Omaha
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6correct to beat the crowd
This Omaha trivia quiz has 98 free questions with answers and covers the whole story of Nebraska's biggest city: the Lone Tree Ferry and the 1854 founding, the Union Pacific building west, the stockyards that were once the largest on earth, the 1898 world's fair, and the Fortune 500 firms and Oracle who call it home. There are questions on the Henry Doorly Zoo's record-breaking dome, the College World Series, Boys Town, Offutt Air Force Base and the D-Day beach that borrowed the city's name. It also tests you on famous Omahans (Malcolm X, Gerald Ford, Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, Andy Roddick, Terence Crawford), Omaha inventions like the Reuben, the TV dinner and Top 40 radio, and local oddities such as what Ak-Sar-Ben really means. Questions run from easy to expert, so it works for a bar quiz, a classroom, or a family that just moved to town. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each explanation adds one more Omaha fact.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Omaha sits on the bank of which river?
Missouri
Omaha sits on the west bank of the Missouri River, which forms Nebraska's eastern border there; the Platte joins the Missouri a short distance south of the city.
Q 02Omaha is the county seat of which Nebraska county?
Douglas
Omaha is the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, named for Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the sponsor of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act that created the territory.
Q 03In the Omaha language, the city's name means what?
Upstream People
The name comes from the tribe's own name, Umonhon, meaning 'Upstream People' or 'those going against the current'; Omaha is a Dhegihan Siouan language closely related to Ponca.
Q 04Omaha's pioneer period began in 1854 when speculators crossed the river from which neighbouring town?
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Speculators from Council Bluffs, Iowa crossed on William D. Brown's Lone Tree Ferry in 1854 to claim the site, and the ferry helped earn Omaha its 'Gateway to the West' nickname.
Q 05Omaha was informally founded in 1854 at a picnic on Capital Hill, now the site of what?
Central High School
Central High School now occupies Capitol Hill; the school opened in 1859 in the old territorial capitol building and moved into its present columned building, finished in 1912.
Q 06Omaha was Nebraska's territorial capital, but the state capital moved in 1867 to which city?
Lincoln
Lincoln, about 53 miles southwest of Omaha, became the state capital in 1867; the village had been called Lancaster and was renamed for the assassinated president.
Q 07In 1804 which expedition passed the riverbanks where Omaha would later be built?
Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark passed the site in late July 1804 and held their first formal council with Plains tribal chiefs near present-day Fort Calhoun, about 20 miles north of Omaha.
Q 08Which railroad built west from Omaha from 1866 on the first transcontinental line?
Union Pacific
Union Pacific built the eastern leg of the first transcontinental railroad west from Omaha, meeting the Central Pacific at Promontory Summit, Utah, on 10 May 1869.
Q 09Omaha hosted a world's fair in 1898 under what name?
Trans-Mississippi Exposition
The Trans-Mississippi Exposition ran from June to October 1898 on Omaha's north side, drawing more than 2.6 million visitors; President McKinley attended in October.
Q 10On 31 August 1898 Omaha's world's fair declared a special day in honour of which showman?
Buffalo Bill Cody
The exposition held 'Cody Day' on 31 August 1898 for Buffalo Bill Cody, a Nebraska resident whose touring troupe performed on the fair grounds that day.
Q 11By the 1950s, what share of Omaha's workforce was in meatpacking and processing?
Half
Half of Omaha's workforce was in meatpacking and processing by the 1950s; the Union Stockyards closed in 1999, and only the Livestock Exchange Building survives on the site.
Q 12Which of these Fortune 500 companies is NOT headquartered in Omaha?
ConAgra Brands
ConAgra Brands left Omaha for Chicago in 2016 after decades on a riverfront campus built over the demolished Jobbers Canyon warehouse district; the other three companies kept their Omaha headquarters.
Q 13Since 1950 Omaha has hosted which annual NCAA championship?
College World Series
Q 21Which two-time Oscar-winning actor was born in Omaha on 3 April 1924?
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, born in Omaha on 3 April 1924, won Best Actor for On the Waterfront (1954) and The Godfather (1972); Henry Fonda, another Nebraskan, was born in Grand Island.
Q 22Omaha native Alexander Payne set which of his films in the city?
Election
Election (1999), Payne's satire of a high-school vote adapted from Tom Perrotta's novel, is set in Omaha; Citizen Ruth and About Schmidt were also shot in the city.
Q 23Which tennis player, a 2003 US Open champion, was born in Omaha in 1982?
Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick was born in Omaha on 30 August 1982 and won the 2003 US Open, his only Grand Slam singles title; he later lost four major finals to Roger Federer.
The College World Series first came to Omaha in 1950 and stayed, playing at a South Omaha ballpark through 2010 and at a new downtown stadium from 2011.
Q 14Before Omaha, the college baseball championship was held in Kalamazoo and then in which city in 1949?
Wichita, Kansas
The 1949 championship was played in Wichita, Kansas after the 1947 and 1948 editions at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo; the event settled in Omaha from 1950.
Q 15Which Omaha ballpark hosted the college baseball championship from 1950 through 2010?
Rosenblatt
Rosenblatt Stadium opened in 1948 as Omaha Municipal Stadium and was renamed in 1964 for former mayor Johnny Rosenblatt; it was demolished in 2012 and the neighbouring zoo took over the site.
Q 16Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo grew out of a public zoo opened in 1894 under what name?
Riverview Park Zoo
Riverview Park Zoo opened in 1894 in south Omaha and was renamed Henry Doorly Zoo in 1963 after a $750,000 gift from Margaret Hitchcock Doorly in memory of her publisher husband.
Q 17The Henry Doorly Zoo's 13-storey desert exhibit, opened in 2002, holds what world record?
Largest glazed geodesic dome
The Desert Dome's record is 'Largest glazed geodesic dome'; its glazing covers the world's largest indoor desert, and Kingdoms of the Night beneath it is billed as the largest nocturnal exhibit.
Q 18Which civil rights leader was born at University Hospital in Omaha on 19 May 1925?
Malcolm X
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little at University Hospital in Omaha on 19 May 1925; after Ku Klux Klan threats the family moved to Milwaukee in 1926, and the Pinkney Street house was demolished in 1965.
Q 19Which US president was born in Omaha in 1913 under the name Leslie Lynch King Jr.?
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha on 14 July 1913; his mother soon moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he took the name of his stepfather, Gerald Rudolff Ford.
Q 20Which legendary dancer was born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha in 1899?
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha on 10 May 1899 and began in vaudeville with his sister Adele; the AFI ranked him fifth among male screen legends.
Q 24Which three-weight undisputed boxing champion was born and raised in Omaha?
Terence Crawford
'Bud' Crawford was the first male boxer of the four-belt era to be undisputed in two and then three divisions.
Q 25Which author of 'The Notebook' and 'A Walk to Remember' was born in Omaha in 1965?
Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks was born in Omaha on 31 December 1965; The Notebook (1996) was his first published novel and became the 2004 film with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.
Q 26Which star of 'Bring It On' was born in Omaha in 1972?
Gabrielle Union
Gabrielle Union was born in Omaha on 29 October 1972 and grew up in Pleasanton, California; she played rival cheer captain Isis in Bring It On (2000).
Q 27Which indie rock band was founded in Omaha by singer-songwriter Conor Oberst?
Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes formed in Omaha in 1995 around Conor Oberst's songwriting and broke through with 2005's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning; 311 and Mannheim Steamroller also came out of Omaha.
Q 28Which sandwich was reputedly invented at a poker game in Omaha's Blackstone Hotel?
Reuben
Grocer Reuben Kulakofsky gets the credit locally; the city marks Reuben Sandwich Day on 14 March, though a New York deli also claims it.
Q 29The Top 40 radio format was invented in the early 1950s at which Omaha station?
KOWH
Todd Storz developed the Top 40 format at KOWH in the early 1950s, repeating the records jukebox patrons played most often, then bought stations such as WHB Kansas City to spread it.
Q 30Which frozen convenience food did Swanson launch in 1953?
The TV dinner
The TV dinner was launched by Swanson in 1953 after the company was left with a surplus of Thanksgiving turkeys; salesman Gerry Thomas is credited with the idea and the name.