Weekly History Quiz No.267

Mali’s gold exports allowed it to become a rich Empire. It founded the University of Timbuktu, the biggest university in the world at the time, with over 25,000 students.

In 1980 the World Health Organization announced that, for the first and only time, a human disease had been entirely eradicated. The first smallpox vaccine was developed in 1796, and the last documented, naturally-occurring case of smallpox was detected in 1977.

During WWI tanks used homing pigeons to report back to higher headquarters. At closer ranges they used signal flags and flares. It was not until late in WWII that most tanks were equipped with radios.

During an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, a crush in the stands resulted in the deaths of 97 Liverpool supporters. The inquiry found South Yorkshire Police’s crowd control to have been at fault, not the fans.

Opening in 1892, Ellis Island processed over 12 million new US citizens before closing in 1954.

Reportedly founded by the legendary Egyptian Pharaoh Menes, who escaped an attack by dogs by jumping onto the back of a crocodile, which carried him away to safety.

First recorded in Kyoto in the early 1600s, kabuki quickly gained a reputation for being shocking and unusual.

After an explosion of an oxygen tank damaged the spacecraft, Apollo 13 had to use the moon’s gravity to ‘slingshot’ and set a trajectory for Earth. In doing this they travelled further from the Earth than any humans before or since.

Occurring during the 1994 Rwandan Civil War, over a period of three months Hutu militias systematically killed approximately 800,000 members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa. The Hutu militias also raped as many as 500,000 Tutsi women.

The Battle of Waterloo was the culmination of the War of the Seventh Coalition, which saw the French under Napoleon fighting against a European coalition. While the coalition army was led by the Duke of Wellington, only around 25,000 of the total 120,000 soldiers were British. At least 45,000 Prussians fought in the battle. Without their contribution Napoleon probably wouldn't have been defeated.