Delayed Reactions of History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. Boston citizens had been critical of British rule for years, leading to British troops being dispatched to Boston in 1768. They were disliked but there was no open resistance. But in 1770, some Bostonians threw snowballs and sticks at some British troops on State Street in Boston. More troops were called to calm the disturbance but the soldiers eventually fired into the mob, killing five.

Though three of the British, including Captain Thomas Preston, the commander of those involved in the State Street shooting, were acquitted, the die had been cast. The troops were removed from Boston for a few years and the locals agitated more strongly for representation in the British Parliament, or independence. On April 19, 1775, years after the British had returned, the battles at Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts occurred, resulting in deaths on both sides and the start of the American Revolution.

Answer: The Magna Carta

What became known as the Magna Carta was first drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between King John of England and a group of upset barons in 1215. It was accepted by the king and then largely ignored. In later years it was revived and described as a document guaranteeing individual freedoms. That was not entirely correct but it caught hold and became part of English statute law.

It influenced early law in America and had a great influence on the U.S Constitution.

Answer: Hawaii

Shigenori Nishikaichi was a Japanese pilot who participated in the raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Heading back toward his aircraft carrier, his damaged plane made an emergency landing on Ni'ihau Island, the westernmost Hawaiian island.

He was aided by the residents until word was received of the raid and he was taken into custody. Nishikaichi asked for help from three islanders of Japanese descent, who rescued him and then held villagers hostage. The civilians eventually killed Nishikaichi and captured two who helped him; the third committed suicide.

The incident made American military leaders suspicious of all Japanese in America, even those who were American citizens. Perhaps as many as 120,000 people living near America's West Coast were interned in camps farther inland, starting in 1942.

Answer: Holocaust

Much of the world failed to acknowledge persecution of Jews and others in Germany in the mid-1930s. Still weary from World War I, victors and vanquished were mostly interested in rebuilding their own countries and/or their treasuries. Finally, as Germany began to invade its neighbors and cast its eyes on Great Britain, other nations began to protest the rounding-up and murder of citizens.

By the time Germany was defeated in 1945, six million Jews and perhaps five million others (Gypsies, Russians, Poles, Seventh Day Adventists, homosexuals and others) were exterminated or allowed to die while performing slave labor for the Nazis. If the world had not waited, might the death toll have been less?

Answer: Millard Fillmore

Americans usually think of President Fillmore as a man who accomplished little, but his idea to begin trade relations with Japan (using "gunboat diplomacy" if necessary) was an outgrowth of U.S. trade relations with China. The Japanese had been isolationists for over 200 years but Perry was a man who apparently could get things done and secured trade agreements with the Japanese.

The downside was that the Japanese saw how far behind much of the world they were and began building an empire and invading other countries to get resources they lacked. This came to a head in 1940 when, after Japan invaded China and French Indochina, the United States began an oil embargo against them which led to their decision to attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941.

Answer: Norway

Deuterium oxide, also known as heavy water (2H2O) is used to produce isotopes for nuclear weapons. A former fertilizer plant in Norway was the only facility in Europe to produce heavy water and the Allies feared that after Germany invaded Norway they would use it to produce nuclear weapons.

There were several Allied air raids and sabotage operations by Norwegian resistance members between 1940 and 1944. Some raids were successful but some ended in capture and execution by the Nazis. In a final attempt to get heavy water to Germany in 1944, some was put on a ferry to be sent to mainland Europe.

A single Norwegian commando got onboard and sank the ferry. Had Germany been able to construct a bomb there might have been a larger toll to pay before they were finally stopped.

Answer: Jacobite Rising

In 1745, Charles Edward Stuart (known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie") attempted to regain the British throne for the house of Stuart. Beginning in Scotland, his armies, many of them Highlanders, moved into England, where they were beaten. This led to laws which banned the traditional clan system in Scotland and the forced displacement of Highlanders who had been farmers.

They were replaced with people who raised sheep. Known as "The Clearances", the evictions destroyed much of the old Gaelic culture as people moved to the Lowlands or left for other countries.

Answer: Spanish flu pandemic

The Spanish Flu pandemic infected 500 million people worldwide between 1918 and 1920; between 50 million and 100 million of them died. It received its name from the fact that Spanish newspapers had less restraint not to publish the grim facts of the flu, and so appeared to have more cases of the illness than other nations. One result of the staggering amount of ill people was that more doctors were needed and were offered higher pay to attract them.

It is sometimes said after 1920 doctors' incomes never returned to their previous levels and that the Spanish Flu increased the cost of healthcare permanently.

Answer: Crimean War

The Crimean War lasted from 1853 to 1856. It pitted Russia against a coalition of France, the United Kingdom, Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans had to take out large loans from Britain and France to finance their part in the war. When World War I started, the Ottomans were still in debt and sided with Germany, hoping that a victory would erase their debt.

When they lost, their lands were divided up and new nations founded.

Answer: Bretton Woods Conference

When the end of World War II could finally be seen, delegates from forty-four Allied countries met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July, 1944. Their agenda was to establish an international banking system; they believed economic chaos after World War I helped contribute to World War II.

They set up the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. These institutions would have a major influence not just on the Allies but on world finances in decades to come.