Q 01/05

Which 1956 single gave Elvis Presley his first number one on the US pop chart?

A) All Shook Up

B) Jailhouse Rock

C) Heartbreak Hotel

D) Can't Help Falling in Love

Answer · why

C) Heartbreak Hotel

Heartbreak Hotel struck Sam Phillips, Presley's first producer, as 'a morbid mess'; it topped the pop and country charts anyway and became his first m...

Q 02/05

Which Bill Haley & His Comets record became a number-one hit in 1955 after it opened the film Blackboard Jungle?

A) Shake, Rattle and Roll

B) Rock Around the Clock

C) See You Later, Alligator

D) Jailhouse Rock

Answer · why

B) Rock Around the Clock

Rock Around the Clock first came out in 1954 as a B-side and sold slowly; a year later the film's opening credits turned it into the first rock and ro...

Q 03/05

Which milkshake-mixer salesman opened his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, in April 1955?

A) Harland Sanders

B) Dave Thomas

C) Glen Bell

D) Ray Kroc

Answer · why

D) Ray Kroc

Ray Kroc first visited the McDonald brothers' California stand because it had ordered eight of his mixers at once; in 1961 he bought the brothers out ...

Q 04/05

Who developed the first effective polio vaccine in the 1950s?

A) Louis Pasteur

B) Alexander Fleming

C) Jonas Salk

D) Albert Sabin

Answer · why

C) Jonas Salk

Jonas Salk's vaccine was declared safe and effective in April 1955; asked on television who owned the patent, he answered, 'Could you patent the sun?'

Q 05/05

What did the Soviet Union name the first artificial Earth satellite, launched in October 1957?

A) Vostok 1

B) Luna 1

C) Soyuz 1

D) Sputnik 1

Answer · why

D) Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 was a polished sphere about the size of a beach ball that beeped by radio for three weeks; the alarm it caused in the United States set off ...