Weekly History Quiz No.283

Watson and Crick published their findings in a one-page paper, with the understated title “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid,” in the British scientific weekly Nature on April 25, 1953, illustrated with a schematic drawing of the double helix by Crick’s wife, Odile.

The Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BCE was the decisive blow that crippled Athens’ naval dominance. The Spartan fleet, led by Lysander, destroyed almost the entire Athenian navy, cutting Athens off from crucial grain and trade routes. This defeat forced Athens to surrender in 404 BCE, ending the war.

The French painter was a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters Les Nabis, who led the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. The work depicts the artist's partner and frequent model Marthe de Mėrigny.

The Hawaiian Kingdom was established in 1795 when Kamehameha I, then Aliʻi nui of Hawaii, conquered the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi, and unified them under one government. In 1810, the Hawaiian Islands were fully unified when the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau voluntarily joined the Hawaiian Kingdom. This rule continued until a 1893 coup by a group of Hawaiian-Americans known as the Committee of Safety, which was supported by the U.S. military. This established the Republic of Hawaii, which was annexed by the USA in 1898.

A Pakistani Army operation aimed at eliminating the Bengali nationalist movement in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). It began when thousands of Bengali members of the Pakistani armed forces were summarily executed, and was the beginning of the the Bangladesh genocide, which saw somewhere between 300,000 and 3,000,000 Bengalis killed and 10 million made refugees in India.

Kublai Kahn was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. Marco Polo met him in 1271, and lived in the Emperor's lands for 17 years.

The Protestant James VI and I, who became King of England in 1603, was less tolerant of Catholics than many had hoped.

Britain’s Balfour Declaration supported the Zionist movement, promising to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine, sparking long-term regional conflict.

The first naval battle of the Second World War saw the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, engage a Royal Navy squadron comprising the cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Achilles and HMS Exeter off the river Plate estuary, Uruguay. In the battle all the ships were damaged, with the Admiral Graf Spee seeking refuge in neutral Montevideo. After 72 hours the Uruguayan government expelled the Admiral Graf Spee, which was scuttled rather than facing the superior British squadron in battle.

A British politician, Wilberforce headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for 20 years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Wilberforce then supported the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery which led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire. Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured.