| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| This man, with George Spears, died in a 1977 aviation incident after his helicopter ran out of fuel. Dwight Eisenhower was confronted at the Paris Summit by Nikita Khrushchev over a failed mission led by this man. This man and Frederick Pryor were exchanged for Rudolf Abel after the former’s 1960 capture. For ten points, name this American pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union in the U2 Incident. | Francis Gary Powers |
| This location’s ruling kingdom was aided by Deng Zilong’s Ming fleet in launching a surprise attack on Noryang Point. This region was victorious at the Battle of Myeongnyang during the Imjin War, where the admiral Yi Sun-sin used turtle ships to defeat the navy of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. For ten points, name this Asian peninsula that was targeted by a Japanese invasion in 1592. | Korean peninsula |
| This law was contested by Richard Henry Dana unsuccessfully after it led to the arrest of Anthony Burns in Boston. The nickname “bloodhound law” was given to this law after the usage of hunting dogs to enforce it. This law was enacted as a result of the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent plantation owners from suffering losses. For ten points, name this law that forced states to return escaped slaves. | Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 |
| This weapon was invented by Kallinikos in the defense of Phoenice. Combinations of pine resin, quicklime, and calcium phosphide were used to make this weapon. This weapon’s ability to burn on water was used to great effect to thwart the Arab navy on the Golden Horn during the first siege of Constantinople. For ten points, name this flamethrower weapon used by the Byzantine empire. | Greek fire |
| Thisman,whileinCharleston,charteredtheSans-Culotte andAnti-George toattackBritishshipping. George Washington called for the recall of this diplomat who was later granted asylum due to the French Revolution. For ten points, name this French diplomat who caused a namesake affair by attempting to draw the United States into European wars. | Edmond-Charles Genet (accept Citizen Genet) |
| This country employed the Berkut to silence dissidents. This country’s Independence Square was occupied by angry citizens during a protest known as “Euromaidan,” prompting president Viktor Yanukovych to be stripped of his powers. In 2014, chaos in this country provided an opportunity for the Crimea region to be annexed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin. For ten points, name this country with capital Kiev. | Ukraine |
| This mountain became known to the West after Sir Rutherford Alcock scaled it. It is the site of a “suicide forest” second only to the Golden Gate Bridge in deaths per year. This mountain is visible in a painting where three boats are rocked by a large wave, the Great Wave off Kanagawa. That woodblock painting is part of Hokusai’s “36 Views of” this mountain. For ten points, name this highest mountain in Japan. | Mount Fuji (accept Fujisan) |
| This profession was first organized after a meeting between Philip Johnston and Clayton Vogel producedatrainingcampatCampPendletontoimproveontheArmy/Navyphoneticalphabet.Ethnicities chosen for this profession include Cherokee, Choctaw, and Navajo since nobody fighting for Japan could speak those languages. For ten points, what profession’s practitioners sent secret communications during World War II? | code-talkers (prompt on communications; do not accept code-breaking) |
| This country was home to the Repin Art Institute which was abolished in favor of a “free art studio.”In 1923, a poet in this country wrote “Land of Scoundrels” which asked how much the people were to blame for a new socialist government. A film from this country focuses on the 1905 mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin. For ten points, name this Communist country where artists formed the Leningrad School. | Soviet Union (accept USSR; accept CCCP; accet Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; do not accept Russia) |
| In the Battleship Potemkin, a baby carriage is shown rolling down the steps of this city where a detachment of cossacks massacres striking workers. | Odessa |
| This conflict featured the intentional sinking of the “Stone Fleet” to impede movement. In this conflict, chains were used as armor by the ship Kearsarge during its duel with the Alabama, the most famous of the blockade runners. The Merrimack and Monitor clashed during this conflict. For ten points, name this 1861-1865 conflict where the Anaconda Plan was used to blockade the American south. | American Civil War |
| The Merrimack and Monitor clashed in this March 1862 battle. | Battle of Hampton Roads |
