Weekly History Quiz No.232

First appearing in the second century CE, runes record everything from births and deaths, to love letters, to a note from a wife to her husband, demanding he come home from the tavern!

One of the most commonly reproduced images of Napoleon, it shows an idealised view of the real crossing that Napoleon and his army made along the Alps through the Great St Bernard Pass.

The first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960. These led on from the precursor Stoke Mandeville Games, which were solely open to war veterans.

In the 900s Eilmer was inspired by the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus, Eilmer built a glider and launched himself from a tower at Malmesbury Abbey. He glided briefly, before crashing to the ground and breaking both his legs.

Clotilda secretly landed 103 enslaved Africans in Mobile Bay, Alabama in July 1860. This was well after the USA prohibited the transport of slaves into the country in 1807.

Doyle played 10 first class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club. He was most proud of a ball he bowled to the legendary WG Grace, which was nicked and caught by the wicket keeper. A skilled boxer, he was invited to referee a world heavyweight championship fight. Doyle received a Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery from the University of Edinburgh, later completing his Doctor of Medicine as well as working in the field for over a decade.

Columbus’s small fleet included Niña, Pinta and La Santa María. La Santa María was wrecked off Haiti on Christmas Day, 1492.

At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the European powers came together at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to reorganize the political map of Europe and develop a system of conflict resolution aiming at preserving peace and balance of power. This was known as the Congress System or the Vienna System and saw dispute resolution adopted by the major conservative powers of Europe to maintain their power, oppose revolutionary movements, weaken the forces of nationalism, and uphold the balance of power.

Fall of the Berlin wall 1989.

Chernobyl disaster 1986.

Falklands War 1982.

Cuban missile crisis 1962.

King James VI and I took part in the prosecution of several witches between 1590 and 1592, the King then wrote a book on witchcraft which had a profound influence on English and Scottish intellectual responses to witchcraft.