Millionaire: Where would you place this question?

[SuperMatch93]

Last night on a game show Discord I'm a member of, we were discussing the following hypothetical Millionaire question:

On what day of the week was John F. Kennedy assassinated?
A. Tuesday
B. Wednesday
C. Thursday
D. Friday

I asked them what dollar value they'd give to this question, and their responses varied. Some said they'd put it all the way at $1M, others said a few rungs down, and some made the good point that it would vary based on the era of the show (lower on Meredith's, for instance). Knowing that some members here are former contestants, I'm curious as to what you all think this would be worth. Feel free to specify era, if you'd like.

[PYLdude]

I wouldn’t even put it on the board. It’s just too obscure to be worth it.

[Kevin Prather]

I wouldn’t even put it on the board. It’s just too obscure to be worth it.

I was about to say the opposite. I don't think it's obscure at all. As a point of reference, the syndicated version once asked what *time* Kennedy died for $100,000.

There's a list of spooky parallels between Kennedy and Lincoln. Some are true and some are apocryphal, but the fact that they were both shot on a Friday is one of them.

I'd say no more than $30,000 value, so Q9 for Harrison, Q10 for Meredith, maybe Q11 for Reege.

[TLEberle]

I’d say a buck ninety-eight?

Would I slot it in the games I run with Brian Henegar? No. Were it mine to do it’s probably either $8,000 or $16,000 given how well known 11/23/63 is.

[Dbacksfan12]

As Travis said, I think the date is fairly well known.  Additionally, the assassination has never been related to Thanksgiving Day proper, so I think that takes it down to a 1:3 shot given the choices.

[Adam Nedeff]

I would put it at about $32,000. Depending on a contestant's age, it might be a little tough, but considering how often you see or hear the phrase "the long weekend" invoked in stories about the assassination, it's pretty gettable.

[parliboy]

and some made the good point that it would vary based on the era of the show (lower on Meredith's, for instance).

I think that brings to mind an activity that assists with this.  Take all of the ladders from the different era and figure out where the difficulties line up, and make one larger ladder out of it.

[Otm Shank]

I wouldn’t even put it on the board. It’s just too obscure to be worth it.

The Kennedy assassination was a few years before I was born, but I knew immediately that this was a Thursday [editing my derp] Friday. First of all, it's not obscure to those who lived through it, just the same as those of us who remember 9/11 know that it was a Tuesday. (Maybe I'm assuming that is common knowledge, though.)

Part of my learning of the event was that it was a pall over the weekend, and the oft-told story of how the NFL forged ahead with its schedule, even though the games would not be televised due to unbroken continuous news coverage. I also specifically remember hearing the Oswald murder being on Day 3 and it was a Sunday.

Again, to draw in the NFL as the marker, one of the reasons I remember the Pearl Harbor attack was on a Sunday is that the military personnel in attendance for the Washington football team were paged to return to their command post. Weird that football factors into two events like that.

Beyond those three dates, I don't know if there is any other unscheduled national event that anyone would reasonably know the day of the week for.

tl;dr, I don't think the day of the week of the JFK assassination is an obscure question, but it might have a generational sliding scale of difficulty. (I also thought the president who appeared on Laugh-In was a slam dunk for a $1 million question, so maybe it's just the way my brain is wired.)

[Denials]

I wouldn’t even put it on the board. It’s just too obscure to be worth it.

The Kennedy assassination was a few years before I was born, but I knew immediately that this was a Thursday.

...Except...it wasn't.

[Otm Shank]

Right. I fell right into that trap of saying final answer on the initial instinct without working it through and verifying. Of course it was over the weekend, as I said, Oswald was shot on the 3rd day (Sunday) after the assassination on Friday.

Misremembered in the moment, but the point was that I heard the historical account framed around that set of days.

[BrandonFG]

I’d put it at the 25/32K or 64K level. It’s something I somehow remember but I don’t think it’s common enough to most people, not even trivia buffs.

[Chelsea Thrasher]

The date is a decent bit in the past now, and your average person is atrociously bad at automatically knowing what date corresponds to which day of the week. As written, probably the 2nd milestone (25/32) or 64K.

but considering how often you see or hear the phrase "the long weekend" invoked in stories about the assassination

I genuinely can't recall the last time I heard that phrase.

[wdm1219inpenna]

I'd say $32,000 or $64,000 level.  I, being a novice US Presidential historian, would have gotten that right away, even though it happened 3 years before I was even born.

Indeed a great many eerie parallels with Lincoln and Kennedy.  One that's seldom mentioned is they both died on a Friday before a major holiday.  In President Lincoln's case it was Easter Sunday, and with President Kennedy it was 6 days before Thanksgiving.

[Steve Gavazzi]

Indeed a great many eerie parallels with Lincoln and Kennedy.  One that's seldom mentioned is they both died on a Friday before a major holiday.  In President Lincoln's case it was Easter Sunday, and with President Kennedy it was 6 days before Thanksgiving.

I would imagine the reason it's seldom mentioned is that it isn't really very interesting.

[PYLdude]

Indeed a great many eerie parallels with Lincoln and Kennedy.  One that's seldom mentioned is they both died on a Friday before a major holiday.  In President Lincoln's case it was Easter Sunday, and with President Kennedy it was 6 days before Thanksgiving.

I would imagine the reason it's seldom mentioned is that it isn't really very interesting.

Well, maybe not necessarily to you or to me, but presidential trivia buffs always at least pique my interest because of the sheer randomness of the factoids that they possess knowledge of.

(If this came off like a swipe, I apologize because I wasn’t intending on that)