History Question of the Day
November 2025
January 2022
Cooling Castle was a 14th century English castle built in Kent. Constructed to defend the area against French raiding parties, it was the first English castle designed to allow fort defenders to use gunpowder weapons. What was ironic about its eventual demise?
Answer: It was the offensive capability of gunpowder weapons that led to Cooling’s capture after only eight hours when besieged by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1521-1554) in January 1554. The castle was largely destroyed.
Source: Fortess Kent by Roy D. Ingleton
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Which historical figure is famously known as “the Angel of Assassination”?
Answer: Charlotte Corday (1768-1793), the assassin of French revolutionary hero Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). The nickname was given to her by French writer Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), and has stayed with her ever since.
Source: The Historians’ History of the World by Henry Smith Williams
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The Marlyebone Cricket Club in London is famous as being the origin of the rules of cricket, but it also introduced the first concise rules for which other sport?
Answer: Tennis. It introduced standardised rules for lawn tennis in May 1875. These were used as the basis for the rules at the first Wimbledon Tennis Championships in 1877.
Source: Tennis – Cultural History by Heiner Gillmeister
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On July 4 1945, the Brazilian battle cruiser Bahia was sunk by an explosion while acting as a plane guard for transport aircraft. Why was the sinking particularly tragic?
Answer: The sinking was self-inflicted. The ships gunners were firing at a kite for anti-aircraft practice when one miss aimed and shot a depth charges stored near the ship’s stern. This caused a huge explosion that sank the ship within minutes.
Source: Latin America’s Wars by Robert L Scheina
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On 30 June 1859 Frenchman Charles Blondin (1824-1897) famously crossed Niagara Gorge, on the border between the USA and Canada, on a tightrope. The Gorge is 1100 ft. long and over 160 ft. above the water. This was merely the beginning of the ways he would perform the stunt however. How else did he do it?
Answer: Blondin’s variations of the journey included doing it while blindfolded, on stilts, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow and while carrying a man on his back. On one crossing he even sat down midway and, no less, made an omelette.
Source: Niagara by Pierre Berton
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The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fighting in the First World War (1914-1918) used the nicknames “Christmas Pudding”, “Toffee Apple” and “Football” to refer to which piece of military hardware?
Answer: The medium mortar, used by the BEF from 1916 onwards. Such nicknames were common, a 60 kg mortar was known as the “Flying Pig”.
Source: Trench Warfare, 1914-1918 by Tony Ashworth
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On June 9 1772, the British schooner HMS Gaspee ran aground near Warwick, Rhode Island, while engaging in anti-smuggling operations. What happened next?
Answer: The presence of Gaspee had angered local colonists and while the ship was aground, members of the anti-taxation Sons of Liberty secret society attacked, looted and torched the ship. The attack, known as the Gaspee Affair, is considered an important event in the lead-up to the American War of Independence (1775-1883).
Source: Sons of Providence by Charles Rappleye
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The sobriquets “Leather-necks”, “Aces” and “Bilge-rats” were all nicknames for what?
Answer: Members of the British Armed forces during the First World War (1914-1918). “Leather-necks” was a nickname for British army soldiers, “Aces” for fighter pilots while sailors were dubbed “Bilge-rats”.
Source: British English A to Zed by Norman W. Schur et al
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Which ancient dynasty’s knowledge of complex chemical formulas meant that they developed waterproof clothing, fireproof cement and even bamboo gas pipelines long before others?
Answer: The Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE).
Source: The Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph A Needham; General Historical Texts
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Aristippus (435 BCE-356 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and pupil of Socrates (470 BCE-399 BCE). Two of his written dialogues concerned surprising themes. What were they?
Answer: One was called “A Response to Those Who Criticise Me for Spending Money on Old Wine and Prostitutes”, while another was named “A Response to Those Who Criticise Me for Spending Money on Gourmet Food”.
Source: A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities by J.C. McKeown
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When Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, a number of rumours swept the country. What did they include?
Answer: One rumour suggested a secret Russian troop train had crossed England with drawn blinds, bound for France. Many others questioned the loyalty of the German population of Great Britain. One suggested a German grocer was selling poisoned vegetables, with another claiming a German barber had been caught cutting the throats of his patrons.
Source: What they don’t tell you about World War 1 by Bob Fowke
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Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an Augustinian friar who served as Abbot of St Thomas’s Abbey, Brno, in modern day Czech Republic. Largely unknown during his life, he later became recognized as the founding father of which discipline?
Answer: Genetics. He published research on the development of “recessive” and “dominant” traits in inheritance in 1866. This was largely ignored at the time and his pioneering conclusions were not appreciated until the beginning of the 20th century, nearly 30 years after his death.
Source: Mendel and the Laws of Genetics by Heather Hasan
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Which medieval European ruler was renowned for being unkempt, smelly and wearing the exact same clothing every day until it fell apart?
Answer: James VI and I of England and Scotland (1566-1625). James also considered himself an academic, though this was widely lampooned by others. The French court dubbed him “the wisest fool in Christendom.”
Source: An Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O’Farrell
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The Battle of Anzio, which took place between January and June 1944, pitted the Allies against the Axis Powers in Lazio, Italy. With Allied forces entrenched in marshland, what unusual strategy did the Axis powers use to drive out the Allies?
Answer: They stopped the drainage pumps and deliberately flooded the marshes behind the Anzio beachhead, hoping to encourage proliferation of malaria-bearing mosquitoes. While the plan largely failed, the event is considered the only instance of attempted biological warfare in Europe during the Second World War (1939-1945).
Source: Mediterranean Front by James Smith
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What was the event known as the “Great Stink” which took place in London in July and August 1858?
Answer: Hot weather exacerbated long term sewage contamination of the River Thames. The smell was said to be so strong that it made walking near the river unbearable. Unsurprisingly the British Parliament, situated on the banks of the Thames, rushed through in 18 days a law to build a new sewer system.
Source: The Great Stink of London by Stephen Halliday
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The Chinese Imperial examination, used for entrance into the Chinese state bureaucracy from the middle of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) until 1905, was incredibly rigorous. What did it involve?
Answer: Candidates had to stay in an examination compound in an isolated cell for three days and two nights. Here they wrote the “eight-legged essay” meant to show their mastery of Confucian classics. Only five percent of those sitting the exam passed.
Source: The China Collectors by Karl E. Meyer et al
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King Alexander (1893-1920) ruled Greece from June 1917 to October 1920. He died in strange circumstances. What were they?
Answer: He died from a monkey bite. He was bitten by a Barbary macaque monkey while walking on 2 October, and died three weeks later of septicemia.
Source: Kings of the Hellenes by John Van de Kiste
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Many talented people who went on to great heights of human achievement exhibited quite the opposite manifestations of excellence when younger. How did German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, who developed the general theory of relativity, exemplify this point?
Answer: Einstein could not speak properly until he was nine years old, and it was assumed that he suffered from dyslexia.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What was unusual about the counting system used by the ancient Babylonians?
Answer: They counted in sixties as well as tens. This system resonates today in the 360 degree measurement of a circle, and the 60 second and 60 minute calibrations of time.
Source: The Modern Reference Encyclopedia Illustrated
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It has been argued that if Kaiser Frederick III had not died from laryngeal cancer in 1888 (he reigned for only 90 days), it is likely that World War One and indeed World War Two would never have occurred. How is this so?
Answer: Frederick was succeeded by his son Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was widely believed to be mad, overly militaristic and had a love hate relationship with England.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Masie
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During the construction of the US transcontinental railway between 1863 and 1869 worker death by industrial accident was high. But what was proportionately a far higher cause of death?
Answer: Shootouts. CEO Dodge’s enforcer as labour boss was Jack Casement, known as ‘The Cossack’. He declared that “for every death by accident we lose four by shootout”.
Source: The History Channel
More at: History
During the construction of the US transcontinental railway between 1863 and 1869 worker death by industrial accident was high. But what was proportionately a far higher cause of death?
Answer: Shootouts. CEO Dodge’s enforcer as labour boss was Jack Casement, known as ‘The Cossack’. He declared that “for every death by accident we lose four by shootout”.
Source: The History Channel
More at: History
US five star General Douglas MacArthur was not burdened by low self esteem. What was the statement in March 1942, during World War Two, that particularly irritated many in Washington including President Franklin D Roosevelt?
Answer: Following his defeat in Bataan in the Philippines and his escape to Australia, MacArthur issued the statement, “I came out of Bataan and I shall return.” Many thought the statement should have been “we” – meaning US forces, would return.
Source: American Caesar by William Manchester
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When Britain’s King George III (1738-1820) was told that by a courtier that British Major General James Wolfe was mad, what was the king’s response?
Answer: “Mad is he. I wish he would bite some of my other generals.” Known for his training reforms, Wolfe is remembered primarily for his victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Canada in 1759.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Why did Ostrogoths King Theodoric the Great (454-526) voluntarily spend 11 years as a Roman hostage?
Answer: To guarantee the good behaviour of his father. Theodoric became king of the Ostrogoths in 471, and for the next 17 years was allies with, and attacked, Roman territories in the Balkans.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy
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The 5th century in Japan saw swift development and expansion of the Yamato state. What were some of the features of this development?
Answer: Intricate irrigation systems began to appear. Rulers built increasingly larger burial mounds, such as the 486 metre long Nintoku mound. Ojin established a new line of kings, who exercised more rigorous control over Japan’s main islands from a royal centre. Yamato overseas contacts became more extensive, with ten diplomatic missions visiting China in the years from 421 to 478.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What was the response from English artist William Hogarth on the invention in 1735 by fellow country man and clockmaker John Harrison of the first accurate timepiece that enabled longitude to be precisely calculated, thus revolutionizing world navigation?
Answer: “One of the most exquisite movements ever made.” The device was known as the H1 chronometer.
Source: Analysis of Beauty, 1753 by William Hogarth
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Successive failure of the potato crop in Ireland in the 1840s, produced a famine that lasted five years. What was the human cost of the famine in terms of lives lost?
Answer: More than one million died, at a time when Ireland’s population was around eight million. This would be equivalent today to around 40 million Americans dying.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy
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Hippocrates of Kos was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. What was his pangenesis hypothesis?
Answer: Hippocrates formulated the theory that hereditary material collects from around the body and is re-constituted inside the womb to form human life.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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A tremendous attraction for military men in past times was the prospect of personal enrichment by taking plunder after victory in battle. British adventurer and administrator Clive of India on his own admission did quite well after the Battle of Plassey. This was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June, 1757. What was the extent of his personal financial gain.
Answer: On his own admission, he removed 234,000 pounds sterling from the Bengal Treasury. In today’s currency this, conservatively, would be worth around 50 million pounds sterling.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy; A History of England by Paul Johnson
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In 1765 British adventurer and administrator Clive of India, negotiated a firman or edict from the Moghul Emperor Shah Alam giving the British East India Company the right to collect the revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. What was the comment of a Muslim onlooker to the arrangement?
Answer: He bitterly remarked, the whole transaction ‘was done and finished in less time than would have been taken up on the sale of a jackass’.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy
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December 2021
The Vikings were well known for their plundering expeditions in the British Isles and France. But what was significant about the voyage of the Nordic adventurer Bjorn Ironside?
Answer: In 859-860, his Viking ship ventured into the western Mediterranean and sacked several towns, among them one that he claimed was Rome. In fact, it was only Luma, a small town in Tuscany, Italy. Nevertheless, a remarkable feat of seamanship by any standard.
Source: The World of Vikings by Justin Pollard
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What is one example of famed Dutch Rembrandt (1606-69), not lacking in personal vanity?
Answer: He painted over sixty self-portraits.
Source: Rembrandt, 1606-1669: The Mystery of the Revealed Form by Michael Bockemühl
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What did Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky write in a letter to his brother, Anatoly, about his wife, five days after his marriage to Antonina Milyukova in 1877?
“Physically my wife has become totally repugnant to me.”
Source: Tchaikovsky – The Crisis Years 1874-1878 by Dr David Brown
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What did English author John Stow say in his book Annals of England, published in 1580, as regards the benefits of a knowledge of history?
Answer: It was “as hard for a man to read history and not become wise as it was for a well-favoured man to walk up and down in the hot, parching sun and not be therewith sunburned.”
Source: Annals of England by John Stow
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British prime minister David Lloyd George said that the First World War was the worst thing to happen to England since the War of the Roses (1455 – 1485). But how accurate is this?
Answer: Not very. War of the Roses’ battles were normally fought by armies numbered in their thousands, rather than tens of thousands. Battle casualties were counted in the hundreds rather than the thousands. More British were killed in a single day at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 than in the whole of the War of the Roses.
Source: The War of the Roses- Peace & Conflict in 15th century England by John Gillingham
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The cry ‘Remember the Alamo’ was significant in what North American 19th century event?
Answer: This was the rallying cry in the lead up to the Battle of Jacinto on April 21, 1836, during the Texas War of Independence. The siege of the Alamo in February and March of that year saw some 5,000 Mexican troops defeat massively outnumbered rebels. The Battle of Jacinto resulted in a Texas force under General Sam Houston winning victory over Mexican troops, forcing Mexico to recognise the new republic of Texas.
Source: General Historical Texts
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According to archaeologist Scott A. J. Johnson, what was behind the collapse and failure of major ancient civilisations, such as the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Roman and Inca?
Answer: Johnson argues that overconfidence blinded ancient peoples to evidence that would allow them to adapt and survive further into the future, thus precipitating their eventual downfall.
Source: Why Did Ancient Civilisations Fail by Scott A. J. Johnson
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What did Britain’s famed Duke of Marlborough say was the only books he read?
Answer: Those written by William Shakespeare.
Source: The War of the Roses – Peace & Conflict in 15th century England by John Gillingham.
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France’s King Louis XV (1710-1774) left a legacy of a country in near financial ruin and moral decadence that set the stage for the French Revolution under his successor Louis XVI (1754-1793). Apart from the pleasures of the flesh, to which he was near-addicted, he well understood the need to perpetuate the Bourbon family line. In what way?
Answer: By the age of 27, he had fathered 10 children with his queen consort Marie Leszczyńska of Poland.
Source: Louis the Beloved – The Life of Louis XV by Olivier Bernier
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Who were the Condottieri?
Answer: They were Italian freelancers, or mercenaries, who in the 14th and 15th century lived by plunder, or who hired themselves to others for a share in the spoils.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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When famed Russian composer Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky died in 1890 he was given the grandest of state funerals, which included lying in state in Saint Peterburg’s Kazan Cathedral. Who paid for the elaborate event?
Answer: None other than the Russian Tsar, Alexander III. As technically owner of the Russian lands, he could no doubt afford it.
Source: Tchaikovsky by David Brown
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What was the background of the development of the khaki military uniform?
Answer: This was first introduced by the British Corps of Guides in 1848 under the command of Sir Harry Lumsden. The name derives from the Urdu word khak meaning dust. The dust-colored uniforms became popular as, not only did they make the wearers less visible targets, but they also camouflaged the dirt.
Source: The Modern Reference Encyclopedia Illustrated
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American humorist, juggler and film star W C Fields was renowned as a big drinker and indeed this was part of his film persona. It was said that his bulbous nose had all the colours of the rainbow. His domestic staff estimated that he drank two US quarts of gin, or 64 fluid ounces, or 1.7 litres. In his remaining years his housekeeper, a Miss Michaels, asked him if he had his life over would he have done anything differently. What was Fields’ reply?
Answer: “I would have liked to have seen how I made out without liquor’.
Source: W C Fields: His Follies and Fortunes by Robert Lewis Taylor
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What was the Saint Patrick’s battalion?
Answer: A battalion of several hundred Irishmen who fought for the Mexican Army in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Most were previously members of the US Army who defected after facing discrimination for their ethnicity and Catholic religious beliefs.
Source: US-Mexican War by Bronwyn Mills
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What was the highly unusual earlier profession of 22nd and 24th US President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)?
Answer: Hangman. While serving as sheriff of Erie county, New York, he hanged several convicted felons. After hanging a young Irishman named Jack Morissey he was reported to have been sick for several days, but went on to happily receive the $20,000 fee as hangman.
Source: New York Times, July 1912
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In 1801, American President Thomas Jefferson held a dinner party, where he served what are now commonly called French fries. Why did this likely provoke a negative reaction amongst his guests?
Answer: Most contemporaries felt potatoes were highly poisonous unless boiled thoroughly, whereas these were only to be deep fried. Jefferson’s French chef had to convince the guests that no harm would befall them.
Source: Why Didn’t I Think of That? by Anthony Rubino Jr.
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In 1894 in Owestry, Wales, a stationmaster received a box containing a live baby and a letter requesting him it adopt it. He declined, and the baby and the box was later handed over to a signalman who took the child home. Why did the stationmaster regret his decision?
Answer: Below the baby was a bundle of £200, a significant sum at the time. Despite being requested by the stationmaster, the signalman refused to give the baby back.
Source: The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton by Jeremy Clay
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In 1881 Florida, what was bizarre about the wedding of Utah salesman Mr Bradley?
Answer: He married a corpse. Having met his future bride on his travels, he resolved that he would marry her despite her being in the last stages of consumption. She promptly died before the wedding, but Bradley went ahead with the marriage ceremony – which also became her funeral service.
Source: The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton by Jeremy Clay
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Which castle is the world’s largest by surface area?
Answer: Malbork Castle in Poland. Built in Prussia from 1280 by the Teutonic Knights, its surface area is an incredible 143,591 square meters.
Source: The Medieval Fortress by J.E. Kaufmann et. al
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Canned food was first patented in 1810, but how long did it take before a can opener was developed?
Answer: 48 years, when Ezra Warner patented his can opener in 1858. Before this, cans were opened rather ungracefully by using a chisel and a hammer.
Source: Why Didn’t I Think of That? by Anthony Rubino Jr.
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Which famous era of maritime history began in 1843 and ended with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869?
Answer: The clipper ship era. A result of the growing demand for a more rapid delivery of tea from China, the era fueled rapid change in ship design, and helped marked the transition in sea travel from sail to steam navigation.
Source: Fast Sailing Ships by David MacGregor
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Which large American city name was decided by a coin toss?
Answer: Portland, Oregon. Disagreeing over who should name the city, the two primary founders, Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove, tossed a coin in 1845 to decide who should name the city. Pettygrove won, and named the town Portland, after his home town in Maine. If Lovejoy had won, the city would likely have been called Boston.
Source: Portland by Jewel Beck Lansing
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How did a hen cause a panic and bewilderment in Leeds, England, in 1806?
Answer: A hen appeared to be laying eggs decorated with the message ‘Christ is coming.’ Many travelled to see the eggs and considered them a sign of the coming judgement day. It was later revealed however that messages were a scam – the hen’s owner had been writing on the eggs and then placing them back inside the ‘prophet hen.’ Today he would be visited by the RSPCA.
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
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What is, and where in history would you find, the weapon known as a ‘Hornet Bomb’.
Answer: The ‘Hornet Bomb’ was used by the Maya civilization, and was an actual hornet’s nest thrown at enemies during battle. Historians remain puzzled however at how these nests were stored and transported without harming their Mayan handlers.
Source: Mexico by Bobbie Kalman
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In what unusual way were the early versions of sunglasses used in Mediaeval China?
Answer: Chinese Judges would use smoke colored lenses, much like modern day sunglasses, to conceal their eyes and therefore their emotions during trials.
Source: Why Didn’t I Think of That? by Anthony Rubino Jr.
More at: History
What cosmetic did the UK parliament surpassingly move to ban in 1770?
Answer: Lipstick. It stated women found guilty of seducing men into matrimony by such a cosmetic means ‘could be tried for witchcraft.’
Source: Read My Lips by Meg Cohen Ragas
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During the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland (1649-1653), Oliver Cromwell ruthlessly crushed rebellion in Ireland. Less known however, is one location where Cromwell sent many of his captives. Where was it?
Answer: Barbados. Those who resisted Cromwell’s plans were shipped to the Caribbean island as indentured servants. As many as 50,000 are considered to have been sent there and to other parts of the Caribbean.
Source: To Hell or Barbados by Sean O’Callaghan
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What was unique about the first press conference held by American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933?
Answer: She did not allow men to attend. In an attempt to promote women’s issues she stated only female reporters, who were traditionally not allowed to attend presidential press conferences, were able to be present.
Source: Eleanor Roosevelt by Maurine Beasley
More at: History
Which are older, the Great Pyramids of Egypt or the oldest bristlecone pine trees in California’s White Mountains?
Answer: The trees at the White Mountains. One of the oldest trees there, nicknamed Methuselah, is 4,844 years old.
Source: Like a Tree by Jean Bolen
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From where does the term ‘jaywalking’ derive?
Answer: First emerging in the 1920s, the term originates from mid-western slang, where a jay was a term describing a rural resident who was stupid or naïve. Jaywalking emerged from this as a pejorative term to describe those who could not cross the road safely.
Source: Civic Sense by Prakesh Pillappa
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The pepper-box revolver, first developed in the 1830s, is often considered one of the worst firearms in history. Why was this?
Answer: Very heavy due to its multiple barrels, it would often explode without warning and was hopelessly inaccurate. Author Mark Twain noted it would often fire off multiple shots at the same time in wholly different directions.
Source: Pistols by Jeff Kinnard
More at: History
November 2021
On 28 July 1835, Giuseppe Marco Fieschi failed in an attempt to assassinate the French King Louis-Phillippe, narrowly missing him with a bullet. The weapon Fieschi used was one he had made himself, which he dubbed the ‘infernal machine.’ What was it?
Answer: The weapon consisted of twenty gun barrels tied together, to be fired simultaneously. The weapon was so unwieldy that it nearly killed Fieschi himself, while many others located nearby were injured or killed.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica by Hugh Chisholm
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William Bourne, an English Innkeeper, is believed to have been the first individual to write down a description for a submarine. When did he do so, and what did his idea involve?
Answer: In 1580, Bourne wrote the principles for a submarine, suggesting it would be capable of submerging by decreasing the overall volume. Its form of propulsion would be, somewhat optimistically, by rowing underwater.
Source: Military Technologies of the World by T.W. Lee
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Which book, first published in 1418, is second only to the Bible in the number of languages it has been translated into?
Answer: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. A devotional work, it is considered a pioneering work in Christian theology.
Source: Wisdom of the Great by Sam Made
More at: History
Which famous American resort town had more humble beginnings as a piece of scrubby desert, named in the early nineteenth century by the Spanish, who used the location as a watering post along the trail between Los Angeles and Santa Fe?
Answer: Las Vegas. The city as we know it was not established until 1905 and incorporated as a city in 1911.
Source: Touring Nevada by Mary Ellen Grass
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In 1908, the Japanese ship Kasato Maru arrived in Santos Harbor, Brazil. Why was this so significant?
Answer: The ship was bringing the first permanent Japanese migrants to Brazil. Since then, more than 250,000 Japanese have migrated to Brazil, which now contains the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.
Source: Negotiating National Identity by Jeff Lesser
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What was the Quasi-War?
Answer: An undeclared war between France and the United States of America, which lasted from 1798-1800 and was fought mostly at sea. It developed after tensions arose between the two countries over unpaid American debts, the actions of French privateers and the treatment of an American diplomatic mission to Paris in 1797.
Source: The Quasi-War by Alexander De Conde
More at: History
Which highly unusual anti-tank weapon was employed by the Soviet Union?
Answer: Dogs. These ‘anti-tank Dogs’ carried explosives on their backs and were trained to run at targeted enemy tanks. They were a regular feature of the Soviet arsenal from the 1930s onwards, and were even credited with destroying as many as 300 tanks during the Second World War.
Source: Cry Havoc by Nigel Allsopp
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When did the lounge suit, today the office attire of choice for many across the world, first become widely popular?
Answer: The three-piece lounge suit was regularly worn from the 1890s onwards. Despite first becoming truly fashionable in the United Kingdom, its origins lie in the matching jacket and breeches commonly worn in the French court.
Source: The Gilded Age by Joel Shrock
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What government agency did American President Abraham Lincoln ironically create on the day of his assassination in 1865?
Answer: The Secret Service, which was created on April 14 1865, the day of his death.
Source: Out From the Shadow by Maurice Butler
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What was famous about William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East Indian Army in the 1840s?
Answer: He was purportedly the only British survivor from an army of 4,500 men who had been forced to retreat from Kabul in 1842, during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). The retreat, known also as the Massacre of Elphinstone’s Army, was the worst disaster in British military history until the Fall of Singapore in 1942.
Source: Retreat from Kabul by Patrick Macrory
More at: History
Despite the Hollywood portrayal, the American West was never a truly violent place. How many murders took place for instance in the infamous Dodge City at the height of the ‘Wild West’?
Answer: Fifteen between the years 1877 and 1886, at an average of 1.5 a year. You were far more likely to be killed in Baltimore or many East Coast American towns than in Dodge City.
Source: Gunfight by Adam Winkler
More at: History
Which disastrous event hit London on 7 January 1928, killing fourteen and affecting such London landmarks as the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London?
Answer: The 1928 Thames flood, which was the last time the centre of London has been heavily flooded. The floods also severely disrupted the London Underground, as well as damaging priceless artworks at the Tate gallery.
Source: Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe by Hubert Lamb
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On June 4, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous ‘Fight Them on the Beaches’ speech, which helped inspire the British people to resist the threat of Nazi Germany. During the address, however, he muttered an extra line to his deputy, Clement Atlee. What was it?
Answer: ‘And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that’s bloody well all we’ve got!’
Source: In The Footsteps of Churchill by Richard Holmes
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Sitting Bull (1831-1890) was a famous Native American leader who attempted to defend his people against the American government. What was his original name however?
Answer: The rather less fearsome ‘Jumping Badger.’
Source: Legends of American Indian Resistance by Edward J. Rielly
More at: History
In the fifteenth century, French soldiers often referred to the English as ‘godons’. Why?
Answer: The phrase derived from ‘God-damn’, a saying which was considered in wide use among English soldiers.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Hundred Years War by John A. Wagner
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When St Louis, Missouri held the 1904 Summer Olympic games, what were some of the more unusual events included?
Answer: Greased pole climbing, rock throwing and mud fighting.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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The Medici’s were a remarkable political dynasty, banking family and later royal house in Florence, Italy. Over 400 years, two Medici’s became queens of France and three became pope. In the words of Professor Niall Ferguson, however, ‘prior to the 1390s the Medici’s were Florence’s answer to the Sopranos and were a small-time clan notable more for low violence than for high finance.’ What was one example of their then low status in society?
Answer: In a 17-year period, no fewer than five Medici’s were sentenced to death by the criminal courts for capital crimes.
Source: The Ascent of Money by Professor Niall Ferguson
More at: History
‘Poor Richard’s’ Almanack was a highly popular pamphlet published in the British North American colonies, with versions published each year from 1733 to 1758. Who wrote it?
Answer: American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). In writing the pamphlet he adopted the pseudonym of ‘Richard Saunders’, dubbed ‘Poor Richard’.
Source: Self-help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture by Roy M. Anker
More at: History
According to legend, what unusual strategy did Persian ruler King Cambyses II employ to get the upper hand against his Egyptian opponents at the Battle of Pelusium in 55 BCE?
Answer: Knowing that the Egyptians considered cats sacred, Cambyses was said to have ordered his soldiers to bring them to the front line. The presence of cats was said to have so confused and concerned Egyptian soldiers such that their discipline collapsed and they were defeated easily.
Source: Forgotten Empire by John Curtis
More at: History
In 1634, Boston, Massachusetts, commissioned its first set of stocks, with craftsman Edward Palmer given the task of designing and building them. Who was the first individual to be placed in the stocks?
Answer: Palmer himself. The bill he submitted for the stocks, totaling one pound, thirteen shillings and seven pence, was considered by town officials to be exorbitant, and Palmer was charged with extortion. He was fined five pounds and sentenced to an hour in the stocks.
Source: Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Alice Earle
More at: History
The phrase ‘money for old rope’ is used to apply to situations where someone makes financial gain with little or no effort. But from which act may this phrase originate?
Answer: Public hanging. The rope used for such a hanging was often sold in six-inch strips to spectators as a lucky charm.
Source: The North by Paul Morley
More at: History
At the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, what was known to the Romans as ‘The British Metal’?
Answer: Tin. The Romans were great metallurgists, using large amounts of tin, lead and silver in various aspects of their daily lives.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In the 1880s American dentist Dr Albert Southwick surprisingly worked to develop which invention?
Answer: The electric chair. In 1881 Southwick had been given the inspiration for such a device after witnessing how an elderly drunkard was quickly killed when he fell into an electric generator. The chair was eventually developed in collaboration with Thomas Edison.
Source: Eighth Amendment by Rich Smith
More at: History
American Industrialist Henry Ford revolutionised business, but he also predicted a world completely dominated by machines. How would this work?
Answer: Ford foresaw a world where one would ‘press a button by the side of the bed and find himself automatically clad, fed, exercised, amused and, later in the day, put to bed again.’ Wallace and Gromit would agree.
Source: Good Old Days My Ass by David A. Fryxell
More at: History
Why did it become fashionable in the 1880s for British high society ladies to pretend to limp, something known as the ‘Alexandra Limp’?
Answer: So as to follow a trend inadvertently created by Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), wife of the Prince of Wales, aka ‘Dirty Bertie’. Her fashion sense was widely copied and when a bout of rheumatic fever unfortunately left her with a limp, ladies across the country emulated it. Remarkably, shopkeepers even developing mismatched footwear to help women meet the unusual craze.
Source: Edward VII by Christopher Hibbert
More at: History
Who was described by a Venetian ambassador as ‘the arbiter of the world’ due to their power and influence?
Answer: King Phillip II (1527-1598) of Spain. Under him, Spain reached the height of its world power, possessing territories in all then known continents.
Source: World Without End by Thomas Hugh
More at: History
The Aztecs used an unusual ingredient when constructing their buildings. What was this?
Answer: Animal blood. They would mix the blood with cement as a mortar for their buildings. The mortar must have been successful – many of these buildings remain to this day.
Source: What? What? What? by Lyn Thomas.
More at: History
Admiral David Beatty was Britain’s most glamorous naval officer during World War One. Handsome, flamboyant and wealthy, thanks to his heiress wife, he had an unusual relationship with a Mrs Robinson, a Madam Dubois and a lady in Edinburgh named Josephine. What relationship did Beatty have with these women?
Answer: They were the fortune tellers he regularly consulted.
Source: Castles of Steel by Robert Massie
More at: History
Eighteenth century Cambridge professor and poet Thomas Gray said that reading Aristotle was like … what?
Answer: Eating dried hay.
Source: England by F E Halliday; General Historical Texts
More at: History
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany owned how many schlosser or castles?
Answer: 69. Even if he tried, he could not manage a full week in each, in any given year. In present currency, if the average value of each castle and surrounding land was, say, US$10 million, at some $690 million, the value of his property portfolio was a not inconsequential part of his net worth.
Source: The Last Kaiser by Giles MacDonogh
More at: History
October 2021
Who was the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated?
Answer: Spencer Perceval was shot dead in May 1812 in the House of Commons by bankrupt John Bellingham. He bore a grievance against the government over a claim for compensation for his time spent in a Russian jail. Perceval left a widow and twelve children. When it was revealed he left little or no money, Parliament made a grant of 50,000 pounds to his family.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
General Douglas MacArthur, who it was generally acknowledged was not burdened by low self esteem, wore a distinctive and unusual hat during World War Two that was for an army other than that of the United States. What was this?
Answer: Field Marshall of the Philippines Army. MacArthur had been hired as a consultant to the Philippines Government in the 1930s at a reported annual salary of US$500,000. This is equivalent to perhaps $5 million today.
Source: American Shogun: Gen MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito and the Drama of Modern Japan by Robert Harvey; America’s Caesar by Greg Loren Durand
More at: History
What year was legalized slavery abolished in Saudi Arabia? A hint. In the same year Glenn Bell’s first Taco Bell opened in Downey, California.
Answer: 1962
Source: An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin
More at: History
Novelist Charles Dickens was one of the most beloved figures of 19th century Britain – a cross between J K Rowling and Father Christmas. He loved the public’s adoration of him. In his later years, however, and up to the time of his death, he undertook an arduous series of public lectures up and down Britain, the exhaustion caused by this leading to his death aged 58. But there was a little known reason for this grueling regime, and one which Dickens was very keen to keep from the public. What was this?
Answer: From the age of 45 Dickens had been having an extramarital affair with a mesmerizing, struggling 18 year old actress named Ellen (Nelly) Ternan. Traveling up and down Britain was a means of maintaining secret liaisons with her without being detected, which Dickens feared would ruin his career and end the public’s adoration of him.
Source: Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion by Peter Ackroyd; General Historical Texts
More at: History
During the Battle of the Marne in the early days of the First World War, German forces were advancing at great speed against the French and came within twenty miles of Paris. French general Joseph Joffre famously resorted to what ingenious measure to boost his fighting forces?
Answer: He requisitioned a thousand Parisian taxi drivers to deliver additional volunteers to the front.
Source: Cambridge Illustrated History of France by Colin Jones
More at: History
Which novel, and in another era an internationally successful musical, was an overwhelming favorite amongst Confederate Soldiers during the American Civil War?
Answer: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Soldiers often wittingly transliterated this into ‘Lee’s Miserables’.
Source: The Companion to Southern Literature by Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan
More at: History
How long did the Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896, between Britain and the Zanzibar Sultanate, last?
Answer: 38 minutes. It was the shortest war in history.
Source: Britain’s Forgotten Wars by Ian Hernon
More at: History
How did Napoleon I describe King Louis XIV, the famous ‘Sun King’ and France’s longest reigning monarch?
Answer: Napoleon remarked that Louis was ‘the only King of France worthy of the name’.
Source: Titans of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore
More at: History
‘No matter how bestial and obdurate a man might be, that woman could bend him to her will.’ To which individual does this description, written by medieval chronicler Richard of Devizes, refer to?’
Answer: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was the queen of two kings, the mother of two more, and her resilience and unshakable will made her legendary across Europe.
Source: Titans of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore
More at: History
Between which nations exists the oldest continuing diplomatic alliance?
Answer: The United Kingdom and Portugal. A treaty of mutual assistance, the Treaty of Windsor, was originally signed over eight hundred years ago in 1373 by King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal. The treaty continues to operating to this day.
Source: Operation Alacrity by Norman Herz
More at: History
Famed American dancer Isadora Duncan reached great heights in her professional career but some remarkable lows in her private life. What were some of these?
Answer: Tragically her two children were drowned when the car they were in rolled into the Seine River in 1914. Duncan married the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, 18 years her junior, but he left her and hanged himself in 1925 having written his last poem in his blood. Duncan, who had a liking for scarves, died in 1927 when the scarf she was wearing caught in the rear wheel of her Bugatti sports car, breaking her neck.
Source: On This Day – The History of the World in 366 Days Edited by Sian Facer; General Historical Texts.
More at: History
When the East Indies volcano-island of Krakatoa exploded, indeed essentially disintegrated, in 1883, the shock waves from the explosion travelled how many times around the world?
Answer: Seven Times.
Source: Krakatoa by Simon Winchester
More at: History
On a visit to the Holy Land in 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany made a little known suggestion that bewildered many in his homeland and throughout Europe. What was this?
Answer: He implied that if he were not already a Christian, he would be a Muslim. Soon the Kaiser was styling himself ‘Hajji Wilhelm’, protector of the Muslims.
Source: John Lewis Stempel, writing in The Express newspaper, October 12, 2014
More at: History
The year 1453 in Europe saw the end of two Empires. What were they?
Answer: Firstly, the English domination in France, which had decreased and grown since the days of William the Conqueror in the 11th century. The other was the empire of Constantinople, which had long been an ancient Christian bulwark. This ended with victory of the 21 year old Sultan Muhammad II, head of the Ottoman Turks.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
The great Mongol leader Kublai Khan (1215-1294), grandson of Genghis, did what in 1279 that has remained to the present day?
Answer: Declare Beijing (then named Dadu) the capital of China, which he did as a member of the (Mongol) Yuan Dynasty. Previously a regional capital, this was the first time it was given such prominence.
Source: Urban World History by Luc-Normand Tellier
More at: History
The Mamluk (1206–90), Khilji (1290–1320) and Tughlaq (1320–1414) were all dynasties of which medieval kingdom?
Answer: The Delhi Sultanate, which ruled over parts of the Indian subcontinent between 1206 and 1526. Its fall in 1526 made way for the Mughal Empire, one of the most powerful empires in human history.
Source: India in the World Economy by Tirthankar Roy; Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts.
More at: History
During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), Chinese soldiers fought Japanese invaders in a brutal and devastating conflict. The Chinese army, lacking weapons and modern equipment, was no match for the Japanese Army. In what way was this painfully shown?
Answer: At the onset of the Japanese invasion, many Chinese armies still fought with swords. Chinese losses were considerable. After the USSR, China had the second highest death toll of the Second World War (1939-1945).
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson; Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In the late nineteenth century which drink, nicknamed “Green Fairy”, was believed to produce hallucinations and madness and played a significant role in European creative life through artists and writers such as Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)?
Answer: Absinthe. Also known as “madness in a bottle”.
Source: Explosive Acts by David Sweetman
More at: History
While China is credited for a whole range of discoveries before the West, it was overtaken in technological terms by Europe during the Scientific Revolution (c.16th-18th century). Arguably, what was the reason for this?
Answer: Glass. While glass production was perfected in Europe and used for a whole host of inventions, from spectacles to the telescope, it was rarely used in China. Glass had predominately been used for children’s toys and none at all was produced in China between the 14th and the 19th century.
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
More at: History
Autocratic Imperial Russia was surprisingly the first state to authorise the publishing of Karl Marx’s Capital in 1872. Why?
Answer: Russian censors decreed “it is possible to state with certainty that very few people in Russia will read it and even fewer will understand it.” It was also irrelevant as censors claimed the “capitalist exploitation” Capital mentioned had never been experienced in Russia.
Source: A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
More at: History
Legendary French hero Joan of Arc (1412-1431) was captured in 1430 by Burgundian troops, allies of the English. She was executed a year later in 1431. What for?
Answer: Cross dressing. Before her trial by a French ecclesiastical court in May 1451, she had appeared dressed in men’s clothes. The judge, the Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchin, promptly sentenced her to death.
Source: 50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World by William Weir
More at: History
When the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79 CE, it had a population of about 8,000. At that time in the entire Mediterranean world there were only a handful of places with a population of more than 25,000. Why does this make the position of Rome all the more remarkable?
Answer: At the time, Rome had a population of at least 250,000. The dominance of the city probably accounts for the saying, ‘all roads lead to Rome’.
Source: History of the World by Hugh Thomas
More at: History
Who invented bullet-proof tyres and when did this occur?
Answer The French tyre manufacturer Michelin in 1934. Renowned for their innovations and entrepreneurialism, brothers Édouard and André Michelin ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. In 1889, a cyclist whose pneumatic tire needed repair turned up at the factory. Thus was the genesis of the global tyre manufacturing operation that continues on today. In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in the French colony of Vietnam.
Source: History of the World by Hugh Thomas
More at: History
General Victor ‘Brute’ Krulak (1913-2008), was an inspirational three star US Marine general. Krulak loved to give large, formal parties, and was famous for knocking men over with his recipe for fish house punch. According to author Robert Coram, the drink had an usual effect on those who partook of it. What was this?
Answer: Coram describes its subtle effects this way: ‘Fish House Punch is an insidious drink that, after two glasses, causes a peculiar numbness around the ears. After three glasses, a man believes he is the smartest person God ever created. Then comes the moment when he thinks bugs are crawling all over his body.’
Source: Brute – The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine by Robert Coram
More at: History
What was the biggest extinction ever in human history?
Answer: The Permian mass extinction occurred some 250 million years ago and was by far the worst catastrophe ever suffered by life on Earth. An unbelievable 90 to 95 percent of marine species became extinct along with 70% of terrestrial species, including plants insects and vertebrate animals.
Source: Historical Atlas by Dr Geoffrey Wawro
More at: History
In the fifteenth century, French soldiers often referred to the English as ‘godons’. Why?
Answer: The phrase derived from ‘God-damn’, a saying which was considered in wide use among English soldiers.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Hundred Years War by John A. Wagner
More at: History
John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was one of the wealthiest men in America during the 19th century, and was acknowledged as the most powerful banker on Wall Street. As a young man he went into the family business, showing early on definite attributes as a businessman. What was one example of such traits?
Answer: During the American Civil War, in his 20s, Morgan bought 5,000 defective rifles from an arsenal at $3.50 each and resold them to a field general for $22 each. The rifles were found to be defective and some shot off the thumbs of the soldiers firing them.
Source: New England Historical Society
More at: History
The civilization of Ancient Egypt was considered one of the most advanced of its time, but in life expectancy it still lagged far behind the modern era. What was the lifespan of the average Ancient Egyptian citizen?
Answer: 35 years.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
More at: History
The Battle of Solferino in 1859 saw the victory of French and Piedmontese armies over a large Austrian force, opening the way for Italian unification. The battle is also unusual in another way, what was it?
Answer: It was the last major battle in European history where the armies involved were under the command of their monarchs. The French Army was under the command of Napoleon III, Piedmontese under Victor-Emmanuel and Austria under Emperor Franz Josef.
Source: The Middle Sea by John Julius Norwich
More at: History
In the medieval Mughal Empire in India, transitions of power from one emperor to the next were often tumultuous affairs. When Emperor Akbar was on his death bed in 1605, what threatened the accession of his son, Prince Salim, to the throne?
Answer: Prince Salim’s own son, seventeen year old Man Singh, who made a failed grab for power himself. Despite attempting to steal his father’s throne, Man Singh did not lose favor with Salim, later being installed as governor of Bengal.
Source: The Mughal Empire by John F. Richards
More at: History
The Battle of Agincourt, on October 25, 1415, was a momentous medieval victory for English forces against France. What factor however, likely meant the French soldiers were tired and depleted before they even faced the English?
Answer: The French armour. It was incredibly heavy, just the helmet and cuirass, or breastplate, of one French knight weighed 40 Kg (90 Pounds). Many soldiers likely died of heat stroke, fell into ditches – most could not get up without assistance – and suffocated before the battle had even begun.
Source: The Middle Ages by Morris Bishop
More at: History
September 2021
At around 800 BCE, there were, incredibly, over 1000 different states on the Chinese mainland. How many were there by 480 BCE?
Answer: Fourteen. Between 480 and 222 BCE, bitter conflict took place such that only one state, the Qin, remained.
Source: A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard
More at: History
Of all the ancient civilizations, which was considered to have the most equality between men and women?
Answer: Ancient Egypt. As social status was overwhelmingly defined by rank not gender, women were highly respected. They enjoyed many legal rights, including participation in business practices and the owning of land, and could also work in many professional occupations.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
More at: History
When St Louis, Missouri held the 1904 Summer Olympic games, what were some of the more unusual events included?
Answer: Greased Pole Climbing, rock throwing and mud fighting.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
The Medici’s were a remarkable political dynasty, banking family and later royal house in Florence, Italy. Over 400 years, two Medici’s became queens of France and three became pope. In the words of Professor Niall Ferguson, however, ‘prior to the 1390s the Medici’s were Florence’s answer to the Sopranos, and were a small time clan notable more for low violence than for high finance.’ What was one example of their then low status in society?
Answer: In a 17 year period, no fewer than five Medici’s were sentence to death by the criminal courts for capital crimes.
Source: The Ascent of Money by Professor Niall Ferguson
More at: History
‘Poor Richard’s’ Almanack was a highly popular pamphlet published in the British North American colonies, with versions published each year from 1733 to 1758. Who wrote it?
Answer: American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). In writing the pamphlet he adopted the pseudonym of ‘Richard Saunders’, dubbed ‘Poor Richard’.
Source: Self-help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture by Roy M. Anker
More at: History
According to legend, what unusual strategy did Persian ruler King Cambyses II employ to get the upper hand against his Egyptian opponents at the Battle of Pelusium in 55 BCE?
Answer: Knowing that the Egyptians considered cats sacred, Cambyses was said to have ordered his soldiers to bring them to the front line. The presence of cats was said to have so confused and worried Egyptian soldiers that their discipline collapsed and were defeated easily.
Source: Forgotten Empire by John Curtis
More at: History
The phrase ‘money for old rope’ is used to apply to situations where someone makes financial gain with little or no effort. But from which act may this phrase originate?
Answer: Public hanging. The rope used for such a hanging was often sold in six inch strips to spectators as a lucky charm.
Source: The North by Paul Morley
More at: History
What famous event was Japanese civil servant Masabumi Hosono (1870-1939) involved in, and why was he ostracised from society as a result?
Answer: He was a survivor from the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. The only Japanese passenger on the ship, he was condemned as a coward by the Japanese public for saving himself rather than going down with the ship.
Source: Titanic by Kevin S. Sandler
More at: History
In the 1880s, American dentist Dr Albert Southwick surprisingly worked to develop which invention?
Answer: The electric chair. In 1881 Southwick had been given the inspiration for such a device after witnessing how an elderly drunkard was quickly killed when he fell into an electric generator. The chair was eventually developed in collaboration with Thomas Edison.
Source: Eighth Amendment by Rich Smith
More at: History
In 1780, Holy Roman emperor Joseph II (1741-1790) was, with his entourage, travelling through France, when he came across American polymath and one of the United States’ founding fathers Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). When asked whether he, Joseph, approved of America, how did he reply?
Answer: He confirmed he did not, for “I am a king by trade.”
Source: The First American – The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
More at: History
The Battle of Cable Street took place on October 4, 1936. What was it?
Answer: A riot in Whitechapel, East London. Clashes took place between members of the British Union of Fascists, who had to abort a planned march through the predominately Jewish East End, police and thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators.
Source: Battle for the East End by David Rosenberg
More at: History
Which American founding father established his own commercial whiskey distillery?
Answer: George Washington (1732-1799). Washington established the distillery at Mount Vernon in 1797 and it proved to be a huge success. The distillery was able to produce about 10,500 gallons of whiskey a year, making it one of the largest in America.
Source: George Washington’s Leadership Lessons by James Rees and Stephen J. Spignesi
More at: History
The British submarine HMS Trident received an unusual gift from the USSR navy in 1941. What was it?
Answer: A reindeer. The submarine’s crew spent six weeks sharing their living accommodation with the reindeer, named Pollyanna, before she was given to Regents Park Zoo on return to the UK.
Source: The Royal Navy Submarine Service – A Centennial History by Antony Preston
More at: History
Which prestigious United States’ university is older: Harvard or Yale? And how do these esteemed centres of learning compare in years of establishment to other venerated universities?
Answer: Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts was established in 1636 and chartered in 1650, nearly 65 years before Yale. England’s Oxford University can trace its origins to 1096. Cambridge University was established in 1209. France’s famous Sorbonne University in Paris began in 1253.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In 1913 and 1914, what phenomenon was considered so dangerous that Germany had banned its army officers from associating with it and it was described by the Vatican as “outrageous, indecent … an assassination of family and social life”?
Answer: The tango. A style of dance originating from Argentina and Uruguay, it became one of the biggest crazes in Europe in the early twentieth century.
Source: The Fateful Year – England 1914 by Mark Bostridge
More at: History
In the early eighteenth century, a sailing ship was captured off the coast of Honduras by infamous pirate Benjamin Hornigold (1680-1719). What did Hornigold do to the passengers?
Answer: He stole their hats, and nothing else. As one passenger recalled, “they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss’d theirs overboard.”
Source: The Pirate Wars by Peter Earle
More at: History
Which medieval adversary of Europeans was considered to have shown such tolerance and generosity that many Christians saw him as the exemplar of their own knightly ideals?
Answer: Saladin (1138-1193)
Source: Saladin – The Life, The Legend and the Islamic Empire by John Man
More at: History
The Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, received its first book written in Chinese in 1604. What was the problem?
Answer: Nobody could read it. Chinese was an unknown language in Oxford and it would be 80 years before someone would be able to say what was in it.
Source: 1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
More at: History
Which famous polymath and probable genius had tremendous physical strength, described in one contemporary account as “so strong he could withstand any violence; with his right hand he could bend the iron ring of a doorbell, or a horseshoe, as if they were lead”?
Answer: Italian Renaissance painter, architect, inventor, and scientific exponent Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519).
Source: Leonardo Da Vinci – The Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl
More at: History
Why did the Mongols under Genghis Khan (1162-1227) refer to outsiders as “the people who eat grass”?
Answer: The Mongols, whose diet consisted nearly exclusively of meat and dairy, considered those who ate fruit or vegetables to be like grazing animals rather than real humans.
Source: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
More at: History
During the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) asserted that he felt France was more advanced than any other nation on Earth. How many years ahead of the rest of humankind did Robespierre consider France?
Answer: No fewer than 2,000 years ahead. In the same speech he observed that the French were even now potentially “a different species”.
Source: France – 1814-1914 by Robert Tombs
More at: History
“Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go”. Who said this?
Answer: Famed British explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779).
Source: The Life of Captain James Cook by J.C. Beaglehole
More at: History
Of the first 12 presidents of the United States, why were John Adams (1735-1826) and John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) unusual?
Answer: They were the only two of the 12 not to own slaves while in office.
Source: Strange but True, America by John Hafnor
More at: History
“Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go”. Who said this?
Answer: Famed British explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779).
Source: The Life of Captain James Cook by J.C. Beaglehole
More at: History
In 1492 a revolt broke out in the Netherlands against tax collectors. It adopted for its banner not the plough or wooden shoe, the symbols of insurgent peasants, but something very different. What was it?
Answer: Cheese and bread. It was a symbol that the country should not be “eaten up” by tax collectors. The rising was known as the “Bread and Cheese Revolt”.
Source: The New Cambridge Modern History by G.R. Potter
More at: History
What was the form, and who used, the earliest inception of a hand grenade?
Answer: Records indicate Chinese Soldiers used bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder in the thirteenth century, before they had even mastered guns.
Source: 50 Weapons That Changed Warfare by William Weir
More at: History
Pope John XII (930-964) is famous for the alleged depravity that dominated his papacy. True to reputation, how does chronicler Liutprand of Cremona say John died in 964.
Answer: According to Liudprand, John died outside Rome in the arms of another man’s wife. On discovery of the event, the outraged husband is said to have beaten John to death.
Source: The Quest for the City by Ted Byfield
More at: History
In the 19th century United States Midwest, what was the ‘Knights of the Forest’?
Answer: A secret society formed in Minnesota devoted to removing Native Americans from the state. While the strict secrecy of the organisation means little is known about its workings, it is believed to have played a significant role in the egregious marginalisation of Native Americans in Minnesota.
Source: Last Standing Woman by Winona LaDuke
More at: History
In 1680, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) became Shogun of Japan. What unusual laws did Tokugawa institute as a result of his birth year?
Answer: Having been born in the year of the dog, he introduced laws outlawing any cruelty to dogs. Those who broke these laws faced banishment or even death. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi became known as the ‘Dog Shogun’.
Source: The Pawprints of History by Stanley Coren
More at: History
The year 1453 in Europe saw the end of two Empires. What were they?
Answer: Firstly, the English domination in France, which had decreased and grown since the days of William the Conqueror in the 11th century. The other was the empire of Constantinople, which had long been an ancient Christian bulwark. This ended with victory of the 21 year old Sultan Muhammad II, head of the Ottoman Turks.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
August 2021
In 1917, thousands of miners at the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Arizona went on strike over poor pay and conditions. In response, Phelps Dodge did what?
Answer: It kidnapped around 1,300 miners from Bisbee, Arizona, sending them by train on a 16-hour journey to Luna County, New Mexico. The miners were left there, warned never to return to Bisbee. The event, known as the Bisbee Deportation, was condemned by a Presidential inquiry as being wholly illegal and remains one of the most remarkable events in American labour history.
Source: Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-class History by Eric Arneson
More at: History
In the Victorian age, the mail system was much larger and widespread than anything seen in the modern day. If you lived in London in the 1830s for instance, how often was mail delivered?
Answer: Around 12 times a day. Senders would often get angry if their letter took more than a few hours to arrive.
Source: Posting It by Catherine Golden
More at: History
In 1683, explorer Rene Le Salle (1643-1687) completed a journey from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi. Le Salle claimed the area for France, naming it Louisiana in honour of his King, Louis XIV. How did Louis reply?
Answer: Rather ungratefully. He wrote, “I am convinced that the discovery of Sieur de la Salle is very useless, and such enterprises ought to be prevented in future.”
Source: History Without the Boring Bits by Ian Crofton
More at: History
Which medieval English King often had animal fancy dress parties?
Answer: King Edward III (1312-1377). Edward regularly attended dressed as a pheasant, while his soldiers dressed as swans.
Source: Edward III by W. Mark Ormrod
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In 2013, writers Steven Skiena and Charles B. Ward developed an algorithm to denote historical figures in order of significance. Excluding religious figures, who do Skiena and Ward estimate to be the most historically significant figure of all time?
Answer: French leader Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Napoleon was closely followed by English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and US President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).
Source: Who’s Bigger by Steven Skiena and Charles B. Ward
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In light of the struggle and conflict that was to come, what surprising event took place on September 22, 1939 in Brest-Litovsk?
Answer: German and Soviet soldiers marched in a joint parade to mark their victory in the invasion of Poland. Joint placards were erected showing the red star and the swastika side by side.
Source: Enemy in the East by Rolf-Dieter Muller
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When the first American ship arrived in China in 1784, the Chinese found the American flag so beautiful that they compared it to what?
Answer: A flower. An informal name for the United States in China was the ‘flower flag country’.
Source: History of the Flag of the United States of America by George Henry Preble
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Which car, first produced in 1934, was a major pioneer in automobile engineering and was known by its tagline “It Works Like Magic. It Feels Like Flying!”?
Answer: The Chrysler Airflow. The Airflow was one of the first American cars to use the principle of streamlining to reduce air resistance. Despite its innovation, the car was a commercial failure and production ceased in 1937.
Source: The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and Its Engineering Legacy by Carl Breer at al
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Philip II of Macedon was father of famed Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great. He was assassinated and his assassin was caught and executed. Who was he and how could he have avoided his own death?
Answer: Philip II was betrayed by one of his seven bodyguards, Pausanias of Orestis. Pausanias could have avoided his death by running with care. He fled the murder scene, where horses brought by his associates were waiting for him. Before he could reach them, he tripped on a vine. Three of Philip’s bodyguards caught him and took their revenge.
Source: General Historical Texts
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In the context of medieval Europe, what was a “nosegay”?
Answer: This was a bouquet of flowers or collection of dried flowers and herbs, used to keep smells away. It was commonly used while walking in a large crowd.
Source: Smell and the Ancient Senses by Mark Bradley
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During the Second World War, American mathematician Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein (1912-2006) was lauded for successfully cracking the code for Purple. What was this?
Answer: ‘Purple’ was the American codename for the Japanese cipher machine, similar to the more widely known Nazi equivalent “Enigma”. Such was the importance of Feinstein’s breakthrough that it is considered one of the greatest achievements in U.S. code breaking history.
Source: An Encyclopaedia of American Women at War by Lisa Frank
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Su Hui (365-426) was a Chinese poet who crafted one of the most incredibly complex poems of all time. What was it?
Answer: She crafted a Palindrome poem, an incredible piece of writing crafted through a 29 x 29 grid of characters. Each line can be read forward or backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, and therefore can be read in 7,940 different ways. The poem was tilted Xuanji Tu, or “Picture of the Turning Sphere”.
Source: Classical Chinese Poetry by David Hinton
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Which British military aircraft of the Second World War (1939-1945) was known as the ‘Flying Porcupine’?
Answer: The Short Sunderland, a flying boat patrol bomber. It was so dubbed due to its numerous 0.303in machine guns, twelve of which could be fitted to the aircraft.
Source: Deep Sea Hunters by Marin Bowman
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In 1786, Jacques Balmat (1762-1834) and Michel-Gabriel Paccard (1757-1827) climbed to the top of which mountain, an expedition which is often considered the beginning of modern mountaineering?
Answer: Mount Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. Incredibly, Bamand and Paccard reached the summit un-roped and without ice axes.
Source: Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles by Cyril Douglas Milner
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While the principles of ‘military honour’ had largely disappeared by the First World War (1914-1918), this was not the case for air battles. In what ways did chivalry continue in the skies?
Answer: ‘Chivalrous’ actions in air combat included the dropping of wreaths over the location of the death of a prominent enemy airman, the refusal of pilots to continue firing at an enemy aircraft once it was clear it was damaged and the good treatment of captured pilots.
Source: Military Honour and the Conduct of War by Paul Robinson
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In the context of the American War of Independence (1775-1783), what area sometimes called the ‘14th American colony’ did not ultimately decide to join the rebellion?
Answer: Nova Scotia, in present day Canada. Attacks by American privateers and general ambivalence were among the reasons why Nova Scotia remained loyal to the British.
Source: The Far Reaches of Empire by John Grenier
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According to estimates, who is the wealthiest sportsman of all time?
Answer: Hispanic-Roman chariot racer Gaius Appuleius Diocles, born 108 CE. Competing in the second century, Diocles was an accomplished racer, winning 1462 races over the course of his career. It is recorded that he retired with winnings of 35,863,120 Roman sesterces, estimated at around an incredible $15 billion in today’s money.
Source: Life, Death and Entertainment in the Roman Empire by David Stone Potter
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Which was the last to be invented by humankind: rope, the wheel, woven cloth or the flute?
Answer: The wheel. The potter’s wheel was first crafted around 3500 BCE by Uruk craftsmen, surprisingly making it the newest of all the inventions.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World by Shona Grimbly
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In the context of British history, what was a ‘knocker-up’?
Answer: A ‘knocker-up’ was a profession to wake up sleeping people to ensure they made it to work on time. Emerging in the Industrial Revolution, they continued until affordable alarm clocks made the role superfluous.
Source: The Industrial Revolution by Carlo M. Cipolla
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The War of Breton Succession took place between 1341 and 1364 between the Counts of Blois and the Montforts of Brittany for control of Brittany. In 1351 a highly unusual method was crafted to try and break the impasse. What was it?
Answer: An arranged battle was staged between the two sides midway between the castles of Blois and Montfort, with each side permitted to have thirty champions. After a bloody battle, the House of Blois was victorious. The so called ‘Combat of the Thirty’ became a popular example of medieval chivalry for later chroniclers.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Hundred Years War by John A. Wagner
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‘Q-ships’ were a creative British response to the formidable U-boat threat of the Second World War (1939-1945). What were they?
Answer: They were heavily armed merchant vessels, disguised to resemble vulnerable supply ships. Their guns would be cleverly disguised and brought into action in just minutes and able to deliver a salvo remarkably quickly.
U-boats would often be caught by surprise, expecting the ships to be easy prey. They became feared by U-Boat crews as the ‘U-boat traps’.
Source: The United States in the First World War by Anne Cipriano Venzon; General Historical Texts.
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‘Beware the Cat’ was a publication written by printer’s assistant and poet William Baldwin. Why is it considered pioneering?
Answer: ‘Beware the Cat’ was first published in 1553 and is considered by some to be the first novel ever published in English. With a story that concerns supernatural events and episodes of terror, it is almost certainly the first example of horror fiction of significant length.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of English Prose 1500-1640 by Andrew Hadfield
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In 1950, two men cutting peat on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark found a dead body and contacted the police. How was all not as it seemed?
Answer: The body belonged to a man who had lived during the 4th century BCE, 2,400 years previous. The corpse, which became known as the ‘Tollund Man’, had been naturally mummified in a bog and hence at first sight it looked a much more modern discovery.
Source: The Corpse – A History by Christine Quigley
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What unique strategy did the famed military leader Hannibal (247-181 BCE) use in naval battles against the forces of King Eumenes II of Pergamon in 184 BCE?
Answer: He ordered that large pots should be filled with venomous snakes, and then thrown on board Eumenes’ ships. Eumenes’ men first thought Hannibal had resorted to throwing empty crockery, but were soon forced to desperately avoid the writhing snakes.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life by Gordon Lindsay Campbell
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While ‘going over the top’ is a well-known phrase used by British soldiers to signify an attack in the First World War (1914-1918), what other phrase was equally as popular?
Answer: ‘Hopping the bags’. This came from the sandbags forming the parapet of the trench.
Source: A Dictionary of Slang by Eric Partridge
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In France in 1750, what was the average life expectancy?
Answer: 27.9 years. It wasn’t much better elsewhere, being only 32 in Italy and 36.9 in England. Today in the West, it is on average around 80.
Source: Centuries of Change by Ian Mortimer
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The development of the daguerreotype photographic process in 1839 by Frenchman Louis Daguerre was a pioneering step in photography. Remarkably, Daguerre did not profit from the invention in the usual way but made the process ‘free to the world’ as a gift. Where was the one exception?
Answer: Britain. A patent was filed in London requiring the purchase of a license to profit from the process, the only such place in the world.
Source: Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography by Lynne Warren
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Which year saw the first part of novel Don Quixote published, the instigation of the Gunpowder Plot and ascension of Jahangir to the throne of the Mughal Empire?
Answer: 1605.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
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What is alleged to have happened when British milliner John Hetherington wore a top hat in public for the first time in 1797?
Answer: It caused a riot, primarily due to its ‘offensive’ shape and colour. Such was the perceived offence that Hetherington caused, he was required to pay a fine of £500 for obstructing the peace, a massive sum by contemporary standards.
Source: History of Men’s Fashion by Nicholas Storey
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Where and when did the phrase ‘enjoy the war while you can, the peace will be terrible’, became a popular joke?
Answer: Berlin in 1944 and early 1945. Such was the fear of the repercussions of an Allied victory that the war was considered something to appreciate.
Source: A Brief History of the Third Reich by Martyn Whittock
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What was British author Sybil Thomas discussing in 1937 when she complained of a force which ‘constitutes the gravest of our national perils, that exploits mass fear and mass selfishness, that compared to them the devil himself is a clean-minded purveyor of the strict, honest and sober truth.’
Answer: The newspaper industry, a reminder that attacks on the media are far from a recent phenomenon.
Source: Reading Newspapers by Adrian Bingham
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July 2021
The Swedish warship Vasa, built between 1626 and 1628, was intended to be the pride of the Swedish Navy. It suffered an ignominious demise, however. What happened?
Answer: Vasa capsized and sank on her maiden voyage in 1628, after sailing little more than one thousand metres out of port. Fundamental construction errors meant the ship had been built top-heavy and with insufficient ballast.
Source: Sweden by Martina Sprague
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Which conflict is officially known in China as ‘the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea’.
Answer: The Korean War (1950-1953). Unofficially the term ‘Chaoxian (Korean) War’ is also used.
Source: China and the United States by Xiaobing Li
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King Charles IX ruled Sweden from 1604-1611, but what was odd about his title?
Answer: Despite his title of Charles IX, he was actually only the third King of Sweden named Charles. He took his number after relying on a false history of Swedish royalty.
Source: Sweden by Martina Sprague
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What is the ‘Inca Paradox’?
Answer: An historical debate concerning the Inca Empire, which, despite possessing a sophisticated culture and large empire, never developed a system of writing. This phenomenon of non-inscription is considered unique among major Bronze Age civilization.
Source: Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams
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What was the secret of the success of the Rolls Royce car in the early years of the last century?
Answer: It was run by two men with very different but complementary skills. Sir Charles Rolls was a flamboyant, well connected, aristocratic sportsman. Henry Royce was a dour, remarkably hard working and meticulous engineer.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, the Prospect of Whitby and Ye Olde Cock Tavern are all types of what, and why are they linked?
Answer: They are all public houses or taverns in London, England, which were patronised by 19th century famed author Charles Dickens. It is also alleged that Ye Old Cheshire Cheese was regularly frequented in the previous century by writer and lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson.
Source: London – A Cultural History by Richard Tames
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When Louis XIV greeted the Persian ambassador, Mohammed Reza Beg, at the Palace of Versailles on February 19, 1715, what was unusual about the garments the ‘Sun King’ wore?
Answer: Keen to make an impact, Louis was dressed in a black and gold ensemble covered with diamonds, worth 12.5 million livres. An astronomical amount. The king had to change out of it after dinner because it weighed so much.
Source: Dictionary of World History by A J P Taylor, General Historical Texts
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What institution is the oldest corporation in America?
Answer: Harvard University. The President and Fellows of Harvard College, also known as Harvard Corporation, were chartered in 1636.
Source: The Corporation by Wesley B. Truitt
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In what ironic way did the American trial lawyer and politician Clement Vallandigham die in 1871?
Answer: Vallandingham was acting for a defendant charged with murder and sought to prove that the victim could have shot himself with his own pistol. In attempting to re-enact the process, Vallandingham used a gun that he erroneously thought was unloaded and shot himself by mistake. As some posthumous compensation, the demonstration worked and the defendant was found not guilty.
Source: The Limits of Dissent by Frank L. Klement
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British General Bernard Montgomery was a spartan commander, offering only meagre bread and water for Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s visit to the North African Front in 1941. He remarked he didn’t smoke or drink, and was 100% fit. What did Churchill offer in reply?
Answer: He both smoked and drank, and was 200% fit.
Source: World War Two: 1942 and Hitler’s Soft Underbelly by Professor David Reynold
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Ancient Egypt was once at the forefront of women’s contraception. What was one method used to prevent pregnancy?
Answer: Women would insert a paste made up of crocodile dung into their vagina.
Source: The Economist 1/4/17
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On being appointed in 1647 director general of New Amsterdam, later renamed New York, what did iron-willed, short-tempered, puritanical Peter Stuyvesant, who had lost a leg in battle, say to the inhabitants of the unruly and essentially lawless town, as regards his methods of administration?
Answer: ‘I shall govern you as a father his children.’
Source: A History of American Democracy by Hicks, Mowray, Burke; General Historical Text
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Which famed historical figure is often dubbed the ‘Father of Medicine’?
Answer: Hippocrates. He was a prominent physician in the Ancient Greek island of Cos.
Source: Hippocrates by Connie Jankowski
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“Guns are booming all the time. This harassing fire gets our goat.” This was one American soldier’s impression of what?
Answer: Serving on the Western Front during the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: ‘A Delicate Affair’ on the Western Front by Terrence J. Finnegan
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What was significant about the visit of US President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) to the Panama Canal in 1906?
Answer: It was the first time that a U.S. President had left the Continental United States while in office.
Source: American Passages by Edward L. Ayers et al
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During World War Two, Russian sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, defending Sevastopol in the Crimea from Nazi invasion, had notched up a remarkable record of kills. What was this?
Answer: By the end of the war, she had killed a confirmed 309 Germans, making her the most successful female sniper in history.
Source: Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War by Chris Bellamy
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Among seafarers, scurvy was one of the main debilitating diseases up until the late 18th century. What was the principal conclusion of British surgeon James Lindt’s book of 1753 entitled ‘Treatise of the Scurvy’?
Answer: Lindt wrote, ‘The most sudden and good effects were … from oranges and lemons’. This led to the improvement of diet for sailors, first on British ships, specifically in the acknowledgement that Vitamin C was a key preventative against scurvy.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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In the context of Ancient Rome, what was the ‘digitus impudicus’?
Answer: The use of the middle finger as an insult. The finger was considered impudent and offensive, a perspective that remains to this day.
Source: Anatomies by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
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The annual flooding of Egypt’s Nile River has been a vital source of that country’s agriculture needs for centuries, indeed thousands of years. In 1200 this flooding failed to occur. What were the consequences of this?
Answer: Historical records from this time reveal that some 100,000 Egyptians died of starvation, cannibalism and disease, with children reportedly stolen for food and graves robbed.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy – author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, among others – had a very strong opinion about 16th US president Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in April 1865. What was this?
Answer: Tolstoy wrote of him, “The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight by the sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last thousands of years.”
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
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Why was World War One described as ‘industrial warfare’?
Answer: For the first time unparalleled manpower and economic resources of industrialised states were mobilized for fighting. Modern firearms provided armies with firepower on an unprecedented scale. German’s super heavy field cannon, the ‘Paris Gun’, for example, which weighed 256 tonnes, could hurl a massive shell some 120 kilometres.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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What was Soviet premier Josef Stalin’s view on what made a good spy or intelligence officer?
Answer: He said that, “A spy should be like the Devil. No one can trust him, not even himself.”
Source: The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945 by Sir Max Hastings
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King Clovis I (466-511 CE) was an influential king of the Franks, the first to unite every Frankish tribe under one ruler. In what other way did he come to influence the French monarchy in later years?
Answer: Through his name, Clovis. This later evolved into the name Louis, a title adopted by eighteen kings of France.
Source: Medieval France by William Kibler
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During the Napoleonic wars (1803–1815), why did the citizens of the British town of Hartlepool hang a monkey?
Answer: They thought it was a French spy. A French ship had been wrecked of the Hartlepool coast, with the only survivor being the monkey. Considering it a threat, the local townspeople hanged the unfortunate simian on Hartlepool beach.
Source: The Enemy Within by Terry Crowdy
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In which year did Spencer Compton become British Prime Minister, Anders Celsius devise the celsius scale of temperature measurement and George Friedric Handel compose his famous oratorio ‘Messiah’?
Answer: 1742.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia by David Crystal
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Al Capone was one of America’s most feared gangsters during the Prohibition era in the United States (1920-1933). What did he describe as his profession on identity documents however?
Answer: His occupation was listed as ‘used furniture dealer’.
Source: Hot Springs by Robert Raines
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After the English pilgrims settled Plymouth colony in 1620, their first interaction with the indigenous peoples astounded them. Why?
Answer: On March 16, 1621, a Native American walked boldly into the camp proclaiming ‘Welcome Englishmen!’. The individual in question, Samoset, had learnt their language from English fisherman operating off the coastline of what is now Maine.
Source: Colonial America from Settle to the Revolution
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Where was the surprising location of the first violence to emanate from the French Revolution?
Answer: A luxury wallpaper factory. The Réveillon Riots, so named after the factory’s owner Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, focused around the issue of pay, and some 25 people were killed.
Source: France in Revolution, 1776-1830 by Sally Waller
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Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was the largest invasion in the history of warfare, with the Soviets initially woefully under-equipped to counter the invader. For example, how many of the 7000 raw recruits who formed the 18th Leningrad Volunteer division actually had a weapon?
Answer: Six percent. The division had 300 rifles, 21 machine guns and 100 revolvers to distribute among the 7000.
Source: A Storm of War by Andrew Roberts
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What was the ‘Pastry War’?
Answer: An armed conflict between France and Mexico, from November 1838 until March 1839. It was so named as the war was instigated by a French pastry cook in Mexico City. The cook claimed his shop had been attacked by Mexican army officers and petitioned the French for help – who used it as a pretext for war.
Source: War of the Americas by David Marley
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Which noted artist died in a gunpowder explosion in the town of Delft, The Netherlands, on October 12, 1654?
Answer: Carel Fabritus (1624-1654), a Dutch painter who was generally considered Rembrandt’s most gifted pupil. The explosion occurred when a gunpowder store caught fire and exploded, killing over a hundred and injuring many more.
Source: Cambridge Dictionary of Biography by David Crystal
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June 2021
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of the French, was one of the most gifted military leaders in history. He had a surprising phobia however. What was it?
Answer: He was scared of cats.
Source: Scared Stuff by Sara Latta
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As the grandson of a duke, it was natural that Winston Churchill would join a suitably prestigious cavalry regiment within the British Army. Accordingly, he was commissioned a subaltern in the aristocratic Fourth Hussars in 1894, aged 19. Gentlemen’s gambling debts were always settled promptly, but for tradesmen it was a different matter. How long did Churchill take to pay the tailor who made his uniform?
Answer: No fewer than six years.
Source: The Last Lion by William Manchester
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Jakob Steiner was a nineteenth century Swiss mathematician who made important contributions to modern synthetic geometry. What was remarkable about his rise to success, however?
Answer: He had no early schooling, not even learning to read or write until the age of 14. Only at the age of 18 was his extraordinary gift for geometry discovered.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
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Discussing the settlement of new colonies, eighteenth century British naval captain Thomas Walduck noted that ‘upon all new settlements the Spaniards make the first thing they do is build a church. The first thing ye Dutch do upon a colony is to build them a fort.’ What did he describe as the first thing English settlers did?
Answer: He remarked that ‘the first thing ye English do, be it in the most remote part of ye world, or amongst the most barbarous Indians, is to set up a tavern or drinking house.’
Source: The West Indies by David Watts
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The USS Panay was an American gunboat sunk by the Japanese while anchored in the Yangtze River. What was unusual about when this actually took place?
Answer: It occurred on December 12, 1937, four years before Japan and the United States would formally be at war. Japan apologized, stating they did not see the American flags on its deck, and subsequently paid an indemnity. Nevertheless, the issue led to a deterioration of American-Japanese relations, with many historians now maintaining the attack was intentional.
Source: The United States in Asia by David Shavit
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Viking raiders are often depicted in history as brutal and ruthless conquerors. Contrary to this, however, what was the impression many contemporaries had when they encountered these fearsome Nordic warriors?
Answer: Surprisingly, they often noted the Vikings excessive, even ‘unhealthy’, obsession with cleanliness. For Vikings never travelled anywhere without soaps, combs and skin-buffers, and took a bath once a week – a practice considered singularly excessive by early medieval standards.
Source: Loose Cannons by Graeme Donald
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What was the Horten Ho 229, and why was it revolutionary?
Answer: The Horten Ho 229 was a German fighter bomber, developed at the latter end of the Second World War. Never proceeding past the prototype stage, it was nevertheless a revolutionary aircraft design, being the first flying wing aircraft powered by jet propulsion.
Source: Aircraft of the Luftwaffe by Jean-Denis Lepage
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Why was Feng Yuziang, a Chinese warlord during the early twentieth century, known as the ‘good warlord’?
Answer: He was a Christian whose evangelical zeal became famous. He reportedly baptised Christian converts in his army with a fire hose and outlawed drinking, gambling and prostitution.
Source: Chinese Warlord by James Sheridan
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The war elephant was one of the most formidable weapons used in ancient armies, with just a small number able to decisively change the course of battles. How did the Romans imaginatively combat this threat?
Answer: By cruelly setting pigs on fire. The squeals of pigs were said to startle elephants, so Roman armies doused pigs with pitch and set them alight during combat. The strategy was so successful it was copied later by Greek armies.
Source: Antigonus II Gonatas – A Political Biography by Janice J. Gabbert
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Famed 8th century Chinese poet Li Po was renowned for his love of drinking, often reciting his poems while drunk. How did this lead to his demise, however?
Answer: Legend has it Li Po was on a boat one night when he drunkenly attempted to embrace the image of the moon in the water. He promptly fell overboard and drowned.
Source: Bright Moon, White Clouts by Bai Li
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Gold is traditionally the most prestigious and coveted of precious metals. In the late nineteenth century, however, what metal superseded gold in importance in the eyes of many?
Answer: Aluminum. Emperor Napoleon III of France (1808-1873) was particularly enthralled by it. At state occasions he would dine off aluminum plates while other lesser dinner guests had to get by with plates made of gold and silver.
Source: The Metallurgic Age by Quentin R. Skabec
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The Empire of Japan occupied American soil only once during the Second World War. Which territory did they seize?
Answer: The Aleutian Islands, past of western Alaska. The Allies successful recapture of the territory during the Aleutian Islands campaign commencing in June 1942 is often considered one of the Second World War’s ‘forgotten battles.’
Source: Stepping Stones to Nowhere by Galen Roger Perras
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From where does the wedding custom of having a ‘best man’ derive?
Answer: It has its origins in the medieval period. Marriages of the European aristocracy and wealthy were often arranged, and romantic rivals, aggrieved at the disposition of events, would often try to steal brides from their prospective husband. As a result, a capable warrior would be enlisted, a ‘best man’, to defend the wedding from any potential treachery.
Source: Common Phrases by Myron Korach
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The term ‘lock, stock and barrel’ refers to the whole of anything important. Where does it originate however?
Answer: It originates from the early nineteenth century, likely from British colonial soldiers. It was a reference to the principal parts of the heavily used flintlock gun; its lock, its stock and its barrel.
Source: Common Phrases by Myron Korach
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From where can we the trace the meaning behind the phrase to ‘bury the hatchet’?
Answer: The traditions of Native Americans. Many Plains Indian tribes buried hatchets and weapons as a sign that war had ceased, from which we have received the this phrase.
Source: Common Phrases by Myron Korach
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Which specific type of person was criminalized under the Vagrancy Act 1824, passed by the British parliament?
Answer: Individuals considered to be ‘an incorrigible rogue’ or a ‘rogue and vagabond.’ This description meant someone who was ‘idle and disorderly’, and if convicted you could face imprisonment or fines. Remarkably, this definition of criminality was only removed from the statutes in 2013.
Source: A Dictionary of Law Enforcement by Graham Gooch and Michael Williams
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At the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the allied forces of the Seventh Coalition. Why was the size and variety of the coalition often as much a help as a hindrance however?
Answer: Friendly fire was rife. Uniforms were unclear and soldiers often killed allies on the battlefield. The Prussian artillery spent much of the battle firing upon British positions, while British officer Cavalié Mercer noted the Belgians spent the whole battle ‘beastly drunk and not at all particular as to which way they fired’.
Source: The Western Way of War by Victor Davis Hanson
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The US Navy collier USS Cyclops served during the First World War but has been subject to much conjecture. Why is this?
Answer: It was lost at sea on March 1918 in the largest non-combat loss of life in American naval history. The Cyclops episode is mysterious as it cannot be known for certain how it was lost. Some have suggested it succumbed to the Bermuda Triangle, while others have mooted that its disappearance was part of a German conspiracy.
Source: Shipwrecks by Phillip S. Jennings
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The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the world. What is ironic about its origin, however?
Answer: The peace prize is endowed by, and named after, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who amassed his fortune from armaments, inventing dynamite in 1866 and smokeless gunpowder in 1875.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
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In the United States, in the 1830s and 1840s, what was a widespread view as regards fresh fruit and vegetables?
Answer: That they were dangerous to health, and especially harmful to children. Doubts as to the cause of cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other epidemic diseases, made these fears more believable. Within half a century, however, the US had organised a nation-wide, soon to be international, trade in fresh fruits and vegetables.
Source: The Americans – The Democratic Experience by Dr Daniel J Boorstin
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In what bizarre way did the famous whiskey distiller Jack Daniel die in 1911?
Answer: From a stubbed toe. Arriving early for work one day, he kicked an office safe in frustration after forgetting the combination. The toe later developed an infection, from which he died.
Source: Whiskey, Wit and Wisdom by Gavin D. Smith\
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What was, until recently, the oldest company in the world?
Answer: The Kongo Gumi construction company of Osaka, Japan. The company, which could, incredibly, trace its origins to 578 CE, specialised in building temples and palaces. In more recent times it struggled and in 2006, after over 1400 years, it was bought by the Takamatsu Construction Group.
Source: Economy by Johnny Acton
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The defining historical change of the last two centuries has been urbanisation. In 2000, 47% of the world’s population lived in an urban settlement of 5,000 or more. What percentage did so in the year 1800?
Answer: 3%.
Source: Cities of the World by Stanley D. Brunn
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The storming of the Bastille prison was the defining act of the French Revolution of 1789, representing a powerful strike at royal authority. How many actual prisoners were in the prison at the time, however?
Answer: A mere seven, four of whom were interned for forgery.
Source: Civilization by Kenneth Clark
More at: History
Union General John Sedgwick was killed by a Confederate sniper on May 8, 1864. Why was this death tragically ironic?
Answer: Sedgwick was a noted skeptic of the role of the sniper. He was shot while dismissing the likelihood of a successful hit. His final words were, ‘why they couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…’
Source: Sniping – A History by Pat Farey
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In Medieval Japan it was believed that the world was so full of dangers that it was safest to stay at home. On every sixtieth day, the Day of the Monkey, this danger was especially present. In 1104, on one Day of the Monkey, what did Emperor Shirakawa do to avoid danger?
Answer: He spent the night in his carriage at one of the gates of his city, returning to his palace only at daybreak.
Source: Forty Centuries – From the Pharaohs to Alfred the Great by S G F Brandon and Freidrich Heer
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When the East Indies volcano-island of Krakatoa exploded, indeed essentially disintegrated, in 1883, the shock waves from the explosion travelled how many times around the world?
Answer: No fewer than seven times.
Source: Krakatoa by Simon Winchester
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Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was once nearly shot by famed American Sharpshooter Annie Oakley. How did this come to be?
Answer: In 1889, Oakley was touring Europe as part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. At the Kaiser’s request, during one show Oakley shot the ashes off a cigar held by Wilhelm. Oakley later appeared to regret her accurate aim. During the First World War she wrote to the Kaiser requesting the opportunity for another shot. No response was forthcoming from the soon to be last German Kaiser.
Source: What If? by Robert Cowley
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‘The popularity of these songs is unprecedented not only in China, but in the history of world music.’ What did this quotation, from a Chinese Army handbook, refer to?
Answer: Communist Party quotation songs. These songs, primarily the quotations of Mao set to music, became immensely popular in China during the Cultural Revolution of the middle years of the 20th Century. Examples of the stirring titles of these tunes include ‘We Must Have Faith in the Masses and ‘We Must Have Faith in the Party’ and ‘He (The Enemy) Will Not Fall If You Do Not Beat Him.’
Source: Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Xing Lu
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How did General George Washington come to face death in 1777, and how did he eventually escape with his life?
Answer: While on reconnaissance, an unarmed Washington came across a British soldier, Captain Patrick Ferguson, who was in possession of a highly advanced breach-loading rifle. Ferguson called on the future president to surrender, at which Washington wheeled his horse and galloped away. Ferguson took aim, had Washington in his sights, and then lowered his gun. He could not bring himself to shoot an unarmed enemy in the back.
Source: What If? by Robert Cowley
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May 2021
British journalist W.T. Stead was a pioneer of early investigative journalism and became famous in Britain. He died when the RMS Titanic sank in April 1912, but even this did not fully end his journalism career however. Why was this?
Answer: Evidencing that you cannot put a committed journalist down, Stead attempted further contact by reportedly making numerous appearances at London and other society séances.
Source: The Victorians by A.N. Wilson
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From the sixteenth century until now, how many international conflicts are believed to have taken place?
Answer: 503, evidencing again humankind’s innate propensity for conflict.
Source: Dictionary of Wars by G.C. Kohn
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Which historical empire was the largest in world population share?
Answer: The Achaemenid Empire, more commonly known as the Persian Empire. It is estimated to have had a population of around 50 million of the world’s 112 million people in 480 CE, an incredible 44%. This would be equivalent, today, to having around three billion people under the control of the one imperial or government system. By contrast, the world’s largest empire by territory, the British Empire, held sway over around 20% of the world’s population.
Source: The History of Iran by Elton L. Daniel and The Economics of World War II by Mark Harrison
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During the Battle of Stalingrad, ‘Pavlov’s House’ was the name given to a fortified apartment building held by the Russians against wave after wave of Nazi attacks. How did Soviet general Vasily Chuikov joke about its cost to the Germans?
Answer: He jested that more Germans died attempting to get into this single apartment building then died during the whole invasion of Paris in June 1940.
Source: American Wars by Bert Rainwater
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The Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Verdun are commonly cited as among the most lethal battles of the First World War. Despite this, another major operation led to the most loss of life during the war. What one was this?
Answer: The Brusilov Offensive, launched by the Russian Empire against the Central Powers in June 1916. The operation was one of the greatest successes of the war for Russia, but was also amongst the most deadly, producing 1.6 million casualties on both sides.
Source: The Chronicle of War by Paul Brewer
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Lord Kelvin is one of the most celebrated scientists of the nineteenth century. He also, however, made two statements that go down as among the worst predictions of all time. What were they?
Answer: In 1895, he dismissed any possibility of human flight by declaring ‘heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible’. Five years later in 1900 he performed another own goal by declaring that ‘there is nothing new to discover in physics now.’
Source: Quantum Bits and Quantum Secrets by Oliver Morsch
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In July 1788 what natural disaster occurred which likely contributed to the French Revolution a year later?
Answer: A giant hailstorm. Sweeping across France from Normandy to Toulouse and lasting three days, the storm destroyed hundreds of square miles of crops and produced the worst harvest for forty years. Already high food prices shot up once more and the then monarchial regime was the target for much of the anger.
Source: Forging Freedom by Margaret R. O’Leary
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Which uncle of Britain’s Queen Victoria was suspected of murder?
Answer: Ernest Augustus I, King of Hanover, the eighth child of King George III. In May 1810, his valet Joseph Sellis died in suspicious circumstances in Ernest’s rooms at St James Palace, London. While the official verdict was suicide, it was strongly suspected to have been Ernest himself – he had been maintaining an affair with Sellis’ wife.
Source: The Interesting Bits by Justin Pollard; The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
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Which American president from the early to mid nineteenth century remarkably still has two living grandchildren?
Answer: John Tyler, president from 1841 to 1845. He fathered a son at the age of 63, who himself had children at the ripe old age of 71 and 75. Born in 1924 and 1928 respectively, both are still alive to this day.
Source: The United States of Strange by Eric Grzymkowski
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Across history, how many countries have avoided being invaded by Britain?
Answer: A mere twenty-two, out of the almost 200 countries of the world. The lucky few nations to avoid a British invasion force include Guatemala, Tajikistan and Mali.
Source: All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded by Stuart Laycock
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When was the first recorded use of ‘a banknote’?
Answer: Han Dynasty China in 118 CE. The money consisted of a piece of white deer skin, about one square foot, with a value equivalent to 40,000 of the base metal coins. It was the first instance of the use of a durable substance used as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand.
Source: Financial Supply Chain by Sanjay Dalmia
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Where and when was baseball invented?
Answer: Despite its modern-day popularity in the United States, Baseball’s origins can actually be traced to Britain, with ‘Base-Ball’ a pastime referenced in sources from the 1750s. Contrary to much opinion, ‘Base-Ball’ also came before the similar game of Rounders in Britain. Conversely, cricket, viewed as Britain’s national game, was played in the American colonies in the late 18th century.
Source: Baseball Before We Knew It by David Black; General Historical Texts
More at: History
Who was Martin Laurello, and how did he attract massive crowds to auditoriums across the United States in the 1930s?
Answer: He was a stage performer who could perform the biologically remarkable feat of turning his head 180 degrees. This ability wowed audiences and he toured extensively under the name ‘Bobby the Boy with the Revolving Head.’
Source: American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman
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What food did the Romans enjoy so much they made it extinct?
Answer: The plant Laserpithium. Considered a tastier version of Garlic by contemporaries, it was only found in Libya. The Romans overwhelming desire to use it as a cooking ingredient led to its extinction.
Source: Around the Roman Table by Patrick Faas
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In 948 the Icelandic Viking warrior Egil Skallagrimsson fell out with the Norwegian King Erik Blood-Axe Haraldsson, and was condemned by Erik to death. How did he avoid his punishment?
Answer: He only escaped execution by composing a eulogy in Erik’s honour, entitled the Hufuolausn (Head Ransom). That Erik forgave him as a result of his poetry is less bizarre than it sounds, as Skallagrimsson’s poems are considered amongst the greatest of all old Icelandic poetry.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
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Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) was a famed British military hero and prime minister (1828-1830 and 1834). The Duke found it tough to adjust from the military to the political life, however. What did he reputedly say after his first cabinet meeting?
Answer: ‘Extraordinary affair’, remarked the Duke, ‘I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay to discuss them.’
Source: Constitutional Law by Ian Loveland
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In 1944, during World War Two, one of Winston Churchill’s daughters, Mary, was commanding an anti-aircraft battery in Hyde Park, London. What does this fact have in relation to a prominent world identity today?
Answer: At the same time as she was directing her battery, as it so happened, Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, was manning an anti-aircraft gun in Munich.
Source: The Spectator – 30/11/14
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As Queen Elizabeth I of England lay dying in 1603, one of her courtiers said to her that she must get off the cushions she was lying on and go to bed. What did Elizabeth, who had reigned for 45 years, reply?
Answer “Little man, little man, must is not a word to be used with princes.”
Source: She Wolves – England’s early Queens by Helen Castor
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On January 23, 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars, France managed to capture a Dutch naval fleet of 14 ships and over 800 guns. The way it did so was highly unusual, however. What did they do?
Answer: The Dutch fleet was captured by cavalry charge. The winter had been bitterly cold and the seashores were frozen, enabling French cavalry to storm the ships by crossing the frozen ice.
Source: A History of the Royal Navy by Martin Robson
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In 1800 London’s population was around one million. How much was it a century later?
Answer: An incredible 6.7 million, testimony to the growth in urbanisation, fueled by the Industrial Revolution. This growth saw London transformed into the world’s largest city and capital of the British Empire.
Source: The Encyclopedia Britannica
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Famed Irish playwright, author and wit Oscar Wilde died tragically of meningitis in Paris in 1900. His previously exalted and glamorous life at the peak of London chic society had come undone after his conviction for homosexuality in 1895. Despite his prison sentence and subsequent greatly reduced circumstances, he maintained his humor until the end. Lying in bed in a gaudily decorated room in a Paris Hotel, what were his last words?
Answer: “Either that wallpaper goes. Or I do”.
Source: Oscar Wilde – The Great Drama of His Life: How His Tragedy Reflected His Personality by Ashley H. Robins; General Historical Texts.
More at: History
Incorporated by English royal charter in 1670, The Hudson’s Bay Company was a major trading company in North America. (It is still operating today) What did Britain’s Prime Minister Lord Palmerston say its function should be?
Answer: “To strip the local quadrupeds of their furs and keep the local bipeds off their liquor.”
Source: Heaven’s Command – An Imperial Progress by James Morris
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What was the legendary reaction of French Foreign Minister Talleyrand (1754-1838) when informed that the Russian ambassador had collapsed and died en route to a meeting in the Quai D’Orsay with Talleyrand?
Answer: The wily Frenchman stroked his chin and said: “I wonder why he did that?”
Source: Ken Blackwell, September 10, 2014, ‘Secretary Clinton: Stop Digging’, The American Thinker
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Gladiators were highly prized in Ancient Rome not just because of their fighting and entertainment skills. Why was this?
Answer: Gladiators’ blood was highly prized as it was believed to cure epilepsy.
Source: Daily Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Baldston
More at: History
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, is a magnificent 200,000 sq ft estate which has 187 rooms, dwarfing Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. A gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, in 1704, it was a reward for his victory over the army of Louis XIV of France in the Spanish War of Succession. In what way did its grandeur register even with Adolf Hitler during World War Two?
Answer: According to wartime lore, he planned to move in after invading England and ordered the Luftwaffe not to bomb it.
Source: The Daily Mail 24/10/14
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What was the historian J A Froude’s assessment of British prime minister Benjam Disraeli?
Answer: “Perhaps no public man in England ever rose so high and acquired power so great, so little of whose work has survived”.
Source: Disraeli Or The Two Lives by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young
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Ramón María Narváez (1800-1868) was a Spanish soldier and statesman. What did he famously utter on his deathbed, when he was asked if he forgave his enemies?
Answer: ‘I have none. I have had them all shot.’
Source: The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor
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King Frederick the Great of Prussia’s native language was French. He had little love for, nor comprehension of, the German spoken by most of his subjects. Who did he famously remark was the only soul he spoke German to?
Answer: His horse.
Source: History of the German Language Through Texts by Thomas Gloning
More at: History
What did British playwright and essayist George Bernard Shaw say was the “greatest invention of the nineteenth century?”
Answer: The rubber condom. Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanization of rubber in 1836. Soon after this, rubber condoms were mass produced. Unlike modern condoms — made to be used once and thrown away — early condoms were washed, anointed with petroleum jelly, and put away in special wooden boxes for reuse.
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw
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On June 4, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous ‘Fight Them on the Beaches’ speech, which helped inspire the British people to resist the threat of Nazi Germany. During the address, however, he muttered an extra line to his deputy, Clement Atlee. What was it?
Answer: ‘And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that’s bloody well all we’ve got!’
Source: In The Footsteps of Churchill by Richard Holmes
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Sitting Bull (1831-1890) was a famous Native American leader who attempted to defend his people against the American government. What was his original name however?
Answer: The rather less fearsome ‘Jumping Badger.’
Source: Legends of American Indian Resistance by Edward J. Rielly
More at: History
April 2021
In the fifteenth century, French soldiers often referred to the English as ‘godons’. Why?
Answer: The phrase derived from ‘God-damn’, a saying which was considered in wide use among English soldiers.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Hundred Years War by John A. Wagner
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When St Louis, Missouri held the 1904 Summer Olympic games, what were some of the more unusual events included?
Answer: Greased pole climbing, rock throwing and mud fighting.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
The Medici’s were a remarkable political dynasty, banking family and later royal house in Florence, Italy. Over 400 years, two Medici’s became queens of France and three became pope. In the words of Professor Niall Ferguson, however, ‘prior to the 1390s the Medici’s were Florence’s answer to the Sopranos and were a small-time clan notable more for low violence than for high finance.’ What was one example of their then low status in society?
Answer: In a 17-year period, no fewer than five Medici’s were sentenced to death by the criminal courts for capital crimes.
Source: The Ascent of Money by Professor Niall Ferguson
More at: History
‘Poor Richard’s’ Almanack was a highly popular pamphlet published in the British North American colonies, with versions published each year from 1733 to 1758. Who wrote it?
Answer: American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). In writing the pamphlet he adopted the pseudonym of ‘Richard Saunders’, dubbed ‘Poor Richard’.
Source: Self-help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture by Roy M. Anker
More at: History
According to legend, what unusual strategy did Persian ruler King Cambyses II employ to get the upper hand against his Egyptian opponents at the Battle of Pelusium in 55 BCE?
Answer: Knowing that the Egyptians considered cats sacred, Cambyses was said to have ordered his soldiers to bring them to the front line. The presence of cats was said to have so confused and concerned Egyptian soldiers such that their discipline collapsed and they were defeated easily.
Source: Forgotten Empire by John Curtis
More at: History
In 1634, Boston, Massachusetts, commissioned its first set of stocks, with craftsman Edward Palmer given the task of designing and building them. Who was the first individual to be placed in the stocks?
Answer: Palmer himself. The bill he submitted for the stocks, totaling one pound, thirteen shillings and seven pence, was considered by town officials to be exorbitant, and Palmer was charged with extortion. He was fined five pounds and sentenced to an hour in the stocks.
Source: Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Alice Earle
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The phrase ‘money for old rope’ is used to apply to situations where someone makes financial gain with little or no effort. But from which act may this phrase originate?
Answer: Public hanging. The rope used for such a hanging was often sold in six-inch strips to spectators as a lucky charm.
Source: The North by Paul Morley
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At the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, what was known to the Romans as ‘The British Metal’?
Answer: Tin. The Romans were great metallurgists, using large amounts of tin, lead and silver in various aspects of their daily lives.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In the 1880s American dentist Dr Albert Southwick surprisingly worked to develop which invention?
Answer: The electric chair. In 1881 Southwick had been given the inspiration for such a device after witnessing how an elderly drunkard was quickly killed when he fell into an electric generator. The chair was eventually developed in collaboration with Thomas Edison.
Source: Eighth Amendment by Rich Smith
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American Industrialist Henry Ford revolutionised business, but he also predicted a world completely dominated by machines. How would this work?
Answer: Ford foresaw a world where one would ‘press a button by the side of the bed and find himself automatically clad, fed, exercised, amused and, later in the day, put to bed again.’ Wallace and Gromit would agree.
Source: Good Old Days My Ass by David A. Fryxell
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Why did it become fashionable in the 1880s for British high society ladies to pretend to limp, something known as the ‘Alexandra Limp’?
Answer: So as to follow a trend inadvertently created by Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), wife of the Prince of Wales, aka ‘Dirty Bertie’. Her fashion sense was widely copied and when a bout of rheumatic fever unfortunately left her with a limp, ladies across the country emulated it. Remarkably, shopkeepers even developing mismatched footwear to help women meet the unusual craze.
Source: Edward VII by Christopher Hibbert
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Who was described by a Venetian ambassador as ‘the arbiter of the world’ due to their power and influence?
Answer: King Phillip II (1527-1598) of Spain. Under him, Spain reached the height of its world power, possessing territories in all then known continents.
Source: World Without End by Thomas Hugh
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What links William Blake (1757-1827), Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and Franz Kafka (1883-1924)?
Answer: They are all figures who became famous after their deaths. It was even said of Thoreau by one of his few contemporary supporters, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), that ‘“the country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost”.
Source: Thoreau’s Seasons by Richard Lebeaux; Blake by Mike Davis et al; The Cambridge Companion to Kafka by Julian Preece
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On June 22nd 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Russia. What is notable about this date?
Answer: It was the day before the anniversary of Napoleon’s failed Russian invasion of 1812. The Russian invasion proved as fatal to Hitler as it had been for his illustrious predecessor, though the end did not come quite so soon.
Source: History of the Second World War by B.H. Liddell Hart
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In October 1859, American John Brown (1800-1859) and a group of twenty others tried to seize the United States armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Why?
Answer: Brown, a prominent abolitionist, sought to start a slave revolt using the weapons at the armory. He was defeated by a detachment of marines led by Robert E. Lee, but his attempted revolt is considered an important precursor to the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: Slavery in the United States by Junius P. Rodriguez
More at: History
During the Second World War (1939-1945) the Supermarine Spitfire so caught the imagination of the British public that the wartime government did what in an attempt to generate more funds for their construction?
Answer: It established a “Buy a Spitfire fund”, which ordinary members of the public could donate to. Donors chose presentation names that were then painted on the cowling of the Spitfires they had helped pay for.
Source: The Spitfire Story by Peter March
More at: History
The world Dinosaur has origins in the term “Dinosauria”, first coined in 1842 by British biologist Richard Owen (1804-1892). What does it mean?
Answer: Derived from Greek words “deinos” and “sauros”, it can be translated as meaning “terrible reptile” or “fearfully great lizard”.
Source: The Changing Earth by James Monroe et al; Modern World Encyclopedia.
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Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla (1577-1620) is often considered to be one of the earliest explorers of which region?
Answer: Antarctica. In 1603 he and his ship’s company likely reached the Southern Ocean of Drake’s Passage, reaching a latitude of 64°.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia by David Crystal
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French King Louis XIV (1638-1715) was the longest reigning monarch in European history. For how long did he reign?
Answer: An incredible 72 years, from 1643-1715.
Source: Western Civilization – Beyond Boundaries by Thomas F.X. Noble et. Al
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Walther Forstmann, Max Valentiner, Otto Steinbrinck and Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière were all what?
Answer: Successful German U-boat commanders of the First World War (1914-1918). Arnauld de la Perière, a commander of French descent, was the most successful, with an incredible record of 195 ships sunk or captured.
Source: The Last Century of Sea Power by H. P. Willmott
More at: History
In the months leading up to D-Day in June 1944, trucks, jeeps, transports and staff cars caused so much disruption in the English town of Andover, Hampshire, that what odd measure was put into place?
Answer: All workers in the town were given fifteen minutes extra at lunchtime to enable them to cross the streets.
Source: The D-Day Story by Martin Bowman
More at: History
In 1624 the Dutch purchased Manhattan Island, modern day New York City, from the inhabitant Native Americans. How much did it cost them?
Answer: 60 Dutch guilders, equivalent to around $24. The real estate value of the island today could be measured in the trillions.
Source: How the Indians Lost Their Land by Stuart Banner
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In the sixteenth century, what island was visited by Portuguese explorers who, so overwhelmed by its beauty, christened it “Ilha Formosa”, meaning “Beautiful Island”?
Answer: Taiwan. The name first appeared on a map by Lopo Homen in 1554.
Source: Historical Dictionary of Modern China by James Z. Gao
More at: History
Some concerns have been expressed today about land reclamation activities by China in the South China Sea. In what way, however, is this nothing new for the country?
Answer: China has a legacy of reclamation dating back to the 5th century BCE, when it used dredging and reclamation techniques to construct the Grand Canal.
Source: The National Interest – May/June 2015
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In 1917, British artist and illustrator Norman Wilkinson developed a highly radical way to camouflage British ships fighting in the First World War (1914-1918). What was it?
Answer: Wilkinson developed what became known as “dazzle camouflage”. This sought to confuse rather than conceal, and involved ships being painted with bold shapes and intense colour contrasts. Hundreds of merchant ships and others were painted in such patterns, though the ultimate efficacy of the strategy remains unclear.
Source: Contested Objects by Nicholas J. Saunders et al
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The Shahnameh, or “Book of Kings”, is an epic poem written by Persian poet Ferdosi between 977 and 1010. What is the poem famous for?
Answer: Containing over 60,000 verses, it is the longest epic poem ever written by a single author. It tells the mythical history of the Persian Empire from the dawn of time until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. It remains influential in Persian culture to this day.
Source: Leadership Through the Classics by Gregory Prastacos et al
More at: History
The alkaloid morphine has been used as a pain reliever since the early 19th century, but has also been abused as a recreational drug. From where does its name derive?
Answer: It was named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, by the German pharmacist Frederick Serturner. One of the reported side effects of the drug is diverse and multi-faceted dreams.
Source: The History of Medicine by William F Bynum
More at: History
History is replete with earnestly made predictions made by experts, that were subsequently proven to be folly. What was one of these as regards the power of the atom?
Answer: Nobel Prize winner in Physics Robert Milikan said in 1923, “There is no likelihood that man can ever tap the power of the atom”. This perspective was horrendously disproved only 22 years later during the Second World War, with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, bringing to a close the war in the Pacific.
Source: Source: Dictionary of World History by A J P Taylor
More at: History
The colour purple was favoured by Roman emperors because of the uniqueness of the shade, the fact it faded less easily, and the difficulty involved in securing the dye. How was the purple dye produced?
Answer: From crushing hundreds of thousands of sea mollusks, needless to say a laborious task.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon
More at: History
What were the unusual circumstances of the announcement of French King Louis XIV’s engagement to be married to Maria Theresa of Spain?
Answer: Louis made this declaration from the lavatory, while a bevy of senior aristocrats were close at hand attending to him.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
More at: History
What was the special note that US General Dwight D Eisenhower kept in his wallet on D Day 1944, which saw the largest flotilla in history set out for France, with the goal of vanquishing Nazi Germany?
Answer: Eisenhower kept a prepared statement accepting full responsibility in the event of the invasion failing. As it happens, it was a tremendous success and ultimately led to the fall of Nazi Germany the following year.
Source: Eisenhower by Stephen B Ambrose
More at: History
March 2021
The Battle of Ain Jault (1260) is significant for halting for the first time the progress of which empire?
Answer: The Mongol Empire. Fought in the Jezreel Valley in southeast Galilee, it signalled the end of the threat post by the great Mongol khans to the Middle East and Europe.
Source: A History of War in 100 Battles by Richard Overy
More at: History
During the Viking siege of Paris in CE 885-86, what did Carolingian King Charles the Fat give the belligerent Norsemen after they had been repulsed from the city?
Answer: Free passage along the Seine River, and a promise of 700 livres of silver provided they ravaged Burgundy, which was in rebellion against the king. The sum was paid the next spring, when the Vikings withdrew their forces from West Frankia.
Source: The Vikings – Wolves of War by Martin Arnold
More at: History
What was famed composer Giacomo Puccini’s response when Enrico Caruso – who went on to be perhaps the greatest tenor ever – auditioned for Puccini?
Answer: “Who sent you to me? God himself?
Source: Puccini – A Biography by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz & William Weaver
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What was the last place in Europe to adopt Christianity?
Answer: Lithuania. Until 1387 its people were pagans. In that year the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was finally baptised into Roman Catholicism. This was a condition of the dynastic union with Poland.
Source: A History of the Baltic States by Andres Kasekamp
More at: History
What was the unusual treatment recommended by popular 18th century physician Dr Richard Russell, which may have some application today?
Answer: In 1769 he published a paper advocating the use of seawater against “diseases of the glands”, in which he included scurvy, jaundice, leprosy and glandular consumption, or glandular fever. In addition to swimming in seawater, he also recommended drinking it, in moderation, of course.
Source: New Zealand Herald 27/12/2016; General Historical Texts
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In 1847, a group led by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) successfully stopped the American showman P.T. Barnum (1810-1891) from doing what?
Answer: Purchasing the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Barnum wanted to move the house, brick by brick, to New York City. Luckily, Dickens and others raised the £3,000 required to purchase the property and keep it at its original site in Stratford upon Avon.
Source: Shakespeare on the Global Stage by Paul Prescott and Erin Sullivan
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During the Capitulation of Stettin (October 29 – 30 1806), a Prussian army surrendered a garrison and fortress to a much smaller French force. What was the difference in size?
Answer: It is believed there were between 5,000 and 6,000 Prussian troops, an adequate number with sufficient supplies to sustain a siege. The French army numbered 500.
Source: The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler
More at: History
What was unusual about the sleeping arrangements of famed German composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828)?
Answer: It is said that he slept with his glasses on, in order that he would not have to look for them to begin composing in the morning.
Source: We Shall Make Music by Patricia Kelsey Graham
More at: History
From where did the common English terms “crummy”, ‘lousy”, “rank and file”, “souvenir” and “cushy” originate?
Answer: The language used in the trench warfare of the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: Trench Talk by Peter Doyle and Julian Walker
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What did King Charles II of England (1630-1685) sell for £400,000 in 1662?
Answer: Dunkirk. The last English possession on the north European coast, Charles II no longer had a use for it and needed the money. The buyer was King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715).
Source: The Age of Genius by A.C. Grayling
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Roman Emperor Heliogabalus, who reigned for only four years from 218, was seized at the age of 18 by his Praetorian Guard, decapitated and thrown into the Tiber River. Why was this?
Answer: His brief reign was characterised by sexual scandals and religious controversies – he managed to have five wives in his short life. English Historian Edward Gibbon said that he ‘abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures and ungoverned fury’ while another, B G Niebuhr, said that Heliogabalus led an ‘unspeakably disgusting life’.
Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon; General Historical Texts
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In 1721, pirates John Taylor and Oliver la Buse captured the Portuguese carrack Nostra Senhore de Cabo, in one of the biggest pirate hauls ever. How much was seized?
Answer: Diamonds and gold valued at $400 million. Such was the extent of the haul that every member of crew received $500,000 of gold and at least forty diamonds. Thus, demonstrating the allure of piracy for many.
Source: The Healing Trail by Georges M. Halpern
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The Town Police Clauses Act, enacted by the British Parliament in 1847, forbids a range of relatively harmless acts in public areas. What did these include?
Answer: Hanging out washing, cleaning carpets and even flying kites. Remarkably, the law itself still stands, though fortunately is rarely enforced.
Source: The Strange Laws of Old England by Nigel Cawthorne
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In the British Parliament in 1871, Conservative statesman Benjamin Disraeli described an occurrence which he felt was ‘a greater political event than the French Revolution’, and how as a result the balance of power has been entirely destroyed, and the country which suffers more and feels the effects of this change most is England.’ To what event is he referring?
Answer: The conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, which unified Germany and brought about the German Empire. Disraeli’s comments are often cited as a far-sighted prediction of the future conflicts with Germany during both World War One and Two.
Source: The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark
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The Italian scholar Petrach is often considered a leading figure in Italian Renaissance humanism. He is also credited as a pioneer in a quite unrelated field however. What is this?
Answer: Mountain climbing. His decision in April 1336 to climb Mont Ventoux in southern France is considered one of the first examples of mountain climbing merely for the purposes of personal enjoyment.
Source: Heights of Reflection by Sean Moore Ireton
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The civilization of Ancient Egypt was considered one of the most advanced of its time, but in life expectancy it still lagged far behind the modern era. What was the lifespan of the average Ancient Egyptian citizen?
Answer: 35 years.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
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At around 800 BCE, there were, incredibly, over 1000 different states on the Chinese mainland. How many were there by 480 BCE?
Answer: Fourteen. Between 480 and 222 BCE, bitter conflict took place such that only one state, the Qin, remained.
Source: A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard
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The Battle of Solferino in 1859 saw the victory of French and Piedmontese armies over a large Austrian force, opening the way for Italian unification. The battle is also unusual in another way, what was it?
Answer: It was the last major battle in European history where the armies involved were under the command of their monarchs. The French Army was under the command of Napoleon III, Piedmontese under Victor-Emmanuel and Austria under Emperor Franz Josef.
Source: The Middle Sea by John Julius Norwich
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The Battle of Agincourt, on October 25, 1415, was a momentous medieval victory for English forces against France. What factor, however, likely meant the French soldiers were tired and depleted before they even faced the English?
Answer: The French armour. It was incredibly heavy, just the helmet and cuirass, or breastplate, of one French knight weighed 40 Kg (90 Pounds). Many soldiers likely died of heat stroke, fell into ditches – most could not get up without assistance – and suffocated before the battle had even begun.
Source: The Middle Ages by Morris Bishop
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In the medieval Mughal Empire in India, transitions of power from one emperor to the next were often tumultuous affairs. When Emperor Akbar was on his death bed in 1605, what threatened the accession of his son, Prince Salim, to the throne?
Answer: Prince Salim’s own son, seventeen year old Man Singh, who made a failed grab for power himself. Despite attempting to steal his father’s throne, Man Singh did not lose favor with Salim, later being installed as governor of Bengal.
Source: The Mughal Empire by John F. Richards
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Of all the ancient civilizations, which was considered to have the most equality between men and women?
Answer: Ancient Egypt. As social status was overwhelmingly defined by rank not gender, women were highly respected. They enjoyed many legal rights, including participation in business practices and the owning of land. They could also work in many professional occupations.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
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Tea is often seen as quintessentially English, but was in fact popularised in England by a foreigner. Who was this?
Answer: The Portuguese princess Catheron of Braganza, who became the wife of Charles II in 1662. She brought a casket of tea and the islands of Bombay as part of her dowry.
Source: Hybrid Cultures by Ulrike Lindner
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Under the authority of the Assize of Clarendon in 1166, King Henry II of England engaged in a widespread and comprehensive drive to rid England of crime. How did he go about doing this?
Answer: He required that for every 104 men in the kingdom, a jury of twelve should be assembled to supply the names for trial of anyone who, within the last twelve years, had been accused or even suspected of robbery, theft, murder or harboring fugitives. Those convicted would lose a leg and a hand.
Source: England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225
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In Hitler’s Third Reich, there was approximately one Gestapo, or secret police, for every 2000 citizens. In East Germany, after the end of World War Two, how many Stasi secret police officers or informants were there?
Answer: One Stasi officer or informant for every 63 citizens.
Source: Stasiland by Anna Funder
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The German hyperinflation of the early 1920s, when prices spiraled out of control, was one of the most devastating periods in German history. In 1923, what was the percentage increase in prices for commodities such as bread and milk?
Answer: 75,000,000,000%. Germans would buy bread with wheelbarrows of cash. Eventually the currency was scrapped and a new one established.
Source: Culture and Inflation in Weimar Germany by Bernd Widdig
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As reported by contemporary historical records, where does the French word for a small restaurant, Bistro, originate?
Answer: At the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, many Russian Cossacks occupied Paris. They were notoriously impatient with the local population and demanded quick service from local restaurants. They often repeatedly shouted “bistro!”, similar to the Russian word for “hurry”, and the term stuck.
Source: Paris and Versailles by Robert Colonna d’Istria
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Richard Rouse, a cook in medieval London, was executed in 1531 in a bizarre way. What was it?
Answer: Rouse, who was charged with poisoning his master, was boiled alive at a location between St Bart’s Hospital and Smithfield Market, central London. The meal he prepared had killed sixteen but failed to cause the death of his master.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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The War between Great Britain and America of 1812 concluded in stalemate, a result that was in many ways remarkable considering how unevenly matched the two sides were at the start of the conflict. At the beginning of the War the Royal Navy had more than 600 ships. How many seaworthy vessels did the United States have?
Answer: Only 18. Fortunately for the USA, Britain was fighting in the Napoleonic Wars at the same time.
Source: A Guide to The War of 1812 by Mark Phillips
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Which was the first community in history to use a form of metal money?
Answer: The Sumerians, of Ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). The currency was known as Ingots, with the value of each coin depending on their weight.
Source: Money by Robert Young
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‘I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land’, ‘Battle Cry of Freedom’, ‘Maryland, My Maryland’ and ‘All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight’ are all examples of what?
Answer: Songs sung during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: The History Buff’s Guide to the Civil War by Thomas Flagel
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What was French philosopher and writer Voltaire’s (1694-1778) opinion of the works of great English writer William Shakespeare?
Answer: He labelled Shakespeare’s work as ‘a vast dunghill’, describing him as a ‘drunken savage with some imagination whose plays please only in London.’
Source: It Takes a Certain Type to be a Writer by Erin Barret
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February 2021
‘I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land’, ‘Battle Cry of Freedom’, ‘Maryland, My Maryland’ and ‘All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight’ are all examples of what?
Answer: Songs sung during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: The History Buff’s Guide to the Civil War by Thomas Flagel
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Which novelist, on penning one of his most famous works, remarked ‘if I could do this book properly, it would be one of the really fine books. But I am assailed by my own ignorance and inability’?
Answer: John Steinbeck (1902-1968). The novel he was describing was ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, published in 1939, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Source: It Takes a Certain Type to be a Writer by Erin Barrett
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What are the origins of the term ‘freelance’?
Answer: The term began as a description for mercenary knights who supplied their own weapons free from house or national ties. It first occurred relatively late however, in the 1820 novel ‘Ivanhoe’ by Walter Scott (1771-1832).
Source: Mercenaries in British and American Literature, 1790-1830 by Erik Simpson
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Polish soldier Wiltold Pilecki (1901-1948) was one of the greatest heroes of the Second World War. What did he voluntarily endure for three years in order to help inform the Allies about the atrocities being carried out by the Nazis?
Answer: Imprisonment in Auschwitz concentration camp. While there he organised a resistance group and supplied information to the Allies, enabling them to know for the first time about the horrific acts taking place there.
Source: Six Faces of Courage by Michael Foot
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In what unusual way, involving the White House lawn, did US President Woodrow Wilson contribute to the war effort during World War One?
Answer: Wilson kept sheep on the White House lawn, with their wool contributing to the U.S. war effort.
Source: Woodrow Wilson by BreAnn Rumsch
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During the First Opium War (1838-1842) China intended to use a curious method to defend the coastal city of Ningbo against attacking British ships. What was it?
Answer: They proposed attaching firecrackers to monkeys and then flinging them onto the British warships, hoping to ignite the ships’ powder magazines. The plan failed before it had even begun, however, as when the British attacked everyone fled, including the animal keeper, and the monkeys were never used.
Source: The Opium War by Julia Lovell
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What was the first American word to infiltrate the English language?
Answer: Chowder, the thick seafood soup.
Source: A Humorous Account of America’s Past by Richard T. Stanley
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On April 19 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann (1906-2008) experienced a world’s first when cycling home from work. What was it?
Answer: An intentional acid trip. Hoffman had been experimenting with the principles of LSD, and had ingested 250 ug earlier on in the day.
Source: Fifty Years of LSD by D. Ladewig et al
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Whereas the Virginia and Plymouth colonies are often viewed as the first British American settlements, there was in fact a British settlement established before these two. What was it?
Answer: The Roanoke Colony, established in modern day North Carolina in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618). It is believed to have lasted only five years before being abandoned, though the reason remains unclear.
Source: Roanoke by Lee Miller
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During the Second World War, American mathematician Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein (1912-2006) was lauded for successfully cracking the code for Purple. What was this?
Answer: ‘Purple’ was the American codename for the Japanese cipher machine, similar to the more widely known Nazi equivalent “Engima”. Such was the importance of Feinstein’s breakthrough that it is considered one of the greatest achievements in U.S. code breaking history.
Source: An Encyclopaedia of American Women at War by Lisa Frank
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Su Hui (365-426) was a Chinese poet who crafted one of the most incredibly complex poems of all time. What was it?
Answer: She crafted a Palindrome poem, an incredible piece of writing crafted through a 29 x 29 grid of characters. Each line can be read forward or backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, and therefore can be read in 7,940 different ways. The poem was tilted Xuanji Tu, or “Picture of the Turning Sphere”.
Source: Classical Chinese Poetry by David Hinton
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Which British military aircraft of the Second World War (1939-1945) was known as the ‘Flying Porcupine’?
Answer: The Short Sunderland, a flying boat patrol bomber. It was so dubbed due to its numerous 303 inch machine guns, twelve of which could be fitted to the aircraft.
Source: Deep Sea Hunters by Marin Bowman
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In 1786, Jacques Balmat (1762-1834) and Michel-Gabriel Paccard (1757-1827) climbed to the top of which mountain, an expedition which is often considered the beginning of modern mountaineering?
Answer: Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. Incredibly, Balmat and Paccard reached the summit un-roped and without ice axes.
Source: Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles by Cyril Douglas Milner
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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the population of the Russian Empire exploded. In 1875 it stood at around 85 million. What was the population figure in 1913?
Answer: 180 million. This staggering increase led to the considerable size of the Russian Army in the First World War.
Source: The World War I Story by Chris McNab
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While the principles of ‘military honour’ had largely disappeared by the First World War (1914-1918), this was not the case for air battles. In what ways did chivalry continue in the skies?
Answer: ‘Chivalrous’ actions in air combat included the dropping of wreaths over the location of the death of a prominent enemy airman, the refusal of pilots to continue firing at an enemy aircraft once it was clear it was damaged and the good treatment of captured pilots.
Source: Military Honour and the Conduct of War by Paul Robinson
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In the context of the American War of Independence (1775-1783), what area sometimes called the ‘14th American colony’ did not ultimately decide to join the rebellion?
Answer: Nova Scotia, in present day Canada. Attacks by American privateers and general ambivalence were among the reasons why Nova Scotia remained loyal to the British Crown.
Source: The Far Reaches of Empire by John Grenier
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According to verified historical estimates, who is the wealthiest sportsman of all time?
Answer: Hispanic-Roman chariot racer Gaius Appuleius Diocles, born 108 CE. Competing in the second century, Diocles was an accomplished racer, winning 1462 competitions over his career. It is recorded that he retired with winnings of 35,863,120 Roman sesterces, estimated at, incredibly, around $15 billion in today’s money.
Source: Life, Death and Entertainment in the Roman Empire by David Stone Potter
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Which was the last to be invented by humankind: rope, the wheel, woven cloth or the flute?
Answer: The wheel. The potter’s wheel was first crafted around 3500 BCE by Uruk craftsmen, surprisingly making it the newest of all the inventions.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World by Shona Grimbly; A Short History of the World by Geoffrey Blainey
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In the context of British history, what was a ‘knocker-up’?
Answer: A ‘knocker-up’ was a profession to wake up sleeping people to ensure they made it to work on time. Emerging in the Industrial Revolution, they continued until affordable alarm clocks made the role superfluous.
Source: The Industrial Revolution by Carlo M. Cipolla
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The War of Breton Succession took place between 1341 and 1364 between the Counts of Blois and the Montforts of Brittany for control of Brittany, France. In 1351 a highly unusual method was crafted to try and break the impasse. What was it?
Answer: An arranged battle was staged between the two sides midway between the castles of Blois and Montfort, with each side permitted to have thirty champions. After a bloody battle, the House of Blois was victorious. The so called ‘Combat of the Thirty’ became a popular example of medieval chivalry for later chroniclers.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Hundred Years War by John A. Wagner
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‘Q-ships’ were a creative British response to the formidable U-boat threat of the Second World War (1939-1945). What were they?
Answer: They were heavily armed merchant vessels, disguised to resemble vulnerable supply ships. U-boats would often be caught by surprise, expecting the ships to be easy prey. They became feared by U-Boat crews as the ‘U-boat traps’.
Source: The United States in the First World War by Anne Cipriano Venzon
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‘Beware the Cat’ was a publication written by printer’s assistant and poet William Baldwin. Why is it considered pioneering?
Answer: ‘Beware the Cat’ was first published in 1553 and is widely regarded as the first novel published in English. With a story that concerns supernatural events and episodes of terror, it is almost certainly the first example of horror fiction of significant length.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of English Prose 1500-1640 by Andrew Hadfield
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In 1950, two men cutting peat on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark found a dead body and contacted the police. How was all not as it seemed?
Answer: The body belonged to a man who had lived during the 4th century BCE, 2,400 years previously. The corpse, which became known as the ‘Tollund Man’, had been naturally mummified in a bog and hence at first sight it looked a much more modern discovery.
Source: The Corpse – A History by Christine Quigley
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During the Seven Years War (1754-1763) between Britain and France, 1,512 British sailors were killed in action. How many died of scurvy?
Answer: No fewer than 100,000. The discovery of Vitamin C as a prophylactic to scurvy would see the disease almost eradicated.
Source: Trick or Treatment by Edzard Ernst et al
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What did Brigadier Anthony C McAuliffe (1898-1975), commander of the United States 101st Airborne Division, reply when asked to surrender by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944?
Answer: “Us surrender? Awe, nuts!” Despite their compromised position, McAuliffe had at first thought that the Germans were trying to surrender to them.
Source: Beyond Valor by Patrick K. O’Donnell
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In 1907 in Brooklands, United Kingdom, the world’s first what was constructed?
Answer: Purpose-built motor racing circuit. Brooklands also served as one of the country’s first airfields.
Source: The World Atlas of Motor Racing by Joe Saward et al
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The Rosetta Stone, held in the British Museum, is one of the most famous ancient antiquities. What is controversial about its rediscovery in 1799 however?
Answer: It was discovered by the French, whose soldiers found it while serving in the Egyptian campaign of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). It was only acquired by British forces after they defeated their French counterparts at the Siege of Alexandria in 1801 and has been held in Britain ever since.
Source: The Rosetta Stone by E.A. Wallis Budge
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“We Nazis never said we were nice democrats. The problem is that the British seem like sheep or bishops, but when the moment comes they are shown to be hypocrites, and they become a terrible tough people.” Who said this?
Answer: Reinhard Spitzy (1912-2010), who was secretary to Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Source: A History of the English Speaking Peoples by Andrew Roberts
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January 2021
Half a millennia before the European Union, which leader tried to create a European confederation that would have included a political assembly, court of justice, combined army and federal budget?
Answer: George Podiebrad (1420-1471), King of Bohemia. His ‘plans for peace’ won little favor among medieval leaders.
Source: History’s Worst Decisions by Stephen Weir
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The Battle of Agincourt (1415), where English forces defeated a numerically superior French Army, is a famed battle in English history. Why does it continue to provoke contentious historical debate to this day however?
Answer: Historians continue to differ on the size of the armies. In 2005, Anne Curry and Juliet Barker both published vastly different estimates. Curry argued the French were 12,000 strong, and the English 9,000. Barker however argued that English had 6,000 troops and the French a whopping 36,000.
Source: Fatal Avenue by Richard Holmes
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On November 25 1120, the ‘White Ship’ sank in the English Channel. It was carrying a number of English nobles, and crucially the only legitimate heir to English King Henry I, William Adelin (1103-1120). Stephen, who would become King after Henry, had been supposed to board the vessel also, but did not. Why?
Answer: He was suffering from diarrhoea. That diarrhoea saved him from near certain death and consequently helped him become King.
Source: Henry I by Judith A. Green
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St Edmund (841-869 CE) was King of East Anglia from 855 to 869 CE, when legend had it he endured a gruesome demise. What happened?
Answer: After he refused to cooperate with Viking invaders, he was tied to a tree and used for target practice by Viking archers.
Source: With A Bended Bow by Erik Roth
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Chemical weapons were never used in Europe during the Second World War (1939-1945), but fears were so high that that wild rumours emerged. What did they include?
Answer: One suggested that the Nazis had filled toy balloons with gas with which they planned to lure children, while another involved parachutists attacking towns with fog weapons’. Panic gripped the town of Southampton in the UK in 1941 when fumes smelling like ‘burning onion’ filled the town. It turned out there was a fire at the local pickle factory.
Source: The Third Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd
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The lie detector, bubble gum, Elastoplast and the commercial car radio were all invented in which decade of the twentieth century?
Answer: The 1920s.
Source: The All-New University Challenge Quiz Book by Steve Tribe
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Which historical figure was surprisingly instrumental in the design of the current flag of Italy?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). The flag was installed after Napoleon’s conquest of northern Italy in 1797.
Source: Napoleon Bonaparte by Blago Kirov
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The Soviet Union’s military casualties in the Second World War (1939-1945) were shocking. Of every 100 Soviet males born in 1923 and alive on 21 June 1941, how many were still alive on 12 May 1945?
Answer: Three. Between these two dates, the Soviet Union lost an average of 19,014 dead a day.
Source: Clausewitz Reconsidered by H.P. Wilmot et al
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What event, known as ‘Der Tag’, saw the largest gathering of warships ever seen?
Answer: The surrender of the German High Seas Fleet to the Royal Navy on 21 November 1918. Greeted by a large British and French navy force, the number of warships gathered was over 400.
Source: Luxury Fleet by Holger Herwig
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In the opinion of historians such as Dominic Lieven and R. Bobroff, what previously neglected factor was a major contributor to the tensions that led Europe to war in 1914?
Russia’s desire to possess Constantinople and the Turkish straits. Russia had for a long time held a significant economic, strategic and historical interest in the Straits. Showing once again that throughout history territorial acquisition lies at the heart of most wars.
Source: Towards the Flame by Dominic Lieven
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In 1840, British newspaper The Times described how west London ‘appears as one besieged, the shops being shut and the windows of the houses barricaded with hurdles to prevent them being destroyed. Numerous accidents happen, no person while walking the streets being free from danger.’ What was the newspaper referring to?
Answer: The Times was referring to the annual shrove Tuesday football match which took place in Kingston-upon-Thames. While a much-loved tradition for its participants, it seemed to everyone else little more than an excuse for rowdy, violent behavior in which heads and windows, and anything else that got in the way, were broken or otherwise roughly handled.
Source: Hard Men – Violence in England since 1750 by Clive Emsley
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The growth in power of Japan’s empire before World War Two was partly due to its incredible industrial growth. In 1915 there were 15,000 factories in Japan. How many were there in 1939, just over twenty years later?
Answer: No fewer than 120,000. Employees of large factories also grew in number from the largest having around 200,000, to the biggest in 1939 employing over one million workers.
Source: The Cambridge History of Japan IV by John W. Hall
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London grew immensely in the late middle ages. In 1500 it had a population of around 40,000. What was its population in 1801?
Answer: 900,000; an increase of 2150%.
Source: The British Atlantic World by David Armitage and Michael J. Braddick
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What is often considered to be the most powerful siege weapon of the Middle Ages, capable of raising, that is, knocking down, even the most powerful strongholds?
Answer: The counterweight Trebuchet, essentially a giant sling-shot on wheels. Used in the late 12th century states of the Middle East, the machines weighed some 12 tons and could often throw 15kg stones over 300 metres, shattering medieval walls.
Source: A History of the Early Medieval Siege by Peter Purton
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In Russian history, what does the bald-hairy joke refer to?
Answer: This is the joke that all Russian leaders since the early nineteenth century have alternated, from one who is bald, to one who possesses a full head of hair. It is widely considered to have begun with the reign of Tsar Nicholas I in 1825, who was bald, being succeeded by Alexander II, who had hair. Some maintain the tradition continues with Russian leaders to this day.
Source: Putin – Russia’s Choice by Richard Sakwa
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On 18 January 1871, the King of Prussia, William I, was declared German Emperor at the Palace of Versailles in Paris. One would expect he would be pleased with this. He was not however, being worried that the Prussian Monarchy would be undermined. What did he say to Otto von Bismarck the night before his coronation?
Answer: ‘Tomorrow is the unhappiest day in my life. We will bury the Prussian monarchy and you, Prince Bismarck, are responsible!’
Source: Cambridge History of Germany by Martin Kitchen
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U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt loved animals and had a variety of pets while in office. What were they?
Answer: Amongst other things, Roosevelt kept a badger, a pig, a bear, a one-legged rooster and a hyena.
Source: Encyclopedia of the American Presidency by Michael A. Genovese; A History of America by Paul Johnson
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At a grand dinner to open commercial buildings in Leeds, UK, in 1829, toasts were made to prominent people in the country and community. How many toasts were made?
Answer: Illustrating the pageantry of Victorian life, no fewer than ten toasts were made. These were to the King, the Duke of Clarence, the King’s Ministers, the County Members, the Mayor, the Mayor and Corporation, the Vicar of Leeds, the Magistrates of the West Riding, the 14th Light Dragoons and the Yorkshire Hussars.
Source: Cities of Ideas – Civil Society and Urban Governance in Britain by Robert Colls and Richard Rodger
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The Black Death is seen as the worst plague in European History, but in reality many outbreaks of disease in the Middle Ages were equally as devastating. How many died during the 1630-31 Italian epidemic in Verona for example?
Answer: 33,000 out of a population of a mere 54,000. In other words, almost two thirds of the population died as a result of the pestilence.
Source: The Routledge Companion to Early Modern Europe by Chris Cook and Philip Broadhead
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At a grand dinner to open commercial buildings in Leeds, UK, in 1829, toasts were made to prominent people in the country and community. How many toasts were made?
Answer: Illustrating the pageantry of Victorian life, no fewer than ten toasts were made. These were to the King, the Duke of Clarence, the King’s Ministers, the County Members, the Mayor, the Mayor and Corporation, the Vicar of Leeds, the Magistrates of the West Riding, the 14th Light Dragoons and the Yorkshire Hussars.
Source: Cities of Ideas – Civil Society and Urban Governance in Britain by Robert Colls and Richard Rodger
More at: History
The Church of the Transfiguration in Kizhi, Russia, was built in the seventeenth century and is famed for its beauty, being made entirely out of wood. Its significant size and wood construction provided a notable problem however. What was this?
Answer: Being neither heated nor draught proof, the church would become unbearably cold in winter. As a result, it was used as a ‘summer’ church, with a smaller heatable building, the Church of the Intercession, constructed next door for use as a ‘winter’ church.
Source: A History of Russia by Roger Bartlett
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Ohio is acknowledged as the 17th US state, but it can be argued that in some ways it was actually the 47th state. Why is this?
Answer: While Ohio applied for statehood in 1803, the US Congress had never formally admitted it as a state. This was not rectified until August 7, 1953, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a resolution defining Ohio as the 17th state.
Source: What do you know about the United States by Rapha Holding
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In 1216, Henry III ascended to the throne of England amidst most pressing circumstances. What were these?
Answer: Henry was only nine years old and commanded less than half of his Kingdom. Louis, the eldest son of the King of France, held London, while King Alexander of Scotland was invading the north. Henry’s coronation took place not at Westminster but in Gloucester, and there it was disturbed by news of a Welsh attack a mere 18 miles away. Despite these early setbacks and unpropitious start, Henry would rule for 56 years.
Source: The Struggle for Mastery by David Carpenter
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Built in 70 BCE, Pompeii’s amphitheater is the oldest and most complete structure of its type, of the pre-Coliseum style, in the Roman world. A splendid edifice in any era, let alone one built 2,000 years ago, the amphitheater could hold no fewer than 20,000 spectators. How many latrines or toilets did it have?
Answer: The exact number was zero. Patrons could use the stairs and corridors for their toilet requirements.
Source Pompeii – The Life of a Roman Town by Mary Beard
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As regards their sexual proclivities, what did Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Spinoza, Newton, Kant, Beethoven, and Herbert Spencer all have in common?
Answer: They all practiced sexual continence, which is the avoidance of male sexual spasm or seminal release. This was done to retain energy and maximize their work output and creative powers.
Source: Dr R W Bernard ‘Science Discovers the Physiological Value of Continence’.
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One of the most outstanding commanders of the Civil War in America was General T J ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. Like so many brilliant military figures, he was an eccentric with many idiosyncrasies. What were some of these?
Answer: He believed that if he had pepper in his food it would make his left leg ache. He would never mail a letter that would be in transit on a Sunday. He was a strict observer of the Sabbath, yet many of his battles were fought on a Sunday. He believed that only by keeping one hand in the air could he stop himself from going ‘out of balance’. He sucked constantly on lemons, even in the midst of battle.
Source: The Civil War by Ken Burns; The Civil War by Shelby Foote
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Mansa Musa, ruler of the Malian Empire in the fourteenth century, was fabulously wealthy. How was this demonstrated, in a spectacular fashion, on his visit to Mecca in 1324?
Answer: Traveling with an entourage of over sixty thousand people, Mansa gave away so many gifts of gold en route through Egypt and Arabia that it lowered the the price of the precious metal, and depressed the wider economy in these states for a decade afterwards.
Source: The Earth and Its People by Richard W. Bulliet et. al
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When St Louis, Missouri held the 1904 Summer Olympic games, what were some of the more unusual events included?
Answer: Greased Pole Climbing, rock throwing and mud fighting.
Source: The Complete Book of the Olympics by David Wallechinsky; General Historical Texts
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The Medici’s were a remarkable political dynasty, banking family and later royal house in Florence, Italy. Over 400 years, two Medici’s became queens of France and three became pope. In the words of Professor Niall Ferguson, however, ‘prior to the 1390s the Medici’s were Florence’s answer to the Sopranos, and were a small time clan notable more for low violence than for high finance.’ What was one example of their then low status in society?
Answer: In a 17 year period, no fewer than five Medici’s were sentenced to death by the criminal courts for capital crimes.
Source: The Ascent of Money by Professor Niall Ferguson
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‘Poor Richard’s’ Almanack was a highly popular pamphlet published in the British North American colonies, with versions published each year from 1733 to 1758. Who wrote it?
Answer: American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). In writing the pamphlet he adopted the pseudonym of ‘Richard Saunders’, dubbed ‘Poor Richard’.
Source: Self-help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture by Roy M. Anker
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According to legend, what unusual strategy did Persian ruler King Cambyses II employ to get the upper hand against his Egyptian opponents at the Battle of Pelusium in 55 BCE?
Answer: Knowing that the Egyptians considered cats sacred, Cambyses was said to have ordered his soldiers to bring them to the front line. The presence of cats was said to have so confused and worried Egyptian soldiers that their discipline collapsed and they were defeated easily.
Source: Forgotten Empire by John Curtis
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December 2020
The phrase ‘money for old rope’ is used to apply to situations where someone makes financial gain with little or no effort. But from which act may this phrase originate?
Answer: Public hanging. The rope used for such a hanging was often sold in six inch strips to spectators as a lucky charm.
Source: The North by Paul Morley
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What famous event was Japanese civil servant Masabumi Hosono (1870-1939) involved in, and why was he ostracised from society as a result?
Answer: He was a survivor from the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. The only Japanese passenger on the ship, he was condemned as a coward by the Japanese public for saving himself rather than going down with the ship.
Source: Titanic by Kevin S. Sandler; A Night to Remember by Walter Lord; Shadow of the Titanic by Andrew Wilson.
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In the 1880s, American dentist Dr Albert Southwick surprisingly worked to develop which invention?
Answer: The electric chair. In 1881 Southwick had been given the inspiration for such a device after witnessing how an elderly drunkard was quickly killed when he fell into an electric generator. The chair was eventually developed in collaboration with Thomas Edison.
Source: Eighth Amendment by Rich Smith
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Where does the disease diphtheria get its name?
Answer: This comes from the Greek dipthera, which means leather. It was first used by the French doctor Armand Trousseau and relates to the leather like membrane which appears on the throat, tonsils and nose of a sufferer, blocking the airways. Diptheria was in the past a greatly feared disease, infants being particularly vulnerable.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Which historical figure worked three or four days straight without sleep and his diet consisted of “highly seasoned dishes, smoked fish, caviar and picked cucumber together with Moselle wine, beer and liquors.”
Answer: Communism founder Karl Marx (1818-1883). Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was constantly ill.
Source: Karl Marx by Gareth Stedman Jones
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What is influential about Strawberry Hill House, built in Twickenham, South West London, by politician and intellectual Horace Walpole (1717-1797)?
Answer: It was built in a ‘Gothic’ style, considered by many to have initiated the Gothic Revival’ architectural method that became hugely fashionable in the nineteenth century.
Source: The History of Western Architecture by Natasha Dhillon
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Where was the world’s oldest cannon found?
Answer: China’s Heilongjiang province, which was previously Mongol territory. It dates from 1282, and while it is similar in design to a cannon, its size is more akin to a modern day handgun or rifle.
Source: Empires of the Silk Road by Christopher I. Beckwith
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In 1876 twenty-two year old Sarah Henley, distraught at hearing that her engagement had ended, she leapt from the 75 metre high Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, UK. What happened next?
Answer: Miraculously, she survived the drop. Henley’s skirt was inflated by the windy weather and acted as a makeshift parachute. She reached the river below and was picked up by a rowing boat.
Source: Eccentric Britain by Benedict Le Vay
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Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), who established the Nobel Prizes, famously invented dynamite. His father Immanuel Nobel (1801-1872) was also an inventor, but his well-known invention was much less exciting and controversial. What was it?
Answer: Proving in this instance that talent can run in the family, Immanuel Nobel invented plywood.
Source: Alfred Nobel – A Biography by Kenne Fant
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King Clovis I (466-511 CE) was an influential king of the Franks, the first to unite every Frankish tribe under one ruler. In what other way did he come to influence the French monarchy in later years?
Answer: Through his name, Clovis. This later evolved into the name Louis, a title adopted by eighteen kings of France.
Source: Medieval France by William Kibler
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First Lord of the British Admiralty when World War One broke out in 1914, Winston Churchill said three men were to blame for the outbreak of the war. Who were they?
Answer: The Serb assassin Gavrilo Princip who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian foreign minister who wrote the first ultimatum and the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, who could have stopped the chain reaction of governments bound by military alliance.
Source: The Last Lion by William Manchester
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During World War, what was ‘Operation Unthinkable’?
Answer: The code name for two plans involving conflict between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union in 1945. The Soviet Union had been allies of the West during World War Two. The first involved an Allied surprise attack on Soviet Union forces in East Germany, while the second was a defensive plan if the Soviets themselves attacked Allied positions. Highly secretive, the plans were not made public until 1998.
Source: Operation Unthinkable by Jonathan Walker
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John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was one of the wealthiest men in America during the 19th century and acknowledged as the most powerful banker on Wall Street. As a young man he went into the family business, showing early on definite characteristics as a businessman. What was one example of such traits?
Answer: During the American Civil War, in his 20s, Morgan bought 5,000 defective rifles from an arsenal at $3.50 each and resold them to a field general for $22 each. The rifles were found to be defective and some shot off the thumbs of the soldiers firing them.
Source: New England Historical Society
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Two American states went to war with each other in 1835. Which ones were they?
Answer: Ohio and Michigan (although Michigan was still a territory at the time, not becoming a state until two years later). The conflict was largely bloodless but involved competing militias seeking to control the Toledo Strip territory. Ohio was eventually granted control of the territory at the culmination of ‘the Toledo War’.
Source: The Boy Governor by Don Faber
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According to then scholar William of Malmesbury, under the sovereign rule of 12th century King David I of Scotland, a tax refund could be obtained if what unusual things were done?
Answer: David ‘remitted three years taxation for those who improved their houses, their dress and table manners.’
Source: 1339 Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
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Robert Barclay-Allardice, known as Captain Barclay, was a renowned nineteenth century Scottish soldier and sportsman. What athletic feat made him most famous?
Answer: He walked 1000 miles in 1000 consecutive hours. This incredible feat was performed at Newmarket in June and July of 1809.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
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Edward Blyth was a druggist in nineteenth century London, who also had a hobby of zoology. What unintended consequences did this pastime have?
Answer: He became so interested in zoology that he neglected his day job, and his drug business failed. Luckily for him he later turned this interest into a career at the Museum of the Asiatic Society in Bengal and became one of the most famous British naturalists of the Victorian era.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
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Beer was the drink of choice over water, in the Middle Ages, for more than just its taste and pleasure it could generate. Why was this?
Answer: Beer was a far more hygienic drink, due to the lack of technology for purifying drinking water. The fermentation process rendered beer safer to drink by producing alcohol which killed much if not all harmful bacteria.
Source: Daily Life in the Middle Ages by Paul Newman
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The most famous and brutal of Viking warriors were ‘Berserkers’. From them, we get the word ‘berserk’ today. They were known to fight in a fierce frenzy, believing that they could not be wounded. What do some historians feel is the secret to their battlefield ferocity and brutality?
Answer: Mushrooms, in particular one called ‘fly agaric’. Berserkers felt it gave them magical powers. As an hallucinogenic drug, it most likely fueled their rage and aggression.
Source: The Crafts and Culture of the Vikings by Joann Jovinelly and Jason Netelkos
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Ancient Egyptians could pay their taxes with what unusual items?
Answer: In addition to the common gold and silver, Egyptians often paid using goods such as honey, cattle, grain and even wine.
Source: Law in Ancient Egypt by Russ VerSteeg
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The Ancient Olympic Games were hugely popular events, attracting prominent figures from the society of the Greek city states. What noted figure is reputed to have disrupted one game however?
Answer: The philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. He is said to have ran into the centre of the arena and bared his right thigh, which, he bizarrely claimed, was made of gold.
Source: The Olympics by Stephen Halliday
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The rules of soccer are generally believed to have been developed in Britain in the nineteenth century. What was likely the earliest example of the sport, however?
Answer: A Chinese game called tsu chu, roughly equating to ‘kick ball’, which was played in China at least from around 2000 BCE. The ball was made from animal hair, and the goal was a net measuring 30-40 cm in diameter, strung nine metres up between two bamboo poles.
Source: Football by Anton Rippon
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The most widely used medicine deployed in the American Civil War (1861-1865) was ‘calomel’, used to treat ailments ranging from headaches to syphilis. What was its main ingredient?
Answer: Mercury. When one leading Union army physician, William Hammond, correctly noted that mercury was poisonous, he was deemed a quack and speedily removed from his post.
Source: The Army Medical Department by Mary C. Gillett
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Second and Third century BCE founder of the Han Dynasty, Chinese Emperor Gao, was known for his ruthlessness. When an enemy of Gao captured his father and threatened to boil him alive if he did not surrender, how did the emperor reply?
Answer: Gao nonchalantly replied that if they boiled his father, would they ‘be good enough to send me a cup of the soup.’
Source: The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China by Grant Hard
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In what curious way did the famous whiskey distiller Jack Daniel die in 1911?
Answer: From a stubbed toe, no less. Arriving early for work one day in Lynchburg, Tennessee, he kicked an office safe in frustration after failing to remember the combination. The toe later developed an infection, from which he died.
Source: Whiskey, Wit and Wisdom by Gavin D. Smith
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Which individual pioneered some of the earliest thinking concerning the role of natural selection, nearly 2,500 years before famed English naturalist, geologist and biologist Charles Darwin?
Answer: The Greek philosopher Empedocles, who emphasised spontaneous aggregations as part of this theory of cosmogony.
Source: A History of Greek Philosophy by W. K. C. Guthrie
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35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy declared in a 1961 landmark speech, the United States’ intention of putting a man on the moon, asserting it would a tremendous milestone for mankind. What was, however, Kennedy’s real view on the matter?
Answer: He essentially did not care about space travel, being only keen to undermine the Soviet Union. He said to the director of NASA, James Webb, that he really believed ‘that we shouldn’t be spending this kind of money because I’m not interested in space’.
Source: Debating the Kennedy Presidency by James N. Giglio and Stephen G. Rab
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In the 1940s and early 1950s high ranking Soviet politician Anastas Mikoyan was compelled to take a spare suit to state dinners. Why was this?
Answer: Noticing the care with which the well-dressed Mikoyan cared for his appearance, fellow Soviet Lavrentiy Beria began discreetly concealing rotten tomatoes in his well-cut suits. He would then torment Mikoyan by squashing them in the middle of the dinners, ruining his carefully maintained appearance.
Source: Stalin – The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore; Modern World Encyclopaedia.
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Over 15 million of Henry Ford’s famous Model T automobile – The ‘Tin Lizzy’ – were sold. Making motoring affordable for countless people around the world, the car’s price actually dropped over its 19 year production run. Famously, it was available in any colour, so long as it was, what?
Answer: Black.
Source: General Historical Texts
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The introduction of railways is usually associated with the early decades of the 19th century. According to some definitions, however, when was the earliest example of a railway?
Answer: In Ancient Greece, in around 600 BCE. While not too similar to what we may consider a modern railway, a track way known as the Diolkos covered the Isthmus of Corinth and lasted for at least 650 years.
Source: Early Railways by A. Guy and J. Rees
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Proving he was as adept in business as inventing enduringly popular beverages, in 1784 famed Irish brewer Arthur Guinness signed a new lease for his brewery at St. James Gate, Dublin. What was remarkable about it?
Answer: The lease was for 9,000 years. Even better for Guinness, the annual rent was to be a mere £45. Guinness became in due course the richest man in Ireland. Ten of his 21 children, sadly, predeceased him.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Beer by Garret Oliver
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November 2020
The Ancient Egyptians believed which sacred animal could improve the fertility of land and predict flooding?
Answer: The prehistoric looking and fearsome crocodile.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
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Master military strategist and seemingly insatiable conqueror of other lands, in 1807 what ‘battle’ did Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) certainly lose, much to the amusement of onlookers and the embarrassment of Napoleon himself?
Answer: The ‘great rabbit attack.’ This took place at a disastrous rabbit hunt in 1807, when Napoleon’s chief-of-staff, Alexander Berthier, mistakenly bought thousands of tame, not wild, rabbits to hunt. When the rabbits saw, Napoleon they mistakenly thought they were about to be fed, so flocked to him in their hundreds. Overwhelmed by their numbers, Napoleon had to beat many off with his hands, before being forced to escape in his coach.
Source: Blundering to Glory by Owen Connelly
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A common skin disease in the Middle Ages, ‘Queen’s Evil’, also known as ‘King’s Evil’, affected the lymph nodes of the neck. What was unique about the common treatment for this condition?
Answer: In France and England it was widely believed to respond to a cure by the monarch’s touch. This touch was commonly applied by the laying on of hands or blessing by the monarch on those afflicted by the disease. Thus evidencing, perhaps, the view that monarchs were, if not quasi-deities, likely sanctioned by god.
Source: The Routledge Companion to the Tudor Age
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Benito Mussolini, fascist leader of Italy, was an aggressive and animated politician, characteristics he exhibited from an early age. At ten, he was expelled from his boarding school, for what reason?
Answer: Stabbing another student in the hand. Not learning his lesson, the recidivist Mussolini was involved in another stabbing incident at his next school.
Source: Benito Mussolini – The First Fascist by Anthony Cardoza
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Evidencing how many English aristocrats were renowned for their idiosyncrasies, the fifth Duke of Portland (1800-1879), a fanatic for privacy, required what of his doctor when attending him?
Answer: He refused to admit his doctor into his bedroom, requiring him to make his diagnosis standing outside, questioning and taking his temperature through the medium of a valet.
Source: An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin
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Which famous city has historically been known by various names, including Yanjing, Youzhou, Dadu and Beiping?
Answer: Beijing. It was one of the great ancient capitals of China, along with Luoyang, Nanjing and Chang’an, modern day Xi’an.
Source: Beijing – A Concise History by Stephen G. Haw
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What did French philosopher and writer Voltaire (1694-1778) think about the works of William Shakespeare?
Answer: He described Shakespeare’s work as ‘a vast dunghill’, describing him as a ‘drunken savage with some imagination whose plays please only in London.’
Source: It Takes a Certain Type to be a Writer by Erin Barrett
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In the vernacular of the street, kingship, sometimes can be a bummer. How so?
Answer: Some monarchs haven’t been all that keen to take the job. When Nicholas II unexpectedly became Russian Tsar in 1894, he cried inconsolably in his mother’s arms. Bavaria’s ‘mad monarch’ Ludwig II would’ve been given an ‘F’ for diligently performing his royal duties. He much preferred spending his time as the adoring dog’s-body to composer Richard Wagner.
England’s King George VI took over as monarch when his wayward – ‘I’d rather be partying’ – brother Edward the eighth, jumped ship in 1936 to marry an American divorcee. The nervous, stammering George, ever reluctantly dutiful to his unrequested new responsibilities, would sometimes call out when being dressed by courtiers, for yet another official function, “Oh, how I hate being a king!’
Other royal aspirants couldn’t wait to get the job. The fifteenth century English Wars of the Roses were a series of bloody civil wars, over which royal offshoot family would get to ascend England’s throne. Catherine the Great jettisoned her husband for the top job.
In 1871, the king of Prussia became kaiser of all Germany. You would’ve thought he’d be happy at this. Instead, his majesty complained bitterly to German chancellor Otto von Bismarck that this elevation had killed off his beloved, ancient Prussian title.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Captain Michael Wittmann led Germany’s most lethal tank attack of the Second World War. What did Wittmann achieve?
Answer: His total ‘kill record’ included 138 tanks, 132 antitank guns and a countless number of other vehicles. He is most famous for an attack in June 1944, when he devastated as many as 14 tanks, two antitank guns and 15 additional vehicles in 15 minutes.
Source: General Historical Texts
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In Ancient China, physicians held a different attitude to the principles of healthcare than now. What was it?
Answer: It was the role of a physician to ensure health, so the best doctors were considered to be those with the healthiest patients. As a result, they were often paid when their patients were well, rather than when they were ill.
Source: Man Adapting by Rene Dubos
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History shows that great wealth can sometimes be a curse. What are some examples?
Answer: US businessman Joseph Kennedy amassed an enormous fortune, yet three sons, including President John F Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy, and a daughter, pre-deceased him, while another daughter was institutionalized.
Arthur Guinness, who started the famous brewery in 1759 and became the richest man in Ireland, fathered 21 children but lost 10 before his own death.
Many of his heirs became alcoholics, died in poverty or ended up in mental institutions. Walter Guinness, Lord Moyne, Britain’s minister for Middle East affairs, was murdered in Cairo by a terror group in 1944. Some believe the Beatles song, ‘A Day In The Life’, was written about another Guinness, Tara Browne, who drove his car at high speed through red lights in London in 1966 smashing into a van and killing himself. In 1978 Lady Henrietta Guinness leapt off a bridge in Italy, while four-year-old Peter Guinness was killed in a car crash the same year.
The Getty’s, sadly, have had their share of tragedy, including the horrendous kidnapping of a young family member.
One member of a rich family has written that, ‘Though inheritors are given many things, no one is given a meaningful life.’
Source: General Historical Texts
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When famed military leader Alexander the Great constructed the city of Bucephalon, for what or whom was it named?
Answer: It was named after Bucephalus, one of Alexander’s horses. It was so named to commemorate how a grievously wounded Bucephalus once escorted Alexander safely from the battlefield. The moniker Bucephalus appeared periodically in history afterwards. It was, for example, the name of a ship which brought emigrants from England to Australia in the mid-19th Century.
Source: Stupid Ancient History by Leland Gregory
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Ivory handled six-gun toting World War Two US General George S Patton died prematurely, and in an unusual way, for a ‘blood and guts’ four star general tank commander. How did he die?
Answer: Through injuries suffered in a car crash in December 1945, after the war was over, while travelling in the rear passenger seat of his Army-provided Cadillac.
Source: General Historical Texts.
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Lady Murasaki Shikibu is a significant Japanese historical figure. How so?
Answer: Around the year 1000, she wrote what is believed to be the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, a masterpiece of literary invention that reflected the life of the brilliant Heian court.
Source: Forty Centuries – From the Pharaohs to Alfred the Great by S H G Brandon and Friedrich Heer
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Ivan the Terrible, 16th Century Russian ruler and Grand Duke of Moscow, was the first to use the title Tsar. What was unusual about the symbol worn by the 6,000 black uniformed secret police force he created, the Oprichniki?
Answer: The symbol was a dog and a broom, symbolizing that the secret police were there to sniff out treason and sweep it away.
Source: The Art of Russia by Andre Graham-Dixon
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When Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7 1941, the distinguished New York surgeon Dr Alan J Moorhead happened to be visiting Honolulu delivering a series of lectures. Like other medical practitioners he went to the island’s main hospital to help where he could. His competence and optimism did wonders for the wounded. What did he say to one badly injured soldier?
Answer: ‘Son, you’ve been through a lot of hell, and you’re going into some more. This foot has got to come off. But there’s many a good pirate with only one leg.’
Source: Day of Infamy by Walter Lord
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Pope Pius II, who as Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, before his ordination, visited northern England in 1435, and accepted the hospitality of villagers one night near the border with Scotland. When, after supper one evening, the men and older boys suddenly left for a nearby tower guardhouse in case the Scots mounted a raid, Aeneas asked why no one was staying behind to protect the women. He was told … what?
Answer: The women had nothing to fear from the Scots ‘since they do not count rape as harm’.
Source: The War of the Roses by John Gillingham
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The death of King Edward II of England in Berkeley Castle in 1327, even by medieval standards, was particularly gruesome. What were the circumstances of his death?
Answer: He was forced to abdicate in favor of his underage son, then tortured, starved and thrown into a pit of rotting corpses. His death was caused by having a red-hot poker inserted into his anus through to his internal organs, so as to not leave a mark on his body.
Source: History of England by Paul Johnson
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Famed US General Douglas MacArthur wore an unusual hat during World War Two, which was for an army other than that of the United States. What was this?
Answer: Field Marshall of the Philippines Army. MacArthur had been hired as a consultant to the Philippines government in the 1930s at a reported annual salary of US$500,000. This is equivalent to perhaps $5 million today.
Source: America’s Caesar by Greg Loren Durand.
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At the peak of their power and geographic extent, which had the most territory, the Roman Empire or the Sassanian Empire?
Answer: The Sassanian Empire, which was centered around modern day Iran, and reached its height during the seventh century CE. Its largest extent covered 2.55 million square miles, greater than the Roman Empire’s 2.51 million recorded in 117 CE.
Source: The Dynamics of Ancient Empires by Ian Morris
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In the winter of 1926, the American popular jazz pianist Thomas Wright ‘Fats’ Waller was bundled into a car at gunpoint and driven away at high speed. What happened to him?
Answer: He was taken to a hotel where a private birthday party was taking place for the American gangster Al Capone. The infamous bootlegger had unilaterally decided to have Waller appear at the birthday celebrations. The party finished three days later, where an exhausted Waller was sent home, his pockets full of thousands of dollars lavished on him by Capone.
Source: Anything Goes by Lucy Moore
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The Roman Emperor Vitellius (15AD – 69AD) wolfed down three or four substantial meals a day. On his way out to assume the post of commander of the army of Upper Germany in 68AD he greeted passers-by by asking them if they had had a good breakfast, and then did what?
Answer: Gave a great belch to show that he had breakfasted himself.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon
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American inventor Hiram Maxim revolutionised warfare with his invention of the Maxim machine gun. He was, however, a difficult man – arrogant, cantankerous, impulsive and rude. He also became increasingly deaf. How did one of the director’s of his company communicate with him?
Answer: He pulled on one of Maxim’s ear lobes, leant close and bellowed into his ear.
Source: The Gun – The story of the AK 47 by C J Chivers
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Who was the only British prime minister to have been assassinated?
Answer: Spencer Perceval was shot dead in May 1812 in the House of Commons by bankrupt John Bellingham. He bore a grievance against the government over a claim for compensation for his time spent in a Russian jail. Perceval left a widow and twelve children. When it was revealed he left little or no money, Parliament made a grant of 50,000 pounds to his family.
Source: General Historical Texts
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How did Russia’s King Peter the Great deal with his political enemy William Mons, who was also allegedly his wife Catherine’s lover?
Answer: He had Mons executed, after which his head was removed and presented to Catherine in a jar of alcohol. She would keep the jar for many years.
Source: Peter the Great – A Biography by Lindsay Hughes
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What tragically ironic published statement was made on 29th November 1941, as part of the keenly contested annual football game between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy?
Answer: The game program carried a picture of the battleship Arizona, stating ‘it is significant that despite the claims of air enthusiasts no battleship has yet been sunk by bombs.’ Nine days later the Arizona was sunk by dive bombers when the Japanese attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
Source: The Ignorance Explosion by Julius Lukasiewicz
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‘I never saw a better dressed fool.’ Who was Italian dictator Benito Mussolini referring to in 1935?
Answer: Then British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden. Eden would later become prime minister in 1955, but his two year premiership collapsed during the Suez crisis of the following year.
Source: The Dark Valley by Piers Brendon
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‘How idiotic people are! What is war, what is the state, what is revolution?’. These are the words of political activist Parsegh Shahbaz. What was tragically ironic about Shahbaz being the one to utter these words?
Answer: Shahbaz, an Armenian, was later killed in one of the greatest tragedies of war and revolution, the Armenian massacres of 1915.
Source: Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Palak’ean
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The Battle of Stalingrad, fought from August 1942 to February 1943, was one of the most brutal and heavily contested conflicts in world history. During one six-hour period at the height of the battle, how many times did the city’s railway station change hands between the Germans and Russians?
Answer: No fewer than fourteen times.
Source: A Chronology of World History
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In 1586, the potato was first introduced to England, destined for a banquet for Queen Elizabeth I’s royal court. What went wrong however?
Answer: Unsure how to cook it, Elizabeth’s chefs threw away the potato and instead cooked the potato leaves. This caused significant illness amongst the guests, and Elizabeth promptly banned the potato from court.
Source: Cuisine and Culture by Linda Civitello
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October 2020
How many people died in the Second World War?
Answer: Over 24 million military deaths and 45 million civilians killed.
Source: Inside World War Two by National Geographic
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Despite its fame and prominence, the U.S. Constitution contains a number of small errors. Most prominently, it even misspells the name of a state. Which one was it?
Answer: Pennsylvania, which in the constitution is spelt ‘Pensylvania’. To increase the irony, the individual who scribed the document, Jacob Shallis, was usually a clerk for the Pennsylvania State assembly.
Source: Fun Facts about the U.S. Constitution by Therese Shea
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In 1915, as the full slaughter of World War One was unfolding, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty and in charge of the largest navy the world haD ever seen, wrote some chilling words to a friend which showed the intrinsic nature of the man. What were these words?
Answer: ‘I think a curse should rest on me, because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment – and yet – I can’t help it – I enjoy every second of it.’
Source: 1914: The Year the World Ended by Paul Ham
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‘Pure’ was the Victorian England term for what?
Answer: Dog excrement. This was used as a raw material in the leather tanning industry.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
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During the reign of Roman Emperor Caracalla in 215 AD, the inhabitants of Alexandria produced a public play mocking the emperor. What was Caracalla’s response?
Answer: Caracalla responded to the satire by leading an army to Alexandria and pillaging the city, along with indiscriminately slaughtering the city’s youth. Historical records show that over 20,000 people were killed.
Source: A History of Egypt by Jason Thompson
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France under Napoleon Bonaparte famously sold the Louisiana territory, a massive 888,000 square mile expanse, to the United States in 1803. What territory had President Thomas Jefferson originally asked to purchase from Napoleon however?
Answer: A small portion of Louisiana and a coastal section of the Florida territories. Napoleon shocked the U.S. envoy by suggesting a counter-offer of the entire territory.
Source: Our Nations Archive by Erik Bruun and Jay Crosby
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In 19th Century Japan, what was the repulsive ‘testing of the pit’ procedure?
Answer: A method of torture applied to Christians during the Tokugawa Shogunate. Victims were hung upside down with their heads in excrement.
