I love Peace Corps!
In this year, his first year as President, John F. Kennedy founded the Peace Corps with Executive Order 10924.
What was 1961?
This British artist, a pioneer of the Hyperpop genre, realeased the smash hit album Brat in 2024, featuring a stylistic callback to 2000's-style dance-pop music with hits such as "Von Dutch," "360," and "Apple."
Who is Charli XCX?
In 2024 this MLB team defeated the New York Yankees to win the World Series in its fifth game.
Who are the Los Angeles Dodgers? (BONUS QUESTION: Who was named the Series' MVP?)
Before leading the Greek War of Independence, Alexandros Mavrokordatos tutored this English novelist, famous for her classic book Frankenstein, in Greek.
Who is Mary Shelley?
These three national languages, together with Montenegrin, were formerly known as Serbo-Croatian.
What are Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian?
Lillian Gordy, the mother of this strongly pro-Peace Corps US President, was herself a PCV in India. Joining in 1966 at the age of 68, she worked in-country for 21 months helping to treat patients with leprosy. Her experiences helped inspire her son's policies toward Peace Corps.
Who is Jimmy Carter?
One of the summer's most surprising successes in pop music was Chappell Roan's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Released last year to little success on radio or streaming, the album shot up the charts after Roan was the opening act for this other pop star and her Guts tour.
Who is Olivia Rodrigo?
2024 was a landmark year for Albania at the Olympics, bringing in the first two medals the country has ever won at the international games. The two medals were won for different weight classes in this sport.
What is wrestling?
When Skanderbeg began his rebellion against the Ottomans, he established his headquarters at this Albanian town near Tirana.
What is Krujë?
These two dialects of Albanian are the most common in the world's Albanian-speaking community. One is more prevalent in northern Albania, and the other in the south.
What are Gheg and Tosk?
These two African countries were the first in the world to receive Peace Corps Volunteers in 1961. (You only have to name one, but bonus points if you get both!)
What are Tanganyika (today's Tanzania) and Ghana.
In the song "Girl, So Confusing," Charli XCX sang about her tense relationship with this New Zealander pop artist, sparking feelings of jealousy and thoughts about her own self-confidence. The artist about whom the song was written later reached out to Charli and was featured on the new version of the song with her own response.
Who is Lorde?
This Dutch racecar driver currently sits in the lead of the Formula 1 Driver's Championship. If he wins, it will be his fourth consecutive Driver's Championship win - a feat previously achieved by fellow Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel.
This American couple were among the many celebrities to stay at Sveti Stefan, an exclusive island town off the coast of Montenegro. One of the most famous couples from the Golden Age of Hollywood, they starred in films such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and A Place in the Sun (1951). (Name either one of them.)
Who are Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor?
This Italian immigrant to New York successfully ran for mayor and became a champion in the city's fight against corruption. Prior to his arrival in America, he worked as a Serbo-Croatian translator in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There is also a major airport in the city named for him.
Who was Fiorello La Guardia?
Building on the work of PCV's in Senegal to combat this disease spread by mosquitos, the Peace Corps launched a continent-wide effort for PCV's to assist communities in preventing the spread of this disease starting in 2011. The program now includes volunteers in 24 African countries.
What is Malaria?
This English music producer is famed for his longstanding collaboration with Charli XCX and a wide array of hit songs from a variety of artists, producing tracks such as "360," "Club Classics," and "Talk Talk."
Who is A.G. Cook?
Just before the start of the 2024 Olympic Games, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swam in this river, which flows through the heart of the French capital, in order to prove it wouldn't give her an E. Coli infection or any other illness.
What is the Seine?
Thessaloniki, Greece, has had many languages spoken on its streets throughout the centuries. In the Ottoman period, however, the most common language there was Ladino - a language created by the Jewish community of what country before their expulsion and flight to today's Greece?
What is Spain?
DAILY DOUBLE! Name as many languages that belong to the group of historically interconnected languages known as the "Balkan Sprachbund." Whichever gets the highest number of languages wins!
Winner list:
This brother-in-law of JFK was appointed as the first ever Director of the Peace Corps. During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he pioneered the "War on Poverty" by founding the Job Corps, Head Start, VISTA, and Upward Bound.
Who was Sargent Shriver?
With Brat rapidly rising to the top of the music charts, it was prevented from reaching the #1 spot when this artist released a UK-only version of her album The Tortured Poets Department originally released in April, 2024. Many saw this as a deliberate attempt to prevent Charli XCX from taking the highest position in pop music.
Who is Taylor Swift?
In 2024, these two NBA players became the first father-son duo on a single team in the history of the league, playing together on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Who are Lebron and Bronny James.
A large community of emigrants from the former Yugoslavia live in the Pacific Northwest. This son of Croatian immigrants to Oregon, alongside Kurt Cobain, founded and played bass for the grunge rock band Nirvana.
Who is Krist Novoselic?
Name this American comedian, famed for his roles in TV and film such as Taxi, Matilda, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia whose grandmother from Southern Italy could speak the Gheg dialect of Albanian.
Who is Danny DeVito?