| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| When this man was caught in a lie about Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson’s findings about sugar supplies, he noted that he “didn’t give a tinker’s damn” about what Anderson had really said. The Tydings Committee investigated this man’s claim, made in a Lincoln Day speech in Wheeling, that he held a list of 205 names of State Department members with questionable loyalties. For ten points, name this Wisconsin senator known for hunting communists during the Red Scare. | Joseph McCarthy |
| Sopwith Camels were equipped with two of these devices, often produced by Lewis. The capture of Roland Garros’ equipment helped German engineers like Anthony Fokker develop synchronization gear, permitting these closed-bolt weapons to operate through the gaps of a spinning propeller. The Browning M1919 replaced many Vickers-produced examples of, for ten points, what weapons that were mounted on World War I-era aircraft and could fire hundreds of bullets per minute? | machine gun (prompt on (automatic) gun or similar general terms; accept elaborations like “machine guns mounted on WW1-era planes”) |
| In this country, Plinio Salgado founded the fascist Integralist party which was disbanded with all other political parties in 1937. That move came after the announcement of the Cohen Plan, a supposed Communist plot whose discovery allowed its President to take dictatorial power. That leader, Getulio Vargas, modernized this country’s economy as part of the Estado Novo. For ten points, name this South American country whose Old Republic was dominated by an oligarchy in S˜ao Paulo. | Brazil |
| In a novel, Nicholas Branch is tasked with assembling information about this event, discovering the crippling dyslexia of the perpetrator. Permutations of this event are overseen by the Yellow Card Man in a 2011 Stephen King novel titled for the date of this event. This event, the subject of Libra and 11/22/63, was carried out from a school book depository in Dallas. For ten points, name this Presidential murder carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald. | assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (or assassination of JFK; prompt on partial answers) |
| In 2009, Karen Starko claimed that this event was exacerbated by the Surgeon General’s instruction to take aspirin. Woodrow Wilson nearly died in this event, which was first reported in the United States at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas. This event, which killed about five percent of the world’s population, was spread across the globe by soldiers near the end of World War I. For ten points, name this 1918 pandemic, commonly named for an Iberian country that didn’t censor the high death toll. | Spanish flu pandemic (accept 1918 flu before mentioned; prompt on H1N1 flu, flu, or influenza alone) |
| After helping a Senator from this party pay back improper residency expenses, Chief of Staff Nigel Wright resigned his post in 2013. Another member of this party suggested introducing a “barbaric cultural practices tip line;” that politician, Kellie Leitch, is running for this party’s May 2017 leadership elections. Rona Ambrose is the current interim leader of this party after the October 2015 resignation of Stephen Harper. For ten points, name this Canadian political party that was removed from power by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. | Conservative Party of Canada |
| A portrait of a man from this city shows him holding his chin in one hand and a teapot he is working on in another. The subject of that work created an engraving addressed to “Unhappy [this city],” showing 5 bleeding men on King Street, including Crispus Attucks. John Singleton Copley worked in this city when he painted Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. For ten points, name this Massachusetts city where British soldiers killed 5 American colonists in a 1770 “Massacre.” | Boston |
| Examples of this instrument include the Galician gaita and Italian zampogna, and George Buchanan claimed they were used instead of trumpets during battle starting in the mid-16th century. Contrary to legend, this musical instrument was not actually banned by the Proscription Act of 1746. The uilleann [ill-yin] variety of this instrument makes sound through drones and an unusually wide-ranging chanter and is popular in Ireland. A goatskin sac is used to store air in, for ten points, what instrument whose Great Highland variety is from Scotland? | bagpipes |
| Legislation to undertake this project was introduced to Congress by Zadock Pratt. Thomas Durant helped finance this project, though scandal arose when Credit Mobilier attempted to overcharge a company for its construction. This project was completed when Leland Stanford drove in the golden spike at Promontory, linking the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines. For ten points, name this man-made transportation route that connected the Western and Eastern United States. | Transcontinental Railroad |
