Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. When this Roman orator ran afoul of the Second Triumvirate, they sent assassins not only to behead him, but to cut off his hands and nail them, along with his head, to the wall in the Forum Romanum. His name means 'chickpea'.
2. A prophet in both Christian and Muslim traditions denounced the marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother's wife, in violation of Old Testament law, and had his head chopped off and served on a platter for his trouble.
3. Although Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) has been romanticized, especially in the legends of Robin Hood, on at least one occasion he committed crimes suggesting he may have had no heart at all. How many Muslim prisoners of war did he behead after the Battle of Acre, when he grew impatient at Saladin's delay in paying ransom money.
4. Henry VIII had 216 people put to death for high treason in connection with the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536-37, which included nobility, clergy, and members of the middle class. All were associated with this group, whose grievances were political and economic, as well as religious.
5. This woman was forced to abdicate her throne and flee her kingdom. Unfortunately, her royal cousin never forgave her for her designs on the English crown, and so imprisoned her for 19 years and then beheaded her for treason.
6. This Russian empress' lady-in-waiting, Mary Hamilton, was sentenced to death for abortion, infanticide, and jewelry theft. After her decapitation, the Emperor picked up her head, lectured the audience on its anatomy, kissed it, and then tossed it away.
7. Anna Goeldi was beheaded on June 1782 for murder. Under torture, she had confessed to using witchcraft to put needles in the bread and milk of the children for whom she was a maidservant. She is therefore known as the "last witch of _______".
8. The Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris was not very discriminating when it came to handing out death sentences to those associated with the monarchy. Madame du Barry, the 'maitresse-en-titre' (official mistress) of King Louis XV, was accused of financially assisting those trying to flee the Reign of Terror during the Revolution, and was subsequently guillotined. Her last words are discussed in Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot'.
9. Peter Kuerten was a German serial killer in the early 20th century. He stabbed, strangled, molested, raped, and beat with a hammer at least sixteen girls, some as young as five years old. The media gave him this unique sobriquet.
10. In 2008, Vince Weiguang Li boarded a Greyhound Bus and decapitated and cannibalized a 22-year-old man named Tim McLean. In which Canadian province did this take place?
Source: Author
lingophilia
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