Today’s Answers
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Today’s questions all relate to 1 October.
One
On this day in 1936, who took charge of Spain’s new Nationalist government during the civil war and thereafter remained head of state until what year?
Answers: Francisco Franco; 1975.
Francisco Franco led Spain from 1939 to 1975 after commanding Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War. His rule involved repression and economic growth, shifting from totalitarianism to authoritarianism. He died aged 82, succeeded by King Juan Carlos.
Two
On this day, who became the first queen to rule England in her own right; and in what century did this occur?
Answers: Mary I; 16th century.
Mary I, the first queen to rule England in her own right, reigned from 1553 to 1558. The daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, she overcame early challenges after being declared illegitimate to ascend the throne. Mary is best known for her efforts to restore Roman Catholicism in England, which included the execution of around 300 Protestants, earning her the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’. Her reign also saw an unpopular marriage to Philip II of Spain and the loss of England’s last European foothold, Calais. She died childless in 1558 without permanently re-establishing Catholicism and was succeeded by her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth.
Three
In 331 BCE, Alexander the Great of … defeated Darius III of … at the Battle of Gaugamela, spelling the end of the … empire.
What two places are missing from the first two spaces; and the name of what empire is referred to at the end of the above sentence?
Answers: Macedonia; Persia; Persian (or Achaemenid or Achaemenian).
On 1 October 331 BCE, Alexander the Great of Macedonia confronted Darius III of Persia at the Battle of Gaugamela. This decisive clash ultimately sealed the fate of the Persian Achaemenian Empire. The quote above actually uses the term ‘Persian’, but Achaemenid or Achaemenian both refer to the same empire.
Four
Today in 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte persuaded the king of Spain to give a territory back to France which France sold on a few years later?. Who was the king of Spain and what was the territory?
Answers: Charles IV; Louisiana.
The secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, signed on October 1, 1800, between Spain and the French Republic, established an agreement in principle for Spain to trade its North American colony of Louisiana for territories in Tuscany. These terms were subsequently confirmed in March 1801 by the Treaty of Aranjuez. The area referred to was extensive and extended from the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Delta north to the Canadian border, and from the Mississippi River basin west to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
Five
On this day in 1946, an International Military Tribunal delivered verdicts in trials concerning atrocities by Nazi leaders during World War II. In which city were these proceedings held, and which nations formed the tribunal?
Answers: Nuremberg; France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Nuremberg trials (1945–46) saw former Nazi leaders indicted by the International Military Tribunal on four counts: crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes and conspiracy to commit them. On 1 October 1946, after 216 sessions, 22 defendants received verdicts: three acquitted, four imprisoned, three given life terms, and twelve sentenced to death; ten were hanged on 16 October, Martin Bormann condemned in absentia, and Hermann Göring committed suicide. The tribunal rejected claims that only states are liable and that proceedings were ex post facto (having retrospective effect or force).
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