Weekly History Quiz No.299

In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst and others, frustrated by the lack of progress, decided more direct action was required and founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) with the motto “Deeds not words”. The group came to be known as the Suffragettes.

Baybars led the Mamluk Sultanate, which ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from 1250 until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, with Cairo as its capital. It was ruled by a military caste of mamluks (freed slave soldiers). Baybars inflicted a defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France, as well as defeating the Mongol army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.

SDI, nicknamed “Star Wars,” was Reagan’s ambitious plan for a missile-defence shield. This never became operational, but a similar possible system is envisioned with President Donald Trump's call for the building of a national "Iron Dome" missile defense shield.

Ulbricht pushed for closing East Germany’s borders, culminating in the Wall’s construction in 1961. Honecker ruled East Germany later in the Cold War and oversaw the fall of the Wall. Adenauer and Kohl were both West German Chancellors.

Arabic for “disaster” or “catastrophe”, during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War that followed, around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, out of approximately 1.2 million Arabs living in former British Mandate of Palestine.

In 1947 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine. This specified borders for new Arab and Jewish states and an area of Jerusalem to be administered by the UN under an international regime. The Palestinians rejected the plan. In December 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab militias began attacking Jewish targets. The Jewish militias were initially on the defensive as civil war broke out, but in early April 1948 moved onto the offensive.

In May 1948 Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, and Iraq entered what had been British Mandatory Palestine, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. This continued for a year, before a ceasefire that saw Israeli forces in control of much of what is now Israel. Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied Gaza.

Goya was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker who is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Hamid Karzai served as President of Afghanistan from 22 December 2001 to 29 September 2014. He is also the leader of the Popalzai Durrani tribe of Kandahar. Karzai led tribes around Kandahar against the Taliban; he became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime by a US led coalition in late 2001.

A coal spoil tip on a mountain slope above the Welsh town of Aberfan had been created over a natural waterway. Heavy rain saturated the tip, turning it into a slurry. It suddenly slid downhill, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and surrounding houses.

Read more about the Iranian revolution here.

The superiority of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars was such that when equivalent ships fought the Royal Navy would almost certainly prevail. This was mostly due to the training and experience of the crews, and fed into the aggressive leadership shown by many of the officers, Nelson included.