Season 24, 2008-02-15 | |
AMERICAN POETRY |
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Walt Whitman called this "the beautiful uncut hair of graves" | grass |
Season 24, 2008-06-16 | |
AMERICAN AUTHORS |
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In 1958 he wrote, "Brazil was beastly but Buenos Aires was the best. Not Tiffany's, but almost" | Truman Capote |
Season 3, 1986-12-17 | |
KID STUFF |
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In tic-tac-toe, maximum number of X's you can have on the board without winning | 5 |
Season 28, 2012-01-13 | |
PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATES |
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The traditional inaugural lunch for this president & V.P. featured boiled stuffed lobster & prime ribs of beef au jus | JFK & LBJ |
Season 26, 2009-10-01 | |
GEOGRAPHIC NAMES |
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For 200 years, much of this large current country was known as "Rupert's Land", in honor of a cousin of Charles II | Canada |
Season 4, 1988-03-18 | |
THE OLYMPICS |
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Due to war, the modern Olympic Games were canceled 3 times, in these years | 1916, 1940 & 1944 |
Season 29, 2013-07-03 | |
20th CENTURY MUSIC |
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European music has "3 Bs"; 20th c. American music's "3 Cs" were John Cage, Elliott Carter & this composer/conductor | Aaron Copland |
Season 25, 2009-03-20 | |
CIVIL WAR SITES |
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Of the 6 Civil War-related national military parks, the northernmost & southernmost are in these 2 states | Pennsylvania & Mississippi |
Season 30, 2014-06-26 | |
SCIENCE & INDUSTRY |
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In 1891 this European said, "Perhaps my factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses" | Alfred Nobel |
Season 5, 1989-05-26 | |
FICTIONAL CHARACTERS |
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According to the Browning poem, he could also get rid of "The mole and toad and newt and viper" | the Pied Piper of Hamelin |
Season 26, 2010-04-20 | |
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY |
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Joining such pop culture icons as Dorothy's ruby slippers, this was donated to the museum by Jerry Seinfeld in 2004 | the puffy shirt |
Season 27, 2011-07-12 | |
COMIC BOOK HISTORY |
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On the cover of the 1941 first issue of this comic book, the title hero punches Hitler in the jaw | Captain America |
Season 17, 2000-11-01 | |
MACHINES |
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This brand name comes from machines devised by Benjamin Holt to crawl over soft farmland | Caterpillar |
Season 37, 2021-04-06 | |
20th CENTURY AMERICAN HISTORY |
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A biography of him: "In a sweltering, dimly lit cabin, its window shades closed... his first presidential decisions were made" | Lyndon (Baines) Johnson (L. Johnson, L.B. Johnson, LBJ) |
Season 11, 1994-12-22 | |
COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD |
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With over 55 million visitors, this country is the world's most popular tourist destination | France |
Season 28, 2011-11-30 | |
ORGANIZATIONS |
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On Nov. 17, 1871 Union vets dismayed by soldiers' lack of proficiency in one skill formed this organization | the National Rifle Association |
Season 18, 2001-11-20 | |
CITY NAME ORIGINS |
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In 1517 the Portuguese modified the name of a port ctiy of western Ceylon in honor of this man | Christopher Columbus |
Season 33, 2016-12-12 | |
SCIENTISTS |
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In a 1694 Royal Society lecture, he suggested an astronomical cause for the biblical flood in Genesis | Edmond Halley |
Season 5, 1989-04-28 | |
FILMS OF THE '50s |
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The 1st part of this classic 1959 comedy is set in Chicago in February 1929 | Some Like It Hot |
Season 23, 2007-01-15 | |
AMERICAN LITERATURE |
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An epigraph he used on one story says, "our hearts though stout and brave, still, like muffled drums are beating" | Edgar Allan Poe |
Season 11, 1995-05-11 | |
AMERICAN LITERATURE |
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Chapter XI of this 1826 novel is prefaced by a Shakespearean quote: "Cursed be my tribe, if I forgive him" | The Last of the Mohicans |
Season 22, 2005-10-03 | |
PRESIDENTIAL RELATIVES |
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He defended civil rights as a representative from Massachusetts' 11th District from 1895 to 1901 | John Francis Fitzgerald |
Season 14, 1997-12-11 | |
AFRICAN WILDLIFE |
