| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| In a film primarily about this company, the song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” plays as employees are laid off and rats infest a city. Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson said that he thought for years what was good for this company was good for America. A 1965 book begins by talking about a “sporty” yet dangerous product of this company. The chairman of this company, Roger Smith, is continually harassed by Michael Moore in the documentary Roger & Me. Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe at any Speed was primarily about this company’s Corvair model. For the point, name this car company founded in Flint, Michigan, which has such brands as Chevrolet. | General Motors [or GM; prompt on “Chevy” or “Chevrolet” until mentioned] |
| In this modern-day state, a colonial leader was killed trying to establish a settlement near Charlotte Harbor, after he was hit by a poisoned arrow from a Calusa warrior. This future state was attacked in the siege of Fort Mose during the War of Jenkins’ Ear. This state was named because it was discovered by Europeans during the Easter season when vegetation was in bloom, and a city here is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental U.S. Most historians believe the European who claimed this future state was not actually looking for the Fountain of Youth. For the point, name this modern-day state, which was named by Juan Ponce de Le´on. | Florida |
| This policy led to the creation of Orson Welles’ radio show Hello Americans. A propaganda agency that helped promote this policy was the OCIAA, as led by Nelson Rockefeller. The Gang’s All Here was a musical film promoting this policy by featuring a star noted for such outlandish numbers as “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat.” Effects of this policy included the U.S. Marines ending two occupations and the Platt Amendment being annulled. This policy was basically announced in a 1933 Cordell Hull speech implicitly rebuking the Roosevelt Corollary. For the point, name this FDR policy that tried to improve U.S. relations with Latin America. | Good Neighbor Policy |
| This organization was founded after a William English Walling article in The Independent analyzed criminal actions in Springfield. A periodical published by this organization was at one time edited by female poet Jessie Redmon Fauset. An award handed out by this organization is named for its second president, Joel Elias Spingarn. It was founded by a group that included Florence Kelley and Ida B. Wells. This organization, which heavily overlapped with the earlier Niagara Movement, produced the magazine The Crisis. For the point, name this civil rights organization co-founded in 1909 by activists like W.E.B. Du Bois. | N.A.A.C.P. [or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| A man who held this Cabinet position was asked to resign by Harry Truman after reportedly negotiating to stay on in a Dewey presidency. During the Halloween Massacre, Gerald Ford’s chief of staff took over this position. The first man to hold this position would jump to his death from the roof of a hospital in 1949. During the George W. Bush presidency, this position was held by a man who claimed “there are known knowns.” This position was first held by James Forrestal and also held by a man who said he was accountable for the Abu Ghraib scandal. Donald Rumsfeld twice held, for the point, what Cabinet position which effectively oversees the U.S. military? | Secretary of Defense |
| While speaking to an interviewer from this publication, Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell insisted on keeping a handgun on the table. This publication printed the longest interview Martin Luther King Jr. gave to any magazine. Both of the aforementioned interviews were conducted for this magazine by Alex Haley. In November 1976, Jimmy Carter told this magazine that he had committed adultery in his heart many times. This magazine, which was originally going to be called Stag Party, debuted in December 1953 with a famous image of Marilyn Monroe. For the point, name this Hugh Hefner-founded magazine, noted for its nude centerfolds. | Playboy |
| One of the negotiators of this treaty, David Hartley, invented an iron plank called a “fire plate” that could limit the growth of fires. Another of its negotiators, Henry Laurens, had a former business partner serve as a negotiator for the other side. An unfinished painting of this treaty’s negotiators has a blank white spot on the right because one side refused to pose. The building of Fort Miami in Ohio a few years later violated this treaty, whose very generous terms were meant to set up a trading relationship and were negotiated by men like Benjamin Franklin. For the point, name this 1783 treaty with Great Britain which ended the Revolutionary War. | Treaty of Paris |
