Savvy Minds Entertainment (2026)

05/10/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 10/04/26 - 10/10/26:

While I was researching a question for last week’s trivia, I came across an interesting story about how Tom Cruise saved Ray-Ban from extinction. Now, technically that’s not entirely true but he was involved in keeping them alive. Ray-Bans were originally a product of Bausch and Lomb who had been making optical components for medical equipment and of course, eyewear. They eventually added binoculars, telescopes, microscopes and camera equipment to their inventory. In the early 20th century, president Teddy Roosevelt gave them the commission to make high precision lenses for the U.S. military. This relationship continued into the 1930’s when they were tasked with creating a pair of sunglasses that would cut the glare for American pilots. Those new glasses were introduced in 1936. The brand was named Ray-Ban because of their ability to “ban” the sun’s harsh “rays”. Additionally, since they were made for pilots the style was called “Aviators”. Bausch and Lomb followed with the Wayfarer in 1952. It was immediately popular upon its release, but in a widely believed myth, James Dean did not actually wear them in A Rebel without a Cause. In fact he didn’t wear any sunglasses in the movie at all, nor did he (from my estimation) wear Wayfarers in his personal life. He had extreme myopia and would usually wear clip-on shades over his prescription lenses, yet many photos of him claim that he’s wearing Ray-Bans. Other celebrities did wear them however such as musicians Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison and actress Audrey Hepburn, although in another misconception, she did not wear them in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In the 1970’s though, Ray-Bans began to lose popularity to other more flashy styles due in large part to the rise of disco. In the early 1980’s, they were on the verge of discontinuing the brand and in a desperate move they signed a $50,000 per year product placement deal in 1982 that would increase their visibility in movies and television. They were selling about 18,000 pairs annually and then Risky Business did its part. Throughout the film, Tom Cruise was frequently seen wearing the Wayfarer style that increased sales by 2,000 percent, up to about 360,000 pairs and by 1988 reached over three million pairs a year. Success continued for Ray-Ban in 1986 with the release of the blockbuster film Top Gun. Sales for the Aviators rose by 40 percent in the following seven months which was similarly mirrored in 2022 when the sequel Maverick came out. Ray-Bans were featured in over 60 movies and TV shows, but it was the Tom Cruise films that really turned it around for them. Although Bausch and Lomb sold the brand in 1999 to the Italian conglomerate, Luxottica Group, Ray-Ban has increased its product line including their new smart glasses and its revenue for 2025 was about $8.7 billion.

This week’s bonus question:

In 2025, this rapper became Ray-Ban’s first ever creative director?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

28/09/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 09/27/26 - 10/03/26:

When you think of fairy tales, the biggest name that comes to mind is most likely the Brothers Grimm. The one thing that you may not know is that they didn’t write any of those stories themselves. They did however have a huge impact on the preservation of European folklore and defined the view of historical linguistics. Born in Hanau, Germany, Jacob and younger brother Wilhelm belonged to an influential family who suddenly became impoverished after the death of their father. In an effort to help the young teenagers, they were sent to a prep school and years later made it to Marburg University where they studied literature and language. Jacob eventually became a court librarian for the King of Westphalia and brought in his brother as a fellow librarian. The brothers focused on Old German literature and they were asked by friend and Romantic poet, Clemens Brentano, to compile a collection of old folk tales that he would use in a book. They originally sent him fifty-four different stories, but the poet lost the copies they sent him. Fortunately, backups had been made and the Grimms were convinced by another poet that they should publish the stories themselves. They added even more and published their first book with eighty-seven folk tales in 1812 and a second version in 1815 with another seventy more. These tales were largely related to them verbally, meaning without the brothers putting them on paper, those stories could have disappeared into obscurity. In total, they recorded over two hundred folk tales that included several notable ones such as Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood. During all the collection of fairy tales though, Jacob Grimm was still studying languages and found a correlation between several European ones. Known as Grimm’s Law, he recognized a sound shift from changes in consonants and was able to connect the similarities between languages such as Latin and Germanic dialects, which includes English. In a wider scope they are all related to a theoretical ancient language called Proto-Indo-European (PIE). There is way too much of that to cover in this, so if you want to know more, it’s out there. Let’s just thank the Grimm brothers for saving the stories of Rapunzel, Snow White and Rumplestiltskin.

