West Meets East — Answers

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Here are the answers to my earlier questions.

These questions are all about today, April 7th.

Ravi Shankar at Woodstock, 1969.
Image Wikimedia Commons

One

Ravi Shankar, an Indian musician and composer born in Varanasi, India on 7 April 1920, fathered a daughter in 1979. This daughter, a singer-songwriter and composer, is described by Wikipedia as blending jazz with country, blues, folk and pop. His younger daughter, Anoushka Shankar, born in 1981, is a sitarist and composer, and both daughters have won Grammy Awards. Who is the elder of his daughters? 

Answer: Norah Jones. 

Pandit Ravi Shankar, a renowned Indian sitarist and composer, popularised Indian classical music worldwide. He collaborated with Western musicians, such as the Beatles’ George Harrison and Yehudi Menuhin, influencing the use of Indian instruments in pop music. Shankar received numerous awards, including the Bharat Ratna and four Grammy Awards.

Two

What item of missing equipment did Spanish authorities find for the U.S. military in 1966?

Answer: Nuclear Bomb (Hydrogen Bomb).

Spanish authorities recovered a hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean in 1966. The bomb had fallen from a U.S. B-52 after a collision with an airborne refuelling tanker, killing seven airmen.

Three

In 1939, the Albanian king went into exile after Albania became a protectorate of another nation. Who was the king? Which country declared the protectorate, and who was the prime minister of that country at the time?

Answers: King Zog; Italy and Benito Mussolini.

Appointed Prime Minister in 1922, Mussolini established a one-party dictatorship, later aspiring to a totalitarian state. His foreign policy, driven by the doctrine of spazio vitale, led to the annexation of Albania, Fiume and Ethiopia.

Four

On this day, Attila the Hun captured Metz, France, setting fire to the town and killing most of the townspeople. In what century did this occur?

Answer: 5th century.

Metz, originally ruled by the Celtic Mediomatrici tribe, became a prominent Roman town known for its trade, wine exports, and impressive infrastructure like the aqueduct and amphitheatre. The city faced invasions from Germanic tribes in the 3rd century and was eventually conquered by the Franks.

Five

Actor Russell Crowe was born this day in 1964. For what film did he win his Academy Award, and what was his character’s name in the film?

Answers: Gladiator; Maximus Decimus Meridius.

Russell Crowe, an actor and film director, is known for his intense performances and has earned numerous accolades, including an Academy Award. He gained international recognition in the late 1990s and starred in films like Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, and Robin Hood. Crowe co-owns the National Rugby League team South Sydney Rabbitohs.

West Meets East

The post title is from an album title of a 1967 collaboration between Ravi Shankar and violinist Yehudi Menuhin.