What Ifs Blunders Trivia

1. One of the more infamous examples of history repeating itself is when both Napoleon and Hitler invaded which nation whose cold temperatures killed off hundreds of thousands of soldiers each instance?

From Quiz Here We Go Again

Answer: Russia

In 1812, French forces led by Napoleon invaded Russia. Although the French had a numbers advantage, the French Army saw little success in battle, only winning a few narrowly that achieved little value. The French losses in skirmishes and the freezing temperatures dwindled the Army considerably until only about 10,000 of the original 500,000 remained. In 1941, Hitler and Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the hopes of securing the nation's oilfields and capture Soviet citizens for slave labor. Unlike Napoleon who only had small successes, the Germans had major wins. However like Napoleon, the Germans failed to capture Moscow and were repelled to the loss of over 200,000 men killed or missing. The failure of both men to capture Moscow significantly weakened their battle efforts going forward and are seen as significant turning points against them.

From Quiz What If?

Answer: George H.W. Bush

John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan outside of the Washington Hilton Hotel in order to impress "Taxi Driver" actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley missed Reagan with all six his initial shots. He did however hit White House Press Secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. The final bullet only struck Reagan due to an unfortunate ricochet off the limousine's armoured body. At the subsequent trial Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the US Constitution states that the vice president is first in line of succession. The 25th Amendment further clarifies that this includes if the incumbent resigns, is removed from office or dies. George H.W. Bush, as Reagan's vice president, would immediately have become president if Hinckley had in fact managed to assassinate Reagan. Bush went on to take office in 1989, succeeding Reagan as US President.

From Quiz Die Another Day

Answer: Richard Nixon

George Wallace (1919-1998) was one of the most divisive players in post-war American politics. A populist, he was best known for his opposition to government measures to remove racial segregation. When elected Governor of Alabama in 1963, his inaugural speech, written by a Ku Klux Klan leader, included the inflammatory passage: "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever". In total, he served as Alabama Governor for over 16 years, in three different terms, plus a short period as "First Gentleman of Alabama" when, to get round term limits, his wife Lurleen became Governor in 1966. That term was curtailed by Lurleen's death from cancer in 1968. Jimmy Carter called Wallace's successful campaign to get re-elected Governor in 1970 "one of the most racist campaigns in modern southern political history". Wallace ran several unsuccessful presidential campaigns, with some commentators calling him the most influential loser in US history, as other - successful - candidates learned from his populist campaigning style. After he was shot in 1972, on the presidential campaign trail - hit by four bullets - Wallace was confined to a wheelchair. In later years, Wallace became a born-again Christian, and sought forgiveness from black civil rights leaders for his previous actions: "I was wrong. Those days are over, and they ought to be over". During his final term as governor between 1983 and 1987 he appointed several black people to his administration, including two members of his cabinet. He said that as a result of the shooting he had experienced over twenty years of continual pain. He died in 1998. The would-be assassin, Arthur Bremer, wanted to be famous, and saw slaying a political leader as a means to that end. His diary recorded his desire: "to do SOMETHING BOLD AND DRAMATIC, FORCEFUL & DYNAMIC, A STATEMENT of my manhood for the world to see". He went to Ottawa to attempt to assassinate Nixon, but failed to get close. Realising it would be too difficult, he switched targets to Wallace. Bremer was sentenced originally to 63 years in prison for shooting Wallace and three others who were also hit in the assassination attempt. Bremer's diary was published after his trial under the name: "An Assassin's Diary". It inspired the character of Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's movie "Taxi Driver" (1976). Bremer was released on parole in 2007.