This week’s bonus question:

The Grimm fairy tales led to several Disney movies including this 2009 loosely adapted film?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

21/09/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 09/20/26 - 09/26/26:

This past Saturday was Talk Like a Pirate Day, so I feel I would be remiss if my bonus topic wasn’t about pirates. When you think of them, you’re probably not thinking of the Somali ship raiders, but rather the highly romanticized Caribbean ones that we’ve all seen everywhere. Among those are the familiar names of Blackbeard, Calico Jack and Captain Morgan, as well as female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Reade. I’m not going to talk about them though, this topic is meant for who became not only the most successful female pirate, but perhaps the most overall in history, Ching Shih. Despite all the research that I do for my trivia, I have to admit that I’ve never heard of her nor did I know there was a history of piracy on the coast of Asia. She was born in 1775 and at an early age she became a s*x worker on a floating brothel. It’s believed this is where she met her future husband, Zheng Yi, a powerful pirate commander. There are several stories about how their relationship happened, one that included Zheng burning down the brothel ship, forcing her to join him. When they married in 1801, she demanded half of his piracy business, which he agreed to. Ching was widowed in 1807 when her husband was supposedly lost at sea during a typhoon upon which she inherited his command of the pirate confederation. To solidify her retention of that role, she quickly made an alliance with her stepson, Zhang Bao, who not only became her partner, but her lover and later her husband. She proved to be a brilliant mind and at the height of the confederation, there was a fleet of an estimated 1,800 ships and 80,000 pirates. The success was short-lived however. By 1809, the push to end piracy increased and Ching Shih recognized that with the power and influence that the confederation had, they might be able to reach an agreeable surrender. Unlike the Caribbean where pirates weren’t usually offered a favorable outcome, the Chinese authorities were more forgiving. Despite that about 140 pirates were executed, 150 banished for life and 60 more were exiled for two years. Ching Shih and Zhang Bao were pardoned, allowed to marry and were given land in Canton. She opened a very successful gambling house there while he was made a lieutenant in the Chinese navy. Zhang Bao, like her first husband, was lost at sea in 1822. She lived out a relatively peaceful life and died in 1844 in what is believed to be her late 60’s.

This week’s bonus question:

Ching Shih was known by many names including Zheng Yi Sao, Shi Xianggu and this birth name?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

14/09/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 09/13/26 - 09/19/26:

I’ve recently been watching Downton Abbey, because I’m cultured of course, sure, that’s it, and a majority of it took place in the 1920’s. This led to this week’s topic, flappers. You have likely heard of flappers, but let’s first look at the origin of the term. A long thought myth came from the late 19th century when teenage girls would wear their galoshes unbuckled that would flap when they walked. The most accepted truth is that it came from a centuries old reference to a fledgling bird learning to fly. It eventually was applied to young women who were spunky and a little rebellious and later to similar stage characters with the same qualities. Upon the outbreak of World War I, women were called on to replace the men that were fighting in the war, making more money than they had ever been previously allowed. Coupled with the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote (well, some of them anyway), a new empowerment began to emerge. While the amendment didn’t really make any significant changes to the status of women, it did give them a greater sense of freedom and responsibility. After the war, they had more opportunities to remain in the workforce, albeit those were described as “women’s jobs”. Technological advancements also played a big part in giving women more liberty. Inventions for the home including the electric vacuum lessened the burden of housework allowing for more leisure time. The increase in the availability of automobiles also gave women the freedom to go where they wanted, a major contribution to what would become the flapper lifestyle. The biggest factor to the emergence of the flapper though was the introduction of Amendment 18, better known as Prohibition. Beginning in January of 1920, just seven months prior to the women’s right to vote, this temperance movement banned all aspects of alcoholic beverages, from production to selling. This led to the widespread use of bootlegging and the creation of speakeasies. These secret clubs attracted like-minded rebellious types and offered more of a gender equal environment. Enter the flapper, a new definition of the term. They shunned social conventions by defying the Victorian era standards. The hemlines of their dresses were much shorter so they not only could better display their legs, but it also helped when they danced, usually to jazz music, itself a rebellious genre. In further defiance they wore bobbed hair styles, smoked and drank in public and showed a s*xual freedom never before seen. This new lifestyle was embraced in print, advertisements and most notably in Hollywood with the actresses Louise Brooks, Colleen Moore and the “It Girl”, Clara Bow. Despite all this popularity, the flapper died out after the Great Depression in 1929 and fashion and roles would revert to more traditional styles especially after the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933.

