Q 01/05

Which Founding Father, the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, was the first US Postmaster General?

A) Gouverneur Morris

B) Benjamin Franklin

C) Samuel Adams

D) John Hancock

Answer · why

B) Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin also invented the lightning rod and bifocal glasses. The Continental Congress named him postmaster general in 1775.

Q 02/05

Under a 1947 law, who becomes US President if both the President and Vice President can no longer serve?

A) Speaker of the House

B) Secretary of State

C) Senate Majority Leader

D) Attorney General

Answer · why

A) Speaker of the House

The Speaker of the House was moved ahead of the Senate's president pro tempore, reversing the order set in 1792. Harry Truman wanted an elected offici...

Q 03/05

Which women's rights leader was arrested for voting in the 1872 presidential election and refused to pay her fine?

A) Elizabeth Cady Stanton

B) Lucretia Mott

C) Sojourner Truth

D) Susan B. Anthony

Answer · why

D) Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony told the judge she would never pay a dollar of the $100 fine, and she never did. In 1979 she became the first female citizen shown on...

Q 04/05

Which territory did the United States buy from France in 1803, nearly doubling the size of the country?

A) Florida

B) Louisiana

C) Alaska

D) California

Answer · why

B) Louisiana

Louisiana cost $15 million, which averages out to less than three cents an acre. American envoys had only been ready to buy New Orleans and its surrou...

Q 05/05

Which American Indian nation's language did US Marine code talkers use for secret radio messages in World War II?

A) Cherokee

B) Sioux

C) Apache

D) Navajo

Answer · why

D) Navajo

Navajo code talkers served in all six Marine divisions, and their code was never broken. Lacking a word for submarine, they called it an iron fish.