Today’s quiz was first suggested as a topic many eons ago, when the FACT was in its nascent stages, by the former legal intern. So, after more than 100 other quizzes, I’ve finally gotten around to doing a quiz on her suggested topic: “Assassinations”. Better late than never, right? Anyway, here are 25 questions on famous and not so famous assassinations. Good luck.

1)  Who lost the infamous Alexander Hamilton-Aaron Burr duel?

2)  Time to play my favorite assassination-topic game, “Who killed this Gandhi?”  Here are your possible answers:

A)  Killed by female suicide bomber with anti-Sri Lankan ties.
B)  Killed by a Hindu, Nathuram Godse, who felt this Gandhi had betrayed the Hindu cause.
C)  Assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards upset over “the golden temple episode”.
D)  Should have been assassinated, or at least flogged, for agreeing to play a supporting role in “What Planet Are You From”.
       
i.      Mohandas Gandhi
ii.     Indira Gandhi
iii.    Rajiv Gandhi
iv.     Ben Kingsley

3)  This revolutionary was assassinated in 1940 in Mexico by a fatal blow from an ice-pick by Ramon Mercander, an agent believed to have been sent by Stalin.

4)  This Egyptian president was assassinated during an annual military parade.  He was saluting the troops when a number of them ran from one of the vehicles in the parade and began firing machine guns and throwing grenades into the stands (not unlike what one would expect from the championship parade if the Red Sox ever won a World Series)*.

5)  A group of aristocrats in cahoots with the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich decided that this man’s influence had grown too great and that he had to be killed.  So they shot him point-blank.  Then they stabbed and bludgeoned him.  But only after drowning him did he finally die.  He became an instant inspiration to generations of future horror-movie villains.

6)  On the evening of November 4, 1995, this man spoke at a peace rally in Tel Aviv (peace rallies are always the most dangerous places!).  After the speech, as he was walking to his car, a man fatally shot this prime minister three times.  Who is he?

7)  Okay, we all know Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo started the chain of events that led to WWI, right?  But what was the name of the secret group that conspired to plot this assassination?

8)  This man’s assassination was allegedly order by King Henry II (of France); four knights killed him in his church, at the altar, while service was in progress, in December 1170.  He was soon canonized and became a saint.

9)  Being killed is always a good way to become a saint.  This women was killed after being found guilty of witchcraft, which evidently was the reason why she kicked so much ass in battle (despite her genetic handicap of being French).  She should have used the insanity defense, since she did claim to hear voices in her head.  But she didn’t, and sadly, she was put to death on May 30th, 1431.

10)  Believed to be the first candidate assassinated during a U.S. Presidential campaign (he was running on an anti-slavery platform), this religious founder and leader was assassinated by an angry mob of over 200 people in Carthage, Illinois in 1844.  Guess he didn’t see that during his visions about golden plates….

11)  Speaking of assassinated U.S. Presidents - how many have actually been successful assassinated while in office?

12)  Now it time to name the U.S. President who survived the assassination attempt described.  And yes, six U.S. Presidents have survived assassination attempts.  I’m only gonna ask about these five (1/5 of a point each):

a.  On January 30, 1835, this U.S. President attended a congressional funeral in the Capitol building. As he exited, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, pointed a pistol at him and fired. The percussion cap exploded, but the bullet did not discharge. The enraged President raised his cane to throttle his attacker, who fired again. The second weapon also misfired and the sixty-seven-year-old president escaped unharmed.

b.  Escaped assassination unhurt Feb. 15, 1933, in Miami.  His would-be assassin, Giuseppe Zangara, reportedly was upset by the Depression and suffered from chronic stomach pains which somehow thought would be relieved by killing him.

c.  Escaped assassination unhurt Nov. 1, 1950, in Washington, DC, as 2 Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to shoot their way into Blair House, where the President was living while the White House was being renovated.

d.  Escaped multiple assassination attempts.  The first was Sept. 5, 1975, in Sacramento, Calif., by Lynette Alice (Squeaky) Fromme, who pointed but did not fire .45-caliber pistol.  Escaped assassination attempt in San Francisco, Calif., Sept. 22, 1975, by Sara Jane Moore, who fired one shot from a .38-caliber pistol that was deflected.

e.  Escaped assassination (though shot) Oct. 14, 1912, in Milwaukee while campaigning for president. After getting shot, he insisted on finishing his speech before going to the hospital for treatment.  They don’t make them like they used to.

13)  Who is the other U.S. President to survive an assassination attempt that was not in the above question? 

14)  More near-assassinations:  This King was thrust into power shortly after his grandfather, King Abdullah, was assassinated outside a Jerusalem mosque by a Palestinian nationalist in 1951.  In that same incident that took his grandfather life, this man (then 16) was saved from death when the bullet smashed into a medal on his uniform.  He later ruled as King for 46 years, until his death in 1999.

15)  This pop artist was shot in the stomach by Valerie Solanas in 1968, but survived. 

16)  You don’t have to be real to be assassinated, too.  The most popular story about this character’s death has him dying at Kirklees Priory in Yorkshire, after being bled by a nun (or cousin) who had joined forces with his enemies; other versions of the tale have the woman administering poison rather than a bleeding.  Either way, he had enough strength to fire an arrow out the window and request that he be buried where that arrow landed.

17)  This ancient Greek writer met his fate, which apparently was “to have an eagle mistake your bald head for a rock and drop a tortoise shell on your head, killing you”.  Ironic death for the “Father of the Tragedy”  Okay, that may not quite be an assassination per se, but that ain’t quite normal, either….

a.      Aeschylus 
b.      Aristophanes 
c.      Euripides 
d.      Sophocles

18)  This former Emperor of Ethiopia and Time Man of the Year (1936) had wielded virtually absolute power for almost six decades - longer than any other contemporary head of state. But he was finally deposed in September 1974 by the military leaders of the “creeping coup”, and imprisoned in a 3-room mud hut.  He died a year later in his sleep, although rumors suggested he was suffocated in his sleep with a pillowcase.  Either way, most Rastafarians believe he’s still alive, since he is God and all….

19)  The answer to the eternal question “What the f does someone have to do to get arrested in Milwaukee?”, this man was beaten to death by a fellow inmate while cleaning a bathroom on work detail in Portage, Wisconsin’s Columbia Correction Institute (an Ivy League prison?), on November 28, 1994.  Sadly, he was just 934 years shy of the parole date for his 15 consecutive life sentences, which would have expired in March 2928…. 

20)  He was shot and killed in a New York City auditorium, on Feb. 21, 1965, not long after having changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

21)  What was the name of the famous building that John Lennon was shot and killed in front of in 1980?

22)  On of the most famous quotes during an assassination were when Julius Caesar was being stabbed, and called out “Et tu, Brute” (at least according to the Shakespearean version of his death).  An equally famous quote was when Caesar returned from Asia Major earlier in his life, and said “Veni, Vidi, Vici!”, which means what in English?…

23) Who allegedly said “Sic semper tyrannis” after assassinating his victim?

24)  The word “assassination” is based on the Arabic word “hashshashin” (which means “eaters of hashish” - yes, that same hashish that Suss can often be found, um, enjoying).  But what English writer is credited with first using the term “assassination” and popularizing it?
 
25)  Maybe someone was really watching him.  I mean, you don’t have to have Michael Jackson singing back up for you to realize that no one has seen or heard from this guy in almost 20 years.  Now I don’t know who it was that was stalking him – the mailman, the IRS, somebody – but I always feel like… like they must have gotten him.  Because I, for one, never heard from him again….

Okay, end quiz.