This week’s bonus question:

The Great Gatsby author, F. Scott Fitzgerald got a lot of inspiration for his Roaring ‘20’s works from this wife, perhaps the most famous flapper in history?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

07/09/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 09/07/26 - 09/13/26:

In school we were taught a lot of minutiae, some of it was never elaborated on and one event that I don’t remember ever learning more about was Thor Heyerdahl’s voyage. You may have heard of him and his raft the Kon-Tiki, but did you ever learn much of anything else about him? If not, you will now. From an early age growing up in Norway, he showed a keen interest in zoology and later attended the University of Oslo where he studied it and geography. In his extracurricular time he also researched Polynesian culture and history. In 1936, at the age of 22, Heyerdahl was tasked by his professors to take on a project that would send him to Polynesia. He was to study the animal life there to determine how they may have made it to the islands. He and his wife (married the day before) left for the Marquesas on a standard sailing vessel. While he was there however, he noticed that some of the flora, particularly varieties of sweet potato, were found there that were also native to South America. In addition, he saw similarities in the features of the carved figures found in both places. The couple returned to Norway in 1938 and he had his first book published describing his time in the South Pacific but the book never really saw the light of day due to the outbreak of World War II. After the war was over, where he served in the Norwegian Free Forces, he resumed his academic pursuits and theorized that ancient South Americans sailed their way across the Pacific Ocean to settle in the islands where he had visited a decade prior. He planned an expedition in order to prove his theory. Heyerdahl wanted it to be as accurate as possible so construction of the raft had to be as primitive as it would have been then. His team of explorers and some locals cut down nine balsa trees, lashed them together with h**p ropes with bamboo used to build a cabin and mangrove wood as a mast. He and his crew of five left from Callao, Peru on April 28th, 1947. The voyage was relatively uneventful and after 101 days and a distance of about 4,300 miles they arrived in French Polynesia, about 450 miles from where Heyerdahl and his wife traveled in 1937. The raft was damaged on a coral reef but was towed to Tahiti where the crew and raft were transported to San Francisco by a Norwegian tanker. Despite this impressive journey that proved that early migration was possible, scholars continued to deny his theory that ancient South Americans inhabited the Polynesian islands. This was further disproved years later through the use of DNA. Heyerdahl wasn’t discouraged by this and went on further expeditions with different primitive craft, the first being a pair of papyrus reed boats named Ra and Ra II which traveled from Morocco to Barbados in 1969/1970. The second was called the Tigris which sailed from Iraq through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and then into the Red Sea in 1977 in an attempt to prove that Sumerians had possible links to Egypt and Southwest Asia. After 5 months at sea and a voyage of 6,800 miles, the Tigris was burned off the coast of Djibouti in protest of war. Thor Heyerdahl continued to construct theories of civilizations and passed away in 2002, never having been accepted by the scientific community, Both the Kon-Tiki and the Ra II are housed in a museum in Norway.

This week’s bonus question:

On the Kon-Tiki voyage, the six-man crew were joined by this “seventh” member, a helpful green parrot who was lost at sea after 60 days?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

31/08/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 08/30/26 - 09/06/26:

I heard an interesting story the other day and thought I’d share it with you. It’s called “Bill Gates and the 959”. So there was this guy Bill Gates, you may have heard of him, who co-founded a small company by the name of Microsoft. As he began to amass his fortune, he also acquired a love for automobiles, particularly Porsches. His first major purchase was a used 911 Turbo (also known as a 930). Both he and his fellow co-founder, Paul Allen, became billionaires in the mid-1980’s about the same time that a new “supercar” hit the market, the Porsche 959. The 959 was a modified 911 that was based on the 953 rally car. It had twin turbocharged engines, a computer-controlled all-wheel drive system and 444 horsepower making it the fastest street-legal production vehicle at the time reaching a maximum speed of just under 200 mph and going from 0-60 in 3.7 seconds. Some of the technological advancements included Kevlar/aluminum composite for the body panels. Contrary to what some people believed, the car was not bulletproof, although the windshield had a unique anti-shatter design that furthered the rumor. It had magnesium alloy wheels with hollow spokes which allowed for a tire pressure monitoring system, long before it became a standard feature on vehicles. With all the high end components however, the cost to make each 959 far exceeded the purchase price. The first models sold at about $225,000, while production for each vehicle was about $500,000. Porsche’s cost estimate obviously was well under the actual cost forcing Porsche to suspend production after only about 300 were made, losing tens of millions of dollars in the process. The 959 was legal in Europe, but Porsche decided not to test them for U.S. traffic safety or EPA standards because they would lose another $200,000 per unit if they shipped them to the states based on the exchange rate. Both Gates and Allen purchased a 959 in 1988, likely unaware that bureaucracy would rear its ugly head. The cars were shipped to the Port of Seattle, but they weren’t allowed to be released. Normally in this situation it was customary to either return a vehicle or destroy it, but instead they were stored at the port at the cost of $28 a day. Gates got involved with other car enthusiasts to have the legislation changed that would allow these “illegal” vehicles on U.S. roads. As is often the case, the government moved at a snail’s pace to resolve the issue. After about three years, Allen got fed up with the lack of progress and sent his 959 back to Europe, but Gates held on to his. It wasn’t until 1999 that a new federal clause called the Show or Display rule was introduced. This allowed non-compliant cars to be imported under limited use conditions which included no more than 2,500 road miles a year. Finally, in 2001, Gates took possession of his 959 after 13 years in storage. His cost to have it stored at the port totaled over $133,000 in fines (just pocket change for him really). The car remains in his private collection that consists of over twenty other vehicles including another Porsche 930 and the new EV model, the Porsche Taycan.

This week’s bonus question:

Although he has an affinity for Porsches, Bill Gates frequently drove this modest vehicle as a commuter during his last few years at Microsoft?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

24/08/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 08/23/26 - 08/29/26:

This week let’s talk about something that has been relatively elusive to the Mariner batters this season, the baseball. The ball has undergone a few changes over the years, but nothing like in the year 1920. Before we talk about that major alteration though, we’ll dive into the early years of baseball. Prior to the formation of a professional league in the 1870’s, the baseballs had no regulations on their construction. They were all relatively made from the same materials, which quite often was melted rubber from old shoes. The size however was where things differed. The only limitation really was the anatomical size of the human hand. Pitchers often made their own balls to gain an advantage over the batters. Once the new professional league, the National League, was founded in 1876, a size parameter was addressed. A familiar name in sports equipment and a former pitcher, A.G. Spalding convinced the league to adopt his version of the ball that he used in games. The Spalding name would adorn Major League baseballs for another hundred years. Despite that, the early balls were of a different construction that were softer than modern baseballs. Added to that, only a few balls were used per game, which made them even softer as the game went on and hampered the hitting ability of the batters. Up until 1920, this was called the “dead ball era”. The legendary Babe Ruth had the most home runs during this period hitting only 29 in 1919. The new design that was nicknamed the “rabbit ball” was wound much tighter and in comparison, Babe Ruth hit 54 home runs in 1920. There is no definitive evidence that the new ball was the impetus for the offensive increase during the 1920’s, but the stats kind of speak for themselves. The components of the baseball have pretty much remained the same since 1925 when a “cushioned cork” center was introduced. Over the previous years the ball either had a rubber or cork core, but this one combined the two. The American and National League had different requirements for the standard baseball but agreed on a uniform version in 1934. The center is a cork sphere called the “pill” about the size of a cherry pit. Covering that is a thin layer of black rubber surrounded by a layer of red rubber. The black for bounce, the red for protection of the inner layers. This is first wrapped in about 363 feet of four-ply grey wool, followed by 136 feet of 3-ply white wool and 159 feet of 3-ply gray wool. The last layer before the cover is about 450 feet of poly-cotton yarn. The cover itself is an hourglass pair of cowhide pieces (horsehide until 1976) that are hand sewn together with 108 red stitches. The final step is removing the shine of the new balls and aiding the grip for pitchers. This is achieved by rubbing the baseballs in a certain type of river mud. That mud comes from a secret area of the Delaware River found by Philadelphia Athletics coach, Lena Blackburne in 1938. His legacy has lived on and since the 1950’s, Major League Baseball has adopted the process. That’s a lot of mud considering they use up to 300,000 baseballs every season. Man, they’ve got some balls.

