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Last Week's Quiz

Created by Jamie Ward
Edited by Jonpaul Guinn

Read This First

  • Submit your answers by 8:50pm ET 3/11/26
  • Don't cheat. Cheating is bad. Using Google/AI/ChatGPT/Gemini IS cheating.
  • Trivia graders don't care about spelling (but try your hardest)
  • No negative points for incorrect responses (so guess to your heart's content)
  • Email [email protected] for clarification on any questions

On March 7, 1876 U.S. patent no. 174,465 was granted for an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically." Three days later, patent applicant Alexander Graham Bell successfully made his first phone call from a liquid transmitter.

150 years later, we're celebrating his accomplishment and still using a version of his device!



To celebrate Bell’s milestone, let’s take a look at some of the more famous calls made between then and now!

SCIENCE & TECH Q1. Testing Tech: In Bell’s call on March 10, 1876, he reached out to his assistant, “Mr. ______, come here! I want to see you.” That electrical engineer shared what last name with Sherlock Holmes’s medically trained assistant?



POP CULTURE Q2. Phrase Play: In a play on the phrase “Dial O for Operator,” a 1954 Hitchcock thriller’s plot turned on a phone call in “Dial M for…” what crime?



SOCIAL STUDIES Q3. Abusive Arrests: October 1960 saw Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy call Coretta Scott [REDACTED] expressing concern over her husband’s incarceration, a move which may have clinched him the election that would come a month later. Who was her husband?



SOCIAL STUDIES Q4. Long Lines: There’s long-distance phone calls, and then there’s very long-distance. In 1969 President Richard Nixon made what has been called “the most historic phone call in history” when he rang guys named Neil and Edwin to congratulate them on being the first humans to reach what destination?



SCIENCE & TECH Q5. Talking Telecom: “I’m calling you on a cell phone.” So went the first mobile phone call, made by Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola to a rival working at Bell Labs, then a part of what three-letter telecommunications giant with a Death Star-ish logo?



POP CULTURE Q6. Notable Numbers: Thanks a lot Tommy Tutone: Lorene Burns of Alabama abandoned the phone number 867-5309 in 1982, after constant calls asking for a woman with what name?



POP CULTURE Q7. Popular Phrases: Ranking #25 on the AFI Top 100 Film Quotes, what four-word phrase does Cuba Gooding Jr. get Tom Cruise to repeatedly yell into the phone in “Jerry Maguire?”



MISCELLANEOUS Q8. Having Help: At this point, the term “phone a friend” is synonymous with getting assistance on a difficult challenge. The phrase comes from a “lifeline” on what UK game show that premiered in 1998?



POP CULTURE Q9. Memorable Memes: “Is this the Krusty Krab? No, this is Patrick.” That 2001 phone call from what undersea Nickelodeon comedy spawned a meme that’s lasted over twenty five years?



SOCIAL STUDIES Q10. Recount Requests: Hoping for a “peachy” outcome, Donald Trump made a phone call after the 2020 U.S. election requesting 11,780 votes be found by Brad Raffensperger, the Secretary of State of what southeastern U.S. state?



TIEBREAKER Chit Chat: Guinness World Records has strict rules for adjudicating the longest phone call, such as the fact that it can contain no silences lasting longer than 10 seconds. The record was set by Harvard students Eric R. Brewster and Avery A. Leonard at how many minutes?


Quiz is closed and your answers are now locked! Graders are grading and results will be sent on 3/11/26