Source: History’s Great Untold Stories – Obscure Events of Lasting Importance by Joseph Cummins
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During the reign of Roman Emperor Caracalla in 215 AD, the inhabitants of Alexandria produced a public play mocking the emperor. What was Caracalla’s response?
Answer: Caracalla responded to the satire by leading an army to Alexandria and pillaging the city, along with indiscriminately slaughtering the city’s youth. Historical records show that over 20,000 people were killed.
Source: A History of Egypt by Jason Thompson
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Much historical material has been written about the Ford V8, which first appeared in 1932. Which car company, however, was the first to offer a V8 engine and in what year?
Answer: Cadillac, in 1915.
Source: Cadillac by David Featherstone
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How many times did the population of New York increase between 1800 and 1900?
Answer: Especially after the Civil War, and with a considerable stimulus from immigration, no fewer than 50 times. From 100,000 to five million.
Source: History of New York by Ken Burns
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It has been asserted that during World War One, British generals spent most of their time well behind the lines, residing in luxurious chateaus and generally living well. How many British Generals were killed in action in World War One?
Answer: No fewer than 78.
Source: Professor Huw Strachan – The First World War
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How did the daughter of US five star Fleet Admiral Ernest King describe his temperament?
Answer:‘My father was completely even tempered. He was always angry.’
Source: Nemesis by Max Hastings
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In the last decade of the 19th Century, what was Europe’s largest commercial business?
Answer: The Krupp Armaments Combine of Essen, Germany.
Source: The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
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What was unusual about the hour-long speech delivered by former US President Teddy Roosevelt in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912?
Answer: On the way to deliver the speech a would-be assassin shot him in the chest with a revolver. Roosevelt insisted on delivering the speech, which he did with the bullet lodged in his chest.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
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Evidencing the lifelong effects of events in childhood on the adult, King Ethelred the Redeless of England, who died in 1016, had a lifelong fear of candles. Why was this?
Answer: As a child Ethelred was beaten with candles, when there was nothing else at hand.
Source: England – A Portrait by John Bowie
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In the last official census of Russia, undertaken by the Russian government prior to World World One, what did Tsar Nicholas II put down in the section marked ‘Occupation’.
Answer: ‘Owner of the Russian lands’.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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After the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 during the Crimean War, what did the commander of the Light Brigade, the enormously wealthy 7th Earl of Cardigan, do?
Answer: He reported to his furious Commander in Chief, Lord Cardigan, and then returned to his luxury steam yacht the Dryad, anchored off Balaclava, where he had a bath, drank a bottle of champagne, ate dinner prepared by his French chef, before retiring to bed in his state-room.
Source: To Hell with Picasso & Other Essays by Paul Johnson
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The British Auxiliary Units were set up during World War II to defend England in the event of Nazi German invasion. What were their primary objectives, and what was it known as?
Answer: Scallywagging. Auxiliary Units were bands of four to eight men trained in guerrilla warfare tasked with assassination, unarmed combat, demolition, and sabotage. They had a life expectancy of approximately 15 days – and given ration packs to match.
Sources: Hitler’s Britain documentary, General Historical Texts
French Marshall Ferdinand Foch said of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that it was not peace, but … what?
Answer: An armistice for 20 years (He got it wrong by just 65 days).
Source: The First World War by Professor Sir Huw Strachan
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How many medals for bravery were awarded in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865?
Answer: None. All Confederate soldiers were regarded as heroes.
Source: The Civil War by Ken Burns
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What was the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great’s, general order issued in 1745 against any soldier who attempted to flee during battle?
Answer: ‘If any soldier should attempt to run away during battle and should set as much as one foot out of his rank, the noncommissioned officer standing to his rear shall run him through with the short sword and kill him on the spot’.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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In Ancient Rome what was the famous salute that gladiators would deliver to the emperor before commencing combat?
Answer: Morituri te salutamus. “We who are about to die salute you”.
Source: From Jupiter to Christ- On the History of Religion in the Roman Imperial Period by Jörg Rüpke
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Author of The Riddle of the Sands and Sinn Fein politician Erskine Childers was executed in 1922. What did he do on the morning of his execution?
Answer: He asked for, and was granted, an hour’s postponement to watch the sun rise and then shook hands with each member of the firing squad. He also asked his 16 year old son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, to find the men who had signed his death warrant and shake hands with them. His son became a member of the Irish parliament from 1938 to 1973 and the fourth President of Ireland in 1974.
Source: The New Penguin Book of Modern Quotations by Robert Andrews
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What fee was then small-time lawyer Abraham Lincoln paid in 1857 by the Illinois Central Railway, for Lincoln’s work on a tax case involving the railway?
Answer: $5,000. (At the time, the cost of a home in Brooklyn New York was around $2,500) Lincoln paid half of this fee to his much younger and less experienced law partner Billy Hendon, who had a particular liking for alcoholic beverages.
Source: Lincoln by Carl Sandburg
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A common description of the British aristocracy was ‘fine manners, unpaid bills’. The correspondence in the 1890s between a young Winston Churchill and his mother Lady Jennie, evidences this. How so?
Answer: Lady Churchill would chide her son for the fact that a bank had contacted her about Winston writing cheques on accounts which had insufficient funds. A practice which in the US, the mother told her son, would lead to charges being laid. Conversely, Winston would reproach her mother for buying a 200 pound evening dress, when the annual wage of a London servant at the time was some 50 pounds, when they were essentially poor.
Source: The letters of Winston Churchill by Randolph S Churchill.
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Depression era US outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonny Parker were killed by US Rangers and Sheriff’s Deputies in Louisiana in May 1934. The lawmen had, among other weapons, Thompson sub machine guns. In somewhat of an overkill, how many bullet holes were found in each of their bodies?
Answer: 53 in Barrow and 51 in Parker.
Source: Bonnie and Clyde by Karen Blum
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When was Ancient Rome’s famed Coliseum built?
Answer: Construction began on the Coliseum, or as it was known to the Romans the Amphitheatrum Flavium, in 72 AD, under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus.
Source: The Coliseum by Mary Beard and Keith Hopkins
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Australia’s Packer dynasty has known great riches for several generations. Kerry Packer turned an inheritance of $100 million into $7 billion. He said his family had a good deal of luck. Packer’s grandfather found a 10 shilling note at a Tasmanian racecourse, placed it on a bet which paid 12 to one. With the proceeds, he went to Sydney where, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Kerry’s father, newspaper magnate Sir Frank, was a notoriously tough businessman. What was an unusual aspect of his son, young Kerry’s childhood?
Answer: At the age of five, no less, Kerry Packer was sent off to boarding school. The school, Sydney’s Cranbrook, was just 400 metres from the Packer’s enormous family compound.
Source: The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer by Paul Barry
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What is the longest running continual fixture cricket match in the world?
Answer: The annual cricket match, first held in 1805, between Harrow and Eton College, played at Lords in London.
Source: General Historical Texts
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‘I never saw a better dressed fool.’ Who was Italian dictator Benito Mussolini referring to in 1935?
Answer: Then British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden. Eden would later become prime minister in 1955, but his two year premiership collapsed during the Suez crisis of the following year.
Source: The Dark Valley by Piers Brendon
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What was the rationale, so many historians aver, for the Ancient Egyptians’ practice of mummification?
Answer: After death, Egyptians believed, your ba, or spirit, would leave your body – but only temporarily. The ba would need to return to your remains periodically, possibly every night, and for this reunion to be fruitful the body had to be intact, hence the need for mummification.
Source: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkin
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In the 1930s Duesenberg was perhaps the most prestigious car make in America, more expensive than Rolls Royce and the most powerful US car for some 20 years. What was unusual about one of the marque’s advertising campaigns?
Answer: Advertisements didn’t show the car. They featured affluent looking people in rich settings. Such as a man – they mostly featured men – sitting before an enormous fireplace in what obviously was a castle-sized like mansion. Another portrayed a man, standing statesmanlike, on a sailing ship with a uniformed crewman at the helm. Other ads did show the cars, one model of which had a top speed of 160 mph in the 1930s.
Source: Fables of Abundance by Jackson Lears
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September 2020
Which famous work of natural history divided fish into four unorthodox categories; those that have a pebble in their heads; that hide in winter; that feel the influence of the stars and those which fetch extraordinary prices?
Answer: ‘Natural History’ by Roman author Pliny the Elder, published in 77 CE. Though these distinctions seem bizarre, they show one of the first attempts to distinguish animals clearly by their characteristics.
Source: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Casper Henderson
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Which small town in Tennessee, having a population of around 50,000, was using one seventh of all electricity generated in the United States in 1943?
Answer: Oak Ridge, which used as much electricity as New York City. The reason was that it housed three uranium enrichment plans, developed as part of the United States Government Manhattan Project to construct an Atomic bomb.
Source: Too Hot to Touch by William M. Alley
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On the outset of the First World War (1914-1918), some British officers were sceptical about the role of aircraft. What did newspaper reports at the time have a British general as famously saying?
Answer: “The airplane is useless for the purposes of war”.
Source: The First World War – 101 Amazing Facts by Jack Goldstein
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Why is December 1803 such a historic moment in the history of Australia?
Answer: The first recorded cricket match took place in Sydney in December 1803.
Source: The Penguin History of Australian Cricket by Chris Harte and Bernard Whimpress
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Where, in August 1907, did Robert Baden-Powell organise the first Scout camp?
Answer: The first Boy Scouts’ camp was on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, southern England. Participants took part in activities including ‘camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism’.
Source: Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell
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When the wealthy Parisian lady Madame de la Bresse died in 1876, her will instructed that 125,000 Francs be used to buy clothing. But for whom?
Answer: The snowmen of Paris. Her relatives attempted to claim de la Beresse was insane, but a court upheld her will and Parisian snowmen were the beneficiaries.
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
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“It’s the best joke I’ve heard in years this talk of torpedoing the Lusitania”. Who made this tragically ironic comment?
Answer: Commander William Thomas Turner, captain of the Cunard ocean liner Lusitania when it was sunk by a German torpedo in May 1915 in the North Atlantic ocean, near Old Head, off Kinsale, Ireland. Some 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard were killed, leaving 761 survivors. This was Turner’s reported response when asked beforehand as to the risk to his ship from torpedoes. Commander Turner was one of the survivors. The sinking turned international opinion against Germany.
Source: The First World War by Professor Huw Strahan
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What was the name of the ship that took Charles Darwin (1809-1882) around the world? Darwin was, of course, an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution.
Answer: The HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy, helped Darwin explore South America. His findings assisted him to develop the theory of evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.
Source: Charles Darwin by E. Janet Browne
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What was the fascinating story surrounding the resolution of the succession question when Germany’s Duke of Saxe-Coburg died childless in 1899?
Answer: Among the kings and queens of Europe in the 19th century, there was a belief that if they intermarried, this would reduce the chance of war, because the adversaries’ sovereigns were likely related. Nice theory.
When Germany’s Duke of Saxe-Coburg died childless in 1899, Britain’s Queen Victoria – ‘the grandmother of Europe’ – said an Englishman should have the job. Enter her fourteen-year-old grandson Prince Charles Edward. He was duly shipped off to become a senior German royal. Owner of 17 castles, thousands of acres of prime real estate, including a power station. Not that he needed the money. He was already rich in his own right.
So, a proper German he became. But in 1914 he found himself on the losing side when Germany fought Great Britain. Years later, he became a favourite of Adolf Hitler. Another losing side.
Meanwhile, his beloved Britain, the country of his birth, stripped him of his English royal titles and made his name mud. All this was terribly ironic. Back when he was a schoolboy at Eton, he initially refused the German dukedom. This was until an older royal cousin, who was also at Eton, took him aside one day and told him he would be ‘punched’ if he didn’t take the job.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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When was the first non-stop transatlantic flight?
Answer: British aviators John Alcock (1892-1919) and Arthur Brown (1886-1948) made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919. They flew a Vickers Vimy plane and took just under 16 hours to complete the journey.
Source: Yesterday We Were in America by Brendan Lynch
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British statesman Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) famously once stated that “the Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it”. Who were these?
Answer: Palmerston declared, “One was Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert, who is dead. The second was a German professor who went mad. I am the third, however, all the intricacies of this complex issue are now lost to me.”
Source: The Wiley-Blackwell Dictionary of Modern European History by Nicholas Atkin, Michael Biddiss and Frank Tallett
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How is Gaius Julius Caesar (12-41) better known?
Answer: Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar is best known as Caligula, a nickname meaning ‘little boot’. It was a sobriquet invented by Roman soldiers, who were amused that Gaius dressed in a miniature soldier’s outfit, including boots and armour.
Source: Caligula by Anthony A. Barrett
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When did Abraham Ortelius publish what is considered to be the first modern atlas?
Answer: Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum or ‘Theatre of the World’ was published in Antwerp, today’s Belgium, on May 20, 1570.
Source: The Mapping of the World by Rodney W. Shirley
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English private schools have been described as gentlemen’s factories. But this was not always the case. What are some examples of these schools’ disheveled past?
Answer: At the turn of the nineteenth century English public schools had little to recommend them. A general atmosphere of unruliness was the norm. One observer said that the operating philosophy of many of these learning bodies was ‘anarchy tempered by despotism’. One Westminster school alumni writing two hundred years ago said, ‘The boys fought one another, they fought the masters, the masters fought them, they fought outsiders; in fact we were ready to fight everybody.’ Anarchy and violence was in the DNA of many of these schools. In 1710 Winchester boys mutinied over beer rations. At Eton, between 1768 and the 1830s, there were seven, what were termed, ‘uprisings’. In 1771 the carriage of a visiting Harrow governor was attacked and the school closed for nine days. In 1797 an Eton staff member was taken prisoner, precipitating the reading of the Riot Act, resulting in soldiers, special constables and armed farmers being called in.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What did historian Craig Symonds call ‘one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history’?
Answer: The Battle of Midway. This clash between American and Japanese navies took place in June 1942, six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The loss of Japanese aircraft carriers in particular meant that Japan theoretically lost the war at this time. Yet almost another three years of bloody fighting was to follow.
Source: World War Two at Sea by Craig Symonds
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What ancient tribe had Boudicca (30-62 CE) as its queen during the Roman occupation of Britain?
Answer: Boudicca was queen of the Iceni tribe. In either 60 or 61 AD Boudicca united different tribes in a Celtic revolt against Roman rule. She led an army of around 100,000 and drove the Romans out of modern-day Colchester – the then capital of Roman Britain – London and Verulamium, today’s St Albans.
Source: Boudica Britannia – Rebel, War-Leader and Queen by M. Aldhouse-Green
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Who was Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)?
Answer: Sojourner Truth, born Isabella “Belle” Baumfree, was an American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. In 2014, Truth was included in Smithsonian magazine’s list of the ‘100 Most Significant Americans of All Time’.
Source: Enduring Truths- Sojourner’s Shadows and Substance by Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby
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English agricultural pioneer Jethro Tull (1674-1741) is known as a famous inventor, but what was his profession?
Answer: A lawyer. His improved seed drill was invented in 1701. It was a mechanical seeder which distributed seeds evenly across a plot of land and planted them at the correct depth. It is often regarded as a turning point in agriculture, yet Tull’s seed drill was actually very expensive and not very reliable. Good quality seed drills were not produced until the mid-18th century.
Answer: The Genius of China – 3000 years of science, discovery and invention by Robert Temple and Joseph Needham
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How did Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1806-1891) make history in 1864?
Answer: Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church, by Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral. Crowther had been born in Osoogun, modern day Nigeria, and been freed from slavery before studying languages.
Source: The Journey of the First Black Bishop – Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther by Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan
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Are there arguments to suggest the best generals are a bit crazy?
Answer: American Civil War commander General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson believed pepper in his food would make his left leg ache. He thought that only by keeping one hand in the air could he stop himself from going ‘out of balance’. He sucked constantly on lemons, even in the midst of battle.
Bernard Montgomery, Britain’s most successful World War Two general, once invited US general Omar Bradley to lunch and only gave him an apple. Dwight Eisenhower said Montgomery was ‘a psychopath’.
The daughter of US five-star admiral Ernest King said her father was completely even tempered – ‘He was always angry’.
Admiral David Beaty was Britain’s most glamorous naval officer during World War One. Handsome, flamboyant and wealthy, Beaty regularly consulted fortune tellers – a Mrs Robinson, a Madam Dubois and a lady in Edinburgh named Josephine.
When President Abraham Lincoln received complaints about General Ulysses S Grant’s drinking, Lincoln replied, “I can’t spare this man. He fights. Which, to be a successful general, is, well, pretty much what you want.
Britain’s King George the third was told that his brilliant, victorious, general James Wolfe was ‘mad’. “Mad is he?” the king replied. “I wish he would bite some of my other generals!”
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
What was the largest naval battle of the First World War (1914-1918)?
Answer: The Battle of Jutland in May-June 1916 saw the only full-scale clash between the British and German Navy of the war. It took place off the North Sea coast of Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula and 25 ships were sunk. Historians see the result as inconclusive, with both sides claiming victory.
Source: Jutland 1916 by Charles London
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Who (or what) was Big Bertha?
Answer: Big Bertha was a German siege howitzer built by Krupp AG and fielded by the German Army during the First World War (1914-1918). It had a 42-centimetre barrel, making it one of the largest artillery pieces ever fielded in war.
Source: “Big Bertha” and German Siege Artillery of World War I by Marc Romanych and Martin Rupp
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Where is the world’s oldest brewery?
Answer: The Brauerei Weihenstephan, located at the Weihenstephan Abbey in Bavaria, Germany, is said to be the world’s oldest continuously operating brewery. It can trace its roots as far back as 768 CE and had its first brewing license awarded in 1040.
Source: William M. Johnston, Encyclopedia of Monasticism
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What was the Glencoe Massacre?
Answer: The Massacre of Glencoe occurred in the Highlands of Scotland in February 1692. It is believed at least 30 members and associates of the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were slaughtered by government forces, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William II of Scotland and Mary II.
Source: Glencoe and the end of the Highland Wars by Paul Hopkins
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Who is the Greek muse of history?
Answer: Clio, sometimes referred to as ‘the Proclaimer’, is the muse of history in Greek mythology. Clio is usually depicted with an open parchment scroll, a book, or a set of tablets.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature by Paul Harvey
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Who was the author of the Old English epic poem Beowulf?
Answer: No one knows. This 3,182-line poem, documents the story of Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. It’s authorship remains a mystery, though various individuals have been unpersuasively identified as the author and dozens of kings, clerics, and contexts have been associated with the poem’s genesis.
Source: The Dating of Beowulf – A Reassessment by Leonard Neidorf
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What was (perhaps correctly) regarded as a bad omen in England in 1066?
Answer: Observers reported sightings of Halley’s Comet in 1066, months before the Battle of Hastings. The comet is even represented in the famous Bayeux Tapestry.
Source: Halley & His Comet by Peter Lancaster-Brown
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Why is Albrecht Dürer’s (1471-1528) Rhinoceros so unusual?
Answer: Dürer’s famous woodcut shows a very odd-looking rhino, with plates that cover its body like sheets of armour. This was because the artist, like most people in Europe, had never actually seen a rhinoceros. As a result, this image became established as an accurate representation until the 18th century.
Source: The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs by T. H. Clarke
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Who built the world’s first elevator?
Answer: The earliest known reference to an elevator comes from the Roman architect Vitruvius (80-70 BCE – 15 BCE), who claimed that Archimedes (287 BCE– 212 BCE) built his first elevator probably in 236 BCE.
Source: Lifted by Andreas Bernard
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What made John of Bohemia (1296-1346) a unique military commander?
Answer: He was better known as John the Blind, after losing his eyesight aged 40. That didn’t stop him leading his men into the Battle of Crécy a decade later. He was quoted as saying “far be it that the King of Bohemia should run away. Instead, take me to the place where the noise of the battle is the loudest. The Lord will be with us. Nothing to fear.”
Source: The Hundred Years’ War by Robin Neillands
More at: History
August 2020
Who wondered ‘How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?’
Answer: English author Mary Shelley (1797–1851), who wrote the famous novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Her novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous monster. It was released in 1818, when Shelley was only 20 years old.
Source: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
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In 1906 the San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18. The events are remembered as one of the most destructive earthquakes in the history of the United States. But how much of the city of San Francisco was destroyed?
Answer: It is estimated that 80% of San Francisco was destroyed, most of which was the result of the fires which raged in the aftermath of the earthquake. More than half of the city’s 410,000 population were left homeless.
Source: The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned by William Bronson
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Who was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes?
Answer: Marie Curie (1867-1934), a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields – Physics and Chemistry.
Source: Madame Curie – a Biography by Eve Curie
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Which historical conflict resulted in the deaths of over eight million people, including 20 percent of the German population?
Answer: The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Initially a war between the Protestant and Catholic states in the Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a general European war involving most of the great powers. Finally, in 1648, the exhausted combatants negotiated the Peace of Westphalia.
Source: The Thirty Years’ War 1618-1648 by Richard Bonney
More at: History
When was the “Year Without a Summer”, also known as “the Poverty Year” and “Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death”?
Answer: 1816. The year saw several severe climate events. These included a severe haze hanging over the sky in many countries, unseasonably cold weather, and summer snowfall. It is now believed these were a result of the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, in today’s Indonesia.
Source: Tambora: the eruption that changed the world by Gillen Wood
More at: History
Moscow’s famous Saint Basil’s Cathedral is renowned the world over. What is strange about who designed it, however?
Answer: No one knows. The cathedral was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. Many myths and stories surround the building, but the most convincing theory is that Postnik Yakovlev was the architect.
Source: Russian architecture and the West by D. S. Shvidkovsky
More at: History
From where does the word ‘dogfight’ originate?
Answer: The aerial battles of the First World War (1914-1918). When turning quickly in the air, the pilot would sometimes switch of the engine to prevent it stalling. When restarting the engine, the sound was akin to a dog’s bark – hence ‘dogfight’.
Source: The First World War – 101 Amazing Facts by Jack Goldstein
More at: History
True or false: the oldest living tree is almost 5,000 years old?
Answer: True. Methuselah, a Great Basin bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, is thought to have germinated in 2833 BCE.
Source: The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel Sussman
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Who said “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life”?
Answer: American author and humourist Mark Twain (1835-1910) is attributed with these remarks. His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
Source: The Singular Mark Twain – A Biography by Fred Kaplan
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Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) is best known for his political philosophy and collaboration with the widely acknowledged founder of Communism Karl Marx (1818-1883), but how did he fund their work?
Answer: Engels worked for his father, who was an owner of large textile factories in Salford, England, and Barmen, Prussia (now Wuppertal, Germany). In Manchester, Engels met his Mary Burns (1821-1863), a fierce young Irish woman with radical opinions who worked in the Engels factory. The two of them entered into a long-standing relationship but never married.
Source: The Frock-Coated Communist – The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels by Tristram Hunt
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Why was the death of King Charles II of Spain in November 1700 so significant?
Answer: Charles II (1661-1700) was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire and died childless. The contest over his succession triggered the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), a major European war of the early 18th century.
Source: The War of the Spanish Succession 1701-1714 by James Falkner
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Who was Mahāvīra?
Answer: Mahāvīra (or Mahaviracharya, “Mahavira the Teacher”) was a 9th-century Jain mathematician born in the present day city of Gulbarga, Karnataka in southern India. He authored Vedh Granth (Ganita Sara Sangraha) or the Compendium on the Gist of Mathematics in 850 CE.
Source: History of Jainism by Kailash Chand Jain
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What was ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’?
Answer: This was a series of highly controversial newspaper articles on child prostitution that appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette in July 1885. They were written by editor W. T. Stead (1849-1912) and created a moral panic in Victorian London. Stead was to die in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic.
Source: Sex Trafficking, Scandal, and the Transformation of Journalism, 1885-1917 by Gretchen Soderlund
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What was the name of the pioneering Korean warship generally recognised as the world’s first armoured ship?
Answer: The Geobukseon, or Turtle Ship. It was a type of large Korean warship that was used intermittently by the Royal Korean Navy during the Joseon dynasty from the early 15th century until the 19th century. Their most distinguishable feature was a dragon-shaped head at the bow that could launch cannon fire or flames from the mouth.
Source: The Cambridge History of Japan by John Whitney Hall
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Who was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route?
Answer: Vasco da Gama (1460 -1524), a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. The sum of the distances covered in the outward and return voyages made this expedition the longest ocean voyage made until then.
Source: Vasco da Gama: Renaissance Crusader by Glenn J. Ames
More at: History
Why did the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) shock the world?
Answer: The complete victory of Japanese forces against Russia surprised observers, causing many onlookers to reassess Japan’s emergence as a force on the world stage.
Source: The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War by Ian Nish
More at: History
‘It was inevitable, because of the tremendous increase in the number of stockholders in recent years, that the number of sellers would be greater than ever when the boom ended and selling took the place of buying.’ What disastrous event was president of Chase National Bank Albert H. Wiggin (1868-1951) describing?
Answer: The Wall Street Crash in 1929. The stock market crash saw share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapse, bringing about the Great Depression. Historians and financiers pointed to the huge number of speculative investors as a cause of the economic downturn.
Source: Charles D. Ellis and James R. Vertin, Wall Street People: True Stories of the Great Barons of Finance
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The building of Cologne Cathedral was complicated to say the least. What happened?
Answer: While the foundation stone of the grand cathedral was laid in August 1248, building work ceased in 1473 and a dormant crane remained in place as a landmark of the Cologne skyline for almost 400 years. The completion of Germany’s largest cathedral was eventually celebrated as a national event on August 14, 1880, 632 years after construction began.
Source: Masons and Sculptors by Nicola Coldstream
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He was the ‘undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess’. Who was historian Eric Hobsbawm describing?
Answer: Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898). The Prussian statesman masterminded the unification of Germany in 1871 and served as its first chancellor until 1890, in which capacity he dominated European affairs for two decades. He predicted, correctly, that the next war will start over an issue in the Balkans.
Source: Bismarck by Edward Crankshaw
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Spanning some 30 years since the first episode appeared, it’s not for nothing that The Simpsons is the most popular television series ever. One observer said that the show’s brilliant creators are ‘math geeks’. But they also have a solid history knowledge. How so?
Answer: One episode has school bully Jimbo Jones graffitiing a wall with Carpe Diem, or ‘seize the day’, a phrase first spoken by Ancient Roman poet Horace.
Nuclear plant owner Monty Burns’ stately mansion is a direct copy of seventeenth century Castle Howard in Yorkshire, England, which was also featured in the venerable BBC series ‘Brideshead Revisited’. Marge Simpson‘s maiden name is ‘Bouvier’, the same as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
In one episode, Bart confronts a “soldier” who says he’s lost his nerves. Bart responds by slapping him and saying, “I won’t have cowards in my army.” Grandpa Simpson says “You can push them out of a plane. You can march them off a cliff. You can send them off to die on some desolate rock. But for some reason you can’t slap them. Now apologize to that boy right now.”
This is a reference to US General George Patton slapping a hospitalized shell-shocked soldier during World War Two. Patton was subsequently made to publicly apologize and removed from the front lines as a result.
Source: The Simpsons archives; General Historical Texts
Through the centuries much has been made of the English liking for ale and, from the 17th century, tea. But what was an unusual feature of the year 1713 in the annals of beverage consumption in London?
Answer: There were some 3000 coffee houses in the city.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McEvedy
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Humankind has had a strong bond with alcohol over the centuries. This has manifested itself in a number of ways. How so?
Answer: Methodists have traditionally steered clear of alcohol. As have Baptists. Then again, both superstar 1960s actor Richard Burton and pre-World War Two comic great W C Fields drank two and a half bottles of spirits every day. That’s, every day. Although, we’re not sure why.
Madame Clicquot said she drank when she was both happy and sad, suggesting she might’ve had a problem. But who are we to criticise the name behind one of the most famous champagne houses. Winston Churchill began each day with a weak Johnny Walker and water and drank throughout the day. Living to ninety, he said “I’ve taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me”.
One historian has suggested that King Harold lost the 1066 Battle of Hastings because his men were drunk. Beer was widely consumed in Europe in the middle ages as it was safer to partake of than the water. The United States prohibited alcohol for thirteen years, to make a better society. It may have had its benefits but is largely remembered for giving a boost to organised crime through illegal bootlegging.
Eighteenth century Russian Empress Catherine the Great prohibited men from getting drunk at social events before 9pm. Women couldn’t get drunk at all.
Source: General Historical Texts
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In the early 19th century British satirist and political cartoonist James Gillray created an amusing cartoon entitled ‘The plum pudding in danger’. What subject did it depict?
Answer: It showed British prime minister William Pitt and French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte carving up the world, the earth needless to say depicted as the pudding. Though this was the way matters worked out, it was never as amicable as Gillray suggested.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McEvedy
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Running the world’s biggest economy – at last count some US$22 trillion annual GDP – is no easy job. It is, however, with a heavy heart that we note that some presidential occupants of the White House have been compelled to find comfort in the arms of ladies who were not their wives. What are some examples?
Answer: Early 1920s Republican president Warren Harding chose a White House closet for his romantic liaisons and deployed his secret service agents to hand over hush money if and when required.
President Dwight D Eisenhower was accused of having an affair with his driver Captain Kay Summersby. Before she died in 1975, the former model said that the relationship “was never consummated”. It would be churlish to recap the amorous escapades at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue of President John F Kennedy with various ladies, such as the secretaries cruelly nicknamed Fiddle and Faddle.
Lyndon Johnson’s homespun Texas charm extended to allegedly fathering children with members of the White House typing pool and having to use all his powers of persuasive oratory when his wife Lady Bird Johnson interrupted him mid engagement with an adoring young lady. Bill Clinton remains one of the country’s most popular presidents despite much ballyhoo about interaction with a charming White House intern, who was merely in Washington trying to learn the ropes.
Source: General Historical Texts
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With perhaps trillions of words being recorded every day on social media and elsewhere, what are the origins of writing?
Answer: Writing began with the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia some 6000 years ago, who kept records by drawing simple pictures in soft clay. The reeds used as pens were awkward devices for drawing accurate pictures and scribes began to use wedge-shaped symbols instead. With time, the symbols were simplified until they bore little resemblance to the original objects.
Source: The Last Two Million Years by Plantagenet Somerset Fry et al
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It takes a variety of skills to run a successful business. Are there any advantages for businesspeople in having a knowledge of history?
Answer: In his 1580 book ‘Annals of England’, John Stow wrote that reading history ‘makes you wise.’
Twenty sixth US president Teddy Roosevelt said “the more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future”. A knowledge of history produces better, more skilful and well-rounded businesspeople, who are more likely to bring a big picture and mature perspective to the issues they face.
The number of history graduates in top business positions is remarkable.
Bob Reid headed up Shell’s highly technical global downstream oil operations. Reid didn’t have an engineering PhD to do this job, rather a history degree from St Andrews University. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan is a Brown University history graduate. Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, American Express head honcho Ken Chenault and IBM chief Sam Palmisano are all history graduates. Ian Thomas, former Boeing Australia president, has, no less, a PhD in history.
An appreciation of the grand sweep of history provides a broad, over-arching viewpoint that adds a macro perspective to a businessperson’s skill base. This maturity and astute outlook arguably makes for better decision making, which is central to running a business successfully.
Indeed, a knowledge of history probably makes a businessperson wiser.
Source: Fortune magazine; Bloomberg Businessweek
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The year 1968 was eventful across a number of fronts. The moon was orbited for the first time and the Boeing 747 saw the light of day. Dr Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy were tragically assassinated. But in terms of America’s economic power, why is the year significant?
Answer: In that year the United States GDP was one third of the world’s GDP.
Source: Fortune magazine, September 1969
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What has been described as the central feature of world history between 1500 and 1815?
Answer: The expansion of Europe and the gradual spread of European civilisation throughout the globe. Until 1500 the world had, as a general observation, pressed in on Europe. After 1500, Europe increasingly pressed out on the world. By 1775 a new global balance was in existence.
Source: Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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The First World War produced countless stories of family loss across Europe and indeed the world. In 1916, future British prime minister Anthony Eden recalled in great sorrow when in 1916 while serving in the trenches he received a telegram that his brother Nicholas has been killed on the British ship Indefatigable during the Battle of Jutland. What made his death even more poignant?
Answer: Nicholas Eden was in charge of a gun turret on the warship aged 16.
Source: The First World War by Martin Gilbert
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The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in the Ypres Salient during World War I and whose graves are unknown. Recording some 54,896 names, it was partly paid for by English writer Rudyard Kipling whose son was killed at Ypres. What was the brutally ironic fact about the final recording of names on the memorial?
Answer: The last of the stonemasons were still at work engraving the names of 1914-18 when the German armies arrived, as conquerors, in May 1940. The stonemasons were repatriated to Britain.
Source: The First World War by Martin Gilbert
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For centuries, Singapore, in South East Asia, was a major trading port. A British colony from 1819, it summoned images of a relaxed tropical lifestyle, slowly turning fans in Raffles hotel and streets ending in palm tree lined beaches. What are some interesting aspects of its recent history?
Answer: Singapore’s situation changed when the dynamic and brilliant prime minister Lee Kuan Yew took over in 1959. He transformed Singapore into the Switzerland of Asia, with a greatly elevated standard of living.
Lee was once criticised by British prime minister Harold McMillan. Lee casually replied, “Harold McMillan doesn’t have a double first from Cambridge”.
Proud taxi drivers would tell visitors how they used to live in kampongs, or villages, but now owned their own air-conditioned apartment.
Chewing gum is banned in Singapore. Tourists may bring in two packs per person. Anymore and they may be charged with ‘gum smuggling’, which carries a penalty of jail and a big fine.
Highly regulated societies can produce unusual reactions from citizens. Some building lifts have signs asking people to kindly refrain from urinating in them.
Source: General Historical Texts
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July 2020
American author Shelby Foote’s award-winning trilogy ‘The Civil War’, took over 20 years to write beginning in the 1950s. Why did Foote say it was necessary to wait such a long time to produce such a work?
Answer: Foote said that it would probably take a century for things to ‘cool down’ and get a proper perspective on the calamitous event. He said that as a child living in Mississippi in the 1920s he knew a piece of obscene doggerel about Union President Abraham Lincoln. He said that when a ‘Yankee’, i.e. a northerner, moved to Mississippi in the 1920s, he was loathed by people in the South. All this over 75 years after the war had ended.
Source: Shelby Foote interview – Book C-Span TV
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The French Revolution brought to an end the Ancient Regime in France. But in a wider sense what impact did this tumultuous event have elsewhere?
Answer: It paved the way for the modern nation state. Across Europe progressive intellectuals questioned the old monarchical system and fostered the development of a popular nationalism committed to re-aligning the political landscape of the continent. In the pivotal year of 1914, the era of the old multi-national empires was about to see its demise.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Elizabeth Fry was an early nineteenth century English Quaker philanthropist and promoter of prison reform. What very sad observation did she make on visiting London’s Newgate prison on March 4, 1817?
Answer: An Elizabeth Fricker was in a state of torment and distress as she awaited her execution for robbery. There were also six men to be hanged, one, whose wife was heavily pregnant, was due to be executed as well. In addition, seven young children were also to be hanged.
Two years earlier, a British Parliamentary Commission into factory conditions interviewed an Elizabeth Bentley about her work in a Leeds mill. Aged twenty three, she said she began working at the mill when she was six. She worked from five in the morning until nine at night with forty minutes off at noon for lunch.
She recounted how workers would be strapped if they were late or slackened in their relentless workload. The questioner asked if her deformity was a result of the work she did. Permanently bent over, she said that it began when she was thirteen. Now destitute in the poorhouse, when asked how she felt about the suffering and cruelty she had endured, the commissioner noted, “she was too much affected to answer the question”.
Source: Reportage by John Carey
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The mayor of New York today has been criticised by some but what was the fate of Jimmy Walker who was mayor of the city from 1926 to 1932?
Answer: Walker was forced to resign during a corruption scandal and left the country to escape being indicted.
Source: History’s Greatest Headlines by James Inglis and Barry Stone; General Historical Texts
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Travel, they say, broadens the mind. It sometimes, however, produces scenes not found in a holiday brochure. What is one example involving 19th century English novelist Charles Dickens who was beloved for his writing’s humanity, wit and style.
Answer: Dickens would put his literary skills to good use even when holidaying. There, his writing provided a snapshot for his readers of life in other places. What strange event did he witness in Rome on March 8, 1845, while on vacation there?
He observed a criminal executed by guillotine for robbing and murdering a Bavarian countess who was travelling as a pilgrim to Rome. Dickens wrote that the execution had been delayed, as the criminal would not confess. Death penalties could not be carried out until the condemned had benefited from this merciful, religion based, concession.
The execution had then been further held up, as the sentenced man had refused to confess without first having his wife brought to see him. Dickens wrote somewhat critically of the large crowd who witnessed the grisly scene: ‘Nobody cared or was at all affected. There was no manifestation of disgust, or pity, or indignation, or sorrow.’
A question arises though. Would an English crowd have been more sympathetic at such a public execution, which were not ended there until 1868?
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
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Is there any historical evidence that UFO’s exist?
Answer: The first recorded UFO sighting was in 214 BCE, when Roman historian Livius wrote that ‘phantom ships had been seen gleaming in the sky’.
On his famous 1492 voyage, Christopher Columbus made several ship’s log entries about large and unusual lights in the sea.
In 1556 a UFO appeared above Basel Switzerland and five years later an ‘aerial battle’ occurred over Nuremberg, Germany.
On April 2, 1716, Russian vice-admiral Naum Senyavin and Holland’s ambassador to Russia reported a ‘terrifying’ aerial battle over Saint Petersburg.
In April 1897, Aurora, Texas townsfolk reported a UFO crash on a local farm.
During World War Two, US five-star general Douglas MacArthur formed the ‘Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit’ in response to numerous UFO sightings by his soldiers and airmen. The New York Times later reported MacArthur saying the next war will be against ‘extra terrestrials’.
On July 8, 1947 the Roswell Daily Record newspaper, in New Mexico, famously reported the US air force had recovered a crashed flying saucer on a local ranch.
The following year, American air force general Hoyt Vandenburg ordered that a top-secret report detailing indisputable evidence of UFOs be burned. He said, if it got out, “it would cause a stampede.”
Source: General Historical Texts
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What are some historical examples of humankind’s undying quest to find the meaning of life?
Answer: Over one hundred billion people have lived on the earth, and many would have contemplated the meaning of life.
Contrary to popular belief, the answer is probably not the number 42. In ninth century Saxon England, a good age to reach was 45. Today life expectancy is above 80.
Legendary British seaman Jackie Fisher, the ‘dancing admiral’, said there were four things needed for ‘a big life.’ One. A great Inspiration. Two. A great Cause. Three. A great Battle. Four. A great Victory.
One Ancient Greek philosopher said the only reason we’ve been put on this earth is ‘to develop every virtue and strength’.
Focusing more on pleasure, French marshal Petain said that ‘all that matters in life is food and sex’.
Almost fifty years ago Canadian rocker Neil Young sang ‘it’s better to burn out than to fade away’. In his 70s today, he thankfully has done neither.
Irish playwright and wit Oscar Wilde said that “we have a duty to be cheerful”. He tested that philosophy when he was sentenced to two years hard labour in 1895.
Writer William Hazlitt said ‘the last pleasure in life is the sense of discharging our duty‘.
Source: A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell; General Historical Texts
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What is the remarkable story of 13th century Venetian merchant, explorer and writer Marco Polo?
Answer: Indisputably the most celebrated Western medieval traveller along the Silk Road, he surpassed all other travellers in his determination, writing and influence. His expedition through Asia lasted twenty-four years, taking him further than any other traveller from Europe, beyond Mongolia to China. He became a confidant of Kublai Khan, journeyed the whole of China and returned to Venice to chronicle his story with the publication of the vivid ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
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It might surprise many to know that PR has been around for a long time. What are just a few examples of public relations’ colourful history?
Answer: Hollywood swashbuckler Errol Flynn played a public relations consultant in one of his early movies. When asked what he did, Flynn jauntily replied: “My clients have more money than reputation and I’m here to redress the imbalance.”
Julius Caesar, when campaigning, sent runners back to Rome to let the citizens know he was winning, to keep them on side, an early PR technique.
Oil titan John D Rockefeller was loathed by many in the late 19th century until he hired PR pioneer Ivy Lee. He advised him to hand dimes to small children on the street, thus transforming the business ogre into a kindly old gent.
Early PR mastermind Edward Bernays wrote ‘The Engineering of Consent’ and was instrumental in persuading American women to take up smoking.
In World War Two, Douglas MacArthur’s personal PR man would put out press releases saying the general had brilliantly won a particular battle, which was news to his men still fighting it.
President John F Kennedy’s immortal words ‘ask not what you can do for your country’, were actually written by his Yale educated PR man.
Today there are more PR people than journalists. Many would be saddened to hear British intellectual Malcolm Muggeridge’s description of public relations as ‘organised lying’.
Source: The Engineering of Consent by Edward L Bernays
What was the ‘Northern Rising’, during the reign of England’s famed 16th century monarch Queen Elizabeth 1, that so threatened her hold on the crown?
Answer: This was a serious threat to what has been described as Elizabeth’s ‘Pragmatic Protestantism’. Led by the Catholic earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, it swept across northern England before being savagely repressed.
Source: A History of England by Paul Johnson
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Looking back at the practices of Ancient Egypt, it might have been assumed that it wouldn’t have taken very long to mummify a body. But is this correct?
Answer: By and large it took around 40 days to mummify a cadaver. So, it couldn’t realistically be done in between lunch and dinner.
Source: A History of the World by Geoffrey Blainey
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Some historians and social scientists claim it is pointless to try and transform society as human nature has remained the same over the centuries. Numerous examples abound from the sayings of Marcus Aurelius to the plays of William Shakespeare. What might support this contention?
Answer: Over the century from the start of World War One, technological advances have brought the wonders of space flight and the internet. Sweeping efforts to transform society have not succeeded. Despite two World Wars, human population quadrupled in this period, producing new economic and environmental challenges.
Sources: A History of the World by Paul Johnson; General Historical Texts
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What is the strange connection between the ideas of Japanese mid-16th century leader Oda Nobunaga and 19th century political philosopher and founder of Communism Karl Marx?
Answer: Oda said, “Without destruction, there is no creation .. there is no change.” Marx, when calling for the destruction of the capitalist system, said, “thus shall we stride through the wreckage, creators”.
Source: Source: Orient Book of Quotations by Meera Malhotra; Source: Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay by S. Austin Allibone
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What is the significance of July 5 1811 in the history of South America?
Answer: The territory of Venezuela joined New Granada and Mexico in declaring independence from Spain.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Why is Japanese 16th century daimyo, or powerful Japanese feudal lord, Mura Sumidata so important in Japan’s sporadic relationship with the west?
Answer: In 1568, five years after he had been converted to Christianity, he gave permission for Portuguese traders and missionaries to establish a port at a fishing village at the southern tip of Japan – Nagasaki.
Source: The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B Jansen
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Britain’s Oxford and Cambridge universities are esteemed around the world. Unkind suggestions exist in some minds that, while they are both stellar in standing, Cambridge is a Bentley to Oxford’s Rolls Royce. Is there a chronological genesis in the view that Oxford is a tad more eminent and prestigious than its rival?
Answer: It’s been suggested that as Oxford was established before Cambridge – indeed 9th century Alfred the Great, no less, was Oxford’s claimed scholarly genesis – comparatively speaking Cambridge is somewhat of the new boy on the block as it first saw the light of day in 1209.
Source: A History of England by Paul Johnson
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Today it is popular to attack Britain’s historical involvement with India. What did British politician Edmund Burke say about this when writing in 1783 of the East India Company?
Answer: “Every rupee of profit made by an Englishman is lost forever to India.”
Source: A History of England by Paul Johnson
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18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant had entrenched views on the difference between science and wisdom. What were these?
Answer: He believed that ‘Science is organized knowledge and wisdom is organized life.”
Source: Civilisation’s Quotations by Richard Krieger
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If ever there was any doubt that humans are fighting animals, one need only examine the death toll from, for example, the Albigensian Crusade in the first decade of the 13th century, How so?
Answer: It is estimated that one million were killed during the crusade. At a time when the world’s population was around 380 million. This was the first crusade to specifically target heretic Christians.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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The Law Code of 2nd millennia BCE King of Babylon Hammurabi was clear cut on the concept of retribution. What was this?
Answer: “If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out.”
Source: A History of the World by Geoffrey Blainey; General Historical Texts
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‘The Dying Gaul’ is a Greek sculpture from the late 3rd century BCE celebrating the defeat of a Gallic invasion of Anatolia and featuring a conquered Gallic warrior. What was unusual about what the warrior had around his neck?
Answer: The warrior is wearing a torc, a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. Some warriors would go naked into battle with only their weapons and a torc on their neck.
Source: Modern Word Encyclopedia
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Louis XIV’s famed Palace of Versailles, 23 kilometres to the west of Paris, is acknowledged as the greatest and most magnificent palace ever built. Taking over 30 years to build and employing tens of thousands, what was the response from the ‘Sun King’, who prided himself on his self-control, when he was shown the final cost?
Answer: Louis gave a quick look of shock and pain and then quickly stuffed it into his pocket. To this day, no one knows for certain what the palace cost. Each year countless numbers from around the world visit to marvel at it’s magnificence.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McEvedy
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English sailor James Anthony Gardner wrote a vivid description of a naval action against the French on October 20, 1782. What was unusual about the detailed account of this bloody engagement?
Answer: Gardner was a midshipman, aged 12.
Source: Reportage by John Carey
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In 1935 the population of the United States was 127 million. How many movie tickets were sold every week?
Answer: Around 80 million. This represented around 60 percent of the population. Although many would go the movies more than once in a week and some would not go at all. Today, there are of course a myriad of entertainment options. One could, for example, spend 100 years watching all the YouTube videos available.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley; General Historical Texts
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There was great optimism that at the end of the greatest military cataclysm the world had suffered, known then as The Great War, this would mark a new epoch in humankind’s quest for peace. How was this manifest by the statement by British prime minister David Lloyd George on the day of the Armistice on November 11, 1918?
Answer: He said, “I hope we may all say that thus, this fateful morning, came to an end all wars.” This was of course not to be the case and merely signalled a truce until the final decisive conflagration between 1939 and 1945 in World War Two.
Source: World War One by Martin Gilbert; World War One by A J P Taylor
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St Petersburg’s Academy of Sciences was founded by Russia’s Peter the Great in 1725. How did German scientist Casper Wolff describe this a half a century later?
Answer: In a letter to mathematician Leonhard Euler around 1779 he wrote, ‘You are now travelling into the paradise of the scholars.’
Source: Peter the Great by Robert K Massie
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British soldiers being incapacitated in World War One though contracting sexually transmitted illnesses was an ever-present problem. Such an affliction could see a soldier out of action for two months. In 1918 there were 60,000 cases of such diseases in the British army. How was this usually described on a soldier’s army record?
Answer: Perhaps embracing the British penchant for understatement and euphemism, this was designated as ‘sick through negligence’.
Source: Warrior Race – A History of the British at War by Lawrence James
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What was an interesting feature of the Louisiana Code Noir of 1724 as regards the working relationship between slaves and masters?
Answer: The code specified that ‘slaves who are disabled shall be provided for by their masters’. In essence, a form of sickness benefit.
Source: A History of the American People by Paul Johnson
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Orson Welles’ 1941 groundbreaking movie Citizen Kane was a thinly veiled attack on media magnate William Randolph Hearst, the Rupert Murdoch of his time. Hearst reportedly didn’t mind so much the portrayal of him, but he objected to the negative depiction of his friend Marion Davies. What was one of the reprisals that Hearst allegedly attempted to take against Welles?
Answer: At dinner at a restaurant in Buffalo, New York, a waiter told Welles there was a policeman outside who wanted a word. The lawman told him to not go back to his hotel as an underage naked girl had been planted in his room and photographers were there to capture the scene, so as to set up Welles for a charge and prosecution. Instead of going back to his hotel, Welles flew out of Buffalo that night.
Source: BBC biography – Orson Welles
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In the medieval Arab world, what was known as “Chinese Snow”?
Answer: Saltpetre, a key ingredient for the creation of gunpowder. The Chinese origins of gunpowder were also reflected in another name used for saltpetre, “Chinese Salt”.
Source: The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650 by Cathal J. Nolan
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The Airbus A-380, and the Boeing 747 before it, each offers a wingspan equal to the total distance of the Wright brothers’ first flight in December 1903. True or false?
Answer: False. The Airbus A380 (262 ft) and Boeing 747 (195 ft) both have a wingspan longer than the first flight (125 ft).
Source: A Companion to International History 1900 – 2001 by Gordon Martel
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June 2020
The arrival of gunpowder and guns in early modern Europe caused apprehension. The war veteran turned playwright Ben Jonson (1572-1637) was critical of this development. What did he famously say on the subject?
Answer: “From the Devil’s arse did guns beget”. Jonson is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist after William Shakespeare. He is best known for the satirical plays ‘Every Man in His Humour’, ‘Volpone’, ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘Bartholomew Fair’.
Source: The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650 by Cathal J. Nolan
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What was UK author George Orwell’s (1903-1950) surprising first word?
Answer: “Beastly”. Born Eric Blair, and educated at Eton, Orwell’s literary endeavors were to have a significant effect on 20th century political thinking. Works such as ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’, continue to resonate today in 21st century contemporary society.
Source: On Nineteen Eighty-Four – Orwell and Our Future by Abbott Gleason, Jack Goldsmith and Martha C. Nussbaum
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What was the secret weapon used by the Normans to help them triumph in the epoch changing Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066?
Answer: Warhorses. They were used to devastating effect by the Normans, and many of the 800 ship strong invasion fleet were specifically adapted for their transport. The knight on horseback would go on to be a key part of European warfare until the mid-fourteenth century, when the increased use of battlefield archery would limit their impact.
Source: The Bayeux Tapestry – The Life Story of a Masterpiece by Carola Hicks; General Historical Texts.
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Which of William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) plays did he write first?
Answer: No-one knows. While many agree he began his career as a playwright around 1590, scholars disagree on what was written first. The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew are the most likely candidates.
Source: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
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“The work of very feeble amateurs”. What is English author Charles Dickens (1812-1870) describing?
Answer: The Bayeux Tapestry, the famed embroidered cloth depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This saw William, Duke of Normandy, defeat King Harold, thus forever transforming England.
William and his 300 nobles were to, subsequently, in essence divide up England. From a purely property acquisition viewpoint, and history is replete with such events, not a bad days work.
Source: The Bayeux Tapestry – The Life Story of a Masterpiece by Carola Hicks
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King Alfonso IX (1166-1230) ruled León, modern-day Spain. He had an unfortunate nickname. What was it?
Answer: He was known as “Alfonso the Slobberer”. Alfonso was said to drool uncontrollably and, often when in battle, foam at the mouth.
Source: The Concise Guide to Kings and Queens – A Thousand Years of European Monarchy by Peter Gibson
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William Stukeley (1687-1765) described it as “the noblest monument of English antiquity aboard”. Napoleon (1769-1821) said it recorded “one of the most memorable deeds of the French nation”. Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) said it was “important for our glorious and cultured Germanic history.” ‘What are they all describing?
Answer: The Bayeux Tapestry, the famed embroidered cloth depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings (1066). Many nations have sought to claim its achievements for their own.
Source: The Bayeux Tapestry – The Life Story of a Masterpiece by Carola Hicks
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April 7, 1933 was a momentous day in the history of the United States. Why?
Answer: It marked the first day of legal drinking since 1920, and the beginning of the end of prohibition. Americans drank an estimated 1.5 million barrels of beer on April 7, and there were shortages of beer the next day, as breweries scrambled to maintain supply.
Source: The Prohibition Era by Martin Gitlin
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In the context of English history, what was “the Great Harry”?
Answer: An English warship, launched in 1514 during the reign of King Henry VIII (1491-1547). Officially it was called Henry Grace à Dieu (“Henry, Thanks be to God”). It was likely the largest ship built for over 200 years.
Source: I Never Knew That About London by Christopher Winn
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From where does the word algebra come from?
Answer: From the Arabic “al-jebr,” which means “the reuniting of broken parts.” When algebra first entered the English language, it referred to the setting of broken bones, and sometimes to the fractures themselves.
Source: Global Mother Tongue – The Eight Flavours of English by Albert Richler
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Despite its economic preeminence, Britain had a significant trade deficit in the late nineteenth century. Its imports of goods such as raw materials, coffee, tea, sugar and alcohol far exceeded what it exported. This would cause significant concern to a government today, but it did not bother the British government then. Why?
Answer: Because they never knew it existed. Due to the peculiar and misleading way trade statistics were detailed at this time, the government never understood how bad its deficit was.
Source: Industry and Empire by E.J. Hobsbawm
More at: History
What food, now considered the height of luxury, was for much of history predominantly eaten by the poor?
Answer: Lobster. For instance, only very poor and considered backward groups were believed to have eaten lobster in Britain. Things began to change in the nineteenth century.
Source: Food and Drink in Britain by C. Anne Wilson
More at: History
What was surprisingly sold at auction in 193 CE?
Answer: The Roman Empire, in its entirety. The winner was Didius Julianus (133-193 CE). He became the next emperor but was in power only two months before he was overthrown and executed by Septimius Severus (145-211 CE).
Source: Game Theory, Alive by Anna R. Karlin and Yuval Peres
More at: History
What was demonstrated for the first time in strict secrecy in Daventry, Britain, on February 26, 1935?
Answer: RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging). It would change warfare forever.
Source: One Story of Radar by A. P. Rowe
More at: History
The population of London is said to have grown from 50,000 in 1500 to approximately 200,000 by the year 1600. Why is this remarkable?
Answer: For every year during this period, deaths outnumbered births. It was only migration from the countryside and a stream of religious refugees from continental Europe that enabled the population growth.
Source: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
More at: History
Which British statesman is said to have had three ambitions: to marry an heiress, win the famous Derby horse race, and become Prime Minister?
Answer: Archibald Primrose, Fifth Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929). Rosebery had achieved all three by his mid-forties, but his political career was clouded by his mercurial character.
Source: Rosebery – Statesman in Turmoil by Leo McKinstry
More at: History
St Bride’s Church is famous in the City of London. Why is it influential in the history of cake making?
Answer: In the late eighteenth century an apprentice pastry cook married his master’s daughter at the church and used the church’s spire as an inspiration for a tiered wedding cake. This style caught on and is now the most common wedding cake style in the western world.
Source: The Citisights Guide to the History of London by Kevin Flude
More at: History
What links Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550 – 1604), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and a likely fictional individual called Jacques Pierre?
Answer: They are all individuals suggested as possible authors of the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The notion that someone else wrote Shakespeare’s works is largely discredited.
Source: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
More at: History
Najim al-Din Ilghazi (?-1122 CE) was co-ruler of Jerusalem in the late 11th century. A force to be reckoned with, he nevertheless was highly unpredictable. Why?
Answer: Ilghazi was famous for his drinking. He would disappear for days on drinking sessions, and even on his return, would have such debilitating hangovers that he would often be unable to even move for days on end.
Source: Crusaders – An Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands by Dan Jones
More at: History
Tanks are synonymous with modern warfare, but from where did the name originate?
Answer: Tanks were secretly designed by Britain during the First World War (1914-1918) and the British sought to conceal their invention with a codename. The basic outline of the vehicle struck observers as looking like a water tank, so a tank the new secret weapon became.
Source: New Words for Old – Recycling Our Language for the Modern World by Caroline Taggart
More at: History
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) helped design Christmas cards. True or false?
Answer: True. In the late 1940s, an executive from the Hallmark greeting cards company heard of Churchill’s passion for painting. He contacted Churchill, who agreed for certain images of his paintings to be used for their Christmas cards for 1950.
Source: Hallmark: A Century of Caring by Patrick Regan
More at: History
“The foulest and most atrocious deed”. What is British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) describing in 1793?
Answer: The execution of King Louis XVI of France in (1754-1793). The belief at the time was that this regicide would make war between Britain and France almost inevitable.
This indeed was the case, culminating in the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, where French emperor Napoleon would finally be defeated.
On the 200th anniversary of the start of the French Revolution in 1979, some French historians were arguing that its effects were still being felt.
Source: William Pitt the Younger by William Hague
More at: History
In finance, a “bear market” is when the prices at a stock exchange are falling. From where does the term originate?
Answer: The description bearskin jobber, someone who sold stock he did not possess at an agreed price. This, in turn, is believed to originate from the Dutch saying, “don’t sell the bearskin before you’ve killed the bear”.
A more recent definition is that a bull market sees the market being tossed up and a bear market is clawed down. Hence the elaborate statue of both animals on New York’s Wall Street.
Source: New Words for Old – Recycling Our Language for the Modern World by Caroline Taggart
More at: History
In the late nineteenth century, fewer and fewer traditional landed families in Britain were receiving peerages and becoming accepted into the aristocracy. Peerages were increasingly instead offered to successful businessmen, such as brewers Michael Bass (1837-1909) and Arthur Guinness (1840-1915). This led peerages to be described as what?
Answer: “Beerages”. Later, British prime minister David Lloyd George would be accused of selling peerages in return for political donations. Deeply opposed to the House of Lords, the firebrand Welsh-born politician would have preferred the hereditary upper house to be abolished.
Source: Barricades and Borders – Europe 1800-1914 by Robert Gildea; A History of England by Paul Johnson
More at: History
In 1817 Karl von Drais (1785-1851) built what was described as a laufmaschine, or “running machine”. This was a prototype for what future invention?
Answer: The bicycle. It was originally designed to be an alternative to a horse, and so it also became known as the “wooden horse” or “hobby horse”.
Source: Fifty Bicycles That Changed the World- Design Museum Fifty by Alex Newson
More at: History
In the eleventh century, during the Sony dynasty, so-called “thunderclap bombs” were devised in China. What were they?
Answer: Bamboo shoots surrounded by gunpowder. The hot air inside the bamboo exploded and caused a thunderous noise.
The length of the fuse could be adjusted according to the intended throwing distance. This was yet another example of China’s early lead in introducing innovative military technology.
Source: Apeirogon by Colm McCann
More at: History
During the U.S. Prohibition era (1920-1933), American brewery Pabst survived by producing what?
Answer: Processed cheese. Pabst made “Pabst-ett”, described as a “delicious cheese food”. By diversifying, Pabst survived the prohibition era – unlike many rivals.
Competitors such as Miller went into the ice cream business.
Source: Ambitious Brew – The Story of American Beer by Maureen Ogle; General Historical Texts.
More at: History
Which revered historical figure was nonetheless criticised by many during his lifetime for his use of executive powers to rule by proclamation, and his imprisonment of suspected opponents without trial?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1085), US president. Lincoln’s administration during the American Civil War invoked harsh measures in response to a bitter struggle which saw over 600,000 Americans die.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
More at: History
What figure inspired many fields of scientific study but admitted that his methods were themselves not very scientific, instead considering himself an “adventurer”?
Answer: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). It was for this reason that many psychiatrists and psychologists now disagree with some of his ideas, but his influence on criminology, sociology and anthropology remains considerable.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
More at: History
The prohibition of alcohol in the United States from 1920-1933 devastated American breweries. Of the 1,300 brewers operating in the United States in 1915, how many survived?
Answer: No more than 100. Of those that did, many are now famous names including Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Pabst and Miller.
Source: Ambitious Brew – The Story of American Beer by Maureen Ogle
More at: History
May 2020
Prince Albert (1819-1861), the husband of Queen Victoria (1819-1901), died in 1861. The event shook Victoria absolutely, and she grieved for him for the rest of her life. How did she do so?
Answer: She had Albert’s clothes laid out on his bed each evening, his water bowl filled each morning, and slept beneath a huge photograph of him, taken when he was dead, which hung over her bed. She did so for forty years before she too died.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
More at: History
One of the earliest texts on the human eye was written in the ninth century by Arab doctor Hunyan ibn Ishaq (809-873 CE). According to him, how did the eye function?
Answer: All individual components of the eye had their own nature, arranged in a way to ensure cosmological harmony. Ishaq argued that this reflected the mind of God.
Source: Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler by David Lindberg
More at: History
“Composition seems to me impossible with a head full of joints of mutton and doses of rhubarb.” Which famous nineteenth-century author is struggling with her own form of procrastination?
Answer: Jane Austen (1775-1817). Austen is writing to her sister in the autumn of 1816. She is probably also echoing the long held view of artists that comfort is often antithetical to creativity.
Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen by Michael Kerrigan
More at: History
Russian statesman Vladimir Lenin’s (1870-1924) English was said to be poor, with Lenin struggling to write or speak fluently. What is said to have made his English speaking even more startling?
Answer: He is said to have spoken English with an Irish accent. One possible reason is that, when Lenin had visited the UK, he had spent time in areas of London with a large Irish population.
Source: Lenin – A Biography by Robert Service
More at: History
Seventeenth-century French thinker Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) suggested in his book Pensees that all of humanity’s problems stem from what?
Answer: Our inability to sit alone in a room.
Source: The Future Without a Past by John Paul Russo
More at: History
“Now your majesty has initiated this great undertaking, establishing merit that will last 10,000 generations.” What was is being described, and by whom?
Answer: Li Si (280 – 207 BCE), Chancellor to Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BCE). Huang was the founder of the Qin Dynasty, and according to chronicles, marked his ascension by burning all records, writing and other remnants of previous dynasties.
Source: Library – An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
More at: History
Why was Byzantine Emperor Constantine V (718-775 CE) known as “Constantine the dung-named”?
Answer: He is known as the ‘dung-named’ because he was said to have defecated while being baptised as a baby.
Source: Byzantine Empresses – Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204 by Lynda Garland
More at: History
From where does the term “lick someone into shape” originate?
Answer: Because bear cubs are born during hibernation, humans seldom see what the cubs look like at birth. Medieval writers believed that bears were born as a shapeless lump of flesh that was then “licked into shape” by its mother.
Source: Speaking of Animals by Robert Allen Palmatier
More at: History
Diocletian (244-311 CE) became one of the few Roman emperors ever to abdicate voluntarily when he retired in 305 CE to farm. He was later pressed to return by Maximian (250-310 CE), who said he should rule instead of “growing cabbages”. What was Diocletian’s response?
Answer: Diocletian declined, stating that Maximian had obviously not seen the quality of his cabbages.
Source: History of Money by Glyn Davies
More at: History
What was built in a squash court at the University of Chicago in December 1942?
Answer: The world’s first nuclear reactor.
Source: Genius in the Shadows – A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb by William Lanouette and Bela Silard
More at: History
“You don’t know how wearisome it is to breathe the air of four pent walls, without relief, day after day, all the golden hours of the day between ten and four, without ease or interposition.” What is British essayist Charles Lamb (1775-1834) describing in 1822?
Answer: The office. Lamb worked for the East India Company in London in one of the world’s first office buildings.
Source: Charles Lamb by Alfred Ainger
More at: History
Venetian traveller Christoforo Fioravanti was shipwrecked on the Norwegian coast in 1432 and was taken in by local fisher folk. What remarkable observations did he make about the morality of these people?
Answer: They were of such ‘great simplicity of heart’ that they obeyed the Ten Commandments unreservedly. ‘Fornication’ or other expressions of perceived immorality did not exist. This manifested itself in one family’s wife and daughters sleeping near the Venetian unbothered and when the men went fishing there was no concern by the Norwegians as to any moral plight the women might be in.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
Beer was the drink of choice in Europe in the middle ages over water for more than just its taste and the enjoyment it brought. How so?
Answer: Beer was a far more hygienic drink, due to the lack of technology for purifying drinking water. The fermentation process rendered beer safer to drink by producing alcohol which killed most if not all harmful bacteria.
Source: Daily Life in the Middle Ages by Paul Newman
More at: History
What horrific sight greeted English surgeon Charles Meryon one morning while travelling through the Syrian town of Latakia in 1813?
Answer: He came across a man who had recently been executed by impalement. The man was still alive but shortly after was shot. His crime was stealing a bullock and the murder of one of his pursuers. The doctor reported that Jewish, Christian, Druze and Ansary criminals are alone subjected to this horrible punishment. Turks were beheaded.
Source: Reportage by John Carey
More at: History
World War One’s 1917 Battle of Passchendaele was in many ways symbolic of the utter devastation and waste of the years between 1914 and 1918. How did the town of Passchendaele in Belgium fair after the battle?
Answer: Aerial photographs taken after the battle showed that none of the town’s farms, houses or commercial buildings remained. Even the majority of the roads were pulverised, becoming at one with the monotonous, featureless , moon-like landscape. All that was left were the vague outlines of one or two more prominent roads and the gutted remains of the town centre.
Source: History’s Greatest Headlines by James Inglis and Barry Stone
More at: History
England’s greatest admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was mortally wounded by a French sniper at his country’s great naval victory, the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1815. As Nelson was being taken below decks after being shot what small gesture showed Nelson’s greatness and courage?
Answer: Despite having his spine shot through and soon to die Nelson noticed that an item of rigging had not been replaced and requested that a midshipman inform the ship’s captain that new ones ‘should be immediately rove.’
Source: Horatio Nelson by Tom Pocock
More at: History
Not pushing your luck is often applied to one particular number. How is the accuracy of this perspective reflected in the voyages of two English naval adventurers?
Answer: Famed explorer and cartographer Captain James Cook had two very successful voyages before, despite the advice of many, embarking on his third voyage which resulted in him being killed by the inhabitants of the Hawaiian islands in 1779. Sixteenth century naval commander John Hawkins first two voyages to the Caribbean were successful, but disaster struck on the third.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In Andrew Lownie’s must read ‘The Mountbattens – Their Lives and Loves’, the issue is raised of whether First Sea Lord, Supreme Allied Commander and last Viceroy of India Earl Mountbatten was a homosexual. Lownie cites the memoirs of London journalist Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd who wrote what of Mountbatten’s London home?
Answer: ‘The tiny mews house seemed awash with young, muscular and suspiciously good-looking Naval ratings bustling about the place to no apparent purpose.’
Source: ‘The Mountbattens – Their Lives and Loves’ by Andrew Lownie
More at: History
Travel they say broadens the mind and for vacationers is intended to provide relief from normal events at home as well as of course enjoyment. What strange event did famed British novelist Charles Dickens witness in Rome on March 8, 1845, while on holiday in Italy?
Answer: He saw a criminal executed by guillotine for robbing and murdering a Bavarian countess who was travelling as a pilgrim to Rome. Dickens wrote of the large crowd who witnessed the grisly scene: ‘Nobody cared, or was at all affected. There was no manifestation of disgust, or pity, or indignation, or sorrow.’
Source: Pictures from Italy by Charles Dickens
More at: History
What failure of a major French engineering venture in the last decades of the 19th century subsequently gave support to the growing belief in the United States of American exceptionalism?
Answer: The attempts by French interests to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama ended in scandal and massive financial loss. In 1904 American interests commenced the same project and successfully brought this to fruition in 1914 thus revolutionizing world trade.
Source: The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
More at: History
What is the tragic tale of the sinking of the Tanjong Penang on February 19, 1942?
Answer: After the fall of Singapore in World War Two the Tanjong Penang carried 250 women and children including eight nursing sisters, all of whom were refugees from Singapore. The ship was sunk by a Japanese destroyer.
Source: Sinister Twilight by Noel Barber
More at: History
Oliver Cromwell won one of the most decisive battles during the 17th century English civil war by using surprise tactics. How so?
Answer: At Marston Moor in July 1644 the Northern army, the chief hope of the Royalists in the Civil War, was attacked by Cromwell’s forces late in the afternoon when the Royalist generals had strolled away to their coaches, and their troops were relaxing.
Source: History of England by Paul Johnson
More at: History
Warfare can produce a macabre sense of humour among those subjected to its horrors. What was just one example amongst British troops during World War One at Gallipoli in 1915?
Answer: The dead had to be quickly buried, but sometimes this was not done efficiently. Burial areas could look like unmade beds with limbs sticking out. One section where British troops passed by had an arm protruding. Each soldier passing would shake the hand and say ‘Good Morning’ in a posh voice.
Source: The First World War by A J P Taylor
More at: History
What was the significance of May 1814 in the life of political reform in Spain?
Answer: It is a date which saw moves towards a progressive system nullified. King Ferdinand VII abolished the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
When was the first manned flight in England?
Answer: On September 15, 1784 in London by Vincent Lunardi, secretary to the Neapolitan ambassador. He made his balloon ascent from the Artillery Ground and landed at South Mimms, Hertfordshire, to disembark his cat, which had suffered from the cold.
The French were the first to send up a manned balloon, the previous year.
Source: Reportage edited by John Carey
More at: History
Never missing an opportunity to strike at the hated English, what did the Scots do on hearing that England had been ravaged by the Bubonic Plague in 1348?
Answer: Believing that the wrath of God had befallen the evil English they assembled at Selkirk forest on the then Scottish English border to invade the kingdom. Instead the plague overtook them and 5000 perished. On preparing to return ‘to their own country, the Scots were followed and attacked by the English, who slew countless numbers of them’.
Source: Reportage – Edited by John Carey
More at: History
In her renowned book August 1914, American historian Barbara Tuchman recorded that in 1900 the largest company in Europe was Krupp, the great armaments manufacturer. She also writes that soon after a group of European intellectuals made what forecast, which was to shortly be proved horribly wrong?
Answer: At a conference in The Hague the august gathering pronounced that with the inter-dependency of states and economies, war was ‘now impossible’. Within a few years, World War One proved that prediction horribly wrong.
Source: August 1914 by Barbara Tuchman
More at: History
In August 1929 the most famous economist in America, Professor Irving Fisher of Yale, made what statement, which subsequently proved inane, about the US stock market, which had enjoyed an almost ten-year boom?
Answer: He declared that it had reached a “permanently high plateau.” Within a month or so, the stock market collapsed.
Source: The Great Crash by John Kenneth Galbraith
More at: History
It has been asserted that, as a general observation, New Yorkers don’t like criticism. What was one dramatic example of this in the late 1840s?
Answer: On May 10, 1849, troops opened fire on a rioting crowd outside New York’s Astor Place Opera House, killing 22 and injuring 56.
The New Yorkers had gathered to condemn visiting British actor Charles Macready who had said that Americans and American life were ‘vulgar’.
Source: History of America by Paul Johnson
More at: History
Influencing public opinion is difficult at the best of times, but Harriet Beecher Stowe is revered in American history for doing just that. How so?
Answer: Her 1852 book ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’; or ‘Life Among the Lowly’ was a powerful indictment of slavery. The novel sold three hundred thousand copies within three months of publication, a remarkable figure in publishing today, but especially impressive when America’s population was twenty-three million. When President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.” The following year, when Lincoln announced the end of slavery, Stowe danced in the streets.
Source: The Civil War by Shelby Foote
More at: History
In the 1930s the great British colonial outpost of Singapore, with its fifteen inch naval guns facing the sea, was said by experts to be ‘impregnable’. How did that prediction play out within a few years.
Answer: Trouble was, nobody told the Japanese. They invaded Malaya in December 1941 and took the island in February 1942 after attacking from the landward side.
Source: The Fall of Singapore by Frank Owen; General Historical Texts
More at: History
April 2020
What is ironic about the ‘father of communism’ Karl Marx’s employment in the 1850s and early 1860s?
Answer: He worked as a journalist in New York, the bastion of capitalism, for no fewer than nine years. Perhaps he didn’t like what he saw. More ironic is that Marx’s mother once told him to write less about capital and go out and acquire some.
Source: Intellectuals by Paul Johnson; Karl Marx by Isiah Berlin.
More at: History
Sadly, throughout history, different rules have applied for the rich and the poor. How did that manifest itself, for example, in seventeenth century Massachusetts?
Answer: If someone who was deemed to be a ‘gentleman’ was convicted of theft he was merely fined and deprived of the term ‘master’. If his servant was an accessory to the crime he’d be flogged.
Source: History of America by Paul Johnson
More at: History
Famed British twentieth early century conductor Sir Thomas Beecham attended a performance of Puccini’s opera ‘Aida’ in London. A lavish affair with majestic sets and at one stage a large complement of singers, including elephants being brought on to the stage. What was one surprising development during the performance?
Answer: One of the animals defecated on stage, prompting Beecham to turn to his companion and say “Terrible stage manners. But what a critic!”
Source: Thomas Beecham – An Obsession with Music by John Lucas
More at: History
Anaesthetics, first used in America in 1846, were branded in Britain as ‘Yankee humbug’, only suitable for quacks not talented enough to operate quickly. This was until Queen Victoria had an anaesthetic for the delivery of her eighth child in 1853. What was her reaction to the new wonder compound?
Answer: Victoria wrote in her diary, “That blessed chloroform, soothing, quieting and delightful beyond measure”.
Source: Victoria by Julia Baird
More at: History
John Wilkes Booth will live in infamy as the man who shot President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 at the end of the Civil War. When the actor died, twelve days after the assassination, what remarkable find was made in his clothes?
Answer: Prior to the assassination, Booth was romantically involved with five different women, several of them well known. When the actor died, one of the few possessions he had on him were photographs of each of the five women.
Source: Lincoln by Carl Sandburg; The Civil War by Shelby Foote
More at: History
French Marshal Petain, the ‘Hero of Verdun’ in World War One, but subsequently disgraced in the Second World War, said that all that matters in life is “food and sex”. Evidencing that this perspective was not limited to the French, what was the refrain of a popular song among British World War One soldiers?
Answer: It had the bawdy chorus of longing to get back home “and fornicate my bleeding life away”. It was widely alleged that a compound was put in the same soldiers’ tea, to lower their sex drive.
Source: World War One by Sir Martin Gilbert
More at: History
In 1962 handsome and debonair US 35th president John F Kennedy told British Old Etonian prime minister Harold McMillan what remarkable fact about his personal life?
Answer: Kennedy told him that if didn’t have sex every day he “got a blinding headache”. On recounting this to his principle private secretary, McMillan said, “Gracious me, I’d rather have the headache!”
Source: The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh
More at: History
In her famous book August 1914 American historian Barbara Tuchman wrote that at the start of the twentieth century, a group of European intellectuals made a remarkable prediction about the future of hostilities between nations. What was this?
Answer: They said that with the inter-dependency of states and economies, war was now impossible. Within a few years, World War One proved that prediction horribly wrong.
Source: August 1914 by Barbara Tuchman
More at: History
The anarchist movement, which gained prominence in the late 19th century, saw what dire result as regards Europe’s heads of state?
Answer: No fewer than six European leaders were assassinated by anarchists in the twenty years before 1913.
Source: The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
More at: History
What is the connection between Australia’s second longest serving prime minister John Howard and member of the famous pop group The Beatles, John Lennon?
Answer: They both had the middle name of Winston. Presumably, after famed British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
German chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck did not have a high opinion of ‘Bertie’, Britain’s Prince of Wales and later King Edward VII of Great Britain. What was the rather unkind remark he made about Bertie’s love of ceremonial dress?
Answer: “His love of uniforms was only matched by his fear of gunpowder”.
Source: Edward VII by Christopher Hibbert
More at: History
What was one of the worst insults a gentleman could receive in the British colony of Singapore prior to World War Two?
Answer: To be called ‘pencil shy’. In a society where cash was largely not used, drinks, cigarettes, groceries and a host of other daily items were paid for by signing chits, which would be settled at the end of the month. The saying had particular resonance for those who might be quite happy to participate in a round of drinks signed for by others, but who were reluctant to sign themselves when it came their turn.
Source: Sinister Twilight – The Fall of Singapore by Noel Barber
More at: History
Which continent was the last to be discovered in 1820?
Answer: Antarctica. It would take another 20 years before explorers identified that the land mass was a continent and not a set of small islands.
Source: Geography in the Changing World by Rosario S. Sagmit and Nora N. Soriano
More at: History
Modern day finance can trace its way to Italian mathematician Fibonacci (1170-1250). Why?
Answer: He popularized the Hindu–Arabic numeral system in the Western World, primarily through his composition in 1202 of Liber Abaci (“Book of Calculation”). By the fifteenth century, this replaced the use of roman numerals across Europe.
Source: The Ascent of Money – A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
More at: History
In 1540, after hundreds of years of the cost of living being unchanged, prices in Europe rose seven-fold in the next 100 years. Why?
Answer: As a result of the “Price Revolution”. A large influx of gold and silver from discoveries in the Spanish Empire caused levels of inflation which, while standard today, dramatically altered the cost of living in Europe.
Source: The Ascent of Money – A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
More at: History
Which dangerous drug when originally synthesised in the 1870s was considered a “non-addictive substitute for morphine”?
Answer: Heroin. Up until 1910, it could even be found in some American drug stores.
Source: Medicine in the Old West – A History, 1850-1900 by Jeremy Agnew
More at: History
In 1945, what highly important innovation was introduced to the new UK Challenger Tank?
Answer: The tank included a “boiling vessel” in its turret, allowing tank crew to brew cups of tea without leaving the tank. The innovation went down incredibly well with crews, some who joked it to be the most important development in the history of the tank.
Source: The Centurion Tank by Pat Ware and Brian Delf
More at: History
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) and Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) all have one achievement in common. What is it?
Answer: They were all nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Source: Peace, They Say – A History of the Nobel Peace Prize by Jay Noerdlinger.
More at: History
The longest war in history raged for 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isle of Sicily. How many people were killed?
Answer: None. Not a single shot was fired. In fact, the nations forgot they were ever at war and hastily signed a peace treaty in 1986.
Source: Defending Scilly by Mark Bowden et al.
More at: History
“Go west, young man!” Horace Greeley’s (1811-1872) famous 1851 editorial in the New York Tribune urged young Americans to seek new opportunities in the west. Why is this not exactly as it seems?
Answer: When Greeley spoke of going west, he was referring to the state of Illinois. The western plains were considered a barren desert at this time.
Source: Inventing the 19th Century- 100 Inventions that Shaped the Victorian Age by Stephen van Dulken
More at: History
Until 1888, you needed a licence to do what in Germany?
Answer: Take a child out in a pram. The license always had to be carried, so the police knew that the user had permission to be out on the pavements.
Source: Inventing the 19th Century – 100 Inventions that Shaped the Victorian Age by Stephen van Dulken
More at: History
The Irish scientific author Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859) once claimed that railways were impossible. Why?
Answer: Because the speed would asphyxiate the passengers. Shortly after, passenger railways became a mainstay. Lardner already had a poor track record of predictions. In 1835 he claimed that no steamship could be built large enough to travel across the Atlantic. Two steamships made the journey in 1837.
Source: Inventing the 19th Century- 100 Inventions that Shaped the Victorian Age by Stephen van Dulken
More at: History
Chicago in the mid to late nineteenth century was a rough place. It was said that in the city “the devil was capering in a flare of brimstone”. German sociologist Max Weber (1824-1901) likened Chicago to “a human being with his skin removed.” For instance, how many people were people were murdered in the first six months of 1862 alone?
Answer: Nearly eight hundred. The city’s population at the time was 112,000. This was in addition to the thousands killed every year in fires, failing drawbridges, traffic incidents and even brutal accidents on the cities railways – incidents that led to injuries so grotesque some pedestrians were compelled to retrieve severed heads on the railway line.
Source: The Devil in the White City – Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
More at: History
At the 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition in Seattle, one of the raffle prizes was highly unusual. What was it?
Answer: A month-old orphan named Ernest. The boy was “property of the Washington Children’s Home Society”, but little is known of what happened to him.
Source: 2,024 Facts to Stop You in Your Tracks by John Lloyd et al.
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What rather grim fate befell the first eight popes?
Answer: All eight were murdered.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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On June 28, 1914, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) was assassinated in an that act the triggered the First World War (1914-1918). Those present initially thought that the bullet had missed, however. Why?
Answer: After the shot was fired, Franz Ferdinand remained motionless and upright in his seat. When asked by an aid if he was in pain, Franz Ferdinand calmly said that it “was nothing”. Ferdinand subsequently lost consciousness however; the bullet had hit the archduke in the neck, severing the jugular vein.
Source: The Sleepwalkers – How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
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What came first, the Pope or Jesus of Nazareth (4 BCE – 30 CE)?
Answer: The Pope. The title Pope refers to that of Pontifex maximus, the traditional title of the Chief High Priest of Ancient Rome. While it is unclear when the term was first used, it evidently existed many years prior to the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The title Pontifex maximus was later given to the Catholic bishops, most notably the Bishop of Rome, the senior cleric in the Roman Catholic Church.
Source: From Jupiter to Christ- On the History of Religion in the Roman Imperial Period by Jörg Rüpke
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The Orient Express is one of the most famous trains in history. King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (1861-1948) disliked travelling on the train however, and when aboard he was observed doing what?
Answer: Scared of the threat of assassins, Ferdinand would lock himself in the toilet of the train.
Source: Orient Express – The Life and Times of the World’s Most Famous Train Hardcover by E. H. Cookridge
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In 1899, U.S. Commissioner of Patents Charles Holland Duell (1850-1920) sought to close the U.S. Patents Office. According to legend, why did Duell wish to close the office?
Answer: Duell is supposed to have sought to close the office as everything of importance that could be invented had been invented already.
Source: Patent Law Essentials by Alan L. Durham
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105 CE was a crucial year in the invention of what?
Answer: Paper. While an early paper likely existed elsewhere in China prior to this point, this year saw its first use on a national scale. The relatively low cost of paper and the convenience of the new medium made it an essential part of the Han Empire, from which it spread to the rest of the globe.
Source: The Dragon Throne – China’s Emperors from the Qin to Manchu
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March 2020
In 1793, King George III of Great Britain (1738-1820) sent a mission to Beijing to seek an expansion of trading opportunities. The mission provided 600 packages of gifts to the Chinese Emperor, Qianlong (1711-1799). How did he respond?
Answer: He waved aside the 600 gifts and declared “I set no value on strange or ingenious objects and have no use for your country’s manufactures.” The mission, unsurprisingly, was a failure.
Source: The Dragon Throne – China’s Emperors from the Qin to Manchu
More at: History
In 1793, King George III of Great Britain (1738-1820) sent a mission to Beijing to seek an expansion of trading opportunities. The mission provided 600 packages of gifts to the Chinese Emperor, Qianlong (1711-1799). How did he respond?
Answer: He waved aside the 600 gifts and declared “I set no value on strange or ingenious objects and have no use for your country’s manufactures.” The mission, unsurprisingly, was a failure.
Source: The Dragon Throne – China’s Emperors from the Qin to Manchu
More at: History
“An old, crazy, first-rate Man of War, which a fortunate succession of able and vigilant officers have contrived to keep afloat for these hundred and fifty years past, and to overawe their neighbours merely by her bulk and appearance. But whenever an insufficient man happens to have the command on deck, adieu to the discipline and safety of the ship. She may, perhaps, not sink outright; she may drift some time as a wreck, and will then be dashed to pieces on the shore; but she can never be rebuilt on the old bottom.”
What country is British statesman Lord George Macartney (1737-1806) describing?
Answer: The Chinese Empire.
Source: The Dragon Throne – China’s Emperors from the Qin to Manchu
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On July 28, 1540, famous English statesman Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540) was executed by beheading. It took three blows of the axe by the “ungodly” and “ragged and butcherly” executioner to finish him. According to legend, why did the executioner do such a bad job?
Answer: Cromwell’s great rival Thomas Howard (1473-1554), had either bribed the axeman or got him drunk.
Source: The Later Parliaments of Henry VIII- 1536-1547 by Stanford E Lehmberg
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In the nineteenth century, what were “baby farmers”?
Answer: Those who looked after another person’s child for money. Since baby farmers were often paid in one (small) lump sum, they stood to profit if the child died. It wasn’t until a campaign led by the British Medical Journal in 1867, that the law was reformed to introduce more religious regulation of fostering and adoption.
Source: The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris
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In 1700, the average wine glass size in the UK was 66ml. What is remarkable about this?
Answer: It is nearly seven times smaller than the present day – with wine glasses measuring on average 450ml in 2017.
Source: Seriously Curious by Tom Standage
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Democritus (460-370 BCE) was a pioneering Ancient Greek Philosopher who wrote over seventy books covering areas as varied as natural philosophy, ethics, mathematics, literature, travel and medicine. What is remarkable about this?
Answer: None have survived. While fragments of some works are available, none exist in their entirety.
Source: Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy by S Marc. Cohen et al
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In 1903, a well-regarded psychologist was worried about the recent introduction of electricity. What was his concern about young people?
Answer: He was worried that young people were losing their connection to dusk and its supposed contemplative moments. With electric light, young people would never appreciate the end of the day.
Source: The Age of Edison by Ernest Freeberg
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Ash, Yogh, Eth and Wynn are all examples of what?
Answer: Old letters of the alphabet. While we have now 26 fixed letters of the alphabet, previously there were many more. Some, such as Ash (ᴂ) are still used as part of the phonetic chart of pronunciation, while others were used in some contexts as late as the 1960s.
Source: Alphabetical – How Every Letter Tells a Story by Michael Rosen
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For much of European history, war has been a standard fact of life. How was the demonstrated by Irish Novelist Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) in 1762?
Answer: Despite England being at war with France in the Seven Years War (1756-1763), Sterne was so used to conflict that he forgot and travelled from England to France. As he noted, “I had left London with so much precipitation, that it never entered my mind that we were at war with France.”
Source: A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne
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In Victorian English slang, what was someone exhibiting if they demonstrated “podsnappery”?
Answer: Podsnappery is a “wilful determination to ignore the objectionable or inconvenient, at the same time assuming airs of superior virtue and noble resignation.” The term is found in the works of Charles Dickens.
Source: Who’s Who in Dickens by Donald Hawes
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Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1895) was a French landscape painter, considered an important precursor to the impressionists. While he produced a vast output of work, his work has also been regularly forged. By the middle of the twentieth century, there were so many of his paintings in the United States that it was said?
Answer: Of the 3,000 Corot paintings produced, 5,000 were in the United States.
Source: Dictionary of World Biography by Barry Jones
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The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was a catalogue of commonly used medical remedies first published in 1618. What strange “medicines” does it show being used in seventeenth-century England?
Answer: It included eleven types of excrement, fourteen of blood, as well as the saliva, sweat and fat of various animals. If this wasn’t enough, in certain unique circumstances it also prescribed nail clippings (used to promote vomiting) and the skulls of those who had died a violent death (a treatment for epilepsy).
Source: The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris
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In the 1750s, an English doctor came across a patient later dubbed “the incredible sleeping woman”. This woman would fall into a deep sleep for 17 hours a day, from which she could not be woken. How did the Doctor prove this?
Answer: The doctor and his aides whipped her, covered her in honey and threw a beehive on her and later thrust pins under her nails. These barbaric attempts were believed to show, once and for all, that she could not be awoken. It is now believed she was suffering from a rare sleep disorder called Encephalitis lethargica.
Source: The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris
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“A sprawling mixture of liberty and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and murderous civil war.” What is being described by historian Mary Beard?
Answer: Ancient Rome, specifically during the era of Cicero (106-43 BCE) in 63 BCE.
Source: SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
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On Voltaire’s (1694-1778) deathbed, he was quoted as saying, “this is no time to be making new enemies.” Who was he referring to?
Answer: Voltaire was responding to a visiting priest who had asked him to renounce Satan.
Source: Enlightenment Shadows by Genevieve Lloyd
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In the 1830s, an esteemed American medical journal reported that several American clergymen were losing their voices and so unable to preach or carry out their work. What did one doctor suggest was the cause for this “loss of tone in the vocal organs”?
Answer: Dr Mauran of Rhode Island suggested that, since the rise of the temperance movement, many clerics had ceased smoking or chewing tobacco. Mauran considered that tobacco was “favourable to the good condition and healthy action of the voice box.” So, incredibly, a major medical journal came to warn its readers about the dangers of not smoking.
Source: The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine by Thomas Morris
More at: History
American jurist John Marshall (1755-1835) described him as “the greatest man on earth”, while later President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) stated that “all the land knew him and loved him for gallantry and brave capacity; he carried himself like a prince”. Who is being described?
Answer: American President George Washington (1732-1799).
Source: You Never Forget Your First – A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
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In 1641, the Pope issued a mandate concerning what odd issue?
Answer: Pasta shops. Who had the right to make pasta had long been a contentious issue in Rome, and in an effort to diffuse the situation, a 1641 Papal Mandate declared that there should be at least 23 metres between each pasta shop.
Source: Pasta and Noodles – A Global History by Kantha Shelke
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“They create desolation and call it peace” is a slogan that has often summed up the consequences of military conquest. Who wrote it, and to what were they referring?
Answer: It was written by the Roman historian Tacitus (56-120 CE) in the second century CE, referring to Roman power in Britain.
Source: SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
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“I have run away, catch me. Take me back to my master Zoninus and you will get a reward.” This is an Ancient Roman inscription. Where was it found?
Answer: On a Roman slave collar.
Source: SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
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Thales of Miletus (624-548 BCE) was a pioneering Greek philosopher, astronomer and mathematician. How did he use his advanced understanding to his personal benefit?
Answer: Thales had studied and gained an advanced understanding of weather patterns. After forecasting a hot and sunny period, he rented all the oil presses in his area. His expectation of an abundant olive harvest proving correct, he gained a regional monopoly in olive pressing equipment and made a fortune.
Source: Bazaars, Conversations and Freedom by Rajni Bakshi
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US first president George Washington (1732-1799) named a dog Cornwallis after Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805), the British general he defeated in the American War of Independence. True or false?
Answer: Entirely true. To the victors go the spoils, right down to naming a dog after the vanquished.
Source: You Never Forget Your First – A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
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“Nobunaga pounded the rice. Hideyoshi baked the cake. and Tokugawa ate it.” What is being referred to in this famous phrase?
Answer: The three historical unifiers of Japan, made up of the ruthless Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), the brilliant Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and the wise Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616).
Source: Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan by N. McMullin
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It will “probably represent the greatest human catastrophe in history”. Who is talking, and what is being described?
Answer: Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), Nazi Propaganda minister. He is discussing the planned major bombing attack on London that took place on September 15, 1940. While Goebbels considered the coming destruction of London inevitable, Britain won the air battle and catastrophe was averted.
Source: The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
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According to legend, Scottish nobleman Mael Brigte of Moray managed to kill his rival, Sigurd the Mighty, when he was already dead. How did he manage it?
Answer: Sigurd the Mighty tied Mael Brigte’s severed head to his saddle as a trophy, where one of Mael Brigte’s teeth cut the side of his leg. The cut became infected and Sigurd died.
Source: Only Norman Vikings by David James Smith
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Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was the first great corporate tycoon in American history, amassing wealth and power on a scale previously unknown. His fortune was so great that if he had sold his assets at full value at the moment of his death, he would have done what?
Answer: He would have taken one out of every twenty dollars in circulation, including cash and demand deposits. A staggering 5% of the entire economy.
Source: The First Tycoon – The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
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Which famous world changing historical figure worked three days straight without sleep, getting by on “highly seasoned food, smoked fish, caviar and picked cucumber accompanied by Moselle, beer and other assorted liquors’?
Answer: German political philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883). Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was often ill. His mother once criticised him for writing constantly about capitalism by suggesting that he might like to go out and make some – that is capital – himself.
Source: Karl Marx by Gareth Stedman Jones
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Russians are renowned for their fondness for alcohol with vodka something of a national beverage. 18th century Empress Catherine I of Russia introduced an unusual rule for all social events she hosted. What was it?
Answer: This determined that no man was permitted to get drunk before 9pm. For women the rule was far more restrictive. They were prohibited from getting drunk at all.
Source: Little Book of Loony Laws by Christine Green
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In 16th century England, the Earl of Oxford, on making a bow to his sovereign Queen Elizabeth I, audibly emitted wind from his fundament. What was the upshot of this faux pas?
Answer: Mortified and humiliated, he left court and went into exile for seven years. On his return to England and to the Court, the Queen welcomed him home with the words, ‘My lord, we have forgot the fart.’
Source: The Cassell Dictionary of Anecdotes by Nigel Rees
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During World War Two, British prime minister Winston Churchill had a list of 11 people who were deemed crucial to him and who were to be included if he had to be evacuated from London. What was one of the more unusual additions on the list?
Answer: Georgina Landemare, Churchill’s cook from 1940 to 1954. She prepared the meals throughout those years of stress and food shortages and helped Churchill live by what he called his ‘tummy time’.
Source: The Telegraph, February 4, 2020
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February 2020
The contemporary torture practice of waterboarding, well publicised in recent times, is believed to have originated where?
Answer: The 15th century Spanish Inquisition. The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, as it was also known, was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile It was described as the ‘ordeal by water’.
Source: The Spanish Inquisition: A History by Joseph Perez
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Britain’s greatest naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson, who died at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, liked to quote poet and playwright Thomas Jordan’s bitter verse about how the public’s affection for sailors is undulating. What was this?
Answer: ‘Our God and sailor we adore,
In time of danger, not before;
The danger past, both are alike requited,
God is forgotten, and the sailor slighted.’
Source: Warriors by Max Hastings
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In November 1542 a Scottish army of 18,000 men invaded England and met an English force a sixth of its size at Solway Moss. What happened next?
Answer: The Scottish army was overwhelmed in one of the most humiliating defeats of the sixteenth century. Unsure of their instructions and suffering from poor leadership, hundreds of Scottish soldiers became trapped in bogs and perished, while only seven English soldiers were killed.
Source: The Anglo-Scots War by Gervase Phillips
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What was the remarkable find after the murder of the Russian Tsar’s family in July 1918?
Answer: The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas the second, was weak and indecisive and nicknamed ‘girly’ by his father.
The superstitious pointed to a couple of bad omens when Nicholas married his German bride in 1894. A celebratory festival for ordinary Russians turned into a stampede which killed hundreds. And a large jewel fell off the royal crown in the cathedral.
In the last official Russia government census, undertaken just prior to World War One, Nicholas wrote in the section marked ‘Occupation’, ‘Owner of the Russian lands’.
In 1917 Nicholas lost an empire which had lasted over three hundred years. When the Tsar signed the instrument of abdication in the saloon car of the imperial train he did so in pencil. If you’ve just lost many billions for you, your family and your heirs, why not? Nicholas, the Tsarina and his four daughters and son were imprisoned and finally taken to Yekaterinburg, where they were killed on July 17, 1918, by Bolsheviks, allegedly at the express command of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin.
After the killing the assassins discovered what unusual feature in the clothes the Tsarina and her daughters were wearing? No fewer than eighteen pounds, or eight point two kilos of diamonds were found sewn into their clothes.
Source: Nicholas and Alexander by Robert K Massie
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How important have been looks throughout history?
Answer: Plato said that good looks are the best introduction. Seventeenth century English Queen Henrietta Marie, after the birth of her son, the future rakish Charles the second, said, “He is so ugly, I am ashamed of him”.
Eighteenth-century Italian adventurer Casanova, the who was, er, passionate about women and had many lovers was, by all accounts, if not ugly, certainly no George Clooney. US president Abraham Lincoln was described by Union Civil War General George McLellan in a letter to his wife as a ‘baboon’.
Winston Churchill at just under five feet seven and nearly two hundred pounds, ignoring his well-tailored suits, looked like a bald, over-sized chubby-cheeked baby.
Heroic, trail-blazing 1930s American aviator Amelia Earhart would probably not have been first choice for a fashion and beauty magazine cover. Nor would genius Albert Einstein have likely been signed up by a modelling agency.
Boxing icon Muhammad Ali unkindly remarked that Joe Frazier was so ugly that when he cried, the tears turned around and went down the back of his head.
What really matters, of course, is that, to paraphrase American civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, we should be judged not on looks but on ‘the content of our character’.
Source: General Historical Texts
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What was the ‘Golden Age of the Guptas’?
Answer: In the 4th century, a new dynasty, the Guptas, named after the Maurya emperor, Chandragupta, spread over northern India. This royal line held power for more than a century. It nurtured a revival of the Hindu religion and a golden age in Hindu art and literature. This continued on after the collapse of the Guptas under the attacks of Hun invaders in the 6th century.
Source: The Gupta Empire by Radha Kumud Mukherjee
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What is just one striking example of the difference between Japan in the 1930s and America, on the eve of World War Two?
Answer: Some countries are different from others. In 1930s America, popular comic books featured such lovable characters as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and Pluto.
In Japan around the same time a very popular comic book was entitled ‘Stories of Hari-Kari’. Happy little tales of disembowelling with sharp knives.
The attack by Japan on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in December 1941 started the war in the Pacific.
Only seven months later Japan had essentially lost the war after the Battle of Midway in June 1942.
The Japanese fought on tenaciously until the war came to an end with the dropping of two atomic bombs on the country in August 1945.
This drastic step was taken as Japan would have fought on defiantly in the home islands, causing the death of many more tens of thousands.
The unique and ancient martial culture of the Japanese was represented in many ways.
Japanese soldiers fighting in the Pacific received written instructions saying: “Duty is heavier than a mountain, death as light as a feather.”
What was the loving farewell message given to a Japanese soldier by his mother, prior to his departure to fight in the war?
“Commit suicide, rather than dare to shame me by returning home as an ex-prisoner”.
Source: Kokoda by Paul Ham; General Historical Texts
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It could be argued that today’s passion and zeal for advancement of the climate change debate is echoed in the views of 17th century Dutch-Jewish philosopher Benedict Spinoza. How so?
Answer: Spinoza held that God and Nature are identical. It could be argued that the love of Mother Earth today, much of it rightly an affection for nature, has laudatory quasi-religious overtones.
Source: The Last Two Million Years by Readers Digest; General Historical Texts
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Sadly, throughout history, different rules have applied for the rich and the poor. How so?
Answer: In seventeenth century Massachusetts, if a ‘gentleman’ was convicted of theft he was merely fined and deprived of the term ‘master’. If his servant was an accessory to the crime he’d be flogged.
In the mid nineteenth century the term kleptomaniac came into being, as describing someone who had a compulsive desire to steal. It was mainly used for the well to do. If you were poor and stole you were a thief, if you were upper middle class or rich you were a kleptomaniac.
Anecdotal evidence from the British aristocracy points to the present British queen’s grandmother, Queen Mary, having a liking for other people’s property.
The allegation is that Queen Mary would visit an aristocratic home in London and mention to the hostess that she admired a particular item. It might be a sideboard, an expensive vase, or the like.
Sometime after Queen Mary’s departure, footmen from Buckingham palace would arrive at the home where the queen had just visited and load up the admired item for transport back to her majesty’s residence.
Regrettably, some aristocratic families came to hide their most prized possessions from view during a royal visit.
Source: The Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy
More at: History
What was remarkable about the discovery at Monte Alban, in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1932?
Answer: Some 150 ornate and meticulously crafted gold and silver objects were discovered in territory occupied by peoples known as the Mixtecs. One item, 108 mm high, takes the form of a man wearing a crown and a hideous mask with a fleshless mouth. It is believed to represent the Mixtec Lord of Death and Darkness. The panels on the base include signs representing dates in the Mixtec calendar.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
At a London society dinner, 18th century English lexicographer and polymath Dr Samuel Johnson, on being served soup that was too hot, immediately spat it out, to the surprise of his fellow diners, exclaiming, “Now a fool would have swallowed that!”. In other matters culinary, what was his recommended and somewhat whimsical recipe for preparing cucumbers?
Answer: ‘They need to be well sliced and garnished with vinegar and pepper and then thrown out, as they are good for nothing.’
Source: Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
More at: History
France’s Charles the Bold, duke of Normandy, died at the 1477 Battle of Nancy, the final and decisive battle of the Burgundian Wars. What was the tragic aftermath to the noble duke’s death?
Answer: His body was left to wolves. His unclothed and mutilated corpse was discovered some days later. The duke had been so badly ripped apart by wild beasts that only his doctor could identify him from several recognisable pre-existing scars.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In the 1930s what was the ‘Pact of Steel’ and why was this inappropriately named?
Answer: This was the military alliance between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in 1939. The steel turned to something more flaccid with Italy’s surrender to the Allies in 1943, leaving Germany to fight on without the former allies’ support.
Source: General Historical Texts
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The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD devastated the city of Pompeii. Today much can still be seen of how the then prosperous country town dwellers were living at the time of the catastrophe. What are some examples?
Answer: The walls today still bear the slogans of the last elections, the scribbled names of girlfriends and the expletives of unlucky gamblers. And over it all is the same blue sky and the same peaceful mountain.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McEvedy
More at: History
Some countries are different from others. In 1930s America the most popular comic books were about Donald Duck, Pluto and Mickey Mouse. As a counterpoint to this, in Japan around the same time, what was the name of a very popular comic book?
Answer: ‘Stories of Hari-Kari’. In this text, school children were regaled with noble tales of honourable Japanese disembowelling themselves to atone for a perceived personal wrongdoing.
Source: Kokoda by Paul Ham
More at: History
What was the unusual celestial event which occurred on February 9, 1913?
Answer: A group of meteors was visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
In the Medieval and Early Modern era, humankind had been ruled by God and Brute Force. With the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment these two forces had to make way for something else. What was this?
Answer: Reason. These two were far from completely set aside, but it was an age in which Reason could make its voice heard.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McEvedy
More at: History
Italian Fascist party leader and prime minister between 1922 and 1943 Benito Mussolini cultivated his image assiduously. What did English historian George Slocombe say about his demeanour?
Answer: ‘Except Stalin, no other European leader displays his air of calm, unruffled assurance, the result of uninterrupted years of supreme authority’. This supreme authority was to end ignominiously. In 1945 Mussolini ended up, strung up, upside down, taunted by an angry mob.
Source: How to be a Dictator by Frank Dikotter
More at: History
Celebrated Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote that Sophocles and Euripides depicted men in two different ways. What were these?
Answer: Sophocles depicted men as they ought to be and Euripides as they actually were.
Source: Poetics by Aristotle
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Tea, with its origins in ancient China, is today the second most enjoyed drink in the world. Apart from the enjoyment it gives, being a cheap beverage is part of its appeal. When tea drinking was introduced into England in the reign of 17th century monarch Charles II, how much was a pound of tea?
Answer: No less than 847 pounds sterling or 1,116 US dollars.
Source: The Spectator July 20, 2019
More at: History
Famed doctor and psycho-analyst Sigmund Freud had in his study and consulting rooms a diverse clutter of archaeological bric-a-brac, Greek, Chinese and Roman, but most of which ancient civilization?
Answer: Egyptian. Historians have speculated that the frightening and ghoulish rituals, the mummy wrappings, the hieroglyphs and especially the Egyptian pantheon of partly animal deities must have seemed like a thesaurus of the unconscious mind, an area of Freudian speciality. It has been suggested that this diversity of objects inspired him and filled him with ideas for his work.
Source: Talk like an Egyptian by Martin Gayford
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The final years of the 18th century evidenced a number of social, political and economic upheavals which forever transformed the western world. How so?
Answer: In Europe and North America ancient sovereignties were ousted and new political structures – the American republic, revolutionary France – established in their place. In England, the industrial revolution reformed the practices by which human kind had lived since the dawn of time.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In the late 19th century American entrepreneur Minor C Keith had major banana growing interests in Panama in Central America and envisaged a time when railways would transport bananas to New York. In 1899 he joined forces with the Boston Fruit Company to form what famous, or in some minds infamous, American corporation which at its inception was the world’s largest agricultural enterprise?
Answer: The United Fruit Company. Later believed by many observers to be one of numerous companies which were, in addition to their commercial activities, a front for the CIA.
Source: The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
More at: History
The Vikings have had a bit of a PR problem throughout history with accusations of pillage, rape and plunder, which may or may not have been exaggerated. Great explorers, they made their way to what is today’s Dublin and the French province of Normandy is essentially named after them. What was the event which set the Vikings off on their widely spanned adventures?
Answer: In the late 9th century the Norse, or Norwegians, discovered the route from Norway to Britain via the Shetlands and Orkney.
Souce: World History Factfinder by Colin McEvedy
More at: History
Beatle George Harrison wrote a memo to staff at Apple Records, the band’s recording and distribution company, in London’s Savile Row on December 4, 1968. Why was this remarkably unusual?
Answer: The subject of the memo was: ‘Hells Angels’.
“Hells Angels will be in London within the week,” the memo said, “on the way to straighten out Czechoslovakia.
“There will be twelve in number complete with black leather jackets and motorcycles. They will undoubtedly arrive at Apple and I have heard they may try to make full use of Apple’s facilities.
“They may look as though they are going to do you in, but they are very straight and do good things, so don’t fear them or up-tight them.
“Try to assist them without neglecting your Apple business and without letting them take control of Savile Row.”
The Hells Angels did indeed arrive and made themselves at home. After some weeks, staff finally asked them to leave. They replied, “George invited us, who are you to ask us to go?”. Harrison eventually arrived at Apple and asked them to leave.
The following year, the California chapter of the Hells Angels were hired as security at the Rolling Stones’ Altamont concert. Their fee was $500 of beer. Tragically a music goer was stabbed to death at the concert.
Source: The Beatles Anthology
Leadership skills and the power to motivate are key attributes of successful generals. What was one telling example of these skills in action during World War One?
Answer: In September 1914 in a village in the Allied sector, French General Louis de Maud’huy, soon after dawn, out on an inspection with his ADC came across an unmistakable group.
Twelve soldiers, an NCO, a couple of gendarmes and between them an unarmed soldier. An execution was about to take place.
General de Maud’huy held up his hand to halt the party, then went up to the doomed man and asked what he had been condemned for.
It was for abandoning his post. The general then began to talk to the man. Quite simply he explained discipline. Abandoning your post was letting down your pals. More, it was letting down your country that looked to you to defend her.
He told the condemned man that his crime was not excusable and that he must die as an example, so that others should not fail.
Surprisingly, the man agreed and nodded his head. The shame was lifted from his shoulders. Though he was to die, a glimmer of redemption showed in his eyes.
Any sacrifice, the general said, was worthwhile if it helped France. De Maud’huy held out his hand: “Yours also is a way of dying for France.”
The procession started again, but now the victim was a willing one.
Source: Reportage – Edited by John Carey
Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’ is recommended by Hollywood screenwriters today as it set out 2000 years ago what is the correct structure of a drama, so that audiences follow to the end, entertained and moved. Replete with wisdom, it also has some sage advice on human inactions. What, for example, does Aristotle say is the best way to give a command?
Answer: ‘A command is concise and brief and every master uses few words to a slave. Supplication and lamentation, however, are lengthy.’
Source: Poetics by Aristotle
More at: History
British commando Lieutenant-Colonel Freddie Spencer-Chapman was one of the fascinating characters of World War Two. What are some aspects of his story?
Answer: After the fall of Singapore in 1942 he stayed behind, organizing resistance and guerilla teams against the Japanese, blowing up bridges and trains and generally harassing the enemy.
Living in the humid, rain-filled jungles of Malaya for three years he was often sick with malaria and other tropical diseases, losing 30 pounds in weight.
At night, when forced to sleep, he perched above the ground in leaf beds to escape the creeping Trap Jaw ants and the Spitting Cobra, shivering in wet clothes.
Handsome and gallant he could have starred in a war film epic. After the war he became somewhat of a celebrity.
An explorer, mountain climber and botanist, he had a child with an Eskimo girl and was a compulsive adventurer.
His war memoir The Jungle is Neutral became an international bestseller. In it he wrote of the symphony of the jungle at night with its myriad sounds of alarm clocks, rattles and cawing, from numerous ground and flighted creatures.
The comparative boredom of later life took its toll. He was a warden at a residential hall at Reading University when in 1971 he took a gun and shot himself.
Source: Pax Britannica by Jan Morris; The Jungle is Neutral by Freddie Spencer-Chapman
In much of the world the horse is seen as a splendid creature, admired for the joy it provides in recreation and as a magnificent sporting animal. It has, however, also been seen as a food source. How so?
Answer: Eating horse is anchored in French culinary tradition, although eighth century Pope Gregory the third condemned it as a pagan practice, probably more to conserve horses for warfare than any specific piety.
Over the centuries consuming horse flesh has been controversial.
On February 6, 1856, a horse butchers’ banquet took place in Paris to prove that horse was healthy and good to eat.
Held at the Grand Hotel and attended by notables such as Gustave Flaubert and Alexandre Dumas, a variety of horse dishes were trotted out.
These included: horse-broth vermicelli; horse sausage and charcuterie; broiled horse and horse a la mode; horse stew; filet of horse with mushrooms and potatoes sautéed in horse fat; salad in horse oil and, for dessert, rum gateau with horse bone marrow.
The promotion seemed to work, with French horse consumption increasing over eleven times to two million pounds a year in 1879. Although literary criticEdmond de Goncourt loathed the “watery and blackish-red meat”.
Horse butchers can still be found in France today and horse dishes are served in several restaurants.
Consumption fell off sharply in the 1980s following the lobbying of vegetarian actress Brigitte Bardot and in particular after the widespread viewing of a video of a horse crying.
Source: Larousse Gastronomique; Modern World Encyclopedia
January 2020
Why did the ‘people of Asia’ become slaves, according to King Alexander the Great of Macedonia, one of the world’s most successful generals and greatest conquerors?
Answer: They refused to say ‘no’.
Source: The Collective Speeches of Sir Winston Churchill
More at: History
US General Douglas MacArthur did not have a very good opinion of senior Australian general Thomas Blamey, later Field Marshal Sir Thomas, referring to his laziness and questionable morals. He did, however, think that Blamey could be a tough commander. What was one rather brutal statement made by Blamey which suggested this was the case?
Answer: Blamey was quoted as saying that a “good leader must be able to have breakfast with his brother and have him shot at lunchtime.”
Source: Kokoda by Paul Ham
More at: History
US polymath and founding father Benjamin Franklin has been attributed with the famous saying about the only certainties in life. But the maxim is, in fact, first recorded as being said by another. What is the aphorism and who was the originator of the saying?
Answer: English actor and dramatist Christopher Bullock is recording as having written in 1716 – decades before Franklin’s time – that, “’Tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes.”
Source: The History of England by Paul Johnson; Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
Some rather remarkable observations have been made about famed World War Two British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill as regards his sexual proclivities. What were these?
Answer: Churchill, married late, at 33, to the beautiful, intelligent and elegant Clementine Hozier.
On returning from the honeymoon, Clementine confided to a ‘wide-eyed’ close friend Violet Asquith that Winston wore finely woven, pale pink silk underwear.
In the 1890s, as a young officer in the prestigious Fourth Hussars, a fellow officer, Alan Bruce-Pryce, accused Churchill of ‘acts of gross immorality of the Oscar Wilde type’. Meaning, gay.
Churchill’s solicitors issued a writ, and within a month he received 500 pounds and a written apology.
Pre-eminent Churchill historian William Manchester records that Churchill told British newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook that he had once had sex with a man to see what it was like.
Historians disagree as to whether in 1941 in the White House Churchill, fresh from his bath, greeted President Roosevelt ‘pink and naked’.
Back in Britain, Churchill reportedly told his sovereign King George, “Sir, I believe I am the only man in the world to have received the head of a nation naked.”
Whatever the case, Churchill saved Britain from becoming a Nazi slave state, a fate which befell much of Europe.
His wartime cabinet secretary, echoing the belief of many, described him as ‘the greatest Englishman ever’.
Source: Winston Churchill by William Manchester
More at: History
What was the loving farewell message given to a Japanese soldier by his mother, prior to his departure to fight in World War Two?
Answer: “Commit suicide, rather than dare to shame me by returning home as an ex-prisoner”.
Source: Kokoda by Paul Ham
More at: History
In 1899, the first animal cemetery in the world was opened on the banks of the River Seine in Paris. This was partly in response to what law enacted a year earlier?
Answer: A law banning Parisians from throwing dead dogs into the Seine. The cemetery was intended as a more suitable alternative.
Source: The Seine – The River that Made Paris by Elaine Sciolino
More at: History
“There seems to be no reason why we should be anything more than spectators.” What is British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith (1852-1928) describing in July 1914?
Answer: The simmering tensions growing in Europe and his erroneous belief Britain would not be involved.
Source: British Culture and the First World War by Toby Thacker
More at: History
In 1647, what was banned in England?
Answer: Christmas. Christmas celebrations were considered unfitting.
Source: Christmas – A short history from solstice to Santa by Andy Thomas
More at: History
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was once complemented on his organ playing. What was his response?
Answer: “There is nothing to it. You only have to hit the right notes at the right time and the instrument plays itself.”
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Elizabeth Knowles
More at: History
In 1949, a British Army Journal called for suggestions on how the country may best defend itself against the atom bomb. What was one particularly popular suggestion?
Answer: “The best defence against the atom bomb,”, said the response, “is to not be there when it goes off.”
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Elizabeth Knowles
More at: History
Guelph, Wipper, Wettin, Tudor, Stuart, English, and Fitzroy were all suggestions for what?
Answer: Surnames for the British Royal family. When the Royal family changed their surname in 1917 because it sounded too German, a number of options were considered before Windsor (after Windsor Castle) was settled on.
Source: The Diamond Queen – Elizabeth II and Her People by Andrew Marr
More at: History
The Ancient Romans periodically used something called an Itinerarium. What was it?
Answer: A detailed road map. What made Itinerariums remarkable was there detail. They often listed exact distance between towns, the quality of the roads, likely travel conditions and where one might find suitable food and lodging along the way.
Source: The Long Shadow of Antiquity by Gregory S. Aldrete and Alicia Aldrete
More at: History
Which ship, famous for transporting the Pilgrim fathers to the New World in 1620, had previously been primarily used to transport wine from France to England?
Answer: The Mayflower.
Source: The Mayflower Destiny by Caleb H. Johnson
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In 1865, the Third Duke of Buckingham (1823-1889) was blown from one part of London to another through a pneumatic tube designed for parcels. True or false?
Answer: True. Buckingham was demonstrating his pneumatic railway, which delivered mail from Euston to the General Post Office in Holborn by air pump. Hopes were high for this technology, but it never became commercially viable.
Source: World Railways of the Nineteenth Century by Jim Carter
More at: History
Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi (1915-1917) famously went into hiding when Americans liberated Guam in 1944 and didn’t emerge for how many years?
Answer: 28. In 1972 he was discovered by fisherman and informed the war was over.
Source: Private Yokoi’s War and Life on Guam, 1944-1972 by Omi Hatashin
More at: History
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) was an Italian conductor, considered one of the greatest of the early twentieth century. What amazing skill did he pioneer?
Answer: Toscanini had a phenomenal visual memory and was able to conduct without a score. Remarkably, he developed this largely out of necessity – he was so near-sighted that he could not actually read a score at normal distance.
Source: Encyclopedia of World Biography by Paula K. Byers et al
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Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) was a highly influential German mathematician who devised the “Riemann hypothesis” about the complex numbers which are roots of a certain transcendental equation. What is remarkable about the hypothesis?
Answer: Despite first being identified in 1859, the problem remains unsolved over 150 years later. Some consider the issue one of the most important unsolved problems in mathematics.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of People and Places by Frank Abate
More at: History
William of Ockham (1285-1349) was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar known for developing the concept of “Occam’s razor”. What is it?
Answer: “Occam’s razor” is the philosophical principle that explanation for an event that requires the smallest number of assumptions is usually correct.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of People and Places by Frank Abate
More at: History
Which American president had a sign on his White House office desk that read “The Buck Stops Here”?
Answer: Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), who served as president from 1945-1953. Among other things, Truman is remembered for authorising the dropping of the atomic bomb on two Japanese cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki – in August 1945, thus ending the war in the Pacific.
Source: “Right Makes Might”: Proverbs and the American Worldview by Wolfgang Mieder
More at: History
King Shapur I of Persia (?-270 CE) captured the Roman Emperor Valerian (190 – 260 CE) in 260 AD at the Battle of Edessa, the only time a Roman emperor was ever captured as a prisoner of war. Shapur was so delighted he did what?
Answer: He arranged for the event to be commemorated by being carved in rock. The carvings at Naqsh-e Rostam show Valerian kneeling in front of Shapur in submission.
Source: The Persian Empire by Mehrdad Kia
More at: History
Which historical figure is sometimes described as Britain’s greatest military leader, but also one of her worst prime ministers?
Answer: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852).
Source: Great Leaders by Brian Mooney
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In 1879, Saloon owner James Ritty (1836-1918) patented his invention, “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier”. It was the first example of what?
Answer: A cash register. Ritty developed this in response to his frustration at employees stealing from him.
Source: Microeconomic Theory by Michael E. Wetzstein
More at: History
Which bank started out as “Bank of Italy” in San Francisco, California?
Answer: Bank of America. Founded in 1904 to serve the Italian community, it became Bank of America in 1930 and grew to become one of the largest banks in the world.
Source: The Tumultuous History of the Bank of America by Moria Johnston
More at: History
At the 1932 Olympics, victory in the steeplechase was an even greater achievement than normal. Why?
Answer: That year, the steeplechase involved eight and a half laps, rather than the normal seven and a half. Officials lost track of how many laps the athletes had run. Other unusual features of the race included: The leading runner collapsed on the last lap; a dog ran onto the track and the winner finished wearing just one running shoe.
Source – The Complete Book of the Olympics by David Wallechinsky and Jaime Lucky
More at: History
During the Second World War, the US Army was the best provisioned and supported army in the world. By ratio, in the German army there was one support service staff for every two frontline soldiers. How many were there in the US Army?
Answer: Four support staff for every two frontline soldiers.
Source: The American People in World War II – Freedom from Fear, Part Two By David M. Kennedy
More at: History
Russian Tsar Peter III (1728-1762) was an erratic ruler who often preferred playing with his toys than governing. What happened when a rat once chewed on one of his toy soldiers?
Answer: An incensed Peter caught the rat, held a proper military court martial for it and hung it with miniature gallows.
Source: Vodka Politics – Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State by Mark Schrad
More at: History
“Our landings … have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.” What is being described, and by whom?
Answer: This a handwritten note drafted by Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) and kept in his pocket during the D-Day landings (1944). The note was to be used in the event that the landings failed. Fortunately for Eisenhower and the allies – it was never needed.
Source: The American People in World War II – Freedom from Fear, Part Two By David M. Kennedy
More at: History
During the Second World War, toilet paper was rationed by Allied armies. US soldiers were allowed 22.5 sheets of toilet paper a day. How many were British soldiers granted?
Answer: A miserly three sheets per day.
Source: The American People in World War II- Freedom from Fear, Part Two By David M. Kennedy
More at: History
In 1893, the case Nix v Hedden led to United States Supreme Court ruling what?
Answer: That the tomato was a vegetable. At the time of the case, imported vegetables were subject to higher tariffs, so American farmers advocated that they were a vegetable – not a fruit.
Source: Word Meaning and Legal Interpretation by Christopher Hutton
More at: History
What famous Second World War Aircraft was nearly called the Shrew?
Answer: The Supermarine Spitfire. Despite the fame of the Spitfire, its designer, R.J. Mitchell (1895-1937) famously hated its name, stating “it was just the sort of bloody silly name they would choose.”
Source: Coastal Command 1939 – 1945 by Geoff Simpson
More at: History
How did Foyles bookstore in London, England, respond when it heard that the Nazis were burning books in Germany in the 1930s?
Answer: The bookstore telegrammed the Nazi leadership, offering to buy the books instead. On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the bookstore also threatened to protect itself by covering the roof with copies of Adolf Hitler’s own book, “Mein Kampf”.
Source: The Book in Society – An Introduction to Print Culture by Solveig Robinson
More at: History
December 2019
US 14th President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was regularly mocked for his drinking habit. What did his opponents describe him as?
Answer: As the “hero of many a well-fought bottle.”
Source: The Presidency of Franklin Pierce by Larry Tara
More at: History
“Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap”. What is significant about this somewhat dubious ‘joke’?
Answer: It is the world’s oldest known joke, dating from 1900 BCE in Ancient Sumeria. The oldest known joke in English is from 1000 CE.
Source: Philosophy of Humour by Alan Roberts
More at: History
In 1909, two British suffragettes devised an ingenious way to get an audience with the prime minister. What was it?
Answer: They posted themselves to 10 Downing Street. At this time individuals could be “posted” by express messenger, so the two women went to the East Strand Post Office and were placed in the hands of a telegraph messenger, who “delivered” them to Downing Street. Unfortunately for them, an official refused to sign for them and they were returned to East Strand.
Source: The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866-1928 by Sophia A. van Wingerden
More at: History
Which chemical element, discovered in 1950, was named after the state and university where it was discovered?
Answer: Californium. It was produced in 1950 at the University of California.
Source: Nature’s Building Blocks by John Emsley
More at: History
During the rise of Nazi Germany, why was the German Air Sports Association, established in 1933, so crucial to Germany’s ultimate war aims?
Answer: In the early years of Nazi Germany, it acted as a substitute for the German airforce which had been banned under the Treaty of Versailles (1919). It meant that when the German Luftwaffe was re-born, it had the skilled pilots it needed.
Source: Voice from the Luftwaffe by Bob Carruthers
More at: History
In 1957, the US military developed what unusual weapon?
Answer: A ‘shouting bomb’. The nine-foot long bomb could address large crowds as it dropped to the ground on a parachute.
Source: How to Make a Tornado by Mick O’Hare et al
More at: History
In 1923 the U.S. state of Illinois declared an official language. What was it?
Answer: American. This was intended to target British immigrants and other speakers of English from outside the USA.
Source: Immigrants in American History by Elliott Robert Barkan
More at: History
In April 1943, Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann (1906 – 2008) cycled home from work. Why was this journey different to normal?
Answer: Hofmann cycled home under the influence of a drug he recently discovered – LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide.)
Source: LSD, My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann
More at: History
Philip Reid (1820-1892) was a master craftsman who, by acting as the foreman in the casting of the Statue of Freedom, played a prominent role in the construction of the U.S. Capital in Washington D.C. What was unusual about this?
Answer: Reid was a slave. While a slave when he began the project, by the time the statue was placed atop the U.S. Capital, Reid had won his freedom.
Source: Black Men Built the Capitol by Jesse Holland
More at: History
“They laugh at the difference of degrees which is observed with us. They brand us slaves, and call us miserable souls, whose life is not worth having, alluding that we degrade ourselves in subjecting ourselves to one man who possess the whole power, and is bound by no law but his own will.” What is being described here?
Answer: The response of Native Americans to the arrival of French explorers, as recounted by French army officer Baron de Lahontan (1666-1715).
Source: Oxford Companion to World Exploration by David Boisseret
More at: History
According to legend, which historical figures haunt the Tower of London?
Answer: Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) and Anne Boleyn (1501-1536).
Source: British Folklore by Marc Alexander
More at: History
Among Chinese scholars, what British figure is remembered as the most barbarous of barbarians, described as a brute who was “uncontrollably fierce”?
Answer: James Bruce, Earl of Elgin (1811-1863). Elgin ordered the destruction of the illustrious Chinese Imperial Summer Palace in 1860. The palace was so large that it took thousands of soldiers nearly three days to destroy.
Source: The Scottish Empire by Michael Fry
More at: History
At the time of his death, which infamous figure from American history was dating five different women, including some of the most famous women of the day?
Answer: John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865). When Booth died, twelve days after he assassinated President Lincoln, one of the few possessions he had on his person were photographs of each the five different women.
Source: John Wilkes Booth and the Women Who Loved Him by E. Lawrence Abel
More at: History
British colonial administrator James Bruce, Earl of Elgin (1811-1863) was famously present for the burning of two highly significant buildings during his career. What were they?
Answer: While serving in Canada, he witnessed the burning of the Canadian parliament buildings in 1849. While in China, he infamously burnt down the Imperial Summer Palace near Beijing in 1860.
Source: The Scottish Empire by Michael Fry
More at: History
British statesman and four term prime minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) once head-butted a Greek bishop. True or false?
Answer: True. On a visit to the Ionian Islands in 1859, Gladstone met the Bishop of Paxos. Confusion over an Orthodox blessing led to Gladstone accidentally striking the bishop with his head. According to a contemporary, the incident meant “spectators had considerable difficulty in maintaining the gravity befitting so solemn an occasion”.
Source: The Scottish Empire by Michael Fry
More at: History
“It was a submarine without a periscope”. This was how one observer described the French military headquarters at the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-1945), established east of Paris at the Château de Vincennes. Why?
Answer: The French high command astonishingly did not have any radio communications with the outside world, nor was it linked by teleprinter with any other headquarters in the field. It instead relied on hourly motorcycle riders.
Source: The War Aims and Strategies of Adolf Hitler by Oscar Pinkus
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During the American Civil War (1861-1865), American general and future president Ulysses S. Grant once got so drunk that he did what?
Answer: Projectile-vomited into a horse’s mane. Grant was known for his drunken behaviour; newspaper war reporters often saw him staggering around and swilling whiskey from a canteen. On being told of Grant’s drinking President Lincoln said, “I can’t spare this man. He fights.”
Source: Party Like a President by Brian Abrams
More at: History
In nineteenth century England, why was owning a large cooking pot sometimes needed in order to vote?
Answer: In some areas, a large cooking pot was considered proof that the owner had their own home and was responsible enough to vote. Those who used pots to demonstrate their voting rights were called “pot-wallopers”. The system continued until 1832.
Source: Solving Genealogy Problems by Graeme Davis
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What fellow American city was Portland, Oregon, almost named after?
Answer: Boston, Massachusetts. The city’s founders flipped a coin to decide whether to name it Portland or Boston.
Source: Wicked Portland by Finn J.D. John
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The history of metallurgy shows that this ancient science has been part of the human experience since before the pyramids. What is one of the earliest examples of this practice?
Answer: The first experiments with metal working were made in Iran and Turkey around 7000 BCE. Smelting with copper and lead then followed. By about 1500 BCE European bronze smiths had refined their art to make elaborate sculptures such as ‘A chariot built to carry the sun across the sky’, found in a bog at Trondheim in Denmark in 1902.
Source: The History of Mining by Michael Coulson
More at: History
Until the 18th century, farming practices in Europe had changed little since the Middle Ages. How so?
Answer: Previously fields lay fallow every third year and cattle were slaughtered in the autumn for lack of winter food. From the 1700s farmers learnt how to rotate crops scientifically and began experimenting with stock breeding.
Source: A Short History of Europe by Simon Jenkins
More at: History
Nobel prize winner, mathematician, peace activist and prolific writer Bertrand Russell was the grandson of a 19th century British prime minister and the pioneer of a new logical philosophical analysis. What was this based on?
Answer: Russell believed that philosophy was the ‘handmaiden of science’. In the early 20th century he co-authored a leading book on mathematics ‘Principia Mathematica’.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
When was the first time the Japanese language was used in an important document?
Answer: In the Kojiki – ‘Records of Ancient Matters’ published in 712 CE. Prior to this, Chinese was the written language of officialdom.
Source: A History of Japan by J. G. Caiger and Richard Mason
More at: History
What was the famous piece of jewellery which had the inscription, ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’?
Answer: This was an Anglo Saxon 9th century jewel of gold, enamel and crystal probably made for Alfred, the famous king of ancient Wessex.
Source: England – A Portrait by John Bowle
More at: History
Switzerland is admired today as an affluent country which has in recent times avoided wars and is seen by many as a model of financial rectitude. What are its origins?
Answer: The first settlers in Switzerland were Celtic tribes, who were conquered by Caesar’s legions in 58 BCE. Roman control lasted for 400 years until the legions were withdrawn when Germanic tribes from the east overran the country. French missionaries converted the Swiss to Christianity in the 6th century. In 768 Switzerland became part of the domain of Charlemagne, king of the Franks.
Source: A Concise History of Switzerland by Clive H. Church, Randolph C. Head
More at: History
Philosophy, which could be described as an interpretation or prescription as to how humankind should live, has been part of the human experience since the dawn of time. What was 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s key belief on this front?
Answer: Kant is perhaps best known for his notion of the ‘categorical imperative’, humankind’s inborn sense of moral duty.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
Since its invention many millennia ago, alcohol has played a large part in the human experience. What are some of the unusual features of this association?
Answer: In the 1930s British politician and later prime minister Winston Churchill began each day with a weak scotch and water, drank throughout the day, yet from 10 pm until two or three am would dictate to stenographers up to ten thousand words a night for articles and books.
One historian claims King Harold lost the 1066 Battle of Hastings because most of his men were drunk.
James Madison lost his 1777 bid for election to Virginia’s House of Delegates because he didn’t provide alcohol to voters on election day.
Sixteenth century English financier Thomas Gresham conducted “history’s most expensive toast” to the health of Queen Elizabeth with a glass of wine containing a crushed pearl worth fifteen thousand pounds – perhaps four million pounds today.
The nose of big drinking American film star and humourist W C Fields had “all the colours of the rainbow”.
One of Fields’ favourite lines was “Drowned in a vat of whisky … death, where is they sting?”
Field’s domestic staff estimated that he drank 64 fluid ounces or 1.7 litres of gin every day.
In his remaining years his housekeeper asked him if he had his life over would he have done anything differently.
Fields’ replied: “I would have liked to have seen how I made out without liquor”.
Source: A History of England by Paul Johnson; General Historical Texts
More at: History
What is the tragic story of the assassination of US 20th president 49 year-old Republican James Garfield?
Answer: President Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other, simultaneously.
Like later US president Lyndon Johnson, Garfield worked earlier in his career as a teacher.
In the Civil War he was promoted to major general, for gallantry.
Elected US president in 1881 Garfield was shot in July of that year by a disappointed office seeker, Charles Guiteau.
The president languished gravely ill as numerous doctors probed the wound with unsterilized fingers. An early metal detector was used to try and locate the bullet.
Garfield died in November. It is widely believed that if the doctors had been more competent, he might have survived.
During his trial Guiteau’s odd behaviour included giving his testimony as an epic poem, getting legal advice from court spectators and insulting the judge, witnesses and his own defence team.
Sentenced to death and hanged in July 1882, he claimed he didn’t kill the president, “the doctors did.”
Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert later refused to attend any ceremony where a president was present as he believed he brought bad luck.
He was near Garfield when he was shot, sat by his dying father and was at the exposition when President William McKinley was shot.
Source: History of American by Paul Johnson; General Historical Texts
More at: History
Mohandas K Gandhi is revered in India for his role in securing independence for the country. What is the fascinating story of his remarkable life and tragic death?
Answer: Gandhi trained as a lawyer in London and came to be known as Mahatma, meaning ‘great soul’ and also ‘Bapu’, father to his followers.
A passionate advocate of non-violent resistance, Gandhi’s long campaign against British rule in India, using civil disobedience tactics such as passive resistance and hunger strikes, had a great impact on world public opinion.
He also struggled for reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims and championed the Hindu caste known as “the untouchables”.
As the impetus for Indian independence grew stronger in the 1920s there was a popular saying at that time about Gandhi that, “There is more power in his loin cloth than in all the guns in the British Army.”
The famous peace campaigner received a war medal for his service as a stretcher bearer during the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1902.
The Mahatma was tragically assassinated in 1948 by a Hindu extremist.
Gandhi’s great civil rights work commenced after an event which produced in him what he was to describe as a personal ‘awakening’.
In May 1893 he was thrown off a train in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, because of the colour of his skin.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
Louis XIV, known as the ‘Sun King’, is the most famous monarch in French history. What were just a few examples of his unusual reign?
Answer: Reigning for an incredible seventy two years, Louis built the most famous palace in the world, the magnificent Versailles. Although French philosopher Voltaire said it was ‘filled with human discomfort and misery’.
Fabulously wealthy, Louis greeted the Persian ambassador, Mohammed Reza Beg, at Versailles in February 1715 in magnificent black and gold garments covered with diamonds, worth 12.5 million livres, an astronomical amount. Louis later changed out of it, because it weighed so much.
In 1683 French explorer Rene Le Salle named what is now Louisiana after his monarch. Unimpressed, Louis said the discovery was ‘useless’ and ‘to be prevented in future’.
Louis hated forks but had a healthy appetite. At one meal he ate four platefuls of different soups, one pheasant, one partridge, a plateful of salad, garlicked mutton, two large slices of ham, pastry, fruit and sweetmeats.
For all his pomp and excesses, Louis was greatly admired for his administration and organisation skills in war, being able to put 200,000 trained men in the field, fully provisioned, including medical supplies.
Bathing then not being in vogue, a Russian diplomat to the French court, however, said Louis “stank like a wild animal”.
Source: The Royal Art of Poison – Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman; General Historical Texts
More at: History
Human interaction has involved both barbed words and perfumed oral exchanges. What role has flattery played in this broad canvas?
Answer: Dale Carnegie’s 1936 ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ has sold over thirty million copies and remains a best seller.
Carnegie said flattery was ‘insincere’, while appreciation was ‘sincere’, and ‘came from the heart’.
Nineteenth century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli was the notoriously prickly Queen Victoria’s favourite PM.
In addition to his maxim in regal relations of “I never deny nor contradict, but sometimes forget”, Disraeli said, “All of us like flattery. But with Royalty, you lay it on with a trowel.”
In 1792 Britain’s King George the third wrote to the Chinese emperor hoping to establish trade relations, saying he was “Worthy to live tens of thousands and tens of thousands thousand years, and admired by all surrounding nations.”
One of Joe Kennedy’s aides listened in to a telephone call the business titan made to President Franklin Roosevelt. At the start Kennedy called FDR “Mr President”. At the end he was calling him “Boy”.
1920s Hollywood screen siren Gloria Swanson was both the lover and client of Kennedy. Swanson discovered that the lavish gifts Kennedy bought for her were paid for out of her money.
When Swanson heard Kennedy had had a stroke in 1961, Swanson made the un-flattering remark “Good, I hope he suffers.”
Source: The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersch; Modern World Encyclopaedia; General Historical Texts
More at: History
November 2019
What is the story of the highly unusual death of Australian prime minister Harold Holt some 50 years ago?
Answer: Harold Holt succeeded Australia’s longest serving prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, in 1966.
Menzies, known as ‘Ming the Merciless’, said of Holt, “The trouble with Harold is that he wants to be liked by everyone“.
The affluent, silver haired Holt, who enjoyed spear fishing, was portrayed by the media as an ‘action man’ and photographed in a wetsuit at the beach with pretty young ladies in bikinis.
In parliament Holt could sometimes be seen practising holding his breath, so he could increase the time he could spend underwater pursuing fish.
Somewhat of a ladies man, Holt’s wife was to say of her husband, “he was a dangerous man to have around”.
In late December 1967 Holt went for a swim at a notoriously dangerous surf beach near his holiday home, while a lady friend watched from the shore.
Holt was to tragically disappear. Despite an extensive search by police and emergency services his body was never recovered.
Under relentless political pressure at the time, it has been suggested he was in very low spirits when he disappeared.
US president Lyndon Johnson was among the dignitaries who attended his funeral.
In Holt’s home city of Melbourne a new complex was later built and named ‘The Harold Holt Swim Centre’.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
What was one of the consequences for one of America’s most famous brand names as a result of the introduction of prohibition in January 1920 through the 18th amendment to the Constitution.
Answer: The price of the stock of the now famous black fizzy soft drink Coca-Cola doubled.
Source: Prohibition by Ken Burns
More at: History
Early 19th century British author Jane Austen was as one of the most famous writers of the past 200 years. Her books are still popular today and have been made into television series and movies. When she died in 1817, aged just 41, how much money has he made from her writing?
Answer: Just £800.
Source: 1815 by Stephen Bates
More at: History
What is the story of Henry V’s terrible battle injury he received aged just 16?
Answer: England’s Henry the fifth famously won the 1415 battle of Agincourt against the French.
Henry’s personal bravery was offset by his betrayal then of the rules of chivalry by summarily executing several hundred French noblemen.
Henry saw battle, and was to prove his bravery, as a teenager.
Aged sixteen, Prince Harry, as he was sometimes known, commanded a contingent against the Welsh at the 1403 Battle of Shrewsbury.
Facing a hail of arrows, Henry was struck in the face on the right side, just below the eye.
Fighting on until the battle was won, the shaft was later removed, leaving the arrowhead deeply embedded in Henry’s face.
The medieval doctors then had to decide how to remove the arrowhead.
John Bradmore, a London surgeon, gradually enlarged the wound with small probes. Using a specially made pair of tongs and a small screw he then wiggled and pulled the arrowhead out.
All this is pre-anesthetic days – the pain must have been excruciating.
The wound was cleaned with white wine, flax soaked in bread sops, barley honey and turpentine oil.
Prince Henry recovered fully but was left with a large scar.
Thus explaining why the only remaining contemporary portrait of Henry shows only the left side of his face.
Source: Henry V by Christopher Allmand; A History of England by Paul Johnson
History shows that we humans have not changed that much. What are some examples?
Answer: Graffiti discovered on the walls of Pompeii in Italy, written some two thousand years ago, outlined which tavern to avoid because of bad food, which business person could not be trusted and which individuals had a propensity to readily engage in physical intimacy.
The meditations of Ancient Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius are still relevant today. “Very little is needed to make a happy life,” he wrote, “it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking”.
First century Roman Emperor Augustus one evening dined at the home of a prominent Rome citizen and was served a very ordinary meal. On leaving, he said to his host, ‘I had not realized that I was such a close friend of yours.’
Self-control has been a perennial issue across the centuries.
Russian statesman and reformer Tsar Peter the Great declared, “I have conquered an empire, but have not been able to conquer myself.”
Then as now, childhood experiences can have an effect on individuals for the rest of their lives.
Eleventh century King Ethelred the Redeless of England had a lifelong fear of candles. Why?
As a child he was beaten with candles, when there was nothing else at hand.
Source: England: A Portrait by John Bowle; General Historical Texts.
More at: History
Over the years Vlad the Impaler has had a bit of a PR problem. Is this deserved?
Answer: Born in 1431, in Transylvania, today’s Romania, Vlad was a prince of Wallachia.
Royal life then, as now, had its ups and downs.
Vlad’s father was betrayed by Wallachian aristocrats and buried alive with his eldest son, when the teenage Vlad was a hostage of the Ottomans.
Indeed, Vlad spent 12 years in prison while his brother Radu became the Ottoman puppet leader in Wallachia.
History has many examples of the saying “revenge is a dish best served cold”. And Vlad was not a guy to forgive and forget.
He is said to be the model for the fictional character of Dracula. Vlad is believed to have loved blood as much as Dracula, except he didn’t drink it. He dipped bread in his victim’s blood to eat.
In 1462 Vlad had some 20,000 Turkish prisoners impaled on stakes. This was done to deter an Ottoman invasion.
In fact, so smitten with impaling was Vlad, that he enjoyed entertaining his banquet guests while watching unlucky victims sliding down sharpened spikes.
Upper limits on the Impaler’s atrocities put the death toll at around 100,000.
So, Vlad’s reputation is probably merited.
Source: Vlad the Impaler by M J Trow
More at: History
Human nature, of course, is quirky. This goes for business executives. What are some historical examples?
Answer: Henry Ford revolutionised mass production and made cheap cars available for tens of millions. Born four weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Ford believed he was the re-incarnation of an engineer Union soldier, who died on that terrible day.
Robert McNamara was Ford CEO before becoming US Secretary of Defence under President John Kennedy. He said that a Ford executive would know if he’d been sacked, if he arrived at work and discovered that his office furniture had been removed and chopped up.
A business magazine recently reported the case of the tech billionaire who slept in his office under his desk.
Richest man in the world Jean Paul Getty installed a pay phone in the guest wing of his vast English stately home, Sutton Place. He disliked being ripped off by guests making lengthy international phone calls.
Multi-billionaire and Apple computer creator Steve Jobs was no fan of exotic French cuisine. His idea of a good meal was a raw carrot.
At the turn of the last century, Renault was one of the largest car makers in Europe.
The founder, Louis Renault, would not employ men in his factories who had red hair.
Source: Ford: The Men and the Machine by Robert Lacey; The Fog of War by Robert McNamara; General Historical Texts
More at: History
The funeral of King William I of England (1028-1087) was a depressing spectacle in more ways than one. Why?
Answer: The obese William had died of an internal abscess that festered. This caused his corpse to explode during the funeral. The sight and smell unsurprisingly drove worshipers from the church.
Source: The Corpse – A History by Christine Quigley
More at: History
During the Russian Revolution of 1917, few expected power to fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks, one of several radical socialist parties. Abroad, the Bolsheviks were scarcely known. According to legend, how was the revolution greeted in the Austrian foreign office?
Answer: A bureaucrat rushed into the office of the Austrian Foreign Minister, shouting “Your Excellency, there has been a revolution in Russia!” The minister snorted. “Who could make a revolution in Russia? Surely not harmless Herr Trotsky, down at the Café Central?”
Source: Gulag – A History by Anne Applebaum
More at: History
Bede, also known as Saint Bede and Venerable Bede (672-735 CE) was an English Benedictine monk known for his religious and historical writings. Despite his considerable influence, Bede was not made a saint in the Roman Catholic Church for many years. How long after his death in 735 CE was it before he became a saint?
Answer: 1,164 years. Bede was made Saint in 1899.
Source: Encyclopedia of World Religions by Wendy Doniger et al.
More at: History
Englishman Thomas Brightfield was the first person to design what?
Answer: A flushing toilet. He did so in 1449.
Source: Sitting Pretty – An Uninhibited History of the Toilet by Julie L. Horan
More at: History
Which naval battle, fought between the French and the British in 1781, was largely responsible for the independence of British America?
Answer: The Battle of the Chesapeake (September 5, 1781). American historians sometimes describe it as the most important naval engagement in history. Fought between French and British fleets, the battle inflicted enough damage on Britain that they could not rescue the British and German soldiers under the command of General Cornwallis (1738-1805). This made the subsequent triumph at the Siege of Yorktown (October 19, 1781) almost a formality.
Source: In The Hurricanes Eye by Nathaniel Philbrick
More at: History
During the mediaeval era, the Spanish royal family engaged in an unusual practice when a royal family member was gravely ill. What was it?
Answer: When a member of the family was gravely ill, doctors would acquire saints’ relics, such as alleged body parts, and place them in bed with the patient. This was the result of the importance placed on saints in Spanish religious culture.
Source: Art and Death at the Spanish Habsburg Court by Steven N. Orso
More at: History
Which American senator was so influential in government that the press nicknamed him “General Manager of the Nation”?
Answer: Nelson Aldrich (1841-1915). A Republican senator from Rhode Island, Aldrich was heavily controlled by major corporations and is often cited as an example of the influence of big business in politics during the “Gilded Age” (1870s-1900).
Source: The Poison Squad – One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Deborah Blum
Sima Rangju was a Chinese general in the 5th century BCE. Little is known about Rangu other than his tendency to hand down harsh punishments for apparently trivial offences. What did Rangju do when a senior officer arrived late for a meeting?
Answer: He had him executed. He also once threatened another with execution for riding too fast through his military camp.
Source: The Art of War by Sun Tzu (translated by Peter Harris)
More at: History
British statesman Winston Churchill (1874-1965) famously drank huge quantities of alcohol. How did he handle going to the United States in 1932 during the prohibition era?
Answer: To ensure that he could continue drinking, he got a doctor’s prescription for an unlimited volume of alcohol.
Source: Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill by Barry Singer
More at: History
Hygiene in medieval Europe was incredibly poor. In 1671 English diplomat John Bradbury left for his post in Constantinople, today’s Istanbul. What “startling” discovery did he make while there?
Answer: Bradbury expressed his astonishment at the excessive “cleanliness of the Turks who, as they had occasion to make urine…afterwards washed their hands.”
Source: The Royal Art of Poison – Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman
More at: History
In the nineteenth century, beards became an increasingly common fashion accessory. This was partly due to doctors. Why?
Answer: Doctors prescribed beards to ward off illness. It was believed that the beard filtered out impurities. There may be some truth in this as recent studies have highlighted that beards are the repository of all manner of bacteria or, indeed, detritus.
Source: The Quintessential Grooming Guide by Peabody Fawcett
More at: History
Which U.S President is said to have been able to shake fifty hands every minute by employing his own signature handshake?
Answer: William McKinley (1843-1901). McKinley would grasp their right hand in his and squeeze it warmly, hold the man’s elbow with his left hand, and then swiftly pull the individual along to make ready for the next person. It became known as “the McKinley grip”.
Source: William McKinley by Laura Bufano Edge
More at: History
What was the name of the elite Viking warriors who went into battle without traditional armour, wearing instead bear or wolf skins?
Answer: Berserkers. These warriors were renowned for their strength and courage, though Viking commanders occasionally lamented their unpredictability on the battlefield. The word “berserk” has since now become part of the English language, denoting something wild or frenzied.
Source: The Age of the Vikings by Anders Winroth
More at: History
In 1663, English naval administrator and famed diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) attended a performance of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. What did he think of it?
Answer: He considered it “a silly play, and not related at all to the name or day.”
Source: The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys
More at: History
In mediaeval Europe, very few people washed regularly, and it was considered unhealthy to bathe. This was noticed by a Russian diplomat to the French court, who described French King Louis XIV the “Sun King” (1638-1715) as what?
Answer: The diplomat said Louis “stank like a wild animal”.
Source: The Royal Art of Poison – Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman
More at: History
In 1789, workers restoring St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, England, discovered what?
Answer: The remains of King Edward IV of England (1442-1483). No real attempt was made to take care of the remains, and indeed, members of the public visiting the tomb snipped off hair and souvenired bones.
Source: The Royal Art of Poison – Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman
More at: History
“His face,” wrote American journalist William Shirer, “had no particular expression at all — I expected it to be stronger — and for the life of me I could not quite comprehend what hidden springs he undoubtedly unloosened in the hysterical mob which was greeting him so wildly.” Who is Shirer describing?
Answer: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Shirer came away disappointed after seeing Hitler in September 1934 at the Nuremberg rally.
Source: Hitler – Ascent, 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich
More at: History
In 1746, the heads of two executed Jacobites were placed on spikes at Temple Bar, London. What happened next?
Answer: The heads rotted and remained there for over twenty-five years. It wasn’t until 1772 that the skulls eventually fell into the street.
Source: History Without The Boring Bits – A Curious Chronology of the World by Ian Crofton
More at: History
April 1772 saw the death of a famous goat. Why was it so well-known?
Answer: The goat had circumnavigated the world twice. Her first voyage had been as a passenger aboard British Captain Wallis’s Dolphin (1764-1768), followed by Captain Cook’s Endeavour (1768-1771).
Source: History Without The Boring Bits – A Curious Chronology of the World by Ian Crofton
More at: History
According to Ancient Greek physician Galen (129-200 CE), a diet of cabbage and water mixed with wine was the cure for what condition?
Answer: A hangover.
Source: Epidemics in Context by Peter E. Pormann
More at: History
A thousand years before it was supposedly invented by the Ancient Greeks, which civilisation discovered trigonometry?
Answer: The Ancient Babylonians. Not only were the Babylonians practising trigonometry, but they also did so in a way more advanced than our modern-day understanding.
Source: The Best Writing on Mathematics of 2018 by Mircea Pitici
More at: History
Which famous empire, one of the largest ever seen, was also one of the most unstable – existing in a full and relatively stable form for only two years?
Answer: The Macedonian Empire. It attained its greatest extent in 325 BCE with the invasion of the Indus valley by King Alexander the Great (356 – 23 BCE). But it began to collapse in 323 BCE, following Alexander’s sudden and unforeseen death.
Source: Ghost on the Throne – The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire by James Room
More at: History
The term “kleptomania”, the conpulsion to steal, was first developed in the 1860s. Why?
Answer: The term was initially used to describe petty thefts committed by members of the middle and upper classes. Traditional words to describe this conduct, such as robbery or theft, appeared to only apply when such offences were committed by the poor.
Source: Crime and Society in England, 1750 – 1900 by Clive Emsley
More at: History
October 2019
Which famous scholar used the writings of his opponents as toilet paper?
Answer: Martin Luther (1483-1546). Luther read enough of his opponents work to know how to react, and then used the rest as toilet paper.
Source: Martin Luther – A Spiritual Biography by Herman Selderhuis
More at: History
“You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.” Who is speaking, and who are they addressing?
Answer: U.S. President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). Jackson is attacking a delegation of bankers during the discussions to recharter the Second Bank of the United States in 1832.
Source: The American Political Tradition and the Men who Made it by Richard Hofstadter
More at: History
When the future William I (1028-1087) landed in England in 1066 ahead of his famous conquest, his foot slipped as he descended from his ship, and he fell with both his hands on the ground. Those present considered it a bad omen. How is William said to have responded?
Answer: “By the splendour of God,” he cried, “I have taken seize of my Kingdom, the earth of England with both my hands!”
Source: The History of the Norman Conquest of England – Its Causes and Its Results by Edward Augustus Freeman
More at: History
Which siege, the longest in British history, took place from 1779 to 1783?
Answer: The Siege of Gibraltar. For three and a half years the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded, on land and at sea, by the forces of Spain and France. Some historians claim that British obsession with saving Gibraltar resulted in the loss of the American colonies in the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
Source: Gibraltar – The Greatest Siege in British History by Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins
More at: History
Between June 1935 and March 1937, all restaurants in the American state of Wisconsin were required to do what?
Answer: Serve free cheese with every meal. The cheese had to be made in Wisconsin and was an attempt to revive the local economy.
Source: Taste of the Nation – The New Deal Search for America’s Food by Camille Begin
More at: History
“We are not merely risking a tactical defeat … we are putting the whole works on one number.” What is being described, and by who?
Answer: The imminent D-day landings as described by Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969). Before the landings, there was precious little optimism among Eisenhower and his most senior generals.
Source: The First Wave – The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II by Alex Kershaw
More at: History
In 1900, the American National Irrigation Congress assessed a small agricultural town of some 100,000 residents, assessing that it had “no future” as anything larger. What city were they assessing?
Answer: Los Angeles, California. At this time LA was the thirty-sixth largest city in the nation.
Source: The Mirage Factory by Gary Krist
More at: History
“We can scarcely take up a newspaper…that is not filled with nauseating flatteries…it would seem that the soldier who kills the most men in battle, even in a bad cause, is entitled to the highest place in heaven.” What is African-American leader Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) describing?
Answer: The tributes paid on the death of former Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1807-1870). Douglass struggled to understand the affection American society had for Lee.
Source: Robert E. Lee – A Life by Roy Blount, Jr.
More at: History
There was no English word for the colour orange until 450 years ago. True or false?
Answer: True. Before the late sixteenth century, the sight of orange was instead described as geoulhread, essentially the word yellow-red. This was the only way to describe the colour for around a thousand years.
Source: On Color by David Kastan and Stephen Farthing
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What 1941 event did Nazi German field marshal Gerd von Rundstedt (1875-1953) later describe as “one of the turning points” of the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: The Battle of Dunkirk (1940). Specifically, von Rundstedt is referring to the decision of the German army to halt their advance on Dunkirk, granting the crucial time required for 330,000 Allied soldiers to be rescued. The reason for the halt is still debated to this day.
Source: The Miracle of Dunkirk by Walter Lord
More at: History
Reverend Thomas Bayes (1701-1761) was a nonconformist minister from Tonbridge Wells, England. He was, however, a pioneer in another field. What was it?
Answer: Probability theory. Despite the hugely influential Bayes’ probability theorem being named after him, Bayes died with no knowledge whatsoever of his enduring legacy. Not only was his seminal paper published posthumously in 1763, but his name also did not become associated with this approach until the twentieth century.
Source: The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter
More at: History
Who was the luckiest person on the Titanic?
Answer: Karl Dahl, a 45-year old Norwegian joiner travelling on his own in third class. Of those who survived, Dahl was statistically the least likely to do so, based on his age, gender and travel class. Dahl apparently dived into the freezing water and clambered onto a lifeboat, despite some on the lifeboat trying to push him back.
Source: The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter
More at: History
“In all his stature he towers over Europe and Asia, over the past and the future. This is the most famous and at the same time the most unknown person in the world.” Who is French novelist Henri Barbusse (1873-1935) describing?
Answer: Soviet leader Josef Stalin (1878-1953).
Source: Stalin – Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 by Stephen Kotkin
More at: History
Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842), a French army surgeon, holds what unusual record?
Answer: Larrey is said to hold the record for performing the most amputations during a battle. At the Battle of the Sierra Negra (1794), he is said to have performed 700 amputations in four days – the equivalent of one amputation every four minutes.
Source: Under the Knife, A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations by Arnold van de Laar
More at: History
What now common medical practice, first used in the United States in 1846, was branded in Britain as “Yankee humbug” until Queen Victoria (1819-1901) intervened in 1853?
Answer: Anaesthesia. British medical officers had considered it only suitable for quacks not talented enough to operate quickly, but attitudes changed after Victoria benefited from anaesthesia when giving birth. “That blessed chloroform, soothing, quieting and delightful beyond measure,” Victoria wrote in her diary.
Source: Under the Knife, A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations by Arnold van de Laar
More at: History
On 14 July 1789, the Bastille, the state prison in Paris, was stormed in one of the most famous events in history. The event, which sparked the French Revolution, was to radically alter the future of France and indeed Europe. What did French monarch King Louis XVI (1754-1793) write in his diary that day?
Answer: Louis entered one word in his diary: “Nothing”. Little did he know that this day would lead to his execution and that of his wife within a few years.
Source: Modern Revolution by Daniel Brook
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During the Second World War (1939-1945), who was “Unsinkable Sam”?
Answer: A ship’s cat famous for his uncanny ability to survive at sea. He was discovered among the wreckage of the German battleship Bismarck and was dubbed “Unsinkable Sam” after he survived the destruction of yet another ship, the HMS Cossack. His final service was on the HMS Ark Royal which also fell victim to German torpedoes, yet Unsinkable Sam survived once again and was retired to Gibraltar.
Source: The World’s Oceans- Geography, History, and Environment by Rainer F. Buschmann and Lance Nolde
More at: History
In 1878, the town of Snowflake, Arizona was founded. Why was this name chosen?
Answer: It was named after the towns two founders: Erasmus Snow and William Flake.
Source: Electrifying the Rural American West – Stories of Power, People, and Place by Leah S. Glaser
More at: History
Who was the last U.S. President to boycott the inauguration of his successor?
Answer: John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), who did not attend the inauguration of his successor Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). Jackson prevailed in the highly contentious 1828 Presidential Election, and Adams considered Jackson an unprincipled, unscrupulous demagogue.
Source: John Quincy Adams by Robert V. Remini
More at: History
The English physician Jonathan Goddard (1617-1675) developed his own cocktail to treat hangovers. What was the recipe for the so called “Goddard’s Drops”?
Answer: Dried viper, ammonia and the skull of a person who had recently been hanged. Unsurprisingly, the cocktail did not catch on.
Source: Dictionary of National Biography by Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee
More at: History
What is believed to be responsible for nearly half of all deaths in human history?
Answer: The mosquito. The flying insect has determined the fates of nations and crucial battles and killed nearly half of humanity. Of the 108 billion humans to have existed, mosquitos have resulted in the death of an estimated 52 billion of them.
Source: The Mosquito – A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator by Timothy C. Winegard
More at: History
As the game of billiards became more popular in the 1800s, balls began to be made of newly-discovered celluloid instead of ivory. What went wrong?
Answer: The celluloid was liable to burst into flames. Celluloid billiard balls were regularly set on fire by contact with the embers of burning cigars.
Source: Literature in the First Media Age by David Trotter
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One of the reasons why Winston Churchill is revered in not just Britain but around the world was due to his view on the role of politicians. What was this?
Answer: In a speech in the British House of Commons in November 1947 Churchill said that “public opinion should shape, guide and control the actions of ministers who are their servants and not their masters.”
Source: British House of Commons archive
Sports fans understandably become impassioned by the performance of their teams. But what was the tragic result of an unpopular decision by the referee at a May 1964 soccer match in Lima, Peru, between Peru and Argentina?
Answer: The decision caused a riot which saw 300 killed and 500 injured. It was the worst such disaster in sporting history.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
Are there any theories as to how a brutal dictator is created?
Answer: Clint Eastwood as ‘Dirty Harry’ delivered the memorable line, “Opinions are like bottoms – everybody has one”.
Actually, we cleaned that up a bit.
Here’s an opinion on how to make a brutal dictator, based on two infamous examples.
Web-toed Soviet premier Joseph Stalin loved having people executed and his policies caused the death of millions.
One testicled German leader Adolf Hitler started World War Two which brought death and destruction to tens of millions.
What do these twentieth century mass murderers have in common?
Both had adoring mothers and brutal fathers. So, here’s our hypothesis.
The mother adores the baby dictator for everything they do and – going forward – instils in them the big ‘thumbs up’.
What did famed medical doctor and father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud say? “If a child receives unconditional love from its mother it can go through life being – wait for it – ‘a conqueror’”.
Their father shows them how to be a man. For Stalin and Hitler, an appallingly brutish one. Regular beatings and general cruelty.
Because of this terrible brutality, there also could be a fair bit of wanting to get back at the world by the fledgling dictators, but we don’t want to over sauce the theory too much.
Source: The Origins of the Second World War by A J P Taylor; General Historical Texts.
On an official visit to New Zealand in 1953, Queen Elizabeth II’s engagements were postponed due to the tragedy of the Christmas Eve Whangaehu Bridge disaster. What were the circumstances of this?
Answer: The Whangaehu River bridge collapsed beneath the Wellington to Auckland express passenger train at Tangiwai, in the central North Island of New Zealand. The locomotive and first six carriages derailed into the river killing 151 people. The disaster was even more tragic as the train was crowded with people going home for Christmas.
Source: Tangiwai disaster and 30 other railway accidents in New Zealand by Graham Stewart
More at: History
What was the remarkable story of US 1920s American sports superstar and cultural icon Gertrude Ederle?
Answer: From a young age Gertrude Ederle was passionate about swimming, which she learned at the local public pool and the New Jersey beach on summer holidays.
She was a gold medallist at the 1924 Paris Olympics. The American team won ninety nine gold medals and also included Johnny Weissmuller, who later gained Hollywood fame as ‘Tarzan’.
In 1926 Ederle set out to swim the English channel, which had only been done five times previously, all by men. Indeed, she had been told that women could not achieve such a feat.
Her time of fourteen and a half hours was two hours better than the fastest man.
Newspaper reports at the time said that during the swim her trainer became so concerned about the rough seas he called out to her, “Gertie, you must come out!” Ederle lifted her head from the choppy waters and replied, “What for?”
The first person allegedly to greet her was a British immigration officer who wanted to see her passport.
For several years America’s ‘Queen of the Waves’ was a sports superstar and cultural icon on a par with Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh.
Ederle, whose hearing was permanently damaged during her Channel swim triumph, later became a swimming instructor for deaf children.
Source: America’s Girl by Tim Dahlberg; General Historical Texts
The mining industry has contributed enormously to the advancement of the human situation. But it is a hazardous industry where accidents are not infrequent. What was the worst mining disaster ever?
Answer: An explosion at the Honkeiko colliery in Manchuria, China, on April 26, 1942 caused the death of 1,549.
Source Modern World Encyclopedia
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Mohandas K Gandhi is revered in the history of India for his role in securing independence for the country. He trained as a lawyer in London and came to be known as Mahatma meaning ‘great soul’ and also ‘Bapu’, father to his followers. His great civil rights work commenced after an event which produced in him what he was to describe as a personal ‘awakening’. What was this?
