Weekly History Quiz No.272

The expedition explored the largely uncharted Antarctic coast due south of Australia. Mawson had previously been part of Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907–1909. The expedition also planned to use an aircraft, a very new innovation for the period.

After completing her novel Between the Acts in 1941 Woolf became deeply depressed. The Second World War affected her very badly, and probably contributed to her suicide.

Signed in the Spanish city of Zaragoza, the 1529 Treaty of Zaragoza between Spain and Portugal settled disputes over newly discovered lands in the East, especially the Moluccas, known as the Spice Islands.

Macau was settled by Portuguese merchants in 1557, during the Ming dynasty. It was occupied until official recognition as a colony under the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking. This gave Portugal perpetual colonial rights to Macau on the condition that Portugal would cooperate in efforts to end the smuggling of opium. Portugal and China negotiated the return of Macau in the 1970s and 1980s, with eventual handover in 1999.

Founded in 1888 by British businessman and colonist Cecil Rhodes, De Beers controlled around 80% of rough diamond distribution until the early 2000s.

The Catholic monarch of England and Scotland, James II and VII, was overthrown by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange in November 1688. It was largely a bloodless operation, with James' forces quickly collapsing.

Traditionally attributed to Archimedes of Syracuse, a Greek mathematician and physicist, it was actually invented in Egypt before Archimedes described it. It is a simple machine used to raise water for irrigation and consists of a spiral surface inside a cylinder, which could be turned by the screw inside a pipe to move the water to the top. It’s still utilised in some parts of the world, especially for drainage and water lifting.

Eichmann, who was responsible for transporting hundreds of thousands of Jews to concentration camps, was captured in Argentina by Israeli agents and brought to Israel to stand trial. He was convicted and sentenced to death. His is the only execution in the history of the State of Israel.

The Salinas Lettuce Strike of 1934 involved the majority Mexican and Filipino farmworkers of the United Farm Workers (UFW) in Salinas, California. Protesting against poor wages and working conditions in the agricultural sector, it underscored both racial and economic exploitation of farmworkers not only in California but in other parts of the world.

The Sykes-Picot agreement, known officially as the Asia Minor Agreement of 1916, was arguably the first in a series of attempts by colonial powers to mould the borders of the Middle East.