Weekly History Quiz No.217

The USA boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which the Australian and UK teams attended, although individual athletes chose not to attend. Switzerland boycotted the 1956 Melbourne Olympics due to the Soviet invasion of Hungary, but had already competed in Equestrian events held in Sweden. France did not send a team to the 1904 Games but a lone Frenchman did compete.

Operation Neptune, the Naval part of the Normandy invasion, involved 6,939 vessels: 1,213 naval combat ships, 4,126 landing ships and landing craft, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels.

Dating to around 9000 BCE, the villagers of Klimonas farmed emmer wheat and lived in mud brick buildings.

Initially working in the style of Caravaggio, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence. Her work was overshadowed by her rape by fellow painter Agostino Tassi as they worked to decorate the vaults of Casino delle Muse in Rome. At his trial she was tortured using thumb screws in order to verify her testimony.

Although two invasions of Japan were attempted, they were destroyed at sea. The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous empire in history.

Buddha was born around 560BCE in India.

John the Baptist was born around 10 BCE.

Mohammad was born around 570CE

Martin Luther was born in 1483.

Shakespeare's longest play, it marked the midpoint of his career.

The Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) surrounded the city for nearly four years, deploying troops and artillery in the surrounding hills in what would become the longest siege in the history of modern warfare.

The Italian National Fascist Party (PNF) under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943.

Boko Haram was initially more or less peacefully, but in 2009 they became increasingly violent, and the Nigerian armed forces responded in kind. Since then, the violence has only escalated in terms of both frequency and intensity. In 2010 a Bauchi prison break freed more than 700 Boko Haram militants, renewing their forces.