ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ

You Gotta Know is a series of articles that highlights a category and the list of (more or less) ten topics that ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s editors have determined to be very valuable to know for the purposes of quiz bowl, along with a brief summary of each topic’s importance.

Naturally, there is no guarantee that these topics or clues will appear in ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ question sets, but statistically speaking, they should be a great place to start.

Geography

• You Gotta Know…these active volcanoes (July 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these African bodies of water (July 2012).
• You Gotta Know…these Asian rivers (January 2004).
• You Gotta Know…these deserts (September 2008).
• You Gotta Know…these mountains (March 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these North American rivers (January 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these western European rivers (September 2013).

History

• You Gotta Know…these 20th-century African leaders (November 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these 20th-century Middle Eastern leaders (October 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these African-American civil rights leaders (February 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these American murders and murderers (August 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these American third parties (January 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these American warships (September 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these ancient empires of the Mediterranean and Near East (June 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these ancient Greek places (July 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these assassinations (March 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these aviators (September 2012).
• You Gotta Know…these battles of the ancient world (December 2013).
• You Gotta Know…these Black American legislators (March 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these British monarchs (June 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these British prime ministers (July 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these British reform movements (December 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these campaigns in the Pacific Theater of World War II (March 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these Chinese dynasties (September 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these Civil War battles (April 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these countries once known by different names (June 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these elections (May 2001).
• You Gotta Know…these European royal families (March 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these explorers (December 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these feminists (April 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these founders of religious traditions (August 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these indigenous peoples (April 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these kings of France (September 2000).
• You Gotta Know…these magazines from American history (October 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these massacres (January 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these medieval battles (November 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these medieval Islamic dynasties (April 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these Mexican leaders (April 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these modern speeches (April 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these Napoleonic battles (September 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these Native American peoples (December 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these people from the French Revolution (October 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these peoples of the early Middle Ages (February 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these plagues and pandemics (August 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these popes (March 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these presidential inaugurations (February 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these presidential scandals (March 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these Revolutionary War battles (April 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these Revolutionary War generals (December 2000).
• You Gotta Know…these Roman emperors (May 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these Russian tsars (October 2001).
• You Gotta Know…these Secretaries of State (June 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these South American political leaders (August 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these space missions (December 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these spies (April 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these Supreme Court cases (April 2004).
• You Gotta Know…these Supreme Court cases (part 2) (September 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these Supreme Court cases concerned with African-Americans (September 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these Supreme Court cases involving LGBT+ rights (July 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these treaties (September 2007).
• You Gotta Know…these vice presidents who never became president (September 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these World War II battles (August 2012).
• You Gotta Know…these world's fairs (May 2022).

Literature

• You Gotta Know…these African-American authors (July 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these American plays (January 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these ancient Greek plays (February 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these authors of speculative fiction (October 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these Biblical sayings (February 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these characters in the Hebrew Bible (September 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these Charles Dickens novels (April 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these Japanese authors (February 2001).
• You Gotta Know…these Latin American authors (May 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these modernist authors (February 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these New Testament characters (October 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these non-Shakespeare classical English dramas (October 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these postmodern authors (March 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these religious texts (July 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these Shakespearean speeches, monologues, and soliloquies (October 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these Shakespearean villains (April 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these short story authors (February 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these translations and translators (December 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these works by Fyodor Dostoevsky (October 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these works by Irish authors (April 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these works of mystery and detective fiction (August 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these works of Russian short fiction (November 2018).

Mathematics

• You Gotta Know…these classifications of mathematical functions (July 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these geometric curves (September 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these ideas from calculus (November 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these mathematicians (March 2008).
• You Gotta Know…these statements about prime numbers (July 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these types of computation problems (February 2003).

Miscellaneous

• You Gotta Know…these common mistakes (February 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these common mistakes (part 2) (August 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these new-year celebrations (January 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these quintuples (January 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these world's fairs (May 2022).

