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100
This famous New York City landmark was built on land that was given to Columbia in 1814:
Columbia owned the land under Rockefeller Center until selling it to the Center in 1985. It had been given to Columbia by New York State in 1814 in lieu of state lottery funds.
100
The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center opened in Washington Heights in 1928. It was built on the site of a ballpark/arena for which New York team?
The New York Yankees, then known as the Highlanders, played at the site until 1911, when they began to share the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants. They moved into Yankee Stadium in 1923. Columbia and Presbyterian originally affiliated in 1911 and moved to the Washington Heights site in 1928, due to the benefactions of Standard Oil heir Edward Harkness. It was the first academic medical center in the world.
100
Columbia has had 60 faculty, former faculty or alumni win the Nobel Prize. Among the most famous is Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia from 1902 to 1945. Which Nobel Prize did he win?
Peace, in 1931, for his work on the Kellogg-Briand Treaty of 1928, which sought to outlaw war. Butler was also the last-minute Republican vice presidential candidate with William Howard Taft in 1912. The ticket lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Columbia alumnus Theodore Roosevelt finished second.
100
Which Columbian discovered nuclear reactions?
Fermi, faculty member in 1936 and 1939-45, won the Nobel Prize for discovering nuclear reactions. Apgar, MD 1933 and faculty 1935-59, created the Apgar Score for the medical evaluation of infants; Armstrong, Engineering 1913 and faculty 1913-54, invented FM radio; Burns, faculty 1928-67, helped create the Social Security system; Dewey, Columbia College librarian 1884-89, created the Dewey Decimal System; and Drew, MD 1940, discovered a way to preserve blood plasma.
100
Twelve Columbians have served as Governor of New York State. Which one served the longest?
Thomas Dewey, Columbia Law 1925, who served three terms, from 1943 to 1955. He also ran twice, unsuccessfully, as Republican nominee for President, in 1944 and 1948. Theodore Roosevelt, Columbia Law 1882, was governor from 1899 to 1900, when he was elected vice president. He became president upon President McKinley's death, in 1901, and was elected to a full term in 1904. Franklin D. Roosevelt, his cousin, Columbia Law 1907, was governor from 1929 to 1932; he became president in 1933 and won reelection in 1936, 1940 and 1944. George Pataki, Columbia Law 1971, became governor in 1995 and won reelection in 1999.
200
Three of the following U.S. Presidents were affiliated with Columbia. Which one was NOT?
James Polk. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of Columbia from 1948 to 1953; Theodore Roosevelt attended Columbia Law School from 1880 to 1882, and his fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, attended Columbia Law School from 1905 to 1907.
200
Three of the greatest Broadway composers and lyricists attended Columbia: Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers. Which two collaborated on The Sound of Music?
Rodgers and Hammerstein, in 1960. It was their last collaboration. Hammerstein died that year. Rodgers, who graduated in 1923, collaborated with Hart, who attended Columbia Journalism from 1914 to 1916, on shows such as Pal Joey and Babes in Arms. After Hart died in 1943, Rodgers joined with Hammerstein to produce such hits as South Pacific, Carousel and The King and I. Hammerstein graduated from Columbia in 1916 and attended Columbia Law School from 1916 to 1918.
200
Which famous composer spent his last years at Columbia?
Bartok, the famous Hungarian composer who served on the Columbia faculty from 1941 to 1944. Bartok was famed for his piano concertos and the Concerto for Orchestra. MacDowell, one of the first important American classical composers, also had a Columbia connnection; he was the first professor of music at Columbia, from 1896 to 1904.
200
Johan Jorgen Holst, Columbia College 1960, was Norwegian foreign minister in 1993-94. What diplomatic triumph did he accomplish in 1994?
The Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestinians.
200
Which African-American writer, who attended Columbia College in 1925, was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s?
Hughes was a poet, writer, lyricist and educator. He wrote Weary Blues, Dream Boogie and the lyrics for Street Scene. His play, Mulatto, ran for two years on Broadway. He also wrote a column for The New York Post. Johnson , who studied at Columbia from 1901 to 1906, wrote what would become the African-American national anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. He was a writer, poet, educator, songwriter and lawyer who became a power in New York's Republican Party. Hurston, Barnard 1928, wrote books of folklore, novels, short stories and an autobiography, and was one of the greatest black women writers. Robeson, Law 1923, was an All-America football player at Rutgers before coming to Columbia. He later starred in Broadway plays and Hollywood musicals, including Showboat. He was one of the most beloved of all American singers.
300
Which Columbia graduate or faculty member was later prime minister of his country?
Koo, who graduated from Columbia in 1908, was prime minister of China. He also served on the International Court of Justice and was Chinese ambassador to the U.S. and U.K. He left his diplomatic papers and an oral history to Columbia before he died in 1985.
300
Seven justices of the United States Supreme Court went to Columbia: John Jay, Benjamin Cardozo, William O. Douglas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Charles Evans Hughes, Stanley Forman Reed and Harlan Fiske Stone. Which of the following was NOT named Chief Justice?
Douglas, Law '25, was an associate justice from 1939 to 1975. Jay, who graduated in 1764, was the first Chief Justice, serving from 1789 to 1794; Hughes, who graduated in 1884, was Chief Justice from 1930 to 1941; he was followed by Harlan Fiske Stone, who graduated in 1898. He was Chief Justice from 1941 to 1946.
300
In 1919, John Erskine, professor of English at Columbia from 1909 to 1937, began what would become one of the most emulated academic programs in the history of American higher education. What was it?