| One king of this name was opposed by Simon de Montfort and forced to sign the Provisions of Oxford, the first written constitution of his country. Another king of this name signed the Treaty of Wallingford to secure power and established the Plantagenet dynasty. The most famous king of this name fathered Elizabeth I and divorced Anne Boleyn in his search for a male heir. For ten points, give this name, held by eight English kings, the last of which had six wives. | Henry (accept Henry 3, 2, and/or 8) |
| During an election held in this year, Jared Ingersoll was nominated for the losing ticket’s vice presidency; oddly, both main candidates ran as Democratic-Republicans in this year, including DeWitt Clinton. Fort Mackinac [mack-in-aw] was captured in this year, during which the Battle of Queenston Heights was fought and Detroit surrendered to Isaac Brock. For ten points, name this year in which James Madison was re-elected as president and in which a namesake war erupted between the U.S. and Britain. | 1812 (accept War of 1812) |
| The War of 1812 was ended in 1815 with the signing of this treaty, which generally returned most borders and agreements to the status quo from before the war. | Treaty of Ghent |
| The Baldus study was used to attack the injustice of this practice in the 1987 case of McClesky v. Kemp. John Stuart Mill conducted a famous debate with a Mr. Gilpin about the effectiveness of this practice in a modern society. Abolishing this practice is a requirement for joining the EU. Justice Brennan claimed that this penalty violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment in 1972’s Furman v. Georgia. For ten points, name this judicial punishment whose methods include lethal injection and hanging. | capital punishment (accept the death penalty) |
| This state conducted over a third of all of the United States’ executions from 1976 to 2016, though Alabama executed more prisoners per capita. This non-Alabama state’s “Huntsville Unit” was the first to carry out an execution by lethal injection in 1982. | Texas |
| This city feuded with Ercole d’Este over mines at Commachio in the Salt War. This city was first settled at Torcello by people fleeing the sack of Altinum by Atilla the Hun. Pope Julius II initially targeted this city in the War of the League of Cambrai, then allied with it against France. This city’s leader, Enrico Dandalo, convinced the Fourth Crusade to sack Zara and Constantinople. For ten points, name this Queen of the Adriatic, an Italian city famed for its canals. | (Most Serene) Republic of Venice |
| The Old Foundry in Venice’s Canaletto district was the site of the first of these places, in which Jews were forced to live. | ghetto |
| This empire was ruled by an Amorite dynasty until a sack by the Hittites and an occupation by the Kassites. This empire rivaled, then allied with, the Medians to their north. This empire was refounded after the death of the powerful Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. A law code that governed this empire contained the principle of “an eye for an eye,” and its capital city legendarily featured intricate hanging gardens. For ten points, name this Mesopotamian empire ruled by Hammurabi. | Babylonian Empire (accept Neo-Babylonian Empire after “refounded” is read) |
| The Hanging Gardens were built by the second Babylonian king of this name; he also destroyed Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem and began the Babylonian Captivity. | Nebuchadnezzar II (or Nebuchadrezzar II) |
| This scientist went to work at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions after he was forced to step down from his position at Caltech due to his antiwar positions. This man proposed an incorrect triple helix model for DNA and recommended treating the common cold and cancer with high dosages of Vitamin C. This scientist also introduced orbital hybridization and the electronegativity scale. For ten points, name this two time Nobel laureate. | Linus Pauling |
| Pauling and colleagues determined that a defect in hemoglobin is the cause of this disease. The fact that it makes its victims immune to malaria was first observed in African slaves taken to the Americas. | sickle cell anemia |
| Participants in these events are advised to “confess your sins” and to “leave a note for your next of kin;” those tips are delivered, just before John Laurens wins one of these events, in a series of “Commandments” inspired by a Notoroius B.I.G. track. Participants in these events are advised by their seconds and count off ten paces. For ten points, name this violent events, one of which is depicted in a 2015 musical involving Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. | duels (accept additional information, including descriptions of duels in the musical Hamilton) |
| John Laurens dueled Charles Lee for criticizing George Washington, which Lee did after being court-martialed for disobeying orders at this June 1778 battle in New Jersey. Contrary to Hamilton’s lyrics, far less than “a thousand soldiers [died] in 100-degree heat” at this battle. | Battle of Monmouth |
| This country was the site of the first coup d’etat broadcast over radio, which occurred after the success of Operation Weseru¨bung. The fascist Nasjonal Samling party formed a collaboration government in this country under Vidkun Quisling. In 1940, paratroopers managed to capture this country’s city of Narvik in an attempt to control iron ore shipments from Sweden. For ten points, name this Scandinavian nation invaded by the Nazis, who occupied Oslo. | Norway |
| The disastrous Allied attempt to save Norway resulted in the resignation of this British prime minister, who claimed there would be “peace in our time” after the Munich Agreement with Hitler. | Neville Chamberlain |
| In one post, this man signed the Collier-Burns Highway Act to strengthen infrastructure within his state. The right for a defendant to remain silent was affirmed when the court led by this former California governor heard the case Miranda v. Arizona. Lyndon B. Johnson ordered this man to form a commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Dwight Eisenhower appointed, for ten points, what liberal Chief Justice who served from 1953 to 1969? | Earl Warren |
| The Warren Commission included Allen Dulles, who had earlier served as the director of this American governmental agency. Its other directors included George H.W. Bush. | Central Intelligence Agency |
| Modern U.S. state whose Sam Houston-led revolution against Mexico included the Battle of the Alamo. | Texas |
| Home city of the Alamo. | San Antonio (de B´exar) |
| Mexican General whose forces defeated the Alamo’s defenders. | Antonio L´opez de Santa Anna |
| Tennessee Congressman and frontiersman who died defending the Alamo. | David “Davy” Crockett |
| Actor who portrayed that frontiersman in 1960’s The Alamo and Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, two of his dozens of Westerns. | John Wayne (or Marion Morrison) |
| Knife enthusiast who commanded the Alamo defenders and was ill during the battle, dying while fighting from his cot. | James Bowie (accept Bowie knife) |
| Town where POWs were massacred 3 weeks after the fall of the Alamo, inspiring a similar cry to “Remember!” | Goliad Massacre |
| Mass evacuation of settlers from the oncoming Mexican army, led by Sam Houston after the fall of the Alamo. | Runaway Scrape In the year 1848... |
| This man and Engels published the Communist Manifesto. | Karl Marx |
| This country’s constituional monarchy, led by Louis XVIII [18], was overthrown. | France |
| A series of revolutions in this modern-day country led to the election of the Frankfurt Parliament. | Germany |
| A nationalist movement in Wallachia pushed for the creation of this country with capital at Bucharest. | Romania |
| An independence war started in this country and ended a year later at the Siege of Buda. | Hungary |
| The government of this nation rejected a constitution for its southern region of Schleswig-Holstein. | Denmark |
| A federal constitution was created for this country, forcing cantons to give up some of their rights. | Switzerland |
| A movement in Galicia pushed for the creation of this region and independence from the Austrian Empire. | Ukraine (or Ruthenia) |
| Capital city of Cuba, where the USS Maine was sunk. | Havana |
| Revolutionary who led Cuba through the second half of the 20th century. His brother, R´aul, is currently president. | Fidel Castro |
| Weapons stationed on Cuba by the Soviet Union in 1962 to threaten the United States. | ballistic missiles (accept equivalents, like rockets; accept SS-4 or R-14; accept nuclear missiles; prompt on nuclear weapons) |
| Type of economic action taken by the United States to prevent trade with Cuba. | embargo |
| Attempted 1961 invasion by CIA-backed rebels, driven off by the Cuban government. | Bay of Pigs Invasion (accept descriptions of the invasion of Playa Giron) |
| Marxist revolutionary, instrumental in the 1959 Cuban revolution, who also aided movements in the Congo and Bolivia. | Che Guevara (accept either) |
| Dictator overthrown in the 1959 Cuban Revolution. | Fulgencio Batista |
| 1901 amendment that granted the United States the right to dominate Cuban politics. | Platt Amendment |
| This ruler’s forces were victorious at Kozludzha, allowing for an annexation of the Crimea in the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji. Disgruntled peasants attempted to overthrow this ruler in the (+) Pugachev revolt. Sham villages were allegedly constructed so that Grigory Potemkin could impress this ruler, who was brought to power in a coup against (*) her husband, Peter III. For ten points, name this patron of Denis Diderot and Voltaire, an enlightened tsarina of Russia. | Catherine the Great (or Catherine II) |
