TRIVIA

• Who invented the whistle for the railroad train? (George Washington Whistler-the father of artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler)
• What was the source of billionaire recluse Howard Hughes' original fortune? (His father's invention of an oil drill bit capable of boring through subterranean rock)
• Who invented flexible greasepaint--the first natural-looking cosmetic used in the movies? (Russian-born makeup expert Max Factor)
• What was plastic first used for in America? (Billiard balls. Brothers Isaiah and John Wesley Hyatt developed celluloid in 1869 while competing for a $10,000 prize offered by a company looking for a substitute for ivory in billiard balls)
• Why was Sam Colt -- inventor of the six-shooter -- expelled from school at the age of 16? (For experimenting with explosives)
• What American city bills itself as the home of the first push-button car radio, the first canned tomato juice, the first mechanical corn picker and the first commercially built car? (Kokomo, Indiana, which calls itself the "city of firsts")
• What was the longest flight ever made by aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright? (77 miles. He made the flight in 1908 (five years after Kitty Hawk) from Camp d'Auvours, France, setting a world record and winning the Michelin Prize of 20,000 francs)
• What did the first vending machines in the United States dispense? (Chewing gum. The machines were installed on New York City tan platforms in 1888)
• Largelamb, an anagram pseudonym of a famous inventor, was one of the founders of "National Geographic" magazine. Who was he? (Alexander Graham Bell)
• This popular product was originally marketed as an "Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage" in 1886. What is it? (Coca Cola)
• In 1937, the grocery business was revolutionized by Sylvan Goldman's simple invention. What was it? (The shopping cart)
• Who sent the next message after the historic words "What hath God wrought" were transmitted over Samuel F. B. Morse's telegraph in 1844? (Dolly Madison. The words; "Message from Mrs. Madison. She sends her love to Mrs. Wethered." Mrs. Wethered was a friend of the 76-year-old former First Lady)
• In what month was the attack on Pearl Harbor? (December)
• How much did President Roosevelt pay so that the Panama Canal could be built? ($40 million)
• Who founded the American Institution of Public Opinion in 1935? (Gallup)
• How long did it take to construct a Model T Ford in 1914? (95 minutes)
• Which famous couple was implicated in the Whitewater affair? (The Clintons)
• Who did James Earl Ray shoot in Memphis in April 1968? (Martin Luther King)
• Who was the first president of the first university for black Americans in the USA? (Booker T. Washington)
• Where was the first nuclear reactor built, by Enrico Fermi? (Chicago)
• Which state on the Gulf of Mexico has the longest name? (Mississippi)