1. Arizona
   California
2. New Mexico
   Texas

The Alamo was a fort taken by Mexican President-General Santa Anna and his troops, during the time when Texas was a contested territory. It would not become a US state until 1845.

1. Dogs
   Parrots
2. Pigs
   Wild Horses

The invasion, directed by the CIA and carried out by a paramilitary group, is named after its landing point, La Bahia de los Cochinos (Bay of the Pigs). The area is also known as La Playa de Giron.

1. WWI
   WWII
2. Revolutionary War
   Vietnam War

Benedict Arnold was a general in the colonial American army. He was apparently bitter about being passed over for promotions and for attacks on his character by other military officers.

1. Eisenhower
   Kennedy
2. Nixon
   Truman

Kennedy was the president who had to deal with this volatile situation. He persuaded Soviet premier Khruschev to withdraw the missiles by promising the US would not try to invade Cuba again.

1. actual crates of tea
   British soldiers
2. tax money
   tax forms

Colonists objecting to high taxes on imported goods, like tea, threw crates of British tea into the harbor. A bold move, except for the part where they disguised themselves as native Mohawk Americans while doing so. Dirty pool, guys!

1. Alaska
   Hawaii
2. New Mexico
   Maine

Hawaii was not a state until 1960. It is the only state in the US where you can see a palace that once housed kings and queens.

1. an atomic-bomb test
   a massacre of Indians
2. a presidential assassination
   a mine collapse

At least 150 -- as possibly as many as 300 -- Lakota died when U.S. troops opened fire. The flashpoint was reported to be a deaf Lakota man's rifle going off when soldiers tried to take it away from him. Once called the "Battle of Wounded Knee," the term "Massacre" has become more common in recent decades.

1. The Articles of Confederation
   The Articles of Union
2. The Declaration of Independence
   The Twelve Treatises

America's first blueprint for its government was the Articles of Confederation. However, it did not allow for the levying of taxes -- a major flaw when a government needs to fund a military, a postal service and so on.

1. Boston
   Chicago
2. Miami
   Nome

The blame for the fire, which killed about 300 people, goes to the semi-fictitious "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow." The fire started in the O'Leary barn, where, supposedly, a cow kicked over a lantern. Whether this was the exact case is not known, but it makes a nice legend.

1. Eisenhower
   Kennedy
2. Nixon
   Truman

Truman was president when the US led a UN force in support of South Korea. Eisenhower was president when the armistice was signed. However, the correct answer to "Who was president during the Korean War?" would be "Truman and every president after," since technically, the two sides are still at hostilities.

1. Denver
   Los Angeles
2. San Francisco
   Seattle

San Francisco is part of a coastal fault system that causes periodic earthquakes. The one in 1906 led to blazes that the city's fire brigade was unprepared to handle. Since then, retrofitting and public-emergency procedures have vastly improved.

1. Unversity of Pennsylvania
   Harvard University
2. University of Virginia
   College of William and Mary

Harvard was named after a chief donor, John Harvard, a minister. He died of tuberculosis at just 30 years old, so it's nice that his name is now immortal.

1. True
2. False

Several of the Founding Fathers went on to hold the top office, but not Franklin. Hey, if you were an inventor, scientist, humorist, diplomat, writer, and business owner, you probably wouldn't want a tedious political desk job, either!

1. Escaped slaves against US troops
   Plains Indians against US troops
2. US troops against Mexican troops
   French Canadian explorers against armed American farmers

The Battle of Little Bighorn is known as "Custer's Last Stand" for General George Custer, who was killed there in a shocking defeat by the indigenous peoples of the Plains.

1. Fort Knox
   Washington's secret bunker
2. Jefferson's home, Monticello
   The fort at West Point

West Point was not yet America's "war college." In 1780, it was a fortified stronghold for the revolutionaries -- and thanks to the interception of Arnold's plans, it did not fall to British forces.

1. Seven
   Nine
2. Twelve
   Thirteen

October 16-28, 1962, were the days during which the "Cold War" was probably closest to going "hot." The USSR was placing nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba, which the US found unacceptable.

1. Our American Cousin
   Oklahoma!
2. Macbeth
   Twelfth Night

"Our American Cousin" was a comedy of manners written only a few years earlier. It is not staged nowadays, probably more because its humor was so specific to the 19th century, not because it is now tainted by its link to the assassination.

