Q 01/05

New York was renamed in 1664 for a duke who later became which king, toppled in the Glorious Revolution?

A) Charles II

B) William III

C) James II

D) George I

Answer · why

C) James II

James II owned the colony personally as Duke of York, so his accession to the throne in 1685 turned New York into a royal province.

Q 02/05

Which peg-legged director-general surrendered New Netherland in 1664 after his townspeople refused to fight?

A) Willem Kieft

B) Adriaen van der Donck

C) Wouter van Twiller

D) Peter Stuyvesant

Answer · why

D) Peter Stuyvesant

Peter Stuyvesant later settled under English rule on his farm outside the city, an estate known as the Great Bouwerie, and lived there for the rest of...

Q 03/05

After New Yorkers toppled a gilded lead statue of George III in 1776, what is the metal said to have become?

A) Musket balls

B) Church bells

C) Cannon barrels

D) Printing type

Answer · why

A) Musket balls

Musket balls, some 42,000 by tradition, were cast from the lead in Connecticut for the Continental Army, while fragments that escaped the melting pot ...

Q 04/05

Which US president, born in Kinderhook, New York, in 1782, grew up speaking Dutch and learned English at school?

A) Theodore Roosevelt

B) Martin Van Buren

C) Millard Fillmore

D) Zachary Taylor

Answer · why

B) Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren is the only president whose first language was not English; in his Hudson Valley village most people still spoke Dutch over a century...

Q 05/05

Which animal, whose pelts drove New Netherland's trade, still appears twice on the official seal of New York City?

A) Otter

B) Raccoon

C) Beaver

D) Muskrat

Answer · why

C) Beaver

The beaver shares the seal with flour barrels and the sails of a windmill, emblems of the city's earliest trade goods and of its Dutch beginnings.