History Around the World 15 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Senegal

Leopold Sédar Senghor was born in 1906 in the Petite Côte village of Joal, then in French West Africa and now part of modern-day Senegal. A poet and cultural theorist as well as a politician, in 1983 he became the first African elected as a member of the 'Académie Française'.
Senghor became the first President of Senegal when the country gained independence in 1960 and served for two decades before retiring towards the end of his fifth term in 1980.
Regarded as one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century, Senghor died aged 95 in 2001.

Answer: Naples

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the largest of the states that unified in 1861 to create the modern nation of Italy. It was established in 1816 by the joining of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples. It was conquered in 1860 by Sardinia, which became the Kingdom of Italy the following year.
The Kingdom was divided into 22 departments, fifteen of those on the mainland and seven on the island of Sicily.

Answer: Mexico City

Located at an average of more than 7,300 feet above sea level, the Valley of Mexico is a large basin which was once filled with water. The Aztecs began building the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in the lowest-lying of the connected lakes, Lake Texcoco, in 1325.

By the middle of the 15th century the city has become the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire. The Spanish captured what had become the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas in 1521. The Spaniards duly built what has now become Mexico City over the old Aztec city. Draining most of the lake to control flooding during the rainy season left a lake a much smaller Lake Texcoco, which now lies to the east of the metropolis, surrounded by salt marshes.

Answer: Charlotte

She was born in Berg Castle, Luxembourg in 1896 and named Charlotte Adelgonde Elisabeth Marie Wilhelmine of the House of Nassau-Weilburg. She was the second-oldest of six daughters born to Prince William, who became Grand Duke Guillaume IV in 1905.
When William died in 1912, his oldest daughter, Marie-Adelaide, became Grand Duchess. Her reign was soon interrupted when the German Empire violated Luxembourg's neutrality in August 1914. At the end of the war in 1918, though, the French government decided it was unable to have cordial relationships with Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide because they perceived her as pro-German. The Luxembourg parliament called for her abdication and in January 1919 she relinquished her title in favor of her sister, Charlotte.
Charlotte, who had spent the war exiled in London, took over as Grand Duchess just before her 23rd birthday. She ruled the Duchy for the next 45 years, although she spent World War II exiled in Portugal whilst the Duchy was occupied by Nazi Germany.
Charlotte abdicated in November 1964 at the age of 68, allowing the oldest of her six children to take over as Grand Duke Jean. He remained as monarch for more than 35 years, before himself abdicating at the age of 78. Jean's eldest son became Grand Duke Henri at the age of 45 in October 2000.

Answer: Iceland

Archaeological finds have confirmed that Celtic monks known as the 'Papar' lived in Iceland in the 8th century, before the arrival of Scandinavian settlers. Garðar Svavarsson, a Swedish explorer, circumnavigated Iceland in 870. Four years later, the Norse chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson arrived and built his homestead in the region of what is now the capital city of Reykjavík. During the next thousand years, political alliances in mainland Scandinavia changed periodically and, with them, governance of Iceland.

After a referendum in which more than 95% of Icelanders voted for independence, the island became a republic on June 17, 1944 with Sveinn Björnsson as its first President.

Answer: Bill Clinton & Ulysses S Grant

Taking over following the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest President, just 42 years 322 days at the time of his inauguration. Sixty years later, John F Kennedy became the youngest President ever elected: he was 43 years 236 days when he was inaugurated in 1961.
Aged 47 years 169 days in January 2009, Barack Obama became one of nine (out of 44) Presidents who were inaugurated before their 50th birthday. The only two who took office at a younger age are Bill Clinton (46 years 154 days in January 1993) and Ulysses S Grant (46 years 311 days in March 1869).
Of the alternatives, Grover Cleveland was six month older than Obama when he was inaugurated for the first time in 1885 and Franklin Pierce was ten months older than Obama when he took office in 1853. Both James Garfield (in 1881) and James Polk (in 1845) were in their 49th year when inaugurated.

Answer: Ibis

Thoth was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon who were worshiped in ancient times. His female counterpart is Seshat, the Ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing. Thoth's wife was Ma'at, the personification of law, morality and justice. Together, Thoth and Ma'at are depicted standing on either side of the boat bearing the chief Egyptian deity, Ra.
Thoth was the equivalent to the Greek god Hermes. The two animals sacred to Thoth are the baboon and the ibis, and he is usually depicted with the head of one of those two.
The chief temple dedicated to Thoth was located in the city of Khmun (the modern Egyptian town of El Ashmunein).
The Sun god, Ra, is usually depicted with the head of a falcon or hawk. The head of a vulture is sometimes given to Ash, the god of the oasis and vineyard. Seker, the god of the dead, is usually depicted with the head of a mummified hawk.

Answer: 5 years

The Secretary-General's term of office usually begins on January 1 and expires on December 31 five years later. South Korea's Ban Ki-moon began his first term as Secretary-General on January 1, 2007 and as re-elected unopposed for a second term beginning on New Year's day 2012.
In theory, there is no limit on the number of terms that a Secretary-General can serve, but no holder of the post has yet stayed more than two terms. Austria's Kurt Waldheim (1972-1981), Peru's Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1982-1991) and Kofi Annan (1997-2006) all served their full two terms.

Answer: Colombia

Founded on October 20, 1831, the Republic of New Grenada encompassed the modern-day countries of Colombia and Panama as well as parts of Ecuador and Venezuela. The capital of the republic was the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá, founded in 1538 by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. It is now simply called Bogota and is the capital of Colombia.
The United States of Colombia was founded in 1863 after two years of civil war. The Republic of Colombia as we know it today was founded in 1886.

Answer: Premier Vladimir Lenin of Russia

She was born Feiga Haimovna Roytblat in 1890 in the Volhynian Governorate region of the Russian Empire, now part of the Ukraine. Known as Fanny Yefimovna Kaplan, she was a member of the Socialist Revolutionaries (called the 'Essers'), which viewed Lenin as a traitor to the revolutionary cause.
Involved in a terrorist bomb plot in her teens, she had been sent to the Akatuy prisons in Siberia, where she served 11 years of a life sentence. Whilst there, she lost most of her sight and she was virtually blind when released in 1917.
As Lenin left a Moscow factory on August 31, 1918, a woman approached him and fired three shots, seriously injuring him. Kaplan was arrested and executed four days later, although as she was almost blind there have always been doubts about whether she was really the attempted assassin.