American flags stand at the grave markers

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How Much Do You Know About Memorial Day?

Take our quiz and find out

AARP

En español

Published May 10, 2012

/ Updated May 23, 2023

9 Questions

736aca2a-e0b1-4252-bf82-c2ee49815e5f

How Much Do You Know About Memorial Day?

[ {
 "question" : "Decoration Day, the commemorative holiday that eventually was renamed Memorial Day, was officially established in what year?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "1868",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "1887",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "1902",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "1917",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Decoration Day was named for the practice of decorating the graves of the war dead with flowers on that day.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "When was Memorial Day moved from May 30 to the last Monday in May?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "1925",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "1946",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "1971",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "1980",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved several traditional holidays, including Memorial Day, from a fixed date on the calendar to a designated Monday. The bill went into effect three years later.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which of these memorials to the fallen was the first to be established on Washington’s National Mall?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "National World War II Memorial",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Vietnam Veterans Memorial",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Korean War Veterans Memorial",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Vietnam Women’s Memorial",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The memorial was dedication Nov. 13, 1982, and attracts more than 5.6 million visitors each year, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which of these major sporting events traditionally takes place every Memorial Day weekend?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Indianapolis 500",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Belmont Stakes",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "U.S. Open Tennis Championships",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "NBA Finals",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The first race took place on Memorial Day 1911, and the race has coincided with the holiday weekend almost every year since then. There were breaks during World War I and World War II, and the 2020 race was rescheduled to Aug. 23 because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Every year since the early 1920s, paper versions of this flower are widely distributed by veterans groups in the U.S. shortly before Memorial Day.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Lily",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Rose",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Carnation",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Poppy",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The use of poppies as a symbol can be traced back to the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae, who wrote about the poppies growing between rows of graves of soldiers who died during combat in Flanders, an area of northern France and western Belgium.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "This military memorial just outside of Washington, often referred to as the “Iwo Jima memorial” because it features a sculpture of a scene from the famous World War II battle, salutes this branch of the military services.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Air Force",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Army",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Marines",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Navy",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Its official name is the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "This woman served as a battlefield nurse during the Civil War, earning the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield,” and founded the American Red Cross in 1881.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Dorothea Dix",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Clara Barton",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Cornelia Hancock",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Louisa May Alcott",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Barton headed the American Red Cross for the first 23 years of its existence.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "On Memorial Day, U.S. flags are to be flown at half-staff until:\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "10 a.m.",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Noon",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "4 p.m.",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Sunset",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "The Department of Veterans Affairs says the flag should be flown at the traditional half-staff memorial position until noon, then raised to the top of the staff until sunset “in honor of the nation’s battle heroes.”\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity,” said this former soldier who became a U.S. president.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Ulysses S. Grant",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Theodore Roosevelt",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Dwight D. Eisenhower",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "George H.W. Bush",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Eisenhower made the remarks in a speech in Ottawa, Canada, in 1946.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

Quiz Progress

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