Category: Brain Teasers

Trivia: What was special about the 1924 Winter Olympics?

A victory podium was first used
Women could finally compete
The first national flag march
The first Olympic Winter Games

The correct answer is The first Olympic Winter Games

So why is this answer correct? : The International Olympic Committee decided that a Winter Sports Week would be held in Chamonix, France in 1924. It was such a success that it was later named the First Olympic Winter Games, and the tradition would continue. There were only 16 events at the games in 1924, compared to 102 events at the 2018 winter games. American Charles Jewtraw won the first event, the 500m speed skating.

Trivia: What major U.S. event happened at the end of the 1920s?

Wall Street Crash
St. Louis World’s Fair
The Great San Francisco earthquake
Flight of the Wright Brothers

The correct answer is Wall Street Crash

So why is this answer correct? : A harsh end to a prosperous decade for America, the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, a date known as “Black Tuesday.” Billions of dollars were lost that day, wiping out investors and causing the Great Depression, which would last for the next 10 years.

Trivia: Route 66 opened in 1926 running between what two cities?

Madison and San Francisco
Indianapolis and Phoenix
Kansas City and Las Vegas
Chicago and Los Angeles

The correct answer is Chicago and Los Angeles

So why is this answer correct? : The 1920s kicked off the rise of the automobile, and with it, many new routes criss-crossing the country. Route 66 was commissioned in 1926 and became fully paved within a decade. Running from Chicago to Los Angeles, the “Mother Road,” as it was sometimes called, helped connect dozens of small towns and opened up a new trucking route, boosting business along the way.

Trivia: Which baseball player was infamously sold to the Yankees in 1920?

Harry Heilmann
Ty Cobb
Babe Ruth
Lou Gehrig

The correct answer is Babe Ruth

So why is this answer correct? : Just five days into the year, the New York Yankees purchased George Herman “Babe” Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for the sum of $125,000. Ruth had led the Red Sox to three World Series victories, but owner Harry Frazee needed cash, and the player was his biggest ticket. Thanks to Ruth’s outstanding success on the Yankees, the team was able to leave the Polo Grounds field they shared with the New York Giants. Yankee Stadium was built in 1923, earning the nickname “The House that Ruth Built.” The lopsided trade would haunt the Boston team until 2004 when they broke “the Curse of the Bambino” to win their first World Series since 1918.

Trivia: Which of these Presidents was NOT carved into Mount Rushmore in 1927?

Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
George Washington

The correct answer is James Madison

So why is this answer correct? : Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor behind Mount Rushmore, was also the person to choose which Presidents would appear in his masterpiece — and founding father James Madison didn’t make the cut. According to Borglum, he chose Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln because he felt they represented the most important events in U.S. history.

Trivia: What American holiday tradition began in the 1920s?

Groundhog Day
The Super Bowl
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
New Year’s Rockin’ Eve

The correct answer is Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

So why is this answer correct? : On a sunny Thanksgiving day in 1924, Macy’s held its very first parade, a modest event the length of two city blocks. The parade celebrated the opening of “The World’s Largest Store” — Macy’s new 1-million-square-foot Herald Square store — as a Christmas parade. The event caught on quickly, evolving into the star-studded show that it is today.

Trivia: Drugstore chain Walgreens blossomed in the 1920s thanks to which event?

Prohibition
Invention of Coca-cola
Women’s suffrage
Ponzi schemes

The correct answer is Prohibition

So why is this answer correct? : Manufacturing, selling, and transporting “intoxicating liquors” was made illegal during the American Prohibition period from 1920 to 1933. However, it was legal to drink alcohol, if you could somehow find it. Pharmacies got creative by selling alcoholic drinks under the guise of a “medicinal treatment” for things like toothaches. The drugstore chain Walgreens saw explosive growth, expanding from 20 locations to more than 500 during the 1920s.

Trivia: The 1928 discovery of what revolutionized modern medicine?

Radium
X-rays
Penicillin
Germs

The correct answer is Penicillin

So why is this answer correct? : On an autumn day in 1928 London, Dr. Alexander Fleming made one of the most important discoveries in medical history: Penicillin. He happened on it by chance when he returned to a messy lab after a vacation and noticed that the mold Penicillium inhibited bacterial growth on his samples. The bacteriologist revolutionized modern medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic.

Trivia: Which cartoon character debuted in the 1928 short “Steamboat Willie”?

Wile E. Coyote
Bugs Bunny
Batman
Mickey Mouse

The correct answer is Mickey Mouse

So why is this answer correct? : The first official debut of this famous mouse was in 1928 in “Steamboat Willie” at New York’s Colony Theatre. It was one of the very first cartoons to successfully use synchronized sound, making it an instant hit. After its success, a cartoon star was born and Walt Disney set out to create more characters that we still watch today.

Trivia: Which novel was set in the Roaring ’20s?

The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird
Animal Farm
The Catcher in the Rye

The correct answer is The Great Gatsby

So why is this answer correct? : We have the 1920s to thank for some of the most memorable novels in history, such as Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” and James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” but perhaps no writer exemplifies the Jazz Age more than F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was inspired by glamorous parties he attended on Long Island’s North Shore to write “The Great Gatsby.” The 1925 novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway’s fascination with the millionaire Jay Gatsby and his obsession with former girlfriend Daisy Buchanan.