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This seemingly simple question stumped all three Final Jeopardy contestants in 1984

It was only Alex Trebek's second day on the job when all three contestants gave the same wrong answer and all ended up with $0 .

Representative photo by Rosemaryetoufee

"Jeopardy!" is one of the most popular trivia shows in the world.

The popular game show "Jeopardy!" originated in 1964, and for six decades it has stumped contestants and viewers with tough trivia questions and answers (or answers and questions, to be more accurate). Competing on "Jeopardy!" is practically synonymous with being a smartypants, and champions win lifelong bragging rights along with whatever monetary winnings they end up taking home.

To win "Jeopardy!," you place a wager in the Final Jeopardy round with whatever money you've collected through the first two rounds. All three contestants write down their wagers based solely on the category given, then they have 30 seconds to write down the question for the same answer after it's revealed. Very rarely do all three contestants get the Final Jeopardy wrong.

But in 1984, on Alex Trebek's second day hosting the show, a deceptively simple Final Jeopardy answer answer resulted in all three contestants making the same wrong guess and ending the round with $0 each.

The category was "The Calendar," and after the contestants placed their bets, the answer was revealed: "Calendar date with which the 20th century began."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The 20th century was the 1900s, as most of us are aware, and all three contestants wrote down identical responses: "What is January 1, 1900?" But they were all incorrect. And unfortunately, all three had wagered their entire amount, leaving them with nothing across the board.

"Oh, I don't believe it!" exclaimed one of the contestants as they all laughed at the absurdity. "I'm at a loss for words," said Trebek.

A member of the audience asked what the correct answer–or question— was, and Trebek shared that the correct response would have been "What is January 1, 1901?"

If that seems confusing, it's probably because we all made a huge deal about the year 2000, marking it as the end of the 21st century as well as the turn of the millennium. But basically, we were wrong. Some people did point it out at the time, but the excitement and momentum of celebrating Y2K had us all in a frenzy and no one was going to wait until January 1, 2001 to celebrate the new millennium.

Why should we have? It all comes down to the fact that in the Gregorian calendar, the first year wasn't 0 A.D., it was 1 A.D. The first century spanned from 1 to 100 A.D., the second century from 101 to 200 A.D. and so on, leading up to the 20th century officially being from 1901 to 2000. So January 1, 1901 is actually the date that the 20th century began, despite how unintuitive it feels.

To be fair, you'd think a "Jeopardy!" contestant might recognize that the question seemed awfully simple for a Final Jeopardy round, but only having 30 seconds to think under pressure is tough. And it's not like these people lived in the internet era where random trivia questions like this regularly go viral, making us more aware of them. And this episode aired over a decade before the "Seinfeld" episode where Jerry explains the "no year zero" thing to Newman, who had planned a millennium party.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

As one person pointed out, the calendar answer is technically correct, but it's not the way the average person thinks of centuries, just as a tomato is technically fruit but the average person thinks of it (and uses it) as a vegetable. Even though there were some sticklers about the year 2000, most of us just went along with seeing it as the turn of the millennium because it felt like that's how it should be. It's kind of wild how most of us can think of something incorrectly but we just sort of collectively accept our wrongness about it.

The 1984 episode making a viral comeback also people to share how much they missed Alex Trebek. The beloved, long-time "Jeopardy!" host died in 2020 at age 80 after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He worked up until the point where he couldn't anymore, even while undergoing chemotherapy. His final episode included a touching tribute honoring his 37 seasons with the game show, the end of an illustrious and iconic era.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Back in 2023, Ken Jennings, former "Jeopardy" champion, with the record for the longest winning streak, took over as sole host of the show, after previously rotating as host with Mayim Bialik.

This article originally appeared last year.

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A Twitter user asked people to share the most random facts they know. The answers didn't disappoint.

Why do people even know this stuff?

via PixaBay / Twitter

People started a viral thread about the most random facts they know

Certain people have an innate ability to remember random facts. They are great at trivia but can also be insufferable know-it-alls.

So why are some people better at recalling random facts than others? Researchers in Europe believe that it's because their brains are more efficiently wired than other people's.

"We assume that more efficient networking of the brain contributes to better integration of pieces of information and thus leads to better results in a general knowledge test," biopsychologist Erhan Genc, from Ruhr University Bochum, said according to Science Alert.


Brittany Packnett Cunningham, an MSNBC contributor, activist, and co-host of Crooked Media's "Pod Save The People," wanted to harvest the mind hive on Twitter and find the most random fact that anyone knows.

"I mean RANDOM random," she wrote.

The answers ranged from the utterly pointless to the truly amazing. There was also a generous helping of utterly disgusting answers thrown in the mix.

Almost every answer deserved the follow-up question: "Why in the world do you know that?"

Here are some of the most random responses to Brittany Packnett Cunningham's question: "What's the most random fact you know?"

