Question 1

Stephen King's novel 'Carrie' almost never existed — he famously threw the manuscript in the trash. Who rescued it and convinced him to finish it?

Accepted Answer

His wife. King's wife Tabitha fished the crumpled pages out of the wastebasket, read them, and told him the story was worth finishing. 'Carrie' went on to become his first published novel and his breakthrough hit.

Question 2

The Ford Model T is celebrated as the car that put America on wheels. In which year did Ford's assembly line begin mass-producing it, slashing the price enough for ordinary families to afford?

Accepted Answer

1913. Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913 at its Highland Park plant, which dramatically cut production time from over 12 hours to about 93 minutes per car. This allowed Ford to lower the Model T's price until even his own factory workers could afford one.

Question 3

Harper Lee published 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in 1960 — but in which year did the story itself take place, placing it squarely in the Great Depression era?

Accepted Answer

1933–1935. The novel is set in Maycomb, Alabama, during 1933–1935, when economic hardship and racial injustice gripped the American South during the Depression. Lee drew heavily on memories of her own Alabama childhood during that period.

Question 4

Cleopatra VII is ancient Egypt's most famous ruler but she was actually of Macedonian Greek descent, not Egyptian. Which dynasty did she belong to, founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals?

Accepted Answer

The Ptolemaic Dynasty. Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, founded by Ptolemy I Soter — one of Alexander the Great's generals — after Alexander's empire was divided. She was famously the first ruler of that dynasty to actually bother learning the Egyptian language.

Question 5

The U.S. dollar has been the world's dominant reserve currency for decades — but which event in 1944 officially cemented the dollar's global supremacy over gold and other currencies?

Accepted Answer

The Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods Agreement, signed by 44 Allied nations in New Hampshire in 1944, pegged global currencies to the U.S. dollar, which was itself fixed to gold. It made the dollar the anchor of the entire international monetary system.

September 22, 2026 Trivia

1. Stephen King's novel 'Carrie' almost never existed — he famously threw the manuscript in the trash. Who rescued it and convinced him to finish it?

2. The Ford Model T is celebrated as the car that put America on wheels. In which year did Ford's assembly line begin mass-producing it, slashing the price enough for ordinary families to afford?

3. Harper Lee published 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in 1960 — but in which year did the story itself take place, placing it squarely in the Great Depression era?

4. Cleopatra VII is ancient Egypt's most famous ruler but she was actually of Macedonian Greek descent, not Egyptian. Which dynasty did she belong to, founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals?

5. The U.S. dollar has been the world's dominant reserve currency for decades — but which event in 1944 officially cemented the dollar's global supremacy over gold and other currencies?