| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| This territory names a university in Illinois, whose name currently does not make geographical sense. This territory’s namesake law governed the admission of new states to the Union. This territory was located between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and included the land of modern-day states such as Indiana and Michigan. For ten points, identify this territory that was named for its direction relative to the Thirteen Colonies. | Northwest Territory (or Old Northwest; accept Northwestern University; accept Northwest Ordinance) |
| This man's wife exclaimed, "I have seen my death!" after she saw an image of her hand. In 1895, this man used a tube made by Philipp von Lenard, including an aluminum window, and passed cathode rays through the tube, producing a fluorescent effect on a barium platinocyanide-painted cardboard screen. Awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for his discovery, for ten points, who was this German physicist, the first to image X-rays? | Wilhelm Röntgen [[RENT-gen]] (or Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen) |
| Tabitha Babbitt, a member of this group, is cited as a possible inventor of the circular saw. This group created ladder-back chairs that influenced modern Danish design. John N. Rankin and Harvey L. Eads of this group successfully petitioned Abraham Lincoln to exempt this group from military service. For ten points, identify this religious group that broke away from the Quakers in 1747 and is named for its ecstatic dancing. | Shakers (or United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) |
| During this historical period, Hector Guimard designed the Art Nouveau signs at the entrance to the Paris Metro. La Goulue and Jane Avril were dancers painted by Toulouse-Lautrec who typify this cultural period, in which establishments such as Le Chat Noir and Le Lapin Agile had their heyday. For ten points, identify this period of pre-World War One French and European history that was characterized by stability and flourishing culture. | La Belle Époque (accept Beautiful Epoch; prompt on "Art Nouveau" before mentioned; prompt on "Pre-World War One" or "Antebellum" before mentioned) |
| This man was credited by early historians for introducing the Phoenician alphabet to Greece. At his wedding, this man’s wife Harmonia was given a cursed necklace. When this man was searching for his sister Europa he was instructed to found a city where a cow laid down, and this man created the ancestors of that city by planting dragon teeth in the ground. For ten points, name this mythical founder of Thebes. | Cadmus |
| This person attempted to build up a powerful navy during the Self-Strengthening Movement, but that effort was thwarted by the Guangxu Emperor. This person advocated for applying “practical knowledge” as part of the Tongzhi Restoration, and this woman was deposed from power at the end of the failed Hundred Days’ Reform. For ten points, name this Dowager Empress who controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing [[CHING]] Dynasty. | Dowager Empress Cixi [[TSIH-SHIH]] (accept Cixi Taihou; accept Concubine Yi or Noble Consort Yi; or Lady Yehe Nara; prompt on “Dowager Empress”) |
| Twenty years after this battle, Amatus of Montecassino’s history first mentions the idea that its losing commander died from an arrow to the eye. The appearance of Halley’s Comet six months before this battle was taken as an omen of the death of Harold Godwinson, and appears on the Bayeux [[BYE-yoo]] Tapestry documenting this battle. For ten points, name this 1066 battle at which William the Conqueror established the Norman foothold in England. | Battle of Hastings |
| John Marshall issued a unanimous opinion in this Supreme Court Case that invoked the Necessary and Proper Clause, and established Congress’s implied powers that aren’t explicitly enumerated. This case claimed that the power to tax is the power to destroy, in striking down a specific tax. For ten points, name this case that found that a certain state couldn’t tax the Bank of the United States. | McCulloch v. Maryland |
| In a Supreme Court case, Moreton Rolleston argued that this act put him in a condition of involuntary servitude. Instead of enforcing this act, Lester Maddox chased people away using an ax. The mandate of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was outlined in this act's Title Seven. The Voting Rights Act came a year after this act, which was unanimously upheld in the Heart of Atlanta case. Lyndon Johnson advocated for the passage of, for ten points, what 1964 act that outlawed racial discrimination? | Civil Rights Act of 1964 |
| This politician voted against the Civil Rights Act by stating that "you can’t legislate morality." This Arizona senator and influential conservative lost the 1964 presidential election. | Barry Morris Goldwater |
