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Exploring New York: A Quiz on History, Geography, and Culture

Test your knowledge about New York's history, geography, and cultural references with this engaging quiz.

#New York #History #Geography #Culture #Quiz

1 The remaining death sentence was commuted by the court to ________ in 2007, in People v. John Taylor, and the death row was disestablished in 2008, under executive order from Governor Paterson.

2 New York has 2 senators, 29 members in the ________, and 31 electoral votes in national presidential elections (a drop from its 47 votes during the 1940s).

3 Which of the following came before New York?

4 What office has New York held?

5 What is New York's nickname?

6 What role did Katrina Kaif play in the videomovie New York?

7 Which of the following is Southwest of New York?

8 Following heated debate, New York was the 11th state to ratify the ________, on July 26, 1788.

9 Who played Michael Angelo Cassidy in the videomovie New York?

10 Which of the following is South of New York?

đź’ˇ Interesting Facts

  • one common route up New York's Balsam Mountain follows the steepest section of trail in the Catskills.
  • rumors of the beating of a teenage shoplifter set off a race riot in 1935 in Harlem, New York.
  • much of the recorded rowdyism in New York of the 1820s took place at the short-lived Lafayette Circus.
  • in order to end the dispute over jurisdiction of Fort Orange, Pieter Stuyvesant created the village of Beverwijck in 1652, which eventually became the city of Albany, New York.
  • historian Sue Eakin published an edited version of Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black taken from New York into slavery in Louisiana.
  • in 1967, Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz performed the world's second human heart transplant, in a procedure on a 19-day-old infant at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.
  • since 2002, New York's Middletown High School has seen the district superintendent convicted of sexual abuse, had one principal resign and another suspended, had two student walkouts and was ordered to reinstate a teacher.
  • singer Eva Tanguay was reportedly booed off the stage in her first appearance at Cohoes Music Hall in New York.
  • the golf course (pictured) around the buildings of the Garrison Grist Mill Historic District in Garrison, New York helps preserve their historic rural character.
  • the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York used the first recorded baseball uniform in 1849.
  • the Dobbs Ferry post office (pictured) has an unusually high level of ornament compared to most Colonial Revival-style post offices in New York.
  • the Delmar post office is the only one of the 13 in New York designed by Louis Simon in the Colonial Revival style without a cupola.
  • the 1927 disappearance of the French biplane The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc), in an attempt to make the first nonstop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, is one of the great unexplained mysteries of aviation.
  • the acoustics at the South Granville Congregational Church (pictured) in New York are so good that community concerts are often held there despite other churches in the town being larger.
  • every major street in New York's Downtown Albany Historic District (17th-century map pictured) has a major building as a focal point.
  • during the American Civil War, Pennsylvania provided over 360,000 soldiers who served in the Union Army, more than any other Northern state except New York.
  • a New York appeals court recently ruled that Sneha Anne Philip died in the collapse of the World Trade Center even though she had been missing since the night before the attack.
  • a house was held to be haunted by poltergeists as a matter of law in the 1991 New York case Stambovsky v. Ackley, making the Nyack, New York house the only legally haunted house in the United States.
  • a 2008 study concluded that the Ramapo Fault in New York has the potential to cause a magnitude 7 earthquake and billions of dollars in damages.
  • a 150 year-old weeping beech tree, considered to be the source of weeping beeches in the United States and declared a landmark in 1966, was located in Weeping Beech Park at Kingsland Homestead in Queens, New York.
  • Culver Randel manufactured pianos at his mill (pictured) in Florida, New York.
  • Judge Ronald Cicoria of Livingston County Court in Geneseo, New York (courthouse pictured), retired in 2005 as the longest sitting judge in New York State.
  • a portrait of Tadeusz KoĹ›ciuszko in the uniform of a Brigadier General of the American Revolutionary Army is featured at the Polish American Museum in Port Washington, New York.