The Core Curriculum. Created in response to America's experience in Europe during World War One, the Core Curriculum began with a course in Contemporary Civilization. Later on courses were added in Literary Humanities, Music Humanities, Art Humanities and other disciplines. This approach to knowledge has been copied by hundreds of other American universities and colleges. Erskine, also a concert pianist, later became president of the Juilliard School.
300
Francis Lieber, a Prussian refugee who had fought Napoleon at Waterloo and later came to Columbia to become the father of political science in America, went to Washington to give a Columbia honorary degree to what U.S. President?
Lincoln. Lieber brought the degree to Lincoln at the White House in 1862 because it was deemed too dangerous for the President to travel through Maryland at the beginning of the Civil War.
300
A little-known fact about Howard Dietz, a Columbian and famous Hollywood lyricist, is that he:
Dietz, Columbia College and Journalism 1917, became MGM's vice president for advertising and public relations, adopting Columbia's lion when Metro was still Goldwyn Pictures. He was a famous lyricist, writing with fellow Columbian Arthur Schwartz such Broadway shows as Three's A Crowd, The Bandwagon and The Gay Life.
400
Columbia is the only school to have two of its graduates in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Who are they?
Eddie Collins and Lou Gehrig. Both were inducted in 1939, the first class in the Hall. Collins, Columbia 1907, one of the greatest second basemen of all time, played for the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Sox. Gehrig, who graduated in 1925, was the Iron Man at first base for the New York Yankees. He held the consecutive game record until it was broken by Cal Ripken Jr. His career was tragically cut short in 1939 by an illness that now bears his name.
400
Samuel Bard, who founded Columbia's medical faculty in 1767, was personal physician to which Revolutionary hero?
George Washington. Bard, on the faculty from 1767 to 1776 and again from 1792 to 1804, also helped found New York Hospital and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which affiliated with Columbia in 1860.
400
Which Columbian was first Secretary of the Treasury?
Alexander Hamilton, who graduated from Columbia in 1776. He was this nation's first Secretary of the Treasury and was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. He and John Jay were instrumental in reopening Columbia College after the Revolution, in 1784.
400
Sid Luckman, Columbia College 1939, was one of the greatest quarterbacks in college and professional football history. He is a member of both the college and pro football Halls of Fame. For what pro team did he help institute the T-formation in 1939?
The Bears, where he quarterbacked from 1939 to 1950, under coach George Halas. He later served as assistant coach to Halas from 1951 to 1970.
400
Which newspaper publisher endowed Columbia's School of Journalism and then chose the school to administer journalism prizes in his name?
Pulitzer, 1847-1911, publisher of The New York World, endowed the school and created the Pulitzer Prizes before he died. Alfred I. DuPont endowed the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards in Broadcast Journalism, and Maria Moors Cabot the journalism awards administered by Columbia for Western Hemisphere journalism. Columbia also administers awards for photojournalism, called the Eisies, after Alfred Eisenstaedt, the famous photographer for Life magazine.
500
Lou Gehrig, Columbia College 1925, and Eddie Collins, Columbia College 1905, starred at Columbia and now are members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Three other Columbians, including Leonard Koppett and John Montgomery Ward, are also in the Hall but did NOT play ball at Columbia. Who is the third member of that trio?
Koufax, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Dodgers, studied in the School of General Studies in the 1950s; Koppett, Columbia College 1946, wrote sports for The New York Times for many years and is in the writers wing and Ward, Law 1882, was a major league pitcher and manager for the New York Giants who was a pioneer in sports labor relations.
500
Some of the giants of the human rights, civil rights and women's rights movements have attended and/or taught at Columbia. Among them are Jack Greenberg, Louis Henkin, Constance Baker Motley and Telford Taylor. Which one of them has been a member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund since 1949 and helped draw up arguments that prevailed in the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 that ended public school segregation?
Jack Greenberg. Greenberg, who graduated from Columbia in 1945 and Columbia Law in 1948, has taught at the Law School since 1970 and was dean of Columbia College from 1989 to 1993. Henkin, who has taught at Columbia Law since 1956, is a noted human rights advocate. Motley, Columbia Law '46, clerked with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, served as Manhattan Borough President and now is on the bench as a judge in the New York District Federal Court. Taylor, who taught at Columbia from 1958 to 1998, was chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany in 1946.
500
This Columbia alumnus was the architect of his country's constitution, even though he was considered "untouchable." Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, M.A. 1915, Ph.D. 1928, later became his country's minister of law. Which country was his home?
India. Ambedkar became the leader of his country's 60 million untouchables and later drafted the constitution for newly-independent India in 1948.
500
One of the greatest actors, singers and civil rights activists of his age, he graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923. He was also an All America halfback in college. Who was he?
Robeson (1898-1976) was acclaimed for his stage roles in the Emperor Jones, Othello, King Lear and Porgy and Bess, and his film role in Showboat. For years he gave concerts of classical songs and Negro spirituals. He received the NAACP's Spingarm Medal in 1944.
500
She attended Columbia Business School in 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. She is one of the most honored writers of the 20th Century, specializing in the South, and counted among her friends William Faulkner. Who is she?
Eudora Welty (1910- ), who won the Pulitzer in 1972 for Optimistic Daughter. Also wrote Delta Wedding, The Ponder Heart, Losing Battles. Gordon, Barnard 1971, now teaches at Barnard. She won the Kafka Prize in Fiction twice. Hurston, Barnard 1928, was a leading African-American writer of short stories and folklore. McCullers attended Columbia in 1924. She wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in 1940 and A Member of the Wedding.