Q 01/05

Near which North Carolina village did the Wright brothers make the first powered flights in December 1903?

A) Hatteras

B) Kitty Hawk

C) Ocracoke

D) Beaufort

Answer · why

B) Kitty Hawk

Kitty Hawk was chosen after Wilbur studied Weather Bureau wind records and heard of its steady breezes and soft sand; the flights left from the Kill D...

Q 02/05

Which major US city was levelled by an earthquake and the fires that followed on April 18, 1906?

A) San Francisco

B) New York City

C) Chicago

D) Los Angeles

Answer · why

A) San Francisco

San Francisco burned for days because the quake had broken the water mains, leaving firefighters short of water; the fires destroyed some 500 city blo...

Q 03/05

What was Albert Einstein's day job when he published special relativity in 1905?

A) University lecturer

B) Patent examiner

C) Schoolteacher

D) Bank clerk

Answer · why

B) Patent examiner

Patent examiner was the post Einstein took at the Swiss Patent Office after failing to find a teaching job; he worked out the 1905 papers that remade ...

Q 04/05

Which city hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1900?

A) Athens

B) Paris

C) St. Louis

D) London

Answer · why

B) Paris

Paris ran the 1900 Games as a sideshow to its World's Fair, spread over five months and so little advertised that many athletes never knew they had co...

Q 05/05

Which iconic automobile, known for its impact on mass production, was first introduced in 1908?

A) Ford Model T

B) Mercedes-Benz Simplex

C) Cadillac Model Thirty

D) Ford Model A

Answer · why

A) Ford Model T

The Ford Model T went on sale on October 1, 1908 at $850; assembly-line production later cut the price to under $300 by 1925, putting a car within rea...