  • a replica of the château from the Bordeaux wine estate Château Beauregard was constructed for the Guggenheim family on Long Island, New York.
  • at the height of its popularity, New York's Easter Parade drew crowds of over a million.
  • despite being set in New York, All Good Things has been filmed mostly in Connecticut, partly because of the state's "scenic and period locations".
  • as New York's General Counsel, Michael C. Finnegan ended a century-old debate over New York City's water supply when he brokered the New York City Watershed Agreement.
  • after the First National Bank of Brewster, New York, closed in 1964 the Town of Southeast made the building its new town hall.
  • advertising executive turned vintner Robert Palmer was one of the first to export overseas wines produced in the North Fork of New York's Long Island.
  • the village of Montgomery, New York, was originally named Ward's Bridge.
  • the Russian anarcho-syndicalist newspaper Golos Truda relocated from New York to Petrograd when its entire editorial staff decided to move to Russia following the February Revolution.
  • the Rome Laboratory in New York is one of four superlabs run by the U.S. Air Force.
  • the historic district in the Village of Monroe includes the factory where Velveeta was first made and the oldest Masonic lodge in New York state.
  • the Prospect Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway is the only reference route in New York owned by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
  • the Patroon Creek was listed in 1993 as one of the top 10 most polluted rivers in New York, and heavy metals such as depleted uranium were found in the creek in 2003.
  • the Montgomery Worsted Mills, a Registered Historic Place in Montgomery, New York, now earn most of their money by generating hydroelectric power from the nearby Wallkill River, rather than the manufacture of textiles.
  • the Orange Mill Historic District between Newburgh and Gardnertown, New York, features the only remaining 19th-century gunpowder mill complex in the state.
  • the W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus in Albany, New York, has an underground bunker designed to withstand a nuclear attack and assure continuation of the New York State Government.
  • the Patrick Tavern, built in 1793, is the oldest building in New York's Aurora Village-Wells College Historic District.
  • the largest derrick in New York State at the time was used to build the Broadway Theatre in Kingston.
  • when the Lackawanna Steel Co. moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to New York in 1902, its relocation led to the founding of Lackawanna, New York.
  • the busiest ATM in the entire Buffalo, New York, region is in the hamlet of Snyder.
  • the assembly of the Vermont Republic voted in June 1781 to expand its borders into parts of New Hampshire and New York during the Haldimand Affair.
  • the abandoned O & W Railroad Station at Port Ben, New York, is so well-preserved that coal remains in its bin more than 50 years after it closed.
  • the Mid-Delaware Bridge (pictured) over the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New York is the uppermost four-lane bridge on the river's main stem.
  • the Little Red Schoolhouse in Brunswick, New York, served as a one-room schoolhouse from the 1830s until 1952.
  • the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum in Plattsburgh, New York is home to the only known Type 82 Lozier in existence.
  • the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions allowed the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck in New York, which lasted for over two centuries.
  • the BMW R1150GS motorcycle was used by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on their 2004 Long Way Round ride from London to New York.
  • the African Grove theater was founded by free blacks in New York City in 1821—when New York was still a slave state—and that it launched the career of the great black Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge.
  • the Salem, New York, historic district was the site of one of the earliest churches built in New York north of Albany.
  • the U.S. state of New York offers a school tax rebate program that saves homeowners money by reducing the assessed value of a home when calculating the property tax.
  • the Dutch Reformed Church (pictured), a Greek Revival building in Newburgh, New York that has been declared a National Historic Landmark, is considered the latest extant work of architect Alexander Jackson Davis that still largely reflects his original vision.
  • the Esopus Wars led to the creation of the boundaries of Native American lands in 17th century New York.
  • the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 led to wind gusts in excess of 100 mph across New York, New Jersey, and New England.