This week’s bonus question:

Although mid-19th century baseballs were usually made with melted shoe rubber, it was sometimes substituted with the eyes of this fish?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

16/08/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 08/16/26 - 08/22/26:

While watching a little Cash Cab recently, one of the answers was “Nerf”. In one form or another, Nerf was very popular during my younger days, but where did it all begin? Like a lot of successful inventions, this too happened by accident. Back in 1968, Minnesota game inventor, Reyn Guyer, formed Winsor Concepts, a toy design company. Little did he know that his first invention would lead to one of the most iconic toys in history. The original idea was a caveman game, where players would move around on small pieces of plastic that were painted to look like stepping stones. Their goal was to steal other player’s coins from under those stones. In an attempt to stop them, foam rocks would be thrown at them. The game never really took off, but the designers were really entertained by throwing the foam rocks at each other. They realized they might be onto something and that the “No throwing balls in the house” rule could be defied. They experimented with different materials and sizes of the ball. Eventually they decided on a polyurethane foam that was used to protect fragile items during shipping. They also went with a four-inch diameter ball. One of the working names for it was the “falsie-ball” since that same foam was also used to create enhancers for bras. The designers believed that the small ball wouldn’t sell by itself and began creating different indoor sports that could incorporate the ball. They came up with football, baseball, dodgeball and more. In 1969, they took their ideas to larger game manufacturers, first to Milton-Bradley who passed on the whole concept and then to Parker Brothers who didn’t care for the sports, but they did like the ball alone. Despite the designers’ conviction that no one would want just a small foam ball, over four million sold during the first year in production. Parker Brothers gave it the name “Nerf”. Contrary to a popular belief, Nerf did not originally come from the acronym, Non-Expanding Recreational Foam. This is actually a backronym created long after the success of the original product. The term nerf was a word that had been used since the 1950’s in auto racing. It refers to “nerfing” which is the act of nudging another car to advance around them. This led to the installation of protective bars that were used to keep the body of the vehicle intact. Some of these bars were often wrapped in hollow foam tubes, i.e. roll bars. It was these tubes that inspired the name of the Nerf ball. Upon its introduction in 1970, it was marketed with the slogan, “Throw it indoors. You can’t damage lamps or break windows. You can’t hurt babies or old people.” A seven inch version was released the same year followed by the legendary Nerfoop and Nerf football in 1972. The Nerf line was handed over to Parker Brothers sister company, Kenner, that was eventually acquired by Hasbro in 1987. Since then, several new Nerf products have been introduced including the foam dart gun, Nerf Blaster, Super Soaker, Lazer Tag, Nerf dog toys and many more. Despite recent economic downturns, Nerf continues to be a successful product line and accounts for an estimated $1.2B to $1.48B in annual revenue.

This week’s bonus question:

The main designer of the Nerf ball, Reyn Guyer, also co-invented this iconic party game in 1966?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

10/08/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 08/09/26 - 08/15/26:

In reference to one of last week’s questions, this week’s topic is about the act of defenestration or throwing something or more importantly, someone out of a window. Surprisingly, it has a larger place in history than you might think. By itself, throwing someone out of a window doesn’t seem any different than a random form of murder, but defenestration took on more of a political statement. The idea has most likely been around since the invention of windows, but the first recorded defenestration came from the Jewish bible. It told the 842 BCE story of Jezebel, the Queen of Israel who was thrown out by her eu**ch servants (surprised they had the balls to do it, you’re welcome). There have been numerous of these political acts over the centuries including the tragic story of General Adham Khan. He was a military leader of the Mughal empire and adoptive brother of the Emperor, Akbar the Great. After several military victories, he kept most of the spoils for himself which angered his brother, who then promoted Adham’s rival, Ataka Khan, to Wakil (Prime Minister). In retaliation, Adham stormed the castle with some men and killed Ataka. The emperor ordered the immediate defenestration of Adham. He was thrown out and fell forty feet, but he survived with two broken legs. Still furious over the loss of his Wakil, Akbar had him brought back up and thrown out again, this time finishing the job. This is the only recorded “double defenestration” in history. The one place that clearly has the most well known history of defenestration is Prague, in what was then known as Bohemia. They had four major defenestrations in their history starting in 1419. In the first one, the religious group, the Hussites, pre-Protestants, were outraged at the death of their leader, Jan Hus, and they marched to the town square where they were pelted with rocks. Things quickly got out of hand and they tossed seven officials out of the town hall windows. The most famous one though was the third, erroneously named, The Second Defenestration of Prague. Continued aggression between religious parties led to this. The Catholics were beginning to usurp the area which was predominantly Protestant. Legislation ceased the building of Protestant churches which led to a meeting of the two parties and the eventual defenestration of two Catholic regents and their secretary. Lucky for them, they survived by landing in a dung heap. Despite that, this was a major factor that eventually led to the Thirty Years War. Not all defenestrations are political though. In 1993, construction worker Jorge Lugo unwisely decided to confront NBA legend, Charles Barkley in an Orlando bar. He threw ice in SIr Charles’s face and was rewarded with a toss out of the bar’s window. Lugo didn’t press charges and Barkley paid for the replacement of the glass. A situation that was “absolutely turrible”.

This week’s bonus question:

In the last Defenestration of Prague in 1948, this Czechoslovakian foreign minister met his demise in a suspicious way?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

02/08/2026

Bonus topic for the week of 08/02/26 - 08/08/26:

As with a lot of my bonus topics, this week’s came from a question I had in last week’s trivia about the founding of the African country of Liberia. Slavery by the British in North America began in the early 17th century and within the next several decades, many of those slaves were freed. This occurred for a number of reasons. Some states in the north gradually abolished slavery which liberated tens of thousands of people, while hundreds of thousands of others fled to these free states or continued on to Canada and Mexico. An untold number also were given freedom by their “owners”, called manumission. The increasing number of liberated slaves created tension in the states which prompted the creation of the American Colonization Society in 1816. This group of White Americans, which included slaveowners and political figures, believed that freed Blacks could not integrate into the U.S. and that allowing them repatriation to Africa was the best “humanitarian” solution. In January of 1820, a ship was sent to western Africa to find a suitable location for a settlement. Following in the footsteps of the British, who had similar ideas, they originally searched along the coast of Sierra Leone, but to no avail. Local leaders did not want to sell their land to the Americans. They took temporary shelter on a small island, but many of the ship’s 91 souls died of malaria before a permanent home could be found. Finally in December of 1821, a second ship was able to procure a 36-mile strip of land in what would become Liberia. They established a settlement there later named Monrovia, after the current president, and moved the survivors of the first ship to the new land. They were soon joined by many more freed slaves. The first few years were brutal. They were not prepared for the harsh environs of their new home. They suffered from diseases, poor living conditions, lack of food and medicine and inclement weather. If that wasn’t enough, they were also frequently under siege by the indigenous people whose land they were inhabiting. They eventually built fortifications that helped protect them, but despite that, the emigrants of Liberia had a very high mortality rate, losing about 60% of the 4,500 settlers over the next two decades. The AMS knew of the conditions, but continued to send more people there. The Americo-Liberians, as they called themselves, were able to survive with the help of trade, but the AMS on the other hand was going bankrupt. Knowing that Liberia wasn’t an independent nation nor was it a true American colony, both Britain and France turned their attention to it. They had taken control over the bordering countries of Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire and began to encroach on Liberia. In order to protect their land, on July 26th, 1847, the settler’s governing body declared independence from the AMS, issued their own Declaration of Independence and established the Republic of Liberia. Britain officially recognized Liberia as a new nation in 1848, driven by a desire to create commerce and avoid customs and tax issues. The new nation continued to expand by annexing several of the other American colonies that were founded in the area. It wasn’t until 1885 that Liberia’s modern borders began to be established and weren’t finalized until 1911. Liberia now covers about 43 million square miles and has a population of over 5 million people with an unsurprising number of diverse ethnic groups.

This week’s bonus question:

He was the first African-American governor of Liberia and its first president in 1847?

Bring your answer to this week’s trivia for a bonus point

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