20 Facts to Impress Your Friends

Let’s take a break to bone up on a little history. See how many of these you know, memorize the answers, and spring them on your friends. This is some tough people trivia, but tough is good.

Answers follow at the bottom of the column.

1. Alfred Nobel, the Swede whose will established annual cash awards (Nobel Prizes) for great writers, statesmen, and scientists, was the inventor of what destructive medium?
2. Heiress Patricia (Patty) Hearst was kidnapped by what group?
3. Leslie Townes boxed under the name “Packy East.” Townes later became famous as a comedian using yet another name. What was it?
4. J. Edgar Hoover had a very curious habit of not allowing anyone to walk on what?
5. While he was president, Franklin Roosevelt always slept with what tucked under his pillow?
6. Pocahontas’s body is buried alongside what river?
7. Who received the only wooden Oscar ever awarded?
8. What occupation did famed gangster Al Capone’s business card claim?
9. Who, worried about his grades at Duke Law School, broke into the dean’s office to find records indicating he was at the top of his class?
10. Who killed Lee Harvey Oswald?
11. Whose mother accompanied him to West Point and rented an apartment overlooking his dormitory to make sure he studied?
12. What legendary singer’s twin brother, Jesse Garon, died at birth in 1935?
13. How long did Mark Twain serve in the Confederate Army before deserting?
14. Who fashioned George Washington’s wooden teeth?
15. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, was not Egyptian. Of what nationality was she?
16. Karl Marx is buried in what European city?
17. Louis XIV of France smelled terrible. Why?
18. What famous gangster was once stationed on the U.S.S. Utah, a Navy ship later sunk in Japan’s raid on Pearl Harbor?
19. What actress’s mother always made sure her hair was adorned with 56 curls?
20. Matching: Match the right birth name (left) with their better known pseudonym.
    • Stanley R. Soog       —     Jerry Lewis
    • Ehrich Weiss           —     George Burns
    • Israel Baline            —     Harry Houdini
    • Nathan Birnbaum  —     Jackie Gleason
    • Joseph Levitch        —    Irving Berlin
    • Bonus credit: What stage name did Frances Gumm make famous?

ANSWERS:

1. Dynamite. 2. The Symbionese Liberation Army. 3. Bob Hope. 4. His shadow. 5. A pistol. 6. The Thames in London. 7. Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (with his dummy Charlie McCarthy). 8. Secondhand furniture dealer. 9. Richard Nixon. 10. Jack Ruby. 11. Douglas MacArthur–and it paid off. He graduated first in his class. 12. Elvis Presley. 13. One whole week. 14. Paul Revere. 15. Greek, with some Iranian blood. 16. London. 17. He never took a bath. E-gad! 18. John Dillinger. 19. Shirley Temple. 20. Stanley Stoog-Jackie Gleason. Erich Weiss, Houdini. Israel Baline, Irving Berlin. Nathan Birnbaum, George Burns. Joseph Levitch, Jerry Louis. 20 Bonus credit: Frances Gumm made Toto famous and became a world star as Judy Garland.

Ratings:

1-25 correct: Outstanding! Have a great day!

0 correct: Try again….and then have a great day.