Weekly History Quiz No.263

The largest battle of the Great Northern War, Peter the Great led a Russian army to victory against a Swedish army under the command of Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld, deep within what is now Ukraine.

The Chinese had been printing texts since the ninth century, and the Koreans pioneered movable metal type in 1377. However, Gutenberg’s 1455 invention combined the technological breakthroughs of movable metal type, oil-based ink and a mechanical winemaking press. It exploited Europe’s recent knowledge of paper-making, imported from China via the Islamic world.

A group associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in 1972, planting listening devices. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, journalists from The Washington Post, pursued leads provided by a source they called 'Deep Throat' uncovering a campaign of political spying and sabotage directed by White House officials and illegally funded by donor contributions.

Copper was the first metal to be smelted. Campfires are about 200°C too cool for smelting, so this may have first occurred in pottery kilns.

Peter the Great ordered the construction of the city in 1703, but a series of fires in the following decades saw much of the city destroyed. In the mid 1700s the city was rebuilt to a well designed plan with three large radial streets, including Nevsky Prospect.

The most prestigious award in the field of mathematics, the Fields Medal is only awarded every four years. It has only been awarded to two women, the first being Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani in 2014.

The Great Bath, dating to the 3rd millennium BCE, is a central structure in Mohenjo Daro, one of the major cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation. It is a large and well-constructed structure and was likely used for ritual and ceremonial bathing, showcasing the advanced urbanism of the Indus Valley peoples.

Awarded for mediating the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War, Theodore Roosevelt was also the only American president to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Tsar Bomba was tested by the Soviet Union over Mityushikha Bay, Novaya Zemlya Island on October 30th, 1961. It was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated, producing a 50-megaton explosion.

Linear A was the writing script of the Minoan civilization from approximately 1850 to 1450 BCE. It was in common use by the peoples of Crete, Rhodes, Tera, and Cyclades. It remains undeciphered.