Weekly History Quiz No.256

In 1095 at the Council of Piacenza, Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military aid from Pope Urban II to fight the Turks. Urban turned to his homeland of France to recruit men for the expedition. His travels there culminated in the Council of Clermont in November, where he gave speeches combining the idea of pilgrimage to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy war against infidels, which received an enthusiastic response.

Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His painting Judith and the Head of Holofernes  ignores the violence of the beheading and concentrates solely on to Judith, so much so that he cuts off Holofernes' head at the right margin.

Now the the second-largest city in Bulgaria, the first Neolithic settlements were established here around 6000 BCE. Over the intervening 8,000 years the city has been ruled by Thracians, Persians, Ancient Macedonians, Celts, Romans, Byzantines, Goths, Huns, Bulgarians, Thraco-Romans, Bulgars, Slavic tribes, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks.

She becoming the first woman to lead a Muslim country in modern history, serving two terms as prime minister, from 1988-90 and 1993-96. On 27th December 2007 she was assassinated after speaking at a political rally.

Over 900 people died at the settlement of Jonestown in Guyana, South America, in a mass murder-suicide. Jonestown was inhabited by the Peoples Temple, a cult founded by Jim Jones in Indiana.

Spartacus lead a rebellion of Capuan slaves against the Roman state. He was initially successful, raising an army of as many as 90,000 men. He was later defeated in battle and killed in 71 BCE.

In the book Newton set out his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. He also studied light, including refracting white light into a spectrum of colours, and astronomy. This assisted his invention of the reflecting telescope.

One of the earliest feminist authors, Mary Wollstonecraft began her professional life as a teacher. She then began writing and publishing, advocating for equality of women.

Most famous for writing An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776, Smith’s ideas continue to be influential to this day, particularly in the United States.

President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1982 to 2002 he is best known for leading the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, a major event in the history of the British labour movement. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to reduce the power of the trade unions.