Putting Some Order into the Second Millennium Quiz

The First Crusade took place from 1096 to 1099 and was initiated by Christian leaders of western Europe with the aim of reclaiming control of the Holy Land and particularly the pilgrimage destination of the city Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The campaign was endorsed and encouraged by Pope Urban II and came to be known as the "Princes' Crusade" as its main armies were largely raised and led by French noblemen and royalty. Significant support was also provided by numerous other western European nations and the Byzantine Empire.

After three years, the First Crusade came to end on July 15th, 1099, when Jerusalem fell after a month-long siege. An infamous massacre then followed when the forces of the Crusaders slaughtered tens of thousands of the city's largely Muslim and Jewish inhabitants.

This disaster occurred on November 25th, 1120, when the White Ship sank near the port of Barfleur in Normandy. The vessel had hit a rock shortly after setting off at night to cross the channel to England and all but one of the approximately 300 passengers on board (many of whom were reported to be drunk) were drowned. Despite many of the victims being high-ranking nobles, this shipwreck may never have been remembered by history if it hadn't been for the fact that one of the passengers was William Adelin, the only legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England.

William Adelin's death was a direct cause of the subsequent 15 years of civil war in England, known as the Anarchy. The conflict was essentially a protracted battle between Henry's daughter and new heir, the Empress Matilda, and her cousin who had usurped the throne as King Stephen on the death of his uncle. Ironically, Stephen was allegedly also supposed to travel on the White Ship, but had disembarked before it set sail.

Genghis Khan was the ruler of the Mongols from 1206 until his death in August 1227. He was born around 1162 and known by his birth name of Temujin for the first two-thirds of his life, as he rose from relative obscurity to tribal chieftain, and then eventually to become the leader of all the Mongol tribes - the point at which he took the name Genghis Khan.

He then continued to expand his power base by leading his armies into battle against neighbouring countries and civilisations to create the Mongol Empire. By the time of his death in 1227 the area under his control stretched from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Pacific coast of China in the east.

The Kalmar Union was first founded in 1397 by Queen Margaret of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. She was the youngest daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark and the wife of King Haakon VI of Norway, who was also briefly King of Sweden.

Margaret consolidated power by ensuring her young son Olaf was crowned King of Denmark on the death of her father without a direct male heir in 1375 and assumed the position of regent on his behalf. Her husband died in 1380, leaving Olaf king of both Denmark and Norway and Margaret the regent of both nations. When Olaf died in 1387 aged just 17, his mother was elected as queen regnant of Denmark and Norway in her own right. Margaret then supported the Swedish nobles against the rule of King Albert of Sweden and claimed the throne of that country as well after Albert's forces were defeated in 1389.

Margaret then adopted her great nephew Eric of Pomerania as her heir and he immediately became her co-sovereign of Norway. The declaration of the Kalmar Union marked the beginning of the co-sovereignty of Margaret and Eric over Denmark and Sweden.

The medieval keep at Blarney Castle in County Cork in the south of Ireland was completed in 1446, although the site itself had been fortified since the 10th century. A limestone rock, known as the Blarney Stone, was set in a turret below the battlements and has since gained a reputation in folklore for giving the gift of eloquence to anyone who kisses it.

Unfortunately, the process of kissing it requires climbing to the top of the 27 metre (90 feet) tall ancient keep, lying down on the edge, and hanging off backwards while someone holds onto your legs to prevent an unpleasant accident. Luckily, tourists can take the option to forgo eloquence and just take a look at the stone from a safe distance. (I'll leave readers to guess here what option I chose to take when I visited it.)

'The Ninety-five Theses', otherwise known as a 'Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences was written by German priest and theologian Martin Luther in 1517. It contained various arguments against the Catholic Church's policy of allowing people to buy "indulgences" from the church to offset any sins they may have committed. Luther's text highlighting his disagreement with this practice was shared in a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz on October 31st, 1517 - a date which is now commemorated as Reformation Day and considered to be the birth of the movement that eventually became Protestantism.

While the story of Luther nailing a copy of 'The Ninety-five Theses' to the door of a church in Wittenberg on Reformation Day could be true, there is no direct evidence that this event actually took place.

While there have been several historical incidents over the centuries where people have been thrown out of windows in Prague, it is the one that took place in 1618 that is usually referred to simply as the Defenestration of Prague or as the Third Defenestration of Prague. (Some historical dispute over the significance of one of the earlier events, means that it can also be somewhat confusingly called the Second Defenestration as well.)

The (Third) Defenestration of Prague involved two Lords Regent of the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and their secretary who were all found guilty of violating Protestant rights by a council of Protestant Bohemian lords. They were sentenced to being thrown out of the window of the council chamber - an act that was swiftly carried out although all three men survived the 20 metre (70 foot) drop.

The event was a significant point in history as it marked the escalation of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants across the Holy Roman Empire and was one of the triggers for the Thirty Years War.

Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union on June 1st, 1792, and was formed from the nine counties that made up the Kentucky District of the state of Virginia. Statehood came less than 20 years after the first permanent settlement of the area by Europeans was founded by James Harrod at Harrodstown (now Harrodsburg) in 1775.

Other early settlements included Logan's Fort (now Stanford) and Boonesborough (which was founded by and named after the famous pioneer Daniel Boone). However, the town of Frankfort, which was first incorporated in 1780, was chosen as the state capital.

Mount Tambora is a volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa that underwent a massive eruption in April 1815. Aside from ejecting large amounts of ash and volcanic matter into the atmosphere, it also emitted significant levels of sulfur dioxide that decreased global temperatures by an estimated 0.5 degrees Celsius (or 0.95 degrees Fahrenheit).

In turn the cooler temperatures prevented crops from growing normally (with frost and snow recorded in June in various areas of the northern hemisphere) and resulted in poor harvests and famine around the world. This unseasonable weather resulted in the year after the eruption being dubbed the "Year Without a Summer", but it actually took two to three years for the impact on the climate to fully dissipate.

The first circumnavigation of the globe by air was successfully undertaken in 1924 by a team from the US Army Air Service, flying Douglas World Carrier (DWC) biplanes. Four aircraft and eight airmen set out on the challenge but only two planes and their four crew members completed the journey. The two successful planes (named Chicago and New Orleans) landed back in the United States 175 days after they first set out, having traveled over 42,000 kilometres (26,000 miles) around the northern hemisphere. Needless to say this was not a non-stop circumnavigation and was only achieved following numerous repairs and even replacement engines and wings.

The airmen who recorded this world first achievement were Leslie P. Arnold, John Harding Jr., Erik H. Nelson, and Lowell H. Smith.