Answers to the trivia quiz
1 C. But it would not be correct to say it’s the day the Continental Congress voted for independence. That actually happened July 2, but wording of the declaration was approved two days later.
2. D. The hard winter at Valley Forge was 1777-78. The other three happened in 1775, with Washington taking command of the Continental Army a year and a day before the declaration was signed.
3. B. The Chinese invented fireworks and were the first to use them to celebrate things.
4. D. The Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia. Boston and New York would have been too dangerous and Washington, D.C. didn’t exist.
5. A. “We the people of the United States” is the beginning of the Constitution.
6. C. Jones reportedly said this while commanding the USS Bonhomme Richard in the battle with HMS Serapis. His ship sank but not before the Serapis was captured.
7.C. King George III, who was king for some 60 years, although during the last 10 he was suffering from a mental illness and his son was the actual ruler.
8. D. The declaration says nothing about disarming colonists, although it wasn’t uncommon for British troops to seize guns and ammunition from them in attempts to put down “the rebellion.”
9. D. New Mexico wasn’t a British colony.
10. A. Vicksburg did not celebrate the Fourth of July for 81 years because on that day in 1863 the Confederate forces defending the city surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Grant after a long siege.
11. B. The Hessian troops were from what is now Germany.
12. C. Aaron Burr was the third vice president. But Jefferson and Burr didn’t get along and he was dropped when Jefferson ran for his second term in 1804, the year Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
13. C. 12 colonies voted for independence on July 2 and for the wording on July 4, but the New York delegation had to abstain because they didn’t have the authority from their provincial congress to vote. That authority arrived about a week later and and the congress passed a resolution so the final copy of the declaration was amended to say it was the unanimous declaration of the 13 states.
Scoring:
0-3: Union Jack
4-7: Yankee Doodle
8-11: Minuteman
12-13: Founding Father