HOT TOPICS

Quiz

1 In te reo Maori, what does the

phrase “haere ra¯” mean?

2 Antilles pinktoe, greenbottle blue, curlyhair, Texas brown and Indian ornamental are all species of what type of animal?

3 In Greek mythology, who was the

ruler of the Underworld?

4 Nightclubbing, Living My Life and

Slave to the Rhythm are all albums by what Jamaican-born singer?

5 What author wrote the novels The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex and

The Marriage Plot?

6 What American president signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, legally freeing more than 3.5 million slaves?

7 Who starred as the titular character in the 1967 prison drama film Cool Hand Luke?

8 Leonardo da Vinci was born in the

middle of what century?

9 What meat is traditionally used in

a Cornish pasty?

10 The music video for what 2014 Taylor Swift song featured Scott Eastwood as the singer’s love interest?

History

1765 Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, is born in Westborough, Massachusetts.

1941 The United States enters World War II as Congress declare war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1980 Rock star and former Beatle John Lennon is shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by Mark David Chapman.

987 President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev sign a treaty at the White House calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1991 AIDS patient Kimberly Bergalis, who contracted the disease from her dentist, dies in Fort Pierce, Florida, at age 23.

2008 In a startling about-face, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tells the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks; four other men also abandon their defenses.

2020 The Supreme Court rejects Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral battleground; the court refuses to call into question the certification process in the state.