From the 20th Century Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1933

This act was passed, on 23 March 1933 after fresh elections to the Reichstag. During the elections campaign the Reichstag building caught fire, which the Nazis blamed on the Communists, though it's widely thought that the Nazis themselves set fire to the building, or at the least deliberately ignored police information about an arsonist trying to set fire to public buildings in Berlin.

Answer: Collectivisation

Collectivisation was introduced in 1928 along with Stalin's first five-year plans 'Grey Blur' was Stalin's nickname when he was an ordinary party member and editor of "Pravda" (the Communist newspaper).

Answer: Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks became a civil rights icon in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat at the front of a public bus to a young white man. The Rosenbergs were American Communists, executed in 1953 for espionage for the Soviet Union.

Answer: To remove US troops from Vietnam let the ARVN to fight alone

'Vietnamization' was successful in that it allowed for the withdrawl of US troops, but it left left the South Vietnamese troops fighting a hopeless struggle against the NLF troops. Agent Orange was a defoliant used to rid plants of their leaves - which supposedly would prevent guerilla attacks.

This led to the destruction of 60% of South Vietnam's forests and immeasurable damage to crops and generations of Vietnamese, Australians and Americans.

Answer: League of German Girls

The Hitler Youth/League of German Girls was a logical extension of Hitler's belief that the future of Nazi Germany was its children - a view shared by many dictatorships. The Hitler Youth/League of German Girls was seen as being as important to a child as school was. In the early years of the Nazi government, Hitler had made it clear as to what he expected German children to be like:

"The weak must be chiselled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be as swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp's steel."

He also told them that he expected them to be "utterly hard and ruthless".

Answer: Glasnost and Perestroika

Glasnost means 'openness', and 'perestroika' refers to economic restructuring.

Answer: The Saturday Night Massacre

Nixon forced the resignation of the Attorney General and his deputy when they refused to fire independent prosecutor Archie Cox. The 'Night of the Long Knives' involved the murder (on Hitler's orders) of several SA Leaders, including Ernst Roehm, allegedly because he was a homosexual, but the real reason was that he wanted control of the army. 'Kristallnacht' was the notoious Nazi pogrom of 9 November 1938, after a Jew killed a minor official at the German Embassy in Paris.

Answer: Kristallnacht

The Jews were attacked across Germany due to the murder of a minor official at the German Embassy in Paris. However, the real reason was almost certainly to force the Jewish population to leave Germany. All the insurance money that was meant to be paid to the Jews for damage to their property - roughly $500,000,000 US dollars in today's money, was paid to the government instead.

In addition, a collective fine was imposed on the German Jews. (If they left Germany, they also had to pay a large sum for 'permission' to leave the country legally).

Answer: Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngo Dinh Diem was a Roman Catholic and gave preferential treatment to the 10% of the South Vietnamese popualtion who were RC. In protest to the oppression, some Buddhists set fire to themselves, gaining widespread media attention. (Dien Bien Phu was the devastating defeat inflicted on the French by the Vietminh in 1954).

Answer: Kent State University

The Kent State shootings, also known as the Kent State Massacre, occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. Over the course of four days, Kent State students protested against an American invasion of Cambodia which President Richard Nixon launched on April 25 and which Nixon announced in a television address on April 30.

There were significant national consequences: hundreds of colleges closed throughout the US, and the event further divided the nation along political lines.