| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Two weeks after a Robert Geiger news story coined a name for this event, Hugh Bennett was made director of a new agency within the Interior Department. This event prompted the Soil Conservation Act, as it was partly caused by cattle overgrazing. Dorothea Lange’s iconic photograph Migrant Mother depicts a family fleeing, for ten points, what event in which “Okies” attempted to move to California to avoid severe drought during the Great Depression? | Dust Bowl (prompt on Great Depression) |
| Genseric captured this city after his betrothal to Eudocia was broken, and Alaric was able to capture this city after the death of Stilicho. The Battle of the Allia led to the capture of this city, which was forced to measure out ransom money using weighted scales by Brennus. Romulus Augustulus was deposed after the capture of this city in 476 AD. For ten points, name this city that was sacked several times during the fall of its Italy-based empire. | Rome |
| This kingdom was briefly controlled by Britain after the arrival of the HMS Carysfort in the Paulet Affair. Because Kalakaua had been intimidated into giving his power away, this kingdom’s legal code was known as the Bayonet Constitution. Sanford Dole was appointed president of this kingdom shortly before it was annexed by William McKinley in 1898. For ten points, name this kingdom, that was ruled by Queen Liliuokalani and became the 50th US state. | Kingdom of Hawai’i |
| In what became known as this city’s “mile,” a group of troops including Randall Ramaglia walked through RPG fire to a rally point at National Street. William Garrison commanded troops in a battle in this city that was part of the larger Operation Gothic Serpent; in that battle, troops under Mohammad Farah Aidid shot down two Black Hawk helicopters. For ten points, name this site of a 1993 battle involving Delta Force, the capital of Somalia. | Mogadishu (accept Hamar) |
| This leader’s promotion of pro-feminist policies was noted with the statement “Women hold up half the sky.” This man began the Anti-Rightist Campaign after severe criticism led him to undo the Hundred Flowers Movement. In a failed attempt to modernize, this man encouraged peasants to create backyard furnaces during the Great Leap Forward, which began in 1958. For ten points, name this Communist chairman of China. | Mao Zedong |
| This President’s doctrine pledged support to Middle Eastern governments, including military support for Camille Chamoun of Lebanon. Earl Warren was appointed as Chief Justice by this president a year before Brown v. Board of Education overturned the doctrine of “separate but equal.” This president sent members of 101st Airborne Division to escort the Little Rock Nine. For ten points, name this president and former World War II Supreme Allied Commander. | Dwight D (avid) “Ike” Eisenhower |
| Members of this religious movement follow a ruleset called the Ordnung. One of the most conservative sects of this religious group, based in Nebraska, is known for its brown clothing. Some young people from this religious group are allowed to disobey norms in an exploratory period called Rumspringa. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was a migration site for many members of, for ten points, what religious group known for living without the conveniences of modern technology? | the Amish (prompt on Mennonites; prompt on Anabaptists) |
| In this work, a character recounts the tale of a man named Er who revives on his funeral pyre and shares an account of the afterlife. A character in this work tries to explain the psyche by asking Glaucon to imagine a divided line and imagines a ring that makes the wearer invisible, the Ring of Gyges. The Allegory of the Cave and the benefits of rule under a “philosopher-king” are described in, for ten points, what Platonic dialogue about justice and forms of government like oligarchy and democracy? | The Republic (or Politeia) |
| The “United Empire” faction of these people consisted of members who migrated to Canadian provinces. These people were led into combat by Patrick Ferguson, where they were defeated at Kings Mountain. A considerable population of North and South Carolina consisted of these people, whom Charles Cornwallis hoped to gain the support of during his campaign there. For ten points, give this term for American colonists who supported Great Britain during the Revolution. | Loyalists (accept Tories; accept Royalists; accept King’s Men; accept descriptive answers that use the word loyal) |
| This battle was fought concurrently with an engagement at Wavre [wahv], leading to the absence of Emmanuel Grouchy. This battle is commemorated by the Lion’s Mound, where a commander was shot off his horse. The arrival of Gebhard von Blucher’s Prussians helped turn the tide of this battle, which ended the Hundred Days and forced its loser into exile in St. Helena. For ten points, name this 1815 battle in which Wellington defeated Napoleon for the last time. | Battle of Waterloo |
| This dynasty was challenged by followers of the Celestial Masters, who launched the Five Pecks of Rice rebellion. Sima Qian [CHEE-an] compiled the Records of the Grand Historian under this dynasty, which became the first to use the civil service examination and linked itself to Rome using an overland trade route. For ten points, name this ancient dynasty that shares a name with the majority ethnic group of China. | Han Dynasty |
| Merchants in the Han Dynasty developed this trade route between China and Europe, named for the primary textile commodity traded along it. | Silk Road (or Silk Route) |
| Greer County eventually was ruled to be part of this state after a dispute over the Adams-Onis Treaty with its southern neighbor. This state was assigned the Cimarron Territory in 1890 but was considered No Man’s Land beforehand. The Unassigned Areas in this state were allocated by an 1889 land rush in which the “Sooners” rushed across the border. For ten points, name this US state who has had several territorial disputes with its southern neighbor, Texas. | Oklahoma |
