| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The losing running mate in this election year ran for President again four years later despite the National Enquirer exposing his affair with Rielle Hunter. This election year’s “October surprise” may have been a videotape of Osama bin Laden taunting one candidate as “easy for us to provoke.” The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth released attack ads in, for ten points, what election year in which John Kerry lost to the re-election campaign of George W. Bush? | U.S. Presidential election of 2004 |
| This event, which may have been started by an attack by Janibeg, re-occurred in the 1850s in China and India, and again in San Francisco in 1900. The Italian city of Pistoia went into isolation during this event, which was marked by the emergence of doctors wearing bird beaks stuffed with sweet smelling flowers. At the time, this event was commonly blamed on Jews poisoning wells, but its true cause was infected fleas. For ten points, name this plague that killed a third of Europe in the 14th century. | Black Death (accept Bubonic Plague; accept the Black Plague; prompt on plague) |
| Gabriel tries to play this instrument, but it makes no sound, at the end of Fences by August Wilson. In 1845, Christophe Ballot assembled two groups of players of this instrument for what may have been the first public demonstration of the Doppler Effect. The “natural” style of this instrument was popular in the Baroque era, and this instrument didn’t receive its now-common valves until the 20th century. Marching parades and fanfares typically feature, for ten points, what highest standard brass instrument? | trumpet |
| This man yelled “Come on, you Wolverines” to rally the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, which he commanded at Hanover and at Gettysburg during the Civil War. Prior to one battle, Alfred Terry ordered this commander of the 7th Cavalry Regiment to scout along the Rosebud Creek. Forces led by Chief Gall and Crazy Horse killed this commander and his companies at an 1876 battle during the Great Sioux War. For ten points, name this officer who made his “last stand” at the Battle of Little Bighorn. | George Armstrong Custer |
| During this event, the Twa people were targeted for allegedly aiding the enemy. The Arusha Accords failed to address the tensions leading up to this event, which was mitigated through Operation Turquoise’s creation of a safe zone. The order to “cut down the tall trees” was given during this event, which was perpetrated by the Interahamwe. A Patriotic Front led by Paul Kagame took Kigali to end, for ten points, what 1994 event in which the Hutus slaughtered the Tutsis? | Rwandan genocide (accept descriptive answers of a genocide of the Tutsis/by the Hutus before either is mentioned) |
| The Council of Pisa failed to end this period by electing Alexander V. This period was ended by a council that also ordered the execution of Jan Hus, and it began with the election of Clement VII in 1378. The election of Martin V at the Council of Constance brought an end to this period, which included the rule of Benedict XIII as Antipope. For ten points, name this period from 1378 to 1417 in which multiple popes reigned simultaneously from Rome and Avignon. | Western Schism (accept Schism of 1378 before “1378” is mentioned; accept Great Occidental Schism, but do not prompt on “Great Schism” alone; accept Papal Schism) |
| This man, who fled to Crown Point after a battle in which his ships were destroyed by Guy Carleton, spread rumors that his force approaching Fort Stanwix was much larger than it really was. After the Battle of Lake Champlain, this husband of Peggy Shippen prompted Benjamin Franklin to scowl “Judas sold only one man,” but this man “[sold] three million.” For ten points, name this Revolutionary War general who tried to betray West Point to the British. | Benedict Arnold |
| An 1897 book titled for this action claims that it is more common during peace than war and examines historical rates of this action for Protestants and Catholics. This action is divided into egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic types in one of the first ever sociological case studies. Emile Durkheim studied, for ten points, what action that may be taken as a result of severe depression, the act of ending one’s own life? | suicide (accept obvious equivalents such as killing yourself before “ending your own life”) |
| A Caproni heavy bomber was daringly piloted under this structure in a 1919 stunt conducted by Giorgio Pessi. The architect of this structure was assisted by his wife Emily, who was thus named the “first woman field engineer.” P.T. Barnum promoted his circus and this structure by having Jumbo the elephant walk across it in 1884. A father and son of the Roebling family designed this structure over the East River. For ten points, name this bridge that links a namesake Long Island borough to Manhattan. | Brooklyn Bridge |
