What is the capital of Maine?
Augusta
What element is present in all organic compounds?
Carbon
What Italian Renaissance artist (1445-1510) painted "Primavera" (1480)
Birth of Venus (1485)
and Cestello Anunciation (1490)?
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi
Sandro Botticelli or
Botticelli
Buenos Aires, Argentina, is beside what river?
Rio de la Plata
We look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller
What English author wrote a book that started with this, and what is the title of the book?
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief . . . ."
Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
What American investigative journalist (1862-1931) was born enslaved, wrote about incidents of racial segregation, lynching and organized criminal activity, and co-founded the NAACP?
Ida B. Wells
What hormone, naturally produced by the body primarily in the pineal gland, regulates a person's sleep-wake cycle?
Melatonin
Who was the French sculptor (1840-1917) generally considered the founder of modern sculpture, whose works include
"The Thinker"
and "Monument to Balzac"?
Auguste Rodin
or
Rodin
What is the name of the Cape in Chile that marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet?
Cape Horn
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
What highly influential German writer, poet, novelist, and playwright, scientist, philosopher, and statesman (1749-1832) wrote "The Sorrows of Young Werther" and "Faust," among other books, and made contributions to science, particularly in botany and optics?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
or
Goethe
During what War did the British in 1814 burn the White House, then occupied by President James Madison and his wife, Dolly?
War of 1812
What 18th Century person demonstrated that lightning is a form of electricity, introduced key terminology like "positive," "negative," "charge," "conductor," and "battery" in the context of electricity, and invented the lightning rod?
Benjamin Franklin
Which Spanish Romantic artist who lived from 1746 to 1828, became Prime Court Painter in 1799, made the "Black Paintings" toward the end of his life,
and lent his name to Spain’s highest film award and a Metro station in Madrid?
Francisco Goya
or
Goya
What Canadian city is directly south of a U.S. city?
Windsor, Ontario
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
Albert Einstein
What American writer developed and edited "The Black Book" in 1974, an anthology of photographs, illustrations, essays, and documents of Black life in the United States from the time of slavery to the 1920s, won the Pulitzer Prize for "Beloved" in 1987, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Toni Morrison
What place in South Dakota is the site of the 1890 Massacre in which U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of Lakota people.
Wounded Knee
How many known elements are on the standard periodic table?
118
Who was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker (1844-1926) known for her intimate depictions of mothers and children in domestic settings, whose paintings are characterized by loose brushwork, pastel colors, and thoughtful composition.
Mary Cassatt
What British colony was returned to China in 1997 when its 99-year lease expired?
Hong Kong
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
Mother Teresa
What French novelist, journalist and playwright (1901-1967) was the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, wrote many novels including Les Rougon-Macquart cycle and in 1898 published the open letter to the President of France, "J'Accuse...!" on the front page of the Paris daily L'Aurore, accusing the highest levels of the French Army of obstruction of justice and antisemitism by having wrongfully convicted Alfred Dreyfus to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
?
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola
or
Émile Zola
or
Zola
Which state was an independent country from 1836 to 1845, when it was annexed by the United States and admitted to the union as the 28th state?
Texas
What process is used by bats, whales, dolphins, shrews, and some birds to locate prey and for navigation?
Echolocation, the use of sound waves to determine the location of objects.
Who was the German-Swiss painter and printmaker (1497-1543) considered to be one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century, having painted portraits of Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, Jane Seymour, Edward Prince of Wales, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell and The Ambassadors, among others?
Hans Holbein (the Younger)
What are two of the five smallest (by land area) countries in the world?
Vatican City
Monaco
Nauru
Tuvalu
San Marino
What British scientist, who lived from 1643 to 1727 and developed theories on calculus, optics, motion and gravitation, once famously stated:
“To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me”?
Isaac Newton
What Italian Renaissance woman (1364–1430), whose family was originally from Pizano, and who wrote “The Letter of the Goddess Othea to Hector” (around 1400), about the proper education of young men, “Book of the City of Ladies” (around 1405), her most famous work asserting a new positive view of the role of women in history, and “The Tale of Joan of Arc (1430), while Joan of Arc was still alive (died 1431)?
Christine de Pizan