1.In 2015, this event was made the subject of both a metal band’s concept album and a Polish horror videogame. Yuri Yudin was able to avoid the event due to illness. A 2014 Discovery Channel “documentary” presents the cryptozoological theory that this event involved a Yeti, while another theory claims it was the result of a military testing accident (*) which also caused glowing orbs. A popular theory is that the event’s oddities can all be explained by an avalanche, although skeptics argue that one was not likely to have occurred in the area. Among the most inexplicable aspects of this event are the participants’ browned skin and lack of clothes, a torn tent, and one participant’s missing tongue. For 10 points, name this 1959 event involving the mysterious death of nine Soviet ski hikers in the Ural Mountains.
ANSWER: the Dyatlov Pass incident (accept the Dead Mountain incident)
2. Incidents leading up to this event include Niccol Paganinis brilliant performance in Frankfurt. The effects of this event are believed to have been made permanent by mercury poisoning used in the treatment of syphilis. Modern explanations for the cause of this event include dystonia and rheumatoid arthritis, which are more compelling than the popular notion that this event was caused by a mechanical device. Another explanation for this event is that it was brought about while its victim was practicing his (*)Toccata in C major, Opus 7. This event occurred during its victims studies with Friedrich Wieck, who assured its victim that he would have been the finest pianist in Europe. For 10 points, identify this event: an injury that rendered its victim to play his own compositions, which his wife Clara did instead.
ANSWER: Robert Schumann breaking his hands
3. Robyn Crawford features heavily in rumours of this type attached to Whitney Houston. One person debunked this rumour about herself in a Barbara Walters interview in which she said “somebody must think I’m lying”. Stedman Graham should serve to debunk some of these rumours, but apparently tight-lipped kisses prove otherwise. The existence of such people as Abigail Williams, Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevigne all support rumours of this type that gained in popularity during the 1989-era of the “girl squad” and pussy-thumping feminism. Those rumours also seek to explain the failures of relationships with (*) Jordan Alford, Brandon Borello, Drew Hardwick, Sam Armstrong, Joe Jonas, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal, Adam Young, Harry Styles, Connor Kennedy, Calvin Harris, Tom Hiddleston and now maybe Drake? For 10 points, identify these surprisingly persistent rumours that cling to such woman as Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift and that insist that they are not heterosexual.
ANSWER: Secretly lesbian
4. A university claimed to be complicit in this conspiracy theory is used to hide a spaceship that houses the aliens who propagate this conspiracy. This theory was first made public on the USENET group de.talk.bizarre. The entity that is responsible for the conspiracy in this theory is merely referred to as SIE. A set of three questions asking whether you know anyone from, have ever been to, or know anyone who has been to the central location are key to this theory. For 10 points, name this joke conspiracy theory which alleges that a (*)certain German town does not exist.
ANSWER: Bielefeld Conspiracy (accept Bielefeld doesn’t exist)
5. The disappearance of a right-hand door, while the corresponding left-hand door was found, are frequently cited as evidence of a cover-up involving this conflict. The Oklahoma city bombing was timed to commemorate the second anniversary of the end of this conflict, which Timothy McVeigh claimed “guided [his] path”. During this conflict, one party continuously played the sounds of pigs being slaughtered as a form of psychological warfare. The use of tanks to knock holes in walls is claimed to have exacerbated (*) fires during this event, which were fueled by CS gas pumped into the building. The leader of one group involved in this event called himself “the biggest sinner that ever was”, which led to the title of series of articles about that man and his group called “The Sinful Messiah”. The pretext for this event was reports of automatic gunfire coming from the Mount Carmel Centre. David Koresh led a group assaulted by the FBI in, for 10 points, what disastrous event which ended with the FBI killing 76 civilians in Texas?
ANSWER: Waco siege
6. While their rivals stayed at the neighbouring Four Seasons hotel, this team stayed at the Marriott West India Quay before their crucial match. Despite protests from this team’s chairman, the match was not postponed. An investigation identified norovirus (*)as the source of the illness that caused this team’s poor performance in that match, which affected players such as Edgar Davids, Michael Carrick, and Aaron Lennon. This team only needed to match their rival’s result in order to finish above them on the league table, but lost 2-1 to West Ham while their rivals won. Consequently, this team was prevented from coming in fourth place and securing a Champions League spot. For 10 points, name the soccer team that was supposedly sabotaged through food poisoning by a hotel chef who nefariously prepared bad lasagna the night before their final match.
ANSWER: Tottenham Hotspur [accept Spurs]
7. Possibly the most notable piece of evidence against this theory is the lack of a certain geological feature in the Jordan River. One supporter of this theory referred to it as “a new reformulation of the Midianite-Kenite hypothesis” and suggests that the entity referenced by this theory was located in Saudi Arabia. The story of the (*)burning bush is frequently taken out of context and used in support of this theory. An interpretation of the book of Joshua in support of this theory claims that the hail that drove of enemies of the Israelites was actually pyroclastic flow. For 10 points, identify this theory which suggests a certain biblical figure was actually a geological feature that spews lava.
ANSWER: the Judeo-Christian God was a volcano [accept equivalents]
8. Multiple witnesses, including Sandra Serrano, have said that, in the moments after this person’s assassination, they saw a woman in a polka-dot dress running from the murder scene shouting “We shot him!”. The man convicted of assassinating this person has claimed that he has no memory of the assassination or of his subsequent confession, and that he was therefore in a hypnotic trance at the time. The gun used by this man’s convicted assassin held only 8 bullets, yet a recently released audio recording of the killing may suggest as many as 13 shots, and witness Nina Rhodes-Hughes told CNN that she heard shots coming from two different directions in the kitchen of the (*) Ambassador Hotel. Many conspiracy theorists have identified security guard Thane Eugene Cesar as a possible second shooter along with the convicted SirhanSirhan. For ten points, name this man, who was assassinated hours after winning the California Democratic Party primary, and almost five years after his brother Jack met the same fate in Dallas.
ANSWER: Robert Francis Kennedy
9. Believers of this position claim that a particular ethnic group runs the Russian media, and that this ethnicity conspired with the CIA to destroy the Soviet Union, which was apparently a bad thing. This position has led to textbooks in a certain country labelling a certain ethnicity as “treacherous bandits” who are genetically predisposed to “falsehood and betrayal”. According to this position, an opposing nation’s capital city was a mistaken gift to its people (*), and in 2005 the mayor of the capital of the country which holds this view stated that his country would only be safe once they did to their enemies what the Nazis did to the Jews. A 2011 meeting in Kazan failed to resolve this position, and in the past this position has resulted in pogroms in cities such as Kirovabad and Sumqayit. FTP, what is this position maintained by Ilham Aliyev that claims that a certain country and people of its ethnicity are actively, yet covertly, attempting to ruin another country on the coast of the Caspian?
ANSWER: Armenia is Out to Get Azerbaijan (prompt on anti-Armenianism or anything that Armenia is messing with Azerbaijan)
10. This theory was supported by the fact the basset horn parts for a certain work were written by this conspiracy theory’s co-conspirators. This theory concerning a specific person is best represented through a sixteenth note, half note, half note motif at the beginning of a certain opera. Uses of (*) three part harmonies and suspensions are cited in this theory; those specific musical ideas represent friendship and brotherhood. For 10 points, name this theory strongly supported by themes representing certain occult like practices of a European guild in works such as The Magic Flute.
ANSWER: Mozart was a Freemason