Weekly History Quiz No.278

Korea was divided between occupying US and Soviet forces in 1945. This solidified when the US backed Republic of Korea was created in the South and the Soviet backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was created in the North during 1948.

North Korea invaded the South in 1950, and swiftly overran most of the country. A United Nations force, led by the United States, intervened to defend the South, and advanced into North Korea. Fighting continued until 1953, with an armistice that approximately restored the original boundaries between North and South Korea.

The water mill is the earliest example of a machine harnessing natural forces to replace human labour. First developed around 300 BCE, they were used for grinding flour, pounding grain, crushing ore, sawing stones and other uses.

Christopher Wren rebuilt 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including what is regarded as his masterpiece, St Paul’s Cathedral. He also constructed the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and the south front of Hampton Court Palace.

The precise location of boundaries was usually part of local knowledge, kept and maintained by members of the community. For centuries a practice known as “beating the bounds” was followed in parts of Great Britain, Hungary, Germany and the United States.

Members of the parish or community would walk around the edge of their lands every few years, perhaps singing or performing specific actions to help the route stick in the participants’ minds. By including new generations each time, the knowledge was passed through the community and remained active.

Read more about the lost colony of Roanoke.

The French invaded and captured Algiers in 1830, by 1875 the French conquest of Algeria was complete. The Algerian War began in 1954 and continued until independence was gained in 1962.

The last major German offensive on the Western Front, it saw a successful surprise attack in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg in December 1944. While the Germans achieved initial success, determined Allied resistance prevented a breakthrough.

A French painter who led the Realism movement, he committed to painting only what he could see, rejecting the previously prevailing Romantic style.

While both communists, Stalin and Tito did not work together. Stalin saw Tito as a rival and attempted to bring Yugoslavia into the Soviet orbit. He didn’t succeed in this, and Tito maintained and solidified his control over the Communist Party of Yugoslavia as well as the army and the secret police. Tito wrote the following letter to Stalin, 'Stop sending people to kill me. We’ve already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send one to Moscow, and I won’t have to send a second.'

Robert Cawdrey’s Table Alphabeticall was the first English dictionary published, listing and defining about 3000 words. It concentrated on trying to explain unfamiliar words to the general public, rather than defining all words.