| For about the first 48 years of this organization’s history, it had the same leader aside from one year when John McBride was in charge. A Supreme Court case co-named for the head of this organization reversed his conviction for contempt after he opposed Buck’s Stove and Range Company. This organization’s longtime head, an English-born Jew, referred to the Clayton Antitrust Act as the “Magna Carta” and co-founded it in 1886, after a group of cigar makers had a tense dispute with the Knights of Labor. Samuel Gompers was the first leader of, for the point, what alliance of craft unions and skilled workers that eventually merged with the CIO? | American Federation of Labor [or AFL; prompt on “AFL-CIO”] US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| This president established the Simpson-Bowles Commission in order to find ways to lower the national debt. He’s not Hoover, but an economic plan of this president was opposed in an ad signed by almost 200 economists, including Nobel winner Edward Prescott. Programs known as HAMP and HARP were started by this president. The first law this president signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act regarding pay discrimination lawsuits. During his presidency, the Dodd-Frank Act established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For the point, name this president who signed the stimulus package known as the Recovery Act shortly after taking office in 2009. | Barack Hussein Obama II |
| In response to this Supreme Court case, the campaign known as “Stamp Stampede” was started by Ben & Jerry’s co-founder, Ben Cohen. This case was originally going to feature one of the last opinions of David Souter, a dissent that blasted John Roberts but which remained unpublished after the case was rescheduled. This was the first case heard by Elena Kagan on the court. The organization at the center of this case sought to broadcast the film Hillary: The Movie. For the point, name this 2010 Supreme Court case which ruled that the First Amendment’s free speech clause allowed for unrestricted political spending by corporations. | Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission [or Citizens United vs. FEC] |
| John White claimed this event was falsely reported to Congress, an assertion he repeated in the documentary In the Year of the Pig. Senator Wayne Morse tried to investigate the official logbooks of this event, and later joined Ernest Gruening in being the only two senators to vote against a resolution passed in response to it. This event supposedly led to minor damage on the USS Maddox, and it resulted in a resolution giving Lyndon Johnson power to use military force in southeast Asia. For the point, name this August 1964 incident in which an American ship was supposedly attacked by the North Vietnamese. | Gulf of Tonkin incident [accept USS Maddox incident until “Maddox”] |
| A leader of people of this ethnicity founded the newspaper New York Freeman and was known as “Dagger John.” Another leader of this people founded the “Town of Kansas” that became Kansas City. In 1857, a group of people of this ethnicity marched from the Five Points to begin a brutal, two-day fight with the Bowery Boys. Many of these people journeyed to America in “coffin ships,” and some of them joined gangs like the Dead Rabbits in New York City. Employers hung “NINA signs” warning that people of this ethnicity “need not apply.” For the point, many immigrants of what ethnicity came to the U.S. to escape an European potato famine? | Irish-American |
| This group was founded by the future CEO of Quaker Oats, a Yale Law School student named R. Douglas Stuart Jr. Foreign agents encouraged pilot Laura Ingalls to participate in this organization, which was headed by Robert Wood, the chairman of Sears and Roebuck. Mostly based around Chicago, this group was staunchly opposed to the principles of the Atlantic Charter. One of its celebrity spokesmen was Charles Lindbergh, at least until it was disbanded three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. For the point, name this isolationist group that opposed American entry into World War II, and whose name is used by Donald Trump to refer to his policies. | America First Committee [or AFC] US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| A biography of this man ends with a Lydia Marie Child quote about how he was “willing to grow.” That book, The Fiery Trial, won a Pulitzer Prize for Eric Foner. A biography of this man’s “political genius” also contains long biographical sketches of governors of Ohio and New York. The poet Carl Sandburg wrote a six-volume biography of this politician. A 2005 biography of this president reportedly inspired Barack Obama to name Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. For the point, name this president, the focus of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, in which he appoints men like Salmon Chase and William Seward to his Cabinet before the Civil War. | Abraham Lincoln |