Answer: In May 1893 he was thrown off a train in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, because of the colour of his skin.
Source: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi
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The application of make-up by humans has occurred for centuries. What are some of the historical features of this?
Answer: Some 2,000 years ago the ancient Babylonians painted their faces with lead to produce a pale look. 18th century Italian women used the poison arsenic to make their complexion white. At around the same time blood drawing leeches were applied by French women to produce the same light effect.
Source: Classic Beauty: The History of Makeup by Gabriela Hernandez
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With over four hundred varieties today, the French have enjoyed cheese for centuries. But are they, in the words of the quirky Simpsons’ character Groundskeeper Willie, also “surrender monkeys”?
Answer: The 1066 Battle of Hastings resulted in the French, in essence, conquering all of England. So, no surrender there.
A few centuries later, Joan of Arc, aged 18, led the French army to victory, again over the English.
The French have been staunch and unwavering allies of the United States. The 1781 Battle of Yorktown won the Americans the Revolutionary War. But the victory would have never been if not for massive support from the French.
Napoleon was one of the greatest generals, fighting some sixty battles for France and losing only eight.
The 1856 Treaty of Paris concluded the Crimean war, with again no French surrender.
Of the one hundred and twenty five European wars fought since 1495, France was involved in fifty – more than Austria and England.
Over the centuries, out of the one hundred and sixty eight battles France has fought, it’s won one hundred and nine, lost forty nine and “drawn” ten.
According to Harvard historian Neil Ferguson, which country is the most successful military power in European history?
That’s right, France.
Source: The Cash Nexus by Niall Ferguson; The Simpsons’ episode Round Springfield, written by Ken Keeler; General Historical Texts
September 2019
Famed 19th century Boston politician Edward Everett is remembered as the man whose November 1863 speech before Lincoln’s at Gettysburg has largely been forgotten. His brilliance shone across a range of political spheres which included: five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives; four terms as Massachusetts governor; four years as ambassador to England; Secretary of State and one term as a U.S. senator. His coruscating career got off to a good start at college. How so?
Answer: Everett graduated from Harvard at the age of 17, receiving the highest honours in spite of being the youngest member of his class.
Source: History of America by Paul Johnson
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London’s Pall Mall is famous for the number of its discreet gentleman’s clubs. Founded in 1824, The Athenaeum is one of these. The famous, rich and successful have been among it members. But what is one of the more remarkable aspects of its membership roll?
Answer: Its members include no fewer than 52 Nobel Prize winners.
Source: The Athenaeum Club
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The guillotine was the official instrument of state execution in France until 1977. It was invented by a Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. Why?
Answer: The doctor lived during the French revolution which commenced in 1789. He was so sickened by the way people were executed that he devised a quicker method, to save people’s suffering. Introduced in 1792, Guillotin was appalled that the grisly beheading device was named after him and the fact that it speeded up the rate of killings during the reign of terror from 10 to 300 per week.
Source: The French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert; General Historical Texts
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Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone with the Wind’ is, for many people, the greatest novel ever written. With its story of the ‘Old South’, warts and all, during the American Civil War, it became a 1940 global blockbuster movie, still popular today. Mitchell was meticulous in her historical research in producing the one-thousand-page book, written over a decade. It provides an insight into mid nineteenth century Southern society. Especially as regards how genteel, well brought up ladies should behave around gentlemen. How so?
Answer: In one scene the heroine Scarlett O’Hara receives a gift, a green bonnet, from the scoundrel hero Rhett Butler, who has just returned from Paris. Scarlet ruminates on what she has been told a lady may receive from a gentleman. Flowers, candy or perhaps a book of poetry is fine, but nothing else that might suggest over familiarity.
Nothing expensive, even from one’s fiancé. And never any gift of jewellery or wearing apparel, not even gloves or handkerchiefs. Should you accept such gifts, Scarlett remembers, men would know you were no lady and would try to take liberties.
Source: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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UK politician Sir Nicholas Soames was the grandson of famed World War Two British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill. Soames has said that when he was a small boy he was unaware of his grandfather’s significance. He recounted how, when aged five, he once visited Churchill in his bedroom, where he was working, and asked him: “Grandpapa, is it true that you are the greatest man in the world?” What was Churchill’s response?
Answer: Churchill replied: “Yes, now bugger off.”
Source: The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History by Boris Johnson
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Canadian First Nations soldier Francis Pegahmagabow was one of 39 men to win the Canadian Military Medal and two bars for valour in World War I. What were his deeds that earned him such honours?
Answer: Pegahmagabow was a sniper and a scout credited with 378 confirmed kills and over 300 confirmed captures in Europe from his deployment in 1914 to the war’s end. He also used a rather unreliable Ross rifle to take down his targets. A member of the Wasauksing First Nation, he carried a pouch of medicine – personal items involved in First Nations spiritual rituals – for good luck, which he believed made him invincible.
Source: Sabaton History Channel, General Historical Texts
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“The ignoble will rule the noble and baseness will be preferred before virtue, profaneness before piety…we shall burn our houses, lay waste our own fields, pillage our own goods, open our own veins and eat our own bowels.” What shocking prediction is being made by MP Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-1675) in the English parliament in July 1642?
Answer: Whitelocke is predicting what will happen if England descends into civil war. He claimed that the outcome would be so terrible that “few of us here now may live to see the end of it”. England did descend into civil war later that year.
Source: The English Civil War by Peter Gaunt
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Famed author Jane Austen (1775-1817) would relax after a long day writing by playing a game called “bilbocatch”. What was it?
Answer: A bilbocatch comprised a wooden handle with a pierced ball attached by a string. Not only did Austen play, but she was renowned as a fine player. According to one account, she was known to have caught the ball more than 100 times in succession, until her arm ached.
Source: Jane Austen and Leisure by David Selwyn
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The British Avro Lancaster was one of the most successful bombers of the Second World War (1939-1945). Its success was far from guaranteed however. Why?
Answer: Its predecessor in design, the Avro Manchester, was a noted failure. The Manchester had unreliable engines and its production was halted in 1941 after little over a year. The Manchester was redesigned into a highly effective four-engined heavy bomber however, which later became known as the Lancaster.
Source: The Avro Manchester – The Legend Behind the Lancaster by Robert Kirby
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Some pretty nasty things have been said about the last king of Bavaria, Ludwig II. Namely, that he was mad. How so?
Answer: Ludwig was infatuated with German composer Richard Wagner and wanted to give up his throne to become his fulltime assistant and admirer.
Known as the ‘Swan King’ for commissioning the famous, breathtakingly beautiful, Neuschwanstein castle, which has adorned numerous chocolate boxes, and is known by all Walt Disney fans.
Built in the mid to later 19th century, it was remarkable for it’s old Germanic architecture and the fact that it resembles something more out of medieval Europe, even though it had modern facilities such as flushing toilets and hot air central heating.
Spending more money than he had – royalty often don’t have the mind of cost accountants – and borrowing heavily, the elaborate venture almost bankrupted Ludwig.
Ludwig died in unusual and still mysterious circumstances. His rampant spending caused him to be declared insane and in 1886 his body and that of his psychiatrist was dragged from Bavaria’s Lake Starnberg.
Ludwig’s cousin, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, perhaps should be given the last word on the Bavarian monarch.
“He is not mad enough to be locked up,” she said, “but too abnormal to manage comfortably in the world with reasonable people.”
Source: A History of Modern Germany by Hajo Holborn; General Historical Texts
Which invention, common in shopping malls and department stores across the world, was introduced to the public for the first time at the Paris Exposition of 1900?
Answer: The escalator. It had first been patented in 1892.
Source: The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates by Gorton Carruth
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“I endured such hardship and misery. I had no realm and no hope of any realm. I had had all I could take of homelessness and alienation.” Which powerful medieval leader is discussing his early struggles to succeed?
Answer: Babur (1483-1530), the founder and first Emperor of the Mughal dynasty in South Asia. Babur struggled early in life and repeatedly nearly died from illness or battle. If Babur had died, it may have resulted in the Mughal Empire, the powerful Empire which built the Taj Mahal, never existing.
Source: A Short History of the Mughal Empire by Michael Fisher
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In 1621, the fledging Jamestown colony in North America imported what, at a cost of 150 lbs of tobacco each?
Answer: Women. The male-dominated colony sought wives for the planters of its new colony.
Source: The Jamestown Brides – The Bartered Wives of the New World
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Lord Nelson is Britain’s greatest naval hero who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. But there is confusion as to the exact circumstances of his final moments. How so?
Answer: In a city filled with grand monuments, London’s Trafalgar square, with its Nelson’s column, celebrates England’s greatest naval hero.
Blinded in one eye and one armed, the three stripes on a Royal navy sailor’s uniform today signify Lord Horatio Nelson’s great victories – Copenhagen, the Nile and Trafalgar.
Small in stature, Nelson got seasick, a fact which endeared him more to his men.
At his greatest and last victory at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, despite being advised to wear a plain coat, Nelson was resplendent in gold braided admiral’s uniform abounding with brightly coloured medals and honours. Thus presenting an attractive target for the French sniper who shot him.
As he lay dieing below deck, his flag captain, Thomas Hardy, kissed him, on the basis that Nelson had said “kiss me Hardy”. Others have claimed he actually said ‘kismet’, the Arab word for ‘fate’.
When news of the victory reached England, King George the third reeled between elation at the French being defeated, thus ending fears of invasion, and shock at the death of the national hero.
If Nelson had lived, he would’ve been made a duke, like his predecessor Marlborough and successor Wellington. Instead, his brother was made an earl and given a great deal of money.
Source: Nelson by Tom Pocock; General Historical Texts
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Eustace the Monk (1170-1217) was a notorious privateer and pirate, who served the kings of both England and France at different times. He finally met his fate on August 24 1217 at the Battle of Sandwich when English settlers boarded his vessel and killed him. What happened next?
Answer: Wild celebrations ensued, and Eustace’s head was put on a spike and paraded through the streets of the town of Sandwich.
Source: Pirates- a New History, from Vikings to Somali Raiders by Peter Lehr
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During the Second World War (1939-1945), what were the Baedeker raids (April-May 1942)?
Answer: German bombing raids targeting British cities for their picturesque and historic value, rather than military significance. The towns targeted, such as Bath and Exeter, were all included in the German Baedeker tourist guide and were instigated as a response to the British bombing of the historic German town of Lubeck in March 1942.
Source: The Routledge Atlas of the Second World War by Martin Gilbert
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The British Empire agreed only one formal alliance with another country in the years between 1815 and 1914. Who with?
Answer: Japan. Contrary to popular belief, this is the only formal alliance British had on the commencement of the First World War (1914-1918). Throughout the war Japan aided Britain’s defence of its shipping interests.
Source: The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895- Perceptions, Power, and Primacy by S.C.M Paine
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Between 605 and 609 CE, what was extended to finally link the Yellow River to the Yangtze?
Answer: The Grand Canal. It had been centuries in the making and the extension took several million slaves five years to construct. It was a major achievement of the Chinese Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE) and remains the world’s largest man-made waterway.
Source: Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
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American author John Steinbeck (1902-1968) once had half of his original manuscript for “Of Mice and Men” destroyed. How?
Answer: His puppy chewed it and “made confetti of it”. Steinbeck remarked “I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically.”
Source: Conversations with John Steinbeck by Thomas Fensch
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According to Roman chronicler Tacitus (56-120 CE), who was the only Roman emperor to improve his abilities and talents after becoming emperor?
Answer: Vespasian (9-79 CE). He is renowned as a reforming emperor, especially in the rule of law.
Source: Oxford Readings in Tacitus by Rhiannon Ash
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British King George IV (1762-1830) got so drunk on his wedding night that he what?
Answer: Passed out on his floor in front of the fireplace. His new wife apparently left him there for most of the night.
Source: The Court at Windsor – A Domestic History by Christopher Hibbert
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“The causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time and accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight.” What is being described by famed British historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)?
Answer: The decline of the Roman Empire. Gibbon considered that the Roman Empire’s expansion was the grounds for its eventual collapse.
Source: The Decline, Revival and Fall of the British Empire by John Gallagher
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Timothy Dexter (1748-1806) was a noted British eccentric who faked his own death in 1806. A funeral was held to mark his “death”. What happened?
Answer: Dexter secretly attended the funeral. He is then said to have caned his wife for not crying enough during the service. Ironically, Dexter actually died later that year.
Source: It Ended Badly – Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History by Jennifer Wright
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The eighteenth century saw a huge growth in the role of women in academic and literary life, even if women being published remained a rarity. Between 1750 and 1759, there were only 28 English women with works in print. How many were there in the period 1790-1799?
Answer: 161, a growth of over six times. Works covered politics, fiction and education.
Source: The Other Enlightenment by Carla Hesse
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Pioneering journalist Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was so inspired by Jules Verne’s 1873 novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” that she did what?
Answer: She completed the challenge herself but did it in just 72 days – a new world record.
Source: Around the World in Seventy-Two Days by Nellie Bly
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The 1860s saw the opening of the Suez Canal, the Union Pacific Railway and the accelerated introduction of iron screw steamers. Why was this so important in terms of global relationships?
Answer: These developments meant that it was possible – in theory – to travel around the world in a tenth of the time it would have taken a decade earlier.
Source: The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
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“No man ever went with good intentions”. So declared British writer Horace Walpole (1717-1797) in 1783. What is Walpole referring to?
Answer: Men who served in the British East India company. While the remark could not have been made fifty or one hundred years later, in the late 1700’s many of his British contemporaries went to India with the intention of making a fortune or retrieving one they had squandered.
Source: The British in India – Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience by David Glimour
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Henry of Champagne (1166-1197) was ruler of Jerusalem from 1192 to 1197. According to legend, how did he die?
Answer: By one of his servants landing on him. Henry fell from the first-floor window of his palace in Acre. A servant tried to stop Henry falling, but in doing so also fell and landed on top of him, killing Henry in the process.
Source: Walking to Jerusalem by Justin Butcher
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The Hitler Youth, the youth wing of the Nazi party, declared what common substance “poison in every form and in every strength”?
Answer: Caffeine. As a result, the Hitler Youth only drank decaffeinated coffee – and this was strictly regulated.
Source: The Nazi War on Cancer by Robert N. Proctor
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Which sport was invented following requests by staff at a YCMA training school for a healthy indoor game that could be played in a restrictive area?
Answer: Basketball. The game was developed by James A. Naismith (1861-1939) in December 1891, with the first public game being played on March 11, 1892.
Source: The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates by Gorton Carruth
More at: History
August 2019
During the Second World War (1939-1945), Allied pilots developed an ingenious way of combating the Nazi V1 flying bombs. What was it?
Answer: Pilots found that they could throw them of course by placing a wing of their aircraft under one of the V1’s short stubby wings and deftly flipping the flying bomb over. This approach was incredibly dangerous, relying on precision discipline and flight control from pilots.
Source: The RAF’s French Foreign Legion by G.H. Bennett
More at: History
“The force with which these weapons threw stones and darts made them hurt several at a time, and the violent noise of the stones that were cast by the engines were so great … no body of men could be so strong as not to be overthrown.” What is being described?
Answer: The ballista, a Roman siege weapon. The description is from Romano-Jewish chronicler Josephus (37-100 CE).
Source: Artillery- An Illustrated History of Its Impact by Jeff Kinard
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In 19th century America, thousands assembled to cheer and bet on what unusual competition?
Answer: Typesetting. Teams would compete to see who could set metal type fastest. Competitions took place in Chicago, Boston, New York and others, with winners taking home purses as high as $1,000 – at a time when a competitor’s weekly wage was around $30.
Source: The Swifts – Printers in the Age of Typesetting Races by Walker Rumble
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Why was the Japanese Mitsubishi G4M Betty aircraft, operating during the Second World War (1939-1945), nicknamed “the flying cigar”?
Answer: Due to its cylindrical shape and tendency to catch fire easily. A Betty was vulnerable to attack because they had no explosion-proof fuel tanks. Once hit by anti-aircraft fire, they lit up.
Source: The Smithsonian Book of Air & Space Trivia by Amy Pastan
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Famed writer Samuel Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, is celebrated as America’s greatest humourist. He was, however, an unfortunate example of not sticking with what you’re good at. How so?
Answer: Clemens’ pen name comes from his early work on Mississippi river boats where ‘mark twain’ was an indicator of river depth.
The author of over 20 books, his most famous are perhaps ‘Tom Sawyer’, ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’.
Not happy with wealth and fame as an author, Twain sought to be an entrepreneur, with terrible results.
He invented a board game, ‘Mark Twain’s Memory-Builder, for Acquiring and Retaining Facts and Dates’. It was, however, too complex and a commercial failure.
He invested in a new type of printer which, instead of bringing him more riches, made him bankrupt, aged 59. He paid off his debts and restored much of his fortune through a lengthy and demanding international lecture tour.
Twain was born in 1835, when Halley’s Comet came close to the Earth.
It was forecast to come about again in 1910. Twain said in 1909, “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. Its coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.” Which indeed he did.
Source: General Historical Texts; Mark Twain by Ken Burns
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In the year 397 CE, a law from Ancient Rome banned what?
Answer: The wearing of trousers or boots. In 416 CE, long hair and fur garments were also banned. Both bans were attempts to counter the growing German influence on fashions in Rome.
Source: Medieval Religion and Technology – Collected Essays by Lynn Townsend White
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The Persian proverb “either the throne, or the coffin” defined the brutal wars of succession that regularly took place between brothers in which South Asian imperial dynasty?
Answer: The Mughal Empire. It was not uncommon for two, three or even four brothers to fight brutal conflicts lasting years over the succession – even when their emperor father remained alive.
Source: India in the Persianate Age 1000-1765 by Richard M. Eaton
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According to historian Andrew McConnell Stott, what eighteenth century event helped cement the “genius” status of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), even though it itself was a failure?
Answer: The Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769. Three thousand people descended on Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, to celebrate Shakespeare’s life and legacy – an event that transformed Shakespeare from cultural icon to the secular saint of English literature. The event famously suffered several mishaps, including constant rain, suspicious locals and flash flooding.
Source: What Blest Genius? The Jubilee That Made Shakespeare by Andrew McConnell Stott
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Which French artist began his career as a stockbroker in Paris, painting on the weekends, when aged 35 he left his job, his wife, and his five children, in order to devote himself to painting full-time?
Answer: Paul Gauguin (1848-1903).
Source: Dead Ends by David Cross and Robert Bent
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Australia was first circumnavigated in 1803. What theory did this disprove?
Answer: The popular theory of the time that Australia was in fact a set of small islands.
Source: The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates by Gorton Carruth
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In 1900, future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was campaigning when one of those he approached exclaimed “Vote for you? Why, I’d rather vote for the Devil!” What was Churchill’s response?
Answer: “I understand”, Churchill answered, “but in case your friend is not running, may I count on your support?”
Source: The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill by Dominique Enright
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In 68 AD, Vindex (25-68 CE), governor of a Gaulish territory, rebelled against Roman emperor Nero (37-68 CE). Vindex bombarded Nero with insulting edicts that Nero ignored except for one, which outraged him. What was the insult?
Answer: Vindex accused Nero of playing the lyre badly. The lyre was a string instrument similar to a harp. Nero was outraged, claiming that this slur was so preposterous that it proved his other insults must be lies. He subsequently offered a reward of 10 million sesterces for the head of Vindex.
Source: Nero by Edward Champlin
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What was banned by the then English king in 1314 because it was making too much noise?
Answer: Football, or soccer. King Edward II (1284-1327) issued a proclamation that ‘there is great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls from which many evils may arise which God forbid’.
Source: Everyday Life in Medieval London – From the Anglo-Saxons to the Tudors by Toni Mount
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The Monroe Doctrine, first articulated in 1823, was a United States’ policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas. Why was this so significant in the early history of the US?
Answer: In this bold statement, the US government was both proclaiming its independence on the world stage and establishing a foreign policy principle that remains today.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
What exactly was the infamous Bubonic Plague?
The Bubonic Plague, known also as the Black Death, which broke out in the 1340s, wiped out perhaps a third of Europe’s population.
The would be equivalent to killing perhaps 300 million today.
The nursery rhyme ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’ has a disturbing historical origin. The ‘ring o’ roses’ refers to the red scarring caused by the disease. The ‘pocket full of posies’ denotes the flowers carried to hide the terrible smell that came from the sick and the dead.
Remarkably, Iceland, on the fringe of the Arctic, was also badly hit by the pandemic. Before the plague, its population had been about 80,000. If it mirrored the experience of Europe, its population would have been reduced by around one third also.
It was not until 1900, over five centuries later, that Iceland returned to this 80,000 population level.
At a time when ignorance and superstition were prevalent, one of the more rational beliefs about dealing with the scourge was the idea of burning contaminated clothes, which may have had some foundation in fact.
The main agent, however, for the spread of the disease was the rat flea.
The reduced population led to increased wages and may have been behind England’s peasants’ revolt of 1381.
Source: A History of England by Paul Johnson; General Historical Texts
More at: History
The Arado AR234 Blitz was a Nazi German jet-powered reconnaissance aircraft and bomber. Its first combat mission took place in August 1944, too late to influence the Second World War (1939-1945), but an earlier introduction would have had a massive impact. Why?
Answer: The AR234 was so fast that it was virtually impossible for enemy aircraft to intercept. On its first mission taking place after the Allied D-Day landings, it collected more intelligence in two hours than the entire Luftwaffe had obtained in the two months since the landings. An AR234 was also responsible for the collapse of the crucial Remagen bridge over the Rhine in March 1945.
Source: The Smithsonian Book of Air & Space Trivia by Amy Pastan
More at: History
The opening in 1869 of the 105 mile long Suez Canal – the ‘Path Between the Seas’ – had brought Europe 5,800 miles closer to India. What was one of the other remarkable features of this engineering marvel?
Answer: Africa had been made an island at a stroke.
Source: The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough
More at: History
French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1884-1923) was a household name and considered by many to be among the best actresses ever. She was a unique figure however and famously spent the last years of her life sleeping in what?
Answer: A coffin. While the exact reasons Bernhardt slept in the coffin are unclear, allegedly she claimed doing so helped her better understand her tragic roles.
Source: Morbid Curiosity – The Disturbing Demises of the Famous and Infamous by Alan W. Petrucelli
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“It is no more than five hundred ordinary men chosen at random from amongst the unemployed.” What is British prime minister and statesman David Lloyd George (1863-1945) discussing?
Answer: The unelected British House of Lords, to which Lloyd George regularly clashed.
Source: Lloyd George by Hugh Purcell
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George Washington (1732-1799) first raised the idea of a two-term limit for American presidents. True or False?
Answer: False. While Washington did only serve two terms as president, this was his personal decision. He was against the idea of term limits. It was Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) who later argued presidential terms should be limited to two four-year terms.
Source: A Third Term for FDR – The Election of 1940 by John W. Jeffries
More at: History
In 1926, American swimmer Gertrude Ederle (1905-2003) became the first woman to swim the English Channel. What was extra remarkable about this achievement however?
Answer: The time she set for the swim of 14 hours, 31 minutes was nearly two hours faster than that achieved by any previous male swimmers. She was dubbed the “Queen of the Waves.”
Source: Trudy’s Big Swim by Sue Macy
More at: History
Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) was a pioneering American author, producing four long novels and many other works. Despite his undoubted talent, he relied heavily on his editor, Maxwell Perkins (1884-1947). Why?
Answer: Wolfe wrote endlessly, often without exerting any significant control. His manuscripts often ran to over a million words, stuffed into several suitcases. If it wasn’t for the considerable efforts of Perkins, his work may never have made the light of day.
Source: Dead Ends by David Cross and Robert Bent
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According to Chinese legend, when was wine discovered?
Answer: A Chinese brewer called Yi Di is said to have discovered it. He presented his invention to the first Chinese Emperor, Yu (2200-2101 BCE), who drank it and liked it. Being a wise emperor however, he realised that it would cause dreadful disasters and calamities. So, he banned it, and exiled Yu Di for good measure.
Source: A Short History of Drunkenness by Mark Forsyth
More at: History
In its early history, Ancient Rome was ruled by kings. The final king of Rome was such a tyrant that he was overthrown and monarchy was forever outlawed by the Romans. What was his name?
Answer: Tarquinius Superbus (?-509 BCE). He was said to have betrayed members of his family and arbitrarily undermined natural justice and taxation.
Source: The Beginnings of Rome – Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars by Tim Cornell
More at: History
In 1943, who did Winston Churchill (1874-1965) claim was “strutting about as a combination of Joan of Arc and Clemenceau”?
Answer: Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970). De Gaulle was in exile in Britain and had a complicated relationship with Churchill.
Source: A Certain Idea of France – The Life of Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson
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In 1816, the United States began construction on a fort, octagonal in size with 30-foot-high walls, to protect against an attack from British Canada. President James Monroe (1758-1831) even visited the site during its construction. Why was this fort later an embarrassment?
Answer: Due to an early surveying error, the fort was accidentally built on the Canadian side of the border. Construction was abandoned with the fort later being dubbed “Fort Blunder”.
Source: Forts of the War of 1812 by René Chartrand
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In 330 BCE, Greek mariner Pytheas of Massalia made the first recorded expedition to where?
Answer: The Arctic. He called it “Thule”. Back home in the Mediterranean, few believed his startling tales of pure white landscapes, frozen seas and strange creatures, including giant white bears.
Source: Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
More at: History
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is acknowledged as the greatest writer in the English language. Apart from his plays, poems and other works he also invented countless new words which have come into common use. His plays exhibited great pathos, drama and excitement, but also some remarkable insults, which still resonate today. What were some of these?
Answer: These include: “Would they were clean enough to spit on”; “More of your conversation would infect my brain”; “There’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune;” “A most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality;” “Your bum is the greatest thing about you.”
Source: The Shakespeare Cyclopedia by L F Hennington
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Mughal emperor Akbar – who owned a magnificent library numbering 24,000 manuscripts, but could not read or write – used his favourite elephant to judge the guilt or innocence of alleged perpetrators. How so?
Answer: In the last quarter of the 16th century, Akbar believed the pachyderm could identify the guilty. Those to be judged were staked out and the elephant brought forth. Most of the alleged perpetrators received the penalty of being squashed, but on rare occasions, the elephant refused to move, thus sparing the accused.
Source: The History of Akbar by by Abu’l-Fazl
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Writing in his Novum Organum in the early 1600s, what did famed English philosopher, statesman and writer Francis Bacon say as regards the importance of inventions?
Answer: “We should note the force, effect and consequences of inventions which are nowhere more conspicuous than in those three which were unknown to the ancients, namely printing, gunpowder and the compass. For these three have changed the appearance and state of the whole world.”
Source: Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay by S. Austin Allibone; The Advancement of Learning by Francis Bacon
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Feet binding for women in China began over a thousand years ago. What were its terrible elements?
Answer: Done to produce small dainty feet, up to half of all Chinese women were subject to this practice and reportedly all aristocratic females. When the girl was four years old, all the toes were broken, her feet bound tightly with cloth strips to prevent the feet growing more than ten centimetres or some three to four inches. Poor binding caused toes to become infected and drop off. The practice only ended in 1911, the year of the revolution that overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty and established the Republic of China.
Source: China: A History by John Keay; The Oxford History of China John K Fairbanks
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July 2019
The forerunner of the modern bicycle was made by German inventor Karl Drais in the second decade of the 19th century. Having two wheels like a modern bicycle, riders however had to drive it forward with their feet as if they were walking or running. Known as the laufmaschine in Germany, in Britain it was known by another less flattering term. What was this?
Answer: It had the sobriquet the ‘dandy horse’ as it was mostly ridden by dandies – well dressed men – essentially showing off.
Source: Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
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Famed British naturalist Charles Darwin is remembered for among other things his voyage of discovery around the world on the ‘Beagle’ in the 1830s when he was in his 20s, which was the making of him. His father, however, had a different view about the proposed expedition. What was this?
Answer: He wrote in a letter to his son that the voyage was a ‘wild scheme’ and his son was throwing away a respectable career.
Source: The Greatest Decisions Ever by Bill Price
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At a time of much bloodshed, French Revolution leader Jean-Paul Marat came to a grisly end with an even more unusual post-script. What was this?
Answer: Marat was stabbed to death in his medicinal bath by Girondins supporter Charlotte Corday in July 1793. She was sent to the guillotine. When the executioner had completed his grisly work, he picked up Corday’s head and punched it.
Source: The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle; The Oxford History of the French Revolution by William Doyle
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Queen Victoria was, until recently, the longest reigning British monarch. She once tried to communicate with her dead husband. What were the circumstances of this?
Answer: Queen Victoria only came to the throne after a much-loved relative, Princess Charlotte, had died in 1817 giving birth to a stillborn male heir. This catastrophe caused the attending doctor to shoot himself.
Victoria was obstinate, tempestuous and regal, yet, eminently human. When she read the 1852 novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, a powerful indictment of slavery, she wept.
Under her reign Britain acquired a global empire upon which the sun never set.
She married an impoverished German prince, Albert, who she adored and with whom she had nine children. When he died in 1861 of typhoid fever she was inconsolable in her grief.
Victoria blamed her eldest son and heir for Albert’s death and denied him any official duties. He consoled himself by leading a life of idle luxury in all its forms, earning him the nickname ‘Edward the Caresser’.
Victoria had mourned Albert’s death for 20 years when her favorite prime minister, the clever and witty Benjamin Disraeli, was on his death bed in 1881.
On being told the Queen had arrived at his home to say goodbye, Disraeli replied, “Oh no, she’ll only want me to take a message to Albert”.
Source: The Lion and the Unicorn – Gladstone vs. Disraeli by Richard Aldous; General Historical Texts
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Humankind has maintained a love of dogs for many millennia. What are some of the features of this historical association?
Answer: Some nine hundred million dogs inhabit the world today.
From around fifteen thousand years ago, canines have featured large in the human experience. But their fortunes, sadly, have been mixed.
In 1680, Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Sunayoshi, having been born in the year of the dog, outlawed cruelty to dogs, punishable by banishment or even death. Sunayoshi was known as the ‘Dog Shogun’.
At the 1741 British general election, angry voters threw dead cats and dogs at candidates.
The Soviet Union’s ‘anti-tank dogs’ carried explosives on their backs. Trained to run at enemy tanks, they destroyed as many as three hundred during World War Two.
One Australian finance minister was affectionately described by a political colleague as having “all the qualities of a dog, except loyalty”.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has a well-known affection for corgis.
One of her litters can be traced back to the ‘foundation bitch’.
The Queen’s sixteenth century predecessor, Henry the Eighth, kept canaries, nightingales and ferrets, but his favorite pets were dogs.
Two of these, ‘Cut’ and ‘Bone’, often got lost, and Henry rewarded handsomely those who returned them to him.
After Henry’s death, in one of his closets were found sixty-five dog leashes.
Source: Henry VIII – The King and His Court by Alison Weir; General Historical Texts
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an 18th century Genevan philosopher, writer and composer. His political philosophy had a key impact on the Enlightenment throughout Europe. In 1750 he won a prestigious public competition in Paris. What was its theme?
Answer: ‘Has progress in the arts and sciences contributed to an improvement in morals?’ A question which could just as easily be debated today.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McEvedy
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What did British prime minister Stanley Baldwin say about the prospect of David, Prince of Wales, becoming king of the United Kingdom prior to 1936?
Answer: He was on record as saying he would rather the Prince of Wales broke his neck than become king. For a number of reasons, such as the Prince of Wales’ reluctance to perform official duties, but also because he was very pro-German and probably pro-Nazi.
Source: Clive Prince, co-author, Double Standards – The Rudolf Hess Cover Up
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Which French heroine was not born in French territory nor widely known until popularised by military genius and French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)?
Answer: Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the ‘Maid of Orléans’. She is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War.
Source: Joan of Arc – The Image of Female Heroism by Marina Warner
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Monarchies have existed for thousands of years. States have had to put up with sovereigns who were good bad or indifferent. What were some of the unusual characteristics of King Charles VI of France who was sovereign between 1380 and 1422?
Answer: When hunting he managed to shoot four of his own compatriots. He believed he was made of glass and would shatter if he was touched. Occasionally howling like a wolf, he was known as ‘Charles the Mad’.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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After the killing on July 17, 1918 by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg, of the Russian Tsar, Tsarina, their son and four daughters, the assassins discovered what unusual feature in the clothes the Tsarina and her daughter were wearing?
Answer: No less than 18 pounds, or 8.2 kilos, of diamonds were found sewn into their clothes.
Source: The Romanovs by Robert K Massie
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Dr Robert Liston (1794-1847) was a pioneering British surgeon renowned for being able to perform an amputation and stitching in 28 seconds. It all went wrong in one surgery, however. How?
Answer: Liston accidentally amputated an assistant’s fingers. The outcome of the surgery was horrific: the patient died of infection, as did the assistant, and an observer died of shock. It is said to be the only operation in history with a 300 per cent mortality rate.
Source: Blood and Guts – A History of Surgery by Richard Hollingham
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Which Mexican military leader was known as the “Napoleon of the West”?
Answer: Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876). He was a skilful soldier and wily politician who greatly shaped early Mexican politics.
President of Mexico 11 times from 1833 to 1855, he is viewed by many as a terrible Mexican president, losing first Texas and then much of the current American West to the United States. Still, he was a charismatic leader, and, in general, the people of Mexico supported him, many times begging him to return to power. He was undoubtedly the most important figure of his era in Mexican history.
Source: Santa Anna of Mexico by Will Fowler
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“So very arrogant, tyrannical and obstinate, with no knowledge of the world or human nature.” Who is being attacked by Queen Victoria (1819-1901)?
Answer: William Gladstone (1809-1898), who was her prime minister four times. Victoria famously loathed Gladstone, both for his politics and his manner. She described him as “a madman”, “most reprehensible and mischievous” and a “very dangerous and unsatisfactory premier”.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – Victoria by H. C. G. Matthew and K. D. Reynolds
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September 7, 1892, saw which historic sporting event?
Answer: The first U.S. Heavyweight boxing championship fought under the Marquis of Queensbury rules (the basis for the rules of modern boxing). It took place in New Orleans and saw James “Gentleman Jim” Corbett (1866-1933) win by knockout against John L. Sullivan after 21 rounds.
Source: The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates by Gorton Carruth
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Remarkably, Iceland, on the fringe of the Arctic, was badly hit by the Black Death that raged throughout Europe in the 14th century. Before the plague, its population had been about 80,000. If it mirrored the experience of the rest of Europe, its population would have been reduced by around one third. How long did it take for Iceland to reach its pre-plague population level?
Answer: Iceland did not reach that population again until the year 1900.
Source: The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates by Gorton Carruth
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What revolutionary domestic appliance was first introduced in 1913, but initially struggled to sell on the account of its high price?
Answer: The electric refrigerator. The Domelre (Domestic Electric Refrigerator) was marketed in 1913. At about $900, the initial price was very high at a time when the average household income was less than $2,000 per year. It cost about twice that of a Ford Model T.
Source: The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink by Andrew F. Smith
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“Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for a man to go.” Who said this?
Answer: British explorer James Cook (1728-1779).
Source: The Great Explorers by Robin Hanbury-Tenison
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Famed American writer and humorist Mark Twain (1835-1910) was born in 1835 when Halley’s Comet came close to the earth. What was remarkable about Twain’s death?
Answer: It came about in 1910, when Halley’s Comet next passed close by to earth on the day before Twain’s death. Twain even remarked in 1909 that “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.”
Source: The Mark Twain Encyclopedia by J. R. LeMaster, James Darrell Wilson and Christie Graves Hamric
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Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was inducted into military life from a young age. How old was he when he became a commissioned officer?
Answer: 16. He was admitted for training at the prestigious École Militaire in Paris aged only 15.
Source: Napoleon and Wellington by Andrew Roberts
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In the early twentieth century, the world was enamoured with silent film star Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977). Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contests were particularly popular. What happened when Chaplin himself entered one in Monaco?
Answer: He came third.
Source: Charlie Chaplin – Brightest Star of Silent Films by Ingeborg Kohn
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Despite its name, which famous battle took place mostly on Breed’s Hill?
Answer: The Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), the crucial first battle of the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
Source: War for America – The Fight for Independence, 1775-1783 by Jeremy Black
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The Chronicles of Narnia is an immensely popular series of fantasy novels written by C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) and published from 1950 to 1956. What fellow novelist, and friend of Lewis, strongly disliked the books?
Answer: J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) Tolkien considered the books to be hastily written and possess an unsuitable mix of mythological creatures.
Source: Tales Before Narnia – The Roots of Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction by Douglas A. Anderson
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Before the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic in 1912, it was generally considered that the ship was unsinkable. True or false?
Answer: False. Neither the owners, the White Star Line, nor any other experts ever claimed the ship was unsinkable. In fact, the population as a whole were unlikely to have thought of the Titanic as a unique, unsinkable ship before its maiden voyage.
Source: The Myth of the Titanic by R. Howells
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The surrender during the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942-February 1943) of German Army officer Friedrich Paulus (1890-1957) was a hugely significant act. Why?
Answer: Paulus had recently been made a field marshal. He became the first field marshal in German history to be captured. Adolf Hitler had expected Paulus to commit suicide, so great was the perceived shame.
Source: Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
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By the end of the nineteenth century, American inventor Thomas Edison’s (1847-1931) fame was considerable. How was this exploited by the New York Graphic magazine in 1878?
Answer: It announced that Edison had invented a machine that could transform soil directly into cereal and water directly into wine, thereby ending the problem of world hunger. Such was Edison’s popularity that newspapers across the country believed the hoax. The Graphic subsequently published an article simply declaring “they bite!”.
Source: The Guardian Book of April Fool’s Day by Martin Wainwright
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“Hobart’s Funnies” played a key role in the success of the Allied D-Day Normandy invasions in 1944. What were they?
Answer: Modified tanks. Earlier battles had demonstrated how susceptible conventional tanks were to being held up and destroyed by mines and concrete bunkers. Major General Percival Hobart (1885-1957) developed modified tanks that not only improved existing designs but pioneered new technologies.
Source: World War II in Numbers by Peter Doyle
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In 1825, US President John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) purchased something for the White House that caused significant controversy. What was it?
Answer: A second-hand billiards table. Adams’s opponents chastised him for endorsing gambling through his “gaming-table”.
Source: Ivory’s Ghosts by John Frederick Walker
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After the 1770 marriage of Louis-Auguste (1754-1793), heir apparent to the French throne, and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), a magnificent fête and fireworks was planned in Paris. What went wrong?
Answer: There was such a clamorous crowd to see the royal couple that spectators began to trample over each other. Many were crushed to death or pushed into the Seine river. Hundreds were injured and some thirty were killed. It was an ominous sign of things to come, both for the couple and for the country.
Source: Marie Antoinette’s Head by Will Bashor
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The moving of interest rates by central banks is a common way to react to changing conditions in the economy. This was not always the case. In 1719 the Bank of England moved the interest rate from four per cent to five per cent. When did they next move it?
Answer: In 1822, 103 years later, when it went back down to four per cent. This is all the more remarkable when you consider the disruption of this period included the American War of Independence (1775-1783) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).
Source: A History of Banking in All the Leading Nations by H.D. Macleod
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When and where was the first recorded strike?
Answer: 1170 BCE in Ancient Egypt, during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses III (1217-1155 BCE). The theocratic government fell twenty days behind in distributing the wages of grain. Workers in the Valley of the Kings dropped their tools and walked off the job.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
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In 1720, a British financial crisis caused such anger against investment promoters that parliament debated what unorthodox punishment?
Answer: A parliamentary inquiry suggested the punishment of sewing the promoters into a sack with poisonous snakes and throwing them into the Thames. Safe to say, while the anger was palpable, this was never resorted to.
Source: The Storm by Vince Cable
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June 2019
Which battle was the largest in history before the First World War (1914-1918)?
Answer: The Battle of Leipzig (1813). More than 470,000 soldiers of many different nationalities amassed in Saxony, witnessing Napoleon (1769-1821) suffer his first major defeat in battle.
Source: War, Demobilization and Memory by Alan Forrest, Karen Hagemann and Michael Rowe
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St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was not born there. True or false?
Answer: True. While little is known of his life, he was likely born in the late 4th or early 5th century in Roman Britain and sold into slavery in Ireland during his teenage years.
Source: St. Patrick – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by Clare Stancliffe
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In April 1915: a British pilot flew over the Lille Aerodrome, which was occupied by the Germans, and dropped what appeared to be a huge bomb. What was it actually?
Answer: A football. The ball, being dropped from such a height, bounced prodigiously and nearby soldiers ran for cover, fearing a new type of large bomb. They soon discovered it was merely a football on which read the inscription “April Fool”.
Source: The Story of the Great War by Francis Joseph Reynolds, Allen Leon Churchill and Francis Trevelyan Miller
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Which famous US bandleader was aboard a flight that disappeared over the English Channel in 1944?
Answer: Glenn Miller (1904-1944).
Source: The War in American Culture – Society and Consciousness during World War II by Lewis A. Erenberg, Susan E. Hirsch
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Changes were taking place that had been “unthinkable for the past three thousand years”. So agreed Chinese officials and intellectuals at the end of the nineteenth century. What are they referring to?
Answer: The upheaval in China since 1841. China was wracked by military upheaval on one hand, such as the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, but also faced cataclysmic social changes from technological and commercial advancement to epistemological renovation – that is belief systems .
Source: The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume II by Kang-I Sun Chang and Stephen Owen
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According to author Stuart Laycock, of the 193 UN member states, how many have Britain or its predecessors invaded, had some control over or fought conflicts in throughout history?
Answer: No fewer than 171, or around 88 per cent.
Source: All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded by Stuart Laycock
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“Peace, land and bread!” was the rallying call of which famous revolution?
Answer: The Russian revolution of 1917. It was a popular Bolshevik slogan, used alongside “all power to the Soviets!”
Source: Peace, Land, Bread? – A History of the Russian Revolution by John J. Vail
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The importance of wartime signals intelligence, the interception and decryption of enemy communications, is well known. Throughout history, however, it has often been an afterthought. Why did a senior British naval leader create a specialist unit dedicated to the task in August 1914?
Answer: Intercepted ciphered German naval messages had begun to pile up on his desk. He had given no thought to the signals’ role until then.
Source: The Secret World – A History of Intelligence by Christopher Andrew
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Who was the only American president not to live in the White House?
Answer: George Washington (1732-1799), the inaugural president. While Washington selected the site of the house and approved of its design, it was not until 1800 that its first President, John Adams (1735-1826), moved in.
Source: The Story of the White House by Kate Waters
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“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” So said who?
Answer: British author Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). Dr Johnson wrote proficiently to avoid poverty for most of his life.
Source: Johnson And Boswell – The Story Of Their Lives by Hesketh Pearson
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What was significant about the “Simms Motor War Car”, first demonstrated in 1902?
Answer: It was the first armored car ever built. Built by the British company Vickers, it had an armored hull, cannon and machine-guns. While it never saw active service, it was a major influence on the development of armored cars and tanks.
Source: Tanks – 100 years of evolution by Richard Ogorkiewicz
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The British police, “once known as the world’s finest police organisation, will be the laughing stock of Europe”. So said an anonymous letter sent to a British newspaper in 1902. Why?
Answer: The letter was complaining about the British police’s new technology that “insists in trying to trace criminals by odd ridges on the skin”. The technology? Fingerprints.
Source: Convicted – Landmark Cases in British Criminal History by Gary Powell
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An event took place on November 1, 1755, that killed at least 15,000, greatly undermined a country’s colonial ambitions and provoked new developments in enlightenment philosophy and technology. What was it?
Answer: The Great Lisbon Earthquake. The damage inflicted on Lisbon, the prosperous capital of the Portuguese Empire, was nothing short of cataclysmic.
Source: Disaster and Human History – Case Studies in Nature, Society and Catastrophe by Benjamin Reilly
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American William Walker (1824-186) was a famous advocate of “filibustering” in the 1850s. What was he doing?
Answer: Filibustering involved engaging in a military expedition in a foreign country to foment revolution. It was common among American adventurers. Walker, a charismatic soldier of fortune, initially failed in his attempt to conquer Baja California. He later invaded Nicaragua, conquering the land and naming himself president – before being ousted, captured and executed.
Source: Historic World Leaders by Anne Commire
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What famous historical artefact was looted during the French Revolution (1789) and nearly cut up and used to cover military wagons?
Answer: The Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry has somehow survived the hazards of damp, insects, war, fire and flood over the 950 years of its existence.
Source: The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris
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“When we read this novel, we accept her as representing everything we admire most. She is, in short, a perfect human being, within the concept of perfection established by the book she writes.” Who is academic Wayne Booth describing?
Answer: The written voice of Jane Austen (1775-1817). Booth is referring to Austen’s novel Emma (1815).
Source: The Columbia History of the British Novel by John Richetti
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In the context of the Second World War (1939-1945), what was the XX system?
Answer: A British intelligence counter-espionage operation that involved the capture and turning of Nazi secret agents in Britain. Initially used for counter-espionage, the agents were later used to deceive the Nazi leadership – most successfully during the mass deception of Operation Bodyguard in the lead up to the Normandy Landings.
Source: The Double-Cross System by John Masterman
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In 1850, British statesman William Gladstone (1809-1898) asked the scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) whether electricity had any practical benefit. How did Faraday answer?
Answer: He said it did because “one day sir, you may tax it.”
Source: Chemistry in Focus – A Molecular View of Our World by Nivaldo J. Tro
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Ines de Castro (1325-1355) was a Galician noblewoman famous for her relationship with King Peter I of Portugal (1320-1367). According to legend, what was strange about Ines becoming Queen?
Answer: When she was crowned, she had already been dead for two years. Ines was assassinated in 1355 but, when Peter became King two years later, he is said to have had the remains of Ines exhumed, her corpse put upon the throne, clothed her with the insignia of royalty, and the dignitaries of the kingdom were instructed to pay their respects.
Source: A History of Medieval Spain by Joseph F. O Callaghan
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In 1942, which island collectively received the St George Cross, a British award for heroism and courage?
Answer: Malta. The fight for control of the strategically important island took place from June 1940 to November 1942, with the Maltese suffering heavy casualties. To this day, the emblem of the St George Cross remains on the Maltese flag.
Source: Fortress Malta – An Island Under Siege 1940-1943 by James Holland
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In the nineteenth century, who were the “forty-niners” and what were they searching for?
Answer: The forty-niners were those who flocked to California in April 1849 seeking gold during the Californian Gold Rush.
Source: The California Gold Rush – The Stampede that Changed the World by Mark A. Eifler
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What is the world’s oldest surviving printed book?
Answer: A Chinese Tang dynasty copy of the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text. It was made in 868 CE and hidden for centuries in a cave in northwest China. It is the oldest dated example of wood block printing, produced some six hundred years before Gutenberg’s movable type printing in Europe.
Source: The Diamond Sutra: The Story of the World’s Earliest Dated Printed Book by Frances Wood and Mark Barnard
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US Inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) and industrialist Henry Ford (1863-1947) were strong friends. Ford was so inspired by the friendship that he marked it in an unusual way on Edison’s death. How so?
Answer: By arranging to capture Edison’s dying breath. According to legend, Ford asked Edison’s son Charles to sit by the dying inventor’s bedside and hold a test tube next to his father’s mouth to catch his final breath.
Source: American Heroes – Myth and Reality by Marshall William Fishwick
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What is remarkable about a speech given by Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865) in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1856?
Answer: The speech was said to be so powerful that all the reporters present forgot to take notes. Lincoln was said to have spoken “like a giant inspired”, but the lack of record of what he uttered has led to it becoming known as “Lincoln’s Lost Speech”.
Source: Lincoln in American Memory by Merrill D. Peterson
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“We heard strange throbbing noises and lumbering slowly towards us came three huge mechanical monsters such as we had never seen before.” What is Bert Chaney, a soldier in the British Army, describing in 1916?
Answer: His first encounter with a tank, deployed by the British Army during the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: People at War, 1914-1918 by Michael Moynihan
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What does Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarrosa’s fifth expedition to Italy in 1176 tell us about pushing your luck in warfare and in life?
Answer: It ended in disaster for his imperial forces when his army was crushed at the Battle of Legnano. One philosophical viewpoint maintains that good luck has to eventually run out. In the world of finance, US billionaire investor Joseph Kennedy (father of US 35th president John F Kennedy), embracing this idea of not pushing your luck, said as regards investment, “only a fool holds out for top dollar”.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersch
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It was been said that man is a fighting animal. Indeed, that it is an innate characteristic. What was said about the seventh century BCE third of Rome Tullus Hostillus by the later Roman historian, Livy?
Answer: “He everywhere sought excuses for stirring up war.”
Source: Civilisation’s Quotations by Richard Krieger
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The large number of slaves imported into Saint-Dominque, today’s Haiti, in the 18th century was to prove a substantial disadvantage to the predominantly white French settlers. How so?
Answer: The 500,000 slave population was to form the basis of a successful uprising in August 1791 of the around 30,000 settlers, who were decidedly outmatched in the rebellion.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
Famed luxury car maker Rolls Royce once insulted a super-rich Indian maharajah. What happened?
Answer: A self-made American billionaire of recent times prided himself on wearing the cheapest watch he could find and, when flying, sitting in coach class.
Not so Indian maharajahs.
Fabulously wealthy, these ‘great kings’ of India owned enormous swathes of land, grand palaces, were garlanded with countless diamonds and pearls and even slept in solid gold beds, thus giving expression to the maxim: ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it’.
When you’re a maharajah, you’re accustomed to, well, a sort of deference.
This was brought home to famed car maker Rolls Royce in 1920.
The Maharaja of Alwar was visiting London and one day decided to walk around the city ‘incognito’, wearing ordinary English clothes.
On entering a Rolls Royce showroom and inquiring about the various cars’ specifications, prices etc, and then requesting a test drive, he was abruptly shown the door. The salesman seeing not a maharajah, but a man with an Indian face.
After calls from his staff, his majesty later returned in glittering ensemble and entourage, where he now received the red-carpet treatment, complete with multiple fawning staff.
Buying all six Rolls Royce cars in the showroom, they were shipped back to New Delhi where the maharajah ordered that they be used for garbage collection.
Source: Maharaja: The lives, loves and intrigues of the Maharajas of India by Diwan Jarmani Dass; Plain Tales from the Raj by Charles Allen
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Voyages of exploration were very hazardous. When Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan left Spain in September 1519 on what was to be a circumnavigation of the world he had 237 men. How many returned three years later?
Answer: Just 18 men. Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines in April 1521.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
May 2019
American historian Barbara Tuchman detailed how many World War One generals were incapable of admitting that they were wrong, even when they had overseen the death or wounding of tens of thousands of military under their command. Having a strong ego and sense of self worth is part of this equation. Against this background, what did Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan (1162 – 1227), founder and first Great khan of the Mongol empire, say about who he was?
Answer: “I am,” he declared, “the punishment of God.”
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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At the start of the 1840s Ireland was a major country in terms of population with some eight million souls living within its borders. What happened by the early 1900s?
Answer: Partly due to famine, but primarily as a result of massive emigration to escape a lack of economic opportunities, the country’s population had halved.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In a lamentable portent of what was to come in the first half of the 20th century, in the 1890s, what was the largest commercial business in Europe?
Answer: The Krupp Armaments Combine of Essen, Germany. Krupp cannon were a key factor in France’s defeat in 1870 and would again be called into action with devastating effect in 1914.
Source: The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
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Erskine Childers, author of The Riddle of the Sands and Sinn Fein politician, was executed in 1922. What did he do on the morning of his execution?
Answer: He asked for, and was granted, an hour’s postponement to watch the sun rise, and then shook hands with each member of the firing squad. He also asked his 16 year old son to find the men who had signed his death warrant and shake hands with them. His son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, became a member of the Irish parliament from 1938 to 1973 and the fourth President of Ireland in 1974.
Source: The New Penguin Book of Modern Quotations by Robert Andrews
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To the nearest decade when did the settlement of Iceland by Norwegians take place?
Answer: It commenced around 870 CE and was completed in about two generations. Subsequent emigrants found limited opportunities in Iceland, but following the discovery of Greenland in the late 10th century, some Norwegians went on to establish new settlements there which survived for around five centuries.
Source: The Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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The post Civil War period in America saw rapid economic growth. In 1880 the USA was producing less steel than Britain. By 1900 what was the situation?
Answer: It was making more steel than Britain and Germany combined.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What was unusual about the deaths of British kings Edward VII, his son George V and grandson George VI?
Answer: They both died from the effects of smoking. Edward – unkindly referred to as ‘Edward the Caresser’ for his fondness of extra marital affairs – would smoke 10 to 12 large cigars a day and 20 cigarettes in the gaps between.
Source: Edward and Alexandra by Richard Hough
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Voltaire wrote of the many qualities of Swedish king Charles XII, who commenced his reign as a teenager in 1697, but the famed 18th century French philosopher also chronicled the fact that these royal qualities were a two-edged sword. How so?
Answer: Voltaire wrote that Charles XII “carried all the heroic virtues to extremes, at which time they became as dangerous as the opposing vices … His great qualities, any one of which would have immortalized another prince, were the ruin of his nation”.
Source: The Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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How did Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II (1844-1913) come to have an electric chair for a throne?
Answer: Following the introduction of the electric chair at New York’s Auburn State Prison in 1890, Menelik eagerly ordered three of the devices for use in Ethiopia. On arrival, Menelik realised that his country did not have the required electricity to power the chairs. Menelik subsequently converted one of the chairs into an imperial throne.
Source: What Were They Thinking? By Bruce Felton
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Which figure, born in Iran in 628 BCE, founded a religion that has endured for over 2,500 years?
Answer: Zoroaster (628 – 551 BCE). The religion he established was Zoroastrianism. Many of its features may have influenced other religious systems.
Source: The 100 – A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael Hart
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Which medical discovery, which has saved the lives of millions, was dismissed at the time of its conception as a “folk belief” which the medical profession never took seriously?
Answer: Vaccination. The first vaccination against cowpox in 1796 led to the practice spreading rapidly in England, and later the rest of the world.
Source: The 100 – A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael Hart
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The eighteenth-century Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) is known for his incredible volume of work. How many books did he publish?
Answer: No fewer than 32, many of which have more than one volume. He also wrote hundreds of articles, and his collected scientific writings fill over seventy volumes.
Source: The 100 – A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael Hart
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Ottoman Sultan Murad IV (1612-1640) is known for the brutality of his rule. He executed 25,000 people for doing what common modern-day practice?
Answer: Smoking.
Source: The Smoke of the Gods – A Social History of Tobacco by Eric Burns
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“We are about to create a new planet… In the olden days, explorers like Vasco da Gama and Columbus had the good fortune to open up the terrestrial globe. Now we have the good fortune to open up space. And it is for those in the future to envy us our joy.” What is being described here?
Answer: The launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial earth satellite, in October 1957. This description came from a Russian scientist working on the project.
Source: A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future by Charles Lincoln Van Doren
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“He was, I should say, a man of chivalrous and scrupulous character. He made me feel that the war would last thirty years, and that he would carry it on irreproachably until he was superannuated.” Whom is writer George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) attacking?
Answer: Field Marshal Douglas Haig (1861-1928), the primary British general of the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: Historic World Leaders by Anne Commire
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What was probably the most murderous single event in the history of the British Empire?
Answer: The Amritsar Massacre of 1919. General Reginald Dwyer (1864-1927) and his column of British troops fired into a crowd in Amritsar, India, killing 379 people. The debate over this act, and whether it was a symptom of or exception to colonial rule, continues to this day.
Source: Amritsar 1919 – An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre by Kim Wagner
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The French Revolution (1789-1799) changed the material objects of daily life. What unlikely items were a particularly common choice for symbolising support for the Revolution?
Answer: Household crockery. Plates, mugs and glasses often espoused revolutionary slogans or beliefs.
Source: Liberty or Death – The French Revolution by Peter McPhee
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The First Roman Emperor Augustus (63 BCE – 14 CE) struggled with the behaviour of his daughter. What did he eventually resort to?
Answer: He exiled her to a barren island, where she was forbidden to drink wine or engage in any luxury.
Source: Coinage and History of the Roman Empire by David Vagi
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British polymath Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was one of the leading minds of his age, but he spent time on an activity that modern historians struggle to understand. What was it?
Answer: Code-breaking. While he made contributions to the theory of code breaking, he spent an enormous amount of time engaging in puzzling research, including creating twenty-six different dictionaries based on words of different length. Some suspect that Babbage may have secretly been working for the British Foreign Office.
Source: Telling Lives by Alistair Horne
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In the 1920s, the American carmaker Studebaker renamed many of its vehicles. What was unfortunate about the new name given to the Studebaker Standard Six in 1927?
Answer: It was renamed the Dictator. The marketing line described the car as “a brilliant example of excess power”. From the very beginning this name made the car unsuitable to export to Europe or the British Empire, and by 1937 Studebaker was forced to abruptly drop the name altogether.
Source: Dictators, Democracy, and American Public Culture by Benjamin Leontief Alpers
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According to American historian Daniel Immerwahr, what was “by far the most destructive event ever to take place on U.S. soil”?
Answer: Combat in the Philippines during the Second World War (1939-1945). The Philippines was an American colony – hence his description that it was US soil – and the combination of American shelling and Japanese slaughter of civilians lead to untold destruction and suffering.
Source: How to Hide an Empire – A Short History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
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Which famous statesman and military leader, arguably the greatest general of his age, wrote a romantic novel aged 27?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). The partly autobiographical novel was entitled Clisson et Eugénie.
Source: Napoleon – A Political Life by Steven Englund
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In the nineteenth century, The Great North of Scotland Railway planned a line which terminated in the town of Braemar. A station building was constructed, but a train never made it there. Why?
Answer: Queen Victoria (1819-1901) objected as the line would have travelled close to her holiday home at Balmoral.
Source: Exploring Disused Railways in East Scotland by Michael Mather
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“This war will be the last war”. So said Charles-Francois Dumouriez. What war was he discussing?
Answer: The French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802). This conflict was unprecedented in its ideology and scope, and some considered it the ultimate in warfare.
Source: The First Total War by David A. Bell
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German Colonel-General Friedrich Fromm (1888-1945) might have played a crucial role in the German resistance to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). In the end, however, he betrayed the resistance. What was his reward?
Answer: He was executed for cowardice. While Fromm betrayed the resistance, Hitler reasoned that, for knowing of it at all and not informing him, Fromm must be executed.
Source: An Honourable Defeat – A History of German Resistance to Hitler by Anton Gill
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By the eighteenth century, the magnificent Mughal Empire in modern-day India had become a victim of its own success. How?
Answer: The empire had succeeded for centuries by expanding to capture enemy treasuries and gain productive territories. By the 1700s however, it had nowhere left to expand and was struggling to keep its diverse lands and peoples together.
Source: The Mughal Empire by Michael H. Fisher
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In the early independent years of the United States of America (1781-1789), the fledgling state arguably suffered from too much democracy. How?
Answer: To distance themselves from the British, the individual states put power solely in the hands of elected assemblies. This often resulted in a small group controlling the government and the courts. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) called it “despotic government”, stating that “an elective despotism was not the government we fought for.”
Source: America, Empire of Liberty by David Reynolds
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From 1915, British soldiers in the First World War (1914-1918) carried a “Battle Bowler”. What was it?
Answer: A Battle Bowler, more formally known as a “Brodie Helmet”, was a hard helmet used to protect soldiers from shrapnel. Before this, soldiers had only been issued with soft hats, an example of how unprepared the major armies were for the modern warfare of the First World War.
Source: Military Uniforms in Europe by R Spencer Kidd
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Which highly advanced Bronze Age civilization, existing from 2700 to 1450 BCE and centred on the island of Crete, is considered an enigma to historians as no record exists of its name?
Answer: The Minoans. The civilization is named after King Minos, the mythical first King of Crete, but historians possess no knowledge of what the Minoans actually called themselves.
Source: 1177 B.C. – The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline
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With 36,183 manufactured between 1941 and 1945, which aircraft was the most produced of the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: The Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik, a Soviet Union ground attack aircraft. Not only is the Shturmovik the most produced aircraft of the Second World War, it is also the most produced combat aircraft in history.
Source: The Eastern Front Air War 1941-1945 by Anthony Tucker-Jones
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April 2019
How did bird droppings, no less, contribute to the United States establishing colonies in the nineteenth century?
Answer: Nitrogen-rich bird droppings, known as Guano, remedied the “soil exhaustion” of a rapidly industrializing United States. Small islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific often had plenty of these droppings, and so the United States seized them. The Guano Islands Act of 1856 decreed that whenever an American citizen found guano on an uninhabited, unclaimed island, “such island, rock or key may, at the discretion of the president, be considered as appertaining to the United States.”
Source: How to Hide an Empire – A Short History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
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British officials in India in the colonial era were always hopelessly outnumbered by the indigenous population. In 1931, there were 353 million Indian subjects. How many British governing officials were there?
Answer: 150,000.
Source: A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One by Martin Gilbert
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A product called “Wonder Bread” was first marketed in 1930. Why was this so important?
Answer: “Wonder Bread” was the first time that readily-sliced bread was marketed to the masses. It would change eating habits forever.
Source: A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One by Martin Gilbert
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British statesman Winston Churchill (1874-1965) once described the twentieth century as “the century of the common man.” What did he mean by that?
Answer: It was the century of the common man, Churchill noted, “because in it the common man has suffered most.”
Source: A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One by Martin Gilbert
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Ben Hall (1837-1865) was an Australian robber, known as a “Bushranger”, who engaged in what audacious act in the central NSW town of Canowindra in 1863?
Answer: Hall’s gang turned up in the town, locked the police in their cells and then threw a huge party for the town’s inhabitants. Hall is often described as the “clown prince of bushrangers”.
Source: Freedom on the Fatal Shore – Australia’s First Colony by John Bradley Hirst
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US 26th President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) suffered from childhood asthma so intense it was life-threatening. What unusual remedy did Roosevelt’s father use to try and mitigate the effects?
Answer: He made the eight-year-old Theodore drink coffee and smoke cigars.
Source: Theodore Roosevelt – A Strenuous Life by Kathleen Dalton
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When the child ruler of Scotland, Margaret, died in 1290, how many possible candidates for the throne were there?
Answer: An astounding 13. The decision to allow King Edward I of England to arbitrate between the parties led to the Scottish Wars of Independence (1296-1357).
Source: Scotland and the Union by David Daiches
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The large World War Two German Battleship Tirpitz struck fear into enemy navies. It was said to be unsinkable and impregnable and Winston Churchill (1874-1965) called it “the beast”. How many major Allied operations were launched against Tirpitz?
Answer: No fewer than 36. Tirpitz was finally destroyed in November 1944 by a British air attack.
Source: The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship by Patrick Bishop
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In 1605, an audience watched the first performance of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1564-1615). Why was the subject matter controversial?
Answer: Macbeth concerns regicide, the killing of a king. For some, in the early seventeenth century, regicide was considered such an aberration of the natural order that it would cause ghosts to burst from the ground.
Source: The Age of Genius by A.C. Grayling
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Which book of the Bible was incredibly popular in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Answer: The Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic vision of John of Patmos (6 CE – ?). Perhaps reflecting the war and plague common in European society, over 750 editions of Revelation, many released in cheap print, were published between 1498 and 1650.
Source: Christendom Destroyed – Europe 1517-1648 by Mark Greengrass
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Thousands of people crowded into Washington on March 4, 1829, in an event described as akin to “the inundation of the northern barbarians into Rome”. What was happening?
Answer: Crowds were flocking to witness the inauguration of the self-made “man of the people” President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). Politician Daniel Webster (1782-1852) was shocked, stating “I never saw such a crowd here before … people have travelled five hundred miles to see General Jackson.”
Source: A Short History of the United States by Robert V. Remini
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The Wall Street Crash was unlike any economic event in human history. How much in U.S. stock market value disappeared in October 1929?
Answer: A staggering $30 billion. Perhaps worth 30 times that in today’s dollars.
Source: A Short History of the United States by Robert V. Remini
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Famed US inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) once developed a voice-driven sewing machine. Why was it not a success?
Answer: While the aim of the device was to save the pedalling needed in standard sewing machines, Edison’s device required the user to shout continuously into a mouthpiece for the machine to work. Unsurprisingly, users found that the continuous shouting much more wearisome than pedalling.
Source: Little Known Facts about Famous People by Janusz Talalaj
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In 1904, British physicist Frederick Soddy (1877-1956) detailed a remarkably accurate prediction in a lecture to the British Corps of Royal Engineers. What was it?
Answer: Soddy was one of the first to realise the potential of an Atom bomb. Soddy remarked that “the man who put his hand on the lever by which a parsimonious nature regulates so jealously the output of this store of energy would possess a weapon by which he could destroy the earth if he chose.”
Source: The Making of the Atom Bomb by Richard Rhodes
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When Europeans conquered America in the early modern period, they established vast sugar plantations. In the early seventeenth century, the average Englishman ate virtually no sugar in a year. How much did they consumer in the early nineteenth century?
Answer: Eight kilograms a year. Sales of cakes, cookies and chocolate, and sweetened beverages such as cocoa, coffee and tea, rose as Europeans developed an insatiable sweet tooth.
Source: Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
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At the height of the French Revolution (1789-1799), leader Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) led “the Terror” which targeted French citizens through the guillotine. What famous macabre, contemporary joke concerned Robespierre and his executioner?
Answer: The joke was that, when the time came for Robespierre’s executioner to be guillotined, Robespierre would have to do it himself – as everyone else would be dead.
Source: Liberty or Death – The French Revolution by Peter McPhee
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The establishment of the Derby Silk Mill by John and Thomas Lombe in 1721 is a significant event in human history. Why?
Answer: The Derby Silk Mill, a stone’s throw from All Saints Cathedral in Derby, England, was arguably the world’s first factory.
Source: Behemoth – A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World by Joshua Freeman
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Spanish King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941) employed someone known as “the Anthem Man”. What was his role?
Answer: Alfonso was tone deaf. The Anthem Man’s function was to tell the King when the national anthem was being played so that he could stand up.
Source: Alfonso XIII by Vincent R. Pilapil
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“Such a phenomenon in the history of the world will never be forgotten, because it has revealed at the base of human nature a possibility for moral progress.”
“There is hatred in every heart. Envy has not been satisfied, and misery is everywhere. That is the punishment.”
Both the above statements are discussing the same event. What is it?
Answer: The French Revolution (1789-1799). Despite its fame, contemporaries were always polarised in their assessment of what the Revolution achieved.
Source: Liberty or Death – The French Revolution by Peter McPhee
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In the Middle Ages, what resource was so important to military power that it enabled the Mongol Empire to be the most powerful in the world?
Answer: Horses. The Mongol’s control over the major breeding and rearing areas of the best combat horses provided them with a huge advantage.
Source: War in the World – A Comparative History, 1450 – 1600 by Jeremy Black
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Jones Very (1813 – 1880) was an American poet who claimed to be the second coming of Christ. American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was sceptical and questioned the quality of Very’s writings. What was Emerson’s verdict on Very’s work?
Answer: “Cannot the spirit parse (explain) and spell?”
Source: Wilderness Lost – The Religious Origins of the American Mind by David Ross Williams
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In 1920, the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting female suffrage hinged on a vote of the Tennessee legislature. The ballot was tied until one congressman, Harry Burn (1895-1977), switched his vote at the last moment; introducing female suffrage to America. Why did he change his mind?
Answer: Burn had received a letter from his mother requesting that he “be a good boy” and back ratification of the amendment. Burn later noted that “I know a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow, and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”
Source: Encyclopedia of American Social Movements by Immanuel Ness
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Since 1211, the City of London has paid rent to the monarch for a piece of land. What two things are odd about this?
Answer: The City of London no longer controls the land (there is even confusion as to where it is) and the yearly rent is two knives: one sharp and one blunt.
Source: The Ludicrous Laws of Old London by Nigel Cawthorne
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What is considered by many historians to be the most splendid period of Egyptian architecture?
Answer: In the 13th to 15th centuries, under the Mameluke sultans. Sultan Qalawun (1279-90) gave Cairo its most famous hospital, which consisted of three courtyards, two surrounded by cubicles for patients, the third by wards, lecture rooms, library, dispensary and treatment rooms. As in other medieval Islamic hospitals, the patients were entertained with music and comforted by readings from the Koran. No fees were charged.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What is remarkable about the remains of an Arabian ship sunk off Belitung Island in the Java Sea around 826 CE?
Answer: It offers incredible insight into the connections of the mediaeval world. The ship was built in the Persian Gulf from African mahogany and Indian teak. Its cargo was 60,000 pieces of ceramics mass-produced in landlocked regions of China, stored in jars from Vietnam and created specifically for Persian customers.
Source: The Sea and Civilisation- a Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine
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Britain led the world in the initial development of railways in the early 19th century, greatly facilitating the industrial revolution there. What was one of the unusual features of where many of the new railway lines were positioned?
Answer: In many areas they followed where ancient canals had been built; the canals were used primarily to transport goods, thereby facilitating the commercial life of Britain.
Source: The Last Two Million Years by, inter alia, E E Rich.
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What is the fascinating history of the early Persian empire?
Answer: The Persian empire rose like an unexpected tide in the 6th century BCE, engulfing all the civilizations of western Asia and creating one vast dominion. It was the greatest empire the world had yet seen. The imperial armies of Persia even endeavoured to crush the brilliant civilization of Greece. Their invasions were repulsed; but when the Greek genius itself weakened, Persian scholars conserved its scientific knowledge and added their own. The blend of cultures which they shaped reached the West many centuries later and helped to lay the fundamentals of the 14th century Renaissance of art and literature.
Source: Persian Fire by Tom Holland
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Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev from 980 to 1015, became a Christian in 988 and is credited with being the ruler who made Russia Christian. What made him choose this religion?
Answer: He made his decision after sending envoys to observe the rituals of the Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Byzantine Orthodox Churches. The emissaries were so impressed by the splendid rites they saw in Constantinople that Vladimir pronounced that the fledgling Russian state should adopt the Byzantine form of Christianity.
Source: The Cambridge History of Russia by Dominic Lieven
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Who was the 9th century Japanese genius credited with devising a new syllabic script for the country?
Answer: Kukai, also known as Kobodaishi. He also introduced into Japan one of the two sects which make up what is known as esoteric Buddhism – a form of the Buddhist religion characterised by symbolic rituals. The new form of Buddhism had an impact on sculpture. The simple humane figures of earlier times were often replaced by monstrous forms, occasionally many-headed or multi-handed.
Source: The Cambridge History of Japan by Marius Jansen
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The Great Plague of 1665 saw some 75,000 people die in England. It was the last major outbreak of the bubonic plague in the country. What was one recommended means of preventing contracting the deadly disease?
Answer: Smoking. Tobacco smoke was widely believed to be a defence against ‘bad air’. In fact, in the worst days of the plague, smoking a pipe at breakfast was made obligatory for the schoolboys at London’s Eton College. The school then was already a venerable educational institution, having been in operation for over 200 years.
Source: A History of the English People by Paul Johnson; England – A Portrait by John Bowle.
More at: History
March 2019
The Maya people flourished between 300CE and 900CE in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, occupying also most of what is now Guatemala. Enjoying wearing flamboyant clothing, what was one feature of the Maya’s idea of beauty?
Answer: Having a prominent nose and sloping forehead.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
One historical line of reasoning has argued that the real explanation why France’s famed King Louis XIV was admired and imitated was due to what administrative ability?
Answer: Louis’ skill in war in putting 200,000 men in the field, exemplified by his great expertise in organisation, recruitment, training and the provision of medical supplies.
Source: The Last Two Million Years by, inter alia, Douglas W J Johnson
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A Persian traveller Nasir-i-Khusraw, who visited Egypt in 1046, made a number of remarkable observations about the country. What were some of these?
Answer: He found it the only haven of peace and prosperity in the region. Cairo, he reported, had 20,000 brick-built houses, some of five or six stories, and 20,000 shops, all the property of the caliph. His palace had, no fewer than, 12,000 servants. Some of the streets were lit by lamps. Horses were for the military; citizens rode asses and donkeys, which could be hired at any street corner. Prices were fixed by the authorities. Crime was punished so severely that it was only necessary for the shops of the jewellers and money exchangers to be secured by a cord stretched across the doorway.
Source: The Last Two Million Years by, inter alia, Richard Storry
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Who was the first English king for which a portrait still survives?
Answer: King Æthelstan of England (894-939)
Source: England – A Portrait by John Bowles
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What is the fascinating story of Petra, or as it is known in Arabic, Wadi Masa?
Answer: This was the ancient city carved out of rock in Jordan, on the eastern slopes of Wadi el Araba, 90 kilometres south of the Dead Sea. An Edomite stronghold and capital of the Nabateans in the 2nd century, it was captured by the Roman emperor Trajan in 106 CE, and destroyed by the Arabs in the 7th century. It was largely forgotten in Europe until 1812 when the Swiss traveler Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) came across it.
Source: Webster’s New World Encyclopedia
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The execution in 1587 of Mary Queen of Scots on the orders of her cousin England’s Queen Elizabeth I was particularly gruesome, even by 16th century standards. What was the unusual item that was found among Mary’s garments after the axeman eventually fully severed her head on the third blow?
Answer: A small dog was found among her clothing. The animal was so distressed at the death of its mistress that it rolled around in the blood of the dead Queen, whimpering pathetically.
Source: Queen of Scots by John Guy
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French president Charles de Gaulle came from an ancient French family which lost its wealth during the French revolution. Fiercely patriotic, British prime minister Winston Churchill had to negotiate with de Gaulle during the difficult days of World War Two. What was one opinion expressed by Churchill about the proud de Gaulle?
Answer: “England’s grievous offence in de Gaulle’s eyes is that she has helped France. He cannot bear to think that she needed help. He will not relax his vigilance in guarding her honour for a single instant.”
Source: The Quotable Churchill by Running Press
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According to legend, English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) once had a jug of ale poured over his head by a servant. Why?
Answer: Raleigh was one of the first high profile smokers in England, and it is said that his servant panicked on seeing smoke surround him for the first time.
Source: The Smoke of the Gods – A Social History of Tobacco by Eric Burns
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Venus de Milo, the world famous ancient Greek statue most popularly known for her missing arms, was tried in court for her nudity in 1853. True or false?
Answer: True. The statue was tried in Mannheim, Germany, and was convicted and condemned.
Source: Encyclopaedia of Censorship by Jonathon Green and Nicholas J. Karolides
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Famed Swedish playwright August Strindberg (1849-1912) requested in his will that his funeral take place at a specific time. Why?
Answer: Strindberg requested that it take place at 8am, to prevent too many people coming. Nevertheless, 10,000 people gathered to follow his coffin through the streets of Stockholm.
Source: The Strange Life of August Strindberg by Elizabeth Sprigge
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British explorer James Bruce (1730-1794) went to Abyssinia in 1769 and became the first European to discover the source of the River Nile. Why was the discovery bittersweet?
Answer: He was so far in advance of any other African explorers that no one believed him. He even challenged a fellow geographer to a duel for calling him a liar, to which the critic declined.
Source: A History of England by C.E. Carrington and J. Hampden Jackson
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The famous French writer Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a big eater. How many oysters did he famously eat in one sitting?
Answer: 110. At the same meal he also devoured a dozen cutlets, a duck and two partridges.
Source: The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace
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What was unusual about the capital of Ethiopia up until 1886?
Answer: It moved. For centuries, Ethiopia had mobile capitals, where a huge herd of livestock and up to 6,000 slaves followed the emperor and aristocracy around. This only ended with the founding of Addis Ababa in 1886.
Source: The Transformation of the World – A Global History of the Nineteenth Century by Jurgen Osterhammel
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The nineteenth century saw the world becoming increasingly divided, as the richest and poorest regions of the world moved apart in living standards. The difference between richest and poorest was 3:1 in 1820. What was it by 1913?
Answer: 8:1. Historians differ as to the cause of this widening disparity.
Source: The Transformation of the World – A Global History of the Nineteenth Century by Jurgen Osterhammel
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“Does [this] not take away all we have – all our property? These lawyers and men of learning…will swallow up us little fellows, just as the whale swallowed up Jonah.” So said an American farmer in 1789. What is he describing?
Answer: The United States Constitution. Despite the affection with which it is now held by most Americans, at the time many were hostile, believing it would curtail individual rights.
Source: 1789 – The Threshold of the Modern Age by David Andress
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“His speeches left the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea; sometimes these meandering words would actually capture a straggling thought and bear it triumphantly as a prisoner in their midst, until it died of servitude and overwork.” Which American President was the subject of this biting attack?
Answer: President Warren G. Harding (1865 – 1923). The histrionic attack came from politician William McAdoo (1863 – 1941).
Source: Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996 by John Gerring
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Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a serious gambler for over ten years, playing cards, dominoes, billiards and roulette and even begging relatives for money to gamble. What made him stop?
Answer: Dostoevsky saw his dead father in a nightmare. He never gambled again.
Source: Dostoevsky – His Life and Work by Ronald Hingley
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In 213 and 212 BCE, Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BCE) is said to have performed what drastic deed to consolidate his power?
Answer: Burnt the books written before his reign and buried prominent scholars alive. Several major philosophical treatises were lost forever, while chroniclers state that as many as 450 Confucian scholars were buried alive.
Source: The First Emperor of China by Frances Wood
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Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan (1215-1294) held a fervent belief in astrology. According to explorer Marco Polo, how many astrologers did he employ?
Answer: No fewer than 5,000.
Source: Marco Polo and the Realm of Kublai Khan by Tim McNeese and William H. Goetzmann
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Why did U.S President Harry Truman (1884-1972) once demand a “one armed economist?”
Answer: Truman was sick and tired of receiving the counsel of cautious economists who kept saying, “on the other hand…”
Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
More at: History
The first ever census issued in China was in the year 1000 CE. True or false?
Answer: False. The first census took place a thousand years earlier, in 2 CE. A population of 59 million was recorded.
Source: China by Michael Dillon
More at: History
The paranoia of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was infamous and this did not stop at the Kremlin itself. In 1935 a purge was carried out of Kremlin support staff. How many were affected?
Answer: 110, starting with the cleaners. Most initially received light sentences but were later arrested again on the same charges with many executed.
Source: Red Fortress – The Secret Heart of Russia’s History by Catherine Merridale
More at: History
Due to its size and diversity, the British Empire was always loosely controlled by London. In 1914 for example, how many Colonial Office senior officials were there who oversaw the empire?
Answer: Thirty. These senior officials were supposedly in charge of 100 different colonial areas, not to mention 600 quasi-autonomous Indian princely states that technically owed allegiance to Britain.
Source: Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain by John Darwin
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In 1401 the great Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was in the city of Damascus, then under siege by the mighty Turco-Mongol ruler Tamerlane (1336-1405). Khaldun was so curious to meet Tamerlane that he did what?
Answer: He arranged to be lowered from the city’s high walls in a basket so he could meet Tamerlane. Tamerlane didn’t disappoint, with Khaldun describing him as “one of the greatest and mightiest of kings.”
Source: After Tamerlane – The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000 by John Darwin
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According to historian Adam Tooze, Nazi Germany was hampered in its attempt to launch a campaign of European conquest from the very beginning. Why?
Answer: Tooze notes that Nazi Germany was too constrained by shortages of raw materials, such as crude oil, rubber, iron ore and coal, to even maintain an independent industrial economy in peace, let alone a campaign of European conquest.
Source: The Wages of Destruction – The Making and the Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze
More at: History
What unites the otherwise different military styles of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) and Erwin Rommel (1891-1944)?
Answer: All three led their soldiers from the front in battle.
Source: Citizen Clem – A Biography of Attlee by John Bew
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Why was British politician and future Prime Minister Clement Attlee (1883-1967) challenged to a duel in 1935?
Answer: Attlee criticised Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Captain Fanelli, an Italian fascist, responded by challenging Attlee to a duel. Attlee declined. The incident was one of the last vestiges of this ancient practice which had essentially died out. Pugnacious seventh US president Andrew Jackson fought over 100 duels.
Source: Citizen Clem – A Biography of Attlee by John Bew
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Aut inveniam viam aut faciam – “I shall either find a way or make one”. Who famously declared this before a daring military campaign through what would be termed today the Italian Alps against the Romans?
Answer: Hannibal (287 – 183 BCE), Carthaginian general.
Source: Leadership Lessons of the American Revolution by John Antal
More at: History
In 1902, white resentment and violence drove black woman Minnie Cox (1869-1933) from her job as postmaster of the town of Indianola, Mississippi. How did President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) react when he heard this?
Answer: He refused to accept her resignation and suspended Indianola’s mail service for two years. Minnie Cox is considered a hero of the early civil rights movement.
Source: There’s Always Work at the Post Office by Philip F. Rubio
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British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) once penned a history of Rome. What was unusual about this?
Answer: Mill was six years old at the time. Mill’s incredible development as a child, aided by tutoring from his father, is legendary. By seven he was reading Plato in Greek; at eight soaking up Sophocles, Thucydides and Demosthenes and at nine enjoying The Iliad “twenty or thirty times”.
Source: John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves
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A White House party on Christmas Eve 1929 went dramatically wrong. How?
Answer: The building caught on fire. While no-one was harmed, the newly remodeled offices in the West Wing were destroyed in the worst White House fire since the torching by the British army in 1814.
Source: Lou Henry Hoover by Dale C. Mayer
More at: History
February 2019
In the tumultuous period of the 1920s and 1930s, someone called “King Anthony” garnered support in Britain. Who was he?
Answer: Anthony William Hall, a former Shropshire police inspector who claimed to be the rightful King of England. His forceful and eccentric claim to the throne (he considered himself a descendent of King Henry VIII) and his stated desire to fight King George V made him a minor celebrity.
Source: Secret Britain by Justin Pollard
More at: History
Which future American war hero and president had, earlier in his career, been forced to resign from the army due to his drinking problem and spent periods living in poverty?
Answer: Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885). The commencement of the American Civil War changed Grant’s life. This apparent loser rose through the ranks of the Union Army to become its highest ranking general in command of some 500,000 men.
Source: Grant by Ron Chernow
More at: History
“An orgy of vulgar noise”. What is German composer Louis Spohr (1784-1859) describing in 1808?
Answer: The fifth symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). The symphony is arguably one of the best-known compositions in classic music.
Source: The Mammoth Book of Losers by Karl Shaw
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When the mother of Zulu monarch Shaka (1787-1828) died, he went insane with grief. What happened?
Answer: As part of the grieving process, he ordered that 7,000 Zulus be put to death and decreed that no crops were to be planted nor milk to be consumed.
Source: Pan-African Chronology: 1400-1865 by Everett Jenkins
More at: History
British MP and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) once called a fellow MP a liar in parliament. When he was required to apologise, what did he say?
Answer: “I said the honourable member was a liar it is true and I am sorry for it. The honourable member may place the punctuation where he pleases.”
Source: The Lying Ape by Brian King
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The Janissaries (“new soldier”) were an elite infantry unit who served as the personal bodyguard for who?
Answer: The Ottoman Sultan. Likely established during the reign of Murad I (1326-1389), they were arguably Europe’s first standing army.
Source: Guns for the Sultan by Gábor Ágoston
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When Sir Thomas Bludworth (1620-1682), Lord Mayor of London, arrived on the scene of the blaze that became the Great Fire of London (1666), what did he remark?
Answer: He dismissed it saying, “pish! a woman might piss it out.” Strong easterly wind fanned the flames however and it became the most devastating fire in English history.
Some 436 acres of London were destroyed, including over 13,000 houses and 87 out of 109 churches. Some areas still smoldered for months afterwards.
Source: Attack on London: Disaster, Riot and War by Jonathan Oates
More at: History
Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864) led the huge Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) against the ruling Qing Dynasty in China. When the Qing forces eventually captured Hong in 1864, he had already died of food poisoning. Why was this not enough for the Qing?
Answer: To make sure he was dead and undermine his legacy, the Qing exhumed Hong’s cremated remains and fired them out of a cannon.
Source: Civilization – The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
More at: History
What unites Dutch painter Jan Vermeer, Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Scottish poet Robert Burns?
Answer: All died before the age of 40. Vermeer was 39, Mozart 35 and Burns 37. We can only speculate on the considerable works they could have created had they had lived longer.
Source: Civilization – The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
More at: History
British poet Lord Byron (1788-1824) described the reputation of what playwright as being “absurdly too high and will go down, [for] he had no invention whatsoever as to stories, none whatever.”
Answer: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Safe to say, Byron’s prediction was wrong.
Source: The Burning of Byron’s Memoirs by Peter Cochran
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Even after Virginia colony in North America was established in 1607, English knowledge of the region remained poor. How was this demonstrated by a map produced in 1667?
Answer: The map depicted North America as a narrow peninsula, suggesting that the colonists at the settlement of Jamestown could easily walk to the Pacific Ocean. From there, they could sail to China.
Source: 1493- Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann
More at: History
He appeared “to have stepped out of a Van Dyck painting, elongated figure, pointed beard, a big hat … very mysterious, extremely complicated, one never knows the depths of his thoughts”. Who is being described?
Answer: Montagu Norman (1871-1950), British central banker. He led the Bank of England during the Great Depression and was arguably the most influential economic thinker of the 1920s and 1930s.
Source: Lords of Finance – The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
More at: History
How did a bookbinder come to damage arguably the most iconic symbol of Irish culture?
Answer: In 1825, the bookbinder trimmed the decorative borders of the famous Book of Kells, the elaborate illustrated manuscript of the gospels dating to 800 CE.
Source: Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel
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How did Nazis and other fascists in Los Angeles, California, hope to strike at the heart of Hollywood during the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: They planned terrorist attacks against Jews and plotted to kill high-profile Hollywood stars such Samuel Goldwyn (1879-1974) and Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977). That they failed is partly down to counter-espionage led by attorney Leon Lewis.
Source: Hitler in Los Angeles – How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots against Hollywood and America by Steven J. Ross
More at: History
The Roman Emperor Domitian (51-96 CE) was known for his love of solitude. How would he like to spend his days?
Answer: Domitian was said to enjoy nothing more than spending the day alone catching flies and impaling them with a sharpened pen.
Source: Suetonius the Biographer- Studies in Roman Lives by Tristan Power and Roy K. Gibson
More at: History
“The Heart of the World” was the name given by which group to their homeland?
Answer: The Mandan, a native American group that originated in North Dakota. The last remaining Mandan settlements were abandoned in the 1830s after a devastating smallpox epidemic.
Source: Encounters at the Heart of the World- A History of the Mandan People by Elizabeth A. Fenn
More at: History
At a dinner in London in 1765, a disagreement about birds got out of hand. How?
Answer: The argument was between William Chaworth and Lord Byron, the famous poet’s great-uncle. As he was departing, Byron found Chaworth waiting for him, sword in hand, demanding a duel to settle the dispute. Within a few minutes of fighting, Chaworth received a fatal wound and died the following day.
Source: Pistols at Dawn – A History of Duelling by Richard Hopton
More at: History
“He has been described as tramping with heavy boots relentlessly through his age, but they have forgotten his steps were mainly slow and hesitating and he often stumbled.” Who is writer and statesman John Buchan (1875-1940) describing?
Answer: Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), British military leader and statesman. In the upheaval of the early twentieth century, many looked to Cromwell as an example of strong leadership.
Source: Oliver Cromwell by John Buchan
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At the Olympics of 1896, Greek athlete Spyridon Belokas (1877 -?) finished third in the marathon race, but was later disqualified. Why?
Answer: It emerged that Belokas had travelled part of the way by horse and carriage.
Source: The Olympic Marathon by David Martin and Roger Gynn
More at: History
According to author Malcolm Gladwell, in 1920 America suffered a massive failure of intuition. What was it?
Answer: The election of Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) as president of the United States. Gladwell argues that Harding’s only qualification for the job was that, being square jawed and tall, he was image of a strong and decisive leader. Most historians agree that Harding was one of the worst Presidents in American history.
Source: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
More at: History
Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) was a Spanish coloniser who conquered much of what is now Mexico. For this he received a staggering reward. What was it?
Answer: He was awarded the title of Marquis and granted 7,700 square miles of land in Mexico, equivalent in size to modern day Israel. He also owned three thousand slaves, and possessed thousands of indentured servants working on his estate.
Source: 1688 – A Global History by John E. Wills, Jr
More at: History
English scholar Isaac Newton (1643-1727) is one of the most celebrated mathematicians in history. He was also briefly a member of parliament, but his political career was underwhelming. Why?
Answer: Newton was said to have little interest in Parliament. His only recorded speech in the chamber was to request a draughty window be closed.
Source: The Iconography of Sir Isaac Newton to 1800 by Milo Keynes
More at: History
London in the 18th century was one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Grand houses, great affluence, elegant ladies replete with sparkling jewelry. Yet famed English writer Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) had a very disquieting perspective on poverty in the English capital. What was this?
Answer: Johnson estimated that every year, 1,000 people died of starvation in the city.
Source: Jane Austen – A Biography by Elizabeth Jenkins
More at: History
The US one cent piece is known as a penny. It is perhaps best known as an English currency denomination, in pre-decimal terms signifying 1/240 of a pound. Where does the term penny derive from?
Answer: It takes its name from the English heathen King Penda of the Midlands in the seventh century CE. It was then a silver coin, worth a considerable sum. By the reign of Alfred the Great in the ninth century, there were generally 12 pence to a shilling and 240 pence in a pound. Decimal currency was introduced into Britain in 1971.
Source: England – A Portrait by John Bowle
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On April 2, 1716 a strange aerial event occurred over St Petersburg, Russia. What was this?
Answer: A terrifying aerial battle between two ‘clouds’ was reported by Russian Vice-Admiral Naum Senyavin and the Dutch Ambassador to the Russian Imperial Court. This is regarded as one of the many UFO sightings over the centuries.
Source: Tunguska by Paul England
More at: History
Who was the richest American ever?
Answer: Oil magnate John D Rockefeller is widely believed to hold this title.
But, in fact, it is Andrew Carnegie. And, he gave virtually all of it away.
Born in 1835 to a working-class Scottish family, Carnegie came to the United States aged thirteen. He worked first in a cotton mill and then as a railroad company telegraph operator.
After the Civil War, Carnegie entered the iron and steel business, where he made his fortune.
In 1901 he sold his vast business interests for an amount equal in today’s money to around $300 billion.
With this enormous fortune in hand, Carnegie set about giving it away.
“Man must have no idol”, he famously said, “and the amassing of wealth is one of the worst types of idolatry”.
Carnegie funded hospitals, scientific endeavors, museums, the arts, efforts to resolve international conflicts and many other projects.
He funded the creation of no fewer than 2,800 public libraries and many schools. He urged his wealthy peers to limit their wealth and give generously to the community and the poor.
“The man who dies rich,” he said, “dies disgraced.”
Andrew Carnegie was only five feet tall. But he was a giant in his abilities and generosity.
Source: Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
More at: History
In 1746, James Reid played the famed Scottish musical instrument the bagpipes in York, England. What happened next?
Answer: He was arrested and hanged. The bagpipes were declared ‘an instrument of war’ after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and Reid’s playing of them an act of insurrection and sedition.
Source: Warrior Dreams – Playing Scotsmen in Mainland Europe by David Hesse
More at: History
What figure was described by a contemporary as “the most remarkable man Africa had known” but ended his life drunken, deranged and raging against the misfortune of his fate?
Answer: Tewodros II (1818-1868), Emperor of Ethiopia. Teowodros took grand steps towards creating a centralized modern state in Ethiopia, but ultimately his ambitions outstripped his capacity to deliver.
Source: 100 Great Africans by Alan Rake
More at: History
January 2019
Bishop Doane, Father O’Grady, Dr. Johnson, Fighting Bob Evans and Admiral Dewey were all what?
Answer: Guinea pigs owned by 26th American President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919).
Source: The Works of Theodore Roosevelt by Theodore Roosevelt
More at: History
World War Two British prime minister Winston Churchill was renowned for his capacity for drinking alcohol. He began each day with a weak scotch whisky and water, and would drink throughout the day. Yet he would work until two or three am in his study at Chartwell, dictating up to ten thousand words to stenographers, and lived until 90. What was his famous remark about his relationship with alcohol?
Answer: “I’ve taken more out of alcohol, than alcohol has taken out of me”.
Source: The Last Lion – Winston Spencer Churchill by William Manchester
More at: History
One of the heroic figures of World War One was Englishman T E ‘Lawrence’ of Arabia. Immortalized in film for his role in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, little is known of his legacy as regards road safety. What was this?
Answer: Soldier, archaeologist and writer, Lawrence was the son of an English baronet who left his wife to marry the family’s governess, Lawrence was small in stature, but a commanding and charismatic, if eccentric figure.
Working with Arab leaders during the war, he led military assaults against Ottoman forces.
After the war, the now Colonel Lawrence was internationally famous, and could have become very wealthy by taking up the offers he received from entrepreneurs keen to promote him. Instead, in 1922 he chose anonymity, enlisting in the Royal Air Force as an ordinary aircraftman.
His thrill-seeking love of danger found expression in powerful motorcycles. He owned several tailor-made Brough one thousand machines, the Rolls Royce of motorcycles, capable of one hundred miles per hour.
In 1935, Lawrence was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in Dorset.
The attending surgeon said he would have survived had he been wearing a helmet. The physician later successfully campaigned for the introduction of compulsory helmets for motorcyclists, citing the high-profile Lawrence as one of the many lives that could have been saved.
Source: A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T E Lawrence by John E Mack
More at: History
The last German kaiser Wilhelm once turned his to naval design. What was the reaction?
Answer: The last German kaiser, the volatile Wilhelm the second, who abdicated in 1918, owned no fewer than sixty-nine schlosser, or castles.
Even if he tried, he could not manage a full week’s stay in each one, in any given year.
Not having to work to earn a crust, the kaiser turned his very active mind to other matters.
He was passionate about Germany building a strong navy, even though this was deeply antagonistic towards Great Britain, which then had the largest navy in the world.
In fact, the kaiser, despite not having any qualifications, liked to design his own naval vessels.
What did one Italian admiral say about one of these designs?
“The ship your majesty has designed would be the mightiest, the most terrible, and also the loveliest battleship ever seen. She would surpass anything now afloat, her masts would be the tallest in the world, her guns would outrange all others. And the inner appointments are so well arranged that for the entire crew from the captain down to the cabin boy, it would be a real pleasure to sail on her. This wonderful vessel has only one fault: if she were put on the water, she would sink like a lump of lead.”
Source: Wilhelm the Impetuous by Giles MacDonogh
More at: History
What made the famed Zulus regret the death of a French prince?
Answer: After France’s loss in the 1870 Franco Prussian war, Napoleon, the Prince Imperial, the son of the last French emperor, sought exile with his family in England.
Shunning luxury, the young French royal joined the British army. Keen to see action, in 1879 the now lieutenant, aged twenty two, successfully lobbied to be posted to South Africa, to participate in the Anglo-Zulu War, serving under Lord Chelmsford.
Known as the dare-devil prince, he was warned by a close army friend, “not to do anything rash and to avoid unnecessary risks.”
Volunteering for a scouting party, on the morning of June first, the prince, leading a small troop of British soldiers, was attacked by some 40 Zulus.
The British officer assigned to protect the young royal fled, while the Prince Imperial fought valiantly, but was overwhelmed by the assegai armed Zulus.
Seventeen spear wounds were later found in his body in his front, and none in his back, indicating that he had faced his adversaries bravely.
British General Sir Garnet Wolsely said the prince was a “plucky young man, who died a soldier’s death. What on earth could he have done better?”
The Zulu king Cetshwayo said if they had known who he was, they would have spared him.
Source: The Washing of the Spears by Donald R Morris
More at: History
Who was the world’s most famous female scientist?
Answer: Famed scientist Marie Curie was a Polish born, French naturalized, physicist and chemist, and a pioneer in the study of radioactivity.
In 1898 she and her husband, Pierre, discovered the elements polonium and radium – the former named after Curie’s native land.
In 1903 Curie became the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in physics. In the same year she and her husband were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
In 1906, she became the first woman to teach at the famed Sorbonne. Curie received another Nobel Prize, for chemistry, in 1911. Thus becoming one of only four people to win the Nobel prize twice.
On the outbreak of World War One in 1914, Curie set aside her research and organized a fleet of portable X-ray machines for doctors at the front.
Nobel prize winning ran in the family. Her daughter Irene won it in 1935, with her husband. In 1965, Curie’s son-in-law accepted a Nobel Prize on behalf of UNICEF.
Years of exposure to radioactive materials led to her death in 1934 from leukemia, caused by the action of radiation.
Curie said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” Also, “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”
Source: Obsessive Genius by Barbara Goldsmith
More at: History
US 20th president, 49 year-old Republican James Garfield (1831-1881) was a former Ohio congressman who had a rather unusual writing skill. What was this?
Answer: He could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other, simultaneously.
Source: The Assassination of James Garfield by James Rivers Editors
More at: History
How good are English dukes at giving financial advice?
Answer: Duke is the highest of the five ranks of the British peerage, above marquess, earl, viscount and baron.
There are only twenty four – not including royal dukes. The first, the Duke of Norfolk, was created in 1483.
You don’t have to be talented or smart to be a duke. The nineteenth century Duke of Newcastle, as prime minister, was described as ‘the epitome of mediocrity, and a buffoon’.
Being a duke can get you a good job, real quick. The second Duke of Albemarle, was thirteen when he entered Parliament in 1667.
British prime minister David Lloyd-George didn’t much like dukes. “A fully equipped duke”, he said a century or so ago”, “costs as much to keep up as two dreadnoughts – giant battleships – and dukes are just as great a terror, and they last longer.”
One of the dukes was wandering about his estate when it was open to the public, and a tour guide told him to get off the grass.
Dukes are very wealthy. The Sixth Duke of Westminster was worth around twelve billion dollars when he died in 2016.
Once asked the secret of financial success, he replied, “Having an ancestor who was a close friend of William the Conqueror in 1066.”
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
Which conflict commenced in 755 CE and is considered by many to be the deadliest ever in human history until that point?
Answer: The An Lushan Rebellion (755 – 763 CE), a major uprising against the imperial rule of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. While eventually put down by Tang forces, estimates suggest the conflict could have killed around thirteen million people.
Source: The Scientific Sublime by Alan G. Gross
More at: History
Which philosophy, developed by French thinkers in the eighteenth century, was described by British philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) as “perhaps the nearest approximation to the truth that has yet been published upon the subject of political economy”?
Answer: Physiocracy. The central tenant of physiocracy was that wealth of nations was derived solely from the agricultural development of land.
Source: The History of Economic Thought – A Reader by Steven G Medema and Warren J. Samuels
More at: History
The Act of Settlement, passed in 1701, settled the succession to the English crown on Protestants only. When George I (1660 – 1727) succeeded Queen Anne (1665 – 1714) in 1714, how many claimants were disqualified as a result?
Answer: No fewer than 55, most of them French Catholics.
Source: The Royal House of Stuart by A.C. Addington
More at: History
According to Niccolò Machiavelli (1468-1527), what is the single most important factor in politics?
Answer: Luck, or what he called fortune. He claimed it accounts for more than half the outcomes in politics.
Source: The Luck of Politics by Andrew Leigh
More at: History
The opening of the revolutionary Liverpool to Manchester railway in 1830 was marred by a tragic event. What was it?
Answer: Liverpool MP William Huskisson (1770-1830), a vocal supporter of the railway, was knocked down and killed by the train. He is often considered the first railway fatality.
Source: Events and Outcomes Industrial Revolution by Nigel Smith
More at: History
Why did being well-dressed cost Spanish General José Sanjurjo (1872-1936) not only the chance to rule Spain, but also his life?
Answer: In 1936, Sanjurjo led a coup to overthrow the Spanish government. He prepared to fly back from exile in a small bi-plane when the pilot queried the amount of baggage he was bringing. Sanjurjo replied, “I need to wear proper clothes as the new caudillo (leader) of Spain!” The heavy luggage was a contributing factor to the plane crashing, killing Sanjurjo.
Source: The Luck of Politics by Andrew Leigh
More at: History
Wealthy Londoner Henry Budd died in 1865. He bequeathed an estate to his sons worth a sizeable £200,000, millions by today’s standards, on the condition that they never did what?
Answer: Grow a moustache. Thus, Mr Budd became a further addition to the long historical list of English eccentrics.
Source: I Told You I Was Ill by Liz Evers
More at: History
In eighteenth century England, winning elections often involved MP’s wooing local voters with cash, flattery and open houses. How did the Earl of Cork complain about the latter?
Answer: He complained that during an election “our doors are open to every dirty fellow in the county that is worth forty shillings a year; all my best floors are spoiled by the hobnails of farmers stamping about them; every room is a pig-stye, and the Chinese paper in the drawing room stinks so abominably of punch and tobacco that it would strike you down to come into it.”
Source: Daily Life in 18th Century England by Kristin Olsen
More at: History
The Byzantine Empire had a destructive weapon called “Greek Fire”. Catching alight as soon as it touched sea water, it devastated enemy ships. Why do modern historians know relatively little about this weapon?
Answer: The recipe for Greek Fire was such a closely guarded Byzantine secret that it remains unknown. While light petroleum or naphtha are considered to be key ingredients, it has never been truly recreated.
Source: Medieval Warfare – A History by Maurice Keen
More at: History
Medieval castles were often built with a moat, stopping besiegers from assaulting the walls with ladders. How else did moats prevent attacks?
Answer: Through smell. Castle sewage often flowed into the moats, leaving them putrid. Attackers who fell into the moats were more likely to be poisoned than to drown.
Source: Medieval Matters by Jean Bennett
More at: History
Why did economists arguably contribute to the Nazi defeat in the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: In 1942, Nazi economists mistakenly argued that Germany could not continue the war unless it obtained oil supplies from the Caucasus. This view underpinned the doomed 1942 southern offensive and the eventual Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942- February 1943).
Source: Ten Eventful Years by Walter Yust
More at: History
How did English Queen Henrietta Marie (1609-1669) describe her son Charles, the future Charles II (1630 – 1685), shortly after his birth?
Answer: “”He is so ugly I am ashamed of him”. Henrietta did mention to a friend that, at a time when the health of infants was precarious, at least he was large and fat.
Source: Cavalier – The Story Of A 17th Century Playboy by Lucy Worsley
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A “witty, well-read scholar” but a “nervous driveling idiot”. Who is famed historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) describing?
Answer: King James I and VI of England and Scotland (1566 – 1625). James was known both for his intellect but also his range of bad habits, including swearing and excessive drinking.
Source: Macaulay by Robert E Sullivan
More at: History
The English words “sugar”, “candy”, “crimson”, “indigo”, “tulip” and “zero” all originate from where?
Answer: All are neologisms arising from trade between England and Islamic countries in the sixteenth century. During the Elizabethan age, suspicion of Catholic Spain led to unique political and cultural exchanges between England and the Muslim world.
Source: This Orient Isle by Jerry Brotton
More at: History
In the context of the Second World War (1939-1945), what were “pinches”?
Answer: Hit and run raids on German U-boats and trawlers carried out by British and American navies. The purpose was to capture codebooks and related apparatus, crucial for the eventual breaking of the German Enigma code.
Source: Engima – The Battle for the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
More at: History
Why did a propensity to give long speeches arguably save the life of American statesman Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)?
Answer: In October 1912, while campaigning for president, Roosevelt was shot in the chest. The blow was not fatal as the bullet was slowed by Roosevelt’s fifty-page speech in his breast pocket.
Source: The Golden Lad – The Haunting Story of Quentin and Theodore Roosevelt by Eric Burns
More at: History
Which world famous artifact spent the Second World War (1939-1945) in the cellar of a bank and later in a salt mine?
Answer: The famous Ancient Egyptian Nefertiti bust. Originally on display in Berlin, it was taken to these locations for safekeeping. The bust is a painted stucco-coated limestone depiction of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. The work is understood to have been crafted in 1345 B.C. by the sculptor Thutmose.
Source: Finding the Walls of Troy – Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlík by Susan Heuck Allen
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On August 22, 1513, England was invaded. By whom?
Answer: Scotland. 42,000 soldiers invaded under the command of King James IV (1473-1513), the largest Scottish army to ever invade England. While James had initial success, he died at the Battle of Flodden on September 9, the last British monarch to die in battle.
Source: Fatal Rivalry – Flodden 1513 by George Goodwin
More at: History
Which political theorist and economist was famously absent-minded, so much so that he was the subject of caricatures and was once described as “the most Absent Man that ever was”?
Answer: Adam Smith (1723-1790). Smith was once so distracted during breakfast that he took a piece of bread and butter, put it into a teapot and poured water over it. He later tasted the “tea” and remarked to those present it was the worst he had ever drank.
Source: Adam Smith – An Enlightened Life by Nicolas Phillipson
More at: History
Which titan of British socialism began his life as “an old-fashioned imperialist conservative”?
Answer: Clement Atlee (1883-1967). Atlee served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and oversaw the foundation of the welfare state.
Source: Citizen Clem by John Bew
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The Greek philosopher Crates (365 BCE-285 BCE) was a well-known figure in Athens and had the nickname “the door-opener”. Why?
Answer: Because of his tendency to go into people’s houses at random and start giving them advice.
Source: A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities by J. C. McKeown
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According to Greek chronicler Stobaeus, how did Socrates (?-399 BCE) reply when asked why he never wrote anything down?
Answer: “Because I see that material to write on is much more valuable than anything I might write.”
Source: A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities by J. C. McKeown
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Greek philosopher Aristippus (435-356 CE) developed a set of philosophical beliefs that have been called “ethical hedonism”, reflected in the unusual titles of his written works. What were the most famous?
Answer: Two of Aristippus’s now lost dialogues were entitled “A Response to Those Who Criticize Me for Spending Money on Old Wine and Prostitutes” and “Response to Those Who Criticize Me for Spending Money on Gourmet Food”.
Source: A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities by J. C. McKeown
More at: History
December 2018
One of the worst peacetime massacres in British history took place on August 16, 1819. What was it?
Answer: The Peterloo massacre in Manchester. Soldiers charged into up to 100,000 peaceful protestors, gathered to demand greater political representation. Fifteen people died.
Source: Peterloo – The Story of the Manchester Massacre by Jacqueline Riding
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Which European king was nearly executed by his own father?
Answer: Frederick the Great (1712-1786). His father Frederick William I (1688-1740) threatened to execute him after he conspired to escape to England. The threat was never carried out and Frederick became arguably the greatest monarch of his age.
Source: Frederick the Great by Theodor Schieder, H.R. Scott, and Sabina Krause
More at: History
Which novel, a study of regional life in the English midlands, was described by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) as “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people”?
Answer: Middlemarch by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans (1819-80).
Source: The Encyclopedia of the Novel by Peter Melville Logan
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Which prominent composer’s grandfather was Ludwig van Beethoven (1712-1773)?
Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1829). Beethoven, arguably the most influential composer of all time, had a grandfather with the same name who was a successful music director and singer.
Source: The Changing Image of Beethoven by Alessandra Comini
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Sun Wu was a military adviser at the court of King Helu, one of the kings in power in the Warring States period of Chinese history (474 – 221 BCE). Why is he arguably one of the most influential figures in military history?
Answer: He was the likely author of The Art of War, a work on military strategy credited to a “Sun Tzu”, whose historicity is unclear. It became influential in China for its guidance on military conduct and strategy and later became a common theme in western military thinking.
Source: Sun-Tzu – The Art of Warfare by Roger T. Ames
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Which “craze” that swept through Britain in the mid eighteenth century was blamed for social breakdown and crime across the nation?
Answer: The Gin Craze. Changes in tariffs made beer expensive, while after the Glorious Revolution (1788), it became an act of loyalty to drink Protestant gin rather than Catholic brandy. This led to mass overconsumption as sections of the population who had never drunk spirits before were consuming as much as two pints of gin a week.
Source: London, A Social History by Roy Porter
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British engineer Edwin Beard Budding (1796-1846) invented the lawnmower in 1830 but was worried about how his invention would be received. How did he test it?
Answer: Budding tested his lawnmower at night, to avoid being mocked by neighbours.
Source: Great British Inventions by Claire Throp
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Which society developed tragedy, comedy, epic and almost every literary genre known in the West, but did so despite not having a sophisticated writing system until late in their history?
Answer: The Greeks. By the time the Greeks adopted such a system in 800 BCE, there had been advanced writing in Egypt and Mesopotamia for over two thousand years.
Source: The Cambridge History of Classical Literature – Greek Literature by P.E. Easterling
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U.S. Army general Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) once remarked that the “past six weeks have been the most trying of his life”. Why?
Answer: Rather than enemy action, it was dealing with his own military staff. Eisenhower was dismayed by the unimaginative attitude of his colleagues in the U.S. Army that delayed the Allied invasion of French North Africa in 1942.
Source: Beetle – The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith by Daniel K. R. Crosswell
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In 1743, George II (1683 – 1760) became the last British monarch to lead an army into battle at Dettingen, Germany. Things did not go to plan. What happened?
Answer: George’s horse ran off when it heard gunfire, taking George with him. He had to return to the battle on foot.
Source: A Global Chronology of Conflict by Spencer C. Tucker
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Which theatre of conflict during the Second World War (1939-1945) has been described as the “war without hate”, due to its supposed notions of “fair play” and the mutual respect that evolved between the combatants?
Answer: The North African Campaign (1940-1943).
Source: War Without Hate – The Desert Campaign of 1940-1943 by John Bierman and Colin Smith
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Who was taller, Josef Stalin (1878-1953) or Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)?
Answer: Stalin, though only just. Stalin was five feet four (162.5 cm), with Napoleon, according to most estimates, being five feet three (160 cm).
Height has never been an impediment to greatness. Great Britain’s Queen Victoria was only five feet tall. As was US steel titan Andrew Carnegie, worth some $300 billion, in today’s dollars.
Sources: An Ideology in Power by Bertram Wolfe and Napoleon – A Political Life by Steven Englund
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Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), an American pianist, claimed to have invented what musical style at the age of twelve?
Answer: Jazz. Morton was a key figure in early Jazz, though his role in its invention is debated.
Source: The Cambridge Companion to Jazz by Mervyn Cooke and David Horn
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For almost 700 years, from the battle of the Minamoto and Taira clans in the twelfth century up until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, who ruled Japan?
Answer: The warrior (samurai) class. While the samurai based their conduct on court nobility, their incorporation of popular culture and Buddhist thinking granted them a unique culture that left a lasting imprint on Japanese society.
Source: Warrior Rule in Japan by Marius Jansen
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Roman Emperor Commodus (161-192 CE) named how many months of the Roman calendar after himself?
Answer: All twelve. The calendar was not the only thing changed. Commodus gave his name to the legions of the Roman army, the fleet bringing grain from Africa to Rome and even the Roman people themselves, who were to be called Commodianus.
Source: Great Events in Religion by Florin Curta and Andrew Holt
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A mole, that is the small subterranean mammal, played a small but significant part in British history in 1702. How?
Answer: A mole’s burrow tripped the horse of King William III of England (1650 – 1702), who died from the injuries. William’s rivals the Jacobite’s drank a toast to the mole, who they described as the “the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat”.
Source: Wonderland by Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss
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Why is the little-known Battle of Salamis (480 BCE) one of the most important battles in human history?
Answer: The Greek naval victory over a much larger Persian-led fleet helped halt a Persian conquest of Greece, enabling a flourishing of Greek culture that was the eventual basis of Western civilization.
Source: The Battle of Salamis by Barry Strauss
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Which ruler is considered to have been so cruel that she halved the population of her own country?
Answer: Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar (1778-1861). Ranavalona enslaved thousands of people, engaged in internal civil conflict and initiated a repressive campaign against Christians. In 1833 the population of Madagascar was five million. By 1839 it was 2.15 million.
Source: Memories of Madagascar by Wendy Wilson-Fall
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Despite being synonymous with mediaeval European warfare, where and when was the crossbow invented?
Answer: As a further example of the country’s rich talent and inventiveness, in China in the fourth century BCE. Despite Chinese attempts to prevent the export of the crossbow, it soon was used around the world.
Source: The History of China by David Curtis Wright
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During the American Civil War a particular disdain was held for snipers who fired on men who sought private refuge to attend to their ablutions. There are numerous examples through history of such moments being the opportunity for dastardly deeds to be committed. What was one example involving a Severan dynasty Roman emperor?
Answer: Emperor Caracalla was attacked in 217 and killed while urinating by the road on his way to do battle with the Parthians.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon; The Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley and Roy Adkins
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The alleged event which first saw the discovery of the stimulatory effects of coffee, morning nirvana for countless hundreds of millions around the world, was what?
Answer: In the 8th century a Middle Eastern goat herder named Kaldi observed that his animals became particularly animated and energised when they grazed on the berries of a particular bush, what was to be known as the coffee plant.
Source: Webster’s New World Encyclopedia
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England’s famed Henry VIII had six wives, not because he got tired of them. But rather that he needed a legitimate heir to avoid the chaos which had previously occurred in England, when bloody dispute had arisen over the lawful succession. One of his wives who was discarded in this quest was Anne Boleyn. What trumped up charges were levelled to get her out of the way?
Answer: She was accused of adultery, having sexual relations with her brother and being a witch. The latter it was said because she allegedly had 11 fingers and, no fewer than, three breasts. The third one, of course, was used to suckle the Devil. The ‘third nipple’ was in fact a mole on her neck.
Source: Henry VIII by Alison Weir; General Historical Texts.
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What was one of the key developments in the accelerating popularity of newspapers among the general public in the second half of the 19th century?
Answer: The work of German-born American Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899) who invented a method of typesetting. He travelled to the US in 1872 and, between 1876 and 1886, developed the first linotype machine for casting hot metal type in complete lines.
Source: The History of America by Paul Johnson; General Historical Texts
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Premonitions or omens have resonated in the human experience. The coronation of King George III of Great Britain in 1761 did not go well. What occurred and did this portend badly for his reign?
Answer: The coronation chairs for the king and queen could not be found, nor could the sword of state be located, and at the coronation a jewel fell out of the crown. George went on to lose the American colonies and he ultimately went mad, although his ailment may well have been a bi-polar malady.
Source: George III – A Personal History by Christopher Hibbert
More at: History
Medicine has played a role in the lives of many who became prominent authors. How so?
Answer: English iconic writer W Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) gave up medicine to become a very successful author, as did British Romantic poet John Keats (1795-18210. French novelist Gustave Flaubert’s (1821-1880) father was a successful doctor. 20th century author Michael Crichton (1942-2008) relinquished a career in medicine for the path of letters.
Source: The Summing Up by W Somerset Maugham; General Historical Texts.
More at: History
The last viceroy of British India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was assigned the task by British prime minister Clement Atlee of facilitating the granting of Indian Independence, after some 300 years of British rule. Following this occurring in August 1947, Mountbatten remained in New Delhi, becoming the first governor general of India until June 1948. He was the uncle of Prince Charles, the current Prince of Wales, and had a spectacular career. An ambitious, vain man who was capable of great charm, what was the description used for him, by one observer, regarding this last feature, during World War Two?
Answer: It was said Earl Mountbatten could “charm a vulture off a carcass”.
Source: Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy of India by Philip Ziegler
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In Greek mythology, what was ‘Seven Against Thebes’?
Answer: This was the attack of seven captains led by king of Argos, Adrastus, on the seven gates of ancient Thebes. This was prompted by the rivalry between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles, for the kingship of Thebes.
Source: Webster’s New World Encyclopedia
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US lawyer, New York governor and presidential aspirant Thomas Dewey (1902-1971) had a very pragmatic, indeed very capitalist, view of what was required for people to serve as politicians. What was this?
He said that, ‘No man should be in public office who can’t make more money in private life.’
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations
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In the history of warfare, what was the largest invasion ever undertaken?
Answer: This was Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on June 21, 1941, during World War Two. It involved 3.2 million men and 3350 tanks. Within three weeks of the attack the Soviet Union had lost two million soldiers, either killed or wounded. Germany’s failure to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign was a crucial turning point in the war.
Source: Operation Barbarossa: Hitler’s Invasion of Russia 1941 by Colonel David M. Glantz
More at: History
What was unusual about Byzantine Empress Irene of Athens’ (752-803) ascent to power?
Answer: Blinding her son to ascend to the throne, she became the Byzantine Empire’s first female ruler between 797 and 802. She broke with her predecessors in nearly every sphere. This included abolishing iconoclasm, disbanding the elite soldiery and preferring to sue for peace rather than make war.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
The chariot revolutionized ancient warfare. How so?
Beginning in Egypt and West Asia, then in China and India, charioteers dominated the battlefield. In 1274 BC at Kadesh in present-day Syria when the Egyptians fought the Hittites, more than 4,500 chariots did battle.
Homer’s Iliad tells of Greek heroes valiantly riding chariots. When Julius Caesar landed on a beach in Kent in 55 BC he was met by British chariots.
Chariots however were risky when driven at high speed. The boy pharaoh Tutankhamen probably died from injuries sustained in a chariot race.
Because of the danger involved, chariot racing attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators.
Roman emperor Nero, who was to gain infamy for setting Rome on fire, could not resist driving his own ten-horse chariot in harrowing races. At one epic contest, he fell out of the speeding war vehicle, but remarkably still won the prize.
Great charioteers like the Roman Porphyrius was a champion into his sixties, provoking the comment that ‘neither strength nor swift horses know how to win, but the brains of the charioteer.’
Source: Wagon, chariot and carriage: Symbol and status in the history of transport by Stuart Piggot
More at: History
November 2018
The Palace of Versailles, 20 kilometres southwest of the centre of Paris, is renowned for its splendid architecture, great trappings of wealth and magnificent gardens. It was the principal royal residence of France from 1682 under Louis XIV until the start of the French Revolution in 1789 under Louis XVI. French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) was not overly impressed, however, with it. What was one view he expressed about Versailles?
Answer: ‘The Palace of Versailles is a great caravanserai – a large structure with many travelers, their animals and goods – filled with human discomfort and misery.’
Source: A History of Modern France by Alfred Cobban
More at: History
Teddy Roosevelt became 26th US president after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt himself was shot on his way to give a speech in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912. His would-be assassin was unemployed saloon-keeper and paranoid schizophrenic John Schrank. Roosevelt continued on to the venue and gave the 90 minute address with the bullet lodged in his chest before seeking medical attention. What did Schrank say was the reason why he shot Roosevelt?
Answer: “In a dream I saw President McKinley sit up in his coffin pointing at a man in a monk’s attire in whom I recognized Theodore Roosevelt. The dead president said – this is my murderer – avenge my death.”
Source: The Americans by J C Furnas
More at: History
In British history, what were the nineteen propositions?
Answer: These were demands presented by the English Parliament to King Charles 1 in 1642. They were designed to limit the powers of the crown and their rejection represented the beginning of the English Civil War. This ended badly for Charles. He was beheaded in 1649.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
Otto Von Bismarck was one of the most famous politicians in German and indeed world history. What was one example of his dry wit?
Answer: Born of the land owning Prussian Junkers aristocratic class in 1815, he was a master politician and geopolitics expert who united Germany under a new Reich in 1870.
He was sacked by the impetuous and ever-frenetic Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890, after nearly 20 years as German chancellor, an act that was immortalized in a famous Punch cartoon entitled ‘Dropping the Pilot’.
Bismarck was renowned for his dry wit. He said of the erratic and probably mad Kaiser Wilhelm that ‘He always wants it to be Sunday’ and, rather unkindly, described the kaiser’s wife Donna as ‘a Holstein cow’.
When Bismarck was presented by the king of Prussia with the highest award that Germany could offer, the Grand Cross of the Hohenzollern Order set in diamonds, after the stunning victory in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, Bismarck remarked, ‘I’d sooner have a horse, or a good barrel of Rhenish wine’.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Massie
More at: History
Non aboriginal South Australia was founded essentially by the British in 1836 under a system strongly influenced by colonial figure Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Many countries and states over the years have experienced political instability. Italy, for example, since the World War Two has had no fewer than 61 governments. In this context, what was significant about South Australian Tom Playford?
Answer: He served as premier of South Australia continuously for no fewer than 26 years. It was the longest term of any elected government leader in the history of Australia, and anywhere under the Westminster system.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
The Courtaulds are a famous and illustrious British commercial family who are descended from French Huguenots, the protestants expelled from Roman Catholic France in the 17th century on religious grounds. In the early years of the last century prominent British politician, and later prime minister, David Lloyd George tried to sell the Courtaulds a peerage for the enormous sum of 70,000 guineas, to fund his Liberal Party. (The guinea being the currency of gentleman and equivalent to 21 shillings). When they declined, and Lloyd George reportedly said, “Wouldn’t you like to be a peer”, what was the reply from the Courtalds’ family representative?
Answer: “I’d prefer to remain a gentleman.”
Source: Churchill by Andrew Roberts
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What is the story of Thor in Norse mythology?
Answer: Thor was the god of thunder, through his hammer, and was represented as a man of enormous strength defending humanity against demons. He was the son of Odin and Freya, and Thursday is named after him.
Source: Webster’s New World Encyclopedia
More at: History
Over the centuries the allure of power and position has often been fuelled by a desire to acquire great riches. Some country’s histories are different to others. How is this so?
Answer: Throughout history, the sovereign of most countries or states, was in effect the owner of all the land. In England, land not privately owned is Crown land.
In a pre World War One census in Russia, Tsar Nicholas II obligingly participated, and wrote down his occupation as ‘owner of the Russian lands’.
The desire to match power with wealth continues. President Marcos of the Philippines, who was deposed in 1986, stripped billions from the national coffers, while millions in his country lived in grinding poverty.
President Suharto of Indonesia had an official salary at the end of his 30 years in office in 1998 of US$80,000. Yet the CIA reported that he had accumulated a fortune for he and his family of at least US$21 billion.
By comparison, when Australian prime minister Sir Robert Menzies retired in 1966 after 17 years overseeing steady increases in that country’s prosperity, on his return to his home city of Melbourne, he didn’t have enough money to buy himself a house to live in.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
The Whigs were a political party in the United Kingdom between the 1680s and 1850s. What was one of the party’s favourite sayings, which resonated with many supporters?
Answer: ‘Beef and liberty’. This succinctly summarised the concept of enough to eat, and indeed ‘The roast beef of Old England’ symbolising good eating. And, freedom from tyranny and despotism which can so easily fall upon the unwary and unvigilant.
Source: A History of England by Paul Johnson
More at: History
In Europe, what was Pan-Germanism?
Answer: This was the 19th century movement to encourage unity between German-speaking peoples in Austria, the Netherlands, Flanders, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Emboldened by Germany’s 1871 unification, the movement had an increasingly high profile up to the start of World War One in 1914.
Pan-Germanism also resonated in Belgium among Flemish separatists and in Poland in World War One. The idea was revived under Hitler’s plans for European expansion.
Source: Webster’s New World Encyclopedia
More at: History
What is the fascinating story of 6th and 7th century CE writer and missionary Isidore of Seville?
Answer: His Etymologiae was the prototype for later Medieval encyclopedias and helped to preserve classical thought during the Middle Ages. His Chronica Maiora remains a very significant source for the history of Visigothic Spain. As bishop of Seville from 600, he strengthened the church, he increased the standing of the church in Spain and converted many Jews and Aryan Visigoths.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
What was the remarkable story of William Pitt who became British prime minister at 24?
William Pitt was the youngest prime minister in Great Britain’s long history.
He entered Parliament in 1781 and got the top job when he was only 24. He had a good role model in his father, Pitt the Elder. The father, who was also prime minister of Great Britain, was known as the Great Commoner, even though he was elevated to the peerage as the Earl of Chatham.
In an age when oratory was both a means of persuasion and a form of high entertainment, Pitt the Elder was a master.
In a speech in the House of Commons in 1777 during hostilities between Britain and its American colonies, Pitt argued strongly against trying to stop American independence.
In a stirring and passionate address he said, ‘If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms … never … never … NEVER!!’
His words were prophetic of course, for the American colonies ultimately gained their independence from Britain.
Pitt the younger died aged only 46 from renal failure and cirrhosis of the liver. His taste for alcohol began in his boyhood during late night drinking sessions discussing politics with his Father.
Source: General Historical Texts
More at: History
What did cigarette, booze and drug loving, many times married, serial womaniser and carnal knowledge acquitee and Hollywood star Errol Flynn have in common with World War Two alcohol and tobacco hating non-philanderer British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery?
Answer: Both spent a considerable part of their childhood in Tasmania, Australia’s Southern most state. ‘Monty’, as he was known, was not all fun and games. He once invited future US five-star general Omar Bradley to lunch and only gave him an apple.
Source: General Historical Texts; The Australian May 25, 2015.
More at: History
“It was the finest toy I ever had in my life”. What was British World War Two prime minister Winston Churchill referring to?
Answer: His British Admiralty yacht ‘Enchantress’, the 4,000 tonne steam vessel provided to the First Lord of the Admiralty, a post Churchill was appointed to in 1911 aged just 36. It was one of the perks of office. The other was Admiralty House, a grand mansion in London, where he and his family resided, and where Churchill could conduct official Admiralty business.
Source: Churchill by Paul Johnson
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Why did French author and poet Gerard de Nerval (1808-1855) walk his pet lobster at the end of a blue silk ribbon, on a leash as the famous description goes, in the Palais-Royal in Paris?
Answer: “Because,” he said, “he knows the secrets of the deep”.
Source: Gerard de Nerval, Parisien de Paris by Charles Fegdal
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In the early 1960s, US President John F Kennedy consulted creator of the James Bond character and author Ian Fleming over a matter of government policy. What was this?
Answer: He wanted to know how James Bond would deal with getting rid of Cuban communist revolutionary and prime minister Fidel Castro.
Source: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
More at: History
What is the tragic tale of 12th century French lovers Abelard and Héloïse?
Answer: Abelard and Héloïse are among history’s unluckiest lovers.
French scholar, theologian, philosopher and teacher, Peter Abelard, was twice condemned for heresy in the 12th century. But his real problems began when he fell in love with a pupil, the beautiful and enchanting Héloïse.
Deeply in love, Abelard wrote to her: ‘Under the pretext of discipline, we abandoned ourselves utterly to love’.
She had his child, and they married in secret in about 1118. Héloïse’s uncle Fulbert, a canon at Notre-Dame Cathedral, was so seriously displeased, some said due to his attraction for Héloïse himself, that he ordered that Abelard be castrated.
Abelard retreated to a monastery and began what was his most productive intellectual period. Héloïse became a nun in, it was said, a convent Abelard founded especially for her.
In relative safety, Abelard, emasculated but focused intellectually, was then able to continue his controversial teachings and the lovers continued to correspond by letter. They remained separated until after death, but in a symbolic gesture were buried together in Paris in 1792.
In the profound drama of his relationship with Héloïse, it is often forgotten that Abelard was the greatest teacher of his age and the founder and inspiration of France’s most famous University, the Sorbonne.
Source: Abelard and Héloïse – A 12th century Love Affair by James Burge
More at: History
Propaganda and image play a big part in any politicians’ life. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was no exception. He was often photographed shirtless and sweating, working in a field or performing some other perceived macho activity.
In other times he was captured by the lens posturing theatrically in a bemedaled uniform on a balcony before a large massed audience. What was unusual about one propaganda photo shown of him playing chess?
Answer: He didn’t know how to play the game.
Source: The Modern World since 1870 by L E Snellgrove
More at: History
Brothels or bordellos have an interesting history in the human experience. What are some aspects of this?
Answer: Historical evidence suggests that the first brothels were in Ancient Sumeria over 4000 years ago, although they also existed in Ancient Egypt.
Bordellos could be found in the temples of Babylon, while in Ancient Greece they were run by the state.
The Ancient Greek historian Herodotus said in the fifth century BC that a Greek prostitute named Rhopopis (Ro-Pop-Sis) was so accomplished at her trade in Egypt she built a pyramid from her earnings.
Sex was a marketable commodity among the Romans. Waitresses in taverns usually sold sexual services.
In London in Elizabethan times, the sale of sex prospered and Southwark was the red-light district, where brothels were generally whitewashed.
In Paris, by the late 1600s, there were calls for a medical examination of sex workers and for them to wear a distinct dress with a badge.
Initially legal in the United States, prostitution was outlawed in almost all states between 1910 and 1915 thanks to the efforts of concerned Women’s Christian groups.
Luxury loving Sybarite French novelist Gustave Flaubert wrote enthusiastically of Egypt’s bordellos on his visit there in 1850 and waxed lyrical about the properties of a particular courtesan named Kuchak Hanem.
Although, modesty precludes us from saying exactly what he liked about her.
Source: General Historical Texts
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In the 13th century in Europe, who was the ‘wonder of the world’?
Answer: This was Frederick II (1194-1250). He was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1212. He led a Crusade between 1228 and 1229 that, remarkably, recovered Jerusalem by treaty without fighting. He was in dispute with the pope who excommunicated him no fewer than three times and a feud began that lasted intermittently until the end of his reign. History remembers Frederick, who was a religious sceptic, as probably the most cultured man of his epoch.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
Why would a Ford factory in Singapore become a popular destination for Japanese tourists after World War Two?
Answer: When the Japanese attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941 they launched simultaneous attacks around the Pacific including the east coast of Malaya.
The objective there was to take the British colony of Singapore, to the south.
This was the naval and military base that was generally considered ‘impregnable’.
Enormous land-based guns pointed out to sea on the assumption that if Singapore was attacked, it would be by sea, not land.
The Japanese were said to be ‘not air minded’ yet they launched devastating bombing runs on Singapore throughout December and January.
The Japanese led by Lieutenant-General ‘Tiger’ Yamashita (Ya-Mah-Shi-Ta) had success after success as his troops using bicycles and small tanks made their hard fought run down the Malay Peninsula.
By February 1942 Singapore, despite having 125,000 British, Indian and Australian troops defending it – against 25,000 Japanese – was on the verge of collapse.
On February 15, General Yamashita accepted the surrender of the British delegation led by Lieutenant-General Percival at the Ford Motor Factory at Bukit Timar (Book-It Tee-Mah), near the centre of the island.
For many years after the end of the war, the factory remained one of the most popular tourist destinations for Japanese tourists visiting Singapore.
Source: Pax Britannica by Jan Morris
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What was the ‘Iron Curtain’, and who in fact coined this expression?
Answer: After World War Two in Europe this was the symbolic delineation of the Cold War between the capitalist West and communist East. The expression was popularised by British prime minister Winston Churchill after 1945. An English traveller to Bolshevik Russia, a Mrs Snowden, utilised the expression with reference to the Soviet border in 1920. As well, the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels used it a few months before Churchill in 1945 to describe the divide between Soviet dominated and other nations that would exist after German capitulation.
Source: History of the Modern World by Paul Johnson
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Among surgeons at the 1815 Battle of Waterloo ‘when in doubt amputate’ was pretty much the catch-cry. What did this mean?
Answer: The Battle of Waterloo between Napoleon Bonaparte and an alliance led by Britain’s Duke of Wellington was one of the most decisive battles of modern history.
Wellington won, but lost twenty nine percent of his army.
In this one day of battle 47,000 casualties occurred on a tiny 4 kilometre front.
The British Army had just 52 staff surgeons on the day. In the field, each battalion of 600 men was theoretically allocated one regimental surgeon and two assistant surgeons.
The surgeons’ instruments included bullet forceps to grope for missiles, a punch to knock out teeth and a pair of strong nippers for trimming the ends of bones.
Fought mostly over open country, there were three types of injury at the Battle of Waterloo.
Firstly, heavy wounds from six, nine and 12 pound shot.
Secondly, injuries from low velocity musket fire.
Thirdly, cutting, chopping or piercing wounds from swords or bayonet.
About 500 amputations were carried out during the battle. The surgeons’ motto was, ‘when in doubt, amputate.’
After enduring amputation of an arm without the benefits of an anaesthetic, young British officer Lord Fitzroy Somerset called out cheerfully, “Here, don’t take that arm away until I have taken the ring off the finger.”
Source: Waterloo by Andrew Roberts; The Destruction of Lord Raglan by Christopher Hibbert
More at: History
Many historians have said that the modern world owes a tremendous debt to Ancient Greece. How is this so?
Answer: Greece was the foundation of much of Western culture today. From democracy, government, philosophy and science, to mathematics, art, literature and sport.
With its beginnings around 800 BCE, Ancient Greece dominated much of the Mediterranean and ruled great swathes of Europe and Western Asia.
The Greeks came before the Romans, and many aspects of Roman culture were influenced by the Greeks. The Olympics of today began in Ancient Greece. Then there was the towering intellect and wisdom of philosophers Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.
One historian has written that the Ancient Greeks “had a completely new concept of what human life, and indeed the human mind, was for.”
The earliest railway, the Diolkos, in around 600 BCE, enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth, and lasted for over 600 years.
One of the greatest feats of Ancient Greek engineering, the aqueduct of Eupalinos, in Samos, coursed through a mountain for over 1000 metres.
Expert shipbuilders and sailors, the Ancient Greeks voyaged to Mesopotamia, Egypt and beyond, returning with medicine and sculpture from the Egyptians, the alphabet from the Phoenicians, mathematics from the Babylonians, writing from the Sumerians.
As Plato said, “What the Greeks borrow from foreigners, they perfect.”
Source: Ancient Greece by Sarah B Pomeroy
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What was one of the more gruesome aspects of Charlemagne’s (king of the Franks from 768, king of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor from 800) conquest of West Saxony in 782?
Answer: It involved the mass execution of 4,500 Saxon prisoners at Werden, in today’s Essen. The bloody event was embraced by Nazi sympathisers in the 1930s as a type of pre-Christian Germanic martyrdom.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
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The atomic bomb which devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6 1945 was about 20 kilotons in devastating power. How big was the explosion on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa in August 1883?
Answer: It erupted with a force of some 100 megatons. The explosion was heard as far away as Mauritius, some 3,000 kilometres away. The resulting tsunamis were some 30 metres high and destroyed 300 villages along the coasts of Java and Sumatra and enormous waves rippled across the South Pacific. Ash from the explosion rose 80 kilometres and impacted global weather patterns for a year.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
The Parthenon in Athens is perhaps the most famous structure of the ancient world. What are some features of this remarkable building?
Answer: A former temple on the Acropolis, or high ground, it is dedicated to the goddess Athena, the people of Athens’ patron.
Building began in 447 BCE when the Athenian empire was at its apex. Designed by architects Ictinos and Callicrates, the Parthenon was built of marble from Mount Pendeli by skilled craftsmen and artists.
The building is a sublime architectural structure not just for its striking beauty but its sophisticated and minute refinements.
A Doric temple with eight columns at the façade, and seventeen columns at the flanks, it is on first appearance a pure expression of linear and rational thinking, frozen in stone. This is, in fact, a clever illusion.
The Parthenon has not a single straight line. Each column bends slightly. The temple embraces the ratio of nine to four, which governs its vertical and horizontal proportions.
Other features include an upward curvature of the base, gentle convexity of the columns as they diminish in diameter toward the top, and a thickening of the four corner columns to offset the thinning effect of being viewed at certain angles against the sky.
In all, sublime, sculptured art – but on a majestic scale.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
In the 1920s, who was the highest paid woman in the world?
Answer: Five feet tall screen idol Mary Pickford, known as ‘America’s Sweetheart’.
Source: Mary Pickford – America’s Sweetheart by Scott Eyman
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US Senator Robert Kennedy had a love of which Ancient Greek philosopher, and what was the relevance of this?
Answer: Robert F Kennedy was one of America’s youngest Attorneys General on his appointment to this high office in 1961.
He relentlessly pursued organised crime in America, when the FBI’s head J. Edgar Hoover said that it did not exist in the US.
On the day that Martin Luther King Jr was shot dead in Tennessee, in April 1968, Kennedy was due to address a crowd of largely African Americans. Unscripted, he gave what was one of his greatest speeches, and one which will go down in American history.
To a shocked audience who had just received the news of King’s killing, he said, ‘For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed …’
One of Senator Kennedy’s most revered poets, and indeed that of his brother President John F Kennedy, was the Ancient Greek philosophy Aeschylus.
Among his favorite of the poet’s verses was, ‘God whose law it is that those who learn must suffer. And even in you sleep pain that can’t forget falls drops by drop around the heart.’
It was said that the poem gave him some comfort in his enormous grief over the death of his brother who was shot in November 1963.
Tragically, like his brother, Robert Kennedy fell, like Dr King, to an assassin’s bullet in 1968.
Source: General Historical Texts
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Famed English writer Ian Fleming, who created the iconic James Bond character, came from an aristocratic background that included Eton and prestigious military academy Sandhurst. His early education was at an obscure primary school in Dorset, Durnford.
The school had a very Dickensian education model involving bare-footed runs along the beach in winter, cold water showers and slit trenches for toilets. The school’s spartan inspired headmaster was held in great affection by the pupils. One of Fleming’s contemporaries at the school went on to serve in the famed Special Air Service, the toughest regiment in the British army. What did he say about his early education at Durnford as regards his later service in the SAS?
Answer: “After Durnford, the SAS was a piece of cake.”
Source: Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett
More at: History
October 2018
Ancient Sparta has been admired through the centuries for the heroism of its warriors. Is this legendary reputation justified?
Answer: Sparta was one of the most famous and powerful city-states in Ancient Greece.
Tough, austere, heroic and above all warlike, Spartan Hoplites were famous for their skill and bravery in battle.
Spartan men trained to become warriors from the day they were born. Their soldiers drilled and practiced endlessly, fighting in a famous phalanx formation. Shields locked together they advanced, their spears thrusting into the enemy.
Rarely breaking formation, Spartan armies vanquished much bigger military forces. Beyond these martial skills, the Spartan’s organizational abilities were a magnificent and symbolic embodiment of Greek cooperative citizenry.
According to Greek historian Plutarch, to encourage equality and stop the development of a wealthy elite, Sparta used long and heavy iron rods as currency. A weighty and cumbersome currency, it was believed, would discourage wealth accumulation.
One of the most famous Spartan encounters was the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE. The last stand of King Leonidas and his three hundred Spartan hoplites against the massed forces of Persian monarch Xerxes the first, is the stuff of legend.
The Spartan Dieneces, when told that the Persian archers would shoot so many arrows they would conceal the Sun, replied:
“This is good news … if the Persians hide the Sun, we shall do battle in the shade.”
Source: The Spartans by Paul Cartledge
More at: History
Early 20th century African American iconic boxing champion Jack Johnson was a keen motorist, but ultimately all did not go well as regards his pastime. What were the circumstances of this?
Answer: Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight boxing champion after winning the title from Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, on December 26, 1908.
Known as the ‘Galveston Giant’ and ‘Little Arthur’, Johnson was handsome and charismatic and had his last fight aged fifty.
His father was a janitor who preached in local churches. Johnson was close to his mother and spoke with pride of buying her a house with some of the early proceeds of his wins in the ring.
Outside of the ring, Johnson spent a life of adventure, including some time fighting bulls in Spain.
As he wrote in his autobiography, he was also a “Great Motorist”.
But on the road Johnson was less masterful than in the ring.
No fewer than five times cars rolled on top of him and each time he survived.
But his luck was to run out.
Once, driving fast through a town in America’s south, the local sheriff stopped him for speeding and fined him fifty dollars. Johnson, smiling, handed over a one hundred dollar bill saying, “I’m coming back the same way.”
The great boxing icon died on June 10, 1946 in North Carolina, when he lost control of his car which hit a light pole and overturned.
Source: The Great White Hopes: The Quest to Defeat Jack Johnson by Graeme Kent
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French Marshal Philippe Petain, the ‘Hero of Verdun’ and the traitor head of the early 1940s Vichy Government had an interesting philosophy as regards what really mattered in life. What was this?
Answer: During the First World War General Philippe Petain was in command of the defense of the French fortress of Verdun.
The fortification had near mystical meaning to the French, as throughout history it was a central stronghold through which would-be invaders had to pass, to reach Paris.
In defending it, Petain made the famous statement, ‘They shall not pass’, and became known as the ‘Hero of Verdun’.
After the war he was made a Marshal of France and was a national hero.
When history repeated itself and the Germans invaded France in 1940, the French fought gallantly, but surrendered within six weeks.
Petain, aged 84, was made head of the exiled Vichy Government, which presided over unoccupied France, until the country was liberated by the allies in August 1944.
After the war Petain was tried for treason and given a life sentence.
He died in 1951 aged 95.
A renowned ladies man, while head of the Vichy government, officials once tried to find the 86 year old for a meeting, only to eventually track him down in bed with a pretty 18 year old, presumably not discussing French historical fortifications.
Petain famously said that there were two things that mattered in life: food and sex.
Source: Petain by Charles Williams
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When the RMS Titanic tragically sank on April 15 1912, with the loss of over 1,500 lives, Japanese civil servant Masabumi Hosono greatly disappointed the Japanese people. How so?
Answer: Japan is a remarkable country in many ways. The Japanese royal family can trace its ancestry back in a direct, uninterrupted line an incredible two thousand six hundred years.
In 2007, the temple-construction company Kongo Gumi ran out of money and was absorbed by a larger company. It had been in business for 1,429 years.
In 1945 a Japanese soldier in the Philippines jungle dismissed as propaganda World War Two had ended, and fought on until finally surrendering in 1974, only after his wartime commanding officer came out to tell him it was OK.
Honor and duty are paramount in Japanese society. Japanese civil servant Masabumi Hosono had this brought home to him in 1912.
He was the only Japanese passenger on the Titanic, which tragically sank on April 15, with the loss of over 1,500 lives. Mr Hosono was among the 700 survivors.
Now, by and large, there was quiet rejoicing at those who were fortunate enough to survive this terrible sinking. But not so for Mr Hosono.
Back in Japan he was condemned as a coward for saving himself, and ostracised from Japanese society as a result. In short, the consensus view in Japan was that it would have been more honorable for Mr Hosono to have gone down with the ship.
Source: General Historical Texts
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During the crisis surrounding the Stamp Act of 1765, the common rallying cry in British America was “Wilkes and Liberty!”. Why?
Answer: John Wilkes (1727-1797), a British parliamentarian, supported the American colonial cause and became a popular hero.
Source: Revolutionary America by Terry M. Mays
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At the time of the French Revolution (1789), the French language was commonly used throughout France. True or False?
Answer: False. In southern France most spoke dialects of Occitan, effectively so different to French as to be another language altogether. Within French itself there were at least six different regional varieties. Other languages spoken in France at the time included Flemish, German, Italian, Catalan, Basque and Breton.
Source: The French Revolution and the People by David Andress
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A 4th Century CE Greek arsonist set fire to the Temple of Artemis to gain notoriety. How did the Greeks seek to prevent this from happening?
Answer: They attempted to introduce a law that forbade anyone from speaking his name, a method called damnatio memoriae. The plan didn’t work as we know his name, Herostratus.
Source: Word of Mouth – Fame and Its Personifications in Art and Literature by Gianni Guastella
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Elagabalus (203-222 BCE) became Roman emperor at the mere age of 14, ruling for four infamous years. What trick did he used to play on guests at his parties?
Answer: When they were drunk and asleep Elagabalus would let lions, leopards and bears into their bedrooms. British historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) once declared that his reign’s “inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or country.”
Source: The Crimes of Elagabalus – The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor by Martijn Icks
More at: History
What figure represented England at both football and cricket, played in the FA Cup final and scored 30,000 first class runs?
Answer: C.B. Fry (1872-1956).
Source: C.B. Fry – King of Sport by Iain Morton
More at: History
England possesses a High Court of Chivalry. True or False?
Answer: True. The court has not met since 1954, which was its first meeting in over two hundred years. The first order of business was to decide if the court still existed.
Source: The Rule of Law in International and Comparative Context by Robert McCorquodale
More at: History
On December 20 1943, an American B-17 bomber was badly damaged after bombing Germany when, while returning, it encountered a German Messerschmitt BF-109. What happened?
Answer: Realising that the bomber was too damaged to fight back, the pilot of the BF-109 did not attack but escorted the bomber back to Britain. The event is considered one of the few examples of chivalry in the Second World War (1939-1945).
Source: A Higher Call by Adam Makos
More at: History
Englishman J.J. Thomson (1856-1940) was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize for Physics by demonstrating that electrons were a particle. How did his son, G.P. Thomson (1892-1975), emulate his father?
Answer: He also was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1937. He won it however, for proving that electrons were in fact waves.
Source: Frontiers – Twentieth Century Physics by Steve Adams
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An American Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking (1794), Geography Made Easy (1798) and Elements of History (1827) are all examples of what?
Answer: The first textbooks used to teach students in the United States of America.
Source: History in the Making by Kyle Ward
More at: History
In 1325 a war was fought between the rival Italian city-states of Modena and Bologna. What started it?
Answer: Modenese soldiers stole a bucket from Bologna’s city well. Hence the conflict is called “The War of the Bucket”. Modena prevailed and to this day still possess the bucket.
Source: International Dictionary of Historic Places by Sharon La Boda
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Which English king, known for his hapless rule, was a highly unconventional monarch who preferred the company of peasants, labourers and fishermen to barons and members of his court?
Answer: Edward II (1283-1327).
Source: Edward II by Kathryn Warner
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What were the final words uttered to his men by John Sedgwick (1813-1864), Union army general in the American Civil War (1861-1865)?
Answer: “What! what! men, dodging this way for single bullets! What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Seconds later Sedgwick was shot and killed.
Source: Snipers at War by John Walter
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Medieval European observers described what Asian ruler as being “learned in all kinds of sorcery”?
Answer: Akbar I (1542 – 1605), Mughal emperor. The cult that surrounded Akbar stated that he was akin to divinity and could heal and control the waters in both rivers and clouds. Historical evidence suggest that many at the time believed this was true.
Source: Asia – A Concise History by Arthur Cotterell
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In 66 CE, a riot took place by Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem, causing a heavy handed Roman response and the death of thousands. What caused it?
Answer: A Roman soldier “mooned”, or bared his buttocks, to the pilgrims, not surprisingly inciting violence among the religious travellers. There is no evidence that the over-exposed legionary was ever disciplined.
Source: The Jewish Revolts Against Rome by James J. Bloom
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Which famous author did not put her name to her first published novel, merely writing it was written “By a Lady”?
Answer: Jane Austen (1775 – 1817). The novel was Sense & Sensibility (1811).
Source: The Literature 100 by Daniel S. Burt
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The American founding fathers established no national language, but before doing so did consider several languages. What were they?
Answer: Alongside English, they considered making Greek, Hebrew and French the national language of the United States.
Source: Cross-Language Relations in Composition by Bruce Horner
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During the Second World War (1939-1945), an American dentist convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) to bomb Japan in what bizarre way?
Answer: With bats. The plan was to attach timed explosives to thousands of bats and drop them from U.S. bombers. The project was scrapped after some of the armed bats escaped and did significant damage to the testing facility.
Source: Whirlwind – The Air War Against Japan by Barrett Tillman
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In Ancient Egypt, how did small objects called shabtis save the lives of hundreds?
Answer: Shabtis were small statues of servants, made to be placed in the tomb of the servants’ master when they died. The use of shabtis developed to replace the previous practice, which was to bury the servants alive in the master’s tomb.
Source: Horrible Jobs in Ancient Egypt by Robyn Hardyman
More at: History
Which English king, known for his hapless rule, was a highly unconventional monarch who preferred the company of peasants, labourers and fishermen to barons and members of his court?
Answer: Edward II (1283-1327).
Source: Edward II by Kathryn Warner
More at: History
On November 19 1863, crowds flocked to see US PRFESIDENT Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) speak at the dedication of the Gettysburg national cemetery, where he gave a rousing two-hour speech. True or false?
Answer: False. The individual who gave a two-hour speech to rapturous applause was politician Edward Everett (1794-1865). While Lincoln did speak afterwards, he did so only for just over two minutes, and few in the crowd considered it significant. Only subsequently, when Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” was published, did it become one of the most famous speeches in American history.
Source: Edward Everett – The Intellectual in the Turmoil of Politics by Paul Varg
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American statesman Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) did not consider being president as one of his great achievements. How do we know this?
Answer: He left clear instructions for how he should be described on his tombstone:
“Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.”
Conspicuous by its absence is “Third President of the United States of America.”
Source: The American Presidents in 100 Facts by Jem Duducu
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English football club Crewe Alexandria were founded in 1877. The team was thought to have been patriotically named after Princess Alexandra (1844-1925), the wife of the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII). What do many feel they were really named for?
Answer: A public house (pub) in Crewe, also called the Princess Alexandra.
Source: Top Ten of Football by Russell Ash
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“Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone”. These were the last words of whom?
Answer: British war nurse Edith Cavell (1865 – 1915).
Source: Fatal Decision by Terri Arthur
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Who is the only monarch in history to publish a book on witchcraft?
Answer: King James VI and I of Scotland and England (1566 – 1625). His book, Daemonologie (the science of demons) took many years for James to complete, and when published was translated into French, Dutch and Latin.
Source: Authorship and Authority by Jane Rickard
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In Tudor England, what superstition meant that pregnant women did all they could to avoid looking at the moon?
Answer: According to the superstition, the children of pregnant woman who stared at the moon would go insane.
Source: The Private Lives of the Tudors by Tracy Borman
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What links the autobiography of Lord Byron (1788-1824), the letters of Jane Austen (1775-1817) and the writings of explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890)?
Answer: All were destroyed shortly after the authors’ death. Both Byron and Burton’s work were destroyed for fear of the shame the contents may bring. It remains unclear why Austen’s letters, burnt by her sister, were destroyed.
Source: History’s People – Personalities and the Past by Margaret MacMillan
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When war was declared in 1914, the chief of the Austrian general staff was resigned to defeat. What did he declare, in a letter to his mistress?
Answer: “It will be a hopeless struggle, but it must be pursued because so old a monarchy and so glorious an army cannot go down ingloriously.”
Source: History’s People – Personalities and the Past by Margaret MacMillan
More at: History
September 2018
Which famous world leader was considered handsome and dignified, but also the source of jokes by contemporaries who felt that he looked like an undertaker?
Answer: Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th president of the United States.
Source: History’s People – Personalities and the Past by Margaret MacMillan
More at: History
“Let us raise up a temple
To the cult of mediocrity,
Do nothing by halves,
When it can be done by quarters.”
Who is being attacked in this stinging poem?
Answer: Mackenzie King (1874-1950), Canadian prime minister. The poem, by the lawyer and poet F.R. Scott (1899-1985), laments that under King’s leadership “we had no shape, because he never took sides. And no sides, because he never allowed them to take shape.”
Source: History’s People – Personalities and the Past by Margaret MacMillan
More at: History
Famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was only eight years old when he began writing musical compositions that would later become part of works such as Allegro in C. True or False?
Answer: False. He was only five years old.
Source: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – A Biography by Piero Melograni
More at: History
Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) was born into a family of desperately poor tenant farmers in the Chinese Huai River plain on October 21, 1328. How did he go on to change Chinese history?
Answer: He, as the Hongwu Emperor, was the founder of the Ming dynasty.
Source: The Cambridge History of China, Volume 7 by Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett
More at: History
What came first: the original patent of the fax machine or the invention of the machine gun?
Answer: The fax machine, patented by Scottish inventor Alexander Bain in 1843. The machine gun was not invented until 1885.
Source: Leonardo To The Internet by Thomas J. Misa
More at: History
In 1780, Holy Roman emperor Joseph II (1741-1790) was, with his entourage, travelling through France, when he came across American polymath and one of the United States’ founding fathers Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). When asked whether he, Joseph, approved of America, how did he reply?
Answer: He confirmed he did not, for “I am a king by trade.”
Source: The First American – The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
More at: History
What trend did Alexander the Great (356-323 CE) set because he considered it would make him safer in combat?
Answer: Being clean shaven. Despite Greek men wearing beards for over 500 years, others quickly followed suit.
Source: Encyclopedia of Hair – A Cultural History by Victoria Sherrow
More at: History
At the 1932 Olympics games in Los Angeles, one entrant entered even though he had been dead for over twenty years. True or false?
Answer: True. The 1932 Olympics included an art competition and a painting by Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was entered.
Source: What’s the Fact by Gabe Henry
More at: History
While the Roman senate was debating a conspiracy to overthrow the government, Julius Caesar (100– 44 BCE) received a note. Cato (95–46 BCE), who opposed Caesar, accused him of corresponding with enemies of the state and demanded to be allowed to read the message. What was it?
Answer: The note was a love letter from Cato’s own sister. Furious, Cato threw the note back to Caesar saying, “keep it, you drunkard” and returned to the debate.
Source: Encyclopedia of Women in the Ancient World by Joyce E. Salisbury
More at: History
What device, common in cafeterias, airports and trains stations worldwide, was invented in the first century CE?
Answer: The vending machine. It was invented by famed Greek inventor Heron of Alexandria (10 CE -70 CE), who developed a device which, when one introduced a five-drachma coin, would dispense a fixed amount of liquid.
Source: The Forgotten Revolution by Lucio Russo
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From where does the phrase “Die Hard” originate?
Answer: From the Battle of Albuera (1811) during the Napoleonic Wars. Early in the battle, Colonel William Inglis (1764 – 1835) of the British 57th regiment was wounded but refused to be carried to the rear. Instead, throughout the battle his voice could be heard calmly repeating “die hard 57th, die hard!”
Source: The Peninsular War – A New History by Charles Esdaile
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Which battle, which took place on August 2 216 BCE, was until the twentieth century the bloodiest day of warfare in human history?
Answer: The Battle of Cannae, between Rome and Carthage. 50,000 Roman soldiers died in a comprehensive Carthage victory.
Source: The World’s Bloodiest History by Joseph Cummins
More at: History
The small European country of Liechtenstein last went to war in 1866. What happened?
Answer: It committed 80 soldiers, but all survived. In fact, 81 returned, including a new Italian ‘friend’.
Source: Switzerland by Kerry Christian
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In 1941, during World War Two, the husband of Mariya Oktyabrskaya was killed while serving in the Soviet army. In response, she sold all her possessions to donate a T-34 medium tank to the war effort, but on what condition?
Answer: That she be allowed to drive it. She named her tank “Fighting Girlfriend” and was commended for her bravery. She was killed in battle in 1944 and posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Source: Heroines of the Soviet Union by Henry Sakaida
More at: History
Egyptian pharaoh Pepi II (2284 BCE – ?) used an ingenious, if rather cruel, way to stop himself being swarmed with flies on hot days. What was it?
Answer: He smeared his servants in honey, so they drew flies away from him.
Source: Horrible Jobs in Ancient Egypt by Robyn Hardyman
More at: History
In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won a race at Belmont Park, New York. Why was this incredible?
Answer: Hayes was dead. He suffered a heart attack during the race, but his body stayed in the saddle until the horse crossed the line.
Source: Great Sporting Eccentrics by David Randall
More at: History
Maurice (539-602) was a Byzantine emperor overthrown by one of his generals, Phocas (? – 610 CE). In what gruesome way was he put to death?
Answer: Phocas executed all six of Maurice’s sons in front of him, before he too was executed.
Source: The Causes of War by Alexander Gillespie
More at: History
American aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright were engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are credited with inventing, building and flying the world’s first successful airplane. The brothers only flew together once. Why?
Answer: They promised their father they wouldn’t fly together in case of a fatal crash. The only time they flew together, in front of friends and family in 1909, they did so with his express permission.
Source: Facts About the Wright Brothers by Caitlin L. Alexander
More at: History
In 1837, Japanese scholar Ōshio Heihachirō (1793-1837) commenced a rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate by doing what?
Answer: Setting fire to his own house. The burning of his Osaka home acted as the signal to his followers to rise in revolt.
Source: The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B. Jansen
More at: History
Famed French First World War general Joseph Joffre (1852-1931) was renowned for his calm and imperturbability. What were some aspects of this?
Answer: Joseph Joffre was a famous French general during the First World War. He is perhaps best known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne, in the first weeks of the war in 1914.
Joffre had a remarkable temperament. He would send off tens of thousands of men to be killed or wounded, and that night would go to bed punctually at 10pm and promptly fall asleep.
Unflappable, he was the personification of coolness and calmness under pressure. In short, he was like an unmoving rock amid a world of disquiet and near chaos.
Source: Marshal Joffre – The Triumphs, Failures and Controversies of France’s Commander-In-Chief in the Great War by Andre Bourachot and Andrae Bourachot
More at: History
What was said about famed British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) as regards his energy?
Answer: Gladstone was a powerhouse of 19th century British politics. Prime minister no fewer than four times, he formed his last ministry aged 84.
He had enormous energy. As a younger man, one of Gladstone’s political mentors said of him, “Gladstone can do in four hours what it takes another man 16, and he works 16 hours a day”
On this basis, in the same time another person was doing one day’s work, the young Gladstone was doing the equivalent of around a week’s work.
Source: The Life of William Ewart Gladstone by John Morley
More at: History
British admiral Jackie Fisher (1841-1920) said there were four things for a ‘big life’. What were they?
Answer: In the early years of the last century, legendary British Admiral Jackie Fisher revolutionised the Royal Navy.
Brilliant and unconventional, his letters and notes were littered with multiple under-linings and exclamation marks; he would sign letters with valedictions such as ‘yours ‘til hell freezes over’.
He was a remarkable visionary, and a real eccentric.
In typical flamboyant but astute fashion, Fisher said there were four things needed for, what he termed, ‘a big life?’
One. A great Inspiration.
Two. A great Cause.
Three. A great Battle.
Four. A great Victory.
Source: Fisher’s Face by Jan Morris
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US General George C Marshall (1880-1959) was a case study in persevering to get ahead. What was a prime example of this?
Answer: George Catlett Marshall was the US army chief of staff during the Second World War, and became the first five star general in October 1944.
As head of the army Marshall had an incredible number under his command. At the end of the war in 1945, there were some eight million personnel in the US Army.
As chief of staff he was in charge of such famous military luminaries as Dwight D Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur.
Earlier in his career, Marshall was a lieutenant for 14 years; just about the lowest officer ranking. Yet he wound up a five star general.
A remarkable lesson in perseverance in getting to the top.
Source: General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman by Ed Cray
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What is the tragic tale of Boudicca, also known as Boadicea, first century queen of the ancient Britons?
Answer: Boudicca was Queen of the northern Iceni in Ancient Briton.
Historical accounts described her as a tall, terrifying redhead, and very clever.
In 60 CE, after a particularly brutal assault on her family, an army of over 100,000 Britons under her command launched an attack on Colchester, Rome’s capital in Britain. The city was burnt to the ground killing thousands.
The Roman Legions were called in for retribution and revenge.
According to chroniclers of the time, Boudicca amassed an army of no fewer than 200,000 against the Romans. But this vast force was defeated by a disciplined Roman army of 10,000 using a wedge formation, like the teeth of a saw.
The Britons panicked, and it is believed that some 80,000 died, with Roman losses put at a mere 400.
The slaughter was the result of the Britons being essentially a rampaging, disorderly mob who were cut down by a much smaller force of well organised and disciplined Roman soldiers.