| This system of government fell out of favor after Harmodius and Aristogeiton assassinated a leader, leading to massive crackdowns. Thirty leaders of this type were established when Sparta forced Athens to use this system of government. It was first established in Athens by Peisistratus and carried on by his sons, Hippias and Hipparchus. For ten points, name this system of absolute rule. | tyranny (accept word forms) |
| The end of Hippias’ tyranny prompted Hippias to ally with this nation against Athens. Hippias chose to advise this nation’s general Artaphernes during a battle against Athens. | Persian Empire (accept Achaemenid Empire) |
| This event’s planners escaped to the West thanks to Operation Yellowbird. An aggressive editorial of the People’s Daily prompted government reaction against this event. During this event, a man was photographed blocking the path of a moving tank as Deng Xiaoping ordered troops to fire on student protesters. For ten points, name this 1989 protest that was violently crushed in a Beijing square. | 1989 Tiananmen Square protests |
| The suspicious death by heart attack of this former Chair of the Chinese Communist Party on April 15th, 1989, started the gathering of students at Tiananmen. | Hu Yaobang |
| This empire’s tradition of reading rulings out at the High Gate led it to be known as the Sublime Porte. The millet system of autonomous communities was discarded by this empire’s government in favor of the Westernizing Tanzimat reform. Decision-making in this empire was carried out by the grand vizier, who served as prime minister to the sultan. For ten points, name this empire that was governed from Istanbul. | Ottoman Empire |
| In its waning days during the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire earned this epithet from observers who expected it to collapse. | sick man of Europe |
| This governmental service was the subject of the Comstock Laws, which made it illegal to disperse obscene material. During the Garfield presidency, this service received bribes to travel on “Star Routes.” This service was first established in 1792 with Benjamin Franklin appointed as its first head. For ten points, name this service that delivers communications and is headed by the postmaster general. | United States Postal Service (accept USPS; accept descriptions of US Mail) |
| Congress is given the authority to create post offices by Section 8 of this article of the Constitution. | Article 1 |
| ThismanauthoredtheApril Theses onatrainridebacktohishomecountryfromexileinSwitzerland. During the October Revolution, he deposed Alexander Kerensky and instituted War Communism, which he later replaced with the New Economic Policy in 1921. For ten points, identify this first premier of the Soviet Union, who was succeeded by Joseph Stalin. | Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (accept Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) |
| Lenin sent what man to negotiate the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, two decades before Stalin sent a hit man to kill him in Mexico? | Leon Trotsky |
| This state was the subject of Luther v. Borden, which held that the right to change government was unquestioned. The Freemen’s Constitution was drafted in this state to appease rebels. A revolt in this state was triggered after Samuel Ward King and Thomas Wilson were both elected governor. For ten points, name this state where Dorr’s Rebellion took over the government at Newport. | Rhode Island and Providence Plantations |
| In 1686, Rhode Island was brought into this union of colonies that was led by Edmund Andros until 1689, when it split apart again. | Dominion of New England (prompt on New England) |
| Substance that was banned during Prohibition. | alcoholic beverages (accept any specific type, like beer, wine, etc.; accept equivalents, like liquor, etc.) |
| “Great” economic disaster that led to Prohibition’s repeal. | Great Depression |
| Amendment that made Prohibition law. | 18th Amendment to the US Constitution |
| Gangster who led the Chicago Outfit and was nicknamed Scarface. | Alphonse “Al” Capone |
| Legislative act that defined the regulations of Prohibition. | Volstead Act |
| Female advocate who famously destroyed contraband with her hatchet. | Carrie A. Nation |
| Animal ridden by cavaliers. | horses |
| Medieval tournament game in which riding participants charged at each other. | jousting |
| Country that, according to legend, sent cavalry against panzers when it was invaded at the start of World War II. | Poland |
| War in which the British light brigade disastrously charged Russian guns. | Crimean War |
| Ancient commander who used the Companion Cavalry to win at Issus and Gaugamela. | Alexander the Great (or Alexander I; prompt on Alexander) |
| Slavic cavalrymen who lived in the Ukrainian border regions of imperial Russia. | Cossacks |
| Conflict in which it joined the Axis alongside Germany and Italy. | World War II |
| Country whose region of Manchuria was captured by Japan. | China |
| Crucial import resource that America embargoed in response to Japanese expansion. | Oil |
