Weekly History Quiz No.285

They were claimed by the USA under the provisions of the Guano Islands Act. The islands were named by Nicolas Baudin in 1801 during his expedition around Australia, and were claimed by Australia and mined for Guano by a Melbourne company. In 1876 an American Merchant arrived on the islands and planted the United States flag. He claimed the island group in accordance with the United States Guano Islands Act, which empowered U.S. citizens to take possession of uninhabited islands more than three miles offshore from any country, so long as they had not been formally claimed.

This sparked a diplomatic and political row which wasn’t resolved until US President Ulysses Grant repudiated the annexation in the following year.

A large peaceful crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, to protest against the Rowlatt Act and arrest of pro-independence activists. Brigadier general R. E. H. Dyer surrounded the protesters with his Gurkha, Baloch, Rajput and Sikh soldiers of British Indian Army and ordered them to open fire. The troops kept on firing until their ammunition was exhausted, at least 379 people were killed and possibly as many as 1,000.

The massacre caused a re-evaluation by the British Army of its military role against civilians to “minimal force whenever possible”. Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, condemned the massacre as “unutterably monstrous”, and the UK House of Commons voted 247 to 37 against Dyer’s actions. However, Britain has never formally apologised for the massacre. It did express “deep regret” in 2019.

William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the English forces at Hastings, altering English culture, language, and aristocracy.

Nkrumah was the Prime Minister of Gold Coast when it was still a British colony, becoming President of Ghana upon independence in 1960, one of the first African former colonies to gain independence. Nkrumah was the first African head of state to promote the concept of Pan-Africanism. He also developed an increasingly authoritarian regime which was both socialist and nationalist, funding national industrial and energy projects and developing a strong national education system.

Nkrumah was overthrown by the Ghanaian military in 1966, in a coup which was assisted by the CIA and MI6. Britain and the United States had been discussing regime change in Ghana since 1961. The CIA station’s involvement was such that it was able to coordinate the capture of some classified Soviet military equipment as the coup took place.

The National Liberation Council took power, which had close links to Western governments and allowed Western companies to operate in Ghana on extremely favourable terms. Repressive rule and economic instability continued in Ghana until 1992, when a multi party democracy was restored.

Clement V, formerly archbishop of Bordeaux, became pope in 1305. He refused to live in Rome, and moved his court to Avignon. This was a period when popes were strongly influenced by French kings, who supported the Papal campaigns against the German Emperors.

The shootdown of Gary Powers' U2 - 1960

The Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962

Bangladesh Liberation War - 1971

Afghan–Soviet War - 1979

CIA pilot Gary Powers was flying a U-2 shot down over the USSR while photographing missile sites at Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk in 1960. Powers was convicted of spying and sentenced to ten years of incarnation. In February 1962 however, he and a detained American student were traded for a captured Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel.

Lenin led the Bolsheviks in overthrowing the Provisional Government, establishing a Marxist regime that would become the Soviet Union.

Scottish colonists landed in the colony, on the Isthmus of Panama, in 1698. Poorly planned and provisioned, the colony was decimated by disease, their refusal to trade with the locals, and military action by the Spanish. It collapsed only two years later. The colony was backed by approximately 20% of all the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the entire Scottish Lowlands in financial ruin. This contributed to the Scottish acceptance of the 1707 Act of Union.

Read about Robert Clive here

In 1987 US President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at the Brandenburg Gate including the phrase 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' Reagan called for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to open the Berlin Wall, which had encircled West Berlin since 1961.