Source: General Historical Texts
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French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps’ (1805-1894) epic work on the Suez Canal was over-shadowed by a later equally grand engineering project with a very different outcome. What was this?
Answer: De Lesseps was the driving force behind the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times between the West and the East.
The Suez Canal revolutionised world travel and transformed international trade, and de Lesseps became internationally famous.
Having succeeded in this magnificent task, he turned his mind to the issue of building a canal across Central America, thereby greatly cutting sailing distances, between America and the rest of the world.
Building a canal in flat, hot, dry Egypt, however, proved vastly different, to doing the same, in tropical, epidemic and landslide-prone Panama.
De Lessep’s involvement in the Panama Canal was a disaster, and his reputation, against the background of financial scandal brought about by others, was ruined.
Source: The History of the Suez Canal: A Personal Narrative by Ferdinand de Lesseps
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What was the relationship between Charles Rolls (1877-1910) and Henry Royce (1863-1933), of Rolls Royce fame, that is an enduring model for organisational excellence today?
Answer: Charles Rolls was a wealthy, aristocratic sportsman. In the early years of the 20th century he was a balloonist and a pioneering aviator. He was a family friend of the British Royal family, and thus extremely well connected.
Henry Royce, on the other hand, was a dour, UK Midlands electrical engineer who was described as a ‘meticulous engineer’.
Royce was a workaholic. It was not uncommon for his workmen, when they arrived in the morning, to find him in his engineering shop lying asleep over a piece of machinery. He was known to have worked for four days non-stop in his factory without going home.
Rolls Royce today, of course, is perhaps the most famous car name in the world.
These two men had very different, but complementary skills.
Rolls, the marketer, who knew all the right people, could not produce the car.
Royce, the meticulous engineer, had few, if any, selling skills.
One plus one came together. Not to make two. But to produce a star. To create a magical, high quality, stand out team.
They were a brilliant team with different but mutually enhancing balancing skills. Until Rolls’ untimely death in an aeroplane crash in 1910.
Source: The Rolls Royce Story by Reg Abbiss
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The last German Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) was passionate about Germany building a strong navy, even though this was deeply antagonistic towards Great Britain, which then had the largest navy in the world. In fact the kaiser liked to design his own naval vessels. What did one Italian admiral say about one of these designs?
Answer: ‘The ship your majesty has designed would be the mightiest, the most terrible, and also the loveliest battleship ever seen. She would surpass anything now afloat, her masts would be the tallest in the world, her guns would outrange all others. And the inner appointments are so well arranged that for the entire crew from the captain down to the cabin boy, it would be a real pleasure to sail on her. This wonderful vessel has had only one fault: if she were put on the water she would sink like a lump of lead.’
Source: The Last Kaiser – William the Impetuous by Giles MacDonogh
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What were some of the tragic aspects of the life of famed American dancer Isadora Duncan?
Answer: Duncan reached great heights in her professional career, but some remarkable lows in her private life.
Born in 1877, into a prominent and wealthy Californian family, her fortunes changed when her banker, entrepreneur and patron of the arts father was bankrupted in a fraudulent stock speculation scheme.
Spending her childhood in poverty, Duncan was to live in Europe from the age of 22.
She was regarded as the mother of modern dance. Her movements were borrowed from Ancient Greece, and she danced in flowing costumes, bare feet, and loose hair—revolutionary at the time.
She was to gain fame in Europe although she suffered financial loss from dance schools she had established. One of her managers also defrauded her.
Embracing free love, and she had numerous love affairs. Tragically her two children drowned with their governess when the car they were in rolled into the Seine River in Paris 1914.
Duncan married the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, eighteen years her junior, but he left here and hanged himself in 1925, having written his last poem in his own blood.
Duncan, who had a liking for long scarves, died bizarrely in 1927 when the scarf she was wearing got caught in the rear wheel of the sports car she was a passenger in, breaking her neck.
Source: General Historical Texts
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How many uniforms did the last German Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) own and how many castles?
Answer: The ‘All Higheat’, as he was known, possessed no fewer than 120 uniforms – Wilhelm would wear up to a dozen military uniforms a day – and 61 castles.
Source: Miranda Carter New Yorker and RC video.
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A Ponzi scheme, a form of fraud in which a businessman lures investors to pay profits to earlier investors, is named after what?
Answer: Charles Ponzi (1889-1949), an Italian conman who became associated with the practice in the 1920s. Ponzi initially claimed to be making a quick fortune by reselling postal reply coupons, but as expected, his fraud collapsed.
Source: White-Collar and Corporate Crime by Lawrence M. Salinger
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August 2018
According to Greek historian Herodotus (485 BCE – ?), in what unusual way did ancient Persians debate important issues?
Answer: They debated them drunk and reconsidered them sober, to ensure they covered the issue extensively.
Source: Herodotus, Explorer of the Past by James Allan and Stewart Evans
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Jay Gould (1836-1892, Charles T. Hinde (1832-1915), Andrew Mellon (1855-1937) and Charles Schwab (1862-1939) were all accused of being what?
Answer: ‘Robber barons’. The derogatory term was applied to an elite group of American capitalists who often used questionable practices and collusion to grow their wealth.
Source: White-Collar and Corporate Crime by Lawrence M. Salinger
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King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715) had an aversion to what common utensil?
Answer: The fork. While European nobles had been eating with a fork since the mid-seventeenth century, Louis still ate with his hands. He felt so passionately that he banned members of his court from using forks in his presence.
Source: What the Great Ate by Matthew Jacob and Mark Jacob
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Which American statesman was known for hosting the most boring dinner parties?
Answer: George Washington (1732-1799). Washington’s inability to make small talk made the dinners unbearable. After attending one dinner, Senator William Maclay wrote that “no cheering ray of convivial sunshine broke through the cloudy gloom of settled seriousness.” Author John Dos Passos put it more bluntly – “his dinners were excruciating.”
Source: What the Great Ate by Matthew Jacob and Mark Jacob
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Nazi propaganda was extensive in Germany between 1933 and 1945. How was even the school math textbook not immune during the Third Reich?
Answer: Math text books discussed military applications, and used military word problems. Similarly, physics and chemistry text books focused on military applications, while grammar classes practiced exclusively using propaganda sentences.
Source: Third Reich Propaganda by Bob Carruthers
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The visit of King Henri III of France (1551-1589) to Venice in 1574 was celebrated in what strange way?
Answer: A meal was prepared in which 1,286 items, everything from bread to forks to centerpieces, were all made out of spun sugar.
Source: What the Great Ate by Matthew Jacob and Mark Jacob
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During a lunch with the King of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud (1875-1953), Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was informed that the King’s religion forbade drinking and smoking. What did Churchill say in response?
Answer: “I must point out that my rule of life prescribes as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.”
Source: The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill by Dominique Enright
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Which fighter aircraft, introduced in 1942, had a top speed of 481 miles per hour, was armed with four 20 millimetre cannon and was the first American fighter to truly match the Japanese Zero?
Answer: The Vought F4U corsair.
Source: World War II Almanac by Keith D. Dickson
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“There are 31,000 millionaires in the United States, all of them having accumulated their wealth by ‘robbery’ of the people!” Who declared this, and when?
Answer: The Farmers Alliance of the United States in 1890. In the late nineteenth century, the increasing inequality in America led many to fear the American Dream was at risk.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century by Stanley I. Kutler
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In 1900, the most populous city in America was New York City, with 3.4 million inhabitants. How did Los Angeles rank?
Answer: It was the 36th largest city in America, with a population of just 106,000. Miami was even smaller, a remote village in the swamps with a population of 1,700.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century by Stanley I. Kutler
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According to the Greek essayist Plutarch (45-127 CE), Spartans encouraged equality in their society what ingenious way?
Answer: They used long and heavy iron rods as their currency in the hopes it would discourage Spartans from pursuing the accumulation of great wealth. The rods were supposedly so cumbersome that carrying significant wealth would require numerous oxen.
Source: Primitive Money by Paul Einzig
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The little known Battle of the Saintes, a confrontation between Great Britain and France in the Caribbean in 1782, is considered one of the most important naval battles in history. Why?
Answer: Coming less than a year after the British surrender at Yorktown (October 1781), victory for the British prevented a French invasion of British Caribbean possessions and ensured naval supremacy for Britain in the West Indies. The victory has been described as one of the few decisive sea battles in world history.
Source: A Brief History of the Caribbean by Jan Rogozinski
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According to legend, the pirate Blackbeard (1680-1718) was a physical giant with an enormous appetite, had 14 wives and drank vast amounts of rum long after his crew had passed out. How much of this was true?
Answer: Very little. Blackbeard, real name Edward Teach, did not perform any of the feats attributed to him. He was however a powerfully built man, who went on fighting for several minutes after receiving five musket shots and numerous sword wounds, when he died in 1718.
Source: A Brief History of the Caribbean by Jan Rogozinski
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In the early twentieth century, the role of British prime minister involved none of the carefully managed security that it does today. For instance, how did Prime Minister H.H. Asquith (1852-1928) often travel?
Answer: By taxi. Asquith was the first prime minister to be filmed, with the footage showing him arriving at 10 Downing Street in a taxi and paying the driver.
Source: Asquith by Stephen Bates
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In the years before the First World War (1914-1918), European powers spent vast sums on their militaries. How much was Britain spending on the Royal Navy alone in 1906?
Answer: £30 million a year, a fifth of the government’s entire expenditure.
Source: Asquith by Stephen Bates
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During the First World War (1914-1918), Britain was awash with anti-German feeling. What outlandish rumour involved a German businessman?
Answer: According to the rumour, a long-naturalised businessman of German extraction had a concrete base under his tennis court, from where a German gun would shell London.
Source: Asquith by Stephen Bates
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“Lenin left us a great legacy, but we, his heirs, have f***** it up.” So said Joseph Stalin (1878-1953). What is he referring to?
Answer: The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. It was as close as Stalin came to admitting responsibility for his catastrophic error in judgement, namely his refusal to believe the intelligence indicating Germany was planning an invasion.
Source: Fateful Choices – Ten Decisions That Changed the World by Ian Kershaw
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The seven strong leadership of which armed revolt included individuals as varied as a visionary Catholic poet, a communist and a tobacconist?
Answer: The Easter Rebellion in Ireland (1916).
Source: The Seven – The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic by Ruth Dudley Edwards
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What highly portentous air travel disaster occurred on October 5, 1930?
Answer: The crash of the R101 British airship on its maiden voyage in France, killing 48 of 56 passengers. As both the political backers of the airship program and the key designers were on board when it perished, the disaster ended British rigid airship development.
Source: Ramsay MacDonald by Kevin Morgan
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Lord George Curzon (1859-1925) was a brilliant British statesman known for his self-confidence. He once wrote a poem about greatness. How did it go?
Answer: “My name is George Nathaniel Curzon
I am a most superior person
My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek
I dine at Blenheim once a week.’
Blenheim is the magnificent palace given to the first Duke of Marlborough by a grateful nation for his military successes. Curzon’s ego is said to have played a part in him being passed up for the position of Prime Minister in 1923.
Source: Baldwin by Anne Perkins
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The Holy Roman Empire was an influential collection of territories that existed in Europe from 800 CE to 1806. French philosopher Voltaire famously lampooned it as what however?
Answer: He dismissed it as neither holy, Roman nor an empire. The exact purpose and benefits of the Holy Roman Empire remained contentious to this day.
Source: The Holy Roman Empire by Peter H. Wilson
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When Rome was famously sacked in 410 CE, the Visigoths attempted to undermine Roman identity by desecrating what sacred sites?
Answer: The mausoleums of the emperors Augustus (63 BCE – 14 CE) and Hadrian (76-138 CE). The mausoleums were stripped and ransacked, with the ashes of imperial dynasties, revered by generations, scattered to the wind.
Source: AD410 – The Year That Shook Rome by Sam Moorhead & David Stuttard
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In 410 CE, Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in an event that shook the ancient world. How did Roman Emperor Honorius (384-423), residing away from Rome in Ravenna, take the news?
Answer: He could not take it in. When told that Rome was no more, Honorius groaned aloud and said “but it was eating from my hand a moment ago!” Honorius also had a chicken which he had named “Rome”. An adviser had to step in and tell him that it was, in fact, the city of Rome that had perished.
Source: AD410 – The Year That Shook Rome by Sam Moorhead & David Stuttard
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According to historian Edward Gibbon, writing in the eighteenth century, when was “the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most prosperous and happy”?
Answer: 96-180 CE in the Roman Empire. According to Gibbon, “the vast extent of the Roman Empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom”.
Source: Pax Romana – War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World by Adrian Goldsworthy
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What was the first defeat of the Second World War (1939-1945) for the Axis powers, mainly Germany, Japan and Italy?
Answer: The failed Italian invasion of Greece in autumn 1940. The disastrous invasion was costly in terms of personnel and also that it weakened the Axis position in the North Africa campaign, the most vital theatre of the war at that time.
Source: Fateful Choices – Ten Decisions That Changed the World by Ian Kershaw
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At least half of the Ancient Rome’s army consisted of non-citizens who received citizenship at the end of their service. How many years’ service was required before you gained citizenship?
Answer: The significant timeframe of 25 years. Needless to say, it was a much coveted acquisition.
Source: Pax Romana – War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World by Adrian Goldsworthy
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“His name was a terror to the French, Spaniard, Portugal and Indians… In his imperfections, he was ambitious for honour, inconstant in amity, and greatly affected to popularity.” Who is being described by Elizabethan historian Edmund Howes (1607-1631)?
Answer: Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), English privateer and naval captain.
Source: Sir Francis Drake by Peter Whitfield
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During the middle of the third century, civil war dominated the Roman Empire with dozens of emperors coming and going in rapid succession. What was unique about Emperor Claudius Gothicus, who reigned from 268-270 CE?
Answer: He was the only emperor of this period to have the luxury of dying of natural causes. All the others were killed by Roman rivals or took their own life when faced with defeat.
Source: Pax Romana – War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World by Adrian Goldsworthy
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“I don’t feel I’ve really scratched the surface of what I want to do.” Who tragically said this shortly before their sudden death of a brain tumour in 1937?
Answer: American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Source: The Rest Is Noise – Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
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George Clinton (1739-1812) was elected United States’ vice president in 1808, serving under President James Madison (1751-1836). Why was this strange?
Answer: Clinton only stood as vice-president begrudgingly after the Democratic – Republican Party passed him over for the presidency in favour of Madison. As a result, he offered no support to Madison, he refused to attend his inauguration and openly opposed the new president’s policies.
Source: Maligned Presidents – The Late 19th Century by Max J. Skidmore
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Between 1654 and 1734, how many people in London died by falling out of a window?
Answer: At least 209. Without modern standards of health and safety, accidents such as falling, drowning and being caught under the wheels of carts were highly common.
Source: Accidents and Violent Death in Early Modern London by Craig Spence
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July 2018
Which famous literary detective and super sleuth was originally depicted as a cocaine addict?
Answer: British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Unsurprisingly, recent adaptions have neglected to include this.
Source: The Scientific Sherlock Holmes by James O’Brien
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The discovery of buried treasure is a common feature of pirate tales. How many known instances of buried treasure exist however?
Answer: Only one. William Kidd (1654-1701) is alleged to have buried treasure on Long Island, off the East Coast of the United States.
Source: Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly
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“It both shrunk and expanded the world; it enhanced trade; it hastened the spread of ideas; it fired global industry.” What is historian Simon Garfield describing?
Answer: The invention of the steam engine, specifically the 1830 opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway.
Source: Timekeepers – How the World Became Obsessed With Time by Simon Garfield
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“An anarchy in the mind and in the heart, an anarchy which forbade not just unity of territories, but also unity of being, an anarchy that sprang from the collision within a small and intimate island of seemingly irreconcilable cultures.” What is the historian F.S.L. Lyons describing?
Answer: The revolutionary era in Ireland during the early twentieth century, which included the Easter Rebellion (1916), Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921) and Irish Civil War (1921-1923).
Source: Vivid Faces – The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890-1923 by R.F. Foster
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In the early twentieth century, experimental Ukrainian pianist Leo Ornstein (1895-2002) was dubbed “Ornstein the Keyboard Terror”. Why?
Answer: Ornstein helped develop the brutal “cluster chord”, in which three adjacent notes on the piano were played at once by repeatedly slamming a fist into the keys. Despite the unpleasant sound, Ornstein became a sensation, with one crowd said to have “mobbed the lobbies [and] marched at intervals to the stage” to sight him.
Source: The Rest Is Noise – Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
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In the medieval era, which board game was used to sharpen the tactical ability of knights, as a form of flirtation when played between men and women and was at different times banned by the Church?
Answer: Chess.
Source: Chess in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age by Daniel E. O’Sullivan
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Which ancient religion focused on the bull, emphasised regeneration and used a ranking system with levels such as ‘soldier’, ‘raven’ and ‘father’?
Answer: The cult of Mithras, also known as Mithraism. It originated in Persia but spread throughout the Roman Empire during the first three centuries of the Christian Era. It was a rival of early Christianity.
Source: The Mysteries of Mithras by Payam Nabarz
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Which famous ancient building once stood at a height of 146 metres, the equivalent of a forty-four story building?
Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza. Erosion has reduced the height to 138 metres, but it remains one of the most important buildings of ancient history. The massive structure was built by fourth dynasty Pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops, and was completed around 2560 BCE.
Source: World Mythology by Mark Daniels
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What was the first phonograph record to sell over a million copies?
Answer: Vesti la giubba, translated as “put on the consume”, a song from the 1892 opera Pagliacci. It was sung by the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) and released in 1904.
Source: Amore by Mark Rotella
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Which Roman Emperor was the first to be depicted wearing a beard, starting a trend continued by his successors?
Answer: Hadrian (76-138 CE). Depending on the source, Hadrian either adopted the beard as a reflection of his love of Greek culture, or to cover up blemishes on his face.
Source: Chronicle of Roman Emperors by Chris Scarre
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The death of Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) sent shockwaves through the ancient world. Some were skeptical that Alexander was even dead. How did the Athenian orator Demades (380-318 BCE) respond to the news?
Answer: “If Alexander were really dead, the whole world would smell of his corpse.”
Source: Age of Conquests – The Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian to Angelos Chaniotis
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According to one observer, the premiere of what piece of music in February 1907 caused “seat-rattling, whistle-blowing, and ostentatious walk outs”?
Answer: The First String Quartet by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). The thorny, atonal piece of music was a radical departure from the norm and led to protests, catcalls and whistles from the audience.
Source: The Rest Is Noise – Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
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In June 1941, Soviet archaeologists excavated the tomb of Mongol Emperor Tamerlane (1336-1405). Why was this a bad idea?
Answer: Local Mongols considered that any who excavated such a sacred tomb would be cursed. In one way they were right: on the same day the tomb was opened Hitler’s armies invaded the Soviet Union (22 June 1941).
Source: The Forensic Historian by Robert C. Williams
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Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson is revered as one of the greatest Englishman, who saved his country from invasion by the French in the early 19th century. What were the circumstances of Nelson’s simultaneous magnificent victory and tragic death?
Answer: Beloved by his men, Nelson lost an arm and an eye in the service of his country. Despite being a brilliant strategies and naval tactician he suffered from seasickness. In 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar the naval forces he commanded defeated the French navy. This victory thereby ended the threat of invasion in England by the French, that had been ever-present for nearly a decade.
At Trafalgar Nelson was shot by a sniper from the rigging of a nearby French ship. He had refused to take off his elaborate admiral’s uniform bedecked with the glittering awards and decorations of his illustrious career, but which also made him an easily recognizable target.
When the news was received in England the populace swayed between elation and despair at the magnificent victory, yet the loss of the national hero. King George IV was told at seven in the morning and it was nearly five minutes before he could speak. While on his death bed, Nelson was said to have uttered the famous last words to his Flag Captain Thomas Hardy, who was attending him, ‘Kiss me Hardy’. But others have said that he might have actually said ‘Kismet’, the Arabic word for ‘fate’.
Source: Horatio Nelson by Tom Pocock
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World War Two produced a myriad of valiant individuals forged by the hardship and brutality of war. British guerilla hero Lieutenant-Colonel Freddie Spencer-Chapman was just one of these. What were the elements of his gallant service?
Answer: Spencer-Chapman was one of the fascinating characters of World War Two. After the fall of Singapore in 1942 he stayed behind organizing resistance and guerilla teams against the Japanese, blowing up bridges and trains and generally harassing the enemy.
Living in the humid, rain-filled jungles of Malaya for three years he was often sick with Malaria and other tropical diseases, losing 30 pounds in weight, then recovering and fighting on. Handsome and gallant he could have starred in a war film epic.
After the war he became somewhat of a celebrity. An explorer and mountain climber, he fathered a child by an Eskimo girl and was a compulsive adventurer. His war memoir The Jungle is Neutral became an international bestseller. The comparative boredom of later life took its toll. He was a warden at a residential hall at Reading University when in 1971 he took a gun and shot himself.
Sources: Farewell the Trumpet – An Imperial Retreat by James Morris; The Jungle is Neutral – by F Spencer Chapman
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26th US president Theodore Roosevelt was a remarkable man, brave, gregarious, outgoing and charismatic. What did his daughter Alice say about his personality as regards standing out from the crowd?
Answer: She said that her father wanted to be “the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening”.
Source: The Roosevelts by Ken Burns
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Who was the first high profile American to use the term “Native American”?
Answer: 16th president Abraham Lincoln. At the time, in the mid 19th century, the term was usually used to refer to Americans of old Anglo-Saxon stock.
Source: A History of the American People by Paul Johnson.
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Between the 14th and 17th centuries, what gruesome method was considered best practice for obtaining the throne in the Ottoman Empire?
Answer: Fratricide, essentially killing all other claimants. Mehmed II (1432-1481) noted that “whichever of my sons inherits the Sultan’s throne, it behooves him to kill his brothers in the interest of the world order.” The practice remained legal until abolition by Ahmed I (1590-1617).
Source: Mehmed the Conquerer and His Time by Franz Babinger and William C. Hickman
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In classical Rome, why was it said that some officials were so corrupt that they “stole time itself”?
Answer: As early Romans used the moon as a measure of the months, a year would only last for 355 days. To keep the seasons straight, weeks and months were occasionally added. Corrupt politicians began manipulating the calendar to prolong their terms in office and shorten the terms of rivals, stealing time to further their own purposes.
Source: The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer
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According to some reputable sources, what was the first thing Native Americans said to the Pilgrim Fathers when they reached America in the early 17th century?
Answer: In perfect English, “Do you have any beer?” European trade routes had existed in the region for decades.
Source: The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer
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John Rackham (1682-1720), also known as Calico Jack, was a famous English pirate who operated during the final years of the Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1730). He and two other pirates combined to cause havoc before eventually being caught. Of the three, only he was executed. Why?
Answer: The other two pirates, Anne Bonny (1697-1782) and Mary Read (1685-1721), were women. The two are among the most famous female pirates.
Source: St. Augustine Pirates and Privateers by Theodore Corbett
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“The streets full of nothing but people and horses and carts loaded with goods, ready to run over one another… we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side of the bridge, and in a bow up the hill, for an arch of above a mile long; it made me weep to see it.” What is British diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) describing?
Answer: The Great Fire of London of 1666. London was the largest city in Britain with over 80,000 inhabitants. Starting in a small bakery, more than 13,000 houses were destroyed and over 70,000 people lost their homes. The fire ended the Great Plague that had killed over 68,000 people in the previous two years
Source: The Broadview Anthology of British Literature by Joseph Black et. al
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The Ars Grammatica, written in the fourth century, was arguably one of the most influential books of medieval Europe. Why?
Answer: Written by the Roman grammarian Aelius Donatus (4th century), it contained his treaties on Latin grammar and was the sole textbook used in schools in the Middle Ages.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of People and Places by Frank R. Abate
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Which famous German astronomer was said to have sold his soul to the Devil?
Answer: Johann Faust (1480-1540). The mystery around his life became the subject of dramas by Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang Goethe, an opera by Charles Gounod and a novel by Thomas Mann.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of People and Places by Frank R. Abate
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In 1940’s France, what was a “Zazou”?
Answer: A member of a youth subculture, defined by people wearing oversized clothing and listening to jazz and bebop music. Their passive non conformity led to persecution by the conservative Vichy government.
Source: National Regeneration in Vichy France – Ideas and Policies, 1930–1944 by Debbie Lackerstein
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Puyi (1906-1967) was the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, acting as a puppet of the Japanese during the 1930s and 1940s. Despite holding theoretically the most powerful position in the land, he ended his life doing something more mundane. What was it?
Answer: He spent his final years as a gardener. He worked at the Beijing botanical garden from 1959 until his death.
Source: Modern China by Wang Ke-wen
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In 1882, British forces defeated an Egyptian Army at the Battle of Tell El Kebir. To celebrate the victory, British soldiers visited the famed Great Sphinx of Gaza. How did they mark the occasion?
Answer: They posed for a photo with the 4,500 year old limestone statue and then used it for target practice.
Source: The Decline and Fall of the British Empire – 1781-1997 by Piers Brendon
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In 1494 a treaty was agreed dividing the world beyond Europe between two countries. Which were they?
Answer: Spain and Portugal. Pope Alexander VI approved the Treaty of Tordesillas, which draw an imaginary line down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Portugal received everything to the west of the line, Spain everything to the east.
Source: Big History by Cynthia Stokes Brown
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What revolutionary invention of human history originated in 7th to 10th century CE Tang Dynasty China (and was colloquially known as feiqian?
Answer: Paper money. Feiqian can be translated as “flying cash”. At this time most of the world continued to exchange money through gold, silver and copper. Ths system of paper money was set up during another coin shortage in the reign of Emperor Xian Zong (806-820).
Source: A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
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Why was the Fluyt, a Dutch type sailing ship originating in the sixteenth century, so important in the development of the Dutch trading empire?
Answer: The Fluyt was one of the first ships designed exclusively for commerce. As it was not required to be converted into a warship at time of conflict, it was cheaper and larger than rival ships, giving the Dutch a tremendous advantage in the seventeenth century.
Source: The Sea in World History by Stephen K. Stein
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George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (1449-1478) was a member of the English royal family and influential figure during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). He was convicted of treason however and executed in a gruesome way. How?
Answer: He was drowned in a butt (cask) of wine.
Source: Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses by John A. Wagner
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June 2018
According to Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, what was the underlying reason for why 360,000 German soldiers surrendered in the last three months of the First World War (1914-1918), therefore handing victory to the Allies?
Answer: Rather than any specific military issue, Ferguson claims it was “a crisis of German morale”, caused by the impending arrival of hundreds of thousands of fresh American troops.
Source: Why Did World War One Happen? by R.G. Grant
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What bizarre action was a part of the daily routine of most Roman emperors?
Answer: Poisoning themselves. Roman emperors took a small amount of all known poisons, believing doing so would grant them immunity. The practice began in first century CE and was first developed by Mithridates the Great (134-64 BCE), king of Pontus.
Source: A History of Medicine by Lois N. Magner
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In 1674 British diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) received a diplomatic gift from Samuel Martin, the English consul in Algiers. What was it?
Answer: A Lion. Pepys kept it at his house in Westminster and wrote to Martin to inform him that the lion was “as tame as you sent him, and as good company.”
Source: Samuel Pepys and His Books by Kate Loveman
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What links Ottoman Emperor Basil I (811-886 CE), English King William II (1056-1100) and King Fulk of Jerusalem (1092-1143)?
Answer: They all died in hunting accidents. While an important pastime for medieval royalty and the aristocracy, hunting was notoriously dangerous.
Source: An Ancient History of Dogs J.C. Judah
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In 1900 a French parliamentary report assessed the nature of the French state. How did it summarise it?
Answer: “France”, it declared, is ‘a bureaucracy tempered by revolutions.’
Source: France – 1814-1914 by Robert Tombs
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During the French Revolution, revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) remarked that he felt France was more advanced than any other nation on Earth. How many years ahead of the rest of humankind did Robespierre consider France?
Answer: No less than 2,000 years ahead. In the same speech he observed that the French were even now potentially “a different species”.
Source: France – 1814-1914 by Robert Tombs
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Why did the Mongols under Genghis Khan (1162-1227) refer to outsiders as “the people who eat grass”?
Answer: The Mongols, whose diet consisted nearly exclusively of meat and dairy, considered those who ate fruit or vegetables to be like grazing animals rather than real humans.
Source: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
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Which famous polymath and probable genius had tremendous physical strength, described in one contemporary account as “so strong he could withstand any violence; with his right hand he could bend the iron ring of a doorbell, or a horseshoe, as if they were lead”?
Answer: Italian Renaissance painter, architect, inventor, and scientific exponent Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519).
Source: Leonardo Da Vinci – The Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl
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The Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, received its first book written in Chinese in 1604. What was the problem?
Answer: Nobody could read it. Chinese was an unknown language in Oxford and it would be 80 years before someone would be able to say what was in it.
Source: 1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
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The British submarine HMS Trident received an unusual gift from the USSR navy in 1941. What was it?
Answer: A reindeer. The submarine’s crew spent six weeks sharing their living accommodation with the reindeer, named Pollyanna, before she was given to Regents Park Zoo on return to the UK.
Source: The Royal Navy Submarine Service – A Centennial History by Antony Preston
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Which American founding father established his own commercial whiskey distillery?
Answer: George Washington (1732-1799). Washington established the distillery at Mount Vernon in 1797 and it proved to be a huge success. The distillery was able to produce about 10,500 gallons of whiskey a year, making it one of the largest in America.
Source: George Washington’s Leadership Lessons by James Rees and Stephen J. Spignesi
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“Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go”. Who said this?
Answer: Famed British explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779).
Source: The Life of Captain James Cook by J.C. Beaglehole
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The Battle of Cable Street took place on October 4, 1936. What was it?
Answer: A riot in Whitechapel, East London. Clashes took place between members of the British Union of Fascists, who had to abort a planned march through the predominately Jewish East End, police and thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators.
Source: Battle for the East End by David Rosenberg
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Which building complex, constructed in the 1930s, was the largest private, as compared to corporate, building project ever undertaken in contemporary times, construction of which employed between 50,000 and 60,000 people?
Answer: The Rockefeller Centre, New York City. Construction began in 1931, with most of the centre completed by 1939. This provided much needed work during the Great Depression.
Source: Great Fortune – The Epic of Rockefeller Center by Daniel Okrent
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By the late nineteenth century the railways were revolutionising travel in Britain. How many railway journeys took place in 1880?
Answer: 500 million. Seven times more than in 1850.
Source: London Book of Lists by Tim Jepson and Larry Porges
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It was so cold in England in January 1205 CE that what happened?
Answer: Wine and ale, when being transported, froze. They were therefore sold by weight rather than volume.
Source: London Book of Lists by Tim Jepson and Larry Porges
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Which nineteenth century European statesman was nicknamed “White Beard”?
Answer: Kaiser Wilhelm I (1797-1888). The nickname White Beard “Barbablanca” was a complementary reference to German ruler Frederick I (1122-1190), nicknamed “Barbarossa” (red beard).
Source: Histories of Nations by Peter Furtado
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Which group, migrants from Central Asia who initially lived in 400 tents in the fringes of Bithynia, managed to take advantage of political disturbances in the region to establish not only their own state, but one of the world’s preeminent empires?
Answer: The Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1923.
Source: Histories of Nations by Peter Furtado
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Which Chinese classical text, dating from the ninth century BCE, contains the line “a wise man studies the words and deeds of his forebears in order to improve himself”?
Answer: The I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes. The I Ching is the oldest of the Chinese classical texts and one of the most influential.
Source: Histories of Nations by Peter Furtado
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China arguably has the longest continuous tradition of formal history writing in the world. From when is it said to have originated?
Answer: At least 1600 BCE.
Source: Histories of Nations by Peter Furtado
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In May 1844, Samuel Morse (1791-1872) sent the message “what hath God wrought” by telegraph from the Old Supreme Court chamber in the United States capitol to Baltimore, Maryland. Why?
Answer: The sending of the message, witnessed by members of Congress, inaugurated the commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Morse was the pioneer of the telegraph in America.
Source: Lightning Man by Kenneth Silverman
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The Japanese surrender at the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) was nearly thwarted by the Kyūjō incident. What was this?
Answer: An attempted coup d’état. Taking place on the night of August 14–15 1945, it sought to stop Emperor Hirohito’s (1901-1989) radio broadcast announcing Japanese unconditional surrender. When it became clear that the majority of the Imperial Japanese army would not support the coup, the instigators committed suicide.
Source: Racing the Enemy by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
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On 22 May 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks (1819-1857) of South Carolina approached Senator Charles Sumner (1811-1874) of Massachusetts on the floor of the United States Senate. What happened next?
Answer: Brooks attacked Sumner with his cane, striking Sumner more than thirty times until his cane splintered into pieces and the Senator lay unconscious and covered in blood. The encounter, between two passionate opponents on the issue of slavery, demonstrated the stark divisions in the United States in the years before the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: The Caning – The Assault That Drove America to Civil War by Stephen Puleo
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Which Greek philosopher was famously said to have lived in a barrel?
Answer: Diogenes (412 BCE – 323 BCE). He was one of the founders of cynic philosophy.
Source: Cynicism from Diogenes to Dilbert by Ian Cutler
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What is “defenestration” and how did it start the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)?
Answer: Defenestration is the act of throwing someone, or something, out of a window. The term, Latin in origin, dates from an incident in Prague castle in 1618 where the defenestration of two Hapsburg-Catholic loyalists helped start the Thirty Years War.
Source: Noble Nationalists by Eagle Glassheim
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Which scientific discovery caused such an explosion of interest that within a year it had been the subject of 1,044 scientific papers and 49 books, as well as the star attraction of the 1896 Electrical Exhibition in New York?
Answer: The discovery of X-rays. While others had observed the effects of X-Rays, the first person to study and categorise them was German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (1845-1923).
Source: Sight by Jessie Greengrass
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“The universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilisation has yet assumed.” What is Irish historian W.E.H. Lecky describing in 1869?
Answer: The Byzantine Empire (330-1453 CE). The Byzantines were routinely attacked by Victorian historians as betraying all that was best about Ancient Greek and Rome, though most modern historians consider this grossly unfair.
Source: A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich
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According to historian John Julius Norwich who, after Jesus Christ, the Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed, is “the most influential man in all history”?
Answer: Constantine I (272-337 CE), Roman Emperor, commonly known as Constantine the Great. Julius Norwich cites two of Constantine’s decisions as being most influential, the decision to adopt Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the move of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).
Source: A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich
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Which medieval adversary of Europeans was considered to have shown such tolerance and generosity that many Christians saw him as the exemplar of their own knightly ideals?
Answer: Saladin (1138-1193)
Source: Saladin – The Life, The Legend and the Islamic Empire by John Man
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In the early eighteenth century, a sailing ship was captured off the coast of Honduras by infamous pirate Benjamin Hornigold (1680-1719). What did Hornigold do to the passengers?
Answer: He stole their hats, and nothing else. As one passenger recalled, “they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss’d theirs overboard.”
Source: The Pirate Wars by Peter Earle
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May 2018
In 1913 and 1914, what phenomenon was considered so dangerous that Germany had banned its army officers from associating with it and it was described by the Vatican as “outrageous, indecent…an assassination of family and social life”?
Answer: The tango. A style of dance originating from Argentina and Uruguay, it became one of the biggest crazes in Europe in the early twentieth century.
Source: The Fateful Year – England 1914 by Mark Bostridge
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Which prestigious United States’ university is older: Harvard or Yale? And how do these esteemed centres of learning compare in years of establishment to other venerated universities?
Answer: Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts was established in 1636 and chartered in 1650, nearly 65 years before Yale. England’s Oxford University can trace its origins to 1096. Cambridge University was established in 1209. France’s famous Sorbonne University in Paris began in 1253.
Source: General Historical Texts
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What was Italian Premier Benito Mussolini’s cutting appraisal of Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop?
Answer: Joachim von Ribbentrop, Adolf Hitler’s foreign minister, was an ambitious champagne, actually German sect, salesman.
He inherited or purchased his aristocratic ‘von’ from a deceased aunt and then set about relentlessly advancing his career.
He was loathed by the other Nazi leaders who said that he bought his name, married his money and swindled his way into his rarified positions. Ribbentrop reached the summit of his power when he became foreign minister in 1938 and in the following year arranged the Nazi-Soviet pact which brought about the invasion of Poland.
After World War Two he was put on trial at Nuremberg in 1946 and was the first of the Nazi leaders to be hanged.
Italian Premier Benito Mussolini, who was no shrinking flower when it came to flamboyance and self-esteem, said of von Ribbentrop, ‘You only have to look at his head to see that he has a little brain’.
Source: Ribbentrop by Michael Bloch
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What was the special relationship that British 19th century prime minister Benjamin Disraeli had with Queen Victoria?
Answer: One of the most famous British prime ministers was Benjamin Disraeli. Of Jewish heritage he was flamboyant, a brilliant debater and a favourite of Queen and Empress Victoria.
He had written novels in his early years and would flatter Queen Victoria, who had had her highland memoirs published, by saying to her, ‘we authors, Maam.’
Disraeli said that ‘All of us likes flattery … but with royalty, you have to lay it on with a trowel.’
Victoria was grief-stricken at the death of her husband Albert and mourned the loss for forty years. Her grief and seclusion was so intense that she eventually had to be reminded of her duties to the nation and empire as sovereign. When Disraeli was on his deathbed in 1881, she went to pay a last visit to him.
When told that her majesty had arrived, to say goodbye, Disraeli, ever witty to the end said, ‘Oh no, best not, she will probably only want me to take a message to Albert.’
Source: The Lion and the Unicorn – Gladstone vs. Disraeli by Richard Aldous
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Who became known as ‘The Chef of Kings and the King of Chefs’?
Answer: The 19th Century French Chef, Antonin Careme, who created haute cuisine, was perhaps the greatest chef of all.
French cuisine had been essentially rich food with little thought given to harmonizing flavors and textures. Careme changed all that by highlighting fresh ingredients and refining and simplifying dishes – although he did once prepare a banquet with 48 courses.
He was chef to the great French foreign minister Talleyrand for 12 years. Tsar Alexander 1 of Russia brought him to St Petersburg for a series of banquets. He also worked for Baroness Rothschild, the richest woman in Europe.
England’s enormously fat Price Regent, who later became King George 1V, admonished Careme saying, ‘You will kill me from eating too much; I want everything you prepare and the temptations are too much.’ Careme replied, ‘Your Royal Highness, my most important duty is to whet your appetite through the variety of what I serve; it is not my job to control it’.
He became known as ‘The Chef of Kings and the King of Chefs.’ A remarkable career for the son of an impoverished stonemason, who had 25 children, and who, when Careme was 11 years old, took him to Paris, bought him a cheap meal and then abandoned him.
Source: A Leap Year, 366 Great Stories from History by W B Marsh and Bruce Carrick
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What is the fascinating story behind London’s ancient and near venerated London Bridge?
Answer: Nursery rhymes sung down the ages often have their origin in real historical events. ‘Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies, we all fall down’ referred to the effects of the bubonic plague. Likewise, ‘London Bridge is falling down’ is no mere whimsical observation. Indeed, the famous structure across the Thames was partially or fully destroyed many times after its initial construction in 975.
It was first pulled down by the Vikings, in 1010, to ease their access past English soldiers. Six years later, King Canute of Denmark didn’t bother to demolish the bridge when he wanted to invade, but simply dug a canal around it and sailed past. Until there was a second bridge, London Bridge was so crucial to residents that Londoners sometimes bequeathed their money ‘to God and the bridge’.
The first stone bridge was finished in about 1290 and was soon lined with shops, chapels and taverns but it was constantly in need of repairs to prevent its collapse. A fortune was spent on its repair because it was an important source of revenue through the collection of tolls.
The heads of rebels and traitors were boiled and placed on iron spikes on the bridge; in 1661 a German traveller counted nineteen such heads. Remarkably, it remained the only bridge over the Thames until 1750.
Source: Ways of the World: a history of the world’s roads and of the vehicles that used them by M G Lay; London – The Biography by Peter Ackroyd; The Plantagenet Encyclopedia by Elizabeth Hallam
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What is the tragic story of Abelard and Héloïse?
Answer: Abelard and Héloïse are among history’s unluckiest lovers. French scholar, theologian, philosopher and teacher, Peter Abelard, was twice condemned for heresy in the 12th century. But his real problems began when he fell in love with a pupil, Héloïse.
Abelard wrote to her: ‘Under the pretext of discipline, we abandoned ourselves utterly to love’. She had his child, and they married in secret in about 1118. Héloïse’s uncle Fulbert, a canon at Notre-Dame Cathedral, was so seriously displeased, some said due to his attraction for Héloïse’s, that he had Abelard castrated.
Abelard retreated to a monastery and began what was his most productive intellectual period. Héloïse became a nun in, it was said, a convent Abelard founded especially for her. In relative safety, Abelard, emasculated but focused intellectually, was then able to continue his controversial teachings and the lovers continued to correspond by letter. They remained separated until after death, but were buried together in Paris in 1792.
In the profound drama of his relationship with Héloïse, it is often forgotten that Abelard was the greatest teacher of his age and the founder and inspiration of France’s most famous University, the Sorbonne.
Source: The Middle Ages, volume 1: sources of Medieval History by Brian Tierney
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How good was US five star general Dwight D Eisenhower at negotiating book deals after he retired from the army in 1948?
Answer: When five star General Dwight D Eisenhower retired from the US Army on February 7, 1948, among other things, he went out and bought a new car, a Chrysler. On showing it to his wife Mamie, he said to her ‘Darling, there’s the entire result of thirty-seven years’ work.’
Having left the army his prospects, though, were excellent. He planned to write his memoirs. He listened to various potential publishing options deals with several publishers involving technical contractual arrangements such as first serial rights and second serial rights.
For simplicity, he decided to sell his manuscript in its entirety and struck up a deal with publishers Black and Robinson who paid him $635,000. After paying taxes of $158,750, he had nearly half a million dollars, making him a wealthy man. After he completed the manuscript and handed it over to the publishers he said that he thought he was giving them a ‘white elephant.’
This couldn’t have been further from the truth. The book sold millions and is still selling, more than sixty years later. If Eisenhower had have taken a royalties deal he would have made a great deal more money.
Source: Eisenhower – Soldier and President by Stephen E Ambrose
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Aristippus (435 BCE-356 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and pupil of Socrates (470 BCE-399 BCE). Two of his written philosophical writings concerned surprising themes. What were they?
Answer: One was called ‘A Response to Those Who Criticise Me for Spending Money on Gourmet Food’ and another, more avantgarde in its discussion of unusual topics was named, ‘A Response to Those Who Criticise Me for Spending Money on Old Wine and Prostitutes’.
Source: A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities by J.C. McKeown
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Scottish aristocrat, the Ninth Marquess of Queensberry, John Sholto Douglas, was notorious across a number of fronts, including being the catalyst for famed 19th century Irish playwright and author Oscar Wilde being jailed with hard labour for two years for gross indecency.
Some observers have been unkind enough to suggest that cerebral unbalance ran in the family. The third Marquess of Queensberry (1697-1715) was so mad that he was kept under lock and key. What was the unfortunate outcome when, on one occasion, he happened to escape?
Answer: Feeling hungry, he killed a servant and roasted him on a spit.
Source: The Marquess of Queensberry by Linda Stratmann
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Of the first 12 presidents of the United States, why were John Adams (1735-1826) and John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) unusual?
Answer: They were the only two of the 12 not to own slaves while in office.
Source: Strange but True, America by John Hafnor
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The ‘Underground Railroad’ was a 19th century network of secret routes established in the United States and used by African-American slaves to escape to freedom. Where is the name said to have originated?
Answer: In 1831, when Tice Davids, an enslaved African American, escaped across the Ohio River in Kentucky. Pursued by his owner, Davids reached the river and seemed to disappear. The owner was said to have exclaimed that Davids “must have gone on an underground road”.
Source: Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad by J. Blaine Hudson
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What year witnessed the last time a British soldier killed an enemy with a longbow?
Answer: 1940. During the Dunkirk evacuation, Jack Churchill of the Manchester Regiment killed a German officer with a longbow. Unsurprisingly, it was the only combat death caused by longbow during the Second World War (1939-1945).
Source: The Odditorium by David Bramwell and Jo Keeling
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The summer retreat of King Kamehameha III of Hawaii (1814-1851) was called Kaniakapupu, translated as “the singing of the land shells”. What did this refer to?
Answer: The many snails which frequented the retreat during Kamehameha’s life time. Unfortunately many of these snail species, a symbol of Hawaiian culture, are now endangered.
Source: Sacred Stones, Sacred Land by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer
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Twenty years after the construction of Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain, the Romans built another defensive wall, this time further north in central Scotland. True or false?
Answer: True. Construction of the Antonine Wall, so named for Hadrian’s successor Antoninus Pius (86 – 161 CE), began in 142 CE. As the Antonine Wall was constructed mainly of wood, it has disappeared more so over time than Hadrian’s Wall, though some of the Antonine Wall remains visible.
Source: Edge of Empire, Rome’s Scottish Frontier by David Breeze
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Which battle, largely unknown in the West, took place on a steaming hot day in 1709 and arguably changed the fortunes of Europe forever?
Answer: The Battle of Poltava. Poltava quite possibly saw the death of the Swedish Empire, which at its height controlled a large swathe of northern Europe, and the birth of the Russian Empire.
Source: The Battle that Shook Europe by Peter Englund
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On the account of her sex, Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) had received numerous rejections from medical schools when she applied to a small medical school in upstate New York in 1847. Her admission was put to the students who, as a practical joke, voted unanimously to admit her despite faculty opposition. Why would they regret this?
Answer: They found themselves victims of their joke when, in January 1849, Blackwell graduated MD ahead of all 150 male students, an event that received widespread press coverage. Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Elizabeth Blackwell’ by M.A. Elston
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British entomologist Dru Drury (1725-1804) was a successful silversmith who used his profits to fund his interest in natural history, specifically insects. How many insect specimens did he assemble during his life?
Answer: 11,000, many of them unique. Drury persuaded ships’ officers and other travelers to collect for him, even printing pamphlets offering money for insects “whatever the size”.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Dru Drury’ by C. M. F. von Hayek
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Who described herself as the “unhappiest woman in Christendom” in 1542?
Answer: Mary Tudor, later Mary I of England (1516-1558). Mary was bemoaning the confusion that surrounded her place in the line of succession. She would eventually become queen in 1553.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Mary I’ by Ann Weikel
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When the pioneering inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) died in 1922, what tribute was arranged?
Answer: At the time of the burial, 6.25 p.m. on August 4 1922, all the telephone traffic throughout the United States was stopped for one minute.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Alexander Graham Bell’ by R.W. Burns
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In the English early medieval period, what form of trial was most commonly used to ascertain a criminal suspect’s innocence or guilt?
Answer: Trial by ordeal. This was the judicial practice by which the guilt of an accused was determined by subjecting them to life or death experience; survival was proof of innocence. The most common ordeals in England involved being subject to a hot cauldron, hot iron or risk drowning in cold water.
Source: Law, Liberty and Constitution by Harry Potter
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The city of Bendigo, Australia, is indirectly named for an unlikely figure. Who?
Answer: William Thompson (1811-1880), known as “Bendigo”, an English bare-knuckle boxer. Thompson had a colourful life. After retiring from prize-fighting he became an alcoholic and then a Methodist evangelist. The city of Bendigo is one of the few places that carries the name of a sportsman.
Source: Historical Dictionary of Boxing by John Grasso
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When famed French author Victor Hugo (1802-1885) suffered from writer’s block, what desperate measures did he resort to?
Answer: He would shed all his clothes and take himself to a room where he had only pen and paper for company. His servants had orders that they weren’t to return his clothes until he had written something.
Source: The Secret Library by Oliver Terale
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Which president of the United States is believed to be the smallest of the country’s chief executives, weighing in at less than 100 pounds (45 kg) and standing only 5 feet 4 inches tall?
Answer: James Madison (1751-1836). Madison, who was Princeton University’s first student, lost his 1777 bid for election to Virginia’s House of Delegates because he did not provide alcohol to voters on election day. Despite being in poor health for much of his life, Madison survived two vice-presidents, both of whom died in office. He finished his presidential term with no vice president in office.
Source: The Constitutional Convention of 1787 by John R. Vile
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“Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as…” Finish this quote from Henry Ford (1863-1947).
Answer: “…it is black”. The American car maker was reflecting on the uniformity of vehicles produced by his pioneering production line in the early years of the last century.
Source: The Roaring Twenties and the Wall Street Crash by Nick Shepley
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Erasmus (1466-1536) was a renowned humanist scholar. His best-selling work, also the best-selling book of the entire sixteenth century, concerned something a little simpler however. What was it?
Answer: Manners. His “Handbook on Good Manners for Children” is considered to be the first work in Western Europe to deal with the moral and practical education of children. In one example, Erasmus addresses table manners, declaring “some people, no sooner than they’ve sat down, immediately stick their hands into the dishes of food. This is the manner of wolves.”
Source: A Handbook on Good Manners for Children (De Civilitate Morum Puerilium Libellus) by Erasmus
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Revolutionary philosopher and father of Communism Karl Marx (1818-1883) famously declared that “history repeats itself…first as a tragedy, then as a farce”. What historical events was he referring to?
Answer: He was referring to the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), and then that of his nephew Louis-Napoléon (1808-1873).
Source: The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx and Friederich Engels
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In 1940 British computer scientist Alan Turing (1912-1954), fearing a German invasion of Britain, did what with all his savings?
Answer: Purchased silver, which he then buried. Despite a number of later attempts, he never found where he had buried it.
Source: Alan Turing, The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
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Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous Third Symphony (“Eroica”) was almost given another name. What was it?
Answer: The “Bonaparte”, in honour of Napoleon (1769-1821).
Source: Eroica by James Hamilton-Paterson
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In 675 CE, Japanese Emperor Temmu (631-686) banned what?
Answer: Eating meat. The decree had its roots in the Buddhist precepts against the taking of life. Some form of meat eating ban remained in place in Japan for over 1200 years, until 1872.
Source: Modern Japanese Cuisine by Katazyna Joanna Cwiertka
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In English history, in the second half of the 17th century, who were the “Valiant Sixty”?
Answer: Itinerant preachers who were the first activists in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Source: The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism by Stephen Angell
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April 2018
What is the somewhat peculiar activity of “flyting”?
Answer: A competition as regards insults, where two people take turns to demonstrate their verbal skill to insult one another. While it is said to have originated in Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon literature, it became most highly developed in the medieval Scottish court, with King James V (1512 – 1542) himself engaging in a flyting match in 1537.
Source: An Encyclopedia of Swearing by Geoffrey Hughes
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“There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.” Which famous figure said this?
Answer: Ali Bin Abi Thalib (601-661 CE), Islamic scholar and son in law of the prophet Mohammad.
Source: Of Sound and Symbol by Daniel Cesar
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In Eighteenth Century Britain, one crime above all others was likely to result in the perpetrator being imprisoned. What was it?
Answer: Failing to pay your debts. For instance in 1779, 63% of all inmates in London were locked up for their debts.
Source: London in the Eighteenth Century by Jerry White
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The Inca Empire was one of the world’s largest at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, despite having no wheeled transport nor writing. How was communication and bureaucracy managed?
Answer: Through an ingenious system of coloured knotted strings called quipu. Runners carried them from place to place conveying messages and other communiques.
Source: A History of the World by Andrew Marr
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“Unwarlike, disorganised creatures with pale skins, wearing shiny metal shells and sitting on big llamas.” What is being described?
Answer: The Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541). This Inca description is from those who first encountered Pizarro and his men in the 1530s.
Source: A History of the World by Andrew Marr
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Scurvy killed hundreds of thousands of sailors in the medieval period. What makes this particularly tragic?
Answer: Not only is scurvy easily cured, but the cure was found and then forgotten on numerous occasions. The cure, the consumption of plants or fruits that replace Vitamin C, was identified in differing forms in 1540, 1541, 1617 and 1747. The British admiralty only properly addressed the issue in 1788.
Source: History’s Greatest Untold Stories by Joseph Cummins
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During Venezuela-born adventurer and Spanish Army general Narciso Lopez’s (1797-1851) invasion of Cuba in 1851, 51 soldiers were captured by the Spanish and given half an hour to write last letters before being executed. What did soldier David Q. Rousseau write in his letter?
Answer: Figuring that the Spanish were sure to read the letters, he presented that the American Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1782-1852) was a close friend, writing to ‘Dan, my dear old boy”. Incredibly, while all the Americans with him were executed, Rousseau alone was spared due to his powerful “friend”.
Source: History’s Greatest Untold Stories by Joseph Cummins
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Why did Napoleon’s brother, Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), become known as the “King of Rabbits”?
Answer: When installed as king of the Netherlands in 1806, Louis’ Dutch language skills were said to be so bad that he mispronounced the phrase “I am your king”, instead declaring “I am your rabbit.”
Source: Napoleon III in England by Ivor Guest
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Jemmy Hirst (1738 – 1829) was a British eccentric so renowned for his odd behaviour that he was invited by King George III (1738 – 1820) for tea. To the absolute horror of his friends, Hirst replied saying what?
Answer: He wrote back explaining that he was going to be too busy to visit for the next couple of months as he was teaching an otter to fish.
Source: Book of Oddballs and Eccentrics by Karl Shaw
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Ancient Chinese understanding of the stars was centuries ahead of the West. When does the first Chinese star map date from?
Answer: 2400 BCE. China’s records are also the only ones in history to document sightings of all four of the first known supernovae: in CE 1006, 1054, 1572 and 1604.
Source: History’s Greatest Untold Stories by Joseph Cummins
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What did 3rd US president Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) famously declare was “more dangerous than standing armies”?
Answer: Banking establishments. Jefferson distrusted private financial institutions, which had the power to issue currency and credit, and to control interest rates.
Source: Constitution Cafe by Christopher Phillips
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In 1897, Swede S.A. Andrée (1854-1897) attempted to reach the North Pole by what means?
Answer: Hydrogen balloon. The expedition was a disaster. Andrée ignored a number of signs the balloon would be inadequate and the balloon crashed after only two days. Andrée and two fellow expedition members died.
Source: The Ice Balloon by Alec Wilkinson
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The cities of Constantinople, Leningrad and Tyre are all the famous locations throughout history of what?
Answer: Sieges. Constantinople in 1453, Leningrad from 1941-1944 and Tyre in 332 BCE.
Source: Besieged by Paul K. Davis
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George Sitwell (1860-1943) was a British writer and politician known for his bizarre behaviour. What warning did he famously offer people when they visited him at his home?
Source: “I must ask anyone entering the house never to contradict me or differ from me in any way, as it interferes with the functioning of my gastric juices and prevents me sleeping at night.”
Source: Liberal Intellectuals and Public Culture in Modern Britain by William C. Lubenow
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What was the shocking plan known as the “Wall Street Putsch”?
Answer: A 1933 plot by right-wing financiers to install a military-style government in the United States. While never close to seizing power, the conspirators possessed millions of dollars, a stockpile of weapons and sought out retired general, Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940), to lead their forces. Butler subsequently reported the approach and the plan dissipated.
Source: The Plots against the President by Sally Denton
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“This is despotism, this is tyranny, this is the annihilation of liberty. The ordinary American is thus reduced to the status of a robot. The president has not merely signed the death warrant of capitalism, but has ordained the mutilation of the Constitution.” Who is being attacked in this letter from a U.S. Senator?
Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). Senator Henry D. Hatfield (1875-1962), writing in 1933, considered Roosevelt’s policies the end of the United States as he knew it.
Source: The Plots against the President by Sally Denton
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Why did British courier Simeon Ellerton (1702-1799) walk around with a bag of stones on his head?
Answer: Ellerton trekked all over the U.K. in the 18th century. On the way home from long journeys he would bring home materials, principally rocks, to build himself a house. When he had the materials he needed, he found that he struggled to walk properly without the weight, and so spent the rest of his life walking with a bag of stones on his head.
Source: Tales of English Eccentrics by Tony Grumley-Grennan
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Who was the “Witch of Wall Street”?
Answer: Hetty Green (1834-1916). A pioneering female financier, she was a spendthrift and also cruel, and as well, miserly. She once disguised herself so she could send her son to a charity hospital to save money, but when it was realised who she was, she fled claiming she would cure her son herself. He duly contracted gangrene and had to have his leg amputated.
Source: Zanies by Jay Robert Nash
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Which illustrious document contains the line ‘all fish weirs shall be removed from the rivers Thames and Medway, as throughout all England, except from the seashore’?
Answer: The 1215 English Magna Carta, or Great Charter, signed by King John I as a major concession to the English barons. While seemingly mundane, this clause was important for commerce. ‘Fish weirs’, traps to catch fish, were used on English rivers and hindered ship navigation.
Source: Magna Carta Uncovered by Anthony Arlidge
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Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden, died in unusual circumstances on February 12, 1771. How?
Answer: Indigestion. Adolf ate a meal of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut and kippers, finished with no less than 14 semla sweet roll desserts. Swedish children know him as the “King who ate himself to death”.
Source: Life in the Georgian Court by Catherine Curzon
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Winchester College, founded in 1382, today continues to be one of England’s most prestigious private schools. In 1710, students at the school rioted. Why?
Answer: Their beer ration had been reduced.
Source: The Old Boys by David Turner
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Herod the Great (73 – 4 BCE) was a Roman client king of Judea. He was known for his paranoia and killed his favourite wife, uncle, mother-in-law and three of his sons. He executed so many members his family that Emperor Augustus (63 BCE – 14 CE) famously said what?
Answer: “I would rather be Herod’s pig than his son.”
Source: Zealot – The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
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William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930) was an Oxford academic known as the inadvertent creator of the “spoonerism”. What is it?
Answer: An error in speech in which corresponding consonants or vowels are switched between two words in a phrase. Many would attend his lectures just to hear his mistakes; famous examples including “let us glaze our asses to the queer old dean” (raise our glasses to the dear old Queen) and “we’ll have the hags flung out” (we’ll have the flags hung out).
Source: Book of Fools by Terry Reed
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What was unusual about the most common tank in the German Army in 1918?
Answer: It was British. Germany had captured so many British tanks during the conflict that they had far more Mark IV variants (about 130 in working order) than its own A74 tank (a mere 20). These captured tanks were called Beutepanzer‘s (trophy tanks).
Source: Tank Hunter by Craig Moore
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French emperor and military genius Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was skeptical when he first heard of the principles of steam powered ships. What did he say?
Answer: “You would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense.”
Source: Voyages From The Past by Simon Wills
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England’s King Henry VIII is remembered for his six wives and, later in life, his gargantuan weight. How did he once show his appreciation for the excellence of the cakes and desserts prepared for him?
Answer: Henry has been popularized as a multiple married, waddling, giant of a monarch who bellowed, and threw half eaten chicken carcasses over his shoulder. As a young man he was a fine athlete, hunter and jouster, six feet two in height, dressed in clothes adorned with jewels and gold, as befitted an English king, ambassadors wrote of how he was every inch a magnificent prince.
He was an accomplished musician and even invented a court dance known as the Galliard. Despite having the best medical treatment available in 16th century England – the use of bleeding and leeches being common – he died in 1547 at the age of 56. It was said that he had syphilis sores down to his knees. This may explain why his daughter Elizabeth I came to be known as the Virgin Queen.
It is true that he did have a good appetite. A Mrs Cornwallis was one of his favourites in the royal household and was rewarded for her cooking expertise with a fine house in Aldgate. She worked in the confectionery section and was known as the ‘wife who makes the king’s puddings’.
Source: – Henry the Eighth by Alison Weir; General Historical Texts
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What were the tragic circumstances behind the downfall of famed 19th century Irish playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde?
Answer: Wilde was the toast of London society in the 1890s until things came decidedly unstuck through an association with a young English aristocrat, Lord Alfred Douglas, known as ‘Bosie’. Bosie was the son of the 8th Marquis of Queensbury an enormously rich aristocrat. The Marquis had invented the rules of organised boxing and was a macho kind of guy. He took exception, it seemed, at his delicate and handsome son closely associated with the flamboyant and gay Wilde.
In London one evening the Marquis decided to track down Wilde and give him a damn good thrashing. Not finding Wilde at his club, he left his card at the front desk with the fateful words written on the back ‘To Oscar Wilde posing sodomite’. The spelling was askew, but the meaning was there. Wilde should have laughed this off, but instead he took legal action for slander.
The well-publicised court case saw a procession of rent boys give evidence of numerous parties with Wilde and others. Wilde lost the case and was sentenced to eighteen months hard labour. On release he went to Paris and soon died, impoverished and alone. Bosie, among other things, went on to libel a prominent British politician in 1923, and was sentenced to six months in prison.
Source: Oscar and Bosie – A Fatal Passion by Trevor Fisher
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The UK’s King George V predicted that his son and heir David, briefly King Edward VIII, would come to no good. Was his father correct in his estimation?
Answer: In the 1920s and 30s David, the Prince of Wales, despite having the pick of any unattached beauty in the UK, indeed the British Empire, preferred other men’s wives. Charming, and exceptionally good looking, he had rock star status wherever he went in Britain and the Empire, from the time of World War One onwards.
All he lacked was a sense of duty. After a series of flings with various married women, he took up with Wallis Simpson, an American with two husbands still living. David’s father, George V, despaired of his son and confided to his private secretary Lord Stamfordham, that ‘within a year of my death, the boy will ruin himself.’
True to the prediction, within a year of becoming king, David had abdicated the most magnificent throne on Earth to marry Wallis. He then spent the rest of his life in glamorous, taxpayer-funded exile, apart from a period as governor of the Bahamas, and gaining notoriety as a Nazi supporter.
Later he and Wallis, now the Duchess of Windsor after marrying David, lived in a luxury chateau in Paris, provided for free by the French government. Things are never too shabby for former kings.
Source: King Edward VIII by Philip Zeigler; General Historical Texts
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What are some of facets of the development of the humble toilet through history?
Answer: It may be hard to believe but an English plumber named Thomas Crapper invented the first sophisticated water saving flush system for the toilet in 1860. Before this toilets have a patchy history. Rudimentary toilets were first in use some 4000 years ago in Crete. Englishman Sir John Harington invented the first practical water closet in 1596, a wooden seat with a cistern and a valve for flushing.
In cities throughout Europe human waste was simply tossed out of windows. A heavy downpour was the best means of ensuring that the streets were kept clean and the smell kept to a minimum. On sailing ships, the head was usually at the bow of the ship so that the action of the waves would provide a natural cleaning action.
Despite advances made in Crapper’s original design, sadly, today, around half the world’s population does not have operating toilets. One very wealthy Hong Kong businessman who lived in the millionaire’s precinct on The Peak, which has some of the most expensive real estate in the world, had not one, but several sold gold toilets, as did President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in his various palaces throughout the country.
Source: The Life Millennium – The 100 most important events and people of the past 1,000 years; General Historical Texts
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What was the unusual relationship glamorous Royal Navy Admiral David Beatty had with a Mrs Robinson, a Madam Dubois and a lady in Edinburgh named Josephine?
Answer: Admiral David Beatty was one of Britain’s most famous naval officers. Handsome and dashing he gained senior rank from an early age; he was a captain at the age of 24. He had a natural authority and air of command about him. He married well, a rich heiress who furnished him with whatever his material needs were. These included an expensive tailor to provide a non-regulation four button jacket, and his own private yacht on which he could steam out to his admiral’s flag vessel.
At the most decisive naval action of World War One, the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the Royal navy did not fare well. Three battle-cruisers, three armored cruisers, and eight destroyers of the Royal Navy were sunk. This amounted to a total of some 113,000 tons of shipping, and 6,000 personnel lost. Beatty made the famous remark, ‘There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today’.
Beatty had an unusual relationship with a Mrs Robinson, a Madam Dubois and a lady in Edinburgh named Josephine. They were the fortune tellers he regularly consulted to tell him what the future held for him.
Source: Steel Castles by Robert K Massie
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March 2018
What was the wine problem faced by Reichsmarshall of the Third Reich Herman Goering during World War Two?
Answer: Hermann Goering was a famous World War One German fighter pilot who took over from Baron Manfred von Richtofen’s flying circus when the red baron was shot down with 82 enemy kills in 1918. As Reich Marshall of the Third Reich, Goering had a flair for elaborate uniforms, diamonds, and other trappings of great wealth.
He became enormously fat, allegedly through an addiction to morphine prescribed after he was shot in the groin in World War One. As head of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, he told Adolf Hitler that if the allies ever bombed Berlin the Fuhrer could call him ‘Meyer’. It is not recorded what Hitler said to Goering when the first of thousands of bombs began to fall on the city.
At the start of the war Goering ordered that the best vintages of French wine be crated and railed back to Germany for his personal cellar. The canny French eventually re-labelled bottles of inexpensive ordinary wine with labels from the great wine houses, thereby minimising theft of this invaluable national asset and testing the Reich Marshall’s true knowledge and appreciation of fine wine.
Sources: Wine & War by Don and Petie Kladstrup; General Historical Texts
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The humble clock has a fascinating history behind its evolution. What were some aspects of this?
Answer The Chinese had a water clock in the 11th century that was as large as a room. Mechanical clocks began appearing in Italy in the 1300s on towers in Italy, but they were better looking than accurate, losing up to 30 minutes a day. In 1656 the Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens built the first pendulum clock, transforming the accuracy of timepieces.
In 1707 the British Parliament offered the colossal prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could invent a clock that could measure longitude at sea. Napoleon Bonaparte loved his watches. The Vacherin Constantin was one of his favourites, a make that is still for sale today.
The First World War accelerated the adoption of wrists watches as they could be used more efficiently in the trenches. For many years the most costly watch in the world was the remarkably intricate Supercomplication by Patek Philippe. A pocket watch made in 1932, this had 24 complications and 900 parts, and was auctioned in 1999 for $11 million. This was later surpassed by the 163 carats Chopard white and yellow diamonds watch that cost $25 million.
Source: General Historical Texts
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Richard I of England has been judged the ‘Lionhearted’, but in reality, a better designation might be the ‘Spendthrift King’. How so?
Answer: Richard the Lion Hearted of England is renowned in history as the beloved and brave warrior king who fought in the Crusades. He was also a financial spendthrift on a colossal scale. While he was king everything was for sale, earldoms, towns, castles, manors. He said, ‘I would sell London, if I could find someone to buy it.’
In one year he spent the equivalent of England’s national budget on fortifying Normandy, essentially on one castle. In a reign of 10 years, the ‘glamorous absentee’ visited England for only six months. England to him was just a means of financing warfare. It has been suggested that he was gay and had partaken in the non-mainstream pastime of cannibalism.
Captured by Leopold of Austria in 1192, the ransom demanded was some 150,000 gold marks, a colossal sum. Richard was an expensive monarch to have on the throne. Essentially because he had military success he was a folk-hero in England at the time, and his memory has been honoured ever since. By comparison, his brother John, who succeeded Richard, having had no military victories, has gone down in popular myth as wicked, despite his flaws being unremarkable.
Source: ’A History of the English People’ by Paul Johnson, ‘England – A Portrait’ by John Bowle.
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What were some of the many achievements of Alexander the Great?
Answer: Having on your CV that you were taught by Aristotle is a good start in life, and for Alexander the Great it was a springboard to great things. He was arguably the most famous and the greatest soldier of ancient times.
Aged just 20, he became King Alexander the third of Macedonia. He soon began expanding his empire and in 332 BC he conquered Egypt. Within two years he had defeated Persia and became their king. His horse’s name was Bucephalus and after it died, he built a city and named it Bucephala.
He went on to build numerous cities naming them Alexander, thereby exhibiting a healthy sense of self-worth. Alexandria in Egypt is one that lives on today. Alexander had a violent temper and was short and stocky. He had what appeared to be a twisted neck which gave the impression that he was continually looking up. He died from what was believed to be malaria.
At the end of his life his CV could have included the words, ‘Conqueror of Persia, Egypt, Babylon, Central Asia and part of India.’ Like Julius Caesar he was epileptic. But unlike Caesar he never lost a battle. Not bad for a life cut short at 33.
Source: General Historical Texts
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What did Teddy Roosevelt say was the principal characteristic of US 25th president William McKinley in the context of Roosevelt’s belief that the USA needed to be more aggressive with regards to Spanish hegemony, that is geopolitical power in the Caribbean, especially Cuba?
Answer: Roosevelt said McKinley had “the backbone of a chocolate éclair”.
Source: The Roosevelts by Ken Burns
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Famed British prime minister Winston Churchill was enormously proud of his only son Randolph, and held high hopes for him. How so?
Answer: Referring to his illustrious father Lord Randolph, Winston said: ‘There were two Pitts, but there will be three Churchills.’ Handsome, talented and confident, from an early age people were to note Randolph’s inability to ever admit he was wrong.
As an Eton schoolboy he wrote a thesis ‘Women and their place in the World’. Educating women was unnecessary, he wrote, as it made them ‘uninteresting and unlikable’. At 18 Randolph was drinking double brandies, and he purchased a Rolls Royce, only to have his father immediately send it back.
While still a teenager, he undertook a US lecture tour where he insulted a broad cross-section of Americans society. Several people have claimed to have invented the sentence ‘The most alarming statement in London Society is: Randolph Churchill has just arrived at the party.’ The younger Churchill was egalitarian in that he was rude to both waiters and dukes.
Despite a colourful nature, Randolph Churchill was loved by many people, was a leading journalist, briefly a member of parliament, served as a World War Two commando, and wrote a best-selling biography of his beloved father.
Source: Cousin Randolph – The Life of Randolph Churchill by Anita Leslie
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What was the cause of World War One?
Answer: Around seventeen million military and civilian personnel died in World War One, out of a total of some 37 million casualties. Renowned English Oxford historian Professor AJP Taylor said the cause of this appalling cataclysm was railway timetables.
Others have suggested it was an outcome of 1888, the year of the three German kaisers. Still others assert it stemmed from essentially an absence of major conflicts in Europe – small wars aside – for 100 years.
The starter’s gun for the 1914-18 conflict was the assassination, by 19 year old Serbian Gavrilo Princip, of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia, in Sarajevo, on Saturday, June 28, 1914. This led to Austria’s harsh and excessive ultimatum to Serbia. Then the intricate alliances and informal agreements across Europe came into play. Serbia’s ally was Russia. Austria’s ally was Germany. France had an understanding with Russia. Great Britain had pledged to protect Belgium’s borders, and had an informal understanding with France that they would be allies.
France had been seething since the humiliation of the defeat by Germany in 1870 and wanted revenge. Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the British Admiralty when World War One started, said three men were to blame for the outbreak of the war. Assassin Princip, the Austrian foreign minister who wrote the first ultimatum, and the German kaiser who could have stopped the chain reaction of governments bound by military alliance.
Mobilization of great armies was a key factor in 1914. Millions of soldiers had to be urgently sent to the front, and thousands of railway carriages were needed for them and their supplies. Once the trains had been set in motion they could not be easily turned around. Perhaps Professor Taylor was right.
Source: The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918 by A J P Taylor; History of World War One by A J P Taylor; General Historical Texts.
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The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was the greatest land deal in history. What were some of the features of it?
Answer: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France made over to the US some 828,000 square miles of French-claimed territory in the United Sates. By acquiring the vast territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains the size of the United States was doubled with one stroke of the pen. Under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the French sold the land for $15 million, twice the then national budget of the United States.
Even though Congress had not approved the purchase, and Jefferson’s opponents accused him of flouting the Constitution, Jefferson went ahead. It was unusual to buy an empire, but by doing this Jefferson had effectively ended any plans Britain, Spain, Russia or France may have had for expansion on the continent. This in many ways was the making of America.
The purchase price was the equivalent of four cents an acre. All this was achieved without a single drop of blood, unlike most other attempts by nations down through history to expand their territory. Good for America, but for Napoleon, he was clearly more a military genius than property guru.
Source: The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson; General Historical Texts
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German chancellor and master 19th century geopolitician Prince Otto von Bismarck expounded the advantages of doing what during a negotiation?
Answer: Smoking. Bismarck did this to his advantage when French representative Jules Favre went to negotiate terms during the Franco Prussian war of 1870/71.
Favre’s negotiating tactic, by comparison, was to appear to burst into tears at the harshness of the Bismarck’s demands. The Iron Chancellor later said that on closer examination Favre – using his own tactics- appeared to be putting on an act.
Source: The Fall of Paris by Sir Alistair Horne
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“I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys aren’t to going to be sent into any foreign wars.” So said who?
Answer: US 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), speaking in October 1940. By the end of the following year, this had been starkly refuted, with the United States’ entry into World War Two.
Over 400,000 Americans were to die in World War Two.
Source: The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts
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How many American presidents have been born in Kentucky?
Answer: Arguably there have been two presidents born in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), though the latter was president of the Confederate States of America.
Source: A. Lincoln by Robert C. White Jr & Jefferson Davis by Allen Tate
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German philosopher, economist and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx (1818-1883) was once a journalist for which American newspaper?
Answer: The New York Tribune, where he worked in the 1850s.
Source: Karl Marx – Greatness and Illusion by Gareth Stedman Jones
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On April 23, 1374, Geoffrey Chaucer (?-1400) received an extravagant gift from King Edward III of England. What was it?
Answer: A gallon of wine daily for life. It remains unclear what the gift was for. Presumably, but not definitely, for his great gift of writing to the English language.
Source: The Riverside Chaucer by Larry Dean Benson
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Fifty six men signed the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. Two were future presidents. Who were they?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and John Adams (1735-1826). Jefferson and Adams were also largely responsible for drafting the declaration.
Source: Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies by Gregory Fremont-Barnes
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In 1569, an English court made a grand claim on the issue of slavery. What was it?
Answer: That slavery was not possible in England because “England has too pure an air for slaves to breathe in”. The consensus against slavery unfortunately did not last, but before England established colonies had became involved in the slave trade, all who set foot on English soil were free.
Source: Black Tudors – The Untold Story by Miranda Kauffman
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Before the Battle of Agincourt (1415), King Henry V of England (1387-1422) commanded that his army do what?
Answer: Spend the night in silence. Henry feared an ambush by his more powerful enemy and strict discipline was enforced; any breach of the silence would have led to the loss of the right ear.
Source: Agincourt by W.B. Bartlett
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A ‘moment’ was a genuine medieval measure of time. True or false?
Answer: True. A moment or momenta tended to last for about ninety seconds.
Source: Bede – The Reckoning of Time edited by Faith Wallis
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The phrase “to turn a blind eye” means to deliberately ignore information. From where is it said it originates?
Answer: British naval hero Horatio Nelson (1758-1805). During the Battle of Copenhagen (1801), a signal came to retreat. Nelson disagreed, and being blind in one eye, lifted his telescope up to his blind eye and remarked “I really do not see the signal.” Nelson continued the attack and won a famous victory.
Source: The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson by Robert Southey
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How did silk cause upheaval in the Roman Empire?
Answer: Silk first came to Europe from China in the Second Century BCE and quickly became fashionable. The demand for it grew to such an extent that Rome’s imports came to far exceed its exports, and in 14 CE the emperor Tiberius (42 BCE – 37 CE) banned it.
Source: China – Understanding its Past by Eileen Tamura
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Which celebrated event took place at the Fraunces Tavern in New York City on December 4 1783?
Answer: General George Washington, later the United States’ first president, hosted a dinner to say farewell to his officers. Shortly after, he resigned as commander-in-chief of the the Continental Army.
Source: Early Wall Street by Jay Hoster
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“All I know is that I am no Marxist.” Who uttered this line?
Answer: Communist revolutionary writer and philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883). Marx was admonishing those who interpreted and applied his works in a way he did not approve.
Source: Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution by Hal Draper
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Which influential religion was in its early years merely known as “the Way”?
Answer: Christianity.
Source: Near Christianity by Anthony Le Donne
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A face “so awfully ugly it becomes beautiful”. So said poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) about which American president?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Source: A. Lincoln by Robert C. White Jr.
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The Battle for Castle Itter (May 5, 1945) has been described as the strangest battle of the Second World War (1939-1945). Why?
Answer: The battle saw a contingent of American soldiers, German defectors and Austrian resistance fighting together to prevent the recapture of a French prisoner of war facility by the SS. The prisoners of war included two former French prime ministers and the sister of Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970).
Source: The Last Battle by Stephen Harding
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During the winter of 1916-1917, legend has it that a temporary truce was agreed between Russian and German troops in Lithuania, allowing both sides to fight another threat. What was it?
Answer: Wolves. The natural habitat of the local wolves had been so disrupted by fighting that they had resorted to attacking soldiers, claiming victims among those in the trenches and even those out on patrol.
Source: The Man-Eater of Gevaudan by Giovanni Todaro
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In American history, what were the “Intolerable Acts”?
Answer: Five sets of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament aimed at punishing Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party (1773). The acts took away self-governance for Massachusetts, helping to pave the way for the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
Source: The Enduring Vision by Paul S. Boyer
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During the Second World War (1939-1945), how did a story about carrots make a vital contribution to the British war effort?
Answer: British propaganda boasted that the great accuracy of their fighter pilots at night was the result of them being fed carrots. Nazi Germany believed this story because German folklore held the same myth; that eating carrots helped you to see in the dark. This story covered the real reason for fighter pilots accuracy, which was the British development of radar.
Source: Urban Legends by Mark Barber
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What location has been described as the most celebrated meeting place in the world and indeed in all history?
Answer: The Roman Forum, the centre of the day to day life of Ancient Rome. Ruins of the forum are still in evidence today.
Source: The Roman Forum by Michael Grant
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Which historical figure, now virtually forgotten, is commemorated by a huge memorial in Detmold, Germany?
Answer: Arminius (18 BCE – 21 CE), leader of a Germanic tribe who inflicted a defeat on the Roman Army in 9 CE. Arminius was heralded as a national hero in the nineteenth century, but the use of his name by Nazi Germany resulted in his disappearance from German collective memory.
Source: Histories of Nations by Peter Furtado
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Absolute arbitrary rule, weak government, revolution or chaos. According to historian Homa Katouzian, which country’s long history was dominated by these four characteristics?
Answer: Persia, or modern day Iran. According to Katouzian, this was due to the friction between absolutist state advocates, and rebellious society proponents, which has shaped Persian history over the centuries.
Source: Histories of Nations by Peter Furtado
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Famed economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) worked in Britain’s India Office, wrote notable works on Indian finance and helped establish the Reserve Bank of India. What is odd about this?
Answer: Keynes never set foot in India. This was consistent with a tradition of British Indian experts not visiting the country. In 1818 James Mill (1773-1836) published his hugely influential “History of British India” without ever getting remotely close to the country.
Source: Histories of Nations by Peter Furtado
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February 2018
What do the Siege of Acre (1799), the Battle of Aspern-Essling (1809) and the Battle of Laon (1814) all have in common?
Answer: They were all rare defeats in battle for Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821).
Source: The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler
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How did English financier Thomas Gresham (1519-1579) conduct what has been described as “history’s most expensive toast”?
Answer: He toasted the health of Queen Elizabeth I with a glass of wine in which he had crushed a pearl worth £15,000. This would be equal to around, an incredible, £4.5 million today.
Source: Alcoholica Esoterica by Ian Lendler
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The Red Army was an important fighting force in which event: the French Revolution (1789-1799) or the Russian Revolution (1917)?
Answer: Both. While the Soviet Red Army of the Russian Revolution is best known, the counter-revolutionary armies that fought the French Revolution in western France were also known as the Red Army, on account of their emblem, the Sacred Heart.
Source: A Popular History of France by Henri Martin
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Which major figure of the American War of Independence (1775-1783) was a successful playwright and was described as “an abandoned and notorious gambler”?
Answer: British Major General John Burgoyne (1722-1792). Burgoyne had wagered fifty guineas with British statesman Charles James Fox (1749-1806) that he would return from America victorious by the following Christmas.
Source: Patriot Battles – How the War of Independence Was Fought by Michael Stephenson
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There were two Declarations of Independence on 4 July 1776. The first was by the American Continental Congress. Who issued the second?
Answer: Native Americans. A powerful consortium of nations, including Iroquois, Delaware and Cherokee, gathered in a grand council on the Tennessee River to issue their own declaration of independence from the American states.
Source: Patriot Battles – How the War of Independence Was Fought by Michael Stephenson
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During the American War of Independence (1775-1783), what was a “lobsterback”?
Answer: The name given to British soldiers by American patriots, on account of their red coat uniforms.
Source: Patriot Battles – How the War of Independence Was Fought by Michael Stephenson
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In which unlikely location did the trial of English cleric Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) take place in 1535?
Answer: A pub in Staines, a town on the outside of London.
Source: 1,227 QI Facts to Blow Your Socks Off by John Lloyd et. al
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From the 16th to the 19th centuries a total of 10.7 million slaves survived the Atlantic crossing from Africa to the Americas. Where was the destination for almost half of them?
Answer: Brazil, where nearly 5 million slaves landed. By contrast, the British colonies of North America and subsequent United States of America accounted for about a tenth of that number.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative by John Ernest
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“Grog pond”, “juke joint”, “toddy shop” and “dive” are all terms used in history to describe what?
Answer: A pub or bar.
The earliest known consumption of alcoholic beverages was in the ancient Chinese settlement of Jiahu, modern day Henan province. Wine jars discovered their suggest alcohol was being consumed as early as 7000 BCE – some 9,000 years ago. It is not recorded what name, if any, these antediluvian Chinese citizens gave to their drinking establishments.
Source: Alcoholica Esoterica by Ian Lendler
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“The plains … were strewn with human skeletons; their rivers polluted with floating carcasses; wild beasts descending from their fastnesses in the mountains roamed at large over the land, and made their dens in the ruins of deserted towns.” What is being described by a contemporary observer?
Answer: The aftermath of the Taiping Rebellion (1850 – 1864). The conflict, between a Christian millenarian movement and the governing Qing Dynasty, was one of the most destructive wars in history, with around 20 million people killed.
Source: Revolutions and Its Past by R. Keith Schoppa
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“From the fury of the north-men, God deliver us.” From where does this prayer derive?
Answer: Anglo-Saxon England (5th – 11th century), a response to Viking attacks. The prayer is said to have originated from the monks at a monastery in Lindisfarne, brutally pillaged by Vikings in 793 CE.
Source: The Northmen’s Fury by Philip Parker
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On January 4, 1700, Russian King Peter I (1672-1725), known to history as Peter the Great, decreed all Russians townsmen had to do what?
Answer: Change their clothes. They were ordered to adopt Western dress, with mannequins wearing “French and Hungarian” dress displayed in public places to remind townsfolk. The decree was part of a Russian attempt to mimic European customs.
Source: The Cambridge History of Russia by Dominic Lieven
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What is the legend of the “Black Taj Mahal”?
Answer: According to a French traveler in India, Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666) intended to build a black marble replica of the now famous Taj on the opposite bank of the river. This would be his own tomb linked to that built for his wife by a bridge.
Source: India under the Mughal Empire by Anita Ganeri
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The history of the United States would have been fundamentally different if Giuseppe Zangara had been more punctual on February 13, 1933. Why?
Answer: Zangara arrived late to Miami Beach’s Bayfront Park, where he planned to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). His lateness meant the park was crowded and his unusual demeanor prior to the assassination attempt was noticed by a spectator. If Zangara had been successful, the new conservative President John Nance Garner (1868-1967) would likely never have implemented the New Deal or aided Britain against Nazi Germany.
Source: Then Everything Changed by Jeff Greenfield
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“He means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, absolutely out of his senses” – Benjamin Franklin
“[He] is accurate in his judgment except where knowledge of the world is necessary to form a judgment” – Thomas Jefferson
Who are these two United States’ founding fathers admonishing?
Answer: John Adams (1735-1826), the second president of the United States.
Source: Negotiating the Constitution by Joseph M. Lynch
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Showing respect for one’s elders (filial piety) was fundamental to the Great Qing Legal Code of China (1644-1912). If your parent died, how long would you have had to wait under the code before you could “procure entertainment”, such as enjoy music?
Answer: Three years. Showing a lack of filial piety was one of the “ten abominations” of the code, alongside the likes of rebellion and treason.
Source: The Laws and Economics of Confucianism by Taisu Zhang
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“Do they think that I am such a damned fool as to think myself fit for president of the United States? No, sir; I know what I am fit for.” Who uttered this?
Answer: Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), speaking in 1821. He subsequently served as president from 1829-1837.
Source: The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections by Yanek Mieczkowski
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“A heaven-born general” was how British statesman William Pitt the Elder (1708-1788) described who?
Answer: Robert Clive (1725-1774). Clive was an army leader and administrator who created a territorial empire for the British East India Company.
Source: Early Hanoverian Britain, 1714-1789, by Geoffrey Treasure
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Those condemned to be hanged in the early nineteenth-century London used to ask family or friends to give their legs a hard tug as they dangled from the gallows. Why?
Answer: They knew that their freshly hanged bodies would be handed to scientists for anatomical studies. They didn’t want to survive the hanging only to regain consciousness while being dissected.
Source: Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy by Tim Harford
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“It is with such baubles that men are led.” So said Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). What is he referring to?
Answer: The creation of the Legion of Honour in 1802, and more broadly, the rewards and honours that are deemed necessary to motivate soldiers.
Source: A Flag Worth Dying For by Tim Marshall
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Who was the first female member of the Cabinet of the United States?
Answer: Francis Perkins (1880-1965), who was Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945. Perkins was a pioneer in labor reform, establishing unemployment insurance, minimum wages, maximum hours, safety regulations, and social security.
Source: A Woman Unafraid by Penny Colman
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Which powerful ruler had a great love of books and a magnificent library numbering 24,000 manuscripts, but could not read or write?
Answer: Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great (1542-1605). Akbar had the manuscripts read to him by courtiers and recent scholarship suggests that he may have been dyslexic.
Source: India under the Mughal Empire by Anita Ganeri
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What was the famous 1857 poisoned bread case in Hong Kong?
In the British colony of Hong Kong, in 1857, Chinese patriot Cheong Ah Lum, embracing the xenophobia then sweeping China, decided to kill off the principal British residents of Hong Kong. Since he was the most respected baker of the island, he was in a strong position to achieve this.
By inserting arsenic into his loaves he did indeed give some 400 Britons very severe indigestion (though by putting in too much, and thus making them vomit, he did not succeed in murdering them). Panic understandably seized the colony, the British Empire having only just been plunged into the horrors of the Indian Mutiny, but the plot was discovered and Cheong Ah Lum, though acquitted of murder for lack of evidence (by a judge and jury all of whom had swallowed some of the arsenic) was deported to China.
A chunk of the poisoned bread, well preserved by its arsenic, was kept in a cabinet in the Chief Justice’s office until the 1930s.
Source: Hong Kong – Epilogue to an Empire by Jan Morris
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Shaving in Ancient Rome was much more than a simple act of daily ablution. How so?
For the Ancient Romans, shaving was a type of religious rite. The first time that a young man’s beard fell to the barber’s razor was made the occasion of a religious ceremony: the depositio barbe.
The dates on which the emperors performed it have been duly recorded: Augustus himself, September, 39BC; Marcellus while he was taking part in the expedition against the Cantabrians in 25 BC. Ordinary citizens copied these examples scrupulously.
Records from the period show that mourning parents recorded in the epitaph for a dead son that he had just ‘deposited his beard’ in his 23rd year.
The barber used scissors to cut the beard which was to be offered as ‘first fruits’ to the divinity. No one shaved himself. The clumsy instruments available forced the Romans to place themselves in the hands of specialists.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon; The Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley and Roy Adkins
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What was some of the fascinating aspects of life in the year 1000, in England?
If you were to meet an Englishman in the year 1,000, the first thing that would strike you would be how tall he was – very much the size of anyone alive today. Nine out of ten of them lived in a green and unpolluted countryside on a simple, wholesome diet that grew sturdy limbs and very healthy teeth.
Life, however, was short. A boy of twelve was considered old enough to swear an oath of allegiance to the king, while girls got married in their early teens, often to men who were much older. Most adults died in their 40s, and a person in their fifties was regarded as venerable indeed.
Source: The year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger
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Tsar Alexander III was the second last Tsar of Russia. A giant of a man, he could bend forks at the table and it was said could walk through doors.
When the Borki train disaster occurred on October 29, 1888 the imperial train carrying the Tsar and his family from Crimea to Saint Petersburg derailed at high speed. Alexander lifted the roof of the train carriage to free his family.
What was the nickname Alexander had for his son the, by comparison, small and under-imposing Nicholas II, who in 1917 was to lose the Russian Empire which his family, the Romanovs, had ruled for over 300 years?
Answer: Tsar Alexander III called his son “Girly.”
Source: The Russian Court at Sea by Frances Welch
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The history of duelling is fascinating. What were some of the aspects of this?
Answer: Medieval trial by combat developed into the private duel using sword and pistol. Thousands of honourable gentlemen in Europe, the US and else where faced each other ready to die – or to kill – to eradicate an insult or to prove a point.
The Germans viewed dueling as a basic preparation for war. In many of the universities it was included in the curriculum as a form of aggressive gymnastics. At Leipzig University in the 1840s 400 duels were fought in a single year. There, the rules required the blades be rinsed with antiseptic to lower the chance of infection. The goal was to mark the other person’s face, and receive a mark as a sign of participation.
Source: Gentlemen’s Blood – A History of Dueling from Swords at Dawn to Pistols at Dusk by Barbara Holland
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What is the significance of the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam?
This was one of the most fateful battles in modern history. At the end of the Second World War France was eager to reclaim its colonies in Cochin, Annam and Tonkin, collectively known as Vietnam. The desire for independence was strong amongst the Vietnamese people, led by the Communists, the Viet Minh. In 1954 a French garrison of some 14,000 was holed up in the North West hills of Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu.
The French General in charge, Henri Navarre, named the eight hills to be defended after his current and former mistresses. The French were astounded that the Viet Minh could drag artillery through jungle that was seen as impassable, and then lay heavy and continual fire on them. After a bloody battle lasting many weeks, overflowing casualties in the garrison’s hospital, compounded by monsoon rains, led the garrison to surrender.
Fourteen years later when American forces were besieged at Khe Sahn in Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson was determined that the garrison would not surrender saying in his Texan drawl, ‘We don’t want no Din Bin Phoo.’
Source: A Time for War by Robert D Schulzinger
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January 2018
It would be natural to assume that the book which had the greatest influence on Russian communist revolutionary and Soviet Union head Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), was Karl Marx’s famous mid 19th century enduring treatise ‘Das Kapital’. Which book, in fact, had a far greater influence on Lenin?
Answer: A novel ‘What is to be Done’ by a Nikolay Chemyshebsky. Apparently a very poor novel, it’s hero is a selfless intellectual who gives himself up to the revolutionary cause. He walks 20 miles and does 150 push-ups a day and abstains from alcohol. Lenin, quite deliberately, modeled himself on this character. Lenin said that this book, which one summer he read five times, influenced him more than anything by Karl Marx.
Like the 1852 ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ which was a powerful indictment of slavery – it was said that Queen Victoria wept when she read it – Chemyshebsky’s book is an example of the novel, the dramatic form, influencing individual and public opinion.
Source: ‘Lenin The Dictator – An Intimate Portrait’ by Victor Sebestyen
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The 18th century was the romanticised great period of the influence of pirates, who were infamous for their bold and dastardly attacks on commercial and other ships for plunder, often around areas such as the Barbary Coast, West Africa. Pirates were renowned for the cruelty and fearsomeness. What was the description given to the English pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, by Captain Charles Johnson, author of the 1724 book ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates’?
Answer: ‘Such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell, to look more frightful’.
Source: ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates’ by Charles Johnson
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In the 13th century, the Mongols were a mighty invading and conquering force, which emerged from the union of nomadic tribes in the Mongol homeland under the control of Genghis Khan, who was made ruler of all the Mongols in 1206. What was just one example of the Mongols’ military might?
Answer: One of the Mongol armies alone totalled between 100 and 200,000 men.
Source: The History of the World by Rene Sedillot
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While popularly believed to be a modern invention, contact lenses in fact have a long history. What are the elements of this?
Answer: As part of his wide ranging genius, Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci developed a concept for contact lenses as far back as the 15th and 16th centuries. This remarkable optical device, however, was in fact invented in 1887 by German doctor Adolf Eugen Fick who first tested experimental versions on rabbits. The lenses became commercially highly successful and in use around the world from the late 1940s.
Source: General Historical Texts
What is the fascinating story behind the study of genetics and Austrian monk Gregor Mendel (1822-84)?
Answer: Mendel worked out the basic rules of heredity from studying garden peas. Although his ground breaking work in this field largely went unacknowledged in his lifetime, he is today seen as the father of the study of genetics.
Source: Mendel’s Principles of Hereditary by William Bateson
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How did French historian Rene Sedillot describe the history of Greece around the fourth century BCE?
Answer: This is in large part the history of cities devoured by one another, and endlessly fighting to acquire a supremacy that was never more than temporary. In this continuing warfare, Sparta, thanks to her army, held all the trumps on land; Athena because of her fleet, at sea.
Source: The History of the World by Rene Sedillot
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Despite Ivan IV (1530-1584) of Russia, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or the Fearsome, having such formidable names, he brought about substantial change in his country. What were some of these?
Answer: In 1547 he transformed the Grand Duchy of Moscow into the Tsardom of Russia. In the 1550s he commenced the expansion of its boundaries; as a result its territory and population doubled during his reign. In regal title, he went from Grand Prince of Moscow to ‘Tsar of All the Russias’, a designation used by all his successors.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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“We want no Gestapo or secret police. [It] is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex life scandals and plain blackmail when they should be catching criminals.” What was US President Harry Truman (1884-1972) discussing on May 12, 1945?
Answer: The FBI. Truman was concerned that the FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) were becoming too powerful.
Source: Official & Confidential – The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover by Anthony Summers
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Vladimir Ulyanov, Josif Dzhugashvili and Lev Bronstein were better known by what names?
Answer: Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), Josef Stalin (1878-1953) and Leon Trotsky (1879-1940). Pseudonyms were commonly employed in the Russian politics of this late 19th century and early 20th century era.
Source: Dictionary of Pseudonyms by Adrian Room
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Frenchman Jean Lafitte (1780-1823) fought for the United States in the Battle of New Orleans (1815). Why is this significant?
Answer: Lafitte was a pirate. After the U.S. Navy captured his pirate fleet in 1814, he fought against the British at the Battle of New Orleans in exchange for a pardon.
Source: Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans by Winston Groom
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Which U.S. President was the first to appear on television; Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt or Richard Nixon?
Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). Roosevelt’s blurry image was broadcast at the World’s Fair in New York City in 1939.
Source: Media Impact by Shirley Biagi
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In the margins of gothic manuscripts, knights are often drawn fighting what unlikely foes?
Answer: Snails. The snail is often significant in size and the knight is depicted as shocked or scared. The reason for this “Knight v Snail” motif remains a mystery.
Source: Image on the Edge by Michael Camille
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Which American founding father was once described as “radically deficient in discretion”?
Answer: Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804).
Source: The Essential Hamilton by Joanne B. Freeman
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Why were the events in Peenemünde, Germany, between 1936 and 1945 so important in the diverse military tapestry of the Second World War (1939-1945) as well as later space travel and the development of weapons of mass destruction?
Answer: Peenemünde was the home of a research and development centre testing cutting edge rocket and cruise missile technology. At its peak it employed over 10,000 people.
Source: The Rocket and the Reich by Michael J. Neufeld
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During the American Civil War (1861-1865), what were Monitor and Merrimack?
Answer: The most famous ironclad warships of the Civil War. The Confederate Merrimack (renamed the C.S.S. Virginia) and the Union Monitor met off Norfolk, Virginia, on March 9 1862. This inconclusive engagement, known as the Battle of Hampton Roads, was the first ever clash between ironclad warships.
Source: Encyclopaedia of American History by John Mack Faragher
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British war hero, and defeater of Napoleon, Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), was asked in his twilight years whether he could have done anything better in his life. What was his response?
Answer: “Yes, I should have given more praise.”
Source: A History of Warfare by Viscount Montgomery
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The grave digger for composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) funeral reported a strange story to the police. What was it?
Answer: That he had been approached and offered 1,000 florins for Beethoven’s head. Beethoven’s own mentor Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) had years earlier had his body exhumed and head stolen by a rogue phrenologist who wanted to study the skull.
Source: Beethoven – Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford
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When Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) became president in 1801 he exercised the office simply, including in how he dressed. How did this cause problems?
Answer: On one occasion a senator arrived at the White House and, after seeing Jefferson in a threadbare coat, soiled shirt and slippers, mistook him for the butler. When the new British Ambassador, Anthony Merry, first visited and saw his appearance he complained about Jefferson’s “utter slovenliness and indifference to appearances.”
Source: The Jefferson Way by Jeffrey B. Morris
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Why is the African slave Francisco de Eguia, a traveler with the Spanish invaders of Mexico in the sixteenth century, so important in the history of the Americas?
Answer: De Eguia is often credited with spreading smallpox to the Americas. Smallpox and other European diseases like measles, influenza and mumps, killed anywhere from 50 to 90 million people in Central and South America. Never in history have so many died of a disease in a single century.
Source: A Little History of the United States by James West Davidson
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Why is the Native American settlement of Cahokia, modern day Illinois, such a mystery to historians?
Answer: This advanced city, the pre-eminent metropolis in the region in the year 1200, and equal in size to any European city, was abandoned around the year 1300. It is unclear why.
Source: A Little History of the United States by James West Davidson
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In 1814 British forces occupied and burnt Washington D.C. during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). What enabled them to pull off this audacious attack?
Answer: Runaway slaves. During the war thousands of slaves fled the Chesapeake Bay and sought freedom on British naval ships. These slaves supported the British as guides, pilots, sailors and marines and used their intimate knowledge of the countryside to pave the way to Washington.
Source: The Internal Enemy – Slavery and War in Virginia 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor
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In 1820, former US President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) recounted how ‘like a fireball in the night [it] awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once the knell of the union.” By ‘knell’, Jefferson meant death of the Union. What struck him with such fear?
Answer: Sectionalism. Jefferson was proved right, sectionalism arguably led to the American Civil War (1861-1865). Sectionalism is loyalty to one’s own region or section of a country, rather than to the country as a whole.
Source: The Internal Enemy – Slavery and War in Virginia 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor
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Who was the last Saxon king of England?
Answer: Edgar Atheling, or Edgar II (1051-1166). While King Harold II (1022-1066) was famously killed at the Battle of Hastings, between Harold’s death on October 14 and Christmas Day 1066, when William the Conquerer was crowned King of England, the country was ruled in name by Edgar.
Source: Unexpected Britain by Stuart Laycock and Phillip Laycock
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Which famed playwright, a rival of William Shakespeare, died aged 29 due to a row over a bill?
Answer: Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). According to the coroner’s report a fight broke over who should pay a dinner bill and Marlowe was killed. The exact circumstances of his death remain the source of much mystery.
Source: Christopher Marlowe – A Renaissance Life by Constance Kuriyama
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What seemingly modest invention made Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) declare that without it “there would have been no Cézanne, no Monet, no Sisley or Pissarro, nothing of what the journalists were later to call Impressionism.”
Answer: The paint tube. This replaced the parcels of pigs’ bladder in which oil paints had previously been stored. The tube made paints more portable and less liable to dry out.
Source: Innovation and Visualization – Trajectories, Strategies, and Myths by Amy Ione
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According to historian Harry Dickinson, which figure of British political history has been depicted by historians as ‘the epitome of unredeemed mediocrity and as a veritable buffoon in office’?
Answer: Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1693-1768). A protégé of Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), he was a pillar of British politics for over thirty years and served as prime minister between 1754 and 1756 and from 1757 to 1762.
Source: Reader’s Guide to British History by D.M. Loades
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Why was the Ancient Monuments Protection Act, passed by the UK Parliament in 1882, so important?
Answer: It marked the first time that the state would be involved in the conservation of buildings and monuments of special interest. The first monuments protected included Stonehenge, The Hill of Tara and Barbury Castle.
Source: Conserving and Managing Ancient Monuments by Keith Emerick
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What was the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756?
Answer: A reversal in the diplomatic relations of European powers. The traditional pattern of European diplomacy, the rivalry between France and the House of Habsburg which had shaped international relations since the close of the fifteenth century, was suddenly overthrown as France allied with Austria and Prussia with Britain.
Source: The Birth of a Great Power System, 1740-1815 by Hamish Scott
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During the Second World War (1939-1945), Nazi Germany sought to de-stabilise the British economy thorough Operation Bernhard. What was it?
Answer: Forging vast quantity of British pound notes and air-dropping them over Britain, with the aim of collapsing the UK financial system. While never dropped on Britain, the forged money was eventually used for funding Nazi foreign intelligence operations.
Source: Encyclopaedia of Intelligence and Counterintelligence by Rodney Carlisle
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According to one legendary story, which historical figure had a dog named ‘Diamond’ which knocked over a candle and set fire to many years worth of work?
Answer: Famed English mathematician, astronomer, theologian and physicist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The tale goes that Newton exclaimed “Oh Diamond! Diamond! Thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done.”
Source: Isaac Newton – Eighteenth Century Perspectives by Alfred Rupert Hall
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On December 8 1941, the U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly to declare war against Japan in response to the attack on Pearl Harbour. Who was the only legislator to vote against it?
Answer: Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) of Montana. A pacifist, Rankin also voted against American involvement in the First World War (1914-1918) and was the first women elected to the U.S. Congress.
Source: The American Congress – The Building of Democracy by Julian E. Zelizer
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December 2017
In 1492 a revolt broke out in the Netherlands against tax collectors. It adopted for its banner not the plough or wooden shoe, the symbols of insurgent peasants, but something very different. What was it?
Answer: Cheese and bread. It was a symbol that the country should not be “eaten up” by tax collectors. The rising was known as the “Bread and Cheese Revolt”.
Source: The New Cambridge Modern History by G.R. Potter
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On October 26 1863, a group of like minded sports enthusiasts met at The Freemasons’ Tavern, London, to do what?
Answer: Establish The Football Association. It agreed the first common rules of association football and remains the oldest football association in the world.
Source: Classic Guide to Football by C. W. Alcock
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Which Chinese Emperor was a talented calligrapher and painter and the author of more than 42,000 poems?
Answer: The Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799). A patron of the arts, he sponsored publication of the Four Treasures, a collection of 3,500 historical and philosophical texts, which were gathered together and copied by no fewer than 15,000 scholars.
Source: The Dragon Throne: China’s Emperors from the Qin to the Manchu by Jonathan Fenby
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In early Chinese culture, what was the name given to animal’s bones bearing inscriptions made by diviners, who used them to foretell the future?
Answer: Oracle bones. The inscriptions are among the earliest examples of Chinese writing.
Source: The Dragon Throne: China’s Emperors from the Qin to the Manchu by Jonathan Fenby
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Which European King was known as “the quarreller”?
Answer: King Louis X of France (1289-1316). He was also dubbed “the stubborn” and “the headstrong”.
Source: The Troyes Mémoire by Tina Kane
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What did the American billionaire John Paul Getty (1892-1976) say was the formula for success?
Answer: “Rise early, work late, strike oil.”
Source: Water and Energy by Gustaf Olsson
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On 18 March 1915 the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought became the only battleship ever to do what?
Answer: Sink a submarine. It did so when it rammed German U-boat U-9, commanded by famed U boat naval officer Otto Weddigen (1882-1915).
Source: The European Powers in the First World War by Spencer C. Tucker
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The Japanese martial art of Tessenjutsu originated in the feudal era (1185-1603) and was based on what surprising weapon?
Answer: A fan. These folding ‘war fans’ were predominately used to cool the user but could also be employed as a weapon at last resort.
Source: Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan by William E. Deal
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During the Second World War (1939-1945), what step did the Royal Air Force take to aid airmen should they be captured?
Answer: Maps of escape routes were printed on silk and sewed inside the jackets of uniforms. Tiny compasses were also concealed inside buttons.
Source: Maps by Rose Mitchell and Andrew Janes
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From which famous document does the prohibition of ‘Cruel and Unusual Punishment’ originate?
Answer: The English Bill of Rights in 1689. The same wording was later used in the eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1791.
Source: The United States Constitution and Citizens’ Rights by Roland Adickes
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Which Middle Eastern city was known for over 600 years as Aelia Capitolina?
Answer: Jerusalem. The city was in ruins following the First Jewish–Roman War (66-73 CE) and the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina was built on its ruins.
Source: The Archaeology of Jerusalem by Katharina Galor et al
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Which musician was said to have sold his soul to the Devil, who tuned his guitar?
Answer: Robert Johnson (1911-1938), the American blues singer-songwriter. Many legends have developed around Johnson’s life, who is a colorful identity in the American cultural tapestry.
Source: Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture by Patricia R. Schroeder
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In English history, what was the witenagemot?
Answer: The grand council of advisors and nobles that advised the king during the Anglo-Saxon era (7th – 11th centuries). It acted as a form of high court and crowned the monarch, with many observers tracing the modern-day UK parliament to this institution.
Source: Events that Changed Great Britain by Frank W. Thackeray and John E. Findling
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According to historiometric research by Professor of Psychology at the University of California – Davis, Dean Keith Simonton, who was the “smartest” American President?
Answer: John Quincy Adams (1767-1848). The assessment was based on IQ’s. Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) came bottom of the pile.
Source: D.K. Simonton, “Presidential IQ, Openness, Intellectual Brilliance, and Leadership: Estimates and Correlations for 42 U.S. Chief Executives”. Political Psychology, 27: 511–526
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From where did American bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd (1904-1934) gain the nickname “the Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills”, in the early 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression?
Answer: From his practice of destroying mortgage papers of impoverished dust bowl farmers at the banks he robbed. For this he became an almost beloved folk hero.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Great Depression and the New Deal by James Climent
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“They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.” So said Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE). Who is he describing?
Answer: Young people. It seems that older generations have complained about the young since at least the fourth century BCE.
Source: On the Contrary by Martha Rainbolt and Janet Fleetwood
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“Damn John Jay! Damn everyone that won’t damn John Jay! Damn every one that won’t put lights in his window and sit up all night damning John Jay!” This was a rallying call in America in the 1790s. Why?
Answer: It was a response to the Jay Treaty (1795) between the United States and Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and his supporters opposed the treaties ties with Britain and attacked the American negotiator John Jay (1745-1829).
Source: Building the Continental Empire by William Weeks
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In Ancient China, what was the Zhuqingting?
Answer: This was a special flying toy dating from 400 CE. It had an axis with propeller like blades. A string, attached to the axis, set the device into the air when pulled. Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), a proponent of modern aeronautics, would study the toy for clues on flight.
Source: Innovation in China by Greg MacDonald
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In 1925 an opulent railway station, the second largest in Europe, was built in the small village of Canfranc, Spain. Why?
Answer: Canfranc was to serve as the transfer station on the route between Madrid and Paris. Due to the Great Depression and political tensions, station traffic was far less than expected and as few as 50 passengers a day were using the station in the early 1930s.
Source: The Cathedral of the Winged Wheel and the Sugarbeet Station by Richard Deiss
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Tasmanian born 1930s and 1940s Hollywood swashbuckling heart throb actor Errol Flynn was the son of a marine biology professor at the University of Tasmania. When he made it big in Hollywood his screen idol pals thought he was a flamboyant, impostor Irishman who made up his Australian origins.
Before he made it in Hollywood Flynn had left home as a teenager and, among other things, went to the Australian colony of New Guinea in 1927. There he had a number of jobs including cadet patrol officer, gold prospector, slave recruiter, dynamiting fisherman and bird trapper. A notorious womaniser, drinker and drug taker, Flynn was married several times, was put on trial for carnal knowledge, and by the time he died aged just 50 was virtually broke. What did his fellow actor and friend, Englishman David Niven say about Flynn as to his dependability?
Answer: “You could always rely on Errol. He’d always let you down.”
Source The Moon’s a Balloon by David Niven
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What was the significance of the 1824 Treaty of London?
Answer: Under this agreement, the Dutch were to withdraw from the Malay peninsula. The British settlements there – Penang, Singapore and Malacca – were bound by the doctrine of non-intervention set out in Pitt’s India Act. The immediate danger to the independence of the Malay states in 1826 lay in Siamese expansionism; the Burney Treaty in that year halted Siam’s pressure upon them, though only after two incidents in which the Penang government safeguarded Perak’s independence.
Source: The Times Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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The 19th century saw a ‘market revolution’ in the United States. What is the evidence for this?
Answer: Small farms and workshops took second place to a national economy where manufacturers supplied a distant marketplace. Improved transportation, immense resources and supportive government policies were all decisive in establishing in 1900, the world’s most productive economy.
Source: Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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The central feature of world history between 1500 and 1815 was what?
Answer: The growth of Europe and steady spread of European civilization across the world. Until 1500, the world had, by and large, pressed in on Europe. After 1500, Europe increasingly pressed out on the world. By 1775, a new global balance existed.
Source: Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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By the time Irish-born London physician and collector Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) died, he had amassed an enormous collection of objects. How many were there?
Answer: Some 71,000 different items, ranging from samples of flora and fauna from around the world, to manuscripts and books on an eclectic range of topics. He bequeathed the collection to the nation, in return for a payment of 20,000 pounds to his estate, vastly below the value of the collection. From this compilation was born the British Museum.
Source: The British Museum – A History by David M Wilson
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Marie de Medici (1573-1642), the second wife of King Henry IV of France, was also a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici and known for her ceaseless political intrigues at the French court. It was said that the prime reason Henry married Marie was because he owed her father a stupendous amount of money. Marie quarrelled incessantly with King Henry’s mistresses. How did Henry’s chief mistress Catherine Henriette de Balzac d’Entragues describe Marie?
Answer: The “fat banker’s daughter”.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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In the 19th century, railways were the great facilitator and catalyst of economic growth. The US led the world in this. By 1840, Europe, obviously comprising a myriad of countries, had 2,900 kilometres of railway. What was the figure for the United States, just one country?
Answer: 5,400, or some 85 percent more. A further 46,700 kilometres of railways were built in the next 20 years in the US, opening up the country, fostering massive economic growth and creating vast fortunes for entrepreneurs.
Source: Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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Charles IV of France (1380-1422) was known as ‘Charles the Mad’. What was one bizarre example of his mental instability?
Answer: He thought he was made of glass, and was afraid he would shatter. He even commanded that his clothes be made with steel rods in them to prevent this unfortunate eventuality.
Source: Agincourt by Juliet Barker.
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What is the world’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, and where is it located?
Answer: Ma Yu Ching’s Bucket Chicken House in Kaifeng, China. It is believed to have been operating around 1150, as documents account for its existence during the Jin Dynasty. It still serves noodles, rice, and roast chicken.
Source: The China Study by T Colin Campbell; General Historical Texts
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The Roman Empire is rightly praised for its longevity, sophistication, system of government and territorial holdings. But as regards those living within the empire, what was a particularly alarming aspect?
Answer: In 1 CE, when the empire had jurisdiction over one seventh of the world’s population, some 45 million people, only a tenth of the Roman population, 4.5 million, were full citizens. The rest were slaves, or had limited civic rights.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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In the history of world architecture, what is the significance of Friday, May 1, 1931?
Answer: In New York, the 102 storey Empire State Building was officially opened. At 443 metres or 1,454 feet to the top of its spire, it exceeded the Art Deco Chrysler Building which had been the world’s tallest building for just 11 months. Commenced in 1929, at the height of the US stock market boom, the building expressed the tremendous optimism of America at that time. With the Great Depression of the 1930s, it was not until 1945 that the great structure was fully tenanted.
Source: Empire State by Henry Porter
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The Spartans were renowned for their tough, austere, heroic and above all warlike disposition. At the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE what was the famous quote attributed to Dieneces, a Spartan, when told that the Persian archers would shoot so many arrows they would conceal the Sun?
Answer: “This is good news … if the Persians hide the Sun, we shall do battle in the shade.”
Source: Histories by Herodotus, ancient Greek historian
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November 2017
A feature of Russian life after the Revolution of 1917 was propaganda. Its central goal was to portray a positive message about the supposedly enviable, prosperous existence Russians enjoyed under Communist rule. What event in Russia in 1921 was unlikely, however, to have been the subject of such joyful propaganda
Answer: An estimated five million Russians died in the famine of 1921.
Source: Red Famine by Anne Applebaum
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During the 1870-1871 Siege of Paris, following the defeat of the French army in the Franco Prussian war, Parisians were in persistent fear of Prussian spies and enemy combatants in the city. Foreigners were constantly being mistaken for the enemy and often harassed, or worse. Eventually, special passports were issued. But by the end of the siege, what was the unusual fate of one English doctor?
Answer: He had been arrested no fewer than 42 times.
Source: The Fall of Paris by Alistair Horne
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A further example of the magnificent questing and inquisitive aspect of navigation of the seas in the human experience, especially up until the end of the 17th century, was what?
Answer: Explorers such as the Vikings, Polynesians, Drake and Magellan, to name a few, crossed the oceans and reached their destination and returned, using primitive navigation. Until the 18th century, it was impossible for explorers and mariners to determine their position accurately. Today, thanks to developments in navigational technology, locations can be pinpointed to within a few metres.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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A number of high profile Hollywood identities have recently been accused of gross sexual impropriety. Such scandals are not new to Tinsel town. What was one of the high profile cases from a hundred years ago involving a then Hollywood superstar?
Answer: The Fatty Arbuckle scandal. Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter.
Between November 1921 and April 1922, Arbuckle was the defendant in three widely reported trials for the rape and manslaughter of actress Virginia Rappe. Rappe had become ill at a party organised by Arbuckle at a San Francisco hotel in September 1921. Rappe died four days later. Arbuckle was accused of raping and inadvertently killing the actress. After the first two trials, which resulted in hung juries, Arbuckle was acquitted in the third trial and given a formal written statement of apology from the jury.
Source: General Historical Texts
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During the hard times of the Great Depression (1929-1939), poor Americans often made clothes out of potato and flour sacks. How did some distributors of these products respond?
Answer: They began using more colorful printed sacks, thus allowing those forced to resort to the use of such items, to be able to have some colorful clothing.
Source: Soft Covers for Hard Times by Merrikay Wolliwogel
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While the convict settlements of New South Wales and French Guiana are the most famous, what was the largest convict settlement organised by European powers?
Answer: The Andaman Islands, an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal to the west of India. 83,600 convicts were sent there, more than New South Wales (79,300) and French Guiana (72,000).
Source: Emancipation and the Remaking of the British Imperial World by Catherine Hall et al
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A prominent Native American leader named Blackbird was said to have had such an affinity with his horse that in 1800 he did what?
Answer: He was buried sitting on top of the animal. The site in modern day Nebraska became known as “Blackbird Hill” and was visited by Lewis and Clark during their 1804 exploration expedition.
Source: Encyclopaedia of Nebraska by Nancy Capace
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What was one of the measures that Italian Fascist party leader and prime minister between 1922 and 1943 Benito Mussolini introduced to reverse the country’s falling birthrate?
Answer: He taxed bachelors and rewarded mothers. The success of the program was evident in the example of a group of 93 women who produced 1,300 children. An average of just under 14 offspring for each woman.
Source: Italy and the Road to War by Dr Alan Brown
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European settlement of New Zealand from the 1840s led to two major wars with Maori over the next quarter century. Thereafter New Zealand became known as what?
Answer: A rural “Britain of the South”, supplying the mother country with primary produce. An advanced social and political laboratory, it was among the first to extend votes to its indigenous population and women. Recently, it has introduced a native title tribunal and further liberalized and internationalized its economy.
Source: The Times Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
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U.S. v. Ninety-Five Barrels, More or Less, Alleged Apple Cider Vinegar (1924) was a U.S. Supreme Court case. True or False?
Answer: True. In a landmark ruling for food safety, the court found that a producer of Apple Cider Vinegar was mis-labelling its products.
Source: Science and Politics by Brent S. Steel
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What event began as a decorous academic dispute, quickly turned into a scandal, then a political crisis, and, within less then a decade, the largest mass rebellion Europe had ever seen?
Answer: The Reformation (1516-1648).
Source: Protestants – The Radicals Who Made the Modern World by Alec Ryrie
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Before the American Civil War (1861-1865), who had greater per capita wealth, the Union or the Confederacy?
Answer: The Confederacy. This is because slaves were counted as capital and the Confederacy had a much smaller population. Assessed on per capita income, Confederate wealth was 27% higher.
Source: A Divided Union by Peter Batty and Peter Parish
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Sarah Good, Reverend George Burroughs, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin and Elizabeth Howe are all names associated with what?
Answer: The Salem Witch Trials. All five were hanged for their perceived association with witchcraft or dark magic.
Source: Daily Life During the Salem Witch Trials by K. David Gross
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Which ancient civilisation, as advanced as Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, and certainly more widespread, was only rediscovered in the 1920s?
Answer: The Indus Valley civilisation (2600-1900 BCE), in the northwest regions of South Asia. To this day less than 10% of the Indus’ settlements have been excavated and its language remains undeciphered.
Source: A Dictionary of Archaeology by Ian Shaw et. al
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In the late nineteenth century, the United States witnessed unparalleled growth. When Mark Beaubien was born in 1822, he was one of only two American families living at the trading post of Chicago. When he died in 1907, how many people lived there?
Answer: 2.5 million. Chicago was born of the big business of the American “Gilded Age”.
Source: Age of Betrayal by Jack Beatty
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“We have puked up our traditions.” So said American philosopher William James (1842-1910). What was he discussing?
Answer: He was criticising American policy of the 1890s and 1900, principally the U.S. invasion of Cuba in 1898.
Source: Age of Betrayal by Jack Beatty
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In March 1854, Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) became “the only Harvard Phi Betta Kappa, Unitarian minister, and master of seven languages who has led a storming party against a federal bastion with a battering ram in his hands.” Why?
Answer: Higginson was an abolitionist protesting against the seizure of an escaped slave in Boston.
Source: Politics and America in Crisis – The Coming of the Civil War by Michael S. Green
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“This news affects me greatly, if it is true; however I don’t give credence to it.” So said Venetian diarist Girolamo Priuli (1476–1547) in 1499. What news was he referring to?
Answer: That a Portuguese naval expedition had reached India. Priuli would have been shocked by the news; not only did the revelation demolish the belief that the Indian Ocean was a closed lake, but the success had been achieved by Portugal, one of Europe’s poorest states.
Source: Conquerors – How Portugal seized the Indian Ocean and forged the First Global Empire by Roger Crowley
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Andree Antonie’s production of the play La Fille Elisa, performed in Paris, France, on 24 December 1890, contained what theatre first?
Answer: It was the first time a toilet had appeared on stage.
Source: Guinness World Records 2018 by Various Authors
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According to some historians what system, enacted in the United States between 1920 and 1933 and subject to much ridicule, was actually a major success?
Answer: Prohibition. It is argued that the banning of alcohol sobered up the populace as, after 1933, alcohol consumption remained low and Americans did not get back to their pre-Prohibition drinking levels till 1971.
Source: Hellfire Nation by James A. Morone
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Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) was a colorful Confederate general during the American Civil War (1861-1865). He was once shot during a quarrel with a subordinate. What happened next?
Answer: Forrest held his opponent’s gun hand while he used his teeth to open his pocketknife and stab the assailant. Forrest then shed tears over the bloody result of the encounter, as the man died in his arms.
Source: Civil War and Reconstruction by William L. Richter
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In early 19th century Britain, what were known as “filthy rags”?
Answer: Banknotes. First widely used from 1797, many were suspicious of this new form of currency and the numerous forgeries in circulation. The term “filthy rags” was popularised by journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835).
Source: Cobbett’s Political Register by William Cobbett
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Which famed ancient warrior led one of the most arduous military marches in antiquity, a 60-day ordeal through southern Iran, despite having had one of his lungs pierced by an arrow shortly before embarking?
Answer: Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE). Such was the achievement that it fuelled the view held by some contemporaries that he was a god.
Source: Alexander the Great by Hugh Bowden
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“We learned once and for all that compromise makes a good umbrella but a poor roof … that it is a temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.” So said American critic James Russell Lowell (1819-1891). What was he discussing?
Answer: The years before the American Civil War (1861-1865), where constant compromise dominated U.S politics.
Source: Ecstatic Nation – Confidence, Crisis and Compromise by Brenda Wineapple
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What famous legend surrounds the Taj Mahal and Lord William Bentinck (1774-1839), British Governor-General of India?
Answer: The legend says that Bentinck planned to demolish the Taj Mahal and auction off the marble. Despite the popularity of the story, it is false and was made up by political rivals to discredit Bentinck.
Source: A Teardrop on the Cheek of Time, The Story of the Taj Mahal by Diana Preston
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Which nineteenth century American politician did not like his name, considering it “fishy”, all the more irksome because he knew he was reputed to be a political opportunist?
Answer: Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873). Chase served as Secretary of the Treasury (1861-1864) and as U.S. Chief Justice (1864-1873). At the treasury he famously put his own face on one dollar National Bank notes to boost his public profile.
Source: Ecstatic Nation – Confidence, Crisis and Compromise by Brenda Wineapple
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In 1919, how did humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935) suggest dealing with the growing Prohibition movement in the United States?
Answer: Complaining that Prohibitionists “just seem sore at the world”, he joked “why not settle this Prohibition fifty-fifty? Let the Prohibitionists quit drinking.”
Source: Hellfire Nation by James A. Morone
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“I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation … I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.” Where does this declaration originate?
Answer: The first edition of the The Liberator, an abolitionist magazine, published in 1831. The words belong to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879).
Source: Hellfire Nation by James A. Morone
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In June 1630, 400 English Puritans arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, to found a new settlement in America. What did famed leader John Winthrop (1587-1649) write in his journal to mark the occasion?
Answer: He noted how good the beer was that they had with their supper.
Source: Hellfire Nation by James A. Morone
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American military leader and President Andrew Jackson (1767 – 1845) was nicknamed “Old Hickory”. What other nickname did he have?
Answer: Native Americans dubbed him “Sharp Knife”, a response to Jackson’s brutal campaigns against them, both in his military career and as president.
Source: Sharpe Knife – Andrew Jackson and the American Indians by Alfred A. Cave
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October 2017
Benjamin Robbins Curtis (1809-1874) was an American Supreme Court Justice who accomplished a number of court firsts. What were they?
Answer: He was the first Supreme Court Justice to have a law degree and the first to resign from the court on a matter of principle (in response to the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857).
Source: Supreme Court Justices by Timothy L. Hall
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The winter of 1609 saw famine strike the fledgling colony of Virginia in British North America. What did some of the colonists resort to?
Answer: Cannibalism. According to one source, a man even murdered his wife and “chopped [her] in pieces and salted her for his foode”. Of the 400 colonists of the previous spring, only sixty survived the winter.
Source: The Barbarous Years – The Peopling of British North America by Bernard Bailyn
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In the late nineteenth century, thousands of immigrants arrived in the United States through New York City, with the Statue of Liberty cited as the first structure they saw on entering New York Harbour. In reality, what did they actually see first?
Answer: A large elephant. The “Elephant Colossus” tourist attraction was a seven story building shaped like an elephant on Coney Island. It was destroyed by fire in 1896.
Source: America’s Changing Neighbourhoods by Reed Ueda
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“Trials of Pitch, Tar, Glass, Frankincense, and Soap-ashes.” Why is this list of items so significant in American history?
Answer: These were the first ever exports from the British American colonies, dispatched to Britain from Virginia in 1608.
Source: A History of American Manufactures by John Leander Bishop et al
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Despite having over 100 sites named after him, which famed explorer is buried under a platform at Euston Railway Station in London?
Answer: Matthew Flinders (1774-1814). He was a leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia, but his burial place, originally a churchyard, was enveloped by the growth of Euston.
Source: Flinders – The Man Who Mapped Australia by Rob Mundle
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Which U.S. Supreme Court decision is often cited as its “worst decision ever”?
Answer: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). It stated that “a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves” could not be an American citizen.
Source: The Dred Scott Case by David Thomas Konig et al
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How did the French Aristocrat, Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras (1744-1790), famously respond to his death warrant at the height of the French Revolution?
Answer: “I see that you have made three spelling mistakes.”
Source: Military Quotations by Ray Hamilton
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The Romans kept a supply of it in the government treasury, it was serenaded in songs and poems and one Greek city state even put it on their coins. What was it?
Answer: Silphium. A wonder herb commonly used by the Ancients, it was employed in medicine, for food and as a perfume. It is now widely considered extinct, but mystery surrounds its demise.
Source: A Brief History of the Private Lives of the Roman Emperors by Anthony Blond
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What links the composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), architect Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and novelist Franz Werfel (1890-1945)?
Answer: They were all married at different times to Viennese socialite Alma Mahler (1879-1964), full name Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel. Mahler was also a one time consort of artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) and was a composer and author in her own right.
Source: Malevolent Muse by Oliver Hilmes
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During the Great Purge of the Soviet Union (1936-1938), Soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was under investigation and faced arrest, exile or even execution. What saved him?
Answer: The investigator into Shostakovich was himself arrested. Such were the vagaries and horrors of life in the Stalinist state.
Source: Shostakovich, a Life Remembered by Elizabeth Wilson
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Which famous example of Renaissance art spent twenty years hanging, in obscurity, over someone’s bath?
Answer: Perseus and Andromeda by Titian. It is now housed in the Wallace Collection in London.
Source: Colour in Art, Design & Nature by C.A. Brebbia et al
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In 1936, The Literary Digest was a successful American weekly magazine. By 1938, it was out of existence. What happened?
Answer: Its 1936 Presidential poll was spectacularly wrong, predicting a defeat for Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) when he in fact won by a landslide. Despite being the first time the Digest’s poll had been incorrect, the magazines credibility never recovered.
Source: The Evolution of Political Parties, Campaigns, and Elections by Randall E. Adkins
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Which famous London landmark was secretly designed with a scientific lab inside to enable its designer to conduct experiments?
Answer: The Monument to the Great Fire of London. Architect Robert Hooke (1635-1703), a renowned polymath, placed a lab and telescope within the neo-classical monument to enable the observation of astronomical transits.
Source: London by A.N. Wilson
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According to one theory, what is the origin of the term “hooker”, used to describe a prostitute, and how does it relate to the American Civil War (1861-1865)?
Answer: The word may have come from the disreputable morals of the men of the Army of the Potomac under the leadership General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker (1814-1879).
Source: A People’s History of the Civil War by David Williams
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Which medieval English King, considered mad by nineteenth and twentieth century historians, is now adjudged to have suffered merely from what was in reality likely to be a personality disorder?
Answer: Richard II (1367-1400). Richard’s erratic behaviour towards the end of his reign led to his overthrow by Henry IV (1367-1413).
Source: Richard II by Christopher Fletcher
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Who declared in 1928 that “our whole business system would break down in a day if there was not a high sense of moral responsibility in our business world”?
Answer: Herbert Hoover (1874-1964). Unfortunately for Hoover, the Great Depression (1929-1939) proved that men ran business not out of moral responsibility, but for personal profit.
Source: Daily Life in the United States – 1920-1940 by David E. Kyvig
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Before the First World War (1914-1918), Americans were encouraged to eat a lot; being plump was regarded as a sign of good health as well as prosperity. How many calories did early nutritionists suggest one should eat?
Answer: 3,500 a day. Only in 1917, when understanding of nutrition had improved and the nation had a wartime army to feed, did the U.S. government begin telling people that eating less could be healthier.
Source: Daily Life in the United States – 1920-1940 by David E. Kyvig
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In 1929, researchers at Princeton University pulled off what strange achievement?
Answer: They turned a living cat into a working telephone. They did so to test how sound is perceived by the auditory nerve.
Source: Media, Technology and Society by Brian Winston
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What links the Spanish carrack Vittoria, the American monoplane Winnie Mae and the American submarine USS Triton?
Answer: They were all the first of their kind to complete a circumnavigation of the world. Vittoria from September 1519 to September 1522, Winnie Mae from 15 to 22 July 1933 and the USS Triton from 10 February to 10 April 1960.
Source: Built to Speed by Jonathan Rutland
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“Such a death of public spirit, and want of virtue, and stock-jobbing, and fertility in all the low arts to obtain advantages of one kind and another, I never saw again and pray God I may never be witness to again.” Who said this, and what are they referring to?
Answer: George Washington (1732-1799). He is discussing the Patriot Army early in the American War of Independence (1775-1783). “Could I have foreseen what I have, and am likely to experience,” he added, “no consideration upon Earth should have induced me to accept this command”.
Source: Patriot Battles – How the War of Independence Was Fought by Michael Stephenson
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The rise of the automobile in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century was nothing short of remarkable. In 1910 there were around half a million automobiles in America. How many were there by 1920?
Answer: Nine million. This rise was partly due to the revolutionary design of the Ford Model T, dubbed “Tin Lizzie”, first produced in 1908.
Source: Daily Life in the United States
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World War Two saw the temporary cessation of French colonial rule over what is today termed Vietnam. At the end of the war, France wanted to restore its colonial rule there. What did US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt say about that?
Answer: “Indochina should not go back to France,” he told secretary of state Cordell Hull in January 1943. “The case is perfectly clear. France has had the country – 30 million inhabitants – for nearly 100 years and the people are worse off than they were at the beginning. They are entitled to something better than that.”
Source: The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman
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At the end of the 19th century US oil magnate John D Rockefeller was the wealthiest man in not just America, but probably the world. Estimated at equivalent to two percent of America’s GDP, his fortune today would be equal to some $350 billion. Having, understandably, a very high profile, Rockefeller received an enormous number of requests for money. How many were there?
Answer: He would be sent between 50,000 to 60,000 letters a month asking for help.
Source: Rockefeller historian Judith Sealander
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In the 1760s the British army was not only known for its military prowess, but also for the impressive turn out of its soldiers and officers, and the rituals of spit and polish. What was one example of this?
Answer: British troops used 6,500 tons of flour a year for whitening wigs and breeches.
Source: The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman
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The last German Kaiser Wilhelm II owned no fewer than 69 Schlösser or castles. The value of these properties today would be several billions. If he wished to go hunting he could choose his Hohenzollern hunting preserve. What were some of its characteristics?
Answer: The famous Romintern Forest hunting preserve on the edge of Russia was no less than 90,000 acres. There, the ‘All Highest’, as he was referred to, or ‘Wilhelm the Impetuous’ from other quarters, jauntily attired in knickerbockers and feathered hat, could shoot boar, deer and the occasional Russian moose.
Source: August 1914 by Barbara Tuchman
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Up to the age of 25, how many men had future British prime minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) shot?
Answer: In Churchill’s own words, “Five for certain. Two doubtful.” Churchill, who began life as a soldier, was referring to his involvement in the Battle of Omdurman on September 2, 1898, where he participated in the last charge of British cavalry. The shooting was done with his Mauser C96 ‘Broom handle’ pistol, which he had purchased at his own expense.
Source: Letter to his mother Lady Randolph Churchill September 4 1898, Winston S Churchill by Randolph S Churchill
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Vietnam had been under French colonial control for some 60 years by the first decade of the 20th century. In 1910, there were around 45,000 French bureaucrats, usually those of mediocre talent, running a country of approximately 30 million people. How many of those 45,000, according to a survey in that year, could speak a reasonably fluent Vietnamese?
Answer: Three.
Source: The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman
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Critics of the British Royal family have alleged that some of its members have regarded the arts as less to be enjoyed, than endured. What did King George V (1865-1936), on an official visit to an art gallery, say to his wife Queen Mary (1867-1953) on coming across a painting by famed French artist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)?
Answer: “Come over here, May, this’ll make you laugh.”
Listening with her children to British author TS Eliot (1888-1965) reading from ‘The Waste Land’ at a World War Two recital, the then Queen (1900-2002) had to stifle her giggles. “Such a gloomy man … we didn’t understand a word!” she explained some years later.
Source: Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret published by 4th Estate.
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Who were the Ephori?
Answer: This was the name of the five magistrates elected in ancient Sparta from among the people as a countercheck on the authority of the kings and senate. Translating as the overseers, they had originally seen to the execution of justice and education of youth.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What was unusual about the marriage of future French King Louis XVI to Austrian Archduchess Marie Antoinette in May 1770?
Answer: The marriage of the then teenagers was not consummated until seven years later. Louis, then the Dauphin, suffered from a painful medical condition that rendered him impotent. Both their lives were to end tragically in the 1790s with them being guillotined during the French Revolution.
Source: Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), known simply as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet, born in the Republic of Florence, who had an unmatched influence on the development of Western art. His famed works included the ‘David’ and ‘Pieta’ statues and the ceiling paintings of Rome’s Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was the first artist to have what as regards his personal recollections?
Answer: He was the first artist to have his autobiography published in his lifetime, in fact he had two written about him.
Source: The Michelangelo Code by Waldemar Januszcak
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September 2017
French artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was born in the West Indies, and aged 25 went to Paris to study under famed landscape and portrait painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Much of Pissarro’s early work is lost. Why is this?
Answer: This was destroyed in the 1870 siege of Paris during the Franco Prussian War.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Who was the largest US president in terms of weight?
Answer: At 6′ 2″ and 354 pounds, or 160 kilos, 27th president William Howard Taft. Taft became the butt of jokes, with many Americans delighting in a story that he had gotten stuck in a White House bathtub. When he died in 1930, he weighed 280 pounds. Taft also served as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, the only person to have held both offices. Taft said that he far preferred the position of US chief judge over that of chief executive.
Source: The William Howard Taft Presidency by Lewis L Gould
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What were the earliest forms of writing?
Answer: These were Mesopotamian pictograms and cuneiform from around 3,000 BCE to 2,400 BCE. This was essentially pictographic, inscribed on damp clay with a stick or reed, and initially developed to record economic transactions.
Source: The Complete History of the World by Richard Overy; General Historical Texts
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Ottoman Sultan Murad IV (1612-1640) banned the use of both alcohol and tobacco on pain of death. He would roam the streets of Constantinople at night in disguise, sword in hand, running through any person he found disobeying his prohibition. When he came across the royal gardener and his wife enjoying a smoke, what did he do?
Answer: He had their legs cuts off, and let them bleed to death as they were pushed through the streets of the city in a wheelbarrow.
Source: History Without the Boring Bits by Ian Crofton
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Members of Britain’s House of Commons were not paid until what year?
Answer: 1911 and then only 400 pounds sterling. The British Parliament, therefore, existed for several centuries with its members needing to have private income sources, thereby obviously impacting on the class background and perspective of the country’s legislature.
Source: Winston S Churchill by Randolph S Churchill
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Andrew Johnson became the United States’ 17th president in April 1865 after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by actor John Wilkes Booth. What did Johnson’s daughter, who ran the household, implement on the domestic front, to ensure food supplies were as required?
Answer: She installed two Jersey cows on the White House lawns to keep the family in milk and butter.
Source: History Without the Boring Bits by Ian Crofton
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How devastating was the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871?
Answer: On the Sunday night of October 8, a blaze started in the property of a Patrick O’Leary. Legend has it that the genesis of the conflagration was Mrs O’Leary’s cow knocking over a lantern. Unusually strong winds fanned the flames and soon all Chicago was on the run. Even prisoners in the courthouse jail were released as the building burned. In time, the death toll was put at 300, some 100,000 people lost their homes in the 29 hour inferno, which devastated four acres, 120 miles of wooden sidewalks and caused an incredible $200 million of property damage.
Source: The Great Chicago Fire by Robin Johnson
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In 1361 in England a dentist was sued and imprisoned for doing what?
Answer: “Imprisoning and extracting” a patient’s teeth “with force and arms”.
Source: England, Arise: The People, the King and the Great Revolt of 1381 by Juliet Barker
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On March 23, 1853 German philosopher Karl Marx wrote to his good friend and co-author of landmark revolutionary text ‘The Communist Manifesto’ on the unusual subject of the bodily functions of Empress Eugenie, the consort of the then emperor of the Second French Empire, Napoleon III. What did this say?
Answer: The empress, the letter said ‘suffers, it seems, from a most indelicate complaint. She is passionately addicted to farting, and is incapable, even in company, of suppressing it. At one time she resorted to horse riding as a remedy. But this is now forbidden by her Bonaparte.’
Source: History Without the Boring Bits by Ian Crofton
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Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), president of the United States from 1929 to 1933, held the role of football manager while a student at Stanford University. How did his first game as manager, against California on March 19 1892, nearly end in disaster?
Answer: Shortly before kick-off he realised he had forgotten the football. The players and 20,000 spectators were forced to wait while one was found.
Source: Football Hall of Shame by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo
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Which city did poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) describe as being “particularly well-suited to catastrophes”?
Answer: St. Petersburg, Russia. Not only did 30,000 people die constructing the city in the early eighteenth century, but it saw upheaval and death during the Russian Revolution (1917-1920), where the population fell from 2.5 million to 740,000, the three year siege by the Nazis (1941-1944) and from purges at the hands of Joseph Stalin (1878-1953).
Source: St Petersburg by Jonathan Miles
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Which famous author’s funeral was attended by only four people, while the tombstone did not mention any literary achievements at all?
Answer: Jane Austen (1775-1817). She was buried at Winchester Cathedral.
Source: British Author House Museums and Other Memorials by Shirley Hoover Biggers
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The tale of Cinderella is often associated with the author Charles Perrault (1628-1703), who authored it in 1697. Why is this misleading?
Answer: The story of Cinderella did not start with Perrault, and in fact there were hundreds of versions worldwide before he wrote his adaptation. One version originates from China in the ninth century, where Cinderella’s slippers were made of gold instead of glass.
Source: QI by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
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In 1911 Italian aircraft dropped four small bombs on a target in Ottoman controlled Libya. Why was this significant?
Answer: It was the first aerial bombing in history.
Source: Air Power by Stephen Budiansky
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What mode of transport, currently experiencing a renaissance, was a significant rival to conventional cars as early as the late nineteenth century and considered the future of transport by Thomas Edison (1847-1931)?
Answer: The electric car. The first workable electric car was developed in 1884, and in 1899 an electric car broke 100kmh per hour. Despite such promising beginnings, cars powered by the internal combustion engine ultimately prevailed.
Source: Creating the Twentieth Century by Vaclav Smil
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According to legend, ten-pin bowling only exists because the government of Connecticut did what in the 1840s?
Answer: Declare nine-pin bowling illegal. In order to circumvent the ban, bowlers added an extra pin.
Source: Sports Rules by Thomas W. Hanlon
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Which English sportsman captained the English cricket team, played for the English football team and jointly held the world long-jump record?
Answer: C.B. Fry (1872-1956). To top things off, in the early 1920s he was reputedly offered the throne of Albania.
Source: C.B. Fry – King of Sport by Iain Wilton
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Who invented the term “terminological inexactitude” as a humorous euphemism for a lie?
Answer: Winston Churchill (1874-1965). He was a minister at the Colonial Office when he used the term in Parliament in February 1906, referring to inaccuracies in a piece of legislation regarding South Africa.
Source: Churchill – A Life by Martin Gilbert
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Why did the growing popularity of tennis ultimately lead to the death of King James I of Scotland (1394-1437)?
Answer: When a group of conspirators sought to assassinate James as he slept at Blackfriars Monastery, Perth, he escaped to a sewer. Unfortunately, the sewer had been blocked only 3 days previously to prevent tennis balls from being lost, and James was trapped and killed.
Source: James I by Michael Brown
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Paul McCartney (1942-present) was an integral member of the Beatles, but his career began in inauspicious fashion. How did he miss the debut 1957 Cavern Club gig of the Quarrymen, the first incarnation of the band that would become the Beatles?
Answer: He was away at scout camp in the Lake District.
Source: The Cavern Club by Spencer Leigh
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What was unique about the 70th Infantry Division of the German Army that served during the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: It was formed solely of people with stomach complaints. As the war progressed and German manpower dwindled, those previously classed unfit for duty were recruited into the cruelly nicknamed “white bread division”.
Source: The Other Price of Hitler’s War by Martin K. Sorge
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Australian rower Henry Pearce (1905-1976) was flat out in the quarter-finals of the single rowing sculls at the 1928 Olympics when what happened?
Answer: He saw a family of ducks were directly ahead. Pearce stopped rowing to let them pass and fortunately still got through to the semi-finals. He ended up winning gold.
Source: The Olympics, A Very Peculiar History by David Arscott
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The marathon at the 1904 Olympic Games in St Louis, Missouri, is known for the eccentric actions of Cuban athlete Andarín Carvajal (1875-1949). What happened?
Answer: Carvajal lost all his money gambling en route to the Games, so was forced to hitch-hike to St Louis and arrived at the starting line in his street clothes. He chatted to spectators during the race and at one point stopped to pick apples from an orchard. He still managed to finish fourth.
Source: The Olympics, A Very Peculiar History by David Arscott
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What was unusual about the rule of the Chinese Tianqi Emperor, who ruled from 1621-1627?
Answer: Acceding to the throne age 15, Tianqi had little interest in ruling, preferring to spend time practicing carpentry in his Imperial apartment. Instead the eunuch Wei Zhongxian (1568-1627) and Tianqi’s former wet nurse, Madame Ke (?-1627), ruled viciously in his stead.
Source: The Dragon Throne by Jonathan Fenby
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Jeanne Baret (1740-1807) was the first woman to do what?
Answer: Circumnavigate the world. The mistress of internationally renowned botanist Philibert Commerson (1727-1773), he smuggled Baret aboard the French voyage of circumnavigation of 1766–1769.
Source: The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley
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“Now is the moment for the National Assembly to become a true council of war. We ask that anyone who refuses to serve in person or to take up arms should be punished by death.” Who uttered these famous words, and when?
Answer: George Jacques Danton (1759-1794), French revolutionary. They were part of a rousing speech calling for the defence of the fledgling French republic after the fall of Verdun to the Prussians in September 1792.
Source: The French Revolution by Richard Cobb and Colin Jones
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While the British cracking of the Enigma cipher is often presented as the greatest achievement of Allied Intelligence during the Second World War (1939-1945), what was arguably even more impressive?
Answer: The cracking of another German cipher, Lorenz. While less common than Enigma, Lorenz was used for a more high level German communications. Also, unlike Engima, British intelligence services were not helped by previous work conducted by Polish intelligence and had never even seen a Lorenz code machine.
Source: Delusions of Intelligence by R.A. Ratcliff
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Which battle, taking place in 577 CE, saw the death of three kings?
Answer: The Battle of Deorham, modern day southern England. The three kings of the Romano-British kingdoms of Condidad, Commagil and Farinmagil were killed by Saxon invaders, helping establish the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon rule in England.
Source: 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History by R.G. Grant
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What event, taking place on 30 October 1340, fundamentally altered the future of the Iberian peninsula and wider Europe?
Answer: The Battle of Rio Salado. Moroccan ruler Abu al-Hasan (1297-1351) mounted a large invasion of southern Spain in the the last serious attempt by Muslim forces to reverse the Christian Reconquista in Spain and Portugal. The defeat of his army led to a Christian Iberia.
Source: 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History by R.G. Grant
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What links the names Cotton Mather Mills, Stephen Berwick, George Eliot and Currer Bell?
Answer: They are all male pen names of female authors. Mills and Berwick were names used by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), Bell by Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) and, most famously, Eliot by Mary Anne Evans (1819-1880). While traditionally it was argued that authors needed male names to be published, recent scholarship suggests this was not the case. Rather, such names enabled female authors to compete with their male counterparts on equal terms.
Source: Literary Names by Alastair Fowler
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August 2017
In May 1900, the influential British biologist William Bateson (1861-1926) travelled by train from Cambridge to London. How did this change his life and the field of modern genetics forever?
Answer: During the one hour journey, Bateson read a paper detailing Gregor Mendel’s (1822-1884) decades lost theory of discrete units of heredity, the foundation of genetics. Bateson arrived in London with his head-spinning, declaring to those he met in London that “we are in the presence of a new principle of the highest importance”. His advocacy of Mendel’s ideas would revolutionise the concept of heredity.
Source: The Gene – An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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“He wanted to be God … to create a new race.” Who is an Auschwitz prisoner describing?
Answer: Josef Mengele (1911-1979). A German SS officer, he was known for his epically perverse experiments on Nazi prisoners, through which he earned the nickname “Angel of Death”.
Source: The Gene – An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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In the context of English history, what was “Evil May Day” of 1517?
Answer: A riot which swept through London, aimed at the increasing number of foreigners living in the city. Up to 2,000 participated in the riots, a significant portion of the London population of 100,000.
Source: Encyclopaedia of Tudor England by John A. Wagner
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The Siege of Baghdad (January 29 – February 10 1258), the sack of the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate by Mongol forces, is often considered one of the bloodiest battles in Middle Eastern history. What legends developed about the battle?
Answer; One claimed that, when Mongol troops sacked Baghdad’s Grand Library, the River Tigris ran black from the ink of manuscripts and red from the blood of scholars. Another claimed that the Mongol army was forced to move the location of their camp to avoid the smell of the rotting corpses of the claimed 800,000 dead.
Source: Daily Life in the Mongol Empire by George Lane
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Many communists hoped that the Russian Revolution (1917) would act as a touch-paper for worldwide revolution, and for a time socialist movements flourished. Which unlikely part of the then UK saw a revolutionary outbreak?
Answer: Limerick, Ireland. The self-declared Limerick Soviet governed the city, produced newspapers and issued their own currency from April 15-27 1919.
Source: Forgotten Revolution by Liam Cahill
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Which historical figure was a regular visitor to the British Museum library between 1902 and 1911, using the name “Jacob Richter”?
Answer: Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924). Lenin used the name Richter to throw the Tsarist police off his track.
Source: Personality and Place in Russian Culture by Simon Dixon
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“It will make war impossible … because it will make war ridiculous.” Who said this, and what were they referring to?
Answer: Guglilemo Marconi (1874-1937). He was discussing his wireless telegraph, first patented on June 2 1896. Unfortunately it did not make war ridiculous enough.
Source: Genius Communication Inventions by Matt Turner
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Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the most famous authors of his age. How many mourners attended his funeral in Westminster Abbey?
Answer: A mere 12, a result of his will’s declaration in favour of a strictly private funeral. His grave was left open for two days to allow many to come and pay their respects however.
Source: Unequal Partners by Lillian Nayder
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What project of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), arguably a pivotal moment in the creation of the British Empire, has largely been forgotten?
Answer: The so called “Western Design”. In 1654 a large armada was dispatched to conquer the Spanish Americas. While it failed in most of its aims, principally the conquer of Hispaniola, it did capture Jamaica and in doing so fundamentally transformed British colonial ties.
Source: The English Conquest of Jamaica by Carla Gardina Pestana
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Coroebus of Elis (800-750 BCE) was the first person to do what?
Answer: Become an Olympic Champion. A cook in the city-state of Elis in ancient Greece, he was the first recorded winner in Olympic history, winning the 192 metre sprint in 776 BCE.
Source: Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement by Bill Mallon and Jeroen Heijmans
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During the interwar years (1919-1939), British armed forces policy was based on the “Ten Year Rule”, first advocated by Winston Churchill (1874-1965). What was this?
Answer: The concept that the armed services should base their plans on the assumption that there would be no major war for at least ten years. The efficacy of the policy was increasingly questioned by the mid 1930s.
Source: A Brief History of the British Army by Jock Haswell and John Lewis-Stempel
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How did the Battle of Lagos Bay (August 18-19 1759) prevent the invasion of Britain?
Answer: During the Seven Year’s War (1756-1763), France planned an invasion of Britain, using the combined strength of its Mediterranean and Atlantic fleets to protect the landing of troops on the British coast. The defeat of the Mediterranean fleet by a British force under Edward Boscawen (1711-1761) during the Battle of Lagos Bay ended this plan.
Source: The Age of Battles by Russell F. Weigley
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What did writer Mark Twain (1835-1910) invent in 1891?
Answer: A board game. “Mark Twain’s Memory-Builder, a Game for Acquiring and Retaining All Sorts of Facts and Dates'” was a particularly appropriate game for Twain, who was known for his absentmindedness. It was however too complex and was a commercial failure.
Source: The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky
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Which popular American flavored drink was originally called “Fruit Smack”?
Answer: Kool-aid. It was originally a liquid called Fruit Smack, sold in 4-ounce bottles, before being dried and developed as Kool-aid.
Source: Patent Log by Douglas E. Campbell et al
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What was unusual about the BBC news 6:30pm radio bulletin of April 18 1930, which was also Good Friday?
Answer: The newsreader declared “good evening. Today is Good Friday. There is no news.” Piano music then played for a couple of minutes before normal scheduling resumed.
Source: For the Love of Radio 4 by Caroline Hodgson
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In 556 BCE Nabonidus (?-539 BCE) became King of Babylon, the major power in Mesopotamia, and his rule was carefully recorded by his historians in the eponymous Nabonidus Chronicle. What is ironic about how the Chronicle is viewed today?
Answer: Nabonidus is largely a peripheral player in his own history. The Chronicle comprehensively records the rise of Cyrus the Great of Persia (600-530 BCE), who crushed Nabonidus and conquered Babylon in 539 BCE. Historians primarily study it for this reason.
Source: The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography by Arnaldo Momigliano
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Tennis player Lili D’Alvarez (1905-1998) was a finalist at Wimbledon in 1926, 1927 and 1928. How else was she a Wimbledon trailblazer?
Answer: She was the first woman to wear shorts at the championships, doing so in 1931.
Source: Tennis’s Most Wanted by Floyd Conner
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What was unusual about a 1907 advertising campaign for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes?
Answer: The campaign offered a free box of cereal to every woman who would wink at her grocer. The tag line was “wink at your grocer and see what you get”.
Source: The Unbelievable Truth by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith
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“Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousands volumes, attested the variety of his inclinations; and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than ostentation.” So writes Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) in one of the finest passages of historical writing. Who is he describing?
Answer: Roman Emperor Gordian II (192-238 CE), who ruled for only one month in 238 CE, the “Year of the Six Emperors”.
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol.1 by Edward Gibbon
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Novelist William Faulkner (1897-1962) once turned down the offer to dine at the White House with President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). What reason did he give?
Answer: “Why that’s a hundred miles away. That’s a long way to go just to eat.”
Source: Pea’s and Queues by Sandi Toksvig
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The “Babeuf Plot” was a botched attempt to overthrow the French government in 1796. Why do historians pay so much attention to this failure, and its instigator Gracchus Babeuf (1760-1797)?
Answer: Babeuf’s ideas were years ahead of their time. His plan to abolish private property have led some to dub him the first Communist, while his theory that a small group of dedicated revolutionaries should rule through dictatorship indirectly influenced Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924).
Source: France in Revolution by Dylan Rees and Duncan Townson
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“It was a time for minstrels and singers and all the tribes of dancers and actors … Worthy, talented and learned men were driven away, and bold impudent wits and tellers of facetious anecdotes gathered around.” What was the historian Khafi Khan describing?
Answer: The short rule of Mughal Emperor Jahandah Shah (1661-1713).
Source: India – A History by John Keay
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During the Second World War (1939-1945), what was the importance of the word “Ultra”?
Answer: It stood for “Ultra secret”. It was used for intelligence obtained from breaking high-level encrypted communications at the Government Code and Cypher School, commonly known as Bletchley Park. Such intelligence was so valuable that the previous highest British security classification, “most secret”, was considered insufficient.
Source: Ultra Goes To War by Ronald Lewin
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Suzanne Lenglen (1899-1938) and Elizabeth Ryan (1892-1979) were one of the top women’s doubles teams in tennis in the 1920s. Why is this surprising?
Answer: They were intense rivals in singles. Ryan accused Lenglen of being a poser whose spectacular leaps on court were purely for show, while Lenglen once threw Ryan’s clothes out of a changing room window.
Source: Tennis’s Most Wanted by Floyd Conner
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Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was the most powerful man in the Soviet Union during his violent reign as premier. Who was regarded as the second most powerful?
Answer: Viktor Abakumov (1908-1954), head of the far-reaching SMERSH counter-intelligence organisation during 1943-1946, and commissar of defence of the USSR during the Second World War. One of Stalin’s most loyal deputies, he was known to personally torture spies and traitors. He was later made minister for state security in 1946, leading purges of inner Politburo members. He was eventually executed for treason under Khruschchev in 1954.
Source: SMERSH: Stalin’s Secret Weapon: Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII by Vadim J. Birstein
More at: History
The last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, in the 1913 Census for his country put down his occupation as ‘owner of the Russian lands.’ (An occupation he was to lose just four years later through the Russian revolution) His predecessor and namesake, Tsar Nicholas I (1796-1855), had a different view on what his role was in the command structure of Russian society. What was this?
Answer: He said: “I do not rule Russia; ten thousand clerks do.”
Source: Historical Atlas by Dr Geoffrey Wawro
More at: History
Media around the world recently reported that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $90.6 billion, has surpassed Bill Gates as the world’s richest person. Gates is reportedly worth $90 billion. How do these business leaders compare to John D Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil – the antecedent of ExxonMobil and other oil giants?
Answer: When Rockefeller retired in 1897 he was said to be worth around 1.5 percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product.
This would make him worth today around $270 billion.
Rockefeller could have bought out Messrs Bezos and Gates, and still have had some $90 billion left over.
Source: Titan – The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr by Ron Chernow
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Dr James Barry (1789-1865), the British medical pioneer and eminent surgeon to the aristocracy, was forced to conceal a fundamental fact about his identity. What was this?
Answer: That Dr Barry was in actuality a woman. A fact that was not known until after her death, when it was seen that her body had stretch marks – apart from, presumably more obvious manifestations of gender – indicating that she had give birth.
Source: The Guardian November 10, 2016
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In the 21st century China is now looking abroad for opportunities for international expansion. For the previous five centuries, however, the country had been largely concerned with internal matters and embraced an essentially xenophobic posture. In 1405, though, the famed Chinese admiral and grand eunuch Cheng Ho, also known as Zheng Ho, set off from mainland China on a maritime mission that would take him to India, The Arabian Peninsula, Ceylon and East Africa. What was one of the more remarkable aspects of the voyage?
Answer: Apart from having ships that were four or five the times the size of contemporary European vessels, the sheer size of the flotilla was incredible in that he had some 300 vessels under his command.
Source: Historical Atlas by Dr Geoffrey Wawro
More at: History
Since the established of Britain’s prominent spy network MI6, or the Secret Intelligence Service, in 1909, what has been one of the quirkier aspects of the head of the organisation’s communications techniques?
Answer: The original head of the service, Captain Sir Mansfield George Smith Cumming (1859 – 1923), signed his letters and other correspondence with green ink. That custom continues today with the present head using green ink also.
Source: History of the World by Hugh Thomas
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What was famed World War Two US five star general, later US president, Dwight D Eisenhower’s view on war?
Answer: “Wars are stupid and they can start stupidly.”
Source: Eisenhower press conference March 1951.
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How did English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834) describe the universe?
Answer: “The universe is a cosmic web, woven by God and held together by the crossed strands of attractive and repulsive forces”.
Source: Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
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July 2017
Which prominent film star of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s was one of the few Americans to rise from the rank of private to colonel in only four years during World War II?
Answer: James “Jimmy” Stewart, known for his performances in It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He entered the US Army Air Corps in October 1940 as a private. By August 1943, Stewart was assigned to the 445th Bomb Group as operations officer of the 703d Bombardment Squadron, and by May 1945 commanded the entire 2nd Bomb Wing. He had flown over 20 sorties over occupied Europe. He won the Distinguished Flying Cross and French Croix de Guerre for actions in combat.
Source: Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot by Starr Smith.
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Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci was the first person to point out what key navigational fact about Italian explorer Christopher Columbus?
Answer: That Columbus had not found Asia, but in fact a new fourth continent, America.
Source: Source: Historical Atlas by Dr Geoffrey Wawro
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When Alexander the Great defeated the Indian king Porus at the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BCE, what was the fate of the defeated monarch?
Answer: Alexander was so impressed by Porus’ valour that he spared his life.
Source: History of the World by Hugh Thomas
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What was the response of Atahualpa, Incan king, on hearing Pope Alexander VI had declared Peru to be a possession of Spain in 1491?
Answer: “As for my faith, I will not change it. Your own God, as you tell me, was put to death by the very men He created. But my God still looks down on His Children.”
Source: Source: Historical Atlas by Dr Geoffrey Wawro
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In the British Army in the 18th and 19th century, officer commissions could be purchased. Indeed, commissions were bought for infant sons. How old was the youngest person to have had a commission purchased for them?
Answer: The youngest on record was just two years old. British General James Wolfe, famous for his victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec in 1759, actively held his first commission at just fourteen. Defenders of the system said that it produced great military figures such as the Duke of Marlborough, Duke of Wellington and later such imminent generals as Garnet Wolseley, Charles Gordon and Lord Kitchener.
Source: Cardigan – A Life of Lord Cardigan of Balaclava
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Early 19th century British General Sir Thomas Picton was in command of the Gordon Highlanders regiment at the battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Eccentric by even British standards, what was one example of his unusual military behaviour?
Answer. Astride his charger, he lead his men into battle wearing a top hat and carrying an umbrella for a weapon.
Source: Cardigan – A Life of Lord Cardigan of Balaclava
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What was the biggest extinction ever in human history?
The Permian mass extinction occurred some 250 million years ago and was by far the worst catastrophe ever suffered by life on Earth. An unbelievable 90 to 95 percent of marine species became extinct along with 70% of terrestrial species, including plants insects and vertebrate animals.
Source: Historical Atlas by Dr Geoffrey Wawro
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General Victor ‘Brute’ Krulak (1913-2008), was an inspirational three star US Marine general. Krulak loved to give large, formal parties, and was famous for knocking men over with his recipe for fish house punch. According to author Robert Coram, the drink had an usual effect on those who partook of it. What was this?
Answer: Coram describes its subtle effects this way: ‘Fish House Punch is an insidious drink that, after two glasses, causes a peculiar numbness around the ears. After three glasses, a man believes he is the smartest person God ever created. Then comes the moment when he thinks bugs are crawling all over his body.’
Source: Brute – The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine by Robert Coram
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Who invented bullet-proof tyres and when did this occur?
Answer The French tyre manufacturer Michelin in 1934. Renowned for their innovations and entrepreneurialism, brothers Édouard and André Michelin ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. In 1889, a cyclist whose pneumatic tire needed repair turned up at the factory. Thus was the genesis of the global tyre manufacturing operation that continues on today. In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in the French colony of Vietnam.
Source: History of the World by Hugh Thomas
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When the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79 CE, it had a population of about 8,000. At that time in the entire Mediterranean world there were only a handful of places with a population of more than 25,000. Why does this make the position of Rome all the more remarkable?
Answer: At the time, Rome had a population of at least 250,000. The dominance of the city probably accounts for the saying, ‘all roads lead to Rome’.
Source: History of the World by Hugh Thomas
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The year 1453 in Europe saw the end of two Empires. What were they?
Answer: Firstly, the English domination in France, which had decreased and grown since the days of William the Conqueror in the 11th century. The other was the empire of Constantinople, which had long been an ancient Christian bulwark. This ended with victory of the 21 year old Sultan Muhammad II, head of the Ottoman Turks.
