Today’s Tough Trivia question: In this history of the Supreme Court, only one person has resigned from the Court, and then later been reappointed to it. Who was it, and why did he resign the first time?

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Yesterday’s question was: There are 24 active aircraft carriers in the world (of the horizontal take-off and landing type, not counting those which are strictly vertical take-off, or helicopter carriers). Five countries have one (France, India, Russia, Spain, and Thailand [though the fighter wing was retired from service in 2006]), four countries have two (Australia [though they don’t have any carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft], China, Italy, and the UK), and the United States has eleven. Name the active US aircraft carriers… in the order they were commissioned.

The answer is:

CVN-68, USS Nimitz (named for Admiral Chester W. Nimitz), commissioned in 1975.
CVN-69, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, commissioned in 1977.
CVN-70, USS Carl Vinson (named for the US Representative [represented Georgia, 1914–1965] and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee [1955–1965]), commissioned in 1982.

CVN-71, USS Theodore Roosevelt, commissioned in 1986.
CVN-72, USS Abraham Lincoln, commissioned in 1989.
CVN-73, USS George Washington, commissioned in 1992.
CVN-74, USS John C. Stennis (named for the US Senator [represented Mississippi, 1947–1989] and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee [1969–1981]), commissioned in 1995.
CVN-75, USS Harry S Truman, commissioned in 1998.
CVN-76, USS Ronald Reagan, commissioned in 2003.
CVN-77, USS George H.W. Bush, commissioned in 2009.
CVN-78, USS Gerald R. Ford, commissioned in 2017.

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Ian’s Tough Trivia is a daily feature of this blog. Each day, I post a tough question, as well as the answer to the previous day’s question. At some point, I’ll offer a prize for whoever has the most correct answers, and another for whoever participates most often (I’ll take into account people coming in after the start: regular participation starting later is just as good as regular participation starting earlier). There may also be a prize for the funniest or most amusing wrong answer. Simply comment on this post with your answer. I’ll approve the comments after the next question is posted. Sure, you can probably find the answers by searching the web, but what’s the fun in that?

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