1. true
2. false

Jefferson, like Ben Franklin, was a polymath interested in architecture, design, natural science and political theory. He still found time to be our third president.

1. the 1870s
   the 1890s
2. the 1920s
   the 1930s

The Social Security Act, providing a basic "pension" for all American workers, was an innovation of the 1930s. It is funded by paycheck withdrawals and employer contributions.

1. communists
   illegal immigrants
2. homosexuals
   mafia sympathizers

Although all of the above were "undesirables" in the 1950s, it was communists that Sen. Joseph McCarthy sought to drag out into the light.

1. the crash of global stock markets
   the abdication England's king
2. the throwing of the World Series
   the sinking of the Titanic

It's a myth that the Titanic was billed as "unsinkable," but it was generally thought of as cutting-edge in terms of its modernity and safety. For it to sink on its maiden voyage shook the world's confidence in technology.

1. Congressional representatives
   immigrants
2. Mafia members
   postal workers

In 1929, Al Capone ordered the shootings of seven men in the rival North Side gang. Capone, a South Sider, was trying to consolidate control over organized crime in Chicago.

1. Alaska
   California
2. Florida
   Oregon

Gold was discovered at Sutter's Creek. In the following years many hopeful young men went broke in attempts to become miners. The people who came west to sell gear, clothes and R&R services to miners in California did much better financially than the miners themselves.

1. buffalo soldiers
   coyote soldiers
2. cougar soldiers
   wolf soldiers

The Indians were said to have given the black cavalry soldiers this name for two reasons. One, their hair was dark and curly, like buffalo coats; two, they fought fiercely, like bison, even when wounded.

1. Civil War
   Vietnam
2. Prohibition
   Revolutionary War

The "Tommy Gun" was notorious during this time of alcohol smuggling and gangland crime. It has many nicknames, including the "Chicago Typewriter."

1. Idaho
   Montana
   North and South Dakota
2. Washington
   all of these

All of these western states were admitted in 1890. It's not coincidental that this was also a time of unrest and conflict with the native peoples of the West.

1. Hillary Clinton
   Geraldine Ferraro
2. Dianne Feinstein
   Victoria Woodhull

Ferraro was chosen as Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, though, handily won re-election.

1. the CIA
   the FBI
2. NASA
   the Ford Agency

Allen Dulles headed the CIA in the 1950s and was dismissed by President Kennedy in 1961. His brother, John Foster Dulles, was Eisenhower's secretary of state.

1. the causes of the 1929 stock market crash
   John F. Kennedy's assassination
2. the Titianic's sinking
   the fall of the Alamo

The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy was known by this shortened name for its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren. The commission found that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone -- a finding that many still do not believe.

1. selling secrets to the Chinese
   spying on the USSR with a U2 plane
2. trying to assassinate President Eisenhower
   trying to assassinate Hitler

Powers's U2 was shot down by the Soviets. The US tried to deny the nature of his mission, but with the Soviets retrieving the wreckage of the plane and capturing Powers (who parachuted to safety), it became undeniable the US was spying. Awkward.

1. the War of the Roses
   the Crimean War
2. World War I
   World War II

President Woodrow Wilson kept America out of the war for as long as possible, even winning re-election partly because of he didn't involve America in a foreign war. But the sinking of U.S. ships and Germany's overtures to Mexico (as an ally against the US) changed public opinion -- and the government's.

1. a fatal fire
   secret communist gatherings
2. a presidential campaign speech
   a workers' riot

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 people, mostly immigrant garment workers, and spurred new standards for worker safety. Notably, the doors had been locked to prevent unauthorized breaks, so some workers leapt from eighth-, ninth-, or tenth-story windows.

1. Andrew Jackson
   Andrew Johnson
2. William McKinley
   Franklin D. Roosevelt

The assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy are notorious, but McKinley is also in this club. He was shot by a disgruntled anarchist and died eight days later.

1. Bill Clinton
   Andrew Jackson
2. Richard Nixon
   Lyndon B. Johnson

Of the above, only Clinton was actually impeached (for perjury and obstruction of justice related to the Monica Lewinsky affair). Nixon resigned before he could be impeached in the Watergate scandal.

1. Darren Aronofsky
   Baz Luhrman
2. Patty Jenkins
   Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone is a Vietnam veteran whose breakthrough film, about that war, was "Platoon." He went on to make "Born on the Fourth of July," "Nixon," "JFK," and "Snowden."