COMMENTARY: New Year’s Quiz: Remembering 1925

Americans celebrating New Year’s on Jan. 1, 1925, were just as excited about their futures as we are today, 100 years later. What was in store a century ago for the year ahead? Find out with this short, fun quiz.

1. On Jan. 3, 1925, a famous figure proclaimed himself a dictator. Who was he?

A: Adolf Hitler

B: Benito Mussolini

C: Josef Stalin

D: Francisco Franco

Answer: B. Having served as prime minister of Italy since 1922, the Fascist Party chief known as “Il Duce” (The Leader) delivered a speech to the Chamber of Deputies where he dropped all pretense of democracy.

2. On Jan. 5, 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross did something no other American woman had ever done. What was it?

A: Elected CEO of a corporation

B: Swam the Mississippi River

C: Became governor of a state

D: Became a U.S. Army general

Answer: C. Ross was inaugurated that day as governor of Wyoming, making her the first female elected state chief executive in the United States.

3. Dubbed one of several “Trials of the Century,” the Scopes Trial was a national sensation that involved what?

A: A challenge to Prohibition

B: A famous kidnapping

C: A double murder

D: Teaching evolution in public schools

Answer: D. For 11 days in July, teacher John T. Scopes was on trial in Dayton, Tenn., for violating a state law that banned evolution in the classroom. Though Scopes was found guilty, his conviction was later overturned on a technicality.

4. On March 18, 1925, one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history occurred. What was it?

A: The San Francisco Earthquake

B: The Tri-State Tornado

C: The Great Blizzard of ’25

D: The Great New England Hurricane

Answer: B. About 700 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured when a string of powerful tornadoes roared across a 220-mile stretch of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. It remains the deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history.

5. On April 10, 1925, “The Great Gatsby” was published. It is widely considered the quintessential account of the Jazz Age. Who wrote it?

A: Ernest Hemingway

B: William Faulkner

C: F. Scott Fitzgerald

D: Willa Cather

Answer: C. Not only was “The Great Gatsby” Fitzgerald’s masterpiece but it also captured the spirit of many wealthy young people in the post-World War I generation.

6. Another book was published 90 days later. It foretold a far different era that lay ahead. What was it?

A: Brave New World

B: Mein Kampf

C: Things to Come

D: Atlas Shrugged

Answer: B. Adolf Hitler’s manifesto of hate was first printed in Germany on July 18, 1925.

7. On June 6, 1925, one of the “Big Three” U.S. automakers was founded. It remains a major force in the auto world today. That company was the namesake of which founder?

A: Henry Ford

B: Walter Chrysler

C: Charles Nash

D: Robert E. Olds

Answer: B. The Chrysler Corp.’s founder, Walter Chrysler, was Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1928 and went on to finance the construction of New York City’s Chrysler Building.

J. Mark Powell is a novelist, former TV journalist and diehard history buff. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.