| For years, historians accepted the probably inaccurate story that a member of this family was romantically linked to Peter Carr, a story revised due to the scholarship of Fawn Brodie and Annette Gordon-Perry. A member of this family wrote an 1873 article claiming to be named after James Madison. Another member worked as a chef in Paris in the 1780s for the American envoy to France, who was a widower. Several members of this family are probably the children of the man who eventually freed them from service at Monticello. Thomas Jefferson is accused of fathering five children in, for the point, what family of slave Sally? | Hemings family (prompt on Jefferson) |
| After complaining about a law affecting people in this position, Samuel Chase was impeached. After being rejected for this type of position, John Rutledge tried to commit suicide by jumping into Charleston Harbor. A Maryland businessman asked for a writ of mandamus to force the Secretary of State to deliver a commission to him appointing him to this type of position. The disputed appointment of the so-called “midnight” examples of people in this position led to the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison. Near the end of his presidency, John Adams appointed many people to, for the point, what general position, including John Marshall? | judges [or justices; accept Supreme Court justices] |
| A third-party candidate in this election year was the oldest ever presidential nominee; that candidate, the designer of the Tom Thumb, the first American steam locomotive, was Peter Cooper for the Greenback Party. A key event in this election year was the decision of David Davis to resign the Supreme Court, meaning he could not serve on a 15-member commission that ultimately ruled in favor of the Republican candidate. For the point, name this presidential election year in which Samuel Tilden lost to Rutherford B. Hayes, after disputed electoral votes were resolved by a compromise that effectively ended Reconstruction. | Election of 1876 US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| In2007,theU.S.Navyhelpedsaveoneofthiscountry’sshipsfrompiratesoffthecoastofMogadishu. This country and an American ally were the subjects of the “Six-Party Talks” that tried to normalize political relations in a certain region. Missionary Kenneth Bae was accused of trying to overthrow this country’s government. The leader of this country met the U.S. president and promised to work for “peace and prosperity” at the Singapore Summit. Otto Warmbier was accused of trying to steal a poster in this country and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Donald Trump referred to, for the point, what Asian country’s leader as “Rocket Man”? | North Korea [or Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; or DPRK; prompt on “Korea”] |
| This decade was when the Supreme Court issued the “White Monday” decisions, which upheld the Frazier-Lemke Act. Senator Joseph Robinson died before he received a promised Supreme Court appointment in this decade. A case in this decade overturned Adkins v. Children’s Hospital to uphold the legality of minimum wage legislation. During this decade, the “switch in time that saved nine” referred to Owen Roberts’ vote in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, which helped lessen the demand for the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill. For the point, name this decade in which Franklin Roosevelt’s unsuccessful “court-packing” plan was proposed. | 1930s [prompt on “Thirties”] |
| Soldiers called in to respond to this event consumed a hallucinogenic plant known as “jimsonweed.” Legendarily, the British king noted the response to this event was even more brutal than how he treated the killers of his father. During this event, members of the Pamunkey tribe fled into Dragon Swamp, and it lost steam after its original leader died of dysentery. Many historians note that this event led to a deemphasizing of indentured servants, many of whom had taken part in it. This event began after Governor William Berkeley refused to attack native tribes, and it resulted in the burning of Jamestown. For the point, name this 1676 uprising of Virginia colonists. | Bacon’s Rebellion |
| As a congressman, this man was the primary force behind excluding Jefferson Davis from a post-Civil War amnesty bill. When writing to clerk James Mulligan, this man ended messages with the phrase “Burn this letter.” Robert Ingersoll referred to this man as the “Plumed Knight” when nominating him for president. This leader of the Half-Breed faction was eventually opposed by the more reform-minded Mugwumps, who refused to support him in the 1884 election against Grover Cleveland. For the point, name this Secretary of State under James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison, a Republican mocked as the “continental liar from the state of Maine.” | James Gillespie Blaine US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| This man holds youth campaigns called “Know Your Rights Camps.” This man and Eric Reid said they adjusted their tactics after talking to a retired Green Beret named Nate Boyer. In January 2018, this man completed his pledge to give one million dollars to charities. In a commercial, this man proclaims “believe in something...even if it means sacrificing everything,” an appearance that led to people burning Nike shoes. In 2017, this man filed a grievance, accusing owners of collusion to keep him out of the league. For the point, name this former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who protested racial injustice by taking a knee during the national anthem. | Colin Rand Kaepernick |