| The Cimarron Territory became Oklahoma’s Cimarron, Texas, and Beaver counties, forming this region in northwest Oklahoma that is exactly half a degree of latitude wide. | Oklahoma Panhandle |
| During a revolt named for this city, Eduard Goldstucker and the Writers Union went on television in an attempt to test free press laws. That revolt began when Jan Palach set himself on fire in this city’s Wenceslas Square. Alexander Dubcek [doob-check] implemented “socialism with a human face” as part of a period of liberalization in 1968 known as this city’s “Spring.” Soviet tanks eventually rolled into, for ten points, what capital city of Czechoslovakia? | Prague (accept Prague Spring) |
| The Prague Spring was crushed by a coalition of troops from this pro-Soviet alliance. This alliance, meant to combat NATO, avoided using East German troops to avoid memories of the 1938 Nazi invasion. | Warsaw Pact |
| This man was assaulted by Frankie Gallucio while working at the Harvard Inn under his mentor Frankie Yale. The “Untouchables” were created by Eliot Ness to counter this man, who was the first criminal to be labeled “Public Enemy Number One.” An attack that was probably ordered by this man targeted Bugs Moran and his Northside Gang. Tax evasion was the ultimate downfall of, for ten points, what Chicago gangster known as “Scarface?” | Alphonse “Al” Gabriel Capone |
| The attack on Bugs Moran’s Northside Gang took place on this holiday in 1929. | Saint Valentine’s Day (Massacre) |
| This ruler attempted to protect shipping from British warships by forming the League of Armed Neutrality. This ruler’s conquests were confirmed in the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, cementing the end of the Crimean Khanate. Three partitions of Poland were overseen by this ruler, who took power after her lover Grigory Orlov helped overthrow Peter III. For ten points, name this enlightened tsarina of Russia. | Catherine the Great (accept Catherine II) |
| This kingdom joined the League of Armed Neutrality under the rule of Gustav III, who was assassinated in his capital of Stockholm. | Sweden |
| The masses of these entities are governed by the whole number rule as described by Francis Aston, whose cousin Margaret Todd suggested a name for these entities from the Greek for “at the same place.” One of the 15 of these entities for carbon is used in radioactive dating, has a half-life of 5,700 years, and has eight neutrons instead of the more stable six-neutron form. For ten points, give this term for variants of the same element that have different atomic masses. | isotopes |
| This element is most commonly found with an atomic mass of 238, but its 235 isotope is fissile and thus usable in nuclear weapons like Little Boy. | uranium (accept U-235 and/or U-238) |
| This politician promised “No more appeasement” during an event known as “Bloody Thursday,” in which he called in the National Guard to put down student protests at Berkeley. This politician, who signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act as governor, supported Barry Goldwater in his “A Time for Choosing” speech at the 1964 RNC. For ten points, name this Republican politician who was elected President in 1980. | Ronald Reagan |
| Ronald Reagan served as Governor of this western state from 1967 to 1975, where he put down student protests at Berkeley. | California |
| In 1975, the CIA made estimates on this country’s military efforts by counting the number of baseball diamonds built in Angola. Similarly, in 1970, the presence of a soccer field instead of baseball diamonds on Cazo Alcatraz in this country’s port of Cienfuegos suggested to the CIA that the Soviet Union, not this country, was building naval infrastructure here. For ten points, name this country that hosted a set of Soviet-deployed missiles in 1962, leading to a namesake “crisis.” | Cuba |
| Legend holds that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro once tried out for this MLB team, whose current players include Cuban reliever Aroldis Chapman. | New York Yankees (prompt on New York) |
| Capital of New York that was one of the endpoints of the canal. | Albany |
| Other endpoint of the canal, the city where President McKinley was shot. | Buffalo |
| River that connects the canal to New York harbor. | Hudson River |
| Escarpment where construction was briefly slowed; it is home to a massive waterfall of the same name on the Canada/US border. | Niagara (Escarpment and/or Falls) |
| Aztec leader who names a marsh in the Finger Lakes where canal workers often caught “swamp fever.” | Montezuma (Marsh) |
| New York governor who oversaw construction of the canal, which became known as his “ditch.” | DeWitt Clinton |
| Author of the preamble to the Constitution who chaired the Erie Canal Commission. | Gouverneur Morris |
| Ceremonial action taken at the completion of the canal to mark the “Wedding of the Waters;” description acceptable. | water taken from Lake Erie was poured into New York Harbor (accept the reverse order; |
| Type of project that included the Appian Way, which connected Rome and Brindisi. | roads |
| Type of bridge, such as the Pont du Gard, that transports water from a source to a city. | aqueducts |
| Largest amphitheater in the world, built in Rome in the 70s AD. | Colosseum (accept Flavian Amphitheater) |
| Material, a combination of volcanic ash, pebbles, and cement, that was used to build that building and the dome of the Pantheon. | Roman concrete |
| Public facilities that included a caldarium and a frigidarium. | baths (accept thermae and/or balneae) |
| Largest chariot racing stadium in Rome, which could fit hundreds of thousands of spectators. | Circus Maximus (prompt on Circus) |
| Author of De architectura, which described various methods and machines used in Roman engineering. | Vitruvius |
| Early sewer system that drained wastewater out of Rome to the Tiber River. | Cloaca Maxima |
| 13,000-mile-long fortification, mostly built during the Ming Dynasty to keep out the Mongols. | Great Wall of China |
| Mausoleum built in the 17th century for the wife of Shah Jahan. | Taj Mahal |
| City where slave labor was used to build the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. | Dubai |
| Country where the first shinkansen, or bullet train, opened in 1964. | Japan |
| Railroad that connects Moscow and Vladivostok and was finished in 1916. | Trans-Siberian Railway |
| Dam on the Yangtze River that was planned for much of the 20th century, the largest dam in China. | Three Gorges Dam |
| City where foreign banks were built in the early 20th century in the International Settlement, a region now known as the Bund. | Shanghai |
| City whose tallest buildings include a tower at One Raffles Place. | Singapore |
| A ray of sunlight hit the casket of Winston Churchill as this song was being performed at his funeral. This song describes a figure who is seen “in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps.” This song, which was first published in the (+) Atlantic Monthly in 1862, inspired the title of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The music of (*) “John Brown’s Body” was used for, for ten points, what patriotic song by Julia Ward Howe that begins with the line “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord”? | The Battle Hymn of the Republic |
| This politician’s constitutional authority was the subject of the Humble Petition and Advice. This figure’s massacre of civilians during the siege of (+) Drogheda [drow-duh] led him to be reviled in Ireland. This man and his son-in-law, Henry Ireton, commanded the left and right wings of Thomas Fairfax’s (*) New Model Army during a victory at Naseby. For ten points, name this Lord Protector of England following the English Civil War. | Oliver Cromwell |
| This territory’s Governor Charles Robinson opposed the expansion of slavery as promoted by its Lecompton Constitution. Several settlers were killed in this territory at Pottawatomie by (+) John Brown in retribution for the sacking of its town of Lawrence; that sacking was a response to Charles Sumner’s beating for denounced the pro-slavery (*) “crime” against this territory. For ten points, name this territory that was “bleeding” over slavery in the 1850s and whose early Topeka Constitution banned slavery. | Kansas (accept Bleeding Kansas) |
| Leaders of this nation derived their title from the phrase “tent government.” One leader of this nation won a battle through the ingenious use of arquebuses to puncture the armor of cavalry; his ally would win the Battle of (+) Sekigahara to take control of this nation and form a bakufu. Matthew (*) Perry’s black ships forced this nation to sign a treaty with the U.S., ending its isolationism. For ten points, name this country ruled by Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. | Japan (accept Nippon or Nihon) |
| In 1997, Borge Ousland completed a solo, kite-aided journey across this region. In December 2018, Colin O’Brady completed a 921-mile journey across this region, finishing with a stretch of 32 hours without sleep. The Nimrod (+) expedition attempted a journey in this region, where it was based in McMurdo Sound. In 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton lost the Endurance in an (*) ice flow while exploring, for ten points, what continent where Roald Amundsen led the first party to reach the South Pole? | Antarctica (accept South Pole until “continent” is mentioned) |
| This composer wrote his “Chandos” anthems while living at Cannons in Middlesex. Against his will, this composer omitted string instruments from a work he wrote in 1749 celebrating the end of the War of the (+) Austrian Succession. This Kapellmeister for King George I supported the Foundling Hospital with charity concerts of his most famous work, which includes a (*) chorus proclaiming “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” For ten points, name this German/British composer of Music for the Royal Fireworks and oratorios like Messiah. | George Frederick Handel |
| This man oversaw “immorality trials” against Franciscans while spearheading a war against the church in the “Kirchenkampf.” After spending just one day as chancellor, this man poisoned his six (+) children before committing suicide with his wife. This man, who declared that “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually believe it,” repeatedly assured his country that the (*) Allies would be defeated with the new V1 rockets. For ten points, name this Nazi minister of propaganda. | Joseph Goebbels |
| Since 1977, the holder of this position has lived in Number One Observatory Circle on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory. Electoral votes are counted by the holder of this position. The Constitution did not explain how to (+) fill vacancies in this position until the 25th Amendment was ratified. The holder of this position also serves as (*) President of the Senate, where they hold tiebreaking power. For ten points, name this office of the executive branch whose holder is first in line of Presidential succession. | Vice President of the United States (prompt on “VP (OTUS)”) |
| This country was once led by Pedro Lascurain, who ruled for less than an hour before resigning in the Ten Tragic Days. During that time, this country was the site of Victoriano (+) Huerta’s military coup after Francisco Madero was assassinated, leading (*) Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa to revolt. A 1910s revolution took place in, for ten points, what country that sold the Gadsden Purchase to its northern neighbor, the United States? | Mexico |
| What European country has been led by prime ministers like John Major, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown? | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (accept England; accept Great Britain) |