| This state promoted a traditional view of motherhood, one of many conservative reforms promoted as National Regeneration. A paramilitary group in this state called the Milice was headed by its Prime Minister, Pierre Laval. This state’s ships were attacked by the British while stationed at Mers el K´ebir and were scuttled in Toulon. This state revolved around the popularity of its president, Marshal Philippe Pet´ain. For ten points, name this puppet state that was established by the Nazis after the fall of France. | Vichy France (accept French State) |
| In 1999, this country sought to isolate Ladakh and force its enemies to withdraw from the Siachen Glacier by launching Operation Badr, even though it had committed to the peaceful Lahore Declaration in the same year. This country’s troops crossed the Line of Control to instigate the Kargil War against a rival with whom it often contests the region of Kashmir. For ten points, name this rival and western neighbor of India. | Pakistan |
| Fourteen years before Pakistan’s Operation Badr, Iran launched an Operation Badr that captured a highway connecting Baghdad and this city, Iraq’s main port on the Shatt al-Arab. | Basra |
| ThissubstancewasrecklesslyhandledbyfactoryownersincitieslikeWaterbury,Connecticut,Orange, New Jersey, and Ottawa, Illinois, where workers were given the instructions “lip, dip, paint.” In 1921, President Harding presented Marie Curie with a vial holding one gram of this substance, which names an institute she led at the University of Paris. After polonium, this was the second element discovered by the Curies. For ten points, name this highly toxic radioactive element with chemical symbol Ra [spell it]. | radium |
| Many of the “Radium Girls,” who were falsely told that working with radium was safe, had their medical claims denied on grounds that their symptoms of radiation sickness were actually caused by this scandalous disease. The US government carried out an unethical study of this disease at Tuskegee from 1932 to 1972. | syphilis |
| This man, who was discovered lurking in the woods by Benjamin Phipps, is discussed as an inspiration in the autobiography of Henry “Box” Brown. Jim Travis was one of the targets of an event organized by this man, who was inspired by the viewing of a solar eclipse. This man lived in Southampton County, where he was inspired by Denmark Vesey to carry out an attack that resulted in roughly 60 deaths. For ten points, name this leader of an 1831 slave rebellion. | Nat Turner |
| Nat Turner’s slave revolt took place in this state’s Southampton County. Turner was captured in this state’s portion of the Great Dismal Swamp. | Virginia |
| In a lecture, this author emphasized his home country’s proverb that “ONE WORD OF TRUTH SHALL OUTWEIGH THE WHOLE WORLD.” This man delivered that lecture by letter, as he expected he would be forced into exile if he traveled to Stockholm to accept the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature. This author’s experiences in the Main Directorate of Camps and those of hundreds of other political prisoners was published via samizdat. For ten points, name this Soviet dissident author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago. | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn |
| The Gulag Archipelago relates the history of Soviet labor camps from 1918 until this February 25, 1956 event. Journalists were not invited to this event, which lasted four hours in the middle of the night at the Kremlin. | Nikita Khrushchev’s Secret Speech (accept descriptions relating to Khrushchev delivering the speech “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences”) |
| A star fort in this state called Fort Elizabeth was built by Georg Anton Schaffer, an agent of the Russian-American Company. An observatory in this state is named for deceased astronaut Ellison Onizuka. This state, which grows nearly half of the world’s macadamia nuts, contains sites like the Bernice Bishop Museum and Iolani Palace. For ten points, name this US state that was once a kingdom united by Kamehameha I in the Pacific Ocean. | Hawaii |
| This sacred dormant volcano, Hawaii’s highest point, was the site of 2015 protests over the creation of the Thirty Meter Telescope. | Mauna Kea |
| This man was nearly assassinated by Anteo Zamboni, prompting him to establish a secret police known as the OVRA. He soldified power by changing parliamentary thresholds through the Acerbo Law. The Republic of Sal´o was led by this man, who signed a treaty with Pius IX in 1929 to recognize an independent Vatican City within his country’s borders. For ten points, name this leader who seized power after his Blackshirts marched on Rome in 1922 and led Italy during World War II. | Benito Mussolini |
| This 1929 treaty recognized the independence of the Vatican City. It is named for the papal residence, a palace that also hosted numerous medieval ecumenical councils. | Lateran Treaty (accept Lateran Palace or Apostolic Palace of the Lateran; accept Lateran Council (s)) |