From Quiz Mistakes in History

Answer: The sinking of the Titanic

The sinking of the mighty liner Titanic, with its loss of some 1,500 lives took place on 15 April, 1912. It should never have happened. There were several contributing factors to this loss. One included the captain's ignoring of a series of warnings about the huge icebergs adrift in the area in which the ship was sailing, and his allowing the ship to proceed as normal at full steam. Another was the shocking shortage of lifeboats on board - only one third of the number needed - toe accommodate all on board. A third was the failure of other ships in the area to heed the Titanic's distress calls after the iceberg struck. Another reason that contributed more than any other to this tragedy was that that most magnificent vessel, considered to be unsinkable because of all the advanced safety features built into her design, had overlooked a small but deadly fact during construction. The rivets and rolled steel plates that went into her construction - and theoretically kept her sixteen watertight compartments from being breached - were too brittle to withstand the force of the collision. The iceberg did its deadly work, the dark and greedy sea poured in, and darkness closed in around the lives of 1,500 souls. (Question supplied by Creedy)

From Quiz The Strange But True - Why We Love History

Answer: crude molasses

The flood started at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company when a tank containing over two million pounds of crude molasses exploded. The molasses was used in the making of rum. This created a "wall of molasses" that ran through the streets of Boston, washing away buildings and vehicles, and killing over 20 people.

From Quiz A Whole New World

Answer: Sri Lanka

A Dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations, Ceylon was granted independence in 1948. It became a republic in 1972 and changed its name to Sri Lanka. Its economy depends not only on tea, but also on coffee, coconuts, rubber, and cinnamon.

From Quiz Detour Ahead!

Answer: Tennis Court

The vote is called the Tennis Court Oath. While it was mostly symbolic, it was the first formal declaration of the people in France against the king in the early days of the French Revolution.

From Quiz Five Years Later

Answer: Vasco da Gama

In July of 1497 da Gama's expedition sailed south down the coast of Africa, then veering into the Atlantic and swinging back in an arc to arrive off the southern African coast. The expedition rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached the Indian coast at Calicut (now known as Kozhikode) in May 1498. The voyage launched the all-water route from Europe to Asia.

From Quiz Blunders Galore!

Answer: Pisa

The leaning tower of Pisa took 177 years to build. It is just over 183 feet high on the lower side and just over 186 high on the high side. It also has either 294 or 296 steps, depending which way you're facing. With a weight of some 16,000 tons, the engineers who designed this flawed edifice only gave it foundations ten feet deep - and built on unstable soil at that. Work began on the tower in 1173, and within ten years of its completion it began its famous lean. It wasn't until early in the 21st century, after frantic work by modern engineers that the tower finally stopped leaning for the first time in its history. And how's this for some lovely history: The tower has seven bells installed - each one representing a note of a major musical scale. Perhaps one of the songs they play is "I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet".

From Quiz Unforgiving Lies of History

Answer: The Pentagon Papers

The "New York Times" printed these papers in 1971. The Nixon Administration stopped publication of the newspaper. In a landmark Supreme Court decision, the Court said that was wrong to do so.

From Quiz Myths of History

Answer: Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva was an eleventh century figure who did in fact intercede on behalf of the people with her husband Leofric, the Earl of Mercia, to lower the heregeld tax which threatened death to those who did not pay. The first reference to her naked ride does not appear until the writings of Roger of Wendover in approximately 1236.

From Quiz There Is Now A Level Zero

Answer: Douglas Corrigan

Corrigan claimed to be the victim of navigational error due to heavy cloud cover. He had previously been denied permission to make the New York to Ireland flight and before his "error" had made some modification to his plane in preparation for a transatlantic flight, so, was it navigational error or a way to make the flight he wanted without getting into too much trouble? If it was anything other than a mistake, Corrigan never admitted it.

From Quiz History Repeated

Answer: Aegean

Poseidon protected the island of Atlantis from destruction until one day the god of the sea found the islanders worshiping other gods. As their punishment, Poseidon caused the city of Atlantis to disappear over night. When studying how a city could disappear overnight, as Atlantis did, vulcanologists found an explosion that occurred 3500 years ago on the island of Kalliste (Santorini). This explosion had so much force behind it that caused large tidal waves that destroyed most of the ports in the town of Crete. These tidal waves could be the explanation for the disappearance of one island.

From Quiz What Happened?

Answer: The colonies agreed on the Declaration of Independence

According to Denise Kierman and Joseph D 'Agnese book 'Signing Their Lives Away' twelve of the 13 colonies voted in favor of the declaration on July 2nd with New York agreeing to most likely vote in favor in a day or two. On July 4th only two delegates actually signed the document - John Hancock and Charles Thomas. The rest of the signers did not actual start to sign the document until August 2nd however the last signature did not happen until 1781. When the document was sent to a printer on July 3rd to spread it around the colonies he mistakenly put July 4th.

From Quiz Famous Miscalculations

Answer: Howland

Bad planning. Like trying to find a needle in an (ocean) haystack.

From Quiz What If?

Answer: Robert Falcon Scott

The race to the South Pole was never a race in the strictest sense, as the Amundsen and Scott expeditions did not leave at the same time. Amundsen left from Norway in June 1910 and Scott in November 1911. As it turned out, Amundsen managed to beat Scott to the South Pole by a mere five weeks achieving his goal on December 14th, 1911. Scott, when discovering this, wrote in his diary, "The worst has happened"; "All the day dreams must go"; "Great God! This is an awful place". Robert Peary explored the North Pole, Shackleton tried very hard unsuccessfully to get to the South Pole and Richard Byrd was an aviator who flew to both poles.

From Quiz Die Another Day

Answer: Kindertransport

The children were transported to countries including the UK and the USA in the Kindertransport, a relief effort which was set up following Kristallnacht in 1938. These children often ended up being the only members of their families to survive the war. Many who were saved contributed to the war effort and many went on to prominent roles in public life, including Wolfgang Rindler, the physicist who coined the term "event horizon"; Benjamin Abeles, whose research led to the means of powering the Voyager interplanetary spacecraft; Karel Reisz, who directed "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960); and Alf Dubs, a campaigning UK Member of Parliament who became a Lord, whose amendment to the 2016 Immigration Act was aimed at ensuring the safe passage to the UK of child refugees during the migrant crisis that year. Kinderzeitung means children's newspaper. Kinderbibliothek means children's library Kindergarten is a preschool facility - the name first coined by Friedrich Fröbel.

From Quiz Mistakes in History

Answer: Erwin Rommel

Nobody knows for sure what might have happened if Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had still been in France at the time of the Allied invasion of Normandy. The defenses along the French coast had already been inspected and found to be lacking, but the Germans thought a planned invasion would be delayed for a few weeks by the abysmal weather conditions. On the morning of the invasion, the Germans were caught off guard. Rommel was visiting his wife in Germany for her 50th birthday, with most of his commanders either away training or on leave. This lack of foresight irrevocably changed the outcome of the war forever. The Allied forces were in possession of meteorological experts who noticed a 24 hour window on the 6th June when there would be a break in the weather. When Rommel was notified of the invasion, it took him hours to return back to his command post in France, but by this time, the Allied forces had advanced on all five major Normandy landing beaches. (Question supplied by Plodd)

From Quiz The Strange But True - Why We Love History

Answer: Iceland

The Althingi is the national parliament of Iceland. Founded in 930 AD at Thingvellir, it is believed to be the oldest parliamentary institutions in the world, along with the Jamtamot parliament of Sweden.

From Quiz Five Years Later

Answer: Hereward the Wake

Hereward was a hot-headed young man who was exiled to Europe after a dispute with Edward the Confessor. Later the death of Edward left England in a disarray with various claims to the throne and open to invasion from Normans and Vikings. After the defeat of King Harold the feudal system was based on an Oath of Fealty and military support in exchange for a reward of lands. English lands were given to supporters of William. The news of Harold's defeat brought Hereward back to England. The Normans had seized his father's estates, murdered his brother and nailed his head above the doorway! Hereward exacted revenge on as many Normans as he could and fled to the Fens (then an area of wetlands in the counties of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk) and was harbored by Abbot Thurstan of Ely. He joined a party of Danes who appeared in England, attacked Peterborough and sacked the Abbey. Fearing for his Abbey, Thurstan later betrayed Hereward. Although conflicting accounts exist for the fall of Ely, Hereward was eventually forced to yield to the Norman king.