  • the fire tower on Hunter Mountain in the Catskills is the highest in New York.
  • the Greasestock festival in New York showcases green technologies, such as vegetable-powered vehicles, solar vehicles, and organic farming exhibits.
  • the Garrison Union Free School in New York traces its origins back to 1793.
  • the Garfield School, a 19th-century schoolhouse in Brunswick, New York, is considered unique for its time period because its design was commissioned.
  • American artist Tony Sisti (1901–1983) traveled with Ernest Hemingway and was also a New York State boxing champion.
  • Sotsialisticheskii vestnik, the organ of the exiled Russian Menshevik Party, was published from New York until 1965.
  • Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, the son of novelist Charles Dickens, died in New York in 1912 while on a lecture tour celebrating the centenary of his father's birth.
  • Charles J. O'Byrne, Secretary to Governor David Paterson of New York, is a former priest who officiated at the marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette in 1996 and presided over their funeral in 1999.
  • William Michael Rooke's opera Amilie, or the Love Test enabled New Yorkers of 1838 to appreciate "a broad new repertoire".
  • federal authorities in New York may have gambled that there would be no legal challenges to their unexpected seizure of $34 million from 27,000 bank accounts in the United States.
  • shipping magnate Samuel Garner Wilder started in the business by sailing guano from Jarvis Island to New York.
  • U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally oversaw the design of the post office (pictured) in Poughkeepsie, New York.
  • Charles Morgan, Jr. resigned from his ACLU position after the group's head criticized Morgan for calling a New Yorker a bigot for his refusal to consider voting for Jimmy Carter as President.
  • Orange County Route 9 in New York is, by itself, longer than five of the county's state highways.
  • George "Snatchem" Leese was a member of the Slaughter House Gang who was known for being the official "bloodsucker" at prize fights in New York.
  • George W. Taylor assisted unions by mediating more than 2,000 strikes, but also helped draft New York's Taylor Law—which banned strikes by public employees.
  • Frank H. Schwarz's murals for the Oregon State Capitol, including Lewis and Clark at Celilo Falls (pictured), were painted in New York and sent across the continent for installation.
  • Edward Laurillard produced musical comedies in London and New York in the early 20th century, in partnership with George Grossmith, Jr..
  • Danskammer Generating Station (pictured) was among the top ten releasers of pollutants by weight in New York, releasing 560 tonnes of hazardous emissions, in 2000.
  • Schenectady's Stockade Historic District (statue of Lawrence the Indian pictured) was the first one created by a local government in New York.
  • Mexican land grant Rancho Los Medanos was called "New York of the Pacific" by the New York army colonel who bought it.
  • comedian Russ Meneve co-founded the "New York Comedians Coalition" in order to negotiate better payment for New York's comedians.
  • Franz von Rintelen, a German spy living in New York during World War I, used pencil bombs to sabotage Allied shipping.
  • Colonel J. Thomas Scharf, who served in both the Confederate Army and Navy, later became New York's Chinese Inspector.
  • Bernt Carlsson, the last United Nations Commissioner for Namibia, died in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988, while travelling to the signing ceremony of the Namibian independence agreement in New York.
  • Albany, New York, has a life-size sculpture of its coat of arms (pictured) that was sculpted by a local political cartoonist.
  • BBC journalist Leonard Miall worked on psychological warfare in New York and San Francisco with the Political Warfare Executive during World War II.
  • Jack Womack's 2000 alternate history novel Going, Going, Gone is set in two converging parallel versions of New York.
  • New York Governor David Paterson's press secretary Errol Cockfield Jr. was previously Albany bureau chief of Newsday.
  • New York's "Timothy's Law" mandated that New York health insurance plans provide coverage for biologically-based mental health conditions comparable to coverage for physical ailments.
  • New York's Panther Mountain (pictured) was the site of a prehistoric meteor crash.
  • New York abstract painter Dennis Ashbaugh is one of the first artists to employ DNA marking patterns in paintings.
  • New York noise-rock band Flux Information Sciences's 2001 album Private/Public was recorded before an invited audience of 50 friends who stood around the studio naked and blindfolded.