| Island nation where Japan ordered the Bataan Death March. | the Philippines |
| Emperor who ruled over the empire in the 1930s and 40s. | Hirohito (accept Showa) |
| Country whose “hermit kingdom” of Joseon was annexed. | Korea |
| This case began when the defendant refused to appoint a Justice of the Peace. This case’s plaintiff wished to obtain a (+) writ of mandamus that would allow him to become a “midnight judge” after he was appointed by John (*) Adams. The Judiciary Act was ruled unconstitutional by John Marshall in this case. For ten points, name this 1803 Supreme Court case that created the process of judicial review. | Marbury v. Madison |
| This leader controversially ordered Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down for violating airspace. This man eased tensions with the West after he received a (+) letter warning against nuclear war from a ten year old girl, Samantha Smith. After (*) just two years in office, this man’s untimely death led to his replacement by Konstantin Chernenko. For ten points, name this successor of Leonid Brezhnev as head of the USSR. | Yuri Andropov |
| This group was weakened after a faction led by Colonel Karuna defected. This group pioneered the suicide belt and subsequently lost support when it used an RDX belt to assassinate (+) Rajiv Gandhi. Under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran, this group fought for the creation of (*) Eelam as an ethnic haven. For ten points, name this secessionist militant group that initiated the Sri Lankan Civil War. | Tamil Tigers (or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; accept LTTE) |
| This organization’s board includes Lael Brainard and, until late 2017, included Stanley Fischer. This organization’s Beige Book consists of its nationwide research. This body possesses a (+) check-clearing system, serves as the lender of last resort in the US, and, using OMOs, this organization manipulates (*) interest rates. Led by Jerome Powell, for ten points, name this central banking system of the United States. | Federal Reserve System |
| This agreement was called a “firebell in the night” that would be the “death knell of the Union” by Thomas Jefferson. The (+) Tallmadge Amendment was rejected prior to this agreement, which admitted (*) Maine as a free state. Henry Clay helped create this agreement which outlawed slavery north of the 36’30 parallel. For ten points, name this compromise that admitted a Midwest territory as a slave state. | Missouri Compromise (accept Compromise of 1820) |
| This man’s fall from power was prompted by the Kiel Mutiny. This man enabled Alfred von (+) Tirpitz to build up his navy, triggering an arms race with Great Britain. This man was forced to abdicate and flee into the (*) Netherlands four years after this man pledged his support to Austria-Hungary after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. For ten points, name this kaiser who led Germany into World War I. | Wilhelm II (or William II) |
| This text was first written down after the loss of many scholars at Musaylimah sparked an effort to preserve it. (+) Uthman created the first standardized form of this text, whose chapters are known as surahs and whose verses are called ayahs. This text was produced on the (*) Night of Power in the cave of Hira, where the angel Gabriel commanded Muhammad to “recite.” For ten points, name this holy text of Islam. | Quran |
| This man’s orations repeatedly ended with the belief that “together, we cannot fail.” In another speech, this man declared “the money (+) lenders have fled from their high places.” This man noted “the only (*) thing we have to fear is fear itself” during his first inaugural. For ten points, name this president who gave the fireside chats as he led the United States into World War II. | Franklin Delano Roosevelt (accept FDR; prompt on just Roosevelt) |
| This man bankrolled Black Maria Studios so that he would have a chance to test his kinetoscope. This man may have created the world’s first (+) industrial research lab at a site in West Orange, New Jersey. At his lab at (*) Menlo Park, this man was credited with creating a device that could record and play back sound. For ten points, name this inventor of the phonograph and incandescent light bulb. | Thomas Alva Edison |
| Name this 1962 book by Barbara Tuchman that focuses on the opening actions of World War I. | The Guns of August (accept August 1914) |
| This party first took power during the Maximato period where Plutarco Calles attempted to restore order after the assassination of president (+) Alvaro Obregon. The modern form of this party was founded by Lazaro Cardenas and ruled for 6 decades before (*) losing a 2000 election to Vicente Fox, but has since regained power in the 2012 Mexican election. For ten points, name the party of Enrique Pena Nieto. | PRI (or Institutional Revolutionary Party or Partido Revolucionario Institucional) |