History Around the World 14 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gilbert & Ellice Islands

Located in the Pacific Ocean, the Gilbert & Ellice Islands became a British protectorate in 1892. In 1916, they became a British colony, which is how they remained until January 1, 1976, when they divided to become the separate independent nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu.
The Gilbert Islands (what is now Kiribati) consist of a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the region of Oceania known as Micronesia. The Ellice Islands, which are part of Polynesia, are further south. Midway between Hawaii and Australia just west of the International Date Line, they consist of three reef islands and six true atolls.
The photo shows the flag of the Gilbert & Ellice Islands.

Answer: Lorraine

The photo shows the coat of arms for the House of Lorraine. This is the only surviving line originally known as the Habsburg-Lorraine house, one of the longest-reigning royal houses in European history.
Austrian politician Karl von Habsburg, born in Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany in 1961, grandson of the last Austrian emperor, Charles I, became the head of the Habsburg house on the death of his father, Otto, in 2011.
The genealogical history of the house is known back as far as Gérard, Duke of Lorraine in the mid-11th Century.
Of the alternatives, Savoy is the royal house of Sardinia, Italy and Albania; Romanov was the royal house of Russia and Ukraine; Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is the royal house of Belgium.

Answer: N.A.T.O.

Founded on April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an international military alliance. The essential concept is that all members are committed to defending any member that is attacked. The addition of Albania and Croatia in 2009 brought the membership to 28 countries, with a further 22 countries signed up to NATO's "Partnership for Peace" program.
Total military spending by NATO members constitutes more than 70% of global military spending.
The NATO headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium.

Answer: Iceland

Born in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1942, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was a flight attendant with Loftleiðir and a trade unionist before being elected to the Althing in 1978. In 2009, she became the country's 24th, and first female, Prime Minister. She was also the first Social Democrat to hold that post since 1980. A vocal feminist, in 2010 she became half of Iceland's first same-sex married couple. She was succeeded as PM by the Progressive party's Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson in May 2013.
Iceland has also had one female President, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who held office from 1980 until 1996. She was the world's first elected female President.
The photograph shows the Icelandic coat of arms.

Answer: Worcester

Born in Beaumont Palace, Oxford on Christmas Eve 1166, King John aka John Lackland, succeeded his brother Richard I on the English throne in 1199. On the road during the First Barons War (1215-17), John contracted dysentery and he died at Newark Castle in Lincolnshire aged just 49 in 1216. His tomb stands in the chancel of Worcester Cathedral.
Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales and the first husband of Catherine of Aragon, was born in Winchester Cathedral Priory in 1486. Just four months after his wedding and still six months short of his sixteenth birthday, Arthur died at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, paving the way for Henry VIII to succeed his father (Henry VII) when he died in 1509. His body is buried beneath "Prince Arthur's Chantry" at Worcester Cathedral.
Stanley Baldwin was born in 1867 in the town of Bewdley in the Wyre Forest district of northern Worcestershire -- he would later become 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley on his elevation to the Lords. First elected MP for Bewdley in 1908, Baldwin became Chancellor of the Exchequer during Andrew Bonar Law's administration in 1922-23. Prime Minister three times, briefly for seven months following Law's death May 1923, then again from 1924-29 and from 1935-37 during which time he oversaw the constitutional crisis surrounding the abdication of King Edward VIII. Baldwin died aged 80 in 1947 and is buried in Worcester Cathedral.

Answer: Established Prohibition

The 18th Amendment established the prohibition of the production, transportation and sale of alcohol throughout the U.S. The unintended consequences of these new laws were many, not least swamping police and courts with far more cases than they could handle. The power of organized crime gangs also increased dramatically, as did corruption of law enforcement officers. The 18th Amendment is the only one that has been subsequently repealed in its entirety, by the the 21st Amendment in 1933.
The photograph shows Orange County sheriffs dumping bootleg booze.
Of the alternatives, universal suffrage was achieved by giving votes to women in the 19th Amendment, ratified in August 1920. Federal income tax was established in the 16th Amendment, adopted in February 1913. Presidential terms were limited to two terms by the 22nd Amendment, ratified in February 1951.

Answer: Australia

Born in 1570, Willem Janszoon is the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia. He left Java in November 1605 heading for western New Guinea. Continuing south into what is now called the Gulf of Carpentaria, off the north coast of Australia, he made landfall on the western coast of Cape York in Queensland on February 26, 1606.

He charted more than 200 miles of coast that he thought was part of New Guinea and on his return named the land "Nieu Zeland". On his next voyage, in 1618, Janszoon landed on the coast of what is now Western Australia. The photograph is of a numbat or banded anteater, a marsupial once common throughout Australia.

It is now the state animal of Western Australia, the only place where this endangered creature still survives in the wild.

Answer: Caligula

Ivlia Drvsilla (Anglicized as Julia Drusilla) was born in Abitarvium, Germany (the modern-day city of Koblenz) 16 A.D. The younger sister of Caligula, she was also the niece of the Emperor Claudius and the great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus. She was also the aunt of the Emperor Nero.
Julia Drusilla who was known as Drusilla the Younger during her short lifetime was born in Rome in the summer of 39 A.D. The only child of the Emperor Caligula and his fourth wife, Milonia Caesonia, she was assassinated along with her parents on January 24, 41 A.D.
The photograph shows a bust of Caligula's sister by an unknown sculptor. It is on display at the 'Glyptothek' museum in Munich, Germany.

Answer: Albania

Born in 1939 in the Royal Palace of Tirana in the Albanian Kingdom, Crown Prince Leka was the only son of King Zog I of the Albanians. Albania was invaded by Italy and the young prince was forced into exile just two days after his birth. He was officially named heir apparent to the abolished throne on his 18th birthday in 1957.

When his father died in 1961, the "Albanian National Assembly-in-Exile" named him King of the Albanians in a Paris ceremony. In 1975, Leka married a former Australian schoolteacher in a ceremony attended by numerous members of other exiled royal families. The photograph shows a view of Albania as taken from a NASA satellite.

Answer: 17th

"The Empire of the Great Ming" lasted for 276 years. Beginning in 1368 after the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, it was the last dynasty in China to be ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. The fall of the Ming capital, Beijing, to a Manchurian rebellion led by Li Zicheng in 1644 effectively ended Ming rule, although regimes loyal to the Ming house (called the Southern Ming) survived until 1662.
The Ming were succeeded by the Qing dynasty, which ruled until 1911 and the establishment of the Republic of China.
The photograph shows "The Sacred Path to the Ming Tombs". Located on the slopes of Tianshou Mountain 25 miles northwest of Beijing city center is the site known as the "Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty".