Hitler’s nephew served in the U.S. Navy

Questions:

1. Where is the Delmarva Peninsula, and why is it called that?

2. Who was the first civilian to own a Hummer?

3. What do we call Chinese gooseberries today?

4. Give the singular form of these plural words: curricula, data, bacteria, radii, ova and spaghetti.

5. What is the last documented event in Henry Hudson’s life?

Fun facts:

Dr. Seuss wrote “Green Eggs and Ham” because someone bet him it was impossible to write a children’s book using fewer than 50 different words.

In 1859, just 24 European rabbits were released on a farm in Victoria, Australia, for hunting. Within about 70 years, their population had exploded to an estimated 10 billion rabbits across the country.

Penguins have a gland that removes salt from their blood and excretes it near their eyes, allowing them to drink seawater.

The longest English word containing only a single vowel is strengths.

After laying tens of thousands of eggs in a protected den, a female octopus devotes herself entirely to her offspring. For weeks or even months, she carefully guards, cleans and aerates the eggs while eating little or nothing. By the time the young hatch, she is so weakened that she dies shortly afterward, having spent the last of her energy ensuring her babies have the best chance to survive.

The word taser is actually an acronym. It stands for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle, named after a 1911 novel.

Three African countries are mentioned in the New Testament: Libya, Egypt and Ethiopia.

In 1939, Adolf Hitler’s nephew, William Hitler, published an article in Look magazine titled “Why I Hate My Uncle.” He later served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, changed his last name to Stuart-Houston and spent the rest of his life on Long Island, New York. He died in 1987.

Rome is north of New York City. Rome is at 41.9° N latitude, while New York City is at 40.7° N.

If all of Earth’s history were compressed into a 24-hour day, life would begin at 4:10 a.m., dinosaurs would appear at 10:46 p.m., and humans would arrive just 4 seconds before midnight.

Answers:

1. It is a peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Its name comes from the three states that share it: Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

2. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Before then, Hummers were sold only to the U.S. military.)

3. Kiwi or kiwifruit. (The name was changed in 1959 as a marketing rebrand for exports.)

4. Curriculum, datum, bacterium, radius, ovum, spaghetto

5. In 1611, his crew mutinied and set Hudson, his son and seven others adrift in a small boat in Hudson Bay. No trace of them was ever found.