  • New York Assemblyman Gregory R. Ball proposed a measure offering free education for United States military veterans.
  • Greenville Presbyterian Church was the first non-Dutch church established in New York's Catskill region.
  • Guy de Rothschild temporarily moved to New York when the French government under François Mitterrand nationalized his bank.
  • SS President (pictured) became the first transatlantic steamship to founder when she disappeared in 1841 en route from New York to Liverpool with 136 people on board.
  • Slabsides, John Burroughs' historic log cabin in West Park, New York, is only open to the public two days every year.
  • Captain Robert Waterman set three speed records for sailing from China to New York in the 1840s.
  • Richard Ravitch was appointed Lt. Governor of New York on July 8, 2009, in a move that New York's attorney general claimed was unconstitutional.
  • Penelope Wensley, who will become the next Governor of Queensland this month, was the first female Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations in New York.
  • Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is famous for his heavy French accent and even gives readings of French poetry at the museum.
  • The Falling Man is a photograph by Richard Drew depicting a man who had jumped from the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.
  • The Harvey School, a rural school in New York, was established to give an education to the founder's handicapped son.
  • Street News, sold by homeless individuals in New York beginning in 1989, became the prototype for street newspapers worldwide.
  • The Independent Journal, a New York newspaper and journal edited and published by John McLean, was the first newspaper to publish the first of the eighty-five Federalist Papers.
  • Dos Abend Blatt was first Yiddish-language socialist newspaper in New York.
  • William Burnet, Governor of New Jersey and New York, obtained his position of governorship by trading his job as comptroller of the customs with Robert Hunter.
  • Union College in Schenectady, New York, has the first comprehensively planned college campus and had the longest-serving college or university president in the United States.
  • Patsy's Pizzeria first served up its coal oven pizza pies in 1933 and vies with Rao's to be the "best bite" in New York's Spanish Harlem.
  • Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York, is the resting place of the progenitor of Uncle Sam, Samuel Wilson, financier Russell Sage, and educators Emma Willard and Amos Eaton.
  • Joseph H. Allen, a volunteer infantryman and the 21st supervisor of the Town of Brunswick in New York, was brevetted lieutenant colonel by Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
  • Kiliaen van Rensselaer (pictured) is an ancestor of the van Rensselaer family of New York, which included two Lieutenant Governors, five Congressmen, and the tenth-richest man in American history.
  • Joe Massino, formerly the head of New York's Bonanno crime family, was described as a real-life "last don".
  • Joan Snyder, a MacArthur Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow, has had her paintings exhibited at Jewish Museum in New York.
  • Isaac Newton Van Nuys of New York founded Van Nuys, California, United States in 1911.
  • Jerry Rosenberg, New York's longest-incarcerated inmate, was the first to earn a law degree in a New York prison and served as a jailhouse lawyer to the leaders of the Attica prison riot.
  • Lake Washington, the main reservoir for Newburgh, New York, holds enough water to supply the city for a year.
  • Louis F. Kosco sponsored "retaliatory legislation" in the New Jersey Senate to impose a commuter tax on New York residents who worked in the Garden State.
  • Moffat Library (pictured) in Washingtonville, New York, was formally opened in 1887 but did not have any books until bookcases were bought a year later.
  • Mountain Lake, one of only two natural lakes in Virginia, was the filming location for the fictional Kellerman's Resort in New York's Catskill Mountains for the 1987 feature film Dirty Dancing.
  • Mick Higgins from New York played in the Cavan Gaelic football team which won the final of the 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship at the Polo Grounds in New York.
  • Maryam Jameelah, a New York-born convert from Judaism to Islam, became a prominent female advocate for conservative Islam.
  • Marcelo Piñeyro's second film, Wild Horses, was the second-highest-attended film in Argentina during 1995, and was screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
  • 14 of the 16 founding congregants of New York's Peekskill Presbyterian Church were women.
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