Quizology.Online

Tag: history

  • March 29th Mind Benders: Fart Powder to Firsts in the White House!

    Terracotta Army.
    Wikipedia

    All of the following are connected to today’s date, 29 March.

    1. Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder, originally published in 2007, was the first children’s book by which author whose birthday it is today?
      • Henning Mankell
      • Jo Nesbø
      • Dag Solstad
    2. On this day in 1867, the British North America Act united colonies in a new Dominion of Canada. Which of these was NOT included in this new Dominion?
      • Newfoundland
      • Nova Scotia
      • New Brunswick
    3. A former British prime minister who was born this day, wrote a book about the history of cricket, More Than a Game: The Story of Cricket’s Early Years and another about music hall, My Old Man: A Personal History of Music Hall. Who is this prime minister?
      • John Major
      • Tony Blair
      • Gordon Brown
    4. The Terracotta Army, a collection of life-size sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, was discovered in 1974 by local farmers in Lintong County, China. The figures date from when?
      • 210–209 BCE
      • 406–407 CE
      • 1153–1154 CE
    5. A US President born on this day holds the distinction of being connected to two firsts during his tenure in office. Tragically, his wife became the first First Lady to pass away within the White House walls. A few years later, he made history as the first president to marry while in office. Can you identify this president?
      • John Tyler
      • James Buchanan
      • Millard Fillmore
    Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder,
    Front cover (cropped).

    Good luck! I will post the answers later today.

  • Quirky Queries: A Journey Through Art, History and Curiosities | Answers

    The answers to my earlier post are shown in bold below.

    Ecstasy of St Teresa.
    Wikipedia
    1. Bernini—Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, depicting Teresa of Ávila’s mystical experience is in the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. The chapel was commissioned by Federigo Cardinal Cornaro and St. Teresa is surrounded by sculptures of the cardinal and his family. Teresa of Ávila was born 28 March 1515.
      Istanbul.
      Wikipedia
    2. Istanbul—Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, was the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Located on a peninsula between Europe and Asia, it has been a strategic city for over 2,500 years. The city’s name evolved from Byzantium to Constantinople, and finally to Istanbul in 1930.
      Virginia Woolf. Wikipedia
    3. Virginia Woolf—Virginia Woolf, an English writer, is known for her novels, essays, and letters. Her works, including Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, influenced the genre through their non-linear narrative.
      Three Mile Island on the Susquehanna
      River.
      Wikipedia
    4. Susquehanna River—The Three Mile Island accident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1979 was the most serious nuclear power accident in US history. A valve malfunction caused a partial core meltdown, but fortunately, radioactive gases did not pose a threat to the surrounding population.
    5. Spanish Civil War—The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a conflict between the Nationalists, supported by Italy and Germany, and the Republicans, aided by the Soviet Union and International Brigades. The Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, emerged victorious, establishing a dictatorship that lasted until his death in 1975.
    General Francisco Franco.
    Wikipedia

  • Quirky Queries: A Journey Through Art, History and Curiosities

    All of today’s questions relate to 28 March.

    Ecstasy of St Teresa
    Wikipedia
    1. The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, shown above, is in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. Whose work is the sculpture?
      • Bernini
      • Donatello
      • Michelangelo
    2. This city, dating back to c657 BCE, underwent name changes under the Romans in the 4th century and again in 1930. Can you name it?
      • Baghdad
      • Istanbul
      • Sofia
    3. This author, who passed away on this day in 1941, is best known for her novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). Who is she?
      • Rebecca West
      • Katherine Mansfield
      • Virginia Woolf
    4. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant experienced an accident on 28 March 1979 that resulted in radioactive leakage. On what river does the plant stand?
      • Atchafalaya River
      • Susquehanna River
      • Willamette River
    5. On this day in 1939, General Franco, the leader of the Nationalist forces during a civil war, captured his nation’s capital city. This was one of the last events before he declared victory. What civil war?
      • Austrian Civil War
      • Greek Civil War
      • Spanish Civil War

    Good luck! I will post the answers later today.

    Three Mile Island nuclear generating station, 1979.
    Wikipedia

  • Who, What, When, Where, Why and How II | Answers

    Here are the answers to my earlier post.

    Calvin Coolidge.
    Wikipedia
    1. Calvin Coolidge—was US President on the 26 March 1925. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th US President, served from 1923 to 1929. He is known for his small-government conservatism, taciturn personality, and support for racial equality. Coolidge oversaw economic growth during the “Roaring Twenties” but is criticised for failing to address economic inequality and for his potential role in the Great Depression.
    2. World War I—The First Battle of Gaza, fought on 26 March 1917, was a British defeat during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I. The British Desert Column, nearing capture of Gaza, withdrew due to darkness and Ottoman reinforcements.
    3. 2000—Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, has served as President of Russia since 2012, with previous terms from 2000 to 2008. His rule has been marked by economic growth, military conflicts, authoritarian tendencies, and human rights violations. Putin’s actions have led to international sanctions and a war crimes warrant.
      Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat with U.S. president Jimmy Carter at Camp David in September 1978.
      Wikipedia
    4. Camp David, Maryland—the Camp David Accord was reached the previous September (1978) when President Carter hosted Egypt’s President Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Begin at his Maryland retreat.
    5. They believed a spacecraft was arriving to take them as immortal extraterrestrials to a better place—
    6. 16-years—

  • Who, What, When, Where, Why and How II

    Kremlin, Moscow.
    Wikipedia

    All of the following relate to today’s date, 26 March.

    1. Who was the president of the United States of America 100 years ago today, 26 March 1925?
      • Warren G. Harding
      • Calvin Coolidge
      • Herbert Hoover
    2. What conflict saw the First Battle of Gaza take place on this date?
      • The Six Day War
      • World War I
      • World War II
    3. When was Vladimir Putin, a Russian intelligence officer and politician, elected president of Russia for the first time.
      • 2000
      • 2004
      • 2006
    4. Where did talks, mediated by US President Jimmy Carter, between Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister, and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt take place? These talks led to an historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that was signed on 26 March 1979.
      • Camp David, Maryland
      • Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
      • Plains, Georgia
    5. Why did these members of Heaven’s Gate kill themselves? On 26 March 1997 the bodies of 39 members of Heaven’s Gate were found after a mass suicide.
      • They believed they alone would be reincarnated as gods in an earthly paradise
      • They believed a spacecraft was arriving to take them as immortal extraterrestrials to a better place
      • They believed they had to poison themselves to meet Jesus
    6. How long had this interlude lasted? After a hiatus, the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who made a triumphant return to television with a new episode in which Christopher Eccleston reprised the iconic role of the Doctor.
      • 6-years
      • 10-years
      • 16-years

    Good luck! I will post the answers later today.

    Tardis
    Wikipedia

  • Historical Milestones and Cultural Icons: From Bach’s Birth to Twitter’s First Tweet—Answers

    Field of Battersea.
    A print caricaturing the Wellington–Winchilsea duel
    by William Heath.
    Wikipedia

    The answers to my earlier pot are shown in bold below.

    1. 1685—Johann Sebastian Bach, a German composer, blended northern and southern German styles in his early compositions. He composed numerous cantatas, including the St. John Passion, and is known for his mastery of counterpoint and harmonic organisation.
      Jack Dorsey, 2014.
      Wikipedia
    2. $2.9m—Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is a social networking service that allows users to share short text messages, images, and videos. It was created in 2006 and quickly grew to over 100 million users by 2012.
    3. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington—The Duke of Wellington and Lord Winchilsea engaged in a duel at Battersea Fields, with Wellington firing first and missing, and Winchilsea firing into the air. This act of deloping cleared Winchilsea of cowardice allegations, allowing him to apologise unconditionally. The duel was the second, and last, fought by a sitting Prime Minister following the 1798 Pitt–Tierney duel on Putney Heath.
    4. San Diego, California—San Diego Comic-Con, founded in 1970, is a multi-genre entertainment event showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy media, and pop culture. It is the largest convention of its kind, attracting over 130,000 attendees annually.
      Stanley, a newspaper reporter and tireless self-promoter, was hired by the New York Herald to find the missing Livingstone in 1871, winning himself wealth and reputation. Kalulu is in the backgound.
      Wikipedia
    5. 700 miles (1,125 km)—Stanley travelled to Zanzibar in March 1871, claiming to have outfitted an expedition with 192 porters, though his diaries suggest a smaller number. After facing challenges including the death of his horse and desertion of porters, he found David Livingstone in Ujiji, Tanzania, famously greeting him with “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”; this phrase was probably made up by Stanley after the event. Stanley joined Livingstone in exploring the region, later recounting his experiences in a book.
    Routes of Henry Morton Stanley.
    The Red route is the 1871-1872 is the expedition to find Livingstone.
    Wikipedia

  • Historical Milestones and Cultural Icons: From Bach’s Birth to Twitter’s First Tweet

    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Wikipedia

    All questions relate to today, 21 March.

    1. Johann Sebastian Bach, the composer of the Brandenburg Concertos and The Well-Tempered Clavier, was born this day in…
      • 1685
      • 1745
      • 1815
    2. Twitter, now X, was founded today in 2006 and Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder, sent the first public tweet, “just setting up my twttr.” Fifteen years later Dorsey auctioned this tweet as a nonfungible token (NFT) with the proceeds going to charity. It was bought using ether cryptocurrency for the equivalent of…
      • $1.4m
      • $2.9m
      • $5.8m
    3. 21 March saw the last time a serving UK Prime Minister fought a duel. Who was the Prime Minister?
      • Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
      • William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
      • William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
    4. A Comic-Con held its inaugural event on this date in 1970 and is now described by Forbes magazine as being “the largest pop and culture festival in the world”: it is held in…
      • Red Rock, Arizona
      • San Diego, California
      • Las Vegas, Nevada
    5. Henry Morton Stanley set out to find Dr David Livingstone today in 1871. His expedition was successful, finding Livingstone after trekking through tropical forest for…
      • 300 miles (482 km)
      • 450 miles (725 km)
      • 700 miles (1,125 km)

    “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”, an illustration from Stanley’s 1872 book How I Found Livingstone. Wikipedia

  • Measure for Measure—Answers

    The answers to the questions asked in my earlier post are shown, in bold, below.

    Grains of barley
    Wikipedia
    1. Wheat or barleycorn—Grain (abbreviation gr.), the smallest unit of weight in the troy and avoirdupois systems; originally, the weight was equivalent to that of a grain of corn.
      Surveyor’s chain.
      Gunter’s chain photographed at Campus Martius Museum/Wikipedia
    2. Chain—The chain, a unit of length equal to 66 feet, is used in both the US customary and Imperial unit systems. It is subdivided into 100 links and has been used since the early 17th century in England. The UK used 80 chains to the mile, but Scotland and Ireland used longer chains until 1824. India uses metric chains of 20 metres.
    3. Rod—which is a measure of length equal to a quarter of a chain or 5.5 yards (approximately 5.029 m).  Also called perch or pole, it was especially used for measuring land.
      Illustration of Carob (Ceratonia siliqua)
      Wikipedia
    4. Carob seed—The carat (ct) is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg, used to measure gemstones and pearls. The current definition, adopted in 1907, is divisible into 100 points of 2 mg. Carob seeds, historically used to measure jewellery due to their believed consistent mass, actually vary in mass like other seeds.
      A woodcut of Noah’s Ark from Anton Koberger’s German Bible
      University of Edinburgh Image Collections/Wikipedia
    5. 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high—Genesis 6:14–16 King James Bible reads, 
      • “14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 
      • 15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 
      • 16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”
      Snow leopard
      Wikipedia
    6. Snow leopard—which is also known as the Ounce. The Old French word “once,” originally intended for the Eurasian lynx, is the source of the Latin name “uncia” and the English word “ounce”. An ounce is also a unit of weight equal to 437.5 grains or 1/16 pound (28.35 grams) avoirdupois. Another unit is 480 grains, which is 1/12 pound (31.1 grams) troy or apothecaries’ weight.
      The Nippur cubit-rod.
      Archeological Museum of Istanbul, Turkey/Wikipedia
    7. Euphrates—The Nippur cubit, one of the oldest known units of length, dates back to 2650 BCE. A copper bar standard for this Sumerian unit was discovered in Nippur, on the banks of the Euphrates, and is housed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
      Nautilus’s route through the Atlantic. Wikipedia
      Nautilus’s route through the Pacific.Wikipedia
    8. Jules Verne—Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is a science fiction adventure novel by Jules Verne. It was originally serialised in a French periodical and later published in a deluxe edition with illustrations.
    9. Grain—The grain, based on barley weight, is the only unit equal across troy, avoirdupois, and apothecaries’ systems. It was the fundamental unit of the pre-1527 English weight system, Tower weight, based on wheat grain, was defined as exactly 45⁄64 (≈+3⁄4) of the troy “barley” grain.
    10. AU—Astronomical unit, defined as exactly equal to 149,597,870,700 m (92,955,807.3 miles) and effectively equal to the average, or mean, distance between the Earth and the Sun.
    1 Astronomical Unit.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech

  • Measure for Measure

    Four measuring instruments calibrated in metric units
    Wikipedia

    Ten questions, all to do with measurements.

    1. The grain was the earliest unit of mass, initially, it referred to a grain of …
      • Rice
      • Salt
      • Wheat or barleycorn
    2. What unit of length is equivalent to 66 feet (20.1168 m)?
      • Cana
      • Chain
      • Cubit
    3. Of these three choices what is NOT a unit for measuring how heavy something is?
      • Rod
      • Shekel
      • Talent
    4. The carat, a unit for measuring gemstones, had its origin in what?
      • Carrot seed
      • Carob seed
      • Caraway seed
      Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks
      Wikipedia
    5. According to the bible (Genesis 6:14–16) God decreed the dimensions for Noah to build his ark. In modern measurements the ark would be approximately 450 x 75 x 45 feet (137 x 23 x 14 m) but what were the original sizes as given in Genesis?
      • 100 cubits long, 30 cubits wide and 10 cubits high
      • 200 cubits long, 40 cubits wide and 20 cubits high
      • 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high
    6. Which of these cats shares its alternative name with a unit of mass or weight?
      • Margay
      • Ocelot
      • Snow leopard
    7. The Nippur cubit, one of the oldest known units of length, dates from 2650 BCE. It was discovered on the banks of what river?
      • Euphrates
      • Nile
      • Yangtze
    8. What author used the measurement “leagues” in the title of a work written in 1870?
      • Arthur Conan Doyle
      • Jules Verne
      • HG Wells
    9. What is the only unit which is equal across the troy, avoirdupois and apothecaries’ systems?
      • Dram
      • Grain
      • Scruple
    10. What is an abbreviation for a unit of length which is defined to be exactly equal to 149,597,870,700 m?
      • AG
      • AR
      • AU
    Balance scale
    Wikipedia

  • Truth or Consequence—Answers

    Truth and Consequence City Hall.
    Wikipedia

    Here, in bold, are the answers to my earlier post.

    1. False—It changed name to Truth or Consequence (not Tacos or Chocolate) in 1950 after the radio show of the same name ran a competition for a town or city to do so; the prize being that the show would be broadcast from the winner—the first settlement to change their town’s name. 
    2. False—Nothing to do with First Lady’s. It was chosen because it sounded like the French for help me, m’aider and was picked in 1920 by the head of radio in air traffic control at Croydon Aerodrome (then the world’s busiest) as most of their flights were from France.
    3. False—No, not Martin Luther King. It was about the assassination of JFK.
    4. False—Not the Inca Empire. Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire in what is now central Mexico in 1521 not the Inca’s in what is now Peru.
      Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
      Wikipedia
    5. True—Lucy was named after the Beatles song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
    6. False—Pete Conrad, Apollo 12 was the third person to walk on the Moon. Michael Collins was the command module pilot of Apollo 11 and did not land on the Moon but remained in orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the lunar surface.
      Goldeneye Estate
      Wikipedia
    7. False—Not Skyfall. Fleming’s house and estate were both named GoldenEye and are now a hotel complex.
    8. True—It is a neighbourhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan.
    9. False—Not Coprophagia which is dung-eating. Lalochezia is the release of stress etc by swearing.
    10. False—It wasn’t Please Mister Postman. The third number one, I Want to Hold Your Hand, was released in November 1963 with the B-side This Boy.
    Pete Conrad
    Conrad descends the Lunar Module ladder, moments before becoming the third human to walk on the Moon.
    Wikipedia