Music and Auditory Art

• You Gotta Know…these 20th-century composers (September 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these American composers (August 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these arias (March 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these early-20th-century European composers (December 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these jazz musicians (August 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these music theory terms (October 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these musicals (part 1) (September 2011).
• You Gotta Know…these musicals (part 2) (June 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these non-western classical music traditions (November 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these operas (March 2004).
• You Gotta Know…these Romantic-era composers (August 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these works by Ludwig van Beethoven (February 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these works by Mozart (January 2016).

Mythology

• You Gotta Know…these Arthurian characters (December 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these Egyptian deities (March 2001).
• You Gotta Know…these Greek heroes (November 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these Greek mythological monsters (November 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these mortal women in Greek myth (May 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these New Testament characters (October 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these Norse gods (May 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these Trojan War heroes (July 2003).

Performance

• You Gotta Know…these arias (March 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these ballets (May 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these ballets (part 2) (September 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these choreographers (August 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these musicals (part 1) (September 2011).
• You Gotta Know…these musicals (part 2) (June 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these operas (March 2004).

Philosophy

• You Gotta Know…these ancient philosophers (August 2013).
• You Gotta Know…these schools of Western philosophy (July 2017).

Popular Culture

• You Gotta Know…these classic American television series (March 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these French directors (December 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these modern board games (January 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these musicals (part 1) (September 2011).
• You Gotta Know…these musicals (part 2) (June 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these pre-1960s movies (May 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these sandbox and open-world video games (December 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these silent films (July 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these video game series (November 2016).

Religion

• You Gotta Know…these Biblical sayings (February 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these characters in the Hebrew Bible (September 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these founders of religious traditions (August 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these Hindu gods and heroes (August 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these Jewish holidays (March 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these Jewish lifecycle events (September 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these New Testament characters (October 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these popes (March 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these religious texts (July 2002).

Science

• You Gotta Know…these 20th-century physicists (October 2013).
• You Gotta Know…these active volcanoes (July 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these animal phyla (March 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these chemical elements (May 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these chemistry lab techniques (September 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these circuit components (June 2019).
• You Gotta Know…these classes of particles (February 2004).
• You Gotta Know…these classifications of mathematical functions (July 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these distinctions among types of plants (August 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these dwarf planets, comets, and asteroids (June 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these enzymes (March 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these functional groups (September 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these geologic time periods (February 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these geometric curves (September 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these ideas from calculus (November 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these mathematicians (March 2008).
• You Gotta Know…these moons (May 2014).
• You Gotta Know…these Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine (April 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these organelles (November 2000).
• You Gotta Know…these programming terms (June 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these rocket scientists (February 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these rocks and minerals (January 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these scientific experiments (February 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these scientific scales (January 2015).
• You Gotta Know…these space missions (December 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these types of computation problems (February 2003).

Social Science

• You Gotta Know…these anthropologists (November 2013).
• You Gotta Know…these economic concepts (October 2016).
• You Gotta Know…these economists (August 2000).
• You Gotta Know…these linguists (August 2024).
• You Gotta Know…these psychological experiments and studies (November 2020).
• You Gotta Know…these psychologists (August 2001).

Sports

• You Gotta Know…these 21st-century quarterbacks (November 2023).
• You Gotta Know…these golfers (November 2001).
• You Gotta Know…these Hockey Hall of Famers (January 2001).
• You Gotta Know…these New York Yankees (November 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these Olympics (pre-2000) (December 2002).
• You Gotta Know…these tennis players (June 2003).

Visual Art

• You Gotta Know…these 20th-century paintings (June 2001).
• You Gotta Know…these architects (October 2003).
• You Gotta Know…these art museums (June 2012).
• You Gotta Know…these baroque painters (July 2021).
• You Gotta Know…these Dutch paintings (October 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these early 20th-century art movements (December 2017).
• You Gotta Know…these French directors (December 2022).
• You Gotta Know…these photography pioneers (June 2018).
• You Gotta Know…these sculptors (January 2008).
• You Gotta Know…these skyscrapers (November 2019).