From Quiz Historical Misconceptions

Answer: Horns

This is another common misconception that many people believe is gospel truth today. There is, in fact, no record at all of Vikings wearing horned helmets into battle or during their daily village lives. Instead, the helmets the men did wear into battle were made of leather, fitted closely to their heads and greatly resembled those worn by Norman soldiers. If horned helmets of any kind were worn at all, it was by their leaders for religious or ceremonial purposes, and evidence of this is very slim indeed. The concept of your average Viking in the street getting about wearing a horned helmet was made popular by the German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) in his 1876 "Der Ring des Nibelungen" series of operas. This composer was rather taken by the notion of the heroic Teutonic warrior.

From Quiz Blunders Galore!

Answer: The Beatles

Oh dear, and how unfortunate for Decca Records! The Beatles went on to become one of the most successful bands in history. During their time together as a group, they received seven Grammy Awards and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. As an indication of their selling power, in the United States alone, they sold 6 Diamond albums, 24 Multi-platinum albums, 39 Platinum albums and 45 Gold albums. Decca Records well and truly hit the deck with that blunder.

From Quiz Unforgiving Lies of History

Answer: It was in fact widely accepted that the Earth was spherical

The Greek philosopher, Pythagoras proposed that the world was spherical nearly 2,000 years before Columbus. Most people believed Pythagoras's theory. Also, the techniques Columbus used to get to America would only work if he knew the world was round before his voyage.

From Quiz Myths of History

Answer: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus

It was reported posthumously by Cassius Dio and Suetonius that Nero, costumed, sang the "Sack of Ilium" whilst the fire burned although this would have been performed on the lyre and not the fiddle which did not exist at the time. Tacitus' Annals report that Nero's performance was a malicious rumour. Although Nero was keen on music it is likely that in the search for a scapegoat and in an attempt to posthumously blacken his memory further, such hearsay developed. According to Tacitus, Nero wasn't even in Rome during the fire, but hurried back and financed a considerable relief effort to assist the citizens in the aftermath.

From Quiz There Is Now A Level Zero

Answer: Andres Escobar Saldarriaga

On July 2, 1994, only a couple of weeks after his mistake, Escobar was gunned down outside a bar in Medellin. His murderer reportedly shouted the word "Goal" after each of the 12 shots that he fired.

From Quiz History Repeated

Answer: Richard Nixon

On August 9, 1974 Richard Milhous Nixon resigned as president of the United States two years after the Watergate Scandal first began.

From Quiz What Happened?

Answer: The stock market crashed in the U.S

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, many Americans lost much of their wealth, due to a stock market crash. Panic began, and many people rushed to the banks to withdraw all their money, causing bank runs, where banks would lose all their funds. Many people went to the banks only to find out the bank no longer had their money, because others had taken it out and some had not repaid borrowed money in loans. This was the start of the Great Depression.

From Quiz Famous Miscalculations

Answer: Parking ticket

He got a parking ticket - at a specific time and location - that led police to investigate, pursue and capture their man.

From Quiz Here We Go Again

Answer: Coral reef

There are a lot of similarities between the 1822 sinking of the Tek Sing and of the Titanic ninety years later in 1912. The Tek Sing was a Chinese junk that sank in the South China Sea on its way to the Dutch East Indies. It is even referred to as the Titanic of the East. The Tek Sing sank when it struck a coral reef. Roughly 200 of the 1,800 people on board survived when they were picked up by a passing ship. Both ships had high casualty rates caused by, in part, a lack of lifeboats, preventative and escape measures and cold weather. Both wreckages were also not discovered until well after their demises.

From Quiz What If?

Answer: Discovering penicillin

As a physician, microbiologist and pharmacologist, Alexander Fleming seemed to be in the prime position to have discovered something great. His discovery of penicillin was not as accidental as one might think, as he was on working antibacterial substances at the time. Upon returning from his holiday, he noticed a strange fungus on his staphylococcus culture and that it had killed the staphylococcus on the culture. He identified the mould to be 'Penicillium notatum' and named the substance that was taken from a pure culture of the mould, penicillin. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.

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