| During this king’s reign, a vernacular service known as the Exhortation and Litany was written. Martin Luther’s attack on indulgences prompted this man to write Defense of the Seven Sacraments. This king was given the title of “Defender of the Faith” by Pope Leo X, but a disagreement with Clement VII over whether this king’s marriage could be annulled led him to split with the Catholic Church. For ten points, name this Tudor King who created the Church of England after splitting with the first of his six wives. | Henry VIII (prompt on Henry) |
| The Exhortation and Litany was written by Thomas Cranmer, who held this position during Henry VIII’s rule. | Archbishop of Canterbury (prompt on Archbishop; prompt on Bishop) |
| This settlement was led by Ralph Lane until a rough storm convinced him to return home with Francis Drake. Virginia Dare, the first English child to be born in the New World, was born at this settlement. John White was sent to resupply this settlement, but an oak tree with the word CROATOAN scrawled into it was discovered instead. For ten points, name this North Carolina colony whose settlers mysteriously disappeared. | Roanoke Colony (prompt on descriptions of the Lost Colony) |
| The Roanoke Colony was a project funded by this Englishman. In 1595, this Englishman searched for El Dorado in Guiana, having left on the pretense of trying to find the lost colonists. | Sir Walter Raleigh |
| Country from which Texas won its independence. | Mexico |
| River that Texas claimed as its southern border, and which is the eastern end of the modern US-Mexico border. | Rio Grande |
| Process by which Texas joined the United States in 1845. | annexation |
| US President who signed the bill authorizing that process, two days before he left office. | John Tyler |
| General and first President of the republic who was ousted as Governor of Texas after it seceded from the Union. | Samuel Houston |
| 1836 battle where that general routed Santa Anna’s men in less than 20 minutes, securing independence. | Battle of San Jacinto |
| 1836 massacre where James Fannin and hundreds of prisoners of war were killed by Santa Anna’s men. | Goliad Massacre |
| Second President of the republic, who issued “redback” currency. | Mirabeau Lamar Recent British Prime Ministers For the purposes of this lightning round, recent means since 1900. Name the British Prime Minister who... |
| Gave the “we shall fight on the beaches” speech in May 1940 during his first month as PM. | Sir Winston Churchill |
| Was known as the “Iron Lady” and passed away in 2013. | Margaret Thatcher |
| Resigned as PM after the success of the Brexit referendum in 2016. | David Cameron |
| Proclaimed “Peace in our time” after signing the Munich Agreement with Hitler. | Neville Chamberlain |
| Proposed the “People’s Budget” and represented Britain at Versailles in 1919. | David Lloyd George (prompt on partial last names) |
| Replaced John Major in a victory for “New Labour.” | Tony Blair |
| Gave the “Wind of Change” speech in 1960, giving tacit approval to African independence movements. | Harold Macmillan |
| Was embarrassed by the publishing of the Zinoviev letter, after which his party lost an election to Stanley Baldwin’s party. | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Country that became one of the “Four Asian Tigers” through tech companies like Samsung and LG. | South Korea (prompt on Korea; accept Hanguk; accept Namhan) |
| “Tiger” that built a new financial center, Taipei 101, in 2004. | Taiwan (accept Republic of China; do not accept People’s Republic of China) |
| President of China who has implemented market reforms since 2012. | Xi [shee] Jinping |
| Country where an asset price bubble ushered in the Lost Decade in the early 90s. | Japan (accept Nippon; accept Nihon) |
| Multi-national organization based in Jakarta that was created by the Bangkok Declaration. | ASEAN (accept Association of South-East Asian Nations) |
| Leader of Indonesia, the successor of Sukarno, who was removed by riots stemming from an financial crisis. | Suharto |
| Year in which that massive financial crisis began. | |
| Currency whose collapse kicked off that financial crisis after it could no longer stay pegged to the dollar. | Thai baht |
| This President berated Charles Forbes as a “double crossing bastard” for selling off Veterans Bureau medical supplies. Jess Smith committed suicide after this President confronted him about his crimes; Smith was an unofficial aide to this man’s Attorney General, Harry (+) Daugherty. Nan Britton claimed to have given birth to this man’s illegitimate daughter, one of several controversies surrounding this man that came to light after his death from (*) “apoplexy,” or a massive heart attack. The corrupt Ohio Gang served, for ten points, what US President who died before the Teapot Dome scandal exploded? | Warren Gamaliel Harding |
