Fun History X Trivia Quiz

Answer: Attila the Hun

Attila attacked the eastern empire in 441. In A.D. 450 he marched on Gaul and after much destruction and spreading of terror he was defeated at the battle of Chalons in 451 by a combination of Romans and Visgoths. Attila returned the following year to devastate much of Italy and marched on Rome, but there he stopped. Tradition says that he was overawed by Pope Leo, and another tale claims that plague broke out in his camp. Whatever the reason, Attila withdrew without attacking the city.
Attila died in A.D. 453 and his empire broke up almost immediately.

Answer: Part of the Mongol Empire

The Golden Horde was the western part of the Mongol empire, ruled by Kublai Khan. At its most westerly point it stretched to just beyond the river Dniester.

Answer: John Burgoyne

Outnumbered and apparently let down by his colleague Sir Henry Clinton, who in fact was doing his best to reach him, Burgoyne was forced to surrender his starving army to general Gates on October 17, 1777.

Answer: Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar

Caesar was murdered on the Ides of March 15, 44 B.C. and tradition has it that as Marcus Junius Brutus struck the final blow, Caesar uttered the immortal lines, Et tu, Brute (Brutus).

Answer: And you, Brutus

'Et tu, Brute' is Latin and is now taken to mean surprise or contempt at the treachery of another.
Marcus Junius Brutus assisted in the murder of Caesar and is rumoured to have been the illegitimate son of Caesar by one of his many well born mistresses. Brutus was certainly very well known and possibly trusted by Caesar.

Answer: Mysore

Haider Ali Khan (c.1722-1782) was a real thorn in the side to British progress in India for quite some time. He was in essence an adventurer who got lucky. He shamelessly cultivated the friendship of the British with a view to using them as an ally against his Indian enemies.

Answer: Boeotia

Philip of Macedon won the battle of Chaeronea and destroyed the independence of Greece. A massive statue of a lion was erected on the site of the battle which marked the burial place of the Theban dead. It was called, as was henceforth the victor Philip, the Lion of Chaeronea.

Answer: Imported Arab style military training for conscripts

Moorish dancing, as it was once known, was a method of training infantry conscripts in the Middle East who had no knowledge of 'left or right'. Therefore, a stick and/or a small bell would be placed in one hand and a command given ... 'Left stick-right stick', etc. in order to teach them the difference between left and right and to understand military commands.

The same method was applied to the legs. In this way infantry were trained to drill and understand what was expected of them on the battlefield.

It would seem that the various tribes of men who survived the rigours of war and returned home turned this military ritual into a dance. It was first seen by the English during the Crusades and adopted as a good method of training men. And to this day in England you can see stout-hearted men preparing for war with performances of the Morris dance.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the chief draughtsman of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and went on to be the third President of the United States.

Answer: Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born March 19, 1848 at Monmouth, Illinois.
Before the sudden death of his first wife he worked as a teamster and a railroad worker. He then became a buffalo hunter and a stage coach driver before turning to law enforcement and varius business enterprises. Best known for his part in the 'Gun fight at OK Corral,' he died in Los Angeles on January 29, 1929 at the age of 80.