| During this event, stationmaster Ghulan Dastagir saved hundreds of lives by signaling for a train to continue without stopping. Warren Anderson blamed this event on employee sabotage. However, this event likely began when water entered tank E610, causing thermal runaway when it reacted with Methyl Isocyanate intended to be used in the production of Carbaryl. Occurring in 1984, for ten points, what was this industrial disaster, the worst in history, killing between 3,800 and 20,000 people in a central Indian city? | Bhopal Industrial Disaster (or Bhopal Gas Tragedy; accept clear-knowledge equivalents including Bhopal) |
| The principal owner of the plant in Bhopal was this American chemical company whose former headquarters building in New York became the tallest building ever peacefully demolished in 2021. | Union Carbide Corporation (accept Union Carbide Building) |
| This event was the origin of a tradition in which the namesake city sends Boston a Christmas tree every year. The aftermath of this event included body identification techniques also used in the namesake city after the Titanic sank. Occurring after the SS Mont Blanc collided with a Norwegian vessel and caught fire, for ten points, what is this largest manmade non-nuclear detonation in history, a 1917 explosion in a Canadian port? | Halifax Explosion (or Halifax Disaster; accept clear-knowledge equivalents including Halifax) |
| Several of the victims of the Halifax explosion were members of the Tufts Cove enclave of this Native American tribe, which dominated the Halifax region before the British arrived. | Mi'kmaq [[MIK-mah]] (accept phonetic pronunciation) |
| One of this man’s novels centers on a hill in Israel and occurs between 9831 BCE and 1963 AD. This author of The Source names the main creative writing center at the University of Texas. This man’s memoir, The World is My Home, begins in a region which names his first novel, a 1948 Pulitzer prize winner which was adapted into a musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Known for his multigenerational fiction, for ten points, who was this American author of Tales of the South Pacific? | James Albert Michener |
| James Michener’s 1983 novel Poland includes two chapter surrounding conflict between a Communist official, local farmers, and this influential organization, which was formed at Lenin Shipyards. | Solidarity (or Independent Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity; or Solidarność; accept Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy Solidarność; prompt on “NSZZ”) |
| In some stories, this man, and not Laertes, was the secret true father of Odysseus with Anticleia. This man proved Autolycus was stealing his cattle by branding their hooves with “stolen by Autolycus.” This man escaped from the underworld by having his wife not bury his body and place a coin in his mouth. For ten points, name this mythical king who was cursed to push a boulder up a hill forever. | Sisyphus |
| Sisyphus was the founder-king of Ephyra, a city-state about halfway between Athens and Sparta, which later became known by this name. The Apostle Paul wrote two epistles to the church in this city. | Corinth (prompt on "First Corinthians" or "Second Corinthians") |
| In the autobiography Music is My Mistress, this man recalled playing baseball as a child while being watched by Theodore Roosevelt. After his death, this man was eulogized in a song by Miles Davis called “He Loved Him Madly.” While working at Poodle Dog Café, this man composed his first song, “Soda Fountain Rag.” This man protested racial discrimination in Harlem in the short film Black and Tan. For ten points, name this swing-era jazz pianist who popularized the song “Take the A Train.” | Duke Ellington (or Edward Kennedy Ellington) |
| At Duke Ellington’s insistence, this segregated New York night club began to allow Black patrons in the 1930s. | Cotton Club |
| A gap in this man's highest position was filled by Andrey Vyshinsky, and he was replaced by Lavrentiy Beria on the development of the nuclear bomb. As the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949, this man negotiated a non-aggression pact with Joachim von Ribbentrop to partition Poland between Nazi Germany and the USSR. For ten points, name this politician who lends his name to an anti-Soviet "cocktail" made by filling a glass bottle with flammable liquid. | Vyacheslav Molotov (or Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Skryabin; accept Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) |
| The Soviet Union first tested nuclear weapons at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in which modern-day country, also home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome? | Republic of Kazakhstan (accept Qazaqstan Respublikasy) |
| The signing of this treaty was delayed by Spanish negotiators in order to capture Gibraltar. During the negotiations for this treaty, Lord Shelburne accepted a deal that cut the Comte de Vergennes out of the process. In violation of this treaty, one nation refused to vacate six forts in the Great Lakes, and this treaty was negotiated following the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. For ten points, name this treaty that ended the American Revolution. | Treaty of Paris, 1783 (accept Peace of Paris) |
| While serving as acting secretary of state, this man helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris. He was later made the first chief justice of the Supreme Court. | John Jay |
| Became the first female vice president in 2021. | Kamala Harris (or Kamala Devi Harris) |
| Served as First Lady and secretary of state before being named the first female major party presidential nominee. | Hillary Clinton (or Hillary Diane Rodham; prompt on "Clinton") |
| Became the first female Speaker of the House in 2007 while representing California. | Nancy Pelosi (or Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro) |
| Served as governor of Alaska before becoming the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket in 2008. | Sarah Palin (or Sarah Louise Heath) |
| Represented Montana as the first woman in the House and was the sole vote against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor. | Jeannette Rankin (or Jeannette Pickering Rankin) |
| Ran with Walter Mondale in 1984, becoming the first female vice-presidential candidate of a major party. | Geraldine Ferraro (or Geraldine Anne Ferraro) |
| Geographical point at ninety degrees of latitude, the subject of many Arctic expeditions. | Geographic North Pole (accept True North Pole; accept Terrestrial North Pole; do not accept or prompt on “Magnetic North Pole”) |
| Norwegian explorer who was the first man to definitively reach that point and earlier discovered its antipode. | Roald Amundsen (or Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen) |
| Dutch explorer who discovered the Svalbard archipelago and names a sea northeast of Norway. | Willem Barentsz (accept Barents Sea) |
| Island group named for a Hapsburg emperor, the northernmost point of the Eastern hemisphere. | Franz Josef Land (prompt on "Franz Josef") |
| Captain of a lost 1840’s British expedition to Arctic regions of Canada on the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror | John Franklin |
| Arctic explorer who names an East Siberian island in the Arctic Ocean that was the last home of the Wooly Mammoth | Ferdinand von Wrangel (accept Wrangel Island) |
| Continent which is home to French Guiana, the site of Amazonian Park and the former prison, Devil's Island. | South America |
| Large African island and former colony, around which France still possesses islands like Mayotte and Réunion. | Madagascar |
| Region including the Society Islands, part of a larger region named by Charles de Brosses for its "many islands." | French Polynesia |
| Capital of a vestige of New France, named for the patron saint of fishermen and part of a region including Miquelon [[mee-keh-LOHN]]. | Saint Pierre (accept Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon; do not accept or prompt on "Saint Peter") |
| Region south of Vanuatu, named for its visual similarity to Scotland. | New Caledonia (prompt on "Caledonia") |
| Caribbean archipelago from which Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy detached in 2007. | Guadeloupe |
| This man and his wife, Helene, were held by the French in internment camps during World War One after initially being allowed to continue their work at Lambaréné [[lahm-bah-reh-NEH]]. This man was known for the rescue and restoration of historic pipe organs and developed a namesake (+) technique for recording the music of J.S. Bach. The author of The Quest of the Historical (*) Jesus, for ten points, who was this Alsatian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize winner who founded a namesake hospital in what is today Gabon? | Albert Schweitzer (or Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer; accept Schweitzer technique; accept Hôpital Albert Schweitzer) |
| In response to his message focused on those "who by perjuries seize scepters", a ruler of this name was insultingly sent a box of opium indicating that his writing was written while under the influence. Another ruler of this name nicknamed (+) "the Blond" rose to the throne despite competition from his brother Şehzade Bayezid, a son of Roxelana. The namesake grandfather of that sultan defeated the Safavids and Mamlukes to conquer most of the (*) Middle East. For ten points, give this name of the father of Suleiman the Magnificent, nicknamed “the Grim.” | Selim (accept Selim the Grim; or Selim the First; or Selim the Resolute; or Yavuz Sultan Selim; or Selim the Second; or Selim the Drunk; or Selim the Blond) |
| During the reign of King Kaleb, this ancient kingdom invaded the Himyarite Kingdom to end a campaign of religious persecution. This kingdom’s conversion to (+) Christianity and conquest of Meroë and Kush are recorded on the Ezana Stone. This kingdom adopted the Ge’ez script, which is still used today by the Orthodox Tewahedo church. A church in this kingdom’s namesake capital claims to hold the original (*) Ark of the Covenant. For ten points, name this early Christian Kingdom based in northern Ethiopia. | Kingdom of Aksum (or Axum; or Aksumite Kingdom; accept “Empire” in place of “Kingdom;” prompt on “Eritrea”; prompt on “Ethiopia” until mentioned) |
| The people of Uglich revolted against this man when he took power. This ruler’s colonization efforts included establishing the town of Tobolsk, and he supposedly declined a proposal of personal union with Poland-Lithuania. This man arranged for his sister Irina to marry (+) Fyodor, for whom this man served as a regent until taking the throne. This man defeated several “False” leaders who claimed to be the murdered Prince (*) Dmitri. For ten points, name this pre-Romanov Tsar of Russia whose death led to the Time of Troubles. | Boris Godunov (or Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv) |
| This woman was surveilled by the FBI after she attended a peace conference in Montevideo on behalf of Paul Robeson. This woman's father successfully countered a racially-restrictive covenant in a Supreme Court Case. This woman inspired the title of a (+) Nina Simone song with her autobiographical play titled To Be Young, Gifted and Black. This woman's most famous play based its title on Langston Hughes' poem (*) "Harlem." For ten points, name this African American playwright who wrote A Raisin in the Sun. | Lorraine Hansberry |
| This man's namesake grandfather died in the 1523 Siege of Malmö, and as a noble, this man was forced into a morganatic marriage with a woman who joined him in Prague after his exile by (+) Christian the Fourth. This man built the first large observatory in Christian Europe at Uraniborg, where his research allowed him to show that comets were not atmospheric phenomena. The writer of (*) De nova stella, for ten points, who was this Danish astronomer noted for his metal, prosthetic nose? | Tycho Brahe [[TEE-koh BRAH-hee]] (or Tyge Ottesen Brahe; accept either underlined portion) |
| This group was composed of about 1,200 people, whose selection process began with an edict on January 24th. This body was expanded due to a procedure of "doubling the third," and this body, of which about 200 members were (+) parish priests, voted not by order but by delegate. This entity's predecessor was elected in 1614, and after a brief feud, it split into the National Assembly, whose members took the (*) Tennis Court Oath. For ten points, name this pre-Revolutionary French legislature composed of the Three Estates. | Estates-General of 1789 (accept États Généraux de 1789; prompt on “Three Estates” before mentioned) |
| This man called the writing system of European settlers "talking leaves." This man's daughter, Ayokeh, communicated with him via letters during their joint trial. This man's most famous invention inspired the creation of (+) Cree syllabics, and his efforts led his tribe to become the first in the U.S. with a 100% literacy rate. (*) For ten points, name this inventor of the Cherokee writing system, who shares his name with a large tree species in California. | Sequoyah (or Ssiquoya; or George Gist; or George Guess) |
| In 1932, this man narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a Korean independence activist during the Sakuradamon incident. Despite the assassination of Takeshi Mori during the (+) Kyujo Incident, this man went on to deliver his country's surrender in the Jewel Voice Broadcast. This regent ordered the invasion of Manchuria and was succeeded by his son, (*) Akihito. For ten points, identify this emperor who led Japan during World War Two. | Hirohito (accept Showa Emperor, in either order) |
| This French hero, known as the "Maid of Orleans," is recognized as a savior of France due to her actions in the Hundred Years' War. | Joan of Arc |
| This man and Emile Berliner each developed a carbon transmitter which improved on Alexander Graham Bell’s principles and was used in all subsequent pre-digital telephones. This man hired performers, including ballerina Annabell Whitford and the sneezing Fred Ott, for work at his (+) Black Maria film studio in West Orange. A tin-cylinder phonograph and the mass-produced incandescent (*) light bulb were patented by, for ten points, what prolific inventor from Menlo Park? | Thomas Alva Edison |
| The Sumerian civilization originated in this region, in between the Tigris and the Euphrates in the northern Fertile Crescent, which takes its name from the Greek for "land between rivers." | Mesopotamia |