| Hundreds of this region’s peasants were killed on Christmas 1705 in the Sendling night of murder. Part of this region known as the Innviertel was given to the Habsburg monarchy following the Treaty of Teschen. The (+) Wittelsbach claim to this region was challenged in the Potato War. This region’s “mad king” Ludwig II ordered the construction of Neuschwanstein [noysh-van-stein], the inspiration for the (*) castle in Sleeping Beauty. For ten points, name this home of Oktoberfest, a German region with capital Munich. | Bavaria (or Bayern) |
| The daughters of a figure with this name were killed by Tadodaho. This name, held by a legendary follower of the Great Peacemaker, was commonly used for wampum belts. Edmonia Lewis sculpted a man with this name holding hands with a Dakota (+) woman and wearing a feathered headdress. In a poem, a man with this name is born to Wenonah and the West Wind by the (*) shores of Gitche-Gumee and marries Minnehaha. For ten points, give this name shared by a Mohawk founder of the Iroquois Confederacy and a fictional Ojibwe warrior whose Song was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. | Hiawatha (accept Ayenwatha; accept The Song of Hiawatha) |
| The cost of creating this building on the site of a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was allegedly seven times larger than Egypt’s income tax revenue. This building, which was constructed during the Second Fitna under Abd-al Malik, was built on the site where (+) Abraham tried to sacrifice his son Isaac. In 1187, a cross on this building’s central feature was replaced with a crescent after Saladin recaptured the city. (*) Muhammad is to have ascended to heaven at the site of, for ten points, what shrine on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount that includes the Foundation Stone? | Dome of the Rock (accept Qubbat al-Sakhrah; accept Kippat ha-Sela) |
| In a 1997 commercial, a grandmother stops her family’s bickering over the legacy of this leader by remarking that he brought Pizza Hut to their country. This man, who once apologized for comparing West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to Nazi Joseph Goebbels, was the target of an (+) unsuccessful coup in August 1991. This recipient of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize pulled out of a prolonged conflict in (*) Afghanistan and introduced the perestroika reforms. For ten points, name this last premier of the USSR. | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| Artemis Ward ordered colonial militia to fortify the area surrounding this city. Cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga were brought to the Dorchester Heights outside of this city by Henry Knox in the Noble Train of Artillery. (+) Israel Putnam likely gave the order “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” in a battle fought near this city. Skirmishes at (*) Lexington and Concord preceded a siege of, for ten points, what Massachusetts city that was the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill? | Boston |
| In 1999, this country’s town of Magdalena was hit by the largest freshwater oil spill in history. This country’s Mar Chiquita, or Little Sea, is found in its Cordoba province. In the 1980s, this country initially complained about the construction of the (+) Itaipu Dam on the border of two of its neighbors because the dam threatened the flow of the Parana River, which empties into the Rio de la Plata between this country and (*) Paraguay. For ten points, name this South American country where, in 1536, Spanish conquistadors founded Buenos Aires. | Argentina |
| This man’s hopes of controlling the Mediterranean were dashed after Hayreddin Barbarossa defeated his fleet at Preveza, but this man did check Protestant strength in Germany after defeating the (+) Schmalkaldic League at Muhlberg. This man’s army innovated the “tercio” system to great effect, defeating rival (*) Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in the Italian Wars. This man’s reign united the thrones of the Habsburgs and the Valois [val-WAH]. For ten points, name this 16th century ruler of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. | Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (accept Charles I of Spain or Carlos I of Spain; prompt on “Charles” or “Carlos;” do not prompt on “Charles I” alone) |
| While travelling with his lover Antinous in Libya, Hadrian allegedly slew the Marousian animal of this type. Edward Gibbon claimed that a hundred darts were used by Commodus to kill 100 of these animals on a single day. A slave named (+) Androcles was supposedly spared by one of these animals after removing a thorn from its paw when it was tasked with killing him. Following the Great Fire of Rome, (*) Christians were often thrown in arenas to be killed by, for ten points, what African big cats that were imported to fight gladiators? | lions |
| What Roman general won the Battle of Zama in Tunisia in 202 BC? | Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus |