Every Little Thing She Does is Tragic Quiz

Answer: Lucilla

Lucilla (150 AD -182 AD) was the second daughter of well-known Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. She was also the older sister of the later Roman Emperor Commodus. Lucilla became involved in a plot to assassinate Commodus in order to replace him with herself and her husband on the throne. This plot ultimately failed and Lucilla was banished to the island of Capri and later executed.

Empress Theodora (c. 500 AD - 548 AD) was the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. Cleopatra (69 BC - 30 BC) was the queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Roxana (c. 340 BC - 310 BC) was one of the wives of Alexander the Great.

Answer: heresy

During the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) between the kingdoms of France and England, the French peasant, Joan of Arc (c. 1412-1431), claimed to hear divine forces supporting the cause of France against England. Joan of Arc convinced the French king Charles VII to let her fight. Dressed as a man, she led the liberation of Orleans and triumphed with other victories against the English.

However, she was captured by the English in 1430, tried for heresy, and then burned at the stake in 1431. Her practice of dressing as a man in battle was viewed as violating divine law. Ultimately, Joan of Arc was deemed by the English to be heretical and blasphemous for giving false revelations and prophesies from the divine, by nature of claiming that the divine was on the French side over the English. Joan of Arc later became a Catholic Saint and French national hero.

Answer: Lady Jane Grey

Charged with high treason, Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) was executed at Tower Green. Although hesitant at first to go through with these orders, the militant Catholic Queen Mary I ("blood Mary") ultimately feared that Lady Jane Grey and Protestant dissenters would threaten her place on the throne.

Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) or Mary Stuart was the Queen of Scotland and cousin of English Queen Elizabeth I. Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I and the second wife of King Henry VIII. Catherine Howard (1524-1542) was the fifth wife of King Henry VIII.

Answer: Charlotte Corday

Charlotte Corday (1768-1793) was born to a minor French aristocratic family. During the French Revolution, she aligned with the Girondins. The Girondins supported the French Revolution and were more moderate than the radical Jacobins, who led much of the Reign of Terror. On July 13 of 1793, Charlotte Corday assassinated the radical Jacobin leader, Jean-Paul Marat. The assassination of Marat in his bath was famously depicted in Jacques-Louis David's painting, "The Death of Marat" (1793). After the assassination, Charlotte Corday was executed by the guillotine.

Grace Elliot (1754-1823) was a Scottish courtesan and spy living in Paris during the French Revolution. Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) was a French playwright and activist for women's rights, also executed by the guillotine. Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), later becoming Joséphine Bonaparte and Empress Joséphine, was the wife of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Answer: Belle Boyd

Belle Boyd (1844-1900) was a Confederate spy who operated in her father's hotel in Front Royal, Virginia. During the American Civil War, Belle Boyd socialized with Union soldiers, collecting intelligence about Union Army forces in the area and passing the information to Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson in 1862. In 1861, Boyd shot and killed a Union soldier after he and others attempted to raise their flag over Boyd's residence and insulted her and her mother. She was tried and acquitted for the shooting.

Harriet Tubman (c. 1822- 1913), born a slave in Maryland, is known for escaping and then leading the famous Underground Railroad to help free others from slavery. Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) gained notoriety after being tried and acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is known for writing the best-selling anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Answer: women's suffrage

The 1913 Epsom Derby, also referred to as "The Suffragette Derby", was a horse race which took place at Epsom Downs in Surrey, England. Around 500,000 people attended the race, including the King and Queen. The race was overshadowed by the death of suffragette Emily Davison (1872-1913). During the race, she ran out in front of King George V's horse and tried to grab the horse's reins. Fatally injured, she died 4 days later. Davison was a militant suffragette and member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), campaigning for women's votes in the United Kingdom.

Answer: Mata Hari

Mata Hari (1876-1917), born as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan. She first came to Paris in 1905 and found fame for her performances inspired by Indian and Javanese dance. In the time of World War One, French authorities arrested her for espionage. She was accused of revealing details of the Allies' new weapon, the tank, resulting in the deaths of thousands of soldiers. Mata Hari was convicted and executed by a firing squad outside of Paris on October 15, 1917. There is some evidence that Mata Hari acted as a German spy, and for a time as a double agent for the French, but others believe that her military trial was riddled with bias and indirect evidence.

Louise Brooks (1906-1985) was an American film actress and dancer regarded as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper girl culture. Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was a famous American dancer who pioneered contemporary dance. Loie Fuller (1862-1928) was an American actress and dancer who also pioneered modern dance.

Answer: Isadora Duncan

Born in San Francisco, CA, Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was a famous American dancer and choreographer who pioneered contemporary dance and performed throughout the US and Europe. Rather than being a classically trained ballerina, Isadora Duncan was a free-spirited bohemian whose dances were improvisational and emotional. Isadora Duncan died in a strange and tragic accident when in Nice, France, on September 14, 1927. On that day, when she was a passenger in a convertible sportscar, she leaned back in her seat, and her enormous red scarf (which she had worn since she took up communism, one newspaper claimed) somehow blew into the well of the rear wheel on the passenger side. It wound around the axle, tightening around her neck and dragging her from the car and onto the street, killing her instantly.

Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was an American-born dancer, singer, and actress who lived as an expat in France and was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture. Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was a Swedish-American actress who starred in silent and sound films. Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) was a Russian prima ballerina who was the first ballet dancer to tour around the world.

Answer: Pacific

The American aviator, Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932). Amalia Earhart is also known for her tragic and cryptic death and disappearance associated with the Pacific. On the morning of July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, departed from New Guinea, on one of the last legs in their historic attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

Their next destination was Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away. However, Earhart and her navigator never arrived on Howland Island. Despite a search-and-rescue mission of unprecedented scale, including ships and planes from the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, they were never found. The Navy concluded that Earhart and Noonan had run out of fuel, crashed into the Pacific, and drowned. However, there are various other theories surrounding Earhart's disappearance and death around the Pacific, one such theory involving capture by the Japanese.

Answer: Grace Kelly

All of these actresses died unexpected and tragic deaths. However, American actress Grace Kelly (1929-1982), also Princess Grace of Monaco and wife of Prince Rainier III of Monaco, died after losing control of her car. On September 13, 1982, Kelly was driving on a steep road when she suffered a mild cerebral hemorrhage and lost control of her vehicle, plunging down the mountainside. After sustaining injuries to her brain and thorax, Kelly was taken off life support the next day, dying at age 52.

American actress Sharon Tate (1943-1969) died after being murdered by a follower of Charles Manson. American actress Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) died from accidental overdose. British actress Natasha Richardson (1963-2009) died after sustaining a head injury from a skiing lesson.