Weekly History Quiz No.223

The 1956 Melbourne Olympics were the first games held outside Europe and North America, this was followed by the first games in Asia in Tokyo in 1964. The first games in South America was the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games. There have never been an Olympic games hosted in Africa.

The story of civilian honours starts in September 1940, when two new awards, the George Cross and the George Medal, were instituted to recognise the outstanding contribution made by civilians during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. These awards were primarily aimed at those involved in civil defence, such as Air Raid Precautions officers, rescue party workers, fire fighters and casualty and medical service workers.

The Ottomans occupied much of Greece in the 15th century. They ruled this as part of their empire until the Greek war of Independence, 1821-1830.

Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father, focused on strengthening his army and his overall position domestically, introducing the phalanx infantry corps and arming them with long spears, called sarissas.

King Sargon founded the Akaddian empire, conquered several regions in Mesopotamia and consolidated his power by instating Akaddian officials in new territories. He extended trade across Mesopotamia and strengthened the economy through rain-fed agriculture in northern Mesopotamia.

A war between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front, it raged from 1954 to 1962 and led to Algerian independence from France. An important decolonization war, this complex conflict was characterised by guerrilla warfare, maquis fighting, and the use of torture by both sides. The conflict also became a civil war between loyalist Algerians supporting a French Algeria and their Algerian nationalist counterparts.

The USA provided support to China before they even entered WW2, with the 'Flying Tigers' under US General Claire Lee Chennault providing air support to Chinese armies fighting the Japanese. Once the US formally entered the conflict they sent Lend Lease supplies to China, along with military advisor Joseph Stilwell.

Jan van Eyck was part of the Early Netherlandish school, active in in present-day Belgium. This painting is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art with complex iconography, geometric orthogonal perspective and expansion of the picture space with the use of a mirror.

After a series of wars over the preceding centuries, the Reconquista ended when Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon accepted the surrender by Muhammad XII of Granada of the Emirate of Granada, the city of Granada, and the Alhambra palace.

In 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) decided that there should be a pause on commercial whaling on all whale species from 1986 due to the near extinction of many whale species. Iceland, Japan, and Norway wish to lift the IWC moratorium on commercial whale hunting.