Source: General Historical Texts
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On a visit to the Holy Land in 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany made a little known suggestion that bewildered many in his homeland and throughout Europe. What was this?
Answer: He implied that if he were not already a Christian, he would be a Muslim. Soon the Kaiser was styling himself ‘Hajji Wilhelm’, protector of the Muslims.
Source: John Lewis Stempel, writing in The Express newspaper, October 12, 2014
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General Victor ‘Brute’ Krulak (1913-2008), was an inspirational three star US Marine general who almost did not make it into the elite military unit because he was only 5 feet four inches tall. How did he overcome this aspect of his vertically challenged physical dimension?
Answer: He had a friend whack him on the head with a piece of wood so that the resulting lump would enable him to meet the height requirement.
Source: Brute – The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine by Robert Coram
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In the context of cycling in the nineteenth century, what was the ‘Cherry’s Screen?
Answer: The “Cherry’s Screen”, so named after its inventor Theon Cherry, was a device shaped like a pair of wings, designed protect the ‘respectability’ of female cyclists by blocking the sight of their ankles from male view.
Source: How I Learnt To Ride The Bicycle by Francis Willard
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Which famous anarchist leader, a rival of Karl Marx (1818-1883), sought to become the leader of a worldwide revolution and is often considered one of the fathers of modern terrorism?
Answer: Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876). While he achieved considerable fame, the intellectual underpinnings of his Anarchism were far inferior to the work of his nemesis Marx.
Source: How Russia Shaped the Modern World by Steven G. Marks
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According to historian Tertiius Chandler, what was the largest city in the world in the year 1000 CE?
Answer: Córdoba, modern day Spain. At this time it was the capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba, an Islamic state that covered most of the Iberian Peninsula.
Source: Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth by Tertius Chandler
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In 1924, the Chinese writer Lin Yutang (1895-1976) argued that the Chinese nation was lacking something. What?
Answer: Humour. Yutang argued that a lack of humour was a ‘major imperfection’ in the history of Chinese literature and that Chinese culture had a sense of humour but had forgotten how to cultivate it. Yutang’s article helped bring about a wave of new ideas about Chinese humour.
Source: The Age of Irreverance by Chris Rea
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In the context of the American Wild West, what is the difference between a ‘Gunman’ and a ‘Gunslinger’?
Answer: “Gunman” was a real American West term for someone who carried a gun and was willing to use it. The term “Gunslinger”, often used to describe someone firing while moving with deadly accuracy, is a purely Hollywood invention.
Source: The Encyclopaedia of Lawmen, Outlaws and Gunfighters by Leon Claire Metz
What event, one of the last of its kind, took place on July 15 1899 in the American Wild West?
Answer: A stagecoach robbery. The robbery gained special notoriety as one of the bandits was Pearl Heart (1871-1955), a female outlaw.
Source: The Encyclopaedia of Lawmen, Outlaws and Gunfighters by Leon Claire Metz
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King Richard I of England (1157-1199), commonly known as the Lionheart, was captured and held prisoner in Austria on his return to his Kingdom after the Third Crusade (1189-1192). How much was demanded for his release?
Answer: A colossal 150,000 silver marks. This amount was about 3 times anything that the English government had ever raised in a single year.
Source: Blondel’s Song by David Boyle
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The first human flight in history, conducted by Orville Wright (1871-1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) took place on December 17, 1903. Considering the importance of this event in human history, what was strange about its public response?
Answer: It was muted. Although there were five witnesses to the first flights, few newspapers reported in the next day. The hometown paper of the Wright Brothers ignored it completely. It was, in fact, nearly five years before it was generally realised in the world at large that manned flight had been achieved.
Source: The 100 by Michael Hart
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The Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) originally underestimated the popularity of his most famous invention, the telephone. What is he said to have remarked about its potential popularity?
Answer: “I truly believe that one day there will be a telephone in every town in America.”
Source: 1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off by John Lloyd et al
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Which Soviet Union politician acted as one of Josef Stalin’s (1878-1953) bloodiest police chiefs, being compared to the demon Mephistopheles, before he himself became a victim of the executioner’s bullet?
Answer: Genrikh Yagoda (1891-1938). When men came to arrest him as part of Stalin’s purges, Yagoda is said to have remarked “I have long been expecting you.”
Source: Stalin and Stalinism by Martin McCauley
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Who, despite being one of England’s most distinguished philosophers and jurists, was guilty of a number of crimes including bribery, favouritism and extortion?
Answer: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). As King James I’s (1566-1625) Lord Chancellor he regularly accepted money from defendants to influence court judgements. In 1621 he confessed he was “guilty of corruption and do renounce all defence.”
Source: Brewers, Rouges, Villains, Eccentrics by William Donaldson
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Which period of French history is sometimes known as the period that “while the French still wore their hearts on the left, they wore their wallets on the right”?
Answer: The period of Second Empire and Third Republic (1852-1914). The political radicalism of much of the population was tempered with an increasing social conservatism.
Source: A Traveller’s History of France by Robert Cole
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In 1863, French artist Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was rejected by the Salon des Beaux Arts in Paris, the arbiter of respectability in French art. What did he do as a response?
Answer: He held a rival exhibition with other rejected artists that same year, called the Salon des Refusés, translated as the “exhibition of rejects”.
Source: A Traveller’s History of France by Robert Cole
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British elections in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were violent affairs. What do those arrested for rioting on June 29 1818, during the 1818 General Election campaign, tell us about politics at this time?
Answer: Of the 22 rioters convicted, only one of them could vote. Violence and rioting was a way for those unable to vote to influence the political process.
Source: The Rise and Fall of Radical Westminster, 1780-1890 by Marc Baer
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While the First World War (1914-1918) is infamous for its high level of casualties, in what aspect did it improve dramatically compared to the American Civil War (1861-1865) and Boer War (1899-1902)?
Answer: Medical treatment. In the American Civil War, there were no fewer than 24 cases of sickness for every battle wound received, with the Boer War having 13 sick men for every one wounded. Among the British soldiers of the First World War, there were 1.3 sick men for every wounded soldier.
Source: British Fighting Methods in the Great War by Paddy Griffith
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Which ancient civilisation is normally considered by historians to have invented the city?
Answer: Mesopotamia. It was here that people began to profit from a system beyond subsistence, diversify their cultural activities and live in increasingly large numbers in a new form of collective community.
Source: Mesopotamia by Gwendolyn Leick
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What was the name of the ship that rescued survivors from the R.M.S. Titanic in 1912 and was sunk by a German U-Boat six years later in 1918?
Answer: The RMS Carpathia. It was sunk while acting as an Allied transport ship in the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: Into the Danger Zone by Tad Fitch
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In the context of military history, what is the coup d’œil?
Answer: It refers to the ability to discern at one glance the state of the battlefield. The literal translation is “stroke of the eye”. It is commonly applied to military figures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) and Friedrich Wilhelm, Baron von Seydlitz (1721-1773).
Source: The Encyclopaedia of the War of 1812 by Spencer C. Tucker
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June 2017
Which famous historical figure’s last Christmas dinner composed of an entrée of ‘stewed penguin breasts with red currant jelly’?
Answer: Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912), British Antarctic explorer. His expedition would end in tragic circumstances three months later.
Source: A Curious History of Food and Drink by Ian Crofton
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was one of the world’s foremost naturalists and the pre-eminent contributor to the science of evolution. What more mundane area did he study in 1837?
Answer: The prevalence of worms in the English countryside. His research estimated that for every acre of countryside, there were 50,000 worms.
Source: Animal Diversity by Diana Kershaw
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According to legend, the Marylebone cricket club (MCC) were due to embark on a landmark international cricket tour in France when it had to be cancelled. Why?
Answer: Because of the outbreak of the French Revolution. The tour was due to take place in September 1789.
Source: Real International Cricket by Roy Morgan
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How did the ships USS Sable and the USS Wolverine play a key role in the defeat of Japan in the Second World War (1939-1945), despite being incapable of ever leaving US territorial waters?
Answer: They were training aircraft carriers based in Lake Michigan. Here naval aviators could practice take off and landing in a controlled environment, before transferring their skills to the Pacific.
Source: Lake Michigan’s Aircraft Carriers by Paul M. Somers
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What is the Antikythera mechanism, and why was it so important?
Answer: The mechanism was arguably the world’s first analogical computer. It was used by ancient Greeks to chart the movement of the sun, moon and planets and predict lunar and solar eclipses. The exact date of the creation of the mechanism remains unclear, though it was likely around 150 BCE.
Source: Stamping Through Astronomy by Renato Dicati
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Which 1170 invasion had been authorised by Pope Adrian IV (1100-1159)?
Answer: The Norman Invasion of Ireland, led by Richard ‘Strongbow’ de Clare (1130-1176). The invasion was a crucial moment in Irish history, being the first involvement of England in Ireland.
For the English, Ireland is considered to be its first colony. For many Irish, this invasion has been an enduring source of bitterness and resentment that has traversed the centuries, up to the present time.
Source: Ireland by Joseph Coohill
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Which London landmark’s name originated as a witty put-down?
Answer: Piccadilly Circus. The put-down was aimed at Robert Baker, a tailor who amassed a fortune creating “piccadills”, large, ruffled collars that were highly fashionable in the late 16th and early 17th Centuries. He built a grand house on the site in 1611, but many thought such a house was too fancy for lower class Baker, so it was jokingly referred to as “Pickadilly Hall”.
Source: A Dictionary of London Place Names by A.D. Mill
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‘Drakkar’, ‘skeid’ and ‘snekkja’ were all types of what?
Answer: Viking longships. These ships were designed to manoeuvre in very shallow waters, allowing easy access to beach heads for invasions.
Source: A Brief History of the Normans by Francois Neveux et al
Which of these cities was not captured during the Third Crusade (1189-1192) to conquer the Holy Land; Jerusalem, Acre or Arsuf?
Answer: Jerusalem. The failure to capture the Holy City would eventually lead to the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204).
Source: The Third Crusade by Samuel William Crompton
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On May 6, 1801, the Spanish frigate El Gamo was captured by the British brig HMS Speedy. Why was this significant?
Answer: El Gamo was much larger and more powerful, being four times the size with far superior firepower. The Spanish senior officer was so embarrassed he asked the British captain for a certificate assuring Spanish leadership that he had done all he could to defend his ship. The captain obliged with the faint praise that he had “conducted himself like a true Spaniard”.
Source: The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane by H. R. Fox Bourne
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The masterful painting ‘Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq’ is more commonly known as what?
Answer: The Night Watch. It was painted in 1642 by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).
Source: Landscape between Ideology and the Aesthetic by Andrew Hemingway
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Which U.S. bombing campaign of the Second World War was the first air strike to attack the Japanese home islands?
Answer: The Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942. The highly unorthodox campaign involved 16 bombers flying from an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean and bombing Japanese targets before attempting to land in China.
The raid was led by Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle and was revenge for the Japanese attack on US military installations at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Source: World War II At Sea by Spencer Tucker
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Which historical figure listed ‘threatening my father and mother to burn them and the house over them’ as one of his childhood sins?
Answer: Isaac Newton (1643-1727), English mathematician.
Source: Isaac Newton by Estefania Wenger
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The Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was founded not by Han Chinese, who formed the vast majority of China, but by inhabitants of what is now Manchuria, an ethnic minority. What was the ratio difference between Han and Manchu?
Answer: 250 to 1.
Source: A History of the World in Numbers by Emma Marriott
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What significant event in the ‘history of time’ took place on September 22, 1793?
Answer: The new French republican calendar was proclaimed. Rooted in the revolutionary politics of the French Revolution, the calendar established 1792 as year 1, renamed months after seasons and replaced the seven-day week with a ten-day one.
Source: The Calendar in Revolutionary France by Sanja Perovic
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According to historian Steven M. Gillon, which event fundamentally altered the path of American history on September 6 1901?
Answer: The assassination of President William Mckinley (1843-1901). The death of Mckinley, the most popular president since Abraham Lincoln, led to the elevation of noted reformer Theodore Roosevelt Jr (1858-1919) to the Presidency.
Source: 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America by Steven M. Gillon
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The term ‘Bardolatry’ is a humorous description coined by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) to describe what?
Answer: Excessive respect of the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1614). While always rated as an exemplary playwright and poet, in the early nineteenth century some began to engage in “Shakespeare worship”.
Source: Romantic Actors and Bardolatry by Celestine Woo
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Which monarch was the first to circumnavigate the world?
Answer: King Kalākaua of Hawaii (1836-1891). He went on a world tour in 1881 to secure labour agreements with other countries and enhance the reputation of the Hawaiian monarchy. He met the leaders of China, Japan, France, Spain and the United Kingdom, among others.
Source: The Art of Kingship by Stacy L. Kamehiro
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“We have enemies inside, we have enemies outside. We must not forget it, not for a moment, comrades.” Who said these words?
Answer: Josef Stalin (1878-1953), Soviet leader. That the Soviet Union faced imminent threat from domestic upheaval and foreign invasion shaped much of Stalin’s leadership of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s.
Source: Popular Perceptions of Soviet Politics in the 1920s by Olga Velikanova
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According to legend, “Much the Miller’s Son”, “Will Scarlet”, “Arthur a Bland” and “David of Doncaster” were all members of what?
Answer: Robin Hood’s outlaw gang, also known as the “Merry Men”.
Source: Robin Hood by John Matthews
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“A declaration to be made by the United Kingdom Government forthwith accepting the principle of a United Ireland. This declaration [is] an accomplished fact from which there shall be no turning back.” Where is this line from, and why is it important?
Answer: It is from an offer made in 1940 by the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) to the Irish Republic. It guaranteed the passing of control of Northern Ireland to the Republic if they aided the UK in the Second World War (1939-1945). The offer was turned down.
Source: Irish Historical Documents since 1800 by Alan O’Day and John Stevenson
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John Ayley (1570-1636) was an English innkeeper who often ran foul of authorities. What were some of the reasons they he appeared before the manorial court?
Answer: His crimes included habitually failing to attend church, and leaving early when he did; living immorally with his maidservant; obstructing the highway with a dunghill; committing fornication during the archbishop of York’s visitation; and being drunk in sermon time. As was common at the time, he was treated leniently, recognised merely by the court as a “sort of silly fellow”.
Source: Crime in Early Modern England, 1550-1750 by J.A. Sharpe
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Nicholas Breakspear (1100-1159) rose from humble origins to become the first, and to date only, Englishmen to hold which position?
Answer: Pope. He occupied the Papal throne from 1155-1159 under the name Pope Adrian IV.
Source: The Middle Ages by Frank N. Magill
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In 1935, the Mayor of New York Fiorello H. La Guardia (1882-1947) developed an unusual strategy to try and take down mafia boss Ciro Terranova (1888-1938). What was it?
Answer: Banning the sale of artichokes in New York City. Terranova controlled a profitable monopoly on the sale of artichokes in the city though intimidation, and as such was dubbed the “Artichoke King”.
Source: Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life by Robert Weldon Whalen
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In 1855, Britain’s Queen Victoria (1819-1901) paid homage at the tomb of what unlikely individual?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). She noted the strange circumstances herself, writing in her diary “there I was … before the coffin of England’s bitterest foe…the granddaughter of the king who hated him most.”
Source: Napoleon Bonaparte: England’s Prisoner by Frank Giles
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William Randolph Hearst was an American newspaper publisher who built the nation’s largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. Hearst’s name, in its early years, was associated with yellow journalism or sensational news reporting. The Cuban Revolution of 1895, came at a perfect time for Hearst and his New York Journal. Ever keen to cover exciting news, that would sell newspapers, Hearst sent his ace correspondent Frederick S Remington to Havana to cover the revolution in the hope that there would be war. By 1897, Remington became very bored by the lack of anything newsworthy in Cub and cabled to Hearst, “Everything is quiet … there will be no war”. What did Hearst cable in return?
Answer. “Please remain … you furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war!” The Spanish–American War, the following year, was a conflict between Spain and the United States. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS battleship ‘Maine’ in Havana harbor.
Source: A History of the World by Hugh Thomas
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The Crusades dated approximately from 1095 to 1291. Embarked on in a mood of religious frenzy, they also were sustained partly for commercial benefits, but as well brought back to Europe many new objects of religious veneration. What were some of these?
Answer: The Crown of Thorns, The Holy Blood, a part of the True Cross, and the skull of John the Baptist.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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According to historian Hugh Thomas, the critical innovation in the early history of agriculture was the realisation that crops could be made to grow again and again, thereby providing continuity of food supply. But what does he say, looking at the broad sweep of history over the centuries, has been the essential characteristic of our times since 1750?
Answer: The manufacture of goods for sale outside the neighbourhood concerned, in a factory and by a machine. This development, Thomas says, began in England in the 18th century, and was the equivalent of the agricultural innovations in the Near East of about 8000 BC.
Source: A History of the World by Hugh Thomas
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War is an abomination, however it does increase demand and acts as an economic stimulus. The Great Depression of the 1930s well and truly ended with America’s entry into World War Two following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941. In the First World War, what was one example of the tremendous demands that warfare unleashes?
Answer: The US War Department purchased the entire domestic output of instant coffee.
Source: Over Here: The First World War and American Society by David M. Kennedy
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What was the first railway to use a steam locomotive?
Answer: This was the British Stockton to Darlington line in 1825, followed in 1830 by the Liverpool to Manchester line, on which Robert Stephenson’s Rocket was put into operation.
Source: General Historical Texts
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May 2017
During World War II, Nazi Germany had its own nuclear bomb project, the Uranverein. What was one aspect of the project that deleteriously hampered their efforts?
Answer: Nazi German officials instituted a program of Deutsche Physik, or German Physics, free of “Semitic” influence. This meant a bias away from the much needed fields of quantum mechanics and theoretical physics.
Source: General Historical Texts
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Ancient Roman politician and lawyer Marcus Tullius Cicero came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists. His words, written some 2000 years ago, ‘Ask not what your country can do you for you, but what you can do for your country’, were embraced by John F Kennedy’s speech writer Ted Sorenson, at JFK’s January 1961 inauguration. There, Kennedy declared, repeating Cicero’s words, ‘Ask not what your country’ can do you for you, but what you can do for your country’. What was Cicero’s view on the importance of books?
Answer: ‘A room without books, is like a body without a soul.’
Source: Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt
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What was unusual about Catal höyük, a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5700 BC?
Answer: By around 6,000 BC, it had more than 1,000 houses.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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History has quite rightly judged 18th century Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart a genius. Brilliant from an early age, what was just one example of his extraordinarily precocious skills?
Answer: Mozart composed his first symphony aged just eight.
Source: Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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In 1462 Vlad III, prince of Wallachia, known to history as Vlad the Impaler, had some 20,000 Turkish prisoners impaled on stakes. Why was this done?
Answer: To deter an Ottoman invasion of his realm. So enamored with impaling was Vlad, that he enjoyed entertaining his banquet guests while viewing unlucky victims sliding down their sharpened spikes.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Why was World War One described as ‘industrial warfare’?
Answer: For the first time unparalleled manpower and economic resources of industrialised states were mobilized for fighting. Modern firearms provided armies with firepower on an unprecedented scale. German’s super heavy field cannon, the ‘Paris Gun’, for example, which weighed 256 tonnes, could hurl a massive shell some 120 kilometres.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy – author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, among others – had a very strong opinion about 16th US president Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in April 1865. What was this?
Answer: Tolstoy wrote of him, “The greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight by the sun of Lincoln. His example is universal and will last thousands of years.”
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
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The annual flooding of Egypt’s Nile River has been a vital source of that country’s agriculture needs for centuries, indeed thousands of years. In 1200 this flooding failed to occur. What were the consequences of this?
Answer: Historical records from this time reveal that some 100,000 Egyptians died of starvation, cannibalism and disease, with children reportedly stolen for food and graves robbed.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Among seafarers, scurvy was one of the main debilitating diseases up until the late 18th century. What was the principal conclusion of British surgeon James Lindt’s book of 1753 entitled ‘Treatise of the Scurvy’?
Answer: Lindt wrote, ‘The most sudden and good effects were … from oranges and lemons’. This led to the improvement of diet for sailors, first on British ships, specifically in the acknowledgement that Vitamin C was a principal preventative against scurvy.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
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During World War Two, Russian sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, defending Sevastopol in the Crimea from Nazi invasion, had notched up a remarkable record of kills. What was this?
Answer: By the end of the war, she had killed a confirmed 309 Germans, making her the most successful female sniper in history.
Source: Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War by Chris Bellamy
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What was significant about the visit of US President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) to the Panama Canal in 1906?
Answer: It was the first time that a U.S. President had left the Continental United States while in office.
Source: American Passages by Edward L. Ayers et al
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“Guns are booming all the time. This harassing fire gets our goat.” This was one American soldier’s impression of what?
Answer: Serving on the Western Front during the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: ‘A Delicate Affair’ on the Western Front by Terrence J. Finnegan
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Which famed historical figure is often dubbed the “Father of Medicine”?
Answer: Hippocrates. He was a prominent physician in the Ancient Greek island of Cos.
Source: Hippocrates by Connie Jankowski
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On being appointed in 1647 director general of New Amsterdam, later renamed New York, what did iron-willed, short-tempered, puritanical Peter Stuyvesant, who had lost a leg in battle, say to the inhabitants of the unruly and essentially lawless town, as regards his methods of administration?
Answer: ‘I shall govern you as a father his children.’
Source: A History of American Democracy by Hicks, Mowray, Burke; General Historical Texts.
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Ancient Egypt was once at the forefront of women’s contraception. What was one method used to prevent pregnancy?
Answer: Women would insert a paste made up of crocodile dung into their vagina.
Source: The Economist 1/4/17
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British General Bernard Montgomery was a spartan commander, offering only meagre bread and water for Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s visit to the North African Front in 1941. He remarked he didn’t smoke or drink, and was 100% fit. What did Churchill offer in reply?
Answer: He both smoked and drank, and was 200% fit.
Source: World War Two: 1942 and Hitler’s Soft Underbelly by Professor David Reynolds
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What was Soviet premier Josef Stalin’s view on what made a good spy or intelligence officer?
Answer: He said that, “A spy should be like the Devil. No one can trust him, not even himself.”
Source: The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945 by Sir Max Hastings
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In 845 CE, Paris was sacked by invaders. Who were they?
Answer: Vikings. The sacking of Paris was the culmination of the viking invasion of the West Frankish kingdom. The vikings only withdrew when they were paid a ransom of 7,000 French livres by Frankish King Charles the Bald (823 – 877 CE).
Source: A History of the Vikings by T.D. Kendrick
Which U.S. First Lady complained of a number of ailments during her life and was eventually involuntarily institutionalised for mental illness?
Answer: Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882), wife of President Abraham Lincoln. Proposed explanations for her behaviour are that it was caused by pernicious anemia, syphilis or bipolar disorder.
Source: The Mary Lincoln Enigma by Frank J. Williams et al
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Roman Emperor Vespasian (9-79 CE) is known for his saying, “Pecunia non olet” meaning “money does not stink”, a reference that the value of money is not affected by its origins. From where does it originate?
Answer: Vespasian imposed a Urine Tax from the distribution of the Roman sewer system, as urine was used in tanning and other goods. According to the historian Suetonis (69-122 CE), Vespasian’s son Titus objected to the tax. In response, his father held a gold coin to his face and declared “money does not stink”.
Source: Gladiators and Caesars by Eckart Kohne et al
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Which place was dubbed the ‘University of Revolution” because of its role as a breeding ground for Irish revolutionary ideals?
Asnwer: Frongoch internment camp, Wales. A temporary prison camp during the First World War, it originally held German prisoners but after the Easter Rebellion of 1916 was filled with around 2,000 Irish prisoners.
Source: Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921 by William Murphy
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How many times did a Spanish Armada sail against England?
Answer: Three. While the Spanish Armada of 1588 is the most famous, two further Armada’s were launched against England in 1596 and 1597. Both were scattered by storms.
Source: The Companion to British History by Charles Arnold-Baker
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‘The Speaker’ is the presiding officer of the British House of Commons. In the early years of British parliamentary democracy, this role was renowned for being dangerous. Why?
Answer: The role involved instructing the king and the Lords, the most powerful people in the Kingdom, how the House of Commons judged their plans. This often didn’t end well. Between 1399 and 1535, seven Speakers were executed and one was murdered.
Source: Order! Order! by Robert Rogers
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“Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania” was which famous historical figure’s attempt at a novel?
Answer: Winston Churchill (1874-1965). Published in 1900, it was his only serious work of fiction and concerns a revolution against a dictatorship in a fictional European country.
Source: The New Journalism by Andrew Griffiths
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Why was Athenian general Themistocles (524–459 BCE) actions at the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), during the Persian invasion of Greece, both wise and courageous?
Answer: Themistocles sacrificed his own city of Athens, which was captured and burnt by the Persians, in an ultimately successful effort to bide his time and ensure a Greek naval victory over the numerically superior Persian fleet.
Source: The Battle of Salamis by Barry Straus
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According to historian Jurgen Tampke, the current interpretation of which historical event is a “perfidious distortion of history”?
Answer: The Treaty of Versailles (1919). Tampke questions whether the terms of the treaty were really so unjust as to have caused the Second World War (1939-1945).
Source: A Perfidious Distortion of History – The Versailles Peace Treaty and the Success of the Nazis by Jurgen Tample
Which famed Greek philosopher was considered ‘the ugliest man in Athens’?
Answer: Socrates (470-399 BCE). It was remarked that his head was too big, his nose misshapen and his eyes bulged.
Source: Plato by Roy Jackson
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Which Native American military leader captured Detroit without firing a shot, led arguably the most impressive native force in American history and participated in Saint Clair’s Defeat (1791), the worst defeat of the U.S. military by Native American warriors?
Answer: Tecumseh (1768-1813). He led Tecumseh’s Confederacy between 1805 and 1813.
Source: The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History by Timothy J. Lynch
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What is odd about composer Joseph Haydn’s (1732-1809) Symphony No. 45 “Farewell”?
Answer: In the symphony, the musicians stop playing one by one and leave the stage until only two are left. The symphony was a humorous request from Haydn to his patron, Nikolaus I, to let him and his musicians leave a remote summer palace where they had spent the summer of 1772 without their families.
Source: Classical Music’s Strangest Concerts and Characters by Brian Levison
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Pope Sylvester II (946-1003) was the first French pope and a renowned scholar. His reign was marked by what rumours about his piety?
Answer: It was rumoured that he had won the papacy by playing dice with the devil, and would deliver Christianity to satan at the stroke of midnight. Another rumour stated that he practiced sorcery, a skill obtained from an Arab philosopher.
Source: History’s Worst Decisions by Stephen Weir
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During the Crimean War (1853-1856), Britain lost 2,660 men killed in action. How many died from disease and illness?
Answer: Nearly 30,000. British authorities were woefully ill-prepared for the conflict, many figures did not even know where the Crimea was, and this was reflected in the appalling conditions of their troops.
Source: History’s Worst Decisions by Stephen Weir
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April 2017
According to historian Christopher Gravett, what was probably the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil?
Answer: The Battle of Towton (29 March 1461), fought during the War of the Roses. 50,000 soldiers were said to have participated, with around 28,000 killed.
Source: Towton 1461 by Christopher Gravett
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Which figure of Mediaeval history, the father of one of its most illustrious dynasties, was known by names including “Owen Meredith”, “Owen Fitz Meredith” and “Oweyn Tidr”.
Answer: Owen Tudor (1400-1461), the grandfather of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty. Owen was Welsh and his full name was Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur, hence the confusion of English translations.
Source: The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones
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“When I looked into [his] eyes they were generally hot and angry. There was no impression of greatness, he was a spellbinder for his own people. His capacity to charm was part of his stock-in-trade. For me he was a sort of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – so full of tricks, a skilful mixer of fraud with force.” Who was British diplomat Neville Henderson (1882-1942) discussing?
Answer: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Henderson served as British Ambassador to Germany.
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According to historian Mike Davis, how was humanity “irrevocably divided” in the nineteenth century?
Answer: By levels of income. Davis notes that previously the class divisions inside major societies were not recapitulated as a dramatic income difference between societies. For instance, living standards between a French and Indian labourer were broadly comparable. By 1900 however, Western development led to certain societies being far wealthier than others.
Source: Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis
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The Black Death, the deadly pandemic (1346-1353) that wiped out millions of Europeans, arguably benefitted late mediaeval society in one way. What was it?
Answer: It promoted equality. The sudden shortage of people changed values of land and labour to benefit those at the bottom.
Source: The Great Leveller by Walter Scheidel
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Which had the highest population: the world in the year 0 CE or the United States in the year 2000?
Answer: The United States in 2000, with a population of 282.2 million. According to estimates, the global population in the year 0 CE was around 252 million.
Source: Maps of Time by David Christian
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Which British biplane of the Second World War (1939-1945), considered obsolete in 1939, nevertheless served throughout the conflict and outlasted a number of aircraft meant to replace her?
Answer: The Fairey Swordfish. Part of the Fleet Air Arm and RAF, the Swordfish played an instrumental role in a number of confrontations, notably the crippling of the battleship Bismarck in 1941.
Source: Air Warfare by Walter J. Boyne
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In 1800, the Gross National Product (GNP) of China was over 30% of the global total, with the USA and UK combined having around 5%. By 1900, how had this changed?
Answer: The GNP of China was around 6%. Signaling the considerable Western development in the nineteenth century, the combined USA/UK figure was over 40%.
By 1968, America’s GDP was around a third of total world production of goods and services
Source: Maps of Time by David Christian; Fortune magazine, June 1968.
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What was the Frisch–Peierls memorandum of March 1940, and why was it groundbreaking?
Answer: A technical exposition by two scientists, Otto Frisch (1904-1979) and Rudolf Peleris (1907-1995) at the University of Birmingham, UK. The exposition detailed the steps needed to make a practical atomic weapon, revealing that contrary to popular belief, such a weapon would not require too much uranium to be practical in warfare.
Source: The Men of Manhattan by Jeffrey Strickland
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‘The Lion Has Wings’, ‘49th Parallel’, ‘The Foreman Went to France’ and ‘In Which We Serve’ are all examples of what?
Answer: British wartime movies. ‘49th Parallel’ is often considered to be the classic British wartime film, winning an Academy Award for best original screenplay.
Source: Britain in the Second World War by Mark Donnelly
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Which famous American magician and escape artist had a clause in his will, stating that his body should be embalmed and entombed to facilitate his later return from the dead?
Answer: Harry Houdini (1874-1926). Houdini also left his vast library, containing many first editions, concerned with the occult and the dark arts, worth an incredible $500,000, to the Congressional Library in Washington D.C.
Source: Wills of the Rich and Famous by Herbert E. Nass
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The Silk Road, connecting China with the Mediterranean from 100 BCE to the 1450s, is one of the most famous trade routes in history. Why is the name misleading?
Answer: Silk was not the main item traded, but one of many including chemicals, spices, metals, glass and paper. The route was also not a ‘road’, but rather a stretch of shifting, unmarked paths across massive expanses of desert and mountains.
Source: The Silk Road by Valeria Hansen
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Which military unit dominated classic Greek warfare, not merely on the battlefield but also in its role as the symbolic embodiment of the Greek cooperative citizenry?
Answer: The Hoplite, a heavily armed foot soldier.
Source: 30-Second Ancient Greece by Matthew Nicholls
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Which Nazi figure was considered so depraved and brutal that even Adolf Hitler declared him to be “the man with the iron heart”?
Answer: Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942). He was one of the key architects of the Third Reich’s holocaust. Yet, paradoxically, Heydrich played the violin.
Source: Heydrich – The Face of Evil by Mario R. Dederichs
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In the context of Chinese history, what was the ‘London Kidnapping’?
Answer: The 1896 kidnapping of Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), then a young nationalist radical, in London. Captured by members of the Qing dynasty’s UK legation, the kidnappers sought to ship Sun back to China. Subsequent newspaper attention however resulted in Sun’s release and made him a cause célèbre in Europe.
Source: Historical Dictionary of Modern China by James Z. Gao
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Richard Lawrence (1800-1861) was the first person to attempt to assassinate a U.S. President. He tried to shoot Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) in the U.S. Capitol in January 1835. What happened?
Answer: Lawrence brandished a pistol which misfired, before pulling out a second one, which also failed to shoot. Remarkably, instead of running or taking cover, President Jackson – who had fought no fewer than 107 duels and was notoriously pugnacious – himself strode toward Lawrence to beat him with his cane.
Source: The Era of Change by Espy M. Navarro and Robert Navarro
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In 1535, a number of murderers in England were pardoned. They earned this in what unusual way?
Answer: By offering to serve the king in a police capacity. Each offered to capture thieves in return for their pardon.
Source: The Criminal Trial in Later Medieval England by J.G. Bellamy
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From where does the world “Exchequer” and “cheque” originate?
Answer: In ancient times, counting was performed using beads on a chequered board or cloth.
Source: History for Ready Reference by Josephus Larnard
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“You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: “If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!” Where is this quote from?
Answer: The Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir. The Cuneiform inscribed tablet, dating from 1750 BCE, detailed a customer’s unhappiness at his recent attempt to buy copper. It is considered to be the oldest known written complaint.
Source: The Rise and Fall of Civilizations by C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and Jeremy Sabloff
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Before being elected U.S. President in 1848, Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) had famously never done what?
Answer: Voted, let alone hold any political office. Taylor was a military hero whose ambiguous political views were appealing at a time of increasing division in the United States.
Source: Zachary Taylor by John S. D. Eisenhower et. Al
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Bellerophon, built in 1909, Audacious, built in 1913, and Emperor of India, built in 1914, were all examples of what?
Answer: Dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy. The heavy armour and large calibre guns of Dreadnoughts, first constructed in 1906, made existing battleship designs obsolete.
Source: Forces of the British Empire – 1914 by Edward M. Nevins
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An inventor is not always the best at predicting the use of their invention. What obscure benefits did Thomas Edison (1847-1931) feel that his phonograph, ancestor of the loudspeaker, would offer?
Answer: Teaching elocution, singing children to sleep and preserving the “last words of great men”.
Source: Edison – Inventing the Century by Neil Baldwin
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“He saw foreign policy through the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe, He might make an adequate Lord Mayor of Birmingham – in a bad year.” Who was British statesman David Lloyd George (1863-1945) discussing in this stinging rebuke?
Answer: Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), British prime minister from 1937-1940.
Source: Order! Order! by Robert Rogers
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How did the following underground joke, popular in Germany towards the end of the Second World War (1939-1945), finish? “On Hitler’s tombstone is this inscription”…
Answer: “My final territorial demands.”
Source: Underground Humour in Nazi Germany 1933-1945 by F.K. Hillenbrand
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Which nineteenth century philosopher famously loathed mankind but loved poodles?
Answer: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). A philosophical pessimist, he considered his pet poodles more intelligent than most humans, and was not afraid to say so.
Source: Recent Philosophy by Etienne Gilson et. Al
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“If anyone doesn’t believe in Venus, then they should gaze at my girlfriend!”, “Epaphra, you are bald” and “Secundus shat here” are all examples of what?
Answer: Contemporary graffiti found on Ancient Greek public buildings. It is a rare insight into the “ordinary people” of the ancient world.
Source: The Ancient World by Jerry Toner
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Which aircraft, dubbed the “flying tank”, was so important to the Soviets during the Second World War that Josef Stalin (1878-1953) declared “our Soviet Army now needs [them] like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats”?
Answer: The Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik, an armored ground attack aircraft. The II-2 was the most manufactured military aircraft in history, 36,000 being made.
Source: Flying Warbirds by Cory Graff
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Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid (43 BCE-17CE), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Emperor Augustus. Ovid insisted that some elite women in Roman society were partial to what?
Answer: ‘A bit of rough’ – a sentiment echoed by Petronius in his Satyricon [a novel about Roman society], which describes how some upper-class women burned with desire for men of the ‘lower orders’ – dancers, bin-men and gladiators.
Source: Ovid: A Poet Between Two Worlds by Hermann Fränkel
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British politician Mhairi Black was 20 when elected to the House of Commons in 2015, making her the youngest member in 350 years. Who was previously the youngest?
Answer: Before Ms Black was elected, Parliament’s youngest MP was Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, who was 13 when he entered the Commons in 1667.
Source: The Telegraph, 12/3/17; General Historical Texts
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The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States, named after Joseph Pulitzer. He was an Hungarian-American newspaper publisher of the St Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of yellow journalism to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s. What did Pulitzer say about the independence of newspapers?
Answer: “A newspaper should have no friends,” articulating the spirit of editorial independence that won him the admiration of his readers and an indictment from the US government.
Source: Sir Martin Sorell, Daily Telegraph, 11/3/17
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March 2017
Part of being a Medieval sovereign was looking the part. How many dresses did Queen Elizabeth I of England own?
Answer: An inventory in 1599 recorded that she had no fewer than 1,326.
Source: Tales from the Royal Wardrobe and Bedchamber by Dr Lucy Worsley
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The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, causing the deaths of between 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and reaching its gruesome climax in Europe in between 1346 and 1353. At a time when ignorance and superstition were prevalent, what was one of the better hypotheses as regards dealing with the scourge?
Answer: The idea of burning contaminated clothes, which may have had some foundation in fact. The main agent, however, for the spread of the disease was the rat flea. Essentially the Black Death was only contracted by people who were in contact with rats.
Source: General Historical Texts
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When was England’s King Henry VIII first portrayed dramatically, that is on stage?
Answer: Some 60 years after Henry’s death in the 1604 play ‘When you see me you know me’, by Samuel Rowley. The play was performed at the Fortune Theatre north of Cripplegate, London. By all accounts the play was very popular.
Source: Eric Ives, emeritus professor of English history at Birmingham University.
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Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) was an English landed gentleman, writer, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. A favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, he fell out of favour with her, and worse was to come under her successor James I, who sentenced him to death by beheading. How did Ralegh show extraordinary courage as he was about to die in October 1618?
Answer: On the scaffold prior to his execution he delivered a 45 minute speech, using the platform as a stage, stirring onlookers with passionate religious evocations. Ralegh shared a joke with the executioner, touching the axe he laughed that here was a cure for every disease, a “sharp medicine”. When the nervous headsman did not proceed at their prearranged signal, Ralegh, his neck on the block, angrily called out to him: “What do you fear?” he demanded. “Strike, man!” His head was severed on the second blow.
Source: Sir Walter Ralegh by William Stebbing
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Many talented people who went on to great heights of human achievement exhibited quite the opposite manifestations of excellence when younger. How did German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, who developed the general theory of relativity, exemplify this point?
Answer: Einstein could not speak properly until he was nine years old, and it was assumed that he suffered from dyslexia.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What was unusual about the counting system used by the ancient Babylonians?
Answer: They counted in sixties as well as tens. This system resonates today in the 360 degree measurement of a circle, and the 60 second and 60 minute calibrations of time.
Source: The Modern Reference Encyclopedia Illustrated
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It has been argued that if Kaiser Frederick III had not died from laryngeal cancer in 1888 (he reigned for only 99 days), it is likely that World War One and indeed World War Two would never have occurred. How is this so?
Answer: Frederick was succeeded by his son Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was widely believed to be mad, overly militaristic and had a love hate relationship with England. Kaiser Frederick III was of a more liberal and socially progressive disposition and would, it is suggested, have averted war at all cost.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Massie
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During the construction of the US transcontinental railway between 1863 and 1869 worker death by industrial accident was high. But what was proportionately a far higher cause of death?
Answer: Shootouts, that is disputes being resolved by gunfire. Railway construction CEO Dodge’s enforcer as labour boss was Jack Casement, known as ‘The Cossack’. He declared that “for every death by accident we lose four by shootout”.
Source: How We Built the Union Pacific Railroad by Major General Grenville M. Dodge
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US five star General Douglas MacArthur was not burdened by low self esteem. What was the statement in March 1942, during World War Two, that particularly irritated many in Washington including President Franklin D Roosevelt?
Answer: Following his defeat in Bataan in the Philippines and his escape to Australia, MacArthur issued the statement, “I came out of Bataan and I shall return.” Many thought the statement should have been “we” – meaning US forces, would return.
Source: American Caesar by William Manchester
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When Britain’s King George III (1738-1820) was told that by a courtier that British Major General James Wolfe was mad, what was the king’s response?
Answer: “Mad is he. I wish he would bite some of my other generals.” Known for his training reforms, Wolfe is remembered primarily for his victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Canada in 1759.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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Why did the Ostrogoths King Theodoric the Great (454-526) voluntarily spend 11 years as a Roman hostage?
Answer: To guarantee the good behaviour of his father. Theodoric became king of the Ostrogoths in 471, and for the next 17 years was allies with, and attacked, Roman territories in the Balkans.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy
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The 5th century in Japan saw swift development and expansion of the Yamato state. What were some of the features of this development?
Answer: Intricate irrigation systems began to appear. Rulers built increasingly larger burial mounds, such as the 486 metre long Nintoku mound. Ojin established a new line of kings, who exercised more rigorous control over Japan’s main islands from a royal centre. Yamato overseas contacts became more extensive, with ten diplomatic missions visiting China in the years from 421 to 478.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What was the response from English artist William Hogarth on the invention by fellow country man and clockmaker John Harrison of the first accurate timepiece that enabled longitude to be precisely calculated, thus revolutionising world navigation?
Answer: “One of the most exquisite movements ever made.” The device was known as the H1 chronometer.
Source: Analysis of Beauty, 1753 by William Hogarth
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Successive failure of the potato crop in Ireland in the 1840s, produced a famine that lasted five years. What was the human cost of the famine in terms of lives lost?
Answer: Around one million died, at a time when Ireland’s population was around eight million. This would be equivalent today to around 40 million Americans dying.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy
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Hippocrates of Kos was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. What was his pangenesis hypothesis?
Answer: Hippocrates formulated the theory that hereditary material collects from around the body and is re-constituted inside the womb to form human life.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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A tremendous attraction for military men in past times was the prospect of personal enrichment by taking plunder after victory in battle. British adventurer and administrator Clive of India on his own admission did quite well after the Battle of Plassey. This was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June, 1757. What was the extent of his personal financial gain.
Answer: On his own admission, he removed 234,000 pounds sterling from the Bengal Treasury. In today’s currency this, conservatively, would be worth around 50 million pounds sterling.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy
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In 1765 British adventurer and administrator Clive of India, negotiated a firman or edict from the Moghul Emperor Shah Alam giving the British East India Company the right to collect the revenues of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. What was the comment of a Muslim onlooker to the arrangement?
Answer: He bitterly remarked, the whole transaction ‘was done and finished in less time than would have been taken up on the sale of a jackass’.
Source: World History Factfinder by Colin McCreedy
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The Vikings were well known for their plundering expeditions in the British Isles and France. But what was significant about the voyage of the Nordic adventurer Bjorn Ironside?
Answer: In 859-860, his Viking ship ventured into the western Mediterranean and sacked several towns, among them one that he claimed was Rome. In fact, it was only Luma, a small town in Tuscany, Italy. Nevertheless, a remarkable feat of seamanship by any standard.
Source: The World of Vikings by Justin Pollard
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What is one example of famed Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606-69) not lacking in personal vanity?
Answer: He painted over sixty self-portraits.
Source: Rembrandt, 1606-1669: The Mystery of the Revealed Form by Michael Bockemühl
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In 1757, France’s King Louis XV was the subject of an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, a domestic servant. Although suffering a non-threatening stab wound, Louis was convinced – despite being assured by his doctors the wound was benign – that he was on the brink of death. How did courtiers seek to convince the monarch that his wound was not life threatening?
Answer: An old, battle hardened French marshal was brought to the king, and asked him, “Can you spit, cough and piss?” When Louis replied positively to the question, the old soldier replied, “You’ll be all right, my lad.”
Source: Source: Louis the Beloved – The Life of Louis XV by Olivier Bernier
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What did Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky write in a letter to his brother, Anatoly, about his wife, five days after his marriage to Antonina Milyukova in 1877?
Answer: “Physically my wife has become totally repugnant to me.”
Source: Tchaikovsky – The Crisis Years 1874-1878 by Dr David Brown
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What did English author John Stow say in his book Annals of England, published in 1580, as regards the benefits of a knowledge of history?
Answer: It was “as hard for a man to read history and not become wise as it was for a well-favoured man to walk up and down in the hot, parching sun and not be therewith sunburned.”
Source: Annals of England by John Stow
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British prime minister David Lloyd George said that the First World War was the worst thing to happen to England since the War of the Roses (1455 – 1485). But how accurate is this?
Answer: Not very. War of the Roses’ battles were normally fought by armies numbered in their thousands, rather than tens of thousands. Battle casualties were counted in the hundreds rather than the thousands. More British were killed in a single day at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 than in the whole of the War of the Roses.
Source: The War of the Roses – Peace & Conflict in 15th century England by John Gillingham
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The cry ‘Remember the Alamo’ was significant in what North American 19th century event?
Answer: This was the rallying cry in the lead up to the Battle of Jacinto on April 21, 1836, during the Texas War of Independence. The siege of the Alamo in February and March of that year saw some 5,000 Mexican troops defeat massively outnumbered rebels. The Battle of Jacinto resulted in a Texas force under General Sam Houston winning victory over Mexican troops, forcing Mexico to recognise the new republic of Texas.
Source: General Historical Texts
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According to archaeologist Scott A. J. Johnson, what was behind the collapse and failure of major ancient civilisations, such as the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Roman and Inca?
Answer: Johnson argues that over confidence blinded ancient peoples to evidence that would allow them to adapt and survive further into the future, thus precipitating their eventual downfall.
Source: Why Did Ancient Civilisations Fail by Scott A. J. Johnson
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What did Britain’s famed Duke of Marlborough say was the only books he read?
Answer: Those written by William Shakespeare.
Source: The War of the Roses – Peace & Conflict in 15th Century England by John Gillingham
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France’s King Louis XV (1710-1774) left a legacy of a country in near financial ruin and moral decadence that set the stage for the French Revolution under his successor Louis XVI (1754-1793). Apart from the pleasures of the flesh, to which he was near-addicted, he well understood the need to perpetuate the Bourbon family line. In what way?
Answer: By the age of 27, he had fathered 10 children with his queen consort Marie Leszczyńska of Poland.
Source: Louis the Beloved – The Life of Louis XV by Olivier Bernier
More at: History
Who were the Condottieri?
Answer: They were Italian freelancers, or mercenaries, who in the 14th and 15th century lived by plunder, or who hired themselves to others for a share in the spoils.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
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What was the background of the development of the khaki military uniform?
Answer: This was first introduced by the British Corps of Guides in 1848 under the command of Sir Harry Lumsden. The name derives from the Urdu word khak meaning dust. The dust-colored uniforms became popular as, not only did they make the wearers less visible targets, but they also camouflaged the dirt.
Source: The Modern Reference Encyclopedia Illustrated
When famed Russian composer Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky died in 1890 he was given the grandest of state funerals, which included lying in state in Saint Peterburg’s Kazan Cathedral. Who paid for the elaborate event?
Answer: None other than the Russian Tsar, Alexander III.
Source: Tchaikovsky by David Brown
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What was the highly unusual earlier profession of 22nd and 24th US President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)?
Answer: Hangman. While serving as sheriff of Erie county, New York, he hanged several convicted felons. After hanging a young Irishman named Jack Morissey he was reported to have been sick for several days, but went on to happily receive the $20,000 fee as hangman.
Source: New York Times, July 1912
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February 2017
Which has been more densely populated: Ancient Rome at the peak of its power and influence, or New York City today?
Answer: Ancient Rome. On the most current figures available, New York City is 44% as densely populated as was Ancient Rome at its peak.
Source: A Walk in Ancient Rome by John T. Cullen
More at: History
Early in his political career George Washington (1732-1799) sought to be elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, the first legislative assembly in the American colonies. How did he woo the voters?
Answer: With alcohol. He wooed the 391 voters of his county with punch, wine and beer. The grand total was 160 gallons, over 3 pints per man. A successful ploy, as he won the election.
Source: Feasting and Fasting with Lewis & Clark by Leandra Zim Holland
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According to historian David Stevenson, which battle taking place on 2 October 1918 was one of the most spectacular feats of the First World War (1914-1918)?
Answer: The Battle of Saint Quentin Canal. A crucial victory for the Allies, the storming of the vast Saint Quentin canal, 35ft wide and with brick faced walls ten feet high, was an inspiring achievement.
Source: With Our Backs To The Wall by David Stevenson
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Which composer, when asked about the composition of a key feature of his most famous work, remarked “whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it I know not”?
Answer: German, later British, baroque composer, George Fridrich Handel (1685-1759). He was referring to the Hallelujah Chorus in his famed work Messiah.
Source: Chambers Biographical Dictionary by Una McGovern
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Raymond Poincaré, Andrew Bonar Law, Vitorrio Orlando and Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg were all European statesman. Which is the odd one out?
Answer: Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923). The other three all led their nations, France, Italy and Germany respectively, during the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: The Illusion of Peace by Sally Marks
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According to historian Dan Jones, which medieval English King was “charismatic, dashing and competent but grew fat, louche and lecherous”?
Answer: King Edward IV (1442-1483).
Source: The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones
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The Byzantine emperor was personally protected by which unusual elite military unit?
Answer: The “Varangian Guard”. The word Varangian derives from the Greek word for Vikings, as the Guards were originally Viking mercenaries. The number of Norsemen serving gradually declined and, despite the name, nearly all members were Byzantine Greeks by the thirteenth century.
Source: The Varangian Guard 988–1453 by Raffaele D’Amato
More at: History
“I would rather have four teeth pulled out than deal with that man again.” So said Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in 1940. Who was he referring to?
Answer: Spanish leader Francisco Franco (1892-1975). Hitler had met Franco in the hope of encouraging Spain to participate in the war on the Axis side, but grew weary at Franco’s constant demands for food, aircraft and guns.
Source: Spain under Franco by Max Gallo
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Clubs and societies became an increasing part of British social culture in the eighteenth century, focusing on music, debating and learnedness. What was unusual about one club established in Liverpool in 1743?
Answer: It was for those considered ugly. The “Most Honourable and Facetious Society of Ugly Faces” was otherwise similar to other societies, revolving around drinking and singing songs.
Source: Jacobites and Jacobins by Jonathan Oates and Katrina Navickas
More at: History
What event was nicknamed “the Year without a Summer”, “the Year of the Beggar” and “Eighteen-Hundred-and-Froze-to-death”?
Answer: The period between 1815-1817, when a number of climate anomalies caused by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora, Dutch East Indies, significantly reduced temperatures across much of the globe.
Source: Climate Change by Jennie C. Stephens
More at: History
In 1934 Robert Wilson, a highly respected British surgeon, claimed to have photographed what?
Answer: The Loch Ness Monster. While it has since been identified as a hoax, Wilson never admitted this and for a generation many considered his photos evidence of the existence of the monster.
Source: Echoes of Mind by David A. Levy
More at: History
The Schleswig-Holstein Question was a complicated European diplomatic issue arising in the mid-nineteenth century, focused on a Danish-German territorial dispute. How did British statement Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) lament its complexity?
Answer: He declared, “only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business — the Prince Consort, who is dead — a German professor, who has gone mad — and I, who have forgotten all about it.”
Source: Bismarck’s First War by Michael Embree
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Edward Wightman (? – 1612) and Thomas Aikenhead (1676-1697) were both executed, the last to be condemned in English and Scottish history respectively for their crime. What was it?
Answer: Heresy.
Source: Heresy, Literature and Politics in Early Modern English Culture by David Loewenstein et al
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P.B.S. Pinchback became Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia in December 1872. Why was this a major achievement?
Answer: Pinchback was African American. While his tenure as Governor lasted less than a month, he was the first African American to be Governor of a U.S. state.
Source: African American History by Karen Juaniti Carrillo
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What, and where, was the Kingdom of Austrasia?
Answer: A Frankish kingdom covering parts of modern day north-eastern France, Belgium and the Netherlands. It existed from 567-751 CE.
Source: Historical Atlases by Walter Goffart
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At 11am on November 27 1944, the largest explosion ever on UK soil took place at an RAF base in Staffordshire. What happened?
Answer: A munitions depot at RAF Fauld exploded, likely due to worker negligence. Such was the power of the explosion that it created a crater three-quarters of a mile across and over 400 feet deep. 61 people in the base and surrounding area died.
Source: Stafford at War 1939-1945
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In July 1940 the influential British polemical book Guilty Men was published. Who were the guilty men?
Answer: The British public figures, such as Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) and Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937), who embraced the policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The book attacked appeasement as both cowardly and ineffectual.
Source: Neville Chamberlain and Appeasement by Robert J. Caputi
More at: History
Which military force served behind enemy lines in Burma during the Second World War and carried the motto “Boldest Measures are the Safest”?
Answer: The Chindit Special Forces, a British Indian special force. Named after the mythical lion-beast that guarded Burmese temples, they fought the Japanese in bitter conditions.
The force was led by brilliant and heroic jungle warfare expert, Major-General Orde Wingate DSO with two bars. He was an eccentric, even by British standards, (indeed, some said he was mad) with some strange and unusual mannerisms?
He wore an out of date Wolseley ‘Pith’ helmet; sometimes had an alarm clock on his wrist rather than a wristwatch, gave briefings in his tent completely naked; liked to snack on raw onions and had a deliberate casualness about hygiene; it was said he kept a jungle-filthy uniform for special occasions. When he was killed in a plane crash in 1944, Churchill said that with his death, a ‘man of the highest quality … (had been lost) a bright flame … extinguished.’
Source: Churchill General’s by John Keegan; Major-General Orde Wingate by Royce Wilson; Southeast Asia by Ooi Keat Gin.
More at: History
In American history, who were the “four-minute men”?
Answer: The 75,000 volunteers recruited by the U.S. Government to give short patriotic speeches during the First World War (1914-1918). Often speaking during breaks in cinema show-reels, they passionately spread pro-war messages across the United States.
Source: The Untold History of the United States by Peter Kuznick and Oliver Stone
More at: History
Which novel, published in 1888, quickly sold over one million copies and is the second most popular American novel of the nineteenth century, after Harriet Beacher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)?
Answer: Looking Backward, a utopian socialist novel written by Edward Bellamy. The novel inspired the establishment of “Nationalist Clubs” across America, hoping to help realise Bellamy’s socialist vision.
Source: The Untold History of the United States by Peter Kuznick and Oliver Stone
More at: History
Which famous Roosevelt has won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore, Franklin or Eleanor?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). He won the 1906 prize for his successful efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
Source: Theodore Roosevelt by Kathleen M. Dalton
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When after nearly two centuries of isolation Japan’s Sakoku (“closed country”) period ended in 1866, which Western novel made a big impression on many Japanese?
Answer: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719. Japanese translators did not realise the account was fictional, so attributed Crusoe’s brave tale of pirates and cannibals as a genuine account. One Japanese author wrote that he was “overwhelmed with admiration” for the achievements of Mr Crusoe.
Source: The Cambridge History of Japan by Marius Jansen
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To the dismay of his military commanders, in 1941 Soviet leader Josef Stalin (1878-1953) failed to take any measures to counter a likely Nazi German invasion. Remarkably, what did he allow the Germans to do at the end of May 1941?
Answer: Visit, analyse and map areas of Soviet Union territory near the German border. Ostensibly it was to look for the graves of German soldiers killed in the Second World War.
Source: The Uses of History by Alexander Dallin
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In Chinese history, who were the “Yellow Turbans” and how did they help bring down the Han Dynasty?
Answer: A Taoist religious group who rose up against the Han Dynasty. While their rebellion was eventually quashed, they contributed to the Han downfall by enabling the generals commissioned to suppress the rebellion to set up as semi-independent warlords.
Source: The Dragon Throne by Jonathan Fenby
More at: History
The Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799) reigned as Emperor of China for a shorter period than his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor (1654-1722), but is nevertheless considered the longest reigning ruler in Chinese history. How?
Answer: In order to not reign longer than him, the Qianlong Emperor abdicated in February 1796 as an act of respect to his illustrious grandfather. He de facto retained control as the “Retired Emperor” for a further 3 years until his death in 1799, thus overtaking his grandfathers 61 year rule.
Source: The Dragon Throne by Jonathan Fenby
More at: History
Nell Gwynn was a famous mistress of King Charles II of England. What nickname did she have for him?
Answer: Charles III. Gwynn used this nickname as Charles was her third lover named Charles.
Source: Memoirs of the Court of Charles II by Anthony Hamilton
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The school report of which famous author stated that she “writes indifferently…knows nothing of grammar, geography, history, or accomplishments. Altogether clever of her age, but knows nothing systematically”?
Answer: Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), author of the famed novel Jane Eyre (1847).
Source: The Brontës Life and Letters by Clement Shorter
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In 1843, the poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) attained the position of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, holding the position until his death. Why was his tenure unique?
Answer: As per agreement with Prime Minister Robert Peel (1788-1850), he wrote no verse while in the position.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of William Wordsworth by Richard Gravil and Daniel Robinson
More at: History
January 2017
Which historical figure was described by the historian Sima Qian (? – 86 BCE) as “a man of scant mercy who has the heart of a wolf”, someone who “when in difficulty readily humbles himself before others, but when he has got his way, then he thinks nothing of eating others alive”?
Answer: Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BCE), the first Emperor of a united China. Huang is said to have melted the weapons of peasants to make statues of himself, persecuted intellectuals and burned libraries.
Source: Evil Masters by Laura Scandiffio
More at: History
Which European mountain range was the unlikely venue for over four years of bitter fighting during the First World War (1914-1918)?
Answer: The Dolomites, northern Italy. Amidst the soaring peaks Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces clashed.
Source: The White War by Mark Thompson
More at: History
On January 17 1893, American citizens supported by U.S. troops launched a coup d’etat in which country?
Answer: The Kingdom of Hawaii. A small group of wealthy businessmen and sugar plantation owners overthrew the monarchy of Queen Liliuokalani (1838-1917), and eventually succeeded in having Hawaii annexed as a U.S. territory.
Source: Asian Americans by Xiaojian Zhao and Edward J.W. Park
More at: History
What did King Charles II of England (1630-1685) sell for £400,000 in 1662?
Answer: Dunkirk. The last English possession on the north European coast, Charles II no longer had a use for it and needed the money. The buyer was King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715).
Source: The Age of Genius by A.C. Grayling
More at: History
From where did the common English terms “crummy”, ‘lousy”, “rank and file”, “souvenir” and “cushy” originate?
Answer: The language used in the trench warfare of the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: Trench Talk by Peter Doyle and Julian Walker
More at: History
What was unusual about the sleeping arrangements of famed composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828)?
Answer: It is said that he slept with his glasses on, in order that he would not have to look for them to begin composing in the morning.
Source: We Shall Make Music by Patricia Kelsey Graham
More at: History
During the Capitulation of Stettin (October 29 – 30 1806), a Prussian army surrendered a garrison and fortress to a much smaller French force. What was the difference in size?
Answer: It is believed there were between 5,000 and 6,000 Prussian troops, an adequate number with sufficient supplies to sustain a siege. The French army numbered 500.
Source: The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler
More at: History
In 1847, a group led by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) successfully stopped the American showman P.T. Barnum (1810-1891) from doing what?
Answer: Purchasing the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Barnum wanted to move the house, brick by brick, to New York City. Luckily, Dickens and others raised the £3,000 required to purchase the property and keep it at its original site in Stratford upon Avon.
Source: Shakespeare on the Global Stage by Paul Prescott and Erin Sullivan
More at: History
What was the unusual treatment recommended by popular 18th century physician Dr Richard Russell, which may have some application today?
Answer: In 1769 he published a paper advocating the use of seawater against “diseases of the glands”, in which he included scurvy, jaundice, leprosy and glandular consumption, or glandular fever. In addition to swimming in seawater, he also recommended drinking it, in moderation, of course.
Source: New Zealand Herald 27/12/2016; General Historical Texts
More at: History
What was the last place in Europe to adopt Christianity?
Answer: Lithuania. Until 1387 its people were pagans. In that year the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was finally baptised into Roman Catholicism. This was a condition of the dynastic union with Poland.
Source: A History of the Baltic States by Andres Kasekamp
More at: History
What was famed composer Giacomo Puccini’s response when Enrico Caruso – who went on to be perhaps the greatest tenor ever – auditioned for Puccini?
Answer: “Who sent you to me? God himself?
Source: Puccini – A Biography by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz & William Weaver.
More at: History
During the Viking siege of Paris in CE 885-86, what did Carolingian King Charles the Fat give the belligerent Norsemen after they had been repulsed from the city?
Answer: Free passage along the Seine River, and a promise of 700 livres of silver provided they ravaged Burgundy, which was in rebellion against the king. The sum was paid the next spring, when the Vikings withdrew their forces from West Frankia.
Source: The Vikings – Wolves of War by Martin Arnold
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The Battle of Ain Jault (1260) is significant for halting for the first time the progress of which empire?
Answer: The Mongol Empire. Fought in the Jezreel Valley in southeast Galilee, it signalled the end of the threat post by the great Mongol khans to the Middle East and Europe.
Source: A History of War in 100 Battles by Richard Overy
More at: History
What was the special note that US General Dwight D Eisenhower kept in his wallet on D Day 1944, which saw the largest flotilla in history set out for France?
Answer: Eisenhower kept a prepared statement accepting full responsibility in the event of the invasion failing. As it happens, it was a tremendous success and ultimately lead to the fall of Nazi Germany the following year.
Source: Eisenhower by Stephen B Ambrose.
More at: History
What were the unusual circumstances of the announcement of French King Louis XIV’s engagement to be married to Maria Theresa of Spain.
Answer: Louis made this declaration from the lavatory, while a bevy of senior aristocrats were close at hand attending to him.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
More at: History
The colour purple was favoured by Roman emperors because of the uniqueness of the shade, the fact it faded less easily, and the difficulty involved in securing the dye. How was the purple dye produced?
Answer: From crushing hundreds of thousands of sea mollusks, needless to say a laborious task.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon.
More at: History
History is replete with earnestly made predictions made by experts, that were subsequently proven to be folly. What was one of these as regards the power of the atom?
Answer: Nobel Prize winner in Physics Robert Milikan said in 1923, “There is no likelihood that man can ever tap the power of the atom”. This perspective was horrendously disproved only 22 years later during the Second World War, with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, bringing to a close the war in the Pacific.
Source: Source: Dictionary of World History by A J P Taylor
More at: History
The alkaloid morphine has been used as a pain reliever since the early 19th century, but has also been abused as a recreational drug. From where does its name derive?
Answer: It was named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, by the German pharmacist Frederick Serturner. One of the reported side effects of the drug is diverse and multi-faceted dreams.
Source: The History of Medicine by William F Bynum
More at: History
Apart from the fact that the Japanese can trace their royal family in a direct line back 2,600 years, they are known for being a hardy culture. During the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868) what was a prime example of this hardiness?
Answer: Over these years there were no fewer than 154 famines.
Source: A History of Japan by R H P Mason
More at: History
In 1940 when Germany was consolidating its military takeover of much of Europe, including France, British prime minister Winston Churchill suggested that the two countries unite. What was the response to this suggestion?
Answer: Marshall Philip Petain, who was to become Chief of State of Vichy France under the Nazis, replied that, “To make a union with Great Britain would be fusion with a corpse.”
Source: Philip Petain by Professor Richard Griffiths
More at: History
London’s infamous fog or ‘pea soupers’ have been written about extensively over the years. In 1892 and 1852 what were the tragic consequences of the British capital’s fetid air?
Answer: In 1892 the oppressive London smog killed 1,000 people. The December 1952 ‘Great Smog’ of London caused an estimated 4,000 deaths.
Source: History of London by David Kynaston
More at: History
What were the bizarre circumstances surrounding the death of US 9th president William Henry Harrison (1773-1841)?
Answer: Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address in US history in heavy snow. He caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia and was dead within a month. He thus became the oldest serving president up to that time, and the shortest serving to date.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
More at: History
According to Chinese mythology, how was tea invented?
Answer: In 2,737 BCE, the Chinese emperor Sheng Nung was sitting beneath a tree as a servant boiled his drinking water. A leaf fell into the water and the taste of the drink impressed the emperor, thus was formulated, so legend has it, the first cup of tea.
Source: Dictionary of World History by A J P Taylor
More at: History
In a very pragmatic move as regards human cleanliness, what was one of the first chemical inventions?
Answer: Indeed it was soap, created by the Sumerians around 3,000 BCE. Indications are that early soap was made from animal fats, or perhaps olive oil with ashes added.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
More at: History
France has always viewed its army with a special reverence and regard. But what did Napoleon III, Emperor of the French and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, say about the army?
Answer: “The army is the true nobility of our country.” More on Napoleon III at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Napoleon-III-emperor-of-France
Source: Dictionary of World History by A J P Taylor
More at: History
Thus showing that kings are subject to life’s cruel vicissitudes and uncertainties as are mere mortals, how did King Alexander I of Greece, the Uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh, die in 1920 aged just 27?
Answer: From blood poisoning after being bitten by his gardener’s pet monkey.
Source: Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
More at: History
During the First World War, what was one of the consequences of German occupation of industrial areas in northeast France?
Answer: The French government had to recall conscripts from the trenches to work in factories to keep war production up.
Source: History Year By Year by Dorling Kindersley
More at: History
Russian Tsar Peter the Great was one of his country’s greatest statesmen, organizers and reformers. He was, however, rather critical of his legacy. What did he famously say on this?
Answer: “I have conquered an empire but have not been able to conquer myself.”
Source: History Year By Year by Dorling Kindersley.
More at: History
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), was US President John F Kennedy’s favorite economist and United States Ambassador to India. What was his view about people who have the ability to make money, and their intelligence?
Answer: “There is no greater fatuity (ie, foolishness) than an assumption of a correlation (ie, connection) between intellect and wealth.”
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
More at: History
When King Alexander the Great requested ships from an unwilling Athens, the Athenian Senate asked renowned statesman and military commander Phocion (402 BC-318 BC) for his opinion. What was his response?
Answer: He replied that “you should either have the sharpest sword, or keep upon good terms with those who have”. Phocion, who was a student of Plato, was, according to legend, made a general a staggering 45 times.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
More at: History
What was one of the more unusual Olympic events held between 1900 and 1920.
Answer: The Tug of War. This was contested as part of the track & field athletics program. While this may seem an unusual Olympic sport, in fact this contest was part of the ancient Olympics, first held in 776BC.
Source: The Olympics – The History of the Modern Games by Alan Guttmann; General Historical Texts.
More at: History
December 2016
What did 17th century English philosophy Thomas Hobbes say as regards to inquisitiveness?
Answer: “Curiosity, he said, “is the lust of the mind”.
Source: The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury
What did Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle (1759-1881) say on the tremendous impact on humankind of the invention of printing?
Answer: “He who first shortened the labour of copyists by the device of moveable types – in short the invention of printing – was creating a whole new democratic world.”
Source: Dictionary of World History by A J P Taylor
In circumstances not of the highest ecclesiastical excellence, how did Pope John XII die in 964?
Answer: He was beaten to death by the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair.
Source: The History of the Popes by Archibald Bower
Though most Ancient Egyptians were farmers, a significant minority worked as craftsmen. Painters and sculptors had to comply with some very strict rules in their art. All their drawings had to be in right proportion. In particular, people could be shown only in certain poses. Why was this?
Answer: This was because a picture in a tomb was expected to ‘come alive’ in the next world when the priest had chanted and evoked the right spells. The scenes shown were then believed to go on occurring forever.
Source: Modern World Encylopaedia
There is an argument to say that early 20th century German foreign minister Arthur Zimmerman was the most destructive man of his generation. Why is that?
Answer: His Zimmerman Telegram was an internal diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico in the event of the United States’ entering World War I against Germany.
By thus being responsible for drawing America in to the First World War, this led to the subsequent ruinous post war peace treaties by US president Woodrow Wilson. Additionally, he fomented the Irish Easter Uprising of 1916, helped send Russian revolutionary leader Lenin to Russia, which brought about the Russian revolution and the disastrous Soviet state which lasted 70 years.
Source: A History of the World by Andrew Marr
King Leopold II of Belgium had an unusual view of the country and the people of which he was sovereign. What was this?
Answer: He had contempt for the Belgians as evidence by the statement, “small people, small country.” Apart from the great wealth that was on offer, this was part of the reason why Leopold built a personal empire in Africa, with tragic results for the people of the Congo.
Source: A History of the World by Andrew Marr
What was the significance of English agricultural pioneer Jethro Tull’s (1674-1741) seed drill invented in 1700?
Answer: The horse-drawn seed drill economically sowed seeds in neat rows. This device turned the British into the world’s most successful farmers, and helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution.
Source: Modern World Encylopaedia
14th century West African king Mansa Musa was so fabulously wealthy that when he visited Cairo in 1324 on his way to Mecca, he handed out so much gold in gifts that what happened?
Answer: The price of the precious metal collapsed.
Source: A History of the World by Andrew Marr
The Ancient Phoenicians were famous for their skill with ivory. What was an unfortunate consequence of this?
Answer: Elephants were extinct in Syria by 1000 BCE. Stocks of the giant animals had to be imported from India and Africa.
Source: The Illustrated History of the World by Simon & Schuster
Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President, was a successful Illinois lawyer before entering politics. What was his view on the key legal principal of habeas corpus. This is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.
Answer: “More rogues than honest men find shelter under habeas corpus.”
Source: The Civil War by Ken Burns
Europe’s population today is around 740 million. What was it in 1000 CE?
Answer: Around 40 million. By the middle of the 14th century It had reached nearly 80 million. But plagues and famines may have soon reduced the population by up to 25 million.
Source: The illustrated History of the World by Simon & Schuster
In the early 1940s, guests at the prestigious Beverly Hills Hotel were treated to a peculiar spectacle. Late at night, one might see famed Hollywood actress Katherine Hepburn curled up asleep outside even more famous Hollywood actor Spencer Tracy’s door. Why was this?
Answer: Hotel employees knew that this tableau meant that Tracy was on an alcoholic bender. On such occasions, he would lock himself in his room with a case of Irish whiskey, strip naked and drink himself into a stupor. He would permit no one to enter the room, not even Ms Hepburn, with whom he was involved in an extra marital affair.
Source: Katherine Hepburn by Barbara Leaming
What was the unusual background to the discovery of gunpowder?
Answer: Chinese alchemists were trying to find an elixir for long life, and instead, remarkably, discovered gunpowder. That in seeking to find a means of extending life, a key factor in the subsequent destruction of life, could be seen as deeply ironic.
Source: The Dragon Wakes by Christopher Hibbert; General Historical Texts.
In the mid 1930s, what was the most popular timepiece in the United States, the richest country in the world?
Answer: At $3.95, the Mickey Mouse wristwatch.
Source: Walt Disney – His Life and Legacy by American Experience.
More on Walt Disney at: http://www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?keywords=walt+disney&productType=917504
When was Scotland’s legendary Loch Ness monster first sighted?
Answer: The Loch Ness monster was supposedly spotted for the first time on 22 August 565, by the Irish monk St Columba. “With his holy hand raised on high he formed the saving sign of the Cross in the empty air, invoked the Name of God, and commanded the fierce monster, saying: ‘Think not to go further, nor touch thou the man. Quick! Go back!'”
Source: The History of Scotland by John Lesley and Thomas Thomson
More on the Loch Ness Monster at: http://www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?keywords=loch+ness+monster&productType=917504
According to the Roman historian and scholar Galen, what was one of the more deeply disturbing aspects of food shopping in Ancient Rome?
Answer: Some unscrupulous retailers had been known to use human flesh in dishes in place of pork.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon
King Louis XIV of France (1638-1715), the Sun King, had a healthy appetite, as befitted a monarch who could have virtually whatever he wanted. What was one example of him exercising this favorable disposition towards matters of the table?
Answer: At one meal, he is said to have eaten, “Four platefuls of different types of soup, a whole pheasant, a partridge, a plateful of salad, mutton hashed with garlic, two good sized slices of ham, a dish of pastry and afterwards fruit and sweetmeats”.
Source: The Story of the French Revolution by Alice Birkhead. Further excellent reading on the French Revolution, an epoch changing event in world history, of which Louis XIV’s reign was a harbinger, here.
The London Times newspaper had a remarkable report in 1870, pointing to a phenomena which is much debated today. What was this?
Answer: The esteemed newspaper reported that as regards an Unidentified Flying Object seen, “The object was elliptical in shape with a kind of tail. It passed the moon from one side to the other in half a minute”. Such reports continue today all around the world, and have become more common since the first Atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.
Source: The London Times – September 3, 1870
In the context of US elections, what was unusual about the year 1856?
Answer: It wasn’t until that year that the US Congress removed property ownership as a requirement to vote in elections. The election that year was won by Democrat James Buchanan. A lawyer and Freemason, married to an heiress (who reportedly died from the emotional strain of Buchanan’s affairs), there was never any doubt that Buchanan would be lacking in property.
Source: The Americans – A Social History of the United States 1587 –1914 by JC Furnas
Obviously sexual mores and the role of women were vastly different in 17th century England than today. What were some examples of that?
Answer: Writing in ‘Advice to a Daughter’ (1688), Englishman George Savile wrote: “You have more strength in your looks, than we have in our laws, and more power by your tears than we have by our arguments.”
Indeed sexual inequality was regarded as perfectly natural: women were bound to obey their fathers and brothers, then their husbands, and then their sons.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
The large influx of German immigrants to America in the mid 19th century was often not greeted with wholehearted applause by the already existing population. What was one somewhat stereotypical description of Germans by the contemporary writer Albert B Faust?
Answer: “Inseparable from lager beer, Limburger cheese, sauerkraut and the string of sausages … a red nose, a tipsy gait, and a fund of good nature”.
Source: The German Element in the United States by Albert B Faust
Renowned English fop and London society man Beau Brummell had the unique privilege of being friends with the Prince of Wales, later King George IV of England. The two later had a falling out, the catalyst for which was what unusual comment made by Brummell at a famous London society social gathering, the Cyprian’s Ball in 1813?
Answer: On the arrival of the Prince of Wales, Brummell said, making no doubt that he was referring to the Prince and in clear hearing of the future king, “Alveney, who’s your fat friend”?
Source: The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Biographical Quotation by Justin Wintle.
French emperor and military genius Napoleon Bonaparte reputedly said that Prussia was hatched from a cannonball. But how did Adolf Hitler describe Prussia?
Answer: “The germ cell of the Reich”.
Source: The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester
The Pequot Indians of North America carried off two white girls from a Connecticut settlement in 1617 not, it was later discovered, to do them violence, but for what purpose?
Answer: The Pequot were in the mistaken belief that the two girls could teach them how to make gunpowder.
Source: The Americans – A Social History of the United States 1587–1914 by JC Furnas.
In Roman occupied Wales in the first century what was one way the Romans used to describe slaves?
Answer: Living tools.
Source: The Story of Wales by the BBC
By the early 19th century, Ireland had been ruled by the English for seven centuries. By 1837, however, the country was, in many respects, still badly underdeveloped. What was one example of this in Tullahobagly, County Donegal?
Answer: The 9,000 residents possessed between them ten beds and 93 chairs.
Source: Heaven’s Command by James Morris
What were some of the very earliest written accounts of proto-vampires in Britain?
Answer: In the 12th century alleged revenants (essentially, un-decayed walking corpses) brought terror and death to people in Buckinghamshire, Wales, Northumbria and at Melrose Abbey on the Scottish borders.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
What was unusual about 19th century Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt’s family background?
Answer: His grandfather had no fewer than 25 children. Not surprisingly, he died penniless. Musical genius Liszt’s smile was once described as “like the glitter of a dagger in the sunlight.”
Source: Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
King Charles II of England (1630-1685) was a notorious womaniser. What did one of his courtiers say about his capacity to rule as monarch?
Answer: The courtier John Evelyn remarked that Charles would have made a good ruler, “if he had been less addicted to women”.
Source: General Historical Texts
Why are the four yearly US presidential elections always held on the first Tuesday in November?
Answer: In 1845, the US Congress decided that voting day would be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which was after the fall harvest, and before winter conditions made travel too difficult.
Source: The Americans – A Social History of the United States 1587 –1914 by JC Furnas.
Until the arrival of tea in the 18th century, the whole of Christendom was, what?
Answer: Drunk all day, every day, because the only reliable means of sanitising water was fermentation. From the perspective of today, where every drink contains alcohol, every individual is potentially a problem drinker.
Source: The Spectator – April 28, 2016
November 2016
“I would annex the planets, if I could. I often think of that.” Who declared this?
Answer: Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), British imperialist. Rhodes also said that he would endure in the memory for “four thousand years”.
Source: Bad History by Emma Marriott
Which British ruler has been described by historian Linda Porter as one of the “most maligned and misunderstood of all monarchs”?
Answer: Mary I of England (1516-1558), famously dubbed “Bloody Mary” for her burning of Protestants dissenters. In reality, she executed as many dissenters as her sister, Elizabeth I (1533-1603), and far fewer than her father Henry VIII (1491-1547).
Source: Bad History by Emma Marriott
During World War Two, US five star general Douglas MacArthur formed a highly unconventional military unit in response to most unusual sightings. What was this?
Answer: The Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit. This was done in response to the very large number of UFO sightings experienced by soldiers and airmen under his command. In 1955, the New York Times reported MacArthur saying that the next war will be against extraterrestrials.
Source: General Historical Texts; The New York Times.
Which 19th century political figure, now considered a giant of his age, was so unpopular when he left office that he was greeted by jeering crowds and prompted novelist Theodor Fontane to write “it is good fortune we have finally got rid of him”?
Answer: Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898).
Source: Bad History by Emma Marriott
Which method of execution, normally associated with revolutionary France, was also employed by the government of Nazi Germany?
Answer: The guillotine. An official method of execution in both the German Empire and Weimar Republic before it, the Nazis executed 16,500 prisoners in this fashion between 1933 and 1945.
Source: Life in the Third Reich by Paul Roland
Journalist and writer Arthur Hopcraft claimed the development of which sport was “not merely a footnote to the social history of the twentieth century but a plain thread in it”?
Answer: Association football, also known as soccer.
Source: The Football Man by Arthur Hopcraft
Vespasian, Titus, Brutus and Trajan are all famous figures of Ancient Rome. Which is the odd one out?
Answer: Brutus (85-42 BCE), who never served as Roman emperor.
Source: SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
With the growth of the internet over the past 20 years the role of individual media especially individual journalists has fallen off dramatically. It was a vastly different scenario in the 1960s. For example, Drew Pearson was America’s most famous muckraking reporter. How influential and widely read was he?
Answer: Pearson’s “Washington Merry-Go-Round” Column, appearing in 600 newspapers, was read by 50 million Americans.
Source: Legacy of Secrecy – The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination by Lamar Waldron
Which famous figure of antiquity was killed on March 15 44 BCE, in a notoriously bungled assassination?
Answer: Julius Caesar (100 BCE – 44 BCE). The gang who attacked Caesar lacked precision and accuracy; the first attack with the dagger missed, Gaius Cassius Longinus lunged at Caesar but actually ended up gashing Brutus and another conspirator was accidentally stabbed in the thigh.
Source: SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
Which German aircraft was first developed in 1942 and named in honour of its vast size, being one of the largest aircraft deployed by either side during the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: The Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant (“Giant”). A German military transport aircraft, it could carry up to 120 troops, 21,500 pounds of freight or 60 wounded soldiers.
Source: World War II by Spencer C. Tucker
Where did the sport ping pong, also known as table tennis, originate?
Answer: The United Kingdom, where it developed as a popular parlour game in the 1860s and 1870s.
Source: A History of Health and Fitness by Roy J. Shepherd
How did John Austin, a British settler in Victoria, Australia, unwittingly unleash a major ecological disaster in 1859?
Answer: He introduced 24 rabbits to his country estate. With no natural predators the population grew rapidly, and by 1950 there were estimated to be some 600 million rabbits in Australia, causing irreparable damage to the country’s unique ecology.
Source: The Decline of Nature by Gilbert LaFreniere
Which British imperialist tried to shoot himself in 1744 when aged 19, but failed to do so when his pistol misfired twice, leading him to declare “it appears I am destined for something – I will live”?
Answer: Robert Clive (1725-1774). He went on to become Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, also known as Clive of India, Commander-in-Chief of British India.
Source: Events That Formed the Modern World by Frank W. Thackeray and John E. Findling
The Pons Fabricius is a bridge in Rome, built in 62 BCE. What is remarkable about the inscription on the bridge?
Answer: It says that if the bridge lasted 40 years the contractor would have his deposit returned. Over 2,000 years later, the bridge is still standing, the last working Roman bridge in Rome.
Source: Veni Vidi Vici by Peter Jones
In what strange circumstances did 10 Downing Street, the home of British leaders since 1735, become the official residence of the prime minister?
Answer: The first prime minister to occupy it suspected it was so badly built it would fall down. Offered it as a personal gift, Robert Walpole (1676-1745) felt it would be such a personal liability that he instead arranged for it to be donated to the office of the prime minister. That way he wouldn’t have to pay for its upkeep.
Source: Napoleon’s Hemorrhoids by Phil Mason
In the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the Russian military shooting team missed the event entirely, arrived nearly two weeks late. Why?
Answer: They forgot to take into account Russia’s use of the Julian calendar, 12 days behind the Gregorian one used in the UK and elsewhere.
Source: Napoleon’s Hemorrhoids by Phil Mason
What is a little known aspect of 1950s US president Dwight D Eisenhower’s spiritual beliefs?
Answer: He was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and remained in this religious faith his entire life.
Source: Eisenhower – A Soldier’s Life by Carlo D’Este
The area of Yucatán, Mexico, was named by Spanish Conquistadors. According to one theory, why was it named as such?
Answer: It is alleged that explorers asked an indigenous Mayan what the region was called, to which he replied “Yucatán”, Mayan for “I do not understand.”
Source: History of Humanity by Sarvepalli Gopal
In Highgate Cemetery, London, lies the grave of which famous figure acknowledged as the “Aristotle of his age”?
Answer: Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), the British philosopher. Despite his contemporary fame, he is now largely unknown. His grave faces that of Karl Marx (1818-1883), whose prominence, in the 19th century, was limited, but is now one of the most famous figures in history.
Source: How to Change the World by Eric Hobsbawm
“A terrible battle where, with all the armies intermingled, victory chose the wrong flag.” So wrote French writer Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (1768-1848). What battle was he referring to?
Answer: The Battle of Waterloo (1815). Many in France agonised at the tight margin of French defeat.
Source: How the French Won Waterloo by Stephen Clarke
During the second century CE, two major world powers were Ancient Rome, which dominated the Mediterranean world, and the Han Empire, which controlled the central plains of Northern China. The first real interaction between the two came in 166 CE. Why did it not go to plan?
Answer: The Romans sent an embassy to China bearing gifts of elephant tusks, rhinoceros horn and tortoise shell. The Chinese were so unimpressed by these commonplace offerings that they suspected that Rome was not as rich or influential as they had been led to believe.
Source: The Ancient World by Jerry Toner
What would a British soldier of the early to mid twentieth century being referring to if he was talking about a “smellie”?
Answer: A rifle. A standard British infantry rifle was the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield, or SMLE. From this came the nickname “smellie”. A superb rifle, it was used as late as the 1980s in some parts of the world.
Source: 100 years of Conflict by G.D. Sheffield et al
American general and president Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) is said to have declared that he only knew two pieces of music. What were they?
Answer: “One is ‘Yankee Doodle’ and the other isn’t.”
Source: Music and History by Jeffrey H. Jackson and Stanley C. Pelkey
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the London between September 2 and 5, 1666. For a long time after, there was a popular conspiracy about what caused the fire. What was it?
Answer: That it had been deliberately started by Roman Catholics. The monument to the fire in London even carried the inscription attacking the “treachery and malice of the Popish faction…effecting their horrid plot for the extirpating the Protestant religion and English liberties, and to introduce popery and slavery.” This was only removed in 1830.
Source: Popery and Politics in England, 1660-1688 by John Miller
Which figure has been described as “the First Nazi” for his role in creating the toxic narrative that enabled Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s to thrive?
Answer: Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937). A German general of the First World War, Ludendorff was crucial in creating the “stab-in-the-back” myth that Germany had only lost the war because Jews, socialists and others had conspired Germany to defeat.
Source: The First Nazi by Will Brownell and Denise Drace Brownell
“Thou smell of mountain goat”, “bolting-hutch of beastliness” and “the tartness of his face sours ripe grapes” are all insults from where?
Answer: The works of the greatest writer ever, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Source: The Shakespeare Phrase Book by John Bartlett
Which famous military figure declared that “there is no security on this Earth; there is only opportunity”?
Answer: American General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964).
Source: War and Conflict Quotations by Michael C. Thomsett
Who, much to his distress, nearly became British prime minister instead of Winston Churchill (1874-1965) in 1940?
Answer: Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (1881-1959). An accomplished politician who had served as viceroy of India and foreign secretary, he possessed greater parliamentary support but declined the position in favour of Churchill.
Source: The Churchill Factor by Boris Johnson
In Chinese history, what was the “Big Sword Society”?
Answer: The name for a group of Boxer (anti-foreign and anti-Christian) rebels in Shandong province during the 1890s. They were notorious for their attacks on Christian missions.
Source: China by Michael Dillon et. al
Which navigational instrument was first developed in 11th century China, where it assisted in the rapid commercialisation of the Song economy and the subsequent exploration of the Indian Ocean by Chinese ships under Zheng He?
Answer: The Magnetic compass. It was introduced to Europe by the beginning of the thirteenth century, most likely by Arab intermediaries.
Source: China by Michael Dillon et. al
October 2016
Which U.S. President’s contested election led to him being dubbed “Your Fradulency”?
Answer: Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893). He lost the popular vote in the election of 1876 but controversially received the most electoral college votes. Another popular nickname was “President RutherFRAUD B. Hayes”.
Source: Maligned Presidents by Max J. Skidmore
John Wesley (1703-1791) published a number of theological and literary works during his lifetime. Which work surprisingly ran to more editions than any other?
Answer: A medical manual, written first in 1747, which offered cheap home medical remedies to the poor. While of dubious medical pedigree, Wesley’s “Primitive Physic: or, An Easy and Natural Method of Curing most Diseases” ran to 23 editions, more than any of his pioneering theological works.
Source: The Cambridge Companion to John Wesley
Some 22 years before John Smith and the Jamestown settlers first sighted Chesapeake Bay and 35 years before the Mayflower reached the cost of Massachusetts, the first English colony in America was established. Where?
Answer: Roanoke Island, modern day North Carolina. Established in 1584, by 1590 the colony had “vanished”, a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.
Source: Roanoke Island by David Stick
According to historian Robert Wooster, the five most influential people of the American Civil War (1861-1865) were Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and who else?
Answer: William T. Sherman (1820-1891). He was especially famous, or infamous depending whose side you were on, for his Sherman’s ‘March Through Georgia’, where his men decimated the state as they went.
Source: Civil War 100 by Robert Wooster
In the context of the Second World War (1939-1945), who was Corporal Wojtek?
Answer: A brown bear adopted by soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps. During the Battle of Monte Cassino (Jan – May 1944) he helped transport ammunition crates, and after the war he retired to Edinburgh Zoo.
Source: The Second World War by Norman Ferguson
Hippocleides was an Athenian nobleman from the 6th century BCE competing for the hand in marriage of Agariste, the daughter of Cleisthenes. How did he famously blow his chances at a dinner party?
Answer: He got so drunk that he jumped on one of the dinner tables and started dancing with his head on the table and his legs in the air. When Cleisthenes saw his crazed actions, he declared that “oh son of Teisander, thous hast danced away thy marriage.” Hippocleides responded with “Hippocleides doesn’t care”. According to the historian Herodotus (484 – 425 CE), this became a famous phrase in the Greek world.
Source: A History of the Greek City States by Raphael Sealey
In which surprising location did the first naval engagement of the First World War (1914-1918) take place?
Answer: Lake Nyasa, located between the modern states of Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. On August 16 1914 the British SS Gwendolen disabled the only German vessel on the Lake, SS Hermann von Wissman, with a single cannon shot. The European community in the region was so small that that the captain of the respective vessels were friends and drinking partners.
Source: Malawi by Philip Briggs
Early nineteenth century British surgeon Robert Liston once performed an amputation which went horribly wrong. What happened?
Answer: He managed to kill three people – an impressive 300% mortality rate. The amputee contracted septicaemia and died, while Liston also accidentally cut the fingers of his assistant, who also died of septicaemia. The third death was of a spectator of the operation who, witnessing the aforementioned, died of shock.
Source: Unexpected Britain by Stuart Laycock et al
What unusual reason led to the sinking of the German submarine U-1206 in 1945?
Answer: A faulty toilet. Highly complex toilets, nicknamed “thunder boxes”, had been fitted to later German U-Boats. On the U-1206 either the operator or captain himself flushed the toilet incorrectly, leading to a string of malfunctions that forced the submarine to surface. Once exposed it was fatally bombed and strafed by British aircraft.
Source: Neither Sharks nor Wolves – The Men of Nazi Germany’s U-boat Army by Timothy Mulligan
In 1876 twenty-two year old Sarah Henley, distressed at hearing that her engagement had ended, jumped off the 75 metre high Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, UK. What happened next?
Answer: Miraculously, she survived the drop. Henley’s skirt was inflated by the windy weather and acted as a makeshift parachute. She reached the river below and was picked up by a rowing boat.
Source: Eccentric Britain by Benedict Le Vay
Where was the world’s oldest cannon found?
Answer: China’s Heilongjiang province, which was previously Mongol territory. It dates from 1282, and while it is similar in design to a cannon, its size is more akin to a modern day handgun or rifle.
Source: Empires of the Silk Road by Christopher I. Beckwith
What is influential about Strawberry Hill House, built in Twickenham, South West London, by politician and intellectual Horace Walpole (1717-1797)?
Answer: It was built in a “Gothic” style, considered by many to have initiated the “Gothic Revival” architectural method that became hugely fashionable in the nineteenth century.
Source: The History of Western Architecture by Natasha Dhillon
Which historical figure worked three or four days straight without sleep and his diet consisted of “highly seasoned dishes, smoked fish, caviar and picked cucumber together with Moselle wine, beer and liquors.”
Answer: Karl Marx (1818-1883). Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was constantly ill.
Source: Karl Marx by Gareth Stedman Jones
Where does the disease diphtheria get its name?
Answer: This comes from the Greek dipthera, which means leather. It was first used by the French doctor Armand Trousseau and relates to the leather like membrane which appears on the throat, tonsils and nose of a sufferer, blocking the airways. Diptheria was in the past a greatly feared disease, infants being particularly vulnerable. In the 1920s, around 150,000 were struck down with it, and killed around 15,000.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
During the French Revolution, which famous cathedral nearly lost its iconic spire before it was saved in bizarre circumstances?
Answer: Strasbourg Cathedral. Already renamed a “Temple of Reason”, in 1794 the revolutionary authorities planned to pull the spire down, considering it an affront to equality. It was only saved when local citizens decided instead to cover it in a giant Phrygian cap.
Source: Signs of Change by Nils Holger Petersen
What are the “Long Man of Wilmington” and the “White Horse of Uffington”?
Answer: Two examples of “hill figures” in the United Kingdom; large images created by cutting into a hillside to reveal underlying geology. The White Horse dates from between 1000 BCE to 100 CE, while the Long Man is much younger, carved in either the 16th or 17th century CE.
Source: Geoffrey Grigson’s Countryside by Geoffrey Grigson
Which world-famous sporting team played their first international fixture on August 15, 1903?
Answer: The New Zealand Rugby Union team, also known as the All Blacks. They defeated Australia 22-3 in Sydney, Australia.
Source: Behind the Silver Fern by Tony Johnson et. al
Which classical figure famously declared “we will either find a way, or make one!”?
Answer: Hannibal (247 – 183 BCE).
Source: Civilizations Quotations by Richard Alan Krieger
What feature, common in much of the rest of the world, was only adopted in China after being introduced from India during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE)?
Answer: A number for zero. Chinese mathematicians had previously simply left an empty space, and many continued to do so until well into the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368 CE).
Source: China – A New Cultural History by Cho-yun Hsu
When was the first known reference to toothpaste?
Answer: This appears in an Egyptian manuscript from the fourth century AD, and describes a mixture of powdered salt, pepper, mint leaves and iris flowers.
Source: A History of Nearly Everything by Antal Parody
In the 18th-century, how did renowned English historian Edward Gibbon view the Germans?
Answer: Gibbon wrote, “the forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who delighted in war, and spread terror and destruction from the Rhine to The Pyrenees. Through their poverty, bravery, obsession with honour, and primitive virtues and vices, they are a constant source of anxiety”.
Source: Edward Gibbon – The decline and fall of the Roman Empire
Jean Renoir, the son of famed French Impressionist painter August Renoir was a celebrated film director. His ‘La Règle du jeu’ ‘The Rules of the Game’ regularly appears on top of the best movies of all time, along with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. The film was banned by Nazi authorities in occupied France during World War Two as it was deemed too destructive of French social mores and morale. Renoir recounted in an interview the unusual, indeed dramatic, reaction of one Frenchman, having viewed the movie in a cinema, when the lights went on again. What was this?
Answer: The well dressed gentleman took the newspaper he was carrying, unfolded it slowly, and set it alight in the theatre, as his protest at the movie.
Source: Interview with Jean Renoir in the filmed introduction to ‘La Règle du jeu’.
What was famed British British prime minister Winston Churchill’s view on the use of knock out blows in war, or the reliance on one armed unit over another?
Answer: In a 1941 memo to Charles Portal, chief of the Air Staff, who had pleaded for 4,000 heavy bombers so that the RAF could win the war on their own, Churchill wrote, “I deplore placing unlimited confidence in any one means of winning the war … All things are always on the move at once.”
Source: Bomber Command by Sir Max Hastings
Cairo, the largest metropolitan area in Egypt, has always been a very large metropolis, and today has a population of around 20 million. An Italian traveller reported in 1384 an unusual fact about the size of Cairo’s population then. What was this?
Answer: He said there were more people living in a single street in Cairo than in the whole of Florence.
Source: History Without the Boring Bits by Ian Crofton.
William Manchester in is epic book ‘The Arms of Krupp’ says that the 30 years war was a “national calamity for Germany. Between 1618 and 1648,” Manchester writes, “Germany served as a bloody doormat for five foreign armies – Danes, Swedes, Spaniards, Frenchman, Bohemians. Villages were obliterated by the hundreds.” How many Germans perished in this period?
Answer: Anywhere from one third to two thirds of the population.
Source: The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester
World War Two caused the death of 36.5 million people and resulted in horrific destruction and desolation in numerous countries. In then Yugoslavia, for example, what was an example of this devastation?
Answer: War destroyed 25% of vineyards, 50% of livestock, 60% of roads, 75% of railway bridges, 30% of industry and 20% of homes.
Source: British Historian Tony Judt as reported in The Economist, June 18, 2016.
There are only two sovereign countries in the world that were started by citizens and ex-Caribbean slaves of a political power as a settlement for former slaves of the same power. One is Liberia. What is the other?
Answer: Sierra Leone. It was founded as Freetown in 1787 by British influence. Liberia was founded by American free slaves and their descendants in the early nineteenth century.
Source: Abolition and Empire by B. Everill
The Rhine was Julius Caesar’s outpost. At the dawn of written European history, Germany was a vast jungle. What was one example of the immensity of the forests in Germany, some 2000 years ago?
Answer: Caesar had talked to Germans who have journeyed through the German forests without a glimpse of sunlight. Tacitus was appalled by the forest’s vastness, it’s impenetrable marshes, it’s brutal winters and it’s cloaking, soaking fog.
Source: The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester
Commander William Thomas Turner was captain of the Cunard ocean liner Lusitania when it was sunk by a German torpedo in May 1915 in the North Atlantic ocean, near Old Head off Kinsale, Ireland. Some 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard were killed, leaving 761 survivors. What was Turner’s reported response when asked beforehand as to the risk to his ship from torpedoes?
Answer: “It’s the best joke I’ve heard in years this talk of torpedoing the Lusitania”. Commander Turner was one of the survivors. The sinking turned international opinion against Germany.
Source: The First World War by Professor Huw Strahan
What were the unusual circumstances under which Swedish king Aldolph Frederick died in 1771?
Answer: He died after eating no fewer than 14 semla, a cardamom-spiced sweet bread roll filled with almond paste and cream (The huge dinner he had just eaten may have been a contributing factor, also.)
Source: The Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
The Sixth Duke of Westminster Major General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, who died in August 2016, was one of the wealthiest men in the world with an estate worth around nine billion pounds sterling, or US$11.7 billion. He was once asked, “What was the secret of financial success”? What was his reply?
Answer: “To have an ancestor who was a close friend of William the Conqueror” (1028-1087).
Source: The Times of London, August 10, 2016.
September 2016
Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong represented a political philosophy which exalted the fact that all Chinese were equal, and which condemned personal ownership of assets. What was, however, one of the more unusual aspects of Chairman Mao’s interpretation of Communism?
Answer: In the 1960s, he owned not one, not five, not 10, but 25 Mercedes-Benz 600 limousines, which were far and away the most expensive cars in the world.
Source: Jay Leno’s Garage
French emperor and military genius Napoleon Bonaparte reputedly said that Prussia was hatched from a cannonball. But how did Adolf Hitler describe Prussia?
Answer: “The germ cell of the Reich”.
Source: The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester
26th US President Theodore Roosevelt had not been overly popular with big business through the many anti-business laws passed by his administration. When Roosevelt left for Africa in 1909 for big game hunting, having resigned from office, what did famed business titan and Wall Street financier J Pierpont Morgan reportedly say?
Answer: “Every American hopes that every lion will do it’s duty”.
Source: The Roosevelts by Ken Burns
In World War II, Operation Anthropoid was the name of a British plot to assassinate a high ranking Nazi military official. Who was this official?
Answer: SS Obergruppenfuhrer & Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich. The secret mission was carried out by the British Special Operations Executive and Czechoslovakian government in exile in Prague on 27 May, 1942. Operatives were instructed to shoot Heydrich on his daily commute. Rounding a corner, an operatives’ Sten submachine gun failed. Another operative threw a modified anti-tank grenade into Heydrich’s car, exploding and leaving him with grave injuries. Heydrich succumbed to his wounds on 4 June. This led to massive reprisals from the SS.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was the name given to associates and friends of U.S. President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), who received public office during his administration and infamously sought to enrich themselves through their positions?
Answer: The Ohio gang. While Harding was largely personally honest, though naive, his associates were embroiled in a variety of financial scandals, most infamously the Teaport Dome Scandal (1921-1922).
Source: A Dictionary of American History by Thomas L. Purvis
What was valued at $76 million in 1790, zero in 1834, $2.7 billion in 1866 and $25.4 billion in 1919?
Answer: The U.S. national debt. Traditionally rising in the wake of war and conflict, the last era of significant reduction took place between 1921 and 1930. It has been growing ever since.
Source: A Dictionary of American History by Thomas L. Purvis
What brutal battle between the First US Army and Germany’s Seventh Army took place between September 1944 and February 1945 and is the longest single battle the U.S. Army ever fought?
Answer: The Battle of Hürtgen Forest. The U.S. Army suffered losses of around 33,000.
Source: Hard Times, War Times, and More Hard Times by London L. Gore
Isaac Parker (1838-1896) was an American jurist and politician from the Midwest. What in particular made him famous?
Answer: He was known as the “Hanging Judge” of the American Wild West, due to the large number of convicts that he sentenced to death during 21 years as Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. He sentenced 160 people to death (four of them women), and of those, 79 were hanged.
Source: The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America by Wilbur R. Miller
Which aircraft was the largest mass-produced piston engine aircraft ever made, had at 230 ft the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built and was the first aircraft capable of delivering any Nuclear Weapon in the American arsenal?
Answer: The Convair B-36, christened the “Peacemaker”. It entered service in 1948.
Source: Weapons of Peace by Craig E. Blohm
What was the “log cabin” campaign of 1840?
Answer: The successful U.S. presidential campaign of William H. Harrison (1773-1841). It was so dubbed because Harrison and his Whig party sought to portray Harrison as a man of the common people who lived in a log cabin.
Source: Presidential Campaigns by Paul F. Boller Jr
What is the Voynich manuscript, and how has it mystified scholars for centuries?
Answer: A 240-page illustrated book written in an unknown writing system. Carbon dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), it is believed to have been written in Northern Italy but little else is known of its origin. Despite various attempts to decipher the text, including by expert British and American code breakers during the Second World War (1939-1945), it remains a mystery.
Source: The Complete Voynich Manuscript by Jay Winter
Which famous figure described history as an account of events brought about ‘by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools’?
Answer: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), American writer and satirist.
Source: Herodotus by Jennifer T. Roberts
Why do most historians and classicists consider that history “as we know it” first came into being in Greece in the second half of the 5th Century BCE?
Answer: It was during this period that historians first undertook historical research to expand their understanding of the past and to impart this understanding to a broad audience. While accounts of events had been compiled earlier, they were done with a distinct agenda, such as to glorify a ruler or deity.
Source: Herodotus by Jennifer T. Roberts
What is the name of the colossal 1,100 mile waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangtze rivers, China, that was begun during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) and completed during the Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE)?
Answer: The Grand Canal. It is the longest artificial river or canal in human history.
Source: World History, Volume I by William J. Duiker et. al
“Dirty, avaricious, heartless and eccentric to the point of insanity.” Who was described so forcefully by the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744)?
Answer: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762). Montagu was well known through English polite society for her wit and verse, but she had numerous critics, including Pope, whose anger was partly the result of his unrequited declaration of love for her in 1722.
Source: The Encyclopedia of World Biography by Terrie M. Rooney et. al
While on an expedition in 1800, Prussian geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) traced the language of a South American tribe, the Atures, 40 years after the group had become extinct. How did he do it?
Answer: By studying the sounds made by a parrot. By repeating communication he heard from a member of the Atures many years earlier, the parrot was the last remaining speaker of their language.
Source: Cosmos and Colonialism by Rex Clark
What country claims to be the oldest surviving republic, founded on September 3, 301 CE?
Answer: San Marino. It is believed to be a continuation of the monastic community founded by Marinus of Arba (?-366).
Source: Toward an Understanding of Europe by Alan Ertl
English physicist and mathematician and one of the most influential scientists, Sir Isaac Newton, once declared that “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men”. What prompted the comment?
Answer: The collapse in value of the stock of the South Sea Company in 1720, a major financial scandal in 18th century Britain. Newton lost around £20,000 (as much as $3 million in present day terms).
Source: Boom & Bust by Frederick Kennard
Which location changed its name in 1853 to remove a perceived criminal association, as well as the connotation that it was a land of “demons”?
Answer: Tasmania, Australia. It had previously been called Van Dieman’s Land, named after Dutch Colonial Administrator Anthony van Diemen (1593-1645), where it was primarily a convict settlement. The new name came from Abel Tasman (1603-1659), the first European to land on the island.
Source: Historical Dictionary of the British Empire by James Stewart Olson
During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), what did British soldiers identify as “appurtenances of terror”?
Answer: Moustaches. These were common among the soldiers of their French adversaries.
Source: The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire by Piers Brendon
Which building, construction of which first begun in 1725, measured 606 feet from end to end when completed and remains to this day the largest private house in the UK?
Answer: Wentworth Woodhouse, South Yorkshire. Construction was begun by the Marquis of Rockingham (1693-1750) and the house later belonged to the Earls Fitzwilliam.
Source: Eighteenth-Century British Premiers by Dick Leonard
In eighteenth century England, what was the “Hell-Fire’ Club?
Answer: A club organised by the Earl of Wharton (1698-1731) in 1719. It was formed of wits, raconteurs and gamblers and met at the Greyhound tavern on Bury Street, London. Apart from Gambling, they liked to satirise religious rites by eating “Holy Ghost” pie, and legend has it that satanic rituals and sex orgies figured in their observances.
Source: Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837 by Gerald Newman et al
How did philanthropist Jonas Hanway (1712-1786) offend the sensibilities of his fellow Englishmen in the 1750s?
Answer: He began using an umbrella. This outraged English society, which considered umbrellas taboo due to their French origin and the belief that they were symptomatic of weak character. It also made Hanway an enemy of the Cabmen of London, who offered covered travel during rainy days.
Source: Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837 by Gerald Newman et al
What was the “Garotting Panic of 1862”?
Answer: A British moral panic. After the mugging of Hugh Pilkington MP in July 1862, fear ensued that criminality was escalating out of control. Whipped up by newspapers, it was partly caused by the end of convict transportation to Australia, resulting in significant numbers of prisoners being released back into the general population for the first time in decades.
Source: The English and Violence since 1750 by Clive Emsley
Which famous British serial killer is thought to have killed 22 people, including five of her stepchildren, her sister-in-law, three husbands, 10 of her children and even her own mother?
Answer: Mary Ann Cotton (1832-1873). After being convicted over the death of one of her stepsons, Charles Edward Cotton, she was executed at Durham Prison on March 24 1873. She used arsenic to poison her victims, partly so she could cash in their life insurance policies.
Source: The English and Violence since 1750 by Clive Emsley
In the context of Russian history, what was the “Black Hundreds”?
Answer: An ultra-nationalist movement that emerged during the 1905 Revolution. Determined to defend Russian autocracy against civil unrest, some groups concentrated on lobbying the Tsar to resist liberal reform while more radical elements staged pogroms against Jews and attacked perceived revolutionaries.
Source: The Unknown Lenin by Richard Pipes
“[He] has consistently put the interests of his own class and type above those of either his own nation or of humanity itself.” Who was American journalist Vincent Sheehan (1899-1975) describing in this stunning rebuke?
Answer: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940). Writing in 1939, before the commencement of the Second World War, Sheehan was incensed about Chamberlain’s non-interventionist approach to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
Source: Not Peace but a Sword by Vincent Sheehan
What substance, a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal, was first brought to China in the 400s CE and was originally used to make fumigators to keep away insects and evil spirits?
Answer: Gunpowder. It later became of course the central element in the making of explosives and propelling cannonballs and bullets.
Source: The Earth and its Peoples by Richard Bulliet et al
In the context of Chinese history, what was the ‘Mandate of Heaven’?
Answer: A political and religious ideology developed by the Zhou Dynasty, according to which it was the prerogative of Heaven, the chief deity, to grant power to Chinese rulers and to take it away if the ruler did not conduct himself justly.
Source: The Earth and its Peoples by Richard Bulliet et al
Why is Laura Secord (1775-1868) considered a Canadian hero?
Answer: During the War of 1812 (1812-1815), Secord walked 20 miles through American-occupied territory to warn British forces of an impending American attack on the Niagara peninsula. This information was vital and enabled a British and First Nation victory at the ensuing Battle of Beaver Dams (June 24 1813).
Source: Heroines and History by Colin MacMillian Coates et al
August 2016
On June 1 1943, 17 people were killed when a German aircraft shot down a civilian passenger aircraft flying from Lisbon to Bristol. What famous figure was on the plane?
Answer: Actor Leslie Howard (1893-1943). Howard is best known for portraying Ashley Wilkes in the phenomenally successful Gone with the Wind (1939). While Germany maintained the attack was a mistake (the civilian aircraft had right of passage), conspiracy theories argue the attack targeted Howard, who had returned from Hollywood to aid the British war effort.
Source: Flight 777 by Ian Colvin
What was the initial responsibility of the United States Secret Service, founded on July 5 1865?
Answer: To investigate the counterfeiting of U.S. currency. Counterfeit currency was a major problem in the wake of the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: Fake and Forgeries by Suzanne Bell
Fourteen year old German Werner Franz (1922-2014) was incredibly lucky on May 6 1937. How?
Answer: He was a survivor of the Hindenburg disaster. The youngest member of the 60-strong crew, when the ship caught fire he managed to escape by jumping out of a service hatch. Luckily for him, the airship was low enough for him to land unharmed, but high enough for him to run from beneath it before it collapsed burning on the ground.
Source: When Stalin Robbed a Bank by Giles Milton
The American palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) arranged for his skull to be donated to medical science after his death. Why was there nothing benevolent about this donation?
Answer: Cope wanted it to be studied and measured in the belief that it would prove that his brain was larger than his bitter scientific rival, Othniel Marsh (1831-1899). The two had feuded during a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery known as the “Bone Wars” (1870s-1890s).
Source: When Stalin Robbed a Bank by Giles Milton
In 1885, famed inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) attempted to develop a “whispering machine”. What was it?
Answer: A “electrotyped phonographic book” device. The tiny machine was intended to be placed close beside a person’s ear, such as inside their hat, for a pre-recorded voice to narrate stories to the wearer without disturbing others. It would take a century for technology to develop to make such a device.
Source: Great Victorian Inventions by Caroline Rochford
Which popular attraction was first conceived for the Columbian World Fair of 1893, held in Chicago, USA?
Answer: The Ferris wheel. Invented by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr (1859-1896), it was intended to be the centrepiece of the event in the same way the Eiffel Tower had been for the Paris World Fair four years earlier.
Source: Great Victorian Inventions by Caroline Rochford
Why is an 1897 letter written by British composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934) of such interest to historians and cryptographers?
Answer: The letter was encrypted. It became known as the Dorabella Cipher, named after the recipient Dorabella Penny, but she nor anyone else has been able to decipher it and its meaning remains unknown.
Source: Elgar by Julian Rushton
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) and Joseph Hooker (1814-1879) were opposing commanders in which major battle of the American Civil War (1861-1865)?
Answer: The Battle of Chancellorsville. A resounding Confederate victory, it is often described as Lee’s greatest battle victory.
Source: The American Civil War by Steven E. Woodworth
What was significant about the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, agreed in 1916 between Denmark and the United States of America?
Answer: It was the last time a country directly sold control over territory to another. The United States purchased the Danish West Indies, renamed the United States Virgin Islands, for $25 million (the equivalent of $550 million today).
Source: The Western Hemisphere by Willfred Hardy Callcott
“I am not at all interested in immortality, only in the taste of tea.” What historical figure said this?
Answer: Lu Tong (790-835 CE). A Tang dynasty poet, his is better known for his love of tea than for his poetry.
Source: Taking Time for Tea by Diana Rosen
What is the more common name used for the historical figure Rebecca Rolfe, who died in Gravesend, England, in March 1617?
Answer: Pocahontas (1596-1617). She later adopted the Christian name Rebecca and the surname Rolfe from her husband, tobacco planter John Rolfe (1585-1622).
Source: Exploration and Settlement by Rebecca Stefoff
In early American history, what links the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis and Trenton?
Answer: All sought to become the permanent capital of the United States. After the U.S. Constitution was signed in 1788, various cities laid claim to the seat of government. Eventually a new city on the Virginia-Maryland border, Washington D.C., was adopted as a compromise.
Source: The Great Decision by Cliff Sloan and David McKean
In October 1860, a few weeks before being elected president, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) received some advice from an eleven year old girl named Grace Bedell. What was it?
Answer: Grow a beard. Clean shaven, Lincoln was told by Bedell that he needed a beard, as “all the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be president.” Shortly thereafter, for the first time in his life, Lincoln grew his iconic beard and was elected president.
Source: Affairs of State by Robert P. Watson
How was an early metal detector used to try and save the life of American President James Garfield (1831-1881) after he was shot in July 1881?
Answer: It attempted to locate the bullet lodged in Garfield. Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), inspired by French inventor Gustave Trouvé, had developed the device. While the device worked, the metal bed on which Garfield was lying confused the detector.
Source: James A. Garfield by Robin Santos Doak
What was the Tenshō embassy?
Answer: A delegation sent by the Japanese Christian Lord Ōtomo Sōrin (1530-1587) to Europe in the 1580s. The first group of Japanese officials to be sent to Europe, they met a number of high dignitaries during their near decade long trip, including King Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII.
Source: They Need Nothing by Robert Richmond Ellis
During the Second World War, what were “pumpkin bombs”?
Answer: America aerial bombs used against Japan. Their unique, “pumpkin” shape came from the fact they were developed by the Manhattan Project as dummies of the Fat Man plutonium bomb later dropped on Nagasaki. Filled with either concrete or conventional high explosive, they were primarily used for training and testing.
Source: Dropping of the Atomic Bombs by Mary Meinking
Which was invented first; the mechanical clock, toilet paper, or fireworks?
Answer: Toilet paper, first recorded as being used in 589 CE. All three were invented in China, the mechanical clock in 725 CE and fireworks at some point in the tenth century.
Source: Papermaking by David Hunter
Mexican statesman Pedro Lascuráin (1856-1952) twice served as foreign minister and became the 34th president of Mexico in 1913. How long did he hold the office?
Answer: Less than an hour. Lascuráin became president, and then resigned, in an attempt to legitimise the coup of Victoriano Huerta (1850-1916). His reign as president is considered one of the shortest in history.
Source: Mexico – A History by Robert Ryal Miller
Operation Sledgehammer and Operation Torch were competing Allied battle plans during the Second World War (1939-1945). Which one was implemented?
Answer: Operation Torch, an Allied invasion of French North Africa commencing on November 8 1942. Operation Sledgehammer was a competing plan involving the invasion of Northern France itself, two years before D-Day. While favoured by the USA and Soviet Union, Britain strongly opposed Sledgehammer, and Torch was implemented instead.
Source: The Second World War by S.P. Mackenzie
Germany invaded France in 1914 and 1939. Going back further, also in 1870. This has perhaps contributed to a commonly held view that the country has been overly belligerent, indeed a warmonger. But how many times did France invade the German states between 1785 and 1814?
Answer: No fewer than 14 times.
Source: The Fall of Paris by Sir Alistair Horne
What historical naval vessels had nine masts, twelve sails and a carrying capacity of 3000 tons?
Answer: Chinese “treasure ships”; large vessels used in the naval expeditions of Admiral Zheng He (1371-1435). The carry capacity meant just one of these vessels had six times the capacity of Christopher Columbus’ entire fleet.
Source: The Earth and its Peoples by Richard Bulliet et. Al
In the late 19th century, in an era when women were perhaps placed more on a pedestal, how did Theodore Roosevelt, later to be US 26th president, describe his first wife Alice Lee?
“So pure and holy, that it almost seems profanation (blasphemous) to touch her”. Alice Lee, Roosevelt’s wife of four years was to die on the same day in 1884 as his mother. Only two days before her death, Alice Lee had given birth to the couple’s daughter, Alice.
Source: The Roosevelts by Ken Burns
In the 1950s, and against the backdrop of a fear of a nuclear holocaust, what was one of the more unusual uses for a large block Chrysler V8 engine?
Answer: As the powerhouse for the Chrysler Air Raid Siren. This was a V8 powered siren to let people in the 1950s in America know of an impending nuclear blast. Constructed during the Cold War era from 1952 to 1957 by Chrysler, its power plant was a 331 cubic inches FirePower Hemi V8 engine producing 180 horsepower. Twelve feet long and weighing three tons, it had an output of 138 decibels and could be heard 20 to 25 miles away.
Source: Chrysler Corporation Archives; General Historical Texts
What did Prussian King Frederick the Great write about Peter III, the 34-year-old Russian Tsar who was forced to abdicate on June 28, 1762 after a coup by his wife Catherine?
Answer: “The emperor allowed himself to be overthrown like a child being sent to bed”.
Source: Peter III: Rebirth by Elena Palmer
During the 18th century, what was one way visitors could pay for their admission into the London zoo?
Answer: By bringing a cat or a dog to feed the lions.
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia; General Historical Texts
What was the unusual relationship between the childhood of first man on the moon US astronaut Neil Armstrong as regards flying and driving?
Answer: Armstrong got his pilot’s license aged 15, before he got his driver’s license.
Source: First Man by James R Hansen
In the context of the Qing Empire, who were Bannerman?
Answer: Hereditary military servants of the Qing dynasty. They were largely descendants of peoples of various origins who had fought for the founders of the empire.
Source: The Earth and its Peoples by Richard Bulliet et. al
In 1919 the author Daisy Ashford (1881-1972) published her novel “The Young Visitors”. It became an immediate success, going through several editions and being dramatised in 1920. What was unusual about it?
Answer: The author wrote it when she was 9 years old. Ashford rediscovered it later in life and it was subsequently published.
Source: The Cambridge Guide to Women’s Writing in English by Lorna Sage et. al
In 1638 theologian and philosopher John Wilkins (1614–72), the brother in law of Oliver Cromwell, published a book on a highly novel topic for the time. What was it?
Answer: Space travel. His “Discourse on the Discovery of a world in the moone” envisioned a future where many would use “flying chariots” to voyage to the moon and trade with the inhabitants.
Source: John Wilkins and 17th-Century British Linguistics by Joseph L. Subbiondo
What was “the Black Hole of Calcutta”, that took place on place on June 20 1756?
Answer: An incident at Fort William, Calcutta. The British garrison had surrendered to Nawab Sirāj al-Dawlah of Bengal, and the remaining prisoners, originally believed to have been 146 in number, where placed inside a cell 18 feet long and 14 feet wide. Most died of suffocation. The event became a cause célèbre in British Imperialism, though recent studies have suggested the number who died was closer to 40.
Source: Calcutta by Krishna Dutta
This historical figure was born in New York City in 1882 as George Valero. What is he better known as?
Answer: Éamon de Valera (1882-1975), Irish statesman. De Valera change his named in 1910. His political career extended over half a century, from 1917 to 1973. He served several terms as Irish head of government and head of state.
Source: De Valera- Long Fellow, Long Shadow by Tim Pat Coogan
July 2016
In 1940, Britain was on the brink of an invasion by Nazi Germany and took a range of precautions to defend against attack. In what way did this involve railway stations?
Answer: All the signs at railway stations were taken down, giving passengers no indication of where the station was. While this was never able to deceive an invading army, it did prove useful; in September 1940 two German spies were caught when they admitted to a stationmaster in Portgordon, Scotland, that they had no idea where they were.
Source: Deceiving Hitler by Terry Crowdy
In 1569 Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) made one of the most significant advances in the history of his discipline. What was it?
Answer: A new map, commonly known as the 1569 Mercator world map. A pioneering event in the history of cartography, it was both the most accurate and useful sailing map ever produced. It serves as the basis of mapmaking to this day.
Source: Gerardus Mercator by Ann Heinrichs
Why is the short story “A Sound of Thunder”, written by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) and published in 1952, so hugely influential in popular understanding of the relationship between past and present?
Answer: The story developed much of the popular understanding of “the Butterfly Effect”, the concept that the death of a butterfly in the past could produce drastic differences in the future. In the story, time travelers alter the past, with subtle but considerable consequences.
Source: Coincidence and Counterfactuality by Hillary P. Dannenberg
In 1983 a historian gave an unusual reason for the fall of the Roman Empire. What was it?
Answer: Lead poisoning. Jerome Nriagu argued that the Romans use of lead for water pipes, cooking pots and drinking vessels resulted in the slow poisoning of the populace and undermining of the Roman Empire. The theory has subsequently largely been disproved, but the Romans certainly had an unhealthy relationship with lead.
Source: From Stars to Stalagmites by Paul Braterman
What was the earliest known culture in Japan?
Answer: The Jomon (10,500-300 BCE). While theoretically hunter-gatherers, evidence suggest the Jomon were more settled and sophisticated than many other cultures of this time. This is demonstrated by their pottery, among the earliest examples in human history.
Source: Globalising the Prehistory of Japan by Ann Kumar
Which Dutch colonial city, situated on the northern coast of the Island of Java, was infamous for being a death trap for European inhabitants due to incredibly high cases of malaria?
Answer: Batavia, modern Jakarta. Modern historians have described the conditions as an “urban environmental catastrophe”, as deforestation caused canals to silt up and become breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History by Peter Clark
Which giant of world literature nearly died of the bubonic plague shortly after he was born?
Answer: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Only three months after his birth, the plague hit Stratford, claiming the lives of ten percent of the population and all four sons of one of the family’s neighbours. Rather miraculously, young William and his family were untouched.
Source: William Shakespeare by Pamela Hill Nettleton
Which famous historical event saw the release from jail of a British man called “Major Whyte”, who had a waist-length beard and considered himself to be Julius Caesar?
Answer: The storming of the Bastille on July 14 1789. Whyte was one of the seven prisoners freed from the Bastille. Over 100 died in the assault itself.
Source: Citizens by Simon Schama
“Abandoning little in order to acquire much, these people departed, but they did not follow the custom of many who go through the world placing themselves in the service of others; rather like the ancient warriors they desired to have all people under their rule and dominion.” So said chronicler Amatus of Montecassino in the 1080s. Who was he talking about?
Answer: The Normans, who by this point had conquered England, southern Italy and Scilly.
Source: The Normans by Leonie V. Hicks
“Happy Entrance”, “Great Bark” and “Falcon in the Featherlock” were all types of what?
Answer: English Royal Navy ships of the Tudor era. The prefix “HMS” is not recorded as being used until the eighteenth century.
Source: The Wooden Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy by Edward H. H. Archibald
One morning in May 1671 a man daringly attempted to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London. While he escaped with his prize, he was subsequently apprehended. What happened to him?
Answer: He was not, as would be expected, executed for treason. King Charles II (1630-1685) realised the man would be more useful in his employ and he was made the King’s personal spy. The individual was Colonel Thomas Blood (1618-1680), one of the most mysterious figures of seventeenth century Britain.
Source: The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood by Robert Hutchinson
An intellectual revolution took place in the 17th century that established the fundamentals of modern thought. As philosopher A.C. Grayling has noted, how is this demonstrated by the premiere of Macbeth in 1605 and the execution of King Charles I in 1649?
Answer: The audience watching Macbeth in 1605 may have believed that regicide was such an aberration that it would cause ghosts to burst from the ground. A mere 44 years later however, a large crowd, which may have included some of those who saw Macbeth, stood to witness the execution of a king.
Source: The Age of Genius by A.C. Grayling
May 11, 1812 saw the assassination of what political figure?
Answer: Spencer Percival (1762-1812), the British Prime Minister. It was carried out by disgruntled merchant John Bellingham (1769-1812), who shot Percival in the lobby of the House of Commons. The murder is the only assassination of a British prime minister.
Source: The Assassination of the Prime Minister by David Hanrahan
American composer Charles Ives (1874-1954) was a modernist pioneer largely ignored during his lifetime. His unusual style was fostered by the eccentric way his father taught him music. What did this include?
Answer: Charles was encouraged to experiment by playing the piano with his fists, and his father would “stretch the ears” of his son by playing a song in one key and having Charles sing it in another.
Source: Charles Ives and His World by James Burkholder
Whose last words were “I should like to record the thoughts of a dying man for the benefit of science, but it is impossible”?
Answer: American neurologist George Miller Beard (1839-1883).
Source: The National Encyclopedia of American Biography by J.T. White
King Peter the Great of Russia (1672-1725) was determined to “modernise” Russia by introducing the Western Julian calendar in 1700. What was ironic about this?
Answer: The European countries he was trying to emulate had already began moving towards the more accurate Gregorian calendar, the first doing so in 1582. Russia eventually caught up in 1918.
Source: A History of Russian Thought by William Leatherbarrow et al
Which famous historical figure was described on May 19, 1860 by the New York Herald as “a fourth rate lecturer, who cannot speak good grammar”?
Answer: U.S. statesman Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), now widely considered among the greatest American presidents and indeed perhaps the author of the country’s greatest speech, the Gettysburg address.
Source: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearn Goodwin
Who took the world’s first ‘selfie’?
Answer: The chemist and manufacturer Robert Cornelius (1809-1893). Cornelius produced a daguerreotype of himself in 1839, an image that was also one of the first photographs taken of a person.
Source: Value Creation and the Internet of Things by Alexander Manu
According to historians Tom Stannage and Brian Hayden, the discovery of which foodstuff was the key to the rise of civilisation?
Answer: Beer. It is proposed that mankind developed an agrarian society in order to have a steady supply of the ingredients needed to make it, principally grain, grown for beer before being cultivated for bread.
Source: The Geography of Beer by Mark W. Patterson et al
In 1939, the famed British actor Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015) witnessed a landmark historical event. What was it?
Answer: The last public guillotining in France. German national Eugen Weidmann (1909-1939) was the individual executed, though guillotining continued in private until 1977.
Source: The Lord of Misrule by Christopher Lee
Which term, most commonly associated with the military, is adapted from a French word which was originally thieves’ slang?
Answer: Camouflage. The French word is camoufler, “to disguise”.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins by Julia Cresswell
In August 1933 which European government was forced to ban a parade by a prominent far-right organisation, fearing a coup d’etat?
Answer: The Irish Free State. The march was by the Army Comrades Association, more commonly known as the “Blueshirts”. The Irish government under Éamon de Valera (1882-1975) did not feel they could count on the support of the Irish army should the parade turn hostile.
Source: The Secret Army by J. Bowyer Bell
Which historical figure, described as a “sadistic psychopath” and “one of the most monstrous commanders of the twentieth century”, was known as the “Mad Baron” and is known for his role in the Russian Civil War (1917-1922)?
Answer: Roman von Ungern-Sternberg (1885-1921). An independent warlord, his brutal treatment of his enemies and belief that he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan (1162-1227) made him infamous.
Source: Fascinating Footnotes from History by Giles Milton
“Constipations and colossal flatulence occurred on a scale I had seldom encountered before.” This was how one famous historical figure’s personal doctor described his patient’s health. Who is being described?
Answer: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). These were the words of his personal physician Theodor Morrell (1886-1948). Hitler’s flatulence was so bad he had to leave the table after each meal in order to expel wind.
Source: Fascinating Footnotes from History by Giles Milton
Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts (1682-1722), aka “Black Bart”, was one of the most fearsome pirates of the eighteenth century, capturing over 400 ships between 1719 and 1722. What was unusual about him?
Answer: He was a tee-total committed Christian. He forbade immoral behaviour by his crews on Sundays, instead preferring his musicians to play hymns.
Source: Black Bart Roberts by Terry Breverton
Early in his career, British war hero Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) served as a midshipman aboard which strangely named ship?
Answer: HMS Carcass. Nelson served aboard the ship on a trip to the Arctic in 1773.
Source: HMS Victory Pocket Manuel by Peter Goodwin
Who were the famous British criminals known as the Twin Foxes, and how did they contribute to the use of fingerprints in criminal investigation?
Answer: The identical twins Albert (1857 – 1937) and Ebenezer Fox (1857 – 1926). They were infamous poachers who escaped prosecution by providing alibis for each other. This attracted the attention of Sir Edward Henry (1850-1931), who believed that all fingerprints, even those of identical twins, were unique. Using the Fox brothers and several other twins, he was able to prove his theory and, in doing so, put the Twin Foxes in prison.
Source: Constable Colgan’s Connectoscope by Stevyn Colgan
In 1838, what celebrated authors started work on the Deutsches Wörterbuch, eventually the most comprehensive dictionary of the German language?
Answer: The Grimm brothers. Most famous for their fairytales, the work took longer than originally expected – by the time the brothers died twenty years later they had only completed A-E. The dictionary was not finished until 1960.
Source: The Brothers Grimm by J. Zipes
In August 1896 the Kingsway Theatre, London, hosted a performance of the play “Sins of the Night”. What went wrong?
Answer: The plot dictated that the chief villain should be stabbed. Unfortunately for actor Temple E. Crozier, this particular performance involved too much realism as Crozier was accidentally stabbed and killed by his fellow actor Wilfred Franks.
Source: The London Encyclopaedia by Christopher Hibbert
Ivy Millichamp was one of the most unlucky people of the Second World War (1939-1945). Why?
Answer: She was the last civilian to die as a result of enemy action over Britain. On March 27 1945 Nazi Germany launched the last of their V2 rockets, one of which hit Millichamp’s home in Orpington, Kent.
Source: The Baby Boomer Generation by Paul Feeney
In 1911 the first escalators were introduced to the London Underground network at Earls Court station. Passengers were initially confused and apprehensive about using them. According to legend, how did the Underground assure passengers they were safe?
Answer: A one legged underground employee named William “Bumper” Harris rode up and down the escalator to demonstrate its safety. “If he can do it, so can you” was the supposed message.
Source: From Dynasties to Dotcoms by Carol Kennedy
June 2016
What powerful Indian state existed from 320-550 CE and controlled most of the Indian subcontinent through a combination of military force and its prestige as a cultural centre?
Answer: The Gupta Empire. Like the Mauryan predecessors, its capital was Patliputra in the Ganges valley.
Source: The Earth and its Peoples by Richard Bulliet et. al
What were “metallic tractors”, advertised in London in 1798?
Answer: A bogus medical treatment which was claimed cured all illnesses. Developed by American “physician” Dr. Elisha Perkins, tractors were 2-3 inch long rods which were tapped on the afflicted area. Perkins convinced a number of people on the veracity of his treatment, including US President George Washington (1732-1799).
Source: John Haygarth by Christopher Booth
Which famed artist was famously accused by the prominent British critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) of “flinging a pot of paint into the public’s face”?
Answer: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Whistler was outraged by the insult, and successfully sued Ruskin.
Source: James McNeill Whistler by Victoria Charles
In 1726 a young woman in England, dubbed the “Rabbit Woman of Godalming”, caused a major stir in the medical community. Why?
Answer: Mary Toft convinced a number of doctors that she had given birth to rabbits. Only when the royal surgeon Cyriacus Ahlers heavily questioned Toft did she confess it was a hoax. Why she attempted the ruse remains unclear.
Source: Deception and Detection in Eighteenth-century Britain by John T. Lynch
Who were the “Eight Eccentrics” of Yangzhou that achieved fame during the mid-Qing dynasty in China?
Answer: Painters. They were dubbed “eccentrics” due to their unique personalities, pioneering styles and rebellion against the artistic norm.
Source: China’s Cultural Relics by Li Li
“It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies; and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones. It is full of surprises and adventures, and incongruities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all happened.” Which nation’s history is the famed author Mark Twain (1835-1910) describing?
Answer: Australia. Twain penned it in “Following the Equator”, published in 1897.
Source: Girt by David Hunt
The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) to cross what is now the western portion of the United States was commission by US President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). Jefferson had a strange ambition for Lewis and Clark’s trip. What was it?
Answer: Jefferson hoped that they would discover a Wooly Mammoth.
Source: The Environment in American History by Jeff Crane
In the context of Ottoman history, what was the “Tulip Period”?
Answer: The last years of the reign of Ottoman sultan Ahmed III (1718-1730), during which European fashion and thought became briefly popular in Istanbul. The period is so known as Tulips were the fashionable item of this time.
Source: Civilization Past and Present by Palmira Burmmett et al
Who was Germany’s version of the Rockefellers?
Answer: The Krupp family, manufacturers of armaments, most notably the famous Krupp cannons. Like the Rockefellers they were fabulously wealthy and influential. At the turn of the 20th century the biggest company in Europe was Krupp.
Source: The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester; The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
Who said this: “Look, Chevrolet salesmen don’t shoot Ford salesmen, do they?”
Answer: US Mafia gangster Meyer Lansky (1902-1983), known as the ‘mob’s accountant’ commenting on the war between US criminals over territory. His point being, that, as regards the spoils of crime, there was enough to go around for everybody.
Source: Global Mafia by Antonio Nicaso and Lee Lamothe: Primitive Rebels by Eric Hobsbawm
Among his many talents, Winston Churchill was a brilliant writer. During the 1930s, his ‘Wilderness Years’, he was probably the highest paid journalist in the world. Possessed of extraordinary energy, he would commence writing at around 10 pm each night, after a very full and active day. He would dictate his words to, not one, but two stenographers and finish work between two and three in the morning, having dictated up to 10,000 words. Once, on noticing that the stenographer then on duty was beginning to flag after 2 am, Churchill said what to her?
Answer: “Tired? … We can’t be tired. We must go on and on like the gun horses. Till we drop!”
Source: In Search of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert
In the weeks before John F Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, the president was annoyed with his valet George Thomas. Why was this?
Answer: Thomas had disclosed to a newspaper that the president owned 25 pairs of shoes.
Source: Grace & Power by Sally Bedell Smith
Being a cook for English kings could be rewarding. What are two examples?
Answer: King Richard I (1157-1199), known as ‘the lionhearted’ and ‘the absent king’, reportedly knighted his cook after a particularly excellent meal. His successor around four centuries later, Henry VIII, gave the lady who made his pastries and cakes a house for her services. Henry, who did not suffer from anorexia nor a timid appetite, was enormously appreciative of her expertly prepared confections.
Source Henry VIII by Alison Weir; New world encyclopaedia
Thirty third president of the United States Harry S Truman had a difficult childhood growing up on his parents’ Missouri farm, and in particular winning the affection of his father. What was one of the more unusual characteristics of the elder Truman?
Answer: John ‘Peanuts’ Truman was 5 feet four inches tall, but he relished beating up men up to a foot taller than him, to show how tough he was.
Source: The Untold Story of the United States by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik
What is 70 metres long, 50 cm high and an important piece of propaganda from the middle ages?
Answer: The Bayeux Tapestry. Likely commissioned by the brother of William the Conquerer, Odo, Bishop of Bayuex (1037-1098), it depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.
Source: English Historical Documents by David Charles Douglas
In Mississippi in 1866 one fifth of the state’s entire budget was spent on what?
Answer: Artificial limbs.
Source: The Civil War by Ken Burns
What type of land warfare, infamously used during the First World War (1914-1918), was also employed during the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: Trench warfare. Trenches were deployed at the Battle of Sevastopol (1941-1942), Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943) and the Italian Campaign (1943-1945) among others. Trenches were heavily used by the Red Army as part of their concept of “deep battle”.
Source: Trench Warfare 1850-1950 by Anthony Saunders
Which aircraft was the most produced fighter aircraft in history?
Answer: Germany’s Messerschmitt Bf 109. 33,984 units were made from 1936 to April 1945.
Source: California Warplanes by Harold Skaarup
Marxist theoretician Georgi Plekhanov (1856-1918) claimed that art was easy to read and understand. How?
Answer: Plekhanov felt art was simply a recorder of social developments, and one could read its ideology. Art for art’s sake for instance, like Cubism (1910-1914), was a mere development of bourgeois decadence.
Source: Critical Theory by Stuart Sim and Borin van Loon
Which state was described in 1668 as being surrounded by three miles worth of 10 ft high walls, organised into thirty or more large, grid style streets and full of many “magnificent palaces, houses and apartments” each of which had access to fresh water?
Answer: The Benin Empire, in particular its capital Edo. The account was given by a Dutch geographer Olfert Dapper (? – 1690).
Source: A World History of Art by Hugh Honour
In the context of beer, what is the “Golden Triangle”?
Answer: Three brewing cities, and the three main brewers in each one, which helped develop modern lager beer. They are Gabriel Sedylmar of Munich, Anton Dreher of Vienna and Josef Groll of Pilsen.
Source: CAMRA’s Book of Beer Knowledge by Jeff Evans
According to the famed Muslim Arab writer Ibn Hawqal, who was the “the richest king on the face of the earth”?
Answer: The King of Ghana, Africa. Hawqal stated his pre-eminence was due to the quantity of gold nuggets that had been amassed by himself and his predecessors.
Source: Art and Society in Africa by Robert Brain
In 1924 five employees at the Standard Oil plaint in Baywater, New Jersey, grew violently insane and died. Another 30 showed similar symptoms. What happened?
Answer: The workers had been developing tetraethyl lead, a new additive hoped to make gasoline combustion more efficient. Despite widespread lead poisoning from this “loony gas”, the power of Standard Oil was such that a government inquiry declared the additive posed “no danger” and no action was taken.
Source: Surgeon General’s Warning by Mike Stobbe
In July 1936, 30 men were arrested at the Sunnyside Amusement Park (1922-1955) in Toronto, Canada. Why?
Answer: Indecent exposure. The day saw temperatures of 41 °C (105 °F) and the men removed their tops in the sun. They were eventually acquitted, paving the way for men to go topless in Toronto public places.
Source: Toronto Between the Years by Charis Cotter
In 1910 the hippopotamus nearly became a fixture of the American countryside and the American menu. Why?
Answer: A plan was formulated to import hippopotamus from Africa into Louisiana. The hippos would consume the water hyacinth, a weed that was particularly badly infecting the state’s bayous. Simultaneously hippos would produce meat to help resolve American meat shortages. The “American Hippo Bill” failed by one vote in the US Congress.
Source: Ecological Challenges and Conservation Conundrums by John A. Wiens
In 1928, the British Parliament passed the Easter Act, stipulating for the first time a fixed date for Easter. Who had been the strongest advocate for the change?
Answer: The chocolate confectionary industry. While the two main churches were broadly in favour, the chocolate lobby realised the importance of Easter to their sales and hoped a fixed date would work in their interest. Though passed, the Act has never been implemented.
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
The Huns arrived in Europe from Asia in the fourth century CE and within a century had built a vast Empire. Part of their military strength came from the skill of their horse archers. How did the Romans describe the Huns reliance on horses?
Answer: They said the Huns slept, ate, fought and carried out diplomacy on horseback, so much so that they became dizzy when they set foot on ground.
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
From where does Gothic architecture originate?
Answer: France. Though it is linked to the Goths, this was intended as an insult by the artist Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), who deemed the pointed arches and high ceilings of such architecture ‘monstrous and barbarous’ and the fault of the Goths.
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
The 1918 Flu Pandemic was one of the worst natural disasters in human history, contributing to the deaths of between 50 and 100 million people. It became known as “Spanish Flu”. Why?
Answer: To maintain morale, wartime censors suppressed reports of illness and mortality in most nations such as Britain, Germany and the United States. No such restrictions existed in Spain, creating a false impression that Spain was hit hardest.
Source: The Great Influence by John Barry
First developed in 1897, what was the Telharmonium?
Answer: An electronic music synthesizer that could be performed live over the telephone system. It cost nearly $250,000 (around $20 million in today’s money), weighed about 200 tons and occupied the entire basement and first floor of a building at 59th Street and Broadway in New York City.
Source: The Development and Practice of Electronic Music by Jon H. Appleton
May 2016
What idea brought to England by the Norman invaders in 1066 was not well received and considered an affront to Anglo-Saxon royal culture?
Answer: Primogeniture; the idea that a King’s eldest son succeeded him. Anglo-Saxon Kings were elected by a council of religious and political leaders called the Witan (wise-meeting), with royal blood only one of the factors taken into account.
Source: English Historical Documents by David Charles Douglas
Which is older; Machu Pichu, Peru or York Minister, UK?
Answer: York Minister. Though modified since, the core of the structure dates from the 11th-13th centuries. Machu Pichu was founded in 1450.
Source: Conservation of Historic Buildings by Bernard Feilden
The unusually heavy and persistent rain of the European summer of 1529 was fundamental to the history of the continent. Why?
Answer: The weather delayed the progress of the huge army of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566) descending on Vienna, forcing them to also abandon crucial heavy artillery. Without the intervention of the weather, Suleiman would likely have captured Vienna and European history would have been fundamentally different.
Source: What if? by Robert Cowley
The Treaty of Tilsit, agreed in July 1807 between Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) and Tsar Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825), was signed in an unusual location. Where?
Answer: On a raft in the middle of the Neman River in Poland. A sumptuous pavilion was set up on the raft where the two leaders met to discuss the carving up of Europe.
Source: Napoleon by Elke Bader
Who was described by historian George Rudé as “a man of action and rapid decision, yet a poet and a dreamer of world conquest; a supreme political realist, yet a vulgar adventurer who gambled for high stakes”?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821).
Source: Napoleon, Master of Europe 1805-1807 by Alistair Horne
Why did over 100,000 people descend on what is now the U.S. State of Oklahoma in 1893?
Answer: To claim land as part of the Cherokee Land Run. 6.5 million acres of land, formerly part of the Cherokee Outlet, was available to settlers starting midday September 16 1893.
Source: Cherokee Strip Land Rush by Jay M. Price
In the context of colonial America, what was “Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick”?
Answer: The first multi-page newspaper in British North America. Published on September 25 1690, it was supposed to be a monthly paper, but only one edition was published before it was shut down by British authorities.
Source: History of the Mass Media in the United States by Margaret A. Blanchard
The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 marked the victory of Soviet forces in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). According to the memoirs of Soviet commander Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974), what did not go as planned?
Answer: Josef Stalin (1878-1953) was due to ride into Red Square on a white stallion. He fell off his spirited mount during practice however, and reluctant to try again, Zhukov rode the horse during the parade.
Source: Europe at War 1939-1945 by Norman Davies
During the Siege of Paris (1870-1871) by Prussian forces, what novel way did the besieged French communicate with the outside world?
Answer: Balloon mail. Prussian forces had cut telegraph lines and captured messengers, so unguided balloons were used to deliver messages. Around 70 balloons were sent, with most reaching their intended recipients.
Source: Air Power in the Age of Total War by Jeff Buckley
Which event took place in 1622 and fundamentally changed the balance of power and trade between European Empires in the Persian Gulf?
Answer: The capture of Hormuz (February-April 1622). The Portuguese had controlled the castle of Hormuz, Persia, for over a century. Its 1622 capture by the forces of the Safavid Empire and their British allies allowed Britain and other European empires to explore trade routes in the Persian Gulf and Indian subcontinent.
Source: Cambridge History of the British Empire by H. H. Dodwell
Which period saw the first examples of Muslims openly living and practicing their faith in England?
Answer: The reign of Elizabeth I (1533-1603). After her clear break from Rome (she was officially excommunicated in 1570), England was able to act outside the papal edicts forbidding Christian trade with Muslims. As a consequence alliances were formed with various Islamic states, and Muslims found themselves living in England for the first time.
Source: This Orient Isle by Jerry Brotton
Who was the first recorded person to die at the Battle of Hastings in 1066?
Answer: A Norman jester and knight named “Taillefer”. He taunted Saxon soldiers, singing the “Song of Roland” and juggling with his sword, before being swallowed up by the Saxon lines.
Source: William – King and Conqueror by Mark Hagger
In 1937, the town of Crystal City, Texas, erected a statue commemorating an unlikely individual. Who was it?
Answer: Popeye the Sailor Man. The cartoon sailor was popular in landlocked Crystal City because it was a major centre of the spinach industry. A similar statue stands in another spinach town, Alma, Arkansas.
Source: Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers by Moira Reynolds
While popularly associated with Vikings, horned helmets were never actually worn by the Nordic warriors. Who did wear them?
Answer: Celtic priests. The horned helmets discovered in Europe date from the Iron Age, and the fine decoration and lightness of the helmets suggest they were used for religious or ceremonial purposes.
Source: Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art by Miranda Green
The first ocean-going ship made of cement was launched in 1918, a project of San Francisco Shipbuilder William Leslie Comyn (1877-?). In light of its unusual design, what was the boat christened?
Answer: SS Faith. At a cost of $750,000, the ship was highly expensive for the time.
Source: Paying the Toll by Louis Dyble
Which company, established in 1602, was the first transnational corporation and the first to issue shares?
Answer: The Union East India Company, more commonly known as the Dutch East India Company.
Source: Transnationalism and Society by Michael C. Howard
What was unusual about the crowning of Pope Pius VII (1742-1823) in 1800?
Answer: The papal tiara crown was made out of papier-mâché. The collection of real ones had been seized by Napoleon when he took Pius’s predecessor, Pius VI (1717-1799), prisoner.
Source: The Papal Tiara by Sergio Becerra II
In the thirteenth century, what was considered “the deadliest weapon system known to man”?
Answer: The horse archer, used to devastating effect by the Mongols and other Eurasian nomad peoples.
Source: Of Arms and Men by Robert L. Connell
In the context of North American history, what was “Defence Scheme No.1”?
Answer: A plan for Canada to invade the United States. Created in 1921 by Canadian Director of Military Operations James Sutherland Brown (1881-1951), it was a Canadian counterattack in the event of US invasion and involved Canadian control of Seattle and Minneapolis.
Source: The Canadian Way of War by Bernd Horn
In 1414 the African coastal stale of Malindi, modern day Kenya, gave a diplomatic gift to China that created a sensation in the imperial court. What was it?
Answer: A giraffe. A year later Malindi upped the stakes, gifting another giraffe, along with an oryx and a zebra.
Source: Giraffe Reflections by Dale Peterson
Which popular amusement ride originated in the Middle Ages as an alternative to jousting tournaments?
Answer: The carousel, or merry-go-round. The Medieval game involved catching rings from horseback, known in Spanish as carossela, meaning “little war.” Over time, live horses were replaced with hanging revolving seats.
Source: Now You Know Almost Everything by Doug Lennox
From where does the phrase “pipe dream”, referring to an unlikely or unattainable goal, originate?
Answer: It was coined to describe the dream experienced when smoking an opium pipe.
Source: Now You Know Almost Everything by Doug Lennox
People in Elizabethan England (1558-1603) had some strange ideas about food. What food was considered to inspire both courage and stupidity?
Answer: Beef. It was well suited to the English as it was believed the cold climate made English stomachs hotter and so better able to digest it.
Source: Food in Shakespeare by Joan Fitzpatrick
The Goths played a key role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe. From where did they originate?
Answer: Götaland in Southern Sweden. Over the centuries they migrated east and south to conquer large areas of France, Spain and Italy.
Source: A History of the Vikings by T.D. Kendrick
The Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) was the name given in the West to an anti-western revolt in China. Why was it called this?
Answer: The “Boxer” rebellion was a mocking term referring to the fact that those in revolt called themselves “The Fists of Righteous Harmony.” Elsewhere it was called the Yihequan Movement.
Source: China in Convulsion by Arthur Henderson Smith
Which American President briefly looked after a pet alligator?
Answer: John Quincy Adams (1767-1848). In 1825 the revolutionary war hero Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) toured America and was given an alligator by a grateful citizen. While Lafayette was the guest of President Adams, the alligator “resided” in the East Room.
Source: Real Life at the White House by John Whitcomb
In 1813, during the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the famed commander General Blücher (1742-1819) of Prussia suffered a nervous breakdown. What did he think was happening to him?
Answer: He was convinced that he was pregnant with an elephant, fathered by a Frenchman. He did eventually recover and led his army at the Battle of Waterloo on Jne 18, 1815.
Source: The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Who declared in the 1930s that “the Russian people need a Tsar, whom they can worship and for whom they can live and work”?
Answer: Communist leader Josef Stalin (1878-1953). Stalin intended to be that Tsar and closely studied the records of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great.
Source: The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore
The South African 1st Infantry Brigade of the First World War (1914-1918) had an unusual member among its company named Jackie. Who was he?
Answer: A baboon. He would stand to attention, salute superior officers and survived three years on or near the front line.
Source: Springboks on the Somme by Bill Nasson
According to historian William Earl Weeks, when was America’s first determined attempt to create an “American global empire”?
Answer: The Treaty of 1819. This ceded Florida to the United States and secured the American border along the 42nd Parallel to the Pacific Ocean.
Source: John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire by William Earl Weeks.
In the context of Indian history, who were the notorious Syed brothers?
Answer: Two Mughal Empire generals during the early 18th century. Dubbed “the kingmakers”, the brothers exploited the instability within the Mughal Empire after the death of Aurangzeb (1618-1707) and established and toppled a string of Mughal Emperors during the 1710s.
Source: The Mughal Empire by John F. Richards
April 2016
In the nineteenth century, British Imperialists attributed the “degeneracy and idleness” of the Irish to what unlikely source?
Answer: The soporific effect of the potato, considered to be the core of the diet of an Irishman.
Source: In the Devil’s Garden by Stewart Lee Allen
“I cannot but conclude you to be one of the most pernicious little odious reptiles that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.” So says King George III in a cartoon drawn by British cartoonist James Gillray (1757-1815) in 1803. Who was he addressing?
Answer: Napoleon (1769-1821). The cartoon demonstrates the sheer extent of British public anger during the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815).
Source: English Radicalism – 1786-1832 by S. Maccoby
Legendary French hero Joan of Arc (1412-1431) was captured in 1430 by Burgundian troops, allies of the English. She was executed a year later in 1431. What for?
Answer: Cross dressing. Before her trial by French ecclesiastical court in May 1451, she had appeared dressed in men’s clothes. The judge, the Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchin, promptly sentenced her to death.
Source: 50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World by William Weir
Autocratic Imperial Russia was surprisingly the first state to authorise the publishing of Karl Marx’s Capital in 1872. Why?
Answer: Russian censors decreed “it is possible to state with certainty that very few people in Russia will read it, and even fewer will understand it.” It was also irrelevant as censors claimed the “capitalist exploitation” Capital mentioned had never been experienced in Russia.
Source: A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
While China is credited for a whole range of discoveries before the West, it was overtaken in technological terms by Europe during the Scientific Revolution (c.16th-18th century). Arguably, what was the reason for this?
Answer: Glass. While glass production was perfected in Europe and used for a whole host of inventions, from spectacles to the telescope, it was rarely used in China. Glass had predominately been used for children’s toys, and none at all was produced in China between the 14th and the 19th century.
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), Chinese soldiers fought Japanese invaders in a brutal and devastating conflict. The Chinese army, lacking weapons and modern equipment, was no match for the Japanese Army. In what way was this painfully shown?
Answer: At the onset of the Japanese invasion, many Chinese armies still fought with swords. Chinese losses were considerable. After the USSR, China had the second highest death toll of the Second World War (1939-1945).
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
In the late nineteenth century which drink, nicknamed “Green Fairy”, was believed to produce hallucinations and madness and played a significant role in European creative life through artists and writers such as Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)?
Answer: Absinthe. Also known as “madness in a bottle”.
Source: Explosive Acts by David Sweetman
The Mamluk (1206–90), Khilji (1290–1320) and Tughlaq (1320–1414) were all dynasties of which medieval kingdom?
Answer: The Delhi Sultanate, which ruled over parts of the Indian subcontinent between 1206 and 1526. Its fall in 1526 made way for the Mughal Empire, one of the most powerful empire’s in human history.
Source: Indian in the World Economy by Tirthankar Roy
The great Mongol leader Kublai Khan (1215-1294), grandson of Genghis, did what in 1279 that has remained to the present day?
Answer: Declare Beijing (then named Dadu) the capital of China, which he did as a member of the (Mongol) Yuan Dynasty. Previously a regional capital, this was the first time it was given such prominence.
Source: Urban World History by Luc-Normand Tellier
“Big Nose Kate” was the de facto wife and companion of which legendary figure of the Wild West?
Answer: Doc Holliday (1851-1887). A gunfighter, gambler and dentist, Holliday is best known for his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881.
Source: The Bawdy House Girls by Alton Pryor
What tax was introduced in England in 1696 and repealed 156 years later in 1851?
Answer: The window tax. As glass was a premium product, windows were considered a luxury and its implementation was considered a less controversial alternative to income tax.
Source: The Works of Charlotte Smith by Stuart Curran
In the context of Middle Eastern history, what was “Winstons’s Hiccup”, also known as “Churchill’s Sneeze”?
Answer: The border of Jordan, especially its jagged eastern edge. It gave rise to speculation that Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, had hiccupped while plotting it in 1921. Churchill himself boasted that he had created Jordan “with the stroke of a pen, one Sunday afternoon in Cairo”.
Source: Borderline and Borderlands by Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen
King George V of Great Britain (1865-1936) famously had little regard for the arts. He often said his favourite opera was La bohème. Why?
Answer: “Because it was the shortest.” George once also, when introducing a painting by a famous Impressionist to his wife, declared “here’s something to make you laugh!”.
Source: Royal Babylon by Karl Shaw
Popular entertainment was big business in Ancient Rome. Which was bigger, the Colosseum, scene of gladiatorial combat, the Circus Maximus, which staged chariot racing or the Marcellus, a theatre for pantomime?
Answer: The Circus Maximus, where some 250,000 could watch Chariot racing. The area of the Colosseum would fit in the Circus twelve times.
Source: Roman Circuses by John H. Humphrey
In the 1946 French Presidential election, what candidate stood on a platform that included the elimination of poverty after 10 pm, the nationalisation of brothels and the provision of a pension to the widow of the unknown soldier?
Answer: Ferdinand Lop (1891-1974), French humourist and teacher.
Source: Paris Noir by Jacques Yonnet
Who declared “as for me, I’ll stay here all the same, and, if these savages must kill me, it will be in the middle of my canvases, in front of all my life’s work”?
Answer: Claude Monet (1840-1926), French artist. Monet refused to leave his home in north-eastern France during the First World War (1914-1918).
Source: Claude Monet by Virginia Spate
Xerxes I (518-465 CE) ruled a great empire which at its peak was the largest in ancient history. What was the empire?
Answer: The Achaemenid Empire, also known as the First Persian Empire.
Source: Persian Fire by Tom Holland
In 1848, in order to begin constructing the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge, engineers needed to secure a line across the 250 metre gorge. What novel way did they do this?
Answer: After ruling out firing cannonballs with the line attached, it was decided a kite-flying contest should be held, with a $5 reward to any boy who could fly a kite across the gorge and secure it on the other side. The eventual winner was 16 year old Homan Walsh.
Source: Best Breezes by Bob White
According to historian Niall Ferguson, which country is the most belligerent and arguably most successful military power in European History?
Answer: France. Of the 125 European wars fought since 1495, France has been involved in fifty (more than Austria and England). Out of the 168 battles France has fought since 387 BCE, it has won 109, lost 49 and “drawn” ten.
Source: The Cash Nexus by Niall Ferguson
In 1818, when an Abraham Thornton was arrested for the murder of a Mary Ashford in Warwickshire, England, he was acquitted for a strange reason. What was it?
Answer: Thornton claimed the right to trial by combat, a medieval mechanism that had never been repealed by Parliament. As Ashford’s brother William declined to fight, Thornton was set free. Trial by combat was abolished in 1819.
Source: The Grand Jury by George J. Edwards
Which American president won the nationwide popular vote three times, second only to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who won it four times?
Answer: Grover Cleveland (1837-1908). He only served as President for two terms; electoral fraud in Indiana led to his defeat in the 1888 Presidential Election, despite winning the popular vote.
Source: America’s Forgotten History by Mark Ledbitter
The Ancient Greeks were the first to use the term “barbarian”. Where does it come from?
Answer: The Greek word barboros, which means unintelligible, a reference to the fact Ancient Greeks felt all those who did not share their language were barbarians. The word has similar roots to “baby” or “babble”, to speak unintelligibly or like an infant.
Source: Canterbury – A Mediaeval City by Catherine Royer-Hemet
Which US state can claim a host of American “firsts”, including the first public parks, schools, and libraries and the first newspaper, telephone, railway, and subway?
Answer: Massachusetts. Among its myriad of other American firsts include the first University (Harvard, 1636) and the First Revolutionary War battle (Lexington, 1775).
Source: Home Rule in America by Meredith Ramsey
The French language is considered essential to French nationhood, but it was remarkably late in developing. According to historian Eric Hobsbawm, how many people in France actually spoke French in 1789?
Answer: 50%. Of those, only 12 to 13% spoke it correctly. It was largely confined to cities and was barely spoken at all outside central France.
Source: Nations and Nationalism since 1780 by E. J. Hobsbawm
Drunkenness was a common feature of European medieval village life, regularly appearing in coroners’ inquests. How did one such report record the death of Osbert le Quayl at Elstow, Bedfordshire, in 1276?
Answer: After returning from drinking in Bedford, le Quayl was so “drunk and disgustingly over-fed” that when he “arrived at his house he had the falling sickness, fell upon a stone on the right side of his head, breaking the whole of his head and died by misadventure”.
Source: The Ties that Bound by Barbara A. Hanawalt
The Case of Proclamations (1611), the Petition of Right Act (1628), the Bill of Rights (1689) and the Act of Settlement (1701) all form part of what?
Answer: The United Kingdom’s un-codified constitution. Along with the Magna Carta (1215) and other documents, they cover key principles that in other countries tend to form one unified document.
Source: The Constitutional History of England by Frederic William Maitland
Which title, first created in 1931, is the US state of Nebraska’s highest honour and a tongue-in-cheek reference to its position as a landlocked state?
Answer: The position of “Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska.” Previous Nebraskan admirals include Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945).
Source: Nebraska Curiosities by Rick Yoder
The Malayan Emergency (1948–60) was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan Communist Party. Why did the colonial government describe it as an “emergency” rather than a war?
Answer: The influential rubber plantations and tin-mining industries of Malaya pushed for the use of the term, since the losses they suffered at the hands of Communist rebels would not have been covered by insurers had it been termed a “war”.
Source: Hunter Boys by Richard Pike
Which animal surprisingly accounted for numerous deaths during the medieval period?
Answer: The pig. According to medieval texts children were particularly vulnerable to death at the hands of them, and from the thirteenth century pigs were even put on trial and sentenced to death.
Source: The Middle Ages Unlocked by Gillian Polack and Katrin Kania
Ancient Rome had 24 hours in a day, but this is where the similarities to the modern day stop. What was different about Roman timekeeping?
Answer: While there were 24 hours, the day was split into two periods; the time when it was light and the time when it was dark. Each of these was then divided into 12 hours. As a consequence, a Roman hour in the summer could equate to a modern hour and a half, while in the winter it may only be around 40 minutes.
Source: Daily Life in the Roman City by Gregory S. Aldrete
March 2016
In 1679 the German naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) published a book that became one of the most talked about of the age. What was it?
Answer: In her “The Caterpillar: Marvellous Transformation and Strange Floral Food”, Merian detailed for the first time the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly or moth. Previously it had been thought the creatures were wholly unrelated.
Source: The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science by Marilyn Ogilvie
What is the oldest existing professional sports team in North America still using its original name?
Answer: The Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, founded in 1873.
Source: A Slip in the Rain by Craig Wallace
The War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) between Paraguay and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay was the bloodiest conflict in the history of Latin America. Paraguay was hit particularly hard. According to some estimates, what proportion of the Paraguayan male population was killed?
Answer: Sixty nine percent. Overall, the conflict is estimated to have led to the deaths of over 400,000 people.
Source: The Paraguayan War by Thomas L. Whigham
Egyptian Pharaoh Cleopatra (69-30 BC) was said to have a strange and disturbing hobby. What was it?
Answer: Poisons. She conducted numerous experiments, testing different variants to study the effects, the suffering they caused and the lethality. She forced men to be bitten by venomous snakes to see its effect, scenes often conducted in front of her guests for amusement.
Source: Cleopatra by Joyce Tyldesley
Al Capone (1899-1947) was one of the most ruthless and famed gangsters in American history. Careful to cultivate his public image, he wanted to be depicted as a modern day Robin Hood. For instance what establishment did he surprisingly open in 1931?
Answer: A soup kitchen. During the height of the Great Depression, the “Capone Free Soup Kitchen” at one time served over 120,000 meals a day.
Source: Capone – The Man and the Era by Laurence Bergreen
In 1325, the rival Italian city states of Bologna and Modena went to war. Why?
Answer: Modenese soldiers had stolen the bucket from a Bologna city well. The ensuing conflict led to the death of around 2,000 soldiers and Bologna failed to reclaim the bucket. It is known as the “War of the Oaken Bucket”.
Source: Bizarre History by Joe Rhatigan
According to most accounts, why was Venezuela named as such when European explorers reached its coastline in 1499?
Answer: Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda’s (1468-1515) expedition found that Venezuela’s eastern coast reminded them of Venice, Italy. The navigator, Italian Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), thus named it “Veneziola”, which under Spanish influence became Venezuela, or “little Venice”.
