And now, the answers.

Thanks to everyone who tried the newest trivia quiz. No one got a perfect score, but we had a lot of good guesses. With no further ado, here are the answers:

• Which country, despite having an ancient history, was only briefly an empire at the turn of the 20th century? Now it's a republic ... Partly in name, partly in truth.

Answer: Korea. The Korean Empire existed solely from 1897 to 1910, when it was annexed by Japan. There's an interesting but complicated history to it, if you follow that link.

No one got this one, and that might be because I was a bit too vague. The countries guessed were China, Russia and Germany. Each are good guesses but lasted quite a bit longer than the Korean Empire. My clue about "partly in name" stems from the fact that North Korea calls itself the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (but is a communist dictatorship), and South Korea calls itself (more accurately) the Republic of Korea.

• Name the architect who built a masterpiece home that was (initially, at least) a sore point for its owner. The home shares a name with an under-appreciated inventor.

Answer: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Dawn nailed this one.

The home was the Farnsworth House. It shares a name with one of my favorite American inventors, Philo T. Farnsworth. He invented the television, though RCA stole it out from under him. He also lived in my old home of Fort Wayne, Ind. (One of two Griner-related clues in this quiz.)

The Farnsworth House was quite a feat of architecture (and looks somewhat like my new house), but it was embroiled in legal battles between the owner and architect...who were believed to be gilted lovers.

• Which independently minded Western community is named for the 12th president?

Answer: The Great Republic of Rough and Ready, Calif. An easy one if you've ever been to visit me in California. Rough and Ready, named for President Zachary "Old Rough and Ready" Taylor, seceded from the Union briefly and still celebrates this short-lived accomplishment every year. It's a fun place. Go see the Fruit Jar Pickers play there sometime.

Dawn, Sadiebelle and Christian got this one.

• What man is often credited with keeping Islam from dominating Europe?

Answer: Charles Martel. Martel organized a brilliant, highly outnumbered defense of France against a massive army of horse-mounted Muslims, who had marched relatively unchallenged across Spain.

From Wikipedia:

He is best remembered for winning the Battle of Tours in 732, which has traditionally been characterized as an action saving Europe from the Muslim expansionism which had devoured Iberia. "There were no further Muslim invasions of Frankish territory, and Charles's victory has often been regarded as decisive for world history, since it preserved western Europe from Muslim conquest and Islamization." [1]

A fascinating general and an incredible battle. If you're interested, I would recommend the book Carnage and Culture, which discusses this battle at length.

Scott was the only one to get this answer. Good job!

• What was the date a man-made object first touched the moon?

Answer: Sept. 14, 1959. The Soviet Union's Luna 2 probe crashed into the surface of the moon. For some reason, a lot of sites list the date as Sept. 12 (Scott's guess, and the answer I originally had on my key.) But it seems there's pretty clear record it was Sept. 14. Dawn and Christian both got this one.

BTW, doesn't this thing totally look like that probe that Chewbacca yells at in Empire?

That's all for now. If I get some time next week, we'll do it again.