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It can attain a speed of about 40 mph, but has only 2 toes on each of its 2 feet | the ostrich |
Season 31, 2014-10-16 | |
LITERATURE |
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This title 1864 adventure is embarked upon by a descent into Iceland's Mount Sneffels | Journey to the Center of the Earth |
Season 34, 2017-11-24 | |
NOVEL TITLE CHARACTERS |
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One orphan arriving before him was given the surname Swubble; some arriving later were to be Unwin & Vilkins | Oliver Twist |
Season 13, 1997-07-03 | |
MEDICINE |
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While many diseases bear doctors' names, a nerve disease is named for this victim who died in 1941 | Lou Gehrig |
Season 38, 2021-11-12 | |
CONTEMPORARY PLAYWRIGHTS |
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"The Murder of Gonzago" is used as a play within a 1966 play by this man who was inspired by Shakespeare | (Tom) Stoppard |
Season 35, 2018-11-21 | |
PRESIDENTIAL IRONY |
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1 of the 2 presidents who offered Daniel Webster the VP slot; he declined both, thinking the job went nowhere | Zachary Taylor or William Henry Harrison |
Season 26, 2009-11-02 | |
HISTORIC AMERICANS |
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On July 11, 1804 he gasped to his doctor, "This is a mortal wound"; he died the next day | Alexander Hamilton |
Season 34, 2018-06-20 | |
CLASSICAL MUSIC |
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Not in the initial score, the feature giving this symphony its byname was a whim added by the composer close to its 1792 debut | the "Surprise" Symphony |
Season 36, 2020-01-07 | |
INTERNATIONAL SPORTS STARS |
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Now with over 185 million followers, he surpassed Selena Gomez in 2018 to become the most followed person on Instagram | (Cristiano) Ronaldo |
Season 35, 2018-09-21 | |
COLOR ETYMOLOGY |
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This word for a gem & a shade of blue derives from the name of a Eurasian country from which gems came to Western Europe | turquoise |
Season 35, 2019-03-26 | |
19th CENTURY AMERICANS |
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Though he became a Cabinet secretary & chief justice, once he wanted to change his name because of its "awkward, fishy" sound | Salmon Chase |
Season 23, 2007-02-05 | |
LANGUAGES |
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In South America, these are the 2 most widely spoken languages | Spanish & Portuguese |
Season 18, 2001-12-27 | |
STATE SYMBOLS |
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Appropriately, the mayflower is the official flower of this state | Massachusetts |
Season 18, 2001-12-10 | |
THE OSCARS |
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One of 4 men nominated twice for playing the same character | (1 of) Bing Crosby, Paul Newman, Al Pacino & Peter O'Toole |
Season 17, 2001-03-09 | |
1920s FRENCH MILITARY MEN |
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First elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1910, this Minister of War advocated staunch military preparedness | Andre Maginot (creator of the Maginot Line) |
Season 20, 2004-03-17 | |
STATE FACTS |
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Among the inventions to come from this state are Bisquick, Rollerblades & Post-It Notes | Minnesota |
Season 4, 1988-05-05 | |
19th C. AMERICANS |
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Sam Houston served under Andrew Jackson in this war | the War of 1812 |
Season 28, 2011-09-21 | |
OSCAR WINNERS |
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The most recent father & daughter to win acting Oscars: he won for playing a veteran, she for playing a mental patient | Jon Voight & Angelina Jolie |
Season 4, 1987-11-09 | |
FAMOUS WOMEN |
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Both Detroit, her home now, and Montgomery, Alabama, her home in 1955, have streets named for her | Rosa Parks |
Season 4, 1988-01-06 | |
ASTRONOMY |
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Appropriate mythological name given the asteroid in our solar system that passes closest to the sun | Icarus |
Season 32, 2016-03-11 | |
19th CENTURY DOCUMENTS |
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Its preamble substituted the words "a permanent federal government" for "a more perfect union" | the Confederate Constitution |
Season 3, 1986-11-11 | |
BEST SELLERS |
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In 1985, autobiographies of these 2 men topped hardcover best seller lists | Chuck Yeager & Lee Iacocca |
Season 38, 2022-05-12 | |
CONSTITUTIONS OF THE WORLD |
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Amendments to its 1901 constitution require approval of at least 4 states before receiving royal assent | AUSTRALIA |
Season 26, 2009-09-17 | |
FAMOUS ACTORS |
