As Famous As Harry Potter? Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War, fought primarily between England and France, was a battle for control of the French crown and lasted for 116 years - from 1337 to 1453. The Treaty of Troyes, signed in 1420, was thought to have settled the argument as King Charles VI of France agreed to the marriage of his daughter to King Henry V of England and that their future heirs would become joint monarchs of England and France. However, the death of Henry V just two years later led Charles VI's disinherited son (King Charles VII - known at the time as the 'Dauphin') to reignite the war in order to fight for his crown.

The Battle of Cravant resulted in the English succeeding in relieving a French siege of the town of Cravant (located in the Burgundy region of modern day France), but had little impact on the overall war, which continued on for another thirty years.

The Thirty Years' War took place in the 17th century and involved most of Europe, the Eighty Years' War is also known as the Dutch War of Independence and the fictional Giant Wars were conflicts between wizards and giants mentioned in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'.

Answer: Jews

Antisemitism was not new when Hitler launched his persecution of the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. Hitler's policies culminated in the almost unimaginable horror of the Holocaust, a tragedy that hopefully will never be forgotten. However, knowledge of Jewish persecution from earlier centuries is not as widely remembered. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella had just completed the conquest of the Moors (Islamic inhabitants of southern Spain), ensuring Catholic rule of the whole Iberian Peninsula, and set about forcing non-Christians to convert or leave the country. Both Jewish and Islamic people were affected by this policy, which was enforced by the Spanish Inquisition.

Although J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' novels are classified as children's books, they do address serious themes such as persecution and the abuse of power. Voldemort's persecution of witches and wizards who could not prove their wizarding parentage is one example, while Dumbledore and Grindelwald's teenage plans to conquer the non-magical world for "the greater good" is another.

Answer: Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer widely credited with establishing European (particularly Spanish) colonisation of the Americas. He completed four voyages from Spain (as King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella provided the finance) to the West Indies and central and south America. He was also appointed Viceroy and Governor of the Indies. His period in charge of the island of Hispaniola (the modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti) was however marred by accusations of tyranny and brutality.

Pierre Chouteau Jr., Richard Montgomery and Sir Walter Raleigh gave their names to the state capitals of South Dakota, Alabama and North Carolina respectively.

In the world of 'Harry Potter' there was little to do in terms of world exploration as muggles had already managed that quite well by themselves! However, there were witches and wizards who continued to search for elusive magical creatures - Xenophilius and Luna Lovegood's lengthy belief in the existence of the mythical Crumple-Horned Snorkack being a case in point.

Answer: No

The Anglo-Dutch wars were mainly about naval supremacy and maritime trading rights. The Second Anglo-Dutch War was fought during the reign of King Charles II and was decisively won by the Dutch who ended it by sailing up the River Medway, destroying most of the English fleet moored at Chatham dockyard, and towing away the flagship of the fleet as a trophy. All in all, the war was a humiliation for Charles and a hard-up nation still recovering from the human costs of the Great Plague and the financial costs of the Great Fire of London.

The Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674) resulted in another Dutch victory while the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (generally considered to be part of the American Wars of Independence) was won by the British.

The 'Harry Potter' series by J.K. Rowling revolved around a series of 'wars' against the evil Lord Voldemort. The first of these ended when Voldemort was mysteriously vanquished as a result of his attack on the then baby Harry Potter. The second war ended at the Battle of Hogwarts when Harry's spell "Expelliarmus" overcame Voldemort's death spell "Avada Kadavra" - there was no need for boring old treaties in the wizarding world!

Answer: Pontiac

Pontiac's siege of Fort Detroit was part of the conflict known as 'Pontiac's Rebellion' or 'Pontiac's War'. He was an Odawa leader but led an alliance made up of over ten different tribes against British rule in the area. The war cost hundreds of thousands of Native American lives, particularly due to disease and the deliberate introduction of smallpox to their population, but ended with no clear winner.

Tecumseh was a Shawnee chief of the early 19th century and Geronimo was an Apache chief during the Apache Wars of the 1850s to 1880s. Cadillac is a brand of car owned by General Motors but it was named after a French explorer who founded Detroit, not a Native American leader.

