Weekly History Quiz No.257

The crew of the Endurance sailed three lifeboats 180km from where it was crushed by ice to Elephant Island, quite an impressive feat of seamanship. However Elephant Island was remote, uninhabited, and rarely visited by whalers or any other ships. So Shackleton decided to sail one of the boats with a small crew 1,300km to South Georgia to seek help. Many historians regard the voyage in a 7 m long lifeboat as the greatest small-boat journey ever completed.

Australia - 50,000 years ago

North America - 23,000 years ago

South America - 14,000 years ago

Antarctica - 203 years ago

Painted shortly after the war, Gassed is one of the most well-known artistic records of the conflict. One of several artists commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee, American painter John Singer Sargent travelled to the Western Front to witness the realities of warfare in Arras, France and Ypres, Belgium. In this monumental canvas, he portrays a line of wounded soldiers with eyes bandaged and hands on one another’s shoulders, blinded by gas and cautiously stepping forward above piles of bodies.

Read more about the paintings of WWI here.

Mansa Musa militarily expanded the Mali empire, as well as improving administration, dividing the territory into provinces and appointing competent governors. With all of these achievements, Mansa Musa is best remembered for going on the hajj from 1324 to 1325 CE. He attracted a great deal of attention traveling in a huge caravan made up of almost 100 camels, 12,000 slaves, and an estimated 30,000 pounds of gold. He gave out and spent so much gold during his three month stay in Cairo that the price of gold dropped by 25%.

He hosted Muslim scholars and made cities, including Timbuktu, Djenne, and Gao, into centres of learning.

Barely a week into Royal tour that was to include Australia and New Zealand, she was staying at the remote Treetops Hotel when her father, King George VI died.

The Republic of China (ROC) became one of the 51 original member states of the United Nations in 1945. In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing. However the ROC retained control of Taiwan.

The ROC government claimed they would one day return to its mainland, however by the 1970s an increasing number of UN members became aware that this government no longer represented the hundreds of million people who lived on the mainland. The PRC claimed to be the successor government of the ROC, the 1971 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 made this a reality.

A brutal secret policeman, Beria served as head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 to 1946.

During the 1945 Yalta Conference, Stalin introduced Beria to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt as 'Our Himmler'.

Beria was removed from power, arrested, tried for treason and other offences, and executed in 1953.

Babylon became the dominant city along the Euphrates under the rule of Hammurabi around 1750 BCE.

The UK Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is tasked with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence. It is led by the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service 'C', who signs letters with a 'C' in green ink. This practice originated with the first head of SIS, Captain Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming.

Siddhartha was born a prince, son to the chieftain of Shakya, a clan-based state located at the foothills of the Himalaya in northern India. His father wished for him to be a ruler like himself, but Siddhartha went in a different direction. At twenty-nine, after marrying and having a son, he left home. He travelled around northern India teaching his dharma—his religious ideas and practices—and gained a following of students and founding the religion of Buddhism.