| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| This organization, which often collaborated with GRU, was led by Vladimir Kryuchkov, who helped plan an August 1991 coup. During the fall of the Berlin Wall, thousands of this organization’s files were burned by its officers, including Vladimir Putin. For ten points, name this Soviet intelligence agency. | KGB (or Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti; accept Committee for State Security) |
| This city lost over 60 acres worth of buildings in 12 hours after a warehouse on Kingston Street caught fire in 1872; that event was commemorated by its resident poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior. In 1919, 21 people died after a storage tank burst and released a flood of molasses in this city. For ten points, name this city where Ted Williams starred in the outfield while playing at Fenway Park for the Red Sox in Massachusetts. | Boston |
| On this island, Marco Bragadin was infamously flayed alive after leading a heroic defense of Famagusta to delay the Ottoman Empire prior to Lepanto. This country’s modern Enosis movement prompted Operation Atilla, an invasion that helped extend this country’s Green Line of demarcation. For ten points, name this Mediterranean island country divided between Turkish and Greek zones including in the capital at Nicosia. | Cyprus |
| A machine known as the “Giant Brain” was created at this university to calculate artillery firing tables; that early computer was ENIAC. The oldest medical school created in America is this university’s Perelman School, and it is also home to the first school of business, which is named after Joseph Wharton. For ten points, name this university founded by Benjamin Franklin, which is the southernmost Ivy League school, located in Philadelphia. | University of Pennsylvania (accept UPenn; do not accept Penn State) |
| This artist painted his friend Adrianus Jacobus Zuyderland with his head in his hands in At Eternity’s Gate, which shares its name with a 2018 film about this man. A landscape painting by this artist depicts a cypress tree and a crescent moon over the town of Saint-‐Remy. This artist of The Potato Eaters was hospitalized in Arles after injuring himself with a razor in 1888. For ten points, name this Dutch artist of Starry Night and Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear. | Vincent (Willem) van Gogh |
| Prior to this battle, one side lost control of the Crampton and Turner passes during the Battle of South Mountain. The losing side in this battle was hampered when Special Order 191 was discovered, wrapped in cigars, by the enemy. After a costly seizure of the Bloody Lane, George McClellan failed to press his advantage at this battle, leading Lincoln to replace him with Ambrose Burnside. For ten points, name this 1861 Maryland battle, the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. | Battle of Antietam |
| Ahdut HaAvoda was founded by a leader of this country who ordered the formation of Unit 101 and organized a massive airlift in Operation Magic Carpet. Under David Ben-‐Gurion, this country launched an invasion of Egypt, precipitating the Suez Crisis. For ten points, name this Middle Eastern country with a majority Jewish population. | Israel |
| One man with this title advised Louis XIII and barely survived a coup during the Fronde. During the 20th century, another man with this title named Jaime Sin (pr. SEEN) used his religious stature to help orchestrate the People Power Revolution in the Philippines. For ten points, name this religious position, held by men who elected Jorge Bergoglio from their ranks to become Pope Francis. | Cardinals |
| This state is the site of America’s first national monument at Devil’s Tower, as well as the majority of the land area of America’s first national park. As of the 2010 census, this state trailed Alaska and Vermont to rank dead last in population. For ten points, name this Western state, where wolves have returned to Yellowstone National Park, and whose human population remains concentrated in its southern cities like Casper and Cheyenne. | Wyoming |
| Give Wyoming’s state nickname, which stems from its pioneering status in the women’s suffrage movement, as women were first allowed to vote here. | Equality State |
| This ethnic group was defeated at the Battle of Blood River, and this ethnic group’s king, Cetshwayo, was defeated at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. This ethnic group was victorious at the Battle of Isandlwana, over the British. For ten points, name this ethnic group, who ruled an empire centered in what is now South Africa | amaZulu people |
| This Zulu king revamped their military procedures and died in 1828, well before the British conquest. | Shaka Zulu (or Shaka kaSenzangakhona) |
| This city failed to annex a section of neighboring land after the Mafia organized it into an unincorporated town called Paradise. In 2010, a stock image of a landmark in this city was accidentally used for a Forever Stamp; that half-‐size replica of the Statue of Liberty stands outside the New York-‐New York Hotel. The construction of the Hoover Dam fueled the early growth of, for ten points, what most populous city in Nevada, a gambling resort town? | Las Vegas |
| Which iconic twentieth century singer both sang a song titled and starred in a movie titled Viva Las Vegas? | Elvis Presley (accept either) |
| This man became wealthy by running a bucket brigade that would not help douse fires until homeowners paid him. This man’s victory at the Battle of the Siler River ended a slave revolt. A Parthian army killed this man and legendarily poured molten gold in the mouth of his corpse. For ten points, name this wealthy Roman who put down a gladiator revolt and formed the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompey. | Marcus Licinius Crassus |
| Which man led the gladiator revolt, known as the Servile War, that Crassus put down? Like his followers, this man was crucified along the Appian Way. | Spartacus |
| The phrase “pig in the python” titles a cultural history of this group, which was collectively named Time Person of the Year in 1966. Reduced adult supervision led this group’s successor to be called the “latchkey generation.” Lower mortgage requirements and the G.I. bill contributed to the rise of, for ten points, what American generation that was succeeded by Generation X and was born after World War II? | Baby Boomers |
| Which first Baby Boomer president defeated two members of the World War II generation in elections in 1992 and 1996?. | Bill Clinton |
| In 1915, this site was sold for 6000 pounds to Cecil Chubbs, who then donated it. This site is surrounded by “aubrey holes” speculated to have once contained bluestones; earlier historians speculated this site was a center of Druidic worship. For ten points, name this prehistoric site near Salisbury consisting of standing rocks. | Stonehenge |
| Most of the bluestones of Stonehenge are made of dolerite, which is this type of rock. Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway is made of thousands of columns of basalt, another example of this type of rock. | igneous rock |
| James Reed’s decisive vote helped create this institution, resulting in his home state of Missouri being granted two of its 12 major branches. This agency was created by a bill introduced by Robert Owen and Carter Glass, each of whom chaired a congressional Banking and Currency Committee. A 1913 act created, for ten points, what central banking system of the US? | Federal Reserve (System) |
| The Federal Reserve system was created during the presidency of which US president, who defeated Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in 1912? | Woodrow Wilson |
| A cedar tree inspired the most famous callsign of this man, who exclaimed “Poyekhali!” In 1968, this man died while flying a MiG-‐15 after an air traffic controller misreported the weather, according to declassified files. After a mission of less than two hours in 1961, this man parachuted back to Earth. For ten points, name this cosmonaut who, aboard Vostok 1, became the first man in space. | Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin |
| Gagarin blasted into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which after the fall of the Soviet Union, became part of what largest landlocked nation, whose capital later moved to Astana? | Kazakhstan |
| Leader of al-‐Qaeda who was killed in Pakistan in 2011. | Osama bin Laden |
| Building complex in New York that was destroyed on 9/11. | World Trade Center (or WTC; accept Twin Towers) |
| American detention camp in Cuba where terrorists have been interrogated. | Guantanamo Bay |
| Egyptian goddess that shares her name with a terrorist group that for a time controlled much of Eastern Syria. | Isis |
| Form of water-‐based torture used by the US on members of al-‐Qaeda, including that 9/11 architect. | waterboarding |
| Bio-‐toxin that was mailed to multiple news outlets and political figures in 2001. | anthrax |
| Playwright who gave Richard III a line at Bosworth Field by writing “My kingdom for a horse!” | William Shakespeare |
| English king who met Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold and married six times. | Henry VIII [8] |
| Leader of the Huns who was defeated at the Catalaunian Fields in the Battle of Chalons [sha-‐lone]. | Attila the Hun |
| 1815 battle that was described as having been won on the playing fields of Eton. | Waterloo |
| War in which the poem “In Flanders Fields” was written after the Battle of Ypres [eep]. | World War I |
| Paradise of Greek myth where heroes not sent to Hades were sent. | Elysian Fields (accept Elysium) |
| City that is home to the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock, the holiest city of Christianity and Judaism. | Jerusalem |
| Holiest city of Islam, the destination of the hajj. | Mecca |
| Religion founded by Siddhartha Gautama, who gave his first sermon at Sarnath near Varanasi. | Buddhism |
| Hometown of Jesus in the New Testament and capital of the Crusader-‐era Principality of Galilee | Nazareth |
| Plateau region claimed by China where Buddhists built monasteries in Lhasa. | Tibet |
| Japanese city home to hundreds of Buddhist temples, including the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. | Kyoto |
| This dynasty, whose chancellor Li Si instituted Legalist policies, was led by a man who supposedly drank an “elixir of life” that was just mercury. This dynasty, which followed the (*) Warring States Period, was replaced by the Han Dynasty. A terracotta army was built for a ruler of (*), for ten points, what dynasty in which the Great Wall was built under the rule of Shi Huangdi? | Qin [chin] Dynasty |
| In the first part of the book of Revelation, the author writes letters to this many churches in Asia Minor. Jericho’s walls fell after this many days of marching, and King David had this many brothers. The (+) Passover feast lasts this many days, and this is the number of (*) lamps on the Temple of Jerusalem’s menorah. For ten points, give this number of the day God rested in the first Genesis narrative, which is also the number of deadly sins. | seven |
| One leader of this political party lost power in 1974 to a minority-‐power government led by Harold Wilson. This party’s most prominent leader conducted a namesake program of privatizing government companies, was the target of the (+) Brighton Hotel bombing, and was nicknamed “the Iron (*) Lady.” Margaret Thatcher belonged to, for ten points, what British political party whose name refers to a right of center ideology often used to describe Republicans in the USA? | Conservative and Unionist Party |
| Eddie Adams photographed a captain in this country who had recently killed a Lieutenant Colonel and his family. In that photo from this country, a man was shot at point blank range by General (+) Nguyen Loan [when loan]. One guerilla group in this country led multiple attacks in January (*) 1968, striking the city of Hue [hway] and breaching the U.S. embassy in Saigon. For ten points, name this country where the USA fought an ultimately unsuccessful war in the 1960’s and 70’s. | South Vietnam (do not accept North Vietnam) |
| While Aristophanes of Byzantium led one of these facilities, he invented the diacritical marks used in the Greek language; Aristarchus of Samothrace later led that one of these facilities. When one of these facilities was excavated in (+) Ashurbanipal’s palace, its discoveries were mixed with tablets found in Sennacherib’s palace, rendering the true discovery location of the (*) Epic of Gilgamesh a mystery. For ten points, name this type of location that Julius Caesar burned in Alexandria, causing the loss of thousands of papyrus scrolls and their educational contents. | ancient library (accept Library of Alexandria; accept Library of Ashurbanipal after his name is mentioned) |
| Francois de Barbe-‐Marbois [bar-‐bay mar-‐bwah] was a key negotiator of this agreement, which arose after an insurrection on Saint Domingue [sahn doh-‐meeng]. Talleyrand objected to this plan, which resulted in the (+) Corps of Discovery Expedition led by (*) Lewis and Clark, surveying its central land area. The size of the United States was doubled by, for ten points, what 1803 purchase of French land under Thomas Jefferson? | Louisiana Purchase |
| In a series of documents related to this scandal, William Rehnquist was referred to as “Renchburg;” the existence of those documents was publicly revealed by Alexander Butterfield. John Mitchell served 19 months in prison for his role in this scandal, which included (+) Robert Bork’s agreement to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Saturday (*) Night Massacre. The “Smoking Gun” tape was a key piece of evidence in, for ten points, what scandal that ended with Richard Nixon’s resignation? | Watergate scandal |
| This man’s mother Bertrada assisted him in his struggle against his brother, and he divorced his Lombard wife Desiderata before conquering Italy. This ruler, who put down the Great (+) Saxon Revolt after converting them to Christianity, had his forces defeated at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, the source of the Song of Roland. (*) For ten points, name this Frankish king crowned Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day 800. | Charlemagne |
| An invasion of this country was halted at the Battle of the Tennis Court, part of an engagement at Kohima. A pretender provisional government for this country was set up in Singapore, after attempts to ally it with the Axis lead to the exile of (+) Subhas Bose. A “Quit [this country]” Movement demanded independence for this country before it sent aid for World War II, though the (*) Muslim League was willing to contribute troops. For ten points, name this modern-‐day country from which the British Raj conscripted soldiers against the wishes of Mohandas Gandhi. | India (accept descriptions of British-‐controlled India, including British Raj) |
| What European country was controlled by a collaborationist government under Vidkun Quisling during World War II? | Norway |