Q 01/05

The Redstone rocket, developed in Huntsville, launched which astronaut on America's first crewed spaceflight in 1961?

A) John Glenn

B) Gus Grissom

C) Alan Shepard

D) Scott Carpenter

Answer · why

C) Alan Shepard

Alan Shepard. The rocket began as an Army missile designed by Wernher von Braun's team to carry warheads; adapted for a capsule, it lobbed Shepard on ...

Q 02/05

Before it took John Hunt's name in 1811, Huntsville was named after which English village, home of poet Alexander Pope?

A) Chiswick

B) Richmond

C) Twickenham

D) Windsor

Answer · why

C) Twickenham

Twickenham. Landowner LeRoy Pope picked the name, but with feeling against Britain rising before the War of 1812, the legislature swapped it for that ...

Q 03/05

In 1819, delegates met in a Huntsville cabinet-maker's shop to do what?

A) Charter the state's first railroad

B) Ratify the U.S. Bill of Rights

C) Found the state's first university

D) Write Alabama's first state constitution

Answer · why

D) Write Alabama's first state constitution

Write Alabama's first state constitution. The same building then hosted the first governor's inauguration and the new legislature, until the capital l...

Q 04/05

Huntsville is the county seat of which Alabama county?

A) Limestone

B) Morgan

C) Marshall

D) Madison

Answer · why

D) Madison

Madison. The county was created in 1808, eleven years before statehood, around a squatters' village called Hunt's Spring on land the Cherokee and Chic...

Q 05/05

During the Great Depression, Huntsville was known as the world capital of which crop?

A) Watercress

B) Peanuts

C) Strawberries

D) Pecans

Answer · why

A) Watercress

Watercress. The area's spring-fed ponds could grow it right through the winter, so local growers shipped more of it to distant hotels and restaurants ...