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Ironically, he lost the leading role in the 1960 play "The Best Man" because he didn't look presidential | Ronald Reagan |
Season 21, 2004-09-13 | |
COUNTRY NAMES |
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A Spanish dictionary defines it as "circulo maximo que equidista de los polos de la tierra" | Ecuador |
Season 1, 1984-10-08 | |
THE ARMED SERVICES |
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The last military branch to be established | United States Air Force |
Season 12, 1996-05-10 | |
WORD ORIGINS |
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Now part of the English language, this Swahili word for "trip" or "journey" is derived from Arabic | safari |
Season 12, 1996-04-16 | |
MOVIE DEBUTS |
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Candice Bergen, Joanna Pettet, Kathleen Widdoes & Joan Hackett debuted as college alumnae in this 1966 film | The Group |
Season 4, 1987-11-04 | |
MONARCHS |
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Ruler whose 59-yr. reign over England ending in 1820, is 2nd only to his granddaughter Victoria's 63 yrs. | King George III |
Season 12, 1995-11-09 | |
NAMES IN THE NEWS |
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He's the co-founder & editor-in-chief of a new magazine that hit the stands on September 26, 1995 | John F. Kennedy, Jr. |
Season 14, 1998-03-11 | |
TRANSPORTATION HISTORY |
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In 1807 he wrote, "The distance from New York to Albany is 150 miles; I ran it up in thirty-two hours" | Robert Fulton (of the steamship Clermont) |
Season 22, 2006-03-03 | |
AMERICAN LITERATURE |
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This 1906 novel says, "Now & then a visitor wept, to be sure; but this slaughtering machine ran on, visitors or no..." | The Jungle |
Season 12, 1995-10-03 | |
FAMOUS NAMES |
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Born June 27, 1880, she called March 3, 1887, the day she met her teacher, the birthday of her soul | Helen Keller |
Season 39, 2023-01-12 | |
HISTORIC ART |
|
The artwork once known in France as "la tapisserie de la reine Mathilde" is better known as this | THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY |
Season 22, 2005-12-02 | |
1950s MOVIE ENSEMBLES |
|
Name missing from this list: Webber, Begley, Marshall, Warden, Balsam, Fiedler, Klugman, Binns, Sweeney, Voskovec & Cobb | Fonda |
Season 33, 2017-03-23 | |
FICTIONAL CHARACTERS |
|
The word that gave us "picaresque" may also have inspired the name of this clever valet featured in a 1786 opera | Figaro |
Season 34, 2018-05-16 | |
MYTHOLOGY |
|
Ulysses & Menelaus were among those who emerged from the "womb" of this, called "tall as a mountain, ribbed with pine" | the Trojan Horse |
Season 8, 1991-11-29 | |
SCIENTISTS |
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In 1902, at age 23, he was appointed to a position in the patent office in Bern, Switzerland | ALBERT EINSTEIN |
Season 30, 2013-10-17 | |
TRADEMARKS |
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Facebook & TiVo have both claimed trademarks for an icon representing this gesture | thumbs-up |
Season 24, 2007-11-23 | |
PRO SPORTS TEAM NAMES |
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It's the only NBA team name that uses a state nickname in place of a city or state | the Golden State Warriors |
Season 34, 2018-05-08 | |
LONDON LANDMARKS |
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Built in the 1990s, it's the only permanent structure permitted in London with a thatched roof since the Great Fire of 1666 | the Globe Theatre |
Season 26, 2010-04-19 | |
WORLD WAR II |
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On June 5, 1944 FDR said of the capture of this city, "One up and two to go" | Rome |
Season 33, 2017-05-22 | |
THE BRITISH EMPIRE |
|
The city that some 19th century Englishmen called "Caranjee" is now the biggest city in this country | Pakistan |
Season 19, 2003-04-02 | |
CANADIAN GEOGRAPHY |
|
One of the only 2 Canadian provinces that do not border a saltwater ocean or bay | Alberta or Saskatchewan |
Season 5, 1989-03-29 | |
MOVIE STARS |
|
She made only 11 Hollywood films during her brief career, co-starring twice with B. Crosby & winning an Oscar | Grace Kelly |
Season 25, 2009-06-22 | |
PRESIDENTS ON FILM |
|
Filmed signing a bill into law, in 1895 he became the first U.S. president to appear on moving film | Grover Cleveland |
Season 19, 2003-05-07 | |
FAMOUS ESTATES |
|
After the U.S. government declined to buy this estate & tomb, a ladies association bought it for $200,000 in 1858 | Mount Vernon |
Season 15, 1998-10-23 | |
THE SPACE RACE |
|
In July 1998 it became the third nation to launch an interplanetary craft | Japan (launched a probe to Mars) |
Season 35, 2018-11-28 | |
HISTORICAL FIRSTS |
|
In a tribute with no precedent, the band played this at the Buckingham Palace changing of the guard on September 13, 2001 | "The Star-Spangled Banner" (or the U.S. national anthem) |
