Weekly History Quiz No.270

Britain occupied Egypt in 1882 and directly or indirectly controlled the Suez canal until 1956, when the Egyptian leader Nasser announced that they would nationalise the canal. Several months later Britain and France joined a pre-existing Israeli attack on Egypt that aimed to overthrow Nasser and re-establish control of the canal. While militarily fairly successful, the Egyptians sunk 40 ships to block the canal. The USA was highly critical of the invasion, threatening Britain with an oil embargo and dumping all their UK bonds on the open market to devalue the pound. This economic threat caused the British to back down, and the Egyptians retained control of the canal.

Shortly after the Republic of the Congo gained independence in 1960 the State of Katanga broke away, supported by a Belgian mining company, Belgian soldiers and mercenaries. The rebels kidnapped and murdered President Patrice Lumumba, and were only defeated after three years of fighting.

Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957, he is 17th of 52 children of Muhammad Bin Laden, Saudi Arabia's wealthiest construction magnate. Bin Laden graduated from King Abdul Aziz University in Jiddah with a degree in civil engineering. He rose to prominence supporting Mujahidin fighting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, before founding Al-Qaeda ('The Base' in Arabic) in 1988.

The Maurya Empire was founded in 322 BCE by Chandragupta Maurya, who had overthrown the Nanda Dynasty and rapidly expanded his power westward across central and western India in order to take advantage of the disruptions of local powers in the wake of the withdrawal by Alexander the Great ‘s armies.

Beginning when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM or Sudan Liberation Army – SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur’s non-Arab population. It ended in stalemate, with around 300,000 deaths and 3 million people displaced throughout the fighting.

British colonies in North America were mostly united into the Dominion of Canada on July 1st, 1867. At this stage it didn't include the Western provinces, or Newfoundland, which did not join Canada until 1949.

A student of Dürer, Baldung both adopted his style and managed Dürer's workshop for a time. As he further developed his work Baldung became the first German artist to heavily incorporate witches, witchcraft and erotic themes into his artwork.

The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion (approximately $120 billion in value as of June 2016) in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. The plan was in operation for four years beginning April 8, 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous again, and prevent the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan required a lessening of interstate barriers, saw a decrease in regulations, and encouraged an increase in productivity, labor union membership, and the adoption of modern business procedures.

Comprising around 5% of the Indian population, Gujarati people have a reputation for being merchants, industrialists, business entrepreneurs and politicians. Other very prominent Gujaratis include Narendra Modi, India’s current Prime Minister, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Discoveries from the Botai culture suggest that Kazakhstan is the location of the earliest domestication of the horse, around 3500 BCE.