Weekly History Quiz No.277
1. Which line of English monarchs originated in Wales?
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A Belgian farmer moved a rock and accidentally annexed France: the weird and wonderful history of man-made borders
Reading time: 5 minutes
Nations establish their borders through treaties. Rivers are sometimes relied on to set boundaries, but even here tensions rise when there are disputes about interpretation. Is the boundary on the river banks, the deepest part of the river, or the very centre of the flow?
Talking heads: what toilets and sewers tell us about ancient Roman sanitation
Reading time: 9 minutes
Focusing on life in ancient Rome, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia, I’m deeply impressed by the brilliant engineers who designed these underground marvels and the magnificent architecture that masks their functional purpose. Sewer galleries didn’t run under every street, nor service every area. But in some cities, including Rome itself, the length and breadth of the main sewer, the Cloaca Maxima, rivals the extent of the main sewer lines in many of today’s cities. We shouldn’t assume, though, that Roman toilets, sewers and water systems were constructed with our same modern sanitary goals in mind.
Weekly History Quiz No.276
1. When did the Japanese Shogun impose a sakoku (seclusion) policy?
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The World’s Sweet Tooth: A Brief History of Chocolate
Reading time: 6 minutes
It’s hard to imagine the modern Western world without chocolate. Whether it’s a treat on the weekend, or as a gift for Christmas or Valentines’, chocolate has become one of those foods that feels like it must’ve been around forever.
Yet the sweet chocolate bars we know and love today are surprisingly new, historically speaking.
Our stone tool discovery pushes back the archaeological record by 700,000 years
Reading time: 8 minutes
We, and the West Turkana Archaeological Project which we co-lead, had discovered the earliest stone artifacts yet found, dating to 3.3 million years ago. The discovery of the site, named Lomekwi 3, instantly pushed back the beginning of the archaeological record by 700,000 years. That’s over a quarter of humanity’s previously known material cultural history. These tools were made as much as a million years before the earliest known fossils attributed to our own genus, Homo.
Military History
Latest
On a Wing and a Prayer – Vimy to Australia 1919-2019
Reading time: 4 minutes On this day 100 years ago, G-EAOU, a converted World War I...
Political and Economic History
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Young people remain ill-equipped to participate in Australian democracy
Reading time: 5 minutes Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues,...
Social and Cultural History
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Five Conspiracies that shaped our world
Reading time: 7 minutes The world is a complicated place, and there are a lot of things out of our control. No wonder, then, that conspiracy theories abound, tales where shadowy forces control what happens, when it happens, and to whom. However, not all of these theories are all that theoretical, and there are plenty of examples of conspiracies that went far beyond the drawing board.
History Quizzes
Weekly History Quiz No.275
1. When did Nicolaus Copernicus publish ‘On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres’ which explained that the Earth orbits around the Sun?
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Weekly History Quiz No.274
1. When did the Exxon Valdez oil spill occur?
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Weekly History Quiz No.273
1. Who was the first person to fly solo around the world?
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Weekly History Quiz No.272
1. Who led the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition?
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Weekly History Quiz No.271
1. When was the first Sino-Indian War?
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Weekly History Quiz No.270
1. Which country fought alongside the French and British against the Egyptians during the Suez crisis?
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Weekly History Quiz No.269
1. What is the 1916 armed insurrection against British rule in Ireland known as?
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Weekly History Quiz No.268
1. Where did Joanna Plantagenet, sister of Richard I Lionheart, become Queen?
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Weekly History Quiz No.267
1. In the 1300s, which Empire produced approximately half the world’s gold?
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Weekly History Quiz No.266
1. Which Empire operated the Manila Galleon trade?
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Weekly History Quiz No.265
1. When did the Wars of the Roses end?
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Weekly History Quiz No.264
1. Who painted ‘The Basket of Apples’ in 1893?
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Weekly History Quiz No.263
1. Who led the victorious army at the Battle of Poltava?
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Weekly History Quiz No.262
1. Which conflict did the Battle of Culloden bring to a close?
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Weekly History Quiz No.261
1. Which Greek God did the Colossus of Rhodes represent?
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Weekly History Quiz No.260
1. In 1947, what was the first living thing sent into space?
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Weekly History Quiz No.259
1. When did the Berlin wall fall?
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Weekly History Quiz No.258
1. When did the Spanish Empire reach its greatest extent?
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Weekly History Quiz No.257
1. After Shackleton’s ship was crushed by ice in Antarctica in 1916, where did he sail an open boat to in order to organise rescue?
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Weekly History Quiz No.256
1. When did the first crusade begin?
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Weekly History Quiz No.255
1. Who painted Liberty Leading the People in 1830?
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Weekly History Quiz No.254
1. How does history view the English King who agreed to Magna Carta?
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Weekly History Quiz No.253
1. Which previous empire did the Byzantine Empire grow out of?
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Weekly History Quiz No.252
1. Who painted The Creation of Adam in 1512?
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Weekly History Quiz No.251
1. When was the term ‘The Silk Road’ first used?
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Weekly History Quiz No.250
1. What is the town of Bury St Edmunds named after?
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Weekly History Quiz No.249
1. Who painted Boating on the Seine in 1879?
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Weekly History Quiz No.248
1. When did the most recent ice age end?
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Weekly History Quiz No.247
1. Who built the tower of London?
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Christmas History Quiz 2024
1. Where did the custom of decorating a Christmas tree originate?
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History Guild would like to acknowledge the Boonwurrung people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we are based, and pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.