Source: Colonialism by Melvin Page
The Empire State Building in New York City is one of the world’s most iconic buildings. What unique part of its design was never implemented?
Answer: The docking of airships. The architects hoped these would be able to anchor at the spire and passengers would walk directly into the 102nd floor. Attempts to dock airships in the early 1930s largely failed, and the subsequent Hindenburg disaster undermined airship travel forever.
Source: The Empire State Building by Ronald A. Reis
The Focke-Wulf Fw61 was a pioneering design for what type of craft?
Answer: The helicopter. The German built FW-61 is widely considered to have been the first technically successful helicopter when it made its maiden flight in June 1936.
Source: A Century of Triumph by Christopher Chant
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is a famous line from what?
Answer: The writings of communist Karl Marx (1818-1883). In a 2002 survey, two-thirds of Americans asked thought the line was written by the founding fathers and part of the US Constitution.
Source: Giving Well, Doing Good by Amy A. Kass
In 1796 a clog-maker’s son was playing behind his father’s house in Lancashire, England, when he discovered a mass of corroded metalwork. What was it?
Answer: A hoard of Roman military equipment, subsequently known as the “Ribchester Hoard.” The discovery, which included the world famous Ribchester Helmet, is one of the most celebrated finds of Roman Britain.
Source: Journey to Britannia by Bronwen Riley
By the second century BCE the Chinese had discovered that blood circulated throughout the body and that the heart pumped the blood. How long before this was discovered in Europe?
Answer: Systemic circulation wasn’t discovered until the early seventeenth century. A variety of figures contributed to the discovery, though Englishman William Harvey (1578-1657) was the first to describe it in detail.
Source: The History of China by David Wright
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was keen to “modernise” Italy, which he considered stagnant and lazy. One way in which he sought to change its image was to straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa. How did he attempt this?
Answer: In 1934 he ordered that liquid concrete be poured into the tower’s foundations. The attempt was a disaster; the concrete sank into the clay resulting in the tower lurching even further.
Source: The History of Architecture by Gaynor Aaltonen
Who was the last Viceroy of British India?
Answer: Lord Mountbatten, Earl of Burma, who was assigned the task by British prime minister Clemet Atlee to facilitate the granting of Indian Independence. Following independence in August 1947, Mountbatten remained in New Delhi, becoming the first governor general of India until June 1948.
Source: Mountbatten: Including His Years As The Last Viceroy of India by Philip Ziegler
The arrival of Portuguese traders in India produced a colossal trade boom. What was the reported profit margin for Vasco de Gama after his visit in 1498?
Answer: Some 6000 percent. The Portuguese were particularly taken with by black pepper, which would constitute over 90 percent of cargo from India to Portugal over the next two decades.
Source: The Mental Floss History of the World by Erik Sass and Steve Wiegand
The fifth Earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert, was an amateur Egyptologist who provided funding for the expedition of Howard Carter which discovered the tomb of Tutankamun in February, 1923. Two months later Lord Carnarvon died in Cairo from blood poisoning and pneumonia as a result of an infected mosquito bite. At his family estate in England an usual event occurred at the same time as Carnarvon died. What was this?
Answer: His pet dog Susie let out a great howl and died.
Source: Tutankhamun – The Untold Story by Thomas Hoving; The Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter; General Historical Texts.
Why is the year 1888 of great significance in the history of German Kaisers or monarchs?
Answer: It was the year of the three Kaisers. Kaiser Wilhelm I, Kaiser Frederick III, Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Massie; General Historical Texts
What is the first fruit mentioned in the Bible?
Answer: The fig.
Source: The Bible.
Grigory Rasputin was a Russian Orthodox monk, who was famous for the close relationship he had with Russia’s last imperial family, and the way in which he died in 1917. He was also infamous as a serial womanizer. What were some of the aspects of his notoriety?
Answer: Contemporaries in Russia were appalled by the lewd reputation of this supposed ‘Holy Man’, and he was slandered as ‘the vile corrupter of human souls and bodies’ and a ‘sex maniac’. Due to his proximity and closeness to the Imperial Family, he and his apartment were under constant police surveillance which revealed the extent of his sexual appetite. One entry recorded: ‘Maria Sazonova remained with him for two hours, after which he hired a prostitute and went with her to her apartment, from which he soon emerged again’. It was also rumoured that a significant element in Rasputin’s allure was a 13 inch penis, which was reportedly severed from his body when he was murdered.
Source: The Rasputin File by Edvard Radzinsky: Rasputin: The Man Behind The Myth: A Personal Memoire by Maria Rasputina
In what way did Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) dabble in London’s underworld when he became Warden of the Royal Mint in 1696?
Answer: Angered by the quantity of counterfeit coins produced by criminal gangs, Newton visited taverns and brothels in disguise in order to collect evidence against them. In 1699 he managed to catch the legendary master forger William Chaloner, who was convicted of treason and hanged, drawn and quartered.
Source: Isaac Newton by John Hudson Tiner
Which famous peace campaigner received a war medal for his service as a stretcher bearer during the Second Boer War (1899-1902)?
Answer: Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi (1869-1948)
Source: Gandhi by Jad Adams
The Ise Grand Shrine, a Shinto shine in Ise, Japan, has existed in since the 7th century. What is unusual about its development since then however?
Answer: For the past 13 centuries, it has been dismantled and rebuilt every twenty years, in light of the Shinto belief in the death and renewal of nature.
Source: A Traveller’s History Of Japan by Richard Tames
What famous figure cut his teeth as a soldier and correspondent at the Battle of Omdurman?
Answer: Winston Churchill (1874-1965). He was a lieutenant at the battle, fought in the Sudan in 1898.
Source: Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965 by Eugene L. Rasor
According to tradition, where was the kite invented, and how was it first employed?
Answer: In China in 549 CE. An emperor, besieged in a walled city, created the kite so that he could let his soldiers know he was in dire straits. The kite, however, was shot down by archers.
Source: World Cultures Through Art by Dindy Robinson
Which author is widely considered to have written the first true detective story?
Answer: Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849). His “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, published in 1841, concerned the antics of detective C. Auguste Dupin.
Source: The First Detective by Edgar Allen Poe
What was Roman leader Julius Caesar talking about when he uttered his famous words “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”)?
Answer: His victory over King Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela in 47 BCE. It was not, as is popularly understood, about his invasion of Britain.
Source: A Dictionary of the Roman Empire by Matthew Bunson
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7 1941, it took place before any formal declaration of war. This had not been the intention of the Japanese however. What went wrong?
Answer: Japan intended to instruct the United States that peace negotiations were at an end 30 minutes before the attack. The period was not calculated correctly however; the time it took the ambassador in Washington DC to transcribe the letter was underestimated and so the declaration was received after the attack had taken place.
Source: Pearl Harbour by Steven M. Gillon
Two additional states were admitted to the Union after the beginning of the American Civil War (1861-1865). One was West Virginia in 1863. Which was the second?
Answer: Nevada in 1864. This raised the number of states within the Union to 25.
Source: Life in Civil War America by Michael J. Varhola and Michael O. Varhola
According to the Doomsday Book, how many of the English population in 1067 were slaves?
Answer: 10%. Despite slavery’s prevalence, the new Norman rulers were opposed to it on religious grounds and within 50 years it had virtually disappeared. Interestingly, according to the historian Theodore Zeldin, legal slavery was only abolished in Saudi Arabia in 1962.
Source: An introduction to Domesday book by Rex Welldon Finn
According to historian Michael P. Speidel, how many men did a centurion command in the Roman Empire?
Answer: Eighty. The Roman Army was often short of men and the actual number of soldiers in each Roman legion changed over time and place. As a result, the figure is 20 less than would be expected.
Source: An Exemplary Man by Bonnie J. Flessen
Despite its status as an icon of British liberty, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) did not care for the Magna Carta. What was he said to have called it?
Answer: The Magna Farta.
Source: Images of Oliver Cromwell by Roger Howell and R.C. Richardson
February 2016
The battle of Borodino on September 7, 1812 was a battle fought in the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia. It was famously described by Napoleon Bonaparte as what?
Answer: “The most gorgeously dressed abattoir in history”.
Source: The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
In 1764, the retiring Governor-General of Madras, Sir George Pigot (1719-1777), presented King George III (1738-1820) with a gift. What was it?
Answer: A cheetah. After receiving the gift, the king instructed that it be introduced to Windsor Great Park during a deer hunt. The cheetah quickly ran amok and the hunt was only saved when the cheetah was subdued by Indian attendants.
Source: Counterflows to Colonialism by Michael H. Fisher
In December 1679, famed poet John Dryden (1631-1700) was attacked and beaten up by a group of thugs in London. Why?
Answer: They were hired to do so by the John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), who believed that Dryden had criticised him in one of his poems.
Source: The Annals of London by John Richardson
Between the Meiji period (1868-1912) and the Shôwa period (1926-1989), there was the short but troubled reign of another emperor. What is this era called?
Answer: The Taishō period (1912-1926). The Taishô Emperor suffered from mental illness all his life and in 1919 ceased to carry out any of the functions of his royal office.
Source: The Rise of Modern Japan by Linda K. Menton
Empress Catherine the Great of Russia (1729-1796) was powerful, intelligent and amorous. When, at the age of 61, the stout and swollen-legged Catherine took a lover aged 22, what was her explanation?
“By educating young men I do a lot of good for the state.”
Source: The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) is famously alleged to have discovered gravity when he watched an apple fall from a tree onto his nose. What was German mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss’ (1777-1855) opinion of this incident?
Answer: “Undoubtedly the occurrence was something of this sort: there comes to Newton a stupid importunate man, who asks him how he made his great discovery. Newton wanted to get rid of the man, told him that an apple fell on his nose; and this made the matter quite clear to the man, and he went away satisfied.”
Source: The Book of Days by Robert Chambers Quotations
Roman leader Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) is often depicted wearing a laurel wreath. Why was Caesar particularly happy to have been granted the honour by the Roman senate?
Answer: So he could cover his baldness. According to Roman historian Suetonius, Caesar used to “comb forward his scanty locks from the crown of his head.”
Source: The Divination of Caesar and Augustus by Michael Koortbojian
In 1820, what was the world’s largest economy?
Answer: China. By GDP, it was larger than the whole of Europe combined and accounted for 32.4% of world income. Its fall was dramatic. By 1890 China accounted for 13.2% of world income, and by 1952 a mere 5.3%.
Source: China and India by Dilip K. Das
When the Roman forces of Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus) defeated Mark Anthony and ally Cleopatra of Egypt at the Battle of Actium (31 BCE), the Romans plundered so much Egyptian gold that they were able to do what?
Answer: Immediately reduce interest rates from 12% to 4%.
Source: The Human Dilemma by Kenneth F. Moseley
The Big Ten Conference Athletic Championships of 1935 is widely considered to have witnessed one of the greatest achievements in the history of sport. What was it?
Answer: Sprinter Jesse Owens (1913-1980) managed to break three world records and tie another within an hour. Some have even argued that due to the different distances run at this time (yards rather than feet), Owens may have also broken two further records.
Source: Jesse Owens by Chrös McDougall
Which innovative medieval weapon was used to defend cities by shooting fire-arrows at siege towers and was captured by the Mongols after they took Beijing in 1215?
Answer: The Chinese triple-bow crossbow.
Source: The Mongol Empire by John Man
Which US federal law, enacted in 1807, enforced the drastic measure of making all exports from the United States illegal?
Answer: The Embargo Act of 1807, sponsored by President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). It was hoped the act would damage Britain, who had been impressing American sailors. In reality it only damaged American trade and was soon repealed after Jefferson left office in 1809.
Source: The Early Republic by Patricia L. Dooley
In Ancient Rome, blond hair became a desirable fashion accessory, something reinforced when Roman legions return from conquering Gaul with blond slaves. What did Roman women do to ensure their hair was suitably fair?
Answer: They would bleach it. This occasionally caused hair loss, so some resorted to creating wigs made from the hair of their slaves.
Source: For Appearances’ Sake by Victoria Sherrow
Sir Richard Musgrave (1746-1818) was an Irish politician known for his zealous and partisan understanding of Irish history and culture. In one of Ireland’s most famous pen-portraits, how did fellow politician Sir Jonah Barrington (1760-1834) described Musgrave?
Answer: “Sir Richard Musgrave” Barrington wrote, “who (except on the abstract topics of politics, religion, martial law, his wife, the Pope, the Pretender, the Jesuits, Napper Tandy, and the whipping-post) was generally in his senses.”
Source: The Irish Story by R.F. Foster
Which scientific fact, first postulated by the Greek Philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE), was only accepted by modern science in 1963?
Answer: That hot water freezes faster than cold water. While this is now established, little remains known as to why this happens.
Source: Philosophies of Technology by Claus Zittel
Which medieval European polymath’s achievements included discovering the Titan moon, writing the first ever physics equation, publishing a book on the use of probability in dice games and building the first pendulum clock?
Answer: Dutchman Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695).
Source: The Intellectual Devotional Biographies by David S. Kidder et al
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) nearly didn’t make it aboard the HMS Beagle for its famed second survey expedition (1831-1836). Why?
Answer: The Beagle’s captain, keen on physiognomy – the assessment of a person’s character or personality from his or her outer appearance, especially the face. He thought that Darwin’s nose indicated a lack of energy and determination. Charles humorously noted later that “he was afterwards well satisfied that my nose had spoken falsely.”
Source: Victorian Literature by Victor Shea
In 1930s London, parents who lived in apartments in high residential towers resorted to what unusual tactic to give their children more space?
Answer: They suspended cages from their windows. These “baby cages” were even believed to have a beneficial health effect, as theory at the time suggested babies needed to be “aired” in order to “renew and purify the blood.”
Source: The Care and Feeling of Children by Luther Emmett Holt
The “Zimmerman Telegram”, a message from Germany to Mexico proposing Mexico declare war against the United States, first emerged in 1917. It was crucial to encouraging the United States into the First World War (1914-1918). Why did it nearly never see the light of day?
Answer: The telegram had been intercepted by British intelligence. Despite its value, intelligence chiefs were reluctant to use it as it would demonstrate that Britain had broken German codes and also been eavesdropping on the United States. It was only released after Britain prepared an elaborate ruse to suggest it did not have access to either.
Source: The European Powers in the First World War by Spencer C. Tucker
According to chronicler William of Malmesbury (1095-1143), King David I of Scotland (1083-1153) valued the importance of good manners. He even charged less tax to people who promised to do what?
Answer: “Live in a more civilized style, dress with more elegance, and learn to eat with more refinement.”
Source: The First English Empire by R.R. Davies
In 1926, what did Alfred Einstein (1879-1955) invent in collaboration with his former student Leó Szilárd (1898-1964), which while patented in 1930 was ultimately a failure?
Answer: A refrigerator. While the invention was innovative, it was never marketed as during the same year a new refrigerator element called Freon-10 changed the industry forever, leaving Einstein’s design redundant.
Source: Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson
Irish poet and Nobel Laureate W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) long held an interest in the occult. What did he describe in 1916 as potentially “the greatest discovery of the Modern World?”
Answer: A device that claimed to receive and amplify messages from the spirit world. Yeats worked on the device with the mildly deranged chemist David Wilson, and was so excited about it that he tried to raise money to develop it commercially.
Source: The Irish Story by R.F. Foster
During the height of the French Revolution, the national assembly abolished which profession widely considered an important part of any civil society?
Answer: Lawyers. An organised legal profession, along with an independent judiciary, was considered by zealous reformers an affront to a democratic sovereign power that needed no such restraints.
Source: Lawyers and Citizens by David A. Bell
What was Cleopatra’s (69-30 BCE) nationality?
Answer: Greek. Despite her role as one of the last Pharaohs of Egypt, she was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty which traced its origins to Alexander the Great and Macedon, Greece. The Ptolemaic spoke Greek and acted in Egypt like an occupying foreign power.
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Ancient Greek was the commonly employed language in Ancient Greece, but which other famous Ancient civilisation regularly spoke this language also?
Answer: Ancient Rome. While we associate Latin with Rome, the language of trade and basic communication, the lingua franca, was Greek.
Source: The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
What system of fixed defences, constructed to defend England from French invasion, were ridiculed as “follies” for their extravagant cost, strange construction and out of date technology?
Answer: The Palmerston Forts, named so after Lord Palmerston (1784-1865), the Prime Minister who backed the idea. They were the largest fixed defences ever built in peacetime Britain.
Source: The Making of the British Landscape by Francis Pryor
What system of fixed defences, constructed to defend England from French invasion, were ridiculed as “follies” for their extravagant cost, strange construction and out of date technology?
Answer: The Palmerston Forts, named so after Lord Palmerston (1784-1865), the Prime Minister who backed the idea. They were the largest fixed defences ever built in peacetime Britain.
Source: The Making of the British Landscape by Francis Pryor
Which American politician and tennis player served as United States Secretary of War (1925-1929) and established an international team tennis tournament that bears his name?
Answer: Dwight F. Davis (1879-1945).
Source: Dwight Davis by Nancy Kriplen
From the 1630s onwards, Japan instituted the famous “sakoku” policy, which excluded foreigners from Japan and banned overseas trade. What was the only city still allowed to accept foreign ships, albeit on an artificial island named Dejima?
Answer: Nagasaki. Dejima was originally a Portuguese trading post until they were replaced by the Netherlands, who were the only Europeans with access to Japan during the Edo Period (1603-1867).
Source: Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600-1850 by C.R. Boxer
Which famed nineteenth century European royal tried to avoid smiling so as not to show her blackened teeth?
Answer: Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), first wife of Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821).
Source: The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte by Robert Asprey
What was the “Crisis of the Third Century”, also known as “Military Anarchy”, which took place between 235 and 284 CE.
Answer: It was a period where the Roman Empire nearly collapsed in the face of civil war, foreign invasion, plague, and economic depression. It resulted in the collapse of the Roman government, and while the Empire survived the crisis, it emerged fundamentally changed.
Source: A History of Byzantium by Timothy E. Gregory
January 2016
The Molotov Cocktail is the name given to a variety of improvised petrol bombs. From where does it originate?
Answer: The Winter War (1939-1940) between Finland and the Soviet Union. When the Soviets illegally invaded in 1939, foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov (1890-1986) claimed the bombs Soviet planes were dropping were food parcels for starving Finns. When the Finns mastered hand-held petrol bombs to disable Soviet tanks, they christened them “Molotov Cocktails”: a drink to accompany the food.
Source: Cocktails by Joseph M. Carlin
In September 1931, the Japanese Army invaded Manchuria and by early 1932 had declared that parts of Manchuria were “independent” of China. Here they installed a new state. What was it called, and why?
Answer: Manchukuo, meaning “the country of the Manchus”. This was the ancestral homeland of the Qing Dynasty, who had conquered China in the 17th century.
Source: Modern China by Graham Hutchings
After the Indian hockey team defeated Germany 8-1 at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, an impressed Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) spoke to the Indian star player, Dhyan Chand (1905-1979). What words were exchanged?
Answer: After Chand explained to Hitler that he was a sepoy (ordinary soldier) in the Indian Army, Hitler remarked “if you were a German, I would have made you at least a major general.”
Source: Hitler’s Olympics by Christopher Hilton
What is the ‘Cairo Genizah’, and why is it important?
Answer: The Genizah is a collection of around 300,000 Jewish manuscripts discovered in the storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. First archived from 1896, the collection contains over 1,000 years of Jewish North African and Middle-Eastern history and is considered to be one of the best collections of mediaeval manuscripts in the world.
Source: A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo by Stefan Reif
‘The Cape of Good Hope’ is a famous point at the south of the African continent. What was its original name?
Answer: The Cape of Storms, named by Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias (1451-1500) after the dangerous seas around the Cape. Keen for others to adopt this new trade route, this was overturned in favour of “Good Hope” by Portuguese officials. Dias himself was to die after his ship was wrecked in a heavy storm around the Cape.
Source: Harbours and High Seas by Dean King Jr. and John B. Hattendorf
Two major scientific works were published in 1543, one of the most important years in the history of Science. One was On the Revolutions of Planetary Spheres by Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), which demonstrated that the earth rotated around the sun, and not vice versa. What was the second?
Answer: On the Fabric of the Human Body by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), which was the first modern study of human anatomy.
Source: A History of Western Thought by Stephen Trombley
What was the famous quote by the 6th century CE Byzantine scholar Procopius about the plague that befell Europe around the middle of that century?
Answer: “The plague fell upon the world … not a single man in the whole Roman empire could escape.”
Source: Secret History by Procopius circa 550
What was the traditional historical development that lead to the large scale use of metals, so pivotal a part of society up to the present day?
Answer: The introduction of smelting in a crucible around 3,800 BCE.
Source: The Modern World Encyclopedia
What did Roman consul and general Publius Claudius Pulcher say when ordering the drowning of the sacred chickens when they refused to eat grain before the Battle of Drepena in 294 BCE?
Answer: “If they will not eat, let them drink”.
Source: The Modern World Encyclopedia
Confederate Civil War General Robert E Lee was among other things a prolific writer. What was the famous quote he wrote to his son Custis on duty?
“Duty is the sublimest word in our language.”
Source: A History of the American People by Paul Johnson; General Historical Texts
In 18th and 19th century rural China, it was common for women to do what?
Answer: Marry two husbands. This was due to a chronic shortage of women in rural areas. Due to the Qing elite regarding this practice as immoral, and most peasants being illiterate, these practices have only recently come to light.
Source: Polyandry and Wife-Selling in Qing Dynasty China by Matthew H. Somner
What was the world first full-scale working steam rail locomotive?
Answer: The Pennydarren locomotive, developed by British engineer Richard Trevithick (1771-1833). It predated George Stephenson’s (1803-1859) “Rocket”, often considered the first, by more than 25 years.
Source: The Pleasures and Treasures of Britain by David Kemp
At the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, a defeated Napoleon left the battlefield late in the day in his coach, which was subsequently abandoned. What was later found inside the vehicle?
Answer: A substantial cache of diamonds, which became part of King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia’s crown jewels.
Source: Dictionary of World History edited by A J P Taylor
What was the enclosure movement in England?
This was the drive in the 18th and 19th centuries to take land that had previously been owned in common by all members of a village, or at least available to the public for grazing animals and growing food, and change this to privately owned land, often delineated by walls, fences or hedges.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was the famous saying by French philosopher Voltaire as to what history was?
Answer: ‘History is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.’
Source: General Historical Texts
Cock fighting has been traced back to ancient times. In the Philippines, for example, back some 6,000 years. The Chinese, however, expanded this concept in other ways, such as what?
Answer: Quails were trained to fight, as were insects. Visitors to China in the 18th century observed that during summer, ‘scarcely a boy is seen without his cage and his grasshoppers.’
Source: The Dragon Awakes by Christopher Hibbert
17th century English highwayman Captain James Hind was known as ‘the Cavalier Highwayman’ for what reason?
Answer: On his first occasion as a robber, he allowed his victims to keep one pound of the 15 pounds he stole, to allow them to continue on their journey.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts
The Bastille in Paris was stormed on July 14, 1789, thus precipitating the French Revolution which would see the subsequent execution of King Louis XVI. On that day, Louis spent his time hunting at Versailles. What did he note in his diary for that day?
Answer: The single word ‘nothing’.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia.
How did famed 17th and 18th century English architect Sir Christopher Wren describe his architectural style?
Answer: “I build for eternity.”
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal; General Historical Texts
The English Sixth Duke of Somerset (1662-1748) married Lady Elizabeth Percy, who at the age of 16 was already a widow twice. Enormously wealthy in her own right, what was the unusual nickname given to her?
Answer: “Carrots”, because of her flaming red hair.
Source: The Dukes by Brian Masters.
Frenchman Henri D Landru, known as Bluebeard, was sentenced to be executed by guillotine on February 25, 1922, for the murder of ten women. The execution was to be performed by Anatole Deibler, who had performed over 300 executions. He lived in a small house in Versailles, and kept the guillotine in a shed outside his house. Prior to his execution Landru had asked that his beard be shaved. What was the reason he gave for this?
Answer: “It will please the ladies,” he told his gaolers.
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
What was one of the more unusual aspects of the private audience which the French Ambassador, Andre Hurault, had with Queen Elizabeth I of England on December 1, 1597?
Answer: In a detailed account of the expensive and colourful garments Her Majesty was wearing, Monsieur Hurault wrote that the Queen was attired such that “she kept the front of her dress open, and one could see the whole of her bosom”.
Source: The Faber Book of Reportage edited by John Carey
As the impetus for Indian independence grew stronger in the 1920s, what was a popular saying about Mahatma Gandhi at that time?
“There is more power in his loin cloth than in all the guns in the British Army.”
Source: The Times Complete History of the World edited by Richard Overy
What island off the coast of the US state of Georgia’s was named for a famous pirate who frequented the area?
Answer: Blackbeard’s Island
Source: Blackbeard the Pirate by Robert Lee
What was British diplomat, author and diarist Sir Harold Nicholson’s verdict on King George V’s time as Duke of York, prior to his ascending the British throne in 1910?
Answer: “For 17 years he did nothing at all except kill animals and stick in stamps.”
Source: The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Biographical Quotation by Justin Wintle and Richard Kenin
What was the greatest land purchase in world history?
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803. This was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the US acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.
Source: General Historical Texts
Who on his deathbed is reputed to have remarked “the three greatest fools of History have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote . . . and me!”
Answer: Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), the South American revolutionary leader.
Source: The Sanctification of Don Quixote by Eric Ziolkowski
U.S. President William Howard Taft (1857-1930), dubbed “Big Bill”, was the largest President in history. In what strange way did this occasionally cause problems?
Answer: Taft could often not get out of the White House bathtub. His advisors would have to pull him out.
Source: The Presidents, Tidbits and Trivia by Sid Bank et al
During the breakdown of the marriage between the present British Queen’s sister, Princess Anne and Lord Snowden, Snowden would reputedly leave hurtful notes around the royal residence where they lived. These might be on the mantelpiece, left in a book Princess Anne was reading or under her pillow. One in particular made reference to the princess’s claimed appearance and profession. What did this say?
Answer: The note from Snowden said that Princess Anne “looked like a Jewish manicurist.”
Source: Snowden – The Biography by Anne De Courcy
During the California gold rush of the 1850s, many basic commodities became scarce and consequently expensive. What was one of the more extreme examples of this?
Answer: Water, remarkably, cost more than gold.
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
What does historian Mark Weber say is the reason why history continues to be so important to contemporary society?
“A solid understanding of history,” he says, “has long been the best guide to comprehending the present and anticipating the future.”
Source: Institute for Historical Review
December 2015
Who was future US president Ronald Reagan speaking of when he said, as governor of California in the early 1960s, “Under the tousled boyish haircut, is still old Karl Marx.”
Answer: President John F Kennedy
Source: Time magazine; General Historical Texts
Which famous French 19th century historical figure said: “There’s a royal chamber in my heart; and I’ve bricked it up.”
Answer. Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary. The book took five years to write, and he sold it for just 2000 francs in 1856. It is still for sale, and would have generated his estate millions of francs income.
Source: Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes; The Letters of Gustave Flaubert.
In the context of mediaeval European history, who was Prestor John?
Answer: A mythical King said to rule a wealthy Christian nation in the Orient, or East. Between the mid 12th and late 15th centuries, many influential leaders, including Pope Alexander III, believed that John existed. They even attempted to find him, hoping he would help with the crusades.
Source: Prestor John by Keagan Brewer
In Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, the world discovered a commodity that would become one of the most valuable it had ever known. What was it?
Answer: Oil. Titusville was where the world’s first commercially successful oil well was drilled.
Source: 50 Things You Need to Know about World History by Hugh Williams
The Luddites fomented rebellion in North Eastern England in the 1810s and regularly clashed with the British Army. Who were they?
Answer: Textile workers, later joined by other professions, who considered their trade was being threatened by the new machines of the Industrial Revolution. Rebellions led by Luddites concentrated on destroying this machinery and the factories themselves. They had a mythical leader, “King Ludd”, who was supposed to live in Sherwood Forest.
Source: Rebels Against the Future by Kirkpatrick Sale
King George IV (1762-1830) was a passionate fan of bare knuckle boxing. How did he demonstrate this at his coronation in July 1821?
Answer: He arranged for 18 leading boxers, including former world champion Tom Cribb (1781-1845), to be ushers and pages for the Westminster Abbey ceremony.
Source: The Story of Boxing by Trevor C. Wignall
Who was the first person to study sleepwalking to a significant degree?
Answer: British writer and physician John William Polidori (1795-1821). His unorthodox cures included regular beatings and the application of electricity.
Source: 1,234 Facts to Leave You Speechless by John Lloyd
What was the Malet Coup of 1812?
Answer: An attempted coup d’état in Paris by general Claude François de Malet (1754-1812), aimed at removing Emperor Napoleon (1769-1821) from power. Malet first spread a rumour that Napoleon, campaigning in Russia, had been killed, and then attempted to seize power. The coup failed miserably and Malet was quickly executed for treason.
Source: Napoleon by David A. Bell
What is the oldest continually used public building in the United States of America?
Answer: The Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Spanish colonial authorities began construction in 1610.
Source: Santa Fe by Tim McNeese
“No church, tower or house of stone in this town or the suburb endured, most of them were destroyed.” This is a record of the town council of Basel, Switzerland, from 1357. What was it referring to?
Answer: The Basel Earthquake of 1356. The quake destroyed much of the town and also settlements nearby. Seismologists consider it the most intense intra-plate earthquake to hit Europe in the last 10,000 years.
Source: An Environmental History of Europe by Richard Hoffman
What is the oldest professional team sports league in the world?
Answer: The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, more commonly known as the National League, one of the two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB). It was founded on February 2, 1876.
Source: Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century by Steven A. Reiss
Which event, which took place between September 27 and October 15 1529, is one of the most important incidents in the history of Europe?
Answer: The Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman forces of Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566). The failure of the Ottomans to capture Vienna halted their incredible advance through Europe and marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman European conquest.
Source: Voices of the Reformation by John A. Wagner et. al
The Battle of Broodseinde, fought on October 4 1917, was a crucial battle in the latter stages of the First World War (1914-1918). Why?
Answer: It was the most successful Allied attack of the Passchendaele campaign (July-November 1917). By employing gradualist, “bite and hold” tactics, British forces devastated German defences, sapping the morale of the German 4th Army.
Source: World War 1 by Spencer C. Tucker
What was the first mass-produced car?
Answer: The Oldsmobile Curved Dash, first built in 1901. While the Ford Model T is the most famous car of this era, the Curved Dash was the first mass-produced automobile.
Source: General Motors by Michael W.R. Davis
Twenty six year old Russian Valentina Tereshkova, a textile worker and amateur parachutist, told her mother in the early 1960’s that she was going through training for a parachuting championship. What was she actually doing?
Answer: Training for the secretive Russian cosmonaut space program. Her hard work paid off when, in 1963, she became the first woman to be launched into space.
Source: The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team by Colin Burgess
Why is the town of Battle, southern England, named as such?
Answer: The town is on the site of the Battle of Hastings (1066), where William of Normandy defeated King Harold II. The town itself grew up around Battle Abbey, a monastery founded by William in 1070 after Pope Alexander II ordered him to do penance for all those killed during his conquest of England.
Source: Battle Story by Jonathan Trigg
Who was the first European to set foot in what is now the US state of California?
Answer: Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (1499-1543). His voyages were conducted on behalf of the Spanish Empire, but his nationality has long been a source of debate for historians, with some considering him Spanish, others Portuguese.
Source: Famous Americans by Victor J. Danilov
According to historians such as Dominic Lieven and R. Bobroff, what hitherto neglected factor was a major contributor to the tensions that led Europe to war in 1914?
Answer: Russia’s desire to possess Constantinople and the Turkish straits. Russian had for a long time held a significant economic, strategic and historical interest in the Straits.
Source: Towards the Flame by Dominic Lieven
The military casualties of the Soviet Union during the Second World War (1939-1945) were shocking. Of every 100 Soviet males born in 1923 and alive on 21 June 1941, how many were still alive on 12 May 1945?
Answer: Three. Between these two dates, the Soviet Union lost an average of 19,014 dead a day.
Source: Clausewitz Reconsidered by H.P. Wilmot et al
Which historical figure was surprisingly instrumental in the design of the current flag of Italy?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). The flag was installed after Napoleon’s conquest of northern Italy in 1797.
Source: Napoleon Bonaparte by Blago Kirov
The lie detector, bubble gum, Elastoplast and the commercial car radio were all invented in which decade of the twentieth century?
Answer: The 1920s.
Source: The All-New University Challenge Quiz Book by Steve Tribe
Chemical weapons were never used in Europe during the Second World War (1939-1945), but fears were so high that that wild rumours emerged. What did they include?
Answer: One suggested that the Nazis had filled toy balloons with gas with which they planned to lure children, while another involved parachutists attacking towns with “fog weapons”. Panic gripped the town of Southampton in 1941 when fumes smelling like “burning onion” filled the town. It turned out there was a fire at the local pickle factory.
Source: The Third Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd
St Edmund (841-869 CE) was King of East Anglia from 855 to 869 CE, when legend had it he endured a gruesome demise. What happened?
Answer: After he refused it cooperate with Viking invaders, he was tied to a tree and used for target practice by Viking archers.
Source: With A Bended Bow by Erik Roth
On November 25 1120, the “White Ship” sank in the English Channel. It was carrying a number of English nobles, and crucially the only legitimate heir to English King Henry I, William Adelin (1103-1120). Stephen, who would become King after Henry, had been supposed to board the vessel also, but did not. Why?
Answer: He was suffering from diarrhoea. That diarrhoea saved him from near certain death and consequently helped him become King.
Source: Henry I by Judith A. Green
The Battle of Agincourt (1415), where English forces defeated a numerically superior French Army, is a famed battle in English history. Why does it continue to provoke contentious historical debate to this day however?
Answer: Historians continue to differ on the size of the armies. In 2005, Anne Curry and Juliet Barker both published vastly different estimates. Curry argued the French were 12,000 strong, and the English 9,000. Barker however argued that English had 6,000 troops and the French a whopping 36,000.
Source: Fatal Avenue by Richard Holmes
Half a millennia before the European Union, which leader tried to create a European confederation that would have included a political assembly, court of justice, combined army and federal budget?
Answer: George Podiebrad (1420-1471), King of Bohemia. His “plans for peace” won little favour among medieval leaders.
Source: History’s Worst Decisions by Stephen Weir
“We Nazis never said we were nice democrats. The problem is that the British seem like sheep or bishops, but when the moment comes they are shown to be hypocrites, and they become a terrible tough people.” Who said this?
Answer: Reinhard Spitzy (1912-2010), who was secretary to Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Source: A History of the English Speaking Peoples by Andrew Roberts
The Rosetta Stone, held in the British Museum, is one of the most famous ancient antiquities. What is controversial about its rediscovery in 1799 however?
Answer: It was discovered by the French, whose soldiers found it while serving in the Egyptian campaign of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). It was only acquired by British forces after they defeated their French counterparts at the Siege of Alexandria in 1801, and has been held in Britain ever since.
Source: The Rosetta Stone by E.A. Wallis Budge
In 1907 in Brooklands, United Kingdom, the world’s first what was constructed?
Answer: Purpose-built motor racing circuit. Brooklands also served as one of the country’s first airfields.
Source: The World Atlas of Motor Racing by Joe Saward et al
What did Brigadier Anthony C McAuliffe (1898-1975), commander of the United States 101st Airborne Division, reply when asked to surrender by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944?
Answer: “Us surrender? Awe, nuts!” Despite their compromised position, McAuliffe had at first thought that the Germans were trying to surrender to them.
Source: Beyond Valor by Patrick K. O’Donnell
During the Seven Years War (1754-1763) between Britain and France, 1,512 British sailors were killed in action. How many died of scurvy?
Answer: 100,000.
Source: Trick or Treatment by Edzard Ernst et al
November 2015
Where, and when, was the first successful land campaign against the Axis powers in the Second World War (1939-1945)?
Answer: The southern Balkan Peninsula in late 1940 and early 1941. Italian forces had invaded Greece on October 28 1940, but a successful Greek counter-attack had forced the Italians to retreat to Albania. For months the Greeks successfully held off Italian attacks before being eventually defeated by a Nazi invasion in April 1941.
Source: Forgotten ANZACS by Peter Ewer
Which civilisation, centred on capital cities in present day Northern Iraq, can be considered to have emerged in the 9th century BCE as the first world empire?
Answer: Ancient Assyria. At its peak its power and influence ranged from the River Nile to the Caspian Sea.
Source: Ancient Assyria by Karen Radner
“No man before him had contributed so much to learning. No man after him might aspire to rival his achievements.” Who is British scholar Jonathan Barnes describing?
Answer: Aristotle (384-322 BCE), the Greek philosopher.
Source: Aristotle by Jonathan Barnes
According to popular legend, which famed historical figure lies buried beneath one of the platforms of King Cross Station, London?
Answer: Boudicca (?-60 CE), Queen of the Iceni tribe of Ancient Britons. The idea that Boudicca was buried there originated in the 1930s, when writer Lewis Spence (1874-1955) claimed the battle between her army and the Romans took place where Kings Cross Station now stands.
Source: Lost Histories by Joel Levy
Edward Oxford, John Francis and John William Bean all attempted to do what?
Answer: Assassinate Queen Victoria (1819-1901). They attempted to shoot Victoria at different times in the 1840s, with all being major failures. During her reign, Victoria endured eight different assassination attempts.
Source: Kill the Queen! by Barrie Charles
What was described as “London’s Eiffel Tower”?
Answer: The Watkin Tower. Proposed by Sir Edward Watkin (1819-1901) in the 1890s, the so called “Great Tower of London” was to be 46 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. Only 50 metres of the structure had been built when it was torn down in 1907 however, and the site was later used for Wembley Football Stadium.
Source: Mount London by Tom Chivers et al
Despite his later fame, Karl Marx (1818-1883) was never a wealthy man. What did his mother once say to him on the subject?
Answer: “Karl, I wish you would make some capital instead of just writing about it.”
Source: Understanding Capitalism by Samuel Bowles et al
In 1521, the history of South America was changed forever. What happened?
Answer: After a two year campaign, a Spanish army under the command of Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) defeated the Aztecs of Mexico. Just over ten years later, a force under Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) conquered the Incas of Peru. The traditional powers of the continent had been defeated.
Source: 50 Things You Need to Know about World History by Hugh Williams
In the nineteenth century, some street lamps in major British cities were avoided at all costs. Why?
Answer: The lamps were fuelled from the sewers underneath the town, burning off the foul smells of “the gases of putrefaction” at the same time.
Source: London’s Secret History by Peter Bushell
Which medieval figure famously talked of how he had been “banished from the house of love, struck out of the book of joy … I am the heart shrouded in black.”
Answer: Charles, Duke of Orléans (1394-1465). Charles’ woe was a consequence of him being one of the French noblemen captured by the English at the Battle of Agincourt (1415). He remained in captivity for 25 years, only being released in 1440.
Source: Cursed Kings by Jonathan Sumption
The famous RMS Titanic had an iconic design dominated by four large funnels. What was strange about this?
Answer: Only three worked. The final funnel was a dummy occasionally used to provide ventilation for the kitchens. Large passenger liners had traditionally had 4 funnels, so the dummy was added for aesthetic purposes.
Source: Titanic – The Myths & Legacy of a Disaster by Roger Cartwright
Which powerful Mediaeval Asian ruler held an official title which modestly described him as the “Conquerer of the World”?
Answer: Aurangzeb (1618-1707), Mughal Emperor. The title is a translation of the term Alamgir. Under Aurangzeb’s rule, the Mughal Empire achieved its greatest territorial extent.
Source: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought by Gerhard Bowering et al
In 1897 a London taxi driver named George Smith became the first person to be convicted of what?
Answer: Drink driving. He was fined £1.
Source: The Book of Firsts by Patrick Robertson
In 1917 the United States Navy commissioned the battleship USS Recruit. What was special about it?
Answer: It was not a proper ship, rather a wooden mockup constructed in Union Square, New York City. Its purpose was to encourage enlistment in the US Navy. Nevertheless it had its own crew and was a fully commissioned vessel right up until 1920.
Source: New York and the First World War by Ross J. Wilson
What was one of the more interesting statements by Britain’s Astronomer Royal Sir Richard van der Reit Woolley?
Answer: On his appointment in 1956 he reiterated his long-held view that “space travel is utter bilge”. Five years later, on 12 April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space.
Source: General Historical Texts
Eton College, arguably Britain’s most famous and prestigious school, made an enormous sacrifice during the First World War. In what way?
Answer. Of the approximately 5,000 Old Etonians who served, there was a 47 percent causality rate. In other words, virtually half of the Etonians who served in the war were either killed or wounded.
Source: The First World War by Paul Ham
The Ancient Greeks, like the Romans, valued bathing. What was one of the unusual aspects that followed their bath?
Answer: They would cover themselves in olive oil.
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan underwent a remarkable of social, political and economic transformation. What were some of the characteristics of this?
Answer: In 1871 feudal domains were replaced by a modern bureaucracy; the feudal army was replaced by one of conscripts in 1873; a bicameral legislature established the basis for political unity and social stability; a national education system was implemented in 1872 and legal codes based on Germany and France were brought in in 1882.
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
Between 1820 and 1880 how many immigrants entered the United States?
Over 10 million. Mostly from northern and western Europe.
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
Which state was an immediate beneficiary of the Fourth Crusade in 1204?
Answer: Venice. Venetian fleets had transported the Crusaders and established colonies on the Aegean Islands and Crete.
Source: The Times Complete History of the World edited by Richard Overy
DNA research has revealed that the first anatomically modern humans – Homo sapiens – appeared in Africa when?
Answer. Between 200,000 and 140,000 years ago.
Source: The Times Complete History of the World edited by Richard Overy
Famed Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) married French seamstress Thérèse Levasseur in 1768, but they already had five children between them from previous marriages. What then happened to the children?
Answer: Rousseau sent them to a foundling hospital for deserted children. He was allegedly worried that they would either interfere with his work, or suffer a life of poverty. Rousseau later said he deeply regretted abandoning his children.
Source: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
How did famed German philosopher and writer Wolfgang von Goethe describe architecture?
Answer: Frozen music.
Source: General Historical Texts
On August 11, 1415, King Henry V of England set forth with his fleet of ships to regain his lands in France, a quest that would have its high point with his victory at the Battle of Agincourt. How many ships weighed anchor that day?
Answer: Fifteen hundred. Twelve times the size of the Spanish Armada.
Source: Agincourt by Juliet Barker
Aristophanes, son of Phillipus, who was a comic playwright of ancient Athens, said what about the benefits of wine?
“Quick! Bring me a beaker of wine so that I may wet my mind and say something clever!”
Source: Jessica Sier, The Australian Financial Review, October 13, 2015
On November 22, 1963 Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in as the United States’ 36th president on the presidential jet Air Force One, just 98 minutes after John F Kennedy had been assassinated in downtown Dallas, Texas. What was unusual about an impromptu press conference called by Johnson on board the same plan a year later?
Johnson did so dressed in a towel which he removed, thereby standing buck naked, and waved it before the assembled group of reporters.
Source: Associated Press White House correspondent Frank Cormier, as reported in The Australian on 21/10/15
How did Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges describe the 74 day Falklands War in 1982 between Britain and Argentina?
Answer: “The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb”. His point was that he believed the islands were useless to both nations.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
‘At the call of their States, the people of the South, with unexampled unanimity, volunteered to defend their hearths, their altars, and their inalienable rights.’ Who made this statement.
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), Confederate President
Source: The Doctrine of State Rights by Jefferson Davis
When Greek historian Herodotus (484 – 425 BCE) travelled to Persia around 450 BCE, he noted that Persian leaders made important decisions when what?
Answer: Drunk. The Persians felt only decisions agreed on when under the influence of alcohol were truly wise.
Source: The Shape of Herodotean Rhetoric by Vasiliki Zali
Which now world famous drink was once called Pemberton’s Brain Tonic?
Answer: Coca-Cola. The drink was developed by the Pemberton Medicine Company of Atlanta, Georgia.
Source: Rage In the Gate City by Rebecca Burns
October 2015
Which U.S. President, now considered by historians to be one of the greatest, was attacked by contemporary journalists as having a “known difficulty in understanding the printed word” and for being the “reductio ad Absurdum” of the common man?
Answer: President Harry Truman (1884-1972).
Source: Truman by David McCullough
The year 1877 essentially saw the end of the samurai in Japan. What happened?
Answer: After federalism was dismantled in 1868, the samurai had lost their position and privileges. This resentment led to the Satsuma Rebellion, where remaining samurai revolted against the Imperial Government, culminating in the Battle of Shiroyoma on September 24, 1877. Here the last remaining 40 samurai deliberately charge to their deaths against the muskets of Imperial forces.
Source: On This Day in History by Graeme Donald
When Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) laid the cornerstone for the world’s first observatory in Uraniborg, Denmark, in 1576, something rather embarrassing happened. What was it?
Answer: His nose fell off. In 1566 Brahe had fought a duel over the validity of a mathematical question and lost his nose. For the remainder of his life he wore a copper replacement.
Source: On This Day in History by Graeme Donald
King Gustav III (1742-1796) of Sweden was a dilettante scientist who felt that coffee was harmful. How did he try to prove this?
Answer: He took two twins convicted of murder and commuted their sentence to life imprisonment, on the proviso that one drank three pots of tea a day and the other consumed the same amount of coffee. Gustav’s could never see the results of his test, he was assassinated in 1792 and both outlived him.
Source: On This Day in History by Graeme Donald
Construction on the famed Leaning Tower of Pisa first started in 1173. When did it start to lean?
Answer: 1173. The original foundation was on soft sand and clay, so the tower has always leaned.
Source: Geotechnics and Heritage by Emillio Bilotta
According to historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, which historical figure was at different times a street urchin, choirboy, student priest, poet, pirate, gangster and commissar?
Answer: Josef Stalin (1878-1953), Supreme Leader of the Soviet Union.
Source: Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
In 1893, the flagship of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean fleet, HMS Victoria, sank in embarrassing circumstances. What happened?
Answer: On June 22 1893, while en route from Beirut to Tripoli, the fleet was travelling in parallel columns when Admiral Sir George Tryon ordered the two divisions to turn towards each other. A fellow ship struck the side of Victoria and it quickly sank. Why Tryon, an experienced commander, ordered the ships to turn on each other has never been explained.
Source: Warships of the World to 1900 by Lincoln P. Paine
U.S. President George Washington (1731-1799) is famed for his battlefield and political expertise. He also played a role in the development of what, more mundane, invention?
Answer: The swivel chair. In 1790 Washington bought a chair in which the seat could rotate. He owned it for the rest of his life, and by doing so, helped popularise it widely.
Source: Born in the USA by Trevor Homer
In 324 BCE, King Alexander the Great of Macedon held a drinking contest for his soldiers. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t end well. What happened?
Answer: 35 men died immediately, with a further six not long after. The winner, called “Champion”, drank 12 quarts – about 11 litres – of wine but died too, four days afterwards.
Source: By the Spear by Ian Worthington
Which historical figure surprisingly played a role in the development of the beer called Imperial Stout?
Answer: Peter the Great of Russia (1672-1825). On a visit to England, Peter had admired the taste of stout but could not take any to Russia as it would have spoiled. As a result, the stronger, longer lasting Imperial Stout was brewed for Peter.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Beer by Garret Oliver
During much of the 14th century, the city of Athens, modern day Greece, was ruled by an unlikely group. Who?
Answer: The Catalan Company, a medieval assembly of mercenaries from Northern Spain. They were originally employed by the Byzantine Emperor but rebelled against him when he tried to cheat them of their pay.
Source: The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire by Jonathan Shepard
What is significant about the Japanese Battleship Yamoto, launched in December 1941?
Answer: Displacing 72,800 tonnes and armed with nine 46 cm, or 18 inch, main guns, she was the largest and most powerful battleship ever built. This represented the hiatus for battleships, however, as air power was to largely prove their undoing.
Source: History of World Seapower by Bernard Brett
“And whereas we, being at peace with the Government of the United States have declared our royal determination to maintain a strict and partial neutrality in the contest between the said contending parties.” Who gave this statement on May 13 1861?
Answer: The United Kingdom. This formed part of the “British proclamation of neutrality in the American Civil War”.
Source: Florida Civil War Blockades by Nick Wynne
Autokrator, Dominus, Perpetuus and Princeps were all honorary titles associated at different times with which historical role?
Answer: The Roman Emperor. Autokrator was Greek for “Commander-in-Chief”, Dominus meant “Master”, Perpetuus mean “Universal” and Princeps stood for “leading citizen” or “first among equals.”
Source: History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene by J.B. Berry
February 22 1797 saw the last attempt at an invasion of mainland Britain. Who tried, and where did they land?
Answer: A Revolutionary French force landed at Fishguard in Wales. The small force, numbering only 1,500 men, had little success and were forced to surrender two days after coming ashore.
Source: British Battles of the Napoleonic Wars by Martin Mace et al
The Battle of Chrysopolis, fought on September 18 324 CE, was a turning point in the history of the Roman Empire. Why?
Answer: It saw Constantine I (272-337 CE) defeat Licnius (263-325 CE), leaving “Constantine the Great” as the sole Emperor after the civil wars of the Tetrarchy.
Source: Constantine and the Christian Empire by Charles Odahl
In 1916 Germany launched two naval vessels which would be the only ones of their kind ever built. What were they?
Answer: Merchant submarines. Designed and built by civilians, they were built to break the Royal Navy blockade and enable German trade with the USA.
Source: Voyage of the Deutschland by Paul Koening
During the Korean War, Sergeant Reckless was a popular member of the American military who received two purple hearts and numerous other military awards. Who was Reckless?
Answer: A horse. She nevertheless held official rank in the US military and was famed for her stamina and discipline, independently making many trips to resupply front line units during heavy fighting.
Source: Reckless by Tom Clavin
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is one of the greatest composers of all time. What unusual piece did he contribute towards the musical play “The Philosopher’s Stone, or the Enchanted Isle”?
Answer: A rather comic “cat duet”.
Source: The Cambridge Companion to Mozart by Simon P Keefe et al
In early 20th century science, what was the “Westinghouse Atom Smasher”?
Answer: An electrostatic nuclear accelerator built in 1937 in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. The smasher was the first of its kind and a pioneering step in civilian nuclear research.
Source: Fifty Years Among the New Words by John Algeo
According to the Greek Historian Plutarch (45-120 CE), what did the Spartans do to try and encourage equality and stop the development of a wealthy elite?
Answer: They used long and heavy iron rods as their currency. It was hoped that having such a heavy and cumbersome currency would discourage wealth accumulation.
Source: The Life of Lycurgus by Plutarch
While the date convention of the “Christian Era” ie. 1995 CE or AD, is now common in the West – it took many centuries to develop. When was it first uniformly used, and what were the alternatives?
Answer: It was widely adopted by the eighth century CE. Before then a host of different conventions applied, often based on reigns and dynasties, the Greek Olympiads or the Babylonian Calendar.
Source: Europe – A History by Norman Davies
What was the first British ship sunk by the enemy during the Second World War?
Answer: The cruiser come aircraft carrier HMS Courageous, sunk on 17 September 1939. It was not the first British vessel sunk however; the submarine HMS Oxley had been gone down a week earlier by friendly fire.
Source: World War II by Phillip D. Grove et. al
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was one of the most deadly natural disasters in US history. What odd consequence did it bring?
Answer: Many homeowners affected by the quake set fire to their own houses. Most insurance policies did not cover earthquakes, but did cover fire damage.
Source: The Illustrated History of Natural Disasters by Jan Kozak
Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876) was a Mexican general and politician who, over an eventful forty year career, helped shape Mexico in its formative years. Santa Anna’s success at gaining power, but dislike at exercising it, led him to serve as President on many non-consecutive occasions. How many non-consecutive terms did he serve?
Answer: 11. The first was in 1833, with his final term ending in 1855.
Source: Mexico and the United States by Lee Stacy
During the Normandy landings in June 1944, British forces had unusual parachuting allies. What were they?
Answer: Dogs. The so called “Paradogs” parachuted into action with their soldier handlers. The dogs were trained to withstand loud noises and the smells of explosive devices. Once deployed, they acted as the “eyes and ears” of their handlers, helping them navigate the unfamiliar terrain.
Source: Canine Commandoes by Nigel Hawthorne
The largest surviving Pyramid structure in the world is not in Egypt. Where is it?
Answer: Mexico. Construction commenced on the Great Pyramid of Cholula, which measures 400 by 400 metres, in the 3rd century BCE.
Source: Archaeology of Native North America by Dean R. Snow
Who was Lady Lytton (1874-1971) describing when in a letter to Sir Edward Marsh in 1905 she wrote “the first time you meet [him] you see all of his faults and the rest of your life you spend in discovering his virtues”?
Answer: Winston Churchill (1874-1965).
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying & Quotation by Elizabeth Knowles
Which British public figure simultaneously served as an MP and Royal Navy admiral, and was considered the personification of John Bull, often accompanied by his pet bulldog?
Answer: Lord Charles Beresford (1846-1919). He was widely known to the British public by his nickname, “Charlie B”. He also, incidentally, once almost threatened to punch the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, in a matter regarding a lady.
Source: Admirals of the World by William Stewart
The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre took place in France in 1572. What was it?
Answer: A massacre of Huguenots (French Calvinist protestants) through a combination of orchestrated killings organised by Catherine de’ Medici, mother of King Charles IX, and mob violence. At least 5,000 Huguenots were killed.
Source: France, 1500-1765 by Alastair Armstrong
September 2015
During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, American founding father James Wilson (1742-1798) argued for which constitutional development that, while unpopular at the time, eventually came into force 126 years later on May 31 1913?
Answer: The election of United States Senators by popular vote. Until the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, senators had been chosen by state legislatures.
Source: The Constitution of the United States by Thomas James Norton
The cities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Liverpool and Manchester have all at one point claimed to have been what?
Answer: The Second City of the British Empire. Which city was second to London in importance has long been a source of contention.
Source: The Empire in One City? by Nicholas White and Imperial Cities by Felix Driver et al
The Dole Air Race, a race from northern California to Hawaii in August 1927, was a great tragedy. Why?
Answer: It was one of the most deadly air races ever. Of the 11 aircraft certified to compete, three crashed before the race, while only two of the eight remaining aircraft made it to Hawaii.
Source: Equations of Motion by William F. Milliken
The “Battle of the Big Hole” was fought in which conflict?
Answer: The Nez Perce War (June – October 1877), fought between the United States Army and several groups of the Nez Perce Native Americans.
Source: The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest by Alvin M. Josephy
Which city was saved throughout history by its defensive walls, considered amongst the most sophisticated set of fortifications in human history?
Answer: Constantinople, modern day Istanbul. These “Walls of Constantinople” saved the city from capture on numerous occasions during the Middle Ages, notably from Arabs, Rus’ and Bulgars, until the city was finally taken in 1453.
Source: The Walls of Constantinople AD 324-1453 by Stephen Turnbull
What class of Germany battleships were the first ocean-going warships in German history?
Answer: The Brandenburg class. Built between 1890 and 1894, they were derisively referred to as “whalers” by the Royal Navy.
Source: Mariners, Merchants and the Military Too by Phillip Jones
The Battle of Manila (July 26 – August 13 1898) was fought between Spain and the United States. What was unusual about it?
Answer: The battle was a sham, jointly planned by Spanish and American leaders. The purpose was to allow Spain to surrender with dignity while ensuring the city didn’t fall to the Philippine Revolutionary Army.
Source: Philippine History by Maria Christine N. Halili
Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) was a hero in England, where his feats as a sea captain, explorer and privateer won him respect and reward. He regularly antagonised Spain, who had their own name for him. What was it?
Answer: “El Draque”, or The Dragon. Drake’s privateering adventures involved attacks on Spanish ships and he was regularly depicted as little more than a common pirate.
Source: Sir Francis Drake by Harry Kelsey
Kyoto, the historical capital of imperial Japan for over a millennia, owes a special debt to former US Secretary of War, Henry Stimson (1867-1950). Why?
Answer: Kyoto was originally considered the preferential target for one of the first atomic bombs, ahead of Nagasaki. The so called “city of a thousand shrines” was only removed due to intervention of Stimson, who considered that Kyoto’s destruction would be an act of gross cultural vandalism.
Source: Kyoto – A Cultural and Literary History by John Dougill
Which device, now found in cities and towns all over the world, first appeared outside the British Parliament on December 10 1868?
Answer: Traffic lights. They were gas-operated and controlled by policemen who worked the devices by hand. Unfortunately the experiment was short lived after a 1869 explosion seriously injured the policeman working the lights.
Source: The Usborne Book of Inventors by Struan Reid
Which European ruler played music with Bach, studied the work of the great philosophers and took his library with him on military campaigns?
Answer: Frederick the Great (1712-1786), King of Prussia
Source: Frederick the Great by Tim Blanning
“He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag; he is a shame to the American nation… To my mind he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced.” Who was the subject of these scathing words by author Mark Twain (1835-1910)?
Answer: William A. Clark (1839-1925). Clark was a wealthy industrialist who had bribed members of the Montana State Legislature to elect him as senator for Montana in 1899, at a time when senators were selected by state legislatures.
Source: Boom, Bust, Boom by Will Carter
Between 1945 and 1947, American farmers Lloyd and Clara Olsen travelled on the entertainment circuit in the United States with what?
Answer: Their headless chicken. After decapitating the chicken to sell it for meat in September 1945, the chicken somehow remained alive for another two years, during which the Olsen’s cashed in on “Miracle Mike the Headless Chicken.”
Source: Colorado by Thomas J. Noel
In 1905, American geologist Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1945) published his research paper “Tyrannosaurus and Other Cretaceous Carnivorous Dinosaurs”. Why was this of such scientific and historic importance?
Answer: The paper was the first to describe the dinosaur species Tyrannosaurus Rex, a large carnivore that lived during the Cretaceous Period and perhaps the best known of all dinosaurs.
Source: Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Tyrant King by Peter L Larson
In the context of medieval Europe, what was a “nosegay”?
Answer: A “nosegay” was a bouquet of flowers or collection of dried flowers and herbs, used to keep smells away. It was commonly used while walking in a large crowd.
Source: Smell and the Ancient Senses by Mark Bradley
Philip II of Macedon was father of Macedonian statesman and conqueror Alexander the Great. He died by assassination and his assassin was caught and killed. Who was he and how could he have avoided his own death?
Philip II was betrayed by one of his seven bodyguards, Pausanias of Orestis. Pausanias could have avoided his death by running with care. He fled the murder scene, where horses brought by his associates were waiting for him. Before he could reach them, he tripped on a vine. Three of Philip’s bodyguards caught him and took their revenge.
Source: General Historical Texts
Which car, first produced in 1934, was a major pioneer in automobile engineering and was known by its tagline “It Works Like Magic. It Feels Like Flying!”?
Answer: The Chrysler Airflow. The Airflow was one of the first American cars to use the principle of streamlining to reduce air resistance. Despite its innovation, the car was a commercial failure and production ceased in 1937.
Source: The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and Its Engineering Legacy by Carl Breer at al
When the first American ship arrived in China in 1785, the Chinese found the American flag so beautiful that they compared it to what?
Answer: A flower. An informal name for the United States in China was the “flower flag country”.
Source: History of the Flag of the United States of America by George Henry Preble
In light of the struggle and conflict that was to come, what surprising event took place on September 22, 1939 in Brest-Litovsk?
Answer: German and Soviet soldiers marched in a joint parade to mark their victory in the invasion of Poland. Joint placards were erected showing the red star and the swastika side by side.
Source: Enemy in the East by Rolf-Dieter Muller
In the Victorian age, the mail system was much larger and widespread than anything seen in the modern day. If you lived in London in the 1830s for instance, how often was mail delivered?
Answer: Around 12 times a day. Senders would often get angry if their letter took more than a few hours to arrive.
Source: Posting It by Catherine Golden
In 2013, writers Steven Skiena and Charles B. Ward developed an algorithm to denote historical figures in order of significance. Excluding religious figures, who do Skiena and Ward estimate to be the most historically significant figure of all time?
Answer: French leader Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Napoleon was closely followed by English playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and US President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).
Source: Who’s Bigger by Steven Skiena and Charles B. Ward
Which medieval English King often had animal fancy dress parties?
Answer: King Edward III (1312-1377). Edward regularly attended dressed as a pheasant, while his soldiers dressed as swans.
Source: Edward III by W. Mark Ormrod
In 1683, explorer Rene Le Salle (1643-1687) completed a journey from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi. Le Salle claimed the area for France, naming it Louisiana in honour of his King, Louis XIV. How did Louis reply?
Answer: Rather ungratefully. He wrote, “I am convinced that the discovery of Sieur de la Salle is very useless, and such enterprises ought to be prevented in future.”
Source: History Without the Boring Bits by Ian Crofton
In 1917, thousands of miners at the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Arizona went on strike over poor pay and conditions. In response, Phelps Dodge did what?
Answer: It kidnapped around 1,300 miners from Bisbee, Arizona, sending them by train on a 16 hour journey to Luna County, New Mexico. The miners were left there, warned never to return to Bisbee. The event, known as the Bisbee Deportation, was condemned by a Presidential inquiry as being wholly illegal and remains one of the most remarkable events in American labour history.
Source: Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-class History by Eric Arneson
In 1680, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) became Shogun of Japan. What unusual laws did Tokugawa institute as a result of his birth year?
Answer: Having been born in the year of the dog, he introduced laws outlawing any cruelty to dogs. Those who broke these laws faced banishment or even death. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi became known as the “Dog Shogun”.
Source: The Pawprints of History by Stanley Coren
In the 19th century Midwest, what was the “Knights of the Forest”?
Answer: A secret society formed in Minnesota devoted to removing Native Americans from the state. While the strict secrecy of the organisation means little is known about its workings, it is believed to have played a significant role in the egregious marginalisation of Native Americans in Minnesota.
Source: Last Standing Woman by Winona LaDuke
Pope John XII (930-964) is famous for the alleged depravity that dominated his papacy. True to reputation, how does chronicler Liutprand of Cremona say John died in 964.
Answer: According to Liudprand, John died outside Rome in the arms of another man’s wife. On discovery of the event, the outraged husband is said to have beaten John to death.
Source: The Quest for the City by Ted Byfield
“In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.” These are the opening lines of what document?
Answer: The Proclamation of the Irish Republic, issued by Irish republicans during the Easter Rebellion of 1916.
Source: Ireland in the Twentieth Century by Tim Pat Coogan
As heir to the throne, future Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II (1303-1213 BCE) was taught combat skills from a young age. By the age of ten, what skills would Ramseses have likely possessed?
Answer: By this age he would have learned archery, how to ride a horse and how to pilot a chariot. Indeed, his skills must have not disappointed as when Rameses was 10 he was appointed Commanded-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army.
Source: Ramses II by Stephanie Fitzgerald
“The buggers have fallen for it.” This was the content of a coded SAS message to base in 1944. What was it referring to?
Answer: Operation Titanic. This was a series of military deceptions carried out on 5-6 June 1944 by the Royal Air Force and SAS. Bombers dropped sandbags designed to resemble paratroopers, along with flares, Lewis bombs and firecrackers, in order to simulate a parachute attack. It successfully confused German defenders, allowing American forces at Omaha beach crucial time to consolidate their position.
Source: D-Day in Numbers by Jacob F. Field
August 2015
The Gladiators of Ancient Rome often attained celebrity status and were well known throughout the Roman Empire. Surprisingly, what did these gladiators do that we often consider a purely modern phenomenon?
Answer: Endorse products. Gladiators would often advertise goods in the arena, in painted frescoes and in wall graffiti. The promotion of different brands of olive oil was particularly prevalent.
Source: Big Screen Rome by Monica Silveira Cyrino
In the 6th century BCE, the Greek Engineer Eupalinus of Megara constructed one of the greatest feats of Ancient Greek engineering. What was it?
Answer: The Tunnel of Eupalinos, in Samos, Greece. It was built as an aqueduct for the Ancient capital of Samos, and tunnels through a mountain for over 1000 metres. It was not rediscovered until the 1880s.
Source: A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities by J.C. McKeown
Troy, Nosewise, Swepestake, Trynket and Nameless are all examples of names given to what in medieval Britain?
Answer: Dogs. Other common names, as listed in Edward, Duke of York’s (1373-1415) medieval hunting treatise “The Master of Game” included Crab, Holdfast and Absolom.
Source: The Dog Book by Kathleen Walker-Meikle
When Britain set out on its ill-fated invasion of Afghanistan in 1839, it brought thousands of British and Indian soldiers, weapons and equipment. Some of the supplies they brought were less needed however. What were they?
Answer: The British invaders also brought 300 camel loads of wine, foxhounds so the army leaders could go hunting, and amateur theatre sets.
Source: The Return of a King by William Dalrymple
Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (1661-1723) was the colonial Governor of New York between 1702 and 1708. When he opened the colonial assembly in 1702, it caused quite a stir. Why?
Answer: He is said to have attended the opening wearing women’s clothing, explaining that as he was representing Queen Anne (1665-1714), he should dress like her too. This was not to be his last time, cross dressing. Hyde’s decision to attend a funeral dressed as a woman caused his removal from office in 1708.
Source: Fall From Grace by Shelley Ross
The Spanish Habsburg dynasty (1516-1700) became extinct with the death of Charles II (1661-1700). What is the commonly accepted reasoning for the demise of this once great dynasty?
Answer: Inbreeding. The rules of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty frequently resulted in the marriages of close relatives, including uncles marrying nieces and the marriages of first cousins. Charles II, who bore no children, was physically and mentally disabled after centuries of this practice.
Source: What If? by Randall Munroe
In 1729, French philosopher Voltaire made a fortune playing the Paris lottery. How?
Answer: Paris held a municipal bond lottery with a separate lottery in each part of the city. The prize in each district was greater than the total cost of lottery tickets, so Voltaire saw that if he bought all the tickets in a district, he would be sure to win. Along with a group of others, he did just that. The syndicate is said to have made about 7.5 million francs.
Source: Voltaire, a Biography by Haydn T. Mason
Who declared “throwing down your own sword is also an art of war. If you have attained mastery of swordlessness, you will never lack for a sword. The opponent’s sword is your sword?”
Answer: Medieval Japanese swordsman Yagyū Munenori (1571-1646). Munenori founded the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, a prestigious school of Japanese swordsmanship.
Source: Soul of the Samurai by Thomas Cleary
The Hindenburg Airship, at its time the largest man-made object that ever flew, is famed for its spectacular demise on arriving in the United States on May 6 1937. It nearly had a different name however. What was it?
Answer: Hitler. During its construction Joseph Goebbels’ (1897-1945) had requested that the ship be named after Hitler, but the Zeppelin company chairman, Hugo Eckner (1868-1954), refused.
Source: History’s Narrowest Escapes by James Moore
The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti existed between 1762 and 1800. Where was it?
Answer: Modern day Georgia. It came into being after the unification of two eastern Georgian kingdoms, the Kingdom of Kartli and the Kingdom of Kakheti. It was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801.
Source: From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus by Arsene Saparov
Cooling Castle was a 14th century English castle built in Kent. Constructed to defend the area against French raiding parties, it was the first English castle designed to allow fort defenders to use gunpowder weapons. What was ironic about its eventual demise?
Answer: It was the offensive capability of gunpowder weapons that led to Cooling’s capture after only eight hours when besieged by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1521-1554) in January 1554. The castle was largely destroyed.
Source: Fortess Kent by Roy D. Ingleton
The Marlyebone Cricket Club in London is famous as being the origin of the rules of cricket, but it also introduced the first concise rules for which other sport?
Answer: Tennis. It introduced standardised rules for lawn tennis in May 1875. These were used as the basis for the rules at the first Wimbledon Tennis Championships in 1877.
Source: Tennis – Cultural History by Heiner Gillmeister
On July 4 1945, the Brazilian cruiser Bahia was sunk by an explosion while acting as a plane guard for transport aircraft. Why was the sinking particularly tragic?
Answer: The sinking was self-inflicted. The ships gunners were firing at a kite for anti-aircraft practice when one miss aimed and shot a depth charges stored near the ship’s stern. This caused a huge explosion that sank the ship within minutes.
Source: Latin America’s Wars by Robert L Scheina
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fighting in the First World War (1914-1918) used the nicknames “Christmas Pudding”, “Toffee Apple” and “Football” to refer to which piece of military hardware?
Answer: The medium mortar, used by the BEF from 1916 onwards. Such nicknames were common, a 60 kg mortar was known as the “Flying Pig”.
Source: Trench Warfare, 1914-1918 by Tony Ashworth
On 30 June 1859 Frenchman Charles Blondin (1824-1897) famously crossed Niagara Gorge, on the border between the USA and Canada, on a tightrope. The Gorge is 1100 ft. long and over 160 ft. above the water. This was merely the beginning of the ways he would perform the stunt however. How else did he do it?
Answer: Blondin’s variations of the journey included doing it while blindfolded, on stilts, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow and while carrying a man on his back. On one crossing he even sat down midway and, no less, made an omelette.
Source: Niagara by Pierre Berton
On June 9 1772, the British schooner HMS Gaspee ran aground near Warwick, Rhode Island, while engaging in anti-smuggling operations. What happened next?
Answer: The presence of Gaspee had angered local colonists and while the ship was aground, members of the anti-taxation Sons of Liberty secret society attacked, looted and torched the ship. The attack, known as the Gaspee Affair, is considered an important event in the lead-up to the American War of Independence (1775-1883).
Source: Sons of Providence by Charles Rappleye
“Leather-necks”, “Aces” and “Bilge-rats” were all nicknames for what?
Answer: Members of the British Armed forces during the First World War (1914-1918). “Leather-necks” was a nickname for British army soldiers, “Aces” for fighter pilots while sailors were dubbed “Bilge-rats”.
Source: British English A to Zed by Norman W. Schur et al
Which ancient dynasty’s knowledge of complex chemical formulas meant that they developed waterproof clothing, fireproof cement and even bamboo gas pipelines long before others?
Answer: The Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE).
Source: Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph Needham
Aristippus (435 BCE-356 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and pupil of Socrates (470 BCE-399 BCE). Two of his written dialogues concerned surprising themes. What were they?
Answer: One was called “A Response to Those Who Criticise Me for Spending Money on Old Wine and Prostitutes”, while another was named “A Response to Those Who Criticise Me for Spending Money on Gourmet Food”.
Source: A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities by J.C. McKeown
When Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, a number of rumours swept the country. What did they include?
Answer: One rumour suggested a secret Russian troop train had crossed England with drawn blinds, bound for France. Many others questioned the loyalty of the German population of Great Britain. One suggested a German grocer was selling poisoned vegetables, with another claiming a German barber had been caught cutting the throats of his patrons.
Source: What they don’t tell you about World War I by Bob Fowke
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was an Augustinian friar who served as Abbot of St Thomas’s Abbey, Brno, in modern day Czech Republic. Largely unknown during his life, he later became recognized as the founding father of which discipline?
Answer: Genetics. He published research on the development of “recessive” and “dominant” traits in inheritance in 1866. This was largely ignored at the time and his pioneering conclusions were not appreciated until the beginning of the 20th century, nearly 30 years after his death.
Source: Mendel and the Laws of Genetics by Heather Hasan
Which medieval European ruler was renowned for being unkempt, smelly and wearing the exact same clothing every day until it fell apart?
Answer: James VI and I of England and Scotland (1566-1625). James also considered himself an academic, though this was widely lampooned by others. The French court dubbed him “the wisest fool in Christendom.”
Source: An Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O’Farrell
The Battle of Anzio, which took place between January and June 1944, pitted the Allies against the Axis Powers in Lazio, Italy. With Allied forces entrenched in marshland, what unusual strategy did the Axis powers use to drive out the Allies?
Answer: They stopped the drainage pumps and deliberate flooded the marshes behind the Anzio beachhead, hoping to encourage proliferation of malaria-bearing mosquitoes. While the plan largely failed, the event is considered the only instance of attempted biological warfare in Europe during the Second World War (1939-1945).
Source: Mediterranean Front by James Smith
What was the event known as the “Great Stink” which took place in London in July and August 1858?
Answer: Hot weather exacerbated long term sewage contamination of the River Thames. The smell was said to be so strong that it made walking near the river unbearable. Unsurprisingly the British Parliament, situated on the banks of the Thames, rushed through in 18 days a law to build a new sewer system.
Source: The Great Stink of London by Stephen Halliday
The Chinese Imperial examination, used for entrance into the Chinese state bureaucracy from the middle of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) until 1905, was incredibly rigorous. What did it involve?
Answer: Candidates had to stay in an examination compound in an isolated cell for three days and two nights. Here they wrote the “eight-legged essay” meant to show their mastery of Confucian classics. Only five percent of those sitting the exam passed.
Source: The China Collectors by Karl E. Meyer et al
King Alexander (1893-1920) ruled Greece from June 1917 to October 1920. He died in strange circumstances. What were they?
Answer: He died from a monkey bite. He was bitten by a Barbary macaque monkey while walking on 2 October, and died three weeks later of septicemia.
Source: Kings of the Hellenes by John Van de Kiste
Ernest Simpson, the husband of Wallis Simpson, mistress of Edward, prince of Wales, was cruelly described by 1930s London society as what?
“The patriot who laid down his wife for his king.” Edward became king in 1936, and abdicated after only 325 days to marry Mrs Simpson.
Source : 17 Carnations : The Windsors, the Nazis and the Cover-Up by Andrew Moreton
Woodrow Wilson said, perhaps partially tongue in cheek, that he had left the position of president of Princeton University to run for the governorship of New Jersey and ultimately for the US presidency for what reason?
Answer: To escape politics.
Source: Machine Rules by Stephen Loosely
In 1938-39, Nazi Germany’s SS undertook an unusual expedition to where in the world?
Answer: Tibet. The expedition, led by Ernst Schäfer (1910-1992), was driven by the idea that Tibet may be the cradle of the “Aryan” race. While on the expedition SS officers visited Tibetan ministers, distributed Nazi flags and propaganda and took photographs of the region.
Source: Tibet by Lezlee Brown Halper
The Treaty of Versailles (1919) ordered that Germany pay vast reparations for war damage. As part of these reparations, what was the Germany company Bayer surprisingly forced to relinquish.
Answer: The trademark for the drug Aspirin. The rights were sold to the UK, France, Germany and the United States.
Source: The Most Important Chemical Compounds by Richard Leroy Myers
In 1899, new parents Thomas and Alice Day from Kent, UK, gave their child what odd name?
Answer: Time Of. The child’s full name was Time Of Day.
Source: Potty, Fartwell and Knob by Russell Ash
July 2015
What supposedly much used custom attributed to pirates, often depicted in novels and film, was only recorded to have taken place once?
Answer: Walking the plank. The only recorded real life case took place in 1829, well after the golden age of piracy.
Source: Pirates by David Cordingly
In 1913, how much of the world’s territory and population was under the authority of European empires?
Answer: 52% of the world’s territory (29,607,169 sq. miles) and 51% of the world’s population (914 million people).
Source: The War of the World by Niall Ferguson
The “Cadaver Synod” was an odd and gruesome legal event. What happened?
Answer: The decaying corpse of Pope Formosus (816-896) was put on trial by his successor, Pope Stephen VI (?-897). The court declared the rotting corpse was guilty for past crimes and he was retroactively stripped of the papacy.
Source: The Catholic Church by Cynthia Stewart
Which British explorer’s achievements included being one of the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa, knowing 29 world languages and journeying to Mecca at a time when Europeans were forbidden to do so on pain of death?
Answer: Richard Francis Burton (1820-1890). Burton’s career may have been even more extensive if he was not unpopular with government officials for his criticism of the British Empire.
Source: A Rage to Live by Mary S. Lovell
Which word, with its origins in World War Two and now used to mean criticism, is a contraction of the German military term “Fliegerabwehrkanone”?
Answer: Flak.
Source: Health under Fire by James R. Arnold
The Battle of Marston Moor (1644) was a landmark battle during the English Civil War (1642-1651). This widespread conflict was not noticed by everyone however. What was the reply of one farm labourer nearby when asked whom he was for, King or Parliament?
Answer: He allegedly replied: “What? Be them two fallen out, then?”
Source: The English Civil War by David Clark
What did Kuramarini, wife of legendary Pacific voyager Kuper, describe as “a cloud, a cloud, a white cloud, a long white cloud!”
Answer: New Zealand.
Source: Between Indigenous and Settler Governance by Lisa Ford.
In 1531, King Henry VIII of England appointed Sir William Paulet to which unique position?
Answer: The post of “Surveyor of the King’s Widows, and Governor of All Idiots and Naturals in the King’s Hands”. The role involved overlooking those suffering with mental illness in England.
Source: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About the Tudors by Terry Breverton
According to figures used by historian Niall Ferguson, which Empire lasted for the longest period; the Habsburg, Ottoman or Ming Empires?
Answer: The Ottoman Empire, which lasted for 469 years (1453-1922). The Habsburg lasted from 1526-1918, while the Ming lasted from 1368-1644.
Source: The War of the World by Niall Ferguson
As late as the 1780s, the shipwrights and weavers of Newcastle, England, were forbidden to do what?
Answer: Take on a Scotsmen as an apprentice. This hostility was a result of English prejudice of Scots, who they considered ‘aliens’, unreliable and untrustworthy.
Source: Art, Artisans and Apprentices by James Ayres
“Oh, no, no, no, they’re not men, they’re monsters. They really are a special, nasty breed of vermin, old man. You could call them the microbes of war.” This was written by French novelist and former solder Henri Barbusse after the First World War, but who was he talking about?
Answer: German officers. Such writing is an example of the mutual hatred that existed among First World War combatants long after the war had ended.
Source: The War of the World by Niall Ferguson
Traditionally, the Jiao and Hui are examples of what type of organisation that existed in historical China?
Answer: Secret Societies. The Jiao were religious sectarian fraternities that worshipped unorthodox gods, while the Hui were sworn brotherhoods engaged in gambling, smuggling and extortion. Both groups were ruthlessly persecuted, especially during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
Source: The Encylopedia of Asian History by Ainslie T. Embree
In 1877 which two major art-world figures were caught up in a public scandal over “a pot of paint thrown in the public’s face”?
Answer: Famed art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) and artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). The quotation belongs to Ruskin’s scathing attack on Whistler’s artwork “Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket.”
Source: James McNeill Whistler by Ronald Anderson and Anne Koval
The famous novelist George Eliot (1819-1880) and the wife of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) shared the same what?
Answer: Name. Both were called Mary Anne Evans, with George Eliot the pen name for the former.
Source: Jerusalem Recovered by Michael Polowetzky
In 1585, an English individual named Wotton was tried and convicted of what crime?
Answer: According to chroniclers, Wotton “kept an academy for the education and perfection of pickpockets and cut-purses.” The man had been a successful merchant, but after suffering hard times resorted to opening the “school” in an alehouse. His case is one of the earliest recorded examples of organised petty crime in England.
Source: The Book of Days by Robert Chambers
In the context of the French Revolution (1789-1799), what was a “federation”?
Answer: A movement of the early Revolution that sought to express national unity and the principles of the revolution through public festivals. These large festivals involved flags, marches and feasts, the largest of which took place on 14 July 1790 in Paris.
Source: Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution by Samuel F Scott et. al.
French car magnate Louis Renault, who founded today’s giant car group that bears his name, had some interesting approaches to running his business. What was just one example.
Answer: He wouldn’t have red haired men in his factories.
Source: The Amazing World of Automobiles – Past, Present and Future
What word did US five star General Dwight D Eisenhower once use to depict Britain’s most successful World War Two general Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery?
Answer: He described him as a psychopath.
Source: The Times – May 25, 2015
“He is not mad enough to be locked up, but too abnormal to manage comfortably in the world with reasonable people.” Which European monarch is this quote referring to?
Answer: King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886). Ludwig spent vast sums on extravagant artistic and architectural projects, though many modern scholars consider he was not mad. The quote is from Ludwig’s cousin, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898).
Source: The Mad King by Greg King
Petronius (27-66 CE) was a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero (37-68 CE). A skilful writer, he rose to a high position in the Roman court before being accused of treason and arrested. Rather than waiting to be sentenced Petronius took his own life in an unusual way. What was it?
Answer: According to Tacitus (56-117 CE), Petronius slit his veins before bounding them up, allowing him a slow and straightforward death. As he slowly died, he ate luxury food, listened to music and chatted with friends.
Source: Annals XVI by Tacitus
Which nineteenth century African leader established a powerful empire west of Lake Chad, and has been described as a warlord, slave trader, thug and anti-colonial fighter amongst other titles?
Answer: Rabih bin Fadallah (1840-1900). Fadallah confronted both Britain and France, to differing degrees of success.
Source: 100 Great Africans by Alan Rake
Which nineteenth century musician elicited such devotion among his primarily female audiences that admirers would fight over his clothes, try to steal his strings and wear brooches and cameos carrying his image?
Answer: Franz Liszt (1811-1886). The hysteria was first identified at a Berlin concert in 1841, and this intense fan frenzy has become known as “Lisztomania”.
Source: Franz Liszt – The Virtuoso Years by Alan Walker
Painted pebbles, pieces of shaped wood and animal knucklebones have been discovered by scholars studying a range of ancient societies, including the Sumerians, Babylonians, Greeks, Egyptians and Romans. What pastime do these items suggest these societies enjoyed?
Answer: Gambling. Pebbles, wood and bones were regularly used as dice for a range of gambling.
Source: Legends and Tales of the American West by Richard Erdoes
Which planet was originally named “George” or “Gergium Sidus” after King George III of Great Britain?
Answer: Uranus. A variety of British sources continued to name it after George until well into the nineteenth century.
Source: Atlas of Uranus by Garry E. Hunt et al
What was the historical event known as the “Singeing the King of Spain’s Beard”?
Answer: This refers to an attack on Spanish ships assembling at the port of Cádiz by English ships led by Sir Francis Drake in April and May 1587. A significant English victory, the attack was dubbed this by Drake as Spanish men considered their beards a sign of macho virility.
Source: The World of Enlightenment by Bea Stimpson
Chinese ruler Duke Jinggong of Qi (574-490 BCE) once famously found his position threatened by three ambitious generals. Jinggong removed them by using 2 peaches. How?
Answer: He devised a ruse where a peach would be presented as a reward to the two generals with the greatest achievements. The generals Gongsun Jie and Tian Kaijiang announced their accomplishments and took a peach. The remaining general Gu Yezi angrily listed his own accomplishments, which the first two generals agreed were more impressive. Due to their shame at taking gifts they did not merit, both killed themselves. Gu Yezi, shamed at having killed two colleagues by boasting, then killed himself too.
Source: More Than 36 Stratagems by Douglas S. Tung
On June 24 1509, King Henry VIII (1491-1547) of England was crowned. In addition to his role as King, what else of substance did Henry inherit?
Answer: A considerable fortune from his father, Henry VII, of around £1,250,000 (as much as £375 million in today’s money). Unlike his son, Henry VII was incredibly prudent with money as is often considered to be last solvent ruler for 200 years.
Source: Henry VIII by Alison Weir
In 1890, American writer Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) published a study that was one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. What was it?
Answer: “The Influence of Sea Power on History, 1690-1783”. An analysis of the use of sea power during the wars of empire, its arguments in favour of large navies influenced political leaders in the United States, Germany, Japan and Britain, among others.
Source: Events That Changed Great Britain since 1689 by Frank W. Thackeray et al
What did Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels describe in 1941 as his greatest propaganda achievement?
Answer: The development of the so called “Führer myth”, the adulation of Adolf Hitler by millions of Germans who may otherwise have been only marginally attracted to Nazi Ideology.
Source: The Hitler Myth by Ian Kershaw
The “Capital Punishment Amendment Act” passed in 1868 brought about what major change to the administration of British justice?
Answer: It outlawed the centuries old tradition of public executions.
Source: British Historical Facts 1830-1900 by Chris Cook and Brendan Keith
As of June 18 is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, one of the most decisive military encounters in world history, our focus turns to this pivotal event. What were the broad parameters of the battle?
Answer: The battle was fought over an area of just more than five square kilometres, Some 2000,000 men, 60,000 horses and 537 guns were deployed. Up to 50,000 men were killed, with many more wounded.
Source: The Times, April 2, 2015
June 2015
What was one of the more interesting aspects of US President Andrew Johnston’s inaugural speech on April 15, 1866?
Answer: Johnson, who had been vice president to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, had drunk several glasses of whiskey before hand and slurred his words as he spoke.
Source: The Ultimate History of the President’s – The History Channel
Henry Parkes was premier of the Australian state of New South Wales on five separate occasions and a leading figure in the move to Australian Federation. What was the response when one of his colleagues congratulated him on his 17th and “last” child?
Answer: He replied, “What do you mean last? You mean latest?”
Source: NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley – May 28, 2015
During the Prohibition era (1920-1933) in the United States, which type of alcohol was exempt from the ban?
Answer: Sacramental wine, exempt for religious purposes. In Prohibition’s first year alone, the sale of sacramental wine increased by 800,000 gallons. Some bootleggers even posed as clergyman to buy wine.
Source: Bootleggers and Beer Barons of the Prohibition Era
The years 1821, 1861 and 1873 were highly influential in the development of which naval technology?
Answer: Steam power. 1821 saw the Royal Navy purchase its first steamer; 1861 saw the completion of the revolutionary steam powered ship HMS Warrior; and 1873 saw the completion of HMS Devastation, the first naval vessel built with virtually no wind sailing capability.
Source: British Historical Facts 1830-1900 by Chris Cook and Brendan Keith
Who said that “the argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics?”
Answer: Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), British suffragette leader.
Source: Oxford Dictionary Book of Quotations by Susan Ratcliffe
In 1528, Germans acquired the right to colonise which unlikely location?
Answer: Venezuela. King of Spain Charles V granted the rights to two Augsburg banking families, thus establishing the only German colony in the Americas. It was unsuccessful and Spain resumed control in 1556.
Source: The Spanish Dependencies in South America by Bernard Moses
At a dinner party in 1760, John Joseph Merlin (1735-1803) managed to crash into a mirror demonstrating which invention?
Answer: Roller skates. While skating, Merlin was also said to have been playing a violin when he smashed the mirror.
Source: The Enlightened Economy by Joel Mokyr
What was unusual about the first female to circumnavigate the world?
Answer: It was a goat. The goat even made the journey twice, once on HMS Dolphin under Samuel Wallis (1728-1795) and another on HMS Endeavour under James Cook (1728-1779). The goat, which provided fresh milk to the captain, became a favourite of Cook’s and was even adopted by him after her service had finished.
Source: Captain James Cook by Walter Veit
Flight navigator Fred Noonan (1893-1937) died somewhere in the Pacific ocean in 1937. With whom?
Answer: Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (1897-1937)
Source: Air and Sea Mysteries by Sue L. Hamilton
Who was the first person to fly in an aeroplane?
Answer: John Appleby. Appleby was the coachman for Sir George Cayley (1773-1857), who carried out various pioneering experiments with gliders, persuading Appleby to test his first manned attempt in 1853. While Appleby flew and earned his place in history, he was not reported to have liked the experience, quitting his job declaring “I was hired to drive, not to fly”.
Source: I Never Knew That About England by Christopher Winn
During the Second World War, Nazi Germany introduced a tank named “Goliath”. Why was the name misleading?
Answer: “Goliath” was in fact a miniature remote-controlled tank, measuring only five feet in length. It carried 200 lb of explosive and would be steered onto a target, where it was then exploded.
Source: Encyclopaedia of Military Technology and Innovation by Stephen Bull
Which famous world landmark was nearly pulled down in 1909?
Answer: The Eiffel Tower. The tower had been originally planned to exist for twenty years, after which ownership would revert to the City of Paris and it would be dismantled. Luckily for world heritage, the structure’s height made it invaluable as a radio tower and it was kept.
Source: Eiffel’s Tower by Jill Jonnes
“Ruler of the East”, “Stink Onion”, “Bear Guard Home” and “God of the Underworld” are all what?
Answer: The names of cities using their literal meaning. These are Vladivostok (“Ruler of the East”), Chicago (“Stink Onion”), Birmingham (“Bear Guard Home”) and Madras (“God of the Underworld”).
Source: Atlas of True Names by Stephen Hormes
What event is considered by many to be the first aerial attack in modern warfare?
Answer: The Austrian attack on Venice in 1849, when Austrian forces dropped bombs on the city from balloons. While the attack was ineffectual, it led to considerable fears of the power of future aerial bombardment.
Source: The Influence of Air Power Upon History by Walter J. Boyne
In 1667, Christopher Monck was elected to the British Parliament. What was unusual about this?
Answer: Monck was 13 years old. He took to the role quickly however, at the age of 14 he was said to have given an impressive speech arguing for the impeachment of the first Earl of Clarendon.
Source: By Birth or Consent by Holly Brewer
The Rat Pack was the name given to the tight group of Hollywood celebrities lead by Frank Sinatra and including Sammy Davis Junior and Peter Lawford. Which illustrious American was honorary member of the group and given the nickname of “Chicky Baby”?
Answer: President John F Kennedy
Source: Yes I Can by Sammy Davis Jr; General Historical Texts
Early on in his career, General Dwight D Eisenhower worked for General Douglas MacArthur. Eisenhower later said that he “studied dramatics” under MacArthur. But what did MacArthur say of future Five Star General and US President Eisenhower?
Answer: “Eisenhower was the best clerk I ever had.”
Source: General Historical Texts
Famed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) would often pay using a personal cheque. Why were people often more than happy to take such payment from him?
Answer: At the height of his fame, Picasso’s signature was so valuable that it was often worth more than the product he had purchased. Hence the cheques themselves were often never cashed.
Source: French Blues by Paul Rambali
In the early years of the 20th Century, the Dreadnought was a new class of battleship that revolutionised naval warfare. With its 12 inch guns and top speed of 21 knots, the vessels made all other battleships obsolete. Launched by King Edward VII, what was unusual about the ceremony?
Answer: A bottle of Australian wine was used to launch the vessel.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Massie
When Beaduheard, a Royal Reeve, or important official in the Government of Wessex in England, went to the Dorset coast in 789 AD to find out what the unidentified sailors just arrived wanted, what happened?
Answer: The unidentified sailors were not Frankish Traders as suspected, but Vikings, who slaughtered Beaduheard and his party.
Source Alfred the Great – The Man Who Made England by Justin Pollard
During World War Two what remarkable statement did Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D Eisenhower say about Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet?
Answer: “The war would have ended sooner if someone had have shot Ernie King.”
Source: Dr Marc Milner, University of New Brunswick
At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, what percentage of English society were slaves?
Answer: 10 percent. In Cornwall, the figure was 25 percent.
Source: Alfred the Great – The Man Who Made England by Justin Pollard.
Dentists had a field day as a result of the Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815. How was this so?
Answer: In the early 19th century dentures made from real teeth sold for high prices. Dental scavengers scoured the battlefield and 52 barrels of dead men’s teeth are said to have been shipped to London to be made into “Waterloo Teeth”.
Source: The Times, April 2, 2015
Who was the last US president to wear a tri-corner hat?
Answer: James Monroe (1758-1831), United States’ fifth president.
Source: The Ultimate History of the Presidents – The History Channel
What was unusual about the lavish multi-course dinner held at Paris’ Grand Hotel on February 6, 1856?
Answer: Only horse was served. It was a horse butchers’ banquet organised to prove that horse flesh was perfectly healthy and, furthermore, good to eat. The guests, who included famed authors Alexander Dumas and Gustave Flaubert, enjoyed such dishes as: horse broth vermicelli; horse sausage; fillet of horse with mushrooms and potatoes sautéed with horse fat; and rum gateau with horse bone marrow.
Source: Gastronomique by Larousse
According to American historian and presidential speech writer Ted Widmer, Who is possibly the greatest writer in American history?
Answer: Because of the eloquence and poetic beauty of the 1863 Gettysburg address, President Abraham Lincoln.
Source: The Ultimate History of the Presidents – The History Channel
How many British soldiers lost limbs on the single day of the Battle of Waterloo, one of the most decisive military encounters in world history, fought on June 18, 1815?
Answer: 2000.
Source: The Times, April 2, 2015
The Baths of Caracalla in Ancient Rome were built between CE 212 and 216. How big were they?
Answer: They could accommodate some 2000 bathers.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
Land reclamation is seen as something of a modern phenomenon undertaken by a variety of countries? What however is one of the earliest examples of this activity?
Answer: The ancient and Venice-like city of Suzhou, in the southeast of today’s Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, was built on reclaimed land.
Source: The National Interest – May/June 2015
The last Russian tsar is considered to be Nicholas II, who relinquished his family’s 300 year hold on the imperial crown in 1917, when he signed the instrument of abdication in pencil, no less. But who, arguably, could be considered the last Tsar?
Answer: Nicholas abdicated in favour of his brother Grand Duke Michael, who promptly abdicated himself.
Source: Russia by Martin Sixsmith
May 2015
At the start of the 20th century, what was Germany’s remarkable Operational Plan III?
Answer: The plan, enthusiastically supported by Kaiser Wilhelm II, was to bombard the east coast of the United States, with a focus on New York. This was considered the heart of America. The plan, which began in 1903, was to send 60 ships and 100,000 men to shell Manhattan and capture Boston. By hitting the US there, it would force America to negotiate, in Germany’s imperial quest for “a place in the sun’” The outlandish scheme was driven by the Kaiser’s resentment of America’s growing power in the Pacific. A profound militarist, the Kaiser had a loathing of capitalist empires. Needless to say, the proposal was subsequently shelved.
Source: World War One by Professor Hew Strachan
What did French Marshal Ferdinand Foch describe during World War I as the “greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies in Europe.”
Answer: When US corporal Alvin C York captured 132 Germans in October 1918 with just a Colt .45 handgun.
Source: General Historical Texts
On the first day of the battle of the Somme in northern France in July 1916 the windows in London rattled. What was one of the unfortunate consequences of the British artillery Barrage against the German?
Answer: 30% of the shells fired by the British did not go off. In other words, they were duds.
Source: The First World War by Professor Hew Strachan
In the third quarter of the 19th century, Who was the most famous American in the world. More famous than, say, Abraham Lincoln?
Answer: William F (Buffalo Bill) Cody, who was a performer in the Wild West show which performed around the world.
Source: Buffalo Bill’s Life Story by Colonel W F Cody; General Historical Texts
In which year did the city of Constantinople become Istanbul?
Answer: 1923.
Source: The End of the Ottoman Empire by Alexander Lyon Macfie
What did famed US inventor and businessman Thomas Edison (1847-1931), who acquired a record number of 1,093 patents, say about failure?
Answer: “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
Source: Shane Rodgers – Queensland editor, The Australian, 20/4/15
What was one of the choicer pieces of advice World War Two US General George S Patton gave his troops on the importance of infantry mobility and firepower?
Answer: Patton told them, “Now some troops can move and some troops can shoot. But if you can move and shoot at the same time, then you and Napoleon are pissing through the same straw.”
Source: World War Two by Steven Spielberg
What did chief staff officer of the German 8th Army, Colonel Max Hoffman, say about the First World War?
Answer: “There has never been a war such as this, waged with such bestial fury.”
Source: The First World War by Professor Hew Strachan
What was unusual about Russia’s attendance at the 1908 London Olympics?
The team arrived 12 days late, as they were still using the Julian, rather than the Gregorian calendar.
Source: General Historical Texts
What did Italian author Giorgio Vasari say about Michelangelo’s statue David?
Answer: “Anyone who has seen Michelangelo’s David has no need to see anything else by any other sculptor”.
Source: Lives of the Artists (1568) by Giorgio Vasari
Concerns are being expressed today about land reclamation activities by China in the South China Sea. In what way, however, is this nothing new for the country?
Answer: China has a legacy of reclamation dating back to the 5th century B.C., when it used dredging and reclamation techniques to construct the Grand Canal.
Source: The National Interest – May/June 2015
In the sixteenth century, what island was visited by Portuguese explorers who, so overwhelmed by its beauty, christened it “Ilha Formosa”, meaning “Beautiful Island”?
Answer: Taiwan. The name first appeared on a map by Lopo Homen in 1554.
Source: Historical Dictionary of Modern China by James Z. Gao
In the months leading up to D-Day in June 1944, trucks, jeeps, transports and staff cars caused so much disruption in the English town of Andover, Hampshire, that what odd measure was put into place?
Answer: All workers in the town were given fifteen minutes extra at lunchtime to enable them to cross the streets.
Source: The D-Day Story by Martin Bowman
In 1624 the Dutch purchased Manhattan Island, modern day New York City, from the inhabitant Native Americans. How much did it cost them?
Answer: 60 Dutch guilders, equivalent to around $24. The real estate value of the island today could be measured in the trillions.
Source: How the Indians Lost Their Land by Stuart Banner
The Shahnameh, or “Book of Kings”, is an epic poem written by Persian poet Ferdosi between 977 and 1010. What is the poem famous for?
Answer: Containing over 60,000 verses, it is the longest epic poem ever written by a single author. It tells the mythical history of the Persian Empire from the dawn of time until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. It remains influential in Persian culture to this day.
Source: Leadership Through the Classics by Gregory Prastacos et al
Walther Forstmann, Max Valentiner, Otto Steinbrinck and Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière were all what?
Answer: Successful German U-boat commanders of the First World War (1914-1918). Arnauld de la Perière, a commander of French descent, was the most successful, with an incredible record of 195 ships sunk or captured.
Source: The Last Century of Sea Power by H. P. Willmott
French King Louis XIV (1638-1715) was the longest reigning monarch in European history. For how long did he reign?
Answer: An incredible 72 years, from 1643-1715.
Source: Western Civilization- Beyond Boundaries by Thomas F.X. Noble et. al
During the Second World War (1939-1945) the Supermarine Spitfire so caught the imagination of the British public that the wartime government did what in an attempt to generate more funds for their construction?
Answer: It established a “Buy a Spitfire fund”, which ordinary members of the public could donate to. Donors chose presentation names that were then painted on the cowling of the Spitfires they had helped pay for.
Source: The Spitfire Story by Peter March
In October 1859, American John Brown (1800-1859) and a group of twenty others tried to seize the United States armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Why?
Answer: Brown, a prominent abolitionist, sought to start a slave revolt using the weapons at the armory. He was defeated by a detachment of marines led by Robert E. Lee, but his attempted revolt is considered an important precursor to the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: Slavery in the United States by Junius P. Rodriguez
On June 22nd 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Russia. What is notable about this date?
Answer: It was the day before the anniversary of Napoleon’s failed Russian invasion of 1812. The Russian invasion proved as fatal to Hitler as it had been for his illustrious predecessor, though the end did not come quite so soon.
Source: History of the Second World War by B.H. Liddell Hart
Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla (1577-1620) is often considered to be one of the earliest explorers of which region?
Answer: Antarctica. In 1603 he and his ship’s company likely reached the Southern Ocean of Drake’s Passage, reaching a latitude of 64°.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia by David Crystal
In 1917, British artist and illustrator Norman Wilkinson developed a highly radical way in which to camouflage British ships fighting in the First World War (1914-1918). What was it?
Answer: Wilkinson developed what became known as “dazzle camouflage”. This sought to confuse rather than conceal, and involved ships being painted with bold shapes and intense colour contrasts. Hundreds of merchant ships and others were painted in such patterns, though the ultimate efficacy of the strategy remains unclear.
Source: Contested Objects by Nicholas J. Saunders et al
The world Dinosaur has origins in the term “Dinosauria”, first coined in 1842 by British biologist Richard Owen (1804-1892). What does it mean?
Answer: Derived from Greek words “deinos” and “sauros”, it can be translated as meaning “terrible reptile” or “fearfully great lizard”.
Source: The Changing Earth by James Monroe et al
What links William Blake (1757-1827), Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and Franz Kafka (1883-1924)?
Answer: They are all figures who became famous after their deaths. It was even said of Thoreau by one of his few contemporary supporters, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), that ‘“the country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it has lost”.
Source: Thoreau’s Seasons by Richard Lebeaux; Blake by Mike Davis et al; The Cambridge Companion to Kafka by Julian Preece
Between 1879 and 1880, Roman Catholic priest Johann Martin Schleyer (1831-1912) created Volapuk. What is this?
Answer: An artificial language, meaning “world speak”. Schleyer was inspired to create the language by a dream which outlined a universal language.
Source: Avant-Garde Theatre Sound by Adrian Curtin
On June 20 1942, a Ukrainian and three Poles audaciously escaped from Auschwitz concentration camp. How did they do it?
Answer: The four broke into a warehouse, where they stole SS uniforms, armed themselves and high jacked an SS staff car. They then brazenly drove unchallenged through the main gate out of the camp.
Source: Auschwitz – A New History by Laurence Rees
Between 600 and 200 BCE, which society had coinage shaped knives, latterly dubbed “knife money”?
Answer: China. The money circulated during the Zhou Dynasty, and developed alongside “spade money”, coinage crafted in the shapes of spades.
Source: China’s Imperial Past by Charles O. Hucker
Greek speaking Syrian writer Lucian of Samosata (125-180 CE) arguably wrote the first ever example of what literary genre?
Answer: Science fiction. Lucian’s work “True History” is a parody of travel tales, and involves plant-based aliens, travels to the moon and interplanetary warfare.
Source: Science-fiction, the Early Years by Everett Franklin Bleiler et al
On August 17, 1896, a Londoner named Bridget Driscoll unfortunately became the first person to do what?
Answer: Be killed as a pedestrian in a road accident. Driscoll had been crossing a road in Crystal Palace, south London, when she froze in panic as a motorcar from the Anglo-French Motor Carriage Company hit her. Driscoll died shortly afterwards. An inquest found that the motorcar that hit her had been travelling at only 4mph.
Source: Ways of the World by M. G. Lay
In 1941 the British cruiser HMS Trinidad was sailing in the Arctic when it engaged three German destroyers. Immediately, the Trinidad fired a torpedo. What happened next?
Answer: Unfortunately for the Trinidad, the arctic icy waters froze the torpedo’s steering mechanism, and the crew had to watch with increasing horror as the torpedo sped on through an arc and then backwards to the British vessel. It exploded, killing 32 men.
Source: The Great Cat Massacre by Gareth Rubin
In 1935, French novelist Henri Barbusse described how “in all his stature he towers over Europe and Asia, over the past and the future. This is the most famous and at the same time the most unknown person in the world.” Who was he referring to?
Answer: Soviet leader Josef Stalin (1878-1953).
Source: Stalin – Paradoxes of Power by Stephen Kotkin
April 2015
In France in the year 1750, what was the average life expectancy?
Answer: 27.9 years. It wasn’t much better elsewhere, being only 32 in Italy and 36.9 in England.
Source: Centuries of Change by Ian Mortimer
While “going over the top” is a well known phrase used by British soldiers to signify an attack in the First World War (1914-1918), what other phrase was equally as popular?
Answer: “Hopping the bags”. This came from the sandbags forming the parapet of the trench.
Source: A Dictionary of Slang by Eric Partridge
What unique strategy did the famed military leader Hannibal (247-181 BCE) use in naval battles against the forces of King Eumenes II of Pergamon in 184 BCE?
Answer: He ordered that large pots should be filled with venomous snakes, and then thrown on board Eumenes’ ships. Eumenes’ men first thought Hannibal had resorted to throwing empty crockery, but were soon forced to desperately avoid the writhing snakes.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life by Gordon Lindsay Campbell
In 1950, two men cutting peat on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark found a dead body and contacted the police. How was all not as it seemed?
Answer: The body belonged to a man who had lived during the 4th century BCE, 2,400 years previous. The corpse, which became known as the “Tollund Man”, had been naturally mummified in a bog and hence at first sight it looked a much more modern discovery.
Source: The Corpse – A History by Christine Quigley
“Beware the Cat” was a publication written by printer’s assistant and poet William Baldwin. Why is it considered pioneering?
Answer: “Beware the Cat” was first published in 1553 and is considered by some to be the first novel ever published in English. With a story that concerns supernatural events and episodes of terror, it is almost certainly the first example of horror fiction of significant length.
Source: The Oxford Handbook of English Prose 1500-1640 by Andrew Hadfield
“Q-ships” were a creative British response to the formidable U-boat threat of the Second World War (1939-1945). What were they?
Answer: They were heavily armed merchant vessels, disguised to resemble vulnerable supply ships. U-boats would often be caught by surprise, expecting the ships to be easy prey. They became feared by U-Boat crews as the “U-boat traps”.
Source: The United States in the First World War by Anne Cipriano Venzon
The War of Breton Succession took place between 1341 and 1364 between the Counts of Blois and the Montforts of Brittany for control of the region of Brittany. In 1351 a highly unusual method was crafted to try and break the impasse. What was it?
Answer: An arranged battle was staged between the two sides midway between the castles of Blois and Montfort, with each side permitted to have thirty champions. After a bloody battle, the House of Blois was victorious. The so called “Combat of the Thirty” became a popular example of medieval chivalry for later chroniclers.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Hundred Years War by John A. Wagner.
In the context of British history, what was a “knocker-up”?
Answer: A “knocker-up” was a profession to wake up sleeping people to ensure they made it to work on time. Emerging in the Industrial Revolution, they continued until affordable alarm clocks made the role superfluous.
Source: The Industrial Revolution by Carlo M. Cipolla
Which was the last to be invented by humankind: rope, the wheel, woven cloth or the flute?
Answer: The wheel. The potter’s wheel was first crafted around 3500 BCE by Uruk craftsmen, surprisingly making it the newest of all the inventions.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World by Shona Grimbly
According to estimates, who is the wealthiest sportsman of all time?
Answer: Hispanic-Roman chariot racer Gaius Appuleius Diocles, born 108 CE. Competing in the second century, Diocles was an accomplished racer, winning 1462 races over the course of his career. It is recorded that he retired with winnings of 35,863,120 Roman sesterces, estimated at around $15 billion in today’s money.
Source: Life, Death and Entertainment in the Roman Empire by David Stone Potter
In the context of the American War of Independence (1775-1783), what area sometimes called the “14th American colony” did not ultimately decide to join the rebellion?
Answer: Nova Scotia, in present day Canada. Attacks by American privateers and general ambivalence were among the reasons why Nova Scotia remained loyal to the British.
Source: The Far Reaches of Empire by John Grenier
While the principles of “military honour” had largely disappeared by the First World War (1914-1918), this was not the case for air battles. In what ways did chivalry continue in the skies?
Answer: “Chivalrous” actions in air combat included the dropping of wreaths over the location of the death of a prominent enemy airman, the refusal of pilots to continue firing at an enemy aircraft once it was clear it was damaged and the good treatment of captured pilots.
Source: Military Honour and the Conduct of War by Paul Robinson
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the population of the Russian Empire exploded. In 1875 it stood at around 85 million. What was it in 1913?
Answer: 180 million. This staggering increase led to the considerable size of the Russian Army in the First World War.
Source: The World War I Story by Chris McNab
In 1786, Jacques Balmat (1762-1834) and Michel-Gabriel Paccard (1757-1827) climbed to the top of which mountain, an expedition which is often considered the beginning of modern mountaineering?
Answer: Mount Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. Incredibly, Bamand and Paccard reached the summit un-roped and without ice axes.
Source: Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles by Cyril Douglas Milner
Which British military aircraft of the Second World War (1939-1945) was known as the ‘Flying Porcupine’?
Answer: The Short Sunderland, a flying boat patrol bomber. It was so dubbed due to its numerous 0.303in machine guns, twelve of which could be fitted to the aircraft.
Source: Deep Sea Hunters by Marin Bowman
Su Hui (365-426) was a Chinese poet who crafted one of the most incredibly complex poems of all time. What was it?
Answer: She crafted a Palindrome poem, an incredible piece of writing crafted through a 29 x 29 grid of characters. Each line can be read forward or backwards, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, and therefore can be read in 7,940 different ways. The poem was tilted Xuanji Tu, or “Picture of the Turning Sphere”.
Source: Classical Chinese Poetry by David Hinton
During the Second World War, American mathematician Genevieve Grotjan Feinstein (1912-2006) was lauded for successfully cracking the code for Purple. What was this?
Answer: “Purple” was the American codename for the Japanese cipher machine, similar to the more widely known Nazi equivalent “Engima”. Such was the importance of Feinstein’s breakthrough that it is considered one of the greatest achievements in U.S. code breaking history.
Source: An Encyclopaedia of American Women at War by Lisa Frank
In May 1839 a constitutional conflict emerged in Britain called the “Bedchamber Crisis”. What was it?
Queen Victoria’s refusal to dismiss her attendants married or associated with Whig politicians. Tory leader Robert Peel had made this a condition of him become Prime Minister. The refusal eventually led to the return of Whig Lord Melbourne as Prime Minister.
Source: Royal Representations by Margaret Homans
Between the 12th and 19th centuries, Japan possessed a strict feudal class structure. Which group was surprisingly the lowest in this structure?
Answer: Merchants. Confucian principles emphasised the importance of productive members of society. As merchants were considered not to produce anything themselves, they were below fisherman or farmers in the class structure.
Source: The Making of Urban Japan by Andre Sorensen
Who wrote that “the love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man”?
Answer: Charles Darwin (1809-1882). He set this down in his landmark “Descent of Man”, published in 1871.
Source: The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
During the Second World War (1939-1945), Britain’s Royal Navy was planning a future invasion to retake France, but struggled to accurately map coastal areas. In what unusual way did they attempt to solve this problem?
Answer: In March 1942, the BBC broadcast a Royal Navy plea for holiday pictures of the French coast. By the following day 30,000 letters had arrived.
Source: The D-Day Story by Martin Bowman
What was the “Panic of May 30 1883” which took place on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City?
Answer: A mere six days after the opening of the bridge in May 1883, a women tripped and fell at the steps near the New York Tower. A subsequent rumour that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede and in the chaos 12 people were crushed to death.
Source: A Picture History of the Brooklyn Bridge by Mary J. Shapiro
During the eighteenth century, what unusual living “ornaments” did many wealthy European landowners add to their garden estates?
Answer: Garden hermits, also known as ornamental hermits. These were people encouraged to live in purpose-built hermitages on the estates of wealthy landowners, where they were fed, cared for and viewed as entertainment. The practice is believed to have originated in the villa of the Roman emperor Hadrian (76-138 CE).
Source: The Hermit in the Garden by Gordon Campbell
Arthur Wellesley, The First Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), victor at Waterloo, was an arch conservative. Yet he was remarkably technologically advanced in several areas. What are some examples?
Answer: He became one of the first people in Britain to install flushing toilets and central heating.
Source: The Times, March 17, 2015.
Rather than inherit or seize it by military power, which Roman Emperor instead purchased the throne in 193 CE?
Answer: Didius Julianus (133-193). The Praetorian Guard had assassinated his predecessor, Pertinax (126-193), and held an auction for the throne – won by Didius. His reign did not last long as he was quickly overthrown and executed by Septimius Severus (145-211).
Source: Rome and her Enemies by Jane Penrose
Lord George Byron (1788-1824), was a London poet who because of his romantic poetry and stunning good looks was adored by hundreds of London society and other women. Indeed, one society mother advised her daughter, “Not to look at him, he is dangerous to look at”. What was one of the fetishistic mementos cherished by one of his lovers, a Mrs Wherry?
Answer: She kept black curling locks of his pubic hair.
Source: The Flawed Angel by Phyllis Grosskurth
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a Danish nobleman famed for his astronomical observations. Brahe owned an unusual pet however, which came to an even more unusual end. What was it?
Answer: According to his biographer Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), Brahe had a moose as a pet. During a dinner visit to the house of a fellow nobleman, the moose drank a large quantity of strong beer, fell down the stairs, no less, and died.
Source: Readers Guide to the History of Science by Arne Hessenbruch
According to most estimates, who was the most powerful pirate of all time?
Answer: Chinese pirate Cheng I Sao (1775-1844). A former prostitute, she rose to lead a formidable army of pirates who terrorised the South China Sea. Estimates suggest she controlled 300 ships of between 20,000 and 40,000 pirates, significantly more than any other pirate in history.
Source: Pirates of the South China Coast by Dian H. Murray
Aside from his enormous talent, Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt (1811-1886) holds a special place in the annals of adulation for great talent by appreciative audiences. How was this so?
Answer: He was the first musician to experience having women throwing their underwear at him.
Source: 1,411 Facts Compiled by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
What did British RAF officer John Alcock say after his pioneering non-stop flight across the Atlantic in June 1919, with Arthur Whitten Brown?
Answer: “We’ve had a terrible voyage … the wonder is we are here at all.”
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
March 2015
In 1859, 24 rabbits were introduced into Australia by Thomas Austin on his property in Victoria for hunting purposes. What was the outcome in a little over a decade?
Answer: Some ten years later two million were being killed each year to control the infestation.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
The Viking longboat was considered by some to be the greatest technical achievement of the early medieval era. Why was this?
Answer: Fast and maneuverable, it could be sailed in rivers, close to shore and across oceans.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
How did Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) describe the press?
Answer: “Our chief ideological weapon. It’s duty is to strike down the enemies of the working class.”
Source: Dictionary of Quotable Definitions edited by Eugene E Brusell
In the book “The Art of the Bedchamber” the Han minister Chang Tsang described how he attempted to live to the age of 180 years by doing what?
Answer: Sucking the secretions from women’s breasts.
Source: An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin
What was Julius Caesar’s response when a supplier of household requisites displeased him?
Answer: He had a baker who supplied sub-standard bread put in chains.
Source: Cleopatra – A Life by Tracy Schiff
Which fortress system, built by the French Army between 1929 and 1938 and costing billons of francs, was considered the most advanced in the world and included air conditioning, an electric underground railway system and state of the art living quarters?
Answer: The Maginot Line. Constructed in Eastern France, it proved to be an expensive mistake as in 1940 German soldiers simply invaded France through the low countries and avoided it.
Source: The History of Castles by Christopher Gravett
Which French King had a large group of young male followers who became known as his ‘mignons’?
Answer: King Henry III (1551-1589). The mignons were a source of scandal in France as a result of their mischievous ways. The word ‘mignons’ led to the English term ‘minions’.
Source: The French Wars of Religion 1559-1598 by R.J. Knecht
What was unusual about the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza?
Answer: Over 100,000 workers labored for 10 hours a day for over 20 years to build it.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
First introduced in 1942, the Type G7e TC torpedo used by German U Boats during the Second World War (1939-1945) proved a huge leap forward in torpedo design. Why?
Answer: Earlier torpedoes, powered by compressed air, left visible trails of bubble in the water for defending ships to spot. The Type G7e however was powered by an electric motor, making it almost impossible to see.
Source: On Seas Contested by Vincent P O’Hara
The fifth Duke of Portland, a fanatic for privacy, required what of his doctor when attending him?
Answer: He refused to admit his doctor into his bedroom, requiring him to make his diagnosis standing outside, questioning and taking his temperature through the medium of a valet.
Source: An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin
Why did President Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, decide not to attend presidential functions?
Lincoln believed he brought bad luck, a conclusion made after his connection to three shootings: He was at his father’s bedside when he died from a gunshot wound; he was there at the Washington, D.C. railroad station when President James Garfield was shot; and he was at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition when President William McKinley was also shot. He later refused to attend functions where the president was attending.
Source: Modern World Encyclopedia
How many people were killed during the 13th century Albigensian Crusade?
Answer: Incredibly, one million.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
What was one of the more unusual features of the British general election of 1741?
Answer: Angry voters threw dead cats and dogs at candidates.
Source: 1,411 Facts Compiled by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin
In the year 1800, what was the world’s average life expectancy?
Answer: A mere 30 years old. This contrasts with the year 2000, where it stood at 67 years of age.
Source: Rising Life Expectancy by James C. Riley
Which historical figure was surprisingly granted the title of “Defender of the Faith” by Pope Leo X after he authored a book attacking the Protestant beliefs of theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546)?
Answer: King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547). The gesture is surprising as only a few years later the Pope excommunicated Henry and banished him from the Roman Catholic Church after he sought to annul his marriage.
Source: Encyclopedia of Tudor England by John A. Wagner et al
During the reign of King Edward III of England (1312-1377) it was illegal for Englishmen to have three of what a day?
Answer: Meals. Edward’s reign was blighted by a series of poor harvests, and attempts were made to ensure the food supply did not run out.
Source: Ponders, Proverbs and Principles by Rodney Weckworth
Lucius Fabius Cilo (150-212 CE) was a Roman senator in the second century who was among the most influential and wealthiest figures in Rome. According to the chronicler Pliny, however, he died in humble, if somewhat bizarre, circumstances. How?
Answer: Pliny recounted that he died from “a single hair in a draught of milk.”
Source: Dreadfully Deadly History by Clive Gifford
Which famous historian is considered the most notable force in the “Whig” interpretation of history, stating that “every age has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge and perhaps the virtue of the human race”?
Answer: Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). He is best known for his six volume epic, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
Source: What is History by E.H. Carr
Which of these gangs were active in Johnson County, Wyoming in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the Hole in the Wall Gang, the Mexikanemi or the James–Younger Gang?
Answer: The Hole in the Wall Gang. The loosely connected group of outlaws were so named because their base was the Hole in the Wall Pass in the Big Horn Mountains, an area easily defended against law enforcement.
Source: Age of the Gunfighter by Joseph G. Rosa
Which famous Korean painter introduced the “true-view” style of landscape painting and was known by the pen name Kyomjae, meaning humble study?
Answer: Jeong Seon (1676-1759).
Source: To the Diamond Mountains by Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Which historical group, contrary to its modern name, was known by contemporaries in France as the ‘Normanni’?
Answer: The Vikings. The term ‘Viking’ only came into use much more recently, derived from old norse.
Source: Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age by Judith Jesch
Who were the group known as the hashashin?
Answer: A secret sect of Nizari Ismaili Muslims prominent in Syria and Persia in the late 11th century. They relied on a network of informers to assassinate statesman and other powerful figures in order to meet their political and religious goals. Their skill at killing prominent figures lead to the term assassin, a variant of hashashin.
Source: Medieval Islamic Civilization by Josef W. Meri et al
In 1921 officials found a tearful young girl walking through the streets of Philadelphia, babbling in a way which they could not understand. They promptly sent her to the mental health facility of Philadelphia State Hospital. Why was this an odd decision to make?
Answer: The girl, Catherine Yasinchuk, was not mentally ill but simply speaking Ukrainian – the only language she knew. This was not detected, and she was not released until 1968.
Source: Epic Fail by Mark Leigh
On December 30, 1903, the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago tragically burnt to the ground, killing 600 of the 1900 people in attendance. What was ironic about this theatre burning down?
Answer: It had opened a mere one month before, on 1 December 1903, and billed as the world’s first ‘absolutely fire poof’ theatre.
Source: Tinder box by Anthony P. Hatch
Which famous figure was born in a ladies’ cloakroom after his mother came down with labour pains while dancing?
Answer: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman. He was born in the cloakroom at Blenheim Palace, the magnificent ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough.
Source: Churchill by Sebastian Haffner
During the 1860s Joseon, modern-day Korea, was incredibly suspicious of western nations and their desire to trade. What did Joseon leader Heungseon Daewongun (1820-1898) decide to do to ensure Joseon subjects were aware of this?
Answer: He ordered the installation throughout the country of many steles, or signs, declaring “not to fight against the invading Western barbarians and instead to negotiate for peace is to sell the nation.”
Source: The History of Korea by Djun Kil Kim
In 1863 which American military figure became the youngest general in the history of the U.S. Army, despite having graduated last in his class at West Point?
Answer: George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876). George B. McClellan promoted him to the temporary rank of brigadier general.
Source: Piercing the Fog of War by Brian L. Steed
Which French nineteenth century figure killed over 3,000 people, including the King himself, during his long career?
Answer: Charles Henri Sanson (1739-1806). As high executioner under both King Louis XVI and the French First Republic, Sanson administered capital punishment in Paris for over 40 years and killed over 3,000 by his own hand.
Source: Playing to the Crowd by Frederick Burwick
During the English Civil War, what was Parliamentarian commander Robet Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, describing when he said he possessed the “most resolute foot in Christendom”?
Answer: The infantry of the parliamentary army. Well equipped and better skilled than the army of his Royalist opponents, Devereux felt it would quickly ensure victory for the Parliamentarians.
Source: A Monarchy Transformed by Mark Kishlansky
In 1945, Soviet diplomats presented United States Ambassador W. Averell Harriman (1891-1986) with a carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States. The gift later did not appear quite so generous, however. Why?
Answer: In 1953, a Soviet listening device was discovered inside the plaque.
Source: The War in the Shadows by Charles Whiting
After the death of renowned Ecuadorean poet José Joaquín Olmedo (1780-1847), a statue was placed in the city of Guayaquil. What was unique about this effigy however?
Answer: It was actually an image of another poet, Lord Byron (1788-1824). Guayaquil could not afford to commission a sculptor, so instead bought the image of Byron from a London scrap dealer and changed the name.
Source: Dumb History by Joey Green
February 2015
On March 20 1918, German calvary officer Rudolf Blinding declared “tomorrow there will be nothing to keep secret – for then, hell breaks loose.” What was Blinding referring to?
Answer: The 1918 German Spring Offensive (March 21 – July 18), also known as the Ludendorff Offensive. This was the doomed final attempt of Germany to defeat the Allies before the United States Army entered the war.
Source: No Man’s Land by John Toland
Catherine I of Russia stipulated an odd rule for all parties she hosted. What was it?
Answer: The rules determined that no man was permitted to get drunk before 9pm. For women the rule was much more restrictive, they weren’t allowed to get drunk at all.
Source: Little Book of Loony Laws by Christine Green
When King George I acceded to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, his wife Sophie Dorethea of Celle did not become Queen. Why was this?
Answer: She was under house arrest at the Castle of Ahlden in George’s native Hanover, after being accused of adultery (a crime of which George was equally guilty.) In all she was held under house arrest for 32 years.
Source: Three Victories and a Defeat by Brendan Simms
Sun Tzu (544-496 BCE), Carl Von Clausewitz (1780-1831) and Yank Levy (1897-1965) are all considered significant figures in which discipline?
Answer: Military theory. Their works; Art of War, On War and Guerrilla Warfare, are considered classics in the field.
Source: A History of Warfare by John Keegan
Simeon Stylites (388-359 CE) was a Greek hermit who was later declared a saint by the Roman Catholic church. He lived nearly his entire life in one unusual place however. Where?
Answer: A small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo, Syria. Simeon spent 37 years on the pillar where he preached, fasted and prayed.
Source: Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1550 by Wim Blockmans
Which famous figure of Chinese history began his career in rather humble fashion as an assistant librarian at a university library?
Answer: Mao Zedong (1893-1976). He started work at the University of Peking in 1919.
Source: Mao – The Real Story by Alexander Pantsov and Steven Levine
During the 1730s, which spirit became so popular in Britain that an incredible five million gallons was being drunk every year – enough for every man, woman and child to drink one pint a week?
Answer: Gin. In the late 17th century, the British government had encouraged the development of gin as a home grown alternative to French brandy. Consumption reached incredible figures by 1734 and only in the 1750s, when the price of gin rose as a result of grain prices, did this volume drop.
Source: Taste by Kate Colquhoun
The Toltecs were an eighth century Mexican tribal group who used a sword in battle made out of an unusual material. What was it?
Answer: Wood. While this has been interpreted by some as a desire of the Toltecs not to cause deadly harm to their enemies, it appears the opposite was true, for attached to the wood frames were razor sharp obsidian teeth. It is likely wood was used due to its light weight and easy availability for construction, rather than any benevolent intentions.
Source: Fire and Blood by T.R. Fehrenbach
During the Second World War (1939-1945), which country developed “human torpedoes” to attack shipping, with modest success?
Answer: Italy. Working in pairs, Italian divers used torpedo crafts to go under harbor defences and place high explosives under enemy ships. While being slow and hard to handle, Italian crewmen nicknamed them “pigs”, they did achieve some notable successes, such as ripping open the hulls of two British battleships at Alexandria in December 1941.
Source: World War II by Norman Polmar
“The whole country runs with blood. Unless it is stopped and stopped soon every prospect of political settlement and material prosperity will perish and our children will inherit a wilderness.” This quote comes from a newspaper published on March 14, 1921. What is it referring to?
Answer: The Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) between Great Britain and Irish Republicans. The editorial was published in the Irish Times.
Source: The Decline and Fall of the British Empire by Piers Brendon
Which historical Japanese nobility, best known for their prowess in combat and strict social etiquette, could also be found regularly participating in tea ceremonies and flower arranging?
Answer: The Samurai. Such activities helped focus the mind, and both tea drinking and flower arranging were considered very masculine arts.
Source: Cuisine and Culture by Linda Civitello
Which naval vessel, christened by the Chinese as the “Devil Ship”, was so revolutionary that it led to a major change in relations between Europe and the rest of the world?
Answer: The Nemesis, first launched in 1839. It belonged to the British East India Company and was Britain’s first ocean going warship. Utilising steam and sail, it was powerfully armed and able to navigate the non-tidal sections of rivers, allowing access inland. Its design set the precedent for ships which allowed Europeans unparalleled access to the remote parts of the globe.
Source: Warships of the World to 1900 by Lincoln P. Paine
The development of which powerful weapon had to be kept so secret during the First World War that it was disguised as the development of a new water-carrier, meaning the weapon was nearly called “reservoir” or “cistern” before its more famous name was developed?
Answer: The Tank. “Tank” was considered memorable but also in keeping with the project’s disguise.
Source: The Myriad Faces of War by Trevor Wilson.
The “Republic of Fredonia” was a short lived country which declared independence from whom?
Answer: Mexico, in 1826. The “republic” was made up of the personal landholding of Empressario Haden Edwards, in modern day Texas. It was the first attempt made by Anglo settlers in Texas to secede from Mexico.
Source: The Louisiana Purchase by Junius P. Rodriguez
The construction of which historical landmark was so deadly that it was dubbed by participants as “The Longest Cemetery on Earth”?
Answer: The Great Wall of China, first built in the second century BCE. The deaths were caused by a combination of exhaustion, disease and malnutrition due to recurrent food shortages.
Source: The Great Wall of China by Louise Chipley Slavicek
German soldiers fighting the Soviet Union during the Second World War often worried about the threat of “Night Witches” or Nachthexen. What were they?
Answer: Bomber pilots from the all-female 588 Soviet Night Bomber Regiment. This regiment used antiquated biplanes in their attacks, and the unusual distinctive noise from the wooden planes were said to sound to their victims like the whooshing sound of flying broomsticks.
Source: Women Aviators by Bernard Marck
What was the unusual literary aspect pertaining to King Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, as regards his sleeping habits?
Answer: It was said that he slept with a copy of Homer under his pillow.
Source: Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Croesus was the legendary king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC and enormously wealthy. What did he say was the key test as to whether one was truly rich?
Answer: Whether he or she could maintain an army.
Source: Modern World Encyclopaedia
In 356 BCE, a man named Herostratus tried to seek immortality by burning one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Which wonder was this?
Answer: The Temple of Artemis. Herostratus felt by doing so his name would achieve immortality.
Source: Children of Achilles by John Freely
How old was Cleopatra when she was made Queen of Egypt?
Answer: Eighteen.
Source: General Historical Texts
Which famous historical figure was homeless and living under a bridge in Switzerland at age 21?
Answer: Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Mussolini had fled to Switzerland to try and avoid military service.
Source: Benito Mussolini by Brenda Haugen
Which Spanish conquistador captured and murdered the Inca emperor Atahualpa?
Answer: Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541)
Source: Francisco Pizarro – The Conquest of Peru by Milton Meltzer
Between 1793 and 1861, private banks were allowed to print their own banknotes in the United States, backed by the gold in their vaults. This led to how many different banknotes being in circulation?
Answer: Over 7,000, printed by more than 1,500 private banks.
Source: Business Finance by Les Dlabay
The French frigate Junon, while only afloat between 1806 and 1809, had a rather colorful career. What happened?
Answer: Serving during the Napoleonic Wars, she was captured in February 1809 by the Royal Navy, and recommissioned as HMS Junon. She was subsequently recaptured by the French in December 1809 after a fierce firefight, but was deemed fatally damaged, so was burned and sunk in waters east of Guadeloupe.
Source: The Naval History of Great Britain by William James
Hero of Alexandria (10-70 CE), Otto von Guericke (1602-1686) and Thomas Savery (1650-1715) all made early contributions to the development of what mechanical breakthrough?
Answer: The internal combustion engine.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia by David Crystal
While civil disobedience is considered Mahatma Gandhi’s most effective weapon against British imperialism, he arguably did not conceive of the concept. Who did?
Answer: Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), an American philosopher, who detailed the ideas in an essay entitled ‘Resistance to Civil Government’ published in 1849.
Source: A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau
Japanese noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu is considered by many to have written the world’s first novel around 1000 CE. What was it called?
Answer: The Tale of Genji. It recounts the story of a prince known as ‘the shining Genji’ and his descendants.
Source: Gardner’s Art through the Ages by Fred Kleiner
On October 8 1871, the Great Chicago Fire saw a massive firestorm develop in the city, killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless. What is remarkable about the date it took place on however?
Answer: On the very same day, a number of seemingly separate fires also developed across the Midwestern United States. Among others, fires started in the city of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and the cities of Holland, Manistee and Port Huron, Michigan.
Source: Smoldering City by Karen Sawislak
January 2015
What was unique about the The Battle of the Coral Sea, which took place between the United States and Japan on 4-8 May 1942?
Answer: It was the first to be fought entirely with carrier-based aircraft. The battle saw innovative tactics on both sides as carriers emerged as the dominant feature of naval warfare.
Source: The Battle of the Coral Sea by Chris Henry
In early Ancient Rome, the father of a household was legally allowed to do what?
Answer: Execute any member of the household. The power was granted to him under the Roman principle of Pater familias, the title for the head of the Roman family. While legally permitted, cases of fathers doing so were rare and the right to do so eventually restricted.
Source: Beth Severy, Augustus and the family at the birth of the Roman Empire
In the 16th and 17th century, what did many wealthy Europeans eat thinking it would cure them of ailments?
Answer: Human flesh. Many prominent figures, including scientists, priest and even royalty, consumed medicine containing human bones, fat and blood as a remedy for ailments ranging from headaches to epilepsy.
Source: Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires by Richard Sugg
Speaking in 1653, which historical figure noted ‘they, who will not believe anything to be reasonably designed, except it be successfully executed, had need of a less difficult game to play than mine is.’
Answer: Charles Stuart (1630-1685), future King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles was speaking two years after his defeat at the hands of Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester (3 September 1651), and the prospect of his restoration as King appeared slim.
Source: King Charles II by Antonia Fraser
Between 1405 and 1433, which country led the earliest extensive naval expeditions in world history, visiting regions as far flung as Java, Calicut, Zanzibar and Kenya?
Answer: Imperial China. The expeditions, known as the ‘treasure voyages’, were led by Chinese admiral Zheng He (1371-1433).
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia by David Crystal
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) showed incredible ability from early childhood, composing from the age of five. In Britain, some were so overwhelmed by his skill at such an age that they thought he was a fraud. How did they explain it?
Answer: They claimed he was a dwarf in disguise.
Source: 1411 Facts by John Lloyd
When the famed composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) died, he left the equivalent of £86,000 for what cause?
Answer: To build a monument to himself in Westminster Abbey.
Source: 1411 Facts by John Lloyd
How did Copenhagen, the trusted horse of British military hero Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), supposedly die?
Answer: From eating too many sponge cakes, bath buns and chocolate creams. Copenhagen retired a hero after his service at the Battle of Waterloo 1815, and spent the rest of his life living in luxury on one of the Duke’s estates.
Source: 1411 Facts by John Lloyd
In 14th century Europe, men suffering impotence were encouraged to do what as a cure?
Answer: Wear their trousers on their head for twenty four hours. Unsurprisingly, there were very few instances of success.
Source: 1411 Facts by John Lloyd
The ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’ in the autumn of 1536 was a serious threat to Tudor rule in England. What was it?
Answer: A popular uprising against King Henry VIII, in particular his policy to break with the Roman Catholic church. Occurring primarily in Yorkshire and the North of England, over 30,000 people took part at its peak. The threat of force was enough to disperse many of the protestors however, and its long term impact was minimal.
Source: The Pilgrimage of Grace and the Politics of the 1530s by R.W. Hoyle
What German spy, known by the alias of Charles A. Inglis, was sent to the UK to spy on the Royal Navy during the First World War, but as he possessed little to no training was captured within weeks of his arrival?
Answer: Carl Hans Lody (1877-1914). He was executed at the Tower of London on 6 November 1914.
Source: Shot in the Towers by Leonard Sellers
Which motor racing track, originally a dirt track for horse racing, is the oldest operating racing track of its kind?
Answer: The Milwaukee Mile, in West Allis, Wisconsin. It held its first motor race in 1903.
Source: Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Bingham Anne
Which Native American revolt against the French colony of Fort Rosalie, present day Mississippi, on November 29 1729 led to the death of nearly all the Frenchman at the colony and crippled the French West India Company?
Answer: The Natchez Revolt.
Source: The Natchez Indians by James Barnett Jr
Which nineteenth century American politician is believed to have extorted up to $200 million from New York City taxpayers?
Answer: William M. Tweed (1823-1878). Tweed was head of the Tammany Hall Democratic Party machine in New York, through which he amassed considerable power of political patronage.
Source: Boss Tweed by Kenneth D. Ackerman
What event, known as ‘Der Tag’, saw the greatest gathering of warships ever seen?
Answer: The surrender of the German High Seas Fleet to the Royal Navy on 21 November 1918. Greeted by a large British and French navy force, the number of warships gathered was over 400.
Source: Luxury Fleet by Holger Herwig
What was the ‘Revolt of the Lash’?
Answer: A revolt in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1910. The crews of four Brazilian warships mutinied on 22 November after one of their crewmen received 250 lashes, despite previous promises to stop the use of the lash in naval discipline. The crews threatened to bombard Rio de Janeiro, but the mutiny was resolved within a week.
Source: Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000 by George Reid Andrews
Which world famous sporting event was originally conceived by a sports newspaper to help boost its circulation?
Answer: The Tour de France. The newspaper L’Auto founded the event in 1903, with the race leader’s yellow jersey a reflection of the yellow newsprint on which L’Auto was published.
Source: The Story of the Tour De France by Bill McGann
Putting your hand in a bowl of boiling water, walking over hot coals and trying to float with a millstone around the neck were all types of what?
Answer: Trial by ordeal. This was a judicial practice where guilt was determined based on whether the defendant could survive the ordeal unscathed with the aid of God, thus proving their innocence.
Source: Trial by Fire and Water by Robert Bartlett
The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was one of the most important battles of the 19th century, shaping European diplomacy for decades. What other stranger impact did it have?
Answer: It led to a rise in the supply of false teeth. As was a common practice at the time, the teeth of many of those killed in battle were removed for use in dentures. Due to the patriotism inspired by Waterloo, these ‘Waterloo teeth’ later became desirable collector’s items.
Source: The Corpse – A History by Christine Quigley
On 27 September 1842, an elaborate burial was conducted in Mexico City with full military honours. Who, or rather what, was it for?
Answer: It was to mark the burial of the severed leg of Mexican war hero Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1896). Santa Anna had lost his leg in the First Franco-Mexican War (1838-1839), and was considered a Mexican war hero. His leg was buried below a magnificent monument in the cemetery of Santa Paula.
Source: Santa Anna of Mexico by Will Fowler
In much of medieval Europe, what could bizarrely stand criminal trial?
Answer: Animals. They could receive a range of criminal charges, and if found guilty, would be executed. The process is believed to have lasted until the eighteenth century.
Source: The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals by Edward Payson Evans
Who was the Japanese admiral who led the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7 1941?
Answer: Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943).
Source: Pearl Harbor Betrayed by Michael Gannon
In 1439 the English parliament enacted a law banning subjects from doing what to King Henry VI?
Answer: Kiss him. A kiss was the customary act of homage between subject and King, but was banned in an attempt to stop the spread of plague.
Source: A History of Epidemics in Britain by Charles Creighton
Egyptian Pharaoh King Pepy II is said to have had an ingenious system for avoiding Egypt’s many insects. What was it?
Answer: He would cover one of his slaves in honey. The insects swarmed to the slave, leaving Pepy unharmed.
Source: The Unbelievable Truth by Graeme Garden
Cockney is now a common phrase to describe a Londoner, but during the 14th century, what did the word mean?
Answer: A spoilt child or mother’s darling, and thus a weak effeminate adult.
Source: Words Apart by Jonathon Green
Which German aristocrat was arrested for plotting to become a duke, lost a chance to become a king by turning Catholic and a chance to become a bishop by remaining one?
Answer: Maximilian William of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1666-1726). His brother was King George I, the first king of Great Britain from Hanover.
Source: The Book of Dignities by Joseph Hayden
Which eighteenth century figure was a revolutionary poet, prominent abolitionist, early campaigner for disabled rights and the founder of the UK’s first blind school?
Answer: Edward Rushton (1756-1814)
Source: The Collected Writings of Edward Rushton
Which famous historical landmark found itself at the heart of the world’s largest military camp during the First World War (1914-1918)?
Answer: Stonehenge. The ancient stones were part of a camp in Salisbury Plain, long a military base due to its large, flat and sparsely populated terrain.
Source: Militarised Landscapes by Chris Pearson et al. al
‘Watch the fires burning from across the river’, ‘kill with a borrowed knife’ and ‘if all else fails, retreat’ are all famous quotes commonly attributed to which Chinese General?
Answer: Tan Daoji (?-436 CE). They form part of the ‘Thirty-Six Stratagems’, a Chinese essay on war and politics.
Source: More Than 36 Stratagems by Kenneth Tung et al
Which famous author disappeared in 1926 amidst public outcry, prompting a search involving 15,000 volunteers, over 1,000 police officers and the participation of the British Home Secretary?
Answer: Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The search began when her car was found abandoned at a lake edge, and she was only discovered 11 days later in a Yorkshire hotel registered under a false name. Details of why she disappeared remain unclear to this day, with Christie herself never mentioning it.
Source: Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days by Jared Cade
Perkin Warbeck (1474 – 1499), Richard de la Pole (1480-1525), Henry FitzRoy (1519-1536) and Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788) were all what?
Answer: Pretenders to the English, and later British, throne.
Source: Celebrated claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton
December 2014
Dietrich von Choltitz (1894-1966) was the last commander of Nazi-occupied Paris who famously defied a direct order from Hitler. What was it?
Answer: To destroy the city. Explosives had been placed on major bridges, power stations and cultural institutions to ensure the Allies could only take control of Paris as a pile of rubble. Von Choltitz defied the instruction, stating ‘I cannot implement this insane order.’
Source: Disobeying Hitler by Randall Hansen
‘To see the dastardly, most miserable and meanest of blackguards described as Napoleon I, was altogether too much.’ Which famed national hero, considered a liberator among many nations in South America, is Karl Marx (1818-1883) describing in this line?
Answer: Simón Bolívar (1783-1830).
Source: Marx and Latin America by Jose M. Arico
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) was a famed British military hero and Prime Minister (1828-1830 and 1834). The Duke found it tough to adjust from the military to the political life however. What did he reputedly say after his first cabinet meeting?
Answer: ‘Extraordinary affair’, remarked the Duke, ‘I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay to discuss them.’
Source: Constitutional Law by Ian Loveland
King Frederick the Great of Prussia’s native language was French, and he had little love or comprehension for the German spoken by most of his subjects. Who did he famously remark was the only soul he spoke German to?
Answer: His horse.
Source: History of the German Language Through Texts by Thomas Gloning
Ramón María Narváez (1800-1868) was a Spanish soldier and statesman. What did he famously utter on his deathbed, when he was asked if he forgave his enemies?
‘I have none. I have had them all shot.’
Source: The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor
What was the historian J A Froude’s assessment of British PM Disraeli?
Answer: “Perhaps no public man in England ever rose so high and acquired power so great, so little of whose work has survived”.
Source: Disraeli Or The Two Lives by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, is a magnificent 200,000 sq ft estate which has 187 rooms, dwarfing Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. A gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, in 1704, it was a reward for his victory over the army of Louis XIV of France in the Spanish War of Succession. In what way did its grandeur register even with Adolf Hitler during World War Two?
Answer: According to wartime lore, he planned to move in after invading England and ordered the Luftwaffe not to bomb it.
Source: The Daily Mail 24/10/14
Gladiators were highly prized in Ancient Rome not just because of their fighting and entertainment skills. Why was this?
Answer: Gladiators’ blood was highly prized as it was believed to cure epilepsy.
Source: Daily Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Baldston
What was the legendary reaction of French Foreign Minister Talleyrand (1754-1838) when informed that the Russian ambassador had collapsed and died en route to a meeting in the Quai D’Orsay with Talleyrand?
Answer: The wily Frenchman stroked his chin and said: “I wonder why he did that?”
Source: Ken Blackwell, September 10, 2014, ‘Secretary Clinton: Stop Digging’, The American Thinker
Incorporated by English royal charter in 1670, The Hudson’s Bay Company was a major trading company in North America. (It is still operating today) What did Britain’s Prime Minister Lord Palmerston say its function should be?
Answer: “To strip the local quadrupeds of their furs and keep the local bipeds off their liquor.”
Source: Heaven’s Command – An Imperial Progress by James Morris
Famed Irish playwright, author and wit Oscar Wilde died tragically of meningitis in Paris in 1900. His previously exalted and glamorous life at the peak of London chic society had come undone after his conviction for homosexuality in 1895. Despite his prison sentence and subsequent greatly reduced circumstances, he maintained his humor until the end. Lying in bed in a gaudily decorated room in a Paris Hotel, what were his last words?
Answer: “Either that wallpaper goes. Or I do”.
Source: Oscar Wilde – The Great Drama of His Life: How His Tragedy Reflected His Personality by Ashley H. Robins; General Historical Texts.
In 1800 London’s population was around one million. How much was it a century later?
Answer: An incredible 6.7 million, testimony to the growth in urbanisation, fuelled by the Industrial Revolution. This growth saw London transformed into the world’s largest city and capital of the British Empire.
Source: The Encyclopedia Britannica
On January 23, 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars, France managed to capture a Dutch naval fleet of 14 ships and over 800 guns. The way it did so was highly unusual however. What did they do?
Answer: The Dutch fleet was captured by cavalry charge. The winter had been bitterly cold and the seashores were frozen, enabling French cavalry to storm the ships by crossing the frozen ice.
Source: A History of the Royal Navy by Martin Robson
As Queen Elizabeth I of England lay dying in 1603, one of her courtiers said to her that she must get off the cushions she was lying on and go to bed. What did Elizabeth, who had reigned for 45 years, reply?
Answer “Little man, little man, must is not a word to be used with princes.”
Source: She Wolves – England’s early Queens by Helen Castor
In 1944, during World War Two, one of Winston Churchill’s daughters, Mary, was commanding an anti-aircraft battery in Hyde Park, London. What does this fact have in relation to a prominent world identities today?
Answer: At the same time as she was directing her battery, as it so happened, Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, was manning an anti-aircraft gun in Munich.
Source: The Spectator – 30/11/14
What did British playwright and essayist George Bernard Shaw say was the “greatest invention of the nineteenth century?”
Answer: The rubber condom. Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanization of rubber in 1836. Soon after this, rubber condoms were mass produced. Unlike modern condoms — made to be used once and thrown away — early condoms were washed, anointed with petroleum jelly, and put away in special wooden boxes for reuse.
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw
What was unusual about the will of Benjamin Franklin when he died in 1790?
Answer: He remembered his lithotomist – the man who removed his kidney stone – in his will. Kidney stones were a very painful ailment, and the operation to remove them could just as likely be fatal. Franklin was obviously eternally grateful for the service he provided.
Source: The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H. W. Brands
In an illustrious career, Admiral Lord Jackie Fisher was commander of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet from 1899 to 1902, based at Malta. Fisher liked to enter the harbor at Malta first to go to a vantage point and watch the Fleet moor. When his second in command Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, who years earlier had almost threatened to punch the Prince of Wales, ineptly handled his flagship, what was Fisher’s response?
Answer: He sent Beresford a malignant signal of public rebuke, observed throughout the Fleet: “Your flagship is to proceed to sea and come in again in a seamanlike manner.”
Source: Farewell the Trumpets – An Imperial Retreat by James Morris
When King James II of Great Britain fled in 1688 in the wake of the invasion by William of Orange, what did he throw into the river Thames?
Answer: The Royal Seal.
Source: Ireland and Britain by Dennis L. Dworkin
Which European country’s name originally meant ‘land of young cattle’?
Answer: Italy.
Source: Encyclopaedia of Indo-European Culture by J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams
Who proclaimed himself Emperor of the USA and Protector of Mexico, even issuing decrees and printing money bearing his name?
Answer: Joshua Abraham Norton (1819-1880). While considered insane, he was accepted and humoured by his contemporaries in San Francisco, USA, with the money he printed even accepted at shops he frequented.
Source: Invented Religions by Carole M. Cusack
Who is the only U.S. President to invent and patent something?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). In May 1849 he patented a device to lift boats over shoals or any obstructions in a river. The invention was never put to use, and today there is doubt as to whether it would have worked at all.
Source: Lincoln President-Elect by Harold Holzer
What casino game remarkably has origins with the French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), who discovered it when doing experiments into perpetual motion?
Answer: Roulette, first introduced in a primitive form in France in the seventeenth century.
Source: Blaise Pascal by Marvin Richard O’Connell
Roman Emperor Caligula (12-41 CE) was so distraught by the death of his sister Julia Drusilla in 38 CE that he imposed a year of mourning, the rules of which were particularly harsh. What were they?
Answer: During this period, Rome’s citizens were forbidden to laugh or even take a bath. Failure to adhere to this resulted in death.
Source: The Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
Which famous document opens with the line ‘When in the course of human events…?’
Answer: The American Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
Source: United States History by Matthew Downey
Which political assassin became famous during his ensuing trial for his odd behaviour, which included giving his testimony in the form of an epic poem, getting legal advice from court spectators and frequently insulting the judge, witnesses and even his own defence team?
Answer: Charles J. Guiteau (1841-1882), who was on trial for the assassination of James Garfield in 1881. Guiteau was later hanged for his crime.
Source: The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau by Charles Rosenberg
Which natural disaster, which took place between July and November 1931, is widely considered one of the most deadly disasters of the twentieth century, and among the most lethal of all time?
Answer: The 1931 Central China floods. Flooding of the Yangtze and Huai River are believed to have killed as many as 4 million people.
Source: A Social and Environmental History of the 1931 Central China Flood by Christopher Courtney
Which type of mechanical punishment, which now has developed into a popular fitness tool, was invented by William Cubitt (1785-1861) in 1818 after he noticed idle prisoners at an English jail?
Answer: The Treadmill. Cubbitt, a famous engineer, originally hoped to use the treadmill to grind corn.
Source: Medicine and the Workhouse by Jonathan Reinarz et al
Which surprising figure is the Church of England’s only canonised Saint?
Answer: King Charles I (1600-1649), who was famously beheaded during the English Civil War.
Source: The Cult of King Charles the Martyr by Andrew Lacey
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was twice British Prime Minister and famously had a strong relationship with the notoriously obstinate Queen Victoria (1819-1901). What did he say was the secret behind their strong relationship?
Answer: He remarked that in conversation with her ‘I never deny; I never contradict; I sometimes forget.’
Source: The life of Benjamin Disraeli by George Buckle
Who was the ‘White Death’, and how did he inspire fear in the Red Army during the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland?
Answer: Finnish farmer Simo Häyhä. After enlisting in the Finnish army as a sniper, Häyhä single handled took out so many Soviet soldiers, believed to be around 505, that he became infamous amongst the Red Army. He was only stopped when he was shot in the jaw by a Soviet soldier, but even then Häyhä survived to make a full recovery.
Source: Sniper by Martin J Dougherty
November 2014
In the 1850s and 1860s, the centre of Chicago, USA, changed dramatically. What happened?
Answer: The entire centre of the city was raised by up to fourteen feet. Performed haphazardly over two decades, a building at a time, the radical action was taken so a sewerage system could be built underneath the city.
Source: My Chicago by Jane Byrne
Who remarkably invented the jet engine almost single handedly, without any official support and with only limited funding?
Answer: Sir Frank Whittle (1907-1996). Whittle and two others formed their own company, Power Jets Limited, to create the design and a prototype was completed in 1937. Steadily official interest grew in his work during the Second World War, and the modern jet aircraft was born.
Source: Genesis of the Jet by John Golley
Which Allied army unit developed such a formidable reputation for hand to hand and bayonet combat that it became known by German forces as the ‘scalp hunters?’
Answer: The 28th (Maori) Battalion of the New Zealand Army.
Source: The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History by Ian McGibbon
During the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832), a Greek army made an Ottoman force to retreat to the Acropolis. Running short of ammunition, the Ottomans began to attack the great columns to extract lead to make bullets. How did the Greeks respond?
Answer: The Greeks sent them ammunition with the message, ‘here are bullets, don’t touch the columns.’
Source: Critical perspectives on Art History by John C. McEnroe et al
The Great Plague of London (1655-1656) was a bout of the bubonic plague which killed around 100,000 people. What odd way did authorities try to stop it?
Answer: They killed thousands of London’s cats and dogs, considering them a cause of the disease. The great irony is that with cats and dogs gone, rats, who through their fleas were the real carriers of the disease, could multiply in number.
Source: The Great Plague by A. Lloyd Moote
What was the tallest building in the Medieval World?
Answer: Lincoln Cathedral, England, built in circa 1185. It was said to reach a height of 160 metres, or 525 feet, before the central spire collapsed in 1549.
Source: The Cathedrals of England by Mary Jane Taber
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was a famous military leader who became the 18th President of the United States in 1869. What was odd about his name however?
Answer: This was not his original name, which was in fact Hiram Ulysses Grant. Ulysses S. Grant came about when this name was mistakenly included as part of his application for the United States Military Academy when Grant was 17. The ’S’ stood for nothing. The name stuck, and he came to be known as this for the rest of his life.
Source: Ulysses S. Grant by Brend Haugen
Rome, Alexandria and Angkor were the first three cities to do what?
Answer: Have a population of more than one million. Angkor achieved the feat in 900 CE, Alexandria in 30 BCE and Rome as far back as 133 BCE.
Source: People, Land and Politics by Luuk de Ligt
Which Pope’s reign was a mere twelve days?
Answer: Pope Urban VII (1521-1590). His reign was cut short by a fatal bout of malaria in 1590.
Source: A History of the Popes by P.C. Thomas
When King George I of Great Britain died on June 11 1727, one of his mistresses, Madame Keilmansegge, took it particularly badly. What happened?
Answer: Shortly after his death, a raven flew into her home. Convinced it was a reincarnation of the dead King, she spent the rest of her days curtseying to the bird and trying to understand what it might be saying to her.
Source: An Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O’Farrell
Which German anti-aircraft gun was at the heart of German bombing defenses during the Second World War and proved so successful that it was also adapted to be used an anti-tank gun?
Answer: The 8.8 cm flak gun, commonly known in Germany as ‘the 88’. By 1944, between 10-15,000 such guns were being used in Germany.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II by Chris Bishop
During World War Two, which British aircraft first entered service in 1942 and went on to be a huge success, dropping two thirds of the RAF’s total number of bombs from the date it entered service until the end of the conflict?
Answer: The Avro Lancaster.
Source: World War II by Robert John O’Neill
Famed for his skill on the battlefield, in 1807 what ‘battle’ did Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) certainly lose, much to the amusement of onlookers and the embarrassment of Napoleon himself?
Answer: The ‘great rabbit attack.’ This took place at a disastrous rabbit hunt in 1807, when Napoleon’s chief-of-staff, Alexander Berthier, mistakenly bought thousands of tame, not wild, rabbits to hunt. When the rabbits saw Napoleon they mistakenly thought they were about to be fed, so flocked to him in their hundreds. Overwhelmed by their numbers, Napoleon had to beat many off with his bare hands before being forced to escape in his coach.
Source: Blundering to Glory by Owen Connelly
Which prominent London building was destroyed in a fire on October 16 1834, in the biggest blaze the city had seen since the Great Fire of 1666?
Answer: The Palace of Westminster, home of the UK Houses of Parliament. The few buildings that survived were incorporated into the newly built Victorian gothic style Palace, which was built over a period of three decades after the fire.
Source: The Day Parliament Burnt Down by Caroline Shenton
How did molasses, also known as black treacle, lead to the death of 21 people and injure over 150 others in Boston, USA, in 1919?
Answer: A large molasses storage tank collapsed, unleashing a wave of molasses which rushed through the streets of the North End neighborhood at over 30mph and 25 feet tall. The disaster became known as the Boston Molasses Disaster or the Great Molasses Flood.
Source: General Historical Texts
From 483 BCE, King Xerxes I of Persia attempted to invade Greece. Xerxes’s first attempt to cross the Hellespont strait ended in failure however when a storm destroyed the bridges constructed across the strait. According to the historian Herodotus, in what unusual way did Xerxes respond?
Answer: He ordered the Hellespont strait itself to be whipped 300 times, fetters thrown into the water and the overseers of the bridge to be beheaded.
Source: Greek and Roman Technology by John W. Humphrey et al
In the year 1800, which of these countries was the most populous, France, Russia or Japan?
Answer: Russia, with a population of 33 million. France’s population was 27.3 million, with Japan’s a mere 15 million.
Source: Atlas of World History by Patrick Karl O’Brien
How did Spanish nationalists during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) employ turkeys to help its besieged fighters defending the monastery of Santa Maria de la Cabeza?
Answer: As they were in possession of local air superiority, the Nationalists planes dropped army supplies attached to live turkeys, no less, which descended flapping their wings, thus serving as parachutes which could also be eaten by the defending forces.
Source: The Battle for Spain by Antony Beever
While the Virginia and Plymouth colony’s are often considered the first British American settlements, there was in fact a British settlement established before these two. What was it?
Answer: The Roanoke Colony, established in modern day North Carolina in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618). It is believed to have lasted only five years before being abandoned, though the reason for why remains unclear.
Source: Roanoke by Lee Miller
On April 19 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann (1906-2008) experienced a world’s first when cycling home from work. What was it?
Answer: An intentional acid trip. Hoffman had been experimenting with the principles of LSD, and had ingested 250 ug earlier on in the day.
Source: Fifty Years of LSD by D. Ladewig et al
Dante Aligheri, Leonardo da Vinci, Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare were all names used for what?
Answer: The names of early Italian battleships. Dante Aligheri was the first, built in 1913, with the other three built during the First World War.
Source: Naval Weapons of World War One by Norman Friedman
What was the first American word to infiltrate the English language?
Answer: Chowder, the thick seafood soup.
Source: A Humorous Account of America’s Past by Richard T. Stanley
During the First Opium War (1838-1842) China planned to use a bizarre method to defend the coastal city of Ningbo against attacking British ships. What was it?
Answer: They proposed attaching firecrackers to monkeys and then flinging them onto the British warships, hoping to ignite the ships’ powder magazines. The plan failed before it had even begun, however, as when the British attacked everyone fled, including the animal keeper, and the monkeys were never used.
Source: The Opium War by Julia Lovell
In what unusual way, involving the White House lawn, did US President Woodrow Wilson contribute to the war effort during the First World War?
Answer: Wilson kept sheep on the White House lawn, contributing their wool to the U.S. war effort.
Source: Woodrow Wilson by BreAnn Rumsch
Polish soldier Wiltold Pilecki (1901-1948) was one of the greatest heroes of the Second World War. What did he voluntarily endure for three years in order to help inform the Allies about the atrocities being carried out by the Nazis?
Answer: Imprisonment in Auschwitz concentration camp. While there he organised a resistance group and fed information to the Allies, enabling them to know for the first time about the acts of horror taking place there.
Source: Six Faces of Courage by Michael Foot
‘I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land’, ‘Battle Cry of Freedom’, ‘Maryland, My Maryland’ and ‘All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight’ are all types of what?
Answer: Songs sung during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Source: The History Buff’s Guide to the Civil War by Thomas Flagel
Which was the first group in history to use a form of metal money?
Answer: The Sumerians, of Ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). The currency was known as Ingots, with the value of each coin depending on their weight.
Source: Money by Robert Young
The War of 1812 between Great Britain and America ended in stalemate, a result that was in many ways remarkable considering how unevenly matched the two sides were at the beginning of the conflict. At the beginning of the War the Royal Navy had more than 600 ships. How many seaworthy vessels did the United States have?
Answer: 18. Fortunately for the USA, Britain was fighting in the Napoleonic Wars at the same time.
Source: A Guide to The War of 1812 by Mark Phillips
Richard Rouse, a cook in medieval London, was executed in 1531 in a bizarre way. What was it?
Answer: Rouse, who was charged with poisoning his master, was boiled alive at a location between St Bart’s Hospital and Smithfield Market, central London. The meal he prepared had killed sixteen but failed to kill his master.
Source: Bizarre London by David Long
According to the Ancient Egyptians, which sacred animal was said to be able to improve the fertility of land and predict flooding?
Answer: Crocodiles.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
October 2014
What was unusual about the actions of the Nazi U-boat U-530 at the end of the Second World War?
Answer: U-530 did not initially surrender. Rather, the crew headed for Argentina and eventually surrendered to the Argentine Navy on July 10 1945. Strangely, the captain did not explain why he did so, why the submarine had jettisoned its gun deck or why the crew carried no identification. The odd circumstances surrounding the U-530 led to it becoming a popular source for conspiracy theories.
Source: Black Flag by Lawrence Paterson
From 1803 onwards, Napoleon considered invading Britain, and was willing to contemplate audacious strategies to achieve the task. What were some of the stranger ideas developed by Napoleon’s generals and engineers?
Answer: Plans included digging a tunnel under the English Channel, or the development of an armada of hot-air balloons to transport French soldiers to the English coast. Unsurprisingly none of these plans left the drawing board, though they did much to promote fears of invasion in Britain, and Napoleon called off the planned invasion in 1805.
Source: The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
What was unique about Private Eddie Slovik (1920-1945), who served in the US Army during the Second World War?
Answer: He was shot for desertion on January 31 1945, the first American executed for the crime since the Civil War and the only one during the Second World War.
Source: The World War II Quiz and Fact Book by Timothy Benford
Due to a combination of tough living conditions, starvation and numerous war casualties, growing up in the Soviet Union in the early to mid twentieth century was a dangerous affair. Of all Soviet males born in 1923, what percentage were still alive in 1945?
Answer: A mere 20%
Source: The World War II Quiz and Fact Book by Timothy Benford
Who surprisingly founded the world’s first detective agency in 1817?
Answer: Frenchman François Vidocq, who was a career criminal. He founded the first agency in Paris in 1817.
Source: Police Detectives in History by Clive Emsley
What was the largest tank ever made?
Answer: The French Char 2C, developed during the First World War and deployed between 1921 and 1940. The tank weighed 69 tons and was 33 and a half feet long, over 13 ft high and nearly 11 ft wide. Cumbersome and difficult to operate, only 10 were built.