Season 24, 2007-11-20 | |
AMERICAN ANCESTRY |
|
According to the Census Bureau, at 15.2% & 10.8%, they are the 2 leading national ancestries of Americans | German & Irish |
Season 27, 2011-01-28 | |
DISNEY MOVIES |
|
With special sound equipment needed in the auditorium, this 1940 film was initially released in only 14 theaters | Fantasia |
Season 32, 2016-05-19 | |
THE PRESIDENTIAL OATH OF OFFICE |
|
In 2013 President Obama was sworn in on 2 Bibles--one was Lincoln’s & one belonged to this man who died 103 years after Lincoln | Martin Luther King, Jr. |
Season 28, 2011-11-23 | |
AMERICAN WOMEN |
|
Geraldine Doyle, who in 1942 took a job at a Michigan metal factory, helped inspire the look & job of this iconic character | Rosie the Riveter |
Season 35, 2019-04-02 | |
MUSIC LEGENDS |
|
These 2 “monarchs” of popular culture both passed away on August 16, one in 2018, the other 41 years earlier | Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin |
Season 35, 2019-05-24 | |
AROUND THE USA |
|
Astronomy buffs visit Idaho for the USA's first dark sky reserve; oddly, part of it is this resort area with a bright name | Sun Valley |
Season 11, 1995-03-02 | |
TRANSPORTATION |
|
It's the only city in the Deep South to have a subway system | ATLANTA |
Season 25, 2009-01-29 | |
THE GRAMMYS |
|
In 2002 the soundtrack to this George Clooney film won Album of the Year, only the third to do so | O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
Season 13, 1997-01-07 | |
WORLD LEADERS |
|
His brother Jonathan lost his life in 1976 leading the raid on Entebbe | Benjamin Netanyahu (prime minister of Israel) |
Season 37, 2020-09-24 | |
ASTRONOMY |
|
Discovered in 1967, the 1st of these stars was dubbed LGM-1--the perceived signal was jokingly thought to be from little green men | pulsars |
Season 14, 1998-07-09 | |
THE EARTH |
|
On the line of latitude known as this, the sun doesn't rise on the winter solstice or set on the summer | Arctic Circle (or for people in the Southern Hemisphere, the Antarctic Circle) |
Season 34, 2018-06-21 | |
WORLD GEOGRAPHY |
|
Australia's fourth-largest city, it's at the southern end of the road called Indian Ocean Drive | Perth |
Season 17, 2001-02-23 | |
OLYMPIC CITIES |
|
1 of 2 current national capitals that have hosted the Winter Olympics | Oslo, Norway or Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina |
Season 21, 2004-10-20 | |
BIBLICAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES |
|
As described in the Bible, the total volume of this was 450,000 cubic cubits | Noah's Ark |
Season 24, 2007-11-15 | |
SCIENTISTS |
|
In 2007 this 1962 American Nobel laureate became the first person to receive his own personal genome map | James Watson |
Season 28, 2011-11-28 | |
16th CENTURY NAMES |
|
In 2010, 467 years after his death, this man at odds with the church was reburied with honors at a Polish cathedral | Nicolaus Copernicus |
Season 3, 1987-02-19 | |
LANDMARKS |
|
The Library of Congress was originally housed in this building | Capitol |
Season 18, 2001-11-27 | |
SIGNS & SYMBOLS |
|
To boost morale between 2 merging insurance companies, it was designed & put on a pin in 1963 by Harvey Ball | the smiley face |
Season 24, 2008-06-11 | |
MOVIE STARS |
|
No. 18 on the AFI's list of the greatest American screen actors, he starred in just 3 films | James Dean |
Season 39, 2022-12-05 | |
LANDMARKS |
|
In 2009, during a 20th anniversary celebration, it was called "an edifice of fear. On November 9, it became a place of joy" | THE BERLIN WALL |
Season 19, 2002-12-16 | |
FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES |
|
As its packaging reflects, this company began marketing its products from an Iowa cattle farm in 1985 | Gateway |
Season 33, 2016-11-07 | |
STATE BIRDS |
|
Oddly, the California gull is the state bird of this landlocked state | Utah |
Season 29, 2013-02-28 | |
THE UNIVERSE |
|
In 2006 it was moved to a new list that includes Ceres & Eris | Pluto |
Season 24, 2008-07-22 | |
WORLD LEADERS |
|
Born in Kiev & later a U.S. citizen, this leader became prime minister in 1969 of a country founded in the 20th century | Golda Meir |
Season 20, 2004-01-16 | |
THE MOVIES |
|
They're the 2 2-letter abbreviations in the titles of movies directed by Steven Spielberg | E.T. (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) & A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) |
Season 36, 2019-11-18 | |
U.S. CITIES |
|
Celebrating electricity & technology, an exposition in this U.S. "City of Light" in 1901 was overshadowed by another major event | Buffalo |
Season 17, 2001-05-21 | |
COINS |
|
The ancient coin seen here comes from this island | Crete (The Labyrinth, where the Minotaur lives) |
Season 15, 1999-07-08 | |
U.S.A. |
|
In 1999 several counties around Cape Canaveral, Florida were assigned this new telephone area code | 321 |
Season 22, 2006-05-03 | |
PEOPLE IN SPACE |
|
In 2005, as the shuttle Discovery prepared for landing, NASA played a Dexys Midnight Runners song in her honor | Eileen Collins |