Weekly History Quiz No.241

79,000 French soldiers served as part of the Gallipoli campaign, almost the same number of soldiers as the ANZACs. They experienced similar death rates, around 9,000 were killed or missing, compared to around 12,000 ANZACs.

Victoria I was the first British monarch to adopt the title Kaisar-i-Hind (Empress of India) in 1876, and despite her deep interest in the country she never visited it. The first emperor to visit India was George V, for his imperial coronation ceremony at the Delhi Durbar in 1911.

Published in his novel Tancred, which tells the story of idealistic Lord Montacute, who is dissatisfied with his life in fashionable London circles, and retraces the steps of his Crusader ancestors to the Holy Land.

Adams moved into the White House in 1800, the same year Washington D.C. became the capital of the USA. The White House was destroyed by the British in 1814 as part of the War of 1812, it wasn't then occupied until James Monroe moved back in after it was partially reconstructed in 1817.

Around 2000 BCE the Maya people began to transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a culture based around agricultural villages. This grew, until it ultimately collapsed around 950 CE. A range of factors are thought to have contributed to the decline of the highly urbanised and connected Maya civilisation. These include a prolonged drought leading to famines as well as political instability and extensive warfare.

The USSR detonated their first weapon in 1949, only four years after the USA in 1945. Their research was greatly benefited by their successful espionage during and after WW2. The UK took longer to build their first nuclear weapon because the USA withdrew their support of the UK program, despite the UK helping the USA develop their own nuclear weapons. The UK tested their first bomb in 1952. France joined the nuclear club in 1960, then China followed in 1964. China is unique in developing the weapon as a deterrent against both the USA and the USSR. India and Pakistan developed weapons in the 1970s and 1980s, as did South Africa. South Africa then subsequently dismantled their weapons in the 1990s. Israel is believed to have developed weapons, but does not admit to having done so. North Korea claims to have nuclear weapons and might possess them.

Italian museum worker Vincenzo Peruggia, who had worked at the Louvre, stole the painting in 1911 then attempted to sell the Mona Lisa to an art gallery in Florence in 1913. He was arrested but claimed that he had only wanted to return the painting to its homeland in Florence. The theft helped to make the Mona Lisa the famous work it is today.

In 1994, Edvard Munch's The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, and held for ransom. It was recovered later in the year.

Two panels of the fifteenth-century Ghent Altarpiece were stolen in 1934, of which only one was recovered shortly after the theft. The other one has never been recovered, the suspected thief died before revealing the whereabouts of the painting.

Markov was a writer who was a vocal critic of the Bulgarian communist regime and the USSR. He defected in 1969 and was living in London. He was walking on the street in London when he felt what he thought was a bee sting on the back of his calf. He succumbed to the poison four days later, the work of an unidentified Bulgarian agent.

Johnson set many long-distance records during the 1930s, beginning with her 1930 solo flight from England to Australia. A year earlier she became the first British woman to obtain a ground aviation engineer’s licence. She served in the Air Transport Auxiliary during WW2 and disappeared during a ferry flight. Her aircraft was believed to have crashed into the Thames estuary.

Observed in Commonwealth member states and many other countries on 11th of November to recall the end of First World War hostilities. In the USA it has become Veterans Day, and commemorates the service of all U.S. veterans.