Most were utterly useless, but somehow still fascinating.

Muhammad is statistically the most common first name on the planet while Wang is the most common last name on the planet. But I still haven’t met anyone named Muhammad Wang.

The only word in the English language with all vowels+Y in alpha order is “facetiously”

Queen Elizabeth is one of the only people in the world who doesn’t need a passport to travel. Everyone else in the royal family does.

NYE goes hard

In DNA, mushrooms are more similar to animals than they are to plants.

Some were pretty darn cool.

London Tube platforms have different tilings because when the Tube was originally built, a lot of people who used it were illiterate, and the different tilings helped them know what station they were at.pic.twitter.com/Yw8e04zCJA

Some were thought-provoking.

You've never seen your own face. You've seen a reflection, and you've seen pictures, but you've never actually seen your own face!

When you look at a flower, some of the photons that entered your eye just ended a 100,000-year journey from the center of the sun. Nobody else sees them. Just you. 10% of THOSE will give up their energy to cause a chemical reaction that—literally—makes them a part of you.https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/1221992423905202176 …

Elephants are the only animals other than humans who have something like funerals. They cover the dead elephant gently with leaves and branches, then stand around in a circle for hours making sad noises.

There was a day when your parents put you down and never picked you up again.

Others were disturbing.

Humans have a coccyx (aka a tailbone) which is the remnant of, you guessed it, a vestigial tail. One of our several vestigial features.

The act of touching glasses to cheers comes from medieval suspicions of poisoning each other, so youd slam mugs together to spill each others drinks into your own to show trust you werent trying to kill them. Europeans man...

Male dolphins can ejaculate as far as 10' and with such force it can kill a human if that human was foolish enough to attempt zoophilic relations with dolphin.

Artificial raspberry and strawberry flavoring comes from the anal glands of a beaver.

And some could be helpful down the road. You just never know.

If you are attacked by a gator and your arm is in its jaws, push, don't pull. If you can push the flap open at the back of its throat, water rushes in and it starts to drown and will open jaws, hopefully releasing you.

The Phenomena: "The Doorway Effect" When you forget the reason you enter a different room. To retrieve the reason, walk backwards w/o turning around. It can trigger the memory.


This article originally appeared on 02.06.20

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'Jeopardy!' winner makes powerful statement after being falsely accused of racist gesture

via Jeopardy!

Kelly Donohue ended a three-game "Jeopardy!" winning streak Tuesday night, leaving him with an impressive $80,601 in cash. But his performances have set off a social media firestorm because of two instances that some claimed were racist signals.

The situation inspired an open letter addressing the issue signed by over 500 former "Jeopardy!" contestants.

Throughout Donoahue's brief run on the show, he signaled the number of games he won through hand gestures. After his first win last Friday, he held up one finger and after his Monday victory, he held up two. That was all fine and good. But it was after his third victory that things got complicated.

On Tuesday, he held up three fingers and it caused a lot of discussion on social media.

The three-finger symbol he made resembles the "okay" sign, a gesture that was officially designated as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019. The gesture is similar to one used by the white supremacist group the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys.

But it's also how a lot of people make a number three with their hands.

The group of former contestants didn't see it as a clear-cut symbol for the number three. "He held his thumb and forefinger together with his other three fingers extended and palm facing inward, and he tapped his chest," the open letter says.

"This, whether intentional or not, resembled very closely a gesture that has been coopted by white power groups, alt right groups, and an anti-government group that calls itself the Three Percenters," the letter continued.

Donohue also courted controversy during his Monday performance by using the term "Gypsy" to refer to Roma people. "The use of this term doesn't necessarily indicate malice; until recently, it was widely used by English speakers," the letter reads. "Current diversity style guides, however, suggest that it not be used, and that Roma or Romani be used instead. Host Anderson Cooper noted this on-air."

The group of former contestants couldn't believe that both incidents made it on air because, in the past, "Jeopardy!" producers have edited or reshot moments from the show that could cause controversy.

Donohue's first response to allegations that this three symbol was a hate gesture was pretty clear.

"That's a 3. No more. No less," he wrote on Facebook. But his statement wasn't enough for the former contestants who urged him to provide an "an apology and a total disavowal of any connection to white supremacist doctrines is called for."

So Donahue responded with a powerful post on Facebook where he clearly condemned white supremacy.

I'm truly horrified with what has been posted about me on social media. I absolutely, unequivocally condemn white supremacy and racism of any kind. People who know me personally know that I am not a racist, but for the public at large it bears repeating: I am not a racist and I reject and condemn white supremacy and all forms of bigotry for the evil they are.

I'm truly horrified with what has been posted about me on social media. I absolutely, unequivocally condemn white supremacy and racism of any kind. People who know me personally know that I am not a racist, but for the public at large it bears repeating: I am not a racist and I reject and condemn white supremacy and all forms of bigotry for the evil they are. It's shameful to me to think anyone would try to use the stage of Jeopardy! to advance or promote such a disgusting agenda. During the taping of my fourth episode, I was simply raising three fingers to mark my 3rd win. There was nothing more I was trying to indicate.