Source: Tanks by Spencer Tucker
As a twenty-year old, what was the career ambition of Napoleon Bonaparte?
Answer: To be a writer. Far from having visions of military greatness, Napoleon read widely, with the likes of Plato’s Republic, Barrow’s New and Impartial History of England and Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle among his favorites.
Source: The War of Wars by Robert Harvey
In 1920, American socialist politician Eugene V. Debs ran for the U.S. presidency, winning 920,000 votes. What was unusual about his campaign however?
Answer: He ran it from prison. Debbs had been arrested and jailed for sedition two years earlier, and was serving a ten year jail sentence. One of his slogans was ‘Convict no. 9653 for President’.
Source: The Origins of Violence by Anatol Rapoport
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) was one of the founding fathers of the United States and a major figure in early American history. What surprising help did he need before he could attend the first continental congress in 1774 however?
Answer: Adams was poor and had little in the way of formal attire, so he relied on friends to buy him new clothes and pay for his trip to Philadelphia to attend the congress.
Source: Samuel Adams, Radical Puritan by William M. Fowler
In Ancient China, physicians held a different attitude to the principles of healthcare than now. What was it?
Answer: It was the role of a physician to ensure health, so the best doctors were considered to be those with the healthiest patients. As a result, they were often paid when their patients were well, rather than when they were ill.
Source: Man Adapting by Rene Dubos
During the Second World War, the Russian Red Army had numerous breakdowns of discipline, leading many soldiers to be sent to punishment units, court martialed and shot. How many soldiers died in this way?
Answer: An incredible 135,000, the equivalent of 13 divisions of infantry.
Source: The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts
Patrick Colquohoun (1745-1820) was a British statistician who at the beginning of the nineteenth century conducted an investigation into crime in London. What did he find?
Answer: Colquohoun’s widely sensationalist study estimated that, of a population of less than one million, 115,000 were criminals. Problematic criminal types that he identified included ‘riverside scroungers’, ‘cheating shopkeepers’, ‘mudlarks’, ‘bear baiters’ and ‘flash coachmen.’
Source: The Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson
What is mankind believed to have done first; bake bread or brew beer?
Answer: Brew beer. Beer is so ancient that it could have been included in Noah’s Ark.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Beer by Garret Oliver
The most common medicine employed during the American Civil War (1861-1865) was ‘calomel’, used to treat a range of ailments ranging from headaches to syphilis. What was its main ingredient?
Answer: Mercury. When one leading Union army physician, William Hammond, correctly noted that mercury was poisonous, he was deemed a quack and quickly removed from his post.
Source: The Army Medical Department by Mary C. Gillett
In 1784, famed brewer Arthur Guinness signed a new lease for his brewery at St. James Gate, Dublin. What is remarkable about it?
Answer: The lease is for 9,000 years. Even better for Guinness, the annual rent was to be a mere £45.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Beer by Garret Oliver
From where does the term ‘freelance’ originate?
Answer: The term originates as a description for mercenary knights who supplied their own weapons free from house or national ties. It first occurred relatively late however, in the 1820 novel ‘Ivanhoe’ by Walter Scott (1771-1832).
Source: Mercenaries in British and American Literature, 1790-1830 by Erik Simpson
Which writer, on penning one of his most famous novels, remarked ‘if I could do this book properly, it would be one of the really fine books. But I am assailed by my own ignorance and inability’?
Answer: John Steinbeck (1902-1968). The novel he was describing was ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, published in 1939, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Source: It Takes a Certain Type to be a Writer by Erin Barrett
What did French philosopher and writer Voltaire (1694-1778) think about the works of William Shakespeare?
Answer: He described Shakespeare’s work as ‘a vast dunghill’, describing him as a ‘drunken savage with some imagination whose plays please only in London.’
Source: It Takes a Certain Type to be a Writer by Erin Barrett
Who is the only individual to have been both president and chief justice of the United States?
Answer: William Howard Taft (1857-1930), president from 1909-1913 and chief justice from 1921-1930. It was said that of the two offices, it was the role of chief justice that Taft desired most.
Source: The Shadow of Blooming Grove by Francis Russell
Which renowned mathematician knew 13 languages by the age of 9, had begun original investigations into the issues raised by Newton’s ‘Principia’ by age 15 and while still an undergraduate was appointed Irish Astronomer-Royal?
Answer: William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865)
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), U.S. President from 1923-1927, was famous for being a man of few words. According to one story, women sat next to Coolidge at a dinner said to him, ‘I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you.’ What was Coolidge’s supposed reply?
Answer: ‘You lose.’
Source: The Quotable Calvin Coolidge by Peter Hannaford
What Second World War naval battle has been described as the ‘longest, largest, and most complex’ naval battle in history?
Answer: The Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945).
Source: The Defeat of the German U-Boats by David Syrett
The Nazi U-boats of the Second World War were a constant threat to the Allies, especially during the Battle of the Atlantic, when they caused havoc amongst merchant shipping. What is surprising about the attack strategy of these U-boats however?
Answer: They tended to attack while they were surfaced, especially in the early years. This was due to the fact that, contrary to modern submarines, U-boats were faster, better equipped and more reliable when surfaced.
Source: The Defeat of the German U-Boats by David Syrett
According to some definitions, when was the earliest example of a railway?
Answer: Ancient Greece, in around 600 BCE. While not too similar to what we may consider a modern railway, a track way known as Diolkos covered the Isthmus of Corinth and lasted for at least 650 years.
Source: Early Railways by A. Guy and J. Rees
While the Industrial Revolution transformed travelling times, even before this, improvements in roads, horse-drawn vehicles and postal facilities radically increased travelling speeds. For instance, in 1760 it would take ten to twelve days to travel from London to Glasgow. How long did it take in 1800?
Answer: 62 hours.
Source: Age of Revolution 1789-1848 by Eric Hobsbawm
The carrot is widely considered to be an orange vegetable, but prior to the seventeenth century purple, red and white variants were just as common. What do some claim to be the reason for this?
Answer: Some say Dutch farmers cultivated carrots to be primarily orange in tribute to William of Orange, who led the struggle for Dutch independence. Such was the strength of this feeling that in the late 18th century, Dutch patriots who revolted against the House of Orange saw carrots as an offensive tribute to the monarchy.
Source: Patriots and Liberators by Simon Schama
George Parker Bidder (1806-1878) was a renowned British engineer and maths genius. In his early years however, his skills were used in unorthodox ways. How so?
Answer: Noting his young son’s skill in calculating complex mathematical questions in a matter of seconds, Bidder’s father paraded him as a ‘calculating boy’, first in local fairs and later touring around the country. It wasn’t until others took an interest in his education that the exhibition of his skills stopped and he was sent to study.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography edited by Colin Mathew
In late 1814, the United States nearly moved its capital city back to Philadelphia, which had previously been its central city between 1790 and 1800. Why?
Answer: During the War of 1812, British forces had burnt and destroyed much of Washington DC, including the Capitol Building and the White House. The proposed return to Philadelphia was only rejected by a narrow 83-74 margin.
Source: Washington Ablaze by Randy Schultz
King Louis XVI (1754-1793) of France, who was famously overthrown during the French Revolution, was a distinctly unhappy man. Despite his lavish wealth and power, what did he later recall were the only two happy moments of his life?
Answer: His coronation in June 1775 and a visit in June 1786 to a engineering project in Cherbourg Harbour, the only time he left Paris and Versailles.
Source: Citizens by Simon Schama
Towards the end of his life, French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) increasingly became a hero and celebrity to generations of young French radials. As a result, how did Voltaire jokingly say he might die?
Answer: Voltaire said ‘I may be suffocated…but it will be beneath a shower of roses.’
Source: Citizens by Simon Schama
The Otago Gold Rush in New Zealand saw an influx of gold miners hoping to discover their fortune. By August 1861 however, much of the good ground had been claimed and newcomers struggled to get a look in. What way did one miner try to get around this?
Answer: He falsely declared the discovery of a lucrative new goldfield some distance away at Mount Valpy. Hundreds abandoned their claims to look for this new ‘field’. The plan did not work however, as it took the miners less than two weeks to realise they had been had, and they returned, apprehended the culprit and tied him to a cart, where he was whipped.
Source: Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand by Thomas Hocken
September 2014
Why do some consider Edith Wilson (1872-1961), the second wife of American President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), the first female President of the United States?
Answer: In October 1919, Woodrow Wilson suffered a major stroke, and Edith quickly began to handle matters of state – deciding what was important enough to bring to the President. As a result she effectively ran the executive branch, leading some to dub her the first female president.
Source: The President is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo
Which famous Greek orator begin his life with such a severe speech impediment that he was forced to practices his elocution by talking to stones and fences with pebbles in his mouth?
Answer: Demosthenes. Despite being mocked for his speech at a young age, he grew to become what Cicero acclaimed as ‘the perfect orator.’
Source: A Literary History of Greece by Robert Flacelière
The ‘Cato Street Conspiracy’ of 1820 was an attempt by a group of British radicals to do what?
Answer: Murder the entire British cabinet, including Prime Minister Lord Liverpool. The conspirators then hoped to install a new government more tolerant of radical ideals. The conspirators were caught, with most either sentenced to death or transportation for life.
Source: The Makings of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson
Which place saw the invention of the bayonet, and also inspired its name?
Answer: The French city of Bayonne, where it was invented around 1650.
Source: The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650 by Cathal J. Nolan
In the 1930s, the US Army was a remarkably small fighting force. How many soldiers did it have?
Answer: 130,000, making it the sixteenth largest force in the world. In context, this made the army smaller than that of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania.
Source: The Good Fight by Stephen E. Ambrose
Which is larger, the length of all Chinese defence walls built over the last 2,000 years or the earth’s circumference?
Answer: Chinese defensive walls. The length of these structures, such as the Great Wall of China, stands at approximately 31,070 miles. The Earth’s circumference is 24,854 miles.
Source: Great Wall of China by Thammy Evans
The Black Death plague, which gripped Europe in the fourteenth century, led to many wild stories spreading across Europe. According to one rumor, what had the effect of the plague previously been in India?
Answer: It had depopulated the entire region. It was also believed to have ravaged Asia, Syria, Persia and Egypt.
Source: A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman
After future US president Lyndon B Johnson entered Congress in 1937, he became very keen to ensure that he made money. His father had been a long serving member of the Texas legislature, but died penniless. Johnson was aware that plenty of congressmen wound up in a parlous financial position. What was one early example that Johnson experienced of the less than impressive future that could await former congressman?
Answer: While riding in an elevator one day in a Washington building, the elevator operator told him that he had been a congressman.
Source: Lyndon B Johnson 1958-1963 by Robert A Caro
The Emperor Vespasian had formerly been a highly successful general before being elevated to the exalted position of Roman emperor. Earlier in his career he had been banished from Emperor Nero’s court, such that he spent much of his time as a beekeeper on his estates. Why did Emperor Nero banish him?
Answer: Vespasian fell asleep during one of Nero’s interminable poetry readings.
Source: The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Across the centuries, Leonardo da Vinci has been acknowledged as a genius. What was one of the more unusual aspects of his personal brilliance?
Answer: He could, simultaneously, write with one hand and draw with the other.
Source: Leonardo da Vinci by Martin Kemp; General Historical Texts
Mad Monk’ Grigory Rasputin became an intimate of the last Russian Tsar, the Tsarina especially, and their family, despite being a debauched drunkard, and generally filthy in everything he did. His influence over them contributed to the fall of the Romanovs, who had ruled Russia for over 300 years. What was unusual about his eating style?
Answer: He ate soup with his hands.
Source: Serena Davis, The Daily Telegraph, 21/8/14
What did Philippe de Commynes (1447-1511), writer and diplomat in the courts of Burgundy and France, say about the English and their propensity for war?
‘Of all the people in the world the English are the most inclined to give battle.’
Source: The Wars of the Roses – Peace & Conflict in 15th Century England by John Gillingham
What was US army chief of staff General George Marshall’s rueful private comment when President Franklin Roosevelt, facing an election, announced that American troops would land in North Africa at the end of 1942, rather than wait to invade Europe the next year?
Answer: “We failed to see that the leader in a democracy has to keep the people entertained.”
Source: War – America’s Involvement in World War Two by Florentine Films
When the first man to be executed using the electric chair, William Kemmler, died on August 6, 1890, what was the response of American inventor George Westinghouse, an innovator in the use of electricity.
Answer: “They would have done better with an axe”.
Source: The Modern World Encyclopedia
What was unusual about the career of French soldier Jean Thurel (or Jean Theurel?)
His military career spanned some 90 years. Born in 1698, he died in 1807, aged 108. Thurel was a fusilier of the French Army in the Touraine Regiment. Born during the reign of Louis XIV , he died during that of Napoleon I. Thurel lived in three different centuries and served three different monarchs. From Orain, Burgundy, he enlisted in 1716 in the Régiment de Touraine, aged 18. He served there for over 90 years without interruption, under Louis XV, Louis XVI, the Republic and the Empire.
Source: The Modern World Encyclopedia
Twenty Seven year old Boston man Francis Marion Crawford in the 1880s was told by relatives to ‘Get A Job’. What did he do?
Answer: Write a best-selling novel. The first of many.
Source: New England Historical Society.
A favourite in Chinese restaurants around the world for decades, who actually invented fortune cookies?
Answer: American Charles Jung created them in 1918.
Source: Dictionary of World History edited by A J P Taylor
What was the first American casualty on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, when the 19,000 men of the US Marine first division landed in August 1942?
Answer: A Marine who cut his hand with a machete, trying to open a coconut.
Source: War – America’s Involvement in World War Two by Florentine Films
What was unusual about the arrival from Germany of King George I of England, the first Hanoverian king of Great Britain, in 1714?
Answer: Aged 54, he arrived with just a few words of English, 18 cooks and two mistresses, one fat and one thin, leading to their nickname of ‘Elephant and Castle’. George went on to marry his cousin, Sophia, before divorcing her for alleged adultery. He then imprisoned her in a castle until her death in 1726.
Source: The Australian – July 26, 2013
In Nazi Germany, which animal was forbidden from performing the ‘Heil Hitler’ greeting on pain of death?
Answer: Monkeys. This came after an entertainer taught his trained chimpanzees to extend their arms in a Nazi salute, provoking a swift decree outlawing the practice.
Source: Dead Funny by Rudolp Herzog
Nobel prize winner Bertrand Russell was one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. Descended from a British prime minister Russell, who lived until the age of 98, while possessing a brilliant mind had, like many people of genius, a number of idiosyncrasies. What was one of the more unusual examples of these?
Married four times, his third wife, when she left to visit friends or relatives for a few days, left instructions in the kitchen by the stove telling Russell how to make a cup of tea. These included such elementary instructions as ‘fill the kettle with water, put it on the stove, turn the gas on. When the water boils pour this into the teapot, with tea in it.’
Source: Intellectuals by Paul Johnson
Which precious stone was first discovered in the Golconda riverbeds of India around 2000 BCE, and was only found in India until 1896?
Answer: Diamonds.
Source: The Cambridge History of India by Edward James Rapson
Tomatoes first originated in South America, only reaching Europe in the 1620s. They were not at first eaten, however. What were they used for?
Answer: Decoration; in view of their unique colour they made for an exotic house adornment. Tomatoes then soon began being used as a medicine, primarily for eye complaints. Only by the 1690s were they consumed as a foodstuff.
Source: Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook
What is ‘the Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident’ of the Second World War, which took place on December 20 1943?
Answer: After a bombing run on Bremen, rookie pilot Charlie Brown’s B-17 Flying Fortress was seriously damaged by German fighters. Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler was ordered to shoot down the bomber, but instead, on humanitarian grounds, decided to allow the crew to fly back to Britain unharmed. The incident is considered a high point for honour during the war.
Source: A Higher Call by Adam Makos
King Louis XIII of France famously did not do what until he was seven years old?
Answer: Take a bath. Doctors at the time considered sweat as the best defence against disease – hence why the future King, the most precious figure of all, did not wash at all until then.
Source: 1339 Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
What was the greatest cause of fatalities among pilots in the First World War?
Answer: Flight accidents. In fact, more pilots died in accidents than ever did in combat, with 8000 fatalities in Britain alone during flight training.
Source: The Great War 100 by Scott Addington
What was ‘Joshua Ward’s drop’, and why did it cause a scandal in early eighteenth century Britain?
Answer: It was a medicine developed by fraudulent doctor Joshua Ward, which he claimed would cure people of any illness they might have. He was convicted of fraud and fled to France, only returning fifteen years later after a pardon by King George II.
Source: The Chemical Revolution by Archibald Clow and Nan Clow
Which famous English conflict is known by a name which was invented four centuries afterwards by Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)?
Answer: The War of the Roses. While the roses of the respective houses, Lancaster and York, were always part of the imagery of the conflict, it was likely known by contemporaries as the English Civil War or the War of English Succession.
Source: Three Crises in Early English History by Michael Van Cleave Alexander
Who was described by a Venetian ambassador as ‘the arbiter of the world’ due to their power and influence?
Answer: King Phillip II (1527-1598) of Spain. Under him, Spain reached the height of its world power, possessing territories in all continents then known to man.
Source: World Without End by Thomas Hugh
Why did it become fashionable in the 1880s for British high society ladies to pretend to limp, something known as the ‘Alexandra Limp’?
Answer: In order to follow a trend inadvertently created by Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), wife of the Prince of Wales. Her fashion sense was widely copied, and when a bout of rheumatic fever unfortunately left her with a limp, ladies across the country emulated it. Remarkably, shopkeepers even developing mismatched footwear to help women meet the unusual craze.
Source: Edward VII by Christopher Hibbert
August 2014
In the late 1920s, German car company Opel led attempts to build the first rocket powered cars. Their first prototype was the Opel Rak.1, which recorded its top speed on March 15, 1928. How fast did it go?
Answer: A mere 47 mph. The rocket cars quickly improved however as the second edition, the Opel Rak.2, reached 143 mph. Opel also tested rocket gliders and a rocket train.
Source: To a Distant Day by Chris Gainor
King Edward III of England (1312-1377) often used to enjoy banquets with an animal fancy dress theme. What would he attend as?
Answer: A pheasant. Perhaps more bizarrely, his soldiers were instructed to dress up as Swans.
Source: Edward III by W. Mark Ormrod
In 1915, the millionaire Cecil Chubb (1876-1934) purchased the famous ancient British monument Stonehenge. In 1918, he gave it to the nation. Why did he do this?
Answer: His wife didn’t like it. The purchase was originally intended for her as a birthday present, but her disapproval meant he quickly disposed of it.
Source: The Interesting Bits by Justin Pollard
In the 318 years between 1539 and 1857, how many divorces were there in England?
Answer: 317, on average less than one a year, out of the entire population.
Source: 1,227 Facts To Blow Your Socks Off by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Which treaty, signed on June 7 1494, split the conquest of all new territories outside of Europe between Spain and Portugal?
Answer: The Treaty of Tordesillas. The accord stipulated the land east of a meridian of 370 leagues would belong to Portugal, and west to Spain.
Source: The Diplomatic History of America by Henry Harisse
In the eighteenth century, elaborate hairpieces were a sign of wealth and status. Some people went particularly far however. What did they do?
Answer: They included living things in their hairpieces. Most commonly, some women went to the extreme of incorporating birds and birdcages, no less, in their hair.
Source: Good Old Days My Ass by David A. Fryxell
Which popular children’s board game was invented in thirteenth century India by the poet Gyandev?
Answer: Snakes and Ladders. Known as Mokshapat, it taught the lessons of good and bad, with the ladders representing the former and the snakes the latter.
Source: India’s Ancient Past by R.S. Sharma
Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of acrobatics and dance. What unique origins does it have?
Answer: It developed among Brazil’s slave population from the sixteenth century onwards, which is reflected it its unique nature. It was disguised as dance in order to prevent owners from learning slaves were learning to fight, and its emphasis on kicks is a result of slave combatants having their wrists bound.
Source: Capoeira by Jane Atwood
Until 1967, what seemingly innocuous acts were illegal in Britain?
Answer: Scolding and Eavesdropping. No doubt these were examples of bizarre ancient laws still left on the statute books.
Source: 1,227 Facts To Blow Your Socks Off by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Which two American states went to war with each other in 1835?
Answer: Ohio and Michigan (although Michigan was still a territory at the time, not becoming a state until two years later). The conflict was largely bloodless, but involved competing militias seeking to control the Toledo Strip territory. Ohio was eventually granted control of the territory at the culmination of ‘the Toledo War’.
Source: The Boy Governor by Don Faber
In the context of the Second World War, what was ‘Operation Unthinkable’?
Answer: The code name for two plans involving conflict between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union in 1945. The Soviet Union had been allies of the West during World War Two. The first involved an Allied surprise attack on Soviet Union forces in East Germany, while the second was a defensive plan if the Soviets themselves attacked Allied positions. Highly secretive, the plans were not made public until 1998.
Source: Operation Unthinkable by Jonathan Walker
American Industrialist Henry Ford revolutionised business, but he also predicted a world completely dominated by machines. How would this work?
Answer: Ford foresaw a world where one would ‘press a button by the side of the bed and find himself automatically clad, fed, exercised, amused and, later in the day, put to bed again.’
Source: Good Old Days My Ass by David A. Fryxell
In the 1880s, American dentist Dr Albert Southwick surprisingly worked to develop which invention?
Answer: The electric chair. In 1881 Southwick had been given the inspiration for such a device after witnessing how an elderly drunkard was quickly killed when he fell into an electric generator. The chair was eventually developed in collaboration with Thomas Edison.
Source: Eighth Amendment by Rich Smith
What famous event was Japanese civil servant Masabumi Hosono (1870-1939) involved in, and why was he ostracised from society as a result?
Answer: He was a survivor from the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. The only Japanese passenger on the ship, he was condemned as a coward by the Japanese public for saving himself rather than going down with the ship.
Source: Titanic by Kevin S. Sandler
The phrase ‘money for old rope’ is used to apply to situations where someone makes financial gain with little or no effort. But from which act may this phrase originate?
Answer: Public hanging. The rope used for such a hanging was often sold in six inch strips to spectators as a lucky charm.
Source: The North by Paul Morley
According to legend, what unusual strategy did Persian ruler King Cambyses II employ to get the upper hand against his Egyptian opponents at the Battle of Pelusium in 55 BCE?
Answer: Knowing that the Egyptians considered cats sacred, Cambyses was said to have ordered his soldiers to bring them to the front line. The presence of cats was said to have so confused and worried Egyptian soldiers that their discipline collapsed and were defeated easily.
Source: Forgotten Empire by John Curtis
‘Poor Richard’s’ Almanack was a highly popular pamphlet published in the British North American colonies, with versions published each year from 1733 to 1758. Who wrote it?
Answer: American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). In writing the pamphlet he adopted the pseudonym of ‘Richard Saunders’, dubbed ‘Poor Richard’.
Source: Self-help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture by Roy M. Anker
The Medici’s were a remarkable political dynasty, banking family and later royal house in Florence, Italy. Over 400 years, two Medici’s became queens of France and three became pope. In the words of Professor Niall Ferguson, however, ‘prior to the 1390s the Medici’s were Florence’s answer to the Sopranos, and were a small time clan notable more for low violence than for high finance.’ What was one example of their then low status in society?
Answer: In a 17 year period, no fewer than five Medici’s were sentence to death by the criminal courts for capital crimes.
Source: The Ascent of Money by Professor Niall Ferguson
When St Louis, Missouri held the 1904 Summer Olympic games, what were some of the more unusual events included?
Answer: Greased Pole Climbing, rock throwing and mud fighting.
Source: General Historical Texts
John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was one of the wealthiest men in America during the 19th century, and was acknowledged as the most powerful banker on Wall Street. As a young man he went into the family business, showing early on definite attributes as a businessman. What was one example of such traits?
Answer: During the American Civil War, in his 20s, Morgan bought 5,000 defective rifles from an arsenal at $3.50 each and resold them to a field general for $22 each. The rifles were found to be defective and some shot off the thumbs of the soldiers firing them.
Source: New England Historical Society
In the fifteenth century, French soldiers often referred to the English as ‘godons’. Why?
Answer: The phrase derived from ‘God-damn’, a saying which was considered in wide use among English soldiers.
Source: Encyclopaedia of the Hundred Years War by John A. Wagner
Sitting Bull (1831-1890) was a famous Native American leader who attempted to defend his people against the American government. What was his original name however?
Answer: The rather less fearsome ‘Jumping Badger.’
Source: Legends of American Indian Resistance by Edward J. Rielly
On June 4, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous ‘Fight Them on the Beaches’ speech, which helped inspire the British people to resist the threat of Nazi Germany. During the address, however, he muttered an extra line to his deputy, Clement Atlee. What was it?
Answer: ‘And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that’s bloody well all we’ve got!’
Source: In The Footsteps of Churchill by Richard Holmes
In December 1802, the famous novelist Jane Austen was briefly engaged before cancelling the engagement. If she had gone through with the marriage, what would she have be known as?
Answer: Jane Bigg-Wither. She pulled out as she realised that she had little affection for her suitor, Harris Bigg-Wither, the heir to a local estate.
Source: Jane Austen – A Life by Claire Tomalin
Which British naval figure, who weighed in an incredible 24 stone, was last seen encircled by flames on his flagship the Royal James at the Battle of Solebay on 28 May 1672?
Answer: Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich
Source: The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
In 1634, Boston, Massachusetts, commissioned its first set of stocks, with craftsman Edward Palmer given the task of designing and building them. Who was the first individual to be placed in the stocks?
Answer: Palmer himself. The bill he submitted for the stocks, totaling one pound, thirteen shillings and seven pence, was considered by town officials to be exorbitant, and Palmer was charged with extortion. He was fined five pounds and sentenced to an hour in the stocks.
Source: Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Alice Earle
Under Roman law, what was a balnearii?
Answer: A thief who stole the clothes of those washing in the public baths of Rome.
Source: A Dictionary of Words and Phrases Used in Ancient Law by Arthur English
In November 1625, England launched an ill-fated invasion of Spain, capturing the Spanish port city of Cadiz. Once they arrived however, English soldiers quickly became incapacitated. How?
Answer: They became drunk. The soldiers had been poorly equipped, so they were instructed to drink from local wine vats. Unsurprisingly, the soldiers ended up becoming drunk and were forced into a humiliating retreat.
Source: War and Government in Britain by Mark Fissile
British soldiers fighting in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) described what feature of their French enemies as ‘appurtenances of terror’?
Answer: Their facial hair. The largely clean shaven British saw the common moustaches and beards of their French enemy as an intimidating sight. The French themselves were likely adopting a longer held Spanish view, which was that a ‘hombre de bigote’ (man with moustache) fought more ferociously.
Source: The Decline and Fall of the British Empire by Piers Brendon
Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the British Admiralty when World War One broke out 100 years ago this week, said three men were to blame for the outbreak of the war. Who were they?
Answer: The Serb assassin Gavrilo Princip, the Austrian foreign minister who had written the first ultimatum, and the German kaiser who could have stopped the chain reaction of governments bound by military alliance.
Source: The Last Lion by William Manchester
Under the rule of 12th century King David I of Scotland, a tax refund could be obtained if what was done?
Answer: According to the contemporary scholar William of Malmesbury, David ‘remitted three years taxation for those who improved their houses, their dress and table manners.’
Source: 1339 Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
July 2014
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of the French, was one of the most gifted military leaders in history. He had a surprising phobia however. What was it?
Answer: He was scared of cats.
Source: Scared Stuff by Sara Latta
Which noted artist died in a gunpowder explosion in the town of Delft, The Netherlands, on October 12, 1654?
Answer: Carel Fabritus (1624-1654), a Dutch painter who was generally considered Rembrandt’s most gifted pupil. The explosion occurred when a gunpowder store caught fire and exploded, killing over a hundred and injuring many more.
Source: Cambridge Dictionary of Biography by David Crystal
What was the ‘Pastry War’?
Answer: An armed conflict between France and Mexico, from November 1838 until March 1839. It was so named as the war was instigated by a French pastry cook in Mexico City. The cook claimed his shop had been attacked by Mexican army officers, and petitioned the French for help – who used it as a pretext for war.
Source: War of the Americas by David Marley
Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was the largest invasion in the history of warfare, with the Soviets initially woefully under-equipped to counter the invader. For example, how many of the 7000 raw recruits who formed the 18th Leningrad Volunteer division actually had a weapon?
Answer: Six percent. The division had 300 rifles, 21 machine guns and 100 revolvers to distribute among the 7000.
Source: A Storm of War by Andrew Roberts
Where was the surprising location of the first violence to emanate from the French Revolution?
Answer: A luxury wallpaper factory. The Réveillon Riots, so named after the factory’s owner Jean-Baptiste Réveillon, focused around the issue of pay, and around 25 people were killed.
Source: France in Revolution, 1776-1830 by Sally Waller
After the English pilgrims settled Plymouth colony in 1620, their first interaction with the indigenous peoples astounded them. Why?
Answer: On March 16, 1621, a Native American walked boldly into the camp proclaiming ‘Welcome Englishmen!’. The individual in question, Samoset, had learnt their language from English fisherman operating off the coastline of what is now Maine.
Source: Colonial America from Settle to the Revolution
Al Capone was one of America’s most feared gangsters during the Prohibition era in the United States (1920-1933). What did he describe as his profession on identity documents however?
Answer: His occupation was listed as ‘used furniture dealer’.
Source: Hot Springs by Robert Raines
During the Napoleonic wars (1803–1815), why did the citizens of the British town of Hartlepool hang a monkey?
Answer: They thought it was a French spy. A French ship had been wrecked of the Hartlepool coast, with the only survivor being the monkey. Considering it a threat, the local townspeople hanged it on Hartlepool beach.
Source: The Enemy Within by Terry Crowdy
King Clovis I (466-511 CE) was an influential king of the Franks, the first to unite every Frankish tribe under one ruler. In what other way did he come to influence the French monarchy in later years?
Answer: Through his name, Clovis. This later evolved into the name Louis, a title adopted by eighteen kings of France.
Source: Medieval France by William Kibler
In which year did Spencer Compton become British Prime Minister, Anders Celsius devise the celsius scale of temperature measurement and George Friedric Handel compose his famous oratorio ‘Messiah’?
Answer: 1742
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia by David Crystal
In the context of Ancient Rome, what was the ‘digitus impudicus’?
Answer: The use of the middle finger as an insult. The finger was considered impudent and offensive, a perspective that remains to this day.
Source: Anatomies by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Who was described by British critic William Hazlitt (1778-1830) as one who ‘makes man after his own image, woman after his own heart; the one is a capricious tyrant, the other a yielding slave?’
Answer: Lord Byron, British poet. Byron was renowned for his verse, his remarkable attractiveness for women and salacious love life.
Source: Lord Byron by Andrew Rutherford
According to popular legend, how did the Chinese Emperor Shennong discover tea?
Answer: He is said to have first tasted it in the year 2737 BCE, when tea leaves on burning tea twigs fell and landed in his cauldron of boiling water.
Source: Chinese Mythology by Anthony Christie
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), the Swedish inventor who founded the Nobel Prizes, famously invented dynamite. His father Immanuel Nobel (1801-1872) was also an inventor, but his famous invention was much less exciting. What was it?
Answer: He was the inventor of plywood.
Source: Alfred Nobel – A Biography by Kenne Fant
In what unique way did American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) propose to his second wife, Mina Miller?
Answer: Morse code. Edison had previously taught Miller the code to help them communicate, as Edison was hard of hearing.
Source: Thomas Edison by Linda Tagliaferro
When Burma was first colonised by Britain in the early nineteenth century, what name did the indigenous peoples give to their colonisers?
Answer: ‘The Trouser People’, a reference to the dress of British officials in contrast to the sarongs favoured by the native Burmese.
Source: The Trouser People by Andrew Marshall
The town of Ixonia, Wisconsin, was named on January 21, 1846. The residents decided on the name of the town in an unusual way, however. How?
Answer: By drawing letters at random out of a hat. Residents disagreed so bitterly on a name that this compromise was agreed. It remains the only town in the United States to be named this way.
Source: Jefferson County by W.F. Jannke
How long did the Panama Canal take to build?
Thirty three years from start to finish. The French began construction in 1881 and ceased due to structural problems and high worker mortality rates. The United States took up construction in 1904. The canal opened in 1914.
Source: General Historical Texts
In 1870s London, how many mail deliveries were there per day?
Answer: Ten
Source: The Last Lion by William Manchester
In what year was the last British convict deported to Australia?
Answer: The convict ship Hougoumont left Britain in 1867, arriving in Western Australia in January 1868. In all, around 168,000 convicts were sent to Australia.
Source: Australia: A Social and Political History by Gordon Greenwood
What were British King George V’s last words, when he died on January 20, 1936 at Sandringham House?
Answer: ‘God damn you!’ Contrary to popular opinion, they were not ‘Bugger Bognor’ (in reference to a proposed recuperation trip to English seaside town, Bognor Regis). These actual final words were recorded by his physician, Lord Dawson, which he muttered to a nurse as she administered a sedative.
Source: The Death of George V by Francis Watson
As the grandson of a duke, it was natural that Winston Churchill would join a suitably prestigious cavalry regiment within the British Army. Accordingly, he was commissioned a subaltern in the aristocratic Fourth Hussars in 1894, aged 19. Gentlemen’s gambling debts were always settled promptly, but for tradesmen it was a different matter. How long did he take to pay the tailor who made his uniform?
Answer: Six years.
Source: The Last Lion by William Manchester.
Englishman Edmund Burke, who died in 1797, is best known for his later writings on the French Revolution. The 18th-century member of Parliament, who was a Whig, was one of the first to decry the revolt as the dangerous work of a swinish multitude. Contrary to the widely held view lauding the revolution as a victory for ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’, how did Burke describe the uprising?
Answer: “The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.”
Source: The Economist – July 5, 2014
The Comper Mouse, Pobjoy Pirate, Curie Wot, Watkinson Dingbat and Dart Kitten were all types of what?
Answer: Pre World War Two British biplanes and monoplanes.
Source: 1339 Facts by John Lloyd et al
Which American President’s only regrets for his period in office were that he ‘had been unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun.’
Answer: Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). Both figures were long term political rivals of Jackson.
Source: Polk – The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Water R. Borneman
‘I just wish I had time for one more bowl of chilli’ were the last words of which historical figure?
Answer: Kit Carson (1809-1868), American frontiersman.
Source: Advanced Banter by John Lloyd et. Al
In 1918 in the last year of World War One, the communications of American soldiers involved in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive had been compromised, as Germany successfully tapped telephone lines and deciphered codes. How did American forces successfully counter this?
Answer: All telephone calls were made in the Native American language, Choctaw. Unknown outside the Southeastern United States, the language meant German code breakers had little chance. The Native American soldiers who gave the messages became known as The Choctaw Telephone Squad.
Source: American and World War One by David R. Woodward
In 1811, British Law stipulated that the crimes of sheep stealing, impersonating a Chelsea pensioner, living with gypsies for a month and stealing cheese were punishable by what?
Answer: Death.
Source: 1227 Facts by John Lloyd et al
When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later the Queen Mother) married Albert, Duke of York, in 1923, how much did the wedding cake weigh?
Answer: An incredible half a ton.
Source: 1227 Facts by John Lloyd et al
‘Quoz’, ‘What a shocking bad hat’, ’Hookey Walker’ and ‘Has your mother sold her mangle?’ are all examples of what?
Answer: Outdated slang. Other examples of once popular slang listed by nineteenth century English writer Charles Mackay include ‘flare up!’ and ‘there he goes with his eye out!’
Source: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mckay
The Battle of Balaclava was a major battle in which conflict?
Answer: The Crimean War. The battle is a famous for Lord Cardigan’s Charge of the Light Brigade, which took place during the confrontation.
Source: Crimean War by Orlando Figes
June 2014
In 1876 an internal memo at the American company Western Union dismissed which pioneering invention as having ‘too many shortcomings to be seriously considered a means of communication.’
Answer: The telephone. The memo went on to say that the device was ‘inherently of no value to us.’
Source: The Death of Distance by Frances Cairncross
John Ainsworth Horrocks was a British explorer who first introduced camels to Australia. Why did he regret this, however?
Answer: When riding one camel, it lurched suddenly, leading Horrock’s rifle to accidental fire, hitting him. Horrocks died of his wounds three weeks later, not before making sure, if somewhat cruelly, that the guilty camel was ‘executed’ beforehand.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography
Who was the only American president to have paid off the entire national debt?
Answer: Andrew Jackson, in January 1835. The accomplishment was short lived however, as a depression caused the national debt to return by 1838. It has not been paid in full since.
Source: Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini
In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, tea grew to become one of the most popular drinks in Britain. As demand grew however, makers of tea attempted to ensure their supplies lasted longer by adding other ingredients to it. What would they add?
Answer: Hedgerow clippings, dirt and sand were all added to shipments of tea. Some previously used tea leaves were even resold as fresh leaves.
Source: History of Human Nutrition by Martin Eastwood
John Joseph Merlin, an inventor of rollerblades, first demonstrated his invention at a London masquerade ball in 1760. He made a grand entrance, playing a violin as he skated into the room. What went wrong, however?
Answer: Contemporaries noted how Merlin had no way of slowing down or guiding his direction. Rather inevitably, Merlin crashed. He destroyed a mirror worth £500, smashed his violin and ‘injured himself most severely.’
Source: Life After Death by Peter Holman
Between 1807 and 1820, what city was the unlikely capital of the Kingdom of Portugal?
Answer: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Portuguese court moved due to the threat of Napoleon, and did not return until the Liberal Revolution of 1820.
Source: Toward an Understanding of Europe by Alan Ertl
In 1876, Virgil A. Gates of Charleston West, Virginia, patented an invention he was sure was going to be a big success. What was it?
Answer: A moustache shield. It was a band held in place by straps around the ears, with the intention of stopping food from getting into a moustache during meals. Unsurprisingly, the invention never saw much success.
Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office
American physicist Bernard Waldman was assigned a key task in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, but all did not go to plan. What was his task, and what went wrong?
Answer: Waldman flew with the bombing team equipped with a high-speed camera, pre loaded with six seconds of film, to record the blast. Unfortunately Waldman somehow forgot to open the camera shutter, and none of the blast was recorded.
Source: Picturing the Bomb by Rachel Fermi et. al
According to English naming records, a young girl in 1397 was christened with a name strangely similar to a contemporary soft drink. What was it?
Answer: Diot Coke.
Source: Christian Names in Local and Family History by George Redmonds
Elizabeth of Russia, empress from 1741-1762, employed ladies in waiting whose sole role was to do what?
Answer: Tickle her feet. The Empress, at one point, had six ‘feet ticklers’ who would chat to her while undertaking this task.
Source: Elizabeth, Empress of Russia by Tamara Talbot Rice
How many Kings of England have been called Edward?
Answer: Eleven. This is despite the most recent being King Edward VIII (reigned January-December 1936). This is because the three kings named Edward before the Norman Conquest, Edward ‘the Elder’, Edward ‘the Martyr’ and Edward ‘the Confessor’ are not counted for the title.
Source: Key Figures in Medieval Europe by Richard Kenneth Emmerson
What was the ‘Red Eyebrows Rebellion’?
Answer: A major agrarian rebellion against the Xin Dynasty in China in the year 18 CE. It gained this title because rebels painted their eyebrows red.
Source: Women in Early Imperial China by Bret Hinsch
The Epsom Derby was named after the host of the event, the twelfth Earl of Derby. This was only after a disagreement over who the event should be named after; the earl or one of his guests, Sir Charles Bunbury. Why was it eventually named after the earl?
Answer: Derby correctly called a coin toss. As a result, he put his name to what would become one of the most famous horse races in the world.
Source: Never Say Die by James C. Nicholson
Which nation remained neutral throughout the Second World War, despite the fact that its capital city was bombed on numerous occasions by Nazi Germany, most notably on May 31, 1941?
Answer: The Republic of Ireland. The bombings were likely due to German piloting errors, but may have been a warning shot to Ireland to stay out of the war.
Source: Ireland in the War Years by Joseph Carroll
By the seventeenth century, wigs had become a fundamental fashion accessory for European men. So valued were wigs that this spawned an unsavory side effect. What was it?
Answer: A growth in crime, as ‘wig thieves’ preyed on unsuspecting gentlemen. Some thieves even specialised in attacking hackney coaches, slicing a hole in the back, snatching a wig and fleeing quickly with their spoils.
Source: Good Old Days My Ass by David A. Fryxell
Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’, first published in 1867 is one of the most influential books of modern times. It was, however, less than well received given that it went on to spawn, or be the catalyst for, the formation of over 30 Communist states in the 20th century. What was its initial publishing success?
Answer: It took five years to sell 1000 copies in its original German. It was not translated into English for two decades.
Source: The Economist – May 3, 2014
In 1919, inventor J.D. Humphrey conceived of an alarm clock which woke up the sleeper in a brand new way. How?
Answer: It woke them with a blow to the head. The clock mechanism triggered a bedside baton on a pivot to drop, which, if the sleeper was position correctly, would hit them direct on the forehead.
Source: Good Old Days My Ass by David A. Fryxell
Inventor Thomas Edison is most famous for his inventions involving electric light, motion pictures and recorded sound. Less well known are the inventions he conceived for warfare. What were they?
Answer: One Edison plan was to have giant electromagnets on the battlefield, so powerful that they would stop bullets mid flight and even send them back to those who fired them. Another plan was for ‘electrically charged atomisers’ that would put enemy armies into mass comas.
Source: Good Old Days My Ass by David A. Fryxell
In October 1915 what unusual event befell First World War Royal Navy Victoria Cross winner George Samson, in his native Carnoustie, Scotland?
Wearing civilian clothing, he was on his way to a civic ceremony to recognise his being awarded the highest decoration awarded for bravery in the British Empire, when a woman handed him a white feather. This was the symbol that was given to men who were assumed to have shirked their obligation to enlist, and therefore were cowards.
Source: The Daily Mail, May 11, 2014
When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris in 1911, what famous artist was surprisingly among the suspects?
Answer: Pablo Picasso. Authorities considered that Picasso was among the modernist enemies of traditional art, who may have targeted the famous painting. There was, however, no evidence found against him.
Source: The Lost Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti
Campaigning for the U.S. Congress in 1846, Abraham Lincoln received a war chest of $200 to fund his campaign. How much did he actually spend?
Answer: A mere 75 cents. Lincoln travelled on his own horse and stayed with friends, so he had little need for the money. As Lincoln described, even the 75 cents was only spent on a ‘barrel of cider which some farm-hands insisted I should treat them to.’
Source: Abraham Lincoln by Michael Burlingame
Which modern day office product, a fixture of businesses around the world, was first invented by Scottish mechanic Alexander Bain in 1843?
Answer: The fax machine. The early version pioneered by Bain used pendulums, probes and electrochemically sensitive paper to scan documents. This information was then sent over a series of wires to be replicated. It was known as the Electric Signal Telegraph.
Source: Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology by Edwin D. Reilly
During the Second World War, which unlikely figure was mooted as a potential successor to Winston Churchill if he was to die during the conflict?
Answer: Jan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa. Despite having only lived briefly in Britain during his youth, certain senior civil servants and members of the royal family considered Smuts the most capable successor.
Source: The Fringes of Power by John Colville
On September 5th 1863, British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell received a letter stating ‘it would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship that this is war.’ Who wrote the letter, and in what context?
Answer: U.S. diplomat Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), amidst the height of the American Civil War.
Source: The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro
Prussian King Frederick the Great and his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all aggressively decreed that their citizens should grow which vegetable?
Answer: Potatoes. Considered the key to avoiding starvation, at one point those who refused could even have their nose and ears cut off. The Prussian royals’ struggles came from the fact that many peasants inaccurately thought potatoes caused leprosy, and would refuse to grow them.
Source: Lost Crops of the Incas by Hugh Popenoe et al.
Which famous figure from the nineteenth century was described by writer Alexander Herzen as ‘the Uncrowned King of the Peoples, their enthusiastic hope, their living legend, their Holy Man – from the Ukraine and Serbia to Andalucia and Scotland, from South America to the north of the United States’?
Answer: Italian revolutionary hero Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Source: Heroes by Lucy Hughes-Hallet
The Battle of Marengo, fought on 14 June 1800, saw the forces of Napoleon successfully overcome an Austrian army near the city of Alessandria, Italy. In what unusual way was the victory later commemorated?
Answer: A chicken dish was named after it, Chicken Marengo, which continues to be popular to this day.
Source: Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson
Which is the oldest daily newspaper published in English still in circulation in the world, and when did it start?
Answer: The News Letter, published in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1737 as the Belfast News Letter.
Source: Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora by Benjamin Bankhurst
In the sixteenth century, English explorer Martin Frobisher made numerous expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. On his second trip in 1577, what did he discover which he felt would make him wildly rich?
Answer: Iron pyrite, commonly known as ‘Fools gold’. Frobisher was so adamant that it was gold that he carried 200 tonnes of the material back to Britain, and later organised a third trip to mine more.
Source: Historical Atlas of Canada by Derek Hayes
Which city; wealthy, civilized and home to around a million people, was the largest in the world in the seventh century CE?
Answer: Chang’an, situated on the Guanzhong plain in central China. It benefitted from being located at the end of the Silk Road that brought trade from across Asia.
Source: 50 Things You Need to Know about World History by Hugh Williams
May 2014
According to the acclaimed American physicist Richard Feynman, in ten thousand years what event will be considered the most significant of the nineteenth century, far more so than the American Civil War?
Answer: James Clerk Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics in 1865.
Source: The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman
After the Normandy Invasion in summer 1944, the German authorities in occupied Denmark were so worried about a potential domestic uprising that they did what?
Answer: They arrested the entire Copenhagen police force in September 1944. Unsurprisingly, criminality rose considerably in the remaining year of the war.
Source: Fundamentals of Sentencing Theory by Andrew Ashworth et. al
British runner Roger Bannister is widely considered to be the first person to run a mile in under four minutes in 1954. Who may have beaten him to the accolade?
Answer: James Parrot, a fruit and vegetable seller from London. On 9 May 1770 Parrot entered a wager to prove he could run a mile in under four and a half minutes. According to the press of the time, he ended up running the mile in just four. Running through crowded London streets, debate remains on whether Parrot beat Bannister to the accolade.
Source: Beyond the Tower by John Marriott
Who was the only American President to get married inside the White House?
Answer: Grover Cleveland (1837-1908). He married Frances Folsom in 1886 who, at twenty-one, became the youngest First Lady in American history.
Source: Grover Cleveland by Henry Graff
Italian Gemma Galgani (1878-1903) is a saint in the Roman Catholic church, venerated for her profound faith. What unusual skill was she said to possess?
Answer: She could levitate. She was reputed to have done so on numerous occasions while gripping a crucifix.
Source: Mysteries, Marvels, Miracles in the Lives of Saints by Joan Carroll Cruz
King Umberto I of Italy was assassinated by an anarchist in Monza, Italy, on July 29, 1900. What was surprising about the assassin?
Answer: He had travelled from the United States to kill the king. The assassin, Gaetano Bresci, had long resided in Paterson, New Jersey, but had become so outraged by the perceived reactionary tendencies of the king that he travelled thousands of miles to assassinate him.
Source: The Battle against Anarchist Terrorism by Richard Bach Jensen
Which ruler famously decreed ‘I shall be an Autocrat; that’s my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that’s his.’
Answer: Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Russian empress.
Source: Oxford Treasury of Sayings and Quotations by Susan Ratcliffe
What do the cities of Tenochtitlan, Sarai and Pompeii all have in common?
Answer: They were all destroyed. Tenochtitlan in modern day Mexico was destroyed by Spanish invaders in the sixteenth century, while Sarai, a former Mongol capital, was sacked in the 1390s. Most famously, the Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed and buried after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.
Source: Russia and the Golden Horde by Charles Halperin; Mesoamerica’s Ancient Cities by William Ferguson et. al
When English revolutionary Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, he was buried in the tomb of Kings at Westminster Abbey. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, however, what happened?
Answer: He was posthumously convicted of treason; his body disinterred and hung lifeless from the gallows at Tyburn. His historical legacy continued to be debated 250 years later, when a plan to erect a statue of Cromwell outside Parliament caused considerable debate.
Source: Oliver Cromwell by Martyn Bennet
Why did World War Two US Admiral William ‘Bull’ Halsey keep a western saddle in the cabin of his battleship?
Answer: He had famously said that he was going to ride Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s white stallion through the streets of Tokyo and an admirer sent him the saddle for the purpose. The admiral never got to fulfil his wish.
Source: Nemesis by Sir Max Hastings
Jan Žižka was a highly successful Czech military leader in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. How did his commitment to the cause extend beyond his death in 1424 however?
Answer: At his request, after his death, his skin was turned into a war drum, It was intended that it be used in times of national emergency, which it often was, such as on the outbreak of the Thirty Years War nearly 200 years later in 1618.
Source: General Historical Texts
Kangaroo Island in South Australia is named after the country’s famed marsupial, which was found to be prevalent on the island by British explorer Matthew Flinders in 1802. What did Flinders and his crew do with the kangaroos they encountered, however?
Answer: They ate them. Thirty one kangaroos were shot and their meat used for stew.
Source: Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd et. al
The Kettle War took place in 1784 between the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire. Why was it named as such?
Answer: Because the only shot fired in the conflict, from a Dutch Warship, hit a soup kettle. The ‘war’ itself took place on one day, 8 October 1784.
Source: The Dutch Republic by Jonathan Israel
Amy Johnson was a leading British aviator who was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in 1930. Before she undertook this remarkable 11,000 mile epic adventure, however, what was the longest flight she had undertaken?
Answer: From Hendon to Hull in the UK, a distance of a mere 180 miles.
Source: Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd et. al
‘Dude’ is an American English slang term for a male individual. Surprisingly, what was its original meaning?
Answer: ‘Dude’ was a term used to describe a well-dressed and pretentious man from the city.
Source: Gentleman Solider by John Clifford Brown
What bizarre plague afflicted the town of Strasbourg, part of the Holy Roman Empire, in July 1518?
Answer: A dancing plague. Quite suddenly, many members of the town started dancing aggressively. They danced for weeks without rest, to the extent that some even died from exhaustion. Modern day scholars are unsure as to what caused the plague, but feel it was likely a form of mass psychogenic illness.
Source: A Time To Dance, a Time To Die by John Waller
Which American state was neutral on the outset of the civil war, later joined the Union cause, but still provided over 30,000 soldiers to the Confederacy?
Answer: Kentucky. Such was the State’s strategic importance that Abraham Lincoln famously said that ‘I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.’
Source: Kentucky’s Civil War 1861-1865 by Jerlene Rose et. al
In the Ottoman Empire, senior officials sentenced to death could escape execution if they did what?
Answer: Win a sprint against their executioner. Bizarrely, the executioner and condemned man would race from the royal palace to the fish market gate in Constantinople. If the condemned man got there first, his life would be spared.
Source: The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty by Anthony Alderson
When was the first recorded sighting of a UFO?
Answer: 214 BCE. The famed Roman historian Titus Livius Patavinus (Livy) noted how ‘phantom ships had been seen gleaming in the sky’.
Source: Roman Civilization by Naphtali Lewis
Which prominent Nazi official was at the receiving end of an elaborate practical joke by Adolf Hitler in 1937, an event which contributed towards him defecting?
Answer: Ernst Hanfstaengl. The joke was that Hanfstaengl was given false orders to parachute, involving great danger, into republican controlled Spain. In realty, the plane simply circled around German airspace while Hanfstaengl became increasingly agitated at the fate which awaited him. He later fled Germany.
Source: Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer
What is Cartesianism and who is its founder?
Cartesianism is a philosophical doctrine founded by Rene Descartes. It upholds the metaphysical dualism of two finite substances, mind and matter.
Source: Britannica Ready Reference Encyclopaedia
In late Tsarist times in Russia, the Foreign Office commemorated a royal anniversary by undertaking an archival research project. In an elaborate memorandum to the Tsar, the Foreign Office declared that they had reviewed the previous 40 wars Russia had fought in. What was the result of this study?
Answer: They proudly reported that Russia had started 38 of them.
A History of Russia by Nicholas V. Riasanovsky
What is the earliest recorded example of ballet in history?
Answer: It was the secular dance spectacle performed by Bergonzio di Botta at the Duke of Milan’s wedding, at Tortona in 1489.
Source: Europe – A History by Norman Davies
During World War Two, many hundreds of thousands of US troops were stationed in Britain. What was the average difference in pay between the British ‘Tommy’ and US ‘GI’?
Answer: Around five times. The impact on these comparatively highly paid soldiers on British society was to be significant. With their pay five times that of a British Tommy, and all the glamour of Hollywood around them, the servicemen proved irresistible to the many young ladies who became GI Brides.
Source: The Daily Mail October 6, 2013
19th century British patriotic writer Rudyard Kipling penned many memorable lines on the dangers and intrinsic nobility of life for a British soldier. What was one of his more evocative passages about military service in Afghanistan?
‘When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s Plains
And the women come out to cut up what remains
Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
And you’ll go to your God like a soldier’.
Source: The Young British Soldier by Rudyard Kipling
Which figure surprisingly considered Adolf Hitler’s memoir Mein Kampf ‘a boring tome that I have never been able to read’?
Answer: Fellow fascist Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943.
Source: Modern Political Ideologies by Andrew Vincent
In North America on December 20, 1820 Missouri territory imposed an unusual tax. What was this?
Answer: A $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men aged between 21 and 50. This was done to increase the population and create a more stable community in the territory. Missouri came to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
Source: a History of the American People by Paul Johnson
In the American Revolution, much was made of a “Liberty Tree,” a rallying point for American Patriots in Boston. Was it real or a fiction?
Real. The Liberty Tree was an Elm tree believed to be about 120 years old when the Revolution occured. Formerly dubbed ‘the Great Tree’ referring to its enormous size and revered look. It was located on what is now known as Washington Street at Essex and next to a former 17th century house.
Source: General Historical Texts
Who was the Mesopotamian god of justice who ‘laid bare the righteous and the wicked?’
Answer: The Sun God Utu also known as Shamash.
Source: Ancient Iraq by Georges Roux
E.L Godkin left Ireland to settle in the United States in 1851 and in 1856 founded a leading political review that would heavily influence all political reform. What was the name of that periodical?
Answer: The Nation, which is currently the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States.
Source: People who made America by Alan Axelrod
What currency was used in Ancient Greece?
Answer: Nomisma, meaning ‘coin’ was used by both Greeks and Romans as currency.
Source: Europe, A History by Norman Davies
April 2014
What is the great Roman Catholic cathedral, located in France, which was built between 1194 and 1220 and is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
Answer: Chartres Cathedral also known Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Chartres. It is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic Architecture and is still in an exceptional state of preservation.
Source: Britannica Ready Reference Encyclopedia
What was the book written by Edward Hyde, Ist Earl of Clarendon, during his exile in France in 1667.
Answer: History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, the classic account of the English Civil War.
Source: Britannica Ready Reference Encyclopedia
What events inspired the Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith to write his acclaimed poem ‘The Deserted Village’ in 1770?
Answer: Goldsmith’s lament for the uprooted rural population was written when a great number of people were seeking poor relief in the Irish parish due to severe poverty, while the dispossessed flocked the cities for hope. This took place at the height of the Enclosure Movement in England.
Source: A Commonwealth of Thieves, The improbable birth of Australia by Thomas Keneally
What is the first recorded instance of bullfighting, the traditional bloodthirsty spectacle of Spain and Portugal?
Answer: The Epic of Gilgamesh dating from roughly 2000 BCE. It is an epic poem from Mesopotamia, and is perhaps the oldest written story on Earth.
Source: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Complete Academic Translation by R. Campbell Thompson
Who was the first astronomer to make actual measurements of the sky?
Answer: Hipparchus of Nicea, a Greek astronomer, geographer and mathematician of the Hellenistic period. He is considered to be the founder of trigonometry.
Source: Great Men of Science by Philipp Lenard
What is the original name of the famous book responsible for outlining the history of class struggle and the problems of capitalism, published in 1848?
Answer: Das Kommunistischen Manifest, the German title of The Communist Manifesto, which laid the grounds for Communism the world over.
Source: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
During the 16th Century, women in Italy were banned from church choirs as well as from performing on the stage. Which male voice would sing the parts traditionally meant for the female voice?
Answer: The castrato. The castrato voice was a male soprano or alto voice produced as a result of castration during puberty. The illegal practice produced a treble voice of extraordinary power and was in great demand in the 17th and 18th century operas. Castrato’s were first heard in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
Source: Britannica Ready Reference Encyclopedia
In September 1899, what unusual patron got so drunk at Reilly’s Hotel, New York City, that it struck another visitor over the head with a whiskey bottle, pelted everyone with bottles and glasses and then smashed a bottle of Vermouth into the face of the proprietor?
Answer: A monkey. The animal was kept at the bar, but a visitor unwisely fed it four cocktails – as a result of which it promptly went into a frenzy. It was only caught when the police arrived and lassoed it.
Source: The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton by Jeremy Clay
What institution is the oldest corporation in America?
Answer: Harvard University. The President and Fellows of Harvard College, also known as Harvard Corporation, were chartered in 1636.
Source: The Corporation by Wesley B. Truitt
When Louis XIV greeted the Persian ambassador, Mohammed Reza Beg, at the Palace of Versailles on February 19, 1715 what was unusual about the garments the ‘Sun King’ wore?
Answer: Keen to make an impact, Louis was dressed in a black and gold outfit covered with diamonds, worth a total of 12.5 million livres. An astronomical amount. The king had to change out of it after dinner because it weighed so much.
Source: Dictionary of World History by A J P Taylor, General Historical Texts.
Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, the Prospect of Whitby and Ye Olde Cock Tavern are all types of what, and why are they linked?
Answer: They are all public houses or taverns in London, England, which were patronised by the famous author Charles Dickens. It is also alleged that Ye Old Cheshire Cheese was regularly frequented by writer and lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson.
Source: London – A Cultural History by Richard Tames
What was the secret of the success of the Rolls Royce car in the early years of the last century?
Answer: It was run by two men with very different but complementary skills. Sir Charles Rolls was a flamboyant, aristocratic sportsman. And Henry Royce was a dour and meticulous engineer.
Source: The Victorians by BBC television
What is the ‘Inca Paradox’?
Answer: An historical debate concerning the Inca Empire, which, despite possessing a sophisticated culture and large empire, never developed a system of writing. This phenomenon of non-inscription is considered unique among major Bronze Age civilization.
Source: Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams
King Charles IX ruled Sweden from 1604-1611, but what was odd about his title?
Answer: Despite his title of Charles IX, he was actually only the third King of Sweden named Charles. He took his number after relying on a false history of Swedish royalty.
Source: Sweden by Martina Sprague
The Swedish warship Vasa, built between 1626 and 1628, was intended to be the pride of the Swedish Navy. It suffered an ignominious demise however. What happened?
Answer: Vasa capsized and sank on her maiden voyage in 1628, after traveling little more than one thousand metres out of port. Fundamental construction errors meant the ship had been built top-heavy and with insufficient ballast.
Source: Sweden by Martina Sprague
Which conflict is officially known in China as ‘the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea’.
Answer: The Korean War (1950-1953). Unofficially the term ‘Chaoxian (Korean) War’ is also used.
Source: China and the United States by Xiaobing Li
What was British author Sybil Thomas discussing in 1937 when she complained of a force which ‘constitutes the gravest of our national perils, that exploits mass fear and mass selfishness, that compared to them the devil himself is a clean-minded purveyor of the strict, honest and sober truth.’
Answer: The newspaper industry, a reminder that attacks on the media are far from a recent phenomenon.
Source: Reading Newspapers by Adrian Bingham
Where and when did the phrase ‘enjoy the war while you can, the peace will be terrible’, became a popular joke?
Answer: Berlin in 1944 and early 1945. Such was the fear of the repercussions of a Allied victory that the war was considered something to appreciate.
Source: A Brief History of the Third Reich by Martyn Whittock
What is alleged to have happened when British milliner John Hetherington wore a top hat in public for the first time in 1797?
Answer: It caused a riot, primarily due to its ‘offensive’ shape and colour. Such was the perceived offence that Hetherington caused, he was required to pay a fine of £500 for obstructing the peace, a massive sum by contemporary standards.
Source: History of Men’s Fashion by Nicholas Storey
Which year saw the first part of novel Don Quixote published, the instigation of the Gunpowder plot and ascension of Jahangir to the throne of the Mughal Empire?
Answer: 1605.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal.
The development of the daguerreotype photographic process in 1839 by Frenchman Louis Daguerre was a pioneering step in photography. Remarkably, Daguerre did not profit from the invention in the usual way but made the process ‘free to the world’ as a gift. Where was the one exception?
Answer: Britain. A patent was filed in London requiring the purchase of a license to profit from the process, the only such place in the world.
Source: Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography by Lynne Warren
Who is considered the first historian to collect, organise and scrutinise source materials in a methodical way?
Answer: The Ancient Greek writer Herodotus (484-425 CE).
Source: The Beginnings of History by J.A.S. Evans
Which small town in Tennessee, having a population of around 50,000, was using one seventh of all electricity generated in the United States in 1943?
Answer: Oak Ridge, which used as much electricity as all of New York City. The reason was that it housed three uranium enrichment plans, developed as part of the United States Government Manhattan Project to construct an Atomic bomb.
Source: Too Hot to Touch by William M. Alley
Italian fascists in the early twentieth century started a campaign against which popular Italian food which it deemed ‘anti-fascist’?
Answer: Spaghetti. Fascists considered that it held Italians back as it was ‘not the right food for fighters’.
Source: Modern Political Ideologies by Andrew Vincent
Who was the only British Prime Minister whose mother tongue was not English?
Answer: David Lloyd George (1863-1945). His first language was Welsh.
Source: David Lloyd George by Emyr Price
In Nazi Germany many newly married couples would receive what unusual present from the local city council?
Answer: A copy of Adolf Hitler’s memoir Mein Kampf, first published in 1925.
Source: Passion, Craft and Method in Comparative Politics by Richard Snyder
On the eve of Prohibition, some American towns were so certain that alcohol was the root cause of crime that they did what?
Answer: Sold their jails. The irony of this perspective was brought into sharp focus by the prospering of organised crime that subsequently came about supplying illegal alcohol to thirsty American. Prohibition ended in 1933.
Source: Alcohol and Alcoholism in Iowa by Harold Mulford
On 12 September 1680, musician Arabella Hunt was married to James Howard. The wedding was not destined to last however. Why was this?
Answer: Unbeknown to Arabella, ‘James Howard’ was actually a cross-dressing women called Amy Poulter. Arabella sought the marriage to be annulled, and it eventually was on 15 December 1682, on the basis that a valid marriage could not involve two women.
Source: Women in Early Modern England by Sara Mendelson et. al
How did a coin toss influence the first powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight made by the Wright Brothers in December 1903?
Answer: The brothers tossed a coin to decide which of them should be the first to test the flying machine. Wilbur won against his brother Orville, but ironically crashed the plan before sustained flight on 14 December. Thus when the second attempt was made on 17 December, it was Orville’s turn and he made the pioneering flight.
Source: Wright Brothers by Suan E. Hamen
What did Belgian forces do to slow the advance of German soldiers as they invaded Belgium at the beginning of the First World War?
Answer: Flooded their own fields. King Albert made the decision to open the sluice gates at Nieupoort, slowing down the German advance by flooding thousands of hectares of surrounding land.
Source: World War 1 Battlefields by John Ruler et. al
March 2014
In 1927, millions of Americans signed petitions advocating what change?
Answer: The adoption of the metric system. This was unsuccessful, however, and the USA remains one of the few nations in the world where the metric system is not the official form of measurement.
Source: Hollywood and the Cultural Elite by Peter Decherney
What was unusual about the circumstances of the Battle of New Orleans between the USA and Great British on January 8, 1815?
Answer: It took place after peace had been agreed between the two combatants. The Treaty of Ghent, signed on 24 December 1814, marked the end of the War of 1812, but the news did not reach Louisiana until February 1815.
Source: The War of 1812 by Donald R. Hickey
Created in 1863, Vin Mariani was a tonic which combined wine with cocaine. Which famous figures were surprisingly amongst its admirers?
Answer: Inventor Thomas Edison, American President Ulysses S. Grant, and even Pope Leo XIII. The Pope was such an admirer that he even awarded the Vatican gold medal to its inventor, and the Pontiff appeared in advertisements endorsing it.
Source: Bad Trip by Joel Miller
What does the historical term ‘mafficking’ refer to?
Answer: Loud and boisterous British patriotic celebrations. The origin of the phrase lies in the Boer War, where the relief of Mafeking on 17 May 1900 led many to take to the streets in jubilant patriotic fervor.
Source: Languages of Class by Gareth Stedman Jones
Which capital city was formerly known as Tenochtitlan?
Answer: Mexico City. The ruins of Tenochtitlan, the former capital of the Mexico Empire, can be found in the centre of the city.
Source: The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico by Pedro Carraco Pizana
From where does the terms Tsar and Kaiser, both meaning emperor or ruler, derive?
Answer: Both are derived from the Roman Emperors’ title of Caesar, which in itself originates in the name of famed Roman statesman Julius Caesar.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal.
Saint Rumwold was a saint who lived in seventh century England. His life is particularly unusual however. Why is this?
Answer: He is said to have only lived for three days. Despite his short life, it is claimed he professed his Christian faith, asked for baptism and preached a sermon on the importance of the Trinity.
Source: King and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England by Barbara Yorke
American humourist, juggler and film star W C Fields was renowned as a big drinker. Indeed this was part of his film persona. It was said that his bulbous nose had all the colours of the rainbow. His domestic staff estimated that each day he drank two US quarts of gin (64 fluid ounces, or 1.7 litres). Fields amassed a substantial fortune over his working life. In his remaining years his housekeeper, a Miss Michaels, asked him, if he had his life over would he have done anything differently. What was Fields’ reply?
Answer: “I would have liked to have seen how I made out without liquor’.
Source: W C Fields: His Follies and Fortunes by Robert Lewis Taylor
What was the Saint Patrick’s battalion?
Answer: A battalion of several hundred Irishmen who fought for the Mexican Army in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Most were previously members of the US Army who defected after facing discrimination for their ethnicity and Catholic religious beliefs.
Source: US-Mexican War by Bronwyn Mills
Frenchman Jean Bernadotte started his career in 1780 as a lowly private in the French Army. By the time he died in 1844 however, he had risen to become what?
Answer: King of Sweden. His career had also seen him become a Marshal of France before his surprising ascendancy as heir to the Swedish King in 1810.
Source: The Nordic Way by Edward L. Killham
Like many people of great talent, German composer of the late Romantic and early modern era Richard Strauss was not burdened by self doubt. What was his response to Sir Thomas Beecham on hearing a work by English composer Delius?
Answer: “I had no idea that anyone except myself was capable of writing such good music. ”
Source: The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
In 1801, American President Thomas Jefferson held a dinner party, where he served what are now commonly called French fries. Why did this likely provoke a negative reaction amongst his guests?
Answer: Most contemporaries felt potatoes were highly poisonous unless boiled thoroughly, whereas these were only to be deep fried. Jefferson’s French chef had to convince the guests that no harm would befall them.
Source: Why Didn’t I Think of That? by Anthony Rubino Jr.
In 1894 in Owestry, Wales, a stationmaster received a box containing a live baby and a letter requesting him it adopt it. He declined, and the baby and the box was later handed over to a signalman who took the child home. Why did the stationmaster regret his decision?
Answer: Below the baby was a bundle of £200, a significant sum at the time. Despite requested by the stationmaster, the signalman refused to give the baby back.
Source: The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton by Jeremy Clay
In 1881 Florida, what was bizarre about the wedding of Utah salesman Mr Bradley?
Answer: He married a corpse. Having met his future bride on his travels, he resolved that he would marry her despite her being in the last stages of consumption. She promptly died before the wedding, but Bradley went ahead with the marriage ceremony – which also became her funeral service.
Source: The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton by Jeremy Clay
What is unusual about Malbork Castle in Poland?
Answer: It is the world’s largest brick Gothic castle. Built in what was originally Prussia by the Teutonic Knights, construction commencement in 1280. Its surface area is an incredible 143,591 square meters.
Source: The Medieval Fortress by J.E. Kaufmann et. al
Which famous era of maritime history began in 1843 and ended with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869?
Answer: The clipper ship era. A result of the growing demand for a more rapid delivery of tea from China, the era fueled rapid change in ship design, and helped marked the transition in sea travel from sail to steam navigation.
Source: Fast Sailing Ships by David MacGregor
Canned food was first patented in 1810, but how long did it take before a can opener was developed?
Answer: 48 years, when Ezra Warner patented his can opener in 1858. Before this, cans were opened rather ungracefully by using a chisel and a hammer.
Source: Why Didn’t I Think of That? by Anthony Rubino Jr.
Which large American city name wad decided by a coin toss?
Answer: Portland, Oregon. Disagreeing over who should name the city, the two primary founders, Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove, tossed a coin in 1845 to decide who should name the city. Pettygrove won, and named the town Portland, after his home town in Maine. If Lovejoy had won, the city would likely have been called Boston.
Source: Portland by Jewel Beck Lansing
How did a hen cause a panic and bewilderment in Leeds, England, in 1806?
Answer: The hen appeared to be laying eggs decorated with the message ‘Christ is coming.’ Many travelled to see the eggs and considered them a sign of the coming judgement day. It was later revealed however that messages were a scam – the hen’s owner had been writing on the eggs and then placing them back inside the ‘prophet hen.’
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
What is, and where in history would you find, the weapon known as a ‘Hornet Bomb’?
Answer: The ‘Hornet Bomb’ was used by the Maya civilization, and was an actual hornet’s nest thrown at enemies during battle. Historians remain puzzled however at how these nests were stored and transported without harming their Mayan handlers.
Source: Mexico by Bobbie Kalman
In what unusual way were the early versions of sunglasses used in Mediaeval China?
Answer: Chinese Judges would use smoke colored lenses, much like modern day sunglasses, to conceal their eyes and therefore their emotions during trials.
Source: Why Didn’t I Think of That? by Anthony Rubino Jr.
What cosmetic did the UK parliament surprisingly move to ban in 1770?
Answer: Lipstick. It stated women found guilty of seducing men into matrimony by such a cosmetic means ‘could be tried for witchcraft.’
Source: Read My Lips by Meg Cohen Ragas
During the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland between 1649 and 1653, Oliver Cromwell ruthlessly crushed rebellion in Ireland. Less known, however, is one location where Cromwell sent many of his captives. What was this location?
Answer: Barbados. Those who resisted Cromwell’s plans were shipped to the Caribbean island as indentured servants. As many as 50,000 are considered to have been sent there and to other parts of the Caribbean.
Source: To Hell or Barbados by Sean O’Callaghan
What was unique about the first press conference held by American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933?
Answer: She did not allow men to attend. In an attempt to promote women’s issues she stated only female reporters, who were traditionally not allowed to attend presidential press conferences, were able to be present.
Source: Eleanor Roosevelt by Maurine Beasley
Which are older, the Great Pyramids of Egypt or the oldest bristlecone pine trees in California’s White Mountains?
Answer: The trees at the White Mountains. One of the oldest trees there, nicknamed Methuselah, is 4,844 years old.
Source: Like a Tree by Jean Bolen
From where does the term ‘jaywalking’ derive?
Answer: First emerging in the 1920s, the term originates from mid-western slang, where a jay was a term describing a rural resident who was stupid or naïve. Jaywalking emerged from this as a pejorative term to describe those who could not cross the road safely.
Source: Civic Sense by Prakesh Pillappa
The pepper-box revolver, first developed in the 1830s, is often considered one of the worst firearms in history. Why was this?
Answer: Very heavy due to its multiple barrels, it would often explode without warning and was hopelessly inaccurate. Author Mark Twain noted it would often fire off multiple shots at the same time in wholly different directions.
Source: Pistols by Jeff Kinnard
William Bourne, an English innkeeper and mathematician, is believed to have been the first individual to write down plans for a submarine. Leonardo da Vinci, of course, made sketches of a submarine. When did Bourne devise these plans, and what did his idea involve?
Answer: In 1580, Bourne wrote the principles for a submarine, suggesting it would be capable of submerging by decreasing the overall volume. Its form of propulsion would be, somewhat optimistically, by rowing underwater.
Source: Military Technologies of the World by T.W. Lee
Which book, first published in 1418, is second only to the Bible in the number of languages it has been translated into?
Answer: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. A devotional work, it is considered a pioneering work in Christian theology.
Source: Wisdom of the Great by Sam Made
Which famous American resort town had more humble beginnings as a piece of scrubby desert, named in the early nineteenth century by the Spanish, who used the location as a watering post along the trail between Los Angeles and Santa Fe?
Answer: Las Vegas. The city as we know it was not established until 1905 and incorporated as a city in 1911.
Source: Touring Nevada by Mary Ellen Grass
On 28 July, 1835, Giuseppe Marco Fieschi failed in an attempt to assassinate the French King Louis-Phillippe, narrowly missing him with a bullet. The weapon Fieschi used was one he had made himself, which he dubbed the ‘infernal machine.’ What was it?
Answer: The weapon consisted of twenty gun barrels tied together, to be fired simultaneously. The weapon was so unwieldy that it nearly killed Fieschi himself, while many others nearby were injured or killed. Fieschi was condemned to death, and guillotined on 19 February 1836.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica by Hugh Chisholm
February 2014
In 1908, the Japanese ship Kasato Maru arrived in Santos Harbor, Brazil. Why was this so significant?
Answer: The ship was bringing the first permanent Japanese migrants to Brazil. Since then, more than 250,000 Japanese have migrated to Brazil, which now contains the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.
Source: Negotiating National Identity by Jeff Lesser
Which highly unusual anti-tank weapon was employed by the Soviet Union?
Answer: Dogs. These ‘anti-tank Dogs’ carried explosives on their backs and were trained to run at targeted enemy tanks. They were a regular feature of the Soviet arsenal from the 1930s onwards, and were even credited with destroying as many as 300 tanks during the Second World War.
Source: Cry Havoc by Nigel Allsopp
What was the Quasi-War?
Answer: An undeclared war between France and the United States of America, which lasted from 1798-1800 and was fought mostly at sea. It developed after tensions arose between the two countries over unpaid American debts, the actions of French privateers and the treatment of an American diplomatic mission to Paris in 1797.
Source: The Quasi-War by Alexander De Conde
When did the lounge suit, today the office attire of choice for many across the world, first become widely popular?
Answer: The three-piece lounge suit was regularly worn from the 1890s onwards. Despite first becoming truly fashionable in the United Kingdom, its origins lie in the matching jacket and breeches commonly worn in the French court.
Source: The Gilded Age by Joel Shrock
What government agency did American President Abraham Lincoln ironically create on the day he was tragically shot by stage actor John Wilkes Booth in 1865?
Answer: The Secret Service, which was created on April 14, 1865. President Lincoln died at 7.22 am the following morning.
Source: Out From the Shadow by Maurice Butler
What was famous about William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East Indian Army in the 1840s?
Answer: He was purportedly the only British survivor from an army of 4,500 men who had been forced to retreat from Kabul in 1842, during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). The retreat, known also as the massacre of Elphinstone’s Army, was the worst disaster in British military history until the Fall of Singapore in 1942.
Source: Retreat from Kabul by Patrick Macrory
Despite the Hollywood portrayal, the American West was never a truly violent place. How many murders took place for instance in the infamous Dodge City at the height of the ‘Wild West’?
Answer: Fifteen between the years 1877 and 1886, at an average of 1.5 a year. You were far more likely to be killed in Baltimore or many East Coast American towns than in Dodge City.
Source: Gunfight by Adam Winkler
Which disastrous event hit London on 7 January 1928, killing fourteen and affecting such London landmarks as the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London?
Answer: The 1928 Thames flood, which was the last time the centre of London has been heavily flooded. The floods also severely disrupted the London Underground, as well as damaging priceless artworks at the Tate gallery.
Source: Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe by Hubert Lamb
At the Battle of the Netherlands, during World War Two, the Dutch Army faced an uphill task against the highly superior Nazi Wehrmacht. Its chances were not aided by their shortage of armour. How many tanks did the Dutch possess?
Answer: One, a single French made Renault FT 17 which only had one driver trained to operate it. Some 147 tanks had been planned but were not in service by 1940.
Source: Brothers in Arms by John Antal
The first World War killed or wounded approximately how many people?
Answer: Some 37 million, and destroyed not only four ancient empires but also wrecked a civilization.
Source: 1914: The Year The World Ended by Paul Ham.
Which Pope had the shortest reign, lasting for a mere thirteen days?
Answer: Pope Urban VII, who reigned from 15 to 27 September 1590. Urban VII’s short period as Pontiff produced the world’s first known public smoking ban. He threatened to excommunicate anyone who “took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose”.
Source: The Death of the Popes by Wendy Reardon; General Historical Texts
The period known as the Crusades were a series of military expeditions which aimed to recover the Holy Land from Muslim control, taking place between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, How many Crusades were there however?
Answer: Eight.
Source: A History of the Crusades by Steven Runciman
In 1935 Emil Maurice, an early member of the Nazi party and close friend of Adolf Hitler, was found to have Jewish ancestry, after an investigation under racial purity laws. What happened to him?
Answer: Nothing. As evidence of Hitler’s somewhat selective application of his own ideology, Maurice was simply granted ‘honorary Aryan’ status and permitted to continue his role as before.
Source: Hitler by Alan Bullock
The Songhai Empire, which existed from the mid fifteenth to late sixteenth century, was a large imperial state and major player in the wider region. Where was it however?
Answer: Western Africa. Its capital, Gao, is in modern day north-western Mali.
Source: Songhay by Phillip Koslow
US secretary of defence James Forrestall, who died in 1949, once described his hobby as what?
Answer: Obscurity
Source: The New York Times, October 12, 1949.
It was said that the opponents of famed late 19th century and early 20th century French politician Georges ‘Tiger’ Clemenceau feared three things about him. What were they?
Answer: His ‘tongue, his pistol and his pen’.
A History of Modern France (Vol 3) by Alfred Cobban
In Chicago, Illinois, in the late 1920s it was illegal to carry a revolver in your pocket, but it was not against the law to walk down the street carrying what?
Answer: A Thompson sub-machine gun. The ‘Tommy Gun’ or ‘Chicago Typewriter’ fired .45 caliber bullets and could be fitted with a 100 round drum magazine.
Source: Thompson: The American Legend by Tracie L Hill.
In Chinese History, who is infamously dubbed ‘The Betraying General.’
Answer: Feng Yuxiang (1882-1938), a Chinese warlord. His nickname came from his tendency to change causes, often at a moment’s notice. He served as an army officer for both the Imperial Army and Nationalist party, and also orchestrated the October 1924 ‘Beijing Coup’ against Chinese President Cao Kun.
Source: The Penguin History of Modern China by Jonathan Fenby
Africa, Victory, Temeraire, Neptune, Tonnant and Revenge are all the names of what?
Answer: British naval ships that fought at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
Source: The Trafalgar Companion by Mark Adkin
In the context of the Second World War, what does Sen Toku refer to?
Answer: A class of submarine operated by the Japanese Navy. At 400 feet in length, they were the largest submarines of the War and were even equipped with no fewer than three seaplanes, which they carried underwater.
Source: Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation by Stephen Bull
‘As your Ambassador can see for himself we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures.’ Who wrote this in 1793, and who was it addressed to?
Answer: The Chinese Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), in a letter to King George III of Great Britain. Qianlong was distinctly unimpressed by the visit of the first British trade mission to Beijing earlier that year.
Source: Lend Me Your Ears by Anthony Jay
What was the fastest tracked armored vehicle of the Second World War?
Answer: The M18 Hellcat, an American tank, which could hit remarkably high speeds of 50mph. This was the result of its thin armor, which averaged only one cm in thickness.
Source: Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation by Stephen Bull
Sixteenth century Venetian satirist Pietro Aretino reveled in risqué humor, often poking fun at the Venetian aristocrats in his writings. When told one particularly saucy story in 1556, how did Aretino react?
Answer: He died. Finding the story so amusing, he laughed so much he suffocated, fell from his chair and was pronounced dead.
Source: Genres as Repositories of Cultural Memory by Hendrik van Gorp et. al
In November 1542, a Scottish army of 18,000 men invaded England and met an English force a sixth of its size at Solway Moss. What happened next?
Answer: The Scottish army was defeated in one of the most humiliating defeats of the sixteenth century. Unsure of their instructions and suffering from poor leadership, hundreds of Scottish soldiers got caught in bogs and drowned, while only seven English soldiers were killed.
Source: The Anglo-Scots War by Gervase Phillips
Where was the sport ping-pong, or table tennis, invented?
Answer: Despite its considerable popularity in China and Japan, the sport was invented in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century. It was only in the 1950s that ping-pong began to become widely popular in Asia.
Source: Sports Around the World by John Nauright and Charles Parrish
Which famous work of natural history divided fish into four unorthodox categories; those that have a pebble in their heads; that hide in winter; that feel the influence of the stars and those which fetch extraordinary prices?
Answer: ‘Natural History’ by Roman author Pliny the Elder, published in 77 CE. Though these distinctions seem bizarre, they show one of the first attempts to distinguish animals clearly by their characteristics.
Source: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Casper Henderson
What is the subject of the earliest surviving camera photograph, and who took it?
Answer: The photograph, entitled ‘View from the Window at Le Gras’, shows buildings and countryside surrounding the home of Nicéphore Niépce in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. Niépce, one of the key figures in early photography, took the photo in 1825.
Source: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Casper Henderson
Admiral Arleigh Burke was a famed U.S Navy admiral during the Second World War. Why did he receive the nickname ‘31-Knot Burke’ however?
Answer: Burke was known for pushing his destroyers to the very limit in search of speed, but on one occasion in 1943, an error on one of his ships limited the fleet’s speed to 31 knots, rather than the customary 34 knots. Such was the surprise that Burke of all people should be so slow, he was dubbed ‘31-Knot Burke’ for the rest of the war.
Source: Admiral Arleigh ’31-Knot’ Burke by Ken Jones
January 2014
Saint Patrick is the most famous patron saint of Ireland. Where were his actual origins however?
Answer: He was born in Roman Britain, likely in Wales. His great connection to Ireland only began after he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland aged 16.
Source: Saint Patrick by Jonathan Rogers
Bobby Leach was a seasoned adventurer, who most famously went over Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1911 and lived to tell the tale. What was ironic about his death however?
Answer: It was rather mundane. After surviving the falls and a range of other stunts, in 1926 Leach slipped on a piece of orange peel – no less – broke his leg, and died when complications set in.
Source: Stories from Here and There by Robert Karman
Where was ice cream invented?
Answer: China, most likely during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). While ice based foods had existed before this, it was only now that a device was created to mix milk mixture and rice into snow, making consistent ice cream.
Source: Ice Cream – A Global History by Laura B. Weiss
British Admiral Horatio Nelson, who lost both an arm and an eye in battle, was famed for his inspired naval leadership during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). But what sickness did Nelson surprisingly suffer?
Answer: Seasickness, a condition he struggled with for a majority of his seafaring career. That a courageous naval commander could be afflicted by such a malady added to the esteem and deep affection with which he was held by both the men under his command and his naval colleagues.
Source: Nelson – A Dream of Glory by John Sugden
In what ironic way did the American trial lawyer and politician Clement Vallandigham die in 1871?
Answer: Vallandingham was acting for a defendant charged with murder, and sought to prove that the victim could have shot himself with his own pistol. In attempting to re-enact the process, Vallandingham used a gun that he erroneously thought was unloaded, and shot himself by mistake. As some compensation, the demonstration worked, and the defendant was found not guilty.
Source: The Limits of Dissent by Frank L. Klement
In what way was the Abwehr, the German secret intelligence agency during the Second World War, guilty of ‘stupidity’ according to British intelligence officer Ewen Montagu?
Answer: Abwehr often used ‘secret’ code names which were blindingly obvious. For instance, the code name ‘Golfplatz’ (Golf Course) was used for Britain, while America was dubbed ‘Samland’, a reference to Uncle Sam. Another decipherable code name was Heimdall, the name of a God whose eyesight could see for miles, to describe long range radar.
Source: Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the world. What is ironic about its origin however?
Answer: The peace prize is endowed by, and named after, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who amassed his fortune from armaments, inventing dynamite in 1866 and smokeless gunpowder in 1875.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
The US Navy collier USS Cyclops served during the First World War but has been subject to much conjecture. Why is this?
Answer: It was lost at sea on March 1918 in the largest non-combat loss of life in American naval history. The Cyclops episode is mysterious as it cannot be known for certain how it was lost. Some have suggested it succumbed to the Bermuda Triangle, while others have mooted that its disappearance was part of a German conspiracy.
Source: Shipwrecks by Phillip S. Jennings
At the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was triumphantly defeated by the allied forces of the Seventh Coalition. Why was the size and variety of the coalition often as much a help as a hindrance however?
Answer: Friendly fire was rife. Uniforms were unclear and soldiers often killed allies on the battlefield. The Prussian artillery spent much of the battle firing upon British positions, while British officer Cavalié Mercer noted the Belgians spent the whole battle ‘beastly drunk and not at all particular as to which way they fired’.
Source: The Western Way of War by Victor Davis Hanson
Which specific type of person was criminalized under the Vagrancy Act 1824, passed by the British parliament?
Answer: Individuals considered to be ‘an incorrigible rogue’ or a ‘rogue and vagabond.’ This description meant someone who was ‘idle and disorderly’, and if convicted you could face imprisonment or fines. Remarkably, this definition of criminality was only removed from the statutes in 2013.
Source: A Dictionary of Law Enforcement by Graham Gooch and Michael Williams
From where can we the trace the meaning behind the phrase to ‘bury the hatchet’?
Answer: The traditions of Native Americans. Many Plains Indian tribes buried hatchets and weapons as a sign that war had ceased, from which we have received the phrase ‘bury the hatchet.’
Source: Common Phrases by Myron Korach
The term ‘lock, stock and barrel’ refers to the whole of anything important. Where does it originate however?
Answer: It originates from the early nineteenth century, likely from British colonial soldiers. It was a reference to the principle parts of the heavily used flintlock gun; its lock, its stock and its barrel.
Source: Common Phrases by Myron Korach
From where does the wedding custom of having a ‘best man’ derive?
Answer: It has its origins in the medieval period. Marriages of the European aristocracy and wealthy were often arranged, and romantic rivals, aggrieved at the disposition of events, would often try to steal brides from their prospective husband. As a result, a capable warrior would be enlisted, a ‘best man’, to defend the wedding from any potential treachery.
Source: Common Phrases by Myron Korach
The Empire of Japan occupied American soil only once during the Second World War. Which territory did they seize?
Answer: The Aleutian Islands, past of western Alaska. The Allies successful recapture of the territory during the Aleutian Islands Campaign commencing in June 1942 is often considered one of the Second World War’s ‘forgotten battles.’
Source: Stepping Stones to Nowhere by Galen Roger Perras
Gold is traditionally the most prestigious and coveted of precious metals. In the late nineteenth century, however, what metal superseded gold in importance in the eyes of many?
Answer: Aluminum. Emperor Napoleon III of France (1808-1873) was particularly enthralled by it. At state occasions he would dine off aluminum plates while other lesser dinner guests had to get by with plates made of gold and silver.
Source: The Metallurgic Age by Quentin R. Skabec
Famed 8th century Chinese poet Li Po was renowned for his love of drinking, often reciting his poems while drunk. How did this lead to his demise however?
Answer: Legend has it Li Po was on a boat one night when he drunkenly attempted to embrace the image of the moon in the water. He promptly fell overboard and drowned.
Source: Bright Moon, White Clouts by Bai Li
The war elephant was one of the most formidable weapons used in ancient armies, with just a small number able to decisively change the course of battles. How did the Romans imaginatively combat this threat?
Answer: By cruelly setting pigs on fire. The squeals of pigs were said to startle elephants, so Roman armies doused pigs with pitch and set them alight during combat. The strategy was so successful it was copied later by Greek armies.
Source: Antigonus II Gonatas – A Political Biography by Janice J. Gabbert
Why was Feng Yuziang, a Chinese warlord during the early twentieth century, known as the ‘good warlord’?
Answer: He was a Christian whose evangelical zeal became famous. He reportedly baptised Christian converts in his army with a fire hose and outlawed drinking, gambling and prostitution.
Source: Chinese Warlord by James Sheridan
Dr James Barry was a military surgeon in the British Army, serving in India and South Africa before becoming the high profile Inspector-General of British Hospitals for the Crimean War (1853-1856). What remarkable fact was later discovered about Barry however?
Answer: Barry was actually a woman. Born Margaret Ann Bulkley and raised as a female, it is speculated she chose to live as a man so she could go to University and become a doctor.
Source: Loose Cannons by Graeme Donald
What was the Horten Ho 229, and why was it revolutionary?
Answer: The Horten Ho 229 was a German fighter bomber, developed at the latter end of the Second World War. Never proceeding past the prototype stage, it was nevertheless a revolutionary aircraft design, being the first flying wing aircraft powered by jet propulsion.
Source: Aircraft of the Luftwaffe by Jean-Denis Lepage.
Viking raiders are often depicted in history as brutal and ruthless conquerors. Contrary to this, however, what was the impression many contemporaries had when they encountered these fearsome Nordic warriors?
Answer: Surprisingly, they often noted the Vikings excessive, even ‘unhealthy’, obsession with cleanliness. For Vikings never travelled anywhere without soaps, combs and skin-buffers, and took a bath once a week – a practice considered singularly excessive by early medieval standards.
Source: Loose Cannons by Graeme Donald
The British aristocratic socialite Unity Mitford was a prominent supporter of Fascism and from 1936 a close confidant of Adolf Hitler himself. What was ironic about where she was conceived however?
Answer: She was conceived in the town of Swastika, Ontario, where her family had gold mines.
Source: The Sisters by Mary S. Lovell
The USS Panay was an American gunboat sunk by the Japanese while anchored in the Yangtze River. What was unusual about when this actually took place?
Answer: It occurred on December 12, 1937, four years before Japan and the United States would formally be at war. Japan apologized, stating they did not see the American flags on its deck, and subsequently paid an indemnity. Nevertheless, the issue led to a deterioration of American-Japanese relations, with many historians now maintaining the attack was intentional.
Source: The United States in Asia by David Shavit
Discussing the settlement of new colonies, eighteenth century British naval captain Thomas Walduck noted that ‘upon all new settlements the Spaniards make the first thing they do is build a church. The first thing ye Dutch do upon a colony is to build them a fort.’ What did he describe as the first thing English settlers did?
Answer: He remarked that ‘the first thing ye English do, be it in the most remote part of ye world, or amongst the most barbarous Indians, is to set up a tavern or drinking house.’
Source: The West Indies by David Watts
Jakob Steiner was a nineteenth century Swiss Mathematician who made important contributions to modern synthetic geometry. What was remarkable about his rise to success however?
Answer: He had no early schooling, not even learning to read or write until the age of 14. Only at the age of 18 was his extraordinary gift for geometry discovered.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
At the Battle of the Netherlands, during World War Two, the Dutch Army faced an uphill task against the highly superior Nazi Wehrmacht. Its chances were not aided by their shortage of armour. How many tanks did the Dutch posses?
Answer: One, a single Renault FT 17 which only had one driver trained to operate it. 147 tanks had been planned but were not in place by 1940.
Source: Brothers in Arms by John Antal
How did Englishmen Abraham Thornton use a legal loophole to avoid prosecution for murder in 1817?
Answer: Thornton claimed the right to trial by battle, a medieval custom which had never been formally abolished. As nobody agreed to fight Thornton to death, he was acquitted of the charge. The right to trial by battle was promptly repealed by Parliament the next year.
Source: A Sketch of English Legal History by Frederic William Maitland
In 1947, the island of Heligoland in the North Sea was the target of the largest single non-nuclear explosion in history. Why was this?
Answer: The British Royal Navy was seeking to dismantle the submarine and navy base which had been on the island during the Second World War. They used 6,800 tons of explosives, with some Naval figures reportedly even hoping the entire island itself would be destroyed.
Source: The Royal Navy by William Laird Clowes
Which unlikely town had the world’s busiest airport in 1940?
Answer: Kunming, in South West China. The very high aircraft traffic was a result of American assistance to the Chinese nationalist government during the Japanese invasion of China.
Source: The Einstein Factor by Peter Berner
American author F Scott Fitzgerald, like many talented writers, enjoyed the pleasures of a glass or two. When he resolved in 1935 to ‘go on the wagon’ and drink only beer, how much did he consume?
Answer: Perhaps 20 bottles a day.
Source: The Trip to Echo Springs: Why Writers Drink by Olivia Lang
Which thirteenth century Frenchman was famous for both his role as a prominent soldier in the Crusades and for his scientific success?
Answer: Peter of Maricourt. His prowess in the Crusades led him to hold the nickname ‘Pilgrim’, while in the field of science he was the first to mark the ends of a magnet and call them poles.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
December 2013
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s personal doctor, Theodor Morell, was an unconventional physician who had a propensity to proscribe his patients large numbers of drugs. As a result of this, what nickname did he receive from fellow Nazi Hermann Göring?
Answer: He was dubbed the ‘Reich Injection Master’. Morell, incredibly, often injected Hitler with as many as twenty eight different drugs or hormones a day.
Source: Hitler by Joachim C. Fest
What was ‘Saturnalia’?
Answer: An Ancient Roman festival celebrating the deity Saturn, which took place on 17 December. It involved sacrifices and large public banquets. The festival also reversed social customs, as slaves ate with their masters and were even allowed to insult them.
Source: A Companion to the Roman Empire by David S. Potter
In the mid to late 1920s airlines carried out the first passenger services across the English Channel between the UK and continental Europe. What made these journeys both luxurious and uncomfortable?
Answer: All passengers would have to catch their planes at or near dawn, and even the shortest flights would often make numerous emergency landings en route. Passengers, however, would be lavished with such luxuries as caviar when on board.
Source: Anything Goes by Lucy Moore
During the First World War, thousands of Italian, Austrian and German soldiers died amidst heavy fighting in the Tyrol region. What was the unusual circumstances surrounding many of their deaths?
Answer: The snowy and mountainous region was prone to avalanches, and many soldiers perished in this way – either by natural or man-made snow slide. In one two day period in 1916, incredibly, over 9,000 soldiers lost their lives due to a large series of avalanches.
Source: Natural Phenomena by Barry Voight
The British writer Arthur Mee famously compiled a list of ‘thankful villages’ in Britain after the First World War, those with which no resident was killed in the fighting. What was ironic about one Gloucestershire village which made the list?
Answer: The village itself was called ‘Upper Slaughter.’ The village was lucky again twenty five years later – as no men perished from the village in the Second World War either.
Source: Enchanted Land by Arthur Mee
In May 1919, amidst lingering and still potent anti-German feeling – some six months after the end of World War One – Filton Golf Club in Bristol, England, banned Germans or Austrians from playing at the golf course, or even entering the clubhouse. What was remarkable about the veto however?
Answer: The ban was only overturned in May 2007, after 88 years.
Source: Barmy Britain by Jack Crossley
In 1921, the US State of Virginia gifted a statue of George Washington to the United Kingdom to be erected at Trafalgar Square, London. What unusual complication did the gift reportedly present?
Answer: George Washington had declared that he would never set foot in Britain. As a result, in addition to the statue, Virginia sent some American soil to be placed on the base of the statue. Therefore, it was argued, the United States’ first president would always be standing on American ground.
Source: Barmy Britain by Jack Crossley
During the First World War, what were the ‘bantam battalions’ of the British Army?
Answer: Special units composed of men between the height of 5ft and 5ft 3in, who normally were considered too small for active service. They were created after the story of a 5ft Durham miner challenging those in the recruiting office to a fight reached national headlines, highlighting the many able-bodied men unable to serve.
Source: Kitchener’s Army by Peter Simkins
The Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph (1830-1916) was one of the wealthiest men in the world in the second half of the 19th century, owning vast tracts of lands and numerous castles and estates. What time did he start work each day?
Answer: He was at his desk at 4am.
Source: The War that Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War by Margaret MacMillan
During the winter of 1926, the American popular jazz pianist Thomas Wright ‘Fats’ Waller was bundled into a car at gunpoint and driven away at high speed. What happened to him?
Answer: He was taken to a hotel where a private birthday party was taking place for the American gangster Al Capone. The infamous bootlegger had unilaterally decided to have Waller appear at the birthday celebrations. The party finished three days later, where an exhausted Waller was sent home, his pockets full of thousands of dollars lavished on him by Capone.
Source: Anything Goes by Lucy Moore
Which leading Nazi loved Hollywood cinema, regularly watching films like King Kong and those of Charlie Chaplin in his private cinema room?
Answer: Adolf Hitler. His favorite of them all was said to be Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, released in 1937.
Source: New Images of Nazi Germany by Paul Garson
What was ‘Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment’?
Answer: A British colonial military regiment organised during the American War of Independence (1775-17783) by the last Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore. Its rather misleading title came from its makeup of slaves who had agreed to fight for the British in exchange for their freedom.
Source: Making America by Carol Berkin et. Al
What was unusual about the overthrow by coup d’état of Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil in November 1889?
Answer: Despite being at the peak of his popularity, and being overthrown by a group of army officers without any wider support, Pedro gave up the throne without any resistance. Having become tired of being emperor, he did not even support any attempts to restore himself to the throne. His nickname was ‘the Magnanimous’.
Source: Brazil – Empire and Republic by Leslie Bethell
In 1915, as the full slaughter of World War One was unfolding, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty and in charge of the largest navy the world has ever seen, wrote some chilling words to a friend which showed the intrinsic nature of the man. What were these words?
Answer: ‘I think a curse should rest on me, because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment – and yet – I can’t help it – I enjoy every second of it.’
Source: 1914: The Year The World Ended by Paul Ham.
How many people died in the Second World War?
Answer: Over 24 million military deaths and 45 million civilians killed.
Source: Inside World War Two by National Geographic.
In 1586, the potato was first introduced to England, destined for a banquet for Queen Elizabeth I’s royal court. What went wrong however?
Answer: Unsure how to cook it, Elizabeth’s chefs threw away the potato and instead cooked the potato leaves. This caused significant illness amongst the guests, and Elizabeth promptly banned the potato from court.
Source: Cuisine and Culture by Linda Civitello
Despite its fame and prominence, the U.S. Constitution contains a number of small errors. Most prominently, it even misspells the name of a state. Which one was it?
Answer: Pennsylvania, which in the constitution is spelt ‘Pensylvania’. To increase the irony, the individual who scribed the document, Jacob Shallis, was usually a clerk for the Pennsylvania State assembly.
Source: Fun Facts about the U.S. Constitution by Therese Shea
‘I never saw a better dressed fool.’ Who was Italian dictator Benito Mussolini referring to in 1935?
Answer: Then British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden. Eden would later become Prime Minister in 1955, but his two year premiership collapsed during the Suez crisis of the following year.
Source: The Dark Valley by Piers Brendon
‘How idiotic people are! What is war, what is the state, what is revolution?’. These are the words of political activist Parsegh Shahbaz. What was tragically ironic about Shahbaz being the one to utter these words?
Answer: Shahbaz, an Armenian, was later killed in one of the greatest tragedies of war and revolution, the Armenian massacres of 1915.
Source: Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Palak’ean
The Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943) was one of the most brutal and heavily contested conflicts in world history. During one six hour period at the height of the battle, how many times did the city’s railway station change hands between the Germans and Russians?
Answer: No fewer that fourteen times.
Source: A Chronology of World History
At their greatest extent, which had the most territory, the Roman Empire or the Sassanian Empire?
Answer: The Sassanian Empire, which was centered around modern day Iran, and reached its height during the seventh century CE. Its largest extent covered 2.55 million square miles, greater than the Roman Empire’s 2.51 million recorded in 117 CE.
Source: The Dynamics of Ancient Empires by Ian Morris.
Which twelfth century French castle, considered unconquerable due to its pioneering and advanced design, was nevertheless captured by Phillip II of France in 1204 during the fall of Normandy?
Answer: Château Gaillard in Upper Normandy. It’s construction nevertheless remained a remarkable achievement, completed in 1198 after a period of a mere two years under the direction of Richard I.
Source: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones
Which English King was said to be so fierce that he scared a man to death?
Answer: Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks, a tall and relentless king whose temper was considered the worst in all the Kingdom.
Source: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones
Which famous general was accidentally shot by his own troops?
Answer: Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, Confederate commander in the U.S. Civil War. Returning to camp after leading his troops at Chancellorsville in 1863, he was mistakenly identified as a Union soldier and shot three times, twice in the left arm and once in the right hand. While his injuries were not themselves fatal, pneumonia set in, and Jackson died from complications from this on 10 May 1863.
Source: The Civil War by Shelby Foote
In 1744, a strong French army led by General, later Marshal, Maurice de Saxe was poised to cross the Channel and invade England, with Bonnie Prince Charlie to be installed as king. What stopped them however?
Answer: A violent storm, which left the French fleet of naval and transport vessels in tatters. Plans for the invasion had to be abandoned.
Source: The Early Modern World by Steve Waugh et. al.
How did Pole Eugene Lazowski ingeniously prevent the Nazis from capturing Jews and conscription laborers in his local region during the Second World War?
Answer: A doctor in the Polish resistance, Lazowski successfully simulated a Typhus epidemic by creating a fake disease and spreading it amongst the town. Though harmless, it appeared real enough to the Nazi leaders who sectioned the area of as a quarantine zone and left it alone for most of the war.
Source: Murderous Medicine by Naomi Baumslag
German Carl von Ossietzky was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1935. Actions that contributed to him winning the prize, however, also resulted in him being arrested and jailed for treason by the Nazi government. What were they?
Answer: In 1931 he published an article in his magazine ‘The World’s Stage’ revealing that the German armed forces were rearming illegally, contravening the Treaty of Versailles by training with combat aircraft in Russia. The release of this highly sensitive information led to his imprisonment.
Source: The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans
In the nineteenth century, British coins were often defaced as an attempt to lodge an insult at established authority. How did examples of such coins treat George IV and William IV?
Answer: On one coin from 1826, the image of George IV was defaced to describe him as a ‘patron of vice and frivolity.’ During the reform crisis, one coin describes William merely as ‘William IV the idiot King.’
Source: Art under Attack by Tabitha Barber and Stacy Boldrick
What happened to a statue of King George I located in Leicester Square, London, on the night of 16 and 17 October 1866?
Answer: It was painted with black spots and given a dunce cap and broomstick. It was one of many practical jokes played on the statue, as the square was an increasingly bawdy part of the town. So bad was the vandalism that authorities eventually decided to pull it down rather than leave it to continued attack.
Source: Art under Attack by Tabitha Barber and Stacy Boldrick
How did famed 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus cheat a fellow sailor out of what was at the time a generous yearly pension of 10,000 maravedies?
Answer: Before making his famous expedition to America in 1492, King Ferdinand of Spain had promised the first man to spot terra firma (solid earth) the 10,000 maravedi pension. At 2 am, on October 11, seaman Rodrigo de Triana spotted land – beckoning the rest of the crew. Columbus however, denied de Triana the pension, pocketing it himself by claiming that he had seen land first. Such are the characteristics of some who hold high office.
Source: Christopher Columbus and the Age of Exploration by Ronald A. Reis
The current 50 star flag of the United States was designed by a 17 year old, Robert G. Heft, as part of a school project and national competition to select a new national pennant. What grade did it receive?
Answer: His teacher only deemed it worthy of a B-, despite going on to become the national flag of the United States. When it was selected by President Dwight D. Eisenhower however, his grade was promptly changed to an A.
Source: American Flag by Debra Hess
November 2013
Lord Kelvin is one of the most celebrated scientists of the nineteenth century. He also however made two statements that go down as amongst the worst predictions of all time. What were they?
Answer: In 1895, he dismissed any possibility of human flight by declaring ‘heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible’. Five years later in 1900 he performed another own goal by declaring that ‘there is nothing new to discover in physics now.’
Source: Quantum Bits and Quantum Secrets by Oliver Morsch
Who was Martin Laurello, and how did he attract massive crowds to auditoriums across the United States in the 1930s?
Answer: He was a stage performer who could perform the biologically remarkable feat of turning his head 180 degrees. This ability wowed audiences, and he toured extensively under the name ‘Bobby the Boy with the Revolving Head.’
Source: American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman
Where and when was baseball invented?
Answer: Despite its modern day popularity in the United States, Baseball’s origins can actually be traced to Britain, with ‘Base-Ball’ a pastime referenced in sources from the 1750s. Contrary to much opinion, ‘Base-Ball’ also came before the similar game of Rounders in Britain. Conversely, cricket, viewed as Britain’s national game, was played in the American colonies in the late 18th century.
Source: Baseball Before We Knew It by David Black; General Historical Texts.
When was the first recorded use of ‘a banknote’?
Answer: Han Dynasty China in 118 CE. The money consisted of a piece of white deer skin, about one square foot, with a value equivalent to 40,000 of the base metal coins. It was the first instance of the use of a durable substance used as evidence of a promise to pay a bearer on demand.
Source: Financial Supply Chain by Sanjay Dalmia
Across history, how many countries have avoided being invaded by Britain?
Answer: A mere twenty two, out of the almost 200 countries of the world. The lucky few nations to avoid a British invasion force include Guatemala, Tajikistan and Mali.
Source: All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded by Stuart Laycock
Which American President from the early to mid nineteenth century remarkably still has two living grandchildren?
Answer: John Tyler, president from 1841 to 1845. He fathered a son at the age of 63, who himself had children at the ripe old age of 71 and 75. Born in 1924 and 1928 respectively, both are still alive to this day.
Source: The United States of Strange by Eric Grzymkowski
In 948, the Icelandic Viking warrior Egil Skallagrimsson fell out with the Norwegian King Erik Blood-Axe Haraldsson, and was condemned by Erik to death. How did he avoid his punishment?
Answer: He only escaped execution by composing a eulogy in Erik’s honour, entitled the Hufuolausn (Head Ransom). That Erik forgave him as a result of his poetry is less bizarre than it sounds, as Skallagrimsson’s poems are considered amongst the greatest of all old Icelandic poetry.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal.
Which uncle of Britain’s Queen Victoria was suspected of murder?
Answer: Ernest Augustus I, King of Hanover, the eighth child of King George III. In May 1810, his valet Joseph Sellis died in suspicious circumstances in Ernest’s rooms at St James Palace, London. While the official verdict was suicide, it was strongly suspected to have been Ernest himself – he had been maintaining an affair with Sellis’ wife.
Source: The Interesting Bits by Justin Pollard; The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson.
In July 1788, what natural disaster occurred which likely contributed to the French Revolution a year later?
Answer: A giant hailstorm. Sweeping across France from Normandy to Toulouse, and lasting three days, the storm destroyed hundreds of square miles of crops and produced the worst harvest for forty years. Already high food prices shot up once more, and the then monarchial regime was the target for much of the anger.
Source: Forging Freedom by Margaret R. O’Leary
The Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Verdun are commonly cited as among the most lethal battles of the First World War. Despite this, another major operation led to the most loss of life during the war. What one was this?
Answer: The Brusilov Offensive, launched by the Russian Empire against the Central Powers in June 1916. The operation was one of the greatest successes of the war for Russia, but was also amongst the most deadly, producing 1.6 million casualties on both sides.
Source: The Chronicle of War by Paul Brewer
From the sixteenth century until now, how many international conflicts are believed to have taken place?
Answer: 503, evidencing again humankind’s innate propensity for conflict.
Source: Dictionary of Wars by G.C. Kohn
During the Battle of Stalingrad, ‘Pavlov’s House’ was the name given to a fortified apartment building held by the Russians against wave after wave of Nazi attacks. How did Soviet general Vasily Chuikov joke about its cost to the Germans?
Answer: He joked that more Germans died attempting to get into this single apartment building then died during the whole invasion of Paris in June 1940.
Source: American Wars by Bert Rainwater
Which historical empire was the largest in terms of world population share?
Answer: The Achaemenid Empire, more commonly known as the Persian Empire. It is estimated to have had a population of around 50 million of the world’s 112 million people in 480 CE, an incredible 44%. This would be equivalent, today, to having around three billion people under the control of the one imperial or government system. By contrast, the world’s largest empire by territory, the British Empire, held sway over around 20% of the world’s population.
Source: The History of Iran by Elton L. Daniel and The Economics of World War II by Mark Harrison
What food did the Romans enjoy so much they made it extinct?
Answer: The plant Laserpithium. Considered a tastier version of Garlic by contemporaries, it was only found in Libya. The Romans overwhelming desire to use it as a cooking ingredient led to its extinction.
Source: Around the Roman Table by Patrick Faas
It is well documented that in pre-First World War Europe, King George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II were cousins. But what was the unusual relationship between three ambassadors of major European countries to London around the same time?
Answer: Three, Benckdorf of Russia, Lichnowsky of Germany and Mensdorff of Austria were cousins also.
Source: The War that Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War by Margaret MacMillan
At the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1840, what unusual gift did the couple receive from the farmers of Cheddar in Somerset?
Answer: As the name of the town intimates, Victoria and Albert received a giant roll of cheese, nine feet in diameter and weighing eleven hundred pounds. The cheese was so huge that after the wedding it was exhibited around Britain.
Source: The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky
The Battle of Sluys in 1340 was a crushing defeat by the English Navy of its French counterpart. Nobody, however, could bring themselves to report this to the French King Phillip VI. Who ended up doing so?
Answer: The only person willing to let him know was Phillip’s court jester, who attempted to make a joke of it by stating that the English sailors didn’t ‘even have the guts to jump into the water like our brave French’.
Source: Fools Are Everywhere by Beatrice Otto
Who was ‘the Napoleon of the Prize Ring’?
Answer: The boxer Tom Sayers. Despite weighing only eleven stone, the average weight of a middleweight, he became English heavyweight champion in 1857 and lost only one fight throughout his career. His last contest was with the US champion John Heenan, lasting an exhausting two hours and taking 42 rounds. It was declared a draw.
Source: The Battle of the Century by Jim Waltzer
Walter Arnold is the first person to have been reported speeding in Britain, when he was pulled over by a police constable in 1896. What speed was he traveling?
Answer: 8 mph. This was four times the speed limit, as set down by the Locomotive Act 1865, of 2mph. He was fined one shilling. Arnold’s car was one of just twenty in Britain at the time.
Source: Kitchener’s Last Volunteer by Dennis Goodwin et al.
When the wealthy Parisian lady Madame de la Bresse died in 1876, her will instructed that the sum of 125,000 Francs be used to buy clothing. But for whom?
Answer: The snowmen of Paris. Her relatives attempted to claim de la Beresse was insane, but a court upheld her will and Parisian snowmen were the beneficiaries.
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
Which polar explorer led no fewer than five expeditions to the Arctic, had his own naval vessel built especially for cold water exploration and even survived for 10 months after his ship was crushed between ice flows?
Answer: British explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith (1828-1913). He remains little known, however, for he shunned the publicity and fame which was sought by later explorers such as Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott. On his expeditions he brought back specimens for the British Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens, as well as live polar bears for the London Zoo.
Source: Shipwreck at Cape Flora by P. J. Capelotti; General Historical Texts.
16th century monarch Queen Elizabeth I was renowned for her cleanliness by her contemporaries. How often would she take a bath?
Answer: Once a month, declaring she did so ‘whether she needed to or not.’ For the standards of the time this was considered excessive, with many people bathing only at times of illness.
Source: The Unbelievable Truth by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith
Which Chinese emperor established the Academy of Letters, initiated land registration and defeated the Tibetans, but eventually abdicated in misfortune after agreeing to the execution of his lover?
Answer: Xuanzong, Tang Emperor who ruled from 712-755 CE.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
The Chinese artist T’ang Yin (1470-1523) is renowned for his decorative artistic style, one which was highly popular with his contemporaries. How did Yin almost end up in a very different career however?
Answer: He only became an artist after his failure to achieve a career in government. Despite passing the State’s exam in Beijing, considered a ticket to a lucrative and powerful government career, he was accused of cheating and forced to return home.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
When the United States introduced the parcel post in 1913, it resulted in an unexpected consequence. What was this?
Answer: There were instances of parents using the service to post children. The stamp would be placed on the child’s chest chest and they would ride on the mail trains with the rest of the post. Such was the problem that the postmaster-general had to issue a directive banning children from being mailed.
Source: 1227 QI Facts by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson; General Historical Texts.
The name ‘Mary’ was amongst the most popular names in Britain by the early nineteenth century. What staggering proportion of the population had this name in 1811?
Answer: Nearly a quarter of all women.
Source: 1227 QI Facts by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
In 1894, the growing popularity of horse-drawn carriages led journalists at London’s Times newspaper to predict what would happen to the city in fifty years time?
Answer: They estimated that by 1944 London would inevitably be buried in nine feet of horse manure. Luckily for Londoners the invention of the combustion engine averted this odious and repugnant outcome.
Source: Markets Never Forget by Kenneth L. Fisher
By late 1917, amidst the backdrop of social unrest and revolution at home, Russian soldiers were fighting on the eastern front of the Great War with increasing hopelessness. How was this reflected in weapons’ supplies?
Answer: Gun shortages were so pronounced that only one gun was available for every three men.
Source: The First World War by Geoffrey Jukes et al
What was unique and remarkable about the accession of Scottish monarchs between 1437 and 1567?
Answer: For this 130 year period, all Scottish Kings ascended to the throne as children. The oldest, at the age of 15, was James IV. This led to extended regencies and instability, but the house of Stuart survived – with James VI eventually becoming King of England in 1603.
Source: Medieval Scotland by Alexander Grant and Keith Stringer
The Emperor Nero is renowned as amongst the most tyrannical of Roman leaders. He is also considered one of the most ardent persecutors of Christians. In what unusual way did he do so?
Answer: He would order those Christians he had captured to be burned in his garden at night, providing Nero with a source of light.
Source: Nero by Edward Champlin
October 2013
Who was ‘Lord Haw Haw’, and why was he despised by a nation?
Answer: It was the nickname of William Joyce, a British Nazi who fled to Germany before the Second World War. During the conflict he broadcast propaganda against Britain via radio, before being eventually captured and executed for treason in 1946.
Source: Nazi Wireless Propaganda by Martin A. Doherty
Gaozu, the first Emperor of China’s Han dynasty, was originally a bandit leader from peasant stock before seizing the throne in 202 BCE. He retained a strong suspicion of elites for the rest of his life. How did he show his contempt for China’s scholar-aristocracy?
Answer: He would seize their hats and urinate in them. This suspicion eventually cost him his life however, as his refusal to see doctors hastened his death from septicemia in 195 BCE.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
The Bailey Bridge was one of the essential factors in the Allied victory in Europe during the Second World War. What were these?
Answer: Portable, pre-fabricated bridges, capable of taking the weight of a tank, allowed superior mobility for allied forces, thereby providing decided advantage for them.
Source: General Historical Texts
What discipline was, surprisingly, an established part of the Olympic Games between 1912 and 1948?
Answer: Painting. Jean Jacoby of Luxembourg for instance, won a gold medal for his paintings in 1924 and 1928. The discipline was only removed from the Olympics in 1948 when the competitors were increasingly professional and perceived to be breaking with the amateur ethos of the games.
Source: The Olympics by Allen Guttmann
King Richard I, known popularly as Richard the ‘Lionheart’, was one of England’s most famous kings. How much time did he actually spend in England, however?
Answer: A mere six months. His involvement in the Crusades to the Holy Land, combined with his family ties in Northern France, meant he rarely came to England. Indeed, he was known as the ‘absentee king’. His queen consort, Berengaria, never visited her kingdom.
Source: The Plantagenets by Dan Jones
Commander in Chief of the Union Armies during the American civil war Ulysses S Grant was elected US president on November 3, 1868, on the Republican ticket. What was unusual about Grant’s election campaign?
Grant, who had only voted once before and that was for a Democrat, refused to make any speeches.
Source: On This Day – The History of the World in 366 Days by Hamlyn
In 1796 the Greenwich pensioners played a cricket match in front of a large crowd in London. What was unique about the match?
Answer: It was a game which pitted a team of men with one leg against a team of men with one arm. The Greenwich pensioners lived at the nearby naval hospital, and the match attracted wide attention. It was even repeated on at least two occasions, in 1843 and 1848.
Source: The Unbelievable Truth by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith; General Historical Texts
What unusual gift did English King Henry III receive in 1251 from the King of Norway?
Answer: A live polar bear. It was kept in the Tower of London and, periodically, hunted for fish in the nearby Thames river.
Source: The Reign of Henry III by D.A. Carpenter
What was the response of Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel when, on hearing Alfred Lord Tennyson’s majestic poem Ulysses, first published in 1842, which contained such memorable words as ‘Come my friends, ‘tis not too late to seek a newer world’?
Answer: He reportedly gave Tennyson his prime ministerial pension. In today’s currency this would have amounted to several million pounds over the life of the annuity.
Source: Sir Robert Peel: The Life And Legacy by Richard A. Gaunt; General Historical Texts
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) said that all truth passes through three stages. What were these?
Answer: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Source: The Essential Schopenhauer by Arthur Schopenhauer and Wolfgang Schirmacher
Where would one find the earliest example of flushing toilets?
Answer: In the Indus Valley Civilization of ancient Northwest South Asia, from about 2500 B.C. to about 1500 B.C. Its use of hydraulic engineering was highly sophisticated, and flushing toilets were just one of a series of sanitation devices which were the first of their kind.
Source: Sacred Places of Goddess by Karen Tate
What was the largest, the most organized and most rapid migration of men in the history of humankind?
Answer: The movement of between four and five million German soldiers in just over four weeks from France eastward across the Rhine in to Germany, following the end of the First World War in November 1918.
Source: 1918 by Gregor Dallas
The name of the city of Los Angeles, translated into English as ‘The Angels’, is familiar across the world. What was the city’s full original name however?
Answer: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula. In English it translates to ‘The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Porciuncula River.’ Over time, the abbreviated Los Angeles has been used for short.
Source: From West to East by Stephen Schwartz
In 1524, why did German noble Count von Iggleheim choose to construct a large, three story ark on the River Rhine?
Answer: He and many others felt that a vast flood would engulf the world on February 20, 1524. The theory came from a prediction made in 1499 by German astronomer Johannes Stöffler. Such was the anticipation of the event, when the day came and went without flooding, riots broke out across the region.
Source: Physics of the Impossible by Dr. Michio Kaku
What was the ‘Avenue of the Dead’, and where was it?
Answer: It was the main thoroughfare of the city of Teotihuacan, one of the most significant cities in the Aztec Empire (circa 12th century to 1500s). Around 2.5 km in length, it was so named because the mounds which hugged the length of the path appeared to the Aztecs to look like tombs.
Source: The Teotihuacan Trinity by Annabeth Headrick
Who was ‘the boy Jones’, and why did he achieve infamy in nineteenth century Britain?
Answer: Edward Jones was famous for his repeated attempts to break into Buckingham Palace between 1838 and 1841. He got inside and was apprehended three times, and dissuaded from entering on many more occasions. On one of his uninvited calls he nearly succeeded in escaping with Queen Victoria’s underwear stuffed down his trousers.
Source: Queen Victoria’s Stalker by Jan Bondeson
Which French King was nicknamed ‘the do-nothing’?
Answer: Louis V. The last king of the Carolingian dynasty, his reign was uneventful and he died in a hunting accident aged twenty in 987.
Source: France by William J. Roberts
During the Second World War, Nazi occupiers attempted to justify their invasion of which country on the basis that it was saving it from a much more sinister British invasion?
Answer: Denmark. The idea that the Nazis were defending Denmark against British aggression was used for the duration of the occupation.
Source: Secret Alliance by Jørgen Hæstrup
Scientist James Smithson’s donation of half a million dollars to the USA in 1835 enabled the formation of the Smithsonian Institute, now one of the foremost cultural institutions in the world. What was unusual about the circumstances of the donation?
Answer: Smithson was British, and had never been to the United States. In fact, he barely mentioned the country to his friends and acquaintances during his lifetime. The reason behind why he chose to donate the sum remains a mystery.
Source: The Stranger and the Statesman by Nina Burleigh
After the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, some Southerners chose to leave the United States rather than live under the rule of the Union victors. What was the most popular location to emigrate to?
Answer: Brazil. Keen to encourage the cultivation of cotton, the Brazilian emperor offered these Southerners subsidized transport and cheap land. Around ten thousand made the journey and became known as ‘Confederados.’
Source: The Lost Colony of the Confederacy by Eugene Harter
As only senior officers of the armies of Ancient Egypt wore helmets, what ingenious way did Egyptian foot soldiers protect their head from combat blows?
Answer: They would grow their hair long and thick, and then grease it to provide natural protection against blows to the head. The practice was likely picked up from the Nubians.
Source: Tutankhamun’s Armies by John Coleman Darnell
How was British Prime Minister Harold Wilson creatively heckled while giving a speech in the UK naval town of Chatham in 1964?
Answer: After drawing on the Britain’s naval heritage, Wilson remarked, ‘and why am I saying all this?’. A voice from the back of the hall replied, “because you are in Chatham!’.
Source: The Worldly Art of Politics by Ken Turner
America’s 36th President Lyndon Baines Johnson was a renowned practical joker. How would he scare visitors to his ranch in Johnson City, Texas?
Answer: Johnson was one of the first owners of ‘the amphicar’, an amphibious automobile first produced in 1961. He would often take visitors in the car and then drive directly into the property’s large lake, all the while complaining that the brakes were malfunctioning. Back in the White House, LBJ showed another side of his multi-faceted character by pubicly announcing new appointees to a government position, before informing the appointee, thus making it impossible for them to refuse the job.
Source: The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson by Joseph A. Califano
Nearly three quarters of the income of the Kingdom of Denmark in the sixteenth and seventeenth century came from a toll. What was it?
Answer: A toll on ships traveling through Øresund, the strait separating the Danish island of Zealand from the southern part of Sweden. All ships passing through would have to pay 1%-2% of their ships cargo to the Danish crown, producing an incredible source of revenue for Danish authorities.
Source: A History of Denmark by Knud J.V. Jesperson
Charles Darwin’s trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1835 was the catalyst for his development of the theories of evolution. During his trip he famously studied the giant tortoise, but he and his assistant Syms Covington’s first encounters with the creatures were far from graceful. What happened?
Answer: Darwin and Covington attempted to gauge the weight by tipping one over, which neither of them could do. The great naturalist even briefly, and regrettably, rode one of the tortoise, which, thankfully, seemed untroubled by Darwin’s efforts.
Source: Charles Darwin by Rebecca Stefoff
What was the cost of the United States’ involvement in World War One?
Answer: The total cost of World War One to the United States was approximately $32 billion, or 52 percent of gross national product at the time. Today, America’s defense budget is around 680 billion and its GDP some $15.7 trillion.
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research study ‘Until It’s Over, Over There: The U.S. Economy in World War I’ by Research Associate Hugh Rockoff (NBER Working Paper No. 10580).
Who was Chiune Sugihara, and how did he save thousands of lives during the Second World War?
Answer: He was a Japanese diplomat, working at the consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. He contravened his government’s orders and issued visas that allowed 6,000 Jews to escape from Nazi territories via Japan. Even when the Japanese closed the consulate, he continued to issue visas until the last minute. As Sugihara’s train was about to leave the city, he processed visas from his open window.
Source: A Special Fate by Alison Leslie Gold
Hiram Maxim is famous for his invention of the Maxim gun in 1884, one of the world’s first machine guns and a device that revolutionised warfare. What mystery surrounds him and another inventor, William Cantelo, however?
Answer: William Cantelo was rumoured to have been working on the machine gun concept earlier in the 1880s, when he disappeared without a trace – never to be seen again. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Maxim, some have hypothesized that they were the same individual, or that Maxim plagiarized Cantelo’s idea and he died a penniless man.
Source: The Amazing Hiram Maxim by Arthur Hawkey
Francis H. Cone, a Georgian state senator, and Alexander Stephens, a U.S. congressman and future vice president of the Confederacy, were intense political rivals. What happened when they met on the steps of the Atlanta Hotel in 1848?
Answer: Cone had been angered by the Clayton Compromise over slavery, deeming Stephens a traitor of the South, and a vicious fight broke out. Stephens hit Cone in the face with his cane, while Stephens ended up being stabbed six times by Cone. Despite his injuries, Stephens never pressed charges, and Cone escaped with an $800 fine, a very sizeable amount at the time.
Source: Alexander Stephens of Georgia by Thomas Schott
Who, upon receiving a PhD from Harvard University in 1895, famously claimed ‘the honour, I assure you, was Harvard’s.’
Answer: The sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois. He was the first African-American to receive a PhD from Harvard University.
Source: The American Pageant by David M. Kennedy
In May 1942 German spy Marius A. Langbein was sent by his superiors to Canada, where he was instructed to observe enemy shipping movements in Montreal and Halifax. What, however, did Langbein actually do?
Answer: He decided to use the money he received from German intelligence agents to start a new life, and instead relocated to Ottawa. He later surrendered to Canadian authorities in December 1944, but was found not guilty of spying as he had committed no actual espionage.
Source: Cargo of Lives by Dean Beeby
The chocolate chip cookie is one of the most famous biscuits in the world. Invented by Ruth Wakefield in 1930s Massachusetts, what did she sell the rights to the recipe for?
Answer: Rather than a cash payment, she requested that Nestle supply her with a lifetime supply of chocolate. The fortune in royalties she would have foregone by this idiosyncratic act would have been considerable.
Source: Stirring Up a World of Fun by Nanette Goings
September 2013
British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s wife Mary Anne Disraeli, 1st Viscountess Beaconsfield, pre-deceased her husband in 1872. What was one of the more remarkable items found among her belongings after her death.
Answer: Envelopes were found continuing the hair from every haircut which Disraeli had ever had, retained by her as a keepsake.
Source: Disraeli by Robert Blake; The Lion and the Unicorn – Gladstone vs Disraeli by Richard Aldous; General Historical Texts
Sunandha Kumariratana, a queen of King Chulalongkorn of Siam (modern day Thailand), died in 1880 after her royal boat capsized. What was tragic and unusual about the death?
Answer: She drowned despite there being many onlookers nearby. This is because they were forbidden to touch the queen, at pain of death, even to save her life.
Source: Worshipping the Great Moderniser by Irene Stengs
‘Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples.’ This was written by English Scholar Alcuin in 793. What is he describing?
Answer: The ruthless pillaging of the holy site of Lindisfarne by Viking invaders. These invaders formed a constant threat to England during the eighth century.
Source: The Anglo-Saxon World by Kevin Crossley-Holland
The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, constructed in 1884, is generally considered to be the world’s first skyscraper. How many stories did it have?
Answer: Ten. The world’s tallest skyscraper today, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, has 163 storeys.
Source: Forging America by David P. DeVenney
How did the 17 year old Victorian artist and designer William Morris respond to ‘The Great Exhibition’, a showcase of inventions furthering the cause of Britain’s Industrial Revolution in 1851?
Answer: Offended by the exhibition’s industrial power, he vomited outside the exhibition hall at London’s Crystal Palace. He would spend the rest of his career in the pursuit of a more traditional idea of craft and beauty.
Source: Events That Formed the Modern World by Frank Thackeray
Who pioneered some of the earliest thinking regarding the role of natural selection, nearly 2500 years before Charles Darwin?
Answer: The Greek philosopher Empedocles, who emphasised spontaneous aggregations as part of this theory of cosmogony.
Source: A History of Greek Philosophy by W. K. C. Guthrie
In the first century BCE, shocked by the betrayal of his son, King Mithridates VI of Pontus decided to take his own life. Why did this not work out to plan?
Answer: He attempted to poison himself, but as he had previously taken small poison doses in order to produce immunity, it did not affect him. He eventually ended up ordering his bodyguard to kill him.
Source: The Poison King by Adrienne Mayor
In the United States, the first law requiring compulsory school attendance was introduced in Massachusetts in 1852. It would take a long time for the last US state to introduce this, however. How long did it take?
Answer: Sixty five years. The last state, Mississippi, introduced a similar law in 1917.
Source: Rednecks, Reedemers and Race by Stephen Cresswell
Pompey’s Pillar is a Roman triumphal column in Alexandria, Egypt, which at twenty metres in height is one of the largest of its kind. When the British discovered the pillar in 1803, in what unique way did British commander John Shortland mark the occasion?
Answer: He climbed to the top of the column, where he flew a British kite, drank a toast to the king’s health and ate, of all things, a steak.
Source: Convict Nobbys by Noel Davies
By November 1918, the last month of World War One, what percentage of Germany’s economy – which was one of the largest in the world – was geared to war production?
Answer: Around 95 percent.
Source: 1918 by Gregor Dallas
How did Christopher Columbus use an eclipse to trick the native peoples of the Americas?
Answer: In order to strike fear into them, he used the writings of German astronomer Regiomontanus to predict the time of an upcoming eclipse. On February 29th 1504, when the eclipse inevitably came, he claimed the sudden darkness was a sign of the wrath of God. Only when they agreed to provide gold and food would the light return. The shocked and scared natives quickly did as requested.
Source: Christopher Columbus by Kay Brigham
What product formed the first registered trademark in the UK, and one of the first in the world?
Answer: The beer Bass Pale Ale, whose distinctive triangle logo was protected in 1876. The brewery itself was first established in 1777.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Beer by Garrett Oliver
Which European structure has an incredible 1200 doors, 2600 windows and took twenty one years to build between 1564 and 1584?
Answer: The Escorial Palace in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain. Built by King Phillip II, the complex’s functions have historically included a monastery, royal palace, school and museum.
Source: For King and Country by John Mills
What regular hobby did American President John Quincy Adams enjoy which is unlikely to ever be repeated in the modern day?
Answer: Swimming nude. Adams regularly liked to swim naked in the nearby Potomac river, taking his last such swim at the age of 79.
Source: American Presidents from Washington to Tyler by Robert A. Nowlan
The most famous English weapon of the Middle Ages was the longbow, which was highly accurate, incredibly powerful and capable of firing huge distances. How far could a longbow drive an arrow?
Answer: Up to 350 yards, or around a third of a kilometre.
Source: The Hundred Years War by L. J. Andrew Villalon et. al
After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, how did the American Yuengling Brewery, the country’s oldest brewing company, celebrate?
Answer: It brewed a special ‘Winners Beer’, and even delivered a truckload to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the White House. FDR did not drink the beer, however, rather passing it to the Washington press corps, who reportedly received the offering with gratitude. The president, instead, preferred to celebrate the end of Prohibition with a cocktail, no doubt made with his favourite Argentinian vermouth.
Source: Yuengling by Mark A. Noon
Union General John Sedgwick was killed by a Confederate sniper on May 8, 1864. Why was this death tragically ironic?
Answer: Sedgwick was a noted skeptic of the role of the sniper, and he was shot while dismissing the likelihood of a successful hit. His final words were, ‘why they couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…’
Source: Sniping – A History by Pat Farey
In Ancient Babylon, being a surgeon was a risky business. Why was this?
Answer: According to the Bablyonian Code of Hammurabi of ca. 1700 BCE, if the patient on whom the surgeon was operating died, the surgeons hands were to be cut off.
Source: History of Medicine by Jacalyn Duffin
The storming of the Bastille prison was the defining act of the French Revolution of 1789, represeting a powerful strike at royal authority. How many actual prisoners were in the prison at the time however?
Answer: A mere seven, four of whom were interned for forgery.
Source: Civilization by Kenneth Clark
The defining historical change of the last two centuries has been urbanisation. In the year 2000, 47% of the world’s population lived in an urban settlement of 5,000 or more. What percentage did so in the year 1800?
Answer: 3%
Source: Cities of the World by Stanley D. Brunn
What was, until recently, the oldest company in the world?
Answer: The Kongo Gumi construction company of Osaka, Japan. The company, which could, incredibly, trace its origins to 578 CE, specialised in building temples and palaces. In recent times it struggled and in 2006, after over 1400 years, it was bought by the Takamatsu Construction Group.
Source: Economy by Johnny Acton
In what bizarre way did the famous whiskey distiller Jack Daniel die in 1911?
Answer: From a stubbed toe. Arriving early for work one day, he kicked an office safe in frustration after forgetting the combination. The toe later developed an infection, from which he died.
Source: Whiskey, Wit and Wisdom by Gavin D. Smith
The ruin of ‘King John’s Palace’ and ‘Canute’s Palace’ are both well known sights in the city of Southampton, England. Why are these names deceptive however?
Answer: These ruins were never owned by kings with whom they are named after, John or Canute, neither were either of them palaces. They were in fact both twelfth century merchant houses.
Source: The Pleasures and Treasures of Britain – A Discerning Traveler’s Companion by David Kemp.
‘This whipped jackal is frisking by the side of the German tiger.’ To whom was Winston Churchill referring to during a speech in 1941?
Answer: Italian leader Benito Mussolini.
Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Biographical Quotations by Susan Ratcliffe
In the United States, in the 1830s and 1840s, what was a widespread view as regards fresh fruit and vegetables?
Answer: That they were dangerous to health, and especially harmful to children. Doubts as to the cause of cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other epidemic diseases, made these fears more believable. Within half a century, however, the US had organised a nation-wide, soon to be international, trade in fresh fruits and vegetables.
Source: The Americans – The Democratic Experience by Dr Daniel J Boorstin
William Pulteney, the second Earl of Bath, is famous in British political history for what reason?
Answer: He is sometimes considered to be the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history. After accepting the seals of office on 10 February 1746, he quickly realised he did not have the support to form a government. He relinquished the post on 12 February, after a mere two days.
Source: Prime Ministers by David Bastable
Married women were forbidden to watch the events of the Ancient Olympics, as their presence was believed to defile the religious shrine at Olympia. What unfortunate end would become of women who attempted to watch the events?
Answer: They were killed by being thrown from a nearby cliff.
Source: Ancient Greece by Cindy Barden
Which Greek philosopher made his most famous discovery in the bath, prompting him to run through the streets shouting ‘Eureka’?
Answer: Archimedes. He did so after the discovery of his Archimedes principle, which states that any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced.
Source: The Greatest Mathematician by Paul Hightower
How did the flamboyant English vicar Harold Davidson die in 1937?
Answer: He was attacked by a caged lion during a seaside show. Davidson had been removed from the priesthood five years previously and had ingeniously found a new source of income as an entertainer. Such was Davidson’s infamy that the lion who killed him became a household name.
Source: The Troublesome Priest by Jonathan Tucker
Chinese Emperor Gao, the founder of the Han Dynasty, was a notoriously ruthless leader. When an enemy of Gao captured his father and threatened to boil him alive if he did not surrender, how did he reply?
Answer: Gao nonchalantly asked that if they boiled his father, that they ‘be good enough to send me a cup of the soup.’
Source: The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China by Grant Hardy
August 2013
Western advances in life expectancy in the last century have been incredible. In the United States for instance, average life expectancy was 70 in 1960. What was it in 1900?
Answer: 47.
Source: Bottom Line Medicine by Richard Stanzak
What is the connection between ‘Russian Mountains’ and the roller coaster?
Answer: ‘Russian Mountains’ was the name given to the precursor of the roller coaster. First originating in Russia in the seventeenth century, they were winter sleds attached to specially constructed mountains of ice, reaching up to 80 feet in height. They became hugely popular with the Russian upper class.
Source: Russia and Europe in the Nineteenth Century by Edward Strachan
In 1631, two English printers were heavily fined for committing an error while printing copies of the King James Bible. What was the unfortunate mistake?
Answer: They accidentally omitted the word ‘not’ in Exodus 20:14, which thus read ‘thou shalt commit adultery.’ The copies printed were dubbed the ‘Wicked Bible.’
Source: Bible – The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011 by Gordon Campbell
What made the Swedish adventurer and soldier Ivor Thord-Gray’s war record so incredible?
Answer: Between 1897 and 1919, Thord-Gray fought in an incredible thirteen different international conflicts, including the Boer War, Chinese revolution, Mexican Revolution and First World War. He later retired from fighting and settled in the United States, where he established an investment bank.
Source: From Victoria to Vladivostok by Benjamin Isitt
How did the game of chess go badly wrong for Anglo-Saxon nobleman Eadric Steona in 1017?
Answer: Eadric had just beaten English King Cnut at a game, and when Cnut challenged him to change the rules in his favour, Eadric refused. Already distrustful of Eadric, Cnut consequently had him executed for his insolence.
Source: Before the Conquest by William Henry Davenport Adams
Where and when was the earliest known consumption of alcoholic beverages?
Answer: From the ancient Chinese settlement of Jiahu, modern day Henan province. Wine jars discovered their suggest alcohol was being consumed as early as 7000 BCE – some 9,000 years ago.
Source: Uncorking the Past by Patrick E. McGovern.
Famed British 20th century orchestra conductor Sir Thomas Beecham was attending a performance of Puccini’s opera ‘Aida’ in London, a lavish affair with majestic sets and a large complement of singers, including at one point, elephants being brought on to the stage. In this performance one of the animals defecated on stage. Beecham, a great wit, turned to his companion and said … what?
Answer: ‘Terrible stage manners. But what a critic!’
Source: Beecham Stories: Anecdotes, Sayings and Impressions of Sir Thomas Beecham by Sir Thomas Beecham (compiled by Atkins and Newman); General Historical Texts
The beautiful ‘Cutty Sark’ sailing ship was one of the last of the great clipper ships. How long was she in service?
Answer: A remarkable 85 years. Built in 1869 she wasn’t retired until 1954.
Source: Bloomberg Business, July 28, 2013
The ‘Daredevil’ Prince Imperial of France died on June 1, 1879 in South Africa, speared by Zulu warriors. While the British officers who were meant to protect him fled in the face of the surprise attack, what was the heroic way in which the Prince died.
Answer: There were found to be seventeen spear wounds in his front and none in his back, indicating that he had faced his adversaries bravely and had not run away.
Source: The Washing of the Spears – The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation by Donald R Morris; Farewell the Trumpets by James Morris
With what unusual items would Ancient Egyptians pay their taxes?
Answer: In addition to the common gold and silver, Egyptians often paid using goods such as honey, cattle, grain and even wine.
Source: Law in Ancient Egypt by Russ VerSteeg
How did American temperance reformer William ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson lose an eye in 1919?
Answer: While attending a debate in London over temperance – the prohibition or restriction of alcohol use – a riot broke out. During the melee, Johnson was brutally dragged from the platform by angry medical students and struck in the eye by a thrown stone.
Source: Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History by Jack Snead Blocker, David M. Fahey, and Ian R. Tyrrel
What was unusual about the birth, on November 2, 1755, of the 15th child of the formidable Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria? (The child, a daughter, was the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, of later French Revolution fame.)
Answer: She gave birth to the child in an armchair at the Hofburg Palace, and then returned to her examination of state papers which the labor pains had briefly interrupted. A remarkable woman on all fronts, Maria Theresa was to deliver her sixteenth and final child, a boy, the following year.
Source: The French Revolution by Christopher Herbert
When Ancient Rome decided to add Britain to its empire in 41 CE, it met stiff resistance from the people of Britain, not the least by King Caratacus. He was eventually subdued and sent by the Roman governor Ostorius Scapula back to Rome for the Emperor Claudius to decide his fate. On arriving in Rome and seeing the magnificence of Roman society – the roads, public buildings and luxury private residences – what did Caratacus say?
Answer: ‘And yet the owners of these must needs covet our poor huts in Britain.’ Caratacus impressed Claudius with his dignity and courage and seems to have been granted some sort of pension, dying in honorable captivity in Italy.
Source: Britain: Rome’s Most Northern Province by G M Durant
Air Force One is the plane which flies the President of the United States. There has only been one occasion when the plane has transported two US presidents at the one time? When was this?
Answer: On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, when it flew just sworn in 36th President Lyndon Baines Johnson from Dallas, Texas, back to Washington, with the body of 35th President John K Kennedy in a casket in the rear of the plane, who had been assassinated two hours previously.
Source: The J F K Collection – The History Channel
In the early years of the 19th century in Europe, men cared desperately about the shine of their boots. The famous sartorial exponent and fop Beau Brummell said, to get the most brilliant sheen on his boots, he mixed his blacking with … what?
Answer: The “best champagne”.
Source: The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
Much is rightly made of America’s historical emphasis on egalitarianism and liberty for all. There were, however, stark examples to the contrary in 17th century Massachusetts for instance. What were some of these?
Answer: Massachusetts Bay’s courts had no compunction about emphasising class distinctions. Convicted of theft, a gentleman was merely fined and deprived of the title ‘Master’; his servants convicted as accessories, were heavily flogged. As late as 1759, Boston considered that a man’s grandfather having been a bricklayer disqualified him from sitting as a Justice of the Peace.
Source: The Americans – A Social History of the United States 1587-1914 by J CF Furnas.
Which British royal figure was nicknamed, given the sobriquet if you will, the ‘Prince of Whales’?
Answer: King George IV. The nickname came during his time as heir to the throne, and was used to mock his considerable weight. George’s waistline was a colossal 54 inches.
Source: Prince of Pleasure – The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency by Saul David
Louis XVI of France, who reigned from 1754 until 1792, was not burdened by a poor appetite. For breakfast, one morning before going ‘down to the stables’, what did he have as his first meal of the day?
Answer: Four cutlets, an entire chicken, a plateful of ham, half a dozen eggs in sauce, and a bottle and a half of champagne.
Source: The French Revolution by Christopher Herbert
Ancient Ghana was a key power in the eighth and ninth centuries, with its capital Kumbi Saleh a major cultural and trading centre. What is ironic about the link between Ancient Ghana and the modern day state, however?
Answer: Despite being named after Ancient Ghana, none of the modern state is within the borders of its ancient counterpart. The location of Kumbi Saleh for instance, now a ruined city, is located within modern day Mauritania.
Source: Ghana by Phillip Briggs
How did the crossword competition in the Daily Telegraph newspaper arouse suspicion in Britain’s war cabinet in the months before the June 1944 D-Day landings during the Second World War?
Answer: Answers to the newspaper’s crossword clues were also the name of code words for the D-Day invasions. ‘Utah’, ‘Overlord’, ‘Mulberry’ and ‘Omaha’, all Allied code words, were used. The newspaper’s crossword compilers were even detained and questioned by members of the MI5 security service, though it turned out to be nothing more than an incredible coincidence.
Source: D-Day by Anthony Hall
What was a zamburak?
Answer: An unusual form of artillery used in the Early Modern period. A swivel cannon was placed on the back of a camel, enabling artillery to be moved quickly and efficiently. To fire the cannon, the camel would be put on its knees. While likely a Mughal invention, they were used by a range of belligerents in Iran and the Middle East up until the nineteenth century.
Source: Mughal Warfare by J.J.L. Gommans
Which British King, rather uncharacteristically, had a Japanese blue and red dragon tattoo on his arm?
Answer: King George V. He had received the tattoo while visiting Japan as a naval cadet in the 1880s.
Source: King George V by Kenneth Rose
How did Ancient Greeks celebrate and commemorate a victorious battle?
Answer: They would build a monument on the battlefield at the spot where they perceived the battle turned in their favour, constructed out of captured weapons. The naming of the practice, for the Greek word trope, ‘a turning’, is the origin of the English word ‘trophy’.
Source: Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis by Graeme Donald
When Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama first reached India in 1498, what did he say he was searching for, much to the bemusement of the traders in Gujurat who he met?
Answer: He declared he was ‘in search of Christians and spices.’ This was because he hoped to find not only a new source for the spice trade, but also a ‘lost Christian kingdom‘ which many Europeans believed existed somewhere in the Indies.
Source: The History of Indonesia by Steven Drakeley
In 1414, the Chinese explorer Zheng visited the African port city of Malindi. When he returned to China he came bearing a gift from the city which aroused much interest. What was it?
Answer: A giraffe.
Source: Kenya by Godfrey Mwakikagile
From where does the word ‘loot’ originate?
Answer: From a practice which occurred in nineteenth century British India. A ‘lootie’ was an Indian irregular attached to British forces who, receiving food and lodgings only, would raise extra money by looting and body-robbing after military engagements.
Source: Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis by Graeme Donald; General Historical Texts
The Suez Canal, constructed in 1869, proved to be of tremendous benefit to Britain. With the world’s largest merchant marine, and the largest share of European trade with Asia, the canal provided an economic boom. Why is this outcome, however, somewhat ironic?
Answer: The British Government had spent years delaying the project, trying to ensure it was not built. It was worried that the canal would benefit French and other Mediterranean powers’ shipping, at the expense of its own.
Source: A History of Africa by J.D. Fage
18th century English eccentric Hannah Beswick was famously terrified of being buried alive. How did she ensure this did not occur?
Answer: She left £25,000 in her will to her doctor, on the condition that her body should not be buried and that he should visit her regularly after her death. After she died in 1758 the doctor had Hannah embalmed and kept her in, of all things, a grandfather clock, paying her a visit once a year.
Source: Dreadful Fates by Tracey Turner
What are the origins of the French taste for escargot, or snails, to eat?
Answer: In times of famine, particularly in rural France, there was often little else to eat. Over time, the ostensibly paltry and inconsequential dish became widely popular, one enjoyed over the centuries, not just in France, but in later years around the world.
Source: Larousse Gastronomique; Gabriel Gate; General Historical Texts
Where, and what was, the settlement of Eredo?
Answer: A city state in southwest Nigeria, believed to have held prominence in the ninth century. Only recently publicised, it was surrounded by a wall that was 100 miles long and up to seventy feet high. The internal area was an incredible 400 square miles. Much of the wall still surrounds the modern day town of Ijebu Ode.
Source: Kingdoms of the Yoruba by Robert Sydney Smith
How did Queen Catherine of Valois, wife of King Henry V of England, become a gruesome tourist attraction in London’s Westminster Abbey?
Answer: After her death in 1437, she was buried in the Abbey. Some years later the lid of her tomb became displaced, revealing her remains. The site became a popular feature for those visiting the abbey; the renowned English period figure Samuel Pepys recorded his visit in 1669. The queen was only properly reburied in the nineteenth century.
Source: Dreadful Fates by Tracey Turner
July 2013
How far back does China’s oldest dynasty, the Xia Dynasty, date?
Answer: From the 21st century BCE. Precise details of the dynasty remain difficult to ascertain, however, existing as it did centuries before China’s first established system of writing.
Source: China – A History by John Keay
In what ironic fashion did King James II of Scotland die in 1460?
Answer: His forces had just defeated the English at Roxburgh Castle. James, a firm advocate of artillery, arranged for a cannon to be fired in celebration. A piece of wood set flying by the explosion struck and severed James’s leg, causing him to bleed to death.
Source: Dreadful Fates by Tracey Turner
How many men and women are estimated to have been taken from Africa by the Atlantic slave trade between 1451 and 1867?
Answer: An incredible 11,641,000, forming undoubtedly one of the largest population movements in history. Between 1701 and 1800 alone, over six million Africans were enslaved, at a rate of 61,000 a year.
Source: A History of Africa by J.D. Fage
‘This man’s got everything to be king. The born popular leader. The coming dictator!’ Who wrote this description of Adolf Hitler?
Answer: Joseph Goebbels. He made this entry in his diary after one of the early meetings with Hitler in November 1925.
Source: People on People by Susan Ratcliffe
Which city has historically been known by various names, including Yanjing, Youzhou, Dadu and Beiping?
Answer: Beijing. It is one of the great ancient capitals of China, along with Luoyang, Nanjing and Chang’an (modern da Xi’an).
Source: Beijing – A Concise History by Stephen G. Haw
The Hoover Dam Project in the US was vitally important to the country, but a hazardous work site, claiming 112 lives. What links the first and last deaths on the project?
Answer: The men who died were father and son. J.G. Tierney died on December 20, 1922, drowning while surveying the Colorado river early on in the construction phase. In a tragic twist of fate, thirteen years later to the day, his son, Patrick W. Tierney, fell from an intake tower and died.
Source: Construction – Building the Impossible by Nathan Aaseng
What is widely considered to have been the largest urban center in the world before the industrial age?
Answer: The city of Angkor, capital of the Khmer Empire of modern day Cambodia. It was believed to have covered a territory of 400 square miles at its minimum, and may have had a population approaching one million.
Source: Cities by Ian Douglas
Mansa Musa, ruler of the Malian Empire in the fourteenth century, was fabulously wealthy. How was this demonstrated, in the most spectacular fashion, on his visit to Mecca in 1324?
Answer: Traveling with an entourage that totaled over sixty thousand people, Mansa gave away so many gifts of gold en route through Egypt and Arabia that it lowered the the price of the precious metal, and depressed the wider economy in these states for a decade afterwards.
Source: The Earth and Its People by Richard W. Bulliet et. al
One of the most outstanding commanders of the Civil War in America was General T J ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. Like so many brilliant military figures, he was an eccentric with many idiosyncrasies. What were some of these?
Answer: He believed that if he had pepper in his food it would make his left leg ache. He would never mail a letter that would be in transit on a Sunday. He was a strict observer of the Sabbath, yet many of his battles were fought on a Sunday. He believed that only by keeping one hand in the air could he stop himself from going ‘out of balance’. He sucked constantly on lemons, even in the midst of battle.
Source: The Civil War by Ken Burns; The Civil War by Shelby Foote.
As regards their sexual proclivities, what did Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Spinoza, Newton, Kant, Beethoven, and Herbert Spencer all have in common?
Answer: They all practiced sexual continence, which is the avoidance of male sexual spasm or seminal release. This was done to retain energy and maximize their work output and creative powers.
Source: Dr R W Bernard ‘Science Discovers the Physiological Value of Continence’.
In 1789, British mechanical engineer Samuel Slater immigrated to the United States, where he became an important figure in America’s fledgling cotton industry. What was unusual about Slater’s case however?
Answer: In emigrating he was breaking the law. Keen to keep their superior national position, British law made the export of cotton machinery or data, and the emigration of textile workers, illegal. Indeed Slater, lured by large cash rewards in the United States, had to emigrate under a false name. Slater became known as the ‘Father of the American Industrial Revolution’.
Source: Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
‘It seems to me the spell has been broken … He is no longer an idol, but has descended to the rank of men, and as such he can be fought by men.’ To whom were these words, written by Russian Empress Maria Fyodorovna, referring to?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte. She is describing the damage to his reputation which came as a result of the failed French campaign in Russia of 1812.
Source: 1812 – Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski
Which U.S. President nearly banned the sport of gridiron football for being too violent and dangerous?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt. Amidst an increasing number of deaths in the sport, Roosevelt called key football decision makers to make the game safer, or risk it being banned. The key changes they agreed saved the sport, and these included that first downs now required 10 yards instead of five.
Source: Meet the Presidents by Cindy Barden
What went wrong with America’s first airmail service, introduced in May 1918?
Answer: Large crowds came to see the first flight in Washington DC, but the crowd quickly became restless when the pilot could not get the plane started. The crew then discovered the fuel tank was empty. When the plane finally took off, the pilot went the wrong way. While making an emergency landing to get directions, the propeller broke. A truck had to be called to drive the first 140 pounds of ‘airmail’ to Philadelphia.
Source: Meet the Presidents by Cindy Barden
What was ‘The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters’?
Answer: A drinking society initiated by King Peter the Great of Russia. The group involved many close friends of the king and involved drinking and roistering. The group often ridiculed elements of Russian society, in particular the Russian Orthodox Church.
Source: Peter the Great by Robert Massie
Violet Jessop was an early 20th century British ship’s stewardess and nurse, who remarkably survived two tragic events. What were they?
Answer: She survived not only the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, but also the HMHS Britannic four years later. To further emphasise her survival skills on the high seas, she also escaped unharmed from an incident in 1911 when the RMS Olympic collided with the naval cruiser HMS Hawke.
Source: Titanic Survivor by John Maxtone Graham
American President James Garfield was multilingual, and could demonstrate this in an impressive way. What was this?
Answer: Garfield, the last US president to be born in a log cabin, was skilled in reading and writing in Ancient Greek and Latin. He was also ambidextrous, meaning he was able to write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other simultaneously – a skill he was often keen to show off.
Source: Chronology of the U.S. Presidency by Matthew Manweller; General Historical Texts
What was ‘Skinner’s Horse’?
Answer: A regiment of the Indian Army raised by British soldier James Skinner. Largely not recognised by the British Government, the regiment engaged in a variety of military expeditions and looting. After thirty years’ action, Skinner retired with his considerable wealth and numerous wives to a country seat in Delhi.
Source: Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
Joachim Murat, the brother-in-law of Napoleon, was the King of Naples from 1808 to 1815, and was renowned for his bravery on the battlefield. What more unusual skill was he also known for?
Answer: His dress sense. He often wore extravagant clothes and designed and created his own uniforms, a fact that led to his nickname of ‘the Dandy King.’ His fate, however, was to be charged with treason and executed by firing squad on May 19, 1815. Very brave to the end, he was also ever concerned about appearances. He called out to the firing squad: “Soldiers! Do your duty! Straight to the heart but spare the face. Fire!”
Source: 1812 – Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski; General Historical Texts
Jack Jones was a British Labour Party MP in the years between the First and Second World Wars, from East London. In what ways did his actions frustrate the leadership of the party?
Answer: Jones was a colorful maverick who often advocated controversial positions which the leadership opposed. He spoke, for example, in favour of the benefits of drinking, watching sports in a rowdy fashion and the emphatic use of profanity.
Source: The Culture of Labourism by John Marriot
‘Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!’ Which famous historical figure surprisingly outlined their support for the cannabis plant in this way?
Answer: American President George Washington. The statement was in a note to a gardener at Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon in 1794.
Source: The Writings of George Washington, Volume 33
In 1692 in colonial Massachusetts, a woman named Mary Henly was convicted of a crime which, according to the county court, seemed to ‘confound the course of nature.’ What was the offense?
Answer: Henly had walked around the streets of the colony wearing men’s trousers.
Source: Long Before Stonewall by Thomas A. Foster
William Bullock was a 19th century American engineer, whose invention of the rotary printing press helped to revolutionise the printing industry. How did his own invention eventually lead to his demise however?
Answer: One day in April 1867, Bullock kicked one of his machines in frustration and his foot became caught in the machinery. The wound later developed gangrene and he died during an operation to amputate his leg.
Source: Epic Fail by Mark Leigh
When Winston Churchill invited New Zealand World War One war hero and Victoria Cross winner Sir Bernard Freyberg to Churchill’s country home Chartwell in the 1930s, what did he insist on Freyberg doing, much to the New Zealander’s embarrassment?
Answer: Strip, so that Churchill could count his thirty-three battle scars.
Source: The Caged Lion – Winston Spencer Churchill by William Manchester
The first automobile race in the United States was organised to be held in Chicago on Labor Day 1895. What went wrong, however?
Answer: Despite over eighty declared entrants, early automobile manufacturing was so precarious that not enough entrants had finished constructing their cars by the date of the race, and it had to be postponed until November 2, 1895. This race did not go much better – only two cars showed up.
Source: Auburn – The Classic City by John Martin Smith
Alexander Graham Bell revolutionised communication with his prototype telephone in 1876, but Bell’s favored greeting for answering a phone call never caught on. What was the greeting?
Answer: Bell favored the rather nautical term ‘ahoy hoy’. Unfortunately for Bell, this failed to secure broad appeal, and ‘hello’ became the standard salutation.
Source: Breverton’s Nautical Curiosities by Terry Breverton
On June 28, 1914, Bosnian Nationalist Nedeljko Čabrinović threw a bomb at Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in a failed assassination attempt. His plan, devised beforehand, had been to, having thrown the bomb, commit suicide and dramatically fall into a nearby river. How did the final aspect of the plan actually turn out?
Answer: The cyanide poison he took to kill himself was of poor quality. It did not kill him or even knock him out; it merely made him vomit. The river he promptly jumped into was too low in the summer heat to drown him or carry him away, and he fell onto the exposed sand. He was then, embarrassingly, captured by a shopkeeper and barber who had pursued him. The Archduke and his wife Sophie were shot and killed later that day by Gavrilo Princip of the Black Hand group.
Source: The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark; General Historical Texts
When the American guitar legend Jimi Hendrix moved into his new flat at 23 Brook Street in central London in 1969, he discovered another musical luminary had previously lived next door. Who was this?
Answer: The baroque composer George Frederic Handel, who lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until 1759. Hendrix marked the coincidence by promptly purchasing a series of Handel recordings.
Source: The Essential Jimi Hendrix by Rotimi Ogunjobi
Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1812 march on Russia was one of the most deadly campaigns of all time, with many fatalities not due to the fighting at all. How many French and allied soldiers perished in the campaign?
Answer: Some 400,000, with fewer than a quarter of them doing so in battle. Most died of disease, such as typhus and tuberculosis, or from starvation and severe cold. A similar number of Russian soldiers also perished.
Source: 1812 – Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski
The British Royal Navy’s dominance of the seas in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was truly remarkable. In the twenty two years between 1793 and 1815, the Royal Navy lost seven ships of the line and 17 frigates. How many did its enemies lose?
Answer: They lost 139 ships of the line and 229 frigates. This included nine three-decked first rates, the most prestigious naval vessels. The Royal Navy lost none of these.
Source: In the Hour of Victory by Sam Willis
The French tailor Franz Reichelt tragically plunged from the top of the Eiffel Tower to his death on 4 February 1914. How did this happen?
Answer: Reichelt was obsessed with developing a suit for aviators that would transform into a parachute. He secured permission from Parisian authorities to test the device using a dummy dropped from the top of the tower. On the day of the experiment, however, he changed his mind, and tested the invention himself, promptly falling to a gruesome death.
Source: Epic Fail by Mark Leigh
June 2013
The American national anthem, the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’, is famously set to the tune of what?
Answer: A British drinking song, known as ‘To Anacreon in Heaven.’ This came about as the writer of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’ Francis Scott Key, was detained on a British ship when he wrote it.
Source: Music in the Nineteenth Century by Richard Taruskin
When the Japanese successfully invaded Hong Kong in December 1941, did the Japanese military high command take up residence in the humblest shanty residence, or the most luxurious hotel on the island?
Answer: Sadly, like many a conqueror before them, they took up residence in the penthouse of the Peninsula Hotel, then the most luxurious and famous hotel in the colony.
Source: Hong Kong by Jan Morris; General Historical Texts
The British soldiers John Parr and George Ellison both died in the First World War. What is the remarkable story connecting them?
Answer: Sixteen year old Parr was the first British solider killed in the conflict, on August 21, 1914. While forty year old Ellison was the last British soldier to die in the war, on November 11, 1918, the day the fighting ended. They were killed within a few miles of each other near Mons, Belgium. In a remarkable coincidence, they are both buried facing one another in the same cemetery, Saint Symphorien, a mere seven yards apart.
Source: To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild
When King Richard I of England was captured by Duke Leopold of Austria in December, 1192 he was ransomed for an incredible amount. How much was this?
Answer: 34 tonnes of gold. At today’s gold price, this equates to around US$1.6 billion. The payment bankrupted his kingdom.
Source: History of Britain by Simon Schama
World War One British naval officer Wenman ‘Kit’ Wykeham- Musgrave has a unique place in British naval history. Why was this?
Answer: He was the only man to be sunk on three ships – Aboukir, Hogue, Cressy – which were torpedoed in the space of one hour off the Dutch coast. On September 22 1914, he was serving on the HMS Aboukir, which was sunk by the German U-Boat U-9. As a relative of his later described after his death: “He went overboard when the Aboukir was going down and he swam like mad to get away from the suction. He was then just getting on board the Hogue and she was torpedoed. He then swam to the Cressy and she was also torpedoed. He found a bit of driftwood, became unconscious and was eventually picked up by a Dutch trawler.”
Source: World War One by A J P Taylor; The First World War – A Complete History by Martin Gilbert; General Historical Texts
Which country has the oldest extant, or surviving, democracy in the world?
Answer: Iceland. Since 975 CE.
Source: The Vikings by Neil Oliver
Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini was an aggressive and boisterous politician, and these tendencies were common early on in his life. At the age of ten, he was expelled from his boarding school, for what reason?
Answer: Stabbing another student in the hand. Obviously he didn’t learn his lesson, and was therefore by definition a recidivist, as Mussolini was involved in another stabbing incident at his next school.
Source: Benito Mussolini – The First Fascist by Anthony Cardoza
In 1862, in the second year of American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln sacked War Secretary Simon P Cameron a Pennsylvania boss who, the president said, was so corrupt that the only thing he wouldn’t steal was … what?
Answer: ‘A red hot stove’.
Source: The Civil War by Ken Burns
In food matters what did German Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler have in common with his deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess?
Answer: Both were vegetarians. Hess brought his own vegetarian meal in a tin vessel to dinners in the Chancellor’s apartment. On discovering this, Hitler upbraided his number two in front of the dinner guests.
Source: Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a crucial naval battle between the United States and Japan which took place in October 1944. What factors make it especially distinctive however?
Answer: It was the first battle in which the Japanese carried out organised kamikaze attacks. These were planes, filled with explosives, flown into enemy ships as a suicide mission. The battle was also the largest naval battle in the Second World War, with some arguing it was probably the largest ever naval clash. The commanding officer of the Kamikaze squadron was Admiral Takijio Onishi. He wrote a Haiku – a traditional short Japanese poem – for the unit: ’In blossom today, then scattered. Life is so like a delicate flower. How can one expect the fragrance to last forever?’
Source: Sea of Thunder by Evan Thomas; General Historical Texts
What famous mid 19th century historical figure’s pants fell down while engaged in a duel?
Answer: Alexandre Dumas, the French novelist and playwright. Dueling in an abandoned quarry as a young man, his trousers fell down right before the contest, much to the amusement of those present. Luckily for Dumas it did not affect his concentration or aplomb, as he won the duel.
Source: The Memoirs of Alexandre Dumas (Père) by Alexandre Dumas
What American General was given the nickname ‘the Monster’?
Answer: General Jacob Hurd Smith. He was given the name after ordering an aggressive revenge attack on enemy Filipinos during the Philippine-American War between 1899 and 1902. His other nickname, ‘Hell Roaring Jake’, was not much more flattering.
Source: Benevolent Assimilation – The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903, by Stuart Creighton Miller
In an attempt to contain the threat of the Nazis and their paramilitary arm, the SA ‘brownshirts’, German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning banned uniforms in 1930. How did the Nazi’s get around this?
Answer: They merely traded their brownshirts for white shirts, worn extensively and harmlessly, by, among others, ordinary office and other metropolitan workers. In doing so, they continued to march and engage in provocative behaviour.
Source: The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans
The Gallic Wars, a military campaign by the Romans under Julius Caesar against the tribes of Gaul, took place between 58 and 51 BCE. The conflict was a brutal one. What was the damage inflicted on the Gauls?
Answer: According to the Greek historian Plutarch, over a million Gauls were killed and 800 towns destroyed, incredible losses considered the population of Gaul at this time.
Source: Rome – The Greatest Empire of the Ancient World by Nick McCarty
On 26 July 1944, during World War Two, a German Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter plane attacked a British de Havilland Mosquito, causing it considerable damage. What is significant about this clash?
Answer: It was the earliest successful combat outing for the Me 262, which was the first jet-powered fighter aircraft in aviation history. That the skirmish took place with the Mosquito was also a clash of eras, as the Mosquito was one of the few active aircraft which remained mostly made of wood.
Source: The Luftwaffe over Germany by Donald Caldwell and Richard Muller
What is the record attendance ever for a sporting match in an enclosed stadium (ie not a racing track)?
Answer: The 1950 soccer World Cup Final between Brazil and Uruguay at the Estadio Maracana, Rio de Janeiro. A colossal 199,854 people are recorded to have watched the game, and some estimate that the actual attendance was 205,000 when non-paying attendees are included.
Source: The World’s Game by Bill Murray
On June 30 1908, an incredible explosion took place in the Siberian region of the Russian Empire. The explosion is estimated to have been 1000 times more powerful than the Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. What was it?
Answer: The explosion of a meteoroid or comet fragment, estimated to have taken place about three to six miles above the Earth’s surface. The occurrence is widely known as the Tunguska event, and is considered the most powerful explosion in recorded human history.
Source: The Oxford Companion to Global Change by David Cuff
What were the ‘Chindits’?
Answer: They were specially trained jungle-fighters who fought in the Burma theatre of the Second World War, trained by the British General Orde Wingate. They were drawn from Ghurka, Burmese and British soldiers, supplied by air and dropped far behind enemy lines.
Source: Chindits by Tim Moreman
Emigration to the United States was a considerable feature of Irish life for generations. How did the British writer Evelyn Waugh once describe it?
Answer: Recounting a conversation he had with his Irish friend Cyril Connolly, Waugh noted that it appears that for an Irishmen there were only two final realities: Hell and the United States.
Source: Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 by R.F. Foster
What was the largest invasion in the history of warfare?
Answer: Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. It involved 3.2 million men and 3350 tanks. Within three weeks of the attack the Soviet Union had lost two million soldiers.
Source: Operation Barbarossa by Andre Mineau
What was the Cotswold Olympicks?
Answer: A seventeenth century sports tournament that took place near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England. Based loosely on the ancient Olympics, the bizarre range of sports including horse-racing, hunting, sledge-hammer throwing, fencing with sticks and shin-kicking. Women also had their own events, which included dancing and running.
Source: The Ancient Olympic Games by Judith Swaddling
While a university professor, famed 17th century English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton was a notoriously poor speaker. At his first lecture the audience was small, and at his second nobody came. What did Newton do?
Answer: He gave the lecture anyway. He would mostly continue to lecture to an empty room for the next seventeen years. Newton would be subsequently judged to be a genius. whose legacy lives on to the present time. No doubt more enlivening and charismatic lecturers had better attendances, but they are largely forgotten today.
Source: Remarkable Physicists by Ioan James
‘We may hope to dazzle with illumination, and we may sicken with addresses, but the public imagination will never rest, nor will her heart be well at ease – never! So long as the parliament of England exercises or claims a legislation over this country.’ Who said these famous words?
Answer: Henry Grattan, Irish nationalist, in 1780. He was protesting at the influence of Great Britain in the affairs of the Irish Parliament.
Source: Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 by R.F. Foster
Early in his military career, a young Julius Caesar was captured by Sicilian pirates, who demanded a ransom of 20 talents of silver for his return. What was Caesar’s response?
Answer: Caesar was offended at the ransom request, instructing his captors to demand 50 talents of silver at least, which they promptly did. Though the ransom was paid, the pirates did not have long to enjoy the money. After his release, Caesar, true to the ruthlessness that was to be his hallmark, returned, tracked down the pirates and killed them.
Source: Rome – The Greatest Empire of the Ancient World by Nick McCarty
What does ‘Hobo’, ‘Mush’, ‘Acey’ and ‘Cyclone’ refer to as regards World War Two?
Answer: The nicknames of allied military leaders from the Second World War. ‘Hobo’ was British Military Engineer Percey Hobart, ‘Cyclone’ was American Colonel Emmet S. Davis, while ‘Mush’ and ‘Acey’ refer to American Submarine Commanders Dudley Morton and Albert Burrows respectively.
Source: P-40 Warhawk Aces of the Pacific by Carl Molesworth; Silent victory: the U.S. submarine war against Japan by Clay Blair Jr.
The life of William Phips, a poorly educated colonial American with a background as a shepherd, carpenter and trader, was changed dramatically in 1687. What happened?
Answer: Having become a treasure hunter, Phips stumbled on a wrecked Spanish ship off the Bahamas Islands, from which he recovered £300,000. The value of this today would be conservatively £45 million. This gained him a knighthood and the appointment as provost-marshall of New England. Five years later, in 1692, he would become governor of Massachusetts.
Source: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Biography by David Crystal
Which member of the British royal family was mentioned in dispatches for his action during the famous World War One naval encounter the Battle of Jutland in 1916?
Answer: King George VI, whilst HRH the Prince Albert, serving as a midshipman on board HMS Collingwood, was mentioned in dispatches for his action as a turret officer.
Source: King George VI by Sarah Bradford
The phrase ‘Ten Thousand Miles from Tip to Tip’ was famously used in an American political cartoon published in 1898. What does the phrase refer to?
Answer: It referred to the extension of U.S. Imperialism, symbolised in the cartoon by a bald eagle, from Puerto Rico to the Philippines. These two territories had been conquered as part of the Spanish-American War of the same year, and vastly increased the territory under American auspices.
Source: Conquests & Consequences – The American West from Frontier to Region by Carol Higham and William Katerburg
Around 1850 in the US, opposition to the use of hanging began to grow. Newspaper reports began printing details of the victim’s suffering at the end of the rope. They described the prisoner’s body convulsing and twitching, legs twisting and kicking, throat gurgling, eyes bulging, face turning purple. What, however, was the press too delicate to note?
Answer: That most hanged men also urinated, defecated and ejaculated.
Source: Edison & The Electric Chair – A Story of Light and Death by Mark Essig
When Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated on March 15, 1917 he lost untold personal riches for he and his family – in a census he described his occupation as ‘owner of the Russian lands’ – and brought to an end a dynasty which had ruled Russia for over 300 years. The abdication was signed in the saloon car of the imperial train. What was unusual about the actual signing?
Answer: Nicholas signed the Instrument of Abdication in pencil.
Source: Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K Massie; General Historical Texts.
May 2013
In 16th century England, the Earl of Oxford, on making a bow to his sovereign Queen Elizabeth I, happened to, regrettably, audibly emit wind from his fundament. What was his response?
Answer: He was so embarrassed and ashamed that he left court and went into exile for seven years. On his return to England and to the Court, the Queen welcomed him home with the words, ‘My lord, we have forgot the fart.’
Source: The Cassell Dictionary of Anecdotes by Nigel Rees
What was distinctive about the name of the first wife of renowned English writer Evelyn Waugh, who wrote such books as Brideshead Revisited and who came from a long line of writers and distinguished literary figures.
Answer: Her name was Evelyn also.
Source: Evelyn Waugh – A Biography by Selina Hastings; General Historical Texts
To pay for his costly war against France, King Edward III of England borrowed enormous sums of money from Florentine bankers, especially the Peruzzi family. When the money ran out in 1342, what did Edward do?
Answer: He renounced or repudiated the loan. As a result the Peruzzi were bankrupted, which created economic chaos in Florence.
Source: History Year by Year by Dorling Kindersley
The foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, with Mao Zedong at its head, was greeted with mixed emotions by Soviet Russia. Josef Stalin was eager to preserve his place as the leader of world Communism. When Mao came to Moscow in December 1949, he was made to wait six days for an appointment in the Kremlin. Well aware that he was being insulted, Mao yelled at his Soviet minder … what?
Answer: ‘Don’t you know, I’ve come to do more than eat and s**t’ (emit waste solids from the body through evacuation)
Source: Russia – The Wild East – A History by Martin Sixsmith
In 1872, prominent American figure Susan B. Anthony was arrested. What for?
Answer: Voting. As it was illegal for women to vote, she was arrested and fined $1000 (as much as $18,000 by modern standards) for demanding to be allowed to vote at a Rochester, New York, voter registration office set up in a barbershop. Women would have to wait another 48 years, until 1920, before they would have the right to vote in the United States.
Source: Trials of the Century by Scott P. Johnson
In nineteenth century French Canada, a shortage of currency led to what being used as a form of currency?
Answer: Playing cards. Issued first by a French general to pay his troops, the cards were cut into four and signed by an Intendent.
Source: The Cambridge History of the British Empire: Volume IV by Henry Dodwell
How long was, in fact, the Hundred Years War between Britain and France?
Answer: 116 Years long, between 1336 and 1453. The term ‘Hundred Years War’ was invented in the mid nineteenth century to describe this conflict between the two countries in the late mediaeval period.
Source: The Hundred Years’ War by Anne Curry
The Rev. John Wallis acted as royal chaplain to 17th century monarch King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. He also carried out another, more unusual role however. What was this?
Answer: As the chief royal code breaker. He used his background as a mathematician to decipher enemy codes, a role he had also performed for the parliamentarians in the English Civil War.
Source: Secret Service by Christopher Andrew
Who was William Patrick Hitler?
Answer: The nephew of Adolf Hitler. Born to Adolf’s half-brother, he grew up in England, living in Germany briefly before immigrating to the United States. While in America, the Second World War broke out and, remarkably, William joined the U.S. Navy in 1944.
Source: Adolf Hitler by John Toland
What was the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years War?
Answer: A state of war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly, located off the southwest coast of Britain. With origins in the English Civil War, the two sides had technically been at war since 1651. When this became known, a peace treaty was signed in 1986. It is one of the longest wars in history and, with zero fatalities, one of the least costly.
Source: Encyclopedia of Days by Steven Carol
Fletcher Christian was the leader of the famed mutiny on HMS Bounty, eventually settling on the remote Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Here he had a son, for whom he wanted to have a name that had ‘nothing to do with England’. What was the son called?
Answer: Thursday October Christian, named after the day and month of his birth. Thursday must have liked his name, as he christened his own son Thursday October Christian II.
Source: The Mutineers of the Bounty by Diana Belcher
When conspirators sought to eliminate the Roman Emperor Commodus in 192 CE by poisoning him, what went wrong?
Answer: The poison did not work. While Commodus was vomiting violently, the poison was being resisted, either because his excessive eating had negated its effect, or because he had beforehand taken an antidote to poison. Worried that Commodus would likely recover, the conspirators convinced a powerful young nobleman, Narcissus, to strangle the emperor and finish him off.
Source: History of the Roman Empire by Edward Herodian
The term ‘New Australia’ refers to a settlement that existed where in the world?
Answer: Paraguay. ‘New Australia’ was a utopian settlement planned by figures of the Australian labor movement. It was founded in southern Paraguay in the 1890s, though it only lasted a few years.
Source: The Australian People by James Jupp
What was significant about the Wentworth family of colonial New Hampshire in America?
Answer: Since the 1630s, they virtually controlled the entire colony throughout its formative year and far beyond. They wielded power through the role of Governor and all other major posts. They entered into commerce, land speculation and forestry (which they monopolised). They assiduously saw off opposition from other families and, by denying representation to most agricultural towns, established an almost monarchal regime in New Hampshire.
Source: Political Parties before the Constitution by Jackson Turner Main
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper that existed between 1841 and 1966. Between 1852 and 1861, the newspaper had a rather distinguished European Correspondent. Who was this?
Answer: Karl Marx, the philosopher and revolutionary socialist. His longtime collaborator Friedrich Engels also wrote for the paper.
Source: The Cambridge Companion to Marx by Terrell Carver
What was unique about King George I of Great Britain?
Answer: He was German, and largely unfamiliar with British life. Acceding to the British throne aged 54, he could only speak basic English and spent around a fifth of his time as King in his native Germany.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by G.C. Gibbs
In Ancient Egypt, cats were considered sacred. According to the Greek Historian Herodotus, what did Egyptian’s do when a cat died of natural causes?
Answer: The household of the cat would shave off their eyebrows, remaining in mourning until they had grown back. Like prominent humans, cats would also often be mummified.
Source: Ancient Egypt’s Myths and Beliefs by Fergus Fleming
What unusual ingredient did the Romans use in making their textile materials and cloth fibres?
Answer: Asbestos, a highly dangerous mineral. This would be used in towels, napkins and table cloths. It is now known today exposure to asbestos can lead to lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Source: The Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley and Roy Adkins
What were the Knights of the Golden Fleece, the Purple Society, Porcuses, Columbarians and the Brothers of the Wacut?
Answer: British societies in 1748. The Georgian era saw an explosion of private clubs and groups, most based on common hobbies or political beliefs. The reasons for the establishment of these particular five clubs however, remain largely a mystery.
Source: British Clubs and Societies 1580-1800 by Peter Clark
The late years of China’s Yuan Dynasty, from the early 1340s to 1368, are considered one of the most disastrous in human history. Why is this?
Answer: Dominated by conflict and famine, millions perished. Fatalities are estimated as high as thirty million, an incredible 5.6% of the population of the world at that time.
Source: The Dictionary of World History by Nelson; General Historical Texts.
The early twentieth century witnessed two giant catastrophes, the First World War, between 1914-1918, and the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918-19. Which one led to more fatalities?
Answer: The Spanish Flu epidemic. Estimates of fatalities range from 25 to 39 million, at least twice more than those killed in the First World War. It is regarded as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history.
Source: The Origins of World War 1 by Richard Hamilton and Holger Herwig
In Britain and other commonwealth countries, a ‘thug’ is the name given to a violent person. What are the origins of this term?
Answer: It originated from the cult of assassins in India, the ‘Thuggee’. The term became popularly used after its slow dissemination via returning soldiers from British India.
Source: Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis: Military Origins by Graeme Donald
The California Gold Rush changed the history of California forever, as thousands came to seek their fortune. In 1848 the population of California was 14,000. How much was it a mere twelve years later in 1860?
Answer: 380,000
Source: The Gold Rush by Frank Lewis
The French Revolution saw an end of the monarchy of France, fundamentally challenging assumptions about kingship. Before 1792 however, the French monarchy had been remarkably stable. How many Kings had there been in the previous 150 years?
Answer: A mere three. Louis XIV (1643-1715), Louis XV (1715-1774) and Louis XVI (1774-1792). By contrast, there had been seven Spanish monarchs in the same period.
Source: Revolutionary France by Francois Furet
History’s rulers have often engaged in surreptitious acts to gain power. Emperor Wen-Ti, the first emperor of China’s Sui Dynasty, acted particularly ruthlessly. How did he seize the throne?
Answer: He slaughtered the then current King Emperor and 59 princes to seize power. What goes around eventually comes around however. In 604, he was murdered by his son and successor, Yang Guang.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
What famous 19th century politician, on being accused of being two faced, replied by stating ‘I leave it to my audience, if I had another face to wear, do you think I would wear this one?’
Answer: Abraham Lincoln. The accusation had been made at an 1860 presidential debate with Stephen Douglas.
Source: Lincoln’s Enduring Legacy by Robert P. Watson
Today’s Tunisian Embassy in Moscow, with its attractive walled garden, was once owned by Lavrenti Beria, appointed the head in 1938 of Joseph Stalin’s infamous and feared secret police, the NKVD. When the Tunisian Embassy dug up the garden to mend some water pipes, what did they find?
Answer: The bodies of several young girls. Beria had spent his nights having teenagers abducted from the streets and brought to his villa where they were tortured or raped. If they resisted they were strangled and buried in his wife’s rose garden.
Source: Russia – The Wild East – A History by Martin Sixsmith
On May 10, 1849, troops opened fire on a rioting crowd in New York City, killing 22 and injuring 56. What was the unusual reason why the crowd rioted?
Answer: The crowd had gathered outside the Astor Place Opera House to condemn visiting British actor Charles Macready, who had openly scorned the vulgarity of American and American life.
Source: On This Day – The History of the World in 366 Days by Hamlyn
Project A119 was a top secret research plan formulated by the US Air Force in 1958, details of which only emerged in 2000. What was its goal?
Answer: To fire and detonate a nuclear weapon on the moon. Also entitled ‘a Study of Lunar Research Flights’, it was developed to be visible from earth, in order to boost American morale at a time when the Soviet Union was leading the space race.
Source: Lunar Exploration by Chaochen Zhou
When King Ethelbert of Kent in Britain received the first group of Christian priests who brought him greetings from the Pope in 597 AD, the king insisted that the meeting take place in a particular location. What was this?
Answer: He insisted on meeting the priests in the open air, so the wind would blow away any spells that they might cast upon him with their alien magic.
Source: The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger
In what bizarre fashion did the Spanish King, Martin of Aragon, die in 1410?
Answer: His life came to an end from a combination of uncontrolled laughing, the result of a particularly droll witticism from his favorite court jester Borra, and indigestion, through eating an entire goose.
Source: Dreadful Fates by Tracey Turner; General Historical Texts
In the second century, how did Chinese political leaders attempt to find signs of bad government?
Answer: By detecting earthquakes. The gods responded to bad government by causing earthquakes, and hence Zhang Heng, the court astrologer, developed a device to detect them. His houfeng didong yi was the world’s first seismometer.
Source: Earth Science by Michael Allaby
April 2013
During the 1920s and early 1930s, what left wing group, the only popular group of its kind in Europe, was hugely influential in Spain?
Answer: Anarchists, known officially as the National Confederation of Labor. The organisation had as many as 700,000 members, and played a key role in the opposition to the forces of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
Source: The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas
Why is the Battle of Ravenna between Spain and France in 1512 considered a turning point in the history of warfare?
Answer: It was one of the first battles to involve the open-field exchange of artillery fire. The battle was one of the most violent yet seen, and the devastating effect of gunfire on pike men resulted in the beginning of the end for the pike in warfare.
Source: Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare by Geoffrey Parker
In what bizarre way did the famed Greek playwright Aeschylus die in 456 BCE?
Answer: While on a visit to Sicily, an eagle with a turtle clutched in its talons was flying above Aeschylus while he was walking. Thinking it had found a stone when he saw Aeschylus’ bald head, the eagle dropped the turtle, hoping it would break open. Instead, the shell cracked Aeschylus’ skull and killed him.
Source: Ancient Greece by Rosalie F. Baker and Charles F. Baker III
In 1859, the first regulations for baseball bats were introduced in America. While pioneering, these regulations were incredibly vague by modern standards. Why was this?
Answer: While they stipulated that the wooden bat could not be bigger than 2.5” in width, the bats could still be any length and shape that the player desired. It would not be until later years that clear regulations on all aspects of the bat would be put it force.
Source: Baseball Before We Knew It by David Block
What did Ancient Egyptians consider at one time to be more valuable than gold?
Answer: Iron. Ancient Egyptians called the metal ‘black gold from heaven’, and iron daggers were among the valuables buried with Pharaoh Tutankhamen when he died.
Source: The Mental Floss History of the World by Erik Sass and Steve Wiegand
During the nineteenth century, thousands of Chinese emigrated to the western part of the United States. Immigration restrictions on women, however, lead to a wholly unbalanced masculine society. In 1880, more than 100,000 Chinese men lived in the Western United States. How many women did?
Answer: A mere 3,000.
Source: The Cambridge History of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey
When Portuguese traders first reached India, it produced a colossal trade boom. What was the reported profit margin for Vasco de Gama after his visit in 1498?
Answer: 6000%. The Portuguese were particularly captivated by black pepper, which would form 95% of cargo from India to Portugal over the next two decades.
Source: The Mental Floss History of the World by Erik Sass and Steve Wiegand
What was the pioneering Magellan voyage?
Answer: A naval expedition under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It completed the first circumnavigation of the world. Magellan himself however did not survive the journey, being killed by indigenous natives in the Philippines.
Source: The Routledge Companion to Early Modern Europe by Chris Cook and Philip Broadhead
The tale of the mythical creature the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ is a common one in Scottish folklore. Sightings of the ‘monster’ are older than Scotland itself however. When was the first reported sighting of the creature?
Answer: In the sixth century AD, by Irish missionary and monk Saint Columba.
Source: Strongholds of the Picts by Angus Konstam
In the year 1650, which was the most urbanised country in Europe?
Answer: The Netherlands, where 32% of the population lived in cities. The smallest was Poland, with only 0.7%. In England, 9% of the population lived in citiies and in Germany 4%.
Source: The Routledge Companion to Early Modern Europe by Chris Cook and Philip Broadhead
On the morning of the famous Battle of Bosworth in 1485, English King Richard III emerged from his tent early and happened upon a sentry who was sleeping on duty. What happened to him?
Answer: Richard is reputed to have stabbed the man as he slept, remarking ‘I found him asleep, and have left him as I found him.’
Source: The British at War by Jonathan Bastable
‘There was a layer of seventeenth century, a layer of eighteenth century, a layer of nineteenth century, and possibly even a layer of twentieth century. You were never sure which layer would be uppermost.’ British politician Clement Attlee spoke these words, but who was he referring too?
Answer: Winston Churchill, whose deputy he was during the Second World War.
Source: Wit and Wisdom by Colin Bingham
According to folk medicine used in the Middle Ages, how could a headache be cured?
Answer: By the deployment of cabbage. Cabbage leaves were either applied to the forehead or placed damp on the top of the head.
Source: Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine by Gabrielle Hatfield
King Henry VIII of England kept as pets canaries, nightingales and ferrets, but his favourite pets were dogs. Two of his dogs ‘Cut’ and ‘Bone’ were prone to getting lost. Henry paid some 225 pounds sterling, in today’s currency, in rewards to those who brought them back. What unusual discovery was found in Henry’s closets after his death?
Answer: Sixty five dog leashes.
Source: Henry VIII – King and Court by Alison Weir
The rules of the sport of football, or soccer, are often considered to have been developed in Britain in the nineteenth century. What was likely the earliest example of such a sport, however?
Answer: A Chinese game called tsu chu (roughly equating to ‘kick ball’) which was played in China at least from around 2000 BCE. The ball was made from animal hair, and the goal was a net measuring 30-40 cm in diameter, strung nine metres up between two bamboo poles.
Source: Football by Anton Rippon
In the Middle Ages, beer was the drink of choice over water for more than just its taste and the enjoyment, which was its concomitant. Why was this?
Answer: Beer was a far more hygienic drink, due to the lack of technology for purifying drinking water. The fermentation process rendered beer safer to drink by producing alcohol which killed much if not all harmful bacteria.
Source: Daily Life in the Middle Ages by Paul Newman
Edward Blyth was a druggist in nineteenth century London, who also maintained a hobby of zoology. What unintended consequences did this hobby have?
Answer: He became so interested in zoology that he completely neglected his day job, and his drug business failed. Luckily for him he later turned this interest into a career at the Museum of the Asiatic Society in Bengal, and became one of the most famous British naturalists of the Victorian era.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
The Ancient Olympic Games were hugely popular events, attracting prominent figures from the society of the Greek city states. What noted figure is reputed to have disrupted one game however?
Answer: The philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. He is said to have ran into the centre of the arena and bared his right thigh, which, he bizarrely claimed, was made of gold.
Source: The Olympics by Stephen Halliday
Robert Barclay-Allardice, known as Captain Barclay, was a renowned nineteenth century Scottish solider and sportsman. What athletic feat made him most famous?
Answer: He walked 1000 miles in 1000 consecutive hours. This incredible feat was performed at Newmarket in June and July of 1809.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
The most famous and brutal of Viking warriors were ‘Berserkers’. (From them, we get the word ‘berserk’ today.) They were known to fight in a fierce frenzy, believing that they could not be wounded. What do some historians feel is the secret to their battlefield ferocity and brutality?
Answer: Mushrooms, in particular one called ‘fly agaric’. Berserkers felt it gave them magical powers. As an hallucinative drug, it most likely fuelled their rage and aggression.
Source: The Crafts and Culture of the Vikings by Joann Jovinelly and Jason Netelkos
What was reportedly unusual about Vladimir Lenin’s accent when he spoke English?
Answer: He spoke it in an Irish accent. When attempting to master the language while residing in London, Lenin found the resident Irishmen there easier to understand than Londoners. As a result, it has been suggested that he spoke in the accent when he himself spoke English.
Source: Lenin – A Biography by Robert Service
The nineteenth century American politician James Shields famously challenged who to a duel?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln. Offended by articles attacking him in a local newspaper, Shields challenged Lincoln in 1842. The pair agreed to duel on an island in the Mississippi River, and Lincoln selected cavalry broadswords of the largest size as the weapons. Fortunately, however, the two reconciled shortly before the duel was due to take place.
Source: A. Lincoln, Esquire by Allen D. Spiegel
In 1900 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, was a speaker at a British Empire League banquet where Hiram Maxim, famed and wealthy inventor of the Maxim machine gun, which was revolutionising warfare, was the guest of honour. Lord Salisbury surprised the guest of honour with a remarkable statement. What was this?
Answer: ‘I consider Mr Maxim to be one of the greatest benefactors the world has ever known. (By his invention of the machine gun) He has prevented more men from dying of old age than any other man that ever lived’
Source: The Gun – The Story of the AK-47 by C J Chivers
In his fantasy entitled, The Year 2000, written in 1897, Frenchman Marcellin Berthelot, the pioneer of chemical synthesis, made some interesting prophesies about the future. What were these?
Answer: Among other things, he forecast that chemistry would by then make agriculture and mining unnecessary; food would be eaten in the form of small synthetic pills; industry would be powered by inexhaustible energy from the sun and from the heat of the earth; man would be become gentler and more moral because he would cease to feed himself by carnage and the destruction of living creatures.
Source: France 1848-1945 – Taste and Corruption by Theodore Zeldin
Which American Revolutionary figure has been posthumously inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame, the World Kite Museum Hall of Fame and the Geek Hall of Fame?
Answer: Benjamin Franklin, who, among his many other accomplishments, is considered by each of these groups to be a pioneer in their respective fields.
Source: A Companion to Benjamin Franklin by David Waldstreicher
What countries supported the United States in the Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975?
Answer: There were nine. South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Kingdom of Laos and Khmer Republic. Over 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War, at a time when the United States’ population was around 190 million. By comparison, some 620,000 Americans died in the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. At the time the war broke out in 1861, the United States’ population was 31 million.
Source: The Vietnam War by Bernard Nulty; The Civil War by Shelby Foote; General Historical Texts.
What was the 18th Century ‘King Across the Water’ toast?
Answer: This was the Jacobite toast to the exiled Catholic Stuart line. When drinking the loyal toast Jacobites would pass their drink over a glass of water, signifying their true allegiance.
Source: Dictionary of World History edited by G M D Howatt
The city of Cahokia was the preeminent metropolis in its region in the year 1200, equal to the size of any European city at the time and the centre of a wide area of political, social and economic influence. Where was it, however?
Answer: Missouri, in the United States. It was near the modern site of St. Louis and a key centre of Native American culture.
Source: Cahokia – Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World by Timothy R. Pauketat
By the middle of the 19th century, with the improvement of infantry rifles, hand to hand combat in war had become far less prevalent. Of the 65,000 German casualties listed in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, how man died from sword wounds.
Answer: Six
Source: The Gun – The Story of the AK-47 by C J Chivers
Sixteenth Century Austrian Hans Steininger was famous for his remarkable beard, which was, no less than, 1.4 metres (4.5 feet) long. How did his beard contribute to his tragic end however?
Answer: In 1567, while escaping a large fire in his town, he tripped on his beard, broke his neck and died.
Source: Dreadful Fates by Tracey Turner
March 2013
‘In a world of voluble hates, he plotted to make men like, or at least tolerate, one another.’ Who is the famous Englishman historian G.M. Trevelyan is referring to in this line?
Answer: Stanley Baldwin, British Prime Minister in the 1930s. Baldwin was renowned for his jovial and optimistic personality, often amist incredible travails and difficulties.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by Lawrence Goldman
In the Middle Ages, the Portuguese Empire was unsurpassed in its global exploration. Key to this success was the feitoria. What was this?
Answer: A ‘factory’. This was a fortified trading post established by the Portuguese in areas of importance, such as at Arguin on the African cost. Its brilliance was that the feitoria allowed the Portuguese to establish their presence over large stretches of the globe without the necessity for costly and dangerous adventures amongst indigenous peoples or over unnecessarily vast expanses of land.
Source: The Cambridge History of Latin America by Leslie Bethell
Draco was an Athenian law-giver in the Seventh Century BCE, who revised the laws of Athens with admirable impartiality. The law code he developed, however, was rarely enforced and eventually replaced. Why was this?
Answer: Despite Draco’s impartiality, the law code was incredibly severe, promoting the death penalty for virtually every offense. Unsurprisingly, it proved unpopular with the great majority of those in Athens. The laws have brought about the word Draconian.
Source: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia by David Crystal
Until 1976, what were London taxis required by law to have in their cab at all times?
Answer: A bale of hay. Harking back to the era of horse drawn-carriages, the London Hackney Carriage Act 1831 stipulated that such a bale was to be kept in the boot to feed the horses. The clause was only removed 145 years later.
Source: The Strange Laws of Old England by Nigel Cawthorne
The queen-consort of the Franks, Bertha of Holland, was married to Philip I of France. In 1092 he left her however. Why was this?
Answer: He complained that Bertha was ‘too fat’, despite the fact that Phillip himself was too heavy even to ride a horse.
Source: The New Cambridge Medieval History: Vol IV by David Luscombe et. al.
How did a hippopotamus became a national celebrity in South Africa in the 1920s?
Answer: The hippo, named Huberta, mysteriously wandered from Zululand to the Eastern Cape, a distance of over 1000 miles. The journey made her a household name, with crowds of hundreds regularly flocking to follow her on the trip. Only after her death in 1921 was it discovered that the hippo, until then known as “Hubert”, was, in a fact, a she.
Source: A Century of Sundays by Nadine Dreyer
In March 1921, U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer made know his opinion that what unlikely substance was, in fact, a medicine?
Answer: Beer. After prohibition became law in the United States in 1920, many were seeking to undermine prohibition by making beer legal for medical purposes. Unfortunately for American drinkers, this attempt failed, and prohibition lasted until 1933.
Source: A Century of Sundays by Nadine Dreyer
Under the authority of the Assize of Clarendon in 1166, Henry II of England engaged in a widespread and comprehensive drive to rid England of crime. How did he go about doing this?
Answer: He required that for every 104 men in the kingdom, a jury of twelve should be assembled to supply the names for trial of anyone who, within the last twelve years, had been accused or even suspected of robbery, theft, murder or harboring fugitives. Those convicted would lose a leg and a hand.
Source: England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225
Tea is often seen as quintessentially English, but was in fact popularised in England by a foreigner. Who was this?
Answer: The Portuguese princess Catheron of Braganza, who became the wife of Charles II in 1662. She brought a casket of tea and the islands of Bombay as part of her dowry.
Source: Hybrid Cultures by Ulrike Lindner
Of all the ancient civilizations, which was considered to have the most equality between men and women?
Answer: Ancient Egypt. As social status was overwhelmingly defined by rank not gender, women were highly respected. They enjoyed many legal rights, including participation in business practices and the owning of land, and could also work in many professional occupations.
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
At around 800 BCE, there were, incredibly, over 1000 different states on the Chinese mainland. How many were there by 480 BCE?
Answer: Fourteen. Between 480 and 222 BCE, bitter conflict took place such that only one state, the Qin, remained.
Source: A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard
The Battle of Agincourt, on October 25, 1415, was a momentous medieval victory for English forces against France. What factor however, likely meant the French soldiers were tired and depleted before they even faced the English?
Answer: The French armour. It was incredibly heavy, just the helmet and cuirass, or breastplate, of one French knight weighed 40 Kg (90 Pounds). Many soldiers likely died of heat stroke, fell into ditches – most could not get up without assistance – and suffocated before the battle had even begun.
Source: The Middle Ages by Morris Bishop
In the medieval Mughal Empire in India, transitions of power from one emperor to the next were often tumultuous affairs. When Emperor Akbar was on his death bed in 1605, what threatened the accession of his son, Prince Salim, to the throne?
Answer: Prince Salim’s own son, seventeen year old Man Singh, who made a failed grab for power himself. Despite attempting to steal his father’s throne, Man Singh did not lose favor with Salim, later being installed as governor of Bengal.
Source: The Mughal Empire by John F. Richards
The Battle of Solferino in 1859 saw the victory of French and Piedmontese armies over a large Austrian force, opening the way for Italian unification. The battle is also unusual in another way, what was it?
Answer: It was the last major battle in European history where the armies involved were under the command of their monarchs. The French Army was under the command of Napoleon III, Piedmontese under Victor-Emmanuel and Austria under Emperor Franz Josef.
Source: The Middle Sea by John Julius Norwich
The civilization of Ancient Egypt was considered one of the most advanced of its time, but in life expectancy it still lagged far behind the modern era. What was the lifespan of the average Ancient Egyptian citizen?
Answer: 35 years
Source: The Spirit of Ancient Egypt by Ana Ruiz
The Italian scholar Petrach is often considered a leading figure in Italian Renaissance humanism. He is also credited as a pioneer in a quite unrelated field however. What is this?
Mountain climbing. His decision in April 1336 to climb Mont Ventoux in southern France is considered one of the first examples of mountain climbing merely for the purposes of personal enjoyment.
Source: Heights of Reflection by Sean Moore Ireton
In the British Parliament in 1871, Conservative statesman Benjamin Disraeli described an occurrence which he felt was ‘a greater political event than the French Revolution’, and how as a result the balance of power has been entirely destroyed, and the country which suffers more and feels the effects of this change most is England.’ To what event is he referring?
Answer: The conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, which unified Germany and brought about the German Empire. Disraeli’s comments are often cited as a far-sighted prediction of the future conflicts with Germany during both World War One and Two.
Source: The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark
The Town Police Clauses Act, enacted by the British Parliament in 1847, forbids a range of relatively harmless acts in public areas. What did these include?
Answer: Hanging out washing, cleaning carpets and even flying kites. Remarkably, the law itself still stands, though fortunately is rarely enforced.
Source: The Strange Laws of Old England by Nigel Cawthorne
In 1721, pirates John Taylor and Oliver la Buse captured the Portuguese carrack Nostra Senhore de Cabo, in one of the biggest pirate hauls ever. How much was seized?
Answer: Diamonds and gold to the value of $400 million. Such was the extent of the haul that every member of crew received $500,000 of gold and at least forty diamonds.
Source: The Healing Trail by Georges M. Halpern
Roman Emperor Heliogabalus, who reigned for only four years from 218, was seized at the age of 18 by his Praetorian Guard, decapitated and thrown into the Tiber River. Why was this?
Answer: His brief reign was characterised by sexual scandals and religious controversies – he managed to have five wives in his short life. English Historian Edward Gibbon said that he ‘abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures and ungoverned fury’ while another, B G Niebuhr, said that Heliogabalus led an ‘unspeakably disgusting life’.
Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon; General Historical Texts
In Hitler’s Third Reich, there was approximately one Gestapo, or secret police, for every 2000 citizens. In East Germany, after the end of World War Two, how many Stasi secret police officers or informants were there?
Answer: One Stasi officer or informant for every 63 citizens.
Source: Stasiland by Anna Funder
How many languages did famed 19th century English explorer Richard Burton speak?
Answer: Twenty Nine.
Source: Special Broadcasting Service, February 2013
Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup was a 19th century product advertised to help sooth crying children and put them to sleep. Its main ingredient, however, was an incredibly dangerous substance. What was this?
Answer: Morphine. The drug is now known for its side effects of extreme addiction and sometimes death.
Source: Nasty Medical Practices by Kelly Regan Barnhill
The Black Plague was a lethal killer in 14th century Europe. What unusual way did people try and save themselves from the disease?
Answer: By covering themselves in a thick layer of sweat, grime and dirt. Common medical thinking at the time was that diseases were vapors which entered through the skin. Thus, covering yourself in this way was meant to act as a prophylactic.
Source: Nasty Medical Practices by Kelly Regan Barnhill
Contemporary American life often appears to be dominated by its cities. In the first years of its existence in the last quarter of the 18th century, however, the United States was overwhelmingly rural. How many American cities had a population of 50,000 or more?
Answer: None. There were only towns with a population over 5,000, and twelve with populations over 2,500. London, by contrast, had a population of 1 million at this time.
Source: The Cambridge Economic History of Europe VI by H.J. Habakkuk et al
The deaths resulting from the First World War were horrific, with nations suffering thousands of fatalities from the battlefield, disease and other causes. Which of the belligerents had the most fatalities as a percentage of their population?
Answer: Serbia. 16.11% of their population died as a result of the war. This contrasts with Germany at 3.82%, France at 4.29% and Britain at 2.19% of their populations.
Source: Researching World War 1 by Robin Higham and Dennis E. Showalter
Which American figure of the past 150 years was the husband of an Irish painter, a society hostess for British politicians, was portrayed uniquely, and also likely had affairs with leading Irish Politicians Michael Collins and Kevin O’Higgins?
Answer: Hazel Lavery, later Lady Lavery. To cap off quite a remarkable and event-filled life, her image also graced Irish banknotes for much of the twentieth century.
Source: Fatal Influence- The Impact of Ireland on British Politics by Kevin Matthews
What dramatic event took place in Lisbon, Portugal on All-Saints Day, 1755?
Answer: The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. It was one of the most devastating natural disasters ever to hit a city in the Western world. The coast was engulfed by a tsunami, while in other parts of the city fires raged for six days. 60,000 people died in the ensuing destruction and 85 per cent of Lisbon’s buildings, including countless famous structures, were destroyed.
Source: Wrath of God by Edward Paice
When delegates met at the convention to draft the U.S. Constitution in 1787, what kept distracting them as they worked assiduously drafting the iconic document?
Answer: The sounds of carriages and carts traveling over the cobblestone streets outside the Pennsylvania State House. Officials were instructed to spread dirt on the streets to reduce the noise.
Source: A More Perfect Union by Roger A. Bruns
Historically, the Royal families of Europe were renowned for marrying those with whom they were related. When the future George V of Great Britain desired to marry his first cousin, Princes Marie of Edinburgh, this was forbidden due to their being related, who did he end up marrying?
Answer: He instead married Princes May of Teck. She was considered more suitable, being merely George’s second cousin once removed.
Source: An Unusual Journey Through Royal History by Victoria Martinez
During the height of the Russian Civil War, Bolshevik leaders like Vladimir Lenin increasingly called for communist society to inflict ‘terror’ on the capitalist opposition. What unique effect did this phrasing have?
Answer: The phrase so caught the imaginations of many that some parents even called the children terka, a diminutive of terror.
Source: Stalinist Confessions by Igal Halfin
February 2013
On October 16th 1939, the German Luftwaffe raided the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh, Scotland, damaging several naval ships and buildings. How did one group of civilians have an uncomfortably close view of the action?
Answer: A train full of travelers was mistakenly given the all clear to cross the forth rail bridge in the middle of the battle. Miraculously the strategically important bridge was not attacked, with one possible reason being that German pilots saw the civilian train crossing the bridge and held back an attack.
Source: Impaled upon the Thistle by Ewen Cameron
In 1790, a commission of twenty-eight scientists appointed by the French Academy created something which quickly gave France a huge advantage over its international rivals. What was this?
Answer: The metric system of weights and measures. French scientists quickly adopted the new standards, which allowed quicker and more efficient progress to be made in the scientific, commercial and engineering fields.
Source: Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Eighteenth Century by Jonathan Shectman
In 1861, Wilmer McLean was a wholesale grocer from Virginia who was too old to fight in the American Civil War. The ensuing war affected him in a quite extraordinary way however. How was this?
Answer: The first and last major acts of the war took place in the grounds of his home. The first major battle of the war, the First Battle of Bull Run, took place around his property near Manassas, Virginia. To flee the fighting, he moved south to Appomattox Court House, Virginia. It was here in 1865 where Robert E. Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war. McLean is supposed to have remarked that ‘the war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.’
Source: The Civil War Battlefields by David J. Eicher
What are the origins of the term ‘shady’. As in, ‘he was a shady character’?
Answer: It is likely that its genesis was in Ancient Rome where it was believed that people of quality spent their time in the sun. Life in the shade was an easier, less exposed life. It was viewed as a second best life. The active politician, the soldier and administrator lived in the sun and the dust. Virtue, as an entity, was seen as being, among other things, dusty and sunburnt.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon
In 207 BCE, the army of Liu Bang overthrew the Chinese Emperor and founded the Han Dynasty. What was unusual about Liu however?
Answer: He was one of the few Chinese leaders of the ancient period to have come from the peasant class.
Source: Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations by Charles Higham
Pythagoreanism was a system of beliefs held by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras and his followers. It included a range of mystical beliefs shaped by mathematics. One of its creeds was particularly bizarre however. What was this?
Answer: Followers were prohibited from eating or even touching beans. Remarkably, adherents often claimed they would rather die than walk in a bean field.
Source: Pythagoras – His Life, Teaching, and Influence by Christoph Riedweg and Steven Rendall
Historically, violence has originated overwhelmingly more from men than women. Excluding war, what percentage of murders since the thirteenth century have been committed by men?
Answer: 90%. Within this group, most have come from men between the ages of 20 and 30 years.
Source: A History of Violence by Robert Muchembled
China has provided the world with a variety of remarkable discoveries. Which more humble invention however, was produced in the 14th century and first used regularly by the Chinese Emperor himself?
Answer: Toilet paper. Chinese emperors traditionally ordered it in two by three foot sheets.
Source: Plumbing, Electricity, Acoustics by Norbert M. Lechner
The island of Phuket, Thailand, was historically known by European travelers and traders as ‘Junk Ceylon’. Why was this?
Answer: The term was a European version of the Malay name for the island, Ujung Salang. The island was ironically far from full of junk, it was of such interest to Europeans as it was a rich source of tin.
Source: Southeast Asia by Keat Gin Ooi
Apart from being there to pay homage to the King, what was the principal reason why King Louis XIV of France wanted to have his court, and by definition the senior members of the French aristocracy, with him at the elaborate Palace of Versailles, located 20 kilometres from Paris?
Answer: If they were at Versailles devoting themselves to minor intrigues and squabbling as to who had the most influence at court, such as who handed the King his shirt when he dressed in the morning, they could not be in the provinces of France potentially plotting insurrection against the crown or fomenting civil war.
Source: A History Of Modern France by Alfred Cobban
‘Greek Fire’ was a devastating and dreaded weapon of the medieval Byzantine Empire. What made it so deadly?
Answer: It was a petroleum-based weapon. Set on fire when projected, it would stick to the enemy easily and could not be extinguished by water alone. Such was its value that the technique of its construction and use were strict state secrets. It was not unusual in concept to modern day napalm, which caused such horrific injuries in the Vietnam War.
Source: The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire by Jonathan Shepard
Which medieval organisation, originating as a hospice for pilgrims and the sick poor, later developed a military wing, acquired extensive property holdings and became one of the wealthiest groups in Europe?
Answer: The Knights of the order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, more commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller. After 1310, they became known as the Knights of Rhodes.
Source: The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire by Jonathan Shepard
In the thirteenth century, the Mongols were a mighty military force, ruthlessly defeating and plundering their enemies. Despite their conquests, they were remarkably open minded towards religion. How did they show this?
Answer: Unlike nearly all contemporary powers, they accepted religious experts from all the lands they encountered. Kublai Khan for instance, welcomed Buddhist, Daoist, Islamic and Christian experts to his court, and gave tax exemptions to clerics of all religions.
Source: East Asia – A Cultural, Social and Political history by Patricia Buckley
Charles De Gaulle was renowned for his suspicion and dislike of Britain. Much of this he likely inherited from his father, Henri. When Britain was negatively described as ‘Perfidious Albion’, how would Henri reply?
Answer: ‘Perfidious?’, he would exclaim, ‘the adjective hardly seems strong enough’.
Source: Churchill and De Gaulle by Francois Kersaudy
In the 18th and 19th Century Prussia was arguably the most militaristic state in Europe. It was not uncommon for boys of the Prussian military classes to wear uniform from what age?
Answer: Six years old.
Source: The Three Emperors by Miranda Carter
The Catalan Company was a medieval free group of mercenaries from North-Western Spain. What made these mercenaries different however?
Answer: Originally employed by Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II, they turned against the Empire, pillaging and attacking its lands. Eventually the Spaniards ended up establishing themselves in the city of Athens, ruling it for much of the fourteenth century.
Source: The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire by Jonathan Shepard
Moulay Ismaïl Ibn Sharif was King of Morocco from 1672 until 1727, and is considered to be the father of the modern nation in more ways than one. How many children did he have and how many wives and concubines resided in his harem?
Answer: By 1703 he was understood to have sired 867 children. At any one time, he is said to have had around 500 wives and concubines in his Harem.
Source: Sex, Sin and Science by C. Roland Cook; General Historical Texts.
The year 1721 was, arguably, a fortunate one for Russian factory owners, but a bad one for Russian peasants. Why was this?
Answer: In that year Russian factory owners were first permitted to purchase peasants as, in effect, slaves.
Source: World History Factfinder
The French Revolution was a time of horror and, arguably, liberation for the French people. For the wife of King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, it would end with her execution at the hands of Madame la Guillotine. Prior to her death she was subject to many brutalities, among the worst of these involved someone very close to her. What was this?
Answer: Her best friend, Princess de Lamballe, was guillotined and her head placed on a pike. It was then taken to where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned, to be paraded outside her window for the Queen to see and grieve.
Source: A History OF France by Alfred Cobban; General Historical Texts
As the Northumbrian theologian and historian, the Venerable Bede, lay dying in 735 CE, he had called for his ‘treasures’ that he wished to distribute to his fellow monks. What was first to come out of his treasure chest?
Answer: Pepper. With food heavily salted as a preservative, pepper and the other spices were prized enormously as a food flavoring and enhancer. The pepper, grown in the East Indies, would have travelled tens of thousands of miles by mule train and ships to reach England, via Baghdad and the Mediterranean. Accordingly, pepper was very expensive.
Source: The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger
In Ancient Athens, there was no ‘public prosecutor’ per se. How would criminals be prosecuted?
Answer: Men accused of actions against the public interest would be issued with prosecutions by private citizens themselves. Anyone who wanted to prosecute another was free to do so. This often lead to cases of blackmail, as one could easily threaten to prosecute anyone they came across.
Source: Athens and Sparta by Anton Powell
In early twentieth century Scotland, urban centers faced increasing problems with illegal gambling, gang culture and unregulated gatherings of the young. What places were unusually seen as a source of the problem?
Answer: Italian Ice-cream shops. A community concern developed that these shops were the source of activities of ill-repute.
Source: Impaled upon the Thistle by Ewen Cameron
Aluminum was generally considered to have been discovered in its usable form in 1886. Archeological evidence suggests it may have been used much, much earlier however. Where was this?
Answer: In China. This is remarkable, considering modern day Aluminum requires electricity to be constructed. It appears clear that the Chinese were making Aluminum as early as 300 CE by a process unknown to modern scholars.
Source: Technology of the Gods by David Hatcher Childress
British Romantic poet Lord Byron subscribed to a highly unusual diet. What did this mainly consist of?
Answer: Vinegar. Byron was obsessed with managing his weight and felt this was best managed by only eating potatoes and biscuits soaked in vinegar. Side effects included vomiting and diarrhoea. Such was Byron’s fame that many others mimicked this unusual diet. The son of Captain John “Mad Jack” Byron, Byron was so good looking that society ladies would swoon when he entered the glittering drawing rooms of Regency London. Born with a malformed foot, he swam across the Hellespont, or Dardanelles, a notoriously turbulent body of open water, in 1810. One of his lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, famously described him as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’. Byron died aged 36 in 1824, trying to provoke a revolution in Greece.
Source: Lord Byron by Richard Edgcumbe; General Historical Texts
During the Chinese Han Dynasty, what was the name of the most senior official within the central government?
Answer: ‘The Grand Tutor’. This figure would oversee other officials in charge of areas such as finance, the military and public works. The unusual title comes from the fact that the Grand Tutor’s primary task was considered to be giving moral advice to the emperor.
Source: A History of China by J.A.G. Roberts
Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk. What do these refer to?
Answer: Nations of the Iroquois of North America. They were often collectively known as the ‘Five Nations’. During their first interactions with Europeans in the seventeenth century, their territory spread from east to west across what is now New York State.
Source: The Iroquois by Dean R. Snow
In Britain, towns traditionally had their own individual time. For instance, in the seventeenth century, Bristol, in South West England, was ten minutes ahead of London. Why did this end in the nineteenth century?
Answer: With the advent of the railway, a national time was required to avoid time table meltdown. After 1852, this was standardized on London time.
Source: London – A Social History by Roy Porter
Which was the first major nation to abolish capital punishment?
Answer: Austria (the Habsburg Empire), in 1783. The change did not last long however, it was quickly reinstated and lasted until 1950.
Source: Austria, A Country Study by Eric Solsten
In his landmark 1967 study, what did historian A.J.P. Taylor describe as perhaps the most prominent cause of the First World War?
Answer: The humble timetable. Taylor argued that although the leaders of the Great Powers did not want war, they knew that being the quickest to mobilise their armies was key to winning any confrontation. As a result, the great powers developed sophisticated timetables to mobilise faster than the other powers. When the July Crisis came in 1914, the need to mobilise fast created an unstoppable movement towards war.
Source: War by Timetable – How the First World War Began by A. J. P. Taylor
January 2013
The common English words sister, bag, cake, dirt and knife can all trace their historical origin to which language?
Answer: Danish. They are part of a wide variety of words which are the legacy of the Viking influence in England between 750 and 1050. Over 1,500 place names in England have Viking origins.
Source: The English Language – A Historical Introduction by Charles Barber
Throughout its history, Syria has been conquered and assimilated by a remarkable number of powers. What powers were these?
Answer: The Egyptians, Hebrews, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Arabs, Romans, Mongols, Ottoman Turks and French.
Source: The Cambridge Ancient History by F.W. Wallbank et all
The Olmec, Toltec and Zapotec Empires are an important part of what country’s history?
Answer: Mexico. Along with the Mayan and Zatec, the Spanish conquered these empires and ruled until independence in 1821.
Source: Mexico – A History by Robert Ryal Miller
During the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre attempted to replace Christianity with a religion based upon ‘reason’. What was this?
Answer: The ‘Cult of the Supreme Being’, which became the new state religion of the French Republic. Its fundamental belief was in the immortality of the human soul. It reached its climax with ‘the Festival of the Supreme Being’, held on the Champs-de-Mars on 8 June 1794.
Source: Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe by T.C.W. Blanning
King Philip’s War was fought between 1675 and 1678 in New England, English America. Of which nation was King Philip from?
Answer: None. Arguably, no King Philip even existed. The war was a conflict between Native Americans and English colonists. ‘King Philip’ is the name given to the leader of the Wampanoag Indians by the English. The individual they were likely referring to was called Metacomet.
Source: Ground Warfare – An International Encyclopedia by Stanley Sandler
What bizarre way did the Nazi Waffen SS use to record the blood type of their soldiers?
Answer: The blood type was tattooed under the soldier’s arm, close to the armpit. The tattoos later proved to be excellent ways for prosecutors to locate Nazi war criminals at the end of hostilities.
Source: The German Soldier in World War II by Stephen Hart et. al
During the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, a British naval fleet under the leadership of Horatio Nelson defeated Danish-Norwegian naval forces defending the city. Nelson famously disobeyed the order from Admiral Sir Hyde Parker to withdraw earlier in the battle. How did he do this?
Answer: Nelson, being blind in one eye, held the telescope up to this eye to ‘look’ at the retreat signal coming from Parker’s vessel. As a result, he could claim that he did not see the signaled order to retreat.
Source: Horatio Nelson: Leadership – Strategy – Conflict by Angus Konstam
Doping has long been an issue in modern day sport. At the time of the ancient Olympics, how did Greek and Roman athletes try to obtain an unfair advantage?
Answer: By using wild boar dung. It was considered to have ‘magical’ properties, allowing athletes to recover quicker from wounds and bruises.
Source: Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport by David Sansone
In Ancient China, the process for making silk was highly valued. How did Chinese authorities ensure that others did not learn of the valuable silk making process?
Answer: The government imposed a decree that anyone who revealed the secret of silk production would be put to death. The mystery of silk production remained unknown to the western world for over 3,000 years.
Source: Power of Science by S.P. Bhatnagar
Ironically, prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Tsarist Russian state managed to reduce the threat of Marxist revolutionaries. In 1907 there were 150,000 supporters of organised Russian Marxism. How many were there in 1910?
Answer: 10,000. This did not stop Marxist revolutionaries from seizing power seven years later.
Source: The Russian Revolution 1900-1927 by Robert Service
In the western world, the amount of children in the average family decreased remarkably between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Britain in 1925, 6.7% of families had six or more children. In the 1870s, how many had the same number of children?
Answer: 51.6% of all families had six or more children.
Source: The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Volume VI by H.J. Habakkuk
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was not close to his sons. When his child Yakov at one point tried unsuccessfully to shoot himself because of his father’s coldness, how did Stalin reply?
Answer: Stalin said to him, ‘Ha! You missed!’ Yakov died in a Nazi prison camp in 1943.
Source: The Stalin Era by Phillip Boobbyer
In the British Tudor era, the rights of women depended heavily on their marital status. Who would have had greater legal rights, a single woman or a married one?
Answer: A single one. A spinster or widow of full age could inherit and administer land, make a will, sign a contract, sue and be sued and seal bonds. A married woman had no such rights. They could not even make a provisional will without the express permission of their husband.
Source: The Routledge Companion to the Tudor Age
Which President of the United States had the most children?
Answer: John Tyler, President between 1841 and 1845. He had an incredible 15 offspring. Mary, Robert, John Jr., Letitia, Elizabeth, Anne Contesse, Alice, Tazewell, David Gardiner, John Alexander, Julia Gardiner, Lachlan, Lyon Gardiner, Robert Fitzwalter and Pearl. On top of this, it was alleged he fathered many more children with slaves.
Source: John Tyler, Accidental President by Edward P. Crapol
During the First Balkan War of 1912, Bulgarian armies made remarkable progress against the Ottoman Empire, coming close to the Ottoman capital at Constantinople. What did King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria have in his possession just in case Bulgarian soldiers took the city?
Answer: He kept a full Byzantine Emperors regalia in his closet, made to order by a theatrical costumer, for just such an occasion. Bulgarian soldiers were forced back mere miles from the city, however, and he never had the chance to wear it.
Source: The Russian Origins of the First World War by Sean McMeekin
World trade exploded in the nineteenth century, driven heavily by the economies of Britain and France. Between 1850 and 1870, how much did the value of world trade increase?
Answer: By 260%. By 1875, £1,000 millions had been invested abroad by Britain, while French foreign investment alone multiplied more than tenfold between 1850 and 1880.
Source: The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm
‘Queen’s Evil’, also known as ‘King’s Evil’, was a common skin disease in the Middle Ages, affecting the lymph nodes of the neck. What was unique about the common treatment for this condition however?
Answer: In France and England it was widely believed to respond to a cure by the monarch’s touch. This touch was commonly applied by the laying on of hands or blessing by the monarch on those afflicted by the disease.
Source: The Routledge Companion to the Tudor Age
The years 1861 and 1962 are significant in personal freedom for Russia and Saudi Arabia. How is this so?
Answer: In 1861, Russia emancipated the serfs. In 1962 legal slavery was abolished in Saudi Arabia.
Source: An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin; General Historical Texts
Legendary British Admiral Jackie Fisher revolutionised the Royal Navy with the introduction in the early years of the last century of the Dreadnought class of battleship, which made all other warships obsolete. Brilliant and eccentric, his letters and notes are festooned with multiple underlinings and exclamation marks; he would sign letters with valedictions such as ‘yours til hell freezes over’. What did Fisher say were the four things needed for ‘a big life?’
Answer: One. A great Inspiration. Two. A great Cause. Three. A great Battle. Four. A great Victory.
Source: Pleasures of a Tangled Life by Jan Morris
In 19th Century Japan, what was the repulsive ‘testing of the pit’ procedure?
Answer: A method of torture applied to Christians during the Tokugawa Shogunate. Victims were hung upside down with their heads in excrement.
Source: History’s Great Untold Stories – Obscure Events of Lasting Importance by Joseph Cummins
Waterloo Day, the day set aside to honor the Battle of Waterloo, also known as the ‘Battle of the Nations’, on June 18, 1815, was commemorated in England until what year?
Answer: 1890 – 75 years – indicating the significance of the battle in British society. With the exception of a handful of comparatively small and brief wars, Europe was essentially peaceful until the cataclysm of World One, a century after Waterloo.
Source: General Historical Texts
King Henry VIII of England was 6 feet two inches in height and as a young man was a great athlete and musician. A jousting accident in his middle years caused him to limp and put on weight, aided by a healthy, indeed super-charged, appetite. At the time of his death in 1547 how much did Henry weigh?
Answer: 25 stone, 158 kilograms or 350 lbs.
Source: General Historical Texts
During the Thirty Years War between 1618–1648 how much of Prussia’s population was lost to disease, famine and fighting?
Answer: Around half.
Source: The Three Emperors by Miranda Carter
In 1911, widely respected English historian G P Gooch published ‘History of Our Time 1885-1911’. At the time five million men were under arms in Europe. What was his judgment then – one which turned out to be brutally ironic – on the outlook for Europe?
Answer: ‘We can now look forward with something like confidence at the time when war between civilized nations will be considered as antiquated as a duel, and when the peacemakers shall be called the children of God.’ Four years later Europe and the world were plunged into the greatest cataclysm of all time, the First World War.
Source: History of World War One by A J P Taylor
When US President John F Kennedy met with Conservative British Prime Minister Harold McMillan in June 1963, Kennedy told MacMillan, as an aside, that if he didn’t have sex every day he got a blinding headache. On later recounting this to his private secretary, what did McMillan say in response?
Answer: ‘Gracious me, I’d rather have the headache.’
Source: Harold MacMillan by Alistair Horne; General Historical Tests
During the American Civil War Special Order 191 was a general movement order issued by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was famously intercepted by a Union Solider, thereby granting the Union a crucial intelligence gain. What was also discovered with the order itself?
Answer: Three excellent Cuban cigars. Needless to say, the cigars went ‘missing’ soon after the order was discovered, being regarded as a ‘prize of war’.
Source: What If? by Robert Cowley
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, lives on today, and is remembered in President Franklin Roosevelt’s description, in his address to Congress, as the ‘Day of Infamy’. Six weeks later the Japanese also launched an aerial attack on the northern Australia port city of Darwin. In which attack did the Japanese drop more bombs?
Answer: Darwin.
Source: The Australian War Museum; General Historical Texts
Writing in the mid-18th century, when Britain’s population was about 7.5 million, English novelist Henry Fielding said that a ‘nobody’ was who?
Answer: ‘All the people of Great Britain except about 1200.’
Source: The Lion and Unicorn – Gladstone and Disraeli by Richard Aldous
General Vladimir Sukhomlinov, who was appointed Russia’s Minister for War in 1909, was a military reactionary, and decidedly relaxed when it came to keeping up to date with professional aspects of his militarily responsibilities? How did this manifest itself?
Answer: He boasted that he had not read a military manual in 25 years.
Source: History of World War One by A J P Taylor
British politician and later Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli quarreled often with Irish MP Daniel O’Connell. The pair were to fight a duel, but the police stepped in beforehand. In a heated debate in parliament, O’Connell referred to Disraeli’s Jewish ancestry in disparaging terms. What was Disraeli’s response?
Answer: ‘Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.’
Source: The Lion and Unicorn – Gladstone and Disraeli by Richard Aldous; General Historical Texts
The population of Eighteenth Century England was prone to rioting, and such protests were often against food prices, election results or the role of government. Englishmen also rioted about more mundane matters however. What did these include?
Answer: The eighteenth century English rioted about issues as diverse as theatre prices, foreign actors, pimps, bawdy houses, alehouse keepers and French footmen.
Source: Riots, Risings and Revolution by Ian Gilmour
December 2012
Constructed in 70 BCE, Pompeii’s amphitheatre is the oldest and most complete structure of its type, of the pre-Coliseum style, in the Roman world. A magnificent edifice in any era, let alone one built 2,000 years ago, the amphitheatre could hold 20,000 spectators. How many latrines or toilets did it have?
Answer: None. Patrons could use the stairs and corridors for their toilet requirements.
Source Pompeii – The Life of a Roman Town by Mary Beard
In 1216, Henry III ascended to the throne of England amidst most pressing circumstances. What were these?
Answer: Henry was only nine years old and commanded less than half of his Kingdom. Louis, the eldest son of the King of France, held London, while King Alexander of Scotland was invading the north. Henry’s coronation took place not at Westminster but in Gloucester, and there it was disturbed by news of a Welsh attack a mere 18 miles away. Despite these early setbacks, Henry would go on to rule for 56 years.
Source: The Struggle for Mastery by David Carpenter
Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the United States, but it can be argued that in some ways it was actually the 47th state. Why is this?
Answer: While Ohio applied for statehood in 1803, the US Congress had never formally admitted it as a state. This was not rectified until August 7, 1953, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a resolution defining Ohio as the 17th state.
Source: What do you know about the United States by Rapha Holding
The Black Death is considered the worst plague in European History, but in fact many outbreaks of disease in the Middle Ages were equally as devastating to local communities. How many died during the 1630-31 Italian epidemic in Verona for example?
Answer: 33,000 out of a population of a mere 54,000. In other words, almost two thirds of the population died as a result of the pestilence.
Source: The Routledge Companion to Early Modern Europe by Chris Cook and Philip Broadhead
The Church of the Transfiguration in Kizhi, Russia, was built in the seventeenth century and is famed for its beauty, being made entirely out of wood. Its large wood construction provided a notable problem when built however. What was this?
Answer: Being neither heated nor draught proof, the church would become unbearably cold in the winter. As a result, it was used as a ‘summer’ church, with a smaller heatable building, the Church of the Intercession, constructed next door for use as a ‘winter’ church.
Source: A History of Russia by Roger Bartlett
At a grand dinner to open commercial buildings in Leeds, UK, in 1829, toasts were made to prominent people in the country and community. How many toasts were made?
Answer: Illustrating the pageantry of Victorian life, ten toasts were made. These were to the King, the Duke of Clarence, the King’s Ministers, the County Members, the Mayor, the Mayor and Corporation, the Vicar of Leeds, the Magistrates of the West Riding, the 14th Light Dragoons and the Yorkshire Hussars.
Source: Cities of Ideas – Civil Society and Urban Governance in Britain by Robert Colls and Richard Rodger.
Moreton Frewen was a young British aristocrat and son of a Sussex squire, who inherited an Irish estate in the 1890s. His affairs were so mismanaged however that he became known as ‘Mortal Ruin’. What were some of his many financial disasters?
Answer: He spent his entire inheritance of £16,000 on an American cattle ranch, but lost the entire investment. Other doomed ventures included attempts to produce ice artificially and to extract gold from refuse. As Rudyard Kipling later put it, ‘he lived in every sense except what is called common sense.’
Source: The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt loved animals, and had a variety of pets while in office. What were they?
Answer: Amongst other things, Roosevelt kept a badger, a pig, a bear, a one-legged rooster and a hyena.
Source: Encyclopedia of the American Presidency by Michael A. Genovese
On 18 January 1871, the King of Prussia, William I, was declared German Emperor at the Palace of Versailles in Paris. One would expect he would be pleased with this. He was not however, being worried that the Prussian Monarchy would be undermined. What did he say to Otto von Bismarck the night before his coronation?
Answer: ‘Tomorrow is the unhappiest day in my life. We will bury the Prussian monarchy and you, Prince Bismarck, are responsible!’
Source: Cambridge History of Germany by Martin Kitchen
In Russian history, what does the bald-hairy joke refer to?
Answer: This is the joke that all Russian leaders since the early nineteenth century have alternated, from one who is bald, to one who possesses a full head of hair. It is widely considered to have begun with the reign of Tsar Nicholas I in 1825, who was bald, being succeeded by Alexander II, who had hair. Some maintain the tradition continues with Russian leaders to this day.
Source: Putin – Russia’s Choice by Richard Sakwa.
The city of London grew immensely in the late middle ages. In 1500 it had a population of around 40,000. What was its population in 1801?
Answer: 900,000; an increase of 2150%.
Source: The British Atlantic World by David Armitage and Michael J. Braddick
The life of a nineteenth century British policeman, or ‘Bobby’, was renowned as a tough one. In the industrial town of Middlesboro ugh, how many assaults were recorded on average in the 1860s?
Answer: Sixty per year. This is remarkable when one considers that the local police force averaged only thirty men, and that police officers only occasionally reported assaults to their authorities.
Source: Hard Men – Violence in England since 1750 by Clive Emsley
What incident involving a parrot disrupted the memorial service held following the death of U.S. President Andrew Jackson in 1845?
Answer: The parrot, a pet of Jackson’s, had to be removed from the service as it was squawking obscenities, no doubt learnt from the former President.
Source: Encyclopedia of the American Presidency by Michael A. Genovese
The growth in power of the Empire of Japan before the Second World War was partly down to its incredible industrial growth. In 1915 there were 15,000 factories in Japan. How many were there in 1939, just over twenty years later?
Answer: 120,000. Employees of large factories also grew in number from the largest having around 200,000, to the biggest in 1939 employing over one million workers.
Source: The Cambridge History of Japan IV by John W. Hall
In 1840, the British newspaper The Times described how west London ‘appears as one besieged, the shops being shut and the windows of the houses barricaded with hurdles to prevent them being destroyed. Numerous accidents happen, no person while walking the streets being free from danger.’ What was the newspaper referring to?
Answer: The Times was referring to the annual shrove Tuesday football match which took place in Kingston-upon-Thames. While a much loved tradition for its participants, it seemed to everyone else little more than an excuse for rowdy, violent behavior in which heads and windows, and anything else that got in the way, were broken or otherwise roughly handled.
Source: Hard Men – Violence in England since 1750 by Clive Emsley
Between 1882 and 1922, Egypt was ruled by the British Empire. It was governed in a unique way that is often considered typical of the British however. What was this?
Answer: It was governed by ‘anomalies’. For instance, for a majority of the duration Egypt technically belonged to another power, the Ottoman Empire; Britain only ‘advised’ the government of Egypt, but its advice had to be followed; and Britain’s representative until 1914 held the unimpressive title of agent and consul-general, but, in effect, ruled the country.
Source: The Cambridge History of Egypt II by M.W. Daly
What is often considered to be the most powerful siege weapon of the Middle Ages, capable of raising, that is, knocking down, even the most powerful strongholds?
Answer: The counterweight Trebuchet, essentially a giant sling-shot on wheels. Originating in the late 12th century states of the Middle East, the machines weighed some 12 tons and could often throw 15kg stones over 300 metres, shattering medieval walls.
Source: A History of the Early Medieval Siege by Peter Purton
In the context of Japanese history, what does the term uchi harai refer to?
Answer: Uchi Harai was the Japanese government policy of firing on and driving away foreign vessels from the Japanese coastline. It was most notably central to a decree against foreign involvement in 1825. Any foreign vessel, from naval frigate to mere fishing boat, could be targeted.
Source: A History of Japan 1582-1941 by L.M. Cullen
What was the only decorative image displayed in Hitler’s office in the Führerbunker?
Answer: A portrait of his historical hero, King Frederick the Great of Prussia. It was put there to inspire Hitler, as Frederick had fought against overwhelming odds and finally won victory.
Source: Hitler, A Biography by Ian Kershaw
The Guano Era describes a period of peace and prosperity in Peru during the Nineteenth Century, under the leadership of Ramon Castilla. What does the word Guano actually refer to however?
Answer: Guano is seabird excrement. This excrement is an excellent fertilizer and as a result, was exported all across the world. These exports contributed much to the material success of Peru during this era.
Source: More Precious Than Gold by Dave Hollett
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy was the largest in the world. It maintained its numbers of sailors primarily through impressment, which was the act of forcing men into the navy without their permission. Of the 134,000 men in the Royal Navy in 1804, how many had been ‘recruited’ in this way?
Answer: Three quarters; around 100,000 men. This included many foreign sailors, in particular Americans, who were often impressed from captured merchant vessels.
Source: The Longman Companion to Napoleonic Europe by Clive Emsley
The popular nursery rhyme Ring a Ring o’ Roses has a disturbing historical origin. What was this?
Answer: The song refers to the Black Death plague of the Middle Ages. The ‘ring o’ roses’ refers to the red scarring caused by the disease. The ‘pocket full of posies’ in the rhyme refers to the flowers carried by people to hide the terrible smell that came from the sick and the dead.
Source: Green or Gone by David Shearman
According to contemporary historical records, where does the French word for a small restaurant, Bistro, originate?
Answer: At the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, many Russian Cossacks occupied Paris. They were notoriously impatient with the local population and demanded quick service from local restaurants. They often repeatedly shouted “bistro!”, similar to the Russian word for “hurry”, and the term stuck.
Source: Paris and Versailles by Robert Colonna d’Istria
The German hyperinflation of the early 1920s, when prices spiraled out of control, was one of the most devastating periods in German history. In 1923, what was the percentage increase in prices for commodities such as bread and milk?
Answer: 75,000,000,000%. Germans would buy bread with wheelbarrows of cash. Eventually the currency was scrapped and a new one established.
Source: Culture and Inflation in Weimar Germany by Bernd Widdig
In June 1469, Princess Margaret of Denmark married James III, King of the Scots, at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh. What unusual possessions were included as part of her dowry?
Answer: The Shetland and Orkney Islands. While the Danish King Christian I had originally pledged a cash dowry, he could not afford it, so the islands were used instead.
Source: Scotland by Richenda Miers
The rule of King Louis XIX of France is considered extraordinary and unique in European royal history. Why is this?
Answer: As a result of its brevity. Amidst the upheaval of the 1830 July Revolution in France, Louis, remarkably, ruled for a miniscule 20 minutes. He then abdicated in favor of his nephew, the Duke of Bordeaux.
Source: Royalty Who Wait by Olga S. Opfel
When Princess Charlotte, the legendary beauty and beloved heir to the British throne, died in childbirth aged 21 in November 1817, what did the attending physician feel obliged to do?
Answer: He shot himself. The death of the Princess resulted in an outpouring of grief that was unprecedented in Britain.
Source: The Three Emperors by Miranda Carter; General Historical Texts
On September 26, 1942, a reply from King Christian X of Denmark to Adolf Hitler, who wrote a lengthy personal letter congratulating the King on reaching his 72nd birthday, greatly outraged the Fuhrer. It upset Hitler so profoundly he promptly escalated the severity of Nazi occupation in Denmark. What was the content of the message?
“Spreche Meinen besten Dank aus. Chr”, translated to English as, the terse and perfunctory, “Giving my best thanks, King Chr.”
Source: General Historical Texts
Following the French Revolution, divorce was made much easier by the introduction of a law in September 1792 allowing for divorce by mutual consent. What was the result of this new law?
Answer: For the rest of the 1790s about one in three French marriages ended in divorce. Napoleon Bonaparte was hostile to this legislation and in his civil code retained divorce by consent only if both sets of parents, no less, also agreed.
Source: The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
The Reverend Robert Knipe, who resided in the north of England in the mid 18th century, said that life for the gentry in the area consisted mainly of what?
Answer: ‘Fox-hunting, drinking, bawling out obscene songs and whoring was the common delight of these people.’
Source: Everyday Life Through the Ages published by Reader’s Digest
In the middle of the 17th Century Italian physicist and mathematician Evangelista Torricelli (1608-47) accidentally invented one of the major contributions to scientific measurement and method. What was this?
Answer: In 1643, while working on a water pump for the Duke of Tuscany using mercury, he realized that the rising and falling of the mercury sealed in a container was due to atmospheric pressure, and thereby invented the mercury barometer.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
November 2012
The infamous Zimmermann telegram was secretly sent by German Imperial Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann on January 16, 1917, the purpose of which was to urge which country into commencing hostilities with the United States, thereby ending its neutrality during World War I?
Answer: Mexico. The telegram instructed German Ambassador Heinrich von Eckardt to approach the Mexican government in the hope of securing a military alliance. The Germans offered the Mexicans to “make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.” Instead, on its discovery, an outraged America declared war on Germany.
Source: Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie
The Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor at 7.55am on Sunday, December 7, 1941 is generally regarded as the event that marked the beginning of the war in the Pacific. In reality, a related invasion an hour and 20 minutes earlier was in fact the seminal event. What was this?
Answer: At 2:15 am on the morning of 8 December 1941, advance troops of the 25th Army led by Lieutenant General Yamashita landed at Kota Bharu on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, with the aim of seizing Singapore to the south. This landing was an hour and 20 minutes before the attack on Pearl Harbor and thus, strictly speaking, marks the beginning of the Pacific War.
Source: Sinister Twilight – The Fall of Singapore by Noel Barber; General Historical Texts
Which future British Prime Minister, took part in the last meaningful charge of British cavalry, at the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898?
Answer: A 24 year old Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, when he was on active service with the 21st Lancers in the Sudan.
Source: The Last Charge: the 21st Lancers and the Battle of Omdurman by Terry Brighton
In 1989, Vice President George H.W. Bush was elected President of the United States. When was the last time a sitting Vice President had been elected to the highest office?
Answer: Martin van Buren in 1836
Source: Vice Presidents of the United States – George H.W. Bush by Mark Hatfield
Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest son of US President Abraham Lincoln, and the only one of Lincoln’s four sons to reach adulthood, narrowly escaped death at a young age when, in Jersey City, New Jersey, he nearly stumbled off a busy railway platform on to the tracks. Luckily, he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and pulled to safety just in time. What was remarkable about the individual who saved him?
Answer: His life was saved by Edwin Booth. Months later, Edwin Booth’s brother, John Wilkes Booth, would assassinate the boy’s father Abraham Lincoln.
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory; General Historical Texts.
In the British Army, during the First World War, what did the letters SRD stand for?
Answer: Service Ration Depot, whose job it was to issue, amongst other things, the solders’ issue of rum.
Source: ‘Diggers sipped rum, not beer, at Gallipoli’ – The Age Newspaper 10/11/11
Roman Emperor Claudius I is believed to have been killed by his wife, Agrippina, with a lethal dose of mushrooms. According to legend, while Claudius was dying, his physician attempt to aide him, but in fact made things a lot worse. How was this?
Answer: The physician felt that if he could make Claudius throw up the mushrooms, his life could be saved. To achieve this he started tickling the Claudius’ neck to stimulate the gag reflex. The physician, however, lost grip of the feather, and Claudius inhaled into his throat and choked to death on it.
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
The Pig War was an 1859 confrontation between the British Empire and the United States of America over the San Juan Islands off the west coast of North America. How did the confrontation come to have such a unique name?
Answer: The dispute stemmed from the killing of a pig belonging to an Irish settler, Charles Griffin, by American Lyman Cutler. When Griffin threatened Cutler with arrest by British authorities, Cutler petitioned for American aide, and so the conflict was born.
Source: The Pig War by Mike Vouri
Mrs Elizabeth Berry was hanged on March 14, 1887 over the death of her daughter. What were the circumstances of the death?
Answer: She poisoned her 11 year old daughter for the 10 pounds life insurance for which she had paid a premium of one penny a week.
Source: The Hangman’s Diary – A Calendar of Judicial Hangings by R Stockman
Gojong was the first Emperor of the Korean Empire, but governed in unusual circumstances in 1896. What were these?
Answer: He ruled Korea while in hiding at the Russian Embassy in Seoul. Gojong was worried about a potential coup attempt and fled to the embassy on 11 February 1896, not leaving until over a year later on 20 February 1897.
Source: Money – Traditional Korean Society by Yu-han Wŏn and Kyong-hee Lee
According to the ancient Greek historian Plutarch, King Pyrrhus of Epirus, from whom the term ‘Pyrrhic Victory’ is derived, died as a result of most unusual circumstances. What were these?
Answer: While fighting in the city of Argos, Pyrrhus was unexpectedly struck on the head by a roof tile thrown by an old woman. So unexpected was the attack that a temporarily stunned Pyrrhus let his guard down and was consequently beheaded by a Gaulish soldier.
Source: Leonidas and the Kings of Sparta by Alfred S. Bradford
The Austrian Artist Oskar Kokoschka volunteered early into the First World War, determined to aide Austria-Hungary’s fight to avenge the assassination of the heir-apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This is despite some rather disparaging comments made by Franz Ferdinand about Kokoschka’s expressionist art, which was very experimental at the time. What did he say?
Answer: On being shown a piece of his work, Ferdinand stated, in an observation decidedly not effusive with altruism, that Kokoschka ‘ought to have every bone in his body broken’. While every bone wasn’t broken, Kokoschka was seriously wounded during the First World War, which may possibly have pleased the Archduke, had he himself not been assassinated on June 28, 1914, the event which triggered the war.
Source: The Coming of the First World War by R.J.W Evans and Hartmut Pogge von Strandman
The May Overthrow in 1903 was a Serbian coup d’état, in which King Alexander I and Queen Draga were replaced with another monarch, King Peter I. The overthrow is renowned for its brutality. What happened to the royal couple?
Answer: The couple was found hiding inside a wardrobe, after which they were both shot and killed. Their bodies were mutilated and thrown from the second floor window of the royal palace, landing on piles of manure below.
Source: The Coming of the First World War by R.J.W Evans and Hartmut Pogge von Strandman
When Alexander the Great constructed the city of Bucephalon, for what or whom was it named?
Answer: It was named after Bucephalus, a horse of Alexander the Great. It was so named to commemorate how a grievously wounded Bucephalus once escorted Alexander safely from the battlefield. The moniker Bucephalus appeared periodically in history afterwards. It was, for example, the name of a ship which brought emigrants from England to Australia in the mid 19th Century.
Source: Stupid Ancient History by Leland Gregory.
‘The incident at Petrich’ is the name given to a brief border conflict between Bulgaria and Greece in 1925. The conflict was sparked by an unusual cause however. What was this?
Answer: A Greek border guard ran after his dog, which had strayed across the border from Greece into Bulgaria. The soldier was spotted by Bulgarian soldiers and shot. As relations between the nations were already fraught, the incident quickly escalated to an armed conflict. The origins of the incident mean it is also known as ‘The War of the Stray Dog’.
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
During the 1940s and early 1950s prominent Soviet politician Anastas Mikoyan was forced to bring a spare suit to state dinners. Why was this?
Answer: Noticing the care with which the dapper Mikoyan looked after his appearance, fellow Soviet Lavrentiy Beria began hiding rotten tomatoes in his well-cut suits. He would then torment Mikoyan by squashing them in the middle of the dinners, ruining his appearance.
Source: Stalin – The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
‘I am of the opinion’ asserted the Spanish soldier Pedro de Cieza de Leon in 1550, that ‘there is no kingdom in the world more rich in precious ores, forever day great lodes are discovered both of gold and of silver.’ Where was he referring to?
Answer: Peru, the recently conquered possession of the Spanish Empire.
Source: The Peru Reader by Orin Starn and Carlos Degregeri
The population of France and England has largely been comparable in recent decades, but in the medieval era numbers were considerably different. In 1300 the population of England was believed to be around 3 million – what was the population of France at this time?
Answer: Between 18 and 20 Million, at least 500% larger than the English population. The current French population is roughly 10% larger than England’s.
Source: A Concise History of France by Roger Price
In medieval Japan, life for ordinary citizens was precarious enough, with disease, hunger, flood and regular regional wars, but also there was an ever present danger from the local samurai warriors. What was this?
Answer: A samurai warrior could approach and with one warning whoop, lop off the head of a citizen with the sharpest of swords. This was done ‘for killing practice’. The samurai ran no risk of prosecution, and in the 16th century the samurai’s ‘licence to kill’ became enshrined in law. A samurai was supposed to hold death in contempt, and warriors killed themselves in battle to avoid the shame of surrender.
Source: Everyday Life Through the Ages published by Reader’s Digest
Yellow Lotus, Red Eyebrows, Yellow Turbans, Red Beards, Spirit Boxers. These are all names used in 19th century China, but to describe what?
Answer: Different secret societies. These societies were often involved in robbery, protection rackets, prostitution and gambling. The most famous examples of such groups were the Triads and the Green Gang.
Source: The Penguin History of Modern China by Jonathan Fenby
The Virginia Colony, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, survived in its early years despite horrendous mortality rates, famine and near anarchy. In the years after 1607, 14,000 colonists had migrated to the colony, but by 1624 how many remained?
Answer: 1,132.
Source: America – A Narrative History by George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi.
In the sixth century BCE, the Chinese produced one of the first ‘loaded’ weapons. What was this?
Answer: This was a cross bow which could be drawn and cocked, in advance of firing.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
The Ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was buried by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, was famous for its Garum, the very popular pungent and strong smelling fish sauce, and also to a lesser degree it’s wine. While there were some good wines made there, the philosopher Pliny said that drinking Pompeii wines was likely to do what?
Answer: Give you a hangover until midday the following day.
Source: Pompeii – The Life of a Roman Town by Mary Beard
In the decades leading up to the First World War, France and Russia cemented their military collaborations with the ‘Franco-Russian Alliance’, agreed in 1894. In what unusual way was the alliance celebrated?
Answer: Through the building of bridges. The ornate Pont Alexandre III bridge was erected in Paris in 1896, and the Trinity Bridge in St. Petersburg a year later in 1897. The heads of states of each nation were present when the foundation stone was laid for each structure.
Source: Petersburg- Novel and City, 1900-1921 by Olga Matich
The Roman Emperor Vespasian (AD 9-79) is remembered as having, among other things, practiced strict economy in state and private expenditure, his frugality being vastly at odds with the financial recklessness of, for example, Nero’s reign. What was, however, one of the seemingly more bizarre financial measures he introduced?
Answer: He instituted a urine tax on Rome’s many public toilets. The ammonia extracted from urine was used as a cleaning agent and thereby was of significant value.
Source: General Historical Texts
When Britain’s Queen Victoria died at Osborne House in January, 1901, who measured her for her coffin?
Answer: Her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
Source: Queen Victoria’s Private Life – E E P Tisdall
The military success of King Richard I of England earned him the nickname the ‘Lionheart’. His brother and successor John, however, lacked his brother’s martial abilities and was granted a less respectful nickname. What was it?
Answer: He was known as John ‘Softsword’.
Source: 12 Books That Changed the World by Melvyn Bragg
What is generally considered to be the shortest correspondence in history?
Answer: Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885) was probably the greatest of the French Romantic authors. The shortest correspondence in history is attributed to Hugo and his editor upon the release of Les Miserables in 1862. Hugo was on holidays when the book was published and was curious as to its success. He telegrammed his editor “?” and received the reply “!”
Source: General Historical Texts
Alexander Poskrebyshev was the head of the office of Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin for most of his reign. Working for Stalin involved more than just the expected office management however. What other ‘roles’ did he often perform on the job?
Answer: Stalin regularly challenged Poskrebyshev, who he nicknamed the ‘Commander-in-Chief’, to drinking contests. Time and time again Stalin would laugh and cheer as Poskrebyshev was dragged vomiting from the table after another defeat.
Source: Stalin- The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Written in the 1650s, what was the value of the earliest known English cheque?
Answer: Four hundred pounds, an enormous sum at the time.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
Captain Michael Wittmann led Germany’s most lethal tank attack of the Second World War. What did Wittmann achieve?
Answer: His total ‘kill record’ included 138 tanks, 132 antitank guns and a countless number of other vehicles. He is most famous for an attack in June of 1944, when he devastated as many as 14 tanks, 2 antitank guns and 15 additional vehicles in 15 minutes.
Source: General Historical Texts
October 2012
As a token of appreciation for Soviet bravery during the Battle of Stalingrad, Winston Churchill presented the honorary ‘Sword of Stalingrad’ to a visibly emotional Josef Stalin at the Tehran Conference in 1943. The handover did not go completely to plan however. What happened?
Answer: After receiving the sword, Stalin passed it to long time aide Klim Voroshilov, who then dropped it on his foot. Stalin was so incensed that a red faced Voroshilov had to chase after Churchill and apologise. Such was the extent of Voroshilov’s apologies that a bemused Churchill thought he was angling for an invitation to the British leader’s birthday party, which was to be held the following day. It is not recorded whether Voroshilov was punished for his infraction by ‘Uncle Joe’ Stalin, who was notorious for his brutality.
Source: Stalin – The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
The American Declaration of Independence of 1776 is esteemed as perhaps the greatest document in American history. How many people actually signed the Declaration?
Answer: No fewer than fifty six men, but no women, signed the original document.
Source: The Declaration of Independence: A Global History by David Armitage
How many eunuchs were employed on average at any one time during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) in China?
Answer: Around 100,000.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
Which British Monarch was the last to command his troops on the field of battle?
Answer: George II, at the Battle of Dettingen on the 27 June 1743.
Source: The Early Hanoverians by Edward Ellis Morris
Until the 15th century AD, the Chinese were great explorers. This period of exploration ended with the death of Emperor Yongle in 1424, after which the Ming Dynasty returned to its isolationist policy. One of the greatest of the Chinese explorers of this period was Zheng He. How big were his ships, compared to the famed Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus of the same period?
Answer: Columbus’ ships were around 22 metres in length. At 134 metres in length, Zheng He’s vessels were six times as long.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
Slavery is synonymous with the old American South before the American Civil War. Amongst a white population of 8,000,000, however, how many actually owned slaves?
Answer: 383,637.
Source: Dictionary of American Quotations by Margaret Miner and Hugh Rawson
What was the nickname often used for American soldiers by their French counterparts during the First World War?
‘Les sommo-bitches’, which can be translated as ‘the sons of bitches’. American soldiers were perceived by the French to use the phrase ‘son of a bitch’ so commonly that it stuck as a nickname.
Source: Dictionary of American Quotations by Margaret Miner and Hugh Rawson
Dominique Bourhours, French essayist, priest and grammarian, died in 1702. Up until his death he retained a passion for grammar, illustrated by his last words. What were they?
Answer: ‘I am about to – or I am going to – die: either expression is used.’
Source: Famous Last Words by Barnaby Conrad
In the early years of the development of the motor car, electricity was a surprisingly common power source. What percentage of cars in the market was powered by electricity?
Answer: 28 percent, or more than a quarter by 1900.
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
In 1960, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was giving a speech on nuclear test bans before the United Nations General Assembly in New York. His speech was interrupted several times by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, shouting out remarks and at one point banging his shoe on the desk. What was Macmillan’s reply?
Answer: Macmillan sarcastically asked the assembly if the shoe-banging could be translated. Banging a shoe on a table was explained as a traditional Russian peasant form of interjection.
Source: The Cassell Dictionary of Anecdotes by Nigel Rees
‘The modern Moses, who leads his race and lifts it through education to even better and higher things than a land overflowing with milk and honey.’ For whom does the description, spoken by American Industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1903, relate to?
Answer: Booker T. Washington, the early African American Civil Rights activist.
Source: General Historical Texts
The United States came out of the Second World War in a privileged and immensely strong position. While much of Europe and Asia struggled to recover from the physical devastation of war, the United States was largely unscathed, and its economic infrastructure intact. By 1955, the United States was only 6% of the world’s population, but what proportion of the world’s goods was it producing?
Answer: A colossal 50%.
Source: Dictionary of American Quotations by Margaret Miner and Hugh Rawson.
The evolutionary theories of 19th Century English botanist Charles Darwin emerged in the mid nineteenth century at the same time as another phenomenon, one which had the ability to colour people’s attitudes to Darwinism. What was this?
Answer: Coincidentally, Darwin’s ideas of evolution emerged at the same time as the rise in popularity of Zoo’s across Europe. Millions now could see those creatures with which humanity was now perceived to be related.
Source: The Victorians by A.N. Wilson
France under Napoleon Bonaparte famously sold the Louisiana territory, a massive 888,000 square mile expanse, to the United States in 1803. What territory had President Thomas Jefferson originally asked to purchase from Napoleon however?
Answer: A small portion of Louisiana and a coastal section of the Florida territories. Napoleon shocked the U.S. envoy by suggesting a counter-offer of the entire territory.
Source: Our Nations Archive by Erik Bruun and Jay Crosby
British journalist W.T. Stead was a pioneer of early investigative journalism and became a famous figure in Britain. He eventually died when the RMS Titanic sank in April 1912, but even this did not fully end his journalism career however. Why was this?
Answer: Evidencing that you cannot put a committed journalist down, Stead attempted further contact by apparently making numerous appearances at London and other society séances.
Source: The Victorians by A.N. Wilson
Genrikh Yagoda was a formidable leader of the Soviet Union’s secret police, the NKVD, under Josef Stalin, serving from 1934 to 1936. A committed member of the Communist Part, he was also well known for his ‘hobbies’. What were they?
Answer: Yagoda appreciated the ‘good life’: collecting fine wines, growing orchards, courting famous writer Maxim Gorky’s daughter-in-law, amassing ladies underwear, and buying German pornographic films and obscene cigarette holders.
Source: Stalin- The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
How did General George Washington come to face death in 1777, and how did he eventually escape with his life?
Answer: While on reconnaissance, an unarmed Washington came across a British soldier, Captain Patrick Ferguson, in possession of a highly advanced breach-loading rifle. Ferguson called on the man to surrender, to which Washington wheeled his horse and galloped away. Ferguson took aim, had Washington in his sights, and then lowered his gun. He could not bring himself to shoot an unarmed enemy in the back.
Source: What If? by Robert Cowley
In 1716, the Oxford University Press printed 500 copies of a book titled ‘Translations of the New Testament from Coptic into Latin’, by David Wilkins. As might have been predicted, sales were slow, how long did it take to sell all 500 copies?
Answer: 171 years.
Source: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
‘The popularity of these songs is unprecedented not only in China, but in the history of world music.’ What did this quotation, from a Chinese Army handbook, refer to?
Answer: Communist Party Quotation Songs. These songs, primarily the quotations of Mao set to music, became immensely popular in China during the Cultural Revolution of the middle years of the 20th Century. Examples of the stirring titles of these tunes include ‘We Must Have Faith in the Masses and ‘We Must Have Faith in the Party’ and ‘He (The Enemy) Will Not Fall If You Do Not Beat Him.’
Source: Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Xing Lu
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was once nearly shot by famed American Sharpshooter Annie Oakley. How did this come to be?
Answer: In 1889, Oakley was touring Europe as part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. At the Kaiser’s request, during one show Oakley shot the ashes off a cigar held by Wilhelm. Oakley later appeared to regret her accurate aim. During the First World War she wrote to the Kaiser requesting the opportunity for another shot. No response was forthcoming from the Kaiser.
Source: What If? by Robert Cowley
When the East Indies volcano-island of Krakatoa exploded, indeed essentially disintegrated, in 1883, the shock waves from the explosion travelled how many times around the world?
Answer: Seven Times
Source: Krakatoa by Simon Winchester
The Purple Heart was a military decoration awarded to United States service personnel who had been wounded or killed. How many were awarded during the Vietnam War?
Answer: 351,794
Source: History Year by Year published by Dorling Kindersley
In Medieval Japan it was believed that the world was so full of dangers that it was safest to stay at home. On every sixtieth day, the Day of the Monkey, this danger was especially present. In 1104, on one Day of the Monkey, what did Emperor Shirakawa do to avoid danger?
Answer: He spent the night in his carriage at one of the gates of his city, returning to his palace only at daybreak.
Source: Forty Centuries – From the Pharoahs to Alfred the Great by S G F Brandon and Freidrich Heer
How many American Presidents have been assassinated while in office?
Answer: Four. Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901, and John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Source: American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics by J. W. Clarke
What was the name of the Hippocratic medical theory that prevailed in western medicine until the 18th Century?
Answer: The Theory of the Four Humours. It was believed that the body was made up of four main fluids (humours): Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile and Black Bile and that all illnesses were a result of an imbalance of the humours; which led to common treatments such as blood-letting.
Source: The Rise of Experimental Biology: An Illustrated History by Peter L. Lutz
What was given to Roman slaves, when they were granted their freedom?
Answer: A felt cap known as a Pileus was given to a slave when they were granted their freedom, in a ceremony known as Manumissio which literally translates from Latin as the “sending out from the hand”. Freed slaves thus became members of a separate social class known as the Liberti.
Source: The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire by Mikhail Rostovtzev
U.S. President John F. Kennedy famously declared in 1961 the United States’ goal of putting a man on the moon, declaring it a milestone for mankind. What was, however, Kennedy’s real view on the matter?
Answer: He largely did not care about space travel, being only keen to undermine the Soviet Union. He declared to the director of NASA, James Webb, that he really believed ‘that we shouldn’t be spending this kind of money because I’m not interested in space’.
Source: Debating the Kennedy Presidency by James N. Giglio and Stephen G. Rab
How many Royal Sovereigns were present at the funeral of King Edward VII of Great Britain in May 1910, the event which was considered the last great gathering of the Royal Houses of Europe?
Answer: There were nine sovereigns in total, in attendance at the funeral of Edward VII including: King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Haakon VII of Norway, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium, King Manuel II of Portugal, King Alfonso XIII of Spain and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
Source: The Times, 21 May 1910
Eleventh Century Benedictine Monk Eilmer of Malmesbury in England is famous for attempting to do what?
Develop man powered flight. He fixed wings to his hands and feet and jumped off the top of an abbey tower. Eilmer did catch a breeze and likely flew a greater than expected distance before falling and breaking both his legs. He himself attributed his fall to his forgetting to fit a tail.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
During the reign of Roman Emperor Caracalla in 215 AD, the inhabitants of Alexandria produced a public play mocking the Emperor. What was Caracalla’s response?
Answer: Caracalla responded to the satire by leading an army to Alexandria and pillaging the city, along with indiscriminately slaughtering the city’s youth. Records show that over 20,000 people were killed.
Source: A History of Egypt by Jason Thompson
In an often perceived act of humility, America’s iconic statesman George Washington turned down a salary to lead the U.S. Continental Army during the War of Independence, claiming he needed no financial incentive for the role. Washington, in fact, profited very well from the position. Why was this?
Answer: Washington stated all he would require was the reimbursement of expenses. In eight years, by taking expenses rather than a salary, Washington accrued nearly $350,000 more than if he had taken a salary, including spending $6000 on alcohol in one six month period alone. When he became President, Washington sought the same arrangement, but he was turned down and offered a salary of $25,000 a year.
Source: George Washington’s Expense Account by Marvin Kitman.
September 2012
The advent of steam powered warships in the early nineteenth century promised to revolutionise sea travel. Britain however, the pioneers of steam power, tried to halt the development of this technology. Why was this?
Answer: British leaders were worried that steam power would undermine Britain’s naval superiority. Britain had the world’s most advanced shipbuilding industry, sailing expertise and cannon construction, but all would be made obsolete if traditional wooden, sail driven warships were replaced.
Source: 50 Weapons That Changed Warfare by William Weir
One of the bestselling books of the fifteenth century was an erotic novel entitled The Tale of Two Lovers. Who was its unlikely author?
Answer: Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II.
Source: Cassell Dictionary of Italian Literature by Peter Bondanella and Julia Conway Bondanella
American Sergeant Alvin C. York was awarded the Medal of Honor during the First World War after successfully instigating an inspired attack on a German enemy position. What did York do?
Answer: In 1918 York, leading a group of seven men behind enemy lines, York managed to kill 28 Germans and capture 138 more. All the more remarkably, York achieved this after spending most of the battle using his reserve .45 Colt automatic pistol, his primary M1917 Enfield rifle having ran out of rounds.
Source: 50 Weapons That Changed Warfare by William Weir
Around 1 AD, the fashion in Roman culture was to remove all one’s body hair. This led to the success of one unusual industry. What was this?
Answer: Armpit plucking, a particularly common sight in Romans Baths.
Source: Roman Social History by Tim G. Parkins and Arthur J. Pomeroy
Contrary to popular belief, Gargoyles are not placed on churches and other buildings to ward off evil spirits. What is their true purpose?
Answer: To act as ‘drainpipes’. Their purpose is to convey water from a roof and away from a building, preventing rainwater from running down the walls and causing erosion.
Source: Holy Terrors – Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings by Janetta Rebold Benton
What was the form, and who used, the earliest inception of a hand grenade?
Answer: Records indicate Chinese Soldiers used bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder in the thirteenth century, before they had even mastered guns.
Source: 50 Weapons That Changed Warfare by William Weir
The Treaty of Versailles ceased hostilities in Europe, but one European allied nation technically remained at war with Germany after this. Which nation was this?
Answer: Andorra, in South Western Europe. While it declared war on Germany during the First World War, it was forgotten at the Versailles peace treaty and, as such, remained in an official state of belligerency with Germany. ‘Peace’ was not formally declared until 1957.
Source: Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of by Thomas M. Eccardt
Russian King Peter the Great hated beards, as he believed they represented all that was backward about Russian society. What did he do to discourage his citizens from growing them?
Answer: In 1698 he issued a decree ordering all Russians, with the exception of clergy and peasants, to shave. Late in 1705 he initiated a Beard Tax, whereby all those with beards had to pay a sum to the King, sometimes as much as 900 roubles.
Source: Russia – A reference guide by Mauricio Borrero
How many Nuclear Weapons have been ‘lost at sea’ since 1945?
Answer: Fifty, along with several nuclear propelled Submarines and other radioactive material.
Source: Maritime Security and Peacekeeping by Michael Charles Pugh
When did it become a federal crime to assassinate the President of the United States?
Answer: In 1965. The change in legislation came about as a result of the shooting of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Before this, it was customary for any murder to be tried at state level.
Source: Beyond the Constitution by Hadley Arkes
Adolf Hitler’s infamous written work was the semi-autobiographical Mein Kampf, translated in English as ‘My Struggle’ but also as ‘My Battle’. How did Soviet Leader Josef Stalin intend to mock the work?
Answer: He planned to release his own autobiography, entitled ‘Your Battle, My Victory’, referring to the events of the Second World War.
Source: General Historical Texts
During the early years of Henry VIII’s reign, England and France were keen to demonstrate their unity in order to counter the threat of the powerful Habsburg Empire. Which unusual way did they do this in 1520?
Answer: A royal ceremony called the Field of the Cloth of Gold was organised. Held in France, the entire British ruling class, all 5000 of them, were shipped across the channel for the elaborate event, which included wine flowing from red and white fountains, days of music and luxury costumes. Henry and the French King, Francois, even engaged in a half naked wrestling match.
Source: A History of Britain by Simon Schama
Greek explorer Pytheas made a pioneering voyage of discovery to Northern Europe in 325 BC, where he explored much of Britain and become the first man to record a visit to the Arctic Circle. His reception when he got home was unfavorable however, why was this?
Answer: Most Greeks considered his discoveries to be too extravagant, and considered Pytheas at best a falsifier and at worse a madman. He was subsequently dubbed ‘Pytheas the Liar’.
Source: Abysmal – A Critique of Cartographic Reason by Gunnar Olsson
The British are famous for their love of tea. This love took hold in the eighteenth century, primarily through imports from China. British imports of tea stood at five chests in 1684, reaching 400,000 pounds in 1720. How much had it reached by the year 1800?
Answer: British imports of Chinese tea grew over fiftyfold to 23 million pounds.
Source: Cambridge History of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey
The reign of Chinese Song Emperor Huizong (reigned 1100-1126) is considered one of mixed success. Why was this?
Answer: Huizong was undoubtedly one of China’s most cultured Emperors, being one of the country’s greatest calligraphers and an inspired collector, assembling over 6,000 pieces of art. His reign was, however, a political disaster. Not only did he eventually lose his throne, but he lost north China for the Song Dynasty.
Source: Cambridge History of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey
What was the contrite response of United States diplomat Warren Austin when asked if he got tired during the long debates at the United Nations in the late 1940s?
Answer: ‘It is better for aged diplomats to be bored than for young men to die’.
Source: Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations
Which European countries remained neutral during the Second World War?
Answer: There were six in total. Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal and The Vatican City.
Source: Neutrality and the Small States by E. Karsh
Today’s cargo ships traversing the world’s oceans with their turbine engines do so at am impressive rate of knots, but in the mid to late 19th century clipper ships were capable of a very impressive turn of speed. What was the fastest recorded top speed of a sailing ship?
Answer: The highest recorded speed every achieved by a large sailing ship full with cargo was 22 knots, or 41 kilometres an hour, on a voyage from the United States to Australia in 1854. There were more than a dozen instances of such sailing ships travelling over 400 nautical miles in 24 hours.
Source: Clipper Ships and Captains by J D Lyon
“I find, then, I am a bad anatomist.” These were the poignant last words of Irish Nationalist Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763 –1798); but what do they refer to?
Answer: They refer to Tone’s fumbled attempt to commit suicide in prison. In trying to cut his throat, Tone accidentally severed his windpipe instead of his jugular, and lingered painfully for several days before finally dying.
Source: Rebels and Informers by Oliver Knox
In the early 1900s, how did Japanese Samurai professor, Dr Inazo Nitobe, define Bushido?
Answer: Bushido is to be “… contented with one’s life, to accept the natal irreversible status and to cultivate oneself within that allotted station, to be loyal to the master of the family, to value one’s ancestors, to train oneself in the military arts by cultivation and by discipline of one’s mind and body.’
Source: A History of the Modern World by Hugh Thomas
John Torrio ran large scale bootlegging – the illegal supply of alcohol during Prohibition in the United States – in Chicago between 1920 and 1924. What happened to him in 1925?
Answer: He retired to Italy with a fortune of $20 million, equivalent today to at least $300 million.
Source: A History of the Modern World by Paul Johnson
As late as 1750, how much of Prussia, the largest German state, did the king own?
Answer: Around a third. If one was to equate this to modern times, it would not be too fanciful to suggest that this was equivalent to the King of Prussia owning a third of Germany’s gross national product of US$3 trillion, giving the king an equivalent income of perhaps US$1 trillion a year.
Source: A History of the World by Hugh Thomas
What is the history behind the enduringly beautiful Taj Mahal in Agra, India?
Answer: Perhaps the most stunning example of a memorial to love, the Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (reigned 1627-58) for his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal (1592-1631), beneath which both are buried. It features a central domed structure of marble with inlaid ornamentation, which stands on a spacious platform, flanked by two small buildings, one of them a mosque; at each corner of the platform is a minaret. It was completed in 1645 at a cost of 300,000 pounds and is considered the masterpiece of Mughal architecture.
Source: General Historical Texts
In 1695 the French aristocrat Misson de Valbourg while visiting London witnessed an interesting dispute in a street between the Duke of Grafton, one of the great landowners of England and immensely rich, and another man. What was this?
Answer: The Duke was engaged in a fist fight with a coachman in a dispute over the fare. The Duke won the fist fight.
Source: The Faber Book of Reportage Edited by John Carey
Former Ohio newspaper owner Warren Harding was advised to enter politics because he was such a good public speaker. He won the 1920 US presidential election in a landslide victory with 60.2 percent of the vote, the largest popular majority yet recorded. What did he do to celebrate his victory?
Answer: He played a round of golf.
Source: General Historical Texts
Why did a primitive steam-powered engine for lifting weights go unused in Roman times?
Answer: The Emperor Vespasian, who was Emperor from 69AD to 79AD, forbade its use as it would cause unemployment among unskilled laborers.
Source: The Lives of the Caesars: The Life of Vespasian by Suetonius
What percentage of the US State of Maine’s annual budget was spent on the war effort during the American Civil War?
Answer: 60 percent each year.
Source: The Portland Press Herald
According to legend, what did Margaret of Burgundy, first wife of Louis X (1289-1316), do to her lovers?
Answer: She would receive them in the Nesle tower, have them imprisoned in a sack and then thrown into the River Seine the next morning. Buridian, a Professor at the University of Paris, was said to have outsmarted her, arranging to fall onto a boat loaded with hay.
Source: The Twentieth Century by Albert Robida, Philippe Willems and Arthur B. Evans
What was the tragic yet heroic story of the fighting Sullivans of World War Two?
Answer: The five Sullivan Brothers enlisted in the US Navy soon after the war commenced and all served on the same ship, the light cruiser the USS Juneau. The ship was sunk on November 13, 1942 and all five lost their lives. The US navy had a policy that siblings could not serve on the same vessel, but this at the time was not rigidly enforced. The tragic death of the five sons became a rallying point for Americans in the war effort. The US navy named two destroyers The Sullivans.
Source: General Historical Texts
British Labor Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald (1924, 1929-35) did not own a car and had none provided by the state. How did he go about the nation’s business?
Answer: He would walk to the end of Downing Street, where the Prime Ministerial office and residence are located, and hail a bus or taxi.
Source: A History of the Modern World by Paul Johnson
August 2012
Austrian-British Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein made major contributions to the various fields of philosophy. He also for many years harbored an ambition to write a philosophical work constructed entirely of jokes. For what reason did he never complete this enterprise?
Answer: He finally came to the conclusion that he had no sense of humor.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations.
Famed American dancer Isadora Duncan reached great heights in her professional career but some remarkable lows in her private life. What were some of these?
Answer: Tragically her two children were drowned when the car they were in rolled into the Seine River in 1914. Duncan married the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, 18 years her junior, but he left her and hanged himself in 1925 having written his last poem in his blood. Duncan, who had a liking for scarves, died in 1927 when the scarf she was wearing caught in the rear wheel of her Bugatti sports car, breaking her neck.
Source: On This Day – The History of the World in 366 Days Edited by Sian Facer
Between which nations exists the oldest continuing diplomatic alliance?
Answer: The United Kingdom and Portugal. A treaty of mutual assistance, the Treaty of Windsor, was originally signed over eight hundred years ago in 1373 by King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal. The treaty continues to be in effect to this day.
Source: Operation Alacrity by Norman Herz
‘No matter how bestial and obdurate a man might be, that woman could bend him to her will.’ To which individual does this description, written by medieval chronicler Richard of Devizes, refer to?’
Answer: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was the queen of two kings, the mother of two more, and her resilience and unshakable will made her legendary across Europe.
Source: Titans of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore
How did Napoleon I describe King Louis XIV, the famous ‘Sun King’?
Answer: Napoleon remarked that Louis was ‘the only King of France worthy of the name’.
Source: Titans of History by Simon Sebag Montefiore
How long did the Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896, between Britain and the Zanzibar Sultanate, last?
Answer: 38 minutes. It was the shortest war in history.
Source: Britain’s Forgotten Wars by Ian Hernon
Which novel, and in another era an internationally successful musical, was an overwhelming favorite amongst Confederate Soldiers during the American Civil War?
Answer: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Soldiers often wittingly transliterated this into ‘Lee’s Miserables’.
Source: The Companion to Southern Literature by Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan.
During the Battle of the Marne in the early days of the First World War, German forces were advancing at great speed against the French and came within twenty miles of Paris. French general Joseph Joffre famously resorted to what ingenious measure to boost his fighting forces?
Answer: He requisitioned a thousand Parisian taxi drivers to deliver additional volunteers to the front.
Source: Cambridge Illustrated History of France by Colin Jones.
Socrates is often considered the ancient world’s greatest mind, but his last words were rather mundane. What were they?
Answer: ‘Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Do pay it. Don’t forget’
Source: Immortal Last Words by Terry Breverton
The Aztecs used an unusual ingredient when constructing their buildings. What was this?
Answer: Animal blood. They would mix the blood with cement as a mortar for their buildings. The mortar must have been successful – many of these buildings remain to this day.
Source: What? What? What? by Lyn Thomas.
For whom was the first ever elevator built?
Answer: King Louis XV of France. Dubbed the ‘flying chair’, it was installed outside Versailles palace and enabled the King to move between different floors with minimum effort. While minimum effort was required for the king, each ‘elevator ride’ required a string of man servants to pull the chair into place.
Source: The Twentieth Century by Albert Robida, Philippe Willems and Arthur B. Evans
What painfully ironic warning was given on 29th November 1941, as part of the annual football game between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy?
Answer: The program for the game carried a picture of the battleship Arizona, stating ‘it is significant that despite the claims of air enthusiasts no battleship has yet been sunk by bombs.’ A mere nine days later the Arizona would be sunk by dive bombers when the Japanese attached the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
Source: The Ignorance Explosion by Julius Lukasiewicz
France dominated European affairs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries due partly to its superior population size, with the French in 1800 constituting one in six of all Europeans. This, however, dramatically changed by 1918. What was it then?
Answer: The French then formed a mere one in thirteen Europeans, proving again that demography is destiny.
Source: Cambridge Illustrated History of France by Colin Jones
In 1739, Britain declared war on Spain. The spark for the war was highly unusual, what was it?
Answer: Britain went to war over a sailor’s ear. A Spanish officer had supposedly sliced off the ear of a ship’s captain, Robert Jenkins, of the coast of Florida. The war became known as the ‘War of Jenkins Ear’. The severed ear itself was even exhibited in the British Parliament.
Source: Hidden History of St. Augustine by Drew Sappington
How did the phrase ‘bite the bullet’ originate amongst sailors?
Answer: Men sentenced to flogging with a cat-o’-nine-tails were often given a bullet to bite on to stop them screaming in pain. If the unfortunate sailors did ‘sing out’, they were cruelly dubbed a ‘nightingale’.
Source: Breveton’s Nautical Curiosities by Terry Breverton
What unique role did American Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes fulfill on two occasions?
Answer: He attended to two U.S. presidents after assassination attempts. In 1865 he was one of fourteen physicians who tried to save Abraham Lincoln, and sixteen years later he would make frequent visits to the mortally wounded James Garfield shot by an assassin’s bullet.
Source: The White House Physician by Ludwig M. Deppisch.
Roman Emperor Caligula was so fond of his horse he did what?
Answer: He made it a member of the Roman Senate. Caligula, who was prone to excesses in many ways, viewed this as a perfect way to both reward his horse and undermine the Senate at the same time.
Source: The Shaping of Western Civilization by Michael Burger
At the 1919 Treaty of Versailles peace conference in Paris held after World War One, how did US President Woodrow Wilson describe dogged and irascible Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes?
Answer: A ‘pestiferous varmint’.
Source: ‘Paris 1919’ produced by Canadian Broadcasting
What was the civilian profession of New Zealand’s most decorated military figure, Victoria Cross winner Sir Bernard Freyburg?
Answer: Apiarist or Bee Keeper.
General Historical Texts
Who were the first people to be executed under the English Coventry Act and what was their crime?
Answer: Arundel Coke and John Woodburne in 1722 for nose-splitting.
Source: The Hangman’s Diary by R Stockman
Why did General George Smith Patton apologise to all divisions of the United States Seventh Army during World War Two?
Answer: He slapped two US soldiers in Sicily in August 1943 who were in a field hospital suffering from battle fatigue. He accused them of cowardice. Patton was ordered by his commanding officer General Dwight D Eisenhower to apologise to the army and to write a letter of apology to the soldiers concerned.
Source: A Genius for War – A Life of George Patton by Carlo D’Este
What was the name and rank of the 16 year old sailor who earned a posthumous Victoria Cross serving on HMS Chester during the Battle of Jutland in 1916?
Answer: Boy 1st class John Travers Cornwall.
Source: The First World War by A J P Taylor
The ‘Bellamy Salute’ was used to accompany the American Pledge of Allegiance from the conception of the pledge in 1892 until 1942, when it was forbidden. Why was this?
Answer: The ‘Bellamy Salute’ disturbingly resembled the Nazi Salute. The salute was replaced by the hand-over-heart salute.
Source: The Spiritual-Industrial Complex – America’s Religious Battle against Communism in the Early Cold War by Jonathan P. Herzog
How did King Peter the Great of Russia deal with his political enemy William Mons, who was also, so it was alleged, the lover of his wife Catherine?
Answer: He had Mons executed, after which his head was removed and presented to Catherine in a jar of alcohol. She would keep the jar for many years.
Source: Peter the Great – A Biography by Lindsay Hughes.
English Kings Edward II, Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV all attempted to ban what game?
Answer: Football, also known as soccer. It was felt the medieval incarnation of the sport was distracting men from their archery practice.
Source: The Greatest Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer
How did Attila the Hun, one of history’s most feared figures, die?
Answer: He died on his wedding night. After a night of drunken revelry in celebration of the wedding, he retired with his new bride to the bedchamber, where he promptly passed out and died.
Source: Barbarians and Romans by Justine Davis Randers-Pherson
The hand grenade was one of the most innovative weapons used in the First World War, with famous incarnations including the British ‘Mills Bomb’ grenade and German ‘Stick Bomb’. When these were not available, what did soldiers on all sides resort to?
Answer: Anything and everything. They often used “Jam-Tin” bombs, which were mere empty ration tins crammed with dynamite and scrap metal.
Source: World War One: A Political, Social and Military History by Spencer C. Tucker.
At the height of Stalin’s Soviet Union – authorities developed plans to build a skyscraper called the ‘Palace of the Soviets’, which would have been the tallest structure ever built. When construction failed, the site was turned into another record breaking structure, though not quite so illustrious. What was this?
Answer: The building’s empty foundations were transformed into the world’s largest outdoor swimming pool.
Source: Joseph Stalin by Helen Rappaport.
How did a Royal Navy cannon salute near Guangzhou, China go terribly wrong in 1784?
Answer: The cannons were fired incorrectly and two innocent Chinese bystanders were killed. The event caused a diplomatic incident and a British gunner was later executed.
Source: The Cambridge Illustrated History of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey.
The great Babylonian King Hammurabi (1792BC-1750BC) is remembered for providing what remarkable legacy to his people and the world?
Answer: The inscription of a code of laws on a tall stele, or thick column, of hard stone. It was neither the first nor the last of its type in Mesopotamia. But it was unique for its legal scope and its intellectual and literary perfection.
Source: Forty Centuries – From the Pharaohs to Alfred the Great by S G F Brandon and Freidrich Heer
‘His ignorance on how to run a war is absolute and complete’. About which famous general were these words uttered?
Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a description by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
Source: The Second World War by Robert Alexander Clarke Parker
July 2012
In 1191BC the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III fought the Sea Peoples, a diverse ethnic group from around the Mediterranean who sought to invade Egypt. After one battle the Sea Peoples retreated leaving 12,500 dead and about a thousand prisoners. What was the unusual method used by the Egyptian victors to count the dead?
Answer: Each soldier cut off one hand (or genitals, if uncircumcised) of his victim and took them to the scribes responsible for the census and rewards.
Source: Forty Centuries – From the Pharaohs to Alfred the Great by S G F Brandon and Freidrich Heer
In one of the last cavalry charges of the First World War, a Canadian cavalry attack in 1918 managed to contain a German forward movement during the Saint-Quentin Offensive, but at a great cost. Of the 150 horses deployed in the charge, how many survived German machine guns?
Answer: Four.
Source: World War One: A Political, Social and Military History by Spencer C. Tucker.
What was considered the traditional punishment for murdering a relative in the Roman Empire?
Answer: The convicted person was beaten with blood colored sticks, then sewn up in a sack with a dog, a rooster, a viper, and a monkey, and thrown into a deep sea. If there was no sea nearby, the sack would instead be thrown to a pack of wild beasts.
Source: A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities by J.C. Meckeown
The practice of Opium pipe smoking became enormously popular in China in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – from which the British East India Company profited highly. In 1739 the company exported 200 chests of Opium to China. How much did it export in the year 1848?
Answer: 40,000 chests – a 20,000% increase.
The popular song, ‘a sight to make all nations stand and stare: a kingdom trusted to a schoolboy’s care’, was used to describe which British political figure?
Answer: William Pitt the Younger. The song mocks Pitt’s age, who was 24 when he became Prime Minister in 1783.
Source: William Pitt the Younger by William Hague
How did Soviet politician Felix Dzerzhinsky, a devotee of Joseph Stalin and famed for his brutal leadership of the Soviet internal police, die in 1926?
Answer: While addressing a party committee meeting, Dzerzhinsky was speaking so vigorously in defence of Stalin that he collapsed and died of a heart attack.
Source: Encyclopedia of World Biography.
What were the ironic last words uttered by British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston to his doctor on his death bed?
Answer: “Die, my dear doctor? That’s the last thing I shall do.”
Source: Cassell’s Humorous Quotations by Nigel Rees.
In the mid to late 19th century mass market journalism emerged in response to increasing literacy levels. Moise Millaud in France established in the 1860s the newspaper Le Petit Journal. How many copies a day did this sell?
Answer: 582,000 copies by 1880 – four times more than its nearest rival.
Source: A History of the World by Hugh Thomas
From which historical event is the practice of torture now widely known as waterboarding believed to have originated?
Answer: The Spanish Inquisition. It was described as the ‘ordeal by water’.
Source: The Spanish Inquisition: A History by Joseph Perez.
At the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, what was known to the Romans as ‘The British Metal’?
Answer: Tin. The Romans were great metallurgists, using large amounts of tin, lead and silver in various aspects of their daily lives.
Source: General Historical Texts
In March 1918 the British Government, alarmed at a major and un-welcome social trend, introduced section 40D of the Defence of the Realm Act. What was this new law?
Answer: It made it an offence for a woman to pass on sexually transmitted diseases to a serviceman. The punishment was either a fine of 100 pounds – equal to almost twice a domestic servants’ annual wage – or six months’ imprisonment. The new law was in response to the alarming increase in the number of infections of servicemen, particularly by amateur and part-time prostitutes.
Source: Warrior Race by Lawrence James
First World War German fighter ace Rudolf Berthold had 44 confirmed kills by the end of the conflict in 1918. Having survived the war, what happened to him in 1920?
Answer: He was strangled in Harburg with his own Blue Max, the Pour le Merite, Germany’s highest award for bravery, by German Communists.
Source: Knights of the Air by Ezra Bowen; General Historical Texts
Novelist Charles Dickens was one of the most beloved figures of 19th century Britain – a cross between J K Rowling and Father Christmas. He loved the public’s adoration of him. In his later years, however, and up to the time of his death, he undertook an arduous series of public lectures up and down Britain, the exhaustion caused by this leading to his death aged 58. But there was a little known reason for this grueling regime, and one which Dickens was very keen to keep from the public. What was this?
Answer: From the age of 45 Dickens had been having an extramarital affair with a mesmerizing, struggling 18 year old actress named Ellen (Nelly) Ternan. Traveling up and down Britain was a means of maintaining secret liaisons with her without being detected, which Dickens feared would ruin his career and end the public’s adoration of him.
Source: Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion by Peter Ackroyd; General Historical Texts
What year was legalized slavery abolished in Saudi Arabia?
Answer: 1962
Source: An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin
General Douglas MacArthur wore a distinctive and unusual hat during World War Two that was for an army other than that of the United States. What was this?
Answer: Field Marshall of the Philippines Army. MacArthur had been hired as a consultant to the Philippines Government in the 1930s at a reported annual salary of US$500,000. This is equivalent to perhaps $5 million today.
Source: American Shogun: Gen MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito and the Drama of Modern Japan by Robert Harvey; America’s Caesar by Greg Loren Durand
Who was the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated?
Answer: Spencer Perceval was shot dead in May 1812 in the House of Commons by bankrupt John Bellingham. He bore a grievance against the government over a claim for compensation for his time spent in a Russian jail. Perceval left a widow and twelve children. When it was revealed he left little or no money, Parliament made a grant of 50,000 pounds to his family.
Source: General Historical Texts
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany owned how many schlosser or castles?
Answer: 69. Even if he tried, he could not manage a full week in each, in any given year. In present currency, if the average value of each castle and surrounding land was, say, US$10 million, at some $690 million, the value of his property portfolio was a not inconsequential part of his net worth.
Source: The Last Kaiser by Giles MacDonogh
Eighteenth century Cambridge professor and poet Thomas Gray said that reading Aristotle was like … (what?)
Answer: Eating dried hay.
Source: England by F E Halliday; General Historical Texts
Admiral David Beatty was Britain’s most glamorous naval officer during World War One. Handsome, flamboyant and wealthy, thanks to his heiress wife, he had an unusual relationship with a Mrs Robinson, a Madam Dubois and a lady in Edinburgh named Josephine. What relationship did Beatty have with these women?
Answer: They were the fortune tellers he regularly consulted.
Source: Castles of Steel by Robert Massie
During the Battle of Stalingrad in World War Two, there was a particular reason why Adolf Hitler promoted General von Paulus to the rank of field marshal. Why was this?
Answer: The German’s were in a very bad position, and Hitler believed that if von Paulus was made a field marshal he would not surrender to the Russians, as in all of German history no field marshal had ever surrendered. Field Marshal von Paulus surrendered to the Russians on January 31, 1943
Source: Stalingrad by Antony Beevor; General Historical Texts.
Why are there no photographs of Abraham Lincoln actually delivering the Gettysburg address on November 19, 1863?
Answer: The previous speaker Senator Edward Everett spoke for some two hours. The contents of his address are largely forgotten. The photographer there assumed that Lincoln would speak for a lengthy period also and took his time setting up his camera. Lincoln’s speech of 246 words ran for around two minutes. The only record is a blurred photo of Lincoln leaving the podium after his address.
Source: Lincoln by Carl Sandburg; The Civil War by Shelby Foote.
Even by medieval standards, the death of King Edward II of England in Berkeley Castle in 1327 was particularly gruesome. How did he die?
Answer: He was forced to abdicate in favor of his underage son, then tortured, starved and thrown into a pit of rotting corpses. His death was caused by having a red hot poker inserted into his anus through to his internal organs, so as to not leave a mark on his body.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was the bill introduced into the United States House of Representatives in 1896 by Henry Cabot Lodge on the issue of immigration?
Answer: The bill advocated a literacy test for all prospective immigrants. Only those who could read and write either their own or some other language would be admitted. The bill was passed by both houses of Congress, but vetoed by President Cleveland two days before he left office.
Source: A History of American Democracy by Hicks, Mowbray, Burke
In 19th century Britain, what were popular products such as Battley’s Sedative Solution, Dover’s Powder, Black Drop and Godfrey’s Cordial?
Answer: These were Laudanum – opium based products – prescribed widely as health tonics for children and adults from all classes including the aristocracy and royalty. Addiction to these products was widespread.
Source: Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
When the American War of Independence commenced in 1775 what was the comparative strength of each side’s armed forces?
Answer: The odds were heavily against the Americans. General Washington rarely had more than 16,000 men at any one time, and at Valley Forge he had around 2,000 men under arms. The British had perhaps 60,000 well-equipped, well-fed soldiers, most, however, on garrison duty in various parts of the British Empire. They also could call on Hessians, Americans ‘Loyalists’ and Indians, and had the not insignificant services of the Royal Navy.
Source: A History of American Democracy by Hicks, Mowbray, Burke
When news of the British victory over the French at the naval battle at Trafalgar in 1805 reached England there was widespread celebration, off-set by national grieving at the death of Lord Nelson. Had the admiral lived he would have presumably been created a duke – as had Marlborough, and would Wellington, in later years. But what was done instead?
Answer: His brother, William, who had no connection with the battle, was given an earldom, a grant of 99,000 pounds with which to buy an estate and he and his heirs an annual pension of 5000 pounds a year in perpetuity.
Source: Horatio Nelson by Tom Pocock
What was unusual about US President George Washington’s dental arrangements?
Answer: He wore false teeth, not made from wood, as has been widely suggested, but from carved hippopotamus ivory and gold. They were made by Dr. John Greenwood, esteemed as the ‘father of modern dentistry’.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was the ‘Delicate Investigation’ authorised by the British Government in 1806 after the adoption four years’ earlier of the son of a London docker, William Austin, by Caroline, estranged wife of the Prince of Wales, later King George IV?
Answer: Four cabinet ministers investigated whether the docker’s son was in fact the illegitimate child of the sexually pro-active Princess Caroline, fathered by Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia. The year before the adoption rumors abounded that she was pregnant, yet no conclusive findings from the investigation were established.
Source: The Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
The San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906 caused widespread devastation. What message did US Army officer Brigadier Frederick Funston wire Washington on the morning of the second day?
Answer: ‘San Francisco practically destroyed. You cannot send too many tents and rations. 200,000 homeless.’ When the subsequent fires burnt themselves out, four square miles had been annihilated: 514 blocks containing 28,000 buildings and 450 people had been killed. The loss was assessed at $500 million.
Source: Great Disasters by John Canning
Britain never annexed Australia as a whole, but when in the 19th Century a ‘gentleman attached to the French Government’ asked the colonial secretary, Lord John Russell (1792-1878) how much of Australia was British?, what did Russell reply?
Answer. ‘“The whole”, and with that answer, he went away.’
Source: Heaven’s Command – An Imperial Progress by James Morris
Brilliant inventor Hiram Maxim revolutionised warfare with his invention of the Maxim machine gun. He was, however, a difficult man – arrogant, cantankerous, impulsive and rude. He also became increasingly deaf. How did one of the director’s of his company communicate with him?
Answer: He pulled on one of Maxim’s ear lobes, leant close and bellowed into his ear.
Source: The Gun – The story of the AK 47 by C J Chivers
June 2012
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot by Black Hand member Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on June 28 1914, the event which triggered the First World War. The Archduke, who was mortally wounded, was asked, ‘are you in any pain?’ What did he reply?
Answer: ‘It’s nothing.’
Source: First World War by Hugh Strachan
Of the 60 major battles during the American Civil War, what was the professional background of most of the commanders?
Answer: Fifty-five of the battles were commanded on both sides by West Point graduates. The other five battles had a West Point commander on at least one side.
Source: A Genius for War – A Life of George S Patton by Carlo D’Este; Officers and Gentlemen by Jeffrey Simpson.
In the last years of the 19th Century what was the language that was created in Europe, the goal of which was to encourage all Europeans to speak it, as a means of creating harmony between nations across the continent?
Answer: Esperanto. Its rationale was that if people spoke the same language they would be less likely to be in conflict with one another. Sadly, the experiment failed and the language did not catch on. Within three decades Europe was entangled in its greatest war ever, which became the First World War.
Source: The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918 by AJP Taylor; General Historical Texts
Violet Bonham Carter, a well connected young London society lady, sat next to a 32 year old Winston Churchill at a London dinner in 1906. Churchill sat sullenly for some time before engaging the then 19 year old in a monologue which impressed her for his power of speech and breadth of vision. Churchill concluded by lamenting that life was too short and inconsequential but that, “We are all worms, but …” what?
Answer “ … I believe that I am a glow worm.”
Source: Winston Churchill as I knew Him by Violet Bonham Carter
What major personal tragedy did Theodore Roosevelt suffer in his early adult life?
Answer: His mother and wife died on the same day in February 1884.
Source: General Historical Texts
The first Tsar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584), was one of the worst tyrants in world history with a penchant for mass murder. He even surpassed Henry VIII by having eight wives. As a child he tortured small animals. One of these childhood acts lives on today in ignominy. What was this?
Answer: He was rumored to have thrown ten puppies off the walls of the Kremlin.
Source: Ivan the Terrible by Henri Troyat; General Historical Texts
George Herbert, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon was an amateur Egyptologist who financed the expedition of Howard Carter which discovered the tomb of Tutenkamun in February 1923. Two months later Lord Carnarvon died in Cairo from blood poisoning and pneumonia brought on by an infected mosquito bite. At his family estate in England an usual event occurred at the same time of Carnarvon’s death. What was this?
Answer: His pet dog Susie let out a great howl and died.
Source: Tutankhamun – The Untold Story by Thomas Hoving; The Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter; General Historical Texts
The term ‘goat’ is applied to the lowest ranking graduate of any year at the West Point Military Academy in the United States. In 1861, who finished last in their class, thereby receiving the accolade of ‘goat’?
Answer: George Armstrong Custer. Two years later, the fiercely ambitious Custer, aged 23, was promoted brigadier general – the youngest general officer in the Union Army.
Source: A Genius for War – A Life of George S Patton by Carlo D’Este
At the beginnings of aerial combat during World War One, and before armaments such as the fixed machine gun were introduced, what was the purpose of weapons used by pilots such as the flechette?
Answer: These were pencil-sized, needle-sharp, steel darts that were released from planes on the troops below. Dropped from an altitude of 1,500 feet, a flechette could go completely through the body of a horse.
Source: Knights of the Air by Ezra Bowen
Brilliant and heroic World War Two jungle warfare expert, Major-General Orde Wingate DSO with two bars, was an eccentric even by British standards. What were some of his strange and unusual mannerisms?
Answer: He wore an out of date Wolseley ‘Pith’ helmet; sometimes had an alarm clock on his wrist rather than a wristwatch, gave briefings in his tent completely naked; liked to snack on raw onions and had a deliberate casualness about hygiene; it was said he kept a jungle-filthy uniform for special occasions. When he was killed in a plane crash in 1944, Churchill said that with his death, a ‘man of the highest quality … (had been lost) a bright flame … extinguished.’
Source: Churchill General’s by John Keegan; Major-General Orde Wingate by Royce Wilson
After the Dutch arrived in New Amsterdam, later renamed New York, in 1624, how long did it take before they erected a church?
Answer: 17 years.
Source: A History of American Democracy by Hicks, Mowray, Burke; General Historical Texts.
What is the significance of the year 1888 in the history of German Sovereigns?
Answer: It was the year of the three Kaisers. Kaiser Wilhelm I, Kaiser Frederick III, Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Massie; General Historical Tests
During the American Civil War, generals on both sides of the conflict tried to ban their soldiers from singing the song Lorena. Why was this?
Answer: A highly sentimental love song with lyrics such as ‘A hundred months have passed, Lorena, since last I held that hand in mine’, it was deemed to make the men too nostalgic for home and thereby lowered their morale and fighting spirit.
Source: The Civil War by Shelby Foote; General Historical Texts
What did the Duke of Wellington say was the secret of military success?
Answer: Attention to detail.
Source: Decisive Factors in Twenty Great Battles of the World by William Seymour; General Historical Texts
What did iron-willed, short-tempered, puritanical Peter Stuyvesant say to the inhabitants of the unruly and essentially lawless New Amsterdam, later renamed New York, on being appointed Director General of the town in 1647?
Answer: ‘I shall govern you as a father his children.’
Source: A History of American Democracy by Hicks, Mowray, Burke; General Historical Texts.
In pre-Meiji restoration Japan, why did a Samurai shave his head before battle?
Answer: To indicate he was ready to die.
Source: The Emergence of Modern Japan by Janet E Hunter; General Historical Texts
Nineteenth Century German Chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck arrived at decisions on major political issues and questions of state, not by lengthy and wide discussions with his peers, or attendance at consultative committees, but by what?
Answer: Quiet brooding.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Massie
Jack Ruby used a Colt Cobra .38 Special, serial number 2744LW, to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on Sunday morning, November 24, 1963. What happened to this firearm?
Answer: It was returned to Ruby’s estate many years after his death and was sold at auction to an anonymous New Jersey gun collector for $220,000. Mr. Ruby purchased the gun in 1960 for $62.50.
Source: The Day Kennedy was Shot by Jim Bishop; General Historical Texts
In British Somaliland, in the 1920s the British Government used, for the first time, the Royal Air Force, rather than the Army, to quickly put down an insurrection, causing the then British colonial secretary Leopold Avery to describe the conflict as what?
Answer: ‘At a cost of 77,000 pounds, it was the cheapest war in history.’
Source: The Authorised History of the Royal Air Force
The Roman Emperor Vitellius (15AD – 69AD) wolfed down three or four substantial meals a day. On his way out to assume the post of commander of the army of Upper Germany in 68AD he greeted passersby by asking them if they had had a good breakfast, and then did what?
Answer: Gave a great belch to show that he had breakfasted himself.
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon
On the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in July 1870, what was the response of students at the University of Bonn in the German state of Westphalia?
Answer: The entire student body, 1000 students, all enlisted.
Source: The Fall of Paris – The Siege and the Commune 1870-71 by Sir Alistair Horne
Nineteenth Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, when attending a public dinner where his meal, served from a distant kitchen, was stone cold, said what, on sipping his champagne?
Answer: ‘Thank God I have at last got something warm.’
Source: The Lion and the Unicorn, Gladstone vs. Disraeli by Richard Aldous; General Historical Texts
How many pages of documents were used during the Nuremburg trials held following World War Two in Bavaria, Germany in 1945-46?
Answer: One million.
Source: General Historical Texts.
The poet Lord Byron was so good looking, it was said, that London society women would faint on seeing him. Periodically, however, he became fat and dissolute through excessive drinking and over-eating. What was his preferred means of dieting?
Answer: Byron would starve himself by surviving on a diet of cabbage, washed down with cider or hock.
Source: Byron: The Flawed Angel by Phyllis Grosskurth
What did: Pacal, Mayan King of Palenque; Queen Victoria of Great Britain; US steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie; and Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion have in common?
Answer: None was over five feet in height.
Source: General Historical Texts
The decision by King Henry V of England to invade France in 1415, which culminated in the Battle of Agincourt, was brought about partially by the legendary taunt of the heir to the French throne, the Dauphin, to Henry. What was this?
Answer: He sent Henry tennis balls suggesting that he stay in England and play tennis.
Source: General Historical Texts
Earl Warren was Attorney General of California before finishing his career as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. Where did he graduate in his class at the University of California Law School, when he took his degree in 1914?
Answer: Near the bottom.
Source: Crossfire – The Plot that Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs
English cleric George Burden gave a famous sermon in 1804 on ‘Lawful Amusements’. What did this refer to?
Answer: He laid down that Christians must refrain from all amusements on Sunday, including travelling and paying visits. This was later expanded by enthusiastic supporters to include a prohibition on taking a stroll in a public garden, and deeming it a sin to tell the maid one was out, when one was in.
Source: Sex in History by G Rattray Taylor
Twenty years after the establishment of New York in 1626, or New Amsterdam as it was first known, how many languages were spoken in the town?
Answer: 18
Source: The Americans by J C Furnas; General Historical Texts
In the 1860s in London, one in sixty houses was what?
Answer: A brothel. Today the figure would be around one in 6000.
Source: British Government Children’s Employment Commission Report 1867
May 2012
What was significant about the early occupations of US Presidents James A Garfield and Lyndon Baines Johnson?
Answer: They were both school teachers.
Source: The Americans by J C Furnas; General Historical Texts
The Roman Emperor Augustus (63 BC –14 AD), after dining at the home of a prominent Rome citizen, and being given a very ordinary meal, said what to his host as he was leaving?
Answer: ‘I had not realized that I was such a close friend of yours.’
Source: Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome by J P V D Balsdon
The first execution using the guillotine was conducted in Paris on April 25, 1792. But when did France officially cease using the guillotine as a state sanctioned means of execution?
Answer: 1977
Source: A History of Modern France by Alfred Cobban; General Historical Texts.
In 19th Century Britain, there was a saying which expressed what many felt about the aristocracy. What was this?
Answer: ‘Fine manners … unpaid bills’
Source: Mid-Victorian Britain by Geoffrey Best; General Historical Texts
In the years 1 and 2 AD, an official government census was conducted in China. What was China’s population at that time?
Answer: 59,595,000. With perhaps a million overlooked by the census takers.
Source: A Short History of the World by Professor Geoffrey Blainey
During the American Civil War, after the surrender of Confederate forces at the Southern city of Vicksburg to the Union Army on July 4, 1863, how long was if before the 4th of July was celebrated in the city?
Answer: 81 years
Source: The Civil War – Ken Burns
In German military awards, what is Hans Ulrich Rudel noted for?
Answer: He was the only German soldier to be awarded the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.
Source: General Historical Texts
During the American Civil War, over 100,000 free blacks and former slaves served with the Union Army. How many served as officers?
Answer: None.
Source: Brothers in Arms by William C Davis
What did the Duke of Wellington say to a sympathetic onlooker when, at an official reception in Vienna, French marshals turned their back on him, to show they believed the French army had been defeated by an inferior at the Battle of Waterloo?
Answer: ‘Madam, I have seen their backs before.’
Source: General Historical Texts
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, visited northern England in 1435, and accepted the hospitality of villagers one night near the border with Scotland. When, after supper, the men and boys suddenly left for a nearby tower guardhouse in case the Scots mounted a raid, Aeneas asked why no one was staying behind to protect the women and was told … what?
Answer: The women had nothing to fear from the Scots ‘since they do not count rape as harm’.
Source: The War of the Roses by John Gillingham
In 1855 the largest private armoury – a place for the storage of weapons – was built in the United States. Where was it built and by whom?
Answer: In Hartford Connecticut by gun inventor and manufacturer Sam Colt.
Source: The Oxford Book of Famous People – Oxford University Press
British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was converted to the Church of England by his father at the age of 12 and remained for the rest of his life a modestly devout churchgoer. But what was unusual about his final utterances when he was on his deathbed in April 1881?
Answer: He was heard to utter the Kaddish, the Hebrew prayer for the dead.
Source: Disraeli: A Personal History by Christopher Hibbert
According to historian William Manchester’s book Death of a President, on the assassination of President John F Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, what did an Oklahoma City doctor say on hearing that the President had been shot?
On being told by a grieving visitor to his practice, he beamed, “Good, I hope they got Jackie (the President’s wife).”
Source: Death of a President by William Manchester
Germany has invaded France three times in the past 140 years – 1870, 1914 and 1939. But how many times did France invade Germany between 1785 and 1813?
Answer: Fourteen.
Source: The Fall of Paris – The Siege and the Commune 1870-71 by Sir Alistair Horne
What was similar about the upbringing of Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler?
Answer: They both had an adoring mother, and a brutal father.
Source: General Historical Texts
The last siege of the Kremlin in Moscow was in the early 17th century, ironically by a Polish claimant to the Russian throne, the False Dmitry, as defender and the Russians as besiegers. What did the Russian besiegers do to Dmitry when the Kremlin finally fell?
Answer: The Russians executed Dmitry, burned his body, primed a cannon on the Kremlin wall and fired his ashes back toward Poland.
Source: Peter the Great – His Life and World by Robert K Massie
British politician Lord Rosebery said he had three ambitions in life. What were they?
Answer: To win the Derby, marry an heiress and to be Prime Minister. He achieved all three.
Source: Rosebery: Statesman in Turmoil by Leo McKinstry
In France, in the mid 19th century, what was a widespread practice for those who wished to avoid being conscripted in to the French army?
Answer: Having your front teeth knocked out. By this act of self-mutilation, it was impossible to tear open a musket cartridge.
Source: Peasants into Frenchmen, the Modernization of Rural France 1870-1914 by Eugene Weber
At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7 1941, the distinguished New York surgeon Dr Alan J Moorhead happened to be visiting Honolulu delivering a series of lectures. Like other medical practitioners he converged on the island’s main hospital to help where he could. His competence and optimism did wonders for the wounded. What did he say to one badly injured soldier?
Answer: ‘Son, you’ve been through a lot of hell, and you’re going into some more. This foot has got to come off. But there’s many a good pirate with only one leg.’
Source: Day of Infamy by Walter Lord
What was unusual about Adolf Hitler’s military hats?
They were armored with steel lining as protection against assassination.
Source: General Historical Texts
The standard US rifle in the Vietnam War was the M16, which was a .22 caliber. Hollywood’s famed ‘most powerful handgun in the world’ was a .45 caliber. But why did the British Army in the late 1860s request the Webley company develop a massive .57 caliber revolver?
Answer: The Webley No 1. Revolver was adopted for army use in 1872 to provide stopping power against the fanatical and powerfully built adversaries encountered in colonial warfare, some of whom would keep on coming when shot with a .45.
Source: Pistols and Revolvers by Major Frederick Myatt MC
Why did twelfth century English King, Henry II, allow himself to be whipped by priests, while praying in Canterbury Cathedral?
Answer: This was punishment, ordered by Pope Alexander III and agreed to by Henry, for the killing of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket, on December 29, 1170 by four of Henry’s knights Reginald FitzUrse, William de Tracey, High de Morville and Richard le Breton. The king had been in conflict with Becket and the knights had responded to Henry’s shouting, ‘will no-one rid me of this meddlesome priest.’
Source: General Historical Texts
When a conquering general returned to Ancient Rome and was feted with a victory parade, it was not uncommon for a slave to stand behind him in his chariot occasionally speaking quietly to him. Why was this?
Answer: The slave was there to remind him that ‘all fame was fleeting’.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was the unflattering description of the Saxons in England prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066, made by 19th Century British Historian Thomas Carlyle?
Answer: He said that the Saxons were ‘a gluttonous race … lumbering about in pot-bellied equanimity; not dreaming of heroic toil and silence and endurance such as lead to the high places of the Universe and the golden mountaintops where dwelt the spirits of the Dawn’.
Source: A History of the English People by Paul Johnson
How much did Dutch East India Company Director General Peter Minuit pay the local Native American tribes for the purchase of Manhattan Island in 1626?
Answer: Not the fabled $24, but 60 Dutch guilders, or $600 dollars, for 14,000 acres, which today is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The Native Americans had lived on the island since the end of the Ice-Age.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was the chief policy of the ‘Know-Nothing’ party in the United States in the mid-19th century?
Answer: It was anti-immigration and specifically anti-Catholic immigration.
Source: General Historical Texts
The son of the last French Emperor died in unusual circumstances. What were these?
Answer: Napoleon, the Prince Imperial was the son of Emperor Napoleon III, who was deposed in 1870. The Prince Imperial served in the British Army under Lord Chelmsford in South Africa and was killed by Zulus on June 1, 1879. The Zulus later said that if they knew who he was they would have spared him.
Source: General Historical Texts
When General Dwight D Eisenhower took over the American high command in North Africa during World War Two, how many senior officers was he promoted over?
Answer: 228
Source: Eisenhower: In War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
During World War One, on engaging in battle a determined Scottish regiment wearing khaki kilts, how did one German unit subsequently describe them?
Answer: As ‘the ladies from hell.’
Source: World War One by Sir Martin Gilbert
By 1890 nearly half the millionaires in the United States, some 1,800, lived in which city?
Answer: New York.
Source: New York – The Documentary
16th Century Russian ruler and Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan the Terrible was the first to use the title Tsar. What was unusual about the symbol worn by the 6,000 black uniformed secret police force he established, the oprichniki?
Answer: The symbol was a dog and a broom, symbolizing that the secret police were there to sniff out treason and sweep it away.
Source: The Art of Russia by Andre Graham-Dixon
April 2012
What did Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh do with part of his left ear which he cut off on December 23, 1888?
Answer: He presented it to a prostitute at his favorite brothel. Soon after this he was committed to a mental asylum.
Source: Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith: Vincent and Theo van Gogh: A Dual Biography by Jan Hulsker
What was unusual about the execution by hanging of Andrew Carr, for the murder of prostitute Margaret Murphy, at Richmond Prison, Dublin, on July 28, 1870?
Answer: Carr’s body was decapitated by the hanging – reportedly because the hangman had miscalculated Carr’s weight and, therefore, the required length of rope. This was followed by a grisly three minutes of the body twitching.
Source: The Hangman’s Diary – A Calendar of Judicial Hanging by R Stockman
Agriculture brought about a phenomenal increase in the world’s population. How many times is the world’s population thought to have increased between 8000 and 4000 BC?
Answer: Sixteen times
Source: Complete History of the World by Richard Overy
What was significant about the Japanese historical figure the Lady Murasaki Shikibu?
Answer: Around the year 1000, she wrote what is believed to be the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, a masterpiece of literary invention that mirrored the life of the brilliant Heian court.
Source: Forty Centuries – From the Pharaohs to Alfred the Great by S H G Brandon and Friedrich Heer
What was unusual about the food found with Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, when his tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in November 1922 by English Egyptologist Howard Carter.
Answer: Along with gold and other priceless treasures, the honey placed in the tomb when the King died around 1346 BC was still edible, over 3000 years later.
Source: Tutankhamun – The Untold Story by Thomas Hoving; The Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter
What was similar about the shooting assassinations of President John F Kennedy in November 1963, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand – the event which triggered World War One – in June 1914?
Answer: Both men requested that the roof of the convertible car in which they were traveling when shot be lowered.
Source: Death of a President by William Manchester; The First World War by Huw Strachan
British Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was in Command of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet during the First World War. What was the famous line about the great burden he carried in this role?
Answer: Jellicoe, it was said, ‘was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon’.
Source: The First World War by Martin Gilbert
What was significant about the funeral held in London in 1824 of brilliant but controversial English poet Lord George Byron, who was described, amongst other things, as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’.
Answer: Many of London’s aristocracy sent their empty carriages to be driven past the funeral service, as a final act of contempt for Byron.
Source: General Historical Texts
Where does the English word ‘Lord’ come from?
Answer: It derives from the Scandinavian/Danish hlaford, a contraction of hlaf-weard, ‘guardian of the bread’.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was the first public building in the world to be lit by electricity?
Answer: The Savoy Theatre London in 1881.Source: General Historical Texts
In 1781, what was the response of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, on being presented with a copy by Edward Gibbon, of Gibbon’s recently published book ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, which is still in print today and regarded as the standard text on the decline of the Roman Empire?
Answer: ‘Another damn thick, square book? Always scribble, scribble, scribble, eh Mr Gibbon?’
Source: General Historical Texts
At the Battle of Jutland in 1916 what was the famous quote from British Admiral David Beatty about the performance of the Royal Navy at that crucial World War One battle against the Germans?
‘There seems to something wrong with our bloody ships today’.
Source: General Historical Texts
Flamboyant World War Two US General George Smith Patton died prematurely, and in an unusual way, for a ‘blood and guts’ four star general tank commander. How did he die?
Answer: Through injuries suffered in a car crash in December 1945 while travelling in the rear passenger seat of his Army-provided Cadillac.Source: Source: General Historical Texts
In 1944 the British had a top secret plan in place named: Operation Foxley. What was this?
Answer: The plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Source: General Historical Texts
How did Prince Otto Von Bismarck describe the French Foreign Secretary, the Duc de Gramont?
Answer: ‘The stupidest man in Europe’
Source: The Fall of Paris – The Siege and the Commune 1870-71 by Alistair Horne
Which early British Army Campaign Medal, perhaps the earliest, carried the following words or legend: ‘The deed is done, it is all over.”
Answer: The medal for the Battle of Culloden 1746.
Source: General Historical Texts
What was unique about the Victoria Cross awarded during World War Two to New Zealander Flying Officer Lloyd Allan Trigg?
Answer: It was the only Victoria Cross ever awarded solely on evidence provided by the enemy, for an action in which there were no surviving Allied witnesses. The recommendation was made by the captain of a German submarine U-468, which was sunk in 1943 by Trigg’s aircraft.
Source: General Historical Texts
At a conference in Kiel, Germany, in March 1904, Britain’s King Edward VII said what in response to the claim that Japan posed the greatest threat to Christian and European civilization?
Answer: “I cannot see it. The Japanese are an intelligent, brave and chivalrous nation, quite as civilised as Europeans, from whom they only differ by the pigmentation of their skin”.
Source: The Last Kaiser – William The Impetuous by Giles MacDonogh
French Revolutionary figure Honore Mirabeau said: ‘I am a mad dog, from whose …?
Answer: ‘ … bite despotism and privilege will die.’
Source: General Historical Texts
What are the origins of the word ‘posh’?
Answer: The term given to the preferred ships’ cabins sought for those travelling from Britain to the various parts of the British Empire. On leaving England, the best cabin to have was on the port side – as these did not face the baking afternoon sun – and the opposite on the voyage home. Hence, Port Out, Starboard Home.
Source: General Historical Texts
Which senior British Royal Naval officer was known as the ‘Dancing Admiral’?
Answer: Admiral Lord Jackie Fisher, (1841-1920) who revolutionized the British Navy and was instrumental in the introduction of the Dreadnought class of Battleship.
Source: The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
In a letter in 1787, British writer Horace Walpole said of the French, “I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighboring nations but …
Answer: … for their insolent and unfounded airs of superiority.
Source: General Historical Texts
President Franklin D Roosevelt liked to mix the cocktails for guests at the White House (although it was said that he preferred to mix them more than drink them, and after these ice cold water was served at dinner.) Why were the cocktails generally said to be not appreciated by those with sensitive stomachs?
Answer: They were made with Argentine vermouth.
Source: War at the Top by General Sir Leslie Hollis and James Leasor
What was unusual about the private activities of Queen Elisabeth of Romania (1843-1916), the wife of King Carol of Romania?
Answer: She had an illustrious and prolific literary career spanning several decades, where she wrote a great number of poems, novels, plays, short stories and essays under the pen name Carmen Sylva.
Source: General Historical Texts
How many Dukes have been Prime Minister of Great Britain?
Answer: There have been Five. Wellington, Portland, Grafton, Newcastle, Devonshire.
Source: The Dukes by Brian Masters
What was unusual about Private Albert Cashier who fought with the Union Army during the American Civil War?
Answer: Cashier, who first enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry in 1862, was subsequently found out to be a female named Jennie Irene Hodgers.
Source: Brothers in Arms by William C Davis
The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, was known for his love of food and subsequent girth. At a rather wild evening at his country home Sandringham one of his guests, a baronet, found himself, the following morning, summarily leaving the royal estate, bags packed for him, and before breakfast. Why was this?
Answer: The previous evening, in the billiard room, the Prince had put a friendly hand on the baronet’s shoulder and said with a kindly smile, “Freddy, Freddy, you’re very drunk.” Sir Frederick immediately pointed to his Royal host’s waistline and said, “Tum, Tum, you’re very fat,” thereby invoking a nickname widely known in English society, but never said to the Prince’s face.
Source: Dreadnought by Robert K Massie
What was unusual about the choice of personal dispute resolution favored by James Hamilton who was Democrat Governor of South Carolina between 1830 and 1832?
Answer: He fought 14 duels, wounding his opponent on each occasion.
Source: Birth of the Modern by Paul Johnson
During the American Civil War, which future US Presidents paid for substitutes to serve in the Army in their place?
Answer: Chester A Arthur and Grover Cleveland
Source: General Historical Texts
Letizia Bonaparte’s life was particularly significant for what primary reason?
Answer: The Mother of Napoleon Bonaparte, of her twelve offspring, four died in infancy, one became an emperor, three were kings, one a queen, and another a duchess.
Source: The Age of Napoleon by J Christopher
March 2012
The Earl of Lytton, British Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880, said ‘The further east you go, the greater becomes…
Answer: ‘ … the importance of a bit of bunting’
Source: General Historical Tests
What fee was then small time lawyer Abraham Lincoln paid in 1857 by the Illinois Central Railway, for Lincoln’s work on a tax case involving the railway?
Answer: $5,000. (At the time, the cost of a home in Brooklyn New York was approximately $2,500) Lincoln paid half of this fee to his much younger and less experienced law partner Billy Hendon.
Source: Lincoln by Carl Sandburg
How many times did the population of New York increase between 1800 and 1900?
Answer: 50 times. From 100,000 to five million.
Source: General Historical Texts
French Marshall Ferdinand Foch said of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that it was not peace, but … what?
Answer: An armistice for 20 years (He got it wrong by just 65 days)
Source: The First World War by Huw Strachan
How many medals for bravery were awarded in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War?
Answer: None. All Confederate soldiers were regarded as heroes.
Source: The Civil War by Ken Burns
How many British Generals were killed in action in World War One?
Answer: 78
Source: Professor Huw Strachan – The First World War
Which car company was the first to offer a V8 engine and in what year?
Answer: Cadillac, in 1915.
Source: General Historical Tests
Author of The Riddle of the Sands and Sinn Fein politician Erskine Childers was executed in 1922. What did he do on the morning of his execution?
Answer: Asked for, and was granted, an hour’s postponement to watch the sun rise, and then shook hands with each member of the firing squad. He also asked his 16 year old son to find the men who had signed his death warrant and shake hands with them.
His son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, went on to become a member of the Irish parliament from 1938 to 1973 and the fourth President of Ireland in 1974.
Source: The New Penguin Book of Modern Quotations by Robert Andrews
In ancient Rome, what was the famous salute that gladiators would deliver to the emperor before commencing combat?
Answer: Morituri te salutamus. “We who are about to die salute you”.
Source: General Historical Tests
‘Pure’ was the Victorian England term for what?
Answer: Dog excrement. This was used as a raw material in the leather tanning industry.
Source: General Historical Texts
What book was found among Napoleon’s possessions by the Prussians after his defeat at Waterloo, and was also kept close at hand by both Stalin and Mussolini?
Answer: The Prince by Machiavelli
Source: General Historical Texts
After the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 during the Crimean War, what did the commander of the Light Brigade, the enormously wealthy 7th Earl of Cardigan, do?
Answer: He reported to his furious Commander in Chief, Lord Cardigan, and then returned to his luxury steam yacht the Dryad, anchored off Balaclava, where he had a bath, drank a bottle of champagne, ate dinner prepared by his French chef, before retiring to bed in his state-room.
Source: To Hell with Picasso & Other Essays by Paul Johnson
What was the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great’s, general order issued in 1745 in regards to any soldier who attempted to run away during battle?
Answer: ‘If any soldier should attempt to run away during battle and should set as much as one foot out of his rank, the noncommissioned officer standing to his rear shall run him through with the short sword and kill him on the spot’
Source: William A Levinson
In the last Official Census of Russia, undertaken by the Russian Government prior to World World One, what did Tsar Nicholas 11 put down in the section marked ‘Occupation’.
Answer: ‘Owner of the Russian lands’.
Source: General Historical Tests
King Ethelred the Redeless of England, who died in 1016, had a lifelong fear of candles. Why was this?
Answer: As a child he was beaten with candles, when there was nothing else at hand
Source: England – A Portrait by John Bowie.
In St Petersburg in the 1880s over half the small advertisements in the city’s newspapers were for what?
Answer: Cures for venereal disease
Source: The Three Emperors by Miranda Carter
What was unusual about the hour long speech delivered by former US President Teddy Roosevelt in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912?
Answer: On the way to deliver the speech a would be assassin shot him in the chest with a revolver but Roosevelt insisted on delivering the speech which he did with the bullet lodged in his chest.
Source: General Historical Tests
In the last decade of the 19th Century, what was the largest commercial business in Europe?
Answer: The Krupp Armaments Combine of Essen, Germany
Source: The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman
On This Day
1908 – King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe are assassinated by Republican sympathizers in Lisbon.
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- I was born in Huanggang, China, in 1908.
- After training as a soldier, I became a leader in the Chinese Communist Party
- During the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) my leadership was pivotal in a string of Communist victories.
- After the war I initially avoided politics, but later became minister of defence in 1959. In 1968 I replaced Liu Shaoqui (1898-1969) as the heir apparent to Mao Zedong (1893-1976).
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Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
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“In Russia a man is a called reactionary if he objects to having his property stolen and his wife and children murdered.”
Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesmanSource: The Wicket Wit of Winston Churchill by Dominique Enright
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Articles from The Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Acuity – the professional magazine of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand - and more. View hereHistoryWow’s Featured Historical Figure of Note
Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149BCE)Roman statesman, soldier and writer of virtue, simplicity and wisdom. He condemned the luxury of his time and was nicknamed “the censor”. He became Consul in 195BCE, took part in the defeat of Hannibal at Zama, held command in Sardinia and Spain, and in 191 BCE assisted the Greeks in overthrowing Antiochus III at Thermopolyae.
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