20th-Century History in the 1950s Quiz

Answer: Hainan

The Battle of Hainan Island was fought from March 5 to May 1 in 1950. Although the Nationalist Army was equipped with superior weapons, they were decisively defeated by the PLA, and had to withdraw to Taiwan. The Fall of Hainan Island signaled the end of the Chinese Civil War. In the same year, the Korean War broke out on June 25 when North Korea invaded the south.

Answer: San Francisco

On behalf of the United Nations, 49 nations signed the Treaty of San Francisco on September 8, 1951, to establish peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers. The treaty officially ended the legal state of WWII.

Answer: Egypt

The Free Officers Movements led by Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abel Nasser successfully carried out a coup attempt on July 23rd, 1952 to overthrow King Farouk of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty. The July 23rd revolution also ended the British occupation in Egypt.

In 1953, Naguib became the first Egyptian president and Nasser became the first prime minister. In 1956, Nasser succeeded Naguib as the second Egyptian president.

Answer: Stalin

In 1922, after the death of Lenin, Josef Stalin became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. By 1930s, he consolidated enough power to become the paramount leader of Soviet Union and developed his own policies known as Stalinism. Stalin was one of the Big-3 leaders during WWII. In March 1953, he passed away from cerebral haemorrhage.

Answer: USSR

On June 27, 1954, the first nuclear power in the world was used at Obninsk Nuclear Power Station at Kaluga Oblast, located about 110-km (68-mi) southwest of Moscow. It was a small-scale 5MW-output power plant, which was decommissioned in April 2002.

Answer: Anthony Eden

In 1951, Churchill regained power from Labour Party leader Clement Attlee, who had defeated him in the 1945 general elections. In April 1955, he resigned from his post due to poor health and was succeeded by Anthony Eden. After the poor handling of the Suez Canal crisis, Eden resigned in January 1957.

Answer: Hungary

The Hungarian uprising was from 23rd of October until 10th of November 1956. The revolution was led by Imre Nagy who served as the Prime Minister of the Hungarian People's Republic from 1953. In Budapest, the protest against Soviet rule was started by the students, which attracted thousands of other protestors along the way.

The protestors marched to the Hungarian Parliament Building. After the uprising was crushed by the Soviet army, Nagy was sentenced to death and was executed in 1958.

Answer: Commercial jet liner

In 1952, British de Havilland Comet became the first jet airliner to fly commercially, but was withdrawn shortly afterwards due to serious structural problems. Although Avro Canada C102 Jetliner was developed in 1949, it never entered full production. Boeing 707 became the only commercially successful jetliner in 1957.

The, British de Havilland Comet became the first jet airliner to fly commercially, in 1952, but was withdrawn shortly afterwards due to serious structural problems. In 1958, de Havilland introduced a redesigned Comet 4 which was put into commercial service until 1981. In 1957, Boeing 707-120 was flew for the first time on December 20.

Answer: China

The Great Leap Campaign from 1958 to 1962 was the main cause of the great famine in China. In many regions, agricultural production was neglected with an overemphasis on industrial production, which failed badly due to the lack of technical knowledge.

Many local leaders, for fear of punishment, falsified the agricultural outputs to please the Central Committee in Beijing. An estimated number of 15 to 55 million people died from starvation, possibly the most disastrous famine in Chinese history.

Answer: Cuba

The Cuban Revolution was led by Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and Che Guevara and overthrew the military dictatorship of President Fulgencio Batista. Batista was supported by the United States as the military dictator from 1952 to 1959. The 26th of July Movement was declared as the Day of Revolution, and Cuba was reformed on the policy of Marxism-Leninism.

After the revolution, Fidel Castro became the Cuban leader, a position he held until his death in 2008. In 2008, he was succeeded by his brother, Raul Castro.