Q 01/05

What is Pennsylvania's best-known nickname, used since 1802?

A) The Keystone State

B) The Constitution State

C) The Old Dominion

D) The Bay State

Answer · why

A) The Keystone State

The Keystone State. At a victory rally in 1802 it was toasted as 'the keystone in the federal union', the wedge at the top of an arch that locks all t...

Q 02/05

Pennsylvania is named in honour of which relative of its founder, William Penn?

A) His father

B) His grandfather

C) His brother

D) His son

Answer · why

A) His father

His father. Charles II named the colony for Admiral Sir William Penn, to whose estate the Crown owed a large debt; the founder feared people would thi...

Q 03/05

William Penn first proposed naming his colony after which part of Britain?

A) Scotland

B) Cornwall

C) Wales

D) Yorkshire

Answer · why

C) Wales

Wales. His 'New Wales' met objections, so he offered Sylvania, Latin for woodland, and the king put 'Penn' in front of it.

Q 04/05

A partial meltdown in 1979 at which Pennsylvania nuclear plant was America's worst commercial reactor accident?

A) Shippingport

B) Peach Bottom

C) Three Mile Island

D) Beaver Valley

Answer · why

C) Three Mile Island

Three Mile Island. No one was hurt, but the timing was uncanny: The China Syndrome, a thriller about a cover-up at a nuclear plant, had opened in cine...

Q 05/05

Pennsylvania was which state to ratify the US Constitution, in December 1787?

A) Second

B) First

C) Fourth

D) Ninth

Answer · why

A) Second

Delaware had ratified five days earlier; the Constitution was presented in German too, since a third of Pennsylvanians spoke it.