The 'Harry Potter' series didn't include any Pontiacs but did prominently feature a flying Ford Anglia!

Answer: Potash

Potash is a term for a chemical compound containing the element potassium. It can refer to either naturally occurring deposits of the substance or those created through a manufacturing process, such as the one invented by Samuel Hopkins in the late 18th century. The main use for potash is in fertilisers, but it has also been used for centuries in the production of glass and soap.

Ammonia is another chemical compound often found in fertilisers and has also been used by humans for centuries, although the Haber-Bosch process for manufacturing ammonia from air was not patented until 1910. Dynamite was patented by Alfred Nobel in 1867, and the use of concrete was also re-popularised in the 19th century although it had been used in Roman times - the Colosseum in Rome being an example of an ancient concrete building.

The Ministry of Magic also had to deal with wizard inventors as their 'Ludicrous Patents Office' was located on the seventh floor of their headquarters ('Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'). The name of the department suggests however that they might not haven taken it as seriously as muggle governments!

Answer: K2

K2, also known as Mount Godwin-Austen, is one of the most dangerous mountains in the world, hence the name 'The Savage Mountain'. Although not as tall as Mount Everest, its steep cliffs and ridges and often poor weather conditions make it extremely difficult to climb. A regularly quoted statistic is that there is one fatality for every four successful ascents of K2.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount McKinley and the Vinson Massif are the highest mountains in Africa, North America and Antarctica respectively. Amazingly, none of these feature in the world's highest one hundred mountains, which are all located in Asia.

Unless Harry Potter had obtained a copy of a muggle newspaper he is unlikely to have ever read about the exploits of Lacedelli or Compagnoni on his birthday. After all, the achievement would seem quite tame to most witches or wizards capable of hopping on a broomstick and taking a quick trip to the summit of K2 any time they fancied having a look at the view (other forms of magical transport are also available).

Answer: Last official rum ration served in the Royal Navy

In this case the word 'tot' refers to the size of the rum ration given daily to the Royal Navy's sailors until 31st July 1970. Sailors were originally given beer to drink on naval ships, but this was replaced by rum in the 17th century in order to save space onboard. However, the original rum ration was still a pint per sailor per day! Unsurprisingly the navy ended up suffering severe problems due to drunkenness on duty and began to reduce and water down the rum served until the practice was finally discontinued in 1970.

The equivalent of 'Black Tot Day' in Harry Potter's world would probably have been 'Black Firewhisky Day'. J.K. Rowling never mentioned a wizarding navy, but Durmstrang School certainly had its own ship so I suppose it's possible!

Answer: Apollo 15

Apollo 15 was the first 'long-stay' mission to the moon, with astronauts David Scott and James Irwin spending three days on the surface. David Scott also became the first man to drive on the moon when he piloted the LRV on its maiden excursion - a quick trip round the landing module! The LRV gave the astronauts the chance to travel much further from the landing site than would otherwise have been possible, allowing them to collect a wider of range of geological samples to bring back to Earth.

The witches and wizards featured in the 'Harry Potter' series seemed to have very little interest in going into space, although astronomy was taught to at least O.W.L. standard at Hogwarts school. Perhaps if you have an amazing array of magical skills here on Earth, spending a huge amount of time and effort blasting yourself into space somehow seems less worthwhile ...

Answer: Arms limitation

The START (or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was an agreement signed between the US and USSR to limit the type and amount of weapons held following the arms race of the 1980s. In particular the treaty limited the scale of nuclear weapons held by both sides, and by 2001 had been credited with reducing the worldwide stockpile of strategic nuclear weapons by about 80%. Although initially signed in 1991, the treaty did not come into force until the end of 1994. It is now generally known as START I following the signing of a new agreement in 2010 by Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.

In the 'Harry Potter' series most witches and wizards seemed to have a poor understanding of the 'muggle' world, so probably would not have realised the threat posed to the world by the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The idea of a weapons control treaty would likely have seemed particularly strange since a witch or wizard's most powerful (and lethal) weapon is the wand they use in their daily lives and hand out to children at the age of 11!