Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Historian on the Hill?

Capitol Hill trivia questions ahead

Ted Williams, right, manager of the Washington Senators, and Rep. Silvio Conte, R-Mass., enjoy the Congressional Baseball Game. Reporters believe this photo is from the late 1960s. (CQ Roll Call file photo)
Ted Williams, right, manager of the Washington Senators, and Rep. Silvio Conte, R-Mass., enjoy the Congressional Baseball Game. Reporters believe this photo is from the late 1960s. (CQ Roll Call file photo)
Posted July 23, 2018 at 5:00am

To be a true Capitol Hill historian, you have to have a Ph.D. in regular order. Or you can just read Roll Call regularly.

Take a stab — pun intended (see question four) — at this Capitol Hill trivia.

Comments or suggestions? Email them to HOH@rollcall.com.



1. The first House office building was built how long before the first Senate office building?

A) Five years

B) 20 years

C) One year

answer

2. How many books did President Thomas Jefferson sell to the Library of Congress in 1815?

A) 6,487

B) 8,432

C) 4,901

answer

3. During his inaugural address, which president said, “We have not made change our friend”?

A) Ronald Reagan

B) Bill Clinton

C) Barack Obama

answer

4. Which former senator had a visitor in his office pull out a six-inch hunting knife in 1979?

A) Edward M. Kennedy

B) Ted Stevens

C) John V. Tunney

answer

5. In 1998, the chairmen of the DCCC and NRCC agreed on one thing. What was it?

A) “We will not engage or endorse any senatorial candidates or presidential candidates in order to keep our focus on House candidates.”

B) “In the event a candidate has a death in his or her family, personal injury, or any other kind of personal emergency, the opposing committee will pause campaigning for a negotiable amount of time.”

C) “There is no room in either of our parties for those who would make personal attacks on another candidate’s private life when those attacks have no bearing on a candidate’s fitness or ability to serve in office.”

answer

6. Why did the Congressional Baseball Game not take place from 1958 to 1962?

A) Not enough members wanted to play

B) Speaker Sam Rayburn thought there were too many injuries

C) They didn’t know what to do about congresswomen wanting to play

answer

7. When did the position of chief of staff (then called administrative assistants) get created?

A) 1941

B) 1946

C) 1952

answer

8. Who were the first Senate pages?

A) Senators’ children under 18 years old

B) The children of donors and the D.C. elite

C) D.C. kids on the margins

answer