Tsar of a unified Russia. | Ivan the Terrible (or Ivan Grozny; or Ivan the Fourth) |
| This man's undergraduate thesis on The Meaning of History prompted Harvard to institute a word limit. This man, who was initially appointed as head of the 9/11 Commission, was criticized for giving the (+) "green light" to Argentina's military junta in the Dirty War. Lê Đuc Thọ refused to accept a Nobel Peace Prize with this man, who served as secretary of state from (*) 1973 to 1977. For ten points, identify this last surviving member of the Nixon cabinet. | Henry Kissinger (or Henry Alfred Kissinger) |
| Co-founders of this company created Traf-O-Data in 1972, which was designed to collect roadway information for traffic engineers. This company was created to sell BASIC interpreters for (+) ALTAIR machines, and one of this company’s founders was accused of being “evasive and unresponsive” when it was accused of violating Sherman Antitrust Laws by bundling a (*) browser with its computers. For ten points, name this company which created Windows 95 and Word. | Microsoft Corporation |
| Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova both held this title, identifying astronauts who were employees of the Russian Federal Space Agency. | Cosmonaut |