| A Scotsman lends his name to the economical “macadamisation” method of building these things. One of these things built by and named for Edward Braddock in 1755 is where he was eventually buried. Judge Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Company in North Carolina hired a hunter to effectively create one of these things in 1755 in southern Kentucky. The most expensive federal internal improvement project of the antebellum era constructed one of these things. In 1824, the Potomac and Ohio Rivers were connected by a national type of, for the point, what type of transportation routes named for Cumberland, Maryland? | roads [or highways; or turnpikes] |
| This person is referred to as “an old man” in the poem “Year of Meteors.” He declined to run off to New York or Canada with friend Silas Soule. John Henry Kagi and Dangerfield Newby died in a battle that also claimed this man’s sons, Oliver and Watson. Theodore Parker and Thomas Wentworth Higginson were part of the “Secret Six” that funded this man, whose death was compared to “Washington killing Spartacus” by Victor Hugo. This man led in the killing of five people at the Pottawatomie Massacre during the fighting in Bleeding Kansas. For the point, name this radical abolitionist who raided a federal armory at Harpers Ferry. | John Brown |
| January 9 is Martyrs Day in this country, after U.S. troops killed around 20 protesters trying to raise their country’s flag. An American marine was killed in this country after being stopped leaving Fort Clayton on his way to eat dinner. Outside a Vatican diplomatic mission in this country, American troops played loud rock and roll music. Operation Just Cause took place in this country, which signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties with the U.S. American troops invaded this country in 1989 to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega. For the point, name this Central American country which in 1999 took possession of a canal built by the U.S. | Republic of Panama US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| This agency’s three-person head included the future head of the Atomic Energy Commission, David Lilienthal. Reportedly, GE fired Ronald Reagan as a spokesman after he criticized this agency, while Barry Goldwater was himself criticized for suggesting selling this agency to private companies. This agency was heavily inspired by Senator George Norris’ Muscle Shoals Bill, which had been vetoed by Herbert Hoover. This agency, which built the Fontana Dam and numerous hydroelectric plants, was based in Knoxville. For the point, name this agency created in 1933 to modernize and improve the economy of a southeastern region of the U.S. | Tennessee Valley Authority [or TVA] |
| During this battle, Major Joseph Daveiss led dragoons on a counter-charge against the enemy’s line, resultinginhisdeath.TheheaviestcasualtiesinthisbattleoccurredamongCaptainSpierSpencer’sYellow Jacket company. It began as a surprise attack on sleeping troops who had just received supplies from Vincennes. A supposed “curse” named for this battle was responsible for the deaths of presidents every 20 years beginning in 1860. This battle is named for a river which meets the Wabash at “Prophetstown,” the base of Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa. For the point, name this 1811 battle in which William Henry Harrison defeated the brother of Tecumseh. | Battle of Tippecanoe |
| This man is the focus of David Mamet’s forthcoming play Bitter Wheat. He was reportedly sent a samurai sword in the mail with the threatening message “No cuts” by Hayao Miyazaki. This man said he would donate a million dollars to charity if stories about him harassing Sydney Pollack on his deathbed could be proven. The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow reported this man hired the intelligence firm Black Cube to target women. This man and his brother, Bob, co-founded Miramax. The #MeToo campaign began in 2017 after numerous women such as Rose McGowan accused, for the point, what film producer of sexual assault? | Harvey Weinstein |