| A church in this country, Our Lady Mary of Zion, claims to hold the Ark of the Covenant. The easternmost portion of this country was invaded in the 1977 Ogaden War. Although this country’s largest ethnic group is the (+) Oromo, its official language, written with the Ge’ez script, is Amharic. Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, is located in this country, which was once ruled by the communist (*) Derg regime and lost its Red Sea coastline in 1993. Eritrea declared independence from, for ten points, what East African country whose capital is Addis Ababa? | Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia |
| This city’s downtown is nicknamed for a structure that occupies Van Buren, Wells, and Lake Streets, plus Wabash Avenue. This city’s namesake river was connected to the (+) Des Plaines [dess plains] River in a 1900 project that reversed its flow. The second star on this city’s flag commemorates an event that started at 137 DeKoven Street. This city’s elevated trains form the downtown (*) Loop, which is home to Willis Tower. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow supposedly started an 1871 fire in, for ten points, what Midwestern city, the largest in Illinois? | Chicago |
| A crucial battle leading to the end of this dynasty may have been fought near Chibi City. This dynasty, which earlier fought the Xiongnu barbarians, was briefly interrupted when the Liu family was overthrown by Wang Mang. The Celestial Masters launched the (+) Five Pecks of Rice revolt against this dynasty in an attempt to rid the world of decadence. The Yellow Turban Rebellion brought this dynasty to an end, leading to the (*) Three Kingdoms Period. Liu Bang founded, for ten points, what dynasty that shares its name with the predominant ethnicity in modern China? | Han dynasty |
| In this country, the U.S. distributed copies of the Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare manual. In 1986, the U.S. was censured by the International Court of Justice for mining this country’s commercial (+) harbors. American funding to this country was officially halted by the Boland Amendment, but money was re-routed to one of its right-leaning factions by (*) Oliver North. For ten points, name this Central American country, the subject of a scandal during the Reagan administration involving its Contra guerrillas. | Nicaragua |
| This man’s strategy of using fortified burhs is documented in the Burghal Hidage. He called together an army at Egbert’s Stone in order to fight at Edington. This man forced the Treaty of (+) Wedmore upon one rival following the siege of Chippenham, ensuring that Guthrum converted to Christianity. The Doom Book of codified laws was issued by this monarch, and the (*) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was created during his reign. For ten points, name this king of Wessex, the only English monarch to be called “the Great.” | Alfred the Great |
| The mother of two of these people asks a favor that angers the rest of this group. Two members of this group were dubbed Boanerges, or “sons of thunder.” On one occasion, a man estimates that this group needs at least 200 (+) denarii-worth of food. The treasurer of this group regularly stole from its funds and accompanied his teacher to the (*) Garden of Gethsemane before betraying him for thirty pieces of silver. For ten points, name this group of twelve men that Jesus called to ministry in the canonical gospels. | Twelve Apostles (or Twelve Disciples of Jesus) |
| The approximate location of this person’s death is commemorated by a statue in Gravesend near the mouth of the River Thames. This person was held as a prisoner, first aboard Samuel (+) Argall’s ship and then at Henricus, where she converted to Christianity and adopted the name Rebecca. This woman’s marriage to John (*) Rolfe secured an alliance between British colonists and Native Americans, and she had earlier encouraged her father to spare John Smith’s life. For ten points, name this daughter of Powhatan. | Pocahontas (accept Rebecca Rolfe before “Rebecca” is read) |
| One member of this group of people, Walter Jenkins, was a top aide to Lyndon Johnson before his arrest with another member of this group. The Mattachine Society promoted equal rights for these people. A member of the (+) San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk, became a martyr for this group, who were attacked by police during riots at the (*) Stonewall Inn in New York. For ten points, name this group of people who gained the right to marry in Obergefell v. Hodges. | gay and/or lesbian people (or homosexual people; accept bisexual people; “anti- prompt” on LGBT or more expansive answers by saying “can you be more specific?”; prompt on queer people; do not accept transgender or transsexual people) |
| What commodity was mined and sold by Cecil Rhodes’ De Beers company, which exploited African labor? | diamonds (accept blood diamonds) |