Seat of Power
State vs State
Birds and Bees and Trees
Pop Culture, Dude
International Grab-bag
100

Which president is on the penny?

Ben Franklin

Thomas Jefferson

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, 16th POTUS.

100

The oldest city in the US is located in:

Virginia

California

Pennsylvania

Florida


Florida. St. Augustine, FL was founded in 1513. So probably at the same time your local Kneipe was being remodeled. For the second time.

100

According to folklore, Ben Franklin wanted this animal to be the national symbol of the US instead of the bald eagle:

Grizzly Bear

Golden Bear

Turkey

Manatee

Turkey

100

What is the official language of the US?

English

Spanish

Both Spanish and English

There isn't one

We don't have one! A bill was introduced in 2017 to make English the official language, but it stalled out.

100

The Liberty Bell was made in the same place as this famous international landmark:

Statue of Liberty

Brandenburger Tor

Big Ben

Christ the Redeemer

Big Ben

200

Who was the first female African-American secretary of state?

Kamala Harris

Susan Rice

Condoleezza Rice

Mae C. Jemison

Condoleezza Rice, under George W. Bush.

200

The capital of Kentucky is derived from this popular German city (though spelled differently).

Berlin

Hamburg

Frankfurt

Munich

Frankfurt (Frankfort, KY).

200

The US has many national and state parks. In one, the public is legally allowed to search for this rare substance and keep what they find. What is it?

Diamonds

Magic Mushrooms

Oil

Bigfoot

Diamonds. And located in Crater of Diamonds State Park, Arkansas if you want to come visit!

200

What is the most popular martial art from practiced in America?

Jiu Jitsu

Boxing

Taekwondo

Mixed Martial Arts

Boxing

200

How many Native American tribes are federally recognized in the US?

7

574

31

944

574.

Total population: 5,220,579 ~ 1.6% of the total U.S. population.

300

Which African country capital is named after a US president?

Freetown, Sierra Leone

Monrovia, Liberia

Kampala, Uganda

Conakry, Guinea

Monrovia, Liberia

300

Time for audience participation!! Nominate one person who is good at spelling...

M I S S I S S I P P I

300

What is the most visited national park with over 10 million recreational visits per year?

Great Smoky Mountains

Yellowstone

Great Smoky Mountains

Yosemite


Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It has 12.1 million visits per year. Yellowstone National Park is in second place with 3.8 million. Then comes Zion National Park with 3.6 million.

300

True or False: All US school children recite the pledge of allegiance every morning from grade school through high school.

FALSE

300

True or False: The United States Constitution was the first democratic constitution to exist in present-day USA.

False. It was modeled after the Iroquois Constitution aka the Great Law of Peace, which governed the Iroquois Confederacy since the 16th century. The Confederacy was made up of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations as a response to European colonization.

400

By 1860, cultivation of this cash crop was the dominant form of slave labor in the United States.

Cotton

Rice

Sugar

Tobacco

Cotton. After the invention of Eli Whitney's cotton gin in 1793, cotton surpassed tobacco as the dominant cash crop in the agricultural economy of the South and made up more than half of total US exports.

400

The highest and lowest points (by elevation) in the continental US are located in the same state. Which one?

Maryland

Alaska

California

Florida

California. The highest point is Mt. Whitney (4418m above sea level) and the lowest is Bad Water Basin in Death Valley (86m below sea level).

400

Which type of tree is California has been called the Tallest Living Thing?

Redwood

Cypress

Spruce

Douglas Fir


The tallest trees in the world are redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and can easily reach heights of 300 feet (91 meters). The tallest is called Hyperion. It was discovered in 2006 and is 379.7 feet (115.7 m) tall.

400

All but one of the following American slang could be used to describe this week:

Throwing shade

On fleek

Dope

Ballin'

Throwing shade.


Definitions:

On fleek - pinnacle of perfection, flawless.

Throwing shade - to judge someone negatively.

Dope - cool, awesome, or great.

Ballin' - to have a luxurious lifestyle.

400

Which nation provided support to the Union army during the American civil war?

Brazil

China

India

Russia

Russia.

500

Martin Luther King Junior stood in solidarity with all liberation ideologies/movements, except for....

Socialism

Gay Rights

Non-violence

Climate justice

Gay Rights

500

What event caused the population of California to grow so much that it had enough people to apply for statehood?

California Gold Rush, 1848

Opening of Ellis Island, 1892

War of 1812

Mexican-American War, 1846-1848

California Gold Rush, 1848.

Bonus question (not for points): When did California become a state?

500

This is the tallest mountain in the U.S. at 6,190 meters above sea level:

Mt. Diablo

Mt. Whitney

Denali

Mt. Washington

Denali, located in the Alaska Mountain Range.

500

Famous gangster Al Capone was eventually arrested on what charges?

Tax evasion

Rum running during Prohibition

Gangster-y activities a la Scarface

Fixing horse and greyhound races

Tax evasion. When they finally arrested him, authorities were so afraid of his gang breaking him out, they kept him in a sealed shipping container on a dock in San Francisco before transporting him to Alcatraz Island.

500

Which artist/s from the German Bauhaus art community, immigrated to America and established the Black Mountain college in North Carolina?

Mies Van der Rohe

Joseph and Anni Albers

László Moholy-Nagy

Walter Gropius

Joseph and Anni Albers fled Germany after the Nazis closed the famous Bauhaus art school, established the arts curriculum at Black Mountain in 1933.