| This person was the namesake of free tickets to shows that had holes punched in them. In a musical, this person and a man repeatedly sing “No, you can’t,” and “Yes, I can” back and forth as they brag about being able to sing higher or speak faster than the other. The songs “Anything You Can Do” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business” were written by Irving Berlin for a musical named for this person, who appeared with husband Frank Butler in the film The Little Sure Shot. A musical’s title tells this person to “get your gun.” For the point, name this legendary female sharpshooter, who was part of Buffalo Bill’s traveling show. | Annie Oakley [or Phoebe Ann Mosey; prompt on “Annie Get Your Gun”] US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| Months prior to this event, Bob Ebeling, an employee at Morton-Thiokol, wrote a memo titled “Help!” A member of a commission investigating this event placed an object in a glass of ice water during televised hearings. The Rogers Commission investigated this event, which a president responded to by quoting a poem’s line about people slipping “the surly bonds of Earth.” This event led to the death of teacher and payload specialist Christa McAuliffe. A report after this event concluded a dangerous flaw in a vessel’s O-rings had been known for years by NASA. For the point, name this January 1986 disaster in which a space shuttle exploded during liftoff. | Space Shuttle Challenger disaster |
| This president’s son disappeared after boarding the steamship Benjamin Franklin and was thought to have committed suicide. Congressmen opposed to this president harped on things like his purchasing of a pool table for the White House. The B&O Railroad was built during this man’s presidency, as part of a plan of internal improvements endorsed by Secretary of State Henry Clay. This president, who spent the final 17 years of his life as an U.S. representative, was elected to the White House after the so-called “corrupt bargain” of 1824. For the point, name this sixth U.S. president, the son of the second president. | John Quincy Adams [prompt on “Adams”; do not accept “J (ohn) Adams”] |
| This modern-day country is the setting of the non-fiction essay “A Message to Garcia,” which describes an American intelligence mission. The Menger Hotel bar in Texas serves as a tribute to troops who gathered there before going to this modern-day country. After Joseph Wheeler became ill in this modern-day country, Leonard Wood ended up serving as Brigadier General. Frederic Remington painted a charge up Kettle Hill in this modern-day country, as carried out by the Rough Riders in the Battle of San Juan Hill. For the point, name this Caribbean island where the USS Maine blew up in 1898, shortly before the Spanish-American War began. | Republic of Cuba |
| One of the main investors behind this building’s construction wrote the article “Everybody Ought to be Rich,” which was published two months before the stock market crash. A longtime resident of this building was jeweller Jack Brod. Supposedly, investor John J. Raskob used a large pencil to model the design of this building for architect William F. Lamb. This building won the “Race into the Sky,” using higher observation decks and a dirigible station to claim a title from the Chrysler Building. For the point, name this Art Deco skyscraper which was the world’s tallest building when opened in 1931 in New York City. | Empire State Building |
| This politician said “man can be as big as he wants” during a speech at American University titled “A Strategy of Peace.” Many of his speeches were written by key adviser Ted Sorensen. This man proclaimed “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans” in a speech in which he also said “let us never negotiate out of fear, but...never fear to negotiate,” a line suggested by John Kenneth Galbraith. While in Germany, this president said “Ich bin ein Berliner!” For the point, name this president who proclaimed “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” during his 1961 inauguration. | John Fitzgerald Kennedy [or JFK; prompt on “Kennedy”] US History Bee 2018-2019 Round 4 |
| This was the original name of a town whose motto is “The King Unwilling,” referring to the king’s refusal to charter the village as a town. A village with this name was where minister George Burroughs was killed, one of various deaths documented in Robert Calef’s text More Wonders of the Invisible World. The “hanging judge” John Hathorne presided over the death of Rebecca Nurse in a village with this name, which was where youngsters Betty Parris and Abigail Williams accused people like Tituba of causing their afflictions. For the point, give this name of a Massachusetts village and town where a namesake series of 1690s witch trials took place. | Salem [accept Salem Town or Salem Village; prompt on “Danvers”] |
| Mormon leader Samuel Brannan publicized this event by running up and down the street while shouting. Colonel Richard Mason’s report also helped publicize this event, which led to stories of a mountain called “Gam Saan.” This event began at a location called New Helvetia, which was founded by a Swiss settler. An early boost in business for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was due to this event, which began after James Marshall discovered something while building a lumber mill on the American River. For the point, what event began with a discovery at Sutter’s Mill and led to many “forty-niners” heading to the west coast? | California gold rush |