History Guild General History Quiz 147
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The stories behind the questions
1. When did the famous Charge of the Light Brigade occur?
1854 – Part of the Crimean War, could the Charge of the Light Brigade have been successful?
2. Where did Ferdinand Magellan die?
The Philippines – While the expedition that Magellan led was the first to circumnavigate the globe, he himself was killed in Cebu in the Philippines by a King he had previously allied with. The remainder of the expedition was completed under the leadership of Juan Sebastián Elcano, who returned to Spain in 1522. Five ships and 270 men had set out in 1519, only 18 and one ship returned to Spain with Elcano.
3. When were Catholics first allowed to be elected as MP’s in the UK?
1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act was passed in 1829. Prior to this members of the Catholic Church could not be elected to parliament. Catholics also faced a great many other restrictions on their activities and worship. In 1858 Jews were also permitted to be elected as MP’s.
4. Which aircraft is this?
Boomerang – The first combat aircraft designed and constructed in Australia, it was designed as a stop-gap fighter to provide for the defence of Australia. It was designed by Fred David, an Austrian Jew who had recently arrived in Australia as a refugee and had been interned by immigration officials as an enemy alien.
5. Where did the Tudor family that produced a line of English monarchs originate?
Wales – Descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, they rose to prominence when Sir Owen Tudor married Queen Catherine of Valois.
6. Which countries supported the Afghan Mujahideen fighting the Soviets during the 1980s?
All of the above – Many countries supported the Afghan Mujahideen for a variety of different reasons. The USA saw an opportunity to assist a group fighting against their cold war enemy. Chinese-Soviet relations were also already quite hostile, and both had competing diplomatic, economic and military goals in Central Asia that brought them into conflict. Saudi Arabia saw the need to support their co-religionists in a war were the Soviets intended to suppress fundamentalist Islam.
7. When did the Roanoke colony disappear?
1590 – Read more about the lost colony of Roanoke.
8. What is significant about the historical island of Bermeja?
It’s existence was fabricated by an explorer but it still appeared on maps for over 300 years – The mysterious Mexican island Bermeja first appeared on a 1539 map titled ‘El Yucatán e Islas Adyacentes’. First drawn by Alonso de Santa Cruz, it was named Bermeja “as it appears to be to such a colour”, referring to the Spanish word for red. Despite this incredibly detailed description from 1540, no evidence of the island has ever been found. Several expeditions to locate the island, including one by the Spanish army in 1775, failed and it was ultimately removed from world maps in the 20th century following doubts about its existence. The search for the island was revived in 1997 and again in 2009 by Mexican government officials and university researchers in the hope that it would extend the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) further into the Gulf of Mexico. However, the island remained a mystery.
9. What was significant about the Battle of Kadesh?
It resulted in the first recorded peace treaty – Fought between the Hittites to the North and the Egyptians to the South the Battle was somewhat inconclusive. Border conflicts continued for several years before a treaty was signed between the two countries.
10. Who was the US president at the start of the Korean War?
Truman – President from 1945 to 1953, Truman removed the self promoting Douglas MacArthur from command of United Nations forces in the Korean War in 1951. This was because MacArthur provoked the Chinese into entering the war on the North Korean side by advancing close to the Chinese border. MacArthur also failed to take seriously intelligence reports that informed him of Chinese intentions and deployments.