I deeply regret this terrible misunderstanding. I never meant to hurt a soul and I assure you I am no friend of racists or white supremacists.

I removed the previous post because the comments were more than I could bear. I stand by the statement itself and you can find it reported in other media. I did, however, understand the fair criticism that I did not include a forceful condemnation of white supremacy in my initial statement. I hope my feelings on that matter are clear now.

Donohue's story shows that there is so much tension around race in America that it's pretty easy for someone to accidentally find themselves in hot water. Most people probably aren't that well-versed in white supremacist hand gestures or slurs for Romani people, so it's pretty easy to assume that Donohue walked into the situation unknowingly.

While the former "Jeopardy!" contestants saw Donohue's performance as an opportunity to demand an apology from him, that may not have been the best way to handle things. In a situation where things are pretty nebulous, why not take the opportunity to educate the general public on racist slurs and hand gestures instead of making it personal? Their false accusation could have unfairly destroyed Donohue's life and the unjust impact their letter will have on him is still yet to be determined. Wouldn't it be nice if they responded to his thoughtful statement with a diplomatic statement of their own and show all of us how to have a meaningful dialogue?

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One of the last Jeopardy! winners gave a tearful, personal thanks to Alex Trebek

Jeopardy!/Twitter

The world lost one of its best beloved television icons over the weekend. Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy! passed away at age 80 of pancreatic cancer. His cancer journey, which began in March 2019, served as an inspiration for millions, with Trebek sharing messages of hope and resilience throughout his treatments and continuing to host the show for as long as he could.

Many people have posted tributes to the famously upbeat host, including an in-person thanks from a Jeopardy! episode that aired just three days before Trebek passed.

After being named champion of the show, which was taped in August, 37-year-old Burt Thakur explained what being on Jeopardy! meant to him. Trebek asked if there was anyone special cheering him on at home, and Thakur, fighting back tears, replied:

"You know, here's a true story, man. I grew up, I learned English because of you. And so, my grandfather, who raised me—I'm gonna get tears right now—I used to sit on his lap and watch you every day so it's a pretty special moment for me, man. So thank you very much."

According to TODAY, Trebek had a humorous response to Thakur's touching story. "Without skipping a beat he said, 'I too sat on my grandfather's leg, but he taught me swear words!'" Thakur told the outlet, laughing.

"My grandfather would always look at Alex and say, 'That's a good man and one day you're going to meet him and shake his hand,'" Thakur told TODAY.

Thakur said Trebek was "an absolute gentleman and professional" when he met him. "He was so witty and funny," Thakur told TODAY. "Alex Trebek is a significant reason why I am the way I am."

Judging by his social media posts, Thakur is a kind and humble gentleman, so that makes perfect sense.

Even fans who never got to meet Trebek in person shared their gratitude to the man who they had watched for years.

Kazeem Famuyide wrote, "Alex Trebek did nothing but make you feel cool for being smart for 30 minutes every day for 36 years. Not many better ways to live a life."

Canadian comic strip artist Kate Beaton explained how he felt like part of the family. "Alex Trebek made you feel smart and proud, smarter than your dad or your sister or whoever in the never ending family tournament - or ready to reclaim the crown, and he was always on your side, he was part of the family. He was part of ours."

Two-time Battle Rap World Champion Adam Ferrone wrote, "Alex Trebek's death hit me more devastatingly than any celebrity death this year, maybe because I spent so much time consuming his content or maybe because he just seemed like a really decent, smart, curious man. RIP."

"Alex Trebek made us all feel smart and eager to learn without being condescending," wrote Fawn Moscato. "He was upbeat and enthusiastic and always treated his guests with respect. Truly no one else like him on tv!"

Indeed, those of us who grew up watching Jeopardy! with our families could always rely on that half an hour to be soothing yet exciting, curiosity-inducing, and educational. When you guessed correctly, you felt like a brainiac. When you had no idea, you felt better when the smart people on the show missed some, too. I always wondered how much Trebek himself learned while making that show. He had to be a walking encyclopedia by the end.

But Trebek's legacy will be in who he was, not what he knew. The Canadian who became an American citizen in 1998 was a philanthropist and activist who helped with many different charitable efforts from the USO to education to improving the lives of children in developing countries. He was a father of two and a breeder of racehorses. He was a kind and inclusive man who made everyone who came on his show feel welcome and everyone watching at home feel a part of it. And in his final months, he was an inspiration to us all.

"I'm not afraid of dying," he told CTV News in October 2019. "I've lived a good life, a full life, and I'm nearing the end of that life ... if it happens, why should I be afraid [of] that?"

What a beautiful example. The world will miss you, Alex.

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