Famous Places - Where Are They? Quiz

Answer: Spain

The Battle Of Trafalgar was named after Cape Trafalgar in Spain. The sea battle was fought between Napoleon's combined French and Spanish fleets and the Royal Navy on 21 October 1805. It took place in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Spain.

The Royal Navy was led by Lord Horatio Nelson and the French/Spanish navies were led by the French Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve.

Answer: North Africa

The Barbary Coast was in north Africa, which now consists of the countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.

The name derives from the Berber people of North Africa and is associated with the Barbary pirates and Barbary slave traders based there. They attacked ships and coastal settlements in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Eventually this led to the Barbary Wars of the early 19th century, which involved the U.S. Marines and Navy in their first land action overseas. This action is referred to in the Marines' Hymn "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli".

Answer: Tunisia

The city of Carthage was situated in what is now Tunisia. It was founded by the Phoenicians but gained independence circa. 650 BC.

The Carthaginian Empire occupied most of the North African coast, parts of southern Spain, and a number of Mediterranean islands. Most of the time it was not on friendly terms with the Greeks and Romans. This hostility led to a series of armed conflicts, the Sicilian Wars c. 600-265 BC and the Punic Wars c.264-146 BC. There were many great Carthaginian leaders including Hamilcar Barca and perhaps the most famous, his son Hannibal Barca.

Answer: Belgium

Waterloo is now in Belgium; at the time of the battle it was in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The battle of Waterloo was fought between the French army commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte and a British-led coalition consisting of units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, commanded by the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army commanded by Field Marshal von Blücher on June 18 1815.

After the battle was lost it was rumored that Napoleon tried to escape to North America, but the attempt failed as The Royal Navy was blockading French ports. He finally surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon on the July 15 1815.

Answer: Uganda

On June 27 1976, an Air France Airbus A300 jet airliner was hijacked by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells and taken to Entebbe airport in Uganda.

The plane had been on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris when it was hijacked. After some days, 148 non-Israeli passengers were released and flown to Paris but 106 people (which included the Air France crew) were held. In exchange for the hostages, the hijackers wanted prisoners released from jails in Israeli and other counties.

On July 4 1976 commandos of the Israel Defense Forces carried out a rescue attempt. One hundred and two hostages were rescued but four died along with one Israeli commando Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, who was the older brother of future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Answer: Belgium

The USA declared war on the UK on June 18 1812 and it ended with the Treaty of Ghent. The treaty was signed in Ghent, Belgium, on Christmas Eve 1814 but the war did not officially end until the US Congress ratified the treaty on February 17 1815.

There had been long-standing disputes over territorial expansion of the USA in North America, and British support of native American tribes in their opposition to it. The disputes got worse in 1807 when the Royal Navy began to enforce tighter restrictions on American trade with France. The British also impressed men claimed as British subjects, (even those with American citizenship) into the British Royal Navy.

Answer: Arizona

The gunfight at the O. K. corral took place between a group of outlaws called The Cowboys and a group of lawmen in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, USA, on 26 October 1881. Arizona became the 48th state and the last contiguous state to be admitted to the Union on 14 February 1912.

The Cowboys were Billy Claiborne, Billy and Ike Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury. The lawmen were town Marshal Virgil Earp, Special Policeman Morgan Earp, Special Policeman Wyatt Earp and temporary policeman Doc Holliday. The gunfight lasted approx. 30 seconds. Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury were killed and Vigil Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holiday were wounded. Wyatt Earp was unharmed and died in 1929 at the age of 80.

Answer: Atlantic Ocean

The Sargasso Sea is an area of the Atlantic ocean covered by brown Sargassum seaweed and quite often in calm blue water. The area is also the north Atlantic Gyre, a clockwise-circulating system of ocean currents formed on the west by the Gulf Stream, on the north by the north Atlantic current, on the east by the Canary current and on the south by the north Atlantic equatorial current. It lies between 20° and 35° north and 40° and 70° west and is approximately 680 miles (1,100 kilometres) wide by 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) long.

Owing to the prevailing surface currents the area contains the huge north Atlantic garbage patch. Some organizations have been set up to protect the area, including the Sargasso Sea Commission which was established in 2014 by the governments of the Azores (Portugal), Bermuda (United Kingdom), Monaco, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Answer: Britain

The war between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on 27 August 1896, lasted approx. 38 minutes.

Back in the days of empire Britain and Germany were busy carving up Africa and Britain took over Zanzibar. Everything was hunky dory until Khalid bin Barghash became Sultan, the British didn't like it and took steps to remove him. A British bombardment started at approx. 9.02 am and the cease fire was at 9.40 am. The Sultan's forces sustained approx. 500 casualties, while on the British side one sailor was injured. The Sultan fled through the back exit of his palace.

Answer: Canada

The Klondike gold rush happened in the Canadian north-western territory of Yukon, in 1897.

Gold was discovered by an American prospector named George Carmack in 1896, along with his wife Kate Carmack, her brother Skookum Jim and their nephew Dawson Charlie. They were travelling south of the Klondike River, where they began looking for gold on Bonanza Creek, which was called Rabbit Creek at the time. Over the next few years as many as 100,000 people migrated to the Klondike region of Yukon, in north-western Canada, prospecting for gold.

The gold discoverer and his family had different fates over the years. George Carmack left his wife Kate and later remarried and lived prosperously. Skookum Jim became rich from his mining royalties but continued to prospect for gold until his death in 1916. Dawson Charlie spent his earnings very freely and died in an accident related to alcohol.