Q 01/05

What did Richard Nixon famously refuse to wear for the first televised debate of 1960?

A) Makeup

B) A necktie

C) Eyeglasses

D) A wristwatch

Answer · why

A) Makeup

Makeup was declined, so Nixon, still underweight after a hospital stay, looked pale and unshaven on screen beside a tanned, rested Kennedy.

Q 02/05

Who phoned Richard Nixon straight after the first 1960 debate to ask whether he was ill?

A) His wife

B) His mother

C) His doctor

D) His running mate

Answer · why

B) His mother

His mother rang at once to ask if he was sick, having watched him sweat under the studio lights in a light gray suit that faded into the backdrop.

Q 03/05

Which singer re-recorded his hit High Hopes with new words as John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign theme?

A) Perry Como

B) Bing Crosby

C) Frank Sinatra

D) Sammy Davis Jr.

Answer · why

C) Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra first sang High Hopes in the 1959 film A Hole in the Head, where it won the Oscar for best original song, before reworking it for the ca...

Q 04/05

Which Senate majority leader from Texas did John F. Kennedy pick as his running mate in 1960?

A) Sam Rayburn

B) J. William Fulbright

C) Stuart Symington

D) Lyndon B. Johnson

Answer · why

D) Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson had been Kennedy's chief rival at the convention, and his place on the ticket helped the Democrats hold Texas and much of the South.

Q 05/05

Which civil rights leader's 1960 jailing in Georgia led John F. Kennedy to phone the man's wife?

A) Ralph Abernathy

B) Martin Luther King Jr.

C) Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

D) Fred Shuttlesworth

Answer · why

B) Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. had been arrested at an Atlanta sit-in; Kennedy's calls helped free him, and King's father then endorsed the Democrat.